It doesn't matter what the lord is.

Consul Larte of the Yunyang Envoy Group once said that if the six cities of Nanyan were handed over to Lide, Lide would release them, but the Yunyang Lord did not believe it at all. In his eyes, Lide had always been a greedy guy. When he was in Lingyun City, he refused to sacrifice for his brother according to his plan. After arriving in Yuxi City, he refused to die quietly as he imagined. After his life became stable, he began to plot against Li Neng, and now he has kidnapped the Yunyang prince to threaten him.

So Lord Yunyang took the initiative to make some concessions and added four cities as bargaining chips.

He felt that Lid should be sensible.

But unfortunately, for Reed, I don’t care what you feel, I care what I feel.

I don’t think it’s enough!

When Yunye walked into the council hall under the guidance of the maid Tiara, she saw a long table. Lid sat at one end of the table, and behind him stood Alayya and the arrogant and cold Felita. On both sides of the table sat Heyue, Fang Shisan, Shuang, Baihuang, Liushi, Hanmo, Qianteng, and Delis. Any one of these people had a strong aura, and when they sat together, they seemed to be all villains.

Among them, He Yue, Fang Shisan and Shuang represent the three highest levels of power in Yuxi City: internal affairs, military affairs and supervision.

Bai Huang is the director of the Public Security Bureau, Liu Shi is in charge of the armament production and precision machinery manufacturing of Yuxi City, Han Mo is now a manager and senior researcher at the Northern Industrial Base, Qian Teng temporarily takes the position of the master of the Evil Valley, and Delis is currently the head of the Yuxi City medical organization "Sacred Heart Society".

All the top officials of Yuxi City were present.

Yunye clenched her hands tightly together, pursed her lips, and walked step by step to the other end of the long table and sat down.

Cold sweat rolled down her cheeks and her hands were shaking slightly.

Yunye had a very intuitive feeling. When she was in Huayue City, Prince Kaiya of Huai and Prince Noren of Qiming played the good cop and the bad cop at the beginning, which put great pressure on the envoys. But at that time, Yunye dared to ask them questions and express her opinions. At this moment, although no one present said anything, she felt the pressure several times that of Huayue City, and even felt suffocated for a moment.

On one side is the leader of the victorious side, and on the other side is the newbie on the defeated side.

Yunye forced herself to cheer up, introduced herself first, and tried to hold the right to speak in her own hands:

"Nice to meet you. My name is Yunye, an envoy from Lingyun City. I have been ordered to come to Yuxi City to discuss the release of Prince Yunyang."

Lid looked at her with interest and asked:

"Just you?"

Yunye nodded and replied:

"I am the only one here. But please rest assured, Lord City Lord, I can make the decision on this matter. Even if I am the only one here, I can definitely convince Lord City Lord and everyone present."

She looked very serious. In fact, from the moment she sat down, the "attack and defense" had already begun quietly. Yu Xicheng showed a level of seriousness beyond her expectations. Lid was completely different from the crazy and lazy image in the information. In this situation, Yunye knew that she must not retreat, even if she was regarded as arrogant, she had to show enough confidence to calm the situation.

Controlling the situation is a science. Some people are born with the ability, while others can only master the basics no matter how hard they try.

Sure enough, Lid seemed to be interested and said with a smile:

"That's interesting. So, you know what I want and where my bottom line is, right?"

Yunye nodded, looked around at the senior executives of Yuxi City present, and said calmly:

"Yes. I know that the city lord wants to take over the twenty cities east of Lianbo City, so that he can capture the three strategic cities of Black Steel, Sword Forging, and Blast Furnace. I also know the city lord's bottom line. Most likely, he only needs to take over one of Black Steel City or Sword Forging City."

Lid raised his eyebrows slightly, and Shuang quickly exchanged glances with Heyue.

