Chapter 188: Cotton and Cotton Armor

At Shule, the ceremony this time was even grander. Li Shengtian personally led all the civil and military officials ten li out of the city to welcome him, the road was paved with yellow earth, and a pavilion had been specially built for the welcome. In terms of glory, nothing could surpass it.

And when Zhang Zhao was still twenty li away, the envoy Li Shengtian had sent to confer titles arrived and on the spot enfeoffed Zhang Zhao as Deputy King of the Great Jin Kingdom of Khotan.

As for this honorific title and office, Khotan had had one over a hundred years ago, and it was not uncommon among the various states of Anxi either; there were plenty of deputy kings and deputy khagans.

The reason was that Anxi's territory was vast and full of deserts, and the habitable oases were far apart, so a single political center could not meet the needs of the state's political activities. Thus members of the royal family's close branch were established as deputy kings to administer distant territories.

But ever since the roads throughout Anxi improved and the number of horses increased, this situation had become rare.

The relatively developed transportation meant the rulers of the various states no longer needed to set up a power structure of one principal and one deputy like the deputy king, yet today Li Shengtian had brought it back out again.

After Zhang Zhao received the decree, he could not help but give his uncle the Son of Heaven twelve thumbs-up in his heart. This man truly was mediocre at expanding territory, but at internal governance and political maneuvering he was absolutely a master.

By enfeoffing Zhang Zhao as Deputy King today, he had effectively confirmed the arrangement Zhang Zhao had proposed: the khagan below, the Son of Heaven above.

The Khagan of Suyab had become the Deputy King of the Great Jin Kingdom of Khotan, so Suyab, along with Talas and other places administered by the Acting Military Governor of Suyab, had also nominally become territory of the Jin Kingdom of Khotan.

What was even more brilliant was that Guo Xuanqing's post as Acting Military Governor of Suyab had actually been reported to Li Shengtian by Zhang Zhao, and then Li Shengtian had approved it.

In this way, after Zhang Zhao left, the Jin Kingdom of Khotan would gain suzerainty over Suyab, and Guo Xuanqing would be forced to follow, or at least cooperate with, the arrangements of the Jin Kingdom of Khotan in many matters.

Because after Zhang Zhao returned east, separated by several thousand li, he certainly would not interfere in Suyab's affairs again.

And since he was Khotan's Deputy King, Li Shengtian could completely require Zhang Zhao to entrust part of Suyab's administrative authority to the Deputy King's subordinate officials who remained in Khotan.

In fact, Li Shengtian had already thought it through. This Deputy King title was not casually conferred on Zhang Zhao, with no real power and only for the sake of sounding good.

Li Shengtian had already made clear that Zhang Zhao could establish a headquarters in Polu Prefecture and set up an official apparatus belonging to Deputy King Zhang.

This apparatus would mainly be used to manage Zhang Zhao's Polu Prefecture and Suyab, as well as Zhang Zhao's properties in Talas. Li Shengtian was even prepared, after taking the Fergana Basin, to give Zhang Zhao another piece of land.

It looks very generous, right? But this would only happen after Zhang Zhao returned east. As long as Zhang Zhao returned east, this apparatus would begin operating.

But Shule was more than four thousand li from Dunhuang, and most of it was desert wilderness. The distance and transportation conditions meant that Zhang Zhao could send a certain number of officials to take up posts, but most of the officials would still have to be recruited from Khotan.

Moreover, over a distance of more than four thousand li, no matter what officials Zhang Zhao sent, in the end they would still have to follow Khotan step by step.

Because in this situation, without telephones or other more developed means of communication, Zhang Zhao could not receive feedback from his subordinate officials at any time, nor could he supervise them.

The final result would be sending a few trusted men as a token gesture, and then receiving a not-insignificant amount of tax revenue.

"Erlang! Hahaha! You've finally returned! Your uncle's worries are over!"

The moment Zhang Zhao appeared in everyone's sight, Li Shengtian directly shook off all the Khotanese nobles and officials who had come to welcome him, and rode out from the crowd alone on a white horse.

"Uncle! Your nephew has been fortunate enough not to disgrace your command. I have brought everything east of Talas back under the Great Dynasty!"

Zhang Zhao likewise immediately rode a white horse, broke away from the crowd, and galloped toward Li Shengtian.

What a picture of two men rushing toward each other!

