Chapter 238: Tang Army Spy

Damascus, the capital of the Umayyad dynasty did not fade because of the passing of the Umayyad dynasty. After the war dissipated, it gradually returned to its former prosperity. Before the city of Baghdad was built, Damascus had always been the largest city in the Arab world. As soon as the sun rose, the Damascus people were crowded with narrow streets with ceilings. They wore bloomers and distinctive pointed red leather shoes and big tangled heads, and began their day's business in a hot and steaming manner. The vendors selling fruit juice and candy were hawking along the street with their highest voices, as if they were competing with passers-by and donkeys and camels carrying various desert products and agricultural products. The air of the city was filled with all kinds of smells that could be smelled by their noses.

Damascus is also an international metropolis, with the tanned Bedouin people. They wore large long tops, headscarves and headbands. Occasionally, they met Franks in European costumes, scholars, travelers, but more were merchants, and Sogdians and Turks from the East. They held camels, and the big boxes on the camels were filled with Tang Dynasty silk and porcelain, and they expected to sell them at a good price in Damascus.

The rich Damascus nobles raised their heads, all of whom dominate

The Arabians, who rode on horses, wore white silk cloaks, wore swords or spears in their hands, but there were not many women on the street, only a few passing women wore veils, and some of them were peeking at the market and the people in the square through the small holes in the lattice window.

The most lively place on the huge square is the slave market. Dozens of large wooden platforms are filled with slaves sold from all over the East and the West, blacks in curly hair south of Egypt, short and strong Turks, blonde and blue-eyed Spanish whites, a large number of Sogdians and Indians, and even a small number of people from the farthest east, mainly from Silla, but ordinary Arabs find it difficult to distinguish them, and call them Tang people in unison.

Most of them were captured here because of war, especially the conquest of the Abbasid army brought a large number of slaves from all over the world.

Slave acquisition is a tradition of the Arabians. Almost every civilian family has its own slaves. Any prince of the Umayyad dynasty had about a thousand male and female slaves. This is very common. In the Battle of Suifen, one or ten slaves in the Syrian army served him.

This tradition has not changed due to the changes in the dynasty, and business in the Damascus slave market was as hot as before.

Most of the slaves were sold in batches. At this time, a group of dark-skinned slaves were driven to the stage. Everyone was naked, with young and old inside. This was a convention. Otherwise, the old and weak would not be sold. As soon as the slaves got on the wooden platform, the slave traders shouted anxiously: "Forty black slaves in Egypt, 25,000 Dhrahams!"

The buyers were looking for young and strong slaves among the forty people with a shrewd look. What they wanted was strong tendon flesh and charming breasts and round buttocks. The reason for the price was quickly judged in their minds. Generally, white slaves were very expensive, and each young man costs one thousand Dhhh. The black man south of Egypt had strong bodies, and he wanted eight hundred Dhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Among these slaves, there are more women and children. It is a bit expensive to sell Dh25,000. Most buyers don’t say anything. At this time, the slave traders will take the initiative to lower the price until someone buys it.

"Dirham 24,000, anyone wants it?" The audience was silent.

"Twenty-three thousand!"

There was still no one in the audience. At this time, the slave trader was a little anxious. He bought these slaves from the army with 20,000 Dhh to feed them for food and drink. A few of them died of trafficking along the way. If he lowered the price, he would lose money. At this moment, a buyer shouted loudly: "I want these slaves!"

The slave trader was relieved and finally someone asked him for it. He hurriedly ordered his men to go through the slave transfer procedures. He found the buyer. The buyer was an old Sogdian man. There was a dark-skinned young man standing next to him. He had a headscarf wrapped around his head and a Turkic black robe with gold edges. He had a kind smile. He looked like he was a Turkic man, but when he looked closely, he seemed a little different. The slave trader recognized him at first glance with his professional eyes. This was not a Turkic man, but a Tang man.

This is the first time that the free Tang people can be seen in Damascus. The slave trader couldn't help but look at him again. Recently, he heard that the peace in Khorasan was not peaceful and was fighting against the Tang army. The Tang people appeared on the streets of Damascus, which was quite unusual.

