Qiuci is one of the four towns in Anxi. Like the Gaochang Kingdom, it was destroyed during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and the Anxi Protectorate was established here.

It's just that the Gaochang State was annexed by the Tang Dynasty and turned into counties, but the Qiuci State was managed by the Tang Dynasty.

Jisi management means that after the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Kingdom of Kucha, it still retained the Kingdom of Kucha, but the King of Kucha was just a mascot, and the specific affairs of Kucha were left to the management of the state prime minister.

The prime minister of Qiuci was appointed by the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty, and was usually an official of the Anxi Protectorate.

However, the state structure of the Qiuci Kingdom was still retained, and it was regarded as a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty. Every year, envoys were sent to Xijing to pay tribute.

The Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Qiuci Kingdom on a daily basis. Their main job was to protect the Anxi Kingdom from falling into the hands of the Tubo or Uighurs.

Nowadays, the Anxi Protectorate is vacant. The person in charge of the Anxi Protectorate is Guo Ziyi's nephew Guo Xin, an old member of King Jianning.

When King Jianning was studying the art of war under Guo Ziyi, he had a sworn relationship with Guo Xin. Now that Guo Xin is the controller of the Anxi Protectorate, his attitude towards King Jianning is quite ambiguous.

The entire Anxi Protectorate ignored the court's order for King Jianning to "take charge of Longyou". Even if Li Yan became more and more popular in Longyou, Guo Xin had no intention of joining Li Yan and even sent a letter of greetings.

None were sent.

Regarding this matter, King Jianning was very relieved and praised Guo Xin to the players for being able to stick to his duties and having the demeanor of his uncle Guo Ziyi.

However, players who have a little knowledge of the generals of the Mid-Tang Dynasty can understand that Guo Ziyi's family motto is to be loyal to the court and to the Tang Dynasty, but he will not be loyal to any specific person, nor will he participate in the fight for the throne.

If it weren't for Guo Ziyi's stance, Emperor Li Heng would not have been able to let him and the prince lead the army together.

This is also the reason why Guo Ziyi was able to survive three dynasties and was able to escape unscathed even if he was suspected by the emperor.

Guo Xin was obviously also deeply influenced by Guo Ziyi and was not ready to seek refuge with King Jianning.

However, King Jianning didn't care about this. Li Yan provided sufficient supplies for the Anxi Protectorate's needs, and even often shipped some fresh goods from Longyou.

The player's caravan has arrived in Kucha City. This vast merchant-player expedition is to open up the Silk Road. The leader of the merchant-player team is Sun Jianguo, the leader of the merchant players and the president of the Street Lamp Pendant Union.

For merchant players, the excessive profits of the Silk Road are the consensus of merchants in the Western Regions.

Tang silk of average quality could be sold in the Byzantine Empire for a hundred or even a thousand times the price, but demand still exceeded supply.

This Silk Road attracted countless merchants, and such prosperous trade continued until the Tang Dynasty lost the Western Regions, and the Silk Road gradually became silent.

A group of players like Sun Jianguo who have worked as [Businessmen] are naturally full of yearning for the Silk Road. This "Westward Journey Plan" was jointly promoted by all the merchant players. As the president of the Street Lamp Pendant Union, Sun Jianguo personally escorted the goods.

Arrive at Kucha City.

"President, can you enter Kucha City today? I heard that there is a huge market in Kucha. Can you go to the market today?"

The speaker was a young businessman player named Bo Yang. He was also a member of the Street Lamp Pendant Union and a member of the westbound caravan this time.

Sun Jianguo nodded and said: "Of course I want to see the Qiuci Grand Fair. Let everyone hurry up and get into the city quickly!"

They had already seen Kucha City, but Sun Jianguo still did not relax. Nowadays, running a business is a high-risk profession. If Sun Jianguo had not been careful, the caravan would have been robbed by bandits.

The more relaxed you are, the more dangerous you are. When Sun Jianguo reminded everyone on the team channel to be more vigilant, a group of masked horse bandits rushed over from a distance.

"Alert!" Sun Jianguo immediately issued the order, and the well-trained players quickly gathered the trucks together and then drew out the weapons on the vehicles to alert them.

The [General] players hired to protect the caravan also immediately mounted their horses and picked up their weapons, blocking the way of the horse bandits' charge.

Sun Jianguo watched the horse bandits gathering nervously, feeling a little uneasy. He finally reached the outside of Qiuci City, but he must not fail.

Fortunately, this group of horse bandits saw the heavily guarded caravan and knew that it was a tough piece of bone. Moreover, the caravan had already picked up weapons. If they wanted to chew it down, they would definitely have to knock out a few teeth.

The horse bandits roared around the caravan, but in the end they did not attack the caravan and finally walked away.

Sun Jianguo breathed a long sigh of relief, but he continued to say on the team channel: "Everyone is on alert! Pay attention to the location of the horse bandits, let's enter the city quickly!"

Under the cautious leadership of Sun Jianguo, the player caravan finally arrived outside Kucha City.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sun Jianguo knew that the caravan was safe.

Bo Yang approached Sun Jianguo and said, "President, are these horse bandits from Qiuci too arrogant? They are actually plundering near the city."

Sun Jianguo also nodded and said: "I didn't expect banditry in the Western Regions to be so serious. Don't the troops in Qiuci suppress the bandits?"

In the area ruled by King Jianning, not to mention the bandits near the city, even the bandits far away from the city were almost killed by players chasing contribution points.

However, after leaving Xizhou and entering the four towns of the Western Region, there were countless bandits on the road, and there were even large groups of joint bandits who specifically robbed passing caravans.

However, these bandits are also looking for money. As long as the trade route is strong, many bandits can be scared away.

There are also some well-known robbers who will let merchants pass by safely as long as they obediently hand over the money to buy them.

But there are still horse bandits near Kucha City, which also shows how chaotic the security in the Western Regions is.

The group of people arrived at the city gate. The long queue waiting to enter the city moved very slowly. Sun Jianguo started chatting with the big food merchant in front.

This big food businessman married himself a Chinese named Ma Bijiu, a strong man in his forties.

Ma Bijiu heard that Sun Jianguo set out from Xizhou, so he kept getting close to Sun Jianguo, and the two sides soon became familiar with each other.

"Ma Lang, is it so slow to enter Kucha City?"

Under the scorching sun, it took the team a long time to move, and Sun Jianguo was sweating profusely while waiting.

Ma Bijiu nodded and said: "I heard that Kucha City is strictly investigating banditry. The goods of the caravan entering the city must be checked one by one to see if there are any stolen goods. These little officials guarding the city just found a reason to use this method to exploit the people who passed by.

Merchant Sun Lang has waited for your caravan. If these gatekeepers check your goods repeatedly, remember to send money. If they are framed as stolen goods and sent to the Yamen, it will cost more than this amount of money!
Chapter completed!