Chapter 184

It was a simple banquet, the dishes nothing more than roast lamb and sesame flatbread. Sitting across from Zhang Zhao was Guo Xuanli, while the little wildcat Guo Wan'er bustled back and forth serving the two of them.

"Has Wan'er settled in here comfortably?" Guo Xuanli stroked his beard, a kindly smile spreading over his face.

Apart from a bit of awkwardness when he first came in, the old fellow had now adjusted.

He watched Guo Wan'er flitting about like a butterfly, her face brimming with a happy smile, and nodded with satisfaction.

His only slight worry was that Guo Wan'er's looks were truly nothing outstanding, and he did not know whether she could hold the heart of the Lord of Dunhuang. After all, the daughter-in-law of Li Guoshou was a famously beautiful young widow of Balasagun.

"Answering Third Grand-Uncle, Wan'er has settled in comfortably!" Guo Wan'er blushed and answered in a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum.

What could she possibly be dissatisfied with? Her talk of eloping with a Uyghur boy in a fit of temper had only been to resist a marriage she found utterly unbearable.

And Zhang Zhao, apart from being unable to give her the status of a proper wife, was young, wealthy, and powerful, and handsome as well — he completely matched Guo Wan'er's fantasy of a partner.

As for being lustful, well... in a later age Zhang Zhao would absolutely have been a scumbag blasted by tens of thousands of people, but in this era, for a man who was practically a monarch, Zhang Zhao actually showed fairly decent self-restraint and was not greedy for women.

"Once matters here are settled, I intend to prepare for the return east. Would Master Guo be willing to come with us and take a look at the homeland once more?"

Zhang Zhao took the lamb chop Guo Wan'er handed him, then said with a smile to Guo Xuanli.

Guo Xuanli glanced at Zhang Zhao, thought for a moment, and then brought up another matter entirely.

"It was indeed this old man who let slip to Master Titixigu and the Pugu and Yageluo families that the Lord knew of your intention to return east.

Privately, this old man will certainly support the Lord, for returning east to the homeland is also this Guo's great aspiration.

But on the other hand, this Guo's family has lived in Balasagun for several decades already. Every bit of this place was built up by this Guo leading everyone with painstaking effort.

Before being a son of Tang, this Guo is already a man of Balasagun."

So it really was Guo Xuanli who had let it out. Reality was even worse than Zhang Zhao had imagined.

Zhang Zhao had originally thought they merely felt he had few trusted followers, and that they could handle him without paying too great a price.

But in fact, they knew Zhang Zhao would return east sooner or later, so they only wanted to prop Zhang Zhao up as a figurehead and had no intention of giving much in the way of benefits.

By the time their own strength had grown, Zhang Zhao would long since have returned to Dunhuang. Apart from the title of Ju'er Khan, they would have paid practically nothing.

What could Zhang Zhao say? Guo Xuanli had already made clear that before being a son of Tang, he was first a man of Balasagun.

Clearly, compared with the uncertainty of returning east, Guo Xuanli preferred to remain in Balasagun.

Relying on the religious strength of the Guo family's two Great Virtues and the position of the Church of the East as the largest faith in Balasagun, and with Saqtu and the Persians having been defeated and driven off by Zhang Zhao one after another, staying in Balasagun looked far more reliable than returning east by any measure.

"Master Guo, there is a saying I admire greatly: do not treat others as fools. I finally understand why Balasagun is forever ablaze with war — it is because people like you have already monopolized every advantage in Balasagun.

No matter who comes, your first thought is how to protect your own interests from harm. To give out a little less, you people would dare do anything!

Are you not afraid that I, in a fit of rage and humiliation, might simply sack Balasagun?"

Since Guo Xuanli wanted to act the high-minded Hua, Zhang Zhao felt he need not stand on courtesy either. If it was only interests and no sentiment, did he, Zhang Erlang, not know how to play that game?

Fortunately he had wormed this information out of Guo Wan'er; otherwise, once he really became some Ju'er Khan, that would have been trouble.

He could not very well slaughter all these iron-plated nobles under his command the moment he became Great Khan, could he?

"The Lord would not do it. This old man observes that the Lord is not such a ruthless, merciless person. And secondly, it would not suit the Lord's interests.

This city has tens of thousands of people, and the population controlled by the various Yabghus and eminent monks of Balasagun amounts to well over a hundred thousand.

