Merry Christmas~~

As soon as Liu Bang died, the generals and subordinates loyal to him laid down their arms one after another and surrendered to the Qin state. The vanguard of the Qin army marched southward, and it was not until the East China Sea and Xue County that the pace of expansion was stopped, and Yu Chu was far away. At this point, the five counties of Qi were all returned to the Qin State, and the five counties of Linzi, Jibei, Langya, Jiaodong, and Dongjun were re-established, while the Chu army in the north of the Chu State occupied the two counties of Donghai and Xue County, and confronted the border with the Qin army.

Han Xin did not plan to attack Chu immediately for the time being, on the one hand, because of the lack of grain and grass, and on the other hand, because of the rapid expansion of Qin's territory, which swelled by more than one and a half times in just four months, and the relevant supporting systems did not have time to keep up, and many places were still in chaos.

Therefore, Han Xincai decided to completely absorb Hebei and Qi first, and then go south to attack Pengcheng, and attack Xiang Yu's Chu army with Wang Jing's army in the Central Plains, so that he could not care about each other, and then break it.

Since the first year of the second year, Tian Dan raised an incident in Qidi, after four years of war, the incomparably rich Qidi has been greatly injured, and the people have suffered from the war for a long time. Han believed this, so he asked the new officials to try not to disturb the people, reduce labor and taxation, and just maintain the funds for the operation of the imperial court. At the same time, merchants were encouraged to transport goods to Hebei and Guanzhong for trading, so as to promote the development of commerce.

Seeing that the policy pursued by the Qin State was so mild, the Qi people, who were originally worried about the tyranny of the King of Qin, relented one after another, and the people's hearts gradually became calm.

Although the state of Qi has been war-torn for a long time, its roots still exist, especially a large number of private merchants are still very active. Although Liu Bang's "money gathering method" made the giant businessmen and tycoons greatly injured, it had little impact on the most fundamental small and medium-sized businessmen.

Qi is different from the bitter cold of the land of Yan and Zhao, it is densely populated, and it is close to the sea, so the fish and salt industry is developed, coupled with the prevalence of merchants for hundreds of miles, the Qin State occupies Qi land, which is undoubtedly equivalent to one more warehouse of money and grain. For example, if the Qin State has won five of the seven points today, but the Chu State occupies the land of the old Chu, there is no suspense about which is stronger or weaker.

Although the Qi State is densely populated, the Qi people are not good at war, and the folk atmosphere is even more repressive and civilized, so Han Xin did not recruit soldiers in the Qi State, but let go of most of the Han army that had been recruited, and recruited a new group of soldiers from Guanzhong and Zhao Di, bringing together 200,000 people, which seriously threatened the empty rear of the Chu State from the north.

Thanks to Liu Bang's rampant conquest, Han Xin received a lot of ordnance materials, which was enough for the Qin army for a period of time. After pacifying Qidi, the Tao family, who was still hesitant, immediately changed direction and quickly devoted themselves to the reconstruction of the five counties of Qidi. Thanks to Shangguan Zhishui's efforts, the Tao family gathered 100,000 stone grain and grass to support the Qin army's astonishing food consumption. With the Tao family taking the lead, other families also donated money to the Qin army, and the food crisis that the Qin army was originally in need was greatly improved for a while.

On the second day after the Qin army invaded Linzi, Chen Ping, who had been hiding at home for a day, learned of Liu Bang's death, and immediately found the Qin soldiers who were patrolling and told them that he was the right minister of the Han state. Naturally, the Qin soldiers did not dare to slack off, so they sent him to the general's camp and sent him down.

Although Chen Ping has never met Han Xin, he also knows that this person is a very important strategist by Liu Bang's side, and he is known for his good tricks. But this person's reputation is not very good, and he is criticized by the world for stealing his sister-in-law's money.

Chen Ping had an affair with his beautiful sister-in-law when he was a teenager, and his brother divorced his wife in a fit of rage; When he was the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, he privately accepted bribes from the generals, and if he gave more money, he would speak well in front of Liu Bang, and if he had less money, he would speak badly. Over time, the news of Chen Ping's acceptance of bribes also reached Liu Bang's ears, and Liu Bang wanted to dismiss his official in a fit of rage. Chen Ping explained unhurriedly: "What I am good at is the ability to make suggestions, and I have not said that I am a noble person of Ping. Dare to ask the king, do you need a noble person with a character like Oyu Takashi, but it is not good for the fate of victory or defeat, or do you want someone like me who can come up with a trick and benefit the country. ”

Liu Bang suddenly woke up after listening to Chen Ping's words, apologized to him and rewarded him heavily. It is not difficult to see from these things that Chen Ping is not a die-hard person, on the contrary, he is careful everywhere, he has pleasure in life first, and beauties have been by his side for many years. The reason why he was willing to work hard for Liu Bang was nothing more than that Liu Bang's Corporal Lixian and open-mindedness made him feel a glimmer of hope, but it was a pity that Liu Bang died before his foundation was achieved.

Now that Liu Bang is dead, Chen Ping is right about his appreciation of himself before, so he immediately went to seek refuge in Han Xin.

wanted to ask Chen Ping to take the initiative to vote, but Han Xin, who was discussing political affairs with Zhang Er, was a little surprised. Zhang Er is a deep voice; "General, I heard that Chen Ping is treacherous and has very poor morality, and the old master is eager to defect to the old master's enemy as soon as he dies, this is too cold-blooded, I advise you not to use this person, just find an excuse to send him away. Or in order to prevent his talent from being used by others, it is better to ......"

