Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 165 The Art of Negotiation by Dashuai Shi
"You two dare to board the boat, aren't you afraid that I'll kill you?" When the two parties sat down, Shi Congyun suddenly came down with a smile.

Sitting beside him was Pan Mei. Before such a big event, he could tell that he would let the official supervisor listen to him.

Zhou Zong was frightened and his face turned pale. It seems that he is not someone who has experienced strong winds and waves.

On the contrary, Han Xizai was calmer, and he cupped his hands and said, "Marshal Shi is a man who strategizes and uses soldiers like a god. He is definitely not a rough and reckless man. He has a strategy in his chest and has his own sense of measure in doing things. He will never ruin the relationship between the two countries for such a trivial matter as me." major event."

Han Xizai flattered him, and then took the opportunity to push back without any trace. It can be said that he was neither humble nor overbearing, and indeed had a bit of style.

Shi Congyun glanced at him, and did not reply immediately, but introduced Pan Mei who was beside him, "This is Pan Mei, the military supervising envoy of my Dazhou official family, and the deputy envoy of Xishanggemen."

The two hurriedly stood up to say hello, with smiles on their faces again. This is the "angel", the person who can represent the Northern Dynasty emperor's thoughts. At the same time, they are relieved. It is better than negotiating with Shi Congyun who always talks about murder.

But their smiles froze quickly, and Shi Congyun smiled and took out a yellow edict from his arms and shook it, "But the government has already issued an edict, and let someone handle it by himself."

"Okay, let's sit down and have a good talk. Han Gong's words are reasonable, but why can't I lead an army of 20 to take down Jinling City, which is a major event between our two countries. That is also a major event." Shi Congyun asked back.

Zhou Zong was so frightened that his mouth began to tremble, but Han Xizai calmed down, took a sip of the wine on the table, and then said, "Marshal Shi has his own way to attack our country. You rely on the strong to bully the weak, and use the big to bully the weak." Small and capable, but our court also has loyal ministers and dead men who have been in business for decades, and tens of thousands of people are willing to die for our court. If Marshal Shi can send out tens of thousands of people to fight with them to the death, regardless of the northern Khitan, Han Guo, of course it can, otherwise please consider carefully."

"A certain soldier has 20 soldiers, and I'm afraid of tens of thousands of you."

"Hahahaha." Han Xizai laughed, then shook his head, "Don't be joking, Marshal Shi. You do have a lot of boats, but you can't let go of 20 troops."

Shi Congyun smiled awkwardly, "Oh, you have some eyesight, but I only have 10 people."

Han Xizai shook his head again, "One hundred thousand? Forgive me, but in my opinion, how can there be 10 people here? It is absolutely impossible. Although there are many boats on the river, I have seen the navy and been on the water. The warships of the army are not all soldiers on board, there are also miscellaneous boatmen, and they also need to carry armor and armaments, unless the commander is pulling a hundred thousand civilians and the old man believes it."

Shi Congyun hammered the table angrily, and said sharply: "Oh, Han Xizai, who is so eloquent and sharp-eyed, I won't play tricks with you anymore. I have a thousand boats and fifty thousand soldiers. Your sensible selves Come up with a satisfactory condition."

He said a little irritably, but Han Xizai was a little proud, and Zhou Zong heaved a sigh of relief.

Little did he know that this was exactly what Shi Congyun wanted.

Shi Congyun knew the mentality of these people very well. He was from the countryside. When he was a child, he would often walk several kilometers of mountain roads with his mother to the town to sell vegetables from the field before dawn.

At that time, there were no supermarkets at all, and bargaining became commonplace for vegetables that sold for a few cents a catty, and often the two sides would fight dozens of times over a few dollars.

At this time, it is too much to test the psychological quality and acting skills of both parties.

Shi Congyun has learned a lot since he was a child. One of the important skills is to have a thick skin, start with a head start, and raise the price without thinking.

