readx; An Lushan finally escaped from Chang'an, a month later, he began a large-scale purge of Han generals in the Fan Yang army, replacing all important general positions with Hu people, on the last day of the first year of Zhenzhi, An Lushan established himself as the king of Yan in Youzhou, and since then he has torn off the mask of hypocrisy, he has made a public statement to the world, no longer recognizing the Chang'an court, but instead to the court in Chengdu to allegiance, and under the pretext of restoring the orthodox court, began an active military expansion war. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Tocharian in December is already a world of ice and snow, and the nights are especially cold, in the wilderness where there are no people for hundreds of miles, the high sky is full of stars, and the cold air is dry, so cold and cold that the stars are frozen and their eyes are stiff.

In a canyon about 100 miles away from the capital of the royal court, the Bushi River that flows through the canyon has frozen into a glacier, this river originating from the green mountains, winding thousands of miles seems to be asleep, there is no longer any breath of life on the ice, including the vitality of the river is also silent, at this time, the ice has become a convenient trade route, there are always merchants with a challenging spirit along this glacier road, between Shule and Tocharian countries, trafficking goods from the Tang Dynasty to Tocharo, selling at a good price.

At night, the merchants would camp in caves among the ravines, lighting blazing bonfires to defend against the harsh winter and highland wolves, and in the middle of the gorge, there was a faint light of fire, apparently camped in the canyon.

This is a cave with a length and width of less than a zhang, but the cave is spacious and high, this kind of cave is the favorite camping cave of the merchants, as long as a fire is lit at the entrance of the cave, you can spend the night safely, at this moment, the entrance of the cave is lighting a fire, a young Hu merchant is sitting aside, is adding wood to the fire, but his eyes are vigilantly patrolling both sides of the canyon.

In the cave, another bonfire was lit, next to a merchant was whispering something, the fire crackled and roasted pheasants, the aroma was attractive, not far from the bonfire, there were more than two dozen camels, they were sleeping with their eyes closed, the thick long hair on their bodies was enough to keep them out of the cold, and next to the camels were a lot of cage goods, mostly tea, but also silk and porcelain, which were also extremely sought-after goods in Tochar.

The merchants, all of whom looked to be under thirty years of age, looked at the faces of Han and Hu, most of them tall and strong, drinking wine and munching on freshly roasted pheasants.

"Brother Zhou, you said that tomorrow you will advance to the division city, will the Tubo people confiscate our goods?"

It was a young Han man who spoke, he sprinkled a roasted chicken leg with salt, and handed it to another man about thirty years old, this man was obviously their leader, he was also a Han man, he was squinting and resting on the rock, so he took the chicken leg casually, took a bite hard, chewed it, took another sip of wine, and said vaguely: "The key depends on what you say, if you speak Turkic or Tocharian language, the Tubo army will not embarrass you, but if you speak Chinese, then the first thing the Tubo people will arrest is you, Remember, you must not just talk and play dumb, or you will kill us. ”

These ten people are actually a team of scouts of the Tang army, their mission is to investigate the garrison of the Tubo people in Wang Tingguo, so they pretend to be merchants, there are five Han people and five Hu people in these ten scouts, and the leader is an experienced scout captain, named Zhou Mi, who was once stationed in Tocharian and can speak Tocharian fluently, in fact, these ten scouts can speak Tocharian except for the young soldier.

And the young soldier is a falconer, this is one of the most important positions in the scout team, the falconer is equivalent to the later generations of communication soldiers, in addition to carrier pigeons, the communication tools in the Anxi army are not only carrier pigeons, but also falcons, especially in Tocharian, there are many falcons, and the communication with carrier pigeons will be very dangerous, so eagles are generally used to transmit messages, so the important surname of falconers can be seen.

This young falconer is called Wang Yiqing, is the second generation of Han people in Anxi, only 20 years old this year, his ancestral land is in Luoyang, but he has never been there, go back to his ancestral land to see, and marry a woman from the eastern capital as a wife, is the biggest dream of his life.

Four years ago, he came to Anxi with his wife and children, settled in Broken Leaves, and his family had 150 acres of land, in order to defend his land, he resolutely joined the army, with excellent military skills and rich scout experience, he was selected into the first scout battalion of the Anxi Army.

This is the ace battalion of the Anxi Army, that is, the scout battalion led by Li Qing'an back then, the Tang Army that can enter this scout camp is the top master in the army, it is more like a scout higher combat school, the soldiers have to come out after staying in it for three years, and they will be sent to serve in other armies, and they will be promoted at least two levels after coming out, Zhou Mi was out of the camp in March this year, and when he came out, he was a team leader, and he became a scout captain after being sent to the Shule Army, this time, the Tang Army sent three scout teams deep into Tocharo, and he was one of them.

