Chapter 707

The six tribes of Dafeichuan, the eight tribes of Xishan, and the thirty-one East Forts of Songpan had been here for several days now, yet Zhang Zhao still had not summoned them.

Ever since the incident with Dong Jiniang of Tianshui Prefecture, Zhang Zhao had come to understand the exalted nature of his identity as the Unsurpassed Heaven.

Perhaps "exalted" was not the right word — it was more like standing above all living beings.

This feeling could not be said to be absent in the Han lands, only that it was extremely rare, but on the Qingtang Plateau it was utterly commonplace.

This was the Unsurpassed Heaven, after all — in the scriptures, second only to the Buddha, above all arhats, bodhisattvas, vajras, and guardian deities, a true living god in the present world.

How could such an identity be granted an audience just casually?

And so Zhang Zhao paid no attention whatsoever to these Tibetans, Qiang, and other tribal chieftains. He simply ordered Fan Shun, the Defender of the Western Capital, and Jia Yanchang, Chief Minister of the Longyou Province, to receive them, letting these people experience the wealth and splendor of the Han lands in Liangzhou.

As for where these tribal chieftains would stay, that was even easier to decide. Zhang Zhao directly had the senior eminent monk of Liangzhou's Great Cloud Temple step forward and arrange for them to be lodged within the Great Cloud Temple itself.

Of course, it was also indispensable to arrange for these "country bumpkins" to go view the Buddha treasure that the Buddha had "bestowed" upon Zhang Zhao when he attained enlightenment at Vulture Peak in India.

As for the exposition of the Six Dharma Sect's scriptures, the verbal enlightenment and the shout-and-strike instruction — none of that required Zhang Zhao to appear in person. The Six Dharma Sect's eminent monks, monastic overseers, and rinpoches were far more versed in it than he was.

So what was Zhang Zhao doing?

He was, of course, preparing to lead his army beyond the frontier and carve stone at Yanran.

It is not that I, Sage Zhang, am being overly cautious about striking a few steppe chieftains — it is that someone has already set a "fine example" before me!

Er, or perhaps one should say after me?

In any case, now whenever Zhang Zhao closes his eyes, a disgraceful figure floats up in his mind.

The Great Ming God of War, the Fortress Sovereign, the Wala exchange student, Zhu Qizhen.

Before this fellow, the most dangerous moment for an emperor of a unified dynasty personally campaigning on the steppe was the Siege of Baideng suffered by Emperor Gaozu of Han.

But in truth, the Siege of Baideng was a case of the Han and the Xiongnu meeting as equals.

The Xiongnu cavalry could not break through Mount Baideng, defended by the Han army's elite infantry, and the Han infantry could do nothing to the Xiongnu cavalry either.

In the end, Emperor Gaozu of Han, with a shamelessness that knew no bounds, chose to yield on his own initiative and brought the crisis to a close.

One can see that even the Siege of Baideng, compared to my Wala exchange student's Tumu Fortress, could be called a glorious affair.

In these years of my Sage Zhang's imperial career, what has spurred him to make fewer mistakes on the throne has been precisely the presence of these two heavyweights, the Fortress Sovereign and Ninth Sister.

Whenever Zhang Zhao found himself at a loss in certain moments, he would recall the actions of these two, and then do the exact opposite.

Policies made this way, even if they proved useless, would basically never cause much harm to the state.

This is the benefit of reading history!

And so, to avoid making a spectacle of himself like the God of War of Tumu Fortress, Zhang Zhao naturally had to plan carefully.

Based on the maps and records of the Anbei Protectorate left from the Great Tang era, combined with the later maps Zhang Zhao recalled from future times, he roughly plotted out the route for this campaign.

In this era, even if one set out from Juyan Lake (Ejin Banner) northwest of later Jiuquan, one still had to first march east for roughly four hundred li, reaching the Han Surrender City or the Han Lady Fan City — that is, near later Dalanzadgad in Mongolia — and only then turn north to strike directly at Mount Yanran.

Historically, when Huo Qubing watered his horses at the Han Sea, when Dou Xian carved stone at Yanran, and of course when Li Guangli made his failed direct strike at Dragon City, the main forces all took this route.

But going this way added seven or eight hundred li compared to striking north directly from Juyan Lake.

And if one struck north directly, one had to cross the Dihan Mountains and the Southern Mountains, part of the Altai range, then pass between Mount Fuyangju and Mount Junji, follow the Hunyi River (the Ongi River) straight into the territory held by the Zubu people — the site of the former Anbei Protectorate of the Great Tang, which was later Karakorum in Mongolia.

