king of ros

Chapter 99
After a few more audiences, finally, it was the turn of the envoy from Volga Bulgar.

The Bulgar envoy named Aleph did not wrap his turban like a Christian, but wore a fur peaked hat, which is something that nobles on the steppe like to wear.

The white gown with some red embroidery is bound by a leather belt around the waist, and a scabbard with a nomadic warrior's bow and arrow pattern hanging on the waist, and slightly raised and shiny leather boots on the feet.

Just like the Khan title of the Bulgar rulers, even if they have settled for many years and have been civilized, the customs of the grassland will still emanate from the Bulgars from time to time, telling people their connection with the grassland.

"Hail to you, prince of the Rus, I bring greetings from the Bulgar Khan."

The envoy bent down and held up a rolled parchment in front of him. Rostislav's personal soldiers took the letter and opened it in front of the prince.

The parchment is full of Cyrillic letters. It seems that the Bulgar Khan has people who are proficient in Rus script, which is not surprising. After all, Bulgar’s first communication partner for many years has been Rus.

In the letter, the Bulgar Khan simply congratulated Rostislav on his appointment as prince, and hoped that the peaceful relationship between Rus and Bulgar would continue to be maintained during his tenure. The prince talked in detail.

To put it simply, the Lord Khan said a lot of diplomatic phrases, but the real highlight was what the envoy in front of him wanted to talk to him about.

"I have received the Khan's greetings, so Lord Aleph, what do you want to discuss with us? Trade conditions or trade privileges?"

Rostislav looked at the waiting Bulgar envoy, he was very curious about what the Bulgar Khan was going to talk about, since the "Holy One" Vladimir came to Bulgar and forced the Khan at that time to sign the alliance under the city. Century Rus and the Bulgars both maintained peace and did not engage in any wars.

At most, many small-scale wars broke out in order to compete for the right to claim tribute between the various tribes between the two countries, but these wars were the product of the unspoken rules of the two sides, and the competition did not affect the peace between the two countries.

This can be seen from the hostility emanating from the crowd behind the Bulgar envoy from time to time. The squad led by the Ross dignitaries often fought with the Bulgars in the forest, and there was a lot of hatred between them.

But there are also people who are quite gentle and even welcome. After all, Rostov and Bulgar are upstream and downstream of the trade relationship.

"The Khan wants the right to claim tribute to the Malians."

As soon as these words came out, the entire hall became quiet, and everyone looked at the Bulgar envoy, with hostile gazes flooding in like waves.

Suogong right, in this northeastern land, this is a very serious term, because it is related to gold and silver, related to wealth, related to the future.

Bulgar is the same as the Northeast Rus. The series of commodities they export, such as beeswax, honey and fur, actually come from the sorgong of the people living in this land. Without these sorgon, they would not even be able to produce the goods.

Therefore, in order to compete for the right to claim the tribute, both Ross and Bulgar defaulted to a small-scale battle between the two sides, because this is really important and it is related to the future and development of both parties.

But now, the Bulgars' initiative to ask the Russians for the right to claim tribute is undoubtedly breaking the rules, and the Mali region has always been a contention area between the Russians and the Bulgars, which is undoubtedly asking the Russians to make concessions.

So there are so many hostilities and so much unity, Bulgar is going to smash Ross's eating bowl.

The people in the hall even made a noise because of this, clamoring to beat the Bulgar out, but Aleph remained extremely calm.

The Bulgarian envoy had never seen many more dangerous things. He was once held by the Polovets with a knife on his neck, and even led the army to face the battle. This noise is really a small scene.

"Is Khan asking for it from me?"

Rostislav ignored the commotion and just asked the messenger.

"Of course not, Maharaja, the Khan is willing to pay for these rights."

With a wave of the messenger, two groups of Bulgar warriors with large boxes came in. They wore painted coats over their armor.

There was a lot of noise when the box was placed on the ground, which showed that there was a lot of stuff inside.

The two boxes were opened one by one by the messenger, revealing a piece of silver light, and saw that the inside was full of silver coins. Wang Gong recognized them as dirham silver coins, the largest driving engine of the Volga trade route, and his ancestors used it for this. come.

But Rostislav felt a little strange, these things are too new, and the shiny new appearance makes people very concerned, as if they were placed in these boxes after they were minted at the mint, which is very rare Condition.

The envoy grabbed a handful of silver coins and let them slide between his fingers. The silver coins collided with each other and made countless crisp sounds.

For many people present, this was an extremely beautiful sound, and some people showed greedy looks.

"They come from the mint in Bulgar City. They were made by the previous Khan to imitate dirhams, and the silver content is even more impressive than dirhams. These two boxes are just deposits. The Khan will send three boxes of such silver coins later. ,can you look?"

To be honest, Rostislav was moved. This was a huge sum of money, enough to fill his meager coffers, and then he could do more things.

But the next moment, he dismissed this idea, because he knew that this was not an ordinary business practice, but Khan's scheme to frame him.

Yes, as the prince of the entire Northeast Ross, he certainly has the right to sell the right to pay tribute to the Mali, but what will those dignitaries who rely on the tribute to the Mali for income look at this matter?They don't get a penny out of it.

What followed would inevitably be resentment towards Rostislav, even if he distributed all the silver coins to those dignitaries, the resentment would still exist, because he was the first responsible person, and whatever blame was pushed on his head.

Moreover, Mali, as a power contention area, will definitely ignore this transaction and enter that land, which will inevitably lead to conflicts, and Bulgar will have a reason to blackmail Ross...or even launch a war.

Rostislav was well aware of the stakes, and so his answer was firm.

"I reject."

"That's a pity, my lord."

The Bulgarian envoy was not surprised by this, with a ceremonial smile on his face. There was something in that smile that Rostislav could not understand, and he bowed again ritualistically.

"I hope we will have the opportunity to cooperate in the future."

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(End of this chapter)