“…… Meng Zhong, this time he helped Gongsun Jian defeat the Qin army, and his contribution was indispensable, he was promoted to the doctor, moved to the city order, sealed the three thousand households in the two towns of Ye and Wuyang, gave gifts, rewarded 100 catties of iron, 50 catties of copper, 10 catties of gold, 10 maidservants, and 100 slaves......"

In the main hall of the palace, King Wei slowly said his reward to Meng Zhong with a smile on his face, causing a deliberately suppressed exclamation in the hall.

In this regard, Meng Zhong sighed secretly.

Since Gongsun Zhi promised him the position of Hedong Shou, Meng Zhong inevitably remembered this position in his heart, after all, in the Wei State, Hedong Shou and Yecheng Ling are two very special generals, and among them, Hedong Shou is more noble.

It was precisely because he knew the value of Hedong Shou's position that Meng Zhong was also a little worried in his heart, worried that the King of Wei might think that he was too young, so that he would miss out on Hedong Shou's position.

Looking at it now, this concern is not unreasonable.

After all, in terms of the current situation, Hedong Shou should choose one of the three of Zhai Zhang, Gongsun Zhu, and him Meng Zhong, since he is out, then the possibility of Gongsun Zhu being elected is very high - and if Gongsun Zhu is appointed as Hedong Shou, with his trust in Meng Zhong, it is not much different from Meng Zhong himself as Hedong Shou.

The problem lies in the sentence of Wei Wangyun, that is, "Move the city order, seal the three thousand households in Ye and Wuyang." ”

Where is Fang Cheng?

Ye and Wuyang, where are they?

“……”

Meng Zhong glanced at Gongsun Zhu, who was standing beside him, only to find that the latter was frowning and his eyes were wide open.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong immediately understood: Whether it is Fangcheng, Ye and Wuyang, I am afraid that they are not in Hedong.

Subsequently, Wei Wangqi slowly said the reward for Gongsun Zhu: "...... Ascended to Shangqing, 5,000 households in Anyi, worshiped the east of the river, gave gold ceremonial vessels, rewarded 200 catties of iron, 80 catties of copper, 20 catties of gold, 20 maidservants, and 200 slaves. ”

Sure enough, between Gongsun Zhi and Meng Zhong, Wei Wangyun finally chose Gongsun Zhu as the Hedong Shou.

"King!"

After Wei Wangyun finished saying the words of reward, Gongsun Zhu immediately bowed his hand and said, "The minister has something important to do." ”

"Oh?"

Hearing this, King Wei asked with a smile: "Could it be that Qing is still dissatisfied with the widow's reward and feels that the reward is thin?" ”

"It's not too thin, it's too thick." Gongsun said with a straight face.

Hearing this, Wei Wangyun smiled dumbly, waved his hand and said with a smile: "Qing is too modest, Qing deserves such a reward......

"My lord, this is not the humble words of the old minister."

Arching his hand towards the King of Wei again, Gongsun Zhi Zhengse said: "When Xiwu was in Yique that day, he was attacked by the Qin army because of carelessness, if it weren't for Meng Zhong's clever plan to save the defeat, I am afraid that the 300,000 Wei and Han coalition troops will all be overturned in Yique, and the name of the Qin general will be white!" …… On the night of the night when our army was attacked by the night, the rhino force struggled to resist, unfortunately was captured and killed by the Qin army, and the minister thought that his talent was far inferior to Meng Zhong, so he simply entrusted the military affairs to him, after that, the minister sat in Yique Mountain, and the army commanded by Meng Zhong on behalf of the minister to fight against the Qin army, and forced the Qin army to a dead end several times, and finally in the city of the fox, Meng Zhong and the Korean tyrannical kite joined forces to defeat the main force of the Qin army, and then gathered troops to take Yiyang, and then killed to Hangu Pass...... In the minister's view, Meng Zhong's talent is not inferior to Xi Wu, now Xi Wu unfortunately died, our Hedong army lost more than half, although the Qin State reconciled with my Great Wei for a while, but it must be eyeing Hedong, the minister thinks, the King of Wei entrusted Hedong to the minister, it is better to entrust Meng Zhong ......"

