Chapter 649: Zhang the True Lord's Divine Meeting with King Ma

Guo Rong's sudden assault achieved tremendous success.

Twenty thousand Chu troops, plus fifteen thousand tribal soldiers and over ten thousand laborers — a full fifty thousand men — collapsed outright under the charge of just seven hundred. More died from trampling and killing each other than from Guo Rong's own blades.

By the time Zhang Zhaojun (Ma Shacai) crossed the Li River, it was no longer a battle, but pure pursuit.

The only regret was failing to capture Zhu Jinzhong; the Chu commander had vanished to no one knew where.

From Xiaodukou Town to Langzhou (Changde) was roughly one hundred eighty li; cavalry at full gallop could cover it in a few hours.

The Zhou cavalry pursued all the way, and the routed Chu soldiers had no road of escape — those who collapsed and died along the roadside were beyond counting.

In the tenth month, the Zhou army surrounded Langzhou and began preparing to storm the city.

Defending Langzhou was Ma Xizun's eldest son, Ma Guangzan, Acting Military Governor of the Wuping Army at Langzhou.

Seeing Zhu Jinzhong's army return in utter defeat with Zhou troops swarming after them over the hills, he dared not open the gates to let the defeated troops in. He could only seal all four gates and hurriedly send men to Tanzhou to beg Ma Xizun for aid.

Seeing this, Zhang Zhaojun was in no hurry to assault the city. Since he had failed to seize Langzhou's gates, he simply left a portion of cavalry to watch the Langzhou garrison, and sent the main army out in du-sized units.

On one side they mopped up scattered remnants on the battlefield; on the other they established fortified camps northwest and southwest of Langzhou, cutting off contact between the Chu troops in the city and the Langzhou tribes. They surrounded Langzhou on three sides, leaving open only the road to Tanzhou.

At the same time Zhang Zhaojun sent Guo Rong to shatter the Chu army, Zhang Zhao personally led eight thousand infantry and cavalry south from Yuezhou.

In barely two days he reached Hubi Mountain, the northern gateway to Tanzhou, and set up his command tent in the Southern Peak Sage Emperor Temple on the mountain.

The Southern Peak Sage Emperor Temple was a shrine for worshiping the Great Emperor of the Southern Peak.

What was rather interesting was that the Southern Peak originally referred to Mount Tianzhu in Anhui; it was not until the Tang dynasty that Mount Heng in Hengyang, Hunan, was fixed as the Southern Peak.

By the Ma Chu period, deities of the south in both Buddhism and Daoism were greatly venerated — for example, the Buddhist Jewel-Born Tathagata of the South, and the Daoist Southern Peak Emperor.

When Zhang Zhao's great army arrived, the monks and priests of the Immortal Peak Temple, the Guan Yu Temple, and all the other large and small temples and shrines on Hubi Mountain had completely fled. Only one old Daoist remained in the Southern Peak Sage Emperor Temple.

The old Daoist watched Zhang Zhao's Hanshan Guard busily arranging things, merely smiling without a word.

Seeing his age, no one drove him out. Only when Zhang Zhao approached the old Daoist with a genial smile did the guards prepare to search him.

But Zhang Zhao stopped his guards, because he could see this old Daoist was far from ordinary.

He wore a lotus treasure crown, with the hairpin thrust from front to back in the zi-wu orientation; his upper robe was brown gauze over purple silk, wrapped in blue cloth, and below he wore a resplendent skirt.

In the Tang dynasty, especially the early Tang, because the Li imperial house wished to sever itself from its mixed Xianbei bloodline, it honored Laozi, Li Er, as its ancestor — and Daoism naturally enjoyed boundless prestige.

Although Daoist philosophy and the Daoist religion were, strictly speaking, basically two different things, promoting the religion was far more convenient than promoting the philosophy, and it was also in the Tang that the two underwent a certain fusion.

Since the religion was elevated by the imperial house, it inevitably carried one side effect: an extremely rigid hierarchy.

Thus in the Tang, Daoist ranks were divided into six stages: first entering the Daoist gate, then Zhengyi, Daode, Dongshen, Dongxuan, and Dongzhen.

The first five were relatively plain in color; only upon reaching Dongzhen did the colors of the vestments gradually grow rich. Likewise, the lotus treasure crown on the old Daoist's head was something only high-ranking Daoists could wear.

Such attire was essentially announcing to the other party that his standing within Daoism was certainly no ordinary one.

And indeed it was not. A Daoist of Dongzhen rank or above, even if he had not founded his own school or sect, could wherever he went bear the title of "Perfected One."

To search such a person would be a gross insult, and Zhang Zhao did not think an old Daoist of nearly seventy could possibly threaten him.

