Chapter 73

It was afternoon. Zhao Yi sat at the negotiating table for the first time. The senior officials from Beiyi were all taken aback when they saw him. Once the negotiations began, however, they understood why he was there. No sooner had Beiyi played their card—the assassination attempt on their Sixth Prince the previous night—than Dayong countered with the "debt of gratitude" for saving his life. It was like the Beiyi envoys had punched a pile of cotton; it had absolutely no effect. Zhao Yi’s presence served only as a restraint; it provided no substantive help to the negotiations themselves. By the end of the afternoon, there had been zero progress. The two sides were still deadlocked over the terms for exchanging horses for territory. Originally, Beiyi had proposed trading ten thousand warhorses for two provinces of the Yueqiao State. After several "concessions," they had raised the price to twenty thousand warhorses for the two provinces. Dayong, however, maintained that trading two provinces for ten thousand warhorses was equivalent to ceding territory. Ceding territory was a condition only a defeated nation would accept. Since Dayong and Beiyi were negotiating as equals, Dayong was firmly opposed to any such deal. They had proposed alternative terms, but these had all been rejected by Beiyi. The two sides remained at a stalemate.