Chapter 295: The Resentful-Unlucky Fellows of Military Governor Zhang

Hongchi Ridge on Pipa Mountain, known in later ages as Wushao Ridge, is a tall, broad mountain range stretching for several dozen li, forming the natural dividing line between the Longzhong Plateau and the Hexi Corridor.

South of Hongchi Ridge the climate is cold and damp; to the north it is far drier. In the Western Han, Champion Marquis Huo Qubing built a city here, and later it became part of the Han-dynasty Great Wall.

Fan Zhi followed Jia Yanchang up Leigong Mountain, a high point on Hongchi Ridge. Looking out, Wushao Ridge lay like a coiling, winding giant dragon — head to the west, tail to the east, high in the west and low in the east, wrapped in clouds and mist, twisting and turning, its ridges rolling and ravines crisscrossing.

It was deep winter, and a vast expanse of snow stretched white in every direction. A great river coiled and wound around the mountain's foot, making the mountain seem all the more mysterious and unfathomable.

Fan Zhi and the others led their mules and horses to shelter from the wind and snow beneath an earthen wall. Gazing at the crumbling remnants of the Former Han wall, Fan Zhi was deeply moved.

"This Hongchi Ridge has always been a key stronghold of Longzhong, a place every strategist must contest. To go from Hexi into Longyou, one must take this road.

In the days when the Great Tang was strong, a small city was built here, garrisoned with several hundred soldiers, and it was enough to control both regions. Yet now, so vital a pass lies in such ruin, with no one to guard it. Truly lamentable!"

What Fan Zhi lamented was nothing other than the decline of the Central Plains court's power, such that Hexi and Longyou had both become barbarous lands, and the once-crucial places of the realm had long since vanished into the mountains, unknown to all.

Jia Yanchang, however, thought little of it. As a descendant of Han folk of the Guiyi Army for who knew how many generations, he had never, since the time he could understand things, seen the Central Plains court in its strength. The glory of the Great Tang he had only heard of from his elders' lips, never witnessed with his own eyes, so he felt little of the same emotion.

And if one said Hexi and Longyou were broken and desolate, Jia Yanchang felt the Central Plains court was not much different — merely milder in climate, richer in rainfall, more abundant in produce, able to feed a few more people, that was all.

In the eastern capital Luoyang, apart from a few wards and markets near the Purple Tenuity Palace in the imperial city, many places were not even kept as orderly as Dunhuang.

Though he had heard that the lands of Southern Wu and Qian-Yue seemed more stable than the Central Plains, Jia Yanchang had never been there and could not compare.

But however much he grumbled inwardly, Jia Yanchang certainly could not say such things to Fan Zhi's face, so he cupped his hands and went along with Fan Zhi's line of talk.

"Since the court lost Hexi and Longyou in the Dali years, it has never been able to recover this land. Even after the Tibetans fell into internal strife, the imperial troops still did not march west. In my humble view, man is the most sentient of all things; without people, no matter how vital a military town, it amounts to nothing more than this."

Fan Zhi fell silent and said no more, for there was truly nothing he could say. After the court had abandoned Longyou and Hexi, it was exactly as Jia Yanchang said — what did a strategic pass of the realm count for, without people?

"Imperial Envoy, once we cross Hongchi Ridge, we will have entered the territory of Liangzhou. The Liangzhou Wenmo are even fiercer and more valiant than the Lanzhou Wenmo.

I suggest that after we descend the mountain, we wait a while at the foot, and send our accompanying riders ahead to Liangzhou to report, asking the Military Governor to dispatch a large force to meet us."

Hearing Jia Yanchang say this, Fan Zhi's heart immediately lurched. The Lanzhou Wenmo had already left him with an impression of extreme fierceness.

On the road they had traveled, barely a hundred li or so, they had encountered at least seven or eight genuine, blade-drawn attacks from Wenmo bandits coming to rob them.

If the Liangzhou Wenmo were even harder to deal with than the Lanzhou Wenmo, what sort of scene would that be?

