October 2, Handan City, Wangchujun's Mansion.

After King Wucheng died of illness, Le Yi, the former general of Yanguo, also fell ill.

As a person who has devoted his life to Yan Guo, his concern for Yan Guo is not something that ordinary people can imagine.

For most of the elderly in the world, it is human nature to remember their own experiences in the past.

Of course, the same is true for Le Yi, a veteran general who is already in his seventies, and it cannot be excluded.

For Yan Guo, while the old general was worried, he also felt a deep guilt.

After learning the news that King Zhao sent Pingyuan Jun to envoy to the State of Chu.

Lying on the sickbed, the old general Le Yi said to his housekeeper: "Now, King Zhao has sent Pingyuan Jun to Chu to prepare to attack Qin together. The state of Chu and the state of Qin are feuding, and the old man thinks that Pingyuanjun's trip has a great chance of success. ”

"Liaodi's personnel in Handan have always been in contact with you. You go and tell this information to the Liaodi personnel in Handan, and let them tell Gongzi that my Yan Kingdom will also make all preparations. ”

The housekeeper hurriedly agreed, "No." ”

After the housekeeper left, the old general Le Yi lay on the sickbed and slowly closed his eyes.

In a trance, he saw his own king, King Yan Zhao, come to him, looked at himself, and smiled silently.

Le Yi's eyes were dripping with tears, he hurriedly got up from the sickbed, bowed down and said to King Zhao: "Your Majesty, Chen Le Yi pays homage to my king." Chen Leyi can't bear the king's trust, and he has failed to completely revitalize my Yan country, please forgive the king! ”

Zhao Wang Ji Zhi shook his head and said to Le Yi: "Time is also, life is also!" Le Yi, no one blames you for this, you have done a good job! Now that you are about to leave the world, will you continue to follow the widow? ”

Le Yi bowed deeply, and cried to King Zhao: "The old minister has long wanted to follow my king's side!" ”

King Zhao laughed and said to Le Yi: "Since this is the case, Aiqing will go with the widow." ”

"No."

In the fourteenth year of the reign of Yan Wucheng, October 2.

The former general of Yan Guo, the world-famous general Le Yi, passed away.

Le Yi ancestor Le Yang for Wei Wenhou Wei Si (Wei State founding monarch) under the general, once led the army to capture Zhongshan, because of merit was sealed in Lingshou (Lingshou County, Hebei), after the death of Le Yang, buried in Lingshou, since then the descendants of the Le family have settled here for generations.

After Zhongshan was restored, he was destroyed by King Wuling of Zhao, and Le Yi became a native of Zhao.

When the king of Yan Zhao ascended the throne, the Yan State had just experienced the "Chan Rebellion", and although the Qi State was driven out of the Yan State under the joint efforts of the vassal states, the whole country was scarred.

In the face of such a mess in Yan Kingdom, Ji Kang's great-grandfather Ji Zhi was not discouraged. After ascending the throne, he made great efforts to recruit talents, intending to revitalize the Yan State and attack the feud Qi State of the Yan State.

King Zhao opened the door of the country and accepted it widely without sticking to one pattern, not only welcoming well-known scholars, but also accepting all those who were interested in destroying the Qi State and who were familiar with the relationship between the dangerous fortresses and the monarch and the ministers.

For these people and scholars, King Zhao gave preferential treatment and accumulated strength in many ways to benefit Xingyan Poqi. Among the many scholars gathered in Yandu to assist King Zhao in revitalizing the Yan Kingdom, the most outstanding figure was Le Yi.

At that time, in order to avoid the civil strife in Zhao, Le Yi went to Wei.

He heard that Corporal Lixian, the king of Yanzhao, was yearning for it. It happened that once Le Yi sent an envoy to Yan for Wei, King Zhao treated him very respectfully, and Le Yi was quite moved and decided to stay in Yan Kingdom.

King Zhao was overjoyed, and then appointed Le Yi as the secretary of Yan Guoya, and entrusted him with national affairs and military power.

