Chapter 259: Great King Zhang's Fine Son (7,000 characters, two-in-one)

Shouchang County Magistrate Xue Shantong was actually right: the force that reached Shouchang County first did indeed number only twenty-five hundred.

Because from the Khotan royal city to the Zhongyun Kingdom and then on to Shouchang was a full two thousand li or more, over a thousand li of which passed through the Taklamakan Desert. Getting two thousand men through in a single crossing was already the absolute limit of the limits.

Because on this return, Zhang Zhao had to bring back not only the armor, weapons, and equipment on his soldiers' bodies, but also his treasure worth five million strings of cash, and the soldiers together had more than two million strings' worth of goods and property that needed transporting.

These things severely limited the force's ability to carry anything else, so much so that they could not pack full loads of water and food and could only rely on the oases along the way for resupply.

But if five thousand soldiers and tens of thousands of horses and mules came through at once, no oasis could bear that resupply burden.

Moreover, there were also more than ten thousand sons of Tang who had followed him back from Anxi, men and women, old and young alike. They could not match the soldiers in stamina, discipline, or endurance of hardship.

So Zhang Zhao could only divide the eastward-bound host into five waves. The first wave of twenty-five hundred men he led personally, all of them elite soldiers.

Three hundred fully armored cavalry, one thousand Biximi and Suyab horse archers, and the remaining twelve hundred all the finest mounted heavy infantry.

The second wave, two thousand horse and foot, was led by Yin Yaozi and had probably only just set out from Khotan.

The three later waves were arranged by Wu Yuan'er and Guo Guangsheng. They would first go to the Zhongyun Kingdom and stay for a time, and only after Zhang Zhao had settled in would they choose to return east.

Even so, these twenty-five hundred elite troops, while not enough to rampage across Gua and Sha, were more than enough to protect themselves.

The Guiyi Army's current population, not counting the nomadic tribes attached to it, was roughly two hundred seventy or eighty thousand.

At maximum mobilization they could probably field seven to eight thousand men, but only in a desperate, all-or-nothing gamble with the nation's fate.

In ordinary times the standing army was only a bit over two thousand, and the reserve mobilization strength could produce another thousand or so.

That is to say, in an ordinary battle, the scale of a Guiyi Army expedition was three thousand Gua-Sha Han heavy cavalry and heavy infantry, plus one or two thousand light cavalry from the attached nomadic peoples, plus a few civilian porters hauling supplies — generally touted as ten thousand crack troops.

However, one point here needs attention: although the Guiyi Army could field only seven or eight thousand at maximum mobilization, almost all of them wore armor, and their skill in battle was passed down from generation to generation. It had a lineage.

Among them, the two or three thousand elite troops had extremely formidable fighting strength. If you put them in Anxi, beating twenty or thirty thousand Persians would be no great problem.

On the whole, the Guiyi Army was a miserable, bristling hedgehog. Whether you were a tiger or a lion, if you wanted to swallow him, at the very least he would jab you full of blood.

As for the Guiyi Army's old enemy to the east, the Ganzhou Uyghurs, they were the same kind of cockroach.

The Ganzhou Uyghurs' core population was slightly larger than the Guiyi Army's, around three hundred fifty or sixty thousand. Since they came from nomadic stock, at maximum mobilization they could field thirty or forty thousand soldiers.

And all of them were cavalry, though their armor-wearing rate could not compare with the Guiyi Army's, but it could still reach above thirty percent.

All this information was told to Zhang Zhao by Cao Sanniang, who was smiling sweetly beside him with narrowed eyes.

In these four years, Cao Sanniang had not been idle. She had compiled and tallied every detail of the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uyghurs.

From military affairs to people's livelihood, even the grudges and grievances between the great clans, all of it was extremely meticulous.

This thing, which could tentatively be called a military report, made Zhang Zhao gasp repeatedly as he listened. He had thought coming back would let him handle things with ease, but he had never imagined that these were two poor, fierce little cockroaches!

Thinking about it, it was only natural. Take the historical Ganzhou Uyghurs, for example: they were a super-cockroach that fought continuously against Western Xia and the Liao dynasty for decades before finally being beaten down.

One must understand that although Western Xia's army was never especially strong in fighting power, the Western Xia army of Li Yuanhao's era was an exception.

