Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 639
"The above are the conditions for the peace negotiation between the Kingdom and the court!"

On the 22th day of the twelfth lunar month in the [-]nd year of the Apocalypse, when Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian were touring Jiaozhi, the officials sent by the Ministry of Rites arrived in Luntai County (Urumqi) by train, and after two months of trekking, they finally arrived in Xinha La and Lin.

The official on the mission was Yang Lian's eldest son, Yang Zhiyi, now a member of the Ministry of Rites.

Yang Zhiyi is forty-six this year. Although he is an official fan, his looks and conversation are still good. Therefore, Hong Chengchou sent him to Xinhala and Lin after careful consideration.

Xinhalahelin is a stone city built by Lin Dan Khan, with a circumference of only two miles and a height of only ten feet. It does not have the style of a county town in Ming Dynasty.

The facilities and buildings in the city are also very primitive, basically random civil and stone buildings.

Although Yang Zhiyi only brought dozens of guards with him, he recited King Qi's decree in the simple palace of Xinhala and Lin with full confidence.

Facing Yang Zhiyi, Lin Danhan and others attached great importance to it, but the terms of peace he read out made Lin Danhan and others unacceptable.

However, they didn't dare to directly express their dissatisfaction. After all, Yang Zhiyi also said that this was the condition proposed by Zhu Youjian, King Qi of the Ming Dynasty. Go crazy.

Once he loses his temper, the Mongolian Kingdom will suffer...

"Mr. Yang, please go to the next door to rest first, and let us discuss it before giving an answer."

"Yes!" Although Yang Zhiyi wasn't stage-frightened, he wouldn't act arrogant either. After all, he was still in his territory.

Therefore, after he nodded to indicate that it was okay, he took his guards and walked out of Lin Danhan's simple palace covering an area of ​​less than an acre.

It was also after he left that many Mongolian nobles in the palace began to discuss:
"Ceding the grassland east of the Volga River, then we can only graze on the west bank."

"That's right! The pastures on the West Bank certainly cannot support 80 people."

"Besides, just negotiating a peace is not of much benefit to us. The subsequent firearms transaction is what we need."

"Sigh...Zhu Youjian's bid is too high. At his price, even if we sell all the arable land and grasslands in our hands, we can only sell them for one or two million taels."

"One or two million taels. After buying the cloth and tea that everyone needs, at most you can buy tens of thousands of rifles and a thousand or so artillery pieces."

"It seems powerful, but it is difficult to buy gunpowder."

"The price of gunpowder in the Ming army is too high. One tael of silver can buy more than ten catties of gunpowder from Luocha ghost."

"No way, we can't produce so much gold and silver, and the quality and power of the army's gunpowder are better."

"In my opinion, it's more cost-effective..."

"It's a good deal, but if we can't defeat that wolf cub Mohammed immediately after we get the item, then our followers will starve to death."

"Ugh……"

In the dim stone palace, the Mongolian nobles were discussing issues with sighs, but the tone made people feel uncomfortable.

They are not fools, and no one proposed to rob things without giving land.

If they don't give it, then the Ming army will come to grab it.

This time they have no ability to flee westward. The Ottomans and Crimean Mongols have blocked their westward migration.

In the current situation, no matter how you look at it, it is most practical to obediently accept the terms of the peace negotiation, and then use the purchased firearms to destroy the Crimean Khanate first.

With Daming as the backer, it is not difficult to destroy Crimea, and even the Caucasus can be packaged and sold to Daming in the future. After obtaining enough support, the Cossacks can also be tamed and included in the tribe.

At that time, whether they go south to conquer Ottoman, or go west to destroy Poland, they will have a lot of confidence.

Everyone understands that under the attack of the Ottomans and the Crimean Khanate, it was right for the Great Mongols to fall to Ming Dynasty, no matter how harsh conditions Ming put forward.

Isn't it just to be a Ping Fan... It's not like I didn't do it back then. From Hongwu to Zhengtong, my ancestors have been Daming's vassals for at least a few decades, and it's not shameful to continue to be a vassal now.

To say that the only person who might feel ashamed, I'm afraid...

All the nobles glanced at Lin Danhan secretly, and Lin Danhan, who is now 50 years old, is also struggling.

