"Bashui ......"

Standing in front of this tributary of Weishui, Gongzi Thorn hesitated a little. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The original name of the Bahe River was Zishui, until Qin Mugong, the ancestor of Gongzi Thorn, claimed to dominate Xirong, and Mu Gong, who was tireless in the title of overlord, changed the original Zishui to Bashui, and built a wooden bridge over the river, called Baqiao.

Since the construction of this Baqiao, it has always been a traffic hub connecting the east and west of the Qin Kingdom, whether it is from the Cuihan Ancient Road at the foot of Taihua Mountain, or from Lantian Pass, if you want to continue to go deep into the land of Fenghao, Baqiao is the only way, from east to west, from west to east.

Gongzi Thorn vaguely remembers that when he entered the Zhao Kingdom as a hostage, he was sent from Yongcheng to Weinan, and he passed by the Baqiao, but now, the sturdy wooden bridge is gone, leaving only charred piers and broken bricks and sawdust.

"It was the order of the chief of the army, in order to block the westward advance of the Zhao army, so the bridge was burned."

The boatman who ferried on the Ba water explained this, and there was some regret in his words, in the past two hundred years, no matter how big the water was, the Baqiao did not fall, but it was destroyed by man. But the situation dictated that the Qin people had to do so.

Now the Qin army of 30,000 is stationed on Qiuyuanba in the west of Bashui, and the Zhao army is more than 100,000, which are stationed in Liyi Hongmen, Lantian and Jingyang, of which Zhao Wuxian's main force of 100,000 is located in Hongmen, which is 40 miles away from the Qin army. The army confronted, and for a while, the Fenghao Plain, which should have been a busy agricultural season, was panicked, and there was not a single boat on the Ba Shui River......

"Is the little gentleman the envoy of the Zhao Kingdom?" After Gongzi and the entourage got off the boat, the Qin Guozhou asked with concern in a Qin Di accent.

"I ......" Childe subconsciously wanted to deny it, so he wanted to stop talking, so he could only nod.

"No wonder the nobleman has a Zhao Di accent."

Zhouren didn't hostile him because he was the "envoy of Zhao State", but just laughed dryly, after all, no one can say for sure, this Bashui area may become the county of Zhao State tomorrow, and he also has to be Zhao Hou's obedient people.

After the ship left the shore, Childe looked at his hometown on the other side, and only felt that the past ten years had been a dream.

He is a Qin man dressed in the skin of Zhao State, but since he was entertained by Zhao Wuxian in Luoyang, and after he was a spy for Qin State and stole Zhao State's military intelligence, the line of defense in Gongzi's heart was completely broken by Zhao Hou. He pretended to be smart, but he didn't know that his every move was under the surveillance of the black clothes, and a lot of information, even Zhao Wuxian deliberately let him know, so that Qin Guo could obtain false news, so as to misjudge Zhao Guo's strategy.

After learning of this fact, Gongzi almost collapsed, and he suffered from a common mental illness among the princes and princes of his time: fear of Zhao. After an attempt to resist and being used, he lost the courage to be an enemy of Zhao Hou.

He followed the Zhao army into Qin in a daze, and watched Zheng and Lantian fall and countless Qin warriors die. After arriving at Feng Ho, he accepted Zhao Wuxian's mission and went to the Bashang Qin camp......

He was submissive, this was not an expedient measure, but Gongzi's thorn was really afraid.

"Huangkou Ruzi, you are the enemy of Zhao Hou, you are still too tender!" While admonishing himself like this, he chatted with Qin Guozhou without saying a word, perhaps based on the shame in his heart, or because he had not heard the hometown for a long time, Gongzi Thorn was eager to understand the current Qin State, and he wanted to know whether his decision was right or wrong.

It just so happened that the boat man who was sent to pick him up was also a talkative, and before Gongzi could ask him, he had already chattered about the situation of Zhao Guo, and seemed to be full of curiosity about that side.

