Chapter 138: Zhang Zhao's Road to Heaven (Two Chapters in One, One Update Today)

Zhang Zhao knew why Li Shengtian would ask this. Even people of later generations, unless they studied this area, would not know that these great empires, which appeared at the same time in history and declined at almost the same time, had connections that seemed unrelated on the surface but were in fact bound together by countless threads.

At this thought, I, the Grand Commandery Duke of Zhang, picked up a writing brush from the table.

From the northern end of the Apennine Peninsula controlled by the Carolingian Empire, to Constantinople in the Eastern Roman Empire, then to Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphate, then to Persia, then to the Western Regions, then through the Hexi Corridor, and finally to Chang'an.

Zhang Zhao drew a line through all these places with the brush, connecting them together.

"This is... this is a trade route? The Silk Road that set out from the Great Tang?" Li Shengtian pondered for a moment. He knew what Zhang Zhao had drawn.

This was the trade route connecting East and West! It was also one of the foundations upon which Khotan had built its state.

"Correct! Uncle, look here. This is the Carolingian Empire's control of Genoa. The western end of the Silk Road is right here. Here, people could already buy the Great Tang's silks and porcelain, but by the time the goods reached this point, the silks and such were already at astronomical prices.

So many merchants only used the Great Tang's silks and porcelain as a signboard. What they sold more of was still goods from the Abbasid Caliphate.

After they sold their own goods, they would buy up some local products and then carry them back to the Caliphate.

But the Caliphate's land was barren, and they simply could not absorb so many goods, so the goods could only be continually transported eastward.

After changing hands several times, these goods converged into the glassware, aromatic leaves, pepper, nutmeg, olive oil, sanlejiang cordial, carpets, and even swords, armor, and horses that appeared in Khotan.

Once they reached Khotan, part of them would be absorbed by Khotan, and then some jade, wine, and the like would be added before they continued eastward. In the end, all the goods would reach Chang'an.

In Chang'an, these mountain-like piles of goods would be completely absorbed by a city of two million people. Even if Chang'an could not absorb them all, there was still Luoyang, and still Longyou, Shannan, Jiangnan, Jiannan, and Lingnan, and even the whole of the Great Tang.

And after the Great Tang, headed by Chang'an, absorbed these goods, the Great Tang's porcelain, pottery, silk, and other goods would in turn be continually carried away by the merchants, and then set out once more on the road westward."

Zhang Zhao spoke at length in one breath, and Li Shengtian nodded along.

"Correct! This is how the Silk Road operated. When the Great Tang flourished, the traveling merchants passing through Khotan alone numbered in the hundreds of thousands each year. Those were truly prosperous times!"

The Silk Road, a trade route named by a nineteenth-century German scholar, was far from being as light and airy as later generations might imagine upon hearing of it.

Before maritime trade flourished, it was the largest and most important, one could even say the only, large-scale trade route in the entire world.

Moreover, this trade route stretched a hundred thousand li, and it was not traveled end to end by a single group of traveling merchants. Instead, it was relayed station by station, by merchants of different peoples and different cultures.

So with this trade route, everyone along the way could gain benefits. Merchants earned money, the common people sold goods they did not need and bought goods they did need, and rulers collected large amounts of commercial tax.

With the support of the Silk Road, the Hexi Corridor was not the bitter northwestern sand-eating place that later generations think of at the mere mention of it, but a first-rate golden passage. The population of Dunhuang in the Tang dynasty was even several times that of later generations.

The Hexi region, centered on the Republic's Gansu, held a position in the Tang dynasty equivalent to the Republic's Guangdong region in later generations.

This Silk Road sounded like an ordinary trade route, but in reality it was a road of gold.

"What a pity! The Silk Road has long since lost its former glory. From the fourteenth year of Tianbao, when the two traitors An and Shi threw the realm into chaos, this Silk Road has declined day by day. I hate that I was not born in the Tianbao years, so that I could eat the flesh and blood of those two traitors alive!"

Even though it had been nearly two hundred years, when Li Shengtian mentioned the An-Shi Rebellion, he still looked as if he were grinding his teeth in fury.

"Uncle, after the two traitors An and Shi threw the realm into chaos, what they destroyed was not only the Silk Road! Uncle, look. After the An-Shi Rebellion, the Great Tang was in steady decline.

But at the same time the Great Tang declined, the great empires that had once flourished alongside it, such as the Tibetans, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Eastern Romans, and the Carolingian Empire, all began to decline at almost the same time, within a span of no more than a hundred years. The Tibetans even lost their state entirely. Does Uncle not find this a little too coincidental?"

