"Back to your Majesty, Chu and Nanhai have been helping each other and relying on each other since the founding of the country. This is a ten-year-old friendship."
I don’t know if the Nanhai envoy didn’t see the implicit question in Lu Yuan’s words, or if he deliberately ignored it.
At this time, facing Lu Yuan's slightly sarcastic words, the envoy still said calmly: "Now that I, the new king of Nanhai, have ascended the throne, I, the king, often sigh with emotion when thinking about the friendship between Chu and Nanhai when the previous king was alive. If it were not for the three families to join forces, how could it be possible? Come and wait for today's inheritance?
Therefore, after our king ascended the throne and the country became somewhat peaceful, he sent foreign ministers to the State of Chu as envoys.
Let me jointly reaffirm the old friendship between the two countries, renew the ambition of the late king, and make a good alliance with Da Chu. "
This avoidance of serious issues directly completely ignored the main contradiction between the two countries.
After Lu Yuan heard this, he almost laughed angrily. Seeing that this guy still wanted to make fun of himself, his tone suddenly became colder and he said: "Continue the ambition of the late king and make an alliance with me, the Great Chu." This is really nice to say.
Kegu remembers that when I formed an alliance with Yan Wangqiu, he promised.
After the establishment of the two countries, Nanhai sent 3 million taels of silver and 2 million shi of grain to our country, Chu, every year. And our country, Dachu, provides military protection for the South China Sea and blocks dangers from the outside world.
At the same time, the two countries advance and retreat together and face foreign enemies together.
This covenant has not been broken for ten years, until the death of your late king. And I, Da Chu, have also blocked many open and secret arrows for Nanhai in these years, and stopped many wolves, tigers and leopards.
It's already March, right? Where is the money and food that Nanhai Kingdom should send to me, Dachu?
And if the lonely king remembers correctly, just last month, the new king of your country accepted the canonization of Ning State, and paid tribute and became a minister like the emperor of Jinling.
Our two countries, Chu and Su, have always been enemies of Ning and have not yet made peace with each other. Since you in the South China Sea have praised our alliance as a good one, you have defected to the Ning State at this time. Are you trying to betray our two countries and defect to the enemy?
Every two months since Yan Wangqiu's death, you, the new master of the South China Sea, have made all kinds of betrayal of the alliance. What are your intentions?
After you have made these moves, how can you have the face to come to me and renew our old friendship?
You still want to make an alliance with me, the Great Chu. Do you really think that this king is just like your lord, willing to humble himself and like to beg for mercy from others? "
Now that Nanhai Kingdom has brought things to the current situation, Lu Yuan is no longer too lazy to make superficial appearances with the other party, and directly starts ridiculing and scolding him at this time.
A traitor who has defected to the enemy country and still wants to be respected is really thinking too much.
"you……"
When the envoy from the Nanhai Kingdom saw Lu Yuan insulting his monarch in such a way, his face turned red with anger. He was about to curse back, but when he saw Lu Yuan's murderous eyes, he suddenly choked back.
But this was when he remembered that the person in front of him was the King of Chu, a military god with brilliant achievements, and a powerful innate master.
Facing such a person, no matter how humiliated he felt, the Nanhai Kingdom envoy would not dare to say the slightest disrespectful word.
Because the other party has strong strength to rely on, they can naturally say these things, and no one dares to embarrass the other party.
But he was just an ordinary envoy, and even the Nanhai Kingdom that was leaning on him was just a small country.
If a weak country has no diplomacy and talks nonsense, it will really lead to death.
Taking a deep breath and suppressing the humiliation, the envoy from the Nanhai Kingdom forced a smile and said, "Your Majesty, you have misunderstood me. We, the Nanhai Kingdom, have no intention of betraying our alliance. It's just because we have been sending money and food to Dachu for many years. The people are really tired.
In addition, the late king passed away this year, and a large amount of money was spent on funeral arrangements. The treasury in the country was really short, so it was not possible to fulfill the covenant in time and provide money and food.
When the tax revenue is sufficient this summer, our country will immediately send money and food to Chu, and there will be no shortage at all.
As for surrendering to Ning Guo, the other party forced him too much.
The late king died of illness, and Ning Guo took advantage of the chaos and emptiness in our country to send envoys to threaten us. He said that if the Nanhai Kingdom is unwilling to surrender, it will send an army of 300,000 to conquer.
