On the first day of the second month, Zhao Ziliang and his entourage left the border of the country of Bakhana and entered the territory of the country of Shi.

"General Zhao, the front is out of the territory of my Bakhana country, and further forward is the land of Shiguo, it is inconvenient for the last general to enter, this is the last general's housekeeper Balu, he has business dealings in all countries with the surname of Zhaowu Jiu, if the general does not dislike it, the last general will let him be a guide for the general?" Ba Du, the general of the country of Bahanna, who was sent by Asirlandagan to escort Zhao Ziliang and his party, pointed to a middle-aged man in his forties and said.

The named middle-aged butler Ba Ru Ce immediately stepped forward to stroke his chest and bowed his head to Zhao Ziliang: "Ba Lu has seen the general!" ”

All the people of the small Central Asian states with the surname Zhaowu Jiu were called Sogdians, and the Sogdians were historically known for their business and long controlled the resale trade along the Silk Road, so the people of Central Asia were very wealthy. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the scope of their business activities was as far as the Eastern Han Dynasty in the east and the Roman Empire in the west, and they often acted as envoys of a certain country to undertake diplomatic missions for certain countries, mainly because they had traveled to and from the East and West for a long time, and were familiar with the terrain and roads, customs, spiritual beliefs, customs and taboos of various countries, etc., therefore, Sogdian merchants had a special social status in many countries in the East and the West, even if they did not. They would also spend a lot of money to buy a nobility in the country to facilitate their commercial trade.

Zhao Ziliang looked at Balu for a moment, nodded and said to Badu: "Since this is the case, thank you General Badu, and when the envoy returns, I will talk about Balu's housekeeper and return it to the general!" Let's stay, this envoy takes his leave."

Batu stroked his chest and said: "The general should be careful all the way, and I will not send it far!" ”

After entering the territory of the country of Shi for a few miles, Zhao Ziliang saw that there was no one else around, so he ordered to set up camp, and when the camp was set up, he found a tent alone, and then took out more than 200 sets of civilian clothes, shoes and hats from the wrench space, and then found Chu Ge, Brehan and Balu and instructed: "The country of Bakhana is close to my country, so when I came to the country of Bakhana, this general did not hide his identity, but now it is different, my country has been in contact and communication with other countries surnamed Zhaowu Jiu for many years, and I don't know what their attitude is towards my Datang, Therefore, for the sake of our own safety, General Ben decided that all people, including me, should change their civilian attire and pretend to be a caravan from the east, and there happens to be a baru who can do business here, and I will be the owner of this caravan, and Balu will be my butler, responsible for talking and contacting people from all over the way, and you two will be stewards, responsible for managing the internal affairs of the caravan, and if you continue to explain, you must forget our identity, now that we are a caravan, don't call the official positions within the general and captain, do you understand? ”

The three of them agreed at the same time: "No! ”

In the blink of an eye, a cavalry army of more than 200 people became a caravan, it was really a caravan, the caravan should have everything this pseudo caravan had, there were merchants, there were guys, there were guards, there were goods, the goods were taken out by Zhao Ziliang from the wrench space, all of them were some silk and porcelain, which were prepared before coming out of Shule Town, in order to meet the needs of the time, but I didn't expect it to come in handy now.

What surprised Zhao Ziliang was that these small countries in Central Asia basically did not have military facilities within the border checkpoints, and they did not see the border checkpoints when they led the team into the territory of the Bakhana country, and now they entered the territory of the Shi country and had gone dozens of miles without seeing the border checkpoints.

After asking Balu, Zhao Ziliang learned that it was not that these small Central Asian countries did not want to set up border checkpoints, but because there were no dangerous places to set up checkpoints.

Zhao Ziliang's huge caravan was slowly advancing on the road, and a few faint figures appeared on a small hill nearby, Zhao Ziliang quickly noticed it, he took out a monocular from a long leather case around his waist and looked at the small hill, only to see seven armored cavalry appear in sight.

This monocular was made by him for half a month in Shule Town, the lens is not very well polished, and the workmanship is very rough, but it is expected that the function of the telescope can be expanded and retracted freely.

Zhao Ziliang looked at it for a while, thought about it in his mind, but quietly put away the binoculars, and beckoned Balu to ask everyone to speed up a little.

On the hill, there was a cavalry patrol of the Stone Country, and a knight said to the leader beside him: "Brother Gotha, look at the number of this caravan is enough for two hundred people, it is a big fat sheep, do you think we should ・・・・・・?" ”

Of course, the knight who was called Gotha understood what it meant, and after thinking about it, he just shook his head and said: "No, the land of our stone country is barren, and the people can only rely on the silk road that merchants walk between the east and the west. If you look at it again, it looks like a caravan of the Tang Dynasty, maybe they will be courteous to the king."

