Life in the world of film and television

At this time, thousands of miles away in Tokyo Bianliang, there was a prosperous scene. Along the busiest Imperial Street in the city, leading to the main gate of the imperial palace, Xuande Gate, a major event was quietly happening.

In the Secretariat, the most popular ministers in the court, gathered here with serious expressions.

These people held high and low official positions. At this moment, they gathered in twos and threes, drinking tea and discussing excitedly.

"How should we decide on this matter? The Liao people have sent a letter to us, asking us to re-negotiate the annual tribute. If our dynasty agrees to send troops to attack Jin, and is even willing to give up the annual tribute, should we agree or not?"

One person said, "I don't think we should agree to this. When two tigers fight, one of them will be injured. It's no use helping either of them. It's better for us to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out and reap the benefits."

Another person said, "I think it's worth considering. I heard that the Jin people are very powerful. If the Liao Kingdom cannot stop them, it will endanger our dynasty sooner or later."

Another person said, "No, Jin has few talents, and Liao is the biggest threat to our dynasty. It is best to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. If we must fight, I think we should attack Liao and take the opportunity to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to avenge the century-old shame."

At that moment, many people echoed: "Yes, Lian Jin attacked Liao and wiped out the century-old shame."

Someone else shook his head and said, "It's not right. Our dynasty and Liao have fought very little for a hundred years, and we are already brothers. But Jin is a dangerous beast. Besides, its ruler is fickle and treacherous. He has signed alliances with Liao many times, and turned against them whenever he saw an opportunity. He has no sense of shame. If we unite with them, it would be like trying to get the skin of a tiger. We can never trust the Jin people."

Someone said: "The art of war has always emphasized making friends far away and attacking those near. It has been like this since ancient times. We should ally with Jin to attack Liao. How can we ally with Liao to attack Jin, or attack far away and make friends near? If this is accomplished, it will be just around the corner to recover Yanyun, and we... will go down in history..."

Some people also wondered, "Is this alarmist? We all know how powerful the Liao Kingdom is. The Jin Kingdom has only a few people, with less than 100,000 soldiers available throughout the country. How could it pose such a threat to the Liao Kingdom, even to the point of destroying the Liao Kingdom?"

One person continued, "That's true. The Liao people are really anxious this time. I heard that they not only delivered a letter of credence, but also brought a large number of gifts and visited many people. This kind of thing...is unprecedented in the history of our dynasty for hundreds of years. The Liao Kingdom would not do this unless it was really desperate."

Another person sighed, "I didn't expect that the Liao Kingdom has reached such a point. I think it's better not to send troops this time, but to wait and see what happens. If the Jin people are really that powerful, and we unite with the Liao people and lose the battle, who knows if they won't cause trouble for us."

Another person stood up and said, "Don't let others' prestige destroy your own ambition. The Jin Kingdom has so few people. No matter how powerful it is, it will have no energy to care about us after destroying the Liao Kingdom. I think that when the Jin Kingdom and the Liao Kingdom are united, the Liao Kingdom will be doomed. We should follow the will of heaven and recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in one fell swoop... our Wu Dynasty will flourish..."

There was a buzz in the place, and everyone was talking about it, no one willing to give in.

However, the two views of allying with Jin to attack Liao and not helping either side and sitting on the sidelines watching the fight clearly prevailed.

However, few people agreed with the proposal to ally with Liao to attack Jin.

If Li Mu were here, and given three options to choose from, he would probably choose to join forces with Liao to attack Jin.

There is no way. The outcomes of all three options are not good, so I can only choose the one that is relatively more promising.

Judging from the past performance of the Jin Dynasty, there is no credibility at all. Even if the Wu Dynasty allied with the Jin Dynasty to attack the Liao Dynasty and tried to please them again and again, it would only be a matter of time before the Liao Dynasty turned against them. When they were free, they could go south at any time. What credibility and what agreement were all just ass-wiping paper for the Jin Dynasty. If you believed them, you would be a fool.

Instead, the Wu Dynasty allied with Liao to attack Jin. Wu Dynasty had no shortage of supplies, food, weapons and equipment, which they used to support Liao in attacking Jin and put Liao in the front.

There are only so many Jurchens. Even if all available soldiers of suitable age were conscripted, there would still be less than 100,000 of them. One less person dead is one less person. As long as the Liao Kingdom can hold out with the material support of the Wu Kingdom, even if the Liao Kingdom eventually collapsed and was destroyed, the Jurchens would have been almost completely wiped out and would not be able to move south in a short time.

It is hard to say whether they can move south in the future. With such a small population, can they suppress other nomadic fishing and hunting ethnic groups? Will there be internal divisions and rebellions?
Besides, another more powerful force was rising on the grassland. As long as the situation could be delayed for a period of time, the most powerful opponent of the Jin Dynasty would not be the Wu Kingdom, but the nomadic people who were rising on the grassland.

