"Is that Prince Rui?...Hehe, he is so handsome."

"Hehe, you little coquettish guy, what are you thinking about?"

"I heard that Prince Rui's eldest son is one or two years older than our Crown Prince (Zhao Wei)..."

"Huh?"

In the corridor outside Fengyi Palace, several palace maids, probably in their early twenties, hid behind some thick corridor pillars, peeking at Prince Zhao Zhao sitting in the middle of the palace from a distance, and whispering, as if

He was commenting on Zhao Zhao, and from time to time, there was a sound of laughter like a ringing bell.

This made King Rui Zhao Zhao feel very embarrassed. After all, he had never done anything like "blocking a door" since he was a child, let alone being commented on by a group of young palace maids about his appearance.

"It's so unruly."

Fei Wei, the chief of the imperial guards, murmured in a low voice, but did not step forward to scold the maids. Firstly, the young maids did not have any ill intentions, they just showed their admiration for King Rui Zhao Zhao. Furthermore, this is the Queen of Wei.

Mi Jiang's Fengyi Palace, these palace ladies all belong to this palace. Zhao Zhao and others must give Mi Jiang, the queen of Wei, some face.

At the same time, in the side hall of Fengyi Palace, Zhao Hongrun was pacing back and forth in the hall with his hands behind his back, thinking about ways to deal with Zhao Zhao, the sixth brother.

In fact, a moment ago, the great eunuch Gao He had suggested to Zhao Hongrun that he slip out of Fengyi Palace through the side door, but in fact this was meaningless and could easily cause unnecessary misunderstandings and affect the brothers Zhao Run and Zhao Zhao.

Feelings - Zhao Hongrun has only two choices at the moment, either continue to pretend to be sick, or summon Zhao Zhao and have a showdown with him face to face.

As for the third option, the only option is to persuade Zhao Zhao to leave, but from Zhao Run's point of view, this road is obviously unworkable.

"Otherwise... this slave should go and persuade King Rui again?" the eunuch Gao He asked for instructions.

Zhao Run thought for a while and then nodded.

Although he didn't think Gao He could persuade Zhao Zhao to leave, it wouldn't hurt to give him a try.

With Zhao Hongrun's permission, the great eunuch Gao He led the two young eunuchs out of Fengyi Palace, came to Prince Rui Zhao Zhao, bowed their hands and bowed: "Prince Rui."

"Eunuch Gao." Zhao Zhao smiled slightly and asked, "Your Majesty, are you willing to summon me?"

"This..." The great eunuch Gao He hesitated for a moment and then lied: "Your Majesty unfortunately caught wind and cold two days ago. He has taken medicine and is resting on the couch. Prince Rui, why don't you go back to your residence first and wait for your Majesty to recover?"

It’s not too late to come and see you again.”

"Haha." Prince Rui Zhao Zhao smiled.

It cannot be denied that the great eunuch Gao He did speak sincerely, as if he was thinking about Zhao Zhao wholeheartedly, but the premise is that the majesty is really in bed as he said, but the truth is that the majesty is uncertain at this moment.

She was secretly peeping at him from somewhere.

Feeling sick?

The number of times His Majesty has been sick has become so frequent that ministers in the DPRK are used to it, okay?

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhao bowed his hands towards the great eunuch Gao He and said sincerely: "I would also like to ask the great eunuch Gao He to inform Zhao again. Zhao Zhao is waiting here to be summoned. If your majesty does not summon Zhao Zhao for a day, Zhao Zhao will not be summoned for a day."

Let's go... By the way, I also ask Eunuch Gao to confess to Queen Mi on my behalf. Zhao Zhao did not do this intentionally, but was forced to do so..."

"..."

The great eunuch Gao He wanted to say something more, but he saw Fei Wei and Cao Liang, the imperial guards, stretched out their hands to stop him.

In desperation, Gao He had no choice but to return to Fengyi Palace and report back to Zhao Hongrun.

Just as Zhao Zhao guessed, when the eunuch Gao He returned to the side hall of Fengyi Palace, Zhao Hongrun actually stood at the window, opened the window a few inches, and peeked at the movements of Zhao Zhao and others outside the hall, with a rather anxious look on his face.

.

"Your Majesty." Gao He called softly.

"He still refuses to leave?" Zhao Hongrun asked.

"My slave is incompetent." Gao He said with a wry smile: "No matter how much my slave persuades me, Prince Rui still refuses to listen and leave."

From the side, Queen Mi Jiang was sitting at the table holding a cup of tea. After hearing this, she said calmly: "Could it be that he doesn't believe that you are really sick?"

"This is not funny at all!" Zhao Hongrun rolled his eyes at Mi Jiang.

"Yes, I think it's a bit funny." After saying that, Mi Jiang put down the tea cup, stood up and walked out of the palace.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun was a little surprised. He thought it was Mi Jiang who wanted to help him persuade Zhao Zhao to retreat. He asked with some joy: "Do you have a way to persuade Sixth Brother to retreat?"

Mi Jiang stopped, turned around, glanced at Zhao Hongrun, and said calmly: "No, I just remembered that I have to take care of some medicinal seedlings..."

Zhao Hongrun stared at Mi Jiang walking away with his mouth open, and then complained with a bit of resentment: "This woman... why should I make her my queen?!"

"Haha..." The eunuch Gao He didn't dare to interrupt on this topic, so he could only laugh at him.

I have to say that Queen Mi Jiang is really a woman who means what she says. Since she said she was taking care of those medicinal seedlings, she actually did it. When she passed by the palace, she just nodded to Zhao Zhao.

