Chapter 252: The show

The Dayan Gong Mansion is far from being so grand and rich. Not to mention anything else, the gate of the Dayan Gong Mansion alone is almost a short street. Three stone archways write about the titles and favors of the Song family by the kings of Chunnan throughout the ages. Before Ye Tao arrived, hundreds of lanterns hung on the entire street, illuminating the front of the Dayan Gong Mansion. The Song Mansion even arranged for nearly two hundred servants, standing respectfully on both sides of the road to welcome the arrival of Ye Tao, the strategic envoy of the Yunzhou State of Dongping. This pomp was really a bit big.

In contrast, Ye Tao and his team seemed much more calm and simpler. Ye Tao, Dai Qiuyan and Feng Zi were riding in a carriage, and the other carriage was their close servants and a clerk of the Yunzhou Jinglifu. In addition, there were twenty-four guards guarding their team, including Liu Yong and Guan Huan. The number and pomp of this person were not very consistent with Ye Tao's current identity, even compared to many people who also came to the banquet today. Chunnan people liked pomp, and their spirit of paying attention to pomp was indeed very different from the style of Dongping. But Ye Tao never had to cooperate with this kind of customs and customs.

But Ye Tao's painting, which was not deliberately "simple and slow", seemed to be completely expected by the Dayan Gong Mansion. At the gate of the Gong Mansion, among the people who welcomed Ye Tao, there were Tan Yuzhou, the envoy sent by Dongping to Yuhang, and Song Yu, the envoy sent by Chunnan to Danyang. Both the candidates and attitudes seemed to be just right.

When Ye Tao was led all the way into the Duke Mansion and entered this special banquet, anyone could see that the host had indeed put a lot of effort into Ye Tao. Ye Tao and his party were not in the slightly noisy banquet hall, but in a small building that was only a few steps away from the large banquet hall, but was much quieter. The layout in the small building was gentle and elegant, without the complicated layout that pretended to be festive, but seemed very "family atmosphere". The protagonist of today's "birthday banquet". The little grandson in the Dayan Gong was gathering with a few children of similar age, gathering at a very small table with more play than eating and drinking. However, the children were all from aristocratic families, and it was also very interesting to have a small meal.

The game that pretends to have grown up is a joke and a memory in the eyes of adults who have grown up around them, and it is also an indispensable seasoning to create such a relaxed atmosphere.

"Jiangluo Ye, I have been admired for a long time." Da Yangong actually stood up in person and pulled his three-year-old grandson to ask Ye Tao for a greeting.

"I dare not. I came to Yuhang without asking Dayan Gong for his safety first. It's my junior, not." Ye Tao firmly locked his identity on the junior, and did not show off his official identity, which was obviously in line with the intention of today's banquet.

"Haha, I have rarely seen this grandson several times. On the occasion of his birthday, I took advantage of the trouble. It can be regarded as giving my friends an opportunity to gather to drink. The wise prince highly praised Ye Jingluo, so I immediately thought about seeing you, the most famous Ye Jingluo among the younger generation in the Central Plains. If there is any abruptness, please forgive me." Song Miao, Dayan Gong, seemed very polite.

"Yan Gong is here to see you. You are an elder. You can call him as you please. I am not used to being a Ye Zhengluo person." Ye Tao said kindly.

"Haha, then I'll give you a big hand and call you Canghuai, okay?" Song Miao patted Ye Tao on the shoulder and said.

"Very good. Yan Gong. I came in a hurry and didn't prepare any gifts. I have a little thing for my grandson." Ye Tao said this, Guan Huan, who was following him, put a small box in Ye Tao's hand. Seeing Song Miao nodding, Ye Tao squatted down lovingly, opened the box and placed it in front of the child.

The box contains a large metal whistle, with a pluck on the side. The pluck is engraved with the figures of several different birds in extremely fine carvings.

"Look, which kind of bird you push to, which kind of bird will make when you blow. Come and try it?" Ye Tao put the box in the child's hand and said encouragemently.

The child looked up at Song Miao, and saw that his grandfather had an encouraging look on his face, then he boldly held the whistle. He carefully put his mouth on the whistle and blew it hard, and immediately, a clear crane sound filled the entire space.

"There are also orioles, magpies, brown-backed falcons, and skylarks that can be played with the sound of birds." Ye Tao touched the child's head affectionately and said.

"Thank you, I like it very much." The child carefully put the whistle back into the box and hugged it tightly in his arms. Thank you loudly.

Song Miao patted the child's head and asked him to return to the table, then said to Ye Tao: "Canghuai. You have the heart."

"This is just a toy for children, it's not worth it." Ye Tao said with a smile: "I am good at this kind of gadget, and this is also made when I'm idle."

Ye Tao's actions made the atmosphere seem a little overly polite and harmonious. After joining the table, after talking to everyone about some topics that are not nutritious, Dai Qiuyan politely said that she wanted to play with the children. Then, the main topic of today's banquet came.

