Lin Feng clenched his fist to Liao Shizong and said loudly: "Respected Khan, have you ever heard of the supermarket in Jinling City of the Tang Dynasty?" ”

Yelu Ruan glanced at the secret scholar Zhang Ji and nodded lightly to show that he knew the truth.

"May I ask again, has the Khan ever heard that the Chu State has surrendered to the Tang Dynasty?" Lin Feng asked again.

At this moment, not only Yelu Ruan, but everyone else at the table projected their eyes in surprise and doubt. The news was circulated in the north, but because the Liao State had been at war with the Northern Han since October last year, the transmission of information from the south was not smooth and even more inaccurate.

Lin Feng didn't hide it, and calmly recounted the relevant things after he entered Chu. However, the more he understated, the more shocked the people at the table looked.

"You conquered the state of Chu in four months alone?" The mustachioed privy envoy Gao Xun had a look of "you are pure nonsense".

"Don't dare to be! The return of Chu to Tang is the common credit of my Tang Shengshang, King Qi, King Ji, Lord Liu Rengan, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Lin Feng explained with a smile, and secretly admitted that he had contributed a lot to it.

At this moment, even the five Khitan bigwigs who originally looked at them with contempt had to be moved.

Lin Feng clenched his fists again and continued: "May I ask Lord Privy Envoy, how does Zhou Zhi's military strength compare to that of the former Han Dynasty?" ”

The privy envoy Gao Xun was self-aware, and consciously set his sights on the privy envoy of the Northern Court, Yelu Wu. The others looked at Jerod in the same way.

Since ancient times, there has been an assertion in Khitan political circles that "the northern government does not ignore the people, and the southern government does not lead the army". The Privy Council of the North Court is in charge of the military machine, Wuquan, and the politics of the herdsmen, and all the Khitan military horses are under its control, because its tooth tent is often located in the north of the Great Inner Tent Palace, so it is called the North Courtyard. The Southern Privy Council is in charge of the government of Wenquan, the tribes, and Ding Fu, and all the Khitan people belong to Yan. Because its tooth tent is located in the south of the Ouchi, it is called the South Courtyard. Now, when Lin Feng asked about the soldiers, he naturally asked Yelu Wu, who was in charge of the North Courtyard, to answer it.

Yelu Wu groaned slightly, and said softly: "A slight improvement, but it is far from my Da Liao opponent!" ”

Since October last year, Liao Shizong Yelu Ruan "went on a southern expedition and captured Anping (now Anping County, Hengshui City, Hebei), Neiqiu (now Neiqiu County, Xingtai City, Hebei), Shulu (now Xinji City, Hebei) and other cities, and returned with great gains." Looking at the previous examples, the southward direction of the Liao State has always been mainly offensive, and its strength has far the upper hand.

Lin Feng immediately replied unceremoniously: "In Lin's opinion, the strength of the two is not the same!" Now, at the beginning of Guo Wei's ascension to the throne, he announced that he would carry out changes, and his strength would inevitably multiply in the future! Lin can assert that in a few years, Zhou will be the great enemy and mortal enemy of Da Liao, as well as Da Tang, and even all surrounding countries! ”

"The Central Plains has been weak for a long time, how easy is it to prosper? Now, Liu Chongxin's Han State and even Xuzhou are rebelling against Guo Wei, not to mention the envoys from all over the country around Guo Wei, he has no time to take care of himself! Secret Scholar Zhang Ji reprimanded softly.

Somehow, for the first time in his life, Zhang Ji saw a Han man talking arrogantly in front of the powerful leaders of the Liao State, and his heart suddenly became very uncomfortable. Although Liao Shizong did not explicitly worship himself as a master, he always respects each other as a teacher on weekdays, but he never dared to speak so arrogantly in front of Shizong!

"The trouble of scabies, why worry about it!" Lin Feng immediately replied unceremoniously, and raised his fingers to explain, "Let's talk about Xuzhou first, a city of land, a little struggling, Guo Wei sent thousands of soldiers and horses to go down for a maximum of two months, it's not worth it; Liu Chongzhihan, his strength is not good, but he has nothing to show for it, Lin is a little puzzled, how many soldiers and horses can they send to attack the Zhou State? Ten thousand or twenty thousand? The end result can only be eggs hitting stones, ants biting elephants! As for the other festival envoys, they are also people who know the times, the strong strength of the original Tianxiong army plus the tens of thousands of forbidden troops of the former Han State, I believe that few people dare to go against Guo Wei's intentions! ”

After Lin Feng finished saying this, no one answered at the table for a while. Yeluwu's face sank, just a few days ago, when Liu Chong sent an envoy to ask for a joint attack on Zhou, he began to refuse to say the troops that would be dispatched, and only after the last did he blushly say that he rode 10,000 people, which made the Liao bigwigs smile bitterly.

