Chapter 402: Three Strategies: Upper, Middle, and Lower

This Ferghana heavenly horse brought the Khitans tremendous shock; even Yelu Deguang did not have it led out of the imperial tent, but kept it inside.

The horse, very much in tune with people, half lay down, and even had a kind of contented, self-possessed kingly bearing.

Seeing this, Yelu Deguang felt all the more that this horse suited him perfectly; the only pity was that it had been gelded.

Of course it would be gelded, because warhorses were all gelded, and even more because Zhang Zhao could not allow the Ferghana horse bloodline to flow out of Hexi.

This Ferghana horse given to Yelu Deguang was a superior warhorse bred from that heavenly horse he had captured beneath the walls of Shule and a beautiful folded-ear mare; its bloodline was excellent.

In this era, a stallion of this quality was absolutely a strategic weapon.

After seeing this Ferghana heavenly horse, the two beauties from Persia and India seemed not quite so exciting.

Although the two beauties had considerable exotic charm and their looks counted as first-rate, to Yelu Deguang they were not particularly rare.

As the ruler of a great state of five or six million people, after all, Yelu Deguang had many beauties around him whose looks surpassed these two.

As for exotic charm, it was just so-so, because in the northeast and the northern deserts at this time there still existed a small number of descendants of Scythian or White Hun bloodlines.

Even in the Jurchen Jin state several hundred years later, there were still yellow-haired Jurchens, most of them descendants of western slaves carried off by the various steppe peoples.

For Yelu Deguang, the only thing that somewhat interested him was the name Persia.

"I have heard that in former years, in the great court at Chang'an, there dwelt a Persian king. I do not know what place Persia is. How many thousand li is it from here?"

Yelu Deguang was not asking Wuda'er, but the Samanid Persian royal beauty kneeling on the ground.

The beauty lightly raised her head and softly answered: "Samanid Persia lies southwest of the superior state, about eight thousand li from here. The Persian king who dwelt in the great court in former years must have been a distant kinsman of my clan."

That worked well enough; the founder of Samanid Persia was a descendant of Bahram VI, monarch of the Sassanid Persian dynasty, so calling him a distant kinsman was not wrong.

Yelu Deguang nodded with satisfaction. This Persian beauty spoke the refined accent with a Luoyang pronunciation.

Although her enunciation was a little odd, communication was no problem; at least she could be placed in the rear palace to relieve boredom. If she could not even speak understandably, there would not be much point.

"Then who is the present ruler of Samanid Persia? How large is his territory? How many people are under his rule?"

Perhaps because he had obtained something good and was in a pleasant mood, or perhaps because travel was limited and people of this era were especially interested in news of distant places, Yelu Deguang made an exception and asked a few more questions.

"In our Persian state, the ruler is called Emir. The present Emir Hamid is my uncle."

"Under my uncle the Emir's rule, the Persian state extends a thousand li in breadth, and the people under his rule number about five million."

Yelu Deguang looked at Wuda'er in shock. A state a thousand li in breadth with five million subjects was already comparable to his Great Khitan.

How could the princess of such a great state be given away everywhere by Zhang Zhao like a slave?

Wuda'er wore a smile, his expression calm yet faintly revealing pride and self-satisfaction.

"In reply to the Son of Heaven of the superior state: the further west one goes, though the states are large, they lack fierce warriors. Were the road not so far, how would it be their turn to call themselves kings?"

"In the eleventh year of Tianxian of the Great Khitan (934), the Samanid Persian Emir Nasr persecuted the Buddhist faithful of Bukhara, and even clamored that he would make the followers of the Buddha pay a head tax, just like the Zoroastrians."

"Thereupon my lord, His Highness the King of Han, with the support of his maternal uncle, the Son of Heaven of the great golden state of Khotan, levied seventy thousand troops from the three garrisons of Khotan, Shule, and Suyab, and dealt out a slight chastisement."

"In the first battle, by the banks of the Jaxartes, he shattered a combined army of fifty thousand Karakhanids and Persians; in the second battle, at Khujand, he took the mighty city; and finally, outside the walls of Bukhara, he utterly routed the Persian imperial guard, slaying more than twenty thousand."