The greeting seemed to have nothing to do with her whether Zhao Zhao was sitting in to demonstrate at Fengyi Palace. Instead, it was Zhao Zhao and his group who felt quite embarrassed when they saw Mi Jiang.

As a result, only two brothers, Zhao Run and Zhao Zhao, were left. One was standing at the window in the hall, peeking at the movement of the brother outside the hall from time to time; the other was sitting upright outside the hall, scanning the surroundings with his eyes from time to time.

Especially those windows that are ajar, I hope to see the shadow of His Majesty.

In this way, the two brothers reached a stalemate.

After waiting for several hours, and the stalemate continued until around noon, Zhao Hongrun sighed sadly in the palace and told the eunuch Gao He: "Go and invite Prince Rui to the side hall."

The great eunuch Gao He was relieved. After receiving the edict, he quickly came outside the palace and said to Prince Rui Zhao Zhao: "Prince Rui, Your Majesty has invited me."

King Rui Zhao Zhao smiled slightly when he heard this. After standing up and straightening his clothes, he followed Gao He to the side hall of Fengyi Palace with a solemn expression.

"You win."

When he saw Zhao Zhao, Zhao Hongrun said angrily with a bit of annoyance.

However, after hearing this, Zhao Zhao shook his head and said solemnly: "No, your Majesty just cares about the brotherhood."

This is true. If Zhao Run hadn't cared about the brotherly relationship between Zhao Zhao and Zhao Run, he could have left Zhao Zhao alone. Anyway, Zhao Zhao would definitely not be able to survive in the end.

This is why Zhao Zhao was so moved at the moment.

Perhaps after hearing Zhao Zhao's words, Zhao Hongrun's mood improved slightly, and he raised his hand to invite the former to sit down in the hall together.

"Are you sure you want to go back to Qi?"

After sitting down, Zhao Hongrun stared at Zhao Zhao for a long time and asked seriously.

Zhao Zhao was silent for a moment and said with some apology: "Hongrun, as Brother Yu said at the time, I still can't leave Qi State behind... Qi State's current situation is very difficult."

"Aren't you sure of defeating Chu?" Zhao Hongrun said with a smile: "With those... martial arts warriors!"

"..." Zhao Zhao was stunned and said with a smile: "I never thought that Hongrun, you are in Daliang, but the affairs of Qi State still cannot be hidden from you." When he said this, he suddenly felt something in his heart and asked: "Hongrun

Run, in your opinion, how about a martial artist?"

"Oh."

Zhao Run chuckled.

It is undeniable that when Yawu sent the news of the existence of the "Martial Arts Warrior" to Zhao Hongrun in the form of a letter, Zhao Hongrun was also quite surprised. He felt that Qi's return to glory this time was really incredible, and he actually withstood Chu.

Known as an army of millions.

But as surprised as he was, Zhao Hongrun was not envious at all.

You must know that martial arts warriors are essentially mercenaries, and they have very little attachment to Qi. After fighting this battle and receiving the heavy rewards, those martial arts warriors will disperse; in comparison,

The Wei State paid the same amount of money, but it was able to build elite armies such as the Wei Wu Army, the Shang Shui Army, and the Yanling Army. The soldiers of these armies were either natives of the Wei State or people from other countries who had immigrated to the Wei State.

The bond between the two countries is very deep, and the Wei court has improved the treatment of soldiers several times over the years, which makes Wei soldiers have little to worry about, so they can risk their lives to fight the enemy on the battlefield.

Just like the merchant navy, which was almost half destroyed in the recent war with South Korea, it still faced the South Korean army head-on with its tenacious fighting spirit, forcing the then Korean army coach Le Yi to use the "Daijun Heavy Cavalry"

Zhang's last trump card led to the final defeat of the Korean army.

On the other hand, if the Shang Shui Army had not been so tenacious, other armies might have been defeated by Le Yi's Northern Yan Army. In this case, Le Yi invested Daijun's heavy cavalry, then Wei would very likely have

Encountered a defeat far more disastrous than the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Shangdang.

If in Zhao Hongrun's eyes, the armies that truly belong to the country, such as the Wei Wu Army, the Yanling Army, the Shang Shui Army, and the Shanyang Army, can be called forces that can be relied on, then in his eyes, the martial arts warriors of Qi State are

It is nothing more than an army that subjugates the country - it consumes a lot of Qi's money, but can only allow Qi to survive for a while.

To put it simply, Qi State escaped the fate of subjugation this time by relying on money to hire martial arts warriors, but what about next time? Next time it will still spend huge amounts of money to fight against Chu’s army?

You know, in the past, the Chu State only needed a bag of rice to recruit soldiers.

Therefore, if the stalemate between Qi and Chu continues in this way, Zhao Hongrun can guarantee that Qi will become weaker and weaker. When the country's economy is dragged down, it will no longer be able to afford the huge sums of money to hire those martial arts warriors.

time, then this country will face destruction.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun said lightly: "A martial artist is a soldier of a weak country."

Zhao Zhao was stunned. He originally thought that Zhao Hongrun was satirizing Qi's army because it was difficult to defend the country, so he created a mercenary army like martial arts warriors. However, after thinking about it carefully, he suddenly realized that what the brother in front of him said was "

"Weak country" should mean "making the country weak".

And this point coincides with him.

But the embarrassing thing is that today's Qi State can only rely on this trick to survive, otherwise, Qi State may have been destroyed by Chu State.

"...Perhaps, it was destroyed by the Wei Dynasty."

After taking a look at the brother in front of him, Zhao Zhao added something in his mind.
To be continued...