After taking Julu City as he wished, whether to pardon Zhang Er's father and son is just a trivial matter, and what really tests Xiang Kang's political ability is the handling of Zhao Xie, the king of Zhao.

In fact, as early as on the way north from Puyang to Julu, Xiang Kang had repeatedly considered how to deal with the thorny problem of Zhao Xie, the king of Zhao, and more than once considered that if Zhao Xie survived to the destruction of Julu City, he would hint to his subordinates to take action, or let his own guards take action, and after successfully defeating Julu, he killed Zhao Xie with one sword, and then completely abolished Zhao State, re-implemented the county system on the land of Zhao, and directly controlled the land, city and people of Zhao State.

Various objective reasons forced Xiang Kang to dispel this tempting idea, the reason is that there are three independent forces around Zhao State, Zang Di, Tian Jiao and Tian Du, and they have done things too desperately, and if they don't see the hope that they can continue to be kings, they will definitely force them to the side of the Western Chu army, and greatly increase the resistance of the Han army to dominate the world - Zang Di, Tian Jiao and Tian are not fools, and of course they will not willingly hand over the prince, territory and city, once Xiang Kang touches their core interests, Of course, they have to fight with Xiang Kang to the end.

The second is that with the understanding of the specific situation of this era, Xiang Kang has gradually discovered that the half-county and half-division feudal system that Liu Laosan engaged in after unifying China in history is not that Liu Laosan is stupid and does not know what is the king's land under the whole world, and the shore of the land is not the king's minister, not to mention that Liu Laosan has no foresight and does not know what is called the legacy of raising tigers, but it is a helpless move limited by the background of the times, and it is also a very clever expedient measure.

At present, there is no way to fully implement the centralized system in Kyushu, which is an objective reality that Xiang Kang has to admit, and there are many reasons, the most critical of which is also the main reason for the death of the second Qin Dynasty, that is, the contradiction and conflict between the cultural region and the political system!

In order to eliminate these contradictions and conflicts, Qin Shi Huang did a lot of things, unifying writing, currency and weights and measures, books with the same text, cars with the same track and lines with the same line, laying a solid foundation for the unification of China, but no matter how hard Qin Shi Huang tried, he was never able to quickly eliminate the cultural differences and contradictions between the Qin State and the six countries outside the Guan, and the militaristic system of the Qin State forcibly promoted was never accepted by the people of the six countries outside the Guan, causing Xiang Kang to ascend to the top of the lower prime minister, and the lower ministers who were unwilling to go to the frontier to suffer and suffer were immediately corresponding. It also led to Chen Sheng and Wu Guang exalting the righteous period in Daze Township, and the western part of Chu State was immediately in flames.

There was also the later Six Kingdoms Restoration Movement, Xiang Liang, Xiang Yu's uncle and nephew who supported the King of Chu appeared, and the old nobles of the Six Kingdoms took the opportunity to raise things one after another, all because the Qin Dynasty was not able to use the local culture of the Qin State to completely assimilate the Six Kingdoms outside the Guan, and the people outside the Guanxi still regarded themselves as the Zhao people, Yan people, Qi people, Chu people, Han people, and Wei people, and did not identify with the Qin Dynasty in terms of cultural system, so they supported and supported the Six Kingdoms Restoration Movement, unwilling to help the Qin Dynasty suppress the relics of the Six Kingdoms, and also supported the feudal system they were familiar with.

Xiang Kang and the current strength of the Han army is indeed very strong, but no matter how strong it is, it is impossible to be stronger than the Qin Dynasty army that has just swept the six countries, in this context, if Xiang Kang is in a hurry and continues to forcibly unify the cultural system of the six countries outside the Guanwai like Qin Shi Huang, then there must be only one end, that is, to repeat the mistake of the death of the Qin Dynasty II, and completely fall into the military dilemma of pressing the gourd to float the scoop, and at the same time, it will only be in vain to firmly support Xiang Yu, the beneficiaries of the feudal system, and the princes outside the Guanwai, who are the beneficiaries of the sub-feudal system, will be completely forced to Xiang Yu's side, even if the world is forcibly unified, it will continue to face the Six Nations Restoration Movement one after another.

Only by effectively imitating Liu Laosan in history is the right choice for Xiang Kang, first make concessions in politics, engage in a feudal system to allow the coexistence of counties and states, and wait until the reputation of unifying China, and then like Liu Laosan and his successors, while eliminating the princes and kings who have hidden different intentions, while slowly assimilating the people of the six countries outside the Guanwai, and then weakening and eliminating the remaining princes and kings through various political and military means, and finally truly unifying China and exercising real centralization.

