After Cao Bin captured Shaozhou, 100,000 troops advanced along the water and land, and threatened Xing's palace. The Southern Han Kingdom had a vast separatist territory and could not organize a decent war.

Because the Southern Han Dynasty ruler Liu Jixing had no one available in the capital, his power was all in the hands of palace maids and eunuchs. There were as many as 20,000 eunuchs in China, and he had to be an official and castrated himself first.

The Xing Palace was in panic. In addition to the worries of the king and his ministers, there was also a group of special people who were worried and were ready to take the boat to run away at any time; they were the merchants of Dashi.

The Silk Road in the Western Regions was blocked at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the Dashi merchants came from the sea to the southern coast and opened the trade route for a while. However, Zhu Wen destroyed the Tang Dynasty and then led his troops to Guangdong. He was short of military expenditure at the end of the road. At this time, a large number of Dashi merchants were found, and they killed nearly 100,000 Dashi merchants without saying anything! They snatched all their goods and belonged to them.

The sea route trade was blocked for a while, and it was only after 20 or 30 years that they re-communicated one after another, but the scale was no longer as large as that of the Tang Dynasty. The Great Cannibal and the Southern Han Kingdom established a trade relationship for common interests, and also gave a big food beauty named "Pig" who was deeply loved by Liu Jixing.

Decades have passed since the bleeding incident and have been washed away by the waves. But the shadows are still there. The Dashi merchants are very worried that after the capture of the Xing Palace, the Chinese and Turkish soldiers will use their old tricks to do such barbaric actions again.

However, they were unwilling to give up their property and commercial profits in the Xingwang Mansion. In addition, they heard rumors that the Middle-earth dynasty was not the Zhu Wen tribe who was desperate to jump over the wall at that time, so they still had a glimmer of hope.

The leader of the Dashi merchant decided to send envoys to the north to meet with the commander of the Zhou army to test the attitude of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Because the cannibal in the south was just a businessman and did not interfere with the War of Unification, Cao Bin treated him politely. Cao Bin immediately reported the matter to the court and made some of his own views in the memorial.

Cao Bin generally affirmed the exchanges between Dashi merchants. First, the taxes of the imperial court can be increased from trade, and the Dashi people bought mostly luxury goods such as silk and porcelain, which will not have much impact on people's livelihood; second, the "family and near attacks" is the essence of diplomatic relations between ancient sages. Establishing a tribute trade system can expand the prestige of the dynasty... All countries thousands of miles away come to pay tribute, and their face doubles!

...When Guo Shao received the memorial submitted from Tokyo, he had already left Lingzhou and was temporarily staying in the Binzhou Palace.

Wei Renpu and others attached Cao Bin's proposal this time that the "increasing taxes" was enough for ministers to support. At this time, the treasury expenses were very huge, with the solid foundation of Shu and Southern Tang. Although the treasury was not empty, the annual expenditure in the past two years was more than twice the normal fiscal revenue, and it was entirely dependent on subsidies within the treasury.

Cao Bin's village army camp will have effect in the short term. Guo Shao is already planning a second batch of 100,000 troops to increase troops... The ministers' requirements for implementing the strategy are very simple, just three words: take money.

In this situation, even if the Privy Council does not care about finance, it will be anxious. Once the internal warehouses plundered through the early war are hollowed out, it would be strange if the income and expenditure of the entire dynasty does not collapse! The conventional means can increase revenue and reduce expenditure. The profits of maritime trade with Dashi are to increase revenue, and mosquito meat is also to meat.

However, Guo Shao said something that no one paid attention to: "How did the big cannibal come to Prince Xing's Mansion?"

Wei Renpu pondered for a moment and said, "It should be a boat."

Guo Shao said: "It is naturally a boat to come from the sea. The key is that it is thousands of miles apart. It is not easy for the boat to drive here. I remember that when the Southern Tang Kingdom sent people to take a boat to the north from the sea to ask for help from the Liao Kingdom, and they even overturned several times when sailing near the sea. This great cannibal route is farther than the East China Sea, so there must be a reason to reach the Xingwang Mansion."

After hearing this, the ministers nodded and said yes, but they didn't seem to pay much attention to it. Because navigation technology is really not particularly critical to the court.

Guo Shao paid special attention to this matter... His perspective and insight are different. Navigation technology may not be very important now, but it will gradually have a profound impact in many years. In Guo Shao's memory, it was not until the Ming Dynasty that the Chinese fleet reached Africa and was soon interrupted.

Being able to sail from Arabia to Southeast Asia must have unique features in shipbuilding and nautical experience and skills.

Guo Shao's concept was never tolerate China in ancient times, nor did he be blindly arrogant as the Celestial Empire. Compared with the various civilizations in the world at the same time, everyone was behind and worse. He felt that China was still more advanced in all aspects, and could be considered civilized, prosperous and stable in various aspects; but not everything was the most advanced, and many aspects still had their own strengths and weaknesses. Learning each other's strengths will help progress; for example, the Ming Dynasty was generally strong and advanced, and in terms of firearms, they still had to learn from foreign countries in order to keep up with the general trend.

"Zuo You also served as the Ministry of Rites. He was in Lingnan and issued an order to let Zuo You be responsible for discussing with the cannibals." Guo Shao said.

All the ministers thought that being kind and the cannibals were Gentiles. When it comes to diplomatic relations, Cao Bin could not be in charge. He had to use the Beijing officials to represent the central government.

