Wei Ju must admit that since Zhiyao took over the management of Zhishi, it has become increasingly unclear what Zhishi is doing and what he is planning.
Expansion is actually not that difficult to understand. It is nothing more than seeking more cities and people to expand the family.
Many families will expand and seek to obtain a higher political status. Once the political status is high enough, it will increase the family's heritage.
A similar trajectory applies to every family, almost all with the same routine.
The reason why Wei Ju couldn't understand what Zhi Yao wanted to do was simply that the Zhi family cared less and less about the power brought by "Yuan Rong". This alone made most people feel strange.
"A strong family will make others afraid to compete with it. It has nothing to do with power... Does it mean that it doesn't care what happens to the country?" Wei Ju thought.
Really, Wei Ju thought about it for a long time and couldn't figure out why the Zhi family weakened the power of "Yuan Rong".
No matter where your butt sits, no matter how stupid you are, you have to worry about the impact of that position, and then it will affect you, right?
Rational people will always safeguard the authority brought by their position. Doing so is equivalent to safeguarding the interests they have. Only fools and people with other agendas will completely ignore the authority conferred by their position.
Wei Ju does not think Zhiyao is a fool. Whoever thinks Zhiyao is a fool will be the real fool.
"What on earth is Zhi doing and what does he want to do?" Wei Ju thought about it countless times, but couldn't think of an answer, or he thought the correct answer was too shocking, so he gave up on the correct answer.
Turn home into country?
Whether it was Zhao Wuji who usurped the Dai Kingdom or the Tian family tried to restore the Chen Kingdom, the process and trajectory had its own set of rules and could not be applied to the Zhi family.
Wei Ju was so engrossed in his thoughts that he saw Zhi Yao's face in a trance, and couldn't help but ask: "What does Yao want?"
You can probably tell that a person is thinking by looking at his or her expression. To guess what this person is thinking, the only way to guess is based on recent events.
Inexplicably, Zhiyao knew what Wei Ju was asking and would not give a true answer.
"It's just Jin trying to be strong." Zhiyao said.
How about this answer?
If there is no separate expansion direction, Zhishen, as the "Yuanrong", will be more convincing if he seizes more power.
Zhiyao simply asked: "If it weren't like this, how could Zhi, Wei, and Han get along with each other?"
The Jin Kingdom was under a curse, and conflicts would break out in the Qing family at regular intervals, many times turning into civil wars. Every time a civil war broke out in the Qing family of the Jin Kingdom, the scale of the war was often larger than the national war.
Luan Shu once said that as long as the Qingwei family could cooperate, Jin could easily win the title of overlord of the Central Plains. Unfortunately, the Qingwei family had too many entangled interests with each other and could not maintain friendship for too long.
Later, Shi Xie believed that the Jin State could not completely suppress its largest and most threatening external enemy, otherwise the Jin State, without external threats, would inevitably suffer from civil strife.
Who doesn’t understand the truth? It’s just a question of whether you can do it after you understand it.
Most of the time, it's not that everyone doesn't understand, it's simply that everyone wants to take advantage, and no one wants to suffer.
"Yes! If we don't focus our attention and expansion options abroad, the Wei family can only form an alliance with the Han family, which will further stimulate the Zhi family, and the country will fall into confrontation. A small conflict may suddenly turn into a large-scale civil war.
." Wei Ju must admit this.
Those are things that the family heads like them cannot control, all because even they can't give up the pursuit of interests. Retreating once will only make the other party stronger, and after time and again, they will be unable to resist.
Wei Ju chatted with Zhiyao about other things, and then chose to leave without telling her original intention.
This time, Wei Ju actually came here to discuss the possibility of cooperating with Zhiyao to deal with Zheng Guo, but later he realized that he could not expose his own shortcomings.
The Zhi clan has successfully annexed most of Qi's territory except Donglai, and the Chen state has not blocked the possibility of the Zhi clan's continued expansion. If nothing unexpected happens, there will be no Chen state left in at most five years.
The Wei family's actions against the Zheng State were not smooth. "Xinzheng" alone could firmly block the Wei family's southward invasion. If "Xinzheng" was not captured, it would be impossible to annex the Zheng State.
"Maybe..., I should attack Xinzheng regardless of casualties, and then drag it on..." Wei Ju was in a trance on the chariot, and was almost thrown off by a bump.
Everyone knows that Zheng's "Xinzheng" is a fortified city. How difficult it is to attack will only be known when the attack is actually carried out.
In addition to the fact that "Xinzheng" is difficult to fight, no matter how weak Zheng is, its foundation is actually relatively strong.