For things worth fifty cents, just give him five yuan when he asks, and let him cut down slowly. Every time he drops, the other party will have a sense of accomplishment, and the threshold of acceptance will also be lowered. I feel that he has taken advantage of it, and I feel that I am very good at it.

Just like Han Xizai who is sitting across from him now, he may feel that he has seen through his real strength step by step and is complacent, and gradually believes that he has led an army of [-] troops.

In fact, he thought Shi Congyun was on the first floor and he was on the second floor, but he didn't know that Shi Congyun was on the fifth floor!

After he slowly calmed down from his complacency, he would realize the concept of a fifty thousand army.

In fact, there is no fifty thousand, only twenty thousand.

Sure enough, the smile on the corner of Han Xizai's mouth gradually faded, and his face became more and more serious.

It was Shi Congyun's turn to laugh.

"Han Xizai, how many troops do you have in your country after Huainan wiped out an army of 10,000+? Can you resist a certain army?" He said with a smile.

"If I were a compassionate master, I would give you another month to prepare, and when you gather the troops from the counties and states around Jinling, I believe that you can gather [-] troops, which will put me under a little pressure, but I am not a master.

The number of people killed by a certain man is more than your current Jinling defenders. Now a certain army of [-] is approaching the city. If I send an army of [-] across the river to attack the city, how long can you last? "

Both Zhou Zong and Han Xizai were speechless, and Zhou Zonglian said in a panic, "Commander, please take care of me. If you have any needs, please feel free to speak up. Our country will do its best. I just ask for your mercy. Our small country in the south of the Yangtze River is safe and secure. , has never disobeyed the great powers of the Central Plains, so don't send troops."

Zhou Zong couldn't bear it anymore, he got up and clapped his hands one after another, and at the end he was so sad that he wanted to kneel down.

What Shi Congyun wanted was this kind of effect, and he had completely fooled Nan Tang. He was very happy, but on the surface, he just held Zhou Zong with his hands and kept him from kneeling. After all, he was an old father-in-law. .

However, it has to be said that Zhou Zong is not suitable for negotiating, and he does not understand the dangers of the world. Even if he is in a weak position, it is very unacceptable to show weakness and hope that the strong will show mercy.

Han Xizai was much better at this point, but before he had time to think of a countermeasure, Zhou Zong knelt down first, and he could only sigh and not speak.

Shi Congyun said, "I have limited time, so I won't wait too long, I'll give you two days.

I have given you four necessary conditions, and you, the monarchs, should discuss them carefully, and add some other conditions. If you can satisfy me and many soldiers, the two countries will stop fighting. If not, I will lead my [-] troops to the south of the Yangtze River. , Let's fight for life and death in Jinling City. "

"Commander, please tell me, I will keep it in mind and repay the lord." Han Xizai also cupped his hands.

Seeing that they were frightened and obedient, Shi Congyun didn't dare to think about bargaining as he did at the beginning, and he was satisfied, so he said: "Listen to the four conditions of XX.

The first is that it was proposed by my state of Zhou, that you must cede the land of the fourteen prefectures in the north of the Yangtze River, and all of them belong to Dazhou, and you must not look north in the future, otherwise our court will definitely send troops across the river and go straight to Jinling.

The second is proposed by my Dazhou officials. From now on, your lord must remove the title of emperor. You are only allowed to be called the lord, and you will pay homage to the north. They all need to ask for instructions from officials.

The third point was proposed by my soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty, because you did not obey the rules and poisoned the people, which caused my soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty to leave their homes and travel thousands of miles to fight here, which was very hard work.So with the [-] troops who came here, each person needs [-] yuan to appease, if you don’t have that much money, you can convert it into gold, silver, platinum, cloth, etc., it’s fine. "

"Yes, yes, what the commander-in-chief said is absolutely true." Although Zhou Guo started the war, there was nothing Shi Congyun could do about it.

Shi Congyun felt a lot of emotion when he saw that they didn't dare to speak back, Zhou Zong and Han Xizai were not to blame for this matter.

