Cui Yao slowly opened his eyes, his eyes were still confused, after a while, gradually his eyes became clearer, he saw the blue sky, saw a flock of birds flying in front of his eyes, and he felt the cool wind, and the rustle of the wind through the reeds.

Where am I?

Cui Yao turned his head slowly, and saw a sparkling lake, he faintly felt a little familiar, this seemed to be the oasis where he rested yesterday afternoon, but where did those pursuers last night, and the last two damn guys, where did they go? He struggled to sit up, when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his left arm, a pain that made him sweat profusely and almost faint again.

"Ahh You must not move. A crisp voice suddenly came from his ears, with anxiety in his voice, but Cui Yao was as if he had been struck by lightning, he couldn't believe his ears, was it her? She shouldn't be here, but it was really her voice, Cui Yao forgot the pain in his arm, he slowly turned his head, and a haggard and beautiful face appeared in front of his eyes, the high nose, the jewel-like eyes, the pink skin, the lips that made him dream, sneaked into his dreams night and night, making him unforgettable lover, at this moment, her sweet smile was like a water lily in the desert, blooming.

Gu Dai's voice trembled and he called out the name that could only appear in dreams, "Is it really you?" Am I not dreaming? ”

Gu Dai couldn't help crying with joy, she slowly knelt beside him, wiped the tears of happiness from the corners of her eyes, stroked his dark and thin face, and choked up: "You guy." I thought you wouldn't make it! Do you know how long you've been in a coma? ”

Cui Yao only felt extremely weak. ^^, UC eBook, first posted ^^ He stretched out his right hand and clasped her hand tightly, and a thousand words welled up in his heart, but his lips moved, and finally only one sentence was spoken, "For you." I will never die. ”

Gu Dai's tears rolled down, a month of arduous trekking, a month of wind and rain, dangerous encounters, and the weakness that made her want to go home again and again, all disappeared in Ailang's categorical words, and she suddenly held her face and cried bitterly, full of happiness and grievances. All melted into these rolling tears.

"You know what? You've been in a coma for three days and four nights, and every day I think about keeping you alive with water to drink, and I'm so scared. Gu Dai said as she fed him the soft dough soaked in spring water with a small spoon, pursed her lips and smiled: "I actually saw you in Mulu City, I think the masked man in black looks very much like you, but I am not sure, so I followed all the way." It's so dangerous, if it weren't for my thoughts, maybe we would be separated by yin and yang, you know? I heard that you were captured by the Great Cannibal, and I wanted to get you out. But I haven't thought of a way to save you until now. ”

Speaking of which. She almost burst out laughing, and was lonely for a month on the journey. I met my lover again in the desert, and Gu Dai seemed to have a lot of words. Her eyes showed irrepressible excitement, she suddenly frowned, and asked, "Why are those Great Food Soldiers chasing you?" Did you escape? ”

Cui Yaodi's left arm was broken in addition to the knife wound, and Gu Dai found a few wooden planks to tie it firmly, unable to move at all, he was comfortably half lying on a straw mat made of flowers and grass, he was really a little hungry, eating the bread with relish, and said vaguely: "It's someone in Baghdad who wants to kill me, I'm involved in their domestic power struggle, in short, it's hard to say, by the way, my entourage can survive." ^^, UC eBook, First Release ^^"

"There are still seven people alive, who only gathered this morning, and now they have all gone back to the place where the accident happened to look for something."

Cui Yao was stunned, and he asked in surprise, "What?" Could it be another oasis here? ”

"Do you know now?" Gu Dai glanced at him, and said with a coquettish smile: "This is already fifty miles away from the oasis where you were attacked, we killed the Great Food Soldiers, can we still survive if we don't run away?" ”

Cui Yao thought about it, it was true, the soldiers of the Great Food could not go deep into the desert on horseback, so they escaped with their lives, he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly touched it into his arms, and his face couldn't help but change greatly, and the handwritten letter from Rashid was gone.

"Are you looking for this?" Gu Dai took out a gold box from the leather bag next to him, opened it, Rashid's letter was still lying intact in the gold box, Cui Yao breathed a long sigh of relief, reached out to take the gold box, and carefully put it into his arms, he pondered for a moment and said to Gu Dai: "I have an important mission, I can't delay too much on the road, and when the people come back, we will set off immediately and return to Chang'an a day earlier." ”

The Guanzhong Plain has once again entered the summer of harvest, there are wheat fields everywhere, there is no edge in sight, the fields are full of people who are busy harvesting, joyful laughter can be heard everywhere, last year Guanzhong suffered a drought, the wheat yield was reduced by forty percent, the broken leaf battle almost caused a food shortage, the rice had risen to three hundred and fifty Wen, the whole battle from Huainan to transport three million stone rice to solve the urgent need, and today is a bumper harvest year, until the eve of the wheat harvest there was no disaster, the entire Guanzhong Plain was jubilant, Beginning in mid-June, the Guanzhong Plain and even the entire Tang Dynasty have entered the wheat harvest season, after the wheat harvest is over, the whole territory of Huaibei and Guanzhong, Hedong, Longyou and other parts of the upper field began to plant rice, while the middle field and the lower field planted a season of beans, and the grain producing areas south of Huaishui were all planted with double cropping rice, and it was also at this time to harvest early rice.

