Chapter 691: The Buddhist Dharma Practitioner of the Supreme Heaven

In Zhang Zhou, the most direct way to enter the personal army and the imperial guards was through martial contests on the parade ground and meritorious service on the battlefield.

For example, in this great campaign to destroy Shu, the Guanzhong sworn followers Han Huzi, Gongsun Nian, and others who accompanied the army were, because of their military merit, directly absorbed into the Left Tiger Guard of the personal army that Yin Zhengqi formed in Chengdu Prefecture.

Zhang Zhao had also made inquiries about the families of Li Zun and Fan Changgong, and they really were Han Chinese.

The Li family was a great clan of Longxi, and the Fan family had formerly been a minor clan attached to the Li family.

It was only after Zhang Zhao established his regime and the outside world became less chaotic that the two families separated, but the Fan family still to a certain degree followed the Li family's direction.

The Li clan of Longxi, of course, was a great local clan. Even though the Great Tang had been fallen for so many years, and they had been ruled by the Tibetans for many years as well, there were still very many people surnamed Li throughout the Longxi region.

Although the Longxi Li lineage they claimed was for the most part quite unreliable, the local custom of many people bearing the surname Li and honoring Li still continued to be passed down.

Originally, with Li Zun and Fan Changgong's Han identity and family background, and with the merit of capturing a giant tiger alive, entering the imperial guards or the personal army would not have been very difficult.

But if the two of them wanted to enter the Hanshan Unit or the upper six guards of the personal army, that would not be easy. Without extraordinary ability, one could not enter that circle.

On the temporarily erected parade ground, cheers rose wave after wave.

Fan Changgong lived up to the name Changgong. In foot archery at seventy paces at a fixed target, he hit ten out of ten, six times striking the bullseye. In rapid march shooting with three lobbed shots and one direct shot, he four times struck the designated coverage area perfectly.

In mounted archery at a fixed target, he hit eight out of ten, twice striking the bullseye. In mounted archery competition, after successively shooting down eleven challengers, he was only then defeated due to exhaustion, ranking first among the fifty riders competing together.

Finally, after resting for half a watch, he could immediately draw a one-dan hard bow ten times with each hand. Clearly, not only was his sustained firepower output excellent, he was also an all-rounder who could shoot with either hand.

The sky-shaking cheers on the parade ground were the best acknowledgment of Fan Changgong's outstanding performance.

One must know that those who came to the parade ground today were all fine young men from various places. Without some real skill, one could not draw their cheers.

This is the good thing about martial men's contests: who is capable and who is not can be seen at a glance. There is no situation where you say he is good and he says he is not.

Amid the cheers, Fan Changgong walked to a distance of two hundred paces from Zhang Zhao, first removed his outer armor, then placed his bow, arrows, and saber on the ground in order, and bowed with his head to the ground.

Then he walked to one hundred paces and set down the long spear in his hand, and bowed again.

When he reached about thirty paces, he bowed three times with his head to the ground, then shouted loudly.

"Fan Changgong of Longxi is willing to serve as the Sage's claws and teeth!"

Zhang Zhao laughed three times, personally descended the steps, and helped Fan Changgong to his feet.

Supervisor Dong then shouted from the high platform, "Fan Changgong of Longxi, whose foot archery and mounted archery crown the parade ground, has been personally selected by the Sage to enter the right wing unit of the Hanshan Unit as..."

Hearing Supervisor Dong draw out the word "as," the entire parade ground immediately fell silent.

Because for someone like Fan Changgong, who was entering the Hanshan Unit directly and was very likely to be a junior officer, it was impossible to let him command the existing armored soldiers of the original Hanshan Unit.

Because he simply could not command them. So according to convention, this required newly recruited brave warriors to be supplemented for Fan Changgong to lead. Only after he gained prestige would he be integrated into it.

The warriors on the parade ground were concerned with how large an office the Emperor was willing to give Fan Changgong precisely because of this point.

If he was given a Jiangyuhou, that meant the Hanshan Unit would expand by one jiang, that is, one hundred men, at this parade ground.

If he was given a Shijiang, it would expand by one dui of fifty men.

If he was only given a Huozhang, then only ten men could enter the Hanshan Unit.

