Knowing that the envoys of the Song Dynasty were visiting, Li Deming and a group of ministers rushed to the city gate early to wait for his arrival.
After seeing Lu Yijian, Li Deming personally greeted her. His smile was as humble as he wanted, and as flattering as he wanted.
Not only that, Li Deming calls himself Zhao Deming.
"Little Wang Zhao Deming, I have met the envoy!"
Now that he has returned to the Song Dynasty, Li Deming will of course call himself "Zhao". After all, the "Li" surname is a surname given by the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty has been overthrown for more than a hundred years. At this moment, of course, we cannot call ourselves by the surname "Li".
"King Xia is welcome."
Lu Yijian said neither humble nor arrogantly: "You and I will be ministers of the same court in the future, so there is no need to be so polite."
The phrase "we are ministers of the same court" undoubtedly names the relationship between the two.
Everyone is a minister of the Song Dynasty, and there is no distinction between high and low.
"Deserve it, deserving it."
Li Deming still had a flattering smile on his face: "The envoy represents His Majesty, how dare the young king overstep his bounds?"
Although Li Deming's face was full of smiles, there was a hint of sullenness in his heart.
What does being a minister of the same dynasty mean?
In his opinion, Lu Yijian was clearly reminding him not to pretend to be the King of Xia or the King of Xiping.
"Your Majesty must be very tired from traveling and traveling all the way. Xiao Wang has prepared a small amount of wine in the house, and I would like to ask your Majesty to taste it."
Of course, despite being angry, Li Deming is still aware of current affairs.
No, he no longer calls himself a palace, but a mansion.
"I'm sorry to trouble you, King Xia."
Lu Yijian slightly arched his hands and agreed happily.
"please!"
Li Deming stretched out his hand and pointed at the vehicle frame parked not far away.
In order to welcome Lu Yijian, Li Deming moved all his property out. The carriage parked in front was a gift from the Liao Kingdom, and it was extremely luxurious.
Although this carriage is not the best one in Li Deming's hands, in terms of sophistication, the craftsmen of the Liao Kingdom are definitely not as good as the Song Dynasty.
But the frame that originated from the Song Dynasty did not come from formal channels, but was plundered by Li Deming.
Treating Lu Yijian with a looted Song Dynasty bicycle frame, wouldn't it be a slap in the face?
How could Li Deming do such a thing?
"Excuse me, King Xia."
Lu Yijian bowed slightly, and then followed Li Deming onto the carriage.
On the way to the palace, Lu Yijian was chatting with Li Deming while looking at the scenery on both sides of the street through the small window.
To be fair, his first impression of Xingzhou City was not good.
Not only were the streets very dilapidated, but the people on the roadside also looked disheveled. When the people saw the frame of the bicycle, they knelt on the ground fearfully and had no energy at all.
Such a scene, not only compared with Bianliang, but also compared with the counties under Jiangzhou (today's Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province), is far different.
Lv Yijian came from a well-known family. In the third year of Xianping, he passed the imperial examination and was promoted to official position in Jiangzhou as his first assignment.
Jiangzhou, located at the southernmost end of Hedong Road, was a metropolis during the pre-Jin Dynasty, and was one of the Six Heroes during the Li and Tang Dynasties.
After entering the Song Dynasty, Jiangzhou was also one of the Xiongzhous due to its special geographical location.
(Similar to today's city levels, such as deputy provincial level and provincial level, the Song Dynasty also divided the prefectures into different levels, in order: prefecture, sub-prefecture, auxiliary, xiong, wang, qian, etc.
Jiangzhou is a defensive state and ranks fourth among the most powerful states)
As one of the Xiongzhous with a long history, Jiangzhou's construction is naturally not bad. Jiangzhou governs seven counties and has a registered population of more than 50,000 households, ranking first in Hedong Road.
This does not include those who have escaped from the household, disappeared from the household, etc. and are not included in the statistics.
The larger the population, the more prosperous the state capital will be. It is no exaggeration to say that Xingzhou City is definitely the most miserable state city Lu Yijian has ever seen in his life.
There is no one!
Barbarians are barbarians. They only know how to burn, kill, and loot, but they don't know what governance is.
However, on second thought, perhaps it was the difficult environment that created Xiazhou Dangxiang's bravery.
As the saying goes, a rich man cannot sit in court. If Xiazhou Dangxiang really knew how to govern, how could he live a life of waiting to lick blood?
Not long after, Lu Yijian followed Li Deming to the Xixia Palace.
It is said to be a palace, but in fact it is just a larger residence.
Although the area is large enough, the layout inside the palace is really shabby and cramped.
Especially for celebrities like Lu Yijian, who came from a wealthy family, the Xixia palace looked shabby both inside and outside.
In fact, if Lu Yijian had come here two years earlier, the Xixia Palace would have been a different scene.
At that time, although the Xiazhou Palace was a little shabby, it was by no means what it is today.
In the past two years, the Song Dynasty banned the entry of green and white salt, and Li Deming lost his largest source of income. Not only that, the Uighurs, the Uighurs, and the Tibetans of the Six Valleys also came to him from time to time to fight the autumn breeze.
No matter how rich your family background is, they can't withstand such a situation.
What's more, Xiazhou Dangxiang is not rich to begin with, and the behavior of various ministries to jointly suppress the autumn wind is nothing more than adding insult to injury.
If he couldn't hold on anymore, how could Li Deming make up his mind to give up all the territory south of the ancient Great Wall?
Those were all stolen by our ancestors with real swords and guns.
"Here comes someone."
"Have a feast!"
Arriving at a small hall, Li Deming immediately ordered his attendants to start a banquet.
On the other side, along the way, Lu Yijian felt a little strange. The small hall in front of him should have a name, but when he just entered the door, he found that there was no plaque on the door.
It's really strange.
In fact, this small hall originally had a name. Li Deming followed the Liao Dynasty and named the hall Wugong Hall.
But compared with the magnificent Khitan Martial Arts Hall, the Martial Arts Hall in the Xiazhou Royal City is really not worth it.
He was afraid of making people laugh, so before Lu Yijian came, he specially ordered his attendants to take off the plaque.
After a while, all kinds of beef and mutton were served to the banquet as if they were free of charge.
Since entering the palace, Li Deming's attention has been on Lu Yijian. When he noticed a flash of displeasure on Lu Yijian's face, he quickly explained.
"It's bitterly cold in Xiazhou, and only cattle and sheep are on the market. I hope the envoy will show sympathy."
Lu Yijian laughed. Although he was dissatisfied in his heart, his mouth was full of praise.
"How can we say it's bitter cold when the table is full of cattle and sheep?"
"It would be nice if the envoy could be considerate."
Li Deming laughed loudly and clapped his hands.
How can there be no joy without wine?
How can there be happiness without beauty?
As the music sounded, a group of carefully selected dancers also appeared on stage.
Looking at the scantily clad dancer, Lu Yijian had no appreciation in his eyes, but only contempt.
Even though he was a relatively enlightened scholar-bureaucrat, he still found it vulgar to see the dancer wearing such clothes that could only cover her vital parts.
unlucky!
Lu Yijian couldn't help but secretly cursed, this mission was really unlucky.
Li Deming had no good intentions in arranging this kind of dancing girl!
After all, Lu Yijian was not the only one in the envoy team.