Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

"My former king of Tubo once married the princess of your country, and the two countries have uncles and nephews. Today, the general returns the captives and restores the old relationship. The former kings of the two countries will be very happy if they know about it!"

"What your envoy said is that your Tang dialect is so good, you must have been to Chang'an, right?" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile. To measure the value of the gift, but to cherish and understand the other party's friendship, it is quite suitable for the situation of Tubo and Datang at this time. Obviously the other party is very familiar with the culture of the Tang Dynasty, otherwise they would not be able to use the "Book of Songs" so skillfully. Express yourself.

"That's right. When I was a teenager, I studied abroad in Datang for several years. I also went to Luoyang, Taiyuan, and Chengdu!"

"Chengdu?" Wang Wenzuo's eyes lit up: "Does your envoy have the heart to revisit the old place?"

"The king's life is here!" Lang Ri said with a smile: "It's not too late to go back to the old place after everything is over!"

"Well, today we will discuss business affairs first, and then talk about personal friendship!" Wang Wenzuo became serious: "Wen Zong, get the roster!"

"Here!" Cao Wenzong responded, took a roster from the wooden shelf next to him, and handed it to Wang Wenzuo.Wang Wenzuo handed the list to Lang Ri: "This is your country's captives. There are 670 people in total, and 450 of them are disabled. Your envoy can count them according to the list, please!"

Lang Ri flipped through the roster, and saw that the names of the captives were densely copied on it, but the names on it were rather weird, and he immediately realized that those Tibetan captives must not have the names of Tang people, they must have been randomly reported by the Tang people when they asked, and the secretary of the Tang people The official wrote a similar Han name according to his voice. He casually flipped through two pages, put the roster aside, and said with a smile: "The general is interested, and there is nothing in the roster. Can you take a look at the roster?" !"

"Of course!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "I have already called a prisoner over, and he is outside the tent. You can ask him first, and then go to the camp to see!" Twice the palm: "Bring someone in!"

Dan Zeng walked into the tent cautiously, knelt down to Wang Wenzuo, and greeted Wang Wenzuo in rough Tang dialect.

"Get up!" Wang Wenzuo pointed to Lang Ri: "Let me introduce, this is the envoy of the Tubo Kingdom, who came to discuss the matter of redeeming you!"

"The matter of redeeming us?" Ten Zeng glanced at Lang Ri in surprise, and then lowered his head in shame. It is an honor to die in Tubo, but it is a great shame to be captured.

"You raise your head!" Lang Ri said in a deep voice, he looked at the man in front of him seriously, except for the brand mark on his right cheek, there were not many prisoners of war on his body: there were no scars left by the shackles on his wrists and ankles, There were no chilblains, no welts on the bare skin, perhaps covered by clothes, some redness and swelling on the hands, and shoes on the feet. Although the clothes on the body were old, they were at least enough to cover the body from the cold, and there was nothing special about the whole person. Thin, this should be specially selected by the Tang people, right?
"Take off your clothes!"

Dan Zeng was taken aback for a moment, he instinctively turned his gaze to Acton, and saw that the other party nodded, and then he began to take off his coat. Lang Ri noticed this, he did not speak, and quietly waited for Dan Zeng to finish taking off his clothes , has a lot of scars on his body, but none of them look like upgrades left by whips and clubs.

"What's the matter with the swelling on your hand?" Lang Ri asked.

"It's tung oil. The villain accidentally got tung oil on it when he was working, and the itching immediately became unbearable. It will be fine after rinsing with urine!"

"Tung oil?" Langri was aroused, could it be that Tang Jun had some conspiracy? "How did you get tung oil on it?"

"The villain accidentally got tung oil on the ropes and boards when he was building a rope bridge!"

Lang Ri asked a few more questions, and finally confirmed that it was only when the bridge was being repaired and the road was repaired. Only then did Wang Wenzuo stop in disappointment. Just now, Wang Wenzuo had already mentioned the matter of using these captives to build roads.

"Retire first!" Wang Wenzuo noticed Lang Ri's disappointment, motioned Dan Zeng to retreat, and then smiled at Lang Ri: "When does your envoy plan to visit the prisoners?"

"Not in a hurry!" Lang Ri waved his hands, his attention has shifted from the prisoner to the man in front of him: "Let's discuss the conditions for exchanging the prisoners first?"