The Great Dynasty meant the Great Tang. Earlier this year, the Kingdom of Khotan had changed its name to the Great Dynasty Great Treasure Great Jin Kingdom.

"Great Treasure" was an adjective, describing Khotan's brilliance and prosperity, and "Great Dynasty" referred to the Great Tang.

Historically, they had always added the term "Great Dynasty" before their state name, indicating that they regarded the Great Tang as their mother country and acknowledged that they were part of the Central Plains dynasty.

"Erlang, well done. Suyab Garrison fell more than a hundred years ago, and to recover it today is enough to leave your name in the annals of history!" After the two met, they dismounted and walked back hand in hand.

"But Shule to Suyab is truly too far. We don't have the strength the Great Tang had back then, so we could only manage this much. A bit of a pity!"

With Li Shengtian, Zhang Zhao did not hide his feelings. It was indeed a bit of a pity. When Li Shengtian sent him, he had actually hoped Zhang Zhao could garrison Suyab.

Li Shengtian patted Zhang Zhao's hand, feeling somewhat emotional for a moment. It seemed his nephew's determination to return east was truly firm!

Everything east of Talas, including Suyab, amounted to more than three hundred thousand people. Though it was remote on the western frontier, it was no smaller than the Guiyi Army's holdings.

"Erlang, no need for regret. In your uncle's view, this is enough. We have stationed troops and gained suzerainty. No matter who becomes Acting Military Governor of Suyab in the future, they will need our recognition. And there are tens of thousands of strings of tribute to collect every year. That's quite good!"

Zhang Zhao turned it over in his mind and agreed, and he also understood why Li Shengtian said this, because whether or not they gained suzerainty over Suyab was extremely critical.

With suzerainty, Khotan could justifiably station two hundred troops in Suyab. Don't look down on just two hundred men; with suzerainty, the Suyab Garrison-Farm Commissioner, appointed by Khotan and commanding these two hundred men, could intervene in Suyab's administration.

Moreover, with suzerainty, when the Acting Military Governor of Suyab, Guo Xuancheng, did something that harmed Khotan's interests and Li Shengtian could not tolerate it, Li Shengtian could use this as a pretext to cut off the trade routes to Suyab.

This was absolutely fatal, because after Khotan took Shule, it completely blocked all the Silk Road passages to Suyab. Zhang Zhao's Polu Prefecture in particular sat right at the throat of the route to Suyab.

This meant Guo Xuancheng could in practice only rule with Khotan's support, because they could not bear the losses from the trade routes being cut.

So one could say that Anxi right now was just weaklings pecking at each other. If Zhang Zhao stood in Saktu's position, why would he need to send an expedition to attack Suyab?

Just block Suyab's trade routes, and at the fastest half a year, at the slowest about a year, Suyab would inevitably erupt in political upheaval and chaos.

Then bring a few thousand men to mediate and threaten, and Suyab would be taken.

But Saktu, because of his own militarism, was desperately short of money, and he could not bear to use this "stupid" method.

Then Zhang Zhao seized the opportunity and drove him all the way to the Land of Seven Rivers, where he now had to hang his head and live by the whims of the Karluks.

Having thought this through, Zhang Zhao cast away his last trace of reluctance about Suyab to the winds.

The two walked hand in hand to the pavilion specially built to welcome Zhang Zhao, and a large group of drummers began to play ceremonial music with great bustle.

Zhang Zhao stretched out his hand and pointed at the procession in the distance, beginning to explain it to Li Shengtian one by one.

This time, besides the three thousand troops he had brought back himself, there were also four or five hundred captives from the Persian Samanid Kingdom, as well as the dried heads of Tashkent Governor Ali Dulaft and the leader of the holy warriors, Abdul Ahmad.

These people were all to be taken back to the Khotan ancestral temple in the Khotan royal city for a prisoner-presentation ceremony.

Elaborate rituals and grand banquets followed one after another, and it was not until the third day that Zhang Zhao had the chance to hurry to his own domain, Polu Prefecture.

Here was the thing Zhang Zhao cared about most: a boundless cotton field, roughly three hundred mu.

This had been planned before Zhang Zhao left for Suyab, and for this purpose he had specially sent Zhang Zhong back six months earlier to take charge of the work.

Cotton had been introduced to China as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, and in the Western Regions it was actually planted quite a bit.