Amid the expectations of the multitude, after Supervisor Dong had thoroughly whetted everyone's appetite, he finally shouted, "Fan Changgong, enter the right wing unit of the Hanshan Unit as the Jiangyuhou of the newly established Thirteenth Jiang of the Third Sheng Unit of the Sixth Bing Camp."

"Long live! Long live! Long live!" This completely ignited the entire parade ground, with thousands upon thousands shouting "Long live" three times.

Fan Changgong, who had the best results, became a Jiangyuhou, which meant that the Hanshan Unit would now recruit at least one hundred men, including two Shijiang and ten Huozhang as junior officers.

For a moment, all who felt they had some ability were stirred to the depths of their hearts. This was the Hanshan Unit! The Emperor's most trusted personal guard.

Even if you were just the most ordinary soldier, you could be allotted three hundred mu or more of land. After retirement, as long as your service time was a bit longer, you could basically get an official post somewhere locally.

Generally it would be a prefectural or county Wuhou unit leader or constable chief. Those with stronger ability and connections could even become a prefectural or county inspector.

Officers, needless to say, absolutely rose to the heavens in a single step.

Zhang Zhao personally helped Fan Changgong up and said to him, "We give you three slots. Choose them from the fine young men of your Fan family."

Fan Changgong was wild with joy. He prostrated himself before Zhang Zhao again, knocking his head on the ground with thumping sounds.

Their entire Fan clan numbered only two or three hundred people, with only three sets of iron armor, and at most ten elite warriors could be selected.

He had originally thought that if even one person could enter the personal army, that would count as the Fan ancestors' blessing.

He had not expected that the Sage would directly promote him to Jiangyuhou of the Hanshan Unit. Not only had he himself risen to the heavens in a single step, he could also extend favor to his clan brothers.

With these four of them, the small Fan family would immediately become one of the notable great clans of Longxi Prefecture. The future was bright!

In that instant, before Fan Changgong's eyes flashed the hopeful gazes of his parents and younger siblings when he had set out.

Flashed the bitter training in the depths of winter and the dog days of summer, the longbows he had broken from overuse enough to fill a wardrobe.

His father had used the name Changgong to spur him to strive for excellence, precisely for this day, to win fame and serve as the Sage's claws and teeth.

Even more, there flashed the terror in that cave that day. Had the neck guard not been of good quality, his neck would have been bitten through by that giant tiger.

Even so, that pounce from the giant tiger had nearly twisted his neck off. To say his life had hung by a thread would not be an exaggeration.

But now, all of it had been rewarded!

Fan Changgong's face was covered in tears. Li Zun, whom not long ago he had treated as his leader and affectionately called Brother Li, was immediately cast to the back of his mind.

"Your humble officer kowtows in thanks for the Sage's great favor. Please rest assured, Sage, your humble officer will bring the finest young men of the Fan family to serve the Sage."

Fan Changgong had made his decision. Among his own clansmen, only two could serve as qualified armored soldiers of the Hanshan Unit.

For the remaining slot, he would not give it to those unqualified clan brothers, but would recruit Li Wanshan, the famous brave warrior of Niaoshu Mountain.

Thinking of this, after saluting Zhang Zhao, Fan Changgong immediately mounted his horse and went off to find the man.

He did not notice at all the somewhat awkward and stifled expression on Li Zun's face not far behind him. Fan Changgong's whole mind was set on serving the Sage, and there was simply no room for anything else now.

Niaoshu Mountain, also called Niaoshu Tongxue Mountain, was the source of the Wei River, a famous mountain recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

Below this mountain there was much fertile land. Although the mountain itself was steep and rugged, it abounded with birds and beasts, making it the favorite hunting ground of the young men of Longxi.

Li Wanshan, judging only by his name, seemed to be a Han Chinese, but in fact he was a genuine Tibetan, and came from the Zongge family of the Tibetans of Dafeichuan.

However, they were not the core of the Zongge family. The core of the Zongge family was the Wenbu clan.

In the Zhang Zhou court, the Wenbu clan of the Zongge family were legitimate members of the Liang-Lan Six Valleys tribe, and the Wenbu clan had long ago been granted a surname and changed to the Han surname Wen.

The fate of Li Wanshan's family was somewhat more difficult. Although several of them had become imperial guards, they had all been quickly transferred by Zhang Zhao to various places, and thus each had gone his own way, without having time to form a combined force.

