Chapter 194: The Drama Couple

The fifteenth day of the eighth month — in the past, this day had held no particular significance for the people of New Kucha.

For although the Mid-Autumn Festival already existed at this time, it was merely a day for moon-viewing and joyful gatherings, and no one ate mooncakes.

Moreover, it was not confined to the fifteenth day of the eighth month alone; such gatherings were held on the two or three days before and after it. The custom of family reunion on the full-moon night of Mid-Autumn only came into being in the Song dynasty.

So for the people of New Kucha, who constantly walked the line between life and death, such a trifling moon-viewing festival was no great occasion at all.

But this year's fifteenth day of the eighth month was different, because the homeland their forebears had spoken of for over a hundred years — the spiritual pillar of the people of New Kucha — had sent men from the Great Tang court to find them.

No one had slept the night before, and this morning, when the sky was barely beginning to lighten, everyone in the city had risen.

First they hauled back everything useful from the mixed-barbarian camp at the foot of the mountain, then they piled the barbarians' corpses together and burned them, and in the end they kept busy until the sun was nearly setting.

Only then did the crowd — who by all rights should have been utterly exhausted, yet in truth were not tired in the least — gather before the council hall in the northern part of the city.

The descendants of the Anxi Army of New Kucha, led by the descendants of the Yang, Zheng, and Xue families, numbered around seven thousand in all.

In ordinary times they lived scattered through this mountain forest, which they called the Northern Mountain, and along the river valleys and level ground among the hills the Anxi Army descendants had opened up field after field of farmland.

As Ma Yaozi looked out, at least two or three thousand people had gathered outside, with still more constantly arriving on the road. Although many of them had no right to enter the council hall, they all clustered outside, unwilling to leave.

Of course, New Kucha had never had this many people at once; ordinarily everyone lived scattered in units of ten or twenty households.

Because the farmland was so dispersed, if they all gathered in the city there would be no way to supply so many mouths with food and drink. In ordinary times, New Kucha was doing well if it had seven or eight hundred people.

"So then, it was not the court that came seeking us, but Great King Zhang who has come to save us!"

Yang Tongyi said, cupping his hands in salute toward Shule in the east.

"How lofty is the Great King's righteousness! Truly worthy of a descendant of a renowned and heroic house, that he still remembers us, a people who have lost their state and their homes. When the day comes that we reach Shule, you must follow this old man and perform the full prostration before the Great King, to thank him for his great kindness!"

"Commander Ma, do you mean to say that Guo Dalang back then did not turn traitor and betray us, and that it was in truth all the doing of that vicious, petty man Pugu Jun?"

Though they were father and son, Yang Tongyi and Yang Shouli's concerns lay in completely different places.

Ma Yaozi first calmed the visibly agitated Yang Tongyi, then nodded toward Yang Shouli.

"That's right! Guo Dalang was no traitor, nor did he go off to Xizhou to enjoy wealth and glory as you all imagined. Rather, he must have died in battle somewhere.

After the Guo family parted from you, they ended up in Suyab, and have now come under the Great King's command, having recruited four hundred young men to campaign at the Great King's side."

Yang Shouli let out a long breath upon hearing this. "That is good to hear. Back then it was the Guo family's great king who led us in holding Kucha. I truly could not bear to believe the Guo family would betray us all. Now all is well."

"Right! All of us descendants of the Anxi Army are fine fellows — stout-hearted warriors, every one!"

Zheng Tong wore an expression of deep empathy. The conclusion back then that the descendants of Guo Xin, Prince of Wuwei Commandery, were traitors had in truth dealt these descendants of the Anxi Tang soldiers a crushing blow.

Had that affair not occurred, the Guo, Yang, Zheng, and other families would never have gone their separate ways.

"Yang Dalang, the Great King says he will lead us descendants of the Anxi Army back east, and then together with the descendants of the Guiyi Army in Hexi, open the road through Ganzhou and Liangzhou.

We will also go together to ask the Emperor on the dragon throne in the Central Plains: does he still remember us? What exactly were the merits of our ancestors? You all...!"

