Chapter 363: The Twenty-Five Loyal Men of the Phoenix Pavilion

In Dunhuang, right beside the old family residence of the Zhang clan of Shazhou, a family temple built to royal specifications rose from the ground.

Three days after Zhang Zhao's grand wedding, all the officers of the Guiyi Army gathered here to hold a ceremony of sacrifice and to report to the ancestors.

Now that Hexi and Longyou had been unified, and Zhang Zhao had brought eighteen prefectures back to the nation, this land could at last be called the territory of a true state. The dream of several generations of the Guiyi Army had been fulfilled.

As for the Guiyi Army's two original great enemies, the Tibetans on the snowy plateau had utterly declined during the Little Ice Age.

The Yageluo clan of the Ganzhou Uyghurs, with whom they shared a blood feud, had been nearly exterminated, leaving only two or three branch-line survivors.

In ninety years, the Guiyi Army had never been stronger than it was now.

After the sacrifices to Zhang Yichao were completed, Zhang Zhao led everyone back and held a great banquet for his officials in the Jinshan Palace, the former palace of Zhang Chengfeng.

This feast was attended not only by the officials of the Guiyi Army, but also by Zhang Zhao's legal mother, Princess Fengtian, and Li Congde, Crown Prince of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan.

Everyone gathered together in joy, drinking freely and singing loudly, eating meat by the mouthful, with no distinction between civil and military officials, and no deliberate observance of rank or hierarchy.

It was just like the gathering back then, when Zhang Zhao led them all to crush Nasr II of the Samanid Persians in the Ark Citadel of Bukhara.

It had to be said that Princess Fengtian, having received a systematic imperial education, was indeed a fine queen mother.

She sang and drank heartily, refusing no one's toast, and in Zhang Zhao's name distributed the Persian dancing girls he had brought from Khotan to those around her, handling everything with perfect grace.

The feast lasted a full three double-hours, and when it reached this point, it was time to bestow great rewards upon the officials.

Taking advantage of the fact that his power structure was newly established, Zhang Zhao very decisively combined certain successful elements of the Song and Ming dynasties' systems and made considerable revisions to the administrative structure of his Han Prince's establishment.

Below the Prince of Han, the structure was divided into military and civil branches. On the civil side, he established one Left and one Right Chief Clerk, and added his trusted Secretary Guo Tiance to assist Zhang Zhao — one handling internal affairs, two handling external matters.

Below the Left and Right Chief Clerks, he established six bureaus: Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works. Their heads were called Staff Officers, and their clerks were called Registrars and Secretaries, corresponding to the Six Ministries of the Ming dynasty.

In addition, he established two extra bureaus: the Horse Bureau and the Commerce Bureau. One was responsible for breeding warhorses, and the other for the commerce of Hexi, both managed personally by Zhang Zhao.

However, this time still could not compare to the situation after the great development of printing, when scholars filled the land.

Therefore, he could not simply let the eight bureau Staff Officers fully share the administrative duties; they had to be overseen by the Left and Right Chief Clerks.

Following Tang custom, Zhang Zhao honored the left over the right. The Left Chief Clerk oversaw the Staff Officers of the Personnel, Revenue, and Rites Bureaus, while the Right Chief Clerk oversaw the Staff Officers of the War, Justice, and Works Bureaus.

If this were the Ming dynasty, the Left Chief Clerk would certainly be the most honored, but in this era, that was not necessarily the case.

In Zhang Zhao's system, the War Bureau Staff Officer managed army logistics, merit verification and reward assessment, the settlement of wounded soldiers, the distribution and recovery of armor, the payment of wages, and the organization of the Tuanjie troops — clearly the most important department.

At the same time, the Works Bureau was responsible for the research and production of armor, weapons, gunpowder, whirlwind catapults, and the like, and its authority was equally great.

So between the Left and Right Chief Clerks, one held the higher rank, and the other held the greater power.

On the local level, Zhang Zhao still used the circuit-prefecture-county model of administration.

Under the Grand Commissioner of Hexi and Longyou were the Hexi Circuit and the Longyou Circuit. He did not establish Circuit Commissioners for Hexi or Longyou, but only Deputy Commissioners.

The chief official of each prefecture was the Prefect, but the Prefect could not command troops. Below him were established a Push Official and an Administrative Assistant as his deputies. Each county established a County Magistrate, a Commandant, and so on.

On the military side, the army still used the name of the Guiyi Army.

In addition to Hanhai Garrison and Yucheng Garrison, he established three more garrisons: Wuwei Garrison, Yingyang Garrison, and Xiongwu Garrison — five garrisons in total.

Wuwei Garrison was composed of the Six Tribes of Han folk and the Han folk of Lanzhou.

