Outside Guangcheng Fort, noisy drum music sounded. The bride, A Luoluo, was wrapped in various colored silks and satins, with gold and jewelry hairpins in her hair. She was sitting on an extremely simple chariot. She was the one carrying the chariot.
own brother.
Surrounding her were hundreds of elite cavalry. The setting sun cast a layer of dark golden light on the silk and satin on Aloluo's body, making her look even more wealthy and gorgeous.
This Uighur bride, who looks like a Han Chinese, looks at her groom and wants to jump to the ground to sing and dance. What a glorious moment! Which flower on the grassland can be covered in silk and satin when she gets married?
This is satin! Satin from peach blossom stone!
Even his husband, the prudent virtuous man's favorite youngest son, could only wear a thin belt around his waist to show off his wealth.
But she can wrap her whole body in silk and satin, which is at least eleven feet long, just enough to make a dress. Their entire tribe is probably not as valuable as these silks and satins.
What made A Luoluo even more proud was that she was snatched away by her husband with three hundred elite armored cavalry.
Not even all the Ye Hus in Balasa Gun have such three hundred elite cavalry.
Then, the thing that can make people send out three hundred fine knights to snatch it is definitely the most beautiful flower.
It's just a pity that my home is far away from Balasagon. It would be better if it could be robbed like this outside Balasagon City!
The affectionate gaze seemed to melt steel. Guo Guangcheng could feel A Luoluo's fiery gaze even without looking back.
He suddenly felt a burning pain in his back, which was accompanied by waves of weakness in his legs. Guo Guangcheng shivered and quickly accelerated to run towards his father.
"Father! Someone from the imperial court is here. Mr. Zhang Erlang from Shazhou is here with his armor and cavalry to look for us!"
Guo Guangcheng shouted excitedly, while Xuancheng, the prudent virtuous man, furrowed his brows, with no trace of happiness on his face.
At the moment when the Persians were about to attack, Mr. Zhang Erlang, who was invited by Titsigu to assist him, suddenly raised the banner of the Tang Dynasty. What a bad person!
....
"Chang'an? You ask Chang'an! You ask me how rich Chang'an is? Come on, come over and I'll tell you! Do you think your little aunt is pretty?"
At Guo Guangcheng's wedding banquet, Zhang Zhao took off his leather armor and put on a purple robe, wearing a Luo Fu headband, a goldfish bag hanging on his waist, and an arty folding fan in his hand.
Don't underestimate this folding fan. First of all, there were no folding fans in the Tang Dynasty, only round fans. Secondly, what the folding fan represents is extremely high production craftsmanship.
It can be regarded as high-tech at this time. Just the paper level cannot be used in most places.
This vast majority of places includes most of all countries including the Tang Dynasty.
The paper of Zhang Zhao's folding fan is rice paper brought by a special dealer. The price of a piece of rice paper in Anxi can be worth twenty sheepskins.
Everyone laughed and pushed a short boy in front of Zhang Zhao. This boy was Guo Guangcheng's nephew and was already fifteen or sixteen years old.
Zhang Zhao laughed and put his arm around the boy's shoulders, "You haven't answered my question yet? Isn't your little aunt pretty?"
If this had been the case during the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially the Manchu and Qing dynasties, the bride would have thrown herself into the river if she had been molested like this.
But in the Tang Dynasty, especially in Anxi, when she was still a Uighur, Aluoluo didn't feel embarrassed at all, and even danced proudly twice, showing everyone her agile figure and the clothes she was wearing.
Satin.
The little nephew's face turned red and he took a few furtive glances. Finally, he lowered his head and hummed for a long time, "Beautiful! My uncle is so lucky!"
"Hahahaha!" Everyone around was laughing so hard!
"Then let me tell you, there are at least ten thousand beauties like your aunt in Chang'an!" Zhang Zhao said loudly after the laughter.
"Erlangjun, you are talking nonsense. How can there be a city with ten thousand beautiful women? How big must this city be? Is there a million people?"
"Haha, that's right, if we count everyone in our Balasagon, I don't know if there are 200,000 people. There are only more than 30,000 people in the city of Balasagon. What kind of city can have five Balasagons?"
Are there so many people?”
