Chapter 432: Li Shengtian's Worries

In the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, the city of Shule — ever since Zhang Zhao captured Shule, it had gradually become the capital of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan.

After all, compared to Khotan City, tucked away in the southwest, Shule linked all directions and, being especially close to Ningyuan, was far better suited to serve as the capital of a kingdom.

Li Shengtian stood solemnly with his hands clasped behind his back atop the walls of the Shengde Palace in Shule.

The Golden Kingdom of Khotan could now be called the foremost power in the Western Regions.

After receiving the Great Zhongyun people whom Zhang Zhao had relocated, along with the Kucha Uyghurs and the Long family of Suzhou, the Golden Kingdom of Khotan had come to possess a population of over five million, and its territory far surpassed anything it had held before.

The entire southern frontier of Anxi — Suyab, Ningyuan (the Fergana Valley), Anyuan (eastern Afghanistan), and Zhenyuan (northern Pakistan) — was all territory of the Great Golden Kingdom.

Economically, there was even less need to say anything: Khotan was the transit hub from India to Hexi.

Especially in recent years, after the strategy of teaching the Indians and Tibetans to drink tea had met with tremendous success.

Milk tea brewed with cheese, white sugar, raisins, and all manner of dried fruits had swept through all of India and Persia, and it was said that even the Arabs and Romans west of Persia had already begun to take it up.

For the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, which could produce a little tea of its own and knew how to process tea bricks, the speed at which money came in sometimes even frightened Li Shengtian.

Yet Li Shengtian was not without worries. First of all, of the six governorates of the Golden Kingdom of Khotan, only three and a half were truly under his control.

That is to say, only the three territories of Khotan, Shule, and Ningyuan were firmly in Li Shengtian's hands.

Although more than a thousand Khotanese warriors were still garrisoned at Suyab, the distance was so great that messages could not be exchanged with Shule in a timely manner, and the officials stationed there were easily bribed or coerced by the Guo family of Suyab.

The fact that the Guo family had sent men to Shule to pay homage at ever-longer intervals in recent years was clear proof of this.

Unless Li Shengtian dispatched a large army or blockaded the trade routes to Suyab — only after resorting to such drastic measures would the Guo family of Suyab bow their heads because they could no longer endure it. So Suyab could only count as half.

As for the other two places, Zhenyuan and Anyuan, they had in practice already become highly independent vassal states. Were it not for the trade routes connecting them, they would likely have slipped out of control long ago.

Of the five million people, those Li Shengtian could directly control numbered only a little over one million.

All things considered, the most precious treasure Zhang Zhao had left to Li Shengtian was this trade route, restored to new vitality and carrying perhaps thirty or forty percent of its former bustle, and next was the Ningyuan Governorate.

The former provided the Golden Kingdom of Khotan with ample economic vitality and a weapon for influencing all quarters; the latter was in effect a great granary for Ningyuan.

In these years, Khotan and Shule had twice suffered snowstorms and droughts, and both times they had pulled through on grain from Ningyuan.

"My lord, Hamid of Samanid Persia has refused our request to purchase the city of Shiguo. It is time to teach these Persians a lesson!"

Li Shengtian had long since heard the footsteps behind him, but he had not turned around. With his back to Li Congde, he let out a long sigh.

"In the old days, it was not we, father and son, who broke Bukhara, carried off a dozen or more of the Samanid king's queens and princesses, and set Hamid upon the emir's throne. So although Hamid is already in such dire straits, he still refuses to yield."

Li Shengtian said this calmly. As a monarch with some ambition, after Zhang Zhao's departure he had still wished to accomplish something further.

But apart from giving Saktu a severe beating once, his other military operations against Persia had not gone so smoothly.

Recently, Li Guoshou over at Talas had been steadily intensifying his raids on Samanid Persia.

In two years he had besieged Shiguo City three times — the place that had once been the seat of the Great Tang's Dayuan Protectorate, and which later ages would call Tashkent.

Li Shengtian thought to himself: since Hamid was already in such difficulty, why not sell him Shiguo City? That way he would be spared the constant raids by the Talas men every few days.

To his surprise, Hamid had considered the matter at length, and in the end still refused.

"If we allow Hamid to refuse us without punishment, who will take our Great Golden Kingdom seriously in the future?

My lord, this time we must dispatch a great army, take Kangju (Samarkand) from Samanid Persia, and show them what we are made of."

Li Congde was still speaking indignantly, looking far angrier than Li Shengtian. But Li Shengtian shook his head.

