Chapter 258: Blood and Fire at the Qingyuan Palace

Screams, the clash of slaughter, the ring of blades striking blades — all of it resounded outside Cao Yijin's bedchamber in the Qingyuan Palace.

The three Cao brothers — Cao Yuande and his two younger brothers — had gathered four hundred armored soldiers, and together with the Heavenly Saint Princess of Khotan's one hundred Khotanese warriors, launched a surprise attack on the three hundred-plus Uyghur armored soldiers commanded by the princess Lady Li.

The two sides fought a fierce battle throughout the Qingyuan Palace. The pitiful Cao Yijin, already paralyzed by a stroke and unable to speak, was carried about by the chaotic troops as they dodged from place to place.

The combatants chased each other room by room, and in the darkness of night, this kind of palace-struggle slaughter seemed especially cruel.

At last, in the yin hour, the three Cao brothers, with their greater numbers, won the victory — but they had also battered the Qingyuan Palace into ruins. Amid the raging flames, the despairing Uyghur princess Lady Li set herself on fire and died.

The two sons and two daughters she had borne for Cao Yijin — the eldest sixteen, the youngest nine — were all mercilessly cut down.

The three hundred seventy Ganzhou Uyghur warriors, along with the Shazhou Uyghur desperadoes Lady Li had gathered under her, were all beheaded as well.

"Secretary Pei! It is thanks to Secretary Pei's insistence on seizing and killing this wicked woman! Who would have thought the vile creature had secretly kept more than a hundred Uyghur desperadoes right here in the Qingyuan Palace — her intent was worthy of death!"

Amid the blood pooling on the ground, the second brother Cao Yuanshen laughed loudly as he ran over to Pei Yuan. It truly had been a close call.

The three Cao brothers had originally thought the princess Lady Li had no more than two hundred warriors under her command, but in the end there were close to four hundred.

Pei Yuan also breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. His own head was finally safe. He understood at last the despair Huan Fan must have felt when he urged Cao Shuang in vain.

It was like watching oneself walk straight down the road to death with no way to stop it. Fortunately, Cao Yuande had ultimately made the right decision.

In an inconspicuous corner of the Qingyuan Palace, a hero of his generation — the man who had overthrown the Zhang family's Guiyi Army and founded the Cao family's Guiyi Army, the lord who had led the Guiyi Army, then perilously fragile, into renewed prosperity, the restorer of the Guiyi Army, Cao Yijin — lay on a crude wooden plank like a corpse.

Not far away, his eldest son Cao Yuande had just finished a bloody showdown with his own principal wife, the Uyghur princess Lady Li. The price was that after Lady Li's suicide, her two sons and two daughters had been wiped out along with her.

"Grandfather, don't cry! Yanxi is here with you!" Everyone — all the second and third generations of the Cao family — was busy settling accounts and hunting down survivors. Only Cao Yanxi and the Heavenly Saint Princess knelt beside the wooden plank.

Cao Yanxi kept wiping away tears for Cao Yijin, who could not move his body or speak.

"Nineteenth Sister, stay here and watch over Grandfather. I'll go look for Father and the others!" the Heavenly Saint Princess said to Cao Yanxi. The two of them were especially close.

Because before the Heavenly Saint Princess had married into the Cao family, Zhang Zhao had already conquered Shule for the Khotanese kingdom, and she knew very well what standing this cousin — no blood relation, yet closer than kin — held in her father's heart.

While the rest of the Cao family still believed Li Shengtian would not choose between the Cao family and Zhang Zhao, the Heavenly Saint Princess knew that her father had in fact made his choice long ago.

But the Heavenly Saint Princess was indifferent to this. Her eldest uncle Cao Yuande inheriting the position of Military Governor of the Guiyi Army was probably not as advantageous to her as her cousin Zhang Zhao succeeding to it.

For she was Zhang Zhao's own maternal cousin, and her sister-in-law was Zhang Zhao's principal wife. That bond was far closer than any eldest uncle.

The Heavenly Saint Princess was just about to go out when a crowd of people surged into the hall. Cao Yuande and the others had finally remembered that their old father was still lying in the corner.

"Father, your unfilial son has startled you! I had no choice! If I had not acted, others would have killed me!"

A crowd of people wailed and began performing with great effort — though perhaps there was a little sincerity mixed in.

The Heavenly Saint Princess withdrew to the side, feeling somewhat stifled, and in her heart felt a small pang of sympathy for the Uyghur princess Lady Li.

In truth, yesterday at the you hour, the Great King's illness had not worsened; it had actually lightened a little, and he could speak whole sentences again.

But the Uyghur princess took this as a final rally before death. Terrified that Cao Yijin would say something unfavorable to her, she refused to let the Heavenly Saint Princess go in to visit him — and that was what set off this bloody showdown.

Actually, the Great King waking up was not necessarily a bad thing. The Heavenly Saint Princess felt that the Great King would at least have chosen to send Lady Li back to Ganzhou, and she could have kept her life.

However, the Heavenly Saint Princess frowned with some distaste, because not far away there was a scholar who looked at a glance like no good sort, giving her a cryptic smile.