Zheng Tong did not finish his words, but the meaning was clear enough — he wanted the people of New Kucha to declare where they stood.

Before this, Zheng Tong had thought it was no question at all. Could there be anyone unwilling to return east with the Great King?

But the Guo family's attitude had undoubtedly dashed cold water over him. There really were people who were unwilling.

Yang Shouli glanced back at his father Yang Tongyi and his father-in-law Xue Tongyi behind him. His father Yang Tongyi, holding a wooden box, walked over toward Yang Shouli.

"This is the treasure map of the Loyalty Depository, kept in the custody of our Yang, Zheng, and Xue families. I now entrust it to you to hand to General Ma. From this day forward, you are the clan head of the three families of New Kucha."

Yang Shouli then looked toward the several brothers of the Li generation in the great hall. Zheng Shouli cast Yang Shouli a look of trust.

"Shouli Dalang, we will all heed your word."

"Yes! Dalang, you decide. We will all heed your word!"

As the outstanding figure among the younger generation of the Yang family, Yang Shouli's ability had long won everyone's recognition.

At the same time, Yang Tongyi was already worn out in body and spirit. Now that hope had appeared, Yang Tongyi did not care whether that hope came from the Central Plains court or from Great King Zhang of the Great Jin Kingdom of Khotan.

All he wanted now was to return to Shule and enjoy a few years of ease, and then it would be worth it even if he died. The future of the three families of New Kucha — that he would leave to his son.

Yang Shouyi walked up before Ma Yaozi, then dropped to one knee and raised the wooden box high before Ma Yaozi's chest.

"Commander Ma, the Yang, Zheng, and Xue families of Kucha — seven thousand six hundred and seventy-seven souls — from this day forward swear to follow the Great King unto death, to open the road through Ganzhou and Liangzhou, and to return to the homeland!"

Ma Yaozi took the wooden box and passed it to Zheng Tong, then hurriedly helped Yang Shouli to his feet, his face instantly breaking into a grin.

The Great King had gone personally to Suyab and saved the lives of the Guo family, yet in the end had taken away only four hundred young men and one young lady of the Guo house.

He, Ma Yaozi, with just twenty-odd men, had found the Yang, Zheng, and Xue families, and won the allegiance of more than seven thousand souls. How great a merit was that?

If another command was formed in the future, then the post of Commandant ought to fall to him at last!

"Yang Dalang is indeed a man of high principle and great understanding. Since we are now one family, let us quickly steam rice and boil meat. Once we have eaten our fill, we still have a great task to accomplish!"

"We await Commander Ma's instructions!" Yang Shouli said after rising, giving Ma Yaozi a crossed-hand salute.

"I see that those besieging you number far more than a mere thousand. What do you suppose the routed soldiers who fled down the mountain yesterday will say when they reach the other two camps?" Ma Yaozi asked with a grin.

"The other two camps will surely not believe it, because they have already besieged us for more than twenty days and know the situation on the mountain fairly well.

They certainly will not believe that people like us, who cannot even get water to drink, could rout an entire camp. They will surely send men to investigate, and may even seal off this place again." Yang Shouyi thought for a moment, then spoke.

"Exactly! Those mixed barbarians will certainly come again. So I want you to feign weakness before the enemy. We will eat and drink our fill on the mountain and drag things out a few more days, until their men are weary and their horses spent, and then we will finish off these mixed barbarians below the mountain once and for all!"

Ma Yaozi wore an expression of divine foresight and perfect confidence, though in truth this was the collective wisdom of everyone's council the night before.

"Aye!" Yang Shouli answered loudly with a crossed-hand salute.

"In addition, we need to find two men familiar with the surrounding terrain to help us locate the old road by which one can enter and leave Shule.

Also, the Pei brothers need to travel to the old territory of the Eastern Cao Kingdom. It would be best if you could also find us two guides familiar with that region."

Yang Shouyi thought for a while, then nodded. "There are still some tribes in the Northern Mountain who grazed their herds in this region for several hundred years back then, and who were driven out by that barbarian thief Yusuf because they refused to convert to the Heavenly Square faith.

