Chapter 43

In late autumn at Dunhuang, a cold wind blew down from the northern grasslands, sending yellow leaves fluttering from the old pear tree in the Military Governor's courtyard.

Cao Yuande supported Cao Yijin by the arm, while Cao Yuanshen and Cao Yuanzhong followed behind him — the father and his three sons taking a rare stroll together.

A yellow leaf drifted onto Cao Yijin's chest, and he suddenly turned eastward and let out a long sigh.

"Yuande, Yuanshen, Yuanzhong — do you know why, when the Grand Guardian first raised the banner of righteousness to overthrow the Tibetans' harsh rule, the Buddhist Superintendent Master Hongbian was willing to commit his monk-soldiers in such force to aid him?"

Cao Yuande, still supporting Cao Yijin, pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said with some puzzlement:

"The Tibetans revered our Buddha. Monks held far higher status in Shazhou than they do now — they paid no taxes, rendered no land levies, and even kept monk-soldiers. They were a state within a state.

The Buddhist Superintendent governed the monks of the five prefectures of Gua, Sha, Yi, Gan, and Su; his authority was second only to that of the Tibetan Gua-Sha Military Governor in Dunhuang.

Whether in terms of status or doctrine, I truly cannot fathom why Master Hongbian would follow the Grand Guardian in rebelling against the Tibetans!"

"Indeed! Back then, we sons of Tang in Hexi lived worse than pigs and dogs — wearing barbarian clothes, speaking barbarian tongues, painting our faces red and tattooing our bodies. If we did not rebel, we could only remain slaves for life.

But Master Hongbian was not in such a position! Not only was he no slave, even the Tibetan btsanpo treated him with courtesy and favor! There truly was no reason for him to rise in revolt." Cao Yuanshen also shook his head to show he did not know.

Cao Yijin stroked his long, faintly reddish beard and a look of reminiscence came into his eyes as he gazed at Cao Yuande beside him.

"Back then, I was as young as Shisilang is now, and I was doing everything I could to win your mother, Lady Suo Siniang, in marriage — so I found excuses to run over to the Suo residence every day.

Once, at a vegetarian banquet given by your maternal grandfather, the late Military Governor of the Guiyi Army, Grand Guardian Suo, I met Master Wuzhen, a disciple of Master Hongbian.

Master Wuzhen spoke of Master Hongbian. He said that the reason Master Hongbian followed the Grand Guardian in raising the banner of righteousness — apart from wanting to deliver the people from under Tibetan rule — was above all his mother's dying wish!"

"His mother's dying wish? But by then, Master Hongbian's mother had already been dead for many years, had she not?" Cao Yuanzhong asked in surprise.

"Yes! By then Master Hongbian's mother had been dead nearly ten years. But do you know? The master's mother had never truly been laid to rest. There was no stele before her grave, and in the coffin was not a body but an urn of ashes.

Because Master Hongbian's mother, the Grand Lady Zhang, had once said: 'A fox dies facing its den; fallen leaves return to their roots. I hope that after a hundred years, I may be buried back in Nanyang.'

The Grand Lady Zhang had endured great hardship to raise Master Hongbian. She lived simply, and after death her only wish was to be buried in her homeland.

At that time, Hexi had been lost to the Tibetans for more than seventy years. His mother's dying wish had become almost an obsession for Master Hongbian. So when the Grand Guardian sought him out to urge him to rise, Master Hongbian did not hesitate for an instant — he immediately organized his monk-soldiers and followed the Grand Guardian.

In the xinsi year (861), the Grand Guardian recovered Liangzhou and at last reopened contact between Hexi and the Great Tang. Master Hongbian at once dispatched his disciple Master Wuzhen and members of the Nanyang Zhang clan to escort the Grand Lady's coffin eastward home.

The following year, the renwu year (862), upon receiving word that the Grand Lady had been returned home and buried, Master Hongbian passed away in seated meditation!"