Listening to Gongsun Zhu's words, bursts of exclamation resounded in the hall.

Not to mention that everyone in the hall turned their heads to look at Meng Zhong, even Wei Yu, the prince of Wei, and Wuji, the prince of Wei, also looked at Meng Zhong from a distance in the banquet.

After all, in the eyes of many people, Meng Zhong is only twenty years old, but he has been rewarded by ordinary people who can't get it in a lifetime - 3,000 households, looking at the Wei State, how many people have received such a rich reward?

But even so, that Gongsun Zhu still felt wronged by this son, and recommended this son to serve as Hedong Shou in public, which made some of the Wei courtiers in the palace quite jealous.

"Will the king really agree?"

Everyone in the hall turned their heads to look at Wei Wangyun.

At this time, Wei Wangyun was holding his beard and looking at Meng Zhong.

In fact, Wei Wangjun is very clear about Meng Zhong's details, whether it is Meng Zhong's mentorship, connections, or Meng Zhong's disgrace to Tian Wen when he was in Zhao State, all in all, Meng Zhong is a very troublesome talent in the eyes of Wei Wangyun.

There is no need to elaborate on talents, just because Meng Zhong once served as the guard Sima of Lord Zhao's father, it is enough to prove this person's talent, and the reason why it is troublesome is because of this person's grudge with Tian Wen.

In fact, at the beginning, Wei Wangjun did not plan to canonize Meng Zhong as the "Fangcheng Order", but had other plans.

Yes, as Meng Zhong was concerned, Wei Wangjun had never thought of letting Meng Zhong serve as the defender of Hedong before, after all, Meng Zhong was too young, and Hedong was half of the Wei state, unless Meng Zhong defeated the Qin army a few more times in the future to prove his talent, otherwise, even if Wei Wangjun knew that Meng Zhong was talented, he would not dare to hand over Hedong to Meng Zhong.

But having said that, even if he didn't plan to seal Mengzhong as the head of Hedong, Wang Wei would not treat such talents badly, not to mention that Meng Zhong also made unparalleled feats this time, so Wei Wangjun decided to seal Meng Zhong as the "Fengling (Fengling) Order", and then give "Hedong Jieliangyi 3,000 households" to Mengzhong.

Fengling, that is, a few years ago, after Tian Zhang, Gongsun Xi, and Storm Kite joined forces to break through the Hangu Pass, the city that Qin returned to Wei in order to sue for peace, is located in the southwest corner of Hedong (County), where there are several ferries, and has always been the front line of Qin's attack on Wei.

Therefore, Wei Wangjun felt that Meng Zhong had such a talent, so it was better to appoint him as a feudal order, as a subordinate of Gongsun Zhu, and after a few years of Gongsun Zhu's old age and frailty, Meng Zhong would take over Gongsun Zhu's position.

Ten years, this is the period estimated by Wei Wangyun himself - ten years later, his body may not be able to support it, and when the time comes, the throne will be passed to the crown prince Wei Yu, and Meng Zhong will be close to the Duan Gan clan of the prince's line, and when the prince ascends the throne, and then promote Meng Zhong to replace Gongsun Zhi as the Hedong Shou, in this way, the monarch and the ministers will be closer, and the new monarch will trust Meng Zhong as he trusts Gongsun Xi and Zhai Zhang today, and Meng Zhong will also have a grateful heart to the new monarch.

In Wei Wangyun's opinion, this is the best arrangement.

However, just this morning, the Minister of State Tian Wen met with Wei Wangjun and persuaded Wei Wangjun to move Meng Zhong from Hedong to Wan.

Yes, Fangcheng, Yeyi, and Wuyang, all three places are located in Wan, on the border of Wei, Han, and Chu.

In that year, Qin Prime Minister Zhang Yi deceived King Chu Huai with "600 miles of business", so that King Chu Huai broke off the alliance with Qi State, and after that, the deceived King Chu Huai poured all his troops to retaliate against Qin, and the two countries broke out in the "Battle of Danyang and Lantian".