"Set the Persian matter aside for now. The envoy from the Kingdom of Liang has already reached Khotan, and will likely arrive in Shule before long.

We should first deal with the Pugu family of the Gaochang Uyghurs and capture that scourge Saktu, then consider other matters."

Li Congde's eyes lit up. "Cousin has sent someone? Excellent! The Gaochang Uyghurs holding Kucha has always been a thorn in our side. We should indeed deal with them."

Li Shengtian waved a hand, motioning for Li Congde to sit down with him, then looked at Li Congde very seriously.

"Five years ago, you could call Zhang Erlang 'cousin.' But today, you should call him the Heavenly King of Great Liang, or Heavenly King."

Li Congde looked somewhat embarrassed. At that moment Cao Yuanxing came in with palace maids carrying pastries, melons, fruits, and grape wine.

She personally picked up a piece of lotus cake and handed it to Li Congde. "Come, try the pastry your mother made."

After Li Congde took the lotus cake, Cao Yuanxing gave him a look of mild exasperation.

"You! I don't know where you get this temper of yours. You're nothing like me — you actually take after your father somewhat.

Zhang Erlang may be your cousin, but he now commands fifty thousand cavalry, holds the three military governorships of Hexi, Longyou, and Shuofang in the Great Dynasty, and is marching east to contend for the realm. He is a man who may well become the Son of Heaven of the Central Plains. Is it really such an insult to call him Heavenly King?"

Having said this, Cao Yuanxing poured Li Shengtian a large cup of grape wine.

"Congde has always been reliable in his duties. He knows his limits. What harm is there in calling him 'cousin' in private?

Even if Zhang Erlang truly becomes the Son of Heaven of the Central Plains, I will still be his aunt!"

Li Congde had been feeling a little uncomfortable, but after Cao Yuanxing said this, he felt much better.

He set down the lotus cake after one bite and said softly, "Mother is right to scold me. I should indeed call him Heavenly King."

Li Shengtian sighed lightly and said slowly, "In truth, it does not matter how we address him in private. What I fear is that Congde cannot keep his own position straight!

There have always been those in the royal clan who believe that Zhang Erlang owes his present achievements entirely to the wholehearted support of our Li family.

But they do not know that I, Li Erlang, and Zhang Erlang actually achieved things together, each enabling the other.

Without Zhang Erlang, we might still be locked in a standoff with Saktu. Where would our present vast territory come from? How could we have built such a magnificent Shengde Palace?

Congde, you must remember: this great Golden Kingdom of Khotan was won for us with Zhang Erlang's help.

He also opened the trade routes. From the Fengsheng Treasury alone, we receive three hundred thousand strings of silver cash every year.

Zhang Erlang owes you and me nothing. Rather, it is we who owe him."

At this, Cao Yuanxing seemed to recall something. Her eyes suddenly sharpened, and she stared hard at Li Congde.

"Have you been listening to what Li Jifu and those others have been saying?"

Li Congde was just about to answer when Cao Yuanxing abruptly stood up and ordered the inner officials around her, "Summon the Crown Prince's Tutor to the palace at once!"

Before long, the Crown Prince's Tutor, who had been waiting just outside the palace, was summoned in. Cao Yuanxing looked at this Crown Prince's Tutor, who came from a distant branch of the Li royal clan, and asked:

"The Crown Prince has recently been associating with the Marquis of Bianzhou, Li Jifu, and others. Why was this not reported to the Son of Heaven?"

"I am a servant of the Crown Prince, not a servant of the inner court!" No one had expected this Crown Prince's Attendant to have such backbone.

But he was pushing Li Congde right off a cliff!

What sovereign of a realm could endure such words?

Even Cao Yuanxing, who had been wearing a cold sneer, was somewhat stunned.

"Wretched thing! So it was you people poisoning the Crown Prince's mind."

Sure enough, at these words Li Shengtian flew into a rage. He snatched up a plate of pastries and hurled it straight at the man's face, leaving that muddle-headed Attendant with a bleeding, broken scalp.

"Summon the Yellow Gate General!"

Li Shengtian, it seemed, was preparing to have the Yellow Gate General, who commanded the palace guard, take troops and arrest people.

But Cao Yuanxing stopped Li Shengtian, because such a matter should not be blown out of proportion — especially now, when they were about to join with the State of Liang to destroy the Gaochang Uyghurs.

"Calm yourself, Erlang. Li Jifu and his sort have been deluding the masses with their wicked talk for more than a day or two. There is no urgency this very moment."

