Li Chengxu was already feeling ups and downs, and hurriedly said:

"Your Highness the King of Liao, the bad news is that the Emperor of the Celestial Empire disagrees with the marriage, right?"

After Li Chengxu finished speaking, he saw His Highness the King of Liao nodding heavily and then said:

"It's not all, but it's almost the same."

When Li Chengxu heard His Highness the King of Liao's words, he seemed to have heard it, but he seemed to have not heard it.

When he thought of the good news, he hurriedly asked:

"Your Highness, what about the good news?"

Zhu Qi hesitated for a moment and muttered "This..."

Li Chengxu hurriedly walked up and grinded a small box from his pocket, and respectfully handed it to Zhu Qi.

Zhu Qi frowned and raised his hand and said:

"No, envoy, don't do this."

Li Chengxu said "tsk" and said with a natural expression:

"Your Highness is relieved that these are not expensive things, they are just some specialties from your hometown."

Zhu Qi hesitated for a moment, put away the box calmly, and then told the good news.

The good news is that King Zhu Qi of Liao has put in a lot of effort to temporarily stabilize the situation, otherwise we would have seen the news of Princess Lin'an getting married today.

When Li Chengxu heard that his calf had become weak, he immediately began to beg:

"Your Highness, Your Highness! You must give us some advice. What should I do now?"

What should I do? Generally, what else can I do at this time? I must just give up the burden and do it in a mess!

But Zhu Qi is not an ordinary prince, he is His Highness the King of Liao!

Li Chengxu heard that although His Highness of the Liao King looked embarrassed, there was clearly a glimmer of hope in this difficult feeling.

His Highness the King of Liao was eager to speak, but he wanted to speak, and his expression was quite wonderful. Li Chengxu immediately said:

"Your Highness, the foreign minister can still get a box of specialties in my hometown..."

Zhu Qi's expression condensed, and his whole body seemed to be filled with letters of all sizes. He grabbed Li Chengxu's hands and said on the spot:

Envoy Li, no, Lord Li! What is the relationship between us? If you were born in the Ming Dynasty, then I will recommend you to be the Left Prime Minister of the Secretariat immediately!

But it doesn't matter. I can still strongly support Lord Li, you are the Prime Minister of Goryeo.

There is no room for rebellion about marriage. Although the emperor did not want to marry Princess Lin'an to Goryeo, I have already laid the groundwork. At this time, I will try harder, maybe there will be a chance.

Then Li Chengxu was stunned, what's the point?

"Strike a marriage!"

Zhu Qi said:

"You just write a memorial and say you are willing to compete fairly with other envoys. If this matter can be accomplished, if I am here to help you behind the scenes, it will be almost 10 out of ten people!"

Li Chengxu's plan made sense. As long as His Highness the King of Liao is behind his back, if he really competes fairly with other envoys, if he can get the test questions in advance, wouldn't he win?

Anyway, according to His Highness the King of Liao, if you continue like this, you will not be able to marry Princess Lin'an. If this is the case, it would be better to follow the method mentioned by His Highness the King of Liao.

If you win, you will marry Princess Lin'an, you will have a reputation and prestige. At that time, you will take advantage of the chaos between the Northern Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, and then take advantage of the snipe and clam fight, and your own Korean fisherman will benefit and win Liaodong in one fell swoop. Wouldn't it be nice!

Li Chengxu thought to himself that in this way, he could complete the task given by the king, and immediately became happy and agreed happily.

When Zhu Qi saw it, he was also overjoyed. Isn’t this just a trap?

The two of them had their own ulterior motives, but on the surface they had become good brothers who could say everything. After chatting for a while, Zhu Qi said goodbye to the guest. Not long after, Li Chengxu arranged for someone to bring a big box. As for the box, it was all specialties!

What Li Chengxu didn't know was that in the past two days, many envoys from many countries began to send various specialties one after another.

Behind all this, the ghostly emperor guards, the prototype spies of the Jinyiwei, have delivered one message to the inner room.

Zhu Qi continued to accept the gifts with peace of mind while sending all the gifts he received to the Office of the Internal Affairs without exception.

I almost scared the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I was still small boxes two days ago, but today I turned into big boxes!

This is also a bit exaggerated.

However, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Di came over with a serious look on his face. Seeing that his third brother Zhu Qi was still drinking tea slowly, he hurried over and said:

"San brother, those foreign envoys have really submitted memorials to demand fair competition for Princess Lin'an. The court officials who were quarreling no longer argued. As expected, everything is under your calculations! But..."

Looking at Zhu Di's desire to speak but stop, Zhu Qi smiled:

"It's just that my dad is looking for me, right?"

Zhu Di nodded and said worriedly:

"San brother, do you think Dad knows that you are doing something behind the envoys? Dad won't punish you, right? Third brother, you believe me, this is definitely not what I said, otherwise I will go with you, and I will also have a responsibility."

