Author's Note: The annexation war will soon begin, butterfly drew a map of the vassal states of Qin, may not be able to see the names of the countries, here to explain a little.
On the lower right side in pale yellow is the state of Wu, and above it in the same color is the state of Yan, the mother state of the Crown Princess of Zhao. In blue is Chu, the largest state in area, in dark yellow is Chen and Lu, in light green is Zhao, in silver-white is Wei, in dark green is Tang, in aubergine-purple is Qi, in red is Xu, and the two long green lines are the rivers, above the Great River and below the Long River. The black dot in the middle and upper reaches of the Great River is Haojing, the capital city of Qin.
King Tang was very careful when he sent out Kui Ji, only his favorites and Fu Chou's tutor knew about the assassination, and Kui Ji was a ranger who was not afraid of death, and this kind of person would not betray his employer because of greed for his life. King Tang thought that he had hired a murderer to kill Zheng Yuming in a very secretive way.
In the case of Kui Ji's assassination in Ulsan, there was little real evidence to prove that Kui Ji's behavior had anything to do with the King of Tang based on the information that Huang Zhong possessed. It was Fu Chou who linked Kui Ji to the assassination of the Tang King.
When Kui Ji was delivering a letter to Fu Chou from his tutor, he boasted about a big job. Fu Chou was about to ask what it was, but was interrupted by Yang He's arrival. Kui Ji suspects from Yang He's words that Fu Chou's mindset of avenging his father's death has changed, and believes that Fu Chou can't be trusted. He decides to stay away from Fu Chou and leaves in a hurry.
Kui Ji, because of his suspicion of Fu Chou and his lack of trust in the internal helpers provided by the King of Tang, decides to carry out the assassination of Zheng Yuming single-handedly. Wu's intelligence officers were far away from Kui Ji and Fu Chou and did not hear Kui Ji's key words about doing something big, which led to Huang Zhong's misjudgment, thinking that Kui Ji was just a ranger who came to Wu to seek opportunities for glory and wealth.
At the scene of the assassination in Ulsan, Fu Chou recalled that Kui Ji had boasted that he wanted to do something amazing, and then linked it to the hints on his mentor's letter, analyzed that Kui Ji's assassination was instructed, and testified against the King of Tang off the cuff.
Kui Ji was angry with Fu Chou for the failure of the assassination, and he spat on Fu Chou in his resentment at the time, indirectly admitting that the Tang King was the real culprit behind the scene. The Tang King did not expect that his murder for hire would be exposed.
Before Zheng Yuming was assassinated and fell unconscious, he ordered Ma Ren to block the news and wait for Chu Chao Hui's return, fearing that his life would be in danger if he was seriously injured. Chu Chao Hui in Jiang Gui for Zheng Yuming diagnosed no life-threatening, and then let the South Newspaper announced the assassination of Zheng Yuming incident. The report describes the process of Kui Ji's assassination in great detail, and Kui Ji's deathbed admission of who the mastermind was is the most important part of the report, and the authenticity of the incident is testified by the Crown Prince of Zhao, who is also the victim.
Paying tribute to the well-developed transportation in Wu, the Tang scouts took only four days to deliver the newspaper to the King of Tang.
"A good disciple taught by Taifu, your disciple not only does not serve his own monarch, but also puts his own monarch to the fire of firewood!" The Tang king angrily threw the southern newspaper at the feet of Jitu, Fu Chou's mentor.
Jitu picked up the newspaper and read it, the color of blood on his face disappeared at once, and he kneeled at the feet of the Tang King with a 'plop', "I have taught you poorly, and I have taught you to forget your ancestors and be ungrateful to your ancestors, I deserve to die for my sins!"
"Can thou die ten thousand times to offset Wu Zhao's accountability?" King Tang drew his sword and was about to hack Jitu to death, when the Tang King's favorites beside him rushed up to pull King Tang's arm.
