hsntnovel Chapter 1839 Come to the Door Yourself
Chapter 1839 Come to the Door Yourself
Li Shen slept until noon and got up in a daze, preparing to take a shower and change clothes.
After taking a bath, Li Shen was full of energy. He stood on the ground with his naked butt, singing a little song, waiting for the maid to dry him.
"I regret that I laughed at the gate, I regret that I burned incense with the thief, Guan Gong committed a crime and Liu Bei protected him, how can a hero be forgiven for committing a crime......"
"Your Majesty, the Silla envoy has handed in a visiting card and is waiting outside the palace gate."
Shi Tou outside reported quietly.
"The Silla envoy? Please go to the front hall and tell him that the king is having dinner and will be here later."
Li Shen was stunned for a moment and then gave an order.
I was originally planning to look for them, but I didn't expect them to come to me on their own, which saved me a lot of time.
It also allows you to take the initiative.
Li Shen dried himself, put on his clothes and did not go to meet him immediately. Instead, he went directly to the dining hall to eat.
Man is like iron and rice is like steel. If he doesn't eat for a meal, he will feel hungry.
Nothing could stop Li Shen from eating, and he also took the opportunity to leave the Silla envoy alone.
Shitou invited Jin Chunqiu and King Jin Wen to the front hall and asked the servants to serve tea.
"My Lord is having dinner now. He will come to see you in a while. Please have some tea and wait."
Shitou spoke to the two of them with an attitude that was neither humble nor arrogant.
Although he acted like a servant in front of Li Shen, Shitou's identity and status were different in front of outsiders.
Prince Ji's personal eunuch, his most trusted confidant, is someone that most people cannot afford to offend.
Who knows if you provoke him, he will say bad things about you in front of King Ji. When King Ji takes revenge, it will be like a storm and no one can bear it.
"Mr. Li is too polite. It is our fault that we did not send you a visiting card in advance. We are very grateful that His Royal Highness Prince Ji received us."
Jin Chunqiu said politely that although he was an envoy, he was also named Shangzhuguo, Lelang County King, and granted the title of special advancement by the Tang Emperor.
But it was just Li Shimin's recognition of him, which could not be compared with the orthodox Tang nobles, not to mention that he was a real Tang prince.
The greater the master, the greater the servants. Naturally, he had to be polite to Shi Tou.
The father and son drank tea while waiting.
They just came out of the palace, without saying a word all the way.
After getting on the carriage, Jin Chunqiu gave an order:
"Go to Prince Ji's Mansion!"
"Father, are we going to negotiate food with Prince Ji's Mansion?" King Jinwen asked.
"Yes, you heard it in the court just now, the Tang Dynasty is unwilling to help us.
The Queen also said in her letter that the Tang Dynasty has evil ambitions and is likely to annex our three kingdoms."
Jin Chunqiu nodded.
King Jin Wen asked in confusion:
"That shouldn't be the case, right? We in Silla have never disobeyed the Tang Dynasty and have always served them as our master. They have no reason to attack us.
During these years here, I have discovered that the people of the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to their reputation and would always consider reason before doing anything.
They are very afraid of leaving a bad name in history books.”
King Jin Wen has been studying in the Tang Dynasty in recent years and is well aware of the Tang people's love of face.
Always like to occupy the upper hand.
The reason for attacking Goguryeo was that it was disobedient and did not obey orders, which provided an excuse for the attack.
“This is just the Queen’s speculation, whether it is true or not, we have to be on guard.
The Tang Dynasty has made its attitude clear now. They don’t want to get involved in the affairs between us and Baekje.
We’ll just have to figure it out on our own.”
Jin Chunqiu shook his head and said. He was not a fool. He had seen it in the court today that the Tang Dynasty did not want to help them.
Moreover, the severe drought in Guanzhong provided the Tang Dynasty with a good excuse.
“But father, what the Duke of Zhao said in the court was right, Prince Ji is not a good person.
I'm afraid he won't be willing to give us food.
Over the years, I have heard a little about Prince Ji in Chang'an. Prince Ji has a very bad reputation. Although those literati and scholars have some praise for Prince Ji's literary talent,
But when it comes to the character of Prince Ji, everyone despises him.” King Wen of Jin told Jin Chunqiu about the literati’s evaluation of Li Shen.
Hearing his son's comments, Jin Chunqiu smiled and taught:
"You have to remember that you can't judge a person by appearance alone, and you must not believe what others say.
Have these literati you mentioned ever met King Ji?
It's nothing but a false rumor.
King Ji must have extraordinary qualities to have achieved what he has today. If you can interact with him, you will be a great help to Silla.
In my opinion, Prince Ji is just a little too young and too greedy for money.
His character should not be bad, otherwise why would he be so highly respected by merchants all over the world?"
It is normal for a young man to be a little arrogant when he has achieved success, but there should be no problem with his character.
Jin Chunqiu hoped that his son could get to know King Ji, who was wealthy and could help Silla in many ways.
Now, in the Tang Dynasty, only Prince Ji has the ability to help them.
With this idea in mind, Jin Chunqiu brought his son to Prince Ji's Mansion.
After waiting for two quarters of an hour, Li Shen finally arrived.
"Haha, Messenger Jin is here. Sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time." Li Shen came in and saw Jin Chunqiu, laughing loudly and was very enthusiastic.
It was like meeting an old friend whom I hadn’t seen for years, and of course it had been a long time.
"Foreign ministers pay their respects to His Royal Highness Prince Ji."
Jin Chunqiu and his son paid their respects to Li Shen solemnly. This was the second time he met Li Shen.
But he could never forget the scene of their first meeting.
King Ji used four dogs to tell him that they, the vassal states, were nothing more than dogs of the Tang Dynasty and must be obedient.
It was also Prince Ji who told him the words he still remembered clearly: a weak country has no diplomacy.
"No need to be polite, you are also a noble of my Tang Dynasty, we are all one family.
Sit down and talk." Li Shen waved his hand and sat down.
"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Ji." Jin Chunqiu still maintained a respectful attitude. His last experience told him that this young prince was not a kind person.
"By the way, Envoy Jin, how is the soybean planting in Baekje going? How is the promotion going?"
Li Shen remembered that he had mentioned his soybean plan to Jin Chunqiu the last time they met.
He wanted Silla and Baekje to promote soybeans for oil extraction. It had been a few years, and Li Shen had almost forgotten about it.
"Alas~~~I, an external minister, have failed the trust of His Royal Highness Prince Ji and have not done this matter well." Jin Chunqiu sighed, with a look of guilt on his face.
"Oh? Why is this? Is there something wrong with our plan?" Li Shen was a little confused.
"Reporting to His Royal Highness Prince Ji, the situation was good in the first one or two years, but since the Tang army withdrew from Baekje,
Baekje has started to attack Silla again. We have been fighting for years and have lost more than 20 cities.
There is no time to worry about soybeans anymore."
Jin Chunqiu felt a little regretful. If they had promoted it at the beginning, they could have used the food war to defeat Baekje.
Unfortunately, Baekje did not give them this opportunity.
(Happy Women's Day. I've been listening to opera these days. The one above is called Dang Liang, and the Peking Opera version of Jin Jin Jiu is pretty good.)