"The Persian Emir Hamid, baring his flesh and leading a sheep, came out to surrender. My lord gained countless gold, silver, and valuables, and carried off several dozen princes and princesses before returning."

"This woman is one of the Persian princesses of middling-to-upper appearance, now presented to the Son of Heaven of the superior state."

Bragging, after all, is half truth and half fiction; artistic embellishment is unavoidable.

Wuda'er's eloquence was superb, and he had Yelu Deguang listening with shining eyes. Only after a long while did Yelu Deguang draw a great breath like a long whale sucking in water, and then sigh deeply.

"A true man should be like this! I, the Son of Heaven of the superior state, am somewhat envious!"

"Then was this Indian woman also obtained by the King of Han's destruction of a state?" Just as Yelu Deguang's words fell, a powerfully built, fierce-faced Khitan man beside him loudly asked.

"Indeed. This woman is the younger sister of the ruler of the Indian state of Shahi, which is also a great state ruling a million people," Wuda'er loudly replied.

"Good! Good!" Yelu Deguang laughed heartily with satisfaction. Red flowers still need green leaves to set them off, and beauties also need other things to serve as foils.

A princess of a great state a thousand li in breadth with five million subjects, even if she were of ordinary looks, would under such enhancements appear dazzlingly beautiful beyond compare.

Moreover, she was in fact exceedingly beautiful, and could even speak Chinese. Although the Khitan did not yet have a system of empresses and consorts, Yelu Deguang was already prepared to favor her well.

"Hey, envoy! Go back and tell the King of Han: I am the younger brother of the Son of Heaven, son of the Ascended-to-Heaven Emperor, the Imperial Younger Brother Yelu Lihu."

"Tell him to send me a Persian princess too. I will not take his for nothing; I am willing to exchange a hundred fine horses and five pairs of gyrfalcons."

As he spoke, this Yelu Lihu, who at a glance was clearly a villain, perhaps felt that this was still not quite enough, and so with a toss of his big head, he raised the offer.

"I also have here a beauty carried off from Goryeo, the legitimate daughter of the Hwangju Hwangbo clan, a great family of Goryeo. I give her to your lord as part of the exchange!"

It must be said that Wuda'er was a fitting envoy. This round of half-flattery and half-boasting not only established Zhang Zhao's standing.

Even someone like Yelu Lihu came to feel that Zhang Zhao was a man of talent, willing to use a more equal exchange rather than direct extortion.

At the same time, he had made this group of Khitans, from Yelu Deguang down to the men of the Yelu family below him, all thoroughly envious.

Men, after all — this primal urge for competition and sense of conquest is carved into their genes. The later popularity of map-painting games is clear proof of it.

"In reply to the Great King: the Persian princess is of noble status, and I must report to my lord."

Wuda'er naturally would not agree at once. First, he had no authority to; second, this sort of thing loses value when there is too much of it.

The Persian princesses in Zhang Zhao's hands were actually not few; there were a dozen or more, but apart from a few genuine ones, the identities of the rest were somewhat watered down.

For example, the one given to Yelu Deguang was indeed of genuine Samanid Persian royal blood, a niece of Hamid.

But in fact the relation was already very distant; before being carried off, she had been no more than a maidservant of Hamid's maternal aunt.

What a joke. Zhang Zhao had carried these people off over such a distance; if they were true princesses, apart from the Saifeiye sisters by his side and the one given to Li Shengtian, he would never send them out at all.

Because if you destroyed someone's family, turned her from a princess into a slave, and then sent her away, how could she not hate you?

Especially when giving her to Yelu Deguang, one must guard against pillow talk. This was what his aunt Cao Yuanxing had taught Zhang Zhao through her own personal example.

Therefore, only those with identities that were half real and half fake would obey Zhang Zhao's arrangements, or at least would not ruin things.

The reason they could win the favor of a ruler of a great state like Yelu Deguang, who did not lack beauties, was that their identity was the most dazzling halo, adding far more than their looks did.

If such a person were sent out and dared to blow pillow talk harmful to Zhang Zhao, then Zhang Zhao would expose her identity.

Once the halo was gone, trying to maintain her position in a fiercely competitive rear palace like the Khitan's would basically be delusion.

