Chapter 165

"Lord of the Commandery, Yaozi has been making inquiries. Those two great worthies of the Church of the East, Weiyi and Shenji, are indeed not locals.

And it's not just the two of them. Many people say that a great many of the backbone figures in the Church of the East come from tribes that no one has really heard of.

There are also a few old men who follow the Church of the East who say these people always act in a rather secretive, mysterious manner.

Moreover, a few decades ago Balasagun was still dominated by Manichaeism and the shamanic faith of the Uyghurs, but after the fathers of these two great worthies led their clansmen over the snow mountains to Balasagun, the Church of the East began to rise step by step.

Within a few decades it became the largest faith in Balasagun. The once-flourishing Manichaean congregation withered away, and the shamanic faith was simply absorbed outright."

For gathering information, it still took someone like Ma Yaozi. Although his mouth was full of the smell of wine and his body reeked of meat, he truly could quickly blend in with the locals.

"Good! Go and have Bai Congxin and Hu Guang come see me!"

Zhang Zhao nodded and sent Ma Yaozi out to notify the men, while he himself kept striking the palm of his left hand with his right fist to ease the tension in his heart.

"Lord of the Commandery, do you mean to say that the Guo family very likely did not return to Kucha, but instead crossed the mountains and came to Balasagun, and even became great worthies of the Church of the East?"

The fierce-faced monk Zheng Tong, known as Huitong, looked at Zhang Zhao with excitement. Behind him, Li Qilang also walked over upon hearing this.

"Very likely! But it cannot be confirmed yet!"

In truth, it should be fairly certain, Zhang Zhao thought to himself. There were capable people among the Guo family!

In an environment surrounded by these barbarians, to keep oneself from standing out too much, adopting a religion was the best choice.

And when it came to adopting a religion, the Church of the East was the most suitable one.

Manichaeism had too many Uyghurs, which was not conducive to rising to high positions.

Buddhism, on the other hand, was watched very closely by the rulers and would easily expose them.

Only the Church of the East had a congregation made up mostly of Sogdians. With their nature as traveling merchants, and the fact that after the fall of the Nine Zhaowu Clans they, like the sons of Tang in Anxi, were also a people who had lost their state, the two sides shared common experiences and were both in a position of weakness, making them the best partners.

"Lord of the Commandery, is there something you need to instruct us about?" Just as he was thinking, Bai Congxin and Hu Guang walked in from outside.

"There is something. Hu Guang, go and gather all those in our own Youyi Company who are skilled at mounted archery. Everyone is to bring three days' worth of dry rations.

Bai Congxin, go outside and find Ashina Sili of the Basmyl tribe, and have him also pick one hundred men and prepare three days' worth of dry rations. You will all come out with us on a trip."

"Going out? Lord of the Commandery, shouldn't we go right now to the Church of the East temple in the city and ask that Weiyi great worthy for a clear answer?"

Zheng Tong looked at Zhang Zhao with a baffled expression. He did not quite understand what the great Lord of the Commandery was trying to do.

Zhang Zhao straightened his clothes and asked, "Did none of you notice any difference between the information provided by Master Titexigu and Ma Yaozi?"

Zheng Tong and Li Qilang both shook their heads in confusion. Weren't both of them saying that the great worthies of the Church of the East were suspected to be members of the Guo family? What difference could there be?

"Master Titexigu told me clearly that the two great worthies of the Church of the East are sons of Tang.

The information Ma Yaozi gathered is that the congregation of the Church of the East only knows that the fathers of these two great worthies came from Shule decades ago, but they do not know which tribe they came from, nor did anyone say they were sons of Tang.

This shows that they are deliberately concealing and downplaying the marks of their own ethnic identity. Only the upper ranks, being fellow travelers, know that they are sons of Tang, while the lower ranks know nothing at all.

So if we go to them now, we will very likely get nothing out of them. In all probability they will not admit it.

Because the identity of sons of Tang in Anxi does not necessarily bring advantages. Add to that what happened to their fathers and grandfathers, especially Guo Dalang, and if they really are the Guo family, their guard should be very high.

And since they want to conceal and downplay it, it is also very likely that they have left no traces in the Church of the East temple in Balasagun."

"The Lord of the Commandery is right!" Zheng Tong said, somewhat dejected.

"Back then, Guo Dalang of the Guo family was cursed by us as a traitor, and the entire Guo family left in anger. They very likely no longer wish to acknowledge us."

"So we cannot go directly to that Weiyi great worthy. We can only start from other places. You two also bring three days' worth of dry rations and come with me. We will go directly to Helie City.

