Chapter 431: A Trip Down the G7 Expressway (Two Chapters in One)

The Gaochang Uyghur Khaganate practiced a dual-capital system.

In ordinary times it used Gaochang City — the later Gaochang District of Turpan — as its capital.

In summer, however, the royal camp moved to Futu City, which served as the summer capital.

Futu City was the old Tingzhou City, seat of the Great Tang's Beiting Protectorate, and it was also the most important fortress by which Gaochang defended against enemies coming from the great desert to the north.

Historically, when Yelu Abaoji chastised the Gaochang Uyghurs, he crossed the great desert from the north and drove straight to the walls of Tingzhou City, settling the matter in a single battle.

At this time, the Gaochang Uyghurs were not the only ones practicing a dual-capital system; the Khitan had adopted an even more complex five-capital system.

This was, in fact, all part of a process by which the steppe hunting and fishing peoples north of the Central Plains were beginning to shift toward a half-nomadic, half-agricultural way of life.

This situation was even more pronounced among the Gaochang Uyghurs.

The Khitan only shifted to a half-nomadic, half-agricultural pattern after they gained the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, but Gaochang had done so even earlier than the Khitan.

For after the seizure of Kucha, the vast tracts of military farmland that the Han and Tang dynasties had opened in Kucha, Yanqi, Xizhou, Yinzhou, and elsewhere all fell to the Gaochang Uyghurs, giving them the conditions for agriculture.

Likewise, the successive khagans of the Gaochang Uyghurs made Tingzhou their summer capital for the same reason as the Khitan.

Through this large-scale migration of the royal camp, along with various competitions in mounted archery and hunting, they sought to maintain the fighting strength of the core tribes and prevent them from growing soft and corrupt.

Moreover, unlike the Khitan's five-capital system and their four-season nabo system of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, which placed enormous financial pressure on the Liao state,

since Tingzhou and Gaochang were not far apart, and there was still plenty of grain-producing military farmland nearby, it can be said that the Gaochang Uyghurs' dual-capital system was very successful.

Not only did this policy do little harm to the Gaochang Uyghurs' finances, it also successfully kept them at a certain level of fighting strength.

Historically, from the seventh year of Xiantong of the Great Tang — 866 AD — when Pugu Jun established himself, they held on until the eleventh year of Jiading of the Southern Song (1218), after the fall of the Western Liao, and then endured for more than a decade beyond that.

Their state lasted roughly four hundred years, making it the most enduring country in all the chaotic era of Hexi and Anxi.

After Zhe Deyuan's grand wedding, Zhang Zhao began summoning his ministers to discuss an attack on the Gaochang Uyghurs.

For although Xieli Pijia had not said he would not renounce the title of Heavenly King, neither had he agreed; he had played a stalling game with me, Great King Zhang.

Hey! I just won't tell you what I'm going to do. I'll shut my eyes and give no answer. You call me, I pretend not to hear. You ask me, I don't reply. Let's see what you can do about it. Just messing with you!

Zhang Zhao naturally could not let the Gaochang Uyghurs drag things out with him like this, so while he sent Guo Tiance to stockpile supplies at Dunhuang, he also began selecting the army for the expedition.

Because this campaign would be the Liang state's first thousand-li long-range raid — the straight-line distance from Liangzhou to Gaochang alone was two thousand eight hundred li — Zhang Zhao was still very cautious.

To that end, he specially transferred Ma Shacai, who was already garrisoned at Qingzhou and controlling the newly submitted Qiang and Tangut tribes of the four prefectures of Hui, Qing, Wei, and Yan.

At the same time, he granted Yan Jin full authority, appointing him Pacification Commissioner of the four prefectures of Qin, Wei, Qing, and Hui, with unified command over the military forces stationed in those four prefectures near Guanzhong, to guard against any sudden moves by the Later Jin or the Later Shu.

In cavalry, Zhang Zhao drew five hundred elite riders of the Hanshan Guard, three thousand men of the Left and Right Yulin Guard, five thousand elite cavalry of the nine garrisons, and fifteen thousand sworn-follower elite riders of the various peoples of the four prefectures of Liang, Lan, Shan, and He.