As the commander-in-chief of the Great Zhou, he had to say that, but it was not because Han Xizai and Zhou Zong didn't dare to speak back because they were not on the side of morality. This war was launched by Zhou State unilaterally, a naked invasion, but they couldn't do Lin Xiangru either. .

If you just read Lin Xiangru's stories, people will think that he has integrity and eloquence, and Shi Congyun thought so when he was a child.

But when he grew up and looked at that period of history, he slowly realized that Lin Xiangru dared to face King Qin Zhaoxiang in Mianchi because of Zhao Guo behind him.

Before the Battle of Changping, Zhao State and Qin State had been equal in strength, and they were the two most powerful countries at that time.

At that time, Qin State sent the family's army to attack Chu State again, and was extremely afraid that Zhao State, the powerful country next to them, would attack them, so they would endure it again and again.

As long as Lin Xiangru doesn't shit on King Qin Zhaoxiang's head, as a seasoned politician, he will definitely bear it as long as he can, maybe he can bear shit all the time, for the sake of the country and the 500 million people of Qin.

And if Lin Xiangru is not a minister of Zhao State, or if Lin Xiangru did it after the Changping War, there is no doubt that King Qin Zhaoxiang will never bear it, so what if he just pulls it out and chops it up? So, I have millions of heroes, who is reasoning with you?

This is a weak country without diplomacy.

Han Xizai and Zhou Zong were not necessarily without talent, but they did not have Lin Xiangru's life.

Seeing that the two were obsequious, Shi Congyun didn't intend to humiliate them.

He is not an ordinary general, although he can swell, but his swell is different from others. He has seen some things more clearly after observing the changes of the situation for thousands of years, and people like Han Xizai and Zhou Zong also understand it better.

The two wrote down, Zhou Zong finally asked, "What about the fourth condition?"

"The fourth one cough coughs." Shi Congyun coughed twice and said, "Of course the fourth one is for me. A certain person came from Daliang a thousand miles away, and fought in Huainan for a year. It must be considered hard work."

"That's natural. No one in the world knows about the great commander Shenwei. If you have any requests, just ask. We will definitely satisfy and deliver them as soon as possible." Zhou Zong said hastily.

It was Shi Congyun who led the army to fight, and Shi Congyun was the person they feared the most, and now he had the power to negotiate peace, and he was the most important key figure.

"You don't need to give it away." Shi Congyun said with a smile: "I have already taken it myself. Father-in-law is your eldest daughter Zhou Xian. She is on my boat. We have a very good relationship. You promised her to me. If you agree to withdraw the troops, I don’t need to think about it here, and think more about whether the officials and soldiers agree or not.”

"Ah..." Zhou Zong was stunned for a moment, and even Han Xizai looked at each other in blank dismay, unable to react for a long time.

When the two returned from the middle of the river to the bank of the river in a small boat, under the protection of many guards, many colleagues were already waiting anxiously. When they saw the man coming back, they gathered around and asked nervously.

"How's it going?"

"That's what Shi Congyun said."

"What news."

Han Xizai heard all kinds of words like this, and understood that these people were not thinking about the country, but were just afraid that Zhou Jun would disagree and wanted to attack Jinling.

Taking another look at Zhou Zong, who looked behind him in a daze, with a gloomy expression, he pushed the crowd away with his hands, "Naturally tell His Majesty first about such a big event, so don't stop me, lest something bad happen."

"What's the air?"

"Isn't it just a trip to the middle of the river, why come here?"

"Why is this? Then when His Majesty asked, why did no one dare to go!" Han Xizai angrily reprimanded everyone speechless, then pulled Zhou Zong into the carriage, and drove all the way from the outside of the city to the direction of the palace.

Feeling in my heart, that Shi Congyun is really like in the legend, young, gentle and martial, and also lustful.
His great contribution, capturing the fourteen prefectures of Huainan, must be a great achievement that will be remembered in history, but in the end he only wanted to change to a woman, what a hero and a beauty.

In fact, he was thinking in his heart that it would be a great thing for only one woman to take down Shi Congyun, their most feared and troublesome opponent, at least for their entire country.

