Although the alliance of princes was disbanded, the war around the territory controlled by the young marshal army did not stop, and the princes and kings whose fiefs were directly controlled by the young marshal's army or controlled by reputation were also killing with great vigour, in a vain attempt to take advantage of the opportunity of the young marshal's army's undecided foothold in Guanzhong and the lack of reach of the whip commander, to snatch the land and city that Xiang Yu had given them by force.

On the evening of returning to the Hongmen camp, Xiang Kang received an urgent report related to the military situation - Han Cheng, the king of Han who had said goodbye to Xiang Kang and returned to Yingchuan from Nanyang, sent an urgent report from Kunyang, saying that Liu Laosan, Yingbu and Chai Wu, who were canonized by Xiang Yu as the king of the princes, joined forces all the way, passed through Yangcheng, Yangzhai and Yingyang, and were killing Nanyang County, which had surrendered to the young marshal's army, with a total strength of more than 42,000 people, and Han Cheng, who had only a few thousand troops, was not an opponent at all, so he could only ask Xiang Kang for assistance.

If it weren't for the distance being too far and the main force of the young marshal's army couldn't easily leave the Guanzhong Plain, Xiang Kang would not hesitate to reinforce Han Cheng, and then use his own tricks to rectify the three kings alliance army with ghosts to death, climaxing one after another, and then devouring them alive and eating them so that there were no bones left. But there was no way, the objective conditions were placed here, and Xiang Kang could only hurriedly summon Chen Ping, Zhang Liang, Zhou Zeng and others to discuss how to deal with the strategy of the Three Kings Alliance.

It also happened that when the meeting was about to begin, Uncle Zhou, who was most trusted by Xiang Kang in military affairs, also led a team of cavalry from the Yellow River defense line back to the Hongmen camp, preparing to participate in Xiang Kang's enthronement ceremony.

After the meeting began, the first to speak was Zhang Liang, who still had the rank of Korean Situ, and said very directly: "General Right, the foreign minister knows that you can't spare your hand to reinforce our King Han now, and the foreign minister does not dare to force it, if the right general needs it, the foreign minister can immediately revise the book and reply to our Han King, asking him to withdraw to Guanzhong to regroup, and then send troops to return to the country when the time is ripe." ”

"Thank you, Mr. Zifang, for understanding my distress." Xiang Kang nodded, and said more directly: "Yes, I can't spare my hands to reinforce the king of your country now, so I can only ask the king of Han to retreat for the time being, give me some time to deal with internal problems and expand the army, and then I can have the strength to help your country recover." ”

"General Right, what about Nanyang County?" Zhou Zeng asked: "Nanyang County is a big county, rich and prosperous, the population is quite large, and it has not been damaged much by the war, if we give up like this, it will not only be too pity, but let Liu Ji, who has already formed a mortal enmity with us, occupy it, and can threaten our Wuguan at any time, so that we will not be able to live in peace day and night?" ”

"That's what I'm most hesitant about at the moment." Xiang Kang frowned and replied: "It stands to reason that in order to gain time, our best choice should be not to care about the gains and losses of one city and one place, and take the initiative to give up Nanyang and retreat to Guanzhong, but if you give up Nanyang like this, it will be too pity, it is really difficult to choose, I don't know what you think." ”

Chen Ping and Zhang Liangquan both hesitated and didn't know how to answer, but Uncle Zhou, who was eating, stopped his chopsticks and said: "General Right, just like you said, the way of using soldiers, you must not care too much about the gains and losses of one city and one place, although it is a pity to give up Nanyang, but we have no hands to rescue Nanyang at the moment, and the most important thing is to buy time, temporarily sacrificing a county in exchange for our time to gain a foothold in Guanzhong, it is definitely worth it." Therefore, the last general thinks that it is better for us to make up our minds as soon as possible and be prepared to temporarily abandon the whole county of Nanyang. ”

Although it is clear that what Uncle Zhou said is right, Nanyang is a rich and prosperous county after all, and no matter how generous Xiang Kang is, it is difficult to make up his mind for a while. Zhang Liang saw Xiang Kang's thoughts, so he also said: "General Right, it is indeed a pity to give up Nanyang like this, but the situation is compelling, for the sake of the long-term, when it is time to make concessions, we had better choose to make concessions rationally." ”

