Chapter 211: From Andukang to Juzhanti

In the swirling snow, on the official road outside Xijiangwan Fort, a rapid clatter of hoofbeats suddenly sounded, drawing near from afar, and soon figures could be made out.

The fort chief, who managed this small stronghold of over a thousand people, scrambled up onto the wall in a few quick moves and stood on tiptoe to peer out.

Xijiangwan Fort lay on the main road from Kesai City to Andukang. On ordinary days it bustled with coming and going, but now it was deep winter, and generally no one would rush about in such weather.

So the fort chief was somewhat wary; he feared that scattered deserters and stragglers had come into the vicinity.

Ai! The fort chief brushed the snow from his clothes and let out a long sigh. For as long as he could remember, this Fergana had never known peace.

First the Karakhanids had invaded and driven out the Persian Samanids, then Governor Yusuf betrayed Bughra Khan.

Then the Persians came back to contend with Governor Yusuf, and now the Khotan Golden Kingdom men of the Great Dynasty (Tang) had arrived, and had even defeated both Yusuf and the Persian Samanids.

If only that Great Dynasty Golden Kingdom king could steady this place. For a lowly petty official and ordinary folk like the fort chief, paying taxes to anyone was still paying taxes, and which faith one followed made little difference. The key was whoever could give them a stable, safe environment — that man was their sovereign.

"Open the gate! Open it at once! Pacification Commissioner Lu and Vice Pacification Commissioner Yang have urgent military business. Delay a single step and watch your dog head!" The figures had not yet appeared, but the cursing from below arrived first.

"Open the gate! Open it quickly!" The fort chief hurriedly ordered his men below to open up. When he saw his militia moving too slowly, he ignored his own bulky frame and dashed over himself to push the fort gate open.

Pacification Commissioner and Vice Pacification Commissioner — these were officials Zhang Zhao had temporarily dispatched. From the literal meaning of the titles one could tell that these officials, sent out and called "commanders," were there to gather up scattered defeated troops and to take over the various towns, villages, and tribal settlements formerly under Yusuf's control.

Of course, such matters involving the redistribution of power and resources would not proceed smoothly. In this past month and more, those stirring up trouble, those rebelling outright, those feigning compliance while opposing in secret, and those fleeing with their entire households were beyond count.

From Kesai City to Andukang, heads rolled in waves. At least seven or eight hundred people were cut down with a single stroke, then tossed into the surging Yaxartes and Naryn Rivers.

In chaotic times, use harsh laws; cut the tangled hemp with a swift blade. Zhang Zhao had no time to prune away opposition slowly, so he simply used the fastest method: whoever refused to submit was made to disappear outright.

Some among them were innocent, and some were victims of retaliation, but none of that fell within Zhang Zhao's considerations. What he wanted was to pacify the region in the shortest possible time.

Three-legged toads are rare, but people who want to be officials and powerful nobles are not. All along the way, those who submitted prospered and those who resisted perished, and the fearsome reputations of Great King Zhang and the various pacification commissioners and vice commissioners were firmly established.

Yusuf had killed off one crop, and Great King Zhang killed off another. Of the troublemakers from Kesai City to Andukang, apart from those who bowed their heads and were taken in, basically none were left.

In the eyes of the Xijiangwan fort chief, the people outside were all great devils who could wipe out a man's entire family at any moment.

But he never stopped to think: without those devils outside cutting down the defiant and slaughtering all the troublemakers, could a man like him — whose heart was not fully blackened and whose methods were not so clever — ever have become chief of a fort?

Pacification Commissioner Lu was Lu Zhen, Lu Sanlang; Vice Pacification Commissioner Yang was Yang Shouli.

Zhang Zhao naturally would not feel at ease letting Lu Sanlang go down alone to pacify the region, so he had scattered all his officers, including rough men like Ma Yaozi, out as vice pacification commissioners.

Lu Sanlang's greatest function as pacification commissioner was actually analyzing situations, guiding the way, and building connections.

"Elder Brother Shouli, it's already late today. Let's rest a night here at Xijiangwan Fort!"

Lu Sanlang felt not the slightest dissatisfaction at being used as a tool. He had seen clearly Great King Zhang's methods and ruthlessness.

