Damascus, the capital of the Umayyad dynasty, did not fade because of the death of the Umayyad dynasty, after the smoke of war dissipated, it gradually returned to its former prosperity, before the city of Baghdad was built, Damascus has been the largest city in the Arab world, the sun has just risen, Damascus people crowded the narrow streets with canopies, they wear bloomers and characteristic pointed-toe red leather shoes, wear big wraps, and start the day in the heat, selling fruit juice and sweets, Hawking in the highest voices, as if racing against passers-by and the hustle and bustle of donkeys and camels carrying all sorts of desert products and produce, the air of the city was filled with all kinds of smells that could be smelled by the nose.

Damascus was also a cosmopolitan metropolis, with tanned Bedouins wearing long blouses, turbans and headbands, and the occasional Frank in European clothing, scholars, travelers, but more merchants, and Sogdians and Turks from the East, who led camels, and large chests on them filled with Tang Dynasty silk and porcelain, hoping to sell for a good price in Damascus.

With their heads held high were the wealthy local Damascus aristocracy, all of whom were the dominant Arabians, riding on horses, wearing white silk cloaks, swords or spears in their hands, but there were not many women in the streets, except for a few women passing by, all wearing veils, and some women peeking out of their homes through the small holes in the lattice windows of the people in the markets and squares.

The liveliest part of the huge square is the slave market, dozens of large wooden platforms are full of slaves from all over the East and the West, curly-haired blacks from south of Egypt, short and stout Turks, blonde and blue-eyed Spanish Caucasians, as well as a large number of Sogdians and Tianzhu, and even a small number of people from the farthest East, mainly from Silla, but ordinary Arabs can hardly distinguish between them, and they are called Tang people.

Most of them were taken captive by war, especially the conquest of the Abbasids, who brought a large number of slaves from all over the world.

Slavery is a tradition of the Arabyans, almost every commoner family has its own slaves, any prince of the Umayyad dynasty, there are about a thousand male and female slaves, this is a very common thing, in the battle of Suifen, a pawn in the Syrian army, one to ten slaves served him.

This tradition has not changed with the change of dynasty, and business in the Damascus slave market is as hot as ever.

Most of the slaves are sold in batches, at this time, a group of dark-skinned slaves were driven to the stage, everyone ** upper body, there are young and old and weak, this is the custom, otherwise the old and weak slaves can not be sold, as soon as the slaves get on the wooden platform, the slave traders will shout urgently: "Forty black slaves in Egypt, twenty-five thousand dirhams!" ”

The shrewd eyes of the buyers were looking for young and strong slaves among these forty people, they wanted strong tendons and flesh and charming breasts and round buttocks, and quickly judged in their minds that the price was reasonable, the average white slave was very expensive, and the young people cost 1,000 dirhams each, while the blacks south of Egypt asked for 800 dirhams because of their strength, and the cheapest were the Turks, who could be bought for only 600 dirhams, while the Tang people did not have many slaves, and generally did not sell them in the slave market, and they would be bought immediately if they appeared occasionally, The young Tang girl is about 1,500 dirhams.

There were more women and children in this group of slaves, and it was a bit expensive to sell for 25,000 dirhams, and most of the buyers were silent, and the slave traders would take the initiative to lower the price until someone bought it.

"Twenty-four thousand dirhams, does anyone want it?" There was silence in the audience.

"Twenty-three thousand!"

There was still no one in the audience, and then the slave traders were a little anxious, and he bought these slaves from the army for 20,000 dirhams for them to eat and drink, and they were trafficked to death along the way, and he would lose money if he lowered the price, and at this moment, a buyer shouted: "I want this batch of slaves!" ”

The slave trader let go of his heart, and finally someone asked for it, he hurriedly ordered his men to go through the slave transfer procedures, and he found the buyer, the buyer was an old Sogdian, and next to him stood a dark-skinned young man, with a turban wrapped around his head, wearing a black Turkic robe trimmed with gold trim, and his smile was kind, and he looked like a Turk, but it seemed to be a little different when he looked closely, and the slave trader recognized it at a glance with his professional eye, which was not a Turk, but a Tang man.

