"Back to the king, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chu and Nanhai have been supporting each other and relying on each other, which is an old friendship of ten years."

I don't know if the envoy of the South China Sea didn't see the question implied in Lu Yuan's words, or if he deliberately ignored the past.

At this time, in the face of Lu Yuan's slightly sarcastic words, the envoy still said calmly: "Now that my new king of the South China Sea is on the throne, my king thinks that when the previous king is alive, the friendship between Chu and the South China Sea is often greatly sighed. said that if it weren't for the joint efforts of the three families, how could we have waited for today's foundation?

Therefore, after our king ascended the throne, the country was slightly peaceful, so he sent foreign ministers to envoy Chu State.

Let me apply for the old friendship between the two countries together, and then continue the ambition of the previous king, and make good alliances with Da Chu. ”

By avoiding the important and trivializing the important things, they will directly ignore the main contradictions between the two countries in the past.

After hearing this, Lu Yuan almost laughed angrily. Seeing that this guy still wanted to make himself again, his tone suddenly cooled down and said, "Continue the ambition of the first king, and make a good alliance with my Great Chu." That's a nice thing to say.

But Gu remembers that when I formed an alliance with Yan Wangqiu, he agreed.

After the establishment of the two countries, the South China Sea lost 3 million taels of silver and 2 million stones of grain to our Great Chu every year. China, on the other hand, provides military protection for the South China Sea and shields it from dangers from the outside world.

At the same time, the two countries advance and retreat together, facing foreign enemies together.

This covenant has not been broken for ten years, until the death of the king of your kingdom. And I, Da Chu, have also blocked many open and hidden arrows for the South China Sea over the years, and how many jackals, tigers and leopards have been stopped.

It's March now, where is the money and food that the South China Sea Country should send to me Dachu?

And if King Gu remembers correctly, just last month, the new king of your country accepted the canonization of Ningguo, like the Jinling Heavenly Son Nagong.

Our Chu and Su countries are enemies of Ning Guoxiang, and they have not reconciled so far. Since you call the alliance between our two countries in the South China Sea, but at this time you are throwing yourself to Ningguo, is this an attempt to turn your back on our two countries and throw yourself into the enemy country?

Yan Wangqiu died every two months, and your new master of the South China Sea made this kind of betrayal of the alliance, what is your intention?

After making these moves, what kind of face do you have to come to me and say that I have reaffirmed my old friendship?

Do you still want to make a covenant with my Da Chu, do you really think that this king is the same as your lord, willing to be self-deprecating, and likes to wag his tail and beg for mercy from others? ”

Now that Nanhai has done things to the current situation, Lu Yuan is too lazy to do superficial work with the other party, so he directly sneered and scolded at this time.

A traitor who has already taken refuge in an enemy country still wants to be respected, which is really too much.

"You ......"

When the envoy of the South China Sea Kingdom saw Lu Yuan insulting his monarch like this, his face turned red with anger, and he just wanted to scold back, but he suddenly choked on Lu Yuan's murderous eyes.

This is to remember that the person in front of him is the King of Chu, a military god with brilliant achievements, and a powerful innate grandmaster.

In the face of such figures, even if there is humiliation in their hearts, the envoy of the South China Sea Country will not dare to show the slightest disrespect.

Because the other party has a strong strength to rely on, it is natural to say these words, and no one dares to embarrass the other party.

But he is just an ordinary envoy, and even the South China Sea country behind him is only a small country.

A weak country has no diplomacy and talks nonsense on its own, it will really die.

Taking a deep breath and forcibly suppressing this humiliation, the envoy of the South China Sea Kingdom reluctantly showed a smile and said: "The king has misunderstood my king, and my South China Sea Country has no intention of betraying the alliance. It's just that because of the money and grain sent to Dachu for many years, the people in the country are really tired.

In addition, the death of the first king this year, and the spending of a lot of silver to deal with the aftermath, the treasury of the country is really scarce, so it was not able to fulfill the covenant in time and supply money and grain.

When the tax revenue is sufficient this summer, our country will immediately send money and grain to Chu, and it will not be bad in the slightest.

As for Xiang Ningguo's vassal, it was really too much persecution from the other party.

Previously, the former king died of illness, and Ning Guo took advantage of the chaos and emptiness in our country to send envoys to threaten. It is said that if our Nanhai Kingdom is unwilling to submit, then it will send 300,000 troops to conquer.

