The prince pondered for a long time, and then spoke: "King, now that this war is over, although all countries have worked together to weaken the Chu State, with the size of the Chu State, this loss has not hurt the muscles and bones. Moreover, this battle also ended with the successful repulsion of the states of Chu, which greatly increased the prestige of the state of Chu. Therefore, the minister thought that it was not possible for the Chu State to be in a short period of time. ”

Speaking of this, Chu Zi showed a heavy face, and arched his hand: "The king, the ministers have heard of it, those who want to enrich the country should expand their land, those who want to strengthen the army, those who want to enrich their people, and those who want the king will do their virtue." In the past ten years, our country has been fighting with other countries continuously, with heavy losses, the people are poor, and the country is weak.

At the same time as the weakening of our Qi State, the Chu State in the south annexed the Yue State, the Wei State in the west took the opportunity to cultivate for several years, and the military force was expanded to 30,000 again, and the Zhao State in the northwest was still attacking the Zhongshan State after subduing the Lou Fu Lin Hu, and the Yan State in the north was also expanding its land to the north.

At this time, the minister thought that the most important thing for Qi Guo was not to continue to consume his energy and remaining strength with Qiang Chu, but to take the opportunity to make peace with Chu State, recuperate, and avoid continuing to fight with Chu State. And should take the initiative to shift the eyes of the state of Chu elsewhere. ”

Listening to Chu Zi's words, King Qi's face also became heavy.

Since the failure of Qi to destroy Yan, the national strength has been greatly damaged, and it has been weakened, and as a result, it has been regarded as weak and bullied by various countries, and has been besieged by various countries one after another.

Even if he and the ministers of the Qi State struggled to maintain it, they exhausted their mental strength, which only reversed the unfavorable situation. However, in the face of the continuous invasion of the Chu State, the Qi State was still inevitably weakening day by day.

While the Qi State is weakening, the surrounding countries are growing stronger.

Thinking of this, the King of Qi suddenly found that the situation around the Qi Kingdom seemed to be not optimistic.

Then, King Qi couldn't help but sigh for a long time, then raised his head to look at the prince in front of him, and bowed his hand and said, "Please Xiangguo teach me, at this moment, what should the widow do?" ”

"Don't dare!" The prince immediately bowed to the king of Qi, straightened up, and then spoke: "The king, according to the minister's opinion, the internal should be recuperated now.

Although extravagance allowed the rich and noble to use the money and food from the treasury to meet their personal needs, the people also benefited temporarily. However, the money and food of the rich and noble are not inexhaustible, and after several years of luxury, the savings in the homes of the powerful and rich are now insufficient. In the past two years, in order to meet their personal needs, they have intensified their exploitation of ordinary people.

What's even more terrifying is that the people are also comparing with each other, and the extravagance and waste are serious, and a large amount of wealth in our Qi country has been lost in vain.

At the same time, the country is constantly fighting, all kinds of reasons are superimposed, and now, the people of Qi are already poor and tired, overwhelmed, and the people are full of grievances, and there will be great trouble in the long run.

Therefore, the ministers thought that the king should immediately suspend extravagance, and call on the ministers and the people to be thrifty, so that the people can rest and accumulate national strength. ”

When the King of Qi heard this, he immediately responded: "Okay, the widow will summon Ji Zi later to discuss the suspension of extravagance and how to promote frugality." ”

Seeing that King Qi was full of promises, the problem that King Qi had been worried about from simplicity to luxury and from luxury to frugality did not seem to be a problem.

Then, the prince thought of King Qi's queen, and suddenly relieved his heart. The king of Qi can face the queen directly, can't he restrain his extravagance?

Thinking about it, he bowed and said, "The king is wise." ”

King Qi shook his head, and then asked: "Xiangguo, it is easy for widows to call for thrift at home, but what about abroad." The three countries of Chu Zhaoyan have become strong, and the widows are deeply worried about them, and they can't do anything about them? ”

Chu Zi responded: "King, Yan Guo is actually not difficult to deal with. Although the Yan State is large, the population is insufficient, and even if the Yan State can expand thousands of miles in the north, there is not enough population to transform it into national strength. Moreover, the Yan State continued to expand northward, and soon the two enemies of Xiongnu and Korea would be added. In particular, North Korea was established by the Minzi, which has a long history and is not weak in national strength.

