Chapter 453: The Sons Are All Young — First Raise a Mu Ying of Our Own

Thanks to the help of Yili Pijia, Zhang Zhao's vow to exterminate the descendants of Pugu Jun was very close to being fulfilled.

For before Zhang Zhao attacked the Gaochang Uyghurs, Yili Pijia — as the victor in the four-son struggle for succession — had, upon taking power, already disposed of his two elder brothers, one younger brother, and more than twenty nephews and nieces.

To be precise, the only descendants of Pugu Jun now remaining were Yili Pijia and his son.

Someone like Pugu Cheng was merely the descendant of a nephew of Pugu Jun, while the Protector-General of Tingzhou, Pugu Luo, simply happened to bear the surname Pugu.

One must understand that the surname Pugu was actually a tribal name of the Nine Clans of the Tiele; only after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate did it become the royal surname of the Uyghurs. Among the Uyghur people, those surnamed Pugu were beyond counting.

Still, it was not entirely without problems. Yili Pijia had three daughters and one son. Of the three daughters, the eldest was only six, and the other two were both four.

That part was easier to handle, for since ancient times, the confiscation of a household and extermination of a clan had certainly never meant killing the women.

To say nothing of anything else, the status of a Gaochang princess alone was a scarce resource.

But the one remaining son of Yili Pijia was a real problem. If he were not killed, Zhang Zhao had declared that he would slaughter every descendant of Pugu Jun to avenge his hatred.

Yet this son of Yili Pijia was barely over a year old. To actually bring oneself to do it would be going too far.

In the end, however, it was resolved. Li Wang, Li Qilang, came to see Zhang Zhao. Because he was incapable of fathering children, he begged Zhang Zhao to grant him this child, so that the boy would henceforth take his surname Li and become a descendant of Li Yuanzhong, Prince of Ningsai Commandery.

Zhang Zhao agreed on the spot. This was, after all, a rather good solution.

At the same time, with the help of Yuniang's father and two brothers, more than forty households of Uyghur nobles in Gaochang city had their property confiscated.

More than half of the Uyghur nobility were purged, and over a thousand men and women were arrested and put in chains.

Zhang Zhao did not involve himself in these matters, instead leaving them to Guo Tiance and Li Xiaojie. Zhang Zhao's bottom line was that no less than two hundred thousand strings of cash in goods and money be confiscated, so that he would have ample silver and coin to reward the three armies.

Of course, this two hundred thousand strings did not include the property of Yili Pijia and the entire Pugu royal clan.

Of the great quantities of gold, silver, and valuables confiscated from these households, Zhang Zhao set aside a portion for the inner treasury, while the rest went partly to offset the costs of this campaign and partly to richly reward meritorious officers and men.

After five days of rest and reorganization, Zhang Zhao left Guo Tiance and Feng Hui with three thousand troops to hold Gaochang city, and personally led the main army of thirty thousand onward to the west.

Among these, the prisoner army serving as cannon fodder — the Zhuanglinglang — had swelled to over four thousand men: more than a thousand Karluks and close to three thousand Uyghurs.

The reason for continuing west was that after the fall of Gaochang, the entire Gaochang Uyghur realm had not yet fully submitted.

Within the whole Gaochang kingdom of three prefectures and two princely domains, the base territory of the Gaochang Khagan's Pugu clan consisted only of Xizhou, where Gaochang itself lay, and Tingzhou, where Beiting lay.

The remaining Yizhou and the two princely domains of Yanqi and Kucha were not under Yili Pijia's direct rule.

Therefore Zhang Zhao, like the Gaochang Uyghur Khagans of old, needed to obtain the submission of these places.

Only Zhang Zhao's methods were likely to be somewhat more brutal.

At the end of the first month, Zhang Zhao's thirty thousand troops marched day and night, covering the nearly eight hundred li from Gaochang to Yanqi in under eight days. This gave Zhang Zhao yet another clear sense of just how vast Anxi was.

A Gaochang Uyghur realm with a population of only a little over four hundred thousand nevertheless involved distances of eight or nine hundred li at every turn.

And that was not all. The westernmost territory of the Gaochang Uyghurs lay at Moman, that is, Aksu. From Yanqi to Moman was another eleven hundred-plus li.