Guo Shao quickly made a decision and wrote two letters, one to Cao Bin and the other to Zuo You, and put forward some of his own attitudes to let them be responsible for handling the affairs in the south.

...At this time, Cao Bin's troops in Lingnan strictly controlled the water and land roads and made careful and steadily advance. However, in fact, the army of the Southern Han Dynasty was inconsistent in combat and did not have any conventional tactical efforts such as harassment or cutting off food channels. The Zhou army made a very smooth progress.

Not long after, Liu Jixing sent people to the Zhou army camp to discuss peace.

The envoy actually threatened the Zhou army: If the Zhou army continues to attack, it will burn down the Southern Han Palace, so that the Zhou army will not get any property!

The conditions proposed were to cede all the territory occupied by the Zhou army north of Shaozhou and give up the title of emperor; the Zhou army stopped attacking.

Cao Bin thought this condition was ridiculous. The army of the Southern Han Kingdom performed so poorly. Now he had a great grasp of destroying his country. Why should he tolerate the existence of the Southern Han Kingdom?

After discussing with Zuo You, he rejected the peace agreement of the envoys of the Southern Han Kingdom and put forward new conditions: the Southern Han Kingdom led all civil and military officials to surrender voluntarily, and the court be kind to grant you an official title and a title to ensure you have wealth and honor; if the palace treasury is burned, the crime will be even higher than the death penalty and will be unavoidable.

Zuo You discussed trade affairs with the Dashi Envoy.

The cannibal came and received courtesy, and then sent more important figures and several Chinese translators and staff hired to accompany him.

Zuo You met him in the tent. After the translator finished speaking, he said, "Zuo Shigong, his name is XXOO..."

"What?" Zuo You frowned, but he didn't understand it. The name he said seemed to be stuck in his nose, and he was in ambiguous voice. The translator thought about it and said, "The name is probably pronounced as 'Shuaiman'. He is the second-person of the Big Food Fleet. He still keeps his word in the Big Food Fleet."

Zuo You nodded, then he clasped his fists and returned the gift to the cannibal.

Shuaiman looked at Zuo You and said something whispered. After hearing this, Zuo You turned to look at the Chinese translator, and the man said again: "Mr. Shuaiman roughly means that they came to Middle-earth to do business, they were very kind and had no hostility. I hope they could get the protection of His Majesty the Emperor."

Zuo You said: "The Great Zhou court values ​​etiquette and virtue, which is completely different from the bandits who were in troubled times when they were in the country. Although you are relieved, your Majesty hopes that the envoys of the Great Zhou capital Tokyo will visit the Great Zhou capital to pay homage to each other and pay tribute to each other."

Shuaiman said through the translation: "How should we ensure our safety?"

Zuo You pondered: "Your Majesty will issue an edict to explain this matter. The court is willing to communicate with Dashi whether there is any business. The Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty has a golden word and a jade word. The imperial edict must be counted, which is related to the prestige of the court."

He thought for a while and said, "But the commission on the market tax, the agreement between you and the Southern Han Kingdom cannot be counted, so we have to re-discuss it."

Shuai Man was even more relieved when he heard this. Perhaps in their opinion, what can really protect safety is the interests. Since the Zhou court talked about commission, it was just to divide the benefits, so we had to have a good relationship.

Zuo You checked it, and then mentioned Guo Shao's request in the letter and said, "But the envoys and merchants must agree to the two conditions of our dynasty. First, they must abide by the laws of the court. Those who commit crimes shall be punished according to the laws of the Great Zhou. You shall not obstruct the government's office.

Secondly, the court respects the gods of you and others and does not interfere with the gods of you and others worship Bodhisattvas, but must not deceive the people in the Great Zhou territory, otherwise they will be severely punished and will no longer protect the safety of you and others."

Zuo You also suggested that Shuaiman send someone to Tokyo to pay tribute. As long as he gives the emperor some strange gifts, he will definitely get a generous reward.

Gentile tribute is also a kind of trade. For the court, it is a loss-making business. For the tributers, it is a business that allows them to make money but not lose money. Therefore, it is generally only allowed to pay tribute once a year. Not only is the court in order to show its generosity and wealth, but the key is to not give people money and others have no motivation to pay tribute; and if the world is not peaceful, the safety of the tribute route cannot be guaranteed... This kind of etiquette is not mainly for economic interests, but for expanding its prestige and influence, and looking forward to the prosperous situation of "all nations come to pay tribute".

...After returning, Shuaiman discussed and accepted the request to go to the capital of Dazhou to pay tribute in order to further examine the attitude of the Zhou court.

The big cannibal prepared some rare goods brought from his hometown for trading. When Shuaiman checked the goods, he found a wooden model of a sailboat. He was furious and found a joint merchant leader and severely punished the people who prepared the goods to serve as a warning.

The reason for Shuaiman is that the model of the sailboat sent by the person who made the mistake may reveal the shipbuilding design of Dashi to Middle-earth.

All the partners agreed with his reasons, so the person who made the mistake was in trouble and would be cut off one hand. He defended that the Zhou people never valued this thing, and the model would definitely be placed in the room by the nobles as strange decorations; the reason was that the Middle-earth nobles despised merchants and craftsmen and would not interact with merchants and craftsmen.

But Shuaiman did not forgive him for this and insisted on punishing him.

A group of people discussed the rules that they should not tell outsiders about shipbuilding craftsmanship, navigation experience, mathematics and arithmetic, or they would be executed next time!
Chapter completed!