Chapter 181: Urging the Throne and the Little Wildcat (Fourth Update)

Three hundred cavalrymen galloped across the boundless grassland.

The walls of Balasagun were already visible in the distance, and on the ground, besides the green grass, there were also abundant traces of war.

Burned-out carts of every kind, damaged siege engines, tents and cook-stoves from encamped troops, donkeys and horses running loose everywhere, and of course, no shortage of corpses and bloodstains.

The closer one drew to Balasagun, the more corpses, bloodstains, and weapons there were, until in some places there was hardly room to set a foot down.

Great crowds of Balasagun residents had been organized, and they were going over the dead Persian invaders, searching for anything of value.

Clothes, shoes, hats, even socks made of wool — nothing was passed over, and many blood-soaked blankets were gathered up as well.

Zhang Zhao spurred his horse at the very front; behind him, two riders from the Basmyl tribe held high a Great Tang Three Stars banner and a great banner bearing the character Zhang.

Although the brain and body of the Grand Commandery Duke of Zhang kept telling him that he was already exhausted and needed rest,

a nameless excitement nevertheless made him extraordinarily alert — the hundred and twenty to two hundred thousand people of Balasagun would very soon formally belong to him.

The main gate of Balasagun was different from the last time Zhang Zhao had come. Last time, everyone had stood to welcome him, but this time, apart from Master Titixi and the three great worthies of the Church of the East, everyone knelt.

"Your servant! Pugu Naluo, on behalf of the Pugu family of the Uyghur Balasagun, recommends Commandery Duke Zhang as Gur Khan!"

"Your servant! Yageluo Aluozhe, respectfully beseeches the Commandery Duke to ascend the throne as Gur Khan of Balasagun!"

"Your servant! Fifth-generation descendant of Duke Li Sizhong, Prince of Huaining Commandery of the Great Tang, respectfully beseeches the Commandery Duke to take the khan's throne of Balasagun!"

"This humble monk Xuancheng, together with Titixi and others, on behalf of the Buddhist, Christian, Manichaean, and Zoroastrian faithful of Balasagun, respectfully beseeches Commandery Duke Zhang to take the throne of Great Khan of Balasagun.

For decades this city has endured calamity after calamity; only the Commandery Duke is a man ordained by Heaven. We beg you to become Great Khan of Balasagun and protector of the four faiths!"

Zhang Zhao had imagined many scenes of what might happen upon his return to Balasagun, but he had never imagined that these yabghus and religious leaders of Balasagun would have such boldness — that they would dare block him right at the gate and stage a Han-style urging to take the throne.

It seemed that after he had jokingly uttered the words "Gur Khan" a few days earlier at the city of Asbula, someone must have ridden through the night back to Balasagun to report it.

Perhaps these people thought that what Zhang Zhao had said to the Persian ghazis was a hint directed at them.

So Zhang Zhao decided to decline for the moment. He had not yet figured out what to do, and besides, the reason these people were so eagerly pushing him onto the khan's throne was that they had their own calculations.

Zhang Zhao had not forgotten how desperately Saktu had once craved their endorsement so that he could inherit his father Bazir's title of Arslan Khan.

And these people had preferred to turn against Saktu, even to the point of drawing swords, rather than endorse him. So what were they after now, in so urgently endorsing him?

"Gentlemen, please rise! Please rise at once! I am merely a man sent by the Great Sage and Great Enlightened Son of Heaven of the Great Jin to relieve the siege of Balasagun. How could I presume to usurp the throne?

Moreover, I came here out of righteous indignation. Saktu and Ali Dula were both cruel rulers who cared nothing for the lives of the people here, levying crushing taxes and persecuting the faithful of the four faiths.

Therefore I, Zhang Erlang, came to comfort the people and punish the guilty — absolutely not for the khan's throne. By doing this, gentlemen, are you not placing me in the same position as Saktu and Dula?"

The moment Guo Xuanli heard Zhang Zhao's words, he understood. The whole speech was high-sounding principle, impassioned to the ear, but every word of it was false. Without changing expression, he lightly tapped the shoulder of the one Uyghur great worthy of the Church of the East.

Almost at the same moment, this great worthy and Master Titixi stepped forward together.

