Three days passed almost in a flash.
The drizzle of rain finally arrived as expected with winter.
After putting on a pair of thick clothes and carrying the credentials that had just been sent last night, Lord Xinling once again set foot on the road to the Zhao Palace.
Obviously, King Wei agreed to Zhao Kuo's request almost without hesitation.
Although he was still a little uneasy in his heart, Lord Xinling could only restrain his emotions a little and complete the task assigned by King Wei.
And during these three days, Zhao Kuo was not idle either.
Ministers who opposed this transaction appeared in front of Zhao Kuo in an almost endless stream.
Zhao Kuo was helpless in this situation. These ministers were obviously all for the good of Zhao, and Zhao Kuo could not rebuke them, and he could not expose the importance of Dongjun. The only excuse could only be the Battle of Changping.
However, it is still possible to coax the people with such excuses. How can they believe this group of old fritters in Zhao State!
There’s nothing you can do if you don’t believe it! If a lie is repeated a hundred times, it becomes the truth, not to mention that this lie came from the mouth of the current King of Zhao.
Even if you don’t believe it, you have to believe it!
And as the envoys from Chu State arrived in Handan City, the voices of admonishment finally died out, and everyone knew that the matter was already a done deal. No matter what, it is impossible for Zhao to break his trust with two big countries at the same time.
However, Zhao Kuo was more relaxed here, but Pingyuan Jun over there was very busy.
To be precise, he and Lord Xinling discussed the details of the land exchange over and over again.
From the ownership of the city and surrounding areas to the time and method of providing grain and fodder, Lord Xinling had to compete in almost every aspect. The envoys from Chu State were all accompanying him.
On the one hand, of course, the Wei State is no longer as wealthy as it used to be. Even if it is a penny or a grain of millet, Lord Xinling will try his best to fight for the Wei State.
On the other hand, Lord Xinling also wanted to discover Zhao Guo's other intentions in the midst of this complicated negotiation.
Mr. Pingyuan is obviously quite experienced with such tricks. Isn't it just talk? Who is afraid of whom? !
Well, Zhao Kuo was afraid.
It can't be said that he was afraid, but Zhao Kuo simply didn't care about such a trivial struggle. Especially in the face of one's own fundamental national policy, fighting for such details seems a bit trivial.
Therefore, after listening to two negotiation reports, Zhao Kuo gave instructions to Lord Pingyuan: Don't stick to trivial matters and finalize the land exchange as soon as possible.
Lord Pingyuan, who had received the highest instructions, did not directly agree to Lord Xinling's request. He just made a slow retreat and compromise step by step.
With Zhao Guo's compromise, the pace of negotiations also accelerated.
Finally, with the exchange of credentials, a land exchange drama that seemed to be directed by Wei Guo but was actually directed by Zhao Guo behind the scenes finally came to a successful conclusion.
The result of the drama can be said to be that each of the three parties has benefited and everyone is happy.
The happiest one is of course the Wei State. It got two-thirds of the Zhou Wangji territory including Luocheng. At the same time, the Zhao State will station troops in the Heyong Land to coordinate the security of the Zhou Wangji territory.
It can be said that Wei Guo has got everything he wanted, and the price it paid was not too much.
First of all, in terms of territory, all 12 cities in the East County of Wei State were assigned to Zhao State.
Secondly, in terms of grain, the Wei State paid Zhao a one-time payment of 500,000 dans of grain and grass, and in the next ten years, after each autumn harvest, it would also pay 100,000 dans of grain and grass to Zhao.
Finally, regarding the alliance, Zhao and Wei reiterated the need for alliance, and both condemned the country of Han for abandoning friends and becoming thieves. Based on this, Wei promised that when Zhao attacked Han, it would send at least 30,000 troops to the borders of Han and Wei as a response.
Of course, Zhao Guo also got a lot.
In addition to the Dongjun of the Wei State, the Huaisi land that originally belonged to the Chu State was also included in the arms of the Zhao State.
