Chapter 136: The Stifled Son of Heaven, Li Shengtian

"You little dog-slave, you've angered me to death! Angered me to death! How dare you be so disobedient and unfilial? Do you even have any regard for me, your uncle?

Don't you run! Today I'll properly discipline you on behalf of your parents!"

In the royal palace of Shule, Li Shengtian grabbed a switch and chased Zhang Zhao all around the room.

'Smack!' The tip of the rattan struck Zhang Zhao's backside. It didn't really hurt, but Zhang Zhao acted as if he'd been dealt a heavy blow, theatrically hissing and sucking in cold air before dashing far away.

Li Shengtian had lived in comfort and privilege for over twenty years; how could he possibly catch someone like Zhang Zhao, a humanoid Gundam? The two chased each other back and forth, and every time Li Shengtian was about to land a hit, Zhang Zhao would speed up and dart away again, infuriating Li Shengtian into howling curses.

"Fine, you little dog-slave! You dared to reward the Queen of the Zhongyun King to your subordinate officers, and you dared to have your aunt help smuggle away the wife of Bughra Khan.

Wonderful! I, your uncle the Son of Heaven, get nothing, while you feast till your mouth drips with oil and learn to steal women from your old man, is that it? Come, come — should your uncle also hand over this throne of the Son of Heaven to you?"

Outside the great hall, whether Khotanese palace guards or inner officials and serving maids, every one of them wore an expression of eyes-on-nose, nose-on-heart; many even wished they could immediately flee far away.

Words like "steal women from your old man" and "hand over this throne of the Son of Heaven to you" — how could they be allowed to hear such things? Hearing them was a source of disaster!

After chasing for a while and seeing he couldn't catch Zhang Zhao, Li Shengtian huffily set down the switch in his hand, then picked up a bow inlaid with gold and jade, and drew out an arrow with no arrowhead, looking as if he meant to nock it and give Zhang Zhao a couple of shots.

"Uncle! Uncle! You mustn't do that! If that hits your nephew in the eye, I'll go blind! Calm down, old sir — that's a two-dan hard bow. Don't fail to draw it and throw your back out instead!"

It would have been better if Zhang Zhao hadn't said that. The moment he did, Li Shengtian was so enraged that one Buddha left his body and a second ascended to heaven; trembling, he moved to draw the bow.

Zhang Zhao hurried over. Clearly this uncle, the Son of Heaven, was furious beyond measure and also somewhat trapped with no way down. If he truly couldn't draw the bow, wouldn't he die of rage?

"Little dog-slave! Little dog-slave! I doted on you so much! Treated you like my own son, and you even dared to coerce the inner official I sent!"

The moment he saw Zhang Zhao run over, Li Shengtian immediately set down the bow. He figured he probably really couldn't draw it, so he simply swung the arrow in his hand and gave Zhang Zhao a flurry of whacks.

Zhang Zhao, for his part, put on a show of yelping "ow, ow," just like a nephew caught by his uncle and given a proper bamboo-shoot stir-fry.

Gradually, after seven or eight whacks, Li Shengtian grew tired of beating him. He plopped down in a huff and continued to sulk, while Zhang Zhao quickly sat down too, leaning his back against Li Shengtian's shoulder and panting just as heavily.

Li Shengtian shot Zhang Zhao a sidelong glance, hesitated a moment, and in the end said nothing.

"Liu Zaisheng, where the hell are you hiding? You're just going to let me take a beating alone, is that it? Hurry up and get some wine and food — I want to drink a couple of cups with my uncle, the Son of Heaven!"

Seeing that Li Shengtian hadn't pushed him away, Zhang Zhao immediately began to bellow.

Liu Zaisheng, who had been standing guard outside the great hall, shuddered at once, came straight in, and dropped to his knees. The look he gave Zhang Zhao was as aggrieved as aggrieved could be.

He didn't have Zhang Zhao's abilities — he wasn't the son of Li Shengtian's elder sister who was like a mother to him, nor could he be irreplaceable in defeating powerful enemies for Li Shengtian. He was only a lowly Commandant of the palace guards! He couldn't withstand this kind of rough treatment.

Li Shengtian glanced at Liu Zaisheng. He knew why Zhang Zhao had called Liu Zaisheng in: it was to show that although he had tattled to Cao Yuanxin and had the wife of Saktu Bughra Khan taken away, he had not colluded with Li Shengtian's palace guards.

"Didn't you hear what the Commandery Duke said? Hurry up and bring some wine and food!"

Li Shengtian barked angrily, but to Liu Zaisheng's ears it sounded like celestial music, and he scrambled away at once to make preparations.

Zhang Zhao rubbed his arm. Most of the time earlier he'd been putting on an act, but he'd taken a hit from an arrow shaft on the arm, and it actually did hurt a little. Still, he was satisfied with Li Shengtian's behavior.

Li Shengtian's behavior proved that although Zhang Zhao had done something that greatly displeased him, it hadn't truly damaged their relationship.

Li Shengtian truly treated him like half a son. If Li Shengtian had said nothing at all and instead heaped praise on him, that would have been exactly when he needed to worry.