"My lord, now is not the time for weeping. The great clans of Dunhuang have yet to declare their stance, and you must win their approval as quickly as possible — for with Lady Li dead, the Ganzhou Uyghur army is right before our eyes!"

Seeing the whole crowd of Caos, great and small, weeping in a heap inside the room again, Pei Yuan sighed inwardly and spoke up quickly.

"The Secretary is right. The urgent matter now is indeed to stabilize Dunhuang. Elder Brother, you should assume the post of Acting Military Governor of the Guiyi Army at once.

Then summon the great clans of Guazhou and Shazhou, and have the three chief masters of Kaiyuan Temple, Guanyin Temple, and Lingyuan Temple, along with the Chief Monk Overseer Wang, attend.

Declare that Lady Li sought to repeat the old evil of Empress Wei, plotting to murder the Great King, and then prepare for a bloody war with the Ganzhou Uyghurs!"

Cao Yuanshen immediately grasped the issue and quickly spoke to Cao Yuande, whose eyes were blurred with tears.

Cao Yuande glanced at his old father on the wooden plank, breathing so faintly he seemed at his last gasp, and felt some hesitation in his heart. Cao Yijin, for his part, stared at Cao Yuande with eyes wide open, his lips trembling faintly.

Seeing this, Cao Yuanshen suddenly stepped forward and placed himself between Cao Yijin and Cao Yuande.

"Elder Brother! We have already gone this far — what is there left to hesitate about?"

Cao Yuande looked at the corpses being carried out the door, the thick stench of blood drifting in from all sides. He reached out and pushed aside Cao Yuanshen, who stood blocking the way, and kowtowed three times with the utmost respect to Cao Yijin.

"Father! If you must blame anyone, blame me alone!"

With that, Cao Yuande turned and looked at his second son, Cao Yanjing. "Go quickly to your maternal grandfather's house and have him ride here at full speed!"

The maternal grandfather Cao Yuande wanted Cao Yanjing to notify was not, in fact, Cao Yanjing's maternal grandfather. Strictly speaking, he was the maternal grandfather of the fourteenth Cao, Cao Yanming — Luo Yingda, Chief Commander of All Inner and Outer Cavalry and Infantry of the Guiyi Army.

This man had married Cao Yijin's ninth sister, making him Cao Yuande's uncle by marriage, and had then married his daughter to Cao Yuande as a second wife, making him Cao Yuande's father-in-law.

Chief Commander of All Inner and Outer Cavalry and Infantry was the highest military office in the Guiyi Army below the Military Governor. When Cao Yijin had campaigned far against Ganzhou, Luo Yingda had been the commander-in-chief.

The Luo family was also a great clan of Dunhuang, particularly skilled in martial matters; most of the Guiyi Army's military officers came from the Luo family.

Luo Tongda, the foremost general under Zhang Zhao's father Zhang Chengfeng, was Luo Yingda's cousin.

Ma Yaozi's former patron, Luo Xianda, the Garrison Commander of Shouchang, was also Luo Yingda's cousin.

It could be said that only by winning the Luo family's open support could Cao Yuande's self-proclaimed title of Acting Military Governor gain universal recognition.

"Sixth Brother, leave the city at once, ride to Guazhou, and report this matter to Prefect Murong!"

Cao Yanlu's eldest sister, Lady Cao Sanniang, was the daughter-in-law of Murong Guiying of Guazhou, so sending him to notify this third most powerful figure in the Guiyi Army was most appropriate.

"The rest of the Cao family's young men: don armor, take up lances, seal the gates of the inner city, and escort the Grand Guardian to the Qingxi Palace!"

Back when Zhang Chengfeng had proclaimed himself the White-Clad Son of Heaven, he had built two adjacent palaces in Dunhuang — though both were quite small in scale.

After the Cao family replaced the Zhangs, the two palaces became Cao Yijin's residence. Now that the Qingyuan Palace was largely destroyed, there was nothing for it but to return to the Qingxi Palace.

"Elder Brother, Magistrate Xue has arrived!" Just as Cao Yuande finished giving his orders and the crowd had begun to disperse, Cao Yuanzhong quietly drew near and said in a low voice.

"He came in person?" Cao Yuande's eyes widened, and his heart began to pound violently.

Magistrate Xue referred to Xue Shantong, the County Magistrate of Shouchang. Shouchang County controlled the desert to the west of the Guiyi Army's territory. It was the place where Zhang Zhao had caused trouble back then — and why Cao Yijin had sent his trusted man Xue Shantong to serve as County Magistrate of Shouchang needed no explanation.

"Take him to the rear hall, quickly!" Cao Yuande truly had a splitting headache.

No way — it couldn't be this coincidental, could it? Zhang Erlang couldn't have come back at a time like this, could he?

"Secretary Pei, please come with me to the rear hall as well!" After a moment's hesitation, Cao Yuande called for Pei Yuan too.

Cao Yuande, who had just been promoted from Deputy Military Governor of the Guiyi Army to Acting Military Governor of the Guiyi Army, felt he ought to display the magnanimity befitting a man of his new station.

