As for the construction of water canals in the Chu State, as early as a month or two ago, various countries had heard about it.

Because the construction of aqueducts is indeed a very costly business, all countries will be skeptical.

However, when Chen Jia personally saw the people of Chu State building the canal in full swing, he was convinced.

Therefore, hearing the words of the king of Chu, Chen Jia did not doubt it, and immediately bowed his hand and said: "The king, the widow also knows a little about the difficulties of your country, so the widow is willing to borrow grain from the king at twice the price, hoping that the king can help." ”

Xiong Huai shook his head and said: "What does the envoy mean by this, the widow has always been convinced by virtue, how could he do such a thing of taking advantage of the fire to rob, if the Chu country has grain, the widow will rescue the Qi country at a low price." It's just that now the state of Chu really has no food, so there is nothing to be done. ”

Chen Jia was anxious when he heard this, and bowed three times in succession, and begged: "King, our country doesn't need too much food, as long as the king can squeeze out a little grain, 300,000 stone grain, my country is willing to buy it at five times the price, please ······ king."

When Xiong Huai heard this, he immediately pretended to be angry, snorted coldly, and walked away.

Jing Li, who was in the palace, saw the king of Chu leaving, and said angrily to Chen Jia: "Envoy Qi, although our country is not richer than the Qi country, but the envoy thinks that the widow can buy it with money?" ”

As he spoke, he snorted coldly, and walked in the direction where King Chu left with a straight face.

After a while, Xiong Huai saw Jing Carp coming from behind, so he asked, "Ling Yin, how is it?" ”

Jing Li replied: "Back to the king, the minister has already driven the envoy out of the palace. ”

Xiong Huai smiled: "Okay, King Qi wants to borrow grain from the widow, this is simply a big dream in the Spring and Autumn Period, is the widow still short of money?" Therefore, not a single grain of grain from the Chu State will be sold to the Qi State. ”

Saying that, Xiong Huai spoke again: "Ling Yin, order to go down, strictly inspect the checkpoints in various places, prohibit any grain from leaving the Chu State, and anyone who smuggles grain, once it is found, will be immediately confiscated and fined twenty times." ”

"Also, in the Huaishui area, it is strictly forbidden for cattle and horses and other six animals to go out of the customs, even if they live, if they are pulling carts or riding, they are all marked. For caravans from various countries, no more cattle and horses are allowed to leave Chu than when they come, and no more than one is allowed. ”

"The same is true for the caravan of my Chu State, how many cattle and horses you take with you when you leave, how many cattle and horses you have to bring back when you come back, one less one, and twenty fines."

"If you can't pay the fine, the whole family will be reduced to hard labor for five years."

Jing Liying said: "Only! ”

······

Yingdu Envoy Hotel.

Although Chen Jia angered the king of Chu and did not borrow food from the state of Chu, he did not have any worry on his face at this moment, but was much more relaxed than when he first arrived in Yingdu.

At this moment, Chen Jia was standing alone in the room, thinking in his heart.

"What the king is worried about is not whether the Chu State will borrow grain, but whether the Chu State has the intention of taking advantage of the fire to rob."

"Judging from the situation along the way, it is true that the Chu State built a large-scale water canal. It's just that so many people gathered in Yingdu, if the king of Chu changed his mind, he had to guard against it. ”

Thinking about it, Chen Jia shouted to the outside world: "Come here, prepare the car, prepare a heavy salute, hand over the worship post, this envoy asks to see Sikong Zhaoyu and Si Defeat Tang Yu." ”

"No!"

·····

"Chen Qing, hasn't the envoy of the Qi State left Yingdu yet?" Xiong Huai asked Chen Zhen.

More than ten days have passed since the envoy of Qi visited Chu, and since the first meeting with the envoy of Qi, Xiong Huai has not summoned the envoy of Qi again.

According to Xiong Huai's idea, now that Qi is short of grain, then the sale of grain is absolutely not allowed by Chu State.

