In the capital of Yan State, the envoy of Qi State looked at Ji Zhi, the prince of Yan State, in front of him, with a look of arrogance on his face.

Looking at the insulting edict in front of him, Ji Zhi's fists were clenched tightly. However, in the end, he still said to the envoy of Qi: "Gu agreed to the conditions of Qi, ceded the five cities to Qi, and promised to pay tribute to Qi every year from now on." ”

Hearing Ji Zhi's words, the envoy of Qi was extremely happy. After watching Ji Zhi sign and seal the alliance between the two countries, he solemnly put it away, and returned to Qi to hand over to the king of Qi.

The war between Qi and Yan, which lasted for nearly three years, also came to an end. And after receiving the news of Qi's retreat, the countries that had followed Qi to send troops together also had mixed reactions.

In the battle of Yan, among the countries that sent more troops, they were the Song Kingdom and the Zhongshan Kingdom. The pace of the Song State was the same as that of the Qi State, and after hearing that the Qi State had withdrawn from the army, he immediately returned all the occupied cities to the Yan State and returned to the country.

Zhongshan was completely different, in the previous peace talks, Zhongshan never agreed to return the occupied cities to Yan. Therefore, after the Qi State and the Yan State negotiated peace, the Zhongshan State did not sign the alliance signed by the two countries. In this way, it became a situation in which Zhongshan State forcibly occupied several cities in Yan State.

Because the current focus of Qi is no longer on the north, Qi does not care about the grievances between Zhongshan and Yan. Even in the eyes of Tian Ying, who is specifically responsible for this matter, Zhongshan and Yan are at odds, which is a good thing for Qi Guo. Yan Guo and Zhongshan Guo are both the younger brothers of Qi State, if the younger brothers are all harmonious, then what else is the boss messing with? Waiting for the little brothers to unite and beat themselves? It is best if there is a contradiction between the two sides and there is a conflict, and Qi can act as a mediator to deal with the two countries at the same time.

After the Qi army completely withdrew from the Yan Kingdom, Ji Zhi directly succeeded to the throne of the King of Yan. Looking at this devastated country, thinking that his land was still in the hands of other countries, Yan Wang Ji looked unwilling to eat.

He knew that the Yan Kingdom could not go on like this anymore, and he wanted to change the Yan Kingdom, make it strong again, and occupy a place in the whole world. And now, the only thing in front of Yan Guo is to change the law.

If you want to change the law, you must have virtuous ministers. As a result, King Yan followed the measures of Qin Xiaogong when the Qin State changed the law, and began to issue a merit-seeking order to recruit talents.

The order for seeking talents has been issued for a long time, but there are not many real talents who come to defect, which makes King Yan a little disappointed. When King Yan was about to be disappointed, a man named Guo Huai came. This person is a bit smart, but he is not a non-family person, and he does not match what he thinks of as a minister who changes the law like Shang Ying. However, in order not to chill the scholars, King Yan still recruited him as an official.

Just when King Yan was disappointed and wanted to personally study the classics of law change in various countries and personally carry out the road of changing the law and strengthening the country, Guo Huai persuaded King Yan and said: "I implore the king to reward his ministers and many families!" ”

At first hearing such remarks, King Yan asked with some anger: "Mr. came to Yandu for the first time, but he worked in vain, how dare he ask for merit without authorization?" ”

Guo Huai told a story to King Yan without any panic: "King, it is not meaningless for the minister to make such a request. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a monarch who was very fond of horses and was willing to buy a horse for a thousand dollars, but after three years, he never bought it. After a few more months, the king finally found a thousand-mile horse, so he sent someone to buy it. When his men arrived with a large amount of gold, they found that Maxima was dead, so the man sent to buy the horse could only buy Maxima's bones for 500 gold.

When his subordinates returned, the king asked angrily; 'I want a living Maxima, so what good will it be for me if you buy back the bones of Maxima?' His subordinate replied, 'Your Majesty, are you willing to buy a dead Maxima for five hundred gold, let alone a living Maxima?' The horse bones we are buying now are just to attract real horses! ’

Sure enough, in less than a year, the monarch bought a real Maxima. ”

After listening to this story, King Yan's eyes were quite touched. Then Guo Huai said: "Although Weichen is sparse and shallow, he has not done an inch in Yan Kingdom, but if the king can reward the ministers, then the celebrities of all countries in the world know that the talent of Weichen can also receive such attention, and they will definitely know the sincerity of the king, and the ministers are willing to become the king's 'horse bones' to recruit talents." “

