The third-class Senate was only 20% of the size of Lu Jing’s hometown in Fengya City. However, the two of them had to be awarded a formal official title before they made their achievements. They thought that the King of Qi had treated them well.
In the next ten days, in addition to entering the palace every day, Lu Jing also accompanied the King of Qi to inspect several military camps near Linzi. Although Lu Jing had no military experience, he felt that the Qi army's discipline was relaxed, his combat skills were low, and his generals were very weak, so he became more and more worried.
One day, Lu Jing found an opportunity to quietly demonstrate his reconnaissance skills to King Qi. He and King Qi stood at the gate of a military camp that he had never entered before, and spoke the standing position of everyone in the army without any fault. King Qi was overjoyed and patted his shoulder with great excitement.
After an inspection, Lu Jing finally couldn't help but say to King Qi: "These soldiers have long been used to lazy life and are unwilling to train well. They must be more afraid of death when they go to the battlefield, and they lack good officers to bring these soldiers. In which year and month will such troops have the ability to fight against the Tattoo Army?"
The King of Qi sighed helplessly: "Lu Qing's words are reasonable! To be honest, I also think that raising such a force is just a waste of food and a storefront. It is really unreliable for them to fight a war."
Lu Jing thought to himself: "Since you know this, why not take action?"
The King of Qi stopped a little and said, "When I first took real power half a year ago, I still had hope for them to improve their combat power. But after reading these few months, I found that many of their training were perfunctory and deceived me. So I ordered three months ago to recruit young and strong men from the fugitives in the former Wei, Han, Zhao and other places, especially welcome those who had deep hatred with the Ting Kingdom to form a new force, named "New Army", with the current number of people of 20,000; and 10,000 people were recruited from the former fugitives in Yan land to establish the "New Yan Army".
The King of Qi continued: "These people are very hard-working and very diligent in training than the Qi army. Most of the officers were fugitive soldiers from the four countries of Wei, Han, Zhao and Yan. They have combat experience and are much braver than the Qi officers. I still have expectations for these two troops, but unfortunately they are too small."
Lu Jingxi said: "The king did a good job! I also think: those poor troops without combat power should be laid off, manpower and material resources should be saved, and new troops with combat power such as the "New Army" and the "New Yan Army" should be vigorously increased!"
The King of Qi sighed and said, "I hope to do this too, but it is not easy! Qi State has been in a long period of luxury. Although the army has no combat power, the civil and military officials were promoted by the former Empress Dowager, and their forces are mixed and their relationships are complicated. If I suddenly sacked a large number of people, I am afraid that the one who stepped down in the end will not be the incompetent officials, but myself. So... I can only take this matter slowly."
Lu Jing smiled helplessly and said, "So take the matter of layoffs and vigorously increase the number of new troops first."
The King of Qi said, "This matter may not be fast. Although Ting's national resentment is great, especially in the newly occupied land, there are many people who want to escape, Ting's country has always implemented severe punishments and laws, killing all fugitives without mercy, and implicating the whole family and neighbors, so it is very difficult to escape. However, the people of Qi are rarely willing to join the arduous training troops to serve. In addition, it is precisely because I ordered the conscript of fugitives and soldiers from the lands of the former Wei, Han, Zhao and Yan countries, and established the "New Army" and the "New Yan Army", which aroused the vigilance of Lu and Ting's countries."
The king and his minister sighed at each other, feeling that the current situation was dangerous and deeply worried about the future of the country.
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One day a month later, Lu Jing had just returned home from the palace when a palace official came to invite him into the palace and said there was an emergency military consultation. When Lu Jing heard the news, he hurried to the palace.
More than a dozen civil and military officials had gathered in the conference hall in the palace. Because of his low status, Lu Jing sat down in the back seat. After waiting for a while, the King of Qi arrived hurriedly with a very worried expression.
Everyone stood up and saluted to King Qi. After taking the ceremony, King Qi said straight to the point: "The 16th Army of the Tattoo Army in the north has gone south and surrounded "Tongyan City"!"
This news was like a bolt from the blue, which shocked the civil and military officials.
Wang Jun obviously knew about this. After receiving the approval of the King of Qi, he said: "The ultimatum sent by the Kingdom of Ting was sent to the palace at the hour of You..."
King Qi interrupted Wang Jun and said, "It was half an hour earlier than the information of our army's "discovering the Tattoo Army outside Tongyan City." Then he waved his hand to signal Wang Jun to continue.
Wang Jun continued: "The ultimatum of the Ting Kingdom says: We must disband the "New Army" and the "New Yan Army" immediately, and take the fugitive people and soldiers from the four countries of Wei, Han, Zhao and Yan, as well as their relatives and friends to the Ting Kingdom for disposal. Otherwise, we will capture "Tongyan City" and then slaughter all the Qi people in the city!"
The civil and military ministers were all frightened. Lu Jing was also shocked by this domineering and cruel request, because everyone knew that the Taming Kingdom had always had only one way to deal with the fugitive people, which was to kill without mercy! And everyone believed that the Taming Army's statement that "tuned Guangtong all the military and civilians in Yancheng" would not be just saying but not doing it.
The King of Qi frowned and said, "If you have any ideas, please speak freely."
A high-ranking civil servant with a wide mouth stood up and said, "Mr. I think: We should not sacrifice the military and civilians of our Great Qi for the sake of the people and soldiers of the former Wei, Han, Zhao and Yan. Therefore, we should agree to the request of the Taming Kingdom."
Wang Jun glanced at the prime minister Feng Yuan. He knew that this must be what Fatty Feng meant, but he signaled his confidant to say it out.
At this time, a palace official suddenly sent a document to the King of Qi. After the King of Qi opened it and read it, he said to everyone with a serious expression: "This is still the emergency military situation of "Tongyan City", which is more detailed than the previous time. He said that the number of tattoo troops exceeded 40,000, and it has surrounded all sides of the city, and communications inside and outside the city have been cut off."
Hearing this news, the officials' expressions even more nervous.
King Qi turned to the two highest-ranking officials and asked, "What about the opinions of General Wang and Feng Xiangguo?"
Wang Jun stood up and said, "The 16th Army of the Tattoo Army suddenly went south and surrounded the "Tongyan City". It was obviously prepared. Moreover, the time they chose was that the rice was about to be ripe and had not yet been harvested. At this time, there was very little food in the city, and the farmland was outside the city and could not be harvested. There were 300,000 people in the city and 10,000 troops stationed, but there was not much food in stock. At most, the food in the city would be exhausted after more than ten days. At that time, even if the Tattoo Army did not attack the city, the soldiers and civilians in the city would starve to death. Therefore, I think we should negotiate with the Tattoo Kingdom as soon as possible to get them to withdraw the siege."
Feng Yuan, the fat prime minister, said: "If you do not agree to the request of the Taming Kingdom, the Taming Army will never withdraw. What should be discussed at the moment is no longer the question of whether to agree to the Taming Kingdom's request, but how to peacefully disarm the "New Army" and the "New Yan Army" and send them and their relatives to the Taming Kingdom..."