Qin was founded more than 900 years ago, the state name is win, now the reigning son of heaven is named win Zhai, is the 51st son of heaven of Qin, forty years old, reigning for twenty-one years.
Winning Zhai medium stature, height less than one meter seventy centimeters, slightly fat, as the son of heaven, a face not rich, but rather shaped like a bitter melon.
"Your Majesty, Premier Zheng Yuming of the Kingdom of Wu!" As soon as Zheng Yuming saw Ying Zhai, he immediately bent down and bowed.
Zheng Yuming to Haojing have a discovery, is that the people of this place, the descendants of the nobles are very much, very much attention to etiquette.
Even if the family is poor, the descendants of the downtrodden nobles do not go out without deep clothes and do not travel without jewelry. Going out on the road to meet acquaintances, meet each other to salute well, downtown, few loud people.
Zheng Yuming and Zhao Xuan traveled by car yesterday, the people of Haojing, who love beauty and do not want to leave, have been trailing behind the carriage, with no one making loud disturbances, but only whispering in low tones.
Zheng Yuming and Zhao Xuan returned to the hotel, and the people who adored the beauty quietly dispersed. The people of Haojing are obviously much more educated in rituals and music than the people of other places.
Since the commoners in the capital of the Son of Heaven were all concerned about etiquette, the nobles were even more concerned about etiquette amongst themselves. Qin was originally a country ruled by etiquette, and this legacy has remained unchanged for more than 900 years.
It was only because of the feudal system that Qin Tianzi's territory became smaller and smaller, and his influence weakened. Nowadays, only the area around Haojing is under the jurisdiction of Qin Tianzi, and the land area is not even as big as the Ulsan County of Wu.
"Zheng Qing, please rise! I've long heard of Zheng Yu Ming's reputation, and today I've seen that it's really as good as it looks!" Winning Zhai stepped down from the throne, personally helped Zheng Yuming up, and invited Zheng Yuming to take a seat, his attitude was very warm.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving me a seat! Yuming has long wanted to come to pay homage to Your Majesty, but due to the long distance and the inconvenience of walking, he did not get his wish until today." Zheng Yuming did not show credit for helping Win Zhai pay off his debt.
Ying Zhai was, to put it mildly, a very bitter son of heaven. He ascended to the throne twenty years ago, and the second year of his ascension was the year of the vassal's pilgrimage. In that pilgrimage of the lords, Winning Zhai, the new son of heaven, was no longer in their sights.
At that time, Weng Zhai was too young and had just ascended to the throne, so his ability to handle matters was not strong. When the kings and lords gathered at the banquet, because of the improper arrangement of the seating arrangement, the two kings of Qi and Lu were in conflict, and they met each other at the banquet, and the competition for the seat of honor became the fuse of the war between Qi and Lu for more than ten years.
After the war between Qi and Lu, the year of pilgrimage again, in addition to some small vassals around the Haojing will come to pay homage to win the Zhai, the six major vassals king of the Haojing again, the generous vassals, will send ambassadors to send some tributes, stingy vassals, began to do not have a penny. The small and medium-sized vassals of Great Qin followed suit. The king of Qin really became a loner.
As a son of heaven, his fief was shrinking year by year, and his income became less and less. With less income, in order to maintain his status, he could not reduce his splendor, and the tribute from the vassals became the main source of daily expenses for the Son of Heaven.
As the vassal monarchs refused to make the pilgrimage in person, the tribute sent by messengers became more and more perfunctory, and in recent years, the vassal monarchs even canceled the tribute on the pretext that disasters had struck their fiefs.
Without the tribute, Ying Zhai still has to spend money. Last year, the Rongs broke through the West Pass and entered the Great River Valley to loot and plunder, causing serious damage to the villages and towns outside of Haojing. After the Rongs retreated, all the villages and towns around Haojing had to be repaired and rebuilt, which required large sums of money.
Winning Zhai could be said to have empty pockets and could not afford to repair the damaged cities. The Xiguankou Pass west of Haojing was a necessary passage to ward off the nomads in the north, and without consolidating that place, the Great River Valley would be left open for the nomads to loot at will.
Just when Win Zhai was trying to figure out what to do, Zheng Yuming's petition to right the wrongs of Tang was delivered.