"Let's go there and pay!"

The Kangguo merchant who bought slaves enthusiastically invited the slave trader to walk to the hut next to him. The slave trader looked back at the young Tang man. He was gone and disappeared into the crowd coming and going.

The sunshine in Damascus was particularly dazzling at noon. Pei Yu couldn't help but squint his eyes. He had been traveling in Dashi for almost half a year, but he still could not adapt to the dazzling sunshine here. Pei Yu came to Dashi for the local customs and cultures half a year ago on Li Qing'an's order to visit Dashi. Pay attention to Dashi's national strength. To put it bluntly, he was actually a senior spy from the Tang army.

Pei Yu followed a Sogdian merchant to Dashi. This Sogdian merchant was a friend of Li Huichun of the Han and Tang dynasties. His trip was supported by the Han and Tang dynasties. The Han and Tang dynasties, which started with trade, also had business stores in the Dashi area, located in Mulu, Kufa and Damascus.

Pei Yu had just returned from Egypt, and the war to Abbas conquer Egypt was in full swing, making the area quite uneasy. He was almost captured as a slave several times. On the contrary, the slave traders were the most free and respected merchants. As long as they were people with large groups of slaves, the Great Food soldiers would not even ask questions, and they would be unobstructed all the way.

After discovering this secret, Pei Yu and Sogdian merchants rushed to Damascus and bought a batch of slaves. The surprised eyes of the slave trader just now made Pei Yu a little wary. Although he could speak fluent Turkic and understood Arabic, almost everyone would treat him as a Turkic person wherever he went, but there were exceptions. For example, just now, the slave trader obviously recognized his true identity. This was a bit careless, and he forgot that these slave traders had a much sharper vision than ordinary people.

"Nusel, where are you?"

The shouts interrupted Pei Yu's thoughts, and he realized that Nusel was his Arab name. He quickly turned around and saw the Sogdian merchant looking for him everywhere.

"Uncle Momo, I'm here!"

Pei Yu walked up quickly and said with a smile: "Has the deal been completed?"

"The deal is completed, and the slaves will be sent to our hotel later. Nusel, I bought them in your name. Those slaves are yours. There are several young women of good looks. You can marry them as concubines to relieve your hard work on the journey."

When he said this, the old Sogdian businessman Momo had an ambiguous smile on his face, which was very incompatible with his slightly old face.

"Thank you, Uncle Momo, you go back to the hotel first! I have something to do."

Momo seemed to know what he had, and without asking more questions, he smiled and said, "Okay! I'll go back and accept slaves first, be careful."

Momo took a few followers and took the camel away. Pei Yu rode a horse and slowly left the square and walked towards the north of Damascus.

Like other cities, the Arabians of Damascus lived in various corners of Damascus according to their tribal relations.

The gates of every Arabian family are facing the street. When you enter through the gate, there is a yard first. In the middle of the yard, there is a large pool. The mist sprayed from the fountain forms a water curtain. On the edge of the pool, orange trees or citron trees are planted. The room surrounds the yard, and in some wealthy families there are corridors. Then, there is an unfathomable house, which raises their countless wives, concubines and children.

Pei Yu rode a horse on the wide streets of Damascus. Although this city is the largest city in Dashi, it is still much inferior to the majestic Chang'an City.

The north of the city is the aristocratic area of ​​Damascus. The banks of the Yezid River are covered with vast land-covered houses. These were originally the houses of the Umayyad nobles, but now they have changed their masters, and the nobles of the Abbasid dynasty moved into these houses.

The capital of the Abbasid Dynasty was in Kufa. At this time, Abbasid had not yet overthrew the temporary capital of Umayyad Caliph Melvin II. Compared with the grand Damascus, Kufa seemed cramped and narrow. Although Abbasid did not like Damascus very much, he stayed in the old palace of the Umayyad Dynasty for most of the year, where everything he liked was, beauties that were fascinating, sweet and mellow wine, exquisite palaces and prosperous economy.

