As night fell, the state banquet to welcome the prince of Wei was held in the palace of King Jiang.

The musicians played music, the dancers danced, and the banquet was full of delicacies, good wines, singing and dancing, and the scene was very lively and festive.

After enjoying the first song and dance "Fish Leaping in the Abyss Dance", the band began to play the "Song of the National Style", and at this time, the state banquet came to the toasting part.

King Jiang took the lead in raising a glass, then the palace ministers, and finally the student representatives, who raised their glasses together and toasted to the prince of Wei to express their welcome.

Wei Yingnan raised his glass and returned the wine and drank wine with everyone in Jiang Guo.

After three rounds of drinking, Wei Yingnan and King Jiang, who was sitting on the central high seat, asked about the customs and people's livelihood of Jiang Kingdom, and King Jiang also told Wei Yingnan about the situation of Jiang Country one by one.

After asking about these trivial things as usual, Wei Yingnan smiled slightly, and then stopped asking, he raised the wine in the cup, drank it slowly, and then turned around and began to enjoy the song and dance in the center of the hall.

So, Xun Yang suddenly asked King Jiang: "King Jiang, before Weichen came to Jiang State, I heard on the road that Jiang Guo was secretly expanding its army, and it is said that Jiang Guo's army has increased by tens of thousands in the past two years. I don't know if it's true or not?"

Xun Yang made a casual look, seemingly chatting, but the words he asked were very sharp.

Hearing this, King Jiang stopped his wine glass, he first glanced at Wei Yingnan, the prince of Wei State, with the residual light of his eyes, but Wei Yingnan was watching the song and dance intently, with a faint smile on his face, seemingly focused on the song and dance performance, in fact, Jiang Wang knew very well that he was listening carefully to their conversation, but he didn't show it.

King Jiang put down his wine glass, smiled slightly, and then replied to Xun Yang: "Lord Xun Yang, I don't know where you heard this rumor. The widow can tell you that Jiang Guo has never expanded its army, and Jiang Guo has no plans to expand its army. ”

"Really?" Xun Yang questioned, obviously he didn't believe King Jiang's words, and continued: "However, those rumors outside are very detailed, and even say that Jiang Guo has stationed nearly 100,000 troops in Dongwang City, and is stepping up training day and night. ”

Hearing this, King Jiang was startled at first, and then burst out laughing, as if Xun Yang had told King Jiang a big joke, King Jiang laughed, and then said, "Haha...... Gather 100,000 troops?haha...... Lord Xunyang, to be honest, the widow also wants an army of 100,000, who doesn't want to have as many troops in their country as possible? However, Jiang Guo must also have such national strength. An army of 100,000 is 100,000 mouths, and they want food, uniforms, and weapons, and the treasury of the widows can't afford to support them. ”

At this time, sitting in the minister's seat at the lower left of King Jiang, a slightly chubby scholar doctor stood up, and while saluting Xun Yang, he said: "Lord Xun Yang, Wei Chen is Ye Zhen, the farmer of Jiang State, who is in charge of Jiang Guo's money and grain. As the saying goes, those who manage money at home know best how capable the family is. Now Jiang's army has 30,000 Red Horse Army, 10,000 City Protectors, plus other stragglers, about 50,000 people in total. Jiang Guo's efforts to raise these 50,000 troops alone would already be very difficult for the state treasury, and if there was any more major drought and natural disaster, the state treasury would have to cut military expenditures. The soldiers of our Jiang army often complained, complaining that the military pay was too small, and for this matter, they were worried to death. ”

Ye Zhen showed a bitter face, just like a woman from a poor family, worrying about the rice and grain for dinner every day.

Looking at his father's realistic acting skills, Ye Zhanfei, who was sitting behind Ye Zhen, almost laughed, because a few months ago, he talked to his father about Jiang Guo's grain hoarding, and at that time he heard his father say that in the past two years, Jiang Guo has hoarded five large granaries, old grain and new grain, enough to raise 100,000 troops for three years.

is obviously a local tyrant with a lot of money, but he pretends to be like a poor man who can't afford to spend a penny, such superb acting skills, but Ye Zhanfei, who is a son, admires him.

