Great Zhou Empress

Xue Zhijing found that the fire princess Xiao Liege's social activities were quite full, and he was going to participate in the activities again when the sun rose the next day.

But this time they ran for a long time and arrived on a grassland.

As if going to a picnic, behind them are slaves driving sheep and driving vehicles with tools.

This grassland should be approaching the Inner Mongolia Plateau soon, and the scenery seems to have a feeling of high sky and wide clouds, and the grass and trees are like blankets.Such an open place should indeed be a horse race, galloping all the way to the end of the sky.

From a distance, a group of people were seen riding towards them, the ground shook, followed by the sound of rumbling horseshoes, and the sky was covered by the dust raised by their horseshoes.

Today Xiao Liege asked Xue Zhijing to ride a horse by himself, but this horse was an immature mare, and it was much shorter than Xiao Liege's horse, so it couldn't run fast at first glance.

Xiao Liege was afraid that Xue Zhijing would escape, so he was catching him.

There is no way, I have to follow her as a bird in a cage to accompany her, the princess.

The other party seemed to have a lot of people, and Xiao Liege was only accompanied by a dozen or so attendants. Although they all looked like iron towers and walked out like a 200-jin chef, judging from the number of people, the other party still felt oppressive.

Looking at the clothes, the other party does not seem to be from Khitan.

However, Xue Zhijing doesn’t see many Hu people. From the skin color and face shape, she can judge the nomadic peoples in East Asia, such as Khitan people, or ethnic groups from the Middle East, such as Arabs with tall eyebrows and dark eyes, or slightly darker skin. Is fair-skinned European.

But when it comes to specific ethnic groups, it is not so clear.

Both sides seem to be communicating in Chinese, and I feel that Chinese is the international language of this era.

They don't seem to be very familiar with each other, but they seem to be some kind of cooperative opponents, both friendly and defensive.

While talking, the slaves set up the grill, and then slaughtered the sheep for barbecue.

A bonfire camp was quickly set up.

But slowly, Xue Zhijing seemed to hear something related to Dacheng, and under her deliberate listening and discernment, she discovered that the leader of the other party seemed to be a prince from another country.

That country is located in a barren area in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. It is called Xia State, and all the people are soldiers.

A hundred years ago, when the Xia Kingdom broke through many crises and was established in the cracks, it even intended to invade Dacheng. However, at that time, Dacheng was rich in finances, and it was easy to recruit hundreds of thousands of frontier troops to defend in the northwest. It was only one hundred thousand, and later they traded with each other, which maintained the balance for many years.

King Xia and Xiao Liege were drinking wine and eating roast mutton, while the attendants were competing in archery and wrestling, which made the bonfire banquet more and more popular.

Slowly, the topics discussed by the two began to deepen, and entered the theme of their meeting this time - attacking Dacheng.The two even began to discuss specific details, such as how many soldiers and horses each country sent, which routes each started from, and who owned which areas they occupied.

Xue Zhijing's brows tightened. She had never heard of this news before she came here. She must pass this news back as soon as possible, so that the empress is ready for battle.

The Dacheng Dynasty was economically and culturally developed, and maintained a military force of one million all year round, but most of them were deployed to guard the core of Bianjing City, and to guard against Liao and Xia at the border.But it is precisely because of this that the military strength of other large and small cities in the country is almost equivalent to nothing, and they can only guard against thieves.

If Xia State and Liao State join forces to attack, the frontier army will be unprepared for a while, and their cavalry can drive straight in. They will not encounter much effective resistance in Dacheng's territory until they approach the city of Bianjing.

King Xia suddenly asked Xiao Liege curiously, "In fact, your Liao Kingdom has always had a chance to rule the Central Plains, why didn't you?"

Xiao Liege sneered, "Before we had a late emperor who was about to reach Bianjing City with his troops, but he was worried that after taking control of the Central Plains, we Khitan people would be polluted by the Central Plains' colorful world, and never again They are no longer Khitan people like wolves, so they agreed to make peace with Dacheng, which is the current national border."

"Hahaha!" King Xia said, "However, I really admire you Khitan people. They occupy such a large area of ​​land, but they are still able to stick to the traditional way of life."

Xiao Liege revealed the uncontrollable pride of a young man, as if the other party's compliment had reached her happiest point.

"However, why do you want to become a master now?" King Xia asked.

Xiao Liege fiddled with the dagger in his hand, "I'm angry."

"Oh? What's wrong?"

"It was agreed that a large amount of tea, porcelain, medicinal materials, books, and spices from Southeast Asian countries would be traded to us every year. As a result, their ideas changed every year. You know, who can afford to eat mutton without drinking tea. I I don’t want to be angered by them anymore, the Central Plains must be brought down, we want tea, porcelain, books, all of them, and as much as we want.” Xiao Liege said it as a matter of course, as if Dacheng was already in her pocket It's the same thing.

