Chapter 280: These Are Six Hundred Thousand Masterless Souls (Two Chapters in One)

The Wenmo Six Banners, or the Tibetans Six Valleys Division as it would later be known, takes its name from the general term for the valleys south of Liangzhou through which six rivers originating in the Qilian Mountains flow.

These six rivers rush down from the Qilian Mountains, bringing abundant water for farming and herding to the territory of the Six Valleys Division.

The rivers' scouring also carved out river-valley plains hidden among this region of many valleys.

From south to north, the six rivers are: the Hongyuan Valley Division, where the Gulang River lies.

The Huangyang Division, where the Huangyang River lies.

The Zhulu Division, where the Zamu River lies.

The Yangfei Valley Division, where the Jinta River lies.

The Zhao Clan Division, where the Xiying River lies.

The Zongge Clan Division, where the East Da River lies.

Among them, the Shen family of the Yangfei Valley Division, the Zhao family of the Xiying River, and the Han Zong clan within the Zongge Division on the East Da River are the Wenmo tribes formed by the descendants of the former Hexi and Longyou soldiers.

Of course, the Six Valleys Division south of Liangzhou is the Six Valleys Division in the narrow sense. They occupied this lush land of rich water and grass, and because they were relatively close to Liangzhou city, these Six Valleys often stood in for all the Wenmo tribes.

The complete Wenmo Six Banners actually also include the Wenmo tribes of the He-Huang valley region, that is, the three prefectures of Shan, Kuo, and He where the Longyou Military Governor was based.

More than six hundred thousand Wenmo people of various groups are concentrated across this vast stretch of land, and together with the most representative Six Valleys Division, they are collectively called the Tibetans Six Valleys Division.

The later Zhebu Youlongbo, Pan Luozhi, and Gusiluo all rose from this fertile land.

And within the greater Six Valleys Division, besides the powerful Shen family of Yangfei Valley, the Zhao family of the Xiying River, and the Zong family of the East Da River, there are also the Zhang clan, the Ma clan, the Xing clan, the Lan clan, and the Wang clan.

As well as the Du Lun, Su Lun, and Cui Yan clans, which have undergone relatively heavy Tibetanization.

They had already linked their families' Han surnames with Tibetans official titles, so apart from bloodline, they had probably been completely Tibetanized.

And at the same time, this was something Zhang Zhao only learned after arriving in this era: Zhang Yichao's memorial to the Tang court stating that the Wenmo were the sons and younger brothers of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers who had fallen into Tibetans hands in former years was not spoken carelessly.

Because we cannot, based on later generations' understanding, regard only these Han-surnamed families as the descendants of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers.

Because the Great Tang of that time was a world empire, and this is no exaggeration at all.

Among the Tang court's soldiers in Hexi and Longyou back then, besides Han people, there were also large numbers of Tuyuhun people called the Tuhun, Tibetans people who had submitted to the Tang court, Yangtong, Qiang, Tangut, and others.

They were all descendants of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers; otherwise they would not have borne the name Wenmo, which signified the servants and slaves of the Tibetans Empire.

True Tibetans people from the snowy highlands would certainly never call themselves Wenmo.

So when Zhang Yichao said the Wenmo were all formed after Hexi and Longyou soldiers fell into Tibetans hands, it was not exaggeration but fact.

And did they consider themselves Tang people? In fact, they did.

In the fifth year of Huichang of the Tang, that is, 845 AD, the Tibetans noble minister Shang Bibi, Military Governor of Shanzhou, fought a great battle against Lun Kongre, the Pacification Commissioner of Luomenchuan.

Lun Kongre brought the Wenmo Six Divisions under him as subordinates, so Shang Bibi sent a proclamation to the He-Huang valley region and the Six Valleys Division, enumerating Lun Kongre's crimes.

It said: "You people were originally Tang people. Tibetans now has no master, so you should return together to the Tang. Do not let Kongre hunt you like foxes and hares!"

That is, Shang Bibi said to the Six Valleys Division: you were originally Tang people, and now that Tibetans has no master (is weak), why not quickly return to the Great Tang, and stop serving as fox-and-hare-like servants and claws for Lun Kongre!

Once the proclamation went out, the tribes of the Six Valleys Division that had followed Lun Kongre gradually slipped away until none remained.

At that time Lun Kongre and Shang Bibi were locked in a stalemate with neither gaining the upper hand. If the Six Valleys Division had not considered themselves Tang people in their hearts, they would never have all run off.

