Chapter 144: Calm? How Could He Possibly Stay Calm?

Quite the patient one! Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin. Down below, Ma Yaozi and his men had shouted themselves hoarse with abuse, and on the walls a crowd was weeping and wailing — yet this Saktu still showed not the slightest intention of coming out to fight.

So other men's green hats aren't his own green hat, is that it? This is going to force me, Grand Commandery Duke Zhang, to bring out the ruthless measures!

Zhang Zhao's face darkened. Atush might be only a small earthen-walled town, but there was still no sense in sending two or three thousand men to assault ten or twenty thousand defenders!

He had to make Saktu Khan come out and attack on his own initiative!

Zhang Zhao stood up and scanned the surroundings. A little over a li east of Lower Atush there was a small earthen mound — just the right place to set up his layered formation.

Because this great formation had originally been designed for Song armies to use in the mountain valleys and flatlands of Sichuan and Shaanxi. The formation had cover only on its front, left, and right; there was none to the rear. Therefore the layered formation had to be deployed with its back against a high mountain or a great river.

No sooner said than done. Apart from leaving a hundred-odd Yue riders below the walls to protect Zhang Zhao, the main force, having finished drawing water, began advancing toward the little mound.

Yin Yaozi directed the soldiers of each du as they deployed below the mound, placing the layered formation's rearmost horn-bow crossbowmen at the front end of the mound. Two or three thousand laborers drove the army's mules, horses, donkeys, and the rest straight up onto the top of the mound and settled there.

The long-spearmen at the front of the layered formation were drawn from Monk Huitong's sworn followers — that is, the more capable fighters among the believers of the Three Teachings in Shule — supported by the hundred-odd miners Shi Chongmin had brought.

The first rank of stiff-bow archers was made up of the Khotan palace guards led by Liu Zaisheng.

The second rank of ordinary archers consisted of soldiers from Master Zhitong's Shenji du and part of the Three Teachings sworn followers.

The rearmost horn-bow crossbowmen were still mostly Khotan palace guards, with a small number of elite archers selected from the remaining troops.

As for the armored soldiers of the Hanshan du, Zhang Zhao had placed them on the two wings of the layered formation.

This position was actually even more important than the formation's front, because in this era, armored cavalry capable of charging in wall formation against a forest of spears did not yet exist. So once the long-spearmen at the front of the layered formation did not scatter in panic, the place the enemy was most likely to attack would inevitably be the thinly manned wings — elite troops were required there.

As for the two flanks, the task of dispersing and screening light cavalry was still assigned to the three hundred Yue riders given by Cao Yuanxin. Resting behind the formation, tasked with delivering the decisive blow, were Li Ruotai's one hundred fifty armored riders.

Seeing that the formation was now essentially fully deployed, Zhang Zhao gave a cold laugh, spurred his warhorse, and slowly advanced. Now all that remained was to thoroughly enrage Saktu and make him attack his layered formation in a desperate frenzy.

"Zhang Zhao, Fengtian Commandery Duke of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, Great Tang Grand Guardian, great-grandson of Lord Zhang, taboo name Yichao, sends this letter to Saktu, Bughra Khan, whom Heaven abhors, men resent, and ghosts and spirits detest.

Your ancestor Pang Tegin was nothing but a dog south of the desert who had lost its protector. Only by the grace of the Great Tang court did he survive. Yet instead of thinking to repay that kindness, he harbored the heart of the turtledove seizing the magpie's nest. When the Sage's wrath fell and the heavenly troops arrived in force, Pang Tegin fled in terror like a dog that has lost its home, whimpering westward, seeking only to cling to life.

And when it comes to you, you are even more shameless. Your father refused to convert to the Persians' religion of the Heavenly Square, and for that he met a violent death.

As a son, not only do you not brood day and night on avenging your father, you instead take the thief for your father, colluding with the Persian Samanid prince Nasr. You converted to the religion of the Heavenly Square and persecute the believers of the Three Teachings — truly an unfilial son whom Heaven abhors and men resent.

