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

"Yes."

Of course I'm busy, there are so many things to deal with.

Xia Yuxiao looked at him from top to bottom, then shook her head lightly, turned around and took out a comb made of white jade from the bottom drawer:

"I'll send you off, take care of yourself, how is it proper for a captain of your country to mess up his hair like this every day?"

"Oh no, I comb my hair every day."

Feeling that he seemed to be rejected by His Majesty, Qin Ji couldn't help trying to justify his name.

"Did you comb it yourself?"

There was an uncontrollable smile on the corner of Xia Yuxiao's mouth.

"Ah... how did His Majesty know?"

"Comb twice in the middle, and then comb a few times from the top of the head to the four sides. Is that how you comb your hair? It's too perfunctory."

Xia Yuxiao knew this well.

Because my father was always like this back then, when there was no court meeting, and he was too lazy to let others take care of his hair a little bit, he simply took the comb and brushed it a few times to finish the job.

"Take care of your appearance, you are one of the faces of the country, don't embarrass me."

"......Yes."

Chapter 58 Yin and Yang Strange Qi

In Qin Ji's impression, the cardinal has always been a particularly difficult existence to deal with.

The pope is actually better. The pope is the highest authority in the entire religious authority, and he has a clear understanding of the power of the church.But what about the Cardinal?On the one hand, they have certain beliefs, but on the other hand, they also understand the source of the church's power. They are sober and arrogant. This is their portrayal.

Therefore, communicating with people at the level of the bishop of the church often requires a waste of words.

Facts have proved that this is indeed the case. Less than 10 minutes after the start of diplomacy, a fierce conflict occurred between the two sides.

In fact, the contradiction is not big. The cardinal named Mu He "piggybacked" in a seemingly objective tone, implying that the people of Daxia have no faith, and that they are a sad country lacking faith.

The words are full of condescending sympathy.

Before the diplomacy began, Prime Minister Long had repeatedly advised him to exercise restraint in diplomatic situations and never bring the emotions on the battlefield to the negotiating table. Qin Ji expressed his understanding for this.

As a result, after the other party finished speaking, the old man laughed out loud on the spot.

"Why is the prime minister laughing?"

"Oh, no, I just thought of an interesting thing."

"what's up?"

"The old man came from home after bathing and changing clothes today. On the way, he saw a dog arguing with a sparrow. The dog barked and said, "You hear that arrows are good? Why don't you eat arrows?" The sparrow said: "I heard that dogs eat arrows. Those who eat arrows, What you like is not what I like. Wouldn't it be rude to use what you like to give my kindness?"

Prime Minister Long finished speaking with a smile.

The person in charge of the translation was stunned for a moment, then looked at Qin Ji with a questioning look.

Qin Ji was also stunned.

This old man is really bad.

But there is no doubt that this old man is just extremely bad-mouthed, so naturally he cannot modify his original intention in any way.

"Translate directly, no need to change."

Qin Ji said.

With Qin Ji's permission, the translator nodded and translated it.

His Holiness Bishop Mu He exploded on the spot.

It's not that he has no heart, but the old man scolded him twice in one sentence.

"Who is a dog? Who is a shit? Prime Minister, is your country's diplomacy so rude?" the bishop said coldly.

"Oh oh oh, don't get me wrong, I didn't mention you, didn't I, this is a conversation between a dog and a sparrow, don't you take your seat right?"

Prime Minister Long blew on the teacup in his hand, then took a sip of tea, and looked up at the other party.

"I think you know best whether you are simply talking about the conversation between the dog and the sparrow. I want to remind you, Prime Minister, that this is a diplomatic occasion, and I can regard it as a tribute to our church and our Lord." insult."

Faced with the aggressiveness of the cardinal, Prime Minister Long ignored him, but leaned into Qin Ji's ear, and said in a small voice that could be heard by everyone:

"Look, people who have 'faith' are very popular, and they will only find themselves scolded when they are idle."

Amid everyone's doubts, the old man glanced at the translator, and then gave him a look, signaling the other party to translate what he said.

The translation is very good, not only translated the words, but also imitated the tone of the whispered voice to the fullest.

The cardinal was a little bit off guard.

However, the Holy Lord admonishes the believers, in the face of the enemy, there is no need to panic, and you must not panic. The light of the Lord protects your left and right.

So, Bishop Mu He smiled: "Your country is a country of etiquette, and I hope that your country will abide by the way of hospitality. We are here to discuss things, and meaningless attacks will not be effective."

"I will also return this sentence to Your Excellency, Bishop. Has the Holy Master of your religion warned you not to look at people with your nostrils?" Qin Ji stared at the other party and said.

It’s not speculative, and now this Muhe belongs to this type of person. In diplomatic situations, at least you have to have some basic etiquette on the first face. When you come up, you start to put down the attack. Yes, I laughed myself to death.

"Let's get back to business."

The bishop next to him saw that the two sides would change from a verbal confrontation to a physical confrontation if this continued, so he hurriedly changed the subject.

Oh, it’s not that you can’t do physical laning in diplomatic situations. The main reason is that the main diplomats in Daxia have a higher probability of physical laning ability than diplomatic ability. Physical laning, you may not be able to fight on your side...

"Before contacting your teaching, Your Majesty has communicated with me. This war will hurt both of us. We don't want to see the two sides continue to be hostile and exhausted. The previous truce proves that your teaching and our Great Xia are both There is a sincere desire for peace. Since this is the case, then I will not talk nonsense, our request is: the church completely withdraws from all countries around Daxia, and stops religious activities in countries around Daxia.”

