So the father and son were released that night, and the two were left outside the city of Jiankang the next morning on the Ryukyu battleship, and the two of them worked hard to make the defenders of the city believe their identity and let them into the city.

Tong Guan's side was also in a hurry, first afraid that the Ryukyu Army would fight Jiankang, and when he was afraid of how to explain to the official family for this defeat, and was pacing in the government with red eyes, someone outside reported that Zhu Mian's father and son asked to see him.

Tong Guan was stunned for a moment, there has been no news from this father and son since Yangzhou City was broken, why did they appear in Jiankang at this time? The official family also specially ordered that he pay attention to rescuing the two, and now Tong Guan is of course willing to have one more person to say good things to him, and immediately ordered his subordinates to invite the two in.

Zhu Mian's father and son saw Tong Guan first greeted for a while, the three of them sat down, Zhu Mian looked at the maids and subordinates on the left and right, hesitated, Tong Guan saw and immediately retreated, when there were only three people in the room, Zhu Mian looked outside and said: "Say hello to the adults." ”

Tong Guan was stunned and asked, "Where does the joy come from?" ”

Zhu Mian said: "Since I was coerced by the army of the Ryukyu Kingdom, I have been trying to persuade the monarchs and ministers of the Ryukyu Kingdom in Yangzhou, trying to explain the misunderstanding between the two countries, and Xuan Tianwei is in this state, knowing that it is reasoning with emotion, and teaching it to educate, and the whole country of Ryukyu also deeply feels the sincerity of the Great Song Dynasty, so I am willing to withdraw from Yangzhou to show that I have no intention of invading the Celestial Empire." ”

Tong Guan knew that a large part of Zhu Mian's previous paragraph was all nonsense, where did this pair of businessmen who were born in a broken household know what kind of etiquette and education of monarchs and ministers, but Zhu Mian's last words were clearly heard. Immediately surprised: "Is this true? ”

Zhu Mian nodded and said, "Seriously, but the Ryukyu Kingdom has several conditions. ”

Tong Guan knew that there was really no such a good thing, but how could Tong Guan hold on to such a temptation, as long as he got Yangzhou, then no matter how big the loss was, it was acceptable, and then he could take it all at once, but he had a great credit.

So Tong Guan patiently asked, "Oh? What conditions? Let's hear it. ”

Zhu Mian looked at Tong Guan and said: "The Ryukyu Kingdom is based on the sea, so the maritime trade is developed, but they admire the prosperity of the Celestial Empire and want to conduct friendly trade and trade with the Celestial Empire. ”

Tong Guan thought that this was just a trivial matter, and there was no problem, so he continued to listen, Zhu Mian saw that Tong Guan had no reaction and knew that he had acquiesced to this article, so he continued: "This second is that Ryukyu merchants who come and go to the Great Song Dynasty must be treated the same as Liao, Western Xia and other countries, and local governments must not make things difficult for no reason, and Ryukyu must not restrict the recruitment of personnel in the Great Song Dynasty without reason. ”

Tong Guan frowned and thought about it, the matter of this merchant's treatment is easy to solve, but the matter of recruiting people is a bit troublesome, but as long as the types of personnel are restricted, there is no big problem, as long as the craftsmen who make weapons and so on are not recruited, the others are also arbitrary, but the number of people recruited is the fewer the displaced people in the Song Dynasty.

Zhu Mian continued: "There is also the fact that Ryukyu asked the Great Song Dynasty to canonize him as the king of the Ryukyus, and Ryukyu will be a vassal state of the Great Song Dynasty. ”

After this war, I'm afraid that the imperial court will have to admit it if it doesn't admit it, but if you do this thing yourself, it will inevitably be said that you are afraid of the Ryukyu Army and so on, which is very unfavorable to yourself.

Seeing Tong Guan's hesitation, Zhu Mian opened his mouth and said: "The chief of staff of the Ryukyu State said that as long as the Great Song Dynasty agrees to the Ryukyu request to join the domain, then he will bring the Wa Kingdom and Goryeo to pay tribute to the Celestial Empire. ”

Tong Guan happily asked, "Oh? Is this true? "Goryeo and Wa have always recognized Liao as their suzerain, and the Liao and Song dynasties have been engaged in a struggle for orthodoxy in the Central Plains for many years.

