I thought that South Korea, which had almost the same national and military strength, would be defeated so miserably at the hands of Wei.

What's even more terrible is that after Wei defeated such a powerful South Korea, it did not suffer too serious losses.

The reason why Xiong Tuo refused to easily withdraw his troops from Qi at that time was also based on this point: only by annexing Qi could Chu State be able to return to the starting line and keep pace with Wei.

But unfortunately, Qi State returned to its former glory and defeated Chu State's strategy with the help of money and martial arts warriors. This made Chu State fail to achieve its original strategic prediction in that war.

Now, after several years of recuperation, the Wei State has gradually regained its strength. Under such circumstances, the Chu State naturally does not dare to have any wrong thoughts against Qi and Lu.

We must know that Wei State acquiesced to Chu State's annexation of Qilu and Qilu in order to defeat South Korea. Now, South Korea has been defeated by Wei State. How could Wei State continue to sit back and watch Chu State annex Qilu? - Xiong Tuo, King of Chu

I never believed that his scheming brother-in-law would be so generous.

Although Chu State is an ally of Wei State, under the current situation, if Chu State still wants to annex Qi and Lu, then Wei State will secretly hold back Chu State even if it is inconvenient to take action publicly.

- It's like the "War between Qin and Han". Hundreds of thousands of troops from Qin and South Korea fought at Yanmen Pass for several years. Each other suffered losses, but who gained? But it was Wei who sold the two countries openly and covertly.

Armed country.

When he learned about this incident, Xiong Tuo was stunned: How could he be so shameless?!

Since the opportunity to annex Qi has been missed, it is not a bad thing to try to obtain some of the property from Qi.

As for the State of Qi itself, to be honest, it is no longer a strong enemy in the hearts of Wei and Chu: the only strong enemies in the hearts of Wei and Chu are each other!

In addition to asking for property, Xiong Tuo also thought of Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng's suggestion and asked Qi for the "Secret Records of Lu Gong" - of course, Qi itself did not have such a thing. The reason why Xiong Tuo raised this matter to Qi was

Just to give Qi some face, after all, Qi is still the suzerain of Lu.

Therefore, he said to Feng Chen: "As long as your country agrees, as for the others, I will send someone to contact King Lu to obtain his approval."

Although Feng Xuan was unwilling to do so, he could only nod his head and accept the request of Chu King Xiong Tuo.

After returning to Linzi, the capital of the King of Qi, Feng Chen immediately reported the incident to King Lu Bai of Qi, who immediately summoned Zhao Zhao, the Prime Minister on the left, Tian Bao, the Prime Minister on the right, as well as Gao Xi, Guan Zhong, Uncle Bao, etc.

A wise minister.

When Feng Chen mentioned that King Xiong Tuo of Chu was asking for money and materials from Qi, Zhao Zhao and other important officials were not surprised.

After all, the Chu State was originally a very poor country - this 'poverty' does not mean that the Chu State is weak, but that most of the Chu State's wealth is concentrated in the hands of the royal family and the aristocratic class, even after King Xiong Tuo of Chu came to power.

Improving the status of civilians and giving them various preferential treatment cannot fundamentally change this situation.

Unless King Xiong Tuo of Chu, like King Zhao Run of Wei, has more than 400,000 troops and implements the "those who obey me will prosper, and those who go against me will perish" rule, he must take into account the attitude of the nobles of Eastern Chu and cannot be like Wei.

Wang Zhaorun is so arbitrary and independent.

"Money matters are acceptable."

In view of the fact that Zhao Zhao, the left prime minister, could not express his opinions on matters involving Wei, Tian Tao, the right prime minister, took the lead and said: "Now in the Central Plains, the only countries that can still fight with Wei are Qin, Han and Chu...

"

In Tian Tao's point of view, Qin is the most difficult to instigate rebellion, because Qin's current domestic economy is basically linked to Wei. To put it bluntly, as long as Wei cuts off trade with Qin, Qin's income will

I'm afraid it will be reduced by more than half. In addition, the Qin State is still obsessed with Yanmen County in South Korea, so the help from this country can almost be ignored.

Secondly, let’s talk about South Korea. In the war with Wei State in the past few years, South Korea suffered heavy losses, but even so it still retained a certain degree of powerful troops. For example, the Yanmen Army of Yanmen Guards Li Mu, even in front of Wei Gongzi Run

The "Daijun Iron Cavalry", which had lost more than half of its troops, actually still retained about 15,000 cavalry, and it was still a powerful force capable of turning the situation on the battlefield.

In addition, South Korea has been committed to restoring its military strength in recent years and invested the vast majority of tax revenue over the years into military expenditures, which has gradually restored South Korea to its pre-war level.

The problem is that Han Wangran is more difficult to deal with than Chu King Xiong Tuo, especially when it comes to patience. To be honest, it is difficult to persuade Han to take the initiative to attract Wei Guo's attention.

Unable to persuade South Korea, Chu State became Qi State's priority.

