Sitting in a house, Peng You smiled slightly, with a slight smile on the corner of his mouth.

He is one of the three great generals under Zhuo Wangsun, and he is also the great demon king whose expressions change in the southwestern barbaric countries.

Since the third year of Yuande, he has been active among the countries in the southwestern Yi mountains. As long as it is profitable, there is nothing he dares to do.

There are thousands of dead souls under his command in the barbarian countries in the southwest, and his name is enough to make a child stop crying.

But now, he is still unknown on this grassland.

No one has heard of his deeds, and few even know his origins.

For an arms dealer and war fanatic, this is simply the most wonderful thing.

He can do whatever he wants without being secretive, and do whatever he wants to do openly.

"Ming Gong..." A man in regular clothes and a Confucian crown, who looked like a gentle scholar-bureaucrat and a gentleman, bowed his hands to Peng You and said, "How will you and I divide the labor this time?"

Peng You glanced at the man and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang, why are you so anxious... It's better to sit down and taste this year's new tea and see how it tastes..."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhang smiled slightly and quickly accused him: "It's someone who was rude..."

Then he found a seat, sat down, picked up the tea served by the maid, and drank it like a scholar-official, exclaiming in praise: "Good tea! Good tea! It must be this year's new Jiangnan tea!"

Peng You gave this man a cold look and didn't really want to talk to him.

Even if possible, Peng You would find someone to kill this guy.

The reason is very simple, he is Zhang Wen, the adopted son of Cheng Zhengying, Peng You's biggest rival.

It is said that this son's father used to be the housekeeper of Cheng Zheng family, and he once died to protect Cheng Zheng Ying. Therefore, Cheng Zheng Ying regarded him as his own, not only trained him carefully, but also spent a huge sum of money to send him to the prison more than ten years ago.

In Guanzhong, he became a disciple of Wang Ju, a native of Changling, and studied the Analects of Confucius, the Book of Changes and the Book of Dharma.

Originally, his life trajectory should have been to achieve success in his studies, then become a disciple of a certain nobleman, and eventually be recommended as an official. After climbing to a high position, he would take care of the Cheng Zheng family and nurture them in return.

but……

The new king came to the throne seven years ago and changed the whole world.

First of all, Zhuo Wenjun and Cheng Zhengxuan both changed from the prince's concubines to the emperor's concubines.

The Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family became relatives of the emperor. With the royal family behind them, naturally there was no need for anyone to be an official to protect the family.

Moreover, as a businessman and a relative of the emperor, if you send an adopted son to the officialdom, even if others don't gossip, there will be people in the palace who gossip about him.

Naturally, this article returned to Shu County.

Then along the way, he became the general manager of Cheng Zheng's affairs in the southwestern Yi region.

As an old enemy, Peng You knew exactly what kind of person this smiling and seemingly gentle 'friend' in front of him was.

The word "dressed beast" is tailor-made for him!

Among the Yi countries in the southwest, Zhang Wen's name is enough to scare people.

So much so that when nobles, kings and even common people in various countries see people wearing Confucian crowns, they are trembling with fear and caution, not even daring to show off their dignity.

It is true that what this person has done is too 'brilliant'.

He was the first person to invent the model of "sell arms first, buy population later".

Today, more than 70% of the conflicts among the barbarian countries in southwestern China were instigated by him and his men.

What makes other countries fearful and fearful is that he always does things openly and honestly.

For example, he once told the king of Dian, a powerful country in southwestern Yi: Your Majesty, your neighbor King Qiong bought three thousand crossbows from me. I think it is necessary to tell your Majesty...

This is of course a fact. King Qiong did purchase a large amount of ordnance from him.

Although the number is not that exaggerated.

But the problem is that Dian and Qiong are feuding states.

At that time, the former king of Dian Kingdom marched southwest first on the order of King Chu, and fought with the Qiong people. For hundreds of years, the grievances between the two could be written in a book.

How dare the Dian King ignore this information.

I had no choice but to spend all my money and buy four thousand crossbows from Zhang Wen.

Then, after getting the weapons, the King of Dian felt that an opportunity had come, although King Qiong actually did not want to go to war with the Dian Kingdom at all.

However, after the Dian Kingdom obtained sophisticated weapons, both the government and the public felt that it was necessary to fight and fought.

