"Emunited by another country?"

Wu Liang was slightly stunned and thought to himself, why would there be envoys from other countries come to pay tribute at this time?

Some countries near the Han Dynasty, basically all know that the Han Dynasty was in war, and the Han Dynasty was in danger, so they all hid far away, for fear of accidentally leading the war to their own territory, or were waiting for an opportunity to find an opportunity to get some benefits from this chaos. Some countries even want to wait for an opportunity to station some of the Han Dynasty's territory, so how could they take the initiative to come and pay tribute to the Han Dynasty?

What's more, it took less than a month for Boss Cao to welcome Emperor Xian to Chenliu. In this era, the spread of news was very slow and the means of transportation were also very backward.

Chenliu is in the hinterland of the Han Dynasty. No matter which direction the "other countries" in the southeast, west and northeast directions, they have to travel thousands of miles to come here. In addition, now the heroes are in power, and they need to pass through many areas controlled by different people. Needless to say, the hardships and risks in them are even smooth sailing. The recent ones may have to take several months of work, and it is no problem to go farther for a year.

This kind of thing is not a rare thing in history.

Since ancient times, the Celestial Empire has been an old overlord in East Asia. It has countless vassal countries under its jurisdiction, all of which have been radiated and favored by the Celestial Culture. However, some vassal countries in remote areas have really not returned before the mission that went to pay tribute the first year before, and the mission that went to pay tribute before the next year was about to set off, otherwise they would definitely not be able to catch up.

Based on this, Wu Liang had to doubt the identity of the "envoy from other countries" mentioned by Cao Chun. How could they come to pay tribute less than a month after Boss Cao welcomed Emperor Xian to Chenliu? Is this reasonable?

This is unreasonable!

"It's just these people claim to be. They can't fully determine their identities yet. Brother Mengde taught you to come to the reception, and I hope you can verify their identities."

Cao Chun smiled and said, "You don't have to worry too much. Brother Mengde said that even if they are really messengers, they are just a small country that is not as good as the country. You can live a decent face and not harm our country."

It turned out that Boss Cao also had some doubts about their identity. This was the real reason why he sent Cao Chun to ask Wu Liang to handle this matter...

Of course, this also shows that the other party is indeed a "small country that is not as good as the country".

If it was a country that could have some impact on the current situation of the Han Dynasty, even if it was just a little influence, Boss Cao would definitely come to meet him in person and form a deep friendship with him, thereby realizing the strategic arrangement of "family and near attacks"... Wu Liang understood Boss Cao. In order to realize his ambition, he was very good at using all the resources he could use, even the irreconcilable person who had once had a grudge against killing his son.

If Boss Cao blamed this matter on Wu Liang, it must be that this small country has no value for "distance friendship", and it is not only not in the short term, but also in the long term.

"Understood."

As he speculated, Wu Liang nodded slightly.

"But I think they are probably real messengers, because they are indeed different from the Han people, and they speak very strangely. At least I have never seen such a Han people."

Cao Chun then said.

Previously, Wu Liang always thought that Cao Chun was a person who didn't like talking. Just like Dian Wei, everything was revealed under his hands. But now after he became familiar with him, he realized that this guy was actually a cold person on the outside and warm inside. He also liked to communicate with others and expressed his opinions very much.

Just like now, Cao Chun has a little more words, and he basically told Wu Liang all the things he should say and what he should not say.

“…”

Wu Liang became curious again when he heard this, and was about to ask what the differences between these envoys and the Han people were.

Cao Chun continued to say the above words: "But it's hard to say, because their clothes and situations look worse than those refugees who can be seen everywhere, each dressed in ragged buildings, with pale faces and thin skin, there is not even a horse to carry on or a donkey to pull goods in the entire team. The messenger of a country is the face of a country. Even if it is not enough, it still has to support the face that should be supported. How could it not fall to this point? Anyway, I have never seen such a messenger, and I have never thought about it."

Saying this way.

Before they knew it, Wu Liang and Cao Chun had already arrived at the temporary palace.

Well, there is no need to ask Cao Chun about the differences between these envoys and the Han people. Just go in and look at them with your own eyes.

