Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1636 Leaving and Mission

The Persians originally planned to stay until the New Year, but now they cannot stay.

After returning to the posthouse, everyone packed their luggage with a heavy heart and prepared to embark on the journey home.

The post general was ordered by Honglu Temple to give them a hundred bolts of silk as travel expenses for the return trip.

Mahamu didn't refuse, and happily accepted it.

They really need money. They have been on mission for more than a year, and no amount of money will be spent.Yao thought that before the mission, everyone brought a lot of goods, thinking that they could sell them in Xiaguo and make a small profit.This batch of goods did sell for a good price, but it was only used as their expenses along the way, which was barely enough to sustain them.

If you stay for a few more months, there is no money to spend. Could it be that you go to the streets to perform tricks?
Before leaving, Mahamu carefully read the many reports that Tam had prepared for him, feeling more and more worried.

He really doubts now that Xia Guo is actually capable of destroying Persia, but he doesn't want to cause domestic turmoil and has no way to rule, so he simply doesn't bother with this matter and concentrates on managing the east of Congling.

If the management of the east of Congling is perfect, will they have any ideas about Persia in a few decades?No one can guarantee.

Because it involves the life and death of the country, Mahamu felt that a fundamental strategy should be formulated, that is, to maintain the existence of Saman Persia as the ultimate goal, and carefully handle the relationship between the two countries.

On November [-], the day before the Persians set off, Shao Shude paraded in Bashang and invited the Persians to watch it together.

The five armies of Tielin, Wuwei, Yicong, Tianxiong, and Tujiang each command a total of 1 infantry; each command four cavalry, totaling 1.

The three armies of Feilong, Jindao, and Heizhu have two commanders each, with a total of 2000 people.

The Flying Bear Army has a thousand riders, a total of 3000 people.

Each branch has a total of 5000 people, which is a full [-] fewer than the previous second batch of rotation troops.

The concentrated drill of more than 3 soldiers is very prestigious.

Shao Shude rode his horse to parade, and the cheers were thunderous.

In fact, compared with 17 years ago, the faces of the soldiers of the Forbidden Army have changed a lot.

Taking this year as an example, he selected 1 elite soldiers from various miscellaneous troops, and selected more than [-] recruits from the five courtyards of Shaanxi, Ling, Wei, Yun, and Shen, and then selected [-] strong men from the slave tribes of the palaces and grassland tribes, and filled them into the various ministries of the Forbidden Army.

To be honest, the combat effectiveness of the Forbidden Army may not be as good as it was 17 years ago, but it is not much worse.

Because in the past 17 years, there have been many wars.

It was the war against Hebei and Khitan that brought the greatest training to the troops.

The intensity and scale of the battles to wipe out the south and attack the Bohai, Changhe, Gaochang and other forces were less intense, but they were also rewarding.

Now that the large-scale war with the Persian army has trained the various departments of the imperial army in batches—even if only a part of them—provided valuable battlefield experience for the recruits who came in. In addition, the atmosphere in the army is good, and the veterans have not retired all at once. After five or six years and three years of fighting, the recruits have improved a lot, and the overall combat effectiveness can still be described as "tough".

After dealing with the Golden Spear Army, there are still seven real miscellaneous troops: Pinglu, Yokoye, Luoyan, Guangjie, Tianwei, Fengguo, and Shengjie, with a total of more than 4 troops - [-] people from the Ningyuan and Qinghai Second Armies. There have been rumors of them being incorporated into the Imperial Army many years ago. Although the procedures have not been implemented, they are really not considered miscellaneous troops.

No-name troops will also recruit recruits, train, garrison, and fight normally, just like a normal army is operating.

The imperial court's restrictive measures for them are mainly to reduce the number of troops step by step, gradually reduce the scale, and deal with it in place in the last step.

These more than [-] miscellaneous troops actually had a lot of combat missions after the founding of the Great Xia. They were even harder and more tiring than the Forbidden Army. The battles they fought were also very dangerous, and their combat effectiveness was not weak.

In particular, the Guangjie Army, which has a majority of Jin soldiers and still has more than [-] people, has the highest combat effectiveness among all kinds of miscellaneous names.The recruits it recruits on a daily basis are mainly from Huainan, Caidi, and Hedong. They have good overall quality and have their own training methods. The trained soldiers dare to fight. Shao Shude intends to send them to Beiting this year to go west with the Dingnan Army to replace the local garrison.

Mahamu looked melancholy, while Tam stared intently.

Of course, Persia also has such majestic troops, such as Gulam who has been trained for seven years in a slave school.The Gulam prepared by the governors and nobles from all over the country is also good, and the combat effectiveness is justified.Even the private armies of some nobles and local troops from various provinces who have experienced many wars can go into battle and fight against these Xia soldiers.

But what about the number of people?Far from it.

This is the gap in national strength.According to what the Xia people said, in the battle of Mount Alai, the entire army of several thousand Gurams behind the palace was wiped out, and the loss was too great.It often takes several years to recover, and it is hard to say whether the newly trained Gulam can still fight with the original people and whether they have their rich battlefield experience.