Since then, Le Yi has devoted himself to assisting King Zhao in reforming his internal affairs and reorganizing the army.

First of all, in view of the serious situation of the bad law of the Yan State and the private interests of officials, Le Yi taught King Zhao to formulate laws and strictly strengthen the review and assessment of officials;

Secondly, the principle of employing people who are able to be appointed by the government was determined, and the tradition of selecting people of "relatives" and "nobles" was abandoned, and the bad deeds of forming gangs and abusing cronies when they were in power were cleared up, so that the rule of officials in Yan State became clearer and clearer;

Thirdly, it was suggested that King Zhao should reward those obedient people who obeyed the laws of the state, including the poor people with low status and some slaves, with a certain system to stabilize the social order.

In military affairs, Le Yi focused on training in tactics and discipline to improve the combat effectiveness of the Yan army as soon as possible.

King Zhao also paid attention to hanging and asking orphans to comfort those who were worried about funerals; For those couples who are happy to have children, King Zhao also sent people to congratulate and give care.

King Zhao shared weal and woe with the common people, shared the fate, and won the support of all strata of the country for his rule.

With the assistance of Le Yi and others, King Zhao worked diligently for 28 years, not only the country became richer and richer, accumulated considerable strength, but also cultivated the folk customs of Yan to work hard.

The whole country of Yan has the same hatred for the enemy, and the conditions for raising troops to attack Qi are maturing day by day.

Just as King Zhao was working hard and Yan was thriving, Yan's world enemy, Qi, had reached the peak of its strength.

However, the monarch of Qi did not care about the people's power internally and endowed him with money; The continuous use of troops abroad has aroused the dissatisfaction of the princes.

King Yan Zhao, Le Yi and others, who had endured humiliation for many years, thought that the time had come to take revenge on the shame, and decided to unite the six countries and raise troops to attack them.

After all, the Qi State is a great power in the East, and the strength of the Yan State alone cannot compete with it. According to this situation, Le Yi proposed the strategy of "planning with the world", which was approved by King Zhao.

In the thirty-first year of King Zhou (284 B.C.), King Yan Zhao appointed Le Yi as a general and commanded the army.

At this time, the Chu army had been stationed in Huainan, preparing to seize the land of Huaibei of Qi State; Qin, Zhao, Han, and Wei also sent a general to lead their armies towards Qi.

At first, King Qi did not expect that the Yan Kingdom would unite with other countries to attack Qi, and only when he found out that the Yan army had invaded the Qi State did he rush to the battle.

King Qi raised all the troops of the whole country, crossed the Jishui, and marched west to resist the enemy. The morale of the Qi army was low due to years of fighting, and the soldiers who were unfavorable to the battle were threatened by cruel methods such as digging ancestral graves and beheading, which made the Qi soldiers even more chilled.

The coalition forces, led by Le Yi, launched an offensive. The Qi army was crushed at the first touch, and was defeated one after another.

After the main force of the Qi army was annihilated, the king of Qi led the remnants to flee in embarrassment and retreated to Linzi, the national capital. King Zhao was very happy when he heard the news, and personally went to the Jixi battlefield to work the army, rewarded the soldiers, and named Leyi as the king of Changguo.

Le Yi rewarded the Qin and Korean armies and sent them back to China; then ordered the Zhao army to attack Hejian, and ordered the Wei army to turn to the southeast to collect the land of the former Song State; He led the Yan army to attack Qidu. The Yan army drove straight in, and the momentum was like a bamboo, and they captured Linzi in one go.

King Qi was forced to flee and defended the land of Ju (now Ju County, Shandong), and was later killed by the Chu general Naoya.

Le Yi was determined to destroy Qi, and after occupying Linzi, he took a series of measures to consolidate and expand the results of the war.

In order to appease the Qi people, Le Yi focused on rectifying military discipline after reporting to King Zhao for approval, and strictly forbade the Yan army to take the people captive.

In response to the violence of King Qi Wei, Le Yi announced that Qi Min's taxes would be reduced, harsh laws should be abolished, and some reasonable laws and regulations of King Qi Wei's era should be restored.