Since the Lord intends to return east, you surely would not choose plunder. Such a thankless task — now that the Lord knows, it is simply a matter of us giving a bit more."

Guo Xuanli was not particularly nervous, because he thought Zhang Zhao was a clever man, and a clever man meant someone with whom terms could be negotiated.

Originally he had indeed not approved of using this salami-slicing approach to deal with Zhang Zhao, but he could hardly object when everyone else had agreed.

"Right!" Zhang Zhao nodded with a cold laugh. "I am indeed a clever man, but Master Guo had best also know that I am a young man — a young man who has carved out such a vast domain.

Young men always consider things more simply. You all think I have no good options, that I can only compromise with you and become a Ju'er Khan who makes everyone's face look good, is that it?"

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao rose to his feet, feeling somewhat stifled. Damn it. He had thought it would be like in the Tang cavalry tales — that in the land of Anxi he would meet a group of sons of Tang unwavering in purpose, single-mindedly set on returning east to the homeland, everyone pulling together and returning in glory.

But reality had slapped him hard twice. Since coming to Anxi, the sons of Tang he had met numbered no less than eight thousand if not ten thousand, yet those who truly longed for the Great Tang as he did were probably only a handful, like the monk Huitong and Zheng Tong.

And now, it had come time for him to scheme against his own people once again.

"Master Guo thinks I have no good options because you believe that as long as your Yabghu families and the Buddhist, Church of the East, and other faiths unite, that is enough to make me wary of acting.

But you do not know that this Zhang actually has a habit: I would rather take what I want by the direct path than seek it by crooked means. And you are far too confident in your so-called strength."

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao suddenly spun around. Under Guo Wan'er's terrified gaze, he swiftly drew the zhangdao blade at his waist. Guo Xuanli also watched Zhang Zhao in bewilderment.

"Is the Lord about to strike at this Guo? Surely the Lord does not think killing this Guo will solve the problem?

You must understand, this Guo is already the person least willing to deal with the Lord in this manner. Were it any other family, I fear the demands they raised would be even more excessive."

Zhang Zhao looked at Guo Xuanli with a cold smile and used the zhangdao to slice off a large piece of mutton.

"They will not raise more excessive demands, because I do not intend to give them the chance.

Guo Liugong, Guo Tiance — how about it? Did I hit the mark? Third Grand-Uncle has grown old, thinking only of how to hold on to power. The hero in his twilight years no longer has the heart of his prime."

Guo Xuanli looked in terror toward the direction Zhang Zhao was addressing. The cloth curtain was gently lifted, and the sixth of the Guo family's Xuan generation, the Great Virtue of Majestic Dignity Guo Xuanqing, along with the finest of the Guo family's younger generation, Guo Tiance, slowly walked out from behind the curtain.

"Old Six? Tiance? What are you two doing here?" Guo Xuanli's heart sank straight down. This was bad. He should never, ever have agreed to the proposal of the Buddhist establishment and the Yabghu nobles.

He had originally intended not to become a traitor to Balasagun, and now he was about to become a traitor to the Guo family.

"Third Brother! I said long ago that Titixigu and the Yabghus are greedy and stupid — how can we advance and retreat together with them?

Last time when we gathered the army for the great battle at Julan City, I urged you not to listen to Titixigu, and in the end the Guo family was driven to take refuge on Jiedan Mountain.

This time I urged you to cooperate with the Lord and jointly hold the great power of Balasagun, and again you would not listen. You cannot blame me, Old Six."

Guo Xuanqing let loose a torrent of furious rebuke; clearly the dissatisfaction had been building for a long time.

"Tiance! Have you gathered the men I told you to gather?" Zhang Zhao did not look at Guo Xuanli, but instead asked Guo Tiance, who had deliberately dressed in a full set of Great Tang court robes.

"Answering the Lord, two hundred brave warriors have been assembled and await only the Lord's command!" Guo Tiance clasped his hands and bowed to Zhang Zhao.

"Only, may I ask which family the Lord intends to move against?"

"I hear you are renowned among the Guo family's Tian generation for wisdom and strategy. Tell me, which family should we exterminate today?"

"Tiance believes we should move against the Pugu family, because the Pugu family is the strongest — they have several hundred warriors within the city alone — while the Yageluo family has long shown signs of decline."