By then, the State of Wu would have become the party that was won over and would be able to continue to survive.

However, these ministers in the court obviously did not agree with the alliance with Liao to attack Jin. This result had already been decided in the Black Water Alliance seven years ago.

Especially four years ago, when Emperor Tianzuo of Liao personally led an army of 700,000 to attack Jin, but was defeated by Wanyan Aguda's 20,000 troops, Wu Dynasty's fear of Liao was almost swept away. It seemed that Wu Dynasty had won the battle, and the voices of uniting with Jin to fight against Liao rose. It seemed that the recovery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was just around the corner.

There were also people who had a long-term vision and wrote to the court: "Support the weak and suppress the strong. Now Jin is strong and Liao is weak. Is it better to be neighbors with the strong Jin than with the weak Liao?"

Even the King of Goryeo sent someone to secretly convey the message, "Liao is a brotherly country, keeping it can ensure the border security; Jin is a tiger and wolf country, we can't make friends with it!"

However, this idea was too niche. Although the Liao Kingdom, aware of the crisis, asked the Wu Kingdom for help and was even willing to cancel the annual tribute, the temptation was too small compared to recovering the Sixteen Continents of Yanyun that had been lost for more than two hundred years. This was a great achievement that no emperor or minister could refuse.

In fact, since the defeat of the Liao Kingdom a few years ago, the Wu Kingdom began to secretly contact the Jin Kingdom. The two sides sent envoys to each other, and the intention of forming an alliance to attack the Liao Kingdom was already obvious.

The Liao Kingdom will probably return empty-handed this time.

Not only was there dark clouds in the north, but in the south, Fang La, taking advantage of the flood, started another uprising.

On the other side, at the Su Mansion, seeing that the time the city gates were open was getting shorter and shorter every day and the time for the election of imperial merchants was getting closer, Su Tan'er was also very busy. She had to mobilize large quantities of supplies and drinks from Jiangning and other places every day. Although she was tired, she was in good spirits.

That morning, the Qinhuai River Wharf became increasingly prosperous due to the poor land transportation, with goods and people everywhere.

At this time, in a large warehouse of the Su family at the dock, Su Tan'er was dressed in simple woman's clothes, with a white dress and sky blue lapels, simple and elegant.

While watching the guys moving things back and forth to the warehouse, I checked the supplies in the warehouse.

Sometimes he would open boxes or containers and look at the contents, cinnabar, madder, alum, amaranth... and point out problems from time to time.

"Manager Liao, come and take a look. There are some problems with these Salvia leaves. The gallnuts over there are also moldy. Is it because of water seepage..."

Because they knew the city gates would be closed, they brought in more stuff this time, including many raw materials for dyes, already made dyes, silk, cloth, and even looms.

This warehouse cannot accommodate the goods, so they have to be diverted to other warehouses.

However, Su Tan'er was already familiar with this. She checked the warehouse and then went to see several Su family cargo ships that were unloading cargo.

The area near the dock has always been chaotic, with small gangs, hooligans, and all kinds of people gathering there. There are fights of varying sizes every day, and Su Tan'er is already familiar with it.

The pier was bustling with people coming and going. Not long after she walked out, a man in a hurry and with a scoundrelly look passed by her. Su Tan'er's face changed and she suddenly turned around.

The man also turned around subconsciously. With one hand, he was holding the pink and white sachet that was originally hanging on Su Tan'er's waist, but the other side of the sachet was grabbed by Su Tan'er.

Seeing that this was a weak woman, the man was not afraid. He was very familiar with the dock and was an old hand. Not only did he not run away, he also stretched out his other hand, ready to rob if he couldn't steal.

Su Tan'er's face turned cold. A short sword slipped from her sleeve into her palm. Without unsheathing it, she swung the sword with her backhand. With a snap, the man flew more than a meter away, a mouthful of blood spurted out, with a few teeth exposed, and he fell heavily to the ground.

A few guys noticed the noise and rushed over, pinned the man down, tied him up, and beat and kicked the thief.

"Damn it! You are so blind! How dare you steal the lady's things."

Su Tan'er told them to send the person over, and then ignored him. As soon as she left, people nearby started talking about it.

"That must be Miss Su! How can such a weak and delicate girl be so powerful?"

"That's right, that's right... You didn't see it. Such a big man was knocked away by her in one blow."

"Miss Su is so weak, how could she beat someone up? Someone else must have beaten him up, right?"

"It was Miss Su. I saw it. The man tried to steal something, but Miss Su used the hilt of her sword to smack him away."

"So powerful... Could it be that Miss Su knows martial arts..."

"He must be good at martial arts, otherwise how could he be so powerful..."

……

Rumors spread the fastest. In just half a day, even Li Mu had heard that his wife had displayed her prowess at the dock, catching a notorious bandit on the spot and slapping him away several feet with one palm.

In the evening, Su Tan'er felt quite embarrassed after listening to Xiaochan's vivid description of the story again.

