"Your Majesty is reminding me not to learn badly from those Great Song officials! Please rest assured that Your Majesty is here, as long as Your Majesty is here, I promise not to do those things, and the people of the empire will not be able to do it. No one can escape my eyes, and if they dare to take an extra penny from the empire, I will want them to look good! For the sake of my grandson, I can't let the empire become like the Great Song Dynasty. My grandson can't live in this environment every day, it's too heartwarming! Cixi understood what Hong Tao meant, made his own assurances, and also stated his ideological basis.

"And what if I'm gone?" Hong Tao also wanted to hear more assurances.

“…… I wish I could die before Your Majesty! Didn't Your Majesty say that while we are still alive, we should quickly come up with a set of rules for future generations to follow. Cixi and Hong Tao were not restrained when they spoke, and after so many years of getting along, coupled with unique wisdom, he summed up a rule. It's best to tell the truth when chatting with Hong Tao, this has the best effect, and the result of making up nonsense is likely to lose Hong Tao's trust, which will not benefit him at all.

"It's not that easy...... The world has changed, and I don't even know it. Cixi's answer made Hong Tao feel pressured. Before this sea battle, he dared to say that he knew 500 years before and 500 years later. But now it is not the case, the wheel of history has pushed itself crookedly, embarked on a new road, and I don't know what lies ahead.

In June 1240, the Mongol naval division that had gone south with all the strength of the country was blocked by the Southern Song Dynasty naval division and the Royal Navy of the Jinhe Empire at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and nearly 700 warships were almost completely wiped out, and only more than 20 warships that broke down and fell behind on the way returned to the port of Mizhou.

This naval division was built by the Mongol Empire with more than three years of spending countless money and food, and it also carried more than 100,000 elite troops of the Mongol Empire, and there were more than 30,000 pure Mongol generals alone. Few made it back alive. The Mongol Empire was plunged into an unprecedented crisis in an instant. It's not just the treasury that is empty. Even the deployment of troops is overstretched, let alone the continuation of the southern invasion offensive.

If the Southern Song army dared to launch a counterattack from land at this time, or if it had followed the example of the Mongol army and carried the army by sea to find a suitable place to land, perhaps it would have been able to recapture a large area of land south of the Yellow River. Although the Southern Song Dynasty naval division also suffered a lot of losses, most of the ships sank, and there were few casualties among sailors and officers and soldiers. Moreover, there are nearly 200 large ships of the merchant group volunteers, which are enough to transport troops and supplies.

It's a pity that the Southern Song Dynasty court didn't dare to make this plan. They were even more cautious than the Mongols, desperately sending troops to the Yangtze River defense line, fearing that the Mongol Empire would retaliate for this defeat at sea from land. Moreover, the Southern Song Dynasty court was also worried because of the tens of thousands of Mongolian soldiers, hundreds of high-ranking Mongolian generals and a Mongolian prince captured.

Some advocated negotiating with the Mongol Empire, exchanging the hostages in their hands for more benefits; Some advocated the release of some of the Mongol nobles to appease the anger of the Mongols; Some people advocated killing a hundred people, and first beheaded the prince in Lin'an City, so as to boost the morale of the people of the Southern Song Dynasty.

"Give it to me?!!! Hahahaha...... Lao Wen, do you see it? This is the court you wanted to serve wholeheartedly in the first half of your life. Have you ever seen a man who is terrified all day long because he has won a battle, a great victory? Is there one in history? What are those famous generals in the court doing at this time? Shouldn't they go north with a victorious army to regain their land? What about them? Sending all the Mongol captives to the Jinhe Empire is really a genius idea of Nima, I don't even know what to say! ”

The controversy went on for more than two months. One day in September, Wen Nan suddenly ran back to Jinhe City. He, the foreign minister and plenipotentiary of the Golden River Empire, brought back an ally from Lin'an. The Southern Song Dynasty court actually wanted to send more than 10,000 Mongol captives to the Jinhe Empire as war trophies, which was also called compensation for the Jinhe Empire.

