It was the national policy of Zhao to operate the northern Xinjiang and collect the profits of the raccoon dogs, and the leather goods and livestock, and even the slaves from the grasslands flowing into the inner county, were all profiteering industries. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoSo in addition to Yunzhong County, Zhao Wuxian also set up Shanggu County in the area east of Dai County and north of Yan Kingdom.

Shanggu County, roughly equivalent to the Xuanfu and Zhangjiakou areas of later generations, with the remnants of Donghu far away, here has also become a vacant land, its mountains are high and the valleys are deep, the Xiongguan is dangerous, and the scenery is beautiful. The north is the Yanshan barrier desert, the south Yongjun all overlooks the Yan country, the east is the danger of the key to the Yong, the west has the small Wutai Mountain and the Dai County is adjacent, the water of the four rivers of Huisanggan, Yanghe, Yongding and Fuhe, and the river of the Sangyang Basin. This is the natural passage from the Yan State to the grassland, and it has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times, and it is necessary to garrison troops here, set up a fence, monitor the Xiliao River, which Zhao State cannot control for the time being, and prevent the resurgence of Donghu or other tribes.

The seat of Shanggu County was Tuhe, that is, the Xuanfu of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the new child dog served as the county Sima. This county looks large, but it has no name, and there are very few inhabitants in the jurisdiction, and before the Central Plains immigrants used to fill it up, Shanggu and Yunzhong were at best two military defense areas that served as the wings of the county.

In this way, with Daijun as the mainstay, Yunzhong in the west, and Shanggu in the east, the three Daibei counties of Zhao State are like three carriages driving to the outside of the plug, and they are each other's horns. Among these three counties, Dai County is still the top priority, and after Yu Xi's death, no one can preside over the overall situation, so Zhao Wuxian sent the general Post Cheng over to lead the three counties and have the right to make decisions, and from then on, he can not worry about the situation in the north for the time being.

But when the post was completed, Sima in Shangjun was vacant. After thinking about it for a while, Zhao Wuxian finalized the candidate, and he transferred Zhao Pu, a disciple of the clan, back from along the Huai River to be the military governor of Shangjun......

On this day, Zhao Pu was ordered to return to Beijing to report on his work, because he was a cousin of the clan, not an outsider, so Zhao Wuxian held a family banquet in the palace to entertain him.

In the Changle Palace, the red candle hangs high, the elixir warm wine, the bell and drum music, the cattle, sheep and porpoise meat are all available, Zhao Wuxian is located in the main seat, Zhao Pu sits at the bottom, compared to the immaturity of the Qin ten years ago, this Zhao's "Qianli Horse" has matured a lot, with wind and frost, and there have been some yellow and black beards under the chin, but after seeing Zhao Wuxian, his eyes are still full of admiration.

Zhao Wuxian also asked Le Lingzi, Ji Huan, the prince Zhao Heng, the young son Zhao Yan and others to accompany them, during the banquet, the prince's wife Le Lingzi smiled and said that let them only talk about family affection, not talk about state affairs, everyone smiled and agreed, at first they were happy, but while eating, Zhao Wuxian suddenly sighed......

"When I saw Ziwei, I remembered someone......"

Zhao Jia also moved, and arched his hand: "What the king thinks, could it be Liu Ziqian?" ”

……

The person Zhao Wuxian remembered was Liu Xiayue, who had gone to a foreign land and had not been heard from. He is the son of a thief, and he is also Zhao Jia's friend and robe, and he has always been determined to be in the world. After the meeting of Huangchi, he took the initiative to ask Ying to go to the west, trying to retrace Mu Tianzi's westward journey, looking for the legendary Western Queen Mother Country, and hollowing out the Western Regions for Zhao State, so as to obtain the long-awaited sweat and blood horses, alfalfa, cotton and other species that were not available in the Central Plains.

However, calculating the time, he set out in the mid-spring of the fourth year of Zhao Hou Wuxian (485 BC), and now it is the middle of winter in the ninth year (480 BC), and six years have passed in the flick of a finger, but Liu Xia Yue and his team are still not heard from.

"According to the previous plan of the monarch's father, even if General Liu went all the way to the Tianshan Mountains before returning, it would only take three or four years to go back and forth, and if he was overdue for so long, would he have ......?"

When the words came to his lips, the crown prince Zhao Heng didn't say anything.

He is a little pessimistic, he has not left Yecheng much since he was a child, and the outside world is full of unknowns and dangers for him.

