Chapter 29

The setting sun slanted low as towering flames rose from Qi Xiahu's mountain stronghold, and the few low wooden houses gradually crumbled to ash. Ma Yaozi rubbed his nose, somewhat puzzled as to why this Fourteenth Young Lord of the Cao family insisted on setting this fire.

Now that they had found Qi Xiahu's stronghold and confirmed the whereabouts of Lady Sanniang and that Zhang family's Second Young Lord, they should either continue searching westward for Ge Duo's lair — after all, there were still five or six wounded Uyghur horse-bandits in the stronghold, so they ought to be able to find the place.

If not that, then they should conserve their strength and set an ambush along the road. Though all that talk of Zhang Erlang holding off a hundred men single-handedly, or Zhang Erlang winning over Ge Duo's horse-bandits, was obviously nonsense.

But whether the Uyghur horse-bandits had forced Zhang Erlang to become their leader, or Zhang Erlang had colluded with them, there were no more than a hundred men in all, with barely a few suits of armor among them. His own side had over three hundred elite cavalry — one ambush would settle everything, and then they could rescue Lady Sanniang and be done with it.

Why burn houses! Just to hear a few ignorant women and children wail?

"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!" At the stronghold gate, several yamen soldiers had looped thick ropes around the gate and were preparing to pull it down.

Ma Yaozi could bear it no longer. He strode quickly over to the Fourteenth Young Lord, and was just about to speak when the Fourteenth Young Lord's angry scolding reached him first.

"You field slave! If I weren't mindful of your age, and you dare utter such absurd words again, believe me when I say I'll drag you before the Shouchang county office and put you in the cangue for public display!" The Fourteenth Young Lord lashed an old man with his whip, making him flinch.

"Young lord, it is not that your servant speaks absurdities. The Grand Guardian manifested his spirit and bestowed a golden armor — the people of this stronghold saw it with their own eyes, and there is absolutely no falsehood in it! You ask your servant to retract his words, but your servant dares not. Better the cangue and public display than to be struck dead by lightning!"

Ma Yaozi was speechless. This old man was stubborn too. Why couldn't you just change your story? If the Grand Guardian truly had the divine power to manifest, why didn't he manifest twenty years ago when the Cao clan replaced the Zhangs?

"Fourteenth Young Lord, why trouble yourself with these rustic villagers? They have been field slaves for generations, and their talk is often exaggerated. You have already burned their houses — perhaps spare the stronghold gate, it would still serve to keep out wild beasts and bandits."

Hearing Ma Yaozi's words, the old man standing before the Fourteenth Young Lord looked indignant and was about to retort, when the people behind him hastily covered his mouth and pressed him to the ground.

"Now that we have found this stronghold, if we don't tear down the gate and the houses, are we to let them stay on here? The villages around Shouchang are all sparsely populated — surely they can be resettled somewhere?" The Fourteenth Young Lord turned his head and looked at Ma Yaozi with a smile that was not quite a smile.

Ma Yaozi's face darkened at once. For the first time, he looked at the Fourteenth Young Lord before him without the slightest fear.

"Captain Cao, Qi Xiahu and his band are descendants of Qi Jiarun and his followers who resisted the Great King of Tuoxi in years past. They were exiled west of Shouchang, forbidden to return without orders. This is the Military Governor's office's decree — forgive your servants for not daring to disobey!"

The title "Captain" had been the designation for an army commander in the mid-Tang, but by now it had become an honorary title. The Fourteenth Young Lord was a son of the Cao family, and held the rank of Military Governor's Captain.

Ma Yaozi also held a captaincy, though of course far inferior to the Military Governor's Captain, but it sounded the same. So by addressing the Fourteenth Young Lord not as Young Lord but as Captain Cao, Ma Yaozi's meaning was already quite clear — and he was clearly angry as well.

"Oh? So your Shouchang garrison still honors the Military Governor's office's orders! In that case, when a village official reported ten days ago that your Shouchang garrison settled several hundred Tuyuhun people from Zhongyun in Hongze village — that was all fabricated, was it?"

The Cao family's Fourteenth Young Lord's face darkened too. Shouchang was right beside Dunhuang — the Murong family of Guazhou was reaching its hand a little too far!

