Chapter 650

Tanzhou City — before this year, after construction by the father and sons Ma Yin, Ma Xisheng, and Ma Xifan, it could well be called the pearl of Huxiang.

Especially during Ma Xifan's time, this lord launched great construction projects in the northwest of Tanzhou City.

First he built the Nine Dragons Hall, the Golden Splendor Hall, and the Hall of Fine Feasts, among other great halls; later he built the sixteen towers of Tian Ce, Guang Zheng, Qin Zheng, and the rest.

Among them, the Tian Ce Tower was later expanded into the Tian Ce Mansion, whose buildings reached the utmost splendor — railings and balustrades were all adorned with gold and jade, and the walls were painted throughout with cinnabar.

The cinnabar in particular was a problem: at the time, the Ma Chu realm had few cinnabar mines, and just as Ma Xifan was worrying over this, a mountain east of Tanzhou suddenly collapsed, and cinnabar ore gushed out and piled up like a hill. For a time this was taken as a sign that Ma Chu had Heaven's own favor.

But all of this, after Ma Xi'e entered Tanzhou, was reduced entirely to ashes.

After the Wuping Army and the Langzhou barbarian troops sacked Tanzhou City, they also set a great fire that burned nearly all of Ma Chu's palaces and towers to the ground.

Even Ma Xi'e himself can now only huddle in a side hall of the Nine Dragons Hall that was not completely destroyed.

As for Tanzhou City, it is already full of broken walls and rubble; whenever even a light rain falls, the mud can rise past a pedestrian's calves. From time to time, corpses not yet fully cleared away attract birds and beasts to gnaw on them, or give off an unbearably foul stench.

In all of Tanzhou City, the more than ten thousand surviving residents and the more than ten thousand soldiers and laborers have almost no clean drinking water, nor enough firewood and charcoal to survive the winter.

The harsh living conditions have also caused the small-scale spread of dysentery and other infectious diseases, and the whole city is like a realm of ghosts.

Yet faced with such harsh conditions, Ma Xi'e made no response whatsoever, only shutting himself up in the Nine Dragons Hall, drinking and making merry all day long.

He has a male favorite, Xie Yanyu, who is Ma Xi'e's trusted Junior Gate Commissioner; when out, he accompanies Ma Xi'e and ranks above all the generals; when in, he sits together with Ma Xi'e's wives and concubines, and they gather to commit debauchery.

All affairs of state in Chu, great and small, were delegated to his full brother Ma Xichong, the one who had sent him secret reports.

But after Ma Xichong grasped great power, before he could even begin throwing his weight around, word arrived of the imperial court's punitive expedition, followed by the surrender of Yuezhou and the great defeat at Xiaodukou Town on the Li River.

Ma Xichong immediately cut off all contact between inside and outside; even the messenger sent from Langzhou by Ma Xi'e's own son Ma Guangzan to beg for aid was not allowed in to see him. His plan was to wait until Zhang Zhao reached Tanzhou, then immediately sell out Ma Xi'e again, in exchange for glory and riches.

Er, no — not all affairs, great and small, were handed to Ma Xichong. At least the order to detain the Jingbian Army, made up of conscripted laborers from the various prefectures, in Tanzhou, and to have Commander Wang Jinkui and Deputy Commander Zhou Xingfeng lead them in the heavy labor of clearing the rubble of Tanzhou City and rebuilding the government offices, was issued by Ma Xi'e himself.

By this point, Ma Xi'e had already done everything a ruler about to lose his kingdom could possibly do, to the utmost extreme.

Historically, he was very quickly overthrown by his younger brother Ma Xichong, and then the Southern Tang seized the opportunity to launch a massive invasion and destroy Ma Chu.

And now, the Southern Tang is in no position to come, but an imperial army a hundred times stronger than the Southern Tang has already arrived.

In early eleventh month, white snow drifted over Tanzhou, and the common people and Jingbian Army soldiers suffered even more bitterly. And then, from no one knew where, a rumor spread.

It said that the Son of Heaven of the Central Plains rode in the imperial carriage, with nine dragons pulling the cart and auspicious clouds supporting it from below, traveling three thousand li in one night to Mount Hubi.

After the Son of Heaven arrived, King Wumu manifested as the Heavenly King Huaguang, and paid homage to the Son of Heaven with the rites of a subject.

