TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 957: Chapter 399 Yuzhou Zheng Kingdom Chapter 957: Chapter 399 Yuzhou Zheng Kingdom After discussing the warfare of the Liang Kingdom, the morning court session did not end, and Lu Yuan brought up another matter.

“At the beginning of the year, in preparation for the future integration with Central State, I sent a messenger to the Zheng Kingdom, another major country located in the same Central State as Liang, to probe its weaknesses.”

Just yesterday, the messenger I sent to Yu State Zheng Country returned, bringing the latest news of internal strife within Zheng Kingdom.”

Lu Yuan looked at his officials and finally turned to a man below, saying, “Wen Qing, you were the main envoy for this mission and also serve as the vice minister of the Honglu Temple; it’s up to you to inform the other officials about the latest situation in Zheng Kingdom.”

From among the crowd, Wen Shu, upon hearing the emperor call his name, stepped out of line, and after performing a ritual bow, said, “Your Majesty, gentlemen, this year in February, following Your Majesty’s orders, I set forth as an envoy to Yu State, the principal territory of Zheng Kingdom.

I traveled down the river by boat and finally took to the sea at the end of the month, arriving at Zheng Kingdom and subsequently proceeded to its capital, Xinzheng.”

The Emperor of Zheng, hearing of the arrival of an envoy from Great Chu, was quite pleased and accorded me with a grand reception.

During our meeting, after conveying Your Majesty’s greetings to Zheng Kingdom, the Emperor of Zheng also expressed his goodwill towards Chu State.

He even inquired several times about the details of Great Chu and Your Majesty’s tactics and strategies.

Following Your Majesty’s instructions before departure, I thoroughly explained these matters to the Emperor of Zheng.

After hearing this, the Emperor of Zheng greatly admired Your Majesty’s heroic strategies and significant achievements, expressing profound admiration.

As for the matters of trade between Chu and Zheng, the Emperor of Zheng readily agreed without any hesitation.

I also visited a group of ministers and officials in Xinzheng City, including the Zheng royal family led by the ruler Zheng Chan, who were quite friendly during my visit and expressed goodwill towards Great Chu, much like the Emperor of Zheng.

However, when I met with Zheng Kingdom’s Grand General, Zhang Shou, his attitude towards Great Chu was rather cold, and he expressed hostility towards me several times.

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Later, after making some inquiries, I learned that twenty years ago, the current Emperor Zheng Lian was not yet enthroned; he was merely a prince of Zheng, contending for the throne with his brother Zheng Ze.

At that time, the Zheng court was divided by this struggle for the throne into two factions.

One supported Big Emperor Son Zheng Lian, led by the ruler Zheng Chan of the royal kin, while the other supported Third Emperor Son Zheng Ze, led by the Grand General Zhang Shou, a faction of noble in-laws.

These two factions…”

As Wen Shu slowly narrated, everyone in the hall gradually learned the details of Zheng Kingdom’s domestic affairs.

It turned out that Zheng Kingdom began as a small state in Yuzhou, ruling over a mere two prefectures.

At that time, among the neighboring states of Zheng, there was a larger country that had already unified one entire commandery—Cao State.

And Cao State, with great ambition, was keen on expanding its territories, directly aiming to conquer the region where Zheng Kingdom was situated.

In the area where Zheng Kingdom was located, besides itself, there were seventeen small state powers at the time.

These small states, just like Zheng, were weak, with the larger states ruling over no more than one prefecture, and the smaller ones a mere three to five counties.

Each state was frail and easily defeated.

Normally, faced with a unified Cao State ruling over one entire commandery, these small states led by Zheng would have no way to withstand the military might of Cao and would inevitably succumb to being annexed one by one.

But somehow, whether out of desperation or collective wisdom, the small states neighboring Zheng astonishingly formed a union in the face of Cao State’s overwhelming pressure.

It was a true union.

After retaining their autonomy over their territories, these small states relinquished their Altars of Soil and Grain, choosing to submit to Zheng and offered their lands for merger.

Zheng then recognized the rulers of these submitting states’ rights to autonomous rule over their former lands and granted them corresponding titles.

Further conditions stated that these self-governing regions must pay a certain amount of tribute to the court and provide private soldiers from their domain for battle when national war arises.

So, the seventeen nobles in the vicinity of Zheng completed their transition from being sovereign rulers to being vassals within Zheng’s domain.

These states were incorporated into Zheng, becoming territories within the nation.

Through mutual compromise among these small states, they merged into a large country that satisfied the interests of most people.

Thus, in an instant, Zheng transformed from an insignificant small state with just two prefectures into a large country possessing territories of two entire commanderies.

Although this nation was loosely structured with numerous feudal territories within, and the land under the direct rule of the king remained only the original two prefectures of Zheng, the rest belonging to the vassals, internally, the details aside, after the consolidation of nearby small states, Zheng had effectively become a unified entity.

With the nominal authority of the king, Zheng could integrate resources by collecting taxes.

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It could also assemble the military forces within the country through the obligations of the vassals to defend against external enemies or to engage in territorial expansion through national war.

Armed with this function, the newly formed Zheng, with almost twice its previous size, after fighting several years of war with Wei State, finally stopped the invasion of Cao State.

Using this war as a catalyst, the originally forced, loosely united Zheng with scattered public loyalties, gradually organized its people’s hearts, gradually forging the concept of “people of Zheng.”

The rulers of Zheng, in an effort to strengthen this concept, even launched an offensive attack against Cao State in the name of vengeance after repelling its invasion.

Finally, after a prolonged war of ten years, they managed to lead the entire nation’s subjects to annihilate this once formidable enemy.

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