This battle greatly damaged the vitality of Qin and Chu, and the losses suffered by Chu were even more serious.

After this incident, King Huai of Chu learned from the pain, reused Qu Ping's important ministers to implement reforms, and took advantage of the civil strife in Vietnam to annex it, and the national strength was slightly restored.

However, in order to retaliate for the betrayal of Chu that year, Qi ordered the general Tian Zhang to unite Wei and Han to crusade against Chu, and then the famous "Battle of Hanging Sand" broke out.

In this battle, Korea seized the opportunity to seize Wancheng and a large area of surrounding land in Chu, while Wei occupied Yeyi, Wuyang, and Fangcheng, which bordered its borders.

At the same time, Wei and Han agreed to jointly own the "Chu Fang City", that is, the Great Wall of Chu built in the early years of the Chu State to resist the invasion of neighboring countries.

At this point, Fangcheng became an important border city of Wei in the southwest, and its main defense object was the Chu State, followed by the Qin State, which had encroached on the territory of the Chu State from time to time in recent years.

This morning, Tian Wen said to the latter when he invited Wei Wangyu: "Today, Qin and my Wei and Han have made peace, and the minister guesses that he may use troops against Chu, Chu over the years, Chu King Xiong Heng has no way to govern the country, resulting in domestic chaos, I am afraid that it is not Qin's opponent, if Chu submits to Qin, Qin may coerce Chu to use troops against our Wei and Han again, and the minister thinks that he should deploy defense in Chu Fang City in advance. ”

I have to say that although Tian Wen has many shortcomings, his eyesight is indeed extraordinary, and he is prepared for danger in times of peace, and raised the potential hidden danger of Chu State to Wei Wangyun, which made Wei Wangjun think it was true.

Subsequently, Tian Wen said logically: "Today, Meng Zhong has made great military achievements in Yique, if this person is sent to Wandi to defend Fangcheng, the minister thinks that the southern border can be safeguarded." ”

When Wei Wang heard this, he hesitated.

It is undeniable that Tian Wen's suggestion is indeed very reasonable, but the problem is that Fangcheng is the border of his Wei State, and what is the matter with sending the heroes who have just made great achievements to guard the border?

So Tian Wen said again: "You can give the three thousand households of Yeyi and Wuyang to Meng Zhong as food, and no one will mistakenly think that the king treats the heroes badly." ”

Indeed, Yeyi was once the fiefdom of the nobleman of Chu "Ye Gong Shen Zhuliang", under the governance of this Ye Gong, there were no less than 2,000 households in the Yi, and Wuyang was also a city of nearly 2,000 households, although because of the relationship between the battle of Shuisha that year, the Chu people of the two cities fled a lot, but no matter how it is said, there were more than 3,000 households, Tian Wen proposed to give these two towns together to Meng Zhong, which was enough to silence any political enemy who attacked and annihilated him.

But obviously, Tian Wen would not give away benefits to Meng Zhong in vain, and his ultimate goal was to send Meng Zhong to the relatively poor Wandi - at least compared to Hedong, the Wandi area is indeed not a rich place.

In this way, even if he Tian Wen recommended Gongsun Zhi to serve as the head guard of Hedong, Meng Zhong would not be able to take advantage of it.

Of course, Wei Wangjun knew what Tian Wen's purpose was in recommending Meng Zhong as Fang Cheng Ling, but he finally agreed.

There are two reasons for this:

First of all, Tian Wen was right, if the Qin State really used troops against the Chu State, the Chu State might really submit to the Qin State, so it would be very necessary to deploy defenses in the area of Fangcheng in advance.

Secondly, Wei Wangjun also wanted to take the opportunity to sharpen Meng Zhong, after all, he Wei had just lost the famous general Gongsun Xi, and only Zhai Zhang, who was over fifty years old, was left to take the lead, and on the Qin side, there were Sima Cuo, Xiang Shou, and Bai Qi, a young general who shined in this battle.

