Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 137 King Qi
On a sunny day with sparkling water,
He Bo followed the Jishui River to the coastal area of Qi State and started fishing.

Zhuang Zhou's entire family was taken to the boat by the gods and ghosts, and they came here together.

Right now,

Thirty-four-year-old Zhuangzi was walking barefoot on the beach with his wife.

His youngest son followed He Bo eagerly, and when he saw a hole, he said, "There must be clams in there!"

then,

The summoned ghosts began to dig the hole, and finally pulled out a white and fat seashell.

A long nose sticks out of the shell, which looks very strange.

The younger son had never seen this seashell before, so he took it and looked at it, and ended up getting splashed with water in the face.

The child was embarrassed and annoyed, so he threw the shell back into the sea.

He Bo stood by and admired the child's changing expressions, laughing uncontrollably.

Zhuang Zhou's eldest son specifically went to turn over the bulges on the beach and pick up some conchs that were easier to find.

until,

He reached out and felt a pain in his hand.
A crab clamped his hand and fell on the beach with his eldest son.

The older child who thought he was mature couldn't help but scream in pain.

The adults watched him rolling around.

After watching enough fun, I helped take down the crab and decided to cook it later.

When his wife and children ran to play somewhere else, Zhuang Zhou and He Bo faced the sea and said with emotion, "Oh, the sea..."

“It’s all water!”

He Bo responded immediately, and was given a sidelong glance by Zhuang Zhou.

"You are not bad at learning, why do you always talk like this?"

He Bo chuckled, "Words are written for others to read, but words should be spoken from the heart. If you have to be picky about words when speaking in daily life, you might as well not have this mouth!"

Zhuang Zhou then turned around and looked at the boundless blue sea again.

under the sun,

Layer after layer of waves, carrying golden light, hit the shore and then settled into soft sand.

Maybe the gold on this beach,
It must be the scattered sunlight brought by the waves.

Zhuang Zhou suddenly said to He Bo, "I have seen the vast and boundless river when it floods in summer and autumn, and I think nothing can be more spectacular than it."

"Looking at the sea now, I just feel that my vision was so narrow before."

"And the great river rushes into the sea. You should feel the same way, right, He Bo?"

"really!"

He Bo recalled that no matter how many times he moistened the sea, the final result was always refreshed back to the starting point, and he felt that the other party was truly "the sea embraces all rivers and is unfathomable."

However, there was no feedback at all every time, which made He Bo feel lost and empty.

Maybe he's itching for a beating!
And Zhuang Zhou had no idea of He Bo's emptiness.

He just had a sudden inspiration and came up with a story about "sighing in despair" in his mind. He planned to write it down after returning home.

Anyway, He Bo himself admitted that the sea is vast, so it is not considered that he fabricated the incident and ruined the reputation of the god.

beside,

The two sons ran back screaming.
They just sat on the beach for a while.
Now one of them has his leg clamped by the crab, and the other has his butt clamped by the crab.

The mother was laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe, so the two boys could only turn to their father for help.

"Additional meal!"

After helping his son to be free, Zhuang Zhou waved his hand and announced that he would take revenge.

then,

Soon after, the Song State, located inland,

From one of the houses, the smell of sea water wafted out.

He Bo was knocking on the small shells he found while fishing, and he sensed something and ran to Daliang.

In the river outside Daliang City,

Hui Shi was struggling inside, quacking like a duck in panic.

A horse had slowly come ashore and was standing on the bank looking innocently at its owner struggling in the river.

Although I want to save him,
But the poor pony really couldn't carry a middle-aged man who was losing hair and gaining weight due to his aging in the undercurrent.

Fortunately, the ghosts and gods extended a helping hand in time.

The undercurrent that had been holding Hui Shi suddenly let go and pushed him to the shore.

Hui Shi spat out some water.
Then he took out a fish from his arms.

The man and the fish looked at each other for a while, and finally Hui Shi couldn't help but throw the fish back into the river with a parting message.

"I'll go to you!"

He Bo laughed rudely at the side.

He said, "You are addicted to power, so you don't even care about your life?"

Just a few days ago,
Prince Zhi, the prime minister of Wei and the uncle of the King of Wei, passed away.
After considering for a long time, King Wei decided to choose Hui Shi as the new prime minister.

Before this,

Many of the prime ministers he appointed were of aristocratic origin.

Compared with his predecessors, Hui Shi's bloodline is not outstanding.

But the King of Wei had no choice.

After the Wei Kingdom lost its hegemony, the pressure from Qi Qin on him increased.

If the King of Wei continues to be stubborn and fails to promote enough talents, the State of Wei will completely decline in his hands and may even perish within three generations.

So two days ago,

Hui Shi received the appointment from King Wei.

He set off directly to Daliang, and replicated the actions of King Jing of Jiang Qi in attending Yan Zi's funeral within a limited time.

In the past, when Duke Jing heard that Yan Zi had passed away, he drove there.

On the way, she thought the car was too slow, so she simply got off the ground and ran, crying as she ran. When she ran out of strength, she got back on the car to rest. After she had rested, she got off again and ran while crying.

Do this four times.

but,

Compared with Duke Jing of Qi, Hui Shi was more rational.

He simply kidnapped the horse that was driving the carriage, rode on it, and attempted to cross the river in front of him on horseback when the city gates were not opened at night. However, the riverbed was muddy and there were many undercurrents, which directly swept Hui Shi off the horse's back and nearly drowned him.

Hui Shi stood up, shook off his clothes, and said, "Swimming is my weakness, but governing a country is my strength!"

"I am so eager to contribute to the country!"

He Bo said, "You should be clear about the situation in Wei State!"

