Zhongshan Kingdom was located between Zhao and Yan. During its prosperity, it swallowed up a large area of ​​fertile land in Zhao Kingdom east of the Taihang Mountains. Its strength was strong and attracted the attention of the vassal states in the world at that time. Therefore, when King Hui of Wei initiated the prime minister of the Five Kingdoms, he not only invited the three kingdoms of Han, Zhao and Yan, but also invited the Zhongshan Kingdom, which was a country of Thousand Cycles.

The Zhongshan Kingdom was different from any vassal state at that time. The reason was very simple. Although the Qin, Qi, Zhao and other vassal states were constantly attacking each other, they were nominally vassal states under the title of the Zhou emperor. Even when the Wei Dynasty was in its hegemony was at its peak during the reign of Wei Wenhou, they were able to formally divide the three families into Jin. The Wei, Zhao and Han were promoted to vassal states on par with Qin, Qi, Chu and Yan. After decades as the Qi official, Tian family became the de facto ruler of Qi, and relied on a large amount of money to bribe the Zhou emperor at that time to formally grant the title of marquis to replace Jiang as the monarch of Qi.

From this we can see that although the Emperor Zhou emperor only had a false reputation, he was still the nominal communist of all countries. Even with the strength of Qin, after swallowing up all the fertile lands of Zhou, King Wu of Qin only spyed through Luoyi and did not dare to take it for himself. His concern was just to attract public anger and become a statement that the princes would unite to attack Qin.

Unlike the vassal states of the Central Plains, Zhongshan State was not a vassal state of the Zhou emperor. In other words, it did not belong to the Huaxia civilization at all, but it imitated the Huaxia people and established its own country.

Zhongshan Kingdom was a country built by the Baidi people of the Xianyu tribe. The Baidi people were mostly white and tall, good at brewing fine wine, singing and dancing, and doing tricks and curing evil things.

Xianyu first appeared on the Central Plains stage during the Spring and Autumn Period. Several tribes such as Xianyu, Fei, Gu, and Qiu formed the Xianyu tribe alliance and gradually expanded their power in Hebei. At that time, Xing, a great country of Ji surname, was ordered by the Emperor of Zhou, and continued to attack Xianyu, defeated Xianyu several times, effectively defending the territory of the northern part of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, Xing Kingdom gradually declined, and Xianyu took advantage of the situation to rise, forced Xingjun to kill Weijun, and almost destroyed the two Central Plains powers. At that time, Duke Huan of Qi, who was determined to dominate, took the banner of "respecting the king and expelling the barbarians", united the army of the four countries of Song, Cao, Xing, and Wei, and attacked Xianyu in the north and defeated them, which made the Xianyu tribe not dared to go south to peek at the Central Plains for decades.

After Duke Huan of Qi declined, the newly-risen Central Plains giant Jin State took over the banner of "respecting the king and expelling the barbarians" and became the main opponent of the Xianyu tribe. He successively eliminated Xianyu's subordinates Fei, Gu and Qiu. However, the Jin State also broke out in severe civil strife, and the king and the doctors fought each other. Only then did Xianyu get a chance to breathe under the aggressive pressure of Jin State and gradually grow stronger. Finally, he established Zhongshan State in Zhongren City, which was at risk, and gained a nominal equality with the Central Plains countries.

After the three families divided Jin, Zhao inherited the territory of the north of Jin, and thus became the main enemy of Zhongshan. At the beginning of Zhao's establishment, the government was in chaos, the ruler's power fell, and civil strife in the country was constantly strife, so it was taken advantage of by Zhongshan and continued to capture the territory of Zhao. Zhao, which followed Wei Wenhou's dominance at that time, was defeated by Zhongshan and asked for help from the eldest Wei State. The elite army of Wei State was led by the famous general Le Yang to attack Zhongshan, and defeated the country in one fell swoop, and brought Zhongshan under the rule of the strong Wei State. After the recession of the Wei State's hegemony, the Baidi people took the opportunity to restore the country, restore all the land, and became stronger again with the support of Qi and Yan, becoming a major trouble for Zhao State.

Zhongshan Kingdom has experienced several ups and downs, and the tenacity of its tribe can be seen from this.

Different from nomadic tribes such as Loufan and Lin Hu, which are closely linked to the Central Plains, the Baidi people did not maintain their nomadic characteristics like the Hu people of their fellow tribes, but willingly integrated into the Chinese civilization. The Baidi people gave up their language, learned the writing and etiquette system of the Central Plains, and even began to build a Great Wall to guard against the attack of Zhao State. The herdsmen put down their horse whips and abandoned the flock of sheep, but waved their hoes to work from the sunrise and rest from the sunset like the Central Plains. What is amazing is that the Zhongshan Kingdom built by the barbarians had extremely developed iron smelting technology. When the armies of various countries were still using bronze weapons and crude leather armor, the soldiers of the Zhongshan Kingdom had already equipped a large number of iron weapons and armor, and were famous for their strength in the Central Plains.