At the same time, the Khitan Liao dynasty, compared with the Turks, Xiongnu, and other steppe peoples of their heyday, looked a bit weak.

But that was only relative. The Liao army of the Chengtian Empress Dowager Xiao Chuo's era was still very formidable in fighting power.

And the Ganzhou Uyghurs, served in turn by the two great powers of Liao and Western Xia, held out for more than thirty years on the strength of those three hundred-odd thousand people alone.

Especially in the year of their destruction: Western Xia came first and besieged Ganzhou for more than two months; then the Liao army broke Suzhou, and then besieged Ganzhou for as long as four months and still could not take it. The Liao army then withdrew, and the Western Xia came back and fought for another two months.

The two great powers took turns hammering them for eight months without pause before finally beating the Ganzhou Uyghurs down.

As Zhang Zhao listened to Cao Sanniang's account, he slowly began to make plans.

Cao Sanniang grew more and more satisfied the more she looked at Zhang Zhao, because ever since that time in the Khotan royal city when Zhang Zhao had embraced her, he had not once come to touch her.

For a widow like her, widowed for over ten years, this was not a bad thing but a good one, because Zhang Zhao had not disdained her as a faded flower but was treating her with courtesy and respect.

"I wonder if Zhun'er is still coughing badly? Help me write a letter and have someone take it back. If he is still coughing, tell him not to rush to Dunhuang — get his health in order first."

Zhang Zhao muttered as he wrote. The feeling was truly strange. Before seeing them, he did not miss them at all, and upon seeing them, there was no particular feeling either.

Yet the moment he left, he would find himself thinking of them from time to time. Every smile and every frown seemed printed in his mind.

This time on his return, he had brought neither Cao Yanmian nor Ayiguli, because his son and daughter were still young and could not endure such a long journey. Even Li Ruoliu and Li Zhun, he had decided not to bring either.

Given this era's terrifying infant mortality rate, it was best to be cautious in everything. So the only women who returned with Zhang Zhao were Cao Sanniang and Guo Wan'er, that little wildcat who laid no eggs.

"All right, I'll write it once we reach Shouchang!" Cao Sanniang nodded, but her heart had already flown several hundred li away.

She wondered how her letter-son was doing now. Although he had lost his father at two, surely he could not accept a yeye only a few years older than himself?

The sun set in the west, and the sun's lingering rays fell upon the walls of Shouchang.

On duty atop the walls today were soldiers of the Right Third Squad of the Fourth Du. The squad leader was a Sogdian named Kang Rong.

He stared listlessly in the direction of the setting sun, feeling something he could not quite name.

A soldier's days were just that dull. When there was no fighting, they mostly just sat around.

As garrison troops of Shouchang Town, their tour of duty rotated every year and a half.

During that year and a half of garrison duty, they did not have to farm. Their pay and the grain it was converted into were all supplied by the public coffers.

It was only just enough to eat, though. There was a little surplus, but very few could manage to save it.

In an environment of drill every three days, most of the soldiers in the barracks had vices of one kind or another — either gambling or whoring.

After the gambling and whoring came emptiness, just like Kang Rong now. He had only just realized why he was staring at the setting sun, staring until his eyes stung: because what he was looking at was loneliness!

In yesterday's big gambling session, Kang Rong had not only gambled away his three strings of pay down to the last coin, he had also run up a debt of more than five strings.

This year the harvest in the fields was poor, and his family of five was counting on those three strings of pay to get through the famine. What was he to do now?

Suddenly! At the far end of the dark-gold sky, a great cloud of dust appeared, and the next moment countless banners seemed to spring up on the horizon all at once.

Rank after rank of soldiers appeared in the light of the setting sun. They rode tall, powerful horses, the armor on their bodies reflecting the sun's golden light, and the tips of their lances glittered with points of starlight, now bright, now dim — so magnificent, just like heavenly soldiers descending to the mortal world.

"S-st-st..." Only after swallowing several mouthfuls of saliva in succession did Kang Rong finally manage to shout out loud.

"Sound the alarm! Enemy troops! Large numbers of enemy troops!"

The one who had found out the news of Zhang Zhao's return was Shouchang County Magistrate Xue Shantong's trusted man, and Xue Shantong, upon learning the news, had hurried off to Dunhuang to report it. So the residents of Shouchang had no idea at all that Zhang Zhao had already returned.

