Near noon, the warm winter sun shines into Xianyang Hall from the huge hall door nearly two feet high and the windows with square wooden lattice.
Zhao Huaizhong was sitting on the throne deep inside the palace, watching Prince Dan of Yan walk in from the door with several Yan ministers.
Prince Dan wore a dark blue robe, with a silver sapphire belt tied around his waist, and walked steadily.
He walked in from outside the palace, stopped at the steps in front of the throne, and bowed deeply.
"Give me a seat."
Under the guidance of his chamberlain, Prince Dan, together with all the ministers of the Yan people, sat in the lower right hand position of Zhao Huaizhong.
Opposite are Lu Buwei and other ministers of the Qin Dynasty.
"It has been less than two years since we last met, and you have become the co-leader of the Qin Dynasty. Dan can't help but think of the scene when he first met the king, as if it were before his eyes."
Prince Dan first stirred up emotion, and then turned to the main topic:
"Your Majesty killed Pingyuan Lord Zhao Sheng years ago, revealed the sinister face of Pingyuan Lord uniting with the demon clan to massacre our Yandi Jade City, and helped Jade City eliminate the demon trouble. Dan is extremely grateful.
This time, on behalf of Dayan, I come to pay my respects to the king."
Zhao Huaizhong said calmly: "I heard that Zhao Ren has been making a lot of moves recently. I wonder if Zhao Ren has ever contacted the prince?"
Prince Dan was obviously well prepared and said calmly: "The Zhao people did come to contact me, Dayan, and mentioned the matter of reuniting."
He actually admitted that, well, he wanted to use the five countries to unite again to increase pressure and increase his bargaining chip. In the subsequent conversation, he could strive for more favorable conditions for Yan... Zhao Huaizhong's thoughts flickered.
He gave Lu Buwei a look.
Lu Buwei immediately stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, I have something to report.
I believe that the Yan people have repeatedly been unfaithful. Previously, the five kingdoms united, and Yan united with other countries to attack our country Qin. Thanks to the king's kindness, he did not remember the old evil, and the Yan people's Jade City was attacked. The generals of our country Qin followed the king's order and rushed thousands of miles to save the Yan people.
In water and fire.
Now the Yan people want to attack Zhao, and they also want to unite with our great Qin, but I oppose it."
What Prince Dan originally wanted to say was not only disrupted, but Lu Buwei directly exposed the Yan people's previous attack on Qin.
Prince Dan felt a little embarrassed and his momentum dropped sharply.
This is Lu Buwei's intention.
When the two countries interact, they must strive to take the initiative and overwhelm each other, accumulating step by step to become a general trend.
Prince Dan took a moment and then continued:
"The brief letter sent by King Zhao to my father said that Zhao and Yan are neighbors, and although they occasionally have disagreements, the two countries have the same interests in dealing with Qin, and Qin has the ambition to annex the world, while Zhao does not.
Therefore, King Zhao proposed to contact all countries again to join forces to resist Qin."
"But King Zhao's proposal was flatly rejected by my father, King Yan. In addition to thanking the king, Dan's second purpose in coming to Qin this time was to discuss the alliance between Yan and Qin and attack Zhao.
What does the king think?"
After Prince Dan finished speaking, he stared at Zhao Huaizhong, waiting for a reply.
Zhao Huaizhong calmly said: "What the prince said is quite in line with everyone's wishes. If Qin and Yan unite, they can attack from both front and rear and defeat Zhao in one fell swoop.
Does the prince have any relevant plans?"
Prince Dan nodded: "Of course."
The two parties had the same intention and immediately had an in-depth conversation about the alliance.
Prince Dan proposed several conditions that were beneficial to Yan, but Zhao Huaizhong remained silent, while Lu Buwei and other ministers took turns fighting each other.
Although it had been discussed before, the Yan people should be given some benefits to win over them to attack Zhao this time.
But in actual implementation, the Yan people cannot easily achieve their goals.
This is a diplomatic strategy.
At this moment, Lu Buwei and other Qin officials were implementing the strategy.
By the time both parties reached a preliminary cooperation intention, it was already past noon.
Zhao Huaizhong left Prince Dan to have a meal in Xianyang Palace, and the two parties went to the side hall to have lunch.
