A.D. 772 February 8th, Xinjing, Embassy.

When Bu Nord heard that Hong Xu had arrived at the door, he immediately came to the gate to greet him, made a bow to Hong Xu, and said with a smile: "It's rare to see Lord Hong these days, it must be because of busy affairs, why do you have time to come here today?" ”

Hong Xu pointed to the embassy and smiled: "Let's go in and talk?" ”

"Okay, please!" Bunod immediately stepped aside and reached out in a "please" gesture.

The two sat down facing each other in a small hall in the embassy, and when the tea and refreshments were ready, Bunod asked the irrelevant people to withdraw.

"I heard that these days, Your Excellency has been visiting our officials and important ministers every day, and lobbying them about borrowing money? Don't know how it works? Hong Xu asked with a slight smile.

Bu Nord smiled bitterly and shook his head: "I didn't expect Lord Hong to hear about it, that's right, I am indeed lobbying the ministers and officials of your country these days, this matter is actually beneficial to both countries, our country can use this money to calm civil strife, improve the lives of believers and people, and your country can also earn a lot of interest, it is much better than putting money in the treasury to rust and mold, in your country's words, why not?" However, the ministers and officials of your country are generally not optimistic about this matter! ”

"Well, the tea is good!" Hong Xu put down the teacup as he spoke, and he didn't drag the mud and water, and went straight to the point: "Your Excellency, I won't go around in circles with you, I came today to inform Your Excellency on the order of my king that your country wants to borrow money from our country!" ”

Bu Nuod became nervous, what Hong Xu was going to say next could be said to be directly related to whether his mission to Xinjing could be achieved, and he immediately asked, "I don't know what your country's answer is?" ”

Hong Xu looked at Bu Nuode and said, "Borrow, you can!" However, we need your country to come up with something as collateral, and your country has only two options, either with mines and land as collateral, or with customs duties! If your country really needs money, but you don't want to use these as collateral, then we also provide another set of plans, that is, buy out, sell some mines or land in your control area to my Xiqin, the advantage of this plan is simple, not too troublesome, both sides pay money with one hand and land or mines with the other! ”

On other people's territory, Bu Nord tried to control his emotions, but he still said with a cold face: "It is indeed easy and convenient to buy out, but we are only afraid that we will be scolded by the letter and the people, so it is impossible to sell the land!" As for the use of tariffs as collateral in the first plan, our country does not have such an idea, so we want to consider using mines or land as collateral, but it is explained in advance that it is only used as collateral, and if we cannot afford to pay back the money by the time limit, the mines and land used as collateral will naturally belong to your country, and before that, they are still owned by our country! ”

Hong Xu nodded: "It seems that your country is more inclined to use mines and land as collateral to borrow from my country?" ”

"Yes! I don't know how to calculate interest? ”

"There is no urgency about interest, before we talk about interest, we have some other more important conditions to talk about!" Hong Xu waved his hand, "How much do you want to borrow?" ”

"Twenty million gold dollars!"

Hong Xu shook his head and said, "Twenty million gold yuan is too much, at most it can only be ten million!" And this 10 million gold dollars is not a small amount, before talking about which mines and land to use as collateral, we have a few conditions, if your country can agree, we have the possibility to continue talking, if your country can not agree, then please forgive us for not being able to do anything! ”

Bu Nud frowned, but still said: "The conditions can be negotiated, but if the conditions of your country are too harsh, then we would rather not borrow them!" ”

Hong Xu said with a smile: "The conditions, naturally, they are negotiated, your country can accept the best, if you really can't accept it, then this deal can't be done!" To be honest, I, Xiqin, do not lack this interest money, if there is no benefit, why should we Xiqin lend money to Mahdi to tide over the difficulties? His position as caliph is not secure, and if he wants to sit in the position of caliph, he must destroy the forces of several of his brothers, but he has no money to fight! Therefore, if he wants to borrow money from our Xiqin to support him to quell the civil strife, he will have to pay some price, as long as people with the right values understand this, if you want pie to fall from the sky, it is impossible! ”

These words made Bu Nord speechless, he was silent for a moment and had to admit in his heart that Hong Xu had told the truth about the Great Food Country, "Lord Hong, tell your conditions!" ”

A smile appeared at the corner of Hong Xu's mouth, and he stretched out a finger: "First, although the land and mines used as collateral are not yet the property of our country, what if you don't repay the loan by the time limit?" Therefore, in order to protect the rights and interests of our country, we in Western Qin want to garrison troops in your country, and we will set up them in Basra, and we will discuss the number of garrisons separately; Second; Allow Taoism and Buddhism to be freely preached within your country; Thirdly, to allow our merchants to do business freely in your country, to buy land to build workshops and factories; Fourth, if the merchants and people of Western Qin commit crimes in your country and any cases involving the people of Western Qin, your country has no right to deal with them, and the relevant persons will be tried by temporary judges set up in your country, and the government of your country may send people to observe, but they cannot dictate the trial. As for these four conditions, if His Excellency Bunod agrees, we can negotiate in detail on these articles in a few days! ”