With the sun about to set, the whole of Shouchang Town was in chaos. In the streets chickens flew and dogs jumped; children and women wailed as they ran for home, while the able-bodied men grabbed swords and spears and sprinted for the walls.

But the key point was that after the former Shouchang Defense Commissioner Luo Xianda had been sent home to eat his retirement rice, the military affairs of Shouchang Town and even the entire city of Shouchang had been handled by the County Magistrate Xue Shantong as acting commander.

Now, because of the special circumstances in Dunhuang, Xue Shantong could only go back himself to report the situation, and with his departure, the entire city of Shouchang was left without a leader.

So much so that when County Lieutenant Zhu was hauled out of bed in the widow next door's house by panicked soldiers, he hadn't even had time to pull on his trousers.

By the time he ran up to the city wall holding up his trousers, he was horrified to discover that the city gate had not even been closed, and he immediately began cursing Kang Rong out.

"You dog of a wretch! Why aren't you minding the gate? Have you lost your wits from losing money?"

It turned out that the money Kang Rong had lost had been lost to the county lieutenant. The unlucky Sogdian troop commander, flustered out of his mind, was also badly startled. After he howled his way down, beating and cursing the soldiers into closing the gate, the great army on the other side had already arrived.

"Fuck your mother! My life is over!" The county lieutenant looked at the great army no more than a dozen meters from the city and could no longer summon even the thought of resistance.

The great army below the wall was in extremely strict formation, even the color of their armor all identical. Over a thousand men, light and easy as an outstretched fist, held this city of Shouchang in their palm.

"Kang the Blind! You field slave! Fuck your mother, open the gate right now!

Zhu Niu'er? You're wearing an official robe now, you dog-fucked old lecher? You've had some luck after all.

Yu Niang, Yu Niang, are you up on the wall? Look, I've earned a pile of silver, and I've come back to marry you!"

For this kind of thing, it had to be Ma Yaozi. His string of shouting and cursing at once stunned everyone on the wall.

Kang Rong and County Lieutenant Zhu looked at each other, feeling that the man below looked somewhat familiar, but for a moment they could not recall who he was.

"Yaozi? You're Ma Yaozi? You plague-stricken bastard, you didn't die in Anxi?"

At this moment, someone recognized who the man below was. Yu Niang cried out and scrambled to go down from the wall.

She had recognized him: the one sitting his rear down on several chests was none other than Ma Yaozi, the lover who had gone to Anxi with Young Lord Zhang Erlang.

"Grab her, grab her quickly!" County Lieutenant Zhu hurriedly had people restrain Yu Niang.

Shouchang City lay on the western edge of the Guiyi Army's territory, and even in the Guiyi Army's weakest days it had rarely seen battle.

The city gate was held shut by only a few great wooden bars. If this madwoman ran down there, she really could open the gate.

"Ma Yaozi, where did the stout fellows behind you come from? Are they Young Lord Zhang Erlang's troops?"

While having people restrain Yu Niang, County Lieutenant Zhu also recognized that the man below was indeed Ma Yaozi.

"You field slave! What right do you have to call him Young Lord Zhang Erlang? If these aren't the Young Lord's troops, are they yours?

Open the gate at once! The Young Lord has rescued the descendants of the Anxi Protector-General who were lost in Anxi all those years ago, and brought them all back!"

Ma Yaozi would not let others call Zhang Zhao "Young Lord Zhang Erlang," but he himself could only call him Young Lord.

Because according to the rules of this time, the Golden Kingdom of Khotan also styled itself the Great Dynasty, the Great Treasure Golden Kingdom, and "Great Dynasty" referred to the Central Plains dynasty.

So strictly speaking, Zhang Zhao's title of Deputy King of Khotan could not stand, because the Golden Kingdom of Khotan had no right to confer kingship.

At the same time, his title of Ju'er Khan was not of much use here either. Zhang Zhao had obtained the title of Ju'er Khan as the result of public acclamation by the Basmyl people under his command and the various peoples of Suyab.

He had also defeated Bughra Khan of the Karakhanid state at Poluzhou, so the title worked in Anxi.

But in Hexi, the main body of the Uyghurs was the Ganzhou Uyghurs. Unless Zhang Zhao could defeat or even swallow up the Ganzhou Uyghurs the way he had defeated Satuq, his title of Ju'er Khan would not hold in Hexi.

It could be said that Zhang Zhao was currently commanding an army of five thousand, yet he had no legitimate status.

