It seems that when the Chu State was extremely thirsty, the Mo family gave a glass of sweet wine.

In fact, this sweet wine is poisonous, and once drunk, it is highly poisonous.

It's just that at this time in the world, the poisoners and the few "doctors" who have seen through the poison are all on the side of the Mo family, and Zhao Zhiai, as a nobleman in the old era, can understand the danger.

Mozi said to Zhao Zhiai again: "It's July now, and the soldiers of Wei and Han will not be able to come out this year. The Luguan area is still stable. ”

"Since the king cannot agree to these things, the Mo family will send someone to Chu to meet the king of Chu in person to discuss this matter. During this period, the weapons promised by the Mo family to defend the city will also be produced quickly, and strive to have enough quantities to be transported to Luguan next year. ”

"There is only one ...... The Mo family guards Shangqiu, kills the Sima of Chu and the lord of the carbuncle, and the nobles of Chu are afraid that they will be dissatisfied with my Mo family. ”

Zhao Zhiai knew that he couldn't call the shots in this matter, and he also knew the attitude of some nobles of Chu State towards the Mo family, so he had to say: "Public wars, personal enmity and personal grudges are not the same thing. Mr. Mo Zhai is old, and the journey to Chu this time is tiring, I don't know who the Mo family will send to Chu this time? ”

Zhao Zhiai hopes that this thing will be done, but the Mo family must also send enough people to follow him to meet the king of Chu, otherwise it will be unacceptable to talk about face.

The current status of the Mo family is somewhat special, not a prince, but it participates in the alliance of various countries, and is regarded as a prince who is not recognized by "official fiefdom and Zhou Tianzi".

At this time, if you send ordinary people there, it is not reasonable to use etiquette.

Mozi said: "Send someone to go specifically, and wait until the end of the month after the Mo family gathers before discussing." During this period, you can rest in Pei County, and then you can return together. ”

"Or, you can send someone to Yingdu right now to inform the King of Chu about this, and let him make arrangements in advance to think about whether to agree."

…………

In mid-August, the weather in the north gradually cooled, but in Yingcheng, the capital of Chu near the Great River, it was still sweltering.

This city that can be called Jingzhou in later generations was not built for too long, and the Chu State moved its capital several times, and Yingcheng is only synonymous with the capital, which can be regarded as the meaning of the capital in the Chu language.

From Danyang in Bear's Ears Mountain, to Xiangyang under Nanyang, and then to Jinan in Jingzhou by the Yangtze River, this migration is not only the road pioneered by the Chu people, but also the road where the Chu people were defeated.

After the Battle of Baiju, the original Chu was burned, and the king of Chu could only build the Yingdu by the Yangtze River.

Ten miles out of the north of the city, there is a mountain name.

According to the ritual science of the Zhou rites, the north is the place where the ghosts live, just as before the burial of the scholars who died in the Song coup d'état last year, the Confucian priests had to climb to the roof of the house and shout the names of the deceased three times to the north.

Jishan in the north of Yingdu is the burial place of the nobles and commoners of the Chu State.

From here, you can see the capital of Chu from afar, even if "Chu does not accept Zhou", the planning of the city is still in line with the Zhou rites.

Just as the construction of the capital of the Song State played a side-rubbing ball that did not trespass, the construction of the capital city of the Chu State also played a side-rubbing ball, nine miles from east to west and seven miles from north to south.

In order to prevent flooding of the Yangtze River, Yingdu is more than ten miles away from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but the nearby lakes are rich in water systems, and the Chu State is good at taking boats, so the transportation is convenient.

As the feudal state of the descendants of the Duke of Zhou, the state of Lu has all kinds of privileges in the ritual system, so there are three sides and three gates on the four sides of Qufu City, and two gates on one side, a total of eleven city gates.

Yingdu had a crooked brain, there were only eight normal city gates, two in the east, west, south and north, but the water gates were opened on three sides, and they were also eleven city gates.

said that he trespassed, and Watergate did not count. said that he did not trespass, but in order to prevent being accused of building one less water gate than twelve.

After the Battle of Baiju, the capital was moved here, and a large number of people and nobles moved the capital with them, and this new city developed over the decades.

To the north is the rich Nanyang Basin, guarded by the Luguan defense line, with Xiangyang as the last support, and the nearby land is fertile, and there are advantages of water transportation.

The salt of Bashu, the grain of Nanyang and Jianghan, and the feathers of waterfowl in Yunmengze continue to gather here.

Relying on the rivers and the topography of high in the west and low in the east, the state of Chu controlled the vast eastern territory that it would not have been possible to control.

It's just that the level of construction of the city wall is too poor, compared with the war-torn Central Plains, especially Shangqiu City, it is too far behind in the city defense.

The Chu people knew that if they were really invaded in Yingdu, even if they broke through the defense line of the Luguan Great Wall in the Nanyang Basin, they could directly wait for the restoration of the country without fighting the defense of the capital with the feudal monarchy system of the Chu State.

The rammed earth walls were not very tall, but the gates could accommodate three carriages in parallel according to the ritual system, nearly two and a half zhang wide, and merchants came and went continuously.

The palace of the king of Chu is in the northeast corner of the capital, which is inconsistent with the Zhou rites, which is a little capricious, but the construction of the inner city is still in line with the etiquette system.

The five gates of the inner city of the Son of Heaven: Gao Gate, Kumen, Brother Gate, Ying Gate, and Road Gate.

Except for the special Lu State, the rest of the princes can only have Kumen, Dimen and Lumen. The state of Chu observed this etiquette and issued many decrees in addition to the etiquette.

During the short-lived period when King Zhuang ascended to the concentration of royal power, many decrees were stipulated for the important ministers of the previous dynasty, and the prince was not allowed to ride through his brother's door, and those who violated it were beheaded.