Seen this way, after Lun Kongre and Shang Bibi were successively defeated and destroyed, the Wenmo Six Valleys Division's return to the Tang seemed a foregone conclusion.

The Tang court needed only a single edict, with a little soothing and comfort, and the several hundred thousand people of the Wenmo Six Valleys Division would abandon the barbarians and return to the Tang — it would be as effortless as water flowing into a channel!

Moreover, the Six Valleys Division was hardy and skilled in war, and even after decades fallen under Tibetans still remembered their old country. If the Tang court appointed their loyal and righteous men as Military Governors, Prefects, and the like, the northwest would be as stable as Mount Tai, and the court could even summon their best warriors to strengthen the imperial guards.

If Emperor Zhaozong of Tang had possessed a Shence Army built around the Six Valleys Division back then, how could he have been repeatedly humiliated by Li Keyong and Li Maozhen?

Li Maozhen's line — "We know not where the imperial carriage has been driven; from here, where shall it go?" — ground Emperor Zhaozong's face into the dirt.

Then why did the Li Tang not bring the sons and younger brothers of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers, fallen under Tibetans for decades, back from barbarism to the Tang?

This was the combined result of the Tang court's situation since the An Lushan Rebellion: rulers mostly narrow in vision and utterly lacking imperial bearing, the PTSD inflicted by the military provinces, and Liangzhou's special political structure.

All along, Liangzhou's political situation had been extremely peculiar. The most numerous people here were the Wenmo, but politically and economically they held very little power.

Politically, Liangzhou was controlled by its Han people, while the economy was in the hands of Tibetanized Sogdians.

Historically, after the Guiyi Army drove out the Tibetans, it in fact controlled Liangzhou city, but the Tang court, wary of the disaster of the military provinces and terrified that a vast Hexi-Longyou military province would appear west of Chang'an, obstructed it at every turn.

Although from a later perspective, the Tang court betrayed the Guiyi Army's wholehearted loyalty, in the context of that era, the Tang court's actions were beyond reproach.

Even if Zhang Yichao was a great loyal minister, utterly devoted to the state, what about Zhang Huaishen? What about Zhang Huai Ding? And the other men of real power in the Guiyi Army?

The Tang court, left gasping by the disaster of military-province separatism, truly could not bear the emergence of a large-scale military province in Hexi and Longyou.

So besides transferring two thousand five hundred Yunzhou troops to Liangzhou from the territory of the Tianping Army Military Governor, the Tang court also vigorously supported the Wenmo people around Liangzhou in making trouble for the Guiyi Army.

But unfortunately, they only knew the Wenmo were the local bosses of Liangzhou, fierce and brave, and never once considered that this was a people longing for the court's comfort, sensitive at heart and not knowing where they belonged!

These officials sent by the Tang court and the Tianping Army soldiers never treated the Wenmo as their own, always viewing them as mixed barbarians and Tibetans slave tribes.

When there was work for them, they egged them on to make trouble for the Guiyi Army, even inciting rebellion; when there was nothing, they ordered them about at will.

After driving out the Guiyi Army, the Tang court's officials in Liangzhou paid even less attention to the Six Valleys Division. They busied themselves seizing the hundreds of thousands of mu of fine farmland and pasture around Liangzhou left vacant after the Guiyi Army withdrew, and even called the Wenmo "Tibetans slaves" to their faces.

And the Wenmo tribes, who had received not the slightest comfort and gained not a damn bit of benefit, began from then on to let themselves run wild.

Having fallen under Tibetans for decades, they had originally held only a final thread of hope for the Tang court.

Now that the Tang court would not win them over, they were neither Tibetans nor Tang, and for a time they lost all sense of belonging.

From then on, the various Wenmo tribes began rapidly merging and banding together. They no longer wished to serve the Tang court, and even began not to regard themselves as Tang people.

Once unleashed, the various Wenmo tribes killed court officials, robbed passing merchants and even tribute envoys traveling from the Guiyi Army and Ganzhou and other places to the court, cut off contact between the court and Liangzhou, and increasingly became a major factor in Liangzhou's instability.

In view of this situation, in the eleventh year of Xiantong, Zhang Yichao, then in Chang'an, submitted a memorial to Emperor Yizong of Tang.

