Great Zhou Tianzi

The fact that Ji Jie announced that he would not wage war with neighboring countries within a year quickly reached Lu Buwei's ears.

Lu Buwei is a very shrewd person, and he immediately thought of Ji Jie's purpose. He looked at a painting in front of him thoughtfully, smiled and said to himself: "You want to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. I see that no matter who wins or who loses, it will hurt your vitality greatly. You can use this time to accumulate strength and take advantage of the time when both losers are hurt. It is vicious enough! Unfortunately, I will not let you succeed, you If I can truce, so can I!"

The next day, Qin State sent envoys to Chu State to discuss the truce.

The state of Chu was battered. They knew that they were no match for the Qin army, and they wished that the battle would stop as soon as possible. Li Yuan quickly reached a consensus with the envoy of Qin, and the two sides agreed to cease the war and rebuild the old good.

Ji Jie was not at all surprised by Lu Buwei's move. The tripartite confrontation is a situation of mutual checks and balances. It is very difficult for one party to swallow the other two parties.

However, this three-legged situation is not very reliable, and it is impossible to maintain it for a long time, because there is an uneasy factor in it, that is, the Qi-Chu alliance.

Qi and Chu have stood together for common interests. Although it seems unbreakable now, no one dares to guarantee whether it can pass the test of time. As the saying goes, one monk has water to drink, and two monks carry water to drink. Without external threats, the previous interests will be sunken, and this form of alliance is unreliable.

King Han An found a suitable day and led his ministers to write a letter to Ji Jie, expressing South Korea's willingness to return to the Great Zhou and obey the rule of the Great Zhou.

Looking at Han An's sincere letter of credence, what else could Ji Jie say? In the name of the emperor, he issued an edict, agreeing to the return of Korea to the Great Zhou Dynasty, granting Han An the title of Marquis of Han, and continuing to lead the military affairs of Han. The most important thing is that his descendants can inherit the position of Marquis of Han.

Of course, Han An is still the boss of Handi, and Da Zhou also sent many management talents from various fields to serve as deputies in functional departments, but these deputies have slightly greater rights, and the original officials are still in charge in a short period of time. It will gradually return to the hands of the people sent by Da Zhou.

The reason why he didn't directly take over the military affairs of Handi was that Ji Jie did it for the people of the world to let them understand the difference between voluntary submission and military conquest.

……

Qi State lost the threat of Great Zhou, and Chu State and Qin State reconciled as before. It didn't take long, and there was friction between Qi and Chu as soon as they saw it.

It is no wonder that the armies of the two countries are mixed together, and soldiers who have no war are particularly prone to troubles. The two sides have developed from the initial quarrel to fistfights, and finally to the point of using knives and guns.

The generals on both sides are also protective of their weaknesses. They only see their own losses but not their own gains. After a fight, no one is willing to bow their heads first. This is the case with the main general, let alone the soldiers below.

The contradictions intensified further, and the two countries handed over their credentials to each other, requiring each other to admit their mistakes.

To no avail, the coalition forces had to station separately. Both sides believed that the other side should admit their mistakes, and in the end neither paid any attention to the other. In less than half a year, the Qi-Chu alliance survived in name only.

Then, Qi State refused to send salt to Chu State free of charge. Since Chu State lost its western land, it also lost the pond salt production area. The salt was all dependent on sea salt from Qi State. Qi State cut off their supply, and opened Chu State did not show weakness, and stopped the supply of ores from Qi State, including metal ores such as copper and iron, and materials for making gunpowder such as nitrate and sulfur.

What the two countries do is nothing more than pointing out to each other: my role is more important, so don't mess with me.

It's a pity that they are very different, they all think that they have pinched each other's veins, and neither of them is willing to give in.

Li Yan, the Empress Dowager of Chu, had seen this for a long time, and discussed the matter with Li Yuan many times, saying that only by maintaining the alliance between the two countries can they resist foreign aggression.

Li Yuan never took it seriously, so Li Yan had no choice but to summon him to the Taoist Palace again to discuss the matter.

"Sister, don't worry!" Li Yuan said absent-mindedly, "This is a trivial matter. It's not the first time that the alliance has cracks. Once the war resumes, all conflicts will disappear in an instant!"

Li Yan said worriedly: "What I'm afraid of is that Qin State will go to war with Chu State, but Da Zhou didn't go to war with Qi State. Will the people of Qi State help us then?"

Li Yuan was taken aback. This is indeed a problem. When the matter really develops to that point, the people of Qi will definitely not come to help. They will use the excuse of being afraid of being attacked by the Great Zhou after dispatching troops, and sit back and watch the land of Chu State be destroyed by Qin State. Nibble away a little bit.

Qin people are changeable, especially after Lu Buwei came to power, he developed his profiteer side to the fullest, talking and laughing with you in front of your face, but sending someone to stab you in the back. He has done a lot of things.

Li Yuan's back was covered with cold sweat. He even suspected that the reason why Qin State had the upper hand when he proposed a truce was to paralyze the Chu State's monarchs and ministers, and secretly dispatched troops to prepare for a fiercer offensive.

"Sister, you are right, I was careless!" Li Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Don't worry, I'll go back and discuss with the disciples. We must maintain the relationship with Qi. No, I will save face and take the initiative to admit my mistake to Qi Guo!"

Li Yan nodded.

But after Li Yuan went back, he was fooled by a few treacherous retainers, and changed the strategy of maintaining the relationship between the two customs, and changed it to take the opportunity to annex Qi. I have to say that this is a bold decision, and it can even be called It was unprecedented.

Li Yuan's plan failed to escape Sima Xueran's transmission back to Da Zhou.

"Hehe, this Li Yuan is quite bold!" Ji Jie made an evaluation. To be honest, he didn't believe that Li Yuan had such great energy to swallow a country whose overall national strength was not weaker than himself after being beaten just now. .

Sima Xueran held a different opinion: "With Li Yuan's ruthlessness and the advice of a group of dog-headed military advisers under him, it is still unknown who will win the deer. Maybe he is lucky and really swallowed the country of Qi!"

"Then let's just wait and watch the show!" Ji Jie shrugged.

"Why, don't you want to provoke him?" Sima Xueran looked at him playfully.

"Hey, I'm a very kind person, I'll never do provocative things!" The sinister smile on Ji Jie's face betrayed him, there was no kindness at all.

"Surely you've got a countermeasure, haven't you?"

"Really not!" Ji Jie said solemnly: "Since I have told the world not to use troops against other countries within a year, then I must keep my word! As for Li Yuan, he can play however he wants, Tun He is lucky to be in Qi State, he should have lost a few teeth without eating meat, anyway, no matter what the result is, it doesn't matter if he gives me half a dime, hehe!"

Is that so? Sima Xueran didn't quite believe it.