Lord Huang brought ten carts of gifts, accompanied by ten guards and Sayal, and went to the royal palace to meet the Seljuk king.

Half a day later, Lord Huang came back, full of spring breeze and very excited.

Obviously, in the palace, he enjoyed high-standard treatment as an envoy of the Great Song Dynasty. After all, the envoy is outside, representing the dignity of a country, and no country dares to be imprudent, not to mention that the Great Song Dynasty is still a big country in the East, inheriting the powerful Tang Dynasty and has a long history.

Lord Huang told Yang Congyi that he had accepted the king's invitation and would stay here for at least half a month, because ten days later would be the king's birthday, and he would not leave until after the celebration ceremony, so that they could all wait here in peace.

After the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty met the king, many princes and nobles and ministers of the Zhu Kingdom came to the hotel to invite Lord Huang to the banquet, and they all wanted to see what the envoys of the ancient Eastern Kingdom looked like, and they also wanted to know what kind of country the Great Song Dynasty was.

They had already heard that the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty had made a generous move, and the gifts given to the king this time were as good as ten carts, and there was a huge fleet full of goods, docked at a port six hundred miles away to wait for trading, this mysterious eastern country was simply rich and terrible, and it was estimated that if you get some benefits from them, you will be able to avoid being busy for several years.

In the face of dozens of invitations, Lord Huang did not refuse to come, went to the banquet at noon, and then went to the banquet in the evening, the itinerary was full, and there was no rest for seven consecutive days. Those banquets were similar, there was no novelty, and the problems they talked about were almost the same, nothing more than the customs and products of the Great Song Kingdom, the trade of the fleet, and in the end, it was necessary to establish a private trade relationship with the Great Song Dynasty, and even hoped that the fleet could take them with them when they returned to the Great Song Dynasty.

Yang Congyi accompanied him for seven days, he really felt very boring, of course, the singing and dancing at the banquet was still very interesting, don't look at the women on the street almost all wrapped tightly, looking very cold, difficult to approach, but the women dancing during the banquet were beautifully dressed, unrestrained and enthusiastic, smiling, gestures, all very sultry, making people's hearts shaken and difficult to self-control, if it weren't for Yang Congyi's self-control, it would be inevitable to be seduced by the unrestrained and enthusiastic dancers.

From the eighth day onwards, Yang Congyi no longer continued to accompany Lord Huang to attend various banquets, and finally came to Arabia, and it was a pity not to take this opportunity to take the time to go out and see the customs here.

After communicating with the guards guarding the hotel for a long time and promising not to walk around at will, the guard commander finally agreed that Yang Congyi would walk out of the hotel on his own, but there were also dozens of guards following him, one to protect his safety, and the other was afraid that he would provoke right and wrong, after all, the customs and customs here are very different, and there are many taboos for outsiders, once they are violated, they may be hacked to death on the street.

Because the guards followed very closely, Yang Congyi could only walk around the street, and many places did not allow him to enter at all, and there was nothing interesting on the street except for buying and selling.

However, he also found an interesting phenomenon on the street, all buildings with blue facades could not be approached casually, not only he could not get close, but even the locals were not all approachable, and even fewer could enter.

Cyan is also very rare to see in the Great Song Dynasty, and there must be a reason why the buildings of this color are so special here, but the guards can't answer this question for him, because they can't speak and can't explain clearly.

When he got back to the hotel, he couldn't wait to ask Seyal.

Sayal told him that cyan looks like the color of the sea, and that there is no shortage of water in the vast land here except for the plains from Basra to Baghdad where rivers pass through, and that the rest of the land is too short of water, because of the lack of water, the cyan color of the sea looks particularly beautiful, but cyan can only be extracted from ore, and ordinary people can't even afford to eat, so where will there be spare money to hire someone to mine cyan ore, just to paint the house cyan? Only the aristocracy, the wealthy and some wealthy churches would do these things.

As soon as he said this, Yang Congyi understood that cyan was just like the color of the ocean, and it had no more meaning. But at the same time, he also got a message that the people in the Arab region like cyan, and the rich people are more willing to pay for it, and maybe they can earn a lot of money, but unfortunately, as far as he knows, the silk carried by the fleet is not cyan, and as for porcelain, although there is also a small amount of celadon, but the cyan is very light, and the color looks a little gray, which will not be what they like.

Why does the cyan here look so pure, like the blue sky after the rain, and like the endless sea, the cyan here is so beautiful. Could it be that the ore here is special? If you can get some cyan pigment back, will the cyan of porcelain be darker and better looking in the future? Thinking of this, Yang Congyi immediately asked Seyal to help find some cyan ore.

This ore was not hard to find, and in less than an hour, Seyal brought back several large pieces of cyan ore.

Yang Congyi studied it and couldn't see anything special, so he called the garment craftsmen and asked them to help see if this cyan was the same as the cyan of dyed cloth.