After Yunye finished speaking, she paused for a moment and said to Lid:

"But I'm sorry, Lord City Lord. I heard that the iron produced by both Black Steel City and Sword Forging City is in short supply, and the profits are almost a huge number, involving all forces in Yunyang. Moreover, the two cities are very close to each other, and there is no natural barrier in between. Once one of them is ceded to you, unless a heavy army is deployed in the other city to guard it, there will be no difference between giving you one city and giving you two. For Yunyang, this is absolutely unacceptable..."

Although she managed to control the situation and got the chance to speak, Yunye did not relax at all. Instead, she was filled with anxiety.

From Lid's reaction just now, Yunye knew that her guess was almost right. This time, Lid's target was still the iron ore. But Lord Yunyang would definitely not give in. Even if he did, it would be after her negotiation failed, which meant that Yunye's fate would not change at all.

So what comes next is the most difficult part of the entire negotiation.

She had to convince Lid to give up his fight for the iron ore.

57. Let’s eat first

"Although I am not a famous diplomat, my grandparents taught me a truth since I was a child. A poor man has a short ambition, and a thin horse has long hair. Truth and justice are things that can only be discussed when one is strong. I think the same is true for diplomacy. If one is strong, there will be no more difficult diplomacy in the world. If one is weak, one can only tread on thin ice."

Yunye placed her hands on the table, leaned forward, and said to Lid:

"The defeat of Prince Yunyang does not mean that Yunyang has lost the war. Diplomacy is based on military force. If we go head-to-head, Yunyang still has an absolute advantage. If, suppose I cannot solve the problem at this negotiation table, Yunyang can resort to military force, but Yuxi City is already exhausted after the last war. I will not say who will win or lose this war, but even if it is just for the sake of the people of Yuxi City, is the city lord willing to continue to throw the autumn grain that will be harvested soon into the fire of war?"

Reed smiled but didn't respond.

Fang Shisan, a professional sitting nearby, said:

"Yuxi City has its own way of raising military rations, and in fact, we still have enough food and grass now. As for the outcome of the war, although it is not optimistic, Yuxi City does not have the tradition of retreating to protect itself. When the demons invaded, too many people thought we would lose, but in the end we repelled the demons, and the land under Yuxi City is still soaked with their blood. If Lord Yunyang intends to come with all his assets, I will lead the troops of Yuxi City to fight him."

Fang Shisan's voice was not loud, and his originally gentle voice was also a little cold. Yun Ye felt that this was a crazy idea. Would anyone want to use a few thousand people to fight against tens of thousands of people head-on? But when she looked at the other people present, she found that they all nodded in agreement with Fang Shisan's point of view, especially Qian Teng from the Evil Valley, who was laughing very happily.

So Yunye changed her words and continued:

"Our negotiation is based on the fact that the Crown Prince was captured by Yuxi City. Because he is the Crown Prince of Yunyang, the Yunyang Territory is willing to make some sacrifices for him. Rare goods can be valuable, but they can also be lost. The Crown Prince of Yunyang may be replaced, but once he is replaced, the hostages in the hands of the City Lord will suddenly become useless."

Reed smiled again and still didn't respond.

This time, He Yue, who was sitting opposite Fang Shisan, responded:

"I have done some research on risk assessment. To be honest, although the Yunyang prince can be replaced, the price Yunyang may not be able to bear. Originally, there were only two Yunyang princes, Li Yi and Li De, in Lingyun City. No matter who sat on the position of prince, he could legitimately take the center position and command the four directions. But now it is different."

He Yue turned sideways towards Yun Ye, with a smile on her pretty face:

"As an assistant minister of internal affairs, I am very clear about the cost of this matter. Lord Yunyang no longer has any adult heirs in Lingyun City. The title of Crown Prince can only be chosen from the princes of Yunyang who have been granted fiefs. This behavior will inevitably lead to very serious civil unrest. In the past, the princes had no power, and Lord Yunyang said that whoever could not become the Crown Prince would have to pack up and go to the fiefdom. But now that they have mastered different degrees of power, are they still willing to be inferior to others? This is probably the reason why Lord Yunyang sent you to negotiate in a hurry. The longer the time is delayed, the more disadvantageous it will be for Yunyang."

