Cthulhu descends

The new calendar of the gods is February 2012, 2, the beginning of spring.

After a smooth winter, Chrysanthemum City ushered in the first spring after Li Xie took over.

Spring is the season when all things sprout, which symbolizes the arrival of beauty.

Everything in Chrysanthemum City is booming, and it seems that happiness is not far away.

The "Chrysanthemum Academy" is about to be completed and is scheduled to be put into use after the Spring Festival, and registration has already begun; the spring harvest is in full swing, and the benefits brought by the land contract system have doubled the cultivated land. , there will be a lot of surplus; the new officials in various positions are already familiar with their work, and everything is going on in an orderly manner; business is gradually recovering and prospering because of the people's food and clothing and the reduction of tax revenue...

Everything in Chrysanthemum City is indeed moving toward happiness!

"Hey..." A discordant sigh seemed to destroy this harmony.

City Lord's Mansion, Study Room.

Li Xie put down his pen and sat down on a chair with a sad face.

The so-called people without far-sighted, there must be near-concern.

Li Xie has troubles both near and far!

The worries in the distance, of course, were when the Great Sun Dynasty would attack the Tudor Dynasty, and the calm wind and waves in the Sun Flower City, which made Li Xie feel uneasy.

But what else could be the near worry?

money!

The end of the new year is approaching, and the wages of all personnel will be doubled, and even more benefits will be given. Thousands of officials, large and small, will have a salary of about 2000 million.Those 2000 evil troops, including benefits, rewards, etc., each received an average of 6000 gold coins, which is only 2000 million gold coins!In addition, the dynasty's tax was also paid. Li Xie, the lord of the three cities, had to pay [-] million gold coins in tax for each city, which was [-] million.Together with other large and small expenses, about another [-] million gold coins were spent.

Chrysanthemum City has no tax for the time being, and hardly any profit. These expenses are all in Li Xie's pocket.

As soon as this February arrived, Li Xie lost two-fifths of the gold coins in his pocket, leaving less than [-] million gold coins.

Regardless of the amount of money, Li Xie is really going to beg on the street if this continues.

Therefore, it is not easy to be the head of the family!

Li Xie can only spend more energy on his calligraphy practice.

"Brother Xie, what's wrong with you? Why are you sighing so well?" Xiao An, who was watching Li Xie practicing calligraphy, asked.

In the study room, Zennad, who doesn’t like to be lively, and the little cat Miaomiao who is almost inseparable from Li Xie, as for Li Xie’s other two attendants, Kano and Fan Di, are busy teaching soldiers to practice martial arts. middle.

Apart from Zeenard and Miaomiao, Xiao An is the one who comes to the study room most often. She spends an hour every morning teaching Li Xie to practice calligraphy. But recently, Xiao An often procrastinates from one hour to two hours. It is said that because of Chrysanthemum City The big and small affairs are getting more and more stable, so she doesn't need to worry about them.

Li Xie didn't want her to be too tired, so he didn't care.

"It's nothing, I just feel a little bored." Li Xie breathed out again, and said, "I won't practice calligraphy today, Xiaoan, let's go around the city with Brother Xie."

"Oh."

"Zen, go and ask Lili to order the horses, and ask Zixiao to wait outside the house."

As soon as they walked out of the study, Kano rushed over. After meeting and saluting, he said, "My lord, the envoy of the Big Bang Dynasty is asking to see you. This is a letter from the lord of their 'Pyongyang City' to your lord."

"Oh?" Li Xie took the letter and opened it to read. It probably means that Jin Zhi, the lord of Pyongyang City, wants to establish diplomatic relations with Li Xie's Chrysanthemum City, and hopes to meet Li Xie directly.

"It turns out that Lord Jin Zhi wants to establish political, economic and political relations with us! Isn't Pyongyang City just adjacent to the south of us? Hehe..."

Li Xie's eyes were bright, and the right corner of his mouth was raised high, revealing a small white fang. The little cat lying on his head reading a letter also showed the same sly smile as Li Xie.

This is not the establishment of diplomatic relations, but someone wants to send us money!

Seeing Li Xie's smile, Xiao An couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive, and said weakly, "Brother Xie, your smile is so scary!"

"Nonsense! How kind is my smile! Hehe..." Li Xie waved his hand, "Let's go, the Duke will go out of the city to meet our dear emissary with a big stick!"

"Ah?" Xiao An hurriedly grabbed Li Xie, and said, "Brother Xie, you are the great lord, their mere envoy, you don't need to go to meet them in person, just let him come in to see you. If you go out like this, you will let them If I underestimate you, I will be passive when we establish diplomatic relations in the future."

Kano next to him is already used to Li Xie's sly smile, and even more so from his experience in the imperial capital, he unconsciously showed a sly smile similar to Li Xie: "Sister Xiao'an, you don't understand, my lord must go out of the city to personally Welcome! Your Excellency is not welcoming messengers, let alone human beings!"

"Ah?" Xiao An couldn't understand at all: "Isn't it a messenger? It's not a person? What is that?"

"money!"

Li Xie left a word, and strode out with a smile on his face.

The King of the Thunder Horse, Zixiao, has been completely subdued by the little cat, and now he is extremely docile to Li Xie, especially when the little cat is present, Zixiao is simply a good-tempered baby.

Riding on Zixiao's back, Li Xie couldn't help feeling superior.Especially when walking on the street, when the people saw Duke Xie, they all knelt down and saluted, praising Li Xieyun one after another, making Li Xieyun feel at a loss.