Each route had its merits and drawbacks. Striking north directly meant the entire army could not possibly pass through, while going by the Han Lady Fan City was farther but better suited to the passage of a large force.

As soon as the two plans were laid out, unsurprisingly, all the officers favored striking north directly from Juyan Lake to catch the Zubu people off guard.

Of course, the plans they proposed all involved themselves leading two to five thousand picked cavalry each, crossing the mountains directly northward.

Zhang Zhao, as Emperor, would lead at least twenty thousand cavalry by way of Lady Fan City.

This road had a famous name in the Tang era: the Road of the Heavenly Khagan.

Zhang Zhao made a rough estimate: the infantry and cavalry that had followed him into Guanzhong numbered over thirty-five thousand, but most of them were meant for the campaign to destroy Shu. Those now escorting him to Liangzhou amounted to only fifteen thousand infantry and cavalry.

In recent days, the sworn-follower elite riders, the militia archers, and the personal army youth regiments summoned from Hexi and Longyou to take part in the Grand Archery Rite numbered roughly thirty-two or thirty-three thousand.

Of course, not all of these could be taken along. After selection, only about twenty thousand infantry and cavalry would qualify, and adding the ten thousand infantry and cavalry that could be brought beyond the frontier, the total came to thirty thousand troops.

If the force were divided again, those following Zhang Zhao would number only around twenty thousand.

On the steppe, this still carried a certain degree of danger. Certainly no one could crush these twenty thousand men, but the possibility of the enemy cavalry cutting off the return route, as well as natural and man-made disasters, all had to be taken into account.

Zhang Zhao then had Bai Congxin's report brought over for careful study. Bai Congxin currently had only fifty-five hundred main-force cavalry, plus twenty thousand cavalry from the forty thousand households of the Basmyl and other tribes, for a total of twenty-six thousand men.

Combined with Zhang Zhao's forces, the total came to only about fifty-six thousand men, which was somewhat on the small side for a steppe spanning several thousand li.

After all, steppe cavalry warfare involved not only battle but also pursuit. Scatter fifty thousand men across the boundless steppe, and it was like sprinkling a few sesame seeds into the ocean.

"Sage! Your subject believes that since the resistance of the Yanran tribes to the Six Dharma Sect very likely has Khitan instigation behind it, we cannot prepare only to strike from west to east.

We must also guard against Shulu Ping summoning the Menggu, Wugu, Dilie, Chazhala, and Shiwei tribes to come west.

Since the Sage is going beyond the frontier, we must make the most complete preparations and plan for the enemy at his strongest." Fan Quan thought for a moment and offered this reminder at Zhang Zhao's side.

Zhang Zhao was in fact considering this very issue. His prestige had reached such a height that if this carving of stone at Yanran succeeded, his renown would directly rival that of Li Erfeng, Emperor Taizong of Tang.

Then the Southern Tang, which had always claimed descent from the Tang imperial line, the Wuyue kingdom, which was already on the verge of being brought to heel, and Liu Congxiao of the Qingyuan Army could essentially be settled by a single proclamation.

Of course, those also affected would be the Tibetan, Qiang, and other tribal chieftains who had come this time from the Qingtang Plateau.

If they could witness with their own eyes that they had latched onto a thigh thick enough to personally conquer the steppe, then upon returning home these men would organize great armies to go and do battle with the btsanpos of Lhasa, establishing the Six Dharma Sect's position on the plateau.

But the higher one climbs, the harder one falls. If Zhang Zhao's campaign beyond the frontier ended in even a minor disgrace — never mind a spectacle like the Fortress Sovereign — or if he merely failed to capture the Zubu chieftain Duosage and the Merkit chief Hulubashi, it would deal a certain blow to his prestige.

However, Zhang Zhao did not immediately answer Fan Quan's suggestion. Instead, he turned to look at Gao Huaide behind him.

"Cangyong, you have long been at Beiping Prefecture. Do you think Shulu Ping can still command the steppe tribes and the Shiwei tribes now?"

"She can!" Gao Huaide cupped his hands without the slightest hesitation and replied.

"Sage, the steppe tribes have always feared power but never cherished virtue. Constrained by their limited knowledge and environment, their understanding of power is far simpler than ours — they do not weigh multiple factors the way we Han do.

They consider only one thing: whoever can defeat me right now, before my eyes, is power.

As for some great state far away, they may not even know of it, and even if they do, they may not take it to heart.

