Looking at the Gaochang City in front of him, Du Zhongxiao said to Fu Bi: "Since the Tang Dynasty set up Xizhou, this is the largest city in the Western Regions, and it is still majestic. After occupying this city, the Western Regions was like returning to the imperial court, and it could pass through the trade routes to the west. ”

Fu Bi arched his hand: "Since Jieshuai came to the north, he occupied Hequ Road two years ago, and today he has reopened the Western Regions, which is really no meritorious service, and the blessing of the imperial court." ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "There are many small countries in the Western Regions, although Gaochang is said to be a country, in fact, they are all autonomous regions. This time in the west, the fiercest battle actually took place in Liuzhong, who would have thought that? The Uighurs were not native to the Western Regions, and it was only natural that they would be defeated by us. ”

While the two were talking, Zhao Zi brought his generals and Gu Chen, the lord of Gaochang City, to greet him and salute forward.

After the ceremony, Du Zhongxiao said: "The servant city lord sacrificed the city in time, so as to avoid too many killings and injuries, which is really a great achievement." Now the affairs of the city are first managed by the lord of the city, which is regarded as the loyalty of the court. When the imperial court sent Zhizhou, the city lord went to the capital to accept the reward. ”

The servant bowed his hand: "But listen to the orders of the marshal." ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "That's the best." Let's enter the city and see how the largest city in the Western Regions is! ”

After entering the city gate, Du Zhongxiao saw that the city was in order, and all the shops on both sides of the street were open, and said to Zhao Zi: "Okay, if you want to win the hearts of the local people, you should take care of the people." After you enter the city, it is a great achievement to restrain your subordinates and not harass the people! ”

Zhao Zi forked his hands: "There is a military order, how dare you disobey it!" ”

Looking at the streets on both sides, Du Zhongxiao said to Fu Bi: "I don't know how many of the Hu merchants in Shengzhou are here. If you look at the market scene here, I don't know how much stronger it is than Xizhou! Those Hu businessmen knew that we had entered Gaochang, and they didn't know how they were feeling. ”

Fu Bi said: "When Gao Chang is here, no one will go to Yizhou, and they must have a good relationship with the Uighurs." The marshal has always forbidden officials to have too much contact with local Hu merchants, and I think he knows this. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "The Hu merchants who went to Shengzhou all started from here, traveled thousands of miles to the north, and only passed through Yinshan when they arrived in Fengzhou. If it weren't for good relations with the Uighurs, how could this be? Now that we have entered Gaochang, the business needs to be done in a different way. ”

The Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated, and the products are not abundant, and there are so many goods needed by the Central Plains, which are just transshipment. What Du Zhongxiao wanted was to go through the land road and have direct contact with the big countries in the west, not to change hands through the middle. Otherwise, if there is chaos, the trade route will be cut off.

After entering the city lord's mansion, everyone sat down as guests and hosts, and behaved like a ritual.

Du Zhongxiao said: "Gaochang City, Xizhou in the Tang Dynasty will now be under the rule of the imperial court." How to govern this place in the future is a matter determined by the imperial court, and we will wait slowly. Now how about the city lord of Fugu as the right to know Xizhou and manage the surrounding twenty-two cities? ”

Fu Bi said: "That's exactly how it should be. When the army first came, many affairs did not know the details, so don't make a big move. ”

The servant Guchen arched his hand: "The marshal arranged it like this, and I received the order." ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "If this is the case, then tell the local government and appease the people." In principle, all the official documents should be in Chinese, but for new arrivals, they should first use Chinese for a period of time in parallel with the Uighurs. Scribes were sent out in the army to help the lord of the city. ”

The servant knew that this meant surveillance, but when the army entered the city, he couldn't refuse, so he agreed.

Du Zhongxiao said to Zhang Sheng: "Gaochang City has fallen, and the most important thing in the war in the Western Regions now is Yanqi in the south. Zhang Qi was stationed in Yancheng and guarded the valley mouth of Yanqilai. After a few days, Deputy Envoy Zhang went to Yancheng and worked with Zhang Qi to do this great thing. ”

Zhang Sheng obeyed the order. Zhang Qi's army of 50,000 was enough to deal with Yanqi, and there was no need for Zhao Zi's soldiers and horses.

