The newly renovated Kuzak City is still only nearing completion, and the covered woodcarved flutes cannot be moved in for the time being, at least ten days and a half months of air drying, and the internal moisture will be removed, and all kinds of auxiliary facilities are still in progress, so the people of the eastbound camp still live in tents, and Lao Luo is also waiting for Li Zheng's report in the tent.

Li Zheng brought back a lot of things from Samarkand, nearly 200 tons of grain, as well as more than a dozen carts of various miscellaneous items such as furs and blankets, pots and pans, etc., and the accompanying people were mostly clever ghosts in the scout camp in addition to the ones who were in charge of purchasing, so there was nothing unexpected about it.

This is actually not surprising at all, although the communication is not effective at this time, some sensational hot news still can't be hidden from the world, not to mention that Lao Luo didn't think about preventing news leakage and the like. The distance between Bukhara and Samarkand is less than 200 kilometers, and of course it is impossible to hide.

Therefore, although there were guys in Samarkand who wanted to trouble the eastbound Han people, they did not dare to act rashly, and Qadir Khan transferred all his troops to Kashgar, and with some private soldiers in the hands of the nobles, he could only send meat to Lao Luo's knife.

Li Zheng came quickly, after all, he was sent out by Lao Luo, and he could only do other things when he returned to Lao Luo's side to restore his life.

"I've seen the general!" Li Zheng is not a warrior, and saluting Lao Luo is also a standard literati salute.

"Come back, sit down, and tell me about Samarkand." Lao Luo arched his hand as a return gift, stretched out his hand, pointed to the soft collapse on the side and asked the other party to sit down.

"Thank you, Lord!" Li Zheng is not vain, he has dealt directly for such a period of time, he knows that this person in front of him is definitely a decisive and not polite person, he took out a parchment book from his shirt and put it on the low table, "Lord, I have recorded all the things about going to Samarkand this time, and there are no omissions." ”

Lao Luo opened the parchment notebook and took a cursory glance, but saw the dense small characters written on it in regular letters similar to Yan Ti, and the vertical text was not an obstacle to reading, but it was clearer to listen to the other party's dictation: "Okay, I'll take a closer look when I go back, and you can roughly say what you should pay attention to." Nuralman, in charge of the records! ”

The second half of the sentence was naturally addressed to the Arab guy who was acting as a secretary, this kid was now Lao Luo's henchman, and he rarely spoke, but he had begun to gradually show the strengths of his former study in the Al-Azhar Mosque.

"Yes, Lord!" Li Zheng gathered his words, bowed down and talked about the events of more than ten days, "Zheng has paid attention to a total of five things in Samarkand. First, the attitude of the nobles of Samarkand towards us, some of whom were killed by us in Bukhara, were extremely hateful, some were ambitious and wanted to win us over against Qadir Khan, and some were indifferent......"

"Well, you can guess it, you go on."

"The second thing is that there are many merchants in Samarkand, some of whom want to trade with us for a long time, some who want to set up a trading post in Kuzak, and some who want to bribe me to buy some ......things that cannot be sold."

"The transaction is okay, but it does not include prohibited things, this is not negotiable, Li Zheng, you have to pay attention to the people around you, remind them who dares to break the taboo, military law acts, as for Kuzak City, it is ours, and there is no need for merchants to settle in for the time being, so it will not be considered!" The devil knows what the motives of those merchants who want to settle in, there are too many strange things in the eastbound camp that are beyond this era, and they can't be robbers and want to be thieves? It's not that easy.

"Obey, Lord!" Li Zheng's back began to sweat, and he was secretly glad that he had not made a mistake, although Lao Luo's military law was not as strict as the military law of the Tang Dynasty, but military law was military law, and even if it didn't kill people, it would make people take off a layer of skin. In his head, he thought that he must remind a few of his clansmen who followed him when he turned around, but he said: "Rest assured, the lord, there is no one under my command who dares to mess around." ”

"Don't talk big, no one knows what's going on in other people's heads, I only look at the actual actions." Lao Luo moved the corners of his mouth noncommittally, "Let's talk about what you encountered......

"Yes, the third thing, this is the news that Helton sent to me, which I couldn't confirm. It is said that the Ghaznavids sent men to win over the nobles of Samarkand, and sent emissaries to the Kadir Khan of Kashgar, who speculated that they might cooperate in attacking us on our way back to the East......"

"Heh, Mahmoud can't sit still? Qadir Khan is not a fool either......" Lao Luo sneered, after many battles, although he did not have many troops, he really did not look down on Qadir Khan, who was born from the Turks and Qarluqs, if it wasn't for the small population under his rule - as long as there were more than 200,000 people, he would dare not stop.

Li Zheng is still limited by the times in the end, and he is not a warrior, so he can't really understand the level of combat power in the team, of course, he can't help but be a little worried, "General, Turks and Qarluqs can easily gather 300,000 troops, don't underestimate them!" ”

"It's okay, you don't have to worry. What is 300,000 people? A rabble, is the bread bigger than a knife? Just the fate of being cut and eaten. Lao Luo waved his hand, interrupted the topic, and motioned for the other party to continue.

