After dealing with the matter at hand, Zhao Ta set foot on the road of worshipping the ancestral tomb again. This time out of Beijing, he asked for everything to be simple, and only one brigade of the Guards and the internal guard brigade were escorted, and the officials accompanying the sacrifice were also greatly reduced, but he brought Yuwen Xuzhong, who had just returned to China, to show his favor.

The team lined up the guard of honor along the road to the ancestral tomb of Gong County, but they couldn't walk much every day. On this day, Zhao Ta suddenly decided not to enter the city again so as not to disturb the people, and wanted to make do with the post house outside the city for one night. He naturally wondered very much that even if the post house was full, he would be driven out of the post house for such a long time, not to mention that it was not the end of the year when the officials were transferred, and the post house should be the most idle time.

"See, why haven't you been ready for so long, you go and see what's going on!" Zhao Ta and the others were a little impatient, so they asked Jianxi to take a look at the situation.

"Your Majesty, the post house is full of envoys from various countries who have come to pay tribute, and they are moving, but there is a lot of luggage, so it is delayed!" It didn't take long, and when I saw the joy, I asked to come back and report.

"Well, which country's envoy?" Zhao asked.

"Your Majesty, it is said that he is a tribute envoy to Khotan and Xizhou!" Miki replied.

"No, Khotan has no vassal relationship with our country, and the envoys of Xizhou are not mediating the matter of Gaochang in the capital, why is there another one?" Zhao Ta got out of the car and looked, and saw from a distance some people dressed in the Fan tribe dragging men and women, as well as children in it, the luggage was reported as reported by the joy of seeing a hundred peaks of camels, and it took some time to sort it out in a hurry.

"Your Majesty. I don't know about this little one! Jianxi shook his head and said.

"Find Zhang Shilang, and I will ask him!" Zhao Ta wanted to figure things out. Ancestor worship is in charge of the Ministry of Rites, so of course they have to send people. And diplomatic matters are also the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhang should know the details of the Dao.

"Your Majesty, Zhang Shilang is appeasing in the post house, and it won't be too late to ask when the arrangements are made later!" Jianxi was worried that the emperor would cause trouble again, so he stopped him.

"It's good!" Zhao Ta thought about it and said, but the question in his heart was even better, a few officials would not let the squire of a big country appease!

After dinner that night, Zhao Ta summoned Hu Anguo and Zhang Suo, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to his own mansion for questioning, and after asking, he learned that he had lived in the palace in previous years. The post houses in the city were also vacated for the accompanying officials to live, and the tribute envoys who entered Beijing were bombarded to live in the post houses outside the city. Unexpectedly, this year, the emperor suddenly decided to live outside the city, which caused the dissatisfaction of the tribute envoys who had moved twice, so they delayed the time.

Then he answered the question about the envoys of Khotan and Xizhou, and the so-called envoys that Zhao Tan saw were indeed a bit incorrect, but they also had an edict from the lord of the country, and they could also be regarded as envoys, and their identities were between envoys and merchants. And Zhao Ta also laughed dumbly when he heard it, the reason why Da Song turned a blind eye to it. Let them do business, and also get a huge reward, that is, let them appear at the New Year's Day court meeting to perform the big drama of 'all countries come to the dynasty' for the emperor and the people of the world, to put it bluntly, they are special actors invited by public funds......

The phrase "the nations are coming" appeared very early. The first so-called "all nations come to the dynasty" is believed to have occurred in the era of Yu's rule. According to historical records, Dayu ordered all countries in the world to go to the Tushan League. This is also the so-called 'Tu Mountain's meeting, the princes inherit the prosperity of Tang Yu. There are also all nations'. And it should be the Han Dynasty that really turned it from legend to reality, with the Han Dynasty's management of the Western Regions and the conquest of the Xiongnu. As well as the adventures of Ban Chao and Gan Ying and others, a number of countries outside Kyushu really appeared in the Han Dynasty to pay tribute, and the tributary system was established in the true sense.

The monarchs of the Han Dynasty discovered that in fact, the empire they ruled was not the whole world, as explained in classics such as the Book of Shang and the Book of Songs. However, based on the consideration of realpolitik strategy, vassal states are the key to maintaining the stability of the empire's frontiers, and they are the top priority of the empire's "all nations come to court"; As for those tributary countries, like Daqin, Anxi, Tianzhu, etc., they are so far away that they don't know whether they really exist, and the so-called tributary is just a date that happened by chance between two time and space, so there is no need to take it to heart. However, as a means of whitewashing the peace, "all nations come to the court" is naturally the more countries that come, the better.

