Ten years ago, it was not this group of people, but another group of people sitting here, who also commented and laughed at an unknown person, from his background to his appearance to his name. They spoke as if this person should die in the next second, so miserable and so despicable that he did not deserve to live in this world.
And that person was Qu Yunmie.
Qu Yunmie, who could scare the whole of Jinling with just a slight move of his feet, and who once forced them to issue seals and imperial edicts and acknowledge that he was the rightful King of Zhenbei.
Talented people emerge in every generation. First there was Qu Yunmie, then there was Xiao Rong. Why are all the talented people on the other side of the Huai River? Moreover, they are all young and have a long way to go. Let's look at Jinling.
Sun Renluan sometimes feels that he is getting old. He has been at the pinnacle of power for a long time. He can see the world, but he can't see where the people around him are going. At the beginning of the year, the sky was different. Some people told him that it meant that the fate of the King of Zhenbei had ended. Now it seems that it is not entirely true. Wars are coming, the stars are moving, the Purple Star will fall, and the earth fire will be born.
He also knew a little about astrology. The celestial phenomena at the beginning of the year never mentioned anything by name, saying what would happen to the Prince of Zhenbei. However, the Jupiter had changed its position, and the Purple Star was about to fall. These were the most obvious omens. It was not the Prince of Zhenbei that was about to end, but the He Dynasty, which was lingering on and in name only.
Sun Renluan has been with the He family for too long. He can neither replace the He family nor sever himself from the He family. If what the stars foretell is true, he thinks that when the day comes when the building collapses, he will also be one of the people buried in the endless dust.
But what does it matter? He has experienced countless storms and waves in his life, and the celestial phenomena cannot stop him. He will still do what he should do until the situation is settled and the celestial phenomena are no longer illusory, but the sound of swords and knives standing in front of him. Only then will he stop, close his eyes, and enjoy his eternal peace. …………
When Xiao Rong came in, this group of people immediately put on hypocritical smiles, as if they were all kind and good people. Xiao Rong also smiled at them, then slowly sat down and began to discuss business with them.
It was nothing more than a matter of sending troops. The Eight Lords were not necessarily all Sun Renluan's confidants, but they were still very united when facing outsiders. Sun Renluan had already told them some of what Xiao Rong had said that day, and they were not so resistant to sending troops, but the prerequisite was that Xiao Rong must take the initiative to tear off a piece of his flesh and give it to them.
It's not enough to just admit that you are submitting to the court, you must take actual action! The court is also short of troops now, so is it not too much to ask the King of Zhenbei to send 50,000 to defend the capital?
Xiao Rong laughed: "Fifty thousand is a little too little."
The group of old men were stunned. They were deliberately making things difficult for Xiao Rong and also wanted to bargain with him. If the King of Zhenbei was not stupid, he would not have sent 50,000 soldiers and horses over. But even if he sent 10,000, wouldn't it be a profit?
Who knew Xiao Rong would say this? Just when they were a little confused about what Xiao Rong meant, they heard Xiao Rong slowly say, "How can 50,000 soldiers be enough to defend the capital? If you want to defend the capital, you should ask for 400,000. The king will personally lead the troops to cross the Huai River. You only need to open the city gates, and you will receive our king's kindness."
Old men: “…………”
Is it that the intention was received, or that we became the intention?
How dare you, young man, play tricks on us!
An old man with a face that looked like pig liver in sauce said to Xiao Rong with a suffocating breath, "Xiao Lingyin, this joke is too big."
Xiao Rong looked at him in surprise: "I thought you were joking, so I just went along with what I said. Oh, if I offended you, please don't take it to heart. I was young and ignorant, and I said the wrong thing carelessly. Haha, you shouldn't hold it against me, right?"
Old men: “…………”
I have only seen people taking advantage of their age to bully others, but I have never seen people taking advantage of their youth to bully others.
They could not compare with Xiao Rong in talking, but it was obvious that on the first day when Xiao Rong arrived here, he looked very struggling when facing the entire court. Now sitting among them, he seemed to be quite at ease. Could it be that because there were fewer people today, he became more powerful?
He couldn't figure it out, and it was too late to figure it out. Xiao Rong wasn't here to play with them today, and he didn't want to waste time. ...
His bottom line was very clear, which was to surrender on the surface. Beyond that, it was impossible to ask them to show any actual sincerity, especially soldiers, food and fodder. Not even a grain of rice would be given to them. However, this group of old men also made it clear that they must get as many benefits as possible. Otherwise, they would agree to whatever Xiao Rong said. Where would they put their face?
