Chapter 257: Still Not Unworthy of Being a Wealthy Old Man? (A Reader-Insert Character from

In the Guiyi Army's Dunhuang city, although it was only the first quarter of the you hour — that is, 5:15 in the afternoon — all six gates of Dunhuang were tightly shut.

Not only were all the gates of the outer city and inner city locked early, but even in the broad sheep-and-horse enclosure outside, people were forbidden to go out and move about.

Closing the city gates so early brought great inconvenience to the traveling merchants passing through Dunhuang.

Yet no one complained; they only wanted to quickly replenish supplies and leave this place. Even the trading market that had originally been held in the sheep-and-horse enclosure outside Dunhuang had been moved to Shouchang Town, southwest of Dunhuang.

Something big was about to happen in Dunhuang — this was the unanimous judgment of everyone.

Ever since the Guiyi Army's pillar that holds up the heavens, its golden beam that spans the seas — Military Governor and Great King of the West, Cao Yijin — had fallen too ill to rise from his bed, the likelihood of bloody conflict erupting in Dunhuang had been soaring.

One side in this potential bloody conflict was Cao Yijin's eldest son Cao Yuande and second son Cao Yuanshen, born of his former principal wife Lady Suo, along with his third son Cao Yuanzhong, born of Lady Song.

The Suo and Song clans were both great families of the Guiyi Army, and what they represented was naturally the Guiyi Army's local faction.

The other side was the faction of Cao Yuantai, the fourth son born to Lady Li, the Heavenly Princess — youngest daughter of the Ganzhou Uyghur Khagan Renmei, whom Cao Yijin had married.

Back then, when Zhang Zhao's father Zhang Chengfeng had been defeated by the Ganzhou Uyghurs, he had been forced to acknowledge Khagan Renmei as his father, bringing tremendous humiliation upon the entire Guiyi Army.

When the Cao clan replaced the Zhangs, Cao Yijin therefore sought a marriage alliance with Khagan Renmei and married his youngest daughter, the Heavenly Princess Lady Li, cleverly transforming the humiliating "father-khagan" into a "father-in-law khagan."

But this did not come without a price. After the Heavenly Princess Lady Li married into the family, Cao Yijin's original principal wife Lady Suo was forced to yield her position, and Lady Li thus became Cao Yijin's principal wife.

At the same time, Khagan Renmei sent two squads of Ganzhou warriors as part of the dowry. These Ganzhou warriors were the bravest fighters among the Uyghurs, and for more than ten years they had been an important guarantee of the Heavenly Princess Lady Li's ability to maintain her own status.

Moreover, in the two prefectures of Gua and Sha and half of Suzhou controlled by the Guiyi Army, these years had seen an influx of large numbers of Shazhou Uyghurs who had come down from the Qilian Mountains.

The Guiyi Army's government offices, coveting the taxes they paid and unwilling to provoke disputes with the Ganzhou Uyghurs, had relaxed restrictions year by year.

As a result, the Guiyi Army, which had only a little over two hundred thousand Han and sinicized Sogdians, now had thirty to forty thousand Shazhou Uyghurs pasturing their herds across the two prefectures of Gua and Sha — and most of these people had also been bought off by the Heavenly Princess Lady Li.

Of course, the greatest price of marrying the Heavenly Princess Lady Li was only now becoming apparent.

Now that Cao Yijin's days were clearly numbered, by custom, once Lady Suo had lost her status as principal wife, Cao Yuande had lost the legal basis for succession.

But how could the entire Guiyi Army possibly allow the Ganzhou Uyghurs' Heavenly Princess Lady Li and her son to succeed?

The two sides had shared a blood feud going back to the second-generation Guiyi Army Military Governor Zhang Huaishen; they had fought and killed each other for nearly a hundred years, each had forced the other to sign treaties beneath their city walls, and each had nearly destroyed the other's state.

