Chapter 492: Settling the Realm Outside the Vermilion Bird Gate

Merging ancestral temples is no small matter, whether in an imperial house or even for a wealthy local family.

Although later generations always joke that the the the Shatuo Tang is still a Tang, people of this time did regard the the the Shatuo Li family as genuine Tang imperial clansmen.

But there is a problem here: back when Li Keyong and his father obtained the status of Great Tang imperial clansmen, the Tang court's handling of it was somewhat ambiguous.

When Emperor Yizong of Tang bestowed the surname Li upon Li Guochang, he did indeed enroll him in the imperial clan, and even had Li Guochang entered into the genealogy of Prince Zheng to continue Prince Zheng's ancestral line.

But he was merely recorded in the imperial clan register without any ceremony being held, and he was entered into the descendants' rolls of Li Yuanyi, Prince Zheng, the thirteenth son of Emperor Gaozu of Tang.

Yet by this time, Li Yuanyi's descendants had long since lost the title of Prince Zheng; they belonged to the most marginal of the marginal imperial clansmen.

Later, when Emperor Zhaozong of Tang fell out with Li Keyong, he even stripped Li Keyong of his imperial clan status.

Taken altogether, the Tang court was purely and simply running a manipulation game; had it not been for Li Keyong being such a diehard Great Tang fanboy, anyone else would have quit long ago.

Therefore, Zhang Zhao's present plan to place the Later Tang's Zhuangzong, Mingzong, and Emperor Min into the family temple for sacrificing to the Tang emperors was not something that could be accomplished with a single word, and it carried profound political implications.

As for Li Congyi, he was of course willing.

But among the true Li-Tang imperial clansmen, would anyone agree?

There actually was one!

Just as Zhang Zhao was preparing to search everywhere for a somewhat closer direct bloodline of the Li-Tang, Li Shouling stepped forward, and even produced a family genealogy.

Zhang Zhao had not expected that Li Shouling, whom he had taken for a marginal clansman, was actually the fifth-generation descendant of Li Yun, Prince of Li — second son of Emperor Xianzong Li Chun, elder brother of Emperor Xuanzong Li Chen.

Li Yun had once contended for the position of crown prince back in the day; at a time when the various princes of the Li-Tang imperial clan had been slaughtered one after another by Li Maozhen and Zhu Wen, being able to produce a genealogy traceable within five generations to an emperor truly counted as a very direct Li-Tang blood descendant.

With Li Shouling's endorsement, placing the spirit tablets of the Later Tang's Zhuangzong, Mingzong, and Emperor Min into the family temple appeared fully legitimate.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao also knew that Li Shouling had taken a great risk in producing this genealogy.

To say something that ought not be said: if Zhang Zhao failed, then Li Shouling and his descendants would surely be seized by a host of ambitious men and used as a banner, and their fate could well be imagined.

More importantly, as a Li-Tang imperial clansman, Li Shouling's willingness to permit and even assist Zhang Zhao in placing the portrait of Emperor Taizong close to Zhang Zhao was no small sacrifice.

Therefore, although Li Shouling's family had no outstanding talents, Zhang Zhao still clasped Li Shouling's hands and said:

"For your protective intent, Elder Shou, I am grateful beyond words. When the realm is settled in days to come, I shall grant your descendants generations of wealth and honor."

Li Shouling likewise looked at Zhang Zhao and said: "My Li family's royal aura has dissipated, and so the world has fallen into chaos. That this virtue can be inherited by the descendants of the loyal and righteous, and that we, the remnants of a fallen dynasty, may have ample clothing and food, is already a blessing from heaven. How would I dare ask for generations of wealth and honor!"

I, Great King Zhang, do like people who know when to advance and when to retreat. At that moment I said nothing, merely patting the withered back of Li Shouling's hand — everything was conveyed without words.

The matter of merging the ancestral temples was conducted with great pomp, and preparations continued until Zhang Zhao had completely secured control of Chang'an before it began; meanwhile, the rumors also kept spreading.

