(Thanks to Brother Ljsdaf for his reward and the Winged Demon Brother for his evaluation ticket)

Of course, Shi Wei could not tell Dezhao that he had a secret of "unspeaking" to seek the task of envoy Liao...

When Dezhao asked, he sighed, "To be honest, I want to go to Liao Kingdom to envoy it, and I also want to take this opportunity to avoid the one in the palace."

After Shi Wei explained this, Dezhao was immediately in a trance.

"It's good that way, after all, that's my mother. If it's absolutely necessary, I don't want anyone to say that I'm disrespectful to my elders." Dezhao nodded and said.

The second prince naturally agreed to his request by saying this, and Shi Wei secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After chatting again, Shi Wei returned home with ease.

A few days later, the Secretariat issued another document, appointing Shi Wei as an envoy and officially sent an envoy to the Liao Kingdom.

Before leaving, Zhao Kuangyin personally explained Shi Wei and explained to him his attitude towards the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

Zhao Kuangyin said that the lives of soldiers and the people are the most precious. If money can be used to solve the problems of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, he will never use force.

Shi Wei asked Zhao Kuangyin how much money he planned to redeem Yanyun at most. Zhao Kuangyin told him that the bottom line was five million yuan. If this number exceeded, the Song and Liao countries had to use force to decide the ownership of the sixteen states of Yanyun.

The Song Dynasty used the text of copper coins as the most basic unit, and Yizheng (大) totaled one thousand coins, and five million coins were equivalent to five billion coins.

This is already an astronomical number.

Shi Wei was also shocked when he heard this number.

However, he thought again. Although the Liao Kingdom was short of money, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were the springboard for attacking the Central Plains, which was of great significance to the Liao Kingdom. Although the 5 billion yuan was tempting, the Liao people might not be willing to sell it.

Shi Wei thought it would be okay if the Liao people sold it, but if they didn't sell it, they would start a war at most. This was not something that he should worry about in his position.

His top priority was to leave quickly and go to Liao Kingdom to avoid the entangled love luck.

So after receiving the holy wish, Shi Wei, the ambassador to Liao, left Luoyang in a mighty manner and headed north to Liao Kingdom under the escort of more than 300 imperial guards.

As Yang Yanqi said, the team to Liao was led by Yang Yanzhao and Yang Yanqi. In addition, Shi Wei also followed his confidant Xiong Qingye as usual.

At this time, late winter and early spring, the weather was getting warmer, and Shi Wei was not in a hurry to rush on the road. He walked and stopped and took nearly half a month to cross the Song territory and arrived in Youzhou, Liao Kingdom.

Early this morning, the team was walking along the avenue. After a short while, I suddenly saw a group of people coming hurriedly on the avenue behind me.

Seeing this, Yang Yanqi suddenly became alert and urgently ordered her subordinates to be on guard.

After a while, the team gradually approached. Seeing that there were only dozens of Liao soldiers escorting more than a hundred prisoners, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Shi Wei asked the team to get off the side and let the Liao people go first, and also get a little rest by the way.

The mission of hundreds of people stopped on the spot, and everyone drank water. Those who ate dry food ate dry food, Shi Wei also got off the carriage and took a breath.

"Drink a little water." Yang Yanqi handed a water bag.

When Shi Wei was receiving the water bag, he seemed to touch her hand accidentally. Yang Yanqi gave him a blank look and pretended not to know.

Shi Wei smiled and watched the Liao people pass by while drinking water.

Gradually, Shi Wei discovered something was wrong.

Among the prisoners escorted by the Liao people, there were men, women, young and old, all wearing Han costumes. They all looked frightened and supported each other, and they all seemed to be familiar with each other.

"Did you find out that these prisoners look a little strange?" Shi Wei said to Yang Yanqi.

Yang Yanqi snorted coldly, "At first glance, you are a casual official in the capital, and you don't know anything about the border, these people are not criminals at all."

Shi Wei was stunned and said in confusion: "Since it's not a prisoner, why did the Liao people tie them up?"

"Can't you tell me that these people are Caogu that the Khitans call from our border." Yang Yanqi said.

Hearing the word "caogu", Shi Wei was shocked and then suddenly realized.

The Liao** system, the army did not have special logistical support. Every time they went to battle, they were all obtained by soldiers plundering the people of the victims. The Liao people called it "Grass Valley".

Over time, the scope of this Grass Valley was not limited to food, grass, money, but also the people of the enemy country who were captured and used as slaves, and were all called Grass Valley.

During the Five Dynasties, the Central Plains declined and the Liao Kingdom had the upper hand. Therefore, the army often led to the grass valley on the border of the Central Plains, and sometimes even went deep into the hinterland of the Central Plains to plunder.

Later, when the Song Dynasty was established, the Central Plains was strong and the Liao Kingdom was afraid. In order to maintain good neighborliness and friendship, it strictly prohibited military troops from invading the Song Dynasty to attack Caogu.

However, the Song Dynasty wiped out the Northern Han Dynasty the previous year, and the relations between the Liao and Song dynasties broke down. Although the Liao people did not dare to invade the south in large numbers, in order to retaliate against the Song Dynasty, they refuted to restrain themselves and once again indulged the army into the Song territory to attack Caogu.

