When the team of Xixia envoys entered Tokyo City, greeted by Li Weining, the young minister of Honglu Temple, they were immediately greeted by people on both sides of the city gate and streets, and many people even pointed and talked about it.
This is not to say that the people in Tokyo are unusual. They always talk about foreign envoys when they see them coming. As residents of the capital of the Song Dynasty, the people in the city have enough experience. Every year, they see many envoys from other countries coming to Beijing. . However, a situation like this has not been encountered for decades.
Because as early as half a month ago, the origin of these Xixia envoys had been spread in the city. They actually came to Tokyo to surrender and beg for mercy. It was only because the Western Army of the Song Dynasty had caused too many casualties and pressure on Xixia in the past few years that the Xixia Kingdom could no longer support it, so it had to send such a team composed of important domestic ministers and nobles to perform Hajj. It's so rare.
You must know that since the founding of the Song Dynasty, except for Emperors Taizu and Emperor Taizong, who had such a good situation that they forced envoys from other countries to beg for surrender, in the following decades, the Song State has always been at a disadvantage whether it was against Liao or Xia. Even though When envoys from these two countries came, they usually showed off their power, but the people in the city were all suffocated.
But things are different now. After knowing their purpose of coming, the people in the capital just felt proud and proud. Even if they had other things to do, after hearing the news, they went out to see the rare things and gave some guidance on both sides of the street. Say something cheery.
"It has been almost sixty or seventy years, and the Song Dynasty has not been as powerful as it is today. I still remember my grandfather telling me about the glorious achievements of the Song Dynasty in sweeping all directions and capturing the emperors of other countries who came to Beijing. "An old man in his fifties said with emotion to his relatives and friends.
"Who says it's not? But now our Song Dynasty is no longer the militarily weak country it was back then. Even the Liao Kingdom is not our opponent, let alone these Xixia people. This time we must negotiate terms with them. Anyway, I also want to take back the anger I received in the first place.”
As the envoy team approached, everyone looked at it strangely. Many people pointed at the Xia monks in the team and commented: "There is no one in Xixia to send, so why did they send some monks here?" Is this considered contempt for me, the Song Dynasty?"
"Old Li, you don't know enough, you're making a joke."
"Then you know?"
"Of course. I have already inquired about it. Buddhism is prosperous in Xixia today. Their emperor, queen mother and other nobles all believe in Buddhism, so the monks have a particularly noble status in their country. Presumably these monks who came to our Song Dynasty He must be a monk official in their country."
"I see, then you should come over."
The people's onlookers and discussions made these envoys obviously feel a little uncomfortable, so they could only speed up their pace, and finally arrived in front of the embassy where they were staying after more than an hour. It was only then that Li Weining stepped forward with a smile and said: "Envoy Xia, and Master, you can live here peacefully for now. All you have to do is give instructions for food and clothing, and I will arrange it for you."
"It's a good job for such hard work." The Xixia envoy with a red face and a thick beard hurriedly stroked his chest and saluted, while the head monk also put one hand on his chest and saluted.
Li: "By the way, I want to ask you a bold question, but I don't know when can I meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty?"
"This..." A strange look flashed in Li Weining's eyes, but he quickly replied: "The official family usually has many things to do, and the envoy's visit is a big deal, so the court must be prepared before you can see him. In this way, we will wait until I report it and get a response before conveying the news."
"But..." Nazheng said a little anxiously: "There are still troops ready to move at the Song-Xia border. If this delay causes friction, it will not be a good thing for our two countries. So I hope the difference can be resolved." For the sake of the common people, don’t delay the process for too long.”
"Hey, your words are serious. We, the Song Dynasty, have always believed that peace is the most important thing. How could we take the initiative to provoke a border provocation? I believe that as long as your border troops do not make any changes, there will be no friction between the two sides."
Seeing that the other party said this and clearly wanted to drag the matter out, Ambassador Xia felt even more dissatisfied, his face darkened, and he wanted to say something else. I didn't want to but was overtaken by the monk: "Since the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is busy with government affairs and can't spare time to see us, I would like to ask your envoy to pass on the information and let us meet Sun Tu, the Taiwei of your country."
"This..." Li Weining didn't expect that the other party would make such a request. He felt a little startled and frowned.
Seeing this, the monk quickly added: "Our country's envoy Xi Fengchang and the young monk also had a relationship with Sun Taiwei. As long as you can pass the message, the young monk believes that he will definitely meet us."
"This... Okay, I will definitely pass on the news. But after all, Taiwei Sun has the final say on this matter. I can't guarantee that he will definitely see you." Li Weining nodded in the end.
