Chapter 410: Only Returning to the Heavenly Dynasty, Not to a Man Without Virtue

On the thirteenth day of the eighth month, Zhang Zhao finally returned to Liangzhou just before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Though the Mid-Autumn Festival was not yet widely celebrated at this time; it was merely an ordinary festival for viewing and admiring the moon.

But Zhang Zhao's wives and concubines knew that Great King Zhang placed great importance on this festival, and so every year on the fifteenth of the eighth month they made it a very grand occasion.

And in accordance with Zhang Zhao's wishes, the whole family gathered together, with fruits, vegetables, and fine wine naturally in abundance.

Zhang Zhao's birth mother, Lady Song, wore a very plain padded jacket and skirt; her whole appearance matched her temperament perfectly—calm and unadorned, with a hint of timidity showing through.

So when she heard Zhang Zhao speak of founding a state, Lady Song visibly trembled, and a somewhat fearful expression appeared on her face. Zhang Zhao could only go over, take Lady Song's hand, and explain in a soft voice.

"This time, my founding of a state is the unanimous support of all above and below. The Son of Heaven in the Central Plains has lost his virtue, and we, returning to the nation in loyalty and righteousness, can no longer remain subjects of a man without virtue. Everything has been arranged. Mother, do not worry!"

Hearing her son's repeated assurances, a faint smile finally appeared on Lady Song's face.

"In this life, power and wealth are but passing clouds. My son has achieved what he has today; he should be content, and not stir up further trouble."

Zhang Zhao nodded repeatedly, but inwardly he sighed. No wonder the Zhang Zhao before his transmigration had been fond of chanting Buddhist sutras—so it was inherited from his mother, Lady Song.

Still, this was fine. In the future, having a good-natured empress dowager in the palace who caused no trouble was not bad at all!

If his legal mother, Princess Fengtian, had come, it would absolutely not have been this easy.

As they talked, Great King Zhang's sons and daughters came over on their own, or were carried over.

Zhang Zhao now had six children of his own. The eldest son was Zhang Xiancun, born of Li Ruoliu—also known as Li Zhun—who would soon turn eight.

This boy was a famously outgoing chatterbox who could quickly strike up a conversation with anyone.

He was not afraid of Zhang Zhao either; he would grab hold of him and fire off a barrage of questions. Sometimes he was unbearably adorable, and sometimes he was a real little terror.

But unlike what his mother hoped—that he would become a capable administrator governing a region like his eldest uncle Li Ruoyu, or a great general expanding the realm like his second uncle Li Ruotai—this boy's intelligence had all been misdirected.

He could speak at two, and read poetry and books at five. Now, not yet eight, he had already shown great talent and understanding in the art of painting, especially in Buddhist imagery.

So much so that in Liangzhou, which had little literary culture to begin with, there was already no one left who could serve as his teacher.

This...!

He was not even eight years old! What would happen when he grew up?

Recalling historical figures from his maternal grandfather's family, such as Yuchi Bazhina and Yuchi Yiseng, Zhang Zhao understood—it was very likely that the Yuchi family's painting genes had suddenly been awakened.

Originally, Li Ruoliu had been very dissatisfied with Zhang Xiancun for going down what she saw as a crooked path, but Zhang Zhao was extremely fond of it.

Zhang Xiancun was the eldest son, and his several uncles were all great generals under Zhang Zhao. Back then, to settle people's hearts, Zhang Zhao had even shown him off everywhere as his heir.

Now that Zhang Xiancun had the potential to become a carefree prince excelling in both poetry and painting, Zhang Zhao was naturally delighted.

Seeing this, Li Ruoliu could only give up, but she had a new target—Zhang Zhao's third son, Zhang Xianzhao.

This Li Ruoliu was a machine for bearing sons; often just a few touches and she would inevitably become pregnant, and when pregnant she would invariably bear a son.

Zhang Zhao currently had only three sons, and she alone had borne two of them.

Zhang Xianzhao was born in the fourth month of this year and was now only four months old, plump and chubby, especially lovable, and the apple of his birth grandmother Lady Song's eye.

No one could interrupt Lady Song's sutra-chanting, but when Zhang Xianzhao arrived, even the chanting could stop.

