Vientiane Shrine.
Above the main hall.
Umrah still continues.
The Shu envoy, who raised his head and looked at the sky forty-five degrees, made a reluctant expression and said when he saw Empress Daliang speaking in person:
"Since His Majesty has opened the mouth of Chrysostom, let me tell you about the conditions of our Kingdom of Shu."
"Your Majesty, please speak." The Queen forced a smile.
"First of all, there is the issue of food prices. The food price set by our lord, Emperor Shu, is two taels of silver per grain." The Shu envoy said carelessly, and raised two fingers.
"..."
After he finished speaking, the hall was quiet for a moment.
A prime minister suddenly broke the silence loudly:
"Two taels of silver and one stone? That works out to... twenty cents per liter! But the price of food on the market in your country of Shu is only two cents per liter, which is a full tenfold increase!"
One stone = one dendrobium = ten buckets = one hundred liters.
The price of grain on the market in Shu is only two taels of silver, which is equivalent to two hundred liters per stone, but the envoys of Shu are asking for two taels of silver, which is equivalent to two thousand liters!
It’s doubled ten times!
Another prime minister angrily said:
"Yes, we are buying in large quantities, but you, the Shu Kingdom, don't give us a certain discount, but you take the opportunity to raise the price of food tenfold? You are too bullying!"
The Shu envoy didn't care, raised his head, looked at the ceiling of the hall at 45 degrees, and said arrogantly:
"Actually, I haven't finished what I said. In addition to the price of two taels of silver and one stone, the transportation of the food also needs to be borne by you, Daliang. Of course, if you can't accept it, you don't have to buy it!"
"you you you you……"
"..."
The Shu envoy's expression of wanting to be beaten made the princes and ministers of Daliang extremely crazy.
They just said "You don't have to buy it" and they ate them to death. This really meant that the Shu Kingdom had grasped it by seven inches and was powerless to resist!
In the end, the queen suppressed the anger in her heart and negotiated with the Shu envoys in person, lowering the price of grain to 600 yuan per stone. Daliang was responsible for the entire transportation of the grain.
Although six hundred coins per stone is still expensive, it is much cheaper than two taels of silver per stone.
It's just... this is the result of personal negotiation by the Queen, which makes the prime ministers look very incompetent, but... the matter has come to this, what can be done?
In their hearts, although they already hated the Shu envoy and wanted to drag him out immediately and cut him into pieces, they thought that Daliang still expected to buy grain from Shu, so they had to endure it.
After discussing the issue of grain prices, the Shu envoy continued to say carelessly:
"Next, is the monthly sales quota. Our lord, Emperor Shu, once ordered that the maximum amount of grain sold to you Daliang every month should not exceed... ten thousand dan!"
"..."
After he finished speaking, there was silence in the hall again.
Where is ten thousand stones enough?
The entire Liang Dynasty has so many open mouths, and the quota of 10,000 dan per month is not enough to fill the gap in the teeth!
The brows of the prime ministers were almost bunched up.
The Queen, who was sitting high on the dragon chair, was even more tired. Her hands on her legs kept clenching the dragon robe, then slowly relaxed, and then clenched the dragon robe again, and so on...
The Kingdom of Shu... is bullying others too much!
The king and ministers of Daliang all thought so in their hearts.
The words and deeds of the Shu envoys today left a very deep impression on them, especially the Queen, who secretly vowed to "repay" the Shu Emperor well.
In the end, the queen took a deep breath, suppressed the anger in her heart, and negotiated with the envoys of Shu in person, finally increasing the monthly supply quota to one million shi.
At this point, the negotiations to purchase grain from Shu have finally ended!
Daliang Jun and his ministers all breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
No matter what, no matter how much the price will be paid, at least Daliang will not be short of food, and ordinary people will not starve to death in droves.
The Queen felt particularly tired.
Today, Emperor Shu made her lose her temper.
First the python robe, and then the harsh conditions for purchasing grain in Shu...
After the negotiation, she felt a deep sense of exhaustion and powerlessness. Today was the most useless time since she came to the throne. Now she just wanted to go back to the dormitory and have a good sleep.
After her old illness relapsed, she had never fully recovered. She was already somewhat unable to cope with daily military and political affairs. Today, she was tortured by the envoys of the Kingdom of Shu...
She was really tired.
However, just when the Queen was about to announce the end of the small court meeting, the Shu envoy suddenly spoke again:
"Your Majesty, although the foreign minister agreed to the food price of six hundred coins and one stone and the quota of one million stone per month, there are two conditions that follow."