Zhou Mi drank two sips of wine and said to the young merchant who was guarding at the entrance of the cave: "Amuti, you can also come and listen, I have something to say." ”

The young sentries at the entrance of the cave rushed over, and everyone gathered around the fire to listen to the captain's arrangement.

"Tomorrow we are going to enter the city of the Foot Division, our first task is not to obtain any information, but we must not reveal our identities, so we must temporarily forget that we are Tang Army, and regard ourselves as merchants, everything we do must conform to the characteristics of merchants, especially the five Han people among us, including myself, to carry out certain disguises, in addition, there is one most important thing, no matter who among us is caught by the Tubo, the first thing is to take poison and commit suicide, your family will receive the highest honor, I hope you remember that and I won't say it again in the future. ”

Wang Yiqing secretly glanced at the palm of his hand, there was a small bottle of highly poisonous crane top red on his palm, his heart pounded, and he squeezed the medicine bottle tightly, as if he was about to drink this bottle of medicine.

Zhou Mi glanced at him, and told him again: "Wang Yiqing, what I'm most worried about is you, you have to remember all the time, you are a dumb person, you can't hear or speak, do you remember?" ”

Wang Yiqing looked at him blankly, 'Ah! Yes! Two sounds, hands gestured for a while, as if to say, what are you talking about?

The scouts around laughed, Zhou Mi also laughed, he picked up a piece of raw chicken, pointed to the two falcons standing on the wooden box, meaning to let him feed the eagles, Wang Yiqing nodded with a smile, turned around to feed the eagles, at this time, Zhou Mi smiled: "Wang Yiqing, a piece of meat is not enough, take another piece!" ”

Wang Yiqing turned his head and waved his hand, indicating that one piece was enough, Zhou Mi's face changed greatly, and he slapped him hard, pointed at him and scolded: "Bastard!" Are you going to kill us? ”

Wang Yiqing knew that he was wrong, he squatted down and lowered his head in pain, Zhou Yu restrained his anger, and after a while, he said coldly: "This is the last chance, if you make another mistake, I will cut your tongue and deafen your ears, do you remember?" ”

Wang Yiqing lowered his head and remained motionless, as if he hadn't heard anything, Zhou Yu nodded with satisfaction, turned back to everyone: "Okay, it's very late at night, everyone takes turns to sleep, and we will set off at dawn tomorrow." ”

After he finished speaking, the two scouts on duty each kept a fire, and the others fell down and went to sleep......... Bushi City is the second largest city in the Tocharian region after Achu City, located on the north bank of the Amu Darya River, with a population of more than 80,000 people, famous for its developed commerce, it is more like the commodity wholesale center of Tocharo, every spring and autumn, a large number of small merchants who cannot afford to go to the Tang Dynasty have flocked here, buy rare goods of the Tang Dynasty from the hands of big merchants, go back to their hometown and sell them to rich people, and earn the difference in price, and the Tocharians especially like the tea of the Tang Dynasty, they can drink a cup of tea after dinner every day to relieve their greasy, for them, it is the life of the superior people.

It is precisely because of the important trade status of the city of Bushi, so the Tubo people also attach great importance to this city, stationed here a heavy army, has been named the governor of Tocharo, Shangxi Dongzan also once served as the minister of Tubo, he is not like the general military only to exploit and squeeze, he attaches more importance to the long-term possession of Tubo to Tocharo, so he is also a little tolerant of the business of the city of Bushi, quasi-merchants engaged in trade, but have to pay heavy taxes, the commercial tax rate of Anxi is twenty taxes one, but the tax rate stipulated by Shangxi Dongzan is five taxes one, which is four times the tax rate of Anxi, If a merchant dares to evade taxes, he will be beheaded if he is caught.

So despite Shang Xidongzan's permission to trade, Tocharian commerce was dealt a heavy blow, and now except for the profiteering Tang Dynasty goods or Dashi goods, the rest of the local small traders who bought and sold agricultural products went bankrupt, and who could afford the tax rate of 20%.

When the morning sun shivered in the cold wind, a group of merchants led by Zhou Mi led a camel team and walked to the gate of the city of Bushi, Zhou Mi and other five Han people all made up makeup, their faces were blackened, and their lips were glued with the beards that Tocharian men have, and Zhou Mi himself also glued a circle of beards, plus the traditional attire of the Tocharian people, wrapped around a large pan, loose bloomers on their legs, plus a fluent Tocharian language, and their speech and behavior were the same as the locals, so it was difficult to see that they were Han.

