Chapter 484 Taking Over Youzhou
Tuoba Yu was about to speak when Lu Desheng interrupted him, "Don't try to persuade me anymore. I don't believe the promises of your Xianbei royal court. Last year, you also signed a three-year peace agreement, but what was the result?"
Lu Desheng's words were like a slap in Tuoba Yu's face, and he almost said that their promise was worthless.
The Pingzhou officials beside Lu Desheng nodded in their hearts and agreed with what their Lord Lu said, that is, if the Xianbei royal court wants to negotiate, it should offer tangible benefits.
Tuoba Yu tried to save his dignity, "We Xianbei went south this time for a reason——"
Lu Desheng didn't want to hear this. "Alright, alright, Prince Tuoba, you've expressed your sincerity on behalf of the Xianbei court. Do you want to hear what I want?"
"Master Lu, please speak."
"We want Youzhou! Also, your Second Prince robbed us of 1.2 million dan of tax grain from Pingzhou. You Xianbei must return this grain to us."
What?! Tuoba Yu almost jumped up when he heard this condition. What a ridiculous request! It was truly a ridiculous request!
"Master Lu, your conditions are too extreme!"
One Youzhou and 1.2 million dan of grain are too expensive. Seven princes are too expensive.
Does Lu Desheng know how expensive food is now?
"Isn't your noble Seventh Prince worth this price?" Lu Desheng looked surprised.
Could Tuoba Yu say it wasn't worth it? He now inexplicably felt the same feeling as when Prince Gong of the Dali Dynasty faced him just now. It should be the same.
"Besides, we just want to take back what originally belonged to us. This request is not excessive."
Shit!
Tuoba Jin, who was standing nearby, said angrily, "But we didn't get much food! Most of the tax grain was burned by you! And some was taken by the bandits from Youbeiping County!"
He has the final say on this matter. Why is Lu Desheng putting all the blame on the Xianbei now?
Lu Desheng spread his hands and said, "We don't know about that. Anyway, Pingzhou has lost 1.2 million in tax grain, and you have to compensate us."
What Lu Desheng meant was that it was true that they lost 1.2 million dan of grain in Pingzhou, but you said that you didn't rob much grain. Who can prove it?
All members of the Xianbei negotiation team were choked by Lu Desheng's words.
Prince Gong, who was stopped outside, also saw that Tuoba Yu and the others looked very unhappy. He was very curious about what Lu Desheng had discussed with them. In fact, he hoped that the talks would fail. If the talks failed, they would fight and go to war, right?
Unfortunately, the reaction of Tuoba Yu and others was not what Prince Gong expected. Although they were so angry that they vomited blood, Tuoba Yu and others still endured it.
"Lü Desheng, please be reasonable!"
Lu Desheng said seriously, "I am a very reasonable person." Convincing people with reason is his forte.
"Tuoba Jin, just tell me, did you Xianbei people try to steal the tax grain?"
"I went to rob——"
"Isn't that enough?"
Tuoba Jin jumped up and down, "But before us, some of your tax grain had already been robbed by bandits, and most of it was burned by you. In the end, we only managed to get less than 20,000 kilograms of tax grain!"
"Are you kidding me? The people transporting the grain said there was a small river next to the place where the grain transport team had the accident. You saw the grain on fire, but you didn't save it? You must have saved most of the grain."
"If you dare not take responsibility for something, you are not a man!"
Lu Desheng looked as if he was saying, "Don't try to fool me."
It didn't make sense. Tuoba Jin was really about to vomit blood. Could he say that they didn't put out the fire? But after putting out the fire, they really didn't save much food.
"The bandits stole some of it, and burned some of it, but you Xianbei must have taken the bulk of it." Lu Desheng had an expression that indicated that this was the case.
"Besides, who is to blame for this? It's your responsibility as Xianbei people. It's your fault. If you hadn't come to rob us of our tax grain, our tax grain would still be there."
Tuoba Jin found that even if he had mouths all over his body, he still couldn't explain himself.
Tuoba Jin wanted to speak again, but was stopped by Tuoba Yu. "Lord Lu, the compensation of 1.2 million dan of grain is too much. Can it be waived? We will exchange Youzhou for the Seventh Prince, just as a gesture of friendship with the Xianbei people."
The Xianbei invaded Dali in the south and plundered several places. Since it was after the autumn harvest, they did manage to get back a lot of grain, but they would also feel bad if they gave away more than one million dan of grain.
"Okay, then the 200,000 shi will be considered as the part that was robbed and burned by the bandits. It will be one million shi, no less." Lu Desheng felt that he was easy to talk to, and he gave them 200,000 shi at once. What a good person he was.
Tuotuo Yu was tired. He said to cancel it, what did Lu Desheng reply?
Facing Lü Desheng's exorbitant demands, Tuoba Yu wanted to...
But the Seventh Prince must be saved!
