Chapter 257

Pang Jun met the leader of the group of Japanese in the main hall of the city lord's mansion. He was a middle-aged man wearing a white brocade robe and had a handsome face. Although it was winter, he held a folding fan in his right hand, looking dashing and elegant. Upon seeing Pang Jun coming, he smiled and said respectfully, "I am An Jing Dao San from the Great Ying Kingdom, and I am honored to meet Duke Qin."

　　"Yasui Michisan? I've never heard of you. What position do you hold in Japan? Why are you here to see the Japanese government?"

　　After being rejected by Pang Jun, Yasui Dosan did not change his expression, but continued to smile and said: "Dosan is a family elder of the Right Minister of the State, Takagi Kanepira. As the judge of the investigation, I have come here on the orders of Takagi to make peace with Duke Qin."

　　"Hehe, turn hostility into friendship?" Pang Jun sneered, "Five years ago, at the Emperor's Thousand Years Banquet, your Lord Jiujo Deming was planning to use the Nine Illusionary Star Beads and three difficult questions to make our Great Jin stand aside and watch your invasion of the Chao country, but was defeated by our Lord. After losing the bet, we should have withdrawn our troops automatically, but you Japanese went back on your word and continued to occupy the magpie's nest. You even intensified your attack on cities and territories, and even participated in the assassination of the Emperor and attacked our Liaodong. Now that I have killed tens of thousands of people, you come to me and tell me to turn hostility into friendship? What's more, the current emperor has issued an order, ordering our Lord to drive you Japanese back to the East China Sea. As a minister, our Lord should obey the order. Why should we make peace with me? If necessary, please go to Tianjing City and ask for permission from His Majesty!"

　　Pang Jun's rebuttal was righteous and stern, which made An Jing Dao San secretly groan: You Liu Jun are just a separatist warlord. If you were really such a loyal minister, would your emperor still be on guard against you? Now, every word is using the imperial edict and the late emperor as a shield.

　　He organized his words and said, "Duke Qin, please don't talk nonsense. The late emperor of your country died at the hands of bandits in Quyang Mountain, and has nothing to do with our Daying. As for the attack on your country's Liaodong, it was caused by some arrogant soldiers and generals of Bi country who were greedy for military merit. Bi country had no intention of invading. As for those unruly and arrogant generals, they have been repelled by Duke Qin, and achieved the Duke's unprecedented merit. I hope Duke Qin will understand." The implication is that if it weren't for these two things, how could you, Pang Jun, have jumped from a small provincial governor to the governor of a province, and even became a duke. Don't take advantage of this.

　　"Arrogant soldiers and brave generals, greedy for military merit? It's a pity that you can still justify yourself in this way. Well, but the late emperor has an order that if you Japanese lose the bet, you must return the city to the Chao country. Has it been fulfilled? As a result, now you want the Duke of our country to come and recapture it personally, right?" Pang Jun found it a little funny, but he also treated it as a show to see how he could cover up.

　　"Um, this..." Yasui Dosan hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said, "Anyway, of the five cities back then, Duke Zheng of your country took Guangping back. Now Minggu has become a wasteland, and Guijin and Yichuan are in the hands of the Duke. In this case, according to the promise made back then, Biguo will also return Rengang to your country and will no longer fight with the Duke. What do you think?"

　　After hearing this, Pang Jun laughed and said, "Hahahahahaha, you Japanese people are really making a wishful thinking. The return of these five cities was the final result of the gambling game promised by the late emperor, but now you are taking this as a condition for peace talks, An Jing Daosan, right? I'd better ask you to go to Tianjing City and talk to His Majesty yourself. Come on, show him out."

　　Yasui Michisan didn't expect that Pang Jun didn't want to give him any chance to bargain. He was a little anxious and said quickly: "Duke, Duke, please wait a moment. Of course, there are other conditions for peace talks. Please calm down, please calm down." He looked at the overly young face in front of him and had no idea what to do. Who told him to hold the initiative?