In addition, the newly submitted Zhe, Yang, and Lingzhou Tangut Tuoba Yanchao each contributed five hundred elite riders.

Among these were four hundred fully armored cavalry, one thousand five hundred heavy cavalry, twelve thousand light cavalry, and the remaining more than ten thousand were all unarmored or wore only the barest leather armor as horse archers.

The infantry side was far smaller, because the Gaochang Uyghurs also fought primarily with cavalry.

So Zhang Zhao simply drew only two battalions of infantry garrisoned along the Ganzhou–Suzhou line, commanded respectively by Man Xiong and Wang Tongxin.

Dunzhu brought the five hundred skirmisher troops he had trained for Zhang Zhao.

These skirmishers were equipped with rattan shields inlaid with steel plates and carried waist sabers suited to chopping and slashing.

These were made by Zhang Zhao after the pattern of later-era goose-quill sabers; compared to the hengdao saber they were much shorter, but lighter in weight and better suited to close-quarters hand-to-hand combat.

However, the deadliest weapon of these skirmishers was the fine-steel throwing spears strapped to their backs.

This was Dunzhu's specialty. When facing the enemy, unless they wore two layers of cloth-faced iron armor, a throwing spear hurled by an elite javelin thrower had terrifying killing power.

Apart from these two thousand five hundred men, the remaining infantry were the one thousand heavy-armored long-spearmen that Feng Hui, after arriving in Liangzhou, had helped Zhang Zhao build using his own three hundred-odd men as the core.

These heavy-armored troops, trained by Feng Hui in the old drill methods of the Silver Spear Xiaojie Guard, used bows and crossbows at range, white-shafted silver spears up close, and axes and hammers in grappling range; their fighting strength was also fearsome.

Moreover, the organizational model of the Silver Spear Xiaojie Guard was, in fact, the result of the old recruitment system going astray.

From "fight for you if you pay me," it became "beat you if you don't pay me."

But although the path had gone astray, in Zhang Zhao's conception, whether it was continuing to expand west of the river, or recovering the Jinghai Army, or crushing Wang's Goryeo and conquering the Japanese archipelago,

the mercenary model of the recruitment system was actually more effective than the fubing system.

The greatest driving force for outward colonization, in terms of state will alone, is weak in staying power; the main thing is that there must be profit to be made.

Only with profit is there the greatest driving force for colonial expansion. Feng Hui and his Silver Spear Xiaojie Guard were Zhang Zhao's small experiment with the recruitment system.

With the number of troops to be drawn decided, it was time to turn to the line of march.

The march scholars of the Qionglin Academy quickly produced a finished sand-table map of the Gaochang state.

This was something the Hexi Sogdian Merchant Guild had poured all its efforts into making over the past several years; not even Xieli Pijia of the Gaochang Uyghurs possessed so detailed a map.

The sand table, that complicated contraption, was of course also something Zhang Zhao had devised single-handedly.

But unlike later sand tables, which strive for precision in latitude and longitude, contour lines, elevation, and the like, at this time there were no such terms or technical methods.

Zhang Zhao's sand table could only be considered a very crude, primitive version, whose greatest use was marking out the mountains, rivers, and valleys.

But that was enough. For current cold-weapon warfare, the information one needed to know was exactly this.

With the sand table set up and the maps hung, the march scholars of the Qionglin Academy began introducing them one by one to the officers in the room.

After listening, Bai Congxin was the first to voice an opinion.

As a former member of the Kucha royal clan, the Bai family of Kucha and the original Kucha people had scattered, but Bai Congxin's longing for his homeland and his desire to restore the Bai family's former glory grew day by day.

With such a desire, Bai Congxin had naturally studied the situation of Anxi from every angle; one could guess that the destruction of the Gaochang Uyghurs had played out countless times in his mind.

"Great King, please look. In the fourth year of Tongguang of the former Tang, the Khitan ruler Yelu Abaoji, in order to chastise the Gaochang Uyghurs, sent thirty thousand iron cavalry across a thousand li of yellow sand, and from here advanced directly to the walls of Futu City."