"Your Majesty, don't be angry! Ji Taifu tried his best to be loyal, the red courage and loyalty can shine in the sun and the moon, the disciples out of the evil disciple is not Ji Taifu's wish, now the state of affairs to this point, the king, please first spare Taifu, so that Taifu to offer advice to solve the crisis." Ji Taifu is the most famous scholar in Tang, the Tang king angrily killed Ji Tu, will cause protests from Tang's knowledgeable people, now Tang is already a troubled time, this time the Tang king relenting his anger to personally execute Ji Tu is very inappropriate. Although the Tang king's favorite minister was talentless, he still understood this point better.
King Tang stopped moving, his eyes rolled and he came up with a countermeasure, he returned his sword to its sheath and stepped forward to assist Ji Tu, "Tai Fu Ji! Please get up quickly, Qing is the pillar of our country, his loyalty to me is known to both heaven and earth, I believe that what the sinful disciple did was not Tai Fu's intention."
"The Great King understands!" His own disciples had committed the heinous crime of betraying the king, and the Tang King was still so sympathetic, Jitu was moved to tears.
"That Yan ranger went to Wu with a letter from the Minister of Love, I think the assassination of Duke Ming of Wu was in compliance with Tai Fu's instructions, right?" King Tang's voice was soft, but it reached Jitu's ears but it was like a thunderbolt, King Tang's meaning was obvious, he wanted Jitu to take the assassination over, so that King Tang himself could clear the suspicion of directing it.
Jitu stared blankly at his loyal king with his mouth wide open, and there was a twinkle of anticipation in King Tang's eyes. The Tang King's favorites bowed their heads in silence. For a while, the palace was so quiet that you could hear breathing.
After a long time, Jitu's throat knots wriggled several times, he took a step back and resignedly made a big salute to the Tang King: "Jitu pays his respects to the Great King, Tu won't fail to fulfill the Great King's expectations."
King Tang nodded his head in satisfaction, "Don't worry, Qing, I will bear in mind the loyalty and righteousness of Qing."
Without another word, Jitu just stumbled away after kowtowing three times to the Tang King.
On that night, Jitu committed suicide by taking poison in his own mansion, leaving a suicide note before his death, admitting that Kui Ji was sent by him to assassinate Gong Zi Ming in Wu. In order to make Kui Ji's assassination certain, Jitu claimed to have written a letter to his pupil Fu Chou, who was a student in the North College of Wu, asking Fu Chou to cooperate with Kui Ji's action.
In his suicide note, Jitu declared that the assassination was his own doing and had nothing to do with the Tang king, and at the end of the note, Jitu scolded Fuchou for being worthless and for wrongly accusing the Tang king for the sake of merit.
When King Tang got Jitu's suicide note, he was like a treasure, and quickly sent messengers to transport the note and Jitu's corpse, together with Jitu's family and children, to the Northwest County, and handed it to Zhou Cheng, who was stationed at the border, to examine it, so as to prove his innocence.
Zhou Cheng received the Tang emissary did not dare to neglect, will Ji Tu body and Ji Tu full family with the suicide note together with a large ship sea transportation to the south port. Chu Chao Hui read Jitu's suicide note and laughed coldly, he called Fu Chou, Fu Chou read his master's suicide note and cried loudly, clearly the king of the Tang Dynasty did it himself, but let his once most loyal subjects be the scapegoat, Fu Chou now completely understand the nature of the king of the Tang Dynasty.
King Tang this looking for scapegoats for their own exoneration of the rogue behavior, more caused by the North and South College of Wu anger, Wen Wei Po and South Newspaper every day full of complaining about the King of Tang despicable lines.
The King of Tang expected that after reading Jitu's suicide note and corpse, Wu would spare Tang on this. The King of Tang waited for Wu's reply with great anxiety. 60,000 troops of Wu had assembled at the border of Tang and Wu, while the State of Zhao had also sent out the diatribe of crusade, and the King of Zhao had similarly gathered 50,000 troops to prepare for the advance to the border of Zhao and Tang. In the face of the advancing armies of the two powerful states, the destruction of the Tang State was imminent.
