Goryeo envoy Yin Qian and deputy envoy Zhao Gui came to visit, Zhao Yan looked at the worship sticker in his hand and couldn't help but be stunned, first, he thought that the Goryeo envoys who came before had returned to China, but he didn't expect them to stay in the capital, and secondly, he didn't expect them to come to visit him in this New Year's season.

Speaking of this Goryeo mission, I indirectly helped Zhao Yan a little bit last time, it was the ginseng they sent to the mansion that made Zhao Yan think of an excuse to weaken the strength of the Jurchens, that is, to rob in the name of purchasing ginseng, and the effect is also very good, Wanyan was almost disabled by the people he sent, even if he can survive this winter, I am afraid he will lose a lot of manpower, and it will take at least a few years of recuperation to recover his strength, which has achieved Zhao Yan's goal, not to mention that there will be continuous blows in the future, It makes the rise of Wanyan even more difficult.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Yan was not good at turning away the Goryeo people, and he was also very curious about the situation on the Goryeo side, so after thinking about it for a while, he immediately ordered someone to invite the main and deputy envoys of Goryeo to the living room behind the main hall, originally Zhao Yan should have received guests in the main hall, but now there are too many people visiting, and most of them are placed in the main hall to drink tea, but these people Zhao Yan will not meet, and the guests who are really received will only be invited to the back of the main hall.

After a while, I saw the servant walk in with two middle-aged people, one in front of him was of medium stature, with a large cake face and single eyelids, and he didn't look amazing, but this person was the envoy of the Goryeo Mission, Yin Qiang, and it is said that he was also born as a Jinshi in Goryeo, although Goryeo is a small country, but it is a rare talent to be admitted to Jinshi, no wonder he was sent by the King of Goryeo as an envoy. And behind Yin Qian is the deputy envoy Zhao Gui, who is tall and thin and a talent, the last time he came to see Zhao Yan. The ancestor who once introduced him was a Han Chinese who had been exiled to Goryeo, and I don't know if it's true or not.

"See His Royal Highness King Yue!" After Yin Qian and Zhao Gui came in, they immediately saluted Zhao Yan.

"Hehe, you don't have to be polite, this king thinks that the New Year is approaching, and your mission should have returned to China for the New Year. But I didn't expect that the two envoys hadn't gone back yet? Zhao Yan also said with a smile at this time, in later generations, he did not have any good feelings for the two small countries on the Korean Peninsula, and even disliked them very much, but now that he is the prince of the Great Song Dynasty, he naturally can't show it, at least on the surface, he can't lose his etiquette, and no one can care about what he does in secret.

Hearing Zhao Yan's words, I saw Yin Qian and Zhao Gui first glance at each other with some hesitation, and then Yin Qian spoke: "Your Highness doesn't know anything. Originally, the two of us had already heard about the prosperity of the capital during the New Year, and we also wanted to stay for the New Year, but when we went on an envoy, the king ordered us to return to China before the New Year, so we didn't dare to stay for a long time, and we had already left the capital two months ago, and had reached the boundary of Dengzhou, from where we returned by boat. But at this moment, he received the king's will. There is an important matter entrusted to us to take care of, so that we have to go back to the capital again! ”

"Oh? It's strange, I don't know what made you run again? Zhao Yan couldn't help but ask with some curiosity when he heard this.

"This matter is related to trade, and I have always been very willing to communicate with the Great Song Dynasty, but some time ago there was a thing that made my king very angry, and this matter is also related to the trade between the two countries. That's why the king ordered the two of us to go back to the capital and appeal to the Great Song Dynasty court! I saw that the tall and thin Zhao Gui continued to speak.

"Oh? It is strange then, since this matter is related to trade, and your king has asked you to appeal to the court, then why did you run to this king? Do the people of the Ministry of Rites ignore your complaints? Zhao Yan suddenly sat up straight and took a sip of tea at this time, although he didn't know what was going on, but if he could ask the king of Goryeo to send back the two envoys who were about to return to China, there must be some conflict of interests, and he would not easily hand over the benefits to others.

"This ......" I saw Yin Qian and Zhao Gui glance at each other again, and then he spoke, "Your Royal Highness, we did mention this matter to the Ministry of Rites after we came back, and then we were also received by several ministers, and we were also willing to play our matter to the court, but we waited for a long time, but there was still no news from the court, and it was said that the court had no way to do it, and then I came to visit His Highness after the guidance of others, and I hope His Highness will make decisions for me in Goryeo!" ”

"Huh? What are you going to say, if you can't even control the court, this king will not be able to help you? Zhao Yan was also more curious at this time.

