Chapter 115: Who Is Real and Who Is False

Two Youyi Army cavalrymen, their faces flushed red with shame, led their horses up to Zhang Zhao. The two of them had just been thrown a hundred thousand miles by that heavenly horse, and felt they had failed their interception mission, so they had come to receive punishment.

"Colonel, young lord, we two have disgraced you! Please punish us!"

Zhang Zhao looked at the two men on the ground, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. What crime were they even asking to be punished for?

"What are you two doing? That is a Ferghana horse! Back then, Emperor Wu of Han sent the Ershi General Li Guangli with tens of thousands of troops, cutting off the water supply and besieging the Dayuan capital for months, just to obtain two horses a year. It would be strange if you could keep up with it.

If you truly feel you've disgraced me, then kill a few more of those Karakhanid bandit curs when the time comes!"

"So this is a Ferghana horse? No wonder it's so divinely fine!" Everyone around was astonished. The Ferghana horse was a name carved into the very genes of the Chinese people.

Ma Yaozi, full of curiosity, reached out to touch the legendary Ferghana horse, but the horse stretched out its long face and suddenly opened its mouth to bite at Ma Yaozi. Fortunately Ma Yaozi reacted quickly, or his hand would have been ruined!

Laughter broke out all around. Ma Yaozi sheepishly withdrew his hand. If not for how precious this horse was, he really would have liked to give it a full set of whip lashes.

Yan Jin bowed to Zhang Zhao with clasped hands. "Your subordinate congratulates you, Second Young Lord. It is said that Ferghana horses are now rare even in the Kingdom of Ningyuan. To obtain one today, and later select strong mares to breed with it, you will surely get countless fine steeds!"

The Kingdom of Ningyuan was the Kingdom of Bakhana, formerly the Kingdom of Dayuan in Han times. In the third year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang bestowed upon Bakhana the name Ningyuan, and married the imperial clanswoman Princess Yihe to the King of Bakhana, so the sons of Tang in Anxi mostly called it the Kingdom of Ningyuan.

Zhang Zhao smiled and shook his head. "This horse! It's good, it's good! But its usefulness is not as great as its fame. It runs fast and has endurance, but its build is slender. It is best for relaying military intelligence. If you really want it to carry one or two hundred jin into battle, that is not its strength.

Liu Zaisheng, find a few reliable men and send this Ferghana horse to my uncle. He will certainly like it!"

Just as Zhang Zhao said, the Ferghana horse was good in every way — fast, enduring, handsome — except for its load-bearing ability. This kind of horse, in this era, was best used for relaying urgent military intelligence; in later ages, for horse racing and fancy equestrian arts, it was the best.

But on the battlefield it was unsuitable. For unarmored light cavalry to use it was clearly too expensive, and for fully armored cavalry it could not carry the weight.

The horses armored cavalry liked had the same traits as heavy-armored fierce warriors good at bitter fighting: you had to choose those with big feet, thick legs, and large bellies. Strength was the true way.

The greatest use of this kind of Ferghana horse was actually for breeding with other horses. With good luck, you could breed one like Red Hare — fast, enduring, and able to bear weight. But that probability was about the same as winning the first prize in the Double Color Ball lottery.

Liu Zaisheng was that handsome palace guard whom Zhang Zhao had tricked into igniting gunpowder in the Tonghe Hall.

As a result, not only was he left dizzy and muddled for days, but his fair, handsome face had also been scorched with a small patch of pockmarks that had still not healed, so Li Shengtian felt quite at ease sending him to Zhang Zhao's side.

"As ordered!" Liu Zaisheng, for his part, seemed to bear no grudge toward Zhang Zhao, and was actually quite obedient.

"Second Young Lord, that Ferghana horse charged out from Fort Eskesa!"

Zhang Zhao consoled the two Youyi Army cavalrymen briefly, and his cousin Yin Yaozi hurried off to ask about the specifics. Only after asking did he learn that the knight whose head had already been smashed open by Master Zhitong had actually charged out from Fort Eskesa.

Then he had also shot an arrow onto the walls of Shule. Needless to say, the arrow must have had a letter asking for help tied to it. It seemed that before long, Ithihad inside Shule would discover the truth.

Heh heh! Zhang Zhao laughed sinisterly twice. This could give that Persian a nice surprise! Perhaps he could be lured out of the city.

"Leave Han Shan's Du Erlang to guard the camp. Liu Zaisheng, have fifty of your palace guard cavalry also stand watch. Everyone else, except Shi Chongmin and the others going to dig the tunnel, go find stones.

Master Zhitong, please also write out a complete training manual. I order you to train eight hundred able-bodied men who can use slings within three days. They will also be under your command for now. They shall be called... er! They shall be called the Divine Mechanism Du!"