It is said that apart from Balasagun, that is the area where the believers of the Church of the East are most concentrated. If my guess is right, and if the Guo family still considers themselves sons of Tang, then there will certainly be something there that we want to see!"

Helie City was also a large town by the shore of the Warm Sea (Lake Issyk-Kul), about a hundred li from Balasagun.

Zhang Zhao set out from Balasagun at dawn with three hundred cavalry, and by mid-afternoon, around three or four o'clock, they were already within twenty li of Helie City.

Riding horses for most of the day, they had covered forty kilometers. Compared to those fierce men in history, such as Xiahou Dun, who could do five hundred li in three days and one thousand li in six days,

or the elite Mongol cavalry who could average seventy or eighty kilometers a day and keep it up for a month without resting, this speed was not fast.

But for the Anxi of the present day, it was absolutely very fast. This was a military march, after all, and they had not even used the method of rotating among three horses per rider.

A sharp bronze whistle sounded, and Hu Guang, the second son of Hu Cile, came galloping over on a white horse.

Hu Cile had been slightly wounded after the battle at Polu City, so he had not come this time. These three hundred Yueqi cavalry were led by Hu Guang.

Seeing that the proper commander was absent, Zhang Zhao very unceremoniously incorporated these three hundred Yueqi cavalry into the Youyi Company.

After the battle at Polu City, Zhang Zhao had adjusted the military structure, making it basically the same as that of the Guiyi Army, mainly for the convenience of returning to Dunhuang someday to seize power.

Now Zhang Zhao's Fengtian Army was organized as follows: army (2,000 men), battalion (1,000 men), left and right companies (500 men each), five squad generals (100 men each), and under each squad general two platoons, each platoon consisting of five squads of ten.

At present, the Fengtian Army, not counting officers, was just about two thousand men. Zhang Zhao was the army Commander, and Yin Yaozi was the Deputy Commander.

Among them, Zhang Zhao's own core of one thousand men formed the Fengtian Battalion, with Yin Yaozi as the battalion officer and Left Company Supervisor, commanding the Hanshan Company and the Youyi Company.

The Hanshan Company was infantry, with Yan Jin as Infantry Commandant and Left First Squad General, and Fan Quan, Ma Yaozi, Wang Tongxin, and Shan Zhu'er as squad generals.

The Youyi Company was cavalry, with Bai Congxin as Acting Cavalry Commandant and Left First Cavalry General.

However, the formal post of Commandant still had to go to Hu Cile. After all, most of the Youyi Company's foundation was made up of these former Guiyi Army Yueqi cavalry.

Then Li Ruotai was Deputy Commandant of Armored Cavalry, and Hu Guang, Ma Shacai, and Qiong Reduojin were cavalry generals.

The Feng'en Battalion, formed from the Khotan palace guards, had Liu Zaisheng as its battalion officer and Right Company Supervisor.

However, Liu Zaisheng was still recovering from his wounds, and after his recovery he was very likely to be given important duties by Li Shengtian, so he might not necessarily return to the Fengtian Army.

Therefore, Ma Jirong, another Khotan officer dispatched by Li Shengtian, served as Acting Right Company Supervisor.

For the posts below, such as commandants and squad generals, Zhang Zhao basically did not participate in the appointments, because these were Li Shengtian's palace guards.

They had been handed to Zhang Zhao partly to strengthen Zhang Zhao's power, and partly because Li Shengtian also intended for Zhang Zhao to help him train and develop talent.

Of course, although Zhang Zhao had not interfered much with these palace guards, they still held him in great respect and obedience.

Setting aside how favored he was by Li Shengtian, even the two battles at Shule and Polu City were enough to make them look up to him.

Besides these two thousand men, there was also a Shenji Company with Cao Shisi, Cao Yanming, as its Commandant.

The original core figure of the Shenji Company, Master Zhitong, had lost a hand and could only return to the temple at Ya'erkan to enjoy life.

Zhang Zhao therefore simply disbanded the old Shenji unit on the spot, absorbing its elite soldiers into the Fengtian Battalion.

Those who remained were handed over to Cao Yanming. With Cao Yanming as their Commandant and Shi Chongmin as his deputy, they would specialize in researching gunpowder and tunnel demolition.

The last group remaining was Zhang Zhao's own personal guard — roughly a hundred warriors he had personally recruited from the defeated army of Saketu and the mounted skirmishers of the Basmyl tribe. Zhang Zhao led them himself.