To be fair, Chu's soldiers are indeed very weak. Excluding Wei and Yue, Chu's army is not even as good as the current army under the general Huan Hu of Lu. It is almost at the bottom of the Central Plains. However, the Chu army's

The advantage is that this country's military has almost no so-called pensions. Even if a large number of soldiers are lost in a battle, the pensions will not drag down the entire country.

More importantly, Chu is the only country in the Central Plains that has the ability to mobilize four million troops. The absolute advantage in numbers can certainly make up for the disadvantage in the strength of a single soldier.

Therefore, it is not a bad thing to 'support' Chu's army to attract Wei's attention.

The problem lies in the "Secret Records of Lu Gong" requested by King Xiong Tuo of Chu.

To be honest, the rapid advancement of Wei's crafts and technology over the years is mainly due to the King of Wei Zhao Run. The "Secret Records of Lu Gong" printed by Zhao Run from the State of Lu cannot be said to have made no contribution to the State of Wei, but in fact it is not like other

The Central Plains country was as huge as imagined. Wei's process technology came from the Smelting Bureau, and the Smelting Bureau's technical concepts came from Zhao Run.

Things like tortoise-shell chariots, ballistae, repeating crossbows, etc. These were actually rough drawings drawn by King Zhao Run of Wei, and then handed over to the clerks of the Metallurgical Bureau to improve and improve them.

What I learned was mainly mechanical skills, including timeless gear sets, lever structures, seamless mortise and tenon technology, etc.

But other countries don't see it that way. They believe that Wei's craftsmanship has suddenly improved to a level that is almost catching up with Lu's. The key lies in the "Secret Records of Lu Gong".

Both the Chu State and the Qi State firmly believed in this point.

Therefore, King Lu Bai of Qi and other officials seemed a little hesitant about whether the "Secret Records of Lu Gong" should be handed over to Chu.

They are very worried that even if they unite Qi, Han, and Chu to suppress Wei and weaken Wei in the future, if a Chu State as powerful as Wei emerges as a result, wouldn't this violate their original intention?

However, the current situation does not allow them to think too long-term. After all, the power of Chu State is only in the future, but the power of Wei State is something that can be witnessed with their own eyes now.

In view of this, Qi finally acquiesced to this matter.

But in fact, whether Qi State acquiesces or not, this has nothing to do with Chu State - King Xiong Tuo of Chu informed Qi State, which is just to give Qi State some face. Even if Qi State objects to this matter, will Xiong Tuo let it go?

Have you passed this opportunity?

Absolutely impossible!

No, in fact, on the third day after Feng Chen returned to Qi, King Xiong Tuo of Chu sent people to the State of Lu to negotiate with Prince Shupan of Lu about the matter.

The essence of the negotiation was very simple. It was nothing more than the state of Chu helping King Lu defeat Sanhuan, and the state of Lu handing over the "Secret Records of Lu Gong" as reward.

After weighing the pros and cons, King Lu accepted the deal.

In July of the sixth year of Wei Xing'an, when the Wei State was busy with various matters related to moving the capital to Luoyang, the Chu State sent one of the Three Pillars, General Xiang Mo, with 200,000 troops to the Lu State to assist King Lu in pacifying the Three Kingdoms.

Huan's Rebellion.

As soon as he heard the news, Huan Hu, who was in Xuecheng, couldn't sit still. You must know that he originally planned to wait for the civil strife in the Lu country to get out of control, and then appear as a "hero of the Lu country" and take advantage of the situation.

benefit.

Unexpectedly, the Chu State did not know what he had eaten wrong and actually came to ruin his good deeds.

In desperation, Huan Hu had no choice but to send troops to respond to the royal family before the Chu army arrived in the Lu state, and assisted the royal family in attacking Sanhuan's rebel forces.

Under the joint attack of Huan Hu and the Chu general Xiang Mo, San Huan was defeated without any surprise and surrendered to the royal family.

Afterwards, Duke Shupan of Lu expelled the masterminds of the rebellion from the Meng and Shusun families, and passed the throne to his son, Gongzi Xing.

As a reward for sending troops to help the Chu State, the old prince of the Lu State, Shupan, once again printed the "Secret Records of Lu Gong" and gave it to the Chu general Xiang Mo, who took it back to the Chu State.

Chu general Xiang Mo sent troops to the Lu State and assisted the Lu royal family in suppressing the Sanhuan Rebellion. This was quickly spread back to the Wei State by the Qingya people on the border between Qi and Chu.

At that time, Wei King Zhao Run had moved to the palace in Luoyang. After learning about this incident, he could not help but frown.

He also did not expect that the Chu State, which sent troops to annex Qi and Lu in a failed attempt last time, would eventually obtain Qi State's wealth and Lu State's technology.

"The battle between Wei and Chu may be greatly advanced..."

With a worried sigh, Zhao Run stood in the brand new palace, stood at the window, and stared at the sky outside the window.

"Han, Chu... In order to ensure the advantage of our great Wei, it seems that one of them must be eliminated first."
Chapter completed!