On the wall, County Lieutenant Zhu raised his eyes and looked out. The several thousand troops below the city were indeed flying the Great Tang's sun-moon-stars tricolor banner, and those fierce officers and soldiers did indeed look like Han men.

But he still did not dare open the gate. If that dog Ma Yaozi had gone over to some foreign people and was here to trick the gate open, it would be a disaster.

"Ma Yaozi, you say you've earned enough to marry Yu Niang — you wouldn't be bragging, would you? You went to Anxi on a near-certain death mission, and you still had money to come back with?"

By some strange impulse, Kang Rong steered the conversation toward money — perhaps because he had been losing so badly lately.

"Bragging? What does a field slave like you understand? Young Lord Zhang Erlang is a divine Buddha descended to the mortal world. Who among those who follow the Young Lord isn't rolling in wealth?

Near-certain death? In Anxi, I ate white rice and stewed meat at every meal, and every night I had young girls waiting on me — happier than you could ever imagine!"

As he spoke, Ma Yaozi kicked open the chest beneath his rear, then opened a large sack, grabbed a handful of something, and flung it into the air.

With a clatter, the chest tumbled to the ground, and gleaming white silver ingots were exposed to the air. These silver ingots had all been newly minted by Zhang Zhao in the Tianzhu Zhenyuan Kingdom, so they were extremely bright.

"By the Buddha! That's bay leaf and nutmeg! What a sin! That one handful is worth more than a hundred cash — even if you have money, you don't waste it like that!"

On the wall there was a sharp-eyed spice merchant who could see clearly from dozens of meters away what Ma Yaozi had thrown.

At this time, the main production area for bay leaf was the Mediterranean region. Output in Central Asia and India was not high, and China simply did not produce it at all. It was an absolute top-grade seasoning.

This handful of bay leaves went fluttering into the sky with a rustle, and the merchant was instantly beside himself with anguish, as if what Ma Yaozi had flung away was his own property.

On the wall, when Yu Niang heard Ma Yaozi boast about having young girls every night, her face darkened until it could drip water.

Then when she heard the merchant say that Ma Yaozi had flung away a hundred cash just like that, she was instantly so pained that her whole face twisted. She struggled and thrashed, trying to rush down and settle accounts with Ma Yaozi.

Kang Rong, meanwhile, stared at the silver ingots all over the ground and swallowed hard. That one ingot looked to be at least ten taels. One ingot would more than pay off his gambling debts and still let his family survive this famine year.

Just as this troop commander was about to risk having someone open the gate, the clatter of hoofbeats sounded from the east.

The crowd ran to the corner of the wall to look, and saw a young silver-robed rider wearing a small silver crown galloping over from the east.

The silver-robed young rider's horsemanship was quite superb. Now crouching, now standing, he loosed arrows in rapid succession from the strong bow in his hand, and the seven or eight riders chasing him were shot until they howled.

One mounted officer tried to intercept him from the side. The silver-robed young rider simply took the bow in his left hand and held a lance in his right, and with a light sweep he struck the rider with a scream, forcing him to veer away in haste.

"Xinzhang'er!" Cao Sanniang suddenly cried out beside Zhang Zhao.

"Young Lord, quickly, tell them to stop — that's Xinzhang'er!"

So this was Sanniang's son, Murong Xinzhang? Truly... truly a fine son, ah — a fine warrior!

"Sanniang, don't worry. This lad has a good sense of proportion. He's using training arrows, and when he swings the lance he isn't using full strength."

Training arrows were arrows used for practice, without arrowheads. Hitting an armored target only caused pain and would not take a life.

And just now, when he swung the lance to strike that mounted officer, he had not used full strength either; otherwise he would certainly have knocked him off his horse.

Not bad! Horsemanship, archery, and lance technique were all of the highest order, and he had a good head on his shoulders too — he knew how far to go!

"Ma Shacai, you go! Remember, do not harm my son!" Zhang Zhao waved a hand at Ma Shacai.

A moment ago everyone had been rather indignant, feeling they could not let some boy extinguish their prestige. Now that they heard he was Great King Zhang's fine son, they all burst into laughter and joking.

"Shacai, don't capsize in the gutter! I'd say this young lord is not easy to deal with!" Bai Congxin even had the leisure to tease him a few times.

