Originally, Sima Wei didn't want to shed the muddy water between Xiang Yu and Xiang Kang, especially when he had ascended the throne and became the king of Henan, Sima Wei was even more reluctant to use his national reputation to make a wedding dress for Xiang Yu, but Xiang Yu's envoy clearly told Sima Wei, saying that this was also a test for Sima Yu to Sima Wei, only if Sima Wei honestly did what Xiang Yu asked, Xiang Yu could believe that Sima Wei would not secretly collude with Xiang Kang, and he could be more assured and bold to share more benefits with Sima Wei in the future.

There is still evil and evil retribution, although there is no grievance with Xiang Kang in the past, and there is no enmity in the near future, but Li Zuoche, who has become Sima Wei's chief strategist, after carefully weighing the pros and cons, still persuaded Sima Wei: "King, do what the king of Western Chu asks, Xiang Yu is strong and Xiang Kang is weak, and we are sandwiched between the two, there is no chance to be alone, only if the strong bully the weak, can it be most beneficial to us." Otherwise, even if we curry favor with Xiang Kang and form an alliance with him, and he sends troops to help reinforce us, we will still not be able to resist the attack of the Western Chu army. ”

Considering that the consequences of offending Xiang Yu with a fiery temper must be more serious, and Xiang Yu is really good to himself, among the princes and kings he divided, he is the only one who can directly get the canonized land and city without using force, and he is still sealed to himself or the fertile land of the Central Plains, including Aocang, Sima Xin has no choice but to arrange a secret envoy to go to Hanguguan to negotiate and contact with the Han army against his will, exercise strategy for Xiang Yu, and according to Xiang Yu's requirements, deliberately did not tell his secret envoy the true truth, used Xiang Kang's best death to clean up Xiang Kang.

The nearest and galloping road can be passed, the light car rushed to Hangu Pass from Luoyang to Hangu Pass in just over three days, showing his identity certificate to the Han army guarding Hangu Pass after explaining his intention, you must know that Sima Wei sent a secret envoy to contact Xiang Kang, the Han soldiers guarding Hangu Pass did not dare to slack off, and quickly sent someone to escort Sima Wei's secret envoy straight to Xianyang, Xiang Kang was also quite surprised when he heard the report, and led Chen Ping and Zhang Liang, who had returned from Wuguan, to meet Sima Wei's secret envoy at the first time.

After meeting, Xiang Kang and Sima Wei's secret envoy only said a few polite words, and immediately asked Sima Wei about the purpose of contacting him, and Sima Wei's envoy replied truthfully: "The king of Han forgives his sins, the matter is very important, in order to avoid leaking the news, our king did not let the little envoy bring the letter of state, just let the little envoy bring a message, our king received absolutely reliable news, Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu, has sent the doctor Wu Shi as an envoy, rushed to Julu to contact Zhao State, to persuade Zhao State to break off the alliance with the King of Han, With the King of Han, you turned your face and started a war. ”

"Is there such a thing?" Xiang Kang was not too surprised, and just asked, "Does your envoy know how the King of Western Chu intends to persuade the Zhao State to break the alliance and start a war with this king?" ”

"We will no longer pursue the previous mistakes of Zhang Er's father and son, and return Shangdang County to Zhao State." Sima Wei's secret envoy replied: "As for other specific details, our king and the envoy have no way of knowing, but our king estimates that the possibility of Zhao betraying your country is very great, and we also ask the king of Han to take precautions as soon as possible, so as not to be caught off guard and suffer a big loss." ”

After quietly exchanging glances with Chen Ping and Zhang Liang, Xiang Kang politely thanked Sima Wei's secret envoy and said: "Thank you for your envoy who has traveled thousands of miles to report to this king, and I also ask your envoy to report back to the king of Henan, just say that this favor is received by this king, and if there is an opportunity in the future, he will definitely double the reward." ”

"King Han, don't be polite." Sima Wei's secret envoy hurriedly said: "Don't dare to deceive the king of Han, our king does this, but also for the interests of our country, our king has been with Zhao since the beginning of his claim to be the king, and now the king of Western Chu will communicate with Zhao alone without informing our country, whether he will sacrifice our Henan country to please Zhao in the future, no one dares to guarantee, so our king hopes that the king of Han can know that it is not impossible for our country and Han to become friends." ”