Donghu and North Korea are cold lips and teeth, and North Korea will be invited to defeat Donghu, and North Korea will inevitably fight with Yan in order to protect itself. Therefore, as long as we contact North Korea, give support to North Korea, and let the Korean State and the Donghu people continue to harass Yan State in the back, then Yan State will continue to fight in the north. In this way, the Yan State will not be able to pose a threat to our Qi State for decades.

When this King Yan, who is full of hatred for my Qi country, dies, the successor of Yan may not continue Yan Guo's hatred for my Qi country. ”

Saying that, Chu Zi swallowed his saliva and continued: "As for the Zhao State, it is located in the middle of the world, bordering the five kingdoms of Qin, Wei, Han, Yan, and Qi, as long as my Qi State befriends the Qin State and maintains a close alliance with the Wei State, as long as the Three Jin Dynasty are not united, then the Zhao State is not worried, even if the Zhao State annexes the Zhongshan State." ”

King Qi nodded when he heard this, then looked at Chu Zi and hurriedly asked, "Xiangguo, what about Chu Guo?" ”

"Chu State!" The prince smiled: "King, the minister heard that Lao Tzu has a cloud: if you want to die, you will fix it; He who wants to be weak will be strong; If you want to abolish it, you will fix it; He who takes what he wants, he will hold on to it. Therefore, the minister thought that since the state of Chu could not be its enemy for the time being, then befriend the state of Chu and show weakness to show the strength of the state of Chu to all countries in the world.

The purpose of the siege of Chu by various countries is to weaken Chu State, and although the defeat of this war will allow countries to make peace with Chu State temporarily, it will not change the fear and hostility of all countries towards Chu State. As long as there is an opportunity, then the countries will unite again to weaken the state of Chu. ”

"So what's the next chance?" King Qi asked hesitantly. This time, the countries took the opportunity of the Chu State to destroy the Yue and unite, but they were repelled by the Chu State, and at the same time, the internal contradictions of the alliance emerged, and the six-nation alliance was fragmented, and it was impossible to unite again in a short time.

"The King." Chu Zi stretched out his right hand, raised his index finger and middle finger, and said with a smile: "In the near future, there will be two opportunities to join forces with Chu." ”

"Twice?" King Qi was stunned.

Chu Zi nodded and said: "King, this is the first time to be the Song State, this battle of the Song State swallowed more than 500 miles north of the Chu State, with the greed of the Song King, he must not be willing to return all the land to the Chu State." And what we have to do is to unite Wei to befriend Song and give Song enough confidence to occupy more land. In this way, the contradictions between the Chu and Song dynasties could not be reconciled.

Then, we continue to promote the destruction of the Song Dynasty and disturb the internal affairs of the Song State, as long as the Song State is in chaos, then with the hatred between the Chu and Song countries, the Chu State will definitely send troops to attack the Song Dynasty in order to recover the lost territory. And we, the State of Qi, together with the State of Wei, responded to the call of the King of Chu, and the Three Kingdoms divided the State of Song together. As soon as the Song State is destroyed, then our Qi State will be able to contact all countries again and unite the weak Chu.

This is the method of using the Chu State to destroy the Song State, and then my Qi State to obtain the Song State. Just like this time when the Chu State destroyed the Yue State, the Qi State and the Chu State divided the Yue State, and the Qi State obtained all the land north of the Huaishui of the Yue State, but no country thought that my Qi State was greedy, cruel, and powerful. ”

The King of Qi laughed when he heard this, and then said with great joy: "The widow heard that the Chu State has been contacting the ministers of the Song State all along, intending to make the Song prince the king. That being the case, then we will help Chu State. Xiangguo, mobilize our people to support the crown prince of Song Kingdom together, and make some trouble for that old guy in Song Kingdom. ”

"Yui."

After a pause, King Qi opened his mouth and asked again: "Xiangguo, then what is the second chance?" ”