If one went from Yizhou, the farthest point in the east, to Moman (Aksu), the farthest point in the west, it was a full two thousand seven hundred li.

For a place like this, given the current environment and strength, one could only arrange for military-governor rule of the sort seen with Mu Ying in the early Ming.

Bringing it under centrally appointed civil officials was something even the Qing dynasty could not accomplish; at most the central government could dispatch garrisons and resident ministers.

But the problem was, Zhang Zhao did not have the hundreds of thousands or even millions of "slaves" that the Manchu Qing emperors could use as trusted confidants!

The Protector-General of Yanqi, charged with defending Yanqi, was surnamed Mi — just hearing the name, one could basically tell he was a Sogdian.

And so it was in fact. The Mi family ancestor, Mi Huaiyu, was precisely a Sogdian from the state of Mi who had become Uyghurized, and what was rare was that he had been one of Pugu Jun's own followers.

That is to say, Mi Huaiyu was not a Guiyi Army officer whom Zhang Yichao had assigned to Pugu Jun, but had originally been under Pugu Jun's command.

In those days, Mi Huaiyu had also been dispatched by Pugu Jun as an envoy to the Tang court. The plan to seize Yizhou and Beiting, abandon the Guiyi Army, and submit to the Tang court had been carried out by Mi Huaiyu.

By the time Zhang Zhao arrived outside the city of Yanqi, people who had fled Gaochang city had long since brought word, and the defeated troops from Zetian Temple had reached Yanqi.

In other words, they had received the news long ago. Yet now the four gates of Yanqi city were still tightly shut, and armored soldiers stood solemnly on the walls — which said a great deal.

Acting on the principle of "if you're willing to die, I'm willing to bury you," Zhang Zhao could not be bothered to call for surrender. With so many Zhuanglinglang at hand, it would be a waste not to use them.

Zhang Zhao then sent the Zhuanglinglang in as the first wave to scale the walls, while secretly, under their cover, he used armored assault wagons to deliver the Fenjin Unit to the base of the city gate.

On the seventh day of fighting, the Fenjin Unit carried out three successive blasts, blowing an enormous breach in the north gate of Yanqi. Man Xiong and other officers led heavily armored troops charging in, and Yanqi city was quickly taken.

And on the third day after Zhang Zhao captured Yanqi, a Khotanese envoy arrived from the west.

Kucha city, besieged for more than four months by Li Shengtian's thirty thousand infantry and cavalry, had finally reached its limit.

After receiving word that Gaochang city had fallen and that Yili Pijia had been defeated and captured, the Kucha garrison inside the city erupted in internal strife.

The Protector-General of Kucha, Huaishun, who had insisted on resisting the Khotanese army, was killed by mutinous troops, and the various tribes within the city then opened the gates and surrendered to Li Shengtian.

Kucha, a great western stronghold within the Gaochang realm and a city of major economic and strategic significance, had finally been recovered.

Of course, the greater significance was that with the fall of Kucha city, among the four garrison towns of Anxi from the days of the Great Tang, Khotan had been recovered by the Yuchi clan, Shule had been recovered by Zhang Zhao under Li Shengtian's orders, and Yanqi city had just fallen into Zhang Zhao's hands.

With this recovery of Kucha, it meant that Li Shengtian and Zhang Zhao, uncle and nephew, had at last accomplished the grand goal of recovering the four garrison towns of Anxi from the days of the Great Tang.

The envoy sent by Li Shengtian was Li Congyu, the second son of Li Shengtian and Cao Yuanxing.

This second cousin of Zhang Zhao's looked somewhat atavistic, a typical Scythian in appearance, unlike his elder brother Li Congde, who had the look of a Han Chinese.

But his Chinese was fluent, and his smile was especially radiant — he was very likable.

"After the Son of Heaven took Kucha, he has not entered the city, but has remained camped outside. He has specially sent your younger brother to invite his cousin the Heavenly King to enter Kucha city together."

Zhang Zhao could not help but be deeply moved. Li Shengtian had actually been waiting for him to enter the city — what breadth of spirit!

Of course, this was also Li Shengtian testing the relationship between the two of them.