Of course, this is destined to take a long time, and it will take several generations to complete the real reunification like the old Liu family, and it is not impossible. But fortunately, compared with Liu Laosan in history, Xiang Kang's advantage is much greater, first of all, Xiang Kang is much younger than Liu Laosan, and he is not as greedy and lustful as Liu Laosan. The second is that Xiang Kang's strength is much stronger than Liu Laosan in history, and there is no need to be like Liu Laosan, in order to complete the unification of honor, he must make huge concessions to Han Xin, Peng Yue and Yingbu and other princes and kings with heavy armies, and it will be much easier to eliminate dissenting princes and kings in the future.

The third point is the most critical, no matter how sparse Xiang Kang's history is, he also knows how the centralized system should be established in the future, and what kind of county system should be established in order to effectively control the localities. - Not to mention anything else, the technological superiority of productivity and technology mastered by Xiang Kang alone is enough to crush the princes of Guanwai who are still at the tail of the Bronze Age in terms of strength.

It was precisely because of these various reasons that Xiang Kang had to make up his mind to make concessions temporarily, intending to temporarily learn from Liu Laosan's parallel half-division feudal system, temporarily tolerate the existence of vassal states such as Zhao, Qi and Yan, and temporarily dispel the idea of directly abolishing Zhao.

Zhao Xie, the king of Zhao, also took the luck of the dog, so that Xiang Kang made up his mind early and decided that as long as he could come to him alive, he would continue to use him as the king of Zhao, and indirectly control the people of Zhao and the land of the city through him.

Xiang Kang also made this decision against his will through careful consideration, and there are two key reasons, one is that Zhao Xie has never really grasped the real power of Zhao State, and it is easy to control the strength of Zhao State within Zhao State, even if he has different intentions, it is easy to deal with.

The second is that Xiang Kang can't find a more suitable candidate than Zhao Xie to serve as the king of Zhao, like Liu Laosan in history, it is of course impossible to use Zhang Er, who has just been defeated by the Han army, as the king of Zhao, among the heroes under Xiang Kang's command, Uncle Zhou, who led an army to destroy the four kingdoms of Jin Zhai in the Wei Dynasty, is qualified to be crowned king, but Uncle Zhou's ability is too great, once he is crowned king, Xiang Kang will definitely be difficult to control, and at the same time, Qi Yan and other places have to rely on Uncle Zhou to fight, if he is crowned king too early, it will definitely be more difficult to fall off in the future.

Therefore, Xiang Kang thought about it again and again, but he could only dispel the idea of killing Zhao Xie by homeopathy, and was ready to continue to use him as the king of Zhao, but fortunately, the Han army had previously sent troops to Zhao State, and the banner of sending troops was to crusade against the traitorous Zhao State who colluded with the Western Chu Army to usurp the traitorous Zhang Er, and continued to take Zhao Xie, a descendant of the orthodox Zhao royal family, as the king, and could explain to the soldiers of the Han army and the people of Zhao, and no one could find anything to say.

Zhao Xie's dog luck is really good, although the Julu War is in full swing, it inevitably affects the palace of Zhao in Julu City, Zhao Xie, who has always been controlled by Zhang Er's cronies, has always been unharmed, and after being brought to Xiang Kang, Zhao Xie was very well-behaved and immediately gave Xiang Kang a courtier's courtier, expressing his willingness to serve Xiang Kang as a courtier, Xiang Kang also pushed the boat along the river, and immediately said that he would continue to take Zhao Xie as the king of Zhao, and Xia Shuo, who had previously led the army to surrender to the Han army, was named the minister of Zhao. Letting the Zhao army fight with the Han army as a servant army temporarily solved the political problems of the Zhao state.

But this does not mean that the Julu War is over, the remnants of the Western Chu Army led by Zhou Yin, as well as the Qi army that is still alive, are still stationed on the only high ground outside Julu City, even if the Han army has weakened the remnants of the Western Chu Army and taught the Qi army a lesson through the tactics of attacking the city and sending reinforcements, but it is conservatively estimated that the strength of the remaining troops of the Western Chu Army is still more than 50,000, and the Qi army is probably still in this number, and they still have the strength to fight, so if the Han army can't quickly eliminate these two enemies, Once Xiang Yu personally led the tiger and wolf army under his command to come to the rescue, not only could the Chuqi army get out easily, but the battlefield of Zhao Di still had the possibility of being overturned by Xiang Yu. - After all, in a head-to-head battle, even if Xiang Kang and Uncle Zhou join forces, they don't dare to say that they will win in front of Xiang Yu.

This is not counting, it is even more worrying to Xiang Kang, before this, in order to prevent accidents, the Zhao army has transferred a part of the grain and grass to the Qi and Chu army in advance to hoard, although the number is not very large, but it is definitely not a big problem for the Chu and Qi army to hold on for more than 20 days, and at the same time, the Julu battlefield is too close to the mainland, and the surrounding water network is dense, and it is difficult for the Han army to rely on the method of cutting off the water to kill the Qi and Chu coalition forces, so in front of the Han army, it is still an inevitable battle, or a fierce battle that must be won before Xiang Yu arrives.

