Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

After Cao Bin captured Shaozhou, an army of 100,000 marched by land and water to threaten Xingwangfu. The Southern Han Kingdom was sitting on a vast separatist territory, and it was impossible to organize another decent war.

Because Liu Jixing, the lord of the Southern Han Dynasty, had no one available in the capital, all the power was in the hands of court ladies and eunuchs. There were as many as 20,000 eunuchs in the country. To become an official, he first eunuched himself.

Xing Wangfu fell into panic. In addition to the fear of its monarchs and ministers, there is also a special group of people who are afraid and ready to board the boat and run away at any time; they are the merchants of Dashi.

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 by sea, which once opened up the trade route. But when Zhu Wen destroyed the Tang Dynasty and then led his troops to fight in Guangdong, he was at the end of the road and lacked military expenses. At this time, he found a large number of big food merchants, and he couldn't help but kill them all! Looted all their goods and belongings.

As a result, sea trade was blocked for a while, and it was only after 20 or 30 years that communication was resumed, but the scale was not as good as that of the Tang Dynasty. The big cannibal and the South Han Kingdom established a trade relationship due to common interests, and also sent a big cannibal beauty named "Mei Zhu", who was deeply loved by Liu Jixing.

Decades have passed since the bloodshed, washed away by the waves. But the shadow is still there, and the Dashi businessman is very worried that after the fall of King Xing's Mansion, the Chinese soldiers will repeat their old tricks and commit such barbaric acts again.

However, they were unwilling to completely give up their property and commercial profits in Prince Xing's Mansion. In addition, they heard rumors that the Middle Earth Dynasty at this time was not the Zhu Wen tribe who was at the end of the road, so they still had a glimmer of hope.

The leader of the Dashi businessman decided to send envoys to the north to meet with the Zhou army commander to test and inspect the attitude of the Dazhou Dynasty.

Because the big cannibal in the south was just a businessman and did not get involved in the unification war, Cao Bin treated him politely. Cao Bin immediately reported the matter to the court, and advocated some of his own views in the memorial.

Cao Bin generally holds a positive attitude towards the dealings of Dashi merchants. One is that the court tax can be increased from trade, and most of the big cannibals buy luxury goods such as silk and porcelain, which will not have a great impact on people's livelihood; the other is "distance and close attack" is the essence of the diplomatic relations of ancient sages. Establishing a tribute trade system can expand the prestige of the dynasty... countries thousands of miles away come to pay tribute, and the face is doubled!

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

Wei Renpu and others all supported Cao Bin's proposition this time, and the item of "increasing taxes" was enough for ministers to support. At this time, the state treasury expenditure was very huge, with the solid accumulation of the Shu Kingdom and the Southern Tang Dynasty, although the state treasury did not appear to be empty, but the annual expenditure in the past two years was more than twice the normal fiscal revenue, all relying on internal treasury subsidies.

Cao Bin's township army battalion is effective in the short term, and Guo Shao is already planning a strategy for increasing the second batch of 100,000 troops... The ministers' request for implementing the strategy is very simple, just three words: take money.

In such a situation, even if the Privy Council doesn't care about finances, it will be anxious. Once the internal deposits plundered through the previous wars are emptied, it is no wonder that the entire dynasty's revenue and expenditure do not collapse! Conventional means, increase revenue and reduce expenditure. The profit of sea trade with Dashi is open source, and mosquito meat is also meat.

However, Guo Shao said something that no one paid attention to: "How did the big cannibal come to Xingwang's mansion?"

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

Guo Shaodao: "It is natural to come from the sea by boat. The key is that it is thousands of miles away. It is not easy for the boat to reach us. I remember that when the Southern Tang Kingdom sent people to seek help from the Liao Kingdom by sea, the offshore voyage turned over several times. The route of this big cannibal is farther than the East China Sea. There must be a reason for reaching the Xingwang Mansion."

After hearing this, the ministers nodded in agreement, but they didn't seem to care much about it. Because navigation technology is really not particularly critical to the court.

Guo Shao paid special attention to this matter... His perspective and insight are different. Nautical technology may not be very important now, but it will gradually have a far-reaching impact for many years to come. In Guo Shao's memory, it was not until the Ming Dynasty that the Chinese fleet reached Africa, and it was soon discontinued.

Being able to sail from Arabia to Southeast Asia must have its own uniqueness in shipbuilding and sailing experience and skills.

Guo Shao's ideas never underestimated ancient China, nor did he have the blind arrogance of a celestial kingdom. Compared with other civilizations in the world at the same time, everyone is lagging behind. He believes that China is still relatively advanced and enlightened in all aspects, and can be regarded as a prosperous and stable civilization; but not everything is the most advanced, and many aspects still have their own strengths and weaknesses. Learning from each other's strengths is conducive to progress; for example, the Ming Dynasty was generally strong and advanced, and it still had to learn from foreign countries in terms of firearms in order to keep up with the general trend.

"Zuo You is also in charge of the Ministry of Rites. He is in Lingnan, and he ordered Zuo You to be in charge of negotiating with the big cannibal." Guo Shao said.