It was the first time that a free Tang man could be seen in Damascus, and the slave trader couldn't help but look at him again, and recently heard that the Khorasan side was not peaceful, and was fighting with the Tang army, and this Tang man appeared on the streets of Damascus, which was quite unusual.

"Let's go over there and pay!"

The Kang merchant who bought the slaves warmly invited the slave trader to walk towards the nearby hut, and the slave trader glanced back at the young Tang man, who was gone, disappearing into the crowd of people coming and going.

The noon sun in Damascus is particularly dazzling, Pei Yu can't help but squint his eyes, he has been traveling in Dashi for almost half a year, he still can't adapt to the dazzling sunlight here, Pei Yu was ordered by Li Qing'an to visit the customs here half a year ago, pay attention to the national strength of Dashi, to put it bluntly, he is actually a senior spy of the Tang Army.

Pei Yu came to Da Shi with a Sogdian merchant who was a friend of Li Huichun of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and his trip was heavily supported by the Han and Tang Societies, which also had trading houses in the Da Shi region, located in Mulu, Kufa, and Damascus.

Pei Yu had just returned from Egypt, and the Abbasid war to conquer Egypt was in full swing, making the area quite unpeaceful, and he was almost captured as a slave several times, on the contrary, the slave traders were the freest and most respected merchants, as long as they were people with large groups of slaves, the soldiers would not even ask, and the road was unimpeded.

After discovering this secret, Pei Yu and the Sogdian merchants rushed to Damascus and bought a group of slaves, the surprised eyes of the slave trader just now made Pei Yu a little vigilant, although he can speak fluent Turkic and also know Arabic, almost everyone in the place he goes to will treat him as a Turk, but there are exceptions, for example, just now, the slave trader obviously recognized his true identity, this is a little careless, he forgot that these slave traders' eyes are much sharper than ordinary people, "Nusser, Where are you? ”

The shouting interrupted Pei Yu's train of thought, and only then did he realize that al-Nuser was his Arabic name, and he hurriedly turned around, only to see Sogdian merchants looking for him everywhere.

"Uncle Momo, I'm here!"

Pei Yu walked up quickly and said with a smile: "Is there a deal?" ”

"The deal is sold, and the slaves will be sent to our hotel later, Nusser, I bought them in your name, those slaves are yours, and there are several beautiful young women in them, and you can take them as concubines to relieve you of the toil of your journey."

When he said this, there was an ambiguous smile on the face of the old Sogdian merchant Momo, which did not match his slightly old countenance.

"Thank you, Uncle Momo, you can go back to the hotel first! I still have a few things. ”

Mo Mo seemed to know what was going on with him, so he didn't ask much, so he smiled and said, "Okay then!" I'll go back and accept the slaves first, and you watch out for yourself. ”

Momo led the camel with a few retinues, and Pei Yu rode a horse, slowly left the square, and walked towards the north of Damascus City.

Like other cities, the Arabians of Damascus live in all corners of Damascus according to their tribal relations, and the gates of the Arabic houses are facing the street, and from the gate there is first a courtyard, and in the middle of the courtyard there is a large pool, and the mist of water from the fountain forms a curtain of water, and on the edge of the pool are planted orange trees or citron trees. The rooms were surrounded by courtyards, and in some large houses there were cloisters, and then there were unfathomable mansions with their unknown wives and children.

Pei Yu rode a horse through the wide streets of Damascus, although this city is the largest city of Dashi, but compared to the majestic Chang'an City, it is still much inferior.

To the north of the city is the aristocratic district of Damascus, and the banks of the Yazid River are dotted with vast mansions, which were originally the homes of the Umayyad nobles, but have now changed owners, and the Abbasid nobles have lived in these mansions.

The capital of the Abbasids was in Kufa, when the Abbasids had not yet overthrown the temporary capital of the Umayyad Caliph Marwan II, compared to the magnificent Damascus, Kufa was cramped and cramped, although the Abbasid did not like Damascus very much, but he spent most of the year in the palace of the Umayyad dynasty, where he liked everything he liked, the beauty of the country, the sweet and mellow wine, the exquisite palace and the prosperous economy.

