Chapter 47 Fishing in Muddy Water 1

Zhongshan is located between Zhao Yan. During its heyday, it swallowed a large area of the State of Zhao east of Taihang Mountain. Its strength was strong, which attracted the attention of the vassal states of the world at that time. Therefore, when King Hui of Wei initiated the prime ministers of the five kingdoms, he not only invited Han, Zhao and Yan, but also invited Zhongshan, the country of Qiancheng.

Zhongshan was different from any vassal state at that time. The reason is very simple. Although the vassal states such as Qin, Qi, Zhao and other continued to attack each other, they were nominally subordinate states under the division of Luoyi and Zhou Tianzi. Even when the hegemony of the State of Wei was at the peak of the reign of Wei Wenhou, it was only by the permission of Zhou Tianzi to be officially divided into three Jin, and the three kingdoms of Wei, Zhao and Han were promoted to those who were on an equal footing with Qin, Qi, Chu Yan. Hou Guo. Decades after becoming the de facto ruler of the State of Qi, Tian, who also became the de facto ruler of the State of Qi, was also able to officially replace Jiang as the monarch of the State of Qi by divicing the emperor of Zhou at that time.

It can be seen that although the emperor of Zhou is only a nominal son of heaven, he is still the nominal co-owner of the nations. Even with the strength of the State of Qin, after swallowing the land of Zhou's ointment, King Wu of Qin only peeped at the nine tripods in Luoyi and did not dare to take it for himself. He was just afraid that it would attract public anger and become the mouth of the princes to fight against Qin.

Different from the vassal states of the Central Plains, Zhongshan is not a subordinate country of Zhou Tianzi. In other words, it does not belong to the Chinese civilization at all, but it has established its own country following the example of the Chinese people.

Zhongshan is a country founded by the Baidi people of the Xianyu tribe. The Baidi people are white and tall, good at brewing wine, singing and dancing, and doing treacherous governance, and many beautiful things.

Xianyu first appeared on the stage of the Central Plains in the Spring and Autumn Period. Several tribes such as Xianyu, Fei, Gu and Qiu formed the Xianyu tribal alliance and gradually expanded their power in Hebei. At that time, the Xing State, a big country surnamed Ji, was ordered by Zhou Tianzi to constantly attack Xianyu, defeating Xianyu several times, and effectively defending the northern territory of the Western Zhou Dynasty. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Xing gradually declined, and Xianyu took advantage of the situation to rise, forced Xing Jun away, killed Wei Jun, and almost destroyed the two major countries in the Central Plains. At that time, Duke Huan of Qi, who had the intention to dominate, played the banner of "Zun Wang Jinyi" and united with the four armies of Song, Cao, Xing and Wei. He attacked Xianyu in the north and was defeated, which made Xianyu's troops afraid to go south and peep into the Central Plains for decades.

After the decline of Duke Huan of Qi's hegemony, the newly rising Central Plains giant Jin took over the banner of "Zun Wang Jingyi" and became the main opponent of the Xianyu tribe, successively eliminating the three countries of Xianyu's affiliated fat, drum and Qiu. However, a serious civil strife broke out in the State of Jin. The king and the doctors fought against each other. Xian Yu was able to get a respite from the aggressive pressure of the State of Jin and gradually grew up. Finally, he established Zhongshan in the dangerous Zhongren City and nominally obtained an equal position with the Central Plains.

After the three families were divided into Jin, the State of Zhao inherited the northern territory of the State of Jin, so it became the main enemy of Zhongshan. At the beginning of the State of Zhao, the rule of officials was chaotic, the king's power was dropped, and there was continuous civil strife in the country. This was taken advantage of by Zhongshan and continued to capture the territory of the State of Zhao. At that time, the State of Zhao, who closely followed the footsteps of Wei Wenhou's hegemony, was defeated by the State of Zhongshan, so he asked the boss State of Wei for help. The elite army of the State of the State of Wei, led by the famous general Le Yang, went north to attack Zhongshan, destroyed its country in one fell swoop, and included Zhongshan under the rule of the strong Wei. After the decline of the hegemony of the State of Wei, the Bai Di people took the opportunity to restore the country, and became strong again with the support of Qi Yan, which became a big trouble for the State of Zhao.

After several ups and downs of Zhongshan, the tenacity of its people can be seen from this.

Different from Lou Fan and Lin Hu, which are also closely related to the Central Plains, the Baidi people do not maintain nomadic characteristics like their fellow Hu people, but willingly integrate into the Chinese civilization. The Bai Di people gave up their language, learned the writing and etiquette system of the Central Plains, and even began to build the Great Wall against the attack of Zhao. The herdsmen put down their whips and abandoned the sheep. Instead, they waved their hoe and rose and rested at sunset like the Central Plains. It is amazing that Zhongshan, built by the barbarians, has extremely developed iron smelting technology. When most of the armies of various countries are still using bronze weapons and crude leather armor, the soldiers of Zhongshan are already equipped with a large number of iron weapons and armor, which is famous for the strength of infantry in the Central Plains.