According to historical records, in the first year of Guangshun of the Later Zhou Dynasty (951), the fourth year of Qianyou of the Northern Han Dynasty, and the first month of the fifth year of Tianlu of Liao, Liu Zhen built the Northern Han Dynasty and wrote to Liao for help, and took the crown prince Liu Chengjun as the envoy to lead 10,000 troops to attack Later Zhou Jinzhou (now northeast of Linfen, Shanxi). In February, Liu Chengjun was defeated at Jinzhou and turned to attack Xizhou (now Xixian County, Shanxi), where he suffered another heavy defeat with heavy casualties and returned to Jinyang.

From any point of view, sending 10,000 soldiers to attack a powerful power can only be regarded as a symbolic attack in the political sense, in fact, it is a bad joke!

Taking advantage of the silence of the bigwigs, Lin Feng officially began to flicker: "My Tang Dynasty has newly acquired the Chu State, and the land area has reached the same level as Zhou, and it has become a situation of confrontation across the Huai River and the Yangtze River. Since ancient times, long-distance and close attack have been the way to attack. Lin believed that Liao and Tang could become fraternal allies who advanced and retreated together, working together to cut down Zhou and divide the Central Plains! ”

The people at the table were still silent, and Liao Shizong stared at Lin Feng with relish, but he was a little moved. If Datang is really powerful and has a capable person like Lin Feng, maybe it is really possible to drag Zhou Guo in the south!

Lin Feng knew that the goal he had just proposed was too large and distant, so he immediately turned to the most direct purpose of this trip, which was also the content of the agreement that was most likely to be concluded: "To conclude an alliance requires sincerity and complementarity. If the Khan can agree to establish a supermarket-type trading place in the coastal area, we can transport Jinling treasure knife, Chudi tea, Huaihe sea salt and other materials to the place, exchange the horses, furs, minerals and other materials of the Great Liao, exchange what you have, mutual benefit you and me, let our cooperation start from mutual benefit, why not? ”

"Lord Lin refers to the mutual market?" Liao Shizong raised his eyebrows and asked.

The mutual market refers to the historical trade between the Central Plains Dynasty and the surrounding ethnic groups, as well as between China and foreign countries. As early as the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, after Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions, he began to trade with the countries of the Western Regions. The Han Dynasty also set up customs markets at various border gates as mutual markets with ethnic minorities.

The name of "mutual market" began with the trade between the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wuhuan, Xianbei, Xiongnu and other ethnic groups. After the Wei and Jin dynasties, it was also called "Jiaoshi". At that time, land trade was more prosperous, and maritime trade began to develop. Sui once set up a city supervisor on the northwest border to take charge of mutual market affairs. In the sixth year of Tang Zhenguan (632), he was renamed Hushi Supervisor. There are mutual markets along the border, mainly horse markets. Later, he set up a city envoy to take charge of trade in the South China Sea.

After the Tang Dynasty, the southeast shipping boomed, and the maritime trade surpassed the land, and Guangzhou, Jiaozhou, Yangzhou, and Quanzhou became important commercial ports. In this war-torn Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the mutual market was strictly controlled by the government, and there were many restrictions on the items traded. Trade between countries is not absent, but it is mainly private trade.

Lin Feng nodded immediately and further explained: "The Tang Dynasty can concentrate warships to transport supplies, and the military materials and important materials in it are only traded with the Liao Imperial Court as a whole, not with the tribe privately. ”

Yelu Ruan was even more motivated, if this was the case, wouldn't he be able to effectively control the amount of various domestic forces through the allocation and allocation of exchange materials?

Seeing the consulting eyes of Liao Shizong, several bigwigs also looked quite interested, and carefully calculated the pros and cons of carrying out mutual markets with the Southern Tang Dynasty.

At this time, Yelu, the privy envoy of the Southern Court, spoke: "Although your steel swords are profitable, they are expensive and small, and they are dispensable for our huge Khitan army; Although tea and salt are necessary products, we also have our own ways to obtain them, so it seems that there is no need to open a market, right? ”

Hearing the total negation of Liao's "Hubu Shangshu", Lin Feng's heart relaxed, and the person who picks the goods is the one who really wants to buy the goods! Now, it's up to you to see if you can convince this big guy from the substantive interests!