Pei Yu looked at the palace of Dashi from afar. It was a huge building with a circular dome. It turned out to be white, but now it has been painted black. It stands so suddenly in the air, giving people a gloomy feeling of the dark world.

The caliph's guards were covered with brightly armored caliphs, and were heavily guarded. Pei Yu had a sense that the caliph Abbas, who was dressed in black, was not in Kufa, but in this black palace.

At this time, Pei Yu suddenly discovered something bad. The street where he was checking the documents. This street was the main road leading directly to the main entrance of the palace, and was most cautious. The soldiers were checking the documents of every pedestrian, that is, tax payment certificates. Only legal citizens of the Abbasid Dynasty had such documents. Slaves and foreigners did not have them. They usually checked when entering the city. Pei Yu also had them, but that was not his certificate, but a tax payment certificate from a Shi Guoren.

Although there are no photos, he is not good at Sogdian. Once the other party asks him in Sogdian, he will most likely be exposed. In the future, Uncle Momo will be by his side to cover him. Today is the first time he faces it alone.

Pei Yu suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. There were soldiers in front, behind and around him. Fortunately, there were many people on the road and he had not been checked yet. What should I do? If I retreated, I would definitely be found. Once I was caught and carefully checked his identity, his identity as a Tang Dynasty person would be exposed.

But if they were found to have no ID, they would still be taken away. Not far away, several foreign businessmen who did not have ID were taken away. They argued loudly and then they punched and kicked the reply they received.

"Hey! You!"

Finally it was his turn, and an officer pointed at him and shouted loudly: "Take out your ID."

Pei Yu had no choice but to take out the parchment roll from his arms. This was his tax proof and handed it over to him. I hope the officer would not speak Sogdian.

The officer took the ID, glanced at him, and asked, "Turkish?"

Pei Yu's heart fell to his feet, and the other party spoke Turkic. He immediately said in Turkic words: "My name is Nuser. I grew up in Tiemen Pass. I am a businessman. I went to Samarkand the year before yesterday."

Tiemen Pass is the westernmost border of the former Western Turkic Khanate. Uncle Momo said that he had a little accent around Tiemen Pass. For this reason, he also went to Tiemen Pass in Shiguo, which was the key to Samarkand and Bukhara to Balihei. The business was prosperous and the personnel were mixed.

His Turkic language was fluent and there was no flaw. The officer nodded and was about to return the ID to him. At this moment, there was a chaos at the other end of the road. A large group of horses rushed towards this side, and pedestrians dodged to both sides. Only someone shouted: "The Muslim general is here, everyone is dodging!"

The officer couldn't help but curse inwardly. Although Pei Yu's big verbal was not very good, he still understood it. He was scolding: "This is not his Khurasan, why are you arrogant?"

Pei Yu's heart moved. He heard the officer's tone of his voice was extremely dissatisfied with the Muslims. He had heard a few months ago that there were many factions within the cannibals and were very good at fighting for power and profit, especially Abu.

Muslims and Mansour have disagreements. Do Muslims and Abbas have conflicts?

At this time, the officer sent him the ID, "You go quickly! Governor Khurashan has no good feelings for the Turks. He saw it and wanted to arrest you in prison."

Pei Yu took the ID and hurriedly hid in the crowd on the roadside. He looked around secretly through the cracks of the heads. He saw teams of Khorasan cavalry passing by, with as many as thousands. Among the cavalry, a strong middle-aged man was bowing his head and silently, looking worried.

"So he is Abu Muslim!" Pei Yu thought to himself.

"I heard that Muslims and His Highness Mansour competed for Emir, but His Highness Mansour won. Alas! The Muslim General offended His Highness Mansour. Later, His Highness Mansour ascended the throne to the Caliph, and he suffered the consequences."

"Not only Mansour, his relationship with Old Ali is also very bad. He killed Shiites in the river too hard, and Old Ali hates him to the core."

