Winter is rising, and the morning frost has not melted. It just snowed last night, Liao Qiao was cold, and a touch of light sun sprinkled on people, without the slightest warmth, it was still cold.

Outside the mouth of victory, a hundred majestic knights crossed the mountains and mountains, slowly winding around. Liu Biao, Jing Foer, Wu Hanchao, and Liu Dabang mallet pretended to be personal guards, Xu Tai pretended to be the leader of the guards, and the group followed behind Yang Ling's horse.

Ahead there was an open field, just below a Gangfu forest, where the first rays of the rising sun could be reflected, and three lone tents stood in the snow.

Several Mongolian men who had returned from riding horses jumped down from their slick horses and led their horses to the tents, some of them put saddles on their horses, some wiped their weapons, and their expressions were arrogant, as if they did not take these hundreds of neat formations and majestic Ming officers and soldiers in their eyes at all.

Yang Ling's gaze swept over the faces of the few lazy Mongols, and with a slight increase in his hand, a hundred knights immediately reined in the reins of their horses, and more than a hundred knights stopped at a stone's throw away, silent and silent.

Zhengde, Hu Zhan, and Yang Yiqing were not worried that Yang Ling would only bring a hundred guards, and originally planned to send 2,000 soldiers and horses to escort them, but Yang Ling said: "Hua dang traveled thousands of miles and led 5,000 soldiers and horses to venture through the Tatar territory, not to attack and kill one of my ministers", so he refused.

The negotiation is about momentum, Duoyan Sanwei sent a total of 5,000 troops, and the forward envoy only had three tents and 50 people, if a large army was sent out, it would not only raise up the other party, but also easily arouse their contempt.

However, Duoyan Sanwei is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and the supreme leader of the Sanwei was awarded the command of the Ming Dynasty, and he is an official from the three products.

Yang Ling is the leader of the imperial army, the military general of the third grade, and he is also the identity of the Qincha, even in the face of Huadang, his identity is only high, not low, not to mention just a few messengers of Huadang? When Yang Ling came out of the customs, he had sent the guards to inform him in advance, and these envoys had obviously known the news, but they were bedridden with a big thorn, and several pro-soldiers were also arrogant and unruly, obviously not taking the Ming court seriously.

Xu Tai suddenly became angry, and he jumped to Yang Ling's approach, and said with his sword eyebrows upside down: "My lord, Duoyan Sanwei is so bold, he knows that the imperial court has arrived, but he is so rude, we might as well go back, how can we break the prestige of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

Jing Fu'er licked her thin mouth, and said with a bloodthirsty taste on her face: "My lord, it is a great unforgivable sin to be disrespectful to the envoys of the Heavenly Empire, and my lord ordered the last general to chop up this group of miscellaneous pieces, and asked Hua Dang that kid to send some other sensible ones."

Yang Ling smiled and said: "Duoyan Sanwei is just trying the sincerity of the imperial court alliance, after all, they have been fooled too much, there is no need to deal with these barbarians, let me tell you, negotiation is like doing business, the person who laughs first is not necessarily the final winner, today I bowed his head to him three times, so that he had to kowtow to me thirty times to find it back." Go, call the messenger of Duoyan Sanwei to greet you! ”

Jing Fu'er glanced at Yang Ling suspiciously, galloped to the front of the big tent and loudly reported that the envoy of the Ming Emperor had arrived, and ordered the flower to be the messenger to greet him.

Liu Dabang said strangely: "My lord, how do you know that their envoys are already ready to stop?" ”

Yang Ling shook his head and said, "There is no courage and no strategy!" Look at the ground in front of the tent! ”

Several guards around him looked at each other when they heard this, and they were still at a loss for a long time, only Xu Tai and Wu Hanchao sighed in unison, and then looked at each other and smiled.

Although the snow was not heavy last night, it had covered the ground, and the snow in front of me was as smooth as a mirror, shining with snow in the sun, and there were only two lines of hoof prints, which were left by the messenger who informed the Ming that the envoy had arrived. In front of the three tents, although they looked snow-white from a distance, the reflection of light was different from that of the side, dim and disorderly, and it was obvious that dozens of people had walked around and trampled on them in the morning, which was definitely not the effect that the four or five guards in front of the tent could cause.

