Fu Tang

Li Congjia's sudden tax increase caught both the Kara Khanate and Khitan by surprise.

After Ye Luxian knew about it, he lifted another table, gritted his teeth and said, "Li Yu is targeting us!"

Brother Yeluxiu didn't speak, even if they knew that Li Yu was facing them, what could they do?What can they do?

The resources of the Kara Khanate can only be self-sufficient. This time they came to say that the things they want to sell to Khitan might have been bought from Datang. The price they signed is also a bit higher than buying from Datang, but A little higher is better than nothing.

But now that Datang raises tariffs, it means that if the original price is calculated, the Kara Khanate may even lose their pants.

After calming down, Yeluxian began to worry that the Kara Khan would break the contract. After all, the Kara Khan is not a charity.

Yeluxian said decisively: "Go and send someone to inform the envoy of the Kara Khanate that we are willing to increase the price!"

Brother Yeluxiu immediately said, "But... I'm afraid the price will not be affordable for us."

How could Ye Luxian not know this truth?However, now that he is on the verge of riding a tiger, if even the Kara Khanate is unwilling to sell them food and promises, many people in Khitan will starve to death, because the price of food will not be affordable by everyone.

Ye Luxian's face was gloomy. He regretted giving Datang that pasture very much now, otherwise he would not have to worry about tariffs anymore.

When Yeluxian was worried, Khan Musa of the Kara Khanate was also a little worried. Originally, he wanted to trade with Khitan, but he just wanted to make friends with Khitan. The Tang Dynasty was too powerful, and he was worried that the Kara Khanate had not yet grown. When he got up, Datang had already sounded the horn of attack.

As a result, before he could make any plans, Datang only raised the tariff and almost blocked their way.

Musa's right-hand man asked, "Khan, what should Khitan do?"

Musa pondered for a while and said: "Send someone to tell the Khitan Khan, don't act rashly for the time being, Datang raises tariffs at will, it will not only hurt us, merchants in their own country, but also merchants from other countries on the Silk Road None of them are willing, and the countries around them are not just the two of us."

After Musa finished speaking, he felt something was wrong and said, "Do you have a map of the Tang Dynasty?"

Hei Hanwang on the side said: "There is only a rough outline."

After all, this era is not like later generations. All maps can be seen through satellites. At this time, maps are also one of the important strategic materials. It is not easy for them to get an outline map for a catty.

After Musa unfolded the picture, he first said with emotion: "What a huge empire, it would be great if we could have such a vast land."

After he finished speaking, he took a closer look and couldn't help being taken aback. He suddenly found that the most threatening countries around the Tang Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty were the Khitan and his Karahan Dynasty. As for the other countries, most of them were small countries. There is definitely no way to compare with Datang in the world.

King Heihan looked at Musa cautiously and said: "Khan, our main target now should be the Shaman Empire. Datang is a lion, and now Bin is not a good time to provoke him."

Musa said with a serious face: "But this country is very unfriendly to us. From Khotan to this time, it has been targeting us every time. I am just worried that if we don't provoke them, they will also attack us. "

King Heihan thought for a while and said: "That may not be the case. It is said that Yuchi Sula, the king of Khotan, surrendered to Datang in order to keep the throne, and also gave up his surname and changed his surname to Li, which was accepted by Datang. Perhaps when Datang proposed these conditions, he was rejecting Khotan in disguise, but he did not expect the king of Khotan to be so cowardly as to agree to such conditions."

Speaking of this, Musa couldn't help but snorted and said: "I thought the king of Khotan was so stubborn, and he swore to die before surrendering to us, but he turned around and surrendered to Tang, simply ignoring us. inside!"

King Heihan didn't speak. He was a more rational person. Although he also believed in Islam, he would analyze rationally more often. He knew very well that Khotan's resistance to them was rooted in religion.

They have a state religion, and Khotan also has a state religion, but Datang is precisely an inclusive country.

Thinking of this, King Hei Han couldn't help but sighed and said, "It would be great if the emperor of the Tang Dynasty could also believe in religion."

Musa couldn't help being taken aback after hearing this, and actually began to think about it seriously, and said for a while: "In this way, we must choose someone who can speak the elegant words of the Tang Dynasty and understand the Tang Dynasty very well."

King Black Han thought for a while and said: "Mendil, who was sent this time, I feel that he seems to know Datang very well, and I can ask him to go again, but this time it is mainly for preaching."