Yingyang Garrison was mainly composed of the Seven Tribes of Shanzhou, along with the various Qiang and Tangut soldiers of Tao, Hui, and Yuan Prefectures.

Xiongwu Garrison was composed of the newly submitted Xiongwu Army of Qinzhou, plus the Han people of Hezhou and Weizhou.

In addition, Zhang Zhao selected three thousand strong and skilled archers from the Six Tribes of Liangzhou, the Han folk of Lanzhou, the Seven Tribes of Shanzhou, the Tangut of the various prefectures, and the Han folk of Hezhou and Weizhou, and incorporated them into the Hanshan Unit.

By this point, the Hanshan Unit directly under Zhang Zhao had reached a scale of over nine thousand men, with both cavalry and infantry, as well as special troop types like the whirlwind catapult corps and the Fenjin Unit.

With the framework in place, what remained was the question of appointing officials.

Zhang Zhao appointed his father-in-law Cao Yuanzhong as Deputy Grand Commissioner of Hexi and Longyou, Left Chief Clerk, and Prefect of Liangzhou, transferring him away from Shazhou to Liangzhou to handle civil administration for Zhang Zhao.

His maternal uncle Song Shantong was made Deputy Commissioner of the Longyou Circuit, Right Chief Clerk, Push Official of Liangzhou, and concurrently Staff Officer of the Justice Bureau.

Murong Xinzhang's grandfather, Murong Guiying, was made Deputy Commissioner of the Hexi Circuit and Prefect of Shazhou, guarding the west for Zhang Zhao. While promoting him, Zhang Zhao also moved him out of his old stronghold of Guazhou.

Guo Tiance was made Secretary of the Prince of Han's headquarters, and also took charge of the War Bureau.

Cao Yanming held the nominal post of Prefect of Suzhou and the title of Secretary, a symbol of trusted confidant, while actually serving as Staff Officer of the Works Bureau.

Li Ruoyu, the eldest brother of his aunt Li Ruoliu, was made Prefect of Taozhou.

His young brother-in-law Cao Yanlu was made Prefect of Yinzhou and concurrently Defense Commissioner of Shazhou.

The special post of Defense Commissioner of Shazhou was created so that Cao Yanlu could lead one battalion to garrison Shazhou, and later to garrison Yinzhou.

Jia Yanchang obtained the post he had long dreamed of: Prefect of Lanzhou.

On the military side:

Yin Yaozi was made Deputy Commander of the Guiyi Army and Commander-in-Chief of Hanhai Garrison. This cousin was steady and skilled at defense, and of Zhang Zhao's five garrisons, the most important one, Hanhai, was most logically placed under his command.

Liu Zaisheng was made Commander-in-Chief of Yucheng Garrison and Prefect of Yuanzhou, commanding one battalion each from Yucheng and Yingyang Garrisons to hold Yuanzhou and keep watch on Guanzhong.

Ma Shacai was made Commander-in-Chief of Wuwei Garrison and Prefect of Huizhou, commanding two battalions facing Shuofang, where the Military Governor of Lingwu was based.

Ma Yaozi was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Wuwei Garrison and Prefect of Hezhou, commanding two battalions garrisoned in Hezhou.

Yan Jin was made Deputy Commissioner of the Longyou Circuit, Deputy Commander of the Guiyi Army, Commander-in-Chief of Xiongwu Garrison, and Prefect of Qinzhou, responsible for holding Qinzhou.

He was the second man in the army below Zhang Zhao, guarding on one side against Li Congyan, the Prince of Qin at Fengxiang, and on the other against the Later Shu.

Fan Quan was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Hanhai Garrison, Commander of its Second Battalion, and Prefect of both Shanzhou and Kuozhou, holding these two high-altitude prefectures and guarding against whichever Tibetan tribe might suddenly go mad.

Of Zhang Zhao's five garrisons and twenty-two battalions, the above eleven battalions were distributed to hold the various regions, amounting to roughly eleven thousand men.

The remaining eleven battalions were Zhang Zhao's standing central forces.

Bai Congxin was made Commander-in-Chief of Yingyang Garrison, commanding three battalions.

Erzhu Jing was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Yucheng Garrison, commanding the remaining two battalions of Yucheng Garrison.

Shanzhu'er Luo Shande was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Hanhai Garrison and concurrently Commander of its First Battalion.

Luo Yu'er was made Commander of the Second Battalion of Hanhai Garrison.

Cui Huxin was made Commander of the Third Battalion of Hanhai Garrison.

Zhao Cunyi was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Yucheng Garrison and Commander of its Second Battalion.

Guo Guangcheng became Commander of the Third Battalion of Yucheng Town.

