Fu Tang

Li Congjia watched carefully for a long time, and then he could barely see the outline of a fat man hiding in the crowd with a little bit of Long Shisan.

"Are you sure?" Li Congjia was a little skeptical.

Although they look alike, thin people have various body shapes, and fat people are just... It's really not easy to distinguish from the body shape alone.

Shi Xueting didn't answer, he just said seriously: "It's time for you to rest."

"What?" Li Congjia turned his head and looked at him unkindly. Does this have anything to do with what the two of them said just now?

Shi Xueting said: "Your eyes are not as good as before."

Li Congjia was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that he looked up into the distance, and found that it was a little blurry, and he panicked. Is this the rhythm of myopia?

How old is he, yet he is still nearsighted?Li Congjia couldn't help but rubbed his eyes and said, "Let's put this matter aside for now. Recently, there are a lot of things going on, so I spent a little longer reading the book at night. It seems that it really can't be like this."

Although his living standard is first-class in Tang Dynasty, it does not mean that he can use light bulbs, but candles. Even if he lights a lot, the light of candles will still produce shadows and dead ends. May cause damage to eyes.

Shi Xueting said: "It's not just Long Shisan, his followers are also there."

Li Congjia was speechless: "What the hell are these people doing? They sneaked away like they disappeared, and then sneaked back to participate in the auction? Wait... Where did they get the invitation for the auction?"

Li Congjia and Shi Xueting looked at each other, thinking that there must be something tricky in it, Shi Xueting turned around and ordered his subordinates to keep Long Shisan and the others under surveillance, but don't disturb the Tubo envoys, they will be arrested after the auction is over stand up.

Although they were puzzled about the purpose of Long Shisan and the others, they didn't pay all their attention here. After all, they were not the main event tonight.

The impact brought by the two Buddha statues has been dissipated, and the person who just wanted to take the opportunity to seize the Buddha statue has been beaten and dragged out.

To be honest, this way of handling it is really simple and rude, and it is easy to cause diplomatic problems. In Li Congjia's previous thinking, he would not agree to this way.

However, even if that person was severely beaten and dragged out like a dead dog, no one except his subordinates would dare to stand up for him.

No matter what era power is respected, what's more, in this relatively barbaric era, everyone knows the power of Datang. They dare not offend Datang. They are very worried that if they accidentally anger Datang, Datang will send troops to attack them.

See how Gory is doing now?How is Dali doing now?Look at the Queen Kingdom and the Angkor Dynasty. Isn't the king trembling every day?Even Khotan bowed his head to Datang.

What's more, they want to bring back the glazed Buddha statue. As long as they can bring it back, they can justifiably gather other tribes of the same belief in various names.

Li Congjia watched the venue restore order, and then the auctioneer started the normal order of auctions. He couldn't help smiling and asked, "Which tribe is the person who was dragged out just now?"

Chunsheng immediately replied, "It is said that he is from Niboluo."

The people in the auction house knew that Li Congjia was here, so they would come and report anything that happened, and the identities of those people just now were naturally not concealed.

Li Congjia was a little surprised after hearing this: "Niboluo? They've all come so far away?"

Strictly speaking, Nivala is no longer the territory of Tubo, and the struggle of Tubo basically does not affect Nivala, so Li Congjia was a little surprised by the arrival of the Nivala envoy this time.

Of course, this is also because he only knows it now. There are too many Tubo tribes who came this time. Even Honglu Temple later felt that there was no need to report it to Li Congjia for a look. Care about these small tribes?

You must know that the status of the leaders of these small tribes is not necessarily higher than that of the governor of Shangzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and the minister of Honglu Temple does not have to come forward to receive them in person.

Li Congjia was only surprised for a moment by Nidhara's arrival. Thinking that Niddara also believed in Buddhism, he felt that it was not incomprehensible for the other party to be so excited.

The auction price of the two glazed Buddha statues was getting higher and higher. Finally, when Li Congjia looked at the slightly crazy envoys below, he couldn't help but feel vigilant, and asked the left and right guards to send more people.

He wasn't worried that these people would attack the auction venue. Anyway, after the lessons learned by the Nivalo envoy just now, these people should already know that Chang'an is not a place where they can run wild.

However, what Li Congjia was worried about was that these envoys would fight on their own. Although he originally hoped that these tribes could consume each other's strength, this did not mean that he was willing to see Chang'an's blood flow into rivers.

