Chapter 74: The unprecedented unity of the princes...

What was even more unbearable for King An was yet to come. With the help of the coalition forces of various countries, the King of the North saved the remaining territory of the Northern Kingdom. However, due to the war, he had no money to rebuild.

The next time Jingchang attacks again, the Northern Kingdom may not be able to organize an effective resistance.

If the Northern Kingdom is really conquered next time, what will it be like for the other countries to bother with this?

The sunk costs delayed the aid until after the war. No matter how unwilling An Qu was, he had to accept it and send money, food and people to the Northern Kingdom.

As a result, just as he delivered it, a prophecy spread throughout the world. The Northern King, a fool who almost destroyed his country, became the ruler of destiny, and all the princes in the world had to be suppressed by the Northern King.

How could this satisfy Prince An? Not only was he dissatisfied, he was also irritable and angry. He wanted to lead his troops to conquer the Northern Kingdom before Jingchang did.

In the end, it was An Qu, the Prime Minister of Anguo, who persuaded King An and explained to him that Beiguo was the battlefield between Anguo and Jingchang. If the battlefield was not in Beiguo, it must be within Anguo.

Whoever is on the battlefield will be unable to bear it, so for the sake of Anguo's future, before Anguo has the ability to unify the world, this barrier of the Northern Kingdom must never collapse.

Prince An understood the truth, but that didn't stop him from getting angry, nor did it stop him from being so angry that he couldn't sleep for the whole night.

This feeling of frustration is something I have never experienced before. When An Gongshou was bedridden due to Wen Tao's scolding in a fu, An Wangzhuo also felt frustrated, but the incident did not happen to him, so his frustration was limited.

Now that he is faced with the unavoidable difficulties, he can somewhat empathize with his father back then. It turns out that being angry but not being able to speak out is so painful!

"Prime Minister, are we really incapable of dealing with the Northern Kingdom? Over the years, our An Kingdom has fought numerous battles with the Northern Kingdom, both openly and covertly. Why are we suddenly going all out to support the Northern Kingdom? And you heard that prophecy, as did all the other princes. Are we simply going to watch the Northern Kingdom rise and unify the world?"

Prince An really couldn't stand it anymore. Recently, he could even hear some palace maids in the palace talking about the prophecy. The palace maids were worried about their own future. If the An Kingdom really perished, as palace maids around King An Kingdom, they would all have to be buried with him.

Their concerns did not seem fake, and Prince An felt even more uncomfortable when he heard them.

An Qu sat in a simple wooden wheelchair and sighed softly. He looked much older than before. Not only did he have white hair on his temples, but his entire mental state had also become very decadent.

The words "unable to walk" are hard to accept for anyone, let alone a normal person who could run and jump before, but suddenly loses the ability to move. The humiliation and unwillingness are hard to describe in words.

If An Qu had not been still thinking about An Guo, he would have followed the late Lord An long ago.

Now he listened to the young Prince An express his resentment, his eyes full of fatigue.

To put it bluntly, what happened to An Guo before was basically all caused by Prince An's impulsiveness and willful behavior.

King An is young, and it is a good thing for a young king to have ambition, but if his strength does not match his ambition, it will be a huge disaster for the country of An.

What made An Qu even more disappointed was that after such a big lesson, King An did not learn to bide his time. He was still stubborn and self-willed, and he still couldn't keep his temper.

It's just that compared to before, his strength has decreased a lot, so he was forced to learn not to take action.

When he died, what would be the future of Anguo? An Qu looked at the angry expression of the young King An and felt sad.

"Your Majesty, the prophecy is nothing more than a conspiracy by Jingchang, a frame-up by the Zhou Emperor. Until now, no news has come out of Fengbao City. This shows that the Northern King himself doesn't even acknowledge the prophecy. A false prophecy that no one claims is a cause for concern."

An Qu saw it clearly and knew that this prophecy must not be fulfilled. The King of the North could not agree, and neither could the other princes.

Once someone really believes that the prophecy is true, then the prophecy will come true.

"How could a prophecy bestowed by the gods be false? The Northern King remained silent, not because he denied it, but because he dared not. He has been a timid person since he was a child."

King An did not believe that the Zhou emperor would make up a prophecy at random. That was a hint from heaven. As the son of heaven, why did the emperor need to recognize another child for heaven?

If this prophecy happened to him, King An believed that he would definitely nod in agreement. He never concealed his ambition for the world.

When An Qu saw King An's confident expression, he knew that King An really had never doubted the truth of the prophecy. King An was like this, and most of the other princes were also like this.

An Qu’s first reaction was that the princes were all fools, right?

Then he realized that the princes also had their own little thoughts.

If Heaven can truly recognize two Sons of Heaven, then wouldn't it also be possible to recognize a third and fourth? All I have to do is become the next one.

Unfortunately, the only person who could offer sacrifices to the heaven and receive the prophecy was the Zhou emperor. The princes were not considered orthodox, and no one would believe them even if they said they were the emperor. The fact that they could reach the stage of becoming kings was already a special favor from the Zhou emperor.

Jingchang is no longer what it used to be, and the opinion of the Zhou emperor is very important.

"No matter whether the Northern King will recognize us or not, we must not attack the Northern Kingdom anymore. Instead, we must let the Northern Kingdom stand firm and serve as a shield for the An Kingdom. Your Majesty, please be patient."