But after Li Wanshan's father brought them to Longxi and they settled at the foot of Niaoshu Mountain, things began to change.

Li Wanshan's father, having apparently been advised by someone, brazenly began claiming on his own that his surname was Li.

When people asked, he would say his ancestors had been guard warriors who accompanied Princess Jincheng into Lhasa, and that they were a distant branch of the Li clan of Longxi.

It sounded full of holes. On the Qingtang Plateau, even most nobles could not read, let alone mid- and low-ranking officers. Those who could leave behind family genealogies were almost all great aristocratic clans among the Tibetans.

But after Zhang Zhao counted all the Wenmo as Han people and led them in a righteous return to the nation, this fashion of finding oneself an ancestor quickly swept through every prefecture and county in Hexi and Longyou.

And when choosing a Han surname, families like Zhangbo, Wenbu, Zhebu, Sulun, and Dulun simply petitioned the Emperor to bestow a surname, simplifying theirs to a single character.

As for all the other assorted ones, such as Li Wanshan's family, the great majority claimed the surname Li and asserted some connection to the Li-Tang royal house.

They did not dare attach themselves to Princess Wencheng or Princess Jincheng, however, because it was said that the btsanpo Trisong Detsen was Princess Jincheng's son.

This btsanpo, in the hearts of the Tibetans, was like a great Buddha.

During his reign, the Tibetans marched east and captured Chang'an.

To the north they swallowed up the Tang's Hexi and Longyou. Yan Chao, the last Military Governor of Hexi in Shazhou, was poisoned to death on Trisong Detsen's orders.

To the south, Trisong Detsen sent a great army sweeping down from the plateau and completely seized the lands north of the Ganges in India. He even had his troops erect a great iron pillar by the Ganges, declaring that everything north of the Ganges was Tibetan territory.

For a btsanpo of such towering prestige, the records of his descendants were kept very strictly (relatively speaking, for the Tibetans), so impersonating them was far too difficult.

And so a crowd of Tibetans, as if by unspoken understanding, began impersonating the people around Princess Jincheng—guards, maidservants, and the like.

Some even impersonated the descendants of Princess Jincheng's nephew, that unlucky fellow Li Chenghong whom the Tibetans briefly enthroned as emperor.

That was awkward, because Li Chenghong had never actually been taken away by the Tibetans at all!

But this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the many Tibetans and Qiang commoners. The law cannot punish the multitude, after all!

So in these past few years, people surnamed Li in Hexi and Longyou have become as numerous as hairs on an ox. Some say that in Hexi and Longyou now, three or four out of every ten people are damn well surnamed Li.

When Fan Changgong sprinted over to Li Wanshan, this sixteen-year-old youth had just charged through three rounds in a row and won enthusiastic praise.

Well, at sixteen one could no longer really be called a youth; he should be considered an adult.

Li Wanshan's family had produced his uncle, a member of the imperial guard, but unfortunately, not long afterward he was killed in the great battle at Luoyang.

Of course, had his uncle not died in battle, it would not have fallen to Li Wanshan's family to enjoy his protection and be able to come to Niaoshu Mountain to receive land under the equal-field system.

But although they received the land, his uncle had not died without issue—he had left behind a son. So the several hundred mu of land that Li Wanshan's family now farmed actually belonged to his cousin.

The government offices of Longxi Prefecture had a set of strict protective measures for such families.

Li Wanshan's aunt by marriage, Lady Du, and his cousin Li Wanjin lived directly in the prefectural seat, where the government assigned other members of the Li clan to look after them specially, and clerks from the government came to visit at any time.

Li Wanshan's family could only be considered tenants of Li Wanjin. If Li Wanjin died young, their family would lose the right to farm those several hundred mu.

This was done precisely to prevent anyone from murdering the son of a meritorious official for the sake of the land.

So Li Wanshan had an especially strong sense of urgency. From the age of nine he had trained hard in martial skills, developing excellent horsemanship, and he was also skilled with the bow, the lance, and other weapons.

Mounted, he could perform the difficult feats of hiding beneath the horse's belly and shooting backward while turning; dismounted, he could catch rabbits bare-handed in the mountains.

At fourteen, he became famous far and wide for killing a spotted leopard with nothing but a staff.

