Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 751 We will be neighbors from now on (please subscribe!)

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Because he participated in the whole process of Song Jin's maritime alliance and the subsequent delivery of Yanjing and other diplomatic matters, he was able to be neither humble nor arrogant in the process of negotiating with Liangshan, Jin, and Liao. It should be said that Ma Kuo contributed a lot to get Yanyun.

It is precisely because of this that after the delivery of the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, Ma Kuo was promoted from Chengjielang to the defense envoy of Yaojun, and became a middle-level military officer in the Northern Song Dynasty.

But since then, Ma Kuo can be said to have experienced ups and downs.

He was first framed by his colleagues for colluding with the Jinren, and he was imprisoned by his own people.

Later, he escaped by taking advantage of the chaos of the Jin army going south, and then established an al-Qaeda organization in Xishan Monk Cave to fight against Jin.

But not long after, the group of rebels he organized was attacked by the Jinren. He was defeated and captured, and then placed under house arrest by the Jinren.

Later, when the Chinese army went north to recover Taiyuan, Liu Kai rescued him.

After that, he was sent by Liu Qi to Bianliang, Tokyo.

At that time, the trend of Dazhong aspiring to the Central Plains had already emerged, and the Southern Song Dynasty was at best a fate of partial safety.

Under such circumstances, Li Yan personally talked with Ma Kuo once, and then promised to be a senior official of the fourth-rank Honglu Siqing.

Ma Zheng and others, who had already voted for Dazhong, persuaded them from the sidelines.

After a lot of experience, Ma Kuo, who has matured a lot compared to a few years ago, took office soon.

The first task Ma Kuo received was to establish diplomatic relations with Xixia.

This is the first mission after the establishment of Honglu Temple.

Therefore, Ma Kuo is very dedicated to this task, and wants to use this task to open up the situation for Honglu Temple.

After considering many aspects, Ma Kuo asked the court to send two people from Fuzhou Zhejia to be his deputy.

Soon after, Orihiko and Orizhichang came to Bianliang, Tokyo.

The reason why Ma Kuo wanted people from the Zhe family from Fuzhou to come was that the Zhe family knew Xixia best, and the second was that he could use the Zhe family to test Xixia's attitude towards the establishment of diplomatic relations.

This is why the previous scene appeared.

The task Li Yan gave Ma Kuo was to establish diplomatic relations with Xixia and temporarily stabilize Xixia, not to let Ma Kuo play big and medium.

Therefore, it is okay to test the attitude of the envoy Xia, but this matter is one but not the other.

Therefore, Ma Kuo personally went to the West Station of Duting to pick up Li Zhizhong and others, and then personally arranged for Li Zhizhong and others to board and stay.

The whole process, although not luxurious, can be called quite satisfactory. The key point is that although Ma Kuo's attitude is not enthusiastic, it is polite enough.

This made Li Zhizhong and others, who had been worried all the way, heaved a sigh of relief, and said to themselves, "Dazhong still has the intention to talk."

After a short confrontation, the two sides finally sat down for the first tentative negotiation.

Li Zhizhong was the first to bring up the topic and said: "Before I came, your country's army often invaded our Xia territory, and caused casualties on our side a few times. There is no big enmity between you and me, and such incidents should be avoided. happen, so as not to cause enmity and affect the peaceful coexistence of our two countries.”

Ma Kuo said: "There is such a thing? It shouldn't be. I haven't heard that any unit of our army has gone abroad to fight... May I ask the ambassador, where did our army hurt your personnel?"

Li Zhizhong said: "In Huanzhou and Dingbian Army."

After hearing this, Ma Kuo smiled, and said, "When did northern Shaanxi become your Xia territory?"—In name, northern Shaanxi should still be the territory of the Song Dynasty. The division of the three kingdoms of gold and gold has nothing to do with Xixia?
Hearing this, Li Zhizhong unhurriedly took out a copy of the document and handed it to Ma Kuo, saying: "This is the letter of credence given to our country by Da Jin, Master Ma will know it at a glance."