It turned out the Son of Heaven of the Central Plains was not only the Unsurpassed Heaven of the Buddhist faith, but also, like the Great Dynasty's Taizong the Cultured Emperor, the incarnation of the Illustrious Sage Emperor Erlang from the Purple Tenuity Emperor's Palace.

The Illustrious Sage Emperor Erlang is the eldest legitimate son of the Heavenly Emperor, and the Heavenly King Huaguang is one of the four vanguard divine generals under the Illustrious Sage Emperor Erlang. His earlier benevolent governance that brought peace to Huxiang was carried out at the Emperor's command, and now that the Emperor has come in person, he naturally must hand back the great authority over Hunan.

At this point the world line shifted again: the Erlang Shen of the original history had evolved from True Lord to Emperor, and had also become the eldest legitimate son of the Heavenly Emperor — a true Son of Heaven in every sense.

This kind of rumor, steeped in religion and mysticism, was terrifyingly destructive. Moreover, Ma Yin's reputation in Chu was extremely good — one must know that in later times, as late as the Ming dynasty, the common people of Hunan and northern Guangxi still built Ma Chu Great King temples to Ma Yin.

From officials and soldiers to ordinary commoners, the people of Ma Chu were all willing to believe that Ma Yin had become a god, and even more willing to believe that the imperial army had come to peacefully take over Chu.

Therefore, the tiny bit of legitimacy Ma Xi'e possessed vanished instantly without a trace, and large numbers of Ma Chu officials abandoned their posts and went to Mount Hubi to pay homage to Zhang Zhao.

On the third day of the eleventh month — that is, the third day after Zhang Zhao's face-to-face talk with Ma Xizhen — Ma Xichong sent an envoy to Mount Hubi to request to submit to Zhang Zhao.

But Ma Xichong was probably so terrified that he was grasping at any straw: the envoy he sent was actually He Zhongju, one of the former Eighteen Scholars of the Tian Ce Mansion of Ma Chu.

This was simply a joke! You, Ma Xichong, brought Ma Xi'e into Tanzhou and burned the Tian Ce Mansion down in one fire, and you still expect He Zhongju, one of the Eighteen Scholars of the Tian Ce Mansion, to put in a good word for you?

Not to mention that Yuan Yougong, the Left Horse-and-Infantry Troop Commander of the Wuping Army who led Guo Rong in the surprise attack on Zhu Jinzhong, is He Zhongju's brother-in-law.

And so, He Zhongju, who was supposed to have come as Ma Xichong's envoy and lobbyist, threw himself into the dust the moment he saw Zhang Zhao. He wept until tears and snot streamed down his face, and after kowtowing three times, cried out at the top of his voice.

"Sage, Ma Xi'e and Ma Xichong are more vicious than jackals and wolves. Anyone in the Chu domain may be forgiven, but these two alone are unpardonable. I beg the Sage to send the great army at once and exterminate these two traitors!"

He Zhongju was a native of Daozhou (present-day Dao County, Hunan), and in the Five Dynasties period, he could be considered an oddity.

He was a great talent in the mold of Sun Guangxian. Born into a farming family, his parents died early, and at twelve he was forced to shoulder the burden of the household. But he did not lose heart; instead, he farmed by day and studied by night.

At thirteen, because he was truly too poor to pay his taxes, he was seized and put in the cangue at the county yamen gate for public humiliation.

By chance, the then County Magistrate Li Honggao happened to pass by the yamen gate. He Zhongju cried out loudly, drawing Li Honggao's attention, and immediately composed a five-character regulated verse on the spot.

It went: "Like jade come to be cast in prison, I left my home to take up the cangue. Pitiful, these two planks of wood, clamping shut a single blossom."

Li Honggao was astonished and deemed him a child prodigy; he not only remitted his taxes but also did everything he could to help him.

Later, after arduous study, He Zhongju traveled north to the Later Tang and successfully passed the Later Tang's jinshi examination. He even served as an aide to Li Congrong, the Prince of Qin of the Later Tang.

After Li Congrong's death, He Zhongju returned to Hunan and was recommended by Li Honggao to become one of the Eighteen Scholars of the Tian Ce Mansion.

He Zhongju came from poverty and knew the hardships of the common people. He was magnanimous, broad-minded, and learned; in governance he was diligent and loved the people. He successively served as Prefect of Quanzhou, Hengzhou, and other prefectures of Ma Chu, and everywhere he had a fine reputation.

