The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 518: Sai People and Ferghana Horses

An Yanyan completed the psychological preparation for the transformation from a thief to a protector of the King of Dayuan very quickly because it was the most labor-saving arrangement.

I don’t know where those thieves are, and I don’t know who they are.

An Yanyan didn't care how much money the King of Dayuan lost. He only cared about the safety of the King of Dayuan. After all, he still needed the King of Dayuan alive, and he was waiting for the right price to choose between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire.

Thieves are very common in the Pamirs. A long time ago, An Yanyan heard that there were many thieves in Persia. Now that Persia has been destroyed by the Arabs, many people have escaped from there. They fled into the Pamirs and became thieves here.

Several servants brought roasted beef to An Yanyan. The young Sogdian ate the beef elegantly and drank grape wine from a clay pot.

An Yuanshou’s death was a matter of the previous generation, including the King of Gaochang, and those things have become the stories of this generation.

Now, as a latecomer, An Yanyan sat on the palace wall of the Dayuan royal city, feeling the cool wind blowing on his face. He chewed beef with a look of annoyance in his eyes. He was annoyed at the Tang army's relentless advance on the Pamirs. He still remembered that he was beaten by the Tang army and could only escape through the tunnel of Julan City. The Tang army even took away everything he had done in Julan City.

Afterwards, he fled to the city of Talas. Anyanyan saw the war between the Tang army and the Arabs outside the city of Talas. It was like two torrents colliding with each other. In the end, the Tang army wiped out the Arabs who were rushing over.

But that was several years ago. Now if An Yanyan wants to develop and grow himself, he can at least join a force.

A few more people came to report that the gang of thieves had killed a few more people.

An Yanyan listened to the continuous news and thought calmly, there are probably ten bandits in the royal city?
"There are at least two in the palace, three in the south of the city, one in the east, and four in the north?" An Yanyan muttered to himself, but he also felt that there should not be so many thieves. Most of them were fleeing from the south to the east.

But on second thought, An Yanyan felt that these thieves were too powerful. They had been able to roam around the royal city several times and kill several people, yet they had not been caught until now. They were definitely not ordinary thieves.

More news came, fortunately the King of Dayuan had been protected and was in the palace.

Most of the royal palaces of Dayuan were dome-shaped earthen houses. A young man in his twenties walked out of this earthen house. He was the prince of Dayuan, with blue eyes and curly yellow hair. He was observing a prisoner in a cage with a smile. This was a war slave sent by the Shi Kingdom. The people of Shi would put these slaves together and let them fight for life and death. Only one of the two slaves could survive.

The slave in front of the Prince of Dayuan had many marks on his face, which showed that he had been resold many times. Judging from the slave's body size, he was indeed a hot commodity. If he was not a hot commodity, he would have been beaten to death long ago.

"Prince, An Yanyan said there are thieves."

"Haha, this Sogdian is afraid of thieves?"

"He wants the prince to go to the King of Dayuan, who can protect the prince."

"Tell An Yanyan that he is just a guest of Dayuan."

Hearing the prince's words, the guard turned and left.

And behind the Prince of Dayuan, on the dome-shaped palace, a figure was staring at the Prince of Dayuan. After a moment, the figure hid in the darkness again.

In the quiet palace, Di Renjie walked around in the palace wearing the clothes of the Hu people. He struck the flint skillfully and sparks flew between the flints.

When sparks ignited a pile of hay, the flames burned Di Renjie's face.

At this moment, he heard the shouting of a Hu man behind him. Di Renjie looked back and saw a Hu man standing stiffly in place. His shouting stopped abruptly. A dagger had been stabbed into his throat and he was twitching.

Pei Yan calmly drew out his dagger, threw the barbarian to the ground, and said as he looked at the burning flames, "General Xue has taken down the city wall."

Seeing the fire getting bigger and bigger, Di Renjie walked quickly through the narrow corridors in the palace and said, "There is a problem. We can't leave the palace now."

Pei Yan said: "No hurry."

A fire broke out in the northwest of the Dayuan Palace. An Yanyan said again: "Tell the King of Dayuan not to panic, it's just a fire."

But then another servant came quickly and said that the King of Dayuan had sent a team of people to put out the fire.

An Yanyan was very contemptuous of the King of Dayuan's behavior of disrupting his own position.

A few thieves had made the King of Dayuan so panicked. An Yanyan walked down the palace wall and asked, "How many people are there around the King of Dayuan now?"

