Pei Ju and Wen Yanbo welcomed the crown prince Li Jiancheng into the inner hall, and the guests and hosts of the two sides sat down, Li Jiancheng said to Pei Ju sincerely: "My father has always been grateful to Pei Gong for his care back then, and specially asked me to visit Pei Gong to see if there is anything that can help Pei Gong." Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Li Jiancheng was dressed in regular clothes and came to visit as a private person, so of course the things he talked about with Pei Ju could only be a private matter, Pei Ju smiled, "Thank you for your father's concern, if there is a need, I will definitely ask him for help." ”

"If there is any difficulty, even if Pei Gong brings it up, as long as we can do it, we will not postpone it."

Li Jiancheng asked Wen Yanbo with a smile again: "Did Wen Shilang go to visit his brother?" ”

Wen Yanbo bowed and said, "I just came back from my brother's house." ”

Li Jiancheng nodded, "Our two countries have too deep ties with each other, there will always be family members who are officials in the two countries, my father has always believed that official affairs belong to official affairs, family affection belongs to family affection, as long as private affairs do not abolish public affairs, then there is no problem, and I believe that the vast majority of officials can distinguish between public and private." ”

"Both countries are holy monarchs, and it is a blessing for us courtiers!"

At this time, Li Jiancheng pondered for a while and asked, "I heard that your country is evacuating the people of Mayi County, Loufan County and Yanmen County on a large scale, is it because of the Turks?" ”

Pei Ju and Wen Yanbo glanced at each other, it seemed that the other party already knew very well the reason why they came to negotiate, Pei Ju nodded, "We have received exact news from Princess Yicheng, the Turks will attack Bingzhou in a big way next spring, His Royal Highness King Qi hopes that our two countries can work together to resist the invasion of foreign races, so that the people of Bingzhou will not be ruined." ”

Wen Yanbo next to him secretly admired, Jiang is worthy of being old and spicy, Pei Ju first framed the other party with righteousness, 'join hands to fight against aliens', under righteousness, how can the other party answer?

Li Jiancheng's expression was slightly embarrassed, but he quickly calmed down and said lightly: "It is the bounden duty of every Central Plains dynasty to resist the invasion of foreign races, and the Tang Dynasty is no exception, we will resolutely resist the Turkic invasion of the state, but before joining hands with your country, I think it is necessary to eliminate some contradictions between the two sides and untie some unpleasant mustards, what does Pei Gong think?" ”

Pei Ju smiled slightly: "This is the purpose of our mission, for the two countries to join hands to fight the Turks." ”

Both of them were implicitly testing each other, but neither of them refused to show a trace of tone, Li Jiancheng wanted to talk about Shangdang County and Changping County, but Pei Ju refused to accept the offer, only talked about righteousness, Li Jiancheng had no choice but to be silent.

At this time, Wen Yanbo said on the side: "I believe that only if the two sides continue to talk sincerely, they will definitely gain something, but we are worried that some external forces will want to sabotage the negotiations between the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and we hope that your country can pay attention to it." ”

Li Jiancheng was stunned, "What did Wen Shilang say?" ”

"Just now our guards found out that some people of unknown origin outside were monitoring your hotel, could it be the secret guards sent by your country?"

Li Jiancheng's face changed, the guards they sent were the army, and there were no other hidden people, could it be that someone wanted to assassinate the Sui envoy?

He hurriedly said: "We didn't send anyone to monitor, this time my father treated him with sincerity, except for the army guard, no one else was arranged, this must be some ill-intentioned people, I want to go back to report to my father, I must strengthen security vigilance." ”

Wen Yanbo handed a note to Li Jiancheng, "This is the location of Wang Shichong's intelligence point in Chang'an, recently they have added twenty warriors with high martial arts, it is likely that they are coming for us, both of us hope that the negotiation will be successful, but others may not want to see it, I hope Your Highness will take measures as soon as possible!" Don't let Dugu Huaien's misfortune happen again. ”

Li Jiancheng was furious in his heart, Wang Shichong actually wanted to sabotage this negotiation, if Pei Ju was killed in Chang'an, a big war would break out between the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and Wang Shichong would be able to enjoy the benefits of the fisherman, so vicious means.

However, if there is no conclusive evidence, Li Jiancheng will not fully believe Wen Yanbo's words, he restrained his anger, took the note and said slowly: "Please rest assured that Pei Gong and Wen Shilang will never let anyone sabotage this negotiation." ”

......

Early the next morning, Li Yuan held a solemn ceremony at Chengtianmen to welcome the arrival of the Northern Sui envoys, Pei Ju handed over the handwritten letter of Zhang Xuan, the regent of the Northern Sui, to Li Yuan, Li Yuan made it clear that once the Turks invaded the south and annexed the state, the Tang army would never retreat, and would do its best to protect the safety of the lives and property of the people of the state.

