Chapter 368: A Great Surprise

In Qingzhou, outside the Prefect's office in the prefectural seat, Yin Yijin wore a black round-collared robe over an inner leather-armor lining and, with a few attendants, followed Li Yanli into the office compound.

He was Yin Yaozi's cousin, and also Zhang Zhao's cousin. The Yin family was the maiden family of Zhang Zhao's grandmother, so after Zhang Zhao took power, the Yin family quickly gained important positions.

The Tangut guards outside the office all knew Li Yanli, the second young lord, so they let him pass without hindrance.

The Qingzhou Tanguts were originally East Mountain Tanguts who had lived in the Shanzhou area and were resettled to Qingzhou in the early Tang.

In those days, these East Mountain Tanguts settled in Qingzhou and the Pingxia Tanguts settled in Xiazhou were the two largest Tangut tribes, comparable to each other.

But the Pingxia tribe rapidly sinicized in the late Tang, and their clothing, food, housing, and travel became essentially indistinguishable from the Han. The Tuoba clan also received the imperial surname Li and gradually grew powerful.

The East Mountain Tanguts of Qingzhou, however, did not face as difficult a situation as the Pingxia tribe at first, so their sinicization was extremely slow. Throughout the entire late Tang they did not even count as minor players, and therefore never obtained an imperial surname.

The Li surname of Li Yanli's family came only through continuous intermarriage with the Pingxia tribe, and finally, taking advantage of the Great Tang's fall when no one was minding such things, they began to acquire the right to use the surname Li.

By the time Li Yanli led Yin Yijin inside, the Qingzhou Prefect's office was already in noisy disorder, packed with people.

Those wearing gray or yellowish-brown clothes, who at a glance looked rather shabby, were the native East Mountain Tanguts of Qingzhou.

And those wearing blue-black round-collared robes, who also spoke the Tangut language, were presumably men from the Pingxia tribe's Dingnan Army.

Yin Yijin had come today to handle a dispute.

After receiving Zhang Zhao's secret order to provoke a conflict with the Dingnan Army, and after requesting instructions from Zhang Zhao, Liu Zaisheng, who was garrisoning Yuanzhou, immediately set a trap.

He sold five hundred jin of Hexi refined iron, whose sale was strictly forbidden, to Li Yanli, who had come seeking to buy it, and then through secret channels leaked the matter to Tangut merchants connected to the Dingnan Army.

This was the year 938, only five years since the Dingnan Army had been attacked by the Later Tang court.

The Dingnan Army was still somewhat in a state of high alert, constantly fearing that the Central Plains court would again demand they relocate their garrison.

Therefore, during these five years, the Dingnan Army had been extremely deferential to the Central Plains court on one hand, while desperately expanding its own strength on the other.

As for these five hundred jin of refined iron that had fallen into the hands of the East Mountain Tanguts, it would naturally arouse the Dingnan Army's covetousness. Five hundred jin of refined iron could make over a dozen fine sets of lamellar armor.

And Li Yanli's father, the Qingzhou Prefect Li Yuanzai, was immensely greedy. He had originally been envious of the cotton armor his son Li Yanli had obtained from Zhang Zhao.

But the cotton armor's craftsmanship was the Guiyi Army's greatest secret. The Qingzhou Tanguts were still in a semi-nomadic state, so even if given the technique, they could not produce it.

So he settled for the next best thing, hoping to obtain five hundred jin of Hexi refined iron and make iron lamellar armor himself.

But no sooner had the five hundred jin of refined iron arrived than the Dingnan Army came knocking, offering to buy it at twice the price.

Li Yuanzai coveted the money and, after a moment's hesitation, agreed.

Of course, the most outrageous part was that after selling the five hundred jin of refined iron to the Dingnan Army, his greed was still unsatisfied, so he sent Li Yanli to seek another purchase.

Liu Zaisheng then approved another five hundred jin, which was likewise resold by Li Yuanzai.

When Li Yuanzai thought to buy a thousand jin in one go, Liu Zaisheng suddenly issued an order demanding that Li Yuanzai present the forged refined-iron lamellar armor for inspection, then swiftly dispatched men, seized the Dingnan Army merchants, and impounded the iron. That was how this "negotiation" came about.

But of course, Liu Zaisheng had not sent Yin Yijin to negotiate at all. He had come to pick a fight.

Therefore, Yin Yijin did not even salute Li Yuanzai. He walked directly to the seat of highest status at the head of the room and sat down, then fixed his gaze on this greedy Qingzhou Prefect.

"Chief Commander Liu sent me here to ask you, Prefect Li, why you resold those thousand jin of refined iron to those disloyal and unrighteous people?"

Li Yuanzai was not particularly angered. His title of Qingzhou Prefect sounded like a high regional office, but in reality he was no more than a Tangut tribal chieftain.

The East Mountain tribe was scattered like loose sand, and he could not control much. No matter how powerful the dragon that came through, none had ever taken him this seriously.

But the Dingnan Army's representative could hardly contain his anger. Moreover, the words "disloyal and unrighteous" had become practically a PTSD trigger for everyone in the Dingnan Army in recent years. The moment they heard the phrase, they instinctively felt trouble coming.

