Wei and Tang are both vassal states bordering Wu. Tang is located in the north east of Wu, while Wei is in the north west of Wu. Wei is a landlocked state with three neighboring states. A small portion of its territory is bordered by Tang, while most of its territory is sandwiched between Wu and Zhao.
The state of Wei was not as large as the state of Tang, and was considered a small to medium-sized vassal state among the Qin vassal states, and its power was not comparable to that of the powerful vassal states of Zhao and Wu. However, Wei's luck was similar to that of Chen, which was sandwiched between Chu and Zhao, because the two vassal states did not want to increase the danger of having their borders directly connected with the stronger ones, and neither of them allowed the other to use military force against Wei, so Wei, a small and weak vassal state, was spared from being annexed by the stronger ones.
The fiefdom of the Northern Marquis was adjacent to the state of Wei, a plain with rich grass and water, which was the main horse-herding area of the state of Wu. Although the king of Wu imposed a large amount of tribute every year, Bei Hou had some money in his hand by trading the high quality horses on the plains with the vassal states that were short of horses, so Bei Hou raised 5,000 soldiers privately in his fiefdom. Zeng You and Wei Qing led 2,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry to attack the North Marquis, which had about the same strength, but they did not have the advantage in numbers and were at a disadvantage of fighting as a guest army.
Wei Qing looked at the caravan at the end of the line slowly transporting grain and grass, feeling that this speed was too slow to walk to the Northern Marquis' fiefdom, which would give the Northern Marquis plenty of time to prepare for the battle. "Master Zeng, Wei Qing wants to lead the cavalry in a light run to catch the Northern Marquis off guard!"
"You kid is thinking of a surprise victory, right?" Zeng You was a bit envious of Wei Qing, being seven or eight years younger than him, yet his official position in the army was already almost equal to his.
After Ulsan occupied the royal city, the number of troops expanded dramatically, Ulsan's army establishment has been expanded from battalion to division, Zeng You, who has military achievements, jumped two ranks from battalion commander to brigade commander, Wei Qing even jumped three ranks, from company commander to the deputy brigade commander.
"Your Excellency has taught us so many strategies, that is, he wants us to apply them flexibly to actual combat. Look at this wind starting to turn, I reckon the weather will get cold in a few days, if it snows then, marching in the mud with provisions and rations will be even slower. It would be even more unfavorable for us to march wearily on a snowy day to go fight the Northern Marquis soldiers." Wei Qing nodded his head in acknowledgement. "So we can only win with speed and surprise."
"You've considered it well, then pick the cavalry to move quickly, and I'll have the troops step up the pace." Zeng You looked up at the sky with thick clouds and nodded his head in agreement with Wei Qing's plan.
Wei Qing selected six hundred strong cavalry, each cavalry is equipped with two horses, rotating horseback riding day and night, only one day and one night rushed to the northern marquis fiefdom, almost to the northern marquis fief Qucheng, this far raiding army also caught the northern marquis inserted in the king's capital of the spy, after interrogation, the spy explains that he is the northern marquis transmission of the news of the king's capital to send troops.
After Wei Qing learned that the Northern Marquis had not yet received the message that the king's capital had sent out troops to crush him, he was even more certain of the success of his plan to attack from afar.
After the Northern Marquis learned that the Ulsan army had quickly broken the royal capital and that Yi Ji and Gongzi Yong had set themselves on fire in the royal palace, he began to panic in his heart. He originally wanted to take advantage of the two sides were fighting hard, pick up a cheap first self-reliance, and then send a letter to the vassal state king to reveal Zheng Yuming's false identity of the Prince, so that he can stand on the moral high ground to denounce Zheng Yuming, so that his self-reliance is not only justified, but also to attract the opposition to Zheng Yuming's forces to join the cause. These plans were shattered by the lightning breakthrough of the Ulsan army.
In a panic, the Northern Marquis immediately sent a letter to the Prince of Qin and the lords of the vassals, in which he declared that Zheng Yuming was an impostor, and requested the Prince of Qin and the lords of the vassals to come out to administer justice, and that the throne of the Kingdom of Wu could not be occupied by an unidentified hypocrite.
After the founding of Great Qin, the feudal system was practiced, and the land, together with the people, was granted to the royal family, the meritorious officials and the nobles, who were the rulers of the feudal states, that is to say, the rulers of the vassal states now. These state rulers and the Great Qin son of heaven with a surname of nearly half, they really can be said to be three hundred years ago is a family.
Just because half of the monarchs of the Great Qin world are of the same ancestor, if a foreigner wanted to steal the throne of Wu, Bei Hou was convinced that by biting Zheng Yuming's false dukedom, he would have the actual support of the lords, and Great Qin ruled the kingdom by bloodline.