Therefore, the tribes near Beiping Prefecture, Datong Prefecture, and even the various tribes of western Liao — even the Xi people, who once wore the same trousers as the Khitan — can no longer be moved by Shulu Ping.

But the tribes far to the east and west of the Greater and Lesser Xianbei Mountains can still be mobilized by the Khitan."

The Greater and Lesser Xianbei Mountains were what the Greater and Lesser Khingan Ranges were called at this time. Gao Huaide's family had originally been local strongmen north of the Yan Mountains, and recently he had spent more than a year in Beiping Prefecture with his father Gao Xingzhou and Murong Xinzhang.

On top of that, they had been skirmishing constantly with the Khitan, harassing them so badly that the Khitan could not even stay in their Central Capital of Dading Prefecture, so he knew the situation very well.

If he said Shulu Ping could mobilize the tribes around the Greater and Lesser Xianbei Mountains, then she certainly could.

Zhang Zhao laughed three times upon hearing this, then said, "Since the Zhou Son of Heaven's time of Xia lords and Yi subjects, our people have always followed the spirit of inclusiveness, drawing in tribes from all directions who yearned for loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness.

Thus, although the Later Dynasty came from the the the Shatuo, they were still sons of Tang.

The various Xianbei tribes have been no different from the Chinese since Emperor Xiaowen's time, and this Great Xianbei Mountain is also the ancestral land of us all! How can we allow the people of this land to be deluded by Shulu Ping?

On this campaign beyond the frontier, We shall settle all these matters at once."

A strange feeling rose in everyone present. In the Great Tang, if you spoke to the Li Tang imperial house about Xianbei blood, or told the Later Dynasty's Li family about being the the Shatuo, they would leap up and smash your skull to pieces.

But with Emperor Zhang, he had long since become completely at ease with this question, and now he even wanted to merge the Xianbei, the the Shatuo, and other peoples into the Chinese nation.

However, Emperor Zhang did have one taboo: if you said the words "Tibetan bandits" in front of him, that too would cost you your life.

A diarist of the Secretariat who was recording the meeting in the hall suddenly thought: could it be that the Li Tang imperial house really did have Xianbei blood, that the Later Dynasty's imperial house really was the the Shatuo, and that my Sage Zhang's family surely also had Tibetan blood mixed in?

Damn! The moment this thought struck him, sweat poured down the diarist's face, a chill ran down his back, and he nearly lost his grip on his brush. He hurriedly buried this deadly discovery in the deepest recesses of his heart.

In truth, Zhang Zhao's family, from Zhang Yichao's generation onward, certainly had no Tibetan blood, and the line of descent was quite clear.

But from Zhang Yitan and Zhang Yichao's father Zhang Qianyi's generation upward, things became somewhat murky.

Zhang Zhao himself vaguely sensed that in the experiences of his great-great-grandfather Zhang Qianyi and that sixth-generation ancestor whose name no one even knew, something seemed to have been deliberately concealed.

The Zhang family, as a great Han clan, had remained local magnates throughout the hundred years of Tibetan rule over Hexi, and it was very likely that they had intermarried with Tibetan nobles.

So in fact it was not only Zhang Zhao who disliked the term "Tibetan bandits"; the Dragon-Tongue Zhang clan of Shazhou was even more sensitive about hearing it.

But Zhang Zhao did not know the grumbling in his subordinates' hearts, and even if he had known, he would not have cared. In later ages, Li Erfeng was still constantly thought of as a barbarian.

People never stopped to think: even if the Li Tang imperial house did have Xianbei blood, who did the Xianbei eventually merge with?

If even Li Erfeng could not escape being gossiped about, then it was only natural that he, Zhang Erfeng, would be gossiped about too.

So, my Sage Zhang was still up there excitedly proclaiming his outrageous views: "Send fast riders to the Eastern Capital and have the Department of State Affairs proclaim to all under heaven: all who still bear the surnames Tuoba, Erzhu, and Houmochen shall immediately change them, according to Emperor Xiaowen's regulations, to the Han surnames Yuan, Zhu, and Chen.

The remaining Yuwen, Murong, Dugu, Yuchi, and the rest shall all be incorporated into Han surnames. Order the Hanlin Academy of the Secretariat remaining in the Eastern Capital to begin compiling the surnames of all under heaven. When We return from the Yanran Mountains, We shall immediately compile the Hundred Family Surnames."

Were there still people surnamed Tuoba, Erzhu, and Houmochen now? Yes! Quite a few, in fact.

