And the one who manipulated this diplomatic situation was undoubtedly Dai Yan, who stood behind Zhao Yong. Through this method, Dai Yan made Zhao State, a big country, cancel the title of king, completed the gambling contract with Ji Hu, and also laid a nail for Gongsun Yan's Five Kingdoms Prime Minister Wang Hezong!

Such a nail will inevitably cause cracks in the alliance of the five countries, and finally crack! However, in Dai Yan's view, whether the five countries are united or not, whether the Qin State will be weakened or not, has little to do with him! All he wants to do is win the bet and please the beauties!

After all, he's just doing the nail thing. A real strategist like Zhang Yi is going to directly break up the entire alliance! The idea is very good, but there are so many loopholes that it is easy to find a breakthrough. Even if he doesn't do it, someone will do it after all, and he's just going to follow the trend!

Zhao Guo's withdrawal from the Xiangwang, but he participated in the two-sided flattery of the alliance, which made Gongsun Yan also a little worried, but he couldn't do anything. Today's Zhao State is not weaker than Wei State in itself, and he is only the Prime Minister of Wei State, so he can't really decide whether Zhao State will go or stay at all!

Moreover, Zhao Guo did not claim to be the king, but his behavior of staying in Hezong also made the current King of Wei greatly appreciated! In the eyes of the King of Wei, if Zhao is really the king, and everyone is equal to each other, then within Hezong, there is a big country whose nominal strength is not inferior to its own, and Wei can really give orders to the remaining countries? Zhao Yong, the yellow-mouthed son, is so "on the road", as the king of Wei and the leader of the Hezong Alliance, of course he will not treat such a "little brother" badly!

Therefore, under the instructions of King Wei, Gongsun Yan also had to acquiesce in the practice of both ends of the head of the Zhao State. Only then did he feel that it was not easy to accomplish such a major event as Hezong!

In April 323 BC, under the advocacy of Sun Yan, the monarchs of Wei, Han, Zhongshan, and Yan, as well as Zhao Cheng, an important minister of the Zhao clan, began to rush to Taoqiu from various countries one after another to prepare for the affairs of the prime minister.

For such a meeting of the kings, Dai Yan has been preparing for a long time.

The first to arrive at Taoqiu was the Wei state, which was closest to the Song state. Wei Wanghei's convoy departed from Daliang and almost followed the Jishui River down the river all the way to Taoqiu. Before he arrived at Taoqiu, he had already heard that after Taoqiu was given to the prince of the Song Kingdom in recent years, "the government of the king, the great rule of the countryside", but when he arrived at Taoqiu in person, he was still stunned by the huge city in the distance that was bigger than the capital of Wei!

The first thing that appeared in front of him was a lake called Ozawa. Such a lake is no different from the mountains that can be seen everywhere in the Wei Kingdom, but to the surprise of the King of Wei, this lake has been specially carved into a channel to figure out with Jishui. At the end of Ozawa, however, it is connected to the entire pottery mound through another channel.

Relying on rivers and lakes to build some water conservancy facilities was not a big deal for Wei at all. As early as the time of Wei Wenhou, Ximen Leopard opened a canal in Yedi for 12. However, as a knowledgeable king, Wei Si looked left and right, and did not feel that such a channel was used for agricultural irrigation, and he could not even see what this canal connecting Jishui was for!

When King Wei was secretly figuring it out, Dai Yan had already left the city and greeted him not far away. When the two met, the King of Wei asked Dai Yan about the purpose of these canals, and Dai Yan only explained lightly: "This is not a canal used for irrigation, but a canal specially built in order to allow the Taoqiu people to drink tap water." It uses the principle of water flowing to a lower place, and it is just a small skill of carving insects. ”

After hearing this, King Wei looked at it a few more times, and then he didn't care. When he arrived at the building area on the periphery of Taoqiu West City, he asked Dai Yan again: "Gong Cao, the city wall of Taoqiu City is really interesting, it is obviously a legitimate city wall, but you built it similar to the corner tower, which is really strange." ”

Dai Yan laughed dryly, and then said to King Wei: "King Wei said that he laughed, in fact, what we see in front of us is not the city wall of Taoqiu, but the houses built by the people outside the city under the planning of Taoqiu Yi Mansion. I thought that if all these dwellings were joined together, they could also be used as walls for defense, so I did so. ”

King Wei was also shocked when he heard that these buildings, all made of fine bricks, were just ordinary people's houses! He knew very well that even in Daliang, the capital of the Wei State, there were very few houses made of pure bricks and stones. Basically, except for the walls of the city, the royal palace, and the residences of the nobles and princes, most of the other houses are made of wood! How rich is Taoqiu, so that ordinary people can use burning bricks to build houses?