There are many Wu merchants in Haojing, and the goods produced by Wu flood the Haojing market, and by the merchants' word of mouth, many of Zheng Yuming's deeds are widely circulated in Haojing, and the rumors about Zheng Yuming are all positive, except for the fact that Zheng Yuming did not take a wife, and looked for the right man, which makes some people have a slight word.
In order to solve his financial difficulties, he made a deal with Zheng Yuming. Wu helped him to launch a pilgrimage call, and he desperately needed the tribute offered by the vassal monarchs to be sold into coins for the maintenance of the major passes of Xiguankou.
The pilgrimage was in the month of May, and before that, the fortress of Xi Guan Kou could not be left in such a dilapidated state. There were many rich merchants in Haojing, so Ying Zhai borrowed coins from them to repair the pass first, and also repaired the Haojing citadel and the royal palace.
The palace where the bitter Qin Emperor lived had not been maintained for fifteen or sixteen years, and the clad copper on the palace doors was rusted, so for the sake of face, Win Zhai repaired the palace as well.
The day of return promised to the merchants was in May, and at the beginning of May, the merchants came to him for money. The day of the pilgrimage of the monarchs of the vassals was the fifteenth day of the fifth month, and the much-needed tribute would be received only on that day; before that, it was a struggle for him to meet even his daily expenses, so how could he have any money left over to return the money to the merchants?
When the merchants came to the palace gate to collect debts, WING JAI avoided them. When the merchants blocked the palace gate and made a lot of noise, WING JAI sneaked outside the palace to find a clean place, only to be found by the merchants and blocked on a high platform.
When Zheng Yu Ming followed the Yellow Gate to see Weng Zhai, he bribed the Yellow Gate with ten Wu coins, and learned from the Yellow Gate about Weng Zhai's debt avoidance. Knowing what happened, Zheng Yuming was overwhelmed with emotion.
As a king of an empire, to fall into such a predicament could not be said not to be sad. Winning Zhai as a son of heaven, did not like the later generations of those who owe the debt of the great masters of the savage refused to pay back, let Zheng Yuming a little respect.
After all, there are still several thousand troops in the hands of Win Zhai, and he could have threatened the merchants not to come to his door to collect the debt with his identity and troops, but Win Zhai did not do so, instead, he felt that the delay in repaying the money was very unreasonable, and he did not dare to face the merchants, and he was just hiding without any money, so it can be seen that Win Zhai was a more observant and reasonable son of the heaven.
"Councilor Zheng, thou art the third son of Wu, why dost thou not resume thy original surname?"
Zheng Yuming was courteous, had an outstanding appearance, and treated Win Zhai with considerable respect, and the more Win Zhai looked at him, the more he liked him.
"Your Majesty! Yuming young suffered from adulterous consort poisonous hand, almost died prematurely, fortunately was received by the father of the righteous overseas treatment to be able to get out of danger. Your father has no son, Yuming is a false son, if you restore the original name, will be sorry for your father's life-saving and nurturing grace." Zheng Yuming explained respectfully.
"Hey! I sort of understand why Qing did not inherit the position of the Lord of Wu, but he shouldered the burden of the state of Wu! Qing's great righteousness is rarely seen in the world, Qing is a benevolent gentleman!" Ying Zhai couldn't help but praise.
Winning Zhai thought that Zheng Yuming could not change his surname in order to repay his righteous father's favor, which made him humbly give up the position of the lord of Wu.
Giving up the position of a country's lord in order to repay a favor was not something that could be done by ordinary people.
In order to return the favor of the royal bloodline of Wu, Zheng Yuming also took up the political affairs of Wu without any complaint, and it is not something that an ordinary person can hold on to.
"Your Majesty is being overly complimentary, this is the duty of a son of man!" Zheng Yuming continued to be modest. Often being treated as Gongzi Ming, in a trance, Zheng Yuming felt that he was the poor child who died prematurely.
Winning Zhai received Zheng Yuming nearly an hour, did not say a word of thanks to Zheng Yuming, Zheng Yuming in this period of time, also did not mention the matter of returning the money, when he said goodbye, Zheng Yuming quit still courteous and thoughtful.
When Zheng Yuming left, he exclaimed to his attendant, "I never thought that there would be such a virtuous and generous son of a king after the collapse of the rites and teachings of the people. Duke Ming can be called the first gentleman of Great Qin!"