Nearly half the people of Chang'an were saying that Great King Zhang looked exactly like Emperor Taizong the Civil and the Divine Lord Erlang.

And as it happened, both were second sons, and both were fierce men who dared to charge into the midst of ten thousand troops in person.

Emperor Taizong the Civil had risen to power with his black-armored cavalry, and Great King Zhang was likewise famed throughout the realm for his Great Liang iron cavalry.

Emperor Taizong the Civil had at his side men of mighty stature like Cheng Zhijie and Yuchi Jingde, warriors who could hold off ten thousand.

Great King Zhang likewise had at his side Man Xiong and Dunzhu, two bear-and-tiger warriors worthy of being called the two guardian generals Heng and Ha.

Emperor Taizong the Civil's first noble title was Prince of Dunhuang Commandery, and Great King Zhang was even a man of Dunhuang himself.

All of this made the people of Chang'an, suddenly brought into close contact with Zhang Zhao, unable to avoid drawing associations.

There were simply too many coincidences. One or two could be called coincidence, but with so many, could it still be pure coincidence?

Many people began to speculate on their own: could it be that the Divine Lord Erlang, in order to end the chaos of the late Sui, first descended to be reborn into the Li family as the second son, becoming Emperor Taizong the Civil?

And now, in order to end the wars of the late Tang, he had therefore been reborn into the Zhang family as the second son — namely, Great King Zhang.

Chang'an now had over a hundred thousand people. With so many people's imaginations colliding with one another, their flights of fancy simply took off on the spot!

There were even some Daoist temples that, in order to ride the wave of attention, seized the opportunity to compile the god Erlang into a true deity of the Ninth Heaven specially charged with ending chaos in the mortal world.

Whenever the realm fell into great disorder, he would incarnate as a second son, descend to be reborn, and bring the chaos to an end.

At this point, the Buddhist establishment of Guanzhong, which had been reluctant to engage with Zhang Zhao and unwilling to acknowledge Zhang Zhao's status as the Supreme Boundless Great Compassion Dharma King, could no longer sit still.

If this continued, those Daoist priests would use the thread of the Divine Lord Erlang to bind every greatest emperor of all ages to the Daoist school.

So the Buddhist establishment of Guanzhong, holding their noses, began preaching to the faithful, saying that the Divine Lord Erlang had also once been reborn in India, as Dujian, the second son of Vaishravana, the Heavenly King of the North.

Dujian had built a city and sheltered Emperor Xuanzong of Tang during the An Lushan Rebellion; therefore, the Divine Lord Erlang was in fact a bodhisattva of the Buddhist school.

The final climax came from the continued spread of outside news: merchants traveling from both east and west brought frightening tidings.

The Khitan in the east had actually begun plundering the Central Plains on a large scale.

In the west, Meng Shu, hearing of upheaval in the Central Plains, was drilling his great army, ready at any moment to enter Guanzhong.

In an instant, the people of Chang'an and Guanzhong were thrown into panic; having not experienced the calamity of war for six or seven years, they recalled once more those terrifying scenes.

By this time, people's longing for protection had been magnified to the utmost.

Spurred on by the spontaneous efforts of the masses, it seemed as though Zhang Zhao, who had only just entered the city, had truly become the reincarnation of Emperor Taizong of Tang, a savior-like existence who could shelter them.

And so, when Zhang Zhao had everything arranged and was about to carry the three Later Tang emperors into the family temple of the Great Tang emperors, the residents of Chang'an, drawn by the news, packed the area outside the Vermilion Bird Gate so tightly that not a drop of water could pass through.

Many of these common folk held incense in their hands, and some even held up portraits; they looked rather fervent, and Zhang Zhao could not very well force them away.

There were at least tens of thousands of them, so there was no way to drive them off. Nor did he think too much of it; completing the temple merger was the great matter at hand.