Pei Yu looked at the palace of the Great Eclipse from afar, it was a huge building with a circular dome, which was originally white, but now it had been painted black, so abruptly standing in the air, giving people an eerie feeling of a dark world.

Surrounded by brightly armored caliphal guards, Pei Yu had a gut feeling that the black-clad caliph Abbasid was not in Kufa, but in this black palace.

At this time, Pei Yu suddenly found a bad thing, the street where he was located was checking the documents, this street is the main road leading to the main entrance of the palace, the most heavily guarded, the soldiers are checking the documents of every pedestrian, that is, the tax certificate, only the legal citizens of the Abbasid Dynasty have this kind of certificate, slaves and foreigners do not, it is generally checked when entering the city, Pei Yu also has it, but it is not his certificate, it is a tax certificate of Shi Guoren.

Although there are no photos, he does not speak Sogdian well, once the other party asks him in Sogdian, he is very likely to be exposed, and in the future, Uncle Momo will be by his side, covering the past for him, and today is the first time he has faced it alone.

Pei Yu suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, there were soldiers checking on his front and back, but fortunately, there were a lot of people on the road, and he hadn't been checked for a while, what should I do? If he returns, he will definitely be discovered, and once he is caught, carefully check his identity, and his identity as a Datang person is very likely to be exposed.

Not far away, several foreign businessmen who did not have documents were taken away, and they pleaded loudly, and the reply they received was a burst of punches and kicks.

"Hey! You! ”

Finally it was his turn, and an officer pointed at him and shouted, "Get your papers." ”

Pei Yu had no choice but to take out the parchment scroll from his bosom, which was his tax certificate, and handed it to the past, hoping that the officer could not speak Sogdian.

The officer took the papers, looked at him, and asked, "Turks?" ”

Pei Yu's heart fell to the ground, and the other party spoke Turkic, and he immediately said in Turkic: "My name is Nusser, I grew up in Tiemen Pass, I am a merchant, and I went to Samarkand the year before last. ”

The Iron Gate Pass is the westernmost border of the former Western Turkic Khanate, Uncle Mo Mo said that he has a little accent from the Tiemen Pass, for this reason, he also made a special trip to the Tiemen Pass in the Shi Kingdom, where Samarkand and Bukhara went to Barihe, where the business is prosperous and the people are mixed.

His Turkic language was very fluent, without a single flaw, and the officer nodded, and was just about to return the documents to him, when at this moment, there was a great chaos at the other end of the road, and a large group of military horses galloped towards this side, and the pedestrians dodged in both directions, only to hear someone shouting: "The Muslim general is coming, everyone get out of the way!" ”

The officer couldn't help but curse secretly, the big food language he used, although Pei Yu's big food language was not very good, he still understood, he was scolding: 'This is not his Khorasan, what is arrogant?' ’

Pei Yu's heart moved, he heard that the officer's tone was extremely dissatisfied with the Muslims, as early as a few months ago, he had heard that there were many factions within the Great Cannibals, and the struggle for power and profit was very strong, especially Abu. Muslims and al-Mansur are at odds with each other, so are there any contradictions between Muslims and the Abbasids?

At this time, the officer stuffed his documents to him, "You go quickly!" The governor of Khorasan has no good impression of the Turks, and he has seen you and wants to take you to prison. ”

Pei Yu took the documents and hurriedly hid in the crowd on the side of the road, and secretly looked through the cracks in the heads, only to see a group of Khorasan cavalry galloping by, there were thousands of people, and in the middle of the cavalry, a strong middle-aged man was bowing his head and not speaking, looking worried.

"It turns out that he is Abu. Muslim! Pei Yu thought secretly.

"I heard that the Muslims and His Highness Mansur are vying to be the Amir, and His Highness Mansur has won, hey! The Muslim general offended His Highness Al-Mansur, and later His Highness al-Mansur ascended the throne as caliph, and he suffered his guilt. ”

"Not only Mansour, but also his relationship with the old Ali is very bad, he killed the Shiites in the river too hard, and the old Ali hates him to the core."

Several Arabic nobles were whispering, and Pei Yu kept this information in his heart, and the relationship between the Muslims and Mansur and Old Ali was not harmonious.