Burning bricks requires a lot of fuel, and in the current era when the world is using wood as fuel, the price of burning bricks is very expensive! Of course, the king of Wei did not know that Taoqiu had now used cheap and high-calorific coal as fuel, and indirectly lowered the price of burning bricks.

He secretly remembered this change in Taoqiu, and then followed Dai Yan into the city. Before entering the city, his motorcade first passed through the so-called outer city part of Dai Yan's mouth, and saw that the houses in it were lined up one by one, neatly and orderly, and he couldn't help but nod secretly.

And when he arrived at the west gate of Taoqiu, he saw the west city of Taoqiu, but finally found that the height of Taoqiu's original city wall was not as high as the height of the buildings outside the city gate, and he found an excuse for mistaking the building for the city wall.

Through the West City Gate, as soon as Fang entered the inner city of Taoqiu, the clean and tidy appearance of the whole city suddenly made King Wei feel good. In Weidu Daliang, he usually does not run on the streets, but recuperates between various palaces. One of the biggest reasons is that the entire girder is too dirty both in the city and on the streets, and the pungent smell makes the pampered King Wei dislike it very much.

And now the clean and tidy appearance of the whole city of Taoqiu makes King Wei feel like he is in a palace near Daliang! He casually asked Dai Yan beside him: "Gong Cao, your pottery mound is so clean, my Wei Du Liang is far worse than your pottery mound . Cao Gong was able to turn Taoqiu to such a point, but what is the trick? ”

Dai Yan said: "What's the trick here, it's just to use the way of the Legalists, issue decrees, and then strictly enforce them." If you want to come to Wei to rule the country by law, it shouldn't be difficult to get to the point of Taoqiu, right? ”

King Wei replied: "Cao Gong's words are indeed reasonable! As long as there is a law to work on and a law to follow, there will inevitably be no confusion. Our Wei State is a country governed by law, and it is indeed not difficult to make a few streets clean and tidy like Taoqiu. However, the difficulty is to make the whole city clean and tidy, because it requires long-term and strict law enforcement, and what official would be so strict to do these things to the extreme and persist for a long time? You must know that the Jin State of that year, the strictness of the laws and regulations was no less than that of the Wei State today, but it still had to move the capital several times because of the dirt of the capital. What Cao Gong said was not difficult, but in fact it was far from that simple. ”

For this King of Wei who doesn't know whether it is a question or a temptation, Dai Yan is also a little unsure. Then he only said modestly: "If the King of Wei is interested in this, I can let my officials in Taoqiu communicate more with the Wei State." ”

Walking on the streets of Taoqiu, the King of Wei was also amazed by such a prosperous city. Constantly asking about the new things that appeared in Dai Yan Taoqiu around him, such a city, at least in that good image, has always surprised King Wei.

Dai Yan did not seal Taoqiu because of the arrival of King Wei and engaged in some image projects. After years of hard work, Taoqiu has become orderly, and Dai Yan will not worry about getting out of control. He directly showed the most authentic face of the entire Taoqiu to this powerful neighbor to the west.

Therefore, the convoy of King Wei entered from Taoqiu Xicheng, and he saw the lively handicraft workshops in Xicheng District, heard the roaring voices of the editors-in-chief in the various newspaper offices, and even the sound of workers stepping up printing.

Subsequently, he successively moved from Xicheng, which was dominated by workshops, to Dongcheng, which was mainly a commercial and wealthy area. This most affluent neighborhood in Taoqiu shocked King Wei even stronger!

This place, which has always been managed by Dai Yan himself, is the real pearl of the entire Taoqiu. Not to mention that the streets are clean and orderly, King Wei can find that all the city blocks in the entire Dongcheng District are extremely similar in terms of decoration style. All shops have a specific plaque on their door plate as their store name. However, no matter which name it is, the size and proportions of the store are very similar!

In Dongcheng District, there are so many people coming and going on the street that they even cause congestion, but the traffic area demarcated by two yellow lines in the middle of the whole street is not allowed to trespass, which makes the whole convoy travel completely unhindered!

"Gong Cao, how did you make these ordinary people honestly walk on the side of the road and not get on the carriageway?" King Wei asked.

After listening to this, Dai Yan replied directly: "Actually, it's not that complicated, I just asked the Yi government to order that specific sidewalks and roadways are stipulated, if people want to trespass on the roadway, once they are discovered by the city management, they will be punished." Moreover, if a person is forced to walk in the lane and is hit by a car, all the results will be borne by the pedestrian! If such a strict decree is enforced, there will naturally be such a result! ”

"With such a strict punishment, Cao Gong is not afraid of arousing the disgust of the people?" King Wei asked.

"King Wei, you must know that although I am a little harsher in my attitude towards some individuals, it is very beneficial to the entire Taoqiu as a whole! Why should they be disgusted? Dai Yan said.