Late Tang

The low-pitched horn sounded in the howling autumn wind, and groups of sturdy Khitan knights came from all directions to the Khan Court by the Tuhuzhen River.Although the Khitan Khan does not command troops and has low authority, he has a respected status and is the co-lord of the Twenty Alliance.In case of disputes among the various tribes, the Khan must convene all the tribes to discuss and resolve them.

And half a month ago, the Khitan Khan issued the Silver Wolf Command Arrow, and sent messengers with the Silver Wolf Banner to the Twenty Divisions, summoning Yi Li Jin from all the tribes to come.

Khitan Khan's mobilization of troops is certainly not because of the arrival of the caravan from the Central Plains.

The reason for calling all the ministries to come is that Yelu Runde killed Yeluyun Deshi.Although this was originally a family matter of the Diela tribe, Yi Lijin of the Diela tribe is also the Yilijin of the entire Khitan Alliance. Therefore, the purpose of calling all the tribes is to elect a new Yilijin .However, now that Yelu Runde killed Yun Deshi, an agreement has been reached with Diela and other ministries. Therefore, the new Yili Jin has long been confirmed as Yelu Runde, but according to Khitan's rules, the ministries still have to proceed. Election together, and then hold the firewood ceremony publicly, so that Yelu Rude is the new Yilijin.

All the ministries followed the order, and the caravan from the Central Plains also arrived at this time. It was still such a huge caravan, and Bala Khan was in a very good mood now.

The caravan camped not far from Khan Court was also invited to participate in the banquet that came from various ministries today.

Shopkeeper Cui changed into a gorgeous and warm fur after taking a bath, and led a team of brave guards who were carefully selected to ride his horse to the Khan Court.

The low-pitched horn sounded again, and a group of mighty cavalry appeared, and the banner embroidered with a giant silver wolf fluttered in the wind, and Barakhan came.

The leaders of the Twenty Departments, their officers and guards stopped their horses one after another and lined up on both sides. The shopkeeper Cui led all the caravans to rush forward and lined up at the end of the queue.

Bala Khan wore a silver wolf fur robe, with a silver wolf head sword pinned to his waist and a shining telescope on the other.He stepped forward one by one with the chiefs of the tribes who came to the alliance, laughed and chattered, and after seeing the chiefs of the tribes, he laughed all the way and said: "Dear prairie guest, how did you rest here last night?" ?”

Shopkeeper Cui got off his horse, stepped forward and bowed to salute, "Silver Wolf on the Grassland, thank you very much for the excellent hospitality we received last night. I am also protected by the Great Tang Anton, the town [***] , Datong Army, Lu Long Army, and Pinglu Army Four Town Jiedu Envoys, Situ, Zhongshu Ling, Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, Shangzhu Kingdom, General Fuguo, General Zuo Xiaowei, and Marshal Li Jing, Duke of Qi Commissioned, with a gift from Marshal Li, expressing sincere respect and greetings to Khan on his behalf."

As he spoke, he beckoned, and the four guards carefully lifted up a big red sandalwood box.

The Khitan leaders were shocked when they first heard Li Jing's long list of official titles.Now seeing that the gift boxes that Li Jing sent were all packed with such precious red sandalwood, it is even more shocking.

Everyone was eager to know what kind of gift Li Jing, who was famous in Khitan, would give to Khitan Khan.

The box was carried in front of Khan, and shopkeeper Cui opened it. The red sandalwood box also had a movable mechanism. When the mechanism was pressed, the four sides of the box would spread out, and the gifts in the box were directly displayed.

Seeing the gift in the box, everyone took a long breath, and even Bala Khan's eyes became hot.

It was a 'wolf' that was bigger than ordinary wolves, it was so crystal clear and eye-catching.That posture, as if standing on the top of the mountain, screaming at the moon.

"This is a Liuli Howling Sky Wolf, which is completely made according to the silver wolf Xiaoyue raised by Marshal Li." Cui shopkeeper said.

This glass howling wolf was seven feet long, four feet high at the shoulder, and weighed at least two to three hundred catties.Such a huge wolf, almost the size of a mare.Originally, seeing this Liuli wolf was already shocking, but hearing that Li Jing also had a real silver wolf of this size, the Khitan people were really shocked.

Yeluhende, the son of Balakhan, looked at the wolf and was completely stunned.After a long time, he still pointed at the wolf dumbfounded, and shouted excitedly: "This is a glazed wolf, so lifelike, it's like a god. How much does it cost for such a big glass treasure? Dengzhou A glass mirror with a height of one person sold 100 million Guan."

