Altik knew how to conduct himself. Since the grain was sold to the enemy, it was reasonable for him to raise the price. In order to please Ang Lee, he was willing to share half of the extra profit with Ang Lee. After all, the sale of the grain was made by the Tang dynasty, and it was also the Tang dynasty who was responsible for selling the grain to Ziyad. They had to pay for their hard work. They couldn't let the Tang dynasty's soldiers be responsible for running errands.
Ang Lee's subordinate was very happy to hear Altik's words. When Ang Lee gave him this task, he was a little unwilling. After all, this was just an errand job. If he didn't give some benefits, the soldiers would complain. Now, Altik wanted to give half of the profit for free, which of course made him very happy.
Although Altik made it very clear that half of the profit would be shared with Ang Lee, with Ang Lee's loving character, he would certainly not swallow all the profit. At least, he would give some of it to the soldiers who worked hard. This way, everyone would be happy together. It was a long-term solution.
The amount of food that Seiyad wanted to buy was not a small amount. The amount was huge, so the profit was also huge. Half of the amount was definitely a huge amount. With Li An's generosity, he would give at least one-third of it to the soldiers under his command. Perhaps even more. With such a large amount, it would be a lot for every soldier, especially those with official positions, who would receive more.
"Haha! The City Lord is so generous. Well, it's settled. I'll go back and report. You guys quickly prepare the grain! We have to make the deal as soon as possible to avoid any accidents. "
Ang Lee's subordinate said.
"Okay, we'll go and prepare."
Altik said.
After the subordinate returned to the tent, he truthfully told Ang Lee the situation.
"Half of the profit to us? Altik is really generous! Haha! This is really great. Along the way, the soldiers have worked hard. This official hasn't rewarded the soldiers yet. Let the soldiers work hard and complete this task as soon as possible. This official doesn't want a single share of the profit. All of it will be given to the soldiers. "
Ang Lee said very generously.
To the rich and overbearing Li An, this amount of money was nothing. Moreover, he had already received too many gifts. These gifts were even more profitable than the grain. Furthermore, the soldiers had indeed worked hard to follow Li An, so it was understandable to reward them. It was also to let these soldiers be happy.
"Thank you, Assistant Minister Li. This subordinate will lead the soldiers to prepare the grain."
The subordinate was very happy and hurriedly went to prepare.
In the direction of Ziyad's camp, Ziyad's subordinate told Ang Lee's promise to Ziyad. He also said that Ang Lee was trustworthy. At least, he was more trustworthy than Mansur.
This was enough to show that this subordinate of Ziyad's did not have a good impression of Mansur. After all, he was loyal to Ziyad. If Ziyad could establish his own territory, then his status and identity would be greatly improved. Therefore, he supported Ang Lee even more.
"What, Altik really agreed to sell the grain? What's the price?"
Ziyad said in surprise.
The subordinate replied, "He has already agreed. The price is double the market price. It's quite reasonable as long as he is willing to sell."
Ziyad nodded and said, "As long as we can buy enough grain, we can safely return to Khorasan. Send the money now. The most important thing is to transport the grain back as soon as possible."
"Yes, General."
The subordinate responded and immediately prepared all the money to buy the grain. He sent it to the Tang Army's camp and asked the Tang Army to help him buy the grain. At the same time, Ziyad's army had completed all the preparations for the withdrawal and was ready to withdraw back to Khorasan at any time.
The money to buy the grain was quickly transported to the Tang Army's camp and handed over to Ang Lee's subordinates. After withholding part of the profits, many Tang Dynasty soldiers set out together to transport the money to Maia City and handed it to Altik. They were also preparing to transport part of the grain in the city to Ziyad.
The Tang Dynasty had a lot of mechanical transport vehicles, but there were not many empty ones. Therefore, only a small number of Tang Dynasty's transport vehicles were involved in the transport operation. Most of them used the transport vehicles from Ziyad's camp.
Because the amount of grain was relatively large, one or two trips would definitely not be able to transport it all. However, after the Tang Dynasty soldiers learned that they could get a large amount of money, they were full of enthusiasm and did not feel that transporting the grain was difficult at all.
