Chapter 62: The Storm of the Hundred Points

Liu Guangwu thought that Zhang Mai was bringing troops here, so he could not show weakness, so he all turned his head and went out to greet him together - called "Welcome", but in fact, it implied the demonstration, and wanted to tell Zhang Mai that his hundred-denomination corps were not weak either.

The Tang army in Anxi was close to each other. Although the Hundred Tents were also nomadic tribes, the inner horses of their tribe were mostly derived from the inferior horse species on the Mobei Plateau. These horses had strong advantages in carrying weight, hard work and environmental adaptation. They had strong reproductive ability, but they looked rather ugly and had poor equipment. The three thousand cavalry led by Zhang Mai had a large number of sweat and blood horses and second-generation sweat and blood horses, or famous horses with species that were comparable to the second-generation sweat and blood horses. The three thousand cavalry were generally more than half a head higher than the horses of the Hundred Tents. With copper saddles and iron hooves, thousands of cavalry were really as a dragon. In comparison, the three thousand cavalry of Anxi were like princes and generals, while Liu Guangwu's more than ten thousand cavalry were like gangsters and beggars.

There is no need for the Anxi Army to deliberately show its military power. The Hundred Treasures Department only looked at it, and even the people and horses became inferior. Liu Guangwu thought to himself: "The Anxi Tang Army is indeed well-known, no wonder they can sweep the Western Regions!" Although the Hundred Treasures Department was large at this time, how could they dare to offend? Liu Guangwu hurriedly came out to greet him. He saw a familiar figure walking in front of the team from afar. He recognized it as Liu Guangxin, and was secretly happy in his heart: "It turned out that Guangxin brought Zhang Dadu Protector!"

The two armies approached, Zhang Mai rode his horse out, and Guo Zhang shouted: "The imperial envoy of the Tang Dynasty, the great captain of Anxi, and the governor of the four towns, Marshal Zhang, is here, is there a hundred tents on the opposite side?"

Liu Guangwu hurriedly came out to greet him. Zhang Mai smiled and said, "It seems that Liu Mangcheng is a hero who knows the current affairs." Liu Guangwu thought to himself, "He is implying that I am obeying him because I am knowing the current affairs." He looked at Liu Guangxin, but Liu Guangxin was always watched by Zhang Mai. He could not even know about the night attack. Liu Guangwu could not find any information in his eyes, thinking, "I don't know what the situation in Jinchang and Dunhuang is like. If Cao Yijin's power has been annexed by the Anxi Army, then I have to rely on it quickly, but if Zhang Mai still wants to use me to deal with Cao Yijin, he can't agree to this matter and can only refuse."

The Hundred Tents stationed in a sand valley beside the Daze of Guazhou. A high platform was set up in the sand valley. Liu Guangwu asked Zhang Mai to sit down. When Zhang Mai was about to get off the horse, two Liu Guangwu's servants crawled over quickly, knelt on Zhang Mai's stirrup, arched their backs, and used their backs to make Zhang Mai's foot pads. This was a barbaric custom, but Liu Guangwu was used to it. In the past, when he received envoys from Shazhou, those envoys would always get great psychological satisfaction in these things.

But Zhang Mai's feet immediately shrank back as soon as he touched his back and asked, "What is this for?"

Liu Guangwu said flatteringly: "Report to the Protector, this is a meat stool."

Zhang Mai frowned and shouted, "What's the point of treating people as stools! Even slaves shouldn't be so insulted." He ordered the two slaves: "Get up quickly."

When Liu Guangwu saw that he flattered the horse on his legs, he hurriedly shouted: "Go away!"

The two slaves were frightened to death when they saw Zhang Mai not willing to use them as stools, and they retreated aside and cried with grievance. When Zhang Mai saw this, he thought to himself: "These people have been oppressed by Liu Guangwu for a long time and are very slave-like. If you tell them about national justice, you will probably play the piano against the cow."

With a press of his hand, he flew down from the throne of sweat and blood. Liu Guangwu and others cheered in unison when they saw him. Zhang Mai held the whip in his hand and walked up to the platform. Liu Guangwu bowed and said, "Major Protector, we really didn't expect you to condescend to come to a poor place in Zebei, otherwise you should have met a hundred miles away."

Zhang Mai learned that he was asking about his purpose and pointed at Liu Guangxin and said, "I have formed an alliance with Cao Linggong to respect the Tang Dynasty. This time I came to Guazhou to help Cao Linggong repel Di Yin, who was invaded by the territory. Unexpectedly, I heard from the people you sent to say that the Hundred Treasures had suffered a disaster. I am both the Great Protector of Anxi and the Special Envoy of the Court. Since the Hundred Treasures are citizens of the Tang Dynasty, I will naturally have to come to inspect it if you are suffering from the disaster, so let's take a look. If you are really in such a difficult situation, even if Cao Linggong cannot transfer money and food for the time being, I will try to help you overcome the difficulties."