Bai Congxin first marked out the route by which the Khitan had launched their military strike against the Gaochang Uyghurs in 926.

That is, they came out of the Great Black Mountains, passed through the passage between the North Pagoda Mountains and the Bogda Mountains, and appeared directly outside Tingzhou City.

Bai Congxin continued, "The reason the Khitan succeeded back then was that before this, the Khitan already had tribes pasturing north of here.

That gave the Khitan sufficient guides and logistical support, which was why they could strike successfully from ten thousand li away.

But we do not have those advantages. This route must cross a thousand li of yellow sand, and advancing rashly would be extremely dangerous."

And they couldn't carry much baggage or supplies either — they could only launch a raid. If it didn't succeed, they'd have to turn back, with no capital to get bogged down in a fight."

Zhang Zhao nodded. He had studied this route too, and it was exactly as Bai Congxin said. The reason the Khitan had succeeded back then was chiefly that they had plenty of guides and logistical support in that region.

Moreover, the Khitan's objective was not the same as Zhang Zhao's.

The Khitan wanted to teach the Gaochang Uyghurs a lesson, extort a huge haul of wealth and goods, and at the same time bring the Kyrgyz people to the west and north back under their rule.

But Zhang Zhao was different — he was going to annihilate the Gaochang Uyghurs.

If he rashly advanced with light cavalry, failed to break through Tingzhou's walls, or was unable to deal a fatal blow to the Gaochang Uyghurs, then there would be trouble. The wasted supplies alone would be an astronomical figure.

"Bai Sanlang, stop keeping us in suspense. You must have a solution — out with it."

They were all old brothers. The moment Bai Congxin started showing off, Fan Shun, Huang Yingda, and the others immediately began egging him on.

Zhang Zhao also smiled and nodded, signaling Bai Congxin to continue.

Only then did Bai Congxin return to the sand table. He drew a line with his finger south of the Khitan advance route.

"This is north of Yinzhou. In former years, the Great Dynasty established Pulei County here.

The trade route was cut off before, and this road was abandoned because it was too desolate. Now that the Heavenly King has reopened the trade routes, a fair number of merchants have gradually begun passing through.

Although this road also requires crossing several stretches of sandy ground, because it is not far from Guazhou and Shazhou, we can move troops at our leisure, and we can also conscript merchants as guides. It is far better than rashly taking the Khitan's old route!"

Zhang Zhao leaned in for a closer look. The road Bai Congxin described was in fact also one wedged between two mountain ranges, situated a little north of Yinzhou.

But the more Zhang Zhao looked, the more familiar it seemed. Suddenly he spotted a marker on the sand table indicating a small lake.

Bai Congxin saw that Zhang Zhao had also noticed the little lake, and continued.

"This lake is called Pulei Lake. It is only a little over four hundred li from Tingzhou. We can also stop here to replenish water — extremely convenient."

Pulei Lake? Zhang Zhao understood why this route felt so familiar.

Damn it all — wasn't this the G7 expressway route from Ejina Banner into Xinjiang in the Republic era?

Barring surprises, this Pulei Lake should be the later Barkol Lake. And Zhang Zhao remembered this road, because he had once driven it himself before transmigrating.

However, this road was not easy to travel either. Even after reaching Yiwu and Barkol, the environment remained harsh.

When passing between the Barkol Mountains and the Moqin Ula Mountains, the surroundings were nothing but desert or gobi. In later times, with an expressway, it was still fairly convenient — but at this point in time, that was hard to say.

"This road also passes through a great deal of barren gravel. Can it accommodate an army of tens of thousands?

If we still cannot carry much in the way of supplies, it seems to offer little advantage over the route the Khitan took."

Bai Congxin had not expected Zhang Zhao to have some familiarity with this road. He cupped his hands.

"The Heavenly King's sagely brilliance illuminates all. This road indeed cannot pass tens of thousands of troops at once — otherwise water resupply along the way would be a major problem.

But fortunately, with Pulei Lake there, we can pass through in batches.

