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This time, the envoy of the Western Xia, led by Li Zhizhong, he is the Western Xia clan, and the minister of the two dynasties, at the beginning, the reason why Li Qianshun was able to marry Yelu Nanxian was that he went to Liao to seek relatives and facilitated, and now, Li Qianshun sent him to Dazhong, and his meaning can be imagined, it is to Li Yan's daughter.

In addition to wanting to marry Li Yan's daughter and form an alliance with Dazhong, Li Zhizhong and others also have the task of finding out the current real situation in Dazhong.

Therefore, as soon as they entered the middle realm, Li Zhizhong and others began to inspect the current national conditions of Dazhong.

As a result, I don't know if I don't see it, but Li Zhizhong and others were taken aback by it!

Although there were still some areas in chaos when they were in Hedong, by the time Li Zhizhong and his party approached Henan, there were no traces of war - everywhere was orderly, and there were men and women weaving everywhere.

From the mouths of passers-by, Li Zhizhong and others learned that the Zhang Soyi Army, which was in a uproar in Hedong, Hebei, and Henan some time ago, has collapsed with the ouster of Zhang Suo by the Southern Song Dynasty - most of them were surrendered or annihilated by Dazhong, and a small part fled to the south of the Yangtze River, either to the Song Dynasty, or to Li, or to Zhong, in short, there is no trace of them in Dazhong.

When Li Zhizhong and his entourage came to Tokyo, they found that there was not much difference between this place and the Tokyo they knew before, with a population of more than one million and a rich country.

What made Li Zhizhong and the others different was that they saw a lot of merchants from the Western Regions (big food merchants, that is, Arab merchants) in Tokyo.

This surprised Li Zhizhong and others.

You must know that since the Western Xia occupied the Hexi Corridor and cut off the Silk Road, the merchants of the Western Regions could no longer reach the Central Plains - if the merchants of the Western Regions wanted the goods of the Central Plains, they had to buy them from the hands of the Western Xia, which also brought a large amount of financial income to the Western Xia.

Unexpectedly, the merchants of the Western Regions could bypass the Western Xia and come to the Central Plains!

This made Li Zhizhong and the others worry that Western Xia might lose a huge amount of financial revenue, and at the same time, they couldn't help but be a little curious about how these merchants from the Western Regions came to Tokyo?

Li Zhizhong stabilized the officials who brought them to Tokyo, and at the same time sent people to secretly contact those merchants from the Western Regions and ask them how they came to Tokyo.

Soon, Li Zhizhong and the others got an answer that worried them - the merchants of the Western Regions came to Tokyo by sea.

Moreover, the price for these merchants from the Western Regions to come to Tokyo is very low - as long as they pay a not too much money to buy a ferry ticket, they can take the treasure ship of Dazhong from Chula County to the various ports of Dazhong without any danger, and then they can go anywhere in Dazhong with the temporary passports issued to them by the Dazhong Imperial Court, and there are post houses, post stations, and post houses for them to eat and live along the way, and most importantly, they can also exchange gold for light and popular paper money in all regions of Dazhong, of course, They could also exchange paper money for gold, which greatly facilitated their trade, and because they could trade by sea with large ships, the goods that merchants could carry were also greatly increased, in short, the sea trade in Dazhong was much more advantageous than the land trade of Western Xia.

With this alone, Western Xia may lose most of its financial revenue, what can be done?

After careful observation, Li Zhizhong and others also found that there were not only merchants from the Western Regions in Tokyo, but also Indian merchants, as well as a small number of blonde and blue-eyed merchants - after careful inquiry, Li Zhizhong and others learned that these blonde and blue-eyed merchants came from the more distant Holy Roman Empire, which was still in the west of the Western Regions.

In addition, whether it is a merchant from the Western Regions, an Indian merchant, or a merchant of the Holy Roman Empire, when talking about Li Yan and Dazhong, they all show admiration, and they all respect Li Yan as the Eastern Emperor and Dazhong as the Dazhong Empire.

