Chapter 491: Heaven's Mandate, With a New Twist

Chang'an — the city that so many Han folk of the Guiyi Army yearned for in their dreams.

Today, at last, it opened its embrace to all the people west of Guanzhong.

The Liang army entering the city was led by the Guiyi Army Military Governor's banners of office and the yamen gate banners, and only behind them came the Great King of Liang's great standard and the great banner bearing the character Zhang, both made by Zhang Zhao himself.

And these yamen gate banners of the Guiyi Army were themselves quite particular.

The set at the front was one made privately in the late years of Zhang Huaishen, while the set behind belonged to Cao Yijin's Guiyi Army Military Governor's yamen gate banners.

There was a touch of black humor in this: the reason they had to make their own yamen gate banners was that in the entire history of the Guiyi Army, only Zhang Yichao, Cao Yijin, and Cao Yuanzhong had ever been invested by a Central Plains dynasty as Military Governor of the Guiyi Army and granted the governor's banners of office and yamen gate banners.

All the rest had held only lower posts — Acting Military Governor of the Guiyi Army, or even Prefect of Shazhou, Defense Commissioner of Guazhou, and the like.

But in this age, on this day, no one would know how destitute the Guiyi Army had been in its history.

All they knew was that under Zhang Zhao's leadership, the Great Liang state built chiefly around the Guiyi Army had grown ever stronger, and had even begun to show clear signs of moving to take the Central Plains.

Gazing at Chang'an now visible in the distance, Zhang Zhao's father-in-law Cao Yuanzhong, who had just arrived from Yanzhou, spoke with deep emotion.

"From this day forward, no one can call us 'barbarian bandits' ever again."

"Barbarian bandits" — that phrase had practically become a sore that festered throughout the Liang state.

It was the most conspicuous side effect of Zhang Zhao's forcible reclassification of the Wenmo, Tuyuhun, and Tangut peoples of Liang, Lan, He, Shan, and the other prefectures as descendants of the Tang armies of Hexi and Longyou, treating them as Han.

But, as Cao Yuanzhong said, now that the Liang army had entered Chang'an, no one could call them barbarian bandits anymore.

Yin Yaozi, who had likewise just hurried back from Tong Pass, nodded in agreement.

"Since ancient times, with Liangzhou tucked away in the northwest, there has been almost no one who could accomplish great things from there.

The reason, in the end, is that the mixing of Hu and Han caused the Han there to take on the temperament of the Hu, so the people of Guanzhong and even the Central Plains disliked them and regarded the region as a savage frontier.

This made it hard for garrisons sent by the court to win the recognition of the local people.

And the commanders who rose up locally were mostly brutal and overbearing, with no power to rally men.

Only with the Heavenly King, accomplished in both letters and arms, firm yet yielding, has the realm's popular support at last been won."

As the two men spoke, the army's vanguard had already reached the Mingde Gate, the southern gate of Chang'an.

The reason they did not enter by the eastern Tonghua Gate was that the southern gate was the starting point of Vermilion Bird Avenue.

Although Chang'an had not yet recovered its former splendor, many residents had already settled along both sides of the old Vermilion Bird Avenue because of the easy access.

Zhang Zhao had the army enter by this gate, pass down the entire length of Vermilion Bird Avenue, and then reach the family shrine outside the Vermilion Bird Gate of the imperial city, where sacrifices were offered to the twenty-one emperors of the Tang.

It was all to let every resident of Chang'an feel the might of the Liang state's great army.

Before Zhang Zhao entered the city, rumors had continued to spread through Chang'an, of which there were two main ones.

The first was that the Khitan ruler Yelu Deguang had proclaimed himself Emperor in the Central Plains and had dispatched his Khitan generals to the various regions as Military Governors to hold them.

But the Khitan army had no pay and did not forbid plunder, so once they reached their posts they carried out large-scale "grass-beating" raids, and of the people of the Central Plains, not one in ten survived.

Aside from the "not one in ten" being a bit exaggerated, the rest of it does no injustice to my Bro Guang — that is exactly what he did.

It is just that Bro Guang's good little brother, the Heavenly King Zhang, made public in advance the atrocities he had not yet begun to commit.

The second rumor was that elders and guild leaders who had gone to present petitions had returned saying that the Heavenly King Zhang's appearance was extremely similar to that of Emperor Taizong the Civil Emperor in the family shrine.

