readx; New Year's Mobei, another overwhelming snowstorm swept the grassland, from the Chinese New Year's Eve, the snowstorm raged for three days and three nights before stopping, the sky was bright, when the first ray of sunshine appeared on the grassland in the twelve years of Tianbao, Mobei has become a snowy world. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the north of Jinshan, about 100 miles away from the Tang army camp appeared on the snow field, the caravan was composed of more than 500 camels, loaded with all kinds of goods in great demand on the grassland, slowly went to the east, the Hui are nomads, materials are relatively scarce, all kinds of supplies are basically transported by merchants, there are three main routes for transportation, one is the west road, by the merchants of Sogdia, Anxi and other places across the Jinshan, a large number of materials to the grassland, followed by the middle line; That is, Hedong and Shuofang, this road is mainly based on official trade, opening horse markets in border cities, merchants on both sides to trade goods, and a large number of cloth and silk rewarded by the Tang Dynasty to Hui Hui, also from here; All the way is the eastern trade, Fanyang, Youzhou and other places, An Lushan was a small merchant engaged in border trade.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tibetans occupied Anxi, the Silk Road moved north back to the territory of Hui, the western trade flourished, a large number of Sogdian merchants entered and exited the steppe, gradually, they controlled the economic lifeline of the Hui, supported the emerging trade aristocracy of the Hui, the Sogdians began to play a pivotal role in the political situation of the Hui, and they had their shadow in the previous power struggles of the Hui.

At this time, the Sogdians entered the steppe only to make a lot of money, and the number was small, and the time was mostly concentrated in summer and autumn, and caravans like this kind of winter were extremely rare.

This Sogdian caravan consisted of a mixture of Sogdians and Turks, a total of more than 100 people, and the leader was a middle-aged man named Baro, from Samarkand, but to be precise, this Baru was not Sogdian, but Persian.

Crossing the Golden Mountain, they did not see any herdsmen, the previous few herdsmen have become desolate, the herdsmen died to death, fled and fled, all swept away, so that Ba Luo sighed, no wonder Hui Khan hated Li Qing'an to the core, Tang Jun's methods were really vicious, Hui Hui wanted to recover his vitality, it was really difficult.

After crossing the Golden Mountain, the caravan became nervous, for fear of encountering the Tang army, but the more worried they were, the more things would come true, and in the morning, they had just crossed a frozen river, and suddenly they saw a cavalry coming from the south.

The merchants were all frightened, and many of them turned to flee, but Baro hurriedly shouted: "Don't run, you can't escape, everyone obey my orders." ”

The merchants were trembling, waiting for bad luck to come, when the cavalry arrived, and sure enough, it was a scout team of the Tang Army, who was responsible for patrolling the area, and happened to find the caravan.

The scouts rushed forward and shouted, "All hands up, kill those who act rashly!" ”

Baro was the first to raise his hand, and the other merchants followed suit, and the team waved his hand: "Search me!" ”

Dozens of soldiers rushed forward, first stabbed the goods with spears, and then opened the bag one by one to check, no prohibited items were found, a soldier whispered a few words to the team's ear, at this time, Baro stepped forward, took out a bag full of silver coins, handed it to the team and said with a smile: "This is the wine money for the military masters, please make it convenient for the military masters!" ”

The team Zheng weighed the silver coin, nodded with satisfaction, and said: "I don't want to embarrass you, but our General Cui has a strict order, no caravan is allowed to trade with the Hui people, and those who violate the order must be interrogated by him, I dare not disobey the military order, you can go with me!" ”

Baro was stunned, did he still want to go after giving the money? The team seemed to know his thoughts, so he smiled and said: "There are two kinds of caravans that violate the order, one is knowingly committed, this kind of punishment must be severe, and the other is unknowing, you can open the net, I can speak for you, saying that you belong to the second type, so that you will not be embarrassed." ”

Balo had no choice but to agree: "Okay! We will go with you. ”

He turned around and shouted, "Everyone go south!" ”

The merchants turned around, followed the Tang army scouts, and headed south.

．．．．．．．．． Most of the Tang-Hu coalition army has withdrawn to the nest west of Jinshan, but still left 10,000 troops to garrison east of Jinshan, 10,000 troops in 3,000 Tang troops and 7,000 three Hu troops, under the direct command of Cui Qianyou, Cui Qianyou did not return to Beiting, he still stayed on the grassland, waiting for the arrival of spring, Cui Qianyou knows better than anyone else, although in the past year, he has been rampant in the west of Mobei, but the strength of the Hui army has not been greatly affected, they have not even confronted the main force of the Hui army, spring is blooming, It will be the arrival of the Hui people's counterattack.