All the ministers thought it was good, the big cannibal was a foreigner, and when it came to diplomatic relations, Cao Bin could not be allowed to preside over it, and Beijing officials had to be used to represent the central government.

Guo Shao quickly made a decision and wrote two letters, one to Cao Bin and one to Zuo You, putting forward some of his own attitudes and asking them to be responsible for handling the affairs of the south.

... At this time in Lingnan, Cao Bin's department strictly controlled the water, land and water roads, and advanced cautiously and steadily. But in fact, the army of the Southern Han Dynasty was weak in defense, and there was no conventional tactical effort such as raids and food cutoffs. The Zhou army progressed very smoothly.

Soon after, Liu Jixing sent people to Zhou Jun's camp to discuss peace.

The envoy even threatened Zhou Jun: If Zhou Jun continued to attack, he would burn down the palace of the Southern Han Dynasty, so that Zhou Jun would not get any property!

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

Cao Bin thought this condition was ridiculous. The military performance of the Southern Han Kingdom was so poor that it was very sure to destroy the country now. Why tolerate the existence of the Southern Han Kingdom?

After negotiating with Zuo You, he rejected the envoy's peace negotiation conditions and put forward new conditions: the ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty led all civil and military officials to surrender voluntarily, and the court benevolently appointed you an official and title to preserve your wealth;

Zuo You discussed trade matters with the Dashi envoy.

The big cannibal came here earlier and was treated politely, and then he sent more important people, as well as a few hired Han translation staff to accompany him.

Zuo You met him in the tent. The translator waited for the big cannibal Zhili to finish speaking, and then said: "Left servant, his name is xxoo..."

"What?" Zuo You frowned, but he didn't understand what the translator said, as if his nose was stuffed, and he spit out an indistinct voice. The translator thought for a while, and then said: "The approximate pronunciation of the name is 'Shuaiman'. He is the number two member of the big cannibal fleet, and he still counts among the big cannibals."

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

Shuai Man looked at Zuo You, and chattered again. After hearing this, Zuo You turned to look at the Chinese interpreter, who said again: "Mr. Shuaiman probably said that they came to China to do business. They are very friendly and have no hostility. I hope to get the protection of His Majesty the Emperor."

Zuo You said: "The court of the Great Zhou Dynasty emphasized etiquette and virtue, which is completely different from when the country was ruled by bandits in troubled times. Don't worry, your majesty hopes that the envoys of the great food will come to Tokyo, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, to have an audience, and reciprocate courtesy."

Shuaiman said through the translator: "How should we ensure our own safety?"

Zuo You pondered and said: "Your Majesty will issue an imperial edict to clarify this matter, and the imperial court is willing to communicate with Dashi for business. The emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty is a golden man, and the imperial edict must be counted, which is related to the prestige of the imperial court."

He thought for a while, and then said: "However, the percentage of Shibo's tax, the agreement you have made with the Southern Han Kingdom does not count, we have to renegotiate."

Shuaiman felt more at ease when he heard this, perhaps in their view, what can really guarantee safety is profit. Since the Zhou court talked about taking a commission, they just wanted to share the benefits, so they had to keep in touch with each other.

Zuo Youchazhi only mentioned Guo Shao's request in the letter at this time, saying: "However, noble envoys and other merchants must agree to two conditions of our court. First, they must abide by the court's laws, and those who commit crimes will be punished according to the Da Zhou law. You must not obstruct the government's work.

Second, the imperial court respects your gods and does not interfere with your belief in gods and worshiping Bodhisattvas, but it is not allowed to confuse the people in the territory of Dazhou, otherwise you will be severely punished and will no longer protect your safety. "

Zuo You also suggested that Shuai Man send people to Tokyo to pay tribute, as long as he gave the emperor some rare gifts, he would definitely get a generous return.

Foreign tribute is also a kind of trade. For the court, it is a loss-making business, and for the tribute payer, it is a business that guarantees no loss, so it is generally only allowed to pay tribute once a year. Not only is it because the court wants to show generosity and wealth, the key is not to make money for others, and others have no motivation to pay tribute; and if the world is not peaceful, the safety of the tribute route cannot be guaranteed... This kind of etiquette is not mainly for economic benefits, but to expand prestige and influence, and look forward to the prosperous situation of "all nations come to court".

... After Shuaiman went back, he discussed with him and accepted the request to pay tribute to the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, so as 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 sailing ship. He was furious and called the leader of the business partner to punish those who prepared the goods severely as an example.

The handsome reason is that the sailing ship model sent by the person who made a mistake may leak Dashi's shipbuilding design to Zhongtu.

All the partners agreed with his reasoning, and the man who erred was unlucky enough to have his hand cut off. He argued that Zhou people never paid much attention to this thing, and the model would definitely be placed in the room by the nobles as a rare decoration; the reason was that the nobles of the Chinese people despised merchants and craftsmen, and would not associate with merchants and craftsmen.

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

A group of people discussed the rules, and they cannot tell outsiders about shipbuilding technology, sailing experience, mathematical arithmetic, etc., otherwise they will be executed next time!

They removed some models from the gift list and replaced them with gold ornaments and rare multicolored gems, spices and so on. \u003c