Speaking of this, Ying Zhai recalled the domineering nature of other powerful kings and his own caution in facing them, and could not help but use his sleeve to wipe away the tears that had fallen from his eyes due to his sadness; since he had ascended to the throne, Zheng Yuming had been the powerful ruler who had respected him the most.
After Winning Zhai's sadness, he summoned the recorder to record the meeting with Zheng Yuming today, focusing on Zheng Yuming's behavior of giving birth to and raising a child.
Zheng Yuming had just sat down when he returned to the hotel when Zhao Xuan came from next door with Wu Milling.
"Yu Di, how did the Heavenly King thank you?" Zhao Xuan had already gotten acquainted with Zheng Yuming, and as soon as he came in, he asked Win Zhai the specifics of how he summoned Zheng Yuming.
"Heavenly King summoned Yuming to ask about the state of Wu, so why say words of thanks?" Zheng Yuming rolled his eyes.
Winning Zhai avoided to the high platform to hide the debt is very dishonorable, even if the heart thanks Zheng Yuming to help solve the problem, Winning Zhai will not openly say.
"Huh, Yu Di, you didn't even mention this 300,000 gold?" Zhao Xuan was pragmatic by nature, and learning the six arts was only superficial.
Zheng Yuming looked serious: "Brother Wang did not know that the Heavenly Monarch owed the money owed for the purpose of repairing the stronghold of the Western Pass, for the purpose of keeping the Rong people out of the pass. This is a matter of benefit to the people of the world, a matter of benefit to the people of the world, Yuming only hates that he knew too late and could not help each other early, resulting in the Heavenly King being aggrieved."
In fact, Ying Zhai only spent 100,000 gold coins to rebuild the fortress of Xi Guan Kou, and the rest of the coins were spent on refurbishing the city of Haojing and the palace of the king.
Zhao Xuan hurriedly compensated, "This is my brother's narrow-mindedness, the Heavenly Monarch repairing the Western Pass is also beneficial to our country, when we meet the Heavenly Monarch, Xuan will definitely express his gratitude."
Zhao Xuan spoke well, but in his heart, he despised the incompetence of Win Zhai. A country's son of heaven fell to being blocked by his debtors, which was too incompetent, Zhao Xuan thought, Win Zhai did not deserve to be the son of heaven.
Zheng Yuming didn't come to Haojing to honor the Qin Emperor either, he came to Haojing to expand the influence of Wu and build up an image of benevolence of Wu. In his heart, he actually thought the same as Zhao Xuan, that the Qin Emperor was too useless, and that the Winner's position as the Emperor would be taken away by the vassals sooner or later.
As the two were talking, Gongsun Pan came through the door, and he was followed by an unfamiliar nobleman in his thirties.
"Gongzi, this is Governor Xu, who is from the same clan as Abbot Wang Jie." Gongsun Pan met Zheng Yuming and Zhao Xuan and introduced the identities of the nobles who followed him in.
"So it's Governor Wang!" Zheng Yuming stood up to greet him; the famous scholar Wang Jie's home country was Xu.
"Wang Qiang has met Your Excellency, meet Jun Zhao!" Wang Qiang was the equal of Wang Jie, and sacrificed to the same ancestor.
"Governor Wang! Your country is full of talents, it is truly a place of literary and ritual origin." Because of Wang Jie, Xu Guo has many talented people to serve in Wu Guo, even the royal son of Xu Guo, Shen Lu, ran to Wu Guo Su Plain to become a magistrate, Zheng Yuming should be affectionate to the royal court of Xu Guo, not to mention that Wang Qiang is still Wang Jie's clan brother.
"Thank you for your compliments, Your Excellency's appointment of talents without restraint is what makes Wang Qiang admire him!" Zheng Yuming complimented Xu Guo, Wang Qiang was not modest, nor could he be.
Wang Qiang had come on this trip specifically to pay his respects to Zheng Yuming, who he admired for what he had done.
Zhao Xuan listened from the sidelines, and his heart sank, Zheng Yuming could appoint talents without fear, but he was tied up for a promotion exam and had to play with the great nobles and great families of Zhao.
