Chapter 242: The New Master of the Land of India

At Uda Bandapura, Zhang Zhao first had the Fengtian Army take complete control of the city's defenses, then had the Khotan palace guards occupy several satellite towns near Uda Bandapura.

The sons of wealthy families from Huwen City, under Ma Yaozi's leadership, took control of some more distant towns and villages.

As for the former Samanid prisoners of the Shunyi Left Army and Shunyi Right Army, they were settled into military camps.

The best among them would get the chance to stay in India and become masters; most, after receiving rewards, would still return to Ningyuan.

Because Zhang Zhao already had his candidates for who would become masters in India.

They were the maternal clan of Cao Yanmian of the Cao family — the Han-Sun Descendants, the highland Tajiks of the Congling Plateau, from the Congling Garrison area.

The Congling Garrison had existed for over a hundred years, and the Tajiks around the garrison city had long grown accustomed to living alongside the Han.

The ruling class among them could even speak Chinese. Cao Yanmian's first lessons in Chinese had come from his maternal uncle, a member of the former royal family of the Pantuo Kingdom.

With such ties, plus the legend of the Han-Sun Descendants, the highland Tajiks were the people Zhang Zhao could trust most in Anxi and Transoxiana, aside from the Khotanese.

Conveniently, the highland Tajiks were also of standard white racial stock, so coming to India to become Brahmins and Kshatriyas would not seem out of place.

Therefore, when Zhang Zhao entered India — no, it should be said, from the moment Zhang Zhao set out from Bukhara — he had already sent word to the Tajiks on the plateau, telling them to prepare to move south into India and become masters.

And the greatest obstacle to the highland Tajiks' southward migration into India — the Guge Kingdom of the Ali region on the snowy plateau — had already reached a reconciliation with the Khotan Golden Kingdom the previous year.

Historically, Li Shengtian had constantly fought with the Guge Kingdom over certain Tibetan tribes in this region; there had been no shortage of battles.

But in this time and space, Zhang Zhao had helped Li Shengtian seize three large territories — Shule, Suyab, and Ningyuan — and the frozen soil of the Guge Kingdom's snowy plateau instantly lost its appeal for Li Shengtian.

Just as Zhang Zhao won his great victory over the combined forces of Juzhanti and Yusuf at Three Waters Bay outside Kesai City, Li Shengtian and the Guge king, Kyide Nyimagon, swore a blood oath outside Khotan and called each other brothers.

Li Shengtian gained over one thousand households — that is, more than seven thousand fierce Tibetans — to fill Shule and Ningyuan.

Kyide Nyimagon received, as compensation, fine white flour worth fifty thousand strings of cash annually, Khotan white cotton cloth, wine, and a small quantity of iron tools.

Furthermore, Li Shengtian granted permission for two caravans per year to enter Khotan for trade, in exchange for Kyide Nyimagon's agreement to allow nine thousand highland Tajiks to pass through Guge Kingdom territory on their way to India.

Once the highland Tajiks arrived, Zhang Zhao would immediately divide the Shahi Kingdom into two parts.

The area around Uda Bandapura and to its north, plus a portion of Pala Kingdom land to be seized in the east, would become the kingdom of the highland Tajiks.

The edict appointing Cao Yanmian's maternal uncle as Lord of Zhenyuan had already been issued by Li Shengtian. They would convert to Brahmanism and rule this region for generations as Brahmins and Kshatriyas.

This place has a population of over four million! The highland Tajiks, numbering only nine thousand in total, would be like diving headfirst into a jar of honey.

At the same time, the area south of Uda Bandapura — that is, the lower Indus River, the region around what would later be the Hyderabad District of Sindh Province in Pakistan — would be granted to Bahmamaha.

He would take more than eight hundred Kshatriya households with him to become king. As for where the original Kshatriyas of this place would go, Zhang Zhao did not care. Whoever dared resist would give Great King Zhang the perfect excuse to confiscate all their property.

Just as he was preparing to eat lunch, Zhang Zhao received word that Fan Shun and Guo Guangsheng had returned. Their mission was actually more important than his victory here, so setting aside his hunger, Zhang Zhao summoned them at once.

"Great King, I have not failed my mission. Your general has returned!" Fan Shun said cheerfully, pointing to the wooden chests the guards were carrying in.

Although during the Pala Kingdom mission Guo Guangsheng had been chief envoy and Fan Shun deputy envoy, to Zhang Zhao, ten Guo Guangshengs were not worth a single Fan Shun.