But before Zhang Zhao drew near, the old Daoist gave him a show of force. The old Daoist in brown gauze and purple silk, robed in blue, flicked his horsetail whisk.

"Blessings of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable! The noble one before me answers to the Purple Tenuity Emperor Star, ringed by generals' stars and threaded with literary aura. Surely this must be the Great Zhou's Shaoming Son of Heaven in person."

Zhang Zhao assumed the man had come to flatter him, and admitted it with a chuckle.

But the next second, the old Daoist's face changed abruptly. He stared at Zhang Zhao and shouted: "If the Emperor is the Purple Tenuity Emperor Star descended to earth, the Han sage-lord of the Central Plains, why does he call himself only the Buddhist Unsurpassed Heaven?

Think on the Buddha — though supreme in the Western Heaven, he is after all a man of India. How can his way be spread so grandly in China?"

Uh! Zhang Zhao was genuinely stunned for a brief moment.

Because unlike the later impression that all religions in China are very gentle, one could say that from the end of the Han to the present, religions on Chinese soil had actually been quite aggressive.

Of course, this aggression was not the "Allahu Akbar" or Crusades kind of aggression.

The struggle between Buddhism and Daoism mostly manifested in the word "debate," at most escalating to insults about ancestors, character, and virtue.

Take the monk Falin, for instance — that gentleman was a master of the eternal sliding tackle!

Back then, Emperor Taizong of Tang honored Laozi and also placed Daoism above all other religions, threatening Buddhism's position.

Monk Falin actually went to Emperor Taizong and told him that, after thorough investigation, he had proven that the ancestors of the Longxi Li clan were actually the Yinshan Li clan — that is, Xianbei barbarians from beyond the frontier.

And growing excited, Monk Falin ran his mouth wildly, even saying: what was so good about the Longxi Li? Li Er's father was blind in one eye, could not find a wife, and committed adultery with the neighbor's old maidservant, and only thus was Li Er born.

Damn — that was a sliding tackle right in front of a starving tiger!

Although Monk Falin's tackle was fast, his slide to his knees was faster still, and in the end he narrowly, perilously, kept his life.

But that he dared, to Emperor Taizong's face, to tear open the reverse scale of the entire Li Tang imperial house says a great deal.

It shows that after over a thousand years of propagation, Buddhism had sunk deep, firm roots into Chinese soil.

Zhang Zhao had in fact considered this problem too. The "Unsurpassed Heaven" identity he had conjured through his mystifications might well further drive Buddhism's great spread in the Central Plains.

One must know that in history, the men in his position, Guo Wei and his son Guo Rong, were famous for suppressing Buddhism.

It was under their fierce blows — especially those of Emperor Shizong Guo Rong — that Buddhism finally merged completely with Chinese culture, transforming from a foreign religion into a native supplementary one.

So Zhang Zhao did not grow angry at the old Daoist's bluntness. In truth, he very much enjoyed conversing with such veteran religious figures.

Because through them, Zhang Zhao could gain a deeper understanding of Chinese religion, especially the Buddhist and Daoist traditions.

After a moment's thought, Zhang Zhao said with a smile: "Perfected One, you would not be hoping to imitate Monk Falin, would you? We do not possess the magnanimous heart of Emperor Taizong the Civil. The Perfected One would do well to speak with caution."

The old Daoist was not in the least cowed by the imperial majesty Zhang Zhao displayed. Instead, he curled his lip.

"Monk Falin may be called a great worthy in scriptural learning, but he was arrogant before and groveling after, and he slandered another's ancestors with filthy words. I think Emperor Taizong the Civil was simply too good-natured.

Nor should the Sage feign modesty. Emperor Taizong the Civil was the second son, and Your Majesty is also the second son; both rose from the northwest, exactly where the Purple Tenuity Emperor Star ascends.

Surely both are the Pure Source Wondrous Way Erlang Manifest Sage True Lord descended to rescue the world. I trust the Sage is likewise wise, mighty, magnanimous, and great-hearted."

Zhang Zhao understood now. This was not a sliding tackle, but a slide to the knees. The man had utterly abandoned even a clergyman's reserve — it was almost complete and total bootlicking.

Since that was the case, Zhang Zhao stopped being evasive. He waved his guards aside, leaving only Li Fang, Lu Yan, and Sun Guangxian.

Then Zhang Zhao made a gesture of invitation, leading the old Daoist to a pavilion to sit, and asked seriously:

"What does the Perfected One wish to obtain from Us? And what can We obtain from the Perfected One?"

It was extremely blunt. Li Fang, Lu Yan, and Sun Guangxian all showed looks of surprise, because Zhang Zhao usually paid great attention to managing his public image and rarely made such naked statements.

The old Daoist was also taken aback. He probably had never encountered someone so direct either, and more importantly, it was very different from the Zhang Zhao he had come to know.

