In this competition, although Zhou Guo said it was nice on the surface and made friends with literature, in fact, he didn't want to take this opportunity to make Chu Guo embarrassed?
If Xu Qing were to judge, it would be that Zhou was trying to reduce Chu's international influence.
Of course, it is more likely that the deputy envoy of the State of Zhou lost 10,000 taels for no apparent reason, and when he realized what he was doing, he felt uncomfortable.
Oh, how pitiful.
When Xu Qing met him for the first time, his impression of him was that he was very easy to fool.
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be easier to fool than imagined.
How on earth did Zhou Guo send such a guy as his deputy envoy?
The residence of the Zhou Dynasty envoy
The deputy envoy of the State of Zhou changed his face when he heard the words of the envoy next to him: "What did you say?! The State of Zhao sent a gift of 80,000 taels?!"
The envoy cupped his hands and said, "Deputy envoy, it's absolutely true! My subordinates' investigation revealed that it's a total of 80,000 taels! Moreover, I heard that it was a national gift to the Chu State on behalf of the Zhao State."
Zhou Guo's deputy envoy's face suddenly darkened, and he punched the table beside him: "What does Zhao Guo want to do?! We agreed to form an alliance to fight against Chu, but at this time, they gave away 80,000 taels and said...
National gift?! This is really unreasonable! Could it be that the alliance between Zhao and me, the Great Zhou Dynasty, is fake? In fact, secretly, we are already making good friends with Chu?"
He couldn't help but think otherwise. After all, people's hearts are still separated from each other, let alone two countries. If you laugh today, I could turn against you and stab you tomorrow.
The envoy said: "Sir, deputy envoy, could it be..."
Deputy envoy Zhou Guo asked: "Could it be something?!"
The envoy said: "The State of Chu also used the same provoking method as ours against the State of Zhao, so that the envoys of the State of Chu were deceived with sweet words to get these 80,000 taels?"
Deputy envoy Zhou Guo hummed: "Deception? To deceive 12,300,000 is called deception, and to give away 80,000 taels without blinking an eye. If there are such easy-to-deceive people in the world, I don't have to be greedy...cough
Hey, no need to make money!"
The young envoy said: "Sir, why don't we send someone to negotiate with the Zhao envoy to see what they really want. This way we can respond early."
The deputy envoy of Zhou State glanced at him: "Negotiation? If Zhao State really made good friends with Chu State secretly, will he tell you the truth? If this is true, then what they said is just prevarication! Confused!"
The young envoy quickly bowed and said, "Yes, I understand my mistake."
Prince Xian’s Mansion—Study
The Xian King looked at Xu Qing, who had just been called over by Xiao Ye, and said, "Would the envoy of the Zhou Kingdom be fooled by such a clumsy alienation strategy?"
What Zhou Guo investigated this time was spread intentionally by King Xian and Xu Qing, and the information they got was just what King Xian wanted them to get.
Xu Qing said: "To be honest, Your Majesty, it would definitely be useless for a regular envoy to give orders. No, it should be said that it would be impossible for a normal person to give orders, but I have never seen anyone as easy to fool as the deputy envoy of the State of Zhou."
"It's not scary to be deceived. What's scary is that this person is so self-righteous that the people around him can't persuade him. Besides, even if Zhou Guo's deputy envoy is smart for once, he won't be fooled at all. If the two countries put together, we are not alone.
Did they make 93,000 taels? If you calculate it this way, they may have made a small profit, but we will never lose money!"
Xu Qing didn't know how the two countries, Zhou and Zhao, chose their envoys. One of the two deputy envoys was stupid and the other was stupid.
But the deputy envoy of the State of Zhao is Hanhan, but at least he is not bad looking, and he is the cute and naive type, while the deputy envoy of the State of Zhou... Well, it's hard to describe in one word!
The wise king glanced at him: "Didn't you also defraud the Zhao State of 80,000 taels? Are the Zhao State envoys stupid too?"
Xu Qing shook his head: "Zhao's envoys are naturally not stupid, but a few months ago, after the Zhao State's Zhenxi Army won a battle with the foreign tribes in the southwest of Zhao State, Zhao State, the victorious country, had to pay compensation every year.
Giving money to the loser is something that only happens once in thousands of years. I have never seen such a stupid and cowardly emperor. This shows that it is not the envoy of Zhao who is easy to fool, but the emperor of Zhao."
"So, the Zhao State envoy was willing to be deceived, and then deceived the emperor into paying the bill. At worst, it would be a routine operation to overpay him by tens of thousands taels."
One thing Xu Qing didn't say was that he really didn't plan to ask for 80,000 taels at first, but the atmosphere was so high...
The wise king sighed: "The idiot Emperor Zhao has never had any opinions. He can believe whatever others say. I'm afraid even the King of Qi would be better than him. How did such a person sit on the throne in the first place? Alas,
Zhao Guo is really so poor that all he has left is money."
Xu Qingshen nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, people are stupid and have a lot of money. I'm really envious."
Suddenly, the wise king asked: "By the way, speaking of false reports, how do you know that he will make false reports?"
Xu Qing said casually: "Tradition, it's all tacitly understood..."
The Wise King: “Have you ever falsely reported a payment?”
Xu Qing, who realized something was wrong, blinked and said for a long time that the wise king actually wanted to trick him?!
Xu Qing quickly bit back:
"Of course not! I am a person who makes money for the national treasury, not a spender. I have only paid taxes to the treasury, and I have never applied for any money from the treasury. I am so conscientious, how can you doubt me?
What about the trust between people..."
Xu Qingyue said that the wise king was getting more and more confused. How could he suspect that such a person who was not short of money at all and had never asked for a penny from the treasury would falsely report the amount?
Did he have the chance to falsely report?
Thinking of this, King Xian quickly changed the subject and said: "Do you have confidence in the poetry of Zhao and Zhou?"
Xu Qing said very modestly: "I will do my best."
The wise king waved his hand: "It doesn't matter if you can't win. Even if you lose, you will still have Jiang Xiang and Qin Xiang. Besides, there is still calculation. As long as you can win one game, it won't be too ugly."
Anyway, we couldn't win a game before, but at that time we had strong military support and no one dared to say anything. But it won't work this time. If Zhou and Zhao really form an alliance and fight, it will be really difficult to win or lose.
material.
Wen Dao, Tao and martial arts must be the same, right?
…
Two days passed in the blink of an eye
Today is the day to meet friends with literature. As the host, the Chu State will face the chess skills, classic meanings and poetry from the Zhao State, and will also face the arithmetic skills from the Zhao State.
The main hall was already filled with civil servants and generals who came to watch the battle, and the editors of the Beijing Xunbao were recording the situation at all times and selecting materials for the next issue of the newspaper.
Even Su Qian was dragged over by Xiao Ruxue to watch the battle, sitting next to the female family members.
Originally, Xiao Ruxue asked Zheng Waner to come with her, but she was still lying in bed until the morning. Xiao Ye told her that Waner had no strength today and could not come.
Therefore, only she and Su Qian came here today.
I don’t know why a good person can’t even get out of bed.
Xiao Ruxue made up her mind to go to the Imperial Hospital to find an imperial doctor to give her sister-in-law a good look to make sure she didn't have a serious illness.