Cao Yuanxin was wearing a white cotton-padded jacket, which was covered in sweat under the red sun. Even so, she still wore it for a quarter of an hour before taking it off, and then went to wash up before coming out to see Zhang Zhao.
"It's a good thing. I heard someone say a few days ago that King Zhang of the Jin Kingdom made a huge wooden bow. He said that he wanted to shoot down the sun. After working on it for a long time, you went to tinker with fabrics. !”
Zhang Zhao was speechless for a while. What unreliable guy spread this nonsense? It's just a big wooden bow used to play cotton. It would take a giant of three or four meters to shoot arrows, right?
"However, this fabric is good. It is indeed very warm in winter, but it is of no use!" Cao Yuanxin said and shook his head, "With its cost, if the nobles have their own furs to wear, who would wear such an ugly thing? The people are reluctant to buy it at all. If I buy this cotton robe like yours, I might as well buy a few more pieces of cloth to make two more sets of clothes myself. If the weather is cold, just wear more clothes, and it can still be used in summer."
"Niang Niang is indeed discerning, but the reason why this item is so expensive is due to the yield per acre and the textile technology. Someone can predict that after the improvement of cotton species and textile technology in the future, it will replace kudzu and other materials and become the most important cloth. , and I came here today not for the cotton-padded jackets, but for this set of armor."
Zhang Zhao said and waved, and Mrs. Cao who was waiting outside the door struggled to carry a set of cloth face armor and walked in. Cao Yuanxin glanced at it lightly. This Mrs. Cao's face was filled with the luster of love, and she was full of human energy. A lot better too.
After hesitating for a moment, Ms. Cao looked at Zhang Zhao beside her from the corner of her eyes, and finally let go of her former role as Queen of Karakhan. She gently bent down and slowly knelt in front of Cao Yuanxin, "Slave Cao's daughter. , meet Jin Niang!"
Cao Yuanxin raised his head and tried hard to control the trembling of the muscles on his face, the queen of Karahan! Once upon a time, this woman was as noble as her, but now she finally knelt down in front of her with conviction.
After half a minute of soaring in the clouds, Cao Yuanxin took a breath to calm down the excitement in his heart. He looked at Mr. Cao on the ground and said calmly, "I heard that you are a descendant of the Dong Cao royal family?"
"Back to Jinniang, the ancestor of the slave is King Dongcao. It's a pity that after the Persian Samans destroyed our country, the ancestral temple was cut off and the genealogy was lost." Now that he has knelt down and put down his pride, the Cao family has become more honest and does not She was forgetting about the time when Cao Yuanxin forcibly sent her to Zhang Zhao's bed in order to celebrate the unconscious Zhang Zhao.
"It's a pity. If there is a genealogy, you and I can discuss the seniority. The ancestral family other than this is from Xicao, and is the heir of Prince Huaide!" This is the title of the emperor's concubine at this time, and this is the title of Prince Huaide! Palace is a special name for the queen, because only the courtyard where the queen lives can be called a palace.
Although Cao Yuanxin was the queen of the Jin Dynasty in Khotan, according to the etiquette and laws of Khotan recognizing the Tang Dynasty as its mother country, Cao Yuanxin was only a county queen, and the place she lived in could only be called a pavilion, not a palace, so Cao Yuanxin usually claimed her own title.
"Both of them have the surname Cao, so they have some connection with each other. This time she made a great contribution by gathering the clansmen to work with cotton. Why don't you send a letter to King Linggong and let this girl join the Cao family?" Zhang Zhao He said with a smile, and a bit of a flattering look on his face.
"Tsk tsk!" Cao Yuanxin clucked his tongue while gesturing for Mrs. Cao on the ground to get up, "It seems you quite like her! You men, other people's wives are better than your own, right? You still want to get her in The door wall of the Cao family in Qiaojun is really ready to be given a title!"
"Please give me your blessing!" Zhang Zhao raised his hand to Cao Yuanxin.
