Chapter 305: The Jincheng Wang Clan

The Jincheng Wang clan was a rather special existence in Lanzhou, or indeed among the entire Wenmo tribes.

In years past, after the Tibetans conquered Hexi and Longyou, they placed their focus of administration on Liangzhou, seat of the Hexi Military Governor, and Shanzhou, seat of the Longyou Military Governor.

Of these two places, one was a vital crossroads of the realm and the essence of the Five Liang; the other, lying close to Dafeichuan and the Western Sea — that is, Qinghai — was deeply influenced by Tibet.

The nobles of the Tibetan Empire therefore poured enormous effort into these two places.

By comparison, although Lanzhou would in later ages become the capital of Gansu Province and rank among the great cities of the northwest, while Wuwei, where Liangzhou lay, and Ledu County in Qinghai, where Shanzhou lay, would sink into such obscurity as to be almost unknown,

in this era Liangzhou and Shanzhou far surpassed Lanzhou, whether in population, economy, or geographic position.

Lanzhou was thus a small prefectural town that the Tibetans, after conquering Hexi and Longyou, never expended much effort to develop.

After the Tibetan power receded, the tribes here came to be called Wenmo as well, but their degree of Tibetanization was not very deep — to say nothing of the fact that the Tang court had briefly recovered this place.

Lanzhou therefore developed a unique political character: among these tribes, descendants of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers were few, and the main body consisted of various Qiang peoples.

There were remnants of the Tuoba Tangut who had not migrated with the Tuoba clan to Xiazhou and Qingzhou, Qiang of the Murong tribe who had been Tibetanized, and even the White Goat Qiang surviving from the Han and Jin periods.

These Qiang of highly complex origins and composition, together with some Han and Tibetan descendants, formed a Wenmo-style ethnic amalgam after breaking away from the control of the Central Plains court.

The Jincheng Wang clan was just such a clan. They were not a single Han family — or rather, one could say the Han did not even make up the majority here.

Most of them came from a remnant branch of the the the Shatuo of former years, mixed with other Qiang tribes.

They used the name of the Wang clan because, when the Wang family of Han descent had once been powerful, it had indeed led the various tribes.

It was also a signal: if the court could offer them benefits, or recover this place, they could all immediately take the surname Wang.

But regrettably, the court never came!

Contrary to Zhang Zhao's imagining that the great clans of Lanzhou, led by the Jincheng Wang clan, wished to oppose him,

in reality the reason their response was so slow was entirely that they were hindered by their own mode of power and decision-making.

For they themselves were nothing more than a stitched-together body of tribes, constantly fighting among themselves over their own interests, which made uniting somewhat difficult.

So when Zhang Zhao issued orders to them from Liangzhou, these people's first reaction was not to think that Zhang Zhao meant to rage over the attack on the imperial envoy, but to think that some among them had colluded with Zhang Zhao.

Then who had colluded with Zhang Zhao? The answer to this question was obvious: they believed it was the Han people in the tribes, led by the Jincheng Wang clan, who had colluded with Zhang Zhao.

And the Han tribes led by the Wang clan naturally thought in the opposite direction — that someone was using this matter to harm them.

The two sides nearly came to blows over their mutual suspicion and hostility, and at the tribal assembly, the Wang family and other Han families, in order to prove their own innocence, naturally refrained from proposing to send anyone to Liangzhou to explain.

And the tribes that suspected the Wang clan did not take the matter seriously either — the tribe that had plundered the imperial envoy was not under their jurisdiction at all.

Besides, what right did the Hexi Military Governor in Liangzhou have to reach into the territory of their Longyou Military Governor?

Moreover, although the Wenmo tribe that held Lanzhou proclaimed the name of the Wang clan to the outside world, in reality those in power were not Han, still less the Jincheng Wang clan.

The reason they still held up the signboard of the Jincheng Wang clan and called themselves the Wang clan was that the Wang family still held two offices conferred by the Later Tang court: Grand Master of the Palace with Silver Seal and Blue Ribbon, and Prefect of Lanzhou.

