Chapter 683: One Wave Has Not Yet Settled Before Another Rises

In the third year of Zhang Zhou's Shaoming era, 948 CE, on the twenty-seventh day of the sixth month, the somewhat dragging war to destroy Shu finally came to a complete end.

After the Shu-conquering field headquarters office in Chengdu Prefecture was dissolved, Ma Zhaoyuan, following Zhang Zhao's instructions, dissolved the Shu-pacifying field headquarters office in Fuzhou.

Ma Zhaoyuan handed over his military and political authority to the incoming Surveillance Commissioner of the Jiannan-Sichuan Province and Pacification Commissioner of the Ningjiang Circuit, Zhe Deyi, then led Du Lun Chixin, Zhao Kuangyin, Shi Yanchao, and other generals back to Jiangling Prefecture to continue serving as the Chief Administrator of Hubei Province.

Afterward, Zhang Zhao issued an edict granting the Marquis of Lintao, Du Lun Chixin, the surname Du, changing his name to Du Chixin, and immediately transferred him to Xiangyang Prefecture to take over the posts of Prefect of Xiangyang Prefecture and Military Supervisor of Xiangyang Prefecture from the Duke of Jincheng Commandery, Erzhu Jing.

The Yangtze Fleet originally commanded by Du Chixin was handed over in its entirety to the Prefect of Yueyang Prefecture, Military Supervisor of Yueyang Prefecture, Grand River Naval Patrol Commissioner, and the Emperor's adopted son, Zhao Yanjin.

After Du Chixin set out, the Marquis of Xixiang, Li Rong, led the Zhaoyi Garrison of the imperial guards, and the Count of Zhongzhou, Zhao Kuangyin, led the Right Longxiang Guard of the personal army, both transferred by Zhang Zhao to Yueyang Prefecture.

Who this was aimed at was already quite obvious. Zhu Kuangye, the Military Governor of Wuchang Army in Ezhou under the Southern Tang who had succeeded He Jingzhu, was scared out of his wits and directly began "demolition and relocation."

He moved away all the common people between Yueyang Prefecture and Ezhou, fearing they would be seized by Zhao Yanjin as civilian laborers, and at the same time sent word of Shu's destruction to Jiangning Prefecture.

In Shu, as Ma Zhaoyuan withdrew, the chief officials of the various circuits of Shu arrived at their posts one after another.

Zhang Zhao ordered Yin Zhengqi to preside over land equalization and the recruitment of guard-post troops in Ya'an Prefecture, Nanxi Prefecture, Zizhou, Luzhou, Bazhong Prefecture, Fuzhou, Kuizhou Prefecture, and other places.

Afterward, he established the Yongping Garrison of the imperial guards in Ya'an Prefecture, the Pingnan Garrison of the imperial guards in Nanxi Prefecture, the Baoning Garrison of the imperial guards in Bazhong Prefecture, and the Ningjiang Garrison of the imperial guards in Kuizhou Prefecture.

He also recruited brave men of Shu in Chengdu Prefecture to form the Left Huben Guard of the personal army, while leaving the Right Jinwu Guard of the personal army garrisoned in Chengdu to strengthen the forces under Yin Yaozi's command for suppressing Shu.

On the first day of the seventh month, after the Shu-pacifying army had returned to Hubei Province, the Shu-conquering army also began its return. Returning with the army were the ruler of Shu, Meng Chang, and the entire Meng clan.

Feng Dao, who had been unable to go up to Songpan Prefecture due to altitude sickness, had been in Chengdu all along assisting Yin Yaozi in overseeing the inventory of the Meng royal clan's properties.

In fact, it was not just the two of them; the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, the Brocade Guard, and the Money Bureau were also involved.

One layer after another, though some embezzlement by certain people was unavoidable, those were only small portions; the bulk would still go to me, Sage Zhang.

From the entire Meng clan, and especially from Meng Chang's three great palaces, a vast amount of gold, silver, and treasure was confiscated.

Antiques and curios alone — heirloom paintings, famous calligraphy scrolls, sole surviving and lost editions of books and texts — filled a full seven large carts.

Although this is an age of chaos and antiques are not worth much, in Zhang Zhao's eyes they were priceless treasures!

Subsequently, the confiscation of Meng clan property yielded more than 1.7 million strings of cash and over two million mu of farmland.

Yin Yaozi also confiscated the properties of great clans in Shu harboring ill intentions, obtaining 3.5 million strings of cash and close to five million mu of farmland.

