Zhao Xuan took 10,000 elite soldiers and drove furiously all the way back to the king's capital in only three days. After Zhao Xuan's return, the Chu army, which had already set up camp outside the king's capital, had already retreated on their own one day ahead of schedule.
The soldiers and horses brought back by Zhao Xuan were too tired to run back and forth, and it was not suitable to go after Gongzi Xie immediately when they were tired and the horses were sleepy. By the time more than 10,000 soldiers and horses recuperated and recovered their spirit, it was already the third day after Gongzi Xie retreated.
Zhao Xuan wanted to catch up with the king's son and wipe him out in one fell swoop, exterminating the last bloodline of the royal family of Wei and completely extinguishing the hope of restoration of the occupied territories. What Zhao Xuan didn't expect was that the king's son, who was originally an idiot, became enlightened after four years of exile in Chu, his IQ became higher, he became cunning, and he also became a scoundrel.
Although Gongzi Xie led the Chu soldiers only to loiter around Zhao Wangdu and did not bring any damage to Zhao Wangdu, Gongzi Xie created very much trouble for Zhao Xuan on his way to retreat.
Duke Yi rode a jujube-red horse in high spirits, with an excited face: "General Zuo's strategizing and decision-making are better than Jiang Xiang's, and the general is a martial minister given to Wei by the gods!"
Gongzi Xie was more and more satisfied with Zuo Yi.
Zuo Yi smiled slightly, after being praised by Gongzi Shi, there was not a trace of pride on his face, on the contrary, he appeared to be very modest: "Yi is fortunate to be appreciated by Gongzi, so that he can show his life's ambition, Gongzi's kindness to Yi's acquaintance, Yi is grateful."
Gongzi Xie shook his head and looked very proud, thinking that he had much more discerning eyes than the Ming Duke and the Great General of Wu, and was able to find such a handsome person with outstanding military talent like Zuo Yi.
"Are we just going to rob all the way there?" Gongzi Xie looked back at the possessions loaded on the Chu army's horses, which were the fruits of their looting along the way.
In Gongzi Xie's eyes, Zuo Yi's judgment was very strong, as if he could always guess Zhao Xuan's actions correctly. The day after Zhao Xuan returned with his troops, Zuo Yi analyzed the news brought back by his spies that Zhao Xuan was going to come back from the border of Tang and Zhao to rescue him. Based on Zuo Yi's accurate judgment, Gongzi was able to lead the Chu army to retreat gracefully.
Gongzi Xie knew that the 6,000 troops he had rented were too few, and it was impossible to defeat Zhao with this force. The reason why he sent troops against Zhao this time was that he wanted to take advantage of the emptiness of Zhao's royal capital to steal a handful of opportunities, and now that Zhao Xuan returned with a large army, Gongzi Xie's speculative action failed, and he could only go back to his home.
He went back empty-handed, Gongzi Xie was very reluctant, Zuo Yi seemed to know what Gongzi Xie thought, and immediately came up with a good idea for Gongzi Xie, which was to rob the nobles of Zhao on the way back.
As long as it is not a fortified city, villages, manor houses and these easy to attack places are places of interest to Zuo Yi, every time a place is captured, the noble families in this place will be looted by the Chu army, and every time they loot something, Zuo Yi will come to play the tycoon and divide the items into actions. A lot of grain and livestock were distributed to the local people. Zuo Yi paid attention to one point, that is, he did not let the nobles and the servants of the nobles to see the people to collect the things, so as to prevent the nobles from retaliating against the people in the future.
Gong Zi Xi led the Chu army all the way to do the robbery after the hook, but also in the local people left a good reputation, these poor people privately and vocally praised Gong Zi Xi as a great benevolence and righteousness of the warrior.
In fact, Zuo Yi was not a chivalrous man. Among the looted things, the most valuable gold, silver and soft goods were all rolled away by Zuo Yi, who needed these belongings to feed his rented soldiers and horses, and waited until he had the chance to launch an attack on Zhao later. Those bulky and heavy things that would affect the retreat of the Chu army were then divided up by Zuo Yi on the spot.
Zhao Xuan followed the trail of Gongzi Xie's retreat, and along the way, there were always nobles who stopped Zhao Xuan's horse and cried. If Zhao Xuan had chased after them, he might have been able to stop them before the Chu army returned to the border of Chu by boat. But faced with the desolation of the looted nobles, Zhao Xuan had to stop to comfort them and send troops to help the nobles recover their divided belongings. Those livestock and furniture and other things that are easy to recognize, the common people heard the news and secretly threw them outside their homes, and Zhao Xuan sent his soldiers to take them away and return them to their rightful owners, but as for the unmarked grain and grass, they couldn't collect all of them.
