Chapter 358: Hexi Unified

In Ganzhou city, the corpses had already been cleared away. All Ganzhou Uyghur officers above the rank of centurion, along with nobles great and small, had been rounded up and put in chains.

Zhang Zhao transferred 3,500 shi of millet from Liangzhou to Ganzhou, which immediately steadied Ganzhou's soaring grain prices, and he allowed the people of Ganzhou to exchange labor for food from the Guiyi Army.

With the Guiyi Army committing no rape and no wanton killing after entering the city, the situation in Ganzhou quickly settled down.

Whether the Uyghurs in the city, the Long family people, or the small number of Tatars, all accepted the Guiyi Army's rule.

They were even greatly relieved that the Guiyi Army had managed to topple the Yageluo family, because the years of hostility with the Guiyi Army had tormented the people of Ganzhou terribly.

The Yageluo family, of course, would never starve to death — those who starved were all poor folk like them. So for breaking Ganzhou, many people actually felt great approval and support for the Guiyi Army.

On the third day after the city fell, Huang Yang'er arrived at Ganzhou city with the leaders, great and small, of the eleven Yellow-Head Uyghur tribes from the Qilian Mountains.

Following Zhang Zhao's orders, they had executed Yageluo Tongli, the last royal of the Ganzhou Uyghurs, along with more than a hundred of his followers.

Zhang Zhao received them in the palace of the Ganzhou Uyghur kings and on the spot appointed Huang Yang'er as Commander of the Seventh Battalion of the Guiyi Army's Hanhai Garrison.

He had Huang Yang'er, beyond his own three hundred-odd men, go recruit warriors from among the Yellow-Head Uyghurs to make up a full nine hundred.

And looking at the dozen or so Yellow-Head Uyghurs before him, who already looked hardly different from Tibetans, Zhang Zhao bestowed some gold, silver, and cloth, then spoke kindly.

"You all know that I am willing to let you return to your homeland, yes?"

The assembled chiefs hurriedly bowed and answered in a jumble, "We all know it, and we thank the Great King for his grace!"

"Good! Since you are returning to your homeland, then do not call yourselves Yellow-Head Uyghurs any longer. From now on, use your original name as Kucha people!"

Zhang Zhao said with a smile. In truth, he was cutting these Yellow-Head Uyghurs off from the word "Uyghur."

Because the Saketu whom Zhang Zhao had driven north of the Tianshan to the Land of Seven Rivers was a Uyghur, and the Gaochang Uyghurs even used "Uyghur" as their state name.

If these tens of thousands of people went back bearing the title of Yellow-Head Uyghurs, it would inevitably make them harder to govern.

For these tens of thousands of Yellow-Head Uyghurs, changing their name meant nothing at all. They had never much liked the name "Yellow-Head Uyghur" anyway — it carried a hint of contempt — and "Kucha people" was their original name.

Having finished with the Uyghurs, Zhang Zhao turned his gaze to Huang Yang'er and could not help wearing a teasing smile.

"Huang Yang'er, do you not have a proper name? In my adopted-son army there is a yellow sheep I brought back from Shule city — exceptionally clever, he is."

Huang Yang'er paid no mind to Zhang Zhao's teasing; he even wanted to push it further.

"If the Great King says so, could it be that he wishes to take me as an adopted son too? If so, I will kneel right now and call you Father!

After all, the Son of Heaven in the Central Plains could acknowledge a Khitan ruler more than ten years his junior as father. I am only two or three years older than the Great King, so naturally I too can call the Great King Father."

"You brat, you've got it all figured out. I'd like to call the Great King Father myself!" Qiong Re Duojin, standing nearby, heard this and could not help laughing.

At once everyone burst into laughter, and the slightly tense and awkward atmosphere immediately eased.

Zhang Zhao laughed so hard he doubled over. After a long while he stopped and said to Huang Yang'er, "Forget it. Let me bestow a name on you instead. Among the sons of Tang there is also the surname Huang, so there is no need to change your surname.

In years past, under my great-grandfather the Grand Guardian there was a great general named Yan Yingda. How about I bestow the two characters 'Yingda' upon you — heroic and valiant in bearing, open and magnanimous. That suits your temperament well."

Yan Yingda, historically also known as Shang Yanxin, was no ordinary man.

He was a great figure who submitted with the two prefectures of Hezhou and Weizhou when Zhang Yichao recovered Hexi.

He was a formidable man who, as a Wenmo, could command Tibetan tribes.

The Guiyi Army's loss of control over Hexi was marked by Yan Yingda's death in battle while serving as garrison commander of Shandan.

A name-bestowal like this was no ordinary name-bestowal. Huang Yang'er immediately wiped the grinning expression from his face, hurriedly stepped out from his seat, threw himself to the ground, and gave Zhang Zhao the grand rite of three kowtows.

"Your servant Huang Yingda kowtows in thanks for the Great King's bestowed name. I vow to follow the Great King through fire and water, even unto death without regret!"

