Chapter 137: A Historical Burden That Should Never Have Been His

"What's this? Frightened by your uncle's words? A ruler of a nation so stifled and pent-up — you never imagined that, did you?"

In the great hall, the two were still eating and talking. Li Shengtian saw Zhang Zhao silent and frowning, and assumed Zhang Zhao had been shocked by the resentment he had let slip.

Without waiting for Zhang Zhao to answer, Li Shengtian shook his head and began muttering to himself.

"It's not that I must have three thousand beauties in the rear palace, nor that I bear much grudge against Liu Niang. To speak truthfully, since Liu Niang came from Dunhuang to Khotan, she has helped me greatly, and can be counted a fine match for me.

Yet I still feel stifled — not the stifling of lacking fine wine and lovely women, but the stifling of this land of Anxi pressing down upon me.

When will the Central Plains revive? If the heavenly troops would only come east, I, Li Shengtian, would gladly follow the example of the Prince of Wudu Commandery and go to Chang'an to be a carefree prince of the blood.

To drink and trade verses with Li Bai and Du Fu, savor the konghou of Li Ping, listen to Li Guinian's 'Red Beans Grow in the South'! Khotan is small and weak, and I am of shallow talent and virtue — truly I cannot bear the burden of this land of Anxi!"

By this point, Li Shengtian's eyes had reddened, and tears were welling up, on the verge of falling.

Zhang Zhao set down the mutton leg in his hand and, for the first time, looked with genuine respect at this monarch toward whom his feelings had been somewhat complicated. In his eyes, Li Shengtian could not be counted a sage ruler or enlightened lord; he had no shortage of minor flaws — fond of extravagance, fond of beauty, fond of face.

But now he discovered that Li Shengtian possessed a quality rarely seen in a monarch: sincerity.

Not sincerity toward everyone, of course, but toward people like Zhang Zhao whom he inwardly approved of — a deep sincerity.

Recalling these six months from Dunhuang to Khotan, and thinking over some of his own actions — for instance, this time sending away the Khagan's queen of the Karakhanids — any one of these deeds, never mind Qin Shi Huang or Han Wudi, even under a Tang Xuanzong or Ming Xuanzong, would have cost him, Zhang Zhao, his head long ago.

Yet here with Li Shengtian, the greatest punishment he had received was being lashed a few times with arrows, as today.

Calling it punishment would be less accurate than calling it intimacy. In this age, and in a relationship such as theirs, it was indeed extraordinary favor.

It brought to mind how, in history, Li Shengtian and his descendants, exactly as Li Shengtian feared, had ceaselessly resisted the invasions of the Karakhanids, who had been converted by the faith of the Arabs.

And not merely the Karakhanid invasions, but the encroachment of the entire Arab-faith power, until in the end they could not avoid death and the destruction of their state — and with them vanished the Han-Tang culture of the Western Regions that had endured for centuries.

This... all of this — it was never a historical mission that Li Shengtian, that this tiny Khotan, should have had to bear!

Zhang Zhao also suddenly understood why, in history, when the Later Jin envoys Gao Juhui and Zhang Kuangye went to Khotan to confer titles on Li Shengtian, Li Shengtian had been so full of mockery.

This man who had waited decades, hoping the heavenly troops would come east and take up his historical mission, had instead gotten Shi Jingtang, who ceded the Sixteen Prefectures of You and Yun and was willing to be a puppet emperor to the Khitan. How desperate must his heart have been!

"Uncle, do not worry!" Zhang Zhao knelt and sat upright across from Li Shengtian, raising a cup of purple wine.

"Now that Heaven has not cut off the line of Yan-Han, and has sent your nephew here, even if my bones are ground to dust, I will see that my uncle rests easy, and that the spirit of Han and Tang endures in Anxi. If the heavenly troops cannot come east, then we ourselves shall be the heavenly troops!"

"What spirit!" Li Shengtian narrowed his eyes, his face flushed, and clinked bowls with Zhang Zhao.

"It is indeed Heaven's will! I never imagined that my elder sister, in the lonely solitude of Shazhou, could have raised you so splendidly. Erlang, do you know how overjoyed your uncle was when he first saw you?"

With that, Li Shengtian poured himself another bowl of purple wine and drank. "My elder sister had been married barely five years when she lost husband and son. Since then she has lived in seclusion in Dunhuang for twenty years — green lamp, ancient Buddha, melancholy and joyless. Even now she is only a little past forty!