Now that there is finally a Song boy named Meng Zhong, of course Wei Wangjun also wants to entrust him to reuse, but Meng Zhong is too young, so that Wei Wangjun really does not dare to entrust Hedong to this son, unless this son can continue to make meritorious deeds to prove himself.

So, at the celebration banquet that night, Wei Wangfu changed the original reward for Meng Zhong, and according to Tian Wen's words, Meng Zhong was sealed to Wandi.

Unexpectedly, this move caused Gongsun Zhu's dissatisfaction.

To be honest, Wei Wangjun also felt a headache.

And just when Wei Wangyun felt embarrassed, he saw the Minister of State Tian Wen get up and say to Gongsun Jian: "General Gongsun, Tian appreciates your intention to recommend talents, but I think that Dr. Meng is still too young to worship the post of Hedong Shou for the time being......"

"Ridiculous!"

Of course, Gongsun Jian knew that this matter must be Tian Wen's obstacle, anyway, the matter had come to this point, and he was not afraid of tearing his face with Tian Wen, so he sneered and said: "Xiwu has been the guard of Hedong for more than ten years, and I have been under the Xiwu tent for more than ten years, during which I don't know how many times I fought with the Qin State, Tian Xiang thought that the old man didn't know the weight of Hedong?!" …… In the battle of Yique, China's 180,000 troops were attacked by 780,000 Qin troops, and more than 100,000 people fled overnight. At this point of crisis, Meng Zhong turned the tide, led the remnants of the 670,000 defeated army, defeated the Qin army several times, and finally defeated the 70,000 or 80,000 Qin army, only a few nearly 10,000 people fled back to the Qin State in embarrassment. ”

Speaking of this, he sneered and said, "Old man Moti, the old man thinks that he is far inferior to Meng Zhong!" ”

Hearing Gongsun Zhu's unkind words, Tian Wen's face also sank.

But the embarrassing thing is that he really doesn't have a suitable candidate in his heart, otherwise, how could he acquiesce to Gongsun erecting as the Hedong Shou? - Just because Gongsun Jian rejected his kindness and recommended Meng Zhong in front of him, this was enough to make Tian Wen angry with Gongsun Zhu.

"This old puppet who doesn't know what to do......

After scolding in his heart, Tian Wen's eyes looked at Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Fei Hui, Liang Xi and other military commanders of the Hedong Army one by one.

I saw that under Tian Wen's glance, Dou Xing, Wei Qing and other military horses all showed strange expressions, and then they drank and ate food by themselves, as if they were outside.

It's no wonder, after all, in the previous battle, these military commanders all knew that Meng Zhong was powerful in using soldiers, and Meng Zhong's personality was also approachable, so they had already acquiesced to this son to succeed Gongsun Xi as the Hedong Shou, so where would they ignore Tian Wen's hints?

Yes, in fact, as long as they say something at the moment, maybe Tian Wen will recommend any of them to serve as Hedong Shou, but so what?

They thought that they couldn't resist the Bai Qi of the Qin State, even if they got the position of Hedong Guard for a while, the next time the Qin general called Bai Qi attacked Hedong, wouldn't they still be defeated in the hands of the other party?

Not to mention that it will offend the old boss Gongsun Zhu and Meng Zhong, a powerful young man.

On the contrary, if Meng Zhong could serve as the guardian of Hedong, they would definitely be able to block Qin's covetousness of Hedong, and maybe they could also look forward to paying homage to the prince.

All in all, as long as Dou Xing, Wei Qing and other military commanders are not dizzy, they will definitely not grab Hedong to defend this position - after all, this is a position that is both glorious and hot, not to mention offending old acquaintances, I don't know when I will take my life.

Seeing that Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Fei Hui, Liang Xi and other military simas did not say anything one by one, Tian Wen was secretly annoyed in his heart, and Wei Wangfu flashed a trace of surprise in his eyes.

As the monarch of the Wei State, Wei Wangjun certainly understood what it meant for Dou Xing and the other military commanders to be silent at the moment.

This means that they all secretly supported Gongsun Zhu's proposal and supported Meng Zhong as the Hedong Shou.

