Chapter 654: Who Among Us Is Not an Ox or a Horse

The Gao family had left Jiangling Prefecture, and Zhang Zhao did not intend to linger either. He was anxious to return to the eastern capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, before New Year's Day to celebrate the new year, so he hastily convened an imperial council in Jiangling Prefecture.

The civil officials and military commanders still in Jiangling at this time included Ma Zhaoyuan, Liu Zaisheng, Erzhu Jing, Luo Shande, Du Lun Chixin, Cui Huxin, Guo Rong, Zhao Kuangyin, Wang Quanbin, Wang Shenqi, and others.

Counting the personal army and the palace army now in Jiangling Prefecture together, there were still roughly thirty-five thousand men, but Zhang Zhao was certain to take more than half with him. The guard-post troops were still being built up and could not be of much use, so the troops actually available were not especially abundant.

Zhang Zhao turned his gaze to Ma Zhaoyuan, who had been holding Jiangling all this time. "How is Meng Shu's defense at Kuizhou? What is the strength of the Ningjiang Army Military Governor?"

Kuizhou was what later generations called Fengjie County in Chongqing — the place of White Emperor City, where Liu Bei entrusted his orphan to Zhuge Liang.

Compared with Wang Shu, Meng Shu had lost Guizhou (Zigui, Hubei) and Xiazhou (Yichang, Hubei) east of Kuizhou, so its entire Yangtze defense line had contracted to the seat of the Ningjiang Army Military Governor, centered on Kuizhou.

Ma Zhaoyuan walked over to the map and began reporting to Zhang Zhao the information he had gathered.

Unexpectedly, the Ningjiang Army Military Governor at Kuizhou turned out to be an old acquaintance — none other than Gao Yanchou, the man captured during the Guanzhong campaign and released last year.

Of course it would be Gao Yanchou. He was a loyal minister certified by Zhang Zhao, this Son of Heaven of Zhou, and his own abilities were not bad either.

In the Shu army's advance into Guanzhong, Gao Yanchou had arrayed six thousand Zhaowu Army troops on Niushou Mountain, repeatedly beating back the attacks of Feng Hui and Cao Yuanzhong, and only surrendered under duress after the main Shu army collapsed.

Zhang Zhao interrupted Ma Zhaoyuan's report, pondered a moment, and said quietly, "It seems this brat Meng Chang does have something of the look of a worthy lord after all.

I had expected Meng Chang would never employ men like Gao Yanchou again, but to my surprise he can actually tell right from wrong."

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao rubbed his hands together in excitement. "Then all the more reason not to leave this brat alive! Yaozi, continue."

Ma Zhaoyuan nodded and went on. "Meng Shu's defense of the Ningjiang Army at Kuizhou relies mainly on two points.

First, they have set up large numbers of stone-throwers on Chijia Mountain and Baiyan Mountain to seal off the river. The Ningjiang Army's fleet is composed mostly of large warships. In battle they use their hulls to block enemy warships coming upstream, then pound them with the stone-throwers.

For the city defenses, White Emperor City and Kuizhou City support each other like horns. Elite troops are stationed in the stronghold of White Emperor City as the nail, while Kuizhou City holds a garrison of eight thousand as the hammer. With warships in support, it is extremely difficult to take."

The stone-throwers Ma Zhaoyuan mentioned were a type of large catapult.

Chijia Mountain and Baiyan Mountain were the high mountains standing on the north and south banks of the Yangtze. The two steep peaks pinched the Yangtze between them, forming the famous Kuimen Gate.

In the "Kuimen, Mightiest Under Heaven" image on the back of the ten-yuan renminbi note, the two gate-like peaks are Chijia Mountain and Baiyan Mountain.

From Jiangling up the Yangtze waterway, especially above Xiazhou, the channel was narrow, the current swift, and submerged reefs numerous.

After finally fighting through Kuimen, the Shu army would block the river with great warships while stones rained down from the mountains on both banks. Even if you had three heads and six arms, you would still take a terrible beating.

And even if you fought your way past, there was still White Emperor City, the stronghold commanding the Yangtze, and the eight thousand crack troops in Kuizhou City. One could say that a direct assault would be very difficult for any ordinary army to break through.

"Is there a way to break in?" Zhang Zhao's expression turned serious this time.

Strategically he scorned Meng Shu, because Meng Shu could not possibly use one corner of Shu to block the great trend of the realm.

But tactically it had to be given full respect — for no other reason than that, like Kuizhou, the terrain advantage of Shu was simply too great.

