The retreat was more successful than Zhao Qian thought, sitting in the carriage and recalling the process, Zhao Qian felt that the turning point was after he proposed to 'let the people in the Eastern Mediterranean choose carefully, and the Great Song Dynasty helped those who were willing to rely on the Great Song economic model', Zhao Qian thought that the guys from the Ministry of Finance wanted to lead rather than guide, but judging from the reactions of the people who participated in the retreat, these guys were more supportive of guidance.

Returning to the office to continue reading the official document, the latest news surprised Zhao Qian. The fact that the Mongol Great Khan Timur actually chose the labor army, condolences, and rewards was completely different from the previous judgment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Governors. According to the previous assessment of Timur as 'immature', this guy should be as noisy as a child. Why did you suddenly listen to persuasion?

was thinking about it, Luo Yiren came. When he saw Zhao Qian, he asked, "I wonder if the prince has seen the new news?" ”

"I've seen it."

"What does the prince think of Timur?"

"I don't think the previous judgment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was wrong."

Hearing this evaluation, Luo Yiren was obviously relieved. He then asked, "Then how does the prince judge?" ”

"How old are Minister Luo's children?"

"Uh...... The eldest is almost ten years old, and the younger one is only three years old. ”

"It's not yet time for rebellion."

"All four of my family are girls, there are no boys, so there is no way to compare." Luo Yiren's voice was a little regretful.

"The official family says that having four daughters is better than having four sons."

"The girl is really nice, caring, obedient, and I don't like wild boys. It's just that I don't have a son, so I think there's something missing. ”

"Yes." Zhao Qian said with a smile.

"Hopefully. Belch...... Does the prince want to use the analogy of not growing up? After some discussion among his fathers, Luo Yiren continued to talk about work.

"My boy, if you educate him, he can't help but object. There really is no one to pay attention to him, he is consciously bored, and he is not able to realize his ideas, but will do what we said before. Hao Ren is here, and Timur is easy to rebel. Now that the Mongol burden has fallen on Timur's shoulders, he is at a loss and can probably only use more reliable means first. ”

Luo Yiren's eyes lit up, "Oh? What does the prince think? After a while, Luo Yiren still hesitated and said: "It's just that the choice this guy makes now is really very different from before, and he can't ignore it." ”

"Hmm." Zhao Qian nodded, "It's not that I didn't doubt our previous judgment of Timur, but I remembered another sentence. The beginning of the nameless heaven and earth, the mother of all things. These two have the same name and different names, and they are the same as the mysteries, the mysteries and the mysteries, and the doors of all the wonders. I don't think Timur has reached the point where he can make something out of nothing. ”

"Out of nothing?" Luo Yiren was stunned, and after thinking for a while, he finally smiled: "Ha, making something out of nothing, it's really wonderful!" ”

"Timur can only do what he knows, some will do it right, some will do it wrong. But just as a bowl of water poured into different containers will have different shapes, in its essence there is still so much water. Based on his previous performances, I think he has a very low level of mental growth. It's just that Hao Ren and Boyan are helping with all their might, and these waters are not completely unexpected. Timur's performance at this time proved that this person was no different from ordinary people, and he was not a monarch who had no common sense at all like Emperor Hui of Jin. However, compared to Hao Ren and Boyan, Timur was just an ordinary person, and he was not capable of leading the Mongol court to achieve a breakthrough. ”

"Timur will naturally change when he uses what he knows......" Luo Yiren was still a little worried.

"There are two kinds of change, one is progress and the other is consumption. Minister Luo also listened to the official class, and he should still have an impression of the difference between the victory group and the defeat group in life. ”

With a bang, Luo Yiren couldn't help but knock on the table, and the previous doubts and uneasiness disappeared. Zhao Guanjia said very clearly in class that the life in the life victory group is accumulation, and the life in the life failure group is consumption. No matter how much advice and help Hao Ren and Boyan have given to Timur, Timur's own state is the core that determines Timur's life.

Even so, Luo Yiren didn't dare to be overly optimistic, he said tentatively: "Then I'll continue to wait for the next news." ”

"Wait for them to change on their own." Zhao Qian made a small correction to Luo Yiren's words.

"Okay." Luo Yiren replied briskly.

Seeing off Luo Yiren, Zhao Qian continued to sit down and read the documents. Mongolia suffered a setback rather than a complete defeat, and the situation in the two river basins is now deadlocked. The same was true of the surrounding areas, where the Yuan kingdom was completely involved, and both Eastern and Western Rome were forced to face the problem of not being able to import Yuan grain.

