Chapter 31: A Paradox Player's Strategic Vision

Cao Sanniang was so astonished her mouth hung open. Wasn't this Zhang Erlang going to Khotan to escape trouble? How had it turned into going to conquer India?

Did he even know how to get to India? Could the Son of Heaven of Khotan really provide three thousand warriors for him to fool around with?

"Does the young lord know how far India is from Khotan? What roads lead there? The Pamirs are higher and more treacherous than the Qilian Mountains or the Gold Mountains. In many places neither man nor beast has ever set foot. I fear a large army could never pass through."

Cao Sanniang actually did have some knowledge. Most people of this era went blank the moment geography or directions were mentioned, because many of them simply had no concept of spatial position at all.

But Cao Sanniang not only knew where India was, she even knew one had to go through the Pamirs to reach it. Yet her knowledge stopped there, because she did not know there was a fast direct route to India — the Khyber Pass.

So Zhang Zhao smiled faintly, dipped a little wine again, and drew a line on the table.

"Let me inform you, Sanniang: west of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, there is a place called the Khyber Pass. It belongs to the Persian Samanid dynasty. From there one can quickly reach India directly — a hundred times more convenient than the high plateau and snowy mountains of the Pamirs!"

Cao Sanniang had already been shocked numb today. This Zhang Erlang actually even knew of the Samanid dynasty.

"The country the young lord speaks of — this slave has heard of it too. It is said to be a state established by a Persian emir who broke away under the rule of the Black-Robed Great Eater. But that country has a hundred thousand men under arms and is no small state. Does the young lord intend to draw swords against a powerful nation before he has even fought India?"

"Sanniang is right, but your information is a little out of date. The Samanid dynasty has long since fallen into religious strife.

Its ruler, Nasr II, has already begun plotting to convert to the Shia sect, and his focus has long shifted to the west. Even the Karakhanid dynasty no longer takes them seriously.

What I have my eye on is merely this small piece of land near the Khyber Pass. As for its ruler Nasr, he should be able to make his own decision."

As a wise Paradox player with the soul of a Class-A war criminal, Zhang Zhao had, before transmigrating, not only made the Great Ming unify the entire world, but also made the ruler of Khotan ride his horse into Baghdad.

For a "talent" like him, remembering roughly when the Samanid dynasty declined, and the religious situation in the Western Regions, Transoxiana, and Persia, was simply too easy — he could speak on it with great fluency.

And only after truly transmigrating to ancient times did Zhang Zhao discover that this kind of game — one that familiarized you with history and religion and let you carve out territory in a plausible manner — was simply absurdly good. Games like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis were practically the best emperor-training system imaginable.

Cao Sanniang was now completely dumbfounded. At first she had still been able to follow Zhang Zhao's train of thought, but later on — what Nasr II, what Shia sect — she had no idea at all what Zhang Zhao was talking about.

But she could tell that Zhang Zhao was genuinely, truly familiar with it, and not just making things up.

Fine! Though I don't understand a word, I am deeply shaken!

For the first time, Cao Sanniang looked at Zhang Zhao with genuine reverence. This man — perhaps he really could accomplish something great!

"It seems that in going to Khotan, the young lord is plotting something very grand! And it will not be something he can return from in three or five years. Does the young lord intend to establish his own house and lineage in Khotan or India from now on?"

Zhang Zhao also looked seriously at Cao Sanniang before him. He knew that Cao Sanniang was not asking whether he would put down roots in India, but rather asking about his plans for the future.

In Cao Sanniang's view, Zhang Zhao was not only the descendant of a hero, but also possessed the valor of Qingji, was rich in knowledge, and understood when to advance and when to retreat.

A man like this — even if he said he was willing to submit to others, no one would believe it.

To say nothing else — did Zhang Zhao not want to sweep across Hexi as his great-grandfather Zhang Yichao had done, recover the eleven prefectures under the Hexi Military Governor, and even go further?

And for Zhang Zhao himself, he had not transmigrated just so his descendants could become Indians. He had come to restore Hexi and rebuild the Great Tang.

Now it was the second year of Changxing of the Later Tang in the Five Dynasties era. The realm was in chaos, wars never ceased, and the Central Plains was about to see the Later Tang's last emperor Li Congke strip Shi Jingtang of his military governorship, after which the child-emperor would shamelessly hand over the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, defying universal condemnation and committing an act that would bring profound disaster upon the Central Plains dynasties of later ages.

