Tibet.

Chapter 1357 Huai En Stone Tower

The news of the complete victory in the Liaodong battlefield reached Chang'an. There was jubilation throughout Chang'an, and hundreds of thousands of people beat drums and gongs to celebrate the victory.

In fact, Li Ye had received a pigeon message six days ago, informing him of the demise of the Khitan. He was more concerned about the whereabouts of Yelu Salad, and Zhang Dian had already led 500 cavalrymen to hunt him down.

The descendants of Yelu Salad created the Khitan Kingdom and the Liao Kingdom, bringing severe disasters to the Central Plains dynasty. There was also the Heishui Mohe, who changed their name to the Jurchens during the Liao Dynasty, and the Menggu tribe among the Shiwei, which were also hidden dangers for future generations!

At this time, Du You said at the door: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Wei wants to see you!"

Li Ye nodded, "Invite him in!"

After a while, Wei Jiansu hurried in, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am here to see you!"

"Please take a seat, Prime Minister!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Wei Jiansu sat down and said with a smile: "First of all, congratulations to your majesty. The Liaodong battle has won a great victory and ended successfully. The next step is to deal with the aftermath. What plan does your majesty have?"

Li Ye smiled faintly and said, "Aftermath is nothing more than land and population. I plan to build two military governorships in Liaodong, one for Liaoxi and one for Liaodong, each with 50,000 troops stationed. Zhang Dian will be the governor of Liaoxi and Nan Jiyun will be the governor of Liaodong. As for the Khitans and Xi people, we will still follow the rules of the court to make arrangements."

Wei Jiansu nodded. "It is your majesty's duty to establish the governor's office. I have no intention of interfering. However, regarding the resettlement plan for the people, I have received a report from Liaodong officials that Guo Ziyi has detained hundreds of thousands of unmarried young women from the Khitan and Xi people and is preparing to reward them to the three armies. Does your majesty know about this?"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said, "Of course I know about this matter, but what I said to the Prime Minister is slightly different."

"I am all ears!"

Li Ye walked a few steps with his hands behind his back and said, "The Khitans have been at war with foreign countries for many years, and they originally had few men. In the end, they were hit hard by us, and almost all the young and strong men were lost. The Khitans and Xi are mainly women, and even if there are some men, they are old and young.

The Tang Dynasty has abolished slavery, and it is unrealistic to turn them into slaves. It just so happens that many of our soldiers are unmarried, so I told Guo Ziyi to divide all unmarried women into two, and give half to the Liaodong soldiers to marry, so that the soldiers can stay in Liaodong with peace of mind. Prime Minister, it is marriage, not reward. In addition, after the soldiers get married, each will be rewarded with 300 acres of Liaodong land, so that they can stay in Liaodong with peace of mind. "

Wei Jiansu said with some shame: "So that's how it is. I misunderstood Your Majesty!"

Li Ye laughed again and said, "Just now I said to divide the young unmarried women of Khitan and Xi into two parts, half of which will be left to the Liaodong soldiers, and the other half, about 130,000 people, I plan to give to the Helong and Anxi soldiers. This is also a long-standing problem in the border areas. Many Anxi soldiers are almost 40 years old and have not yet started a family. If these 130,000 young women are sent over, this long-standing problem will be completely solved.

Therefore, I repeatedly told Guo Ziyi that noble women could be spared, and that soldiers should never be allowed to abuse women. If we could get hundreds of thousands of innocent women, we would solve the big problem of soldiers on the frontiers. Moreover, Khitan and Xi women could speak some Chinese, and they would be able to communicate with each other after a few months of getting along with each other. "

Wei Jiansu gave a thumbs up, "Your Majesty is wise!"

Li Ye smiled apologetically and said, "I forgot to tell the Council of State about this matter. The responsibility lies with me. Please ask the Prime Minister to inform the Liaodong officials immediately!"

"I will arrange it immediately!"

Some readers may ask whether a foreign woman marrying a Han man will affect her bloodline. In fact, only some famous families care about it, while ordinary people do not care.

Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, paternal bloodline has been the main ancestry. After Khitan women married Han soldiers, they would quickly adapt to their identity, change into Han clothes, and regard themselves as Han.

At this time, Wei Jiansu said again: "Your Majesty, I have another matter to report!"

"Please say!"

"The King of Nanzhao has come to Chang'an!"

Li Ye asked quickly: "Have we arrived yet?"

"I just arrived this afternoon. The Honglu Temple informed me, so I hurried here to ask your majesty for instructions."

Li Ye ordered Du You, "Go and invite Prime Minister Zhang as well!"

Left Prime Minister Zhang Li also happened to rush over, and Du You took him into the imperial study.

"Your humble servant Zhang Li pays respect to Your Majesty!"

"Prime Minister Zhang has arrived just in time. We are just about to discuss the affairs of Nanzhao. Please sit down first!" Zhang Li sat down, and Li Ye said to the two of them, "I will not meet the King of Nanzhao for the time being. You can talk to him. According to our conditions, we can make some adjustments in the details, but we will not give in on the four major principles."

The four major principles are: 1. Restore the borders before the ninth year of Tianbao; 2. Nanzhao is not allowed to have an army, and the Tang army is stationed in Nanzhao; 3. The heir to Nanzhao is held hostage in Chang'an; 4. Nanzhao's mineral resources belong to the Tang Dynasty.