On this morning, as usual, Cui Qianyou rode a horse to inspect near the barracks, a thousand cavalry followed him, the horse's hooves creaked the snow, the thick snow reached the knees of the war horse, the road was very difficult, the soldiers loved the war horse, wrapped the horse's legs and stomach with felt, and walked slowly on the snow.

At this time, a soldier pointed into the distance and shouted: "General, look! ”

Cui Qianyou looked into the distance, the snow was particularly dazzling under the reflection of the sun, but he still saw it, and a group of small black dots appeared in the distance.

"Go up and have a look!"

The cavalry turned north, and soon approached the little black dot, which was actually a caravan of hundreds of camels, loaded with all kinds of goods, about a hundred Turks and Sogdians, who were the caravan discovered by the Tang scouts, and were escorting to the main camp.

When the scout team saw the arrival of the main general, they hurriedly jumped off their horses and stepped forward to report: "General Qiqi Cui, we have found this caravan in the north of Jinshan, and we have escorted it back to the camp, we have checked it, there are no prohibited items, and they don't know that the general has a ban on business, which is a first offense." ”

Since the Tanghu coalition army attacked Huifu, caravans have rarely appeared on the grassland, and caravans appear in winter are even rarer, this is still the first one, Cui Qianyou couldn't help but be a little strange, so he asked with a whip: "Who is the leader, come out and answer!" ”

I saw a man in his forties coming out of the caravan, it was the leader of the caravan, Ba Luo, he stepped forward and put his hand on his chest, saluted Cui Qianyou, and said in a proficient Chinese: "The honorable general, the villain Ba Luo, is the leader of the caravan. ”

Cui Qianyou glanced at him, he was a Sogdian, and he asked, "Where did you come from, and where are you going?" What kind of goods are being shipped? ”

"Hui General, we are coming from Samarkand to go back to the Imperial Palace, this is the tax bill we paid in Talas City, please take a look at it."

Ba Luo took out a piece of paper and handed it to Cui Qianyou, Cui Qianyou opened it and looked at it, the goods were worth 50,000 dinars, and the tax was 2,500 dinars, he returned the tax bill to the other party, and said coldly: "You haven't finished answering my question." ”

The Sogdian merchant glanced at the camel caravan and said: "We do business with the Hui people every year, and we know what they need, and our goods are mainly salt, sugar, and tea, as well as some silverware, which are very popular with the Hui nobles, and we mainly go to exchange the furs of the Hui people, and make a profit." ”

"No pig iron?" Cui Qianyou continued to ask.

"Back to the general, pig iron can also get a lot of profits, we originally had pig iron, but in Talas City heard that the Tang Army and Hui were at war, we sold the pig iron in Talas City, replaced it with salt and sugar, now we don't dare to sell pig iron to Hui Hui, we don't know that the general has a ban on business, the tax officer of Talas did not say."

Cui Qianyou nodded, if they came from Broken Leaves, they should know about the ban on business, and it is indeed possible that they don't know from Talas City, and the answer is quite satisfactory to him, but these merchants came at the right time, there were several snowstorms in a row, and the army's supplies were difficult, salt, sugar and tea were just what their army urgently needed, his face became a little softened, and he said with a smile: "The Hui Xing Palace has been burned by me, and the furs in the city have also been moved to our military camp, you don't have to go east, thousands of miles to the east are no man's land, Just make a deal with our Tang Army! I will not do you any wrong. ”

The merchants glanced at each other, and the Sogdian merchants immediately bowed down and said, "We do!" ”

Cui Qianyou laughed and said, "Okay! Come back to the barracks with us, and I'll entertain you with hot water and tents. ”

The merchants urged the camels and followed the Tang army to the barracks.

Entering the barracks, the soldiers all poured up and helped unload the goods, and the goods were indeed all fine salt, sugar and tea, all packed in cloth bags, wrapped in hay, dozens of large boxes filled with silverware, the Tang army did not need silverware, but moved salt, sugar and tea into the tents, and someone led them to choose furs, and several quartermasters began to count the goods and bargain with the merchants.

The merchant Ba Luo was led into the big tent, Cui Qianyou had something to ask him, Ba Luo followed the soldiers into the big tent, he was in a nervous mood, he listened to the scout team is talking about what has happened in the last few months, he knows that this Cui Qianyou is a murderer who does not blink an eye, the herdsmen within a radius of 2,000 miles are almost all killed by him, if he does not speculate, will he spare himself?

The tent was steaming, and in the middle was a brazier, on the iron shelf of the brazier was roasting a whole sheep, full of fat and meat, two soldiers were busy roasting the sheep, and a beautiful Huifu girl carried a gold wine jug, and filled the silver bowl on the table with mare's milk wine.

"Please be seated!"

