Chapter 175: Dangxiang people’s caravan

A team of cavalry guarded Zhang Huan and rushed towards Tianbao County. Just now, County Magistrate Huang told him that a huge Dangxiang caravan returning from the Western Regions rested in Tianbao County, with a thousand camels and a population of more than 400.

This is the largest caravan that Zhang Huan has encountered since he entered Hexi. This has special significance for him. The caravan can not only bring the materials lacking in Hexi, but also the arrival of a large caravan also means the recovery of the Silk Road, which will bring huge business opportunities to Wuwei County, which is at the forefront of the Silk Road.

But what Zhang Huan wanted to know was also information about Tubo.

Dangxiang people were mainly distributed in two places, one in the south and one in the north. One was Min and Song counties in Jiannan Road, and the other was Yan'an County in Guannei Road and the Hue County area. After the Anshi Rebellion, Tubo took the opportunity to occupy Min and Song counties. Most of the Dangxiang people moved north to Shunhua County. Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty Li Heng reset the Qingzhou Governor's Office in Shunhua County, and specially resettled Dangxiang people.

Later, the Tang Dynasty had no time to look west, so the Dangxiang people gradually established a regime there. They continued to invade the south, raid the counties of Longyou, and plundered the population and wealth.

Five years after Qingzhi, the Wei family began to control Longyou and launched several wars against the Dangxiang people, with mixed defeats. Under the mediation of the court, Wei Yan reached a reconciliation with Dangxiang King Tuoba Lin, and the Dangxiang people moved west to Yinchuan County.

But after the Helong Incident last year, Yinchuan County was in the battleground of Duan, Wei and Zhang's three families. At this time, a battle for the throne occurred within the Dangxiang people. Yeli tribe leader Yeli Ping killed the elderly Dangxiang king Tuoba Lin and seized the throne. Tuoba Lin's son Tuoba Xi led 50,000 loyal Dangxiang people to cross the Yellow River west, occupied the narrow zone of Yanran County at the foot of the Helan Mountains, and established a new Xidangxiang regime there to fight against the Dongdangxiang people in Yinchuan County.

The caravan that returned from the Western Regions this time by Tianbao County was the Xidangxiang people. The leader of the caravan was Tuoba Qianli. It is said that he was a Dangxiang nobleman. He was also very young, only a little older than Zhang Huan, two years old, square face, and a pair of sharp eagle eyes. He spoke neither quickly nor slowly, and his every move showed a unique decisiveness of a soldier.

Soon, Tuoba Qianli was invited to the Tang army camp by soldiers, and he did not expect that he would meet the governor of Wuwei County in Tianbao County.

"Governor, Mr. Tuoba brought it." A personal soldier reported outside the tent that he had reported.

"Let him in."

As soon as he lifted the curtain, a personal soldier brought Tuoba Qianli in. Zhang Huan glanced at him briefly and saw that he was not tall, but very strong, had a very agile move, looked clean and neat, and had a military style. However, the people of Dangxiang were also soldiers of the whole nation, which was not surprising.

He stepped forward and bowed to Zhang Huan and said, "I have met Governor Zhang in Tuoba Qianli."

"You're welcome, Mr. Tuoba please sit down!"

Zhang Huan waved his hand gently and asked him to sit down. A personal soldier served tea for the two of them. Tuoba Qianli picked up the teacup and sucked it carefully. He couldn't help but smile and said, "I didn't expect that I could drink the purple bamboo tea from Yuejun in the remote Hexi?"

Zhang Huanhe smiled and said, "Mr. Tuoba can taste purple bamboo tea, which is great! I have some insight. This is indeed purple bamboo tea, which I brought from Chang'an."

Tuoba Qianli put down the teacup and smiled and said, "To be honest, my grandfather was Tuoba Lin, the former king of Dangxiang. He always admired the culture of the Central Plains. Later, he sent more than a dozen of our brothers to Chang'an or Chengdu. I am the youngest and least promising one of the Tuoba family. I have only been in Chang'an for three years, and now I can only be a businessman, working hard and working hard."

"Oh! It turns out that Mr. Tuoba is Prince Dangxiang, and he is disrespectful." Zhang Huan was kind-hearted, but there was no look of awe on his face. A small son of the leader of the Dangxiang people was nothing in his eyes.

He still said lightly: "Did Mr. Tuoba come from the Western Regions?"

"I went to Saiye, and exchanged Tang Dynasty porcelain for a batch of high-quality Persian carpets there, and prepared to sell them in Chang'an."

Tuoba Qianli sighed slightly and said, "It's just that I'm not lucky. I encountered a battle between the Tubo people and the Uighur people in Kucha, and lost more than 200 camels. The profits were much less."

"You mean, the Tubo people are going to war with the Uighurs in Kucha?" Zhang Huan asked without saying a word.

"Don't the governor know about this?"

Tuoba Qianli looked very surprised, as if he was incredible by Zhang Huan's ignorance. "The war began in March, and both sides invested tens of thousands of heavy troops. They have been fighting for the four towns of Anxi for more than two months."

"This matter has nothing to do with me, so I naturally don't need to know." Zhang Huan smiled and changed the topic: "Mr. Tuoba came all the way east, didn't the Tubo people make things difficult for you?"

"I am Dangxiang people, so they did not make any difficulties, but if it were you Han people..." He did not continue, but the meaning was very obvious. The Tubo people did not allow Han people to do business in the Western Regions.