"I've heard that Qi is in domestic turmoil, does Mr. Wang know about it?" Zhao Xuan was curious to know about the situation of domestic unrest in Qi and Lu, Xu was neighboring Qi, and Wang Qiang, as an official of Xu, might be clear about the situation in Qi.
Hearing Zhao Xuan's question, Wang Qiang let out a long sigh. "Qi is in chaos this time!"
"Why is Qi in such a terrible mess this time?" Zheng Yuming knew the reason why Qi was in ferocious chaos, but he still had to pretend that he didn't understand.
"Qi has been at war with Lu for more than ten years, the people are already in hardship due to the increase in taxes, plus the great drought and cold plague in the past few years has added to the misery." Wang Qiang said here, shook his head, "Qiang last year had been on a mission to Qi, after entering the Qi territory, he found a peculiar phenomenon, many villages in Qi have no young children."
"No young children?" Zheng Yuming was confused, could it be that the people of Qi land were starving and infertile?
"Did they starve to death due to lack of food?" Zhao Xuan guessed the reason.
"Not so!" Wang Qiang's face was unforgiving, "It's the Qi people who don't raise many sons."
Gongsun Pan has traveled a lot and immediately identified a reason: "Is it that the Qi people have bad customs? In the year of the calamity to give birth to a child without lifting it?"
People at this time did not understand the phenomenon of nature, and when they encountered a bad year, they would kill the child conceived in that year as soon as it was born, believing that the child conceived in the bad year was an evil birth.
"Not a bad habit." Wang Qiang continued to shake his head, this kind of bad habit was too cruel and was opposed by knowledgeable people, this kind of behavior was explicitly banned by the kings of Zhao and Wu a hundred years ago.
"Then why on earth?" Zhao Xuan's face was grave as he thought of a possibility.
"The people of Qi cannot even feed themselves, and when they give birth to young children, they are even more incapable of raising them, so the people of Qi have no choice but to kill them as soon as they are born! That's why you can't see children under the age of seven or eight in many places in Qi!"
Wang Qiang means that the people of Qi have been killing newborns for seven or eight consecutive years.
"Bang!" Zhao Xuan slammed the table: "Seven or eight years without a toddler, that's seven or eight years of hardship for people's livelihoods, and in the long run, Qi will surely die!"
Zhao Xuan heavy people's livelihood, last year, the northwest border of Zhao suffered from the Rong disaster, Zhao Xuan is all out to help his people, for the Qi monarch seven or eight years to listen to his people struggling on the verge of dying, Zhao Xuan is very disapproving.
"What Lord Zhao said is very true, nowadays in Qi, there are townspeople rioting everywhere, and the Qi royal court is in danger! This pilgrimage, I'm afraid that Jun Qi won't be able to make it." Wang Qiang guessed.
There were still three days to go before the day of the pilgrimage, and among the six powerful states, besides Zhao and Wu, those who came were the king of Chen and the firstborn of Chu, Gong Zi Er, who represented the king of Chu. The kings of Qi and Lu did not arrive.
"I have heard that there is no peace within the state of Lu? Is that also the case?" Zheng Yuming asked Wang Qiang again.
"Qi and Lu have been competing with each other for more than ten years, and suffered from the same calamity, the situation should be similar." This is Gongsun instead of Wang Qiang answer, Wang Qiang has not been to Lu, the situation of Lu do not understand, but Gongsun Pan, has traveled in Qi and Lu, the situation of the two countries have some understanding.
"Ai, the king is dim and the people suffer." Zheng Yuming sighed.
"A dim lord should be replaced by a bright ruler!" Zhao Xuan snorted coldly.
"Not bad! Lord Zhao is right, Qi and Lu should reelect their kings." Wang Qiang nodded in agreement.
Zheng Yuming and Gongsun Pan looked at each other, both of them understood the meaning of Zhao Xuan's words, Zhao Xuan was trying to take over, Zhao Xuan's ambition was the same as that of Wu.
On the fifteenth day of the fifth month, the kings of Qi and Lu did not come to pay homage, and they did not even send a messenger to pay homage. Many kings and feudal lords saw this and privately accused the kings of Qi and Lu of being rude.
Another medium-sized country that was absent was Yan, whose ruler likewise did not come to Haojing and likewise did not send an envoy, and for Yan, which was not considered a strong country, the accusations of the monarchs and feudal lords were much less loud.