Coming out of Yiyang City, Zi Chu was filled with anxiety. Mr. Pingyuan is obviously unwilling to dedicate the city, which almost means that the peace talks will break down and his life and fortune will not be saved! But on the surface, Pingyuan Jun and Zichu walked side by side, walking at the front of the team, receiving cheers from everyone, demonstrating the close friendship between the Zhao and Qin families. Zichu suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and followed Pingyuan Jun's example, standing in the car with his hands crossed, bowing his head, smiling, and cooperating to create a friendly atmosphere to the end. The best man drove the car nervously, keeping a horse's head distance from Mr. Pingyuan, and carefully avoiding the uneven ground. The dust kicked up by the two cars flew up high behind the car. After waiting for the dust to pass, the welcoming team followed behind in a carriage and returned to Handan.
Lord Pingyuan passed the road between Yiyang and Wangcheng at a fast pace, and arrived at Wangcheng at about noon. At the intersection of Wangcheng and Handan City, Pingyuanjun said goodbye to Zichu. Pingyuanjun once again told Zichu to convey his wishes to the King of Qin and never do anything that would harm himself or benefit others. Zi Chu could only vaguely say goodbye with his hands raised, and he responded with his mouth.
Returning to his house in Handan City, Zichu did not hesitate for a moment and immediately wrote the words "Zhao or refused to present the city" on a piece of silk, rolled it into a small scroll and gave it to Lu Buwei. Lu Buwei left immediately and found a merchant. Then, this piece of silk cloth will be stuffed into a certain lapel, sent to a certain place as quickly as possible, and then sent to the place where it should go.
Zhang Lu has been in Qin for more than ten years and has been the prime minister of Qin for six or seven years. In the past six or seven years, Bai Qi was fighting hard battles on the Nanyang-Shangdang front line, while Zhang Lu only did two things in the rear: building roads and appointing and dismissing.
Needless to say, road construction. In the past few years, Zhang Lu has built several transportation trunk lines to connect Guanzhong with various counties; he has also set up post stations in key places to facilitate the movement of people. In addition to building roads within the Qin State, he also built roads to the princes' territories, such as the Xuhan Road. From Hanguguan to Luoyang, all the counties passing through were Korean counties. Zhang Lu said hello and went there regardless of the land. Build roads on Korean territory. Since there is no need for South Korea to provide money or food, South Korean officials just let it go and enjoy the convenience of smooth roads! They also turned a blind eye to the inns built next to the roads, and even used them to convey some objects and people that were not convenient for public transportation.
The appointment and dismissal of officials is a matter with Zhang Lu's characteristics. In the name of personal grudges, Zhang Lu dismissed batch after batch of old officials and appointed batch after batch of new officials without even any reason. Most of the newly appointed officials were newcomers from other vassal states, but there were also some, such as Wang Ji, who took office purely because of their good relationship with Zhang Lu.
The King of Qin allowed Zhang Lugong to avenge himself, just as he allowed Marquis Rang to monopolize power. Everyone thought that the King of Qin could not stand Zhang Lu's arbitrary actions and waited to see Zhang Lu make a big fall; but the King of Qin encouraged him and even told Lord Pingyuan personally that Zhang Lu's enemy Wei Qi was his enemy. Only Zhang Lu himself knew that for every appointment and dismissal list, he communicated privately with the King of Qin many times. The reason for appointment and dismissal was nominally due to personal grudges, but in fact it was completely to implement the King of Qin's intentions. The Qin State governs the country by law, and it is very troublesome to find reasons for appointing or removing someone; Zhang Lu is good at this, and can always find reasons for appointment and removal within the law. In the past six or seven years, the faces in the court have almost changed.
Wu'an Jun Baiqi seemed to have suffered a huge blow after the Changping War. He always claimed that he could not afford to be ill and did not go to court for more than half a year. Occasionally, if I have any questions, I will come to the door for consultation. Bai Qida will accept them and put forward his opinions without reservation. Currently in charge of the military affairs in the court are Wang Lu, the chief of Zuo Shu, and Sima Jin, the fifth official. They came down from Changping and without rest, they immediately led new troops to attack Taiyuan and Wu'an, but the progress was not smooth. After the peace talks began, the Qin army they led were transferred to the Shangdang camp, and they returned to Xianyang to take over the training of the Qin army. King Qin's guest Qing Meng Ao was also arranged to participate in the military meeting.
In the first few months, the focus of everyone's discussion was whether the next target of attack would be Handan or Taiyuan. After losing Shangdang, Zhao State's current situation is like a pole, with Handan on one end, Taiyuan on the other, and the former Zhongshan State in the middle. Whether it is rescuing Handan from Taiyuan or rescuing Taiyuan from Handan, it must be detoured The steep Jingxing. If you want to do the easy thing first and then the hard thing, of course it will be easier to attack Taiyuan, but it will not be easy to hurt the Zhao State; if you want to hurt the Zhao State, of course it is more effective to send troops out of Handan.
Every day, the movements of the princes came to Chen Si, who compiled them into a few brief articles and reported them to Zhang Lu and the King of Qin. Chen Si's intelligence network mainly came from merchants and Cao Mang: the merchants had the early foundation of Ranghou, while Cao Mang mainly came from Zeng Ji's surrender. Don't underestimate those people who are in the wild, they will be unambiguous when trying to find out the information - as long as you have money! Finally, the decision-makers of the Qin State came to a unanimous conclusion that forcing King Zhao to make concessions little by little by repeatedly sending troops to Handan might be the most effective and safest solution. So the King of Qin humiliated the State of Zhao and forced the King of Zhao to kill Wei Qi. At the same time, he made peace with the Lord of Pingyuan and asked the King of Zhao to surrender the city. Then every once in a while, he would find a leading soldier to go out to Handan, forcing Zhao to bleed a little bit. Zhao would probably become a follower like Han and Wei. So on the summer solstice, the prince and Lord Pingyuan swore an oath by the river. Lord Pingyuan immediately left Xianyang and returned to Handan.
