Due to the limitations of the times, Qin Wangji and Fan Ju did not know what kind of fertile land the Xitao Plain north of Longxi and the Hetao Plain further north were.

They only know the name Hetao, which was previously called Heshang Land by Zhao State, but they don't know what the specific environment is, whether it is suitable for growing grain, how large the area is, and how much the population is.

After all, there is a rich and fertile Central Plains on the side, who will set their eyes on the poor and backward frontier, in history, neither the Qin Dynasty nor the Han Dynasty captured the Hetao, but failed to develop it into a granary.

If it weren't for someone reporting it, Zhao's territory had expanded to the north of Longxi, and it would be impossible for Qin to set its sights there.

"Southern...... Western...... Northern...... I thought that the north would be safe, but I didn't expect something to happen......" Qin Wangji slowly moved his gaze upward.

On the map, there is a large blank area north of Longxi, and there is not even the direction of the Yellow River, only the names of Quyan, Hezong, Heigu and other names are simply marked, and now it seems that these names are likely to become one name: Zhao Guo.

"I don't know how the battle is going on the front line...... If you can't open up the situation......" Qin Wangji secretly pondered in his heart, whether it was necessary to put his strength in the north.

However, Fan Ju has a saying that is very reasonable, the ravines north of Guanzhong are vertical and horizontal, and deep ditches divide the land into one highland after another, and the locals call these high and flat highlands "Yuan".

The great plains are connected together, and there is no end in sight, and there is no way out, which is enough to kill all the ambitions.

"Unless there is a road that runs through the north and south, it is absolutely impossible to cross such a long distance to attack the Zhao State Loop." Qin Wangji's heart sank.

This kind of terrain, just transporting grain is enough to make people desperate, and he would rather really fight the Zhao army on the battlefield than face the Great Plains that he can't get out.

"What's the situation on the front? Is there any news coming?" Qin Wangji asked in a deep voice.

He had already received the news of Jiuding's loss, but he still decided to give Zhang Ruo a chance to take Jiuding back.

Jiuding is important, but the loyalty of a general is even more important.

"Not yet, my lord." Qin Liu shook his head.

"I hope he doesn't let the widow down." Qin Wangji muttered, Sanchuan has been taken, if Jiuding can be recaptured again, the first stage of the strategy will be successfully completed.

The next step is to split the Three Jins, first to split the alliance of the Three Jin Dynasties politically, and then to split the Three Jin Dynasties in the terrain, so that the Three Jin Dynasty cannot be united, and then break them one by one......

"Don't worry, the king, General Zhang Ruo is the general of my Qin State, and he won't let Sanjin run away." Fan Ju said with a smile.

"I hope so." Qin Wangji sighed, "By the way, have the officials and grain and grass been arranged?"

"The officials have been appointed, half of them have been transferred from various places, and half of them have been appointed directly from the army, and because of the different distances, it is expected that they will all be able to take up their posts in about a month. Grain and grass have been shipped to the royal city since yesterday." Fan Ju clenched his fists and said.

The world thought that this war was over, but they did not know that this war had just begun.

"Newspaper ...... King, news from the front." At this time, a guard walked in from the outside, clenched his fists and said.

"Bring it up." Qin Wangji took it and looked at it, and immediately became furious, slamming the letter on the ground, "It's really fucking shameless, how dare you Zhang Ruo say such a thing...... obviously didn't do it, let go of Sanjin, and was embarrassed to say that it was his own plan. How can there be a shameless person like you in the world?"

The guards hurriedly retreated to the side, lowered their heads, and didn't dare to take a breath in the air, for fear of being noticed by Qin Wangji and suffering an unwarranted disaster.

Only Fan Ju stepped forward indifferently, picked up the letter on the ground, and after reading it, laughed and said, "This one is a wonderful ......."

"Isn't Sangkook angry?" Qin Wangji looked at Fan Ju.

"Great King, there is a saying in the State of Chu, it is called "It's not too late to make amends." Now that Jiuding has been lost, even if we are angry, we will not let the lost Jiuding come back. Although Zhang Ruo's method is to defend himself, it is not without value. Jiuding, who doesn't want it? How could Han Wei obediently give it to Zhao Guo? In the end, no matter what

Whichever of the three Jin gets it, there will inevitably be contradictions."

"Even if Han Zhao Wei divides Jiuding, there will be people dissatisfied with each country, three or a few, respectively. When the time comes...... It's the opportunity of my Qin State. For a long time, the minister was a little worried about Shaofu (Lü Buwei)'s plan, and if Zhang Ruo's plan was added, the success rate would be greatly improved." Fan Ju said with a smile.

