The envoy of the Tang Dynasty was Wen Daya, the minister of the Huangmen. He received Li Mi three days after arriving in Chenliu County.

Chenliu Palace Qinzheng Pavilion, this is the official room where Li Mi handles official affairs. Under the guidance of several guards, Wen Daya walked through the long corridor and came to the gate of Li Mi's official room.

"Your Majesty, the envoy of Tang is here!"

"Please come in."

The door opened, Wen Dayan walked into the room with his head held high. The room was spacious and bright, filled with a faint sandalwood. In the middle was Li Mi, the King of Wei, wearing a purple dragon robe and a three-beam crown, and there was a minister sitting on both sides. There was a couch opposite Li Mi, which was obviously left for him.

At this time, Wen Daya noticed that a huge sand table that was two meters wide and three meters long was placed by the window. Since Yang Yuanqing took the lead in using the sand table, other major forces have followed suit. There was also a huge sand table covering the entire Central Plains in Li Yuan's imperial study.

Wen Daya gathered his mind and quickly stepped forward to salute Li Mi, "Wen Daya, the special envoy of His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, met with the King of Wei!"

"So it's Mr. Wen, please give up the gift!"

Li Mi has excellent literary cultivation and is from Guanlong nobles, which makes his pomp and etiquette look decent, with a bit of formal dynasty. Li Mi also feels good about himself. The only regret is that there is no decent capital, and a large capital like Taiyuan or Chang'an has set up his storefront for him.

Li Mi smiled slightly again and waved her hand and said, "Mr. Wen, please sit down."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Wen Daya sat down, and Li Mi smiled and introduced the two high-ranking officials next to him, "These two are Shangshu's Right Pushe Fang Xuanzao and the Inner Historian Ling Bing Yuanzhen. They are both important officials of the Great Wei Dynasty. Mr. Wen must have heard of it."

Wen Daya certainly knew that although Li Mi accepted a group of Sui ministers from Yu Wenhua and his hands, such as Pei Yun, Yu Shiqing and others, they were just filling their stories. The power was actually in the hands of his former confidant staff, just like the two in front of him, which was also the main reason why Feng Deyi escaped from Li Mi.

"It turned out to be two important officials. Daya has long admired him."

The three of them greeted each other. When Wen Daya and Bing Yuanzhen bowed, they exchanged glances. There were some things that were well aware of.

Fang Xuanzao was like an old monk sitting in a stern manner, his eyes half closed, as if nothing had to do with him. He also ignored Wen Daya's greetings and seemed very arrogant.

This is not because of the literati's reluctance, but because Fang Xuanzao opposes the alliance with the Tang Dynasty. He does not want Li Mi to be involved in the battle between the Sui and Tang Dynasties. He sees it very thoroughly. The Tang Dynasty is obviously using the Wei Dynasty. Fang Xuanzao firmly opposes, but Li Mi is very enthusiastic, which makes him helpless.

Wen Daya touched a cold face at Fang Xuanzao, and was a little embarrassed. She could only smile and said to Li Mi: "I have submitted a letter written by my Majesty to His Highness the day before yesterday. I believe your Highness should have read it. I wonder if your Highness is willing to accept the advice of His Majesty."

Li Mi smiled faintly, "I have indeed read the handwritten letter from the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and have fully considered his suggestions. In principle, I can accept his plan, but some details need to be discussed. I wonder if Mr. Wen can make the decision?"

Wen Daya was a little stunned and hurriedly bowed and said, "If there is no big change, I can make the decision!"

"The change is not big, but I want to add some small conditions."

Wen Daya heard that Li Mi wanted to add conditions, and he became a little nervous. Although Tang Ting had considered that Li Mi might put forward conditions before he left, the place where the court was preparing to make concessions was not large. The emperor clearly stated that the land and population would never make concessions.

Wen Daya actually has little room for decision, but he calmed down and said, "I wonder what conditions your Highness wants?"

"I have two conditions. The first condition is that the Tang Dynasty needs to provide me with 300,000 stones of food for military supplies."

When Wen Daya heard that the other party wanted 300,000 shi of grain, he let go of his heart. Jingxiang had enough food and supplies, and he could give out 300,000 shi of grain. He could agree to this condition.

However, he could not agree at once, which made Li Mi feel that it was too easy. Wen Daya looked embarrassed on her face, and she pondered for a while and asked again: "I wonder what is the second condition of His Highness the King of Wei?"

"As for the second condition!"

Li Mi dragged her tone and her tone became cold, "I want a head of man, Feng Deyi's head as a condition for alliance."

Wen Daya was shocked. The first condition was that he pretended to behave, but he really couldn't accept the second condition. How could it be possible! Feng Deyi is now the Minister of Inner History of the Tang Dynasty and is a prominent high-ranking official. How could the Tang Dynasty hand over his head to Li Mi again? Otherwise, who would dare to surrender to the Tang Dynasty in the future?

"The second condition is a bit difficult, please feel the King of Wei three." Wen Daya tactfully rejected Li Mi's second condition.

"I'm very sorry like this. I wanted to form an alliance with the Tang Dynasty, but it's a pity!" Li Mi shook her head, her words full of regret.

"Your Highness, can you change the conditions and put your heart in favor? If the Tang Dynasty proposed such conditions, will your Highness accept it?"

