That night, the wounded soldiers of the Song army were carried off the battlefield with the help of the medical team. Dai Yan made a preliminary count that in today's battle alone, more than 20,000 soldiers were killed on the spot, and nearly 50,000 were wounded!

Fortunately, Taoqiu's original medical system was relatively developed, and when he established the army, he also popularized basic medical care knowledge. Most of the soldiers who were not seriously injured were able to effectively save their lives.

In order to prevent the wounded soldiers from affecting the mood of the army, Dai Yan has always adhered to the principle of setting up the wounded soldiers away from the barracks. In order to reassure people's hearts, he also personally went to the wounded barracks to inspect the soldiers, observe the situation of the soldiers, and calm the emotions of the wounded soldiers.

Fortunately, the pious beliefs of the Song people played a role. These soldiers came from all over the Song Kingdom, and not every place was like Taoqiu, in the position of a hub. Most of the soldiers from the Song Kingdom were people who had never seen the world, and the "doctors" in their eyes were not much different from the local "wizards". With respect for the "shamans", they are obedient to those who save them, and under this respect, their endurance is also extremely strong. Some of the soldiers who were seriously wounded, even without anesthetics, were able to complete the operation!

This made Dai Yan feel a little relieved. Although it is said that one will succeed in ten thousand bones, but these soldiers are fighting for him, and in the near future, these soldiers will also become his people, and he really can't bear to suffer such pain for his own people!

However, the Xiangyi coal mine and iron mine are so important to him that even if all the soldiers who have been recruited now are exhausted, he must take them back!

On the second day, both Song and Chu seemed to be tired from yesterday's battle, and both sides had no intention of continuing to act, so the confrontation continued.

In such a situation, Dai Yan believes that the number of soldiers recruited now is still not enough, and he still needs more soldiers to really overwhelm the Chu army! Subsequently, he issued another order to continue recruiting troops from within the Song Kingdom!

The confrontation between the two sides lasted for more than half a month, and Dai Yan soon requisitioned another 50,000 troops from China! Along with the soldiers who had been healed before, the number of soldiers in his hands now exceeded 200,000 again! With such power in his hands, he was much more confident, so he sent out a battle letter and went to the Chu army camp to challenge!

However, to his surprise, when the envoy he sent came to the Chu army camp, the entire Chu army camp had completely become an empty camp! Subsequently, Dai Yan learned from the scouts sent out that the Chu army had all evacuated last night, and now they had arrived behind the Xiangyi Coal Mine!

Dai Yan didn't understand what Zhao Hua thought, did he want the coal mine and iron mine to be directly exposed in front of Song Jun? If that's the case, he wouldn't mind attacking the mines established by the Taoqiu merchants!

He immediately sent a large army to the vicinity of the Xiangyi Coal Mine, wanting to attack the Xiangyi Coal Mine in one fell swoop!

However, before his order could be issued, an urgent letter was delivered directly to him, which turned out to be a letter from Taoqiu, sent by Tian Buli, who temporarily represented Taoqiu's affairs!

Dai Yan has always attached the most importance to Tao Qiu's letter, and when he opened the envelope and saw it, he was immediately stunned: Qi sent both land and water armies to send troops to Juye, and swept the stronghold established by Taoqiu sailors in Da Yeze with thunderous means!

If there is no Onozawa, doesn't this mean that the Qi State is directly under Taoqiu City, and the Qi State is going to make a move against the Song State?

However, when he read the letter, he didn't understand it very well, and the army of Qi didn't move, but just sent a messenger to Taoqiu, saying that he wanted to see Dai Yan.

Dai Yan couldn't guess what Qi wanted to do, and then he didn't guess, and directly met with the envoy of Qi to see what Qi wanted to do.

And his original intention to attack the Xiangyi coal mine stopped.

In the camp of the Song army, Dai Yan met Zhang Chou, the envoy of the Qi State who had met in the court of the Song State. As soon as this Qi State Judge saw Dai Yan, he immediately said to Dai Yan with a happy face: "Duke Cao, I came to the Song Kingdom on the order of my king, and I have something good to tell Duke Cao!" ”

Dai Yan frowned and asked, "Dare to ask where the good things come from?" Before, I Taoqiu had agreed with the king of Qi that as long as I could obtain the dominance of the Song State in Xia, I would definitely increase the previous tribute of the Song State to ten times, and now that we have not broken the contract, why did the King of Qi suddenly raise troops under Taoqiu City and threaten the safety of my Song Kingdom? ”

Zhang Chou chuckled lightly and said, "Cao Gong misunderstood, my Qi army is not threatening the Song State, but has a great thing to inform Cao Gong!" Now that Cao Gong has completely controlled the national affairs of the Song State, the next step is to officially ascend the throne and become the monarch of the Song State, right? I, Qi State, fully support Cao Gong to become Song Ju! In addition, my king also wants to marry Cao Gong, I don't know what Cao Gong wants? ”

Officially recognized him as the monarch of the Song State, which was indeed beneficial to him and to the Song State. However, Dai Yan is very clear, what kind of country is Qi State? There is a story recorded in "Liezi Shuofu", a Qi man walked on the street, saw gold, and snatched it directly, and when he was arrested and taken to the government, the people of the government asked him why he did such a street robbery, and the man replied: I can't see anyone else in my eyes, only gold!

