Chapter 160: Balasagun or Suyab

Balasagun — this city held special significance for the Kara-Khanid Khanate, because the Kara-Khanid Khanate before the fall of Balasagun and the Kara-Khanid Khanate after losing Balasagun could quite simply be called two different states.

The original Kara-Khanid Khanate was founded after the Uyghur Khaganate collapsed in 840, when Pang Tegin, who could no longer get by on the Great Tang border, fled to Anxi and established a khanate there.

After Pang Tegin died, he left the khanate to his two sons, Bazir and Oghulchak. Bazir was Satuq's father, and Oghulchak was the unlucky uncle whom Satuq killed.

At that time Bazir was stationed at Balasagun and bore the title Arslan Khan, making him the senior Khagan.

Oghulchak was stationed at Talas and bore the title Bughra Khan, making him the junior khan.

But the good times did not last. This newborn Kara-Khanid Khanate ran straight into the Persian Samanid Empire at the height of its power.

In 893, the Samanid ruler Mahmud personally led an army on campaign, capturing one after another the important cities of Isfijab and Talas. The junior khan Oghulchak fled to Shule, while the senior khan Bazir continued to hold Balasagun.

During this period, the political structure of the Kara-Khanid Khanate changed accordingly. Because of the factor of distance, the junior khan gradually went from being a subordinate of the senior Khagan to becoming a state leader of equal rank with him, and the Kara-Khanid Khanate became a tribal khanate with two leaders.

If Zhang Zhao's arrival had not disturbed the course of history, the later Kara-Khanid Khanate would have continued to split into two states, the Western Kara-Khanids and the Eastern Kara-Khanids.

The reason such a dual-leader political structure formed was determined by the geography of Anxi and Transoxiana.

Between Balasagun and Shule lie the Tianshan Mountains and the Pamir-Alai range. Just from the words "Tianshan" and "Pamir" alone, one can imagine how difficult this terrain is to cross and how hard communication between the two places must be.

And now, Zhang Zhao was in the very act of crossing this nearly impassable highland snow mountain, and the one serving as his guide was a young man with the blood of the Pei family, the kings of Shule.

Pei Shengyuan rubbed his nose. He somewhat disliked the way Zhang Zhao treated him as a young man, because in fact he was a little older than Zhang Zhao — Pei Shengyuan was already twenty-one this year, while Zhang Zhao was only twenty.

But in terms of status, ability, and experience, Zhang Zhao could indeed regard him as a young man.

Because apart from the Champion Marquis of history, Pei Shengyuan could not imagine anyone else who, at this age, could have accomplished such a career.

Yan Jin and Ma Yaozi exchanged a glance. They understood Pei Shengyuan's feelings all too well, because Young Lord Zhang Erlang, who had only just turned twenty, also often treated the two of them, subordinates of twenty-six or twenty-seven, as young men.

Well! Who could blame him — inside the body of Young Lord Zhang Erlang dwelled a soul in his thirties from a later age. Toward these ancients who were a dozen or twenty years "younger" than him, Zhang Zhao very naturally treated them as young men.

"So by your account, this man Satuq should have stayed in Balasagun, since his father Bazir was the senior khan."

As he carefully led his horse along the mud-choked mountain path, Zhang Zhao still took the opportunity to learn about Satuq's life from Pei Shengyuan.

This was also a form of preparation for the imminent entry into Balasagun. After all, this time he was not going to conquer Balasagun — if he were going to conquer it, things would actually be simpler; he could just consider it purely from a military standpoint.

This trip to Balasagun was at the invitation of the Uyghur nobles of the city — the Yabghus — and the leaders of the Church of the East and the Buddhist community, to discuss Balasagun's submission to the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, so he absolutely had to understand the political situation in the city clearly.

"To answer the Duke, the reason is very simple. A few years after Talas fell to the Persians, Balasagun was also captured by the Persians.

After his father Bazir died, Satuq's mother could only take him and flee to Shule, where they sought refuge with his uncle Oghulchak," Pei Shengyuan replied.

So that was how it was. Zhang Zhao nodded. The trajectory of Satuq's later life was then very clear.

This fellow came into contact with Islam in the city of Shule, then relied on the power of Islam to successfully rebel, killing his uncle Oghulchak and his entire family.

And after taking power, Satuq continuously built up his strength, and four years ago led his army to recover Balasagun and Talas.

"Looking at it this way, this Satuq can be considered a restoration ruler. Not only did he recover the old capital, he also took the land of the Ferghana Kingdom, which belonged to the Samanid Empire!"

"The Duke overrates him." Zhang Zhao thought Satuq had some real skill, but Pei Shengyuan did not see it that way.

