Chapter 651: Vassal State Regulations
When Ma Yi saw that the superior of the superior country was captured by him, he immediately took advantage of the victory and asked a series of questions, demanding that the New Song Kingdom send troops to uphold justice for the Nanyang countries and eliminate the bandits.
Li Liang finally realized it, but it was too late.
The guy had to call for a temporary adjournment as he needed to report the matter to the Central Council for discussion before moving on to the next issue.
In the evening, Zhao Yulin had returned to his room to rest, but Li Liang urgently asked him to come out to make a decision.
After listening to the introduction of the situation, he knew that Li Liang had been tricked by the other party, and said with a smile: Even if we are the Celestial Empire, we cannot take charge of everything just because we have the title of a superior country on our head.
He asked Li Liang to go back and talk again. The New Song was the New Song, and it was different from the previous Song. Ma Yi was willing to be a vassal state of the New Song, and must fulfill the obligations of a vassal state. The New Song could help Ma Yi, but Ma Yi needed to show enough sincerity.
Zhao Yulin told Li Liang that we in New Song don’t play with those superficial things.
As the saying goes, when friends come, there is good wine; when a money wolf comes, there is a hunting rifle. Mayi Country is thousands of miles away from New Song. They are willing to be a vassal state of New Song. Our New Song Country can mediate and even send troops to help teach the barbaric thieves a lesson.
But the vassal state must act like a vassal state. The new Song Dynasty must station troops in the vassal state, and the vassal state must bear the corresponding expenses of the garrison. In other words, the superior state is responsible for the security of the vassal state, and the vassal state bears the corresponding expenses of the garrison. This is the most basic condition.
If so, we will fulfil our responsibilities as the Celestial Empire.
Li Liang didn't expect Zhao Yulin to come up with such a profound truth. He was stunned.
In the past, the small countries around the country would come to the Central Plains to pay tribute. The emperor would be pleased with the face and reward them with countless gold, silver and jewelry. He would also give the monarchs of the small countries a set of seals, documents and etiquette to establish a monarch-minister relationship. The emperor would be satisfied with the face and assume unlimited responsibilities.
Now Zhao Yulin doesn't want these empty words, he wants to talk about practical benefits. Practical benefits mean that he must station troops in the vassal state and keep the vassal state firmly in the hands of the superior country.
The next day, Li Liang was still negotiating with Ma Yi's envoy, and Zhao Yulin had asked Hua Yue to convene the Central Council officials and businessmen to discuss the responsibilities and rights of the Sweet Potato Kingdom. After he expressed his opinions, the officials all agreed, and the New Song Kingdom would never do those things that cost money to act stupid again.
He said: The small countries around us respect our New Song as the superior country, so we must follow all the necessary etiquette. Whether it is respecting or serving, we must be respectful to the superior country and not be arrogant or rude.
He told everyone that in the future, if anyone wanted to be a vassal state of our New Song, we would send envoys to investigate first, find out the situation, and see if these vassal states met our requirements. If the monarch of the country was licentious, cruel, immoral and incompetent, we would refuse to accept him.
If we accept such a vassal state, and one day after it is overthrown due to public outrage, we will be asked to uphold justice and restore our country. That would be like being an accomplice to the evil.
Hua Yue was an upright person who hated evil and treacherous villains the most. He immediately agreed with Zhao Yulin's point of view and believed that the New Song Dynasty had recovered all its territory and was on the road to becoming a great power. It was okay for the surrounding small countries to submit to him, but we must set rules for them.
With Hua Yue's support, Zhao Yulin felt much more relaxed. He insisted that troops must be stationed in the vassal states, the number of troops could be negotiated, and the allocated military camps must be directly managed by the New Song Dynasty. The proportion of shared military expenses could also be allocated according to the financial resources of the vassal states.
He said that if we accept these vassal states as satellite states of the New Song Dynasty and assign garrisons there, we will be able to better control the country. At the same time, the presence of garrisons will facilitate our military projection. If there are still people nearby who dare to defy the majesty of the New Song Dynasty, it will be much easier to control them.
All the officials immediately smiled. Yu Jie said happily: "Great, great, that's it. This way, it will be much easier for us to send troops to other countries. At least we can keep out the enemies who dare to invade our new Song."
You Shi nodded his head, and proposed that the vassal states should also promote Han rituals and Han learning, and use the civilization of a great country to educate the barbarians to follow the rules. Teach the children of the vassal states to learn Confucianism.
These are what their officials should do.
Zhao Yulin nodded and drank tea. He felt that You Shi was smart enough and should indeed educate the subjects of the vassal states to form the same behavioral habits as the New Song State, otherwise some ungrateful people would be raised.
In Courtyard No. 8 in Jinguan City, Li Liang was still negotiating with envoy Ma Yi.
Before Li Liang finished speaking, Ma Yi, the master, could no longer sit still. He interrupted Li Liang rudely and asked questions like a machine gun: Why is this?
Bullying small countries and their people?
The Celestial Empire has always been kind to those it favors. Its vassal states are small, short of money and poor, and yet it still requires them to be treated equally. Isn't this obviously bullying?
They also have to test the governance of vassal states, which is an unprecedented interference in the internal affairs of vassal states.
The Celestial Empire has never had stationed troops. Now it wants to set up military camps and station troops in vassal states, and require them to pay military expenses. What kind of vassal state is this? It would be better for them to merge into the New Song State.
After he finished speaking, Li Liang spread his hands and told him that this was a collective decision of the Central Council and he had no right to change it. If Ma Yi felt it was inappropriate, he could refuse to be a vassal of the New Song. If he felt that the trip to the New Song was not easy, the New Song could send some money to help the delegation leave earlier.
