Huai State sent envoys to visit Qi State and reached a prisoner exchange with Qi State. The news soon spread among other countries.
Of course, Zi Jue was responsible for this. Zi Jue spread the news like this, and naturally he had no good intentions. The vast majority of the approximately 5,000 prisoners of war are adults, which is a number that cannot be ignored for any country.
Huai State and Qi State exchanged prisoners of war, and Huai State got more than 8,000 people, of whom only a thousand were strong men, the rest were women, and more than a thousand were children. Seriously speaking, Huai State still suffered some losses in this exchange. But Zijue didn't care.
With the help of the exchange of prisoners of war, Zijue wanted to divide the relationship between Qi and the surrounding countries. Zijue knew that it was almost impossible to destroy Qi State now, so he planned to divide Qi State and weaken its strength.
The more than five thousand prisoners were almost as much as the entire military strength of these small countries, or even more. This exchange was soon known to several other states.
After knowing that Qi State had captured five thousand strong men, the remaining Fang States could not sit still. You must know that they all sent troops at the beginning, and now that the prisoners of war have been exchanged, how can they be handed over to Qi State?
Ju, Tan, Lu and other Fang states that participated in this war were very dissatisfied. People don't worry about scarcity but inequality. This sentence is very applicable to a country or an individual.
At the same time, these Fang countries are also worried that they have suffered heavy losses, while Qi has gained five thousand soldiers, and the gap between the strength of Qi and them has become even wider. In order to prevent Qi State from quickly regaining its strength, they must do the same.
As for asking Qi to distribute the more than 5,000 prisoners to several other Fang states, this is also difficult to operate. If the distribution is based on the proportion of troops sent, it seems fair, but you must know that this is not dividing apples. Some of these captives from Fang Guo survived more, while others survived less. It all depends on luck.
It is simply impossible to distribute according to proportion. If they are not from this Fang country, how can they be forcibly divided? impossible!
But if these soldiers are returned to that country according to which country they belong to, it will also be difficult to operate. Some Fang countries have many people, and some Fang countries even have none, which will also make them dissatisfied. What's more, Qi State has suffered heavy losses, and it is uncertain whether it is willing to distribute the prisoners to other countries.
All in all, Zijue's prisoner exchange is a conspiracy. No matter what you do, Fang Guo will be dissatisfied, and there will definitely be cracks in the relationship with Qi Guo.
Zi Jue even had people spread rumors that Qi and Huai had a secret agreement and all the prisoners would be returned to Qi. This rumor seems to be full of loopholes, but it also gives other countries an excuse.
You must know that it was the State of Qi that ordered the princes to send troops to attack the State of Huai. As a result, Huai State and Qi State are now exchanging prisoners of war. Isn't there some inside story in this? If you use yourself to judge others, will they not have any doubts?
As long as there is a trace of doubt, the alliance of eastern princes originally dealing with Huai will be broken. Even if Qi's strength recovers and he wants to summon the princes to attack Huai, it is estimated that no one in those Fang countries will pay attention to him.
Zi Jue's purpose is to dismantle the alliance so that these countries cannot work together, and to buy time for Huai State to develop, and then solve the problem after Huai State becomes stronger.
As Zijue expected, in the next few months, the vassal states of Qi, Lu, Tan, Ju, Ji, etc. began to argue continuously, asking Qi to distribute the prisoners of war to them. Qi State believed that the prisoners of war were obtained by him in exchange for slaves and was unwilling to distribute them to other vassal states.
In the end, several Fang countries broke up unhappy, and some Fang countries even wanted to complain to the Emperor of Zhou. For a time, the alliance of princes against the Huai Kingdom existed in name only.
In fact, even when it comes to Emperor Zhou, this matter is not easy to solve. Unless Emperor Zhou provides property to compensate, some people will be dissatisfied no matter how it is done. Even with the reward from Emperor Zhou, the relationship between several Fang Kingdoms could not be restored to its previous state.
While Qi, Lu, Tan, Ju and Ji were still fighting for prisoners, they had already brought more than 8,000 Yin Shang survivors to Huai'an.
After the second business breakup, most of the captured merchants were killed, and the rest were treated as slaves and rewarded to meritorious ministers. Most of the people Zijue exchanged this time were women, which was in line with his wishes. With these women, the population ratio of Huai State was instantly balanced. The proportion of women is even higher.
At the same time, with the surrounding small Huaiyi tribes joining in and the Yin Shang remnants from various places fleeing here, the population of Huai State grew rapidly. Fortunately, Zijue ushered in the era of cattle farming, and the Huai State had a bumper harvest, so there was no need to worry about food problems.
The victory of the two wars gained the respect of the Huai State. Not only the Fang State headed by the Qi State in Zhou Dongfang, but also the Xu State also attached great importance to the Huai State. It also made Huai Kingdom worthy of its name and no longer a joke in the eyes of others.
The internal strife in Qi State and other countries made the eastern princes unable to manage Huai State. Zijue made good friends with Xu State and even sent people to obtain Xu Hou's daughter. This is done in order to obtain an environment for peaceful development.