Below Hongchi Ridge there was a garrison town called Wucheng Shouzhuo. This was the place where the ancestors of Garrison Commander Zhao of the Xiying River had first risen.

Because of this connection to Garrison Commander Zhao, Wucheng Shouzhuo had fared far better than the other military towns the Great Tang had established in Hexi and Longyou. At least its earthen walls still stood, and several hundred residents lived within.

Jia Yanchang had set out for the eastern capital Luoyang at the end of the eighth month to request enfeoffment, so Fan Zhi naturally knew even less of what had happened in Liangzhou. They both still regarded this place as it had been under the control of the six Wenmo tribes.

Back when the six Wenmo tribes controlled this area, they would rob at the slightest disagreement. Whether you were an envoy of the Guiyi Army or of the Ganzhou Uyghurs, they treated everyone the same and robbed without exception.

So before the group had even descended the mountain, from halfway up they spotted from afar a body of cavalry gathered outside Wucheng Shouzhuo, and their hearts went numb at once.

Jia Yanchang could not make sense of it no matter how he thought. What was going on? When the Wenmo robbed passing envoys, didn't they normally just rob whoever they happened to run into? Since when did they play at waiting by the stump for the rabbit?

The three hundred cavalry inside Wucheng Shouzhuo, presumed to be waiting by the stump for rabbits, could fully be called the resentful-unlucky cavalry squadron of the Guiyi Army.

Their Captain was Wang Tongxin, short and stocky with a face full of gloom. This fellow had always been a restless character in the Guiyi Army.

Back when he had followed Zhang Zhao westward, in battle he was fearless in the face of death and outstanding in martial skill, often charging with Zhang Zhao to cut down enemy generals and seize their banners. But this man's bad habits far outnumbered his martial talents.

Among Zhang Zhao's fierce generals, Ma Yaozi lacked perceptiveness and self-control, easily led by others into doing bad things. Dunzhu was a bit simple-minded, so he often seemed rather foolish.

Manxiong looked foolish but was in fact extremely shrewd. However, he probably had too much excess energy and could never control himself around women; his pay and rewards were basically all spent on the bellies of beauties.

So much so that he became a famous debt-ridden household in the Guiyi Army. Zhang Zhao had bailed him out several times, but he never changed.

Wang Tongxin was something else. Like Ma Yaozi, he lacked perceptiveness, and sometimes when worked up he was even more stubborn than Dunzhu. In eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling he fully matched Manxiong; the two were the twin guardians of the broke brigade.

His one good point was that he was rather rigid about loyalty, and his loyalty was extremely high. He had acknowledged Zhang Zhao as his lord, and if Zhang Zhao told him to slit his own throat now, he would never put it off to the next moment.

Recently Wang Tongxin had taken a fancy to the daughter of a Han household in Liangzhou, and they had married. This woman was quite fierce, and with Zhang Zhao's backing, within half a month she had Wang Tongxin firmly in hand.

As a result, with someone now managing him, the fellow had no money to chase women and carouse, so he went straight back to his old method: borrowing.

Then, unsurprisingly, it blew up. Zhang Zhao, angry at his failure to improve, packed him off to Wucheng Shouzhuo.

He was sent there to wait for Jia Yanchang, returning from Luoyang. Wucheng Shouzhuo was remote, not like Liangzhou where wine and beauties were never lacking — it was entirely meant to temper Wang Tongxin.

With such a resentful-unlucky Captain, the three squad generals under his command were, without exception, also great unlucky fellows.

The Left Squad General was Cui Huxin, one of the finest of the younger generation of Liangzhou Han folk, with superb horsemanship and extraordinary skill. Zhang Zhao admired him too; his future was absolutely assured.

But this man had always been at odds with Zhebu Jiashi of the Zhebu family. This Zhebu Jiashi, by 'selling out' the Hongyuan Valley tribe, had obtained the posts of Hexi Military Governor's Pushing Official and County Magistrate of Minqin County.

This made Cui Huxin unhappy, and with Zhebu Jiashi deliberately provoking him, the two finally fought a great battle outside the Tonghua Gate at Liangzhou's north gate.

