The two countries had just had a war and suffered casualties, and at this time, the atmosphere of the Tang envoys in the Turkic king's tent was obviously not very good, so it was inevitable that there would be a dispute of words. Mo Si then said: "Let's not talk about those useless things, let's talk about the conditions, how to make peace?" ”

He Xu stretched out five fingers, looked at his fingers with a silent sob, and then heard him say: "The King of Jin promised to deliver materials worth five billion yuan within five years to support the Turkic Khanate. ”

"Five billion money...... Mo Si looked back at the left and right, as if he didn't have an intuitive feeling for such a huge amount, if he said how many cows, how many sheep, and how much cloth he was given, it would be easy to understand, but he couldn't react for a while when it was changed to money.

At this time, Yang Wuzhi said: "Five billion is a very large amount of money, taking the price of Chang'an, the market price of a strong young slave is 50,000, and 5 billion money can buy 100,000 slaves with labor. Of course, the prices in Chang'an are surprisingly high, and if the money is calculated according to the price in the north, it will not only buy these people......"

Yang I have lived in Chang'an for a long time, as soon as I talk about these things, it is like a number of treasures, "and said that fabrics and grain, after the implementation of the Three Rivers Law in the Tang Dynasty, the transportation capacity of Cao increased, although the price of rice in Chang'an is still more expensive than that of Dongdu and other places, but it has fallen." Before I came back, the market value of one stone of rice was 150 yuan, and one billion yuan could buy more than 6.6 million stone (about 470,000 tons) of rice...... Two hundred and fifty horses of silk are worth one horse, and those money can buy four million horses of silk. ”

When the Turks heard Yang Izhi's calculations, they were in an uproar, and they were stunned: "Six million six hundred thousand stone rice...... He then laughed and said: "King Jin is very generous!" ”

He Xu was silent, in fact, it is not much compared to waging a war, and the military department wants to launch a medium-sized war, and the military budget is at least one billion, not counting the casualties and economic losses after the local destruction is not counted. And He Xu also knew in his heart: If you don't give enough benefits to the Turks, how can you make them tempted, and five billion may just be a pie, Xue Chongxun said "within five years".

Mo Si was really tempted, and the Turkic people were much kinder to the Tang envoy's gaze. It was as if these two people were not made of flesh and blood, but the embodiment of gold and silver shining in the mountains of gold.

Under the temptation of huge material benefits, the Turks who had been killed and wounded in the previous battles were nothing in the eyes of Mo Si.

At this time, He Xu said again: "Pay in installments." ”

"What?" Mo Si said blankly, "What do you mean by installment?" ”

He Xu explained: "Divide the five billion into five years, deliver a part every quarter, and pay off in five years. This is to prevent accidents on the border, that is, if the Khan leads his troops to attack our prefecture and county, the terms of the book will be destroyed, and the court will no longer need to continue to lose money to the Khan. ”

By now, Xue Chongxun's intention is obvious: to exchange money for peace.

Many Turkic nobles couldn't hold it anymore, and they all said to Mo Si in Turkic language: "If the Tang Dynasty is really willing to give so many things, it is better than us to plunder ourselves." ”

"We send troops to attack the city and town, and we will also be killed and wounded, and it will cost a lot of money for the army to send grain, grass, cattle and sheep, and if the Tang Dynasty sends what we need to the door, it will also save a lot of trouble."

"We don't have much use for copper coins, so let them be exchanged for silk, iron, armor, weapons, cattle and sheep, and grain!"

"With the supplies of the Tang Dynasty, we can take this opportunity to destroy the Tiele tribes in the north, who often rob our cattle, sheep and horses behind our backs, and burn our tent people, and are very disrespectful to the Khan."

Mo Si raised his hand to stop everyone's discussion, and looked back at the Tang envoy standing in the middle. The Tang envoy He Xu had always spoken Chinese when he came in, and it happened that Mo Si and many of his ministers knew Chinese, so he didn't know if He Xu understood Turkic or not. Mo Si said: "Everyone should calm down, don't give some benefits and get carried away, let the Tang Dynasty people laugh." Previously, Zhang Renyuan promised us so many benefits, but what was the result? ”

"Khan is wise!"

