Guo Song walked quickly to the atrium guest hall, only to see Sima Liu Zi sitting in the hall, and when he saw the governor, Liu Zi hurriedly got up and saluted, "See the governor!" ”

"What's the urgency of Sima Liu?" Guo Song asked with a smile.

"Governor Qiyu, there is news from Jiuquan County."

Liu Zi handed a volume of information to Guo Song, and Guo Song took the information, and there was only one sentence on it, "The Jiuquan garrison is less than two thousand." ’

This is the information sent by Zhang Yun, Guo Song paced back and forth in the lobby with his hands in his hand, although it is a good opportunity to seize Jiuquan County, but the key is how to hold it, and also, he must pay attention to another hidden poisonous snake, that is, Tubo, before Tubo vowed to send troops to help the Tang Dynasty seize the Hexi Corridor, if Ganzhou's troops are empty, will Tubo take advantage of the weakness?

"What do Liu Sima and the other officials of the Governor's Mansion think of Jiuquan?" Guo Song turned around and asked.

Liu Zi said cautiously: "Qiqi, all of us have the same opinion, Jiuquan needs to consider carefully. ”

'Prudent? ’

Guo Song was stunned and asked, "Why?" ”

"The governor doesn't know, before last summer, Jiuquan's Shatuo garrison has never exceeded 2,000 people, it has been like this for more than ten years, but the successive governors have not sent troops to occupy, on the one hand, it is easy to capture, the aftermath is difficult, but more importantly, the attitude of the imperial court, the imperial court has never opposed provoking a war in the Hexi Corridor, Zhao Dudu had written to the imperial court to ask to march into Suzhou, but was severely refuted by Xiangguo Yuanzai, when Chang Xiangguo was in power at the beginning, Zhao Dudu once again put forward a proposal to attack Suzhou, which was not only rejected by Chang Xiangguo, but also angered the first emperor, As a result, Governor Zhao was dismissed from the post of Governor of Ganzhou and transferred back to Chang'an, and Wang Lianen did not dare to mention this matter at all. ”

Guo Song smiled faintly, "Don't worry about this problem, once the Son of Heaven is a courtier, my recovery of the Hexi Corridor was specially approved by the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Heaven also gave me the Shangfang Son of Heaven Sword, just to promote the recovery of the Hexi Corridor, and besides, we have just defeated the Shatuo Army, if we don't seize the opportunity, I'm afraid that everyone in the world will scold us, what I'm worried about is the lack of troops?" ”

Liu Zi's spirits perked up, since he was afraid of the support of the Son of Heaven, he hurriedly said: "Liangzhou also has 15,000 troops, you can apply to the Son of Heaven to secondment 10,000 troops to Ganzhou." ”

This is a good way, Guo Song nodded, "I'll apply to the Son of Heaven immediately!" ”

"There is one suggestion for the lowly position."

Guo Song smiled happily: "You say! ”

"There is a big Sogdian merchant in Ganzhou, named Shi Donglai, who has been doing business with Shatuo for a long time and knows the internal situation of Shatuo very well, so the governor might as well talk to him."

This was the information that Guo Song urgently needed, and he hurriedly asked, "Where is this big businessman?" ”

"He also withdrew to Liangzhou before, and only returned to Zhangye City yesterday!"

Guo Song nodded, "I was about to meet him." ”

..........

With the return of a large number of people from Liangzhou, Zhangye City quickly resumed its bustle and prosperity, the streets are full of pedestrians, deserted streets and alleys, full of laughter, although the shops have not fully resumed business, but the vast majority of shops are making preparations before opening.

Guo Song came to the Shiji Trading House under the leadership of Yu Dexu, the county Cheng, which was the largest Sogdian trading house in Ganzhou, and the proprietor Shi Donglai was not only the largest Sogdian merchant in Ganzhou, but also famous in Chang'an.

Not only did he have a large camel caravan and large shops in Chang'an, Luoyang, Chengdu, and Jiangdu, but he also engaged in finance, specializing in exchanging Tang currency for Sogdian merchants.

At this time, he opened a historical cabinet shop in Zhangye and Chang'an, and handled tens of millions of copper coins every year.

It is said that Shi Donglai's career is very legendary, he was originally a poor Sogdian boy, in a long journey encountered bandits, the owner of the goods were killed by the bandits, he fled into the desert with a few camels, only to escape, after the torture of life and death out of the desert, he found that the three camels he brought were carrying nine large boxes of fine gems, which was the essence of the whole caravan.

But he did not take the opportunity to swallow the stones, and after many hardships came to Chang'an, and handed the stones to the owner's father, a great Sogdian merchant, who had just lost his son, so moved that he married his precious daughter to him and let him inherit his own business.

Hearing that the governor of Ganzhou was visiting, Shi Donglai personally ran to the gate to greet him, Shi Donglai was about 60 years old, he looked very imposing, his face was well-defined, his eyes were blue, he was wearing a Sogdian pointed hat, a brocade robe, and a leather belt around his waist, which was a bit of a combination of Chinese and Western feelings.

His four wives bore him eight sons, who were at the helm of his vast business and financial empires.