Of course, soon someone objected, saying no, the Heavenly King Zhang's appearance was similar to that of the Pure Source Wondrous Way Erlang Manifest True Lord.

In fact, both were true, because no one knew that the portrait of Tang Taizong Li Shimin in the family shrine and the statues of the True Lord Erlang enshrined in Buddhist temples and Daoist abbeys had all been continuously adjusted.

At first they bore about three or four parts resemblance to Zhang Zhao; then a new set of portraits brought it to about five parts; and finally, by now, they had essentially reached seven parts resemblance.

With seven parts resemblance, given the characteristics of Chinese painting, it was practically no different from being identical.

Ordinary people could never imagine that Zhang Zhao could do such a thing; they would only think that it was all Heaven's will.

All that "Great Chu rises, Chen Sheng is king" and "slicing the white serpent" stuff — far too low-class.

My Heavenly King Zhang even dares to alter Li Shimin's face, and he dares to pass himself off as a Buddhist and Daoist deity.

This meticulous logic combined with utter shamelessness — truly worthy of a master poser forged in the later ages by the likes of the Crooked-Mouth Dragon King, the Return of the God of War, and the Divine-Level Live-In Son-in-Law.

Outside the Mingde Gate, the soldiers of the Jinchang Army stood in ranks on both sides. They wore no armor, all were dressed in black, and they carried no long weapons in their hands, with only hengdao sabers and the like at their waists.

The Jinchang Army had originally had a troop quota of thirteen thousand men, of whom the elite yabing guards numbered some six thousand, making it the largest military province in Guanzhong.

But after the great war between Jin and Liao began, the Jinchang Army had drawn off more than seven thousand men, whom An Shenqi led to Henan.

In addition, after An Yanwei took office, he had cut a portion due to shortages of money and grain, so the entire Jinchang Army now numbered only a little over four thousand.

And of those four thousand, some still had to be garrisoned at Xianyang, Qian County, Wugong, Lantian, and other places, so the twenty-five hundred left in Chang'an had almost all turned out.

This was inevitable; after all, the Jinchang Army was the only organized armed force left in Chang'an. If they did not all come out, Zhang Zhao would not dare enter the city.

Of course, seeing the Jinchang Army and An Shoujie being so sensible, Zhang Zhao was also extremely satisfied.

They were very sensible! Sensible people are always rewarded, so Zhang Zhao beckoned with his hand, signaling An Shoujie to come before him.

"I would ask the Acting Military Governor to select three hundred brave men to enter the city together with my Great Liang iron cavalry!"

When An Shoujie heard this, he was overjoyed. Zhang Zhao had addressed him as Acting Military Governor, which meant that after entering the city, a post no lower than Acting Military Governor was surely waiting for him.

Selecting three hundred men to enter the city together meant that the Heavenly King Zhang already regarded the Jinchang Army as his own.

The road was paved with yellow earth and incense was burned to guide the way. The residents of Chang'an crowded both sides of Vermilion Bird Avenue in a sea of people.

In their hands they held winnowing baskets full of food or clay pots full of water, and the moment the army entered the Mingde Gate, cheers rose from all sides.

"Baskets of food and pots of drink to welcome the king's army" — this much An Shoujie, Li Shouling, and the others could still arrange properly. They had even arranged the spectacle of venerable elders weeping and kowtowing at the gate.

Zhang Zhao wore a reddish-yellow robe and rode a snow-white fold-eared horse in the very center of the procession.

Before him were the silver-saber officers in golden armor who led the way, and around him were the civil and military ministers of Liang. Apart from his maternal uncle Song Shantong and Fan Quan, who had stayed behind to hold the rear, nearly everyone had come.

Behind Zhang Zhao, the first to appear was the infantry square formation — infantry in red, white, and blue cloth-faced armor, with the Mountain-Shaking Unit at their head.

As one of the very few units still maintaining the modao glaive glaive glaive fighting method, Zhang Zhao's personal guard, the Mountain-Shaking Unit, carried modao glaive glaive glaives, with barbarian heads hanging from their waists and long-tipped bows on their backs that were extremely conspicuous.

Behind the Mountain-Shaking Unit came the elite infantry selected from the various garrisons, also wearing cloth-faced iron armor.

In the Liang state now, apart from a small portion of the army, those wearing cloth-faced iron armor were all the most elite units.

