Compared with the countries of the Western Regions, with a population of hundreds of thousands and 80,000 victories, the Khotanese state is powerful, and it is already so strong that it is invincible.

For the Tang Dynasty, a powerful Western Regions country is not in the interests of the Tang Dynasty, and Khotan must be eliminated no matter what.

Wang Xuance used countless Goguryeo slaves to build roads in Shandong, which made him pay for the sweetness, so when he knew that there were 80,000 soldiers in Khotan, and hundreds of thousands of people at the same time, the idea of arresting these people to build roads came up irrepressibly.

He wrote a letter to Li Chengqian, wrote all his thoughts into it, found the contact person of the 'Sixth Group' of the Intelligence Section, and sent the news back to Chang'an through them.

In this damn world, it's really troublesome to pass the message back and forth, the letter sent must pass through the eight hundred miles of Hanhai, and then arrive at Yumen Pass, and then it will be transmitted to Chang'an through the carrier pigeon, if you count the time of the reply, it is estimated that it will be early to receive the reply in April.

With the intervention of Wang Xuance, the third meeting of the Western Regions Alliance quickly set the tone, with Khotan responsible for the food supply of 40,000 Tang troops, Qiuzi responsible for the food supply of 20,000 Tang troops, and Gao Chang responsible for the military expenses of 60,000 Tang troops.

As for some other small countries, they are small and have weak people, and there is no need for them to contribute to military rations and military spending.

However, Wang Xuance did not let them go, and within three months, he mobilized 100,000 people to rush to Gaochang, and it became their task to be responsible for building a cement road from Gaochang to Yumen Pass.

These damn Hu people in the Western Regions are all lazy and selfish, and no one will consider it except himself, Wang Xuance has no other way to let them speed up the progress of the meeting except for doing it himself and assigning tasks to them.

"Respected envoy of the Tang Dynasty, may I ask what is this cement road?" When the Qiuzi envoy heard that Wang Xuance had arranged for small countries to build roads, he was very curious, building roads in the desert? Is it necessary? This kind of place can be walked casually, as long as you don't fall into the quicksand, you won't have any problems.

"You'll understand when the road is repaired." Wang Xuance said perfunctorily.

He didn't know how to explain what cement was to a group of turtles, so he might as well wait until the road was repaired.

"But there is no need to build roads in the Western Regions, people can walk everywhere here." The envoy finally asked the doubts in his heart.

"Yes, it's true that people can walk everywhere here, but what about cars? Can I walk in the car? There was sand everywhere, and when a carriage walked on it, it would immediately sink into half a wheel. ”

Wang Xuance glanced at everyone in the palace and said to a group of bewildered turtles: "With the cement road, there is a link between the city-states in the Western Regions, and the transportation of goods can be carried by horse-drawn carriages, rather than only camels. In this way, the same animal can be transported by four to five times as much as it used to be, don't you know what that means? ”

"Four or five times the volume?" Everyone's eyes lit up, even the Khotanese envoy, who was a little depressed.

The significance of four to five times the volume is obvious, there is nothing but money.

In the past, if you wanted to transport grapes to the Tang Dynasty, you needed a lot of livestock, but the transportation volume was not much, so that there was a large amount of fine wine in the Western Regions but could not be transported.

If there is five, no, four times the volume, it is equivalent to being able to transport four times the goods out, and at the same time, it is equivalent to four times the amount of goods or money can be exchanged.

This is a good thing, and it is the only good news that the countries of the Western Regions have heard in the past few months.

But this is enough, all the nobles who can come here are the nobles of various countries, each of whom has their own family business, compared to how much the country pays, how much they can get is the most concerned issue.

"Quiet, still." Seeing that Wang Gongle was a little dazed, and the people who were talking to each other, Wang Xuance had to signal Ma Wanjie to find a way to quiet everyone down.

After everyone calmed down, Wang Xuance continued: "The Tang Dynasty came to the Western Regions to make the Western Regions more stable and peaceful, not to encroach on your interests, and I hope you can understand this. ”

"I'll get it."

"Understood."

The rambling answer sounded chaotically, making Wang Xuance feel like he couldn't cry or laugh, but this did not affect the threat he received: "But Datang doesn't want to put in the effort but not get rewarded, what Mr. Dongguo did, Datang will never do, so I hope you go back and tell your respective lords, don't do anything that angers Datang, otherwise Datang Iron Cavalry will appear outside your capital at any time." ”

This kind of threat of red fruit fruit is so harsh to everyone's ears, but they are powerless to refute anything, even the most powerful Khotanese is instigated, and there is no need for other countries to stand up and show their fearlessness.

There was nothing left to discuss at this point, and after everyone hastily ate the dinner party prepared by Ju Zhisheng, they dispersed, wrote down all the things that happened in the afternoon, and then arranged for people to be sent back to their countries.

In the apse of the Gaochang Palace, Ju Zhisheng sat opposite Wang Xuance and vomited bitterness: "Wang Shijun, I don't have much money in the treasury in Gaochang now, do you think you can use any other way to compensate for the military salary?" ”

"Yes, but I don't know what the lord intends to compensate?" Wang Xuance asked quietly.

"Wang Shijun, don't look at me as the prince of Gaochang, but I am not familiar with everything in Gaochang, and I really don't know what I need to use to compensate." Ju Zhisheng shook his head with a wry smile, sighed and said: "That's it, the conditions are up to you, Wang Shijun, as long as Gao Chang can do it, there is no other word." ”

Wang Xuance naturally knew that Gao Chang could not afford the huge military expenditure of the Tang Army, and you must know that the military expenditure he reported to Gao Chang was more than three times the normal military salary.

But this is also something that can't be helped, and it can't be without some benefit to let tens of thousands of soldiers go on an expedition, right? In addition to the normal military salary, the 'subsidy' that should be paid must be paid, right? In the event of a war and the death of a person, a pension should also be paid, right?

Where does all this money come from? If all of them are issued by Datang, it is estimated that it will not be long before the Datang royal family will go bankrupt due to the emptiness of the treasury.

So the wool is out of the sheep, since Gaochang invited the Tang Dynasty to the Western Regions, then the money will be paid by Gaochang, and the left and right are only three times the normal military expenditure of Zuo Wuwei, and Gaochang, which has five counties and more than ten counties, should still be raised.

It is precisely because of this consideration that Wang Xuance set the rule that Gaochang should pay all military expenses in the afternoon's deliberations, which is to limit Gaochang, and similarly, not to put too much pressure on those small countries and cause a greater backlash from Fanbang in the Western Regions.

(End of chapter)