Chapter 334 Money opens the way

After casually eating a few bites of breakfast, Li Xiang is better at this. No matter what kind of food it is, as long as it doesn't make me have diarrhea, then I can eat it. What's more, we are not really descendants of the royal family. In the past, When we were ordinary people, we could eat all kinds of food.

When Li Xiang came to the living room again, the position of the seats had changed. Originally there was only one seat in the main seat, but now it became two seats, but they faced each other.

Although Li Xiang did not directly state his identity, he was also a member of the Tang royal family. In this era, the Tang Dynasty was famous far and wide. No matter how awesome Tubo was, when facing members of the Tang royal family, he had to give him the respect he deserved. If we really talk about status, the status of Chieftain Maiqi and Li Xiang are far apart. At most, he can be regarded as a prince.

"Report to the master, a caravan appears on our left, with about thirty horses."

Before the two started talking, the housekeeper went to report to the chieftain. There were usually caravans in their place, but now that they were at war, basically no one would come.

The road in the mountains was difficult, so there was no other way except using animals for transportation. More than thirty horses were not too many, but they were not too few either.

"Is it a caravan familiar with us?"

During the war, Chieftain Maiqi was also very careful.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Chieftain, I heard the conversation between you. If I guessed correctly, they should be my people. Mr. Chieftain, you can let them in. They will be filled with salt as a meeting gift from me. ."

Li Xiang calculated that time was almost up, so he interrupted their conversation. After hearing what Li Xiang said, Chief Maiqi almost jumped up with joy. He had only collected things for the past two days, which was a big deal. Don's good stuff.

"Go quickly, go quickly..."

Chieftain Mai Qi quickly asked his men to open the gate of the village. Salt was like a treasure on the plateau, and it was more valuable than gold.

Of course, ordinary people don't need these things. If they are willing to eat those poisonous salts, they can just eat them casually. It is almost everywhere on the plateau. But if they want to eat good salt, according to Maiqi Toast's idea, Are those slaves worthy?

Therefore, these salts are for dignitaries, at least at the level of stewards. Take the territory of Maiqi Tusi as an example. There are tens of thousands of people in total, but only one to two percent of the people can do it. Eat salt, and the rest can eat whatever they like.

"Bring up the front bag."

These salts are also graded. The ones at the back are the most common and have only been screened once. The bag at the front is refined salt, which is very white when poured out.

"My friend, you are so generous."

When Toast Maiqi saw this bag of salt, he was so excited that he didn't know what to say. Although the caravan coming to Tubo also brought such high-quality salt, the price was really shockingly expensive.

One pound of salt is equal to three pounds of gold. Now this bag of salt weighs at least about forty pounds. This is equivalent to giving Maiqi Toast one hundred and twenty pounds of gold. This is a big gift.

Chief Maiqi had a good impression of Li Xiang yesterday. Now that he received these things, he immediately regarded Li Xiang as the God of Wealth. If he sold all the goods on these thirty horses, he could get a lot of money. Military expenditure, isn’t it just a penny spent in a war?

"You're welcome, Mr. Chief Toast. Have you forgotten that we all have a common enemy? As long as he has a hard time, then I will have a comfortable life."

Li Xiang's words brought the two people closer together again. The chieftain quickly asked people to deliver the things to the warehouse, and then asked people to serve a banquet. This was considered a formal banquet for Li Xiang.

Xiao Liuzi looked at Mr. Toast with some disdain. If we hadn't given you the salt, would this banquet have to be postponed?

During the meal, Li Xiang basically figured out their situation, which was very different from what Xiaoliuzi said. After all, Xiaoliuzi was just hearing about it, and what Toast Maiqi said now was the real situation.

All the chieftains' rebel armies add up to about 14,000 people, but they have not used their full strength. If they had used their full strength, they could form an army of at least 20,000 people, and their ordnance and equipment were relatively good. It seems that Songtsen Gampo controls the central power, but when it comes to financial situation, Songtsen Gampo is not as good as them.

If we look at the area controlled by these chieftains in the 21st century, it is Xikang Province, which is close to Sichuan and Sichuan. They can still grow food in these areas. The area controlled by Songtsen Gampo is a pure plateau, so It is too difficult to grow food.

Therefore, the life of the chieftains was better than that of Songtsen Gampo, but the chieftains were not satisfied. They often defaulted on paying taxes to the central government for no reason, and even paid tribute from time to time, just like a country within a country, so Songtsan Gumbu has been putting up with them for a long time.

When Ludongzan proposed the policy of reducing vassals, Songtsan Gampo immediately adopted it. Everything was going well at first. The local government wanted to confront the central government and did not have sufficient strength. Sooner or later, it would be eaten by the central government. However, When Lu Dongtsen went to Chang'an, Songtsen Gampo began to make great strides forward, and finally forced these chieftains to rebel.

"How many troops are there to conquer you?"

After introducing the things here, Li Xiang also wanted to know how many troops their central government had sent. Although Xiao Liuzi gave a number before, judging from what he just heard, it is estimated that the information Xiao Liuzi has Not very sure.

"There are more than 40,000 people, 20,000 of whom are elites, all of whom are people around Zamp. The other 20,000 are also recruited from the chieftains around the Holy City. Those people have all surrendered to the Holy City. They have forgotten How their ancestors got the land, they were a bunch of useless goods.”

Speaking of the chieftains around the Holy City, Chieftain Maiqi looked disdainful. They had thrown away the land and people in their hands, and now they were just like servants. They were incomparable to these chieftains.

Li Xiang disagrees with his statement that people have no courage. The reason why you still have rights is because you are far away from Songtsen Gampo. If you were closer, you would have been captured long ago...