At that time, in Jian'an County, 100,000 soldiers and horses of Ningguo had been assembled.

Faced with the danger of the enemy's imminent invasion and the destruction of the country, our king agreed to the other party's conditions and submitted to the Ning State.

But King Mingjian, although I succumbed to the Ning State in the South China Sea, I still yearn for the Chu State and the Su State in my heart.

Now surrender is only a temporary plan, in the future, when our king stabilizes the country, accumulates armor soldiers, and has sufficient strength, he will break away from Ningguo and advance and retreat together with Chu and Su. ”

To be honest, there are many voices in the South China Sea until this time for the alliance made when Changsha, Nanhai and Ninghai were established.

After all, in the past ten years, relying on this covenant, the South China Sea has been able to enjoy long-term peace and stability in this troubled era.

With this alliance, the South China Sea has also stabilized the borders in the north and west of the country, so that they do not have to worry about the security of the rear.

You can concentrate all your forces to the east, and you only need to guard against the threat of Ningguo.

And the price of these many benefits, that is, the South China Sea country needs to pay three million taels of silver and two million stone of grain every year.

Although this money is indeed a lot, it even accounts for one-third of the annual income of the South China Sea State.

Compared to the benefits obtained, this price is nothing.

After all, without this alliance, on the contrary, the South China Sea countries would have to face strong enemies in the north, east, and west, and three ambitious countries that are bent on external expansion.

At that time, just to resist these jackals, tigers and leopards, the South China Sea is afraid that it will maintain an army of tens of thousands all year round, and it will guard against the surrounding areas in fear at all times, for fear that if one is not careful, an enemy country will come over and destroy itself.

In this case, the military expenditure required by the South China Sea in a year is likely to be close to 10 million taels of silver, far more than the current 3 million taels of silver.

And with the national strength of the South China Sea countries, this situation will not last long at all.

The lessons of the Soviet Union, but not the past two years?

Such a tragic situation is still vivid at this time, how can people in the South China Sea not have a good time.

Therefore, those who support the fulfillment of the covenant actually account for a considerable proportion of the South China Sea countries.

After all, Lu Yuan's annual appropriation of funds for Honglu Temple and the Imperial City Division has always been a huge amount of money, and there has never been a shortage. And those officials who were born in the South China Sea in Chu have not been writing home to help promote Chu over the years.

This long-term business accumulation has already gathered a large number of pro-Chu faction people in the South China Sea.

Even in the court of the South China Sea, the pro-Chu faction is a considerable political force with great influence and can influence the policy direction of the South China Sea.

But there are pro-Chu factions, and naturally there are also pro-Ning factions.

In recent years, with the increasing national strength of Chu, the gap with the Soviet Union and the South China Sea has gradually widened, making the national strength of the three countries gradually not at the same level.

This change in power has caused uneasiness among many far-sighted people in the South China Sea.

And this uneasiness, with the four years of Shenwu, the Chu State conquered the Southwest Yi, and quickly won a big victory, which reached the peak for the Chu State after opening up a Qianzhong County.

Because everyone can see clearly that the original Triple Alliance of Chu, Su, and Nanhai was essentially a military alliance of three families to fight together against Ning and Zhou.

Whether it is Ning or Zhou, they are all the overlords of the world or the overlords of a state, and their strength far exceeds the level of the Three Kingdoms.

None of them, Chu, Su, and Nanhai, can fight alone, and only by cooperating with each other can they have the strength to fight with these two countries.

Therefore, based on this strong external pressure and practical needs, the three countries formed an alliance and reached a consensus on foreign cooperation.

But with the continuous growth of the Chu State, it has grown all the way to a behemoth that now gathers four counties and thousands of thousands of miles, has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and has three congenital grandmasters.

Now, relying on the power of the Chu family, they can fight against any of the Zhou, Liang, and Ning countries alone, and they can save themselves under the threat of these three countries.

Under such circumstances, the value of the South China Sea and the Soviet Union naturally continued to decrease.

Since they don't need the help of the two countries to defend against foreign enemies, the strength of the Chu State has gradually widened the gap with them.

If you were the State of Chu, wouldn't you have any thoughts in your heart?

Under normal thinking, anyone would choose to directly annex these two weak allies, and then integrate all their strength, and then compete with Ning Guo.

Su Guo saw this, so even if Su Xuange fought for the risk of domestic rebellion, he had to squeeze the people's strength and maintain a large standing army for Ningguo.