"The Wenmo commoners were originally the sons and officers of Hexi and Longyou who fell into captivity. The state abandoned them and would not take them back, and so they became tribes. Only yesterday they unbound their braids; they need only be soothed and gentled. How can we cast them out from the foxes' and hares' grain fields, and make them into wolves and brambles?"

As the great hero who had recovered Hexi, Zhang Yichao of course knew the actual situation of the Wenmo, and also knew the consequences of the court's abandoning them.

But Emperor Yizong of Tang and his courtiers feared this was Zhang Yichao again harboring designs on contending with the court over Liangzhou, so Emperor Yizong fobbed Zhang Yichao off with phrases like "a temporary expedient" and "not a long-term arrangement."

Zhang Zhao did not know what his great-grandfather felt upon receiving such a reply. In any case, after this, the situation in Liangzhou deteriorated sharply.

The six Wenmo tribes, having achieved cohesion and a sense of their own ethnic identity, frequently cut off communications between the Tang court and Liangzhou.

In the end they even marched directly into Liangzhou city and killed Lu Pan, the Tang court's Military Governor of Lingwu and concurrently Military Governor of Liangzhou. The Yunzhou Tianping Army had no choice but to cooperate with the Wenmo, and the two sides jointly held Liangzhou.

Had the Guiyi Army's second Military Governor, Zhang Huaishen, not subsequently retaken Liangzhou and driven the Wenmo back to the Six Valleys territory south of Liangzhou, the Yunzhou Tianping Army and its descendants would probably have long since been assimilated into the Wenmo.

Pitiful, hateful, and yet tragic. Later generations still know of the white-haired soldiers of Anxi, and they know that Zhang Yichao brought Hexi back to allegiance, that the Guiyi Army was the lone loyal remnant of the northwest.

But the descendants of the soldiers of Hexi and Longyou could only vanish utterly under the identity of Tibetan slaves, and no one remembers them anymore.

North of Liangzhou lay Mingwei Garrison Fort, about twenty li south of what would later be Minqin county seat, and roughly one hundred li from Liangzhou city.

It was now the end of the eighth month. Zhang Zhao had stayed at Baiting Lake for nearly a month before gathering his army and marching south to Mingwei Garrison Fort.

The reason for such caution was that Zhang Zhao wanted to thoroughly understand the situation of the Wenmo Six Valleys tribes.

He now had seven thousand troops, of whom at least five thousand were standing forces. Back in Anxi, Li Shengtian of Khotan had supplied them with the full resources of his state; after the eastward return, Zhang Zhao bore the burden alone.

Five thousand standing troops could not possibly be maintained unless he gained complete control of Liangzhou.

Charging recklessly into Liangzhou city could indeed subdue people by force, but achieving complete control would not be so easy.

Because what Zhang Zhao wanted was not merely Liangzhou, but also the prefectures of Shan, Kuo, He, and Lan within the jurisdiction of the Longyou Military Governor.

"Commander! Cao Wantongxi, chief of the Sogdians of the Four Clans of Liangzhou, has arrived outside the city!"

Just as Zhang Zhao was writing and sketching on paper, having Guo Tiance compile the gathered Wenmo intelligence and analyzing it himself, Murong Xinzhang came in from outside to report.

"Commander, Li Jianhou, the Liangzhou judicial officer; Liu Shaoyan, Escort Officer of the Hexi Military Governor and Revenue Commissioner; and Cui Huxin, commander of the Hexi Military Governor's yabing guards, have come to pay their respects!"

"Commander, Shen Zhihai, chief of the Yangfei Valley of the six Wenmo tribes, and his son Shen Nianban; Zhebu Jiashi, great chief of the Hongyuan Valley tribe; and others have come with the eminent monk Master Shanyuan of Liangzhou's Dayun Temple to pay their respects!"

Before Murong Xinzhang had even left, Li Cunhui came in as well.

Joy spread across everyone's faces. The three great powers of Liangzhou—the Han people, the Sogdians, the Wenmo chiefs, and the transcendent Buddhist representatives—had all come. It seemed the day when Zhang Zhao would win over all the factions of Liangzhou was not far off.

"Come, put on the full display. Have all the officers and men don their armor in full splendor. We will go out together to welcome them!"

Zhang Zhao laughed and rose to his feet. "Welcome them," he said, but it sounded fine; in truth it was a show of strength.

Outside Mingwei Garrison Fort, the Liangzhou natives, led in by Bai Congxin, were stunned the moment they reached the fort.

