Chapter 59: Incentive and Assurance

Huo Sheng'er's funeral was held after the evening meal. A proper earth burial was certainly out of the question, and it was not the custom in the army at this time.

Zhang Zhao personally pounded Huo Sheng'er's burned bones to pieces, blow by blow, then placed them in a pottery jar. Pasted to the jar was a sheet of yellow hemp paper, on which two characters stood out boldly: Zhang Zhao.

Cao Shisi, Cao Yanming, held a register, recording as he chanted aloud.

"Zhang Zhao, son of the Zhang clan of Nanyang, born in the second month of the Wuchen year (908), died at the age of twenty-three. In the battle at the ancient city of Loulan, he fought bravely and slew three of the enemy. His merit was rated as front-line service, his deed recorded at the second rank, with a reward of three strings of cash, to be passed down to his descendants!"

"Escort Officer Fan, my ranks are short-handed at present. Would you be willing to take up the post of secretary for the time being?" After packing away the ashes, Zhang Zhao handed them directly to Fan Running.

"Fortunate to be valued by the young lord, I am willing to accept the secretary's commission!"

What could Fan Running say? Did he dare refuse? If he dared refuse, the hundred-odd men whom Zhang Zhao had so deeply moved would tear him to pieces.

"Good! I thank Escort Officer Fan here!" Zhang Zhao cupped his hands toward Fan Running.

This man was the chief envoy of the Guiyi Army. By taking up the post of secretary, he made it possible for Zhang Zhao to command the thirty-odd men of the Guiyi Army envoy party openly and legitimately.

"Escort Officer, please keep this register and these ashes safe for us. All you brothers may also come to Escort Officer Fan here to register.

Every man may designate one person. Should you fall in battle as Brother Zhang Zhao did, I will see that your deed record and reward reach your family.

And for those without family or heirs, I will do as I have done for Brother Zhang Zhao: choose an orphan among the Han folk of Dunhuang to carry on your line!"

"Young lord, I, Ma Yaozi, am won over by you! For Huo Sheng'er to be written into the Zhang clan genealogy of Nanyang, and to have a son to carry on his line — he died a worthy death!

If I fall in battle, you find an orphan for Yuniang to raise. She's a widow; with a son, her life will be easier!"

Even Ma Yaozi, who never had a serious bone in his body, was moved to rare melancholy. His old master Luo Xianda would never have cared whether underlings like them had descendants or anyone to worry about.

One must not underestimate what Zhang Zhao had done. The Chinese have always placed great weight on carrying on the family line; to have no descendants is a grave unfilial offense. These men were following Zhang Zhao to Khotan to seek their fortunes, and no one knew when they might lose their lives. With a guarantee like this from Zhang Zhao, at least they would not fear their lines being cut off.

"Enough of that defeatist talk. Follow me to Khotan and win some real merit. Yuniang has no son — go back and plant her a whole brood of them, eight or ten!"

Zhang Zhao rapped Ma Yaozi on the head. Unlike Luo Xianda, who would strike and curse and slap him around, this blow from Zhang Zhao felt to Ma Yaozi far more like closeness than anything else. He even felt a sense of being cherished.

Ma Yaozi was a little dazed. Zhang Zhao was clearly much younger than him, so how could he give him such a feeling?

After rapping Ma Yaozi, Zhang Zhao climbed onto a rock and looked at the hundred-odd men gathered around him. These were his sparks of fire!

"I come from a great clan. If we speak of noble status, few in Hexi can compare with me. But I too have tasted bitter hardship, because my father erred and harmed the sons of Tang in Hexi. That guilt is mine to bear.

In truth, my experience is like the fate of us sons of Tang. In the old days of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan, how glorious were our ancestors! Looking out across the four horizons, none dared meet their gaze.

Take those Gaochang men who ransomed themselves yesterday. Back then, when Duke Chen (Hou Junji) frowned in anger, King Ju Wentai of Gaochang died of fright. Now, when it comes to us, collecting a ransom counts as a decent haul! But!"

Zhang Zhao drove his hengdao saber heavily into the sandy soil before him.