Mo Si said to He Xu in Chinese: "What you said is what the King of Jin meant? Does he mean what he says? ”

He Xu took out a letter: "The letter stamped by the King of Jin himself, I just relayed his words. As for whether the King of Jin can count when he speaks...... "Obviously, this question is self-evident, Princess Taiping and his son are autocratic, not only everyone in the Tang Dynasty knows it, but these surrounding khanates also care about the politics of the superpowers, and most of them are also clear. However, now China's country name is still Tang, and He Xu couldn't say this problem clearly, so he excused himself, "The king of Jin has been allowed by the imperial court, and the khan can rest assured." My China advocates the etiquette of faithfulness, and will never lose trust to others, and the two states want to sign the credentials, what doubts does the khan have? ”

He pondered for a moment and said, "Princess Jinshan can't marry into the grassland, so she has to choose another princess to marry, so that we can become relatives and make peace with each other." ”

He Xu hurriedly said: "The big matter of peace and affection, if we can't agree, the Khan should repair the letter of state to Chang'an, and ask His Majesty and the courtiers to make a decision." ”

Mo sipped and laughed: "Just let King Jin give him the words, he can't do anything at all, who will believe it?" ”

He Xu said: "When I set off, the king of Jin did not mention the matter of peace, and asked the khan to send another envoy to Tang to discuss. ”

Mo Si looked back left and right, and mocked the Tang envoy: "This person came to negotiate with me about the conditions, he can't do anything, what can I talk to him?" You go down and wait, I'll give you news later. ”

He Xu had no choice but to bow and retire, and a Turkic official took him out of the tent to settle down.

Mo Si turned his head to look at his son Yang Izhi: "If this matter is reliable, I have to ask you to go over and talk to them." ”

"Erchen thinks that the Tang people are mostly sincere in negotiating peace." Yang Izhi analyzed while pondering, "In the past two years, the Tang Dynasty has fought at least two major wars with Tubo in the Helong region, each time using no less than 100,000 troops, and countless people; There were also several large and small troops in the Western Regions; Luoyang raised troops once, using tens of thousands of soldiers; I heard that there was also a war in the southwest and Nanzhao, but the details are unknown. In addition, Princess Taiping's life is extremely extravagant, and there is a big banquet on five days and a small banquet on three days in the palace, and she also builds Huaqing Palace on a large scale. The retainers had no way of knowing the internal accounts of the Chang'an court, but it was estimated that they could not make ends meet, and they did not dare to raise taxes on the nobles to provoke resistance, and they were afraid that they would not be able to wage a major war against our Turkic Khanate. If we sit idly by and watch our country attack the northwest or Hebei region, the Taiping Party will have no face...... From this point of view, at least in the past one or two years, they are sincere in their desire for peace. ”

Mo Si nodded and said, "Five billion in five years, paid quarterly?" We can only get 250 million dollars in front of us. You go and talk to them about the conditions again, and strive to deliver the things for half a year or a year the first time, and we have this batch of support, and we will go and destroy the Tiele tribes as soon as we wait until autumn! ”

Yang I said: "Erchen will definitely do his best." ”

Mo Si said again: "If we want food and armor, we need these two things most if we want to fight Tiele!" ”

The matter of diplomacy was handed over to Yang Izhi, who knew the Tang Dynasty and was the best candidate. At the same time, Mo Si promised the Tang envoys: as long as the peace negotiations were successful, he would return to the grassland to dismiss the army after getting the first batch of benefits, and give up the threat to the Tang Dynasty's border areas.

……

Xue Chongxun had obviously made up his mind to negotiate peace, and as soon as the battle was over, he sent an envoy over to negotiate with Mo Si before leading the army to Xicheng for repairs.

He couldn't help it, Zhang said that he tried his best to mobilize 30,000 troops and a batch of ordnance, grain and grass to go north, not to mention that there were not enough soldiers, even the tens of thousands of people where Anbei Town was located continued to fight, and military consumption was also a big problem. At this time, the strength of the Tang Dynasty is not not strong, the key is that there are many places around that need to be deployed and prepared for war, and the national strength consumed by transportation and war preparation is much greater than that of the nomads.

But he believes that the Tang Dynasty is really going to enter a state of war, and the war potential is still very large, and the energy has not been tapped at all. However, he did not dare to exert pressure on the country, which would affect the stability of his rule. After all, the external pressure at this time was not great, and no force could reach the point of threatening the survival of the empire, and there was no need to start a war without life.