If these elite troops continue to be consumed, it will definitely not be a good thing for Persia.

Unknowingly, Mahamu's heart was shaken seriously.And once his knowledge and ideas are combined with the nobles and generals in Persia who advocate that the foreign country must first settle down, even the grand vizier Jayhani has no choice but to compromise.

Of course, this does not mean agreeing to Xia Ren's conditions.

Asking prices all over the sky, pay back the money when you land.How could these things be finally settled without bargaining?

It's just that in the process of bargaining, the warriors and common people on both sides must suffer again, but this is also something that can't be helped.

******
After the court meeting, Shao Shude came to Jixiandian Academy of Zhongshu Province.

This is the national book collection institution. When encountering rare or rare books, it copies a copy, and even undertakes the responsibility of errata and proofreading. It is an old craft in the Tang Dynasty.

The workload of the clerks inside is very heavy, almost every day.For this reason, there are special craftsmen for rubbing, book binding, revision, and brush making, which can be seen.

Sometimes, the bachelors there have to give lectures to the emperor, princes, and princesses, which is actually a good job—for bachelors.

After Shao Shude came here, the officials saluted one after another. He waved his hand and asked people to perform their duties and do what they should do. He found a place to sit down and review the books that had just been translated, proofread, and transcribed in the academy.

The first one is about medicine.

On the road of medicine, the Arabs are relatively unrestrained, because they openly dissect the human body to obtain knowledge, which is nothing more than that.

In ancient China, there may have been people who did this kind of thing.But often the social pressure was so great that they had to sneak around and did not form systematic knowledge, so that in the Qing Dynasty, doctors still felt the lack of anatomical knowledge.

Shao Shude doesn't know how tolerant the Arab society is to this kind of thing, it is probably relatively tolerant.Because 100 years later, a Bukhara man named Ibn Sina or Avicenna compiled the previous materials, introduced the old and brought forth the new, and wrote a "Medical Code", covering anatomy, surgery, pharmacy, etc., which is very bold.

In fact, during this period, Arab and Persian medicine still had something to offer.They put forward many concepts, which were quoted by later generations.For example, words such as syrup (Syrup) and soda (Soda) water are derived from Arabic.

Like traditional Chinese medicine, they like to use ointments and liniments very much, and the medicines of the two countries have a lot in common.

In the second year of Emperor Gaozong Yonghui (651), Qin Minghe used Nestorian pricking and bloodletting to treat Tang Gaozong's wind dizziness.

Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi and others treated cataracts by inviting Brahman monks who were good at this.

Avicenna's "Medical Code" also included 17 Chinese medicines.

Working behind closed doors, the level is getting worse and worse, and communication is still needed.

The second is about musical notation.

Shao Shude felt timid and couldn't understand.His musical attainments are a bit poor, but that's okay, just leave it to the professionals.

The third one is about astronomy.

He looked at it, and it was a bit outrageous, it was actually said by the center of the earth.

This book should not be written by the Arabs, but a book written by them after translating the relevant theories of ancient Greece and elucidating them.

The geocentric theory is of course wrong.But on the principle of seeking truth from facts, how do you prove it wrong?Do you need a telescope?

Thinking of the flimsy glasses industry in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he could only sigh.Up to now, natural crystal is still used to grind the lens, the cost is extremely high, and the output is very low, which is a bit outrageous.

But astronomy and navigation are inseparable and are a very important subject.The difficulty of offshore navigation is very low, because there are land reference objects, but if you want to go far away from the coast and go deep into the ocean, then how to locate is very important.

Fa Xian, a monk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once recorded when he visited India and returned to China by boat: "The sea is boundless, and I don't know things. I only look at the sun, the moon, and the stars."

Yes, it is possible to rely on the stars to locate the sea, but the technology at this time is still very backward, and the error is very large.This can be seen from the fact that more than [-]% of the ships are still approaching the sea, and occasionally sailing into the deep sea, they often deviate.For example, ships departing from Mingzhou to Japan often go to North Korea, which is to yaw on the sea.

Thinking of this, he woke up suddenly and shouted: "Han Quanhui."

"Your Majesty." Han Quanhui walked over and bowed in salute.

"Has the Persian envoy gone?" he asked.

"It's been more than ten days." Han Quanhui replied.

"Send someone to catch up with them, and say that if we can get from the Baghdad library—" Shao Shude said halfway, then shook his head again, and said, "Forget it, this is too embarrassing. Tell Li Shouxin to come and see me."

Li Shouxin was the young minister of Honglu Temple. He accompanied him on the Western Expedition in the 14th year of Jianji and returned in the first year of Tongguang.

After finishing the Western Expedition and returning to Chang'an, Shao Shude came up with the idea of ​​sending envoys to Western countries.

After returning to Chang'an, Shao Shude was embarrassed to let Li Shouxin go on an envoy immediately because he had been traveling with him for a long time, so he let him rest at home for a year.

Now, it seems that we can act.

(End of this chapter)