I beg the Heavenly King to permit me to lead my own troops and a portion of the Left and Right Yulin Guard ahead. Afterward, the remaining troops can be divided into units of five thousand, passing through four times in total.

Forty li northwest of Tingzhou, at the edge of the the the Shatuo Desert, there is a spring called the Salt Spring. Its water is salty and bitter, but still drinkable.

Beside the spring there is a small town — the site of the former Great Dynasty's Salt Spring Garrison in Tingzhou.

Once I have occupied this place, I will set up defenses and cut off the Gaochang Uyghurs' scouts.

When the Heavenly King leads the main army to assemble, we will strike Tingzhou with the force of a thunderbolt, and the great enterprise will be accomplished."

The the the Shatuo Desert was part of the Gurbantünggüt Desert, and the homeland of the Central Plains' the the Shatuo people was here.

Zhang Zhao glanced at Bai Congxin and saw that this fierce cavalry general of his was filled with longing — longing to fire the first shot in the annihilation of the Gaochang Uyghurs himself.

"The plan is workable. We will pass through in batches and assemble at Salt Spring Garrison! Congxin, once you go down, make your preparations — you will be the vanguard."

In an instant, Zhang Zhao made his decision. He could not chill Bai Congxin's heart at a time like this.

Still, in his heart he felt he should assign Bai Congxin a deputy.

Zhang Zhao feared nothing else — only that Bai Congxin was too impulsive and would rashly attack and ruin things.

It was just... Zhang Zhao was somewhat undecided about the choice of person.

Because Murong Xinzhang had not yet returned from the Eastern Capital, and it was highly unlikely he could make it back before they set out.

Li Cunhui was still in mourning, and it was hard to say whether he could catch the first wave as vanguard.

Ma Shacai had once been Bai Congxin's subordinate. If Bai Congxin went wild, Ma Shacai probably would not be able to stop him.

Huang Yingda was even less suitable. Although he had once been Bai Congxin's equal in reputation, after Huang Yingda chose the wrong path, the gap in status between him and Bai Congxin was now far too great.

Li Xiaojie was a suitable candidate, but he had joined the Brocade Guard emissaries. If he were sent, it would be much like an army supervisor — plainly a sign of distrust, and also inappropriate.

Reckoning it all up, perhaps Qiong Reduojin was the only somewhat suitable one. But this man was better at charging into battle; leading troops was not his strength. If trouble arose, he might well be talked around by Bai Congxin.

A headache!

However, compared to the headache of the northern cavalry force, the south was much easier to handle.

The total force there was only forty-five hundred men — thirty-five hundred mounted infantry and one thousand light cavalry.

Zhang Zhao planned to appoint Feng Hui directly as overall commander. This man was a veteran who had been on the battlefield since the era of Li Cunxu, and commanding a little over four thousand men was no problem for him at all.

It would also demonstrate Zhang Zhao's extreme trust in him, placing even trusted confidants like Manxiong, Dunzhu, and Wang Tongxin under his command.

While they were still discussing, Li Xiaojie suddenly ran in, then whispered a few words in Zhang Zhao's ear. Zhang Zhao immediately took a jade pendant from his waist and handed it to Bai Congxin.

"Congxin, you will preside over this military conference. All the marching scholars, keep proper records."

The assembled men exchanged glances, not knowing what had happened. They had listened for only a short while when suddenly Zhang Zhao's furious roar rang out.

"They don't know what's good for them — then kill them all! Leave not one alive!"

Suzhou, beneath Duden Mountain. The moonlight was cold and dim. A caravan of more than a hundred people had been slaughtered to the last.

Apart from a few leaders kept alive for interrogation, not a single survivor had been left.

Even some armored warriors were still going through the dead one by one, verifying their identities.

And the reason for Zhang Zhao's fury was precisely this caravan.

On the surface, they were a large caravan traveling from the Land of the Seven Rivers to trade in Chang'an — all sorts of people among them: the the Shatuo, Karluks, even Persians.

But in truth, they were a secret envoy mission sent by the Gaochang Uyghurs' Heavenly King, Xieli Pijia, to the Central Plains and the Khitan.