"There is!" Ma Zhaoyuan was very confident. Zhang Zhao had not taken him on the campaign against Ma Chu precisely so he could perfect the battle plan for breaking into Shu from the Yangtze. If he could not manage even this, then his place as one of the five hounds of the Shaoming Son of Heaven would have been utterly undeserved.

"East of Kuimen there is a small town called Dachang Ford. It is the only ferry along the great river between Kuizhou and Guizhou where large numbers of warships can be moored.

The ford is only ninety li from White Emperor City. Our army could land at Dachang, then approach White Emperor City overland and seize the stone-throwers by the river.

We could even take White Emperor City by surprise, which would render the Shu army's stone-throwers completely useless."

Zhang Zhao showed no delight; instead he frowned slightly. If White Emperor City, the gateway to the Sichuan river route, could be slipped past so easily, it would not deserve to bear such a heavy responsibility.

After a moment's recollection, Zhang Zhao remembered: White Emperor City lay in eastern Sichuan, right on the foothills of the Daba and Wu mountain ranges.

Even in the Republic era, highways did not reach the area until after the 2010s. A whole cluster of poverty-stricken counties spanning Shaanxi, Chongqing, and Hubei were gathered there, notorious for high mountains, dense forests, steep slopes, and sheer cliffs. How could it be so easy to pass through?

Besides, if such a gap existed, would the Shu army not have taken care to defend it?

Ma Zhaoyuan gave a sly grin. "The Sage is indeed wise. Between Dachang Ford and White Emperor City lies a high mountain called Yunpan Ridge. The Shu army has built a stockade called Yunpan Fort at a key point on the mountainside, garrisoned with three hundred men as a guard.

However, one of the guard officers at Yunpan Fort is a Zhaowu Army prisoner we released back to Shu.

I, Yaozi, have already made contact with him. He wants that when the Sage establishes guard-post troops in Kuizhou in the future, he can serve a term as a guard-post chiliarch."

"Give it to him! A guard-post chiliarch — this old man can afford that."

Zhang Zhao made the decision on the spot. A guard-post chiliarch could control only about a thousand guard troops, some three hundred mu of office land, and twenty or thirty strings of cash in annual pay. Trading that for a White Emperor City was absolutely worth it.

Since Ma Yaozi had a plan, Zhang Zhao was no longer worried.

Moreover, the campaign against Shu certainly would not go by the Yangtze route alone. In fact, Ma Yaozi's route could only be considered a diversionary force.

His greatest use was to open a breach on the Yangtze and provide insurance for the main army's invasion of Shu.

Because the Sichuan river channel on this route was extremely difficult to travel, and the overland route also required crossing mountains and ridges, starting from Xiazhou (Yichang), logistics could at most support an advance as far as Zhongzhou (Zhong County, Chongqing) and Fuzhou (Fuling, Chongqing).

The main force still had to fight the battle of Hanzhong first to draw enemy attention, then send a small number of elite troops south over the mountains from the Qinzhou (Tianshui) area, heading straight for the Chengdu plain, in order to take central Shu at the smallest cost and in the shortest time.

On the twenty-second day of the twelfth month, after concluding the imperial war council in Jiangling Prefecture, Zhang Zhao left Jiangling Prefecture at the head of fifteen thousand infantry and cavalry.

When he departed, Zhang Zhao left Zhao Kuangyin and Murong Yanzhao with Ma Zhaoyuan — once again preparing to send Zhao the Elder over Yunpan Ridge to do the most dangerous work!

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, Zhang Zhao reached Xiangyang Prefecture and brought Erzhu Jing back to Xiangyang, ordering him to lead the palace army's Feng'an Garrison and the guard-post army's Xiangyang Guard in defending Xiangyang.

Zhang Zhao also had Erzhu Jing prepare a small fleet to be stationed at Jinzhou (Ankang, Shaanxi).

Once the main force launched the Hanzhong campaign, this fleet would advance up the Han River to attack the seat of the Wuding Army Military Governor at Yuanzhou, the eastern gate of Hanzhong held by Meng Shu — what later generations called Yang County, Shaanxi.

The same day, Zhang Zhao issued an edict at Xiangyang, combining Xiangyang Prefecture with the nearby Suizhou, Yingzhou (Zhongxiang), Anzhou (Anlu), and Fuzhou (Tianmen).

Together with the former Southern Ping state's Jiangling Prefecture, Xiazhou (Yichang), and Guizhou (Zigui), these were merged to form Hubei Province.

Jiangling Prefecture was made the provincial capital of Hubei Province. Ma Zhaoyuan (Ma Yaozi) was appointed General Who Pacifies Shu, Commissioner Bearing the Staff with authority over all military affairs in the prefectures and counties of Hubei, and Riverine Water Route Inspector, with full authority over the matter of entering Shu by water.