As a result, the Dian army went to war against the Qiong Kingdom, and it took half a year to destroy the Qiong Kingdom, and annexed all its people, nobles, and wealth.

Then, all the surrounding countries were frightened to death.

While uniting, they cried and shouted to Zhang Wen to buy weapons.

After annexing the Qiong Kingdom, the Dian Kingdom also grew in size, and the King of Dian even arrogantly declared that he would unify the southwest.

Then, the seemingly powerful Dian army was violently beaten by the coalition forces of the southwestern Yi countries.

There has always been a legend that in that war, two thousand Han troops disguised themselves as soldiers from the southwestern Yi countries and joined the battlefield...

But in any case, the Dian Kingdom suffered heavy losses that time, not only the land they had just snatched back from the Qiong Kingdom was lost.

They also lost a large amount of territory.

There was no other way. The King of Dian had no choice but to find Zhang Wen again, beg his grandfather to sue his grandmother, took out the last coffin book from the treasury, and bought a batch of armor and swords to stabilize the war situation.

But after reaping the benefits of war, each country has its own dissatisfaction.

Before the war was over, they started fighting each other.

After three years of fighting, there were originally more than ten countries, large and small, and dozens of tribes in the south and east of the Dian Kingdom.

By the sixth year of Yuande, there were only three countries left.

Dian, Baima and Zuo Kingdom.

These three countries are still at war.

The culprit of all this is Zhang Wen, who grew up reading Confucius's articles.

Originally, Peng You didn't know why it ended up in this situation.

But then he finally figured it out.

The answer is human nature!

The special environment of the Southwest Yi region has amplified this kind of human nature.

For hundreds or thousands of years, various ethnic groups have lived together in this area. Countries vary in size and are scattered, but each is close in strength.

Even powerful countries like Yelang, Bo and Dian did not have the power to crush the surrounding countries.

At this time, when a country's power surges due to external forces, the balance is immediately broken.

Therefore, in order to protect themselves, countries have to seek help from outside forces and buy weapons, either for self-defense or expansion.

But the problem is that if you buy it, others will buy it too.

Moreover, weapons are expensive.

Even for self-defense, you must find a way to rob others.

As a result, countries have fallen into a vicious cycle.

Because the enemy country has bought weapons, you must also buy them. Because weapons are very expensive and you cannot afford them, you must find ways to attack others and use other countries' prisoners and wealth in exchange for weapons.

When other countries see you buying weapons and destroying your enemies, they will be afraid. If they are afraid, they will have to buy them. If you buy them, they will have to fight.

In the end, the wealth, population and labor force of the southwestern Yi countries all flowed into Zhang Wen's hands.

In order to please him, the King of Dian sent troops to explore the south every year in exchange for rewards for finding the land route to Shendu; in order to please him, the Bo people went through great pains to destroy a country and gave away its most beautiful princess.

Tune him up, teach him to be docile and well-behaved, and then give him as a gift.

And Peng You was actually forced to learn Zhang Wen's methods to do those things.

There is no way, if we don't learn, then the wealth, population, and especially the cheap labor force of the southwestern Yi countries will all belong to Cheng Zhengying's family.

This is not good.

Besides, who can have trouble with money?

Unfortunately, it may be that they went too far in Southwest Yi, or it may be that they were squeezed too hard.

Therefore, starting from last year, the southwestern Yi countries began to connect in series.

Dian, Bo, Zuo, Yelang, Baima and even some kingdoms further away began to prepare to send envoys to Chang'an at all costs to pay homage to the emperor and request for attachment.

Although Zhuo and Cheng Zheng can temporarily stop one or two things, they can delay one or two things.

But they knew that their era of making trouble in the southwestern barbarians was over.

Besides, the land of the Southwest Yi is barren and the population is sparse. They have brought it to this point, and their oil has been exhausted. They can no longer squeeze out too much oil and water.

Therefore, as early as the fifth year of Yuande, both the Zhuo family and the Cheng Zheng family began to transform.

Of course, it is just a matter of changing the input area of ​​labor.

The South Vietnamese people were led astray by them, and they tried their best to capture and kill wild people in the jungles of Jiaozhi County and Rinan County, and sent them to the mines and smelting fields of Linqiong.
To be continued...