The South China Sea countries have also seen this.

Even their situation is even worse than that of the Soviet Union.

Because there is still an innate grandmaster in the Su Kingdom, but on the Nanhai side, after Yan Wangqiu's death, there is no grandmaster to protect him.

Not only did it lose the protection of the grandmaster, but even the conventional military strength, after ten years of development after the founding of the country, the South China Sea still only had 20,000 county soldiers and 20,000 forbidden troops, a total of 40,000 standing soldiers and horses.

This strength can be said to be insignificant compared to the surrounding countries.

There is no combat power at the top, and there is a shortage of soldiers and horses at the bottom, and the two allies are both ambitious guys who actively seek external expansion.

If you are the South China Sea, how can you not be afraid in your heart?

It is precisely based on this that a second voice has gradually emerged in the South China Sea.

That is, in addition to the Triple Alliance, another powerful external force is brought in to counterbalance the two increasingly threatening alliances.

Looking around, only Ning Guo is left who meets this condition.

The introduction of Ningguo is in case the two alliances have bad intentions towards the South China Sea in the future, and the South China Sea still has a certain countermeasure force, or a way out.

That's right, it's a way out.

Regarding the future of the South China Sea, many high-ranking officials and ministers in the South China Sea are actually quite pessimistic.

They know very well that in this world of great contention, without the protection of an innate grandmaster in the country, their own family is equivalent to becoming a fat sheep in the eyes of others, and most of them will not be able to escape the end of destruction in the end.

And since they are all destroyed, then selling the South China Sea State to the Ning State is better than selling it to the Chu State or the Su State, right?

After all, Ningguo, which occupies the four counties of Jiangdong, is still orthodox in Yangzhou and even in the eyes of the world, and is the overlord who inherited the position of the son of heaven in Jinling.

The strength of Ning is also far superior to that of Chu and Su.

No matter how you look at it, it is much better to be a Ningguo person than to be a Chu and Su people.

One is the people of the hegemon and the other is the people of the small country, can the identity and future prospects of the two be the same?

Of course, all of the above are the last resort.

If the Nanhai Kingdom can continue to survive in the troubled times, then the ministers and nobles in its country will naturally be happy to continue to enjoy wealth and nobility in this Lingnan land, instead of rushing to be a minister to the Ning Kingdom.

Rather for the head of a chicken, not for the tail of a phoenix.

This principle is all the same, and it is the same in the South China Sea.

Introduce Chu and Su to control Ning, and introduce Ning to control Chu and Su.

The above two items are the consensus national policies reached after the struggle between the pro-Chu faction and the pro-Ning faction in the South China Sea.

I have to say that this strategy of swaying left and right and jumping back and forth between the two powerful countries is indeed very much in line with the identity of the South China Sea as a small and weak country.

And the end result.

After the Nanhai Kingdom declared itself a vassal to the Ning State and promised to send a tribute of one million taels of silver every year, the 100,000 soldiers and horses that had originally gathered in Jian'an County of the Ning State have now been disbanded.

The threat to the eastern border of the South China Sea has been lifted.

And the state of Chu in the north......

Lu Yuan took a deep look, and the envoy of the South China Sea Country below, after being silent for a long time, said in a low voice: "Yes, if this July, the South China Sea Country can make up the money and grain tribute originally promised, and it will continue to be the same every year in the future."

Then this time the South China Sea State betrayed the alliance, Lone can not be investigated, and the army will not be attacked.

The border between Chu and Nanhai can still be peaceful.

But it's okay to sign a covenant.

Since you and I are part of the enemy nation, we are no longer the people of the road.

Now it's just your country, and it's just a matter of buying peace with money. If it's business, don't talk about any feelings. ”

Well, it must be said that this backstab of the South China Sea country picked a good time.

The state of Chu is now deeply trapped in the two battlefields of Nanxiyi and Xichuan County, and more than 100,000 soldiers and horses have filled it, and they can't get out at all.

Even if these two wars are over, it will take at least ten years to digest the results.

In the short term, the state of Chu is powerless and can no longer wage war against foreign countries.

Therefore, even if Lu Yuan had already sent 20,000 soldiers and horses to the northern border of the South China Sea, the envoy of the South China Sea State in front of him was still not panicking, and was still slowly talking to the Chu State about the conditions at this time.

Because he knew that the Chu State could not use more strength to punish the South China Sea State.

Even if they have enough strength to punish the South China Sea countries.

