Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

After Cao Bin captured Shaozhou, a hundred thousand troops marched on land and water to threaten the King's Mansion. The Southern Han Kingdom was sitting on a vast territory and could not organize another decent war.

Liu Jixing, the lord of Geinnan Han Dynasty, had no one to use in the capital. The power was in the hands of court ladies and eunuchs. There were as many as 20,000 eunuchs in the country.

King Xing's Mansion was in panic. In addition to the fears of the emperor and his ministers, there is also a special group of people who are worried and ready to board the ship and run away; they are the merchants who eat food.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road in the Western Regions was blocked, and the food merchants came to the southern coast from the sea, and once opened a trade route. However, Zhu Wen defeated Tang, and then moved to Guangdong with his troops. At the end of his life, he was short of military expenditure. At this time, he found a large number of food merchants, and he could not help but kill nearly 100,000 large cannibals! They robbed them of their goods and belongings.

As a result, sea-way commerce was once blocked, and communication was resumed one after another 20 to 30 years later, but the scale was not as good as that of the Tang Dynasty. The Big Cannibal established a trade relationship with the Southern Han Kingdom for common interests, and also gave a big cannibal beauty named "Meizhu", which was deeply loved by Liu Jixing.

Decades have passed since the bloodshed, and it has long been washed away by the waves. But the shadow is still there, and the big food merchant is very worried that after King Xing's mansion is captured, the Middle-Turkish soldiers will perform the same barbaric acts again.

However, they were unwilling to completely give up their property and commercial profits in the $9 Xing Wangfu. In addition, they heard rumors that the Middle-earth dynasty at this time was not the Zhu Wen department who was desperate to jump over the wall, so there is still a glimmer of hope.

The leader of the big food merchant decided to send an envoy to the north to meet with the chief of the Zhou army to test the attitude of the Zhou Dynasty.

Cao Bin met him courteously because the Southern Cannibal was only a merchant and did not involve the unification war. Cao Bin immediately reported the matter to the court and advocated some of his views in the memorial.

Cao Bin generally held a positive attitude towards the dealings of the big food merchants. One can increase imperial taxes from trade, and most cannibals buy luxury goods such as silk and porcelain, which will not have much impact on people's livelihood; second, "distant ties and close attacks" are the essence of ancient sages’ diplomatic relations, establishing a tributary trading system , Can expand the prestige of the dynasty...Countries thousands of miles away come to pay tribute, face doubled!

... When Guo Shao received the memo from Tokyo, he had already left Lingzhou and was staying in the Yuzhou Palace.

Wei Renpu and others all seconded Cao Bin's proposal this time, and the "increasing taxes" was enough for ministers to support. At this time, the national treasury expenditure was very huge, with the solid foundations of Shu and Nantang. Although the national treasury did not appear to be empty, the annual expenditure for the past two years was more than twice the normal fiscal revenue, all relying on internal treasury subsidies.

Cao Bin’s township army camp has short-term results, and Guo Shao is already preparing a second batch of 100,000 troops... The ministers’ requirements for implementing the strategy are simple, just three words: take money.

In this situation, even if the Privy Council does not care about finances, it is also anxious. Once the internal inventory looted through the early wars is emptied, it is only strange that the revenue and expenditure of the entire dynasty will not collapse! Regular means, increase revenue and reduce expenditure. The profit of the sea trade with Da Shi is to increase revenue, and mosquito meat is also meat.

However, Guo Shao said something that everyone didn't pay attention to: "How did Da Cannibal come to Xingwangfu?"

Wei Renpu pondered for a moment and said, "It should be by boat."

Guo Shaodao: "From the sea, it is natural to take a boat. The key is that the distance is tens of thousands of miles. It is not easy for the boat to get to us. I remember that Nantang sent people from the sea to the north to ask for help from Liao, and the offshore sailing also turned over several times. ; This big cannibalistic route is farther than the East China Sea. There must be a reason to reach King Xing's Mansion."

The ministers nodded and said yes, but they didn't seem to pay much attention to it. Because navigational technology is really not particularly critical to the court.

Guo Shao pays special attention to this matter... His perspective and perception are different. Nautical technology may not be important now, but it will slowly and profoundly affect it in many years to come. In Guo Shao's memory, the Chinese fleet did not reach Africa until the Ming Dynasty, and it was soon interrupted.

Being able to sail from Arabia to Southeast Asia must be unique in terms of shipbuilding and navigation skills.

Guo Shao's concept has never been arrogant to ancient China, nor has he been blindly arrogant. Compared with the world's civilizations of the same period, everyone is lagging behind. He feels that China is still more open-minded in all aspects, and it can be regarded as a civilization, wealth and stability; but not everything is the most advanced, and many aspects still have their own strengths and weaknesses. Learning from each other's strengths is helpful for progress; for example, the Ming Dynasty was generally strong and advanced, and it was still necessary to learn from foreign countries in terms of firearms in order to keep up with the general trend.

"Zuo You also serves as the Ministry of Rites. He is in Lingnan, and he decreed that Zuo You should be responsible for negotiating with the big cannibal." Guo Shaodao.

The ministers thought it was good, and the big cannibals were foreigners. Cao Bin was not allowed to preside over diplomatic relations, and the Beijing officials had to represent the central government.

Guo Shao quickly made a decision and wrote two letters, one to Cao Bin and the other to Zuo You, and put forward some of their own attitudes, making them responsible for the affairs of the South.