Gongzi took the opportunity to ask rhetorically: "Uncle, the people of Qin State, are you doing well?" ”

Perhaps it was the problem of Gongzi's thorn that touched his painful memories, and the boatman shook the oars again and again, and said with a wry smile: "In the past, the taxes of the Qin State were not high, so we only needed to turn over the ground with peace of mind, cast nets and fish, and go to the public land from time to time to help the farm, and the women gave birth to children at home and weaved silk and linen. At the end of the year, there will always be some fish, beans, millet, and a little brown to survive the harsh winter. ”

"But since that year's defeat in Hedong, everything has changed. The chief of the great concubine implemented the new law, there were fewer private fights among the people, and the fields were abolished, so that we did not have to go to the public fields to work, which was a good thing. But the disadvantage is that the amount of grain to be handed over every year is doubled, and each family has to pay a pair of armor every year, otherwise they have to go to hard labor to pay offset, and the son must be separated when he becomes an adult, otherwise the tax will be doubled. The sun rises and the moon sets, the loess is still the same, but the days of the Qin State are not as good as day by day. ”

Gongzi Thorn knew very well that the source of all this was naturally the "New Year's coin" that Zhao State collected from Qin State, so that Qin State had to increase taxes to deal with Zhao State. The original intention of the chief's change was to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and the princes vigorously supported it because of the national shame, hoping to let the Qin State have more war capital. However, Qin was a poor and weak country in the west, and it was defeated again and again, and the reform could only be built on the basis of oppressing the lower class people, which led to the bankruptcy of many Qin commoners and became slaves.

In the past ten years, the economy of the Qin State was unbearable, and the reform of the Great Commander emphasized agriculture and suppressed the end, put an end to the flow of commerce and trade, and took a narrow path of farming and warfare, and could only improve the domestic economy through foreign wars, so the Qin State could not wait to start a war against the surrounding Rongdi. Even if Zhao does not take the initiative to invade Qin this time, the Qin State will soon cut off the New Year's coin, and launch a war in order to recapture the homeland, after all, the territory of a hundred miles of Rongdi is not as rich as the ten miles of Zhao State.

Gongzi Thorn didn't know that in history, a patriot named Shang Ying also tailored a similar change for the Qin State, but at that time, the Qin State was repeatedly victorious, relying on the conquest like gambling on the fortune of the country, alleviating internal contradictions through war, and embarking on a crazy road of expansion. But today's Qin, in the face of the powerful Zhao, is destined to be uncheap.

During the conversation, the west bank of Bashui had arrived.

Before going ashore, the boat man also whispered to Gongzi: "Your honor, we also hope that Qin Zhao can make a truce and no longer have to fight." There are three sons in the villain's family, one died of illness and starvation, and the other two were seventeen years old and the other was only fifteen years old, but they were all recruited by the Long March of Dashu to serve as sergeants, and the old man was also recruited to row boats and monitor the movements of the Zhao army on the other side. It's just that the old decay is dead, just rely on this group of dolls, how can they fight with Zhao Jun? It's better to make peace as soon as possible, the nobles of the Gong clan may be ashamed of this, but the remnants of Zongzhou in the land of our abundant pickaxes, as long as they are not enslaved by Yiqurong, what difference does it make under the rule of which country? Qin and Zhao, aren't they both well-dressed countries! ”

Gongzi nodded in a complicated mood and said goodbye to the boatman, so that he could carefully examine the heavily guarded Bashang Qin camp on the riverbank.

……

The flag of the Qin State fluttered over the camp and was too far away, so Gongzi Thorn could only see the flag itself, but he knew the pattern on it very well:

The word "Qin" written by the white seal resembles an eagle flying in the air, the wings are slightly retracted, which is the prelude to falling predation, the background of the flag is jet black, and the cloth is not as bright as the banner of Zhao State, but is woven with the coarse kudzu common in Qin, which looks simple and unpretentious. The flag hung high on the iron rod, trembling in the strong wind, like the old Qin people who were becoming more and more courageous in the difficult environment, as if declaring: This place is Bashang, it is the territory of the Qin State, and there is no room for the Zhao State Yanri Xuanniao Banner to show off its might!

He returned to the banner of Qin, but there was no joy in Gongzi's heart, and he was still full of despair.

Zhao Wuxian is now like the sun, covering the world, as long as he is in Kyushu, he can't avoid it at all, he can only be commanded by his hot sun banner! Compared with it, the black bird of the Qin State is only a fledgling chick, and it can only live under its light.

Perhaps, this is the fate of Qin and Zhao, four hundred years, four hundred years together......

Taking a deep breath, Gongzi Thorn stepped forward, there were already soldiers of the Qin State waiting for him on the shore, and this group of people looked at the prince of the Qin State who had returned home with unfamiliar eyes, treating him as a Zhao person, and their hearts were probably full of resentment and disdain.