Therefore the native people of the Guiyi Army would rather have Zhang Zhao return and carry out a great reckoning than let Lady Li's son Cao Yuantai succeed.

But the Heavenly Princess Lady Li also had no way out. If she could not secure the Guiyi Army's succession, she and her five children would sooner or later die without a burial place.

Besides, she was by nature a person of extreme lust for power; otherwise she would never have been chosen by the Ganzhou Khagan Renmei back then to be married into the Guiyi Army.

And so both sides were preparing — preparing for the moment Cao Yijin breathed his last, when a bloody internecine slaughter would likely erupt at once.

"Father, the Sixth Young Lord has sent word — the old master has just lost consciousness!" In the Guiyi Army's government compound, Cao Yuande's second son Cao Yanjing came rushing in at a run.

Cao Yuande's eldest son had died young, so his second son Cao Yanjing was in fact his eldest son, and also the eldest of the Cao family's third generation.

The "Sixth Young Lord" in Cao Yanjing's mouth was Cao Yuanzhong's eldest son, the full younger brother of Lady Cao Sanniang, and Li Shengtian's third son-in-law — the Sixth Young Lord Cao, Cao Yanlu.

Now both sides had people closely guarding Cao Yijin, and outside the Palace of Eternal Celebration, where Cao Yijin lived, both sides had planted large numbers of people.

The Heavenly Princess Lady Li in particular, using the advantage of being the principal wife, had in effect sealed off the area inside and outside Cao Yijin's bedchamber.

Cao Yuande and the others had very limited means of obtaining information about Cao Yijin's physical condition, and the most important of these was Cao Yanlu.

This was because Cao Yanlu's wife, the Heavenly Sage Princess, was Li Shengtian's third daughter. She had with her a hundred Khotanese warriors who had come as part of her dowry, and moreover, the Khotanese Golden Kingdom now awed all of Anxi and in fact controlled the western section of the Silk Road.

Therefore the Ganzhou Uyghur Heavenly Princess Lady Li dared to cut off the inside from the outside and detain the serving women and servants sent in by the three Cao brothers, but she absolutely did not dare touch the Khotanese Heavenly Sage Princess.

This Khotanese princess thus became the Cao brothers' most important source of information.

Hearing this, Cao Yuande raised his head to the heavens and let out a long sigh, and a few turbid tears rolled from his eyes.

"Is this not calamity? My father is gravely ill, and my stepmother cuts off the inside from the outside. Not only can I not personally serve his medicine, I cannot even see my old father's face once! This is not the way of a son!"

"What stepmother! Hah! That Uyghur woman has the heart of a snake and scorpion, far more vicious than the former Consort Wei! She has come to bring down our Cao family!"

Cao Yuanshen suddenly rose from his folding couch, his beard and hair bristling, gnashing his teeth.

Back then, when his mother Lady Suo had been forced to yield the position of principal wife to the Heavenly Princess Lady Li, it had brought the young Cao Yuanshen an immense sense of humiliation.

"Eldest Brother, Second Brother, what are we to do now? Give us a decision, will you? If anything happens to Father, we won't even be able to attend his deathbed — how can that be what sons should do?"

Cao Yuanzhong was not as agitated as his two elder brothers, because his mother Lady Song was not the principal wife, but he still cared very much about being able to attend his father's deathbed.

Cao Yuanzhong was not as agitated as his two elder brothers, because his mother, Lady Song, was not the principal wife. Still, Cao Yuanzhong cared very much about being able to attend his father at his deathbed.

Just as the roomful of Cao family members of the second and third generations were all seething with anger and cursing the Heavenly Princess Lady Li, an extremely discordant cold snort sounded within the room.

Everyone looked toward the source of the cold snort and saw a man dressed in a moon-white round-collared robe, dressed as a scholar, carefully savoring tea from a porcelain bowl.

The scholar wore no head-cloth, his hair simply gathered in a net cap, giving him an air of refined elegance without vulgarity.