"General Right, rest assured, the last general is not persuading you to give up Nanyang directly and give up an intact Nanyang County to the enemy." Uncle Zhou said again: "Nanyang has to give up, but we can't give up directly, we must send a partial division south as soon as possible to reinforce Nanyang, help the defenders of Nanyang to resist the bandit army outside the Guan, try to delay the speed of the bandit army outside the Guan, and also completely break Nanyang, so that even if the bandit army outside the Guanwai can get Nanyang, it can only get a dilapidated Nanyang County, so that the Guanwai thief army will not pose too much threat to our southern front." ”

"General Zhou is right." Chen Ping took over the conversation and said: "If we really want to make up our minds to give up Nanyang, we must first completely destroy Nanyang, because Yingbu and Chai Wu, the two thief armies, want to enter Nanjun and Hanzhong, they must use Nanyang as a springboard to enter the army, only if Nanyang is completely destroyed, so that they have no food and grass to replenish, they will not be able to successfully take Nanjun, let alone form a greater threat to our Hanzhong Bashu." ”

After that, Chen Ping added another sentence and said: "And there is another advantage to completely destroying Nanyang, that is, it can allow the three-way thief army of Yingbu, Chai Wu and Liu Ji to have disputes and contradictions over the remaining grain and grass military needs, so that we can sow discord in the next step, completely dismantle these three-way thief army, and reduce our main counteroffensive in the future." ”

He really couldn't spare his hand to keep Nanyang with all his might, and was forced to be helpless, Xiang Kang thought about it for a long time, but still made an extremely difficult decision, and said: "Immediately give orders to the counties of Nanyang south of Wancheng, let the local county orders open the county treasury, distribute all the money and grain to the local people, and lead the garrison to the north to withdraw to Guanzhong." By the way, I told those county orders, and said that I said that Wang Jianguo was about to be founded, and the court and the central government urgently needed to replenish the competent officials, as long as they followed the orders and came to Guanzhong, I would definitely reuse them. ”

"Brilliant plan!" Chen Ping applauded and said: "Distributing the grain stored in the county town that cannot be kept to the local people can not only buy the hearts of the people, but also make the thief army have no food to do after going south, so they can only rob it by force and lose the support of the people." In addition, those officials who have withdrawn have proved their loyalty to General You, and they can be used to replace the Xianyang officials and supplement our reliable manpower in governing the country. ”

"General Right is doing more than killing two birds with one stone." Zhang Liang also said gloomily: "Without the county order to preside over the overall situation, the southern part of Nanyang will definitely be in chaos, and there will naturally be ambitious rats who will jump out to occupy the mountain as the king, stirring up the southern part of Nanyang into a big mess, and letting the thief army take over the mess." ”

Zhang Liang's words reminded Xiang Kang, and Xiang Kang immediately said: "You can't just give up the people of Nanyang south of Wancheng, otherwise, after the chaos in the south of Nanyang, the local people will definitely resent us for ignoring them, and instead tend to support Liu Ji." We have to add an article to the order to those county orders, asking them to clearly tell the local people, that is, the thief army is powerful, we have no choice but to retreat temporarily, so that the local people who are willing to follow us will also go north and return to Guanzhong, and if we can't go, after we recover Nanyang in the future, we will give the whole county of Nanyang tax exemption for three years as compensation for them. ”

Zhang Liang and Chen Ping nodded in agreement, and Zhou Zeng asked again: "General Right, what about Wancheng and the county town north of Wancheng?" ”

"Send Zhong Liwu to lead the army to reinforce Lü Qi and Qi Gill to help Lü Qi and Qi Gill resist city by city." Xiang Kang said: "If you can hold the city, do your best to defend it, and if you can't hold it, you will first distribute all the food to the local people, and then abandon the city." In addition, he named Nanyang Taishou Lu Qi as the court lieutenant and Qi Gill as the Zhongwei Cheng, and asked them to recruit the army in Nanyang with all their might, recruit all the men of appropriate age into the army, and bring me back to Guanzhong as much as possible. ”

Zhou Zeng and Chen Ping agreed again, but after Xiang Kang had no more additions, they hurriedly drafted an order and issued an order to officials and Lu Qi in various parts of Nanyang, asking them to follow the order immediately. Xiang Kang also turned to Uncle Zhou, who was still eating, and said, "General Zhou, what do you mean by letting you leave the army on the front line of the Yellow River and come back alone to participate in my enthronement ceremony, I think you should know it very well in your heart, right?" ”

