A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1159 Yanqi Dragon King

From Dragon Boat Festival to Mid-Autumn Festival,

After the Western Expedition, Cheng Yaojin and his generals celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with the soldiers before leaving. Wu Huaiyu was in charge of the camp and gave the soldiers generous Mid-Autumn Festival gifts.

The gift was so generous that most of the soldiers who participated in the Western Expedition made a small fortune. One soldier even said that he made a lot of money from this battle, which was equivalent to his family's income in ten years.

Even the vassal armies such as the Dangxiang, Eastern Turks, Tuyuhun, and Qibi were rewarded generously.

The entire Gaochang City had a three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and the whole city celebrated together. Countless merchants came with all kinds of goods, making the city even more lively.

Wu Huaiyu sat under the grape trellis in the courtyard of the Protectorate.
The grapes are ripe, the purple-black fruits are plump and attractive, like gems strung together.

The King of Yanqi, Long Tuqizhi, finally got the chance to meet Wu Huaiyu alone.
Long Tuqizhi deliberately wore a Tang Dynasty official robe with a purple round collar, a gold and jade belt around his waist, and a Liang crown on his head. However, the custom of Yanqi men is to cut their hair, so wearing this Liang crown seemed a little inappropriate.

There was a dragon pattern on his purple round-collared official robe.

The official robe of the Longtuqizhi was obviously not of the Tang Dynasty style. It was made by themselves in imitation of the Tang Dynasty official robe. The dragon pattern used on it was a unique totem of their Yanqi royal family.

The Long family, the royal family of Yanqi, originally came from Tocharistan. Tracing back to their roots, it is said that they were from the Lesser Yuezhi, a branch of the Great Yuezhi. The Great Yuezhi was originally a nomadic tribe in the Hexi area of ​​China. Later, after several large-scale wars, they were defeated by the Xiongnu and continued to migrate westward to the Tianshan area, where they were called the Lesser Yuezhi. Their strength plummeted, and their economy and population were much worse than before.

Later, the Lesser Yuezhi people continued to migrate westward and moved to Tocharistan, which is the Transoxiana region, now Afghanistan in Central Asia.

The Yuezhi people have worshipped the dragon god since ancient times and used the dragon as their totem. They also called their capital Dragon City.

However, the dragons of the Yuezhi people were different from those in the Central Plains. Their dragons were horses.

According to the Zhou Li, a horse taller than eight feet is called a dragon, one taller than seven feet is called a lai, and one taller than six feet is called a horse.

The dragon worshipped by the Yuezhi people was a flying horse with wings.

The Long family of the Yanqi royal family originated from the Yuezhi. They had frequent exchanges with the Central Plains and translated their surname into Chinese as Long, which is actually a transliteration from the Tocharian word, and its original meaning is also horse.

The Long family calls themselves the Long tribe, and their capital is also called Longcheng. In fact, according to the original meaning, the Tuqizhi should be named Ma, their capital should be called Macheng, and the Long family should be called the Ma tribe.

After all, the dragon emblem embroidered on his own official robes was actually a flying horse.

They refer to the horse as a dragon.

Wu Huaiyu didn't care about this. After all, they were all Hu people, and there weren't so many taboos.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were many people named Wansui, and there were more than one person, and everything went well for them.

Shi Wansui was even one of the four famous generals of the Sui Dynasty.

Long Tuqizhi was very old and had experienced many ups and downs in his life, but when he stood in front of Wu Huaiyu, he was still intimidated by this prime minister of the Tang Dynasty who was much younger than himself.

The name of the shadow of the tree,

Wu Huaiyu used to have some fame in the Western Regions, but it was relatively far away and had no relevant interests. But now, who in the entire Western Regions doesn't know the name of Wu Huaiyu?

Who doesn't know his majesty?

"Sit down!" Wu Huaiyu said.

Long Tuqizhi still stood with his back bent, "I'll just stand there."

He did not even dare to call himself the king, and could only regard himself as a subordinate in front of Wu Huaiyu. After all, Yanqi was affiliated with the Tang Dynasty and was established as the Yanqi Prefecture Governor's Office of the Tang Dynasty. He, as the king, also became the governor of Yanqi Prefecture.

"Please sit down. If you stand there, I have to look up to talk to you, and my neck will be tired."

