Chapter 252: Why Is It Yelu Deguang Again?

"Prince Taila, I, Khan of Khans, am willing to honor the agreement made with King Krishila II.

The four rashtras in the southwest of the Balihara Kingdom, together with nine vishaya territories, shall be returned to you, and according to the will, they shall be divided equally among you three brothers!"

Rashtra and vishaya were administrative units of the Balihara dynasty. The former meant domain, kingdom, and the like, and could be regarded as provincial vassal administrative units with a certain degree of autonomy; vishaya was a level lower, roughly equivalent to a county.

Great Khan Zhang's move of seizing the initiative was extremely formidable. It not only destroyed the foundation of Crown Prince Taila and the others' resentment toward him, but also seized the moral high ground.

I am doing this only for the sake of the promise I made to your royal father. Not killing you and giving you four rashtras is absolutely the height of benevolence and duty.

Secondly, Zhang Zhao also won the unanimous praise of the nobles who had come to witness the ceremony. Although they had heard through various channels that the Gur Khan was ruthless, black-hearted, and shameless, when they saw him today — wait, that's not right!

How is this ruthless, black-hearted, and shameless? This is completely a gentleman who keeps his word!

Finally, with just these few sentences, Zhang Zhao smoothly turned himself into an elder of Crown Prince Taila and the other two, even though Crown Prince Taila was more than twice his age.

Crown Prince Taila forced a smile onto his face. Damn it all — the Gur Khan across from him had driven his father to death, killed two of his younger brothers and one maternal uncle, and still he had to accept the Gur Khan's charity.

But Crown Prince Taila did not dare show it on his face. He knelt very respectfully on one knee and accepted Zhang Zhao's charity in the posture of a vassal.

"Noble Khagan, Taila thanks you for your mercy and generosity!"

Hmm, he said thanks, and he knew it was mercy and generosity, but Crown Prince Taila's heart did not think so.

What he thought in his heart was: once he had accumulated enough strength, he would surely revive the Balihara dynasty.

His two younger brothers, however, did not think this way. The smiles on their faces and the grateful words from their mouths were entirely genuine.

Because Taila was the crown prince, he was destined to have everything. But if the Gur Khan had not come, marginal princes like the two of them — let alone one and a half rashtras — might not even have gotten a single vishaya.

After dividing the several rashtras in the southeast among Crown Prince Taila and his brothers, Zhang Zhao carved out three more rashtras from the northeast of the Balihara Kingdom. These were his spoils of war.

This territory was precisely the Prayaga region where he had already worn the crown. A Greater Prayaga Governorate would be established here, under the jurisdiction of the Zhenyuan State.

But in reality, Zhang Zhao divided this place into small plots of land and created a great many petty lords.

Could such fragmented little territories hold up after Zhang Zhao left? Certainly not — but that was exactly the point!

Zhang Zhao had never thought of seizing much territory in India at this time. That was impossible.

What he needed was only a claim of ownership. With this claim, in twenty or thirty years, there would be plenty of time, manpower, and resources to deal with it.

And if no one made a move on his territory, how could he have the face to come back and tear it all down to rebuild again?

Two-thirds of the Balihara Kingdom had now been carved away. The remaining one-third was the finest part — the Kanyakubja region.

This part, Zhang Zhao intended to give to the Buddhist establishment headed by Nalanda Monastery. But whether they deserved such rich land would depend on whether they played along.

However, Zhang Zhao would not discuss this matter with Master Baotongzi and the others right now. He had simply invited them to make the Buddhists' eyes burn with envy, and then he would give them a chance to discuss and deliberate.

As soon as the grand court assembly at the White Moon Palace ended, Crown Prince Taila and the rest of the Balihara royal family were directly driven away by Zhang Zhao.

When they departed, more than one hundred fifty thousand Shudras and Dalits, with the prisoner army of over ten thousand organized by Yan Jin as its backbone, were moved out from the four southeastern rashtras.

These people were Great King Zhang's spoils of war. They would be relocated in eight to ten batches to the Ningyuan Governorate, becoming serfs of a group of Khotanese great nobles such as Li Shengtian and Zhang Zhao.

Crown Prince Taila and the others left, but Zhang Zhao would not let the disgraced King of Pala, Rajyapala, leave.

The Lying-Flat King had lost all face over these past few months. Even if he returned to Rajagriha, he probably really could only be a lying-flat king from now on.

Zhang Zhao would not let Rajyapala leave, first because the Pala royal house had not yet sent the gold and silver that, by unwritten rules, they were supposed to send.

Second, Zhang Zhao also wanted Rajyapala to keep losing face a while longer, to make it easier for the Pala dynasty to fall into even greater chaos later.

"What a fine place! Great King! This India is truly not bad — great cities of hundreds of thousands of people, rice paddies that can yield at least two harvests a year, and the Ganges for irrigation.

Even in the Central Plains, such fine places are rare now. What is even rarer is that the people below are so easy to rule!"

Amid the grand banquet, Yan Jin held up a glass goblet and walked over to Zhang Zhao, sighing repeatedly.

Kanyakubja's wealth surpassed even Zhenyuan City, the capital of the Shahi kingdom. Even Yan Jin, who was unshakably determined to return to the Central Plains, had begun to feel reluctant to leave.

Zhang Zhao shook his head without the slightest reluctance. "Chengjie, do not let the prosperity before your eyes blind you. The reason we have been able to take control of this place so smoothly is that we have been doing things according to their rules.

