On July 19, the messenger arrived, and Bai Liyan received the news in advance, but did not see the envoy, so Jiang Jie handed over the letter to the envoy to bring it back. On the twenty-second of July, the letter came to Cahorn and Gudapa:

"No, it's blackmail, it's blackmail. Bai Liyan, a greedy guy, should really hang him! Cahorn roared hysterically, nearly tearing the letter to shreds.

Gudapa picked up the broken letter on the ground and said in despair:

"They'll hit the city soon, it's too late to say anything!"

"It's all Mooney's fault, he shouldn't have backtracked again and again, and now whatever we say, it's all insignificant in Bailiyan's eyes!" Cahorn said excitedly, walking back and forth irritablely, with no skill in his heart.

"Now we can either agree to their demands, or we will wait for Bailiyan to slaughter the city in Songdia, we have no choice."

"No, he doesn't want to think about it, he doesn't want to take a silver coin from my hand, there are still more than 60,000 troops (a makeshift rabble) in the city of Songdia, we can hold it, even if we drag him, we will drag him to death!"

Cahorn swore to defend the city of Sondia, but was mercilessly slapped in the face the next moment.

"My lord, my lord......" The old administrative officer shouted in panic, and rushed into the room from the corridor, panting and said: "Two adults, Ambrisa, Ambrisa is lost, the northerners slaughtered the whole city, and the scene is terrible......"

The old magistrate wept bitterly, his expression almost desperate. Sitting slumped in his chair, his face pale and sluggish, Gudapa asked in despair:

"How many people are besieging Ambrisa?"

"It is said that there are 250,000 people!"

"Is it 250,000 men, or 250,000 Central Plains citizens!"

"It's an army of 250,000 ......"

"Go down......"

The old magistrate withdrew, and Gudapa said:

"In half a month at most, they will attack the city of Songdia, and now that the road to Kannai has been blocked, it may be possible to hold on for a month or two, but not longer. If we don't meet their requirements, we will have less and less capital in our hands, and we will still have to be taken away by them in the end. ”

"But you know, that's not a small amount of money, we don't have so much gold and silver! Besides, who can guarantee that they will not backtrack, and what if they get the money and tear up the agreement! ”

"We can collect money from the rich in the city, which is better than being killed and robbed. As for whether they will tear up the agreement, they can only rely on the blessing of the moon god. ”

"In other words, you can't guarantee that they get the money and won't tear up the agreement, so why should we blackmail them!"

"I don't think you have figured out what is going on, we don't have the power to stop them from slaughtering our people. In addition to doing what they ask and continuing to resist, we will pay a greater price, and if we can solve it by force, I don't want to spend money to eliminate the disaster.

As you can see, they only kill men and boys, not women, children and the elderly, and they do this to destroy our power. If we don't do what they want, we'll lose at least three million men outside the border.

Before that, the six years of war had already cost us millions of men in the prime of life, and now the land inside the gate is largely barren, and if all the men outside the gate are killed again, we will completely lose the capital to gain a foothold outside the gate. ”

"Alright then, then satisfy their greed, but it will take time. If they go back on their word, you're fully responsible! ”

"This time, I will go to see Bailiyan in person."

Gudapa was a pragmatist, and many times, unlike most of the Kincherdi nobles, knew exactly what to do and when.

On the twenty-fourth day of July, Gudapa arrived at the Baihe camp and asked to cross the battlefield. The two had already met before, and obtained Bai He's promise to open the way for him, and let him go along the way, and hurried to arrive at Bailiyan's camp at Manipasa on the twenty-ninth day of July.

"My lord, the envoy of Songdia asks to see, this time he is still a big official who can speak Song Mandarin, and he claims to be the executive officer of Posong City."

"Oh, yes, bring him in."

"No!"

When he was young, Gudapa entered the tent, a middle-aged man in his early forties, with light gray eyes, slightly beige hair, and a lean face.

"You're Gudappa, the executive officer of Posong City?" Bailiyan asked.

"It's despicable."

"Ben will be very curious, Your Excellency, as a civil official, is not good to stay in Posong City, but you should stay in Songdia. Ben will remember the end of last year, it seems that you also led the army to attack Kelownas, but you were broken by Ben General, right? ”

"Exactly. The next step is to negotiate an armistice. We will accept all the demands of your army, and can you guarantee that your army will no longer burn and loot our land? ”

Gudappa agreed so happily, to Bailiyan's surprise, he thought for a while and said:

"Please think clearly, this is only the condition of Songdia Province, not including Posong Province!"

"You!"

Gudapa froze, and Baili Yan stood up and came to his side:

"First of all, Ben's credibility is guaranteed. Secondly, for hundreds of thousands of years, in the name of the moon god, you have been waging wars against our Central Plains, and there are countless people who have died and been displaced for hundreds of years. You can't go south by relying on the Central Plains, and every time you do whatever you want unscrupulously, do you think that the crimes you have committed, just this loss, is enough to compensate us for the pain of hundreds of years! ”

Gudapa was silent, and Bailiyan continued:

"In the end, Ben gave your Commander Mooney three opportunities for armistice peace talks, which he failed to cherish. In May, he even pretended to deceive us into an armistice, but secretly plotted against our army, but unexpectedly, he was plotted by our army. If you have gone back on your word and committed all kinds of despicable acts, if there is no guarantee of baht, how can you win the trust of this general! ”

"Is it that as long as the ransom is paid, you will stop, including the Eastern Front."