Shiguo was called the Ochre Kingdom by Xuanzang in the record of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty, and it was a necessary place for Tang Dynasty monks to go to India, but it was not a necessary place on the Silk Road.

When the knight heard Gotha say this just now, he hurriedly bowed his head and said, "Big Brother Gotha, I understand!" ”

"Let's go, let's go down and see if they are a caravan from Datang, if so, we will escort them all the way to Tuozhi City.

The contact between the two sides was very smooth, and there was no unpleasantness, and Gotha really took the patrol to escort Zhao Ziliang's caravan of more than 200 people to the city of Tuozhi City, the capital of Shiguo.

Pioneer City is also called Kan Cheng City, when Gaozong Xianqing was three years old, the Tang Dynasty set up the Dawan Governor's Mansion here, and appointed the then King of Shiguo as the governor.

All the small countries with the surname of Zhaowu are the same surname, that is, the surname Zhaowu, but they are not the same name, the name of Shiguo is Shi, so the king of Shiguo is surnamed Shi, when the Dawan Governor's Mansion was established in the third year of Xianqing, the king of Shiguo at that time was called Shi Ni, and the current king of Shiguo is called Mohe Tutun.

Mo Helu Tutun was canonized as the king of Shiguo by the Tang Dynasty at the beginning of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, and now twenty-six years have passed, and he has become a thin old man who is nearly sixty years old.

When Mo Helu Tutun learned that a Tang caravan had come to Tuozhi City, he actually sent someone to invite Zhao Ziliang to the palace to inquire about matters related to the Tang Dynasty.

The royal palace of the city of Tuozhi.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty doesn't understand why you want to invite the principal of a caravan to the palace, this will give you a ** share!" A minister said.

Mo He, a thin old man who was nearly sixty years old, waved his hand and said, "What is the ** share?" Does this king still have an identity? The Cao State and the Kang State in the south repeatedly provoked under the command of the Great Food State, and the king had to swallow his anger and live to the extreme. This king just wants to know the news of Datang, since the northern Turgish Khan Sulu cut off the road to Datang, my country has lost contact with Datang for many years, if we can send people to Datang to invite rescuers, we will definitely be able to repel the cannibals and get free! ”

As he was talking, a waiter walked quickly into the palace and said, "Enlighten my king, the leader of the Tang caravan has arrived, just outside the palace!" ”

Mo Helu Tutun hurriedly raised his hand: "Quick, please invite the leader of the Tang caravan into the hall!" ”

"Yes, my king!"

When he arrived at the city of Tuozhi, Zhao Ziliang really didn't expect that the king of Shiguo, Mo Hedututun, would directly send someone to invite him to the palace to speak, which made him very happy, and on the way he was still thinking about how to meet Mohedutun, but what he didn't expect was that "there is nowhere to find the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get there."

"Tang Dynasty merchant Zhao Ziliang pays a visit to the king of Shiguo!" Zhao Ziliang bowed and bowed.

"Hurry up and excuse me, Zhao ・・・・・・ shopkeeper, by the way, I remember that your Datang title is called shopkeeper, right?" Mo He Tutun asked with a smile.

Zhao Ziliang said: "Yes, the king! I didn't expect to know what my Datang called a businessman."

"Hehe, shopkeeper Zhao, please take a seat!"

"King Xie!" A palace attendant brought a chair and placed it next to a minister.

Zhao Ziliang looked at it, hey, it's a chair? Datang doesn't have a chair yet, I didn't expect there to be a chair here, it seems that this kind of chair should be called Hu Chair, and the bed Mo Hetu Tutun sat on should be called Hu Bed, right?

As soon as Zhao Ziliang sat down, Mo Hetu Tutun asked: "Shopkeeper Zhao, you are from Datang, this king wants to know what the current situation in Datang is?" Why can we tolerate the rampant cavalry in the north for so many years that our country wants to send envoys to Chang'an but cannot pass? ”

Zhao Ziliang looked left and right when he heard this, his face was hesitant, Mo He Tutun was very good at reading people's faces, knowing that Zhao Zi had scruples in his conscience, he hurriedly said: "Here are all the people who are the king's henchmen, although the shopkeeper Zhao says it directly, there will definitely be no trouble!" ”

Zhao Ziliang thought for a moment, then got up and arched his hand: "King Qiyu, in fact, he is not the leader of the caravan, but the deputy protector of the Datang Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, the envoy of the four towns of Anxi, Lord Gai Jiayun, and the envoy of the town guard of Shule Town, General Meng Lingcha!" ”

"Ahh