Chapter 427: Please Ask the Khagan to Cast Off the Title of Heavenly King

While Zhang Zhao was dealing with the last resentful old loyalists in Dunhuang, Yelu Deguang was likewise preparing to deal with the traitor in his own eyes.

Only, this traitor of his was none other than the newly enthroned ruler of Jin, Shi Chonggui.

Oh, no! In Yelu Deguang's view, Shi Jingtang, that Son of Heaven of the Jin state, had been enthroned by him, so Shi Chonggui too had to receive his enthronement before he could ascend as Son of Heaven.

In Yelu Deguang's heart, he still regarded the Later Jin dynasty of the Central Plains as a dependency with somewhat greater independence, but one that still had to acknowledge the Khitan as its suzerain.

Therefore, after the Jin envoy who presented the mourning memorial arrogantly proposed calling himself grandson but not subject, Yelu Deguang was so furious his scalp began to tingle.

Of course, in reality the Jin envoy was already nearly shaking with fear; the so-called arrogance was merely Yelu Deguang's own perception.

"Very well!" Yelu Deguang practically spat these two words out from between his teeth.

"Is this how your master treats his grandfather? Has he forgotten who rescued their father and son from Jinyang and set them upon the supreme throne of the Central Plains?"

Though the Jin envoy was afraid, he still remembered his mission, and he answered somewhat tremblingly.

"Your Majesty's life-saving grace at Jinyang and merit in enthroning him at the Eastern Capital were long ago repaid by the late Emperor's yearly gifts of several hundred thousand strings of gold and silk."

This was too much! Utterly shameless! Yelu Deguang was so angry his whole body shook.

A Son of Heaven of the Central Plains, several dozen lives of the Shi family, all settled for a few hundred thousand strings, was that it?

The furious Yelu Deguang jabbed his finger at the Jin envoy. "And you still have the nerve to know your master was enthroned by me. In former years, when Shi Jingtang sent up his memorial, he did not call himself subject but called himself the Child Emperor — that was by my gracious permission! Who is Shi Chonggui? How dare he not call himself subject?"

The envoy, probably frightened past the point of fear, actually remembered what Jing Yanguang had instructed him when he set out, and he straightened his robes.

"The Exalted Ancestor Emperor was enthroned by Your Majesty, so it was proper for him to call himself subject. But our new master ascended by his own establishment. Calling himself grandson is because the ethical bond lies there; calling himself subject — from what would that even arise?"

Hearing this, Yelu Deguang grew even angrier and was about to rebuke him harshly again, but at that moment, the Empress Dowager Shulu Ping, who sat slightly behind and to the right of Yelu Deguang, gave a soft cough.

Yelu Deguang had been inclined to listen to his mother since childhood. Hearing her cough now, he finally came back to his senses.

For him, with the dignity of a Son of Heaven, to stand here quarreling with an envoy of the Jin court was utterly pointless and somewhat beneath him.

So Yelu Deguang waved his hand and had the Pishi Army guards to his left and right seize the Jin envoy and simply throw him out.

Seeing Yelu Deguang beside himself with rage, Zhao Yanshou, who bore the title of Prince of Yan but was in fact merely Yelu Deguang's favored minister, hurriedly stepped forward and spoke to Shulu Ping and Yelu Deguang.

"When I was in the southern court, I did know Shi Chonggui. The man can at best be called of middling ability, but he has no great talent for governing a large state. This sudden upheaval must be the work of someone egging him on!

It would be better for Your Majesty to first send an envoy to rebuke him. If he shows any sign of changing his mind, have him send gold, silk, and women, and dispatch an envoy to offer apologies.

If his attitude remains as arrogant as this, then Your Majesty can send a great army to chastise him without delay."

Although Zhao Yanshou inwardly desperately hoped Yelu Deguang would immediately march south to destroy the Jin state and then set him up as Son of Heaven of the Central Plains, with Shulu Ping present, he did not dare speak recklessly.

Yelu Deguang also would have liked to immediately send troops south to attack the Jin court, but the Empress Dowager Shulu Ping behind him knew the stakes; she understood well that the Central Plains were not so easy to enter.

So before Yelu Deguang could speak, this strong-willed, fierce-tempered Empress Dowager nodded first.

Seeing this, Yelu Deguang could only agree to Zhao Yanshou's suggestion, and he asked somewhat sulkily.

"Then who can be sent as envoy to the Jin state?"

