Chapter 198: Could You Be Ma Dingyuan?

Farghana, eighty li east of Andukan, a small town called Karasu.

Ma Yaozi sat listlessly on a large reclining chair spread with animal hides. He took a light sip of the somewhat murky millet wine, then bit into a chicken leg stewed until tender, his face showing both satisfaction and a faint unease.

"I say, Shanzhu'er, how about you make a run for it? If the Great King doesn't come soon, I, Yaozi, am going to go attack Andukan myself!"

Showing off, pure showing off. Ma Yaozi was getting a bit carried away now; he even felt that the famed generals of old were nothing more than this.

Because in these past three months, he, Ma Yaozi, relying only on twenty-some armored soldiers under his command, plus the three families of New Kucha who barely had any armor at all, had accomplished a great undertaking.

He first withdrew into New Kucha, feigning inability to defend himself, luring the remaining mixed barbarians surrounding New Kucha to come up the mountain and attack.

Then, on a morning when the mixed barbarians had failed to take the place after long assault and had sunk into deep sleep, he launched a surprise attack. Ma Yaozi personally led the vanguard, and everyone in New Kucha who could wield a blade was mobilized.

A bloody battle raged from early morning until high noon. Ma Yaozi, leading some two thousand rabble, actually shattered the six thousand-plus mixed barbarians at the foot of the mountain in a single battle.

This war, in which the begs of various regions had joined forces to seize sons of Tang as slaves, after five years of back-and-forth, at the very moment of harvest, was unexpectedly smashed into utter rout by the sons of Tang of New Kucha.

In that battle, the six thousand five hundred mixed barbarians led by Yusuf's trusted man, Beg Ibrahim of Kasula, threw away their armor and weapons. The dead numbered over four hundred, and the lightly and seriously wounded plus the captured amounted to fully three thousand or more.

So much so that Beg Ibrahim of Kasula did not even dare hold his own stronghold of Kasula, and fled directly to Andukan.

After this battle, Ma Yaozi and the people of New Kucha traded their shotguns for cannons. Not only was their confidence built up, but their equipment improved as well.

Now Ma Yaozi had drafted six hundred able-bodied men from the three clans into an army, every man armored. Never mind what kind of armor — even if it was just cowhide wrapped around a wooden board worn on the chest, it still counted as armor.

Adding the auxiliary troops formed from the remaining able-bodied men, Ma Yaozi could now mobilize over a thousand people.

After occupying Kasula, those nomadic, fishing, and hunting tribes who had been driven into the northern mountains by Saktu and Yusuf because they refused to convert came one after another to join him.

In ten days, Ma Yaozi had gathered over seven hundred more able-bodied men and more than three thousand family members, and the numbers were still growing, heading straight toward a following of twenty thousand.

Back in the day, Great King Zhang's ancestor Zhang Xiaosong had marched all the way to Bukhara with ten thousand rabble.

Ban Dingyuan of the Later Han had likewise roamed the Western Regions relying on only thirty-six men.

Today he, Ma Yaozi, had come with twenty-two men and raised a force of nearly twenty thousand. Though a bit inferior to those two above, in the Fengtian Army this was still one of a kind, wasn't it?

When he returned east in the future, he could at least become a Defense Suppressor like his original patron Luo Xianda.

Eyes closed, he was blissfully savoring the future, when unexpectedly, a voice tinged with teasing laughter came from beside him.

Ma Yaozi looked over and saw Shanzhu'er staring at him with schadenfreude.

"What's the matter? Running short on provisions?"

Ma Yaozi shot upright from the reclining chair, irritably finished the chicken leg in three or two bites, and was just about to drink when the wine bowl was snatched away by Shanzhu'er, who drained it in one gulp.

"Leave a mouthful for your old man! You plague-ridden peasant!" Ma Yaozi's nose twitched with anger, then he slumped back down as if deflated.

"It's not just provisions that are short — tents, clothing, weapons, there's not a single thing we aren't lacking. Haven't you seen what those northern mountain mixed barbarians who came to join us look like?

Spears are just sharpened wooden sticks, never mind that, and the arrows are damn well made of animal bone. The men wrap themselves in a few animal hides for clothing; the women and children wear whatever they can find draped over their bodies as garments.

They'll even come to blows over a pretty stone, and every day they come to me to settle disputes. Damn it all, these aren't people coming to join us, they're coming to be the death of me. Let the Great King hurry up and get here — right now I just want to get on the battlefield and kill to my heart's content!"

At this point, Shanzhu'er's expression quickly shifted from schadenfreude to sympathy, and he handed the wine bowl back to Ma Yaozi.

"Wait one more day. If Li Qilang still hasn't returned, we'll strike camp and head east. If the garrison of Andukan doesn't come out to fight us in the field, then we'll plunder every town and city around Andukan."

"That's a way too. It's just press-ganging, isn't it? That's all we can do. The people keep growing in number; otherwise, once the grain in Karasu is eaten up, they'll be eating me!"

A burst of urgent hoofbeats sounded, and Yang Shouli rode up on a yellow horse.

Although Ma Yaozi put on an air of being utterly exhausted by internal administration, in reality he was a complete hands-off boss; Yang Shouli was the one doing all the work.

Over the past ten-some days, Yang Shouli was so busy he had no time even to eat, while Ma Yaozi could still leisurely gnaw chicken legs and drink wine. Who was truly busy and who was faking it was obvious at a glance.

"General Ma! The scouts of the Gray Wolf tribe from the northern mountains report that outside Andukan there are vast wheat fields, and the wheat is about to ripen. Our remaining provisions are only enough for ten days. Should we send out the main force to seize the harvest?"