But if it didn't have enough strength to fight Ning Guo head-on, Chu State would not be able to move the South China Sea State, which was already a vassal of Ning State.

Because after the South China Sea is a vassal, fighting the South China Sea is equivalent to fighting the Ning State.

Ning Guo would never let Chu State do anything to his vassals, expand his strength under his nose, and in turn target himself.

And the same.

If Ning wants to annex the South China Sea, if Su and Chu don't want another threat behind them, then even if they are dissatisfied in their hearts, they have to pinch their noses to help.

Help the South China Sea to defend against the Ning State.

At this time, the identity of the South China Sea State was similar to the identity of the original Triple Alliance before the Northern Expedition to the Zhou State.

Zhou Guo came to fight, then he took refuge in Yue Guo. If the Yue country comes to fight, then take refuge in the Zhou country.

Jumping sideways left and right on both sides, reaping countless benefits, and earning a lot of money.

But at the beginning, the three of us could play this game.

The reliance behind it is that the three of us join forces, which is enough to fight against any of Zhou and Yue head-on, and at least have the strength to fight.

But the current South China Sea Kingdom, let alone my Great Chu and Ning Kingdoms, is no longer an opponent even if it is facing the Su State.

The strength is so weak, and he still wants to play this kind of balance between the two sides, which is too confident and overestimates his strength.

Or do you look down on my Chu and Ning families, and think they can play us in the palm of their hands? ’

Lu Yuan sneered at the self-righteous means of the South China Sea Kingdom and despised it incomparably.

When he played this method, he relied on the four innate grandmasters who could come up with nearly 800,000 soldiers and horses after the three families joined forces.

But what does the South China Sea have now?

There is no congenital grandmaster, and even if the domestic soldiers and horses are wantonly requisitioned and sent to the people, they will gather 300,000 people to die.

But now the Nanhai State is facing the Chu State, which has decided to expand its army to 378,000 standing troops in the next three years. and Ningguo, which already has 500,000 troops and is expected to continue to expand to 800,000 troops in the next ten years.

In terms of strength alone, now the strength of Chu Ning and Ning has surpassed all the forces invested by the two countries of Zhou and Yue in the Northern Expedition.

The situation he faced was worse than before, but his own strength was weaker than that of the Triple Alliance, Lu Yuan really didn't know where those guys in the South China Sea Country got their confidence, and felt that he could play this balancing act well.

These fools will be destroyed in the future. The South China Sea Country, sooner or later, is in the pocket of my Chu State. But now......

Lu Yuan glanced at the envoy of the South China Sea Kingdom, who had already accepted his conditions and walked out of the main hall, and was leaving outward, sneering in his heart: "It's better to keep this fat sheep and let them give me a blood transfusion of Great Chu every year to strengthen the strength of my Chu State."

Wait for my Chu State to accumulate enough strength, and then let them know what is called the game of the strong. ’

This fool who jumps left and right in front of the strong has already been killed by him.

It's just that because I can't pull my hand out, I decided to keep the South China Sea for the time being and leave it for later settlement.

Ning Guo's side is not a drag now, and he can swallow the fat sheep of Nanhai Country at any time.

"I still have to think of a way to hold Ning Guo's hands and feet and prevent it from doing something to the South China Sea Country alone."

Lu Yuan frowned and thought about it, and after a while, he sent a letter back to Baling, asking him to prepare an envoy over there to envoy Liang Guo.

The operation of the South China Sea gave him some inspiration.

Since this small country can jump left and right, it can use external forces to balance Chu and Su.

On the side of the Chu State, in the face of the strong pressure of the Ning State, it can naturally use external forces to balance this Yangzhou overlord.

"Liang Guo, who has always been an old rival, does not want to see Ningguo, which inherited the position of the Son of Heaven in Jinling, gradually sweep away the interior of Yangzhou and unify Jiangnan.

Let yourself have a behemoth in the south again, threatening your border security. ”

A smile appeared at the corner of Lu Yuan's mouth.

Relative to facing a large southern country that unified Yangzhou and owned ten counties.

He believed that the Liang State would prefer to face a Ning State with only four counties.

With this foundation, there is no need to worry about Liang Guo not cooperating.

The only thing to worry about is that Liang Guoguo took this opportunity to ask for many benefits from Chu State.

However, compared to containing Ning Guo and paying a small price, Lu Yuan is still acceptable.

The premise is that Liang Guo's appetite does not exceed his psychological expectations.