Chapter 514 Tea and Salt

After an afternoon of tossing, the senior people in the Turkic grassland were finally convinced. Regardless of whether they believed it or not, and no matter what they thought in their hearts, this afternoon they finally understood that compared with the army of the Tang Dynasty, we There is no comparison at all. If you live an honest life in the future, this eating guy can still grow on your neck. But if you have any other ideas, the Tang army will kill people without mercy.

"When these guys went back, they all talked privately with our generals, more or less expressed their loyalty, and also reported a group of people with evil intentions to us. Guess what, I put these evil intentions into After listing the crooked people, I found that among all the tribal leaders, only a few have not been reported, and the rest have various problems."

After everyone left, Niu Jinda began to report to Li Xiang the afternoon's farce. Not only did these tribal leaders express their loyalty, they also had to expose some of the people around them to show their loyalty.

Some people tell the truth and can find evidence, but some people just tell the truth. They are afraid that they will not be able to speak to General Datang, so they fabricate some information for no reason, just to establish a good relationship with General Datang. Personal relationship, I really don’t know what is going on in these people’s minds. For such a relationship, people who are usually the eldest brother and the younger brother are betrayed.

"You don't have to believe all the nonsense they say. We won't take action against them for the time being. You usually convey to them a thought, that is, let's forget about the past. Starting from today, we will find one case and deal with it. For example, anyone who dares to spread ideas against the Tang Dynasty, or is prepared, will directly separate his tribe and distribute it to other obedient tribes."

Due to terrain problems on the grassland, there is no way to implement a county system. We can only implement such a tribal system. However, the tribal system has the disadvantage of the tribal system, that is, they will often wander to other places. Our ability to control them not tall.

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, even if we are on an expedition to Xueyantuo now, I believe they will not dare to cause trouble in our rear. I just don't know how long this situation can last. It is very simple for these people on the grassland to betray their trust. They may soon They will oppose us, for example, if we suffered a setback in the war against Xue Yantuo..."

Niu Jinda knew that it was unlucky to say this before the war started, but as a relatively rational general, we have to think of all the bad things before the war starts, so that we can establish various plans. Once the war really starts, we will also No need to worry about rear rollover.

"You are right, so these fifteen thousand cavalry must be settled. Before they are settled, we cannot attack Xue Yantuo. Xue Yantuo stretches for thousands of miles in the Mobei area. If we do not make adequate preparations If we are prepared, we will suffer a loss if we rush there. They have experience of living there, but we do not. Moreover, the climate there is cold. If we take action, we only have two or three months. Once the cold period arrives, we may They will all freeze to death."

Li Xiang is very familiar with the situation in the north of the prairie. The temperature here slowly begins to cool down after September every year. Now we have lost the best opportunity to attack. If we want to attack, we have to wait. Just wait until this winter passes.

"Then we just wait here?"

Su Dingfang said with some reluctance that when they rescued His Highness King Wu last time, most of the people they killed were Turkic soldiers. Xue Yantuo's people ran faster, so they didn't kill many of them.

"Of course it's impossible. Like the Turks, they usually eat beef and mutton, so they have too much oil and water in their stomachs. They must need some tea. We just need to control the business, whether it's tea or salt. , we can’t let it go, we’ll see what they do when the time comes.”

Throughout the history of Li Xiangqi, there are no examples of direct battles. Most of them weakened the opponent for a long time and waited until the last moment to go and collect the goods. Only Tuyuhun's side started fighting directly.

"Your Highness is right. In previous years, many Xue Yantuo monks came to us to do business. This year, we directly blocked the trade route for them. If they go to circumvent the Western Region, they are considered capable. This journey is at least If we add another four or five thousand miles in vain, I don’t know how much the cost will be after we return.”

The Western Region has not yet belonged to the Tang Dynasty. It is still in a state of war. Businessmen are unwilling to go there. There are many countries going there, and the tax rates are different among each country. , you pay taxes here and you still have to pay taxes there. Often a very cheap thing is worth a fortune if it goes around in the Western Regions.

After Xue Yantuo's business route was blocked, they could only go to the Western Regions. Although they could still transport things back there, the price would increase more than ten times. This is still relatively optimistic. If they were more pessimistic, it might be Dozens of times higher.

After listening to Li Xiang's words, the two people immediately ordered the people below to block the border and find some easier-to-control passes. It is impossible for us to block all the borders. We only need to seal these passes, and the remaining people can Taking the risk of bringing them over from the mountain is just a drop in the bucket and cannot save the whole of Xue Yantuo. In this winter, they will definitely not have enough tea and salt.

"Send someone to send a message to the person in charge of the Zhidaobao area, asking him to collect more tea and salt and obey my orders."

After the two of them went out, Li Xiang gave an order to Hou San and asked him to convey the order to the business people in the area. After Xue Yantuo experienced the price increase of tea and salt, we had to go there to make money and serve the country. At the same time, we cannot delay making money ourselves.

In the previous conflicts, Li Xiang had already seen that capital is a giant beast no matter what kind of country it is in, and it can change the fate of many people. Now he has no way to openly argue with Li Shimin. Then we can only rely on the power of capital. Li Xiang's investment during this period is not small, and he does not have much liquidity in his hands. So he just takes this opportunity to find some money from Xue Yantuo. Once the grandfather and grandson are No matter if there is a conflict, we can still rely on the power of capital...