I have often wondered how the world could produce such an unfilial descendant. Could it be that you are not the descendant of Bazir Khan at all, but in truth the bastard spawn of the Persian Nasr?"

The veins bulged at Bughra Khan Saktu's temples. He wanted to cast a contemptuous smile at the men around him and then suavely point out that the Khotanese were merely hurling abuse and slander.

But when he actually tried to smile, those insults, line after line, struck his chest like nails, and he could not make himself smile.

Back then, he had been able to steel his heart and bury alive all the descendants of his uncle because, after his father Bazir died in battle and he followed his mother to seek refuge with his uncle, his uncle's cousins had used this very thing to humiliate him — saying that his mother had conceived him in adultery with a servant, that he was not the true son of Bazir, Arslan Khan, and using it to try to deny his status as heir of Arslan Khan.

But although the scar in his heart had been torn open, Saktu, on the verge of losing control, took several deep breaths and still managed to force down the rage within him. The principle that a ruler does not raise an army in anger still remained in Saktu's mind.

Cough, cough, cough! After shouting that long string of words, even with the tin megaphone in his hand to amplify his voice, Ma Yaozi was still so exhausted he coughed repeatedly. He glanced at Zhang Zhao, signaling that his throat was smoking and he could not shout any more.

Zhang Zhao walked over and gently took the tin megaphone. He cleared his throat. It seemed this Saktu could withstand insults to his ancestors and challenges to his bloodline — but whether he could withstand this enormous green hat remained to be seen.

"Saktu, you turtle-necked slave, do you recognize these sets of headdresses? These are what you bestowed upon your four consorts. Back then you promised them they could follow you and enjoy wealth and honor for generations. But now — the Great Sage Son of Heaven has no use for your wilted flowers and withered willows, and intends to bestow them upon the officers below. It was I, out of kindness, to spare you too much embarrassment, who reluctantly took in your queen.

She is ever so obedient now. Look at the brocade robe on my body — this was embroidered by your queen, working day and night. By rights this should have been yours, but Lady Cao says you have betrayed your ancestors and ought to be dressed in Persian barbarian garb. What virtue do you have to consider yourself of the seed of the Middle Kingdom?"

The brocade robe on Zhang Zhao was the kind of battle robe with the right arm bared that Tang-dynasty military officers often wore. It was standard attire for high-ranking officers of the Tang and Song.

Here was a point that differed from later perceptions. Before Zhang Zhao transmigrated, he too had assumed that the Karakhanid state, formed from the Nine Clans of Oghuz and the Three Clans of Karluk, must have been thoroughly Central Asian and Turkic in style.

But the truth was exactly the opposite. Before Saktu converted to the religion of the Heavenly Square and introduced Persian culture, the entire Karakhanid realm had been deeply Tang-ified. From food, clothing, shelter, and travel, to palace buildings and utensils, to military equipment — everything was uniformly in the Great Tang style.

As for the Golden Kingdom of Khotan and the Gaochang Uyghur Khaganate, which bordered the Karakhanids, this was even more the case. These two even modeled their official posts on those of the Great Tang.

And even though Saktu had steered Karakhanid culture toward Persia, in his heart he still regarded himself as a man of the Middle Kingdom. This was even reflected in the coinage of successive Karakhanid khans.

On the coins minted by successive Karakhanid rulers there were often titles such as "Taugast Bughra Khan," or "King of Daqin," "King of Daqin and the East," and the like.

This shows that successive Karakhanid rulers had in fact always regarded themselves as people of the Middle Kingdom, rather than as a Persianized Turkic race.

In documents of the contemporary Persian Samanid dynasty and of the Black-robed Tazi — that is, the Abbasid dynasty — the Song dynasty was likewise called "Upper Taugast," the Khitan Liao state "Middle Taugast," and the Karakhanid state "Lower Taugast."

Many of the "Kings of China" or "Taugast Khagans" mentioned in later Arabic histories did not refer to the Liao, Jin, or Song of the Central Plains at all, but to the Karakhanid state that ruled the Western Regions and Transoxiana in Central Asia.

