Chapter 355: East First or West First

Huang Yang'er made no effort to hide the envy in his heart. Looking at Bai Congxin, now Prefect of Taozhou and Commander of the Horse Army of the Guiyi Army's Hanhai Garrison, at Qiong Re Duojin, Horse Army Chief Adjutant of the Hanshan Unit, and at Dunzhu, Infantry Chief Adjutant of the Hanshan Unit, he wished he could slap himself across the face.

In the old days, under Bald-Tiger Geduo, Bai Congxin and Huang Yang'er had been his left and right arms, Qiong Re Duojin his personal guard, and Dunzhu his horse slave.

After Zhang Zhao stormed Geduo's mountain stronghold, Bai Congxin, Qiong Re Duojin, and Dunzhu all followed Zhang Zhao away. Only Huang Yang'er chose to lead his clansmen to Ganzhou.

But that was not what hit him hardest. What hit him hardest was Ma Shacai.

Because Ma Shacai had once been Huang Yang'er's subordinate, and had followed Zhang Zhao away because he did not want to go to Ganzhou.

And now Ma Shacai was a battalion commander of the Guiyi Army's Hanhai Garrison, Prefect of Huizhou and concurrently Huizhou Militia and Defense Commissioner, governing an entire prefecture, with over a thousand troops and tens of thousands of commoners under him, and several hundred strings of cash a year in pay and rewards alone.

He had even followed Zhang Zhao to the Western Regions and tasted the favors of a princess of a great kingdom like Persia.

While he, Huang Yang'er, was still a petty headman hiding in the poor mountains southwest of Ganzhou, eating a bit of mutton and not daring to put much cumin on it.

Seeing Zhang Zhao appear, Huang Yang'er had the riders behind him dismount on the spot, while he himself rode forward on a black horse, a bag in his hand. When he was still a dozen or so paces from Zhang Zhao, he swung down from the saddle and dropped to one knee on the ground.

"Huang Yang'er greets the Great King. I do not know whether it is too late to come and offer my service now."

"Get up! What is this talk of too late or not? Once you come, you are one of us!"

Zhang Zhao laughed and jumped down from his horse, pulling Huang Yang'er to his feet. Bai Congxin also walked over.

"You dog! Back then I tried my hardest to persuade you, but you would not listen. Well, do you regret it now?"

"I regret it! I regret it so much I could just finish myself off with one stroke!" Huang Yang'er's face was full of belated remorse. Then he handed the leather bag to Zhang Zhao.

"This is what was dug out of the Jingtie Mountains, just as the Great King said. Please inspect it, Great King."

Zhang Zhao took the bag and opened it. Inside were iron ores of every shape, their black surfaces very smooth, with occasional flashes of metallic luster. At a glance they were clearly mirror-iron ore of the highest grade.

Cao Yanming also took out a piece and examined it closely. Since the disastrous failure of the blast-furnace steelmaking, Cao Yanming had not been discouraged.

Instead, following Zhang Zhao's advice, he had broken down every step of the blast-furnace steelmaking process, then tackled them one by one, training people from scratch on each difficulty, pooling wisdom from all sides.

"Young lord, how did you know Ganzhou had such fine ore? It is deep in the mountains, and you certainly have never been there. Can there truly be those born with knowledge?"

Cao Yanming looked at Zhang Zhao in astonishment. Others might not know, but he did. Not only was the ore in his hand of extremely high grade, but the way these iron deposits had been found was deeply unfathomable.

Zhang Zhao had simply tapped a spot on the map and said there was ore there, then sent men to search — and it had really been there.

"Ha! I am the Wheel-Turning Dharma King. How could a common mortal like you fathom me?"

Zhang Zhao had meant it as a joke with Cao Yanming, and he patted him on the shoulder.

But Cao Yanming took it completely the wrong way. Watching the laughing Zhang Zhao, he once again believed that there truly were immortals in this world.

It seemed that this "chemistry" the young lord spoke of must be a ladder leading up beyond the Ninth Heaven. It must be an immortal art. Whoever understood it would surely ascend to immortality on the spot.

So thought the great "scientist" Cao.

Yan Jin, beside Zhang Zhao, did not follow Cao Yanming's line of thought. All he knew was that the Ganzhou Uyghurs were doomed.