Zhao Yanshou replied, "The Secretary Qi Rong at my side has the talent of forceful eloquence, and moreover the ability to adapt to circumstances. He can be sent as chief envoy to the Jin state, to rebuke the ruler of Jin and to find out exactly who is egging the ruler of Jin on to such rebellious acts."

Yelu Deguang nodded approvingly. "Very well. Then summon Qi Rong here. I will personally give him instructions and send him as envoy to the Jin state."

At this moment, Wu Da'er was also standing in the great hall of the Gaochang Uyghur royal palace. To him, the nobles and royal house of the Gaochang Uyghurs were no strangers.

Since the era of the Cao family's Guiyi Army, Wu Da'er had often been sent as an envoy to the Gaochang Uyghurs. However, the Gaochang city of today was no longer the same as it had been in former days.

In the past, Gaochang had been a small city of just over twenty thousand people, but now, because Gaochang sat on a key trade route, it had utterly transformed in just a few years. Wu Da'er guessed that the city held at least fifty thousand people or more.

Although in recent years Zhang Zhao had been working hard to persuade large numbers of traveling merchants to take the southern route,

the northern route had lush water and grass along the way, many cities, and many inhabitants, and correspondingly there were relatively many more buyers for all kinds of goods.

Moreover, the northern route did not require crossing the Taklamakan Desert, so although Zhang Zhao had been supporting the southern route, traveling merchants taking the northern route still accounted for more than half.

On the whole, thanks to Zhang Zhao having restored the Silk Road to a great extent, the Gaochang Uyghurs' commerce had flourished greatly as a result.

As far as Gaochang city alone was concerned, it had already become the largest and wealthiest city on the Hexi Corridor apart from Liangzhou.

Seeing all this, and seeing that even the royal guard of the Gaochang Uyghur khan's tent could all wear brocade and satin, Wu Da'er finally understood why Zhang Zhao was so eager to swallow up the Gaochang Uyghurs.

As a rising power, the Guiyi Army had this road-blocking bandit squatting beside it, rich to the point of dripping oil; if they did not swallow him up, even Heaven could not bear to watch.

Only by swallowing up the Gaochang Uyghurs would the trade profits of the entire Silk Road be monopolized by Zhang Zhao.

And this was a business guaranteed not to lose. The Gaochang Uyghur state had been founded over sixty years ago, squatting on the key route of the Silk Road. Within its borders were a million mu of fine fields reclaimed by Han people during the Han and Tang periods, more than a hundred thousand fine horses, and countless cattle and sheep.

Swallowing it would be equivalent to three or four Dingnan Armies, and yet it would not be as hard to fight as the Dingnan Army.

The only difficulty was simply how to keep them from fleeing north of the Gold Mountains (the Altai Mountains).

"The Heavenly King of the Great Liang State sends this letter to the Bugu Khagan of the Gaochang State. The title of Heavenly King was in former years the designation of the Zhou Son of Heaven. Even the Heavenly Khagan of the Great Dynasty received this honored title only through the support of the multitudes.

Now the Bugu Khagan has presumptuously called himself Heavenly King, which is truly an arrogation. The Heavenly King of Great Liang urges the Khagan to swiftly cast off this title, so as to fulfill the rites of a subject."

Wang Jiulang of Upper White Horse Village stood before the Gaochang Uyghur Khagan Xieli Pijia and let loose a relentless barrage without the slightest mercy.

His voice was clear and bright, his speech rhythmic and cadenced, and his Uyghur was utterly flawless. The moment he opened his mouth, he very nearly angered Xieli Pijia to death.

As chief envoy, Wu Da'er stood behind Wang Jiulang; this was a deliberate arrangement.

Let the lower-ranked Wang Jiulang go first and draw the hatred; even if Xieli Pijia lost his mind, Wu Da'er would still have a chance to salvage things.

At worst, only Wang Jiulang alone would suffer misfortune; the envoy mission itself should remain unharmed.

"Wretched slave! How dare you spout such nonsense here!"

"What is your status, to behave so insolently before the Heavenly King?"

"Kill him! Kill him! These Hexi slave-thieves are far too arrogant."

Xieli Pijia was so angry he gnashed his teeth, and the assembled Gaochang officials were likewise burning with fury.

And most of them, surprisingly, were cursing in a Hexi Tang accent much like that of the Guiyi Army.

There was no need for surprise, because the Gaochang Uyghur state was a deeply sinicized country. Among its people, although Uyghurs held the dominant position, there were also no few Uyghurized Han people. This could be seen from the official posts of the Gaochang Uyghur Khanate.

Chancellor, Commissioner of Military Affairs, Upper Pillar of State, Grand Master of Purple and Gold, Acting Grand Preceptor, and so on.