This is also the condition that Zhao Kuo values most.
With Dongjun, not only the capital of Wei
Daliang will become a piece of meat in his mouth, and more importantly, Zhao State has essentially formed a double-teaming situation against Yan State. If the expanding grassland is included, Zhao State can be said to have surrounded Yan State on three sides.
Nowadays, apart from Zhao, Yan State's only neighboring country is Qi State.
As for the Qi State, everyone knows it. Ever since the Five Kingdoms conquered Qi, it has been completely in ruins. Historically, when the Qin State punished Yan, Wei, and Chu, the Qi State chose to sit on the sidelines. When Wang Ben led his army to Linzi City, King Qi didn't even have the desire to resist, so he went out of the city and surrendered.
Obviously, the help Qi State can provide to Yan State is extremely limited.
What's more, with the land of Huaisi in hand, if Qi wants to help Yan, Zhao can stab him in the side at any time.
Of course, more importantly, the land of Huaisi was a wasteland in the hands of the Chu State, but not in the hands of the Zhao State.
Today's Zhao people like to open up wasteland the most. Although the Huaisi land is prone to frequent floods, as long as it is carefully sorted out and channels are opened, it will not take a few years to become another Bashu land.
The grain subsidies from the Wei State, coupled with the rich grain production in Dongjun, were exactly the "original investment" in the Huaisi land.
It can be said that after Zhao State obtained the land of Huaisi, it truly had the confidence to fight a protracted war with Qin State.
The strength of the Qin State is undoubtedly caused by the strength of the Qin Army, but the strength of the Qin Army is given by the vast Guanzhong Plain and Shuzhong Plain.
Now, Zhao finally has another large grain-producing county besides Handan County - Huaisi County.
Yes, Zhao Kuo merged Wei's Dongjun and Chu's Huaisi into one county, called Huaisi County.
From then on, the only difference between Zhao and Qin may be the towering and unusually strong Hangu Pass.
In the end, Chu State, which had been playing soy sauce throughout the whole process, was definitely an unexpected surprise.
Although they didn't get Luo City, they did get nearly one-third of Zhou Wangji's land. You must know that before the war, the highest requirement of the Chu State was only a quarter of the territory. Now, I have received a harvest that is higher than my expectations. Can I not be surprised? Can I not be pleasantly surprised!
As for what the Chu State paid, except for the land of Huaisi, which was tasteless and was a pity to be abandoned, it was only 10,000 tons of grain per year for ten years.
Ten years, ten thousand dan.
The total amount is only 100,000 dan.
Who are you looking down on? How can the Chu State be considered the third largest country in the world (I think). A mere hundred thousand dans is not enough to waste as much food as the Chu Palace in one year, so why should it be given over ten years?
To be honest, when King Chu received the news, he wished he could give the 100,000 tons of grain directly to Zhao.
Fortunately, the envoy from Chu State also maintained his rationality. Well, rather than maintaining reason, it is better to say that he maintained awe of Zhao Guo, and did not dare to refute the conditions proposed by Zhao Guo.
No matter what, Chu State made a lot of money inexplicably.
As a result, the general who deserted the army and fled was transformed into a hero.
After all, even if the loss of 50,000 troops is included, exchanging one-third of the land of Zhou Wangji is still very cost-effective.
Now that the credentials have been signed, the next thing to do is to implement the land exchange.
General Lian Po took command again and led an army of 50,000 to Huaisi County.
It is worth mentioning that the troops led by Lian Po were not a miscellaneous army composed of young men or field soldiers, but real elites who had actually been on the battlefield and fought against both the Hu people and the Qin people.
At the same time, Lord Pingyuan immediately called people from all over the country to open up wasteland, and gathered together the Hu people who were willing to defect to Zhao, as well as some refugees from Zhou Wangji, and mixed with 10,000 soldiers to form the second echelon. , took enough food and rushed to the land of Huaisi.
