Chapter 461: Broken Leaf News

Cui Yao slowly opened his eyes, and his eyes were still confused. After a while, it gradually became clear. He saw the blue sky and saw a group of birds flying past his eyes. He felt the cool wind again, and the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the reeds.

‘Where am I?’

Cui Yao slowly turned his head and saw a shimmering lake. He felt a little familiar. This seemed to be the oasis where he rested yesterday afternoon. But where did the pursuers and the two last night who deserved to die? He struggled to sit up, and suddenly a severe pain in his left arm. This piercing pain made him sweat and almost faint again.

"Ah! Don't move." A crisp sound suddenly came from his ears, with anxiety in his voice, but Cui Yao seemed to be struck by lightning. He couldn't believe his ears. Is it her? She shouldn't have appeared here, but it was her voice. Cui Yao forgot the pain on his arm. He slowly turned his head, and a haggard but beautiful face appeared in front of him. His high nose, gem-like eyes, pink and white skin, and lips that made him dreamt about him dive into his dream every night, making his unforgettable lover. At this moment, her sweet smile seemed to be a water lily in the desert, blooming.

"Gude..." He trembled with a trembling voice and shouted out the name that could only appear in his dreams, "Is it really you? Am I dreaming?"

Gu Dai couldn't help crying with joy. She slowly knelt beside him, wiping the tears of happiness in the corner of her eyes, and stroking his dark and thin face, saying with a sob: "You guy, I think you can't live! Do you know how long you've been in a coma?"

Cui Yao felt extremely weak all over. He stretched out his right hand and held her hand tightly together. Thousands of words surged in his heart, but his lips moved, and finally he said only one sentence, "For you, I will never die."

Gu Dai's tears rolled down, a month of hardship, a month of storms, a month of dangerous encounters, and a time of weakness that made her want to go home disappeared from her decisive words. She suddenly held her face and started crying, and her happiness and grievances were all integrated into the rolling tears.

"Do you know? You have been in a coma for three days and four nights. Every day I want to let you drink water and maintain your life. I am so worried." Gu Dai said, while using a small spoon to feed him the soft dough cake soaked in spring water little by little. He smiled and said, "I actually saw you in Mulu City. I think the masked man in black looks very much like you, but I'm not sure, so I followed all the way. It's so dangerous. If it weren't for my thoughts, we might have been separated by yin and yang. Do you know? I heard that you were captured by the great cannibal, and I thought about saving you, but I still haven't thought of a way to save you."

Speaking of this, she almost laughed out loud. She was lonely for a month on the journey and met her lover in the desert. Gu Dai seemed to have a lot of words, and her eyes showed uncontrollable excitement. She suddenly frowned and asked again: "Why are those big-food soldiers chasing you? Did you escape?"

In addition to the knife wound, Cui Yao's left arm was also broken. Gu Dai found several wooden boards to tie them tightly and could not move at all. He lay comfortably on a straw mat made of flowers and grass. He was really hungry. He ate the bread with relish and said vaguely: "It's someone in Baghdad who wants to kill me. I'm involved in their domestic power struggle. In short, it's hard to describe it. By the way, my followers can have people who are alive."

"There are seven people who have survived. They only gathered together this morning. Now they are going back to the place where something happened to be in trouble to look for something."

Cui Yao was stunned, and he asked in surprise: "What? Is this another oasis?"

"Do you know now?" Gu Dai gave him a blank look and said with a sweet smile: "This place is fifty miles away from the oasis where you were attacked. We killed the big food soldiers. Can we survive if we don't escape far?"

Cui Yao thought about it and found that it was true. The soldiers of Dashi rode their horses and could not go deep into the desert, so they escaped. He suddenly remembered something and hurriedly touched his arms. His face changed drastically. The handwritten letter from Rashid disappeared.

"Are you looking for this?" Gu Dai took out a gold box from the leather bag next to him and opened it. Rashid's letter was still lying intact in the gold box. Cui Yao then breathed a sigh of relief, reached out to take the gold box, and put it in his arms carefully. He pondered for a moment and said to Gu Dai: "I have an important mission. I cannot delay too much on the road. When I come back from people, we will set off immediately and return to Chang'an one day earlier."