Zhao Xuan has always prided himself on his love for the people, and for the people who don't want to return the grain, Zhao Xuan can't let the soldiers forcefully confiscate it; after all, Zuo Yi didn't let the nobles see it when he divided the accounts, and the nobles simply don't know which people participated in the division of the accounts. The nobles are resentful that they can't get all of their belongings back, and the people are forced to spit out their livestock and artifacts, so they have a lot of grievances in the back of their minds. Zhao Xuan's handling of this matter along the way can be said to be anxious and annoying.
Zhao Xuan managed to pacify the nobles who suffered losses and led his elite troops to the river mouth at the Zhao-Chu border, only to see the garbage dropped by the Chu army on the beach at the mouth of the river. This hand of 'hitting the landlord and dividing things' played by Gongzi Xie made Zhao Xuan hate him to the core.
Zhao Xuan decides to gather ships to cross the river and chase into the Chu territory, he does not want to lightly spare Gongzi Xie who has made a mess of his kingdom. But just when the boats were almost ready, an urgent message from Bo Yao arrived. After Zhao Xuan read the contents of the urgent letter, he only felt his eyes darken and 'bam' he fell under his horse. When Zhao Xuan woke up, the news of Wu's capture of Tang Wangdu was sent again, Zhao Xuan looked at it silently for a long time and sighed longingly to the sky, only feeling that it was a bad year.
Since there was no more hope of dividing the Tang Empire, Zhao Xuan focused on preparing for the annihilation of Gongzi Xie. However, although the boats for crossing the river were ready, Zhao Xuan brought Zhao troops who were not familiar with water warfare, Zhao Xuan still had to train his troops on the spot to familiarize the soldiers with how to fight on the boats. Only after Zhao Xuan had trained his soldiers not to get seasick, an alert came from the northwest border of Zhao. This time, the alarm has nothing to do with Chu Chao Hui's plotting and scheming, it is the nomadic Rongmen from the north who came south to loot and rob the northwestern border of Zhao, and the northwestern counties of Zhao have been in a state of emergency.
Zhao Xuan was unable to do so and had to press on with his plan to settle the score with Gongzi Xie, leaving 6,000 men stationed at the river bank to prevent Gongzi Xie from crossing the border again, and leading the rest of his troops back to the royal capital, recalling Bo Yao and departing for the north-west to fight against the Rong people.
The Duke of the country has made a fortune, the Duke of the country with the Chu army to return to the Chu country by boat, in the Chu country by the river to find a piece of high ground to set up a stronghold, ready to have the opportunity to boat to the territory of the State of Zhao to make a little fortune, there is no opportunity to let the soldiers of the Chu country in the river next to the land to plant some food, rowing to the river to catch some fish and shrimp, a small life than stay in the King of the country of the Chu are cozy. This kind of combat method of Gongzi Xie's to build a base to harass Zhao is the thinking provided by Zuo Yi, who instilled in Gongzi Xie the idea of gradually weakening Zhao, and then destroying Zhao and restoring Wei when they found the opportunity.
Chu's 6,000 soldiers were rented by Gong Zi Xie, the same as the soldiers of Wu, can receive a monthly salary, better than their original treatment in the hands of the king of Chu twice, Chu soldiers are very satisfied with their own treatment, but peacefully followed Gong Zi Xie stayed at the border rivers.
The king of Chu not only made a small fortune by renting out his soldiers, but also saw that Zhao had suffered a great loss, so of course he was very happy. He was so happy that he agreed to Duke Shi's request to continue renting out his soldiers and the land along the river as a stronghold. The king of Chu felt that he had made a good deal with Gong Zi Shi, in addition to getting money from Gong Zi Shi, he also made Gong Zi Shi willingly volunteer to help defend the northwestern border of Chu.
It took only ten days for Wu to annex the entire Tang Kingdom, and when the news was sent back to Wu, the country celebrated. Especially some of the people whose hometowns were in the Tang Kingdom cried tears of joy. These Tang people who moved to Wu, although their own lives have improved, but in their native land, there are still friends and relatives struggling in the hardship. Now that Wu had annexed Tang, there was hope for their friends and family, and they might be able to return to their hometowns after the development of their homelands.
