Back to the capital of Han Erbali, this pearl of the grassland was tragically burned by the Tang army more than a year ago, but soon it was renovated again, time gradually healed the wounds in the hearts of the Hui people, but just when the Hui people were ready to regroup and restore their heroic appearance of the grassland eagle, a storm of seizure swept Han Erba Li again.

The reason was that Dengli Khan, instigated by the Sogdians and other new nobles and Manichaeans, was ready to launch another large-scale plundering war against the Tang Dynasty, and the shame of the capital being burned was washed away, but the traditional nobles of the Hui Dynasty valued the vast pastures of the West more, and they believed that the purpose of the Sogdians to lead the war to the Tang Dynasty was to change the imperial strategy of the Hui Empire in order to hinder the westward development of the Hui Empire.

Against this backdrop, the pro-Tang prime minister Dunmohe Dagan, with the support of the traditional Uighur nobility, staged a coup d'état, killing the Khan of Dengli and several of his sons, and killing 3,000 Sogdian merchants and Manichaeans to establish a new khan.

After Viga Khan ascended the throne, he formally established that the future strategic goal of the Uighur Empire was to the west, not the south, and decided to reconcile with the Tang Dynasty and marry the Tang Dynasty Princess Xian'an.

At the beginning of August, after nearly half a month of arduous trekking, Zhang Huan's envoy Pei Mingyuan and his entourage finally arrived at the capital of Hui, Han Erbali, where they handed over the documents to the soldiers defending the city, Wang Siyu and the accompanying soldiers were left outside the city, while Pei Mingyuan and Lin Delong were brought into the city and placed in the Huifu Welcome Hall.

Frankly speaking, Pei Mingyuan is not an envoy of the Tang court, he is just an envoy of a county guard under the Tang Dynasty, according to the principle of reciprocity, he can only visit a certain tribe of the Hui, exchange the local products for cattle and sheep, etc., the Huifu officers who escorted them all the way learned that they were not Tang envoys, but just a local official, so angry that they vomited blood three liters, laughed three times, and went south in a mad madness.

For ten days, Pei Mingyuan ran into walls everywhere. No one paid attention to him, he never met the new Khan of Huifu, and the accommodation of the Huifu Welcome Hotel where he lived was expensive, and the clerks could not only collect money. Nothing else.

Later, a businessman pointed out a clear road to Pei Mingyuan, there was an inn opened by a Han in the south of the city, and the shopkeeper had a good way, and when it was nearly dusk, Pei Mingyuan and Lin Delong found this inn opened by a Han near the south gate, and the Han surname was Lu. A native of Fanyang, Hebei, he fled to Hui for refuge in the Anshi Rebellion, and later married a Hui woman as his wife, and settled down in Hui Hui.

When Zhang Huanqi attacked Han Erbali last year, his inn was also burned down, and later rebuilt by the official at the expense of others, he took the opportunity to lie about the area, so that the new inn was more than twice the size of the original.

Seeing that the Tang fellow came to stay in the hotel, the black and chubby shopkeeper Lu was extremely enthusiastic. He yelled at his wife in Turkic, probably asking her to boil water and cook, and he welcomed the two into the store warmly.

"The two of you are very fresh! You're not here to do business, are you? I know all the Datang businessmen who came to do business. He invited the two of them to sit down, took some tea leaves from the Zhenguan period and put them in the jar, perhaps because he felt that he had put too much, and carefully poured them out, and then poured in the water and put them on the fire to boil.

"It's the first time we've been back and forth to do something." Pei Mingyuan smiled and said, "We have something we want to ask Shopkeeper Lu for help." ”

Shopkeeper Lu heard that they were coming for the first time, and they were asking for their own help. He's long! After a while, he smiled and said: "There is something I want to say first, I am also begging someone to do something, so there are some expenses, and you must live with me, then there is shop money, tea money, food money, mule and horse money, and water money."

Before he could finish his words, Lindron took out an ingot of twenty-five taels of gold and slammed it on the table. "Is that enough money?"