For Lanzhou, these two offices were their credentials for dealing with the Central Plains.

Without the two offices of Grand Master of the Palace with Silver Seal and Blue Ribbon and Prefect of Lanzhou, they would not receive permission whether they went to the Central Plains to sell horses or to trade and purchase other goods.

In short, the Jincheng Wang clan, which had originally controlled Lanzhou, had after more than a hundred years declined to the point where it could only scrape by on the strength of two offices conferred by the Central Plains court.

The greatest power currently controlling Lanzhou was the Li clan. This Li clan, however, was not Han — they were in fact the the Shatuo.

And this "Li" was also self-proclaimed. People of later ages, looking at the ethnic situation of this era, often form the impression that the Later Tang, founded by the the the Shatuo, must have favored the the the Shatuo people.

But in reality this was not so, because in the eyes of the Later Tang court at this time, they were not the the Shatuo naturalized nobles — His Majesty was genuine Li-Tang imperial stock, of the line of Prince Zheng.

And whether the the Shatuo, Sogdian, or Uyghur, they considered themselves only Tang people, and felt little sense of belonging to their original ethnicities — they even deeply resented others bringing up their original origins. One might call it the fervor of converts.

That was why the descendants of Li Keyong did not much like the word "the the Shatuo" being mentioned. Why? Was their barbarian identity not obvious enough?

One must know that whether in the time of Li Cunxu or Li Siyuan, there were no few Tang-supremacist nationalists among their subordinates. Back then, Li Siyuan's wish to become in-laws with Yelu Deguang had been wrecked by exactly these people.

Thus this branch of the the Shatuo far off on the western frontier, even though they called themselves Li, had gained no benefit from the Later Tang dynasty, and still had to rely on the old signboard of the Jincheng Wang clan to deal with the Central Plains court.

Compared with them, the Sulun clan, though also a great clan of Lanzhou, was far more united and far quicker to react than the great stitched-together tribe of the Wang clan, despite being fewer in number.

After returning from Liangzhou, Sulun Luxin went straight into the residence in Lanzhou where the clan chief and elders held their deliberations.

His elder brother Sulun Yan, meanwhile, had been detained in Liangzhou by Li Cunhui. Of course, this could not exactly be called detention — in truth, Sulun Yan had chosen to remain in Liangzhou of his own accord, in order to reassure Li Cunhui and the Zhang Zhao behind Li Cunhui.

The meaning of this gesture was that, at least at the level of Sulun Yan, the young clan chief of the Sulun clan, he was willing to serve as an inside agent for Zhang Zhao's entry into Liangzhou.

"Clan chief and honored elders, under Zhang, Minister of Works, in Liangzhou there are at least four thousand armored soldiers, and tens of thousands skilled in mounted archery — more than all of Lanzhou combined. There are even divine horses from a Buddhist land in India."

As he spoke, Sulun Luxin had the tall, fold-eared horse that Zhang Zhao had bestowed upon him led in.

The Sulun clan was a surviving branch of the White Goat Qiang from the Three Kingdoms and Wei-Jin periods. As a semi-nomadic people, judging the quality of horses was of course a basic skill for them.

Clan chief Sulun Xing and the assembled clan elders gathered around the warhorse, clicking their tongues in admiration. Lanzhou and Liangzhou had always been horse-breeding lands, and Liangzhou horses were famed throughout the Central Plains.

They were not without horses of the quality of this fold-eared horse that Sulun Luxin had brought — only their numbers were somewhat fewer.

"How many warhorses of this sort does Liangzhou have? Does this Minister of Works Zhang truly have four thousand armored soldiers? Are his four thousand armored soldiers all in iron armor?

Our Sulun clan migrated to Lanzhou from the Six Valleys tribe. We all know how troublesome the chiefs of the Six Valleys clans are. Are you certain that Minister of Works Zhang has already brought them all to heel?"

Clan chief Sulun Xing asked with a grave expression. In his view, the Wenmo of the Six Valleys were the fiercest of all the Wenmo tribes.