"Boy! Watch the arrow!" Ma Shacai galloped out from the formation, raised the strong bow in his hand, and shouted.

Murong Xinzhang looked at the man approaching — long arms, tall frame, clearly a fierce warrior skilled at mounted combat.

He was wearing only a ring-linked coat of armor underneath, so he dared not take the blow head-on and quickly ducked sideways beneath the left side of his horse's belly.

But after waiting a long while, he felt no arrow pass overhead; instead, a burst of laughter rose from the crowd around him.

The young man was thin-skinned; the moment he heard the mockery, he flared up in fury. But just as he set himself back on the saddle, before he could even reach for an arrow, another roar rang out: "Boy! Watch the arrow!"

Out of caution, Murong Xinzhang again quickly leaned off to the side of his horse. This time too, he heard no sound of an arrow flying, and the laughter grew even louder.

"I'm going to kill you!" Toyed with again and again, the youth Murong Xinzhang was enraged to the extreme.

He decided to disregard all propriety and draw his bow to shoot, but once his body was back on the saddle, he suddenly realized the other man had already reached his side.

What a fast horse!

Murong Xinzhang was badly startled. By now Ma Shacai had already stretched out a hand to grab him, plainly intending to take him alive — which was even more insulting. But Murong Xinzhang gave a cold laugh and reached back with both hands, yanking at Ma Shacai.

Ai-yo! Ma Shacai was taken aback. He pulled hard, yet he could not budge Murong Xinzhang on the horse. Instead, a great force came back at him, nearly dragging him off his own mount.

Now he no longer dared underestimate this young lord. The two seized each other with both hands and began a contest of strength, their horses running side by side.

Lady Cao Sanniang stared fixedly at the two of them, so tense she forgot to breathe. Zhang Zhao took her hand and patted it reassuringly.

"Don't be afraid. Xinzhang is about to lose — because the horse under him is no match for Ma Shacai's folded-ear horse."

Lady Cao Sanniang gave Zhang Zhao a look that was half laughter, half tears. My son is about to lose — what kind of comfort is that supposed to be?

Sure enough, after the two had pulled at each other for a while and the horses had been running hard, Murong Xinzhang's warhorse had already been running for some time. Its stamina and endurance were no match for Ma Shacai's folded-ear horse. After a burst of speed, the horse let out a miserable cry, its front legs buckled, and it "sold out" Murong Xinzhang.

With a great shout, and amid Lady Cao Sanniang's cry of alarm, Ma Shacai dragged Murong Xinzhang off his horse, then spurred forward and dumped him in front of Zhang Zhao.

"Great King, this young lord is not bad! Old Ma didn't shoot him, and he didn't take up his bow to shoot me either — a fine young warrior!" Ma Shacai covered the trembling of his nearly exhausted body with hearty laughter.

"Dalang, are you hurt? Let your mother look at you!" Lady Cao Sanniang rushed over at once.

As for Murong Xinzhang, who felt he had lost face, he was furious! He just stiffened his neck, his handsome little face frozen with rage, tears even glistening in his eyes — the sight of which made Lady Cao Sanniang's heart ache terribly.

"Young lord, let me teach you something. The ultimate purpose of our martial training is nothing else but to kill the enemy.

What does a man go to the battlefield for? For victory. Some things simply have no place at the moment of life-and-death struggle!"

Zhang Zhao suddenly found his interest in Murong Xinzhang greatly increased. This was a fine seedling! Having a son like this would actually be rather exciting, wouldn't it?

But Murong Xinzhang did not appreciate him in the least, nor did he give him any face.

"I don't need you to teach me anything. Just now, if my horse hadn't been lacking in strength, I would certainly have won!"

As he spoke, though Murong Xinzhang was so angry that tears welled in his eyes, he still glanced inadvertently behind Zhang Zhao.

There stood a top-grade second-generation Ferghana horse, supreme in both endurance and explosive power — one could say worth ten thousand in gold.

Zhang Zhao chuckled. "You want it? It's not impossible. If you help me get the city gate opened, and then tell me your purpose in coming, perhaps when I'm in a good mood, I'll give you this fine horse."

"Hmph! Who wants you to give it to me!" Murong Xinzhang gave a very proud snort, then led over his own dejected, droopy-eared warhorse — the one that had just sold him out — and walked toward Shouchang City.

