Chapter 1996: The

Three years ago when he first came to Guo City, it was still a crude little town with a perimeter of three to five li. Three years later, though the footprint had not expanded, the city's defenses had been significantly improved—the walls now stood nearly two zhang high, over one zhang thick, surrounded by moats and ditches forming a protective waterway. Overall, this was a city brimming with frontier flavor, built entirely in the Han architectural style.

Upon reaching Guo City and making contact with the garrison, Yang Fu and his party simply set up camp in a wild patch of land by the roadside outside the city walls. Everyone was kept on a tight leash—after all, this was military management, strict by nature, and until the mission was complete, there was no room for laxity.

After a brief settling-in, Yang Fu detailed one hundred soldiers and one hundred fifty laborers, loaded fifty carts of supplies, and headed toward Guo City. Among these supplies were gunpowder and raw iron, destined for Guo City's workshops.

Beneath the city gate, before the drawbridge, Yang Fu reined in his horse and looked up at the tall ramparts. On the earthen wall head, the two characters "Guo City" in regular script appeared upright and imposing, their fresh chisel marks radiating a sharp edge—a man of arms like Yang Fu could sense the flavor of iron horses and golden spears.

Yang Fu stared at the wall top for a moment, lost in thought, then his eyes suddenly lit up. He summoned a personal attendant and gave orders: "I've got a task for you. Find me the best painter in this city. Spare no expense—only the best will do!"

"A painter? What does the Commander intend to use one for?" the attendant asked, puzzled.

"Just find the man!" Yang Fu waved his hand impatiently. "I have my own purposes!"

Yang Fu wanted a painter because he hoped to obtain a "Panorama of Guo City" depicting the city's present appearance. The ultimate goal was a gift—to be presented to Guo Yi, the current Chief Commander of the Hexi Cavalry and Infantry.

Over the past winter and spring, the military and political landscape of Hexi had changed greatly. Not only had the old Administration Commissioner Wang Ming left his post, but the military command had also been handed to Guo Yi. The Yang clan of Ganzhou welcomed Guo Yi's arrival with open arms, simply because of the countless tangled connections between the Guo and Yang families.

Even though the Yang clan of Ganzhou was only distantly related to the Yang clan of Zhending, Guo Yi could not help but regard the Yang family with special favor. How could Yang Fu's recent promotion opportunity have come without Guo Yi's backing? Otherwise, escorting a shipment of supplies and getting an early promotion to a full post would be far too easy.

This year also happened to be Guo Yi's fortieth birthday. The birthday celebration itself might be missed, but the gesture of goodwill absolutely had to arrive. Previously, Yang Fu had been considering scrounging up some treasures from Anxi, but after seeing Guo City, he had a more meaningful idea.

After all, this city before him was the core city of the Kara-Khanids that Guo Yi had captured when he led the western campaign, and it had been renamed "Guo City" in commemoration of his achievements. Yang Fu felt that a "Panorama of Guo City" was far more meaningful than any pearls or jade treasures—its commemorative significance for Guo Yi was something no amount of gold or silver could match.

In Anxi, there was no such thing as separation of military and civil administration. To this day, most of Anxi remained in a state of military government—the chief officer of every town held both military and civil authority. Guo City was merely an exception, where public security was relatively stable and the economy more vibrant, giving the overall atmosphere a somewhat more relaxed feel.

The current military and civil head of Guo City was Defense Commissioner Kang Baode, the sixth son of the old marshal Kang Zaiyu. In Anxi, the situation with second-generation aristocrats and second-generation officials was even more severe than within the empire itself. The civil and military chiefs of every army and city were either descendants of domestic nobles or Anxi army officers and their sons.

Having received word of Yang Fu's arrival in advance, Kang Baode personally came to the city gate to welcome him, displaying great delight and warmth. His first words upon meeting were expressions of gratitude, saying that the supplies Yang Fu had brought had resolved his most pressing need.

When asked, Kang Baode explained that Suiye had been pressing for a batch of military equipment, and the iron supply for Guo City's workshops was running short, and so on. Of course, Yang Fu didn't put much stock in this explanation, taking it as mere pleasantries. He chatted idly with Kang Baode and took the opportunity to ask about the recent situation in Guo City and Anxi.

That night, Kang Baode hosted a banquet in the Defense Commissioner's residence in Yang Fu's honor. The conversation flowed pleasantly, and both host and guest were thoroughly satisfied. Upon learning that Yang Fu was looking for a painter, Kang Baode immediately slapped his chest and took the matter entirely upon himself.

