"Xiong Tuo has already gained a firm foothold in Chudong......"

After hearing the news about Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, Zhao Hongrun summoned his staff member Jie Ziyu to the study.

At first, Jie Zilu didn't understand Zhao Hongrun's concerns, and it wasn't until Zhao Hongrun originally told Jie Zilu about this incident that Jie Zilu realized the problem.

“…… Among the princes of Chu State, only Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Xuancheng, inherited the concept of Xiong Hao, the king of Runan, and this time Xiong Tuo entered the east of Chu, he will definitely try to implement the decree of Xiong Hao, the king of Runan, and when the time comes, the state of Chu will sweep away the previous weakness and become unprecedentedly powerful......" When he said this, Zhao Hongrun frowned deeply, and it could be seen that he was quite afraid of this.

Hearing this, Jie Ziyu pondered for a moment, and after half a sound, he sighed with emotion: "Your Highness, you really shouldn't raise tigers for trouble...... Since you have already sensed the threat of Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, you should get rid of it and deal with the consequences. ”

Although Jie Ziyu is a native of Chu, since he has defected to Wei and is loyal to Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, he naturally wants to share his worries for the Lord and consider Wei for the sake of Wei.

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun smiled bitterly, and then glanced outside the house.

Outside, the people of the house were still busy with their weddings in a few months.

"Could it be because of Mrs. Mi Jiang?" The face of the meson owl showed a sudden look.

Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said, "That's just one of them, the main thing...... It's because I didn't expect Xiong Tuo to have the strength to become the master of Chudong so soon. ”

Indeed, the so-called plan can't catch up with the changes, thinking that Zhao Hongrun intended to support Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Xuancheng, and let him compete for the throne with Guling Jun Xiong Wu and Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng, it was not sincere, it was nothing more than to provoke the civil strife of the princes of Chu State.

Unexpectedly, this time, Shouling Jun Jingshe's million-strong army was defeated in Yongqiu of Wei State, so that Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, saw Chu Dong's weakness, and immediately led his army to Chu Dong to seize power.

In this regard, Zhao Hongrun is beyond the reach of the whip.

He only calculated that Xiong Tuo's strength would not be able to enter and leave Chu Dong for a short time, but he did not expect that Chu Dong would become unprecedentedly weak because of the defeat of Shouling Jun Jingshe.

Looking at Zhao Hongrun's embarrassed look, Jie Ziyu was relieved after a little contemplation: "Your Highness, rest assured, I watch Xiong Tuo, for the time being, he has seized some power in Chudong, which does not mean that he can take over the throne." …… Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng aside, Guling Jun Xiong Wu's biological mother is the Queen of Chu, backed by the "Ji Lian Clan", I don't think it will be easy for Xiong Tuo to occupy the throne......"

"I hope so."

Zhao Hongrun nodded slightly.

Seeing this, Jie Ziyu smiled and said, "Why don't Your Highness try to contact Xiong Wu or Xiong Sheng?" ”

Zhao Hongrun smiled when he heard this: "That's to play Xiong Wu and Xiong Sheng as fools." …… It won't work out. ”

He knew what Jie Zi Yu meant, it was nothing more than changing the object of support, but Zhao Hongrun felt that this was too obvious: he originally vigorously supported Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Xuancheng, and he could also use the relationship between Mi Jiang as an excuse, but now that he suddenly changed the object of support, I believe that fools can see that he is deliberately stirring up the battle for the throne of those Chu princes.

Not to mention Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng, the well-known Chu Gongzi, even if it is Guling Jun Xiong Wu, I am afraid he can guess his intentions Zhao Hongrun.

"Guess what? Could it be that Xiong Wu and Xiong Shenghui are willing to give up the throne to Xiong Tuo? Jie Ziyu said sharply.

Zhao Hongrun thought carefully for a moment when he heard this, it was undeniable that Jie Ziyu's words did have some truth, but after thinking about it again, he felt that this matter was not very reliable.

What if Xiong Wu or Xiong Sheng, who saw through his purpose, opened their mouths to him and asked for a lot of armaments, money and food? Will he give it or not?

Moreover, in order to stir up the struggle for the throne of the princes of Chu State, he changed his previous decision to support Xiong Tuo, and changed to support Xiong Wu and Xiong Sheng.

That's a big loss.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said: "Forget it, the conspiracy is a side door after all, even if the Chu State becomes strong because of Xiong Tuo, the Monarch of Xuancheng, but as long as my Great Wei is stronger than him, the Chu State is not to be afraid!" ”

"Your Highness is wise!" Jie Zilu arched his hand and praised.

After complimenting him for a few sentences, Jie Ziyu mentioned the matter of the envoys of Chu again: "This time, the Chu State sent envoys to take the initiative to pay war reparations, which is really unexpected......"

Zhao Hongrun took a sip of the teacup and said lightly: "There is no accident, it's just that I'm afraid that the Great Wei will retaliate." ”

As he said this, his eyes flashed inadvertently a few times.

As Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Xuancheng, guessed, if it weren't for the embarrassment that this war put Wei into an embarrassment of money and food, in fact, Zhao Hongrun intended to lead the army to counterattack Chu - millions of Chu troops killed the territory of Wei, and the army under the command of Diyang Jun Xiong Shang killed and looted on the territory of Wei, not that Chu suffered a defeat, this hatred was settled.

Zhao Hongrun was not inclined to send troops to Song County, first, Song County was too weak, so he couldn't lift his strength; Second, Song County is not a real enemy.

If you want to fight, you have to fight the state of Chu!

It would be better to abduct a few million people from the state of Chu again.

Won the war, plundered the wealth of the nobles of the Chu State, collected the war reparations given by the Chu State after the war, and in addition to that, he could abduct millions of Chu people to defect to the Wei State willingly - looking at the countries of the Central Plains, which country can be so 'generous' as the Chu State?

