Tibet

Five prisoner-of-war generals walked into the big tent. They were all about forty years old, all had big beards, and they all seemed to have similar looks. They stood in a row.

"Please take a seat!" Li Ye said in proficient Sogdian.

The five generals sat down, and Li Ye asked the soldiers to serve tea again, and said to the five of them: "In the Battle of Talos last year, I was the commander-in-chief of the right army. Maybe you still know me."

"I remember you!"

A general stared at Li Ye and said: "You kill very fiercely on the battlefield. My brother Aziz died under your sword."

"I'm sorry, but we are soldiers. We should all understand that on the battlefield, you will die or I will live. I killed your brother, but your brother also killed the soldiers of the Tang Army."

The general was silent, and Li Ye continued: "Mansur has reached a peace agreement with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. The two sides use the Amu Darya River as the boundary and will not invade each other. The Tang Dynasty and Dashi have become brotherly countries."

Li Ye smiled and continued: "I am now the governor of Hezhong of the Tang Dynasty. I will soon negotiate with the governor of Khorasan to discuss when will you go home?"

One of the eldest generals asked: "Is the general going to release us?"

Li Ye nodded, "It's been more than half a year since the war ended, and the day for you to go home is coming soon. I hope you can stick to it for the last few months."

Everyone looked at each other with joy, and the leading general asked again: "When will we be released?"

"I have sent someone to inform the Caliph. Your Caliph should send Khorasan Governor Ziad to negotiate with me. The main reason is that it will delay time on the way. It will take several months to come and go. I hope you will wait patiently."

After a pause, Li Ye said again: "If I were you, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to go back."

"Why did the general say that?"

Li Ye said calmly: "I got the news that the Great Food Army's attack on Egypt was unfavorable and the army suffered heavy losses. Khorasan is recruiting strong men to fight against the Western Great Food Army. If you go back, you will definitely be sent to the battlefield. At least you can still survive here. It’s hard to say if you can save your life, go to Egypt.”

The five people were silent. They all knew that Li Ye was telling the truth. Prince Rahman fled to Egypt and established the Western Dashi, which was powerful. They had also been to Egypt and knew that the environment there was difficult and the war was cruel. If If they really went to the southern battlefield, it would be difficult for them to survive.

Although being a prisoner of war was a bit harder, at least there was no risk for life. The five of them did not have to work. They had their own independent tents and each had a maid by their side. They lived a very comfortable life.

The leading general sighed, "We just miss our families very much!"

Li Ye smiled and said, "You can write letters to your families. I will ask the merchant Bukhan to send them to Khorasan. Your families will receive your letters and know that you are safe."

"Thank you General for your forgiveness. We will wait patiently. I just hope you can give me a little more time to pray at noon every day."

"Okay!" Li Ye agreed.

Li Ye stood up and said: "I have provided you with the greatest convenience, but I also hope that you will abide by the peace agreement reached by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and the Caliph of Dashi, and wait patiently for your release and return home.

But I want to warn you first. If you make trouble, my tens of thousands of troops will not hesitate to slaughter you all, and this will become your cemetery. I am a soldier, I will do what I say, and I will do what I say! "

The five generals went back, and Xu Jian said anxiously: "To the governor, they spend too much time praying every day. They have to pray when they get up in the morning, go to work at dawn, and pray again when they come back in the afternoon. If they have to pray again at noon, Pray, then basically stop working.”

Li Ye shook his head and said: "It doesn't matter whether they work or not now. I just hope they will stay for a few more months. After all, they are 30,000 young and strong men. Once they rebel, you will have too few people to stop them." , they will really destroy the country of Bukhanna, I have to stabilize them now."

"I understand the humble position!"

Li Ye then told the two of them: "But any rebellion will have signs, such as dissatisfaction, irritability, etc. If you find these signs, immediately notify Suiye with a flying eagle, and I will lead the army to come immediately."

Xu Jian and Yu Changyang bowed together and said: "We must cooperate with the governor to kill them all?"

"Kill them all?"

Li Ye laughed and said, "Don't be ridiculous, I'm counting on them for everyone's hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary this year!"