　　Pang Jun didn't say anything, he just stopped the guard's actions and let Yasui Dosan continue speaking.

　　"Duke Qin, in addition to returning Ingang, our Daying army will withdraw to the area around Fuzhou. All the remaining cities south of the Ban River will be returned to your country." He looked around, walked to Pang Jun, and continued in a low voice: "Duke, do you know that recently the Jiangnan side has been unstoppable, successively captured several county towns, and pushed the front line forward by hundreds of miles. The momentum is huge. If the Duke continues to tangle with us here, I am afraid that the Central Plains will soon be settled."

　　Seeing Pang Jun frown, An Jing Dao San struck while the iron was hot and continued in a low voice: "In addition to these, the Bi Kingdom has some small gifts for the Duke as a testimony of friendship."

　　"Oh? A small gift? What is the small gift?" Pang Jun asked with interest.

　　"It is said that Duke Qin and his wife are in perfect harmony and treat each other with respect. Therefore, we present the Duke and his wife with 10,000 gold, 50,000 silver, and 20 pairs of white jade sculptures. In addition, it is said that the Duke is kind and gentle to women. We have found three beauties who have admired the Duke for a long time. I believe that the Duke will be able to find a good home for them." Yasui Dosan whispered, "The first one is the queen of the current ruler of Chao State, Cui Manqing. The second one is Cui Manqing's daughter, Princess Park Luqiao. The third one is Park Luqiao's daughter, Gao Xindie. They are all excellent women."

　　After Anjing Michisan finished speaking, he clapped his hands three times, and three women walked in from outside the door. Leading the way was a beautiful mature woman with plump breasts and buttocks, a wasp waist and a slim figure, two red, tender and shiny lips, thick and sexy lips, and a delicate face as beautiful as peach and plum. Following closely behind her was a beautiful young woman wearing a goose yellow palace dress, with a charming figure, graceful posture, and beautiful face. Walking last was a pretty girl in purple, with a pair of bright big eyes that reminded him of his beloved Yue'er.

　　Looking at the three women who walked in, Pang Jun couldn't help but narrow his eyes. An Jingdaosan, who was standing by, saw this and couldn't help but feel secretly happy, thinking that he would definitely gain something from this trip. But what he didn't know was that if someone who was familiar with Pang Jun saw him like this, they would definitely know that he was actually starting to plot against people.

　　After an unknown amount of time, Pang Jun finally spoke up and asked, "Can you speak the language of Da Jin?"

　　The beautiful mature woman nodded and said, "As a noble of a vassal state, you must learn the official language of the suzerain state." The other two women beside her also nodded in agreement.

　　"Okay, good. Come on, take them to the backyard to rest." Pang Jun waved his hand, and a servant took Cui Manqing and her three daughters to the backyard. In the eyes of Anjing Daosan, this behavior should be quite satisfactory, and he felt relieved.

　　Then Pang Jun said, "Okay, I have accepted the gift, and we can start talking. According to what you said just now, all your Japanese troops will retreat to the south of the Ban River. Not only that, when you retreat, you are not allowed to plunder the property of the local people. If you rob, kill and burn all the people in each city, then what is the point of these cities? When I return them, the king of Chao will have to settle accounts with the Duke of Ben. Who can I go to for justice? Starting from Rengang, the garrison in Rengang must withdraw completely the day after the agreement is reached. No one can be left behind. For other cities, we will send people to supervise your withdrawal, and you will take over immediately after you withdraw. Of course, you can leave some spies to see if we can find them all."

　　"This... Duke, it is inevitable that soldiers and ruffians will rob and loot. If you do this..." An Jingdaosan could not have thought that Pang Jun could still put forward such a condition at this time. Shouldn't he be overwhelmed by lust and eager to complete the agreement and enjoy the beauty? Why are they arguing again?