"If we can turn against Zhou Yin as soon as possible, we will definitely win this battle easily. But if we can't do this, we will not only not be sure of victory, but even if we barely win, the loss will not be small! ”

This is the unanimous public opinion reached by Xiang Kang, Zhou Shu, Chen Ping and Zhang Liang and other decision-makers of the Han army, and it is precisely because this point is too important that it came to noon on the second day of taking Julu City, and even before the Han army finished cleaning the Julu battlefield and pacifying the people in the city, Xiang Kang accepted the voluntary efforts of Cui Guang, an important minister of the Han army, and asked Cui Guang, an old man from Shangshan who was famous all over the world, to carry a letter of persuasion to the camp of the Western Chu army, and persuaded the Western Chu army Sima Zhou Yin, who was likely to be shaken, to surrender for the third time.

In addition, in order to reduce the resistance to persuasion, Xiang Kang also personally wrote a letter to his cousin Xiang Guan, who had been tough in front of the Han army's envoys, describing his brotherly affection to him, persuading him to surrender and enjoy the glory and wealth with him, and also promised Xiang Guan a heavy reward of being a marquis.

Cui Guang, who set out at noon, did not return until more than half of the Shen time, and Xiang Kang inevitably began to worry in the camp, for fear that the hardliners in the Western Chu army would kill Cui Guang, an old man from Shangshan who was extremely prestigious among the scholars, and force himself to the choice of attacking the camp of the Western Chu army head-on. As a result, at this time, Zheng Bu suddenly came to Xiang Kang happily, and shouted as soon as they met: "King, I found out, it turned out that the previous idea of sneaking up on the camp of the last general, and letting Guangwu Jun lure the enemy, all of them were the generals of the Tianbu Pifu, and the little vertical son of the general Yu Ling, and now the last general has finally found the object of revenge." ”

"Yu Ling?" Of course, Xiang Kang had never heard of this name, so he just asked with a smile: "General Zheng, why, I killed so many Qi thieves yesterday, and I haven't been angry enough?" And you have to pull out the enemies who have disgraced you, cramp and skin? ”

"Of course." Zheng Bu replied confidently, and said with a bit of gritted teeth: "If you have a bad idea to kill so many of our loyal and brave soldiers, if you don't pull that little vertical man over and cramp and peel the skin, of course it will be difficult to eliminate the hatred in the heart of the last general." ”

Xiang Kang smiled and said casually: "I think this Yu Ling has a bit of ability, and he can even yin you and Guangwujun more than once, he is a talent, if he can be used by us, he will definitely help us a lot." ”

Zheng Bu was a little unhappy when he heard it, and when he was about to say something more, there were guards outside the tent who flew inside, saying that Cui Guang, who had sent an envoy to the enemy camp, had returned to the Han military camp. However, it is a pity that after meeting Xiang Kang outside the tent, Cui Guang gave up his hand to Xiang Kang and said: "The king forgives you, the old man disappointed you this time and failed to succeed." ”

"It's okay, it's okay." Xiang Kang hurriedly shook his head and said with a smile: "As long as Xia Huanggong can come back safely, how about it?" You haven't suffered any grievances, have you? ”

Cui Guang shook his head and denied it, but the entourage behind him said boldly: "King, Dr. Cui was beaten, and it was the camp of the Chinese army that was beaten by the Western Chu thief army. ”

Xiang Kang was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly asked Cui Guang's physical condition, and asked who ordered Cui Guang to beat the camp of the Western Chu Army, Cui Guang endured the pain in his body and smiled: "Thank you for your concern, it's just a little skin injury, and I blame the old man for speaking too directly and not tactfully enough, which angered the king, your cousin General Xiang Guan, so he let the old man beat the Chinese army camp." ”

Xiang Kang was helpless when he heard this, so he could only quickly apologize to Cui Guang for his brother, personally carried Cui Guang back to the big tent of the Chinese army to rest, and then quickly ordered the military doctor to check Cui Guang's injuries, Cui Guang waved his hand again to say that he didn't have to, and then said: "King, let's get down to business first, the old man is incompetent, after seeing Zhou Yin, because General Xiang Guan has always been by the side, and he is still very tough, so it is inconvenient to say a lot of words, so he can only reason with Zhou Yinxiao and move it to benefit, and he can also see that Zhou Yin is indeed a little shaken, But there was no way to make him make up his mind, so in the end, he could only return empty-handed, disappointing you, the king. ”

After that, Cui Guangcai carefully told Xiang Kang and others the details of meeting Zhou Yin, especially introduced that although Zhou Yin tried his best to cover it up, his expression was still obviously a little shaken, and Xiang Guan's expression was excessive, obviously hostile to the Han army, and he also ripped the handwritten letter written by Xiang Kang to him in front of him, and scolded Xiang Kang's soldiers for killing Xiang Sui in person, and vowed to avenge Xiang Sui.