After the Northern Marquis's letter was sent, the Kingdom of Zhao was the first to take action, not only did Prince Xuan of Zhao immediately send an emissary to reply to the Northern Marquis, he also gathered his soldiers and horses and marched to the State of Wei, through which he went to the Northern Marquis's fiefdom to help his fellow clan members of three hundred years ago.
Wei Qing rushed with six hundred cavalrymen to take cover outside of the Northern Marquis' fief, Qu City. Because the Northern Marquis had not yet received the news that Azure Mountain's army had left the royal capital to crush him, Qu City did not close its gates during the day. Wei Qing sent a dozen or so men to sneak into the city, killed the guards at the southern gate after dark, seized the gate and lowered the drawbridge for the cavalry to enter the city. After entering the city safely, Wei Qing did not send people to occupy the city gate, but led all the cavalry to kill the Northern Marquis residence. Wei Qing's plan was to capture and kill the Northern Marquis before the latter was disturbed. Without a feudal lord in Qu City, the enemy's morale would naturally dissipate, and Wei Qing only needed to hold out for two days with his cavalry in the Northern Marquis' residence, and then when Zeng You arrived with his army, the city of Qu City, which was devoid of any resistance, would naturally fall into the palm of his hand.
When the Ulsan cavalry killed the Northern Marquis' residence, the Northern Marquis was entertaining Zhao's envoys with the fief's nobles, and in the midst of pushing cups and exchanging drinks, shouts of murder rang out from the residence. The Northern Marquis was killed in the chaos, and half of the nobles and the Zhao envoys were captured alive.
Relying on the high and thick courtyard wall of the Northern Marquis' residence, Wei Qing blocked the attack of the soldiers of Qu City, and held on until Zeng You attacked the city with a large force, before Wei Qing picked the head of the Northern Marquis on a bamboo pole and showed it to the public. Seeing that the feudal lord was dead, the soldiers of Qu City 'coaxed' and dispersed, and the surviving nobles with a small number of soldiers opened the gates and abandoned the city to Zhao.
The good news that Zheng Yuming received is that the Northern Marquis has been executed and Qu City is under control. The bad news is that Crown Prince Xuan of Zhao has already sent troops and is borrowing a route from Wei to push into the border of Wu. Along with the news, there is also a messenger from Zhao to Qu City.
Zheng Yuming carefully interrogated the Zhao messenger, closed the door and contemplated for half a day, sent people to order Wei Qing and Zeng You stationed in Qucheng to defend the border, told Wei Ren to strengthen the vigilance of the royal city, assigned Guo Si with two thousand men and horses back to the city of Dacheng, and gave Chu Chao Hui pigeon to send a secret letter, to do all of these things, Zheng Yuming late at night to visit Taifu, and Taifu has been in secret talks until the dawn of the day.
The next day, Tai Fu began to go out of the house door activities. Zheng Yuming summoned the ministers to discuss the matter, Tai Fu no longer pretends to be sick, and no longer say nothing during the discussion, but seriously help Zheng Yuming to deal with the political affairs. The ministers and nobles in the royal capital all thought that Tai Fu had decided to appoint Zheng Yuming as the King of Wu, and the underground activities of some dissident nobles and feudal lords slowed down immediately.
In the first half of November, the first snow fell in Wu, the temperature in Kang dropped below zero, and a fireplace was raised in the palace where Zheng Yuming was.
Zheng Yuming was reading a war report in his hand, and the wood lying lazily at his feet suddenly climbed up and ran to the entrance of the great hall to wait for something.
Low voices spoke from outside the hall, and after a while the palace doors were opened and a snowman came in from outside the hall, bringing in white snowflakes and cold air.
"Chaohui? Why are you back?" Jung Yuming stood up, and the person in front of him was instantly recognizable even though his eyebrows and eyelashes, which were exposed outside of his cloak, were whitened by snow.
Chu Chao Hui unclasped his cloak and patted off the snowflakes stained on his hair and eyebrows, his hair did not stay long like Zheng Yuming's, it was still shaved into a short hair style. "Receiving a secret letter from a flying pigeon, can I not come back?"
Chu Chao Hui's face did not have a smile, this is the expression that the two people have never had in private, Zheng Yuming knows in his heart that Chu Chao Hui is like this for what.
"Change your clothes first?" Zheng Yuming realized that the clothes under Chu Chao Hui's cloak were already half wet, and hurriedly helped Chu Chao Hui bring clothes to replace them. Zheng Yuming calculated the time in his heart and figured out that Chu Chao Hui was speeding back to King City day and night as soon as he received the secret letter.
"Tell me, why did you change your mind about not being the King of Wu?" Zheng Yuming's attentiveness did not loosen the expression on Chu Chao Hui's face as he changed his clothes and sat by the fireplace and began to chastise Zheng Yuming.
"Look at these." Zheng Yuming handed a few sheets of paper to Chu Chao Hui.