I brood on it day and night, yet there is nothing I can do. Only you — you can rescue your mother from this boundless sea of suffering!"

Watching Li Shengtian's expression, Zhang Zhao suddenly felt all his questions had answers. Truly, there is no hatred without cause, and no love without cause.

Li Shengtian's affection for him was, in all likelihood, mostly Li Shengtian's fond, yearning love for his own elder sister — Zhang Zhao's legal mother, Princess Fengtian — projected onto Zhang Zhao himself.

Indeed, only if Zhang Zhao returned, seized power, and restored the Zhang family's Guiyi Army would Li Shengtian's elder sister, Princess Fengtian, escape her sea of suffering.

But Zhang Zhao also suddenly gave a bitter laugh. This Li Shengtian was, after all, no true great ruler!

Had he been a capable sovereign, this would have been the moment to ask Zhang Zhao how he could be his own heavenly troops — not to ramble on about his elder sister!

"Uncle, rest assured. If the day comes when the Zhang family's Guiyi Army is restored, I will personally escort Mother back to Khotan for a visit, and see that uncle and sister are reunited!" Zhang Zhao solemnly made this promise to Li Shengtian.

"Good! It is rare that you have such a heart, and can understand your mother's suffering. Once we have defeated Bughra Khan Satuq, your uncle will set aside all else and fully support your return to Shazhou to reclaim your Zhang family's inheritance!"

Li Shengtian, as if having made up his mind, threw back his head and downed another bowl of purple wine in one fierce gulp.

"Uncle has actually misjudged me. Your nephew had Aunt take away the Karakhanid queen not for her beauty, but because this woman is truly of great use to me!"

Zhang Zhao hesitated a moment, then decided to speak frankly to Li Shengtian. The man was a ruler of a nation, and here he was with tears in his eyes, pouring out his heart. If you still hid things and held back, that would very easily breed resentment.

"Good! Speak — I want to hear what reason you, Zhang Erlang, have for insisting on this!" Li Shengtian set down his wine bowl and nodded at Zhang Zhao.

Zhang Zhao stood, walked to the desk that had once belonged to Satuq Bughra Khan, and took out a world map.

This was a genuine world map, apparently transmitted from the Abbasid Caliphate. Though it drew the Arab lands far too large and the shape of China somewhat strange, the general positions were not wrong.

Zhang Zhao tapped the far western edge of the map, at Europe. "Uncle, look here. This is the Carolingian Empire, also called the Kingdom of the Franks. This is the Eastern Roman Empire — what we call the Great Qin of the West."

Li Shengtian leaned over curiously. Although he was a sovereign, this was knowledge he had no channel to access.

As an ancient of the late tenth century, Li Shengtian's understanding of the world could not compare to a modern elementary school student's, for they did not even know the earth was round.

"Great Qin is only this small now? This Carolingian Empire is far larger in area than Great Qin. And what is this? The Black-Robed Arabs? Of these three lands, what are their products like? Which could be called a land of fish and rice?"

Li Shengtian, having set down his wine bowl, was astonished. He looked at Zhang Zhao, who was busily revising the map, and asked.

The transmigrator Zhang, meanwhile, was editing the map on the spot. Well now! This map, originally worth ten thousand in gold and of immense historical value, had just been altered by him beyond recognition.

"Great Qin has already declined. This is the Eastern Rome established after the robes and caps crossed east — comparable to Emperor Yuan of Jin's Eastern Jin.

The Carolingian Empire has very likely already split as well. This largest region is the Arab Empire — it was they who defeated Marshal Gao at the Battle of Talas.

If we rank the three lands by prosperity, the Carolingian Empire is best, Eastern Rome next, and the Arabs after that."

"The robes and caps crossing east" was a joking phrase, originally meaning that Eastern Rome had repeatedly withstood barbarian invasions and preserved Roman culture, but Zhang Zhao had only a half-understanding of it and took the joke for real history.

He knew even less about the Carolingian Empire. In fact, it was not merely "very likely" — it had long since split. The Black-Robed Abbasid Empire had also long since weakened, its former glory gone.

"Hmm! Very interesting! It is hard to imagine how you learned such things in Dunhuang. Even I did not know them. Could it be that what Zhang Zhong said is true — that the Grand Guardian bestowed a golden armor upon you?"

Li Shengtian nodded. "But what does all this have to do with your taking away Satuq's queen?"

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