Although the imperial court has been encouraging the development of industry and commerce, but agriculture has always been the foundation of the country, the people take food as the sky, which has been firmly engraved in the hearts of every common official, every June is the busiest day for the officials of the Tang Dynasty, up to the emperor, down to the master of the nine products, every official must appear in the field of rice, they wear straw hats, hold sickles, sweat like rain and harvest with the people, this is the prosperous dynasty of the time and place. Along the way from the eastern suburbs of Chang'an City to Xinfeng County, which is close to the Wei River, it has been the rich land of Guanzhong since ancient times, and there were originally more than 1,000 farms of all sizes. Most of them are the private property of the royal family and magnates. However, with the Great Purge of the Imperial Family in the Yuan Year of the Great Governance and the abolition of slavery in the fourth year of the Great Reign, most of the farms disappeared, and now there are less than 100 farms left, most of which are hereditary Yongye fields of large families, and more land has been distributed to farmers and become their private property. Each household granted 15 acres to 20 acres of land, except for military merits and officials, they paid a tax of 20 taxes to the imperial court, and the income of other land belonged to themselves, and the imperial court officially issued a holy decree, the standard of granting land and tax standards will remain unchanged for 50 years, which undoubtedly reassured the people of the world.

And the shrewd people immediately discovered the secret, regardless of the size of the household. All of them were granted land according to the same standard, so that small households and multiple children became commonplace, which was exactly what the imperial court hoped for, hoping that within 50 years, the population and arable land of the Tang Dynasty would return to the level of 50 million people in the early years of Tianbao. ^^^UC eBook ^Premiere ^^

Early in the morning, Zhang Huan led hundreds of officials to the eastern suburbs of Chang'an to help the people harvest wheat. Holding a sickle in his hand, he harvested wheat with the people, this was not the first time he had cut wheat, starting from Wuwei and Longyou, he led officials to participate in the summer harvest every year. It has become the rule. Whether officials can participate in the wheat harvest or not is not forced, but they will come. Unwilling or reluctant, but this is the most important of the four virtues in the official evaluation system: morality and righteousness.

Participating in the wheat harvest does not necessarily mean that you will be virtuous and righteous. But do not participate in the wheat harvest or just make a show is absolutely not to get a comment on morality, every year there are inspectors of the imperial history to investigate the situation of local officials, they do not ask officials, two do not enter the yamen, they ask ordinary people in the fields, in addition to the secret report of the supervision room, the people's eyes are clear, will not tolerate corrupt officials and lazy officials, so when the wheat is harvested, almost all the officials of the Tang Dynasty are dispatched, and the people work in the fields like the people.

"Your Majesty, rest for a while!" Han stood up, wiped his sweat and smiled.

Zhang Huan smiled and nodded, "Okay! Just take a break. ”

He glanced at his son Li Qi from a distance, and saw that he was asking an old farmer for wheat cutting skills, so he didn't bother him, he sat down on the ridge, he took the kettle handed by the guard, drank a few sips of water, and glanced at Han and smiled: "Han Xiangguo's farm clothes seem to be from last year!" ”

Han said: "The minister wore a white dress last year, and this year he specially dyed it blue, how can Your Majesty see it?" ”

"Because of this patch." Zhang Huan pointed to a seam on his sleeve and said, "I still remember very clearly, Xiangguo accidentally tore his sleeve last year, this is it!" ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan sighed slightly: "When I was in Longyou, I heard that Xiangguo was thrifty, his clothes changed every ten years, and his residence was only sheltered from the wind and rain, and he did not buy assets for his family. ”

Han hurriedly got up and bowed and said: "Your Majesty doesn't have to blame yourself, Your Majesty is already a rare diligent and thrifty emperor, so far there are only ten people in the harem, and there are only 500 palace maids and eunuchs, while Emperor Xuanzong's harem has more than 40,000 people, and it costs millions of dollars and materials in the country every year, and I have to say that this is one of the roots of the Anshi Rebellion, and His Majesty has been on the throne for five years, focusing on agriculture, revitalizing industry and commerce, low taxes, and extensive education, which has won the hearts of the people in the world. ”