After hundreds of years of transformation, Zhongshan is no different from the Chinese vassal states. It speaks the same language and writes the same words, and the etiquette system is no different. So there was such a strange scene in Hebei. The army of Zhao, the authentic Chinese country inherited from the State of Jin, rode like a flying horse, wearing a Hu suit and arching arrows, just like a barnade. However, the Zhongshan people, who were supposed to belong to the Hu people, wore heavy iron armor and drove heavy chariots, following the traditional fighting methods of chariots and infantry in the Central Plains.

The brave and plagiarism character of Zhongshan people from the grassland nomadic people has been gradually worn out in this intoxicating wine and comfortable life. Their monarch does not want to make progress, their officials are full of fat, and their people have long been accustomed to riding and shooting. The only thing that has not changed is the tenacity and persistence of the people of Zhongshan. Even decades after the destruction of the State of Wei, it is still successful in the restoration of the country, but now under the suppression of the powerful State of Zhao for decades, it has refused to bow down.

This is also the reason why the master's father vowed to completely destroy Zhongshan. Only by completely integrating the blood of the Bai Di people into the blood of Zhao people can they give up their homeland and willingly become a member of the State of Zhao.

After Zhao Guo was quickly and powerful through Hufu's riding and shooting, Zhao Yong attacked Zhongshan in five ways in his 21st year as the king of Zhao. Niu Jian's army attacked the western part of Zhongshan, Zhao Xi's army went out of Dai County to attack the northern part of Zhongshan, Zhao Zhang's army went out of Hedong, Jihu Chu went out of Shicheng, and his father personally led the army out of Handan. The five-way army was as powerful as a broken bamboo. It attacked the city and land all the way and met directly under Lingshou in the capital of Zhongshan. The strength of the Zhao army shocked the Qi Wei at that time, so he arranged heavy troops to intervene in the south of the State of Zhao. In order to avoid fighting on two fronts, the master retired and returned to the division. However, after this battle, Zhongshan has been greatly damaged, and most of the land has been lost. Since then, it has been depressed and will no longer be strong again.

Nowadays, in addition to the national capital, there are still four important towns in Zhongshan, including Chengcheng, Shiyi, Fenglong and Donghuan, as well as Danqiu, Huayang, East and West Passes. The land is only a hundred miles, and the people are only 500,000, and it has been completely reduced to a small country.

In the face of the upcoming army attack of the State of Zhao, Zhongshan, which was at the critical moment of life and death, worked together to implement the wartime military system of all the people. All the young men put on the armor to guard the city, with a total of 100,000 troops, guarding five cities and two gates.

Zhao Zhang's cavalry harassment tactics in the past few months have been quite successful, which made the whole Zhongshan country panic. In order to avoid being plundered by the cavalry of the State of Zhao, Yi Shang, the king of Zhongshan, had to give up the villages outside the city and move the population and grain into the city protected by high walls. Now it is the spring ploughing period. The fields outside the city need to be cultivated to produce food. If you miss the opportunity to cultivate, there will be a famine in the coming year. Therefore, Yi Shang's move is undoubtedly to drink poison to quench his thirst, but he can't take care of it anymore. He can only hope to support him for a period of time to delay the State of Zhao in exchange for the intervention of the State of Qi and other countries, so as to avoid the disaster of national destruction.

Miaocheng and Shiyi are located in the south of Zhongshan, bordering the State of Zhao, which is the southern gate of the State of Zhao entering Zhongshan. The two cities are only a few miles apart, and they echo each other. If the Zhao army wants to press the country's Lingshou, it must first capture these two important towns before it can **. Otherwise, the Zhongshan army in the city can go out of the city at any time to disturb Zhao's grain and logistics, so that the Zhao army can break through without attacking.

But if you ride lightly, you don't have so much attention. Zhao Xin took advantage of the night to quietly bypass the city and entered the hinterland of Zhongshan.

This time, all the people who came with Zhao Xin were Yulin. The Yulin Army was built in the Zhao Yong period. It was a royal army carefully selected from the sons and nephews of the lieutenant and lieutenant in the court. It was only under the order of the master.

Because of its extraordinary background and most of them have received a good education, this Yulin also has a special mission, that is, to be a reserve regiment of officers in the Zhao army, so it is competing for the children of the rich family of the State of Zhao. Because of the strict selection, there are only more than 300 people in the Yulin army. Most of the young people stay in Handan for training, and the rest follow the master's side for many years. Zhao Xin also begged the master to let him serve as the leader in Yulin for a long time.

This time, the master asked him to bring Yulin to Zhongshan to investigate the military situation, including many tests on Zhao Xin. If Zhao Xin failed to throw all the seeds of more than 100 officers in Zhongshan, the father's anger can be imagined.