Yunye's hands couldn't help but clench, and she looked at Heyue with a slightly complicated look.

He Yue's words can be said to have revealed the problem that Yunyang Territory is facing now, and this is indeed what the Yunyang Lord is struggling with. There is no need to even change the prince. As long as Li Yi stays in Yuxi City for another two months, the Yunyang princes who have been given fiefs will naturally have all kinds of thoughts.

Fang Shisan and He Yue's strategy of taking turns to respond also brought Yun Ye a lot of trouble. On the one hand, the current situation was actually more unfavorable to Yunyang Territory, and her room for maneuver was really limited; on the other hand, she was not facing a certain person in Yuxi City, but the entire decision-making team of Yuxi City - even in this confrontation, Lid, who was sitting opposite her, did not need to say anything, so Yun Ye's information that she had studied for half a day in the carriage was completely useless for a while.

Yunye took a deep breath, stood up, and said to Lid:

"Yunyang may be in chaos, but is a chaotic Yunyang really a good result for Yuxi City? Although I don't have a deep understanding of internal affairs and military affairs, I know a simple truth. It takes half a year for an acre of farmland to go from barren to harvest, but people and horses can turn it back to yellow earth in an instant; it takes several years for a piece of white land to grow from nothing to high-rise buildings, but a fire can burn it in an instant; it takes more than ten or even twenty years for a soldier to grow from an infant to a young man, but it only takes one sword to kill him. A rich country must expand its territory, and a strong army must first make its people rich. If Yunyang is really in chaos, from now on, every city that Yuxi City invades to the east will be like scorched earth; every citizen that Yuxi City accepts will be a homeless refugee. Do you think this is okay, sir?"

Yunye did not tell Li De any great principles like "for the sake of all people in the world". She knew very well that those principles would not be able to convince Li De and the top leaders of Yuxi City, and speaking them out would only backfire.

In the midst of all the twists and turns, the only thing that remains constant is interest.

No matter how many cities they captured this time, Yuxi City would eventually have to conquer cities to the east. If Yunyang could be preserved, or not be destroyed in the civil strife, then most of the cities that Lide would capture in the future would be intact, and the people would be able to get what they want. Otherwise, Lide would have to pay a lot of money to accept the new people.

Which one is better and which one is worse is clear at a glance.

After hearing this, Reed finally sat up straight and began to look at the girl in front of him with squinted eyes.

But he still didn't speak, just nodded slightly.

Frost's white fingers slid across a piece of material on the table. She turned her head and said to Yunye:

"Miss Yunye is very insightful. I admire her very much. However, if Yunyang is in turmoil, it may not be a bad thing for us in Yuxi City. If Yunyang is weakened, it will be easier for Yuxi City to make great plans in the future. The people of Yuxi City will be under less pressure, and the soldiers of Yuxi City will face fewer casualties. It can be said that using other people's misfortunes in exchange for everything going well for us in Yuxi City, I think it is a very cost-effective deal."

She gently stroked the material in her hand. Although Yunye couldn't see the details clearly, she could roughly see that it was a personal biographical information. Shuang smiled and said:

"Moreover, someone from Yunyang has secretly contacted us and promised to sign a friendly treaty with us if we help him take the position of Yunyang Crown Prince... Miss Yunye, I think that if we in Yuxi City control some puppets in the future and indirectly participate in this civil strife, we can control the scale of the civil strife. What do you think?"

Yunye looked at her and wanted to refute, but after thinking it over for a few times, she always felt that her words were a little weak.

This made her feel a little helpless for a moment.

At this moment, Lid stretched, clapped his hands, and said:

"I've been sitting here for quite some time. To be honest, I'm a little tired. After talking so much, it's time for dinner. Let's eat first."

58.Everyone gets a share of the new wine

Yunye initially suspected that Lid had some conspiracy by eating at this time, but soon found that he was just really hungry. The way he ate voraciously was totally unlike that of a city lord. The most amazing thing was that Yunye found that although he was wearing formal clothes on the upper body, he was still wearing shorts and slippers on the lower body, but she just couldn't see it at the negotiation table before.