At the gate of the city stood more than a hundred Tibetan soldiers, dressed in chain mail, holding spears, all with black faces, high cheekbones, and all the hair on their foreheads shaved off, all of them looked fierce, and their eyes were like eagles staring at passers-by.

This group of merchants came over and naturally became the focus of attention of the Tibetan soldiers, and there was also a Tibetan affairs officer who collected taxes next to him, this was the first group of merchants who came today, and the Tibetan soldiers immediately greeted them, pointed their spears at them, and shouted in extremely lame Tocharian language: "Stop!" ”

The merchants stopped, and the Tibetan soldiers swarmed up and searched the ten merchants up and down, and the currencies used by the Tocharians were silver coins of Dashi and Anxi silver dollars and copper coins, which were put in their pockets, and when the Tibetan soldiers checked them, they had to open the money bags and let them reach into the bags and scratch them, as for whether there would be one or two less, then there would be no more to say.

Less money is still a trivial matter, the most afraid is that they search women, almost all of them have to be touched from head to toe, all the ** parts have to be touched, if it is a young and beautiful woman, it will suffer even more, so Tocharian women rarely go out.

Tocharian men have the custom of carrying weapons, and it is difficult for the Tubo people to prohibit it, but the Tubo people also stipulate that the portable knife should not exceed one foot, and those who violate the order must be caught and whipped thirty lashes, and the merchants who run long distances to do business are a little more lenient, and they are allowed to carry long knives for self-defense.

After the search, the next thing is to pierce the cage with a spear, which is to prevent the hidden slender, as for whether the porcelain and silk will be pierced, they don't care, and then there is a thorough search, all the goods must be unloaded, all poured on the ground, and the bundles of silk must be untied to prevent the carrying of weapons.

At this time, a Tibetan centurion saw the two eagles on Wang Yiqing's shoulders, he stepped forward with great interest, pointed to the eagles, and asked in a broken Turlo language, "Is this your eagle?" ”

Wang Yiqing's face was dazed, he pointed to his ears and then to his mouth, 'Ah! Yes! Two sounds, indicating that he is dumb, can't hear, and won't say, raising eagles is a big hobby of Tocharian people, many people have falcons in their homes, so it is normal for Tocharian men to carry falcons on their shoulders, but the two eagles on Wang Yiqing's shoulders are particularly powerful and fierce, which makes the Tubo officers a little envious.

But he also knew that the eagle recognized the master, he even wanted to come or not, and he would be injured if he didn't do it, he saw that Wang Yiqing was deaf and mute, so he was not interested, and turned to leave, so that the companions next to Wang Yiqing couldn't help but pinch a cold sweat.

When all the Tibetan soldiers had finished searching, the tax collector came up, followed by a Tocharian interpreter, who looked at the goods, calculated in his heart, and said, "Six hundred silver dollars!" ”

This is the tax, that is to say, he estimated that this batch of goods was worth three thousand silver dollars, Zhou Yu immediately became anxious, stepped forward and begged with his palms: "Master, it's good, our goods are only worth 1,500 silver dollars, and we have the tax bill of the Tang Dynasty." ”

He handed over Shule's tax bill, Anxi was twenty taxes and one, and the tax bill was seventy-five silver dollars, but the Tubo affairs officer didn't look at it, took it and tore it off, and said viciously: "I said six hundred silver dollars, and if you don't pay it, all the goods will be confiscated!" ”

The Tocharian translator hurriedly translated for them and persuaded: "Brother, let's break the fortune and avoid disaster!" If the goods are confiscated, you are not merchants, and you will be punished with thirty lashes with a long sword. Just earn less! ”

"Where do we make less money, pay six hundred silver dollars, and this trip will be in vain."

Zhou Mi cried and said, "Brother Translator, you can help me plead for mercy!" I'll give you a little bit of goodness too. ”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Tibetan affairs officer's leather whip was drawn, 'Smack! The sound of smacking on Zhou Mi's back, his clothes were immediately torn, and the Tubo affairs official roared: "If you don't pay taxes again, all of them will be wiped out!" ”

"Pay your taxes! Taxes! We pay taxes. ”

The leather whip is the best translation, these ten merchants were so frightened that they all scraped together money from their bodies, and finally scraped together enough six hundred silver dollars, handed them over, and the Tibetan affairs officer counted them one by one, counting for nearly half an hour, and then he took out a black iron seal, and stamped it heavily on a wooden board, which was the tax bill.

He handed the wooden board to Zhou Mi, waved his hand and said, "Let's go!" You can go into the city. ”

Everyone packed up their goods, sighed helplessly, and led the camels into the city, but they had just walked less than twenty paces when the Tibetan officer suddenly shouted in his back: "The man with the eagle on his shoulder, stop me!" ”

(To be continued)