The praise of the people is not flattery, but from the heart, which can be seen from their respectful eyes.The people are lovely and simple people, whoever treats them well, they will definitely return with their respect.Li Xie brought a life that was impossible in the past to Chrysanthemum City, how could the people of Chrysanthemum City not love him?

Li Xie rode Zixiao, hugging the kitten, all the way to the south gate with Zeenard, Kano, Xiaoan and a group of guards.

Zeenard and Xiao An are both riding black-scaled horses. These two horses were obtained from Li Xie's carriage. Now Li Xie has Zi Xiao in and out, and the cores following him must naturally be well equipped Horses, thunder horses need to be equipped for the army, so Li Xie can only dismantle the carriage.

Outside the south gate, the envoys of the Big Bang Dynasty are still waiting. Without Li Xie's order, foreign envoys are not allowed to enter the city at will. This is a matter of etiquette.

The Big Stick Messenger came with five people, all on horseback. Judging by their light outfits, it was obvious that they were only here for a mission of conveying information.A formal meeting needs to be scheduled again.

Therefore, when Li Xie rode Zixiao out of the city, and a guard shouted "The city lord is here", the five envoys were all in awe!

As the city lord of the city bordering the Big Bang Dynasty, the Big Bang Dynasty naturally had to know about Li Xie, and Jin Zhi, the city lord of Pyongyang City who was directly facing the Chrysanthemum City, had to know more about what kind of person Li Xie was.

Therefore, Li Xie didn't know that his name had already been spread in the Big Bang Dynasty.

Evil Duke, Gold Coin Harvester, Ruthless Duke, Noble Butcher... These are the various titles for Li Xie among the nobles of the Big Stick Dynasty.

Although they all seem to be negative, the Big Stick Dynasty and the city lord of Pyongyang know that Li Xie holds a heavy army and has countless masters around him.His status in the Tudor dynasty is second only to the Duke of Laing, the pillar of the Tudor dynasty.

This is the third person in the strongest dynasty.

He actually went out of the city to meet the mere envoy who just came to deliver the letter?

How can this not make the five envoys panic?

The five envoys hurriedly bowed down, and the leader shouted: "God of the forest is above! The envoy of Pyongyang City, Jin Duoduo, pays homage to the evil lord! May the light of God shine on the evil lord forever."

"Master Mian is here!" Li Xie dismounted quickly, walked over quickly, and helped Jin Duoduo up: "No courtesy, no courtesy, come, follow me into the city, the lunch has been prepared, the main thing is to treat a few of you well."

Jin Duoduo was led towards the city gate by Li Xie, his face was full of horror!

He thought of the rumor about the Evil Duke circulating in the Big Stick Dynasty, that the Evil Duke could kill the noble and ruthless Lord, and it was said that if he disagreed, he would kill him.Once in front of the city gate, a certain nobleman disrespected the evil duke and was killed on the spot.

Now that Duke Xie has such a status, he not only greets him personally, but also gives him a hand-holding ceremony, which is an etiquette that can only appear between equals.And Jin Duoduo knew that his status was lower than that of the evil duke.

The current situation is too abnormal, too strange!

Could it be that my etiquette has gone wrong?Could it be?I offended the Evil Duke!

God of the forest is on!I am still young!

The more Jin Duoduo thought about it, the more frightened he became, and he trembled unconsciously.

Li Xie felt the sweat and coldness of Jin Duoduo's palms, and showed him a harmless and friendly smile: "The Jin envoy is cold? It's cold, you need to wear more clothes! It's okay, we will have a lunch later." It's warmed up, and the lord will order someone to send you some clothes. Kano! Don't call the other messengers yet."

"Yes! Your Excellency!" Kano quickly got off his horse, and ran over to lead the horses for the messengers, with a humble and enthusiastic look on his face!

He is now the deputy commander-in-chief of the evil army, and his status can be regarded as one of the top in Chrysanthemum City. He is a mere envoy, and he is not qualified to let Kano lead a horse to greet him. However, Kano is willing and even happy.

Why?

As early as in the imperial capital, Duke Xie told him that these are good people who sent us money, and we should take care of them like our own parents.

Don't talk about leading the horses, Kano is willing to carry them into the city, and what we carry are not messengers, but money!Yellow gold!

All the way slowly, Li Xie was full of smiles, and several trembling emissaries arrived at the City Lord's Mansion, entered the banquet hall, and sat next to each other.

On Li Xie's side, Kano, Zeenard, Xiaoan, and Kitty accompanied all five envoys there. He was not qualified to sit down at the scene, but now, all five of them sat down, and they were still VIP seats.

"Do you have money in Pyongyang City?"

Li Xie looked at Jin Duoduo with a smile, and the first sentence of the opening remark was just that.

Jin Duoduo was stunned on the spot!

What kind of trouble is this?When receiving the envoys, they exchanged a few pleasantries, and then talked about the details of the etiquette, introduced each other's lords, etc. How could anyone ask if the city had money as soon as they opened their mouths?

Jin Duoduo had been an envoy several times, but this was the first time he encountered this problem.

Li Xie just smiled, looked at Jin Duoduo in a daze, and waited for his answer.

Putting this issue first, it is because Li Xie is crazy about money. Of course, this is also the first criterion for Li Xie to determine whether to establish diplomatic relations.

No money?Just blast out!What about the reception?

ps: Jin Duoduo is here, I wish you all good luck in the new year, Jin Duoduo.