A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

"This is all your own doing. If that's all there is to it, then please leave, messenger."

"Once we attack the Song capital, we can talk to the Song ruler face to face!"

Wang Xuance ordered his men to drive the Song envoys out, set up camp, and began constructing siege weapons.

The walls of Song's capital are high and thick. His siege equipment was lost in Xiaoyi, and the remaining ones are difficult to breach. This is a good opportunity to put more psychological pressure on Song Gong, and there may be unexpected surprises.

"This is outrageous!"

"This is absolutely outrageous!"

Upon hearing the envoy's embellished report, Song Zhong was so enraged that he immediately decided to fight the Tang Dynasty to the death.

The courtiers hurriedly tried to dissuade them, as they did not want to fight. If they failed to defend the city walls and allowed the allied forces to enter the capital, they would lose all their wealth and honor.

After saving money all my life, am I just going to let those coalition forces outside benefit from it?

No, no, absolutely not.

We must persuade Song Zhong to reconcile as soon as possible.

Hearing the ministers' advice to dissuade him, Song Zhong became even angrier.

"Is it that I don't want to negotiate? It's that this Tang envoy has gone too far! How does he want me to compensate for the lives of those Tang envoys? With my own life?"

"Your Majesty, please do not be anxious. I think the Tang envoy only wants our Great Song to give more compensation."

"The land of the Great Song is thousands of miles away from the border of the Great Tang, and there are several countries in between. At present, the Great Tang has not even been able to consolidate the Great Xia, so it is impossible for it to occupy an exclave."

"Going to great lengths will only benefit neighboring countries, which is completely not worth it."

"But they cannot return to the Tang Dynasty without any results. As the leader and guards of the mission, if they do not have an explanation, they will probably be beheaded by the Tang emperor upon their return."

"Even if they're lucky, they'll still end up as civilians, so without a sufficient way out, they won't be able to withdraw their troops."

"What they want is an excuse to persuade His Majesty the Emperor of Tang."

The Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty stepped forward and spoke.

He put himself in Wang Xuance's shoes and came to this conclusion.

This conclusion is not wrong; Wang Xuance and Jiang Shiren did indeed think this way.

The only difference is this step.

The Song Dynasty's prime minister thought that the Song Dynasty would just give him a way out, but Wang Xuance and Jiang Shiren thought that they should destroy the Song Dynasty and use that as an explanation to the Tang Dynasty's emperor.

The difference between them was enormous, which led the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty to make a wrong decision.

"What does the Prime Minister mean?"

Song Zhong asked, knowing that the Prime Minister meant for him to back down and offer more benefits.

But he was somewhat unwilling. He was the king of the entire Song Kingdom, even if he was called a duke, he was a king in reality.

Why should he bow and apologize to a mere few Tang Dynasty envoys?

What qualifications do they have?

"We are not bowing down to them, but to the Tang Dynasty."

"We would also like to request Your Majesty to bestow upon them additional precious gems, fine jade, and fine silks as a token of your sincerity."

"In addition, provide the Tang Dynasty with extra compensation, in a large amount, enough to appease the Tang emperor's anger."

The prime minister spoke slowly, which won him a round of applause.

None of the officials wanted their wealth and status to be ruined because of Song Zhong's greed.

"snort!"

Song Zhong snorted coldly. How could he not guess what these ministers were thinking?

"Your Majesty needs to make a decision quickly. If the enemy begins to attack the city, it will be too late."

The Prime Minister reminded him.

Song Zhong: "..."

"Fine, leave it all to the Prime Minister."

The emperor finally gave in, and after saying this, he turned and left the court.

To show his sincerity, the Prime Minister personally went to Wang Xuance's military camp. Wang Xuance looked at the Prime Minister in surprise, wondering if these people were so naive.

No, Wang Xuance immediately realized that this land was an exclave for the Tang Dynasty. They didn't think killing a group of envoys was a big deal; it was just a few lives.

Wang Xuance had already guessed what the Prime Minister and Song Zhong were thinking; they believed he was just trying to gain more benefits.

That way, we can start planning.

Wang Xuance smiled after hearing about the benefits the Prime Minister mentioned.

"That's more like it. It would have been so much better to do this sooner. Why bother? Right?"

The Prime Minister smiled and was relieved. Wang Xuance had borrowed troops from surrounding countries to attack the Song Dynasty without saying a word. He had been worried that Wang Xuance was a fool, but now it seemed that Wang Xuance was a smart man. It's good to be smart.

Smart people are just too good to be true.

"Would you like to cooperate successfully?"

"It's a pleasure working with you!"

"I will send Liu Wei as an envoy to the Song capital to negotiate with you."

The Prime Minister nodded in satisfaction. Liu Wei was a Tang man that Wang Xuance had found to do business here. Because of his identity, he was valued by Wang Xuance and held a high position.

He was one of only three Tang people in the entire allied forces.

Sending him as an envoy was enough to demonstrate Wang Xuance's sincerity.

We can't very well send Wang Xuance to the Song capital as an envoy, can we?

Wouldn't Song Zhong just detain them?!

Wang Xuance must be out of his mind to agree to that.

Liu Wei was overjoyed to hear Wang Xuance's order. He was just an ordinary merchant from the Tang Dynasty, but he never expected to stand in the Song court as an envoy of the Tang Dynasty.

He stood alongside the high-ranking officials and nobles of the Song Dynasty, and even the Dukes and Prime Ministers of the Song Dynasty had to flatter him.

Indeed, being born in the Tang Dynasty is a privilege.

It's much better than being born in these small countries.

Therefore, Liu Wei happily accepted Wang Xuance's dispatch and organized a delegation composed of people from various countries to go to the Song capital.

To show his sincerity, Wang Xuance even led his troops to retreat 10 li, so that even if he attacked, the Song Dynasty would have enough time to react.

He gave Liu Wei only one order: to obtain as many good things as possible from the Song Dynasty at any cost, even if it meant grinding them down, because Liu Wei would get a share of the spoils.

Liu Wei was overjoyed to receive Wang Xuance's promise. He patted his chest and assured Wang Xuance that he would try his best to obtain as many benefits as possible.

He's a master negotiator.

"Remember, results are the most important thing, time isn't important. You have plenty of time, take your time, understand?"

Wang Xuance gave instructions.

"clear!"

Liu Wei said with a smile.

Wang Xuance nodded and began to lead his troops to retreat. However, they did not dismantle the camps they had built, in case the negotiations broke down in the future, so that they could still be used. This also served as a deterrent to the Song Dynasty.

After Liu Wei entered the city, the Song soldiers visibly relaxed. After Wang Xuance led his troops to retreat ten miles, in order to reduce military expenses, Song Zhong even withdrew the soldiers before the war was over.

Liu Wei wasn't exaggerating; he was indeed very eloquent, and with his silver tongue, he managed to extract a significant amount of money from the State of Song.

However, the State of Song was not to be trifled with either; it also had skilled negotiators who fought fiercely with Liu Wei.

Every day, Liu Wei would send someone to inform Wang Xuance of the day's results and bring back Wang Xuance's opinion.

On this day, Wang Xuance sent someone to tell Liu Wei that he was willing to release a group of prisoners as a sign of sincerity.