In a word, Mr. Shusun's mission to Zhao Guo this time is really not as good as the previous few times, not only that, but it is also much more unsmooth than Mr. Shusun's own worries.

After leading a team of entourage to travel a long distance, over the mountains and mountains, and finally came to the vicinity of Jingcheng, Mr. Shusun and his entourage were very smoothly contacted the Zhao army team stationed in Jingcheng, and after learning the identity and intention of Mr. Shusun's envoy, the Zhao sergeant also understood etiquette, and very politely invited Mr. Shusun to report the situation in front of the camp of the army, and let Mr. Shusun meet the Jingcheng guard of the Zhao army on the same day.

Mr. Shusun's good luck also came to an abrupt end, after explaining his intentions, Mr. Shusun asked Xia Shuo to send someone to escort him to Julu to meet Zhao Xie and Zhang Er in accordance with the unwritten rules among the princes, but Xia Shuo shook his head and said: "Mr. Shusun, I'm very sorry, this general can't help you, not only can't send someone to send you to Julu, but on the contrary, you have to ask you to go back immediately, and you are not allowed to stay in Jingcheng." ”

"Why?" Mr. Shusun was extremely strange and asked: "General Xia, your two armies have not yet started a war, and we are going to the capital of your country as an envoy, even if King Zhao is unwilling to meet the envoy, according to reason, general, you should also make a decision before you King Zhao, so there is a reason to drive him away directly?" ”

"According to the situation, it should be like this, if Mr. comes two or three days early, General Ben will definitely send someone to send you to Julu to meet our king in accordance with the rules." Xia Shuo's answer was very strange, and he said in a rather helpless tone: "But there is no way, the prison army sent by our king to Jingcheng has already made it clear that our king has issued an edict to completely cut off all contacts with your country, not to accept national credentials, and not to allow envoys to enter, and the king's order is difficult to disobey, so this general can only ask Mr. You to leave immediately." ”

"Is that what your country has done? Even the envoys were not allowed to enter the country? Mr. Shusun asked dumbfoundedly: "You and I don't have such a deep grudge, how can we do things so desperately?" ”

"The king's decree, this general will not dare to disobey." Xia Shuo didn't explain, but just urged: "Mr. Shusun, please go back, please don't come again in the future, General Ben is acting on orders, and he will not let the envoy of your Han Kingdom enter the country under any circumstances." ”

After speaking, Xia Shuo waved his hand, and the guards in his tent understood, and immediately stepped forward to make an invitation gesture, asking Mr. Shusun to leave immediately, but at this time, a voice suddenly came from in front of the big tent and asked, "General Xia, I heard that the Han thief really sent a messenger?" Did you drive it away? ”

"Huh? Does that sound familiar? ”

Mr. Shusun was strange in his heart, and when he found that this voice seemed to be heard there, Xia Shuo, who was sitting in the middle of the handsome seat, had already quickly stood up, with a flattering smile on his face, and arched his hand at Mr. Shusun's back again and again, and said, "Zhao Jianjun, why did you come in person?" Come on, quickly set up a seat for Zhao Jianjun. ”

"I heard that the Han thief really sent a messenger to come and see the situation."

When the vaguely familiar voice answered, Mr. Shusun also turned his head to look at the prison army sent by Zhao Xie to Jingcheng, but after only one glance, Mr. Shusun was surprised and blurted out: "Zhao Guowei, why are you?" ”

Coincidentally, Mr. Uncle Sun really knew this prison army, not only did he know, but strictly speaking, he also had some friendship, because this prison army was none other than Zhao Wu, an important confidant of Zhang Ao who was second only to Guan Gao when he was in Hangu Pass, and had a lot of dealings with Mr. Uncle Sun at that time, and they also drank and ate together. And Zhao Wu obviously didn't expect that the envoy of the Han army happened to be Mr. Shusun, so he couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded, and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Mr. Shusun, why are you?" ”

"Zhao Jianjun, do you also know Mr. Uncle Sun?" Xia Shuo was also a little surprised, and hurriedly complained in a flattering tone: "Mr. Uncle Sun, you said earlier that you knew our Zhao Jianjun, come quickly, and set up a seat for Mr. Uncle Sun." Also, arrange wine and food, and pick up the wind and wash the dust for our friends of Zhao Jianjun. ”

made Mr. Uncle Sun angry, seeing that he was a friend of Zhao Wu, even the general of the Zhao Army, who he had never met, immediately changed his tone and received him warmly, but Zhao Wu, who had a small friendship with him before, waved his hand and said: "General Xia, there is no need for wine and food, I just know Mr. Uncle Sun." ”