"If the last general is not mistaken." Uncle Zhou replied with a smile: "General Right is planning to defend on the southern front and attack on the northern front, so that the last general will deal with Dong Peng, who was named King Zhai by the former general, right?" ”

"Half right." Xiang Kang replied with a smile: "Dong Pampalifu is going to deal with it, but according to my estimate, unless Zhang Han and Sima Xin successfully take the Taiyuan and Dai counties that my brother gave them, and provide him with grain and grass backup, he will never dare to enter the army alone in the county." On the contrary, Wei Bao, who was sealed by my brother in the Shangdang Party in Hedong, had to be guarded against. ”

"General Right wants me to march into Hedong and expel Wei Bao?" Uncle Zhou's heart sank.

Xiang Kang nodded and said: "Hedong is very important to us, if we take Hedong, we can not only get the benefits of the salt pond and solve the problem of salt in Guanzhong, but also cut off the support of Zhang Han and Dong Peng, who are violent Qin soldiers, so that they can't successfully take Taiyuan and Daijun, which are currently controlled by Zhao State, so that the danger of our northern front can be solved without a fight." ”

Uncle Zhou was silent, and only said after a while: "The last general received the grace of the right general, even if he was broken bones, it is difficult to repay in case, since the right general ordered the last general to send troops to expel the old master, the last general naturally did not dare to resign, but Hedong was originally the old land of Wei, and the last general sent troops to Hedong to expel Wei Bao, who inherited the land of the old country, there must be an excuse for the division to be famous." ”

"I'll give you an excuse." Xiang Kang immediately replied: "After I become king, I will give Wei Bao an order as soon as possible, asking him to conclude an alliance with me and send troops to fight against the three thieves Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin who betrayed their homeland. ”

Seeing that Xiang Kang had made up his mind to start a war against Wei Bao, Uncle Zhou didn't say anything more, but immediately hugged his fists and took the order, Xiang Kang didn't say anything more, just smiled: "After talking for a long time, my stomach is hungry again, since I want to fast for five days from tomorrow, just eat another meal, serve wine and food, and we will pick up the wind and wash the dust for General Zhou together." ”

Xiang Kang did not forget the little girl Qi Min who fell in love with him at first sight, and after he was full of wine and food, Xiang Kang personally wrote a letter to his father-in-law Qi Gill, formally requesting Qi Gill to marry Qi Min's little girl to him as a concubine, and hinted that Qi Gill would be further promoted and reused in the future, and asked Qi Gill to send Qi Min to Guanzhong to reunite with him as soon as possible, together with the order to Lu Qi and Qi Gill and others, so as to ensure that Qi Min's little girl could return to his side.

Early the next morning, Xiang Kang separately called Zhong Liwu, the general of the young marshal army with both wisdom and bravery, and ordered him to lead 7,000 troops south to reinforce Nanyang, and secretly told him to be sure to destroy the northern part of Nanyang as much as possible, and not to win, only to bring the Nanyang army back to Guanzhong as much as possible, and at the same time ensure the safety of Wuguan. Zhong Liwu also knew that this was a test given to him by Xiang Kang, and wanted to exercise his ability to be independent, so he accepted this order without hesitation, and set off south with reinforcements on the same day, and rushed to Nanyang for reinforcements day and night.

After fasting for five days, Xiang Kang finally held the enthronement of the Great Emperor on the bank of the Weishui River, officially founded the Han State and proclaimed himself the King of Han, and stayed in Xianyang Palace. Zhou Zeng was named Minister of State, Chao Zhi was named Lieutenant, Chen Ping was named Captain of the Protector Army, and other civil and military forces also had their own rewards.

Xiang Kang, who is officially called the queen, is busier, in addition to dealing with the mountains of official affairs every day, he also has to take time out to personally participate in the development and experiment of new weapons and advanced agricultural tools, and establish an iron-smelting workshop with a scale far beyond the lower phase, fortunately, the Qin court also attached great importance to the development of science and technology before, and there are thousands of skilled craftsmen in Xianyang, Xiang Kang only needs to point out the technology, and then he does not need to practice it himself, and personally hammer and strike iron. Zhou Zeng is also very good at managing internal affairs and has helped Xiang Kang share a lot of work pressure.