In the Linzhang School Palace, Zhao Heng heard a ballad, which was full of the imagination of the people of the Central Plains to the far west: "The harm of the West is a thousand miles of quicksand." They said that it was an empty and dead land on all sides, and that the red ants were as big as giant elephants, and the black bees were as big as gourds. They said that the grain could not grow well, and that there was only clumps of thatch for food. Sand can roast people, but they want to drink water but they can't get a drop. Walking in it, there is no reliance on melancholy, and there is no ultimate place in the desert desolation......

In short, even the souls of the dead will be steamed to ashes when they go there, let alone the living?

Therefore, in Zhao Heng's view, Liu Xiayue's visit itself was an adventure with a very low possibility. The west of Jingshui is no longer the territory of Zhao, and in a strange and wild land, the caravan may encounter all kinds of dangers: it may be robbed and killed by bloodthirsty thieves, it may be imprisoned by aliens who do not understand the language, or it may be that when it runs out of water when crossing the desert, the corpses will gradually dry in the hot yellow sand...... And the destination they have been longing for for a long time is just a mirage in the desert......

After these words were spoken, everyone at the banquet was silent, and even Zhao Wuxian had a trace of regret, he knew best how difficult it was to hollow out the Western Regions, but he still couldn't resist the impulse in his heart, and agreed to Liu Xia Yue to take this risk. Shouldn't it be more appropriate to send him out after taking the Central Plains and controlling the Qin State?

Now Liu Xia Yue does not know life and death, although he has married a wife when he left, but he has not left an heir, if he has really been killed, Zhao Wuxian may have to come forward, from Qufu Zhan's family to ask for a man and half a woman, to pass on to Liu Xia Yue, so as to continue the incense of the thief of this vein......

Unexpectedly, a crisp child's voice sounded.

"Or was that General Liu graciously retained by the states along the way and delayed? Or did he stay in the local area because the Queen Mother of the West was too beautiful, and he didn't have time to return...... Or maybe he went to the Tianshan Mountains, didn't find what his father was looking for, and continued to walk? ”

But it was Zhao Wuxian's nine-year-old son, Zhao Yan, who spoke in a milky voice, and before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by his mother Ji Huan, asking him to interject, and then smiled apologetically at Mrs. Le and Prince Heng.

Le Lingzi smiled back, while Zhao Heng shook his head a little disappreciatively, he was already fifteen years old, and he was taught by the princes and princes to be versatile, rational and pragmatic, and he would no longer have such naïve thoughts, and he would no longer believe in fairy tales.

However, Zhao Wuxian laughed out loud, and asked Zhao Yan to step forward and reward him with a close-fitting jade pendant.

"What the ruzi said is right, what will happen when you go to a foreign land, even the widow can't say, how can you look forward to Liu Ziqian's death? The widow still believes that he will come back, he will definitely come back, but if it doesn't work for five years, the widow will wait for him for ten or twenty years! Because the widow believes that the son of the willow will never fail me! ”

Xiao Zhao Yan's words make sense, the surroundings of China are full of ignorance and unknowns, and the western area of Liuxiayue can be said to be another feat of geographical discovery, always cautious and conservative, destined to not go far, with a hot and crazy attitude to discover and explore, maybe he can reach the destination, or maybe he is in the opposite direction, but as long as he is patient and waits, maybe, there will be a miracle of Zhang Qian's style?

……

After the banquet was withdrawn, Zhao Jia stayed, and when he and Zhao Wuxian faced each other, he finally dared to say what he had no chance to say at the banquet.

"Your Majesty, the minister has some heartfelt words to say, please forgive your sins!"

"Say it." Zhao Wuxian sat down by himself, and asked the attendant to give Zhao Jia a seat, but he refused to sit down, and after bowing, his mouth gushed like a machine gun.

"Since the defeat of Fucha in Lu and Song nine years ago, and the defeat of the remnants of the army and the retreat to Jiangdong, the situation in the south has completely reversed. The state of Chu and the state of Yue formed an alliance and jointly attacked Wu, while the state of Zhao sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight. Sun Sheng, the white prince of Chu State, and Goujian, the king of Yue, were not ordinary people, not only diligent in internal affairs, but also in water and land warfare. ”

"After the meeting of Huangchi, seeing that Wu Guo was a little unable to support it, the king also released some Wu prisoners back one after another, and sent some weapons, armor and even grain to Wu State in exchange for copper and tin from Wu."

"Zhao's help relieved Wu Guo, Fucha launched several counteroffensives against Yue and Chu, but the national strength was exhausted, and the upstream terrain was also occupied, and occasionally there were some small victories, but they had little impact on the overall situation."

"The ministers were ordered to station Zhongli to protect the state of Cai and monitor the state of Chu so that they did not dare to offend Huaibei, but the king also ordered our army not to act rashly. After all, the king was in the past few years, recuperating and recuperating. After that, there were the battles of Zhongshan and Donghu. But now, it is a good opportunity to meddle in the south, but the king has transferred his ministers back......"