But both were a step too late. Li Guoshou came wailing and rushing out, like a small child afraid his parents would abandon him, and threw his arms around Zhang Zhao's leg, sobbing loudly.

"Does the Commandery Duke say these things because he means to abandon us? If the Commandery Duke leaves, will we not fall into the hands of those villains again?

This is not lofty virtue on your part — it is truly pushing us two hundred thousand living souls into a dead end!

We long for the Commandery Duke as an infant longs for its parents. If the Commandery Duke insists on leaving, then take us all with you! I truly do not wish to be a slave of the Persians again."

The two religious leaders were left awkwardly frozen; there was no way they could throw themselves at his leg the way Li Guoshou had.

But while they had such reservations, Pugu Naluo and Yageluo Aluozhe, suddenly enlightened by Li Guoshou's maneuver, had no such reservations.

The two of them also rushed wailing toward Zhang Zhao almost simultaneously, and the three old men wept heartbrokenly at his feet.

Holy shit! Zhang Zhao was stunned. If this was acting, then their expressions were far too earnest!

Look at this Yageluo Aluozhe — already a man in his sixties, weeping until tears streamed down his face, snot smeared all over Zhang Zhao's trousers, his two grizzled little braids bobbing up and down along with his grizzled big head.

Pugu Naluo on the other side was no less impressive; he had already begun pounding his own chest with his fists while weeping, as if afraid he might cry himself to death on the spot.

Li Guoshou realized he had been careless. He had underestimated the acting ability and emotional force of the two greatest yabghus of Balasagun. Compared with their weeping, his own now seemed somewhat awkward.

"Ahem!" Guo Xuanli gave a dry cough. In this business of urging the throne, the credit had to go to the Church of the East and the Buddhists — it could not be left to these three shameless fellows on the ground.

So he walked slowly over and, looking at Zhang Zhao and the three old men performing so strenuously on the ground, said:

"Commandery Duke, our sincerity is genuine; please do not doubt it.

As for you three — the Commandery Duke has fought battle after battle and toiled bitterly in the jungle for dozens of days. Let us first allow the Commandery Duke to enter the palace and rest; this matter can be discussed again tomorrow."

As the Prudent Great Worthy, first among the three great worthies of the Church of the East, when Guo Xuanli spoke, whether it was Master Titixi or the old yabghus on the ground, they all had to give him face.

Zhang Zhao also nodded. He truly did need to rest a while and then sort out the threads of the situation.

Only after this crowd of Balasagun notables made way did Zhang Zhao see that the space behind the gate was packed with Balasagun residents.

Every one of them carried a basket, and the baskets were filled with flower petals, wine, and food.

The moment they saw Zhang Zhao enter the city, a heaven-shaking cheer burst forth, and flowers drifted down before his horse, carpeting the somewhat muddy road until it looked like a fairyland.

A huge sesame cake was tossed at Zhang Zhao; just as he caught it, an apple — already badly wilted but clearly precious — came flying over as well.

It seemed these people had truly come to thank him, because if this had been deliberately arranged, surely no one would have dared hurl an apple straight at Zhang Zhao's chest. Only in extreme excitement do people do such extraordinarily bold things.

A genuine smile finally appeared on Zhang Zhao's face. At this moment he felt the trip had not been in vain; at the very least he had saved the lives of tens of thousands of ordinary people in this city.

Without him, if the Persians had taken Balasagun and slaughtered or plundered only three-tenths of the population, that would have counted as merciful.

"Send word to your father to have your fourth sister brought into the city!" Amid the cheering, Guo Xuanli slowly drew close to his grandnephew beside him and said.

The grandnephew started violently and looked up at Guo Xuanli in frightened disbelief.

"Third Granduncle, with my fourth sister's temperament, do you really dare send her to attend Commandery Duke Zhang? What if she pokes a hole in the sky? Didn't you say just yesterday that you were going to send Seventh Sister?"

Guo Xuanli shook his head with some embarrassment. Sending his own grandniece into another man's bed was, no matter how one put it, somewhat awkward.

"This old man has seen it clearly: what this Commandery Duke Zhang said about leading everyone back east is actually true. Seventh Sister has nothing but a pretty shell; the great affairs of the Guo family cannot be entrusted to her. It has to be your fourth sister."