"You there, what is your status? Did you come to talk or to pick a fight? Who is disloyal and unrighteous? Careless words will land you in the tongue-pulling hell."

Yin Yijin smiled contemptuously. "Do you western barbarians of the Pingxia tribe remember who saved you from under the Tibetans' iron hooves? Without the Great Dynasty, you would have died long ago on the snowy mountains of Qiangtang.

The Son of Heaven ordered you to relocate your garrison, yet Li Yichao dared to defy the command. My Hexi Guiyi Army are loyal subjects of the realm — can we not call you disloyal and unrighteous?"

"Insolent brat! You dare speak the Minister of Instruction's personal name?" The Dingnan Army men flew into a rage. The leader jabbed his finger at Yin Yijin, his eyes practically spitting fire.

Li Yichao was the previous Military Governor of the Dingnan Army. Even Zhang Zhao would have addressed him as Minister of Works Li. For Yin Yijin to call him directly by name was already close to an insult.

Li Yuanzai sensed something was wrong. He hurried forward, wanting to say a few words to ease the atmosphere, but to his surprise, Yin Yijin moved even faster.

"Propriety? You western barbarians are fit to speak of propriety? Give me back my Hexi refined iron at once!" Yin Yijin had come precisely to make an enemy. He spat a thick wad of phlegm at them and opened his mouth to curse.

In truth, anyone sent by the Dingnan Army to negotiate would normally have decent self-restraint, but Yin Yijin's relentless badgering and insults would have been beyond even an immortal's endurance.

"You thieving Han, how dare you insult me? I'll beat you to death, you wretch!" First a folding-legged table flew over, then a flash of blade-light, and a black-clad figure charged forward.

Yin Yijin, fully prepared, swiftly planted one foot on the folding-legged table before him and lunged, throwing himself at the Dingnan Army men.

In an instant, the two sides — over twenty men in all — were brawling inside the Qingzhou prefectural office, leaving Li Yuanzai, the host who had only taken a few steps, staring dumbfounded.

A drop of sweat fell from Li Yanli's face with a plink onto the ground. He had followed Zhang Zhao for over six months and considered himself fairly familiar with this Hexi Great King's temperament.

For Yin Yijin to be so impulsive, almost as if he had come specifically to cause trouble, was impossible in the strictly disciplined Guiyi Army. He must have received orders.

In a flash, the Guiyi Army soldiers, who had come prepared, drew their short blades. Screams rang out one after another in the office, and casualties had already begun to appear.

One Guiyi Army warrior had his head split open, but two Dingnan Army warriors were already lying on the ground.

"Clang!" Li Yanli drew his long blade and looked anxiously at his father.

"Your son is already a man of the King of Han. Father, Elder Brother — what are you still hesitating for?" With that, he swung his blade and joined the fight.

Li Yuanzai's vision went dark with desperation as he watched helplessly while his son threw himself into the fray.

It's over! It's over! He could not afford to offend either the Guiyi Army or the Dingnan Army. Pleasing both sides was the only way to survive. Leaning to either side would mean the end of the East Mountain tribe's independent status.

He had clearly invited them here to negotiate! How had it suddenly turned into a bloodbath?

"Li Yuanzai! So you've gone over to the Hexi people? The Grand Commandant will not spare you!"

"You southerners, you occupy the fertile flat fields of Dongzhiyuan and still aren't satisfied — you dare collude with the Hexi people to ambush the Grand Commandant's special envoy!"

Among the East Mountain Tanguts in yellowish-brown robes, someone immediately stood up and pointed at Li Yuanzai, shouting abuse, openly pouring oil on the fire.

It turned out that Qingzhou bordered Yanzhou and Xiazhou to the north and Yuanzhou to the west. The northern tribes had long been infiltrated and controlled by the Dingnan Army. Although Li Yuanzai was a chieftain of the East Mountain tribe, he could not control them at all.

Moreover, the northern part of Qingzhou was poor, while Dongzhiyuan in the south was what later generations would call the foremost loess plateau under heaven, a rich land known as the granary of Longdong.

The East Mountain people of the north had thrown in with the Dingnan Army precisely to borrow its power and share in the rich lands of the south.

Now, seeing the Dingnan Army's special envoy at a disadvantage, and Li Yuanzai's own son joining in, they were overcome with glee. This was a heaven-sent opportunity to let the southerners be taught a lesson by Grand Commandant Li!

"Fuck your mother, you white lion — don't go spraying blood from your mouth! When have I ever thrown in with the Hexi men?" Li Yuanzai knew exactly what the other man meant, and he was hopping on his feet as he shot back.

What he had not expected was that Li Yanli's elder brother, Li Yansi, had long wanted to follow the Guiyi Army to Guanzhong for a better life. He had been eyeing his younger brother's padded armor with envy for a long time.

Moreover, his younger brother Li Yanli had not only taken some two thousand men with Zhang Zhao to Guanzhong — now he had even drawn his blade and struck. Even if their family had a hundred mouths, they could not explain it away. The tribes to the north and the Dingnan Army would certainly seize on this as a pretext. There was simply no explaining it.