After Hong Tao listened to Wen Nan's words, his little eyes instantly caught up with the lemur. He never expected that the Southern Song Dynasty court would finally make such a decision after discussing for a long time. It's really only more cowardly than the most cowardly, if I had known that they would have this virtue, I shouldn't have wasted more than ten years to help them, and the mud couldn't support the wall.

“…… Then I'll reply to them, the Golden River Empire doesn't accept this suggestion, let them deal with it themselves. Wen Nan did not make excuses for the Southern Song Dynasty court this time, in the past few months, he has been staying in Lin'an as a plenipotentiary diplomatic envoy of the Jinhe Empire, and has also participated in many official court meetings of the Southern Song court, and has contacted countless high-ranking officials of the Southern Song Dynasty in private.

I am not afraid of not knowing the goods, I am afraid of comparing the goods, and I compare the decision-making of the Southern Song Dynasty court with the foreign policy of the Jinhe Empire, and I have figured out everything. He was already very disappointed in the Southern Song Dynasty, even more disappointed than Hong Tao.

"Don't! Don't! Forcing them to be in a hurry, they dared to return all these captives to the Mongols, and perhaps they would have to pay a lot of money for the journey. Rather than let these captives go back and become our enemies, we might as well leave them here to mine. Qi Zu and they found another coal mine in the upper reaches of the Milky Way, and it happened that no one was digging it, so they were cheaper! Although Hong Tao looked down on the Southern Song Dynasty's timid approach, he also did not agree with Wen Nan's blunt approach of ignoring it. The Golden River Empire started by capturing slaves for extremely low-cost labor, not to mention more than 10,000 young and middle-aged captives, even if it doubled, the porcelain guy could manage it.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is inappropriate...... There are many Mongolian nobles among the captives, and there is a prince, no matter how polite they are, they can be killed, but they cannot be humiliated! In case this matter spreads, our Jinhe Empire may be the number one mortal enemy of the Mongol Empire. As soon as Wen Nan heard that Hong Tao wanted to let the Mongol captives go to mining, he immediately had a different opinion. He couldn't control the mining of ordinary captives, but he felt that it was in line with the customs of the time that the nobles should be treated separately from the ordinary people.

"Pull it down, labor is the most glorious! The Jinhe Empire does not raise waste, and even I, the emperor, have to go to the front line desperately if I want to eat, can it be said that they are more expensive than me? The number one mortal enemy...... Hey, hey, you think if I give them all up, the Mongol Empire won't hate me? Now, even if I went to the north and knelt on the ground and called them father, they would not spare me. This is a national war, there are no personal grievances to talk about, everything is for the interests of the country. Hong Tao was very dismissive of Wen Nan's statement, this guy's previous education had not been completely transformed, and he made fools from time to time.

"Speaking of interests, I suddenly thought of a good idea, and I have to trouble you to deal with it. Ship these captives back first, and then ask the Southern Song court for more food expenses by the way. I helped them raise more than 10,000 captives, and I can't let me pay for it myself, they should pay for it. You can figure out how much you want, you can point as much as you can, and now the empire has a lot of money, and just repairing warships is a big expense. ”

"Then you get someone to contact the top of the Mongol Empire and ask them if they want to exchange these prisoners back. If you want, you can talk to them, and it's not impossible to use these captives in exchange for some benefit to the Empire. However, Hong Tao did not completely ignore Wen Nan's words, and if there was a greater interest than digging coal, he would not mind sending these captives back to the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire is no longer the Golden River Empire's worst enemy, at least not for a decade.

"Your Majesty wants to negotiate with the Mongol Empire! In exchange for what? Wen Nan was helpless against Hong Tao's idea of a hammer in the east and a stick in the west, and he didn't expect to be able to keep up with the rhythm of his gentleman, and he never kept up.

"Actually, it's not too expensive, you ask the Mongol Empire if you want to do business. If they are willing to open the ports of Mizhou and Golden State for Imperial merchant ships to sell goods, and ensure the safety of Imperial merchants, these captives can be released for free, and I will not even charge for food. You go and grind your teeth with them for the specific tax ratio, it doesn't matter if you have more or less. As soon as he talked about doing business, Hong Tao's interest came. Compared with the high-end and high-grade work of political struggle, he is more enthusiastic about the unbearable business of buying and selling. (To be continued.) )