Wu Liang did not ask any further, and then raised his foot and entered the courtyard of the temporary palace.

"Here."

Cao Chun stopped him and took him to a house next to the temporary palace. Then he said, "Brother Mengde ordered me to arrange them here first. Only after you have confirmed your identity will they be qualified to meet the emperor. This is also to ensure the emperor's personal safety."

...

The gate of this house and the courtyard are guarded by Yulin Guards.

However, although the Yulin Guards are still nominally the personal guards of Emperor Xian, all the personnel are selected and commanded by Cao Ang. On the one hand, they are protecting Emperor Xian's personal safety, and on the other hand, they also play a role in monitoring Emperor Xian.

"Qilly Tong!"

When entering the courtyard, Cao Chun immediately opened his voice and called out a name with a strange pronunciation, and said loudly, "The emperor's envoy is here to see you, but you can't come out to greet you quickly!"

The next moment.

The sound of walking "Tata Tower" appeared in the west room, and a man with disheveled hair and ragged clothes ran out of it in panic.

The man was a little low, about 1.5 meters tall, and he looked very thin, but his cheeks were bulging, with a lot of oil stains and meat residue on his lips and beard. He tried very hard to swallow the things in his mouth, and then he used his dirty and shiny broken sleeves to touch his mouth, and then he had already arrived in front of Wu Liang.

"The Queen of the Evil Horse and Taiwan Kingdom specially appointed the doctor Qilitong to meet with the emperor's envoy. If you have any mistakes, please give me more consent to the emperor's envoy!"

As he emphasized strange words, the man had already bowed and bowed deeply. The arched hand was almost touching his foot. This was a great gift.

After all, this person is an envoy of a country, while Wu Liang is an envoy of the emperor. Although the two countries have different strengths, he and Wu Liang are at the same level. According to the etiquette of the Han Dynasty, officials at the same level only need to bow when greeting. There is no need to perform such a great gift.

But now this is no longer the point.

The focus is on "Evil Horse and Taiwan Country"!

The name of "Xiema Tai Kingdom" may be very unfamiliar to many people, but Wu Liang had already been involved in historical books. This was a primitive country in Japan, which first appeared in the "Book of Han".

It should be noted that for a long time, Japan had no history books in it. Even archaeologists from later generations needed to find relevant records in the Book of Han to speculate on their history. In this era, Japan had already had a certain degree of civilization.

As for the position of "doctor" in Japan, he was actually an envoy who visited other countries specifically, and was similar to later diplomats.

"I've met Dr. Qilitong."

Wu Liang did not bow, but just bowed and returned the bow, then asked, "I wonder if Doctor Qilitong's trip contains official documents from the Queen of the Evil Ma Tai?"

In fact, Wu Liang has now believed in Qilitong's identity.

Because although the productivity of this era is limited and most Han people are only in the later generations, the average height of men is about 1.6 meters, especially in the Central Plains area.

Although there are not many men of heights like Qilitong, they are a minority, at least in the Central Plains, they are definitely at the bottom of the height contempt chain.

Speaking of this, we have to say that there was already a chain of height contempt in the Han Dynasty.

At least as far as Wu Liang knows in recent years, in addition to having a beautiful beard, the most commonly mentioned "smart" at this time is height. A height of seven feet is the lowest level of a handsome guy, so that he deserves the word "magic"... Like Boss Cao, he has never been associated with the word "beauty". The key is of course not a bit dark, but a lack of height.

As for why Qilitong speaks Chinese, Wu Liang is different at all.

Because of historical records, Japan actually sent envoys to the Celestial Empire as early as the reign of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, that is, when the Eastern Han Dynasty was established, and met Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu.

For this reason, Emperor Guangwu also gave a golden seal to Japan, with five seal characters "King of Han Weinu" engraved on it.

This golden seal was discovered and unearthed by two farmers in the Fukuoka area of ​​Kyushu, Japan in 1784. One of the seals immediately caused sensation and heated discussions in the archaeological community of Japan.

But when those Japanese archaeological experts and scholars saw their own content on the gold seal, they immediately began to question the gold seal.

