Next, turn your attention to the Jin Kingdom.

Zhi, Han, and Wei expelled Fan and Zhongxing, and at the same time recalled the clan armor that followed Qin to attack Handan. The recall was carried out behind his back, which shows that Sanqing did not intend to recall Qin back. Ji Qin woke up and found that he had become a commander with no soldiers and a light pole, so he had to defect to Erqing.

After Fan and Zhongxing fled to Chaoge, they sent Qin to Qi to ask for help. Qi Jinggong hadn't been as emotional as he had been when he met with Ji Qin for many years. Qi Jinggong held Ji Qin's hand, pulled him into the Taimiao with a loud and laughing voice, and held a blood ceremony with him in front of the gods of the ancestors and ancestors. In this way, the state of Qi concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the second secretary.

In order to strengthen the anti-Jin forces, Qi Jinggong soon pulled Lu and Wei into the alliance. The Covenant of the Three Kingdoms reads: "Whoever is attacked by Chaoge, the allies will save it." ”

Chaoge City was originally the capital of the Shang Dynasty, and the scale of the city was huge, which had far exceeded the Haojing of the Zhou State. King Wu destroyed the city after conquering the Shang Dynasty, and gave the northeastern part of Gyeonggi to Wu Geng, the son of King Wu, thus establishing the Kingdom of Shao. After the rebellion of Zhou Pingping's three prisons, he gave the old land of Shao to Uncle Wei Kang, thus establishing the defense of the country. The capital of the Patriotic Kingdom was built on the ruins of Chaoge City, and its name was "Mo"; After the destruction of Chidi, he once occupied Mocheng, and after the Jin State destroyed Chidi, he occupied Mocheng again, and restored the name of the city to "Chaoge". Chaoge later became a fiefdom of the Zhongxing clan.

There is a big city between Chaoge and Handan, called "Zhongmu (near Tangyin County, Henan)". As mentioned earlier, Zhongmu was originally the fiefdom of the Zhao family, and the name of the Yi Zai was "Buddha Di". Zhongmu was an important military town in Taihang Shandong, and Zhao Ying built it into a huge military base, where a thousand military vehicles and a large number of weapons, armor and baggage were placed. In this way, the Zhao clan's armed expedition to the east only needs to advance here with war horses and infantry lightly. The setting up of the base eliminates a lot of military preparation work and saves a lot of marching time.

Buddha was noble and capable, and was one of Zhao Ying's most trusted and relied on retainers. However, due to the favorable geographical location and economic and military reasons, the Buddha and the Handan clan were very close: the armed forces of the two cities often supported each other against the enemy, and the Buddha's subordinates even established a marriage relationship with Handan Wu's retainers.

For the aborigines of Zhongmu, "Zhao Ying" is just a name. The vast majority of people have never met him, do not know him, and have no feelings for him. The Zhongmu people only mentioned Zhao Ying when they paid grain and taxes, complaining about his greed and arrogance; The Zhongmu people, on the other hand, regarded the Handan people as close trading partners and friends with the same hatred.

The interaction between the two cities was very normal during the Chengping period, but once the Zhao clan started a war against the Handan clan, Zhao Ying had to doubt the loyalty of the Buddha and the position of the Zhongmu people.

The spy placed by Zhao Ying's side sent a message saying: "The people of Zhongmu City are now panicking, and the Buddha and the people are very worried and unwilling to go to war with Handan. For this reason, the Buddha even sent an envoy to Handan. The purpose is unknown, but it is a sign that he is about to betray his master. ”

Zhao Ying was so panicked that he decided to summon the Buddha back without much thought. However, Mail Wuxian persuaded him: "When the Buddha sees that the master has nothing to call, he is afraid of being met by Handan Wu, and he will not dare to come back." I thought it would be better to send someone to appease him, tell him that his master would eventually reconcile with the Handan clan, and ask him not to participate in the war, but only to defend Zhongmu. Our current enemy is Erqing, and Handan City is in the back. We eliminated Erqing, and the Buddha would not dare to have the idea of betrayal. ”

However, Zhao Ying was too arrogant and arrogant, and he did not believe that he would not be able to recall a Yi Zai by virtue of his identity as the head of the family and the prestige of sweeping the enemy army, so he stubbornly sent someone to inform the Buddha and asked him to come to Xinjiang immediately to "report on his work".

Zhao Ying couldn't comprehend how fierce the fear was in the Buddha's heart when he received the order: the Buddha was holding a simple book, his body was stiff, and he was in a cold sweat, and he didn't collapse to the ground by holding on - the recall order was clearly a life talisman!

The Buddha summoned his officials and read out his master's orders to them with a trembling voice.

The officials said: "Handan and Chaoge rebelled one after another, Zhongmu was in the center of the rebellion, and the war was going on; At this time, the master was needed to defend the city. However, the master recalled the master at this time, which is contrary to common sense, and his heart must not be ignored. And Handan Wu's status is higher than that of the master, and the blood relationship with the master is closer than that of the master; He was killed without guilt, which shows the cruelty of his master. When the master goes back, he will definitely become the second Handan Wu. So never obey orders! ”

Buddha said: "Lord Zhao's so-called 'debriefing' must have asked me to explain the reason for sending an envoy to Handan. I only persuaded Handan Ji not to confront the office, and there was no betrayal; I have a clear conscience, why can't I go back? ”

The officials said: "Handan Wu did not betray either!" Otherwise would he dare to swagger to see his master? ”

The Buddha stopped talking. He wrote a letter to Zhao Ying, in which he explained the purpose of his envoy to Handan, explained the reasons why he was not suitable to leave for the time being, and finally expressed his loyalty to his family; Then he sent his eldest son to deliver the letter to Xinjiang.