Huang Cancan's gold dazzled the eyes of the shopkeeper Lu, he snatched it into his hand, squinted his eyes and looked at it again and again, and then put it in his mouth and bit it to confirm that it was real. Immediately took it into his arms and said with a smile: "The two fellows are too polite." Go out with a friend, talk! What's the matter with you? ”

"We want to meet Hui Khan. I don't know what way to do it? ”

Shopkeeper Lu grinned, and he smiled bitterly with a strange expression: "The two of you are not coaxing me to play!" ”

Lin Delong took out another ingot of gold, held it in his hand and said with a smile: "If you have a way, it will be your reward after the deed is done." ”

As the saying goes, money makes the devil grind. Even the ghost who can only go straight was coaxed around by money, not to mention the shopkeeper Lu, who was fond of money, his eyes stared straight at the gold, and after a while, he suddenly asked: "What do you two want to see the Khan do?" ”

Pei Mingyuan and Lin Delong glanced at each other, and Pei Mingyuan said slowly: "We are from Longyou, on the orders of my lord, we have something to find the Khan, but we can't go through the official route, do you understand?" ”

"I see!" Shopkeeper Lu pondered for a moment and said: "In the past, some merchants asked me to get the approval of the silk horse trade, and I got the approval of the prime minister through various channels, to put it bluntly, it is a money word, I know the housekeeper of the prime minister's house, and I can meet the prime minister's son through him, and then he will arrange for the prime minister to meet you, but this requires a thousand yuan, not including my intermediary fee, if you can trust me, give me three hundred yuan first, and then pay the rest after the fact." ”

Pei Mingyuan smiled slightly and said, "If you can let me see the prime minister, I will also pay you a thousand intermediary fees." ”

Shopkeeper Lu was overjoyed, he was just about to speak, but Lin Delong stopped him first, and said coldly: "The ugly words are in front, we want to see the real prime minister, if you randomly find someone to pretend to be the prime minister to cheat money, I will let you see this." ”

As he spoke, he raised his hand, and two flying knives shot out, one in front of the other, the knife was extremely fast, only to see a flash of cold light, ten steps away, a red willow branch in the courtyard was shot off, and then a flying knife nailed this thin willow branch firmly to the trunk.

Shopkeeper Lu opened his mouth wide and looked at the flying knife, his face was red and white, and after a long time, he got up and walked to the door to look, closed the door and whispered to the two: "The prime minister is the first minister of our Huifu, who dares to pretend to be him, you can rest assured, I am the one who eats this bowl of rice, and I will never lie to you, but I can only guarantee that you will see him, as for how much time he gives you to speak, it is none of my business." ”

"Then we'll make up our minds!" Pei Mingyuan gave Lin Delong a look, and Lin Delong took out a few small gold ingots and said: "Here are thirty taels of gold, and the right to do three hundred yuan, I hope you can do this within three days." ”

Nothing was said all night. In the afternoon of the next day, Shopkeeper Lu hurriedly found them, and said anxiously and happily: "The matter is done, and the prime minister will receive you in an hour." Come with me. ”

The two changed their clothes and followed the shopkeeper Lu to the Prime Minister's Mansion, which is about two miles away, on one of the most prosperous streets in the city, Han Er Bali is a typical Turkic style, and the buildings are all made of stone, thick and lacking in change. It seems a little monotonous and dull, the street is full of merchants with camels, the shops are open along the street, one by one, densely packed with hundreds, the shouting and shouting of the land one after another, carpets from the Persian land, silverware, horses of great food and silk, porcelain, tea, paper, etc., a dazzling array of goods fill the shops, but it is also very lively.

The Prime Minister's Mansion is located at the end of the street. It can be seen that this prime minister's palace has also been renovated, it has no courtyard walls, and above the high steps is a square palace, and under the steps are two stone giant wolves, carved with insolent and lifelike faces.

However, Pei and Lin were not qualified to enter from the main entrance, and the shopkeeper Lu took them to a small door for the next person to enter and exit, where there was already waiting for a Hui family, and the shopkeeper Lu took the first step and stuffed a handful of money to the family, pointing behind Pei and Lin and laughing: "It's them." “

Jia Ding glanced at the two of them. Said coldly: "The housekeeper has ordered, only one person is allowed to enter." ”

Shopkeeper Lu was obviously wary of Lin Delong's flying knife, he stopped Lin Delong and said apologetically: "Since the housekeeper has ordered, then Mr. Lin and I will wait outside!" ”

"Master Lin, then I'll go alone! You can rest assured, it will be fine. Pei Mingyuan smiled and arched his hand, and followed the family into the prime minister's mansion of the Hui people.

Unlike the Prime Minister's Mansion in the Tang Dynasty, there is no pond fish rockery here. There were no pavilions, no courtyards to be exact, only one room after another, and each room was similar in furnishings and appearance, plus dimly lit. Pei Mingyuan walked for a while. I couldn't tell the difference between southeast and northwest, so I could only follow the family closely.

