Tibet

Early the next morning, the two sides held formal negotiations at the Governor's Mansion in Hezhong. The negotiations had two contents. First, the two sides delineated the boundary and signed a non-aggression agreement. The second was to discuss the redemption of prisoners of war.

It can be said that the first agreement is the basis of the second agreement. Without the first agreement, it will be difficult to negotiate for prisoners of war.

But the demarcation of borders has always been done on the basis of war. Just like the 38th Parallel between North and South Korea, it is the result of the war and the natural dividing line between the forces of the two sides.

The same goes for the Tang Dynasty and Dashi. After the Battle of Talas, the Tang army's frontline has reached the east bank of the Amu Darya River, so the boundary between the two sides is naturally the Amu Darya River. If Dashi does not accept it, then they will fight again. I am afraid the final result will be, Even Khorasan was about to be captured by the Tang army.

In fact, after the Tang army captured Kang State, Abu Muslim who fled to Mulu sent people to find Gao Xianzhi and begged the Tang army not to cross the Amu Darya River. He also promised not to invade the river again, and Gao Xianzhi agreed. This is actually a Oral Boundary Agreement.

Then it depends on whether Ziad admits to this agreement. If he does, then today's negotiations will be very simple.

Ziyad was Abu Muslim's lieutenant general and was the deputy governor of Khorasan at the time. He was very aware of this verbal border agreement. He even went to Baghdad to report the border agreement to the Caliphate. Abbas was relieved and mobilized all his troops to deal with Lakh. Man.

Therefore, Li Ye proposed to implement last year's verbal border agreement, and Ziad agreed immediately without hesitation.

Ziad knew very well that strength was everything. If Dashi became stronger, even if the border was made of pig iron, his army would smash it to pieces.

Ziad also figured out that the Tang army definitely did not have 30,000 troops. If they had 30,000 troops, how could they stop at the Amu Darya River? They had already gone to Mulu to rob the wealth.

Li Ye smiled and said: "I'm glad that we can face the reality. The Tang Dynasty court has prepared a text. I originally wanted your envoy to sign it when he came to Datang last year, but His Highness Mansour did not come because of something else. I still use this This text is basically the consensus we just reached. It has the texts of both countries, take a look!"

Li Ye handed Ziad an agreement that was written in both Dashi and Chinese. Ziad flipped through it and found that the content was almost the same, so he stopped looking at it in detail. The purpose of his condescension to come to Suiye today was not to reach any boundary agreement or friendship agreement. , these things all rely on strength to speak for itself, and it is useless no matter how lavishly written they are.

What he wanted was prisoners of war, and prisoners of war were the only purpose of his trip.

"The agreement needs to be handed over to the Caliph for review and signature. I will forward it as soon as possible. Let's talk about the prisoners of war!"

Li Ye shook his head and said unambiguously: "We will sign the memorandum of this meeting first, and then we will talk about the prisoners of war."

Ziad does not have the power to sign the border peace agreement, but he must sign the memorandum of this negotiation, otherwise the talks between the two sides will be in vain. These memorandums of negotiation between the two parties are actually the basis of the border peace agreement.

Just like the border agreement between the two countries we have signed now, the basis for drafting the agreement is the memorandum of negotiation again and again.

At this time, Zhong Hui handed Li Ye a memorandum written in both languages. Li Ye read it carefully, then signed his name, stamped it with the governor's seal, and handed it to Ziad in duplicate.

Ziad also read it carefully. It was exactly the same as the oral agreement reached at the beginning. He signed his name and stamped it with the governor's seal, and each party kept one copy.

"Captain Li, can we talk about the issue of prisoners of war now?"

Ziad is a typical soldier. He doesn't know much about negotiation skills in shopping malls and cannot expose his bottom line too early. Several civilian officials around him winked at him repeatedly, but he turned a blind eye.

Li Ye laughed like a cunning fox.

"When the Tang Dynasty negotiated with the enemy to return prisoners of war, they usually used the redemption system. Before, we returned prisoners of war to the Sogdian countries through redemption. One hundred dinar gold coins were exchanged for one prisoner of war. The prisoners of war of the Great Food Army Same thing."

Xie Jin and Zhong Hui next to them almost shouted, it was so dark. When a person has one hundred guan, it is ten sheepskins, which is equivalent to 20 guan.

Xie Jin and others immediately realized that this was the governor's exorbitant price.

After the translation, Ziad's face immediately darkened, "A hundred gold coins is impossible. We can only buy and sell young slaves for ten gold coins at most."

Li Ye shook his head, "But they are not slaves. They are the soldiers of the Food Army who fought bloody battles for the Caliphate. Your price of slaves is an insult to them."

"I know it too, so the caliph promised twenty gold coins to ransom a person."

Li Ye still shook his head, "I'm not deceiving your Excellency the Governor. You can ask Kang and other small Sogdian countries. We did redeem a prisoner of war with a hundred gold coins.

Of course, I have always respected the Food Army, so be it! I made a slight compromise. Fifty gold coins can be used to redeem a person, no less. Any less would be an insult to the dignity of a Dashi warrior. "

"Captain Li, if I could make the decision, I would be willing to give you two hundred gold coins. My soldiers are priceless, but the Caliph is only willing to give me twenty gold coins each. This is what I have fought for over and over again. The dynasty has just been established. Without taxes, Baghra really can’t afford more money, so please forgive these poor soldiers!”

Xie Jin couldn't help but wrote the words 'almost' and handed it to Li Ye.

Li Ye was unmoved. He still smiled and said: "Although I can't get more money from the Caliph, I believe that the families of these soldiers will be willing to donate generously to their relatives."

"How shameless!"

Xie Jin cursed secretly and lowered his head.

The two sides went back and forth and argued for a long time. Finally, Li Ye reluctantly gave in and reached a redemption agreement at the price of thirty-five gold dinar coins for each prisoner of war.

This is why Li Ye knows that the other party can only spend so much money at most.

Although Ziad does not know how to negotiate, he is by no means stupid. He knows very well that the Caliphate urgently needs troops. As long as he can get the army, he will eventually agree to pay fifteen more coins per person. As for letting the families of prisoners of war take ransoms, Ziad will do this kind of thing. Not out.

Just three days after Ziad left, Li Ye's army also set off. He left the deputy governor Dugu Ying to lead 2,000 troops to guard Suiye, while he personally led 10,000 troops and 20,000 camels to march towards Juzhan. Kill.

The army is all cavalry, including a thousand heavy armored infantry. Li Ye followed Gao Xianzhi on an expedition to Juzhanti before, and he knew how to win Juzhanti.

The biggest flaw of Juzhanti is that the Juzhanti River splits the city in half, and the city can be attacked through the waterway.

I believe that if the Sogdian coalition really wanted to capture Juzhanti, it would be a piece of cake. The key is that the city lord Hamil's backer is Dashi. The Sogdians did not dare to offend Dashi, so they had to acquiesce in Hamil's occupation of Juzhanti.

Li Ye remembered clearly that the last time he captured Juzhanti, his strategy was to build a plank road openly and secretly cross Chencang. Gao Xianzhi pretended to cross the river, built a plank road openly, and then led 300 troops to march up from the south and cross Chencang secretly.

The current defenders are no longer the original Sogdian army, but replaced by Tocharians from the Bushi Kingdom.

Then, he can definitely repeat his old tricks and build the plank road openly again and secretly visit Chencang.