Chapter 11: How Did I Become an Uncle?

"Your servant, eldest daughter of the Guazhou judicial officer, the late Yuanzhong, Yan Nai, pays respects to Uncle Zhang Erlang!"

The appearance of the golden armor in the divine statue thoroughly overawed the others in the temple. Old Zhong and Yin Yaozi went out as Zhang Zhao had instructed; the two of them went to guard the only passable route down from the valley mouth, to prevent anyone from getting word to the Uyghurs. Lady Cao and her servants were kept in the temple.

Cao Yuanzhong? Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin. The name seemed somewhat familiar, but he could not recall any specific deeds.

He was lucky to have transmigrated to the late Tang, where he still knew the general course of events and the main figures. Had he arrived a few decades later, in the Song dynasty, apart from the shadow-play of the candle and axe and the donkey-cart drift at Gaoliang River, he would have been almost completely in the dark.

This was determined by his identity. As a Xi'an man, Zhang Chao knew Tang history like the back of his hand. There was no helping it; when Xi'an people went out and bragged, Han and Tang were the only things worth showing off.

Just like that joke about the "crappy old Great Wild Goose Pagoda" — no matter what one said aloud, in the heart, Han and Tang, especially the Great Tang, were the softest part of any Guanzhong person's heart.

"Ah? Your name is Cao Yannai?" Zhang Zhao, who had been tending to his armor, turned his head back, looking utterly shocked.

That name... how bold!

Lady Cao Sanniang's face instantly flushed red. She opened her mouth as if to speak but then stopped, and in the end said nothing. Instead she picked up a branch and, stroke by stroke, wrote the character "nai" in the dusty ground.

"My name is Cao Yan Nai, not Cao Yan... hmph!"

Seeing Lady Cao Sanniang so angry her lips could hang an oil bottle, the old fox Zhang Zhao pretended to be embarrassed and scratched his head, though inwardly he was laughing fit to burst. As the saying goes, never forget amusement while working; teasing this lady a little to lighten the mood was rather nice.

"I heard those Uyghurs seem to call you Sanniang. How are you also the eldest daughter? And what did you just call me? Uncle Zhang Erlang?"

"I am indeed Lord Yuanzhong's eldest daughter. Being ranked third is counted among all the legitimate daughters of the Cao clan." As she spoke, Lady Cao Sanniang looked at Zhang Zhao a little strangely.

"Does Uncle truly not know?"

"Know what?" Zhang Zhao was somewhat puzzled. He had just searched his mind and indeed found no memory of this. In fact, this body's memories of anyone other than Old Zhong and Yin Yaozi were very vague; even the faces and voices of his legal mother Lady Yuchi and his birth mother Lady Song were indistinct.

Lady Cao extended her slender white fingers and, while gently arranging the inner lining beneath Zhang Zhao's mingguang armor, spoke slowly.

"Young lord's ninth-generation grandmother — that is, the Grand Guardian's ninth daughter — married the Supreme Pillar of State Suo Xun. The Supreme Pillar's eldest legitimate daughter, Lady Suo, married my grandfather Cao Yijin and is my Cao clan's Lady of the Commandery.

Therefore my grandfather is the Grand Guardian Zhang Yichao's grandson-in-law, and the young lord is the Grand Guardian's great-grandson. You should call my grandfather cousin-uncle by marriage, so does that not make me your niece?"

Damn, how complicated!

Zhang Zhao counted on his fingers for a good while before he figured it out. That meant Lady Cao Sanniang was the granddaughter of Cao Yijin, the current Military Governor of the Guiyi Army and Great King of the West.

And Cao Yijin's principal wife, Lady Suo of the Commandery, was Zhang Yichao's granddaughter. Zhang Zhao himself was Zhang Yichao's great-grandson, so Cao Yijin was Zhang Zhao's genuine cousin-uncle by marriage. Converted over, Lady Cao Sanniang really was Zhang Zhao's cousin-niece.

Ugh, damn it all. Meeting a beauty of immortal looks who had already been married and borne children was one thing, but she also had to be his own niece.

"Zhang Erlang, someone really has slipped down the side path of the mountain. From the look of him, it seems to be Qi Xiahu's brother-in-law!"

Just as Zhang Zhao and Lady Cao Sanniang had sorted out their relationship, the old servant Zhang Zhong came half-running over with small, quick steps.

"Good, Old Zhong. As soon as Qi Xiahu comes up, bring him here to me!" Zhang Zhao nodded. He had now been forced up Mount Liang; this "good loyal servant" had dug a huge pit for him, and Qi Xiahu was the key figure in how to jump out of it.

"Young lord, I observe that the Uyghurs in the valley number at least one or two hundred, with few women and many able-bodied men, most of them sturdy fellows skilled with blade and spear. Even with Qi Xiahu added, I fear there is little chance of victory.