This is the charm of Jiuding, you know that there will be traps inside, but you still can't help but step on it.

"Isn't there a way to take Jiuding back?" Qin Wangji asked unwillingly, this is Jiuding, the important weapon of the country, is it just given to Sanjin?

"King, Jiuding is just a dead thing after all, if it can cause internal strife in Sanjin, it is worth it for us to lose Jiuding. Moreover...... When we dominate the world in the future, won't Jiuding return to my Qin Kingdom?" Fan Ju said.

Qin Wangji clenched his hands and struggled with his face, Jiuding, but it was the long-cherished wish of several generations of the Qin State.

finally had the opportunity and strength to possess it, but was taken away by Sanjin, how could he be willing!

"Your Majesty, the overall situation is important!" Fan Ju said solemnly.

"So what's next?" After a long while, Qin Wangji slowly let go of his clenched hands, took a long breath, and looked out of the hall with a firm gaze, "Jiuding, let you keep it for a few days first, and my Qin Kingdom will take it back soon!"

"Wait for a while, if our country attacks Han Wei at this time, the two countries are forced by our country's pressure, and in order to protect themselves, it is very likely that they will take the initiative to send Jiuding to Zhao State. We can send someone to restore friendship with Han Wei and inform the two countries that our Qin State will not continue to attack. Only in this way will they have the confidence to compete with Zhao Guo for Jiuding. At the same time, our country can secretly transport grain to Sanchuan to prepare for the next big war." A surging smile appeared at the corner of Fan Ju's mouth.

"Okay, this time the widow will definitely let Sanjin know that Jiuding is not so easy to take." Qin Wangji slapped the eucalyptus platform heavily, stood up and said loudly, "It's not safe for others to go to the widow, so it's better for Mr. to send the envoy himself." After Mr. left Wei that year, he didn't go back. This time, I just went back to see my hometown, and let King Wei see how blind he was, and gave me such a great talent to Qin State."

At this point, Qin Wangji was still very grateful to Wei.

Shang Ying, Zhang Yi, Fan Ju...... It is precisely because of the continuous supply of talents for the Qin State that the Wei State has such a strong Qin State.

It can be said that if there was no yesterday of Wei, there would be no today of Qin.

The prosperity of the Qin State could not be separated from the help of the Wei State.

What displeased Qin Wangji was that Wei not only sent talents to Qin, but also to Zhao, and even gave his own younger brother to Zhao.

It not only made the relationship between the two countries more and more intimate, but also made Zhao's national strength rapidly improved.

A large number of scholars rushed to Zhao from various countries to meet Wei Wuji, and then they were recommended by Wei Wuji to become officials.

"Sir, when you go back this time, take the widow's canopy, and the widow will let the Fei Lian Army escort you to Han Wei." Qin Wangji saw that Fan Ju wanted to refuse, and immediately waved his hand and said, "Mr. Yi's great kindness to my Qin State is worthy of this. You don't have to say no, sir."

He just wants to let the people of the world see how the people who were looked down upon by the Wei State at the beginning, the people who were thrown in the toilet by the Wei State and let the guests pee on their bodies, are now being used in the Qin State and what kind of rights they have.

Everyone is pretentious, and everyone will not think that they are worse than Fan Ju.

What will they think when they see Fan Ju's situation?

One is that Fan Ju's kind of goods can be reused by King Qin, isn't it more powerful than Fan Ju after I go?

The other is that Wei Guo can't even retain a great talent like Fan Ju, what hope can there be?

In either case, Qin Wangji is happy to see it.

"In this life, the minister will be the king's liver and brain." Fan Ju bowed to the ground and said movingly.

……

On the other side, Zhao Kuo, who had inspected most of the Zhao Kingdom, finally began the road to return.

In Hejian County, Zhao Kuo then met with the captives of the Yan State, calmed everyone's emotions, and told them that the Zhao State would follow the agreement of that year for five years

, that is, next year, they will be sent home.

The captives of Yan are very grateful to Zhao Kuo, the captives have no human rights in these years, even if Zhao Kuo cuts them all, the world will only criticize them in writing at most, and it will not have an actual impact.

But Zhao Kuo not only did not kill them, but promised to let them return to China, and every year during the summer and autumn harvests, he would also help them write letters, send them to their families, and bring some food, so that their families would not starve to death because of the loss of a laborer.