At this time, Abu. The Muslim cavalry walked over, the street returned to normal, Pei Yu urged the horse to walk to another street not far away, until the end, he dismounted in front of a luxuriously furnished large shop, this kind of shop specializes in silk, porcelain, tea and all kinds of oriental goods from the Tang Dynasty, all of which are high-end items, loved by the Damascus aristocracy, this is the Han and Tang Dynasty will trade in Damascus, the Han and Tang will make rolling profits through this shop, all of which flow to the broken leaves, Supporting their Hidden Dragon Career.

Pei Yu walked into the store, the store is very spacious, the walls are full of silk samples, several rows of shelves are also full of all kinds of porcelain, Shuzhou Dayi white porcelain, Yuezhou celadon, Pei Yu was born in a big family, he couldn't help but be a little surprised, these porcelain and silk are all first-class goods, especially a few large celadon vases, even Chang'an can not be seen, but the price is extremely expensive, a high-grade Wu Aya costs three hundred dirhams of silver coins, according to the price of rice, it is equivalent to thirty yuan, and the price is ten times that of Chang'an.

This is the second time he has come here, the last time he didn't look at the price, he only noticed it today, at this time, the shopkeeper who was greeting business in the corner of the store saw him and immediately gave him a look, Pei Yu walked into the inner room through a side door.

The owner's name is Shalum, a Turkic man, about fifty years old, and a member of the Han and Tang Societies, who has been in Dashi for nearly twenty years and is loyal to the Han and Tang Societies.

In the room, Pei Yu took out a thick booklet, which was the information he had collected in the past two months, and he did not panic to Sharum first, but added another stroke later: Muslims have a discordant relationship with Mansur and Old Ali.

He carefully sealed the booklet, handed it to Shalum and said with a smile: "I have traveled a lot in the past three months, and the rest will be troublesome to you." ”

"Don't worry, Childe, I'll send someone away tomorrow, that's right! Broken Leaf has a letter from you, it was half a month ago, and I couldn't find you, so I had to stay with me. ”

Pei Yu perked up and hurriedly said, "Where is the letter?" ”

"Childe, please wait!"

Shalum went out, and after a while, he came in with a wooden box, handed it to Pei Yu and said with a smile: "It seems that there is more than one letter, I haven't opened it." ”

The wooden box was sealed to death, Pei Yu took out a dagger, and slowly pried the box open along the gap, there were two letters inside, the first of which had his name written on it, he tore open the letter, and inside was Li Qing'an's own handwriting, which began with the words: 'Jun Ke went to Constantinople for the envoy of Anxi to persuade Byzantium and the Tang Dynasty to establish a trade market in the city of Itytil.....

Pei Yu was stunned, he slowly picked up the second letter, and saw that the letter was written in Turkic on the cover: Li Qing'an, the envoy of the Tang Anxi Festival, the prince of Tingguo, and the champion general, to His Majesty Emperor Leo III.

．．．．．．．．．． At the same time that Pei Yu received Li Qing'an's new mission, another dispute broke out in the royal palace in Damascus.

There are four people in the splendid palace, they represent the supreme ruler of the Abbasid Empire, except for the Abbasid uncle Ali Lao who fought in Egypt, the rest of the people are there, the first is of course the founder of the Abbasid dynasty, the caliph Abbas, the heat of Kufa makes the Abbasid miss the coolness and lush of Damascus, he has been coming to Damascus for the summer since mid-May, his health is not very good, in the battle of the Tigris River he was stabbed by the enemy's javelin, although the wound healed, but injured the internal organs, It made it more difficult for him to resist the invasion of illness than ordinary people.

This is also the reason why he appointed his brother al-Mansur as the heir to the caliphate as soon as he ascended the throne, he was very worried that he would die early, and his young son would not be able to inherit his career, so that his young son would be killed by careerists, so it was better to cut off his possibility of ascending the throne from the beginning.

The Abbasids now face a choice: should they go to war with the Tang Dynasty? From his original intention, just established the empire, the top priority is to consolidate the regime, not to rush to establish a strong enemy, he is not very willing to be the enemy of the Tang Dynasty, the battle with Gao Xianzhi is just a small-scale counterattack, after the battle he decided to stop, and the Egyptian campaign is not over, can the empire withstand the pressure of fighting on two fronts?