Li Congjia watched the prices below continue to rise, and looked quite frightened. Seeing his expression, Shi Xueting couldn't help laughing and said, "Why? Scared?"

Li Congjia nodded earnestly: "I'm afraid they will renege on this."

Shi Xueting was almost laughed out of anger, repudiation?How can it be?Is it true that Datang's army is vegetarian?If they really reneged, Datang would have an excuse to deal with them.

Li Congjia sighed: "I really underestimated the power of religion, they are crazier than you."

Shi Xueting was a little dissatisfied: "Where am I crazy?"

Li Congjia snorted: "Who objected at the beginning?"

Shi Xueting thought about it carefully for a long time, but he couldn't figure out when he objected, but it's best not to argue with Li Congjia about this kind of thing, otherwise Li Congjia will be messing around in the end, and he can only surrender.

"It seems that the auction here will end in a while, why don't we go back to rest first, it's getting late." Shi Xueting looked at the hourglass and said.

Li Congjia also glanced at it reflexively and couldn't help being surprised: "It's already midnight?" He hesitated for a moment. He hadn't seen such a wonderful auction since he traveled here, and he was quite reluctant, wanting to see the ending. , but the time is indeed getting late.

Finally he sighed and said, "Let's go."

While putting on the cloak for him, Shi Xueting said, "I've already got people watching Long Shisan and his party, so don't worry about them running away."

Li Congjia was convinced of this point, but when he was about to leave, he heard that the price increase inside had already started to increase!

Li Congjia listened to his ears, frowned and got into the carriage. While sitting in the carriage, he said: "It turns out that the money of these tribes may have reached their limit, otherwise they would not use cattle and sheep to pay off their debts, but...the cattle and sheep are theirs. With the basis of survival, it is used to pay off debts, how will they survive in the future? Winter is coming soon."

Shi Xueting looked at him curiously and asked for a long time: "Why didn't I know when you still cared so much about Tubo? Are you worried that they don't have enough supplies in winter?"

Li Congjia rolled his eyes: "I'm not worried about whether they have supplies or not. What I'm worried about is that they renege on their debts. Well, even if they don't renege on their debts, it might be bad luck for the people on the border if they can't survive in winter."

It has become a tradition for these tribes to come and rob the Han people when they are short of supplies. Even if there is no shortage of supplies, they will come and grab them. After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the value of force reached its peak. Dare to continue to rob like before.

However, the dog jumps over the wall in a hurry. If there is really nothing, these tribes cannot watch their own people starve to death.

Shi Xueting touched Li Congjia's face and said: "Don't worry, their first choice now is to rob those tribes that are weaker than themselves, and they will not choose the people of Datang, unless they really want their tribe to be separated from the world. disappear."

Li Congjia thought about it, and Dali was a lesson learned from the past. He went back and slept comfortably, but for the Tubo envoy, this night was a sleepless night.

Because it was a holiday the next day, Li Congjia called A Rong in in the morning and asked about the situation last night.

Ah Rong has entered the palace more times, and seeing Li Congjia will not be as excited as before. After saluting respectfully, he said: "The two Buddha statues were photographed by the Yangtong and Qimu tribes."

"What?" Li Congjia was a little surprised: "It's actually these two tribes? How many things have you photographed?"

Arong handed over a bill and said: "The price of the two Buddha statues is the same, both are 10 taels of gold plus [-] antelopes and [-] yaks."

Li Congjia was very surprised by this price. When he left yesterday, he had indeed captured so much gold, but the price increase with cattle and sheep had just begun, and he did not expect to add the same [-] head in the end.

Li Congjia asked A Rong to go back to rest first. Yesterday A Rong watched from beginning to end, for fear of making mistakes. After the auction was over and the contract was signed, A Rong began to wait for the call from the palace, so he has not slept until now.

Li Congjia asked her to go to bed first, then turned around and called all the officials of the cabinet and the Privy Council to the Xuanzheng Hall.

Although it's a holiday, the boss has invited everyone to come.

So when the officials arrived at the Xuanzheng Hall, they took a look, oh well, this scale has caught up with a small court meeting.

While waiting for Li Congjia, everyone analyzed what made the emperor work overtime.

Yes, Li Congjia has always been a loyal supporter who needs to take a good rest on holidays. Anyway, it is impossible for him to work overtime, and ministers are not allowed to work overtime. They must rest when they should.

As a result, today...is a bit abnormal.