An Qu's words made King An very painful. In the past, when his father was angered to death, he had to endure it. Now, facing the enemy in trouble, not only could he not add insult to injury, but he also had to help him with all his might. He was almost going crazy from enduring it.

Prince An finally knew that the overall situation was more important, so he endured it. If no one had made trouble, and if he hadn't accidentally mentioned this matter to him every day, he would have really forgotten about it.

The group of people who angered An Gongshou to death were still alive in the An Kingdom Palace. Gui Yang was shocked and didn't understand why An Kingdom kept those people.

Could it be that he wanted to follow the clues and find out about himself?

Gui Yang didn't want to cause trouble and originally planned not to use that group of people. Then he thought, even if the investigation led to Jingchang, what would happen? Would Anguo dare to attack him?

I dare not, so why don’t some people use it.

So Gui Yang used the original formula to deal with the old ones and then the young ones. What was even more ridiculous was that the same formula was effective against the old ones and also against the young ones.

Perhaps self-righteousness and irritability are the character flaws inherited from An Guo. It's just that the original An Gongshou is old and has encountered more things, so he can pretend to be so. But the current King An is too young and can't pretend anymore.

Not long after, Anguo stopped providing aid to Beiguo. King An could not help but sent a thousand troops and, using the excuse of delivering supplies, swallowed up a border town of Beiguo.

Later, when the Northern Kingdom came to question him, Anguo simply said he had taken interest and mocked the Northern Kingdom as a fool. Could there be such a thing as a free lunch? Anguo had sent so much material to the Northern Kingdom, so what was wrong with asking for some interest?

I didn't care that you asked for all the supplies, even if I was being kind, don't be shameless.

The words would definitely not be so blunt, this is roughly the content.

Shen Zhiwei was shocked when he learned about An Guo's reaction. Originally, An Guo supported Bei Guo for its own interests, not out of friendship between the two countries. Bei Guo had always been quite grateful and ceded a lot of interests to An Guo. But An Guo actually came to ask for interest!

Is An Qu just going to watch King An and King Bei falling out?

After Shen Zhiwei inquired, he found out that the weather had turned cold recently and An Qu was too sick to get out of bed. He was old and his previous injuries had damaged his foundation. It was estimated that in a few years, he would follow the late An Gong.

Without An Qu in charge, the young King An was quite free to do whatever he wanted.

The key point is that King An's brilliant ideas have been told to other members of the royal family. The Northern Kingdom is now as weak as a cat and not as strong as before. What can the Northern Kingdom do if their cities are captured?

Some people are short-sighted and only care about small gains. Without An Qu, the prime minister who has a broad view of the world, Anguo's future will probably be worse than before.

Shen Zhiwei had no ending, so he just watched the show every day, watching Anguo and Beiguo struggle.

If the Northern Kingdom cannot resist the invasion of the An Kingdom and take back the lost territory, the border of the Northern Kingdom will be very busy in the future. There is a precedent. The vassal states that supported the Northern Kingdom before will come to collect interest.

The Northern Kingdom obviously knew that it could not set this precedent, so no matter how An Guo begged them, they would not give in and would demand that An Guo give up the city. If An Guo did not return the city, they would go to war with An Guo.

King An is not easily frightened. If the Northern Kingdom begged hard and privately ceded other interests in exchange for the city, King An might have relented. But now that the Northern Kingdom’s attitude is so tough, King An doesn’t want to relent. He must have the city.

So in the middle of winter, the two countries started fighting.

There are many obstacles to marching in winter, especially in the northern territory. It is no exaggeration to say that it is covered with ice and snow. Anguo has a large territory, and the soldiers in the south may have never experienced such a cold winter.

So when the two countries were at war, as the weather got colder, the Northern Army's advantage became greater.

However, the Northern Kingdom had lost a big battle before and had not yet recovered, so it had no stamina. Later on, other countries followed An Kingdom like hyenas and bit it. The Northern Kingdom was unable to resist and was defeated.

The reason why the other princes all joined forces with An Guo was not because of An Guo's great reputation or good popularity, but because of the effect of the previous prophecy.

When the North is half dead, it is better to be alive than dead. When the North is about to die, it is best to die completely!

Shen Zhiwei watched the melee with cold eyes, sitting on the mountain and watching the fight between tigers. When he had nothing to do, he asked Gui Yang to stir up trouble and add fuel to the fire.

So the Northern Kingdom found that no matter how they struggled this time, the vassal states would not give in. Even if the Northern Kingdom used Jingchang as a threat to ask the other vassal kings to calm down, the vassal kings would ignore it.

It looks like he is determined to destroy the Northern Kingdom.

King Beiyue couldn't understand what he had done to become the public enemy in the eyes of the princes?

Not understanding, but unwilling to die like this, the Northern King began to resist. He took advantage of the terrain and the courage of his army, which was about to perish, and managed to withstand the successive attacks from the princes.

Some small princes could not hold on and left first, and were then destroyed by the big princes and became part of the big country. Some small princes were directly defeated by the Northern Kingdom, and it is unknown who will get the benefit of their territory in the future.

The great princes gritted their teeth and held on. Now that the war had begun, how could they be willing to watch the Northern Kingdom be destroyed?

At this moment, the princes were unprecedentedly united.