Cui Qianyou waved his hand, invited Ba Luo to sit down, and said with a smile: "I'm having lunch, let's use a little together!" ”

The soldier cut off a roasted leg of lamb and put it on the plate in front of him, and put a little salt in the small plate, and the girl poured him a bowl of wine, and Baro thanked him repeatedly: "Thank you, General! ”

Cui Qianyou smiled slightly, he chopped the mutton with a sharp knife, used a knife and fork to roast a piece of oily mutton, dipped it in sauce and salt, put it in his mouth and chewed it, and asked, "You speak Chinese very well, where did you learn it?" ”

Ba Luo, a devout Muslim, did not dare to drink, but ate only some mutton, and replied respectfully: "When I was twenty years old, I went to Luoyang with my father and stayed there for three years. ”

"Three years? Can I learn Chinese fluently in 3 years? Cui Qianyou looked at him with some disbelief.

The soldiers had already changed a bowl of hot tea for Baluo, Baluo's heart was a little nervous, his hand holding the tea bowl trembled, he took a sip of tea, calmed down and said: "I have a talent for languages, not only Chinese, Turkic and Arabic, but I can also speak. ”

"Really? I can't see that you are a talent! ”

Cui Qianyou laughed, which frightened Ba Luo even more nervous, he was afraid that this General Cui would be interested and leave him in the army, but fortunately, Cui Qianyou only asked casually about the language, and he didn't mean to come to Ba Luo.

Cui Qianyou pondered for a while and asked, "I came to you to ask about the situation in the river, how is the situation in the river now?" ”

Baluo's nervous heart finally relaxed, and he smiled bitterly and said, "What do you say? On the surface, the situation in the river is calm, but behind the scenes, the crisis in the river is already surging. ”

Cui Qianyou was stunned, slowly put down the mutton in his hand, and asked, "To be specific, what crisis?" To what extent? ”

"There are two main crises, one is the contradiction between countries, especially the struggle between Kang and Shi for the dominance of the Sogdians, which has reached a white-hot level, and the other is that the contradiction between the Zoroastrians and the Islamists is also very acute, in the past, the Zoroastrian temples were destroyed and the Islamic mosques were built, and now the Tang army supports the Zoroastrians, and the Zoroastrians demand that the mosques be demolished and the Zoroastrian temples rebuilt, but the Islamists do not agree, and the two factions continue to clash, and a large-scale bloody conflict broke out in Bukhara, Angola in September last year, More than 200 people died on both sides. ”

Cui Qianyou's brows furrowed, he had never heard of these things, and he asked again: "What about Tang Jun?" What is the attitude of Tang Jun? ”

Ba Luo sighed and said: "The key is that the Tang Army did not deal with the contradictions fairly, the Tang Army favored Shiguo and Zoroastrianism, which made the contradictions more intensified, and the slogan 'Drive away the Tang Dynasty and kill Li Qing'an' has appeared in Bukhara, and General Lifei only blindly suppresses it strongly, which is unpopular!" ”

Cui Qianyou unconsciously fell into deep thought, the reason why he asked about this matter was that he had the heart to go to the river to replace Li Fei Yuanli.

Although Cui Qianyou is a general of the Tang Army, but he is both civil and military, and he is more eager to become the head of the military and political affairs of the ruling party, he once took the initiative to ask Yingneng to stay in the river, but Li Qingan finally chose Li Fei Yuanli, although Li Qingan put him in Mobei to deal with Hui Hui, which can be regarded as reuse, but Cui Qianyou has always been obsessed with the things of the year, he thinks that Li Fei Yuanli kind of rough people can manage the river well, and it is okay to deal with Hui Hui, and only he can deal with the complicated situation in the river, It's just that Lifei Yuanli is Li Qingan's henchman, at this point Cui Qianyou doesn't quite agree with Li Qing'an's idea of employing people, and now the river is full of dangers, so Cui Qianyou can't help but feel a sense of schadenfreude in his heart, but he is also more anxious in his heart, how can he let Li Qingan know his wishes?

Cui Qianyou was silent in thought, and Ba Luo saw it in his eyes, and if he realized something, he cautiously tried to say: "Then the general thinks, how can we solve the crisis in the river?" ”

Cui Qianyou woke up from his contemplation, waved his hand and said, "I'm just asking casually, thank you, after the deal is completed, you can leave the barracks and don't go east, you know?" ”

"The villain understands that he will not go further east."

After a salute, he got up and took his leave, and the trade outside the tent was over, and the merchants drank hot tea, and were busy tying up the last furs and loading them on the camels, and when Baro's attendants saw that their master had come out of the tent, they ran forward and said, "Master, we have all packed up, when can we leave?" ”

"Pack up and leave immediately!"

The merchants packed up their things and left the barracks, they didn't dare to go east, so they turned around and walked west, and left the barracks for dozens of miles.

Baluo involuntarily touched the thing sewn into the pocket of his leather jacket and underwear, and it was still there, it was a handwritten letter from the Abbasid Caliph to the Hui Khan.

(To be continued)