"The assassination of Duke Ming and Prince Zhao clearly had nothing to do with Lone, but Zhao and Wu used it as an excuse to attack! Now that Wu's army is pressing in, and Zhao's soldiers will follow, all the ministers should think of countermeasures to solve the crisis." The King of Tang gathered his ministers together to discuss a plan.
The Hundred Officials of the Court of the King of the Tang Dynasty looked at each other in dismay, and all of them were silent after looking at each other.
Seeing the silence of the officials, the King of Tang was so furious that he slapped the table: "In the face of a great enemy, are you all so helpless that you can't do anything about it? If Zhao and Wu capture Tang, don't think you can still have your fiefs? Zhao has long abolished the fiefs, and most of the ministers of Wu's court have been deprived of their fiefs, so do you think that you can still save your property by joining Zhao and Wu?"
As soon as King Tang's words fell, the ministers of the royal court began to have a commotion.
After a few moments, King Tang's favorite minister was the first to step forward to speak, "Your Majesty, since the war between Zhao and Wu and our country is inevitable, your Majesty should recruit soldiers and horses throughout the country to prepare for the war and fight Zhao and Wu to the death."
The Tang Dynasty's own favorites roll their eyes, Jitu suicide, the King of Tang has been ready to do both, the conscription order has long been sent to all parts of the country, but are more than ten days, should be called to the King's capital to work for the King's troops but more than 10,000, the strength of this point where is the rivalry between the two countries of Wu and Zhao.
"Your Majesty, I think we can contact the neighboring countries to join the alliance against Zhao Wu." An older courtier suggested.
"Neighboring countries? The only near neighbor that can take on an alliance is Qi and Lu, which country would it be better for our country to ally with?" Tang's neighbors were originally Wei, Wu, Qi, and Lu; after Zhao annexed Wei, Tang's neighbors became Zhao, Wu, Qi, and Lu.
Qi and Lu were mortal enemies, having fought for more than ten years, there was no hope of sitting down together in peace, and for Tang to casually ally with one of these two countries would offend the other.
"Now that the Kingdom of Tang is in danger, an alliance with one of the two countries of Qi and Lu alone will not be able to resist Zhao and Wu. Only an alliance of the three kingdoms against Zhao and Wu will have any hope of avoiding the fall of the kingdom. Only then can we hope to avoid the fall of the kingdom." In fact, the minister who made the suggestion was not sure whether the alliance of three countries could withstand the attack of Wu, but compared to fighting alone and allying with only one country, Tang had the greatest hope of avoiding the fall of the country.
"Can any of the loving ministers persuade Qi and Lu to stop their strife and ally with our country?" King Tang looked at his courtiers with anticipation, the alliance of the three kingdoms gave him hope.
After King Tang's question, there was silence in the royal court, or the elderly courtier who had made the suggestion stepped forward to take the order. "The old courtier would like to go on a mission to the two countries of Qi and Lu to persuade the rulers of the two countries to form an alliance with our country."
"Good! Secretary depart quickly and try to move reinforcements before the invasion of Wu's soldiers and horses!" King Tang shook his aged courtier's hand to urge him on, almost shaking the aged courtier's skeleton apart.
"Noe! The humble minister will set off now!" The old minister of the Tang Kingdom embarked on his journey with the Tang King's request for an alliance.
It took four or five days to walk from the capital of Tang to the capital of Lu, and the same amount of time from Lu to the capital of Qi. Even if the old minister of Tang succeeded in begging for an alliance with the kings of Qi and Lu, the earliest round-trip would take half a month, and if Qi and Lu sent their troops to assist immediately, the earliest would take a month to get it done. After the old minister's mission, the king of Tang prayed every day, hoping that Wu and Zhao would wait for Tang's reinforcements before launching an offensive.
The King of Tang did not seek the right deity when he prayed, and only three days after the old ministers departed, the Great General of Wu, Chu Chao-hui, arrived at the northeastern border of Wu on a ship and ordered the army of Wu to cross the border line of Tang and Wu and to attack Tang in three directions.