Although he made the decision to negotiate peace with Daming, when it came time for him to become King Shunning of Daming, he still felt a little embarrassed.

However, if he doesn't let go of his face now, who can guarantee that the Ming army will not go west in a few years, and Osman will not go north again?

At that time, I'm afraid it's not a matter of face, but a matter of who owns the big head.

Therefore, it seems that admitting counsel has become Lin Danhan's only choice...

In the eyes of many nobles, Lin Danhan instantly aged a lot.

"I...accept Zhu Youjian's conditions and let that Ming official come over."

Lin Danhan's voice trembled a little.

For a person like him who is over half a century old, what he cares most about is face.

It's just that although he has lost face now, he has joined the Daming suzerain system anyway.

"Great Khan, what the tribe needs most now is cloth and iron, tea, and food."

Seeing that someone was going to notify Yang Zhiyi, Su Budi was also afraid that Lin Danhan would do something stupid like trading firearms, so he quickly reminded:

"We can sell the land in the northern part of Hara and Lin to Daming first. The northern part is colder and it is close to the Raksha people."

"Now that we have taken refuge in Daming, the Raksha people will definitely be very dissatisfied. Selling this piece of land to Daming will prevent the Raksha people from attacking us."

"Based on the size of that piece of land, the six towns above it and tens of thousands of acres of unused cultivated land, it's not a problem to sell it for two to three hundred thousand taels."

"Two to three hundred thousand taels to buy cloth tea and iron armor. When these goods arrive and the land changes hands, we will sell new land to buy firearms."

Subudi wanted to stabilize the troops first, but Lin Danhan shook his head and said:
"Winter is almost over, it's useless to ask for cloth."

"Zhu Youjian is a man of faith. We can consider selling all the land in exchange for enough firearms and supplies, and then launch the Western Expedition immediately."

Obviously, Lin Dan Khan never forgot about being stolen by Ottoman and Crimea at a critical moment, and almost killed his eldest son.

He wants to sell all the land in one go, including the established Hara and Lin, in exchange for enough firearms to launch the Western Expedition.

The Mongols do not have much land west of the Volga River, only a few thousand square kilometers.

If they can win the Crimean Khanate, they will have tens of thousands of square kilometers, and compared to the Volga River Delta, the Crimea region, which has no severe winter and summer heat, is more suitable for grazing in the Great Mongolia.

Of course, the most important thing is that Lin Dan Khan wants to use the slave trade to make peace with the Ottoman Empire while destroying the Crimean Khanate, repelling the Ottoman Empire, and regaining the northern Caucasus Mountains.

The Ottoman Empire sent troops to help the Crimean Khanate. In addition to political and religious interests, the most important thing was economic interests.

The main source of income for the Crimean Khanate was to go to Eastern Europe to capture slaves through war.

This is what they call the harvest of the grassland people, and all the slaves they captured were sent to Kafatao for sale.

In the 110-year history of the founding of Crimea, they kept arresting Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians and selling them as slaves. The biggest battle was the siege of Moscow in 1570, where 15 residents of Moscow were captured.

They killed the old and the weak, filled the Moskva River with their corpses, and the remaining women and young adults were sold as slaves to Ottoman, Egypt, Western Europe, Southern Europe and other regions.

Lin Danhan knew very well that the Great Mongol Kingdom could not rely solely on nomadic plunder to maintain its livelihood, it must have a stable territory and a source of income.

If he could get enough silver, then Daming would not refuse the condition of buying firearms with gold and silver.

Destroy the Crimean Khanate, take over its slave trade, and then use force and interests to force Ottoman to make peace. This is Lin Dan Khan's plan.

The Mongols are strong and strong, and the only thing they lack is firearms. As long as Daming makes up for this shortcoming for him, then he will have the confidence to defeat the Ottoman Empire.

While he was thinking this way, Yang Zhiyi led people into the hall.

Looking at the expressions of the people in the hall, Yang Zhiyi probably had a bottom line in his heart, and he couldn't help being a little happy, but he couldn't show it.

"I agree to become the Ping Fan of Ming Dynasty, and I am willing to dedicate the land east of the Volga River."

Lin Danhan's words were finally spoken in front of Yang Zhiyi, but Yang Zhiyi couldn't speak, Lin Danhan opened his mouth and added:

I am also willing to sell the land west of the Volga River. I ask for [-]% to be exchanged for gunpowder and [-]% for tea, armor and iron materials, silk, and sugar.