Several Arabian nobles were whispering, and Pei Yu recorded the information in his heart. The relationship between Muslims and Mansour and Old Ali was not harmonious.

At this time, Abu.

The Muslim cavalry team walked over and the street returned to normal. Pei Yu urged the horse to walk towards another street not far away and walked to the end. He got off the horse in front of a luxurious large shop that specialized in silk, porcelain, tea and various oriental goods from the Tang Dynasty. They were all high-end items and were loved by the Damascus nobles. This was the trading shop of the Han and Tang Dynasties in Damascus. The Han and Tang Dynasties made a lot of profits through this shop, all of which flowed to the Broken Leaf, supporting their hidden dragon career.

Pei Yu walked into the shop. The shop was very spacious, with their own silk samples hanging on the walls, and several rows of shelves were filled with various porcelains, Shuzhou Dayi white porcelain, Yuezhou celadon, Pei Yu was born in a wealthy family. He couldn't help but be surprised that these porcelain and silk were all top-quality goods, especially a few large floor-standing celadon bottles, which were not even seen in Chang'an. However, the price was extremely expensive. A top-quality Wu Ling asked for 300 dirham silver coins. Compared with the rice price, it was equivalent to 30 guan, and the price was ten times that of Chang'an.

This was his second time here. He didn't look at the price carefully last time. He noticed today. At this time, the owner who was greeting business in a corner of the store saw him and immediately gave him a wink. Pei Yu walked into the inner room through a side door.

The owner of the shop is Sharum, a Turk, about fifty years old and a member of the Han and Tang dynasties. He has been in Dashi for nearly twenty years and is loyal to the Han and Tang dynasties.

In the room, Pei Yu took out a thick booklet. This was the information he had collected from Dashi in the past two months. He did not panic to Sharum, but added another note later: the relationship between Muslims and Mansour and Old Ali was in disagreement.

He carefully sealed the booklet and handed it to Sharum and smiled: "I have been to many places in the past three months, so I will trouble you with the rest."

"Don't worry, young master, I'll send someone to see him off tomorrow, by the way! Sui Ye has a letter from you, which came half a month ago. I can't find you, so I have to stay with me."

Pei Yu was excited and hurriedly said, "Where is the letter?"

"Please wait!"

Sharum went out, and for a moment, he came in with a wooden box and handed it to Pei Yu and smiled: "It seems that there is more than one letter, I have never opened it."

The wooden box was sealed. Pei Yu pulled out the dagger and slowly pried the box along the gap. There were two letters inside. The first letter read his name. He tore it opens. It was written by Li Qing'an. At the beginning, it reads: "Junke went to Constantinople for Anxi's special envoy to persuade Byzantine and the Tang Dynasty to establish trade and trade in the city of Ithir.

．

．

．

．

’

Pei Yu was stunned. He slowly picked up the second letter, and saw the letter skin in Turkic words: The governor of Anxi, the Duke of Tingguo, and the champion general Li Qing'an to the Emperor Leo III.

At the same time when Pei Yu received Li Qing'an's new mission, another dispute broke out in the royal palace in Damascus.

There are four people in the magnificent palace, representing the supreme ruler of the Abbasid Empire. Except for Abbas' uncle Lao Ali, who fought in Egypt, the rest were all there. The first one was of course the Caliph Abbas, the founder of the Abbasid Dynasty. The heat of Kufa made Abbas miss the coolness and lushness of Damascus. He came to Damascus to spend the summer in mid-May. His health was not very good. In the battle of the Tigris River, he was stabbed by the javelin of the enemy. Although his injuries were healed, it hurt his internal organs, making it more difficult for him to resist the invasion of illness than ordinary people.

This is also the reason why he decided to make his brother Mansour the heir to the Caliph as soon as he ascended the throne. He was worried that he would die early and that his young son would not be able to inherit his career. Because his young son was killed by an ambitious family, it would be better to cut off the possibility of his ascending the throne from the beginning.

