At the beginning of September, the northwestern border counties of Zhao were in shambles, except for the high walls protecting the cities and towns, which were not attacked by the Rongs, but the weakly protected villages were in a state of devastation, and there were ruins everywhere from the Rongs' looting and retreating fires, and underneath the ruins were the charred and miserable corpses, and the women and the strong men in the villages who couldn't escape in time were captured by the Rongs, while the rest of the villages were hacked to death. When the Rong people retreated, the people who survived the disaster returned from the field or the ravine, looking for the remains of their loved ones in the ruins, and the sobbing sound was continuous in the four fields.
Zhao Xuan, with 30,000 soldiers and horses withdrawn from the border of Zhao and Tang, traveled all the way in a hurry, and at the end of August, surrounded more than 2,000 big shares of Rongs who were looting in the villages and strongholds. With 30,000 soldiers against 2,000, Zhao army wiped out all the Rongs without any suspense. Zhao Xuan was furious when he saw the miserable condition of the village after being swept by the Rong people and ordered all the captured Rong people to be executed without leaving any of them behind.
When the Zhao army chased them to the border, the Rong people's southward robbery was nearing its end. The group of Rongs that was completely annihilated by the Zhao army was the tribe responsible for breaking the back. The Zhao army took a short rest on the spot and then chased them northward, trying to recover the people who had been taken away by the Rongs. After two days of chasing, they went all the way to the state of Yong, which was attached to the border of Zhao, before catching up with the Rongs who were slowly returning with the spoils of war in their pockets.
Zhao Xuan divided his troops to rescue the people captured by the Rongs, and at the same time, he ordered his main force to chase after the Rongs, who were loaded with goods and women and walking slowly. When the Rongs got the news that there were tens of thousands of Zhao troops behind them, they hurriedly threw away the loads that affected their walking speed and lightened the loads of their horses to retreat towards the grassland. Scattered everywhere on the way out were objects and still-warm bodies, some of which had not died on the spot and were still writhing in the blood. These barbaric looters had killed the women and strong men who had interfered with their escape before discarding them.
The tragic situation along the way made the pursuing soldiers red-eyed. Although the Zhao army made every effort to chase after them, they still stopped at the border of the vassal state, and further north of the vassal state were the fiefdoms of the Great Qin clansmen, so Zhao Xuan had no interest or ability to help the nobles of the Son of Heaven drive away the Rongmen.
The number of Rong people who went south to loot is only more than ten thousand, although the number is only one third of Zhao army, but the nomadic people grew up on the back of a horse, for them, riding a horse gallop like eating and sleeping is as common as usual. Even if the Zhao cavalry had stirrups to help stabilize their bodies, the Zhao cavalry was no match for the nomads one-on-one when the two sides fought.
Another reason why Zhao Xuan ordered the pursuit to stop was the issue of rations.
The Rong people burned, killed and robbed all the way to the ruins left behind, Zhao army food and grass along the way can not be replenished, the whole army carrying supplies can not last, even if you can see from afar the Rong people's horses running up dust and ash, Zhao Xuan still had to order the whole army to stop and return. If an army without provisions is surrounded by the Rongs with abundant supplies, it will be in danger of being wiped out.
Hiding within the high walls, the prince and nobles of the vassal state were spared from the disaster, and howled at the sight of Zhao Xuan, their lives were saved, but the property loss was great, and the farms that were not strongly defended were looted by the Rong people, and the winter was coming, and in the absence of food and clothing, without the relief from the outside world, the commoners in the vassal state could not pass the winter peacefully.
The northwestern counties of Zhao's territory also suffered from the Rong disaster, and the financial resources of Zhao could not even provide relief to all the people in the territory. Since they were all unable to take care of themselves, Zhao Xuan did not make any promise of help except for his kind words of comfort to the vassal state's ruler and ministers.
The monarchs and nobles of the vassal states watched with disappointment as Zhao Xuan led the army away, without foreign aid and relying on self-reliance, half of the population of this small country would be lucky to survive until next spring.
