Unexpectedly, this Nanren general, who looked younger than himself at this age, actually said something similar.

He said: "That's right, if you only have strength and no brains, even if one person can fight a thousand people, you can't become a qualified general, I can't imagine that you are so young, and you still know these things very well." ”

After that, he kicked off the horse and said to Zheng Yunming: "Let's go, let's go over there and talk." ”

There were several stone tables and benches not far from the side of the road, Zheng Yunming also dismounted, and everyone came to the table and bench, and Tath and Zheng Yunming sat down on both sides.

A guard handed over a cowhide bag of mare's milk, and Tath unscrewed the lid, took a few sips, screwed the lid and threw it at Zheng Yunming.

This is the hospitable custom of the Mongolians, Zheng Yunming unscrewed the lid, and the smell of mare's milk wine rushed straight into his nostrils, which could not be compared with the sweet wine of the Southern Dynasty at all, but in order not to lose his courtesy, he could only hold back the commotion and drink it.

Tath looked at his cheeks, which were red by the mare's milk wine, and laughed a few times. He took the cowhide bag thrown by Zheng Yunming and put it aside, and said in a deep voice: "I want to see you this time, I have a few things to say." ”

Zheng Yunming sat up straight and said, "If you have anything to say, you might as well say it directly." ”

"The first thing, as usual, I want to inform you, surrender now, and let you be the Khan in charge of the place of Jinghu, all the people of Jinghu are your vassals, and in the future, in front of the Great Khan, your status will not be low."

"Join the army, each for his own master," Zheng Yunming said, "If I let the king surrender to the Great Song Dynasty on the condition that I am in charge of the grassland, how will you choose?" ”

Of course, Tath had already known Zheng Yunming's answer, even if he was replaced, it would be impossible for him to surrender so easily with tens of thousands of troops. At the very least, you have to show how brave and capable you are in front of Qu Zhu, so that you can gain an important position in the future Mongol army.

He added: "I'll talk about this later, I have one more thing." Since there were blue wolves and white deer in the world, people have used bows and arrows to fight with swords and guns, where have you heard of fighting with fire? It doesn't make sense for you to get these fire-breathing guys out. ”

Zheng Yunming said with a smile: "Firearms were not used by my Great Song Dynasty first, you were shocked by the thunder of the people of the Jin Kingdom in the north, did you also come to the city to scold them for being unreasonable?" ”

Tath raised his eyes and said, "What if neither army uses firearms and competes in the city in a dignified manner?" ”

Zheng Yunming almost laughed out loud, he didn't expect that the general who commanded the army could also say such a thing, but he looked very simple and cute. He replied aloud: "If our army does not use firearms, then the northerners do not ride horses, how about everyone in the field with a foot army to see the level of the high?" ”

"That's not good," said Tath, "the prairie boys will grow up immediately, and only the most useless will lose their horses." After a pause, he said: "Firearms can be used as much as possible, but our Mongolian army caught the Sinan soldiers who used firearms, and died on the spot, and there will be no leniency." ”

Zheng Yunming sneered: "If you dare to do this, every time we execute a firearm of our army, we will definitely propose a real Mongol from the captives to kill and pay for your life." ”

Tath laughed loudly and said, "Then it depends on whether you can catch so many Mongol warriors." ”

Zheng Yunming also said: "Let's see how many live firearms the Mongolian army can catch." ”

The two of them didn't talk speculatively, and the atmosphere became awkward, Zheng Yunming hurriedly changed the topic: "Shi Weizhong, your subordinate Qianhu Shiweizhong, who was captured last year, decided to use it in exchange for Zhao Xiang, the defender of Dengzhou who surrendered to the north last year, I don't know what King Lu Dao wants?" ”

He clearly wanted Zhao Xiang's life, in order to punish those cowards who were reluctant to avoid the enemy, if this trick really worked, no one might surrender easily in the future. But Shi Weizhong can't help it, since last year Shi Weizhong fell into the hands of the southerners, his brothers Shi Zhizhong and Shi Huanzhong fought for the leadership of the black army, so that the training of the black army was far less strict than back then. The black army is under the command of Tath, and in order to prevent one of his powerful troops from sinking, he must find a way to rescue Shi Weizhong no matter what.

Tath rolled his eyes, changed his slow and logical appearance, and said, "I can't be the master of this matter, I have to go back and discuss with King Quchu before making a decision." ”

Although he was simple by nature, he participated in the war with the army since he was a child, and he still has the ability to negotiate.

Zheng Yunming also knew that this matter was not so easy to decide, and for the Mongols, it was necessary to consider both sides of the matter, but according to his consistent understanding of the Mongols, they usually put immediate interests first.

