Time flies, time flies and three years have passed, the Tang Dynasty is still strong, all countries come to the dynasty, but behind the prosperity, there is a hidden increasingly serious crisis of land annexation, many landless peasants are forced to become tenants, become vassals of the wealthy, the seeds of turmoil have been quietly sown, some people have predicted that if the trend of land annexation is not effectively curbed, decades later, the Tang Dynasty will break out into war.

Despite rising inequalities, they are far from a crisis for a vast empire, overshadowed by the splendor of prosperity.

Xin'an County, Gyeonggi Province, here is a small county about 50 miles west of Luoyang, with a population of more than 8,000 households, surrounded by endless wheat fields, dotted with beautiful mountains and hills, in the middle of summer, the wheat fields have become a piece of golden, the wind blows the wheat waves, as if a golden carpet spread on the vast land, there are countless harvesting figures, the annual wheat harvest finally kicked off.

At noon on this day, the official road is bustling, pedestrians are flowing endlessly, there is a simple greenhouse on the side of the road, providing simple tea and rice for pedestrians, and it is also the most popular resting place for businessmen.

There is a group of Hu merchants from the Western Regions in the greenhouse, nearly 100 camels carrying heavy goods, and the general merchants are different, these 100 camels have the same logo, they obviously belong to the same caravan.

The caravan consisted of about twenty or thirty people, all of them Hu people from the Western Regions, all of them were powerful and powerful, and they wore long knives at their waists, and they sat at several tables to drink and eat, and their eyes glanced at a large table in the middle from time to time.

There were only two people sitting at the big table, both of them about the same age, thirty years old, but the people of the Western Regions were old, with big beards, and looked like they were in their forties.

A man on the right is majestic, looks quite bold, more than a dozen bowls of wine are drunk by him without blinking, and the man on the left is gorgeously dressed, with a white turban wrapped around his head, and a ruby the size of a chicken egg in the middle, and the short knife on his waist is also shining, flashing with various gemstones, this young man is a little quiet, but he seems to be a little worried, and he seems to have no appetite in the face of the table full of wine and food.

"Aaron, are these dishes not to your liking?" asked the rough-looking man with a smile.

The young man sighed, shook his head, and said, "I'm worried about my homeland, I really don't have any appetite."

"You're thinking too much, I've heard that there is also a civil strife in Dashi, and it won't hit Bahanna for a few years. ”

Back then, everyone said that the Great Cannibals suppressed the uprising in Persia and would not go north, but in less than a year, the Great Cannibals reached Samarkand, and both of your shops were looted, have you forgotten?"

"It's okay! At that time, there was not much inventory, and the loss was not large. ”

Two men, one named Kangning, that is, the burly bearded man, he was a famous merchant in Kangguo, and the other was a young man named Aaron, who was the prince of Pakhana and the sole heir to the throne.

Because the white-clothed Great Food began its westward expedition 30 years ago, first conquered the Persian Sassanid Dynasty, and continued to advance northward and eastward, the Sogdian countries and the eastern Bakhana were constantly harassed by the Great Eclipse army, and the Sogdian kings continued to send envoys to Chang'an for help.

"Kangning, do you think the Tang Dynasty will promise to send troops to help us this time?" asked Aaron worriedly.

"I think it should be, after all, the Tang Dynasty has a garrison in Broken Leaves, and Broken Leaves is so close to Bahanna, if Bahana is occupied by the Great Cannibals, Broken Leaves will also be in danger, what is it called, the mouth is dead, and then the teeth-"

"Lips are dead and teeth are cold!" Alun studied in Chang'an when he was a child, was proficient in Chinese, and learned this idiom.

"That's right! ”

Kang Ning smiled and patted Alun's shoulder, "I have a friendship with the general of the Thousand Cavalry Battalion of the Tang Dynasty, and he will help you intercede with the female emperor." ”

Alun nodded silently, still frowning, thinking that it was useless for the Sogdian countries to come to the Tang Dynasty for help, would there be any hope for him to travel east this time?

At this time, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance, rolling up the rolling yellow dust, and in a moment, dozens of knights rushed close to the greenhouse, and a young man's voice smiled: "Uncle Wine, let's go over there and rest!"

Everyone looked at these dozens of people, all wearing the armor of the Tang Dynasty cavalry, led by a round-faced fat man, about thirty years old, with silver helmets and iron armor, which was the attire of General Lang or General Zhonglang.

However, everyone's eyes were focused on the two teenagers in the middle, they were riding rare ponies, they were only ** years old, but they were slender and handsome, perhaps because of the hot weather, they were sweating profusely and their faces were red.

"Okay! Let's go rest in the greenhouse. ”

The fat general waved his horsewhip and ordered the shopkeeper: "Give us a little place!"

At this time, the merchant Kangning laughed and whispered to Prince Aaron, "I may have met an old man. ”

The cavalry of the Tang Army threw their horses to the men, walked into the shed one after another, and sat down in front of seven or eight tables, and the originally relatively spacious greenhouse was suddenly full.

The fat general banged on the table and said, "Take tea to quench your thirst first!"