The previous year, his line "Trees welcome the high birds back to the deep wilds; clouds, beside the setting sun, pass over the distant mountains" was passed down to later generations, making him one of the rare great poets of the Five Dynasties.

For a man like this, Zhang Zhao of course knew how to respond — this was exactly what he was best at.

At this moment, all the classic gestures — the Duke of Zhou spitting out his food to receive guests, Cao Mengde rushing out barefoot to welcome a visitor, Liu Xuande hurling his son A Dou to the ground — were all channeled into me, the Great Sage Zhang, Khagan, Unsurpassed Heaven, and Emperor.

Laughing heartily, he spread his arms and dashed out of the Nanyue Temple like a gust of wind, and along the way he even "accidentally" tripped on the threshold and nearly fell, which made his urgency all the more apparent.

Zhang Zhao grasped He Zhongju's arms and lifted him up. "Even in the Central Plains, I have heard of your great talent. Winning the land of Chu is not what delights me; winning Zhongju is truly the good fortune of myself and the people of Chu!"

He Zhongju had not expected Zhang Zhao to treat him with such a manner. What do Confucian literati respond to most? Of course, this very drama of a sage ruler and enlightened lord humbling himself before worthy men!

Hearing this, He Zhongju was so moved that his whole body trembled. Gripping Zhang Zhao's arms, he bowed down again.

"I am but a petty official of the land of Chu. Above, I could not set my lord aright; below, I could not prevent the upheaval in Tanzhou. I am not worthy of such regard from the Sage!"

Zhang Zhao of course would not let He Zhongju bow again, and just as he was about to kneel to the ground, he lifted him up once more.

"Zhongju, do not belittle yourself. The evils of Ma Xi'e and Ma Xichong are not your fault.

Now the people of Tanzhou are in peril as if hanging upside down. I beg you, Zhongju, to teach me how to enter Tanzhou swiftly without bringing slaughter upon the living."

Hearing this, He Zhongju dropped all pretense with Zhang Zhao. "When I left Tanzhou, I had already made contact with Commander Wang Jinkui and Deputy Commander Zhou Xingfeng of the Jingbian Army.

The soldiers of the Jingbian Army have long suffered under Ma Xi'e. They only wait for the imperial army to arrive, and then they will immediately split open the west and south gates of Tanzhou with great axes and welcome the royal army into the city."

Zhang Zhao nodded. The name Zhou Xingfeng was somewhat familiar to him, though he had not expected this man to be the historical Wuping Army Military Governor who drove out the Southern Tang and finally carved out the Ma Chu lands for himself.

But since the name stirred a faint trace of familiarity in his mind, he must be someone who left some mark on history, and therefore no ordinary man. With such a man willing to deliver the west and south gates of Tanzhou, the matter was surely settled.

In truth, it was not that Zhang Zhao could not simply attack with his army. But the land of Chu had suffered repeated upheavals, and the people had fled into the marshes and hills. Moreover, it was winter, and requisitioning grain was difficult. So to ease the burden on his supply lines, Zhang Zhao had brought only eight thousand infantry and cavalry.

If these troops attacked the city directly, the forces would be insufficient and the soldiers would easily suffer losses; moreover, what little life and vitality remained in Tanzhou would likely be beaten out of it as well. Now that someone can hand over the city, he could not ask for more.

"Ma Xichong's son is holding Langzhou. Does Zhongju have a good plan?"

Besides Tanzhou, the only remaining essence of the Ma Chu realm was Langzhou, so Zhang Zhao asked at once.

Xu Zhongju cupped his hands and replied, "When Ma Xichong entered Tanzhou, he brought with him the greater part of the Wuping Army under his command.

After Zhu Jinzhong's defeat, Ma Guangzan did not dare let the Xidong barbarian troops and the Wuping Army's defeated soldiers enter the city, so most of the garrison in Langzhou are not Ma Xichong's trusted men.

Moreover, Lord Zhang of Zhangye has already cut off Langzhou's contact with the various barbarians of the Wuling Mountains. They have lost outside aid, and the only thing they are still hesitating over is the direction of Tanzhou.

If the Sage would issue an edict enumerating Ma Xichong's crimes, order a punitive expedition, and have letters cast into the city, the Langzhou troops will surely bind Ma Guangzan and come offer the city."