During the banquet, Prince Danhu said: "Your Majesty, you know what Zhao Sheng, Lord of Pingyuan, did, King Zhao knows all about it.
If Zhao Sheng succeeds, King Zhao will also be the beneficiary."
"What the prince means is that Zhao Sheng conspired with the demon clan, and King Zhao also participated." Zhao Huaizhong tilted his head.
"Exactly."
Prince Dan nodded: "A few months ago, Qin destroyed Han with the power of thunder, and Wei and Zhao were horrified.
If Qin were to attack Zhao again with Yan at this moment, it would be a disaster for Zhao.
At this juncture, King Zhao can do anything, so please be careful."
"Prince, if you have something to say, it doesn't matter." Zhao Huaizhong said.
"The guests from the Zhao Sheng Mansion joined forces with the demon clan to attack our Yandi Jade City. I asked the surviving people in the city afterwards, and they all said they had seen a pair of armor appear. It was the armor that released black energy and swallowed up the souls of everyone in the city.
."
Prince Dan slowly said:
"Decades ago, the Yin Shang Secret Palace appeared once in Zhao land, and the Zhao people made rich profits from digging it.
The method of sacrificial refining of the armor was also obtained by the Zhao people from the Secret Palace of Yin and Shang."
Zhao Huaizhong said calmly:
"The prince wants to say that the Zhao people have mastered the armor-refining method that destroyed Jade City for decades.
And in such a long period of decades, it is impossible that they have only refined a pair of armor?"
"Exactly."
Prince Dan said: "In recent years, the Zhao people have rarely attacked Qin, but they have often bullied our Yan territory. Every time the Zhao people invaded the Yan territory, the border villages and towns in our Yan territory would be destroyed, and the entire population would disappear.
At first we just thought it was the Zhao people who robbed us Yan people and moved them to the Zhao territory, but later we gradually discovered the problem."
Lu Buwei asked: "What does the prince mean, is Zhao Ren's hand hidden in a strange armor that absorbs living souls to increase its power?
And the Zhao people took advantage of the opportunity of invading Yan to use this armor to absorb the souls of the Yan people and secretly sacrifice it?"
Prince Dan nodded: "Since King Zhao Xiaocheng, they have tried every possible means to refine this kind of soul armor, and this has been the case for both generations of King Zhao.
Not only were we, the Yan people, harmed by it, but even the Zhao people themselves had many missing persons."
Lu Buwei narrowed his eyes and said: "If this kind of thing is true, Zhao people will definitely act carefully and try to keep it secret.
How did you Yan people know about it?"
Prince Dan said seriously: "We know this because a descendant of the craftsmen who built the Yin and Shang Secret Palace fell into our Yan land and passed down some of the things in the Yin and Shang Secret Palace.
We corroborated the situation with the attacks on counties and counties after the Zhao people invaded Yan. It was not until there were survivors in Yucheng this time, and the existence of that kind of soul armor was confirmed, that we woke up and deduced the Zhao people's conspiracy.
It is said that that kind of soul armor absorbs living souls, and if the final sacrifice is completed, it can nourish the wearer's soul to extend his life and pursue immortality."
It was immortality again, and almost all emperors wanted to pursue immortality... Zhao Huaizhong remained silent, but he was quite shocked in his heart.
If what Prince Dan said is true.
Two generations of Zhao kings have been plotting to sacrifice soul armor that absorbs living souls. They are simply crazy.
As an emperor, without the constraints of etiquette, law and other rules, he acts entirely according to his heart. He really becomes a devil in one step. If he is not careful, he will be completely corrupted by the absolute power. He will regard everything as his tool for his own gain.
Private, lawless.
Treat human life like a piece of grass.
After the luncheon, Prince Dan returned to the hotel to rest.
Zhao Huaizhong asked Ye Yufu to send a series of case files to check the records of the war between Yan and Zhao over the years, and his heart was filled with ups and downs:
"It started in the later years of King Zhao Xiaocheng, and became more and more serious when Zhao Yan became Queen Zhao. The Zhao people attacked Yan almost every year..."
————
The land in the far west, the demon ruins.
The Demon Lord was sitting in the room, with a bronze mirror in front of him, looking at his beautiful appearance, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and seemed to be in a good mood.