Historically, the Karakhanid khans' psychological sense of superiority from regarding themselves as people of the Middle Kingdom reached its peak after Yelu Dashi founded the Western Liao. Although it began to decline thereafter, it still persisted almost until the state's destruction.

This habit of self-identification and self-belonging was still observable when Qiu Chuji reached Central Asia, and it only basically disappeared after the Mongols' Chagatai Khanate became thoroughly Islamized.

Only after that did the many peoples of the Western Regions and Transoxiana begin, psychologically, to regard themselves as members of a Turkic race converted to the religion of the Heavenly Square.

Bughra Khan Saktu felt a bursting pain in his head. As everyone believed, although Saktu had converted to the religion of the Heavenly Square, this did not actually mean he felt any particular closeness to the Persians and Tazi. His conversion was in fact based on three considerations.

First, the political system of the Great Tang did not really suit the economy and culture of Anxi after the Tang armies withdrew from the Western Regions. On the contrary, the political system of the Persian Samanid dynasty, which likewise had semi-nomadic habits, was better able to adapt to the new conditions in Anxi.

Saktu's conversion to the religion of the Heavenly Square was to a large extent for the purpose of transforming the Karakhanid state from a tribal confederation disguised as a state into a true khaganate.

Second, the Karakhanids actually shared the same thinking as Zhang Zhao: the Persian Samanid dynasty looked glorious and flourishing, but in reality, under Nasr II's smug and reckless mismanagement, extravagance had become the norm at home, separatist regimes were rising everywhere, sectarian conflicts were fierce, and there was a faint air of decline.

Saktu's vigorous push to convert the Uyghurs and Karluks to the religion of the Heavenly Square was actually an attempt to seize this perfect opportunity to play the live-in son-in-law who devours his host.

To go from convert to master, to reverse the roles and enter the ancestral lands of the Nine Zhaowu Clans, centered on Bukhara and Samarkand — and historically, his descendants did indeed accomplish this.

Finally, there was a mentality of "if you can't beat them, join them." The eastward expansion of the religion of the Heavenly Square had already become a tide. If Saktu did not convert, then the Karakhanid state would have to bear the burden of resisting that eastward expansion.

Looking at the miserable fate of the Kingdom of Khotan and the descendants of the Sage Li in history, Saktu, foreseeing the outcome, decisively chose conversion.

In this way, he could not only play the live-in son-in-law who devours his host, but could also borrow the power of the holy warriors to wear down his greatest threat, the Golden Kingdom of Khotan.

So Zhang Zhao did not insult Saktu's conversion, because that would have been useless. The vested interests around him in the Karakhanid state would not feel any shame over having converted to the religion of the Heavenly Square.

In the Anxi region, religions were complex, and conversion was nothing more than a commonplace matter. But Zhang Zhao could open fire with full force on two points: the fact that Saktu was in truth unfilial, and the challenge to his being a man of the Middle Kingdom.

As the abuse continued, Saktu's expression grew colder and colder, and the Karakhanid officers around him no longer even dared to speak lightly.

The queen had always been the reverse scale on Saktu's body, because his first wife, the queen of his youth, had been deposed precisely for opposing Saktu's conversion to the religion of the Heavenly Square.

The queen he married next was originally from Eastern Cao. Saktu had thought that Eastern Cao, having converted to the religion of the Heavenly Square over a hundred years earlier, would surely be a devout believer. But to his surprise, this queen still showed a certain degree of resistance to the religion, which made Saktu extremely displeased.

At the same time, he harbored a hidden worry in his heart: could that queen of his, married only a little over two years ago, truly have submitted to this man of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan below the walls?

Because in her heart she had always been unwilling to truly convert to Allah. If that were really the case, then the trouble would be great.

The old nobility of Balasagun who adhered to the Three Teachings had not yet been dealt with. If the queen also became a problem, then the opposition forces within the country would surge like wind and clouds.

