Your Majesty the Empress, I am really not a traitor!

During this period of time, Xia Yuxiao had a lot of work. Since the two got engaged, the number of ministers who dared to cause trouble in the court has decreased a lot, and the Huilin Office has been "conscientious" during this period.Most of the prisoners arrested before were also executed.

The people killed by Huilin were all directly approved by Xia Yuxiao. The current Huilin is only responsible to the emperor, so Ting Wei can't control their killing.This kind of arbitrariness naturally caused dissatisfaction among some officials, but Lingyan didn't care about it. In her opinion, this was just helping her young master. It really didn't matter what other people thought of her.

"Your Majesty, I am here."

Outside the door, Qin Ji's voice sounded.

Xia Yuxiao, who was sitting by the stove warming up the fire, heard his voice and nodded to Liu Songyao. The latter understood, and immediately opened the door to let Qin Ji in.

"Oh, I'm freezing to death."

The moment Qin Ji came in, a gust of cold wind came from outside, his body was covered with snowflakes, and he rubbed his hands vigorously as soon as he entered the door.

Probably because his ancestors lived in the ice and snow, Qin Ji is more cold-tolerant than most people.

"Sit down, Songyao just made tea to warm her body."

Xia Yuxiao said.

"There's no rush to drink tea," Qin Ji said directly, "Your Majesty, according to the news from Lingyan, the church may hold a meeting with us soon."

Chapter 56 Bottom line

The church offered to Daxia to talk, which is definitely not a symbol of friendship.

Although Qin Ji had met the Pope himself and had to admit that the Pope looked very kind and his attitude was not overbearing, but the kindness on the outside did not mean that he was actually kind.

Fortunately, Lingyan is very good at intelligence work. Her Huilin Office has already trained some of the scale guards quite professionally before, and through bribery and arranging her subordinates to lurk, she has inquired about the current wishes of the high-level church.

Gray Scale has won over a church executioner, who for some reason is willing to provide Daxia with some information he can learn.Of course, this information was not given in vain. The request made by the executioner was to let one of his companions have a background that could provide asylum at any time.

Naturally, Huilin would not trust his companion. Under the mobilization of Lingyan, the identity of that companion has been revealed—this is likely to be an ancient member of the blood clan. It seems that among the executioners, there is also a Not all are outright fanatics.

After obtaining Qin Ji's permission, Huilin Office reached a cooperation with the executioner.It is said that this executioner has a high status in the church, and many people in the church think that this guy may be a candidate for the gravediggers—an organization composed of the most experienced and powerful members of the executioners. A mere 24 people.

Being a candidate for this organization is basically equivalent to a humanoid monster.

Therefore, the news he can get is absolutely very important.

"If they want to negotiate with us, they have to show enough sincerity. Is there sincerity?"

Xia Yuxiao asked with a smile.

When Da Xia faces the enemy, he will never refuse to negotiate.

All political, economic and military means have the same ultimate purpose, which is to get the enemy to sit at the negotiating table and talk.

However, Daxia still has requirements for negotiations. The first is that you have to be sincere, and the second is that you have to have an appetite for me.

Under the advantage of strength, the threshold of sincerity can be changed.

For some small countries that have a good relationship with Daxia, or countries that can be wooed, there are actually many ways to express sincerity, whether it is giving gifts or receiving high standards, it can all be a manifestation of sincerity.

But for some enemies who are not very knowledgeable, if they want to negotiate, they need to show more "sincerity".

"According to intelligence, the Pope intends to entrust the priests to send some griffin cubs to Daxia as a gift."

Qin Ji said with a smile.

Griffin cubs, this is indeed a good gift. For Daxia, the disadvantage of lack of air combat power prevents them from suppressing the enemy in all directions. The prohibition cannot be applied on a large scale, but at least Daxia can have a few griffins in the future-at any rate, Xia Yuxiao doesn't need to cross the mountains in a carriage when he encounters an emergency again.

The church's gift this time is not huge, but it does have sincerity.

"Griffin? That thing is useless."

Xia Yuxiao waved her hand.

Of course she knew the benefits of griffins, but for Xia Yuxiao, a few griffins were of little use to her.She wanted to make something more useful, if she could.

"According to His Majesty?"