For honorary ranks there were various founding dukes, marquises, counts, and viscounts. The khan's tent guards were controlled by the Left and Right Divine Martial Grand Generals, and the various prefectures had Governors-General, Administrative Assistants, and the like.

In the years when they submitted to the Khitan, the Khitan envoy reported back to Yelu Abaoji: "Gaochang is originally Han territory."

If not for the deep blood feud between the Pugu clan and the descendants of the Guiyi Army and the Anxi Army, if not for how fat and rich they were, making everyone drool with greed, and their close ties to the Khitan, they would actually have made a fine target for winning over.

Once the officials behind him had cursed enough, Xieli Pijia waved a hand, and the crowd at once fell silent.

This powerfully built Heavenly King of the Gaochang Uyghurs descended from his throne himself and glared hard at Wu Da'er, not at Wang Jiulang.

"Since the Heavenly King could only assume his honored title through the support of the various tribes, then may I ask: by whose support did your lord assume the honored title of Heavenly King?"

Before Wu Da'er could speak, Wang Jiulang, whom Xieli Pijia had passed by, let out a shout and pressed close to Xieli Pijia again, so close that the Uyghur guards had already drawn their blades.

"My lord's dignity as Heavenly King rests on the support of the Uyghur tribes of Suyab, the Basmyl tribes of Shule, the Samanid Persians, the Zhenyuan Kingdom of India, the Qiang, Tangut, and the the Shatuo peoples of Hexi and Longyou in sixty-one tribes, the nineteen Tatar tribes, and the Tibetans and Tuyuhun of Qingtang in twenty-seven clans—over a hundred tribes in all, a hundred thousand armored cavalry, and ten million subjects.

May I ask who supported the Khagan's title of Heavenly King? Could it be that it was merely the people of the royal tent who supported it?"

Wang Jiulang's face was flushed red with excitement, and his spittle sprayed onto Xieli Pijia's clothes.

His whole mental state was like that of a howling mastiff, and the message radiating from his entire body was:

Kill me! Come on, kill me!

Xieli Pijia, who had been so full of imposing momentum, actually began to shrink back under Wang Jiulang's mad-dog tactics.

Because he could see in Wang Jiulang's eyes that this fellow had simply come seeking death—he wanted to use his own blood to give the Liang Kingdom a pretext for sending troops!

At that moment, Xieli Pijia suddenly realized that stepping down from his throne had been a mistake.

As the ruler of a nation, how could he personally come down to trade blows with someone?

This was something his ministers below should be doing!

At that thought, Xieli Pijia wanted to turn back and return to his throne.

Unexpectedly, Wang Jiulang had completely entered a state of frenzy. He actually reached out to grab Xieli Pijia, still howling from his mouth.

"The Khagan has yet to answer my question. If the title of Heavenly King was not conferred by the support of the various tribes, should you not now strip yourself of the honored title and pay homage to my lord with the rites of a subject?"

Caught off guard, Xieli Pijia actually had the hem of his robe seized by Wang Jiulang, and he flew into a rage.

The guards beside him also charged over and smashed Wang Jiulang with their scabbards, beating him until his head split and bled, but Wang Jiulang simply would not let go.

In the distance, Wu Da'er and the rest of the envoy party did not move at all, and faint smiles even appeared on their faces.

It looked as though Wang Jiulang had taken a beating, but the one who had lost face—indeed, one could say lost his authority—was Xieli Pijia.

At last, a Gaochang official came to his senses. The Left Minister of the Gaochang Uyghurs, Xieli Misi, ran over and, pointing at Wang Jiulang on the ground, cursed him furiously.

"What an arrogant slave-thief from Hexi! Your lord and my lord are both rulers of great nations, yet you dare tell my lord to declare himself a subject—are you not afraid of losing your head?"

Wang Jiulang laughed loudly and, from the ground, pointed at Xieli Misi and roared.

"In former years, Pugu Jun was a general under my lord's great-grandfather, the Grand Guardian. The Khagan is Pugu Jun's great-grandson—is he not precisely my lord's subject?"

Seizing the moment when Wang Jiulang was pointing at him, Xieli Pijia finally pulled the hem of his robe free from Wang Jiulang's grasp, and he bellowed in towering rage.

"Impudent slave-thief! You dare speak my ancestor's name directly! Drag them out—drag them all out! They must leave Gaochang today!"

Wu Da'er chuckled inwardly. Xieli Pijia had been treated this way and still did not dare kill them—he had already lost his nerve. They could proceed to the next provocation.

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