"Thumbs up! What a dog bites a rat and meddles in its own business, why did these vassal lords not stop Wu's domestic affairs earlier? Where did they all go when Ripple Ji was in rebellion?" Chu Chao Hui sneered after reading it. In his hand was the bottom of the letters from the Northern Marquis to the Prince of Qin and the vassal states, the latest movements of the Zhao army. Chu Zhaohui now deeply hates Da Qin's feudal system, he let most of Da Qin's vassal states have blood ties, and with blood ties, interfering in the internal affairs of other countries has become a justifiable reason.
"I think that without us, Gongzi Yong's throne won't last long, and there are many nobles in Wu who disown Gongzi Yong's throne who will rise up against it, and those who have evil intentions from the surrounding vassal lords will take the opportunity to send out troops. Wu will most likely end up being carved up by purposeful vassal states."
Zheng Yuming sat down next to Chu Chaohui, nowadays the situation of Wu is spelled out by Chu Chaohui's military talent, he said in the secret letter that he wants to give up the throne, of course Chu Chaohui will not be happy.
"You don't want to give the vassal states an excuse to rise up and intervene because you're afraid I won't be able to defeat them?" Chu Chao Hui pressed both of his hands on Zheng Yuming's shoulders, and his face looked relieved.
"I believe you can defeat any enemy." Zheng Yuming shook his head.
"Then why did you still choose not to inherit the throne?" Chu Chao Hui frowned.
"What did you say when you initially trained fifty slave soldiers in the valley?" Zheng Yuming did not answer Chu Chao Hui directly.
"The initial training of fifty slave soldiers is to produce the seed from which the framework of the army will later be built."
"Chaohui, your plan came to fruition, that group of slave soldiers are now officers, like Zhou Cheng and Ma Ren, they can now hold their own."
"That's for sure, in order to train them, I've drained my heart and soul." Chu Chao Hui was proud, not only did he train these slave soldiers in combat, he also taught them to read and write, and taught them strategy, these fifty slave soldiers, he trained them all as future generals.
"With these fifty slave soldiers as a framework, we have nearly four thousand elite soldiers, and these four thousand elite soldiers can be worth twenty thousand soldiers of any country in Great Qin." Zheng Yuming continued to chatter.
Chu Chao Hui, however, suddenly had an epiphany, "Yuming, what are you trying to say?"
"At the battle of Ulsan-do-guchi, twenty-three of these elite soldiers died, fifty-two were slightly and seriously wounded, thirty-eight of whom were cured and returned to the army, while the other fourteen were seriously wounded and disabled and retired from the army. At the battle of Wangdu, two hundred and forty-six died, three hundred and seventy-one were wounded, fifty-six returned to the army, and the others are still being treated. The battle of Qucheng, attrition of seventy or so. Not counting the number of attrition from the elite soldiers in the conquering army, so far, more than six hundred of our carefully trained soldiers have left the ranks." Zheng Yuming's voice was low, these casualties were only those of the three thousand elite soldiers in Nambu and the valley.
"Yuming, everything has a price to pay." Chu Chao Hui is in a low mood, three thousand elite soldiers are now left with two thousand three hundred, the quality of these elite soldiers is not as good as the first batch of trained slave soldiers, but they are all martial arts and intellectual comprehensive cultivation, after a few wars, these elite soldiers are more veteran and brave in combat, and every one of them can be the skeleton of the army in the future.
"Of course I know that we can't have our ideal country without sacrifices, but I'm afraid of tossing all these embers out. Chaohui, not only am I afraid of tossing them out, I'm also afraid of dragging down the Nambu and Valley economy that we have so reluctantly built up. Nambu and Dacheng need a peaceful environment to develop, and Wu needs time to recover." Zheng Yuming wasn't worrying blindly, if the neighboring vassal states used his status as an excuse to invade, Wu would be plunged into endless war. He and Chu Chao Hui were not yet truly powerful.
Chu Chao Hui heard and understood. "So you want to retreat and set up a puppet to be the King of Wu?"
"Yes, I'm going to give Wu Guo a puppet king, and not only do I want this to happen in my lifetime, I want this form to continue as an institution."
"Constitutional monarchy?" Chu Chao Hui's eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face.
"Not bad, it's this kind of Void Monarch Republic."
"This can be much harder than you being a great king." Chu Chao Hui stretched his waist, he rode from the front line for two consecutive days day and night, his body has long been exhausted, after asking Zheng Yuming's plan, Chu Chao Hui was sleepy and fell asleep crookedly on top of the soft collapse.
Zheng Yuming helped Chu Chaohui cover his quilt and gazed at him for a while before saying quietly to the candlelight, "If I become a king, I will be the biggest obstacle to a democratic republic in the future."
Author's Note: Xiao Zheng's ideal is to build a democratic and republican country, this kind of ideal is not to say that he thinks like this, immediately go to realize. This has to be guided according to the general social environment at that time and the economic development in the future, the guidance must be gradual and orderly, Xiao Zheng's whole life will work hard for this.