When Xue Chongxun's army entered the western city, he saw that several city walls had collapsed, and there were many corpses near the city, and the soldiers and civilians were busy digging pits and carrying corpses, a tragic scene.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Wulang and other generals may have remembered that Xue Chongxun still had to send supplies to the Turks, and several people sighed and looked very lost.

Xue Chongxun, who was riding on a horse, turned around and asked, "What are you sighing for?" ”

Everyone also knew that there was no way to do it, so Zhang Wulang replied: "It's nothing, it's just sad to see that Xicheng has suffered a lot of casualties." ”

Xue Chongxun said: "The Hetao area was originally a land of fertile water and grass, a place that nomads wanted, but now our troops are stationed here, which is good compared to all dynasties and generations...... Some dynasties lost power and land, and slaughtered millions of people, what can be done if people are like this? There is not much in the world that is perfect and perfect. ”

"What Xue Lang said is extremely true." Zhang Wulang said, "When we recuperate for a while, we will find the Turks to come back, right?" ”

"Hmm." Xue Chongxun said lightly, "How can there be a cheap price in the world?" ”

The generals' faces were slightly better when they heard this.

After entering the city gate, Xue Chongxun found that although the city looked badly damaged, a little attention will be made to find that the soldiers and civilians are not hanging out, all of them are doing things, some digging pits, some carrying people, some cleaning roads, and some people are building walls to consolidate the city defense. It's really orderly, if it weren't for someone telling people what to do, don't panic and make a mess?

After a while, I saw a group of men and horses coming from the ruins, and the people in front of them were all wearing robes, red, green, and white, and it seemed that they were civil officials. When they came to Xue Chongxun's guard of honor, they dismounted and bowed their hands, shouting to meet the king of Jin.

Xue Chongxun also stopped and said: "You have defended Xicheng in the midst of all difficulties, not only have military merits, but also protect the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Xicheng. Later, I will ask the ins and outs of the matter, write down your respective deeds on the table, and reward you according to the law. ”

"We have done our duty, and we dare not ask for credit." Everyone said modestly, but they should be very happy in their hearts, and the deeds were reported directly to the imperial front and the political affairs hall, and they were definitely going to be promoted and rich.

At this time, an old man in a red robe said: "I am Changshi, although the wartime military and political orders were issued in the name of Changshi, but I really don't dare to take the first credit, otherwise I will feel uneasy." The person who has the greatest credit for this matter is Li Gongzi, and I think the princes of Xicheng have a consensus on this. ”

The Li Gongzi in Changshi's mouth should be Li Shizhi, the great-grandson of Taizong that Xue Chongxun heard about, right? Xue Chongxun thought so in his heart, and immediately asked, "Where is Gongzi Li?" ”

After a while, I saw a young man wearing white felt walking up from behind, just saluting, and suddenly smelled Wang Changling and said: "When I met the King of Jin, I was carrying a weapon!" ”

Xue Chongxun took a look at the young man's waist, and sure enough, he was wearing a long sword.

At this time, Changshi said: "Li Gongzi is a clan, why not wear a sword next to the avenue at this time?" ”

Xue Chongxun hurriedly looked for the bottom of the stairs, and looked generous: "Why do you need to care about small sections? ”

Li Shizhi was shouted by Xue Chongxun's staff, but he was very humble, and he didn't mean to fight at all, so he simply took off his sword and handed it to the guards of the Flying Tiger Regiment on the bypass, "When I meet my cousin, I should be respectful, but I was negligent for a while, please punish my cousin." ”

Xue Chongxun calculated in his heart that Li Shizhi was the great-grandson of Taizong, and his mother was the granddaughter of Taizong, so he and Li Shizhi could really be regarded as cousins.

He smiled and said, "Yes, yes, it's really the Gaozu bloodline." After I return to Beijing, I will talk about your affairs in front of His Majesty, and when the time comes, I will let you find an errand in Beijing, and I will save my relatives from being estranged. ”

Li Shizhi hurriedly bowed: "Thank you cousin for your promotion." ”

"Let's go." Xue Chongxun lightly kicked the horse's belly, and continued to head north with a large group of people, past a group of officials in Xicheng, and the smile on his face quickly disappeared. H