Chapter 699: Mount Yanran, Mount Yanran!

The battle by the shore of Manaizi Lake was over — or rather, it hardly deserved to be called a battle at all.

Before the four hundred mounted lancers personally led by Lu Sanlang could even charge, the enemy commander-in-chief Shimili had already fled ahead of them with his personal guard.

They collapsed so quickly that even the pursuing side had not had time to prepare, so the number taken prisoner or killed was not particularly large.

About three hundred heads were taken, more than seven hundred captured alive, and the rest scattered like wild hares across the grassland, vanishing without a trace.

Lu Sanlang was of course extremely dissatisfied. He roared at the officers and men under his command, ordering them to give chase at once and make certain to seize Shimili and the others.

He had reason to be angry. In this battle, the armored cavalry, which had been the decisive force, had shattered the enemy with a single charge.

Yet after such a splendid assault, the ones responsible for reaping the harvest — Yin Li's Left Wing Chiliarch, the Vanguard Chiliarch, and the Basmyl Anqi Chiliarch — had failed to follow up in time, leaving the results grievously inadequate.

Lu San understood that the cause of this outcome was nothing other than the simple fact that he had not yet fully brought the three chiliarchs' steppe cavalry under his control, so the orders he issued had all been carried out at a considerable discount.

By the time these fellows who had taken it upon themselves to discount his orders realized how fast the enemy was collapsing and tried to make amends, it was already too late.

So Lu Sanlang was especially furious. The chiliarchs of these three chiliarchies also knew they had let a battle-winning opportunity slip, and with dirt on their faces they prepared to set off in pursuit.

It was at exactly this moment that a messenger sent by Bai Congxin arrived.

And it was no ordinary messenger either — it was Lu Sanlang's youngest brother, Lu Dingbang. Though they were called brothers, the two of them in fact shared no blood relation.

It turned out that back when Zhang Zhao had led them eastward on the return from Anxi, Lu Sanlang had personally selected a dozen or so men from among the ghulam cavalry trained by the Kara-Khanid Khanate, made them take his own surname Lu, and brought them back to Hexi as descendants of the Anxi Army.

Lu Sanlang was himself of ghulam origin, so he naturally knew which ghulams were worth cultivating. After the eastward return, these youths whom Lu Sanlang had acknowledged as brothers and brought back did indeed all show certain points of brilliance.

But Lu Sanlang had not gained much benefit from this, because the matter of selecting ghulams and bringing them back under the identity of Anxi Army descendants had not been ordered by Zhang Zhao at all — Lu Sanlang had acted on his own authority.

Nor had his starting point been to strengthen the group's power. Rather, Lu Sanlang had seen that everyone else had brothers and friends to look after one another, while he, for certain reasons, was all alone. He had brought back these dozen or so men simply because he wanted a few more helpers for himself.

Such a matter could be treated as trivial or serious, and on top of that the descendants of the Anxi Army all looked down on him and gave him no support. So although these young ghulams who had come back with Lu Sanlang were capable, promotion had always been a problem for them.

In the end it was my Sage Zhang who, out of kindness, carefully investigated Lu Sanlang and found that he was not another Lu Lushan, but rather a brave general with a bit of ambition and little skill at handling people. Only then did he give these dozen or so young ghulams surnamed Lu a way out, letting them train in the Left and Right Yulin Guards and giving them a channel for advancement.

An Lushan — what a shrewd man he was! Setting aside questions of character, Lu Sanlang was not even fit to carry An Lushan's shoes.

So he could only watch with tearful eyes as the young ghulams he had brought back wept with gratitude toward Sage Zhang for promoting them into the Left and Right Yulin Guards, and many of them even drew a clear line between themselves and Lu Sanlang.

Only this Lu Dingbang, whom Bai Congxin kept by his side as a personal guard and assault cavalry officer, still had some conscience and treated Lu Sanlang as a true elder brother.

When Lu Sanlang saw Lu Dingbang arrive, far from being pleasantly surprised, he was somewhat annoyed. He grabbed Lu Dingbang and asked in a low voice.

"Which dog-spawned whelp has been slandering me in front of the Duke of Kucha? We've only just finished fighting here, and the Duke already knows?"

Lu Dingbang was a bit stunned by the question. It took him a long moment to understand what Lu Sanlang meant. It seemed this elder brother of his had certainly failed to catch Shimili, and moreover thought someone had reported the news that he had lost his main target to Bai Congxin.

At this thought, Lu Dingbang fought back the urge to roll his eyes and said to Lu Sanlang very seriously.

"Third Brother, the Duke is six or seven hundred li from here. Even an express courier running without rest would need two or three days. Who would go to such lengths just to stab you in the back? Or have you made some new mortal enemy?"

Lu Sanlang's cheeks reddened, and only then did he feel he had been far too anxious about gain and loss. He had always wanted to treat this hard-won chance to go beyond the frontier as his best opportunity to astonish the world with a single feat, and as a result he had become far too fixated on appearances.

"Then what are you here for? What military business did Duke Bai send you on?"