When he saw Fan Changgong coming to find him, Li Wanshan was somewhat dumbfounded.

In Longxi, the Li family to which Li Zun belonged was a powerful clan known far and wide, and the Fan family, half-attached to the Lis, was not one to be trifled with either.

Before Li Wanshan had made a name for himself, he had been bullied by Li Zun's family more than a few times, with a fair amount of exclusion along the lines of "does a Tibetan slave like you even deserve the surname Li?"

But the next moment, after Fan Changgong told Li Wanshan the news, the young man's tears nearly fell. He immediately began wailing and followed Fan Changgong to appear before Zhang Zhao.

But compared to Fan Changgong, a true Han, Li Wanshan—a Tibetan pretending to be Han—appeared extremely devout.

He did not dare look at any part of Zhang Zhao above the chest, and came before Zhang Zhao with his head lowered the whole way.

Hearing that this was the Emperor in person, he immediately fell to his knees and prostrated himself, his rear raised high, his elbows braced on the ground, his hands crossed above his head with palms pressed together, chanting aloud.

"Om mani padme hum! The boundless heavenly light shines upon all children of the heart and body, granting wisdom and perfect enlightenment, mercifully comforting all children of the Buddha who walk in the light."

Although Zhang Zhao felt some relief that the Han people did not revere him as this "boundless heaven" quite so fervently, faced with such a devout believer, he could not help feeling inwardly delighted.

He gently placed his hand on Li Wanshan's head. "The Buddha has entrusted the virtues of loyalty, courage, faith, and righteousness to my hand, to bestow upon this good man of the land of good dharma, granting you valor and loyalty, that you may be a walker of the Swastika Dharma."

Whether now or in later ages, the crowns of Tibetans, Qiang, and others' heads were things they were extremely wary of having touched.

In this era it was even more taboo, because in their view, in all the world only the Boundless Heaven alone could touch the crowns of their heads. All other living Buddhas, great worthies, rinpoches, and the like could only touch the shoulders.

"Walker of the Swastika Dharma" was also a term unique to the Six Dharma Sect.

Among the devout believers of the Six Dharma Sect, only those who had been touched on the crown and consecrated by the Boundless Heaven could be called walkers, qualified to serve the Boundless Heaven, permitted to look directly upon the Boundless Heaven, and allowed to call themselves disciples.

Those who had not undergone this could not look directly at anything above the Boundless Heaven's chest, and could only call themselves children, meaning those with the heart of a child—people who had the heart but had not yet received the Boundless Heaven's touch on the crown and consecration.

Li Wanshan tremblingly raised his head. The near-noon sunlight was positioned slightly behind Zhang Zhao's head, making Zhang Zhao appear towering and radiant.

Li Wanshan did not even see Zhang Zhao's face clearly; everywhere his eyes touched, there was only light.

"This disciple requests to display his valor!"

Li Wanshan still found it somewhat dreamlike that he could enter the Hanshan Guard and serve as a guard at Zhang Zhao's side, so he prepared to put on a display, to let the Boundless Heaven know of his bravery.

This man—historically one of Pan Luozhi's most trusted generals, the brave Tibetan commander who at over sixty years of age personally led troops in ambush and shot dead Li Jiqian, the war god of Dijinze—had in this time and space long since become Zhang Zhao's most devout believer.

"There is no need to be nervous. I know you will be the most loyal and courageous of men." Zhang Zhao deepened his voice, sounding at once majestic and kind.

Hearing this, Li Wanshan was so overjoyed he did not know what to say. His tall, powerful frame before Zhang Zhao was like a tamed young mastiff.

"Sage! Your servant Li Zun is also your loyal and valiant son!" Li Zun beside them could hold back no longer. With a mournful cry, he threw himself down before Zhang Zhao and kowtowed repeatedly.

Fan Changgong had become a junior officer of the Hanshan Guard, and many of the other warriors he had brought had also received rewards. Even this dog-brained Tibetan Li Wanshan, who had the gall to call himself a Li of Longxi, had won favor.

But he—the first in foot combat on the drill ground, first in mounted lance technique, first in mounted archery, and second only to Fan Changgong in foot archery—had received nothing at all.

As for the reason, Li Zun had thought long and hard, and there was only one possibility.

The Sage was already very displeased with the way their Li family had been forming factions in Longxi.

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