Chapter 269

Although the process had some twists and turns, for Princess Honglian, the result could be considered beautiful.

She was very happy to have met Su Xuan in Xianyang City today and to have come here to visit him again this evening.

Of course, spending the night at Su Xuan's place was clearly impossible.

After entering Su Xuan's residence, she had a good chat with him to catch up on old times. This so-called catching up was actually just chatting; back when they were in Han Guo, Su Xuan lived in the palace refining elixirs for the King of Han, and Princess Honglian, as the little princess of Han Guo, would often go to Su Xuan's place to tell him about things happening in the outside world.

Sometimes, Princess Honglian actually still missed the life from back then.

Unfortunately, those days were now gone forever.

After some idle chatter, until late at night, Su Xuan sent Princess Honglian back to her residence before returning to continue his journey of staying up late to cultivate.

Over the next few days, Su Xuan would sometimes receive invitations from Princess Honglian during the day to accompany her out for a stroll, which he considered an opportunity to learn about the changes in Xianyang.

In the evenings, Princess Honglian would occasionally come over to visit.

Because she knew that Su Xuan went to the palace every evening to lecture on the Dao to Ying Zheng, Princess Honglian learned from her mistakes and chose to come over in the evenings. Each time she came to Su Xuan's place, she didn't stay long, mostly just telling him about her experiences in the Qin state over the past few years.

Most of the time, it was Princess Honglian talking and Su Xuan listening.

This situation lasted for quite a long time, until Su Xuan had completely finished teaching Ying Zheng the methods of cultivation. After telling Princess Honglian, he returned to the Yin-Yang School on his own.

Although Xianyang was quite good, if one wanted to cultivate, the environment at the Yin-Yang School was better.

The Yin-Yang School was proficient in the art of geomancy, and the underground of Lishan, which they chose as their headquarters, contained a ley line. Cultivating there yielded twice the result with half the effort, which was also the reason why the strength of the Yin-Yang School disciples was generally stronger than those of ordinary martial arts sects. While it was certainly due to the cultivation methods, the environment also affected the efficiency of cultivation.

During his time in Xianyang, as he lectured to Ying Zheng, Su Xuan himself gained some new insights during the process, and he continued to spend some time digesting these insights.

After returning to the Yin-Yang School, Su Xuan began his seclusion again.

Of course, this seclusion did not last long; he came out after only about ten days or half a month.

After coming out of seclusion, he happened to catch up with another matter.

After another year without mobilizing the army, the war chariot of the Qin state was finally set in motion again.

With Wang Ben as the general, they raised an army... to attack Wei Guo!

As one of the Three Jins, Wei Guo could have been attacked long ago after the Qin state successively destroyed Han Guo and Zhao Guo. However, because of Yan Dan's plot to assassinate the King of Qin, Ying Zheng discovered that he could use that event to boost morale and attack Yan Guo in the name of revenge, so he temporarily changed his strategy, put Wei Guo aside for the time being, and turned to raise an army to attack Yan Guo.

Also, because the lands of Yan and Zhao were full of people who sang generous and tragic songs—simply put, there were many hot-headed youths—after the two states were destroyed, their lands were not as peaceful as Han Guo had been. Turmoil occurred from time to time. After destroying Yan Guo, the Qin state often needed to quell the unrest in the lands of Yan and Zhao, which slowed down the pace of attacking Wei Guo quite a bit.

It was not until now, after the Qin state had rested and recuperated for a long time and the turmoil in the lands of Yan and Zhao had been quelled, that Ying Zheng finally made up his mind to take action against Wei Guo.

In fact, it wouldn't have mattered if the pace of attacking Wei Guo had been even slower, but Ying Zheng was an impatient person. Earlier, the destruction of Han, Zhao, and Yan had all gone extremely smoothly. Because the Hexi region bordered the Qin state, Wei Guo had been frequently attacked by the Qin state over the years, and its national strength was not even as good as Zhao Guo's. Since the Qin state had the ability to destroy Wei Guo, it was naturally better to do it sooner rather than later.

As for who to attack next after destroying Wei Guo, Ying Zheng had not yet made up his mind.

According to his personal inclination, he preferred to leave Chu Guo for last.

This was because he knew about the many things Lord Changping Jun was plotting in secret. Since Lord Changping Jun cared so much about this and even went so far as to incite Yan Dan to assassinate him just to preserve Chu Guo, he didn't mind fulfilling Lord Changping Jun's wish and leaving Chu Guo for last. He wanted to see how long the remaining Chu Guo could hold out after five of the six states in the mountains had been destroyed and it was left isolated and helpless.

But considering the overall situation, it was best to leave Qi Guo for last. Although the Qin state possessed overwhelming strength compared to the six states of Shandong, after destroying each state, the Qin state needed a period of rest and reorganization—not only because the soldiers were exhausted, but also to better annex the territory of the destroyed state. Although Chu Guo's government was chaotic, its territory was vast and its strength was deep. Leaving Chu Guo for last would actually give him a chance to rest and recuperate.

Qi Guo, on the other hand, had always been on good terms with the Qin state. Back when Ying Zheng reached his majority and took personal control of the government, King Xuan Jian of Qi even personally came to the Qin state to show his intention of friendship. It could be said that among the six states of Shandong, Qi Guo was the state that posed the least threat to the Qin state. Leaving Qi Guo for last would actually be better.

Of course, it was still too early to talk about this, as Wei Guo had not yet been destroyed.

Ying Zheng thought that the Qin army destroying Wei Guo would be an extremely easy task. After the death of Lord Lord Xinling, Wei Guo had no famous generals left, and its national strength was not even as good as Zhao Guo's. The Qin state had not encountered any difficulties when destroying Zhao Guo, let alone now that the territories of Han and Zhao all belonged to the Qin state, and most of the borders of Wei Guo had already been surrounded by the Qin state.

At first, as Ying Zheng had expected, the army led by Wang Ben was invincible within the territory of Wei Guo, as if entering an empty land. The cities of Wei Guo were captured by the Qin state one after another. However, when Wang Ben's army reached the capital of Wei Guo, Daliang City, and thought they could completely destroy Wei Guo, they finally encountered trouble.

The land where Daliang City of Wei Guo was located was a plain, and there was no natural barrier to defend. Because there were no natural barriers, successive kings of Wei were worried about Daliang City being captured, so they constantly reinforced the city, which resulted in high walls and thick ramparts. It would not be an exaggeration to call it the strongest city in the world today.

Even with the help of the Gongshu family and the various siege weapons they manufactured, the Qin state was still at a loss when facing Daliang City. After reaching the vicinity of Daliang, Wang Ben organized several attacks in succession, but all ended in failure, and they were never able to climb the walls of Daliang City. Moreover, last year was a harvest year for Wei Guo, which meant that Daliang City had ample grain and fodder.

If the Qin state could not break Daliang and just dragged it out like this, it would be no problem at all for the people in Daliang City to hold out for a year or a year and a half.

In Zhangtai Palace, Su Xuan, who had briefly come out of seclusion, came to the palace to check on Ying Zheng's cultivation progress and heard Ying Zheng mention this matter.

"I didn't expect that the most formidable thing about Wei Guo is not the Wei Wu Soldiers who were once famous throughout the world, nor that Lord Lord Xinling who has already passed away, but... Daliang City!"