King Ying Zhuang of Chu led an army of 500,000 to the city of Daliang, but did not immediately launch an attack.

Instead, he sent an envoy to see King Wei Ji...

Ying Zhuang told Wei Ji that Jiang Ming could spare the lives of children and not launch an attack, but the State of Chu would never have such concerns!

The current situation is quite clear... The so-called indestructible Daliang City is just a joke. Jiang Ming and Ying Zhuang are not unable to conquer it, but they are temporarily choosing not to attack.

In this way, it was only a matter of time before the State of Wei was destroyed!

Now he has two paths before him. First, surrender the city. Ying Zhuang is willing to guarantee that Jiang Ming will not kill Wei Ji and his relatives, including the civil and military officials of Wei. Jiang Ming promises to give them a fief of 500 li, and from then on, these lands will belong to them permanently and will no longer be state-owned.

Or, Ying Zhuang could disregard everything and send 500,000 troops straight in, charging in and slaughtering everyone in the entire city of Daliang, leaving no one alive, even dragging out the little rats from their holes and trampling them to death one by one!

The decision of what to do next was entirely up to Wei Ji...

After the envoy conveyed Ying Zhuang's message, Wei Ji was caught in a deep dilemma and anxiety...

Logically speaking, although 500 li of land is not as vast as the thousand li of land in the State of Wei, it is still a considerable amount of land, and it has permanent property rights. In this way, it can leave some inheritance for the children...

The problem is, Wei Ji doesn't quite believe Jiang Ming's promises!

Jiang Ming, while having a kind side, also has a vengeful side.

Rebellion of one's own accord is a qualitative act of rebellion, fundamentally different from quantitatively provoking him to anger...

Is he really willing to spare his own life?

Wei Ji really couldn't believe it!

He discussed the matter with his ministers, but their opinions were not unified. Some believed that this was Jiang Ming's trick, and that he would eventually kill them all. The so-called 500-mile permanent fiefdom was just bait and could not be realized at all!

They advised the King of Wei to continue holding out, saying that the so-called Chu army would invade and massacre the city of Daliang. What difference was there between this and Jiang Ming's massacre of the city?

Since Jiang Ming is unwilling to bear this infamy... then everything King Ying Zhuang of Chu said was just empty talk!

Moreover, even if the Chu army of 500,000 really invaded, Wei's 400,000 elite troops would not necessarily be defeated!

Ministers holding the opposite view argued that even if the 500,000-strong Chu army couldn't wipe out Daliang City, the Han army still had Jiang Ming's 300,000 troops stationed there.

Daliang, an isolated city, is going against the entire world. It's bound to fail sooner or later; it's only a matter of time!

Yes! They also admitted that Jiang Ming might betray their promise and turn his back on them.

But right now, there really isn't a better solution...

Continuing to fight will result in defeat, and not continuing to fight will also result in defeat... Since defeat is inevitable anyway, it's better to give it a try; perhaps Jiang Ming can actually keep his promise.

The envoy gave the Wei rulers and their ministers only one day to think it over!

A day later, after careful consideration, Wei Ji finally decided to open the city gates and surrender!

He took off his shirt, covered himself in thorns, and led his officials to kneel before the north gate of Daliang City.

Ying Zhuang personally accepted his surrender.

Thus... apart from the initial deaths caused by Jiang Ming being crushed to death by a boulder and the deaths of people falling from the city walls after they collapsed, the war to destroy Wei did not cause any major casualties. The people of Wei were spared a catastrophe!

Following the plan agreed upon by Jiang Ming in the initial secret letter, Ying Zhuang feigned ignorance and wrote to Jiang Ming, stating that Wei Ji had surrendered and hoping that Jiang Ming would spare Wei Ji this time out of consideration for his younger brother and fulfill his promise of 500 li of land!

After receiving Ying Zhuang's letter, Jiang Ming readily agreed and immediately ordered all the nobles of Wei, along with their clansmen, to be moved to Jiang Ming's military camp. He then ordered a Xianbei general under Dugu Yan to relocate them all to Yan...

At this moment, Wei Ji realized that he had been tricked, but there was nothing he could do but swallow his anger.

Being relocated to the Yan Kingdom is better than having your entire clan wiped out by Jiang Ming.

Jiang Ming is actually quite cunning.

He did not intend to break his promise, but instead planned to relocate Wei Ji and all the nobles of Wei to the wasteland north of Yan... North of Yan, there are distances of 500 li, let alone 500 li!

However, these are all desolate wastelands and icy areas where crops cannot be grown, and even grazing requires choosing a specific location.

Wei Ji and his noble clansmen were all products of an agrarian civilization, and they simply couldn't live there!

Jiang Ming's meaning was simple: he wanted to starve these guys to death.

These people are definitely going to die; if they don't, they will continue to hinder my grand reform plan!

The same applies to the King of Qi.

However, Jiang Ming couldn't kill them immediately. Instead, he took them to the Yan Kingdom and treated them to good food and drink...

Let them enjoy their remaining time, and then, along with the King of Qi, the other kings and nobles of the rebellious small states, they will all be exiled to the northern grasslands...

We won't go into details about Wei Ji being sent to the State of Yan by Dugu Yan's subordinates...

After the fall of Daliang, the capital of Wei, Jiang Ming directly converted it into a prefecture and then continued to have King Ying Zhuang of Chu attack various smaller states.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!