Chapter 839 War Begins!

The Pixiu of the Prince of Pingxi was very happy today, because this time, the Prince had granted it permission to actively display its silver and brilliant armor.

Raising its neck,

Shaking its mane,

Its hooves clearly pulled back slightly when landing, its steps elegant and noble.

In front of a group of warhorses, it was proud and self-satisfied, the white vapor it exhaled seemed to be able to spin a few more times.

On its back sat the Prince of Pingxi in black armor.

In the early years, when he didn't have many soldiers, he often needed to risk his life to gain wealth and status. The Prince of Pingxi himself also needed to charge into battle. Unfortunately, the Pixiu didn't arrive at a good time. By the time it came to the Prince of Pingxi's side, the Prince no longer liked charging into the front lines himself, and began to learn to "think about the big picture."

Sometimes, he would even deliberately avoid riding it, disliking how eye-catching it was!

Later, it could only carry the Prince, watching with envy as those black, white, red, and yellow flashy horses carried their knights and charged ahead;

While it could only pace around the banner in the back, walking in circles.

Fortunately, this Pixiu, having been "trained" by the Demon Kings, had a good psychological endurance and adaptability, and gradually began to change its own path.

For example, in some specific occasions, it needed to act not as a good helper for its master to charge and kill, but as... "the first lady."

The Prince of Pingxi rode the Pixiu, surrounded by a group of armored soldiers, and entered the capital city of Zhao.

This city was not large, and could not be compared with large cities like Yingdu and Litian City, but though the sparrow was small, it had all the vital organs. Its political status and military significance in the Zhao territory could not be ignored.

However, the Prince of Pingxi himself was not very happy.

It wasn't deliberately putting on a dignified front, but he had ordered in advance that the army entering Zhao territory was only responsible for looting grain, and was not allowed to start fighting without permission.

Attacking a city was a troublesome matter, requiring the gathering of a large amount of manpower and resources. At the same time, it would also deplete the soldiers' vigor, like taking a sharp knife and using it to cut stones. By the time you really needed to use the knife to cut someone, you would find that the knife was already dull and broken.

Therefore, when the Yan army searched for grain in the Zhao territory, they would basically give up on any fortified village (wubao) that they estimated had more than a thousand defenders.

Even if the vast majority of these thousand defenders were composed of rural militiamen, even if two hundred Yan cavalrymen could easily defeat them on flat ground, with a fortified village as a base, they could immediately become a tough bone to chew.

In fact, many of the cities and military fortresses in Zhao territory that were properly garrisoned by Zhao troops, that is, regular soldiers, abandoned their cities and fortresses when faced with the Yan army. It was often these fortified villages composed of local powerful families that could protect the lives and property of the nearby Zhao people.

When the Yan army arrived, the people in the fortified villages would send out some grain and wealth. After the Yan army accepted it, they would often let them go and not get entangled with them.

One was public property, the other was private property; they were ultimately different.

The Prince of Pingxi had his own overall considerations for this great battle, and had been accumulating strength in terms of soldier combat power;

But even the Prince of Pingxi himself did not expect that the Zhao people's fortified villages could be defended, but the capital city was directly captured.

This was a surprise.

Yes,

It was indeed a surprise,

But it was likely to disrupt Zheng Fan's plan for this war.

But now that the capital city of Zhao had been captured, he couldn't return it to the other party, or pretend to be noble and refuse to accept it. He could only bite the bullet and take it.

As the Yan army entered the city, the nobles in the capital city of Zhao immediately led their people to begin rewarding the Yan army. This forced sense of "harmony" made these Yan soldiers somewhat uncomfortable.

The Prince of Pingxi himself accepted it calmly. After entering the city, he first took the jade pendant from the Zhao king's hands, picked up a whip, and casually whipped the Zhao king three times. The Zhao king, who had already been untied, knelt obediently in front of the Prince of Pingxi, crying loudly and shouting that he hoped the Prince could not harm his Zhao people.

The entire ceremony followed the process of destroying a country, seeming boring, tasteless, and ridiculous.

The Zhao people were more focused on ceremony than the Yan people in this regard. It seemed that layers of complex rituals could dilute the Zhao people's own guilt of losing their country.

