Chapter 261: The Worldly Sin, Cao Shisi

"Zhang Zhao, Zhang Erlang! You wolf cub, come out! If you've got the guts, come out and face me!"

Cao Yuanshen had never imagined he would receive such treatment — the moment he entered the gates of Shouchang, he was seized.

And the one who seized him was the squad leader of the Shouchang garrison, a man named Kang Rong, who had once rotated through guard duty at Qingyuan Palace, which was how Cao Yuanshen knew him.

So Cao Yuanshen quickly realized that Zhang Erlang must have entered the city and won these men over.

"You dog of a wretch, let me go this instant! Whose bread do you eat? Whose clothes do you wear? How dare you turn against your superior?"

Still not entirely clear on the situation, Cao Yuanshen cursed furiously at Kang Rong and the squad of soldiers around him.

Though Cao Yuanshen was already past forty, he had sailed smoothly through life — he was by no means stupid, but years of ease had left his reactions to the outside world in a numb, languid state.

It was like a pampered household pet — plump, well fed, well rested, well loved.

Every stimulus from the outside world reached it several beats too slow, and it had grown especially insensitive to potential danger.

Kang Rong had still been somewhat wary of this Second Young Lord Cao, but the more viciously Cao Yuanshen cursed, the less Kang Rong could hold back, and he struck him once with the flat of his saber scabbard.

The heavy blow to his stomach instantly knocked the curses right back down Cao Yuanshen's throat. He retched dryly, his insides churning like an overturned sea.

Yet that blow from the scabbard struck far harder at his worldview than at his body. Even now he could not believe that he had been struck by Kang Rong, a mere squad leader.

"The Second Young Lord's words make no sense. We've sold our lives for your Cao family, and now eating two of your flatbreads counts as your charity? When Young Lord Zhang Erlang gives, that's what you call clothing and feeding a man.

Ma Yaozi went off to Anxi with him and came back with a full three thousand strings of cash saved up.

Even an ugly wretch like Yanggaozi, his face all pockmarked, brought back two delicate beauties, and he's got four hundred mu of irrigated fields in Ningyuan. If he weren't so grateful for the Young Lord's generosity, he'd have gone off to live as a country squire already.

We've sold our lives to your Cao family for ten years, and the pay's so poor we can't even afford to marry a widow. How do you have the nerve to say you've clothed and fed us?"

Kang Rong himself said nothing; it was the squad commander beside him who was already howling curses.

This squad commander had not been a trusted man of Luo Xianda, the Defense Commissioner of Shouchang, so he had not been sent off to Anxi. At the time he had been delighted for a long while — but looking back now, he was sick with regret.

Back then, about thirty-six men from Shouchang had followed Zhang Zhao to Anxi. Five of them died in Anxi, and three stayed there to live as country squires and never came back.

And those who did return shattered the worldview of everyone in Shouchang in one collective blow.

Ma Yaozi had not only become a battalion Troop Commander — after eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling the whole way, he had still saved up over three thousand strings of goods and cash, including several sacks of fragrant leaves alone.

Yan Jin went without saying — he had become the commander of a whole army, and hauled three great cartloads of treasure back to his house.

Even Huo Sheng'er, who had died, had not only gained a famous name as Zhang Zhao's man, but also a clever young lad as his son.

And there was Yan Du, Yan Jin's cousin. When he set out, he didn't even have armor — his sworn brothers, taking pity on him, had each chipped in a little money to outfit him, and the squad commander himself had contributed fifty cash.

Everyone had privately figured that money was as good as Yan Du's funeral expenses. But to their surprise, Yan Du not only came back — he came back in grand style.

At his side was a fair-skinned, beautiful Hu concubine, said to have been a personal maidservant to the queen of the Karakhanids.

And Yan Du only intended to take her as a concubine. Later, he said, he would fight his way back to Chang'an with the Young Lord and marry a woman of a great and noble house as his proper wife.

The fifty cash the squad commander had chipped in for Yan Du, Yan Du returned a hundredfold — five strings of cash.

The squad commander's heart burned with regret! Why hadn't he gone along back then?

Those men came back after four years with their belts heavy with wealth, while in his four years, if Yan Du hadn't come back and given him five strings of cash, when his little sister married this year he wouldn't even have had the money for her dowry — wouldn't he have died of shame?

The angrier he got, the more the squad commander vented as he walked, and soon several others joined the chorus of complaints. In the space of a few hundred paces, they had berated Cao Yuanshen nearly into a stupor.

