Chapter 262: Fourteen: Put On a Show for Them

"Zhang Erlang, I'm telling you, a man as base as you will get his retribution — after death you'll fall into the eighteen levels of hell!"

With Dunhuang already in sight, Cao Yuanshen, his face haggard, turned sideways and cursed Zhang Zhao, who was disguised as a guard beside him.

"Second Cousin, you needn't trouble yourself over that. I won't be going to the eighteen levels of hell, because this unworthy one happens to be the Dharma-Protecting Silver Wheel King jointly recognized by the Buddhist communities of India and Anxi — the King of Hell himself doesn't even outrank me.

As for you, Second Cousin, with that foul mouth of yours, you'd better start currying favor with me, or you'll surely end up in the Tongue-Ripping Hell."

Zhang Zhao's single remark left Cao Yuanshen speechless. What the hell, were the Buddhists of India and Anxi all useless fools? Zhang Erlang had no foundation whatsoever — how had they just handed the Silver Wheel King title to him?

"Zhang Erlang, Seventeen is your niece too. You just kidnapped her and married her off to whoever you pleased — what kind of elder are you? How will you explain this when you see my mother?"

Unable to get at Zhang Zhao from that angle, Cao Yuanshen attacked him from another direction.

"Enough, my Second Cousin. Yin Yaozi is the commander of one of my armies. Getting a son-in-law like that, you should be grinning behind your hand.

And stop winking and glaring at people, it's useless! I'm telling you, if you dare say one wrong word, we'll both be reduced to ashes together!"

Zhang Zhao patted Cao Yuanshen on the shoulder, signaling that he had better behave. After Cao Yanming had successfully lured Cao Yuanshen's daughter Seventeen out of the city the day before, Zhang Zhao had decided to truly venture into the dragon's lair.

He was gambling that Cao Yuande wouldn't dare do anything to him, and also gambling that Cao Yuanshen wouldn't throw his life away to expose him. Most important of all, he had one hundred percent confidence in himself.

Cao Yuande and Cao Yuanshen had in fact long been hollowed out by a life of wealth and ease — the classic case of a tiger father begetting dog sons. The only one with any ability, Cao Yuanzhong, was his father-in-law.

He also had to enter Dunhuang. He had to see Cao Yijin one last time before he passed away, and ideally obtain a legal claim from Cao Yijin, then use a relatively bloodless coup to bring Cao Yuande and Cao Yuanshen under control.

"What are you looking at? We are escorting the Second Young Lord back! Open the palace gates at once!"

Kang Rong behind Zhang Zhao let out a great shout. He had once served on duty at the Qingxi Palace and was very familiar with the surroundings.

He also knew how to put on the airs of the Second Young Lord's guards, because Cao Yuanshen had always had that kind of temperament.

Zhang Zhao naturally would not reveal his identity. His current identity was one of Cao Yuanshen's guards. He had picked a few quick-witted men who were not from Dunhuang from the Hanshan Unit, and together with Kang Rong and Cao Yanming, they had directly taken Cao Yuanshen hostage and entered the city.

Inside Dunhuang, the atmosphere was bleak and grim, heavy with the sense of an approaching storm. Killing the Uyghur princess Lady Li was easy; dealing with the Ganzhou Uyghur army was not. Thus the mood of the people in Dunhuang could not help but grow oppressive.

Inside Qingxi Palace, the atmosphere was even more oppressively heavy than in Dunhuang itself. Zhang Zhao personally held Cao Yuanshen hostage from behind as the five of them strode quickly toward the main hall of Qingxi Palace, soon reaching the final palace gate.

"Sixteen, go notify my father at once. Tell him Fourteen and Second Uncle have returned, and they've brought an envoy from Zhang Erlang. There is an important matter to discuss!"

The commander guarding the final gate of Qingxi Palace was Sixteen of the Cao family. At first glance he did not recognize Cao Yanming, but once he got a clear look, his eyes lit up.

"It really is Fourteen! You're something else now! I heard that in Anxi, you captured several of the Uyghurs' queens!"

Uh! Cao Yanming was taken aback. He hadn't expected Sixteen to grow up into such a gossip. And couldn't he see Second Uncle's face, black as the bottom of a pot? Couldn't he sense something was off?

Cao Yanming suddenly had a feeling: the Cao family, trapped in this tiny Dunhuang, was growing more and more narrow-minded, completely out of touch with the outside world and with their own standing.