After a whole day of work,

The Pixiu was tired, lying prone in a corner of the palace, sticking out its tongue and panting.

Inside the palace, the Yan army had already set up defenses;

Zheng Fan himself sat on the dragon throne, without avoiding suspicion, sitting there casually;

Swordsaint stood beside him, Ah Ming stood on the other side.

The Zhao kingdom's surname was Guo. At this time, the original Zhao king was thrown back into prison after "being" walked through the ceremony.

He would bear all the responsibility for the previous estrangement between Yan and Zhao.

Crown Prince Guo Yi, on the other hand, would represent the Zhao people and negotiate terms with the Yan kingdom in the future.

Just as the Prince of Pingxi was about to start yawning,

The Crown Prince finally stated his conditions:

"Yi has always admired Prince Pingxi, and regards the Prince as his everything. Now, Yi requests to worship the Prince as his father!"

Zheng Fan, sitting on the dragon throne, was slightly stunned. He had acquired quite a few god-sons, but they were all sought by his peers for their juniors. This was the first time he had been asked to be someone's father by the person themselves.

This was to acknowledge an "adopted son." Guo Yi hoped to become the Prince of Pingxi's "adopted son," using this relationship to express his loyalty and thus create a bond.

The current atmosphere was like this, and there was nothing strange about it.

It was just that Zheng Fan was still somewhat pretentious. He truly cared for his own children, so he felt some resistance to this purely interest-based "family" bond.

But the problem was that the Zhao capital had already been captured. If he didn't quickly appease the people, it would easily cause chaos, which would not only fail to help the Yan people's subsequent operations, but might even hold them back.

After hesitating for a while,

The Prince of Pingxi opened his mouth: "Granted."

At the same time,

The Zhao Queen happened to lead a group of palace women to pay their respects to the Prince.

…

A day of exhaustion turned into a good night's sleep.

Waking up,

Zheng Fan prepared to wash up.

He had stayed in the palace last night, sleeping in the Zhao king's bedroom.

He had sat on the dragon throne during the day;

He had slept in the bedroom at night.

It wasn't that Zheng Fan deliberately trampled on taboos to give Ji Lao Liu, who was far away in Yanjing, flies to eat;

But because as a "conqueror," especially with Zheng Fan's status, if he deliberately showed any image of a "loyal minister" at this time, rejecting everything that could cause misunderstandings, it would only make the Zhao people uneasy.

Here, the Zhao people referred to the noble class in the capital of Zhao. From their perspective, they wished that the Prince of Pingxi could be more domineering, even more domineering, and even more domineering!

In this way, they would feel at ease, and could even quickly fill the power vacuum and even... start things running again.

This sounded somewhat absurd, but it was in line with human nature;

When the Zhao king was on the dragon throne, everyone could turn a blind eye and sell out the Zhao king. But when the Prince of Pingxi sat on the dragon throne, everyone's subjective initiative at work was immediately stimulated, desperately trying to curry favor with the new master.

The "convert" effect, although not accurate in describing this, the "psychological" description was common.

Even Zheng Fan, who had just woken up and finished washing up,

Received a notice from the blind man:

"In one hour, we will hold court."

"Heh."

The Prince was amused.

The Zhao people had even restored the court order...

"Now that things have come to this, what does Master plan to do next?" the blind man asked.

"My original intention was not to be held back by the matters here in Zhao, but it seems that it is difficult now. The chain reaction caused by this is likely to cause the Qian-Chu allied forces to avoid our sharp edge and choose to withdraw.

Before, I wanted to harass them without attacking, giving the Qian-Chu allied forces the impression that we were very anxious and had a big appetite. If I were the commander on the opposite side, I would very likely choose to be steady and cautious, and try to fight first to test the waters.

After all, if they can win this battle again, half of the Yan kingdom's foundation might collapse along with it. The bait is very tempting, and even the most cautious person will be tempted.

But now..."

Who would have thought that Fan Li's single "Ula" could break open the gate of a capital city and directly affect the direction of the three-country war?

Zhao's location was really too important. At the same time, if his new "adopted son" could be even more helpful in the future, and the Zhao nobles could sell out their country even more quickly, and recruit those Zhao troops outside the capital city, especially the troop that was originally returning from Sanshan Pass;

Then it would mean that the Yan people had automatically obtained a base point at the front line of this battlefield.