"Sincerely, that's what I planned," Xia Yuxiao smiled kindly, "How about this, the church withdraws the clergy who are still staying in Samanjan, and hand over the church in Samanja along the way." Ownership, which I think is pretty good."

Xia Yuxiao's statement made Qin Ji scratch his head.

Ah no, Your Majesty, this is really a lion's mouth.

Theoretically speaking, Daxia does have the ability to drive away those clergy and occupy the churches in Samanjan, but if it is necessary to seize, it is easy to implement the facts, and you must know that there are still many people in Samanjan For those who still believe in the Holy Bishop, if they seize it by force, there is no guarantee that those ulterior priests will use this excuse to do something.

Therefore, letting the other party take the initiative to withdraw is naturally the best result, but how could the church easily accept such a result?In their view, they just didn't win, and they didn't surrender voluntarily. How could they be willing to give in?

"Why did the church choose to negotiate with us at this time? It's nothing more than because of the current situation in Daxia," Xia Yuxiao casually threw a gold coin in her hand. The gold coin kept turning on the table, and finally slowly Slowly fell down, "Now the domestic political affairs are stable, and the war has just ended, and the Saar Dynasty in the north, although it is temporarily subdued by us, is not dead. The Church has not yet been able to win the Saar Dynasty, but it does not mean that Saar Dynasty The Seoul dynasty will not unilaterally seek opportunities to add to our chaos."

"So I guess, after the representatives of the church come, they will first raise our cards with us about the Saar dynasty, and then further ask both parties to take a step back—of course, on the surface, they will take a step back, but if If this is the case, then we have not fought this battle.”

The ultimate goal of this battle was not for the land in Samanjan, and the land occupied by Daxia was just taken by hand.Daxia is willing to help Daxi Kingdom fight this battle in order to drive the power of the church out of Daxia's surroundings.

If both sides take a step back, then Daxia is tantamount to allowing the church to make a comeback, and this kind of thing is absolutely not allowed.

"Then what do we do?"

In this respect, although Qin Ji is also slightly good at it, Xia Yuxiao is still more familiar with it.

"Simple, keep our bottom line—our bottom line is, no matter what, Daxia will not give up control of Samanjan, and will not allow the church to continue to preach to the east. Of course, I think this is very important for the church. It's hard to take, but they will take it."

"So sure?"

"Of course, they don't dare to fight with Da Xia immediately. There are many people who are fooled into believing in the Holy Bishop, but the high-level leaders of various countries and the Holy Bishop know what they want better than anyone else. What is it, risking a protracted war of attrition with Daxia, which will only make the bottom-level believers who are living more and more miserable leave their faith."

There are fanatics, but not many. If believers in the Holy Bishop are all ruthless people who would rather die to preach, then the Holy Bishop Church has no need to set up the organization of executioners.

And some who were willing to sacrifice themselves for their own gods in the past, in fact, if you look carefully, you will find that many of the so-called heroes died on the impulse of taking drugs.

This is especially true for the lower-level believers.

The purpose of the holy bishops is to expand power and amass wealth. They will launch holy wars, but if they fail, they will not frequently and excessively squeeze believers, otherwise, their foundation will be shaken.

Chapter 57 Diplomacy

Facts have proved that Lingyan's information is relatively accurate.

Not long after, the church sent a letter to the Central Empire of Daxia, hoping to have a meeting with Daxia on the issue of Samanjan.As for the candidates for the talks, the church chose a cardinal and two archbishops, plus some other clergy.

This lineup is actually not small. The cardinal is almost the most prestigious priesthood under the pope. In the eyes of any of these countries in the west, the cardinal can basically enjoy the treatment almost like the head of a country.

However, if he enjoys the treatment of the head of state, it means that Xia Yuxiao needs to meet the cardinal, and he may even greet him in person out of the courtesy of the host.

Daxia is not the group of countries in the west. If they really follow their rules, it will lose the majesty of Daxia.

so......

"I see, I have to work as a diplomat again, right?"

Qin Ji said helplessly.

As early as when he saw this letter, he realized that there was a high probability that this matter would have to be pushed on him.

In fact, in theory, Prime Minister Long should be in charge of this matter. He is a captain, and in terms of his position, he is in charge of the country's military. The prime minister is the best person to receive the cardinal.

However, looking at Xia Yuxiao's eyes that belonged to you, he understood.It's something he has to do.

