Chapter 428

Yinzhou is Hami in the later People's Republic of Xinjiang.

As the first city on the northern Silk Road route after leaving Dunhuang, Yinzhou also benefited from the Silk Road's revival and grew far more prosperous than before.

Yet precisely because of that prosperity, the status of the Chen family, the governors of Yinzhou, had actually declined somewhat.

For originally the Pugu family had not valued Yinzhou, treating it only as the first line of resistance should an enemy come from Hexi, and was happy to let the Chen family serve as a sandbag there.

But now it was different. Since the Silk Road had flourished, Yinzhou had gradually grown bustling.

The Pugu clansmen, coveting Yinzhou's prosperity and commercial taxes, with a group led by the Tarkan Diro Pugu Cheng, kept reaching their hands into Yinzhou, causing the Chen family's standing to decline step by step.

Because Wang Jiulang had offended Xieli Pijia, Wu Da'er and the others were escorted by Uyghur troops that very day and driven out of Gaochang.

Xieli Pijia thought that in this way no envoys would be active within Gaochang's borders, but as early as when Wu Da'er and the others had gone to Xieli Pijia's royal tent, Wu Da'er's younger brother Wu Yuan'er had already secretly arrived in Yinzhou.

North of Yinzhou city, at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the Shichengzi River rushed down from the heights, carving out the fertile Hami Basin.

In later ages a famous Hami Shichengzi Reservoir would be built here, making Hami one of the most prosperous places in the entire northwest.

At this time, however, this fertile basin belonged to the Chen family, and the Chen family along with the Gaochang Han people who depended on them labored diligently at farming here.

These hundred thousand-plus mu of land produced great quantities of rice, grain, and beans every year, and here they also wove large amounts of cloth.

A great part of the famous Gaochang white cotton cloth was produced here.

Seeing the prosperity of the Hami Basin, Wu Yuan'er understood even better than Wu Da'er why Zhang Zhao wanted to strike the Gaochang Uyghurs.

With this fertile Hami Basin present, Hami was a point of leverage for controlling all of Anxi.

In the future the state of Liang could station troops and open farms here. If it gained a thousand or more soldiers, then when its power flourished this would be a stable rear supply base, and when its power waned it could hold the basin and defend itself while awaiting reinforcements from Hexi.

No wonder that after the Guiyi Army lost Yinzhou, the second Military Governor of the Guiyi Army, Zhang Huaishen, was soon fiercely censured for it and could not control the surging public sentiment above and below.

"This is the land of abundance of Anxi! For the Governor to sit on such a treasure..."

Wu Yuan'er drew out his voice. Chen Huiyao beside him looked rather pleased with himself, but Wu Yuan'er's next words made his expression change drastically.

"Sitting on such a treasure, does the Governor know how his descendants will all die off?"

Chen Huiyao's face changed, and his eldest son Chen Tingxiao beside him glared at Wu Yuan'er.

"Has the honored envoy come to mock us? To dare say such words—do you take us sons of the Chen family for cowards who would not dare kill you?"

"Hahaha! Truly a young hero, full of spirit!" Wu Yuan'er did not take it to heart.

"Does Young Lord Chen think I am insulting you? Not at all! The Pugu royal clan of Gaochang has already set its eyes on your family's property. In this country the Uyghurs are many and the sons of Tang are few; sooner or later you will be swallowed up.

Moreover, this Yinzhou was in former years the estate of my lord the Heavenly King, and it can also control Anxi—he cannot but come to seize it.

I would ask the Governor and the young lord to ask themselves whether they can withstand my state of Liang's tens of thousands of troops."

Yet although Wu Yuan'er spoke as if great calamity were about to befall the Chen family, Chen Huiyao was not the least bit nervous.

Because all these were things that might happen in the future, but not things that would happen now. Even if they did happen later, the Chen family had ways to respond.

The Pugu royal clansmen were not many at all, and they could neither farm nor manage affairs, so they had no ability to swallow up the Chen family's ten thousand or so people. At worst, they would just be bled a little.

