Ji Jie's announcement that he would not wage war with neighboring countries within a year quickly reached Lu Buwei's ears.
Lu Buwei is a very shrewd person, and he immediately thought of Ji Jie's purpose. He looked at a painting in front of him thoughtfully, smiled and said to himself: "You want to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, Qin and Qi Chu I see that no matter who wins or loses, their vitality will be greatly damaged. You can take advantage of this period to accumulate strength and reap the benefits when both sides are hurt. It is cruel enough! Unfortunately, I will not let you succeed, you If I can make a truce, so can I!"
The next day, Qin State sent envoys to Chu State to discuss an armistice.
The Chu State was severely beaten. They knew that they were no match for the Qin army and wished that the war would stop quickly. Li Yuan quickly reached a consensus with the Qin envoy, and the two sides agreed to cease the war and rebuild old friendships.
Ji Jie was not surprised at all by Lu Buwei's move. The three-legged confrontation was originally a situation of checks and balances. It would be difficult for one of the parties to swallow up the other two.
However, this tripartite situation is not very reliable and cannot be maintained for a long time because there is an uneasy factor in it, which is the Qi-Chu alliance.
Qi and Chu stand together for their common interests. Although it seems unbreakable now, no one dares to guarantee whether it can stand the test of time. As the saying goes, one monk has water to drink, and two monks carry water to drink. Once there is no more Without external threats, the previous interests will be dented, and this form of alliance is unreliable.
King Han An found a suitable day and led his ministers to write to Ji Jie, expressing that Korea was willing to return to the Zhou Dynasty and submit to the rule of the Zhou Dynasty.
Looking at Han An's sincere letter of credence, what else could Ji Jie say? He issued an edict in the name of the emperor, agreeing to Korea's return to the Zhou Dynasty, making Han An the Marquis of Han, and continuing to lead the military and political affairs of Korea. The most important thing is that his descendants can inherit the position of Han Hou.
Of course, Han An is still the boss of Han Dynasty, and Dazhou has also sent many management talents in various fields to serve as deputy positions in the functional departments. However, these deputy positions have slightly greater rights. In a short period of time, the original officials will still be in charge. It will gradually return to the hands of those sent by Zhou Dynasty.
The reason why Ji Jie did not directly take over the military and political affairs of Korea was to show the people of the world the difference between voluntary submission and military conquest.
…
Qi State no longer had the threat of Zhou Dynasty, and Chu State and Qin State were reconciled as before. It didn't last long, but Qi and Chu suddenly had friction.
It’s no wonder that the armies of the two countries are mixed together. Without war, soldiers are particularly prone to causing trouble. The two sides started with quarrels, then developed into fistfights, and finally reached the point of using knives and guns.
The generals on both sides have the character of protecting their own shortcomings. They only see their own people suffering but not their own people's gain. After a fighting incident, no one is willing to bow down first. The generals are like this, let alone the soldiers below.
The conflict further intensified, and the two countries exchanged letters of credence, demanding that the other side admit its mistakes.
To no avail, the coalition forces had to be stationed separately. Both sides believed that the other party should admit its mistake, and in the end no one ignored the other. Within half a year, the Qi-Chu Alliance existed in name only.
Then, the State of Qi refused to transport salt to the State of Chu for free. Since the State of Chu lost its western territory, it also lost its salt production area. The salt relied entirely on sea salt from Qi State. The State of Qi cut off their supply and began to The Chu State did not show weakness and stopped the supply of ores to the Qi State, including metallic ores such as copper and iron, as well as nitrate, sulfur and other materials for making gunpowder.
By doing this, the two countries are simply making it clear to each other: My role is more important, so don't mess with me.
It's a pity that they are so divided. They all think that they have pinched the opponent's pulse, and neither of them is willing to give in.
The Queen Mother of Chu, Li Yan, had long seen this and discussed the matter with Li Yuan many times, stating that only by maintaining a continued alliance between the two countries could they resist external aggression.
However, Li Yuan never took it seriously, so Li Yan had to summon him to the palace again to discuss the matter.
"Sister, don't worry!" Li Yuan said absently: "This is a trivial matter. This is not the first time that a rift has appeared in the alliance. Once the war resumes, all conflicts will disappear in an instant!"
Li Yan said worriedly: "What I'm afraid of is that Qin will go to war with Chu, but Zhou did not go to war with Qi. Will the people of Qi help us then?"
Li Yuan was stunned. This is indeed a problem. When things really develop to that point, the people of Qi will definitely not come to help. They will use the excuse of being afraid of being attacked by the Zhou Dynasty after sending troops, and sit back and watch Chu's territory being destroyed bit by bit by Qin. Eat it away.
The people of Qin are changeable, especially after Lu Buwei came to power, he fully developed his traitorous side. He would talk and laugh with you in front of you, but then send someone to stab you in the back. He did this a lot.
Li Yuan's back was covered in cold sweat. He even suspected that the reason why Qin proposed a truce when it had the upper hand was to paralyze the Chu monarchs and ministers, and secretly mobilized troops to prepare for a more fierce offensive.
"Sister, you are right to remind me, I was careless!" Li Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: "Don't worry, I will go back to discuss with the guests. We must maintain the relationship with Qi State. Really If not, I will save my face and take the initiative to admit my mistake to Qi!"
Li Yan nodded.
But after Li Yuan returned, he was deceived by several treacherous retainers. He changed his strategy of maintaining the relationship between the two countries and took the opportunity to annex Qi State. I have to say that this was a bold decision, and it can even be called This is unprecedented.
Li Yuan's plan failed to escape Sima Xueran and was reported back to Dazhou.
"Haha, this Li Yuan is bold enough!" Ji Jie commented. To be honest, he didn't believe that Li Yuan had such great energy. After just being beaten, he could swallow up a country whose overall national strength was no weaker than his own. .
Sima Xueran had a different opinion: "With Li Yuan's ruthlessness and the help of a bunch of dog-headed military advisers under his command, it is still unclear who will win. Maybe he will be lucky and really swallow up the Qi Kingdom!"
"Then let's just wait and watch the show!" Ji Jie shrugged.
"Why, don't you want to provoke this?" Sima Xueran looked at him very playfully.
"Hey, hey, I'm a very kind person, and I will never do anything provocative!" The sinister smile on Ji Jie's face betrayed him, there was nothing kind about him.
"You must have a countermeasure, right?"
"Really not!" Ji Jie said seriously: "Since I have told the world not to send troops to other countries within one year, then I must keep my word! As for Li Yuan, let him play whatever he wants. He is lucky to have conquered the Qi State. He didn't eat any meat and lost a few teeth. Anyway, no matter what the result is, it doesn't matter if I give him half a dime, hehe!"
Is this true? Sima Xueran didn't quite believe it.