In the eighth year of Kaiyuan, when Du Shiyi was ordered by Li Longji to go to the border areas of Hedong and Hebei, he had studied Xi and Turkic for a while. Merush is not exactly a name, but a Tang translation based on Turkic pronunciation, which is actually a title and an official name. In Turkic, Meru refers to the commander of the army, while Sip refers to the length of a section. In other words, this Turkic envoy who can greet him in Chinese is the head of a section of the current Turks, the commander of the army.

With the officials of Honglu Temple on his side, Du Shiyi did not show off his Turkic language, and immediately said with a smile in Chinese: "I didn't expect your envoy to know such an insignificant person as me. This time, the noble envoy paid tribute to thirty famous horses on the order of Viga Khan, and returned the letter from Tubo, and Bixia was naturally happy. The matter of horses in the mutual market, half of which is made of silk and half of which is tea, is this true? ”

"Naturally, take it seriously. It's just that the tea in the horse market, the tea required by 50,000 horses is probably a very small number, and I don't know if the Celestial Empire may take it out? ”

Because of the great incident, Honglu Temple was accompanied by Liu Ye, who was from the sixth grade, and was already forty and seven at the time. In terms of official quality, he is above Du Shiyi, but the officials of the Tang Dynasty have never been determined by official quality, but by the importance of official positions, so Du Shiyi originally moved from the palace on the seventh grade to serve the imperial history with the Chengdu order on the sixth grade, and everyone thought that he was promoted. Now that he is transferred from the palace to the right supplement of the same grade, it is also regarded as reuse, which is the reason.

Although Honglu Temple is from the six grades, it is often not regarded as a clear position that the Tang people must experience on the way, and those who are proficient in the Tibetan language can be transferred to this position without official qualities, but it is even more difficult to rise again. For example, Liu Ye has been delayed in Honglu Cheng for eight years without an inch, so he does not dare to underestimate Du Shiyi, who has been in the office for a long time and is not as long as his Honglu Cheng.

Therefore, when he received Du Shiyi's eyes, he said solemnly: "The Tang Dynasty is so big, the Son of Heaven has a golden mouth, don't the envoys believe it?" ”

"It's not that I don't believe it, it's just that I heard that tea in the Celestial Empire has just begun to become popular, and most of it has to be transferred from Shuzhong, and the amount of tea consumed by the Khitan and Xi people every year is already huge, and even the Tubo people also use gold or horse market tea, and now with my Turkic, I am afraid that the number is not more than 100,000 catties and 200,000 catties, and even 1 million catties is not surprising."

Merus, who is in her early forties, sipped between the lines and showed that she had put a lot of effort into the tea affair when she came. Seeing that Honglu Cheng was a little dumbfounded by what he said, he looked at Du Shiyi. To his disappointment, this young man, who single-handedly promoted the tea trade and tea politics at a young age, only frowned slightly.

"Viga Khan sent a noble envoy to pay tribute, in order to show friendship with my Tang Dynasty, when the horse market tea, my Tang Dynasty will naturally treat each other sincerely, even if the number is large, it is not impossible to try. As for the Tubo people, they committed my Longyou and captured Guazhou, this is the way to cut off the mutual market, and a single tea stalk will not be sent over, let alone a piece of tea" Du Shiyi skipped the Xi people and the Khitan and did not mention it, because he saw that Mei Lu's face changed, he smiled and said, "Since your envoy is familiar with tea affairs, you should also know that the land of the two capitals, Hedong in Hebei, Hexi in Longyou, including the four towns of Anxi, all do not produce tea." This wonderful thing comes from the southwest and southeast. ”

Liu Ye didn't understand Du Shiyi's mention of this, but Mei Lusi's face changed, and Du Shiyi also explained a thing or two for him "kindly".

"The place where tea is produced is located in the south, which means that the army is beyond the reach of the whip, such as Tubo, although it is not far from the Jiannan Road in the southwest of my Tang Dynasty, but once it angers my Tang Dynasty Emperor, the soldiers can only point to the northwest, and it is difficult to reach the southwest as for the southeast, not to mention. Therefore, good neighborliness and friendship are the way to benefit both sides, do you think so? ”

Mei Lu Si only wanted the Tang Dynasty official to promise to supply a fixed amount of tea every year, lest all the tribes need this thing, and the supply will exceed the demand at that time. However, Du Shiyi said in front of him that because Tubo was attacking this time, he would cut off the supply of tea in Tubo, and said that the tea production areas were outside the range of soldiers, and he couldn't help but take a light breath.

For a long time, nomadic peoples such as the Turkic Tubo Xi and Khitan have been fighting wars in addition to deterrence, which is to plunder their children's jade silks, but now there is one more thing that needs attention

"I, the Turkic Viga Khan, am friendly, otherwise, how could I resist the intention of joining forces with Tibet? I also asked Du Buque to worship the Heavenly Dynasty again, and the sincerity of the reconciliation of the Viga Khan was as white and flawless as the clouds in the sky. Moreover, Viga Khan sincerely asked the Tang Emperor Bixia to marry the Tang princess"

The matter of harmony is not within the scope of Du Shiyi's authority, so he handed it over to Liu Ye, Honglucheng, to deal with, only to see the other party's tongue and lotus, and even sipping Mei Lu temporarily perfunctory. When he came out of the Sifang Pavilion under the jurisdiction of Honglu Temple, Du Shiyi couldn't help but ask Liu Ye: "It seems that Viga Khan is not the first time to propose a princess?" ”