After hundreds of years of transformation, the Zhongshan Kingdom was no different from the Chinese vassal states. They spoke the same language and wrote the same words, and the etiquette system was no different. So such a strange scene occurred in Hebei. The army of Zhao, the authentic Chinese Kingdom inherited to Jin, rode like a flying war horse, wore Hu clothes, arched bows and shot arrows, which looked like Hu people. However, the Zhongshan people, who should have belonged to the Hu people, wore heavy iron armor, drove bulky chariots, and followed the traditional combat methods of chariots and infantry in the Central Plains countries.

The brave and tough character of the nomadic people from the grassland has been gradually worn out in this intoxicating wine and comfortable life. Their kings do not want to make progress, their officials are full of hearts, and their tribesmen are no longer accustomed to riding and shooting. But what has not changed is the tenacity and persistence in the bones of the people of Zhongshan. Even after being destroyed by Wei for decades, they still succeeded in restoring the country without giving up. Now, under the decades of suppression of the strong Zhao State, they have never been willing to bow their heads.

This is also the reason why the Lord Father vowed to completely eliminate Zhongshan Kingdom. Only by completely integrating the blood of the Baidi people into the blood of the Zhao people can they give up their homeland and willingly become a member of Zhao Kingdom.

After the Zhao State was quickly powerful after Hu's uniform and cavalry, Zhao Yong launched a large-scale attack on Zhongshan State in the 21st year when he was King Zhao. Niu Jian's army attacked the western part of Zhongshan, Zhao Xi's army went out of Dai County to attack the northern part of Zhongshan, Zhao Zhang's army went out of Hedong, Ji Hu Chu's army came out of Shicheng, and the master father personally led the army out of Handan. The five armies were as powerful as the city and the land was conquered, and they directly met under the capital of Zhongshan Lingshou. The Zhao army's strength shocked the Qi and Wei at that time, so they arranged heavy troops to intervene in the southern part of Zhao State. In order to avoid fighting on both sides, the master father retreated and returned. However, after this battle, Zhongshan had been greatly damaged, and most of its land was lost. From then on, he never recovered and no longer had the strength of the past.

Nowadays, in addition to the capital of Lingshou, Zhongshan also has four important towns, namely Caicheng, Shiyi, Fenglong and Donghuan, as well as Danqiu and Huayang, two passes, one east and one west. The area is only a hundred miles and the people are only 500,000, which has completely become a small country.

Facing the upcoming army attack of Zhao State, Zhongshan State, at the critical moment of life and death, worked together and implemented a wartime military system in which the whole people were soldiers. All the young and strong men were wearing armor and guarding the city, and they received a total of 100,000 troops, and they were divided into five cities and two passes.

Zhao Zhang's cavalry harassment tactics in the past few months have been quite successful, which has caused the entire Zhongshan country to be in panic. In order to avoid being plundered by the cavalry of Zhao, Zhongshan Wang Yishang had to give up the village outside the city and move the population and food into a city protected by the tall city walls. Now it is in the spring plowing period, and the fields outside the city need to be cultivated to produce food. If you miss the opportunity to cultivate, you will inevitably have famine. Therefore, Yishang's move is undoubtedly a drinking poison to quench thirst, but he can no longer care about it. He can only rely on supporting for a period of time to delay Zhao and exchange the intervention of Qi and other countries, so as to escape the disaster of destroying the country.

Caicheng and Shiyi are located in the southern part of Zhongshan, bordering Zhao State, and are the southern gate of Zhao State to enter Zhongshan. These two cities are only a few miles apart, and they are mutually reciprocating. If the Zhao army wants to press the capital of Lingshou, they must first capture these two important towns before they can enter. Otherwise, the Zhongshan army in the city can leave the city at any time to raid the Zhao army's food route and logistics, so that the Zhao army will defeat themselves without attacking.

But if the light cavalry breaks in, there will be no more sophistication. Zhao Xin and more than a hundred military horses took advantage of the night to quietly bypass the city of Caicheng and enter the hinterland of Zhongshan.

The Yulin Army came with Zhao Xin this time. The Yulin Army was built during the Zhao Yong period and was carefully selected by the royal family members of the nobles and lieutenant generals in the court. They only obeyed the orders of the Lord's father.

Because of his extraordinary background and most of them have received good education, this Yulin also has a special mission, which is to be the officers' reserve regiment in the Zhao army, so it is sought after by the wealthy families of Zhao. Because of the strict selection, the entire Yulin army has only more than 300 people. Most of the young people stayed in Handan for training, and the rest followed the master's father for many years. Zhao Xin begged his master's father for a long time before he agreed to let him serve as the leader in the Yulin.
Chapter completed!