Chapter 239: The North Small City

The horse has a new white jade saddle,

After the battle, the moonlight was cold.

The iron drums on the city wall are still shaking,

The blood of the golden knife in the box has not dried.

On the endless grassland, a team of cavalry galloped on horseback and stopped on a high hill. It was dusk, and the dark clouds were low in the distance and the plains were deserted. Wang Changling, who had just arrived in the stone country, looked at the vast sky and couldn't help but burst into joy and recited this new work "Going out of the Frontier". After reciting, he laughed loudly, "You guys, how about this poem?"

His poems are easy to understand and resonate among the soldiers. They all applauded and praised them. Li Qingan gave a thumbs up and praised: "Mr. Yuhu indeed wrote a good poem!"

Wang Changling was proud and stroked his beard and smiled, "The road is boring, so I can recite poems to enjoy it."

Li Qing'an and his group of more than 800 people set out from Tuozhi City and headed north for three days. Seeing that it was 50 miles ahead, Li Qing'an smiled at everyone and said, "Let's get here today, and everyone will camp in the same place."

In a moment, dozens of white tents appeared on the grassland. A tall wooden viewing tower stood behind the camp. Dozens of patrols spread out in all directions. Night gradually fell. The deep blue sky enveloped this beautiful and fertile land. In a camp in the middle, several soldiers were splicing a sand table map. This was a complete map of the river, covering a vast area from the Shayeye to the Wuhu River. The Han and Tang dynasties mobilized more than 500 people, and it took a year to investigate in the name of doing business. Another fifty military craftsmen spent two months shaping the large amount of investigation data of the Han and Tang dynasties. The sand table in Li Qing'an's camp was just a smaller version, equivalent to a pool table in later generations. The complete sand table was ten times the size of it. It was placed in the military camp outside Tuozhi City and was a top-secret military item.

Soon, the sand tray was spliced ​​together, and several personal soldiers retreated. Li Qing'an moved the lamp to the lamp base next to the sand tray. The soft light illuminated the entire sand tray. This time, Li Qing'an specially used the space for preparation to inspect the city of Talas. Although he didn't know whether the Battle of Talas would break out like in history, one thing is certain that Talas was a springboard for the Dashi to control the northern region and march into the Saiye. They had been here for many years and would never have been thrown away so willingly. Moreover, Talas was the only way to go to the Byzantine Empire, and its strategic position was extremely important.

But now Li Qing'an is not concerned about Talas, but Samarkand thousands of miles away. There is no doubt that the Dashi Army advances eastward, and it must be based on Kang's country among the nine Sogdian countries. Samarkand is the largest city in this area. Only it can withstand the assembly of 50,000 to 100,000 people. From the map, there is a flat road from Samarkand to Shiguo, which is conducive to the transportation of heavy weapons. At this point, Li Qing'an also had to admit that the Dashi people attaches importance to road construction, which is due to Dashi's emphasis on commercial trade and flat ground, which also makes the Dashi people's military aggregation ability much stronger than the Tang army. Perhaps in the future, he will also consider strengthening the construction of roads. However, this is a later story. Now he is concerned about the time and size of the Dashi people's troops. The news he received before he set off was that Samarkand had begun to recruit troops, but the main force of Dashi had not yet assembled.

Li Qingan also knew that it was no longer the kind of occasional war in the Battle of Talas in history. The Great Food Army had to race against time to rush to Talas. Now the Tang army has occupied the Shi Kingdom, with clear goals and directed directly to the river. This means that the upcoming war is a major battle between the two countries. At this time, neither the Tang army nor the Great Food Army will respond hastily. Only by making the most comprehensive preparations is the opportunity to win.

Li Qingan couldn't help but fall into deep thought. War was by any means, if he were Abu.

Muslim, what methods will he use to deal with the Tang army? And what strategies can Li Qing'an adopt if he is?

"General, Wang Zongjun is here."

Li Qingan woke up from his thoughts and quickly smiled and said, "Come in!"

After a moment, Wang Changling walked in with a smile and apologized first, "I'll disturb you to consider military affairs."

"Where! I'm just about to find a gentleman."