Therefore, he was very interested in Abu. The Muslims' proposal for a formal war against the Tang army was delayed, and the Abbasid was conflicted: he did not want to go to war with the Tang army, but he also did not want to lose the Transoxiana region.

"Jafar, do you think we need to fight this battle?"

The Abbasids gave the confusion to his brother Ja'far, who was also known as al-Mansur, and Mansur was his honorific name, just as the Abbasid's honorific title was al-Safah, which means the one who sheds blood, and Mansur means conqueror, but in front of the caliph's brother, he is still called Ja'far.

Mansur was adamantly agreed to fight the Don army, and the decaying Umayyad dynasty did not lose the Transoxiana region, so how could the emerging Abbasid dynasty lose? It's just that he doesn't approve of the Muslims fighting the Tang army, but should fight it himself, and he is the highest military governor of the Abbasid dynasty, Amir.

Mansour understood his brother's concern, so he persuaded his brother: "Your Majesty the Caliph, if the Tang army is just wandering in the valley of the Broken Leaf River, then I will be the first to oppose the war, but the Tang army did not do that, they marched westward, took Tashkent, and even took our city of Talas, in fact, the battle has already begun, they defeated the valiant and good general Hudmed, I am sure that their next move is Samarkand, it is not whether we want to fight the Tang army, but we have to fight the Tang armyIs His Majesty the Caliph willing to give the river as a gift to the Tang Army? ”

Abbasid sighed and said, "If I only fight with the Tang Army like last year, I will not be stingy with the lives of my soldiers, what I am worried about is that this battle will continue to be fought endlessly, which is very detrimental to our new dynasty!" ”

At this time, Abu. The Muslim bowed and said: "Your Majesty, Caliph, I have come to Damascus to persuade Your Majesty to make up your mind, as long as Your Majesty gives me enough food and weapons, I am confident that I will defeat the Tang Dynasty in one battle, drive them back to Broken Leaves, and end the Tang people's dream of the river." ”

As many people know, Muslims and Mansur are at odds with each other, and their conflict erupted in Kufa last month, when Mansur found the craftsmen among the prisoners of war of the Don Army, and found that the truth was not at all what the Muslims said, what craftsmen could make paper, no, none of those Tang Army craftsmen could make paper.

Annoyed and angry, al-Mansur turned against the Muslims and had a big fight, and the news spread throughout Kufa.

Despite their discord, their positions were on the same page on the matter of war with the Don army, and Mansour, seeing that the Abbasids was shaken, glanced at the vizier Fahd.

The vizier was the prime minister whose official name was equivalent to that of the Tang Dynasty, and held the highest administrative power of the Abbasid dynasty, and the first vizier was Fahd, the confidant of the Abbasids in charge of finance.

Fahd smiled and said: "Your Majesty the Caliph don't worry, the Umayyad Dynasty was able to collect fifteen million dirhams a year from Egypt in its heyday, and now we have received eight million dirhams in silver, and by the end of the year I think twelve million will not be a problem, which shows that Egypt has been basically conquered by us, Syria and Armenia have also begun to pay taxes normally, but the taxes in the river and Sindh and Punjab have been greatly reduced, which means that our focus at this time should be biased to the east, and it is very necessary to fight against the Tang army, And our great silver mines are concentrated in eastern Khorasan, and if we fail to consolidate our rule over the East, it will greatly damage the financial revenues of our dynasty. ”

Under the persuasion of the three ministers, the Abbasid finally made the decision to go to war against the Tang army, and he said to the Muslims: "The war against the Tang Dynasty is extraordinary, and the army of Khorasan alone cannot win, and I appoint you as the commander of the front army, and Jafar leads the Syrian army as the commander of the rear army." ”

The Muslim was shocked, his worst fears had happened, Mansur was about to intervene in the affairs of Khorasan, and he was about to say the right thing, but the Abbasid stopped him with a wave of his hand, and said in a firm and different tone of rebuttal: "This is my order, if you cannot defeat the Tang army in the first battle, Jafar will fight the second battle!" ”

(To be continued)