If instead they submitted to the state of Liang, war would probably descend immediately, and who knew whether the state of Liang could swallow the Pugu family?

If it could not, then not only would the Chen family lose its present days of peace and comfort, but great calamity would be upon them at once.

Of course, it was not that Chen Huiyao was unwilling to submit to Zhang Zhao. Zhang Zhao was, after all, a son of Tang. In former years Chen Huiyao's great-grandfather had been a fierce general under Grand Protector Zhang Yichao, so submitting would not be shameful, nor was it unprofitable.

But Chen Huiyao's plan was that he must first see the state of Liang's great army—at least see Zhang Zhao display the will and the strength to swallow the Gaochang Uyghurs—before he would submit.

Seeing Chen Huiyao's utterly unruffled old fox manner, Wu Yuan'er knew that verbal intimidation would certainly be of no use.

Chen Huiyao was already old. Even if the man was not old, his heart was surely old.

What such an old fox thought of was preserving his life and property, at most with his clansmen added. Adventurous matters had already gone beyond his thinking and his needs.

But then—Wu Yuan'er swept a glance from the corner of his eye at Chen Tingxiao beside Chen Huiyao.

The old one was hopeless, but this young one, though his gaze was far from friendly, could on the contrary be drawn in and made use of.

After all, young men's heads are full of thoughts of building merit and carving out a place in the world, and compared to middle-aged men they are far more easily stirred to passion.

So Wu Yuan'er pretended to sigh helplessly. "I never thought that before reaching the land of gentle pleasures, a hero's ambition would already have been worn away!

In former years Emperor Wu of Chen put down Hou Jing's rebellion and preserved the Han civilization at its moment of greatest peril—what a hero he was! Yet his descendants have become people who seek only to cling to life!"

Emperor Wu of Chen was Chen Baxian. Unlike in later ages, when few know of him, people of this time still held Chen Baxian in high esteem.

Most held that he ended Hou Jing's rebellion at the moment when Hou Jing was about to slaughter nearly all the southern gentry clans who had crossed the river, when Han civilization itself was about to lose its line of transmission, and that he turned the tide and saved thousands of years of culture from being cut off.

And in truth it was so. Compared to later ages' veneration of Ran Min, believing he saved the northern Han people, in reality Chen Baxian of the Southern Dynasties did the same thing, and his merit should be even greater.

Without Chen Baxian destroying Hou Jing, once Hou Jing had killed off all the cultured clans of Jiangnan, the severing of the line of transmission was no joking matter.

And although Chen Baxian in the end had no direct heirs, the emperors of the Southern Chen were descendants of Chen Baxian's elder brother Chen Tanxian.

But the entire Southern Chen imperial house's remembrance and veneration of Chen Baxian—this sentiment was extremely strong.

Chen Huiyao's face changed at once, but he was not entirely angered by Wu Yuan'er's words; rather, he sensed that Wu Yuan'er wanted to use words to stir up the impulses of his son Chen Tingxiao and the others.

"It is growing late. I must ask the honored envoy to depart. If the Pugu family's roving scouts detect you, that would be unfortunate.

My Chen family's heart is with the Great King, but helplessly the vast desert lies between us. I beg the Great King to understand our helplessness."

Wu Yuan'er had already locked onto his target and had no intention of continuing to spar with Chen Huiyao. He put on an official, businesslike smile.

"The Governor's difficulties, I will certainly report truthfully to the Heavenly King. It is only a pity that with such a choice by the Governor, the young heroes of the clan will never again see the beautiful sight of lush grass and flying orioles in their Jiangnan homeland."

The eight-hundred-li Moheyan Desert—this was the fearsome desert stretching between Shazhou, Dunhuang, and Yinzhou. In former years when Tang Xuanzang crossed this place, he remained shaken by it ever after.