Before their eyes, no fewer than three or four thousand troops stood arrayed in bright armor and perfect formation outside Mingwei Garrison Fort.

On the flanks were elite horse archers in blue leather robes, all mounted on warhorses whose ears pointed inward toward each other.

The horses were strange-looking yet somewhat endearing, their bodies streamlined in a way clearly suited for running. The inverted-triangle muscles on their chests were strikingly defined—obviously excellent warhorses.

The horse archers' blue leather robes were half-open, so the black-lacquered armor beneath was plainly visible.

Those on the left uniformly wore Chinese-style interlocking ring armor; those on the right uniformly wore Persian-style chain mail.

All the horse archers carried a very strange kind of long spear with a cylinder at the head, a saber on the left, a horse bow on the right—all exceptionally fine, well-maintained weapons.

Between the horse archers was a massive square formation of heavy infantry. The left formation wore iron lamellar armor, all lacquered black, with the red cords threading the armor plates especially conspicuous.

The armored soldiers held long spears. Most of those in the front ranks carried two bows, and their quivers were stuffed full of fine iron arrows.

The right formation's weapons were much the same as the left's, but their armor was a superior type that looked lighter, with faint glints of gold flashing across its surface, as though studded with bosses.

As a battle-hardened former commander of the Hexi Military Governor's headquarters, Cui Huxin also noticed that the armored soldiers in the rear who did not carry double bows almost all held a horn crossbow.

Clearly, regardless of their close-combat ability, this force of at least fifteen hundred armored soldiers would have terrifying ranged striking power!

Fifteen hundred armored soldiers! The lighter armor looked even more precious than the iron lamellar armor. Cui Huxin had heard that only the elite yabing guards of Military Governors in the Central Plains could field armored soldiers all in iron like this.

The deep sound of horns rang out. The Liangzhou natives, already utterly shocked, suddenly realized that amid the horn calls, the horse archers on both flanks first urged their mounts forward, spreading outward at a pleasing, mincing trot.

Then the armored soldiers in the center slowly moved to either side, opening a passage eight men wide in the middle.

The reason they knew it was exactly eight men wide was that the width just now had precisely fit eight men standing abreast.

The movement of these armored soldiers was accomplished without any drum or horn signal. Cui Huxin was deeply shaken once again.

He did not know about other things, but he knew that the armored formation across from him would be utterly fearless and invincible on the battlefield. To move without drum or horn and yet keep perfect formation—this was the first time he had ever seen such a thing.

After the armored soldiers parted, a striking streak of red suddenly appeared before everyone's eyes, divided into two groups.

On the left they held modao glaive glaive glaives gleaming with cold light, the blade tips flashing in the setting sun.

On the right they held a very strange kind of ranged weapon, something like a crossbow and something like a bow, clearly extraordinary at a glance.

"Gaojian robes! Those are gaojian robes!" Liu Shaoyan suddenly cried out involuntarily.

Beside him, Shen Nianban, eldest son of Yangfei Valley chief Shen Zhihai, looked at Liu Shaoyan curiously.

"Old man, what are gaojian robes?" "Old man" here did not mean "father" as in later Sichuan-Chongqing colloquial speech, but rather "old fellow."

In the past, Liu Shaoyan would have berated Shen Nianban, but this time he had no mind for such things. Sniffling his souring nose, he pointed ahead with boundless emotion.

"Watch closely, lad. Do you see the red headbands on their heads and the red robes on their bodies? With the trousers below, the black-lacquered leather boots, and the arrow cases and bow bags—these are the ceremonial robes of our Great Tang, the gaojian robes! Fine, aren't they?"

Shen Nianban very much wanted to say they were not fine, but the majestic red warrior garb and the cold-gleaming modao glaive glaive glaives deeply shook him.

Shen Nianban, in the prime of adolescence, even imagined himself wearing such majestic military dress—surely he would be the finest young man in the Six Valleys tribes.

Besides, in an age when dyeing was extremely difficult and most commoners wore only black and white, to say these red gaojian robes were not fine would require a truly hardened heart.

Shen Nianban had just nodded when he suddenly noticed his father beside him staring blankly. Shen Zhihai did not notice his son looking at him, for his mind was buzzing ceaselessly.

Shen Zhihai suddenly remembered many years ago, when he was still a child. His grandfather had been forced to wear the right-lapping leather robes of the Tibetans, yet always loved to mutter to himself beside him, sometimes looking at him with an indescribable expression.

