The other three looked at Xia Fan in surprise, probably not expecting him to refute Her Royal Highness the Princess's decision at such a time.

Ning Wanjun stood up suddenly, glanced at Xia Fan, and then walked out of the hall.

The scene was silent for a while.

Xia Fan seemed to be unaware of it, and followed the other party out of the reception hall.

As soon as she arrived at the door, the princess suddenly lost her breath and said, "Do you know what it means to pay tribute? It is not a unilateral tribute, and you have to give the same amount or a higher standard of return gifts! First of all, I will not give up the covenant to the six ministries, this matter must be led by Jinxia City." ”

"That's what I thought, too. ”

"Then why do you insist on maintaining the relationship of a hundred years ago?" the princess wondered, "with our current ability, how can we give the same amount of reward?"

"The Evil Horse Kingdom besieged by the princes may not be able to pay this ten million taels, and the details can be discussed later, but once the tributary relationship is interrupted, it will be difficult to continue. Xia Fan said bitterly, "If you want to have a bigger territory in the future-"

"Huh?" Ning Wanjun raised her eyebrows.

"I mean if. He emphasized that he was assuming that "what is the benefit and prestige that a tributary state can bring in by ordinary diplomatic relations?" Now people don't care about it, because they have a request from us, and when the civil strife is settled, do you think they will be so impatient?"

"I didn't think you knew anything about diplomacy. Ning Wanjun glanced at him meaningfully.

"I understand a little bit. Xia Fan didn't take the other party's eyes to heart, "What's more, it's not that we can't afford to give any gifts in return, at least there is one thing they urgently need." ”

"What is it?"

"Salt. He replied.

"I see. Ning Wanjun pondered, "Since the Dongsheng Kingdom in the mouth of the witch can use salt to envelop other princes, then the Evil Horse Kingdom should also be fine." And salt is worth a lot of money, but only if you can produce it, and you can still have a small portion of it in addition to your monthly quota. Having said that, can your so-called salt production method be twice as high as the Wang family's with the same manpower?"

"A hundredfold. ”

"That's okay—wait, what are you talking about!?" the princess's eyes widened.

"A hundredfold, a conservative estimate. Xia Fan repeated, "Of course, in the early stage, it may be necessary to explore because of process problems, and the efficiency will not be too high, but even so, only after the scale goes up, a hundred times is a conservative statement." ”

"Are you sure?" Even if she thought that the other party was a listener, Ning Wanjun felt a little incredulous. A hundred times is equivalent to investing the same amount of manpower, and the salt production of Jinxia alone can meet the needs of the entire Qiguo, and there is still a surplus. The reason why the imperial court wants to take out the salt for a monopoly is nothing more than that the tax profits in it are huge, and if there is a way to multiply it a hundred times on this basis, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is worth a lot of money!

No...... The price tag wasn't accurate, and she found she couldn't think of any words to describe the value of the matter.

"Sure, but there's always a lot of problems with turning ideas into facts, and I'm going to need to experiment to get a more accurate estimate. Xia Fan thought about it repeatedly, and felt that his statement should not be exaggerated - after all, Jinxia City's output was severely limited by firewood, and his method was based on the sun. The difference between chemical energy and atomic energy is a hundred times more conservative.

"This method...... Can I understand?"

"Of course, it's actually using-"

"Stop!" Ning Wanjun suddenly reached out and covered his mouth.

"Your Highness?" Xia Fan said vaguely.

"When the meeting is over, you tell me alone. Remember, don't reveal anyone but me—or you'll be killed. ”

......

Back in the reception hall, Ning Wanjun seemed to have changed her demeanor, and she didn't see the previous resistance at all, and said with a smile in the corner of her eyes, "The covenant you said may not be very suitable for the situation in a hundred years, and after we confirm it, we can talk about the specific details, but in principle, we are willing to inherit this relationship." ”

The other three retainers were dumbfounded.

They had never seen the princess persuaded so easily.

The atmosphere of the next meeting was quite harmonious, probably because he finally got the promise of the upper echelons of Qiguo, and May Haruka's expression was much more relaxed.

Xia Fan took this opportunity to directly introduce the topic of "demon for life", which caused everyone to be surprised.

He Guicai even whispered that it was impossible.

"If so, how could the Privy Council not know about it, and was it necessary for them to deceive the world on this?"

Ning Wanjun pondered for a long time, "If the demon was born, would there be similar alien species among the descendants of the beast?"

Unexpectedly, May Haruka gave a direct answer, "As far as I know, there is." And no less. ”

"And what do they look like?"

"Your so-called essence belongs to this kind of alien species. That's what cultivators called at least a hundred years ago. ”

Xia Fan suddenly remembered that Li seemed to have mentioned this classification, but there was no relevant record in the literature of the Privy Council.

"It's hard to summarize Jing's appearance, he doesn't understand people's words, and he has the ability to feel qi. If it is born of a ferocious beast, it is usually tyrannical and bloodthirsty, and feeds on people. "But they are easily tamed by demons, just as humans tame wild beasts." ”

"So, I've probably seen the spirit. Ning Wanjun said suddenly.

"Where?" Xia Fan asked.

"When I was a child, a merchant from the Western Regions once arrived in Shangyuan City and presented a two-headed parrot to Shengshangjin, saying that it was a rare and exotic beast. ”

Double-headed, still alive! This is definitely a major discovery in biology.

I just don't know if there will really be six-legged crocodiles and lizards in the world, Xia Fan thought to himself.

"And then?"

"It seems to have been boiled by the second prince. Ning Wanjun said lightly.

"......" everyone was dumbfounded.

It was in this harmonious atmosphere that the first bilateral talks were successfully concluded.

After the others dispersed, the princess took Xia Fan to a small room without windows.

"This is ......"

"The secret room of the palace, where conversation can be heard by no one. Ning Wanjun locked the door, and then sat down in front of him, "Let me confirm again, the method you said won't cause the listener to lose consciousness or even become insane, right?"

"Huh?" Xia Fan was a little suspicious of his ears for a moment, "Why did Your Highness say this?"

"This ...... Just in case. ”

He looked at the other party for a while, and seeing that she didn't seem to be joking, he had to shrug his shoulders and say, "Don't worry, as far as I know, it will only increase your knowledge and will not make people crazy." ”

"Okay. So you say it. Ning Wanjun took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind.

Xia Fan simply ignored her strange behavior, "Actually, it's not complicated to figure it out, boiling salt with seawater is to remove water and let the salt re-condense into a real thing." He explained as plainly as possible, "This method is nothing more than replacing firewood and charcoal with the sun." ”