Li Yuanqing nodded, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Otherwise, what do you think?" The 60,000 prisoners of war who were captured had to be kept strictly guarded, but also allowed to clear the wasteland. This is more meaningful than chasing these remnants of the Xiyun Kingdom who fled from the desert behind. ”

Meng Shide clenched his fists, he wanted to fight, but he couldn't do it, and retorted in a muffled voice, "Farming, you know farming." ”

Li Yuanqing smiled, quite proud, "The purpose of farming is to let the people eat enough and make the court stable; Fighting a war is also to protect the family and defend the country, and it is also for the people to live a good life. Different paths lead to the same end, and General Meng should not despise farming. ”

General Zhao shook his head and smiled when he heard the two capable subordinates arguing together, "You continue to argue, and I'll go back and write an excerpt." ”

Seeing General Zhao leaving, Meng Shide scratched his head, "Actually, I don't look down on farming, after all, without ordinary people farming, we don't have to eat." It's just that I really didn't want to lose such a good opportunity. ”

Li Yuanqing was quite speechless about this madman who loved to fight.

Fighting a war is not an end, but a means.

Now that the battle has been won, even if the tens of thousands of fleeing troops are killed, what can they do?

Li Yuanqing patiently relieved the young Meng Shide, "Now that we have won a big victory, after the withdrawal of Xiyun Kingdom this time, it will no longer be able to support the war." Killing tens of thousands of people more is almost the same for Da Zhou, and it will not affect the overall situation, but it is different for Xiyun Kingdom. ”

"They will hate us even more, and even fight up in desperation, killing more of our soldiers. Since there is a way to inflict a heavy setback on the tens of thousands of troops that escaped from the Xiyun Kingdom without much effort, why should they fight a war? ”

Hearing this, Meng Shide was stunned, "Brother Li, what do you mean by this?" ”

Li Yuanqing smiled, turned around and said as he walked: "The general has already told the countries around Xiyun Kingdom about the defeat and desertion of Xiyun Kingdom. Especially those small countries that have been bullied by Xiyun Kingdom, how could they let go of this opportunity to take advantage of the fire to rob? ”

Meng Shide was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized what Li Yuanqing and General Zhao meant.

He was disappointed in his heart, sure enough, he was just a general, obeying the command of the general to fight, and let him give advice, but he couldn't do it.

Meng Shide was a little envious of Li Yuanqing, obviously everyone is a reckless man, why does Li Yuanqing fight again, and he is still resourceful?

Since then, Meng Shide has often followed Li Yuanqing, hoping to learn a thing or two from Li Yuanqing.

After each major battle, Li Yuanqing would pay special attention to the wounded soldiers and do his best to treat them. For the soldiers who died, the pension must be paid to the martyrs, and no one else is allowed to encroach on it.

Li Yuanqing specially allocated a team of people to go to the local area for verification. Once encroachment is discovered, it must be dealt with.

After dealing with these things, Li Yuanqing will go to the field to have a look when he has his spare time.

I also saw the peppers that grew luxuriantly, the corn that grew very tall, and of course, the green sweet potato fields. Now that the sweet potato leaves have grown, every morning and evening someone pinches off the sweet potato stalks and cuttings them in the open field.

The people who followed Li Yuanqing also went from being shocked at the beginning to now gladly accepting the fact that General Li loves farming.

However, this General Li is not ordinary, not only is he good at fighting, but he is also good at farming.

Li Yuanqing walked on the field path, and his thoughts flew out.

Cai Dayong should have sent his letter back to Jixiang Village, right?

Your Majesty in the capital must have received the fold of a great victory, right?

I hope that the negotiations in Xiyun Kingdom will be faster, and after the northwest is stabilized, Li Yuanqing feels that he can go home as soon as possible.

At this time, Xiyun Kingdom hated to death, but it also had to send an envoy to continue negotiations with Da Zhou.

Sure enough, after the capital received the great victory in the northwest, the emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty walked back and forth several times in the imperial study and shouted: "Good, good!" ”

Immediately convene the ministers and discuss important matters.

