荔枝影院

Edited by: Michyrr

“Actually, I have an idea.”

At this moment, a hesitant voice came from the corner of the hall. All the rebel leaders and Bahram turned to the speaker.

Bahram faintly recognized this person to be a rebel leader from Arabia’s southwest region.

This rebel leader, who had a scar across his left brow, explained his idea. “The Tang don’t plan to stay as of now because our languages are different. We don’t understand each other, so we naturally can’t communicate either.

“In this battle, we could only work through Milord to understand each other, but the lower-level soldiers have never communicated with each other, much less understood each other. If we can learn the language of the Great Tang to have them understand us, so that we understand each other a little, everything will be different.”

“This truly is a good idea, but if we want to do this, we need many Tang teachers who can teach their language, and they would need to travel all the way to Khorasan. I’m afraid that the Tang might not agree,” another rebel leader said.

Everyone in the room became hesitant.

With communication and understanding, this coalition would be able to last longer, but the area between Samarkand and Khorasan, as well as the regions the other rebel leaders had come from, required a vast number of language teachers, and learning a language required a very long time. It would clearly be a rather costly endeavor, and the Great Tang was not guaranteed to agree.

Moreover, the rebel leaders had begun to vaguely understand a little about the Great Tang. This was a strong and prosperous country with a powerful army. In terms of living a comfortable life, Khorasan simply could not be compared to the Great Tang. Those Tang language teachers would probably not be willing to travel so far.

All the people in the hall once more revealed worried expressions.

Bahram spoke once more. “Leave this matter to me. The problem of teachers is easy to solve. We can offer money to pay the expenses, and I’m sure that with sufficient reward, some Tang would still be willing to come. As long as we take on the burden of the expenses, the Great Tang will not obstruct us. But this matter will still require the agreement of the Tang.”

Under expectant and worried gazes, Bahram stood up and walked out of the hall.

Not even Bahram was sure if he would succeed. After all, this was a war between the Arabs and the rebels!

......

As Bahram and the rebel leaders worried and fretted, Wang Chong pushed open the door to the conference, bringing with him a gust of icy wind. Raising his head, Wang Chong immediately spotted Gao Xianzhi seated at the conference table, his head lowered and his brow furrowed as if he had encountered some impossible problem.

“Lord Protector-General, you were looking for me?”

Wang Chong strode in and got straight to the point.

Gao Xianzhi’s body trembled as he shook himself from his pensive mood and raised his head.

“Wang Chong, you’re here. Sit.”

“Milord, what’s happened? Is there something that not even someone as capable as Milord can address?” Wang Chong said, sitting next to Gao Xianzhi. “Does it have to do with the Arabs?”

“After this defeat, the Arabs won’t be able to launch an attack for the next few months. What is there to worry about?”

Gao Xianzhi poured Wang Chong a cup of tea, but the clouds of worry on his brow had still not dispersed.

“You know that military affairs don’t trouble me, but anything outside military affairs is not my expertise. I invited you over to discuss state affairs.”

“State affairs?”

Wang Chong’s brow rose in concern, but he quickly thought of something and smiled.

“Milord is worried about the matter of Khorasan?”

“Correct!”

Gao Xianzhi nodded and proceeded to explain.

“Attacking a city is easy while holding it is difficult. For us to have campaigned all the way here from Talas is far beyond our initial expectations. But you also know that the situation at Talas was complicated. Here, we are unfamiliar with both the people and the land, and we are severely lacking in manpower. No matter what, managing this place is a major problem.”

Gao Xianzhi’s eyes revealed deep concern. This problem had circled around his mind for some time, but with a powerful enemy before him, he had had no time to carefully ponder it. But now that the Arabs had been defeated, he had no other choice than to ponder it.

“What does Milord mean?” Wang Chong asked, his expression serious.

“I still haven’t thought about the exact details, but we essentially have two choices, leave or stay,” Gao Xianzhi said heavily. “We’ve already reached our goal in this war. The spirit of the Arabs has been severely wounded and they have lost countless experts. It will be a very long time until they can finally start thinking about the east again. And in this war, we’ve obtained more than one billion taels of gold from the Arabs, and the entire Imperial Court is reeling in shock from the magnitude of these spoils. With this gold, we can return to the capital in triumph and be cheered on by all. At the same time, we can pay out a rich compensation for those soldiers who died in battle. In all my years in the military, this is undoubtedly the finest conclusion to a war I have ever experienced.”

