Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 568 Li Shimin wants to add a title

I don't know what Fang Xuanling and the others were talking about with Li Shimin, but when the order was passed to Sun Xiangfu, it became a political mission to give Li Shimin the title of 'Tian Khan'.

After hearing Wang Deyong's words, Sun Xiangfu touched his nose and said, "Your Majesty, this is a bit embarrassing!"

Wang Deyong said with a smile, "Hehe, Mr. Fang said, only you can do this."

Sun Xiangfu rolled his eyes and said tentatively, "Well, if it is done, can I make a request to His Majesty?"

Wang Deyong asked without any surprise, "What Master Sun wants to mention is to kill Wang Hao?"

Sun Xiangfu nodded and stopped talking.

Wang Deyong persuaded, "Master Sun, are you a little too anxious? Your Majesty didn't say no to killing!"

Sun Xiangfu, who was still a little bit drunk, said in a calm voice when he heard the words, "He will not die for a day, and I will have trouble sleeping and eating all day. The beauty of my Tang Dynasty today is hard-won, and he is the most likely in this world. Destroy this beautiful person in front of you."

Wang Deyong knew that he could not persuade Sun Xiangfu, and said, "I can bring it to you, but since you are not an official of the Ministry of Justice, you should not be so eager for this kind of punishment, and you must abide by it." The duty of a courtier is good."

Why didn't Sun Xiangfu know this truth, and sighed, "It's better not to be eager! Wei Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice is assisting the prince in Chang'an. I'm afraid His Majesty doesn't bother to read his memorials, but Wang Hao is very thoughtful. , if you don't pay attention, he can use a chain of big moves, let everyone follow his rhythm, I am worried that your Majesty will be blinded and not see the long-term trend clearly."

"Okay, I don't quite understand what you told me. I have passed on the task assigned by His Majesty to you. As a subject, I should do my best to share the worries of the monarch. I hope to hear your good news as soon as possible. I bid farewell."

Wang Deyong bowed his hands towards Sun Xiangfu, and walked out of the banquet hall, while Du Zhenglun, the warrior Xun, Tang Jian, Ma Zhou and others, who were like human beings, also quickly approached Sun Xiangfu after he left Come over, Sun Xiangfu naturally did not hide from them, and told everyone about Li Shimin's thoughts.

"This matter may not be so difficult. Among the four major kingdoms of Fanbang, Persia, Dashi and Tianzhu, you can come forward and talk to them. The easy ones and then the difficult ones.

As for those small countries, we can communicate with them separately now, we only need to promise Yili, and they don't care about these face-saving things.

The most difficult thing to solve is the problem of the Byzantine Empire and their vassal states. We can actually put it aside for the time being. After most of them form a trend together, it is not important whether they will express their support. Hearing this, Ma Zhou took the lead in expressing his suggestion.

Everyone listened and nodded again and again.

The honorary title of "Tian Khan" that Li Shimin wants is not his personal name, but an affirmation of Datang's international status. He agrees to respect Li Shimin as the country of Tian Khan, although he does not want to regard Datang as his country. The suzerain state, however, must recognize the status of the Tang Dynasty as the upper state. First of all, the head of their country can only be called a king, not an emperor. In terms of status, they are inferior to our celestial dynasty.

In reality, when diplomacy and state affairs are discussed, a master-slave concept is formed. For example, at the opening ceremony of the sports meeting held one day later, they, including those with the status of kings, need to be like Yinan Khan, Pay homage to Li Shimin.

The biggest problem here is the Byzantine Empire, because they are now the suzerain of more than a dozen countries around the Black Sea, and their population and military scale are still higher than those of the Tang Dynasty. However, in front of nearly two hundred countries, their this The department only represents a small part, so what's the point!

Heraclius was not the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, he was just a prince. If Li Shimin was compared to his father Flavis Heraclius on the same level, then he was at least a junior.

As for the countries that surrendered to the Byzantine Empire, they were only at the kingdom level, and not all of them were kings, most of them were just some important ministers in the kingdom. It may not be impossible to fool them into acknowledging the status of the Great Tang Dynasty and saluting to Li Shimin.