Xia Shuo, who was obviously deliberately currying favor with Zhao Wu, immediately shut his mouth, and Zhao Wu said to Mr. Uncle Sun again: "Mr. Uncle Sun's forgiveness, it stands to reason that for the sake of the past feelings, you should be treated to you well." But our king and Zhang Xiang have already made it clear that they want to cut off all contacts with your Han Kingdom, and they are not allowed to have any private contact, so I am sorry, I can only ask you to leave immediately and do not stay in Jingcheng. ”

"Zhao Guowei, as for that?" Mr. Shusun smiled bitterly and asked, "We used to be friends who fought side by side, and your two countries have concluded an alliance more than once, do you need to be treated like this?" ”

"But you Han King has done too many things that are sorry for our Zhao Kingdom." Zhao Wu sneered and said: "When Zhang Han and Sima Xin's thief army attacked us, you stood by and watched, and afterwards you wanted to annex our Shangdang County, and shamelessly occupied Taiyuan County, Yanmen County and Dai County, which should belong to our Zhao State, these things are piled up, and our Zhao State will definitely not be able to forgive them, so we can only treat you like this." ”

"That's right." Xia Shuo next to him hurriedly echoed and shouted: "If you want our king and Zhang Xiang to forgive you, return our land and city first!" ”

"Zhao Guowei, those things may not all be the fault of our Han Kingdom, right?" Mr. Shusun had the rare courage to retort in the enemy camp, and then said: "Even if all the mistakes are on our side, it won't even be our messenger, right?" ”

"This is the decision of our king and Zhang Xiang, we can only act according to the order." Zhao Wu was too lazy to talk to Mr. Uncle Sun, and urged: "Mr. Uncle Sun, please, don't come again in the future." ”

I never thought that the old acquaintance Zhao Wu would be so ruthless, Mr. Uncle Sun had no choice but to quickly take out two sealed letters, and said: "Zhao Guowei, your country is not allowed to enter the country, so I don't dare to force it, I only ask Zhao Guowei for help, for the sake of the past feelings, send these two letters to King Zhao and Zhang Xiang respectively, this is always okay, right?" ”

Zhao Wu was more ruthless than Mr. Shusun imagined, shook his head decisively, and said: "I'm sorry, the king and Zhang Xiangyou have clearly explained that they want to cut off all contacts with your country, including correspondence, of course, and there is no way to help you with this." ”

"But are these two letters very important?" Mr. Shusun hurriedly emphasized, and quietly glanced at Zhao Wu.

"No matter how important it is!" Zhao Wu turned a blind eye to Mr. Shusun's hints, yawned, and said, "Mr. Shusun forgives his sins, and when he is tired, he will leave first." General Xia, work hard and send Mr. Uncle Sun away immediately. ”

After that, Zhao Wu turned around and left, Xia Shuo nodded and agreed, Mr. Shusun was furious in his heart, and turned his head angrily, but he inadvertently saw that when Xia Shuo raised his head, he looked at the back of Zhao Wu leaving, and the flattering smile on his face suddenly disappeared, revealing a disdainful expression, and his eyes became extremely resentful, but such a look was only fleeting, and immediately disappeared without a trace. If it weren't for Mr. Shusun's inadvertent glimpse, there would have been almost no chance of noticing.

"Mr. Uncle Sun, please, don't embarrass General Ben, you also saw it, this is also what Zhao Jianjun meant."

Xia Shuo spoke again to urge, and the guards in the tent also stepped forward again, showing their weapons to force Mr. Shusun to get out of the house quickly, but Mr. Shusun had no choice but to swallow his anger and take back the letter, leave the Zhao army camp under the supervision of the Zhao soldiers, and return to Jinyang with anger to hand over orders to Uncle Zhou.

Knowing the story of Mr. Shusun's envoy, Uncle Zhou, Zhou Shu, Cui Guang and others were also very surprised, and they all said: "The thief army of Zhao is so ruthless, even if you don't let our envoys enter the country, why don't you even accept our letters?" ”

"That's how ruthless!" Mr. Shusun replied very angrily: "I knew that Zhao Wu's puppet would be so ungrateful, when we were in Hangu Pass, we should have sent troops a little later, and let Sima Wei take Zhao Guo's thief army to serve him and Zhang Ao Xiao'er!" ”

"Something strange." Zhou Shu said in surprise: "Zhang Er respects Xinling Jun, the name of hospitality is known all over the world, even if he is determined to break off diplomatic relations with us, at least he should treat our envoy well, how can he be so ruthless that even our envoy is not allowed to enter the country?" ”

