After half a month of intense negotiations, Western Qin and Da Shiguo finally reached an agreement on the loan, and the negotiators of both sides signed the agreement in triplicate, written in Chinese, Da Shiwen and Greek respectively. Ｘ

The agreement stipulated that the Great Eater would borrow 10 million gold yuan from the Western Qin State to quell the civil strife and improve the living conditions of its people, and the loan would be repaid in ten years, and the Western Qin State would not charge any interest, but the Great Food State agreed to the four conditions put forward by the Western Qin: first, the Western Qin State would be allowed to send an army of no more than 1,000 troops to garrison Basra, and set aside a piece of bay land in Faow in the Persian Gulf for the Western Qin State to build a port; Second, Taoist and Buddhist personnel are allowed to preach in the country, and the officials and people of the country cannot treat these missionaries as pagans. third, to allow the Western Qin people to buy land in the Great Food Country, open workshops and factories and shops to do business; Fourth, if the Western Qin people in the territory of the Great Food Country have illegal acts or any cases related to the Western Qin people, they must be handed over to the Western Qin embassies in various parts of the Great Food Country for trial, and the Great Food Country can send officials to observe, but they must not interfere in the trial and veto the outcome of the judgment!

After the agreement was signed, Bu Nud left the officials stationed in Xinjing and began to prepare to return to the Great Food Country, and the Western Qin side was also immediately ready to send to the Great Food Country to re-establish the embassy and send a thousand cavalry to Basra, as for the 10 million gold dollars borrowed by the Great Food Country was sent to Baghdad in three batches, the first batch of 2 million gold yuan was carried by the Western Qin envoys and their entourage who went to Baghdad to re-establish the embassy, these people will go to Baghdad with Bu Nord and his party, and the second batch of 3 million gold dollars borrowed will be shipped in a month, The third tranche of 5 million gold dollars was shipped two months later, and the last two tranches of borrowings were only transported to the border line and handed over to the Dashi army.

The terms of the loan had been sent to Baghdad before Bu Nod and the others returned to Baghdad, and after reading the terms, Mahdi was very happy that Bu Nord was able to borrow so much money at such a small price, so when Bu Nod and Wu Bilong, the new envoy of Western Qin to Baghdad, returned to Baghdad, Mahdi police officials held a grand welcoming ceremony ten miles outside the city.

Constantinople, Grand Palace.

Leo and Princess Irina walked into the palace together, and they had a son last year, named Constantine, the same name as his grandfather, so it is not surprising in the West. Some grandsons have the same name as their grandfather, some have the same name as their grandfather, some have the same name as their granddaughter, some have the same name as their grandmother, some have the same name as their granddaughter, and some have the same name as their grandmother, and some have the same name as their daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.

Irina asked in a low voice, "There is news that the Arabs borrowed 10 million gold yuan from Western Qin, do you know about this?" ”

Leo nodded and said: "I know, someone in the palace told me that Augustus was afraid that someone would call me over this time to talk about this matter, some officials think that this matter will prompt the Arabs to improve the economic situation in the country and quickly increase the national strength, and some people say that Mahdi may use this money for the army and wage war against several of his brothers, with the skills of his straw bale brothers, he will not be able to stop him at all, and the Arabs may soon complete unification." This Western Qin people are really strange, they broke out a war with hundreds of thousands of Arabs like mortal enemies two years ago, but they didn't expect to lend money to Arabs now, are they sick in the brain? ”

Irina shook her head and said, "Do you think a king who can build a huge and powerful empire from scratch and control tens of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers is a fool?" I think the King of Western Qin must have other plans! I asked someone about the past experience of this powerful man, he always acted unexpectedly, no one knew what he was going to do next, such a person is the most terrifying! ”

Leo nodded and asked, "By the way, why did you suddenly care about this matter?" ”

Irina said: "If Mahdi uses this money to quell the civil strife, I think we should make some trouble for him, once he eradicates several of his brothers, with their aggressiveness, they may not dare to do anything to Western Qin, but maybe they will use our Eastern Roman Empire, Mahdi needs to establish authority, and it is the best choice to use our Eastern Roman Empire!" ”

"What do you mean by looking for trouble?"

Irina said: "When Mahdi is attacking Syria or Jerusalem, we send troops to attack Antioch, hold him back, give his brothers time to prepare, and if Mahdi's army is vulnerable, we can gain more!" ”

Leo is no longer surprised by Irina's political talents, when they even got married, he knew that she was a very intelligent and politically wise woman, although he didn't like his woman to be too smart, but who made him love him? Therefore, he also loved her intelligence and political skill.