"Ahem!" Lu Dingbang gave a dry cough. "Elder Brother not catching Shimili is actually a good thing. Duke Bai wants you not to seize Shimili, but to follow him as he flees eastward and feel out where these people's lair is."

Lu Sanlang nodded. Although he had not caught Shimili, after routing the enemy there were quite a few who had come over to his side, and he could have them help track the enemy down.

Moreover, the defeated Shimili and his men had lost all their baggage, and even on horseback they could not flee far. Horses need to eat and drink, and only with good food and good drink can they gallop at full speed.

But immediately, Lu Sanlang's brow furrowed, because the lair of these Merkit and Zubu people was very likely located near Mount Yanran, almost two thousand li away.

That place was home not only to the Merkit and Zubu tribes, but also to the Dalimi and Yedugua tribes, whose allegiance wavered.

Beneath these four tribes there were in turn dozens of clans, with a population of at least five hundred thousand. Once they were all mobilized, that would mean at least two hundred thousand men able to draw bows.

At present the Zhou army that had gone beyond the frontier numbered only six thousand, and the Four Myriarchies of the Western Desert could at most send out twenty thousand troops. To take twenty-six thousand cavalry nearly two thousand li to Mount Yanran to fight two hundred thousand enemies — what was Duke Bai thinking?

Lu Sanlang let out a torrent of fierce criticism, clearly disagreeing strongly with Bai Congxin's decision.

Finally, Lu Dingbang could not hold back any longer. He rolled his eyes at Lu Sanlang and asked helplessly, "Elder Brother, where did you just say these people's lair is?"

"Near Mount Yanran!" Lu Sanlang answered in a deep voice.

"Say it again. What mountain is it?" Lu Dingbang continued.

Lu Sanlang looked at Lu Dingbang with puzzlement and a touch of anger. If he did not know this younger brother's temperament, he would have thought Lu Dingbang was toying with him.

"Mount Yanran, Mount Yanran." Lu Sanlang muttered the words twice more, and suddenly a phrase struck into his mind like a thunderclap from heaven.

Lu Sanlang grabbed Lu Dingbang's hands with both of his own, his eyes wide, and roared, "Carving stone at Yanran! You mean Duke Bai is preparing to carve stone at Yanran!"

Sealing the Wolf's Dwelling at Langjuxu, carving stone at Yanran.

So long as one is a military man, there is no one who does not thrill at hearing these two phrases.

"Now does Elder Brother understand why Duke Bai, a famed commander who ranks second only to the Duke of Jin among the one hundred and eight founding followers, was sent out to sweep beyond the frontier and yet showed not the slightest discontent?"

"So the Sage intends to let Duke Bai win the great merit of carving stone at Yanran!" Lu Sanlang said, full of envy.

"Of course!" Lu Dingbang was also growing excited. "Otherwise, would a yellow-headed Uyghur whelp like Shimili be worth all this attention from us? If we truly wanted to kill him, why would we go to such trouble!"

Hearing his younger brother say this, Lu Sanlang was excited for a moment too, but then he calmed down again, looked at Lu Dingbang, and said.

"Even with the inspiration of carving stone at Yanran, we still have too few men. The enemy outnumbers us ten to one, and we would be fighting on their home ground. The risk is still great!"

Lu Dingbang shook his head. "How could they have two hundred thousand men? There are that many people, true, but do you think Hulubashi of the Merkit could gather all of them together?

Even if Duosage, the great chieftain of the Zubu, also stepped forward in support, at most they could muster one hundred ten or twenty thousand.

If they do not outnumber us five to one, would they dare come up and fight us to the death? And if they flee north beyond Mount Yanran, then even if we carve stone at Yanran, what meaning would it have?"

As he spoke, Lu Dingbang saw that Lu Sanlang was still somewhat hesitant, so he drew a little closer to him and waved his personal attendants farther away before saying in a low voice.

"Duke Bai has received word that the Sage intends to lead troops beyond the frontier himself. When the time comes, it will not be only us at Mount Yanran."

Lu Sanlang's spirits lifted at these words, and he immediately asked, "Truly? When will the Sage go beyond the frontier? From where will he go?"

Lu Dingbang rolled his eyes once again. "My dear Third Brother! Is such a matter something a subject like you ought to ask?

Duke Bai told me to tell you this: so long as you can pursue Shimili all the way to Mount Yanran and keep the four tribes — the Merkit, the various clans, the Dalimi, and the Yedugua — pinned down so they do not leave, then once the Sage's great army arrives, the merit of the vanguard will be yours."

When Lu Sanlang heard this, a look of grim resolve appeared on his face.

This was no easy task. If his ability fell short, the basic outcome would be getting devoured by the four tribes such as the Merkit before the Sage's great army closed in. But if he pulled it off, it would be a merit as vast as heaven.

"Dingbang, go back and tell Duke Bai that I, Lu Sanlang, thank him for giving me this opportunity. If I do not die, then in the days to come, whenever the Duke has need and says the word, I will go through fire and water for him!"

Two days later, Lu Dingbang, haggard and worn, returned to Bai Congxin's command tent. Bai Congxin glanced at the young man.