The master was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. This was driving people away.
However, his mission was not yet completed, so how could he leave so easily? He coughed twice and said: That's all for today, we'll talk again tomorrow.
Li Liang hurried to find Hua Yue to report the progress of the negotiations. Hua Yue immediately took him to Zhao Yulin's office to discuss.
Zhao Yulin said with a smile: It's interesting, these envoys are used to the rewards and gifts that the superior country gave to the weak vassal states in the past, and they are not willing to have dialogues and discuss state affairs on an equal footing.
Li Liang said angrily: They don't want to be our vassal state at all. They are clearly in trouble and want us to contribute money and manpower. They just admit that they are our vassal state.
He gave Li Liang a thumbs up, saying it was good that he could realize that those superficial things were useless.
Hua Yue snorted coldly: They are truly uncivilized barbarians who have no idea of the immensity of heaven and earth. We must set rules for them.
Zhao Yulin nodded and drank tea, telling Li Liang not to be anxious, to work hard and slowly temper them, and to ask Wu Qian to take out the discussion records of the Central Council, sort out the rules of interaction between vassal states and general states, and discuss it with Ma Yi. We will neither do evil things by bullying the weak, nor pretend to be stupid and rich. We will talk and part ways, and come and go freely.
Hua Yue nodded repeatedly, saying that he would personally participate in the establishment of foreign exchange regulations, and pulled Li Liang to say goodbye.
The two men came to Courtyard No. 8 of the Ministry of Rites. Li Liang sighed and said that he had not done a good job in the Ministry of Rites and had damaged the dignity of the New Song Dynasty.
Hua Yue laughed and said: It’s just that the negotiations with the Mayi Kingdom failed. He doesn’t think Lord Li did anything wrong.
Li Liang shook his head and said that it was not this, but that his deputy envoy was at a loss when receiving the envoys from Japan.
The Deputy Envoy of the Ministry of Rites discovered that the tribute gifts from the Japanese envoys included the envoys' personal belongings and did not approve of them. After a dispute with the Japanese envoys over the rewards, he confusedly calculated them together with the tribute.
Hua Yue thought about the diplomatic strategy of equal exchanges and not being a sucker that the Central Council had just discussed. It was indeed a bit tricky to make a mistake here. He paused and said, "It has been done before, let's put it aside for now. After we set up the rules, we must follow them."
Hua Yue was very clear about such things in the Ministry of Rites. Such interesting stories often happened in the Lin'an Dynasty before the Song Dynasty.
Foreign vassal states came to pay tribute to the Celestial Empire, knowing that the Celestial Empire's rule was to give more when less was given, and envoys who came to the court to pay homage often brought their personal belongings, or even bought inferior goods at the market after arriving in Lin'an, as tribute, asking the Lin'an court to double the reward.
The emperor of the previous dynasty was in a very good mood because the foreign envoys came to kowtow and call him father and wish him a long life. He gave them lavish rewards without feeling that he had spent much silver. The foreign envoys were very happy, and they received a lot of silver and countless rare treasures. Naturally, they were very proud of themselves.
Now, Zhao Yulin does not want to be such a sucker, and wants to have mutually beneficial and equal interactions, which makes these envoys who only care about their own pleasure unbearable.
Yes, others have risked their lives and gone through untold hardships to come to the Middle-earth Celestial Empire. If they don’t bring anything back, how can they brag in front of their brothers that they have been an envoy to the Celestial Empire?
Haha, while we were still drafting the statement here, something happened over there again.
The envoys from the Japanese island country saw that the standard of rewards corresponding to tribute items verified by had been greatly reduced. Although they did not lose money, the profits were far less than the doubling of the past. They were extremely unhappy and even drew their swords to threaten to commit murder.
The clerk from the Ministry of Rites was also fearless and righteous, but was stabbed in the arm by the Japanese envoy in a hurry.
This is outrageous. The foreign envoy actually dared to use swords in Jinguan City.
Immediately, the Imperial Guards went up and knocked down the Japanese envoy and threw him into prison.
It was the next day that Zhao Yulin found out about this.
Hua Yue walked to his office to ask for tea, and told him about the rudeness and brutality of the Japanese invaders, and said that he wanted to expel the envoys from the country.
Zhao Yulin nodded and motioned Hua Yue to taste the tea. He was the only one who had the top-quality Emei Snow Buds.
He said that in the New Song Dynasty everyone is equal, so the Japanese envoy who used a knife must be sentenced to prison and cannot be released.
He believed that the rules for foreign envoys entering the New Song Dynasty needed to be carefully sorted out and regulated, especially in a martial country like the island country of Japan, where everyone had a sword hanging on their waist, which could become a weapon for committing crimes if one was not careful. From now on, foreign envoys would not be allowed to carry weapons with them and enter and leave the New Song Dynasty freely.
Hua Yue sipped his tea with a grunt, nodded and said, "It was a close call. Fortunately, our defense was done well and all the imperial guards were good fighters. Otherwise, our chancellors and staff officers might have been injured. That would have been a serious matter. The New Song Dynasty must destroy the island country of Japan to thank the world."
The immortal is very protective of Huayue, even more than he is of his own.
Zhao Yulin knocked on the table and said: Not only foreign envoys, but the whole country should have a management method for foreigners. No one has any privileges on the territory of our New Song Dynasty, and everyone is equal.
Hua Yue nodded continuously and told him that things had gotten much better in recent years, but there were still some arrogant foreigners causing trouble along the coast and border, and they must be dealt with as Commander Zhao had said.