Liu Zaisheng was transferred to serve as Hubei Province Chief Minister and Prefect of Jiangling, specifically to handle logistics for Ma Zhaoyuan's entry into Shu, and additionally to provide support should any incident occur in Hunan Province.

Erzhu Jing was appointed Deputy General Who Pacifies Shu, Prefect of Xiangyang, Military Supervisor of Xiangyang Prefecture, Regional Commander of Feng'an Garrison, and Commander of Xiangyang Guard, with the duty of assisting the main army in the decisive battle for Hanzhong.

With this, after arranging the strategy for entering Shu by water, Zhang Zhao finally made the office of Military Governor a thing of history.

For example, Erzhu Jing's long string of offices, in the past, would have been summed up by a single title: Military Governor of Shannan West Circuit.

But now, not one of these appended offices could be omitted.

Without the office of Prefect of Xiangyang, Erzhu Jing could not direct Xiangyang's civil administration.

Without the post of Regional Commander of Feng'an Garrison, he would have no armed force akin to yabing guards under his command.

Without the titles of Military Supervisor of Xiangyang Prefecture and Commander of Xiangyang Guard, he could not command the guard-post troops of all the prefectures and counties of Xiangyang, nor the patrol officers and the members of the staff societies and archery societies scattered through the countryside.

Thus in the future, Zhang Zhou would no longer see military provinces carving out independent fiefs. Zhang Zhao needed only to strip Erzhu Jing of any one of these offices to deprive him of the ability to break away.

Moreover, once the civil and military examination systems were properly established in the future, there would be no shortage of people coming to serve as officials, and power would naturally be dispersed.

In the second year of Shaoming, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Zhang Zhao, traveling light with ten thousand infantry and cavalry, finally returned to the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, before the New Year.

He had just entered the palace and had not yet had a chance to rest when Zhang Zhao had to go pay his respects to his legal mother, the Empress Dowager Ciyou.

It turned out that the Great King of the Jin Kingdom and the Grand Princess of Wei, Cao Yuanxin, had already been in the Central Plains for a year. Once this New Year was over, they were to prepare to return to Anxi. The Empress Dowager Ciyou could not bear to see her own younger brother leave, and in her depression she had caught a cold.

Moreover, the condition of this legal mother of Sage Zhang was somewhat worrying. So far, she had been bedridden for more than ten days and had hardly gotten up to move around.

Added to the fact that she was already fifty-four this year, in this era, a mere cold could very well prove fatal.

Yet even so, none of the three — the Empress Dowager Ciyou, Zhang Zhao, or Li Shengtian — brought up the idea of Li Shengtian staying behind in the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture.

It was only after the visit ended and everyone had come out that Cao Yuanxin, her eyes red, glared at Zhang Zhao with deep emotion.

"The Sage is truly hard-hearted! For the sake of your great enterprise, you can cast everything else aside."

Zhang Zhao knew what Cao Yuanxin meant. If he were willing now to keep Li Shengtian in the Central Plains to accompany his legal mother, the Empress Dowager Ciyou, perhaps the Empress Dowager's illness would slowly improve.

Of course, this was something only Cao Yuanxin, who was like half a mother to him, dared to say. Had anyone else said it, Zhang Zhao would have had the palace attendants beat her to death by slapping her mouth.

Even Li Shengtian hurriedly cut Cao Yuanxin off. "Sanniang, watch your words! We were born into the imperial family. We receive the offerings of the people and enjoy inexhaustible wealth and honor. If we still try to evade even this small responsibility, then the ruin of the state and the destruction of our family will not be far off. This is the fate of those born into the imperial family."

Zhang Zhao thought for a moment, then slowly nodded, not hiding what was in his heart.

Did he feel sorry for his legal mother, the Empress Dowager Ciyou? Of course he did.

The old lady had only enjoyed a few good years in her old age. Back then, had she not constantly held Zhang Zhao in her arms to protect him, during Cao Yijin's coup Zhang Zhao would long ago have been picked up by some soldier and tossed into the moat.

But Zhang Zhao could not ruin his plans for the sake of the Empress Dowager Ciyou. Li Shengtian was an extremely important — indeed indispensable — figure for stabilizing Anxi.

Zhang Zhao needed him to hold Anxi for at least another ten years, giving himself the time to calmly complete the preparatory work of pacifying the Central Plains.

"Uncle is right. Aunt, look at those princesses of the mighty Han and the glorious Tang — the Han dynasty's Princess Xijun and Princess Jieyou, the Great Tang's Princess Wencheng and Princess Jincheng.

Which of them was not pitiable? But that is the fate and helplessness of being born into the imperial family."