In the suburbs of Linzi, the Duke of Qi Huan and Guan Zhong were solemnly sacrificed, and more than 100 titles of Yan were awarded to the Qi people who returned to Shun, and more than 20 feudal lords who enjoyed the fiefdom of Yan were divided in Qi State, which encircled the ruling class of Qi State and basically stabilized the occupation of Qi State, and the whole Qi State was willing to return to Yan State.

Militarily, Le Yi divided his troops into five routes and continued to conquer all parts of Qi State. As a result, the Yan army only took half a year to capture more than 70 cities of Qi one after another, all of which were turned into counties, leaving only the two cities of Ju and Jimo (now Pingdunan, Shandong) uncaptured.

At the same time as the decisive victory of the war against Qi, King Zhao sent the Yan general Qin Kai to attack and break through Donghu, forcing Donghu to retreat more than 1,000 miles from the northeast of Yan, and the territory of Yan expanded northeast to Liaodong.

Yan also marched south, capturing many parts of the Zhongshan Kingdom. Zhongyang County, where Ji Kang is now located, was captured by the Yan State during this period.

King Zhao finally made Yan Kingdom among the great powers, entered the golden age, and the national strength reached its peak period, and it has faintly become the head of the Seven Kingdoms of the Central Plains.

Le Yi knew that he was able to achieve such a huge feat, which was inseparable from King Yan Zhao's absolute trust and firm support for him. When Le Yi attacked the city in the Qi Kingdom, King Zhao did not intervene in the slightest and let Le Yi do it.

When Le Yi Jiukeju and Jimo were not in the two cities, and someone took the opportunity to slander and instigate the prince to be dissatisfied with Le Yi, King Zhao reprimanded him and whipped the prince; On the one hand, he sent a messenger to comfort Le Yi.

King Zhao used his virtue to be unsuspicious, in exchange for the sincerity of Le Yi and other subordinates.

Just when the Yan State was about to collapse the Qi State, in the thirty-fourth year of King Yan Zhao (279 BC), Ji Kang's great-grandfather King Yan Zhao died, and the crown prince King Yan Hui ascended the throne.

King Yan Hui had been dissatisfied with Le Yi since he was the crown prince, and after he ascended the throne, Tian Dan of Qi State learned that he had a conflict with Le Yi, so he implemented a counter-plot against Yan State.

Rumors say: "There are only two cities that Qi has not captured." And the reason why he didn't take it down early was that I heard that Le Yi had a grudge against Yan Guoxin's newly enthroned monarch. ”

"Le Yi used troops intermittently to deliberately delay time, and stayed in Qi State, preparing to claim the throne in Qi State. What Qi Guo is worried about is only afraid that other generals will come. ”

At that time, King Yan Hui was already suspicious of Le Yi, and was provoked by the anti-intrigue of the Qi State, so he sent a cavalry robber to replace Le Yi as a general, and recalled Le Yi, preparing to kill Le Yi.

Le Yi knew in his heart that King Yan Hui was a person, and it was ill-intentioned to send someone to replace him, and he knew that he would definitely be killed after returning to China. In desperation, he went west to take refuge in Zhao and was named the prince of Zhao by Zhao Guo.

But after the old general Le Yi came to Zhao State, he never let go of his concern for Yan State in his heart. Like Su Dai, he repeatedly prevented Zhao from preparing for an attack on Yan.

In mid-October, Ji Kang, who was in Jidu, received the last piece of information from the old general Le Yi from Handan City. Within a few hours, I received the news of the death of the old general Le Yi from Liaodi's intelligence officers in Handan City with carrier pigeons.

Ji Kang looked at the old general Le Yi and passed away.

Ban Xiang didn't speak, and slowly handed the information in his hand to Lu Zhonglian and Su Dai next to him.

said: "General Le also went!" Before leaving, send me one last message from Liaodi! ”

With that, Ji Kang turned around and looked out the window, and his body began to tremble slightly!