Zhu Mian nodded and said: "The Wa Kingdom claims to be the emperor in vain, and the Great Song Emperor is the Son of Heaven, and the Wa King dares to call the emperor without authorization, which is a great disrespect, so Ryukyu is willing to conquer the Wa Kingdom for the Great Song Dynasty. ”

Zhu Mian thought about Xu Guanzhong's confident appearance and felt as if it was nine out of ten to win the Japanese Kingdom, but this is none of his business, isn't it? Tong Guan didn't have any idea of how big this Wa country was and how many people there were, but since he could let this Liao vassal state switch to the Great Song Dynasty, he hurriedly asked excitedly: "What about Goryeo?" What's going on in Goryeo? ”

Zhu Mian opened his mouth and said: "Everyone in Goryeo admires the culture of the Great Song Dynasty, and the replacement of the monarch is in accordance with the regulations of the Great Song Dynasty, but the Goryeo Kingdom was usurped by the villain, and the current monarch was originally the uncle of the previous monarch, snatched the throne of his nephew and stood on his own, and took refuge in the Liao State as an eagle dog. The younger brother of the former monarch of Goryeo has now fled to Ryukyu, and Ryukyu is willing to send troops to help him restore the country and return to the Great Song Dynasty. ”

Tong Guan didn't care about the strength of these vassal states, nor did he care whether the kings of these countries controlled their own countries, all he needed was an excuse, a propaganda slogan that Goryeo was willing to be a vassal state of the Great Song Dynasty, so if Ryukyu could take out these two chips, then it would be no problem to help them become vassals of the Great Song Dynasty.

Tong Guan turned around and asked, "Then does Ryukyu have any other requirements?" ”

Zhu Mian thought about it and said: "There are no other requirements, but before the conditions are met, they only allow 10,000 Song troops to take over Yangzhou, and when the conditions are met, they will gradually evacuate Suzhou and Hangzhou and other cities." ”

Tong Guan felt that it was good that this Jiangnan turmoil could be solved so easily, but how should he operate this matter? Is there still a war going on on your side? Could it be that if you go back to Beijing and say that you won't fight, you can't fight it, so it's better to make Ryukyu a vassal state of the Great Song Dynasty! Isn't that looking for death?

Tong Guan was thinking about countermeasures with a sad face, and Zhu Mian said: "My lord, the chief of staff of the Ryukyu Kingdom asked me to convey a few words to you when our father and son left. ”

Tong Guan asked, "Oh? What words. ”

Zhu Mian thought for a while and said: "He said, originally Ryukyu just admired the Great Song Dynasty and the Heavenly Dynasty, and the two countries were originally friendly to each other, but because of the instigation of some merchants, today's sword soldiers were incurred, so the responsibility for this battle lies with those leading merchants, the Ryukyu attack on the Great Song Dynasty coastal wounded in the skin, and the Western Xia invaded the wound in the henchmen, the Great Song Dynasty is fighting in the Western Xia, and must not ignore the henchmen because of the skin." ”

Of course, Tong Guan could hear the meaning of this, it was nothing more than to let him point the finger at the businessman, and then when he said that the Western Xia border was still in trouble, he couldn't be distracted by this little matter of Ryukyu, but just these two days were not enough to pry the public opinion of the government and the opposition?

Tong Guan looked at Zhu Mian with an expectant expression, and Zhu Mian continued: "He also said that the two-month war between Ryukyu and the Great Song Dynasty wasted the treasury, and even if it was won, it would not be of the slightest benefit, and if the war ended not only the coast would not only be free from harassment, but also have a strong reinforcement to contain the Liao State, if Yanyun was recovered in the future, and the Ryukyus sent troops to cut off the Great Wall at Shanhaiguan and other places by water, then the Great Song Dynasty would definitely be able to easily achieve this goal." ”