The four hundred and fiftieth chapters revisit the old place
Everyone walked slowly along the Chihe River. Guo Xin pointed at the river channel with his riding whip: "We rely on the mountains to eat mountains, and we rely on water to eat water. Qiuci is not interested in the Chihe River. We will dig ponds and raise fish by the Chihe River, or directly raise fish in the Chihe River."
We cast a net to catch fish in Chihe River. After spring starts and the river thaws, our life will be a little easier and we can drink some fish soup every day."
Guo Song pondered for a moment and asked: "From the second uncle's tone, it seems that the Kingdom of Qiuci is no longer as friendly to the Tang army as it used to be?"
Guo Xin smiled bitterly and said: "This is mainly because the Tubo people have changed their strategy. In the past, they used to forcefully destroy the countries in the Western Regions, which made the countries in the Western Regions very panic, so they joined forces with the Tang army to deal with the Tubo army. However, in recent years, the Tubo army has changed its strategy.
The countries in the Western Regions were mainly Huairou and promised to accept them as vassal states of Tubo, and nothing else would change.
At the same time, the Tubo army stopped attacking Anxi. This move was really vicious. The countries in Anxi no longer had the sense of crisis of annihilation. They no longer relied on the Tang army as before, and their attitude towards the Tang army also gradually changed. To be honest, I have been
I haven’t seen the King of Kucha for three years. Several times I visited, he found various reasons for not seeing me and stopped giving us food support. Not only Kucha, but also other small countries in Anxi, Shule, Khotan, Yan
Wow, all the countries don’t like the Tang army very much.”
Guo Song nodded, "In this way, the supply line from Shazhou to Qiuci is even more important."
"Of course it's very important. I occasionally send people to Shazhou to exchange necessities such as salt, oil, cloth, etc."
"In exchange for what?" Guo Song asked.
Guo Xin pondered for a while and said: "We have a very small copper mine in Shule, which can produce more than 10,000 kilograms of copper ingots every year. This is our only capital, and we use it to exchange oil, salt and cloth with Shazhou."
The journey of more than ten miles passed by in a flash, and not long after, Tang Jun saw Kucha City. All the veterans and family members in the city came out to greet them. Everyone was dressed in ragged clothes and looked disheveled, but they had bright smiles on their faces. That was from their heart.
Inner welcome.
When everyone saw Guo Song, they couldn't help but cheer. Everyone knew him, and every time he came, he would bring great blessings to Qiuci.
Guo Song dismounted and ordered the soldiers to lead the camels into the city. Each camel was carrying heavy boxes and grain bags. The soldiers and people cheered and ran with the camels. When the bags of wheat were unloaded, many people
Holding the grain bag and crying loudly.
This time Guo Song brought 10,000 shi of grain and 20,000 pieces of cloth to Qiuci, as well as salt and sheepskin, several hundred kilograms of melon and fruit seeds, and a large number of soldiers and armor. This was also the limit that 3,000 camels could carry.
In addition, three thousand elite soldiers will also stay in Anxi to add fresh blood to the Anxi army.
This time Guo Song came to Anxi not to carry out the mission of the emperor or the court, but his own arrangement. He knew the difficulties in Anxi. On the one hand, he wanted to provide help to Anxi during the critical period. On the other hand, he wanted to establish a material transportation between Anxi and Shazhou.
Corridor to open up the connection between Datang and Anxi.
Guo Song had no time to rest and immediately summoned Guo Xin and several Anxi officials to discuss the establishment of a transportation corridor. This was also the most important purpose of his personal visit to Anxi.
Guo Song unfolded a map, which was stored in the Dunhuang Prefectural Government Office. It mapped the terrain, trade routes, water sources, etc. from Dunhuang to Qiuci in great detail, and it was very accurate.
"May I ask the prince, what is the status of Tubo's existence in Anxi?" This is an important prerequisite that Guo Song needs to understand.
Guo Xin said slowly: "Currently, there are about 5,000 Tibetan troops in Anxi. They are basically all south of the Tulum Desert. There are three garrison points. One is in Sabize, south of the Altyn Mountains. This is the Tibetan army.
There are two tribes in the military base. The army is about 3,000 people. The second one is Qiemo City, which has about 1,000 people. The third one is Shule. There are many Tibetan herdsmen here and there are 1,000 troops stationed there. These five
Thousands of people mainly protect Tibetan interests in Anxi, and everyone has basically been in peace these years."
"Where's the Qiemo River?"