Speaking of this, Tuoba Qianli pondered for a while and said, "If Governor Zhang also intends to go to the Western Regions to do business, I can send someone to take the caravan from Hexi to the Western Regions, but I have a small condition."

"Tell me, what conditions do you want?"

"I hope Governor Zhang can form an alliance with our Xidangxiang and deal with Ye Liping of Yinchuan County together."

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Tuoba Qianli had already left, and Zhang Huan paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. The Dangxiang people brought him unexpected news that Tubo and the Uighurs were fighting in Anxi. Is this why Tubo refused to attack Huixibao?

It seems that there is a natural causal relationship between the two. Tubo concentrated on fighting for Anxi, so he had no time to look around. But if this matter was said from an ordinary businessman, he could completely believe it, but this was said from Prince Dangxiang, which requires caution.

Zhang Huan didn't know much about Dangxiang people. When he was a child, he often heard from the masters in the school that Dangxiang people were ungrateful and burned, killed and looted in Longyou. Judging from the contact between Dangxiang prince today, this person is not simple. On the one hand, he said that he was the youngest and least promising and was not valued by his father, but he wanted to form an alliance with Dangxiang, without any hesitation in his tone, which seemed to represent Dangxiang completely, which was a bit inconsistent.

After such a struggle, Zhang Huan was no longer the one who could impress him with just one piece of news. Although the news of this Dangxiang people was important, he only believed three points. He needed to confirm the remaining seven points by himself. Soon, he called two Qiang scouts and ordered them to go to Anxi to explore the truth and reality.

He had been staying in Tianbao County for most of the day and learned what he wanted to know. He immediately called Huang County Magistrate, explained it, and led his personal soldiers back to Wuwei.

Let’s talk about the Dangxiang man Tuoba Qianli rested in Tianbao County for a day, and then continued on the road with more than 400 followers. Five days later, the Dangxiang man’s caravan arrived at the banks of Liusha River. After crossing the river, he walked north along Helan Mountain for more than 300 miles to Yanran County where the Dangxiang man lived.

When they set out for the Western Regions it was the end of February. The banks of the Liusha River were still deserted, but now there are hundreds of large tents.

There was a military camp not far away. I saw thousands of people busy by the river. The scene was very lively. Tuoba Qianli couldn't help but feel a little surprised. He sent someone to inquire, and the answer he got was that these people were exploring gold here.

"Gold digging?" Tuoba Qianli felt a moment in his mind and had a thought, if this gold sand mine belonged to Dangxiang, why would he have to travel thousands of miles to the Western Regions? Although he thought so, there was no expression on his face and he directly crossed the river and headed north.

The foot of Helan Mountain where Yanran County is located is a narrow and long area, facing the Yellow River in the east, with a widest place of only twenty miles, but hundreds of miles long. At the beginning of last year, when the Emperor Li of the Tang Dynasty was trapped in the west, Wei Yan sent general Lu Sigong to rescue the lord, which was here to be defeated by the ambush of the Uighurs, destroying the elite Hexi in Xin Yunjing.

Yanran County was originally a territory of the nine Turkic people, with only one extremely small city. Before the Dangxiang people's future, there were only more than 300 households and more than 1,000 people living in the city, all of whom were grazing. After the Dangxiang people came, all the people in the city were driven away, and the small city also became Tuoba Xi's royal city. Dozens of magnificent tents were built in the city for the royal members of the Xidangxiang family to live in.

Xidang Xiang Wang Tuoba Xi has three sons and two daughters. The sons are named Wanli, Qianli, Baili, Qianli, Qianli, and Qianli.

It was Tuoba Qianli. He was actually the second prince, not the youngest and most unreliable person as he introduced himself. Not only that, he was also the heir to the throne of Dangxiang.

The camel caravan about two miles long passed through a large tent. The return of the second prince caused a sensation among the entire Xidangxiang people. Tens of thousands of men and women ran out to greet him along the way, and cheers continued. The more than a thousand camels were full of their hopes. When they were still one mile away from Yanran City, Tuoba Qianli's father, Tuoba Xi, came out to greet him in person.

During the Dangxiang people's westward migration, they took away very little wealth and cattle and sheep, and most of the wealth accumulated over a hundred years was left in Yinchuan County. Therefore, finding a way to survive became the most urgent matter for the Dangxiang people in Xidangxiang.

Trade with the Western Regions was the first choice of the Dangxiang people. For this reason, they gathered all their wealth to allow their most capable second prince to explore this path to establish a country through trade.

Tuoba Xi intimately pulled his son into his big tent. As soon as Tuoba Qianli sat down, he frankly said to his father: "Father, the risk of trade with the Western Regions is too great. The Tubo people only allow us to go there once a year, and the number of caravans cannot exceed 500. I don't think this is a long-term solution."

Tuoba Xi is a fat and white middle-aged man. He doesn't look like the Dangxiang King, but like the housekeeper of a wealthy family. When his son said that the trade risk was too high, he couldn't help but sigh. The survival pressure of more than 50,000 people was heavily pressed on his shoulders. If he grazed, there would be no large grassland at the foot of the Helan Mountains, and there was no farming land. He could never think of any other way except to make money in trade.

At this moment, Tuoba Qianli smiled sinisterly, "Father, I have found a way out for our Party Xiang people."

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Chapter completed!