Later ages even reworked it into the Flowing Sands River of Friar Sand, except that there was plenty of flowing sand, while the river was completely invisible. Not only was there no river, but the entire Moheyan Desert had almost no water source and no life.

Right at the entrance to the Moheyan Desert there was a small stone city, which in later ages had an exceedingly beautiful name: Star Gorge.

And there were people here too. A small tribe of a hundred or so people wandered and herded here. They were called the Lesser Zhongwei people, which in fact meant the Lesser Zhongyun people.

They were actually of the same race as the Zhongyun people of Zhongzhou in the state of Liang. Those who submitted to the Gaochang Uyghurs at the northern end were called the Lesser Zhongwei people, meaning they were the minority.

The lives of these Lesser Zhongwei people had originally been very hard, but after Zhang Zhao conquered the Zhongyun state, their lives changed.

To make up for Khotan's insufficient population, Li Shengtian continually had Li Ruoliu move the Greater Zhongyun people of the Zhongyun state to Khotan.

And the void left by the Zhongyun people's departure was gradually filled by the lesser Weiyun people.

For this reason, the Zhongyun warriors controlled by Li Ruoliu clashed repeatedly with the Gaochang Uyghurs.

The hundred-odd people at the entrance had not left — in fact, Zhang Zhao had deliberately kept them there.

On closer inspection, the proportion of women and children in this hundred-strong tribe was very small, small to the point of being abnormal; most of them were fierce warriors.

Wu Yuan'er had just led a dozen riders to this entrance when the sound of hoofbeats came from behind.

The knights around him immediately tensed up, and the lesser Weiyun herders nomadizing nearby likewise snatched up their bows and mounted their warhorses.

Wu Yuan'er, however, waved his hand with great confidence, signaling those around him not to be nervous, then sent one of his knights galloping back up onto the weathered sand mound to shout.

"Is that Chen Dalang of Yinzhou?"

"It is! Please, honored envoy, hold your steps!"

Sure enough, a loud answer came from behind. When they drew near enough to see clearly, it was Chen Tingxiao, eldest son of Chen Huiyao, leading a dozen Chen family sons in pursuit on horseback.

Wu Yuan'er burst out laughing. Looking at Chen Tingxiao, who appeared somewhat bedraggled from riding so hard, he said with a smile.

"I was not mistaken — you, Chen Dalang, truly have the air of a hero."

Whether from exhaustion or from Wu Yuan'er's flattery, a few blushes rose on Chen Tingxiao's face. He dismounted and cupped his hands toward Wu Yuan'er.

"The honored envoy knew I would certainly follow?"

Wu Yuan'er nodded with certainty. "This was not something I knew — it was what the Heavenly King told me when I set out. He said that from the Chen family of Yinzhou, someone would surely come in pursuit."

"Oh!" Chen Tingxiao's eyes lit up, and he quickly pressed on.

"It was actually Great King Zhang who said so? The Heavenly King also knows of our Chen family?"

"Of course the Heavenly King knows. Does the young lord know why the Heavenly King insists on your Chen family submitting to him?

With my Great Liang's might, a hundred thousand iron cavalry at the ready, could we not, as the Khitan did in former years, cross the northern desert and strike Futu City directly — why must we go through Yinzhou to take Gaochang?

Not so! Were it not that Yinzhou is guarded by your Chen family, the Heavenly King would never have sent me on this journey."

"Then why did the Heavenly King send the honored envoy?" Before Chen Tingxiao could ask, someone among the Chen family sons behind him had already called out the question, clearly drawn in by Wu Yuan'er's words.

"That is because the Heavenly King told me: in this land of Hexi, the Chen family, the Zhang family, and all the other families of the Guiyi Army are alike — all are Han folk who stand upright between heaven and earth.

Emperor Wu of Chen in former years was such a hero, and rendered a service that saved Han civilization from extinction. Among his descendants, there must surely be men of valor.

