Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

The exotic displays and the architectural style, which Zheng De felt was more primitive than civilized, inevitably made him feel a little uneasy.

I hope that the so-called slang from the Mud Country that I learned years ago is truly effective here.

He glanced at the guide he had found in Supi Kingdom beside him.

Hopefully, the gibberish this guy is spouting is really the language of the Mudman Kingdom.

Fortunately, when he took out his Tang Dynasty documents at the city gate, and the guide from Supi Kingdom beside him rattled off a string of words, he was indeed allowed into the city.

"Lord Zheng, as I said, Su Pi's guides are like eagles. As long as we promise, we will definitely be able to take you to the place you want to go."

The young man named Sujiga had a reddish complexion characteristic of the high-altitude region.

His eyes, however, were full of confidence. Zheng De simply smiled and took out a simple and unpretentious compliment from his pocket.

He slipped a silver coin, issued by the Royal Bank a year ago, into the other man's pocket.

Sujiga's face lit up with joy, but he dutifully offered a reminder.

"Lord Zheng, I must remind you, the Kingdom of Nipo can treat us as guests, or they can treat us as robbers. If they treat us as robbers, it means... they want to be robbers, so we must be careful."

Sujiga's Mandarin is not very standard, but fortunately, his vocabulary is not too awkward to hear.

Zheng De nodded.

To be honest, he somewhat admired this young man from Supi. He spoke Tibetan, Turkic, and Nepali languages, and the young man even knew some of the script of the Harsha Dynasty. Now, he spoke Tang language quite well.

“Sujiga, if I successfully complete this mission, I can take you to the Tang Dynasty. Your talent is worthy of serving a better empire and a greater monarch.”

He smiled and didn't say anything more to this silly boy who was so determined to marry a girl from the tribe.

Soon, the two were taken into the so-called royal palace.

"I am Zheng De, Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial of the Great Tang Dynasty, paying my respects to His Majesty Udaya Dewa of the Kingdom of Nepal!"

Beside him, Sujiga immediately translated for Zheng De.

Upon hearing that it was actually someone from the Tang Dynasty, both Udaya, who was sitting on the throne of the Kingdom of Nepal, and the other officials or priests of the Kingdom of Nepal in the royal palace looked at Zheng De with surprise.

Zheng De presented his identity documents, along with the official letter he had brought with him, and the Crown Prince's seal from Yangcheng Palace in Bingzhou.

Ignoring whether these guys understood or not, I turned my gaze to Sujiga beside me.

Only after the latter nodded did he continue speaking.

"I have come here with an order from His Highness the Crown Prince of the Great Tang Dynasty, seeking to reach a cooperation agreement with the Kingdom of Nepal. You must know about the Tibetan Empire's capture of slaves from the Harsha Dynasty..."

Sujiga translated, and everyone present listened quietly.

However, upon hearing Sujiga mention Tibet, everyone, including Udaya Dewa sitting on the throne, frowned almost imperceptibly.

Clearly, the recent actions of Tibet, which repeatedly used the Nepalese kingdom to capture slaves from the Harsha dynasty and expanded its military at an incredible speed, have made him uneasy.

"I know about this, so it was your Tang Dynasty that provided support to Songtsen Gampo behind the scenes, selling them those incredibly amazing swords and armor?"

Udaya narrowed his eyes slightly.

Zheng De nodded: "That's right!"

Sujiga shook his head: "No, we were forced!"

Zheng De: "??? Why are you shaking your head?"

Sujiga's lips twitched twice, and he gestured for the other person to look to the side.

Zheng De turned his head and immediately saw several burly men, most of whom were generals, with their hands on the hilts of their swords.

What the hell!

Udaya frowned, his eyes fixed on Zheng De: "What you and he said doesn't seem to mean the same thing!"

Zheng De felt the chill emanating from the surroundings and quickly shouted.

"Damn it! I'm an envoy from the Tang Dynasty! You dare touch me?! If I die here today, Songtsen Gampo can find a reason to wipe you all out tomorrow!"

Sujiga felt as if he had sold himself for a very low price.

“Our Great Tang needs slaves from the Harsha Dynasty, but unfortunately, Songtsen Gampo has forcibly occupied the entire route, and we have no choice.”

Zheng De: "I'm giving you a chance to make a fortune. If you don't listen to my advice, you'll have to suffer the consequences. Before long, Songtsen Gampo will send troops to destroy this obstacle in the middle of your Harsha Dynasty!"

Sujiga's forehead was already covered in cold sweat: "Songtsen Gampo is raising the price of slaves. If His Majesty the King is willing to help our Great Tang capture Harsha slaves, we can also exchange them for weapons and armor."

Zheng De: "Don't say you weren't warned!"

Sujiga: "Songtsen Gampo is about to possess a power that Your Majesty will find difficult to resist. If he grows stronger, our Great Tang will completely lose this slave trade route, and Your Majesty will also be threatened by Songtsen Gampo. This is something we do not wish for."

Zheng De looked surprised: "No, does this sentence need to be this long when translated into their language?"

Sujiga didn't want to talk; he just wanted to live.

Upon hearing this, Udaya read Zheng De's documents and the Tang Dynasty's official letter several more times.

Finally, under the tense gazes of the two, he slowly nodded.

“My son-in-law is indeed unsettling at times, not just for me, but also for my men… I think we can talk about the slave trade.”

Zheng De, who was practically forced into this mission to the Mud Kingdom by his niece Zheng Lizhen, who was eager for the Crown Prince's favor, was somewhat surprised at how smoothly the matter had progressed.

At a royal banquet in the Kingdom of Mud.

With Sujiga's translation, Udaya, who had been warmly hospitable to them, finally got to the heart of the matter.