The Guanzhong Plain has once again entered the summer of harvest. There are yellow wheat fields everywhere, and there are people who are busy harvesting at a glance. The fields are full of busy harvesting people, and joyful laughter can be heard everywhere. Last year, Guanzhong suffered a drought, and wheat yields were reduced by 40%. After the Battle of Broken Leaf, the food shortage almost caused. The rice dumplings rose to 350 cents. The urgent problem was solved by three million stones of rice transported from Huainan. Today is a bumper harvest year. There was no disaster until the eve of wheat harvesting. The entire Guanzhong Plain was full of joy. Starting from mid-June, the Guanzhong Plain and even the entire Tang Dynasty entered the wheat harvest season. After the wheat harvest, the entire Huainan area, the entire Guanzhong, Hedong, Longyou and other parts of the upper fields began to plant rice, while the middle fields and the middle fields were planted with beans. The grain production areas south of the Huainan River were all planted with double-season rice, which was just at this time.

Although the court has been encouraging the development of industry and commerce, agriculture has always been the foundation of the country. Food is the most important thing for the people. This has been firmly engraved in the hearts of every official of the people. June every year is the busiest day for the officials of the Tang Dynasty. From the emperor to the ninth rank chief clerk, every official must appear on the rice ridges in the fields. They wear straw hats, hold sickles in their hands, and sweat and harvest with the people. This is a common scene in the prosperous dynasty.

Along the eastern suburbs of Chang'an City to Xinfeng County, it is close to the Wei River. It has been the fertile land of Guanzhong since ancient times. It was originally distributed with more than 1,000 farms of all sizes, and most of them were private property of royal relatives and powerful people. However, with the royal purge in the first year of Dazhi and the abolition order that began in the fourth year of Dazhi, most of the farms disappeared. Now there are less than 100 farms left, most of which are the hereditary Yongye fields of large families. More land was distributed to farmers and became their private property. Each household granted land ranging from fifteen to twenty acres of land, except for military merits and officials. They paid 20 taxes to the court, and all other income belonged to themselves. The court has officially issued an imperial edict, and the land granting standards and tax payment standards will remain unchanged for fifty years, which undoubtedly gave the people of the world peace of mind.

The smart people immediately discovered the mystery. No matter how many people each household have, they will be granted land according to the same standard. In this way, small households and more children will become popular, which is exactly what the imperial court hopes. It is hoped that within 50 years, the population and arable land of the Tang Dynasty can be restored to the level of 50 million people in the early years of Tianbao.

Early in the morning, Zhang Huan led all officials to the eastern suburbs of Chang'an to help the people harvest wheat. He wore a straw hat, thick-soled cloth shoes, dressed in a short suit, and held a sickle in his hand to harvest wheat. This was not his first time to harvest wheat. Since he was in Wuwei and Longyou, he has led officials to participate in summer harvest every year, which has become a prescribed rule. Whether officials can participate in wheat harvest is not a forced force. If they are willing to come, they will not be willing or forced. However, this is the most important good of the four good in the official assessment system: virtue and righteousness have been heard.

Participating in wheat harvest may not necessarily lead to knowledge about Deyi, but not participating in wheat harvest or just acting will definitely not get any comments about Deyi. Every year, the Censors of the Supervision and Administration go to various places to investigate the situation of local officials. They do not ask officials or enter the yamen, and ask ordinary people in the fields. In addition, there are secret reports from the Supervision Office. The people's eyes are bright and they will not tolerate corrupt officials and lazy officials. Therefore, when harvesting wheat, almost all the officials of the Tang Dynasty were dispatched and worked in the fields like the people.

"Your Majesty, take a break!" Han Huan stood up, wiped his sweat and said with a smile.

Zhang Huan smiled and nodded, "Okay! Let's take a break."

He glanced at his son Li Qi from a distance. Seeing that he was asking an old farmer for wheat cutting skills, he didn't bother him. He sat down on the ridge of the field. He took the kettle handed by the guard, drank a few sips of water, and glanced at Han Huan and smiled: "The farm uniforms worn by Han Xiangguo seem to be the same as last year!"

Han Huan said in surprise: "I wore a white suit last year, but this year it was specially dyed blue. How can Your Majesty see it?"

"Because of this patch." Zhang Huan pointed to a patch on his sleeve and said, "I still remember it very clearly. Last year, the Prime Minister accidentally tore off his sleeve, and it's this place!"

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan sighed slightly, "When I was in Longyou, I heard that the Prime Minister was frugal, and his clothes and fur changed every ten years. He lived in only shelter from wind and rain, and did not buy assets for his family. Unexpectedly, the Prime Minister was the leader of all officials and still did not change his true nature. In comparison, I am ashamed!"

