"Your Tubo is too backward. Your Highness can allow the caravan to sell some ironware, grain, salt and other materials to your Tubo, but the prerequisite is that you are not allowed to collect taxes from my Datang caravan! This is a little discount given to you by His Highness." Wang Zheng curled his lips disdainfully.
"That's it?" Songtsen Gampo's eyes flashed with light, but on the surface he spoke with disdain.
"Haha? That's it? This is His Highness's kindness, otherwise you will never think about whether you want love or not. My time is urgent, I can give you one day to think about it, and I will come to ask for an explanation tomorrow. If there is no explanation, either Zanpu, if you kill us, we will have to meet you on the battlefield." Wang Zheng sneered and stood up directly.
His wound had been sutured and was not long to begin with, but the pain still consumed Wang Zheng a lot of energy. The doctor next to him helped him stand up.
After finishing speaking, he reluctantly waved his hand to Songtsen Gampo before turning and leaving.
Naturally, people from Songtsen Gampo provided accommodation for their mission, and Wang Zheng did not refuse.
After arriving at the arranged place, the mission's guards immediately surrounded the two of them in a circle, strictly prohibiting anyone from approaching.
In the room, Yang Cheng whispered: "Do you think they will be fooled?"
"Definitely. They are short-sighted and like frogs in a well. They would never have thought that His Highness's real purpose is this." Wang Zheng sneered.
"Yes, I have received reports from the trading houses. Tubo has been trying to purchase ironware, grain, seeds, books and other materials through some smuggling merchants in the Western Regions and other places. This Songtsen Gampo is an ambitious man. If you let him continue to develop, he must be a serious problem for His Highness! It has not been long since Tubo suppressed the rebellion, and a large number of people have just integrated into them. Now is the best time." Yang Cheng nodded.
"How much gold do you think we need?" Wang Zheng thought for a while and said, it is absolutely impossible for the other party to come up with 30,000 stones.
"I asked people from the trading bank to do calculations based on the business of these tribes that were conquered by Tubo in the past few years. Adding in the plunder from Tibet, I estimate that they can come up with at least 15,000 to 16,000 kilograms of gold. No problem. "Yang Cheng gave a number.
"Then it will cost at least 15,000 kilograms tomorrow!" Wang Zheng nodded fiercely. This is only more than 130 kilograms, which is far away from thirty thousand kilograms.
…
"Zan Pu, if His Highness the King of Qin can sell us iron tools, as well as the food and other things we need, this can be done." Shang Xiang said.
"I just don't know how much iron, food, seeds, and books they can sell to us. What we need most are seeds, iron, and books. In fact, we are not short of food itself." Lun Keer also quickly said.
Songtsan Gampo nodded: "But gold, we must give a batch. But gold doesn't matter, just treat it as us buying things. After all, even if we wanted to buy it before, Datang wouldn't sell it. But we can't let it go tomorrow. They see that what we want most is this trade."
"I think they proposed not to collect taxes from the caravans of the Tang Dynasty. Do you think this caravan belongs to His Highness the King of Qin? After all, all the money earned by this caravan belongs to him. I can tell you from the previous The news passed back was that after he killed the Black Mountain bandit, he plundered all the Black Mountain bandit's villa." Shang Xiang said.
"It's very possible. If that's the case, then it's possible that we will buy a lot of things!" Lun Keer's eyes also lit up!
"I think so. In order to prevent us from exposing our target, we will test it tomorrow. Although the royal envoy just seemed to be very disdainful about this matter, as if this matter was a gift from His Highness King Qin to us, but in case he is actually Do you want to make money? And you don’t want to pay taxes to us.”
"Tomorrow we will test it out. If this is indeed their purpose, then we have to cover it up. We can't show too much, so we reluctantly agree to it. We will say that they are allowed to trade freely, but we Tubo officials actually have nothing to buy. , or we can buy something less important, such as silk, tea, or the mercury mirror that emerged in Chang'an."
"As for important iron supplies, we can use the excuse to buy them from nobles we trust, so that the other party will not be so suspicious." Shang Xiang quickly added.
"What do you think, Zampu?" Lunkel turned to Songtsen Gampo.
Songtsen Gampo thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, but this Murong Shun, I'm afraid we have to personally lead the troops to exterminate him."
"There is nothing we can do about it. I can only work hard for you. It's not clear what the situation is yet, but I'm afraid we won't be able to get the area north of the Kunlun Mountains back." Shang Xiang sighed.
"It doesn't matter. The population there is not large, and the distance from us is too far. If you lose it, you will lose it. Unless the Tang Dynasty can keep its troops stationed, sooner or later, it will be ours." Songtsen Gampo sneered. .
"Then it's settled. But tomorrow, you two will help me persuade the envoy to reduce the gold compensation as much as possible. We can't get so much gold."
"Yes, Zamp." The two of them naturally had no objections. Although they both knew that the other party's price for thirty thousand stones of gold was deliberately exorbitant, they would naturally reduce it if it could be reduced.
…
"Your Highness, this is a good thing. Tubo is eager for you to do this. Why do you have to go to such trouble?" Lu Hai was a little confused.
"You don't understand. We took the initiative to do this. Although they are very happy, they will also pay great attention to us. But in the current way, they will lower their vigilance against us, so that your work will be more convenient. ." Li Ke shook his head slightly, "Have the arrangements been made for the relevant personnel?"
"It's been arranged. They look similar to the Tubo people, and speaking and other aspects are not a problem. There will be about 500 people in the early stage. I am handing over and checking the subsequent selection plan with Secretary Li." Lu Hai said immediately.
"Well! The next step is up to you." Li Ke nodded lightly.
The reason why he didn't mind giving these weapons and equipment to Tubo was because Li Ke was ready to fundamentally dismantle Tubo. As a slave country, almost all the herdsmen in Tubo were slaves, and once some ideas were introduced, That spark can start a prairie fire.
It should not be too easy for these five hundred people to blend in among these slaves, because most of Tubo are nomadic, so their slaves are not like slaves in the Central Plains who are under the supervision of nobles.
Rather, it is like slave tribes scattered on the grassland. The only difference is that the cattle and sheep grazed by these slaves belong to the master. They themselves also belong to the master. What they eat and where they live is decided by the master. Calculate.
So Li Ke didn't mind giving them iron tools, books, seeds, even Quyuan plows, because Tubo and the others didn't have more than ten years to digest it completely.
In fact, digestion is useless, because the good things are given to Tubo. Tubo is used to make their slaves work and serve nobles like them, and what Li Ke did... was to leverage the fundamental things.
"Yes, I will appease and arrange the tribes who entered our Tang Dynasty from Tubo as soon as possible, and select some herdsmen who know people from other tribes in Tubo to train them. They will live in our Datang for one winter, and next year they will definitely feel your highness's love. When the time comes, they will look for those people they know, and use these people to attract people to spread the glory." Lu Hai immediately lowered his head and said.
"Yes, I hope we can see good news in ten years of Zhenguan." Li Ke nodded with satisfaction.