The activities of the alignment envoy in Yingdu, Xiong Huai has also heard of it.

Similarly, a few days ago, many ministers who were not long-eyed entered the palace to test it, and as a result, after being bombarded away by Xiong Huai one after another, there was no longer a long-eyed one in the past few days.

Chen Zhen nodded and replied, "King, that's exactly the case." ”

Xiong Huai felt a little strange: "Now that the widow has resolutely stated to the ministers that he will not sell grain to the country, why is the Qi envoy still stranded in Yingdu?" ”

"Could it be that the Qi envoy still thinks that he can impress the widow with his sincerity?"

Chen Zhen said with a smile: "The king doesn't know, in the past few days, the envoys of the Qi State have frequently visited our important ministers and sent generous gifts, just to maintain the status quo between Qi and Chu and avoid wars." ”

Xiong Huai understood.

After the granary of Qi was burned, the king of Qi ordered the Qi army to assemble in the south of Qi, and to this day, Qi is ready for war.

If at the beginning, Xiong Huai still had the idea of taking the opportunity to cut down, then now, when there is no opportunity to take advantage of it, Xiong Huai has decided to focus on building water canals this winter, and will not fight abroad.

Therefore, Xiong Huai did not reveal the plan of foreign war to the ministers.

Thinking about it, Xiong Huai couldn't help but quip: "Presumably, all the ministers of my Chu State have accepted the kindness of the Qi envoy and accepted the heavy gifts of the Qi State!" ”

Chen Zhen smiled when he heard this, his relationship with Qi was not bad, and the Qi envoy would naturally not forget him as a Qi person.

Seeing that Chen Zhen acquiesced, Xiong Huai put down the matter and asked, "Chen Qing, then do other countries intend to borrow grain from Qi State?" ”

Chen Zhen paused and replied: "Back to the king, the news that has just been sent back from various countries is that the Wei State, which has just married the Qi State, has promised to sell 500,000 stone of grain to the Qi State at a premium of 50%, including 100,000 stone of corn, 200,000 stone of soybean and 200,000 stone of wheat rice. ”

"Wei State!" Xiong Huai couldn't help but sneer when he heard this.

Xiong Huai can also figure out a thing or two about the thoughts of the Wei State, which is nothing more than wanting to befriend the Qi State and not wanting to offend the Chu State.

Since the last time the Five Kingdoms invaded Qin, Wei and Qi have become closer and closer, and not long ago, Qi and Wei became in-laws.

Now that Wei is sending charcoal in the snow, selling 500,000 stone of grain to Qi to solve the urgent needs of Qi State, the situation is obvious, and Qi and Wei are getting closer.

However, Wei was still aware of current affairs and did not fully assist Qi.

Not only is the premium fifty percent, but only 500,000 stones.

You must know that when Chu and Wei just got married, Wei sold Chu a million stone of grain in one go, although it was all wheat and rice, and most of them were old rice, but after all, it was a real million stone of grain.

From this point of view, Chu could not say anything about Wei's approach, after all, Wei was only an ally and not a vassal state.

Thinking about it, Xiong Huai sighed and asked, "What about other countries?" ”

Chen Zhen replied: "Zhao rejected Qi on the grounds of constant conflict between Qin and Zhao, and Song and Yan rejected Qi on the grounds that there was no food in the country. ”

"And the ally of Qi, Zhongshan State, lent 200,000 stone of grain to Qi State for emergency, and as for Qi's vassal countries, Lu State and Yi State, they all said that they had taken out all the surplus grain to help Qi State."

After a pause, Chen Zhen said with a heavy face: "Great King, there is also the Yue Kingdom, according to the news, this time the Yue King intends to sell 200,000 stone rice to the Qi Kingdom at five times the price. ”

"Now Qi and Vietnam are negotiating, because Zhao Slip is trying his best to block it, so now Qi and Vietnam have not completely negotiated."