The Longtu Cavalry had no choice but to sit down awkwardly.
He took out a beautiful letter and presented it to Wu Huaiyu with both hands.
"what is this?"

“A little token of my appreciation.”

Wu Huaiyu flipped through it and found it was a gift list.

There are a hundred BMWs on it, then one camel of gold coins and three camels of silver coins.

This was the second time Wu Huaiyu had seen gold and silver being measured by camels. The last time was when Zhang Ananda told him about the treasure of the Gaochang labyrinth, saying that there were four or five camels of gold and more than ten stones of sese.

Camels are very common in the Western Regions and are important transport animals, especially for merchants on the Silk Road. They like to use camels to load goods. Camels are good at carrying loads and are especially adaptable to all terrains, whether it is desert or Gobi.

Camels can carry three to five hundred kilograms of weight, and are particularly good at crossing deserts.

"What does this mean?"

King Yanqi carefully observed Wu Huaiyu's expression, only to find that his expression did not change at all after he looked at him, which made him secretly shocked.

The gift he gave to Wu Huaiyu was carefully prepared, and he even put a lot of effort into it. He knew that before the surrender of the Prince of Gaochang, he had given Wu Huaiyu two gifts, each time worth thousands of taels of gold.

He asked Wu Huaiyu to take back the four cities of Yanqi and even to get back the abducted Yanqi people. However, he asked Wu Huaiyu to discuss this matter several times, but Wu Huaiyu ignored him.

I had no choice but to spend a lot of money.

The camel of gold was loaded with 40,000 solidus gold coins of the Byzantine Empire that were imitated by Sogdian merchants, weighing 300 kilograms of gold.

This is three hundred kilograms of gold.

You know, after the remnant of the Rouran, the Alvars, were defeated in the East, they went all the way west, and finally dominated both sides of the Danube, constantly harassing the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Justinian I had to pay an annual tribute of 300 pounds of gold to the Alvars. This amount of gold, converted into more than 100 kilograms of Tangjin.

Emperor II abolished the annuity, which resulted in a fierce attack from the Alvares. In the end, Emperor II had to pay tribute to the Alvares again, with the highest amount paid being 120,000 Solidarida gold coins.

When the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sansa Empire signed a fifty-year truce agreement, they also gave Sansa 30,000 solidus per year, which was later increased to 45,000 per year.

Byzantine gold coins were very famous and widely circulated. Whether it was the Alvars in the east, the Germanic barbarians in the west, or the mortal enemy Persia, Byzantine gold coins were circulated in large quantities.

This also led to the circulation of not only Persian silver coins but also Byzantine gold coins in the Western Regions. However, regardless of whether it was silver or gold coins, most of them were imitations made by the Sogdian Hu people, but their quality was good.

Three hundred kilograms of gold, enough to load a camel, and a total of 40,000 imitation Byzantine Solidarida gold coins, was a huge fortune.

Previously, the annual tribute paid by Byzantium to the Alvares was only half of this amount.

They signed a fifty-year truce agreement with the Persian Sassanid Empire, and at the beginning the annual tribute was only 30,000.

The Dragon Riders took out 40,000 Solidus at a time.
According to the Tang people's weight, this is 4,800 taels of gold, worth more than 38,000 strings of cash.

He also added two camels of Persian silver coins, each carrying 300 kilograms of silver coins, totaling 96,000 silver coins, which could be exchanged for more than 15,000 Tang copper coins.

The gold and silver of these three camels are worth more than 50,000 strings of cash.

Those one hundred BMWs, worth several thousand strings of cash, were just extras.

The Dragon Riders' demands are also simple.
The Yanqi Kingdom was established as the Yanqi Governorate. He hoped that Yanqi would only pay tribute, taxes and serve the Tang Dynasty in the future, and would no longer be affiliated with the northern and southern courts of the Western Turks, nor would it pay taxes and serve the two khans, and naturally would no longer pay tribute to the Shunish tribe.

At the same time, the four cities of Yanqi originally occupied by Gaochang Kingdom, Beiting, and Qulichu of Nanting could be returned to Yanqi Kingdom, and more than 2,000 households of Yanqi people who were abducted in the two wars could be returned.

In addition, there is another request. In the past, Yanqi applied to the Tang Dynasty to open the Loulan Road Silk Road, which was approved by the Tang Dynasty. However, it also attracted the attack of Gaochang and Yugushe, and almost destroyed the country. Now that the Tang Dynasty has become the master of the Western Regions,

So will the Loulan Silk Road be restarted?