As he said that, he clapped his hands. Twenty military officials had already carried ten heavy boxes and placed them on the stage. Ma Xiaochun opened two of them, and saw that one of them was covered with silk and the other was full of gold and silver. Liu Guangwu and the patriarch of the six clans almost nodded when they saw them. They thought that if these big boxes were all gold and silver, how much would it be worth!

Several patriarchs bit their mouths and thought: "It is said that after the Anxi Army occupied the Silk Road, the Western Regions were rich, and today I saw it!" In fact, only the upper layer of these two boxes was silk, gold and silver, and sand and stone underneath, not to mention the other eight. But he led the sweat-blooded cavalry, and each sweat-blooded BMW was worth a thousand gold, just like a famous rich man driving hundreds of Rolls-Royces and throwing out a box of banknotes. No one would easily suspect that the banknotes were fake when they saw them.

Zhang Mai said: "I came from Kucha, but I couldn't transport tens of thousands of stones of grain. I just brought this pile of broken copper and iron with me. I don't know if I can buy food in Guazhou."

Liu Guangwu was overjoyed. According to his logic, Zhang Mai used the name of relief to send money to him. If it was a tribe that was suffering, giving one million taels of gold would not be as valuable as 10,000 stones of food. However, there was no special disaster in the Hundred Treasures. Liu Guangwu asked Guiyi Army for money and food to fill his personal bags, so naturally it was gold, silver and silk to call him more. He thought to himself: "This Zhang Dadushi really dares to invest in capital! No wonder he could sweep the Western Regions! He gave such a heavy capital, even if he wanted me to follow him to attack Cao Yijin, it would not be impossible to consider it."

He said, "Of course, of course."

But Zhang Mai pointed at more than 10,000 people in the audience and said, "You 100 tents are all here?"

Liu Guangwu said: "These are just men who can go on horseback and fight. In addition to them, there are also elderly, weak, women and children."

Zhang Mai said: "Why not let them call me? I can also promote the court's relief."

Liu Guangwu hesitated for a moment and thought to himself: "Listen to the description of "The Long March of the Tang Army in Anxi", Zhang Dadudu likes to give speeches everywhere he goes, and promotes Zong Tang. He must be a well-known person. It seems that his fatal pit is here. If I want to get his benefits, I need to meet his preferences." So he agreed and ordered the patriarchs of the six clans to convene the tribes.

At that time, the high platform stood in the north and was facing the lake. There were 3,000 Anxi troops on the right side of the west. On the front of the high platform were the male members of the Hundred Entrance Department, with more than 10,000 people - a large number of people, but they were all temporarily gathered together. Thousands of them were strong and powerful, but were equipped with weapons, armor, and saddles. These thousand people were the mainstay of the Hundred Entrance Department. Zhang Mai saw from the actions of the Hundred Entrance Department that the training of the more than 1,000 people was not very sufficient. In terms of mental state, they were not as good as the hundreds of young people under Jiang Shan's command. I believe these people were the minions of vested interests, and they were not as fierce as those young people who had been trained at the bottom.

After Yang Yi understood this, he nodded secretly to Zhang Mai, which meant that even if an accident occurred, the 3,000 Tang army members could win!

It took more than an hour before the elderly, weak women and children from the Hundred Tents came to the left of the platform one after another. The sun had already begun to slant. Zhang Mai looked over and saw that most of these people were ragged, some were so poor that they could not even wear clothes, with a row of ribs exposed. Then, looking at the patriarchs of the Six Clans and their children around them were all brightly dressed. Liu Guangwu even had silk all over his body, hanging around his neck, and wearing either gold or silver on his fingers. Most of the men in the Hundred Tents had yellow faces and thin skin, while Liu Guangwu and the patriarchs of the Six Clans had fat heads and belly. There was no need to tell carefully that the people with flesh-colored faces and vegetables in the Hundred Tents had less than one-tenth of those with vegetable faces and vegetables. Whether it was the proportion of men or women and children.

Hundreds of new herdsmen made themselves a bunch of them, some fat women holding some fat boys in beautiful clothes, and some servants opened their parasols to pay food for them, and were far away from other herdsmen who occupied the majority, for fear of being infected with the stinky odor of poor herdsmen.

Zhang Mai saw it and knew that what Xue Yunfei said in Jiangshan was right. The gap between the rich and the poor in the hundred tents was indeed huge. Seeing that the herdsmen were slow and chaotic, Liu Guangwu was afraid that Zhang Mai would be impatient to wait, so he shouted and insulted: "You pigs are not going to be faster! Do you still ask the imperial envoy to wait for you!"

Seeing that it was not until the time of the day, Liu Guangwu hurried to Zhang Mai and said, "The Protector can preach the kindness of the court." He shouted to the tribes below: "Don't talk, listen to the Protector's speech!"