"Yes, but I have to measure the specific amount of land by myself. In addition, you need to send people to escort you for ordinary materials. The number of people cannot exceed 1000,"

"As for the firearms, we will escort them to you."

Yang Zhiyi agreed after a little consideration. After all, Zhu Youjian had expected these things and reminded the Ministry of Rites. He naturally knew Daming's bottom line.

"Okay, I will send someone to protect you to measure the land later."

Lin Danhan breathed a sigh of relief, and then smiled and gave someone a gift.

It was 100 taels of gold. Yang Zhiyi was not as pedantic as his father. He knew that it would be easier for Lin Danhan to feel at ease by accepting the gold, so he accepted the gold with peace of mind, and then read out the imperial decree of Daming to bestow Lin Danhan.

Under his reading, the Mongolian Kingdom became the Pingfan Mongolian Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty, and Lin Danhan also became King Shunning of the Ming Dynasty.

In the following days, Yang Zhiyi took people to measure the land of Mongolia like a horse race, and soon roughly counted their grassland as 900 million mu, and their cultivated land as 14 mu.

According to the original price, Mongolia will receive a trade quota of 1108 million taels.

Lin Danhan had no objection to this, because they couldn't even measure their own land, so it all depended on Yang Zhiyi's mood.

At any rate, Yang Zhiyi was quite kind, with a quota of 110 taels of silver, Lin Danhan bought 56 rifles, [-] Yanshan five-jin artillery pieces, and [-] catties of gunpowder without hesitation, and an arms trade order of [-] taels.

The remaining 62 taels was used by him to purchase armor, iron materials, cloth, silk, tea, sugar and other rich materials.

According to the agreement, Lin Danhan sent his son E Zhe to lead 1000 people to accompany Yang Zhiyi to Daming to deliver supplies, and at the same time learn how to use rifles and artillery.

Not surprisingly, they will return before winter next year.

At the same time as they return, the Ming army will also send people to take over all the land they sold.

In other words, the Mongols could still graze on this land for eight months as ministers of the Ming Dynasty.

With a feeling of melancholy, E Zhe followed Yang Zhiyi to Daming during the Zhengdan Festival when the firecrackers sounded in Daming.

Compared with the melancholy psychology of the Mongols, at this moment all the countries under the vassal system of the Ming Dynasty are happy because of the Zhengdan Festival.

The time has passed from the 22nd year of the Apocalypse to the 23rd year of the Apocalypse, and the Han people in many vassal states are celebrating the New Year.

For a time, the sound of firecrackers resounded over more than 60% of the territory on the earth, and among them, apart from Daming, Qi was the most lively.

"Crackling-"

Due to the time difference of six hours later than that of Ming Dynasty, when the New Year has already started in Ming Dynasty, Qi State is only on the [-]th of the twelfth lunar month for New Year's Eve and night watch.

"Be careful, be careful!"

"A little further to the left, good! Right here!"

The noisy sound of firecrackers had already sounded on the night of the [-]th of the twelfth lunar month. Amid Zhang Huangyan's voice, a giant lantern was set up.

At this moment, he was in the Suzaku Square covering an area of ​​[-] mu in Xijing City of Qi State, and he was leading [-] soldiers and horses to build a giant lantern and fireworks landscape.

Not only does Qi have more than twice as many statutory holidays as Daming, but it also has an open attitude towards curfews on holidays.

In a year, there are 32 days of holidays in Qi State without a curfew.

For example, the current New Year's Eve, Zhengdan Festival, and Lantern Festival will have [-] days to lift the curfew.

On such days, it’s okay for the common people to play until they don’t return home, or even get drunk on the street, because the Qi State is surrounded by lights and festoons for sixteen days, and even at night, the streets are as bright as day.

It is New Year's Eve now, and people need to watch until midnight (0 o'clock) before they can go out.

Therefore, Zhang Huangyan and the others had to check all the colored lights in the streets of Xijing City.

Not only Xijing City, but also the other 25 prefectures.

Lifting the [-]-day curfew is not as easy as just lifting the curfew, but to maintain the [-]-day lantern festival so that everyone can happily spend the New Year's Day and Lantern Festival.