Li Mi raised her head and thought for a moment, and a cunning smile appeared in her eyes, "Since it's a tough situation, I have to change the conditions, okay! If I don't force the Tang Dynasty, I will change the conditions. I want 100,000 pieces of silk cloth."

This is Li Mi's real condition. Although Feng Deyi's betrayal annoyed him, it was just a loss of face. Now Li Mi values ​​the most realistic property such as actual interests, grain, and cloth. It is a big deal to exchange a Feng Deyi head for 100,000 pieces of silk cloth.

Wen Daya suddenly understood Li Mi's intentions, and he cursed shamelessly in his heart. Fortunately, neither of these two conditions violated the bottom line of land and population, so he could agree.

"Does Your Highness the King of Wei have other conditions?"

"The other thing is to hope that both of us can treat each other with sincerity and jointly deal with the Sui army's expansion in the south."

Wen Daya nodded solemnly, "I agree to both conditions based on the four words "with sincerity" by His Highness of Wei."

............

Wen Daya left, and Bing Yuanzhen also retreated. Only Fang Xuanzao and Li Mi were left in the room. Fang Xuanzao firmly opposed the alliance with the Tang Dynasty. He did not have selfish intentions like Bing Yuanzhen, but he believed that alliance with the Tang Dynasty was a strategic mistake.

"Did the prince realize what else is missing from our Wei Dynasty and the Sui and Tang Dynasties?"

Li Mi knew this very well. He walked slowly to the sand table with his hands behind his back, stared at the sand table for a long time, and then sighed and said, "What I lack most now is the population."

"The prince is right. The Tang Dynasty had Zhonghe Bashu and occupied the wealthy Jingxiang with a large population, while the Sui Dynasty had Hedong and Fengzhou. I heard that Fengzhou was gradually relocating population to Hebei. These are extremely important strategic resources. But we lack a densely populated place like Guanzhong or Hedong, so our strength is still not as good as the Sui and Tang dynasties."

Fang Xuanzao saw it thoroughly and pointed out Li Mi’s biggest weakness now. In fact, Li Mi also has another weakness, that is, his reputation is not right.

Although he captured Yang Neng and Empress Xiao, the queen and grandson of the Sui Dynasty, the dynasty he established was called the Wei Dynasty and the army was also called the Wei Army, which was a bit inconsistent and caused him to lose his orthodoxy, and the political advantages of Empress Xiao and Yang Neng could not be exerted.

But compared with legitimate reasons, the weakness of not having a strategic place is even more serious. The reason why he proposed to demand 300,000 shi of grain was because his military rations were seriously insufficient.

The territory he occupied could not support the 200,000 army at all, so he could only use the army to cultivate land, but the army could not solve the need for fire. Without a population, there would be no food, taxes, and no source of troops. This was Li Mi's biggest weakness.

Fang Xuanzao knew what Li Mi’s problem was, and he also thought of a solution.

"Prince, we can actually develop to the south, with Jiangdu as the capital and Wuyue as the hinterland. The Jianghuai Central Plains can be controlled in the north, and the Wuyue and the Fujian in the south, which is enough to divide the world with the Sui and Tang dynasties. In this way, why should we work hard for the Tang Dynasty and be used by it?"

Fang Xuanzao's words made Li Mi a little moved. Although in the early Sui Dynasty, the economic population in the south could not be compared with the north, in the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the north suffered great damage and a large number of people fled south.

On the contrary, Jiangnan suffered relatively less damage and became an economically developed place. Although in the late Sui Dynasty, Jiangnan also had rebellions by Li Zitong, Du Fuwei and others, at that time, all the princes had already attached great importance to people's livelihood, no longer plundered and killed, and knew how to release water to raise fish.

The first thing Li Mi thought of was Jiangdu City, which was tall and wide and had a large population. Later, he became the capital of the Sui Dynasty. It was a large capital comparable to Taiyuan and Chang'an. If he could win Jiangdu, he could directly ascend the throne and become emperor.

"This matter makes me think about it again and think about it again!"

Fang Xuanzao actually didn't want Li Mi to agree to something immediately. After all, it was a big deal, so it was impossible to agree to anything at once. At the same time, he didn't want him to regret forming an alliance with the Tang Dynasty. The key is that as long as Li Mi had his own interests in his heart, he would be more at ease and would not devote all his life to the Tang Dynasty.

"That humble position has been retired!"

.........

Li Mi stood in front of the sand table alone with her hands behind her back, and he remembered the past again. In fact, he had a deep connection with Yang Yuanqing. The first person to appreciate him back then was Yang Su. He studied on the back of a cow and was seen by Yang Su. After a conversation, he thought it was strange that his son Xuangan would be dating him.

Yang Xuangan was his first close friend in his life, including Yang Xuangan's rebellion, which was also his plan, but he did not expect that his biggest enemy now was Yang Xuangan's son and Yang Su's grandson, which deeply touched the wonders of life encounters.

Li Mi walked to the window with his hands behind his back, looking at the gorgeous sunset in the distance, dyeing the entire sky purple-red. The thing Li Mi regretted the most was to kill Zhang Xutuo. It was the killing of Zhang Xutuo that made him and Yang Yuanqing have an indelible grudge. The grudge between them could only be resolved until death.

This dead knot made Li Mi sigh.
Chapter completed!