Tibet

Li Chengshi was moved by King Qi's sincerity and decided to serve King Qi. He sent his confidants to invite Liu Changning to the military camp for negotiation.

"I just figured it out now that joining the King of Qi was not betraying the Tang Dynasty, but choosing another emerging Tang Dynasty instead of the Tang Dynasty controlled by the eunuchs."

"Brother is right. So many people have defected to King Qi and are willing to serve him. They are not betraying the Tang Dynasty, but choosing Mingjun."

Li Chengshi pondered for a moment and then said: "But I am not sure that I can take away all the ships and soldiers."

"You don't need that much!"

Liu Changning smiled slightly and said: "His Royal Highness the King of Qi only wants a large ship of more than two thousand stones. The soldiers will follow their own wishes and will not force it."

Li Chengshi nodded, "I understand!"

At this time, a soldier rushed into the tent and said: "The Governor is here!"

Li Chengshi was startled and quickly said to Liu Changning: "Brother Xian, stay here. I'll go take a look!"

Li Chengshi hurriedly walked out of the big tent. When he walked out of the big tent, he saw the governor Huangfu Qian walking towards him surrounded by a hundred soldiers.

"Why is the Grand Governor here?" Li Chengshi asked warily.

Huangfu Qian sneered, "Are you afraid that I will expose your misdeeds?"

"Why did the Grand Governor say this?"

Huangfu Qian snorted loudly and said sternly: "Li Chengshi colluded with the foreign vassals and tied him up!"

More than a dozen soldiers rushed to arrest Li Chengshi. Suddenly someone shouted, "Protect the general!"

Li Chengshi's hundreds of soldiers rushed up, surrounded Li Chengshi, drew their swords, and glared at Huangfu Qian and his men.

Only then did Huangfu Qian see clearly that the person shouting was Liu Changning. He was shocked, took a few steps back, pointed at Li Chengshi and said angrily: "You actually colluded with Li Ye, Li Chengshi, you are so brave!"

Li Chengshi also took the risk and shouted to the surrounding soldiers: "Brothers, the emperor is fatuous and the eunuchs are in power. I, Li Chengshi, want to defect to the King of Qi. Brothers of the King of Qi who are willing to follow me and surrender to the King of Qi, please come forward!"

Li Chengshi's confidants Li Chengqing and Pei Rong raised their arms and shouted: "We do not serve the eunuchs, but we are willing to be loyal to the King of Qi!"

Thousands of soldiers also shouted: "I am willing to submit to the King of Qi!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Huangfu Qian turned around to run, but was surrounded by thousands of angry soldiers.

Huangfu became anxious and shouted: "Li Chengshi, if you want to defect to King Qi, I won't stop you, but everyone has his own ambitions, so you can't force me!"

Li Chengshi sneered and said to the dozens of generals who had arrived: "Brothers, you may not know that we only have 16,000 people left, but this bastard Huangfu Qian still applied for military salary from the imperial court based on 30,000 people. If there are more The military salary of the 14,000 men was privately divided between this bastard and the eunuchs, which is why he surrendered to the King of Qi."

These generals all came from poor families. When they heard that Huangfu Qian was so corrupt, everyone became angry. They drew their swords and shouted, "Kill this bastard! Chop him into pieces!"

Huangfu Qian was so frightened that he sat on the ground, quickly bowed and begged: "General Li, I am willing to hand over the money and spare my life!"

Li Chengshi immediately sent troops to Huangfu Qian's mansion, dragged the 80,000 guan of money he had secretly hidden in the mansion back to the military camp by boat, and distributed it to the officers and soldiers of the three armies. For a time, the three armies cheered loudly.

According to the final statistics, almost all the soldiers were willing to surrender to King Qi. Three days later, more than 600 warships anchored in Jiangjin Bay set sail and sailed toward Jiangxia.

Of course, the Tang Dynasty Navy had more than 600 ships, at least more than 2,000 warships. However, the more than 600 warships moored in Jiangjin Bay, Yangzhou, were all warships with a thousand-stone or more, including dozens of 10,000-stone warships and more than 100 warships. A five thousand stone warship.

Warships of less than a thousand stones are mainly moored in Runzhou and Taihu Lake areas on the other side. In addition, there are some large warships in the naval base in Mingzhou, but they are relatively old and sealed in the harbor.

