The Song Dynasty planned to establish the Huayi order during the Tang Dynasty and tried to get Japan to pay tribute.
However, there have been no formal exchanges between the two countries, so they had to rely on monks and businessmen from Japan or businessmen and monks from the Song Dynasty to Japan to convey news.
In order to avoid diplomatic disputes between the Song Dynasty and the Japanese countries, which would affect the business of those merchants, these guys would often do things like tampering with credentials.
Fujiwara Tadai also specifically explained that it was the maritime merchants of the Song Dynasty who did the most such things.
After all, Japan has adopted a closed-door attitude since the Fujiwara clan took control of the government.
And because he is the boss of the Fujiwara clan, he has the right to engage in maritime trade. Ordinary Japanese people, haha... are not the privileged class, how can they have such a way to make money?
Gao Zhang could only express his deep admiration for Fujiwara Tadayi explaining to him so many of the sexy operations of maritime merchants and monks.
For these guys, as long as their business is doing well and they can make a lot of money, changing their credentials is not a big deal.
Gao Zhang looked at Prince Furen of Japan, the smile on his face looked so kind, and his eyes were full of relief and appreciation.
I always looked at Prince Furen, the brother of Emperor Shirakawa, with horror. I always felt that there was something wrong with this child prodigy. What do you think I would do if I didn't read my credentials?
Although I have a noble status in the Japanese country, I am still an old and middle-aged man, not the kind of person you think.
"I wonder why Gao Shaoqing is laughing?"
In Gao Zhang's heart, of course, he would not think about those improper things, but at this moment, the words of the Japanese envoy, coupled with Fujiwara Tadayi's previous reminder.
Gao Zhang felt that he had a lot more cards in his hand. He had already made up his mind to do various tricks and delays, but the result was good. You took the initiative to find trouble.
Gao Zhang once again spread out the letter of credence and looked at it carefully. To be honest, this letter of credence was the head of the Japanese country who was chattering to the Emperor of the Song Dynasty with an equal attitude.
After that, I hope that the Emperor of the Song Dynasty will quickly bring those thugs from the Song Kingdom back to the country, so as not to damage the diplomatic relations between the two countries.
For this reason, the Japanese state was willing to give the Song Dynasty court 50,000 taels of gold and 200,000 taels of silver as compensation.
Looking at the credentials, Gao Zhang slowly shook his head and placed the credentials on the table.
"It turns out that our country, the Song Dynasty, did not establish formal diplomatic relations with your Japanese country. It seems that this is a major dereliction of duty by our country, the Honglu Temple of the Song Dynasty."
"In that case, I would like to ask Mr. Furen to return to the country, and ask your Japanese king to write a letter of credence willing to pay tribute to me, the Song Dynasty, and we will talk again."
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"...?" Prince Furen was stunned for a long time before he realized that the prodigy of the Song Dynasty was talking to him.
"This, this... it can't be possible. You, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, have submitted letters of credence to my lord in the past and are willing to be friendly with this country. How can you say that you don't have diplomatic relations?"
"You don't understand this, right? I would like to ask you, since the founding of the Song Dynasty, have any of my official envoys from the Song Dynasty ever arrived in Japan?"
"Before you set foot on our territory of the Song Dynasty, which Japanese official had entered the Song Dynasty as an envoy from the Japanese country?"
"So, since you, the Japanese country, want to talk to me about the affairs between countries, we must be more formal after all."
Furthermore, since you said that Japan and the Song Dynasty established diplomatic relations on an equal footing, haha... I, the Song Dynasty, are not happy, what can you do?
You are not willing to become a vassal state of our Song Dynasty, so Fujiwara Kingdom is a vassal state of our Song Dynasty. So you want me to whip my own child to please you?
Prince Furen looked at the prodigy champion of the Song Dynasty in front of him with a confused expression. He wanted to refute, but he felt that what he said seemed to make sense.
After all, in the past, people on the Japanese islands liked to play with themselves and were not willing to deal with humans or surrounding countries.
I really never thought about the embarrassing situation like today.
The important point is that the young minister of Honglu Temple in the Song Dynasty conveyed a very painful message.
The Song Dynasty was very dissatisfied with the unwillingness of the Japanese country to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty. As long as you are not willing to declare yourself a vassal, the Song Dynasty will definitely not pay attention to the affairs of your Japanese country and the Fujiwara Kingdom.
#####
With his head full of confusion, Prince Furen left Gaozhang's residence in the dusk. On the way back, he remembered that he had not got back the credential.
I wanted to go back and get it, but when I thought about it, even if I got the letter of credence, what's the use?
Forget it, let's think carefully about how to report back to the Emperor Shirakawa and ask the Emperor Shirakawa to make a decision.
When there is news another day and I go to see the prodigy champion of the Song Dynasty, I can just get the certificate of credentials back.
At this moment, Gao Zhang had already closed the door. At this moment, Lu Qian and Fu An were guarding the door.
And Gao Zhang, a handsome young man, was copying the words of the national letter word by word.
Yes, Gao Zhang was not just copying, but copying. Even the seal on the credential, Gao Zhang used a ruler and charcoal pen.
The seal was carefully drawn on a piece of rice paper with every detail.
It wasn't until Gao Zhang copied all the words on the credential and got the seal.
Then he let out a sigh of relief, then took out a blank rice paper and started to consider it.
I am going to use the tone of the Japanese credential to start forging a new Japanese credential with a worse tone and attitude, and a more arrogant and domineering one.
Gao Zhang, who originally had a very moral bottom line, certainly didn't want to do this, but since he collected information about this aspect from Fujiwara Tadayi.
Gao Zhang felt that those businessmen and monks could do the first grade of junior high school, so why couldn’t I do the fifteenth grade?
What's more, I didn't mean to maliciously slander the Japanese state. I just wanted to remove all the hypocrisy and perfunctoryness on the surface of this Japanese credential.
Express the meaning of the Japanese leader more clearly to prevent Master from thinking that the other party is saying nice things.
Look, this disciple of the mantle is really doing his best for his master.
Thinking of this, Gao Zhang instantly felt that his overall moral level had once again exceeded the passing line and reached the level of excellent quality.
After doing all this, the biggest difficulty was the seal, but Gao Zhang didn't think it was a problem.
After collecting the manuscripts of Japanese official documents that he created, he burned the copied handwriting.
Gao Zhang then called Fu An to come in, and then whispered in his ear.
Fu'an looked at his young master with a confused expression, but he nodded his head more diligently than a kowtow-worm.
"Don't worry, little man. I'll buy some carving knives and ten pounds of radishes soon..."
"Well, go ahead and come back quickly."
(End of chapter)