But such a good thing had never become widespread, and the biggest reason was that the method of removing cotton seeds, and the method of fluffing cotton by bowing it to make it soft and usable, had not been invented.

But this did not stump Zhang Zhao. He closed his eyes and recalled, wondering whether his father in another time and space, who had bowed cotton for years, had seen his silicosis worsen.

He figured the several hundred thousand in cash he had left behind should be enough for him and his mother to live out their old age. The house with the unpaid mortgage would be repossessed and auctioned by the bank, but there should still be a little left over.

If his father was smart enough, he might be able to sell the house before the bank repossessed and auctioned it, and in that way earn a bit more, which would come to over a million in cash.

The old couple was not old yet, neither had reached fifty. If they wanted to have another child, there should still be time.

"Erlang, you... what's wrong?" A timid voice sounded. Zhang Zhao opened his eyes and saw Guo Wan'er looking at him with a worried expression.

Beside her, Ayiguli and Lady Cao also looked shocked, while Zhang Zhong and Fan Shun, standing a little farther off, lowered their heads and pretended they had seen nothing.

It turned out Zhang Zhao had been so absorbed in his thoughts that a few tears had slipped from the corners of his eyes.

It was a bit awkward, but over the past two years and more, Zhang Zhao had long since trained his face to be extraordinarily thick-skinned. He gently wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and smiled faintly.

"If my father could see today's grand occasion, and know the great enterprise I am about to undertake, he would surely be overjoyed."

Zhang Zhao was not wrong. The reason he could produce cotton, that great weapon, was precisely because back then his father had chased him with a stick, trying to force him to give up his studies and learn the family's ancestral craft of cotton-fluffing, so he could become a craftsman who would never starve.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Lady Cao and Ayiguli both nodded, and Fan Shun could not help sniffing, probably thinking of the bitter days at Qi Xiahu's mountain stronghold more than two years ago.

Guo Wan'er, who liked Zhang Zhao the most, even wiped her eyes in distress and leaned her head a little closer to Zhang Zhao's chest.

Only old Zhang Zhong did not believe it. He looked at Zhang Zhao's face doubtfully. The young lord is thinking of his father? He can think of his father?

When the White-Clad Son of Heaven passed away, Zhang Zhao was barely over a year old, and the Son of Heaven had shut himself away in the depths of the palace, so father and son had hardly ever even met.

Moreover, he had served Zhang Zhao for more than twenty years and had never once seen Zhang Zhao so much as mention his father.

This old fellow really has no sense of tact! Zhang Zhao could not help rolling his eyes. Toward this old servant who had once been his father Zhang Chengfeng's personal bodyguard and had painstakingly raised him, Zhang Zhao was somewhat speechless.

This old fellow's intelligence always fluctuated wildly, forever stuck in a Schrodinger's state.

Still staring! Don't you feel awkward?

Just then, a slender figure carrying an earthenware wine jug and a basket came walking over. The basket seemed to contain steamed cakes.

Uh! Zhang Zhao stared dumbfounded at the young woman approaching. She wore a cotton garment made of fine Gaochang cotton cloth, and on her head was a glittering gold hairpin.

Why does she look more and more familiar?

Holy crap! Isn't this the demolition heroine Zhang Zhao had rescued on the battlefield, the Uyghur girl Huabu?

And, it seemed, the girl was pregnant too. Her slender waist was pushed forward by a slightly rounded belly. Probably because she was so thin, it did not show much.

"This humble one greets the Commandery Duke! This humble one has made some steamed cakes and brought some grape wine. Please, Commandery Duke, do try them!"

Huabu gave a demure bow. She had long since lost her former fierceness and boldness, and instead appeared very polite, much more quiet and refined, her face even carrying a hint of shyness.

And she really was quite pretty, a typical beauty of the kind found in Xinjiang's Zha'aba.

"You must not call yourself 'this humble one' to me. I should be calling you Aunt! Aunt, are you with child? It seems I will soon have a younger brother."

Zhang Zhao returned the greeting with a perfectly serious expression, but his eyes darted toward Zhang Zhong beside him. Good heavens, this Huabu had just turned fifteen this year!

You old Zhang Zhong, a man in his forties, and you still went after a teenage girl. In later ages, you would be waiting to rot in prison.

Zhang Zhong immediately did not dare look at Zhang Zhao. Although a fifteen-year-old girl had already reached marriageable age in this era, the age gap between the two was simply too great.