"Who's coming?" The captain of the Qin State pressed his sword and asked.

"Prince of Qin, thorn!"

Gongzi puffed out his chest and said loudly, embarrassed that what came out of his mouth was a non-standard Qinguo dialect mixed with a Yecheng accent.

Fortunately, the Qin people in front of him did not laugh at him because of this, but their faces changed, and the captain stepped forward excitedly and looked at him carefully.

This group of people are all the old people of the Qin State and the Yongdu people, these standard Qin people are different from the remnants of the Zhou people of Feng Hao, all of them are arrogant and difficult to call, but they are full of loyalty to the Qin State Office.

"Prince, is it really a prince?"

They were very happy, and after Gongzi stabbed the Lantian jade ring in his hand as a token of the prince of Qin, it caused a burst of cheers.

"The crown prince of the Qin State is back!"

"We don't have to be afraid that Zhao Guo will hurt the crown prince and fight to the death!"

These Qin aristocratic children didn't know the purpose of Gongzi Thorn, and welcomed him back as a hero, but Gongzi Thorn's face was red, and his sleeves were hot.

Qin's Bashang military camp was much more chaotic than Zhao's, and the army was not full of young and strong, and there were some old and weak children, Gongzi saw that two skinny teenagers were holding wooden spears, standing in the camp and looking at him blankly, and I didn't know if they were the sons of the boat people. It seems that Zhao Wuxian is right, the elite of the Qin army was indeed wiped out in Lantian, and what gathered here was only a rabble full of panic and forced conscription from all over the country, as well as a group of old men whose bones were too hard and refused to bend down.

Finally, Gongzi Thorn arrived at the big tent along the muddy camp road, opened the tent door and entered, but saw that inside the tent, a group of nobles of the Qin family were discussing the army, and the white-haired eldest son Pu was sitting in the middle.

Now it is warm spring, but Zipu is wearing a thick fur coat, wrapped in it from chin to feet, he is much older and sicker than Gongzi Thorn's impression. Only a pair of eyes are still very sharp, staring at the son at the door, but that look is no longer the kind concern of the year, but indifference.

"The second and third sons will go down first." Zipu said this, and the generals in the tent got up and retreated, and walked past Gongzi Thorn one by one, and everyone looked at him with strange and scrutiny.

I seem to have become a stranger here, Gongzi thought to himself, the loess under his feet is still loess, but the characters he sees are all unrecognizable. I was finally able to go home, but it was really gloomy and poignant to encounter such a scene.

After everyone left, Zipu suddenly coughed, and then said to Gongzi: "Twelve years, the prince has been gone, and it has been twelve years." ”

"Thirteen years." Childe thorns better than he remembers.

"When I left, I was a child, but now I have grown up."

Zipu sighed and said: "At that time, the last sentence that Mrs. Jun instructed her son was that you are the Qin family, not the Zhao family, and now standing in front of the old man, is it Qin Thorn or Zhao Thorn?" ”

"It's Qin Thorn! The identity of the kid is not forgotten for a day! ”

Gongzi Thorn stepped forward, bowed down to the chief of the concubine, and tears welled up in his eyes: "The thorn has the trust of the chief of the great concubine, and failed to see through the treacherous plan of the Marquis of Zhao, which caused Qin to cut down the Yiqu and gave the Zhao people an opportunity to take advantage of......"

"The old decay can't see through it, not to mention that the son is not careful, how can he be Zhao Wuxian's opponent, don't mention the past."

Zipu helped Gongzi to stab up, but a pair of palms firmly pinched his shoulders and said in a deep voice.

"The old man just wants to know, is the prince coming back this time to live and die with the Qin State as the crown prince of the Qin State? Or as an envoy to Zhao Wuxian? ”

"Boy ......"

It was like a fish in the throat, but the childe still said it.

"The kid is here to bring a letter to the eldest concubine for Zhao Hou."

There was a hot time in his sleeve again, and Childe Thorn reached in, took out the silk pouch, shook it, and took out a letter. It contained a letter of persuasion written by Zhao Wuxian to the chief of the Qin State, although it was only a piece of thin paper, it was as heavy as Taihua!

"This is related to the survival of the Qin State, and I hope that the eldest concubine will think twice!"