Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng husband and wife from the new city near the riverbank pier ashore, a black armor Chu Chao Hui with Ma Ren and other people already stood on the pier to meet. The shiny black armor made Chu Chao Hui's figure even more magnificent, especially conspicuous in the crowd. Zheng Yuming will be far from the line of sight fixed on Chu Chao Hui body, the two eyes once met, can not move away.
Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng went north in the name of rewarding the Wu soldiers who fought in the Tang land, and when they came, the wooden ship was loaded with a lot of fruits and wines and other food, and they stopped at the small bay to buy the sea fish that the fishermen there had just caught from the sea.
Once the wooden boat docked, the sailor soldiers first to the shore to carry the reward items. Soldiers who followed Chu Chao Hui to meet, looked at the loaded lady mule carts and oxcarts passed by in front of them, one mouth kept swallowing saliva.
The soldiers stayed in Tang for more than a month, Tang is in lack of supplies, even the food seized from the Tang nobles are corn, millet and other coarse grains, fine rice and flour have to be transported from Wu to Tang. The transportation could not keep up, the soldiers' daily meals were mixed with half coarse and half fine food, and the soldiers had long missed the food in Wu. Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng brought a lot of food for the Wu soldiers to enjoy.
In the way of not being able to have intimate behavior with Zheng Yuming under the eyes of the public, Chu Chao Hui has been holding back until Wu Wangsheng couple stayed in the Tang Wang Palace, and the accompanying personnel were dispersed to their respective lodgings to take a rest, Chu Chao Hui announced with a serious face that he had important state affairs to report to the Prime Minister, and that during the reporting period, it was forbidden for any person or dog to come to be distracted and disturbed.
That night, the Tang Wangdu temporary military general headquarters door is closed, the big cattle in the next room huffing and puffing, wood squatting outside the bedroom door aggrieved all night.
Chu Chao Hui's report was so long that the next day, Zheng Yuming didn't get up from his bedroom's big bed until noon. When he cleaned and dressed and came out, Chu Chao Hui was receiving Huang Zhong, who had just arrived from Chu, at the office next to his bedroom.
"Huang Zhong, how is the situation at Gongzi Shi's place?" Because of the lack of transportation, Zheng Yuming had only received news that Gongzi Shi had successfully lured Zhao Xuan back to Zhao Wangdu.
"Your Excellency, Zuo Yi has already helped Duke Sui lead his army to retreat to the territory of Chu, preparing to establish a stronghold on the rivers along the Chu border, so that he can harass Zhao at any time in the future." Huang Zhong stayed in Chu for more than a month this time, bringing his men to help Duke Sui borrow troops and horses, and raising and dispatching sufficient supplies to help Duke Sui launch a sneak attack on Zhao.
"Huang Zhong, this operation was well done! Zhao Xuan must be furious, did he chase into the Chu territory to engage Gongzi Shi?" Zheng Yuming couldn't help but praise Huang Zhong, with Zheng Yuming's understanding of Zhao Xuan, the conceited Zhao Xuan would definitely refuse to let Gongzi Shi go.
"Prince Zhao originally wanted to chase into the Chu mirror to hunt down and kill Gongzi Xie, but only the northern Rong people came south to loot, the northwest county of Zhao was in an emergency, Zhao Xuan was forced to spare Gongzi Xie to go north to fight against the Rong."
Huang Zhong's follow-up plan was originally to use Gongzi Xie to lure Zhao Xuan into the Chu mirror, stirring up conflicts between Chu and Zhao and provoking Zhao and Chu into war. The plan was aborted because the Rong people went south to rob the city. Seeing that he could not utilize Gongzi Xie for the time being, Huang Zhong instructed his subordinates and Zuo Yi to do some things and returned to Dacheng to report to Zheng Yuming. Huang Zhong returned to Nangbu on a boat, and Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng happened to be on a big boat going to Tangland from the sea. Huang Zhong can only take the south port transportation of supplies north of the large wooden boat to catch up. This morning, Huang Zhong arrived at the military headquarters of Chu Chao Hui.
"The Rong people came south to rob?" The smile on Zheng Yuming's face converged, he still understood the way these nomads robbed, it was a barbaric and bloody robbery.
"Not bad, the Rong people's southward robbery this time is on a large scale, as if a dozen or so tribes have allied to act together." Chu Chao Hui nodded, affirming the authenticity of the news. The drought in the north is severe, many grasslands on the pasture are withered, Rong people cattle and sheep livestock died of starvation in batches, the Rong people are facing a plague, if these nomadic tribes don't go south to loot, they won't be able to survive the cold winter.