At that thought, Li Yansi too drew his long saber and, leading the several men in the room, threw himself forward. The moment they moved, the men from the northern tribes also drew their long sabers and joined in.

At once, the brawl in the prefectural office grew even fiercer with the entry of the East Mountain Tangut.

At first it was only the headmen inside the office who fought. Then the guards of both sides outside the office began hacking at each other. Finally, in Qingzhou city itself, the northern and southern factions of the East Mountain Tangut began fighting too.

The Tangut of northern Qingzhou were close to the Pingxia tribe and the Dingnan Army. They had always wanted to absorb Qingzhou into the Dingnan Army and then seize the Dongzhi Plateau for themselves. With the Pingxia tribe backing them, they were ordinarily quite arrogant.

The East Mountain tribe in the south, led by men like Li Yuanzai, wanted to preserve a measure of independence. Even if they were to join the Dingnan Army, they would only go if there were benefits in it. And having occupied the good land, how could they be willing to share the Dongzhi Plateau with the northern tribes?

Thus, among the East Mountain tribe themselves, the rift between north and south was far from small. Now that fighting had broken out in the office, the flames of war rapidly spread through all of Qingzhou city and its outskirts.

At this time, the East Mountain Tangut in Qingzhou numbered roughly fifty thousand in all. But being a semi-nomadic people, although their equipment was poor, every one of them could loose an arrow or two.

With old grudges mixed in, once the fighting started, there was no reining it in.

The men snatched up bows, arrows, and battered iron sabers and began fighting. The women were no less eager, grabbing wooden spears and clubs and charging in after them. Even children of seven, eight, or ten-odd years began brawling with one another.

Very quickly! After Yin Yijin and Li Yanli had killed several dozen men in the office, the whole of Qingzhou had already descended into utter chaos.

After the thousand-odd men of the northern tribes were driven out of the prefectural seat, the southern tribes were still chasing and striking at them. Amid the wailing and howling, even Li Yuanzai could not bring it under control, and the fighting rapidly began to spread.

"Captain Yin, we must quickly seek aid from Governor Liu of Yuanzhou! Once the Dingnan Army's cavalry gets word, they will ride south on Qingzhou city before long.

The prefectural seat has no defensible terrain. We should first fall back to Yima Pass, close to Jingzhou." Li Yansi looked at his younger brother Li Yanli and at Yin Yijin with a deeply complicated expression and said.

Qingzhou's terrain forms an inverted U-shape. East and west are high — especially Mount Liupan in the west and the Ziwu Ridge in the east, which are difficult to cross.

To the north, Mount Yangquan is somewhat lower, while to the south lies the Guanzhong plain, extremely flat and gentle.

Yet although Mount Yangquan lies to the north, the Maling River (the Malian River), the Baima Stream, and other rivers flow from north to south, cutting out a very gentle river valley.

Therefore, for the Dingnan Army's cavalry to come from the north was far easier than for the Guiyi Army to cross Mount Liupan from the west. The Guiyi Army from Yuanzhou might well be only halfway there when the Dingnan Army arrived.

Yin Yijin was somewhat dazed as well. His original plan had been simply to kill the dozen or so envoys of the Dingnan Army, then wait for Great King Zhang and Li Yiyin to wrangle with each other. Only after a period of back-and-forth would fighting break out.

But he had not expected that the north-south rift among the East Mountain Tangut of Qingzhou was already this deep. Once the fighting started, there was absolutely no stopping it!

Now not only had the Dingnan Army's envoys been killed, but several hundred of the northern Qingzhou Tangut who had gone over to the Dingnan Army had also been slain, and men of southern Qingzhou were still hunting down the rest.

The feud had instantly become enormous. In order to keep control of the northern East Mountain Tangut, the Dingnan Army would certainly send troops.

"We cannot abandon Qingzhou city. If we abandon Qingzhou city, it will look as though we have a guilty conscience, and it will be hard for the Governor to take it back. Governor Liu of Yuanzhou has long been prepared. If we hold out for a month or so, the great army of the King of Han will arrive."

Yin Yijin said through clenched back teeth. He was not at all concerned with whether Li Yuanzai could retake Qingzhou city.

What concerned him was this: if Li Yansi abandoned Qingzhou city, the Dingnan Army would stop while they were ahead, and then there would be no war at all.

"My lord, send Mother and the others away, slaughter sheep and cattle to lay in stores — we'll stake everything on this!"

Li Yanli, by contrast, was brimming with confidence. It came from Zhang Zhao's way of never abandoning anyone on the battlefield.

During the pacification of Guanzhong, the Guiyi Army had not left a single wounded man behind. Nearly everyone who could be saved was saved. Li Yanli believed Zhang Zhao would surely come.

"Sooner or later I'll be done to death by you two beasts!"

Looking at his eldest and second sons, already fired up and thinking of nothing but winning merit and reward by following Zhang, the King of Han, Li Yuanzai could only roar out in bitter fury, then hurry down to prepare the defense.

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