"Canghuai, I believe you know exactly why we invited you here today, so we will be fine. Everyone can tell you how to talk about it." The first thing that made the matter clear was Chang Hongquan.

"I don't know what you are going to talk about." Ye Tao said with a smile: "I just heard that you are going to send troops to attack Xiling. I don't know the time, location, the scale of the troops, and I don't know where you are going to start and what level you are going to end. I only know that Dongping may have somewhere to contribute. But how can I talk about this?"

After several people looked at each other, Chen Xujing said, "Jingluo Ye, what if I say, we are going to go down until Danan Pass not stopping?"

Danan Pass, also known as the Great Difficult, is an extremely important pass in the south of Xiling. In fact, the border between Xiling and Chunnan was a little bit south of Danan Pass, but after a battle, the current border is no longer here. In the past so many years, Xiling has scrapped the territory of the four prefectures and twenty-seven prefectures from Chunnan and southeast of Danan Pass. Now, Chunnan is not only preparing to conquer all the land in one go, but is even preparing to capture Danan Pass to greatly improve its border situation? This kind of courage is really not like a decision that Chunnan, who has almost no adventurous spirit in military affairs, can make.

"This is a big battle. Of course, you will naturally have your own arrangements for the use of troops. What do you need Dongping to do? If it is just a purchasing indignation, especially arson bomb, is it necessary to be so serious?" Ye Tao asked back.

"Sulfrost bombs, stone castle carts, crossbows... These have been hoarded a long time ago. The current situation is indeed to be purchased in large quantities from Dongping, and the king of your country has made it clear that as long as the output can keep up, there is no problem. But we need more than these." Chen Xujing said firmly: "Ye Jingluo, can you really sell the 100,000 troops you mentioned to us? How long will it take to implement them all?"

Ye Tao looked at Chen Xujing and said, "Two months after the money was in place, my Yunzhou Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau's delivery regulations have always been very clear. Don't you know? I still said that this is not a big deal for Yunzhou. But how do you plan to train 100,000 cavalry? You should also understand that the soldiers riding horses and the cavalry are completely different."

Chen Xujing nodded and said, "Of course I understand. My headquarters has trained 50,000 knights in 12,000 cavalry, and has taken turns to train 50,000 knights for Chunnan. Even if it cannot be compared with Dongping and the elites in Yunzhou, if there is more to fight less, as long as Xiling does not transfer the elite cavalry in the north, it is expected that there will be no problem. This is where Dongping needs help."

"What are you saying is that I, Dongping, will be in the north to support the attack?" Feng Zi asked.

"That's true." Chen Xujing replied. "The north and south are facing each other, which severely hit Xiling."

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "Impossible. The north is not like the south of you. The entire border between us and Xiling is almost all mountains and passes. Indeed, Dongping can attack Xiling, but there is no danger in the hinterland of Xiling, but there is no place like Danan Pass to end the battle. For your limited battle goals, use strategic layouts. If you capture Danan Pass, you can gradually withdraw after you capture Danan Pass. But what about our Dongping? What if the battle situation is stalemate and cannot be withdrawn? This kind of profit is definitely impossible for you to benefit from it, and we bleeding joint troops."

"It may not be unfavorable," Jiang Yan, who had been sitting on the side, quietly added: "What if Chunnan is willing to assign Zezhou to Dongping?"

Jiang Yan's words surprised Ye Tao. He had thought that Chunnan would ask for and persuade him for various reasons, such as the alliance between the two countries, but he did not expect that Jiang Yan would make it clear that he could use the territory as a reward. Although Zezhou was a little desolate, it was not worthless. On the contrary, Ye Tao could imagine that once this condition was reported to the court, many people in the court would be willing to do this kind of exchange. Zezhou had always been a famous grain production site. Now it is a buffer zone at the junction of Chunnan and the Three Kingdoms. The years of wars have made Zezhou sparsely populated, which greatly affected the value of Zezhou itself. But once Chunnan's strategy was successful, Zezhou would be in a very safe place, and Xiling would not threaten it.

When we arrived in Zezhou, Chunnan, who currently controls Zezhou, did not have a deep attachment to Zezhou. However, as long as Dongping organized a part of the farmers to migrate to Zezhou, it could almost control a place that could be called the Dongping granary in one to two years. In addition, when the empire collapsed, the entire capital ruins of the Central Tang Dynasty, which was burned, were also in Zezhou. Although there were only relics left in the originally magnificent city, only patches of grass and some of the stone foundations mixed with them that were not attacked by wind and frost, gradually destroying the building. With these, the layout of the city that was then vaguely pieced together. There were even several ancient city walls standing stubbornly to show what the specifications of the cities that once existed here had.

For Dongping, who wanted to unify the world, especially for some old ministers who considered the legal basis for winning the world, the value of this ruin is immeasurable.
Chapter completed!