Mendir, who had just escaped from Li Congjia's hands, was taking stock of his worth at this time, and suddenly sneezed. When he was wondering, he saw the messenger sent by Khan Musa and let him enter the palace.

Mendir suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart, but he had no room to object, so he could only follow.

As a result, this trip made him wish he hadn't been there at all. He never thought that he had finally escaped from Datang, but he would go there again, and this time the task was even more extreme than the last one—where to go The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty preached!

Meng Dier was a little bit broken, and he said cryptically: "Although it is said that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty did not believe in religion, it is said that he is a descendant of Taoist Lao Tzu. I am afraid that he will not easily believe in other religions, and he is the most important one. His national teacher is a Buddhist, and he is also the leader of the Illuminati religion."

Mendir's purpose of presenting the situation was to let Musa and the others know that, let alone Li Congjia was not a religious believer, even if he was a religious believer, he would not have to travel thousands of miles to believe in Islam.

But Musa said: "I know this, but he still doesn't have any beliefs, which means that those religions are not suitable for him. Maybe the teachings of the holy religion are just to his liking? Go, my friend, whatever We always have to try, don't we?"

Mendil... Mendil was bitter. He knew Li Congjia better than Musa. He felt that the reason why Li Congjia didn't believe in religion was not that the teachings of those religions were inappropriate, but that he didn't believe in them by nature!

However, Mendir couldn't say it out. The more he said, the more Musa would mistakenly think that he was evading. Musa is not a good-tempered person. He even said such things as my friend just now. If Mendir is not sensible, I am afraid that what is waiting for him is no longer a pleasant Musa, but an angry Musa plus inhuman punishment.

Mendir had no choice but to agree and said: "So, I will try my best."

Musa nodded with satisfaction: "If you can do it, Allah will reward his servant."

Mandir: I'm sorry, but your God's reward is for you to enjoy yourself, I can't bear it.

After Mendir went back, he began to think about whether to enter Datang and find an opportunity to run away. Now it seems that he doesn't want to think about any high-ranking officials and marquises. It would be nice to live a peaceful life.

Mendir planned well, but the problem is that he was not the only one who was sent to preach, and the task given by Musa was not only for them to develop Li Congjia into a believer, but also for them to preach as much as possible along the way, Develop more Han Christians.

Anyway, as long as the Han people believe in their holy religion, wouldn't it be easy for Musa to take down Datang?

As for Khitan, Musa thought for a while and asked, "How long is the document we signed with Khitan?"

The King of Black Han understood Musa's meaning almost instantly and said: "I haven't signed a time contract yet, but only signed a contract agreeing to sell materials to them."

Musa said very calmly: "If that's the case, then go tell Khitan Khan that the supplies of the Karahan Dynasty are also very tight recently, and the sale to Khitan may be delayed for some time."

King Hei Han asked: "If Khitan asks how long it will be delayed, how should I answer?"

Musa frowned and thought for a while and said, "It's not good for us. After all, we and the Saman dynasty have reached the brink of war. We must prepare food for our soldiers, and we cannot let them go to war hungry."

King Hei Han instantly understood that any shortage of supplies was actually an excuse, but Musa didn't want to lose money, so he found an excuse.

King Hei Han asked again: "What if Khitan agrees to raise the price?"

Musa shook his head and said: "Even if he mentions it, he can't mention much. The tariffs increased by the Tang Dynasty are too much for them to bear. Hmph, it is said that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty also let his subordinates do business. If he doesn't pay taxes The merchants in the Tang Dynasty will definitely not let it go, and either the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty will withdraw his previous edict, or he will wait for his people to rebel."

When Musa was making sarcastic remarks, Li Zhongyu was also asking this question, and he said very worriedly: "Father, the increase in tariffs so much may arouse public anger."

Li Congjia asked: "What do you think will happen if the public anger is aroused?"

Li Zhongyu didn't dare to speak. After arousing public anger... of course it was a rebellion.

Li Congjia looked at his expression and said with a smile: "Don't worry so much, those businessmen will not make decisions lightly, they are not ordinary ordinary people, not to mention they don't even have a leader, why are they rebelling?"

"But if things go on like this, maybe..." Li Zhongyu felt a bit bitter. What he worried about was that he would not be able to handle it when it was his turn to manage the country. After all, he was not his father. He was still young when his father ruled the world. , when he grows up, it will not be his turn to make meritorious service, so in terms of prestige, Li Zhongyu is really far behind.