The Lantern Festival on the [-]th was quite a waste for the Qi State. Even though the industrialization level of the Qi State was already very high, the price of lanterns did not have much room to drop due to the fact that the technology was only in the middle of the [-]th century.

It's just that the price of kerosene glass lamps used as street lamps is much cheaper, and they can illuminate many streets for pedestrians.

"A Chinese New Year Lantern Festival on the 4th cost [-] taels. If His Highness knew about it, he might have to write a letter to scold me for being a prodigal..."

In a [-]-foot-high building in the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion, Huang Long looked at the Xijing City, which was as bright as day, and couldn't help but sigh.

Behind him, Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan and others in the tall building were leading their subordinates on duty to eat and drink.

"Father, I'm afraid that instead of feeling prodigal, Your Highness will praise us instead!"

Huang Long's third son, Huang Xian, called his father and defended their difficulties.

Yes, the common people who have been tired for a year can only relax during the New Year Lantern Festival.

So upon hearing Huang Xian's words, Huang Long just nodded with a laugh, turned around and looked at the empty streets of Xijing City, and couldn't help but look forward to the excitement after the vigil ended...

Not only him, but almost all the officials and people in Xijing City are looking forward to it.

Some children in common people's homes, even though they have already sat down and dozed off, still don't want to go back to the house to sleep, and insist on spending New Year's Eve.

This is true of children, let alone adults.

Therefore, many people carefully watched the time with their pocket watches, and even brought their families to the door excitedly as the time approached.

"Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one!"

"Clang... clang... clang..."

When it arrived at four o'clock, the 33-foot-high bell tower in Xijing City rang melodiously. All the people and officials, as long as they were resting, rushed out of their houses one after another.

In just a split second, the empty streets of Xijing were immediately filled with people. They marveled at the various lanterns on the streets, and Zhang Huangyan had been waiting for this moment.

"ignition!"

Listening to the melodious bell, Zhang Huangyan announced the ignition in Zhuque Square.

Accompanied by his words, the huge "Aoshan Mountain" on Suzaku Square began to flicker with colorful lights of various shapes.

In the sound of "bang bang bang", the gorgeous fireworks kept setting off.

At the same time, many huge carriages suddenly appeared on the street.

Each carriage has 32 large draw horses, which pull a stage with different heights and distinct layers.

On the bottom floor are the musicians of the Bell and Drum Division. They play musical instruments and let the people pouring out of the street immerse themselves in the beautiful music.

The women selected by the middle-level and non-governmental districts and cities wear long-sleeved dance costumes and dance to the music.

On the top floor, the fireworks that bloom from time to time bring a wonderful visual impact.

For the people of Xijing City at this moment, such a scenery is simply a wonderful audio-visual enjoyment.

With performances, there must naturally be a market.

What can be more lively than the Qi State Spring Festival Gala in the Ming Dynasty is the "Spring Festival Hypermarket" in Qi State.

Small businesses and hawkers are constantly on the streets, from drinks and snacks to fortune-telling massage, to music riddles, horseback riding...

All kinds of goods and entertainment stalls were lined up in one go, and they were able to occupy all the yamen streets in Dongcheng.

Looking at them, Xia Yunyi at the gate of Changshi Mansion couldn't help laughing, and a sixth-rank official next to him even laughed and said:
"I'm afraid that the peddlers who sell oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar tonight are more than our salary for this night."

"Hahaha……"

His words won the laughter of his colleagues. Although they worked hard for half a month because of the new year on the [-]th, it seems that everything is worth it now.

All the stalls and hawkers in the market need to pay fees. Although there are only [-] Wen a day, there are thousands of small traders and hawkers in Xijing City.

Just for the booth fee on New Year's Eve, Changshi Mansion earned 3000 taels of silver, and there are still [-] more days like this, so it can be seen that there is no big problem in getting back the money.

The common people got the excitement, the court got the tax revenue, and the merchants made the money. Qi’s New Year’s Lantern Festival was not without success.

The officials on duty looked enviously at the common people in the market. Occasionally, when they saw Mu Xiu's colleague, they first made fun of him, and then gritted their teeth angrily when they saw him holding a pot of rice wine and drinking happily.