As she spoke, Cao Yuanxing seemed almost furious at his failure to live up to expectations. She glared at Li Congde and rebuked him sharply.

"Do you think Li Jifu and the others are standing up for you, for the Great Jin Kingdom?

Fool! They only want to swallow up Zhang Erlang's hundreds of thousands of mu of fine farmland in Ningyuan, and they covet the profits of the trade routes and want to raise taxes on the Hexi merchants."

Li Congde was bewildered. He still had not figured out why his parents were so furious.

Although Li Congde was a few months older than Zhang Zhao, and his aptitude was not bad,

because he had spent so long studying the Dharma in Dunhuang, and after his return Li Shengtian had been somewhat absorbed in his own pleasures, thinking his son was grown, he had neglected discipline.

Thus Li Congde still could not grasp the complex inner workings of the matter.

Just as Cao Yuanxing was berating Li Congde, Li Shengtian had already calmed down somewhat.

He too felt that he had indeed been far too indulgent toward certain members of the Khotan royal house.

"Liuniang, I intend to issue an edict stripping Li Jifu and the others of their surname and confining them to Yuechang City."

Cao Yuanxing knew why Li Shengtian was telling her this: originally Li Shengtian had wanted to deal with Li Jifu and the others, but Cao Yuanxing had persuaded him to hold off. Now, however, it was clear they could not be left alone.

Yuechang City was near Qiemo, surrounded on all sides by the vast desert, with poor communications to the outside world.

Moreover, confinement to Yuechang City in the Khotan Golden Kingdom did not mean confinement inside Yuechang City itself, but confinement to a small oasis some thirty-odd li northwest of the city.

It was a little oasis of only forty or fifty mu in area, with rolling yellow sand on every side. Apart from Yuechang City, the nearest oasis was several hundred li away.

It was simply a natural cage, and the conditions were harsh. Being confined there was much the same as being banished to Shamen Island in our Great Song.

And stripping one's surname was the heaviest punishment the Khotan Golden Kingdom could inflict on the royal house.

For they had originally borne the surname Yuchi; Li was a surname bestowed by the Tang dynasty. Over the past hundred years, the royal clan's use of the surname Li had become tradition.

If a member of the royal house was stripped of the surname Li and allowed only the surname Yuchi, it was equivalent to canceling their royal status and expelling them from the clan.

Only at this point did this Attendant from a distant branch of the royal house realize that things had taken a bad turn. He began kowtowing ceaselessly and pleading loudly for mercy.

But it was too late. When Li Shengtian and Cao Yuanxing, that husband and wife, set themselves against someone, their hearts were hard indeed.

"Summon the Yellow Gate Attendant Ma Rong. Have him take this nephew of mine as an envoy to the State of Liang! He departs tomorrow morning. Lock him up today, and let no one see him."

Heh! If this Attendant reached the State of Liang, he would probably have no choice but to make a trip to Great King Zhang's Jingtie Mountain mines.

"The Crown Prince, from this moment, is confined to the Shengde Palace to reflect on his own faults. How can a ruler be led astray by those beneath him? Go and reflect properly!"

Li Shengtian, his anger still not spent, placed Li Congde under confinement as well.

Only after all this was done did the couple sit down. They exchanged bitter smiles, and Cao Yuanxing shook her head.

"Dege'er is still too immature. That is my fault as his mother. I should not have sent him to Dunhuang to study Buddhism; he should have stayed by Erlang's side."

Li Shengtian shook his head. "It is my fault. I neglected his upbringing!

Zhang Erlang has grand talent and bold vision, and for now he still remembers the kindness the two of us showed him. But what of the future?

If Congde remains so muddle-headed, there will be serious trouble."

Cao Yuanxing nodded. "These next few days I will have a proper talk with Congde. The boy's aptitude is not poor, and deep down he genuinely admires Zhang Erlang.

But because Zhang Erlang succeeded too quickly and too brilliantly, everything looked so easy that Congde got the idea: if Zhang Erlang can do it, so can I."

As she spoke, Cao Yuanxing said with a trace of bitterness, "How about... Erlang, why don't you keep Congyu at your side for a while? You could teach him in your spare moments."

Li Shengtian looked at Cao Yuanxing in surprise. Li Congyu was his and Cao Yuanxing's second son, fifteen years old this year.

Cao Yuanxing's proposal that Li Shengtian keep Li Congyu at his side was, in truth, a proposal to make Li Congyu a "spare."