Du Zhongxiao said again: "Within a month, Zhang Qi's army will all be concentrated in Yancheng and prepare to fight Yanqi. Zhao Zi, you arrange your soldiers and horses, except for leaving 10,000 people to guard the cities, the rest of the army will be concentrated in Baishui City, ready to attack Zhangbali. ”

Zhao Zicha sang a promise. Without the about 10,000 people in Gaochang City, Gaochang did not have many troops in the three northern cities of Zhangbali, Yangji Bali and Beiting. Sending 20,000 people is sufficient, and it contains the meaning of guarding against other herdsmen. The Uighur population in Gaochang was mostly located north of Tiannan and lived mainly on nomadic herding. Most of Gaochang's troops were Uighurs enlisted, and most of the Uighurs were in Yanqi.

After arranging the future deployment, Du Zhongxiao said: "Today, the Economic Strategy Division moved to Gaochang, and a banquet was held in the evening to celebrate. Everyone here will come at night and have a good time. I heard that the mutton here is excellent, and it is grazing in the pastures of the Tianshan Mountains next to it, so you can't skip it. ”

Everyone said yes.

After bidding farewell to everyone, Du Zhongxiao and Fu Bi sat in the official hall to discuss the future situation.

Du Zhongxiao said: "The Western Regions were originally the homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but they are too far away from the Central Plains. In the Tang Dynasty, where there were many garrisons, there were many Han people, such as Gaochang. Now the servants are governed by the law, there is no way, we are not familiar with this place at all. This is not a long-term solution, and one should familiarize yourself with the place as soon as possible, according to the laws of the imperial court. ”

Fu Bi said: "That's true. Now that there is a railway, it is not as difficult to get here as before, so the imperial court can send officials as soon as possible. The scribes here used to use Sogdians, but in the future they should use Han Chinese. It's just that officials are easy to send, and if you want to send officials, I'm afraid it's not easy. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "A few people can think of various ways to send people on such a large scale, without him, there is only one good word." The imperial court had to come up with a sum of money to build public offices and apartments in the local area, and to issue border subsidies to officials in order to attract people. ”

Fu Bi shook his head: "In the past two years, the imperial court has allowed the local government to print paper money, and the world has increased a lot of money, but it can only cope with it for a while." After all, paper money is based on copper coins, and now there are not enough copper coins, and the number of banknotes is not much. In the hands of the imperial court, there is actually no money. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The court has little money, but there is a lot of grain, so if you can't do it, you can send food." It will take a few years to figure out a way to deal with the matter of paper money. ”

In fact, in the past, there were all kinds of expenses, and the money sent to hand was not much, often a large amount of materials. The more low-level officials are, the less cash they will be given, often with all kinds of materials. When they encounter those who have no power, the small officials who distribute them are corrupt, and there are often corrupt ones. The whole country printed and distributed paper money based on copper coins, and the number of coins increased in a short period of time, and the depreciation gradually decreased. However, with the development of the mainland economy, in only one or two years, there is not enough currency in the market, and the value of most local currencies has risen in the past year.

The imperial court allocated money to the local government to transport copper coins, and in this case, there was not much money in practice. To develop the frontier, it must be a lot of money, but the imperial court is short of money. Banknotes are being explored, and this problem cannot be solved at once.

If the method of the Han and Tang dynasties is followed, the Western Regions are basically autonomous, and only a few places with a large number of troops will be stationed. Therefore, in the past thousand years, the Central Plains was in chaos, and the Han people in the Western Regions were washed over, and the actual population was not large. Now that there are railways, of course, we can no longer follow the old methods of the Han and Tang dynasties, but should directly county and county, except for really remote areas, and the imperial court will send officials.

It's just that there are not many officials in this era, and they hold real power at the local level. The actual officials who really do things, where can they find the officials in this kind of place? That's exactly what Fu Bi said.