Wei State, Daliang City.
The atmosphere in the palace was quite different from the past, because the news of the fall of Han Dynasty had officially reached the Wei court a few days ago.
King Wei's face was solemn, as if he was thinking about something in an unhappy mood.
The civil servants and generals below are whispering. Although they all have their own opinions, everyone understands the same truth - the lips are dying and the teeth are cold.
Because Da Qin is too strong now.
Because the grievances between Wei and Qin were indeed too deep.
Because the current Wei State no longer has Wu Qi, Pang Juan, or even Wei Wuji, the Lord of Xinling who passed away a few years ago.
Talents are withering, national strength is declining, and the population is shrinking as the territory shrinks.
Since Hangu Pass was captured by the Qin State, the Wei State has basically given up the idea of expedition to the west and only seeks to protect itself. After all, South Korea is in front of it, and there are several countries behind it that can continuously resist Qin.
But now that the King of Han has fallen into the hands of Zhuge Teng, and the entire Han Kingdom has been merged into the territory of Qin, the barrier in front of the Wei Kingdom has also disappeared.
The King of Wei sighed with emotion and thought: If I had known this, I should have snatched Luoyi Han Ting from his hands. At least he could have resisted the Qin Dynasty for a few years.
"Your Majesty." A figure stood out from the crowd, "Now that the destruction of Korea has become a fact, we should think of some countermeasures as soon as possible to prevent Qin from continuing to advance eastward."
The speaker was none other than the Prime Minister Wei Mingyuan, who was also the cousin of the current King of Wei.
King Wei had no nerve to say that he was sighing because he had not thought of a good solution, so he quickly asked: "In the opinion of the Prime Minister, what should be the next decision?"
Wei Mingyuan pondered for a moment and then said: "Objectively speaking, the combat power of Wei Dynasty cannot directly compete with the Qin State, so we must rely on external forces. However, judging from past experience, even if the other countries Even if they all send troops to fight, they may not be able to take advantage, because each country has its own plans, and no one wants to waste too much of their own national power."
In fact, all countries know this very well, and no one is willing to devote all the strength of the country to resist Qin, because maybe a country behind him will take advantage of his weakness to do evil.
"Rebirth of the Great Era of Fighting Waves"
In fact, the reason why Qin was able to defeat several enemies at once was essentially due to this factor.
Therefore, since Ying Zheng succeeded to the throne, countries have rarely joined forces, especially those that are not bordering Qin like Qi and Yan, and they have been silent and ineffective.
King Wei's face turned cold: "Everyone knows this reason. Is there anything specific about it?"
Wei Mingyuan continued quite calmly: "Fame is the foundation of a country. Luoyi was originally the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. It was previously occupied by Han. It was unreasonable. Now we can tell the world and support Luoyi again. The city is the capital of the country and is worshiped by the world. In this way, we can reluctantly set up a buffer zone for Qin and Wei."
King Wei nodded slightly: "This is a good idea. Even if it doesn't have much effect, it can still disgust the Qin State."
"Besides." Wei Mingyuan squinted his eyes, "Jiuding disappeared mysteriously a few years ago, and all countries speculated that Lu Buwei secretly hijacked it. Why not turn this matter out, unite all countries, and let Qin hand over Jiuding to respect the Zhou Dynasty? For the ancestral temple. Presumably, the King of Qin will definitely deny it, so we can unite all the countries to put pressure on him. Even if we don't fight with each other, we can make the Qin country alienated and despised by the people of the world."
King Wei nodded slightly and then said: "But this cannot fundamentally weaken Qin. I'm afraid that in the end, we will end up with the same fate as South Korea."
Wei Mingyuan narrowed his eyes and his face turned grim: "If you want to fundamentally solve the problem, it must be impossible to rely solely on military power. But when it comes to military force, it is not just the military's combat power."
"You mean..." King Wei was slightly shocked.
Wei Mingyuan said in a cold voice: "You know, the King of Qin has no brothers now. If he is assassinated, the Qin Dynasty will be in chaos."
An assassination may not necessarily capture the city, but once successful, it will definitely cause chaos in the enemy country.
Especially like the situation of the Ying family, if Qin chooses a king again, the court will inevitably be violently turbulent.
What's more, the Wei State has done this before. When Ying Zheng selected his concubine, the Wei State sent people to pretend to be Chu people in an attempt to provoke a war between Qin and Chu.
Fortunately, Li Si, who had just arrived at Ying Zheng's side, found out in time and used the trick to arrange the first "accidental encounter" between Ying Zheng and Ji Fa.
The King of Wei thought for a while and said: "I think the King of Qin is heavily guarded, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to succeed."
Wei Mingyuan said: "If he is in the territory of Da Qin, it will naturally be difficult to succeed, but if he leaves the territory of Qin and there are not many guards around him, naturally..."
Looking at his cold eyes, King Wei's confidence increased a lot.
"Okay, I will personally arrange this matter and pass on the order to explore the next whereabouts of King Qin. If there are any plans to leave Qin, report it in time." King Wei paused and said, "In addition, Jiuding may be in Qin. The news spread quickly to other countries, and I wanted to see their reactions."
The core ministers accepted the order in unison and retreated.
The army is the foundation for standing in troubled times.
The former soldiers of the Wei Dynasty were so glorious back then. They shocked the world with their powerful fighting power and established Wei's dominance. They even defeated the Qin State and could only live in a corner.
If it weren't for the strength of Wei Wu's soldiers, perhaps Qin Xiaogong Ying Quliang would not have worked so hard to govern and enabled Shang Jun Wei Yang to carry out reforms.