Huang Yingda, known as Huang Yang'er, became Battalion Commander of Yingyang Town.

Within the Hanshan Capital.

Murong Xinzhang became Left Chief Commander of the cavalry, commanding two thousand elite horsemen.

Li Cunhui, who had just acknowledged Zhang Zhao as his adoptive father, became Right Chief Commander of the cavalry, commanding one thousand five hundred elite horsemen.

Li Ruotai became Chief Commander of the Iron Horse Troop, commanding six hundred fully armored cavalry.

Zhebu Jiashi became Chief Commander of the Ranger Troop, commanding one thousand ranger horse archers tasked with scouting and screening; Wen Chongle, Yue Saonu, and others served among them as commanders.

Hucile became Left Chief Commander of the Uyghur Sworn Followers, commanding Uyghur, Tatar, Zubu, and other horse archers gathered from Juyan Lake and the great desert to its north.

Chen Nianban became Right Chief Commander of the Uyghur Sworn Followers, controlling the Uyghur light cavalry drawn from the Ganzhou Uyghurs.

Although these two Uyghur Sworn Follower units were part of the Hanshan Capital's establishment, they were in reality cannon-fodder light cavalry with little or no armor.

The Hanshan Capital's infantry force of over two thousand men was commanded personally by Zhang Zhao.

Equipped throughout with padded armor, one-dan strong bows, repeating crossbows, and modao glaive glaive glaives, they were the elite of the elite, the core force with which Zhang Zhao had built his career.

Fierce generals such as Man Xiong, Dunzhu, Qiong Reduojin, Wang Tongxin, Fan Shun, and Lu Sanlang were all among them.

With this, Zhang Zhao's military foundation was complete: five towns and twenty-two battalions, twenty-two thousand men in all, of whom eleven thousand ordinarily garrisoned the localities and were only levied in times of major war.

The remaining eleven thousand, together with the Hanshan Capital's nine thousand-odd men, made up an army of just over twenty thousand — the mobile force Zhang Zhao could draw upon at any time.

Their armor rate reached over seventy percent, and with the addition of the Camel Whirlwind Cannon Corps, now renamed the Divine Machine Battalion, and the Fenjin Capital's demolition troops, the total force came to thirty-two thousand.

At the same time, civilian paramilitary organizations would not be neglected. If a major war came, in extreme circumstances they could also levy the village militia infantry and the various tribal cavalry, and with laborers added, if they went all out they could muster a force of roughly eighty thousand.

But given the economic strength and productive capacity of Hexi and Longyou, sending out troops to that extent would mean that even a victory would be a pyrrhic one, and a defeat would mean the destruction of the "state."

Even deploying them several times, whether winning or losing, would greatly affect production and daily life.

When the rewards were complete, Zhang Zhao ordered portraits painted of Cao Yuanzhong, Murong Guiying, Luo Tongda, Yan Jin, Bai Congxin, Guo Tiance, Liu Zaisheng, Yin Yaozi, Ma Yaozi, Ma Shacai, Luo Shande, Dunzhu, Man Xiong, Wang Tongxin, Qiong Reduojin, Cao Yanming, Erzhu Jing, Murong Xinzhang, Li Cunhui, Chen Nianban, Cui Huxin, Zhebu Jiashi, and Du Lunchixin, calling them the Twenty-Three Loyal Ministers of the Return of Hexi and Longyou to the Nation.

He also had a separate Buddhist cave opened at the Mogao Caves, with murals depicting the story of Zhang Zhao leading the Twenty-Three Loyal Ministers to recover Hexi.

Like the Procession of Troops Under Military Governor of Hexi Zhang Yichao, his great-grandfather Zhang Taibao, it was sealed and preserved within the Mogao Caves.

In the mural, Zhang Zhao wore golden armor, held a long lance, and rode a Red Hare horse, charging into the rising sun in the posture of leading a killing assault.

On his left was a heroic young general in white robes whose spear thrust forth like a dragon; on his right was a black-armored rider whose two hands spread like an eagle's wings, loosing linked arrows in rapid succession.

Behind him, the four bear-and-tiger generals Dunzhu, Man Xiong, Wang Tongxin, and Qiong Reduojin easily routed the enemies closing in from left and right.

All twenty-three figures had vivid expressions, like gods descended.

In the distance, the wretched enemy troops were throwing away their armor and fleeing in disarray.

Because this was painted in the Perching Phoenix Pavilion of the Golden Mountain Palace, they were also called the Twenty-Three Loyal Ministers of the Phoenix Pavilion.

——————A Note Aside——————

This is the final chapter of "The Nine Bends of the Yellow River Return to Han." From here on, the story that belonged solely to the Guiyi Army is complete. The next chapter concerns the whole realm!

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