"Welcome Guo Dudu to visit the small shop and make the small shop shine!" Shi Donglai greeted Guo Song in fluent Chinese with a Chang'an accent.

Shi Donglai's 'small shop' is not small, his trading house covers an area of nearly 50 acres, has more than a dozen large warehouses, basically monopolizes the supply of Persian carpets and jewelry in Chang'an, and even Jubaoge is also his big customer.

Guo Song smiled slightly: "Shi Dongzhu is the number one businessman in Zhangye, I should come to visit, besides, I have other things I want to ask Shi Dongzhu today!" ”

"Governor Guo is too polite, please come into the mansion and sit down, and Yu Xiancheng is also invited!"

Yu Dexu sighed in his heart, when the former Wang Dudu came to visit, Shi Dongzhu asked his eldest son to meet him on the grounds that he was seriously ill, but now he came out to greet Guo Dudu in good spirits, which shows the weight of Guo Dudu, it is no wonder that he led the army to defeat the Shatuo people, and even Shi Donglai had to respect the authority of this kind of victor.

Guo Song was allowed to enter the guest hall, and the two sides sat down separately, and Shi Donglai's eldest son, Shi Eun, also sat on the side to accompany him.

"Lord Shi's hometown is in Shi Guo!" Guo Song asked with a smile.

The Sogdians all have their own country names as surnames, like An Lushan, whose earliest surname was Kang, was a Sogdian Kangguo, Shi Siming was a Sogdian Shiguo, and Guo Song's henchman Kang Bao was also a Kangguo.

"The governor is right, but to be precise, I am a native of Xiaoshiguo, and my hometown is in Nasebo, and the rubies of Bukhara, the emeralds and sapphires of Nasebo are all famous."

"I have a subordinate who is also from Kangguo."

"I know, someone recognized him, Ash. Darhan, known as the god of war of our Sogdians, was visited yesterday and he said that Darhan was dead, and that his name was now Kangbao, and that he was a servant of the Governor. ”

Guo Song smiled and waved his hand, "Servants can't talk about it, we are brothers and friends." ”

After a pause, Guo Song said again: "The main thing is that his wife and daughter were taken away by the big cannibal and can no longer be found, he doesn't want to go back to the past, so Lord Shi shouldn't mention the past again." ”

Shi Donglai nodded, "Thank you for reminding the governor, I understand, I will try my best to help him keep an eye on it, I also have business over there." ”

Guo Song owed his body to thank him, and as soon as he changed the topic, he got to business, "What is the situation in Beiting, does Lord Shi know?" ”

"I probably know a little bit, in October last year, I had a caravan pass through there, Beiting is still there, but the surrounding land is basically eaten up by Shatuo, only a lonely city and some scattered land around, the residents of the city are very difficult, mainly because of the serious shortage of food, can only use some stocks and us in exchange for food, I estimate that they are likely not to survive this winter."

Guo Song's heart was heavy, and he asked again after a while: "The Shatuo people have no plan to attack Beiting?" ”

"Of course they want to attack, they were suppressed by the Hui people before, they can only hold back and not fight, and now the Hui people are restrained by Qarluq, and they have no time to look east, so let's say so! If the Shatuo people didn't want to attack Ganzhou this time, they would definitely take the North Court, and it would be impossible to tolerate the existence of the North Court on their backs for a long time. ”

"I see!"

Guo Song nodded, and asked with a reluctant smile: "I heard that Shi Dongzhu is more familiar with Shatuo?" ”

Shi Yan next to him was startled, and hurriedly denied it: "Who said it, there is no such thing!" ”

Shi Donglai waved his hand, telling his son not to be impatient, he has been experienced for a long time, of course, he can see that Guo Song is not here to ask for help, I am afraid that he has something to ask for help.

He smiled slightly: "It's not very familiar, but I know a little, mainly because of business dealings, he has leather to sell to the Tang Dynasty, and the nobles want to use silk, so they will change hands through us, but please rest assured that we will not touch the contraband such as grain, pig iron, and armor." ”

"What is the status of this person Zhu Xie Jinhai in Shatuo?" Guo Song asked again.

"His status is quite high, he is the brother of the previous Khan, Sha Tuo is generally the younger brother to succeed the elder brother's Khan, it should have been Zhu Xie Jinhai as the Khan, but the internal elders of Sha Tuo were resolutely opposed, they unanimously elected Zhu Xie Jinding's eldest son Zhu Xie Liang as the new Khan, ruining Zhu Xie Jinhai's Khan dream."

Guo Song smiled: "It seems that his popularity in Shatuo is not very good. ”

"It's really not good, some people say that he is short-tempered and offends too many people, and some people say that he is greedy and stingy, and refuses to let everyone share the benefits, in fact, these are not the real reasons, the real reason is that he vigorously implements the system of rewarding military merits, requiring Shatuo to obtain taxes from other tribes and distribute sheep to the soldiers, and require all tribes to exempt soldiers from taxes, which makes many Shatuo nobles dissatisfied, involving their own vital interests, how can Shatuo nobles make him a khan."

Guo Song nodded, he muttered and said, "There is something I want to ask Lord Stone [fo] for help." ”