Han Huan hurriedly stood up and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, don't blame yourself. Your Majesty is already one of the rare emperors of thrift. To this day, there are only ten people in the harem, only five hundred palace maids and eunuchs. However, there are more than 40,000 people in the palace after Emperor Xuanzong, who consume millions of money and materials every year. It has to be said that this is one of the root causes of the Anshi Rebellion. After five years ascending the throne, Your Majesty respected mulberry farming, promoted industry and commerce, lowered taxes, and broadened education, and won the hearts of the people of the world. The reason why my ministers are willing to be frugal is that they are influenced by Your Majesty and dare not waste it."

Zhang Huan nodded silently and said after a long time, "Mencius said, "Born from worries and died in peace. I also indulged the luxury of textiles in the harem a few months ago. This is my fault. I have ordered that luxury goods such as Shu brocade should not be entered into the palace. I originally wanted to issue an order to prohibit the sale of fine silk and Shu brocade items in the market. But I thought about it and might be that the Uighurs needed this item, so I changed my mind again."

Speaking of this, a strange smile appeared on the corner of Zhang Huan's mouth. He looked at Han Huan to see if he could understand his meaning of changing the topic. Han Huan also smiled slightly. Of course, he understood His Majesty's meaning. Uighurs, this is the next target of the Tang Dynasty after the Battle of Shuye, but His Majesty obviously did not want to use troops anymore. He hoped that the Uighurs would kill each other until they finally fell apart. This required the use of clever means, either by using a knife to kill people, or by divisive division, and completely eradicate the enemy that was most threatening to the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, the Tang Dynasty had adopted similar measures against Tubo. On the one hand, it joined forces with Zanpu to encourage it to expand westward, but on the other hand, it strictly controlled trade with Tubo, strictly prohibited selling strategic materials such as food and iron to them, and exchanged luxury goods such as porcelain, silk, tea and other luxury goods for their cattle and sheep, gradually weakening the strength of the Tubo people, making Tubo Zanpu still unable to destroy the Naang clan and finally fell into a vicious cycle of civil war.

The same is true for the Uighurs. Two months ago, the Uighurs officially announced an alliance with the Dashi, regarded the Tang Dynasty as an enemy, and changed the name of the country to Uighurs to show their breakup with the former Uighurs. It was the Xin Khan Jiegangas who broke with the Tang Dynasty without hesitation that caused internal strife within the Uighurs. Pugu, Hun, Abus and other pro-Tang tribes and Yaoluo Geling tribes, as well as Yaoluo Geling's tribes, moved eastward to the Kedun City area, and supported Yaoluo Geling as the East Khan, requested the support of the Tang Dynasty and competed with Jiegangas.

This was obviously good news for the Tang Dynasty, but Zhang Huan was not in a hurry to send troops to attack Jiegangas. First, the Tang Dynasty was exhausted after the war and needed time to recuperate. Second, he formulated a five-step chess strategy. Now he has only reached the third step, which is to support the pro-Tang faction to split the Uighurs and weaken Jiegangas' strength. His fourth step will be to implement classified trade in Han'erduobali, only opening up luxury goods of porcelain and silk to the Uighurs, and strictly prohibiting all kinds of strategic materials from going north. Of course, this is just blocking one channel, and the key is to block another channel. The Uighurs cannot get material assistance from the West, and the Uighurs cannot use the luxury goods of the Tang Dynasty to the West for food.

Zhang Huan then took a few wheat ears and put out a simple map on the ground. He pointed to one of them and said to Han Huan, "If this was Yibohai, our shattered Ye army had now controlled the Yili River Basin. I plan to continue to go north and build three military cities in the south and west of Yibohai to completely cut off the trade between the shattered Yuhe. But in this way, there may be a small-scale conflict with the Uighurs in Yibohai. I want to ask the Prime Minister, if I want to transport one million stones of food to the shattered Ye, considering the consumption on the road, it will cost at least 1.5 million stones and 500,000 jin of money. I wonder if the court can take it out?"

Han Huan pondered for a moment and said, "There is no problem with grain. This year, Longyou is very mature, so you can directly mobilize grain from the Longyou official warehouse. However, there is no need to transport 50 jin of coins from the Central Plains. Shule has a coin station, and you can call Shule silver coins to broken leaves. Isn't this more convenient? Besides, the court does not lack this 500,000 jin of coins. Your Majesty's military actions are related to the strategic interests of the Tang Dynasty. I think all the prime ministers will definitely support Your Majesty."

"I also believe that everyone will support it. However, the Battle of Broken Leaf has just ended and the conflict between Yibohai will be ignited again. I am indeed a little guilty about the people."

As soon as Zhang Huan said this, a fast horse suddenly galloped along the official road. It was a messenger. He turned over and dismounted and ran quickly towards the place. The guard asked him a few words and brought him over.

"Your Majesty, there is emergency information about Shaye here."
Chapter completed!