"I, the late king of Tubo, once married the princess of your country, and we have uncles and nephews in both countries. Today, the general returns the captives and restores old friendship. The former kings of the two countries know about this, and they will surely be very happy!"
"What your envoy said is that since you speak Tang dialect so well, you must have been to Chang'an, right?" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile. What the other party just recited was a famous poem in "The Book of Songs Wei Feng", to the effect that between two people, there is no need to To measure the value of a gift, one should cherish and understand the other person's friendship. This is quite appropriate for the situation between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty. It is obvious that the other party knows the culture of the Tang Dynasty very well, otherwise he would not be able to use the Book of Songs so skillfully. Express yourself.
"Yes, I studied abroad in Datang for several years when I was a boy. I also went to Luoyang, Taiyuan, and even Chengdu!"
"Chengdu?" Wang Wenzuo's eyes lit up: "Does your envoy have the intention of revisiting his old place?"
"The king's orders are with me!" Langri said with a smile: "When everything is over, it will not be too late to visit the old place again!"
"Well, today we will discuss official matters first, and then talk about personal friendship!" Wang Wenzuo became serious: "Wenzong, get the roster!"
"Here!" Cao Wenzong responded, took a roster from the wooden stand next to him, and handed it to Wang Wenzuo. Wang Wenzuo handed the list to Langri: "These are the prisoners of your country. There are 2,673 prisoners in total, 450 of them are disabled. Your envoy can count them according to the list, please!"
Langri flipped through the roster and saw that the names of the prisoners were densely copied on it. However, the names on it were quite strange. He soon realized that those Tibetan prisoners must not have Tang Dynasty names. They must have randomly reported one when they asked, Tang Dynasty secretary. The officer wrote a Chinese name that was similar to the sound. He flipped through two pages, put the roster aside, and said with a smile: "General, you are interested. You can't see anything in this roster. Can you take a look at the names?" !”
"Of course!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "I have already called a prisoner over, and he is outside the tent. Your envoy can ask him first, and then go to the camp to have a look!" After that, he patted Langri without waiting for his answer. He tapped his palms twice: "Bring the person in!"
Tenzin walked into the tent cautiously, knelt down to Wang Wenzuo, and greeted Wang Wenzuo in crude Tang dialect.
"Get up!" Wang Wenzuo pointed at Langri: "Let me introduce you, this is the envoy from the Tubo Kingdom, who is here to discuss the matter of redeeming you!"
"What about redeeming us?" Tenzin glanced at Langri in surprise, and then lowered his head in shame. It was an honor to die in battle in Tubo, but it was a great shame to be captured.
"You raise your head!" Lang Ri said in a deep voice. He looked at the man in front of him seriously. Except for the mark on his right cheek, he didn't look like a prisoner of war: there were no scars left by shackles on his wrists and ankles. There were no chilblains, and there were no whip marks on the exposed skin. Maybe it was covered by clothes. There was some redness and swelling on the hands, and there were shoes on the feet. Although the clothes on the body were very old, they were at least enough to protect the body from the cold. There was nothing special about him. Thin, this should be specially selected by the Tang people, right?
"Take off your clothes!"
Tenzin was slightly startled. He instinctively turned his gaze to Acton. When he saw the other person nodded, he began to take off his coat. Langri noticed this. He said nothing and quietly waited for Tenzin to finish taking off his clothes. , there are many scars on his body, but they are not like upgrades left by whips and sticks.
"What's the matter with the redness and swelling on your hands?" Langri asked.
"It's tung oil. I accidentally got it on when I was working. I immediately felt itchy and unbearable. I need to rinse it with urine to get rid of it!"
"Tung oil?" Lang Ri was aroused. Could it be that Tang Jun had some conspiracy? "How did you get tung oil?"
"The villain was building a rope bridge and accidentally got tung oil on the ropes and wooden planks!"
Langri asked a few more questions, and finally stopped in disappointment when it was confirmed that it was really just building bridges and roads. Wang Wenzuo had already mentioned using these prisoners to build roads.
"You should step back first!" Wang Wenzuo noticed Lang Ri's disappointment, signaled Denzin to step down, and then smiled at Lang Ri: "When does your envoy plan to visit the captives?"