"It should be related to the auction last night." Honglu Temple said with a smile. Since the envoys of the Kara Khanate and Khotan entered Chang'an, and then the Tubo envoys came, the importance of Honglu Temple has been highlighted again and again. The officials of the department were so busy that they could not wait to give birth to superhuman beings, but the more they were like this, the more excited they were. After all, Honglu Temple had been idle for too long.

After Li Congjia arrived, he sat down and asked, "Do you know how many photos were taken of the last two Buddha statues last night?"

Everyone shook their heads, only Honglu Siqing said the number, there is no way, everyone else can leave, only he can't, after all the envoys of Tubo are there, he doesn't keep an eye on one point in case he throws another one or two, Isn't he going to take his own life and apologize?

The amount of those two Buddha statues auctioned made everyone gasp. Although they also thought that this thing looked very precious, they didn't expect such a price to be auctioned!

Li Congjia said calmly: "The contract documents have been signed, and there is no need to worry about the other party cheating. However, I was surprised that the people who took pictures of the Buddha statues this time were actually two small tribes. They were so small that I hadn't paid much attention to them before." , one sheep and one contemporary mother, does anyone know what's going on?"

The Minister of Honglu Temple stood up calmly. He knew that it was time for him to perform again. After all, he should know all these information better because of Honglu Temple. Of course, the Privy Council may also know that the Ministry of Intelligence...

But these two sides can’t stand up easily, let’s not talk about it, and basically won’t stand up, the Privy Council… If they stand up, it means that the Tang Dynasty will mobilize troops, so many civil officials are unwilling to see the Privy Council stand up. come out.

Honglu Temple talked about the situation of these two tribes in detail, and it can be summed up as follows: few people are poor.

Li Congjia didn't memorize any of the data mentioned by the Minister of Honglu Temple. He only needed one conclusion, so he asked, "How did these two tribes suddenly have the money to pay such a big price?"

No one knows why, these two tribes are really too poor, all their cattle and sheep add up to less than [-], or the two tribes add up, so what confidence do they have to take pictures?

You must know that at the beginning everyone thought that these two Buddha statues should be the struggle between King Lhasa and King Yalongjue. These two people have always claimed to be the direct descendants of the Tubo royal family, but differences have gradually emerged in their beliefs. He believed in Indian Buddhism, and King Yalongjue flaunted tradition, so he still believed in Yongzhongben religion.

Even if it wasn't for these two tribes, the remaining Qiangtang, Yangtong, Subi, and Domi are all relatively powerful tribes in Tubo, so why can't they get the turn of those two small tribes?

"Could it be that they just photographed it randomly?" Zhu Yuan said quickly, and came up with the most impossible plan.

Li Ping quickly explained to his old subordinates: "Impossible, they will not take the risk of provoking Datang to do such a thing, not to mention that if they really can't pay, what awaits them is Datang's hostility." If nothing else, it is impossible to hand over the two Buddha statues to them, and there will be another auction directly."

Zhu Yuan scratched his head and didn't dare to speak again.

Everyone was discussing, not understanding where the two tribes got their money from, but there was no conclusion.

In the end, Li Congjia had no choice but to say: "Go and check, and then pay attention to other tribes in Tubo. This thing is really profitable. I want to do it again."

Fan Zhi quickly said: "Rare is the most precious thing. If Your Majesty makes a few more statues, I'm afraid it won't be able to meet the price."

Li Congjia smiled slightly: "What's so difficult about it? It's not impossible to artificially create religious fetishes."

Everyone:? ? ? ? ?

Faced with everyone's eager eyes, Li Congjia walked away without any sense of loyalty. He didn't explain at all, so that no one could understand what he meant. Could something be going on?

When the cabinet members walked out, Wang Pu laughed and said, "Our Majesty, I'm really afraid that Tubo will not be chaotic."

The old god Wei Renpu said: "The birth of these two Buddha statues represents his idea of ​​fighting Tubo, but this is also good. It is better to let the Tubo tribes consume each other than he thinks about sending troops to fight."

"Hey." Zhao Pu said: "If it is possible, His Majesty will definitely be willing to fight, but Tubo is located on a plateau, our soldiers have to face a climate problem in the past, and it is easy for Hamei to suffer when they start fighting, so he It would be so roundabout, if it was replaced by Khotan or something... he would have already started planning and attacking, believe it or not?"