The meeting at Chengtianmen was only a courtesy reception, and the statements made by the two sides were only pragmatic and not implemented, and did not involve specific details of the negotiations.

However, although it is only a courtesy reception, some clues can still be seen from it, such as how much the Tang Dynasty expects from the solemnity of the ceremony, and for example, Li Yuan's statement also proves the Tang Dynasty's concern about the southern invasion of the Turks.

If the Turks really chose to attack and annex the state, then the Tang Dynasty could not avoid a war, once the Sui army withdrew from Mayi County and Loufan County, then Taiyuan would be the first to bear the brunt.

It was precisely seeing this that Li Yuan extended a warm welcome to the arrival of the Sui envoy.

However, Li Yuan was more obsessed with Shangdang County and Changping County, and he hoped to take advantage of the opportunity of this negotiation to recover Shangdang County and Changping County, so in the formal negotiations in the afternoon, Chen Shuda officially put forward this request.

The negotiations were held in the Zhongshu Provincial Hall, and on the first day of the negotiations, the envoys of both sides needed to attend, Pei Ju, the chief envoy of the Sui side, Wen Yanbo, the chief envoy of the Tang side, Chen Shuda, and the deputy envoy Li Wenhe.

"This morning, I made it clear on the pilgrimage that I am willing to join hands with your country to resist the southern invasion of the Turks, and I will not take advantage of the danger of others to attack the Northern Sui, which is our sincerity, but I also hope that your country can also show the same sincerity."

Pei Ju smiled slightly: "We took the initiative to come to Chang'an to negotiate, isn't sincerity enough?" ”

Chen Shuda shook his head, "In the past year, our two sides have fought many times, the soldiers have suffered heavy casualties, and a hostile relationship has been formed, whether it is the army, the court or the people, the hatred will not be easily eliminated, we believe that the premise of cooperation is to eliminate hatred, if the hatred is not eliminated, the mustard is incomprehensible, and the cooperation between the two sides will have no foundation, even if the agreement is signed, it will become waste paper, there is no meaning, Pei Gong should be able to understand what I mean." ”

"Since it is a negotiation, then the two sides should be frank and honest, don't speculate on each other, even if the negotiation fails, it doesn't matter, why did Chen Xiangguo say it unclearly, how can we eliminate the hatred of the Tang Dynasty?"

"Pei Gong is right, the two sides need to be frank, we believe that the premise of reconciliation between the two sides is to return Shangdang County and Changping County to us, if you can't do this, then it is impossible for the two sides to sign an armistice agreement."

Pei Ju responded very blandly, "I think this is a misunderstanding of your understanding, the southern invasion of the Turks is not only a threat to the Northern Sui, but a threat to the entire Central Plains, to put it mildly, if our army retreats to Hebei and holds the Flying Fox Road, then the first thing to face the Turkic invasion is Taiyuan, if the Turks continue to move south, then Xihe County, Linfen County and Longquan County are unavoidable, and even the entire state will face a catastrophe, then it will not be us who come to Chang'an, but you will come to Zhongdu, Isn't it chilling that my lord did not want the Central Plains to be slaughtered, and resolutely took on the heavy task of resisting the invasion of foreign races, and came to negotiate with you with full sincerity, but faced your bargaining? ”

Pei Ju's words made Chen Shuda speechless, but Li Wenhe next to him snorted, "It's better to say than to sing, Liu Wuzhou has been wreaking havoc in Bingzhou for many years, but I didn't see you send troops to exterminate it, and when we wiped out Liu Wuzhou almost to the end, you came to pick the fruits of victory, and finally angered the Turks, and then came to the so-called reconciliation, aren't you afraid that we will take the opportunity to attack?" Everyone understands in their hearts that you don't need to pretend to be a saint here, you don't want to resist, then the withdrawal is good, and our army will go north to resist the Turks. ”

Wen Yanbo also caught the other party's slip of the tongue, and said-for-tat: "Li Shangshu's words are very wrong, what does it mean to provoke the Turks, is Mayi County the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty?" Is Dingxiang County our territory? The Turkic army is stationed in Mayi County, shouldn't we drive them away? Shouldn't we take back the territory that belongs to the Central Plains Dynasty? It turned out that in Li Shangshu's view, recovering the occupied territory was to provoke a strong enemy, no wonder Li Shangshu had never seen Li Shangshu lead his army north for so many years! ”

Li Wenhe was furious and stared at Wen Yanbo viciously, Wen Yanbo did not show weakness, and looked at him coldly, the two sides were tense, and the atmosphere in the lobby was very tense.

At this time, Chen Shuda waved his hand and said: "It seems that everyone's mood is not very good, I suggest adjourning the meeting first, waiting for everyone to calm down, and then continue to talk, what does Pei Gong think?" ”

Pei Ju smiled and nodded, "What Chen Xiangguo said is extremely true!" ”

On the first day of negotiations, the two sides broke up unhappily. (To be continued.) )