Fan Shun, Man Xiong, and Dunzhu were all in his personal guard. Called a personal guard, they were in fact an elite force frequently thrown into assaults and deadly combat.

"Reporting to the Duke: three li ahead to the northeast there is a tribe holding a wedding feast, and scattered sentry riders have also been spotted in the direction of Helie City.

Should we ride at full speed straight into Helie City and seize control of the people there?

Or should we leave the main force here and slip into the city disguised as men from Balasagun?"

Hu Guang, back from scouting, cupped his fists from horseback and made his report.

This was also what Zhang Zhao most appreciated about Hu Guang — he had brains and could think, and he could even offer several options for Zhang Zhao to choose from, unlike certain blockheads under his command who only knew how to charge and fight.

Zhang Zhao considered for a moment. This was a tense time; if his three hundred cavalry rode straight for Helie City, they would very likely be taken for enemies.

Moreover, he did not know whether the Guo family, because of the matter of Guo Dalang, might be wary of sons of Tang coming from the east. So Zhang Zhao decided to first scout the situation around Helie City.

"Commandant Yin, lead the troops and rest here. Ma Shacai, set up sentries. Bai Congxin, Hu Guang, and Fan Shun, pick twenty riders from the personal guard and come with me. We'll go offer congratulations to the newlyweds in the distance."

Guangcheng Fort — for the people on the nearby grasslands, the name was rather awkward to pronounce, but the surrounding herders had long since grown used to it, and many now pronounced it quite accurately.

Though Guangcheng Fort was not large, around the shores of the Hot Sea it was a very important little town.

Because here there was a special tribe: they could weave cloth that was soft and tightly made, and brew all kinds of delicious fruit wine. What stirred the hearts of the surrounding herders even more was that Guangcheng Fort had craftsmen who could forge and repair iron tools.

Iron tools — on the grasslands these were truly extraordinary objects. Not only could they be used to make weapons, daily life could not do without them either. They could serve as cooking vessels, be made into all kinds of tools, and could even become ornaments on young women.

On the grasslands at this time, a somewhat larger iron cauldron was often the greatest wealth of a small tribe of a few dozen people.

A small iron pot with a mouth the size of a bowl, good for stewing things, was worth several head of cattle and could win the hand of the most beautiful flower for dozens of li around.

Likewise, if a woman could bring a small iron pot with her when she married, it was a guarantee of her standing in her husband's household.

Even when remarrying, she might leave her children behind, but the iron pot she absolutely had to take with her.

And any object will eventually break. In the past, when something broke, one could only use it until it was unusable and then throw it away with tears in one's eyes. But ever since Guangcheng Fort was built, the surrounding herders had a place to get things repaired.

So very quickly, more and more tribes came to trade around this little fort, the fort grew larger and larger, and many people also converted to the Aluohe faith believed in by the people of the fort.

"My brother, Chitian has wronged you. It was my father who changed his mind, because the people of the Black Wolf Tribe say the Persians will soon attack, and all who believe in Aluohe will suffer.

He also does not want my younger sister to go with you into the Jiedan Mountains to endure hardship. You know that place cannot sustain life at all. I fear that before the Persians leave, we will have starved to death."

A man in a leather robe, sweating profusely from the heat, was rambling on and on.

Opposite him, a young man dressed in green hemp cloth with crimson silk wrapped around his waist was red-faced. Furious, he grabbed the collar of the shame-faced Chitian.

"Chitian! To think I treated you as a brother! Today I invited all the elders of the whole tribe here. How can you do this?

This is an insult to me! You had better have your father send Aluoluo over to me!"

"I... I cannot persuade my father, Brother Guangcheng. Even coming to bring you word today, I had to sneak out!"

Chitian was even more ashamed. He lowered his head, not daring to meet his brother's eyes.

"Aluoluo is already my wife! She is carrying my child!" The brother named Guangcheng had no choice but to play his trump card.

But he had not expected that Chitian did not mind at all — the shame on his face only deepened.

"Hei Mao of the Black Wolf Tribe says he does not mind, because you, brother, are so wise — truly a sage of the grasslands. Your child will surely be even cleverer. He will certainly raise the child well and leave him a large inheritance."

Uh! The furious Guangcheng was actually stunned for an instant. How... how was he supposed to continue after that?

"See! This is what comes of fleeing — of only knowing to flee when a strong enemy appears.

Fleeing only makes a respected man lose respect, and makes a warrior lose all his glory.

Young lord, the tribes of the grasslands need the strong. They do not understand enduring humiliation for a greater cause!"

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