"Five hundred people."

Walking towards the palace wall, there were guards guarding each aisle.

This made An Yanyan feel more at ease.

Suddenly, shouts were heard from the palace wall again. An Yanyan stopped and looked up. When he heard the voices on the palace wall clearly, he realized that there was a fire somewhere else in the city.

Upon hearing the news, An Yanyan quickened his pace. In just a moment of eating beef, the palace and the royal city were in chaos.

There was a well in the palace, so the fire was put out quickly, but a lot of people were left in a miserable state.

An Yanyan walked up to a corpse, bent down to look at the wound, and saw that the knife had been stabbed into the throat, and there were two more stab wounds in the heart.

Judging from the width and depth of the blade, it should be a very small dagger.

There were some more voices behind him. An Yanyan was still squatting in front of the corpse. He turned his head to look at the approaching Prince of Dayuan. He withdrew his gaze and whispered, "This kind of dagger can be hidden in the boots and hair. It will not be found if you don't search the body carefully."

The Prince of Dayuan clapped his hands, and several more corpses were carried up.

An Yanyan looked at the remaining bodies, confirmed their wounds, and then stood aside in silence.

The Prince of Dayuan asked, "What's wrong?"

An Yanyan bowed and said, "Prince, there are more and more thieves in Congling recently. I have seen many thieves act in this way. Ordinary thieves would not kill people like this."

The prince of Dayuan asked, "How did they kill people?"

"One cut to the neck is enough, there is no need to add two more cuts to the heart. Thieves are after money, and most of the time they won't kill anyone after getting the money. Even if they want to kill someone, they will be in a hurry because they have to escape. The wounds of these people clearly show that they were killed very calmly, and they were sure they would die."

An Yanyan's analysis made a lot of sense, and the Prince of Dayuan listened quietly.

"These thieves were very worried about leaving anyone alive. They must have some very obvious characteristics that would cause them to kill so many people."

The prince of Dayuan said with a smile: "It would be great if you were my prime minister."

As soon as the words came out, the Prince of Dayuan did not wait for a reply for a long time. His expression became more unhappy and jealous, and he cursed the arrogant Sogdian in his heart.

An Yanyan is indeed a very smart man. He can judge the thieves' intentions by the way they kill people.

Behind the Prince of Dayuan, there was a figure standing quietly. He was observing An Yanyan and the Prince of Dayuan and listening to An Yanyan's words with a vigilant look on his face.

In the dark of night, when An Yanyan parted with the prince of Dayuan, he was only accompanied by his servants, not even the Hu guards from Dayuan.

Pei Yan, who was mixed in the crowd, had a Hu man's beard and hair and a white cloth on his head, which could disguise his face in the night.

The only thing An Yanyan lacked was a Tang person, because in this area, only those with obvious characteristics were Tang people.

Pei Yan and Di Renjie could only disguise themselves slightly, but it was just a disguise after all. They could speak some Hu language, but that was all.

The prince of Dayuan had a gold token around his waist, which swayed on the belt as he walked.

Pei Yan followed the guard team, lowering his head and observing his surroundings with his peripheral vision.

Only after the Dayuan prince fell asleep did Pei Yan climb onto the roof of the palace again and then climb down to the windowsill in the dark.

Pushing the window slightly open, Pei Yan saw the Prince of Dayuan who was already fast asleep. Everyone was very tired tonight. He hoped that Di Renjie would not make any mistakes later. That An Yanyan would definitely not be allowed to stay.

Pei Yan jumped in from the window, slowing down his steps and breathing. He came to the bed of the Prince of Dayuan with a knife in his hand, stood there for a long time with the knife in his hand, and took away the token on the table. His mission was accomplished.

The treasure is not important, they cannot take it away, the population is not important either, they just need to capture the population, except for the BMWs of Dayuan, which are necessary resources for the war.

There are thousands of horses in the stables behind the Dayuan royal city, which are what the Tang army needs.

Just as he was thinking, Pei Yan suddenly felt a chill behind him, as if someone was staring at him.

He looked back and saw a big cage. Under the dim moonlight, he saw a figure in the cage, and a pair of bright eyes were looking at him.

The blue-eyed burly man in the cage watched the whole process without saying a word. He held the iron cage with both hands without making any sound.