Let's put it this way, after repeatedly weakening the Zheng State, their total population was still about 1.3 million. After being concentrated in the south and east, productivity not only did not decline, but also showed an upward trend.
That is the increase in production efficiency brought about by the concentration of the population, which facilitates the deployment of labor, and there is also a sufficient sense of crisis that urges Zheng people to work hard.
The Zhi family of the Jin State also taught the Zheng State kings and ministers to be good, and the Zheng State began to try to recruit a large number of young men for military training. Once it was forced to rush, it should not focus on quality but quantity, and it should be possible to recruit 150,000 troops.
Do it?
Starting a war with the goal of destroying the country? The kings and ministers of the Zheng Kingdom realized that what was breaking out was a war to destroy the country. How could they not fight it carefully? The more unfavorable the situation became, the more crazy they would become, dragging ordinary people along to use them as firewood.
It's a matter of time.
Otherwise, how can we say victory is easy but the battle to destroy the country is difficult?
It is precisely because once a country knows that it is facing life and death, they will most likely abandon all internal conflicts and turn to the outside world in unison!
"Wei will definitely do his best to attack Zheng after taking over?" Zhiyao was reading the relevant information.
It's not just the Wei family's intelligence. Their intelligence is too simple. Most of it revolves around the game with Zheng State, plus the diplomatic relations with Chu State and Song State.
Among them, the Chu State's diplomatic relations were still brokered by the Zhi family.
What is more depressing for the Wei family is that Chu State's new commander Yin Bai Gongsheng has turned all his attention to countering the rebellion in the country, which means that it is impossible to have much interaction with the Wei family in the short term.
"Should the Wei family be interested in dividing the Zheng state equally with the Chu state? Now that the Chu state is like this, the Wei family should be lucky that the proposal has not been formally put forward. However, it seems that the Wei family wants to destroy the Zheng state alone. It seems to be not easy.
?" Zhiyao knew very well that the opportunity had come.
What opportunity? It is that once the Wei family loses too much force when attacking Zheng, it will be the right time for the Zhi family to launch a civil war and annex the Wei family in one fell swoop.
After all, if Zhiyao can take it all for himself, why should Zhiyao join others in carving up the Jin Kingdom?
"The Han family..., they are inherently deficient. Without strong allies, they cannot accomplish anything big on their own." Zhiyao turned over the information about the Han family's new invasion of Qin.
No, the new one is to attack Qin in the form of a national war.
This time, Hu Jie was the nominal commander, but Sun Wu was in charge throughout the whole process.
They attracted the Qin army to Bai Zhai, and the three parties launched no less than thirty large-scale battles in various places.
Sun Wu had been entrusted by Zhiyao in advance to mainly consume the troops of Han and Qin.
Of course, rushing to consume troops and leaving no traces was a test of Sun Wu's ability to do things.
Zhiyao concluded from the intelligence that General Sun Wu did a great job, and it seemed that all the losses were reasonable. Even if a certain local area suffered heavy losses, it was entirely caused by the person in charge of the command not acting in accordance with the orders.
This kind of operation is actually not difficult. If you have an insight into someone's personality or method of doing things, and you delegate it knowing that there will be problems, something will definitely happen!
As for why he delegated the task even though he knew there would be problems? Sun Wu only made suggestions and talked about what might happen, so why did Hu Jie or Han Geng make the decision on the appointment?
In this wave, the Han family folded in about 10,000 troops, and the result was the annihilation of nearly 20,000 Qin troops who participated in the war, and about 30,000 Baidi people.
Of course, the Zhi family, Wei family, Hu family and Zhong family also suffered losses. The total amount is about 6,000, which is really not a small amount.
What Zhiyao knew was that the Han family was very satisfied with this expedition. Not only did they treat Sun Wu courteously from beginning to end, but before the army returned, someone contacted the Zhi family and sent a batch of gifts.
Those gifts were not given by the Han family to the Zhi family. To put it bluntly, Han Geng could not reward Sun Wu directly. He had to give the gifts to the Zhi family, and then the Zhi family would reward Sun Wu for his merits.
In fact, Han Geng's approach is the most correct operating method in the contemporary era. Any other method will cause disputes.
After reading the information, Zhiyao began to deal with state affairs.
Including the Qin State once again entrusted the Zhou royal family to express its softness towards the Jin State and its willingness to pay tribute.
It was inevitable that the Song State would move closer to the Jin State, but the person responsible for diplomatic relations became the Wei family.