After resting a moment, Li Shengtian's breathing gradually steadied. He actually knew why Zhang Zhao had been so resolute about having Cao Yuanxin send away the Queen of the Karakhanids.

Indeed! For this Great Jin Kingdom to continue growing stronger, its relationship with the Guiyi Army would always come first.

Because although his Great Jin Kingdom was one of the three great powers of Anxi, compared to the Karakhanid Khanate and the Gaochang Uyghur Khanate, it had a natural defect.

Namely, Khotan was not a horseback nation with a nomadic tradition. The Karakhanids and the Gaochang Uyghurs were both cavalry-based, while the Khotanese Jin Kingdom was infantry-based.

Although at present in Anxi, infantry was actually superior to cavalry in combat power — Karakhanid cavalry wearing nothing but a shoddy leather cuirass were useless at assaulting fortifications and even worse in open battle, completely unable to defeat Khotan's heavy infantry.

But they did have one advantage: if they couldn't win, they could run. Not only could they withdraw at leisure on the battlefield — the same went for the state itself!

If Shule was lost, he could go to Maralbashi, or to the Land of the Seven Rivers. Since they were nomads anyway, they could recover their strength and then fight their way back.

But the Khotanese Jin Kingdom could not do that. If Khotan fell, then apart from going up to the Kunlun Mountains to become a Tibetan, the only place Li Shengtian could perhaps go would be the Guazhou and Shazhou prefectures of the Guiyi Army — and he would collapse and never recover.

Moreover, because it was a settled oasis state, the textiles and other goods produced by the Khotanese Jin Kingdom, and indeed its entire domestic economy, were deeply dependent on the Silk Road.

Only by maintaining good relations with the Guiyi Army, the two houses sharing one breath and linked branches, jointly safeguarding and controlling the trade route from Dunhuang to Khotan, and acting as middlemen buying and selling to each other, could Khotan's economy remain stable.

Therefore the Guiyi Army was of vital importance to his Great Jin Kingdom, and the relationship between the two houses absolutely could not be damaged. The clearest embodiment of that relationship was his bond with Cao Yuanxin.

Li Shengtian knew that Zhang Zhao was acting for the good of the Great Jin Kingdom, but that was precisely what he found hardest to accept.

Was he, Li Shengtian, really so fatuous? Would he damage his relationship with the Guiyi Army over a woman? Did Zhang Erlang and Cao Yuanxin really have so little faith in his self-restraint?

Two honey-glazed roast lamb shanks, a large platter of steamed lamb ribs with cheese, a dish of vinegar-dressed celery, a stack of sesame flatbread, and two flasks of Khotanese purple wine brewed from wild fruit and grapes.

Liu Zaisheng delivered these personally and set them down before Li Shengtian and Zhang Zhao. Uncle and nephew then sat shoulder to shoulder and began to eat.

"Erlang! This throne of the Son of Heaven your uncle sits on is rather stifling!" Li Shengtian wolfed down a large chunk of lamb ribs, not even wiping the cheese from the corner of his mouth, and suddenly tilted his head back and sighed.

"This Great Jin Kingdom, when it passed into my hands, looked glorious and flourishing, but in truth dangers lurk on every side. To the north there is a powerful enemy, and within, it is a heap of loose sand.

More importantly, that Khotan can support seven hundred thousand people on a mere dozen or so patches of oasis is truly the achievement of the trade routes.

If the trade routes were lost, I dare not even imagine it. So what I fear most in all my life is that the Ganzhou Uyghurs or the Liangzhou Wenmo will again cut off Hexi and disrupt the trade routes. If such a day ever comes, that will be the moment my Li family perishes and the state is destroyed!"

Zhang Zhao suddenly felt genuine sympathy for Li Shengtian. In public affairs, no matter how one looked at it, without the help of a transmigrator like Zhang Zhao, Khotan was absolutely no match for the Karakhanids to the north. One could well imagine that psychological pressure.

In private affairs, for Khotan to establish itself as a state, the first requirement was to maintain its alliance with the Guiyi Army. So even though his elder sister, who was like a mother to him, had been placed under house arrest, his brother-in-law had died in despair, and his own nephew had died of illness amid the turmoil — even though Khotan's national strength exceeded that of the Guiyi Army — Li Shengtian could not lend his elder sister the slightest support.

He even had to swallow his discomfort and go on to marry Cao Yuanxin. For the sake of the alliance between the two houses, he could only watch helplessly as Cao Yuanxin brought down his original wife and then monopolized the harem.

Li Shengtian was called the Son of Heaven of the Jin Kingdom, yet not counting his original wife, who had already been banished to the Samoja Monastery, he had only one empress and two consorts.

This was the reason he felt stifled. No matter the aspect, he had no choice but to favor Cao Yuanxin exclusively.

And Cao Yuanxin, as a queen and a female politician, was eminently qualified in vision and decisiveness, but as a wife, she was probably not so qualified! Even though her position was already unshakable, she still kept Li Shengtian under such strict watch.

From this point of view, Li Shengtian could truly be called a capable monarch. If Zhang Zhao were in Li Shengtian's place, he would probably have been unable to endure it long ago.

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