On the fifth day of the sixth month, Li Shi, the envoy of the Song Kingdom, took Meng Zhong and Meng Hu and his party to the sand dunes in the area of Julu.

The so-called sand dunes are caused by the desertification of the local soil, so that there are many sandy soil piled up into mounds, so they are called sand dunes.

In fact, as early as the reign of the Shang kings, the Shang state built a large number of buildings and built "palaces" in the sand dunes - that is, permanent palaces built for the king in addition to the national capital, and the monarch would come to live here at a fixed time.

According to legend, the king of Shang set up a garden platform in the sand dune palace, placed all kinds of birds and beasts, and set up a wine pond and meat forest, so that men and women chased and frolicked naked, sang and drank wildly, and stayed up all night, and its absurdity and luxury were really appalling.

Later, the three families were divided, and the sand dunes belonged to the Zhao State, and the Zhao State re-established the palace on the site of the sand dunes "Shang Li Palace", which is now the Sand Dune Palace.

Since it is called the palace, it means that the kings of Zhao did not live here in the past dynasties, and the same is true of Zhao Wangyong.

Before abdicating, Zhao Wangyong lived in the Zhao Palace in Handan, but since three or four years ago, after Zhao Wangyong passed the position of monarch to his second son Zhao He, the male lord who claimed to be the master father moved from the capital Handan to the capital "Xindu (i.e. Xingtai)" to concentrate on the hegemony of the Zhongshan Kingdom and the Qi Kingdom.

Xindu, that is, about 100 miles north of Handan.

After coming to the Dune Palace, the first thing that catches your eye is the continuous Zhao army joint camp and the dense "Zhao" word flag.

Different from the two flags of the Song State with white characters on an apricot background and gold characters on a white background, the flag of Zhao State is roughly only one, that is, red supplemented by a small amount of green - that is, with emerald green as the base, with red patterns as the frame, and then in the middle of the red color to write a huge "Zhao" character, in general, that is, seven points of red, three points of emerald green. [PS: Regarding the "Five Virtues Cycle", one theory appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and another theory was proposed and perfected by "Zou Yan" of the Qi State in the middle and late Warring States period. However, because the author really doesn't know what color flags were used by the pre-Qin states, let's just assume that the "Five Virtues Theory" has come out, but it has not yet been perfected. 】

Faintly, you could see that there were many soldiers coming and going in the military camp in the distance, which made Meng Zhong and the others' hearts tense all of a sudden.

Could it be that further north, is the front line of the battlefield where Zhao and Zhongshan are fighting?

A moment later, Li Shi, who was holding the Song State Fu Festival, led Meng Zhong and others through the checklist of the sentry posts, and smoothly entered the barracks, and immediately headed towards the Dune Palace under the leadership of another team of Zhao pawns.

At this time, Meng Zhong and others saw that in the center of the continuous Zhao military camp, there was a palace slightly higher than the surface, the scale was not large, it was probably a palace of nearly 100 zhang horizontally and dozens of zhang longitudinally, but there were stone walls outside the palace, like a small city.

And this is the Dune Palace.

"There is an envoy Li Shi in the Song Kingdom, please see the master father."

Coming to the gate of this "small city", Zhao Shu, who led the way, shouted loudly towards the city wall, and immediately, a soldier on the city wall responded: "Let me report to the master." ”

While waiting, Meng Zhong looked around, and according to his observations, the Zhao army stationed here had at least one army, that is, more than 10,000 soldiers—and even more than one army.

What surprised him a little was that although Zhao Guo had implemented Hufu cavalry archery and gave birth to the cavalry class, at this moment, the shadow of the chariot could still be seen in this Zhao army, and from this point of view, Zhao Guo had not completely eliminated the chariot arm.

It is no wonder that after all, the war on the northern grassland is different from the war of the countries on the Central Plains, the war on the grassland pays attention to mobility, and focuses on tactics such as sneak attack and harassment, while the war on the Central Plains is still based on head-to-head confrontation and siege, so the chariot can still play a pivotal role.

About half an hour later, the city gate slowly opened, and at this time, Li Shi, Meng Zhong and the others were surprised to see that there was a middle-aged man in a red royal robe standing inside the city gate, and this person was laughing and walking towards them.

"Could this person be Zhao Wangyong?"

Meng Zhong guessed in surprise.

In fact, this is very easy to guess, because the robe worn by the middle-aged man not far away is very different from the costume of the Central Plains, close to Hufu, but the pattern and color of the Hufu are very close to Zhao He, the new monarch of Handan-except for Zhao Yong, the father of Zhao, who dares to wear it like this?

At this time, Li Shi had already guessed, and bowed his hand and said: "Foreign Minister Li Shi, on the order of my monarch of the Song Kingdom, please see Lord Zhao's father." ”

"Hahaha."

At this time, the middle-aged man had already approached the front, and said with a smile: "I am Zhao Yongye." ”

"Sure enough, it's Zhao Wangyong!"

Meng Zhong subconsciously held his breath and quietly observed the male lord of the Zhao State in front of him.

According to his visual observation, Zhao Yong's age seems to be about ten years younger than Song Wangyan, about forty years old, his hair and beard are still very black, and his body looks very healthy, especially the pair of sharp eyes, which are really impressive.

But on the whole, Meng Zhong felt that the Zhao master in front of him was somewhat similar to Song Wangyan, that is, he felt that they were both monarchs who advocated force.

After Zhao Yong and Li Shi greeted each other, Zhao Yong took Li Shi and others into the palace.

During this period, Meng Hu couldn't help but whisper to Meng Zhongdao: "This Lord Zhao's body still looks quite tough, why did he pass the throne to his son early?" ”

Meng Zhong shook his head, and before he could speak, he saw Zhao Yong, who was walking in front, glance back, as if he heard Meng Hu's whispered inquiry, which frightened Meng Hu and quickly lowered his head.