Xiao Rong looked like he was extremely annoyed by them, and after haggling for a long time, he finally agreed to take a step back. From now on, they would pay tribute every year. Is that okay?
Originally, the princes should pay tribute, but the imperial court was weak and no one took it seriously. As far as Xiao Rong knew, there were only two or three princes left who would pay tribute to Nanyong. One of them was He Tingzhi, and the remaining two were timid and had to pay tribute.
But even if these three people would pay tribute, the tribute they submitted would be very perfunctory. It was not like in the past when they would reserve the best for the emperor. Instead, they would keep the best for themselves and give the acceptable ones to the emperor.
Xiao Rong began to shake his head and continued to explain how poor their Zhenbei Army was. It was impossible to give them money and food, but they could give them some specialties from the north of the Huai River, such as warm powder. You probably haven't heard of this, right? This is something we only have in the north of the Huai River. It is usually sealed, and when the weather gets cold, some is taken out and wrapped in cloth. It works like a hot water bottle, and can keep things warm for several hours!
There are also carriages. There are many carpenters in the north of the Huai River. The carriages built by carpenters are extremely comfortable, like a small movable house. Such a good thing should naturally be presented to Your Majesty for use.
Xiao Rong chattered about those little gadgets he had tinkered with, all of which were worthless but not available in Nan Yong.
Warm powder is a magic weapon in the Zhenbei Army because it is colder where they live. But it is not that effective in the south. No matter how cold it is in the south, your hands and feet will not freeze off. An extra warm powder can at most make them more comfortable in winter, but it will not increase their combat effectiveness on the battlefield.
If possible, Xiao Rong would actually like to send something sensitive, such as salt.
The salt people used at that time was generally well salt, which had a lot of impurities and did not taste very good. The salt used by the royal family was naturally more advanced, which was lake salt, but it was not much better.
As for the real big salt producer - the sea, it was still the exclusive domain of fishermen at that time. There were many factors that prevented people from using sea salt, such as inconvenient transportation, people inland could not wait, and people were still afraid of the sea, so they would not go there if they could avoid it...
Therefore, even though sea salt has been around for thousands of years, it did not become part of everyday life for a long time. Later, the Grand Canal was successfully excavated, the shipbuilding industry developed, and water transportation finally took off. Sea salt then became the government's first choice.
Sea salt is inexhaustible. If Xiao Rong can send this stuff to Nanyong and hide its origin, all other well salt and lake salt will have to stand aside. In time, the salt used by the people of Nanyong will be monopolized by Xiao Rong, and then the people of Nanyong will have an invisible shackle around their necks. If Xiao Rong wants, as long as he tightens the rope in his hand, the lives of the people of Nanyong will become very difficult.
However, this matter cannot be done in such a high-profile manner. What's more, he only wants to curb the upper class, not the common people. The nobles can do whatever they want, but the common people will lose their lives if they make a little trouble.
So he didn't mention the salt. For something as important as this, he'd better prepare a detailed plan and then act according to circumstances.
However, just the gadgets that Xiao Rong mentioned were enough to excite this group of people. After all, they were things they had never seen before and were very practical. They continued to bargain with Xiao Rong, asking him to provide a quantity starting from several thousand kilograms.
There were so many little emperors that they couldn't use them all in their lifetime, and they didn't even pretend to be so, and openly told Xiao Rong that they were going to embezzle the tribute. ... This was normal, the emperor was like this, so what was the point of pretending?
Taking advantage of their ignorance, Xiao Rong repeatedly emphasized that the cost of the warm powder was very high, because gold was used in it! You have heard that real gold is not afraid of fire, right? It is precisely because of this that this warm powder can work!
Finally, Xiao Rong agreed with a painful look on his face, and was willing to send 200 kilograms of warm powder as a tribute. As for the carriages, he told all the carpenters to work overtime after he returned, and try to collect ten carriages and send them over before next year.
Old men: “…”
We really don’t understand Nuanfen, but do you think we have never seen a horse-drawn carriage? What kind of carriage takes a whole year to build?
But no matter what they asked, Xiao Rong could answer them, and he spoke in a very exaggerated way, as if all these carpenters were the reincarnation of Lu Ban. When he was halfway through his speech, someone suggested that if that was the case, then why not send a carriage and send a few carpenters instead? Xiao Rong choked.
I really don't know what the difference is between a noble family and a bandit. How dare you say such a thing?
Not only did he have the nerve to say it, he even said it a second time. Xiao Rong curled his lips. It would be strange if he agreed to it. He said that these carpenters could not be sent out because their voices had been poisoned and their tendons had been cut, in order to prevent them from revealing the secrets of how to make them. Therefore, he could only shamelessly refuse.
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