Chapter 252: Pomp

The Mansion of Dayan is far from magnificent. Not to mention anything else, just the gate of the Da Yan Mansion is almost a short street. The three stone memorial arches are written on the seal and honor of the Song family by the lords of Chunnan in the past dynasties, and before Ye Tao arrived, hundreds of lanterns were hung on the entire street, illuminating the front of the Dayan Mansion. The Song Mansion even discharged about two hundred subordinates, standing respectfully on both sides of the road, welcoming the arrival of Ye Tao, the envoy of Yunzhou in Dongping Kingdom. This pomp and circumstance is really a bit big.

In contrast, Ye Tao and his party seemed to be much more relaxed and simpler. Ye Tao, Dai Qiuyan and Feng Hao were riding in a carriage, and in the other carriage were several of their close attendants and a clerical officer belonging to the Yunzhou Jingluo Mansion. In addition, there were twenty-four guards guarding their group, including Liu Yong and Guan Huan. This number of people and pomp, not to mention that it is not very in line with Ye Tao's current identity, even compared to many people who also came to the banquet today, it is quite inferior. Chunnan people like pomp, and the vigor of paying attention to pomp and circumstance is indeed very different from the atmosphere of Dongping. But Ye Tao never wanted to cooperate with this kind of local thoughts.

But Ye Tao's painting is not deliberately "slow" seems to be completely expected by the Dayan Mansion, at the gate of the Mansion, among the people who greeted Ye Tao, there were Tan Yuzhou, the envoy of Dongping stationed in Yuhang, and Song Yu, the former envoy of Chunnan stationed in Danyang, and others, both in terms of candidates and attitudes, which seemed to be just right.

And when Ye Tao was led all the way into the mansion, it was indeed a special banquet this time, and everyone could see that the host had indeed put a lot of effort into Ye Tao. The location of Ye Tao and his party was not in the slightly noisy Grand Ballroom, but in a small building that was only a few steps away from the Grand Ballroom, but much quieter. The layout of the small building is gentle and elegant, without the complicated layout of pretending to be festive, but it looks very "family atmosphere". The protagonist of today's "birthday party". The little grandson of Dayan Commonwealth is gathering with several children of the same age around a very small table of eight immortals, playing far more than eating and drinking. But several children are from families, and it is also very interesting to sit at a small table.

In the eyes of the adults around you, the game of pretending to have grown up is both a joke and a memory, and it is an indispensable seasoning to create such a relaxed atmosphere.

"Ye Jingluo, look up for a long time." Da Yan Gong actually stood up in person and pulled his three-year-old grandson to greet Ye Tao.

"Don't dare. When I came to Yuhang, I didn't come to greet Da Yan Gong first. It's not the juniors. Ye Tao firmly locked his identity on the juniors. And did not show the official identity, which is obviously in line with the intention of today's banquet.

"Hehe, the grandson of the old man is rare to see a few times, and it coincides with his birthday, so he makes a fuss. It's also a chance for friends to get together for a drink. The virtuous prince has a lot of respect for Ye Jingluo, and the old man has a temporary idea, wanting to meet Ye Jingluo, the most famous Ye Jingluo among the young generation in this Central Plains homeland. If there is any abruptness, please forgive Ye Jingxiao. Da Yan Gong Song Miao's words were very polite.

"Yan Gong is out of sight. You are an elder. Feel free to call it whatever you want. This bite is a little bite, and I'm not used to it myself. Ye Tao said kindly.

"Haha, then the old man will take a big hand and make you happy, okay?" Song Miao patted Ye Tao on the shoulder and said.

"Very good. Yan Gong. It came in a hurry, and no gifts were prepared. I've got a gadget for Ling's grandson. Ye Tao said this, and Guan Huan, who was following him, put a small box in Ye Tao's hand. Seeing that Song Miao nodded, Ye Tao squatted down lovingly. The box was opened and placed in front of the child.

Inside the box was a small metal whistle with a dial wheel on the side. The dial wheel is engraved with extremely fine carvings of several different birds.

"You see, the kind of bird you hit, the kind of bird that you call when you blow. Come and try it? Ye Tao put the box in the child's hand and said encouragingly.

The child glanced up at Song Miao, and saw that his grandfather also had an encouraging look on his face, so he boldly held the whistle. Carefully put his mouth on the whistle mouthpiece, puffed out his cheeks and blew hard. Immediately, a beautiful crane chirp filled the entire space.

"There are also orioles, magpies, brown-backed falcons, larks, and several other bird calls to play." Ye Tao kindly touched the child's head and said.

"Thank you, I love it." The little one carefully put the whistle back into the box and held it tightly in his arms. Thank you loudly.

Song Miao patted the child's head. asked him to return to the table, and then said to Ye Tao: "Canghuai." You've got a heart. ”

"It's meant to be a child's plaything, it's not worth anything." Ye Tao said with a smile: "The younger generation is already good at this kind of gadget, and this is also made when he is idle. ”

Ye Tao's actions made the atmosphere that seemed a little too polite quickly mellow. After taking the seat, after chatting with everyone about some unnutritious topics, Dai Qiuyan politely said that she wanted to play with those children. Then, the main topic of today's banquet came.

