At dusk the next day, the Honglu Temple was brightly lit, and all the officials of the Yamen were present, plus the officials of the Ministry of Rites and other yamen, gathered together, as an accompanying guest, plus Sun Tu, the host, today's dinner can be regarded as giving the Xixia envoy enough face.

After the host and guest greet each other, they will sit down, and all kinds of delicacies from the mountains and seas, wine and delicacies will be sent in like flowing water. It was all something that the envoys of the Western Xia had never tasted before, so these upright people were feasting for a while, without the slightest restraint.

It is the official envoy of the fine seal Chang, who is also in good spirits after a few glasses of wine, and keeps holding a glass to Sun Tu, and mentions the original things from time to time, which seems to be close to everyone. In this regard, Sun Tu did not show too detachment, drank several glasses of wine with him, and also said some words to recall the past friendship, which made Xi Fengchang feel even more happy in his heart, and felt that he had come to negotiate this time to the right one.

In addition to a few of their main people, the official envoys below are also pushing cups and changing lamps, staggering, so lively. Even if the two countries of Song and Xia had many years of grievances, since everyone came to their capital to soften, the officials of the Great Song Dynasty were still able to show full politeness and make them feel at home.

It wasn't until the wine was half-drunk that the fine seal often burped slightly and looked at Sun Tu: "Sun Qianli...... No, I should call you Mrs. Sun, you were so bitter about me at the beginning. Do you know that after seeing your methods at that time, I really wanted to recruit you to my side to help me take charge of the entire Xifeng Clan. When I learned that you had left Western Xia, I felt nostalgic for a long time. ”

"Haha, I did hide something from the beginning, but at that time, I was in another country, and my life may not be able to be saved, so I can only live up to your sincerity." Sun Tu replied with a smile, but there was really no apology in his tone.

"Forget it, in fact, I should have figured it out a long time ago, with your ability, how can a little person like me master it." Xi Feng often said, his face suddenly turned solemn: "But what you did in my Xingqing Mansion is a little inauthentic after all, just because of you, it has caused chaos in our country, and your vitality has been greatly damaged for several years, can't you deny this?" ”

Sun Tu didn't say whether he recognized it or not, he just looked at him with a smile: "What, Brother Xifeng, do you want to collect debts from me today?" ”

"Of course I don't dare, I just want to ask you, have you ever felt ashamed?" Xi Feng often said, and glanced at Sun Tu deeply, but saw that the other party did not say anything, and smiled bitterly: "I can't hide it, just because of what you did in my Xingqing Mansion at the beginning, it caused chaos within my Xia Kingdom, and it also hurt the vitality of the country." And now, your Song soldiers are strong and strong, always provoke Chen soldiers at the border, so that the people of my Xia country are not at peace, I am ordered by our emperor this time, come to negotiate with your country, I hope you can take the lives of the soldiers and people of the two countries as the mind, as soon as possible, and at the same time reconcile the two countries, and then open the border market, but I don't know if Taiwei Sun is willing to help us introduce the emperor of your country, and say it on your behalf? ”

In the end, a pair of eyes of fine seal Chang fell on Sun Tu's face extremely solemnly, not for a moment. And as soon as they got to the point, the atmosphere in the entire hall was also condensed, and almost everyone stopped to listen carefully to see what Taiwei Sun would say. Sun Tu was not busy speaking, but slowly drank a glass of Chinese wine, as if he was considering.

In fact, he already knew what kind of situation Xixia was in at the moment, and their situation was indeed very unbearable. But to be honest, it wasn't the trouble I made in Xingqing Mansion that caused all this. After all, how many years have passed, and even some of the influences are very small, and the current Western Xia Emperor Li Renyou is also a generation of Ming monarchs, who has worked hard since he succeeded to the throne, coupled with his sharp methods, he quickly solved all kinds of contradictions in the country.

The real problem in the Western Xia now is only the bad relations with the Song State, and the fact that it can no longer receive all kinds of funding from the Liao State as in the past, which has led to the stagnation of domestic production, and it is difficult to guarantee its own supply, let alone help the Western Xia. And because of the geographical relationship, the Western Xia had some defects, which led to continuous disasters in the country, and there was the border of the Song army and Chen soldiers, which naturally made them feel a great threat.

Sun Tu was silent for a while before he said slowly: "There are difficulties in the Western Xia, and I, the Great Song Dynasty, as your suzerain, naturally have the responsibility to help share them. It's just ......," he said.

Xi Fengchang and the other Xia envoys all changed their faces when they heard him mention that Song was the suzerainty of Western Xia, although Xia did claim to Song, but that was decades ago after all, when Xia had just established the country, people's hearts were unstable, and they really couldn't fight all day, so they had to retreat. But in the following decades, with the continuous strength of Western Xia, the relationship between the two countries has gradually equalized, and with the Liao State in the north as a containment, in fact, everyone has tacitly tacitly agreed that the relationship between the two countries is equal in the past thirty years.