While busy with internal affairs, Xiang Kang certainly did not forget the surrounding wars, and did not forget to go to Wei Bao in the honor of the King of Han, asking Wei Bao to change his course and conclude an alliance with himself, and join forces to deal with Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin, who betrayed the Guanzhong fathers and villagers, but when the national letter just arrived in the hands of Wei Bao in Anyi, Wei Bao, who was named the king of Western Wei by Xiang Yu, was also suddenly in a dilemma.

Wei Bao also has to be embarrassed, because the strength of his army is too weak, even if he takes advantage of the opportunity of the princes' alliance and Zhang Han and Wang Li's battle, he is fishing in the old land of Wei, and the army in his hands is only 20,000 in total, and the equipment is poor, weapons, grain and grass and military supplies are all lacking, not to mention the elite of the young marshal army that has just been renamed the Han army, even the Zhao Guobian division led by Shen Yang and Sima Wei can easily clean him up - the old land of Wei is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, no matter what army passes by, you have to catch a handful, Wei Bao, who had already been tossed to a pulp, and finally went to the old land of Wei to recruit troops and expand the army, of course, could not get any decent oil and water.

It was clear that if Xiang Kang was refused, the Han army, which had already been stationed on the front line of the Yellow River, might send troops to retaliate at any time, and for the sake of prudence, Wei Bao could only hurriedly call his cronies Bai Zhi and Feng Jing to discuss countermeasures with them. What surprised Wei Bao was that he had just explained the situation, and Bai Zhi and Feng Jing said in unison: "The king doesn't have to worry, Xiang Kang Xiao'er is now surrounded by enemies on all sides, and he has no time to take care of himself, what spare strength is there to send troops to Hedong?" We don't have to bother with his request, we just refuse. ”

"But our traitor Uncle Zhou of Wei is stationed on the west bank of the Yellow River, and we have an unstable foothold in Hedong, if we flatly refuse, what should Uncle Zhou, that traitor, immediately send troops to Hedong?" Wei Bao said worriedly.

"The king is at ease." Feng Jing sneered and said: "The army of Zhang Han, Sima Xin and Dong Peng is still in Hedong, and they can go south to aid Anyi at any time, and the army of the King of Henan (Sima Wei) is also close at hand, and they can send troops from Hanoi to reinforce our Western Wei State at any time, Xiang Kang Xiao'er and Zhou Shupifu are a hundred courages, and they will definitely not dare to kill themselves and take the risk of sending troops to Hedong." ”

"I still wish that Uncle Zhou's puffer, who can only talk about rhetoric, will send troops to die." Wei Bao's most trusted general, Bai Zhi, was even more contemptuous, and said: "That is, Xiang Kang's little boy has no eyes, and he actually relied on an incompetent person like Uncle Zhou as a general, and also asked him to garrison the Yellow River to prevent us from sending troops to Guanzhong, if he dares to cross the river to die, the last general will ensure that it is difficult for him to return to Guanzhong!" ”

Considering that he was indeed helped by the Tao, and it was difficult for Xiang Kang, who had not gained a stable foothold in Guanzhong, to immediately send troops to Hedong, Wei Bao thought about it, and decided to adopt the suggestions of two confidants, and immediately called Xiang Kang's messenger to present the letter of state, and rejected Xiang Kang's request for an alliance in person, Xiang Kang's envoy was kind and persuasive, Wei Bao did not listen at all, and Xiang Kang's envoy was helpless, so he had to leave with Wei Bao's reply.

The matter was not over, when Xiang Kang's envoy left Wei Bao's Chinese army tent, he wanted to return to the guest tent immediately and return to Guanzhong with his entourage to resume his life, but he didn't go far from the tent, and he bumped into a middle-aged woman in luxurious clothes and a moving girl dressed in fancy clothes. Everyone knows the heart of beauty, and Xiang Kang's envoy couldn't help but look at the mother and daughter a few more times, and then it was okay not to look at it, and after a closer look, the matter came out, and the messenger sent by Xiang Kang actually knew the mother and daughter, and couldn't help but say: "Wei Yuan? Thin girl? How did you end up here? ”

I didn't expect to meet acquaintances, Wei Yuan's mother and daughter, who had met Xiang Kang a few times, first looked at Xiang Kang's envoy carefully, Wei Yuan also found that it was a little familiar, so she said suspiciously: "Are you ......?" ”