After all, as things now stood, the Khotan Golden Kingdom and the Liang Kingdom were still two separate states, yet the entanglements between the two were far too deep, and a point acceptable to both sides still needed to be found.

Zhang Zhao rose from his seat and took Li Congyu by the hand. "My uncle's great kindness to me, his nephew, is something I shall never forget as long as I live!"

So saying, Zhang Zhao smiled and gestured around him, asking Li Congyu, "What does Congyu think of this city of Yanqi?"

"Rich waters and lush pastures, fields crisscrossing in every direction, cattle and sheep blocking the roads — truly one of the four garrison towns of Anxi of old!"

Li Congyu's eyes sparkled brightly, and he was rather excited, clearly understanding something of the meaning behind Li Shengtian sending him to deliver the message.

"As long as my cousin is satisfied!" Zhang Zhao laughed heartily and clapped his hands. Three flower-like young women walked in from outside, all of them sixteen or seventeen years of age, radiantly beautiful even without a trace of makeup.

"These three lovely ladies, cousin — you may choose any one of them. They are all treasured daughters of the great clans of Yanqi!"

The moment Zhang Zhao finished speaking, Li Congyu's face flushed bright red.

This was excitement — a young man not yet sixteen, experiencing this thrill for the first time.

Still, he truly was worthy of being the son born to a woman as cunning and sharp as Cao Yuanxing, someone who could be called a female statesman.

Zhang Zhao could feel the blood surging to the top of Li Congyu's head, yet he still managed to keep a certain degree of clear-headedness.

"May I ask, elder brother — of these three, which one bears the surname An?"

"Hahaha!" Zhang Zhao laughed up at the sky and clapped Li Congyu on the shoulder.

"Congyu, my boy, you are truly a thousand-li colt of our house! One day, when you govern this place with care, ten years from now, you and I, brothers, will stand side by side facing west. When that time comes, you may well have to guard this fine land for your elder brother!"

The reason Zhang Zhao was so delighted was that Li Congyu's question showed real discernment — he had not let beauty cloud his eyes.

For among the great clans of Yanqi at this time, there were two surnames: Mi and An.

The Mi clan's ancestor, Mi Huaiyu, had been one of the chief culprits in splitting the Guiyi Army back then, and now he opposed Zhang Zhao as well — he was destined to be severely punished.

The An clan's ancestor, An Ning, had in former years been an ally of Zhang Zhao's great-grandfather, Zhang Yichao.

An Ning was the controller of Xizhou at the time — that is, present-day Gaochang — styling himself with that odd, neither-here-nor-there title of Governor of Xizhou.

At that time, Pang Tegin — the ancestor of Bughra Khan Satuq — had migrated west to Anxi, and An Ning was Zhang Yichao's most important ally in striking against Pang Tegin.

Only, before the blow against Pang Tegin could be struck, Zhang Yichao was summoned to Chang'an.

An Ning thus lost his backing and was finally forced to submit to Pugu Jun.

And Pugu Jun, who had originally held only Tingzhou and Yinzhou, was thereby able to enter Xizhou. His self-proclaimed title of "Military Governor of Yin and Xi" — used to deceive Guo Dalang — came about only after that.

Therefore, striking down the descendants of Mi Huaiyu and supporting the descendants of An Ning was, for Zhang Zhao, political correctness.

Only, Li Congyu still did not quite understand what Zhang Zhao meant by "guard this fine land for your elder brother." He thought Zhang Zhao wanted him to hold Yanqi.

But Zhang Zhao did not see it that way at all. Anxi would sooner or later be brought under the direct administration of the Central Plains court.

Someone like Li Congyu was the Mu Ying-type figure Zhang Zhao wanted to cultivate. His final destination would be either the Land of the Seven Rivers or the shores of the Caspian Sea.

After all, Zhang Zhao's eldest son, Zhang Xiancun (Li Zhun), was not yet ten years old.

Waiting for his sons to grow old enough to hold a region on their own would take too long. Someone like Li Congyu was just right as a transitional figure.

"These three are all daughters of the An clan — no Mi women here. Go pick the one you like best!"

Zhang Zhao continued with a hearty laugh. What a joke — of course he would not place Mi Huaiyu's offspring here.

"Summon Ma Shacai here. After I give him some instructions, the army will strike camp at once and march on Kucha!"

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