Zhao Qian put down the document and drew a relationship diagram on the paper with a pen. After writing it, he thought about it, crossed out all the names, and added the content of economic exchanges, and then read it again, and felt that the context was very clear. Writing down the most important people in various countries, Zhao Qian only felt interesting in his heart, whether these people could face the situation like the officials of the Great Song Dynasty, master the government and solve the problem. It is really the point of analysis.

I wanted to put away the paper, but Zhao Qian wrote a few logical and a few explanations on the paper, and asked the secretary to hand the paper in the envelope to Foreign Minister Lu Baifeng. Lu Baifeng was in a meeting when he got the letter, and the meeting was not very energetic. It is really difficult for everyone to accurately predict the situation thousands of miles away, and what is even more embarrassing is that these people's predictions for Timur have completely failed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs believed that after the defeat of the Mongol Great Khan Timur, he would be furious, punish the defeated generals as the tyrants in history, replace the generals completely, and even personally lead the troops into battle. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejoiced and looked forward to the news, and everyone wilted. Instead of being angry, Timur appeased the soldiers and comforted the banner army. What surprised everyone even more was that when the Black Eight Banners were rectified, it was only rectified, and Timur even emphasized the importance of the Mongolian court to the Black Eight Banners, asking the Black Eight Banners to think about the close relationship between his family and Mongolia. The True God Cult would not treat the soldiers of the Black Eight Banners so kindly.

Even if these wrists are not harmonious, at least they ease the relationship between the Mongol court and the banner army to the greatest extent and eliminate the panic and anxiety within the banner army. There is also inconclusive information that Timur's Mongol court began to adjust its strategy and was ready to adopt the Ten Strategies of Boyan. The most important strategic idea in Boyan's Ten Strategies is to use the confrontation to block the slave dynasty in the territory of the Ilkhanate, and let the hundreds of thousands of troops of the slave dynasty consume the grain and grass materials in the Ilkhanate.

Because of the topography and climate, autumn in the Ilkhanate comes early, and the local pastures wither earlier than those in the two river basins. This forced the Ilkhanate, which was outside the army, to take the initiative to seek a decisive battle. Judging from the previous battle performance, the carefully selected Mongolian flag army still has a huge advantage. An army of 700,000 men of all kinds may not be able to defeat 100,000 of the Mongol elite in a decisive battle.

The Great Song army was an expert in fighting a war of attrition, and the views given by the old generals were very consistent. If the Mongolian Banner Army can regroup and beat the weak soldiers in the 700,000 troops of the Slave Dynasty in the Great War, the Tianzhu Slave Dynasty will have to send their elite backbone to fight to the death with the Banner Army after a few battles. At that time, the difference in strength between the two sides was reduced from 7:1 to 2:1. In the case of 2:1, the victory of the Mongol banner army was quite large.

Hearing that Zhao Qian had sent the letter, Lu Baifeng sighed in his heart and opened the envelope. He knew that he couldn't hide it, and Zhao Qian would definitely know. Now I know that I will die early and take care of my life early, and I will be able to suffer less psychological torture. Seeing the content on the paper, Lu Baifeng was stunned. After watching it for a while, Lu Baifeng called the meeting clerk and asked him to draw the things on the paper on the blackboard. As the whole content gradually appeared, everyone in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also saw it.

Without waiting for the clerk to finish copying, Yang calmly asked, "Minister, who brought this up?" ”

"The prince brought it up." Lu Baifeng responded.

The idea is ...... Good. Yang said calmly from the bottom of his heart.

Someone next to him asked, "I don't know what's good?" ”

"In all my years overseas, the most terrible thing I feel is not that I have been hungry and not full, nor that I have never been hungry. Instead, I was hungry for a long time, and finally I had a full meal for a few years. Any little bit of wind and grass can spark memories of hunger. The Eastern Roman Empire was once in chaos because of rumors that the Roman legions and their families were going to be cut every month. It was really everyone who was in danger, and the Eastern Roman court was desperately coping with it. This kind of thing is no longer up to the Eastern Roman Emperor or the Eastern Roman court to do what they want, it doesn't matter what they want. ”

Lu Baifeng has read the report on the rush to buy in Eastern Rome, and it is indeed the chaos that Yang Congrong said. A piece of fake news in a short time caused panic among the entire inhabitants of Constantinople, and now the wolves are really coming. The personal opinion of the emperor of the Eastern Roman court was no longer important, and he had gained great prestige and influence by feeding the Eastern Romans for the past few years. Although Lu Baifeng also felt that if the Eastern Roman Emperor could not continue his previous efforts, he would have to pay double the price for everything he had gained. But Lu Baifeng still thinks that things may not come to that stage.