However, the garment maker smiled and said nothing, and after asking again, the craftsman told him that the blue color of the dyed cloth was the juice of plants and trees, and the juice of plants and trees could penetrate into the cloth, and the stone powder could not be dyed no matter how fine it was ground, and it would be washed off with water, and the color of the stone would only be used when firing ceramics or painting indoors.

After the craftsman said this, Yang Congyi suddenly realized, it turns out that the color of this ore is really useful, almost all of the ore color can be used for long-term preservation, the longer the preservation time, the higher the value, for example, in later generations, any porcelain of the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties can be sold for millions of dollars, and there are very few ancient paintings with colors, each of which is priceless and valuable. It seems that before chemical synthesis, colored ores were good everywhere.

Yang Congyi immediately asked Sayal to spread the news that the Great Song fleet not only wanted spices, medicinal herbs, gold, silver and jewelry, but also if there was cyan ore.

As silk, porcelain, and tea entered Baghdad in large quantities, the news that the Song Dynasty's huge fleet was docked at a port six hundred miles away spread among merchants, and everyone wanted to seize this opportunity to purchase a batch of goods from the East, whether they were hoarded or sold elsewhere, it would not be a loss-making business.

After the Great Song Dynasty envoys entered Baghdad, especially after the king summoned the Great Song Dynasty envoys, the big merchants all tried their best to collect all kinds of materials that could be exchanged for the goods of the Great Song Dynasty, but the goods on the market were always limited, because some could not be produced casually, such as spices, such as medicinal materials, such as gold, silver and jewelry, but the ore was different, it was in the ground, on the mountain, as much as you wanted, you could dig at any time, and you could mine at any time, and there would be no seasonal restrictions, and it would not be like gold panning to see luck. Therefore, as soon as this news was announced, the nimble merchant immediately began to collect a large amount of this cyan stone that could not be eaten.

When the merchants began to buy ore openly, it immediately triggered a rush to find stones, it was the early spring, the weather in the two river basins was cold, everything was still frozen, and there was still some time before the farming was busy, so the farmers who got the news took advantage of the free time to go into the mountains in droves to mine the cyan ore and make money.

The king's birthday has finally arrived, but no one in the Great Song Dynasty mission can leave the hotel except for Lord Huang and the thirty-two singers and dancers he led, because today is the king's birthday, and on this day of national celebration, the king has to take to the streets to interact with the people and have fun, at this time no accidents are allowed, and the foreigners in the city are potential accidents, so for the sake of safety, the other people who were not invited by the Great Song Dynasty mission can not go anywhere, and can only stay in the hotel.

This kind of lively scene of crowds and crowds, it is estimated that there is no scenery to be seen, and Yang Congyi does not feel sorry for this.

At about two o'clock, Lord Huang dragged his tired body back to the hotel, and told Yang Congyi about what he had seen and heard today, saying that the celebration was wonderful and the lively scene was depicted, and he hated to come back. But Yang Congyi didn't feel anything at all, it was nothing more than a sea of people and enthusiastic singing and dancing, or magic and acrobatics, and there would be nothing else besides these.

The end of the king's birthday meant that the mission would soon be able to leave, much to the delight of Yang Congyi.

It's been a long time since I've been out of port, and I don't know what Tang Xun has become like by himself, and the thought of her being too busy all day long to drink a sip of water, and he has nothing to do all day in Baghdad, makes me feel guilty, and it's time to go back to help her.

After the birthday event, half of the guards at the hotel were removed, and the dignitaries who entered the hotel became more frequent, and the banquet invitation continued. But this time, not only did Huang Daren be invited, but they also bluntly suggested that it would be best to bring the Oriental Dancing Girl with them, and they told Huang that they liked the Oriental Song and Dance Show very much after seeing it on the King's Birthday, and hoped to enjoy it again.

The singers and dancers of the Great Song Dynasty mission could not go out to perform casually, they had just performed on the king's birthday, and then went to the minister's palace in a blink of an eye, which was obviously a self-surrender of the status was not in accordance with the rules, and Lord Huang naturally refused. At the same time, an invitation was made to invite these dignitaries to come to the pavilion to participate in the banquet held by the Great Song Mission.

Being invited to a banquet at the mission was a good thing they could not ask for, and no one would refuse to accept it. Lord Huang agreed with them to ask them to come to the appointment on time three days later.

The mission was busy, and everyone was preparing for the feast in three days.

The chef brought by Lord Huang immediately began to purchase firewood, rice, oil, salt, meat and vegetables, and prepared to make food with oriental characteristics. Xuanwei Jun was not idle, and according to Lord Huang's instructions, on the premise of not destroying the original objects, he rearranged the pavilion according to the habits of the Great Song Dynasty. Garment craftsmen worked day and night to sew two fitting garments, one in the Song style and one in the local style, for the guests attending the banquet. The singer and dancer seized the time to rehearse a new repertoire, and it is estimated that she will have to compete with the local coquettish singers and dancers. Yang Congyi also has important things, since he brought the army, now that the king's birthday is over, it is rare for the East and the West to meet, so they have to compete in force and find out each other.

In this banquet about face, no one dares to be sloppy.