The memories of decades past, his grandfather's gaze—they now grew vivid in Shen Zhihai's mind.

His lips trembling, he spoke the words he had so often heard his grandfather say in childhood: "China has great rites and ceremonies, therefore it is called Xia; it has the beauty of garments and patterns, therefore it is called Hua."

Liu Shaoyan heard these words. Li Jianhou heard them. Master Shanyuan of Liangzhou's Dayun Temple heard them too.

The three turned in surprise and, for the first time, seriously studied Shen Zhihai, whom they had regarded as a Tibetan slave. An inexplicable emotion stirred among the four of them.

Boom! Boom! The sound of orderly footsteps rang out. The Liangzhou crowd now realized that the elite warriors in red gaojian robes were also parting to both sides, and in the passage they opened, a full five hundred fully armored cavalry appeared.

The armored cavalry wore black lamellar armor, every plate meticulously maintained. The horses' barding was likewise woven of fine armor plates. Both man and horse wore face guards, leaving only two pairs of eyes exposed.

As they advanced slowly, they pressed toward the onlookers like masses of black clouds descending from the sky.

These great warhorses, standing over five chi three cun (1.65 meters) at the shoulder, were the finest mounts for fully armored cavalry, and immensely imposing.

And in the midst of these several hundred black-armored cavalry, before two knights in golden armor each raising a tattered Great Tang Three Stars banner and a tattered banner bearing the character Zhang—

A golden war-god in dazzling golden armor, a golden phoenix-wing helmet on his head, a golden vajra mask over his face, and a cavalry lance in his hand, advanced slowly and alone.

"Ready!"

"Ready!"

"Ready!"

Strange words, strange intonation suddenly rang out, and the armored soldiers opposite all began to raise their heads slightly and look toward the sky.

The Liangzhou men could not help but look to the sky as well. By now the setting sun had gone down, and only a faint afterglow shone at the edge of the heavens, making everything look somewhat dim.

"Loose!" A great shout rang out!

Loose? Loose what? Zhebu Jiashi, already utterly shaken and feeling like a complete bumpkin, shook his head in bewilderment, not understanding what this meant.

Suddenly! He saw the most astonishing sight of his entire life!

While the final syllable of the word "loose" still hung in the air, the strange long guns in the hands of those horse archers suddenly spewed out golden flames.

They wove countless golden fire dragons in midair, brilliant, blazing, and gorgeous, until heaven and earth alike seemed for a moment to have become unreal.

Zhebu Jiashi's legs went weak, and with a thud he collapsed to his knees on the ground, not even feeling the sharp stones that cut his knees.

The Chen Nianban beside him fared no better; he sat straight down on the ground with a thump and began panting heavily.

The sound of Buddhist chanting came from nearby. Zhebu Jiashi looked up and saw that it was the eminent monk Shanyuan of Dayun Temple, his palms pressed together, rapidly chanting the Mahavairocana World-Purifying Mantra in a low voice.

But Master Shanyuan's eyes were closed, and he seemed to be swaying slightly.

"Could this be the Lord of Bright Heaven descending? Or has the Supreme Mysterious Prime Emperor himself arrived! Has a heaven-born sage come to deliver our Guzang Li clan from calamity?"

The one prostrate on the ground, shouting and howling wildly, was Li Jianhou, patriarch of the Guzang Li clan.

The Supreme Mysterious Prime Emperor was the imperial title posthumously conferred upon Laozi by Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi. The Li imperial house originated in Longxi, and for generations its members had intermarried with the barbarians.

After founding the Tang dynasty, they feared others would say their Li family were barbarians, so they simply claimed Laozi as their ancestor and directly elevated this great thinker to the lofty rank of emperor.

The Longxi Li clan of the Tang court was descended from Li Jianhou's Guzang Li clan, so naturally the Guzang Li clan also recognized Laozi as their ancestor.

A moment later, the silver flowers filling the sky dispersed, and a white-robed young general galloped in from afar, white horse and silver spear, incomparably dashing.

He held aloft that somewhat worn Three Stars banner, and thousands of armored soldiers shouted in unison: "Wind!"

"The Deputy King of the Great Dynasty, Great Treasure, Great Jin Kingdom; the Juer Khan of all the Anxi tribes; Military Governor Zhang of the Guiyi Army, conqueror of Suyab, Ningyuan, Transoxiana, and India, commands me to welcome you all. Please follow me to an audience!"