Zhao Wuxian didn't say a word at first, and after he finished speaking, he said a little unhappily: "Didn't you say that today's family banquet and state affairs will be discussed tomorrow?" ”

"Zhao is the country of the king, for the Zhao family, state affairs are also family affairs, and the ministers have been anxious since childhood, and they can't wait for a moment......"

"The people who come out of the school palace are good for everything, and what I don't like the most is this quibble that likes to change concepts." Zhao Wuxian scolded and pointed at Zhao Jia, and said: "You kid is complaining, complaining that the widow didn't let you stay in the south, presided over the southern expedition, and missed the opportunity to make meritorious contributions to become a feudal monarch, right?" ”

Zhao Jia was seen through, her heart trembled, and she said: "The minister doesn't dare to ......"

"You still don't dare? Even the Qishan Zhiyang of the Qin State dared to break through alone, let me ask the Zhao State except for Liu Xiayue, who has the courage to be as big as you? ”

Zhao Wuxian sneered: "Don't look at the excitement of Jianghuai in recent years, but in terms of the importance to Zhao State, Shangjun is no less than Huaibei." In recent years, Bai Zhai in Shangjun has been relatively peaceful, so there is no war, but as the first line of monitoring Qin State and Yiqu, how can there be no fierce generals to defend it? As soon as the post is gone, who else in the army knows everything about the military affairs of the Western Front besides you, and who can make the people of Qin more afraid than my family's Qianli Ju? ”

When Zhao Jiabai rode into Qiyang, burned its city, and left the book, the entire Yongdu was deeply shocked, and the remaining prestige is still there, Zhao Wuxian hopes that Zhao Jia can return to the battlefield he is familiar with, as for Huaibei, he has used Xing Ao, who returned to Zhao, to replace Zhao Jia's position.

"How can the minister not know the importance of the county, but the king." Although Zhao Jia knew that Shangjun Sima's Juelu was higher than Zhongli's lieutenant, he had some doubts about Zhao Wuxian's transfer of him back from Huaishui at this time, and said a little anxiously: "The state of Wu has lost all its gates, and in the winter of this year, the state of Chu will cross the great river, and the country of Yue will also enter the Wuhu region again, and the remnants of Gusu will be surrounded soon. Wu Guo is dying, maybe he won't be able to survive next year......"

"Do you mean that you want to take advantage of the fatigue of the three tigers, and Zhao Guo will insert a bar, so that Chu and Yue will destroy Wu?"

"Exactly! It would be better if he took advantage of the situation to seize Huainan Qunshu in Chu State. ”

Zhao Wuxian nodded, and shook his head again: "A small nuisance can be contained, but a national war is not feasible." The southern battle is different from the north, the cavalry is almost useless, and the naval army of the Zhao State is still unable to match the Chu Yue, even if the Chu people are defeated in Huainan, they can still only look at the river and sigh, watching the Yue State destroy Wu. ”

Zhao Wuxian was a little helpless, although he had let Zhao Guangde, Yan Yan and others operate in Huaibei for several years, but there was still no way to conduct a large-scale southern operation, and through various means, it was already very good to be able to delay the time for Chu Yue to destroy Wu for so many years.

What's more, compared to helping Wu Guo forcibly renew his life, there is another sweeter and crispier cake in the Central Plains waiting for him to pick.

"The widow will tell you directly."

Zhao Wuxian said: "Before you go to Shangjun to take up your post, you have to do one more thing for the widow." ”

"I don't know what your lord's command is?" Feeling that there was a battle to fight, Zhao Jia was suddenly happy, now the clansmen of the Zhao family are almost young, he has no fiefdom, he has already taken a fancy to Huainan, but he was transferred back by Zhao Wuxian......

"After the beginning of spring, Ru Shuai rode 30,000 steps, went to the tiger prison, Linmengjin, and forced Luoyang!"

"This ...... Don't you want to ......" Even though Zhao Jia was very bold, he was also surprised!

Zhao Wuxian showed a hint of a smile: "Yes, the widow just received the news that King Zhou, who has become Zhou, will not live until next spring...... The Son of Heaven went down to the church, and the widow was the uncle, so it was indispensable to go to the funeral, and follow the example of Zhou Gong, support the lonely and weak, and take charge of the world's government! “

The competition between the great powers is all-round, and you can't just stare at one place, just when Bai Gongsheng, the Chu people, united with the Yue Kingdom with all his strength in order to destroy Wu and stormed Jianghuai, Zhao Wuxian has already set a small goal: let the little ones fight for the corners, Zhou loses its deer, and the widow chases it first!