A flash of lightning went through Li Shengtian's mind. With a clatter he dropped the mutton leg in his hand, narrowed his eyes, and threw himself in front of Zhang Zhao's map, his finger sliding bit by bit along the Silk Road that Zhang Zhao had drawn.

"Erlang, you mean to say that the reason these great empires were able to maintain their former prosperity was entirely because they participated in this unprecedented Silk Road, and after the Silk Road declined, they inevitably fell into collective decline."

"Correct! And the greatest reason for the Silk Road's decline was the decline of the Great Tang. Uncle, in this world of ours, there were about two hundred million people in those days, and the Great Tang, counting unregistered and hidden households, had about eighty million.

What a great number that was! Before the An-Shi Rebellion, the goods that eighty million people consumed in a year were simply incalculable, so no matter how many goods came from the west, we could absorb them all.

And after we absorbed these goods, we would in turn produce an astronomical quantity of goods for the traveling merchants to sell to the west, thereby supporting the prosperity of several great empires to the west.

Have you never wondered? On the Qiangtang snow plateau, snow falls in the sixth month, and the cold is bitter to the extreme. Yet what did the Tibetan btsanpo rely on to maintain more than two hundred thousand armored soldiers?

And where did the cloth, coin, grain, salt, and iron come from that allowed the Tibetan armies to contend with the era of Taizong and Gaozong, when famous generals were as numerous as clouds?"

"Indeed! Those Tibetans up on the high plateau would long since have been unable to carry on, if not for my constant relief.

Even the nobles among them, if they could have a bowl of honeyed polished rice and a cup of purple wine, that would be a good day for them.

How did they support those hundreds of thousands of armored soldiers back then? Could it have been by relying on the prosperity of the Silk Road?"

Li Shengtian was stunned for a long while. A question he had never considered before surfaced in his mind.

"Uncle is right. The reason the Tibetans were able to flourish was precisely the prosperity of the Silk Road, and the reason the Tibetans declined so rapidly was also the decline of the Silk Road.

In fact, after the An-Shi Rebellion, the Silk Road could still have been maintained, but the Tibetans did something that dug their own grave.

In the third year of Zhenyuan of Emperor Dezong, they plotted the Pingliang Treaty Ambush. Although this shameless scheme eliminated the Great Tang's three northwestern generals and killed or wounded several hundred of the Great Tang's elite armored soldiers, its serious consequences far outweighed what the Tibetans gained.

After the Pingliang Treaty Ambush, the Great Tang completely abandoned any alliance talks with the Tibetans. More importantly, the Tibetans exposed their faithlessness completely. If they dared plunder even the Great Tang, what were mere traveling merchants to them?

From then on, traveling merchants would rather detour through the grasslands controlled by the Uyghurs than travel through Hexi.

And after noticing that the traveling merchants in Hexi had decreased, what the Tibetans did was not to quickly show their intention to protect the trade route. Instead, the nobles below, the stong-sde, fearing that there would be no more traveling merchants in the future and no more wealth to be had, simply allowed their soldiers to plunder, hoping to make one last grab."

"That is truly courting death! I shall take this as a warning!" Hearing of the Tibetans' self-defeating operations, Li Shengtian's eyes went wide, and he could not help but make a sarcastic remark.

"Indeed! From then on the Silk Road was severed. Even though the Tibetans had already taken Hexi and most of Longyou, the output simply could not sustain an army of hundreds of thousands of armored soldiers.

Large numbers of armored soldiers had no food or clothing, and the middle and lower officers also lived in hardship. In order to fight over more resources for survival, they launched into brutal internal slaughter."

At this point, Zhang Zhao smiled. "One of the greatest reasons that the Grand Guardian raised his banner and the Tibetans and Han folk responded back then was actually also the severing of the Silk Road.

Hexi was never a wealthy land to begin with. Once the Silk Road was cut, the sources of wealth dried up above and below, and everyone sat trapped in a besieged city.

So when the Grand Guardian raised his banner of righteousness back then, not only did the Han folk respond, but the Sogdians, the Long family, the Tatars, the Uyghurs, and even the Tibetans themselves all followed the wind and came over.

It was truly because the land of Hexi was on the verge of becoming a dead land. To the goal of breaking through to Ganzhou and Liangzhou and returning to the motherland, one must actually add this other item: reopening the Silk Road!"

Zhang Zhao said this with a smile, but Li Shengtian looked as if he had suddenly seen the light. His eyes blazed as he looked at Zhang Zhao, clearly no longer regarding Zhang Zhao as merely a brave general, but as a true scholar!

