Chapter 357: A Great Vengeance Repaid

In early April, beneath the walls of Ganzhou, the waters of the Zhangye River had already been cut off and diverted, and the moat outside Ganzhou was nearly dry.

Great numbers of Guiyi Army soldiers, braving falling stones, swarmed like ants, endlessly carrying earth and rocks to fill the trenches outside the city.

At the same time, the Guiyi Army's great trebuchets kept hurling stones into Ganzhou. The corner tower of Ganzhou's east gate had already been smashed down, and the dwellings in the eastern part of the city were largely destroyed.

The dense twang of bed crossbows rang out, but they were not shooting at massed men; they were aimed specially at the city wall, because the soldiers could use the crossbow bolts as handholds to climb up.

More than a dozen nest carts watched every movement inside the city from all directions. Whenever troops were shifted, they would immediately notify the army commanders outside the city by drumbeats and flags.

And outside the east and south gates, laborers had piled up several earthen ramps nearly as high as the city wall.

Countless sharpshooters, armed with divine-arm bows and wooden single-shot crossbows, were laying down suppressive fire on the battlements of Ganzhou.

Unlike in history, when the Liao and the Western Xia besieged it in turn and fought for nearly a year before taking it, the Guiyi Army's pincer attack from east and west had taken less than a month to bring Ganzhou to the verge of collapse.

This was inevitable, because Han armies were not only skilled in field battles, but even more skilled in siege warfare.

Their experience in this was simply too rich. No matter what kind of city you had, over thousands of years they had long since summed up countless lessons, far beyond anything the Khitan or the Tangut could match.

Moreover, this time the Guiyi Army could be said to have marched out in full force, determined to destroy Ganzhou with the force of a thunderbolt.

Zhang Zhao had levied four thousand Guiyi Army troops in Liangzhou, four thousand cavalry from the Six Tribes, and three thousand Han infantry from the Six Tribes.

There were also four thousand archers from the three eastern Shanshan tribes and from Huizhou and Yuanzhou, and more than thirty thousand laborers — a full fifteen thousand fighting men and over thirty thousand laborers.

This was a grand stroke the likes of which Zhang Zhao had never undertaken since returning to Hexi.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao, in his capacity as Grand Commissioner of Hexi and Longyou, ordered his father-in-law, Cao Yuanzhong, Military Governor and Surveillance and Disposition Commissioner of Gua and Sha Prefectures, to send out all four thousand Guiyi Army troops of Gua and Sha, together with ten thousand laborers, advancing east from Suzhou.

The Ganzhou Khagan Renyu attempted to organize a field battle to resist, but was quickly and directly routed by the armed Six Tribes cavalry of the Guiyi Army. Without even catching sight of Zhang Zhao's main army, he had no choice but to retreat back into Ganzhou.

By this point, the key towns such as Shandan that had been under the control of the Ganzhou Uyghurs fell one after another, and the Uyghurs could only hold Ganzhou and hope to wear the Guiyi Army out.

This was a correct strategy. Given the current conditions in Hexi, plus the Guiyi Army of Gua and Sha, Zhang Zhao had mobilized a full seventy thousand men at once.

That was no light burden. With the grain reserves currently in Liangzhou, they could hold out for three or four months at most.

But the idea was beautiful while reality was harsh. The Ganzhou Khagan Renyu had originally planned to hold out for three or four months and wear Zhang Zhao away, but Zhang Zhao was not going to give him that chance.

The Uyghurs were a horse people, never good at defending cities to begin with. How could they be a match for the Guiyi Army? After only a month of fighting, they were already on the brink of losing the city.

Had it not been for the decades of deep hatred between the Ganzhou Uyghurs and the Guiyi Army, which made them afraid to surrender, internal disorder would probably have broken out in the city long ago.

The Guiyi Army troops coming from the west were personally led by Cao Yuanzhong. As soon as he arrived, he delegated command to the young lord Troop Commander Luo Tongda, and then came directly to Zhang Zhao's command tent.

Ostensibly he had come to renew the bond between son-in-law and father-in-law with Zhang Zhao, but in reality he was making clear that he would not cling to command of these several thousand Guiyi Army troops.

Zhang Zhao also appreciated Cao Yuanzhong's gesture. Since the last time Zhang Zhao had left with the younger generation of the Guiyi Army, there had been some estrangement between the two sides.

After all, Zhang Zhao had departed far away and had not chosen to end the Cao family's rule over the Guiyi Army. In this way, a situation had formed in which two Guiyi Armies coexisted.

But what Cao Yuanzhong did today was tantamount to delivering the Guiyi Army and territory of Gua and Sha into Zhang Zhao's hands as well.

Zhang Zhao also indicated that he would petition the court to enfeoff Cao Yuanzhong as Duke of Qiao Commandery, and appoint him Deputy Grand Commissioner of Hexi and Longyou, concurrently serving as Prefect of Shazhou.

His young brother-in-law, Cao Liulang Cao Yanlu, would be Prefect of Yinzhou. As for Cao Yuanzhong's current posts as Military Governor and Surveillance Commissioner of Gua and Sha, those would be taken away.

However, this was not without aftereffects. Just looking at the eager look Cao Yanlu gave Zhang Zhao, this post of Prefect of Yinzhou was probably not something that could be fobbed off as an empty title.

One must understand that Cao Yanlu, Cao Sanniang, and Cao Shijiu were born of the same mother. The man's only elder sister and younger sister had both been given to Zhang Zhao — would you have the nerve to fob him off with an empty title?

"Great King, someone in Ganzhou has sent out a letter, offering to take the head of Khagan Renyu and surrender!" Zhebu Jiashi came over holding a letter written on brocade.