Zhang Zhao ordered the various offices to transport the antiques and curios, calligraphy and painting albums, gold, silver, and jewels among them to the divine capital, Luoyang.

The grain, cloth, and metals called gold but actually brass and the like were left in Shu as resource reserves for the campaign against the Duan clan's Dali Kingdom.

At the same time, of these seven million mu of land, only 300,000 mu of top-grade fields outside Chengdu Prefecture were reserved for the imperial household; all the rest was equalized among the imperial guards, guard-post troops, and the like, as well as used to reward the civilian laborers who had followed the army on campaign and were willing to remain in Shu.

The palace maids in the imperial palace, apart from a portion married off to the officers and soldiers garrisoning Shu, were all released to return home if they wished; those unwilling to return home were taken along with the army.

The Shu emperor Meng Chang, the Empress Dowager Li, the Grand Consort Li, the Noble Consort Li Yanniang, the Prince of Yan of Meng Shu, Meng Yiye, and other members of the royal clan, more than 140 people in all, were personally guarded by the Right Yulin Guard and escorted to Chang'an.

Those great clans who had incited the Meng Shu army to rebel and bribed Zhou troops entering Shu to cause trouble were all arrested to the last member of their clans — more than ten thousand people in total — and departed Shu northward with the army.

Traveling with them were Zhao Tingyin, Shi Yun, and other old men of Daibei and Hedong who had originally followed Meng Zhixiang into Shu, all heading toward Chang'an.

Among the civil officials, Li Hao, Mu Zhaoyi, Wang Chuhui, and other Meng Shu ministers were also summoned to serve at court.

The vast procession of tens of thousands had just reached Mianyang Prefecture when an edict arrived from Zhang Zhao in Chang'an, demoting the ruler of Meng Shu, Meng Chang, to Duke of Xingguo, with a stipend fief of three thousand households, actually three hundred households.

But only two days later, when the army had just reached Jiangyou County, another edict arrived.

This one was very severe: Zhang Zhao demoted the Duke of Xingguo, Meng Chang, to Marquis Who Violated Orders.

He also ordered the army's commander-in-chief, the Duke of Shen, Li Cunhui, to immediately execute Li Tinggui, Hou Lingtu, and other favored attendants who had once urged Meng Chang to advance into Guanzhong, and to have Meng Shu ministers such as Wang Chuhui beaten with rods.

Five days later, when the procession reached the post station outside Jianzhou city, the one who came this time was the Deputy Commander of the Brocade Guard, Zhang Lieming, and the edict he brought was even harsher.

Zhang Lieming, by Zhang Zhao's order, publicly rebuked Meng Chang for his insatiable greed, for provoking conflict between the two states, and for causing countless deaths and injuries among the common people.

Afterward, although Meng Chang's title was not lowered again, Zhang Lieming brought rod-beating executioners from the Brocade Guard and publicly had all the close attendants and guards around Meng Chang beaten, with more than thirty beaten to death on the spot.

The Meng Shu Empress Dowager Li closed her eyes in anguish. She knew the reasons given on the surface were all false.

The real reason was that ever since leaving Chengdu, although Meng Chang was a prisoner, his food, clothing, and daily expenses were still as refined as an emperor's, his close attendants still addressed him as "the Sage," and when Meng Chang spoke with his favored attendants, he often voiced words of discontent.

This showed not the slightest awareness of being the ruler of a fallen state! He was simply bringing suffering upon himself.

Li had admonished him several times, but Meng Chang responded with silence, as if he somewhat deliberately wished for death.

But if you wish to die, why did you not resolutely die for your country before the Zhou army entered Chengdu Prefecture? What meaning is there in doing all this now?

He could not even die with dignity. The Empress Dowager Li truly despaired of her own son.

Of course, neither the Empress Dowager Li nor Meng Chang knew that Zhang Zhao truly did want to kill Meng Chang.

Toward Gao Baorong, Ma Xiguang, and even Gao Baoxu and Ma Xi'e, Zhang Zhao had never felt such a strong desire.

It was certainly not because of Lady Huaxin. Lady Fei was an extremely beautiful woman, but Zhang Zhao had not yet met her.

In the earlier period, it was because Lady Fei had fallen seriously ill when she was sent to Hanzhong.

The girl was only in her teens, just in the midst of passionate love with the ruler of Meng, but then all her dreams shattered — she was given by her own mother-in-law to a man nearly twenty years older, and with the jolting journey, it was already quite remarkable that she managed to hold out until Hanzhong Prefecture before falling ill.