Pei Yan took two deep breaths, looked at the still sleeping Prince of Dayuan, picked up a bunch of keys from the table, walked to the cage and tentatively handed over the keys.

The other person bent over in the cage, took the key with his big hand, and remained silent.

Pei Yan didn’t know what kind of evil taste this Dayuan prince had to put a cage in his room and lock up such a fierce man?
Pei Yan climbed out of the window and was about to leave with the token when he heard the sound of a cage opening. He turned around quickly and saw a slave who had come out of the cage chopping the sleeping Prince of Dayuan with a knife.

Afterwards, several more Hu guards rushed in. Pei Yan saw that the slave also climbed out through the window and onto the roof.

At this moment, Di Renjie also ran over and asked, "Did you succeed?"

Pei Yan responded: "Go!"

Di Renjie looked at the Hu warrior behind Pei Yan in surprise again. The other party had been following him slowly.

In the darkness of night, more and more places in the Dayuan royal city were on fire. Di Renjie and Pei Yan ran to a narrow corridor in the palace, but were stopped by a group of Hu guards holding shields.

Then I heard dense footsteps from the rear, it was the Hu people who were about to surround us.

The Hu warrior behind Pei Yan roared, pushed Pei Yan and Di Renjie away, and rushed towards the shields of the Hu guards. Zhan Nu roared and used his mountain-like body to knock away a row of Hu soldiers holding shields.

Di Renjie rushed forward with his sword in hand and chopped down a Hu man with one blow.

Pei Yan uncovered the white cloth around his head and rushed in with a knife in hand.

More than ten guards were chopped to the ground, and Di Renjie and Pei Yan also revealed their true faces. Under the moonlight, the Tang people's robes were stained with blood.

Di Renjie saw the sturdy Hu man stretch out his big hands, hold a Hu man's head in one hand, and then smash the Hu man heavily against the wall with both hands.

"It's the dead of night. May I ask..." Di Renjie said with a tone of admiration: "Where did you invite this warrior?"

Pei Yan said: "The prince of Dayuan is dead. Someone rescued him from a cage."

Di Renjie held the blade of his sword with his elbow, wiped off the blood, and said as he looked ahead, "An Yanyan is not a simple man."

Pei Yan shook the token in his hand and said, "Get the warhorse first."

The two men disguised themselves again and put on the white clothes of the Hu people. Di Renjie asked the Hu man, "Who are you?"

Di Renjie's Hu language has some accent.

The strong Hu man said, "Stop the attack."

Pei Yan smelled the blood around him and asked again, "Why did you kill the prince of Dayuan?"

"I want to go home."

He just said it simply.

The word "go home" carries a lot of weight for him. He was given to the Prince of Dayuan by An Yanyan. He was previously sold to the State of Shi by An Yanyan's uncle An Yuanshou. For more than 20 years, he has lived an inhuman life in the State of Shi.

Di Renjie took out a long iron needle and helped the strong man from Sai to untie the shackles on his feet and hands. The heavy shackles were thrown to the ground beside him, making a heavy muffled sound.

The Sai man asked, "Tang people?"

"I am Di Renjie, the secretary of Jingzhao Prefecture in the Western Regions."

"I am Pei Yan, a military officer of the Anxi Army."

The strong man of the Sai people said loudly: "Tana."

Without time to say anything more, Di Renjie and Pei Yan went to the north of the palace. There were few guards here. Before the news of Prince Dayuan's death was delivered, the three of them borrowed Prince Dayuan's token and left the palace.

Having a tough guy from Cyprus who could fight ten people at the same time gave the two men a lot of confidence.

Di Renjie and Pei Yan came to a huge stable, smelling a slight scent of horse manure, both of them had smiles on their faces.

At this moment, the fake beard on Di Renjie's face fell off a little, and the Hu guard beside him exclaimed in surprise.

Pei Yan raised his sword and ended the life of the guard. It was almost dawn, and under the gray sky, a big fire was still burning in Dayuan.

East of Dayuan, in the city of Talas, Liang Jianfang personally inspected the guards of the city wall, thinking about his own situation in his mind. The team led by Cheng Chumo who was escorting the prince was the imperial guards, and he was the general leading the army this time, but he could not command the Flying Tigers.

It would have been fine if he couldn't give orders, but because the prince was here, Liang Jianfang had to look at Cheng Chumo's face.

Cheng Yaojin is not in the Western Regions, but his son Cheng Chumo is causing trouble for him. His son Cheng Chumo is a stubborn person who is a troublemaker from beginning to end.