Ma Yaozi calmly crushed the chicken bone under his foot and grinned. The moment battle was mentioned, his mind instantly became agile.

"Have Luo Yu'er take a hundred light cavalry ahead first. The rest will have a good meal later; tomorrow we march on Andukan."

Zhang Zhao had considered that the governor of Farghana, Yusuf, might be somewhat weak, because a great purge was something even the red bear under the Little Father could not withstand, let alone in this era.

But he had never imagined Yusuf could be weak to this extent — actually being besieged in Andukan by Ma Yaozi and his men.

One had to know that when Ma Yaozi entered Farghana, he had brought only twenty-some people.

Even if these armored soldiers of the Hanshan Capital could fight ten men each, and the three clans of New Kucha were fierce fighters, it still shouldn't be that with so few people, they could beat a governor like Yusuf, who could mobilize tens of thousands of troops, into such a state.

It made Zhang Zhao wonder whether he had brought too many people this time.

For this conquest of the kingdom of Farghana, Khotan had mobilized a total of sixteen thousand men. Besides the full two thousand of the Fengtian Army, Zhang Zhao had also drawn nine hundred light cavalry from the Basmil people of Jiashi City who had submitted to him.

By this point, the three thousand tents and eighteen thousand people of the Basmil tribe had basically all been absorbed by Zhang Zhao. Of these, about six thousand would be relocated to Suyab, while the rest remained in Jiashi City. Zhang Zhao estimated he would take half of them with him when he returned east.

Besides Zhang Zhao's core force of three thousand, the remainder was the Khotan Amozhi army of over seven thousand led by Prefect Pei, conscripted from the territories of Khotan's various feudal lords.

The remaining five thousand, commanded by the recovered Liu Zaisheng, had been drawn by Li Shengtian from the Left and Right Divine Might Armies and the Palace Guard Army.

For this Farghana campaign, Li Shengtian did not go in person; the commander of the great army was Zhang Zhao.

Because recently the Gaochang Uyghurs had been eyeing Khotan's swallowing of the choicest parts of the Karakhanid state, and relations between the two countries had become somewhat delicate.

If handled well, they would join together to give Saktu, that drowning dog, another beating. If handled poorly, the two groups of Uyghurs would unite to strike Khotan.

Therefore Li Shengtian had to remain behind in Shule to manage relations with the Gaochang Uyghurs.

Don't think this was impossible, because Li Shengtian had raised a question Zhang Zhao had never considered before.

In Zhang Zhao's thinking, Saktu, having converted to Islam, would surely find it hard to get along in the Land of the Seven Rivers, because the Karluks there all believed in Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity.

And the Gaochang Uyghurs were a great Manichaean state; there was no way they would ally with Saktu.

But Li Shengtian did not think so. He believed Saktu had adopted Islam merely to facilitate seizing power and attracting the strength of holy warriors, not because he was truly devout.

Then, in order to survive, he might well convert again. If Saktu steeled himself to convert to Manichaeism, the Karakhanid and Gaochang khanates, two states with deep historical ties, might very well join hands.

Zhang Zhao thought it over, and indeed there was such a possibility, because the full Islamization of the Karakhanids happened only after Saktu had settled Suyab and Talas, as well as that turncoat Yusuf of Farghana — roughly twenty years later.

By then Saktu was already on the verge of kicking the bucket, and only then did he lead a full two hundred thousand tents of Karakhanid people in a collective conversion to Islam, and then launched a religious war.

But at present, not only had Saktu failed to take Suyab, he had even had his leg broken by Zhang Zhao.

Having lost Shule and Farghana, and without Suyab, with only the remaining Land of the Seven Rivers where the Karluks did not much care for him, in desperation Saktu was very likely to flip again and convert to one of the three faiths — Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, or Manichaeism.

"Great King, urgent report from the front!" Just as Zhang Zhao was pondering how Saktu might very well flip-flop again, Fan Shun came running over with a sealed letter.

Zhang Zhao took it and looked, and was immediately even more speechless — it turned out to be Ma Yaozi's military report.

Eight days ago, Ma Yaozi fought a last-stand battle outside Andukang, and actually repelled the Andukang garrison troops that Yusuf personally led out of the city to fight.

Five days ago, seeing that the army outside the city was growing larger by the day and the surrounding wheat fields could no longer be held, Yusuf actually broke out of Andukang under the protection of two hundred elite cavalry.

In truth, it hardly counted as breaking out, because Ma Yaozi had no ability to fully encircle Andukang — he was busy harvesting wheat.

Three days ago, after confirming that Yusuf had fled, Ma Yaozi tried attacking Andukang once.

But the various Beishan tribes under his command were simply too much of a rabble. With a strong leader to rally around, forming ranks in the field for a last-stand battle was one thing, but besieging a great city like Andukang, complete with moat and barbican, was somewhat beyond their strength.

"Where is your elder brother?" Zhang Zhao asked Fan Shun beside him after reading the secret letter.

"By the Great King's order, my elder brother set out three days ago with two hundred elite soldiers, traveling day and night toward the outskirts of Andukang. The Gudao Pass is now guarded by Qiong Reduojin with his troops."

Zhang Zhao nodded. He truly could not rest easy about Ma Yaozi's ability as a commander — heaven only knew whether he could keep control of the more than twenty thousand men outside Andukang. If Fan Quan could arrive in time, he would be much more at ease.

"Guo Tiance, summon all officers of the rank of Tongzhi General and above — we shall hold a joint military council!"

"Yes!" Guo Tiance acknowledged the order in a loud voice. He was now both Zhang Zhao's Granary and Supply Adjutant and his trusted Secretary, in charge of military affairs and documents around Zhang Zhao, and so he accompanied Zhang Zhao on the march.

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