The shopkeeper and the guy hurriedly ran to get the tea, and they were busy, at this time, the businessman Kang Ning walked up to the fat general with a glass of wine and said with a smile: "Old fat, do you still know me?"

The fat general was stunned for a moment and looked at him, "I see that you are very familiar, a bit like an old friend of mine." ”

Corning cleared his throat, his voice changed, "It's only been ten years since we broke up, you really don't know me?"

"Are you...... Big Strong!"

The fat general jumped up suddenly, the two laughed, hugged each other tightly, and the fat man punched him hard in the shoulder, "You bastard, why do you have a big beard?"

Needless to say, this fat general is Jiuzhi, he has been promoted to the general of the Thousand Cavalry Battalion, and Kang Ning is Kang Dazhuang back then, he is already a wealthy businessman with thousands of dollars, but this time he came to Datang not to do business.

The two hugged again, Kang Dazhuang's eyes fell on the two teenagers, he had already seen that these two teenagers were very similar to Li Zhen, so he smiled and said: "These two young men are Ah Zhen's children!"

"Yes! One is called Jinyang, and the other is called Liyang. ”

Jiuzhi smiled at the two little guys and said, "This is your father's good Sogdian friend, Uncle Zhuang, you should have heard of it!"

When the two teenagers heard about Kang Dazhuang, they hurriedly knelt down and saluted, "Nephew to see Uncle Kang." ”

Kang Dazhuang had changed his name to Kang Ning, and he had a noble status in Bahanna, so he hurriedly pulled up his two children, "No courtesy!

He took out two superb sapphires the size of pigeon eggs from his arms, handed them to the two and said with a smile: "First time we met, this is a gift from my uncle to you." ”

The two little guys saw that the gem was dazzling and extremely valuable, and they hesitated to accept it, and Jiu Zhi smiled: "Uncle Kang is a famous big jeweler, this is just a gadget for him, take it!"

The two of them thanked them for accepting it, and the two of them carefully looked at the gems in their hands, and they couldn't put it down, at this time, Jiuzhi smiled and asked, "What about your princess sister?"

Because Kang Dazhuang and Li Quan have business dealings, everyone heard a little news about Kang Dazhuang's family from Li Quan, because of the war in Kang, the Kangmaid family moved to Dawan City, the capital of Bahanna, six years ago, Kang Sisi married Prince Palkhana, became a princess, and gave birth to a son the following year, becoming the third generation heir of Palkhana.

Kangning pulled Aaron and said with a smile: "The princess's sister didn't come, but the prince's brother-in-law came, this is my brother-in-law Aaron, who will be enthroned as king next year." ”

He introduced Aaron again: "This is my friend Jiuzhi since childhood, and now he is the general of the Tang Dynasty." ”

Alun couldn't help but be in awe, and bowed his hand and said, "It turned out to be General Wine, and I have admired it for a long time!"

Jiu Zhi's face flushed, General Zhonglang was still one level away from the general, but his position as a loose official was named a guerrilla general, and he was also a general, he hurriedly returned a salute, and let the two brothers Jinyang, Liyang and Alun meet and invite them to sit down.

The three of them drank a glass of wine, and Jiu Zhixiao asked, "Why did you come to Datang?"

Alun sighed, and then told the Great Food Army that threatened Bahanna, and he came to Datang to ask for help on the order of his father, and asked, "Does General Jiu think that Datang may send troops?"

Jiuzhi shook his head, "It's not my turn to ask about this kind of military affairs, but I personally think it's a bit suspenseful." ”

He lowered his voice and said: "In the past year, the struggle between the Wu and Li families for the right to inherit the throne has been white-hot, and I estimate that the imperial court will not take care of the affairs of the Western Regions. ”

"What then?" said Aaron's face was gloomy.

Kangning smiled and comforted him: "It's not necessarily, we'll talk about it when we see the general." ”

He asked Jiuzhi again, "Is Ah Zhen in the capital?"

"Of course in the capital. ”

At this time, Li Liyang next to him interjected: "Uncle wine, my aunt said that my father is also coming to the villa today." ”

"What Villa?" asked Corning, puzzled.

Jiuzhi smiled: "It's Baique Villa, Lao Li's other house, only twenty miles away from here, my lady and daughter, as well as Lao Li's family have come to the villa for the summer, and they have been here for more than half a month. ”

Kang Ning was overjoyed, "Since Ah Zhen is in the villa, we will go over now." ”......

In the past six or seven years, Li Zhen's family basically never went to it, until Li Zhen was transferred back to Luoyang two years ago and served as the general of the Thousand Cavalry Battalion, and Baique Villa officially became their family's summer retreat.

This is their second year in Baique Villa, and they are accompanied by Jiuzhi's wife Ah Ling and his two daughters, as well as the wife of Yao Xi, the chief imperial physician of the palace, and his son, who is not yet a year old.

Baique Villa has enough rooms for many people to live in, in fact, this is also what Di Yan means, she likes to be lively, so she came forward and invited several families to come to the villa to escape the summer.

That afternoon, Li Zhen hurried to the villa, and he brought Di Yan bad news, her father Di Renjie fainted during the discussion in the political hall, and he is still unconscious.