I ate a few bites of breakfast casually. This is the good thing about Li Xiang. No matter what kind of food it is, as long as it doesn't make me have diarrhea, I can eat it. What's more, I am not a real royal family member. When I was an ordinary person, I could eat all kinds of food.
When Li Xiang came to the living room again, the position of the seats had changed. Originally there was only one seat in the main seat, but now there are two seats, but they are facing each other.
Although Li Xiang did not directly state his identity, he was also a member of the Tang Dynasty royal family. In that era, the Tang Dynasty was famous far and wide. No matter how powerful Tubo was, it had to give due respect when facing members of the Tang Dynasty royal family. If we really talk about identity, the identity of Tusi Maiqi and Li Xiang was far different. He was at most a local lord.
"Sir, a caravan has appeared on our left, with about thirty horses."
Before the two men started talking, the steward went to the chieftain to report that there were usually caravans in their area, but now they were in the middle of a war and basically no one would come.
The roads in the mountains are difficult to travel, and there is no other way except to use animals for transportation. More than 30 horses are not many, but they are not too few either.
"Is it a caravan we are familiar with?"
During the war, Chief Maiqi was also very cautious.
"Excuse me, Your Excellency, I heard your conversation. If I'm not mistaken, they are my people. Your Excellency, you can let them in. They are all filled with salt as a gift to you."
Li Xiang calculated that it was almost time, so he interrupted their conversation. After hearing what Li Xiang said, Chief Maiqi was so happy that he almost jumped up. He had been collecting things these past two days, and these were all good things from the Tang Dynasty.
"Go quickly..."
Chief Maiqi quickly ordered his men to open the village gate. Salt is like a precious commodity on the plateau, and it is more valuable than gold.
Of course, ordinary people don’t need these things. If they want to eat poisonous salt, they can just eat it. It is almost everywhere on the plateau. But if they want to eat good salt, according to Chief Maiqi’s idea, are those slaves worthy of it?
So all this salt was for the nobles, at least at the level of a steward. Take the territory of Chief Maiqi for example, there were tens of thousands of people in total, but only one to two percent of them could eat salt, and the rest of the people could eat it however they liked.
"Bring up the bag in front."
These salts are also graded. Those at the back are the most common and have only been screened once. The bag at the front is refined salt, which is very white after being poured out.
"My friend, you are truly very generous."
When Chief Maiqi saw this bag of salt, he was so excited that he didn't know what to say. Although the caravan coming to Tubo also brought such high-quality salt, the price was really shockingly high.
One pound of salt is equal to three pounds of gold. Now this bag of salt weighs at least forty pounds, which is equivalent to giving Chief Maiqi one hundred and twenty pounds of gold. This is a huge gift.
Chief Maiqi had a good impression of Li Xiang yesterday. Now, after receiving these things, he immediately regarded Li Xiang as the God of Wealth. If all the goods on these thirty horses were sold, they could be exchanged for a large amount of military funds. Isn't war all about money?
"Master Tusi, you're welcome. Have you forgotten that we all have a common enemy? As long as he has a hard time, then I will live comfortably."
Li Xiang's words brought the two closer together. The chieftain quickly asked people to send the things to the warehouse, and then asked someone to set up a banquet. This was considered a formal banquet for Li Xiang.
Xiao Liuzi looked at the chieftain with some disdain and asked, "If we hadn't given you the salt, would this banquet have been postponed?"
During the meal, Li Xiang basically figured out their situation, which was very different from what Xiao Liuzi said. After all, Xiao Liuzi had only heard it from others, and what Chief Maiqi said was the real situation.
The rebel armies of all the chieftains added up to about 14,000 people, but they did not use their full strength. If they had used their full strength, they could have formed an army of at least 20,000 people, and their weapons and equipment were relatively good. Although Songtsen Gampo controlled the central government, when it came to financial conditions, Songtsen Gampo was not as good as them.
If we look at the area controlled by these chieftains in the 21st century, it is Xikang Province, close to Sichuan and Shu. They can still grow crops in these places. The area controlled by Songtsen Gampo is a pure plateau, and it is too difficult to grow crops there.
Therefore, the chieftains lived a better life than Songtsen Gampo, but they were not satisfied. They often defaulted on paying taxes to the central government for no reason, and even did not pay tribute regularly, like a country within a country. Therefore, Songtsen Gampo had tolerated them for a long time.
When Lu Dongzan proposed the policy of reducing the power of the local governments, Songtsen Gampo immediately adopted it. Everything was going well. The local governments wanted to confront the central government, but they did not have sufficient strength and would be swallowed up by the central government sooner or later. However, when Lu Dongzan went to Chang'an, Songtsen Gampo began to advance in great strides and eventually forced these chieftains to rebel.
"How many troops are there to attack you?"
After introducing the situation here, Li Xiang also wanted to know how many troops their central government had sent. Although Xiao Liuzi had given a number before, from what he had just heard, the information Xiao Liuzi had was probably not very accurate.
"There are over 40,000 of them, 20,000 of whom are elite soldiers, all of whom are close to the Zamp. The other 20,000 are also conscripted from the chieftains surrounding the Holy City. They have all surrendered to the Holy City. They have forgotten how their ancestors acquired the land. They are a bunch of useless people."
Speaking of the chieftains around the holy city, Chief Maiqi was full of disdain. They had lost their land and people, and were now just like servants. They were no match for these chieftains.
Li Xiang disagreed with his statement that they lacked courage. The reason you still have power is because you are far away from Songtsen Gampo. If you were closer, you would have been captured long ago...