Let alone the emergence of Qin, the most powerful person in the world.
So to a certain extent, Ying Zheng is also grateful to the State of Wei for forcing the State of Qin into what it is now.
However, arrogance is destined to pay a price.
Although the soldiers of Wei were powerful at that time, Wei's national strength could not support fighting against several countries at the same time. Moreover, Wei was located in the hinterland of the Central Plains and often faced attacks from all directions. Therefore, Wei only got its name and did not have the ability to dominate the world.
After Pang Juan, Wei's military strength plummeted, and it no longer had the strength to dominate.
In the past few years, Wei Wuji, the Lord of Xinling, finally appeared, but he became depressed because of the suspicion of the previous king of Wei.
Although Wei's military strength has weakened, its former intelligence capabilities have been retained. Wei has placed quite a few spies secretly in various countries, and they are very well hidden. Therefore, Wei's information is extremely well-informed, and some of the spies on the surface are unknown. Whatever is convenient to do is also done secretly by these spies.
After the King of Wei made detailed arrangements in the imperial study, he wrote several letters of credence and handed them to the temples of other countries.
At this moment, the sense of crisis quickly spread to every inch of the entire Wei State, and along with those few letters of credence, it spread to every corner of China.
The kingdoms lasted for more than two hundred years, and countless countries were destroyed. In the end, only the seven heroes who stood proudly on the land of Kyushu were left.
Among them, the Qi State has the longest history and the deepest foundation. However, after being beaten by Le Yi and leaving only an isolated city, it seems that it has no ambitions anymore. The Tian family who replaced the Lu family seems to cherish this hard-won power. , just stick to the countryside and have nothing to do with the world.
Therefore, in recent decades, the relationship between Qi and several other countries has been quite harmonious, except for the occasional quelling of disputes between other countries.
After receiving the letter of credence from King Wei, King Qi just ordered people to symbolically inquire about the affairs of South Korea, and suggested that King Qin treat the original royal family of Han Ting well.
As for Jiuding, King Qi didn't bother to pay attention.
The great Zhou Dynasty was dead, so why grab those useless cauldrons?
The Chu State in the south has the largest territory. Especially after annexing the Wu State and the Yue State, it has the momentum to dominate the world.
But whether it was due to too much population loss or insufficient financial resources, Chu State has never been able to make further progress, especially in recent decades, even the former capital Yingcheng was lost.
The King of Chu has just reached a certain agreement with his uncle. Of course, he cannot fall out with Ying Zheng just because of King Wei's words. Although the increasingly powerful Qin State is indeed a threat, as long as Ying Zheng does not take the initiative to launch an attack on Chu State, then Chu State will The king is already satisfied, how can he take the initiative to provoke Qin?
In order to show greater sincerity, the King of Chu kept the credentials sent by King Wei intact and mailed them to Ying Zheng.
As for the Yan State in the north, it may be the least hostile to the Qin State, because the distance is too far, and there are no territorial disputes or conflicts of interest between the two countries. Besides, apart from occasional frictions with Zhao, Yan's attention was mainly focused on the Xiongnu.
Besides, Wei and Yan themselves don’t have a good impression. Is it none of my business that you face the threat posed by Qin?
The only one who had a strong reaction was Zhao State, which had signed an alliance with Qin State.
The covenant is, if you say it is useful, it is indeed useful. If you say it is useless, it is actually just a piece of paper.
Because once the two countries go to war, all previous alliances can be nullified.
The King of Qin borrowed a road from Zhao to attack the Huns from the north, which is a real example.
Zhao Wangqian, who had just succeeded to the throne, was naturally afraid that Ying Zheng would do something like this again, so he did not really believe that Ying Zheng would always fulfill his promise.
Therefore, he was very interested in King Wei's proposal. Even if he didn't know how to implement it, there would be no problem in at least cooperating with it.
After all, the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei and Han were originally from the same origin, starting from the division of the three families into the Jin Dynasty. Now Han has been destroyed. It is normal for the kings of Zhao and Wei to have similar feelings.
Moreover, when Zhao Qian was about to succeed to the throne, he was a lot angry with King Qin. His father died early because he was angry, his sister turned her elbows outward, and there was the deposed prince Zhao Jia staring at him behind his back.
Wait, Zhao Jia?
Why not pour dirty water on Zhao Jia's head.
The last time the Qin State took advantage of the road to attack the Xiongnu, but the terms negotiated with him made Zhao Jia stare and sulked. He originally wanted to take advantage of the late king's departure to compete for the position of King Zhao, but he was disturbed by Ying Zheng. .
Zhao Qian thought of this, wrote a reply to King Wei, and then ordered his confidants to deliver it to King Wei in person, and called Eunuch Liu.
This Eunuch Liu had served him single-handedly, and he could be said to be his confidant.
"Is there any movement in Xianyang recently?"
Eunuch Liu bowed and replied: "Your Majesty, there is no big movement. A few days ago, news came from Wenleiju. King Qin often went to Wenleiju's back house recently. It seemed that there was something going on in the treasure pavilion. "
Zhao Qian frowned and said, "Be specific."
Eunuch Liu shook his head: "That's all the letter said. If the master wants to investigate, I will ask them to keep a closer eye on it."
"Send someone directly over this time. Don't send any more letters." Zhao Qian paused and then said, "Also, strengthen the security and inspections at the border. Once suspicious people enter the country, the inspections must be strengthened."
Eunuch Liu responded, turned around and retreated.
Zhao Qian's eyes swayed for a while, and he let out a long sigh, seeming to relieve the depression in his heart.
