Tibet

Li Ye led the army all the way north. There were nearly 300 camels in the team, loaded with personal property of one million taels of silver and Kundushi. Three days later, the team arrived at Talas City. The team rested here for half a day and then returned. The road goes east to Broken Leaf City.

Although it was a huge fortune, Li Ye also knew that Gao Xianzhi could not embezzle it for himself. Most of it had to be handed over to the court, and even some precious treasures had to be dedicated to the emperor Li Longji and Concubine Yang.

Historically, after Gao Xianzhi massacred the Shi Kingdom and plundered a large amount of wealth, he went directly to Beijing, offered prisoners to the emperor, and probably also handed over the wealth.

Therefore, after the tragic defeat of Talos, Gao Xianzhi was not excessively held accountable. He was also named the Duke of Miyun County and served as General Youjinwuwei. This must be related to the wealth he handed over to the court.

Although Li Ye did not agree with Gao Xianzhi's massacre of innocent people, he did not object to his plundering wealth. The soldiers fought hard not for any belief, but because they must be profitable.

The personal wealth of one million taels of silver and Kundu stone must be divided into five parts, Gao Xianzhi himself, the supervisor Bian Lingcheng, the Anxi soldiers, the court dignitaries, the emperor and the noble concubine.

If you want to secure your position as the governor of Anxi, you must have all these people and sophistication.

Talos is a small city. This is also where Shiguo smelt silver. There are three large silver mines in the nearby Qianquan Mountains. The ore is mined and briefly refined in the mines, and then the crude silver nuggets are sent to Only by refining in Talas City can you get an ingot of silver.

Li Ye had no time to inspect the silver mine. After resting for a long time, he set off to Suiye City. Five days later, the team arrived at Suiye City.

At this time, Gao Xianzhi had returned to Suiye City, and he was patiently waiting for Li Ye's return.

That morning, Li Ye finally led his army back from Shiguo. Gao Xianzhi was overjoyed and quickly ordered his soldiers to move all the boxes into his tent.

In the big tent, the soldiers opened the lids of boxes one after another. Silver was neatly placed in the boxes, fifty taels and one ingot, which added up to exactly one million taels, which was the same information Gao Xianzhi had.

To Gao Xianzhi's surprise, Li Ye also brought back Kundushi's personal wealth, which was also dozens of large boxes with seals and a list on them.

This made Gao Xianzhi a little embarrassed. He smiled and said to Li Ye, "General Li, please pick a few boxes too!"

Li Ye shook his head, "I got Feilong's treasure book, I don't need anything else!"

Gao Xianzhi nodded, "You can keep the treasure book! Then I will make unified arrangements, and you will also have a copy of it."

"Thank you, Marshal!"

Gao Xianzhi patted Li Ye on the shoulder and said: "I'm afraid Dashi will not send troops to Hezhong until summer and autumn. I have to rush to Chang'an immediately to ask the court and the emperor for instructions. Otherwise, I really don't dare to send troops without permission in this war against Dashi." .”

This is of course just an excuse. Historically, Gao Xianzhi sent troops to the Shi Kingdom for a decisive battle with the Dashi Army, but did not ask the court or the emperor for instructions in advance. The key is that his term of office will expire next year, and he will get the wealth of the Shi Kingdom, and he will return to the court. Go get some.

In fact, Li Ye also figured out that he was a descendant and would consider preventing the Arabs from invading Central Asia and continuing to maintain the Tang Empire's control over Central Asia.

But how can Gao Xianzhi have any overall view? Gao Xianzhi led his army here this time just to plunder wealth. The war between him and Dashi's army was nothing more than Dashi infringing on his interests and trying to seize his wealth.

If you think Gao Xianzhi also considers geopolitics, you are simply overthinking it.

In Gao Xianzhi's eyes, his position as Jiedushi was the most important, and everything else could be given up. As for whether he could come back before Dashi sent out troops, that could only depend on God's will.

Li Ye nodded, "I have a letter from home, please Gao Shuai and give it to my family for me."

Gao Xianzhi smiled and said: "That's right. As the new military envoy, you should stay in Suiye for a while. After you stabilize, you should return to Chang'an when you have time!"

Gao Xianzhi set off to lead the army back to Qiuci that afternoon, while Li Ye stayed in Suiye. Now he has the first position that he can take charge of alone, Suiye Army Town Soldiers and Horses Envoy, covering the entire Rehai area and the Chu River Basin. Thousands of miles are under his jurisdiction.