"The fourth thing is about the East, there are merchants from the East who said something about that side, Song and Liao have just signed an armistice agreement, as if they are preparing to join forces to attack the Dingyan army entrenched in Longyou, the Jiedu of the Dingyan army made Li Jiqian (1) died in battle last year, and his eldest son Li Deming united the Tuoba nobles and the Tubo people on the plateau to prepare for war with the two countries......"

As the team moved eastward, some oriental things began to come into view, and many things began to be in line with the history in Lao Luo's memory, such as the current emperor of the Song State is indeed Zhenzong Zhao Heng, such as the Tanyuan Alliance (2) signed in December last year, for example, Li Jiqian's grandson Yuan Hao is already two years old......

Lao Luo didn't remember that there was a matter of Song Liao joining forces to attack Western Xia, and he pondered for a while. Isn't it the butterfly effect? It's impossible, although he Lao Luo has made a lot of trouble in Central Asia, but it will not affect the populous East, and when he was confused, he decided to go back and say, "It's hard to say whether this news is accurate or not, Song Liao's power is very large, but it's not a small country here that can be compared, you continue to pay attention to this matter." ”

"Understood. The fifth thing is that there are local Han Chinese who want to join us and return to the East, but their number is a bit large, and I don't dare to make a decision without the Lord's instructions......"

"How many people? What is their identity? ”

"There were probably more than 30,000 people, half of whom were slaves of noble families, and the other half were commoners......"

"How can there be civilians?"

“…… They are Han Chinese who have embraced the Green Religion! ”

I see, after asking a few words in a row, Lao Luo suddenly realized.

In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, it began to lose control of Central Asia, but many Han Chinese still settled in the land from Longyou to Samarkand, especially in the four towns of Anxi, where a large number of Han soldiers and civilians settled. After the demise of the Tang Dynasty, these people completely became motherless children, and they had no power to fight back in the face of the surging Green Cultists and Zoroastrians, and many people were either forced or opportunistic to convert to become Green Cultists. Most of these people no longer worship their ancestors like the Han Chinese, but mostly act in the name of Allah, and they are the origin of the later generations.

Maybe these people had all kinds of pitiful reasons when they first converted, but Lao Luo didn't see it that way, religion may be able to make people's hearts no longer empty, but people who arm their minds with religious beliefs are too easily misled and too easy to blindly follow. And once the blind obedient people appear in their own small team, it will undoubtedly make the already complex group more fragile and expand a little, which is also the most critical point of the contradiction between the clerical power and the political power in the past.

Therefore, the double-sided needle of religion, especially the religion of a monotheistic system, can help unify the mind and attack the enemy, and at the same time, it will also stab oneself because of the imprisonment of the mind.

Therefore, in Lao Luo's team, there are no pure Christians, nor pure Green Christians, so the only Zhang family, who is somewhat fanatical about Confucianism, is always on the edge of the team.

"For the time being, we will not consider the belonging of the Han people who accepted Samarkand, especially the Han people who believe in the Green Religion." Lao Luo made a decision without a moment's thought, and after a while, in order to appear less unkind, he added: "After winter, when we set off again, we may accept Han people, but these Han people must not be green cultists. ”

"General, those Han people also converted to the Green Religion because of their hardships, and it is also beneficial for them to return with us, at least so that the Turks and Qarluqs will not dare to attack us easily......" Li Zheng of course also has his own ideas, for him, uniting more people to tide over the difficulties together, at least he can reduce his own losses.

"No, the Turks and Qarluqs are nothing to worry about." Lao Luo shook his head, "As long as those Han people, let's call them Han people, they can abandon their ancestors in order to save their lives back then, and they will inevitably abandon us in the future to save their lives. No more arguments! ”

Hearing Lao Luo say this, Li Zheng didn't dare to say more, and promised to step back and hand over other things.

Without a boss has such an advantage, Lao Luo can easily determine the choice of a certain thing, fortunately, his decision is not blind, the only thing that can bind him is the experience and experience of the past, and some values from later generations.

――――――――――――

(1) Li Jiqian: (963-1004), the party member Pingxia Department, the ancestor is the Xianbei Tuoba clan, after Tuoba Chi resigned to the Tang Dynasty, when Tang Taizong Li Shimin gave the surname Li, controlled the military strategy and politics of Yinzhou and even Xia Sui Youjing four states, and his people flattered between Song and Liao. At the beginning of 1004, during the attack on the Tibetan Panluo Branch, Zhongji was seriously injured and died.

(2) The alliance of Tanyuan: Danzhou, now Puyang, Henan, was signed in the background on the premise that it was difficult for both parties to continue because of the tug-of-war in the Danzhou area. Since then, trade and technological exchanges between the North and the South have increased, and modern evaluations have promoted national integration and quelled wars with money. But this alliance was also the beginning of the Song and Liao countries abandoning armor for profit and competing to evolve into pigs.