And in the rear palace, once favor and status were lost, one's fate could be as miserable as it gets.

"Insolence! Withdraw at once!" Yelu Deguang scolded Yelu Lihu a few times with feigned sternness.

But he knew that this Hexi envoy would certainly go back and tell Zhang Zhao, and if Zhang Zhao was no fool, as long as he, Yelu Deguang, did not object, Zhang Zhao would still send over someone of lower status.

However, Yelu Deguang would not ask for it himself, because as things stood, this Zhang Zhao of Hexi had sent him three peerless treasures — a Buddhist relic, a heavenly horse, and a princess of a great kingdom — and would not have done so without seeking something in return, and what he sought was surely very great.

Moreover, between the two sides, the matter of Zhang Zhao's ambush and slaughter of his Left Pishi Fengsheng Army by the Hun River had still not been resolved.

Yet this atmosphere was not suited to raising such matters, and for the moment Yelu Deguang could think of no good solution.

The main problem was that he could not figure out what Zhang Zhao wanted from him.

Even setting that aside, even if conditions were proposed, it was not something a single envoy could negotiate with him.

The purpose of the Hexi envoy's visit here was probably to prevent the situation from becoming more complicated.

So Yelu Deguang hosted a banquet for Wuda'er and his party, while at the same time the covert line began to work as well — Han Kuangye began having Cao Yanjing provide more detailed intelligence on the Guiyi Army.

That evening, when the banquet finally ended, Yelu Deguang hastily summoned Han Kuangye. Han Kuangye had gone to find Cao Yanjing to sound out Wuda'er's background.

"So, this Zhang Zhao of Hexi wants to take away the people in Yunzhou City?"

The moment Yelu Deguang heard this demand from Zhang Zhao, the good mood he had just gained from receiving the precious gifts was instantly ruined for the most part.

He had not expected that Zhang Zhao's true demand was to snatch food from his mouth.

Left Pishi Commander Yelu Pode naturally did not want Yelu Deguang to let Zhang Zhao off lightly, so he put on an indignant expression.

"Your Majesty personally led a great army and besieged the city for seven months — how can we end up with nothing but an empty city?

Even if the Hexi people only want to take away the Datong Army, that cannot be allowed. They resisted the heavenly troops of the Great Khitan and must never be let off!"

Yelu Deguang frowned, not because of Zhang Zhao, but rather because of Yelu Pode's phrase "besieged for seven months."

Before besieging Yunzhou, Yelu Deguang had never seriously attacked a strong city of the Central Plains. The ones he had taken before were all small frontier towns or beacon-tower forts. A strong city like Yunzhou was his first attempt.

Hmph! That one attempt had nearly driven Yelu Deguang into depression. Now whenever he heard anyone say he had besieged a city for seven months, he felt uncomfortable at once.

But Yelu Pode had not grasped this point, and was still blustering on about Yunzhou this and Yunzhou that, until Yelu Deguang was on the verge of losing his composure.

Left Pishi Commander Yelu Wuzhi was an old fox among the Khitan, and had seen through it long ago.

But he did not offer a reminder. Instead, he simply let Yelu Pode say a bit more, and only when Yelu Deguang was about to explode did he speak up.

"Your Majesty, in my humble view, although we have now learned who this King of Zhang and Han is, we still cannot judge accurately without seeing the man himself.

Better that we send an envoy west, and have this King of Zhang and Han come to the Hun River to meet with Your Majesty."

Wuda'er had sent a superior fold-eared horse and a year's supply rights to two hundred jin of white sugar and five hundred jin of tea bricks, precisely to buy these words from Yelu Wuzhi.

"And if this King Zhang of Hexi refuses to come, what then?" Han Kuangye asked in a low voice, asking on Yelu Deguang's behalf.

"If he is afraid and refuses to come, then this talk of taking away the Datong Army and the rest naturally cannot even be raised.

If he does come, but the Hexi troops are not so formidable, then we strike him down on the spot.

If the Hexi troops are indeed formidable, then I would ask Your Majesty to put the Great Khitan nation first and endure for the time being.

Someday, once we control the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun and even the rich lands of Jin's Hebei, we will have all the time we need to deal with these Hexi people."

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