In order to encourage the soldiers to work more, the general in charge of supervising them even proposed a policy of "more work, more pay". He asked the soldiers to work harder so that they could get more money when they got to share the money.
Under the incentive of this policy, the Tang Dynasty soldiers worked very hard. They did not feel tired carrying the grain at all. They loaded the grain onto the transport vehicles one by one, looking very flexible.
Of course, in addition to the Tang Dynasty soldiers, many soldiers from Maia City also came to transport the grain. When they saw that the grain was transported by the Tang Dynasty soldiers, they did not feel the slightest repulsion. This was because the news in the city had spread that Ziyad had stopped attacking the city because the Tang Dynasty's army had arrived. Moreover, many of the weapons in their hands were also provided by the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, they naturally had a good impression of the Tang Dynasty. Not to mention selling the grain at a high price, they were even willing to give it to the Tang Dynasty soldiers. Therefore, they worked very hard.
"How many soldiers of the Tang Dynasty have come? Why do they need so much grain?"
The soldiers working in the city were also very curious. From the amount of grain transported by the Tang Dynasty soldiers, they guessed that there were at least tens of thousands of soldiers from the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, why would they need to prepare so much grain? With so many soldiers of the Tang Dynasty coming to help, it seemed that it would not be difficult to defeat Ziyad. For this reason, they were very happy and worked even harder.
Of course, Altik also loved his soldiers. He also took out a part of the profits from selling grain to reward the soldiers, so that they could be happy and boost the morale of the soldiers in the city. After all, there were many wounded soldiers in the city, which had a certain impact on the morale of the army.
Because there were many transportation trips, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty and the soldiers in the city sped up the transportation. After all the carriages were loaded, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty pulled the grain back to the camp. After returning to the camp, the transport carriages were placed in the camp together with the grain. The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty would push the empty transport carriages that had just been delivered to the camp to continue transporting the grain. Anyway, Ziyad's camp had a large number of transport carriages, so the quantity was definitely enough.
"Haha! So much grain! Hurry up and transport it back! "
Ang Lee smiled and asked Ziyad's subordinates, who had been waiting for a long time, to take people to transport the grain back to the camp. This was already agreed upon. Since the other party paid for it, the grain should be handed over to the other party.
Ziyad's subordinates happily accepted the order and transported the grain back to the camp.
After several transportation trips, all the grain that Ziyad had purchased was in place and was transported back to the camp by Ziyad's subordinates. Thus, Ziyad had to fulfill his promise and lead the army to leave as soon as possible and return to the Khorasan.
However, at this moment, Ziyad's mood was in turmoil. In addition to helping him collect the grain, Ang Lee also gave him a set of materials. The small material was the telescope's manual, which was not worth mentioning. The thicker material was the various help that the Tang Dynasty could give to Ziyad after he gained control of the Khorasan. It was also to help Ziyad establish a good relationship with Altik and other forces so that everyone could coexist peacefully and jointly promote the prosperity and development of business.
The more Ziyad looked at it, the more tempted he was. The more he looked at it, the more he wanted to cooperate with Ang Lee. Many of the ideas in the material were so tempting that Ziyad could not help but want to sit in that position. However, Ziyad also had many worries.
That position was not something that anyone could sit in. It required a large number of people to support it. Although Mansur was brutal, he was very authoritative and had a lot of supporters in the Khorasan. His confidants were all over the Khorasan. Even in the army, it was hard to tell how many of Mansur's confidants were Ziyad's. Ziyad was worried that once he led the army, someone in the army would assassinate him. Moreover, he could not tell who was Mansur's confidant and who was truly loyal to him.
Ziyad felt very uncomfortable with this kind of entanglement in his heart. He could not even sleep well. Of course, in addition to this, the army did not win the siege, which also made him very uncomfortable. If he returned to the Khorasan without victory, it meant that his prestige would be greatly reduced, and the reduction of his prestige would mean that he would lack supporters. Once he led the army to rebel against Mansur, the probability of failure would be greatly increased.