If we moved against the Yaoluoge family, the remaining tribes would only feel the fox's grief at the hare's death and rally under the Pugu clan's banner.

But if we take down the Pugu clan, that is killing the chicken to warn the monkeys — the remaining tribes will tremble and never dare oppose the Commandery Duke again!"

After Guo Tiance finished, Guo Xuanqing chimed in with a smile. "Moreover, the Pugu clan rules with cruelty, bleeding even their own tribesmen dry to the marrow. They have long lost the people's hearts.

They have also dwelt in Balasagun for over a hundred years and amassed countless gold, jewels, and jade. Confiscate their household, and the Commandery Duke can use it to richly reward the entire army."

"At the same time, the Pugu clan holds tens of thousands of mu of military farmland in Balasagun and more than a dozen of the finest pastures along the Chu River. Once these all belong to the Guo family, they will be enough to make it the foremost family in Balasagun!" Zhang Zhao added.

"Hahahaha!" The three of them, plus Guo Wan'er, burst into laughter together. Guo Xuanli suddenly looked as though he had aged decades, his earlier composure upon first meeting Zhang Zhao utterly gone.

"May I ask how the Commandery Duke intends to deal with this old servant?"

"Though the Third Grand-Uncle is old, he remains an elder to me, Zhang Erlang, and to the Guo family. I intend to greatly promote the Church of the East, and for the work of compiling scriptures and writings I will still need to rely on him. But as for the headship of the Guo clan and the mundane affairs of Balasagun, let the Sixth Grand-Uncle take them up."

Zhang Zhao said this lightly, and Guo Xuanli nodded lightly in return. Writing books and establishing teachings was, after all, what he was best at. Yet Guo Xuanli looked at Zhang Zhao.

"The Commandery Duke wishes to greatly promote the Church of the East — does that mean he will also root out Master Titixigu?"

"How could that be?" Zhang Zhao shook his head repeatedly. "Master Titixigu is of lofty virtue and high renown. The Great Sage Son of Heaven has long wished to discuss the Dharma with him. Shule is newly taken, and the Great Cloud Temple urgently needs rebuilding. Master Titixigu will be greatly employed there!"

"In that case, this old man has nothing more to say. Only, my sons Guangsheng and Guangcheng are still with the army at Talas. I beg the Commandery Duke to look after them." Guo Xuanli spoke in utter desolation.

"Rest assured, Third Grand-Uncle. Guangsheng and Guangcheng remain trusted ministers close to my heart. I, Zhang Erlang, mean to revive the Han people, and I will never strike at my own."

That night, Pugu Naluo had gathered three or five trusted confidants and was drinking and singing in his residence. Now that the threat to Balasagun had been removed, as long as the Commandery Duke Zhang — whose heart was not in Balasagun — could be kept there for a few months, the situation would stabilize.

When the time came, the Pugu clan would once again become the most powerful family in Balasagun.

As for that title of Gur Khan, let it be given if it must be. Once the Commandery Duke Zhang had left, it could even be given to the Great Sage Son of Heaven of the Jin Kingdom — it was merely a difference in price.

As the wine took hold, Pugu Naluo even stepped down to dance to the drumbeats. Suddenly — boom! — a thunderous crash, and firelight flared across the pitch-black night sky.

Pugu Naluo rushed out of the great hall, then stared in horror: a huge breach had somehow been torn in the wall of his compound, and large numbers of armored warriors bearing torches were pouring in through the gap.

Pugu Naluo had just begun to slip silently toward the west courtyard when an arrow shot in like a meteor from afar and struck him dead center in the throat.

East of the city, at the Great Buddha Temple of Burana, the temple's monk-soldiers stood guard all night as if facing a great enemy, but no marauding troops came.

At first light, a young man in a lan robe walked in with calm composure — it was Guo Tiance of the Guo family.

"The Commandery Duke bade me bring the Master a message: the Great Sage Son of Heaven has long admired the Master and hopes to meet him.

Furthermore, the Great Cloud Temple in Shule has been destroyed, and the Great Sage Son of Heaven wishes to rebuild it. If the Master could go and preside over it, it would be a blessing for the Buddhist world!"

All eyes turned to Titixigu. The eminent monk, though not old, gave a bitter smile.

Having somewhere to go was not bad. Shule was a Buddhist land, so going there was no loss. In any case, his monk-soldiers could never defeat the Commandery Duke Zhang's battle-hardened lions.

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