Though he still disliked those eyes of Pei Yuan's, he decided that from now on he would still listen to what this Secretary Pei had to say.

"For the present crisis! The right course is still to lure him in by stratagem, and then kill him!"

In a still-intact room of the Qingyuan Palace, Pei Yuan once more performed his classic gesture before the assembly—his right hand chopped downward in a killing motion.

"Kill him? These aren't Uyghurs with only a few hundred armored men. That is the deputy king of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, a lord of a region who holds several thousand troops in his hand!"

Cao Yuanzhong's cheeks twitched three or four times in succession. Right in front of him, they were proposing to kill his son-in-law—his double son-in-law, no less. Are you fucking serious?

Cao Yuande also slowly shook his head. He glanced at his third brother Cao Yuanzhong, whose face was ashen, and then remembered that his own youngest son, Cao Yanming, was still at Zhang Zhao's side—which made him even less willing to agree to this so-called stratagem.

"I know that Zhang Erlang is the Escort Officer's son-in-law, and I know that the ties between the Cao and Zhang families are truly out of the ordinary. But though a man has no thought of harming the tiger, the tiger has a mind to harm the man.

Zhang Erlang had a fine post as deputy king in Anxi, yet he insisted on returning east. His intentions are already plain. If the Acting Military Governor and the Escort Officer do not wish to come into conflict with Zhang Erlang, then I ask: how do you propose to settle him?"

Pei Yuan's single sentence left Cao Yuande stunned. Right! Where could Zhang Erlang be settled?

If this were still the heyday of the Guiyi Army, then whether Yizhou, Suzhou, or Ganzhou—any one of those places could have given Zhang Erlang a foothold.

But now only the two prefectures of Guazhou and Shazhou remained. Shazhou belonged to their Cao family, and Guazhou to the Murong family. There was simply nowhere to settle him!

"If it were the Great King, our late lord, he would not be caught in such a dilemma as you three. He would have decided on the spot—lure Zhang Erlang in and kill him!" A cold sneer appeared at the corner of Pei Yuan's mouth as he suddenly added another remark.

The three Cao brothers were all startled at once, for they all remembered how Cao Yijin had once had someone trick Zhang Zhao's mother into sending a letter summoning him.

At the time, Cao Yijin had said plainly that if Zhang Zhao was deceived into coming, Cao Yuande was to lead axemen at once and hack him into mincemeat.

"Ah!" Cao Yuande let out a long sigh. If only they had truly chopped Zhang Zhao into mincemeat back then—where would today's troubles have come from?

"Secretary Pei, speak no more of this. I cannot do such a thing."

"The Acting Military Governor is magnanimous. But even if he cannot be killed, Zhang Erlang should still be placed under house arrest.

Magistrate Xue has reported that the two thousand-odd troops under his command have already appeared west of Shouchang, and the Ganzhou Uyghurs are certain to come west seeking revenge.

Better to use the name of the Great King, our late lord, to lure Zhang Erlang into the city, then confine him within the palace. Then open the storehouses and reward his soldiers, make them the vanguard, and send them east on campaign against Ganzhou—gradually absorbing them!"

Cao Yuande's eyes lit up. This could work! Confine Zhang Erlang, take over the two or three thousand troops he had brought back—at worst, they could guarantee him a life of wealth and ease. This plan was feasible!

"Third Brother! Then we shall have to put you through some hardship! Have Yanxi, Yanding, and the rest all brought to the Qingxi Palace! For the next few days, you will all stay within the palace."

Cao Yuanzhong was stunned, and then the expression on his face became quite a spectacle—part grief and indignation, part shock.

He had not expected that his elder brother Cao Yuande, in order to deal with Zhang Erlang, would first place his entire family under house arrest.

"Second Brother! Go west of Shouchang yourself and be sure to find Zhang Erlang. Tell him that Father is gravely ill and wishes to see him one last time. Ask him to come with only a light escort!"

"Yes! I will go at once!" Cao the second, Cao Yuanshen, acknowledged his elder brother Cao Yuande's order, then glanced at his third brother Cao Yuanzhong, whose face looked very grim.

"Third Brother, don't blame the eldest. He has his difficulties too. Whatever temper you have, you may vent it on him later—but not today!"

Outside the Qingyuan Palace, a youth stood tall as jade, with a tiger's back and bear's waist. He carried two bows on his back, one long and one short, held a long lance in his hand, and wore a hengdao saber at his waist. With sword-like brows and star-bright eyes, there was a natural heroic spirit between his brows—anyone who saw him would have to praise him as a fine young warrior!

The youth held the reins of two horses and cupped his hands in salute to a woman draped in a black robe. The black-robed woman was none other than the Tiansheng Princess of Khotan.

"Auntie need not say more. Chang'er is no longer a child, and knows what is important and what is not!

If Zhang Erlang wants to be my father, he'll have to see whether the long lance in my hand and the strong bow on my back agree. But today the matter is one of life and death, and I will be sure to deliver the message."

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