"Naturally not. Since the Turkic victory in the eighth year of Kaiyuan, this Viga Khan has written a series of letters to ask for peace and marriage, but Bixia agreed to the idea of peace, but the proposal was delayed. Before Bixia sealed Zen, Yuan Gong also personally went to the Turkic tooth tent once, Viga Khan said, anyway, the princess is not Bixia's daughter, he doesn't want to name and pick people, only hope that Bixia can marry a princess, it doesn't matter where it comes from, so Yuan Gong returned for Viga Khan to ask for marriage, and the Turkic envoys were accompanied by Feng Zen, but in the end Bixia still did not agree. Speaking of which, the Turks are no better than the Tibetans, let alone the Khitan and Xi, the wolf's ambition is difficult to cure, and the princess and the pro-Turkic have almost never existed since the Tang Dynasty, so Bixia naturally hesitated to set this precedent. ”

Because of the precedent of Princess Gu'an, Du Shiyi has always been disdainful of taking the daughter of the clan and even the daughter of the clan to make peace, and at this moment, hearing Liu Ye say this, he couldn't help but sigh that Li Longji was finally wise again. Who knows, Liu Ye actually said something that surprised him the next moment.

However, someone in Honglu Temple once proposed to Bixia that although Princess Gu'an divorced Li Lusu because of her past, since Bixia married Li Lusu a Dongguang princess, Princess Gu'an has the merit of Dingxi, and now that the princess has not been titled, why not make her and the Tibetan Turks? With the ability of the princess, it will definitely make the Turks and the Tang Dynasty more friendly. ”

Hearing this, Du Shiyi was extremely angry with the Honglu Temple official who proposed it-I didn't know that Princess Gu'an had married two brothers and King Xi successively, and even prevented the Xi people from defecting to the Turks, but instead they were almost calculated by Queen Wang and the county lord of Lantian again, and even let this princess, who was so easy to live a pure life, go to the Tibetan Turks again?

He didn't control his anger for a while, but said coldly: "This person is calculating, and he doesn't know if he has a daughter at home, but he is willing to send it to the Turks?" ”

The official who proposed it was just the main book of Honglu Temple, and now he was transferred elsewhere, so Liu Ye smiled a little embarrassedly when he heard Du Shiyi's mean comment, but he didn't defend the other party. Since there was harmony in the Han Dynasty, the views of officialdom and people on harmony have never been one-sided. Especially every time he has to bring a lot of wealth, whether he can suppress the greed of those relatives is not necessarily known, not to mention, the princess has always had a long life. The princess of Gu'an married her brother for the second time, and divorced and lived in Yunzhou because her mother was ignorant, which was already very pitiful, and the master was really distressed

There was such a thing in my heart that made people choke, and when she came to the Xuanzheng Hall of Luoyang Palace to report to Li Longji, Du Shiyi's tone was a little stiff unconsciously. Li Longji was keenly aware of it. He didn't expect Du Shiyi to be angry because of something else, so he raised his eyebrows and asked directly: "What, is it that Turkic envoy who is disrespectful?" ”

Du Shiyi didn't want Li Longji to ask such a question, so he immediately realized that he had brought his emotions here, calmed down and said, "No, it was the Turkic envoy who proposed the princess on behalf of his khan." ”

"It's the princess who proposes again." Li Longji narrowed his eyes a little annoyed, and suddenly remembered that Du Shiyi usually had some opinions, so he asked thoughtfully, "According to Du Qing, should I agree?" ”

"The Turks are capricious, and Bixia should not respond."

Du Shiyi replied without thinking, and when he saw Li Longji's sharp gaze falling on his face, he replied calmly: "When the minister was in Chengdu, he once saw the Tubo clan Shangqing, and then escorted him to Beijing, Bixia should still remember such a thing." ”

Seeing Li Longji bow his head slightly, he continued: "That Shangqing of the Nang clan can speak fluent Chinese, according to him, because he once studied under Princess Jincheng. Since Princess Jincheng married to Tubo, although she has a separate camp and entourage, the Tubo wealthy family relies on the momentum, and after she marries, the Tang Dynasty on the Western Front has also lost the war against Tubo, and her situation is not easy, and she once had the intention of returning to the east. Moreover, although she is the princess of the Celestial Empire, the dowry is far richer than the dowry in Tubo, but in the eyes of the Tubo people, if the dowry is paid, then the woman who Zanpu marries back will no longer be compatible with the Tang Dynasty, and she can do whatever she wants. ”

A large part of these words is Shang Qing's description, and a small part is Du Shiyi's own analysis, as for the customs of Tubo marriage, many people in Shu know. Therefore, taking advantage of Li Longji's consideration, he said sincerely: "What's more, whether it is the Tibetans or the Turks, the clan does not pay attention to etiquette and religion, and respects strength, and such countermeasures as the killing of khans by generals abound, especially the Turks. Among the Khitan of the Xi nationality, many tribal leaders are inclined to the Turks, if the Tang Dynasty wife is a princess, will they feel that there is a high-sounding reason to join the Turks? ”

The previous reasons Li Longji sounded just pedantic scholars' opinions, but as the Son of Heaven, he listened to Zuihou's words. It's just that in front of Du Shiyi, he just said noncommittally: "I know what Du Qing said." Replacing silk silk with tea will reduce the pressure on the treasury a lot, which is all your work to persuade tea. If you have any suggestions about the tea introduction, just tell me in the book. And if Mei Lu Sip has any requirements for the city tea, you are responsible for contacting it. ”

"The minister commands."

When Du Shiyi retreated, Li Longji showed a smile.

Young but capable of extraordinary, such courtiers are not easy to use. However, in addition to being calm, this Du Shiyi is still a little young and pedantic