Although Shi Wei had heard of the grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-grass-gras

Yang Yanqi followed his father to stay in the border for a long time, and was naturally familiar with what the Liao people did. He could tell the details just by looking at it.

Yang Yanqi's voice was very loud. As she said this, all the Song soldiers accompanying him heard it.

It turned out that everyone was still watching the fun. When they heard that the so-called "criminals" tied up in front of them were all their own compatriots, everyone's spirit suddenly became tense and their faces were full of resentment.

The anxious people of the Song Dynasty walked past Shi Wei in a dilemma, helping the elderly and young.

If someone walked slowly, the Liao people escorted beside him came forward to scold him, and even beat him with a horse whip.

The sound of whipping and the wailing of the beaten people, the people present seemed to be empathetic and changed their color.

Shi Wei's fist was gradually clenching.

At this moment, some of the Song people recognized the team beside the road, as if they were their own government troops. They knelt down and begged the government troops to rescue them.

"Sir, we are all from Song, please save us." A young woman rushed to her and kowtowed.

A Liao man had just felt a move and chased after him in a few steps. He cursed in Khitan language, raised his whip and whipped the young woman.

Shi Wei, who was already angry with the Chinese people who dared to beat him in front of him, was suddenly angry.

"Yanqi" Shi Wei winked at Yang Yanqi next to him.

Yang Yanqi immediately understood that before the Liao people's whip fell, she kicked her huge body away with one kick.

The Liao man was kicked and eaten by a dog, and was furious and frightened, and he got up and screamed.

When the other Liao people saw their companions being beaten, they were furious and unsheathed their swords and swarmed around them.

"Protect the Adults"

Yang Yanqi shouted loudly, and more than a hundred elite Song troops quickly set up their formations to encircle Shi Wei, and the sound of swords being unsheathed was heard.

The battle is tense and the battle is about to break out.

The local officials of the Liao Kingdom who were accompanying him were shocked and rushed from the front of the team. They first scolded the Liao people in Khitan dialect.

When the Liao people who were fighting Grass Valley heard that it was a mission of the Song Kingdom, they all changed their color. Their original fierce expressions immediately softened and they had to put away their weapons and retreat.

The Liao official smiled at Shi Wei and said, "I don't know if this group of people is Lord Shi here, so I'm offending, and I'm looking for Lord Shi to forgive me."

Shi Wei snorted coldly, pointed at the Song people who were kneeling everywhere, and asked sternly: "Tell me, what's going on with these people in our country?"

The Liao official was blocked and speech was blocked, and cold sweat rolled on his forehead. I wonder how to respond.

Shi Wei shouted again: "I want to ask if the emperor of your country has had an order to allow you to invade and plunder our country's borders and plunder our people?"

Shi Wei's question made the Liao Kingdom speechless.

In order to retaliate against the Song Dynasty, the Liao court did indulge the border soldiers to build grass valleys, but this was just acquiescence and did not issue it to the army with the emperor's will or the official documents of the Liao court.

Therefore, this Caogu is just a secret matter, but it cannot be put on the table. No matter what occasion, the Liao Kingdom did not admit that it deliberately instigated the soldiers to shoot Caogu.

Now the Liao official did not expect that his team to capture Grass Valley would be met by Shi Wei. The Song envoy was a man who liked to meddle in other people's business. When he was questioned, he naturally felt speechless.

Seeing that he was unsuccessful, Shi Wei said in an orderly tone: "Since the emperor of your country has no order, what these soldiers do is an illegal act, so please give an order immediately and order them to release the people of our country immediately."

The Liao official had no room for excuse, and in desperation, he had to speak up to the Liao soldiers.

When the Liao soldiers heard this, they were all furious and screamed at the Liao official.

Shi Wei didn't understand Khitan's words, so he said to Yang Yanqi: "What are these barbarians calling?"

Yang Yanqi was at the border for a long time and was very knowledgeable about Khitan. After listening carefully, she frowned and said, "The Liao soldiers refused to release them, and they also said that this was their soldiers' business, and local officials had no right to intervene."

Sure enough, the Liao official was ineffective in persuading him, so he had to say helplessly to Shi Wei: "These military soldiers are not under our jurisdiction, and the subordinates have no right to directly give orders to them. Let's do this. After Youzhou, the subordinates will immediately contact their superiors and ask them to order these Song people to release them."

This kind of official speech is just perfunctory. How could Shi Wei know whether the Liao people would let them go or not?

Some people also understood the people, and when they heard the Liao officials' words, they immediately begged again.

As an official of the Song Dynasty, Shi Wei could not watch his compatriots become slaves of the captives?

He looked dark and said coldly: "Don't use such words to fool me. I will make the words here today. Either you take the initiative to let me go, or you will let me go by yourself. You can do it."

The Liao official was so scared that he was afraid that something would happen, so he quickly discussed with the Liao soldiers again.

The Liao soldiers were obviously not soft-boys. When they were scared by Shi Wei like this, they not only were not intimidated, but instead angered them.

The angry Liao soldiers immediately pulled out their weapons and shouted, as if they were going to be tough.

Such scenes seem to be unable to be resolved peacefully.

Shi Wei sneered and said slowly: "It seems that these Liao soldiers are punishing them if they are toasting and not eating. Why are you still standing there? Why don't you do it for me?"

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Chapter completed!