Seeing that the envoys had crowded to the front of the tent, Yang Ling kicked the horse's belly, led the guards to walk forward slowly, and when he arrived at the tent, Liu Dabang turned over and dismounted, walked to Yang Ling's horse and knocked on one knee, Yang Ling pulled the saddle and dismounted, lightly on his back, and jumped off the ground.

All the Mongolian people rushed to the front, full of smiles, and a big man pressed Yang Ling's chest with one hand, and said with a smile in fluent Chinese: "Welcome, envoy of the Celestial Empire, I am the envoy of the Wuliang Ha tribe Nuomutu, this is the envoy of the Weng Niu special tribe Ge Letai, the envoy of the Uqiye special ministry A Qimai, the Jianzhou Jurchen envoy Lidouli, and the Haixi Jurchen envoy Hu Chi."

As he spoke, he looked at Yang Ling, and saw that the most trusted minister of the Ming Emperor, the military general in charge of the emperor's pro-army and the inner factory, was wearing a fur robe, a mink hat on his head, and blue satin leather boots under his feet. If it weren't for the fact that the robe was not tied with silk, the golden Wolong python robe inside could be faintly seen, as if it was a noble son.

Yang Ling looked at this envoy of the Wuliang Ha tribe, the most powerful of the Duoyan Sanwei, with a majestic torso, a lofty appearance, and a calm step, although he looked burly and strong, his eyes revealed wit and calmness, which was completely different from the straightforward and simple smile on his face like a Mongolian herdsman.

Yang Ling remained silent, and said secretly in his heart: "It is said that the Mongolian people are brave and good at fighting, strong and resourceful, but looking at this envoy named Namutu is very different, although it is a test of the surname contact, and each other finds out the bottom line of the conditions for each other's alliance, it seems that they also need to cheer up, and they can't be careless."

Yang Ling smiled and groaned, bowed generously, and politely greeted each other, and said to the tent: "Lord Yang, please, let's go into the tent to talk."

Yang Ling shook his leather robe, didn't look back, and entered first, leaving the guards out of the tent, and the envoys such as Mutu and Ge Yuletai saw that the envoy of the Celestial Empire did not bring guards, and entered the account single-handedly, and glanced at each other, and the smile on his face suddenly disappeared.

Jianzhou Jurchen is closest to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, through the mutual market with the Ming Dynasty benefited a lot, both grazing and farming, there are some simple crafts, is the richest area of the three Jurchen tribes, according to the distance with the Ming border, the Haixi Jurchen is poorer, and the farther savage Jurchen is completely hunting for a living, living a semi-savage life.

These three forces are weak, so they are the most obedient to the Ming Dynasty, since the Yongle period, the tribute has never stopped, although the Ming court does not give a price for tribute, but allows them to bring more goods to do some private transactions.

The Jurchens exchanged horses, mink, haidongqing and other goods with ejiao, ginseng, fungus, mushrooms, pine nuts, honey and other mountain goods for the Han people's iron tools, rice, salt, cloth, silk, iron pots, clothes and other items, and relied heavily on the Han people.

They traded the most with the Ming Dynasty is ginseng, but their processing method is very simple, the ginseng is dug out for fear of rotting and deterioration, so it is soaked with water, but the soaked ginseng is also difficult to last, the Ming merchants only need to delay slightly, the Jurchens are afraid that the ginseng will be rotten, so they can only sell it at a low price.

They couldn't think of any good way to extend the storage time, and they suffered a great loss in this transaction, so they were most enthusiastic about forming an alliance with the Ming Dynasty, and only hoped that after the alliance, the Ming court could set a fair price with the official and avoid being exploited by merchants.

Yang Ling had already understood these things through careful work, since there were envoys from the three Jurchen tribes in each tribe, it was expected that there would be no danger in the account, so he was not timid, which surprised Mu Tu and the others.