"Now that Erlang puts it this way, I remember too. In the old days my grandfather said that the reason our Yuchi family finally resolved to drive out the Tibetans was truly because Khotan's livelihood had been cut off. I had thought my grandfather meant that the Tibetan oppression was too severe, but it turned out it was because the Silk Road had been severed!"

At this point, Li Shengtian seemed to have grasped a hint of Zhang Zhao's line of thought, but there was still one point he had not fully thought through. What exactly did this queen of the Karakhanids have to do with what Zhang Zhao was saying?

"May I ask Uncle, has the commercial tax that Khotan has collected from the Silk Road these years been rising year by year, or has it been continually falling?"

Li Shengtian's expression darkened. "What rising? Last year's commercial tax was only seventy percent of what it was five years ago!"

"Then Uncle must think that the decline in commercial tax is because the Silk Road's traveling merchants have been drawn away by the Gaochang Uyghurs, with large numbers taking the northern route, which is why the number of traveling merchants on the southern route has fallen?"

"Is it not so?" Li Shengtian asked in confusion. That was exactly what he had thought, which was why he had discussed with Cao Yijin, preparing for the two families to join forces and draw as many traveling merchants as possible to the southern route.

The fact that Zhang Zhao's embassy had been plundered by Pugu Cheng, the Gaochang Tegin of the Diluo, at the ancient city of Loulan, was in fact a warning from the Gaochang Umu Master Khagan to the two families.

"No!" Zhang Zhao shook his head firmly. "Your nephew obtained from Wu Da'er the caravan transit statistics for Dunhuang over the past years and the Shazhou commercial tax records. Compared with five years ago, Shazhou's commercial tax revenue has fallen by a full thirty-five percent!"

"How can this be? How can this be? Could there be trouble among the Ganzhou Uyghurs? Or are the Wenmo of Hexi stirring up trouble again?"

Li Shengtian was instantly thrown into panic. Whether they took the northern route through the Gaochang Uyghurs or the southern route through Khotan, all caravans came from Shazhou and Dunhuang.

And a decline in the number of caravans and commercial tax revenue at Dunhuang meant that the drop in Khotan's commercial tax was not because everyone had shifted to the northern route through the Gaochang Uyghurs, but because the caravans coming from the east were dwindling sharply.

"Neither!" Zhang Zhao drew a deep breath. He found himself somewhat reluctant to tell Li Shengtian this cruel reality.

"The true reason is that Guanzhong is depopulated and ruined, with barely a tenth or two-tenths of its population in the High Tang's prime. The Central Plains have suffered war after war, and their population is far smaller than before. Across the entire heartland, the wealthy regions have already begun shifting toward Yang Wu and Qian Yue.

Guanzhong lies in ruins, and Hedong, Henan, and Hebei are likewise in constant turmoil from warfare. Of the hundred thousand or more wealthy households that once lived in Guanzhong, not one in a hundred survives. Those who remain are impoverished farmers struggling to survive, and they can no longer absorb the glassware, jade, and other goods coming from the west.

Because these goods have nothing to do with people's livelihood—they are used by officials and nobles. Once the Great Tang can no longer absorb the goods coming from the west, the caravans can only use silver and coin to buy the Great Tang's own products.

This not only increases costs but also reduces the profits along the entire route, which inevitably drives the price of Great Tang silk and porcelain sky-high.

And the soaring prices in turn mean that the Arabs, the Romans, and the Franks to the west gradually can no longer afford the Great Tang's products either. The Silk Road's decline is only to be expected.

And what is even more terrifying is Qian Yue, Wang Min, and Southern Han, because they have already begun preparing to build seagoing ships and sail out to sea, attempting to reach the Arabs directly by water. In the future, I fear this maritime Silk Road will replace the overland Silk Road."

This was the true terror. Li Shengtian, who had been growing tipsy under the influence of alcohol, broke out in cold sweat like rain and was instantly sober.

If Huainan, Jiangnan, and Lingnan built great seagoing ships and sailed out, and the Silk Road shifted entirely to the sea, then Khotan would be finished. Without the Silk Road, how could the Golden Kingdom survive?

"Since Erlang knows all this, he must surely have a solution, yes? Speak quickly and let your uncle hear it!" Li Shengtian grabbed Zhang Zhao's hand, his eyes full of anxiety.

Zhang Zhao sighed. In history it had been exactly so. Khotan, after years of grinding warfare with the Karakhanids, had then been bled dry at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains by the severing of the overland Silk Road.

"Uncle, this is a great tide of history, not something human strength can save! But it can be delayed by design. Anxi and Transoxiana cannot be saved, but the Golden Kingdom of Khotan still has a chance!"