It is also because I, Zhang Erlang, have not excessively encroached on the interests of the local nobles great and small. I have targeted only the very few at the very top, and what I have plundered is only the treasure of those people.

If we truly wanted to rule this place, conflict would follow. Counting the Shunyi Left and Right Armies and the Huwen City sons' cavalry, we have only fifteen thousand men. We do not have the strength to occupy this place in a short time."

Great Khan Zhang was still very clear-headed. He now came and went like the wind, sweeping through the middle and upper Ganges and the middle and upper Indus. Apart from his own strength being sufficient, it was exactly as he himself said — what he had touched was only the cake of the few at the very top of India.

Zhang Zhao's situation in Kanyakubja was, strangely, similar to Yelu Deguang's entry into Kaifeng back then.

Back then, if Yelu Deguang had only devoured the interests of the Later Tang royal house, and had been willing to enfeoff Han Chinese Military Governors with real power, perhaps he could have returned north smoothly with great quantities of gold and silver.

But he was insatiable and had no method, and in the end could only go back in the form of an emperor's jerky.

So Zhang Zhao had learned enough lessons from Yelu Deguang. He would not be dazzled by the prosperity of Kanyakubja. He would take only what he ought to take. As for whether it became a mess after he left — that was not his concern.

After all, this was a territory of roughly one million two or three hundred thousand square kilometers. Ruling it with just over ten thousand soldiers was fundamentally impossible.

And he could not show too much greed. If he were greedy, his subordinates very likely could not be pulled back. Even Yan Jin had entertained such thoughts, let alone others.

"The Great King's admonition is right. Your servant has been blinded by the splendor before his eyes!"

Yan Jin rubbed his nose somewhat sheepishly. He really had just been thinking that perhaps he should simply stay in India.

"Between you and me, do not use the word admonition. Though we are lord and vassal, in righteousness we are brothers!" Zhang Zhao waved his hand, signaling Yan Jin not to be so tense.

"If Chengjie likes this place, then take a few more wives and concubines in the future, leave a few more descendants, and after the affairs of the Central Plains are settled, let them come again to the land of India, as you and I, lord and vassal, have done, and establish a few more lord-and-vassal kingdoms!"

"Well said, Great King! I, Ma Yaozi, will also sire a few more sons, and someday send one to India to be a king of some place or other!"

Just then, Ma Yaozi and a few others happened to pass by, laughing and bouncing. They heard Zhang Zhao's last sentence and immediately began shouting excitedly.

At once, the banquet hall was filled with wild whoops and howls, and everyone was beside themselves with excitement.

The banquet grew more and more raucous. The hundred or so officers and former members of the Hanshan group drank with growing excitement. Zhang Zhao was excited too, but after the excitement, there was always a certain restlessness.

Several times he could not help glancing toward a palace building to the left of the banquet hall. Queen Awachi and her maidservants had been arranged to stay over there.

Guo Tiance's sharp eyes caught Zhang Zhao's expression.

"Ahem!" He coughed twice dryly, then suddenly raised his voice to something like a shout.

"Your Highness Rajya, just now why did you drink three cups with Troop Commander Bai, but only one cup with me? Do you look down on my humble office and low rank?"

The Lying-Flat King of Pala was already dizzy and muddled from drink by this time. A pampered king like him could not outdrink these rough men of the battlefield.

He had long since lost track of how many cups he had drunk with Bai Congxin — he could not even remember whether he had drunk with Bai Congxin at all!

Watching Guo Tiance approach with a wine cup in hand, he of course knew that Guo Tiance was by no means some lowly, insignificant official — damn it, this was the personal civil official of the Juer Khan!

Rajyapala, whose every thought was of how to get the Juer Khan to release him and let him go home, could only force himself to rally, and staggered unsteadily over to Guo Tiance.

"Th-then... then let us also drink three cups together!"

"Three cups will not do now. I have found a kindred spirit in Your Highness, and I insist we drink until dawn!"

Although Guo Tiance was speaking to Rajyapala, his face was turned toward Zhang Zhao.

Zhang Zhao's heart stirred, and he did struggle inwardly for a moment or two, but his legs would not obey him at all, and with uneven steps he headed toward the palace quarters where Queen Avachi was resting.

Inside the palace quarters, Queen Avachi was also somewhat distracted. She could not help recalling that night in the crude little room; that fierce battle kept surfacing unbidden in her mind.

Clang! The door was shoved heavily open. Queen Avachi cried out and sprang to her feet, a tingling numbness spreading all over her body.

The figure at the doorway was none other than the Juer Khan, the man she did not know how to deal with.

A voice that sounded like an old man's, but in truth a strong, handsome young bull — utterly unlike the real old man, King Boluo the Supine.

"Ah! N-no... don't!" The tingling, numb Queen Avachi felt herself swept up as if riding the clouds, and then she was hoisted onto the shoulder of the young bull Zhang Zhao, who carried her toward the bedchamber within.

"Great Khan, can you release the king?" Queen Avachi asked in a small voice.

Zhang Zhao's steps were swift, and he said nothing at all.

"Great Khan, your servant does not wish to leave Rajagriha. All of your servant's family are in Rajagriha!" Queen Avachi summoned her last courage and said softly.

She was very content with her position as queen of the Kingdom of Bolo, and cherished it. She did not wish to be treated as a trophy of war, carried off thousands of li away, never to see her family again.

With a thud, Zhang Zhao tossed the soft body from his shoulder onto a wide brocade quilt.

This is the advantage of being a Cao the Wretch — you want to take responsibility, but the other party does not even want you to.

All technique, not a shred of feeling!

Not bad at all!

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