Yang Ling paced into the tent, only to see the two long cases separated left and right, on the top of some cheese, milk tea and other things, he walked to the right according to the case and sat down, the envoys of the tribes entered the big tent, only to see Yang Ling sitting there with a smile, pointing to the opposite side: "Everyone, please sit."

The six of them had to sit on the opposite side, and the guest and the host sat down, and the topic officially began.

Mu Tu first said: "The great leader of Huadang heard that His Majesty the Ming Emperor came to Datong in person to show his sincerity, and he was so frightened that he led the leaders of the Duoyan Sanwei and the Jurchen Tripartite to come all the way to meet him.

Duoyan Sanwei with the Yongle Emperor Jing is difficult to come, has always been good friends with the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming officers and soldiers regard us as barbarians, suppress and deduct, trade unfairly, in the past, the Ming general army and my three guards rushed to the market to each other, the helpless people as Tatar prisoners to kill the soldiers, the head of the city hung more than 300 ah, so that my three guards are sad.

My lord, Duoyan Sanwei has always regarded himself as a member of the Ming Dynasty, but when Wara invaded my Sanwei, we asked the Ming court for help, but the Ming court stood by and watched, but it was Boyan Khan who led the troops to rescue, and the suzerain could not be relied on, and the people of Sanwei were cold.

Besides, the three Jurchen tribes, although they are paying tribute at the age of the year, but Liaodong's policy of pacifying the realm and pacifying the people is lackluster, so that the people are separated, and now the big leader of Huadang and the chiefs of various tribes have the heart to be friendly with the Ming Dynasty, but they are afraid that the people will be unconvinced, I don't know why Lord Yang taught me? ”

Yang Ling smiled, while listening, he also took a sip of milk tea, grinned and put it down, and picked up a small piece of yogurt cheese and bit it little by little, tasting the taste, looking casual.

He originally thought that if he said a few words that he didn't like, this arrogant high-ranking official of the Ming Dynasty would definitely be angered by him, and he could take the opportunity to say another set of words he prepared, but Yang Ling was so demeanor, and he was secretly in his heart, and he was originally nostalgic and painful, but later he lost his momentum.

Yang Ling listened to him pour these Chen sesame rotten grains, and said with a smile: "If Duoyan Sanwei and the Ming Court have always had no disagreement before, then we should meet today to talk about the world and drink and talk, so why bother to meet His Majesty the Labor Emperor and the leader of Huadang?" ”

Yang Ling knew that this was their next step to throw out the alliance conditions to increase their bargaining chips, but he believed in the sincerity of Huadang's alliance.

He dropped the piece of cheese, clapped his hands, and said calmly: "The border army of the Ming court has inherent friction and grudges with the three guards of Duoyan and the three Jurchens, but it would be unfair to say that the Ming court is not kind to you. ”

Yang Ling smiled, and said solemnly: "Since Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty has been generous and benevolent to the Mongolian people who have taken refuge in the imperial court, which is well documented. In the sixth year of Yongle, Xile Wenhe, Qinzhen River and other departments came to the court, and the Ming Dynasty not only resettled the residence, but also provided food, clothing, cattle and sheep, money and ayaluo, which can be said to be responsive.

Our Han people did not obey the army, but one of the Turkish troops (Mongols, Koreans, and Jurchens) who settled in the south served, and the rest of the brothers and nephews were exempted from military service, and the taxes were unbelievably light. Duoyan Sanwei, who lives in Liaodong, is even more inappropriate, does not pay food, and does not serve, and the envoy of Mutu will not know about these things, right?

The Ming Dynasty set up a mutual market, not that the imperial court did not have cattle and horses, because the things used by the various departments outside the gate were all from my Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court allowed its mutual market, which was also the benevolence of Huaiyuan. In the fifteenth year of Yongle, there was a great drought in Wuliangha, and I came to my Ming Dynasty with 1,000 horses, and there were countless people, but what did you do?

The change of the civil fort, treachery, and took refuge in Warat. In the slightest natural disaster [***], he took the Ming Dynasty as a granary for granted, harassed the border passes, slaughtered the people, and half-heartedly stepped on two boats between the Ming and the Tatars!