『…… This young man has been able to subdue these unruly generals in just one battle?"

Glancing at Meng Zhong standing in the hall, King Wei couldn't help but be a little surprised, and then gradually understood why Lord Zhao's father would promote this son to be the guard Sima back then.

"It's just ......"

After taking a deep look at Meng Zhong, King Wei secretly made up his mind.

At present, the Qin State has made peace with him Wei State, and he will not use troops against his Wei State for at least one or two years, so whether it is Gongsun Zhu or Meng Zhong as the Hedong Guard, it actually doesn't matter much, anyway, it is nothing more than to expand the Hedong Army, although Gongsun Zhu is not good at using soldiers, but it is more than enough to train soldiers, right?

In case the Qin State tears up the peace treaty and attacks Hedong one day later, won't it be over if Meng Zhong is transferred to Hedong at that time?

In contrast, the potential threat to the Chu State is a top priority, originally in recent years, the internal chaos of the Chu State, the Wei State has gradually relaxed its guard against the Chu State, but if it is as Tian Wen said, the Qin State really coerced the Chu State to jointly attack him Wei and Han, this is indeed a very thorny problem.

Thinking of this, Wei Wangyu asked Meng Zhongdao: "Meng Qing, are you dissatisfied with the reward of the widow?" ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong's mood was really a little complicated.

In all fairness, Wei Wangyun's reward for him is not insignificant, with 3,000 households, which is enough to envy the vast majority of people in the world.

How big is his hometown, Mengcheng? But there are more than 2,000 households. And the food of his Mengshi clan in Mengcheng is only a few hundred households - and this is still passed down from the ancestors of the Mengshi family.

And now, Meng Zhong suddenly has four or five times the number of food and people equivalent to Mengyi, and he has been promoted to a doctor, worshiped the army Sima, and guarded the city for the Wei State.

I have to say that with just one war exploits, he, who had made no contribution to the Wei State, received such a rich reward, and it really can't be said that the King of Wei treated him badly.

The only problem was that neither his food nor the city he would lead his troops to defend were east of the river.

"Minister......

After thinking about it, Meng Zhong arched his hand and said: "The king is generously rewarded, and the ministers are not dissatisfied. ”

Hearing this, Wei Wangjun nodded and said with a smile: "That's good...... Meng Qing, you are still young, there are some things that don't need to be in a hurry. Claim the reward. ”

『……』

Hearing Wei Wangyun's hint, Meng Zhong was slightly stunned, and immediately bowed his hand and said, "The minister receives the reward, thank you for the king's reward!" ”

Not far away, Minister Tian Wen also heard Wei Wangyun's hint and couldn't help frowning.

Of course, he understood what Wei Wangjun meant by that - even if the Wei monarch valued him again, he would not refuse such talents as Meng Zhong.

Well, this Meng Zhong is indeed a talent, and he is also a great talent.

Even Tian Wen must admit this.

『…… This is not the way, I have to find a general who can match this Meng Zhong and recommend it in front of King Wei......

Glancing at Meng Zhong, who was thanking him, Tian Wen thought secretly in his heart.

In view of the fact that Meng Zhong had accepted the canonization of Wei Wangfu, and Wei Wangfu also gave a hint, Gongsun Zhu could only accept the reward, acquiescing to the established fact that Meng Zhong was transferred to Fangcheng.

Subsequently, the king of Wei raised the wine bottle and drank with the courtiers in the palace, which eased the originally embarrassing atmosphere.

After the palace feast that night, Gongsun Zhu and Meng Zhong walked out of the palace together.

At this time, I saw Gongsun Zhu say to Meng Zhong with a guilty face: "Meng Zhong, the old man swore to you that day, and he never thought about ......it."

"The general is serious."

Looking at the look of guilt on Gongsun Zhu's face, Meng Zhong hurriedly interrupted: "I understand the general's intentions, it's just ...... It's just that someone is getting in the way, and the generals are not to blame. ”

Indeed, Meng Zhong did not complain at all about Gongsun Zhu, after all, just looking at Gongsun Zhu speaking up for Meng Zhong in the main hall, you know that this veteran really hopes that he will serve as the head guard of Hedong and take over the position of Gongsun Xi.