The Yan army's strategic advantage would suddenly be magnified. After all, the Yan people had many cavalrymen to begin with. At that time, they could attack or defend, and calmly cut up the battlefield.

The Qian-Chu allied forces would either sit and wait to be beaten and divided, or take the initiative to attack and break the Yan army's pattern. But once this initiative failed, it would be a catastrophic situation.

The Qian-Chu allied forces would probably take what they could get and leave.

"This subordinate believes in Master's strategic vision, but if that's the case, it doesn't seem easy to explain to those below."

The blind man didn't like to spend too much effort on things he wasn't good at, but he knew that because his master's initial tone was too high, if they ended things so tacitly, it would seem like everyone was happy, but in reality, it would be somewhat "self-deceptive."

Too much thunder, too little rain, it didn't match.

"Then let's make the appetite smaller. I wanted to make dumplings with two kinds of fillings, but now, we can only taste one flavor. Liang Cheng is at home, and he will stir up momentum at Zhennan Pass.

Gou Moli in Fancheng will not miss this trend. He should try to move around Qishan and threaten the Xie family army's retreat.

At Nanwang City, the First Prince should have arrived with his troops at this time and joined forces with Li Liang Shen, which can also create pressure on the Qian Kingdom's three borders. The Qian people are very afraid that our Yan army will repeat the old story of bypassing the three borders and looting south.

However, the only organized cavalry regiment of the Qian people on the three borders is currently with Zhong Tianlang in Liang territory, so we can let go and loot south again. Ji Lao Liu should not give up this opportunity to recover blood."

When the late emperor was alive, fighting a war emphasized being "upright and proper." This was completely treating the other lands of Zhuxia as the Yan people's future territory to be contested and managed. Therefore, after the Yan people captured the lands of the Three Jins, not only did they fail to gain anything from the lands of the Three Jins, but they were depleted of a lot of vitality.

If the unification war could continue like this, then naturally it would have to continue to be done in this way, treating the people of Zhuxia as their own people, and minimizing the killing of civilians and minimizing this hatred in the unification war.

But the problem was that the Yan kingdom's operation had experienced great problems, and a good recuperation had been broken by a series of accidents, so they had to temporarily put down the "unification view" and turn to truly treating other countries as enemy countries for plunder and self-replenishment.

Zheng Fan's leading troops out of Nanmen Pass this time was essentially a raid.

The First Prince and Li Liang Shen on the Nanwang City side would most likely follow suit.

Zheng Fan shook his hand and said:

"In this way, we can exert a certain amount of pressure on both the Qian and Chu countries. This kind of alliance will inevitably have problems, because it is essentially based on the interests of their own country first.

Especially the Qian kingdom, a group of emerging generals who can fight are currently in Liang territory, even if their official is wise and martial, and orders them not to return and continue to maintain this confrontation with our Great Yan, they themselves would not dare not to return, otherwise once the First Prince loots south, this political debt will inevitably be counted on their heads."

"So, what Master is waiting for is for the allied forces to separate, and then devour one of them?"

"Yes."

"Which one does Master prefer to eat?"

"Xie Yu'an." Zheng Fan said without hesitation.

"Does Master want to capture another one?"

Zheng Fan shook his head and said:

"Because the Chu kingdom is closer to our home, no matter what we do, we must first weaken the Chu kingdom."

"Master is wise, but..."

"But what?"

"This subordinate is worried that if, for once in a blue moon, the Qian and Chu kingdoms really maintain their alliance without any gaps and want to entangle with our army in Liang territory to the end?"

"That would be... exchanging pieces."

The Prince of Pingxi smiled easily,

"I will exchange all the soldiers I brought this time here, and see if the Qian and Chu countries will follow.

The Xie family of Chu is the last Pillar of State;

The Qian people have finally managed to train these new armies that can be put on the table in recent years.

As for us,

Our foundation is still in Jidong, isn't it?"

"Does Master really think so?"

The blind man would like to see this kind of approach of consuming Yan's military strength and indirectly strengthening himself succeed, but obviously, he knew that his master still had some kind of "Great Yan complex" in his heart.

"There is no turning back once the arrow is fired."