When a person is about to starve to death, give him a liter of rice, and he will treat you as a benefactor; But if you give him a bucket of rice, he will think, since you can afford a bucket of rice, you can give me more, if you don't give it to me, then you will be my enemy, and I will rob it myself. Duoyan Sanwei to Daming, isn't that exactly the case? Lack of greed, ungrateful! ”

"If there were no such past events, how could they give an excuse to the officers and soldiers who were greedy for profit and greedy for merit and rewarded? How could the imperial court stand idly by while Warat attacked Duoyan Sanwei? Yang Ling's face turned pale when he said this, and the envoys sitting there were a little like they were sitting on pins and needles, and their bodies were twisting around uncomfortably.

Yang Ling said in a soothing tone: "Of course, most of these are old things, and because of these suspicions, our border guards have indeed caused the ordinary people of Duoyan Sanwei to suffer from them, and the two sides have gone farther and farther away and lost trust." It is precisely because of this that His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty came to Datong in person and wanted to sign an alliance with the great leader of Huadang in person, to help each other and be allies forever."

Mutu took a breath and smiled slyly, "It's not just that, right? If the Ming Dynasty wants to form an alliance with us, not only to trade with each other, but also to ask us to fight with the Warats, drag the horses of the Tatar iron horse, and respond to each other? ”

Yang Ling sighed and said: "Yes, there is a fierce tiger like Tatar, Da Ming is deeply affected by it, and Duoyan Sanwei is not less bullied by them, right?" Now the Tatar army of 70,000 has lost troops outside my Datong City, but there is nothing to gain, once the trapped tiger and hungry wolf return to the desert, Duoyan Sanwei will bear the brunt.

I believe that the great leader of Huadang is far-sighted, and when he saw this, he readily agreed to form an alliance with the Ming Dynasty, attack and defend each other, and jointly deal with this scourge, right? ”

Mu Tu shook his head with a smile and said, "Lord Yang, Hua Dang is the big leader because he is grateful for the sincerity of His Majesty the Ming Emperor, so he rushed to visit. You also know that if we have a bad relationship with the Tatars, we will bear the brunt of the Tatars and will have to bear great pressure, and if the Ming Court abandons it, it will be difficult for the Duoyan Sanwei to stand alone, and it will not be the opponent of the Tatars.

In the same way, if we stand idly by and watch the dispute between the Ming and the Tatars, even if the Tatar iron cavalry is seriously injured outside the city of Datong, once it returns to the grassland to recuperate, within two years, the fangs and claws will resurface.

We are the descendants of the Great Yuan with the Tatars, even if they have robbed us, they will not kill them all, and in the end, whether it is for the richness of the Ming Dynasty or for revenge, they will still find you, and the borders of the Ming Dynasty will never be quiet.

Therefore, the urgency of the Ming Dynasty to deal with the Tatars is probably far above our Duoyan Sanwei, right? I wonder what conditions His Majesty the Emperor wants to make to gain our trust? ”

Yang Ling's eyes flashed, and he smiled: "Not bad! Don't tell lies in front of real people, we do have the intention of weakening Boyan's power. If this owl is not removed, there is indeed no peace in the nine sides, but weakening the Tatar will benefit Duoyan San without any harm."

He picked up the milk tea, ignored the strange taste, took a sip lightly, and took the opportunity to bow his head and say: "This Mutu is by no means an ordinary envoy, the envoys of the tribes are the only ones who look forward, he must be the most trustworthy person in Huadang, and now he wants to find out the bottom line of cooperation between Duoyan Sanwei and pave the way for the emperor to come forward to negotiate, it seems that it will fall on him."

Yang Ling thought of this, put down the milk tea, and said with a light smile: "Our country is extremely vast, and at the same time, we are not good at nomadic riding and hunting, Daming has no ambition for Saiwai, but I just hope that our borders can be stable, and the people can live and work in peace and contentment. ”

Mutu's expression moved, then he calmed down, and said with a faint smile: "Boyan is a descendant of Genghis Khan, and he has unparalleled appeal in the grassland, if he can't be the king of the desert, I believe there will be no one who can replace him."