The reason they had not yet risen in violent resistance was simply that there was no powerful external force they could borrow, and they did not dare show themselves on a large scale.

"Quick! Call him 'Daddy'! All together — whoever shouts loudest gets a heavy reward from the Duke!"

Ma Yaozi gave a mischievous grin, then started getting the children beside him to call out "Daddy." These children had all been carefully selected — the 'siege-breaker heroes' Huang Yang, Hua Bu, and Hei Gou'er were all conspicuously among them.

"Daddy!"

"Daddy!"

"You're my daddy!"

Amid the children's chaotic shouting, Zhang Zhao puffed out his chest and steeled himself, then simply took another step forward.

"Saketu, you little bastard — do you see this? Never mind that your own queen looks down on you and willingly followed me; even your sons and daughters are now willingly calling me Daddy.

Don't worry, I won't kill them. I'll raise them up, and then have them take my surname. After you're dead and your state is destroyed, I'll bring your queen and your children to your grave, and let you hear once more how they call me Daddy!"

You barbarian scum! If you had even a fraction of the stray-dog ability your ancestor Pang Tegin possessed, you'd come out of the city.

I'm waiting right here with just two thousand men. Let me show you what elite troops look like, and let you understand that those so-called Ghulam guards of yours, who couldn't even protect their own families, are nothing but straw chickens and clay dogs.

And if you don't even have the guts for that, then as long as you publicly admit that your queen belongs to me and your children belong to me, put this headdress on, and kowtow three times, Daddy will withdraw his army and leave!"

"Hahaha! Gutless half-breed savage, you'd better run for your life!"

"Truly, Anxi has no true sovereign, and even the Xianyun dogs call themselves kings. Such a pig of a man dares to call himself Great Khan?"

The moment Zhang Zhao's words fell, a burst of raucous laughter erupted below the walls of Lower Atush. Dunzhu tied a headdress belonging to Saketu's queen, Lady Cao, onto a javelin, then with a great shout hurled it across the moat — thunk — it lodged in the city gate.

Then over a hundred Yue riders bared their chests and bellies below Lower Atush, jeering loudly. Some fools even dropped their trousers and began pissing copiously in Saketu's direction. A crowd of children surrounded Zhang Zhao, shouting "Daddy! Daddy!" at the top of their lungs. One after another, aristocratic women's garments in the Karakhanid style were flung into the sky and fell back down. Filthy abuse sprayed out in every direction — even a riot of demons could not describe it!

"Saketu! You dog-slave! If you don't dare come down, you're not even a man. How about this: come out of the city right now with your bare arse hanging out, and Daddy will show you on the spot what a real man is. I guarantee that afterwards you won't want to be some damned Khagan anymore — you'll only want to follow Daddy as he roams the world!"

When it came to vicious mockery, Ma Yaozi was absolutely among the best. His heavy-handed style drew looks of 'admiration' from everyone.

"Great Khan! We must kill them! Let us out of the city!"

"Great Khan! Your servants swear to avenge this insult with our lives!"

On the walls of Lower Atush, the Karakhanid officers dropped to one knee and howled. These filthy insults, combined with the devastation of their homes and families, had made their fury unbearable!

His heart pounding like a great drum, his hands clenched so hard they cracked, Saketu — just as his rage was about to erupt like a volcano — glanced at Anhel. Anhel nodded at Saketu.

"Great Khan! There is truly no sign of the Khotan army setting out. Below the walls, including the laborers, there are only five or six thousand. We have more than ten thousand iron cavalry. If we don't dare come out and fight even this, what face do we have left to live?"

"Ah! Yah! Out of the city and kill the enemy!" Having received confirmation, Saketu roared and kicked over the table before him. He knew he had to fight this battle. If he did not, and today's events spread, his prestige would be destroyed. No one would be willing to follow a Great Khan who was such a cowering turtle.

"Zhili Shisi, take one thousand light cavalry and cut off their retreat. Once we break the Tang dogs' formation, make sure to annihilate them completely. Send scouts fifty li out — the moment there is any movement from the Khotan army, report immediately!"

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