Chapter 70: Pledge of Allegiance and Spoils of War

In the great hall of the Zhongyun king's palace tent, the Zhongyun king Sanpoba, who only yesterday had sat high above all others, was now laid inside a coffin. Several palace-tent maidservants were dressing him in the robes a king should wear for burial.

Splash! Bucket after bucket of Ruoqiang River water kept washing the blood from the floor of the great hall, yet the thick, rank stench of blood seemed as if it could never be washed clean.

The palace-tent warriors who had sent Sanpoba on his way with a single blade each knelt uneasily on the left side. At their head were Li Ruoliu and twelve warriors dressed in brocade robes of typical Khotan style.

These twelve warriors, and the Khotan golden kingdom behind them, were the backing that allowed Li Ruoliu to exist safely in Yuni City and even dare to buy off Sanpoba's guards.

Kneeling on the right side were the warriors Ma Yaozi had selected from the commoners' quarter of the southern city.

Some of them had been butchers, some local thugs and ruffians, some hunters — but now, they were about to gain an identity they had never before dared even dream of: palace-tent warriors.

And Zhang Zhao's armored men, apart from those outside keeping order under Yin Yaozi, were almost all in this hall as well.

Several dozen fierce, murder-hardened warriors made the temperature in the hall drop by a few degrees.

Zhang Zhao stepped down from the throne and reached out a hand, lightly lifting the chin of a beauty kneeling to his left.

She was a classic Indo-European beauty: fair skin, slightly full lips, a high nose bridge, flaxen eyes, and a quite voluptuous figure. She could not have been old — perhaps twenty-four or twenty-five — and she was none other than Sanpoba's Right Queen.

Zhang Zhao actually liked this type very much; she bore a strong resemblance to his favorite Indian actress from before his transmigration, Vidya Balan. But this woman — he would not take her!

"Beautiful queen, do you understand what you must do next to preserve your life, and the lives of your two children?"

So smooth! Zhang Zhao finally understood what was meant by "skin like congealed cream." That warm, moist touch was enough to drive any man mad.

"This slave is willing to serve the young lord of the superior kingdom!" The Right Queen's face was utterly bloodless. Trembling all over, she sobbed in a low voice, two trails of tears running unchecked down her face.

"Yan Jin!" Zhang Zhao released the Right Queen's chin and, with tremendous willpower, turned to look at Yan Jin, who was standing a little farther away.

Vice Captain Yan, together with Fan Quan, had held the left gate against dozens of northern-city Zhongyun warriors, and was the foremost hero of this battle.

"Commandant!" Yan Jin hurried over and gave a forked-hand salute.

He was still wearing that suit of lamellar armor with the chest broken open. One had to admire this fellow's tenacious vitality — seven or eight wounds, at least four or five hundred milliliters of blood lost, yet after just one night's rest he was once again bursting with vigor.

"For this battle's merit, you stand first! I, Zhang Zhao, have never treated my own people poorly. The Right Queen of the Zhongyun kingdom — I bestow her upon you!"

Yan Jin's eyes lit up in an instant. However small the Zhongyun kingdom might be, Sanpoba had still been the king of a nation.

A queen!

If he were back in Dunhuang, a herder's slave who had come down from the Qilian Mountains — let alone a queen, even a well-bred young lady would never have fallen to him, much less such a striking beauty!

Swallowing hard, he stole two more glances at the beautiful Zhongyun queen. For the first time, Yan Jin felt that his speech was not flowing smoothly.

"Commandant... uh... young lord... I, cough cough! If I could just have a maidservant, that would... mm! That would be enough! A queen like this is only fit for a noble personage such as yourself to enjoy!"

"A real man, if his heart wants something, then he wants it! Be straightforward! Dithering and hemming and hawing — I'll ask you one more time: do you want her or not? If you truly don't, I'll give her to Ma Yaozi!"

So this is class society! A fierce man like Yan Jin, faced with the queen of a tiny kingdom, felt so unworthy he could hardly stand it.

"I want her! I want her! I kowtow in thanks for the young lord's gift! From now on, through fire and water, I will not refuse even ten thousand deaths!"

Yan Jin, who had been somewhat bashful a moment ago, agreed immediately upon hearing that she would otherwise go cheap to Ma Yaozi.

"Damn your mother! Couldn't you have just said you didn't want her?"

Hearing Yan Jin say he wanted her, Ma Yaozi's face, which had just been full of delight, twisted up like a fried dough twist. Imitating a phrase Zhang Zhao often used, he turned and spat at Yan Jin!

Hahahaha! The hall erupted in laughter, and the oppressive, icy atmosphere was swept away in an instant! These were the rules of this age — this was the reward the victors deserved!