Yang Ling laughed, got up and said, "Genghis Khan? Before Genghis Khan, who was the king of the desert? After Genghis Khan, there was no other hero to rule this land? His aftermath extends to his descendants for hundreds of years, and it should be about the same. There is an old saying in our Central Plains: Princes and generals are like each other, rather than have a kind? An Zhihua is the big leader, will he become a khan one day? ”

Two faint flames ignited in Mu Tu's eyes, and those hot eyes stared at Yang Ling and said, "What does Lord Yang mean?" Duoyan Sanwei is the three guards of His Majesty the Ming Emperor's vassal, His Majesty the Emperor wants to allow us to stand on our own feet, and we are no longer the identity of the guards? ”

Yang Ling smiled and said: "The Ming Dynasty is wise and wise today, except for a false name, Duoyan Sanwei has long been the same country, how can he ever fulfill the responsibility of the Ming Dynasty?" Instead of this, if you are on an equal footing, the emperor is willing to help Hua to be the big leader, sit on the throne of the king outside the border, and be good neighbors with the Ming Dynasty forever. ”

Mu Tu also stood up suddenly, stared at Yang Ling in disbelief, and said in a trembling voice: "Is this true? ”

Yang Ling said: "That's natural, otherwise, just as the leader of the flower as the head of the Ming Dynasty, the commander of the same knowledge, the emperor came to see him in person, wouldn't it be a big joke?" ”

As he spoke, he secretly said in his heart: "Otherwise, with such a false name, in fact, the power of the Ming court cannot be touched and controlled at all, you have such a protective umbrella, and the court cannot use troops against you." The vast black land of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang, is it still necessary to keep the Jurchens to raise a big tiger?

Just give you another false name, coax out your ambition, because you can't deal with the Tatars no matter what, as long as my soldiers go out of the pass, I have to bother you to help with the belt, familiar with the situation outside the pass, and when the Tatars fall, our soldiers have also developed tigers, and then find an excuse to use troops against you, the guy who has lost 800 yuan, and it is not the previous conquest of the rebel domain, but a complete capture. If you don't want to be a vassal, I'll stew you into a big sweet potato! ”

The envoys of the guards next to them looked at each other, obviously the condition offered by Da Ming was too unexpected for them, and it was simply a blank check without any benefits and actual benefits.

But the Ming Dynasty has always only valued false names and interests, and for the sake of a nominal vassal, even if he can't take away a penny of tax and silver from them and implement a little administrative power, the Ming Dynasty is willing to exchange real money for it.

In the eyes of these grassland men who are fighting with the sky and the earth, struggling to survive in difficult conditions, and attaching the most importance to reality, they can't understand this kind of thinking at all, and now they are suddenly shocked to hear such permissions.

This Yun is so tempting, like a beggar who wanted to come to the door and ask you for a piece of steamed bun to fill his stomach, but you gave him all the keys to the house, saying that this home would be all his, and they were like a dream after a while, and they couldn't believe it for a while.

Mutu's red face turned even redder, and he suddenly turned around and paced slowly in the tent, his eyes flickering, as if he was struggling in his heart. Is it credible? Is Daming really willing to give such favorable conditions? From the boss to the Khan!

Duoyan Sanwei doesn't have this strength, but what if there is the military and financial support of the Ming Dynasty? Still can't? Khan! King of the Prairies! But how much sincerity does Daming have?

Thinking of this, he suddenly had a plan, and then turned around and said: "This matter is too important, I must report it to the big leader before I can reply to my lord."

His eyes flickered and he said, "If you reply to this, I'm afraid that the big leader of the flower will not believe it." Due to the continuous change of the Ming Dynasty's national policy towards our Duoyan Sanwei in the past, many nobles in the tribe also had doubts about this alliance with the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, when this envoy was ordered to come to see your lordship, the chiefs put forward two conditions, and I believe that if we are allowed to stand on our own feet and help us deal with the Tatars, these two conditions will still be raised, and this envoy may wish to put forward the conditions of cooperation first, and I will go back to report to the great chief, and please also ask your lord to report our conditions to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

(To be continued)