It is understandable that although this should be the job of the prime minister, the exchanges between the two sides are still based on the military. When it comes to military matters, it is better for him, the military chief, to handle them.Moreover, even if Prime Minister Long appeared, he would be responsible for subsequent revisions and handovers.

"No way, the cardinal's coming out really proves how much the other party attaches importance to it. But the cardinal is not the Pope after all."

Daxia's etiquette makes it often give face to the other party when communicating. As long as the two sides are not completely on the opposite side of life and death, then Daxia will always allow both parties to maintain the most basic decency on the bright side.But at the same time, Daxia itself has its own reserve.

The cardinal was old enough, but not big enough for the emperor to go down and talk to him himself.Unless the cardinal chooses to enter the hall to communicate as a foreign courtier, Xia Yuxiao will meet him in the hall.

If you think about it, it's impossible. These believers of the holy bishop don't care whether you are the emperor or not. They believe in the holy lord. If they really go to talk to Xia Yuxiao according to the etiquette of the ministers, it means that they will It's a little short—in those church countries, cardinals are the ones who even come down to greet the king when they see him.

So Daxia didn't force the other party to come to see Xia Yuxiao, but he also didn't let the emperor come down to communicate with the other party in person. Then, he could only send out Qin Ji, who was equally important but not the top leader.

And it can also guarantee an advantage in terms of momentum. After all, where Qin Ji and Lingyan are going, they basically represent the benchmark of Daxia's martial arts.

"It is possible, but Your Majesty, you have to give me a limit that we can accept."

It's not like Qin Ji can't do diplomacy, but at least he needs to know what Xia Yuxiao can accept.

"There is no so-called limit, just bite to death, require the church to withdraw from Samanjan and Daxi, including its surrounding areas, and hand over the church's properties and land in these two countries - including the church, and the church's armed forces are not allowed to remain in the two countries. "

Xia Yuxiao said.

"Then what conditions do we offer here?"

"Give conditions?" Xia Yuxiao smiled, "Tell their smugglers to stay away, and warn them that in the future, when Daxia finds smugglers, especially those who smuggle government-run goods such as salt and iron, according to Daxia's law We will not be responsible for any consequences caused by the disposal."

Qin Ji froze for a moment.Of course he knew that Xia Yuxiao didn't intend to make any concessions, but just raising conditions... Are you sure it won't intensify the conflict?

"I know what you're thinking, Qin Ji, your military capabilities are indeed very strong, and you have no problems with internal government affairs. But you are not as tough as a captain should be in handling foreign affairs—remember, this incident The war, we and the church is a truce, not we lost."

"If the fight continues, it will still be their church that will suffer. Otherwise, the church will never choose to truce with us. If they want to continue the fight, hurt themselves and even shake the foundation of the bottom, then come. The blood of tens of thousands of Great Xia soldiers won us such an opportunity, and we must not let it go."

"I understand."

Qin Ji sighed.

Doing so would undoubtedly be "unreasonable" for the church, but he understood what Xia Yuxiao meant.

The advantage on the battlefield has formed an advantage in diplomacy, and the church has to agree if they don't want to, and they are not fools.

"Of course, you don't need to be so aggressive on the surface, just make some insignificant concessions. For example, the two sides exchange prisoners (the number of prisoners in the church is more than that of Daxia), and don't pursue the smuggling of church personnel in the past. Crime or something. There's not much of value to be squeezed out of them anyway."

Basically, all the questions that should be asked have been asked, and the rest are things that these people don't know. These questions are useless to them, so they simply let it out as a favor.

"Yes, I will do so."

"Also, you are the main one this time, but Prime Minister Long will still be in charge of the relevant details of the negotiations, and Prime Minister Long will accompany you when the time comes. Generally speaking, you are the one who makes up your mind, and you can leave it to Prime Minister Long for verbal battles. He will do the job. Familiar with the road."

Xia Yuxiao smiled mysteriously.

To put it mildly, it is called having rich diplomatic experience.

To put it bluntly, in fact, after decades of foreign exchanges, I have fully mastered the essentials of spraying, and one spraying five is not a problem.

Qin Ji agreed.

"You can prepare in a moment. Oh, you wait a moment."

When Qin Ji was about to leave, Xia Yuxiao suddenly stopped him.

"what happened?"

"Are you busy with work recently?" Xia Yuxiao frowned, looking at Qin Ji's face.