"This will help you." The monk saluted again, and Xia Shi Fengchang also calmed down his temper and saluted seriously.
It wasn't until they entered the embassy, surrounded by people from Xixia, that Xi Fengchang said solemnly: "National Preceptor, do you think that Captain Sun will really see us?"
"Why, Master, don't you know that Captain Sun is the original Sun Qianli?" the monk said with a smile.
"Of course I know this. I think he did a lot of big things in our Xixia country, which actually caused chaos in our country and greatly damaged our vitality..." Xi Fengchang recalled with a bit of resentment. But he thought of the old things he had with Sun Qianli a few years ago.
In fact, to be honest, his resentment towards Sun Tu was not too serious. After all, the other party had helped him a lot. It's just that this guy has been hiding his true identity. He is actually a military general of the Song Dynasty, and he has always introduced him as a close friend. In the end, he was used by him to drag the entire Xifeng clan into that incident. The fight led to constant chaos in the country.
However, the Xixia Imperial Master was open-minded and just smiled when he heard this: "It's no wonder he was there. There were so many frictions between the two countries at that time. How could he, a Song general, dare to reveal his identity in our country?"
"That's true. In fact, without him, I, the Xi Feng clan, would not be where we are today." Xi Fengchang also sighed with emotion. It is said that in the past few years, because of the close relationship with the current Xixia Emperor, the Xifeng clan's power in the country has also increased, and now it can compete with Mo Xiahe. And all this comes to the bottom
, Sun Tu’s guidance and help are really indispensable.
After a pause, he sighed with emotion: "Although our changes are not small, they still cannot be compared with the dramatic change in Sun Qianli's identity. At first, he was just a general of the Song Dynasty who was living in the Xia Kingdom, but now he has become a The real controller of the entire Song Dynasty court."
"Yes, that's why the young monk wants to meet him. As long as we can get his permission, our purpose of coming west can be achieved." The national master said with a smile: "And I believe that for the sake of you During my initial friendship with him, Lieutenant Sun would always give us some opportunities."
"I hope so." Xi Fengchang really didn't have much confidence in this. After all, he had learned Sun Tu's methods. Back in Shunjun City and Xingqing Mansion, he had personally seen Sun Tuyou at that time. How step-by-step and ruthless. Now that his status has improved, I'm afraid it will be more difficult to deal with.
In this regard, the monk said no more. He just smiled mysteriously and said no more.
Half a day later, reports were reported to Sun Tu about the Xixia envoy's arrival in Beijing and the fact that Xi Feng and Chang wanted to see Sun Tu. When he heard this name, Sun Tu was obviously startled: "He is actually the Xia envoy this time? Could this be an arrangement made for me? It seems that the Emperor of Xixia has put some thought into it."
"Is there any real friendship between the Taiwei and Xi Fengchang?" Tong Mu asked curiously.
"That happened a few years ago. When I accompanied Tong Guan as an envoy to the Liao Kingdom..." Sun Tu immediately briefly recounted his experience a few years ago, which made Tong Mu feel surprised and frightened. He also I never heard Sun Tu mention such a thrilling encounter.
Then there was a burst of astonishment: "So it seems that you had a narrow escape in both Liao and Xixia. And Xi Fengchang and Jiesang Wali really helped you a lot."
"Yes, if they hadn't helped me, I might have died outside. So to be honest, I do owe them a favor. Since they came this time and made it clear that they wanted to see me, this I always have to give you face." Sun Tu smiled and said: "In this way, it is already late today, so let's arrange a banquet for them tomorrow in Honglu Temple, and I will meet them as the master. Let’s meet.”
Tong Mu nodded at first, but then frowned a little worriedly: "Of course there is no problem with meeting for a banquet or something. I'm just worried that they will plead with you on the grounds of former love. At that time, what should you do? response?"
"Haha..." Sun Tu smiled and shook his head: "You are looking down on me too much. Public is public and private is private. How can I, Sun Tu, confuse the two? If they are just reminiscing about old times, then everything is easy for me. I will give them enough respect. But if they push their limits and want to use what happened back then to make any unreasonable demands, I, Sun Tu, am now the Grand Lieutenant of the Song Dynasty, how can I allow them to do whatever they want?"
Seeing what he said, Tong Mu felt relieved and said with a smile: "Of course this is the best. I want to keep them going for a while, and after weakening their energy, I can make more demands. After all, This time they begged us."
"This is exactly what I want to say. After all, Xixia is our enemy. How long will it take if we don't take advantage of them?" Sun Tu said with another smile.