At that time, in Jian'an County, Ningguo's 100,000 troops had gathered.
Faced with the enemy's approaching troops and the danger of destroying the country, my king had no choice but to agree to the other party's terms and surrender to Ning Guo.
But Your Majesty Mingjian, although we, Nanhai, surrendered to the Ning State, our hearts were still toward the Chu and Su States.
Surrendering now is only a temporary measure. In the future, when our king stabilizes the country, accumulates armor and soldiers, and has sufficient strength, he will leave Ning State and advance and retreat together with Chu and Su. "
To be honest, there are still many voices in the South China Sea regarding the alliance signed when the three countries of Changsha, Nanhai, and Ninghai were established.
After all, in the past ten years, relying on this alliance, Nanhai Country has been able to enjoy long-term peace and stability in this troubled world.
And through this alliance, Nanhai State has also stabilized its borders in the north and west, so that it does not have to worry about the security of its rear.
You can concentrate all your efforts eastward, and only need to guard against the threat of Ningguo.
The cost of these many benefits is that Nanhai Kingdom needs to pay three million taels of silver and two million shi of food every year.
Although the money is indeed a lot, it even accounts for one-third of Nanhai Country's annual income.
But compared with the benefits gained, this price is nothing.
After all, without this covenant, on the contrary, Nanhai Country would have to face powerful enemies from the north, east, and west, and three ambitious countries that want to expand externally.
At that time, just to resist these wolves, tigers and leopards, the Nanhai Kingdom was afraid that it would have to maintain an army of hundreds of thousands all year round. It would be fearfully guarding its surroundings at all times, for fear that if it were not careful, an enemy country would attack and destroy itself.
Under this situation, the military expenditure that Nanhai Kingdom needs to spend per year is probably close to tens of millions of taels of silver, far better than the three million taels of silver today.
And with the national strength of Nanhai State, this situation cannot last long.
The Soviet Union has learned from the past, but it hasn’t been two years yet?
Such tragic scenes are still vivid in our minds at this time. How could people in Nanhai not be worried about Yu Ji.
Therefore, those who support the implementation of the covenant actually account for a considerable proportion of the South China Sea Kingdom.
After all, the funds Lu Yuan grants to Honglu Temple and the Imperial City Division every year have always been a huge sum of money and have never been in short supply. And those officials in Chu State who were born in Nanhai have been writing letters home over the years to help promote Chu State.
This long-term operation has accumulated a large number of pro-Chu sect people in Nanhai.
Even in the Nanhai Imperial Court, the pro-Chu faction is a considerable political force, which has great influence and can affect the policy direction of Nanhai.
But there are pro-Chu factions, and naturally there are also pro-Ning factions.
In recent years, as the national power of Chu has been rising day by day, the gap with the Soviet Union and Nanhai has gradually widened, causing the national power of the three countries to gradually no longer be on the same level.
This change in power has caused uneasiness among many knowledgeable people in the South China Sea.
This uneasiness reached its peak in the fourth year of Shenwu when the Chu State conquered the southwestern barbarians and quickly won a great victory. After the Chu State opened up a county in central Guizhou, it reached its peak.
Because everyone can see clearly that the original Three Kingdoms Alliance of Chu, Su, and Nanhai was essentially a military alliance between the three countries that united to fight against Ning and Zhou.
Whether it is the Ning State or the Zhou State, they are the overlord of the world or the overlord of a state, and their strength far exceeds the level of the Three Kingdoms.
None of them, Chu, Su, or Nanhai, can fight alone. Only by cooperating with each other can they have the power to fight against these two countries.
Therefore, based on this strong external pressure and practical needs, the three countries formed an alliance and reached consensus on external cooperation.
But as the Chu State continued to grow, it grew into a behemoth that now encompasses four counties and thousands of miles of territory, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and three innate masters.
Now, relying on the strength of the Chu family, they can fight against any one of Zhou, Liang, and Ning alone, and can survive the threats of these three countries.
Under this situation, the value of Nanhai Kingdom and Su Kingdom will naturally continue to decrease.
Since the two countries do not need their help to resist foreign enemies, Chu State's strength has gradually widened the gap with them.
If you were the Chu State, wouldn't you have any thoughts in your heart?
Under normal thinking, anyone would choose to directly annex these two weak allies, then integrate all their strengths, and then compete with Ning Guo.