Sima Wei's secret envoy's explanation is completely reasonable, Xiang Yu did not consider the interests and situation of his allies, he chose to reconcile with Zhao Guo behind Sima Wei's back, no matter who was in Sima Wei's position, he had to prevent Xiang Yu from suddenly stabbing himself in the back, Sima Wei secretly showed favor to Xiang Kang in order to protect himself, and everyone could understand. Therefore, Xiang Kang immediately hit the snake with the stick, and said: "Your envoy can rest assured, please also ask your envoy to understand and report back to the king of Henan, if he is willing, he can send someone to discuss the details of the alliance with this king at any time, and this king is waiting for him at any time." ”

"Thank you, King Han." Sima Wei's secret envoy hurriedly thanked him, and said: "There is another thing, our king has already issued an order to the border, so that our country's garrison on the western front should exercise restraint, not allow any conflict with the military and people of your country, and allow free travel of merchants and travelers, I wonder if the king can do the same?" ”

Xiang Kang laughed and said: "Of course there is no problem, this king will go to the border immediately, handle it as usual, and keep it so that your country does not have to go all the way to buy salt from Qi State, and you can buy cheap Hedongchi salt nearby." ”

Sima Wei's envoy hurriedly thanked him again, and when Xiang Kang was about to order a banquet to entertain him, he never thought that Sima Wei's envoy said again: "King Han, there is one more thing, although our king is not sure whether it is true or false, but this matter is too important for your country, our king still tells the little envoy to report to you, so that the king of Han knows the situation." ”

"What important news did the king of Henan ask your envoy to bring to this king?" Xiang Kang asked casually.

"Unconfirmed news." Sima Wei's envoy replied: "Your country's Xincheng Jun General Li Shang sent a confidant envoy to Pengcheng to ask Emperor Chu Yi and the King of Western Chu to release his brother Li Shiqi, and to canonize the land of Bashu in Hanzhong to him to establish a state and claim the king, in exchange, General Li Shang will defect from Han and lead the soldiers and horses of Bashu in Hanzhong to help the King of Western Chu crusade against your King of Han." ”

Good is rewarded with good, evil is rewarded with evil, it's not that it is not repaid, the time has not come, and Xiang Kang, who likes to sow discord at every turn, has finally come. Hearing the words of Sima Wei's envoy, Rao is how treacherous Xiang Kang is, how witty Chen Ping is, and how far-reaching Zhang Liang's resourcefulness is, and his face can't help but change together, and then Xiang Kang didn't even think about it, and immediately hummed: "Your envoy is too much, right?" There is no evidence, why frame General Li Shang? Could it be that your envoy is here to plot for the king of Western Chu and the king of Henan to sow discord between the monarchs and ministers of our Han Kingdom? ”

"King Han, our king knows that you will definitely misunderstand." Sima Wei's envoy said helplessly: "But our king is really good, so we must report this matter to the king of Han, if the king doesn't believe it, the little envoy is helpless." ”

Xiang Kang's eyes were sharp, staring at the eyes of Sima Wei's envoy, and the Sima Wei envoy who was not ashamed in his heart was open-minded, letting Xiang Kang observe his expression, and Xiang Kang, the master of the room, quickly understood that this messenger either didn't tell a lie, or he didn't know the inside story at all, and he couldn't ask the real truth anyway. Then, for the sake of prudence, Xiang Kang couldn't help but ask, "How did the king of your country know about this news?" ”

"Of course, our king has installed it in Pengcheng to inquire about it." Sima Wei's envoy replied calmly, and said: "However, our king is not sure whether this news is true or false, and it is only out of kindness that the little envoy can report to the king of Han by the way." ”

Xiang Kang was silent, and only after a while did he order: "Your envoy will go down to rest first, come here, please ask the envoy of the king of Henan to go to the pavilion to rest, so that you can be entertained." ”

The guards in the palace sang a promise, and immediately stepped forward to lead Sima Wei's envoy down to rest, but as soon as the envoy left the palace, Xiang Kang immediately asked Chen Ping and Zhang Liang: "Mr. Chen Ping, Mr. Zifang, what do you think?" ”

After quickly exchanging glances with Zhang Liang, Chen Ping replied: "There are two possibilities, one is that there is really such a thing, and the other is that there are masters around the King of Western Chu who have seen our weaknesses and carefully designed them to make us internal chaos." ”

Xiang Kang was silent, and only after a while did he say hatefully: "Disgusting dead man, Li Shang is indeed our biggest weakness, although most of the cities are voluntarily surrendered, but Hanzhong Bashu is indeed taken by Li Shang for us, and the situation on the southern front has been critical, we can only let the Li Shang who is most familiar with the local situation stay in Hanzhong Bashu for a long time, I didn't expect to leave such a hidden danger, giving the enemy a chance to take advantage of." ”