The second son was Zhang Xianyu, born of Ayiguli. This was a son Zhang Zhao worried about more.

He was six this year. Perhaps because his mother was a widow—and a widow who had been delivered to his door at that, of low status—Zhang Xianyu had spent much of his time in Khotan and Ningyuan, and his communication with Zhang Zhao had not been frequent.

The child was chubby and round, with some Yellow-Head Uyghur blood, and actually looked rather cute.

But he was not good with words and was rather introverted. In reading and writing he was completely different from Li Zhun—he still could not recognize fifty characters—and in martial arts no special talent had yet appeared.

Ai! Zhang Zhao sighed. With such a temperament, how would he ever go to Talas and become a great king?

Beckoning with his hand, Zhang Zhao called Zhang Xianyu over to sit beside him, preparing to personally cultivate him properly. If that really did not work, then he would just let him be a carefree prince in the future.

A life as a rich shut-in with no shortage of money or women—wasn't that exactly his own former ideal?

Watching Zhang Xianyu sit down beside Zhang Zhao, someone grew displeased. A little girl in a gold-brocaded jacket and skirt came running over, pouting.

The little girl was not yet seven, but she was already very tall for her age—long legs, snow-white skin, a bright red little mouth, and a face full of clever, mischievous spirit.

Every single trait happened to perfectly match Zhang Zhao's preferences. How could he not adore such a daughter?

This was Zhang Qixiu, the eldest daughter Cao Yanmian had borne for Zhang Zhao. Seeing that her father had been back for so long without coming close to her, tears were already welling up in her eyes.

The moment Zhang Xianyu, who had just sat down beside Zhang Zhao, saw Zhang Qixiu running over, the little chubby boy hurriedly got up to give his elder sister the seat.

He even considerately wiped the small square stool and invited his elder sister to take the seat of honor, which made Zhang Zhao not know whether to laugh or cry.

Besides these older ones, there were two younger ones. The second daughter, also the eldest legitimate daughter, Zhang Qinan, was already over a year old.

Zhang Zhao had not expected that on the wedding night, Cao Yanxi, the Nineteenth Lady, had spoken a prophecy that came true.

That day the Nineteenth Lady had said that if they did not seize the time, Zhang Zhao might end up who knows where. Now it had indeed come to pass.

Before his daughter was a month old, Zhang Zhao had led his troops out on campaign—leaving at the end of the seventh month last year and only returning in the middle of the eighth month this year.

He had been gone for over a year. The daughter who had once been the size of a little mouse could now babble and was learning to call him father.

The other daughter was even younger than his legitimate daughter, also born of Cao Yanmian, about the same age as the third son Zhang Xianzhao. She was being held by a maidservant, sound asleep.

Full of apology, Zhang Zhao took the hand of the Nineteenth Lady, Yanxi, feeling rather guilty. From his daughter's birth until she was over a year old, Zhang Zhao estimated he had not held her even five times.

This was also why the founding rulers of past dynasties rarely had deep affection with their eldest sons—they were together little and apart much. In the blink of an eye the children were grown, and might even have their own followings. It would be strange if such bonds could be good.

Zhang Zhao had once considered whether he could do without eunuchs, but after seeing the length of his campaigns, if he did without eunuchs in the future, he might well end up wearing a green hat. Better to follow the common practice.

Besides his three biological sons and three daughters, Zhang Zhao also had three sons and one daughter of considerable importance.

Three adopted sons: Murong Xinzhang, Li Cunhui, and Zhang Liecheng.

The first two were his trusted great generals, while the latter was already in fact managing Zhang Zhao's intelligence department.

But although Murong Xinzhang and Li Cunhui had come to attend today's Mid-Autumn banquet, and the two of them were almost no different from his own sons, Zhang Zhao would not let them change their surnames.

Especially Murong Xinzhang—once he changed his surname, he would gain the right of succession, and that was very dangerous. Sometimes, matters do not shift according to any one person's will alone.

The remaining daughter, graceful and slender at fifteen, was extremely beautiful. She actually had no blood relation to Zhang Zhao, nor any blood relation to Cao Yanmian of the Cao family. She was the daughter of Saketu and the former queen of the Karluks.

