In Shule City, the pomp this time was even greater. Li Shengtian personally led hundreds of civil and military officials to greet him ten miles from the countryside. The road was paved with loess and a pavilion was specially built for the greeting. In terms of scenery, it was unparalleled.

When Zhang Zhao walked twenty miles, the canonization envoy sent by Li Shengtian arrived and canonized Zhang Zhao as the deputy king of the Khotan Kingdom on the spot.

This title and position existed in Khotan hundreds of years ago and is also common in Anxi countries. The deputy king and deputy khan highly recommended it.

The reason is that Anxi has a large territory, many deserts, and oases that can inhabit each other are far apart. One political center cannot meet the needs of national political activities, so a close branch of the royal family must be established as a deputy king to take charge of distant territories.

But since the road conditions in various parts of Anxi have improved and the number of horses has increased, this situation has become rare.

Relatively developed transportation means that rulers of various countries no longer need to set up a power structure of one deputy king and one deputy king, but today Li Shengtian brought it out again.

After Zhang Zhao received the order, he had to give twelve thumbs up to his uncle, the emperor. This man was really just like opening up new territories, but he was definitely a good player in internal affairs and playing politics.

He made Zhang Zhao the deputy king today, which is equivalent to confirming Zhang Zhao's idea that the Khan is below and the emperor is above.

The khan of Suiye became the deputy king of the Great Jin Kingdom in Khotan, so Suiye and the Talas and other places under the jurisdiction of Suiye's queen also became the territory of the Jin Kingdom in Khotan in name only.

What's even more seconds is that Zhang Zhao actually reported Guo Xuanqing's post to Li Shengtian, and Li Shengtian agreed.

In this way, after Zhang Zhao left, the Khotan Jin Kingdom gained suzerainty over Suiye, and Guo Xuanqing had to obey or at least cooperate with the Khotan Jin Kingdom's arrangements in many aspects.

Because after Zhang Zhaodong returns, he will definitely not interfere with Broken Ye's matter even though he is thousands of miles away.

Since he was the deputy king of Khotan, Li Shengtian could have asked Zhang Zhao to entrust part of Suiye's political power to the deputy king's staff who stayed in Khotan.

In fact, Li Shengtian had already thought about it. This deputy king was not given to Zhang Zhao casually, with no actual power just to look good.

Li Shengtian has made it clear that Zhang Zhao can open a palace in Polu Prefecture and establish a subordinate bureaucracy belonging to Vice King Zhang.

This organization will be mainly used to manage Zhang Zhao's Polu Prefecture and Suiye, as well as the Talas industry belonging to Zhang Zhao. Li Shengtian is even planning to allocate another area to Zhang Zhao after conquering the Fergana Basin.

It seems very generous, right? But this will only happen after Zhang Zhaodong returns. As long as Zhang Zhaodong returns, this organization will start to operate.

However, Shule was more than 4,000 miles away from Dunhuang, and most of it was a vast desert. The distance and traffic conditions meant that Zhang Zhao could send a certain number of officials to serve, but most officials still had to be recruited from Khotan.

Moreover, for more than four thousand miles, no matter what officials Zhang Zhao sent, they would eventually follow Khotan's footsteps.

Because in this situation without telephones and other more developed media, Zhang Zhao could not get feedback from his subordinates at any time, nor could he supervise.

The final result is to send a few confidants to express their opinions, and then receive a considerable amount of tax revenue.

"Erlang! Hahaha! You are finally back, uncle Wuyou!"

When Zhang Zhao first appeared in the eyes of everyone, Li Shengtian threw aside the Khotan noble officials who were greeting him and rode out on a white horse.

"Uncle! Fortunately, my nephew has fulfilled his mission and has taken back the east of Talas to the great dynasty!"

Zhang Zhao also immediately rode a white horse to get rid of everyone and galloped towards Li Shengtian.

What a scene of both sides rushing towards each other!

The Great Dynasty refers to the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of this year, the Kingdom of Khotan was renamed the Great Dynasty, Dabao and the Kingdom of Jin.