Early the next morning, Li Ye led 30 soldiers to the military office of the Military Envoy. Chief Secretary Zhang Xian led a group of officials to welcome Li Ye at the door.

The military government office covers an area of ​​about twenty acres, including official offices, warehouses and a three-acre attached official residence. The former military envoy Chen Fengzhong lived here with his two concubines.

Everyone welcomed Li Ye into the lobby and went through the simple procedures for handing over seals. Li Ye got the military talisman, the seal of the soldier and horse messenger, and the arrows of the soldier and horse messenger. With these three things, it meant that he officially became Shattered. The boss of Yejun Town.

"The former Chen Bingma Envoy did not have much to do. He would intervene in some government affairs when he had time, but his main focus was still on the army. He refused to sign many government affairs, which made me very embarrassed. There were many things that I couldn't report to the Changshi Mansion."

The former military envoy Chen Fengzhong did not want to interfere with government affairs, which was not a good thing for Zhang Xian and other civil servants. The military envoy did not sign, there was no funding, and no one was responsible for anything that happened. In the end, nothing happened.

It's like you have advanced your own money and worked hard on many projects. In the end, your boss doesn't admit it or reimburse you. Then you will be dumbfounded, unless you lose your financial power. But Chen Fengzhong is not a fool. He holds the financial power tightly to himself. On hand.

Li Ye sat down in his official room and asked Zhang Xiandao: "How much income and expenditure does Suiye Town have?"

"Reporting back to the military envoy, the military office's income mainly includes three yuan. One is the payment of military salary and military rations for two thousand soldiers, which includes free salary for five hundred people."

Li Ye was startled, "Does this mean that Sui Ye's actual strength is only 1,500 men?"

"No! No! It's not that simple. Suiye's strength is still two thousand, but five hundred of them are government soldiers. We don't need to pay salaries, but all of them are recruited from the imperial court."

"Zhiye still has government soldiers?"

Zhang Xian smiled and said: "The area under the jurisdiction of Suiye Army Town is very large, including the surrounding areas of Rehai, the Chu River Basin and part of the Yili River Valley, with a radius of several thousand miles. So many pastures in it belong to us, including the Geluolu people, Tuqi people and so on. Shiren, Tocharians, etc., there are more than 20 tribes, large and small. They have to pay taxes to us, and each tribe has to provide soldiers as soldiers. Five hundred people is the number of soldiers each tribe has to bear. Of course, they are not from the Central Plains. The Fu army system is just similar to Fu soldiers, but it is actually Hu soldiers."

"How will the salary of the five hundred people be divided?"

"Half will be given to Gao Shuai, and the other half will be divided according to the list of thirty-three people to subsidize everyone's living."

Zhang Xian handed a list to Li Ye. There were thirty-three people on the list, mainly officials and generals. It also had Chen Fengzhong's stamp on it, and next to it was the amount. Chen Fengzhong received one hundred guan per month.

Li Ye accepted the list and asked, "What should I do with the taxes collected?"

"All taxes must be handed over to Feng Changshi. This cannot be ambiguous. Feng Changshi will send someone to check the accounts every three months. With Feng Changshi's temper, he can't rub his eyes with a grain of sand. If you have any questions, everyone I can’t even afford to go around in circles, and the biggest thing about my humble job is collecting taxes.”

Li Ye nodded, "Continue talking about income and expenditure!"

"Regardless of taxes, the second piece of income that belongs to us is rental income. Many of the shops in Suiye City are officially owned and rented to businessmen. This income is mainly used for government expenses, with a monthly income of 1,500 yuan. Money is used to pay for the daily expenses of the government, the maintenance of the posthouse, the prison expenses, the salaries of the government officials, the salaries of several staff members of the Chen Bingma Envoy, and the repair of the city, etc., all rely on this money to pay for it."

"What about the third piece of income?"

"The third piece of income is the income from military regiments, which mainly comes from grain, fruits, sheep, chickens, ducks, and fish. These incomes are subsidized to the soldiers. During the holidays, we can also share some meat, milk, and grain as welfare."

"Is that all?"

Zhang Xian hesitated, "That's it!"

Li Ye saw Zhang Xian's hesitation and said coldly: "Even if I only serve as a soldier for a few months, Master Zhang had better not hide anything from me!"