Uncle Zhou and Mr. Uncle Sun spread their hands together, and they both said that they didn't understand the reason, and Cui Guang on the other side frowned and calculated, and after a long time, he suddenly said: "Mr. Luli, will there be such a possibility?" Zhang Erpifu had already gotten what he wanted from the King of Western Chu, and he was already satisfied, and felt that there was no need to bargain with us anymore, so he did things so desperately and completely cut off all contact with us? ”

Wake up the person in the dream with a word, Zhou Shu also suddenly woke up, and quickly nodded and said: "Yes, it is very possible, before Xiang Yu used the throne to buy Chen Yu, Sima Wei and Shen Yang, he would definitely not think of using the throne to buy Zhang Er, who actually held the power of Zhao State, Zhang Er coveted the throne that Xiang Yu promised him, and seeing that Xiang Yu was powerful, it is not surprising that he made up his mind to completely cut off all contacts with us!" ”

Cui Guang nodded, and said helplessly: "If this is the case, I am afraid that we will not have any chance to buy Zhang Er again, and for Zhao Guo, I am afraid that we can only always use force to speak." ”

"Not necessarily!" Zhou Shu hurriedly shook his head and said: "If this is the case, our affairs may be much easier, at least we can justifiably separate the monarchs and ministers of Zhao State and the army of Zhao State, so that there is no way for the whole Zhao State to work together to resist our attack." ”

Not good in the military aspect, but in the political aspect, the four old men of Shangshan are better than one another, Zhou Shu has just made a start, Cui Guang immediately understood what he meant, and hurriedly said: "What does Mr. Lu Li mean, we directly play the banner of helping Zhao Xie crusade against the rebels of Zhao State?" ”

"Not bad." Zhou Shu immediately nodded and said with a smile: "Zhang Erpifu has the sole power, Zhao Xie didn't dare to say anything on the surface, and said in his heart that there was no dissatisfaction, I'm afraid even he didn't believe it." The same is true within the Zhao army, and there must be people who will be dissatisfied with Zhang Erpifu's abuse of power and bullying the master. In this case, as long as we raise the banner and claim that Zhang Er is ready to usurp the throne and stand on his own, in order to crusade against Zhang Er, a rebel minister of Zhao State, to help Zhao Xie regain the reputation of Zhao State, Zhao Xie and Zhang Er will definitely intensify the conflict, and those who are dissatisfied with Zhang Er in the Zhao army may also be won over by us to help us deal with Zhang Er and reduce our resistance to advance. ”

"Mr. Luli, do you remember the edict that our king shouted at the beginning?" Cui Guang hurriedly said: "Anyway, there is no one to testify against him, so we simply forged an edict from Zhao Xie, using Zhao Xie's reputation to denounce Zhang Er's crime of bullying the monarch, inviting us to send troops to fight against Zhang Er, and also calling on the righteous and loyal ministers in the Zhao army to help us clean up Zhang Er." In this way, under the confusion, Zhang Er and Zhao Xie just want not to fight to the death in secret, and those easily wavering generals in the Zhao army can also surrender to us justifiably, and there is no need to have any moral burden! ”

Zhou Shu applauded and laughed, and said: "If we don't do anything, in addition to forging Zhao Xie's edict, we will simply send a secret envoy to sneak to Zhao State, and secretly contact Zhao Xie in exchange for helping Zhao Xie regain power, and persuade Zhao Xie to help us clean up our ears." If we can succeed in this way, we must have a great chance of winning Zhao Xie to help us, even if we can't succeed, and Zhang Er finds out, Zhang Er will definitely not turn a deaf ear, if he does anything out of the ordinary to Zhao Xie, the contradictions within the Zhao army will definitely be greater! ”

Cui Guang and Zhou Shu, the two old men of Shangshan, said a word, their eyebrows fluttered, and they were full of interest, and Uncle Zhou next to him also nodded again and again, appreciating their high opinions, but poor Uncle Sun was frightened when he heard it, and quickly interjected and said: "Xia Huanggong, Mr. Luli, don't look for me about sending someone to contact Zhao Xie secretly, the lower officials are incompetent, and they are not at all sure that they can sneak to the capital of Zhao Guo smoothly and get in touch with Zhao Xie." ”

"Mr. Uncle Sun, rest assured, whether to send an envoy to contact Zhao Xie secretly, we still have to discuss carefully, and we haven't made up our minds yet." Cui Guang comforted and said: "Even if we really want to send a secret envoy to contact Zhao Xie, we will definitely not invite you to come out, because Zhang Er's son and his henchmen, there are too many people who know you, and as soon as you arrive in Julu, they may be discovered." ”