Hearing Meng Zhong's relief, Gongsun Zhu's face looked much better, and he nodded but didn't know what to say.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong had no choice but to lead the topic to Gongsun Xi's aftermath: "Xiwu's aftermath, I don't know how to deal with it?" ”

Gongsun Jian heard the words and explained: "When the day after tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, I will ask the king to be dismissed, and I will return to Hedong with the body of Xiwu...... Although Xiwu's hometown is in Yin Jin (Huayin), he has been in Hedong for a long time, and Anyi can also be called his hometown, and I am ready to bury Xiwu in the west of Anyi City, so that he can continue to protect Hedong. ”

Meng Zhong nodded, arched his hand and said, "I will definitely go to see off ...... when I am ready."

Glancing deeply at Meng Zhong, Gongsun nodded heavily.

Subsequently, Dou Xing, Wei Qing and others also walked out of the hall and chatted with Meng Zhong for a while.

In this regard, Meng Zhong was not named Hedong Shou this time, Dou Xing, Wei Qing and others also secretly felt pity, but considering that the position of Hedong Shou finally fell to Gongsun Zhi, they didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed - anyway, it almost felt like a taste.

"It's all to blame on that damn Tian Wen!"

Meng Hu scolded hatefully.

At this time, Tian Wen happened to come out of the hall surrounded by a group of ministers and entourage, turning a blind eye to Meng Zhong and the others, seeing this, Meng Hu spat fiercely.

"That's a good point!"

The drunken Dou Xing echoed Menghu loudly, and immediately, the two hooked their shoulders and whispered about things that didn't match.

Then, the two of them sneaked away, and took away Hua Hu, Mu Wu, Le Jin and others, and they didn't know where they were fooling around.

chatting with Gongsun Jian, Wei Qing, Fei Hui, Liang Xi and others, and after a while, Meng Zhong saw Tian Di waiting for him at the palace gate, as well as Duan Ganyin, Duan Ganchong's father and son.

Probably feeling a little embarrassed, Gongsun Jian quickly said goodbye to Meng Zhong and left with Wei Qing and Fei Hui.

However, before he left, Duan Ganyin smiled and invited him to come to his mansion to drink together, which made Gongsun Jian feel a little relieved.

On the way back to the Duan Gan clan's mansion, Tian Di asked Meng Zhongdao, "Is the virtuous nephew disappointed?" ”

Meng Zhong shook his head and said, "It's not disappointment, it's just ...... It's a little different from what I expected. ”

"Hmm."

Tian Di nodded when he heard this, stroked his beard and said, "I didn't expect that Tian Wen's movements would be so fast...... is worthy of the dignified Xue Gong, this method is very clever, he does not withhold your reward, but only transfers you to the border...... If we are dissatisfied, he can say that he will be rewarded for his merits......"

"Hmph, it's just a little trick!" Duan Ganyin snorted coldly beside him.

I have to say that if there is no matter for Gongsun Zhi to recommend Meng Zhong to serve as Hedong Shou, I believe that the reward Meng Zhong received today will definitely make Duan Ganyin and Tian Dian feel very satisfied, but at the moment, the two of them only have strong dissatisfaction with Tian Wen in their hearts.

While cursing Tian Wen, everyone returned to Duan Gan's mansion.

When everyone entered the mansion, a doorman announced: "The head of the family, there are just two people here, one is called Meng Heng and the other is called Meng Min, who claims to be the clansman of Meng Shishuai......

"Oh?" Duan Ganyin turned his head to look at Meng Zhong.

Meng Zhong was stunned, and then said to Duan Ganyin: "Uncle Shi, those two are indeed the brotherhood of the kid. ”

After that, he and Meng Sui glanced at each other, and they both felt a little strange.

What did Meng Heng and Meng Min do in Wei?

Set a small goal first, such as remembering in 1 second: book guest residence