Having finished with the Yellow-Head Uyghur matter, Zhang Zhao broke up and redistributed the Ganzhou Uyghurs, whose entire noble class had been swept away.

Through six days of investigation and census-taking, the Ganzhou Uyghurs at this time numbered 39,000 households and over 241,000 people.

Of these, more than 30,000 lived in the area from lower Suzhou to the Miaoquan garrison post.

Shandan had over 19,000.

In the Jingtie Mountains of southern Ganzhou there were eight or nine thousand.

From Juyan Lake into the great desert lived more than 90,000 Uyghurs mixed together with Tatars.

The Ganzhou heartland had over 90,000.

After this battle, more than 20,000 able-bodied men were to be confiscated and sent to the Jingtie Mountains.

For the tribes from Juyan Lake into the great desert, over whom the Ganzhou Uyghur khagans had relatively weak control, Zhang Zhao divided them into ten tribes of roughly ten thousand each.

Then from each tribe he drew one hundred of the bravest to form a battalion that he kept by his side, incorporating them into the Yucheng Garrison and calling it the Uyghur Sworn Followers Left Battalion.

From the Ganzhou heartland he also drew one thousand men into the Yucheng Garrison, calling them the Uyghur Sworn Followers Right Battalion.

At the same time, he moved 15,000 people from the Ganzhou Uyghurs of Shandan and resettled them in Minqin County north of Liangzhou and Changsong County to the south.

Then from the Zhelu family of the Six Tribes and the Zhao garrison commander's family, he drew about 10,000 people and resettled them in Shandan.

Zhang Zhao formally appointed the Zhao garrison commander as garrison commander of Shandan, to control for Zhang Zhao this place that could be called a sacred land for horse-breeding in all of China.

Beyond this, from the more than 90,000 people of the Ganzhou heartland, 30,000 were to be drawn out and scattered to Lanzhou, Hezhou, and other places — though Hezhou had not yet been taken, so this was only an arrangement made in advance.

After these arrangements were complete, only forty to fifty thousand of the original Uyghurs of Ganzhou remained.

Zhang Zhao then moved 10,000 Guiyi Army commoners to Ganzhou, appointed Cao Yanxi, son of the Ganzhou Khagan Aduoyu, as Prefect of Ganzhou, and made Luo Tongda, Troop Commander of the Guiyi Army's young lord's guard, the Defense and Disposition Commissioner of Ganzhou.

But Cao Yanxi would not actually be in Ganzhou at all. Zhang Zhao was merely using his name to temporarily soothe the people.

The real power in Ganzhou remained in the hands of Luo Tongda, that seasoned old general of the Guiyi Army.

Zhang Zhao had originally wanted one of his own men to hold Ganzhou, but after counting it up, among the officers under him who could stand alone there were only a few: Yan Jin, Yin Yaozi, Fan Quan, Ma Shacai, and the like.

But these men could not be moved at all — each had heavy responsibilities — so he could only send Luo Tongda.

Still, this was not bad. Luo Tongda had been a trusted general in the time of Zhang Zhao's father Zhang Chengfeng, and over a hundred men of the Luo family were in the Guiyi Army. In using Luo Tongda, Zhang Zhao was fairly at ease.

At the end of the sixth month, having settled the affairs of Ganzhou, Zhang Zhao returned to Liangzhou, on one hand arranging the grand wedding.

On the other, preparing to take the half of Shanzhou (Xining in Qinghai) within the Longyou Military Governor's domain that was not under Zhang Zhao's control.

Kuozhou (Hualong in Qinghai)

Hezhou (Linxia in Gansu)

Taozhou (Lintan, Gansu)

Weizhou (Longxi, Gansu)

Diezhou (Diebu, Gansu)

Minzhou (Min County, Gansu) — six and a half prefectures in all.

In early seventh month, Zhang Zhao appointed Yan Jin as Pacification Commissioner of Shan, Kuo, and He Prefectures, leading four thousand horse and foot soldiers, and conscripting four thousand elite cavalry from the three eastern Shan tribes to enter Shanzhou.

At the end of the seventh month, Yan Jin fought a great battle against the six western Shan Wenmo tribes, who refused to submit, by the Huangshui River at Huangshui City (Ledu, Qinghai). The twenty-thousand-strong allied force of the six western Shan tribes was utterly routed.

Yan Jin entered Huangshui City, which had been the seat of the former Great Tang Military Governor of Longyou. With the recapture of Huangshui City, Zhang Zhao's title of Grand Commissioner of Military Governance for Hexi and Longyou finally became true in both name and substance.

After half a month of rest and reorganization, Yan Jin again led the army south to attack Kuozhou. The Tibetan tribes of Kuozhou gathered more than four thousand men to resist, and were swept away in a single wave.

At this time, Zhang Zhao, having received Yan Jin's battle report, arrived at Huangshui City. He immediately executed all the headmen of the Rijiang and Beining tribes — two of the six western Shan tribes that had dared to lead the resistance — and condemned more than nine thousand men of the two tribes to slavery in the Jingtie Mountain mines.

