On the chessboard, the white stones were scattered one after another. In this game, Zhao Kai was slightly better!
Cao Changqing laughed and said:
"Hahahaha, what a great unity between heaven and earth, good chess! Good chess!"
The light slowly dissipated, the chessboard disappeared, the sky and the earth returned to clarity, and the calm Guangling River surged again. Cao Changqing bowed his hands and said:
"Cao lost this game and I am convinced!"
Zhao Kai also returned the gift and said:
"I accepted the concession. I just took advantage of the right time and place."
Cao Changqing did not lose to his chess skills, but to his own heart. Facing Zhao Kai's idea of the unity of heaven and earth, he was really unable to refute and could not overcome the test in his heart.
This game of chess is destined to go down in history and be replayed by countless descendants, and the two of them have become a mountain that will be difficult for future chess players to cross.
But it is also improving Go again in disguise.
"Xi Chu, I'll leave it to you!"
"Sir, don't you plan to go back?"
Cao Changqing shook his head. The restoration of the Western Chu Kingdom was like a dream. If the country had no generals, what was the use of going back? It was a blessing to be able to save the lives of these people.
"Then where do you plan to go, sir? If you are worried about the pressure of heaven, I can help you."
Zhao Kai could also see that Cao Changqing's transformation from a Confucian scholar to a hegemon was not without cost. He must abide by the rules of heaven and cannot kill himself rashly, otherwise he will be punished by heaven. But who is he, how can he be willing to be restrained?
Cao Changqing shook his head and did not say yes. He obviously refused. The magic talisman was no longer the exclusive property of Zhao Kai.
Just turning his head and looking northwest, where he was going was self-evident!
Zhao Kai bowed his hands and said:
"Then thank you sir. Don't worry, as long as I'm here, I won't kill you again!"
Cao Changqing, like Ye Qinghong, left with his hands behind his back.
Three days later, the gate of Divine Phoenix City slowly opened. Surrounded by the civil and military ministers, more than 100,000 soldiers of Western Chu, and hundreds of thousands of people of Divine Phoenix City, Jiang Ni slowly walked out of the gate and greeted Zhao, who had been waiting for a long time.
Kai submitted the letter of surrender and the jade seal of Western Chu.
Since then, Western Chu, which had only been restored for less than a year, fell again. Unlike the bloody scene when Western Chu surrendered twenty years ago, there was no bloodshed in Shenhuang City this time.
The eroded Guangling Road has once again regained its peace.
In accordance with his previous promise, Zhao Kai recruited a large number of civil servants from Western Chu and assigned them official positions in Liyang. Their original rights remained unchanged and past matters were no longer pursued.
As for the army, after part of it was demobilized, the remaining 100,000 troops were also collected and led by Kou Jianghuai and Xie Xiqiao. The position of military advisor was still handed over to Zhang Bianguan. They will soon go to southern Xinjiang to put down the rebellion, and then they will go north.
, participated in the subsequent Beimang War and recovered the grassland.
The land of Western Chu was exempted from taxes for three years. Zhao Kai promised that if Western Chu wanted to establish a country, it must conquer a place in Beimang and then immigrate there. However, whether to stay or go cannot be forced. It all depends on personal wishes.
However, not as many people responded as expected. After all, who would be willing to leave the rich Guangling Road and leave their hometown to live on the barren prairie? Anyway, half of Liyang has the blood of Western Chu, which is enough. It will not take a few generations.
With the blending of human blood, only Guangling and Jiangnan are left in the world.
Regarding Jiang Ni, the empress of Western Chu, Zhao Kai did not include her in the harem as everyone expected. Instead, she made her the eldest princess and inherited all the wealth in the Western Chu palace. She became the first one after the founding of the Liyang Kingdom.
The princess with a different surname can be regarded as having a legal status in Liyang. As for the fiefdom, we will discuss it later.
Zhao Kai promised that he would never interfere with her marriage. Zhao Kai could marry any man in the world as long as she wanted to.
After the Western Chu was destroyed, Zhao Kai's reputation reached its peak instantly.
The next thing to deal with is the 200,000 troops surrendered by the two vassal kings. Zhao Kai still has a headache for these. It is impossible to kill them, but if they want to recruit them all, they will need too much food and grass.
Already.
In addition, the war is not over yet, so if these soldiers are released like this, it will be bad if these soldiers are used by someone with ulterior motives again. No one knows how many die-hard loyalists there are among the surrendered soldiers.
In the end, Zhao Kai followed Zhang Bianguan's suggestion and repatriated all the disabled and soldiers with poor physical fitness. The remaining more than 100,000 people were recruited, disrupted and integrated.
This allowed Zhao Kai to immediately have nearly 300,000 elite troops in Guangling Road. In terms of overall strength, they were only stronger than Gu Jiantang's Liao and Liao border armies.
After that, the army of more than 300,000 troops was divided into two groups. The troops from Southern Xinjiang sent troops to Qingzhou, and the troops from Qingzhou joined forces with Western Chu to pacify Southern Xinjiang.
The main forces in Southern Xinjiang and Qingzhou are gone, and their leaders are also dead. It is completely futile to resist, and it is only a matter of time before the world is pacified.
Even Zhao Kai felt that sending too many people was a bit like killing a chicken with a bull's-eye. However, in order to maintain stability and to collect money and food from the two vassal kings to prepare for the future war, Zhao Kai still agreed to the battle plan.
As for the many masters of the Guanyin Sect and the Dragon Palace who escaped, let them be dealt with by the Jianghu people, which will save them too much time and use force to violate the ban.
It can be said that what happened next made Zhao Kai a little overwhelmed. After all, there were too many things to take care of.
What makes Zhao Kai even more upset is that these days, the memorials in Tai'an City are coming one after another. Most of them are admonitions, telling Zhao Kai to take it easy and stop being so wasteful. Some of them are asking Zhao Kai to return to Tai'an City as soon as possible.
, who presides over government affairs.
Of course, there are also some who impeach the Inspection and Inspection Yuan. Over the past few days, the Inspection and Inspection Yuan has inspected hundreds of officials and has uncovered a large number of corrupt officials, as well as many wealthy families who have caused harm to one party. The evidence is in hand.
, the Ministry of Punishment had no choice but to arrest people, and a lot of powerful people were killed in a short time, which made many senior officials in the capital unable to sit still, worried that one day they would be killed.
Since Zhao Kai was not in the capital, they put the blame on several directors of the Inspection Institute and Zhang Julu, the leader of hundreds of officials who had great power, saying that they formed a clique for personal gain, abused their private conduct, etc.
Zhao Kai was dumbfounded. He had ordered the killing of these people. After all, the Inspection and Inspection Institute only had the power of supervision, not disposal. Without Zhao Kai's order, even Zhang Julu would not dare to kill these people.
Facing all the big and small things in the capital, Zhao Kai simply chose to ignore them. These people either had evil intentions in their hearts, or the family behind them was responsible for the trouble. Sooner or later they would be cleared out.
I have to go back, but not now.
Zhao Kai knows very well that when the water is clear, there will be no fish. As a human being, it doesn't matter if you are greedy for small gains. But if you ignore the law and take human life lightly, then I'm sorry, even the king of heaven can't save you.