After Leo and Volro and Barrick roughly reached an agreement, the rest is a matter of details, but Leo put forward two very important conditions, the intelligence department's intelligence transmission speed is obviously much faster than the news brought back by the merchants who came back from Constantinople, when Leo I ordered to restrict the flow of strategic materials into the Xiongnu on the fourth day, Liu San's intelligence department received the information sent back from the Constantinople intelligence station, Liu San did not dare to slack off after receiving this news, and immediately met Qin Dong to report the news.

Qin Dong met Liu San in his study, and after hearing Liu San's report, he asked, "This was a few days ago, what prompted Leo to make such a decision, there must be a reason, right?" ”

Liu San nodded and said: "Yes, the king, it was four days ago, according to Basiliscus, it was Diodemir of the Ostrogoths and Aldaric of Gerpid who met Leo in the name of congratulating Leo on his new marriage, and stated to Leo on the top of the hall that we threatened the Eastern Empire, Leo announced this ban in the court, and after the ministers dispersed, Leo left a few henchmen to discuss the matter, and now the Ostrogoths, Gepid and the Eastern Empire have reached an agreement and secretly formed an alliance to deal with us, In order to prevent us from suddenly attacking, the Eastern Empire's army in Thrace is now ready to go to the border to resist our attack. ”

Qin Dong was not worried about the fact that the Eastern Roman Empire had prepared an army in the Thracian region to resist a possible attack from Qin Dong, after all, Thrace was so big and the border was so long. No matter how many troops there are, it is impossible to defend impenetrable, and Qin Dong can attack from Thrace at any time, and he can also find a breakthrough point.

Qin Dong didn't struggle with this issue. He wondered how Leo, as an emperor, and among the early emperors of the Byzantine Empire in history, he was still a relatively capable emperor, how could he be so easily persuaded by two barbarian lobbyists? This person's will is too strong, right? But if it's not Leo's lack of will, but something else? Could it be that Leo had such a plan in his heart for a long time, but he had been buried in his heart and did not say it, and the two barbarian lobbyists said it. It's like opening the floodgates, why can't you close it?

It seems quite possible that in history Leo was a very scheming man. You must know that he only became the emperor directly as a provincial governor, and the strength he can control is not enough to influence the political pattern of the entire Eastern Empire, so it is his personal ability that plays a decisive role.

"Looks like Leo is determined to break with us! In that case, you have to fight. Fight! ”

Qin Dong was not annoyed by Leo's approach. From later generations, he has long known that there are no eternal friends between countries, only eternal interests, at the beginning, Qin Dong in order to climb to a higher position, in order to control more territory, need the tranquility of the eastern border, and Leo also needs Qin Dong as foreign aid to support him on the throne of the Eastern Empire, so the two of them are wolves and secretly cooperate and support each other. But now, Leo has mastered the military and political power of the Eastern Empire. There is no need for Qin Dong as foreign aid. On the contrary, Qin Dong's power is developing more and more, and the threat to the Eastern Empire is getting bigger and bigger, Leo is naturally wary of Qin Dong, and Qin Dong now feels that although it is not the time to turn his face with Leo, since Leo wants to turn his face, he can't stop it if he wants to, and with his current military strength, he will not be afraid of the Eastern Empire, the Eastern Empire does not have a large-scale cavalry team in the Thracian region, and does not have the strength to expedition to the northern grasslands, so he can only defend passively.

The problem that Qin Dong is facing now is to immediately prepare to send troops to the Eastern Roman Empire to see a little color, or to endure this bad breath, if the Eastern Roman Empire is dispatched, then the deployment of military forces in the west will inevitably be weakened, because there are not many troops that he can use for combat now, and there are still 200,000 people who are training intensively, and only 200,000 people have the ability to fight expeditions, but all parts need to be defended, and it is impossible to draw all these 200,000 people out to fight. So the army that can really be used for combat can now only draw up to 50,000 people.

Since it is going to send troops, then what about a surprise attack, or do you have to prepare for a long-term battle? To be honest, Qin Dong doesn't think that he now has the capital to raise 50,000 troops for a long-term campaign, this is simply impossible, the vast territory in the north that he has just stood on needs to consolidate his rule, and the royal court Saidika still has many government affairs that he needs to make decisions in person, and these political affairs that need to be dealt with will be detrimental to the empire if they drag on for a long time.

Therefore, if he wants to send troops, then it is in his best interest to inflict heavy losses on the Eastern Roman Empire as quickly as possible, to subdue the Eastern Empire, to cede land and pay reparations, and to end the war in this way.