Mr. Shusun breathed a sigh of relief, and then put the heart that mentioned his throat back into his stomach, and then arched his hand to Uncle Zhou and said, "General Zhou, the lower official is very tired, if there is nothing else, can the lower official leave first and go back to rest?" ”

"Mr. Uncle Sun has worked hard, go back and rest." Uncle Zhou said very generously: "Tomorrow you will rest in your residence for a day, and you will come back to take up your post the day after tomorrow." ”

When Mr. Shusun heard the great joy, he hurriedly said goodbye and left, but when he walked to the door of the hall, Mr. Shusun remembered one more thing, hesitated for a moment, and then turned around and said to Uncle Zhou, Zhou Shu and others: "General Zhou, Xia Huanggong, Mr. Luli, Xiaguan sent Jing Cheng this time, and found a situation that may be useful to you." ”

"What did Mr. Uncle Sun find?" Uncle Zhou asked casually.

"The thief general of Zhao Guo, who led the army to garrison Jingcheng, said that he seemed to be very dissatisfied with Zhao Xie and Zhao Wu, the prison army sent to him by Zhang Er." Mr. Shusun replied truthfully, and then carefully said the expression of Xia Shuo that he had inadvertently seen, and then said that Xia Shuo was respectful and flattering to Zhao Wu on the surface.

"And that's the case?" Although it was the details of the last branch, Uncle Zhou, Zhou Shu and the others were all very interested together, and Cui Guang hurriedly asked: "Mr. Uncle Sun, are you sure that Xia Shuo is dissatisfied with his supervisor Zhao Wu behind his back?" Is there a mistake? ”

"It's impossible to be mistaken." Mr. Shusun said quite self-deprecatingly: "Observing words and feelings, it has always been the mastery of the lower officials, if even Xia said what kind of look he had on Zhao Wu Pifu behind his back, the lower officials would be wrong, then the lower officials' heads may not be able to be saved." ”

Cui Guang and Zhou Shu glanced at each other quickly, blinking at the old eyes that seemed to be muddy but never faint, and Zhou Shu suddenly remembered another detail, and hurriedly asked: "Mr. Uncle Sun, if the old man is not mistaken, you seem to have said just now that Zhao Wu's prison army was the Jing Cheng who was sent to serve as the supervisor two or three days before you arrived at Jing Cheng?" ”

"There's this." Mr. Shusun nodded and said: "Xia Shuo once said to Xia Guan in person, saying that even if Xia Guan arrived three or two days early, he would send someone to send me to Julu, but Zhao Wu came and conveyed Zhao Xie's bullshit order, so he could only ask Xia Guan to come back immediately." ”

Zhou Shu showed joy and analyzed: "Zhao Wu was firmly helping Zhang Ao deal with Chen Yu in Hangu Pass, he must be Zhang Er's absolute henchman, Zhang Er did not send a supervisor army before, and the time should be to receive the news that we have taken Jinyang, and found that we may attack Jing Cheng, and then send Zhao Wu to serve as a supervisor, which clearly shows that Zhang Er should not be at ease with Xia Shuo?" Zhang Er was not worried about Xia Shuo, Xia Shuo was dissatisfied with the henchmen sent by Zhang Er, could it be that Xia Shuo was dissatisfied with Zhang Er? ”

"It's also possible that it's just a coincidence, it's just that Xia said that he was dissatisfied with Zhao Wu, the prison army." Cui Guang proposed another possibility, but still said to Uncle Zhou: "General Zhou, no matter what the situation is, we might as well carefully investigate the situation of this Xia Shuo and see if there is any opportunity to take advantage of it." ”

"It's easy to do." Uncle Zhou immediately said: "Jinyang City has been controlled by the Zhao army for nearly a year, and there are many officials in the city who have served the Zhao army, there must be people who know the situation of Xia Shuo, so I will arrange people to investigate." ”

I don't know if I don't check, I was shocked when I checked it, and it was just the evening of the same day, and the Han officer who was ordered to investigate the general of Zhao State, Xia Shuo, asked an important situation that surprised Uncle Zhou and others in the mouth of the Jinyang official who had been on an errand for the Zhao army-Xia Shuo, the general of the Zhao army, turned out to be the old subordinate of Chen Yu, the former general of Zhao State! There are also rumors that he is Chen Yu's pro-confidant!

"No wonder Zhang Er will say that Xia Er is not at ease enough for this horseman, and no wonder Xia said that he will be dissatisfied with Zhang Er's henchmen, and the reason for doing it for a long time is here!"

After the big joy sounded, Uncle Zhou, Zhou Shu, Cui Guang and the others didn't even blink their eyelids, they immediately got together, and discussed with a cruel smile how to attack the shameless trick of Xia Shuo, the general of the Zhao army......