"Canghuai, I think you also know why we invited you here today, and we will not be in vain. Everyone shows the carriage and horses, how can they talk about it. "The first to make things clear was Chang Hongquan.

"I don't even know what you're going to talk about." Ye Tao said with a smile: "I just heard that you are preparing to send troops to attack Xiling. I don't know the time, the place, the scale of the troops, and I don't know where you're going to start and where you're going to finish. I only know that Dongping may have something to contribute. But how can I talk about this? ”

After several people looked at each other, Chen Xujing opened his mouth and said, "Ye Jingluo, what if I say that we are going to go down one by one and not stop until Da Nan Pass?" ”

Da Nan Pass, also known as the Great Difficult Pass, is an extremely important pass in the south of Xiling. In fact, in the past, the border between Xiling and Chunnan was just a little south of Da Nan Pass, but after a battle, the current border is not here. In the past so many years, Xiling has scraped down the boundaries of the twenty-seven prefectures of the four states from here in Chunnan and in the southeast of Da Nan Guan. Now, is Chunnan not only ready to conquer the entire territory in one go, but even ready to conquer the Great South Pass to greatly improve his border situation? This kind of courage is really a little bit like a decision that Chunnan, who has almost no adventurous spirit in the military, can make.

"This is a big battle, and naturally, you will naturally have your own arrangements for the use of forces. What do you need Dongping to do? If it's just about procuring fire, especially oil bombs and the like, is it necessary to be so serious? Ye Tao asked rhetorically.

"Fuel bombs, catapults, ballistas...... These have been hoarded since a long time ago. The current situation is indeed to purchase a large number of them from Dongping, and the lord of your country has made it clear that as long as the output can keep up, there will be no problem. But that's not all. Chen Xujing said categorically: "Ye Jingluo, can the 100,000 military horses you mentioned really be sold to us?" How long will it take to fully implement it? ”

Ye Tao looked at Chen Xujing and said, "After the money is in place, it will be two months." The delivery regulations of the Yunzhou Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau have always been very clear. Don't you know? I still say the same thing, for Yunzhou, this is not a big deal. But 100,000 cavalry, how are you going to train? Old General Chen, you should also understand. A soldier on a horse and a cavalryman are two different things entirely. ”

Chen Xujing nodded and said, "I naturally understand. There are 12,000 cavalry in my headquarters, and 50,000 knights have been trained for Chunnan in turn. Even if it can't be compared with the elite of Dongping and Yunzhou, but with more and less, as long as Xiling does not transfer the elite cavalry from the north, it is expected that there will be no problem. This is where Dongping's help is needed. ”

"You're saying that I'm going to have Dongping plan an attack in the north?" Feng Hao asked.

"Exactly." Chen Xujing replied. "The north and the south are advancing, and Xiling is hit hard."

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "Impossible." The north is not like the south here. Almost the entire border between us and Xiling is made up of mountains and passes. It is true that Dongping can attack Xiling, but there is no danger to defend all the way in the hinterland of Xiling, but there is no place like Da Nanguan that can be used to end the war. For the sake of your limited campaign objectives, using the strategic layout, you can gradually withdraw when you capture the Great South Pass. But what about us? When the time comes, the battle is stalemate, what if you can't withdraw? This kind of joint army that you gain and we bleed is absolutely impossible. ”

"It's not necessarily unprofitable." Jiang Yan, who had been sitting on the side, quietly added: "What if Chunnan is willing to assign Zezhou to Dongping?" ”

Jiang Yan's words made Ye Tao startled. He originally thought that Chunnan would ask for and persuade for various reasons, such as the alliance between the two countries, but he didn't expect Jiang Yan to pick out that he could use the land as a reward. Zezhou is a little desolate, but it is not without value. On the contrary, Ye Tao can imagine that once this condition is reported to the imperial court, there will inevitably be many people in the court who are willing to make this exchange. Zezhou has been a famous grain producer in the past. Now it is a buffer zone at the junction of Dongping, Chunnan and the Three Kingdoms, and the back-and-forth wars have made Zezhou sparsely populated for many years, which has greatly affected the value of Zezhou itself. But once Chunnan's strategy is successful, Zezhou will be in a fairly safe place, Xiling can't threaten Zezhou, but Chunnan, who is currently in control of Zezhou, does not have a deep attachment to Zezhou, but as long as Dongping organizes some farmers to move to Zezhou, it can almost master a place called Dongping's granary in one to two years. In addition, when the empire collapsed, the entire ruins of the capital of the Tang Dynasty at that time, which were burned to the ground, were also in Zezhou. Although only the remnants of the former magnificent city remain, only patches of long grass and some of them have not been touched by the wind and frost, and the stone foundations of the buildings have gradually destroyed. Relying on these, you can vaguely piece together the layout of the city back then. There are even a few sections of the ancient city wall that stand stubbornly to show what kind of city it once was.

For Dongping, who wants to dominate the world, especially for some old courtiers who consider the legal basis of the world, the value of this ruin is immeasurable.