Chen Ping nodded helplessly, and had to admit that the enemy did target the biggest weakness of his army this time. Zhang Liang was relatively calm and asked Chen Ping: "Mr. Chen Ping, you are the captain of the Protector Army, the official general who is responsible for supervising your country, have you found any clues?" ”

"If there were, of course I would have reported to the King of Han a long time ago." Chen Ping smiled bitterly and said: "But with such a long distance and such a narrow and difficult road, I am not sure whether my subordinates are competent or not, and whether they have taken care of General Lishang for the King of Han." ”

There is no God's perspective, and it is too far away, Zhang Liang does not dare to make any package tickets for Li Shang - especially since Li Shiqi is still being held hostage by Xiang Yu. In desperation, Zhang Liang could only say this: "King Han, now that Chai Wu is dead, Liu Ji and Yingbu are also busy seizing their fiefdoms, your southern front has turned from danger to safety, for the sake of prudence, it is better to transfer General Li Shang back to Guanzhong." ”

Xiang Kang was extremely moved, but after thinking about it for a while, Xiang Kang quickly shook his head and said: "At this time, we must not move Li Shang, who can see for my brother that Li Shang is our biggest weakness, the discord plan secretly arranged will definitely not be as simple as arranging Sima Wei to come forward to sow discord, there will definitely be other corresponding arrangements, if I transfer Li Shang back to Guanzhong at this time, it will definitely only fall into his calculations, and it is likely to backfire, so that Li Shang feels that he has lost my trust and really has a different heart." ”

After that, Xiang Kang added in his heart, "Especially now I'm not sure if Li Shang has different intentions, if he really has different intentions, I will suddenly transfer him back to Guanzhong, it will be difficult for him not to rebel immediately." ”

"How about strengthening the surveillance of General Lishang?" Zhang Liang proposed again: "While sending people to keep an eye on General Li Shang, and at the same time giving orders to reliable people to prepare them, and if they find that General Li Shang really has different intentions, they will take him down immediately?" ”

"It's more likely to have an accident that way!" Xiang Kang shook his head decisively and said: "If the enemy wants to divide General Lishang, he will definitely arrange all kinds of illusions to lure us into being fooled, and it is easy for us to completely fall into the enemy's trap just by surveillance." Let people be prepared to kill Li Shang at any time, once they are discovered by Li Shang, they may really force him to rebel. ”

Zhang Liang finally realized the disgusting power of being separated by others - he didn't dare to be gullible, he didn't dare to take it lightly, and if he handled it a little improperly, the fake traitor was likely to become a real traitor. Helpless, Zhang Liang could only say to Xiang Kang: "King Han, the divisive plan has always been your forte, how to crack it, you should also have the best way, right?" ”

"There's only one way to crack the divisive scheme." Xiang Kang frowned and said: "It's just to be open and honest, sit down with Li Shang face-to-face, but there must be a prerequisite for doing this, that is, Li Shang really doesn't have any dissent, otherwise, it will only be counterproductive." ”

"Maybe it may be possible to prompt Li Shang to start early." Chen Ping added for Xiang Kang: "If Li Shang really has different intentions and learns that the news has leaked, he will definitely act immediately, and strike first, so as not to leave us any chance to eliminate hidden dangers." ”

Zhang Liang is indeed not good at conspiracy and trickery, but the overall situation is unrivaled in this era, and after a little calculation, he said: "King Han, the foreign minister thinks that you should be open and honest with General Li Shang, put your heart into account, directly tell him the details of the matter, and let him choose how to deal with this matter himself." ”

"The reason is also very simple, if General Li Shang really has a different heart, the distance is so far away, no matter what you do now, you can't stop him from launching a rebellion, instead of hiding and hiding, it is better to go straight into it and let him know the truth, and then if he doesn't have a different heart, of course he will find a way to prove his innocence, if he hides a different heart and directly initiates a rebellion, King Han, you will immediately send troops to quell the rebellion, how can it be better than mutual suspicion and suspicion with General Li Shang!"

After listening to Zhang Liang's suggestion, Xiang Kang found that the best way at present is to cut through the mess quickly and tell Li Shang the truth with a single knife, so that Li Shang can not only prove his innocence, but also make the enemy unable to continue to fish in troubled waters, and arrange all kinds of illusions to destroy the unity of the Han army - especially when Xiang Kang previously arranged for Li Shang to be in charge of the western expedition to Hanzhong, he had left a certain amount of back hand, and arranged a lot of loyal and reliable young marshals and old men to give Li Shang a hand, even if Li Shang really rebelled, Xiang Kang was also very sure that the rebellion would be quickly extinguished.

