In mid-September, Zhao Hongrun led 5,000 Yanling troops and once again passed south of Wangwu Mountain. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

I remember that the last time he went to northern Xinjiang, he also passed through this area, which was in August and September last year.

"This battle has been going on for a year......

Zhao Hongrun sighed secretly.

He didn't want to estimate how much money he had invested in this battle, because he believed that it must be an astronomical amount that kept him awake at night.

But he did not regret it, because in his opinion, the battle had to be fought, and it had to be won.

For example, the situation today is very different from what it was five years ago.

At that time, there was still Ming Jun Lu Xi in Qi State, and because of the relationship between Zhao Hongzhao, Qi King Lu Xi formed an alliance with Wei State to share the pressure from Korea and Chu State for Wei State, but now, Qi King Lu Xi has passed away, and Wei State can no longer count on Qi State to share the pressure, so it can only rely on itself.

This is not only a challenge for Wei, but also an opportunity, as long as this hurdle can be crossed, Wei may be able to replace Qi's position in the Central Plains and become the hegemonic power of the Central Plains.

"If King Lu Xi of Qi can live for another five years, no, it would be good if he lived for another three years......

Zhao Hongrun sighed secretly.

The death of Lü Xi, the king of Qi, was a powerful ally, and his death not only directly led to the civil strife of Qi, but also caused Wei to miss a rare period of peace.

If Lu Xi, the king of Qi, had not died on the way to attack Chu, then Korea would not have dared to attack Wei.

Don't think that Wei won this battle and think that the outbreak of this war was beneficial to Wei, in fact, Wei was only a miserable victory.

In the First Northern Frontier Campaign, Wei invested six armies, namely the First Northern Army, the Northern Second Army, the Northern Third Army, the Wei Wu Army, the Shanyang Army, and the Southern Yan Army, with a strength of 300,000 troops.

In the Second Northern Xinjiang Campaign, the Suwang Army, which also had an establishment of about 100,000 people, replaced the Northern First Army, so it was also nearly 300,000 troops, and it fought for more than a year.

In other words, Wei used 300,000 troops to fight with Korea for a full year and a half, nearly two years, and the extent of consumption of food and pension during this period can be imagined.

This does not include the "Battle of Wei and Qin Sanchuan" when Zhao Hongrun led 100,000 Su Wang troops to resist the 200,000 troops of the Qin State in Sanchuan.

And if the king of Qi, Lü Xi, was still alive, this war might have been avoided, that is, Wei could invest the funds consumed in this battle into domestic construction, and I believe that it would definitely make Wei's basic national strength grow by leaps and bounds.

Of course, this is just Zhao Hongrun's idle thoughts on the way to Fenyin.

"Qin in the west is rising rapidly, Han in the north is still strong, and Chu in the south has quelled the Qu rebellion, leaving me with little time left for Great Wei......"

When talking to Kou Zheng about the situation in the world, Zhao Hongrun said worriedly.

Listening to Zhao Hongrun's words, Kou Zheng was silent.

Once upon a time, he still thought that his Wei State was very peaceful and peaceful, and it was just like the life of Shangcheng, until he listened to Zhao Hongrun's unreserved words, and he realized that the reason why his Wei State was peaceful was that hundreds of thousands of soldiers went to the battlefield in exchange.

For example, His Royal Highness King Su next to him has participated in the "Qilu Wei Yue Four Kingdoms Invasion of Chu Campaign", "Wei Qin Sanchuan Campaign", and "Wei Han Northern Xinjiang Campaign" within three years.

It was precisely because of this powerful army that the Wei State guarded Shangshui County, guarded the southern frontier of the Wei State, and deterred the Chu State, so that the Chu State did not dare to invade easily, such as Xiong Tuo, the Jun of Xuancheng, and Xiong Wu of Guling.

Thinking of this, Kou Zheng couldn't help but look at Zhao Hongrun a few more times.

"Why does Lord Kou look at this king like this?" Zhao Hongrun noticed Kou Zheng's gaze and asked curiously.

Kou Zheng smiled awkwardly, and then explained with a little apology: "Xia Guan was just surprised...... Five years ago, Xia Guan had the honor to meet His Royal Highness, and at that time, His Royal Highness King Su seemed to be deliberately targeting Luo Rong, the son of Luo Wenzhong, the official of the Ministry of Officials? ”

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun suddenly realized, and even he couldn't help laughing.

Five years ago, he used his right to be a prisoner to deliberately target Kaozi Luo Rong and ordered the guards to strip off his clothes, who would have thought that five years later, he would be able to hold an army of 100,000 and be known as Chu, Han, and Qin?

I believe that even Wei Tianzi didn't guess it, so he was happy to tell Concubine Shen Shufei and Concubine Wu about the bad deeds of a certain son back then, but the contrast between before and after was too great to be unbelievable.

