Chapter 438

Murong Xinzhang was somewhat lost. To be precise, perhaps it should not be called getting lost — rather, he had lost track of his target, Genaluo.

In the Karluk camp, though there were only about ten thousand people, there were a great many livestock — not just horses, but also large numbers of cattle, sheep, and camels.

Part of these were their army provisions, and part were plunder taken from the Gaochang Uyghurs — in all, more than forty thousand head.

For the Karluks, who had never had much discipline and rarely made plans, so many men and beasts living together was nothing out of the ordinary.

But for Murong Xinzhang and Bai Congxin, it was nothing short of a disaster.

Human and animal dung lay everywhere, panicked livestock ran wild across the ground, the stench rose to the heavens, and wails and howls shook the sky.

After Murong Xinzhang smashed Genaluo's four thousand men, he immediately plunged into this horrifying scene.

He could only order his soldiers to keep setting fires and drive the panicked Karluks out, but he could not seize the key figure.

"Mother-fucking thieves! If this were our Great Liang, every last ass from top to bottom would be beaten to pulp!"

It was simply too foul and too unplanned — even Yue Saonu, who had never cared much for hygiene, could not help grumbling.

In the Liang army, going to the latrine on the march or in camp was governed by strict regulations.

On the march, anyone needing the latrine had to go in a group of three, and in every three hundred men, no more than three could be at the latrine at the same time.

Moreover, from the moment a man left for the latrine, an officer would produce a one-cup-of-tea sandglass — that is, a sandglass of about five minutes.

If the sandglass ran out and the man had not yet returned to ranks, he would likewise be stripped of one rank of office; those with no rank were all demoted to zhuanglang — that is, cannon fodder.

When encamped, the spacing, size, orientation, and number of latrines were all strictly regulated.

Latrines for men and animals, and for the sick and the healthy, all had to be kept separate.

After the great army broke camp, there were men specially assigned to deal with it: if there were residents nearby, the human and horse dung was sold to the local inhabitants; if there were none, it was buried separately.

The chief reason for doing this was, first, to keep the enemy from learning information about the army through its excrement — such as numbers, state of health, and even the army's rations.

Second, it improved sanitation: if dung was not handled properly, it could very easily breed bacteria and disease.

There was also consideration for the environment. In this age, human and animal dung was a precious production resource, but if too much accumulated in one place, it could also cause a certain environmental disaster.

Finally, selling the great army's dung, apart from recovering a little of the cost, was also a benevolent measure: it could quickly close the distance between soldiers and civilians, and could, in the shortest time, build up Zhang Zhao's image as one who cared for the people.

And this was not something Zhang Zhao had newly invented — since ancient times, true royal armies had all done this.

You may shout "the Great King is benevolent" ten thousand times, but only the upper and middle strata of landlords, officials, and gentry will know it.

But if you sell human and animal dung at three coppers when it is worth no less than two, the news will spread through the whole common folk at once — after all, what commoners care about most is anything connected with the crops.

Therefore, if dung were to appear everywhere in the Liang great army's encampment, indeed every ass from top to bottom would be beaten to pulp.

"General, this slave knows where Genaluo is. I only beg the General to spare my little sister's life!"

Just as Murong Xinzhang was searching everywhere in vain, a small, delicate figure rushed out from the main tent of the central army — and she spoke in Han speech.

Murong Xinzhang raised his eyes to look. She was a rather thin and small Uyghur woman, and behind her was a little girl wearing an ugly man's lan robe, her figure impossible to make out, her hair even more disheveled and her face grimy.

"Who are you? How do you know Han speech? Do you know where Genaluo has fled?"

Murong Xinzhang asked with interest. This woman must be fairly good-looking, or she would not have chosen to smear cow dung on her face — clearly to dampen certain people's "interest."

But it seemed she still did not understand crude men in the army: a bit of cow dung was nothing; one wipe with a robe and it was clean. It was utterly useless.

"This slave was carried off by Genaluo. My father was the Protector-General of Tingzhou in the state of Gaochang, and from childhood I learned the Tang tongue.

Genaluo is the greediest of men. Nearby there is a tent where he hides his treasures. Even if he fled, he would surely be unable to abandon them."