……At this time in Lingnan, Cao Bin's department strictly controlled the roads of land and water, and proceeded cautiously and steadily. However, in reality, the army of the Southern Han Dynasty had nowhere to defend, and there was no conventional tactical efforts such as harassment and food shortage. The Zhou army was progressing very smoothly.

Soon after, Liu Jixing sent people to the Zhou army camp to negotiate a peace.

The ambassador actually threatened Zhou Jun: If Zhou Jun continued to attack, he would burn down the Imperial Palace of the Southern Han Dynasty, so that Zhou Jun would not get any property!

The conditions put forward were to cede all the territories occupied by the Zhou army north of Shaozhou and give up the title of emperor; the Zhou army stopped the offensive.

Cao Bin felt that this condition was very ridiculous. The South Han Dynasty’s army performed so poorly. Now it is very sure to destroy the country. Why should we tolerate the existence of the South Han Dynasty?

After discussing with Zuo You, he rejected the terms of the envoy of the Southern Han Dynasty and proposed new conditions: the Lord of the Southern Han Dynasty led the hundreds of civil and military officials to voluntarily surrender, and the court benevolent would give you a title and title to preserve wealth; if the imperial treasury is burned down, Then the crime adds one grade, and the capital crime cannot escape.

Zuo You discussed trade matters with the messenger of the food.

Previously, the big cannibal came to be treated with courtesy, and then he sent more important people and several hired Han translators to accompany him.

Zuo You met him in the tent. The translator waited for the big cannibal to finish the ceremony, then said: "Zuo Shilang, his name is..."

"Huh?" Zuo You frowned, but he didn't understand. The translator made a vague voice like his nose was stuffed. The translator thought for a while, and then said: "The approximate pronunciation of his name is ‘handsome.’ He is the number two character in the food boat team, and speaking among the big cannibals counts."

Zuo You nodded, then clasped his fists in return to the big cannibal.

Shuaiman looked at Zuo You and spoke again. After hearing this, Zuo You turned his head to look at the Chinese translator, and the man said again: "Mr. Shuaiman roughly meant that they came to Zhongtu to do business. They were kind and did not have any hostility. Hope to be protected by the Emperor."

Zuo You said: "The courts of the Great Zhou Dynasty emphasized etiquette and virtue, which is completely different from when the bandits were in troubled times. Don't worry, your Majesty hopes that the envoy of the Great Food will come to Tokyo, the capital of Zhou Dynasty, to meet and exchange courtesy."

Shuaiman again said through an interpreter: "How do we ensure our own safety?"

Zuo You groaned: "Your Majesty will clarify this matter, and the court is willing to exchange business with Da Shi. The emperor of the Zhou Dynasty is a golden word, and the imperial edict must count, and it is related to the prestige of the court."

He thought for a while, and then said: "However, the amount of the tax on the city ship, the agreement between you and the South Han Dynasty cannot be counted, we have to negotiate again."

Shuaiman felt more relieved when he heard these words, perhaps in their opinion, what really guarantees safety is the benefit. Since the Zhou dynasty talked about the rake, it just wanted to divide the benefits, so we had to deal with each other.

Zuo Youzhenzhi, only then brought up Guo Shao’s request in his letter, saying: “However, your envoys and other merchants must agree to two conditions of my court. One is to abide by the court’s laws. Legal punishment, you and others shall not obstruct the official office.

Second, the imperial court respects the gods of you and others, and does not interfere with the gods and gods of you and worship the Bodhisattvas, but it must not confuse the people in the Great Zhou area, otherwise it will severely punish the people and no longer protect them. "

Zuo You also suggested that Shuaiman send someone to Tokyo to pay tribute. As long as he gives the emperor some rare gifts, he will definitely get rich returns.

Gentile tribute is also a kind of trade. For the court, it is a loss-making business, and for the tribute, it is a business that does not pay for the profit. Therefore, the tribute is generally only allowed once a year. Not only because the imperial court, in order to show generosity and wealth, the key is not to make money for others, and others have no incentive to pay tribute; and if the world is not peaceful, the safety of the tribute route cannot be guaranteed... This etiquette is mainly not for economic benefits, but for expansion Prestige and influence, look forward to the prosperous situation of "all nations coming to Korea".

... After Shuaiman returned, he discussed and accepted the request to pay tribute to the capital of Zhou Dynasty~www.readwn.com~ in order to further examine the attitude of the Zhou court.

The big cannibal prepared some rare goods brought from his hometown to trade. When Shuaiman inspected the goods, he found a wooden model of a sailboat. He was furious. He found the leader of the businessmen of the partnership and severely punished those who prepared the goods. In order to restrain the example.

Shuaiman's reason is that the model of the sailboat sent by the person who made the mistake may leak the shipbuilding design of Dashi to Zhongtu.

All the partners agreed with his reasons, so the person who made the mistake was unlucky and had to be chopped off. He argued that Zhou people never paid much attention to this thing, and the model would definitely be placed in the room as a rare decoration by the nobles; the reason was that the nobles of the Middle Turks despised merchants and craftsmen and would not interact with merchants and craftsmen.

But Shuaiman did not forgive him for this, and insisted on punishing him.

A group of people have discussed the rules, not to tell outsiders about shipbuilding skills, sailing experience, mathematics and arithmetic, otherwise they will be executed next time!

They removed some models from the gift list and replaced them with gold ornaments, rare colorful gems, spices and other things.

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