Early in the morning, the Tang Dynasty's general Xiao Yu and Deputy envoy Yu Wenshi came to Jinyang Palace and waited for the reception of King Yang Yuanqing of Chu. Both of them seemed a little worried.

Xiao Yu had just received a secret order from Emperor Li Yuan and agreed to allocate the mines in the northern part of Huining County to the Sui Dynasty, but the condition was to return Nanyang County and Xiyang County to the Tang Dynasty.

Xiao Yu's concern was that Yang Yuanqing was willing to give in. In fact, both the Central Plains and Huining County were originally the territory of the Tang Dynasty, but were taken away by the Sui Dynasty and used to bargain and do business without foundation.

Although the Sui Dynasty was very arrogant and domineering, this was an unavoidable fact. The Tang Dynasty had just experienced the defeat in the Central Plains and had to bear humiliation.

But even so, the Tang Dynasty had to bear the huge price of the Sui Dynasty. Xiao Yu felt that he was the most humiliating person in the Tang Dynasty. He was a dignified prime minister and a country envoy, and he had to stand at the gate of the palace waiting for summons.

Yu Wenshi came as the deputy envoy as the censor. This opportunity was won by King Li Shimin of Qin, but Yu Wenshi did not do it for business, he did it for his wife and children. He hoped to take this opportunity to bring his wife and children back to Chang'an.

He knew that his wife and children lived in Jinyang Palace, only a short distance from him, but to him, this short distance seemed to be far away from the world, which made him feel sad.

"Censor Yuwen!"

Xiao Yu glanced at him and raised his voice with some dissatisfaction, "The state affairs should be the priority."

Yu Wenshi nodded silently, "Yes! I understand."

At this time, a guard quickly walked out of the palace gate, stepped forward and bowed and asked, "May I ask, is it the Tang envoy Xiao Prime Minister?"

Xiao Yu said with his hands behind his back: "That's right!"

The guards were still neither humble nor arrogant, and said: "Your Highness of the King of Chu, please follow me."

Xiao Xiangguo felt very bitter. According to normal etiquette, messengers of his level should have special guest inns to entertain, but they paid for their own money to stay in the inn.

Before the meeting, they should have entered the palace to rest and waited in the welcome room, but they stood outside the palace gate and blew the wind dry. They waited for almost half an hour.

When welcoming guests, the equal prime minister should have come to welcome them into the palace, but unexpectedly, it was just a guard who came to lead the way, which made Xiao Yu unable to bear it.

He had a gloomy face and was about to get angry and disappeared, but Yu Wenshiji reminded him lightly: "Secretary Xiao, state affairs should be the priority!"

Xiao Yu glared at Yu Wen Shi and had no choice but to hold back his breath and followed the guards into the palace.

.........

At this time, Yang Yuanqing was standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back and looking into the gate. He had already seen the guards walking towards Jinyang Palace with two Tang Dynasty envoys. The person in charge should be Xiao Yu. Yang Yuanqing had a knowing smile on his lips.

Xiao Yu actually left without being angry and endured the humiliation. This shows the urgency of Tang Ting to solve the problems of Nanyang counties and prisoners of war.

Very good, I can talk to them about the conditions. Yang Yuanqing turned around and his eyes fell on a calligraphy on the wall. He wrote by Yu Shinan, which read a famous saying: "Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman strives for self-improvement; the earth is quiet, and a gentleman carries things with virtue."

This is his motto of Yang Yuanqing. You must have ambition, have vision, courage, and dare to act. This is called a gentleman who strives for self-improvement.

But having ambition and courage alone is not enough. You must also have strong strength. Without strong strength, ambition and courage are just talking about it on paper, and only bringing laughter after meals. This is called being kind to carry things.

The two complement each other. Yang Yuanqing wants to win the world. His mind is enough, but his strength is still lacking. His army is insufficient and his financial resources are insufficient. The strength of the entire Sui Dynasty is still slightly inferior. He still needs to accumulate strength and accumulate strength.

Yang Yuanqing stared at the words on the wall. At this time, a personal soldier outside the door reported: "Qi reported to the general manager, the envoy of Tang brought him, waiting outside Ziwei Pavilion."

Yang Yuanqing woke up from contemplation and ordered: "Take them to my meeting hall and call Yang Xiangguo and Han Jingshi."

Although he deliberately humiliated Xiao Yu in a cold manner, when the formal negotiations were formal, Yang Yuanqing still used equal etiquette. He walked to the door of the convention hall downstairs and happened to meet the Prime Minister Yang Shidao who was rushing to the rush.

Yang Shidao was appointed as Nayan and was in charge of the province. This time, Yang Yuanqing was preparing to let him come forward to have an interview with Xiao Yu.

"Your Highness!" Yang Shidao bowed to him with a smile.

"Tang Prime Minister Xiao Yu is coming to negotiate, so you can talk to him first on behalf of me!"

Yang Shidao was stunned, with a look of embarrassment on his face. He didn't know about this from beginning to end. How could he talk about it?

"Your Highness, there is no problem with the negotiation between the subordinates and the Tang envoy, but what is our bottom line? What can the subordinates agree to and what cannot be agreed to? Can you tell them first?"

"I know, let's talk!" Yang Yuanqing and Yang Shidao walked into the meeting hall.

...........

After a moment, the guard led the envoy Xiao Yu and the deputy envoy Yu Wenshi and the meeting hall, and the censor Han Shouzhong also rushed over.

"Xiao Xiangguo, have you had a good rest these days?" Yang Yuanqing asked with a smile.

Xiao Yu said coldly: "Thank you, Your Highness, for your concern. Taiyuan's inn is quite clean, but it's a little too expensive."