"Stop the persecution of non-holy bishops and release criminals detained for religious issues. In addition, all churches and holy bishop buildings in Samanjan and Daxi Kingdom will be handed over to the imperial courts of the two countries."

Qin Ji stated the conditions on his side.

In addition, there are many other conditions.However, these items are the most important.

Here Qin Ji is a bit self-assessed, he didn't follow Xia Yuxiao's words completely, but overstated the conditions proposed by himself.Originally, Xia Yuxiao only asked the church to withdraw from Samanjiang and the surrounding areas of Daxi Kingdom, but Qin Ji made it even more difficult to withdraw from all the surrounding countries of Daxia, and stopped religious activities in it.

Raise a roof for you first, and then let you accept opening windows.This principle can be used in bargaining or negotiation. In short, as long as you are dealing with people, this technique is applicable.

Sure enough, Bishop Mu He couldn't sit still.

"Your country's request is really too much... How does the neighboring country think about your country's behavior? If you tell us to withdraw, we will withdraw. For the neighboring countries of Great Xia, is it true? Isn't it a bigger threat?"

"Where does the word threat come from?"

Qin Ji asked with a smile.

"From ancient times to the present, Great Xia has fought countless wars against neighboring countries, and even annexed many countries and tribes. Even if we agree to withdraw from your country's behavior this time, for the neighboring countries, they will only feel I am even more insecure. Doesn’t Daxia want to recuperate and give you and your neighbors a chance for peace?”

When the other party said this, he had a compassionate expression.

"Let me correct your mistake. First of all, it is true that our country has fought abroad many times, but they are all for the safety of our people in Daxia. The tribes in the north have repeatedly burned, killed and looted, and the barbarians in the south have intercepted our caravans many times. , and there are some external forces exerting pressure in the west..."

When Qin Ji said this, he glanced at the other party thoughtfully, and continued:

"Your Excellency, I am the Taiwei of Daxia, and our Majesty is also His Majesty of Daxia. You can't say that for the sake of peace between us and neighboring countries, we want to let the people of our country be bullied? You are human beings, the people of our country Are you not human anymore?"

Chapter 59 Bottom Lines and Conditions

The first negotiation was full of constructive and meaningful. The two sides exchanged opinions, reached a certain consensus, and understood each other's demands.This meeting has a positive effect on the second negotiation......

To put it bluntly, the whole process was frenzied, and in the end, no consensus was reached except for the next negotiation...

There is no way, Qin Ji has already made preparations for the first negotiation, and the two parties will have a passionate line-up. After all, in the first negotiation, everyone wants to take the lead.Both sides have their own strengths, and the other party will not feel comfortable playing their lives, so they will naturally strive to gain the initiative at the negotiating table.

Rubbing his temples, Qin Ji stood up.

"Senior Long, you are tired too, let's eat here."

Seeing Prime Minister Long resting his eyes on his seat, Qin Ji said.

"Row."

Prime Minister Long continued to close his eyes.

Qin Ji ordered the attendants beside him to bring the rice here, and then sat back in his original seat.

"How is it, how does it feel to participate in this kind of diplomacy for the first time?" Qin Ji asked, looking at Ling Yan, who was checking the dossier by the side.

"It's a little different than I thought."

Lingyan told the truth.

"What's the difference?"

"I thought diplomacy should be more...more polite."

Lingyan was a little hesitant to speak because of Prime Minister Long who was present.

"For most countries, we are indeed like this," said Long Chengxiang, "but the church is another matter. We have never liked the church, not for a year or two. And this time their knives are all It's almost on our necks, and we have nothing to be polite about."

When Prime Minister Long didn't hate people, he actually had a bit of a fairy-tale feeling. A kind old man with gray beard and hair looked very kind, but Qin Ji couldn't forget the way he looked when he hated people just now. .

"Next time, they will probably accept our request." The old man said with a smile at this moment.

"Why does the old man think so?"

"This time we at least showed our unwillingness to easily gain the upper hand. The current situation is that their church is more unacceptable than us to continue fighting. Next time, we will talk about smuggling at the border and other matters, and if there is no problem , should be able to sign."

Hearing what Prime Minister Long said, even Qin Ji was a little uncertain: "Prime Minister, are you so sure?"

"Correct."

Prime Minister Long has a plan in mind.

Now that he said that, Qin Ji didn't say anything more.Although Prime Minister Long is inferior to him in terms of power, this prime minister is an old minister. His political career is longer than the combined age of Qin Ji and Ling Yan. In terms of this political sense, he rarely makes mistakes.

It's just that because he has no ambitions and focuses on governing the country, he doesn't have enough power in his hands, so he doesn't have Qin Ji's oppressive power when facing disagreements in the court.

"Then I'll go back to Dianke to draft the diplomatic documents first." After Qin Ji finished speaking, the attendants brought over meals, and the already hungry people naturally didn't have any etiquette. Started to eat sullenly.

"By the way, Qin Taiwei," Prime Minister Long asked suddenly while eating, "How is your relationship with Your Majesty recently?"

"Well, the relationship is not bad. I have been working with His Majesty recently. What's the matter?"

Facing this problem, Qin Ji immediately became vigilant.Now there are too many people who want to know the details of the two people's engagement, and he doesn't want others to find out what's wrong with the two people's marriage.