The little girl had been captured by Zhang Zhao when she was seven and had stayed by his side ever since. Now she was completely sinicized—she spoke Chinese and wore Han clothing.

Cao Yanmian hinted several times that he could take the little girl in, but Zhang Zhao still could not get past that hurdle in his heart.

So he simply took advantage of this Mid-Autumn Festival, and Zhang Zhao gave her the name Zhang Qiwun, formally making her Zhang Zhao's daughter.

After resting for a few days, at the end of the eighth month, edicts summoning the various deputy ambassadors, prefects, garrison commanders, and regional commanders of the Guiyi Army began to go out frequently from Liangzhou.

Yan Jin, who garrisoned Qinzhou, Li Ruoyu of Taozhou, Fan Quan of Shanzhou, Pei Yuan of Lingzhou, Wu Luan of Xiazhou, and others all received edicts to arrive in Liangzhou before the eleventh month.

At the end of the eleventh month, Zhang Zhao's legal mother, the Princess Fengtian, who had returned to Khotan, and the Khotan crown prince Li Congde traveled from Khotan city to Liangzhou, and Zhang Zhao's process of founding a state finally began.

However, although it was the founding of a state, there was one principle that had not changed.

That was that Zhang Zhao was not like Meng Zhixiang founding the Later Shu, shutting the door and making himself independent.

Nor was he like Li Sheng of the Southern Tang, who made King Li Ke of Wu into his own ancestor and built a Tang dynasty with no legal basis whatsoever.

Zhang Zhao led the Han people of Anxi, Hexi, and Longyou to return to the nation in the name of great righteousness; what he himself wanted to end was the chaotic and disorderly situation of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, where "the Son of Heaven is whoever has strong soldiers and sturdy horses."

This destined that Zhang Zhao could not casually, without reason, found a state merely for the sake of power.

Unless he was willing to be a separatist regime like Lu Guang or Zhang Gui.

To both establish an independent state and not harm the great righteousness was originally an extremely difficult matter, but fortunately Zhang Zhao was in a very favorable window period.

Among the non-puppet emperors of China's more than two thousand years, if Shi Jingtang claimed to be second in shamelessness, no one would dare claim first; even Zhu Yougui, who murdered his father to usurp the throne, had more standing than him.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao also had to consider leaving himself a way out, and could not overly provoke the Later Jin regime in the Central Plains.

Because from a practical standpoint, Zhang Zhao's Hexi regime, as it currently stood, already surpassed the original Western Xia in breadth of territory and favorability of international situation.

But in terms of the regime's mobilization capacity, it was still far inferior to the Western Xia of Li Yuanhao's time in history.

At present, there were about three million people under Zhang Zhao's rule, but among them, those over whom Zhang Zhao had established detailed and effective rule and whom he could fully mobilize would not exceed one and a half million.

The rest were basically the various Qiang, Tangut, Uyghur, Tatar, Tibetan, and other peoples.

Zhang Zhao could only rule through the various tribal chiefs, in a form of tribal-chief rule slightly better than loose-rein governance.

With this small population, supporting an army of tens of thousands, plus the fact that the fields of Hexi and Longyou had lain waste since the end of the Tang and productive capacity had been greatly destroyed, was in reality unaffordable.

The reason it could be afforded now was that Zhang Zhao had restored the Hexi trade routes and opened up a small circulation of the Silk Road.

For example, white sugar, rock sugar, tea bricks, cotton, and silver notes were all derived from this; this trade route was his lifeline.

If he offended the Later Jin court badly enough, the Later Jin court, with the attitude of harming itself by five hundred to injure the enemy by a thousand, would blockade Tong Pass, or even blockade all the passes west of Chang'an.

Prohibiting Hexi merchants from trading in the Central Plains, and prohibiting Central Plains goods from being exported to Hexi, would inevitably cause a great collapse of the Hexi economy.

At that point, to say nothing of sending out tens of thousands of iron cavalry, even ten thousand or so troops could not campaign for long periods.

More importantly, if he drew the fire onto himself too greatly, would that not be doing the Khitan a favor?

