A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1170 Bold An Lushan

At the foot of Cheling Mountain, I think of Hunchuan.

After several months of renovation, Gongyue City became taller and stronger. A fort was built in the north of Gongyue City, and the outer city was expanded to include a sub-city.

Even the market has been expanded.

After inspecting the city defense camp, An Lushan came back to have breakfast.

His breakfast was braised lamb. Before his adoptive father left, he told him to pay attention to his diet and not to gain any more weight. He already weighed over 300 pounds, and if he gained any more weight he would not be able to ride a horse and would also suffer from various diseases.

An Lushan listened to the advice and changed his meals from five to three a day, reducing the amount of food he ate a lot.

A pot of steaming lamb stew is very tempting in this early winter.

An Lushan picked up a piece of mutton with bones and started chewing it vigorously. The dieting in the past few months had really tortured him and he felt very hungry all the time.

"General."

"Bu Zhen sent someone again."

An Lushan wolfed down a large piece of meat, threw away the bones, and picked up another large piece. The stewed meat was not as fragrant as the roasted one, but his adoptive father asked him to eat something lighter, and he thought the stewed lamb was quite light.

He didn't think too much about eating vegetarian food. Vegetarian food? He was neither a monk nor a cow or sheep, so why should he eat grass?
"What is Bu Zhen going to give me?"

An Lushan continued to eat the meat with disdain. The stew was a bit light, but for him who was now on a diet and reducing his meals, anything tasted delicious when he was hungry.

"Bu Zhen's men said that if the general hands over Mishe to him, he will give the general two camels of gold, ten thousand taels!"

An Lushan stopped talking.

"Ten thousand taels of gold, Bu Zhen is really willing to spend this, and he is really rich."

Ten thousand taels of gold weighs six hundred and twenty-five kilograms, which is too much for one camel to carry. It is more appropriate to load it on two camels.

Even the personal soldier who came to deliver the message was moved.
Two camels of gold, ten thousand taels, converted into copper coins, that's eighty thousand strings of coins, eighty million copper coins, enough to make your hands cramp just counting them. Anyway, the personal soldiers had never seen so many copper coins or so much gold.

There are a total of 3,000 Tang army garrisons in Gongyue Town. Each of them can get more than 26,000 copper coins, which is enough to buy 30 horses based on the horse prices in the Western Regions.

If the soldiers sent money back home to let their wives and children buy food, even at the high price of rice in Chang'an, they could still buy more than 200 shi.

Bu Zhen attacked Beiting, and Mi She was seriously injured and fled to Gongyue City.

Bu Zhen's soldiers came in pursuit.

They surrounded Gongyue City on all sides, but did not dare to approach it.

Bu Zhen sent people to meet An Lushan, the governor of Gongyue Town. His initial offer was to give An Lushan three hundred taels of gold, three hundred horses, three hundred camels, and three hundred slaves.

He gave An Lushan so many things, just hoping that An Lushan would hand over Mi She to him.

An Lushan directly ordered his personal soldiers to beat the intruders out and asked him to convey a message to Bu Zhen that if Bu Zhen's soldiers dared to appear within thirty miles of Gongyue City, it would be regarded as an attack on Gongyue Town of the Tang Dynasty and an attack on the Tang Dynasty, and they would bear the consequences themselves.

After bringing this back,

Bu Zhen withdrew his troops thirty miles.

But he did not withdraw.

He soon sent another person to Gongyue City to meet An Lushan.

This time the conditions were increased, directly to three thousand taels of gold, plus three thousand horses.

But An Lushan still ignored it.

Unexpectedly, a few days later, Bu Zhen's people came again and raised the conditions to 10,000 taels of gold.

"One Mishe can be exchanged for 10,000 taels of gold, plus 3,000 horses. This Mishe is really valuable, and this deal is very cost-effective." The captain of the personal guards was very tempted.

An Lushan chuckled a few times, "Mishe is the Khan of Beiting and the Protector of Kunling. He was canonized by the saint of our Tang Dynasty and also has the title of Prince of Heshun. You want me to hand him over and the court will investigate later. Isn't this asking me to jump into the fire pit? You son of a bitch, you have no brains at all."

The lieutenant was his confidant, having followed him all the way from the northern frontier for many years, so he was more direct in his words. "Actually, I have another idea,"

"I heard that in the old dynasty, there was a great Khan in the Western Regions named Chuluo Khan, who was ruthless in governing the country and many of his subjects rebelled. Emperor Yang of Sui was on a tour to the west and summoned Chuluo Khan to meet him in Hexi. Chuluo did not come, so Emperor Yang was furious. He used Pei Ju's plan to lure Datou Khan's grandson Shekui to attack Chuluo Khan. Chuluo Khan was defeated and fled to Gaochang. Yang Guang asked his mother Xiang to go and persuade Chuluo to come to the court.

After Choro Khan came to the court, he was kept in the capital to serve the emperor.

Later, Emperor Yang was assassinated in Jiangdu, and Chuluo Khan returned to Chang'an. Emperor Gaozu named him the King of Guiyi, but later the Khan of the Eastern Turks demanded that the court kill Chuluo Khan.

This soldier told a story about an old time, which was full of twists and turns.
"Did the court really listen to the Eastern Turks and execute Chuluo Khan?" "They didn't execute him directly," the captain said. "At that time, the court felt that it would be unacceptable for the Tang Dynasty to listen to the Eastern Turks and execute Chuluo. However, under the threat of the Eastern Turks, they had no choice but to send a minor official to find an excuse to bring Chuluo Khan to a government office.
When Chuluo entered, he found that it was the envoys and subordinates of the Eastern Turks. Chuluo Khan was killed by the Eastern Turks.