Zheng Fan stretched,

"I can only force myself to think this way, so that I can be more calm when making moves. On the gambling table, momentum is actually very important."

Since he couldn't achieve true "cold-bloodedness" in his mentality, he would "brainwash" himself.

The blind man nodded: "This subordinate understands. Master can rest for a while longer. Later, you will attend the enthronement ceremony of that Zhao prince, and you will also announce to the world that you have taken him as your adopted son."

"I know."

"This subordinate takes his leave."

The blind man smiled and retreated. Not long after, the Zhao Queen came in with breakfast.

The Queen was not young, but she was very plump, the kind of typical beautiful and virtuous woman;

Honestly speaking, she was quite beautiful;

Last night, she had led two of the Zhao king's concubines, wanting to stay and serve him, but Zheng Fan refused.

She came again this morning;

"Put down the breakfast and leave."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The Queen went down;

Zheng Fan didn't think he was a Liu Xiahui (a legendary man known for his virtue and restraint), but his two wives were heavily pregnant, and he couldn't morally get himself to mess around.

Moreover, he was more sentimental. If something really happened, according to his habits, he would definitely have to bring her home. Forget it, he wouldn't add that trouble.

Immediately, the Prince of Pingxi didn't use the breakfast brought in by the Queen, but had Liu Dahu find him a portion of the army's breakfast to eat.

After eating breakfast, he practiced his saber for a while. Seeing that the time was almost right, he put on his armor with the help of Liu Dahu and Zheng Man and went to court.

Clearly, it was just "national destruction and family ruin,"

But the court had the atmosphere of celebrating the New Year.

The Zhao kingdom's palace was a much smaller version of the Yan kingdom's palace, and the number of officials in the ranks was also reduced by half, but it could still guarantee the formality.

The Prince of Pingxi still sat high on the dragon throne;

Crown Prince Guo Yi first held the enthronement ceremony, and then performed the "father recognition" ceremony;

Immediately afterward,

The court officials first paid respects to the new king;

Then,

The new king led the officials to pay respects to the Prince of Pingxi sitting on the dragon throne.

The fate of small countries is like this, easily manipulated;

Back then, the Qu clan of Chu was able to influence the national affairs of nearby small countries. Xie Yu'an was able to bring troops to turn Liang upside down, and Zheng Fan turning Zhao upside down here was not a surprising thing.

These small countries were just dough in the process of great powers vying for power, and the shape they took depended on the preferences of the great powers behind them.

After the court meeting ended,

The Zhao kingdom's new king, Prince of Pingxi's adopted son, Guo Yi, led the Zhao army in the city to collect wealth from house to house and develop the granaries of wealthy families to raise provisions for the Yan army.

When one's own people rob their own people, the efficiency is much higher;

Guo Yi was extremely conscientious in his role as emperor here.

But soon, bad news came.

The Zhao kingdom's Sanshan Pass commander was originally ordered to lead his troops back to the capital to protect the Zhao king, but who would have thought that halfway there, the Zhao king would be replaced?

This commander was a man of integrity. He directly killed the "imperial envoy" sent by Guo Yi, saying that he would never recognize this new king who recognized the enemy as his father. Instead, he cut down the Zhao military flag and declared himself king;

The troops he led immediately turned around and returned to Sanshan Pass.

When Guo Yi asked his "adoptive father" for forgiveness because of this,

Zheng Fan played the image of a "compassionate father" and comforted him.

Afterward,

Zheng Fan ordered the vanguard to set off first;

At the same time, after instructing the blind man to lead the rearguard to garrison the Zhao capital, he personally led the central army to Sanshan Pass.

Later generations of history books called this war that occurred in the first year of Longping of Great Yan the "War of the Nations," because not only the three great powers of Yan, Chu, and Qian participated, but also several small countries were involved.

If Fan Li, the number one general under the command of the Prince's Mansion, capturing the Zhao capital without losing a single soldier or soldier was a good start,

Then next,

This great war that involved the future fate of the nations, its true bloody and tragic flavor,

Officially began to permeate from Sanshan Pass!

On the way,

Zheng Fan ordered Ah Ming to pass on a message to him,

The message was simple, and it was for Xue San and Fan Li, who were serving as supervisors in the vanguard:

"’Untie’ Chen Yang, that old dog!"