Therefore, Zhang Zhao's overall strategy was to openly proclaim to the world that founding an independent state was not his original intent, but that the Son of Heaven had lost virtue, while secretly making the angering of Shi Jingtang to death the core objective.

The child-emperor had historically been caught between Liu Zhiyuan and the Khitan, oppressed at every turn, and had died of depression in 942.

Now it was already the end of 940; angering him to death a year early was very possible.

Once Shi Jingtang was dead, and Shi Chonggui, that reckless man full of hot blood but without means, took the throne, Zhang Zhao could use this identity as an independent king to bargain with the Central Plains court, and it would not be impossible to remove his own state title and return to the nation once more.

Having sorted out these pros and cons, the state title became very simple.

"Han" certainly could not be used; that was what Shi Jingtang had enfeoffed him with, and it certainly could not be used for founding a state.

"Tang" would not do either; no matter how much the people of Anxi and Hexi missed the Great Tang and could regard themselves as Great Tang remnants, the state title certainly could not be Tang, because he was not, after all, a descendant of the Li family.

"Qin" would not do either; to be Qin one had to hold the Long and Guan regions, especially Guanzhong. Zhang Zhao had Long but not Guan, so he could not call himself Qin.

To call himself Qin, he would have to take Guanzhong now, and then the conflict with the Later Jin would be irreconcilable.

Shi Jingtang would have only one option: to send troops for a great battle with Zhang Zhao, and Yelu Deguang would probably laugh himself awake even in his dreams.

So for the present, there was only the option of "Liang," but he could not directly call it the Liang State, because that would destroy the Guiyi Army's image of returning to the nation in great righteousness.

At this time, that father who had little influence on either the present Zhang Zhao or the original Zhang Zhao, the White-Clad Son of Heaven Zhang Chengfeng, finally played his proper role.

On the seventh day of the twelfth month, Zhang Zhao set up altars to the gods of soil and grain and an ancestral temple outside Liangzhou, slaughtered pigs, oxen, and sheep as the three sacrificial animals to worship Heaven, and issued the "Proclamation Against the Lord of Jin" to make it known to the world.

Letters were sent to Meng Shu, the Southern Tang, Ma Chu, Qian Yue, Jingnan, Wang Min, the Southern Han, as well as Duan Siping, Military Governor of Tonghai, and Wu Quan, Military Governor of Jinghai.

Of course, this "against" did not mean military attack, but denunciation; in the proclamation, Zhang Zhao denounced Shi Jingtang for five great crimes.

First, selling the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun and issuing edicts to give up Yunzhou and the like, making him a sinner for all eternity.

Second, as a Military Governor of the state, selling out the country for personal glory, rebelling to found a state, utterly devoid of loyalty.

Third, serving the Khitan as a father while being the Son of Heaven of China, disgracing the nation and its ancestors; this was shamelessness.

Fourth, An Zhongrong guarded the border for the state and had no intent to rebel; merely because he opposed the Khitan he was executed, and his head was even sent to the Khitan; this was a ruler's injustice.

Fifth, Du Chongwei slaughtered the innocent in Zhenzhou, with as many as fifty thousand dead, yet Shi Jingtang not only did not punish him but shielded him extensively, giving him promotions in rank and title; this was inhumanity.

The Guiyi Army fell to the Tibetans for a hundred and fifty years, yet could still return to the nation; what it returned to was not a lord of Jin like Shi Jingtang, so disloyal, unjust, inhumane, and unvirtuous, who had lost virtue before the world.

What the Guiyi Army wanted to return to was that benevolent and virtuous heavenly court of the Central Plains.

Therefore, the three million soldiers and civilians of the five military provinces of Hexi, Anxi, Longyou, Lingwu, and Xiasui had no choice but to establish their own rule.

Zhang Zhao established himself as the Great Western Han Jinshan Great Liang State, calling himself the Heavenly King of Great Liang, taking the second year after the fall of the Tang, namely 908 CE, as the first year of the Western Han Jinshan State, making this year the thirty-second year of the Western Han Jinshan State.

Zhang Zhao also made clear to the world that if a sage ruler emerged in the Central Plains, he would again return the millions of residents of the Liang State to the nation.

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