"Yes!" Liu Zaisheng, Shi Chongmin, and the others received their orders and left.

The monk Zhitong also chanted a Buddhist invocation toward Zhang Zhao. Although his repeated memorials had not been taken seriously by the Amozhi (meaning Governor-General) whom Ya'er looked to, he had privately trained a group of people through his disciples, and now they could be put to use.

Shule City, the Governor-General's residence. Ithihad's face was ashen. This letter shot into the city was a plea for help from Fort Eskesa. The letter said the fort was besieged by tens of thousands of troops from the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, and was in danger of falling at any moment. It begged the Governor-General to send troops to raid the Khotan army's rear and relieve them.

This was indeed Ithihad's original plan: when the Khotan army besieged Fort Eskesa, he would send cavalry to raid and harass them.

The distance between Shule City and Fort Eskesa was less than ten li; even if they could not win, they could withdraw back into the city at leisure.

But once the Khotan army moved, their assault on Fort Eskesa would slow. Dragging on and on, Bughra Khan would return with reinforcements from Balasagun.

But... if the Khotan main army really was besieging Fort Eskesa, then where did those ten thousand-plus men and those elite troops below Shule City come from?

The scouts from Jiashi City had come several times and had indeed found no sign that the Gaochang Uyghurs intended to coordinate operations with the Khotanese.

Moreover, Khotan and the Gaochang Uyghurs had clashed just a few years ago over the Zhongyun Kingdom, and with the Umu Zhu Khagan gravely ill and his three sons contending, which Gaochang prince would dare to make the decision to start a war?

"Emir, the soldiers on the wall have confirmed it. That golden horse just captured by the Khotan army is indeed the heavenly horse of Askar, the Thousand-Household Commander of Fort Eskesa! The handwriting and the seal also match!"

General Adumu, still bearing wounds on his face, walked over and said in a low voice. If a day ago the wolf-smoke from Fort Eskesa could still be dismissed as a false signal set by the Khotan army, or as the panic of the Thousand-Household Commander of the Fort Eskesa garrison,

then now it was almost certain that the Khotan main force really was besieging Fort Eskesa, and was not below Shule City.

Ithihad closed his eyes and recalled the battle outside the city two days before. That force of only a few dozen armored men was indeed an extraordinarily rare elite. Ithihad felt they had even surpassed the Great Khan's Ghulam Guard.

Could it be...? Ithihad thought of a possibility. Could it be that of the ten thousand-plus men below the city, only these few dozen were elite, and the rest were all rabble in disguise?

General Adumu had clearly thought of it too, but he touched the scar on his face and found it hard to speak.

Recently his standing with Governor-General Ithihad had fallen sharply. Four hundred-plus cavalry — though not elite cavalry, they were still cavalry!

Shule City had given him everyone who could ride a horse, yet within less than two hours of leaving the city, they had been routed by fewer than a hundred Khotanese infantry.

Fewer than three hundred had fled back into the city; a full one hundred fifty or sixty were lost. In particular, of those fifty heavy archers, nearly seventy percent were gone, and Governor-General Ithihad was so pained he only wanted to slap him across the face. Those heavy archers were a sharp weapon for defending the city! And now nearly all of them were gone in an instant.

Seeing Adumu humiliated, Abdu, who had recently gained favor, could not keep the smugness from showing on his face.

Nearly five hundred cavalry against fewer than a hundred armored men, and you still managed to be routed. How do you have the nerve to have climbed to this position?

Truly, the high seats are filled with incompetents feeding on their posts!

Heh heh! Now you're dumbfounded, aren't you! Governor-General, and Great Khan, you all watch well! When real war comes, it is a battle-hardened fierce general like me, Abdu, who is most reliable!

"Governor-General! If this humble general is not mistaken, outside the city there is certainly a small number of elite troops leading a great mass of rabble to deceive us.

Once Fort Eskesa falls, we have only six or seven thousand men. Holding out until the Great Khan returns with reinforcements will be very difficult. Better that this humble general personally lead my elite troops, first defeat the infidels outside the city, then relieve Fort Eskesa!"

Ithihad calculated in his mind for a long while, and finally drew a deep breath. He looked at Abdu, with his full beard and fierce expression.

This fellow was notorious among the officers of Shule City for his cruelty, but he was fond of wine and women, so Ithihad had not thought much of him before. Now it seemed he might well be more reliable than someone like Adumu.

"General Abdu, go into the city and summon the holy warriors! Prepare for battle!"

Ithihad had made up his mind. Fort Eskesa could not be left unsaved, but he also could not send out the entire army. What if the Khotan elite outside were real after all?

Ah! Then he could only make these holy warriors suffer for a while. After all, had they not come all the way from distant Baghdad and Isfahan precisely to spread the will of Allah?

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