Historically, when Lady Fei entered the Eastern Capital, she was already a mature woman in her thirties who had seen every kind of situation and had passed the age of treating love as the whole of life, so of course she could adapt quickly. But now it would not do.

She recuperated in Hanzhong for over half a month before her condition slightly improved, and when she finally reached the Jingzhao Chang'an Prefecture, she wept daily from longing for Shu.

Because of this, even though those below had received great benefits from the Shu Empress Dowager Li and the Princess Fuxing, Li, none dared to be so reckless as to send such a sickly, frail, weeping little beauty — thinner than a chrysanthemum — before the Emperor.

Therefore, they could only find a way to bring Lady Fei's parents from Shu, first reuniting the family and having her family console her, and only after her mood improved did they dare send her to Zhang Zhao.

It must be said that this Lady Fei was indeed extraordinarily beautiful, because without such beauty, even if the palace eunuchs around Zhang Zhao had received a thousand strings of cash from Princess Fuxing, they would not have treated her so leniently.

The Emperor's side does not lack beauties. For one so troublesome, without astonishing beauty, a good-tempered eunuch might simply leave her there ignored.

A more hard-hearted one would directly have her sent back the way she came. Given Lady Fei's body and her pent-up feelings, even if she did not die on the road back to Shu, once back in Shu she would be beaten to death by the Shu Empress Dowager Li, who was desperate to save her son's life.

So this world really does judge by appearances. Even in illness, after Dong Chao — the eunuch Zhang Zhao trusted most, the Junior Supervisor of the Palace Domestic Service and Commissioner of Jinshan Palace — saw Lady Fei, he immediately hired famous physicians to treat her, specially arranged a large residence in Chang'an, and asked the Hexi Chamber of Commerce to bring Lady Fei's parents and siblings over as well.

For no other reason than that this woman's appearance was absolutely gorgeous — exactly the type Sage Zhang liked most — and once she entered the palace she would surely win his favor.

However, Lady Fei still had not found an opportunity to be sent before Zhang Zhao. The Shu Empress Dowager had squeezed money from her own private savings to bribe people everywhere, all to no avail.

Because during the army's triumphant return, first the Director of the Department of State Affairs and Chief Minister Zhang Xichong of the Zhang Zhou court died of illness, and then, not five days later, the second son of the Cao family of Shazhou, Cao Yuanshen, also died of illness.

Although Cao Yuanshen had always been opposing Zhang Zhao — though "opposing" is not quite right, as he did not even have the standing for that — his death greatly affected Zhang Zhao's next strategic move.

First of all, Yin Yaozi, Yin Zhengqi, as his son-in-law — should he return to handle the funeral affairs?

A round trip like that would take two months at the least, three or four at most — but Yin Zhengqi could not leave for even twenty days, let alone two months.

Moreover, Cao Yanzong, the son of Cao Yuanshen who was stationed at Gaochang to hold Beiting for Zhang Zhao, would certainly have to return home for the mourning period.

At present, among those around Zhang Zhou whom Zhang Zhao could trust and who were also willing to go to a place as far away as Gaochang, there were truly very few.

The second matter was that Guo Xuanqing, patriarch of the Guo family of Suyab and a Nestorian Dignitary of Great Virtue, had died of illness four months earlier. The Guo family's successor was a man named Guo Guangyi.

That seems unremarkable, doesn't it? But in fact the problem was enormous. First, the news of Guo Xuanqing's death had not been delivered by anyone sent from the Guo family — it had been brought back by traveling merchants.

Second, Guo Guangyi was not Guo Xuanqing's son. He was a man Zhang Zhao barely had any impression of; presumably back when Zhang Zhao was in Suyab, he had been a nobody.

Yet now, in little more than ten years, he had leapfrogged Guo Xuanqing's four sons to take over the succession. He was bound to be extraordinary.

Furthermore, although Guo Xuanqing clung to power and was unwilling to lose his grip on Suyab, he himself was not opposed to returning to the fold.

He merely wanted to be a Mu Ying of later ages — at most, an existence like that of Joseon under the Li clan.

And now that Guo Xuanqing's sons had failed to succeed him, it was highly likely that the outright independence faction within the Guo family had gained the upper hand.

Sure enough, a little over a month later, Old Zhang Zhong, the Commander of Ningyuan, delivered top-secret intelligence.

A bloody coup had erupted within the Guo family of Suyab!