The Su State saw this, so even if Su Xuange risked domestic rebellion, he still squeezed the people's power to maintain a large standing army for the Ning State.
South China Sea also saw this.
Even their situation is worse than that of the Soviet Union.
Because there is still an innate grandmaster sitting in the Su Kingdom, but in the Nanhai Kingdom, after Yan Wangqiu's death, there is no longer a grandmaster to protect him.
Not only did the Grand Master no longer have the protection, but also the conventional military strength. After ten years of development, the Nanhai Kingdom still only had 20,000 county soldiers and 20,000 forbidden troops, totaling 40,000 standing troops.
Compared with the surrounding countries, this strength can be said to be insignificant.
There is no top-level combat power, and the bottom-level troops are also scarce. Both allies are ambitious and actively seeking external expansion.
If you were Nanhai, how could you not be afraid?
It is precisely based on this that a second voice gradually emerged in the South China Sea.
That is to attract another powerful external force in addition to the Three Kingdoms Alliance to check and balance the increasingly threatening two alliances.
Looking around, Ning Guo is the only one who meets this condition.
Introducing Ning Guo will prevent the two alliances from having bad intentions towards the South China Sea in the future. The Nanhai State will still have some countermeasures, or a way out.
That's right, it's a retreat.
Regarding the future of Nanhai Country, many senior officials and ministers in Nanhai Country are actually quite pessimistic.
They know very well that in this era of great strife, without an innate master to protect their country, their family will become a fat sheep in the eyes of others, and they will most likely not be able to escape the end of destruction in the end.
And since both are destroyed, then selling the Nanhai Kingdom to the Ning Kingdom is better than selling it to the Chu Kingdom or the Su Kingdom, right?
After all, Ningguo, which occupies the four counties in Jiangdong, is still the orthodox Yangzhou in the eyes of Yangzhou and even the world, and is the overlord who has inherited the position of emperor of Jinling.
The strength of Ning State is also far superior to Chu State and Su State.
No matter how you look at it, being a native of Ning is much better than being a native of Chu or Su.
One is a citizen of a hegemonic country, and the other is a citizen of a small country. Can the status and future prospects of the two be the same?
Of course, the above are all last resort options.
If the Nanhai Kingdom can continue to survive in troubled times, then the nobles and nobles in the country will naturally be happy to continue to enjoy wealth and honor in this land of Lingnan, instead of rushing to be minor ministers for the Ning Kingdom.
I would rather have a chicken head than a phoenix tail.
This principle is the same, and it is the same in Nanhai Country.
Lead Chu and Su to control Ning, lead Ning to control Chu and Su.
The above two items are the consensus national policies reached after the battle between the pro-Chu faction and the pro-Ning faction in the Nanhai State.
It has to be said that this strategy of swinging back and forth between two powerful countries is indeed very consistent with Nanhai State's identity as a small and weak country.
And the final result.
After Nanhai State declared itself a vassal to Ning State and promised to send a tribute of one million taels of silver every year, the 100,000 soldiers and horses that originally gathered in Jian'an County of Ning State have now been disbanded.
The threat to the eastern border of South China Sea has been lifted.
And the Chu State in the north...
Lu Yuan took a deep look, and the envoy from the Nanhai Kingdom below, after a long silence, said in a low voice: "Yes, if in July this year, the Nanhai Kingdom can make up for the originally promised money and tribute, and it will continue to be the case every year in the future.
So this time Nanhai Kingdom's crime of betraying the alliance can be ignored and no troops can be launched to attack.
The border between Chu State and Nanhai State can still be peaceful.
Just sign the covenant and forget about it.
Since you and I belong to the enemy's country, we are no longer part of the same people.
Now it's just your country, just buying peace with money. Since it's business, don't talk about feelings. "
Well, I must say that Nanhai Kingdom chose a good time for this backstab.
The Chu State is now trapped in two battlefields in Southwest Yi and Xichuan County. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses have been filled in, and it is impossible to escape.
Even if these two wars are ended, it will take at least ten years to digest the results.
In the short term, Chu State is powerless and can no longer wage wars with foreign countries.
So even though Lu Yuan had sent 20,000 troops to the northern border of Nanhai Kingdom, the envoy from Nanhai Kingdom in front of him still did not panic and was slowly negotiating terms with Chu State.
Because he knew that Chu State could not use more power to punish Nanhai State.
Even if they have enough power, they can punish Nanhai Kingdom.