Xiang Kang didn't speak, but after Cui Guang introduced all the situation, Xiang Kang sighed helplessly: "It seems that Brother Xiang Guan really hates me to the extreme, and the fratricidal relationship between me and him is destined to be unavoidable." ”

"Who told you to deliberately send him back to Pengcheng in the first place?" Chen Ping, the insider next to him, muttered in his heart with Zhang Liang and others, and said secretly: "You think that your brother is in the way of staying by your side, it is inconvenient for you and Xiang Yu to turn their faces and establish themselves as kings, and deliberately send him back to Pengcheng, and now that you are so prosperous, can your cousins not hate you and be jealous of you?" ”

"King, there should still be a chance." Cui Guang said again: "With Zhou Yin's wavering reaction, as long as we can think of a way to find an opportunity for our envoy to meet with Zhou Yin in private and explain the stakes to him alone, there should be a great hope of turning him around." ”

Xiang Kang tugged at the sparse beard on his lips and calculated, and only said after a while: "I'm afraid it's difficult, we are famous for being good at rebellion and persuasion, Zhou Yin's wavering reaction, my brother Xiang Guan may not be able to see it, just in case, my brother will definitely keep an eye on Zhou Yin, and our envoy is afraid that it will be difficult for us to have the opportunity to meet Zhou Yin alone." ”

"Even if there is such an opportunity, I am afraid it will be difficult for us to make Zhou Yin make up his mind." Zhang Liang, who had not expressed his position on this matter before, also stood up and poured cold water and said: "Our greatest hope to persuade Zhou Yin to surrender is only because he has been defeated repeatedly on the battlefield of Zhao State, which has caused heavy losses to the Western Chu thief army, and Xiang Yu will definitely not spare him when he goes back." But Zhou Yin will definitely think about it this way, if he can atone for his sins and take the rest of the Western Chu thief army to hold on until Xiang Yu leads the reinforcements to arrive, then Xiang Yu will not only not kill him, but maybe he may also let him continue to lead the army and continue to be independent. As long as he still has such a fluke in mind, even if our envoy finds an opportunity to persuade him to surrender alone, it is difficult to be sure that he will make up his mind completely. ”

"After all, the king, you just promised to make Zhou Yin a county marquis and give thousands of households." Zhang Liang added: "Zhou Yin Pifu will definitely think so, if he can continue to lead the Western Chu thief army, once Xiang Yu wins in the future, the reward for him will definitely be more than this." ”

Xiang Kang nodded helplessly, and had to admit that even if the envoy of the self-army found an opportunity to persuade him to surrender alone, he might not be able to prompt Zhou Yin, who still had hope, to make up his mind to surrender. After thinking for a while, Xiang Kang could only change his words and said: "It seems that we can only persuade by attacking, let our army rest a little, and then concentrate our forces and give priority to attacking the camp of the Western Chu thief army, which not only lures the Qi thief army who can't fight in the field out of the camp to fight, but also forces Zhou Yinpifu to learn from Zhang Er, Gan Gong and Liu Jian of the Zhao State thief army in a desperate situation, and choose to surrender to us at the last moment." ”

"The king is going to give up on this?" Chen Ping, who had previously proposed to surrender Zhou Yin, opened his mouth and said with a smile: "Your Majesty thinks that since Zhou Yin's puppet has been obviously shaken, then we only need to push him behind his back, and there may not be no hope of achieving our goal of surrendering." ”

"What else does Mr. Chen Ping have to plan?" Xiang Kang hurriedly asked.

"Your Majesty has another way." Chen Ping replied calmly, and said more calmly: "But your subordinates must speak first, this plan is too damaging, and it is very likely to put your cousin General Xiang Guan in danger, and even worry about your life, so whether to use this plan, you have to ask the king to make up his mind first, and be prepared to risk losing his flesh and blood." ”

Xiang Kang vaguely understood what Chen Ping meant, and his expression obviously began to hesitate, and he said after a long time: "Back then, King Zhao Huiwen did not hesitate to starve his biological father King Zhao Wuling to death in order to prevent the Zhao State from splitting, and the first emperor Yingzheng could imprison his biological mother and kill his younger brother Cheng Jiao in order to dominate the world. So, Mr. Chen Ping, please speak. ”

"Will make excuses, enough to be high-sounding." first praised Xiang Kang's hypocrisy and shamelessness in his heart, and then Chen Ping slowly said his yin damage plan, a despicable and vicious plan that even Xiang Kang and Zhang Liang inevitably felt a little creepy when they heard it......