I am a nobleman in Spring and Autumn

Chapter 166 External Reaction and Wei's New Action
Whether Zheng Guo is weak or not depends on who he compares with.

In many countries, whether they are strong or not cannot be judged only from the size of the country... or from paper data.

There is such a country, she may seem to have a vast territory, but the problem is that most of the territory is not effectively used at all, so what is the use of a vast territory?
There is another kind of country, which may seem to have a large territory and a large population. If there are many mountains in their interior, or there are many conflicts that cannot be bridged, can they be considered strong?

Compared with Jin, Chu, or Wu, the state of Zheng must be weaker than the state of Shangmao, Teng, Qi, etc., which have a population of tens of thousands and can gather no more than a thousand troops. Zheng Guo became a giant.

If there is really a ranking, Zheng Guo at the current stage is considered to be in the same rank as Qin, Qi, and Song. The difference is that they will be beaten violently against Jin.

Among them, Qin State may be weaker, and may not be much stronger than Zhongshan State?
At present, Zhuxia's side is regarded as a "three superpowers and many powers" structure. One of the three superpowers may not be able to sweep the princes of the world, but if one is caught and beaten to death, he can still be killed in the end.

In the end, Prince Yi agreed to the covenant proposed by Zhao Yang, and then returned with his people.

After revising the covenant, Zhao Yang threw the letter of credentials he had just signed on the ground in front of the rest of his colleagues.

Fortunately, no historian was present at the scene, or else Zhao Yang's behavior of throwing away his credentials at will was recorded, and it would be another black spot of Zhao's family.

"Retreat!" Zhao Yang did not hide his resentment and disappointment.

Feeling impulsive and possibly deceived, he glanced at Zhishen and Wei Hua suspiciously, but still didn't understand the current situation.

"Isn't it a bit of a joke to conscript again from the country?" Hu Jie didn't know whether to be grateful for the withdrawal of troops, or to be depressed and just waste a quota of entitlements.

One thing to know is that when a call-up order is issued, those who get called-up will pay taxes instead of paying taxes this year.

Therefore, it would be a blood loss for the family that issued the call-up order if the army was called up without going to battle to reap the rewards.

Hu Jie felt that the reason why they should be thankful was relatively simple. They had just returned to the state of Jin, and they couldn't suffer too much loss in strength anyway.

Depressed?The Fox family really wanted to show off, but they didn't get a chance to show off in the two national wars.

The troops retreated, and the Jin army turned around and headed north, and they really retreated like that.

Zheng Guo was naturally relieved, and felt that even if he was blackmailed a lot, it was a good thing that there was no loss of troops.

The rest of the princes successively received the news that the Jin army had invaded Zheng and withdrew without a fight, and most of them breathed a sigh of relief.

The Jin State in the past was very domineering, and keeping the etiquette belonged to the etiquette. Anyone who wanted to beat someone would find a reason, and once he found a reason, he would beat him to death.

This time, the Jin State seems to be abiding by the etiquette. After a wave of civil strife, the national strength has been greatly damaged, and it has lost its previous toughness?

In the eyes of some princes, the overlord of the Central Plains has really weakened, and some of their actions can be played bigger.

For example, in Song State, their monarchs and ministers received Zhao Yang’s aggressive invasion of Zheng State but ended in anticlimactic conditions. They were worried that the annexation of Cao Guoguo would be blocked by Jin State or intervened by troops, and their desire to annex Cao State became stronger. .

Then there was the state of Wu who received the news later. Fu Chai was a little hesitant to challenge the state of Jin, but he became firm all of a sudden.

Fu Chai rejected Wu Zixu's suggestion to continue to imprison Gou Jian, thinking that Gou Jian's obedience should be convinced, and he chose to let Gou Jian go back to the country, and then prepare to send troops to the north.

Goujian, who has achieved success in performing for a long time, returned to his country. He was afraid that his greed for a comfortable life would dampen his ambition for revenge. At night, he slept on a pile of straw with a weapon on his pillow, and hung a gall in the house, and woke up every morning. Then taste the gall.

At the same time, Fan Li didn't know how to operate it, and kept helping Goujian store armors, waiting for one day when Goujian could use them to avenge Wu.

Then there was the state of Qi, which was beaten up by the state of Jin first, and then by the state of Wu. They originally wanted to cease the war with the state of Jin, but when they heard that the Jin army went to Zheng state for an armed parade, they became more eager to cease the war.

There is no other reason, Qi State just saw that Jin State was willing to reason with Zheng State. Qi State, which was caught in civil strife, did not want Jin State to invade again, and was willing to pay some price in exchange for Jin State's forgiveness.

As a representative of several parties, Zhong Xingyin once again got the opportunity to go to Jin as an envoy, but he was reluctant to leave immediately.

It's not that Zhong Xingyin was afraid of being killed by Zhao Yang in the Jin Dynasty. Thanks to the previous wisdom, Zhao Yang had already agreed that Zhong Xingyin went into exile in Qi. It won't do anything to Zhong Xingyin in particular.

Now, with "Wen" being conquered, regardless of whether Shi Jishe is really dead or a fake death, in Zhao Yang's view, Shi Jishe is dead anyway, which means that Zhao Yang no longer has to cling to Bank of China Yin.

So Zhong Xingyin reappeared in front of Zhao Yang as an envoy of the Qi State, and the two of them would not express any feelings or thoughts in their hearts, and they just took on what their roles should do.