Guo Guangyi had colluded with Li Guoshou of Talas, and after Guo Xuanqing's death they launched a coup. All four of Guo Xuanqing's sons were killed in the coup.

The newly ascendant Guo Guangyi was, exactly as Zhang Zhao had anticipated, pushed into power by the independence faction within the Guo family and Suyab itself.

Word was spreading that Li Guoshou of Talas and Guo Guangyi had already reached an agreement: the two were secretly plotting to make Suyab their capital and establish a khanate, with Guo Guangyi as senior khan and Li Guoshou as junior khan.

Zhang Zhao's brow furrowed deeply. Li Guoshou and his sons did not have that kind of cunning. For them to even keep the various peoples around Talas in check would already have far exceeded Zhang Zhao's expectations.

Who exactly had brokered this cooperation between the Guo family's opposition forces and Li Guoshou?

Hamid of Samanid Persia should not have had that ability either. Could it be that Samanid Persia had produced a new and capable king?

Or was it the doing of that unkillable cockroach, Bughra Khan Satuq, weaving his connections everywhere?

The situation was developing in the direction Zhang Zhao least wished to see.

Losing control of the Guo family of Suyab essentially severed one of Zhang Zhao's hands reaching from Suyab toward Transoxiana and Persia. The consequences could not be called anything but severe.

And Zhang Zhao knew that no matter who had done this, neither he nor the Central Plains court could continue to sit by and do nothing.

This was blatant rebellion — a hundred times more serious than merely being negligent about tribute in the past.

Such an act could not possibly go unpunished, unless Zhang Zhao was willing to abandon Transoxiana.

It was just that, given the current strength of the Khotan Golden Kingdom and the two provinces of Anxi and Beiting, they held the advantage even when facing the Guo family of Suyab, the Li family, or even Satuq.

But the entire Western Regions under Li Shengtian's leadership had one very obvious weakness.

That was, after Zhang Zhao had taken all his elite troops back east, Li Shengtian's command lacked a great marshal of the caliber of Murong Xinzhang, Ma Zhaoyuan, Guo Que'er, or Yin Yaozi.

It also lacked generals of a theater command level such as Li Cunhui, Guo Rong, or Zhao Kuangyin.

If Li Shengtian were rashly to organize a great army to go on campaign — ah! Zhang Zhao recalled those years in Khotan, and Li Shengtian's skill and ability at directing military affairs.

One couldn't say he had none, but it probably did not even match his father-in-law Cao Yuanzhong.

He could fight, certainly — but crossing mountains and ridges all the way to Suyab, the chance of defeat was not small either.

Even Li Shengtian himself lacked that confidence. After Zhang Zhao passed the news to Li Shengtian, this imperial uncle and Son of Heaven showed not the slightest excitement or any intention of returning to lead a great army to chastise the disloyal.

On the contrary, he seemed somewhat worried. For when Li Shengtian had come to the Central Plains, he had sent men to teach Guo Xuanqing of Suyab and Li Guoshou of Talas a lesson.

But that had been built on the fact that Guo Xuanqing knew Zhang Zhao's methods, and Li Guoshou deeply feared Zhang Zhao.

Neither of those two leaders was willing, nor dared, to thoroughly provoke Zhang Zhao, so they had submitted to the several thousand troops from the Khotan Golden Kingdom and agreed to send men to follow Li Shengtian and beg Zhang Zhao's forgiveness.

But now Guo Xuanqing was dead, and Li Guoshou seemed to have hardened his resolve. This was no longer something three or four thousand troops could settle, and Li Shengtian naturally had no full confidence in fighting such a battle.

And just when his head was splitting with pain, the Brocade Guard reported to Zhang Zhao the full record of Meng Chang's self-destructive antics.

Zhang Zhao, already seething with nowhere to vent his rage, immediately wanted to order the Brocade Guard to send word to Li Cunhui, telling him to cut Meng Chang down with a single stroke right there by the Fu River.

Fortunately, Cao Yuanzhong and Wei Renpu strongly urged Zhang Zhao not to do so, and Li Shengtian also said that Meng Chang was, after all, a regional lord and should be granted some dignity.

Only then did Zhang Zhao order the imperial envoy recalled, and instead bestowed upon Meng Chang the title of Marquis Who Defied Orders — the very title Zhao Da had given Li Yu in history.

Still not satisfied, he then ordered all the inner attendants by Meng Chang's side beaten to death with staves before he finally let the matter rest.

Related