"Okay! I'll write a letter later!" Cao Yuanxin looked at Zhang Zhao's expression seriously and knew that Zhang Zhao didn't seem to be faking, so he agreed, "But these days you let her follow me and ask for her surname. Cao, you need to memorize the genealogy of my Qiaojun Cao."
As he spoke, Cao Yuanxin looked at the Cao family and snorted arrogantly, "I, the Cao family in Shazhou, are from the Cao family in Qiao County. The ancestors of this branch are the descendants of Emperor Wu, the great ancestor of the Wei Dynasty. They are a famous family. You are a Sogdian." People, being able to join the Chinese clan is a blessing that has been cultivated by your ancestors for several generations."
"Since Jin Niang agreed, why not give her another name!" Zhang Zhao hurriedly struck while the iron was hot. His cousin and Jin Niang was like this. She liked to say some slightly bitter words, but usually when she said these words, she It was when she was happiest.
"Why are you in such a hurry? I only said that I would write a letter, and it is not certain whether the Duke will agree to it or not!" Cao Yuanxin snorted again.
"How can your majesty and your Majesty disagree with Jin Niang's action?" Zhang Zhao presented him with another high hat.
"Okay then! Since you have entered my Cao family's gate with the power of cotton, let me give you a cotton, eh! Cao Yanmian, descendants of Yanyan, this name is not bad!" Cao Yuanxin naturally gave Cao family It's quite appropriate to be a generation younger.
"Thank you so much for giving me the name, my slave will be called Cao Yanmian from now on!" Ms. Cao hurriedly fell to the ground to thank her again. This time she thanked her sincerely. As a Sogdian who has long been obsessed with the culture of the Han and Tang Dynasties, he was able to enter the door of a wealthy family in the Central Plains. , for him, it was definitely one of his dreams.
"Zhang Erlang, together with this daughter Yanmian, my Cao family will have three daughters, Yanxi, Yannai and Yanmian, to marry you. You will be the only one in the future, don't forget it!"
"Don't worry, Niang Niang! I will never forget this!" Zhang Zhao knew what Cao Yuanxin meant, because judging from Zhang Zhao's current ability, the second and third generations of Cao's Guiyi Army, neither Cao Yuande nor Cao Yanlu, can Against Zhang Zhao, the power of the Guiyi Army will soon return from Cao's hands to Zhang's.
"Let Yanmian go back first. You can take this armor and follow me. Recently, your uncle was so angry that he couldn't sleep at night. Not only did that thief Yusupu refuse our solicitation, he also cut off the messenger's nose and ears to drive him away. Going back to Shule is so arrogant!”
Crossing the Geluoling Mountains with high mountains and sparse forests, Zheng Tong let out a long breath. After a month of arduous trek, he finally entered the country of Bukhan from Shule. Behind him, there were more than a dozen people.
There was the wild boar who often had to cover his face with a black scarf because of his fierce appearance, Ma Yaozi who looked like an old man at first glance, and brothers Pei Shengyuan and Pei Tongyuan who were wearing iron arm guards and were always paying attention to the movements of the hawks above them.
Using their identity as merchants as a cover, they took Zhang Zhao's order and headed to the former Bakhna country. First, they were exploring a passable route for the army, and second, they were looking for Yang and Zheng who had moved to the Bakhna country sixty years ago. , Xue Sanjia, descendants of the Anxi Army.
Geluoling is the Fergana Mountains that lie between Andiyan and Shule (Kashgar) in later generations. This mountain is a branch of the Tianshan Mountains and is very difficult to climb. If you want a large army to cross, you must find a road built on it. The ancient road that existed thousands of years ago. The reason why Saktu was able to capture this place was because of this ancient road.
Without this ancient road, hundreds of thousands of people could pass through, but it would be difficult for tens of thousands of troops. However, Yu Supu, the governor of Bahanna under Saktu, built Andukang City to be easy to defend and difficult to attack. Let alone capture such a big city, there are not even many soldiers defending it, so if you want to capture this place, you can only find the ancient road as soon as possible and raise a large number of soldiers.