Zhu Qi looked at Zhu Di and asked him to take it down quickly. What does this matter have to do with you? I said the words, I instigated the people, and I received the gifts. Even if I have the responsibility, I will bear it alone.

However, Zhu Qi guessed that there would be no major things. After all, he did this, so he didn't hide from Zhu Yuanzhang at all. If he really wanted to hide, he wouldn't give all the gifts he received to the Interior Office. That was basically equivalent to telling Zhu Yuanzhang that those foreign envoys gave him gifts.

Even those Jinyiwei spies were not so powerful, Zhu Yuanzhang would be surprised and arranged for someone to investigate.

It would be better to say that Zhu Yuanzhang had been looking at it for so long before he called himself over now, and Zhu Qi felt it was a bit too late.

Zhu Qi stood up and cleaned up his appearance without saying a word. Of course, in Zhu Di's eyes, he almost cleaned up his face.

Zhu Di felt that if he dared to reciprocate with the envoys like this, he would probably have been beaten to death by Zhu Yuanzhang on the spot.

Zhu Qi smiled and patted Zhu Di on the shoulder and said:

"Go and say to your sister Princess Lin'an, and then she said that her marriage is happy, and it is covered by the third brother."

As soon as Zhu Di finished speaking, before he could reply, he heard an internal official coming from outside. It was indeed Zhu Yuanzhang who sent Zhu Qi to come over.

Zhu Qi followed the inner official and left quickly. The inner official didn't say much, and he only had one sentence to ask:

"Don't ask your highness, our family doesn't know it. You will know it when you arrive."

Although Zhu Qi looked very free and confident on the surface, he was still a little nervous inside.

But things have been done, and at this point everything is going well, and there is nothing to worry about.

Zhu Qi thought this in his heart, cheered himself up, and then walked into Zhu Yuanzhang's study.

As soon as he opened the door, the heating stove was burning in the room. The inner officer stepped out and closed the door.

Zhu Qi saw Zhu Yuanzhang sitting in the room with a bunch of neat small boxes next to him. Isn’t it just the gifts bribed by the envoys that Zhu Qi sent a few days ago?

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Qi who was walking in and said:

"San Lao, tell me yourself, why did you accept bribes from the envoys of foreign countries?"

Zhu Qi was stunned at first, and then said unjustly:

"Dad, this handful of gold, silver and jewelry is received in your pocket. That is what I call accepting a bribe. But the child didn't put his pocket at all, and it was all stuffed into your pocket. It really took up the bribe. This is not right. This should be called a tribute gift, and it is for you to Dad."

After Zhu Qi said something, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was already a stern face, suddenly burst out laughing, then slapped the table and said:

"You third brother has many ideas. If you don't send these things to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, just by contacting the envoys of the foreign vassals in private, can I just call you over?"

What Zhu Yuanzhang said was indeed true. Zhu Qi guessed that if he was a little greedy and took the money privately, he might have been hung up and beaten.

Who is Zhu Yuanzhang? Emperor Hongwu, the representative emperor of the dynasty spy politics, is not afraid to say that it is far away. It is very unrealistic to hide any turbulence in this imperial city.

Zhu Qi didn't say anything anymore, but changed into a serious expression, bowed respectfully, and then said in a deep voice:

"The reason why my child did this is naturally to help you solve your problems!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and asked:

"Help me solve my problems?"

"That's right!" Zhu Qi said seriously:

"Dad, don't you think these Gentile envoys come to ask for princesses, other small countries such as Cham, Java, Nan'an, Siam, Zhenla, etc.

They want a princess, but they are just trying to make the generous dowry of my Princess Daming, but if they refuse directly, they will inevitably be criticized by the public.

As for Goryeo and Japan, that’s really a wolfish ambition!”

Zhu Qi strengthened his tone and heard Zhu Yuanzhang ask:

"Tell me, what kind of ambition do they have?"

Zhu Qi immediately said:

"Let's talk about Goryeo first. During the period when he was expelled from the Central Plains in the chaos of the former Yuan Dynasty, although Goryeo nominally surrendered to the Northern Yuan Dynasty, in fact, he did not make any small moves behind his back, eroding a lot of the territory of the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

This is the result of the nearly 100-year intermarriage between the Yuan Dynasty and Goryeo. Even so, I, Daming, married the princess, and could they get along with me in-laws because of this in-law relationship?"

Zhu Qi clearly remembered that in history, not long after Li Chenggui seized power and usurped the throne and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, when Sejong of Korea succeeded to the throne, he began to implement the northern expansion policy, pushing the northern border to the area south of the Tumen River.

He occupied the six towns of the Ming Dynasty and was famous for helping the Ming Dynasty defend against the Jurchens.

Zhu Qi continued:

"They asked to marry a princess just to stabilize our Ming Dynasty. The Beiyuan side cannot do without the help of Goryeo, so they will not turn against them.
To be continued...