"Go and rest for a while. Deceiving your elder brother is a rather unpleasant feeling, isn't it?"

Lu Dingbang remained silent for a long while before finally nodding. Bai Congxin chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Who told you it was deception? That elder brother of yours! He has courage, plenty of nerve, and even a bit of cleverness, but his eyes are always fixed on the word 'profit.' Unless you give him enough profit, he won't take on this kind of work."

Lu Dingbang's eyes suddenly flew wide open. "Lord of the Commandery, is the Sage truly going out beyond the frontier?"

Bai Congxin did not answer directly, but waved his hand. "Hurry off and rest. From today on, we must summon every ounce of our energy!"

In Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture, there was Baishui City, a small town a little over eighty li east of Liangzhou.

The town was not large, only about seven or eight li in circumference. The most important buildings in the town, apart from the Baishui County office, was the Baishui County Prefectural School.

Prefectural schools differed from dynasty to dynasty. In Zhang Zhou's system, a prefectural school was not necessarily located in the prefectural seat; its location was chosen according to the surrounding population, and there could be more than one.

For example, in Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture, besides the prefectural school in Liangzhou itself, there was one prefectural school each in Baishui County, Minqin County, and Changsong County.

It was just that the common people colloquially called the Liangzhou prefectural school the "great school," and the other three prefectural schools the "lesser schools."

Of course, this was actually determined by the special circumstances of Longyou and Hexi. In the interior, it would be impossible for one prefecture to establish four prefectural schools and still have enough silver to support them, but in Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture it was not much of a problem.

In the prefectural school, an old teacher from Zhengzhou Prefecture in the directly administered region was up front, laboriously teaching a phonetic alphabet system marked with various symbols.

The sixteen- and seventeen-year-old children below — no, they should be considered adults now — were also learning with bared teeth and grimaces.

There was no helping it. The Heluo refined speech of this era differed far too greatly from the standard speech of later generations. Although literary elders such as Feng Dao, He Ning, and Zhao Ying had revised and refined it, and had finally managed to produce this system, the difficulty of promoting it was still considerable.

The teachers were not quite accustomed to it, and the learners were suffering too.

Just think of later generations: many people born in the seventies and eighties studied all the way through junior and senior high school, yet their Hanyu Pinyin was still a complete mess — to say nothing of now.

But compared with the old fanqie and phonetic notation methods, this pinyin system was undoubtedly a vast improvement. At least in prosperous places like Hexi and Longyou, more and more children could stammer out a passable Heluo refined speech.

Many traveling merchants had also learned pinyin. When they arrived somewhere, as long as they found a prefectural, subprefectural, or county school, they could always communicate with people.

The Baishui County Prefectural School was divided into four academies: Six Strategies, Profound Virtue, Heavenly Craft, and Qimin.

Among them, Six Strategies was for military studies, Profound Virtue was for literary studies — more precisely, the Confucian academy — Heavenly Craft naturally taught ingenious crafts, and Qimin concerned agricultural affairs.

Of these, the Six Strategies Academy had the most people, because in Hexi and Longyou, especially in Liangzhou Prefecture, nearly everyone had a relative of merit and rank, or at the very least had a father or elder brother serving in the personal army or the imperial guard, and they were all qualified to enter the Six Strategies Academy.

In addition, local patrol offices would also recommend people who held titles in spear and staff, archery, horsemanship, and the like.

The Profound Virtue Academy also had quite a few people. Hexi and Longyou had grown wealthy now, and everyone had realized that relying on blood and courage alone would never get one to high office.

Moreover, if one only wanted to be a mid- or low-ranking officer, that was too unsatisfying for them. Thus, "out through the gates as a general, in through the gates as a minister" became every parent's demand of their children.

To become a general abroad and a minister at court, one naturally had to read more books, so the Profound Virtue Academy also had no shortage of people.

As for the remaining Heavenly Craft and Qimin academies, they indeed had far fewer people. Unless they were Hexi and Longyou stalwarts truly incapable of practicing martial arts, few were willing to attend these academies, which demanded no small amount of learning yet led to no high position.

However, while they looked down on them, people from other places did not. So now large numbers of people from the directly administered regions, Hedong, and even Hebei were flocking to Hexi and Longyou to study at the Heavenly Craft and Qimin academies under registered-residence status.

In the Profound Virtue Academy, the old teacher encountered a difficult velar nasal and even he himself froze for a moment.

When he had studied back in the day, this thing had been a sticking point he could never quite figure out.

But the old teacher was very fortunate today. Just as he was at a loss for what to do, a thunderous clamor suddenly erupted outside, and immediately an explosive piece of news arrived.

The Sage was going to hold a grand muster of troops in Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture. Countless people were shouting and clamoring, saying that the Sage was going to campaign against some disloyal subject, and was even gathering a great army in Liangzhou to march out and punish them.

At this, the entire prefectural school immediately stirred into agitation. No one noticed the old teacher's troubled expression; they all hurriedly begged the teacher's pardon, then ran home, mounted their warhorses, donned their armor, and waited for the Sage's summons.

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