“But Milord is not prepared to retreat, right?” Wang Chong said.

“Heh!”

Gao Xianzhi faintly smiled, but did not deny it.

“But if we don’t want to retreat, we will have to take on many risks. The first is that we might be threatened by the Arabs at any time. An army of ten thousand is far from enough. The second is that we don’t speak the same language as the locals, which will always be a major problem.

“Right now, with the Arabs threatening us, both parties will naturally cooperate in good faith. But there are too many people and the composition of the coalition army is too complicated. The moment a misunderstanding causes a conflict between the soldiers or somebody intentionally tries to stir discord, our alliance will immediately fall apart. If that happens, not only will we lose Khorasan, but we will also find it very hard to get out alive.

“Back when the Great Tang first advanced into the Western Regions, it took nearly two hundred years to stand firm, but even so, the kingdoms of the Western Regions are still indecisive and have ulterior motives. The situation around Khorasan is even more complicated than in the Western Regions. I have no idea how long the Great Tang will need to stand firm here.”

As the Anxi Protector-General, Gao Xianzhi understood many more things than the normal person. After the victory in last night’s battle, the entire city was in a celebratory mood, but there were many concerns lurking under the surface.

“Haha, so Milord is worried about how to manage Khorasan?”

To his surprise, Wang Chong loudly laughed, nothing as worried as Gao Xianzhi.

Gao Xianzhi looked at Wang Chong and nodded.

“Milord, be at ease. I have already handled everything. Lord Feng will arrive at Khorasan soon, and in a little while, the great clans of the capital will also advance onto Khorasan and open their inns and restaurants; start trading in silk, tea leaves, and porcelain; and open mines and smelters. The trade between east and west harbors enormous profits, but in the past, the Arabs banned the entry of foreign merchants, so our people found it very difficult to get to this place. But as long as we open this place, the great clans will only be the first wave of many. With our soldiers standing guard, more and more people will come to Khorasan.”

Wang Chong faintly smiled, his expression brimming with confidence.

As the Tang commander, Wang Chong not only contemplated military affairs, but also what happened after a war. He had long ago planned out and prepared for everything that Gao Xianzhi had just spoken to him about.

Thumpthumpthump!

As the two were speaking, the sound of knocking drew their attention to the door.

“General Wang, General Gao, are the two of you there?” A familiar voice came from outside.

“Bahram?”

Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi glanced at each other in surprise.

“Come in!” Gao Xianzhi was the first to speak.

The door opened, and Bahram shook off the snow on his body and came in. Several rebel leaders followed him inside.

Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi both raised an eyebrow in surprise at this sight. It was very rare for Bahram to visit with the rebel leaders.

“General, sit!”

Gao Xianzhi quickly pointed at a seat beside him.

“Generals, to be honest, Bahram has come with a request.”

Bahram came to the table, but he did not sit down. Rather, he respectfully bowed to the two Tang commanders.

Gao Xianzhi was even more shocked, but Wang Chong glanced at Bahram and the rebel leaders, an idea forming in his mind.

“If there is a matter, General, please speak. We are allies, so we will help with anything we can!” Gao Xianzhi said to Bahram, while Wang Chong gave an approving nod.

Bahram said nothing, instead nodding to a rebel leader behind him.

“Generals, the Great Tang is our firmest and most respected ally. We hope that the Great Tang will remain here long-term, and we also hope that we can develop an even deeper connection with the Great Tang.”

The speaker was a rebel leader from the area around Samarkand. Samarkand was not too far from the Western Regions, so this rebel leader had a better grasp of the language. This was also the reason Bahram had brought him.

“But are we not already allies?” Gao Xianzhi said in surprise, completely confused as to what was going on.

“This, that is– we hope to develop an even deeper friendship,” another rebel leader said.

“We hope to gain a deep understanding of the Great Tang... Even though we are allies, our languages are different, so we hope, that the honored generals might... dispatch teachers from the Great Tang, to come to this place to teach the Tang language,” the third rebel leader stammered out, finally expressing his internal thoughts.

“Ah!”

At the words of this third rebel leader, Gao Xianzhi was utterly dumbstruck. And at this moment, loud laughter echoed through the hall. Wang Chong had been listening the entire time, and he could no longer restrain himself.