His worldview shattered, and having been cursed out by nobodies he would never have so much as glanced at in ordinary times, Cao Yuanshen wiped a faceful of spittle in the great hall of the Shouchang county office, his fury mounting.

Of course he had no idea that Zhang Zhao had gone to bury one of his fallen soldiers. To Cao Yuanshen, such a thing was pure fantasy, so he naturally assumed Zhang Zhao was deliberately humiliating him.

"Zhang Erlang, what are you hiding for? What, you dare have me seized but don't dare show your face? Come out! Come out and face me!"

Kang Rong and the others escorted Cao Yuanshen and his two attendants into the great hall, then took up positions at the door. Finally free of restraint, Cao Yuanshen began cursing again.

"Cao Yuanshen! Whose father do you think you are? Whose father do you want to be? Shall I call Aunt Suo over and see whether she's willing to call her own son 'little brother'?"

The roar stunned Cao Yuanshen, who was still babbling away. He looked toward the door, and a brawny man with long ape-like arms and the torso of a bear kicked the doors open and strode in.

Behind him followed a man with his nose in the air, looking as though heaven ranked first and he ranked second. That face looked even more familiar, but Cao Yuanshen suddenly could not recall who he was.

In truth, Cao Yuanshen had not seen Zhang Zhao for many years. The last time had been six or seven years ago, when Zhang Zhao was invited to attend the ceremonial archery rite between the Guiyi Army and the Ganzhou Uyghurs.

Back then, Zhang Zhao had been slender and timid, speaking of nothing but Buddhist sutras, sitting stiffly upright wherever he went. After a few glances, Cao Yuanshen had paid him no further attention.

But his impression of Zhang Zhao's timidity had been deep, and it was from that time on that the Cao family gradually relaxed their surveillance of Zhang Zhao, no longer confining him to his residence and a few Buddhist temples, allowing him to go anywhere as long as he did not leave Shouchang.

So he truly could not connect the fierce, brawny man before him with that timid boy at the archery rite, and for a moment Cao Yuanshen was stunned.

"Shout! Go on, shout! You want to play the elder in front of me? Go home and ask your mother whether she'll allow it!"

Zhang Zhao found a chair and sat down, leaving the dumbstruck Cao Yuanshen standing in the middle of the hall.

The mother of Cao Yuande and Cao Yuanshen, Lady Suo, was the daughter of Suo Xun, the third Military Governor of the Guiyi Army.

And Suo Xun was Zhang Yichao's son-in-law, having married Zhang Yichao's ninth daughter. So Lady Suo, the mother of Cao Yuande and Cao Yuanshen, was Zhang Yichao's own granddaughter through the female line.

And Zhang Zhao was Zhang Yichao's great-grandson. The mother of Cao Yuande and Cao Yuanshen was thus the first cousin of Zhang Zhao's father, and Zhang Zhao's aunt.

By seniority, though the Cao brothers were twice Zhang Zhao's age, they were in fact his older cousins. This was also why Cao Yijin had initially only agreed to marry Cao Yuanzhong's daughter to Zhang Zhao.

Because the daughters of Cao Yuande and Cao Yuanshen were actually Zhang Zhao's nieces. For example, Cao Shisi — Cao Yanming — as Cao Yuande's son, could only call Zhang Zhao his uncle.

But the third brother, Cao Yuanzhong, was not born of Lady Suo, and had no blood relation to Zhang Zhao. Only Cao Sanniang and Cao Shijiu Niang Yanxi could be matched with Zhang Zhao in marriage.

So although Zhang Zhao's words were harsh, telling Cao Yuanshen to go ask his mother, Cao Yuanshen could only swallow his anger, because this was a quarrel between cousins, and he had misspoken first — the rudeness was his.

"Tell me, Second Cousin, did it never occur to you that the moment you arrived, I had you seized, and that there might be just the slightest possibility that I already know your plans? Where do you get the nerve to come here and make a scene?"

Cao Yuanshen's face went white. When he had come in, he had been consumed with rage, thinking only of how he had been insulted by a few common soldiers, and had not considered this at all.

"Second Uncle! Why not go back and tell my father — this Guiyi Army was taken from the Zhang family by the Great King, and now it is only right to return it to the Zhang family. Our Cao and Zhang families have been bound by blood for generations; whoever rises will not mistreat the other."

Cao Yuanshen's eyes widened as he stared at the strange yet familiar man who had called him Second Uncle. Only after a long moment did he recognize him — wasn't this Cao Yanming?