At this time, Li Shi hurriedly confessed: "The pawn is rude, please forgive Master Zhao." ”

Zhao Yong took a deep look at Meng Zhong, Meng Hu, Meng Sui, Wu Ying and other "young soldiers", and then glanced at Li Shi and smiled.

Meng Zhong faintly felt that Zhao Yong's smile was a little reluctant, as if there was something unspeakable.

A moment later, Zhao Yong invited Li Shi to the main hall.

After they sat down with each other, Li Shi motioned for Meng Zhong to present the letter of state, that is, the letter from Song Wangyan to Zhao Yong.

Zhao Yong read the letter carefully, nodded slightly, and immediately congratulated: "Congratulations on the fall of your country to Teng State, which has strengthened the country by another point." ”

"It's all up to Master Zhao's father to take care of it." Li Shi complimented.

Seeing this, Zhao Yong smiled, only to see him put Song Wangyan's bamboo slip on the low table in front of him, and pointed it with his fingers, Lang smiled and said to Li Shi: "For me, the envoy doesn't have to be like this. I, Zhao Yong, and Song Yan have had a friendship of nearly 30 years. …… I often say to my courtiers that the countries of the Central Plains are not credible, but the Song State is the diplomatic relationship of my Zhao State for nearly 30 years, and it has never been abandoned, and it has never violated the covenant in the slightest. ”

Zhao Yong's words were also sincere.

For today, most of the nations practice the policy of combining vertical and horizontal, and today they sign an alliance with one country, and tomorrow in order to sign an alliance with another country, it is very likely that the previous covenant will be broken, and it will be difficult for people to believe it. What's more, like King Qi Wei of Qi State, he obviously signed an alliance with Zhao State to join forces against Qin, but when Zhao State was attacked by Qin State, Qi State not only did not save it, but fell into the well and took advantage of the fire to rob.

Only the Song State has established diplomatic relations with the Zhao State for nearly 30 years and has never changed.

It seems that this is the tradition of the Song State: after the Song State decided to support the Jin State as the overlord of the Central Plains, it unswervingly assisted the Jin State against the Chu State, even if the Chu State invaded the country and surrounded the national capital, the Song State had no intention of begging for mercy and changing the strategic national policy.

"Today's princes are all profit-oriented, but Song Yan still has integrity, benevolence and righteousness."

Zhao Yong said with emotion.

Hearing that Zhao Yong actually praised Song Wangyan with honesty and benevolence, Meng Zhong blinked, and felt a little incredible.

Because as far as he knows, Song Wangyan is not an honest and benevolent person.

But having said that, after having the Qi State as a comparison, Meng Zhong had to admit that Song Wangyan, who insisted on establishing stable diplomatic relations with Zhao for nearly 30 years, was really a trustworthy person.

After some greetings, Li Shi asked Zhao Yongdao: "Master Zhao, when I came to this palace, I saw that the surrounding military camps were lined up, and there were countless elite Zhao soldiers stationed. ”

"Don't worry about it."

As if guessing the worry in Li Shi's heart, Zhao Yong was relieved: "The sand dunes are still more than three hundred miles away from the battlefield between my Zhao Kingdom and Zhongshan. After that, he said with a little pride: "Today's Zhongshan, is it still worth my personal command of the battle?" ”

After Zhao Yong's explanation, Li Shi, Meng Zhong and others learned that the battlefield between Zhao and Zhongshan was in the area of "Quyang" and "Jiumen" on the bank of the "Tuoshui" River.

The Nine Gates are the place where Zhao Yong once sent Zhao to spy on the Zhongshan Kingdom.

Quyang, on the other hand, was the frontline city where Zhao gathered the country's troops when he attacked Zhongshan several times, and it was at least three or four hundred miles away from the sand dunes.

"The reason why I sit in the sand dunes is just to guard against the Qi Kingdom."

may have a relationship of great trust in the Song State, Zhao Yong did not hide his purpose in sitting in the Dune Palace, that is, to guard against the Qi State.

After all, to the east of the sand dunes, after crossing the "Qing River", it is the territory of the Qi State, if the Qi State dares to send troops to help the Zhongshan State this time, then he Zhao Yong will immediately lead the army to cross the border, invade the Qi State, and launch a two-sided attack on the Qi State with Song Wangyan.

And Qi State seems to have guessed the reason why Zhao Yong's army was stationed in the Dune Palace, and so far has not sent a single soldier to help Zhongshan, so that Zhao's army has invaded the territory of Zhongshan State like a bamboo, and killed the capital of Zhongshan State "Lingshou" City faster than expected.

It is no exaggeration to say that Zhao's attack on Zhongshan is already a sure thing.

Subsequently, Li Shi found an opportunity to introduce Meng Zhong and Meng Yu to Zhao Yong.

He introduced Meng Zhong to Zhao Yong just to fulfill Hui An's entrustment; As for recommending Meng Hu to Zhao Yong, it was purely a relationship between this Dr. Li who received a lot of benefits from the Meng clan when he was in Jing.

I have to say that Meng Zhong's mentor Zhuangzi's face is so big that when Zhao Yong learned that Meng Zhong was actually a disciple of Zhuangzi, he happily said on the spot that he would let Meng Zhong serve as a guard by his side.

The Mengshi clan finally took the first step in "moving to Zhao State".

But Meng Zhong suddenly had a doubt: why did he and Meng Hu get the status of "Master Zhao's Father's Guard" and "Yu Sima" without establishing any merits?

Can these two identities be obtained so easily?

Or is there any reason for this?