Seeing that the learned and skilled people had fled from the city, the pretending officials and priests were taken to the front of the city and tied to wooden posts and whipped as the price of deceiving the Song army. Listening to their screams that shook the universe, the officials in the entire imperial capital trembled, and although Caliph Fatah covered his ears, he still couldn't stop the wails outside the city from reaching his ears.

The next day, the caliph could not bear the torture of his people and summoned the scribe to the palace to discuss the matter. The clerk is the second only position to the prime minister, and now the empire's side-by-side king Sultan Sanjar is still fighting with the Black Khanate in the east, and the prime minister has become a prisoner of the Khitans, and he has temporarily become the core of the empire's leadership. The Caliph gave him an important task, which was to negotiate peace with the Orientals and express his willingness to sit down and negotiate.

Now there is a request for others, and of course you should send some gifts to show your sincerity when you meet. But the Caliph said that he couldn't give too many gifts to the Orientals, saying that if he gave too much, it would become a clear proof of his fear, and the enemy would become even bolder! The clerk could not understand where the caliph had learned the strange theory, but he knew whether he was dying or not losing his treasure.

As for how much money the caliph has, it is also not clear, but it must be astronomical. Because since the founding of the country, the Arab empire began to take advantage of their advantageous position in the middle of the East and West, began to do business globally, and the Arabs have a tradition of doing business, merchants have a high status in society, as early as the founding of Islam, Muhammad believed that "merchants are the messengers of the world and the faithful servants of Allah on the earth", and the Qur'an also clearly stipulates that encouraging and protecting commerce is a necessary duty and morality for all Muslims.

With the encouragement and support of religious leaders. Coupled with the favorable geographical advantages, the business of the Arabs is booming. They are active in three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa. They shipped silk, spices, precious stones, medicinal herbs, paper, coconuts, cane sugar, and other items from the East to the Western world for sale, and sold bronze mirrors, gold, silver, glassware, and all kinds of furs produced in the West to the East. From Sumatra, Malaya, India in Southeast Asia. Until the Baltic coast of Northern Europe and Scandinavia, there were Arab merchants, buying and selling on both sides, and they made a lot of money.

Baghdad, the capital of the Arab Empire, was not only the political center of the empire, but also had well-developed land and water transportation, and the city had specialized markets for all walks of life, and also became the center of land and water trade. Hundreds of ships are often moored at the wharves, and all parts of the country transport a variety of products to Baghdad by land and water. In addition to the goods of the provinces. There are also silk and porcelain from China, spices, minerals and dyes from India and the Malay Archipelago, rubies from Central Asia, ivory, gold sand and black slaves from East Africa, honey, yellow wax, furs and timber from Northern Europe and Russia, etc., which are then resold all over the world.

Commerce is so developed that the caliphate, as the head of the empire, has accumulated for hundreds of years, and it can be called the richest man in the world. A little bit is enough to buy off the ghosts. But when the time came for the country to be ruined, the caliph was still so stingy, and the clerk could only carry it out with a wry smile, and there was no hope for the success of the negotiations in his heart.

The two marshals of the Great Song Expeditionary Army were both businessmen. Just by looking at the size of the city and the market, you can estimate the wealth in it. The two of them were happy when they saw that the gift offered by the clerk of the empire was just a box of gold coins, and sure enough, there was no one in the world, only a more pick. This caliphate loves wealth to the same extent as his own majesty, but it is a pity that his own emperor knows how to manage money better than him. Know where money must be spent, and you can't pay a penny at any time.

As expected. The clerk sent the gift to ask for an interview, but he was soon rejected and he had to go back to the palace in disgrace. When Caliph Fatah learned that the request for peace had been rejected and that he had not even paid attention to himself, he panicked and hurriedly sent his son out of the city with his ministers to ask Cheng Xuan to forgive him for his unreasonableness and spare the people in the city, and he was willing to pay the price.

Cheng Xishou refused again, and ordered people to tell them that if they really had the sincerity to achieve peace, they would first order the troops in the city to lay down their arms and go out of the city, but before they left the city, the expeditionary force would not remove the city walls, and the cannons would always be aimed at their palaces, and if they did not get a satisfactory answer tomorrow, they would begin to bombard the palace city, wave their troops into the city, and destroy the entire city.

In fact, when this request was made, Cheng Xishou and others did not hold out much hope that the caliphate would agree to such harsh conditions, and how could there be so many cowardly and incompetent people like the Liao King of the Great Song Dynasty in the world, who did not know how to lay down their arms was equivalent to handing over their lives to the enemy and becoming lambs to be slaughtered. But the world is so wonderful that Caliph Fatah actually agreed to the demands of the Great Song Expeditionary Force that they themselves felt 'unreasonable', and ordered the defenders of Baghdad to lay down their arms and surrender the next day......