Cao Yuanxin fell silent upon hearing this. In truth, was she herself not a 'princess' whom the Cao family had sent across the vast desert to Khotan for a marriage alliance?

Hearing Zhang Zhao speak thus, Cao Yuanxin walked up onto the wall of Xiangfu Palace, looked out at the bustling Eastern Capital, and could not hold back her tears, which streamed down.

"What a fine place! It already has five-tenths of the charm of the legendary Chang'an and the Divine Capital!"

After her sigh, Cao Yuanxin took the slender hairpin from her head and gently tapped the gold-and-jade armlet on her wrist, softly singing.

"My family married me off to the ends of the earth,

Sent far to a foreign land, to the King of the Wusun.

A felt tent for my chamber, felt for my walls,

Meat for my food, curds for my drink.

Ever homesick, my heart is wounded within,

Would that I were a yellow swan, flying home to my native land."

Zhang Zhao remained silent. He could tell — it was not that Li Shengtian did not want to return, but this aunt of his, Cao Yuanxin! Having seen the prosperity of the Central Plains, she certainly did not want to go back.

In fact, Zhang Zhao was mistaken. Li Shengtian did not want to go back either.

Go back for what? The Jin Kingdom of Khotan, though prosperous, was far inferior compared to a Central Plains that had recovered some of its vitality.

In Khotan, the food was nothing more than mutton, beef, and polished rice, at most with some cheese or camel meat added, and the cooking methods were limited to roasting and stewing.

But in the Central Plains, not only were the varieties of meat abundant, there were also the great white pears of Hebei, the Jiangnan pastries and all the delicacies of the sea from the Southern Tang and Wuyue, lychees from Lingnan, and vermilion peaches — cherries — from Shu.

The methods of preparation were endless: frying, boiling, braising, deep-frying, stir-frying, and scalding, plus the dogwood hotpot and the dabianlu stove that Zhang Zhao had invented. The Guiyi Tower boasted one hundred and eight famous dishes, and Li Shengtian had still not eaten his fill of them.

Add to that his status as the maternal uncle of the Son of Heaven — second only to one man and above all others in the Central Plains — and he was as grand as grand could be.

Every day he roamed scenic mountains and waters with famous literati from all over, exchanging music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and song. Who would want to travel ten thousand li back to Khotan to labor and toil guarding the gates of the realm?

This would not do! Zhang Zhao frowned. His imperial uncle, this perfect 996 border-guarding workhorse, could not be allowed to back out now!

If Khotan fell into the hands of his cousin Li Congde and younger cousin Li Congyu, heaven only knew whether those two brothers could manage it well.

He could not wait until after he had finished pacifying the Central Plains and returned, only to find beacon fires and rebellions everywhere in Anxi, forcing him to fight it all over again. That would be troublesome.

So Zhang Zhao looked at Li Shengtian, who had not expressed much of an opinion, and said:

"How could your nephew not wish for Uncle and Aunt to remain in the Central Plains, so that I might fulfill my filial duties day by day? But unfortunately, Cousin Congde and younger cousin Congyu are not yet able to fully grasp the situation in Anxi.

The Guo family of Suyab, the Li family of Talas, Sadiq of the An Yuan Kingdom, Rashid of Shunyi City, Hamid of Samanid Persia, and even that Zhang Bingzhong, the ruler of Zhenyuan, who dared to betray us — without Uncle there to hold the seat, I truly cannot set my mind at ease!"

Zhang Zhao alternated between calling himself 'your nephew' and 'I, the emperor,' subtly hinting at Li Shengtian's current situation. And when Li Shengtian heard Zhang Zhao speak thus, he truly could not let go in his heart.

If Li Congde and Li Congyu botched things, Zhang Zhao would merely be inconvenienced, but what Li Shengtian stood to lose were his own sons.

"The Sage's concerns are not without reason. It has been over a year since I left Anxi, and I too am somewhat worried. If there is the slightest error, I, Li Shengtian, will be a sinner before the court.

Besides, the former Bughra Khan Satuq of the Karakhanid Khanate is still alive, and we must remain on the highest alert."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Zhao immediately took Li Shengtian by the arm and said with deep sincerity: "Uncle, in five years at most, your nephew can sweep the Central Plains clean, and then spend five years building up strength.

In ten years at most, the imperial army will come west and fulfill the long-cherished wish in both our hearts to restore the Great Tang."

Li Shengtian likewise grasped Zhang Zhao's arm. "Good! In ten years, I shall await the Sage's imperial army in Khotan, and then we shall sweep through Transoxiana and India and accomplish an eternal great enterprise!"

(End of Chapter)

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