Night falls.

In the big tent of the Chinese army in the Wu army camp, it is still a brightly lit scene.

At this moment, many Wu army armorers who were stubborn and stubborn were standing around the big tent of the Chinese army, heavily guarded, and no one was allowed to approach.

Qingji and Sun Wu were sitting opposite each other, discussing some more secret matters.

Not everything is suitable for discussion with someone, so Qingji will only choose a few trusted ministers to discuss with him and finally make a decision.

"Great King, if you want to garrison troops in the nine countries of Teng, Xue, Di, Ju, Tan, Cao, Chen, Dun, and Xu, there will be more than 1,000 people and as few as 500 people, although the military expenses should be borne by the country where you are located."

"However, coupled with the original garrisons of Xu and Zhongwu, the vassal countries of my Wu State, the garrison has reached more than 10,000 people. These sergeants are all from my Wu people, and they live in other places all the year round, so I am afraid that it is not appropriate. ”

Sun Wu said with a frown.

"Changqing, what countermeasures do you have?"

"The king, the minister has a plan. According to the method of the king sending his henchmen to the vassal countries to serve as the ruling ministers, and on the pretext of helping the vassal countries train their soldiers and horses, each country sent 100 people to serve in important positions in the army. ”

"In this way, we can not only reduce the unnecessary garrison, but also take this opportunity to increase the military strength of each vassal state, so that it can actually be used by our Wu State, and also avoid the resistance of the princes, isn't it beautiful?"

Hearing this, Qingji couldn't help but bow slightly.

That's a great idea indeed!

With a garrison of tens of thousands of horses, this is a great pressure for the state of Wu.

However, in order to strengthen his control over the various vassal states, Qingji had to send his ministers and garrisons.

Now with Sun Wu's idea, Wu can completely reduce the garrison to the greatest extent, and can also influence the vassal states from the inside out, from top to bottom, wouldn't it be a good thing?

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"Good."

Qingji immediately agreed.

Immediately, Qingji frowned again and asked, "Changqing, now Cao Botong, Hu Zibao, and a group of ministers and doctors from other countries have been released to their countries. ”

"However, the Marquis of Qi and the secretary of the State of Qi, how do you think the widow should be released?"

For these people, Qingji is to kill and not to kill.

It doesn't do anything.

Because the pestle is not grateful.

If Pestle and Mortar return to Qi State, most of them will hold grudges, and then Taoguang will raise obscurity, waiting for the opportunity to attack Wu.

This is not what Qingji wants to see!

The great enemy of Chu has not been solved, and now it is provoking the Qi State, isn't the Wu State an enemy on all sides?

At this time, Qingji only had three choices for the pestle.

Either kill, release, or house arrest, and wait until the Qi State has a new monarch.

It's just that in this way, the hatred between Wu and Qi will inevitably deepen.

Hearing this, Sun Wu pondered for a moment and said, "King, the Marquis of Qi can't be killed." ”

"If the former Jin Hui Gong and Lu Yin Gong are all like the Qi Marquis of today, they were defeated and captured, but Qin Mugong and Zheng Ren were not killed, so the monarch cannot die, and death is ominous, please Mingjian."

Sun Wu is unwilling to let Qingji's hands be stained with the blood of the king of other countries!

In this era of paying attention to bloodline and origin, especially in the Central Plains, the princes are more descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the same as Qingji.

The war between them is, in the final analysis, "fighting in the same room".

If this is just in case, one day Qingji is defeated, or the future king of Wu is defeated, how can others let them go?

Morality, interests, connections, superstitions, and many other factors are rife with them.

Before the overwhelming superiority of the princes, morality and etiquette constituted the basic political structure of the vassal states.

But this structure is fragile and often undermined by conflicts of interest!

Driven by interests, there were as many as 395 large and small wars caused by mutual annexation and internal strife between vassal states.

It can be said that the Spring and Autumn Period was an era full of wars.

In addition to war, there will also be civil strife and counterinsurgency, and in the midst of these wars, it is inevitable that some princes will become prisoners.

Such as Sun Wu's "Jin Huigong".

Duke Hui of Jin inherited the title with the help of the Qin State, and after succeeding to the throne, he had no faith or righteousness towards the Qin State that had been kind to him, which angered the Qin State.

So Qin Mugong raised an army to attack Jin, and Jin Huigong also sent troops to resist.

The two armies fought fiercely in the area of Hanyuan, and as a result, the Jin army was defeated, and Jin Huigong was also captured by the Qin army.

Fortunately, Jin Huigong's sister is Qin Mugong's wife, and it is she who pleads with her children to intercede with Mu Gong in the way of seeking death, which makes Mu Gong's heart soft.

On the other hand, although the Jin State was defeated, the national strength was still there, and the Jin people were willing to cede the land east of the Jin River to make peace with the Qin State, and asked for the return of the Jin Huigong.

In the end, Qin Mugong agreed to peace talks, took the land east of the Jin River, let the brother-in-law return to China, and attached a request to let the prince of Jin go to the Qin State as a hostage.

From this, it can be seen that the fate of the captured monarch depends on the strength behind him.

In short, in the war-torn Spring and Autumn Period, the starting point of all political decisions is interests!

And there are very few like "Lu Yingong".

Anyone who has ever played chess knows that the destruction of a team's commander means that the team loses the game.

In the actual battle, the king of one side was captured and the country was defeated.

But this defeat is not necessarily the final outcome, everything often changes, the way of heaven turns, and in this era, there are cases of captured kings returning to the throne or even turning defeat into victory.

Lu Yingong, Qingji thinks that he can be called "the first pious person in the Spring and Autumn Period"!

When Lu Yingong was still the prince of Lu State, he led troops to fight with Zheng Guo in the fox soil, but was defeated and captured. The Zheng people detained him at the home of the doctor, Yin.

Lu Gongzi wanted to return to China, so he paid a bribe to the Yin family, and prayed in front of the god of Zhongwu that the Yin family worshipped, and finally won the trust of the Yin family, and fled back to the Lu country with his help.

Later, Lu Yin Gong succeeded to the throne, and in order to thank the Yin family for relieving the difficulties, he established the shrine of Zhong Wu in Lu State, and often went to worship.

In the spiritual world of the Zhou people, there are many kinds of gods, and sacrifices are activities to pray to the gods and ghosts for good fortune.

Duke Lu Yin took advantage of the opportunity to sacrifice to the god of Zhongwu to successfully extricate himself from the predicament and become the king of the vassal states.

This made Qingji's previous life very surprised when he read this period of history-

Could it be that his piety touched the heavens?

In fact, the monarch of a defeated country does not necessarily have to be released if he is captured alive.

As far as Qingji knows, among the captured kings, there are also people who have been detained.

For the disposal of captives, detention is the most common, and the next step is to convert into slavery.

Of course, the treatment of the monarch as a prisoner is different from that of ordinary soldiers as prisoners, because most of the monarchs of various vassal states (especially in the Central Plains) are descendants of the royal family or the nobles of the Western Zhou Dynasty!