Li Congjia asked: "You only see that we have raised tariffs, don't you see that I have issued a supplementary bill?"

Li Zhongyu was stunned for a moment, he really didn't pay much attention to the supplementary bill, in other words, what is this?

What else could it be? To put it simply, Li Congjia brutally raised the tariffs. After playing with the Kara Khanate and the Khitan, in order to protect the merchants in his country, he turned around and released another patch. The patch clearly read: Increase Items subject to tariffs include but are not limited to grain, salt, cloth...

This supplementary bill is simply telling the world that it is targeting the trade between the Kara Khanate and Khitan. After all, these things are considered strategic materials in this era, and transactions between countries are all through formal channels. Ordinary Merchants cannot trade these. If you have to sell, sorry, a crime of treason cannot escape.

Not to mention the merchants on the Silk Road, those merchants sell silk, porcelain, tea from the Tang Dynasty, spices from Western countries and the like. Food and salt are sold on both sides, and the little money earned is probably not enough for travel expenses, let alone whether it can make money or not.

Li Zhongyu was speechless for a moment after reading this supplementary bill. Now he is very worried that the Kara Khanate and the Khitan Kingdom will join forces to attack the Tang Dynasty after they find out.

So everyone was waiting for the businessmen of Datang to make trouble for Li Congjia, but in fact it was what the businessmen should do, and the various conflicts and hostility between the two countries did not affect them at all.

Oh, to say the least, it didn’t have any influence at all. The businessmen who originally went to Khitan lost their business for a while, and they didn’t know what to do. Fortunately, Li Congjia didn’t ignore them, and directly asked Ah Rong to organize his staff and bring them with them. These merchants go to Tibet—whom do they do business with?

There are so many tribes in Tubo, not all of them are very poor, and the supplies there are much more than those in Khitan, but going there to do business requires strong military protection. What is the morality of the rivers and lakes, if you say robbery, you will be robbed.

With Ah Rong leading the way, these merchants responded immediately. After all, everyone knew that Ah Rong had a powerful team, all composed of veterans from the Tiance Mansion and other powerful armies. The weak and weak tribes dare not draw their attention at all, while the strong tribes know that they can't afford to offend them when they see the dragon pattern logo of the trading company - whoever dares to rob the caravan under the Emperor Datang will wait Get robbed.

After all, Li Congjia's experience as a horse bandit is an open secret.

These merchants had a place to go for their things, and found that it was more profitable than selling to Khitan, so they changed their course in an instant, and no longer talked to the merchants from Khitan.

Li Congjia looked at the various information Shi Xueting gave him and said with a smile: "This time, Ye Luxian is going to vomit three liters of blood again."

Shi Xueting looked at him and asked: "Now the whole court is betting on when you will send troops to attack Khitan."

Li Congjia looked puzzled: "Why should I fight Khitan?"

Shi Xueting raised his eyebrows: "Not attacking Khitan? Is that planning to directly attack Kara Khanate?"

Li Congjia shook his head: "How is it possible? Khotan has not fully grasped it. At least within five years, I should not take the initiative to attack the Kara Khanate."

After Li Congjia finished speaking, he thought about it and added: "If there are no accidents."

Shi Xueting chuckled: "Is it an accident, isn't it up to you?"

Li Congjia glared at him and asked, "By the way, what gave them the illusion that I would send troops to attack Khitan?"

Shi Xueting said: "All your recent actions are trying to push Khitan to a dead end. You can't tell when the fight will start, why? Everyone guessed wrong?"

After thinking about it seriously, Li Congjia said: "You guys are really wrong. I just want to vent my anger. Khitan is getting worse and worse. They want to wrestle with us when they have a little strength, and they don't even look at what they are doing now. .”

Shi Xueting didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Khitan is actually quite powerful."

Li Congjia said calmly: "That was before, now? Without Yanyun Sixteen States, what are they?"

Shi Xueting nodded and said: "Indeed, without Yanyun Sixteen States, the Khitan should be worried, but if they don't plan to fight, when will the ban be lifted?"

Li Congjia thought for a while before saying: "If I say I don't want to cancel it, do you think the cabinet will agree?"

Shi Xueting shook his head and said, "I don't know. The cabinet has been too cooperative with you recently. If you say you block the deal with Khitan, you will block it, and if you say you want to increase tariffs, you will raise tariffs. I am really not used to it."

Li Congjia patted the case and said, "So you think so too? I thought I was the only one who wasn't used to it!"