Shopkeeper Cui interjected at the right time and said: "There were Kirgaz and Tatars who wanted to buy this Liuli Howling Sirius, and the envoy of King Kirgiz Khan was willing to offer [-] horses and [-] oxen in exchange. The Tatars also wanted to buy this horse. I am willing to exchange all the treasures and a large number of cattle and horse slaves for such treasures. But the commander did not agree, saying that this is a priceless treasure." "

"This is indeed a priceless treasure. It is a treasure bestowed by the gods. No matter how many year-old sheep can be exchanged for such a treasure, this wolf is the totem of our Khitan!"

Seeing the Khitan people so absent-minded, shopkeeper Cui secretly smiled.Sure enough, as the commander-in-chief said, the Khitan people would behave like crazy after seeing this wolf.This wolf is indeed precious, but no matter how precious it is, it is just a glazed wolf.No one would be willing to exchange 300 horses or [-] oxen. What he just said was just nonsense.But if this wolf really wants to sell, it is not impossible to sell millions of guan, or even [-] to [-] million guan.After all, the world is so big, and there are still many extremely rich people, especially among the various ethnic groups in the grasslands, almost all of them worship wolves.Such a wolf is more meaningful.

"This glass howling wolf is a gift from Dashuai Li to Da Khan. I hope Da Khan will cherish this thing in the future and further promote the relationship between Li Dashuai and Khan."

Bala Khan nodded, and then kneeled in front of the Liuli Wolf with a solemn expression, "From now on, this Liuli Howling Sky Wolf will be my Khitan totem, and the Khitan Khan will pass it down from generation to generation! The Khitan warriors will love him more than their lives." !"

The leaders of all the Khitan tribes and the warriors knelt down before the glazed wolf, and the sunlight shone on the glazed wolf, emitting a dazzling luster and dazzling.Countless Khitan people cheered and sighed that this was a gift from God to Khitan.

After Bala Khan got up, he asked him to carefully send Liulilang to the Khan Palace, and to build a special palace to house the treasure of the town clan.After sending away the treasures, he held the shopkeeper Cui's hand and said with a big smile, "I accept the gift from Marshal Li. This gift is really precious. I will immediately send people to select 20 cattle and [-] sheep. This is a return gift to Marshal Li. I know these are not as good as the treasures that Marshal Li gave, but the gift is light and affectionate, so please accept it, and when you go back, Ben Khan will convey his thanks to Marshal Li.”

This time the gift is considered very heavy. Although the cattle, horses and sheep on the grassland are cheap and not as expensive as in the Central Plains, but such a large quantity, even if the horses are not war horses, they can still be worth millions.

"Definitely!" Shopkeeper Cui was very happy to receive such a large gift in return, even if it was just a gift on behalf of Marshal Li.

The chiefs of the various tribes came to the alliance, and Bala had just received a rare treasure. He was very happy and excited, so he sent an order to hold a banquet in the palace to entertain the chiefs of the tribes and the merchants of the Tang Dynasty.

At the Khan's banquet, the merchants from the Central Plains and the leaders of the [-] Khitan tribes attended the banquet together, which shows that in Bala Khan's heart, these Tang Dynasty merchants hold a very important position in his heart.

The Khan’s Palace in Bala is luxuriously furnished, covered with carpets from Persia, silk and porcelain from the Tang Dynasty can be seen everywhere, various tableware, and gold and silver vessels from the far-away Dashi Kingdom. The golden light is dazzling, making the palace resplendent .But today, these gold and silver wares are somewhat eclipsed, because what Balakhan uses is a set of extremely precious glassware.Glass wine bottles, glass goblets, glass trays, glass teapots, wine pots and cups...

Looking at these glass vessels, the leaders of the various tribes were blinded.Who doesn't know, this glass vessel is now more valuable than gold.

In the luxurious hall, the Bara Khan family gathered together with the chiefs of various tribes and merchants from the Tang Dynasty. The table was filled with all kinds of fine wine brought from Dengzhou, and the most delicious barbecue on the grassland.

The host and guests enjoyed themselves, and the banquet was a great success.

After eating and drinking, Bala Khan ordered the waiter to remove the banquet and serve tea and fruit to everyone.

Shopkeeper Cui was surprised to find that what Bala Khan served was neither milk tea nor sencha, which is commonly consumed by Tang people, but bubble tea, which has just emerged in the upper class of Tang Dynasty.Moreover, the tea is brewed very well, and even the tea leaves are the famous Mengdingshihua newly roasted this year.

