A team of cavalry escorted Zhang Huan and quickly galloped towards Tianbao County, just now Huang County Commander told him that a huge caravan of party people returning from the Western Regions rested in Tianbao County, with thousands of camels and more than 400 people.

This is the largest caravan that Zhang Huan has encountered since he entered Hexi, which has a special meaning for him, the caravan can not only bring the materials that Hexi lacks, but also the arrival of large caravans also means the recovery of the Silk Road, which will bring huge business opportunities to Wuwei County, which is at the heart of the Silk Road.

But what Zhang Huan wanted to know was also information about Tibet.

The party people are mainly distributed in two places, one is Min, Song and other counties in Jiannan Province, and the other is in Yan'an County and Hue County in Kannai Province.

Later, the Tang Dynasty had no time to look westward, and the party members gradually established political power there, and they continued to invade the south, raiding and harassing the counties of Longyou, plundering population and wealth.

After five years of Qingzhi, the Wei family began to control Longyou, launched several wars against the party members, the victory was mixed, and later, under the mediation of the imperial court, Wei Ge and the party king Tuoba Lin reached a reconciliation, and the party people moved west to Yinchuan County.

But after the Helong Incident last year, Yinchuan County was in the place where Duan, Wei, and Zhang were in contention, and at this time, there was an incident of competition for the throne among the party members, Ye Liping, the leader of the Yeli tribe, killed the elderly party king Tuoba Lin, and seized the throne, and Tuoba Lin's son Tuoba Xi led 50,000 loyal to his local party members to cross the Yellow River west. Occupied the narrow strip of Yanran County at the foot of Helan Mountain, and established a new Western Dangxiang regime there, confronting the Dangxiang people in the East of Yinchuan County.

This time, the caravan returning from the Western Regions and passing through Tianbao County was the Xidang Xiang people. The leader of the caravan is called Tuoba Qianli, it is said that he is a party nobleman, he is also very young, only slightly older than Zhang Huan one or two years old, square face, with a pair of sharp eagle eyes, he speaks neither quickly nor slowly, and there is an irresistible domineering attitude in his gestures.

Soon. Tuoba Qianli was invited by the soldiers to the Tang Army barracks, and he didn't expect that he could meet the governor of Wuwei County in Tianbao County.

"Governor, Mr. Tuoba brought it." A pro-soldier reported from the sidelines

"Let him in."

The curtain was raised. A personal soldier brought Tuoba Qianli in, Zhang Huan glanced at him, and saw that he was not tall, but he was very strong, his actions were very vigorous, he looked clean and neat, and he had a military demeanor, but it was not surprising that the party members were also soldiers of the whole people.

He stepped forward and saluted Zhang Huan and said, "I have seen Zhang Dudu in Xia Tuoba Qianli. ”

"You're welcome. Mr. Tuoba, please be seated! ”

Zhang Huan waved his hand lightly and invited him to sit down, a personal soldier served tea to the two, Tuoba Qianli took the teacup and sucked it carefully, with a hint of surprise in his eyes and said: "Dudu." Could this be Yuejun's purple bamboo shoot tea? ”

Zhang Huan nodded slightly, "Mr. Tuoba is very knowledgeable, yes, this is indeed purple bamboo shoot tea." ”

Tuoba Qianli put down the teacup and smiled: "It's not a secret. My grandfather was the former party king Tuoba Lin. He has always admired the culture of the Central Plains, and later sent more than a dozen of our brothers to Chang'an or Chengdu. I am the youngest and most unproductive one in the Tuoba family, I have only been in Chang'an for three years, and now I can only work as a businessman, running back and forth. ”

"Oh! It turned out that Mr. Tuoba was the prince of the party, and he was disrespectful. Zhang Huan was polite in his mouth, but there was no solemn look on his face, the son of a small local party leader was really nothing in his eyes.

He still said lightly: "Mr. Tuoba bought goods from the Western Regions? ”

"I went to Broken Leaves, where I exchanged Tang porcelain for a batch of high-quality Persian carpets, ready to go to Chang'an to sell." Tuoba Qianli sighed slightly and said: "It's just bad luck, I encountered a big battle between the Tubo and the Hui people in Qiuzi, and lost more than 200 camels, and the profit was much less. ”

"You mean, the Tibetans are at war with the Uighurs in Qiuzi?" Zhang Huan asked quietly.

"Does the Governor not know about this?" Tuoba Qianli's expression was very surprised, as if he was surprised by Zhang Huan's loneliness, "The war has started in March, and both sides have invested tens of thousands of heavy troops, and they have been fighting for more than two months in order to fight for the four towns of Anxi. ”

"This matter has nothing to do with me, so I don't need to know." Zhang Huan smiled and diverted the topic: "Mr. Tuoba came all the way east, didn't the Tubo people embarrass you?" ”

"I am a member of the party, so they are not embarrassed, but if it is you Han people, he did not say it, but the meaning is obvious, the Tubo people do not allow Han people to do business in the Western Regions.