Li Congjia still felt a little uneasy that the cabinet was so obedient, for fear that they would hold back their energy and write a letter together when the time came, which would be really troublesome.

Shi Xueting chuckled lightly and said, "I think it's inconvenient for the Yushitai to be withdrawn. You can ignore the Yushi excerpts as nonsense, but if it's Fan Shoufu and the others, you can't ignore them."

Li Congjia sighed: "Who said it wasn't? If I had known it earlier, I would have kept the Yushitai, and just kept a few for show."

Shi Xueting leaned in front of him and said: "Is today's papers all finished? It's getting late, let's go to rest..."

Before Shi Xueting could finish his sentence, the familiar pigeon whistle sounded, which made him helplessly sigh.

Li Congjia pushed his bald head with a smile and said, "Go and see what the news is."

If it wasn't for the urgent news, it probably wouldn't arrive until midnight, so Shi Xueting had no choice but to go out to get the news, but when he came in, he had a bewildered expression on his face: "Long Shisan is back again."

"What?" Li Congjia looked at him strangely: "You said Long Shisan is back? Back to the Western Regions?"

Shi Xueting nodded: "Just passed the border."

Li Congjia thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure it out: "He sneaked back to the Kara Khanate with great effort, why did he come here again now? Aren't you afraid of being discovered by us?"

Shi Xueting said: "There are still a few people around him, but they are not the envoys who came here together at the beginning, and this time he changed his attire again, and the beard on his face was shaved. My people almost didn't notice him at first."

Li Congjia couldn't figure it out, so he didn't want to think about it and said: "Let people stare at him and see what he is doing to know the purpose of his return. Let's go, let's go to rest."

Shi Xueting smiled, walked over and hugged Li Congjia and said, "That's right, a spring night is worth a thousand dollars, why waste time for people who don't want to do it?"

Li Congjia raised his eyebrows: "The north wind is blowing outside, how about the Spring Festival?"

Shi Xueting didn't quarrel with him, but just told Li Congjia what Chunxiao is, which made Li Congjia almost miss the Xiaochao meeting the next day.

After the Xiaochao meeting ended, Li Congjia returned to the study and asked Shi Xueting to help him rub his waist politely, um, the kind who can't move his hands and feet.

Shi Xueting also knew that yesterday was a little too much, and while rubbing his waist, he said: "You definitely can't guess what Long Shisan is doing recently."

Li Congjia half-closed his eyes comfortably, and after listening, he just made a very simple voice: "Huh?"

Shi Xueting didn't show off, and said directly: "He is actually preaching."

Li Congjia suddenly woke up from his drowsy state, turned his head and asked, "Preaching? He is so courageous!"

Shi Xueting said: "To be precise, it seems that the preachers are those who follow him, and he is only acting as a guide."

Li Congjia snorted coldly and said: "I didn't expose him before, and I already gave him face. Since he still doesn't know how to live or die, then don't worry about it. Just send someone to arrest him, including the people around him. Anyway, he It's not an emissary this time either."

Shi Xueting said: "Try your best, this guy is very cunning, my people almost lost me several times."

Li Congjia lay there and continued, "When caught, interrogate them directly to see what their purpose is."

Shi Xueting asked: "Do you need to keep your hands?"

Li Congjia hesitated for a moment. What Shi Xueting meant was to ask if he should be gentle during the interrogation, so as to minimize the harm to these people.

Originally, Li Congjia didn't want to hurt Long Shisan because of his old love, but after thinking about it, Long Shisan didn't plan to become a Tang Dynasty man anymore, so why would he miss his old love?

So he said directly: "How to ask how to ask, and by the way, it would be even better if you can ask about the current situation of the Kara Khanate."

Shi Xueting hummed and continued to work hard. After a while, Li Congjia realized something was wrong, and couldn't help asking: "Where are you stretching your hand?"

Shi Xueting was very confident: "I want to see if you are injured."

Li Congjia wished he could kick him out: "Didn't you just read it this morning?" Not only did you read it, but after finding out that there was nothing wrong with it, you also came to post it, otherwise why would he almost not get up?

When Shi Xueting was about to continue molesting Li Congjia, Li Ping came to see him, and Li Congjia escaped unharmed.

After Li Ping came in, he said, "Your Majesty, the governor of Dengzhou, Lei Youzhong, discovered an unidentified ship in the waters of Dengzhou a few days ago. After investigation, it seemed to be a Khitan ship. How will His Majesty deal with it?"