Therefore, seeing that the imperial court was slow to deliver the letter of condemnation and compensation to the Chu State, Zhao Hongrun supported it: when he Wei State eased up for a while, the first one would beat the Chu State!

What I didn't expect was that the State of Chu was so 'knowledgeable', and took the initiative to send envoys to deliver the letter of state to admit the defeat, and was willing to pay war reparations to him from the State of Wei, which really made Zhao Hongrun feel a little regretful.

After all, no matter how hard the extortion is, it has not directly copied other people's family backgrounds.

But the problem is that this time the Chu State took the initiative to admit defeat, and if the Wei State did not give up, it would be a bit excessive.

At this time, Jie Ziyu also held the teacup, frowned and said: "The State of Chu took the initiative to submit the letter of state to admit defeat, which means that the State of Chu does not want to fight with my Great Wei in the short term, it seems that the State of Chu is planning to make a move against the State of Qi......"

Zhao Hongrun nodded approvingly.

I think that when the king of Qi Lu Xi was still alive, the state of Chu never dared to take the initiative to start a war against the state of Qi, therefore, the state of Chu regarded him as the target of foreign expansion, and now, the strong rise of the state of Wei made the state of Chu dare not compete, and the state of Qi lost the king of Qi Lu Xi, the Ming monarch, and then fell into the civil strife of the princes competing for the throne, and it was inevitable that the state of Chu would covet it.

The reason why Chu did not attack Lu or Yue was because in the eastern part of the Central Plains, the former "Qi, Lu and Song Three Kingdoms Alliance" had been replaced by the "Qi, Lu and Yue Three Kingdoms Alliance", and Qi was still the leader of this alliance, and it was still the most powerful of them.

If the State of Chu takes the lead in attacking the State of Lu or the State of Yue, then, after the State of Qi recovers, the advantages previously obtained by the State of Chu may be spit out one by one, in this case, simply fight the State of Qi first, as long as the State of Qi is beaten down, the State of Lu and the State of Yue, there will be no threat.

What's more, if the state of Chu makes a move against the state of Qi this year or in the first half of the next year, the state of Wei may not be able to send troops to help the state of Qi before solving the problem of Song County, at most, Chen soldiers are on the border between the state of Wei and western Chu, which is not painful for the state of Chu - even if the poor and backward western Chu is invaded by the state of Wei, what can it do? Seventy percent of the wealth of Chu was concentrated in eastern Chu.

"Ugh."

For this situation, Zhao Hongrun is also at a loss, and can only hope that the sixth brother Ji Zhao, who is far away in Qi, will calm down the internal strife in the country as soon as possible and resist the threat from Chu, after all, even if Wei and Qi have some affection, they will not fully support Qi regardless of interests, unless there is an indication that Qi may be annexed by Chu.

Therefore, the affairs of Qi have to be solved by the people of Qi themselves.

A few days later, the envoys of Chu negotiated an armistice and peace treaty with the Ministry of Rites of the Wei court, and changed the "hostile" position of the two countries to "neutrality" in the form of war reparations, which in the final analysis was just a "reason" for Wei to send troops to Chu.

In this era when it was necessary for a legitimate reason to justify a war against another country, although the state of Chu had lost a lot of money, it was still worth it on the whole.

Otherwise, when Zhao Hongrun led his troops to the Chu State in the coming year, the loss may be more than this - for the amount of compensation, Zhao Hongrun sent Zong Wei Gao Kuo to the Ministry of Rites to inquire, and it is really an amount that neither he nor the imperial court can refuse.

In this regard, Zhao Hongrun muttered secretly: Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, really knows how to be generous to others.

There is no need to ask, the war reparations of the Chu State must have been made up by the nobles of Chudong, and Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, took advantage of this to weaken the financial resources of the nobles of Chudong on the one hand, and on the other hand, he reached an armistice agreement with the Wei State, thereby enhancing his reputation, and this transaction was really profitable.

Unfortunately, although this war reparation is worth a lot of money, most of them are gold, silver, pearls, copper mines, bronzes, jade, jadeite and other dead things, for the Wei State that is currently waiting for the rice and grain to be put into the pot, it can not solve the urgent need, at most it is temporarily piled up in the treasury, and when the domestic market returns to its original prosperity in the future, it can flow to the market one after another to create profits.

In mid-June, after the envoys of the state of Chu had just left the capital of the Wei king, Daliang welcomed the envoys of Korea.

In this regard, Zhao Hongrun was very puzzled, because the armistice agreement between South Korea and Wei had been signed as early as a month ago, why did South Korea send envoys over?

sent someone to inquire, and Zhao Hongrun learned that the original intention of these Korean envoys was to send a Korean princess to Daliang, it is said that this Korean princess is also Han Wangran's cousin, the youngest daughter of "Raoyang Hou Han Bi", only fifteen years old, born with a beautiful face and moon appearance, and is known as a good name in South Korea.

After hearing the news, Zongwei Mu Qing joked with a smile: "Your Highness, could it be that South Korea also intends to marry you?" Haha, there are three princesses. ”

However, hearing Mu Qing's words, Zhao Hongrun's face changed slightly.

You must know that at this time, South Korea has already learned about his marriage between Zhao Hongrun and Ying Ying, the princess of Qin, and the second daughter of Chu Runanjun Xiong Hao, and he will definitely not send another princess to marry without face - even if it is a defeated country, South Korea will also have face.

Take Qin State as an example, if it weren't for Qin Shaojun's embarrassing identity, how would Qin State allow its own princess to make Zhao Hongrun small?

Then the matter is obvious.

In the Wei State, there is now only one prince left who has not yet married.

That is, his younger brother, Huan Wang Zhao Hongxuan.