Tibet

The next morning was the coronation ceremony of the new king. It was still early for the ceremony, but arrangements had already begun. The city was decorated with lights and colorful flags, and colorful flags were flying near the palace. Thousands of soldiers were busy preparing.

At dawn, Li Ye arrived at the Sapphire Merchant Hotel near the palace. When he walked in the door, he saw Xiaokang waving to him.

"This way! This way!"

Li Ye followed Xiaokang to an independent stone house, "She's inside!"

Li Yue did not hesitate, pushed the door directly into the stone house, and walked into the back room. A familiar figure threw herself into his arms and hugged his waist tightly like a ball of fire. The two of them fell into each other's arms without saying a word. On the bed, missing each other for too long, waiting for too long, talking is a waste of time, each other greedily asks for each other

After lingering for more than half an hour, the two of them finally stopped. Aling lay in his arms and gasped softly: "I'm so afraid of losing you. Only at this moment do I believe that I am your woman."

"Can the method you mentioned be achieved?" Li Ye asked, stroking her hair.

Aling nodded, "They are already worried. If you add more firepower and build a Buddhist temple next to Guangming Temple, it should be done."

This was a good idea. Li Ye smiled and asked, "Don't they doubt our relationship?"

Aling raised her head, her eyes as bright as gems. She shook her head mischievously, "How could it be? They never dreamed that the Silver Saint of the Saints' Association would actually be the woman of the General of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Ye thought for a while and asked a little worriedly: "What if it's not you who is sent here?"

Aling laughed and said, "You think that I, the Silver Saint, are so useless. It's up to me to decide who to send?"

"So you became the Silver Saint, and that's your territory?"

Aling nodded, "It can be said that the princess of Bahna was originally supposed to become the Silver Saint, but you gave my father the territory to exercise strength. The Pogo tribe suddenly became stronger, and I became the Silver Saint. !”

It turns out that it was for this reason that Geluolu merged into one. I didn't expect that it would have such consequences.

Aling sighed, "I really don't want to. It feels like being buried in a grave. There will never be a future. I would rather live happily with my own man."

"Aren't saints allowed to marry?"

Aling smiled bitterly and said: "The Saints' Society is actually a power organization, not a religious organization. In order to achieve political goals, they will arrange for saints to marry someone, assassinate them, and do whatever it takes. We are actually just puppets, the real ones in power. They are seven old women, and the Golden Saint is just one of them, not even He Dale."

Li Ye smiled and said: "Then let the Holy Maiden Association arrange for you to marry me!"

Aling shook his head, "They will definitely choose the most beautiful one, but it won't be me!"

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside, and Xiaokang said urgently: "Princess, the time is coming."

Aling was startled and sat up quickly. Li Ye also got up and put on his clothes. He opened the window, looked at Xiaokang in the yard and smiled: "This little lady is pretty good. Where did you find her?"

"I don't know much about her life experience. I only know that she was brought from the Tang Dynasty by Sogdian traffickers. She was only seven years old at the time. Not long after arriving in Samarkand, the traffickers died of illness. She lost her support. The locals saw She was pitiful, so I sent her to the Saintess Association, because I was the only one who could communicate with her, so she followed me, Aye, take her away! She will be sent to training next year, and I don’t want to."

"OK!"

Li Ye agreed, "I will take her back to Datang and give her to her parents."

"Take me away and give me to my man!"

A Ling put her arms around Li Ye's neck and whispered in sleep. The two kissed for a long time, reluctant to leave.

Time was running out, Xiaokang knocked on the door again, and Aling took Xiaokang and hurried away from the back door.

Li Ye sat for a moment longer, then got up and went out, leading several soldiers on horseback to the palace.

The coronation ceremony of the new king was grand and enthusiastic. All the kings and tribal leaders in the Hezhong area came. The three popes of Zoroastrianism and the three red-robed saints of the Holy Sisters also attended the ceremony.

Even Aziz, the deputy governor of Khorasan, came to participate. He was not only a representative of Ziad, but also a representative of Caliph Abbas.

After the coronation ceremony, there was a grand banquet, which was completely different from the fixed seats in the Tang Dynasty. It was somewhat similar to the buffets of later generations. Everyone could eat and sit as they pleased, and there were no fixed seats.

Aziz, the deputy governor of Khorasan, sat next to Li Ye and said with a smile: "Captain Li is in Samarkand, which saves me the trouble of breaking leaves again. Our ransom has been prepared, and the caliph urges us to hand over as soon as possible!"

Li Ye nodded, "Transfer at Juzhan. There is my army over there. You give the ransom to my generals, and then you receive the prisoners of war at the Iron Gate of the canyon."

Iron Gate Pass is where Hamil and his defeated troops were ambushed, and it is also the narrowest place in Juzhanti Canyon.

"What about time?"

Li Ye thought for a while and asked: "When is the soonest you can hand over the ransom to us?"

"The ransom is in Mulu, I can handle it when I get back!"

Li Ye nodded, "It is now September 12th. The deputy governor will hand over the ransom to Juzhanti before September 25th. Then on the last day of September, we will send the prisoners to Tiemenguan."

"The number is twenty-nine thousand eight hundred, right!"

"There are almost this number of people, we will not hide them, we will return them all!"

"Okay! I'll go back this afternoon."

Aziz toasted Li Ye with a glass of wine, stood up and left

Not long after, Constantine sat next to Li Ye again.

"I didn't expect that His Majesty the King would become the Pope."

Constantine smiled and said: "Of the three popes, one represents the secular world and must be the king. This is the agreement we reached with Zoroastrianism!"

“How influential is Zoroastrianism, I mean in the West?”

"We have Guangming Temple in Persia, we also have Guangming Temple in the Qin Kingdom, and we even have missionaries in the Frankish Kingdom. We have Guangming Temple in Tochara, Giantuoluo, Tianzhu, and even the Tang Dynasty."

Li Ye smiled and said, "Does the Pope want to talk to me about redemption?"

Juzhanti was seized by the Tang army from the Great Cannibal. Its ownership already belonged to the Tang army, but the Sogdians had the first right to redeem it.

Both sides are very clear about this.

Constantine pondered for a moment and said: "I negotiated with King Cao Nuer of Tocao and several other kings yesterday. We want to confirm whether the Tang army is going to garrison troops in Juzhan?"

"I am going to station two thousand troops in Juzhan."

"Then the expenses and supplies of the army will be borne by the country to which Juzhanti belongs?"

Li Ye nodded, "This is inevitable. The monthly expenses of 20,000 yuan must be borne by the country where Juzhanti belongs. This is my redemption condition, and you don't need to pay additional money."

Constantine sighed, it was really boring to ask for 240,000 gold coins a year.

"We have made it clear that we will no longer redeem Juzhan. If the Bukhan wants Juzhan, we can submit Juzhan to it, but the prerequisite is that the Bukhan is not allowed to levy trade taxes in Juzhan. "

Li Ye glanced at King Murdo in the distance, nodded and said: "I will go back and talk to him, but I hope to make a formal transfer agreement to clarify the terms of both parties."

After a pause, Li Ye said calmly: "I want to remind you that Juzhanti already belongs to the Tang Army. If you want to sell it, only the Tang Army can sell it."

"Captain Li, please rest assured that Juzhanti no longer belongs to us. We will not sell Juzhanti to Bakhna anymore, because there are many details involved, such as trade taxation, Guangming Temple, the status of the Sogdians, etc. We need to sit down and talk with King Bakhna."