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Zhang Zhao understood. "Zhongju is saying that the reason the Langzhou garrison has not opened the gates and offered the city is that they fear I would pardon Ma Xichong, and so they dare not seize Ma Guangzan?"

"That is exactly so. Therefore, as soon as Your Majesty issues the punitive edict, Langzhou can be pacified," Xu Zhongju answered with certainty.

Only then did Zhang Zhao feel at ease. He immediately had Li Fang draft the punitive edict and ordered Zhang Cheng to go notify Zhang Zhaojun to prepare to contact the people inside Langzhou at any time and seize the city.

As for Zhang Zhao himself, he prepared to lead the army to Tanzhou by forced night marches, to capture Ma Xichong and Ma Xichong.

In the second year of Shaoming of the Great Zhou, the fifteenth day of the eleventh month of the year 947, Zhang Zhao issued the punitive edict at Hubi Mountain, denouncing Ma Xichong for rebelling against his lord and setting himself up, for defying the court's commands, and for letting his troops plunder Tanzhou—great crimes of rebellion—and ordering Ma Xichong to come out of the city and surrender at once.

That same day, Zhang Zhao ordered Li Cunhui to lead six thousand infantry and cavalry to the outskirts of Tanzhou. Only then did Ma Xichong learn that the court's great army had long since defeated Zhu Jinzhong and already reached Tanzhou.

In terror, he at once sent men to summon Ma Xichong, who was in charge of military and political affairs.

But Ma Xichong had waited long for Xu Zhongju without his return, and immediately knew things had gone badly wrong.

He left Tanzhou by the north gate with his personal followers, intending to flee to Yuanzhou in the Southern Tang (Yichun in Jiangxi) to take refuge. But no sooner had he left the city than he was spotted by fishermen on the Yuan River.

The fishermen bitterly hated Ma Xichong for bringing disaster upon Tanzhou, so they gathered a crowd, killed more than ten of Ma Xichong's attendants, and seized him, then sent him to Tanzhou.

Almost at the same time, Wang Jinkui and Zhou Xingfeng and the others opened Tanzhou's west and south gates as agreed, welcoming Li Cunhui's great army into the city.

Li Cunhui drove straight in. Tang Shizhu, Commander of the Hunan Army and a trusted man of Ma Xichong, led more than a thousand soldiers in an attempt to resist.

But how could they possibly be a match for Zhang Zhou's personal army? The battle lasted less than half a shichen. Zhang Cheng shot and killed Tang Shizhu. Of the thousand-odd Hunan Army soldiers, more than three hundred were killed, and all the rest were captured.

Afterward, Li Cunhui captured several dozen of Ma Xichong's concubines, male favorites, and others among the ruins of the Nine Dragons Hall.

On the sixteenth day of the eleventh month, after the Langzhou garrison received Zhang Zhao's punitive proclamation, it happened exactly as Xu Zhongju had predicted: the soldiers seized and killed Ma Xichong's son Ma Guangzan, along with several dozen members of Ma Xichong's household.

Zhang Zhaojun, following Zhang Zhao's edict, executed Ma Guangzan and more than twenty other officers who had committed evil deeds just outside the city of Langzhou, and Langzhou was pacified.

On the seventeenth day of the eleventh month, just as Zhang Zhao entered Tanzhou, the old Daoist Ma Xizhen came as promised, bringing Ma Guangquan, eldest son of Ma Xizhan, Military Governor of the Jingjiang Army in Guizhou, along with his wife and children, thirteen people in all, to pay their respects.

On the eighteenth day of the eleventh month, Zhang Zhaojun sent Guo Rong, Zhao Kuangyin, and other commanders out on separate routes. On the north and south banks of the Yuan River, they once more routed more than twenty thousand Xidong barbarian troops of the Xiang and Tian clans from Langzhou, capturing several dozen barbarian chieftains great and small. The barbarian dead floated for dozens of li, and the survivors fled in panic back into the Wuling Mountains.

Peng Shisong also took Zhang Zhao's edict and returned to Xi, Chen, and the other prefectures to persuade his father Peng Shichou to go to Tanzhou to have an audience with Zhang Zhao.

In the city of Tanzhou, Zhang Zhao walked across a field of rubble. Following beside him was only one burly man, powerfully built, with a blue sparrow tattoo faintly visible on his neck—none other than Guo Wei.