Cold sweat broke out on Ma Yaozi at once. He had never imagined the Fourteenth Young Lord would make an issue of this matter. No wonder he said he wanted to find Lady Sanniang, yet had been dawdling around east and west of Shouchang — so this was what he had come for.

"Captain Ma, please report to Commissioner Luo. Zhang Erlang and my third sister were carried off by Qi Xiahu in collusion with the Uyghur horse-bandits. To force Qi Xiahu and his men to show themselves, I have no choice but to escort the people of Qi Xiahu's stronghold to Shouchang in two days."

Ma Yaozi had been outmaneuvered again. He could only bow with a dejected salute, then hastily turn, mount his horse, and gallop off toward Shouchang.

Watching Ma Yaozi and his Shouchang garrison men ride off into the distance, the Fourteenth Young Lord quickly waved for the soldiers at the gate who were pulling down the stronghold gate to stop.

A strange smile crept onto his lips. The Grand Guardian manifesting his spirit — heh! Quite amusing. It seemed this Second Cousin-Uncle of the Zhang family was no idle character either, staging such a show for himself.

"Young lord, the Shouchang garrison men have left. What do we do now? Rest for the night and prepare to ambush Zhang Erlang and his men?" An officer in a brocade robe came over to ask for instructions.

"Ambush? What's there to ambush!" The Fourteenth Young Lord waved his hand dismissively.

"Colonel Kang, have the men escort the people of this stronghold to Shijiazhuang. I have no wish to ambush that Second Cousin-Uncle of mine. If anything went wrong and he got hurt, who knows how those with ulterior motives would spin tales about our Cao family!"

Colonel Kang nodded in agreement, but then his brow furrowed again. "If we go back to Shijiazhuang, what about Lady Sanniang?"

Shijiazhuang was the nearest Sogdian settlement village, and also close to Shouchang. But if they went to Shijiazhuang, they would lose the ability to track Zhang Erlang and his people's movements.

"Then leave that old man and a few able-bodied youths here. Let them tell Zhang Erlang that I have moved everyone from the stronghold to Shijiazhuang. If he wants to save them, my third sister must return unharmed!" The Fourteenth Young Lord pointed at the old man who had stubbornly insisted on the Grand Guardian's manifestation.

But after saying this, he couldn't help stroking his chin. "My third sister — she looks like a beauty, but in truth her mind is meticulous and her schemes surpass any man's. That Zhang Erlang treats her with such respect — I fear he has already stepped into the trap without knowing it."

At Ge Duo's stronghold, Zhang Zhao was tallying the stronghold's population and arranging their departure, assisted by Bai Congxin and Qiongre Duojin.

He could not hold this stronghold, because according to Bai Congxin, Tibetan rule over Qaidam and indeed the entire Qiangtang had collapsed, and the Kucha Uyghurs now completely controlled the region.

Moreover, the upper ranks of the Kucha Uyghurs had already acknowledged the Ganzhou Uyghurs' Shunhua Khagan as their own Khagan.

Ge Duo was a Kucha Uyghur, and of Kucha Uyghur royal blood at that. Though he had long since fallen into ruin, having him rule this stronghold and the four or five hundred herding slaves of various peoples nearby was something the Kucha Uyghurs accepted.

But Zhang Zhao was a Han man from the Guiyi Army side. To think of becoming a dargan in Kucha Uyghur territory was probably a fool's dream.

Of course, if Bai Congxin ruled here, that would likely be no problem. But Zhang Zhao certainly wouldn't do that either. Without a core following of his own, going alone to Khotan — how much would that cheap uncle Li Shengtian actually value him? That too was unknown.

So Zhang Zhao had already decided: he would move all the herding slaves here who were willing to follow him to Qi Xiahu's stronghold. These herding slaves were of various peoples, and shared the same faith. Once they intermingled with the Han people on Qi Xiahu's side, they would be very easy to assimilate.

This was also a bit of capital he was leaving for Qi Xiahu. With four or five hundred people, Qi Xiahu's stronghold could stand on its own as a village, rather than being relocated elsewhere or broken up.

"Second Young Lord! My lady has prepared a few small dishes and would like to invite you over to try them!" Having finished the stronghold affairs with a spinning head, the little maid Shanniang came running over in small steps, her eyes smiling into slits.

"Very well! Lead the way then!" Zhang Zhao patted the little maid's hair bun and said with a chuckle.

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