"Right! I'm back. Go notify them quickly. When you're off duty, don't go far — wait for me outside Qingxi Palace. Fourteen has brought you something good. Do you want Persian dancing girls? I'll give you two."

Complaints aside, exploitation aside — Cao Yanming kept the two clearly separate. Sixteen had been a bit lecherous since childhood, but unfortunately his father's status was not high. Although he was a young lord of the Cao family, he truly had little standing.

After all, the Cao family ruled over at most three hundred thousand people, and there were so many sons in the family. Those who were not favored were truly only a little better off than ordinary folk.

The moment Cao Sixteen heard he was getting Persian dancing girls, he was so overjoyed he forgot his own parents, let alone whether Second Uncle's face was black. He nearly leaped three feet into the air.

"Great! Fourteen, don't you dare tease your little brother! I'll go notify Eldest Uncle right away!" And with that, he dashed off.

Qingxi Palace's strictest forbidden gate, which the Cao family had even assigned their own third generation to guard, was opened with just a few words. Searches and inspections — none at all.

Even Cao Yuanshen couldn't muster the energy to complain. He could only heave a long sigh and walk in, shamefaced and dejected.

Zhang Zhao had come at exactly the right time, because at that moment in Qingxi Palace, Cao Yuande had gathered the leaders of Dunhuang's great clans to discuss matters.

For instance: after killing the Uyghur princess, how to deal with the Ganzhou Uyghur army? Who should be sent to the Central Plains to request an imperial appointment from the Great Tang Emperor? And how to handle Zhang Erlang returning with over two thousand men?

Information still traveled slowly in those days. Many people knew that Young Lord Zhang Erlang had done great things in Anxi, but how great exactly? What kind of man was Zhang Erlang? They were not very clear.

Many of them did not even take Zhang Zhao's two thousand men very seriously. Had it not been for the unfortunate pressure from the Ganzhou Uyghurs at the same time, they might well have been discussing how many troops to send to beat Zhang Erlang down, and how Khotan would react.

"Yuanshen, you're back? Come here quickly. Did you see Zhang Erlang? Magistrate Xue of Shouchang sent no word after he returned. Has Zhang Erlang's army reached Shouchang?"

Seeing his second brother Cao Yuanshen walk in with a few guards, Cao Yuande coughed twice and hurriedly beckoned him forward, completely unaware of how awkward and ugly the expression on Cao Yuanshen's face was.

"If the Governor wishes to ask where Zhang Erlang's army is, he might as well ask me directly. Why trouble the Second Young Lord?"

Cao Yuande was taken aback. His second brother Cao Yuanshen stood still at the door, but the guard behind him moved first, striding out boldly and speaking to him directly.

Cao Yuande's face darkened. Where had his second brother found these unreliable people to keep around him?

To be so utterly lacking in manners and respect for rank — at a time like this, couldn't he show a little restraint?

"Guards, seize this insolent wretch!" Cao Yuande decided to put a small dent in Cao Yuanshen's face.

After all, the great clans of Dunhuang were all here today. He, Cao Yuande, was going to be Military Governor in the future — things were not like before.

"Move!"

Hm? The guards in the hall had only just begun to move when the guard opposite actually shouted "Move!" — what did that mean?

Was Second Brother rebelling?

Zhang Zhao let out a great shout, and the bronze hammer hidden in his sleeve came out at the sound. Thud! It smashed into an unprepared charging guard, sending him to the ground with a scream.

Another guard had not even drawn his blade, because it had never occurred to him that anyone would start a fight here. As a result, Zhang Zhao simply kicked him flat onto the floor.

Hearing Zhang Zhao's low roar as he attacked, Bai Congxin, Ma Shacai, and the others immediately joined in.

Murong Xinzhang at his side was even swifter. In a few moves, the three of them had knocked down the guards at the entrance of the hall, then began sealing the hall doors.

Inside the hall, chaos erupted at once. Holy shit! So the Cao family's second son, Cao Yuanshen, was rebelling! Who would have thought this old wastrel of the Cao family had such nerve!

But despite the panic, this was, after all, a land surrounded by war on all sides. Faced with this sudden situation, the thirty-odd clan heads of Dunhuang's great families drew short knives and long daggers from their waists.

Long weapons were not allowed into the hall, but short knives that could serve both for self-defense and for cutting meat were permitted.

At once, Luo Yingda, Luo Tongda, and a group of old generals kicked over the low tables and leaped out with short knives in hand. The men of the other families also pressed forward — they still had some martial virtue.

Zhang Zhao decisively stepped back and directly tore open the outer robe Cao Yuanshen was wearing.