At this time, Kou Zheng hesitated for a moment and asked in a low voice: "Your Royal Highness King Su, the lower official has something unclear, can you ask His Royal Highness to solve the confusion of the lower official?" ”

"Lord Kou, excuse me." Zhao Hongrun said with a smile.

I saw that Kou Zheng looked left and right, and then lowered his voice and asked Zhao Hongrun a rather sensitive question: "Why doesn't Your Highness fight for the throne?" ”

Zhao Hongrun chuckled in his heart, and couldn't help but think of some bad things.

After all, it has always been because he made it clear that he would not compete for the throne, which made talents such as Luo Ying, Zhou Yu, Zhang Qigong, and Liu Jie defect to other princes.

"Could it be that this Kou Zheng is also one of them?"

Zhao Hongrun frowned slightly and looked at Kou Zheng for a while, and finally decided to tell him frankly: "If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight, perhaps, this king is not ready to shoulder the burden." ”

As he said this, he couldn't help but think of his father.

In his opinion, in order to become the king of Wei, he must devote his life to the whole country, like his father, and be trapped in the prison of the Hanging Arch Hall for the rest of his life—anyone who cannot make such an awareness is not worthy of being a king!

"If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight......" Kou Zheng muttered Zhao Hongrun's words, his expression solemn and respectful.

It is undeniable that although Zhao Hongrun has a high reputation, his reputation in the government and the opposition has always been poor, simply put, the government and the opposition recognize the merits of Zhao Hongrun, the king of Su, but stay away from his character.

For example, "I went to the Willow Lane of Flower Street to mess around when I left the palace for the first time", "I deliberately made things difficult for Luo Rong in the examination room", "I beat Zheng Jin, the nephew of Li Jin, the Soldier Casting Bureau", "I kicked the general's mansion Zhengchao Wendong into the drain" and so on.

It is no exaggeration to say that in addition to Zhao Hongrun's high prestige among the people and the military, in addition to the imperial court, in the aristocratic circle, even in the circle of princes and nobles of his Ji Zhao family, his reputation is very poor, and even many people privately scold him for eating inside and outside - obviously he is a descendant of the Ji Zhao clan, but he regards the commoners more seriously than the nobles.

Of course, Zhao Hongrun's reputation in the aristocratic circle has risen slightly in the past two years, because the third uncle Zhao Laiyu has recruited a group of nobles to speak for him, and finally took off the notoriety of "outliers in the royal family" for Zhao Hongrun, so that he will no longer be hostile to the nobles of the whole country.

It is precisely because of these reasons that Kou Zheng came into contact with the deeds of King Su Hongrun, except for the indelible feats of going to the Chu State, the rest of the deeds can be called bad deeds, for example, Zhao Hongrun's uncle Zhao Tairu is still sparing no effort to smear Zhao Hongrun, scolding him for being a disrespectful clan rebel - this is quite a ruthless statement.

It is precisely because of this that at this moment, when he heard Zhao Hongrun say the words "If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight" with a solemn expression, Kou Zheng was moved, and he only felt that his previous understanding of His Royal Highness King Su had been completely subverted.

Seeing that Kou Zheng didn't respond for a long time, Zhao Hongrun felt a little apprehensive in his heart, and couldn't help but tentatively ask: "Will Lord Kou's question affect Lord Kou's decision?" ”

"Huh?" Kou Zheng was stunned, and then after reacting, he shook his head and said: "It's just out of the curiosity of Xiaguan...... he said, he diverted the topic: "Xiaguan heard His Royal Highness King Su say two days ago that the four cities along the (west) river in the east and west of the river, with Fenyin and Puban being the heaviest, can His Royal Highness King Su explain it in detail?" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun was secretly happy in his heart, because Kou Zheng's words were clearly hinting to him, and as for what to imply, it was self-evident.

Holding back the joy in his heart, Zhao Hongrun pondered for a moment, and said: "Fenyin and Puban, from the perspective of geographical distribution, can be understood as the 'sword', the sword that makes my Great Wei territory expand westward; Puban, on the other hand, is a "shield", which is a shield to protect the two counties of Hedong and Sanchuan. ”

To be honest, this is just Zhao Hongrun's division of labor between these two cities, which is a subjective intention, in fact, Fenyin and Puban are almost the same except for the difference in location.

However, after Handan County learned about "Wu'an", the military town of the Koreans, Zhao Hongrun suddenly felt that the construction of Fenyin and Puyang might be a reference for this idea.

Based on this idea, Zhao Hongrun decided to build "Puban" into a city with defense as the main focus, build land defense facilities along the river, equipped with repeating crossbows, and replace the "Pubanjin" building ships with large warships, so as to facilitate the blockade of the river during the war.

And Fenyin, Zhao Hongrun is going to build it as an offensive city, the water and land defense can be relatively weak, and the warships are mainly small and medium-sized warships with a shallow draft, after all, in the area of Hexi and Hetao, because Qianghu has not excavated the river, so the draft of some waterways is very shallow, if the large ships of the Wei State borrowed from the Chu State Lou ship entered, it is likely to lead to grounding.