"No rush!" Lang Ri waved his hand. His attention had now shifted from the prisoner to the man in front of him: "Let's discuss the terms of the prisoner exchange first?"
"Okay!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Wenzong, have you told the envoy my terms?"
"I have already said that among the ten thousand Qiang slaves, six thousand must be young and strong!" Cao Wenzong said.
"Don't you think it's too much, Governor Wang?" Langri said with a smile: "You only have more than 2,000 people, but you want us to exchange them for 10,000!"
"People are different!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "We have soldiers in our hands, how can we exchange them one to one?"
"They are not anymore! If they were really soldiers, they would not be captured by you!" Lang Ri sneered.
"Anything can happen in a war! Those people were in a desperate situation and surrender was their only option!"
"No, they can die. Warriors should not be prisoners! So as not to cause trouble to others!"
The smile on Wang Wenzuo's face disappeared, and he was filled with undisguised disgust: "The only fault of these poor people is that they stand under the wrong flag!" After that, he waved his hand: "Stand down! That’s the end of today’s talks!”
Lang Ri stood up in astonishment. He did not expect that the Tang general would suddenly change his face, but he still bowed deeply to Wang Wenzuo before exiting the tent. After a long time, Wang Wenzuo let out a long breath: "Wenzong, I shouldn't have done that in front of the envoy just now!"
"It's nothing! The best we can do is keep fighting! We won't lose!" Cao Wenzong said.
"Won't lose?" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "I can't believe you are so confident!"
"You would be angry about the unfair treatment of enemy soldiers, so you wouldn't put us in that predicament!"
"I hope so!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "Maybe deep down in my heart, I am still the soldier trapped in Baekje, in a desperate situation. The king and generals forced the men to leave their homes for their own ambition and greed. fields and sheep, heading to a distant country whose name I have never even heard of, and fighting strangers. If they win, the king and generals take away most of the spoils, and the surviving soldiers only get a few scraps. , go home with mutilated limbs; if the battle is defeated, the soldiers finally put down their weapons with all their strength, but the king and generals say that the captured soldiers are cowards because they did not die and caused trouble. Wenzong, in this world Are there any such ridiculous things?"
Cao Wenzong said nothing and looked at Wang Wenzuo with sympathy. He could feel the anger in the man's heart. The anger was directed at the Tibetan envoy, but not just the envoy. Yes, everyone knows that Governor Wang is resourceful and can predict the enemy first, but not many know that he really sympathizes with the soldiers and farmers.
"It seems that I misjudged those Tubo nobles!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "I thought that although they would discriminate against captured soldiers, they would still find ways to redeem them. After all, this can increase their own power. Power. But what I didn’t expect was that they would be so arrogant. It’s really ridiculous!”
"You mean the Tibetans will refuse to exchange prisoners?" Cao Wenzong asked.
"It's possible!" Wang Wenzuo said with a wry smile: "After all, Qiang slaves are the property of the nobles, and the redeemed soldiers should be free people. Exchanging prisoners is equivalent to taking out one's own pockets and benefiting the public! I originally thought about this It’s so easy!”
"What should we do?"
"Let's watch while we talk!" Wang Wenzuo sighed: "By the way, Wenzong, you will go to the Tibetan envoy later to find out what he says!"
"As you command!"
When Langri walked into his tent, he was humming a tune and smiling all over his face. In negotiations, whoever gets the other party to get angry first wins the round.
"Bring me a glass of wine, want it warm!" Langri laughed, he took off his cloak, and suddenly found Cao Wenzong sitting by the stove. He couldn't help being startled, and his movements stopped immediately: "Mr. Cao! " His voice was sharp and he laughed nervously.
"You don't want to see me here?"
"No!" Lang Ri had regained his composure. He smiled and threw the cloak on the wooden stand aside: "I'm just a little surprised, just a little bit!" he emphasized.
"Okay, are you not surprised now?" Cao Wenzong looked at Langri coldly: "You really surprised me today. You are the first person to make Governor Wang angry in so many years! "
"So you were ordered to kill me?" Langri asked carefully.
"You are worrying too much!" Cao Wenzong said: "The Governor Wang asked me to come and visit you!"
"If that's the case, then I'll be relieved!" Langri breathed a sigh of relief: "You can take my apology with you when you go back. That's when I made a mistake!"