No one else can slack off like this.

But it must be said that this dinner gave Yunye a big sigh of relief. She had almost been pushed to the edge at the negotiation table before, but Yuxicheng was obviously well prepared. This efficient organizational system had collected and analyzed a lot of information, so it gave good answers to all the questions raised by Yunye.

On the other hand, Yunye only had a running account from Zipu, and she had to rely on her own speculation to infer some information. But at the moment, this information is far from enough to break the deadlock.

While eating, Yunye secretly observed the expressions and movements of several people present, thinking about what angles she could approach the negotiation from. Lid and others would occasionally ask Yunye some questions, but they were all irrelevant to the negotiation itself and were just trivial matters.

For example, Lid asked her if she had seen an old man who could play chess on Hualan Bridge when she was in Lingyun City. The old man once set up a game in which the first mover would lose to deceive people. He said that the game cost ten copper coins and the winner would give one silver coin. He made a lot of money at the beginning, but later everyone saw through the trick and stopped being fooled. Every day the old man set up a chess stall on the bridge and sat happily in the sun.

Yunye said that the old man died half a year ago, and his son didn't even want to spend money on a coffin, so he just found a broken straw mat and buried him. Later, someone found the suicide note left by the old man, and dug out a bag of gold coins according to the instructions in the suicide note. The old man's son was ecstatic, but the suicide note clearly stated that the money would be donated so that the homeless could have a sip of hot broth. This matter caused quite a stir at the time. The old man's son once dug up his father's grave to vent his anger, but he could only miss the sudden wealth without any chance of returning to heaven and earth.

Li De didn't say anything. Bai Huang asked curiously, and Li De said that he liked to play chess with others when he was bored, but no one in Lingyun City could beat him. Later, he met the old man on the bridge. Seeing that the game he played was unique, he went to be fooled every day. After losing more than a dozen gold coins, the old man took the initiative to ask him to play another game. The two played for a long time, and Li De won in the end.

——"You're lucky, kid. If I were forty years younger, you might not win! But I'm old now, and I feel a little relieved to be able to lose before I die."

Lid said to Bai Huang, who looked like a curious baby:

"I wasn't even born forty years ago, how could I play against him? But to be honest, he was really good at playing chess. His style was wild, but very spiritual. He was worthy of being the Taihe who reached the top of the chess world forty years ago and was invincible. He was known as the one who could decide the outcome of a game in half a game. But who could have thought that the former chess master would have a day of decline, and in the end, he even had his own son dig up his grave..."

After saying that, Li De took advantage of Bai Huang's concentration and quickly raised his hand to scoop up the last charcoal-grilled saury into his own bowl. By the time Bai Huang reacted, he had already swallowed half of it. Bai Huang was very annoyed, holding the chopsticks in one hand and the table with the other hand, he flipped over to Li De's side.

Reed originally thought that she was going to use chopsticks to snatch the fish, so he immediately raised the bowl out of her reach. As a result, Bai Huang grabbed Reed's neck from behind and poked his face with chopsticks. Reed had no choice but to give in immediately and handed over the remaining half.

Yunye was a little dazed. She didn't know that the old man had such a deep background, but she felt that if it were her, it would be a happy thing to meet a worthy opponent, even though this moment was so short.

Lide also asked her about other people and other things, all of which were people that no one in Yunyang Territory cared about, but Lide remembered them. As they chatted, Yunye also relaxed a little. This information was not important, and anyone in Lingyun City could find out almost everything, so Yunye did not hide anything and talked about everything. Everyone was very happy.

It was not until Yunye smiled several times and seemed to enjoy the atmosphere that he suddenly came to his senses.

She was Yunyang's envoy, and she could joke with the people of Yuxi City, but she couldn't feel happy from the bottom of her heart, because it would make her relax. Just like now, the dinner was halfway through, but she didn't have any particularly good coping strategies. If she continued like this, the next negotiations would definitely end in failure, and she would also face the outcome she least wanted to see.