Dabao is an adjective, describing the glory and prosperity of Khotan, and Dachao refers to the Tang Dynasty.

Historically, they have always added the word "Dachao" in front of the country's name, indicating that they regarded Datang as their mother country and recognized themselves as part of the Central Plains Dynasty.

"Erlang did a good job. It has been more than a hundred years since Suiye Town fell, and today it is recovered, which is enough to leave a mark in history!" After the two met, they immediately dismounted and walked back hand in hand.

"But it's too far from Shule to Suiye. We don't have the strength of the Tang Dynasty, so we can only do this. It's a pity!"

In Li Shengtian's case, Zhang Zhao no longer hid, which was indeed a bit regretful. When he sent him there, Li Shengtian actually hoped that Zhang Zhao could guard Suiye.

Li Shengtian patted Zhang Zhao's hand and felt a little emotional for a moment. It seemed that his nephew was really determined to return to the East!

The population east of Talas, including Suiye, totaled more than 300,000. Although it was far to the west, it was no smaller than the Guiyi Army's family.

"Erlang has no need to regret. In my uncle's opinion, this is enough. We have stationed troops and gained suzerainty. No matter who becomes the heir after Suiye, they will need our recognition. There will also be tributes of tens of thousands of guan every year."

You can collect it, it’s pretty good!”

Zhang Zhao turned around and thought about it, and understood the reason why Li Shengtian said this, because it was very critical whether he got Suiye's suzerainty or not.

With suzerainty, Khotan can legitimately garrison 200 troops in Suiye. Although there are only 200 people, with suzerainty, Khotan can appoint the Suiye envoy to command the two hundred people and intervene in Suiye.

Government affairs.

Moreover, with the suzerainty, when Guo Xuancheng did something that harmed Khotan's interests after Zuiye left, which Li Shengtian couldn't bear, Li Shengtian used this as an excuse to cut off the trade route to Suiye.

This was very fatal, because after Khotan captured Shule, he completely blocked all the passages from the Silk Road to Suiye, especially Zhang Zhao's Polu Prefecture, which happened to be stuck at the throat leading to Suiye.

at.

This made Guo Xuancheng actually have to rely on the support of Khotan to rule, because they could not bear the loss of the trade routes being cut off.

So Anxi is just a noob pecking each other now. If Zhang Zhao stood in Saktu's position, there would be no need to go on an expedition to break Ye?

Directly blocking the trade route of Broken Leaf, it could take half a year at the earliest and about a year at the slowest time. A coup and turmoil would inevitably occur in Broken Leaf.

When the time comes, bring thousands of people with you to mediate and threaten, and Broken Leaf will be taken down.

But Saktu was reluctant to use this 'stupid' method because he was very short of money for his military activities.

Then Zhang Zhao seized the opportunity and went directly to the Land of Seven Rivers, looking at the faces of the Geluolu people with sullen eyes and living their lives.

After figuring this problem out, Zhang Zhao's last reluctance to leave Sui Ye was forgotten.

The two walked hand in hand to the pavilion built specifically to welcome Zhang Zhao, and a large group of drummers also began to play elegant music lively.

Zhang Zhao pointed to the team in the distance and began to explain Li Shengtian one by one.

This time, in addition to the 3,000 troops he brought back, there were also 400 to 500 Persian Samanid prisoners, as well as the governor of Tashkent, Ali Duraf, and the leader of the God Warriors, Abdul Ahmed.

's head.

These people were all to be brought back to the Khotan ancestral temple in the royal city of Khotan to hold a prisoner sacrifice ceremony.

Cumbersome etiquette and grand banquets followed one after another. It was not until the third day that Zhang Zhao had the opportunity to arrive at Polu Prefecture, his territory.

Here, there is what Zhang Zhao is most concerned about, which is an endless cotton field, almost three hundred acres.

This was planned by Zhang Zhao before he went to Suiye. For this reason, Zhang Zhong was specially sent back six months ago to take charge of this work.