Thinking about this, Xiang Kang didn't hesitate anymore, and immediately nodded and said: "What Mr. Zifang said is extremely true, since the enemy has already targeted Li Shang and intends to use him to arrange a discord plan, we can only be open and honest with Li Shang, and we must not hide it and give the enemy a chance to further sow discord." Just do this, immediately send someone to tell Li Shang about the situation, and let him choose how to act for himself. ”

"Your Majesty, it's best to send someone of sufficient weight to be open and honest with General Lishang." Chen Ping said: "If his subordinates set up a discordant plan against General Li Shang, they would definitely secretly send an envoy to contact General Li Shang, know the benefits to him, and use Mr. Li Shiqi as a threat to coerce and induce him to rebel, and he will definitely offer sufficient purchase conditions to General Li Shang." If we want General Li Shang to resist such temptation, we can only show our sincerity to the best of our ability, and it is certainly not enough to send an ordinary envoy. ”

"That's the way it goes." Xiang Kang nodded, and immediately remembered Mr. Uncle Sun who had successfully helped him invite back Shangshan Sihao, but considering Mr. Uncle Sun's greed for life and fear of death, Xiang Kang immediately dispelled this idea - sending Mr. Uncle Sun to go, being frightened by others, Mr. Uncle Sun would not be able to turn around and persuade Li Shang to rebel!

"King Han, let the ministers go." Zhang Liang stepped forward and said: "The foreign minister is the Situ of Korea, the weight is quite enough, at present, our Korean king is imprisoned in Wancheng by Liu Ji, let the foreign minister go to be open and honest to General Li Shang on your behalf, so that General Li Shang can understand the absolute trust of the Han King in him, and there is no worry that he will collude with the foreign minister as a guest to rebel." ”

Of course, Xiang Kang was a little reluctant to let Zhang Liang take risks, but considering that his two most trusted ministers, Zhou Zeng and Chen Ping, couldn't pull away, and the others were either not strong enough or unreliable, he quickly nodded and said, "That is the case, then it will be hard for Mr. Zifang." ”

After that, Xiang Kang hurriedly discussed with Chen Ping and Zhang Liang, and decided how to make Li Shang understand his sincerity, and then arranged for people to escort Zhang Liang to the south and rushed to Hanzhong to be open and honest with Li Shang, so as to prevent the enemy from further sowing discord and rebelling against Li Shang, a general of the Han army who was now fully capable of launching a rebellion and even establishing himself as king.

The matter is not over, a few days later, Xiang Kang has received two important news, the first is that the Han army has carefully probed accurate information, Chuyi Emperor Xiong Xin has issued a decree in Pengcheng, publicly canonized Li Shang as the king of Hanzhong, changed the land of Hanzhong Bashu that was originally given to Chai Wu to Li Shang, and also named Li Shiqi as the Marquis of Puyang, and openly sent someone to send him to Hanzhong to reunite with Li Shang. The second is that Xiang Yu really sent the traitor Wu Shi of the Young Marshal Army as an envoy, and went to Julu to persuade Zhao to break off the alliance with the Han army, and turned his face to start a war with Xiang Kang.

In this regard, Xiang Kang had to be more worried about Zhang Liang's safety and Li Shang's position, but he couldn't help but say to Zhou Zeng, Chen Ping and Shang Shan Sihao, who had already begun to help him deal with government affairs: "My brother has really made great progress, not only has he mastered the time very well, and gradually increased my suspicion of Li Shang, but also asked Sima Wei to give me a true and false half, while really warning him, while taking the opportunity to fan the flames." If someone else had been in my place, I would have already fallen for him. ”

Everyone nodded one after another, and they had to admire Xiang Kang's calm and self-confidence, the situation was already critical to this point, and they could still trust Li Shang more. Then Chen Ping said: "Judging from the previous style of the King of Western Chu, he and his henchmen definitely do not have such ability, and they have arranged such a vicious and realistic discordant plan, if nothing else, it should be that a new capable person has appeared around the King of Western Chu." After this hurdle, we must find out the truth as soon as possible and find a way to counteract, otherwise we will only be more defenseless in the future. ”

"Of course." Xiang Kang nodded without thinking about it, and asked casually, "What is the unusual movement of that messenger sent by Sima Wei?" ”

"Nope." Chen Ping shook his head and said, "Judging from the current situation, that envoy is nine out of ten dead, and he doesn't know the truth of the matter. ”

"Death is good, death is the easiest to use." Xiang Kang said gloomily: "Give him a good look, this dead room is still of great use to me." ”