"No rush. To suddenly bring Congyu to my side would be too severe a punishment for Congde. He has committed no great fault.

And as long as I am here, the Khotan Golden Kingdom will remain stable.

Even in the worst case, if Zhang Erlang truly enters the Central Plains and none of my sons prove worthy, then when I am old I can simply present the household registers and maps, and like the Prince of Wudu Commandery, go to Chang'an and live out my days as a carefree wandering immortal."

At these words, a faint trace of bitterness rose to the corner of Cao Yuanxing's mouth. No one could bear to give up such a foundation, but the Khotan Golden Kingdom, and she and Li Shengtian, were too deeply entangled with Zhang Zhao.

Moreover, whenever a great dynasty in the Central Plains flourished, it never failed to reassert control over the Western Regions — and Zhang Zhao also held a weak claim as Deputy King of Khotan, and had married Li Ruoliu, a descendant of the Yuchi Sheng branch.

If conflict truly broke out, it was something neither Li Shengtian nor Cao Yuanxing could accept. It would be no different from watching their own children slaughter one another.

"This splendid realm — if it truly comes to that, a single commandery princedom from Zhang Erlang would not be enough. At the very least it must be one single-character princedom plus two commandery princedoms."

Indeed, Cao Yuanxing had borne Li Shengtian four sons in all. The youngest had just been adopted as heir to the deceased son of Li Shengtian's elder sister, the Empress Dowager Fengtian of the State of Liang — that is, adopted as the son of Zhang Zhao's elder brother, Zhang Geng.

That child's future was surely boundless, for he was both Li Shengtian's offspring and, in ritual terms, of the direct line of the Longshe Zhang clan of Shazhou — Zhang Zhao's own nephew.

Cao Yuanxing suddenly thought that this child would probably become the one Zhang Zhao left behind to hold the Western Regions after the Li royal clan moved inland.

Then the remaining three children — one single-character prince and two commandery princes — would be perfectly apportioned.

In the seventh year of Tianfu of the Later Jin, the eighth month of the year 942, the autumn harvest in Liangzhou was essentially complete, and the warhorses were fat and strong.

The campaign to destroy the Gaochang Uyghurs, nearly a year in preparation, was finally about to be put on the agenda.

Zhang Zhao's long-standing worry that there was no one to serve as Bai Congxin's deputy commander also came to an end.

Murong Xinzhang had not gone to contact the Tuyuhun Bai Chengfu tribe in Daibei, but had instead returned from the Eastern Capital to Liangzhou.

And he had brought with him three men: Zhao Kuangyin, Murong Yanzhao, and Wang Shenqi.

All three of these are famous figures! Zhao Kuangyin goes without saying, Wang Shenqi was also a great general of the early Northern Song, and Murong Yanzhao was already a rare renowned commander in the Later Zhou period.

Moreover, Wang Shenqi and Murong Yanzhao seem to have been two of the Ten Brothers of the Sworn Society.

Zhang Zhao deliberately gave Zhao Kuangyin a careful once-over. He had to admit, my Song Taizu was clearly no ordinary man at first glance.

Though only fifteen, he was broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, tall and powerfully built — clearly a fierce warrior who had tempered his body since childhood.

His features were even more striking: sword-slanted brows, star-bright eyes, a square face and large ears. Such a face looks mature in youth, dignified and imposing in middle age — what later generations would call having the look of an official.

Wang Shenqi was two years older than Zhao Kuangyi, already seventeen this year, with ancestral roots in Liaoxi. Long-armed and long-legged, he looked every bit a dashing cavalry commander skilled in mounted archery.

Murong Yanzhao was much older than the other two. Born in the third year of Qianhua of the Later Liang — that is, 913 — he was only one year younger than Zhang Zhao.

He came from a distinguished family; his father was Murong Zhang, Prefect of Kaizhou. From his youth he had been renowned for his valor and competence.

But his official career had never gone well. Historically, he only began to rise after attaching himself to Guo Wei, who had started far later than him.

Now, with Murong Xinzhang's recommendation, Murong Yanzhao had come to Hexi several years early. It seemed his life was about to change dramatically.

Even when civil officials like Fan Zhi and Liu Na came to Hexi, Zhang Zhao would reward them three times a day.

With fierce men of the era like Zhao Kuangyin, Wang Shenqi, and Murong Yanzhao arriving, Zhang Zhao naturally would not stint on wealth and goods.

He received the three directly in the Yongxun Palace. Murong Yanzhao had just married and had brought his new bride with him.