Speaking of this, Zhang Er made a knife with one hand, slashed down and made a head-killing gesture, his eyes were fixed on Han Xin, which was self-evident.

Han Xin pondered for a moment, slowly shook his head and smiled; "You think about it too much, even if I can't use him, don't be afraid of him. I still know Xiang Yu's temper very well, when Chen Ping rebelled against Chu and returned to Han, it was equivalent to cutting himself off from Chu State, and there was no reason to turn back. ”

"As for his character, I don't care, all I need is talented people, and I only care about talented people. If he is talented, I will naturally have; If he is not talented, no matter how noble his morality is, it will not be my Han Xin's dish. ”

Zhang Er had already heard that Han Xin had the intention of trying Chen Ping, so he no longer dissuaded him, but asked; "Then let's call him in."

Han Xin nodded, and then ordered his subordinates to pass Chen Ping in.

It didn't take long for Chen Ping to follow his soldiers in, and he saw a young man and an elderly man sitting side by side in the hall. After thinking about it for a while, Chen Ping guessed that the young man should be Han Xin, who has been famous for a long time. Hurriedly stepped forward, bent over and said, "Sinner Chen Ping, see the general." ”

"Sinners?" Han Xin smiled lightly and looked at Chen Ping with a somewhat playful smile.

"Then tell me what the sin is."

Chen Ping was stunned for a moment, obviously he didn't expect Han Xin to ask such a question, his head turned quickly, and he opened his mouth and said; "The sins of ministers lie in the fact that they do not distinguish between right and wrong, and today they can see the moon and abandon the darkness and turn to the light."

"What is dark and what is light?"

"Han is dark, Qin is bright." Chen Ping replied without thinking.

Han Xin's face grew with a smile and said; "Chen Ping, you are really a smart person."

"Thank you, General, for the compliment."

Seeing that the two of them were so numb and praised, Zhang Er snorted heavily, and said with some disdain; "I don't know if you said this when you betrayed Xiang Yu and voted for Liu Bang?"

Chen Ping nodded calmly, opened his ears angrily, and couldn't help but say again; "You are a cheerful person, the old master's bones are not cold, but now he is here to wag his tail and beg, if Liu Bangquan knows, I don't know how he will feel, aren't you ashamed?"

"Why should I be ashamed?" Chen Ping said in a calm tone, "The reason why I defected to King Han is because he has the talent to know people and tolerate people, and then he has the grace of knowing me, which made me from a nobody to a dignified country." For this friendship, I will do my best to give him advice. ”

"If he is here, even if it reaches the point of real exhaustion, I will not have the slightest dissent. But now that he's gone, I don't owe him anything, so I'm free. Good birds choose trees to perch, I Chen Ping is full of talent and ambition, all I have learned all my life is the art of the emperor, naturally I can't empty the old mountain, and you are undoubtedly the wisest choice to go to the general.

Han Xin narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "If you want to be used by me, it depends on whether you are worthy of my appreciation." ”

Chen Ping bowed confidently; "Chen Ping is not talented, he is also full of military books, and he has millions of armor soldiers in his chest, and the general will know it when he tries it."

"Then I ask you, now that the land has been obtained, what should I do?"

Chen Ping thought for a moment, then said loudly; "When the Ming Fu Qi land, the troops were called out and the truce, but secretly with elite soldiers, when Xiang Yu's main force did not have time to return to help, he attacked Pengcheng, if he succeeded, the state of Chu could be broken."

Han Xin smiled slightly and said; "Your idea coincides with what I thought at the beginning."

"What was the beginning?" Chen Pingqi said.

"Because I thought that Xiang Yu had a cavalry with amazing mobility, and others couldn't come back in time, but Xiang Yu might not be able to. Besides, it was the general Yu Zi who stayed in Pengcheng, he was cautious by nature, and if I sneak attacked, I might not be able to succeed. If you fail, it will only hurt morale. ”

Chen Ping was a little unconvinced in his heart, and wanted to argue, but Han Xin stretched out his hand to stop him.

"I have one more question for you."

"The Admiral is serious, but it doesn't hurt to say it."

Han Xin pondered for a while and spoke; "You and Xiao He have been working together for a long time, but you know his temperament and temperament, is there any way to make him submit to me."

"Xiao He!" Chen Ping was stunned.

"The general wants to use Xiao He?"

"Exactly." Han Xin nodded.

"Xiao He is a humble person, a great talent in governing the world, if you talk about the governance of the world, no one must be able to stand out. If it is broken today, I want to use great talent to soothe it, Xiao He is undoubtedly the best candidate. ”

The disappointment on Chen Ping's face flashed, and he quickly returned to his usual look. With a slight groan, he said; "General, you are worried about Xiao He's refusal to surrender."

"Exactly." Han Xin nodded, "No matter how you persuade him, he just won't surrender, and would rather die for Liu Bang than submit to my Great Qin." ”

Chen Ping's mouth itched, and his smile was a little proud, "General, you are wrong, Xiao He is not a refusal, it's just that the conditions you set can't impress him." ”

"Oh?" Han Xin looked interested.

"Xiao He is the most affectionate person, so he refuses to betray Liu Bang and return to the Qin State. But this is also his weakness, if he is threatened with this, are you afraid that he will not comply? ”