However, no matter what, the most important thing was to withdraw the army as soon as possible because he had promised Ang Lee. A man should be honest. Moreover, his army was facing a huge threat from the Tang Army if they stayed here. It was his responsibility to the army to withdraw as soon as possible. Moreover, it was not easy to gather the provisions. If they did not leave as soon as possible, they would run out of provisions and would have to continue to buy them at a high price. That would not be worth it.
"Pass down the order. The army will break camp and withdraw to the Khorasan."
Ziyad issued the military order.
Soon, the troops under Ziyad's command withdrew from Maia City one after another and retreated to the north. A large number of siege weapons could not be taken away, so they simply burned them all. These were the weapons that they had painstakingly built. Naturally, the soldiers were a little reluctant to burn them, but there was no other way. It was not up to anyone to decide.
The fire was burning so fiercely that it could be seen clearly even in the direction of Maia City, which was very far away. Especially at night, the soldiers and civilians in the city could see the soaring flames outside the city. Many soldiers ran to the city wall to watch, and the common people also followed to join in the fun. It would be a great loss if they did not see such a beautiful scene.
Altik naturally stood on the city wall to watch the show. This was his favorite scene. After all, he already knew that the huge flames were the siege weapons of Ziyad's army. These weapons had once caused great damage to their soldiers. Now that they were all burned down, it was really satisfying.
"My Lord, Ziyad's army has burned down all the siege weapons. It seems that they have really retreated and no longer intend to attack us."
"Burning down all the siege weapons is enough to prove the problem. The crisis of Maia City has been completely resolved. We can have a good night's sleep."
"My Lord, it seems that we don't need to send so many soldiers to guard the city tonight. Let most of the soldiers have a good night's sleep!"
His subordinates said.
Altik nodded and said, "Ziyad has really left. Tonight, each gate only needs a hundred men to be on duty. The rest of the soldiers can have a good rest!"
"Yes, my Lord."
His subordinates replied.
Ang Lee was outside the tent, also admiring the fire in the distance. He was accompanied by the soldiers in the camp. Everyone was very interested in the spectacular fire. Such a huge fire was not so common. It would be a great loss if they didn't take a few more glances.
"Big Brother, Ziyad's fire is really big. It has been so long, but it's still burning so fiercely. It seems that it won't be finished even by tomorrow night!"
Li Feiyu said while admiring the fire.
"Assistant Minister Li, Ziyad left behind a hundred old and weak soldiers to be responsible for burning these weapons."
One of his subordinates said.
Ang Lee assumed the posture of a wise man and said, "Ziyad launched a wrong siege at the wrong place at the wrong time. This war is destined to fail."
"Big Brother, your words are so profound! Launched a wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time. You can say that. "
Li Feiyu was a little dizzy, but he felt that the words were profound and seemed to be very reasonable.
This was a famous saying from later generations. Of course, it had a certain philosophical meaning. Ang Lee was just borrowing it. Moreover, there was nothing wrong with using it in this place.
The official in charge of counting the grain transported by the soldiers quickly calculated the amount of grain transported by each team. According to the amount agreed at the beginning, each team was given a full reward, and the generals were given ten times the share.
The reward was directly given to each team leader. Then, the team leaders would naturally continue to distribute it. Because they were all watching, naturally, no team leader dared to embezzle.
Half of the profit of grain was not a small amount, and the total number of soldiers of the Tang dynasty was only a little more than a thousand people. Therefore, a lot of money was distributed to each soldier, not to mention ten times the share for the generals.
While Ang Lee was admiring the fire in the distance, the soldiers soon began to divide and count the money. Compared to the spectacular fire, the soldiers seemed to be more interested in money. After all, money could bring them a lot of things. Without money, they would get nothing.
"How many gold coins have you distributed?"
Ang Lee looked at a soldier who was grinning from ear to ear and asked.
"Assistant Minister Li, I've distributed 98 gold coins. Hahaha."
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