"Nobody move! Everyone here is my kin and my elders. I have come to catch up with Eldest Cousin — I have no wish to blow you all to pieces."

At Zhang Zhao's great shout, the crowd about to advance all paused. They saw that Cao Yuanshen's body was bound with rows of wooden tubes, each with a fuse inserted at the top — a bizarre sight indeed!

"Don't come closer! Really, don't come closer! This thing can truly blow us all to death!"

Cao Yuanshen could hold it in no longer. He covered his face and wailed. He had seen the power of this thing — if it were lit, he would be the first to be blown to pieces.

"Young Lord Zhang Erlang? You're Young Lord Zhang Erlang? I know you — you look exactly like the White-Robed Son of Heaven!"

All at once, someone recognized Zhang Zhao. A gray-haired old general stared blankly at Zhang Zhao and let out a great shout.

"I'm honored that Troop Commander Luo still remembers my father." Zhang Zhao nodded, acknowledging his identity.

This gray-haired old general was Luo Tongda, the military commander his father had relied on most in those years — Chancellor of the Western Han Jinshan Kingdom and concurrently Front-Army Troop Commander.

"It really is the young lord! If you were a touch more delicate-featured, you'd be the White-Robed Son of Heaven reborn!" The moment Luo Tongda shouted this, a whole crowd of old fellows recognized Zhang Zhao too.

Though they were called old fellows, they weren't actually that old. If Zhang Zhao's father Zhang Chengfeng were still alive, he'd only be forty-eight or forty-nine — just a little older than Cao Yuande.

Once they saw it was Zhang Zhao, the crowd grew even more united. They didn't scatter in shock, or decide this was a grudge between the Cao and Zhang families for the two sides to settle themselves. Instead, they directly surrounded Zhang Zhao, then collectively turned their eyes to Cao Yuande.

So they were waiting to see what Cao Yuande would do! Zhang Zhao was suddenly furious.

Every person in this room, old and young alike — Luo Tongda included — could be counted among the traitorous ministers who had driven Zhang Zhao's father from power back then.

To put it bluntly, if Cao Yuanshen's rebellion succeeded, they could still sit back and watch the show. But if Zhang Zhao had returned, every one of them feared being called to account.

"Fourteen! Give them a show!"

Zhang Zhao shouted, and only then did Cao Yuande notice that the one standing beside his second brother Cao Yuanshen was actually his son, Fourteen — Cao Yanming.

Without the slightest hesitation, Cao Yanming pulled a palm-length wooden tube from Cao Yuanshen's body. This was a fire-thunder he and Zhang Zhao had developed together — a wooden tube packed with gunpowder, both ends sealed with yellow clay.

It was an upgraded version of the pear-blossom spear's powder launcher — in reality, just an oversized firecracker.

Amid the crowd's baffled stares, Cao Yanming lit the giant firecracker with a tinderbox, then tossed it into an earthenware jar beside a flared-leg table.

Oh shit! Zhang Zhao couldn't help clenching up. A giant firecracker thrown into a pottery jar — it was going to explode!

Boom! Before Zhang Zhao could finish his inner complaint, a thunderous blast rang out. Golden fire flashed, and the earthenware jar instantly shattered into pieces. Countless shards of pottery went shrieking outward in every direction.

An elder of the Zhou family nearest the jar was hit immediately — at least six or seven small pottery fragments embedded themselves in his backside. The Zhou elder let out a miserable howl, his buttocks a bloody mess.

At the same time, the violent blast knocked everyone in the hall to the ground except Zhang Zhao and his people.

Many faces showed looks of disbelief and terror, staring at Zhang Zhao as if at a monster.

The giant firecracker, of course, wasn't powerful enough to knock dozens of people off their feet. In truth, they had simply been terrified by the enormous explosion.

"Elder Cousin, please keep the people outside from coming in. Let's have a proper talk. And please don't get agitated — if you do, there's no telling when my hand might slip, and then all of us will be blown to pieces together."

Zhang Zhao smiled faintly and even reached out to tap the giant firecrackers strapped to Cao Yuanshen's body. Everyone in the room went rigid with terror, their scalps tingling.

A single wooden tube was already that fearsome — and Cao Yuanshen had at least twenty or thirty on him. If those went off, probably no one would escape.

"Zhang Erlang, let's talk this through properly. There's no need for this!" Cao Yuande took two deep breaths to control the trembling in his thigh muscles, his voice quavering as he tried to calm Zhang Zhao.

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