Zhao Xuan returned to the county city in the territory and distributed military food to relieve the refugees while sending people back to the royal capital to mobilize supplies. Winter has always advanced in these years, and if supplies are not mobilized to provide relief in the northwest, by the time the cold air moves south in October, the people will not be able to survive in the midst of starvation and cold.
"Your Highness, the Wu newspapers have been delivered." Bo Yao came to see Zhao Xuan with a stack of newspapers in his hands.
Zhao Xuan is paper counting the local officials to send the situation of the disaster, see the newspaper in the hands of Bo Yao, people a little trance.
From the Zhao-Tang border where he was forced to return to aid the king's capital, to later chasing after Gongzi Xie and traveling north to fight the Rongs, Zhao Xuan was busy without stopping. The Wu Newspaper, which he must read every issue, could not be delivered in time because of his uncertain whereabouts, and Zhao Xuan had not read the Wu Newspaper for a month.
"The people within the Tang Kingdom are so miserable, and the Tang King's tyranny is comparable to that of the Rong people!" Zhao Xuan flipped through them one by one according to the date, and the more he saw the back, the more he sighed.
"Wu treats the people of Tang land so generously, annexing Tang land can be said to be more than worth the loss, this Gong Zi Ming is too profligate." Bo Yao followed behind Zhao Xuan and quickly scanned the contents of the newspaper.
At the beginning of August, most of the newspapers praised the bravery of Wu's soldiers for taking down the Tang capital with lightning speed, and then a large number of schoolchildren wrote articles in the newspapers denouncing the King of Tang as deserving of his crime. In the middle and late August, with Zheng Yuming and Wu Wangsheng personally visiting Tangland to treat their troops, the two newspaper reporters who followed them sent back news that the people of Tangland were poor and dying of starvation and illness, and Wu Wangsheng and his wife were personally visiting the refugees' relief points to distribute food.
King Wu court relief Tangdi material a newspaper open, Boh Yao roughly counted, support Tangdi spent more coins than Zhao three years of fiscal revenue total are more. Bo Yao secretly pondered, if Zhao took the Tang land, it is impossible to have such an amount of money to put into such poor hole.
Zhao Xuan lightly glanced at Bo Yao and shook his head to retort, "At the moment, it looks like Wu is losing more than it is gaining, but when the Tang lands are soothed, the amount of money that can be collected will be more than that."
Speaking here, Zhao Xuan sighed heavily again, "Gong Zi Ming so act, Tang land people's heart to Wu undoubtedly."
Zhao annexed Wei four years ago, and when it was first annexed, there were many people who had the idea of restoring their country, but Zhao Xuan, in order to extinguish the idea of restoring their country, secretly disposed of the royal family of the Wei clan under the name of plague, so that the restoration of Wei would not be supported by the candidates. After disposing of the royal family of Wei, Zhao Xuan implemented a policy of reducing taxes and pacifying the people of Wei, and it took three years to integrate the people of Wei into the state of Zhao. This time, Duke Xie raised an army to attack the capital of Zhao, but no one in Wei responded.
"Wu is too sinister, saying that it is an alliance to attack Tang together, but the action is to block our army first, Wu clearly does not want our army to go to Tang to get a share of the spoils! Your Highness, our country cannot stop there." When Bo Yao remembered Wei Qing's godly appearance, he felt filled with resentment.
Zhao Xuan's face was gloomy, even though he had a good feeling about Zheng Yuming, the fact that Wu made the move to monopolize the Tang land made Zhao Xuan have a strong opinion about Wu.
"Report! The king's capital is coming!" Just as Zhao Xuan was grimly pondering what to do about Wu, his personal guards came in to inform him.
These months as long as there is an urgent report sent to Zhao Xuan, it is very bad news. Zhao Xuan now heard that it was the king's capital to come, 'bluff' stood up, afraid of the king's capital again out of what bad big things.
The one who walked in was a waiter from the royal palace, the waiter was dusty, but his face was joyful, "My little man see your highness!"