Believe it, why not?They all had some sympathy for Tubo. Anyway, history has proved that even if the courtiers objected to the country Li Congjia was targeting, he could not escape Li Congjia's palm in the end.

Although no specific proposals were discussed at the Xiaochao meeting this time, politics is like this, and many things will not have answers at the time.

For this reason, the cabinet worked overtime and held a meeting to discuss what to do if these tribes could not pay but took away the Buddha statue.

Fan Zhi said, "What are you afraid of? Want to take things without paying?"

"I'm afraid they won't be able to take the things after paying the money." Wei Renpu shook his head.

Wang Pu nodded: "They got this Buddha statue at such a cost, so what if they have a name? Other powerful tribes can fight for it at any time. It is said that these big tribes did not bid desperately this time. Is this the idea?"

"If this is the case, you can ask them to pay half of the money to take away the Buddha statue. Anyway, His Majesty said that this thing will soon be worthless. The most important thing is to let them take it away and disturb Tubo. The other party only pays half, and the price is not too low." Zhao Pu couldn't help but began to wonder whether the national treasury would be more filled with these materials.

Just after these bigwigs had already started to find homes for the Buddha statues, Shi Xueting had already brought the latest information to Li Congjia.

"Do you want to know where Mother Qi got the confidence to take this Buddha statue?" Shi Xueting looked at Li Congjia with a smile.

Li Congjia's eyes lit up: "It was found out? What was the result?"

Shi Xueting didn't speak, just looked at him with a smile, Li Congjia had no choice but to go over and hug Shi Xueting's neck, almost hanging on his body, and after kissing him, he said: "You can use this as well." Come to take advantage, what about morality?"

Shi Xueting hugged him and deepened the kiss, and said after kissing enough: "Isn't this what you mean by fun?"

Li Congjia raised his eyebrows, but didn't refute. Anyway, it's not particularly important information. It doesn't matter if it's used as a joke. Anyway, Shi Xueting has a sense of proportion.

After opening the map, Shi Xueting said: "Qimu, the leader of the tribe, is not simple, they are not the same tribe that took this Buddha statue."

Li Congjia immediately realized: "Are you talking about...many tribes raising funds? How do you divide it up? Who pays more and who pays less? Who else owns this Buddha statue? How do you count?"

It is common to raise money to buy something, but it is usually used for public facilities. For example, if a village needs a well and the imperial court can't allocate money to do it, the common people may raise money to do it themselves.

The Buddha statue is still a relatively personal item. Whichever tribe gets it and owns it. Now that the tribe is raising funds, unless they directly build a temple, which tribe will it be placed in?

Shi Xueting said: "Actually, although we didn't say that there will be Buddha statues before this auction, we did say that there will be glazed products. Glasses are also treasures in Buddhism. They have already discussed the countermeasures before coming here. I plan to raise funds to shoot glazed products, but I don't know how to distribute them. The only thing I know is that they have united with many tribes, usually small tribes, such as Knott's, Webster's, and Niwa's. Although these tribes are not big , but the overall strength is no less than other big tribes."

Li Congjia rubbed his chin and said, "Then can I think that these small tribes already have a sense of crisis, but they also know that they are powerless against the big tribes, so they decided to unite against these big tribes?"

Shi Xueting nodded: "I think it's very likely so."

Li Congjia said: "However, I am not very optimistic about their alliance. They just wanted glazed products before. As long as they take two more pieces, they can always find a balance when they go back. Now they use all their money to take pictures of Buddha statues. Then in the future , their alliance is likely to be torn apart over the ownership of the Buddha statue."

Shi Xueting nodded: "That's right, I don't really want their alliance to disintegrate."

After all, if there is a choice, no matter who you are, you will hope that the tribal alliance of Tubo will come to the end. After all, it is much easier to disintegrate an alliance than to deal with a large tribe that has grown up through war.

"Forget it, this matter has reached this point, all we can do is to wait and see what happens, and take action when necessary." Li Congjia did not expect that the two Buddha statues could wipe out Tubo.

He turned his head to look at Shi Xueting and asked, "What about the other tribe? What happened to Yangtong? It's true that their tribe is a bit older than Qimu, but it's not enough to produce [-] gold and [-] cattle and sheep." to the extent?"

Shi Xueting looked at Li Congjia meaningfully and said: "Of course Tong Yang has also found an ally, but he only has one ally, and this ally is stronger than those found by Qi's mother."