At first they made a fuss and forcibly "speculated" that this golden seal was not given to Japan, but to "the extreme southern border of Japan" a small "slave country" that could not represent Japan at all.

Then they found that this statement was somewhat unreasonable and even a bit ridiculous.

So they immediately began to doubt the authenticity of the golden seal, and suggested that the golden seal was forged from the Edo period in Japan for some purpose they did not know.

All of this is because the Celestial Culture has a profound impact on Japan, and they understand Celestial Culture too much.

Therefore, they knew that the word "王" in "Han Weinu King" was used as "Wai" in the Han Dynasty; they also knew that "王" not only meant "short, vulgar" in the Han Dynasty, but also meant "suit, obedience"; as for the word "王", they understood more clearly what it meant.

To make them admit that this golden seal was awarded to Japan by the Han Dynasty, this is of course a great blow to "national self-esteem".

But what these Japanese archaeological experts and scholars did not expect is:

The ancestors of the Celestial Empire have always had the habit of writing "diaries"!

This matter is officially recorded in history books.

The original words of "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" are: "In the second year of (Jianwu Zhongyuan), the Japanese country was tributed to congratulate him... Guangwu gave him a seal."

At the same time, some details of the coming of Japan to pay tribute are also recorded in historical books.

Unlike other vassal states, when Japan came to pay tribute, they brought some human animals and fish fillets. The fish fillets were naturally easy to understand. Human animals were actually slaves. Some slaves who were not tall, thin and weak. Even other vassal states were definitely not as rich as the great materials of the Celestial Empire. However, compared with other vassal states, the tribute of Japan was still very unappreciated.

Therefore, some scholars believe that Emperor Guangwu gave them this golden seal, which may not have been intentional, but because the tribute from Japan was really not eye-catching, and the exchanges between the Celestial Empire and Japan were very little at that time, Emperor Guangwu regarded them as a new vassal state that did not need to be cared about, and gave them such a name casually.

“…”

Japanese archaeological experts and scholars collectively lost their voices.

It seems that I am explaining this matter seriously, and the basis and inference are reasonable. I even made the idea of ​​Emperor Guangwu when he gave the seal well, but why did I feel even more humiliated?

...

"Yes! Yes!"

Qilitong nodded repeatedly, then turned around and shouted into the room, "Huh! Come and take the official document with the queen's golden seal to the emperor's envoy to see!"

"well!"

A crisp female voice came from inside.

Then a young girl ran out barefoot from inside, holding a roll of bamboo slips composed of only a dozen bamboo pieces.

However, after seeing Wu Liang and Cao Chun, the girl was obviously a little timid and even her steps were restrained. When she came to Qi Litong, she immediately hid behind him, and then carefully handed out the bamboo slips in her hand.

It is worth mentioning.

Although this girl is not tall, she stood next to Qilitong and compared Qilitong.

It’s not because she is very powerful, but because the girl is more prominent. Even though she is not much different from Qilitong, she still seems to be a little bit easier.

in addition.

The girl was also unkempt and covered in oily mouth. To be honest, if she hadn't known what her identity was, Wu Liang would at most take her to Yongqiu County and divide her into a field to farm.

"Empress of the Emperor, this is the Queen's official document, please review it."

Qi Litong bowed down again, held the bamboo slips in both hands and handed them to Wu Liang.

Wu Liang took it and opened it and took a look.

The content of the official document is also in seal script, with only a few more than forty words in total, but the writing technique is very messy, and it looks like it was drawn by a child who has just learned to write. There are two typos in it, but combined with the context and the general handwriting of the two typos, you can see what it means.

It was nothing more than the evil Ma Tai Kingdom respected the Han court and ordered Qilitong and others to come and meet with the entrusts...

At the signature of this official document, there should be a red square mark.

Among them, the character "Han" has the largest, occupying the area of ​​two characters.

The last four characters are arranged evenly in the character "Tian". According to the reading habits of the Han Dynasty, the four characters "King of Weinu" are successively mentioned.

That's right!

The person in front of him was the Japanese envoy!
Chapter completed!