"Fan Quan!" Zhang Zhao beckoned to Fan Quan, who was standing not far away on guard with his divine-arm crossbow at the ready.

"My lord!" Fan Quan dropped to one knee and gave Zhang Zhao a forked-hand salute.

Zhang Zhao looked at Fan Quan with satisfaction. This man was silent and cautious, and his archery was the finest in the entire army. Moreover, his father had been a personal guard of Zhang Zhao's father, Zhang Chengfeng, and he himself was one of Zhang Zhao's eleven sworn retainers — a trusted confidant Zhang Zhao could rely on above all others.

Dragging over a small, fair-skinned hand, Zhang Zhao delivered its owner before Fan Quan. She was one of the Zhongyun king's four consorts, a Gaochang Uyghur, and her looks were in no way inferior to some later-generation beauty or other.

"You and I, two generations of friendship, sharing life and death, our bond like brothers. This woman is your reward for fighting bloodily at the left gate!"

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao beckoned behind him again, and two palace-tent maidservants carried over two large chests. Zhang Zhao opened the lids; inside was a chest full of silver ingots, their color somewhat darkened.

"These were found in the Zhongyun king's treasury. One chest each, for you and Yan Jin!"

Gasps of astonishment rippled through the crowd. Everyone looked at Fan Quan and Yan Jin with envy; even the southern-city commoners who had just been recruited could not help crying out. A single chest like that was worth at least three hundred strings of cash.

"Damn your mother, why did I have to be the one to go set fires? For nothing I lost out on a queen beauty and three hundred strings of cash!"

Ma Yaozi's long, shoehorn-shaped face stretched even longer. His earlier envy of Yan Jin had been partly an act, but now, with three hundred strings of cash added on top, it was genuine envy and resentment.

"Ma Yaozi, come here!" Just as he was muttering to himself, Ma Yaozi heard Zhang Zhao call his name. He immediately dashed over like a gust of wind and dropped to his knees with a thud.

"This time I sent Ma Yaozi to set the fires, and in truth the arrangement was not ideal, because I did not expect the people of the southern city to come put out the fires so quickly.

But fortunately, Ma Yaozi was quick-witted and came up with the trick of scattering money to draw in the southern-city commoners. Had it not been for him, the northern-city warriors would have arrived at least half an hour earlier — and we would have been in danger!

So although Ma Yaozi did not kill many in this battle, his contribution was still great! Of the Zhongyun king's beauties, one should go to you! And two hundred strings of cash as well!"

"Ma Yaozi kowtows in thanks to the young lord! Young lord... uh, young lord, you are a good master!"

Ma Yaozi was so excited he wished he could do a backflip on the spot. Scratching his ears and cheeks, he thought for a long while but still could not come up with how to praise Zhang Zhao, and in the end only managed to blurt out the three words "a good master."

Hahaha! Zhang Zhao laughed, stroking the stubble that had grown out a bit. Was this what you'd call a "good person card"?

"Bai Congxin! Stop sneaking peeks over there — the beauty on the left is yours!" Zhang Zhao shouted. He had long since noticed Bai Congxin's gaze constantly stealing glances this way.

Another burst of laughter. Red-faced and sheepish, Bai Congxin trotted out, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and kowtowed his thanks.

"Fourteen! There's only one beauty left — do you want her?" Cao Yanming's contribution with the gunpowder this time had been no small thing either; after all, if they had not blasted open the left gate, they could never have fought their way into the Zhongyun king's palace tent.

Zhang Zhao had expected Cao Yanming to be pleasantly surprised, but the fellow merely cast a contemptuous glance at the gleeful Ma Yaozi.

"Women? Women would only slow down my research into the immortal arts (gunpowder)!

If this young master wants a woman, Dunhuang has plenty of well-bred young ladies for me to choose from — what are a few Hu dancing girls worth? Better you give me three hundred strings of cash; when I get to Khotan I still need to continue my research!"

Sure enough, when it came to social graces, the sons of powerful families simply had no need to consider them. Zhang Zhao believed that if he had not been present, Ma Yaozi would at the very least have charged over to have it out with him.

"Fine! I'll give you three hundred strings of cash!" Zhang Zhao patted Cao Yanming on the shoulder, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and also gave Ma Yaozi a calming look.

"What are you huffing and glaring for? Get back in line. But all of you remember this: what I am bestowing are people, not objects. I do not want to hear a few days from now that someone has gone missing!"

Ma Yaozi took the opportunity to climb down gracefully. "How could that be? Commandant, rest assured — Ma Yaozi must have cultivated virtue over several lifetimes to win a beauty like this. I'll be too busy doting on her to do anything else!"

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