There was disbelief all around. The person who said this was a young man wearing a Nestorian monk's robe. He seemed to have some knowledge, but he didn't care that he only knew the area around Balasagon.
"One million people is a lot? Let me tell you, there are one million in Chang'an City alone! If you include the surrounding areas, it will be at least more than two million. Just the pigs and sheep that have to be killed every day, there are tens of thousands of them!
Balasagun? Balasagun is in the Central Plains, which is the size of a lower-class state!
You have been trapped in a bitter and cold place for too long, and you no longer know how rich our Tang Dynasty used to be. You should go out with me to have a look and gain insights!"
Zhang Zhao had the same feeling as when he returned to his hometown to work in the 1980s and 1990s, and then told the villagers about the prosperity of the big city.
"Let's talk about silk and satin again. Do you know how much Shu brocade was paid as tribute to Emperor Ming in the fourth year of Kaiyuan?" As he spoke, Zhang Zhao stretched out his right hand and shook two fingers three times in a row.
"A whole two hundred thousand horses!"
"Ouch!" People around him exclaimed. A piece of silk and satin is about four feet, which is about forty feet. The silk and satin on Aluoluo's body that can buy his entire family is only ten feet, which is exactly one foot.
Zhang, only a quarter of a horse.
"Don't talk about Chang'an, let's talk about when our four towns in Anxi were strong. Before the Anxi camp came to the capital, King Qin, Gao Jieshuai had 30,000 soldiers under his command. Two people had a set of pierced armor, one person a set of leather armor, and good horses.
Sixty-seven thousand horses, two hundred thousand donkeys and mules, swords, spears, swords and halberds are useless.
In addition, it can also drive hundreds of thousands of troops and horses from the Pei family in Shule, the Bai family in Qiuci, the Long family in Yanqi, and the Yuchi family in Khotan. Even if it is passed into the hands of Guo Linggong, there will still be at least thousands of soldiers and 150,000 livestock.
above!"
This time there was no exclamation, but silence, because they could not imagine what tens of thousands of soldiers looked like.
At this time, the great powers of Anxi, whether it was the Gaochang Uighurs, the Kara Khanate or Khotan, could not afford even ten thousand armored soldiers.
The reason why the Guiyi Army was able to hold on for more than two hundred years with only Guasha and Shazhou was because they held a large amount of armor passed down from their ancestors.
With a strength of 20 to 300,000 people, they can pull out three to four thousand armored soldiers, and the government soldiers can also have armor for everyone. This is the reason why the Guiyi Army often boasts that the elite soldiers of the Han Dynasty are as strong as 10,000.
The reason why the Guo family feels that the Persian Samanid Kingdom is invincible is because Samanid Persia is the only big country in the Anxi River that can have tens of thousands of armored men.
"Zhang Erlangjun, what you are talking about is all in the past! Let alone our ancestors' thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of livestock, we can't even afford a hundred sets of armor, but only have more than ten thousand livestock.
The Tang Dynasty was indeed wealthy, but it was also the wealth of saints and dignitaries, so what does it have to do with the suffering of us?"
"You haven't asked for advice yet?" Zhang Zhao cupped his hands and asked, looking at this extraordinary-looking middle-aged man with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes.
"My dear Guo Guangsheng, my father is Xuancheng, a great prudent man, and the Guo Guangcheng next to you is a certain young brother!"
Guo Guangsheng returned the favor with his hand, and all the Guo family members around him fell silent. It seemed that he should be one of the more authoritative members of the Guo family.
"Brother Guo said this, I cannot agree." Zhang Zhao closed the folding fan with a snap and shook his head.
"When the Tang Dynasty was strong and powerful, what was Tang'er's status in the land of Anxi? Not to mention the Burke nobles, even if he was the king of various countries, what did he mean in Tang'er's eyes? The guardian envoys in various places were the lords of the country!
And now, what is our status? In the past, when we clung to Anxi, a small tribe of chieftains dared to think of biting off a piece of our flesh. How can we say that the Tang Dynasty was only the Tang Dynasty of saints and dignitaries?
Also! In your Guo family, your old Linggong is the mighty king of the county and the military governor of the four towns in Anxi. Isn’t he a high-ranking official?