Wu State is more interesting. They protested against Jin State's annexation of Qi State. They not only went to the Zhou royal family to protest, but also called on other countries to condemn Jin State.
"Is Gou Jian kneeling down and licking his husband again?" Zhi Yao saw a piece of information and said that, but her expression became solemn.
What happened was that instead of staying in his own capital, Gou Jian went to "Wu" to serve Fu Chai in his daily life, including but not limited to cleaning the toilet and chatting with him.
Anyone who hears what a majestic king of a country does would find it ridiculous, but Gou Jian is really doing it, and he also shows a tendency to follow suit.
Zhiyao thought that the day Gou Jian could cook food for Fu Cha would be the day Fu Cha was poisoned to death.
Or, waiting for the day when Gou Jian can stay in the bedroom when Fu Chai sleeps, that day is probably the day of Fu Chai's death.
No kidding, any monarch who can endure to that extent will not bring about drastic changes in the contemporary world?
At the end of the Yin Shang Dynasty, Ji Chang knew that the meat in the meat pie was his son's meat, but he still ate it without changing his expression. Later, Ji Zhou replaced the Yin Shang Dynasty.
Later, Gou Jian was able to help Fu Chai treat his illness with a flattering expression, which interrupted Fu Chai's great cause of hegemony. After destroying the Wu Kingdom, he even cut off their sacrifices.
Of course, in this version of history, only the first half happened, that is, Gou Jian really ate shit and did what he did, and there was no chance to destroy the Wu State for the time being. I don’t know if there is still a chance to destroy the Wu State.
To be honest, whether before or after time travel, Zhiyao didn't like Gou Jian.
Why? From Zhiyao's point of view, I feel that Gou Jian single-handedly lowered the lower limit of everyone's behavioral standards.
Of course, that is just Zhiyao's own opinion and does not represent the rest of the people.
In addition, Zhiyao also gained some insights from Gou Jian's actions. It doesn't matter if you do things by means, but you can't do without grandeur.
"Plant the fields with peace of mind... No, I should change my thinking and be ready to start a civil war at any time, or prepare to draw someone to carve up the Jin Kingdom." Zhiyao needed to have a plan for the drastic changes in the southeast.
If she can farm with peace of mind, Zhiyao certainly hopes to wait until Zhishi is ready before leading the times.
The problem is, how can we prepare ourselves for the good things that will happen when the times change dramatically?
Realizing that time was getting tighter, Zhiyao decided not to stay in "Xintian" and hurried through the snow to go to "Handan" first, and then to "Ye" for a long stay.
After the arrival of the new year, the spring sowing had just ended. Zhiyao, who was in "Ye" city, received news that the Wei family had mobilized two legions of troops and went south through "Baimajin" to enter the territory of Zheng.
Why did Wei take the "Baimajin" route this time? There was a bridge across the river built by Zhi, which made it easier to cross the river more quickly. The next step was to test Zhi's attitude.
"The Wei family requested that future supplies be transported by 'Baimajin'?" Zhiyao looked at Sun Wu who was sitting opposite.
Currently there are only two bridges across the river, one is "Mengjin" and the other is "Baimajin".
"Mengjin" is within the territory of the Zhou royal family, and the procedures for going there are actually quite troublesome.
Sun Wu said: "The Wei family's move is to show goodwill to my family."
How should I put it? The Wei family sent two legions south, and the supply line was arranged within the Zhi family's sphere of influence. If it wasn't a deliberate show of trust in the Zhi family, what was it?
Zhiyao was quite fascinated by Wei Ju's actions.
What a big heart you have! Otherwise, how can you take the initiative to hand your lifeline into the hands of others?
"Even if there is another 'Meng Jin' as an alternative, Wei Ju really showed his absolute sincerity this time." Zhiyao knew this very well.
Are you moved?
Zhiyao really felt ready to make a move!
What made Zhiyao feel a little bit fatal was that when they started the big project, they had to annex the Qi State. Less than a year after the annexation of the Qi State, there was an opportunity where the Wei family might suffer heavy losses.
Under this current situation, no matter how big a move Zhi makes, it will not have an impact on others.
"Look first, then look again, make necessary preparations and make plans first, so that you don't want to take action when the time comes, and you will be in a hurry when you really do it." Zhiyao was both looking forward to and feeling uneasy in her heart.
Let's see if the Wei family can capture the strong city of "Xinzheng" and how much they will lose if they can.
Or, should Zhiyao do something when Wei attacks Zheng?
That doesn't depend on Zhiyao. In fact, it depends on whether the Wei family gives him a chance!