"The reason Satuq was able to recover Balasagun and Talas was not because of any great ability on his part. In truth, it was because after the Persians captured these two places, they forcibly imposed Islam, which created deep sectarian conflicts in both places. Even if Satuq had not come, Persian rule would not have lasted much longer.

And because of the great distance, the Great Master Titersu of Balasagun did not know that Satuq had also converted to Islam, and believed he was still a Buddhist follower. So he stirred up a great uprising of the believers of the three faiths, opened the city gates, and let the Kara-Khanid army in. Only then did Satuq seize the opportunity to recover these two places. In reality, he simply picked up a bargain."

"Then I would guess that only after Satuq recovered Balasagun and Talas did the believers of the three faiths in these two places learn that Satuq had also converted to Islam, and so they could only refuse to acclaim Satuq as Arslan Khan.

After a few years of stalemate, Satuq lost patience and simply led his army to attack his own old capital once again," Yan Jin interjected from the side.

"This general is exactly right. That is how it happened." A messenger who had come from Balasagun nodded in agreement from the front of the group.

"So in order to avoid a repeat of this business of having just driven off a man-eating tiger only to have a sheep-killing wolf arrive, the various Yabghus of Balasagun, the Buddhist Great Master Titersu, and His Eminence Xuanqing, the Great Dignitary of the Church of the East, sent me here to declare submission to the Great Golden Kingdom and the Great Ming, Great Sage Son of Heaven."

As they spoke, the group arrived at a cave half-buried in the mountainside. The cave was extremely spacious inside, and one could even make out traces showing that large quantities of grain, military supplies, and other materials had once been stored there.

These caves were the secret to how Satuq had been able to withdraw his army so quickly from Balasagun to Lower Artush.

As early as three years ago, Satuq had begun building cave storehouses like this along the road from Balasagun to Shule, stockpiling large quantities of weapons, armor, and provisions for emergencies.

It seemed that historically, Satuq had indeed possessed real skill — suppressing domestic opposition with one hand, beating the Persian Samanid Empire with the other, and at the same time managing to intimidate Li Shengtian so thoroughly that the Golden Kingdom of Khotan did not dare march north to attack Shule for decades.

This kind of extreme operation, dancing on eggshells, he had actually dared to pull off successfully. Had there been even the slightest misstep anywhere in it, Satuq would have been utterly destroyed — for example, this time, when he ran into Zhang Zhao.

The Warm Sea — known in later ages as Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, a beautiful lake that in later times was called the Pearl God Left Behind — lies in the Tianshan Mountains and is the world's deepest high-mountain great lake.

The Great Tang's most important cities in this region — such as Frozen City, Helie City, Yezhi City, and most importantly the great Tang military garrison, Suyab, one of the Four Garrisons of Anxi — were all located around the Warm Sea.

Helie City was not large in scale. If placed in the Central Plains, it would not even be as big as the county seat of a middle-ranked county.

And in this city, the tallest and largest building was a temple built of white stone, and within the temple there was also a white spire several zhang high.

If you thought this was a Buddhist temple, you would be wrong. It was in fact a Church of the East temple.

This Nestorian branch of Christianity that had spread to the East was not quite the same as Christianity in the traditional sense.

Its temples resembled Buddhist ones in appearance, and in doctrine it had absorbed a great deal of Buddhist and Daoist teachings.

Even its system of deities had begun to change. It had become a polytheistic religion, worshipping the likes of the Dharma King Jingtong and the True Lord of Heaven, Alaha.

All right! This was no longer merely a Christian heresy. In fact, this should be considered a new religion.

Perhaps when the Nestorians first departed from Greece, it still fell within the bounds of orthodoxy, but after it crossed towering mountains to the east and underwent centuries of change, it had long since ceased to be what it originally was.

"Father, the believers in Suyab have revealed that that bald donkey of a foreign monk Titersu has already sent people ahead to contact the King of Khotan. Perhaps this time it is not only the King of Khotan's envoys who are coming — there may even be a Khotan army."

Inside the temple, a young man dressed in a black full-length robe with a black hood was full of anxiety.

And another man, dignified in bearing and holding a cross in his hand, glared fiercely at the young man upon hearing this.

"I have told you many times — you should say Balasagun, not Suyab. The Yuchi family are the Sons of Heaven of the Golden Kingdom, not the King of Khotan. And the term 'foreign monk' is absolutely forbidden. If you cannot even remember this, how will you bear the heavy responsibility of protecting our people in the future?"

"Your child acknowledges his error. Father's lesson is correct!" The young man hurriedly admitted his fault with lowered eyes and a submissive manner, but his quietly moving lips clearly said:

"If I'm not allowed to say it, then why did you bother teaching me these things?"

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