But even setting aside his high seniority in the Daoist order, his seventy years of life experience alone made him far stronger than ordinary people.

So just as Zhang Zhao did not play by the usual rules, the old Daoist did not either. He gently untied a pouch at his waist and took out a golden seal.

Li Fang took it on Zhang Zhao's behalf and examined it carefully, then immediately exclaimed in astonishment, "This is one of the golden seals bestowed when the Later Tang's Mingzong sent the Right Vice Director of the Secretariat Li Xu to invest Ma Wumu as King of Chu."

Having said that, Li Fang handed the golden seal to Zhang Zhao and added, "The shape and inscription of this seal match the records of later dynasties. It should be genuine."

Zhang Zhao took the golden seal, glanced at it once, and paid it no further attention, because he could not possibly be more expert than Li Fang. If Li Fang said it was real, it almost certainly was. He was merely curious who this fellow holding Ma Yin's golden seal was.

Suddenly, Zhang Zhao's expression turned very strange. He looked at the old Daoist and asked with a bitter smile.

"Perfected One, do not tell me you are King Wumu of Chu. I would never believe that."

The old Daoist laughed twice and looked at Zhang Zhao, saying, "Your Majesty is indeed the Divine Lord Erlang of the Purple Tenuity Palace descended to the mortal world, to have thought of that possibility at once.

This old Daoist is Ma Xizhen, eldest son of King Wumu. Of course, whether King Wumu has manifested today to commune with Your Majesty as an immortal and entrust the affairs of Hunan to you depends entirely on whether Your Majesty wishes it or not."

"Your Majesty, do not believe this old Daoist!" Before Zhang Zhao could speak, Sun Guangxian cupped his hands and stepped forward, pointing at the old Daoist.

"That Ma Xizhen is the eldest son of King Wumu of Chu is true, and that he is a Perfected One of the Daoist order is also true. But Ma Xizhen passed away by the sword ten years ago and is no longer in this world."

"Hahaha!" The old Daoist rose and laughed long, his face showing not the slightest fear of his lie being exposed, but rather complete satisfaction.

"Who would have thought! After ten springs and autumns, there are still people who know the name Ma Xizhen."

As he spoke, the old Daoist's expression darkened. "Born into a household of bells and tripods, my father was a ruler of a separatist domain. I occupied the position of eldest son by stealth and was the first to receive a military governorship.

Yet my birth was lowly, and in the end I could only wander at leisure among the mountains and forests. Ma Xizhen is indeed dead, but this old Daoist remains."

This was yet another tragedy of brothers fighting each other. It seemed Ma Xizhen was likely the eldest son born of a concubine. In the early years, when most of Ma Yin's sons had not yet grown up, this eldest son of lowly birth still held high rank and power, looking every bit the heir. But later, once the legitimate sons grew up, there was no place left for Ma Xizhen.

"Between brothers, how could it come to this!" This hidden worry was one Zhang Zhao shared, so he made an exception and sighed.

The old Daoist answered with a bitter smile, "Ma Xifan could not even tolerate Ma Xiwang and Ma Xigao. How could he tolerate an old wretch like me?"

Only then did Sun Guangxian nod, and turning back to Zhang Zhao he said, "King Wumu had thirty sons, but most were born in his old age.

The former King of Chu, Xifan, was King Wumu's second son, but when he was born, King Wumu was already forty-seven."

The old Daoist sat back down and nodded as well, saying, "This poor Daoist was born in the thirteenth year of Xiantong of the Great Dynasty's Yizong (872), and has lived seventy-six empty years. At that time, King Wumu was still a carpenter in Xuzhou, and he doted on me most of all."

As he spoke, tears began to glisten on his aged face. Needless to say, as Ma Yin rose steadily in the world, political marriages and beauties of every sort came to him like flowing water.

And he, the son born when Ma Yin was a carpenter, the son once seen as the heir, naturally lost his favor and his value.

In fact, because he was too old, he even became a threat to Ma Yin, and so he was frozen out.

"If the Sage does not believe me, I have heard that Liao Kuangtu is in the Sage's army. He was King Wumu's trusted confidant, and one look will tell whether this is true or false."

Zhang Zhao's mind raced as he spoke slowly, "Whether the Perfected One is Ma Xizhen is not the most important thing to me.

The most important thing remains the question from before: what does the Perfected One want, and what can he give?"

"This poor Daoist resigned all worldly offices twenty years ago and has devoted himself to the Dao for twenty years. I have built more than sixty Daoist temples west of Langzhou, taken on several hundred disciples, and my followers are countless.

I have heard that the Sage intends to win over the various creek and cave barbarians west of Huxiang. This poor Daoist may be able to assist in some small way, provided the Sage is willing to let the Daoist order flourish throughout the southwestern lands."