It was only at this time that Li Zhizhong and the others really knew how powerful Dazhong was.

This kind of power is not only reflected in the strength of military strength, but also in the cultural governance and comprehensive national strength.

With a heavy heart, the Western Xia delegation followed the officials of Dazhong to the outside of Bianliang City.

About a mile away from Duting Xiyi, the diplomats sent by Dazhong to make contact with the Tangut mission finally appeared—the previous official was only responsible for bringing the Tangut mission to Bianliang, Tokyo, and could not be regarded as a real diplomat.

As soon as the two sides met, the two young officials led by them clasped their fists and saluted Li Zhizhong and the others, and said, "Welcome to the visit of the Xia envoy, I am the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple, Zhe Yanwen." "Welcome to the summer envoy to visit, I am the master of Honglu Temple. ”

As soon as they heard the names reported by Zhi Yanwen and Zhi Zhichang, Li Zhizhong and others, who were very familiar with the Fuzhou Zhi family, their faces changed-they guessed that Zhi Yanwen and Zhi Zhi were often from the Fuzhou Zhi family, and their reaction was completely subconscious!

If you ask who the Xixia people hate the most, the Fuzhou family is definitely the first to bear the brunt!

In the past hundreds of years, the Fuzhou Zhejia has killed hundreds of thousands of Tangut people, and has long formed a mortal enmity with the Tangut people, and the two sides can be said to be endless.

And Dazhong actually arranged for people from Fuzhou to receive their Western Xia mission, what does this mean? Aren't you ready to coexist peacefully with them in Western Xia?

But—

Li Zhizhong, in the end, was a veteran of the Western Xia Dynasty and an experienced diplomat who had been to the country several times, and he quickly reined in his mind and said: "The old Li Zhizhong is the ambassador of the Chinese embassy this time. ”

Zhi Yanwen said: "When I was in the northwest, I often listened to the deeds of Lord Li, if there was no Lord Li, there might be no Western Xia, and Lord Li could be said to have the grace of reinvention in Western Xia." ”

Zhe Yanwen refers to Li Zhizhong helping Li Qianshun marry Yelu Nanxian, and then kept Western Xia.

Although Zhi Yanwen's words seemed to be praising Li Zhizhong, he was actually saying that if it weren't for the Liao State, Western Xia would have died long ago.

When Li Zhizhong heard this, his face sank instantly, and he said: "The reason why Great Xia has survived to this day and has not been destroyed like Song Liao is because the five million people of Great Xia are united in advancing and retreating together, not Li Zhizhong's work alone!" ”

Zhi Zhichang said expressionlessly: "At most, three million, excluding the Han people, there are less than 800,000, and then removing the old and weak, less than 500,000, and only these 500,000 are not the same as the top and bottom of the same mind, as far as I know, the current Western Xia is divided into three factions, they are ......"

Li Zhizhong interrupted Zhichang and said: "Is this the hospitality of Dazhong?" If so, then according to the old decay, there is no need for us to go to see His Majesty the Emperor Dazhong! ”

Zhi Yanwen and Zhi Zhichang listened to the words and were silent for a while.

In the end, Zhi Yanwen seemed to be a little unwilling to stretch out his hand and make a gesture of invitation, and at the same time said: "We are only responsible for receiving the envoys, and the one who really negotiates with the envoys is our temple master Ma, who is now waiting for you in the post house." ”

Li Zhizhong heard this, flicked his sleeves, and said: "Let's go, let's go meet that Master Ma, if he is so rude, let's go back immediately, and never ally with Dazhong!" ”

Li Zhizhong's words are very tough, but if you taste it carefully, you can see Xixia's attitude towards this alliance, that is, I really hope that this alliance will be successful!

Zhi Yanwen and Zhi Zhichang exchanged glances without a trace, and then followed the footsteps of the Xia envoy with a smile......

……