At the same time, a few years later, Shi Jingtang's son, the Later Jin's deposed emperor Shi Chonggui, because he was unwilling to continue being a groveling grandson, would invite a massive Khitan invasion southward, and the emperor-jerky Yelu Deguang was about to make his entrance.

In such a chaotic and splendid era, how could he possibly miss out?

The Guiyi Army was far from the Central Plains and located in a remote region. That was a disadvantage, but it could also be called an advantage.

Because the Guiyi Army could not only stay far from the strife of the Central Plains and quietly build up strength, but the Hexi Corridor of the Five Dynasties era was also the only region that had not sunk deep into the Five Dynasties atmosphere of "whoever has a gun is a local king."

One must understand that in the Central Plains of this time, could a Military Governor who had never killed or driven out an emperor still have the face to call himself a Military Governor?

And even Military Governors were not safe. If they were not careful, they could likewise be killed by the yabing guards below them. There had even been bizarre incidents where yabing guards killed their garrison commander, then carried his severed head through the streets beating gongs and shouting, "Who wants to be governor?"

As the saying went: the Son of Heaven in Chang'an, the yabing guards of Weibo. In this era, the infamous reputations of the Huaixi mule army, the Weibo yabing guards, and the Jingyuan yabing guards even made later emperors tremble with fear.

The Weibo yabing guards killed their garrison commanders as easily as slaughtering pigs and dogs. The thorn in their side, Zhao Zaili, rebelled as easily as drinking water. All of this was caused by the survival model of the Five Dynasties, in which military men held overwhelming power — big warlords controlled small warlords, and small warlords won over the soldiers.

But looking at the Guiyi Army at this time, military and political power had always been held firmly in the hands of the great clans. Whether among the governor's yabing guards or the garrison troops of the various towns, incidents of soldiers below rising in revolt and forcing their superiors to death rarely occurred. It could be called a clear stream in a chaotic age.

With such a fine advantage, if Zhang Zhao could obtain the support of his maternal uncle, Li Shengtian, Son of Heaven of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, then make a great fortune in India, and add to that the prestige and reputation of his great-grandfather Zhang Yichao —

then when the time came, he would smash Ganzhou and Suzhou, recover the Liangzhou Hexi army and the Wenmo Zhebu clan, destroy the Dingnan army's Li family and annex the various Tangut tribes, then seize the lands of Guanzhong and Longyou, march east to contend for the realm, restore the Great Tang, and end the chaos. That was what a true man should do!

And the key to all of this, apart from the support of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, the most important thing of all was that he had to seize control of Guazhou and Shazhou and restore the Zhang family's Guiyi Army. Otherwise none of this could be achieved.

"Sanniang, I say this: three years at the shortest, five years at the longest, and I will certainly return east to await the right moment. I say I have the ambition to recover Hexi and march east to contend — do you believe me?" Zhang Zhao looked at Cao Sanniang with burning eyes.

"This slave believes it! Because only that would be worthy of the young lord's bloodline. Only such a man would be worthy of the Grand Protector manifesting his spirit and bestowing the golden armor!"

Cao Sanniang nodded solemnly, then changed the subject. "But the young lord spoke of returning east to await the right moment — what moment is that?"

"What moment does Sanniang think I am waiting for?" Zhang Zhao increasingly felt this woman was very interesting. She could always, amid a great pile of Zhang Zhao's words, sharply seize upon the single most important point.

"Why don't we each write it on our palm, and see whether the moment we speak of is the same thing!" A faint smile appeared on Cao Sanniang's face as she handed a piece of rouge to Zhang Zhao with her right hand.

Zhang Zhao took the rouge, and the two of them exchanged a knowing smile with perfect tacit understanding, then began writing stroke by stroke on their palms.

Lord Grand Preceptor Great King!

Great King of the Western Protectorate!

The former was written by Cao Sanniang, the latter by Zhang Zhao.

These two titles actually referred to the same person. Lord Grand Preceptor Great King was how the current Guiyi Army Military Governor Cao Yijin was addressed within the Cao family, while Great King of the Western Protectorate was Cao Yijin's self-styled title for external use.

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