Zhang Zhao immediately appointed Murong Yanzhao as Commander of the Left Yulin Guard Battalion, and additionally selected eight hundred brave men from among the sworn follower cavalry who had distinguished themselves in the previous Battle of White Salt Lake, placing them under Murong Yanzhao's command.

He also bestowed on him a large residence not far from the Yongxun Palace, along with five hundred strings of cash.

As for Zhao Kuangyin and Wang Shenqi, both were still young, so Zhang Zhao kept them directly at his side.

Especially Zhao the Elder — I, Great King Zhang, intend to observe him carefully.

"The Inspector-General becomes Son of Heaven" is no joking matter.

And just as Zhang Zhao was deploying his forces, according to their agreement, Li Shengtian first mustered thirty thousand infantry and cavalry of the Khotan Golden Kingdom and began besieging Kucha.

When Jieli Pijia of the Gaochang Uyghurs learned of this, he ordered the Kucha garrison commander to hold fast while mobilizing ten thousand cavalry to advance near Luntai City, confronting the Khotan army.

As the victor who had emerged from the succession struggle among the four sons of Khagan Wumu, Jieli Pijia was no easy mark.

He keenly sensed that this Khotan attack on Kucha was very likely not an isolated action, but something coordinated with the State of Liang.

So he sent only ten thousand cavalry to Kucha, with the aim of preventing the Kucha garrison from surrendering too easily — not to break the siege.

The elite forces within Gaochang were still on guard against a surprise attack by the Liang army.

At the same time, Saketu, having received the urgent letter from the Gaochang Uyghurs, began summoning the Karluk tribes by the shores of Lake Sailimu in the Land of Seven Rivers, preparing to send troops in support of the Gaochang Uyghurs.

At the end of the eighth month, Lady Cao Sanniang — whose delivery had Zhang Zhao terrified — finally gave birth without incident.

Murong Xinzhang held this little sister, twenty-three years his junior, so overcome with emotion he did not know what to do with his hands and feet. It stirred even more complicated feelings in him than the birth of his own son, Hutou.

From this moment, with this little sister, Murong Xinzhang had in the truest sense become Zhang Zhao's family. Between him and Zhang Zhao, there was at last a bond of blood.

And even before Lady Cao Sanniang's delivery, Cao Shijiu, pregnant for the second time, had borne Zhang Zhao his third son — and his eldest son by the principal wife.

The vast State of Liang finally had a true heir. Zhang Zhao's mother, Lady Song, named him Yuge'er.

In early ninth month, Zhang Zhao, finally at ease, held a ceremonial oath-taking in Dunhuang and set out on campaign. The army split into northern and southern routes.

The northern route was the main force, totaling twenty-five thousand cavalry.

The northern army had Bai Congxin as vanguard and Murong Xinzhang as deputy commander. The two led four thousand elite cavalry, recruited several dozen Hexi merchants as guides, and opened the way for the main army.

The remaining twenty-one thousand men crossed in three waves via Pulei Lake. Qiongre Duojin and Huang Yingda led five thousand in the first wave; Zhang Zhao personally led the main force of nine thousand in the second; Ma Shacai led seven thousand as the rear army.

The southern army, composed mainly of mounted infantry, was led by Feng Hui, with Wu Yuan'er as march administrator — forty-five hundred men in all.

They would enter Yinzhou after Chen Tingxiao forced his father Chen Huiyao to rebel against the Gaochang Uyghurs.

Then, using the Chen family's several hundred armored soldiers and over a thousand clan troops as guides, they would march out of Yinzhou straight for Gaochang City, diverting Jieli Pijia's attention.

The northern army would assemble at Xianquan Town, wait for the southern army to draw off the main Gaochang Uyghur force, then strike suddenly and take Futu City.

Then they would detour southeast, advancing on Gaochang via the Baishuijian Road — what later generations call the Dabancheng district east of Urumqi.

The aim was to annihilate the main Gaochang Uyghur force outside Gaochang City, preventing them from fleeing deep into the desert.

This plan sounded very smooth — a simple pincer attack from north and south.

But in this era, with no wireless communications, once the northern and southern armies separated, they would lose contact.

Both sides could only do what had been agreed at the agreed time and reach the agreed positions. If either side missed its deadline, it would cause enormous disruption.

So Zhang Zhao had in fact prepared for the possibility that the southern army might not succeed in drawing off the main Gaochang Uyghur force.

Therefore, the cavalry he had drawn were the finest in the State of Liang, apart from Yan Jin's command.

The great battle was about to erupt!

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