Ma Kuo did not accept the letter of credence handed over by Li Zhizhong, but said: "My Dazhong and the Kingdom of Jin are currently hostile, so everything that the Kingdom of Jin promised, my Dazhong will not recognize it."

Li Zhizhong twitched his eyelids slightly, and said in his heart: "It is said that Ma Kuo is good at diplomacy, but now it seems that his reputation is indeed well-deserved!"

Don't you think Li Zhizhong doesn't know that what Jin Guo promised won't work in China?

Li Zhizhong knew this all too well.

Clearly, Li Zhizhong also showed Ma Kuo the letter of credence signed by Jin Guo, in fact, he wanted to tell Ma Kuo: "In order to win over us Daxia, Dajin gave such generous conditions, now we abandon Dajin and go to your Dajin Did you also give us such a condition?"

It was precisely because Ma Kuo saw Li Zhizhong's plan that he did not accept the letter of credence handed over by Li Zhizhong, and told Li Zhizhong clearly: The Kingdom of Jin is the Kingdom of Jin, and my Dazhong is my Dazhong. Talk to my Dazhong and get Jin. The conditions given by the state are useless.

Although Li Zhizhong was like a mirror in his heart about Ma Kuo's meaning, Li Zhizhong still pretended not to know and said: "Since Mr. Ma doesn't want to read it, then I will tell Mr. Ma that there is a big gold general in northern Shaanxi." A land of about several thousand li was assigned to me as a certificate of Daxia, so northern Shaanxi can be my territory of Daxia.”

Li Qianshun took advantage of the opportunity of the Jin army to attack the Song Dynasty, and sent troops to capture the castles originally built by the Song Dynasty on the border of Xixia. Zhenwu City on the border, and then captured Xi'an Prefecture, Linzhou Jianning Village, and Huaide Army in the Song Dynasty, took advantage of the victory to conquer Tiandu Village, and encircled Lanzhou.

Soon after, Jin general Wanyan Zongbi sent troops to take back Tiande, Yunnei and other states.

Li Qianshun questioned Jin Guo.

At that time, the situation of the Jin army on the battlefield had taken a turn for the worse.

The Jin people considered that they should not turn against the Xia people at this time, so as not to force the Xia people to Dazhong's side. In addition, it would be better to bring Xixia into this vortex to make the water even more muddy, so that they can fish in troubled waters. Assign thousands of miles of land in northern Shaanxi to Xixia as compensation for Tiande, Yunnei and other places.

Although Ma Kuo didn't read the letter of credence handed over by Li Zhizhong, he already knew the matter well, because the Zhe family had already found out the ins and outs of it and reported it to the court.

Ma Kuo said: "This Shaanxi is originally from the Song Dynasty. When did the Kingdom of Jin borrow flowers to present Buddha? With my Dazhong's consent, it's a joke!"

Li Zhizhong said: "It was originally the land of the Song Dynasty, but the Song Dynasty has perished, and most of northern Shaanxi was occupied by the Jin people, and the Jin people were willing to give northern Shaanxi to Daxia. If your country is also willing to give up northern Shaanxi Give me Daxia, isn’t northern Shaanxi my Daxia’s?”

Ma Kuo said without hesitation or ambiguity: "My Dazhong is not willing, and it is impossible to let you Xixia occupy northern Shaanxi."

Li Zhizhong asked calmly, "Why?"

Ma Kuo said: "Because the State of Song has given central Shaanxi and northern Shaanxi to our Dazhong as a congratulatory gift for the establishment of Dazhong by the emperor of Dazhong, central Shaanxi and northern Shaanxi are already inseparable territories of our Dazhong."

After hearing this, Li Zhizhong shrank his pupils suddenly, and asked, "Has your country negotiated peace with the Southern Song Dynasty?"

Ma Kuo straightened his body, and said, "Officially inform your country that our two countries will be neighbors from now on, so we have to talk about the division of national boundaries..."

……

(End of this chapter)