For they not only possessed a horse-breeding paradise like Shandan, but also the iron ore of the Jingtie Mountains. This was what they called "the innocent man's crime is possessing the jade."

Zhang Zhao thought the same. There was no need to say how important the Shandan army horse farm was to Zhang Zhao. Since ancient times, the iron cavalry of Liangzhou had been a byword, and the Jingtie Mountains' iron ore was equally important.

In later ages, the Jingtie Mountains iron mine would be the most highly mechanized mining district in the Republic, which meant its extraction could not be difficult. At the same time, the Jingtie Mountains' iron ore also had the advantages of high grade and large reserves.

With horses and with ore, they were dead beyond all doubt.

At this thought, Zhang Zhao stopped beating around the bush with Huang Yang'er and said to him directly.

"Kill Yaoluoge Tongli, bring your clansmen down, and I will find you a fine place with lush water and grass in Lanzhou. Any office below the fourth rank — take your pick!"

During the Battle of Suzhou, Yaoluoge Tongli had originally come with his men to rescue the Ganzhou Khagan Renyu.

But he had conceived a petty ambition he should not have had, wanting to replace Khagan Renyu. As a result, Zhang Zhao seized the opportunity and shattered his camp with a single surprise assault.

Afterwards he did not dare return to Ganzhou, so he had no choice but to flee with his personal followers into the Qilian Mountains, to the area that in later ages would be the Yugur Autonomous County in southern Gansu, and hide there. Huang Yang'er and the others all made their living under Yaoluoge Tongli.

A troubled look appeared on Huang Yang'er's face. He weighed his words for a moment before speaking.

"In reply to the Great King: killing Yaoluoge Tongli is not difficult. What is difficult is how to settle the other people in the Qilian Mountains. Without benefit to them, they will not listen to me."

"You thieving slave, how dare you make excuses before the Great King? How many clansmen do you even have? Hexi and Longyou are vast — can they not find room for that handful of people of yours?"

Bai Congxin was angry and shouted abuse at Huang Yang'er, but in truth he was reminding him that Zhang Zhao was no longer the Zhang Erlang of old, who had only a few dozen or a hundred men. Now he was the Prince of Wuwei Commandery, about to control the eighteen prefectures of Hexi and Longyou, and one could not speak to him so casually.

Huang Yang'er of course knew Bai Congxin meant well, so he did not take offense, and instead became even more careful.

"Elder Brother's lesson is just. But the clansmen I speak of are not only my own clansmen, but also the tens of thousands of herders in the Qilian Mountains.

The weather grows ever more bitterly cold. In the Qilian Mountains, snow still flies in the sixth month, and life is extraordinarily hard.

These people are cut off from news. They do not yet know that the Great King is about to unify Hexi and Longyou, and they are still drawn by Yaoluoge Tongli's promise of a good life in Ganzhou.

Unless they are given a good place to go, killing Yaoluoge Tongli will be no easy matter."

Zhang Zhao suddenly understood. He realized who these herders in the Qilian Mountains were: they were the Kucha Uyghurs whom the Tibetans had relocated from Kucha and other places in years past.

The ancestors of Bai Congxin and Geduo had all been moved to the Hexi Corridor at that time. Now they were collectively called the Yellow-Head Uyghurs, and in a few more decades they would be called the Shazhou Uyghurs.

Although historically the Ganzhou Uyghurs had used a scheme of diverting disaster eastward to push them into Guazhou and Shazhou, where they ultimately became guests who usurped the host and took control of the Guiyi Army,

in fact the ancestors of these people could barely be counted as loyal subjects of the Great Tang. The Kucha king Bai Lengling, of the Five Surnames and Three Royal Houses, was the ancestor of some of them.

"Congxin, go with Huang Yang'er. Tell them that after Ganzhou is taken, I will let them return to their homeland!"

Zhang Zhao said to Bai Congxin. From the fact that Bai Congxin had always wanted to go back and rebuild the kingdom of Kucha, one could see that what these Yellow-Head Uyghurs wanted most was still to return to their homeland.

It happened that after the Golden Kingdom of Khotan had sent more than three thousand sons of Tang and over ten thousand of their family members to Zhang Zhao, the population of Khotan's various regions had become somewhat insufficient.

A territory as large as Ningyuan had very few people. Zhang Zhao had also promised that once he was firmly established, he would send these Uyghurs back to Anxi to strengthen the kingdom of Khotan.