Zhao Ying believed that Buddha had rebelled, and in a fit of rage, he brutally killed his son, who was originally given to him as a hostage.

Zhongmu City finally boiled, and residents poured into the streets full of anger, gathered outside the door of the Buddha's house, waving their fists and shouting anti-Zhao slogans. Not long after, someone opened the door of the house, and the Buddha was dressed in heavy filial piety (in the Zhou Dynasty, the father had to mourn the eldest son for three years) appeared in front of the people.

Buddha Di motioned for everyone to be quiet, and then said: "When my father asked the Zhao family to ask for a name, Zhao Jingzi (Zhao Cheng, the father of Zhao Ying) once said to my father: 'If you don't betray me, I won't live up to you. 'Now that Zhao Ying has killed my son for no reason, and the oath has been destroyed, and I don't have to continue to keep it, then let us take up arms and unite with the Handan clan to overthrow Zhao Ying's tyranny! ”

In this way, the three important towns in the east of the Jin Kingdom all rebelled, and the Jin Kingdom was divided into two parts, the east and the west. The second secretary united with the rebels to sweep away the forces loyal to the office in the east, coerced the centrists, and co-opted the wall-riding faction, and in the end, only Thorn Pu and Wulu were still in the hands of the office. At the same time, west of Taihang Mountain, Siqing's army was doing the same thing as Erqing's rebels.

Zhong Xingyin sent Cheng Cheng (Shi Ji's cousin Shi Kui) and his retainer Xiao Wang Taojia to the Lucheng area in the northeast of Jin to incite the Di people to oppose the Jin state; Shi Jichu borrowed another army from Zheng to strengthen the defenses of Baiquan (the eastern end of Baicheng, near present-day Hui County, Henan).

In the summer of the fourteenth year of the reign of Lu Ding, the Jin State Office basically swept away the hostile forces west of Taihang Mountain, and then sent out to attack the rebel base camp - Chaoge.

When Qi Jinggong learned the news, he immediately issued an order to Wei Linggong and Lu Dinggong, asking them to lead their troops to Taodi to meet with him.

After the three gentlemen met, it was discovered that Lu Dinggong's health was extremely poor, and his body was too weak to board the chariot. Qi Linggong had no choice but to let Lu Dinggong return to China.

Qi Jinggong decided to rescue Chaoge, but the sky was not beautiful, and the strong convection in June caused extremely bad weather - heavy rain fell from the sky and the river flooded. Floods blocked the way for coalition forces to advance, and coalition forces had to stay where they were to wait for the situation to improve.

Outside Chaoge City, the situation of the Jin Gong's army is not much stronger. The flood flooded the barracks one night, and the entire camp was so submerged that even the chariots floated. The army had to retreat overnight to a distance on higher ground. Soon, almost all the grain and forage were moldy and spoiled due to dampness.

In the Shanxi area, Cheng Cheng and Xiao Wang Taojia led a mixed army of Jin and Di to raid Xinjiang, preparing to capture the Duke of Jin in one fell swoop when the capital was empty. However, Wei Mando, who defended the country, did not give the enemy any chance, and swung his old fist to beat the enemy who was going to attack.

After the rebel sneak attack failed, Xiao Wang Taojia and the sergeants all sprinkled their grievances on the carp; This is because he relied on his relationship with Shijichu to be rigid and authoritarian, and commanded in chaos, which resulted in many sergeants losing their lives in vain.

Knowing that his sin was unforgivable, Cheng Cheng slipped away and fled into Cheng Zhou to join Chang Hong (one of his sisters married Chang Hong's nephew). Xiao Wang Taojia returned to Chaoge with the remnants of the defeated generals; At this time, the Jin army had lifted the encirclement of Handan and withdrew.

In the autumn, Qi Jinggong invited Song Jinggong to Taodi to discuss how to support the rebels against the Jin state. The two countries concluded an alliance, and it was only from this time that the Song State officially joined the anti-Jin alliance.

In view of the fact that this attack caused a lot of losses to the Jinggi area of the Jin State, Siqing had to temporarily give up the idea of attacking Chaoge and instead focused on Lucheng.

Erqing also realized the importance of Lucheng to both sides, and Zhongxing Yin ordered Qin and Gao Qiang to lead a large army to defend Lucheng. In winter and December, the Jin army was divided into two parts: one went north to surround Lucheng, and the other went west to Baicheng. A fierce battle broke out between the two sides at Lucheng, resulting in a great defeat for the rebels and the capture of Qin and Gaoqiang. The Jin army, which went west to Baicheng, defeated the combined forces of Fan and Zheng Guo entrenched in the Baiquan area.

The Jin army won two great victories, so that it could march into the Central Plains from both the south and the north.