After all the ceremonies were completed, Li Shouling, representing the Great Tang bloodline, and Li Congyi, representing the Later Tang bloodline, placed the spirit tablets of Zhuangzong, Mingzong, and Emperor Min into the ancestral temple.

Then Zhang Huaiqing, the most senior in generation within the Guiyi Army, came forward and presented a memorial written in Zhang Zhao's own hand, announcing it to the twenty-four emperors of the Great Tang.

Zhang Zhao wore the court robes of a commandery duke of the Great Tang, with Li Shouling kneeling on his left and Li Congyi kneeling on his right.

This set of court robes had been made in imitation of the garments bestowed by Emperor Xuanzong Li Chen upon Zhang Yichao after he was enfeoffed as Duke of Nanyang Commandery.

After Zhang Huaiqing finished reading the memorial aloud, Zhang Zhao took it back, while Li Shouling and Li Congyi lit the brazier.

According to Chinese custom, this had to be burned and sent over, so that the twenty-four emperors of the Great Tang would all be informed.

"Since the Yan rebels brought calamity upon the realm, for two hundred years now, the officers, soldiers, officials, and people of Hexi, Longyou, Anxi, and Beiting have not for a single moment ceased to long for their return to the motherland.

First, the Sage Martial, Literary, and Filial Emperor recovered the three prefectures of Qin, Cheng, and Jie to inspire the people; afterward, my great-grandfather Zhang Yichao recovered the eleven prefectures of Hexi; and then the former king of my maternal grandfather's house, Yuchi Nanta, recovered the garrison of Khotan.

Thereafter came hardship and peril, as the barbarians ran rampant and struck back.

Fortunately, under the protection of the spirits of the late emperors in heaven, I, Zhang Zhao, great-grandson of Zhang Yichao, Military Governor of the Guiyi Army and Duke of Nanyang Commandery, have led a million stout warriors over ten years, and at last recovered the sixteen prefectures of Hexi and Longyou, and the four garrisons and three prefectures of Anxi and Beiting."

"Today we burn incense and offer prayers, presenting the three sacrificial beasts and blood offerings, declaring to the twenty-four emperors of our great dynasty: these three million brave warriors have returned from the vast northern deserts!"

"We're home! We're home!"

As soon as the ceremony ended, someone — no one knew who — began to shout.

The Liang soldiers and officers all around, whether old Guiyi Army men like Luo Tongda,

or descendants of the Anxi Four Garrisons like Guo Tiance, or Khotan sons of Tang like Liu Zaisheng,

the Liugu Valley men Chen Nianban, Zhebu Jiashi, and Du Lun Chixin, or the Tuyuhun Zhang Xibao from the high mountains of Shanzhou — every one of them was too stirred to contain himself.

They were of different peoples and different fates, but under Zhang Zhao's command, after ten years of bitter war, they had finally achieved their goal.

Amid the mountain-roaring, sea-surging cries of "home," Zhang Zhao suddenly stepped onto the high platform. With a wave of his hand, the soldiers and officers instantly fell silent.

Zhang Zhao looked out at them and said in a great voice: "The Khitan were once vassals of our great dynasty. Now they have usurped the title of emperor — and worse, they have gone so far as to invest a Son of Heaven in the Central Plains, and even to burn, kill, and plunder there. We who are loyal subjects and righteous men of the great dynasty — can we look on and do nothing?"

"We cannot! We cannot!" The soldiers' and officers' shouts rose again.

At that moment, Li Congyi stepped up to a spot just beside Zhang Zhao. He had never experienced a scene like this, so he stammered a little.

"The Shi clan sold out the state for their own glory. The Khitan installed a puppet court and seized the realm of our Great Tang. These are two traitors!

My elder brother, the Qingtai Emperor, once said: whoever can drive out the northern barbarians and recover the Central Plains shall inherit the virtue of our house and become Son of Heaven of the Central Plains."

With those words, Li Congyi's historical mission was essentially complete. With that one sentence, Zhang Zhao had the legal basis for founding a new dynasty.

