Wei Qing's first message was sent back by flying pigeon, because the note tied to the leg of the flying pigeon could not be too big, what Wei Qing wrote on the note was also very short, except for reporting the news of Zhao Xuan's use of military force against Wei to Chu Chaohui, he only attached the plan that he would like to take advantage of Zhao Xuan's army's departure and take the opportunity to seize the cities and towns at the mouth of the throat that had already been occupied by Zhao's army.
"Not in vain I named this kid Wei Qing." Chu Chao Hui read the note, can not help but laugh, Wei Qing on the situation of accurate and quick judgment ability to let him appreciate. The Wu army seized Wei's throat near the mouth of the city, looks like only occupy Wei's forty miles of insignificant places, but this forty miles is the key to the Wu domestic pass, hold the main entrance, Wu's western border three-quarters of the place will not have to send troops, those places are not high mountains and steep ridges, or rivers and forests, people want to enter the Kingdom of Wu, have to trek through the mountains and water, mountains, is the border of the Kingdom of Wu's natural barrier. It is a natural barrier for the border of Wu.
"Aren't you worried about his inflated ego?" Zheng Yuming heard Chu Chaohui praise Wei Qing, and in his heart, he became unfair for Huo Sizhong.
Several big battles, Wei Qing dare to think, dare to do, dare to charge the bold behavior, in the military campaign to crusade against the northern marquis of the military operations, less than seventeen years old as a dazzling star as eye-catching, but also because of the military achievements, was awarded the title of sergeant.
Zheng Yuming admitted that Wei Qing is a good military talent, Wei Qing performance of their own talent at the same time, but also for their own won the honor and status, and boring in the south port and the valley to assist Yu Kui to engage in local construction of Huo Sizhong, to ensure that the military needs of the army of the Ulsan, the development of the local agricultural industry and commerce, also play an important role, but get the treatment can not be compared with Wei Qing.
Huo Sizhong because the South Port and the valley can not be too conspicuous, can only be a behind the scenes. Zheng Yuming couldn't give Huo Sizhong a knighthood, and his official position was only a minor official with no rank such as assistant to the director of Nambu.
"Yeah, Wei Qing is too young, it would be bad to be complacent after a few big victories." Chu Chao Hui stroked his chin in agreement, but his face was still one of satisfaction.
"I'm always afraid that Wei Qing is too showy on account of his intelligence, and that he'll get too many honors at a young age, and will be conceited as a result. Like Si Zhong, although he is not particularly smart, he takes one step at a time and never gets proud or shows credit for making achievements." When Zheng Yuming stepped on Wei Qing, he did not forget to elevate his own disciple.
Chu Chao Hui finally heard the sour taste in Zheng Yuming's mouth, Zheng Yuming was fighting for Huo Si Zhong. "Both of them are good, each has their own strengths and weaknesses, the two of them put together can complement each other very well." Chu Chao Hui said this, sat down next to Zheng Yuming, and put one arm around Zheng Yuming. "Just like you and I, together we are invincible."
Zheng Yuming inclined his head and slowly pushed Chu Chao Hui's face, which was pressed to him, away with one hand. "Why are you talking about two kids, you're starting to brag about yourself."
"I didn't blow this, aren't we perfect together?" Chu Chao Hui's mouth tilted to Zheng Yuming's ear in a low teasing voice. "Especially in bed, we're even more perfect, aren't we?"
Zheng Yuming remembered the craziness of the night and redness welled up on his face, his eyes glanced at the half-open door of the room, outside which came the playful sounds of Da Niu and Woody, and he couldn't help but make a shut-up gesture towards Chu Chao Hui.
Chu Chao Hui smiled cheaply and lowly, as if he had really stolen fish just now.
"My lord! There is an emergency in the palace." Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui were in the middle of an eyebrow-raising lawsuit when Ma Ren's voice came in.
"What situation?" Chu Chao Hui's face of color immediately turned serious.
"Healer Jiang sent a message that the Great King is in a physical condition, and asked the two lords to go quickly."
Zheng Yuming stood up all of a sudden after hearing this, Wu is at war with Zhao at the mouth of the throat, and it would not be a good thing for Wu if the Western Marquis died at such a time.
