Chapter 36: The Shouchang Garrison

"Young Lord Erlang, everyone in the stronghold has been taken away by the Cao family's Fourteenth Young Lord, and he left you a letter. You must save them!"

When Zhang Zhao led his newly recruited eighty-odd followers, over three hundred people in all, escorting a large quantity of supplies back to Qi Xiahu's mountain stronghold, he was utterly dumbfounded.

He had of course considered that the Military Governor's office in Dunhuang might well find its way here, so he had sent out plenty of scouts to probe along the route.

He had expected the other side to intercept him on the road or wait at the stronghold at their ease, but he had never imagined that they would simply take everyone away.

"See for yourself! Your fourteenth brother wants me to go bind myself and present myself at the Shi Family Manor!" Zhang Zhao handed the silk in his hand to Lady Cao Sanniang.

"It seems the people from the Dunhuang Military Governor's office and the Shouchang garrison do not believe you killed Ge Duo, Young Lord. They most likely think you have already colluded with Ge Duo's horse bandits."

Lady Cao Sanniang's expression was extremely grim. Clearly, this fourteenth brother of hers had not cared much about her safety at all.

Because whether intercepting him on the road or waiting at the stronghold for Zhang Zhao to blunder in, either would have been better than leaving a letter telling Zhang Zhao to go to the Shi Family Manor.

What if Zhang Zhao turned out to be a ruthless sort, and rather than caring about the several hundred people in the stronghold, chose to cut her, Cao Yannai, down with one stroke?

"What is this fourteenth brother's standing in your family? Is he favored?" Zhang Zhao asked lightly.

His original plan had been to escort Lady Cao Sanniang back to Shouchang City, then wait for her to obtain a pardon from the Military Governor's office and leave directly himself. Now, it seemed, that would not work.

"Quite favored!" Lady Cao Sanniang smoothed the hair by her ear, and it seemed she had steadied herself. But Zhang Zhao knew she had not; whenever this woman was nervous or angry, she would unconsciously brush the hair by her ear.

"Fourteenth Young Lord is the eldest son of the Great King Linggong, the fourth son of my uncle Lord Cao Yuande. His mother is a daughter of the Luo clan, a great family of Shazhou, famed for her beauty and seven or eight years younger than Lord Yuande, so naturally the son she bore is favored." When she said "seven or eight years younger," Lady Cao Sanniang could not help stealing a glance at Zhang Zhao.

But Zhang Zhao did not notice. He clapped his hands in delight. "Favored is good. This little nephew of mine probably doesn't yet know how formidable his maternal uncle is. As an elder, it's only right I teach him a lesson. How far is the Shi Family Manor from here?"

"Young Lord, you mean to seize Fourteenth Young Lord? The Shi Family Manor is only a little over forty li from here, but that old man just now said Fourteenth Young Lord brought a full regiment of Yue cavalry. Seizing Fourteenth Young Lord won't be so easy!"

Lady Cao Sanniang narrowed her eyes. Since Fourteenth Young Lord had not taken her safety to heart, she naturally did not care about his safety either. She only cared whether Zhang Zhao would fail, and whether it would drag her into it.

"Young Lord! The first scout squad reports a mounted party about ten li out, twenty or thirty men by the look of it, all with two horses each, coming from the direction of Shouchang City. It seems they set out at the yin hour." Fan Quan, a hard bow slung across his back, came over and reported.

"Old Fan, you said just now that the Shouchang garrison people came together with Cao Shisilang, and then he drove them off, is that right?"

Zhang Zhao quickly asked an old man beside him who had been weeping and wailing. This was the very old man who had insisted before Cao Shisi that the Grand Guardian had manifested his spirit. It turned out he was the father of the two brothers Fan Quan and Fan Shun, and Qi Xiahu's father-in-law.

"That's right! Though your servant was far away and could not hear clearly, I vaguely heard Cao Shisilang say something about how if the matter of Hongze Township was not settled, he would take the stronghold's people to Shouchang and lure the Young Lord to Shouchang, and so on!"

Seeing that Zhang Zhao was likely going to rescue the people of the Shi Family Manor, Old Fan stopped crying. He scrambled up from the ground with a whoosh and tried hard to recall the conversation he had overheard between Cao Shisilang and Ma Yaozi.