The strategist Yuan Heng whom Zhang Zhao had brought back from Ma Chu was originally named Tuoba Heng, and Erzhu Jing, brought back from Anxi, was one of Sage Zhang's favorite generals. By this reckoning, those bearing these Xianbei surnames could not be called many, but they were certainly not few.

A military conference had drifted off course, and Sage Zhang seized the chance to deliver a great flood of lofty discourse on ethnic fusion and national unity, moving his batch of Tibetan, Tangut, Xianbei, the the Shatuo, Uyghur, and Nine Zhaowu Clan civil and military officials to the point of tears.

Everyone declared that they would follow my Sage Zhang in restoring the great dynasty and properly become Han.

As for the Han civil and military officials under his command, they had long since grown accustomed to Zhang Zhao's ways.

Moreover, although these people were said to be of foreign origin, they truly were no different from Han anymore. Apart from a few traces that could be found in their surnames, there was nothing at all to mark them as foreign.

Some had even had the traces in their surnames wiped away. Whether one admitted it or not, they were already Han.

Zhang Zhao had no choice in the matter. He had risen from Hexi and made his fortune in Anxi, and even his legal mother and maternal uncle were barbarians. Of all the great unifiers of past and present, none had origins as complicated as Zhang Zhao's.

Compared with his Zhang Zhou imperial house, the Li Tang imperial house could count as pure-blooded Han.

Were it not for his ancestor Zhang Xiaosong, whose might awed the Western Regions, and his great-grandfather Zhang Yichao, a great hero and great loyal subject famed throughout the world, the Dragon-Tongue Zhang clan could at best count as one of the minor Han houses. Zhang Zhao's Han identity was less credible than Li Keyong's Li Tang imperial identity.

To smooth over these marks, Zhang Zhao could neither deny them, nor could he shamelessly refuse to acknowledge them the way the Li Tang imperial house did.

If he did that, he would be digging up his own foundations. One had to understand that Emperor Zhang's greatest power bases — the Gua-Sha Guiyi Army faction, the East-Return faction, and the Liang-Lan Liugu faction — all shared his origins.

So Zhang Zhao simply raised the banner of ethnic fusion, brought the matter into the open, and directly merged the Xianbei, the the Shatuo, and others into the great Han family. That way, no one could keep seizing on it against him.

This was not merely giving an identity to the long-assimilated Xianbei and the the Shatuo; this was giving an identity to the million-plus Wenmo people of Hexi and Longyou!

Identity was a great matter. Compared with it, sending troops beyond the frontier was a small matter. Zhang Zhao continued discussing this subject with his civil and military officials for a while, and in passing settled the military arrangements.

Li Cunhui and Yang Jiye would now immediately take supplies and begin stockpiling them at Juyan Lake. When the time came, the two of them would serve as vanguard commander and deputy, leading five thousand cavalry directly over the Di Han Mountains and northward.

Zhang Zhao himself would lead roughly twenty thousand cavalry eastward by way of Lady Fan's City from the Han period, and finally follow the old Heavenly Khagan Road northward.

In addition, he ordered the Prefect of Datong and Datong Troop Supervisor Zhe Deyi to lead two thousand elite riders from Bingzhou westward to Shuofang Province, join with the four Lower Khitan chiliarchies around the Yin Mountains, and together send out five thousand elite cavalry, entering the great desert from Shuofang and heading straight for the Yanran Protectorate (near Ulaanbaatar).

Originally, the Chief Minister of Shuofang Province was supposed to be Gao Huaide's father Gao Xingzhou, but because Murong Xinzhang needed to deal with the Khitan in western and eastern Liaoning, Zhang Zhao ordered Gao Xingzhou to delay his departure, so now only Zhe Deyi could be sent on campaign.

Finally, he ordered the Chief Minister of Hedong Province, the Defender of the Northern Capital, and Duke of Jin, Yan Jin, to select eight thousand elite Hedong cavalry and march beyond the frontier from Datong Prefecture.

The Chief Minister of Hebei Province and Duke of Qinghe Commandery, Fu Yanqing, would select fifteen thousand elite Hebei cavalry plus sworn followers from Jiaodong and Zhili, march beyond the frontier from Beiping Prefecture, and head straight for the Khitan Supreme Capital of Linhuang Prefecture, preparing to cut off Shulu Ping's route of retreat.

They would wrap Shulu Ping up like a dumpling. If they were going to fight, they would settle them all at once.

(End of Chapter)

Related