　　"If you really want to do this, not to mention that this Duke will not be able to explain to His Majesty and the King of Chao, you have plundered the people's money and food, which is also a huge burden for us. We cannot clean up your mess. You should first talk to your Duke's military commander about how to take over the city and how you will withdraw your troops. Come on, show the guest away, send Lord An Jing to find Lu Shenyan." Without waiting for An Jing Dao San to react, Pang Jun immediately signaled to send the guest away, as if he really couldn't wait to enjoy the beauty.

　　Seeing Pang Jun in such a hurry, An Jing Daosan could only leave the City Lord's Mansion in tangle.

　　After Anjing Daosan left, a young man came out from behind a screen in the hall and bowed respectfully to Pang Jun, saying, "Greetings, sir."

　　"Shen Yan, what do you think is the conspiracy of this Japanese person?" Pang Jun asked the young man.

　　The young man in front of Pang Jun was none other than Lu Shenyan, the marching Sima. He was originally a clerk in the Household Registration Department of the Ministry of Households. When he heard that Pang Jun was going to Songzhou and was in urgent need of recruiting talents, he recommended himself. Pang Jun asked him to assist in handling the affairs of the trading field. A few years later, with his outstanding performance, he was quickly promoted to become one of the core management of the Songzhou Trading Field. Even Guo Youtang praised him highly. Last year, he was brought to Yanzhou by Pang Jun to take up the post.

　　Lu Shenyan shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, the Japanese should also know that with our current strength, we are at most evenly matched with them. There is no need to make concessions like this. I'm afraid there is something fishy going on here."

　　"They are scared." Pang Jun said firmly.

　　"Fear?"

　　"Yes, I'm afraid. Because of the drought in Japan last year and the poor harvest of grain, in addition to the lack of money and food supply, they can't even support the extra troops in order to stabilize the domestic situation. They can't fight on two fronts now, so they probably choose to stabilize us first, and then find a way to delay our progress and establish a defense line with Sakagawa Kamado as the core. The remaining troops will probably focus on attacking the remaining six cities of Chao State. After destroying Chao State, they can focus on dealing with me." Although Pang Jun couldn't guess all of their plans, he was able to roughly sort out the context by combining the information brought by Mochizuki Qianluan.

　　"If this is the case, how should we respond? Should we continue fighting or stop? I am worried that once the situation in the Central Plains changes, even if we can defeat the Japanese, we will ultimately be powerless to reverse the situation." Lu Shenyan said with some concern.

　　Although Pang Jun has been presiding over the war in Liaodong, the spies of "Suifeng" would often report the battle between Yang Sheng and Yang Man in the Central Plains here. Since Wei Jinglue and Wei Wangshu were still fighting the northern barbarians in the northern border, the Goshawk Legion suffered heavy losses in the process of conquering Qi Tiansheng, and now it can only be used to guard the west and prevent Western Shu from leaving the border. Only the Imperial Dragon Legion led by the emperor himself was sent to resist the Northern Expedition of Jiangnan.

　　However, a considerable number of veteran generals in the army died in the Quyang Mountain Rebellion, and some were taken to the south of the Yangtze River by Yang Sheng. There were not many capable generals in the court, and most of them were mediocre, unlike the elite soldiers and generals brought to the south of the Yangtze River by Yang Sheng. Therefore, even the most elite field army of the Jin Dynasty, the Imperial Dragon Corps, could only defend itself.

　　However, Pang Jun was not very worried. He smiled and said, "Don't worry. With that old bastard Ling Buxu, Yang Sheng can only fight to the limit. But we should not sit idle. Shen Yan, you stay here in Guijin and hold back that Yasui Dosan for me."

　　"What about you, sir?"

　　"Me? It's time to do something. Yasui Dosan is right about one thing. I can't just watch the situation in the Central Plains deteriorate, nor can I remain indifferent to the situation in North Korea. It's time to do something." After saying that, Pang Jun showed a meaningful smile.