"In Xia Yue Mash, the guest under the account of General Xiang, the former right general of the Chu State." Xiang Kang's envoy Yue Mo replied with a smile: "Wei Yuan, when you and Miss Bo were temporarily borrowed in our army, you met with Zai Xia a few times, but I don't know if Wei Yuan and Miss Bo can still remember." ”

"I remember." Wei Yuan suddenly realized and said, "That's right, we have met a few times under the tent of General Chu Guoyou. ”

"Not bad." Yue Mo nodded, and hurriedly asked, "Wei Yuan, Miss Bo, why are you here?" ”

Or under the re-questioning of Xiang Kang's envoy Yue Mash, Wei Yuan babbled about the origin of her and her daughter, it turned out that after Xiang Kang temporarily placed Wei Yuan's mother and daughter in Chu, Wei Bao raised troops to return to the country, just after Wei Yuan's mother and daughter's residence, Wei Yuan showed her signboard of Wei Guo's clan daughter, and cheekily begged Wei Bao to bring them into the army, and came to Hedong Anyi, today I want to come to see Wei Bao, but I didn't expect to meet Xiang Kang's staff here.

After roughly introducing his origin, Wei Yuan asked quite arrogantly, "Mr. Yue, how is General Xiang Kang's situation now?" Or is it not the same as before, sleeping on a wooden shelf all day long, eating bean soup and vegetable rice? ”

"Mother, how can you talk like that?" Bo Zhan stopped being coquettish, his tone was quite complaining, and he asked with concern: "Mr. Yue, General You, is he okay now?" ”

"It's still the same snobbish as ever." Yue Mo was made angry by Wei Yuan, and said with a smile: "Miss Bo, don't worry, our right general is very good now, but you can't call him the right general in the future, you have to call him the king, our right general has now established himself as the king of Han in Guanzhong." ”

"And." Yue Mo said to Wei Yuan again: "Wei Yuan has said, of course, our king's food, clothing, housing and transportation are completely different from before, he lived in Xianyang Palace, Zhong Ming Ding food, brocade robe crown, in and out of the carriage and horses, accompanied by hundreds of officials, can it be compared with before?" Even under it, it has been stained with light, and now it has been named the pawn pedestrian (official name) of the Han Kingdom. ”

"Lived in Xianyang Palace? Zhong Ming Ding Food? Wei Yuan was a little dumbfounded, and couldn't help asking, "How big is Xianyang Palace?" Is there a big palace in our Wei Kingdom? ”

Yue Mo laughed directly and said, "Wei Yuan said that he laughed, the palace of Wei can also be compared with Xianyang Palace?" Who in the world doesn't know that the Xianyang Palace is three hundred miles, the mountains and rivers enter the city, and the treasures of Kyushu are gathered, which are the current palaces of our Han King. Also, in the north of Xianyang, there is a palace exactly the same as the palace of the king of Wei, which is just one of the palaces of our Han king, a palace of the same scale, and our Han king now has more than a dozen. ”

Wei Yuan opened her mouth wide, then blinked her eyes, and looked at the dilapidated and withered Anyi City in the distance, Anyi City, which had been designated as the capital by Wei Bao, and then looked at the direction of Guanzhong in the distance, thoughtfully. Yue Mo didn't bother to continue talking nonsense with her, and said goodbye and left, while Wei Yuan pondered in place for a long time, and suddenly pulled up Bo Zhanzhi and walked back, saying, "Good daughter, let's go back." ”

"Mother, you forced your daughter here, why do you want to go back suddenly?" Bo asked with a blushing face.

"Silly daughter!" Wei Yuan scolded in a low voice, and then attached it to Bo Zhizhi's ear and said: "Mother brought you here, originally wanted to dedicate you to our King Wei as a concubine, but now that Xiang Kang's stupid boy is more developed, why should my mother waste your youth?" Go, go back, mother think about it carefully, and see if there is a way to dedicate you to that silly boy of Xiang Kang. ”

"Mother, what do you think of your daughter? Why do you want to dedicate it to this one moment and to that one time? ”

"Silly daughter, mother is for your good? I forgot that when we passed through Hanoi, my mother asked the surname Xu to tell your fortune to the gods, she said that your face can give birth to the Son of Heaven, since your life is so expensive, of course your mother is dedicated to the man who is most likely to be the Son of Heaven, you are married, and your mother can also enjoy happiness, right? ”