"As long as you don't go back on your word and attack our army again, and don't follow and pursue on the way back, that's the case in principle."

"Then you withdraw the army heading west first, stop the raiding of Songdia, we need a little time to raise your supplies."

"No, in case it is your delaying tactic, and in the end you backtrack again, who will General Ben talk to! However, as a matter of sincerity, General Ben can immediately stop the westward advance and stop the killing and plundering, and give you time, but he will not withdraw his troops. Until you have transported everything to the general's camp, Ben will immediately withdraw his troops. ”

"Your word counts!" Gudapa asked.

"One word."

"Well, we pay the ransom, and you withdraw your troops immediately, I hope you will keep your promise!"

"Rest assured, General Ben's promise is guaranteed, unlike you, who go back on your word. Next, can we talk about the ransom in Po Song Province! ”

Gudappa's face was pale, and the words "unhappy" were written on his face.

"Po Song Province is a border province, far less rich than Songdia, you should know that."

"Yes, General Ben is well aware, but that doesn't prevent us from being flexible. Although Po Song Province was not as rich as Sondia, its losses were far inferior to that of Sondia, and all the small cities that were not plundered by our army had to pay 10,000 gold coins and 60,000 silver coins. Ayutthaya paid 15,000,000 gold coins and 150,000 silver coins. As a city with a population of hundreds of thousands, there should be no shortage of wealthy and powerful people. I think 100,000 gold coins, 500,000 silver coins should be able to get out. ”

"You can figure it out, now that you sell Posong Province, you can't get the money you want, I can't agree!" Gudapa scoffed.

"No, you have money. Your rich people keep their money in the municipal treasury for interest, and this is only a part, and your nobles and rich people, merchants, estates and private estates inside and outside the Guan, have their own coffers, so your wealth is much more than what you have in the city. ”

"You're squeezing!"

"No, you're wrong, it's the war reparations, the reparations you should have paid for waging wars against the Central Plains over the past hundreds of years. Over the past hundreds of years, you have enslaved millions of people in the Central Plains, and there are millions of people in the Guannai, what do you say! ”

Gudapa was speechless, looking depressed and desperate, and Bailiyan continued:

"You are greedy, regardless of the death of the people in the Central Plains, and drive them like cattle to collect gold and silver for you. Do you think it's fair that you have collected more gold and silver than you can count for hundreds of years?

We have given our labor and our lives, what have we gained, is it death or humiliation, you press your conscience and say, is it fair! Bai Liyan said that he was righteous, but in fact, he was thinking about another set nakedly in his heart.

Gudapa was silent, all his obsessions and religious beliefs at this time were pale and powerless self-quibbles in the face of strength and facts.

"Isn't there a little room for negotiation?"

Gu Dapa was almost pleading, the despair in his eyes even made people feel a moment of pity, Bai Liyan was unmoved, and said coldly:

"Nope! We have our own hands and are ready to get everything we can think of. And money is for you the source of constant wars against us. General Ben doesn't want to go home empty-handed this year, and you will be whipped in the coffin of Ben General in Chinese New Year's Eve years.

Therefore, it is good to be poor, you will find less trouble, and we will not have to worry. In the end, I will read it for the sake of Your Excellency's sincerity, and all other provinces can be reduced by half, which is the last condition, and your Excellency will do it! ”

Gudappa's expression was gloomy, and pain and remorse were like cold swords, mercilessly piercing his heart and tormenting him. After a long silence, Gudappa gasped and said slowly:

"Well, can you prepare a pen and ink for me?"

"Yes. Come on, prepare the four treasures of the study for Lord Gudapa. ”

"Yes, sir."

When Jiang Jie took the pen and ink when he was young, Gudapa couldn't put down the pen for a long time, and when he saw his hesitation, Bailiyan said:

"This general immediately sent a letter to our army on the eastern front, and your Excellency should ensure that the land and water routes of our army to the east are unimpeded, and if any unforeseen situation occurs, you will bear full responsibility for all the consequences arising therefrom."

"I... Got it......"

Gudapa nodded, tears rolling down his eyes, humiliation and frustration tormenting his conscience.

Baili Yan wrote a letter detailing the ins and outs of the armistice, but it did not mention how much ransom and treasure the two provinces of Posong and Songdia had paid, nor did they mention how much he had robbed.

Gudapa hesitated, and it took him more than half an hour to finish the two letters.

One was for the Archon of Sondia, Kahoun, and the other was for the Legion Commander Temir, to confirm the progress of the armistice on the Western Front. Similarly, the letter to Temir made no mention of the ransom.

"The general will immediately issue an armistice order to the armies of our Western Front, but our troops will withdraw only after the ransom and baggage of the province of Sondia have arrived. You should ensure that our scouts go to Drangi and Khubigon unimpeded, and if anything happens, the responsibility will be borne by you, do you have any objections? ”

"No, can I go?"

"Yes, but there is one more thing that Ben will feel very necessary to warn you. When the war in Ablia was armistic, Mooney promised Ben 150,000 unicorns, but he turned his back on it, not only did he not hand over the unicorns to the general, but also defrauded him of a million silver coins from the general. The silver coins should now be in the hands of Yabuuk, and if you feel that the money is not in your hands, you can offset the ransom with the million silver coins. ”

"This ...... The general's words are true! Gudapa couldn't believe it, he just thought he had heard it.

"There is no deception."

Mooney was defeated and fled, but he did not forget to throw away a million silver coins, most likely preparing to make a comeback.