What's more, they don't really recognize Song as their own suzerain, these two concepts sound similar, but the gap between the vassal state and the vassal state is too big.

But somehow, when they met Sun Tu's eyes, none of them dared to object. Even after sensing that Sun Tu had something to say, he couldn't help but say it, and waited quietly for him to finish speaking.

Sun Tu smiled: "It's just that what you Xia Guo has done over the years is really too difficult for me to reassure Da Song, and to say that both ends of the first mouse are light." You not only claim to my Great Song Dynasty, but also claim to be a vassal of the Liao State, but where do you want to put the face of my Great Song Dynasty?

"What's more, over the years, no matter how much the soldiers and horses of your Xia Kingdom have invaded my Song land, if it weren't for your invasion every year, my Great Song Dynasty wouldn't have needed to put a Western army of hundreds of thousands at the border between the two countries all year round. Let's not talk about the distance, let's just say that more than two years ago, you took advantage of our army's northern expedition and suddenly sent troops. If it weren't for the brave fighting of the soldiers of our Western Army, I am afraid that it would be another catastrophe. ”

"This ...... Taiwei Sun Mingjian: The quarrel two years ago was actually a mistake done by some of our generals in the DPRK and China on their own initiative. Afterwards, my lord was also very angry, and because of this, he beheaded more than a dozen generals, and specially put on the Song ......" Another deputy envoy of the Xia State hurriedly helped explain.

Sun Tu smiled: "I naturally know this, so we didn't really fight back." However, you can't be wrong if you threaten my Great Song Dynasty, this is not what a vassal country should look like to a suzerain. Even if you are a courtier, you should have enough respect for the king, not to talk about obeying the king's words, how can you always provoke and use troops like you?

"Now that you have a problem, you come to Tokyo to plead, once you get a little better, and you want to use troops against my Great Song Dynasty and mess with my border, how can there be such a good thing in this world?"

This accusation really made Xi Fengchang and the others speechless, and in fact, they couldn't refute it. However, Sun Tu didn't have too much entanglement in this matter: "But things are not completely out of room for change, everything just depends on whether you can change your ways." ”

Hearing him say this, everyone's spirits were lifted, and Xi Fengchang was even more busy and said: "Taiwei Sun, you said, what conditions are there in the imperial court, as long as we can do it, we must not dare to refuse." ”

"Well, the first article is that you should correct your identity as a vassal of my Great Song Dynasty, and then send an envoy to my Great Song Dynasty to be a minister, and sever the relationship with the Liao State. Sun Tu immediately made his first request.

The fine seal often frowned deeply, the first half of this article is fine, but the second half of it is not easy to draw a clear line with the Liao State. Originally, the reason why Western Xia can always exist is to rely on being able to maneuver between the two big countries, left and right, if it completely falls to the Song State, it will really be pinched by it in the future, and the Liao State will not help.

But thinking about the current appearance of the Liao State that is difficult to protect, and then thinking about the grievances between the two countries, I am afraid that soon the Song army will go on another northern expedition, and maybe the entire Liao State will be annexed in one fell swoop.

So after some hesitation, he still nodded: "Although I can't do anything about this matter, I believe that when I return to the court to meet the emperor, I should be able to give the Taiwei a satisfactory answer." ”

Sun Tu smiled and nodded: "The second one, since you are a courtier, you should have the appearance of a courtier." From this time on, you, the lord of Western Xia, should call yourself a courtier, and the title of the emperor can no longer be used. In this way, change to the lord of the country, and from now on, your Western Xia will be my Great Song vassal state, so that if you have difficulties, my Great Song Dynasty will naturally do its best to help, whether it is money and food, or other aspects, it is not a problem. ”

When these words were said, not to mention those Western Xia envoys, even the officials of the Great Song Dynasty, all of them changed their faces, full of surprise and disbelief.

Sun Tu's words are too fierce and domineering, and he wants to completely deny Xixia from the root. The emperor, that is the king of a country, but the lord of the country, although he is also the lord of a country, but nominally seems to be much more humble, once the two countries have any more contradictions in the future, the Great Song Dynasty can depose him as the lord of the country with only one will - at least nominally, there is no problem at all in doing so.

Speaking of which, this is also the precedent set by the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, when the Jiangnan Later Tang Dynasty was a vassal state of the Great Song Dynasty, and its lord Li Yu was also the lord of Jiangnan, not an emperor.

It's just that when the same situation is put in front of the Tangut people, I don't know if they can accept it calmly. And Xi Feng Chang's face was already gloomy to the extreme at this moment, and his body began to tremble slightly because of anger: "Taiwei Sun, you ......"