In the early morning, the rolling snow-capped mountains rise high under the sky, a thick mist hovers in the mountainside, and the road to the ridge is seen in the distance, with a procession of pack horses marching forward, and the flags rolling and hoarfrost whistling fiercely in the wind.

Gao Xianzhi rode a white horse and stood on the ridge of the mountain, beside him was Li Siye, who was riding a black and fat man, and as far as he could see, the jade belt-like Bomi River was flowing slowly, and a fortress-like post station stood on the bank.

He pointed to the post station and said in surprise: "When we came here three years ago, the merchant post only went to the green ridge to guard the outside of the city, and now it has spread to the bottom of the Bomi River? ”

Li Siye smiled and said nothing, and the supervising army Bian Lingcheng said loudly beside him: "This must be a post station for commercial repair, and if you can build such a few merchant posts on the Green Ridge, this merchant can be regarded as having strong financial resources." ”

"Not necessarily, maybe this post was built by dozens of caravans." Li Siye asked Gao Xianzhi from the side: "Do you want to?" Let's go over and see. ”

Gao Xianzhi waved his horsewhip and calmly and simply popped out a word: "Go." ”

The army slowly advanced along the banks of the valley and finally approached the post station by the river.

It is a small earthen fort made of brown frozen soil rammed on the green ridge, and a tall wooden pole stands next to the gate of the post station, and a white flag is hung on the pole, which reads "Bomi Station".

Dai Wang led the post commander and the post men and the horsemen to stand outside the door to greet them, and the iron hooves of the army slowly lined up along the riverside, and the banners of the Xuanxi and the Crimson were scattered on the riverbank.

He led everyone to kneel on one knee and crossed their hands and said: "Dai Wang, the West Business Brigade, will meet Gao Gao Cheng and the generals." ”

Gao Xianzhi dragged the reins of the horse out of the queue, looked down at these people, reined in the horse's head and stopped in front of Dai Wang, held the horsewhip and pointed at him and said, "Raise your head." ”

The atmosphere froze for a moment, and several people secretly glanced at the side of Dai Wang's face, and he slowly raised his head, revealing a dark purple rosewood mask.

Gao Xianzhi leaned back and asked in surprise, "What's the matter!" Why don't you dare to see people for what they really are? ”

"Qi Yu Zhongcheng, a certain face was once burned by the fire, so in order to make it easier to go out to meet people, so he put on a mask."

Gao Xianzhi nodded, and asked him again: "You spent money to build this post station?" ”

Dai Wang's gaze slid over Li Siye's face, and then he faced Gao Xianzhi and said, "Zhongcheng, these post stations were not built by Dai Wang's efforts alone, but were built by dozens of caravans with joint efforts. ”

"These?" Gao Xianzhi asked in surprise, "How many post stations have you built on the Green Ridge?" ”

"Qiyu Zhongcheng, in order to facilitate the transportation of pepper to Tianzhu, we jointly raised gold to build a post station, we strictly followed the requirements of the official post to arrange, every thirty miles to build a post, all the way to the small Bolu country, and then to India."

Gao Xianzhi praised happily: "There are still such capable merchants in my Datang territory, who have done what our Anxi Protectorate wanted to do but didn't have time to do, and the post station to Xiao Bolu and India is equivalent to directly controlling Xiao Bolu and narrowing the distance between India, and it is more convenient for us to command the Quy Nhon army, further control the Great Bolu and other countries around Tubo, and even in the future, we can also take five or six countries in the Indus River region as allies, Brother Siye, what do you think?" ”

Li Siye pretended not to know and nodded: "Yes, the Quy Nhon army can use the post station to pass the news back and forth, and the steep mountains of the Green Mountains are no longer an obstacle." ”

Gao Xianzhi turned over and dismounted, stepped forward to help Dai Wang up, and said to him: "When this expedition to the country of Karma is over, I will personally return to Chang'an to recount my merits, and I will definitely report to the saint the feat of Dai Lang and the merchants using a post station to connect the green ridge and the little Bolu India, you deserve the saint's reward." ”

Dai Wang was a little panicked in his heart, this post road is Li Siye's strategic card, it should not be exposed to the eyes of the imperial court, now Chang'an is not safe, and it is still Li Linfu who controls the Tang Dynasty, who knows if Li Linfu will see through the chain of interests and seize it in his own hands, so it can really become a wedding dress for others.