In terms of appearance, the scholar should have been quite handsome — a small square face, a straight nose, a tall and slender build — but that pair of eyes ruined the overall impression.

Those eyes were too aggressive, too unrestrained. When they sized you up, you would feel, in a daze, that he had already completed a valuation of your worth in his mind.

Anyone who saw those eyes would involuntarily think of the phrase "the gaze of a hawk and the watch of a wolf" — the very image of a treacherous minister!

The scholar paid not the slightest attention to the anger on everyone's faces, still sipping in small mouthfuls, as if the bowl of fragrant tea in his hand were the finest nectar and jade liquor, his narrow eyes squinting to look even more cunning.

"What gall! My Cao family has treated you as an honored guest! How dare you insult me? Do you want to test Cao's sharp blade?"

Cao Yanjing, who had been bottling up a bellyful of rage, exploded at once. He leapt up, rushed before the scholar, and made to draw the ceremonial saber at his waist.

"The eldest young lord's very life is already in danger, and you still care about insults? If you have the courage, go draw your blade before the Uyghurs — then you would be a true man!"

The scholar glanced sidelong at Cao Yanjing, not taking him seriously in the least.

"Wretched creature! How dare you draw a blade here? Stand down!"

Cao Yuande, whose heart was already churning with vexation, slammed his right hand heavily onto the folding couch and roared at Cao Yanjing.

"Hmph!" Cao Yanjing glared fiercely at the scholar, then was huffily pulled back to Cao Yuande's side by others.

"Secretary Pei, I respect you as a descendant of Pei Wenzhong, a scion of a renowned family, and have treated you with the utmost courtesy. Now that the Cao family is in distress, you say not a word, and instead sit here showing contempt for us. Is this the guest etiquette of the Pei clan of Wenxi?"

Cao Yuande said this while forcibly suppressing his anger. He had never liked this Secretary Pei, because of those eyes — Cao Yuande had disliked him at first sight.

It was only because the man was a descendant of a renowned family, and Shazhou was a remote region where it was rare to have a distinguished scholar from the Central Plains visit, that he had been treated with special favor. He had never expected the man to be so wildly insolent!

It was only because he was a descendant of a distinguished family, and because Shazhou was so remote that a refined scholar from the Central Plains was a rare visitor, that they had treated him with such generous courtesy — never expecting the man to turn out so wildly insolent!

"Sheren" and "young lord" were both honorifics for men in this era, though "young lord" was used more often, while "sheren" was reserved for those of exalted status or sons of distinguished families.

Duke Pei Wenzhong was none other than Pei Du, the famed late-Tang chief minister who for twenty years moved between court and provinces, his person bearing the security of the state and the weight of the times. "Wenzhong" was his posthumous name.

Though the Pei clan of Wenxi was not among the Five Surnames and Seven Great Houses, it was still one of the Great Tang's foremost families. Who knew why a scion of such a house would travel a thousand li to Dunhuang under Guiyi Army rule?

"Forgive me, Lord Commissioner! It is not that I wish to humiliate anyone, but you gentlemen are on the brink of disaster and do not know it. With all contact cut off within and without, the Great King has in fact fallen into Uyghur hands. He is advanced in years — how much longer can he hold out?

If you do not decide soon, and instead stand here indulging in clever talk, will you only regret it once the axe is at your necks?"

When the scholar heard Cao Yuande speak, he finally set down his tea bowl and cupped his hands toward Cao Yuande.

Yet even as he explained, his expression — no matter how one looked at it — still seemed to mock.

"Then what does Sheren Pei suggest we do?" Cao Yuanshen, the third brother, who had long wearied of the others' indecision, sat up straight and asked.

"Of course you should summon your armored men at once, storm in tonight, and wipe out the Uyghur princess and her offspring together!"

Sheren Pei rose to his feet, his face instantly filling with ruthless resolve. His right hand formed a blade, and when he said "wipe out together," he slashed it down hard, making everyone's hearts lurch.