Yelu Rude, who is about to take up the post of Yilijin and Yilijin of Khitan, took a sip of tea, the bitter taste made him frown secretly, but seeing that everyone else was drinking with gusto, he held back He continued on, and asked Cui with a smile: "This year, I haven't seen many merchants from the Central Plains coming. Now the tribes are full of cattle and sheep, and the warehouses are filled with leather, but they are in urgent need of the Central Plains. salt, tea, silk, and porcelain. The caravan that came this time is so large that it has never been seen in previous years. I just don’t know how many good things they brought. Let me first say that I must give me some glass. This Things are much brighter and more dazzling than porcelain."

The tribes on the prairie would slaughter cattle and sheep every winter to survive the winter.Because in winter, if the forage is insufficient, the cattle and sheep will fall off, and when the snow is too heavy, if the forage is insufficient, the cattle and sheep will not survive the winter and will freeze to death directly.Therefore, the custom of the grassland people is to slaughter a large number of cattle and save the dried meat after winter, and the remaining cattle and sheep can also have enough forage for the winter.

However, such a tradition is a great loss to the grassland people.After slaughtering cattle and sheep, what you get is only a few pieces of dried meat and a piece of skin, which is not worthwhile to sell alive.

"This time, more than 30 caravans came together. We brought a lot of goods, including more than 800 stone tea leaves, a total of 4000 catties. Most of them are Fuliang tea cakes and rough tea, and the finest Mengding Stone scented tea is a new method of frying green tea, only about [-] catties. I don’t know, do you like it?”

Datang's tea has always been the most important commodity traded with the outside of the Great Wall. Right now, the entire Datang's annual tea production can reach 80 shi, reaching 600 million catties.There are eight major tea-producing areas in the entire Tang Dynasty, and a total of 65 prefectures produce tea.Generally, tea is divided into three types, crude tea, cake tea, and loose tea.Crude tea is crude tea. It may be a kind of tea that is picked and made simply, and is the cheapest.Loose tea refers to fried green tea.The amount of coarse tea and loose tea is small, and the most are tea cakes. When using it, one piece is cut off, crushed and boiled.

People on the grasslands need tea more than those in the Central Plains. The Khitan people eat more meat. Drinking tea can not only remove greasy food, but also prevent several common diseases of grassland people and supplement the lack of elements.But the grassland people do not produce tea, so the grassland people have always traded horses and Central Plains for tea.

One hundred thousand catties of tea is only more than 800 shi, which is completely unable to meet the needs of the Khitan people.

"Give me the tea!" Yeluhende, the son of Bala Khan, stood up immediately, "I don't want all the tea, but I want all the four thousand catties of Mengdingshi flower tea, and I will exchange it with war horses."

"Hende, you are too greedy, so many of us are here, you can't leave all of us with some good tea." Shende's brother-in-law Ruande quit immediately, although he has not officially become Yi Lijin, But with every move he made, when he spoke, he had already regarded himself as a Yili Jin who was under one person and above ten thousand people.

Tea is neither porcelain nor silk. It is a consumable. A herdsman gets at least a dozen catties of tea a year. The Khitan now has 200 teas. Adding up, there are more than [-] million teas, as well as many slaves and prisoners of war.One hundred thousand catties of tea leaves is not enough for even one tribe.

And among these teas, the best famous tea is only about [-] catties. These chiefs who are used to drinking good tea, who would like to drink those coarse teas.

The leaders of various Khitan tribes and tribal chiefs, big and small, who were still in harmony just now, immediately slapped each other on the table and challenged each other for the one hundred thousand catties of tea.In particular, the sons of Yeluyun Deshi's elder brother Yelu Tiela immediately quarreled with Yelu Hande's sons.The two clans had just experienced a vendetta against each other, but now the tea directly ignited the conflict, yelling at each other, and even rolled up their sleeves to start a fight.

However, Yelu Tiela and Yelu Guzhi brothers seemed to turn a blind eye, just savoring the tea leisurely, and Yelu Runde did the same, happily watching his sons fight with the Yelu Tiela brothers' children.

Seeing the turmoil becoming more and more shameful, all kinds of bad words came out, but no one from other ministries in the temple came out to persuade him, Yelubala felt that his old face was a little bit embarrassing, especially in front of the merchants of Tang Dynasty.

"Shut up! If you keep arguing, get the hell out!" Although Bala has no real power, he still has a high prestige. When he yelled out this voice, the others immediately fell silent.Several young people sat back with their robes tossed, but the hatred in their eyes was well known to each other, and it was obvious.

Especially Yelupu Guzhi, the eldest son of Yelv Tiela, put his hand on the handle of the knife and looked at Yelu Rude sitting opposite him with cold eyes.

The young shopkeeper Li next to shopkeeper Cui had a panoramic view of all this, with a smile on the corner of his mouth. (To be continued.)