It's just that this is a decree in the era of King Zhuang, but because the inertia is still maintained, it is difficult for the subsequent King of Chu to even issue such a decree, regardless of prestige or control.

Back then, in order to trample on this law, Wu Zixu even personally led a bow to shoot at Kumen.

The existence of this law now can only prove that the King of Chu once had great power, but compared to now, Xiong Su, who has just been on the throne for a year, can only sigh.

His father died sideways, and he was defeated in Shangqiu before he died, and after the nobles were assassinated, they couldn't even find out the behind-the-scenes commanders.

The younger brother fled, Zheng Guo temporarily gave up the blood feud with Korea, and Zheng Wei and Han jointly declared their support for Wang Ziding's accession to the throne.

Chen Cai and other county princes who followed the previous king on the expedition, because of the contradictions between the royal power and the nobility that the Mo family clearly explained, did not support themselves with the possibility of changing the law, and could only rely on strong inertia and not being defeated by the Three Jin Dynasty for the time being to make them temporarily stable.

The nobles divided power, and even those nobles who supported him were still bargaining, hoping that he would be given greater privileges and fiefs after he sat on the throne.

Now that the king of Yangcheng was defeated by the betrayal of the Zheng people in Yuguan, and the previous Chu Sima was dissatisfied with the Mojia clan, he still needs to argue with the nobles in foreign wars to explain his interests clearly.

One after another, the feudal monarchs are all their relatives, and the power of the royal branch of the Gong family is getting bigger and bigger, and it is becoming more and more bloated.

The Duke of Luyang, who guarded the north, was the descendant of Sima Zi Period, who was separated by the grandson of King Ping, and after Ye Pingping's rebellion against Bai Gongsheng, he made Xian Zi Period Sima, and Gongsun Kuan, the son of the Zi Period, was fiefed. It was originally sealed in Daliang, but Daliang was too dangerous, and it was on the only way for the Sanjin Dynasty to go south, and under the refusal of Gongsun Kuan, the king of Chu could only transfer to other places.

The first generation of Pingyejun was the son of King Zhao, the first generation of Yangchengjun was the grandson of King Ping, the first generation of Ye Gong was the great-grandson of King Zhuang, and the clan of the right Yin Zhaozhiai originated from the Zhao clan of the son of King Zhao of Pingyejun, and the Jing family originated from the heir of Prince Ping, because the King of Chu was Shuang Ping, King Ping, Jingping, and Qu have always been Mo Ao, even if they cut power, they are still the princes of northern counties......

The family has multiplied so far, and the various major clans have long been a great threat to the royal power.

Under the external threat, the sense of crisis brought about by this instability is also deeper.

But Xiong Su was helpless, not because he didn't want to reform, not because he didn't know how to reform, but because he didn't dare to reform.

The father of the first king wanted to reform and was assassinated.

His current situation is even worse than when his father ascended the throne, and now it is unknown whether he can keep his throne, not to mention reform.

His dead father, King Shenghuan, didn't expect that he would die at all, so he didn't explain too much about the afterlife.

Brotherly rivalry is a tradition in the state of Chu since the communist king, and Xiong Su relied on the battle of Shangqiu to stay in Yingdu and obtain the throne.

For some of his father's decisions, he gradually understood the intention.

Five hundred craftsmen were sent to Pei County to congratulate and participate in the alliance with the Mo, and everything made Xiong Su understand some of his father's thoughts: his father wanted to rely on the power introduced by the Mo family to fight against the feudal nobles in China.

Xiong Su remembered that before his father died, he and his father had swam on the bank of the river, and when they saw the reeds on the shore, his father had sighed: "Li Er once said that it is deeply rooted. How can these reeds be removed? ”

"If you plant cattails, the reeds are gone, but the cattails are covered again, and they will still be deeply rooted."

"All you can rely on is the riverside fishing wood, which can be removed by cutting it with a knife."

"The sword soldier on the ground cannot cut these reeds, but in the hands of a man he can cut them. Moreover, the knife does not take root, and it does not take root. ”

"Is there such a sharp knife in the world?"

If it was just about this, it would be just a metaphor, but Xiong Su remembered that after his father sighed with emotion, he seemed to have just inadvertently mentioned it: "The iron sickle made by the Mo family is sharp and durable, and it is twice as cheap as copper." If all the Chu farmers have this thing, it would be very good......"

At that time, Xiong was suspicious that his father only lamented the iron gifts given by the Mo family that he brought back from Shangqiu, but now that he has changed dramatically, he has become the king of Chu, and some words that he did not understand at the time have gradually become clear.

My father is good at eating fish, and he also sighed after returning from the battle of Shangqiu: The Mo family is a delicious fish, but it is a pity that there are too many spines. Who in the world can have the art of Taihe Gong? “

Taihe Gong is extremely famous in Chu, because Zhu Zhu was to assassinate and follow Taihe Gong to learn cooking, and then a series of events led to the burning of Chu Guoying and other major events.

Xiong Dang sighed at this time, and all he said was Taihegong's exquisite skill in cutting fish fillets: as he hoped, he ate the fish of the Mo family and spit out the assassination.

is also as Han Feizi said in later generations, the king wants to "buy and return the pearls" to the Mo family.

Xiong Su remembered that after his father sighed at that time, he also took advantage of the excitement to recite two sentences of "June", drinking Yuyou, and gunning turtles and carp...... Maybe it's just a sudden desire to eat these two dishes, or maybe something is right.

Xiong thought of this, not because he thought of it suddenly, but because the people sent back by Zhao Zhiai from Pei County wrote down some of the conditions of the Mo family on paper, and Chen dedicated them to him.

He muttered through the details and muttered, "What's here...... All I saw was the fatty fish, where were the bones? ”