"Get up and talk." Zhao Xuan saw that the waiter had a good expression on his face, and his lifted heart fell slightly.
"Your Highness! Premier Minister Wu has sent a mission to the royal capital, bringing drawings of agricultural tools and grain seeds."
"Oh, so Prince Ming still remembers." Zhao Xuan nodded, the things sent by the Wu delegation were all things he had asked for from Zheng Yuming in Dacheng.
Zheng Yuming keeps his word and sends the stuff over, and Zhao Xuan's grudge against Wu is slightly lessened.
"In addition to sending these things, the Wu delegation also submitted a handwritten letter from their Premier Minister." The attendant handed Zheng Yuming's handwritten letter to Zhao Xuan.
Zhao Xuan took the envelope and opened it, a fresh fragrance came to his face, and in a flash, Zhao Xuan seemed to see Zheng Yuming, who was wearing a light green Tai Chi kung fu shirt and lazily leaning halfway back on a recliner.
"Your Highness, what did Gongzi Ming write?" When Bo Yao saw Zhao Xuan gazing at the letter paper for a long time, he couldn't help but ask.
Zhao Xuan woke up, his face looked a bit embarrassed, he quickly scanned the contents of the letter paper while answering Bo Yao vaguely: "There is nothing written, just some greetings" Zhao Xuan said half a sentence and suddenly paused.
"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Bo Yao was surprised as he realized that Zhao Xuan had a smile on his face, and it was getting bigger and bigger.
"Eunuch Ming is kind in the end, and this time he has come to deliver charcoal in the snow!" Zhao Xuan smiled and handed the letter paper to Bo Yao to read.
Bo Yao held Zheng Yuming letter to read carefully, see a large part also can not help but surprise: "Ming Gongzi to gift a large number of supplies to our country relief northwest border counties!"
"Good, when the Wu mission went out, the supplies had already been transported north to Zhao by merchants."
On Zheng Yuming's letter, he expressed his indignation at the Rong people's southward looting and his empathy for the calamity suffered by Zhao. Zheng Yuming said that even though Wu had to tighten its belt in order to rescue the people of Tangdi, in order to help its ally's suffering people to pass through the winter safely, Wu would find a way to raise supplies and deliver them to the cities and ponds at the mouth of the throat to be handed over to Zhao's border guards.
Two sentences at the end of Zheng Yuming's letter especially touched Zhao Xuan.
Brother's difficulties, brother should be dedicated to share the worry, but hate the death of King Yong burned down the Treasure Pavilion, the Tang Dynasty treasures went up in flames, Yuming bag shy, try to raise only such as corn grain and clothing, hope that the brother smile!
Bo Yao's resentment towards Wu was dispelled by a large portion of the long list of supplies sent along with the letter. "With the swiftness with which Wu merchants deliver goods, I think those supplies are almost at the throat mouth border."
Zheng Yuming's letter was transferred from Zhao Wangdu to Zhao Xuan's hand spent seven or eight days, plus the Wu delegation walked to Zhao Wangdu used four days, there are about ten days time, with the situation of Wu's domestic road, with the Wu delegation together with the departure of the merchant caravan should be able to catch up to the border at the mouth of the throat.
"You don't need to return to the royal capital, take Lone's warrant and go to the Throat Pass border at speed and order the border guards to escort the Wu merchants directly to the Northwest Border County!" Zhao Xuan wrote the warrant and handed it to the attendant, telling the attendant to go directly to the throat mouth border to pass the order.
Zhao Xuan roughly estimated that with Wu's help, in addition to helping the people of the Northwest County survive the winter, he could also spare some supplies to relieve Zhao's subordinate vassal states.
Zhao Xuan made a division of the relief materials, leaving a part of them for the Zhao army to guard in the Northwest County to prevent the Rong from attacking back, and leading the rest of his troops to return to the capital.
When the army returned to the royal capital, Zhao Xuan advanced into the royal palace to meet the King of Zhao.