The housekeeper led him to a room. There were a few housekeepers standing in the room, and a middle-aged man was sitting in the middle, with an arrogant expression, looking at Pei Mingyuan coldly, without saying a word, he was wearing the same clothes as the housekeeper, but the texture was slightly better, it seemed that he was the housekeeper of the Prime Minister's Mansion.

He glanced at the family members on both sides, and immediately came up and searched Pei Mingyuan thoroughly, and his hand also reached into his underwear, even his shoes had to be taken off, and his hair bun had to be scattered, and after searching for a long time, there was nothing except a letter.

Pei Mingyuan was born noble, when did someone conduct such a humiliating body search on him? And he went back and forth to negotiate military affairs, and now he seems to be a prisoner, but he knows that he is carrying a heavy responsibility this time, and he can't expose that Zhang Huan has sent people to return to Hui, and can only endure a temporary humiliation to achieve his goal, he silently endured their body search, but secretly ruthless in his heart, one day, he will go back and forth again, and snow today's humiliation.

The middle-aged man waited for him to put on his shoes and tie his hair, then nodded, stood up and arrogantly paced to the other end of the room with his hands behind his back, Pei Mingyuan knew that he was going to take himself to see the prime minister, so he followed him closely.

Walking out of a narrow road, Pei Mingyuan's eyes suddenly lit up, and finally a courtyard appeared in front, some flowers and plants were planted in the yard, although it was midsummer, but the flowers and plants were very sparse, obviously because of the lack of light, several young women in black were sitting under the porch to watch the flowers and trees, and suddenly a young and handsome Tang Dynasty man came, and their eyes all became brighter.

However, Pei Mingyuan didn't pay attention to them, he saw an old man with his back to him and burying his head in arranging the flowers and plants, and next to him stood a young man, talking to the old man with a smile on his face, he suddenly saw the housekeeper winking at him, and then saw Pei Mingyuan behind the housekeeper.

The young man bowed his head and said a few words to the old man, pointed at Pei Mingyuan, the old man raised his head, nodded to Pei Mingyuan kindly, and turned around to enter the house.

Pei Mingyuan immediately knew that this was the meeting between himself and the prime minister, and there was only so much that Shopkeeper Lu could do, and the opportunity was fleeting, he pushed the housekeeper away, stepped forward and said loudly: "Hui Hui is willing to form an alliance with the Tang Dynasty to deal with Tubo together?" ”

The old man had already walked to the door of the room, and suddenly heard Pei Mingyuan's words, and his body shook suddenly. Slowly turned his head and stared at Pei Mingyuan, and said, "Who are you?" ”

He spoke Chinese, very fluent and standard, Pei Mingyuan slapped away the butler's hand pulling his clothes, and he bowed down. "In Xia Pei Mingyuan, he was sent by Wuwei Zhang Dudu to send a special envoy back to Hui."

"Governor Zhang?" The old man suddenly smiled coldly, "Is that the same Zhang Huan who burned Han's ears last year and slaughtered the party members this year?" He even dared to send someone back and forth! ”

This old man was none other than the Prime Minister of Hui Dynasty, Dun Mohe Dagan, who had studied in Chang'an in his early years and lived there for ten years. He admires the Tang Dynasty culture very much, and can speak fluent Chinese.

He turned around, stared at Pei Mingyuan sharply, and snorted heavily: "You say! If you can't make a point, then next year today will be your sacrifice day. ”

The prime minister was furious, and more than 300 heavily armed Hui soldiers suddenly poured out from the secret doors on both sides, wearing helmets and armor, each holding a long knife, and surrounded Pei Mingyuan like a pack of wolves. Just waiting for the prime minister to give an order, he will be cut into meat sauce.

Zhang Huan's massacre of the party members only happened after Pei Mingyuan left, he didn't know it, but he didn't panic at all, puffed up his chest and said coldly: "Are there still few people in the Tang Dynasty who were slaughtered in the Hui massacre?" Chang'an, Taiyuan, Luoyang, the three capitals of the Tang Dynasty have been washed in blood, why didn't the prime minister blame himself first? But instead he came to accuse my family of being the governor, I have my own ancestral teachings in the country, and I don't come and go, which is rude! This is the reason why the governor of my family burned down Han's ears for eight miles last year. As for the fact that I have come today for mutual benefit, not to beg for forgiveness, with the wisdom of the Prime Minister, I should be very clear about this. ”

Pei Mingyuan gently pushed open the two knives on his neck that blocked his vision, looked at Dun Mo Heda and said with a faint smile: "Last year, Hui Hui and Datang killed you to the death, and this year the two countries sent envoys to each other, wanting to get along with Qin and Jin." Why is that? Please teach me, Prime Minister. ”

Donmo Heda Gan squinted at Pei Mingyuan, and saw that several knives had been put on his neck, but he did not change his face to accuse Hui of being cruel,

As soon as the topic changed, he mentioned the reconciliation between the two countries, and this person had courage and knowledge. He was also impressed.