"Shisi Lang! You're Shisi? What... what are you saying? The Zhang family lost the great office through their own misconduct. The Great King first pacified the realm within, then launched three eastern campaigns and stormed Ganzhou before winning the great office for the Cao family. Our ancestors won it in bloody battle, and you say we should just hand it back?"

"Of course I know the great office of Military Governor of the Guiyi Army was won by the Great King in bloody battle at Ganzhou. But can you and my father still hold it now? Do you have the ability?

The able rise, the unable step down. I am waiting for the Young Lord to lead us through Ganzhou and Liangzhou to Chang'an. Can you do that?"

In truth, Cao Yanming had never liked his Second Uncle Cao Yuanshen. He felt the Second Uncle was always putting on airs. And in the four years Cao Yanming had followed Zhang Zhao, his horizons had completely changed.

Before, he had only been a big shot in the little city of Dunhuang, but in Anxi, Cao Yanming had followed Zhang Zhao to break Shule and rescue Suyab, to destroy a kingdom with a hundred men in the city of Wuni, to shatter twenty thousand with two thousand outside Pocheng, and to defeat the allied armies of Persia and Kesh by the banks of the Jaxartes.

By the time they reached Bukhara, Samarkand, Zhenyuan City, and Kanyakubja, a few thousand men could rampage without restraint. Queens, consorts, princesses — Cao Yanming had bedded three or four of them, and as for the daughters of meritorious officials, he took whatever he wanted.

With such experience behind him, and with the gunpowder weapons he manufactured repeatedly displaying their divine might on important occasions, Cao Yanming, who had always been somewhat arrogant, had long since ceased to regard the Guiyi Army's little household enterprise of two hundred thousand people as worth his notice.

He was still waiting to enter Chang'an and the Central Plains with the young lord, so at this moment he was not the least bit polite to his own second uncle!

"Wretched creature! Wretched creature! What kind of talk is that? I say you don't deserve the surname Cao!"

Cao Yuanshen had truly broken down. He had endured being cursed out by soldiers of Zhang Erlang's faction, and now he had to be lectured by his own nephew. Cao Yuanshen was so furious his chest felt about to explode.

But Cao Yanming paid not the slightest attention to his second uncle Cao Yuanshen's rage. He cupped his hands toward Zhang Zhao.

"Young lord, I suggest we take my second uncle hostage. We pretend not to know their plan and go to Dunhuang together, then I come forward to lure my father out, and we seize them all in one stroke!"

"Unfilial wretch! Unfilial wretch! You beast!" Cao Yuanshen had not expected there to be something even more world-shattering, and he flew into a rage beyond all reason.

"But if your second uncle won't cooperate and starts shouting and yelling the moment we enter Dunhuang, what then?" Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin, considering the possibility.

"Then we detain the guard on his left. That's my second uncle's wife's nephew. Uncle Zhang has only this one son. If my second uncle refuses and something happens to Cousin Zhang, Second Aunt will claw his face to shreds!"

Fuck! Cao Yuanshen and the man beside him whom Cao Yanming had called Cousin Zhang both shuddered.

Cao Yuanshen was somewhat henpecked to begin with. If he lost the only son of his wife's elder brother, it would be far worse than having his face clawed to shreds — he probably wouldn't even be able to go on living.

"If that still won't do, my second uncle has had difficulty producing heirs and has only one son and one daughter. Seventeen is his only daughter, ordinarily treasured as the pearl in his palm.

I'll lure her out and marry her off to you as well. That way you become my second uncle's son-in-law, which is the same as seizing him by the throat!"

Holy shit! Even Zhang Zhao was stunned. This Cao Fourteen really was a ruthless bastard! He would even sell out his own second uncle and his own sister!

"You beast! I'll beat you to death!" With a roar, Cao Yuanshen abandoned all restraint. He snatched up the square stool at his feet and chased Cao Yanming around the room, beating at him!

Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin, and was actually a little tempted, but after thinking it over he shook his head.

He did not want a father-in-law like Cao Yuanshen. And marrying a niece who was related to him by blood was a bit too much, but...!

"Fourteen, your plan is good! Take your Cousin Zhang with you and trick Seventeen into coming out. Yin Yaozi isn't married yet, is he? I'll make the decision — let Yin Yaozi become your second uncle's son-in-law!"

Zhang Zhao nodded. It was quite suitable. Yin Yaozi was only two years older than himself, and was now a great general under his command, holding the office of Fengtian Army Commissioner, and crucially, he was his absolute confidant.

This would both draw Yin Yaozi closer and pin Cao Yuanshen down so he could not move.

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