They had originally planned to pass Suzhou (Jiuquan) and then head north to Juyan Lake, after which they would take roundabout routes to the Khitan and the Jin state respectively.

It was not that the Liang state forbade Gaochang Uyghur caravans from passing through, but the fact that they were being so secretive meant they were naturally going to seek reinforcements.

"White sable pelts, two thousand six hundred thirty-two; black sable pelts, two hundred fifty; blue sable pelts, five hundred three; white cotton cloth, one thousand three hundred bolts.

Brass, brass vases, jade, jade bridles, jade belts, jade yue axes, fifty of each; amber, nine jin.

Ivory, twenty tusks; kingfisher jade, sixty pieces; true pearls, one hundred; picrorhiza, aromatic medicines, frankincense, one hundred jin of each."

The more Qiong Re Duojin read, the angrier he grew, and he gave a cold laugh.

"This Xieli Pijia has really spent a fortune! This must be worth thirty thousand strings of cash, no? And he is even willing to declare himself a vassal, with tribute of no less than twenty thousand strings.

This Xianyun dog-slave has grown fat off the trade routes the Heavenly King opened, yet not only does he fail to pay his respects to the Heavenly King, he has the shameless gall to style himself Heavenly King. Once we break Gaochang city, he must be cut into ten thousand pieces."

The Hanshan Capital Guards around them, who had been tasked with killing this envoy party disguised as a caravan but in fact made up of Gaochang Uyghur envoys, were likewise furious, and one after another cursed the corpses on the ground.

Their state of mind was precisely the prevailing state of mind throughout the Liang state.

They felt that Zhang Zhao had with great difficulty opened the trade routes, and the Gaochang Uyghurs had done nothing at all, yet had directly taken half the benefits.

Not only did they fail to hurry over with protection money, acknowledge themselves as vassals, and pay homage year after year, they even dared shut their gates and call themselves Heavenly King — the very model of having no sense of proportion.

In fact, even the point of Zhang Zhao's anger lay here as well: these Xieli Pijia were simply too ignorant of what was good for them!

On the surface they seemed to be burying their heads in the sand, while behind the scenes they went everywhere looking for helpers.

Had it not been for Chen Tingxiao of the Chen family sending word through Wu Yuan'er, Zhang Zhao would not even have known that this envoy party disguised as a caravan was about to pass through Suzhou.

Zhang Zhao had struck down the Gaochang Uyghur envoy party at Suzhou, and the Khitan envoy party fared little better in the Later Jin.

After Qiao Ying arrived in Luoyang, Shi Chonggui talked around the subject, and when pressed, simply flicked his sleeves and left.

Near the post station where the Khitan envoys stayed, soldiers frequently brandished blades and shouted abuse, and everyone in the mission, whether Han or Khitan, was terrified.

Qiao Ying had no choice but to wait outside Daning Palace day after day.

Shi Chonggui, who was anxious to confer the title of empress upon Lady Feng, had no choice but to summon him again. And when Qiao Ying was granted an audience, Jing Yanguang stood directly in front of Shi Chonggui.

Jing Yanguang looked at Qiao Ying with an air of supreme arrogance. Ever since his talk with Murong Xinzhang, he had gained a measure of confidence.

As long as the Liang state did not move on Guanzhong and only dealt with the Khitan Liao state alone, he was confident.

Jing Yanguang privately believed that with the three powers now standing side by side, if the Khitan took the Central Plains, the second thing they would do would inevitably be to attack the Liang state from both north and south.

Therefore the Liang state would never dare aid the Khitan; on the contrary, it needed to fear the Khitan taking the Central Plains.

Moreover, he felt that one thing Murong Xinzhang had said was exactly right: he, Jing Yanguang, could only maintain his power by holding high the banner of resisting the Khitan.

If he truly made peace with the Khitan, then as Murong Xinzhang had said, where would there be any footing left for him, Jing Yanguang?

So when faced with Qiao Ying's threat of war between the two states, Jing Yanguang glared with knitted brows and bellowed.

"Jin has one hundred thousand cross-ground great swords. If you, old man, want war, then come. One day, should you fail to restrain your grandson, the whole world will laugh."