In another five to eight years, iron lamellar armor would probably be limited to small-scale equipment.

After the infantry came the cavalry, and the first to appear were the eight hundred fully armored cavalry of the State of Liang.

These armored riders all wore lamellar armor, and their warhorses' barding was also primarily lamellar.

This was because, after constant testing in actual combat, Zhang Zhao had found there was no need to reduce weight for the fully armored cavalry.

For the fully armored cavalry, the weight of their armor was a burden, but it was also highly advantageous for charging into enemy formations.

More importantly, in the Liang army, the fully armored cavalry often appeared as the decisive force.

They were only committed at the critical moment of finally routing the enemy. Since they would not charge many times anyway, they simply did not reduce weight.

The traditional tactic of fully armored cavalry pressing close to infantry squares and using equipment to crush and collapse the infantry by sheer force had already been completely abandoned.

By this time, that Northern and Southern Dynasties style of fully armored cavalry warfare had already become relatively outdated.

As for the function of fully armored cavalry serving as the main force in cavalry battles, or even dismounting to fight as heavy infantry, that had now been replaced by the semi-armored heavy cavalry called the Brave Cavalry.

These Brave Cavalrymen appeared before everyone's eyes right after the fully armored cavalry.

They wore red, white, and blue cloth-faced iron armor, double-layered helmets with a buffered suspended design, and carried lengthened lances. At their horses' sides hung weapons suited for close combat, such as sabers, iron maces, and beak hammers.

Behind the Brave Cavalry came the main Liang cavalry force, numbering over ten thousand, whom Zhang Zhao had named the Hussars.

The Hussars mostly wore composite leather armor. When they needed to don armor for assaulting strongpoints, they would also choose to wear ring-linked armor or chainmail over it.

But their primary role was reconnaissance, screening, and covering the main army on the march.

In battle, they served as a mobile force, tangling with enemy cavalry, or charging infantry squares with few crossbows, and pursuing and killing the enemy after a rout.

The Hussars were equipped in large numbers with horn crossbows, which had somewhat reduced draw weight but were lighter and simpler to use.

In battle, they first used horn crossbows to break the enemy's spirit, then used cavalry bows to throw the enemy into confusion and divide them, and after that used long sabers in close combat to increase casualties.

Their method and style of fighting resembled, to a certain degree, Napoleon's French hussars in history, valuing fearlessness in the face of death. At the sound of three horn blasts, they would charge with the resolve to die, carrying the air of wandering knights-errant.

The moment these three waves of cavalry appeared, they severely awed the residents of Chang'an.

Thirteen thousand riders in all, almost every one on a tall, large horse, and the least of them wearing a suit of leather armor. By the standards of the day, these were thirteen thousand armored riders!

Horseshoes struck the ground with a clack! clack! sound. Among more than ten thousand cavalrymen, not one made an unnecessary sound, and even the neighing of horses was quite rare.

Like a silent torrent of steel, they rolled forward along Vermilion Bird Avenue.

Two thousand infantry and thirteen thousand cavalry — the fifteen thousand elite troops Zhang Zhao had specially drawn up entered the city and left a very deep impression on the residents of Chang'an.

Setting aside the military discipline the Liang army had shown these past days, just looking at the rate of armor coverage, it was basically the highest the residents of Chang'an had ever seen.

Though no statistics existed, the Liang army's holdings of armor from three-layer leather up to iron should be comparable to those of the Jin and Liao states combined.

In terms of quality, the appearance of such era-transcending equipment as cloth-faced armor, pear-blossom spears, and horseshoes meant the equipment level of the two armies was already above that of Jin, Liao, and Liang.

However, compared to the impact the Liang army made on the residents of Chang'an, the appearance of Zhang Zhao himself made an even greater impact on them.

Because many people discovered that the rumors were actually true.

This Great King Zhang's appearance did not resemble either the Great Tang's Taizong the Cultured Emperor or the Pure Source Marvelous Way Erlang Manifest Holiness True Lord alone — rather, all three of them bore a high degree of resemblance to one another.

Everyone's minds began to murmur, and many also recalled the legend, spread from Hexi, of Great King Zhang attaining the Dao at Vulture Peak.

Could it all be true? Was this not a king descended from heaven?

All chapters have been cached for you. Download the APP to view.