In addition to this, Zhao Guo will also bring them a reply letter from his family, so that they can learn about the changes in their family.

Not all changes are good, but at least not the worst.

However, although the captives of the Yan Kingdom were grateful to Zhao Kuo in their hearts, they still had some doubts.

After all, as long as they haven't gone back, no one knows if Zhao Guo is lying to them.

Then, Zhao Kuo came to the only seaport in Zhao and the largest seaport in the world.

Ninety-nine percent of the seafood in the entire Zhao State comes from this port, and it is precisely because of this port that the Zhao State can support 100,000 elite soldiers.

Yuan Hua went to Yingzhou to transport gold and silver, not at the port, Zhao Kuo told Zhao Miao that when Yuan Hua came back, he told him not to go to sea in the near future, and there were other tasks ahead.

After inspecting the harbor, Zhao Kuo turned around and returned to Handan by boat.

Along the river all the way south, lined with ash trees and scattered villages, it is not prosperous, but at least it is not a desolate tidal flat.

Further south, the banks of the Yellow River began to turn into large tracts of farmland.

The mud precipitated by the Yellow River is very fertile, and the yield per mu is often several times that of the field, but if it encounters floods, it is very likely that there will be no harvest.

Even so, the industrious sons and daughters of China still risked their lives to reclaim fields and grow crops on the railings of the Yellow River.

Except for the saline-alkali land along the coast, there is not a single vacant land on either side of the Yellow River.

Standing on the boat and looking around, there are many people on the bank of the Yellow River with turbans and bare feet, rolling up their trousers and standing in the water, holding a black iron rod in their hands, poking and poking in the river water, and then shaking it gently, poking and poking again, and there is an extra layer of black particles on the iron rod.

I saw that the man happily put the black particles on the iron rod into a basin, cleaned it with water, and then put it into a bag, and when the bag was almost full, it would be brought to the shore and put away, waiting for the appearance of the buyer.

In addition to men, there are a few women and children who are also doing the same thing in the water.

Zhao Kuo passed by them, they raised their heads and looked at the big ship and the people on board in front of them enviously, and then bent down and continued to keep their heads down and busy.

"Dad, what are they doing?" Xiao Ponu tugged Zhao Kuo's robe, pointed to the people who were busy in the water, and asked curiously.

"They're panning for iron sand." Zhao Kuo said softly.

The sediment of the Yellow River is rich in iron sand, and the iron content of these iron sand is as high as 60 or 70 percent, and there is no difficulty in mining, and there are many people on both sides of the Yellow River who make a living from iron sand until the beginning of the 21st century.

Later, with a large number of iron sand boats pulling back and forth in the Yellow River, seriously affecting the passage of the Yellow River and the ecological environment of the Yellow River, the state began to prohibit iron sand panning in the Yellow River.

However, Zhao did not have these harms.

Because Zhao Guo did not have iron sand ships at all, it was impossible to build advanced equipment for later generations.

Just by manually poking in the water, even the largest iron rod will not have any impact on shipping and the ecological environment.

On the contrary, these iron sands from the Yellow River were extremely precious to Zhao Guo.

From the span of bronze to iron, although the technology has approached maturity in terms of the times, if you want to truly enter the Iron Age, it is not possible to improve the technology without a large amount of iron.

But the iron ore of Zhao is too low in iron content, and there are a lot of impurities, and those rich iron ores abroad cannot be compared at all.

The quality of these iron sand in the Yellow River exceeds that of all the iron ores in Zhao State, which can greatly reduce the pressure on smelting, and the quality of the weapons created will be even better.

In the absence of the ability to get those rich iron ores abroad, this is the only high-quality iron ore that Zhao can get

Therefore, Zhao Kuo not only did not prohibit sand mining, but took the initiative to announce the matter, and the government provided magnet rods for the people to mine sand and purchase the mined iron sand.

The people had an extra income, and Zhao Guo was also able to get high-quality iron ore.

The fly in the ointment is that there is too little iron sand scooped up every day, which is far from enough to support Zhao Guo's consumption.

"What is iron sand?" Xiao Po Nu asked puzzled, these terms were too unfamiliar to him.

Zhao Kuo smiled, did not explain, but ordered to land.

Read 10,000 books and travel 10,000 miles.

If you really want to understand the local life, you can't just look at the flowers, you have to experience it yourself.

At the same time, it can also allow Xiao Ponu and Zhao Zheng to increase their knowledge and understand what the real Zhao State is.

A monarch who only stays in the palace will not become a Ming monarch.