My Great Liang not only means to use the Chen family to destroy the Gaochang Uyghurs, but also to bring the Chen family back to the nation, so that the descendants of Emperor Wu of Chen may see with their own eyes the land of fish and rice south of the river."

For a Chinese person, no flattery works better than flattery of his ancestors.

Chen Tingxiao and the dozen others, having heard Wu Yuan'er's words, all turned red in the face, wishing they could find a few of the Pugu family right now and slaughter them, to display their heroic spirit.

Chen Tingxiao was even more like one drunk on fine wine, somewhat floating. Only after a long while did he bow deeply to Wu Yuan'er.

"Though I, Chen, am dull and slow, I still bear an ambitious heart. I beg the honored envoy to report back to the Heavenly King: the Chen family of Yinzhou will never disgrace the prestige of our ancestors.

Tell him to rest assured — the two thousand sons of the Chen family are willing to follow the Heavenly King and return to the old country."

Wu Yuan'er nodded. "I believe in the young lord. But your honored father seems not to agree — what then?"

"Simple!" A ruthless look appeared on Chen Tingxiao's face.

"The Pugu family has sent a member of their royal clan to Yinzhou as tax collector. As soon as the Heavenly King's letter arrives, I will lead my clan brothers to kill the Pugu tax collector. Then my father will have to rebel whether he wants to or not!"

Good heavens! So this was another filial, good child!

"However..." Chen Tingxiao then seemed somewhat embarrassed.

"I also have one matter, which I hope the honored envoy can report to the Heavenly King, and beg the Heavenly King to grant."

"Speak." A flicker of doubt passed through Wu Yuan'er's mind. Seeing the embarrassed look, it seemed to be a matter of love between man and woman.

But why would such a matter need the Heavenly King to grant it?

At the mention of this matter, the embarrassed look vanished from Chen Tingxiao's face, replaced by gnashing teeth.

"I was once betrothed to the daughter of Pugu Cheng, the Diluo Tarkhan of Gaochang. But now the Khagan, for the sake of a marriage alliance with some Bughra Khan, because the princess is still young and cannot yet serve as a wife, therefore...!"

At this, the pain on Chen Tingxiao's face deepened. "Therefore the Khagan intends to have the daughter of the Diluo Tarkhan, who is betrothed to me, marry that Bughra Khan together with the princess!

I beg the honored envoy to report to the Heavenly King: I, Chen Tingxiao, am willing to go through fire and water for the Heavenly King, but I beg the Heavenly King to surely help me avenge this great disgrace!"

Wu Yuan'er thought for a moment, and understood what had happened.

Because the one who had gone to extort the Diluo Tarkhan Pugu Cheng back then was his elder brother Wu Da'er.

Now it seemed that, after Pugu Cheng could not come up with the several thousand strings of ransom money, the Chen family had sold everything they had to make up the sum.

Perhaps Pugu Cheng felt he could not let relations with the Chen family turn sour, so he promised his daughter in marriage to Chen Tingxiao, eldest son of the Chen family head Chen Huiyao.

But no one expected that the Gaochang Uyghur Khagan, Il Bilga, was plotting a marriage alliance with Bughra Khan Satuq.

Since his own daughter was still young, he wanted to send the daughter of his royal-clan cousin Pugu Cheng along as a companion bride, to serve as a substitute while the princess was still unable to perform her wifely duties.

And Pugu Cheng had already formed a grudge against the Chen family over the ransom money, and had barely smoothed things over with his daughter — but now his daughter could not be married off.

Perhaps fearing that the Chen family would turn their grievance into hatred, he secretly revealed this marriage alliance, which was still in an unconfirmed stage, in an attempt to lessen the Chen family's anger.

But, heh heh! Wu Yuan'er smiled. This had not only let him learn this secret, but had also pushed Chen Tingxiao, whose woman had been snatched away, over to the side of Liang.

"Rest assured, young lord. No matter what khan or not, no one may snatch the woman of a Han hero. This grudge, the Heavenly King will surely help you settle."

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