People in the Ming Dynasty liked to drink rice wine and yellow rice wine, but did not like to drink too strong distilled wine, so the streets were full of people drinking.

Low-alcohol rice wine can make people slightly intoxicated and immersed in the lively lantern festival.

However, normally speaking, there are not many people who drink alcohol on New Year's Eve, because in the Ming Dynasty, when etiquette was strict, the first thing to do after Lunzi passed was New Year's greetings.

In fact, it only depends on the officialdom. The New Year’s greetings are really not tiring. Every household has prepared pens, inks, papers and inkstones on New Year’s Eve. When the guests come, they don’t need to give any gifts. It is not so easy.

Three days before the Zhengdan Festival, the ancestors will be worshiped. On the Zhengdan Festival, the whole family will worship the heaven and the earth first, and then go out to pay New Year's greetings.

As long as you meet relatives and friends on the road, you must kowtow in the street.

According to Qiu Jun, a famous minister of the Ming Dynasty, he went out for a walk on the first day of the new year, and his waist would be broken when he came back.

Compared with Ming Dynasty, Qi State's New Year's greeting custom is not so tiring, just need to salute.

However, people in Qi State like to drink, so they also serve wine at home. Guests who come to pay New Year's greetings have to drink three or five lines of rice wine before they can leave.

The experience of many people on this day is that they went out to watch the Lantern Festival in high spirits, and paid New Year's greetings by the way, only to be drunk and unable to return home.

Therefore, people who go out to pay New Year's greetings will always carry a wooden sign with their name and address on them, and what Zhang Huangyan and other Xijing soldiers need to do also includes picking up drunk people on the road and taking their wooden signs. Identify the cards after they are taken out, and send them home to rest.

However, given the temperature in Xijing City, even if you sleep on the street overnight, you probably won't catch a cold or have a fever the next day.

In addition, during the Spring Festival of the Ming Dynasty, when the opera culture was developed, the [-]th Lantern Festival in Qi State was also a time when "blockbusters" were staged lively.

For example, when Zhang Huangyan patrols the city with his soldiers, almost every street has people inviting opera troupes to sing.

Neighbors in various cities even pooled money to invite troupes to perform, and they all invited the most famous and powerful troupes to perform the most difficult plays.

For example, the Mulian opera in the novel "Shexi" in later generations was a popular repertoire in the Ming Dynasty.

This is not just singing on the stage, but somersaulting through the ring of fire and various stunts. The cost of props and scenery for a performance is tens of thousands of dollars, and the salary of the troupe actors is tens of thousands of dollars per performance. , It's a big production at a sky-high price.

It is also a sky-high production, and in Suzaku Square, the most famous opera troupes from Qi State will take the stage one after another, performing for the people of Qi State for free.

Every scene attracts crowds of people along the street to watch. When they are happy, many people will take out copper coins and throw them on the stage one after another.

This night, not only young people got into temple fairs and other entertainment venues, having a good time without black or white.

Even the rural areas outside the city of Xijing are very lively. Even the old peasants who live frugally on weekdays will specially wear gorgeous silk clothes during the Lantern Festival, and ride out to the banquet on horseback with a few hundred dollars.

When Zhang Huangyan visited the Suzaku Gate in the outer city, he saw many peasants wearing silk and satin, riding horses into Xijing City, spending money, eating and drinking, and laughing loudly.

Looking at them, the patrolling soldiers were also infected and couldn't help laughing happily.

"I don't know if there is such a lively scene in Daming."

"It should be. Our Qi country has only developed for more than ten years, and the atmosphere in Daming is much better than ours."

"Right……"

Many young soldiers were discussing the atmosphere of the Spring Festival in the Ming Dynasty. They were too young when they came to Qi, and they had already forgotten how to spend the Spring Festival in the Ming Dynasty.

However, what they said made Zhang Huangyan feel a little melancholy to Zhang Huangyan, who had been in Jiangnan for more than ten years.

Daming's New Year is lively, but if you want to compare it with Qi...

Zhang Huangyan sighed and continued to patrol with soldiers and horses.

In the Lantern Festival on the [-]th of the New Year, the common people can relax and be lively, but they must be cautious, especially the yamen in charge of fire protection.

However, seeing the smiles on the faces of the people, their hard work is nothing...

(End of this chapter)