As long as we first reach a consensus with everyone other than their department, and then use the general trend to intimidate and persuade them, it will be much simpler.

Soon, Sun Xiangfu assigned tasks with everyone and began to split up. The Persian Crown Prince Yi Siqi who Sun Xiangfu approached first, their Sassanid Dynasty is now at the end of their strength, and they need to rely on the Tang Dynasty to tide over the difficulties, which is very good A breakthrough.

"Prince Yi Siqi, I have already told the situation on your side by Ma Shilang of the mission, and reported it to His Majesty the Emperor. Our Majesty the Emperor is very willing to help friendly neighbors like you, but , This favor cannot be done in vain, His Majesty needs to give an explanation to his subjects and common people, so send me to talk to you."

Hearing this, Yi Sideng's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly bowed to Sun Xiangfu with the hand-crowned etiquette of the Tang Dynasty, "Your Majesty the Emperor has any request, just ask, as long as he can help us tide over the difficulties, he is all of us in Persia." Benefactor of man."

Sun Xiangfu smiled and said, "His Royal Highness is serious, you are proficient in our Han culture, you should know that the monarch here needs to be famous for his work, and to help you Persians, there must be a reason for the past, just right What! Our Majesty wants to add a title, if you Persians can recognize our emperor's title of "Tian Khan" and regard my Tang Dynasty as the kingdom of heaven, in terms of money and food, our Tang Dynasty can give you A certain amount of support will help you through this difficult time.”

Hearing this, Yi Siqi looked distressed and said, "Let us regard your Great Tang as the suzerain?"

Although the Sasanian dynasty has fallen, it is a dynasty after all. Now, there are still more than 1000 million people, and its war and economic potential are huge. It is a joke for such a big dynasty to regard other empires as suzerain , What do you think of the many royal families in their country and the few vassal states they still have?
"No, no, it's just a sort of political status, just like sworn brothers. You recognize the status of our big brother, big brother, in some international events that don't involve your interests. As for the above, just take my opinion of Datang as the main one.

This is not the same as treating our Great Tang as the suzerain. Our Great Tang currently has only one vassal khanate, which is Xue Yantuo. For the imperial court, it is only because of the inconvenient governance that the emperor temporarily retained some military and political autonomy of the Yinan Khan. If the imperial court center has the conditions, this khanate can be revoked at any time. The vassal countries will always maintain this policy. The current state of countries like Qiuci, Gaochang, and Tocharian is normal. "

In a sense, the Tang Dynasty does not accept the self-government behavior of the vassal state at all. If the ministers say it is okay, first of all, the territory, population, military, and political power must all be handed over to the imperial court. It is true that the imperial court cannot send people to govern Well, you can retain some of the power of the original lord. The original ten or so countries in the territory of the Anxi Dadu Protectorate are like this. They surrendered to the lord and obtained a marquis, a duke, and became an idle person with a title but no job. Military politics, the people are also directly managed by the imperial court to establish prefectures and counties.

It was precisely because Yi Siqi knew about the situation in Datang that he showed embarrassment. However, he was generally able to accept Sun Xiangfu's explanation. The interest alliance headed by Tang, usually we still manage our own, but when it comes to major international political events, we listen to Datang.

Of course, Yi Siqi is not stupid. At this time, we can't just get an empty white note and say, "If we agree, what kind of support can Datang give us?"

"Hehe, it depends on your needs. At least, I can provide you with a loan of no less than 500 million yuan per year until your crisis is resolved. Moreover, let go of some of your grain and salt export controls. , 1000 million shi of grain and [-] shi of refined salt per year, this amount is enough! This kind of policy will also continue until your crisis is resolved, what do you think?"

Hearing the data reported by Sun Xiangfu, Yi Sicheng swallowed unconsciously. He is familiar with the culture of Datang and some real-time news in Datang, so he naturally knows the price of grain in Datang.

The purchasing power of 500 million guan in Datang is quite strong. Even two or three years ago, the national taxation of Datang did not have 500 million guan.