"It's all my husband's teaching."

Li Mu burst into laughter, making Su Tan'er blush. What she said was not a lie. If Li Mu hadn't taken the trouble to accompany her in dual cultivation every day and taught her various techniques, she wouldn't have achieved her current level of skills.

The next two days were still dull. As the city gates would be closed soon, those who had connections were heading into the city. Many distant relatives also came. Even the Su family had many relatives living outside the city.

This caused the price of rice in the city to soar, and the number of beggars and refugees on the streets increased.

That evening, Li Mu came back from outside and saw Su Tan'er sitting there in a daze. Her eyes were red as if she had cried, and her energy seemed to be drained away.

Seeing Li Mu, two crystal tears flowed down her cheeks: "My husband, I can't be a royal merchant anymore."

Li Mu was stunned for a moment, looking at the two pieces of cloth that fell beside Su Tan'er, one bright yellow and the other light yellow, and instantly understood what was going on.

A few days ago, Su Tan'er brought a piece of bright yellow cloth to show off to him. At that time, she was smiling like a flower and was very happy. She asked him, "My husband, do you think this color is beautiful?"

At that time, she was quite confident about becoming an imperial merchant, and the newly developed bright yellow dye was her main source of confidence.

In ancient times, the market for bright yellow was quite narrow. Apart from the royal family, imperial edicts in the palace, and various royal items, there was almost no other market, but the meaning it represented was different.

The bright yellow dye developed by Su Tan'er is bright and beautiful, and is much better than the yellow cloth currently used by the royal family. It is impossible for it to be rejected when it is brought to the palace, and the Su family naturally becomes the royal merchant.

But now...

Su Tan'er said this and lay down in Li Mu's arms and started crying.

While crying, she said, "Husband... In order to become an imperial merchant, I secretly prepared for three years and finally developed such a beautiful color."

"We didn't add zelkova. We used a new method to make it. Cinnabar, madder, alum, gardenia... This is a formula that no one has ever used before. More than a month ago, I thought it would shock everyone. In the end... in the end, it just... it just faded?"

Li Mu asked: "How long did it take for the color to fade?"

Su Tan'er sniffed and said, "One month, it started to fade after one month. We did a lot of experiments from the beginning, sun drying, fire baking, washing with water over and over again, but nothing happened, it's still as beautiful as before."

"I thought there was no problem, but after a month, it slowly faded and nothing I did could help."

"We studied the formula again, but this color is very difficult to match. The raw materials use less yellow, and the color will be very different if the formula is slightly wrong. We have no idea where to adjust it. This bright yellow color was also mixed by us accidentally, and there is no way to change it."

As she spoke, her face full of tears, she said, "Husband, there is no other way. I can't get the imperial merchant."

Li Mu comforted him, "Actually, this problem is not unsolvable. There are solutions to prevent fading, and there are solutions to prevent fading."

Su Tan'er was stunned: "Husband... are you trying to say that fading is a good thing? No... Our business partner is the royal family, and the fading of the cloth will be exposed sooner or later. Cheating the royal family is a serious crime."

Li Mu patted her hands: "Don't worry, my husband won't be so stupid."

"Why did you become the Royal Merchant? It's because you want to expand your cloth business and prove that you are worthy of this position. There are actually many ways to do that."

Su Tan'er asked in confusion: "What method?"

Li Mu picked up the cloth and said, "Who knows about the fading of the cloth?"

Su Tan'er said: "Besides me, there is only Shopkeeper Liao."

Li Mu asked: "Is Shopkeeper Liao reliable?"

Su Tan'er said, "Manager Liao has worked in our Su family for decades. He has always been Dad's right-hand man. He is cautious, down-to-earth, and very reliable. He has been helping me with the planning of the Imperial Merchants over the years."

Li Mu nodded. Based on the information he knew, this shopkeeper Liao was indeed reliable.

"That's good. Tell Shopkeeper Liao not to tell anyone about the fading of the cloth. You should also adjust your mood and pretend that nothing happened. Don't be so tight-lipped about the operation of the Royal Merchant. It's best to display the bright yellow cloth in a small group so that everyone knows that as long as this cloth is handed over, the Royal Merchant will be secured."

Su Tan'er was slightly surprised: "In order to keep it secret and avoid prying eyes, we didn't want to reveal anything. If we are so high-profile, what if others get jealous and do something to us?"

Li Mu smiled and said, "It's good to use tricks! Since you fell into the trap yourself, you can't blame us. We can take this opportunity to deal with those who are against you."

Su Tan'er was also a smart woman. She quickly guessed what Li Mu meant and said hesitantly, "Is it okay to do this?"

Li Mu smiled and said, "We are not targeting anyone. Those who took the initiative to take the bait actually wanted to kill the eldest branch of the Su family, right? It's just that their skills are inferior."

Su Tan'er was not some naive saint. She nodded silently when she heard that, and the two of them discussed the specific details.

(End of this chapter)