He waved his hand lightly and ordered, "Go down!" ”

More than 300 soldiers seemed to be in low tide. disappeared in an instant, and Don Mo He Dagan looked at Pei Mingyuan. Suddenly, he smiled and said: "As a messenger, you will not dishonor your lord and live up to his trust, just by virtue of this, you are qualified to enter my study." ”

The Prime Minister's Mansion is a typical Turkic building, but the study of Dunmoheda Gandi is the same as the study of the literati of the Tang Dynasty, with a faint picture of distant mountains hanging on the snow-white wall, incense burning in the copper furnace in the corner of the wall, and pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the desk.

Pei Mingyuan sat down, and Dunmo He Dagan personally poured him a cup of tea and said with a smile: "Pei Xiangguo's sons are all centered in Ming characters, I remember that his fifth son is Yuan, but are you?" ”

Pei Mingyuan hurriedly stood up and arched his hand: "It's me." ”

"Not bad! Not bad! It is worthy of being a famous family. Donmo Heda praised repeatedly, he groaned slightly, and then asked, "It's just that how can you make an envoy for Zhang Huan?" Could this be Pei Xiangguo's intention? ”

Pei Mingyuan shook his head, "The prime minister doesn't know, I am now the envoy of Hexi Tuntian, and I am a subordinate official of Zhang Dudu, just his envoy, and this matter has nothing to do with my father." ”

Speaking of this, Pei Mingyuan took out Zhang Huan's handwritten letter and pushed it to Dunmo Heda and said: "The governor of my family intends to join forces with Hui Hui to deal with Tubo, so he specially ordered me to send envoys back and forth, does the prime minister think this is possible?" ”

Don Mo He Dagan didn't answer, he was silent, Datang's advance envoy had arrived this morning, and there was no mention of Zhang Huan sending people back and forth, and this Pei Mingyuan still used his son's relationship to see him, it seems that he wanted to form an alliance with Hui Hui and jointly deal with Tubo This matter was done by Zhang Huandi in private, and it does not represent Datang, Datang has no such intentions.

Donmo He Dagan was an extremely cautious person, and he knew very well what it meant for the Tang Dynasty to form an alliance with Zhang Huan, who was a member of the imperial family, without authorization. Although Zhang Huan wants to secretly form an alliance, but now Hui Hui is committed to reconciling with the Tang Dynasty, and the Khan even wants to marry the princess of the Tang Dynasty, once Chang'an knows about this, the consequences will be very serious, but Zhang Huan's proposal to deal with Tubo together has a huge temptation, he can drag the Tubo army in Hexi, and avoid the worries of the Hui army going south to Anxi, which is of great strategic significance.

Dun Mo He Dagan was very embarrassed, and it was difficult to answer for a while, Pei Mingyuan saw it in his eyes, and said with a slight smile: "Before I left, the governor asked me to tell you, if this matter is difficult to do for a while, you can talk about it later, as long as you know that my family governor has this intention." ”

Hearing this, Donmo Hedagan's heart relaxed, he had to admire Zhang Huan's foresight, now that the Khan had just ascended the throne, he had to concentrate on stabilizing the Khan's position, and it would be two or three years before he attacked Tibet.

"Please tell your family governor, I will definitely report this matter to the Khan, and if there is a chance in the future, we will send someone to contact Zhang Dudu."

Pei Ming's vision saw that he had completed his mission, and he was very happy in his heart, so he stood up and said goodbye to Don Mohedagan, and suddenly he remembered something again, so he asked: "The prime minister said that my family governor slaughtered the party members, what is going on?" ”

Donmo Heda Gan glanced at him and smiled: "This incident must have happened after Pei Gongzi left Wuwei, yesterday there was a prince named Tuoba Qianli who came to our khan, saying that Zhang Huan slaughtered all 50,000 party members, begged the khan to avenge him, and also offered a demon woman to the khan." ”

"And what about the attitude of your land khans?" Pei Mingyuan asked a little nervously.

"My Khan only said one sentence, he said, Zhang Huan is a wolf."

Donmo Hedagan slowly walked to the window, staring at the blue sky outside the window, and after a long time, he smiled faintly and said, "We Hui people have always been admirers of wolves. ”