Others saw that Great King Zhang had spared Yusuf's family and thought the king had a woman's soft heart, but Lu Sanlang knew that the king did not slaughter Yusuf's entire clan simply because he considered them no threat and could not be bothered to dirty his hands dealing with them.

Toward those who posed a threat, Great King Zhang never showed the slightest leniency.

The Almark family of Aoxi Fort in Andukang wanted to resist to the bitter end. In the end, apart from young women and children no taller than a cart wheel, of the entire clan of more than three hundred, not a single one survived.

From this, Lu Sanlang had grasped the temperament of this Great King Zhang, the Gurkhan: toward those who did not block his path and committed no offense, he was quite tolerant.

But if you opposed him, this great king was the firmest supporter of rooting out the grass and eliminating it completely.

As they spoke, the twenty-seven riders had already entered the fort. Yang Shouli pulled off the hood covering his head and nodded.

"As Sanlang says. Andukang is fully settled, so there's no rush for this moment. The snow is so heavy, men weary and horses spent. You and I, brothers, should find a place and have a drink!"

Yang Shouli's face was all smiles, glowing with health, showing none of the desperate, frantic look of a few months before.

Since Zhang Zhao had arrived, life for the three clans of New Kucha had improved. The troublesome mixed barbarians had turned into dogs lying on the ground showing their bellies. Every household had received rewards, with food and drink to spare.

What surprised him even more was that the three clans of New Kucha were the only people under Great King Zhang with any real administrative ability.

Because New Kucha was also a group of more than seven thousand people. In managing these clansmen, all of whom were near kin, the upper leaders of New Kucha had quite good management experience — otherwise they could never have held the group together.

Now, in order to control the greater part of Fergana from Kesai City to Andukang, the king could only rely on them.

Many of the upper ranks of the three New Kucha clans had gone to take office in various strategic locations. His father, Yang Tongyi, had even been directly appointed by the king as Acting Military Governor of Andukang, in charge of the livelihood of sixty or seventy thousand people.

"Take the horses down. Don't just fob them off with dry hay — give them some beans and the like. Remember to mix in salt. Before feeding, wipe the horses down, and throw a dry blanket over each one."

Beside Lu Sanlang, a son of Tang from Luojiashan City who had always followed him, Su Wulang, was ordering the Xijiangwan fort chief about with his nose in the air.

"Once the horses are seen to, find a clean room for our commander, get the floor stove going, bring wine and meat in abundance, and if there are any Hu dancing girls wanting to earn a bit of silver, call a few over too."

The fort chief bent at the waist, head lowered, a pained look on his face. Twenty-some men and thirty-some horses — the horses had to eat, the men had to eat, and there had to be wine, meat, and girls besides. Ai! His family savings would be emptied out.

Thud! A large object struck the fort chief on the shoulder, startling him badly as he stood there with head bowed, silently grumbling. He looked up — a bolt of white cotton cloth had landed on his shoulder.

"Hurry it up! You won't be shorted your reward. Find young, good-looking girls. If you dare fob us off with widows who've borne several children, I'll beat you to death!"

Money, and a reward besides — the fort chief was delighted at once. The little mustache on his chin twitched up and down, and his round face bloomed with a fawning expression.

Like a marmot, he tucked away the bolt of white cotton cloth. This was a fine thing. Entertaining these nobles for one night would not actually use up even half a bolt of white cotton cloth.

As for the dried purplish-black bloodstain on one corner of the cloth, he simply ignored it.

"Noble sirs, please come inside. This humble one's home is the cleanest. As it happens, a cow died a few days ago — the rump meat is the fattest and most tender. The millet wine brewed the year before last is clear and sweet, and the fish girls of Xijiangwan are famous as far away as Kesai City."

The delighted fort chief led the way in front, carrying the bolt of white cotton cloth, his heart considerably more at ease.

Not only because of the wealth the cloth brought him, but because he vaguely felt that under a great king whose nobles were willing to pay even when eating, drinking, and calling for girls, a stable era was finally about to arrive, was it not?