After Guo Huai finished speaking, King Yan said to him: "Sir's words are serious. In the eyes of the widow, Mr. Today's words have solved the widow's doubts, and he has made a supreme contribution to the Yan country! ”

So King Yan respected Guo Huai as his teacher, built a golden platform for him, and treated him as a high-ranking official. Such a move suddenly made King Yan and Guo Huai famous among the nations. The scholars of the countries thus knew that there was a "lucky" Guo Huai in the Yan Kingdom - a king who was not talented but could be greatly rewarded by the king, and a king who admired the virtuous, so the scholars of the countries flocked to the Yan Kingdom and asked for the appreciation of the Yan King.

Most of these people who went to Yan Country were wine bags and rice bags with little talent, but there were still a few people with extremely high talents. Like Zhao Ren Ju Xin, who is good at both soldiers and vertical and horizontal arts, Qu Yong, a guard who is proficient in spells, and Qin Kai, a famous general in Yan Kingdom, have all begun to be used by King Yan. The Kingdom of Yan, the northernmost state, gradually became powerful under the rule of King Yan. The princes of all countries also know that Yan has a virtuous monarch, and he should not be insulted!

Dai Yan, who was in the Song Kingdom, naturally heard that King Yan built a golden platform and recruited talents from all over the world. He didn't care about this at all, in his opinion, Yan Guo's way of recruiting talents was too inefficient. The way of building a golden platform and buying bones with a thousand dollars can certainly recruit talents for Yan Kingdom, but most of the talents who defect to Yan Country are mediocre talents, and there are very few truly useful talents.

The Song State's practice of the imperial examination method can also attract a large number of talents to the Song State, and more importantly, the Song State can also cultivate a large number of talents belonging to its own country from this system. The loyalty of these talents to the Song State is by no means comparable to the loyalty of those who defected to the Yan Kingdom to the Yan King.

Of course, the most important thing is that King Yan didn't know that he was a traverser, and he had already snatched the most important talent of the Yan Kingdom in advance. A famous general like Le Yi who can destroy a big country with a small country, a genius like Su Qin who is both a columnist and a spy at the same time, plus a scholar like Zou Yan who is enough to start a sect, were all snatched up by Dai Yan relying on the welfare of the traverser.

Dai Yan believes that after the loss of these three important talents, although the Yan Kingdom will still rise and become strong, it will definitely not become the top power that can rise briefly in the future and wipe out the Qi State. However, considering that now that King Xian of the Yan State is on the throne, all the people of the Yan State are also holding their breath because of the entry of the Qi State, Dai Yan still believes that the Yan State will become a medium power that can bring a lot of trouble to the Qi State.

In this way, the northern part of the Qi State will always be threatened by the Yan State, and in the context of the strong Qi State now, it can share a lot of pressure for the Song State!

Qi faced the sea in the east, and when Qi negotiated peace with Yan and withdrew its troops from Yan, Dai Yan felt that Qi had re-aimed its eyes to the west and south. And the primary target it is aimed at must be the Song State, which has gradually become stronger.

Today's situation, Dai Yan has long predicted! This truth is actually very simple, and the later Song Taizu said: On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to sleep soundly! Today's Song Kingdom is a strong man sleeping next to Qi Kingdom.

In the past, the strength of the Song State was weak, and he could only serve as the younger brother of the Qi State, and he did not put it in the heart of the Qi State. However, now the Song State raided the Chu State and won the battle, so that the Qi State realized the great strength of the Song State. Even if Song Guo didn't do anything, this volume alone was enough to make Qi Guo feel jealous. Even if the two countries are in-laws, future conflicts are inevitable!

The conflict with the Qi State was expected by Dai Yan. There is no friendship between countries, there are only naked interests!

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Qin State and the Jin State were also as countries of in-laws, and the two countries left an idiom such as "the good of Qin and Jin" to describe the friendship of diplomatic relations, but once it touched on geopolitics and involved actual interests, the two countries immediately turned their faces and became enemies! Candle Zhiwu's retreat from the Qin Division, the Battle of Kun, and even the later history of Meng Ming's crusade against the Jin State fully illustrate this point.

In the face of the strong pressure of the Qi State, the Song State fought alone, of course, it was extremely stupid. In this world of great contention, in an environment where all countries in the world stand side by side, there is no point in "going it alone", and group beating is the king.

It's time for Song Guo to find a suitable little brother as a minion for himself, and a suitable ally to bring in Austrian reinforcements!