The remaining tribes, such as the Chuokezong and Yangdan, were terrified, and one after another offered cattle, sheep, and women in submission.

Fifteen days later, the Tibetan tribes of Kuozhou, who had originally occupied the prefecture but had been driven onto the snow mountains by Yan Jin, broke out in unrest. The people killed the entire family of their Dongdai and came down the mountain to surrender.

What a joke — this was the Little Ice Age. Survival in Kuozhou was already desperately hard; being driven onto the snow mountains was a near-certain death sentence.

Zhang Zhao seized the opportunity to win over these Tibetan tribes, gaining more than eight thousand people. He appointed Fan Quan as Prefect of Kuozhou, moved two thousand people of the the the Shatuo Li clan from Lanzhou to Kuozhou, and set about pacifying and dividing the local tribes.

Afterward, Zhang Zhao drew three thousand men from the four western Shan tribes and six thousand horse and foot soldiers of the Guiyi Army, forming a great force of more than twenty thousand including laborers, and marched from Shanzhou to press upon Hezhou.

When the great army arrived, under the "inspiration" of the abbot of Lingyan Temple, Hezhou's ancient thousand-year-old monastery, the Wenmo tribes of Hezhou sent their sons as hostages and offered up their lands, household registers, cattle, sheep, and children in submission.

The Wenmo of Hezhou were in large part descendants of Longyou soldiers, and moreover Hezhou's prefectural seat was only about one hundred twenty li from Lanzhou — if Zhang Zhao wished, he could dispatch a great army to attack at any time.

He therefore accepted the submission of the Hezhou tribes, and had the various tribes swear a blood oath at Hezhou City, declaring that they renounced their Wenmo identity and returned to the nation as descendants of Longyou soldiers.

Although in truth only thirty or forty percent of them actually had Longyou soldier blood, Han identity was never determined by blood alone — it was held together more by cultural identification.

Zhang Zhao also believed that, given the Wenmo's meager level of culture, they would be assimilated quickly.

After Hezhou submitted, the remaining territory consisted only of Taozhou, Minzhou, Diezhou, and most importantly Weizhou.

In the tenth month, the people of Taozhou rose in revolt, killing the Tibetan nobles of Taozhou who had prepared to resist the Guiyi Army, and submitted.

The terrified leaders of the various Minzhou tribes bared their shoulders, led sheep on foot for thirty li, and came to surrender at Zhang Zhao's great army encampment below Mount Kongtong in Minzhou.

In the end, however, there was still a small mishap. The Tibetan tribes of Diezhou, having little contact with the outside world and unaware of how the situation had changed, actually gathered more than three thousand men to hold the mountain fortress of Diezhou and prepare to resist.

Zhang Zhao directed the troops, using the tribal forces of Min, He, and Tao Prefectures as the vanguard, while the Guiyi Army provided long-range support.

To prove their loyalty, the tribal forces of the three prefectures attacked with desperate ferocity. Aided by the Guiyi Army's various siege engines, the great army fought for a month and a half before finally taking Diezhou.

Diezhou had originally been able to become a prefecture because during the Great Tang period the climate was warm and could support a certain amount of agriculture.

But by now, in the Little Ice Age, it could barely support herding, and the only place where any crops could be grown was a little over a thousand mu of land in the river valley.

So, both to overawe the locals and to give some benefit to the Min, He, and Tao tribal forces who had proven their loyalty,

Zhang Zhao for the first time did not restrain his troops. After Diezhou City fell, the tribal forces of the three prefectures stormed into the city and plundered it for three full days before sheathing their blades.

Immediately afterward, Zhang Zhao ordered the destruction of Diezhou City, which had been built by the Great Tang, and had the remaining several thousand Diezhou inhabitants all relocated and bestowed upon meritorious subjects.

At this point, Diezhou, which had once had a population of more than ten thousand, was completely abandoned.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth month, before New Year's Eve, the leaders of the great Han and Qiang clans of Longxi, Xiangwu, and Weiyuan in Weizhou personally traveled to Liangzhou to declare their submission.

As is evident from the names alone, places like Longxi, Xiangwu, and Weiyuan were certainly areas with many Han people and a high degree of sinicization.

They also had extensive marriage ties with the great Han clans of Liangzhou, Minzhou, and other places, and so they quickly submitted to Zhang Zhao.

At this point, of the seventeen prefectures of Hexi and Longyou — Gua, Sha, Su, Gan, Liang, Lan, Shan, He, Min, Kuo, Tao, Die, Wei, Dang, Cheng, Wu, and Qin —

except for Diezhou, which had been destroyed and abandoned, Cheng, Wu, and Qin Prefectures, which were in Later Jin hands, and Dangzhou, which was in Later Shu hands, Zhang Zhao had finally completed the great enterprise of unifying Hexi and Longyou.

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