Now the ministers all feel that Emperor Zhou Ping's mind is not like at the beginning, he uses the previous set of rhetoric at every turn, and he does not dare to talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality in the court, and he should be gracious. Some were silent, and the young officials led by Master Gu insisted on their previous thoughts, and they must make Xiyun Kingdom pay the price.

If it weren't for thousands of miles of yellow sand, which was not suitable for human habitation, Emperor Zhou Ping wanted to order the army to cross the desert and occupy several cities in Xiyun Kingdom. But soon calm down, that place is a natural barrier, an enclave.

It may not be a good thing to gather to the Great Zhou, and it is too manpower and material resources to be guarded by dividing troops.

Now that the Great Zhou Dynasty has a vast land and abundant resources, many places have not been developed, and the population is small, especially in the western region, it is all the more necessary to recuperate and educate the people.

A month later, Lord Tozan of the Xiyun Kingdom once again cooperated with the envoys of the Xiyun Kingdom and began to negotiate with Da Zhou.

The Great Zhou now has a large number of captives of the Xiyun Kingdom, these are all young and middle-aged, and they are the foundation of the Xiyun Kingdom, and it is impossible not to. It's just that now I want to redeem the prisoners of war, there is too much silver, and I ask Da Zhou to raise his noble hand again and make it cheaper.

Gu Shao refused again, "This is the price of committing my big week, only if the price is high, can you remember it for a long time." Otherwise, after letting these people go back, it will be a return of the tiger. ”

Lord Tozan wanted to jump up and beat Gu Shao violently, obviously he had a good appearance of being polite and personable, but he had a poisonous heart and poisonous lungs in his heart, and it was completely black.

Lord Tozan smiled, "Lord Gu, but our Xiyun Kingdom really doesn't have so much silver, and we can't redeem all the more than 200,000 prisoners of war. ”

Gu Shao thought for a while, tapped his fingers on the table, and said after a while: "Your Majesty has the virtue of a good life and a heart of compassion, and he can't bear to let these soldiers of the Xiyun Kingdom who care about their mother country stay in a foreign country all the time. The defeat of the Western Cloud Kingdom, you really can't redeem these more than 200,000 prisoners of war at one time. ”

"In that case, we can accept installment payments. If you want to redeem the nobles, we will cooperate with the Great Zhou. If you want to redeem the soldiers, we will cooperate. Rest assured, we will treat every prisoner of war well and will not let them go hungry. If they are sick, they will also be treated. ”

When Tozan heard this, his heart was about to vomit blood, "Master Gu, don't deceive people too much. Since His Majesty the Great Zhou has a good heart and the virtue of a good life, he should let everyone go and let them return to their hometown. ”

Gu Shao shouted angrily, and his handsome face became more serious, "I advise Lord Tozan not to talk nonsense, Gu Mou eats the king's luck, and naturally wants to be loyal to the king." You said that Gu Mou deceived people too much, could it be that my Great Zhou invited you Xiyun Kingdom to cross the vast desert to come to the Great Zhou to commit crimes? You covet the richness of our Great Zhou and invade our Great Zhou again and again. ”

"If you want to say that you deceive people too much, it is also because you Xiyun Kingdom first broke your trust first, and then sprinkled it last. This is the bottom line of our negotiations, promise, just give the silver as soon as possible, if there is no silver, use cattle and horses, and then give us a list of who we want to redeem. If you don't want to talk about it, then so be it. This official is busy every day, and he really doesn't have so much spare time to waste his tongue on Lord Tozan. ”

After speaking, Gu Shao left with the people from the Ministry of Rites one by one.

Seeing this, Lord Tozan and the rest of the Xiyun Kingdom were silent.

After going back, he thought about it for three days, and finally agreed to all of Gu Shao's conditions.

His Majesty Da Zhou saw the fold presented by Gu Shao, and said yes again and again. If you don't work for anything, the follow-up will also let Gu Shao follow up.

The list of prisoners that Xiyun Kingdom wanted to exchange for was 30,000 people, and it was also handed over to Gu Shao.

After Gu Shao and the household department calculated, Xiyun Guo had to give Da Zhou 1.5 million taels of silver. If the silver was not enough, he gave 700,000 taels of silver, and the remaining 820,000 silver was repaid at a discount for cattle, sheep, and horses.