Chapter 157: For Whom Did They Hold Out Alone for Two Hundred Years?

Zhang Zhao's shove that overturned the low table startled the four men before him badly; even Master Daozhen widened his eyes in astonishment.

"Young Lord Zhang Erlang, why is this? Who is Pugu Jun? Could it be that it truly was not Guo Dalang who betrayed us?"

Before Zhang Zhao could answer, Zhang Zhong was already pounding his chest, tears streaming down his face.

"That beast Pugu Jun is a swine and a dog who harms men! And the Li-Tang court has not a single good person in it. Back then, the Grand Guardian should never have gone to Chang'an!"

Zhang Zhao's heart was churning as well. Only after taking several deep breaths did he suppress the fury within him.

"Master Daozhen, there is something you do not know. If we take the year when you adopted the title of the Anxi Army as the first year,

then the eighth year was when my ancestor the Grand Guardian raised the banner of righteousness in Shazhou.

By the beginning of the eleventh year, the Grand Guardian had already essentially brought Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Yizhou under control.

Around the twentieth year, after my grand-uncle Zhang Huaishen led elite Han and barbarian troops in bloody battle, Liangzhou was finally recovered. By then the Tibetans were in decline, and the Great Tang at last opened the Hexi Corridor once more!"

"In twenty years you opened the Hexi Corridor? Then the imperial envoy who came in the twenty-third year truly was an envoy from the court?"

Zheng Tong and the others turned deathly pale. The four men stared at Zhang Zhao in disbelief. The chests of the monk Huixing and Yang He heaved violently, as if they were about to collapse.

Zhang Zhao slowly shook his head. Gnashing his teeth, he said word by word: "What came was no imperial envoy, but the Uyghur Pugu Jun.

This man was a brave general under my ancestor the Grand Guardian. After opening the Ganzhou-Liangzhou route in the twenty-first year, he was dispatched by the Grand Guardian to lead six thousand Han and barbarian troops to recover Anxi, and at the end of the twenty-seventh year, he recovered Tingzhou and Xizhou! This man was the first Khagan of the Gaochang Uyghurs, and the fifth-generation ancestor of the present Khagan, Wumuzhu."

"If he was a brave general under the Grand Guardian, and our Anxi Army also survived by attaching ourselves to the Uyghurs, then why would he come to attack us? Why would he do such a thing?"

The scar on the great shaven head of the monk Huitong, Zheng Tong, twisted as he stared at Zhang Zhao and shouted in confusion.

"Because..." Zhang Zhao felt the words were nearly impossible to force from his mouth; a knot of anger was lodged in his chest as well.

The Anxi Army and the Guiyi Army had not wronged the Tang court in the slightest, but the Tang court of that time had absolutely betrayed these two lonely loyalists of the northwest. Only after pausing and composing himself for more than ten seconds did Zhang Zhao continue.

"Because at that time, our Guiyi Army controlled eleven prefectures in Hexi — Gua, Sha, Gan, Liang, Su, Min, Shan, Xi, Yi, and the rest — and was at the height of its power, with a population of over eight hundred thousand, thirty thousand armored soldiers, and more than three hundred thousand subject tribes beyond the frontier, capable of fielding tens of thousands of light cavalry.

The Great Tang, however, was suffering bitterly from the military provinces. They feared the Guiyi Army would become the next military province, and dreaded us even more than Weibo.

For the military provinces of Hebei were far away at the edge of the realm, while the Guiyi Army was close by in Longyou. If anything went wrong, iron cavalry could reach Chang'an in a little over ten days. In view of this, the Tang court summoned my ancestor the Grand Guardian to Chang'an, holding him as a hostage in all but name.

And it was precisely at this time that Pugu Jun recovered Tingzhou, Xizhou, and the surrounding lands, and at the same time won the allegiance of the nearby Uyghur tribes. He then conceived the ambition to carve out his own domain, and the Tang court, eager to split the Guiyi Army, gave this traitor its full support.

In those years, the iron tools, cloth, and even armor and weapons Pugu Jun received from the Tang court amounted to more than three times what the entire Guiyi Army received. If my guess is right, the 'imperial envoy' and concurrent Yixi Military Governor whom Guo Dalang encountered in Xizhou was none other than Pugu Jun!"

"Then why did he want to harm us? Let him be his own Yixi Military Governor! It is not as if no barbarian has ever held that post.