The desire for profit is the universal characteristic of Qi people. And a country like Qi has always been a master who only wants to gain benefits and never wants to spit out things, when did they transform and become so enthusiastic?

So Dai Yan asked: "King Qi is willing to give such a big gift, which is naturally a blessing under the next." However, now that he has no heirs or sisters, how can he marry with the Qi Kingdom? ”

Zhang Chou said: "This is the happy event I once said. My king is willing to marry Cao Gong with Tian Si, the princess of the first king, what does Cao Gong think? ”

Hearing this, Dai Yan became even more strange: "But I have already married Zhao Guo, and married the eldest princess of Zhao Guo as my wife, and I am afraid that there is something wrong with the princess of Qi Guo as my concubine, right?" ”

When Dai Yan said this, he had already made his intentions clear: he will ascend the throne and become Song Jun soon! Zhang Chou naturally heard what Dai Yan meant, and then he said: "Gong Cao misunderstood, the marriage I am talking about is not the princess of Qi marrying Duke Cao as a concubine, but for the queen!" ”

"It's impossible!" Dai Yan refused on the spot, "The envoy of Qi should know that my wife Zhao Xue is the eldest princess of Zhao who is married to Ming Media, and it is impossible to drive the princess of Zhao back to Zhao in the future!" ”

Zhang Chou immediately said: "Duke Cao still doesn't understand what my king means. My king's intention is to marry the princess to Cao Gong and become an existence equal to the princess of Zhao Kingdom! My king does not ask Duke Cao to drive the princess of Zhao back to Zhao, he only needs Duke Cao to marry my princess of Qi and have the same status as the princess of Zhao! My princess Cao Gong has also seen it, and it is not a good thing for Cao Gong to get such a great beauty for nothing? ”

Hearing Zhang Chou's words, Dai Yan was even more dumbfounded, and he asked as if he was demented: "One country, two queens, how is this feasible?" ”

After listening to Dai Yan's words, Zhang Chou said disdainfully: "If the Son of Heaven is in decline today, and the etiquette collapses, why should Cao Gong stick to the mere Zhou etiquette?" In the era of Jiang Qi, the monarch of my Qi country had the actions of the three queens, and Cao Gong wouldn't know it, right? ”

In Chinese history, people have always thought that for thousands of years, the marriage contract system followed in China was monogamous and polygamous, and this statement is actually not too problematic, because most of the time it is true, but only in a few times, it is not the case.

In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when the etiquette collapsed, some people dared to openly violate this marriage system, and in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were monarchs in the Qi State who married three wives at the same time, which is the real origin of the three wives and four concubines! And in the Warring States period, if there was an act that was in the interest of the country, even if it violated the etiquette law?

Speaking of which, Qi Guo wanted to send a princess to Taoqiu, but he didn't really have good intentions. In history, although the princesses of Qi are famous all over the world, their reputation is not very good, and the most important thing is probably the practice of these princesses, which is in line with the interests of Qi country!

For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi Xianggong's sister Wen Jiang was discovered by Lu Huan because she was cheating with her brother. Qi Xianggong killed Lu Huan Gong in a blink of an eye, and Wen Jiang also returned to Lu as if nothing happened, became the "Queen Mother", influenced the government of Lu State, and continued to maintain this relationship with his brother.

This kind of thing, on the surface, seems to be a matter between these big people, but if you look closely, you can find how tightly the Qi State controls the Lu State through the marriage of the princess! The monarch of the Lu State will kill him if he says so, and the party who caused the death of the monarch can continue to hold power in the Lu State like no one else!

In fact, marriage is one of the most effective ways for a big country to control a small country! This is even regardless of geography and culture. Why was Queen Victoria, known as the grandmother of Europe, able to do this? In fact, it is closely related to the strong national strength of the United Kingdom!

In terms of the current situation, Song is weak and Qi is strong, but the extremely important geographical location of Song and the unique expansion method of Qi determine that Qi is not the kind of country that expands wantonly when hungry!

The small countries of Lu, Zou, and Teng are all on the border of Qi and still exist well. In fact, it's not that Qi is not interested in these countries, it's just that Qi wants to come step by step, first expand Qi's power into these countries through infiltration, and slowly influence these countries, once the time is ripe, these countries will be officially annexed by Qi like the original Xue State!