Because Fan Shun was a member of the Hanshan Guard, a personal bodyguard of Great King Zhang, and his grandfather had been a personal guard of Zhang Zhao's father. The brothers Fan Quan and Fan Shun were Zhang Zhao's true inner circle.

"The Pala king, Rajyapala, was just as the Great King predicted. He refused to conclude an alliance and was unwilling to send troops to assist.

But he was willing to provide some materials on the Pala Kingdom. At the same time, he personally wrote a reply letter to the Great King."

As Fan Shun spoke, Guo Guangsheng behind him immediately handed Rajyapala of the Pala Kingdom's reply letter to Zhang Zhao.

Zhang Zhao skimmed it briefly. Truly, one cannot judge a person by appearance. People said Rajyapala was a do-nothing king, but in reality, this man had a remarkably clear-eyed understanding of himself and the Pala Kingdom.

Although the letter was full of flattery toward Zhang Zhao and expressed delight at the arrival of a Buddha-worshipping monarch, Zhang Zhao savored it carefully and detected an undertone of distance and fear.

Rajyapala both hoped Zhang Zhao truly had come to cooperate with him in swallowing the Pala Kingdom, yet feared that without the Pala Kingdom as a buffer, Zhang Zhao would swallow the Pala Kingdom too.

This letter was not a greeting; it was Rajyapala personally asking Zhang Zhao — the noble Gur Khan — what his true purpose in coming to India was.

However, Zhang Zhao did not intend to reply. What Rajyapala thought mattered not at all. Zhang Zhao only wanted his reply letter.

"Fan Shun, Guo Guangsheng, take this letter and the Pala Kingdom materials you brought back to Cao Yanming at the Works Office immediately.

Have him forge them as quickly as possible, then find a way to deliver them into the hands of the Pala Kingdom's king."

Under Cao Yanming were more than a dozen Samanid court espionage experts taken from the Ark Citadel in Bukhara. They had originally been kept by Nasr II and were skilled at imitating handwriting and forging letters — now they would be put to good use.

Zhang Zhao's request was simple: once they had Rajyapala's handwritten letter and the materials from the Pala Kingdom, these Samanid court spies would forge a batch of letters and documents.

The content would concern the Pala Kingdom's proactive proposal that Gur Khan and the Pala Kingdom jointly attack the Pala Kingdom from two sides.

The letter agreed to strike in the fifth month of the following year, and Zhang Zhao, upon receiving the invitation, would also personally reply, stating that after completely pacifying the Shahi Kingdom's territory, he would begin preparations for a large-scale invasion.

The Pala Kingdom, as the most powerful of India's three great powers, possessed over six hundred thousand square kilometers of fertile land. Nearly all of the richest regions of the middle and upper Ganges were in their hands.

Over ten million people lived there, with roughly six thousand traditional Kshatriya warrior households, and over two million people among the Vaishya and Shudra classes eligible for conscription — twice the strength of the Shahi Kingdom.

Moreover, they had been militarily vigorous of late, having warred with the Pala Kingdom for years and forced the Pala Kingdom to move its capital twice. Their psychological advantage was obvious.

If they learned of the Pala Kingdom's plan, they would certainly choose to crush the Pala Kingdom first, so they could deal with Zhang Zhao without distraction.

Then Zhang Zhao's opportunity would come. First, he could use the moment when the Pala Kingdom mobilized its forces eastward to attack the Pala Kingdom, and lead his army down the Ganges.

Finally, he could wait a little — wait until the Pala Kingdom was on the verge of destruction and Nalanda Monastery had been occupied — then emerge as the savior.

Surely the reward of merely a title of Dharma-Protecting King, plus obtaining some Buddhist treasures and scriptures from Nalanda Monastery, Vikramashila Monastery, and the great esoteric temple of Odantapuri, would not be too much to ask?

For example, the life-size seated statue of Shakyamuni Buddha at Nalanda Monastery, and the life-size standing statue of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva.

The Yogacarabhumi-sastra personally copied by Tang Sanzang, and the Mahavairocana Sutra and Vajrasekhara Sutra said to have been hand-copied by King Prasenajit, a disciple of Shakyamuni.

These scriptures and treasures would all be destroyed in the future when the Delhi Sultanate conquered India. Hmm! This move — this move is called "I'll safeguard them for you."

As for the possibility that they might refuse to give them.

Hmm? Do you think Great King Zhang's men are all good-natured gentlemen? They won't just take them by force themselves?

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