Old Linggong's uncle, Grand Master Guo (Guo Ziyi), Duke of Zhongwu County, Fenyang, was the pillar of the country, and his eight sons and eight sons-in-law were all high-ranking officials in the court.
From this sect alone, there was one prince, three princes, and four princesses.
Empress Yi'an of the Tang Dynasty, the biological mother of Emperor Mu Miao Rui Sheng Wen Huixiao, was the granddaughter of Taishi Guo.
With such a family background, you tell me that you are not dignitaries of the imperial court? You tell me that the Tang Dynasty has nothing to do with you?
Where does this come from? The poor life in Anxi has blocked your ears and eyes, and have you completely forgotten your family, country, and world?"
This is the real bombshell. These Guo family members were trapped near Balashagon and have lived in extreme poverty for several generations.
Don't think that a Nestorian great man could live such a good life. Zhang Zhao looked at the Guo family members around him. They were all wearing simple linen clothes.
Although there are not enough dishes, looking at the way they were fighting for the meat just now, they are not living a wealthy life.
When a dignified and virtuous young son gets married, he can only wear a piece of silk around his waist as a sign of wealth.
For the children of the Guo family here, it would be good to have a broken iron sword. Most of them can only have long spears, because they are only equipped with iron spearheads, which are not as good as the current united soldiers in the Central Plains.
Extreme poverty, coupled with more than a hundred years of hiding, have almost worn away the pride in their blood. This time, they only want to escape, which is to show it.
I hope I can still bring them hope and wake them up.
Guo Guangcheng's eyes gleamed, his nephew who was stopped by Zhang Zhao also looked yearning, and everyone slowed down in biting the meat and bones.
They never thought that the Guo family could be so rich and powerful in the Central Plains. Even the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was born to their daughter of the Guo family.
"I don't want my ancestors to be so rich! It's so embarrassing!"
Guo Guangcheng threw away the mutton bones in his hand in shame, feeling that the delicious meat had suddenly become tasteless.
"Guo Guangsheng, I met Mr. Zhang Erlang. He is the eldest son in the Guo family. Mr. Erlang calls me Guo Dalang!"
Guo Guangsheng also felt ashamed for a moment, and finally tidied up his clothes and solemnly informed Zhang Zhao of his name.
"Guo Dalang?" Zhang Zhao couldn't help but lose consciousness for a moment. He even chanted the name softly, but he immediately knew that something bad was going to happen.
Sure enough, Guo Guangsheng, who originally looked ashamed, turned ugly. He looked at Zhang Zhao with a bit of anger.
"It seems that Mr. Erlang must have found people from other families. Yes, Guo Dalang, who they called a traitor sixty years ago, is the grandfather of a certain person!"
"Master of the Guo family, I am Zheng Tong, you are older than me, so I should call you my brother. Sixty years ago, it was indeed our ancestors who wrongly blamed my grandfather!"
Huitong monk Zhengtong walked out from behind Zhang Zhao, his face full of discomfort.
"Wrong! Humph! Not bad! Don't you Zheng, Yang, Li, and Lu families finally think that my grandpa is a traitor?
There is no trace of my grandfather’s body. My grandfather’s three brothers and more than ten direct children and nephews all died in Xizhou. How could anyone be such a traitor?
Even if you become a traitor, you should pick us traitors up and enjoy the glory and wealth in the future. How can you be a traitor who would risk your entire family's death?"
Guo Guangsheng's handsome face was full of distortion. As expected, Zhang Zhao guessed it right. The Guo family still had knots in their hearts about what they had experienced.
"Guo Dalang, although your family has died, but look around, here alone, there are probably hundreds of men from your Guo family!
Then look at our Li family. Sixty years ago, a certain Li family was also a wealthy family with hundreds of sons. However, when Xizhou was ambushed, my Li family was responsible for ending the rear. Hundreds and dozens of people went there, but only a dozen came back.
Sixty years later, the originally large family of several hundred people was almost extinct!
How does this compare to your Guo family? Back then, your grandfather Guo Dalang was the leader of our five surnames and three royal families. Isn't it your ancestor's responsibility to be ambushed in Xizhou?"
This chapter has been completed!