After resting in Guo City for one day and two nights, Yang Fu led his team to break camp the following day and continue westward toward Suiye. He left behind a squad to watch over the empty carts and livestock—these were the transport team's precious assets.

Past Guo City, Suiye was no longer far. By all rights, the journey ahead should have been easier, but quite the opposite—Yang Fu grew even more tense. He issued strict orders requiring his men to stay sharp and maintain heightened vigilance, and his control over the laborers became even tighter.

At the Defense Commissioner's residence, Kang Baode had offered a warning, telling him to be careful. Though the words were somewhat veiled, when even the Defense Commissioner of Guo City spoke that way, Yang Fu dared not take it lightly.

The road between Guo City and Suiye didn't look maintained—more like a path worn out by the passage of people and carts. It was rough and uneven, hard going even on foot, let alone for supply wagons. Only on flat stretches was it manageable; otherwise, it would have been even more difficult.

What was more fortunate was that it hadn't rained for four consecutive days. In this area, summer rainfall was usually plentiful—just upon entering the Zhuhai Basin, they had been forced to rest for three days due to heavy rain.

West of Guo City, the further west one traveled, the drier the climate became, the sparser the population, and the more desolate the surroundings—everything presented a wild, primordial scene. Many people even developed the illusion that the prosperity they'd seen in Guo City had all been a fabrication.

Yang Fu still remembered that in the early years, Han settlers had been distributed along the southern shore of Zhuhai, and at the densest point, there was a village every few li. But this time, they had encountered only two major strongholds along the way. The people clustered around the forts for protection, farming and producing, their range of activity clearly restricted.

Upon inquiry, he learned that since the destruction of their state, the surviving Kara-Khanid people had repeatedly stirred up trouble. Many rebels (mainly adherents of the faith) had gathered in bands to cause chaos, hiding in the surrounding mountains and forests, emerging from time to time to attack Han settlers. After Liu Min's "faith-eradication" campaign at Suiye, the situation had only grown worse.

In previous years, the Protectorate's focus had been on resisting the alliance of the Islamic forces, leaving little attention for the disturbances in the rear—maintained only to a limited degree, until public security collapsed entirely. It was only after the Battle of Talas, when the Anxi Protectorate won a decisive victory, that it finally freed up its hands to truly address the rear-area problems, mobilizing heavy forces to exterminate the "faith rebels" and plowing through the entire Zhuhai coastline. Only then was the rebel momentum brought under control.

However, the originally scattered Han villages had, under that crisis-ridden situation, developed into the current clustered state. The prosperity of Guo City was almost impossible to replicate in the southwestern part of the Zhuhai Basin.

Even to this day, those "faith rebels" had not been completely wiped out. It wasn't that life in the mountains was good, nor that the government troops weren't putting in their full effort—it was simply that Kara-Khanid survivors, unable to bear Han enslavement and even less able to accept Liu Min's suppression of their faith, kept choosing to throw in their lot with the bandits.

And every farming season, especially harvest time, was typically the peak period for "faith rebel" uprisings. Right now was precisely the summer grain harvest.

The journey was uneventful until they reached Jile Town on the western side of Zhuhai, where, as luck would have it, they ran into a disturbance. A band of "faith rebels" had emerged from who knows where and was besieging Jile Town. As an important checkpoint on the main thoroughfare, Jile Town had deep ditches and sturdy walls, plus a full complement of one hundred fully equipped Anxi soldiers stationed there—naturally, it was not something rebels lacking siege equipment could take.

But the common folk dwelling around the town were the ones who suffered. The garrison's mission was to hold the town fortress, leaving little spare strength for rescue operations, and the fortress's capacity was limited as well.

Having happened upon this situation, Yang Fu naturally had no reason to stand by and do nothing. Of course, he also couldn't afford to ignore it—after all, compared to the Jile garrison defending behind their walls, his exposed transport column in the open field was clearly in greater danger.

Yang Fu had a solid family foundation in military arts and had experienced real combat. Facing the "faith rebel" uprising, he made a decisive choice, calmly dispatching two hundred soldiers to strike the enemy's rear and rescue the town—that was eighty percent of his fighting strength. As for himself, he stayed behind with the remaining squad of soldiers and the laborers to guard the supplies.

The rebels weren't numerous, and the Anxi and Hexi frontier troops were mostly elite—especially the Anxi army. With a pincer attack from both sides, it was hard for the outcome to go wrong. Soon, that band of "faith rebels" was routed, with over two hundred heads taken.

However, compared to this victory in suppressing the rebellion, what puzzled Yang Fu more was this: here on the shores of Zhuhai, how could "faith rebels" still manage to launch a large-scale attack on a town?