"People on the wall, listen! This is the eldest grandson of Prefect Guiying of Guazhou. The Military Governor's office has issued an order — open the gates!"

He said he didn't want Zhang Zhao's horse, but his body was very honest: Murong Xinzhang went to call for the gate, and he was clever too, even daring to forge a command.

Someone on the wall also recognized Murong Xinzhang, and with Ma Yaozi's silver offensive added on top, Kang Rong swallowed his saliva, exchanged a glance with County Lieutenant Zhu, and the two nodded at the same time.

The gates of Shouchang slowly opened. Zhang Zhao felt a surge of warmth in his chest, and his eyes suddenly stung. The Guiyi Army — this land of Hexi where the Han folk refused to perish under the barbarians — had finally waited for his return!

"You mean to say? A strategist from the Central Plains is advising Governor Cao to kill me? And in the end they discussed luring me back and placing me under house arrest, then taking control of my army?"

In a large residence east of Shouchang City, Zhang Zhao returned to the house where he had lived for nearly twenty years.

Ever since he was exiled from Dunhuang as a child, he had lived here with Zhang Zhong, Yin Yaozi, and the others. Now that he was back, he naturally continued to stay in his own home.

"Right! That's exactly what Aunt said. She told me to tell you: whatever you do, don't go back to Dunhuang. Even if you do go back, you must bring your army with you!"

The matter was of great importance. Although Murong Xinzhang disliked Zhang Zhao — especially the way his mother nestled against Zhang Zhao like a delicate little bird, which in Murong Xinzhang's eyes was utterly unimaginable —

because his mother was known in the Murong family for being stern and sharp-tongued; even his grandfather would listen to her opinion on major matters. But now — the young Xinzhang was secretly grinding his teeth nearly to pieces.

Still, the matter was of great importance. Dislike aside, he did not throw a tantrum; instead, he explained everything thoroughly.

"That doesn't add up! It's absurd!" Zhang Zhao rubbed his head. How stupid would someone have to be to come up with such a plan? House-arrest him, Zhang Zhao, and thereby control his army?

This was pure fantasy. Never mind Cao Yijin sending a verbal message — even if Cao Yijin came to him in person, Zhang Zhao would not enter Dunhuang City so easily.

And even if they controlled him, the troops under his command would not obey the Cao family's orders.

What's more, since this Pei Yuan was a strategist, his logic had been strong and his analysis correct when he urged Cao Yuande to kill the Uyghur princess — so how could he have come up with such a brainless idea?

As a strategist, when a dragon crossing the river like Zhang Zhao returned, how could he resort directly to such a vicious scheme before the conflict between the two sides had even become especially sharp? Was he not afraid that if he failed to deal with Zhang Zhao, Zhang Zhao would grind him to dust?

For the sake of a strategist's position, to stake his very life from the outset — wasn't that a bit too desperate?

More importantly, could Cao Yuande really believe such a stupid plan? And what about Cao Yuanzhong? Was a double son-in-law worth less than an elder half-brother?

Everything reeked of strangeness. And then Zhang Zhao looked at Murong Xinzhang.

"Did your aunt say how she came by this news?"

Murong Xinzhang paused, then shook his head. "Aunt told me not to ask. Anyway, the matter is true!"

This was even stranger! Zhang Zhao racked his brains without finding an answer. Cao Yuande was carrying out such a great conspiracy, yet he did not immediately place Cao Yuanzhong's family under house arrest, and he even let Cao Yanlu go to Guazhou and let the Khotan Heavenly Saint Princess wander about outside. What was the meaning of that?

Deliberately handing over heads?

No! There would be no such oversight. Then the greatest possibility was that when the plan was decided — or even before — someone had already told the Heavenly Saint Princess.

Then who was this person?

"Erlang, stop thinking about it. Isn't Second Uncle coming? Just seize him directly and everything will be clear."

Lady Cao Sanniang thought for a while and also found it incomprehensible. She simply suggested Zhang Zhao stop thinking about it.

Since Cao Yuanshen was coming to deceive Zhang Zhao anyway, why not just seize him directly?

"Sanniang, you truly are my female Zhuge Liang!" Zhang Zhao deliberately praised Lady Cao Sanniang in an ambiguous tone, right in front of Murong Xinzhang.

Sanniang glared fiercely at Zhang Zhao. Over on the other side, Murong Xinzhang was already so angry that he turned and walked out!

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