Looking at the Gaochang City in front of him, Du Zhongxiao said to Fu Bi: "Since the establishment of Xizhou in the Tang Dynasty, this is the largest city in the Western Regions. After hundreds of years, it is still so arrogant. After occupying this city, the Western Regions will be like returning to the court and can take advantage of the trade route to the west."

Fu Bi bowed: "Since the commander of Jiezhi came from the north, occupied Hequ Road two years ago, and reopened the Western Regions today. This is indeed a blessing for the court."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "There are many small countries in the Western Regions. Although Gaochang is one country, they are actually autonomous in all regions. This time, the most intense battle happened in Liuzhong. Who would have thought of it? Uighurs were not natives in the Western Regions, and they were defeated by us. It is really the norm of nature."

While the two were talking, Zhao Zi brought his generals and the lord and servant Guchen of Gaochang City to greet him and salute him forward.

After the ceremony, Du Zhongxiao said, "The City Lord of Pugu presented the city in time to avoid excessive damage and was really a great achievement. Now the affairs in the city will be managed by the city lord first, which is considered to be loyal to the court. When the court sends the prefect to the prefect, the city lord will go to the capital. How about the reward?"

The servant Guchen bowed: "But listen to the commander of Jieshou."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "This is the best. Let's enter the city and see what the most important city in the Western Regions is like!"

After entering the city gate, Du Zhongxiao saw that the city was in order. All the shops on both sides of the street were opened and said to Zhao Zi: "Okay, if you want to win the hearts of the local people, you should take care of the people. After entering the city, you will restrain your subordinates and not harass the people, which is a great achievement!"

Zhao Zi crossed his hands: "If you have a good commander, how dare you disobey the order!"

Looking at the streets on both sides, Du Zhongxiao said to Fu Bi: "I don't know how many people are here in Hu Shang in Shengzhou. Look at the market scene here, I don't know how much better than Xizhou! Those Hu Shangs know that we enter Gaochang, I don't know how we feel."

Fu Bi said: "When Gao Chang was there, no one would go to Yizhou. They must have had a good relationship with the Uighurs. Jieshuai has never allowed officials to have too much contact with local Hu merchants, and I think they know this."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "The Hu Shangs who arrived in Shengzhou all set out from here, traveled thousands of miles northward, and only crossed Yinshan when they arrived in Fengzhou. If they hadn't had a good relationship with the Uighurs, how could this be? Now that we are entering Gaochang, we need another way to do business."

The Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated, and the products are not rich. There are so many goods needed by the Central Plains, which are just for transportation. What Du Zhongxiao thought was to go through land roads and contact the major powers in the west, and not to go through the middle to transfer. Otherwise, once there was chaos, the trade route would be broken.

After entering the city lord's mansion, everyone sat down with guests and hosts, and performed the ceremony as if they were rituals.

Du Zhongxiao said: "After Gaochang City, Xizhou in the Tang Dynasty will be under the rule of the court. How to govern here in the future is a matter decided by the court, so let's wait slowly. Now, the Lord of Pugu City will be the governor of Xizhou and manage the twenty-two cities around, how about?"

Fu Bi said: "It should be like this. The army has just arrived, and many matters are not clear, so don't make any big moves."

Pu Guchen bowed: "I will accept the order if the commander of Jie is so arranged."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Since that's the case, let's inform the local government to appease the people. In principle, all documents from the government should be written in Chinese, but new ones should be used in Chinese and Uighurs for a period of time. The army sent clerks to help the city lord do things."

Pu Guchen knew that this was meant to monitor, but the army entered the city, so he could not refuse and agreed.

Du Zhongxiao said to Zhang Sheng: "Gaochang City has been removed. The most important thing in the war in the Western Regions is Yanqi in the south. Zhang Ku was stationed in Yancheng and guarded the valley entrance of Yanqi. Deputy Envoy Zhang went to Yancheng in a few days and worked with Zhang Ku to do this big thing."

Zhang Sheng obeyed the order. Zhang Ji's army was 50,000, and it was enough to deal with Yan Qi, so he did not need Zhao Zi's army.

Du Zhongxiao said again: "Within a month, Zhang Ji's army will be all concentrated in Yancheng and ready to fight against Yanqi. Zhao Zi, you arrange your troops and horses, except for leaving 10,000 people to guard the cities, the rest of the troops will be concentrated in Baishui City and ready to attack Zhangbali."

Zhao Zi sang his promise with his hands. Without the about 10,000 people in Gaochang City, Gaochang was in the three northern cities of Zhangbali, Yangjibali and Beiting, and there were not many troops. Sending 20,000 people was enough, which included the meaning of guarding against other herdsmen. Most of the Uighurs in Gaochang were distributed in the south and north, mainly relying on nomads to make a living. Most of the troops in Gaochang were recruited by Uighurs, and most of the Uighurs were in Yanqi.

After arranging the future arrangements, Du Zhongxiao said: "Today, the General Secretary moved to Gaochang and held a banquet to celebrate. Everyone here will come tonight and have a good time. I heard that the mutton here is very good, and they are all grazed in the pastures placed in Tianshan next to it, so you must taste it."

Everyone said yes.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Du Zhongxiao and Fu Bi sat in the official hall to discuss the future situation.

Du Zhongxiao said: "The Western Regions were originally the homeland of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but they were too far away from the Central Plains. If the Central Plains were in chaos, the Western Regions would be lost. In places where there were many troops stationed in the Tang Dynasty, there were many Han people, just like Gaochang. Now, Puguchens ruled it according to the law of the Federation. There was no way, we were not familiar with this place at all. This is not a long-term solution. We should be familiar with the place as soon as possible and follow the laws of the court."

Fu Bi said: "It is true. Now that there is a railway, it is not as difficult as before. You can ask the court to send officials as soon as possible. The clerks here used to use Sogdians, but in the future, they should use Han people. It is just that officials are easy to send, so it is afraid that it is difficult."

Du Zhongxiao said: "A few people can think of various ways. There is nothing else to send people on a large scale, only the word "profit". The court has to spend some money to build government offices and apartments in the local area, and to issue border subsidies to officials in order to attract people."

Fu Bi shook his head: "In the past two years, the imperial court has allowed local governments to print paper money, and the world has increased a lot of money, but it can only deal with it for a while. After all, paper money is based on copper coins. Now there is not enough copper coins, and the number of paper money is not large. In fact, there is no money in the hands of the imperial court."

Du Zhongxiao said: "The court has little money, but there is a lot of food. If it really doesn't work, will it be distributed? It will take several years for paper money to find a way."

In fact, in the past, there were various discounts for salary, but the money received was not much, and it was often a large amount of materials. The lower the official, the less cash he received, and often all kinds of materials. When encountering powerless officials, the minor officials who paid the salary were bad, and often decayed. The whole country printed and issued paper money based on copper coins, and the amount of coins increased in a short period of time, and the discounts gradually decreased. However, with the development of the mainland economy, in just one or two years, the currency on the market was not enough, and the value of currency in most places rose in the past year.

The court allocated money to the local government to transport copper coins. In this case, there was not much money in fact. To develop the border, a lot of money must be invested, but the court was short of money. Paper money is being explored, and this problem cannot be solved in one go.

If the methods of the Han and Tang Dynasties were basically autonomous, and only a few places with a large number of troops would be dispatched. Therefore, in the past thousand years, when the Central Plains was in chaos, the Han people in the Western Regions were washed away, and the actual population was not large. Now that there is a railway, of course, we can no longer follow the old methods of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but should directly counties and places. Except for those in real remote areas, officials from the court will be sent.
Chapter completed!