Based on Datang’s current grain price of more than 100 yuan per stone, it only takes 150 million guan at most to buy 1000 million shi of grain. All the refined salt is purchased back, and there is still a lot of money left over to buy some other non-controlled commodities, or to pay the soldiers of the country.

This is 1000 million stones of grain!One stone of grain in the Tang Dynasty was 120 catties. A soldier, who ate three meals a day, only consumed about ten stones of grain a year. This 1000 million stones of grain was enough to help them support millions of troops. He regrets it now. Some came to Tang for help, perhaps, they would not need to bow to the Byzantine Empire.

"Uh, that, I don't know, how to calculate the interest on the loan?" Finally, Yi Sicheng was not dazzled by the great happiness, and asked again.

Sun Xiangfu replied very casually, "You can follow the relatively normal commercial loan interest in my Tang Dynasty. The annual interest rate is [-]% for you!"

Hearing this interest rate, Yi Siqi completely believed that Datang was helping the Persians. After all, the interest rate of merchants who are now selling goods in Datang is also higher than this.

"However, 500 million is not a small amount. In order to ensure that you can repay the loan when it is due, you must use a large enough territory as a mortgage. If you cannot repay our loan on time due to your own internal reasons, this mortgage The territory that belongs to us belongs to Datang."

Hearing that land mortgages are needed to borrow money, Yi Siqi instinctively felt that this might be a means by Datang to plot Persian territory, and immediately frowned.

Seeing his expression, Sun Xiangfu explained with a smile, "Before your crisis is resolved, our promise to provide you with a loan of 500 million yuan every year has always been valid. The reason is that you can’t pay back the money. In fact, you can also use the newly borrowed money to pay back the money you owed, but you need to pay 50 per year in interest. In this way, you won’t think that we want your land Come on!"

Hearing Sun Xiangfu's statement, Yi Siqi's eyes suddenly brightened. It seems that he really misunderstood others just now. 50 guan is only [-] gold coins. The huge Sasanian Dynasty, even if the current situation is not good It's great, and it's not too difficult to take it out.

Of course, he doesn't know that in later generations, many borrowers like him will end up borrowing deeper and deeper, going further and further down the road of debt.

However, how could a dynasty like theirs, which was on the road to subjugation, be willing to give up their life-saving straws!
Thanks to Yi Siqi's gratitude, Sun Xiangfu reached an agreement with him to use what he was about to do to complete a task by the way, which can be regarded as a small gain. After that, Sun Xiangfu quickly on to his next goal.

"Mr. Burkel, are you still satisfied with my Tang's food and singing and dancing?"

"Hehe, thank you Master Sun for your hospitality. I am not only satisfied with Datang's food and singing and dancing, but also with Datang's medical treatment. After drinking that bottle of sweet medicine, I really don't cough very much now, and my appetite is also gone. very good······"

"Really? That's really great, it's like this, our emperor entrusted me with a mission..."

'Routine' is a general term for easy-to-use means. The Arabs who grew up in the desert plateau have a harder life than the Persians. Food is very important to them. Sun Xiangfu didn't spend much effort. Ai Bu Bakr agreed to his proposal, because, before Abu Bakr set off to Datang, the Arabs were actually in a state of multi-tribal alliance and had not established an empire at all.

Moreover, he saw that Datang's move had a tendency to provoke the Byzantine Empire. Now, the Arabs, who have become the new sworn enemy of the Byzantine Empire, naturally don't mind having one more political ally, and moreover, it is a person who can provide them with food, etc. A political ally with material support.

As for Poni's side, it didn't take much effort, because they came here to show their favor to Datang, to push the boat along the way and achieve their own goals, which is of course the best for him.

Then, they began to notify their vassal states to unify their opinions, and the side that Tang Jian, Ma Zhou, and the warriors were in charge of was also going smoothly, because, like the Khazar Khanate and the Kingdom of Oguz The countries that were originally fighting against the Byzantine Empire basically did not need to be persuaded, they agreed. Not only Han people understand the principle of long-distance friendship and short-distance attack, but foreigners have also understood it early on.

(End of this chapter)