But Zhou Zong was afraid that he would be unhappy, and Shi Congyun even called him "father-in-law" without any manners. He really did not follow the rules.

After returning to the palace, Han Xizai reported their conversation on the ship to the lord Li Jing.

He also gave his opinion: "Your Majesty, in the opinion of the old minister, the history has details in the thick and the thick, so we must be determined.

At first, he threatened us with a 20-strong army that the veterans would see through, but he was well prepared. He had a [-]-strong army in his hands, and his soldiers were extremely fast. He suddenly came from the waterway, and we were too late to prepare.

He expected that if the battle was resolved quickly, Jinling City would not be able to stop him.

Over the past year, I have lost more than [-] troops in Huainan, and now the garrison near Jinling is no more than [-], and the Northern Army is brave and good at fighting. If he attacks by force, I am afraid."

These words have already scared the emperor and his younger brother, the eldest son Li Hongji, and the beloved son Li Congjia, to turn pale with fright.

"That Shi Congyun has always been invincible. It seems that he is not only brave, but also extremely brainy and strategic. He is difficult to deal with. He has a good grasp of our situation, so he only gave us two days , Within two days, Qin Wang's army from all the prefectures and counties will definitely not be able to reach Jinling." Han Xizai said sadly.

Li Hongji also shook his head helplessly: "Even if he arrives, he may not be his opponent. With the power of the whole country, we can at most assemble an army of 1 in Jinling. Ten thousand people, after that, the feat of defeating many with less. In Huainan, it only takes four months to swallow up a hundred thousand troops. If he leads an army of fifty thousand to the Jinling city."

"Stop talking, stop talking soon, let me think about how to satisfy him!" Li Jing was so scared that he was about to collapse, especially when Han Xizai and Li Hongji said so.

"That Shi Congyun is very satisfied. He clearly said that as long as the Duke of Zhou loves his daughter Zhou Xian, he can agree to retire." Han Xizai carefully glanced at Zhou Zong's facial expression, and then at the pale face, trembling hands, eyes The prince Li Congjia who is afraid of color is everywhere.

In fact, he knew in his heart that His Majesty would definitely not care. If he could ask the Northern Dynasty to withdraw his troops, he would not even be willing to give up his son, let alone a daughter-in-law.

"The difficult thing is how to satisfy the [-] soldiers of the Zhou army and the emperor of the Northern Dynasty. It depends on how much Your Majesty is willing to do."

"I'll give them as much as they want!" Li Jing roared angrily.

So in the next two days, the Southern Tang court began a heated discussion about how to please the generals of the Zhou army, how to please the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, and how to please the general of the Zhou army.

It can be said that a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend, and there are many opinions.

These ministers, who grew up in the midst of pleasure and power struggle, are not good at war and military affairs, but it is their professional field to say that pleasing people.

In the afternoon of the second day, there were many opinions and a list was made, framed with gold powder, and the etiquette was grand, and they were going to Jiangxin to present to Zhou Jun's commander-in-chief Shi Congyun.

This time the Lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty and his officials unanimously decided to let Zhou Zong go, because Shi Congyun is called Zhou Zong's father-in-law, and he must be respected very much. He will go to the family to talk, and everyone respects him politely. Please ask again and again. .

There are also many dignitaries who have begged to see him in private, some who have a good relationship with him, those who don't know him, and even those who have a bad relationship with him now bow their heads and apologize to please him.

His words are decent, his attitude is respectful, and he also offers gold and silver treasures. He just wants to bring a gift and something to Zhou Jun's commander Shi Congyun through him, so that he can recognize him.

As for Zhou Zong and Zhou Xian's thoughts, no one cared, the country was at a critical moment, everyone thought what if Shi Congyun didn't appreciate it and led [-] troops into Jinling City?At this time, only Zhou Zong could save his life.

So Zhou Zong went to Jiangxin by boat again, this time it was full of presents, he was inexplicably flattered, yesterday he was worried because of his daughter's loss, but today he was inexplicably happy.

(End of this chapter)