He had originally not planned to marry and have children, because he had sworn before the White-Clad Son of Heaven and Princess Fengtian that he would guard the young lord his whole life and protect him.

But in recent years, the young lord had grown more and more formidable and did not need the protection of a foolish old servant like him at all, so Zhang Zhong's heart had stirred to life.

The thought of finding a woman to carry on his line had grown stronger and stronger. Seduced by this scheming Huabu, who was also desperate to find a backer, how could he possibly have held back?

Under Zhang Zhao's teasing gaze, old Zhang Zhong let out a wail, covered his face, and stumbled away, dragging Huabu with him, not even bothering with the grape wine and steamed cakes that had fallen to the ground.

Watching Zhang Zhong flee into the distance, Zhang Zhao burst into loud laughter, and the lingering ache of missing his family immediately faded a great deal.

Guo Wan'er, meanwhile, cast an envious glance at the fleeing Huabu. It had been almost a year now. That vixen Ayiguli had gotten pregnant just last month. Why was there still no sign for herself?

Snow-white cotton filled the storehouse. After eating the steamed cakes Huabu had brought, Zhang Zhao came to the warehouse in person.

Here, dozens of apprentices of all ages had been gathered. These were clever and deft people Wu Yuan'er had recruited from various places.

Although Li Shengtian had not yet said Zhang Zhao could establish the Deputy King's subordinate offices, Zhang Zhao had already begun forming a civil official system on the scale of a Central Plains Military Governor.

Wu Yuan'er had assumed the post of Polu Prefecture Military Governor's Office Promoter, and had established the Cotton and Iron Monopoly Office. Once the scale grew larger, Wu Yuan'er would become the Military Governor's Administrative Assistant in charge of cotton and iron affairs.

Once everyone had arrived, Zhang Zhao began demonstrating cotton seed removal and cotton fluffing for the crowd.

The seed-removal tool was relatively simple and easy to master, requiring only a single pressing roller.

Zhang Zhao laid the seed cotton on a backing board and rolled it with a pressing roller, so that the fibers were pressed between the roller and the board. Then he began rubbing and pressing, slowly at first and then faster, until the cotton seeds were completely worked out of the cotton.

In fact, similar techniques already existed. It was just that the tools were not as easy to use and efficient as the pressing roller in Zhang Zhao's hands, which had been refined from the accumulated experience of later ages.

But even with the pressing roller, this was still an extremely tedious and laborious task, though its advantage lay in being easy to master.

Judging from the tediousness of seed removal alone, spreading cotton to the common people would be no easy matter; the labor cost was simply too great.

Cotton fluffing was even harder to manage. Not only was it monotonous, tedious, and strenuous, but learning it was not something that could be accomplished in a short time.

At the same time, cotton fluffing required a large wooden bow strung with ox sinew. The cost of the bow alone was not cheap, and in addition one needed a wooden mallet, a scraper head, a grinding disc, and so on.

When fluffing, one had to first strike the bowstring repeatedly with the wooden mallet, so that the cotton spread on the wooden board gradually became loose and fluffy.

Then two people would cover both sides of the cotton batting with gauze or other material in a net-like pattern, to hold the batting in place.

After the gauze was in place, a wooden disc was used to press and grind it, making it flat, firm, and solid. Only then was the cotton considered finished.

Zhang Zhao had only studied this for a while in his youth. He had to fumble and recall as he went along. Before he had finished fluffing a single quilt, his back was already aching.

The people gathered around watched in stunned silence. Amid the thumping and twanging sounds, they watched the noble Deputy King of the Great Jin Kingdom and Prefect of Polu Prefecture labor until he was drenched in sweat and covered in white fluff.

This completely exceeded the imagination of people of this era. No one had expected that a prince would actually labor in person, and even invent this complete set of cotton-fluffing tools.

Among them, Lady Cao, the former queen of the Karakhanids, watched most dumbfounded of all. Watching Zhang Zhao's fairly practiced movements and his tireless explanations, she suddenly felt that this man was truly extraordinary.

Though ruthless and murderous without blinking an eye, at other times he was so benevolent, able to humble himself to such a degree just to improve the people's livelihood. It was almost unimaginable.

Uh! Lady Cao was overthinking it. Zhang Zhao did have the idea of using cotton to improve the people's livelihood, but more than that, he wanted to use cotton to make a great weapon: cotton armor, that is, cloth-faced iron armor.

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