Zi Jue led the army to victory twice in battle, which made Xu Hou look at him differently, and he soon agreed to marry his daughter to Zi Jue. After marrying the daughter of Marquis Xu, Huai State also received a lot of support from Xu State, including thousands of people just as dowry for the daughter.
The national power of Huai State began to grow rapidly. The most obvious change was that Huai State could only provide one thousand luck points per year, but now it has doubled to two thousand.
Huai'an also developed from a city into a large city. The most prosperous city in this era, Haojing, had a population of about 100,000, many of whom lived around Wangji. Huai'an had a population of more than 30,000, which was considered a big city in this era.
...
Five years flew by.
In the past five years, the Huai Kingdom has been absorbing the population, exchanging Yin Shang survivors from other countries through trade, or absorbing the Huai Yi tribe. In addition to the capital city of Huai'an, the Huai Kingdom also established two other cities. One of them was built on the south bank of the Huaihe River, north of Huai'an, and was named Huaiyin.
The other one was built in the southeast of Huai State and was named Yandu. This place is very close to the sea. Zijue built the city here to use the sea water to boil salt. In this era, it is not easy to obtain salt. Apart from some natural salt lakes, there are only rock salt and sea salt.
Since the Huai Kingdom is close to the sea, Zijue will naturally not let go of the profitable business of sea salt. Therefore, Yandu was specially built. After boiling the salt here, it is sold to other countries.
By selling salt, the Huai State can be said to have made huge profits, which is one of the reasons why Zijue was able to purchase slaves from other countries to increase its population.
The relationship between Qi, Lu, Tan and other countries in the north became bad because of the captives. In the end, all the prisoners were captured by Qi. However, Ji, Lu and other states took their cases to Emperor Zhou and failed to obtain these prisoners. Emperor Zhou just asked Qi to compensate several other Fang countries with some goods.
After all, according to the enfeoffment, Qi is the leader of the eastern princes, and he needs to conquer the barbarians and frighten the princes. It is against the national policy to weaken Qi now. Although Qi State produced some goods, Lu, Ju, Tan, Ji and other countries were not satisfied.
The State of Qi was also dissatisfied with the State of Ji and the State of Lu who went to the royal city to complain because they handed over their property as compensation.
Because the State of Ji was very close to the State of Qi, it blocked the direction of the expansion of the State of Qi. Coupled with its complaints, the State of Ji was very dissatisfied and had several border conflicts. If Lu State hadn't been helping Ji State, Qi State would probably have fought with Ji State.
Zijue built two cities and also received rewards. Through the purchase of slaves, the surrender of Yin Shang survivors, and the attachment of Huai Yi, the population of Huai State has expanded to 80,000. Among them, there are 40,000 in Huai'an and 20,000 in Huaiyin and Yandu.
[Huaiyin is built. The establishment of this city will lead to the emergence of countless famous ministers and capable people in the future history, and it will be prosperous and prosperous. You will obtain the earth-level props - the God-given Talisman, and your luck will increase. 】
[Yandu is built, and the construction of this city will continue in the future. It will flourish for thousands of years. You will get the earth-level props-the Harvest Talisman, and your luck will increase. 】
[Earth level·God-given talisman: After using it, it can cleanse the marrow and cut off the hair and regain a new life, improve the person's qualification attribute points and potential, and make them become outstanding people. By increasing the potential value to a total of 40 points, you can immediately obtain 20 attribute points. 】
Damn it!
Seeing the effect of the divine talisman, Zijue's heart couldn't help but beat faster. This God-given talisman is worthy of the name of God-given. If a person with good qualifications uses the God-given talisman on it, he can directly create a great person.
The improvement of twenty attribute points is very large, and the potential is increased by forty points. Even a fool can become a valuable asset. If the basics are good, he can create a hexagonal superman!
With this god-given talisman around, Zijue doesn't have to worry about his heir having sex after he dies.
[Earth Level·Harvest Talisman: After use, you can obtain three consecutive years of harvest in the designated area, and it will not be affected by pests, diseases, or natural disasters. 】
This harvest talisman also made Zijue's eyes light up. Three consecutive years of good harvests are also very important for the growth of national strength. After three years of accumulation, the supplies are enough to launch several wars in succession.
Zijue also didn't expect that establishing these two cities would have such benefits. Does that mean that if you build a city in the future, you can also get harvest rewards?
Just when Zi Jue was a little eager to try, the system gave an explanation. Because the two cities Zi Jue built have performed well in future history and have continued to develop for thousands of years, they have such a huge sum. rewards. If the city you build does not have great development in the future or does not produce any outstanding people, you will not get rewards.
Only after seeing the systematic explanation did Zijue understand. Huaiyin will be a place where Han Xin will send soldiers in the future, and Yandu will continue until he travels across time. If you want to get rewards, you can only go to a famous historical city.
——Yandu has a long history. Salt fields have been opened since the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is one of the earliest salt fields in China and even the world. Salt played an important role in human development, and the salt and iron monopoly system also provided a large amount of wealth to the feudal dynasty. From the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty until the end of the feudal dynasty, the salt industry was an important source of wealth for the dynasty. "Salt and Iron Franchise in Ancient Economy"
