Kong Shangxian bowed and said: "The minister thinks that His Majesty should go to the alliance." ”

"Oh?" Yang Mu nodded and said, "I am not very familiar with the affairs of various countries, since Aiqing is quite researched, I might as well say it directly." ”

Kong Shangxian arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, please look at this map of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, today's overlord Jin State is the most vast territory among the countries, and the surrounding four countries have always been looking forward to the Jin State, and in recent years, the first emperor of the Jin State died, resulting in the princes competing for the throne, although the turmoil was finally quelled, but the national strength of the Jin State plummeted, on the other hand, in the south, the Chu State is rising day by day, and there is a heart to challenge the overlord, so there is this alliance. ”

"So, this time the alliance was deliberately suppressed by the Jin State in order to maintain its position as the hegemon?"

"It's not a suppression." Kong Shangxian shook his head and said: "The minister has traveled in the Chu State in the early years, and has seen the situation of the Chu State, and the current Chu Emperor is indeed a rare talent, but there are too many shortcomings in his country, and the power of the royal families is too great, and it is definitely not possible to get rid of it for a while." ”

"Oh? I was a little curious about how those big vassal states were different from the Zheng Kingdom. Yang Mu asked.

"The major vassal states, the first is the Dali Dynasty is divided, the domestic system is basically the same as the royal family of the Dali Dynasty, but they don't dare to be called the emperor, and the domestic land is also divided one level at a time, and the upper nobles have the courage to exploit the people, which is especially better than Zheng Guo."

Kong Shangxian paused, and said: "It's just that later, with the decline of the royal family of the Dali Dynasty, the countries did not respect the king's decree and began to attack and annex each other, and gradually realized the role of the people's will, and the situation improved greatly. It's just that generally speaking, they are still constantly exploiting the people, and in comparison, the Chu State is more serious. ”

"Then why does the Chu State have the ability to challenge the position of overlord?"

"One increase and one rise, plus the Chu State has also been reformed from time to time in recent years, its country is rich in products, and it has successively annexed several small surrounding countries, resulting in a great increase in national strength, if it is more than ten or twenty years, it does have the power to dominate the world."

"Then why is the Jin Kingdom still so close to the enemy? At the moment, it is more important to develop the country and compare the Chu State with each other, rather than participating in the alliance. Yang Mu asked.

"Your Majesty's thinking is too simple, if it is just that Chu has the desire to compete for hegemony, the world is so big, all countries coexist, but there is only one overlord, and the rest of the big countries also have a long and short heart. And the Wei State in the West is one of them. According to the provisions of the covenant, the countries meet the alliance leader once every three years, and the Wei State has not visited the Jin State for ten years, and when the princes and princes competed for the throne a few years ago, they also sent troops to attack, taking the opportunity to destroy several small affiliated states of the Jin State, although it was not as open as the Chu State to seize hegemony, but it was not far away. ”

Yang Mu suddenly realized, that is to say, with the passage of time, the hegemony of the Jin State is declining, and powerful vassal states have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and the real world of great controversy has begun.

It is foreseeable that in the near future, there will definitely be a wave of annexation, the strong will survive, the weak will die, and countries that do not want to make progress can only be run over by the wheel of history.

"If I want to go to the Alliance, how will it help Cangguo?" Yang Mu asked.

"Please forgive Weichen for bluntly saying that if I want to expand externally, sooner or later I will collide with Dasheng Guo, and Dasheng Guo, at this time, may not take my Dacang Kingdom in his eyes, but once the world is in chaos, it will inevitably hit my Cangguo's idea in order to strengthen itself, so we must strike first."

"Preemptive?"

"Take this opportunity to make friends with the Jin Kingdom and the Dadong Kingdom, if he has a war with the Dasheng Kingdom in the future, it will be an opportunity for my Cangguo."

Yang Mu said with a smile: "Aiqing's strategy seems to be very familiar, when you and I first met, we also advised Shen Guo to fight against Zheng Guo together, and now it is like this." ”

Kong Shangxian also relaxed, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty's heart is like a mirror, and he has established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he must also know that diplomatic relations are nothing more than vertical and horizontal. It's just that this time we made friends with the Jin Kingdom and the Dadong Kingdom, we didn't have the intention of forming an alliance, but pushed them to become enemies of the Sheng Kingdom, waiting for the opportunity to profit from it. ”

Yang Mu also agrees with this point of view very much, just like the Warring States Period in history, the reason why the Qin State was able to dominate the world relied on two artifacts, one is the Shang Dynasty Reform, and the other is the art of combining verticals, the former developed economic and military strength and recruited the world's wise men, and the latter allowed the Qin State to have one enemy and six enemies, and every time it faced a major crisis, it could be resolved in a thrilling situation.

It's just that Yang Mu was skeptical about the role of the Cave Kingdom, so he asked: "Will a big war break out between the Great Cave Kingdom and the Great Sheng Kingdom?" I can't wait like this, can I? ”

"The Dong Kingdom and the Sheng Kingdom are feuding, and there has always been friction between the border lands, so it is difficult to determine whether there will be a war. But if a war breaks out with the Dasheng Kingdom, once the stalemate continues, the Dadong Kingdom will definitely take the opportunity to send troops! Kong Shangxian analyzed.

Yang Mu's eyes lit up, this was indeed a good opportunity, more reliable than hoping for a war between Sheng Guo and Dong Guo.

When the time comes, the training of the Qilin Army will be completed, and the powerful cavalry troops will definitely be able to fight with Dasheng Guoyi for a long time, and after Dadong Country sends troops, it will directly change the balance of the battle situation, and Dasheng Country will definitely not be able to take care of the enemy.

Kong Shangxian spread out the map and pointed to one of them: "If Cangguo wants to go to Jin Kingdom, there are two necessary roads, either take Dasheng Kingdom, and then pass through Dadong Country to Jin Kingdom, or go to Yan Country first, and pass through the business road." ”

"This meeting, is it in Jincheng?"

Yang Mu was curious, generally the alliance is mainly based on things, choosing a place that is acceptable to all countries, and also preventing coups and the like, generally not in the overlord's country, but listening to Kong Shangxian's meaning, it is to let him go directly to the Jin Kingdom.

In other words, the location of this alliance is in the imperial capital of the Jin Kingdom!

"This time, it can be said that it is an alliance to choose the camp, and there are a total of three forces, either/or, which is tantamount to forcing the vassal states to make a choice, and then in order to prevent accidents, so the Jin State will meet this alliance and choose the address in the country."

Yang Mu nodded and asked, "Where do you think I should take the road from?" ”

"It's too early to talk about it, we have to wait for the courtiers who sent the Yan country to come back, if they can pass through the Yan country, they will enter through the Yan country, if not, then consider the Sheng country."

"It's fine."

Yang Mu also thought that he should wait first, if the envoy to the Yan Kingdom was successful, it might be a new opportunity, and he could also take this opportunity to communicate with the monarch of the Yan Kingdom.

After all, although most of the territory of the Yan State was split from the Sheng State, the relationship with the Sheng State was not very good, and if the monarchs and ministers of the Yan State were enterprising, then they would definitely regard the Cang Kingdom as an ally.

In short, this alliance is very important to Cangguo, as long as an alliance is established with the Jin State, Dasheng State will not dare to easily invade Cangguo, every month of delay, Cangguo will have a better chance of winning, and when the Qilin Army is completed, Cangguo's national strength will rise sharply, and you can be completely unafraid.

It is even possible to beware that after the victory, other countries will take advantage of the situation.