"Pei Yuan! Pei Yuanying! No matter how you dress it up, it is still the same old strike-first talk." Cao Yuanshen could listen no longer. He stood and jabbed a finger at Sheren Pei.

"Do you not know the Uyghurs are guarding the very door of the Great King's bedchamber? They say that to leave a corpse unburied and fall upon one another in arms is already the cruelest of human tragedies. Must you have us slaughter until rivers of blood flow before our own father's face?"

So Sheren Pei's name was Pei Yuan. In this era, to call someone so bluntly by name — especially by their courtesy name — was a grave discourtesy, even an insult.

At this, Pei Yuan immediately bristled. He gave a cold snort and looked sidelong at Cao Yuanshen with contempt.

"I truly wonder whether you Caos of Shazhou are really descended from the Cao clan of Qiao Commandery — whether you are truly heirs of Emperor Wu of Wei.

What time do you think this is? The Ganzhou Uyghurs began mobilizing three months ago, waiting only for the snows to ease before marching west. And you still stand here prating about filial piety!

If you are all slaughtered, will the Great King then smile from the netherworld? Pedantry! Pedantry! What, is the lesson of Cao Zhaobo — 'still no worse off than a rich householder' — not enough for you?"

Cao Zhaobo was Cao Shuang, and "still no worse off than a rich householder" was a laughingstock for the ages. These words were vicious indeed, and every Cao in the room, great and small, was instantly fuming with rage.

Moreover, because the Shazhou Caos had absorbed large numbers of Sogdian Caos into their genealogy, what they dreaded and feared most was being told they were not descendants of the Qiao Commandery Cao clan. Pei Yuan's words had struck precisely at the most sensitive spot in their hearts.

At once, the enraged three generations of Caos surged forward, ready to seize Pei Yuan and beat him.

But at that very moment, a young lady in a light crimson pomegranate-flower padded robe kicked the door open with a bang and dashed in.

The padded robe on this young lady was no simple thing. It was a high-grade product from Khotan — thin, light, and warm — a treasure beyond price in Dunhuang. No one possessed one except her, her mother Lady Song, and her elder sister Sanniang.

"Nineteen, what are you running here for?" Cao Yuanzhong asked with a frown.

This young lady, her small face flushed red from running, was none other than the fiancée of Great King Zhang — Cao Yuanzhong's youngest daughter, Cao Shijiu, Cao Yanxi.

"Father! Sixth Brother sent me to tell you — there is trouble at Qingyuan Palace. The Tiansheng Princess tried to enter just now, and the Uyghur warriors actually barred her way!" Cao Yanxi said breathlessly.

"Disaster!" Cao Yuande roared, cold sweat streaming down his face. Every Cao in the room, great and small, went pale.

Something must have happened to the Great King — perhaps he had already passed away. Otherwise the Uyghur princess would never have dared block the Khotan princess from entering to visit him.

"Lord Commissioner! The Cao clan stands on the edge of ruin. There is still time to summon the armored men!"

Pei Yuan let out a yelp and sprang forward, inwardly cursing Cao Yuande and the others back eighteen generations.

He had urged Cao Yuande several times to kill the Uyghur Heavenly Princess, Lady Li. If the Caos fell, could he possibly escape?

Even as he spoke, Pei Yuan stole a glance at that seemingly harmless little girl. If Cao Yuande still dared not make up his mind, he would go cling to Cao Shijiu's leg in a moment.

For the Uyghur Heavenly Princess would dare kill anyone, but she would never dare touch Cao Shijiu — because her betrothed was Zhang Erlang, the young lord whose might awed the Western Regions.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan would not have to shamelessly cling to a little girl's leg. After his expression shifted several times, Cao Yuande finally stamped his foot hard.

"Yuanshen, Yuanzhong, go out at once and summon the armored men in the city. Follow me into Qingyuan Palace and rescue the Great King!"

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