Hearing Zhao Yan say this, I saw Yin Qian hurriedly speak: "Your Highness, you can definitely help us, just now the ministers have already said, this matter is related to trade, in fact, we Goryeo is very welcome to the caravan of the Great Song Dynasty, but some time ago, suddenly some Great Song merchants actually began to buy and sell people in Goryeo, and mainly bought some young women at a low price to transport them to the Nanyang area, which made my king very angry, so I also asked the Great Song Dynasty to be the master of my Goryeo!" ”

At this time, Zhao Yan finally understood the reason why these two Goryeo envoys came to find him, but he deliberately pretended to be confused at this time: "Envoy Yin, you are wrong about this, although I am the prince of the Great Song Dynasty, I don't care about the government, so you should go to the court for this matter!" When he said this, Zhao Yan was deliberately paused, and suddenly stared at Yin Qian with wide eyes, "You don't think that those merchants who trafficked in human beings were instructed by this king, right?" ”

"No, no! His Royal Highness has a noble status, so naturally it is impossible to have anything to do with those traffickers, but this matter is done privately by the merchants, and it is not in the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, so it is not convenient for the Great Song Dynasty to come forward to manage, and later we learned that His Royal Highness had vigorously promoted maritime trade in the south, and his prestige among the maritime merchants was extremely high, so we wanted to ask His Royal Highness to come forward and prohibit those merchants from trafficking in human beings in our Goryeo. Yin Qian hurriedly waved his hand when he heard Zhao Yan's last words.

Regarding the matter of the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty going to Goryeo to buy and sell people, Yin Qian and Zhao Gui have also run all over the yamen of the Great Song Dynasty these days, but even if some people are willing to play and fold, but there is no response from above, and then someone still pointed out and told them that the best thing to do is to find Zhao Yan about the sea trade, because the matter of the sea trade is not even intervened by the imperial court, so even if the court wants to take care of it, I am afraid that no one will listen to it, but if Zhao Yan wants to take care of it, maybe it can be solved with just one sentence.

Zhao Yan also understood that Yin Qian must have been instructed by others after running into walls everywhere, so he came to beg himself, but although human trafficking is not a good thing, it also depends on the specific situation, this time it was the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty who went to Goryeo to buy the population, and then sold it to Nanyang, and Nanyang There were more men and fewer women, and these Korean women who sold in the past were very good to alleviate this situation, and even many people took root overseas because of this, which is exactly what Zhao Yan wanted to see. So he naturally didn't want to ban this kind of human trafficking, anyway, it wasn't the Song people who were selling, and he didn't have that broad mind.

Thinking of this, I saw Zhao Yan deliberately make a look of embarrassment and said, "This ...... This king developed sea trade in the south a few years ago, and he did deal with some merchants, but it was all a few years ago, after I returned to the capital in the past few years, I no longer paid attention to the outside world, and those merchants probably forgot about me as the king of Yue, so I'm afraid my words will have no effect, you still solve this matter through the imperial court! ”

When he said this, Zhao Yan deliberately paused, then seemed to think of something, looked up at Yin Qian and asked, "By the way, since those merchants went to your port to buy and sell people, why don't you Goryeo take care of it yourself, for example, don't you just prohibit those merchants who buy and sell people from entering Goryeo port?" ”

When Yin Qian and Zhao Gui heard Zhao Yan's shirk, their hearts suddenly cooled, and as for his later words, they made them smile bitterly and said: "Your Highness, we have also thought about the method you said, but our Goryeo is very welcoming to the goods of the Great Song Dynasty, and every time the goods are in short supply, so every merchant of the Great Song Dynasty is our Goryeo guest, and it is too late for us to welcome, where is the reason to rush out?" ”

Zhao Yan also understood when he heard this, it turned out that Goryeo was greedy for the goods of the Great Song Dynasty, so he didn't dare to offend the merchant in person, and it was estimated that those traffickers also directly exchanged goods for people, so if Goryeo didn't sell people, they wouldn't get the goods they urgently needed, so they could only put their hopes on the Great Song Dynasty, hoping to put pressure on those merchants through the Great Song Dynasty, and finally touched Zhao Yan's mansion.

"Since you are afraid of offending those merchants, then why don't you just prohibit your own people from buying and selling people, those merchants can't buy people, and they will naturally do some legitimate business in the future!" Zhao Yan spoke again at this time.

Hearing Zhao Yan's words, Yin Qian and Zhao Gyu once again showed a look of embarrassment on their faces, only to see that at this time Zhao Gyu stood up and said: "Your Highness doesn't know, this year's summer and autumn festivals, there was a large-scale drought in Chungcheong Province and Jeolla Province in our country, many people dragged their families to flee the famine, many people even did not hesitate to sell their own children in order to eat a bite, if we prohibit the sale of human beings, it will only make these people continue to starve, and even some people are hungry and crazy, if it is really revealed, then our Goryeo will have a big mess!" ”

As soon as Zhao Gui's words fell, he saw Zhao Yan's face sank and said: "This is what you are wrong with Gaoli, that is, you covet the goods in the hands of those merchants, and you don't want to offend the people of your country, how can you let us do it?" I think you'd better be smart! (To be continued......)