The Yanqi Kingdom certainly hopes to reopen the Loulan Road. Having already paid such a huge price, they must take it now that there is a chance.

Moreover, the Loulan Silk Road is of great benefit to Yanqi. Just look at Gaochang, which has been guarding an important node on the Silk Road over the years, making it an important cargo distribution center in the Western Regions and making a lot of money every year. Who wouldn't be envious?
The Longtu Cavalry asked for a lot, so naturally they paid a lot as a gift.

Besides,

After Wu Huaiyu's Western Expedition, he had to stay in the Western Regions as the Protector-General. From then on, the thousands of miles of land in the Western Regions would be under the control of that person, so naturally they had to have a good relationship.

Wu Huaiyu was also secretly amazed at the generosity of King Yanqi. The gift was so heavy, and he couldn't help but sigh that the countries in the Western Regions were really richer than each other.
Gaochang had a population of just over 8,000, and Yanqi had even fewer. They were both small countries with populations of only a few thousand or tens of thousands, but their kings were extremely wealthy.

It has to be said that the Silk Road is truly a wealth-creating tool.

"The four cities of your Yanqi State that were occupied, and the three cities originally occupied by Gaochang, can be returned to Yanqi Prefecture. I will also have the Protectorate investigate the people abducted by Gaochang. If they are willing to go back, you can take them away. If they don't plan to leave, or if we can't find them, we can't force them."

When Long Tuqizhi heard this, his face turned unhappy. It was obvious that Wu Huaiyu was planning to return the land without giving it to anyone.

"Prime Minister Wu, they are from my country, Yanqi..."

"I understand, but the specific situation depends on the actual situation. We will talk about it later."

Wu Huaiyu was about to pour tea, but Long Tuqi rushed to the front.
He grabbed the teapot and respectfully poured tea for Wu Huaiyu.

"In fact, of the three cities that Gaochang captured, the Gaochang people only occupied two of them in the end. The other city was given to Yu Gushe, who in turn gave it to Shu Nishi's Chu Banchu."

Wu Huaiyu picked up the teacup and took a sip.
"Gaochang is now the Western Province of the Tang Dynasty. I will naturally hand over the two cities they originally occupied to you Yanqi immediately. However, the other two cities, one is in the hands of Banchuo of the Northern Court Shu Nishi tribe, and the other is in the hands of Qu Lichuo of the Southern Court. I can intervene to mediate, but the details still need to be discussed by you.

In principle, I support Yanqi's recovery of these two cities."

"but,"

Wu Huai's attack made Long Tuqi very helpless.

"Please help me, Minister Wu,"

"Your Yanqi Kingdom has always been subordinate to the Western Turks. Later, the Southern and Northern Courts coexisted, and you were classified as belonging to the Southern Court. This is a historical issue. Now you Yanqi have submitted to our Tang Dynasty, but we cannot say that we will deprive the Southern Court of its relationship with you."

The Dragon Riders were getting anxious.

"Prime Minister Wu, our Yanqi Kingdom is now a vassal of the Tang Dynasty, and Yanqi has been established as Yanqi Prefecture. There is no two suns in the sky, and we Yanqi cannot have two masters. We only recognize the Tang Dynasty and Tian Khan. The Southern Court is in charge of the Turks, not us."

"But your Yanqi Prefecture is still under the jurisdiction of the Mengchi Protectorate."

The post of Protector of Mengchi was held by Bobu, the successor of the Khan of Nanting. In this respect, Yanqi was still under the jurisdiction of Nanting.

"Besides, Qu Luchu, who now occupies your city, is your relative. Didn't you marry your daughter to his brother?"

The Longtuqizhi was eager to get rid of the control of the Western Turks.
For them, it is enough to hold on to the support of the Tang Dynasty and they don’t want to have so many mothers-in-law above their heads.

"Prince Wu, I have twin daughters, they are only 28 years old and are as beautiful as flowers. If you don't mind, you can take them in and serve them tea, water, and make the beds."

Wu Huaiyu looked at the old man and realized that he was really willing to spend a lot of money.

Not only did he give more than 50,000 strings of gold and silver and BMWs, but he also wanted to give twin daughters as gifts.

(End of this chapter)