All in all, Puban focuses on the defense of land and water buildings, while Fenyin focuses on the elite of the garrison, which is Zhao Hongrun's current preliminary idea.

In order to implement this plan smoothly, Zhao Hongrun was even considering making Anyi the fiefdom of his younger brother Huan King Zhao Hongxuan, after all, if he was not in Hedong, even if Kou Zheng had served as the defender of Fenyin City at that time, he might not be able to resist those domestic nobles who came to hear the wind, but Zhao Hongxuan could, because Zhao Hongxuan is now a military lord with tens of thousands of troops, and his words naturally carry more weight than before.

His only concern at the moment was that although he recommended Kou Zheng to the imperial court to serve as the county magistrate of Fenyin City, the imperial court did not necessarily agree to this matter.

It's not because of anything else, it's just because Kou Zheng's qualifications are too shallow.

Although Kou Zhengnai is the first place on Hong De's sixteen-year gold list, his decision to resolutely return to Shang County to serve as the county magistrate is, in Zhao Hongrun's view, simply self-destructive - serving as a county magistrate in a mountain town like Shang County, where there are only a few dozen county residents, no matter how good he is, it will inevitably be ignored by the imperial court, because Shang County is too small and too secluded, so that the imperial court does not even know that there is such a county seat.

And Fenyin City, with the signing of the "Wei-Han Handan Peace Conference" between Wei and South Korea, after determining the diplomatic proposition that the Korean army sent troops to defeat Hexi for Wei, the status of Fenyin City was immediately elevated along with the other three cities.

In this case, whether Kou Zheng can be appointed as the Fenyin Commander, even Zhao Hongrun is not sure.

Even if he didn't return to Daliang at the moment, he could guess that the orders of the four cities and counties along the river in Hedong, such as the "Fenyin Order" and the "Puban Order", including the "Hexi Order", which has no signs at present, must have become the object of contention among the domestic aristocratic forces.

It may be that for the Wei state, the Qianghu in Hexi was a foreign race that could not be underestimated, but for the domestic aristocratic forces who were accustomed to following the court to pick up the bargains, the Qianghu in Hexi meant great wealth, because there were abundant cattle, sheep and horses, as well as the Qianghu people who could be used as slaves.

If it had been five years ago, Zhao Hongrun would definitely not have been able to accept this kind of thing - he had bothered to plan on the front line, all in order to make the Wei State stronger, while the aristocratic forces in the country followed him like scoundrels to pick up cheap.

But now, Zhao Hongrun gradually learned to accept, because he was powerless to resist, the huge aristocratic power of Wei State, he always had 100,000 troops in his hands, and he was powerless to resist, which had been proved as early as the Sanchuan Trade Incident.

Unless one day Zhao Hongrun ascends the throne and learns from Xiong Xu, the king of Chu, he will eradicate the disobedient aristocratic forces in the country at a huge cost.

However, as Zhao Hongrun himself said, "If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight", and he is not ready to wear a crown at present, nor has he been able to make this awareness.

That being the case, a compromise with the power of the domestic aristocracy was inevitable.

Therefore, after thinking about it for a long time, Zhao Hongrun decided to grasp the "Fenyin Order" and "Puban Order" as much as possible, as well as the "Beiqu" to guard against the "Lishi Han Army" in Xihe, as for the "Pishi City", because its strategic position can be replaced by the two cities of Fenyin and Puban, so Zhao Hongrun intends to give it up as a compromise with the domestic aristocratic forces.

As for the "Hexi Order", Zhao Hongrun doesn't think about it for the time being.

Of course, he will never hand over the "Hexi Order" to the domestic nobles, God knows what those people will do in Hexi, after all, Zhao Hongrun beat Qianghu, not to push it to the opposite side completely.

"Hexi Ling can be dragged first, and let Kou Zheng sit firmly in the position of Fenyin Ling first......

Zhao Hongrun thought secretly.

But how to make Kou Zheng, a person with little qualifications, sit firmly in the position of Hexi Ling?

Zhao Hongrun pondered hard.

I don't know how long it took, his heart moved, and he suddenly thought of an excellent idea: to separate the military and government in Fenyin.

That is to say, in addition to setting up a Fenyin order in Fenyin, there is also a commander in charge of the army - the Fenyin order is responsible for all things in the city, and the commander in charge of the army is responsible for entering the west of the Tu River and the Hetao.

It is undeniable that this is indeed an excellent idea, and it is believed that after Zhao Hongrun makes this suggestion, the imperial court may reluctantly approve Kou Zheng as the Fenyin Commander.

It's just that another question arises: who is in charge of the Fenyin garrison?

But this question did not stump Zhao Hongrun, because he immediately thought of a trustworthy commander - Lintao Jun Wei Ji!