My Great Jin has one hundred thousand cross-ground great swords. Yelu Deguang, you are the grandfather; if you insist on coming to fight, and should you fail to defeat your grandson, then all under heaven will mock you.

The Khitan envoy Qiao Ying knew full well that a great war between the two states was now unavoidable, and that his mission had failed.

However, he had come with another mission as well: to find out who was egging on Shi Chonggui. At last he had gotten his answer.

But Qiao Ying was still a crafty old fox. Hearing Jing Yanguang speak thus, he deliberately assumed a very humble posture, as if he feared a rupture between Liao and Jin.

"If you, sir, say such things, I fear my sovereign will not believe it. Please have it written on paper, that I may report it to the Emperor!" Qiao Ying was asking Jing Yanguang for evidence of his crime!

But Jing Yanguang had gotten carried away and did not in the least realize the importance of this thing.

Without waiting for Shi Chonggui to give the order, he had the clerks in the hall write these words down on paper and let Qiao Ying carry them back to the Khitan.

Qiao Ying took the letter, did not delay, immediately left the palace, mounted his horse, and galloped off toward Khitan territory.

At the same time, Liu Zhiyuan of Hedong Circuit was also watching all of this.

Unlike everyone else in history who scrambled to throw in their lot with the Khitan, Liu Zhiyuan at this moment felt as if the imperial throne was beckoning to him.

He knew Yelu Deguang's ambitions well. Even without a conflict, the Khitan would have manufactured friction in order to move south.

Now that Shi Chonggui and Jing Yanguang had handed the Khitan such a pretext, war was about to break out.

But just as Liu Zhiyuan was about to find Guo Wei to discuss matters, he remembered that Guo Wei was not by his side.

For Guo Wei's first wife, who was also his benefactor, Lady Chai, was gravely ill, and Guo Wei now stayed by her side at every moment.

Lady Chai had not expected her words to prove prophetic. Ever since she had sent word asking Guo Rong to return, she had truly fallen ill and never risen again.

But at this point, Lady Chai instead revealed a side of herself that was extremely far-sighted and decisive.

Forcing herself to hold up her sick body, she took Guo Wei's hand and asked, "Has Rong returned yet?"

Guo Wei thought she wanted Guo Rong to hurry back, so he clasped Lady Chai's hand and nodded.

"I will immediately send more officers and servants to wait at every crossroads. The moment they see Rong, they will tell him to hurry back."

But Lady Chai firmly shook her head. "I am about to die. I must not delay Rong's future.

He is in the Liang state, favored by the Heavenly King. His prospects there are boundless. If he returns to Hedong, he will never have such an opportunity again.

Please, brother, send word that I am fine and have already returned to Xingzhou to visit my family, and tell him to go back to the Liang state."

Guo Wei hastily agreed and prepared to send someone to intercept Guo Rong and prevent him from returning.

Unfortunately, the messenger had not even left Jinyang city before he ran into Guo Rong, who had already returned.

Lady Chai looked at Guo Rong, his face covered with the dust of days of hard travel, and the guilt on her face was beyond words.

"Rong, my health is fine. Hurry back to Hexi!"

Guo Rong firmly shook his head. "Mother is gravely ill. How can I leave now? Fame, fortune, and rank are all ordained by heaven. How can they compare to serving at Mother's knee?"

Lady Chai also shed great tears. "If I die, you will have to observe mourning. The Liang state is ten thousand li from here. It is I who have harmed you!"

With that, she embraced Guo Rong's head and wept aloud, until Guo Wei too was overcome with sorrow.

Guo Wei knew even more clearly that it was not only that Guo Rong would likely have to observe mourning upon his return; it was also because both Zhang Zhao and Liu Zhiyuan had ambitions to enter the Central Plains and contend for the throne.

The two were rivals.

He, Guo Wei, was now Liu Zhiyuan's trusted confidant, and it was absolutely impossible for him to let Guo Rong go to Hexi and Liangzhou to serve Zhang Zhao again.

So this stroke of fortune that Guo Rong obtained outside the city of Xiazhou was very likely about to be lost.

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