The time has come to July of the sixth year of Guangxi. Despite its location north of the Yellow River, Crouching Tiger still feels a little stuffy during this July firestorming season.

Although the weather was hot and humid, and the passing business travelers who entered and exited the welcome door kept wiping the sweat beads on their foreheads, since the "Jin Bao", "Business Daily" and other newspapers published a surprising or exciting news, the world's business travelers have invariably converged on this city where miracles always happen.

The newspaper said that after the bloody battle of the soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Army, they had successfully rescued Master Taifu, and now Master Taifu has returned to the party safely, and is actively preparing for the Crouching Tiger Merchant Exhibition, which was almost delayed this year.

Now that Lord Taifu has returned, many rumors about the Jin Kingdom, about Crouching Tiger City, and about Zhao Xing himself have been self-defeating, those who have tasted the great sweetness from trading with the Jin Kingdom, and those families and forces who are still hesitating to establish lasting trade contacts with the Jin Kingdom, at this time, they all choose to send people to Crouching Tiger City, no matter what happens in the future, first verify the authenticity of the news in person, presumably it will not be wrong.

Although the city of Crouching Tiger is now bustling and hot, the people in the city seem to feel that this is not enough to express their suppressed emotions for nearly half a year...... Men mingled in groups from restaurant to teahouse, happily recounting the bizarre stories of the Taifu since his departure, and his victories in the far western regions under the command of the Great Jin army on various battlefields, and the women dressed in fashionable and revealing clothes like an aphrodisiac drug, making the city more dazzling at night than during the day.

Situ Huangwan, a great Han who had stayed in Crouching Tiger City for more than three months, had no choice but to bargain with Wang Yun, the prime minister of the Great Jin Kingdom, again and again, because the imperial court either suffered defeat or was surrounded by the whole army there.

Up to now, there are not many cards that can be played by the imperial court, on the other hand, the Jin Kingdom is full of good cards and does not know which one to play in order to win easily and chic.

The imperial court was forced by Zhao Xing to announce the crime of rebellion against the Sima clan, and deprived everyone in his clan of official positions, although he was unable to enforce it, Zhao Xing definitely had many ways to play Yizhou to death. People vaguely remember Zhao Xing's cruel words that warned Yizhou at the beginning, and this time everyone thought that Zhao Xing had a good reason to do something to Yizhou.

The 50,000 Hu cavalry who broke into Chang'an like a gust of wind disappeared without a trace like a gust of wind. According to the Jin soldiers stationed at Yumen Pass, the 30,000 soldiers of the Dingyuan Army pursued the Hu cavalry all the way from Chang'an, and when the Hu people fled to the vicinity of Yumen Pass, there were less than 5,000 people left.

Huangfu Song had been sent back to Luoyang from Crouching Tiger City via Keiguan, and it seemed that the famous general had never won a real victory since he encountered Zhao Xing. Although he looked red when he returned to Luoyang, he still couldn't hide the fact that he was sent back after being captured by the Jin Kingdom.

I don't know what Minister Wang Yun said to Huangfu Song in the party at that time, which made the veteran have the idea of retiring, and after returning to Luoyang, he didn't mention anything about returning to Chang'an to command the Imperial Forest Army. Some people in the court also hoped that Huangfu Song would stay away from the whirlpool of power struggles and completely return the military power in his hands to the imperial court.

In Diaoyin City, there are still Huangfu Song's subordinate sons Huangfu Li and more than 30,000 soldiers of the Imperial Forest Army, if you want them to return to Chang'an safely, it depends on the sincerity of the imperial court to reward Zhao Xing as the king of Pingxi.

Facing the same fate, there are nearly 30,000 soldiers of the Southern Army who were besieged in the city of Xiatao. Although Zhang Fei didn't know why the Jin army was besieging and not attacking, he knew very well that his fate was now just a little bit of a bargaining chip between the Jin State and the imperial court at the card table.

Chips have always been exchanged, and even if the amount he represents is surprisingly large, he still can't escape the fate of being a chip. If the person playing with the chips suddenly feels that one of the feet of the large four-legged table is not stable enough, he can pretend to be cool and put the chips in the corner of the table.