This winter will be the winter for the Huaisi land, and these hundreds of thousands of people and field soldiers will dig rivers and build canals in the Huaisi land, reclaim wasteland for land, and turn the Huaisi land into another land for farming. .
As for the Wei State, Lord Xinling was naturally in command, and he took over Luoyang with an army of 30,000.
The territory surrounding the city. Li Mu immediately recovered his troops and stationed the main force in Zhi City. As for Heyang City, Li Mu only left three thousand soldiers for warning.
On the Chu side, the person who came to hand over this time was not from the Jing family, but from the Qu clan, and the deputy general was from the Zhao clan.
Obviously, this was another transfer of power within the Chu State. The Qu and Zhao families briefly united together to exclude the Jing family members.
This may have something to do with the fact that the general of the Jing family abandoned the army and fled back to Chu alone.
Of course, during this period, Qin also received news of the land exchange among the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately, King Qin could do nothing but express surprise and confusion.
First, the Qin army was undergoing large-scale exchanges and mobilizations. Except for the tens of thousands of troops stationed in Hangu, which remained unchanged, almost all counties and counties had varying degrees of troop mobilization. With such a large-scale mobilization, Qin naturally had no time, let alone the troops, to take care of other countries' affairs.
Secondly, when the Three Kingdoms began to change places, it had already entered winter, and the weather had turned colder. It was obviously not a good thing to march to fight at this time;
Thirdly, and the most important thing is that for the Qin State, the benefits of the land exchange among the Three Kingdoms obviously outweigh the disadvantages. King Qin has no reason to stop him.
The simple truth is that to seize a city from Zhao Jun, Qin must prepare more soldiers and horses to have a certain chance of winning.
But to seize the city from the hands of Wei and Chu, the Qin army has a great chance of winning even if its troops are smaller.
No matter how you look at it, Zhao Guo’s actions are giving territory to Qin State!
This is why King Qin couldn't understand Zhao Kuo's operations no matter what.
And this also completely reflects the psychological difference between King Qin and Zhao Kuo: in the eyes of King Qin today, Zhao has occupied an extremely large territory, so big that he can hardly see other countries. But in Zhao Kuo's eyes, Qin was put last. .
This is not to say that there is any gap in vision between King Qin and Zhao Kuo, but more that Qin has suffered too much recently.
After more than half a month of marching and delivery, the delivery of Zhou Wangji, Dongjun, and Huaisi was finally over.
At this point, the battle of Zhou Wangji that lasted for several months finally came to an end.
Qin lost more than 30,000 troops. Although it only captured Yiyang City, it also replaced nearly 150,000 troops from Wei, Chu, and Zhao.
If you look at the loss of troops alone, it seems to be completely acceptable.
Although the Wei State lost the largest number of troops (nearly 80,000), it gained the biggest piece of cake from Zhou Wangji - nearly two-thirds of the land, as well as the city of Luo. Obviously not a loss.
As for the Chu State, although it also lost nearly 50,000 people, it also gained one-third of the land of Zhou Wangji. For the Chu State, which lacked economy, it was a timely help.
In the end, the Zhao State lost only 20,000 to 30,000 troops, but it gained an additional Huaisi County. If Lin Hu was destroyed, the Zhao State expanded its territory by thousands of miles, and it also required hundreds of thousands of people in the territory of the Zhou Dynasty. With blessing, it can be said that the Zhao State at this time is no longer inferior to the Qin State in terms of national strength.
It can be said that all the four countries participating in the war seem to have made money. The difference is only small profits and big profits.
And the only one injured may be the Zhou Dynasty, the former country of the Son of Heaven.
After eight hundred years, the Zhou Dynasty finally bid farewell to the stage of history forever in the autumn of 255 BC.
The old king has passed away, and the competition for the new king continues.
But no matter what, between Qin and Zhao, the offense and defense have changed...
Ninth day: Do not use Qianlong.
