If I go to look for Han Du again, I'm afraid I won't get any good results. All three of them knew this very well.
But as the Korean envoy said, they had no other choice. If you want to get the treasure money, you have to find Han Du. No matter how difficult it is, you have to find it. This is an unavoidable hurdle.
But how to meet Han Du, what things to give, what words to say...this requires a lot of thinking.
Shahakht left Mingjingzhai angrily, but he did not go to the palace to sue Han Du immediately. And he returned to Huitong Hall, where he stayed.
He came outside a room and knocked on the door gently.
"Come in." A young voice came from inside.
Shahakht lowered his head and pushed the door in, not daring to raise his head at all.
When he came to the young man, he knelt down and said respectfully: "Old slave, I pay my respects to Your Highness."
"Get up."
Only then did Shahakht dare to raise his head.
The young man smiled at Shahakht, pointed to the stool in front of him, and said in a commanding tone: "Sit down." The young man looked cynical at about 20 years old. He has a high nose bridge and deep sunken eye sockets unique to Central Asians, but unlike Shahakht, he does not have any beard on his face. Instead, the skin on his face is very fair, like a woman's delicate skin.
The young man leaned on the chair and stepped on it with one foot slightly bent. His right hand was stretched out straight, lying across his bent knees, and he was playing with a palm-sized mirror in his palm. As his long white fingers danced nimbly, the mirror danced on his hand like a lively butterfly.
After playing with it for a while, his fingers suddenly stopped. The young man held the mirror and put it in front of him along with a piece of treasure money. Then he sighed: "The Ming Dynasty is indeed a land of treasures. Just this treasure banknote and a mirror, I, the Chagatai Khanate, cannot make them."
Shahakht was a little unconvinced after hearing this, "Your Highness, why do you need to emulate others' ambitions and destroy your own prestige? Our Khanate is vast in territory, rich in resources, and has countless skilled craftsmen. If you want to do something, it may not be impossible to do it."
After hearing this, the young man shook his head and gave Shahakht a look that you didn't understand. However, he did not continue to dwell on this issue, and instead asked, "How about you go out to inquire about information? Did you find out anything?"
"Yes! The old slave found out that the banknotes and mirrors were made in the banknote bureau below the banknote lifting department. However, the place was heavily guarded, and there was no hope of getting close to the craftsmen." Shahakht Replied truthfully.
When the young man heard this, he couldn't help but sigh, "That's such a pity." But this was also within his expectation, after all, Daming was not a fool. If such an important thing was not guarded, then he would have to wonder if it was a trap.
"What about the others? What else did you find out?" the young man asked casually.
Shahakht hesitated for a moment, and finally talked about what happened at the door of Mingjingzhai.
After hearing this, the young man couldn't help but ask: "You mean you have met the owner of Mingjingzhai, who is a sixth-grade official? He is still willing to sell the mirror to us?"
"Yes, but he went too far. In the face of distinguished customers, he actually had to double the price before selling to us." Shahakht could not suppress his anger when he mentioned Handu.
"Is it too much? Maybe." The young man smiled and said nonchalantly. As for the distinguished guests...
Even though I, an old slave, came to the Ming Empire, I didn't expect that he would still have the same thoughts as before. Talking about dignity in front of such a powerful empire as the Ming Dynasty makes people feel uncomfortable no matter what.
Meng Yuan was originally the suzerain state of the world, but the Ming Dynasty was able to overthrow it easily. Its strength cannot be underestimated. As the Ming Dynasty's prestige among the four countries continues to grow, it has now completed the feat of replacing the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and becoming the new suzerain state.
In front of such a Ming Empire, how can we talk about dignity? The young man couldn't help shaking his head. Shahakht was used to being aloof in the Khanate, and he couldn't adapt to the change in his status when he came to the Ming Dynasty.
"Then what? Did you agree?"
When Shahakht heard this, his face suddenly turned red and he said angrily: "Faced with such a rude request, how could the old slave agree? After the old slave threatened to ask His Majesty the Emperor to make the decision, he broke up with him. We parted happily. The old slave came back just to ask His Highness for instructions on what to do next."
Shahakht knew that His Highness's visit to the Ming Dynasty had an important purpose. If things get in the way, he would rather give up the mirror than let His Highness's affairs be affected in the slightest.
The young man thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Since you have said that you want to complain to the emperor, then go ahead. It is also a good way for me to test the emperor's attitude first. Well, what is the saying of the Ming Dynasty? It’s like asking for directions by throwing stones.”
"By your will, my lord."
But one night later, Shahakht got up early in the morning and led the envoys to make noise. They asked to see the emperor, but they were humiliated and asked the emperor to make the decision for them.
Although the director of the Huitong Hall was a fourth-grade official of the Ministry of War, he was still trembling when faced with this situation. He was deeply afraid that one bad move would damage the image of the Ming Dynasty as a state of etiquette. If such a thing really happened, he would not be able to save his life. If one person is not good, the whole family will be in trouble with him.
So, without even thinking about it, he hurriedly passed the matter on to his superiors, fearing that it would implicate him.
When Lao Zhu got the report, his face looked a little ugly. Staring at the old eunuch, he asked sternly: "What's going on? This is a good meeting, so why is there such a fuss?" The emperor doesn't want to be great and upright and shine through the ages? And if you want to do it, you need the blessing of civil and martial arts, among which Siyi Binfu is a very important one.
Originally, Lao Zhu was very dissatisfied with the Japanese country's refusal to pay tribute. If it weren't for the fact that he had a serious problem like Can Yuan standing in front of him, Lao Zhu would have chopped down the Japanese garbage with a knife. There, even if the Ming envoy was killed, Lao Zhu had to swallow this bad breath.
"That's it," the old eunuch hurriedly told the emperor what happened.
"I heard that the envoys from various countries wanted to buy the mirror, and Han Du threatened to double the price before selling it to them. The envoys were naturally dissatisfied, so they clamored to come to the emperor to complain."
When Lao Zhu heard that it was Han Du again, for some reason, most of the anger in his heart was quietly extinguished in an instant.