In the north, Kesai City and Andukang were growing stable, but in the south, beyond Sanjiangwan — that is, past the battlefield where Zhang Zhao had fought the Persians — all the way to Juzhanti, it was like a hell on earth.

Of the more than thirty thousand Persian troops plus several thousand laborers, apart from the five thousand or so who surrendered on the spot and the two thousand or so killed in battle, nearly thirty thousand fled southward.

But with pursuers behind them, they had thrown away armor and weapons and were terrified at every sound. Then, the very next day, heavy snow began to fall. Cold, damp, high winds, no clothes, no food, and roads that were especially muddy and hard to travel.

Along the thirty or forty li of road south from Sanjiangwan, the frozen corpses of Persians lay everywhere, strange smiles on their faces, nearly all of them stark naked. Often one could find dozens or even hundreds of corpses tangled together, drawing out wolf packs that were rarely active in winter to come out and hunt on a large scale.

Pei Shengyuan moved through the snow with long thin boards strapped to his legs, behind him a group of warriors from the Eastern Cao Kingdom.

They had long since traded up their equipment. Persian cotton coats and mail shirts were on their backs, and the Gurkhan had sent boatload after boatload of grain and weapons up the Yaxartes.

Under the leadership of Pei Shengyuan and Xue Shouli, they had won over several small nearby tribes and grown to three or four thousand people. And today, they were waiting here to receive an important personage.

Sailing on a river that was nearly frozen over was in fact extremely dangerous, but Yan Jin was prepared to take the risk. Fortunately the current of the Yaxartes was not swift, so the journey had been perilous but without mishap.

This time he had brought seven hundred warriors, his purpose being to come and unite these people led by the Eastern Cao Kingdom. His goal was one thing only: Juzhanti.

If Ma Yaozi could rescue New Kucha with just twenty-some riders and take command of an army of tens of thousands, then was it so hard for him, Yan Jin, bringing seven hundred elite troops and gathering several thousand Eastern Cao men, to take a single Juzhanti?

Difficult! But precisely because it is difficult, it can show what he, Yan Jin, is capable of, no?

"Brother Chengjie, I am here!" Pei Shengyuan had spotted Yan Jin on the small boat from far away. He waved the little red flag in his hand, strikingly conspicuous against the vast white snow.

"Pei Dalang, well done! You must have several thousand stout lads by now?" Yan Jin laughed heartily, and when he was still a few steps from the riverbank, he leaped down.

"Come and greet Commandant Yan! This is the foremost brave warrior of the Great Khan's personal guard, the Hanshan Du. With the Commandant here, Juzhanti will soon be ours!"

Pei Shengyuan first shouted this loudly to those behind him, then turned and gave Yan Jin a crossed-hand salute.

"Reporting to the Commandant, seven tribes have now come over to us. If we conscript them all, we can get three thousand able-bodied men."

Yan Jin nodded, then pointed toward distant Juzhanti and asked, "What is the situation inside Juzhanti? Have the Persians sent anyone over from Bukhara?"

"With snow this heavy, Bukhara has probably only just received word of Adhural's defeat!

Juzhanti is in utter chaos, because Adhural took nearly all the city's garrison with him. There are probably only a few hundred soldiers left in the city now.

Following the Great King's orders, I also let a defeated force into the city, to make the people inside even more panicked." As he spoke, Pei Shengyuan lowered his voice.

"We also picked out a few officers and deliberately sent them back. I promised them that as long as they agree to act as our agents within, after the city falls, not only will their families be spared, but their wealth and rank will be preserved!"

"Well done!" This time Yan Jin's praise was truly from the heart. Deliberately letting a defeated force into the city to lower morale, and even knowing to plant a few agents within — that already showed real talent as a commander.

"But you should also pick some reliable men to go around Juzhanti. With the heavy snow now, the Persians cannot send a large army, but they may still send someone to Juzhanti to take charge of the defense.

If you ambush and kill that man on the road, then take his head to Juzhanti, the city can be taken."

Yan Jin patted Pei Shengyuan lightly on the shoulder, and the latter's eyes immediately lit up.

That was true indeed. The older the ginger, the spicier it is. For Commandant Yan to be the foremost brave warrior under the Great King, he really does have some skill.

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