"It won't be so fast!" Chu Chao Hui frowned, after receiving Wei Qing's news, he was already prepared to personally lead 10,000 troops to the border to support, but if the Western Marquis breaks off at this very moment, Chu Chao Hui wouldn't dare to leave the royal capital to leave Zheng Yuming alone in the royal capital, the passing away of a country's lord will always cause the situation to be shaken up, even if this country's lord is only on the throne for more than a month.
Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui rushed to the royal palace, the Western Marquis had fallen into a coma, and Crown Prince Sheng had cried until his throat was hoarse in front of his father's bed.
"Ming, father ignores sheng." Prince Sheng see Zheng Yuming is like seeing a savior, Western Marquis sober, always time to instill in his son Zheng Yuming ability is very, asking his son to go to Zheng Yuming to solve anything in the future.
"Crown Prince, the Great King is just tired, he wants to sleep a little longer." Zheng Yuming half-wrapped his arm around Crown Prince Sheng and patted his back gently with his hand to comfort him.
"Father will sleep like grandmother and keep ignoring Sheng from now on." Prince Sheng's body trembled slightly, he was in fear.
"Even if the Great King falls asleep, he will think and dream about the Crown Prince, how could he ignore the Crown Prince?" Zheng Yuming was patient with Crown Prince Sheng, who would later be his tool to govern the Kingdom of Wu and his nominal uncle.
"Yes, it turns out that grandmother then often comes to Sheng's dreams, father loves Sheng even more than grandmother, he comes to Sheng's dreams even more." When Prince Sheng thought like this, he felt that death wasn't too scary, and that their father and son could still meet in their dreams.
Chu Chaohui glanced at Prince Sheng, somehow, his heart suddenly gave birth to a wave of sadness, the unconscious Western Marquis must be quite helpless, but then again, helpless, in the face of life and death, are not allowed to bargain.
"How is the situation?" Chu Chaohui walked to the bed to find out the situation from Kang Kyu, who was busy.
"It's bad." Kang Kyu straightened up, his eyes swept down to Prince Sheng, who was lying in Jung Yuming's arms, and whispered about Xi Hou's physical condition. "It's probably just these few days."
"Can't it be delayed until next year?" It was now the end of November, and Chu Chaohui hoped that Xihou could survive the Spring Festival.
"I can't, seven or eight days at most." Jiang Gui flatly rejected. Xi Hou's body was like a lamp that had run out of oil, without oil, the wick would naturally go out.
"Will the Great King still wake up?" Zheng Yuming pacified Prince Sheng and took off to walk over to see the Western Marquis.
Xihou quietly lying on the bed, in addition to the slight rise and fall of the chest, so that one can not feel a trace of life, the wrinkles at the corners of the eyes and eyebrows are not as deep as usual, crow's feet seem to be much lighter.
"Kei will try his best." Kang Kyu wasn't very sure if Xihou would be able to become conscious.
Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui stayed in the Western Marquis' chambers until late at night before returning to their own quarters.
"What to do now?" Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui finished their baths and lay on the bed discussing how to deal with Zhao.
"Before this year's Spring Festival, the king cannot send troops to the border." Chu Chao Hui half wrapped one hand around Zheng Yuming and put one hand behind his head.
"Is it because of me?" Zheng Yuming rolled over onto his side and crouched on Chu Chao Hui's chest, his ears could listen to the powerful beating of Chu Chao Hui's heart.
"Not bad, Xihou is the matter of these few days, if I bring a large army to the border, it's too unsafe for you to stay in the royal capital." After receiving Wei Qing's secret letter, Chu Chao Hui had originally decided to personally lead his troops to support the mouth of the throat.
"But the throat opening there will be just as dangerous if there's no support." Zheng Yuming was worried.
Western Marquis died, the Wu Royal Court will definitely have some turbulence, without Chu Chao Hui sitting as a deterrent, maybe the royal capital will really have some unexpected things happen. Now Zhou Cheng has brought 5,000 men to station at the Tang border, Wei Qing and Zeng You have brought 5,000 at the northwest border, Dacheng has set up 3,000 guards, Nambu and the valley have 1,000 soldiers, Su Plain has 500 permanent soldiers, and the king's capital Huben is being demobilized one after another, so the king's city only has a total of 15,000 soldiers, of which 5,000 are still just recruited new recruits. If we go to war with Zhao, we will have to take away half of our men, so the capital is really empty.