King Zhao was lying on his bed to receive Zhao Xuan. In his fifties, the King of Zhao was already living a long life in this era where the average age was only in his early thirties. The King of Zhao originally let his son rule because of his old age and lack of energy, and this time, after being scared by Gongzi Xie's sneak attack and anxious because the Rong people were moving south to rob the northwest of Zhao, the King of Zhao felt that his body was getting weaker and weaker, and only in order to give peace of mind to his son, who was leading the border to fight against the Rong people, did the King of Zhao hold on to his position in the royal capital. When he heard the news that Zhao Xuan had returned from leading the army, the King of Zhao's entire body slackened off and lay down on his bed unable to get up.
The king said a few words to Zhao Xuan, who visited him, and fell into a coma. Zhao Xuan summoned the royal palace doctors to inquire about him, and several of them carefully and politely stated that the King had reached the end of his life, implying that Zhao Xuan should be prepared for it.
"How much longer does the Great King have left to live?" Zhao Xuan asked the healer while holding back his sadness.
Zhao Xuan asked bluntly, causing several healers to look at each other in disbelief, and after arriving, it was still a young healer who stepped forward and answered, "If the seasons aren't too cold, there are still two to three months left."
Zhao Xuan closed his eyes and sighed long and hard, the healer said this, it was a confirmed diagnosis that King Zhao would not be able to live until next spring.
The sullen Zhao Xuan returned to the Crown Prince's residence, and just after he cleaned up and changed into civilian clothes, the Crown Princess came to greet him with a medicinal meal.
"Your Highness has worked hard all the way!" The Crown Princess placed the medicinal meal on the table and saluted Zhao Xuan.
"My beloved wife is presiding over the center feed in the mansion, and she is also working hard!" Zhao Xuan frowned slightly, his own father was sick in bed, as a daughter-in-law but dressed up gorgeous, this let Zhao Xuan heart some slight dissatisfaction.
In fact, the Crown Princess had gone to greet King Zhao for the past two days and had not been able to see him in person, and the Crown Princess did not realize that her father-in-law had fallen ill in bed. Upon hearing that Zhao Xuan had returned to the house, the Crown Princess dressed up carefully before coming to meet her husband.
"Your Highness, the concubine's royal brother came with a letter the other day." The Crown Princess didn't notice the slight change in her husband's face as she sat smilingly across from Zhao Xuan.
"Oh, what did the king's brother say in his letter?" The king of Yan was the Crown Princess's own brother, and with the marriage of Zhao and Yan, the most expensive thing in the dowry of the Yan king's concubine and daughter was six stallions from the Yan land. With these six top quality stallions, the quality of Zhao's horses took a leap forward. The Yan horses were the best war horses in Qin, and they were the best in the world.
"Brother Wang wants to make an alliance with Qi and Lu to jointly resist Wu."
"Jointly resisting the Wu Kingdom? Does Wu want to invade them?" Zhao Xuan was surprised, he was leading the troops outside and had no access to information, he only knew that Qi and Lu were in danger and wanted to join forces to resist Wu.
"His Highness said that Wu is a strong enemy, and the fact that there is no thought of encroachment now doesn't mean there won't be one in the future; didn't Wu destroy Tang just because it wanted to some days ago?"
Zhao Xuan has always behaved scornfully towards Wu, and the Crown Princess thinks that Zhao Xuan can't wait for Wu to be attacked by the group.
Zhao Xuan silence, Tang was destroyed is the king of Tang's own death, Wu Tang is to seek justice for Zheng Yuming, at the same time to seek justice with Tang and his Zhao Xuan, Zhao Xuan in addition to Kui Ji stabbed hands and feet, but also almost became the assassination of the mastermind. The Prince Consort's tone of defense for the Tang Dynasty makes Zhao Xuan unhappy.
"Is the alliance up to send troops to Wu together?" Zhao Xuan's tone was light.
"Brother Wang didn't say so in his letter. Since everyone is joining together in an alliance to fight against Wu, Your Highness, our country can join in as well, and this is a great time to weaken Wu." The Crown Princess advanced.