"This is not what I want! Because in the Zhenguan or Kaiyuan eras, let alone a mere Pugu Cheng, even the Umu Lord Khagan of the Gaochang Uyghurs, Pugu Chongde, would have had to come in person to beg forgiveness! Otherwise he would have died and his state been destroyed!

So do not be smug about today's affair. Instead, take it as a warning, for we are still far from restoring the Great Tang's martial glory.

The great clans of Dunhuang know only petty scheming to preserve their wealth and rank. That is why I have led you heroes out, and why I am willing to join hearts and strength with you all, to make the world look on us with awe once more!"

The eyes of Fan Quan, Fan Shun, Yan Jin, Bai Congxi, and the others all lit up. Zhang Zhao's words had, without doubt, elevated the reason for their going to Khotan to win merit and build careers.

So it was not that they could no longer get by in Dunhuang and had no choice but to go west. It was that the great clans of Dunhuang knew only how to preserve their wealth and rank, and were not worth scheming with!

And they also felt that Young Lord Zhang truly had ability. They had only just reached Loulan, and already they had gained wealth of some fifteen or sixteen hundred strings of cash.

Zhang Zhao had already promised that once the ransom for Diluodagan Pugu Cheng arrived, even the least of them would receive three strings of cash, reckoned by battle merit.

That was already two months' pay for a deputy commander in the Guiyi Army like Yan Jin. Even if a man died in battle, it would be delivered to his family, and for those without kin or descendants, a foster son would be chosen.

Looking at the crowd before him with their shining eyes, Zhang Zhao felt a certain sense of accomplishment. From the moment they left Dunhuang, he had been consciously instilling such ideas in these men.

With money as incentive, logistics as security, and ideology to open the way, Zhang Zhao suddenly realized he really did have a bit of the talent of that "Second World War" art student.

Though he could not forge this hundred-odd men into the kind of ideal, mighty, and civilized army of later ages, for this era, an army with even a faint trace of ideals would absolutely leave all other old-style armies in the dust.

And the great banner he held to rally men's hearts was, without doubt, the Great Tang that had already receded into the distance.

One must know that when the Great Tang flourished, wherever its blades reached, it displayed its might in magnificent glory. Even now, in the Western Regions and beyond the river, there are no few admirers of the Tang. Only by raising the banner of the Great Tang could he better stir his men's pride and unify their thinking.

Seeing that morale had been roused, Zhang Zhao swept his hand out grandly.

"Today we rest here properly for one night. Tomorrow we bypass Datun City and head straight for Wuni City!

The Canwei people belong to the Zhongyun tribe. They dared to intercept us at Loulan. If King Sanpoba of Shanshan does not give an explanation, I swear I will not let this rest!"

Bai Congxin and Qiong Reduojin's eyes lit up. The young lord meant to let them loot!

Wuni City was the capital of Shanshan, with a population of nearly ten thousand. If their hundred-odd men plundered it, every man could make another fortune!

Of course they would loot!

Although each man had been promised at least three strings of reward money, it had not yet arrived. The reward was still only in the account book, not yet distributed into their hands, so it did not count. Therefore Zhang Zhao decided to go plunder the Shanshan people and get something tangible!

Dunzhu rubbed his head and stared at Zhang Zhao with a simple, blank look.

"But young lord, the ones who ambushed us yesterday were the Gaochang Uyghurs, not the Canwei people! Their men were all killed. Even all those women together couldn't beat me alone. Did we get it wrong?"

Laughter erupted all around. Only a simple herder-slave like Dunzhu would cling to such rigid logic. The rest of those veteran soldiers and horse-bandit scoundrels all knew exactly what Zhang Zhao intended.

Zhang Zhao laughed too, pulled Dunzhu over, drew his hengdao saber, and gestured with it before him.

"As for that — whether they took part or not, it's not for them to say!"

"Then who gets to say?" Dunzhu still did not quite understand.

"This gets to say. The hengdao saber in my hand, the javelin in yours, and our hundred-odd brothers here — we get to say!"

Zhang Zhao laughed heartily, and Dunzhu, half understanding, joined in with a foolish grin.

"As long as there's meat to eat and wine to drink, whoever the young lord tells Dunzhu to kill, Dunzhu will kill!"

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