Bu Nord instinctively felt that there was a problem with these clauses, but where did the people of this era understand the issue of sovereignty, he just knew that letting the Western Qin garrison in Basra might pose a threat to the Great Food Country, and letting Taoism and Buddhism only preach in the Great Food Country Although it was a little difficult to accept, it was not that the Western Church had not been allowed to preach in the Great Food Country before; There is nothing wrong with the third one, and there are many merchants in the Great Food Country who buy land in Western Qin to build new factories, workshops, and shops to do business, but the fourth one is a little difficult to accept.

Bu Nud couldn't decide for a while, he looked at Hong Xu and said, "Lord Hong, these things you mentioned are very important, I need time to think about them!" ”

Hong Xu smiled: "Of course, this loan is your willingness, you borrow money from my country, and my country promises to lend it to you, but put forward a few conditions, if you agree, of course, everyone will be happy, if you don't agree, this loan will have to be stopped." Your Excellency, for all your consideration, you have enough time, and if nothing else, I will take my leave! ”

After sending Hong Xu away, Bu Nuod looked bitter, how could he have enough time, of course the people of Xiqin were not in a hurry, but he was in a hurry, Baghdad was still waiting to borrow rice to put it in the pot!

The news that the Great Food Kingdom borrowed 10 million gold yuan from the Western Qin was soon learned from secret channels by the Eastern Roman Empire's embassy in Xinjing, and the Eastern Roman Empire's envoy in Xinjing, Clelius, immediately sent someone back to Constantinople to report the news, and none of the matters between the Western Qin and the Great Food Kingdom was not a trivial matter, and each of them could be related to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire, and Clerius had to go all out.

Some people think that in order to obtain funds to quell the domestic rebellion as soon as possible, the loss of some benefits is acceptable, but some people think that the other three conditions are barely acceptable, but the fourth condition is too slap in the face, the Western Qin people can only be tried by the Western Qin people if they commit crimes in the Great Food Country, but all cases related to the Western Qin people must also be handed over to the Western Qin people for trial, and the opposite side of the Great Food can only be observed. Don't meddle, this can't be said, how can there be such a bully?

Bunod and the officers accompanying the mission agreed on the first three conditions, which were acceptable, but the number of garrisons in Article 1 must be kept to less than 1,000 men; The most controversial was the fourth condition, which was finally agreed upon, but that some changes had to be made to the fourth condition, which was changed to being an observer to participate in the trial and supervise the fairness of the trial, and Bunod and others agreed to this proposal.

Four days later, formal negotiations began between the two sides at a large luxury inn, the Oasis Inn. In order to keep it secret, the Western Qin government cleared the inn and sent soldiers to garrison it, and unrelated personnel were not allowed to enter.

After the negotiations officially began, Hong Xu said to Bunod: "Your Excellency, first of all, I would like to ask a question, can Your Excellency and the mission represent the Great Food Country and Caliph Mansur with full powers?" ”

"Absolutely!" Bunod said with a serious face, and then ordered someone to take out a letter from the Great Food Caliph and hand it to Hong Xu, saying: "This is the will of our caliph to appoint me as the plenipotentiary for this loan and negotiation, please take a look!" ”

Hong Xu took it and looked at it, and ordered the relevant officials next to him to check the authenticity of the book, and the officials next to him nodded to Hong Xu after careful inspection, saying that there was no problem.

Hong Xu returned the book to Bu Nuode and asked: "You proposed to borrow 10 million gold yuan from our country with the mines and land within your control, and we agreed to borrow from you after careful consideration, but we have several conditions, which have been proposed to you a few days ago. What do you think of the four conditions we proposed? ”

Bu Nud said: "I have thought about it in the past few days, and I have also discussed it with the officials accompanying the mission!" Now let's start with the first point, your country wants to garrison troops in Basra in order to protect its own interests, and we agree with that, but the number of troops in the garrison must not exceed 500 men, and there must be no cavalry! ”

Hong Xu shook his head: "This is impossible, five hundred people is too few, there can be no cavalry, we can't protect our own interests at all with this amount of troops, at least two thousand people, as for the issue of troops, your country has no right to ask!" ”

Bu Nud's face changed, and his voice suddenly raised: "Lord Hong, if two thousand people are cavalry, it is enough to threaten Baghdad, the capital of our country, at most eight hundred!" ”