"Your Excellency, Special Envoy, you must have come all this way and been exhausted. We have prepared a rest room for you. Please rest for a while today and we will have a formal meeting tomorrow, okay?"
After arriving at the royal palace of Gaochang Kingdom, Su Dingfang curled his lips unnaturally. How could this place be called a royal palace?
In his impression, this kind of place is at most a county government office. Of course, it is a bit of a loss to call it a county government office, but not by much.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Lord Zhao is an old and shrewd man. He has already found out from the greetings just now that Gaochang Kingdom has not made a decision yet. If they continue to hold talks today, there will probably be no good results. It is better to give them one night, as they will definitely not be able to escape tomorrow.
After hearing Lord Zhao's answer, the King of Gaochang quickly had someone take him to the clinic to rest. He really wanted to make use of this night. No matter what big thing happened tonight, they had to discuss it. The issue between the two parties was simple and clear. Tomorrow, the special envoy of the Tang Dynasty will ask you for someone. Will you give it to him or not?
Side Palace of Gaochang Kingdom
The people of Gaochang were also a nomadic people. They used to live in tents. Later, they accepted the teachings of the Tang Dynasty culture and began to build their royal palaces and cities. Now they have achieved some success, but compared with some buildings in the Tang Dynasty, they are nothing.
When I came here just now, some officials here were introducing it with great interest, saying that they imitated a certain building in the Tang Dynasty. Su Dingfang couldn't help but ask, "Can you call this imitation? The imitation is not even recognizable as the original. At most, you have imitated the superficial part."
Lord Zhao was quite nice. After all, he was a professional diplomat. Even if he saw someone's shortcomings, he could not point them out on the spot. This would be a very impolite behavior. However, after arriving at his room, Lord Zhao also had a look of contempt on his face.
"After all, the Western barbarians are so different from our Tang Dynasty. Even though we have studied for so many years, what have we learned in the end?"
Lord Zhao looked at the somewhat dim house in front of him. If it were placed in Chang'an City, it would at most be the residence of a small wealthy family. Officials would definitely not live in such a place. In addition, many of the furnishings in the house were not of high quality, so Lord Zhao also wanted to complete the task early and return to Chang'an.
"I shouldn't have given them a whole night. Why are you so kind? You should have just asked them where Xueyantuo Khan is. Either you capture him for me, or tell me where he is and I'll take my own men to capture him."
It was obvious that the room was filled with incense, but Su Dingfang was not very fond of the fragrance, so he sneezed twice after saying a few words. People in the Western Regions like all kinds of spices, but people in the Middle Earth don't like them very much.
"General Su, please don't act rashly. After all, we're in someone else's country. How can we just arrest them? Besides, we don't have many people here. If we split our forces, it would be easy for them to plot against us. It's best for us to let them arrest the people and use diplomatic means to force them to do so."
Lord Zhao's method is shrewd and cunning, while Su Dingfang's method can quickly show results, so the two are equally good. However, Su Dingfang is a smart man. After thinking for a while, he also feels that Lord Zhao's method is better. This can save us trouble, but it will waste more time. What's more, judging from the current situation, they are not planning to arrest anyone.
"Please analyze this. If they really wanted to arrest someone, they would have already captured him by now. Wouldn't you have had a better impression of the Tang Dynasty the moment you got off the car and saw Xueyantuo Khan? Why did you have to wait until we told them?"
What Su Dingfang said makes sense to a certain extent. Now everything is just our speculation.
"That's just the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is that they join us in arresting people. Tomorrow, you mustn't say anything rash. You mustn't be a coward. I know your army is very powerful, but tomorrow on their territory, we'll only be a supporting role. If they really don't want to help, it's better to quarrel with them than to arrest people on your own."
Speaking of tomorrow's affairs, Lord Zhao still said a few more words. Su Dingfang is a general on the battlefield and has been winning in recent years, so it is inevitable that his self-confidence is a little overflowing. Now Lord Zhao said these words to make Su Dingfang have a certain degree of rationality. In other people's territory, we don't have to be humble, but we have to be cautious.
"Master Zhao, please rest assured. I will remember that everything will be up to you tomorrow."
Along the way, Su Dingfang finally understood why the emperor did not let him be the special envoy, but only let him be responsible for security. Now after listening to what Lord Zhao said, he realized how much he was different from a real diplomat. The Tang Dynasty was indeed powerful, but its influence in this area was extremely limited, and it was not possible for people to listen carefully to your words.
No one slept well that night. Lord Zhao and Su Dingfang had moved to a new place, and there were all kinds of incense in the room. They sneezed violently all night and didn't sleep for long. When they woke up the next day, they saw the dark circles under each other's eyes and smiled at the same time.
As for the civil and military ministers of Gaochang, they couldn't sleep well because they couldn't come up with any strategy. Now that things have come to this, according to the national teacher's idea, they should continue to shirk responsibility. No matter how we explain, it is impossible to restore the relationship with the Tang Dynasty. The actual situation is here. You want to get rid of this responsibility with just a few words. Do you think the people of the Tang Dynasty are fools?
But according to the idea of the general who guards the country, they should join forces with the Tang army to capture the person immediately.
The Gaochang army's combat effectiveness is not very good. If they really face the Xueyantuo cavalry, both sides will most likely suffer losses. This is something the generals who defend the country do not want to see. However, the Tang army's combat effectiveness is very strong. We can lead the way and provide logistics, and then let the Tang army take action. We can drive out the Xueyantuo people without damaging our own strength.
The two groups argued for nearly an entire night, and only went down to rest for a while at dawn. As for the outcome...