Li Qing'an quickly asked him to sit down and ordered the soldiers to pour a cup of tea. Wang Changling nodded and sat down. His mood seemed a little heavy. This time he came from Beiting to Li Qing'an to bring some important news from the court and some development ideas of Beiting. He needed to report to Li Qing'an. He happened to meet Li Qing'an on the way to Talas City, and so he followed him north together.

After chatting for a few gossips, Wang Changling sighed and said, "My friend from Chang'an wrote to me, and was deeply worried about the situation in the court. The emperor has no concern for political affairs at all. He has been addicted to singing, dancing, wine and sex all day long. Several factions in the court have fought each other, and the government has no way out. The orders have changed every day, especially the financial resources are exhausted and the national treasury is empty. The emperor spent nearly half of the money of the national treasury for the concubine, not to mention excessive squandering. My Tang Dynasty household still had eight million households in the first year of Tianbao, and now there are up to six million households. The court's tax revenue has been sharply reduced and the income is not enough. The Duzhilang and the Transshipment Commissioner have changed several positions, but they have no effect. The key is that the land annexation is becoming more and more intense. If this continues, I am worried that there will be riots in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the unlucky one is still the powerless and powerless flat-headed civilians."

Speaking of this, he sighed and asked Li Qing'an: "The envoy is in a high position. Have you ever thought about how to solve the serious problem of land annexation?"

"Why didn't I think about it?"

Li Qing'an smiled faintly and said, "When I was observing Henan Road, I had a deep understanding of land annexation. I also considered that it would be harder to ask those powerful people to give up their land voluntarily than kill them. Either change the dynasty and overthrow the old aristocracy like the end of the Sui Dynasty. However, this situation is not realistic for the time being. Or like Dashi, establishing a country through commerce, developing handicrafts and mining, allowing landless farmers to have income to support their families, and then expanding outward, allowing the lost farmers to develop outside and alleviate the intensified domestic conflicts. I think these last two points are feasible, and I am also preparing to do this. The gentleman also saw that the endless grasslands along the way, with sparsely populated land, fertile land, and endless fields and forests in the north. Isn't it the place where God gave us the Han people to live?"

Wang Changling was stunned. After a while, he asked a little stammeringly: "Didn't the envoy say that he would only build an army town and not take Sogdian land?"

Li Qingan smiled and said, "This is the case now. What I am talking about is that in the future, if the Tang Dynasty wants to maintain long-term stability west of the Pamir Mountains, there is only one way to colonize and let the Han people become the main body west of the Pamir Mountains. This is the fundamental way to cure it."

Wang Changling lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and then said, "But will the court agree?"

"Maybe, maybe not, the key is to see how we fight for it."

When Li Qingan said this, he thought of something and asked him with a smile: "This time we seized the broken leaves, and the court rewarded 500,000 guan, but they were very good at calculating if we had to cast them ourselves. I want to ask you, can we cast 500,000 guan?"

"this....."

Wang Changling looked a little embarrassed and said, "We can cast up to 100,000 guan a year. Even if we open the stove more, it will be useless. The main reason is that there is insufficient copper."

Li Qing'an nodded. As he expected, he heard that this was the idea of ​​Yang Guozhong. The court lacked financial resources, so he only gave the credit limit and asked them to find a way to solve it himself. Li Longji also agreed in a daze, but this was fine, so he had an excuse to mint money by himself.

He took out a silver coin from his arms and gave it to Wang Changling and smiled: "Look at this."

Wang Changling took the silver coin and looked at it. The silver coin did not have holes like Tang coins. It was a complete circular coin. There was a personal image in front, and a palace behind it. There was a vertical bar in the middle. In fact, this vertical bar was the ‘1’ of the Arabic numeral, and Wang Changling didn’t know it yet.

"Is this the big food coin?"

“That’s right!”

Li Qing'an nodded and said, "Did you see that the coins of the Great Cannibal are cast in silver. One dirham is equivalent to our 100 cents, and ten dirhams are consistent coins. I heard that they have gold coins, and one gold coins is equivalent to ten dirhams. It is easy to carry and has a high value. This is more practical than the copper coins of our Tang Dynasty."

Wang Changling suddenly understood, "What is the envoy who means to let me cast gold, silver and coins?"

“That’s right!”