Zhao Xuan's heart was moved, it was good, Wu's lightning destruction of Tang posed a threat to the surrounding vassal states, taking this opportunity, it might be possible to unite and isolate Wu, weakening or destroying a strong neighbor.
Zhao Xuan side listened to the words of the Crown Princess heart, but think of Wu selfless assistance, because of Wu trade benefit border crossing, and then think of the future cooperation with Wu paper mills, Zheng Yuming hand-drawn drawings of improved agricultural tools, gratuitous gift of good rice seed, will continue to supply insecticidal vinegar, Zhao Xuan hesitation, Zhao from Wu benefit too much.
When the Crown Princess saw Zhao Xuan thinking seriously, she thought that Zhao Xuan had agreed to her suggestion and was a little self-satisfied in her heart, her husband's country and her mother's country standing in the same trench was something she was happy to see.
"Your Highness, the king's brother has another request in this letter."
"What is brother Wang's request?" Zhao Xuan was undecided, and when he heard that his great-uncle had a request, he put down his weighing for the time being.
"Yan is suffering from a disaster this year, the king's brother asked Your Highness to aid Yan with 5,000 stones of grain, Zhao and Yan exchanges are all benefited by Zhao, the king's brother won't open his mouth easily, and this time Your Highness must help each other." The Crown Princess entrusted the King of Yan's intentions.
"Clang!" Zhao Xuan suddenly got up and waved his hand to knock over the medicinal meal on the case, and the medicinal soup splashed onto the back of the Crown Princess' left hand.
"Why is Your Highness angry?" The Crown Princess fell to the ground in shock.
Zhao Xuan laughed coldly: "The moment brother Wang opens his mouth it is 5,000 stones of grain, does Yan not know that Zhao has been infested by the Rongs to the south and that the northwestern border counties have suffered great losses? Even if brother Wang doesn't know about it from a long way away, does your kingdom not know about it as well?"
Zhao Xuan could not believe that his great-uncle did not know about the news of the Rong people's southern invasion, and yet he still asked for supplies even though he knew about it, and this kind of unsympathetic request made Zhao Xuan furious. In order to get the Yan stallion, Zhao paid a generous bride price, and after the marriage with Yan, the King of Yan always hinted that Zhao should send him more money every year. Zhao Xuan thought that the price paid by Zhao for Yan's six stallions was already enough, and Yan could not be greedy anymore.
Zhao also had a drought this year, only because Zhao Xuan usually focuses on people's livelihood and encourages the construction of water conservancy everywhere, so that the people of Zhao can harvest food to fill their stomachs. This time, the northwestern counties suffered from the Rong disaster, if not for Wu's help, Zhao Xuan could not let the people of the northwestern counties all pass through the winter peacefully. And Yan knew that Zhao's own food was tight and the northwest county suffered a serious disaster, but still asked for a large amount of food, which was really selfish and self-serving to the extreme.
"Isn't there a large amount of food aid from Wu? You can share some of it with your brother," the Crown Princess complained, she had heard that the grain aid from the Wu Kingdom amounted to ten thousand stones.
Zhao Xuan was furious and laughed: "My wife is a good calculator, the original is to look at the assistance of Wu, ridiculous lone just now also intention to alliance vassals to weaken Wu. Zhao suffered hardship, only Wu considerate selfless help, Yan is lone in-laws, but only care about their own, do not help even if, even counted up Wu's free aid."
In order to get good horses from Yan, Zhao Xuan exchanged marriages and a lot of wealth. The only person who helped generously without making any demands was the Duke of Wu, Ming.
"Your Highness, I didn't know that the Northwest County had been victimized so severely" The Crown Princess saw Zhao Xuan's anger and hastened to plead her case.
Zhao Xuan stared coldly at the Crown Princess, "You are now a Zhao woman, married from your husband, if your heart is only about your motherland, don't blame Zhao Xuan for repudiating her!"
Zhao Xuan dropped his heavy words and flung his sleeves away to rest at your daughter's place.
The Prince Consort shriveled up and cried out, rubbing her burned left hand.