"...arranged the enchantress to lie dormant next to King Zhao, deliberately being discovered by him in order to lure him into ambush, and the matter of cooperation with our demon tribe has been mentioned." A waitress reported the report while helping the demon master arrange her hair.
"Yeah." The Demon Lord agreed casually.
The waitress added: "Actually, why would the demon master bother so much? Wouldn't it be more convenient if he transformed the demon spirit into the body of King Zhao and confused his mind?"
The Demon Lord chuckled and said, "Directly taking over King Zhao's body?
You underestimate the human race today.
Nowadays, it is not easy for human cultivators to take over the body of a country's leader. Even if they can succeed, is it possible that no one in the civil and military dynasties can detect the abnormality?
Let the little demon get close to King Zhao, induce him to discover, and proactively propose cooperation with our demon clan is the best way.
In this way, he thinks that things are under his control, and he will be more dedicated when cooperating with our demon clan."
Another voice immediately sounded: "What is the Demon Lord going to do next?"
Following the sound, a man walked in from outside the temple.
He was wearing a scarlet robe and had a handsome face. He was the demon king Motian who had just awakened, one of the most famous commanders of the demon clan in ancient times.
"Zhao, Chu, Wei and other countries are preparing to attack Qin, which is a good opportunity for our clan.
The group of demons that have awakened will be led by you, Mo Tian, and they will leave the demon ruins and head east, waiting for opportunities to act."
Motian calmly agreed: "In addition to cooperating with Zhao Ren, does the Demon Lord have any other arrangements?"
The Demon Lord smiled and said: "You don't need me to make arrangements, the life and death of King Zhao is at stake, and he is actively running around.
He not only contacted our demon clan, but also had other plans. King Zhao wants to use the power of all parties to join forces to destroy Qin."
————
Time flies, and days fly by.
In early January, the weather became increasingly cold.
When night fell that day, Zhao Huaizhong finished handling the matters at hand and was about to return to Wuying Hall when he received a notification from the chamberlain that Fan Qingzhou asked to see him.
In a short while, Fan Qingzhou entered the hall under the guidance of the chamberlain, saluted and said:
"After Prince Dan left Xianyang, he was on his way back to Yandi along our Daqin border and was attacked on the way.
Fortunately, I, Ye Yufu, escorted General Yin Wugou out of the country. Not long after Yu Gui separated from him, he noticed something unusual and turned back to save her, but she was still alive."
Zhao Huaizhong said: "Did Zhao people do it?"
"The perpetrator was masked to hide his identity, but judging from his motives, there is no doubt that he is from Zhao." Fan Qingzhou said.
"What else?"
"North of our Great Qin, the Quanrong tribe has had some unusual movements recently.
A secret agent sent back news and found that the secret envoy of Zhao Chen Guo Kai's house had left the Zhao territory and went deep to the northwest, and then lost his trace. Wei Chen suspected that the Zhao people secretly contacted the Quanrong Department."
Fan Qingzhou: "The troops and horses under King Quanrong also made strange movements and gathered secretly."
To the north of the Zhao border were the Huns, and to the north of the Qin border were the Quanrong tribe.
The Quanrong tribe has been the sworn enemy of various countries in the Central Plains since ancient times and has committed many evil deeds.
When King You of Zhou Dynasty perished and his beloved concubine Bao Si was kidnapped, it was the Quanrong tribe who did it.
These tribes outside of China will invade the borders whenever they have the opportunity, burning, killing and looting, roaring like the wind.
However, in recent years, the Qin Dynasty has become stronger and has beaten various tribes of the Quan Rong, forcing the Quan Rong to dare not enter a hundred miles north of the Qin territory.
Zhao Huaizhong sneered: "The Quanrong people also want to join in the fun, how brave!"
"If the Zhao State cannot resolve this crisis, it may lead to the destruction of the country. The King of Zhao wants to contact all the forces that can be contacted to oppose me, the Qin Dynasty."
Fan Qingzhou said: "The Quanrong people are making preparations now. There are still two months until the cold winter. They want to wait for the opportunity after spring."
"After spring..."
Zhao Huaizhong's face darkened: "Then it's not up to them. How can they come to our land of Great Qin if they want to?"