"So that is how it was! How excellent — such filial piety! Master Hongbian gave his body to our Buddha, yet he could not sever the bond between mother and son. He had to fulfill his mother's dying wish before passing into transcendence! In the end, both he and the Grand Lady attained fulfillment. Excellent! Excellent!" The three Cao brothers, hearing this story for the first time, pressed their palms together in prayer, one after another.

"You boys! Ah!" For some reason, seeing his three sons like this, Cao Yijin suddenly felt very desolate and sighed. Then, gazing at the pear tree in the courtyard shedding its leaves without cease, he grew even more wistful.

"When I first heard of this matter, I too was deeply moved. But what moved me was not the bond between Master Hongbian and the Grand Lady Zhang. It was that the Grand Lady Zhang had lived under Tibetan rule for decades, yet still never forgot her homeland.

Back then, the Tibetans strictly forbade us sons of Tang from any contact with the culture of the Great Tang, so I knew very little of affairs in the Central Plains. It was after hearing this story that I, Cao Yijin, resolved to study the culture of the Great Tang.

I wanted to see what charm it possessed, that it could keep a person's heart unchanged for decades, that she would rather remain unburied in death than not return home.

And from that time on, I, Cao Yijin — even though I grow a red beard, even though my mother and grandmother were both Sogdian — have never considered myself a Sogdian. I am a Han!"

Watching their father's face flush crimson, the three Cao brothers did not quite understand why Cao Yijin was so agitated.

Their Cao family, though it claimed descent from the Cao clan of Qiao Commandery, had mixed in too much Sogdian blood, and had long since ceased to be very sensitive about whether they were Sogdian or Han.

So in the eyes of these three brothers, whether one was Han or Sogdian mattered far less than preserving the Guiyi Army and preserving the Cao family's hold on the Guiyi Army.

"Yuanzhong, summon Legal Administrator Song. Have him write a letter to Zhang Erlang in the name of his younger sister, Lady Song!" After a long while, Cao Yijin, finally calm again, said to his third son, Cao Yuanzhong.

"Legal Administrator Song" referred to Song Shantong, the Legal Administrator of Shazhou. Song Shantong's third younger sister was none other than Zhang Zhao's birth mother. And Cao Yuanzhong's mother was Song Shantong's paternal cousin-aunt, making the Song siblings Cao Yuanzhong's paternal cousins.

Thus the work of maintaining contact with the Song family and keeping watch on Zhang Zhao was in fact done by Cao Yuanzhong — which was also an important reason why Cao Yuanzhong seemed especially angry (guilty) after Zhang Zhao caused such a stir.

Er — though it is a bit tangled! If one reckons from Cao Yijin's principal wife, Lady Suo, then Cao Yijin is Zhang Zhao's maternal cousin-uncle by marriage.

If one reckons from Cao Yijin's second wife, Lady Song, then Cao Yijin is Zhang Zhao's maternal granduncle. So from another angle, Cao Sanniang is Zhang Zhao's older female cousin.

In this circle of a hundred-odd thousand people, after a century of intermarriage, the relationships wound around and around until there was no untangling them.

"I will see to it at once!" Cao Yuanzhong quietly assented. "But, Father, how should this letter be written?"

"How? Write it in Lady Song's name. Say that she has not seen him for many years and hopes Zhang Erlang can return to Dunhuang once to see his mother. Say that you have pledged that no one will do Zhang Erlang any harm!" Cao Yijin said flatly.

"Father, you must not!" Cao Yuande could not stay seated. "This Zhang Erlang may not necessarily have the makings of a hero as Yannai claims, but he is by no means easy to deal with. If we allow him to return to Dunhuang like this, the troubles will be endless!"

Cao Yijin slowly turned his head, and a hint of ruthlessness showed on his plump face. "If Zhang Erlang is truly lured here by his mother, then the moment he enters the city, you will assemble the Military Governor's yabing guards at the Ying'en Gate of the inner city and hack him into mincemeat!"

"Ah!" The three Cao brothers — especially Cao Yanming's father, Cao Yuande — were utterly stunned.

"Father means to lure Zhang Erlang here and kill him? If he dares come, he will surely hold Shisilang hostage!"

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