The Tang Dynasty did not want to dirty its hands in this matter, but it could not afford to offend the Eastern Turks at the time, so it tricked Chu Luo out and handed him over to the Eastern Turks.

"General, we can actually do this. We don't need to hand over Mishe. We just need to use a little trick to give Bu Zhen's people a chance to kill Mishe in Gongyue City.
Afterwards we said that there was an assassin named Bu Zhen lurking in the city and killed Mishe.

It was Mishe's own carelessness and his subordinates' poor protection. We didn't hand him over and let him hide in Gongyue City, but he was assassinated and there was nothing we could do."

"We neither handed Mishe over to Buzhen nor drove him out of Gongyue City. He was eventually killed by an assassin. It's not our fault, right?"

"You are such a calculating bastard, do you really want to take the 10,000 taels of gold?"

"Who wouldn't want to take it? One tael of gold can buy 10 to 20 mu of land in the Central Plains, or even a concubine. Ten thousand taels, how much land can you buy, how many concubines can you take?"

An Lushan ate half a pot of stewed mutton, and the panic he felt was finally suppressed.
He also slowed down his meat-eating.

"How can you be sure that Bu Zhen can come up with 10,000 taels of gold, and how can you be sure that he will keep his promise to give you 10,000 taels of gold?

Besides, do you really think this gold is easy to get?

Ten thousand taels? You also said that this is a huge sum of money. Will no one know if we take this money?
This gold is hot. Aren't you afraid that the court will investigate and punish you? With so much gold, ten heads wouldn't be enough to pay for it, right?"

"But an opportunity like this only comes once in a lifetime!"

"A chance to lose my head? The sooner I die, the sooner I will be reborn?" An Lushan poured a bowl of still hot mutton soup and drank it slowly. "Brother, you were also my partner in herding sheep for the landlord in Lingzhou. I am luckier than you. My mother met Prime Minister Wu when she was selling chopped buckwheat noodles. Later, my family met in Lingzhou. My mother took my whole family to Yanzhou to seek refuge with Prime Minister Wu.
Wu Xiangren was a very kind man. He not only helped my family settle down and obtain naturalization, but also distributed land to us. He also helped my mother open a buckwheat noodle stall and even took me in as an attendant.
I was lucky. I followed the Prime Minister, and later I was adopted as his son. I trained in the army and gained military merit. I remembered you and called you from Lingzhou to work with me. "

The lieutenant laughed and said, "I will never forget it. Without the general, I would still be herding sheep for the landlord, living from hand to mouth. I might have starved to death long ago, and I would not be here today."

"Yes, we must remember these and never forget our origins." An Lushan took a big sip of the mutton soup and felt very comfortable. When he was herding sheep for the landlord, he had dreamed of getting rich one day and eating mutton every day, stewing, grilling, frying...

"Ten thousand taels of gold is indeed a lot, but the gold is too hot to handle, so let's forget about it."

It's a pity for the captain.

"You know, during the previous Western Expedition, the Prince of Gaochang sent gifts to my adoptive father twice, each time with a lot of gold, three thousand taels, two thousand taels, as well as a lot of jade and silver.

Later, the King of Yanqi also sent gifts to my adoptive father, also a lot of gold, silver, jade, and even two beautiful twin princesses.

But have you ever seen my father collect any?"

An Lushan also poured a bowl of mutton soup for the captain, "My adoptive father is of such a noble status, he is the prime minister, one of the three highest officials, the chief commander of the Western Expedition, and the Grand Protector of Anxi, but he never laid a hand on those gold and beauties.

Do you think we dare to take this ten thousand taels of gold?"

"I shouldn't have been greedy."

An Lushan smiled and said, "Who wouldn't be tempted by 10,000 taels of gold? However, we should not take what we shouldn't take. To be honest, we both came from Lingzhou. We used to be shepherds who couldn't even get enough food. Now we have the official position we have now.

That was achieved with the help of a noble person."

The captain nodded. They had been in the northern frontier for ten years and had made a lot of money, whether it was black, white or gray. They took whatever they could get. That was why he was tempted by the ten thousand taels of gold this time.

But An Lushan also reminded him that this time was indeed different.

"We won't say that we can bring honor to the Minister of War, but at least we can't embarrass him, let alone cause him trouble."

"Understood. I will listen to you, General. What shall we do next?"

An Lushan was very calm. "Defend Gongyue City, protect Mishe Khan, and wait for the arrival of the Prime Minister."

"Go tell the brothers that the Prime Minister is coming with his troops. We cannot make any mistakes before the Prime Minister arrives.

If Ashina Buzhen dares to approach Gongyue City within 30 miles, then we will go out of the city and kill him. Our Gongyue City is the Gongyue City of the Tang Dynasty and the Gongyue Military Town of the Anxi Protectorate.

Our three thousand Gongyue soldiers are not here to eat and wait for death.

The Tang Dynasty flag in Gongyue City represents the Tang Dynasty. The area below the flag is the territory of the Tang Dynasty. Anyone who dares to invade will be killed."

The captain made another suggestion, "Since we can't take Bu Zhen's gold, why don't we take his head and earn some credit? I see that there aren't many Bu Zhenren's horses near Gongyue, only about 18,000, and they're not elite.

We have 3,000 elite soldiers in Gongyue Town. Why don't we go out of the city at night and attack the infantry and cavalry at night? If we can kill these 18,000, chop off more than a thousand of their heads, and capture a few thousand more, it will be a great achievement."

An Lushan put down the bowl of soup and scolded with a smile, "You are so bold, you only see the 18,000 Bu Zhen soldiers in front of you, don't you know that there are more than 100,000 troops from the Asiqie tribe behind them?"

(End of this chapter)