"But we don't have so many gold and silver coins. Besides, even if we cast gold and silver coins, it will not be circulated in the Tang Dynasty. What's the use of minting it?"

"You don't have to worry about the source of gold and silver. Just cast money. I have a batch of gold in the basement of Beiting City. You can cast it into money first. I will give you the money mold. I want to reward soldiers. As for circulation, that is the future thing, we will do it step by step."

Wang Changling was confused when he heard this and did not understand Li Qing'an's intention, so he had to nod his head silently.

The next morning, they continued their journey and walked dozens of miles. As noon approached, a soldier pointed to the distance and shouted, "Look, the city of Talas is here."

Everyone was excited and looked into the distance. They saw a shadow of a capped mountain appeared in the distance. A small town stood at the foot of the mountain shadow. Everyone suddenly cheered and rode their horses toward the small town in the distance.

Before he arrived in Talas City, the guard Bai Xiaojie came out after hearing the news. He immediately clasped his fists and said, "I have not met you until the end. I hope the general will forgive you!"

Li Qingan nodded slightly and said, "If you don't welcome me, I won't punish you. If you neglect your defense and use your troops to slack off, then I will punish you severely. Do you understand?"

"The General of the Imperial General understands that the General of the Imperial General does not dare to slack off for a moment, and has built three beacon towers fifty miles away."

"Okay! Let me see your defense."

Li Qing'an urged his horse to go to the city. Talas City is a small city with a circumference of only five miles and can accommodate only one thousand soldiers. There are more than 300 families in it. They are Kents in the north of the Shi Kingdom. This is a small branch of the Turks and makes a living by grazing. However, the geographical location of Talas City is very important, which makes many Kents abandon pastorals as merchants. Some go north to Atil City to conduct business, while some engage in material transfers, restaurants, hotels and other service industries. When the cannibals occupied Talas City, they did not cut off the trade route, but instead imposed heavy taxes on merchants. After the Tang army replaced the cannibals, they implemented Li Qing'an's orders, and all merchants were exempted from taxes. This is because he had already paid taxes in Beiting or Anxi.

The Tang army's tax exemption policy was immediately effective, and merchants with a keen sense of smell changed to Talas and headed to Byzantium, which had more profitable, and no longer had to be taxed again after taking the big food.

As soon as Li Qing'an arrived at the city gate, he saw a camel caravan entering the city. The Tang army guarded the city gate. Although the tax was no longer paid, the inspection was very strict. Each merchant's identity and personal belongings must be searched, mainly to prevent the spies from mingling into the city.

"Do you think your investigation is effective?" Li Qing'an asked with a horse whip and pointed at the caravan.

"If they were really big-speople, they could easily disguise themselves as merchants."

Bai Xiaojie looked a little embarrassed and said, "It's really a bit inconvenient. The number of merchants coming and going has increased significantly in the past few days, and I'm also worried about this."

"This is very simple. It is a special treatment in a special period. Now the war between the Tang and Dashi is about to begin. The Great Cannibal will come to attack Talas at any time. There are no residents in the city. I ordered the shops in the city to be moved out to operate. I can set up tents for them and explain them clearly. Now is a critical moment. Please cooperate. If the Great Cannibal attacks,

You can't be merciful."

"I understand." Bai Xiaojie hesitated and asked again: "May I ask General, is that right now?"

"Since I have given the order, I will implement it immediately!" Li Qingan said coldly.

"I will obey the order!"

Bai Xiaojie hurriedly went to make arrangements, and Li Qing'an looked at the small city. The walls of Talas City were not high, about four zhang high, and were built very strongly. The Tang army had changed four city gates and dug a moat two zhang wide along the city wall, attracting water from a nearby river. The Tang army had a total of 2,000 troops here, and 1,000 troops stationed in the city inside and outside the city. In addition, the Kent chief Tanbul had officially surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. He had 2,000 soldiers and also armed by the Tang army. If there was something wrong with Talas City, they would come to support it. It should be said that Talas City's defense was very complete. Ordinary sneak attacks were not to take away the city. The key was that they could not slack off and defensive loopholes were not to appear. Just like the merchants could go to the city overnight just now, we must prevent Alibaba's forty thieves from performing here.