He glanced at Li Siye like lightning out of the corner of his eye, and hurriedly crossed his hand and said to Gao Xianzhi: "Zhongcheng, by all means, I don't dare to take credit." ”

Bian Lingcheng rode on the horse and sneered with his hands on his sleeves: "You ignorant marketman, you don't want the reward of the saint, what do you want?" ”

Dai Wang looked up slightly and raised his head, and crossed his hand at the eunuch: "It's not that a certain person is unwilling to take credit for rewards, but he really doesn't dare to take credit." First of all, the construction of the post station is not my own effort, but by many peers to raise together, when the time comes, the court will only reward a certain person, which will make the rest of the companions disgusted but not beautiful. Secondly, we are preparing to build a post station to facilitate our companions to come back from India to do business and settle down to rest, which is actually convenient for ourselves, and we dare not take credit. Besides, we businessmen should not have a too dry reputation when doing business, once we are rewarded by the saints, everyone in the world knows, as the saying goes, peers are enemies, if all businessmen know about us, they will all be my enemies. ”

Bian Lingcheng smiled unceremoniously: "You businessmen, no wonder the scholars scolded you and other market men, who are smaller than us eunuchs." ”

"The prison guards are right."

Gao Xianzhi nodded in agreement: "In this way, it's a pity, Dai Lang, take us in for a visit." ”

"Whoa."

He bowed in front of him to lead the way, leading Gao Xianzhi into the middle door cave. The post station is built on all sides with thick walls comparable to a small city, and there are female wall battlements, so that if you encounter strongmen and bandits, you can condescend to resist the enemy. The center is a rectangular courtyard, and the grass hall of the main building sits in the middle facing south and is used to entertain travelers. There are stables and granaries in the west and warehouses in the east, and the facilities are complete and neat, not much worse than the post stations built by the imperial court.

Dai Wang bowed to Gao Xianzhi and crossed his hands and said: "I heard that Gao Gao Cheng wants to go out to the Green Mountains again and attack the Qianshi Kingdom, we businessmen feel the kindness of the imperial court, if there is no Anxi Protectorate to drive away the Tubo people and open up Xiao Bolu, we will not have the opportunity to take a shortcut from the Red Buddha Hall through Xiao Bolu to India." In order to support the expedition of the Anxi Protectorate, we specially bought grain from the countries of the Western Regions to replenish the warehouse and provide food supplies for the large armies passing along the way. ”

Gao Xianzhi listened to it and praised again: "Dai Liulang is really a Confucian businessman, and he has solved the worries of the army, and he wants to report to the saint more and more to ask for a reward for you." But since you don't want to be rewarded by the court, Gao wants to give you some generous gifts. A certain promised here that from now on, Dai Liulang and your caravan will pass through all the post stations in the territory under the rule of my Anxi Protectorate, and you can replace your horses and livestock for free. In Shule, Qiuzi, Khotan and other places, the city is exempt from city gate tax for three years! ”

The time to test his acting skills has come again, Dai Wang showed a grateful expression, and hurriedly bowed down.

"Xie Zhongcheng!"

In fact, under the operation and interference of Li Siye, not only the post stations along the Green Ridge, but also the official posts on the entire Silk Road in Khotan, have been reduced to the consignment stations of the Western Regions Chamber of Commerce, and the post roads of the imperial court have become tools for collecting money. However, at the moment, Dai Wang can get Gao Xianzhi's promise, which is equivalent to adding a double insurance. Because of the bulk of pepper transportation on the trade route, sooner or later it will reach Gao Xianzhi's ears, rather than making him suspicious, it is better to take the initiative to be in his sight, but he still doesn't want to be exposed.

In the afternoon, the army marched forward again, marching along the post road, stopping to rest and replenish food every time it encountered a post, and the eight thousand Anxi athletes always kept their dry food bags full, and the sufficient supplies made Gao Xianzhi have more time for long-distance battles.

Thirteen days later, the Tang army entered Xiaobolu, and a part of the Quy Nhon army, 2,000 soldiers and horses, joined the expedition to the state of the Qianshi.

Further west, the nearest post station, only four hundred miles from the kingdom of the Karma, was built on a bulging hill, and was more like a fortress of a military nature, both in terms of topography and appearance.

At this moment, there were only Gao Xianzhi and Li Siye standing on the fortress wall, Gao Xianzhi looked at the plain under the clouds in the distance, and suddenly said: "I have a question in my heart, even if these merchant groups work together to raise money to build a post station, there should be a strong person behind them to integrate them, otherwise it will definitely not be successful." I don't think it's the one with the mask. ”

Li Siye's expression changed slightly, and his eyes looked up at the sky. Gao Xianzhi put his hand on the pergola and said with a sly smile: "I naturally won't object to things that are good for Anxi and Datang, but these people must have made a lot of money for you." ”

Li Siye suddenly realized, and hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, these people don't know the rules too much, on the ground in Anxi, they didn't even greet the high school Chengxing, and after going back this time, I will definitely instruct them to prepare carefully." ”

"It doesn't matter if we greet us, we have a duty to protect my business travelers in Anxi."