Of course, Shi Wei couldn't tell Dezhao that he had found out the task of making the Liao State a "ulterior" secret.

When Dezhao asked, he sighed: "Don't hide it from Your Highness, Weichen wants to envoy to Liao, and he also wants to take this opportunity to avoid the one in the palace." ”

As soon as Shi Wei explained this, Dezhao immediately fell into a trance.

"That's fine, after all, that's also the queen mother of this king, and this king doesn't want to be said that this king doesn't respect his elders unless it's a last resort." Dezhao nodded.

The second prince naturally agreed to his invitation, and Shi Wei secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After chatting again, Shi Wei returned home with relief.

A few days later, sure enough, the Zhongshu Province issued another document appointing Shi Wei as an envoy and officially sending an envoy to Liao.

Before leaving, Zhao Kuangyin personally confessed to Shi Wei and explained to him his attitude towards the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

Zhao Kuangyin said that the surnames of soldiers and people are the most precious, and if he can use money to solve the problem of Yanyun's sixteen states, he will never use force.

Shi Wei asked Zhao Kuangyin how much money he planned to use to ransom Yan Yun at most, and Zhao Kuangyin told him that the bottom line was five million, and beyond this number, Song and Liao could only decide the ownership of Yanyun's sixteen states by force.

The Song Dynasty took the text of copper coins as the most basic unit, and it was always (缗) that it was worth 1,000,000 yuan, and 5 million yuan was equivalent to 5 billion yuan.

This is already an astronomical number.

Shi Wei was also startled when he heard this number.

However, he thought about it again, although the Liao State was short of money, the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were a springboard for attacking the Central Plains, which was of great significance to the Liao State.

Shi Wei thought that it would be okay for the Liao people to sell it, but if they didn't sell it, it would be a big deal to start a war, and this was not something that he should worry about in his position.

His top priority was to leave as soon as possible and go to Liao to avoid the pestering peach blossom luck.

So after receiving the holy will, Shi Wei, the ambassador to Liao, left Luoyang and headed north to Liao under the escort of more than 300 forbidden troops.

As Yang Yanqi said, the team to Liao this trip was in charge of Yang Yanzhao and Yang Yanqi, and in addition, Shi Wei also ordered his henchman Xiong Qingye to accompany him as usual.

At this time, in late winter and early spring, the weather was getting warmer, and Shi Wei was not in a hurry to hurry, so he stopped and stopped all the way, and it took nearly half a month to cross the Song border and enter the territory of Youzhou in Liao.

In the early morning, the mission team walked along the avenue, and it didn't take long to walk, when suddenly on the avenue behind them, it seemed faintly like a group of people and horses hurrying over.

Seeing this, Yang Yanqi was immediately alert and urgently ordered his subordinates to be on guard.

After a while, the group of people gradually approached, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that there were only dozens of Liao soldiers escorting more than 100 prisoners.

Shi Wei asked the team to pull aside, let this group of Liao people go first, and take a break by the way.

The embassy of several hundred people stopped on the spot, everyone drank water, those who ate dry food ate dry food, and Shi Wei also got out of the carriage to breathe.

"Let's take a sip of water." Yang Yanqi handed over a water bladder.

When Shi Wei took the water bladder, he seemed to touch her hand unintentionally, and Yang Yanqi gave him a blank look, pretending not to know.

Shi Wei smiled and watched the Liao people pass by while drinking water.

Gradually, Shi Wei noticed that something was wrong.

Among the prisoners escorted by the Liao, there were men, women and children, all dressed in Han costumes, all of them looked panicked, and they supported each other, and they all seemed to be familiar with each other.

"Did you notice, these prisoners look a little strange." Shi Wei said to Yang Yanqi.

Yang Yanqi snorted coldly, "At first glance, you are an idle official in Beijing, and you don't know what is going on, these people are not prisoners at all." ”

Shi Wei was stunned and puzzled: "Since they are not prisoners, why did the Liao people tie them up." ”

"Can't you see this, these people are the grass valley brought by the Khitans from our border." Yang Yanqi said.

Hearing the word "Grass Valley", Shi Wei's heart was shocked, and he suddenly realized.

Liao [***] system, the army has no special logistics support, every battle, the grain and grass of the people are obtained by the soldiers to plunder the people of the victim country, the Liao people call it "grass valley".

Over time, the scope of this grass valley was not limited to grain, grass and money, but also the people of the enemy countries who were taken captive as slaves, all of which were called grass valleys.

At the time of the first five dynasties, the Central Plains was in decline, and the strength of the Liao State had the upper hand, so the soldiers often fought grass valleys on the border of the Central Plains, and sometimes even went deep into the hinterland of the Central Plains to plunder.

After the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, the Central Plains was strong, and the Liao State was afraid, so in order to maintain good-neighborliness and friendship, it strictly forbade the army to invade the Song Dynasty and fight the grass valley.

However, the year before the Great Song Dynasty swept away the Northern Han Dynasty, the relationship between the Liao and Song dynasties broke down, although the Liao people did not dare to invade the south, but in order to retaliate against the Great Song Dynasty for destroying the Han, they let go of restraint and once again connived at the army to enter the Song Dynasty to fight the grass valley.

Although Shi Wei has heard a little about the grass valley on the border, he is not very familiar with the border affairs in the end.

Yang Yanqi has been stationed at the border with his father for a long time, and he is naturally familiar with what the Liao people do, and he can know the details at a glance.