Frightened witless. Today was the first time Zhang Zhao had ever seen what it looked like when a person was frightened witless.

After he had finished this whole "welcome ceremony" of his, before the two sides had even reached Mingwei Fort, Li Jianhou, patriarch of the Guzang Li clan, came running over wailing and threw his arms around Zhang Zhao's horse's leg—ah! No, he threw his arms around the leg of Zhang Zhao's warhorse and began sobbing and wailing.

"Liangzhou fell to the Tibetans in the second year of Guangde, one hundred and seventy years ago. Day and night we have longed for the heavenly troops to arrive, as an infant longs for its father and mother.

In the early Xiantong years, the Guzang Li clan was the first to welcome Grand Guardian Zhang into Liangzhou; in the fourth year of Qianfu, we welcomed Minister Zhang into Liangzhou. Today this old man welcomes Military Governor Zhang into Liangzhou. I do not shun blade and spear; my only wish is that the Nine Bends of the Yellow River return forever to the Han!"

Hearing this, Zhang Zhao hurriedly dismounted and helped Li Jianhou to his feet.

In the early Xiantong years of Emperor Yizong of Tang, the Guzang Li clan had welcomed his great-grandfather Zhang Yichao when he first recovered Liangzhou.

And in the fourth year of Qianfu of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, they had welcomed the second Military Governor of the Guiyi Army, Zhang Huaishen, into Liangzhou. Though their being of the Li Tang imperial line played a part, this sincere devotion was plain for sun and moon to see.

"Once, twice—there will not be a third time. Rise, Elder Li. Unless all seven thousand of my armored soldiers die in battle, no one will ever take Liangzhou from our hands again. The Nine Bends of the Yellow River shall return forever to the Han!"

"Descendants of the Liangzhou Tianping Army, we respectfully invite Military Governor Zhang to enter the city, and display the might of our Han people!" Liu Shaoyan nimbly pulled Cui Huxin down as he knelt.

"The four Sogdian clans of Liangzhou respectfully welcome the Great Khan into the city!" Cao Wantongxi, nearly paralyzed with fright, thought of how he had once tried to bargain with a man who held thousands of armored soldiers, and his legs went weak at once—he knelt even faster!

"Zhebu Jiashi of Hongyuan Valley respectfully welcomes Military Governor Zhang into the city!" Zhang Zhao had not expected that the Tibetan Zhebu clan, which he had thought would oppose him most fiercely, would also kneel so quickly.

He knew that historically, the Zhebu clan—that is, the very Zhebu Jiashi before him—had been the first to unite the Six Valley tribes.

It was also under his hand that the Central Plains dynasties had completely lost control of Liangzhou. But unexpectedly, this fellow was actually excited by Zhang Zhao's arrival—the kind of admiration and excitement one feels upon seeing a powerful leader.

"May I ask Military Governor Zhang, do you come here representing the court? If so, may I ask the court: are we sons of Tang or Tibetan slaves? If not, may I ask Military Governor Zhang, how do you intend to deal with us?"

The Shen father and son of Yangfei Valley, Han Wenmo, however, did not kneel to invite Zhang Zhao into the city. Shen Zhihai, it seemed, still bore some resentment.

Zhang Zhao removed the helmet from his head and reached out with both hands to take Shen Zhihai's hands.

"Look, Elder Shen. Before you stand the descendants of the Great Tang's lost subjects, those who fell into Anxi and Transoxiana in years past. If we speak of suffering and grievance, who has suffered more than the descendants of the Four Garrisons of Anxi?

A lonely city ten thousand li away, filled entirely with white-haired soldiers. They held Anxi alone, held on until their fathers and mothers and ancestors had all turned to dust, held on until of more than a hundred thousand brothers and sisters, not one in ten remained.

But they never ask others whether they are sons of Tang or slaves, because each of them knows in his heart that he is a son of Tang!

Elder Shen, are you willing to join us, and become a son of Tang who knows where he comes from and where he is going?"

Tears suddenly burst from Shen Zhihai's eyes. Holding Zhang Zhao's hand, he knelt straight down in prostration.

"Shen Zhihai of Yangfei Valley begs Military Governor Zhang to lead us in casting off the barbarians and returning to the Han. Not only my Shen clan—in the lands of Hehuang there are still hundreds of thousands of masterless souls. I beg Military Governor Zhang to save them all!"

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