Zheng Yuming could be said to be the ecstatic one among the Wu people, for he had struck it rich, seeing three ships full of gold, silver, jewels and damask. Half of these three ships of treasure were collected from the Tang King's Palace, and half were copied from the Tang noble houses.
After the King of Tang was set on fire, Chu Chao Hui began to liquidate the nobles of Tang one by one. As long as the commoners reported the nobles who had committed serious crimes and aided and abetted the evil, they were all found guilty and executed, their family properties confiscated, and their families and children concentrated in a certain place to fend for themselves.
Nobles who were usually good were released and their family properties were retained, except for their fiefs. However, not many of the Tang nobles were of good character, and most of them were as greedy as their kings. The more people were investigated and punished, the more abundant the harvest of Chu Chaohui's raid was, and the plundered properties, together with the proceeds from the Tang Palace, were all transported away in three large ships of 3,000 materials.
The large ship loaded with belongings traveled to Nambu under the close guard of soldiers, and it took two thousand guards and sailors in Minghui Valley three whole days to finish transporting the belongings, and the empty rooms of Zheng Yuming's county residence were all stuffed.
"Si Hua, take the valley's accountant to help me make an inventory of these things." Zheng Yuming takes Huo Sihua to visit the room belongings, Huo Sihua surveys the dozens of rooms and wants to cry, this project is just huge.
"Your Excellency, just how greedy are the entire court of this Tang Dynasty?" The eyes of Da Niu, who was closely following Zheng Yuming, were glaring like copper bells, and he was dazzled by the wide array of artifacts and gold, silver and jewels.
"The vermilion door stinks of wine and meat, and there are frozen bones on the road." Zheng Yuming let out a sigh.
The survey report back from Tang is not optimistic, this year the vast majority of areas in Tang failed to harvest, ninety percent of the civilian population struggling to stay below the poverty line, of which a quarter of the people in the famine in the dying.
Zheng Yuming couldn't figure out that the people of a country were already going to half starve to death, and that the Tang kings and their courtiers would rather let the coins in their homes rust and the grain mold than give alms to their own people to tide them over the famine.
Chu Chao Hui did not return after liquidating the Tang nobles and stayed in Tang to command the army to provide relief. The Wu army distributed the food copied from the Tang king's granary and the nobles' residences according to households. Every day the people who came to the grain collection point to collect the grain were crowded, there were many people who went to the grain collection point and fell to the ground without strength, some could be saved while some starved to death in front of the grain. Some of the Tang people received food and stuffed it into their mouths regardless, and there were several incidents of choking to death due to dry food every day. At the place where the food was distributed, besides the soldiers maintaining order, there were also medical doctors guarding the place to rescue the victims. For a long time, the dreams of those Wu soldiers who participated in the distribution of food were all nightmares.
"Your Excellency describes it too realistically! The Tang rulers and ministers are just petty, when those Tang people become subjects of Gongzi, they won't starve to death and freeze to death, because the wine and meat in our county residence never stink." Da Niu, the great illiterate, expressed his feelings.
Zheng Yuming looked at Da Niu in dismay, there was such an understanding of Du Fu's verse? It's not bad to be called Da Niu, the cow man!
"Hehe, this utensil is so beautiful!" Huo Sihua bit her fingers at a set of delicate utensils, which were just too perfectly built, exquisite and without a single flaw.
Zheng Yuming turned around to see that the utensils that Huo Sihua was praising were actually twenty-first century tableware, one of the two sets of tableware that Zheng Yuming had asked Wu Mu to take to the neighboring vassal states to sell when Ulsan lacked the funds to crusade against Ripple Ji. Looking at this set of tableware returned to its rightful owner, Zheng Yuming suddenly felt very funny.
When Yu Kui went undercover in Kang City, Zheng Yuming once took out an ashtray and gave it to Yu Kui, so that Yu Kui could bribe Ripple Ji's righteous father, Dr. Jiang. As a result, after Chu Chao Hui led the Ulsan army to conquer Kang City, the ashtray named White Jade Flawless Glazed Plate was seized from Dr. Jiang's residence. Now Chu Chao Hui led the Wu army to capture the Tang Dynasty, and moved back from the Tang Dynasty King's Palace tableware. Could it be that the items that were taken out from the villa to be sold should be recovered one by one with Chu Chao Hui's attack?