Abbas is now facing a choice, whether to go to war with the Tang Dynasty? From his original intention, the most urgent task is to consolidate the regime just now, rather than to rush to establish a strong enemy. He is not willing to be an enemy of the Tang Dynasty. The battle with Gao Xianzhi is just a small-scale counterattack. He decided to stop after the battle. Moreover, the battle in Egypt has not yet ended. Can the empire with the two-line battle?

Therefore, he was against Abu.

The Muslim proposal to formally start a war against the Tang army has been reluctant to approve it. Abbas felt very conflicted. He was neither willing to go to war with the Tang army nor would he lose the Hezhong area.

"Jafar, do you think we need to fight this war?"

Abbas handed over the confusion to his younger brother Jafar, who was also Mansour. Mansour was his honorary title. Just as Abbas's honorary title was Saifah, Saifah meant a bloody person, while Mansour meant a conqueror, but in front of the Caliph's brother, he was still called Jafar.

Mansour firmly agreed to fight against the Tang army. The corrupt Umayyad dynasty did not lose the Hezhong area. How could the emerging Abbasid dynasty be lost? But he did not agree with the Muslims fighting against the Tang army, but should fight this battle by himself. He was the highest military commander of the Abbasid dynasty Amir.

Mansour understood his brother's concerns and advised him, "His Majesty the Lord of the Caliph, if the Tang army was just wandering in the Suye River Basin, then I was the first to fight against the war, but the Tang army did not do that. They marched westward, took Tashkent, and even took away our city of Talas. In fact, the battle had begun. They defeated General Mede, the brave and good warrior. I can be sure that their next move was Samarkand. This is not whether we want to fight the Tang army, but that we have to fight the Tang army. Is His Majesty willing to give the river to the Tang army as a gift?"

Abbas sighed and said, "If I only fought a war with the Tang army like last year, I would not be stingy with the lives of soldiers. What I worry about is that this battle will continue endlessly, which is very unfavorable to our new dynasty!"

At this time, Abu.

The Muslim bowed and said, "Your Majesty the Caliph, I came to Damascus for this and persuaded Your Majesty to make up his mind. As long as your Majesty gives me enough food and weapons, I have the confidence to defeat the Tang Dynasty in one battle, drive them back to the Shattered Leaf, and end the Tang people's dream of the river."

As many people know, Muslims and Mansour have disagreements in their faces and hearts. Their conflict broke out in Kufa last month. Mansour found the craftsmen among the Tang army prisoners of war and found that the truth was not what the Muslims said. There are any craftsmen who can make paper? No, no Tang army craftsmen can do paper.

Mansour, who found out that he was fooled, was so angry that he turned against Muslims and had a big argument. This incident spread throughout Kufa.

Although they were not in harmony, their positions were consistent in the matter of going to war with the Tang army. Mansour saw that Abbas was shaken, so he winked at Vizier Fahd.

Vizier was the prime minister whose official title was equivalent to that of the Tang Dynasty and held the highest administrative power of the Abbasid Dynasty. The first Vizier was Abbasid's confidant Fahd.

Fahd smiled and said, "Your Majesty the Caliph does not have to worry. When the Umayyad Dynasty was in its prime, it could collect 15 million Dhhh from Egypt every year. Now we have received 8 million Dhhhh silver coins. By the end of the year, I think 12 million would not be a problem. This shows that Egypt has been basically conquered by us, and Syria and Armenia have also begun to pay taxes normally. On the contrary, the tax amounts in the river and Sindh and Punjab have been greatly reduced. This means that our focus should be in the east at this time. It is very necessary to fight against the Tang army. In addition, our large silver mines are concentrated in the eastern part of Khorasan. If we cannot consolidate our rule over the East, it will greatly damage our dynasty's financial resources."

Under the persuasion of the three ministers, Abbas finally made the decision to start a war against the Tang army. He said to the Muslims: "Fighting against the Tang Dynasty is extraordinary. Khorasan's army alone cannot win. I appoint you as the commander-in-chief of the former army, and Jafar leads the Syrian army as the commander-in-chief of the rear army."
Chapter completed!