This time Zhao Yang led the army to Zheng Guo, although he did not go through a major battle, but it is of practical benefit to force Zheng Guo to pay a large amount of compensation.

As for "Hulao" being controlled by the Jin State again, and even the cities around "Hulao" were also placed under the ownership of the Jin State, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, it is very uncertain for the time being.

"'Yuan Rong' wants to get the 'Hulao', and the rest of the city will share it with everyone." Wei Ju disappeared for half a month after returning to China, and saw Zhiyao say that in very playful words again.

The territory over there is not big, and the cities still appear to be relatively dense.

In terms of terrain, in fact, whoever masters the "Tiger Prison" is equivalent to controlling the main traffic routes, otherwise the early Jin Kingdom would not have built a city there.

At present, the Zhi family has little interest in increasing fiefdoms, and is fully interested in gaining population.

The Wei family is just the opposite. Because of the rapid expansion of their fiefdoms in a short period of time, hidden crises have also emerged within them.

To put it simply, the Wei family originally had a population of about 20, and suddenly increased the population of more than [-] obtained from the Fan family, the Zhongxing family, and some small and medium-sized nobles, and two fifths of the population were just obtained. A situation where management is out of control is a big crisis!
Of course, if the Wei family successfully digested the newly acquired population, coupled with the great expansion of the fiefdom, the strength of the Wei family would definitely be greatly enhanced.

The same is true for Zhi, Zhao and Han.This is also an inevitable phenomenon after the chaos. Everyone has swelled a lot, and the next step is to compete who can digest the fruits of victory faster.

In common sense, the Zhi clan annexed the former Zhongxing clan after all, and it must be that the Zhi clan digested the fruits of victory far faster than the Zhao, Wei, and Han clans.

The same thing happened in history. As a result, in just 20 years or so, the Zhi family, which was originally ranked at the bottom in terms of strength, suddenly became the strongest among the families in Jin.

Zhiyao was practicing archery before, and she still met Wei Ju at the school grounds, and she still hadn't changed her clothes.

Zheng Guo, who received the news that the Jin army was going south, moved away all the people along the river who could migrate.This is also the main reason why Zheng Guo easily agreed to transfer those cities to Jin.

For Zheng Guo, the territory that must not be lost is "Zhitian". As long as "Zhitian" still belongs to Zheng Guo, they don't have to worry about food shortages. It is hard for Jin to take some places on the south bank of the Dahe River, and the situation is stronger than others. It is not impossible to lose it under the current situation, maybe it is still an opportunity to cause trouble for Jin.

As for what kind of opportunity it is, I won't show it for the time being.

Zhiyao knew exactly what Wei Ju meant when he mentioned that topic, and reiterated: "My family has no intention of acquiring the city on the south bank of the Dahe River."

He had already formulated a strategy to go east, and only stepped on the south when something went wrong.

Even if Zhishi will go south, wouldn't it be nice to bully Weiguo?Why bother to gnaw at Zheng Guo, whose army's combat effectiveness is not bad, especially if you have to cross the Wei family's control area before attacking Zheng Guo.

The Wei family felt depressed precisely because the Zhi family expressed that they had no appeal for the newly acquired city of Zheng Guo!
Those are empty cities. Among the existing royal families of the state of Jin, besides the Fox family, who else can lack the migration population to fill them up?
The Wei family would rather the Zhi family take more cities on the south bank of the Dahe River than the Zhao family to intervene too seriously, let alone the Zhao family who is still clinging to the "Tiger Prison" and will not let go.

The Zhi family has no interest in the south bank of the great river, in fact, the Wei family has lost an ally who will help each other.

Of course, the Wei family can also cooperate with the Zhao family or other families. The problem is that cooperation with the Zhao family will make the Wei family feel uncomfortable, and the other families are not trusted by the Wei family.

"It's not for this purpose that I came here this time," Wei Ju said.

Zhiyao thought: "Then what did you propose?"

Wei Ju stared into Zhiyao's eyes, and continued with some embarrassment: "Guan Zhi's new army benefits, my family wants to train the new army."

and then?
Is Wei's going to learn from Zhi's scriptures?

Zhiyao looked at Wei Ju in confusion, and said, "Although you and I are allies, there is still... a difference."

When will each family be able to step into each other's territory, or is it just asking for opinions in such a clear way?

Wei Ju was stunned at first, and then said, "It's not what Yao thought. I'm only here to buy paper."

First mentioned the new army of Laozhi's family, and then asked to buy paper, what is the connection?

Zhiyao almost had a black question mark on her head.

"The difficulty of teaching lies in the carrying of words. My family also needs to teach the people of the tribe, as 'soldiers (officers)'." Wei Ju explained.

right?

Zhiyao fiddled with paper, even if it can be mass-produced, it has not been put into the market for a long time, but it is only sometimes used as a gift.

Therefore, even if other families know that Lao Zhi's family can produce paper, they have no place to buy it in large quantities, and it is difficult for them to use it in various fields just by getting the amount of paper in gifts.

The reason why Wei Ju came to Zhiyao and proposed to buy a large amount of paper was not because the old Zhijia didn't put it on the market for sale?

Because of issues of closeness and integrity, the rest of the families do not know about printing for the time being.

In short, Wei Ju saw the power of the Zhi family's new army, realized the importance of grassroots officers, and thought of officer training, but he didn't seem to notice that other education is also crucial?

(End of this chapter)