Discuss with you

Chapter 174 Alliance
In fact, when asking this question, Zhu Yu was already mentally prepared for the possibility that Lu Qing would avoid the question.

During this period of time, she felt that Lu Qing generally trusted her and did not act on guard.

But to say that there is nothing to hide is not the case.

Whenever the topic involved many things in his past and the core of his plan, he would suddenly become ambiguous in his words, quickly diverting Zhu Yu's attention elsewhere and thus successfully ending the topic.

Therefore, Zhu Yu would not be surprised if Lu Qing suddenly broke his usual habit and started teasing him this time.

But she was really wrong this time. Lu Qing's expression did not look joking at all, but very serious.

"Your Majesty has always wanted to contain more than just the Shuo Kingdom." He shook his head at Zhu Yu, his fingers seemingly tracing the map on the table unintentionally. "One year at the beginning of the year, Your Majesty held a banquet in the palace to entertain his ministers. He must have been very happy and drank a few more cups. When he was drunk, he said something.

He said that if you are surrounded by wolves, you should avoid acting rashly, otherwise you may lose sight of the big picture and be attacked from both sides.

If you want to rest easy, the best way is to let these wolves stay in their own territory, where they will neither starve to death nor get enough to eat.

As long as they are kept in a half-hungry state, these wolves will gradually become too thin to bite. Over time, they will lose their wild beast ferocity, their claws will become blunt, their teeth will fall out, and they will wag their tails and beg for mercy for a bite of meat, slowly turning into dogs.

Zhu Yu looked stern.

Before coming here, she had no idea what Shuo Kingdom was like.

But after arriving here, the Shuo Kingdom she saw was definitely not the "wolves" lurking around as described by Emperor Jin.

Not to mention that Zhu Cheng had no ambition to expand the territory, just look at the people of Shuo State. Half of them were engaged in smelting and forging to make a living, and the rest worked hard to cultivate the limited land and strive to maintain a meager harvest.

All everyone wanted was to grow a few more stones of grain to fill their stomachs, and then sell some to buy some meat.

Or you could mine more ore, make more weapons and iron tools, sell them for money, buy rice and noodles, and fill your stomach.

As for greater ambitions, as Lu Qing said, they will definitely not arise in this "half-hungry" state.

"You don't agree with this approach, right?" Zhu Yu looked at Lu Qing. Although his tone was questioning, it was also firm.

If he was someone who agreed with Emperor Jin's approach, he would not have risked disobeying the imperial order and encouraged Bai Qihong to dig the Black Stone Mountain, build a canal, and bring water into the territory of Shuo State.

"During the day, Bai Qihong said that the reason he was so worried and wanted to finish the canal construction as soon as possible was that he was afraid that famine would be caused by flooding. The displaced hungry people were the root cause of the chaos." Lu Qing sighed softly. "I agree with him on this matter. When the people in a certain area have enough food and clothing and live and work in peace and contentment, if the prince, for his own selfish reasons, calls on the people in his fiefdom to rise up with him and seize the world, there will be very few who are willing to respond. Even if they are coerced or induced, they will be like a pile of scattered sand because of their different thoughts.

If the people in this area are starving, their lives are getting worse day by day, and they are suffering terribly, and are on the verge of death, then if anyone rises up at this time, I am afraid that the others will also respond with a hundred voices, and with unity, it will be difficult to defeat them.

His finger circled the map and returned to the intersection of Jin and Shuo. "Lu Chao and I have always disagreed with Your Majesty's 'Wolf Taming Method'. We believe it is a bad idea and should not be adopted.

As the common ruler of the world, you should let the people live in peace and have enough food and clothing. If someone wants to provoke a war for his own ambition, as the saying goes, those who are righteous have many supporters, and those who are unrighteous have few supporters. It is not difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat.

On the contrary, in order to prevent the vassal kings from having disloyalty, the people in one area were made to suffer from lack of food and clothing. This could indeed weaken the vassal state's combat effectiveness in the short term, but it was like hanging a sword over their heads, and they didn't know when it would fall, which did more harm than good.

Now there is more than one force in the court ready to make a move. Many of the previous incidents were nothing more than secret tests. I am afraid that someone will want to touch the sword hanging over the emperor's head.

Even today, the sword has not yet fallen, but I must consider it and take precautions before it happens."

"Bai Qihong's plan to build a large canal will bring water from the prefectures and counties with abundant water resources into the dry and rainy areas. It will provide emergency relief in droughts and drain water in floods. It will benefit the people of Dajin and benefit the present and future generations." Upon hearing this, Zhu Yu understood Lu Qing's intention. "You can go with the flow and help him solve the final drainage destination of this large canal. It also happens to help Shuo Kingdom solve its long-standing water shortage problem due to weather conditions.

Are you hoping to use this incident to get my father to form an alliance with you, ensuring that Shuo Nation will side with you and Lu Chao if there are any changes in the future?"

"That's indeed what I hope for," Lu Qing admitted frankly, "but whether it can be achieved will probably still require Madam's help."

Zhu Yu smiled, a smile tinged with a hint of helplessness, but he still nodded: "Okay, I'll do my best. As for whether I can live up to your trust... I'll just do my best and leave the rest to fate!"

Yan Daoxin had already carefully packed up his boxes and crates, and listened attentively to Lu Qing's frank confession to Zhu Yu. When the two of them had almost finished chatting, he stood up, stretched, and walked to the table.

"I'm a serious ascetic, and it's inconvenient for me to sleep in the same room with a woman at night. I'll stay in the wing room for one night." As he spoke, he placed a porcelain vase on the table, pointed at Lu Qing, and said to Zhu Yu, "Although this fellow's wounds have almost healed, he's been wearing damp clothes and getting wet in the rain these past few days. I'm afraid he'll develop boils on his wounds. If the fire poison gets too strong and gets lost in the camp, it could attack the internal organs and cause the boils to turn yellow. If things go wrong, all our efforts will be wasted and he'll die.

Please help him apply this ointment to the sword wound and wrap it with a dry cloth, so that he won’t have to worry when he travels tomorrow.”

After saying that, he yawned and staggered out.

When they got outside, he said something in Fu Lu's ear again, and Fu Lu turned around and closed the door from the outside.

"Sir, we're guarding outside." His voice came through the door in a muffled voice. "We have to get up early and travel tomorrow, so you should rest early tonight."

(End of this chapter)