Wei Jiansu nodded, "I have also considered it. In addition to the four major principles, the other details that can be discussed are the burden of military salaries for the garrison troops and the demarcation of the fertile fields in Yaozhou. I remember that before the ninth year of Tianbao, half of the fertile fields in Yaocheng belonged to Nanzhao and the other half belonged to the people of the Tang Dynasty. We can negotiate."

Li Ye nodded, "We can afford the military salaries ourselves, but this is a concession to collecting salt taxes!"

"Wei Chen understands!"

At this time, Zhang Li said: "Your Majesty, there is also the issue of compensating the Han people, but their treasury is empty. It may be a bit difficult to ask them to compensate."

Li Ye said coldly: "Killing officials, robbing Han women, and abducting young men as slaves cannot be solved by an apology. If they don't have money to compensate, they can use land to compensate. The good farmland in Yaocheng can be compensated to the victims!"

The two of them camped together.

Li Ye said calmly: "Don't rush into negotiations. Let them understand the situation in Liaodong. Nanzhao has not been destroyed. The Tang Dynasty has been very tolerant."

As night fell, several ox carts arrived at Huai'en Temple. Huai'en Temple was located in the southwest corner of Xianyang County, close to the city wall and relatively remote. Compared with the famous temples in Chang'an, Huai'en Temple was indeed rather shabby, with dilapidated temples and not many monks.

But its only advantage is that it has a six-story pagoda covering an area of ​​two acres. This is a stone pagoda left over from the Northern Zhou Dynasty. This pagoda is also the tallest building in Xianyang.

Huai'en Temple received a big business these two days. A pilgrim was willing to pay one thousand strings of incense money and borrow the pagoda for two days.

The abbot and the monks were so happy that they couldn't stop smiling. It was like a miracle from the Buddha. A windfall of 1,000 guan of money fell from the sky! They couldn't even collect 100 guan of money in a year, let alone just borrowing for two days, even two years would be no problem.

The woman who borrowed the pagoda claimed that she was a widow. She needed to borrow the pagoda to worship the soul of her dead husband, and she flatly rejected the temple's offer to perform a ritual to help her husband's soul reach nirvana.

Another condition was that the temple had to close before dark and all monks had to stay in their rooms and were not allowed to go out before dawn, for fear of disturbing the spirit of her husband.

This condition was not excessive, and the host agreed immediately. Moreover, Huai En Tower was in a separate courtyard. As long as the courtyard gate was closed, no one would know about Huai En Tower's situation.

There is another important reason. The person who borrowed the tower was a Han woman. If it was a Hu person, the host would still lend it to him because he could not refuse one thousand strings of cash, but he would still feel uncomfortable.

More than twenty maids carried nearly a hundred boxes into the tower and moved them all the way to the sixth floor, where they were arranged.

As the night deepened, countless women came from all directions. After entering the compound, the gate was closed.

On the stone tower, the lights on the six floors were lit, and they were particularly dazzling. One hundred and twenty female disciples filled each floor of the tower, all kneeling on the ground. There was a special large candle on each floor, and the candle was engraved with the logo of the iron ring and three swords. The light was lit, implying that the leader was in the light and could feel their worship.

There are not only candles on the top floor, but also an altar, on which are enshrined three golden swords made of gold. They are much larger than the three golden swords confiscated from the Kongsberg Mansion before and weigh a hundred kilograms. The weight of this symbol is second only to the three golden swords in Samarkand.

At this moment, no one could have imagined that a petite black shadow was hidden on a big tree not far from Huai'en Tower.

The petite black shadow was also a young woman. Her name was Zhang Fengjiao. She was from Xianyang and was a bounty assassin. The inner guards had offered a bounty of three thousand strings of cash, looking for hundreds of organized women.

Zhang Fengjiao's home was nearby. She was a local tyrant, so she was prepared to look for clues in Xianyang County. Unexpectedly, she saw the lights on the top of Huai'en Tower from the roof of her house, and there was a woman's figure swaying. You know, this is a Buddhist temple! Isn't it weird to see a woman's figure appear in the middle of the night?
She immediately rushed to Huai'en Tower and climbed up a big tree closest to the stone tower to observe. She saw an extremely strange scene: every woman was dressed in white, with disheveled hair and barefoot, kneeling down to worship a big candle. There were more than a hundred women!

She actually realized that she was going to get rich, and this must be the bounty from the inner guards.

Zhang Fengjiao was very smart. She was not in a hurry to report the news. Seeing that there were more than a dozen ox carts parked outside the gate and the drivers were dozing off and waiting for people, she climbed onto the bottom of one of the carriages and clung to it tightly.

Half an hour later, the worship ceremony was over and all the women dispersed. Anga took dozens of trusted men on a bullock cart and took away some important items. They would come back to collect candles and other items tomorrow. Anyway, they had borrowed the stone pagoda for two days.

The ox cart started slowly and drove towards the compound where they rented. Lin Quer was very nervous all night, but there seemed to be nothing unusual. Everyone was asleep and no one cared about what happened in Huai'en Tower.

The ox cart reached the courtyard, and everyone returned to the courtyard. The ox cart also turned around and left. At this time, a petite black shadow silently emerged from under an ox cart and hid behind a big tree.

After the ox cart went away, the black shadow looked around the courtyard, then turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

(End of this chapter)