Leo thought for a moment and said, "Your suggestion is good, but we can't send troops against Mahdi now, because Augustus is preparing to send troops to the Bolgar Khanate!" ”

Irina said disdainfully: "What is there to deal with the Bolgars? Their Khan King Telec is now at the end of his rope, the tribes are against him, they are killing each other, the Bulgars have been powerless to pose a threat to us in recent years, and I can guarantee that he will die in civil strife soon! But the people who came out of that desert peninsula were completely different, they were too aggressive, and they were natural enemies with the Empire, and I think that as long as I can weaken them, I should do whatever it takes. Leo, you are the prince, I think you should suggest to Augustus to attack the Mahdi, Syria and Jerusalem were originally ours, if you take them back because of your suggestion, your prestige will skyrocket, and no one will be able to pose a threat to your throne in the future! ”

These words went to Leo's heart, he was the co-emperor of Constantine V, the so-called co-emperor, is the emperor's assistant and prince, the title of co-emperor existed both in the Western Roman Empire and in the Eastern Roman Empire, it is similar to the status of the crown prince of the Eastern Dynasty, but if the co-emperor becomes an adult, his rights are not comparable to the crown prince.

"You're right, I'll propose it to Augustus at the Council of State!" Leo nodded.

When they arrived at the place where the emperor and his ministers were meeting, Irina said goodbye to Leo and went to play with his sisters.

At the State Council, Constantine V finally mentioned the matter of Western Qin borrowing 10 million gold yuan to the Great Food Kingdom, and asked the ministers for their opinions.

The ministers all laughed at the Western Qin State for being crazy, two years ago there was a big war with the Great Food Country, but within two years they lent them money to quell the civil strife, isn't this crazy?

Leo stood up and said to Constantine V: "Father, if Mahdi gets the loan and attacks Syria and Jerusalem, I think we should send troops to attack Mahdi's flank, contain him, and give his brothers more time to accumulate strength, and when they have enough strength, we will stop and let them fight to the death, if Mahdi's army is vulnerable, we can take advantage of the situation to live Syria and Jerusalem this holy place!" ”

Most of the emperors and officials in this period were too selfish, and they did not have all the ideological realm of putting national interests first, especially the emperor, who often decided the country's major policies based on their personal likes and dislikes. Although Constantine V was also a wise man, he was also quite selfish, he considered the Bulgarian Khanate to be his greatest enemy, and he was determined to eradicate this scourge from an early age, so he was not very happy when Leo said that he would send troops against the Arabs.

I saw Constantine V say: "Leo, you have to understand that the barbarians in the north are our henchmen, the Arabs will still be reasonable, but the barbarians in the north do not talk about anything, they only know that they have no food and no clothes to go south to plunder us, it has been hundreds of years, our people are fed up with the barbarians burning and plundering, extermination of the northern barbarians is my lifelong wish, now I am preparing for war against the Bolgars, as for you said to send troops to attack the Mahdi's flank, don't mention this matter!" ”

Leo was not discouraged, although he was afraid of Constantine V's anger, he still stubbornly said: "Father, you are a wise and great emperor, and your ambition to exterminate the northern barbarians is worth learning from your son, but you should know that we have been fighting those Arabs for more than a hundred years, and they have never given up the idea of destroying us, they want to overthrow the empire and make our people accept their unknown paganism, the northern barbarians are hateful, but the Arabs are also annoying. Now that the Bolgar Khanate has fallen into civil strife, this guy has been abandoned by his former tribal leaders, I believe that Teretz will soon die in civil strife, if he dies, the barbarians will be even more chaotic, and then their power will be weakened, even if they raise an army against us, we can use their internal strife to find a way to thwart their attack! Dear father, my son is not trying to prevent you from exterminating the northern barbarians, but please give me 20,000, and I only need 10,000 men to make Mahdi postpone the civil strife for at least five years! ”

Another important reason why Constantine V insisted on attacking the Bolgar Khanate was that he felt that his health had been getting worse and worse in the past two years, and he felt that if he didn't fight again, he would have no chance in the future, so he was angry when Leo said that he was going to send troops to attack Mahdi.

Now that he had heard Leo's words, his anger had calmed down a little, and when he thought about Leo's words, he felt that his son had made a point, so he asked the ministers, "What do you think of Leo's proposal?" ”

Leo's supporters and ministers who thought Leo had a future came forward and said that this was a good suggestion and that it could be tried, and that it would only take 10,000 horses anyway, and it would have little impact on sending troops to attack the Bulgars next year.

So Constantine V agreed to transfer 3,000 heavy cavalry and 7,000 infantry to Leo,