Li Shengtian had turned deathly pale when he first heard Zhang Zhao say it could not be saved by human strength, but then immediately heard the words that Khotan could be saved. In the space of a few breaths, it was as though he had walked the edge between life and death. He sat up straight and looked at Zhang Zhao.

"Please, Erlang, teach me!"

"I am willing to share my uncle's burdens!" Zhang Zhao also sat up straight and returned the courtesy.

Then he tore off a sheet of yellow hemp paper and, with a brush, drew below Khotan a map of the South Asian subcontinent.

"Uncle, this is the land of the Indian kingdoms that Xuanzang once traveled through. The climate is hot, but its produce is abundant—rice can be harvested three times a year, and every kind of fruit, vegetable, and spice grows everywhere.

In its northwest grows a plant called cotton, which can be used to make clothing, quilts, and the like. It is more than ten times warmer than hemp cloth or kudzu cloth.

Moreover, its people are weak and easily ruled, and the Brahman religion divides the people of India into castes for governance, making them extremely easy to control. This is simply a granary and treasure-house bestowed by Heaven upon our Great Golden Kingdom!"

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao grew thoroughly excited. Going to India to be a lord was probably the favorite fantasy of many later Chinese men who loved history and loved expanding the map.

What a fine colony! How had it fallen into the hands of that third-rate lot, the British? Why hadn't our ancestors known to colonize India?

Well, here it comes now!

Zhang Zhao pointed excitedly at the Indian subcontinent. "Uncle, look—if we can capture Marghinan (Fergana), once we exit the valley mouth, we can find a passage here in the Samanid realm of Persia that leads smoothly to India.

Besides that, we can also cross the snow mountains from the old territory of the Congling Garrison.

Attacking from both sides, with only a few thousand armored soldiers, India will inevitably submit. Then we can plunder vast treasures from India on one hand, and on the other carry off the people of India as captives, because they are extremely docile—the best serfs there are.

We'll bring the Indians to Marghinan to open up and farm the land, then enfeoff our own people as lords, in the manner of the Great Tang's fubing system—in truth like the iqta nobles of the Karakhanids. Give each man several hundred mu of land and let him hold a region forever.

If ten thousand armored soldiers and tens of thousands of yeoman-farmer auxiliaries garrison Marghinan, once the valley mouth is shut, no one can take it away. And with serfs from India farming generation after generation, our warriors need only train in martial arts generation after generation.

When the population multiplies, send the descendants to India to be lords, or to attack Samanid Persia. When the serfs run out, go raid India and bring back another wave.

At the same time, we can open trade routes, carrying India's sugarcane, cotton, and spices back to Khotan, Hexi, and even the Great Tang.

Then ship silk, porcelain, and the like out from the Great Tang. We can also teach them to drink tea, and then sell the tea to them as well.

Thus cycling endlessly, constantly drawing the blood of India to strengthen ourselves. Even if the great Silk Road is severed, this little Silk Road of ours from India to Chang'an will be enough to sustain us!"

This was in fact the prescription Zhang Zhao had devised for Hexi and Anxi. The severing of the overland Silk Road was all but a foregone conclusion, but he could open a small Silk Road—perhaps in the future it would be called the Cotton Road.

Because the main problem now was that after Guanzhong's ruin, it could no longer absorb luxury goods from the west.

Unable to absorb these western luxury goods, the two-way trade of the Silk Road had become one-way.

So Zhang Zhao wanted to grow cotton in India. This was a product for mass consumption, not something that required the noble, wealthy merchant, and official classes to absorb.

Besides cotton, India's various spices and even raw sugar could be sold to Anxi, Hexi, and Guanzhong.

Guanzhong would sell silk, porcelain, pottery, and sugar decolorized with yellow clay to India.

Thus reviving this entire route. Only with such a trade road could the decline of Anxi, Hexi, and especially Guanzhong be delayed.

All wars are ultimately fought on logistics. Only with this money would Zhang Zhao have the standing to march east and contend for the realm, and the confidence to rebuild the Chinese nation.

"I understand now! A fine plan! Erlang's vision is far-reaching—your uncle is far beneath you!" Li Shengtian clapped his hands and laughed.

"I understand now! This is something I cannot accomplish—my mind is not enough, and your cousin Congde is even less capable! The only one who can accomplish this is you, Zhang Erlang. Only you have this ability!

No wonder you took in the Karakhanid queen—because she carries the royal blood of both the Eastern Cao at the Marghinan valley mouth and the Kizkurgan people of the old Congling territory. You want to use this woman to pry these two peoples into your service! To drive them as your vanguard to swallow Marghinan and control India."

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