Although this kind of collective mutiny in the army was a major incident, Yu Chaoen and Li Fuguo were in control. They were afraid that the air salary incident would be exposed, so they dealt with it urgently. They transferred 1,200 small warships from Runzhou and Taihu to Yangzhou, and from Jiangnan Ten thousand troops were gathered from various garrisons, and the large ships sealed in Mingzhou were transferred to Yangzhou. A new navy was established in Yangzhou, and Huangfu Qian was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the navy.

Yu Chaoen then casually reported to the emperor that some naval forces had colluded with Li Xilie to rebel and had been suppressed. Some warships were burned. A small group of people headed by Li Chengshi defected to Jiangxia out of fear of crime.

Li Heng's mind was not on this. Hearing that the mutiny had been suppressed and that he could save part of his military salary, he asked no more questions and immediately issued an order to commend Huangfu Qian and appointed him to concurrently serve as the interviewer of Huainan Road. The deputy commander of the navy was changed to Yu Chaoen recommended Yuan Jingyao, the military envoy of Runzhou, to take up the post, and also appointed the eunuch Duan Qiaofu to supervise the army.

Under Yu Chaoen's series of shrewd operations, an extremely serious collective mutiny incident was covered up in an understatement.

At this time, Li Chengshi's fleet arrived in Jiangxia. The warships they brought were warmly welcomed by the Jingxiang Navy. Li Chengshi was immediately appointed by Li Ye as the deputy governor of the Yangtze River Navy, General Hu Benlang, replacing the previous Liu Changning's position.

In addition, Li Ye dispatched 200 large and medium-sized warships and 5,000 naval troops to Donghai Island to establish a naval base on Donghai Island.

As time passed by August, there was a rare period of calm in both the court and the border. Li Ye decided to use this time to start his trip to Anxi.

He must go to Anxi and Beiting to inspect. They are his territory. Although they are far away, he must go to inspect them.

In the past two days, Li Ye has been busy dealing with some important matters, preparing for departure, and planning a travel route.

He will first go to Longyou to inspect the Xihai Garrison and Xihai Saltworks, and at the same time visit Tuyuhun.

He has not yet made up his mind whether to take Dadou Bago to the Hexi Corridor or directly take the Xihai Road, which is to the south of the Qilian Mountains.

At noon that day, Li Ye came to the East Market and paid a special visit to the Sogdian elder Kang Maili. Old Kang Maili was about seventy years old. He was a legend among Sogdian merchants. He rode a camel and embarked on the silk trade at the age of ten. The road lasted for fifty-five years, and it was not until sixty-five that he settled down in Chang'an.

He has a very high prestige among the Sogdians, and he mediates all major conflicts among the Sogdians.

Kang Maili currently opens a Hu jewelry store, specializing in selling various high-quality gemstones.

Kang Maili, a thin man, respectfully invited King Qi into the inner hall and asked him to squeeze the freshest goat's milk for him.

Li Ye looked at the colorful interior decoration and said with a smile, "Is Mr. Kang going back to Samarkand?"

Li Ye speaks Chinese, and the other party can also speak fluent Chinese, so there is no need to communicate in a foreign language.

Conmiley shook his head, "Although my mind is still clear now, my body no longer allows me to travel long distances. I'm afraid I won't be able to go back while I'm alive."

Li Ye smiled and said: "I came to see Mr. Kang today specifically to learn about the situation on Xihai Road. Mr. Kang, please come by!"

Kang Maili pondered for a while and said: "Actually, there are two West Sea Roads. One is shorter and goes along the southern foot of the Qilian Mountains to Dunhuang. There is also a longer one that passes through the hinterland of Qaidar surrounded by mountains and goes from Ruoqiang to Ruoqiang. come out."

"Are we going to pass through the Gasi Grassland?"

Comley nodded, "That's right, that's the way."

"Is this road easy to walk?" Li Ye asked.

Kang Maili smiled slightly and said: "If there is no harassment from the Tibetan people, it seems to me that it will be very easy to leave."

"Then why was this road abandoned again later?"

Kang Maili said calmly: "I am a businessman. We have to consider making money. Our goods can be sold at a good price in Zhangye. After selling, we can buy goods from Zhangye and come to Chang'an to make another profit. Finally, we can buy goods from Chang'an. If we go back and take the Hexi Corridor, our profit will be 30% more than if we take the Xihai Road, so if it weren't for the war, we would definitely take the Hexi Corridor."

"Aren't they all high mountains and deserts over there?"

Kang Meili laughed and said, "Your Highness, you will know if you go and take a look. There are abundant water and grass there, and there are grasslands all the way."