At this time, the clerk had already copied the relationship diagram outlined by Zhao Qian and the text below on the blackboard, perhaps because the words were big enough and the clerk's copying was unconventional, which made Lu Baifeng feel that after reading it, his thoughts on Zhao Qian became clearer. However, with a hint of admiration, Lu Baifeng felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. When everyone in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began to discuss these things on their own, he was distracted.

No one would say anything when the officials of the Great Song Dynasty were distracted, and no one dared to say anything when Barcelus of Eastern Rome was distracted. The Chancellor of the Exchequer outside the Eastern Roman Minister's Hall looked at their wise and powerful Barcellus, and in recent years the sales of small cards and portraits depicting the holy face of Barcellus have been getting better and better, and families who have eaten a lot of food often buy one and put it on the wall or put it on the table in a wooden frame. The idea of the people was simple: a move closer to Baseleus might change their lives for the better.

On weekdays, Baseleus also seems to be a bit of a wanderer, and it is said that he is feeling the instructions of the gods. Barcellus had been in this state of perception for a long time, and the patience of the ministers was gradually exhausted. Just as the Chancellor of the Exchequer was looking to the left and right, and receiving encouragement from his colleagues, he saw Basellus sitting up straight. The ministers immediately waited with bated breath for the judgment. Unexpectedly, the emperor sat up straight for a moment, stood up again, and then walked out of the conference room. The ministers watched Baseleus' figure disappear outside the door, and heard the guards shout, "Send Baseles back to the palace." ”

This...... Is this leaving? The ministers were all dumbfounded. As the guards disappeared at the end of the corridor, the ministers began to glance at each other, and soon saw the discontent in each other's eyes, which soon focused on the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. The two ministers also felt that they were innocent, that Baseleus was the supreme being of the Eastern Romans, that the emperor was the greatest in law, and that the Eastern Roman emperor was religiously the spokesman of God on earth. What's more, Barcelus's move this time was not some kind of collusive performance, which the two ministers did not anticipate at all.

Facing the gaze of his colleagues, the Chancellor of the Exchequer couldn't help but defend: "Ladies and gentlemen, this time it is no longer a rumor, Yuan Guo has clearly informed us that we will not export grain to us in the next few months. Those rumors are true. Barcellus must be asked to come up with a solution. ”

The ministers rarely left Constantinople, and they all lived through the crisis of the previous year. With rumors of problems with the food supply, Constantinople fell into a general panic. Citizens frantically rushed to buy pickled vegetables and pickles, causing the price of vegetables to skyrocket. After that, the price of vegetables plummeted again, and the citizens scolded the vegetable vendors, and the vegetable vendors scolded the imperial court.

A single lie can lead to such a situation, and it is no longer a lie that the Eastern Roman Empire is facing now. Barcellus's prestige in these years is due to the fact that for hundreds of years, the inhabitants of Eastern Roman cities were finally able to buy food at low prices, and by rebuilding the Roman legions, he established workshops where the families of the Roman legions could earn money, so that almost all the people of Eastern Rome had food.

Now the situation is only afraid that it will come to naught, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer only feels a chill in his back when he thinks of the food prices earlier. At the price of food at that time, half of the people in Constantinople were afraid that they would starve to death.

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer had expected, the gang immediately rebuked the Chancellor, "Isn't there a way to get food?" ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer knew that delaying was not an option, and he said bluntly: "I have asked the big nobles to sell grain at a low price, but no one has agreed. If you are really anxious, you might as well come forward and ask them for the court yourself. ”

"Of course not!" The Patriarch immediately expressed his attitude, "Those grains were bought from the Yuan Kingdom, and if they are sold at that price, they will lose money!" ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer rolled his eyes, the price of grain in the Yuan Kingdom was very low, even if the cost of sea transportation increased, the selling price was lower than the price of the native grain producing areas of the Eastern Roman Empire. Because of this, Barcelus's treasury was able to bear the burden of buying large quantities of food. If the traditional Eastern Roman grain prices had been able to buy enough food for the army, the Barcellus of the previous generations would have rebuilt the Roman legions long ago.

"Then I ask you to ask the nobles again what their lowest price is." The Chancellor of the Exchequer has spoken out his proposal.