This general is really not doing his job as he wished.

This unhappiness did not only come from Cheng Chumo, but also from Pei Xingjian and others.

Also accompanying him were the Prince of Jin and the Prince of Ji, Pei Xingjian, Di Renjie, Xue Rengui, Bai Fang, including Li Mengchang and Gao Kan, all of whom were not easy to deal with.

There are only 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers in this army, or at most 60,000, but each of their generals is more powerful than the other.

With the intention of achieving merit, Liang Jianfang felt that he must take over the entire Congling Mountains no matter what.

Besides, speaking of the younger generation in the army, Xue Rengui was brought up by Zhang Shigui. After this battle, he would most likely be a general of Wuhou? Pei Xingjian should at least be the general of the right guard?
Liang Jianfang thought, at least he should be a duke, right?

Being a Duke, I should be able to be listed in the Lingyan Pavilion in this life, right?
That's enough.

In other words, we must conquer the entire Pamir Mountains no matter what. Otherwise, it would be a shame to go on this expedition. If we miss this opportunity, we may never have another chance in our life.

"The general can use his breakfast now."

Liang Jianfang said with a straight face: "Eating beef again?"

The soldier lowered his head with some embarrassment and said, "It's beef."

Liang Jianfang said: "Just take a cake."

"Here."

Lately, I eat beef every day.

The beef, which is rarely eaten in Guanzhong, is so delicious here that you can’t finish it at all. You will eat so much that you will vomit.

Just as he was thinking about it, another scout came from outside and reported, "General, General Xue is coming with 3,000 war horses."

Liang Jianfang didn't take it seriously at first, but after thinking about it for a while, he asked, "What?"

"General Xue and Lieutenant Pei brought back three thousand war horses."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sound of a large number of war horses galloping in the distance. Liang Jianfang had seen big scenes before, but when he saw a large group of brown-red war horses rushing towards here, he was stunned for a moment. In the back, there were teams of Tang troops driving the horses towards the city of Talas.

Gao Kan, who was resting at the foot of the city, ran over and asked, "The Arabs are coming?"

With so many war horses, looking across the Pamir Mountains, almost no country could put up such a large display, except the Arabs.

Liang Jianfang stood there for a long time without saying anything.

When the war horses stopped one after another and the dust settled, a group of war horses had already crowded out under the city.

Pei Yan was the first to dismount and said in a loud voice: "General Liang, we will go to Dayuan and return with 3,000 war horses."

Gao Kan strode out of the city and saw many Ferghana horses. He laughed and said, "What great horses! Hahaha!"

Since the Han Dynasty, the Ferghana horses from the Tianshan Mountains have been hard to come by. The soldiers in the city came out one after another, as they found that the most lacking thing for this expedition was good war horses.

In fact, Di Renjie and Pei Yan had coveted Dayuan's war horses for a long time and had long wanted to take over Dayuan.

However, due to the planning to attack the Shi Kingdom, the matter of Dayuan had to be put on hold. But war horses could not be ignored, so this trip to Dayuan was made.

If Dayuan had been willing to serve the Tang Dynasty from the beginning, there wouldn't have been so many problems.

Di Renjie looked at the group of war horses and felt emotional.

Bai Fang, wearing armor, also walked out of Talas City. He said to himself, "I didn't expect you to really go to Dayuan."

Pei Yan was accompanied back by a strong man from Sai.

This strong man from Sai people attracted the attention of Tang army as soon as he appeared.

Di Renjie said, "How about coming with us into the city and resting for a few days before returning home?"

Tana said: "No, I have to hurry back."

"Going back to your tribe?"

"Ah."

Before leaving, Pei Yan gave him a lot of dry food and even an extra horse.

Tana was sold to the Shi Kingdom as a slave by An Yuanshou when he was young. He lived a miserable first half of his life. He accidentally learned about the Sai tribe and wanted to protect his family.

Bai Fang, wearing a cloak, walked in the cold wind, walked to Pei Yan's side, and explained: "The King of the Sai people is a long time ago, so long ago that the Great Yuezhi was still there. So many years have passed, the Great Yuezhi is gone, but the Sai people are still there. These Sai people... do not weave woolen fabrics, most of them use animal skins to keep warm, and are good at taking milk and honey for food. If there is still a King of the Sai people in this world, it should be this strong man."

(End of this chapter)