"I understand now!" Lady Cao Sanniang's expression grew even uglier. So this daughter of hers, married into the Murong family of Guazhou to maintain the ties between the Cao and Murong families, mattered less than Luo Xianda's private resettlement of several hundred tribal subjects.

"A month ago, Father used money to bribe the Shouchang Border Commissioner Luo Xianda into settling several hundred Murong tribal subjects in Hongze Township. Fourteenth Young Lord is using you to threaten Luo Xianda!"

"Luo Xianda! He seems to have been one of my father's trusted men. So that's how it is!"

Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin, beginning to understand as well. But he did not see that behind him, old Zhang Zhong's face took on a hesitant look at the mention of Luo Xianda's name.

"Excellent! Lady Sanniang, didn't you say Cao Shisilang has three hundred Yue cavalry around him and won't be easy to seize? Well, here's our solution!" Zhang Zhao smiled at Lady Cao Sanniang.

"Young Lord means to disguise yourself as one of Shouchang Border Commissioner Luo Xianda's men, go see Fourteenth Young Lord, and then seize control of him?"

Lady Cao Sanniang's eyes lit up. That was feasible. After all, Fourteenth Young Lord had never seen Young Lord Zhang Erlang. As long as they disguised themselves as Shouchang garrison troops, they could certainly get close to him.

Ma Yaozi was trudging along, a withered yellow dogtail grass stalk clamped between his lips, his face full of exhaustion.

This Shouchang garrison party, including him, numbered thirty-one men, exactly three squads. Shouchang County lay southwest of Dunhuang, and the garrison had been established there specifically to deal with the Tibetans and Uyghurs in the Qilian Mountains.

"Squad Leader Ma, I heard from Li Sanlang and the others that Ge Duo has been killed? Is it true?"

The one asking Ma Yaozi was a burly man leading two horses. On the back of the horse on the left was bound a very finely made Tibetan lamellar armor. From the horse on the right hung a massive bronze mace and a cowhide round shield faced with a layer of iron.

The burly man's surname was Yan, and he was Ma Yaozi's squad deputy. He was a fierce one. Seven years ago, when Tibetan rule in the Qilian Mountains collapsed, Deputy Yan had seized armor and horses from the upper Dongdai and fought his way down from the Qilian Mountains, unstoppable. It was said he had killed nine Tibetan nobles alone, though not many believed it.

Deputy Yan was also of distinguished lineage. His ancestor was Yan Chao, the last Military Governor of Hexi under the Great Tang, known as "Yan of Taiyuan."

Back then, after the Tibetans conquered Hexi, Yan Chao led his troops in desperate resistance, holding Shazhou for more than ten years. Only after the Tibetans promised not to reduce the people of Shazhou to slavery did he open the gates and surrender.

But though Yan Chao saved the people of Shazhou, in the end he could not save himself. The Tibetans feared Yan Chao's prestige in Shazhou, and on the road while escorting Yan Chao and his family to Lhasa, they poisoned him. Many of the Yan family were left behind in the Qilian Mountains as slaves to the Tibetans.

After Deputy Yan himself fought his way down the mountain, he returned to the Qilian Mountains many times and rescued over a hundred slaves of Han blood like himself. In the end he was given the post of squad deputy and settled in Shouchang.

"Dead," Ma Yaozi nodded, then suddenly shook his head. "And not dead."

"What do you mean?" Deputy Yan stared at Ma Yaozi in astonishment. Dead was dead, not dead was not dead. Was there some way of living between dead and not dead?

Ma Yaozi rubbed his chin, perhaps feeling his own phrasing had been a bit off.

"I saw the corpse with my own eyes, but there was no head. Though those horse bandits under Ge Duo were absolutely certain it was Ge Duo, and it looked like him to me too, without the head it's hard to be sure."

"Then he's dead. Someone must have cut the head off." Deputy Yan's face was full of belated regret.

"I said long ago that Ge Duo was old and frail, a pewter spearhead with a silver sheen. I told you to find a chance to finish him off early, but you kept dragging your feet.

Now look! Someone else got the prize! That dog of a wretch was a horse bandit for over ten years — who knows how fat his hoard was!"

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