Huang Zhong went to the State of Chu to plan the Duke fit to borrow troops to attack Chu matters, his men gained information directly to the Chu Chao Hui report, Chu Chao Hui two days ago already know that the Rong people large-scale southward invasion of the news, just last night was busy with Zheng Yuming make out, have not yet had time to tell Zheng Yuming.
"Alas, it's all about survival not being easy." Zheng Yuming was not a pure nationalist, and for the nomadic tribes that had traveled south, in addition to hating the brutality of the Rong people during their looting, he also felt a sense of pity for these northern tribes. In the history of the twenty-first century, many northern nomads ended up being fused and assimilated by the Han.
"The Rong people invaded Zhao, which in turn prevented Zhao Xuan from taking care of Tang." Zhao Xuan had led the majority of Zhao's troops to fight the Rongs, allowing Chu Chao Hui to spend less effort on the Wu-Zhao border.
"Since Zhao is taking care of itself, isn't our plan to annex Qi Lu more certain?" Zheng Yuming looked at Chu Chaohui.
To Zheng Yuming's surprise, Chu Chaohui shook his head with a grave expression, "The plan to march into Qilu is going to be shelved."
As soon as Chu Chao Hui's words fell, Zheng Yuming and Huang Zhong both had surprise on their faces.
"Has something changed?"
Chu Chao Hui spread a stack of secret letters on his desk, "Huang Zhong, you take it back and study it, come and see me after reading it."
"Promise!" Huang Zhong reached out and cupped the stack of secret letters whose texts were ghostly, saluted Zheng Yuming and Chu Chao Hui and left, going back to the intelligence office of the military department to study the contents of the secret letters. These secret letters are sent back by the scouts of Qi Lu and Lu, Huang Zhong, the head of intelligence went to Chu, the person in charge of the Intelligence Office will send the secret letters to Chu Chao Hui's hands.
"Chaohui, what exactly is the content of the message sent back?" Zheng Yuming waited for Huang Zhong to leave and hurriedly inquired with Chu Chaohui.
Chu Chao Hui walked into Zheng Yuming's side, holding Zheng Yuming's palm with one hand, and brought Zheng Yuming to sit down on the long wooden chair, "According to the latest news sent back by the scouts, the two countries of Qi and Lu are preparing for an alliance."
"What? Two arch-rivals shaking hands and making peace? Who prompted them to turn their differences into peace?" Zheng Yuming's face was filled with amazement.
"Alas, it was us destroying Tang too quickly that caused this situation." Chu Chaohui pulled the corner of his mouth slightly, the Wu army's expedition against Tang only took five days to break the Tang royal capital.
In the consciousness of the surrounding vassal monarchs, an army marching with covered wagons would need to spend this amount of time just marching from the border of Wu to the Tang king. And Wu used only the marching time to break the Tang king's capital and forced the Tang king to set himself on fire, this kind of lightning combat speed was too scary.
"We have not revealed our intention to annex Qi and Lu, why would the kings of Qi and Lu be so afraid of us?" Zheng Yuming frowned, if Qi and Lu were truly allied, it would be more difficult for Wu to attack.
"When our army went north to crusade, the King of Tang sent an old courtier on a mission to Qilu, wanting to ally with Qilu to fight us together, and it was this old courtier who persuaded the kings of Qilu and Qi to shake hands and make peace."
When the Tang King set himself on fire, the old ministers of the Tang Kingdom had just arrived at the royal palace of the State of Lu to meet the king of Lu. As the hatred between Lu and Qi lasted for more than ten years, it could not be wiped out just by the words of the old minister of Tang. Besides, since Wu attacked Tang with a good cause, all the people of Lu felt that Tang had brought the army of Wu to the border at its own peril, and it had nothing to do with Lu. After two days of lobbying in the court of the king of Lu, the old minister of the Tang Dynasty had no choice but to leave in disgrace and go to Qi to lobby.
The old courtier had not yet traveled to the territory of Qi with his embassy, when the news came that the Wu army had captured the capital of the Tang king and that the king of Tang had immolated himself in the Treasure Pavilion of the king's palace, and along with it came the news that the nobles of the Tang had been plagiarized, and the old courtier's family was one of them.