If the Eastern Empire restricts the export of strategic materials to the Xiongnu, and the Eastern Empire unilaterally terminates diplomatic relations with the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu Empire endures this bad breath, then not only will Qin Dong's prestige within the Xiongnu Empire plummet, but also let people with a heart jump out to make trouble, at this time Qin Dong can't let some people jump out to make trouble, and the Xiongnu Empire can't have any more civil strife, this is just something that may happen internally. Externally, the Eastern Empire is likely to gain an inch, thinking that after Qin Dong endures this breath, he is a sign of weakness and incompetence, so Leo I is more and more arrogant, as the saying goes, people are good at being bullied, and horses are good at being ridden, Qin Dong naturally doesn't want to be bullied, so this time we must give the Eastern Roman Empire a little bit of power, this battle must be fought, as for when to fight, how to fight, this needs to be thought about.

Two days later, the embassy in Constantinople sent people back to report to Qin Dong that the Eastern Roman Empire had unilaterally issued a ban on the flow of strategic materials to the Xiongnu Empire, and the Xiongnu Embassy in Constantinople immediately protested to the Eastern Empire and strongly demanded that the Eastern Roman Emperor Leo I give a clear and positive explanation.

The Eastern Roman Empire gave an explanation, but the person who gave the explanation was not Leo I, but the explanation given was that the Eastern Empire also needed a large number of strategic materials in the country, in order to maintain the needs of the country, so this ban was issued, and the embassy was naturally dissatisfied with this explanation, and they asked Leo I that the Eastern Empire could detain its own subjects, but not the merchants and subjects of the Hun Empire in the territory of the Eastern Empire, The merchants and subjects of the Xiongnu Empire must be allowed to go along with the goods and money that belong to them, otherwise it will be a provocation to the Xiongnu Empire.

The reply given by the Eastern Empire was that those people could be released from prison, but the goods and money owned by those people were important strategic materials that were prohibited from circulation, and the Eastern Empire could not release them, and if those who were detained wanted to return to China, they must exchange their strategic materials and money for non-strategic goods before they could be allowed to leave the country, otherwise they could only stay in the territory of the Eastern Empire forever.

The embassy of the Hun Empire in Constantinople was extremely angry about this, claiming that the Eastern Roman Empire was a banditry, and that if you want to enforce this ban, you have to leave a time limit for the merchants to deal with it. Isn't this an act of banditry?

The Eastern Empire officials ignored this, and the embassy had no choice but to send someone back to report what had happened in the past few days to Qin Dong in detail.

Qin Dong had already known the specific situation through the guò intelligence system, and now after the people sent back by the embassy reported to him, he immediately instructed the people who came to rush back to the embassy immediately, and asked the embassy to immediately issue an ultimatum to the Eastern Roman Empire, limiting the Eastern Empire to release all the Xiongnu merchants stranded in the territory of the Eastern Empire within half a month, and send back all the seized materials, otherwise the Eastern Empire would be responsible for all the consequences.

Does that work? In fact, it has a certain effect, at least it can play a certain threatening role and show its firm position, and at the same time, these words do not clearly indicate what they will do, leaving a room for maneuver for their side. This is officialdom, never full of words, why do you say that all the officials are old fritters, this is the face of officials, Qin Dong has also learned this face.

Would Leo I accept such a threat? At least Qin Dong thinks that Leo I will not, after all, Leo is the emperor of a country, and he is the emperor of a big country, he can issue such a ban, it is obvious that he is ready to turn against Qin Dong. Of course, Qin Dong will not fail to understand this, the reason why Qin Dong also asked the people sent by the embassy to bring back a message to convey to Leo is that on the one hand, it shows that the Xiongnu Empire is no longer a barbarian tribe, and the officials of the Xiongnu Empire, from Da Shan Yu to the rural herdsmen, are all reasonable and educated people, if you Eastern Empire treat the people of my Xiongnu Empire as barbarians, then you can only suffer from it. On the other hand, to play a role in confusing Leo, Qin Dong reserved a time limit in these words, half a month was enough for him to order the army to mobilize and prepare for the expedition.

After the people sent back by the embassy returned to Constantinople, Qin Dong immediately summoned the commanders around the royal court to come and discuss the preparation of sending troops, and there were a total of eight army commanders stationed in the royal court, six of which were conscripted recruit troops, a full army of 200,000 recruits was trained in the area around Saidica, and two armies were stationed in the nearby royal court.

During the time when these army commanders came to the Regent's Mansion to discuss the dispatch of troops, several fast horses had already set off to the port of Burgas on the Black Sea in the northeast, and their task was to convey Qin Dong's secret order, and around the port of Burgas was stationed a Marine Cavalry Division established by Qin Dong a year ago, which was the 13th Division, and the division commander was the guard captain Barhan before Qin Dong, and the 13th Division was the original 13th Army Corps, and after the title was changed, it became the 13th Division, It was under the command of Ma Li, the commander of the 12th Army. (To be continued......)