Fortunately, Zhao Xing always seems to like to leave a way out for others, and never makes things too decisive, which makes many opponents now find a reason or excuse that can make their faces passable, and still send envoys and business groups to Crouching Tiger City to participate in the trade fair scheduled to be held after the Mid-Autumn Festival this year.

Of course, the Yizhou Sima family, who has been blacklisted by the imperial court and Zhao Xing at the same time, will definitely not send any envoys or merchant groups in disgrace, and they are now recruiting troops to prepare for war with some trepidation, in case the army of the Jin State will come out from Jiameng Pass and Baishui Pass one day to carry out a crazy attack on Yizhou.

Also unable to send envoys and merchant groups were the Gongsun Du family in Liaodong, because they were now in a hurry. In order to deal with Goguryeo and the Karasuma people, Gongsun Du had already made a ruthless decision and gambled all his old capital. But then again, now that the Shadow Crew has cut off the Gongsun Du family's practice with the Central Plains from both land and sea, they learned through the grapevine that Zhao Xing was named the King of Pingxi, and it is estimated that they will have to wait until next year.

Although there is less participation from the Yizhou Sima clan and the Liaodong Gongsun clan, the scale of this year's Crouching Tiger Merchant Exhibition has increased instead of decreasing, and it is much more lively than before.

The Yanqi Kingdom and Cheshi County in the Western Regions sent princes and caravans, the Dongsheng Kingdom in the middle of the sea sent princesses and caravans, and the Fuyu Kingdom in the northeast did not send caravans because the roads were blocked, but they also secretly sent envoys to observe the ceremony.

The states and counties controlled by the Jin State openly and covertly, now naturally there are merchants from the Jin State to enter the station, they give full play to their ability to sell and fool, and encourage the local merchants to form caravans according to the county as a unit, and organize groups to go to Crouching Tiger City to participate in exhibitions and order fairs.

This time, the Sun clan of Soochow still sent Lu Su as a plenipotentiary representative, leading a fairly large business group to participate in the exhibition. The Sun family is no longer worried about the whereabouts of the eldest lady, because Zhang Liao has hinted to the Sun family through some channels that the eldest lady Sun Ren met the suave eldest son of Master Taifu during the journey, and the two fell in love at first sight.

After Lu Su learned the news, he couldn't cry or laugh in his heart, it seems that he didn't have to be busy with the original envoy of his relatives, and the young couple of them were all traveling to the north together, what kind of heart did he?

Cao Cao sent Chen Liuda, a merchant who was also the son of Xiaolian Weizi, who had funded his own army, as an envoy to shoulder the dual tasks of commerce and political exchange.

Yuan Shu didn't know what the purpose was, but he actually appointed Zhuge Jin as an envoy and asked him to go to the Jin State to negotiate with Zhao Xing, hoping to redeem the generals Ji Ling and Zhang Xun who were captured by Li Tiezhu. And Zhuge Jin, for the convenience of the journey, accidentally brought the little housekeeper Zhuge Fang and the child "Big Cow".

Liu Yan was afraid of Zhao Xing's prestige, so he sent Zang Hong, a celebrity, to Crouching Tiger City, and it is estimated that he felt that Zhao Xing would not get along with a celebrity like Zang Hong. Now Pan Feng, one of Liu Yan's several useful generals, is still detained in Xiapi City, and he is very worried that after a long time, Pan Feng will be co-opted by Zhao Xing.

Liu Biao of Jingzhou sent a heavyweight to Crouching Tiger City this time, and this person was Cai Mao, the head of the first wealthy family in Xiangyang. Although every time the imperial court fights against Zhao, Liu Biao always has to send troops to participate, but so far, how many troops he has sent out, basically how many troops can be recovered, it can be seen that the two sides have not completely turned their faces.

Shixie, who was far away in Jiaozhou, actually sent his younger brother Shiyi as a special envoy to come thousands of miles to participate in the Crouching Tiger Merchant Exhibition. It is estimated that the Shi family is now increasingly feeling the oppression of the Sun clan of Eastern Wu, and this time they want to come to Zhao Xing to get close and ask for some friendship, so as to give themselves a courage.