"Yes!" Wang Wenzuo smiled and said, "Wen Zong, have you told the envoy my conditions?"

"As I said, among the 6000 Qiang slaves, [-] of them must be young and strong!" Cao Wenzong said.

"Don't you think it's too much, Dudu Wang?" Lang Ri said with a smile, "You only have more than 2000 people, but you want us to exchange them with 1 people!"

"People are different!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "We have soldiers in our hands, how can we exchange them one by one?"

"They're not anymore! If they were really soldiers, they wouldn't be captured by you!" Lang Ri sneered.

"Anything can happen in a war! Those people were already in a desperate situation, and surrender was their only option!"

"No, they can die, and warriors shouldn't be taken prisoner! So as not to cause trouble to others!"

The smile on Wang Wenzuo's face disappeared, and it was full of undisguised disgust: "The only fault of these poor people is that they stand under the wrong banner!" After saying that, he waved his hand: "Stand back! That's all for today's meeting!"

Lang Ri stood up in astonishment, he had no idea that the general of the Tang Dynasty would suddenly change his face, but he still bowed deeply to Wang Wenzuo before exiting the tent.After a long time, Wang Wenzuo let out a long breath: "Wen Zong, I shouldn't have acted like that in front of the envoy just now!"

"It's nothing! At most, keep fighting! We won't lose!" Cao Wenzong said.

"You won't lose?" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "I can't think of it, you are so confident!"

"You'd be mad at the unfair treatment of enemy soldiers, you wouldn't put us in that situation!"

"I hope so!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "Maybe deep down, I am still the soldier trapped in Baekje, in a desperate situation. Kings and generals force men to leave their homes for their own ambition and greed fields and flocks, to distant countries whose names have never been heard, and to fight strangers. If they win, the king and generals take most of the spoils, and the soldiers who survive can only get a little leftovers. , go home with mutilated limbs; if the battle is defeated, the soldiers finally try their best to put down their weapons, but the king and generals say that the captured soldiers are cowards, because they are not dead, and they are causing trouble. Wenzong, the world Are there any other ridiculous things like this?"

Cao Wenzong didn't speak, and looked at Wang Wenzuo with sympathy. He could feel the anger in this man's heart. These angers were aimed at the Tubo envoy, but not just that envoy.Yes, everyone knows that Wang Dudu is resourceful and predicts the enemy first, but not many people know that he really sympathizes with soldiers and farmers.

"It seems that I still miscalculated those Tubo nobles!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "I thought that although they would discriminate against captured soldiers, they would still find ways to redeem them. After all, this can increase their own Power. But I didn't expect them to be so arrogant, it's ridiculous!"

"You mean the Tibetans will refuse to exchange prisoners?" Cao Wenzong asked.

"There is such a possibility!" Wang Wenzuo said with a wry smile: "After all, Qiang slaves are the property of the nobles, and the soldiers who are redeemed should be free citizens. The exchange of captives is tantamount to digging out of their own pockets, and the public benefits! I originally thought about the matter. It's so easy!"

"Then what should we do?"

"Let's watch while talking!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "By the way, Wenzong, you will go to the Tubo envoy later to find out his tone!"

"As ordered!"

When Lang Ri walked into his tent, he was humming an out-of-key tune and smiling all over his face.In a negotiation, whoever makes the other party get angry first wins the round.

"Give me a glass of wine, warm!" Lang Ri smiled, he took off his cloak, and suddenly found Cao Wenzong sitting by the fire, he couldn't help being startled, his movements stopped immediately: "Mr Cao! "His voice was sharp and he laughed nervously.

"You don't want to see me here?"

"No!" Lang Ri had regained his composure, and he smiled and threw the cloak on the wooden stand aside: "I'm just a little surprised, just a little bit!" He emphasized.

"Okay, are you not surprised now?" Cao Wenzong looked at Langri coldly: "You really surprised me today, you are the first person who can make the capital governor angry in so many years! "

"So you were ordered to kill me?" Lang Ri asked cautiously.

"You worry too much!" Cao Wenzong said: "The king's governor asked me to visit you!"

"If that's the case, then I'm relieved!" Lang Ri breathed a sigh of relief: "You can bring my apology with you when you go back, I just made a slip of the tongue!"