Moreover, I do not think Qi Xiahu will necessarily be of one heart with the young lord." Lady Cao Sanniang frowned as she looked at Zhang Zhao; the heart she had just set down was lifted again.

Zhang Zhao scratched his head too. Even with later-era armor and passable martial skill, he could not possibly fight a hundred men alone. How was this situation to be broken?

At the doorway, hearing Zhang Zhao bring the matter up again, the old servant Zhang Zhong hastily slipped out, shamefaced and downcast.

According to his foolish thinking, these Kucha Uyghurs had long dwelt on the Qilian Mountains, suffering endless oppression from the Tibetans, and with only sixty or seventy thousand people, they would never dare act recklessly against the Guiyi Army, which had three or four hundred thousand people and could barely muster ten thousand elite troops.

Then he could use the Kucha Uyghurs' position as strangers in a foreign land, anxious to gain a foothold, to win them over. And Zhang Zhao, as the only surviving legitimate great-grandson of Zhang Yichao, had enough prestige to become someone the Kucha Uyghurs could rely on.

Even if the Cao family currently in power did not favor Zhang Zhao, as long as Zhang Zhao could gain the support of tens of thousands of Kucha Uyghurs, plus the Zhang family's old followers and Zhang Yichao's prestige among the people of Guazhou and Shazhou,

though it might not let him stand against the Cao clan as an equal, it would at least keep his life and family from hanging entirely on Cao Yijin's whim. And if Zhang Zhao could marry a Cao family daughter, his position would be even more secure.

Ai! Watching old Zhang Zhong slip away, Zhang Zhao sighed deeply in his heart. What could he say? My old Zhang Zhong, in later-era terms, was what you'd call all appetite and no skill.

He never stopped to think: the Kucha Uyghurs numbered in the tens of thousands, while in the Guiyi Army those still willing to be connected with Zhang Chengfeng were only Zhang Zhao, Zhang Zhong, and Yin Yaozi — three people. Even adding the wavering Qi Xiahu, how could they possibly control that many Uyghurs?

And as for Cao Yijin, who currently held power, he could tolerate the Tuyuhun descendant Murong Guiying growing strong in Guazhou, and could tolerate the Long clan (Yanqi people) in Suzhou obeying orders when they pleased, but he would absolutely never tolerate the son of Zhang Chengfeng regaining power.

What was more, the Han folk of Guazhou and Shazhou, themselves only two hundred thousand or so, would certainly never allow the Kucha Uyghurs, numbering as many as seventy or eighty thousand, to gain a firm foothold in Guazhou and Shazhou.

Because once these Kucha Uyghurs arrived, the ethnic situation in Guazhou and Shazhou would shift from a stable order dominated by Han folk, with assimilated Sogdians, Tuyuhun, and the Long clan mixed in, to one half Han and half barbarian.

This was a matter of life and death for the Guiyi Army! Had they not risked their lives to drive out the Tibetans precisely to preserve the Han orthodox line and no longer let barbarians decide their fate?

So what Zhang Zhong had done would surely provoke fierce resentment among all the Han folk of Guazhou and Shazhou. Never mind Zhang Zhao marrying Cao Yijin's granddaughter — even if he married Cao Yijin's mother, the Han folk of Guazhou and Shazhou would certainly hunt Zhang Zhao down and exterminate him.

And even if the Kucha Uyghurs sincerely took Zhang Zhao as their lord, they still could not defeat the Guiyi Army. The most likely outcome then would be the Kucha Uyghurs selling Zhang Zhao out and running back to the Qilian Mountains themselves.

Damn it all. That way, a world where only Zhang Zhao gets hurt would be achieved!

And to break the deadlock, besides dealing with the bald tiger Ge Duo before him as quickly as possible, he would have to rely on Lady Cao Sanniang afterward. He had to establish a line to Cao Yijin's side. So Zhang Zhao put on a shameless, grinning face.

"My good niece, what do you suggest then? How about I hand you over to that bald Uyghur right now?"

Being called "niece" by a man clearly seven or eight years younger than her, and being unable to refute it because it was genuinely true, Lady Cao Sanniang's face showed an expression caught between tears and laughter.

Back in the cave, how had she ever mistaken this "good uncle" before her for a simple, foolish little novice monk?

"If sending me over could resolve the trouble for Uncle and the whole stronghold, I would be willing. I only fear the Uyghurs' greed is insatiable, and what they want is not merely a mere woman like me!" Lady Cao Sanniang suddenly and deliberately raised her voice considerably.

Zhang Zhao thoughtfully glanced at the doorway, then immediately withdrew his gaze, put on a righteous and upright face, and also raised his voice a little.

"If we Han folk can unite as one, Ge Duo's one or two hundred men will not be hard to deal with. And I observe that the master of this stronghold, Brother Qi, is also a hero among men; surely he too can tell kin from stranger!"

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