Very well organized. Murong Xinzhang nodded, then bent down, stretched out an ape-like arm, and scooped the woman up. Not minding that her face was covered in cow dung, he set her before him, and even drew a silk cloth from his breast and wiped her face.

"Lead the way ahead. If we seize this Karluk prince, I will record a great merit for you before the Heavenly King."

As he spoke, Wu Guo'er behind him did the same, grabbing the little girl who had deliberately made herself disheveled and grimy and tossing her onto the horse like catching a chick.

Amid the two women's cries of alarm, they went off to catch Genaluo.

At the same time, on the passage deliberately left open for the Karluks to flee west, at least six or seven thousand panicked Karluk cavalry were frantically fleeing westward through this passage.

But at this moment, the main force of nine thousand men led by Zhang Zhao had also arrived.

With superior numbers on one side, and the other side fleeing for their lives, the battle was utterly without suspense — strictly speaking, it could not even be called a battle.

These fleeing Karluk cavalry were like African zebras crossing a river, paying no heed at all to the Liang army's blocking forces on either side, which were like crocodiles — so long as they themselves were not the ones blocked and killed, that was enough.

They left behind great numbers of corpses, and with blood and flesh, they forcibly carved out a road.

On the walls of Tingzhou, Saktu had in fact long since discovered that the army outside the city had been attacked.

But he did not stand there at a loss like the others; instead he very quickly judged who had come.

It was simple: the only ones who could organize a surprise attack on this scale were the Khotan Golden Kingdom and the Hexi Liang Kingdom.

According to the report of the Gaochang Uyghur Khagan Iltebir, the Khotan army of more than thirty thousand was besieging Kucha and could not possibly spare troops to bypass Gaochang and come to Tingzhou.

Then there was only one possibility: these troops were the Liang army, who, like the Khitan of former years, had suddenly crossed the floating sands and appeared here.

Saktu now had two choices. The first was to immediately leave the city and use the two thousand elite cavalry in his hands to intercept the Liang army.

Then he could gather the scattered remnants and wait for the ten thousand near Shenxian Town and the five thousand cavalry a little farther off to arrive, and fight a decisive battle with Zhang Zhao.

But the trusted senior ministers at his side — especially the Karakhanid generals who had followed Saktu all the way from Shule to the Land of the Seven Rivers — all knew that Saktu had not made this choice, because if he truly meant to rescue them, it was already a little too late.

Then the second choice was to immediately charge toward Shenxian Town with these two thousand cavalry, abandon the thirteen thousand men here, and bring back the remaining fifteen thousand.

The officers beside him were about to urge Saktu to decide quickly, when they heard Saktu let out a long sigh.

The generals followed Saktu's gaze, and in the distance, between heaven and earth, a Three Stars banner was fluttering in the wind.

The deeply unwilling Saktu made his decision. Although he had been unwilling before, the moment he saw this Three Stars banner, all his unwillingness was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his head and thoroughly extinguished it.

Saktu recalled that dim yellow afternoon, when he had come down from Suyab full of confidence, commanding twenty thousand elite cavalry to besiege a few thousand men, attacking continuously for four days without pause, yet unable to break them.

Until that dim yellow afternoon, when he was instead shattered by the two hundred armored cavalry the other side had kept hidden all along.

"Go! We head for Shenxian Town. Nasr, you lead five hundred men as the rear guard. After we break out, I will wait for you for two days at Zhangbao Shouzhuo City west of Luntai."

Sure enough, Saktu was still that same Saktu, always able to make the most correct and also the most bitter decision in adversity.

Zhang Zhao had in fact been watching Tingzhou the whole time, but separated by the Baiyang River — shallow, yet wide and full of silt — it was truly inconvenient for him to ford the river and go beneath the walls of Tingzhou at this moment.

So he could only grasp the big and let go of the small, doing his utmost to inflict heavy damage on the thirteen thousand Qarluq cavalry outside the city.

However, when he saw from afar the gates of Tingzhou flung open and several thousand cavalry fleeing southwest, he still could not quite hold himself back.