One way was led by Wei Qing, who marched to the west side of Tang, and the other way was led by Ma Ren, who took a boat along the big river and attacked the capital of Tang, which was on the side of the big river. The other way was led by Zhou Cheng, who marched towards the east side of the Tang Dynasty to seize the salt production land of the Tang Dynasty. Chu Chao Hui was in command of the northwest county.
When Wu's soldiers and horses were attacking Tang's operation, Zhao Xuan had also already hurriedly set off from Zhao Wangdu with 50,000 soldiers and horses.
"Urgent report from the Eastern Front! The latest progress of the Wu army!" The scout gasped and handed over the secret letter, after reporting the content, he fell headlong to the ground and passed out, the scout in order to send the information at the fastest speed, he changed horses countless times along the way, and ran non-stop day and night, the person was already fatigued to the extreme. The left and right guards hurriedly transported the scout away on a stretcher.
"Wu soldiers and horses three days ago has acted?" Zhao Xuan opened the secret letter to read the emergency, his grain and military provisions only brought a small half, even rushed to catch up or fall after the action of the Wu army.
"Your Highness, the Wu army must have engaged the Tang army by now, and it will take another four or five days for our troops to reach the Tang border, which would be equal to being seven or eight days behind the Wu army. Ai! I hope that the Tang army will not be too sketchy and will be able to resist the Wu army's attack first."
Bo Yao was also anxious, four years ago Zhao could destroy Wei in half a month, if Tang was as untouchable as Wei, there were seven or eight days, the Wu army, which was no less powerful than Zhao, would have captured so many places that the Wu army would have swallowed most of the cake.
"Bo Yao! Pass down the order, 10,000 auxiliary soldiers stay behind to carry the bulky supplies and provisions, and 40,000 elite soldiers will each carry three days of dry food to speed forward!" Zhao Xuan decisively ordered.
Of the 50,000 soldiers led by Zhao Xuan, only 40,000 were able to fight on the battlefield, and the other 10,000 were not trained soldiers, but rather temporary conscripts, whose families were peasants, and whose main task, after becoming auxiliary soldiers, was to carry supplies and provisions.
"Your Highness, where will we raise provisions when the three days of dry food runs out?" Bo Yao hesitated, three days of hasty marching could at most make it to the border of the Tang Kingdom, the soldiers would only carry three days of dry rations, and when they reached the border of the Tang Kingdom, they would run out of food. The small cities of the former Wei Kingdom that bordered the Tang Kingdom could not afford to feed and water the 40,000 troops.
Zhao Xuan looked indifferent: "The army can get food on the spot when it enters the Tang Kingdom."
Bo Yao was as enlightened as he cupped his fists and led the way, "I will go and convey Your Highness's order!"
Bo Yao this is to comprehend that Zhao Xuan wants to learn the way of the northern nomadic people Rong southward robbery. The Rong went to the middle reaches of the great river to rob, and when they went south they all prepared only dry food for the one-way trip, and when they entered the place where the Qin people lived, the Rong went on a looting spree, and they killed those who resisted, and sacked the villages and towns, and the looters not only solved the problem of food and drink, but also robbed a great deal of property.
While the Rong walked quickly south, their return journey was slow because they returned with horses loaded with so much money and supplies that they could only walk slowly.
Zhao Xuan wouldn't let the Zhao army treat the Tang people the same way the Rong people robbed them, he was only prepared to collect enough military rations from the Tang people, as to whether or not the Tang people would starve to death due to the lack of food, it was insignificant compared to the benefits that the Zhao army could gain from a quick march.
After Bo Yao conveyed Zhao Xuan's order, Zhao's 50,000 troops halted on the spot for an hour, the auxiliary soldiers were separated out and left behind to carry the supplies, and after the reorganization was completed, the 40,000 elite troops marched with light loads. After the entire army left their provisions behind, the speed was indeed one-third faster.
After marching for two days, and seeing that he would arrive at the border of Tang in another day, from the capital of the King of Zhao, an urgent message from the King of Zhao for 800 miles was sent.