“King Harsha is not easy to provoke, but if we could also have the same weapons and armor that the Tang Dynasty sold to Songtsen Gampo, we could also do the slave trade. But... how would we transport the slaves to the Tang Dynasty?”

"We have never been to the Tang Dynasty."

Sujiga translated the words of the King of Niva.

Upon hearing this, Zheng De replied with a confident expression: "Since Songtsen Gampo asked you for passage, why can't you ask Songtsen Gampo for passage?"

Everyone looked helpless and speechless upon hearing Sujiga's translation.

However, Zheng De then seemed to have seen through their concerns and waved his hand with a smile.

"You have no idea how powerful our Great Tang Dynasty is. With just a word from our Crown Prince, believe me, Songtsen Gampo will not only grant you passage, but he will also help protect the slaves you are transporting!"

Upon hearing this, even Sujiga, the translator, was momentarily speechless.

The conflict between Supi and Tubo has a long history, and he was able to learn Chinese because he had an uncle who was a merchant and had been to the Sui Dynasty.

Unfortunately, he has passed away.

Therefore, Sujiga only knew that the Tang Dynasty mentioned by Zheng De replaced the very powerful Sui Dynasty mentioned by his uncle, but he did not know exactly how powerful the Tang Dynasty was.

With just one sentence, the barbaric Tibetans obediently transported goods to them.

This sounds more like sleep talking.

However, out of respect for the Tang Dynasty silver coins in Zheng De's possession, Sujiga still carefully translated the sentence to everyone.

There is no doubt that.

Everyone looked at Zheng De as if he were a fool.

Especially considering that Sujiga's previous translation mentioned that the Tang Dynasty had no way to deal with the Tibetans who occupied the trade routes, Zheng De's current arrogant words sound like boasting.

“I know you don’t believe me. Here’s what we’ll do: send a few of your men with me to see Songtsen Gampo, and I’ll make him agree to let you pass through!”

......

Sujiga was shocked to hear that they were going to Tibet and to find Songtsen Gampo.

As a Supi person who had a blood feud with Tibet and was almost wiped out by them, he immediately had the idea of ​​retreating.

however.

When a gold coin bearing the image of Emperor Taizong of Tang was tossed into the other person's hand, Sujiga's eyes immediately became clear, like ice water melting down from a high mountain.

It was as if Zheng Dedu could see the shadow of a Supi tribe girl in the other person's eyes.

"If you come with me, I guarantee your safety. In addition, I will give you another gold coin like this after the event."

He was the head of the third branch of the Zheng family in Xingyang, though he was usually dissolute.

But they truly had no shortage of gold and silver.

Sujiga lost to money for love.

Accompanied by three ministers from Nepal and a young man named Nalingdeva, who was said to be a prince of Nepal, the group rode horses for several days and finally arrived at the capital of Songtsen Gampo of Tibet.

Zheng De still knows Tibetan.

At this moment, facing Songtsen Gampo, who was kneeling and begging for food, Zheng De, as the ambassador of the Celestial Empire, also had enough of his aura.

He calmly sipped the coarse tea that the other party had bought at a high price from merchants in the Central Plains.

He chuckled softly.

He seemed oblivious to the gloomy expressions on the faces of Songtsen Gampo and the assembled Tibetan ministers.

"This is what our Crown Prince intends, Your Majesty. Your efficiency is simply too low. The second batch of 50,000 slaves was promised, and the deadline is fast approaching, yet you still haven't delivered..."

Galdonzan passionately defended himself: "The Harsha dynasty has become vigilant; we need prior reconnaissance before we can arrest anyone..."

Zheng De curled his lip: "That's your business. What my Great Tang needs are people!"

"boom!"

"Where are our people from the Great Tang Dynasty?!"

Prince Nalingdeva of the Kingdom of Niva, who was sitting next to Zheng De, was startled by Zheng De's sudden action of slamming the table.

However, just as he, along with Sujiga and several other ministers from the Nepalese kingdom behind him, thought that Songtsen Gampo was about to kill them.

Who would have thought that Songtsen Gampo, the "cunning wolf king of the plateau," would take a deep breath and appear to be patiently comforting her.

"Your Excellency Tang Envoy, fifty thousand men is no small number. We are eager to help His Highness the Crown Prince accomplish his task as soon as possible, but..."

"Our Great Tang Dynasty will not listen to any buts!"

Nalingdeva, Sujiga: "...Hiss!"

Zheng De snorted coldly, losing all interest in the coarse tea, and slammed his hand on the table, revealing his hand.

"Your Kingdom of Niva, like Tibet, is a partner in the slave trade of our Great Tang Dynasty. You borrowed their roads, so it's not a problem for them to borrow yours in the future, is it?"

Galdonzan opened his mouth, speechless at the Tang Dynasty's overbearing behavior.

It just so happens that we are at this awkward juncture, a point where development time is needed. Even if Tibet wanted to angrily refuse, it simply couldn't find a reason to do so.

especially......

Gardonzan glanced at Sujiga, who was sitting behind Zheng De and was clearly dressed in Supi tribe attire.

The Tang Dynasty was not only in contact with the Nepalese Kingdom, but also with Supi, the mortal enemy of Tibet!

He walked up behind Songtsen Gampo and whispered something in his ear.

The atmosphere at the scene was somber.

Zheng De, acting like a spoiled brat, sat there casually, eating some nuts and snacks offered by the Tibetans, while Sujiga and the others behind him didn't dare to breathe loudly.

After an unknown amount of time, it seemed that Zheng De's face showed some impatience.

After Galdontsen left Songtsen Gampo's side, Songtsen Gampo finally relented.

"can!"