"It depends on whether the Prince of Zhao wants to fight us or not." Chu Chaohui felt that after Zhao Xuan swallowed a Wei state in one bite, the most pressing thing should be how to digest the state, not finding another difficult to swallow vassal state to fight another battle.
If Wei Qing had not sneaked off to seize the city at the mouth of the throat, Chu Chao Hui could have concluded that Zhao Xuan would not have had plans to attack Qu City this year, and that this Prince Zhao would have waited to digest Wei before launching a war of annexation against Wu.
The Throat Pass Castle was important to Wu as an important pass to guard the border, and it was just as important to Zhao, who controlled this place and then controlled the gateway to Wu, and Zhao could always wage war on Wu through the Throat Pass Castle at any time as long as it was well-prepared.
The city of the mouth of the throat is a must fight. But in the eyes of Chu Chao Hui, the mouth of the throat is no more important to Wu, but it is not as important as Zheng Yuming is to him.
"Chaohui, you should still lead the troops to the border to support Wei Qing, if there is a change in the king's capital, with Wei Ren's three thousand soldiers and Ma Ren's five hundred guards to protect me, I will be fine." It would be a lie to say that Zheng Yuming was not touched in his heart.
Chu Chao Hui shook his head, "When something happens who will you let me regret to?"
There are times when Zheng Yuming's expression overlaps with the father Chu Chao Hui remembers, Chu Chao Hui's father is also a person who is very persistent in his ideals, only, in those days, that ideal was a tragedy. Chu Zhaohui sometimes admire and miss his father's persistence, and sometimes hate that kind of stubbornness. Chu Zhaohui's father is the end of the 1960s, with Che Guevara's general pride, joined the Communist Party of Burma's youth in China.
"Asahi..."
Zheng Yuming still wanted to convince, but was blocked by Chu Chaohui with his mouth, "We won't make a decision today, let's finish other important things first."
Chu Chao-hui was too vigorous in his important business that night, and got up a little late the next morning, and when he arrived at his military prime minister's office, Huang Zhong had been waiting for him for half an hour.
"Great General, the Intelligence Service has found out that there are secret agents from other countries in the royal capital." Chu Chao Hui's highest official position today was the Military Prime Minister, one rank higher than the highest level of military generals, the Great General, but because of habit, people still called Chu Chao Hui the Great General.
"Which countries are the spies?"
"There are three places that are confirmed to be from Zhao, two from Chu, one from Chen, and two that are just suspected, haven't found out which vassal state's spies they are." Huang Zhong handed the investigation information to Chu Chao Hui with both hands.
Chu Chao Hui opened the information and looked at it carefully, most of these spies and secret agents were using their merchant status as a cover to probe around Kang City.
"Great General, should we take these spies and secret agents in one pot?"
"No, end them, their masters will continue to send people, rather than spending effort to line up unfamiliar scouts, it's better to leave these known." Chu Chao Hui shook his head.
"My subordinate understands and will send people to closely monitor their movements." Huang Zhong comprehended Chu Chao Hui's meaning. A secret agent that was discovered could no longer be called a secret agent, a secret agent that could be controlled was better than an unknown agent.
Chu Chao Hui tapped his finger on the information and smiled slightly, "Sometimes, these secret agents can even do something for us!"
At the beginning of the month of Lunar New Year, the lord of Wu, who had succeeded to the throne for less than two months, binged in the early hours of a cold morning after being in a coma for six days. Premier Minister Gong Zi Ming sent a messenger to Qin Tian Zi to request the Emperor to grant a posthumous title to Marquis Xihou, and at the same time reported to Qin Tian Zi that Crown Prince Sheng had succeeded to the throne as the Lord of the Kingdom of Wu.
On the fourth day of Western Marquis Bintian, Zhao Xuan was aware of the latest developments happening in the capital city of King Wu, he took the intelligence and read it for a long time, sighed helplessly and chose a smart-mouthed messenger to go to the capital city of King Wu to offer condolences to Western Marquis.