The biological mother of the seventh prince was the daughter of the chief of the Buyeo tribe. During the period when his nephew was captured, it was heard that Yanshi was crying and wailing in the tribe, and even the chief of the Buyeo tribe went to look for his eldest brother several times.
If his nephew died, it would be detrimental to the unity of all ethnic groups and the war situation.
Tuoba Lian, who was hanging on the edge, watched the negotiations that were about to collapse at any moment, and could not help but shout at the hesitant Tuoba Yu, "Uncle, I don't want to die. My father Khan was reluctant to spend money and food to save me, and I understand him. Can't I buy my own redemption?"
"All you have to do is hand over Youzhou, and I'll pay for the one million dan of grain!" Tuoba Lian shouted, "Lord Lu, I don't have that much grain. Can I use gold, silver, and jewelry as compensation?"
Hearing this, Lu Desheng was delighted, but on the surface he agreed reluctantly, "Okay."
"Uncle, my mother must have stuffed all the gold and silver she used to redeem me into the grain convoy. Please go and find it, and redeem me."
Tuoba Yu: This prodigal! When did he secretly transfer his family fortune to the grain and fodder team?
"Prince Tuoba, how about it, do you want to make a deal?" Lu Desheng asked.
Tuoba Xun whispered, "Uncle, promise him! Rescue the person first."
"Okay, it's settled. We'll take Youzhou and one million dan of grain worth of gold and silver in exchange for the Seventh Prince Tuoba Lian."
Lu Desheng waved his hand. "Okay, then go get ready. When you're ready, we'll exchange the money and the goods."
Gold and silver are easy to get. Tuoba Yu just needs to ask people to look for them among the food and grass they are carrying. However, handing them over to Youzhou is more troublesome.
They had to first negotiate with Prince Gong and others, asking them to withdraw the military equipment and officials from several counties in Youzhou and transfer them to Pingzhou smoothly before the matter was completed.
Under Tuoba Yu's instructions, plenty of people went to handle this matter.
The gold, silver and jewelry hidden in the food and fodder were easy to find and were transported here soon.
Tuoba Yu asked, "You don't want a truce?"
Aren’t the Xianbei people scary? Tuoba Yu couldn’t help but wonder.
Lu Desheng curled his lips, "Your armistice agreement is as good as a fart. We don't ask for it."
If you sign this agreement, you have to give up some of your interests. Anyone who signs it is a fool.
Hearing this, Tuoba Yu was quite depressed. This Lu Desheng was too cunning.
Tuoba Yu said, "The gold, silver, and jewelry worth one million dan of grain are all here. I've already sent people to negotiate with Youzhou. You can just arrange for someone to take over later."
Lu Desheng ordered people to move boxes of gold, silver, and jewelry away. "Okay, after our people take over Youzhou, we will release the Seventh Prince of Tuoba."
At this time, Prince Gong was anxious. The people from the Xianbei royal court had just come to him and asked them to withdraw all the military equipment and officials from several counties in Youzhou, as someone would take over Youzhou next.
Youzhou is about to change hands.
Only then did Prince Gong truly realize how painful it was to cede the three states. It was also at this time that he learned about the conditions negotiated between the Xianbei and Pingzhou.
After learning about it, his eyes lit up and he came over hurriedly, "Wait--"
"Prince Tuoba, you have been -" fooled.
Prince Gong wanted to use the truth about the tax grain robbery to have a talk with Tuoba Yu and gain some benefits for Dali.
An arrow pierced through his face, ripping out a strand of his eyebrow, breaking the skin and causing blood to ooze out.
Prince Gong was shocked.
Lu Desheng: "Prince Gong, sometimes we need to be careful with our words and actions, don't you think?"
Zuo Anmin, who was standing by, was also startled. He even looked around.
Of course he knew what Prince Gong wanted to say, and he followed over to support him, but now he didn't dare to speak, for fear of being killed by an arrow from the sharpshooter hiding in the dark from Pingzhou.
Faced with this situation, Tuoba Yu, Tuoba Xun and others exchanged glances with each other. Both they and Pingzhou had archers, which was a bit troublesome.
In fact, the Sun family army also had an archer who could shoot accurately from a hundred paces away. However, after the Sun family archer arrived in the north, he had some difficulty acclimatizing to the climate there, so General Sun did not assign him any tasks.
"Prince Gong, is Youzhou ready to be handed over?" Tuoba Yu asked.
Prince Gong hadn't recovered yet, so Lin Ran answered for him, "The officials have been ordered to evacuate."
Deng Fangyi, who was standing next to him, had a sad face, as the order came from him, the governor of Youzhou.
Lu Desheng didn't care about them and immediately ordered, "Qin Yan and Qin Zhao, the two of you will take 15,000 soldiers and horses to take over the counties of Youzhou."
Qin Yan and Qin Zhao stepped out and said, "Yes!"
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