Li Ye did not return to Kesai City, but traveled dozens of miles westward to the entrance of Qianquan Mountain Canyon. He then passed through Qianquan Mountain Grand Canyon and turned eastward. It only takes seven days to get to Suiye from here, which is actually a journey. The thing is, it still takes two or three days to get from Qianquan City to Kesai City.

After walking for about six days, they were only fifty or sixty miles away from Suiye City. They arrived at a small river called Tutu River. Li Ye stopped his horse and asked a soldier: "Is this here?"

The soldier nodded and said, "Report to the Commander-in-Chief, it's right here. It's only a dozen miles away along the river."

The place Li Ye wanted to go was naturally a silver mine secretly developed by Gao Xianzhi in Broken Leaf. Starting from the sixth year of Tianbao, after Gao Xianzhi took power, he arranged for people to open the mine and transport it to Broken Leaf for smelting. It produced 100,000 taels of silver every year, and continued After five years of work, Gao Xianzhi was transferred last year and the silver mine stopped mining.

This silver is not a subsidy for the soldiers. The soldiers in Anxi cannot get a penny. Gao Xianzhi has to go back to Chang'an every year just to pay tribute to the important officials of the imperial court. Otherwise, where would the money come from for Li Linfu and Gao Lishi's treasure house? collect?

This silver mine was actually Gao Xianzhi's private silver mine. Even the military supervisor Bian Lingcheng didn't know that the broken leaf soldier Chen Fengxian was Gao Xianzhi's confidant, and he concealed the matter for Gao Xianzhi.

Only Feng Changqing knew about the Anxi Army, but Feng Changqing also kept silent.

Li Ye urged his horse to follow the river into the mountainous area. The road soon became difficult to walk. Li Ye abandoned his horse and followed the guiding soldiers on foot. After walking for about fifteen or six miles, several wooden houses appeared in the open space in front of him.

The guide soldier pointed to the wooden house and said, "That's it!"

An old man walked out of the wooden house here, looked at them and asked loudly: "Are you sent by Marshal Gao?"

The guide soldier whispered to Li Ye: "This old man Wang was invited by Marshal Gao from Suiye to see the mine. He probably doesn't know that the mine has been abandoned."

The guide soldier quickly stepped forward and introduced Li Ye to the old man watching the mine.

Li Ye walked up to the mine and looked around. The mine was located halfway up the mountain. The ground was fairly flat. A large amount of slag was accumulated in the far corner. It should have been rough refining in the mine and then transported to the broken leaves for refining.

At this time, Lao Wang, who was guarding the mine, stepped forward and saluted, "Young man, please see Governor Li!"

Li Ye nodded and said with a smile: "You are still guarding the mine alone. It's hard for you."

"Gao Shuai gives me a regular amount of money every month, and it expires in March. I want to leave! But as soon as I leave, all these things will be gone, so if I wait two more months, if I don't come this month, I will have no food. I really left."

Li Ye smiled and said: "You can continue to stay! I will make up the money I owe you, and I will also give you food and supplies."

"Thank you, Governor Li!"

Li Ye pointed to several mines around him and asked, "Is this the mining site?"

"Reporting to Governor Li, in fact, a total of six mineral points have been discovered. This is just the first one. The other five have not been mined yet. This one has almost been mined. It is said that the second one will be mined this year. There are blueprints in the wooden house over there."

The guide soldier took out a thick stack of blueprints, and sure enough there was a map of the distribution of mineral points. They were all in mountainous areas. The farthest mineral point was at least twenty miles away from here.

"Who are the miners?"

"They are all recruited from several Tuqishi tribes, and each person is given a hundred coins a day! They are all willing to work, but there was no money given last year, and they all went back."

"The Tuchishi of the Talas River?"

"Yes! It's them."

Li Ye briefly inspected the mine surface and found that there were still several piles of mined silver ore that had not been smelted in a greenhouse.

Li Ye attaches great importance to this mine. His army spends 600,000 taels of silver a year. If it only produces 100,000 taels of silver, it will definitely not be enough. But if it can produce 400,000 taels of silver every year, then it can get 20,000 taels of silver a year from other sources. One hundred thousand guan can barely solve his biggest problem of military expenditure.