Guo Song was very concerned about this river that leads directly to Puchang Sea. He had already driven away several Tyuhun tribes along this river.
“There are no permanent tribes stationed along the Qiemo River, but Tibetan herdsmen [Biquge www.biqugex.me] will come here to graze in the summer, and then go back in the winter.”
After a pause, Guo Xin added: "Our soldiers often go fishing in Puchang Sea by boat to make sure there are no Tibetan herdsmen around Puchang Sea."
Guo Song pondered for a moment and asked: "Is it possible to build a military city to guard the army north of Puchanghai?"
"Puchanghai is more than 700 miles away from Qiuci City and about 300 miles away from Yanji Town. It is not impossible to build a military city, but it is more dangerous. I don't know when the Tibetan army came and took it away. If
It’s a supply need, it can be built!”
At this time, Hucao joined the army and Liu Chun said: "If it is just to build a supply point, I don't think it is necessary to build a military city. You can ask the Yanji people to build a grazing point in Puchanghai, and then the Yanji people will build a town there. As long as it is not the Tang army
The Tubo people generally don't pay attention to the military towns established."
"This is a good way to let the Yanji people come forward to build a supply point!" Guo Xin praised.
"There is another important discovery I want to tell you."
Guo Song pointed to the map again and said: "It takes about fifteen days for the camel team to travel from Anxi to Shazhou. Six of them are crossing the desert, which is more dangerous and difficult. But I found that the north of this map does not seem to be a desert.
.”
Guo Song pointed to the north of Puchang Sea and said: "One hundred and fifty miles north of Puchang Sea is the remnant of the Tianshan Mountains. Walking along the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, about two hundred miles is not desert, but the Gobi Desert, grasslands, forests, and
There are several small rivers. If we go from the north, the distance across the desert will be reduced to about a hundred miles. After crossing this hundred miles of desert, we will reach Shouchang County. In this way, we can shorten the journey by two days.
, and more importantly, the risk is greatly reduced.”
Guo Xin said happily: "Whenever my nephew returns, I will personally go to Shazhou to survey and confirm this route."
Guo Song said with a smile: "If the prince wants to return to the court to meet the emperor, he can."
Guo Xin was silent for a moment, shook his head and said: "Anxi can't leave me for a while. The most I can do is go to Shazhou."
...........
After the discussion, Guo Xin accompanied Guo Song to visit Kucha City. Compared with eight years ago, Kucha City has basically not changed, but there are many fewer people. This is mainly because the Kucha Kingdom moved away and they built another city in Gumo.
They built a new city, and most of the Kucha people followed, leaving many houses in the city empty.
Guo Song pointed to the empty houses and said: "No one lives in these houses anymore. The front and back of the houses can be fully utilized to grow some high-yielding fruits and then dry them in the sun, so that they can be eaten in winter."
"I think you brought a lot of seeds?" Guo Xin asked with a smile of interest.
Guo Song nodded, "I brought more than a hundred kilograms of winter melon seeds and melon seeds. The winter melon yield is particularly large. One vine can bear seven or eight large winter melons weighing several dozen kilograms. Last year, I suggested that Beiting promote this kind of seeds."
I think Anxi can also grow winter melons. It has plenty of sunlight and is close to the Chihe River. There is no shortage of water. When the city is full of winter melons, are you still worried that there will be no food to satisfy your hunger in the winter?"
Guo Xin was overjoyed, "It happens to be spring, I will start organizing everyone to sow seeds tomorrow!"
Guo Xin remembered something again and asked with a smile: "Can the beautiful jade from Anxi be exchanged for some money in the Central Plains? We found a lot of huge white jade and sapphire at the foot of the mountain."
The huge jade that Guo Xin mentioned was not made from seeds, but from mountains and rivers. The Tang Dynasty did not attach much importance to seed materials. Guo Song suddenly felt itchy and said with a smile: "Now that the trade route is open, we can send the beautiful jade from Anxi to
If we go to Chang'an, I can underwrite the sales, but can you let me pick out a few pieces of pebbles and jade first?"
Guo Xin laughed loudly, patted Guo Song on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry! I prepared a whole room for my nephew, who traveled thousands of miles to deliver life-saving food to us. How could I not have a thank you gift?"
Guo Song was so happy that he wished he could choose his own jade, "Thank you very much for your kindness, uncle!"
.......
Guo Song was worried about leaving Shazhou. He only stayed in Kucha City for three days and then returned to Shazhou with his generals and camel team. This time Guo Xin followed him personally. He wanted to witness the opening of this transportation channel with his own eyes.
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