Sun Guangxian suddenly remembered something, and said to the old Daoist, "When I was in Jiangling, I heard that in the prefectures of Xi, Chen, Jin, and Xu there was a Golden Sword Daoist, said to be able to travel a thousand li in a day, swallow clouds and spit mist, and cure all illnesses. So it was you, sir."

The old Daoist now turned modest. He formed a ritual seal with his hand and said in a low voice, "Mere tricks of illusion, a few wild herbs from the mountains. How dare I boast before a true deity?"

Zhang Zhao understood. Among the Ma Chu defectors around him, someone must have been in contact with this old Daoist.

The old Daoist also knew of Zhang Zhao's Buddhist background, and so deeply feared that when Zhang Zhao won over the creek and cave barbarians of the southwest, he would use the weapon of Hexi Buddhism.

In that case, the old Daoist's years of missionary work in western Hunan and even Guizhou might well be uprooted entirely. That was why he had come so urgently to see Zhang Zhao.

Seeing that Zhang Zhao still had not committed, the old Daoist immediately raised the stakes. "This poor Daoist also holds letters of allegiance from the sons of King Wumu.

The Chu kingdom used the royal house to hold down the regions. They have all expressed that as long as the Sage is willing to treat the Ma family well, they are willing to surrender power and go to the Eastern Capital and the Divine Capital to live as wealthy commoners."

Zhang Zhao still did not commit. "What about Ma Xizhan? Do you have a letter of allegiance from him?"

The old Daoist's eyes flickered, and he said with a smile, "This was Peng Shisong's suggestion to the Sage, was it not? With the Sage gaining the Peng family's help, and with this old Daoist's cooperation as well, not only the creek and cave barbarians west of Huxiang, but even the Eastern Xie and Western Xie families of the Zangke barbarians can certainly be won over.

As for Ma Xizhan, this poor Daoist will set out personally at once and will certainly persuade him to come from Guizhou to Tanzhou to meet the Sage in person."

At this point, Zhang Cheng walked over to Zhang Zhao and whispered a few words. It turned out that Zhang Zhao had of course arranged for people to verify the old Daoist's identity. Not only Liao Kuangtu, but also Peng Shisong and Liao Kuangtu's son Liao Yan had all been summoned to identify him.

The result, of course, was that all three confirmed the old Daoist was Ma Xizhen.

So Zhang Zhao broke into a smile. "Then I must trouble the Perfected One.

Among the sons of the Ma family, Ma Xi'e and Ma Xichong are guilty beyond pardon and must be publicly executed according to law.

But what crime have the other sons of King Wumu committed? Not only will I not convict them, I will employ them according to their talents."

When the old Daoist saw that Zhang Zhao had spoken words of gold and jade, he immediately prostrated himself on the ground and performed the full kowtow. "I, Ma Xizhen, kowtow in gratitude for the Sage's grace.

This old Daoist will immediately summon disciples from all the prefectures to Tanzhou to serve the Sage. Ma Xizhan, Military Governor of the Jingjiang Army in Guizhou, will also certainly arrive in Tanzhou within ten days to meet the Sage."

Zhang Zhao personally helped Ma Xizhen to his feet. "The Perfected One has labored for the nation. I hereby confer upon you the title Perfected One of Beneficence, Manifest Virtue, and Radiant Dharma.

Moreover, today while touring Hubi Mountain, I chanced upon a Dharma master wearing a golden crown and purple robe, accompanied by a golden boy and jade girl, who came to see me.

He said he was the Huaguang Heavenly King and Marshal Ma of the Lingguan, under the Sage Emperor of the Southern Peak, and petitioned me to treat the people of Chu generously. Having spoken, he ascended and flew away.

Later, I happened to see a portrait of King Wumu of Chu, and it was identical to him. Only then did I know that King Wumu had already ascended to the immortal realm and become the Huaguang Heavenly King."

When Zhang Zhao finished speaking, Ma Xizhen knelt again and knocked his head on the ground three times with loud thuds.

This was no ordinary treatment. This was elevating Ma Yin to the status of the Huaguang Heavenly King, one of the four great Dharma-protecting deities of the Daoist order. For Ma Xizhen, it was a supreme act of grace.

Of course, Zhang Zhao also gained enormous benefit. After Ma Yin came to Hunan, he had stopped pointless wars abroad, exterminated bandits at home, distributed land to the people, lightened corvée and taxes, and allowed the people to recover. His prestige in the Chu kingdom was extremely high. Borrowing Ma Yin's halo would allow Zhang Zhao to gain control of Chu more quickly.

Hmm, it was just that the origin stories of the three-eyed Horse Lord would now have one more version.

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