Zhang Huan nodded silently, and said after a long time: "Mencius said, born in sorrow and died in peace, I also indulged in luxury goods such as harem textile and light appearance a few months ago, this is my fault, I have ordered that luxury goods such as light appearance and Shu brocade are not allowed to enter the palace, I originally wanted to issue an edict to prohibit the sale of fine silk and Shu brocade in the market, but after thinking about it, maybe Hui Hui needs this thing, so I changed my mind again." ”

Speaking of this, a strange smile appeared on the corner of Zhang Huan's mouth, he glanced at Han to see if he could understand the meaning of his change of topic, Han also smiled slightly, of course he understood His Majesty's meaning, Hui Hui, this is a goal of Datang after the Battle of Broken Leaves, but His Majesty obviously does not want to use troops anymore, but hopes that Hui Hui will kill each other internally, until it finally falls apart, which requires the use of clever means, or borrowing a knife to kill, or dividing the division, to completely eradicate this most threatening enemy to Datang.

In fact, the Tang Dynasty has already adopted similar measures against Tibet, on the one hand, it has allied with its Zampu and encouraged it to expand westward, but on the other hand, it strictly controls trade with Tibet, strictly prohibits the sale of strategic materials such as grain and iron tools to them, and exchanges luxury goods such as porcelain, silk, and tea for their cattle and sheep, gradually weakening the strength of the Tubo people, making the Tubo Zampu always unable to destroy the Na Nang clan, and finally falling into a vicious circle of civil war.

The same is true for the Uighurs, two months ago, the Uighurs officially announced an alliance with the Great Eclipse, and regarded the Tang Dynasty as an enemy, and changed the name of the country to the Uighurs, in order to show a break with the previous Uighurs, it was the new Khan Jiegangas who broke with the Tang Dynasty without hesitation, so that there was internal strife within the Hui, and hundreds of thousands of people from the pro-Tang tribes such as Fugu, Hun, and Absi and Yaoluo Geling moved eastward to the area around Kedun, and supported Yaoluo Geling as the Eastern Khan, asked for the support of the Tang Dynasty, and confronted Jiegangas.

This is obviously good news for the Tang Dynasty, but Zhang Huan is not in a hurry to send troops to attack Jiegangas, first, the Tang Dynasty is tired after the war and needs time to recuperate, and second, he has formulated a five-step chess strategy, and now he is only going to the third step, which is to support the pro-Tang faction to split the Hui and weaken the strength of the Jiegangas, and his fourth step will be to implement classified trade in Han Er Bali, only open the luxury goods of porcelain and silk to be transported to the Hui, and strictly prohibit all kinds of strategic materials from going north, of course, this is just to block a channel, the key is to block another channel, we can't let Hui get material aid from the West, and we can't let Hui Hui take the luxury goods of the Tang Dynasty to go to the West in exchange for food.

Zhang Huan then took a few ears of wheat and laid out a simple map on the ground, he pointed to one of the ears of wheat and said to Han solemnly: "If this is Yibohai, our Broken Leaf Army has now controlled the Yili River Valley, I plan to continue to go north, build three military cities in the south and west of Yibohai, and completely cut off the trade between Dashi and Hui, but in this way, there may be a small-scale conflict between Yibohai and Hui, I want to ask Xiangguo, if I want to transport a million stone of grain to Broken Leaves, consider the consumption on the way, It also costs at least 1.5 million stones, and 500,000 yuan, I wonder if the imperial court can get it? ”

Han pondered for a moment, and then said: "There is no problem with the grain, this year's Longyou is ripe, and the grain can be mobilized directly from the Longyou official warehouse, but there is no need to transport fifty guan money from the Central Plains, Shule has a mint, and you can call Shule silver coins to broken leaves, wouldn't it be more convenient, and the imperial court is not short of these 500,000 guan money, Your Majesty's military action is related to the strategic interests of the Tang Dynasty, and the minister thinks that all the prime ministers will definitely support Your Majesty." ”

"I also believe that everyone will support it, but the Battle of Broken Leaves has just ended, and the conflict of Yibohai is about to ignite, and I am indeed a little guilty of the people."

As soon as Zhang Huan said this, suddenly a fast horse galloped along the official road, and immediately a messenger turned over and dismounted, and ran quickly here, and the guards asked him a few words, and brought him over.

"Your Majesty, here's urgent information from Broken Leaves."

Zhang Huan took the pigeon letter, unfolded it and looked at it, his eyes showed a look of surprise and doubt, he turned back to Han Dao: "There are two news from Broken Leaf, one is that Cui Yao has been released, and he brought an important letter from the Great Food Caliphate, and the other news is from Demon Dragon City, there is an important person from Great Food who has crossed the border, it seems to be their prime minister, and he is heading towards Hui, this person's name is Ye Haya." ”

(Asking for a guaranteed monthly pass in August, I really want to save face)