Cao Wenzong didn't speak, he stared at Langri's face, and then nodded after a while: "Very well, I will, the original invitation from the governor is still valid!"

"Thank you, your governor, for me!"

The ensuing conversation was polite and indifferent. Facing Cao Wenzong, Lang Ri was cautious. He could never forget the meat cleaver that was rolled into a roll. Not long after, Cao Wenzong got up to say goodbye and sent him out of the door Only then did Lang Ri let out a long breath. He felt that the vest was cold, and only then did he realize that it was soaked in sweat.

In the next few days, Lang Ri was busy checking the situation in the prison camp, and he could feel the faint hostility from Cao Wenzong who accompanied him, which made him feel more and more uneasy.Obviously, this was because of what happened in the tent that day. There is no doubt that the Tang general still hated himself.

The conditions of the Tubo captives are good, even surprisingly good. Langri has seen the appearance of the prisoners of war, they can no longer be called human beings, but a group of walking corpses, between life and death, the victors will often try their best to vent their hatred. The methods used to torture the enemies in the past, coupled with mental blows and heavy hard labor, most of the captives will die within a few months, and those who survive will be completely changed.But these Tibetan prisoners were different. It was true that they worked very hard, but there were no shackles or wooden shackles on their bodies, and there were not many guards around them. He even saw wooden barrels under the shade of trees.

"What's that?" Lang Ri pointed to the tree not far away, where there were several wooden buckets, and two people were scooping something in the buckets with spoons.

"Oh! That's a soup bucket with bean soup in it!" Tenzin replied, "Workers are thirsty, so they can go there to quench their thirst. I heard from Tang people that drinking it is good for your health!"

"Soup bucket?" Langri walked under the tree in surprise. He picked up a spoon and scooped it up. There was indeed some bean foam in it. He tasted it, and it seemed to be a little salty: "Is there salt in it?"

"Yes, there is salt. I heard from people in Tang Dynasty that people who do coolies sweat a lot, so it's better to put a little salt in the soup, which is good for your health!"

Lang Ri snorted coldly, and threw the wooden spoon back into the wooden bucket. Salt in Tubo is expensive, and ordinary people and slaves have to eat light food all year round. The treatment is too good, right?
"Dan Zeng, why are there so few Tang guards around here, did no one escape?" Lang Ri asked.

"In the beginning, some people escaped and ate the whip, and some were beheaded and hung on trees for public display!"

"Then what happened later? Then it disappeared?"

"Yeah!" Dan Zeng nodded, "The way back here is too far, we don't know the way at all, how can we escape? Besides, the nearby Qiang people hate us very much, and the Tang people have offered rewards, and if we escape, we will be caught. , besides, the life here is not bad, and gradually no one escapes!"

Lang Ri snorted coldly and didn't speak. In his eyes, Dan Zeng was a talking animal. He didn't want to scold the other party. He looked at the stone wall in the distance and found someone busy on it, so he asked : "What is that doing?"

"It's building a plank road!" Dan Zeng said with a smile: "It's just to cut holes in the stone wall, then insert wooden stakes, and lay wooden boards on it, and it will become a road. People can walk, and mules and horses can walk on it." Let’s go, I never thought that the people of Tang could come up with such a method. After the road is repaired, we can save more than ten miles from walking, what a living Bodhisattva!”

Dan Zeng's words of praise spread into Lang Ri's ears, causing an unknown fire to grow in his heart. He knew that he shouldn't get angry at this ignorant idiot, but the flame in his chest burned bigger and bigger. Straight to the forehead, about to spray out.

"There is also a cable bridge, which is obviously a mountain stream with a width of more than 20 steps. It takes half a day to walk around the road. The Tang people built a bridge on it with ropes, and it can be crossed with half a meal. This is not a living Buddha. ——" Dan Zeng didn't feel Lang Ri's anger at all, he kept talking on his own, and suddenly his face felt a sharp pain, but he took a whip.

"This whip is a lesson for you!" Langri looked at Tenzeng coldly, with blood streaming down his cheeks: "Remember, you are a Tibetan, and the Tang people are your enemies, so you are not allowed to praise the enemy." Good point! Otherwise next time it will be a knife instead of a whip!"