In short, Li Qing'an was quite satisfied. He rode around the city for a horse and found no other loopholes. At this time, the city was already in full swing. Tang Jun's advice was unanimously rejected by the shops. Bai Xiaojie was so angry that he began to drive people away.

"You cannot do this. If it is as you said, the Arabs are coming, and we will be killed by them outside the city, we are already paying taxes, and you are obliged to protect our safety!"

This is the voice of a young woman, who was quarreling loudly with Tang soldiers in Turkic language. Her voice was very imposing and a condescending reprimand.

Li Qingan looked back in surprise and saw a team of camel merchants blocking at the city gate, as if they were the ones that had just entered the city. Only then did Li Qingan see clearly that this was actually a white caravan. Although the Sogdians and the Cannibals were both white, they were still different from these white people. Li Qingan immediately realized that they should be merchants from Byzantine.

This was the first time he had seen the Byzantines, the Eastern Roman Empire. He couldn't help but feel curious and urged him to move forward.

The soldier protested was a young woman, about twenty years old, with snow-white skin, long golden hair draped over her shoulders, a high nose bridge, and a pair of blue eyes that looked like a deep pool. She was a very beautiful Western woman. She was wearing a white long dress with gold edges and a necklace made of various gems on her snow-white chest, which was dazzling. Her dozens of companions were all tall, wearing tight pants and long swords hanging on her waist.

Several Tang soldiers stared at her half-naked breasts, looking a little absent-minded. Li Qing'an's face darkened, and he was very dissatisfied with Tang Jun's attitude. He stretched his face and said, "What happened?"

When the Tang soldiers saw the commander coming, they were so scared that they saluted. Seeing that Li Qing'an seemed to be a senior official of the Tang army, the woman threw the soldiers forward and defended: "I understand that you are guarding against the Arabs, but we are Byzantine merchants and are enemies of the Arabs for generations. How could we be spies of the Arabs? You drove us out of the city. Isn't this sending us into the tiger's mouth of the Arabs?"

Li Qingan smiled and said to her in Turkic words: "Now our Tang Dynasty will have a great war with Dashi. In this case, no one with unknown identity can enter the city. Besides, during the war, you merchants did not need to spend the night in the city. You can leave immediately after taking a little supply. If the Dashi people really attack, we will call the police fifty miles away, and there will be enough time for you to leave."

Li Qing'an's explanation was reasonable, and the young woman's anger was slightly calmed down. At this time, her eyes lit up and she asked anxiously: "Is it true that you said the Tang Dynasty was going to go to war with the Arabs just now?"

"What do you think? Will the Arabs be willing to do that in the Stone Kingdom we have occupied?"

The woman nodded and smiled, "Yes, they will never be willing to do so. They will definitely gather heavy troops to fight for the Shi Kingdom. I wish the Tang army will win. General, what do I call you?"

"My surname is Li, my name is Li Qing'an. Have you heard of it?" Li Qing'an said with a smile.

The woman's eyes suddenly widened, and she said in surprise: "You, are you the governor of Anxi Jiedu? No, it's impossible!"

"Why is it impossible?"

"My God! How could Li Qing'an be so young? How old are you? Ah! I'm sorry for taking the liberty."

Li Qingan didn't want to say anything more to her, so he waved his hand and smiled, "I suggest you leave here immediately. It's not safe here. I wish you a good journey and a good return to Constantinople as soon as possible."

The woman smiled, smiling a little cunningly, "I am very honored to know General Li Qing'an. My name is Ellenni, but I am not a Byzantine, I am a Western Roman."

Li Qingan laughed, "Western Rome was destroyed by the Germans three hundred years ago. Now it is Charles I, the Frankish kingdom, is it in power. No, Rome should belong to the Pope. Am I right?"

Now, not only the young woman was stunned, but even her companions were extremely surprised and whispered to each other. The woman was stunned for a long time before saying, "Dear General Li, how could you know this?"

"I have been to much more places than you. I have also been to the British Isle conquered by the Anglo-Saxons. Well, it's not too early, you can go on the road. If you are willing to stay outside the city for a night, I don't object, but you can't stay in the city. This is my order, do you understand?"
Chapter completed!