Because Zhang Zhao judged purely by instinct that Sartuq must be among those several thousand cavalry.

To people of this time, Sartuq was merely a defeated general under Zhang Zhao, beaten time and again.

And he had already been driven to the relatively bitter and cold land of the Seven Rivers; it was absolutely impossible for him to have the strength to contend with Zhang Zhao.

But as a soul from a later age, Zhang Zhao knew deeply what kind of role Sartuq had played across the entire Western Regions.

Although he and his descendants, for a very long time afterward, always regarded themselves as Chinese.

He had also successfully exported to Persia, Arabia, and Europe the concept that the Kara-Khanid Khanate was the Lower Tabgach, the Khitan the Middle Tabgach, and the Song dynasty the Upper Tabgach.

And he had recorded it in ancient texts, leaving behind irrefutable legal and historical grounds for the Western Regions belonging to Chinese territory.

Yet this still could not conceal the profound disasters that Sartuq and his descendants brought upon the lands of the Western Regions after they introduced Islam.

Especially in his later years, when Sartuq converted two hundred thousand households to Islam, and the subsequent religious wars that lasted over a hundred years, plunging the people of the Western Regions into terror and calamity.

So carrying this strange historical understanding, Zhang Zhao was unwilling to let Sartuq escape from beneath the walls of Tingzhou.

Even if he could not keep him here now, he could not let him withdraw easily.

So he personally mustered six hundred elite cavalry, took with him Li Cunhui, Zhao Kuangyin, Wang Shenqi, Zhe Deyuan, and other fierce warriors, chose a narrower stretch of the river, and set off in pursuit.

And seeing Zhang Zhao personally lead troops across the river, Bai Congxin, who had by now basically finished clearing out the northern camp of the Qarluqs, immediately followed as well.

But Bai Congxin misunderstood Zhang Zhao's intent. Zhang Zhao wanted to pursue the fleeing Sartuq, while he thought Zhang Zhao feared the Qarluqs would destroy Tingzhou.

So Bai Congxin hurriedly led more than a thousand cavalry straight toward Tingzhou.

At the same time, Murong Xinzhang in the main camp, guided by the Uyghur woman and amid the stinking chaos, had actually managed to block Ge Naluo, who was trying to flee.

This time, Murong Xinzhang had truly caught a big fish!

Besides Ge Naluo himself, there were also several dozen Qarluq nobles and generals around him, along with the gold, silver, and treasures they had plundered, all caught squarely by Murong Xinzhang.

After crossing the Baiyang River, Zhang Zhao did not enter the city but went straight after Sartuq. However, he soon encountered the five hundred elite cavalry under Nasr, who had been left to cover the rear.

Compared with the Qarluqs outside the city, who had little armor, the two thousand elite cavalry around Sartuq were rather well equipped.

They had at least four to five hundred sets of iron armor, and the rest wore well-made leather armor. Their warhorses were also quite fine Yili horses, that is, the later Kazakh horses.

This kind of horse was very fast and good at mountain travel. Combined with the armor on their bodies, this was why Sartuq could say he would wait for Nasr at Zhangbao Shouzhuo City.

He was confident these five hundred elite cavalry could complete the interception and still get away.

Zhang Zhao looked at the several hundred cavalry across from him with slight reluctance. With their obstruction, Sartuq had already fled far and probably could not be caught now.

But that was fine too. The Qarluqs were not a great and wealthy house like the Khitan.

When the Khitans lost a few hundred Pishi troops by the Hun River, Yelu Deguang merely winced in pain.

But if Sartuq lost these few hundred elite cavalry, it would probably hurt more than losing those several thousand men outside the city!

"Heavenly King! Please let this young officer slay the general and seize the banner for you!"

Wang Shenqi directly spurred his horse out. Zhao Kuangyin's family circumstances were still quite good at this time, and being young, he was still a bit reserved.

But Wang Shenqi was not reserved at all. He saw how eager Zhe Deyuan was, and he too wanted to win great merit and then become a sworn brother with his elder brother Murong Xinzhang.

"Good! Let me see the valor of the young men of Liaoxi!"

Zhang Zhao prepared to go himself. He was determined to keep these several hundred cavalry here.

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