Yang Yanqi's voice was very loud, and when she said this, all the accompanying Song soldiers heard it.

It turned out that everyone was still in the mood of watching the excitement, but when they heard that the so-called "prisoners" who were tied up in front of them were actually their own compatriots, everyone's spirits suddenly tensed, and their faces showed resentment.

Those panicked people of the Song Kingdom, helping the old and the young, walked past Shi Wei's eyes with a disgraced face.

If they walked slowly, the Liao people who were escorted next to them stepped forward to reprimand them, and even beat them with horsewhips.

The sound of the whipping and the wailing of the beaten people all seemed to feel the same feeling, and all of them changed color.

The fist in Shi Wei's hand gradually clenched.

At this moment, some of the Song people recognized the team next to the road, which seemed to be their own officers and soldiers, and they knelt down as if they had grasped a life-saving straw, begging the officials and soldiers to rescue them.

"My lord, we are all Song people, save us." A young woman threw herself down and pleaded.

A Liao man just took a few steps and chased after him, scolded in Khitan dialect, raised his leather whip and whipped at the young woman.

Dare to beat his own countrymen in front of him, Shi Wei, who was already angry in his heart, was suddenly enraged.

"Yanqi!" Shi Wei hurriedly glanced at Yang Yanqi next to him.

Yang Yanqi immediately understood, and before the Liao man's horse whip fell, he flew up and kicked his huge body away.

The Liao man was kicked and, angry and frightened, and crawled up and yelled.

When the rest of the Liao people saw that their companions were beaten, they were furious, and their scimitars were unsheathed, and a swarm of bees surrounded them.

"Protect your lordship!"

Yang Yanqi shouted, and more than 100 elite Song troops quickly set up a formation, surrounding Shi Wei in it, and the sound of the sword unsheathed resounded.

The saber is tense, and the battle is on the verge of breaking out.

The Liao magistrate who accompanied him was startled, and hurriedly ran from the front of the team, first reprimanding the Liao people in Khitan dialect.

As soon as the Liao people who fought in the grass valley heard that it was the envoy of the Song State, they all changed color for it, and their original fierce expressions immediately softened, and they had to put away their weapons and retreat.

The Liao official smiled at Shi Wei again: "This group of people don't know that Lord Shi is here, they are offended, and they still look at Lord Shi to forgive me." ”

Shi Wei snorted coldly, pointed to the Song people kneeling everywhere, and asked sharply: "Tell me, what is going on with these Chinese people?" ”

The Liao official was choked, and cold sweat rolled on his forehead, and he didn't know how to respond.

Shi Wei said loudly again: "This envoy would like to ask, has the emperor of your country ever decreed that you be allowed to invade and plunder our borders and plunder our people?" ”

Shi Wei's question made the Liao Kingdom speechless.

In order to retaliate against the Great Song Dynasty, the Liao court did condone the border soldiers to fight the grass valley, but this was only a tacit consent after all, and was not issued to the army by the emperor's will or the official documents of the Liao court.

Therefore, this grass valley is just a secret thing, but it can't be put on the stage, no matter what the occasion, the Liao side does not admit that it deliberately connived at the soldiers to fight the grass valley.

Now this Liao official didn't expect that his team fighting Caogu would happen to Shi Wei, and this Song envoy was a nosy person, so when he was questioned, he was naturally speechless.

Shi Wei saw that he should not be, and his reason was at a loss, so he said in a commanding tone: "Since the emperor of your country has no will, then what these soldiers have done is illegal, please give an order immediately, and order them to release our people immediately." ”

The Liao official had no room for argument, and in desperation, he had to say something to those Liao soldiers.

When the Liao soldiers heard this, they immediately jumped like thunder and shouted at the Liao official.

Shi Wei didn't understand the Khitan dialect, so he said to Yang Yanqi: "What are these barbarians called?" ”

Yang Yanqi has been at the border for a long time, and he understands the Khitan dialect roughly, and after listening carefully, he frowned and said: "Those Liao soldiers refused to let go, and said that this was their military business, and local officials had no right to interfere. ”

Sure enough, the Liao official's persuasion was fruitless, so he had to say helplessly to Shi Wei: "These soldiers are not under our jurisdiction, and the subordinate officials have no right to give them orders directly." In this way, after waiting for Youzhou, the lower officials immediately contacted their superiors and asked them to order the release of these Song Min. ”

This kind of officialdom is not perfunctory, and when the time comes, whether the Liao people will release them or not, Shi Wei will not know.

There were also people among those people who understood, and as soon as they heard what the Liao official said, they immediately pleaded again.

As an official of the Great Song Dynasty, how could Shi Wei watch his compatriots become slaves of Hulu.

At that moment, his face sank, and he said coldly: "You don't use this kind of words to fool the envoy, the envoy will talk here today, either you take the initiative to release the person, or the envoy will release the person himself, you can watch and do it." ”

The Liao official was so frightened that he was afraid of an incident, so he hurriedly discussed it with those Liao soldiers.

Those Liao soldiers were obviously not soft eggs, and they were frightened by Shi Wei like this, but instead of being intimidated, they were provoked.

These enraged Liao soldiers immediately drew their weapons again, and shouted wah-wah, as if they were planning to come hard.

It seems that such a scene cannot be resolved peacefully.

Shi Wei sneered and said slowly: "It seems that these Liao soldiers are toasting and not eating and drinking, what are you still doing in a daze, and you don't give me a hand!" ”

(To be continued)