From then on, the Chinese Empire began a journey of continuous 'discovery' of tributary states, and every foreigner who was willing to meet the emperor and offer gifts from his own country was counted as a 'tribute envoy', and the gifts they offered, whether for good fortune or for the convenience of doing business, were counted as 'tribute', and the country they came from naturally became a respectful vassal of the Celestial Empire, but the country that became a vassal was ignorant of it.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty pushed this drama to a climax and became the benchmark of the past dynasties, and the history records that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty "every year and the first month, all the countries come to the court, stay until the 15th, outside the end gate, inside the Jianguo Gate, stretching for eight miles, listed as a theater. …… The sound of gold and stone leather, heard dozens of miles away. Above the string pipe, 18,000 people. The torch of the big column, the world of light and candles, the prosperity of a hundred operas, the incomparable antiquity. It's a matter of course every year." He created a fantasy realm that future kings would pursue, and created a legend.

Therefore, from the very beginning, "All Nations Come to Dynasty" was a grand performance with a boastful nature, and this great drama was not only performed for foreign barbarians, but also for all the subjects of the empire, clearly telling the people how happy it is to live in such a country admired and supported by all nations. And the barbarian tribute envoys who came to pay tribute meant that the success of the Celestial Empire was not boastful, but also recognized by all the countries in the world. It also conveyed a clear message to the subjects of the Celestial Empire: apart from the Celestial Empire, other countries have nothing to envy.

Of course, maintaining such a face-saving project is naturally costly. It would be better if it were only as recorded in the book, stipulating that all countries should be obliged to pay tribute, and the empire would sit back and enjoy the success. The Celestial Empire, which can be handed down as a ritual, naturally cannot treat those subject countries who are inclined to the Celestial Empire, and being stingy is obviously a loss of dignity to the Celestial Empire, and only by boasting the wealth of the Celestial Empire can it attract batch after batch of tribute envoys to come to pay tribute, so that "all nations come to the dynasty" can be performed year after year.

Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, tribute has been a huge expense of the empire, such as reception, banquet, seal, crown, gold and silver, and color ribbons, and the things given back are more than several times higher than the tribute. And these gold silk belongings, the tribute envoys brought back to China, and it is a large amount of money to change hands. But knowing that being a 'Kaizi' is for the obvious myth of "all nations coming to court", the empire is willing to pay any huge price, with endless extravagance and astonishing waste, to show the empire's powerful face; Flesh out this myth with untold amounts of time, energy, wealth, and lives to make it true.

In the Song Dynasty, of course, it was not exempt from vulgarity, and it spared no effort to create a huge face project, in order to prove the legitimacy of its own order, it also continued to 'give' to the Liao and Western Xia coins, and recruited tribute envoys from various countries to come to the dynasty with thick and thin. And the more the country's fortunes are declining, the more you need to bow to the Northern Dynasty, the more you need the countries that come to the Dynasty to regain some self-esteem of the empire, even if the city was besieged by the Jurchens during the Jingkang period, and a few Tibetan people who did not escape from the city were found in Beijing to fill the façade, in order to show that there are still friends supporting themselves.

The Khotanese people that Zhao Ta had just met had touched the pulse of the Great Song Dynasty, which could be said to be the tributary state that best understood the psychology of the Celestial Empire, and they called the emperor of the Song Dynasty "the sunrise in the east is a great light to see the four heavens, and the four heavens are the main uncle's great official family". In the 100 years of the founding of the Song Dynasty, the envoys from Khotan were mostly one or two years old, and at least half a year to go to the Song court, and each one-way trip took two years, but these long journeys were really fruitful.

Every time Khotan came to Beijing, he was treated as a distinguished guest, and was ceremoniously received by the government, and there were post station officials along the way, and the family even ate and played, and the business naturally flourished, and if he met the robbers, he was very lucky, because the official family would give compensation at a price several times higher than the goods. In this way, the coming of all nations to the dynasty is more like a deal, the empire pays a huge amount of money to buy back the confidence and dignity, and the tribute envoy gets the reward and money, and both sides are happy.

After the Jurchens invaded the Central Plains, these tribute envoys did not say anything about help, not even a word of moral support, so they no longer came but turned to the Jurchens, even if this Khotan, who earned an unknown amount of money in the Great Song Dynasty, was also included. Now that the Great Song Dynasty has come to relieve themselves, they have resumed their 'tribute' and driven camels to trade with their families......

Zhao Ta understood, but he smiled bitterly in his heart, they were appreciating the great drama of 'all the countries coming to the court, the four Yi guests, the sound and education were widely served, and the world was blessed', and when they fantasized about everything that was beautiful, they may have thought about a question: How good it would be if all this was true! But unfortunately, all this only exists in the illusion of suspense, and in reality there is only distress, and the so-called 'glory' has already been transported by the treasury full of tribute, but in fact, it is an old stock that cannot be sold at all, but the empire has paid an eye-popping price for it!

Of course, Zhao Ta is also one of the distressed people, he ascended the throne when the country was broken, at first all countries were afraid of the Jurchens' obscenity, even Goryeo did not dare to come again, not to mention those 'buying and selling tribute envoys', in the past two years, with the prosperity of the Celestial Empire, more and more countries have come to the court, but he does not understand the inside story, just like the song and dance at the banquet, just to embellish the festive atmosphere and make everyone happy. didn't expect that this face-saving project would have to pay such a big price, but he didn't want to become another victim of this project...... (To be continued......)