There is a high probability that the exchange of captives will be successful.

He made a gesture, and Han Feng took a scroll of documents and put it on Shi Zhuozi. Tath naturally didn't understand Chinese characters, so he put his hand on the stone table and looked at Zheng Yunming with a little question.

"Don't talk much," Zheng Yunming said: "If your army can't capture Jinghu this time, we will have to continue to get along in the future, in this case, after the war is over, it is better to continue to open up business on the border, is this suggestion acceptable to your army?" ”

Tath was stunned again, then turned to understand. The Mongol strategy of continuing to trade with the enemy while conquering cities may seem incredible, but it is in fact the inevitable survival of the nomadic empire. The grasslands are barren, with little to no production except for the six livestock, and they must rely on foreign sources to sustain their luxury of life.

The only way to obtain all kinds of luxury goods and daily necessities from the outside is naturally robbery or trade. To outsiders, looting seemed to be the best source of supplies for the Mongols, and a single expedition to the south could yield thousands of slaves, gold and silver, tea, cloth, and cattle and sheep, much cleaner than the slow and limited means of commerce. But the side effects of the war also hurt the Mongols deeply, after years of siege battles, the resistance of the inhabitants of the occupied areas, and the increasing casualties all the time, these may not be anything when the Mongols were trapped in the desert for a long time and had no long things, but now everyone is rich and noble, and they are thinking about how to enjoy some gentle wealth, and casualties have gradually become an intolerable thing.

Moreover, looting was just a one-shot deal, and after the ravages and killings were over, the Mongols lacked effective means to restore the productive forces in the occupied areas, even if they recruited a wide range of foreign talents, and even had a generalist like Yelu Chucai, who was well versed in Sinology, it did not do much to restore the prosperity and stability of the Central Plains as a whole. Civilians were slaughtered and fled, the countryside was abandoned, the cities were deserted, and even if they went south again, they could not loot anything.

Compared to trade, trade is a very good choice, the Mongols are not short of goods for trade, whether it is their own breeding of cattle, horses and sheep, or a large number of captured craftsmen produced goods, are the continent's trade system in the hot sale of thousands of years of sought-after goods, they do not worry about the sale of goods, as long as the caravan can reach the other party's market, the profit can be said to be in the pocket.

As for the problem of banditry that had long plagued long-distance trade, since the Mongols began to establish a solid rule in one place, they focused on eliminating the thieves who attacked the merchants and travelers along the way, which was the most important matter for the income in the palace tent, even if he invested all his troops, the Great Khan would never spare a penny. In fact, as long as you have seen the deeds of the ancestor Great Khan Temujin who was plundered by the border guards of Khorezm for a caravan, and invested 150,000 iron cavalry in a fit of anger, and destroyed the entire country of Khorezm, who had hundreds of thousands of victorious soldiers, the thieves of any bold son would not dare to directly attack the caravan of the Mongol Great Khan.

In fact, as the new overlords of the Central Plains, they could have a better choice, that is, to restore the practice of the Jin State and continue to implement an effective tax system in the Central Plains. However, the Mongols despised Confucianism, ignored the cultural traditions formed in the Central Plains for thousands of years, and rigidly applied the method of governing the steppes to the settled areas of the Central Plains, which would prove to be unsuitable for the situation in the Central Plains in the near future and be abandoned by the Mongols themselves.

In today's day, this foolish policy meant that the princes of the regions had to pay a simple tribute to the Great Khan, at least a very small tribute compared to the local taxes. Then he will be able to firmly control the power to collect taxes in the Central Plains. The generals from all over the country, such as Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Shi Tianze, etc., all sat on the ground and fattened themselves and became a wealthy family, but the benefits that Mobei could get were greatly reduced.

Of course, the Great Khan is not really a fool, since the past few years the Great Khan has absorbed the advice of Yelu Chucai and other Han ministers, trying to establish a complete tax mechanism, but this attempt is to start from the endless tax system, the result of the implementation of the tax system in recent years, not only the generals in various places are dissatisfied, but the people of the ten roads in the north are even more miserable.

Therefore, if this attack on Jinghu ends in vain, the Great Khan will probably really have to consider whether to continue to maintain trade ties with the Southern Dynasties.

For the continued trade with the Mongols, Lin'an has always adhered to the policy of openness, and the Southern Song Dynasty was probably the dynasty that best understood the financial help of trade, if there were foreign countries to trade with them, they always responded positively, and gave all kinds of preferential measures to the merchants who were willing to trade in the country, which was not a blind measure to boast of, but really paid for the huge and inefficient state bureaucracy and army to replenish blood, if there was no good business system, the Great Song Dynasty probably could not support it for a year.