"Okay, I'll go to the Academy of Sciences first."
Zhao Jun smiled.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, a man came in hurriedly and reported, "Report, a letter from Jiaozhi."
"oh?"
Zhao Jun paused, turned his head, and said to Fan Zhongyan and the others, "It seems that the imperial court's big move in Guangxi has aroused the vigilance of the people of the Li Dynasty, and they have begun to pay tribute and seek peace again."
"Show it to me."
Fan Zhongyan signaled the person reporting to bring the letter from the credible party.
Logically speaking, this is a letter from the country, and it must be shown to Zhao Zhen first.
However, the Political System Council now oversees all national affairs, and Zhao Zhen only nominally controls the Political System Council through the regular afternoon meetings, so naturally the Political System Council will be the first to review.
The thing was handed over, and Lao Fan took a look at it. The content inside was actually very simple. Li Foma first praised the Song Dynasty's literary and military achievements in recent years, and congratulated the Song Dynasty on its successive defeats of the Western Xia and Liao Dynasties.
Then, the subject changed, saying that Jiaozhi's "accidental" incursions into Song territory a few years ago were all misunderstandings. Some were caused by border commanders acting on their own, while others were caused by people accidentally straying into the territory while arresting criminals.
He hoped that the Song Dynasty would not develop any grudges against Jiaozhi because of these "misunderstandings", so he was willing to send envoys to the Song Dynasty to pay tribute and present a pair of white elephants to express his deep apology to the Song Dynasty.
"What the hell."
After reading it, Zhao Jun was speechless and said, "It's still the same as before, treating the Song Dynasty like beggars."
"This white elephant is truly precious. Jiaozhi was reluctant to give it to us before."
Yan Shu smiled and said, "It seems Jiaozhi has sensed fear this time and intends to offer precious treasures to appease the court's anger."
"White elephants are precious, but they think we're fools. Are these invasions just misunderstandings?"
Fan Zhongyan said angrily: "In this battle, the imperial court must fight, and the Li Dynasty must also be destroyed."
"Um."
Zhao Jun nodded slightly.
Strictly speaking, the tribute system of the Central Plains dynasty was one in which vassal states paid tribute and the Central Plains dynasty gave generous gifts.
However, the grants from the Central Plains dynasties were often measured by the value of tribute paid by vassal states.
The more tribute you pay, the more the Central Plains dynasty will give you.
Therefore, in ancient times, it was common for the entire country to pay tribute to the Central Plains dynasty in order to obtain more generous rewards.
This is the case with Ryukyu.
Every time Ryukyu paid tribute, it would receive several times the amount in return from the Central Plains dynasty.
Therefore, Ryukyu was most enthusiastic about sending envoys to pay tribute.
For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, they had to pay tribute five or six times a year, which made Zhu Di very annoyed. In the end, he stipulated that Ryukyu was not allowed to pay tribute in this way, and could only pay tribute once every two years.
This pair of white elephants from Vietnam is an extremely precious species even in later generations, and even more so in ancient times.
Southeast Asian countries that existed during the same period as the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Vietnam, Siam, Cambodia, Angkor, and Champa, all treated white elephants as national treasures.
Therefore, Vietnam’s behavior can be understood as my country’s gift of a pair of giant pandas to a friendly country in later generations, which is still very sincere.
But now that they have drawn their swords and mounted their horses, what’s the point of your repentance?
The Song Dynasty was about to destroy the Ly Dynasty of Vietnam and develop the Red River Delta into a rubber and cinchona planting base.
So there is no point in apologizing anymore.
Zhao Jun said, "It's just right. The imperial court hasn't issued a written notice yet. Punishing without teaching is cruelty, and punishing without warning is tyranny. Jiaozhi refuses to change despite repeated warnings. Their crimes should be made public and announced to the world. This is what happens when you anger the Song Dynasty!"
"good!"
Fan Zhongyan spoke with great confidence and immediately wrote down the official document. As long as Zhao Zhen stamped it, it would be a manifesto to attack Yue!
(End of this chapter)
dingdiange
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