The rise of the prince

Chapter 722 Blackmail Xia Guo
When they returned to the palace, the envoys of the Kingdom of Xia had been waiting for a long time.

In the past few days, Fang Xin has almost figured out all the current situation of the Xia Kingdom, such as the latest situation of the civil strife, the internal strife among the rebels, and finally ended with Xia Guozhong's letter ordering the prime minister Zhang Jie to win.

Although the rebel army confronted Li Ji, the king of Xia, the two sides fought for several months. As a result, the rebel army won successively. Li Ji was forced to retreat to the north and rely on the Yellow River to defend against Zhang Xie's attack.

So at this time Xia Wang Li Ji was the most flustered, and the sudden rebellion almost drove him to death.

When Li Xingzhou met the envoy of the Xia Kingdom, the other party couldn't say a word in a grand manner, and he kept on being obedient, and it wasn't his fault. Xia Guo's survival depended entirely on Jing Guo at this time.

After the tea was ready, Fang Xin also sat down, and Li Xingzhou said, "Mr. Fang must have said enough about the conditions."

"Yes yes yes, as long as your country sells our strong bows and crossbows, sharp swords and weapons, and when the rebels are wiped out and King Xia stabilizes the country, he will definitely return Tang Long's town!" the messenger hurriedly said.

Li Xingzhou laughed, and he said calmly, "That's not necessary. The reason why Tanglong Town fell into the hands of your country was that we were fighting against the Liao Kingdom at the time and had no time to take care of it. Now, the Liao Kingdom has been destroyed, and the last emperor of the Liao Kingdom, Yelu Dun He is still a guest in Kaiyuan City."

The last sentence, Li Xingzhou said very seriously, frightened the Xixia envoy's face turned pale.

"So Tang Long Town is the territory of our own country, not the capital of your negotiations. If it is still in your country's hands in June next year, I will personally lead the troops to take it. You don't have to bother your King Xia." Li Xingzhou said. Loudly.

"Yes, yes, what the king of Jin said is very true!" Xia Guo's envoy was sweating profusely, and hurriedly said: "Xiaoguo will definitely return it, and will definitely return it. If the prince has other conditions, please express it clearly. Xiaoguo will definitely do his best."

Li Xingzhou had carried a gun with a stick before, scaring the emissary very much, and deliberately threatened the fate of the Liao Kingdom's subjugation and genocide. Now that he had achieved his goal, he smiled casually: "That's not necessary. I ask you for gold and silver for no reason. I, Jingguo, is a country in the Central Plains. Naturally, there are rules in doing things, and everything I do is buying and selling.

You want swords, bows and crossbows, just buy them with money and silk. "

The envoy of Xia Guo was so happy that he got up and kowtowed several times, "Thank you, my lord, thank you, my lord!"

"I haven't finished my words yet." Li Xingzhou continued: "But our first priority is copper, followed by gold and silver, understand."

"Ah?" The envoy of the Kingdom of Xia was also stunned, because gold and silver are obviously more valuable than copper, but the king of Jin actually said that the most valuable copper is the first!

"You heard me right. The king's first priority is copper. If copper is insufficient, he can make up for it with gold and silver. Do you understand?" Li Xingzhou said. The reason why he wanted copper was for consideration. Copper is an important strategic resource, especially for firearms.

For example, padding copper behind the barrel can reduce the chance of bombing through its good ductility.

As for eggshells and cannonball shells, copper has better ductility and is relatively easy to process.

And at the moment of firing, it can be closely matched with the barrel to seal the high-temperature gas gas. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure in the bore can return to its original shape, which is conducive to the extraction of the bullet.

However, steel is relatively hard, and if the machining accuracy is not high enough and there is sand, dust, and dirt in the barrel, there will be a gap with the barrel, causing air leakage, and it is not easy to recover and extract the shell after deformation.

Therefore, with the continuous development of Wangfu's processing technology and industrial strength, copper will only become more and more scarce.

At present, all countries use copper either for furniture or for coining, but in the palace, in the palace, this will soon change.

The envoy of Xia Guo was very happy in the end. Li Xingzhou agreed to sell Xia Guo two thousand crossbows, three thousand fine iron spear heads, one thousand fine iron sabers, and a large number of crossbow bolts.

These are all things in the inventory of the Military Weapons Supervision, which were originally for the refitting and expansion of the Forbidden Army.

The palace will send two battalions of the new army to escort the batch of ordnance to the north by means of river transport, and then according to the agreement, King Xia must fill a boat full of copper, plus 1 taels of gold, 20 taels of silver, and an additional 5 taels Two as the escort fee for the two battalions of new troops.And guarantee that it has nothing to do with the transaction, and it will be returned to Tang Long Town after the situation stabilizes.

Naturally, it is suspected that the lion opened his mouth. After all, the amount of copper that filled a royal ship was not a small amount.

But Fang Xin had made it clear to them a long time ago that now the Kingdom of Jin is at war, Mobei is at war, Jing State has just finished the war, and Liao State has already defeated itself. Since everyone is at war, who will have arms to sell to them? Help him?

There is nowhere except Jingguo, after this village, there is no such hall.

So, they either accept the high price, or they go begging someone else.

In desperation, the envoy must have written back to ask King Xia Li Ji, that's why he delayed for so long, and finally agreed. Fang Xin made it very clear that no one could help Xia Guo except them.

One is willing to fight and the other is willing to suffer. Even if they are blackmailing, King Xia and Li Ji can only admit it.

The agreement with Xixia was thus reached. Li Xingzhou asked Yan Shen to lead two battalions of new troops, mobilize two large ships, load up artillery and send weapons to King Xia, and at the same time let Xiao Hongqi go with him.

We will set off in late November, head north along the Great River, and come back years ago.

The military trade agreement with Xia Guo was reached, and the palace made a fortune. A ship of copper, plus a few 10 taels of gold and silver, made a huge profit.

The rest is the military trade with the tribes in the grassland. He Xu has been away for many days and is waiting for news from him, but I don't know if he can negotiate a deal. After all, it is the first time for him to engage in such serious diplomacy.

In the days that followed, it became much easier. Mr. De would come to him to drink tea and chat with him from time to time, and sometimes he would bring He Zhao and Zhong Daoyu with him.

Since Zhong Daoyu was relegated by the emperor, he has become much more at ease, and he has become more energetic. The older he gets, the more energetic he is.

According to what I said before, Li Xingzhou sometimes invited him to Yongyue Pavilion to teach the children of the palace about the art of war. When he talked about war, the children became energetic.

Regarding Zhong Daoyu, Li Xingzhou felt ashamed, he had been relegated to Zhong Daoyu by the old emperor at the beginning, it was because of the embarrassment of the imperial army's embezzlement of military pay, the two disagreed.

Now it seems that there may be some other reasons, and that is to pave the way for him. In order to pave the way for him, the old emperor demoted Zhong Daoyu and appointed He Zhao as a transfer envoy. On his head, the person who handed over the royal power to the royal family.

Thinking back now, he was indeed a little naive at the time. The old emperor's actions were all for the sake of centralizing power in the royal family. It's just that everyone couldn't understand it at the beginning, and even he, the person involved, was kept in the dark.

Sometimes Li Xingzhou would call Di Zhi, Wei Yubai, Zeng Lin, Yan Shen, Mao Luan, and Bao Zheng, and ask them to talk more with De Gong and Zhong Daoyu. After all, compared to these two pillars, they are all juniors , there is a lot to learn.

(End of this chapter)