The Bakhna country has been a prosperous land since ancient times. It was called Dawan in the Han Dynasty. It was a large country with more than 70 large and small cities and could mobilize more than 60,000 soldiers. The Bakhna country was devastated more than a hundred years ago. After being conquered by the Persians, it was later occupied by the Samanid Dynasty of Persia, who renamed the place Malyinang. In the future, it will also have names such as Kokand and Fergana.
"Five days ago we passed through this small town called Kaman. Now we are going east to Andukang City in Yusupu. Going north is where the three families of Yang, Zheng and Xue live." Zheng Tong wiped a With the sweat on his head, he said to the wild boar and the horse kite.
"Tie Bald, are you sure that the Yang family's castle is heading north from here? But there are mountains to the north here. Which north is the correct direction?" Ma Yaozi scratched his head, looking a little irritable. Originally, I heard from the king that this Bukhan is the land of Anxi and Tianfu. I thought there should be a lot of people there, so it wouldn't be difficult to ask for directions or find out something. As a result, they had hardly seen anyone since they passed Kaman.
"So..., so-and-so actually doesn't know." There were more beads of sweat on Zheng Tong's forehead, "The last time I saw someone from the Yang family was eight or nine years ago, and that's what he said to so-and-so at that time , it is said that after passing through Carman City, walk east along the highway for about five days, and you will see a big city, and you can find them by going north along the river flowing through the big city."
"Eighty-nine years! It's enough to change a lot of things!" The face-covered mountain pig said in a polite manner. Recently, he entered the military officer training course taught by King Zhang himself, and he can already recognize more than 200 characters. Even the people are a lot more polite.
"Yes!" Zheng Tong nodded in agreement, "In the past few years, the Kara Khanate and the Persian Saman Kingdom have fought several battles here. Maybe the big city mentioned by the Yang family has been destroyed by the war."
"Something's happening!" Pei Shengyuan, who had been listening to them, suddenly shouted, and then an eagle whistle came from the sky, and the giant eagle raised by Pei Shengyuan kept circling in circles from a distance.
"There are quite a few people coming!" Pei Tongyuan looked serious. It was very simple to judge the number of people but the number of people. He could tell by just looking at the size of the circle where the giant eagle flew around in the sky.
"Armor, look who is coming, look at my eyes and act!" Ma Yaozi quickly ran to the side of the cart, put on his cloth armor, and began to give instructions to others.
The armor invented by the king is so good. You can't tell it's iron armor from the outside. You'll just think it's cotton clothes. So even if the enemy's situation is unclear, they are not afraid of being exposed and can just put on the armor.
Sure enough, after Ma Yaozi and others had put on their armor, the thunderous sound of horse hooves rang in the distance, and a group of thirty or forty cavalrymen came from a distance, coming towards them in an outflanking formation.
"Who are you? How dare you come here?" After the cavalry surrounded Ma Yaozi and others, an officer with a long horse face like Ma Yaozi asked.
"I think they must be disguised as bandits from the mountains. Look at that guy, he looks just like those bandits!" Someone pointed at Zheng Tong, who looked like a Tangerine, and shouted, but his eyes were always looking towards him intentionally or unintentionally. Yaozi looked at their several full carts.
"This Burke, we are traders from the east, and we are definitely not bandits!" Ma Yaozi hurriedly ran over with a flattering look on his face, he really looked like a long-faced veteran who traveled around doing business.
"Hongshang? What are you selling? Who can prove that we are Hongshang?" Hearing that these people were Hongshang, the cavalry leader hesitated for a moment, with a hesitant look on his face. Businessmen are too important to the various ethnic groups in Anxi and Hezhong. Therefore, there are generally few plundering merchants.
"Here is a piece of white cloth from Gaochang. It is our respect for Burke and the warriors. Are there bandits in the north? Is the road to Andukang City still open?"
The cavalry leader did not reach out to take the piece of white cloth handed over by Ma Yaozi. He should not have given anything to this stupid merchant. The leader mocked in his heart. When the merchant went to get the cloth, everyone had already seen the carriage. There is also a large amount of fine cloth, at least dozens of pieces, so be careful to let them take some risks.