Although Yunye still had a smile on her face, her eyes were much brighter than before.

Time passes by minute by minute, and the end is slowly approaching.

Although she heard sounds of laughter and joy, Yunye's thoughts were in a mess.

The more you rack your brains, the more fruitless you become; the more you try to break the deadlock, the more you gain nothing.

Shuang, the leader of the Anbu organization, was also sizing up Yunye while eating, assessing her level and value in his mind. When he saw her frowning and keeping her head down for a long time without saying anything, he looked away.

Just at this moment, there was a knock on the door.

Lid said "Come in", and the door creaked open. Standing outside the door was Sha Yan, the owner of Zhenweilou. At this moment, he was holding a bottle of wine he had never seen before, and he stepped into the door quickly and said to Lid excitedly:

"Lord City Lord, your order was successful! This new variety of sparkling wine was well received during the pilot test at Zhenwei Restaurant. The guests were full of praise. Even though it cost several silver coins per cup, countless people were willing to try it. Hundreds of bottles were ordered on the same day! If it is distributed outside of the city, it will definitely be a big business!"

Lid wiped his hands with a handkerchief, took the bottle from Shayan, and said:

"It seems like you're going to open more chain stores for Zhenweilou. Have you eaten your bowl of rice? Sit down and have something to eat if you haven't."

Sha Yan took a quick look and saw that all the high-level officials of Yuxi City were present, and they also brought a girl they didn't know. She immediately declined the invitation tactfully:

"No, no. I've eaten and I'm very full. I'll invite the city lord to visit Zhenwei Restaurant some other day. We have two new chefs there, and they are both very good."

After saying that, he hurriedly said goodbye to Reed and quickly retreated, not forgetting to close the door.

Lid put the sparkling wine in his hand on the table and said to He Yue casually:

"Since the response from Zhenweilou is good, let's start selling. Have the Northern Industrial Base produce a batch and sell it to Yunhai at 200 times the cost price."

Bai Huang slammed the table:

"Two hundred times?! Lide, don't go too far. Is it so easy to make money in Yunhai? How dare you say this in front of me?"

Lid said with a bitter face:

"Sister Huang, if we don't make some money, how can we pay you back? Isn't it that we owe too much and have to find ways to make money? Besides, with your brother's skills and Yunhai's promotional resources, it won't be a problem to sell it at double the price with a little hype."

Bai Huang snorted and said with a straight face:

"Then next time you guys do the deal secretly, just don't let me know."

"Yes, yes, drink some wine to calm down."

As he spoke, Reed unscrewed the cork. With a pop, the sparkling wine made a rustling sound. It looked very magical and was very different from traditional wine.

Lid poured Bai Huang a glass of wine, looked at the people present, handed the bottle to Alayya beside him, and said:

"Pass it around so everyone can have a taste."

59. That's it.

With the "pop" sound of a cork popping out, the atmosphere of the banquet reached its climax.

The amber wine is bright in color and extremely clear when poured into the glass, with fine and long bubbles slowly rising in the wine.

The aroma of wine and the sweetness of grapes quickly permeated the air. In comparison, the pungent smell of alcohol was much lighter, making it clear that this was not a glass of strong liquor.

However, Yunye still didn't dare to drink.

She remembered the wine she was forced to drink in Huayue City, and she also remembered that Zi Pu had told her that she lay on the table motionless and unconscious after getting drunk. Apart from that dinner and the subsequent drinking, Yun Ye had never touched alcohol, so naturally she didn't know what she would look like after getting drunk.

So when everyone else was concentrating on tasting the wine, Yunye didn't even raise her hands, but just stared at the wine in a daze.

After a while, everyone finished their drinks and continued to chat about trivial matters. Yunye just symbolically picked up the cup and shook it, then put it back. The dishes on the table were gradually finished, and the story was coming to an end. During this process, Yunye was dealing with the situation while trying her best to think about what kind of brilliant words could break the deadlock.