Cotton was introduced to China as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and a lot of it was actually grown in the Western Regions.

However, such a good thing has never become popular. The biggest reason is that the method of taking off the cotton and making the cotton soft and suitable by playing the cotton have not been invented.

But this didn't bother Zhang Zhao. He closed his eyes and recalled it, wondering whether his father in another time and space had worsened the silicosis caused by playing cotton all the time.

I think the hundreds of thousands of cash he left behind should be enough for him and his mother to support themselves in their old age. Although the house that has not paid off the loan will be repossessed by the bank and auctioned off, there will always be some left.

If my father is smart enough, he might be able to sell the house before the bank takes it back for auction, and he can still make a little profit, almost more than one million in cash.

The old couple are still young, neither of them is fifty yet. If they want to have a baby, they should still have time.

"Erlang, you...what's wrong with you?" A timid voice sounded. Zhang Zhao opened his eyes and saw Guo Waner looking at him with a worried look.

Ayiguli and Cao next to her also looked shocked, while Zhang Zhong and Fanshun, who were a little further away, lowered their heads and pretended not to see anything.

It turned out that Zhang Zhao was too immersed in his thoughts just now, and a few tears fell from the corners of his eyes.

It was a bit embarrassing, but over the past two years, Zhang Zhao had already developed a very thick skin. He gently wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and smiled.

"If my father could see today's grand occasion and know what a great undertaking He is going to do, he would be extremely happy."

Zhang Zhao was right. He was able to produce cotton as a killer weapon, but it was not because his father whipped him with a stick in an attempt to make him give up his studies and learn the ancestral craft of playing cotton, an ancestral craft of the Zhang family, so that he could not die of hunger.

A craftsman.

Everyone was silent for a while, Cao and Ayiguli both nodded, and Fanshun couldn't help sniffing, probably thinking of the hard days in Qixiaohu Village more than two years ago.

Guo Waner, who liked Zhang Zhao the most, even wiped her eyes distressedly and leaned her head against Zhang Zhao's chest.

Only Lao Zhang Zhong didn't believe it. He looked at Zhang Zhao's face in confusion. Did Erlangjun think of his father? Can he think of his father?

When the Emperor in White passed away, Zhang Zhao was only more than a year old, and the Emperor locked himself in a deep palace at that time, so the father and son did not meet many times.

Moreover, he has served Zhang Zhao for more than 20 years, and he has never seen Zhang Zhao mention his father at all.

This old guy really has no eyesight! Zhang Zhao couldn't help but roll his eyes. He was speechless for this old servant who had been his father Zhang Chengfeng's personal bodyguard and worked hard to raise him.

This old guy's IQ is always going up and down, and he is always in a Schrödinger state.

Still staring! Don’t you feel embarrassed?

At this moment, a slender figure came over carrying an earthenware wine pot and a basket, which seemed to contain steamed cakes.

Uh-huh! Zhang Zhao stared at the little woman walking over in stunned silence. She was wearing a cotton dress made of fine Gaochang fine cloth, with a shining golden hairpin in her hair.

Why does it seem more familiar the more I look at it?

Damn it! Isn’t this the hero of the explosion who was saved by Zhang Zhao on the battlefield, the Uighur girl Huabu?

Moreover, it seems that this young lady is pregnant. Her slender waist is supported by a slightly round belly. She is probably too thin to show her pregnancy.

"Nunu has met the Duke! Nunu made some steamed cakes and brought some wine, asking the Duke to taste it!"

With Huabu's obedient gesture, he no longer had the aggressiveness and boldness he once had. Instead, he looked very polite and quieter, with a bit of shyness on his face.

Moreover, she is really pretty, a typical Xinjiang beauty.

"You must not call me Nunu, I have to call you aunt! Is your aunt already pregnant? It seems that a certain person will have a younger brother soon."

Zhang Zhao received the gift seriously, but glanced at Zhang Zhong next to him, "Good guy, this flower cloth has just turned fifteen this year!"
To be continued...