Each brought twenty men to form battle formations for a 'duel.' In the end Zhebu Jiashi was slightly inferior and was beaten so badly he lay at home for over ten days. Cui Huxin won, but several of his front teeth were knocked out, and even now his speech still whistles.

The most important reason for his misfortune was that this brawl nearly triggered a great melee between the Liangzhou Han folk and the Hongyuan Valley tribe.

It also further stirred the already-migrating Liugu tribe's sense of shared grievance, not only slowing Zhang Zhao's speed in dividing the six tribes, but also slightly strengthening the ties among the six Wenmo tribes.

Zhang Zhao, so furious he nearly exploded, immediately stripped Cui Huxin of his posts as Hexi Military Governor's Escort Officer and yabing guard Captain, and sent him off to distant Wucheng Shouzhuo to serve as a squad general under Wang Tongxin.

The Right Squad General was the famous Wen Chongle. This brat had first beaten up a storyteller who was a clerk of the Military Governor's office, then during the city-building had shirked and bullied the other laborers, and in the end was sent off together with Yue Saonu to serve under Manxiong.

Actually, this was nothing much, because military men of this era were all of that sort.

And compared to randomly conscripted farmers and herders, they could fight better. Zhang Zhao had thrown them to Manxiong in the hope that, after receiving some discipline, they could become sharp soldiers and fierce officers of the army.

It was just that these two, among a bunch of good-for-nothings that even pigs and dogs despised, still stood out as exceptional, and in the end Manxiong, disgusted, tossed them to the equally 'exceptional' Wang Tongxin.

The Central Squad General was Du Lun Chixin, who had beaten up the storyteller together with Wen Chongle. After Du Lun Chixin had spent some time by Zhang Zhao's side, he had even been placed in Zhang Zhao's own adopted-son army to study letters and learning, with a bright future ahead.

But he was a true unlucky fellow. He himself had done nothing wrong, but he had the misfortune of having a resentful-unlucky father.

Their Du Lun family was the second great family of the Hongyuan Valley tribe, second only to the Zhebu family. As it turned out, in the matter of selling out the tribe for office, they were one step too slow, and Zhebu Jiashi beat them to the sale.

Having failed to gain this great advantage, Du Lun Chixin's father's resentment erupted like a volcano. Some screw came loose in his brain, and he actually thought of using resistance to the order to migrate the six tribes as a way to display his prestige among the Liugu tribe.

Ha! That did it. Zhang Zhao had waited months for a chicken to scare the monkeys, and now one jumped out on its own.

He immediately ordered Bai Congxin to lead troops and settle Du Lun Chixin's father. Fortunately, Du Lun Chixin's father's brain had come loose quickly, and he knelt and surrendered even faster.

Before the army even arrived he had admitted defeat, and in the end, after losing most of the land and population under his control, he obediently moved into the small courtyard Zhang Zhao had prepared for him in Liangzhou.

The unlucky Du Lun Chixin was dragged down with him, and was demoted from Zhang Zhao's side to Wang Tongxin's command.

With resentful-unlucky officers, of course there were also resentful-unlucky soldiers.

The group stayed at Wucheng Garrison, waiting for Jia Yanchang and the others to return from Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Wang Tongxin and the others were still afraid of missing them, so they specially sent out scouts to reconnoiter atop Hongchi Ridge.

They never imagined that their own scouts would turn out to be even more hapless than themselves.

It was a slightly snowy afternoon with dim weather when Wang Tongxin received word sent back by Wen Chongle from Hongchi Ridge via the scouts.

The message said there were over a hundred people on the mountain, possibly men of the Wenmo tribe from Lanzhou spying on them from there.

Wang Tongxin was delighted at once. What ability do you Lanzhou Wenmo have? Don't you know yourselves? You dare spy on us here — isn't this merit delivered right to our door?

He immediately summoned the three squad generals, Cui Huxin, Wen Chongle, and Du Lunchixin, and worked out a detailed surprise-attack plan, preparing to properly seize this merit that had come knocking.

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