When the old minister heard the news that his family had been copied, he thought that his whole family had been punished by Wu, so he sat down on the ground and bawled his eyes out. After crying, the old minister felt that he was a bachelor anyway, so he decided to go to all the surrounding vassal states and urge them to join hands to resist Wu, so as to avenge the death of his family and children.
The old minister first wrote a long letter to the king of Lu, stating that the army of Wu was powerful and terrible, and at the end of the letter, he ridiculed the ruler and ministers of Lu for not realizing that there was a tiger on the side of them, and it was too late for them to wait for the tiger with their bodies.
After ordering a long letter to be sent to the king of Lu, the old courtier continued on his way to the state of Qi. In the court of the king of Qi, the courtiers of Qi had the same attitude as that of the king of Lu. In his anger, the old minister scolded the courtiers of Qi for standing on the side of the abyss without realizing it, and if they didn't save themselves now, they would always end up in the same situation as that of the kingdom of Tang, and then the fiefs and family properties of the courtiers of Qi would be taken away by the people of Wu. When he was speaking in a heated voice, the old courtier hit his head on the stone pillar of Qi's palace and splashed his blood on the court of Qi's king.
Faced with the old courtier's head covered with blood, the court of Qi was moved and began to seriously gather details of Wu's attack on Tang. When the Qi king's court learned that Wu's soldiers were invincible and had broken through the Tang capital in only five days, the Qi king panicked and sent his envoys to Lu to negotiate an alliance.
"How come this old courtier's home was copied?" Zheng Yuming really did not think that the Tang Kingdom still has such a capable person, if not copied this old minister's home, this old courtier will not be so out of the box to die to advise?
"This old minister is ruthless to himself, and even more ruthless to the slaves and people on his fief; the most grain was copied from his home, and the most people starved to death on his fief." Chu Chaohui coldly grunted, the old minister of Tang had originally traveled to Qi Lu for his own benefit.
"After the Qilu alliance, it's going to take more financial resources to annex them." Zheng Yuming let out a long sigh.
"I'm guessing it's not just the Qilu Alliance." Chu Chaohui frowned.
"Huh? The surrounding vassal states won't all form an alliance against Wu, right?" Zheng Yuming started to get nervous at this point.
"Hey, it's all because Lightning Extinguishing Tang scared them." Chu Zhaohui rubbed his chin, if he had known that there were such consequences, he would have let Ma Ren and Zhou Cheng fight leisurely.
Zheng Yuming began to think of countermeasures: "It seems that to Qilu can only be immobilized, and as a matter of urgency, we have to send emissaries out to the vassal states to convey goodwill."
Chu Chao Hui pondered for a moment, and an odd smile suddenly appeared on his face. "It's necessary to make good relations with the vassal states, but the two Qi Lu countries have to move as usual!"
"How to move?" Zheng Yuming tugged at the muscles on Chu Chao Hui's face, feeling that the countermeasures Chu Chao Hui came up with must be very unseemly.
"Tell you at night when no one is there?" As soon as Chu Chao Hui came up with a countermeasure, the whole person relaxed his words and became frivolous.
Zheng Yuming raised his eyebrows, ruthlessly pushed away Chu Chao Hui's restless hand, stood up and smiled faintly at Chu Chao Hui, "You can not tell me now, but in the future you'll move alone at night for me!"
"Hey! Yuming, I said I was just kidding" Chu Chaohui saw Zheng Yuming leave himself behind and head out the door without looking back, he hurriedly left his chair to catch up, pulling Zheng Yuming to inform him of his plan in detail.
Two days later, Zheng Yuming sent emissaries to the Qin Emperor and the surrounding vassal states, first explaining the reasons why Wu had risen up to attack Tang, and then affirming that Wu was a peace-loving vassal state that wished to coexist peacefully with all the vassal states and share allegiance with the Qin Emperor.
After reading the information sent from all over the world, Huang Zhong went to meet Chu Chao Hui and Zheng Yuming, and the three of them locked up in their room for a whole day of secret talks. The next day, Zheng Yuming ordered the Intelligence Department to be expanded into the Intelligence Division, and Huang Zhong was promoted from Director of Intelligence to Director of the Division.
After Huang Zhong was promoted, the first thing he did was to expand the intelligence network in the Qilu area and send more intelligence agents to the Qilu area. The additional intelligence agents were all from the Qilu region, and they followed the caravan into the Qilu territory in make-up, quickly separated from the caravan, and melted into the people of Qilu.