On the way back to Handan, Lord Pingyuan was watched by the Qin people. The visit of the princes' overt and secret envoys could not escape the eyes of the Qin people. When Lord Pingyuan returned to Handan, he had already been in contact with various forces from various princes, and some forces even had several rounds of talks.
Zhang Lu went through the forces that were in contact with Lord Pingyuan one by one, and found that Chu had the most forces, followed by Han and Wei, and Yan and Qi had much smaller forces. Zhang Lu sneered, Chu State was indeed unwilling to be lonely, and wanted to use the Changping incident to play some tricks. He ordered Nanyang and Nanjun to organize their armies to prepare for war, and sent Meng Ao and Sima Jin to the two places to inspect the war preparations. Then he asked Mang Wei to write a letter to Mang Shen, reminding Chun Shenjun not to stand in the wrong team at this critical moment! And Mang Shen wrote back saying that Lord Chun Shen felt grateful for Qin's kindness and vowed not to be an enemy of Qin! However, due to the great hostility towards Qin within Chu State, he had to express his views. He promised Zhang Lu that he would never send a single soldier to Nanjun and Nanyang! ——Obviously, Qin’s war preparations are also in Chunshenjun’s eyes.
Half a year has passed since spring plowing, and there is peace all over the country, including Shangdang, and this year's harvest is basically guaranteed. When the report came from Handan, Lord Pingyuan summoned Zichu to Yiyang to meet him before he entered Handan. The two then drove side by side back to Handan, showing great respect and kindness to Zi Chu. But then he received a secret report from Zichu: "Zhao may refuse to offer the city!"
After receiving the secret report from Zi Chu, King Qin immediately summoned Zhang Lu and Wang Lu. All three of them believed that Zhao Guo's reaction was not what they expected, and the focus of work should now turn to using troops against Handan. Currently, 70,000 prisoners in Guanzhong have been transferred to Shangdang, and there are not many prisoners left in Guanzhong. Nanjun and Nanyang wanted to monitor the Chu State and could not mobilize troops for the time being; Bashu was too far away, and it took a long time to adapt to the dry and cold environment in the north and completely different eating habits. In less than half a year, it was almost impossible to go to the battlefield. At present, the only forces that can immediately form an army are Shangdang, Hedong, Shangjun and other places.
Zhang Lu secretly informed the Shangdang Shouwang Tomb, asking him to prepare 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops to send troops to Handan after the autumn harvest, and to station in Wu'an on the outskirts of Handan to force Zhao to sign an alliance under the city. He also notified Wang Ji, the governor of Hedong, to organize efforts to fry 30,000 people a month's worth of millet to supply the party.
Shangdang is currently in peace. It has resumed trade with Wen, Zhi, and even Luoyang in the south, Wu'an and Handan in the east, and Taiyuan in the west. Mountain goods from the Taihang Mountains, salt from Anyi, and even cinnabar from Bashu can be found in Shangdang. Trade here. There was an iron workshop established by Duan Zigan in Hedong. Pi Wan specially sent people to Shangdang to purchase the iron smelted from Wu'an, transported it back to Anyi, and built a large number of farm tools, which were provided free of charge to farmers in Hedong and Shangdang according to Qin law. Its use has played a great role in the recovery of agricultural production in Shangdang.
In the past six months, Wang Ling focused entirely on production. Although the surrounding Korean cities and towns have not surrendered, they have a general understanding of the current situation. They know that Wang Ling is a big force and it is not difficult to destroy a city. They have almost no resistance, so they are willing to maintain friendship with Wang Ling. In the relationship, both parties communicate with each other, and even send beautiful women to intermarry. Wang Ling rewarded these beauties to his meritorious subordinates.
Li Bing, who was transferred from the north, was first allocated land according to the Qin system. Each of the 70,000 people had 100 acres of land. They were mature fields cultivated by the original residents for many years. They were only left uncultivated for a year or two because of the war, so it was very convenient to repair them. Li Bing has great experience in water conservancy renovation. Without disturbing agricultural production too much, he diverted limited water sources to where they were needed, whether for irrigation or drinking. An engineering team composed of 10,000 prisoners played an important role during this period. Changzi, Tunliu, Xiangyuan, Lucheng and other places are not only connected by roads, but also dotted with rivers, waterpipes, lakes and ponds.
Hundreds of thousands of troops once gathered in an area of a hundred square miles, and excrement piled up into mountains every day. Now they all make good fertilizer. Li Bing dug three feet into the ground, took out the dung, washed it with water, and sprinkled it on the fields. Various crops grew well.
The roads between Changping-Gaodu-Nanyang are ready-made, but they have also been renovated and can be opened to traffic, making it easier for goods from Nanyang at the foot of the mountain to be transported into the mountains, and goods from the mountains to be transported out of the mountains. Li Bing even wanted to build a road to Wu'an, but after thinking about it, he decided not to build it and only built the road to Licheng. From Licheng eastward to the Zhangshui River, there are some temporary forts to guard against the surrounding enemies. A simple beacon was built on the high mountain to facilitate quick alarm!
Wang Ling is in charge of production and Li Bing is in charge of engineering. The two of them work together to complement each other!