Behind this platform is a tall Gobi, and the terrain on both sides is like a fan-shaped terrain. The platform is the fan-shaped vertex, with an echo effect. If the scene is quiet enough, the terrain will just allow most people to hear what the people on the platform say.

Zhang Mai then walked to the platform and asked Liu Guangwu loudly: "Chief Liu Meng, who am I?"

Liu Guangwu was stunned and remembered that he had not introduced Zhang Mai to the ministers, and hurriedly said, "This is the Great Protector of Anxi, the governor of the four towns, and the imperial envoy from Chang'an, a hero on the ground in the northwest! Have you ever heard of "The Long March of the Tang Army in Anxi"? The Great Protector of Zhang Dadu was talking about this wise master of Shenwu." He thought that Zhang Mai was famous, so he put a high hat on him.

Many people from all over the country have heard some clips of "The Long March of the Tang Army of Anxi", and they have whispered together. If people like Liu Guangwu and Xue Yunfei still have a certain concept of northwest geography, then for most herders in the Hundred Tents, the so-called Anxi, Shule, and Kucha seem very confused. I only heard that it is a very far and far place, but I didn't expect that the great hero in the legend of the Changing Text would appear in front of me. Many people thought that "The Long March of the Tang Army of Anxi" was about ancient things.

The whispers of thousands of people would cause a loud noise. Liu Guangwu called everyone to calm down and then asked Zhang Mai to speak. Zhang Mai said again: "Captain Liu, we are all officials of the Tang Dynasty."

Liu Guangwu didn't know what he meant, so he replied casually: "Yes, then of course, you are the imperial envoy and the governor, and I am General Huaide."

Zhang Mai asked again: "Is that your official position or mine?"

Liu Guangwu didn't know why Zhang Mai said these words, but he could only say: "Of course he is the chief official of the Great Protector."

Zhang Mai asked again: "How many older am I than you?"

Liu Guangwu couldn't answer, and he couldn't be a cold talk, so he said, "It's a lot bigger."

Zhang Mai asked again: "How many are there?"

In the past, the ministers of the Hundred Treasures had not seen any envoys from Dunhuang. Cao Yijin also asked the envoys to preach kindness to the ministers of the Hundred Treasures, but every time they were literary official articles, and the herdsmen could not understand them, and they just went through the motions. Because of such experience, Liu Guangwu thought that Zhang Mai was just showing off his court grace, so he didn't resist much.

But at this time, what Zhang Mai said was the plain language that the herdsmen of the Hundred Tents could understand. Standing on the platform, they asked and answered questions and answers, it was a bit like talking about a double-mouthed change. There was no imperial envoy, and the majesty of the league leader was a bit funny. They all listened to it for a moment, knowing that this Zhang Dadushi was an officer greater than the league leader. Judging from the attitude of the league leader towards him, he was indeed much more powerful than the league leader.

Liu Guangwu was a little confused when he asked, and said, "Major Protector, don't... don't do this, quickly preach the court's kindness."

Zhang Mai smiled slightly and shouted to the poor herdsmen: "Grace is not something to say. Over the years, the court has asked the Guiyi army to allocate the money and grains of your 100 tents to each household, and there are more than a dozen sheep, more than a dozen pieces of cloth, and hundreds of stones of grain. Why are you lazy and just reaching out to the court, but not wanting to repay the court's kindness!"

Liu Guangwu was stunned. He didn't know why Zhang Mai scolded the people of the Hundred Treasures. The herdsmen also looked at each other in an eye. Many people started to talk softly. A young man jumped out of the crowd and shouted: "When will the court give us cattle, sheep, cloth, and millet?" But it was Jiang Shan.

Zhang Mai asked everyone to calm down first, then turned around and said to Qiu Ziqian, who had a loud voice: "You read it."

Qiu Ziqian took out a list, but it was the sum of the Guiyi Army's reliefs he asked Murong Teng during the Changle period. The Guiyi Army gave Liu Guangwu mainly gold, silver, cloth and grain. From Liu Guangwu's father to Liu Guangwu, the amount of money was so huge that Murong Teng could only estimate it. At this time, Qiu Ziqian thought of the list of years. Less than half of it, Liu Guangwu had already noticed that Zhang Mai was coming from this, so he asked his confidant to prepare.

But when Xue Yunfei jumped up and shouted, "Don't talk nonsense, the court has given us these things!"

Countless people yelled: "Yes, yes, the court has given us these things."

"No?" Zhang Mai turned his head and looked at Liu Guangwu: "Captain Liu Mengjun, these things are handed over to you by Guiyi Army himself. Why did the people in the Hundred Accounts say they didn't get them?"

Liu Guangwu shouted: "That was not for the people of the tribe, it was rewarded by Cao Linggong."
Chapter completed!