This is clearly a downhill road!

Hui Shi said confidently, "But the King of Wei asked me to be the Prime Minister!"

"If I go to Qin or Qi, I may not be able to become such a high official!"

After the debate in a dream several years ago, Hui Shi's feelings towards the State of Wei could only be described as making do with it. After all, it would be difficult for him to make a name for himself in another country.

At that time, there was Shang Yang in Qin and Zou Ji in Qi, and the competitive pressure was quite great.

The power of the feudal lords of Chu was too strong. They even dared to stab the corpse of the King of Chu twice. Hui Shi didn't dare to go over there.

Now so positive, so eager,
It’s all because the King of Wei gave too much!
Let him be the prime minister!
Hui Shi said on the spot, "Although I am a native of Song, my body and mind have long been those of Wei!"

"Humph!"

"I will definitely assist the King of Wei and revive his great cause!"

Hui Shi uttered some heroic words, shook off the water on his body, pulled back his horse which had been drained of water by the sea, and rode forward again.

After dawn,
Hui Shi put on the prime minister's robes bestowed by the King of Wei and gave the King of Wei advice:
"Now that Qi is strong, the king can go to the King of Qi and invite him to be king together!"

Prince Ying of Wei is in a very embarrassing position now.

As the first prince to be crowned king in the Warring States Period, he was despised by people all over the world.

Openly, everyone is attacking him.

In recent years, the State of Wei suffered many defeats in foreign wars, making the King of Wei taste the same painful taste of "not living up to the name" as the Emperor of Zhou.

But for this title,

Wei has paid too much.
Wei Ying couldn't bear to give up like this.

So he said angrily, "Should I give up my title of king and become a vassal of Qi?"

Hui Shi explained, “No!”

"The world is in such a state of chaos and people's hearts are in turmoil. I don't know how many princes want to be kings."

"It's just that they are not as powerful as Wei State, so they didn't do such a thing."

"Now that Qi has defeated Wei, we can invite Qi to be king together and divert the attention of the princes of the world to Qi!"

The reason why Qi attacked Wei was
Isn’t it just Wei’s “usurpation”?

But if Qi also overstepped its authority, its appeal to the other princes would decline.

The King of Wei was somewhat tempted, but hesitated and asked, "What if the Duke of Qi is unwilling?"

Hui Shi said, "I heard that the current Duke of Qi is a man of wild character and violent behavior."

"As long as the king brings more people to congratulate him, he will not refuse."

Qi Juntian Yinqi,
At the beginning of his reign, he indulged in wine and women.

Later, he made a great success and led the reform of Qi State, employing wise men such as Zou Ji, Tian Zhongshou and Sun Bin.

However, during the reform process,
In order to promote the government's policies, extremely drastic measures were adopted.

Officials who did not abide by the law and showed signs of corruption were often sentenced to death by boiling, regardless of the severity of their crimes.

Later, even officials who made inappropriate recommendations would be punished.

Because there were so many people cooking, the Duke of Qi set up a large cauldron directly in front of the palace, which gave it a bit of the feeling of cooking outdoors.

All the officials were so frightened of him that none dared to conceal their faults.

"What's more, the current Qi Xiang Tian Ying is a greedy person. As long as we bribe him with a lot of treasure, he will speak for us!"

The King of Wei pondered for a while and finally agreed to Hui Shi's suggestion.

Even if I cannot drag the Duke of Qi down with me,
But as long as he puts on a flexible posture, the opponent's attack on Wei should be lighter, right?

So in the autumn of the 35th year of the Emperor's reign,

The King of Wei led the Marquis of Han and other small states to invite the Marquis of Qi to a meeting in Xuzhou.

The Duke of Qi was a little hesitant at first, but with the strong support of Tian Ying, he finally accepted the invitation.

As soon as King Ying of Wei saw him, he showed an unusually respectful attitude and praised the Marquis of Qi's bravery to the utmost. The Marquis of Qi was so flattered that he felt that King Ying of Wei's old face had become quite handsome.

Hui Shi echoed from the side, and they bewitched the Duke of Qi from both sides.

In the end, the Duke of Qi followed Hui Shi's plan and agreed to go to the Marquisate to be king. He also expressed his position at the alliance and recognized Wei Ying's title of king.

thus,

There is a new king in the world.

All I can say is that everything in this world has a second chance after its first.

He Bo couldn't help but sigh when he heard the news, "Xuzhou is always full of things!"

Afterwards, he went directly to Luoyi to learn about the Zhou emperor's reaction.

When the news that Qi also claimed the title of King reached Luoyi,

The aged emperor sat in his old palace, tears welling up in his eyes.

All the princes in the world are paying attention to Xuzhou.

The Zhou emperor had forgotten Luoyi for many years.

He murmured, "Another king?"

"Ugh……"

"Du Wang, Du Wang, please..."

The emperor sniffed and ran to the palace where the Nine Cauldrons were placed to cry.

Holding the Qingzhou Ding, which represented the State of Qi, he sadly recalled the past relationship between him and Duke Yinqi of Qi.

"In the twenty-first year, you came to Luoyi to pay homage to me!"

"Have you forgotten the time when you and I held hands and reminisced about our friendship?"

Although it was Jiang Qi, not Tian Qi, that had long been intermarried with the Zhou royal family,

But since the country's name has not been changed, it does not prevent the Zhou emperor from finding reasons to establish relations with the State of Qi.

After all, the Zhou emperor was really poor, so how could he not covet the things of the rich?

He Bo felt uncomfortable all over because of the emperor's crying voice.

So he abandoned the King of Zhou, who was still complaining that "the Duke of Qi betrayed my feelings", and went to other places.

(End of this chapter)