Xue Zhijing thought about it melancholy, this is still a war caused by the commodity economy.

The bonfire banquet lasted until it was dark, and several piles of bonfires were lit around, illuminating the place brightly and even dispelling some of the autumn chill.

At this time, Xue Zhijing found another group of people came from the south.

The closer they got, the more surprised Xue Zhijing became, looking at the clothes, how could he be a Dacheng person?

There are no photos in this era, so Xue Zhijing, the middle-aged man in the lead, is not familiar with him, but judging by the armor on his body, he should be a senior military officer without a doubt.

Xue Zhijing had several frontier soldiers in his mind, it's possible.

But isn't it discussing making a big success here?Why did the senior military officer of the frontier army come over?

The other party approached on horseback, Xiao Liege and the others also went up to greet the other party, after the other party got off the horse, they greeted each other, and everyone entered the table chatting and laughing like partners who came to the dinner together.

Xue Zhijing's ears were already pricked up, he had to figure out what was going on.

A group of people drank, ate and chatted until midnight.

Finally, Xue Zhijing and Xiao Liege raced back to the camp with a torch.

Along the way, she has been digesting all the news she saw and heard today.First of all, the Liao Kingdom and the Xia Kingdom were going to join forces to attack Dacheng, and then they got in touch with Lu Cheng, the senior commander of the Dacheng Frontier Army.

What a bad message.

Lu Cheng didn't know why he wanted to seek refuge in the Liao Kingdom, but he heard Xiao Liege's meaning. If the Central Plains were conquered, Lu Cheng would be able to split the soil and become a marquis in their Liao Kingdom, and they could also have their own soldiers and horses.Possibly for the greater good?

The current Lucheng is the commander of the Xiongzhou area, and he is in charge of the [-] soldiers and horses of Xiongzhou.If he opened a hole for the opponent in Xiongzhou, then there is no point in fighting, and he can go back to Bianjing directly to prepare for the battle.

Moreover, the current battlefield information is delivered by horse racing. It is estimated that when the news of the war here reaches Bianjing, the empress can already see the iron hooves of the Liao Kingdom on the tower.

Back at the camp, Xiao Liege took off his clothes and was about to go to bed, but Xue Zhijing was impatient to talk to her.

It was rare that Xiao Liege was quite patient with her.

"Actually, I think there is no need to use war to solve this problem. With the method of our merchants, we only need to negotiate with Dacheng to obtain enough commodity transactions to meet the domestic needs of our Liao Kingdom, wouldn't it be all right? If It's a war, although we can go straight in, but we will definitely die, and you don't like your people to have casualties, right?"

Xiao Liege looked at her, "Little slave? Are you really a spy?"

"..."

Xue Zhijing couldn't care less at this moment, it would be better if he could persuade the instigator, if not, she must run away tonight and report the news.

"Didn't I say it, how many times do you want me to explain, how can I be a spy like this. It's just that because I am from Dacheng, I have feelings for Dacheng, I don't want to fight, I don't like anyone who But there are casualties. War is very cruel, some people will be displaced, some people will be hungry. The problem can be solved by non-war methods, why must we fight.”

Xiao Liege shook his head and smiled, "That's why I said that you Han people are all weak rabbits. On our grasslands, the weak have always been prey to the strong. Survival is very difficult. Have you ever fought a black bear soaked in blood? Have you ever chiseled ice on a glacial river in the bitter winter? Hehe, you haven’t, if you have, you will know that the only way to survive in this world is to fight.”

For the first time, Xue Zhijing doubted their Khitan education method. Is this what a 16-year-old child said?

"I admit that even in Dacheng, everyone struggles desperately to survive, and they compete with each other. However, there are mild competitions and fierce competitions. Why do we have to use tragic methods to compete? Let's Can't we use negotiation?"

Xiao Liege's brows showed impatience, it seemed that her patience was exhausted.

"Okay, it's so annoying. You little slave, why tell me these things."

Xue Zhijing couldn't persuade her, and his mind became a mess. He didn't have any affection for this child at this moment, and he wished to open her brain to see if it contained yogurt.

The female slave brought water for washing her feet again, and Xiao Liege asked Xue Zhijing to wash her feet again.

However, Xiao Liege noticed Xue Zhijing's silence, and later realized that his temper was a little off just now, so he said in a somewhat blunt tone.

"You don't have to worry. We Khitans don't slaughter the city. We treat you Han people equally. Khitans are not allowed to disturb the Han people for no reason. You see, I lived outside the city when I went to Nanjing. Except for the time I went to look for you, I never Not to enter the city. Even if we conquer the Central Plains, you Xiongzhou people can still maintain the original way of life, and nothing will change."

Xue Zhijing raised his eyes to look at her, and asked again, "Then can we reconsider the matter of dispatching troops? In fact, I still have some experience in business negotiations. I can go to Dacheng to discuss a suitable transaction."