At this time, the general Liu Chen also cooperated: "The soldiers are also the difficulties of the soldiers, as the saying goes, when a soldier eats food, eats food and becomes a soldier! Soldiers can't eat enough, how to go to war, a few days ago, there was a time in the barracks, the soldiers complained that this year's food and salary is less than last year, I explained to them that this year's Jiang land harvest is not good, there is no way, the people can't pay the food, so the less is sent to you." ”

Hearing Liu Chen and Ye Zhen singing and harmonizing, Xiangguo Yan Hao also took the opportunity to say to Xun Yang: "Lord Xun Yang, please forgive me, this is our Jiang Guo's own business, let you laugh." However, it is true that the land harvest of Jiang Country is not good today. Speaking of which, Lao Chen has a reluctant request, according to the covenant signed between our Jiang State and Wei State, Jiang State will also pay Wei State a tribute of 10,000 taels of gold and 10,000 stone of grain this year, but this year, Jiang's national situation is really not very good. Lord Xunyang, can you go back this time and ask King Wei to reduce Jiang Guo's tribute this year?"

Hearing this, Xun Yang's face stiffened, and he secretly scolded in his heart: "Bastard, I am asking you about the expansion of the army, but you are crying for me here to be poor, and you have to reduce the tribute! ”

Although he scolded angrily in his heart, Xun Yang still had a smile on his face, and he said: "To reduce the tribute, I can go back and ask our king, as for whether I can agree, it depends on the king's intentions." However, I don't think our king will nod and agree, after all, our Wei State is not asking for your money and food for nothing. Jiang Guo has been safe and worry-free in the past two years, and the country and the people are safe, not thanks to the blessing of our Wei State, I also heard that your Jiang country's sworn enemy, Rong Guo, has never made trouble on your border in the past two years, right?"

"Yes, this is indeed thanks to the Wei State. Hearing Xun Yang's words, King Jiang smiled again: "Therefore, the widow often said to the ministers that Jiang and Wei have formed an alliance, and Jiang can sit back and relax, in fact, as long as Wei is here, why do we Jiang still need to expand the army? With the help of Wei, it is better than a million army." ”

Listening to King Jiang's words, Xun Yang couldn't help but think secretly in his heart: "Could it be that the expansion of Jiang Guo's army is really a rumor?"

"Indeed, our Wei State is the number one power in the East, with 350,000 armor, which is enough to protect our allies. Xun Yang said proudly, "In this way, Jiang Guo's expansion of the army is really a rumor?"

"Of course it's a rumor. Yan Hao said, "Lao Chen guessed that this must be a rumor spread by the people of Rongguo, Rongguo was jealous of our Jiang State and the alliance of Great Wei, and he did not dare to fight with us head-on, so he spread rumors behind his back, intending to slander our Jiang State." Lord Xunyang, and the prince of Wei, you must not be deceived by the people of Rongguo. ”

Yan Hao's words were very clever, not only explaining that "the expansion of the army is a rumor", but also directly directing the spearhead to Rongguo.

Hearing Yan Hao's explanation, Xun Yang felt very reasonable, and couldn't help but nod.

"It seems that Jiang Guo's expansion of the army is really a rumor. ”

At this time, Xun Yang turned his face and glanced at Wei Yingnan, only to see that Wei Yingnan continued to enjoy the singing and dancing, and still did not say anything.

So, Xun Yang's eyes rolled, and then he said: "Hehe, it should be a rumor to expand the army." Just now we talked about the alliance between Jiang and Wei, now that the two countries are allies, the allies should cooperate with each other and help each other, if Jiang is attacked one day, our Wei will definitely send troops to help, but if one day our Wei needs help, what will Jiang do?"

Hearing this, King Jiang was slightly startled, and said secretly in his heart: "The dignified Wei Kingdom, do you still need the help of a small country like us?"

King Jiang pondered for a moment, and then said: "If the Wei State is attacked, although our Jiang State has a small army, we will definitely do our best to help the Wei State." ”

Xun Yang smiled coldly, but said, "Hehe...... Our Wei State is the first power in the East, which country dares to attack our Great Wei State. I mean, if one day our Wei State sends troops to attack, will Jiang State fight with us?"

Hearing this, King Jiang immediately understood the conspiracy of the Wei State, they wanted to make Jiang the pawn of the Wei State and include the army of the Jiang State in their Wei State's conquest army.

If Wei wanted to attack a country in the east, once a war was initiated, it would ask Jiang's army to fight together and participate in the war together. Wei's intention was very obvious, it was to forcibly drag Jiang into their Wei war.