"Is the Grand Commandant still in good health?" Zhang Zhao asked lightly. Guo Wei held the honorary title of Acting Grand Commandant, so Zhang Zhao called him Grand Commandant.

Although Guo Wei did not know why Zhang Zhao asked him this, he still cupped his hands and answered according to protocol: "Though I am nearing fifty, and can no longer eat a dou of rice and ten jin of meat a day like Lian Po of old, I can still serve the Sage with tooth and claw for another ten years."

Zhang Zhao laughed heartily and did not raise the matter again. Historically, Guo Wei died in 954, still seven years away. And historically, the reason Guo Wei died after only a few years as emperor was that Liu Chengyou had done him harm.

No matter who it is, if in his fifties his entire family of several dozen is suddenly killed, he would not be able to bear it.

Not to mention that after founding the Later Zhou, Guo Wei suppressed his grief by rising early and sleeping late to handle state affairs. It was only natural his body could not hold up.

The current Guo Wei had none of those worries. He would probably live another dozen years or so without much trouble, and the affairs of Hunan could safely be entrusted to him.

So Zhang Zhao pointed at the ruins of the Tianci Mansion—once magnificent, now a field of rubble—and said to Guo Wei:

"Grand Commandant, look at this place. In former years, Ma Wumu, emulating the Taizong Wen Emperor, opened the Tianci Mansion and gathered Hunan's literati as the Eighteen Scholars of the Tianci Mansion. He quickly brought stability to Hunan, where the people had suffered terribly since the chaos of Lei Man.

I have looked across the whole realm. In the past hundred years, the only ones who could promote culture and learning were Li Bian of the Southern Tang and King Wumu of Chu. Yet Li Bian promoted culture and learning but could not employ worthy ministers, and so fell a notch short of Ma Yin.

Men like Zhu Wen of the Former Liang and Li Yazi of the Later Dynasty are truly unworthy to be lords of the realm.

For they understand only destruction, not construction. Had Ma Yin occupied the position of Zhu or Li, the realm would have been at peace long ago."

Guo Wei did not agree or disagree, because Zhang Zhao's words were somewhat absolute. In his heart, Guo Wei felt that Zhu Wen had actually been rather capable at construction.

Of course, he could not contradict Zhang Zhao at this moment, so he nodded and asked, "Does the Sage wish me to promote culture and learning in Hunan and bring peace to the four directions?"

A trace of a smile appeared on Zhang Zhao's face. "The Grand Commandant truly knows me. The realm is now gradually turning from chaos to order. If you guard Hunan for me, and can follow King Wumu of Chu's strategy, making use of local literati, you will quickly bring great order to the region."

Guo Wei shook his large head repeatedly. "I am a military man, and have never been one for reading. I am not the talent for carrying out civil governance, and I fear I would fail the Sage's trust."

Zhang Zhao burst out laughing. He looked at Guo Wei with deep meaning. What a joke—the founding emperor of the Later Zhou, whose governance was more comprehensive than Guo Rong's, unable to promote civil governance or govern Hunan well? How could that be possible?

"Men like Gao Xingzhou, An Shenqi, and He Fujin truly cannot. But you, Guo Wei—you certainly can!"

Guo Wei's expression shifted twice, and finally he gathered his courage and looked at Zhang Zhao: "I am a surrendered subject from Hedong, and it has been only a few months since I submitted. Hunan is newly attached separatist territory. If the Sage suddenly grants me full authority, does he not fear that I might harbor thoughts I should not harbor?"

These words were ones Guo Wei had long kept buried in his heart. He even wondered whether Zhang Zhao had deliberately placed him in Hunan precisely so that he would harbor thoughts he should not harbor, giving him an excuse to kill him.

Zhang Zhao did not look at Guo Wei, but instead gazed at the rubble before him and said, "Grand Commandant, do not overthink. I use you because I know you have the ability to guard Hunan well for me.

Of course, if you dare harbor disloyalty, I would not even need to personally lead an army of tigers and wolves. I would only need to send one or two petty clerks, and you would have no choice but to submit and be captured."

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao finally turned to Guo Wei. "Use no one you doubt, doubt no one you use! Since I dare use you, I have never thought you would harbor disloyalty—and I fear it even less."

Guo Wei finally prostrated himself on the ground, and amid the rubble, said in a clear voice: "Having received the Sage's trust, how could I not serve with all my heart and strength!"

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