Chapter 165: External Reaction and Wei's New Action
Whether Zheng Guo is weak or not depends on who he is compared with.
For many countries, whether they are strong or not cannot be judged just by their land area...or by paper data.
There is such a country. It may seem to have a vast territory, but the problem is that most of the territory is not used effectively at all. What is the use of just being vast?
There is another kind of country. It may look like it has a large territory and a large population. If there are many mountains inside it, or there are many irresolvable conflicts, can it be considered strong?
Compared with Jin, Chu or Wu, Zheng State must be weak. Compared with Mao State, Teng State, Qi State, etc., which have a population of tens of thousands and can muster no more than a thousand troops, they should be
Zheng Guo became a giant.
If there really needs to be a ranking, at this stage Zheng is considered to be in the same league as Qin, Qi and Song. The only difference is that they will all be beaten violently against Jin.
Among them, the Qin State may be weaker, and may not be much stronger than the Zhongshan State?
At present, Zhuxia has a "three superpowers and multiple powers" structure. One of the three superpowers may not be able to sweep all the princes in the world, but if you catch one and beat it to death, you can still beat it to death.
In the end, Prince Yi agreed to the covenant proposed by Zhao Yang, and then returned with his people.
After re-revising the covenant, Zhao Yang threw the newly signed letters of credence to the ground in front of the rest of his colleagues, which could be regarded as preserving his sanity and not stepping on it too many times.
Fortunately, there was no historian present at the scene, otherwise it would just be recorded that Zhao Yang's behavior of randomly discarding his credentials would be another black spot for the Zhao family.
"Withdraw your troops!" Zhao Yang did not hide his anger and disappointment.
Feeling as if he was impulsive and had been deceived by Hu, he glanced at Zhishen and Wei Chi with suspicious eyes, still not understanding the current situation.
"Isn't it a bit of a joke to recruit people from the country again before?" Hu Jie didn't know whether to be grateful for the withdrawal of troops, or to be depressed about wasting a quota of quotas.
You need to know that once the recruitment order is issued, those who are recruited will pay taxes instead of paying taxes this year.
Therefore, if the army is recruited and the troops are not taken to fight and reap the rewards, it is simply a loss of blood for the family that issued the recruitment order.
Hu Jie felt that the reason why he should be lucky was relatively simple. They had only just returned to the Jin Kingdom, and their strength could not suffer too much loss anyway.
Are you depressed? Fox really wanted to perform, but he didn't get a chance to perform in two national wars.
After retreating, the Jin army turned around and headed north, really just retreating.
Zheng Guo was naturally relieved and felt that even if he had been extorted a large sum of money, it was a good thing that there was no further loss of troops.
The other princes received the news that the Jin army invaded Zheng State and then withdrew without a fight, and most of them breathed a sigh of relief.
In the past, the Jin State was very overbearing. It was about observing etiquette. Anyone who wanted to beat up would find a reason. Once he found the reason, he would beat him to death.
This time Jin seems to be observing etiquette. Could it be that after a wave of civil strife, the country's national strength was greatly damaged and it lost its previous toughness?
In the eyes of some princes, the overlords of the Central Plains have really weakened, and some of their moves can be made bigger.
For example, in the Song Dynasty, their monarchs and ministers received Zhao Yang's aggressive invasion of the Zheng State, but it ended in an anticlimax. They were originally worried that the annexation of the Cao State would be blocked by the Jin State or sent troops to interfere, which turned into a stronger desire to annex the Cao State.
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Then came Wu State, who received the news even later. Fu Chai was a little hesitant to challenge Jin State at first, but he suddenly became determined.
Fu Chai rejected Wu Zixu's suggestion to continue imprisoning Gou Jian, thinking that Gou Jian should be convinced because he was so submissive, so he chose to let Gou Jian return home and then prepare to send troops north.
Gou Jian, who had performed successfully for a long time, returned to his home country. He was afraid that his desire for a comfortable life would weaken his ambition for revenge, so he slept on a pile of straw with his weapon on his pillow at night, and hung a gall in the house. When he got up every morning
Then he tasted gall.
At the same time, Fan Li didn't know how to operate it, so he repeatedly helped Gou Jian store armor, waiting for Gou Jian to use it one day when he took revenge on the Wu Kingdom.
Then there was the Qi State, which was beaten first by the Jin State and then by the Wu State. They originally wanted to cease the war with the Jin State, but when they heard that the Jin Army went to Zheng State for an armed parade, they became more eager to cease the war.
For no other reason, the State of Qi just saw that the State of Jin was willing to reason with the State of Zheng. The State of Qi, which was in civil strife, did not want the State of Jin to invade again, and was very willing to pay some price in exchange for the forgiveness of the State of Jin.
As a representative of several parties, Zhongxing Yin once again got the opportunity to go to Jin as an envoy, but he hesitated because he was unwilling to set off immediately.
It's not that Zhongxing Yin is afraid of being killed by Zhao Yang when he arrives at the Jin State. Thanks to Zhi Shuo's previous dealings, Zhao Yang has already acquiesced in Zhong Xing Yin's exile in Qi. As long as Zhong Xing Yin is not resurrected, or Shijishe succeeds in his counterattack, Zhao Yang will
I don’t think anything special about Zhong Xingyin.
Now, with "Wen" being conquered, regardless of whether Shijishe was really dead or faked, in Zhao Yang's view, Shijishe was dead anyway, which meant that Zhao Yang no longer had to bite Zhongxing Yin.