Zhang Zhao did not even look at it, and directly tossed the brocade into the fire and burned it. "Not permitted! Today, even if Renyu came out bare-chested to surrender, it would not be permitted."

Cao Yuanzhong and his son Cao Yanlu nodded in agreement. More than twenty years ago, the Ganzhou Uyghur army had reached the walls of Dunhuang and forced Zhang Zhao's father, Zhang Chengfeng, to acknowledge the Ganzhou Khagan Renmei — the father of the current Khagan Renyu — as his father. It was the greatest humiliation of the entire Guiyi Army.

Such an insult could only be washed clean with blood. Many of those who had personally experienced that humiliation were still alive.

By feeling and by reason, they would never allow the Ganzhou Uyghurs to be let off lightly. At the very least, the head of Khagan Renyu alone would never be enough.

"Great King, the sapping tunnel has been dug all the way beneath the walls of Ganzhou. We can set off the explosion now!"

No sooner had the refusal been spoken than Shi Chongmin came over to report the good news. After more than a month of digging, the sappers had delivered the gunpowder beneath the walls of Ganzhou.

Boom—! The explosion rang out, shaking the heavens, and scared Cao Yanlu so badly that he sat down hard on the ground. The color drained completely from Cao Yuanzhong's face as well.

Amid flying sand and stones, the east gate wall of Ganzhou instantly collapsed, opening a huge breach.

At the very front, a thunderous roar went up, and the heavy infantry of the Six Tribes led the charge in, followed by the Tangut archers, with the Guiyi Army and the heavy armored troops of Hanshan Du bringing up the rear.

The crowd in black lamellar armor crashed in like a black torrent. The Ganzhou Uyghurs, who had already lost large numbers of armored men in the great battle at Suzhou, put up little resistance before wailing and losing the ability to fight back, scattered in every direction.

In Ganzhou, the Uyghur royal palace was where resistance was fiercest. All the members of the Yaglakar clan had gathered there.

The Guiyi Army soldiers could only fight them house by house and room by room. Important members of the Yaglakar clan were continually being captured and dragged out.

Zhang Zhao interrogated them one by one and had the prisoners identify them. All close-line members of the Yaglakar clan had their hands smashed with hammers before being beheaded.

Cao Sanniang was dressed in men's clothing, with a suit of leather armor over her body. Watching the close-line members of the Yaglakar clan being dragged out one after another, tears instantly blurred her vision.

In the faint sunlight, the cousin Suo Sanlang of those years — the one who could pluck the vertical konghou with slender fingers and spoke slowly and softly, like warm sunlight — returned so clearly to Cao Yannai's mind. The features that had long been blurred suddenly became distinct in an instant.

Another close-line member of the Yaglakar clan was dragged and shoved before Zhang Zhao. This was a youth in his teens, looking about the same age as Suo Sanlang had been back then.

The young Uyghur, seeing the iron hammer stained with a great deal of blood and flesh, let out a terrified shriek and struggled desperately in despair.

But he was held down by two burly armored soldiers. No matter how violently he struggled, he was still mercilessly forced to the ground.

"Erlang, spare them!" Cao Sanniang, her eyes brimming with tears, suddenly spoke up to stop it.

Zhang Zhao hesitated briefly, then nodded. He had already killed more than a dozen close-line members of the Yaglakar clan. Continuing to kill more truly held no meaning.

"Search the whole city. The close-line brothers of Renmei, Diyin, and Renyu are all to be exterminated.

As for the collateral lines, so long as they did not take part in the siege of Dunhuang in former years, Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life. They may be spared the death penalty and sentenced to hard labor at Jingtie Mountain!"

No sooner had Zhang Zhao's voice fallen than thunderous cheers rang out. Dozens of armored soldiers, laughing loudly, escorted out a man in yellow robes — none other than the Khagan of Ganzhou, Yaglakar Renyu.

Manxiong and Dunzhu each grabbed one of Renyu's arms and pressed him down onto the bloody, muddy ground before Zhang Zhao.

Before the attack, Zhang Zhao had instructed the daughter Cao Yijin had married off to the Ganzhou Uyghurs to paint a portrait of Khagan Renyu, precisely because he feared Renyu would slip away like a cicada shedding its shell, as he had at Miaoquan Garrison.

"Is this man Yaglakar Renyu?" Zhang Zhao brought in three groups in succession to confirm it — two groups of prisoners, and one was Cao Yijin's grandson by a daughter, the son of the previous Khagan Aduoyu.

This child of seven or eight, who had already been renamed Cao Yansi, stared at the man in yellow robes with hatred, because Aduoyu had been killed by Renyu.

"Great King, brother-in-law, this man is none other than that villain Renyu!"

'Clang!' Zhang Zhao drew the hengdao saber at his waist, then signaled Dunzhu and Manxiong to release Yaoluoge Renyu.

He threw back his head and let out a long cry to the heavens. This Ganzhou Uyghur, who had brought about the destruction of Zhang Chengfeng's Western Han Jinshan Kingdom, was finally finished at Zhang Zhao's hands.

The moment Yaoluoge Renyu broke free, he staggered and began to flee. Zhang Zhao roared: "Father! Today, I avenge you! Our Zhang family has finally wiped away its shame!"

With that, Zhang Zhao sprang forward and brought his hengdao saber slashing down on Yaoluoge Renyu's neck.

The severed head shot skyward, trailing blood as it flew into the distance. The headless corpse ran on for several steps before crashing to the ground with a thud.

"All Ganzhou Uyghurs of centurion rank and above — their male kin shall be sentenced to hard labor at the Mirror Iron Mountain. Their gold, silk, and women shall be bestowed upon meritorious officers. All others shall not be pursued. No army may commit rape or wanton slaughter!"

"We obey the Great King's command!" The Guiyi Army soldiers all around roared their assent, and cheers rose from every side!

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