The King of Qi greatly appreciated Mencius's statement, but he had no intention of implementing it. This made Mencius very disappointed.
King Huai also admired his theory and also rejected him. Mencius once asked Wang Kan why he did not use Confucianism to govern the country.
Wang Kan said with a smile: "Isn't it like using Confucianism to tie your own hands and feet?"
Mencius was silent.
Then Wang Kan said again: "The princes of Xia all regard it as their own duty to dominate the powerful country, and all their actions are without benevolence and righteousness. If I don't use swords against them and talk about benevolence and righteousness, will the princes of Xia listen?"
"I'm afraid not!"
"I'm afraid these princes will wake up from their dreams and attack the Huai Kingdom with all their strength."
After discussing with Wang Kan, Mencius left Huai State and came to Qi State, but in Qi State, Mencius suffered the same treatment.
So after Mencius lectured and debated in the Jixia Academy of Qi for a period of time, he said goodbye to the King of Qi and left Qi to travel to other countries.
Qin State, Xianyang.
Since the last time Western Chu attacked Qin and almost captured Xianyang, the capital of Qin, Qin had stepped up its defense against Hanzhong.
Although the Qin State is now strong and powerful, it still feels difficult to face the attacks from the Western Chu State and Wei State.
"Your Majesty, the alliance between Wei and Western Chu to attack Qin is very detrimental to us. I suggest that we form an alliance with Qi to jointly attack Wei, and an alliance with Huai to jointly attack Western Chu." Gongsun Yang said.
A stable alliance is very important for any country. Just like the Three Jin Alliance decades ago, Qin and Qi were beaten miserably by the Three Jins. Now the Three Jin Alliance is just a show-off, and was beaten by the Qin State in a state of embarrassment. If it weren't for the help of Western Chu State, Wei State would not be able to resist it last time.
"Didn't Qi make an alliance with Wei? Are they now allied with us to deal with Wei?" Marquis Qin was a little unsure.
"My lord, Wei has always wanted the land of the Central Plains and wants to regain control of the Three Jins. This is unacceptable to Qi.
If Wei becomes stronger and forms the Three Jin Alliance again, then the Three Jin Alliance will definitely attack Qi again. "
"We are far away from Qi State, and we have no conflict of interest with Qi State. On the contrary, we have the same enemy, and I heard that King Qi is greedy. If Wei's land is used as bait, King Qi will definitely take the bait!" Gongsun Martingale said.
"Wei's strength is limited. As long as Qi launches a war from the east, Wei will no longer be able to stop Qin from attacking from the west of Hexi."
"As long as we seize the land west of Hexi, and then try to seize the land east of Hedong, by then, Hangu Pass will become Qin's possession."
"As for the Western Chu State, we formed an alliance with the Huai State and surrounded the Western Chu State. The road to Hanzhong is indeed difficult, but it is difficult for us to attack. Will it be easy for the Chu State to attack? As long as we block the Baoxie Road, the Western Chu State will Just don't think about it.
The Western Chu State was driven by the Huai State to Badi and Shangyong. The two areas were mountainous and the roads were dangerous. Only Brazil and Hanzhong had fertile land suitable for farming. Hanzhong is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but Brazil does not have so many dangers. "
"We can launch an attack from Shu. As long as we capture the land of Brazil, the Chu State will not be able to feed the Chu State's population with only the Hanzhong Plain. By then, the Chu State will have no food and will have to be destroyed by our Qin State. , annexation.”
"Even after occupying the lands of Badong, Jiangzhou, Hanzhong, and Shangyong, we can completely attack the Huai Kingdom and annex the land of Nanyang."
The Marquis of Qin agreed with Gongsun Yang's strategy and immediately sent envoys to Huai and Qi respectively.
When Wang Kan learned that the envoy from Qin wanted to form an alliance, he was slightly stunned. Instead of agreeing directly, he asked the envoy to wait, and then asked Sun Bin for his opinion.
"Sun Qing, this time the Qin envoys come to invite you to form an alliance. How should we respond?"
Sun Bin said directly: "Qin wants to go east this time!"
After several years of learning and growth, Sun Bin has become more mature.
"Your Majesty, if the Qin people occupy Hanzhong and Badi, they will have no worries. If they can occupy the land of Xihe, the door to the east will be opened. At that time, Qin will start from Badong, Shangyong, Wuguan and even Hangu Pass. Going south can threaten our Huai Kingdom."
"What do you mean, Qing, to refuse to form an alliance with the Qin people?" Wang Kan asked.
"No, I suggest you agree!" Sun Bin said.
"Why?"
"Promise to the State of Qin and join forces with the State of Qin to attack the Western Chu State. Our army will take advantage of the opportunity to capture Shangyong and Jiangzhou. As long as we occupy these two important places, we can then advance together in two directions to attack the land of Bashu and go north to threaten Qin State."
"The mountain roads in Jiangzhou and Shangyong are difficult to travel. If we don't take this opportunity to seize these two places, it will be even more difficult to seize them again after the Qin State attacks and destroys the Western Chu State."
Wang Kan immediately said: "The previous king recruited a large number of Shanyue barbarians, and after training, they used them to attack Western Chu. These Shanyue barbarians lived in the mountains and forests all year round, and walked over mountains and ridges as if they were walking on flat ground. They were just used to deal with the Western Chu Kingdom. .”
After discussing with Sun Bin, Wang Kan swore an alliance with Qin and agreed to attack Western Chu together with Qin, but the time to attack Western Chu had not been set yet.
On the other side, the envoys from Qin State soon arrived at Qi State.
Qin State came to form an alliance with Qi State this time, and its attitude was very low, which made King Qi very happy. After some compliments, Qin told Qi about Wei's strength and used Wei's strength to make Qi wary. And used Wei's land to seduce Qi Hou.
The state of Qi has always been wary of the state of Wei, especially when the state of Wei united to form the Three Jin Alliance. Now that the state of Qin mentioned the state of Wei again, it reminded Qi of its fear of being dominated by the state of Wei and the three states of Jin.
Thinking of this, King Qi immediately agreed and decided to attack Wei with Qin.
Unknown to Wei, Qi and Qin had formed an alliance to deal with them. The King of Wei was very happy to be able to defeat Qin this time, and rewarded the meritorious officials, and also rewarded the meritorious official Gongsun Yan.
But when awarding the reward, the King of Wei ranked Hui Shi as the first meritorious, Pang Juan as the second meritorious, and Gongsun Yan as the middle meritorious, which made Gongsun Yan feel a little uncomfortable.
Gongsun Yan felt that Wei was able to turn the crisis around this time because he went to Western Chu as an envoy to invite Western Chu to send troops and made great achievements. If he were to talk about merit, he should be the first one, not the middle one now.
He was dissatisfied with the King of Wei, but the King of Wei also had his own considerations. This plan was proposed by Hui Shi. At the same time, Hui Shi raised food and grass, recruited soldiers, and ensured supplies. It can be said that he made a great contribution.
Pang Juan led his soldiers to fight, blocking the Qin army, and later regained Anyi, which was also a great achievement. As for Gongsun Yan, in King Wei's view, although his contribution was great, it was not irreplaceable.
He didn't know that what he did today also laid a hidden danger for Wei.
(End of chapter)