They know this surrounding area far better than we do. Once we have beaten back the enemy, I will go contact them and see whether we can find the old road."

"As for the men to go to Eastern Cao, let my second brother Xue Sili accompany the two Pei brothers. Our family's ancestor was the King of Ningyuan (Ferghana). This land originally belonged to my family, and who knows — we may even find some old acquaintances!"

Xue Shouli, who by now bore almost no Sogdian features, said, pointing to his cousin, whose appearance was almost entirely that of a Sogdian.

Their Xue family was in fact not Han, but the descendants of Xue Yu, King of Ferghana.

No! Actually, you couldn't say the Xue family weren't Han Chinese either — they sent troops ten thousand li to help the Tang dynasty put down the An-Shi Rebellion, and then followed the Anxi Army in holding Anxi for over a hundred years. However you look at it, they're Tang people now.

And Xue Yu's mother was Princess Yihe of the Li-Tang imperial clan — they're genuine Tang people beyond any doubt.

Shule City — the hottest business in all of Shule right now is the cotton trade.

This crop, which never used to sell well, became a hot seller so quickly entirely because the Great Sage Son of Heaven and Great King Zhang both issued consecutive orders to buy it up in large quantities at above-market prices everywhere.

In the palace, Li Shengtian lay listlessly on a folding couch, an ice pack for cooling his fever pressed to his forehead.

Our Great Sage Son of Heaven has been working so hard lately that he caught one cold after another, with a high fever that wouldn't break — it nearly scared Cao Yuanxin to death.

A cold in this era is not like the minor ailment of later times, where you take a few pills, drink a packet of Sanjiu cold medicine, or even just tough it out for a couple of days.

A cold in this era — especially one accompanied by high fever — could very well kill a person.

So Zhang Zhao also hurriedly threw aside his work of personally teaching his men how to make cloth-faced armor and rushed to the palace to visit Li Shengtian.

But the moment he entered, through the semi-transparent screen, he saw Li Shengtian and Cao Yuanxin putting on a tender, lovey-dovey tragic scene.

One of them, eyes brimming with tears, gazed at her husband and tenderly encouraged him that he would surely recover, that he must not overwork himself, and so on.

The other wore an expression of bearing the world's worries as he looked at his queen, declaring that toiling for the country, catching a minor illness was nothing.

After he recovered the land of Ferghana and secured the eternal enterprise of the Khotan Golden Kingdom, he would still help his nephew regain full power over the Guiyi Army — he hoped the queen would understand.

Then Cao Yuanxin burst into loud wailing, declaring that for the Great Golden Kingdom, and so that the Son of Heaven could give her elder sister a proper account, she was willing to sacrifice anything.

In the end, the couple, separated by a single screen, embraced on the folding couch and wept bitterly.

Zhang Zhao, standing outside the screen, was numb from listening. When he came in, he had only entered after being announced and granted permission — these two were deliberately putting on this act for him to see!

Isn't it just that they want him to put in the real effort up front in attacking Ferghana? Isn't it just that they want the full production process for cloth-faced armor? Did you two really need to go this far?

Zhang Zhao had thought about squeezing out a few tears too, going in and having the three of them weep in each other's arms, then declaring that his uncle's and aunt's great kindness would never be forgotten, and that he would repay it even if his body were ground to dust.

But no matter how many times he pinched his thighs — until the flesh was bruised black and blue — Zhang Zhao's eyes stayed dry. Watching Li Shengtian, whose fever had clearly already broken, still putting on the look of a man at death's door, he truly found it hard to cry.

"What kind of nephew are you? Your uncle is sick to this point and still worrying about you, and that's the face you show? Get in here this instant!"

After wailing dryly a while longer, Cao Yuanxin — probably deciding she really couldn't keep the act up — put on the full authority of an aunt, her face thick as ever, grabbed Zhang Zhao by the arm, and dragged him inside.

"Ow! It hurts, it hurts! The finished cloth-faced armor is right outside — I'll have someone bring it in. The plan for attacking Ferghana is also ready; allow me to report it."

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