My grand-uncle, the late Lord Li Yuanzhong, was a Sogdian himself! My whole clan, Li Qilang's clan, are all Sogdians — so what of it? What have we few thousand suffering men done to get in his way?"

Li Qilang wailed aloud: "My Li clan was once flourishing and numerous, a great clan of the Anxi Army! If not for the hundred and more men we lost in that battle, how could the Li clan have been reduced to me alone? The direct line of Prince of Ningsai Commandery Yuanzhong was wiped out entirely in that battle!"

"The reason Pugu Jun wanted to destroy you was precisely because you are sons of Tang. For after he betrayed the Guiyi Army, my grand-uncle Zhang Huaishen was already gathering troops to punish him. And your ancestors had held Anxi for over a hundred years — if they learned that the Guiyi Army had revived in the east, whom would you aid?

You would certainly aid us. At that time, Pugu Jun had a population of only a little over a hundred thousand and fewer than twenty thousand troops. If we of the Guiyi Army had several thousand allies west of Xizhou, caught between two fronts, his only road would have been defeat and death.

So he first deceived Guo Dalang, and sent the overjoyed Guo Dalang leading the Anxi Army into a death trap.

And afterward, because no allies could be found locally in Anxi, after my grand-uncle Zhang Huaishen led his troops to capture Yizhou, he could advance no farther.

Thereafter Yizhou was retaken by Pugu Jun a few years later, and this traitor then founded the Gaochang Uyghur Khaganate. Had it been known then that the Anxi Army still existed, how could the Gaochang Uyghurs have what they have today?"

"Why? Why? We held Anxi for two hundred years — why did it end like this in the end?

How innocent our ancestors were! They were not destroyed by the Tibetans, yet they were wiped out by Uyghurs backed by the court. Young Lord, is this the ending that loyal subjects and righteous men deserve?"

Zheng Tong lunged forward and seized Zhang Zhao's hands, tears and snot streaming down his face as he shook Zhang Zhao's arms desperately.

"Does the Young Lord know what life is like for people like us, who have lost their country and their homes? Kucha is like a prison — we guard it and cannot leave!

The Tibetans, the Karluks, the Kyrgyz — they all come to raid us when the wheat ripens. Every autumn harvest, many die. Ten generations have held out bitterly for two hundred years — how could it come to this?"

Zhang Zhao took a deep breath and stood up. He grasped Zheng Tong's hands and pulled him to his feet, his own eyes brimming with hot tears.

"I know Brother Zheng's pain, because it is the same for our Guiyi Army.

The Tang court feared the Guiyi Army growing powerful, so they constantly meddled in the succession of our military governors, and every time a new Military Governor took office, blood flowed like a river.

After the traitor Zhu Wen usurped the throne, he went even further and directly incited the Ganzhou Uyghurs against us.

In fifty years, the Guiyi Army, which once commanded a million people and tens of thousands of armored troops, was so ruined that it could only cower in Guazhou and Shazhou, barely clinging to life.

The reason I came looking for you is, first, to protect ourselves; second, because I am unwilling to sink into barbarian dust; and third, because I want to go to Chang'an.

I want to go and ask — ask that Son of Heaven upon the throne — why he treats us so? We have been lonely loyalists for two hundred years. Do the meat-eaters in the court feel the slightest guilt in their hearts?"

"Right! The Young Lord is right! I want to go back and ask: my ancestor Yan Chao of Taiyuan held Shazhou for over ten years, until his descendants withered away and became Tibetan slaves — for whom were they holding out?

Why do the emperors of the Central Plains care only for slaughtering one another, casting us aside like worn-out shoes?" Yan Jin stepped forward and shouted.

"Right! We must go back and ask — ask what these two hundred years of holding out were for!" Yin Yaozi chimed in as well.

"Young Lord, you are a true hero. We will follow you. For these two hundred years of holding out, the court owes us an answer.

We will go with you. We will go to Chang'an and ask the court of the Central Plains: for what have we held out these two hundred years?"

After the men exchanged glances, the monk Huixing, Yang He, spoke on their behalf.

Zhang Zhao nodded. "It is time to return to Chang'an once. It is time to ask the court why it has forgotten people like us.

But if you ask why we held out for two hundred years — that I can tell you all right now!

We did not hold out for the Li-Tang imperial house, nor did we hold out merely to survive. We held out for the bloodline and culture we carry.

This Great Tang is not the Tang of the Li family. It is the Tang of Han and Tang, the Tang of all of us. What we hold out for is the bloodline and glory passed down to us by the Yellow Emperor!"

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