Having resolved the crucial matter of how to establish a new dynasty without tarnishing the name of loyalty and righteousness, Zhang Zhao had one final task.

He was to enter the already-ruined imperial palace and, upon the ruins of the Hanyuan Hall in Daming Palace, complete an event of special significance.

That is, the question of rebuilding the political system of the Liang state. For the banner of the great dynasty's Western Han Jinshan could certainly no longer be used. How to raise troops and march east — all of it had to be carefully planned.

But Zhang Zhao had just mounted his horse and had not yet arranged for soldiers to clear the way when several scholars in lan robes threw themselves down not far in front of him.

They were quickly pushed back by soldiers using hooked halberds, but their eyes still burned with fanatical light.

One of the scholars steeled himself, looked straight into Zhang Zhao's eyes, and suddenly shouted:

"We beg to view a portrait of Emperor Taizong Wen."

In Chang'an, apart from the family shrine of Li Shouling, there had originally been few imperial portraits preserved elsewhere.

But in recent years, as people longed for stability, the people of Chang'an yearned ever more intensely for the peaceful days of the Zhenguan era, and so a cult had formed that worshipped Emperor Taizong of Tang as a deity.

However, the portraits in various places differed somewhat, so of course the one in Li Shouling's family shrine was taken as authoritative.

When Li Shouling brought out the portrait, the whole crowd erupted. Countless people rushed about spreading the word — this was no mere resemblance!

It was exactly the same.

"It's him — it really is him! So the Heavenly King truly is the reincarnation of the Divine Lord Erlang — he is Emperor Taizong Wen! Emperor Taizong Wen has returned!"

"Wuwuwu!" A scholar in a lan robe sat down on the ground, tears streaming down at once.

"Emperor Taizong Wen has returned. Two hundred years of chaos — at last it will end."

As these scholars shouted, the crowd surged even more violently. Countless people pressed forward, and the human waves struck the Hanshan Army soldiers so hard that they began to fall back steadily.

Guo Tiance, Zhang Liecheng, and Guo Zhao broke out in cold sweat. Damn! This was going to turn bad.

With so many people calling their friends and family, who knew how many more would come. If everyone truly rushed up to Zhang Zhao, it would be disastrous.

For this kind of situation, Zhang Zhao had far more experience than they did. Wasn't this exactly what star-chasing fanatics looked like in later ages?

To avoid being swallowed by the crowd, Zhang Zhao's mind raced for a few moments, and then, from horseback, he extended his hand and beckoned one of the scholars forward.

The scholar stumbled forward, laid his hand on the mane of Zhang Zhao's warhorse, and wept aloud.

"Your Majesty, Emperor Taizong Wen, please raise a righteous army and sweep away this age of chaos. Your servant never again wants to be slaughtered like a pig or a dog."

The scholars around him also pressed in, fanatically placing their hands on Zhang Zhao's warhorse.

"Raise a righteous army, root out tyranny and chaos, and let officials and commoners each rest in their proper place — is this truly Emperor Taizong Wen?"

The people behind surged forward too. Unable to touch Zhang Zhao's warhorse, they laid their hands on the shoulders of those in front.

In an instant, Vermilion Bird Avenue was packed so tightly that not a drop of water could pass, and still people ran in every direction spreading the word. The whole street was filled with shouts that "Emperor Taizong Wen" had returned.

Looking out from his warhorse, Zhang Zhao saw fanatical worshippers, people burning incense and praying, people rushing about spreading the news, people kowtowing and beseeching.

But no matter what they did, those pair after pair of longing eyes revealed boundless hope.

They hoped for an end to the wars, hoped for peace, hoped to live once as human beings and not be slaughtered like cattle and sheep.

"We're not going to Hanyuan Hall! Guo Tiance, summon the officials of Jingzhao Prefecture to calm the people.

Ask the elders and ward heads of Chang'an, the officials and clerks, the heads of every guild, and the scholars versed in the classics to select representatives. We shall settle the plan to pacify the realm right here before Vermilion Bird Gate!"

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