The Six Valleys could muster thirty to fifty thousand warriors in all, and could even forge their own swords and armor. Their Liangzhou horses were famed throughout the realm, giving them very strong mobility.

A dozen or so years ago, they had gathered seven thousand elite cavalry and fought a pitched battle with the Lingwu Military Governor of the Central Plains court. How could such tribes be so easily subdued?

To say nothing of four thousand iron-armored soldiers — Sulun Xing had only heard from his father's and grandfather's generation that the Tibetan btsanpo of old had possessed more than four thousand iron-armored soldiers.

One must know that back when the various tribes of Lanzhou answered Lun Kongre, the Border Attack Commissioner of Luomenchuan, and fought a great battle east of Dafeichuan against Shang Bipi, they had altogether managed to scrape together only seven hundred armored soldiers, and most of those in leather armor.

The various tribes of Lanzhou were now weaker still than in those days. Four thousand iron-armored soldiers — that was beyond even daring to imagine.

Sulun Luxin, as if he had not seen the doubt on clan chief Sulun Xing's face, nodded heavily.

"Before I left, Minister of Works Zhang made a point of letting me see his horse farms at Liangzhou. Of warhorses of this grade, there are at least six or seven hundred; of slightly inferior ones, I fear there must be several thousand.

The four thousand armored soldiers are of course all in iron armor, because in Liangzhou, a warrior without iron armor simply cannot be called an armored soldier at all.

It is said these are the elite troops left after Minister of Works Zhang ranged across the Western Regions, struck down several great kingdoms there, and even destroyed the Persian Empire.

Without four thousand iron-armored soldiers, my elder brother would not have willingly remained in Lanzhou and sent only me back with word."

We can't beat Military Governor Zhang, and those scattered Wang clan people certainly can't either.

Besides, Military Governor Zhang has already agreed that if he takes Lanzhou, the post of Prefect of Lanzhou will belong to our Sulun family."

Sulun Xing stroked his chin and fell into thought. He could distrust Sulun Luxin, but he trusted his own son Sulun Yan deeply.

This son of his was no simple warrior like Sulun Luxin. He was a clever man who had gone to the eastern capital Luoyang to pay tribute, could speak Han Chinese, and understood Han rites and poetry.

Since he had not returned in person, there could only be two situations.

First, he had been detained by Military Governor Zhang of Liangzhou.

Second, it was exactly as Sulun Luxin said — Military Governor Zhang of Liangzhou had already subdued the Liugu tribe, and his strength was so formidable that his own son had begun to think of joining him.

Whichever the case, a decision had to be made quickly. If it was the former, they would trade allegiance for his son's freedom; if the latter, they should hurry and cling to that powerful thigh.

Still, some clan elders remained unconvinced. They truly could not understand how Liangzhou could have become so powerful in just a few months.

Before witnessing absolutely crushing strength, people always find it hard to lower their heads and cling to a powerful thigh.

"The post of Prefect of Lanzhou has always been conferred by the imperial court. Even if Military Governor Zhang can obtain the post of Acting Military Governor of Hexi, he still has no authority over Lanzhou!

At most he could appoint a Prefect of Liangzhou and a Prefect of Ganzhou, and that would be about it. How could he control the selection of the Prefect of Lanzhou?"

Sulun Luxin looked up and saw it was the clan elder who loved to argue. He curled his lip, but the person he sought to persuade remained the clan chief.

Because if he, Sulun Luxin, could persuade the family to submit, he would be able to join Military Governor Zhang's Hanshan Capital, and the Military Governor had also promised that once he controlled Hexi and Longyou, he would give him at least a county's worth of territory.

"Before leaving, my elder brother told me that Military Governor Zhang indeed has no nominal authority over Lanzhou, but swallowing Lanzhou would not be difficult for him.

Court-conferred offices can only be used to scrape some benefits. To protect the Sulun family, to win more territory and wealth for the young men of the Sulun family, what matters is the long saber at the waist and the strong bow in hand.

If we anger Military Governor Zhang and get ourselves killed, would the court thousands of li away stand up for our family?"

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