"On behalf of my kinsmen in the Qilian Mountains, I thank the Great King for his grace. Not a day passes that they do not long to return to their homeland."

Bai Congxin said to Zhang Zhao with deep emotion. What he said was the truth. Ever since the Tibetans had moved them to this bitter, cold land, these Uyghurs had dreamed of returning home.

But Zhang Zhao frowned and said to Bai Congxin, "It is a pity that Kucha is still in the hands of the Gaochang Uyghurs. You must tell them plainly:

for a short time they can only survive in the Shule area. As for when Kucha can be retaken — that still requires careful planning!"

Zhang Zhao felt there was simply not enough time. By rights, the Gaochang Uyghurs were the chief culprits who had framed the Anxi Army, so in all fairness they should first be crushed to avenge that grievance.

But the Gaochang Uyghurs were also a great power with tens of thousands of bowstrings, and a nomadic people besides.

With Zhang Zhao's current strength, a fight would take years to settle.

If that time were spent on Gaochang instead, it would inevitably slow Zhang Zhao's move to seize the Lingwu Military Governorship (Shuofang), and might even affect his plan to destroy the Li family of the Dingnan Army.

Forget it! Zhang Zhao felt a headache coming on. Better to deal with the Ganzhou Uyghurs first!

In the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng, outside the gate of the Grand Xiangguo Temple, a two-story wooden tower rose from the ground. It was a restaurant, and its name was the Guiyi Tower.

One heard the name and knew at once who had opened it — none other than the newly enfeoffed Prince of Wuwei, Honorary Grand Marshal, and Grand Military Governor of Hexi and Longyou, Zhang Zhao.

Only this prince, whose might shook Hexi and Guanzhong, could open a restaurant outside the Grand Xiangguo Temple — and make its signature dish Hexi rock-sugar braised pork.

It was not that selling pork in front of a Buddhist temple would anger the monks; rather, it was brazenly stealing their business!

The Grand Xiangguo Temple's signature dish was roast pork — that is, grilled fatty pork. For this restaurant to sell Hexi rock-sugar braised pork — was that not picking a fight?

But the people of the Eastern Capital who were waiting to watch a good show were soon left utterly stunned.

On the day the restaurant opened, the Grand Xiangguo Temple's roast pork was brought inside the restaurant as well, and the monks coming and going were even on warm, familiar terms with the waiters.

This was truly surreal! For the Grand Xiangguo Temple was not to be trifled with.

The site had originally been the old residence of Lord Xinling, Prince Wei. The temple had been built four hundred years earlier, in the sixth year of Tianbao of the Northern Qi (555).

It had been destroyed by fire many times and rebuilt each time, and could be counted among the most deeply rooted local powers of the Eastern Capital.

It had several hundred monks, and countless farming households depended on the temple for their livelihood. Even Military Governors from various regions had borrowed money from the Grand Xiangguo Temple.

Such a local tyrant cloaked in religion would dare to deny face even to the Child Emperor in the Daning Palace — so how had it yielded to a prince from Hexi?

In the end, someone with good connections found out the reason.

It turned out this Prince Zhang of Hexi was no ordinary man. He was a divine Buddha reincarnated, who in this life had gone to the Buddha's Vulture Peak and attained enlightenment.

He also had heaven-bestowed golden armor protecting his body, and the sweating-blood horse beneath him was the reincarnation of Red Hare, the mount of Guan Yunchang of the Three Kingdoms.

The Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Tangut even called him the Dharma King Bodhisattva. It was said the Grand Xiangguo Temple had specially chosen a great hall and was now sculpting a sacred image of Prince Zhang — how extraordinary!

With such a veil of mystery around it, the Guiyi Tower's business was blazing hot from the day it opened. Ordinary people could not even get a meal without reserving a seat in advance.

The so-called Three Treasures of the Guiyi Tower — Hexi rock-sugar braised pork, crispy-skinned roast duck, and that oddly named curry mutton loaded with spices — were delicacies that many residents of the Eastern Capital relished with great delight.

And today, the second floor of this restaurant had been reserved.

The only person with such influence was, of course, the adopted son of Prince Zhang from Hexi — Murong Xinzhang, who had just been appointed by the Son of Heaven as Chief Commander of the Iron Cavalry of the Palace Guard.

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