"What other conditions are there?!" The prime ministers were furious. Princess Lanling Emei's grave was raised. There was a buzzing sound in the tired queen's head, and she felt a little unconscious.
"Simple, first, Daliang needs to present 500 beauties to our Shu Kingdom for our lord, Emperor Shu, to enjoy, plus 20,000 strong men for our lord, Emperor Shu to serve!" The envoy of Shu Kingdom said carelessly.
"impossible!"
A prime minister immediately jumped out to object.
Immediately afterwards, all the prime ministers gathered around the Shu envoys. Every word you said and I refuted, almost scolding the Emperor of Shu for being shameless.
The Queen was sitting high on the dragon chair and felt a little dizzy. She had to hold the dragon table with both hands. Seeing the quarrel below, she felt inexplicably tired and upset.
"shut up!"
The Queen shouted loudly.
In the end, she personally took action and negotiated with Shu envoys to reduce the number of beauties to fifty and the number of strong men to five hundred.
The Shu envoy was satisfied and then said carelessly:
"There is one last condition."
"Say it." The queen said, holding her forehead.
"Your Majesty, please move to the border between Liang and Shu. My lord, the Emperor Shu, has admired your Majesty for a long time. I heard that your Majesty has a beautiful country and a beautiful city, and I really want to see it with my own eyes!"
"..."
After these words, there was silence in the hall again.
Emperor Shu's move obviously had bad intentions.
The Queen even frowned. She instinctively had a premonition that if she went to see Emperor Shu, he would be toyed with and humiliated by Emperor Shu... wantonly, even worse than a female slave!
There were rumors in the market that Emperor Shu was inhumane, but... who can say for sure about this kind of thing?
There are still three thousand beauties in Emperor Shu's harem!
"presumptuous!"
"This is impossible!"
“Your Majesty, it’s okay if you don’t buy this food!”
"Your Majesty, please pull this person out of the hall and behead him in public..."
"..."
The prime ministers completely went berserk, and the long-suppressed anger broke out at this moment. Emperor Shu's intention to get involved with the Empress of Liang was simply equivalent to insulting the mother of these prime ministers.
No, it's more serious than that!
"If you can't accept this condition, then let's give up on the purchase of grain!" The Shu envoy was not afraid at all, and looked like he was convinced of the emperor and ministers of Liang Dynasty.
"you……"
The prime ministers lost their temper in an instant. If they could not buy grain from Shu, Daliang would starve to death all over the country. At that time, the people would be disheartened, and Liao would take the opportunity to go south, which would surely be a disaster for the country!
The Queen felt dizzy and blinked hard. She always felt that the people below the hall were being shadowed. She stood up slowly, holding the armrests of the dragon chair with both hands.
His face was gloomy and solemn, with a strong look of exhaustion.
In order to purchase enough food from Shu, to prevent ordinary people from starving to death, and to stabilize Daliang's country, she finally decided...
Agree to this condition!
Thinking of being played and humiliated by Emperor Shu, she felt sick in her heart... This will definitely be a shame for her life!
After the slightly swaying Queen slowly stood up and looked at the overlapping figures below, she couldn't help but secretly pray and swear in her heart:
"If there is someone in my family who can solve the food shortage crisis, I... don't mind... letting him... play with it!"
"Haha, we are all being played by others anyway, why should we take advantage of the fat-bellied Shu Emperor!"
"But...do I have such a person in Daliang?"
"..."
The Queen suddenly thought of Su Xian. She actually liked Su Xian very much because he was handsome. Before, she had minded that Su Xian was not a virgin, but if...
That’s it!
The queen finally shook her head. With so much food, no matter how talented Su Xian was, he couldn't conjure it out of thin air...
Thinking that she was about to be humiliated by the pot-bellied Emperor Shu, she was really...unwilling!
Finally, the queen composed herself, looked at the Shu envoys below, and prepared to agree. As the Emperor of Liang, she decided to sacrifice herself.
However, at this moment, intermittent voices suddenly came from outside the hall, seeming to shout something like "Marquis of Fanyang County" or "Yijia".
Everyone turned to look outside the hall door at the same time.
I saw an old eunuch in the distance, shouting. The words "Marquis of Fanyang County", "Yijia", etc. came from this person's mouth.
But the old eunuch seemed to be stopped by Qian Niuwei and his mouth was covered...
