Just when Chang'an Shizi was gearing up and getting ready for the exam.

A team from a different race passed through Xiao Pass and headed for Chang'an.

The procession numbered as many as 3,000 men, escorted by a thousand soldiers, and the wagons were piled high with goods.

This is the team of the Tubo people, on the order of the Tubo king Chidu Songzan, to go to Chang'an with tribute, to pay tribute to the Tang Emperor, and by the way to talk to the Tang Dynasty about the business of barley wine.

"General, we have now passed the Xiao Pass, and one day, we will be able to reach Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty!"

The official who accompanied the Tibetan envoys into Beijing said softly to the Tibetan general Lu Bu Mangzhi.

This official is a subordinate official of the Diezhou Assassin History, an official who accompanied the Tubo envoys into Beijing, and also to monitor the other party, after all, Tubo was once the sworn enemy of the Tang Dynasty, and it is necessary to beware of the other party to investigate the situation of the Tang Dynasty on the grounds of tribute.

It just so happened that the Assassin of Diezhou also planned to send someone to Beijing to report to the imperial court on the work of this quarter, and by the way, he invited the imperial court to make a contribution and ask for a reward.

Koji Mang Buzhi looked back at the officials of Diezhou, smiled slightly, did not speak, this time he came to Chang'an to call the ministers and pay tribute, and also came with a task, in addition to talking about accidents, there was also a request to the Tang Emperor for peace, this time in addition to bringing barley wine, but also brought the dowry gift of the King of Tubo to the Tang Dynasty.

"I heard that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty is a puppet, and now the power of the Tang Dynasty is in the hands of the Tang Dynasty Regent, whether he can succeed in peace with the family depends on what the attitude of the Prince Regent is, presumably for the sake of friendship between the two countries, the Tang Dynasty Regent should not object, right?"

Koji Mangbuzhi couldn't help but think in his heart.

If you can't make peace with the Tang Dynasty, Tubo will have no sense of security, and you won't be able to use the banner of the Tang Dynasty to pull the tiger's skin, and the old forces of Zhangxiong are likely to take the opportunity to rebel.

Ever since Songtsen Gampo destroyed Zhangzhung, the Zhangzhung royal family has been constantly causing chaos in the Zhangzhung region, bent on restoring the Zhangzhung Kingdom.

In the past, Tibet was strong, and it was not afraid of Zhangxiong's resistance at all, so it dared to come out and make trouble, and directly sent troops to suppress it.

Since being defeated by the Tang army, Tubo has been much worse than before, Zhangxiong's power began to move again, I heard that Zhangxiong people also sent envoys to Chang'an, asking the Tang Dynasty to canonize, Xiangxiong is willing to return to the Tang Dynasty and become a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.

Zhangxiong is the territory of Tibet, and if it is allowed to break away from the control of Tibet, this will undoubtedly be worse for Tibet.

Therefore, this time I went to Chang'an to meet the regent of the Tang Dynasty, and there was another important task, which was to prevent Zhangxiong from becoming a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.

As long as the Tang Dynasty rejects Zhangxiong to become a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, Tubo can make concessions in other aspects, and even Tubo can increase its tribute to the Tang Dynasty, as long as Tubo can take it out and does not endanger the root of Tubo, it can be agreed.

Therefore, his heart was full of worries, and he didn't know if he could complete the important task assigned to him by the king of Tubo.

Of course, the task given to him by the king of Tubo was that if he couldn't prevent Zhangxiong from becoming a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, he would quietly kill Zhangxiong's envoy.

After these days of exchanges, Koji Mang Buzhi found out from the Tang officials in front of him that the Zhangzhung envoys did not follow the route they were taking.

It is very likely that in order to hide his identity, he deliberately concealed his identity and took a detour to Chang'an.

In this way, he was given time to persuade the regent of the Tang Dynasty within this time.

……

Chang'an City, Xijing Railway Station.

Today is the second day of the imperial examination, and it is also the day when the steam train is officially opened.

The first steam train was unveiled, and today Li Jing will also attend the opening ceremony, and the Zuo Jin Wuwei army has already controlled the railway station to prevent accidents.

Li Jing's car came from a distance, stopped at the gate of the railway station, and Li Jing stepped down from the car.

Lou Shide, the general of Zuojin Wuwei, led a group of officials to greet him, and saluted with crossed hands: "Welcome to the regent!"

Li Jing stepped out of the car and looked at Lou Shide who saluted him respectfully in front of him, they were still enemies in the past, and Lou Shide was one of the favorite generals of the Empress Wu!

Lou Shide Zongren, the former martial artist of Zhengzhou, a famous general and prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, was born in Jinshi, started as a county lieutenant in Jiangdu, and moved to supervise the imperial history.

Recruited into the army, the west expedition to Tibet, made military exploits, awarded the palace to serve the imperial history, the Heyuan army Sima, presided over the Tuntian affairs, moved to the left Jinwu general, and inspected the governor of Fengzhou. In the first year of longevity, Lou Shide returned to the dynasty and served as Xia Guanshilang and Tongping Zhangshi, and served as the ambassador of Heyuan and other military camps, and the secretary of the criminal department of the inspection school.

After the defeat of the Tubo army, he was demoted to Yuanzhou Sima by the Empress Wu, long live Tongtian for two years, worship the prime minister again, move to Nayan, and serve as the ambassador of the Longyou Army.

In the second year of the holy calendar, Lou Shide died of illness and was posthumously presented to the governor of Liangzhou, with the nickname Zhen.

Stretched out his hand to help Lou Shide and said: "The general doesn't have to be polite, and everyone is exempt from courtesy!"

"Thank you, Lord Regent! The Regent's train passage ceremony is about to begin, and the Regent is invited to move to the viewing platform to watch the ceremony!"

Lou Shide said.

"There's General Laulow!"

Li Jing smiled slightly, giving people a sense of intimacy.

Everyone came to the viewing platform, and in front of the viewing platform was a fence separating the train from the station waiting room.

The train is quietly parked on the tracks of the station, waiting for the official departure.

"This is the train? It's really domineering! I heard that this train can run without being pulled by animals!"

"Isn't it! How can it be? Such a big car does not need animal power to pull it, so what is used to pull the car? ”

"Don't believe it, I heard that this is using some kind of steam power to pull the carriage, and it doesn't need to consume food and grass."

"My goodness, is it really that amazing?"

"Needless to say, I heard that this train cost two million yuan, and with the size of this train, if you use livestock to pull the car, I don't know how many horses will be needed."

"I also heard that one carriage of this train can hold 700 stone of grain, and this train has a total of 10 carriages, which is 7,000 stone of grain."

The civil and military officials who came with Li Jing discussed a lot, and one stone of grain in Datang was one hundred and twenty catties, which was more than 800,000 catties of grain.

Moreover, the train is tireless, it can travel back and forth non-stop, and the most important thing is to rely on the train to transport troops, food, and even livestock and people.

Without people and livestock, you can save a lot of food, you don't have to consume excess food on the road, and Chang'an no longer has to worry about food shortage.

In order to solve the problem of grain shortage in Chang'an, Li Longji sent Prime Minister Pei Yaoqing to take charge of the canal, improve the canal, and use the method of step-by-step transshipment and segmented transportation to transport grain to Chang'an, saving 300,000 yuan in transportation costs for the imperial court.

Now there is train transportation, and there is no longer a need for people and livestock, which greatly reduces the loss and saves at least 700,000 yuan in transportation costs for the imperial court every year.