His tone was full of dissatisfaction and ridicule, but Yang Yuanqing smiled and introduced him to Yang Shidao and Han Shouzhong. In fact, there is no need to introduce it. Xiao Yu and Yang Shidao had known each other for a long time. Xiao Yu was the brother of Queen Xiao and a relative of the Sui Dynasty, while Yang Shidao was the nephew of Yang Guang and a royal family. They often had contacts.

However, Xiao Yu did not expect that Yang Shidao would take office as Na Yan. This made him think of his brother Yang Gongren who served as the Minister of Rites in the Tang Dynasty. Both of these brothers were high-ranking officials in the Sui and Tang dynasties. If he didn't know how to compete in the future, Xiao Yu actually felt absurd.

In fact, he had forgotten that he was the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, but his sister Empress Xiao was in the Sui Dynasty.

Seeing that the other party had a prime minister and a censor, Xiao Yu's dissatisfaction suddenly disappeared. It was okay to be a little bit worse in life and etiquette. The key was the sincerity of the negotiation. If the matter could be settled, even if Yang Yuanqing drove him out of Taiyuan City, he wouldn't care.

Xiao Yu's face became serious, and the four of them sat down, while Yang Yuanqing sat behind him and drank a cup of tea slowly.

He had told Yang Shidao if he should explain that he would not say a word during the second negotiation.

Yang Shidao smiled and said, "In order to show our great Sui Dynasty's sincerity in negotiations, we will release Shi Dana first. Someone will send him to the inn where you stay, and he can leave Taiyuan at any time."

The kindness released by the Sui Dynasty first made Xiao Yu's spirit suddenly excited, and when he saw hope, he was afraid that Yang Yuanqing would ask for a price all over the place and put forward some conditions that could not be done at all.

Xiao Yu also bowed and said, "Thank you for your country's release. I really hope to reach an agreement today."

"We hope too!"

Yang Shidao smiled and brought the topic to Huining County first. "About Huining County, we propose to recognize the Sui army's control over Huining County as a prerequisite for this negotiation. I wonder if Xiao Xiangguo asked the court for instructions?"

The fire in Xiao Yu's heart was burning. He thought that the Sui Dynasty had the sincerity to release Shi Danai, but unexpectedly the other party did not make any concessions at all, and he still used Huining County as the prerequisite for negotiation.

He said in a deep voice: "Please forgive me for saying that Huining County was originally the territory of the Tang Dynasty and had rich minerals, but it was forcibly occupied by the Sui army. We can accept the reality that the Sui army seized minerals, but you must also make concessions, otherwise a war to maintain dignity will definitely be inevitable."

Yang Yuanqing seemed not to hear Xiao Yu's toughness, and his eyes fell on Yu Wenshi. Yu Wenshi sat behind Xiao Yu, keeping his head down, looking worried.

Yang Yuanqing knew his thoughts. This poor man was determined to seek forgiveness from his wife, but the revenge of killing his father. Can Princess Nanyang forgive him?

Historically, Princess Nanyang would rather Dou Jiande kill his son Zen Master Yuwen because he is the son of Yuwen Shiji, which shows how deeply Princess Nanyang hated the Yuwen family.

At this time, Yang Shidao coughed gently and reminded Yang Yuanqing that he had a little difficulty in answering the request made by Xiao Yu.

Yang Yuanqing stood up and walked outside, and Yang Shidao followed him out. Soon, Yang Shidao came back. Xiao Yu felt a little nervous. He knew that the critical time was coming.

Yang Shidao sat down and said lightly: "His Highness of the King of Chu said that we can give in. If the Tang Dynasty was willing to completely give up Huining County to the Great Sui Dynasty, we can return Nanyang County and Xiyang County to the Tang Dynasty. As before, as a buffer county, the Tang Dynasty would not be allowed to station troops in these two counties."

After pausing for a while, Yang Shidao said: "There are also all the surrendered soldiers and captured officials, including Dugu Huai'en and Wen Daya. We can release them all, but the release condition is 500,000 stones of food."

"Five hundred thousand!"

Xiao Yu shouted out in a lost voice. The maximum limit given by Emperor Li Yuan was 200,000 stones of food, which was too far apart.

...........

After killing Qiu Xinggong, Pei Xingyan moved westward to the Yuntian Fortress of Huining County and set up a camp on a low hill. He did not evacuate, but monitored the Tang army from a distance.

The Yuntian Fortress stationed by the Tang army was in a dangerous terrain and difficult to attack. With just ten thousand Sui troops, it could not capture this solid fortress. Pei Xingyan changed his plan and surrounded the fort and attacked aid.

After defeating the night attack of the Tang army, Pei Xingyan also learned that the lord general on the top of the mountain was actually the prince-consor Chai Shao. This was a big fish, and he didn't want to give up the big fish easily.

At this time, the Sui army in Liangchuan County also sent thousands of stones of grain and a large amount of horse materials, enough for Pei Xingyan to last for more than ten days.

That morning, Pei Xingyan was looking at the movements of Yuntian Castle as usual in front of the camp. Suddenly, several Sui army scouts rushed from a distance.

"General Pei!"

The scout was yelling excitedly from afar: "I discovered the enemy's situation."

Pei Xingyan was very energetic and asked quickly: "But the reinforcements of the Tang army have arrived?"

"That's right! In Pingliang County, eighty miles away, a cavalry of about 3,000 people was coming quickly. It seemed that it was a very elite Tang army cavalry, and the leader was a female general."

"Female general?"

Pei Xingyan was stunned. Who could it be? Could it be Chai Shao's wife Li Xiuning?

.........
Chapter completed!