But without enough strength to fight Ning Guo head-on, Chu State would not be able to move Nanhai State, which was already a vassal of Ning Guo.
Because after Nanhai became a vassal, attacking the Nanhai Kingdom was equivalent to attacking the Ning Kingdom.
Ning Guo will never let Chu State take action against his vassals, expand his power under his nose, and turn it against himself.
And the same.
If Ning State wants to annex Nanhai State, and if Su State and Chu State do not want another threat to appear behind them, then no matter how dissatisfied they are, they will still have to hold their noses to help.
Help Nanhai Kingdom resist Ning Kingdom.
At this time, the status of the Nanhai Kingdom was similar to that of the original Three Kingdoms Alliance before Vietnam's Northern Expedition to the Zhou Kingdom.
If Zhou comes to fight, then he will seek refuge with Yue. If the Yue Kingdom comes to fight, then they will seek refuge with the Zhou Kingdom.
Jumping left and right, I reaped countless benefits and made a lot of money.
'But at the beginning, our three families could play this two-way game.
The basis behind this is that the three of us join forces, which is enough to confront any of the Zhou and Yue families head-on, at least with the strength to fight.
But now the Nanhai Kingdom, let alone our Da Chu and Ning Kingdom, are no longer opponents even when facing the Su Kingdom.
If you are so weak and still want to play this kind of balancing method, you are overconfident and overestimate your own strength.
Or do you underestimate the Chu and Ning families and think they can play with us? '
Lu Yuan was scornful and contemptuous of Nanhai Kingdom's self-conceited clever methods.
When he used this method, he relied on the four innate masters and nearly 800,000 troops that the three families could produce after joining forces.
But what does the South China Sea have now?
There are no innate masters. Even if the domestic soldiers and horses recruit civilians, they will only have 300,000 people to survive.
But now the Nanhai State is facing the Chu State, which has decided to expand its army to 378,000 standing troops in the next three years. And Ning Guo, who already has 500,000 troops and is expected to continue to expand to 800,000 troops in the next ten years.
Calculating only in terms of strength, the combined strength of Chu and Ning now exceeds the total strength invested by Zhou and Yue in the Northern Expedition.
The situation he was facing was worse than before, but his own strength was weaker than that of the Three Kingdoms Alliance. Lu Yuan really didn't know where those guys in the Nanhai Kingdom got the confidence to think that he could play this balancing act well.
'These fools will be destroyed in the future. The Nanhai Kingdom will be in the possession of our Chu Kingdom sooner or later. But now...'
Lu Yuan glanced at the envoy from the Nanhai Kingdom who had accepted his conditions and left the main hall. He sneered in his heart: "It's better to keep this fat sheep and let them give me a blood transfusion every year to strengthen my Chu Kingdom." the power of.
When our country of Chu has accumulated enough strength, we will let them know what the game of the strong is. '
This idiot who jumped left and right in front of a strong man has already been sentenced to death by him.
It's just that because I couldn't take my hand away, I decided to keep the Nanhai Kingdom for the time being and leave it to be resolved in the future.
Ningguo has nothing to hold back now, and can take action at any time to swallow up this fat sheep of Nanhaiguo.
"We still have to find a way to hold back Ning Guo's hands and feet to prevent it from attacking Nanhai State on its own."
Lu Yuan frowned and thought, and after a while, he sent a letter back to Baling, asking him to prepare an envoy to go to Liang.
The operations of Nanhai State gave him some inspiration.
Since this small country can jump left and right, it can use external forces to check and balance Chu and Su.
The Chu State, facing the strong pressure from the Ning State, can naturally use external forces to check and balance the Yangzhou overlord.
"Liang Guo, who has always been an old enemy, does not want to see Ning Guo, who has inherited the position of emperor of Jinling, gradually wipe out the interior of Yangzhou and unify Jiangnan.
Let a behemoth appear again in the south and threaten your border security. "
A smile appeared at the corner of Lu Yuan's mouth.
Compared with facing a big southern country that unified Yangzhou and occupied ten counties.
He believed that Liang Guo was more willing to face Ning Guo, which only had four counties.
With this foundation, there is no need to worry about Liang Guo not cooperating.
The only thing to worry about is how much benefit Liang Guo will take from Chu.
However, compared to paying a small price to contain Ning Guo, Lu Yuan could still accept it.
The premise is that Liang Guo's appetite should not exceed his psychological expectations.