Therefore, when Zhong Xingyin appeared in front of Zhao Yang again as the envoy of Qi State, the two of them would not show any feelings or thoughts in their hearts. They would just assume their roles and do what they should do.
Although Zhao Yang led his army to Zheng State this time without going through a major war, forcing Zheng State to pay a large amount of compensation would have practical benefits.
As for the fact that "Hulao" was once again under the control of the Jin State, and the cities around "Hulao" were also placed under the ownership of the Jin State, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing is still unclear for the time being.
"'Yuanrong' wants to get the 'Hulao', and the rest of the city will be shared among all the families." Wei Ju disappeared for half a month after returning to China, and when he saw Zhiyao again, he said this in a very playful way.
The territory there is not large, but the cities are still relatively dense.
In terms of terrain, whoever controls "Hulao" is equivalent to controlling the main transportation road, otherwise the Jin Kingdom would not have built a city there in the early days.
The Zhi family is currently not very interested in increasing the fiefdom, but is entirely interested in gaining population.
The Wei family was just the opposite. Because their fiefdom expanded rapidly in a short period of time, there was also a hidden crisis internally.
To put it simply, the Wei family originally had a population of about 300,000, and suddenly increased the population by more than 200,000 obtained from the Fan family, the Zhongxing family and some small and medium-sized nobles. Two-fifths of it was the newly acquired population.
A situation where management is out of control is a big crisis!
Of course, if the Wei family successfully absorbs the newly acquired population and the fiefdom is greatly expanded, the Wei family's strength will definitely be greatly enhanced.
The same situation applies to the Zhi family, the Zhao family and the Han family. This is also an inevitable phenomenon after a big fight. Everyone has expanded a lot, and the next step is to compete who can digest the fruits of victory faster.
According to common sense, the Zhi family was after all annexed by the Zhongxing family, which was once the same clan. It must be that the Zhi family digested the fruits of victory much faster than the Zhao family, Wei family and Han family.
It was the same thing in history. The result was that in just about twenty years, the Zhi family, which was originally ranked low in strength, suddenly became the strongest among all the families in the Jin Kingdom.
Zhiyao was practicing archery before and met Wei Ju at the school ground. She hadn't changed her clothes yet.
After receiving the news that the Jin army was marching south, Zheng Guo quickly relocated all the people along the river who could move. This was also the main reason why Zheng Guo easily agreed to transfer those cities to Jin.
For the Zheng State, the territory that must not be lost is the "Zhi Tian". As long as the "Zhi Tian" still belongs to the Zheng State, they don't have to worry about food shortages. It will be uncomfortable for the Jin State to take some places on the south bank of the river, and it will inevitably make people stronger.
Given the situation, it's not impossible to lose it. It might be an opportunity to cause trouble for the Jin State.
As for what kind of opportunity it is, I won’t say yet.
Zhiyao knew very well what Wei Ju meant when he mentioned that topic, and reiterated: "My family has no intention of acquiring a city on the south bank of the river."
He had already formulated an eastward strategy, and only stepped south when something went wrong.
Even if the Zhi clan goes south, wouldn't it be nice to bully the Wei state? Why bother to attack the Zheng state, which has a decent army, especially when they have to cross the Wei clan's control area to attack the Zheng state.
The Wei family felt depressed precisely because the Zhi family expressed that they had no appeal for the newly acquired city of Zheng!
Those are empty cities. Among the existing Jin Dynasty high-ranking families, except the Hu family, who else can lack the migrant population to fill them?
The Wei family would rather the Zhi family take more cities on the south bank of the river than the Zhao family to interfere too seriously, not to mention that the Zhao family would not let go of the "Tiger Lao".
The Zhi family has no interest in the south bank of the river, which actually leaves the Wei family without an ally to help each other.
Of course, the Wei family can also cooperate with the Zhao family or other families. The problem is that cooperation with the Zhao family will make the Wei family feel uncomfortable, and the other families are not trusted by the Wei family because of their strength.
"This is not why I came here this time." Wei Ju said.
Zhiyao thought to herself: "Then what did you propose?"
Wei Ju stared at Zhiyao's eyes and continued with some embarrassment: "Seeing the benefits of Zhi's new army, my family wants to train a new army."
Then what?
Is the Wei family going to learn from the Zhi family?
Zhiyao looked at Wei Ju in confusion and said, "Although you and I are allies, we are still...different."
When will each family be able to step into each other's territory, or will they ask for opinions openly?
Wei Ju was stunned at first, and then said: "It's not what Yao thought. I'm just here to buy paper."
First I mentioned the new army of the old wise men, and then I mentioned the request to buy paper. What is the connection between them?
Zhiyao almost had a black question mark on her head.
"The difficulty of teaching is that it is difficult to carry it in words. My family also needs to teach the people of the clan and serve as 'scholars (officers).'" Wei Ju explained.
Yes?
Zhiyao tinkered with paper, and even though it could be produced on a large scale, it has not been put into the market for a long time. It is only sometimes given as gifts.
Therefore, even if the other families know that Lao Zhijia can produce paper, they want to buy it in large quantities but there is no place to buy it. It is difficult to allow them to use it in various fields just by getting the amount of paper in the gift.
The reason why Wei Ju came to Zhiyao specifically to propose purchasing large quantities of paper was because the old Zhijia had not put it into the market to sell it.
Due to issues of closedness and moral integrity, the other families do not know about printing for the time being.
In short, Wei Ju saw the power of Zhi's new army, realized the importance of grassroots officers, and thought of officer training, but seemed not to notice that other education was also critical?