On August 17, the 15th year of the Great Song Dynasty, the secretary and marshal of the Arab Empire led the civil and military forces out of the city to meet Cheng Xishou, and ordered the army to lay down their arms and march to the place designated by the Song army. Cheng Xishou knew that the army that laid down its arms was a destabilizing factor, so he immediately broke them up and organized them into various departments of the Cooperative Army, and the ranks of the three divisions quickly swelled enough to form another 30,000 troops.

Without an army, like a tiger without its minions, the city of Baghdad was completely unarmed and became a fish on the chopping block, and the Song army also kept its promise and walked down the city wall, but drove into the undefended city of Baghdad. They quickly took control of the city's main transportation routes and government offices, and stationed in the inner city and Miyagi. The 'Pixiu' contingent, which had been silent, rushed to the 'Hall of Wisdom' and the two universities of Mustan Suiriye and Niezemia in the city, with the cooperation of a commanded dragoon, and sealed off the schools and forbade anyone to enter or leave......

The peace talks unfolded on the Song Army Shenwei battleship anchored on the Tigrus River, and the Seljuk side, which was already at a disadvantage, felt even more oppressive after boarding the tall enemy warship, and the clerk, as the plenipotentiary representative of the caliphate, felt even weaker, and before he could speak, he was already in a cold sweat.

"General, our country is willing to open all ports and cities to your country, allow your merchants to trade on their own, and compensate for the loss of 500,000 gold coins, I don't know what you think?" The negotiators of the two sides sat opposite each other for a long time, and when they saw that the other party had not said a word, the clerk who was about to sit on the ground and repay the money could not hold back, so he tried to say first.

"Hmph, if it's just for this little thing, will we come all the way here?" Cheng Xishou, who had been watching his nose and nose and his heart, raised his eyelids and glanced at the clerk after listening to the translation, and said coldly.

"General, then we are willing to increase the compensation to 600,000 gold coins!" As soon as the clerk heard this, he knew that the other party was dissatisfied with the price he offered, so he hurriedly raised the price.

"800,000 gold coins!"

"Nine hundred thousand gold coins!"

"One million gold coins!" Seeing that the other party was still silent, the clerk kept raising the price.

"One million and two million!"

"One and a half million!" The clerk gritted his teeth and said that this is already a year's tax revenue for the entire Baghdad province.

"Two million gold coins! Dashuai, this is already a huge amount, are you still not satisfied? The clerk said ruthlessly, this amount has exceeded the bottom line sent to him by Harry, but the other party is still unmoved, he is almost about to cry.

"Is your caliphate worth the price? Our Majesty the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty was very angry because your caliph instigated his subordinates to rob and kill our Great Song merchants, collected taxes as high as 50% of the goods, and even forced them to buy and sell, which greatly damaged the interests of our Great Song Dynasty. This time the army is to capture your caliph and return to China to ask for the crime, just a million gold coins just want him to escape punishment! Cheng Xishou suddenly slapped the case and said sharply, he could see from the look of the clerk that he had reached the limit of his power, and he calculated that two million gold coins were about 140,000 taels of gold, which was just a finger for a big country as rich as the Great Song Dynasty.

"This ...... General, please calm your anger, we are willing to double the compensation for the infringement of your country's merchants! The clerk was shocked when he heard this, and now the caliph, though he had no real power, was the spiritual leader of the whole Muslim, and if he became a prisoner of heresy, would not the whole Muslim be disgraced, and he hurriedly made a wish.

"Ben Shuai doesn't have a lot of time to talk nonsense with you, give you two days to discuss, otherwise we will have to fetch it ourselves!" Cheng Xishou knew that the bamboo pole would not ring if it was not knocked, and when it came to the kung fu of skillful and reckless, these 'profiteers' were no worse than the Jurchens, and such a good opportunity did not knock out some bone marrow, how could they be worthy of the emperor's years of teaching.

The clerk of the Seljuk Empire listened to the translation, and saw the other party walking away, and his heart was cold, and he also secretly hated the cruelty of the other party, and more of the helplessness of the caliph's incompetence and cowardice. Now that the army has laid down its arms, and the city is all controlled by the Song army, there is no longer the power to resist, so it can only be slaughtered by others. The most ridiculous of all is the Caliph, who, because of his greed, provoked the enemy on an expedition of thousands of miles, and he actually dreamed of sending the enemy away with a small amount of money, not understanding the enemy's purpose to get rid of him - he wanted his life!

After listening to the clerk's report, Fatah was stupid, but he was not stupid, he knew to choose between his life and money, and he didn't care about the pain and let the clerk go to Song Ying again, expressing his willingness to redeem himself with money. At the same time, a group of Song troops took advantage of the night curfew to transport the books and various instruments in the Wisdom Hall and the two universities out of the city, and some of the city's well-known scholars and skilled craftsmen were taken from their homes, and thousands of people were 'missing' in just a few days, but the caliph, whose fate was unknown, had no intention of asking about these trivial matters...... (To be continued......)