"But—" the grandnephew was still uneasy. "Fourth Sister was quarreling with Father just a few days ago, making a scene about running off with that Uyghur boy. If she goes and offends Commandery Duke Zhang, what then?"

"She was only doing that to spite your father. Go, quickly! Your fourth sister has far better brains than you do!"

The one who had interjected from the side was none other than that young man of the Guo family who wore the robes of a Christian monk and could chant Li Taibai's "No Barbarians — the Han Way Flourishes."

"Has Third Granduncle made up his mind then?" Watching the young man hurry off into the distance, Guo Tiance quietly asked his clan-head third granduncle.

"I am old now! My shoulders can no longer bear a load, my hands can no longer lift. I have neither the talent to bring peace to the realm nor the skill to charge across a battlefield. But you are still young. Balasagun is a desolate frontier land with no hope. Hope lies in the east.

Our Guo family is one of the foremost great clans of the Great Tang. How can the young men of our clan linger long in this barbarian land? Go back! Go and tell the world that our ancestor, Duke Wuwei, Guo Xin, was a hero of the Great Tang!"

After entering the palace, washing up, and eating a bowl of milk-soaked flatbread, Zhang Zhao could not hold out any longer.

Actually, he had nearly fallen asleep while bathing. Nearly twenty days of jungle life had been quite hard to endure.

And for Zhang Zhao, the hardest part had been not being able to wash. This habit, formed in a later age, met with a great challenge in this era.

Recalling the swaying figures of several buxom Scythian milk-cows while he bathed, Zhang Zhao felt a stir of interest, but then an even stronger wave of drowsiness reshaped him back into a sage. His legs were too tired to lift, and he still wanted to move his waist?

Zhang Zhao felt as if he were dreaming. A huge signboard for "Heaven on Earth" swayed before his eyes, and a great crowd of people clustered around him, ushering him inside. Although he felt he did not know these fellows, they also felt very familiar.

The scene flickered slightly, and Zhang Zhao arrived in a dark-gold room with dark-red sofas. He sat in the center like an emperor, and before him stood a row of slender, fair, long legs, still gleaming with a healthy glow.

Yo! Plump, slender, and fair Eastern European beauties; soft, petite little Japanese girls; wheat-skinned American wildcats with a touch of defiance. Eh? Why the hell is there a black one too?

No! Don't you fucking come over here! Believe it or not, I'll hit you!

Zhang Zhao panicked. He had not yet decided which one to choose when the black girl walked over and gently pushed him down onto the dark-red sofa.

No! No! I'm not mentally prepared yet! Zhang Zhao began to struggle.

No black ones! I don't like black ones!

The great transmigrator Zhang had just begun to struggle when he woke up. This was no Heaven on Earth, but the royal palace in Balasagun.

However, there really was a person gently swaying on top of him. Fortunately, it was not a black girl, but a plump, fair, tender, mature body.

Ah!... S-so... so comfortable!

"Wait! Who are you?" Zhang Zhao forced himself to ask. It was lucky that the one who came was a woman. If an assassin had come instead, his kidneys would probably have been carved out before he even knew it, right?

"She's a fox spirit, a fox spirit who climbs onto any man she sees. She's the daughter-in-law of that old turtle Li Guoshou!"

The gently swaying body did not speak, but a voice beside him answered out of nowhere.

Zhang Zhao turned his head to look. There was actually another woman lying beside him. Though she did not look especially beautiful, her small oval face was full of stubbornness.

Like a little wildcat hissing at a human, as if to say: I'm warning you, don't come any closer! I bite!

"Then who are you? Are you a fox spirit too?" Zhang Zhao had already stood up. He gently pressed the swaying body down onto the soft brocade quilt.

What was this about old turtle Li Guoshou? How could he send his daughter-in-law over? Wasn't this making me, the great County Duke Zhang, commit a sin?

"I am not a fox spirit." The stubborn little face looked as if it were about to flare up, but after only a second or two, she drooped dejectedly and leaned heavily against a pile of brocade quilts. "But I am your spoils of war."

Spoils of war? Zhang Zhao grinned and, without any courtesy, grabbed the spoils of war by her slender calf and dragged her over.

"What should spoils of war do? Do you know?"

On the little wildcat's face, a trace of panic finally appeared!

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