Cao Wenzong didn't speak. He stared at Lang Ri's face and nodded after a moment: "Very good, I will. The Governor's original invitation is still valid!"
"Thank you, Governor, for me!"
The conversation that followed was polite and cold. Faced with Cao Wenzong, Langri acted cautiously. He could never forget the rolled-up meat cleaver. Soon after, Cao Wenzong stood up to say goodbye and sent it out the door. , Langri took a deep breath, feeling his vest was cold, and then realized that it was soaked with sweat.
In the next few days, Lang Ri was busy checking the situation in the prisoner camp. He could feel the faint hostility on the body of Cao Wenzong who was accompanying him, which made him feel even more uneasy. Obviously, this was because of what happened in the tent that day. There was no doubt that the Tang general still hated him.
The conditions of the Tibetan prisoners were good, even surprisingly good. Langri had seen the prisoners of war. They could no longer be called human beings, but a group of walking corpses, between life and death. The winner would often go to any lengths to vent his hatred. Using methods to torture past enemies, coupled with mental blows and heavy labor, most prisoners will die within a few months, and those who survive will be changed beyond recognition. But these Tibetan prisoners were different. Indeed, their work was very hard, but there were no shackles or wooden shackles on them, and there were not many guards around them. He even saw wooden barrels placed under the shade of the trees.
"What is that?" Langri pointed to a tree not far away. There were several wooden barrels there, and two people were scooping things out of the barrels with spoons.
"Oh! That's a soup bucket, with bean soup in it!" Tenzin replied: "If the workers are thirsty, they can go over there to quench their thirst. I heard from people in the Tang Dynasty that drinking it is good for your health!"
"Soup bucket?" Lang Ri walked to the tree in surprise. He picked up a spoon and scooped out. Sure enough, there was some bean foam in it. He tasted it and it seemed to be a little salty: "Is there salt in it?"
"Yes, there is salt. I heard people from the Tang Dynasty say that because people who work hard sweat a lot, it is best to put a little salt in the soup they drink. It is good for the body!"
Langri snorted coldly and threw the wooden spoon back into the barrel. The local salt in Tubo was expensive, and ordinary people and slaves had to eat lightly all year round. The Tang people actually put salt in the soup and water given to the captives, not to mention the meals. This The treatment is too good, right?
"Dengzin, why are there so few Tang guards around here? Could it be that no one escaped?" Langri asked.
"At first, some people escaped and were whipped, and some were beheaded and hung on a tree for public display!"
"What happened after that? Then it disappeared?"
"Yeah!" Tenzin nodded: "The way back here is too far. We don't know the way at all. How can we escape? Moreover, the Qiang people nearby hate us, and the Tang people have offered rewards. If we escape, we will be caught. , Besides, life here is pretty good, and no one will escape gradually!"
Langri snorted coldly and said nothing. In his eyes, Tenzin was a talking animal, and he would not scold him. He looked at the stone wall in the distance and found someone busy doing something on it, so he asked : "What are you doing?"
"We are building a plank road!" Danzeng said with a smile: "It means drilling holes in the stone wall, inserting wooden stakes in, and laying wooden boards on top. It becomes a road that can be walked by people, as well as by mules and horses. Let’s go, I really didn’t expect that people in the Tang Dynasty could come up with such a method. Once this section of the road is repaired, we can save more than ten miles of walking. What a living Bodhisattva!”
Tenzin's compliments reached Langri's ears, causing an unknown fire to rise in his heart. He knew that he shouldn't get angry at this ignorant fool, but the fire in his chest kept getting bigger and bigger. It goes straight to the forehead and is about to spurt out.
"There is also a rope bridge. It is obviously a mountain stream more than 20 steps wide. It takes half a day to detour. But the Tang people used ropes to build a bridge on it. It can be crossed in half a meal. Isn't this a living Bodhisattva? What—" Tenzin didn't feel Lang Ri's anger at all. He kept talking on his own. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain on his face, which was like a whip.
"This whip is a lesson to you!" Langri looked at Tenzin coldly, with blood flowing down his cheek: "Remember, you are a Tibetan, and the Tang people are your enemies. You are not allowed to praise your enemies. Good thing! Otherwise next time it will be a knife instead of a whip!"