Speaking of this, Tuoba Qianli pondered for a while and said: "If Governor Zhang also intends to go to the Western Regions to do business, I can send someone to take the caravan from Hexi to the Western Regions, but I have a small condition. ”

"Tell me, what conditions do you want?"

"I hope that Zhang Dudu can form an alliance with our Western Party Xiang and deal with Ye Liping in Yinchuan County together."

Tuoba Qianli has already left, Zhang Huan is pacing back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back, and the party people brought him an unexpected news, Tubo and Hui are fighting in Anxi, is this why Tubo is unwilling to attack Huixi Fort?

It seems that there is a logical causal relationship between the two, and Tubo is concentrating on fighting for Anxi, so he has no time to look east, but if this matter is said from the mouth of an ordinary businessman, he Zhang Huan can fully believe it, but this is said from the mouth of the prince of Dangxiang, which needs to be done carefully.

Zhang Huan does not know much about the party people, when he was a child, he often heard the master in the school say, how the party people are how to be ungrateful, burning and looting in Longyou, from today's contact with the prince of the party, this person is not simple, on the one hand, he said that he is the smallest and most unproductive, not valued by his father, but he wants to form an alliance with the party, there is no hesitation in the tone, it seems to be able to represent the party completely, which is a bit inconsistent.

After such a struggle, Zhang Huan is no longer a person who can impress him with a random piece of news, although the news of this party member is important, but he only believes three points, and he needs to confirm the remaining seven points, and soon, he called two Qiang scouts and ordered them to go to Anxi to investigate the truth.

He had been in Tianbao County for most of the day, and when he learned what he wanted to know, he immediately found the Huang County Order, explained it, and led his soldiers back to Wuwei.

Five days later, the caravan of the party came to the bank of the Liusha River, crossed the river, and then walked more than 300 miles along Helan Mountain to the north is Yanran County, where the party people live.

When they set off for the Western Regions, it was the end of February, and the banks of the quicksand river were still barren, but now they had set up hundreds of big tents.

There was also a military camp not far away, and I saw that there were thousands of people busy by the river, and the scene was very lively, Tuoba Qianli couldn't help but be a little surprised in his heart, he sent someone to investigate, and the answer was that these people were panning for gold here.

"Gold panning?" Tuoba Qianli's heart moved, and a thought was born, if this gold placer mine was owned by the party, why did he need to travel thousands of miles to the Western Regions, although he thought so, he didn't have any expression on his face, and crossed the river directly to the north.

The foot of Helan Mountain, where Yanran County is located, is a long and narrow strip, east of the Yellow River, the widest point is only twenty miles, but there are hundreds of miles long, at the beginning of last year, when the Tang Emperor Li was trapped in the west and surrendered to the city, Wei Ge had sent the general Lu Sigong to rescue the driver, that is, here was defeated by the Hui people ambush soldiers, and buried the Hexi elite of Xin Yunjing.

Yanran County was originally the territory of the Turkic nine surnames, only a very small city, before the future of the party people, only more than 300 households lived in this city, more than 1,000 people, all of them lived by grazing, after the party people came, the people in the city were driven away, this small city also became the royal city of Tuoba Xi, dozens of golden and brilliant tents were set up in the city, for the royal family members of the western party to live.

The king of the Western Party Xiang Tuoba Xi had three sons and two daughters, and the sons were named Wanli, Qianli, Baili, and Qianli Nature

is Tuoba Qianli, he is actually the second prince, by no means the smallest and most unpromising one as he himself introduced, not only that, but he is also the heir to the throne of the party.

The camel caravan about two miles long passed through a large tent, the return of the second prince caused a sensation in the entire West Dangxiang people, tens of thousands of men and women ran out along the road to greet, cheers continued, the more than a thousand camels were full of their hopes, when there was still a mile away from Yanran City, Tuoba Qianli's father, the party king Tuoba Xi personally came out to greet him.

In this westward migration of the Dangxiang people, they took away very little wealth, cattle and sheep, and most of the wealth accumulated in a hundred years was left in Yinchuan County, so finding a way to survive has become the most urgent thing for the people of the Western Dangxiang.

Trading with the Western Regions was the first choice of the Dangxiang, and for this reason, they gathered all their wealth for their most capable second prince to open up this trade state.

Tuoba Xi affectionately pulled his son into his big tent, and as soon as Tuoba Qianli sat down, he said frankly to his father: "Father, the risk of trade with the Western Regions is too great, the Tubo people only allow us to go once a year, and the number of caravans cannot exceed five hundred, I don't think this is a long-term solution." ”

Tuoba Xi is a white and chubby middle-aged man, he doesn't look like a party king, but like a housekeeper of a large family, when he heard his son say that trade is too risky, he couldn't help sighing, the survival pressure of more than 50,000 people is heavy on his shoulders, if grazing, there is no large grassland at the foot of Helan Mountain, and there is no arable land for farming, except for making money through trade, he can no longer think of any other way.

At this moment, Tuoba Qianli smiled sinisterly, "Father, I have found a way out for our party members. ”