Chapter 73: I Want a Son

"Young lord!" Li Ruoliu put on a frail, delicate air and nestled into Zhang Zhao's arms.

"I wish to write a letter, and entrust you to deliver it to my eldest brother, Li Ruoyu.

My eldest brother holds the posts of Acting Minister of Rites and Prefect of Luzhou in the Great Jin Kingdom, and my second brother Li Ruotai and third brother Li Ruohai both follow him in Luzhou; each of them has the valor to stand against ten thousand men.

If my eldest brother can send either my second or third brother to Zhongyun, then I shall have no more worries!"

This Luzhou was not the Luzhou of later Sichuan, but the Luzhou of the Khotan Jin Kingdom.

Offices like Acting Minister of Rites and Prefect, so clearly in the style of the Great Tang, were one of Khotan's distinctive features — the reason Khotan was called the Little Tang of the Western Regions.

Under Li Shengtian, that extreme Tang enthusiast, the Khotan Jin Kingdom was divided into ten prefectures: Lu, Mei, Yin, Zhu, Ji, Anjun, and others.

Each prefecture had a Prefect; the central court had Grand Tutor, Grand Commandant, the Six Ministries' ministers, and its own reign name — a complete miniature version of a Central Plains dynasty.

Zhang Zhao looked at Li Ruoliu and slowly shook his head. "If the Great Sage Son of Heaven of the Jin Kingdom, Li Shengtian, were your eldest brother, then this would work perfectly!

Unfortunately, he is not. The Great Sage Son of Heaven can allow your brothers to establish themselves in Luzhou because everything remains under his control.

But whether he would be willing to let your brothers send men here, to Yuni City a thousand li away — that is hard to say!"

Li Ruoliu sighed faintly. It seemed she too knew this might not work.

"I truly have no other way. If the one who comes to Yuni City is a trusted confidant of the Great Sage Son of Heaven, then I will become a punching bag caught between the Khotanese and the Zhongyun people, pleasing neither side. Let alone regent of a kingdom — whether I can even hold the position of queen securely is uncertain.

And in the Jin Kingdom, apart from relying on my brothers and letting them help me think of a way, I have no other recourse."

That "no other recourse" was exactly what he had been waiting for!

Zhang Zhao slowly lifted Li Ruoliu and set her on his lap, his right hand gently kneading her plump, soft thigh.

"Suppose I, your young lord, can solve this problem for you — but on one condition. Would you agree?"

"You can solve it, Second Young Lord?" Li Ruoliu did not even ask what Zhang Zhao's condition was, but first questioned what gave Zhang Zhao the ability to solve it. She slowly shook her head.

"I know the Great Sage Son of Heaven's character. Once he has decided something, he does not easily change it. He treats his subjects well, but he may not be willing to treat imperial clansmen like us well.

Although he and Princess Fengtian share deep sibling affection, if you were Zhang Geng, there might be a chance you could put in a word for me. But alas...!"

This woman's mind was still quite clear. If Zhang Zhao were Li Shengtian's blood nephew, he might be able to put in a word — but Zhang Zhao was not; his elder brother Zhang Geng, who had died young, was the one.

So how much influence a nephew with no blood relation could have on Li Shengtian was uncertain.

Zhang Zhao smiled faintly and shook his head, his right hand continuing to explore upward.

"I have no intention of using the status of nephew to curry favor with the Great Sage Son of Heaven. I intend to trade him something for it!"

Li Ruoliu let out a soft moan, pressed down on Zhang Zhao's restless hand, and shook her head pleadingly, her face flushed red.

"What does the young lord intend to trade with the Great Sage Son of Heaven? Could it be those tens of thousands of strings of treasure you just brought up from Sanpoba's treasury?"

Zhang Zhao released Li Ruoliu and shook his head with a smile. "The Great Sage Son of Heaven is sovereign of a nation, and the Khotan Jin Kingdom is a great power of the Western Regions. Why would he covet my mere tens of thousands of strings of cash? Let me ask you: who is the greatest threat and enemy of the Khotan Jin Kingdom?"

"Of course it is the Karakhanid Khanate, formed by the Nine Clans of Oghuz and the Three Clans of Karluk. They constantly raid our borders, and they have abandoned the Buddha to follow the Arabs' religion of heaven. In recent years they have kept sending monks into our land to beguile the people — utterly hateful!"

It seemed the enmity between Khotan and the Karakhanids was already very deep. Even Li Ruoliu, a woman married into Zhongyun for six years, gnashed her teeth the moment the Karakhanid Khanate was mentioned.

"Then tell me: if the Great Sage Son of Heaven wanted to strike back at the Karakhanids, or cut off the route by which they keep invading southward, where should he attack?" Zhang Zhao continued.

"Shule, of course!" Li Ruoliu answered without hesitation.

"Shule was the former Shule Protectorate of the Great Tang, and one of the Four Garrisons of Anxi. In recent years the Karakhanids have renamed it Kashgar.

Shule has high walls and thick ramparts, rich land, and the added advantage of iron-smelting and mining. It is precisely because our Great Jin Kingdom lacks Shule that we have always been suppressed by the Karakhanids. Even rich lands like Shache are constantly under the sword of the Karakhanid soldiers!"

"Then have you never thought of taking Shule?"

"We have! From the time our royal grand-uncle Yuchi Nanta restored the kingdom, four generations of Yuchi kings have tried six times to recover Shule, and every time returned empty-handed.

Because Shule's walls are too high and too thick. They were built in the Great Tang's golden age, and simply cannot be breached!"

At this, Li Ruoliu suddenly widened her eyes and stared at Zhang Zhao. "Young lord, three days ago when you broke through the left gate of Sanpoba's palace tent, you used...!"

Zhang Zhao smiled smugly and swept Li Ruoliu up high in his arms.

"Now you know how formidable I am! I, your young lord, possess the Divine Fire Thunder! No matter how high or thick Shule's walls are — when the Divine Fire Thunder splits heaven and rends the earth, all is reduced to powder!"

"Hahaha!" Li Ruoliu wrapped her arms around Zhang Zhao's neck and laughed long and clear as a silver bell, her jade legs naturally coiling around Zhang Zhao's waist, her eyes blazing with excitement.

"If the Great Sage Son of Heaven obtains such a weapon, he will surely be overjoyed. This is a divine artifact that can reverse Khotan's national fate! Compared to such Divine Fire Thunder, what does this little Zhongyun Kingdom and Yuni City amount to?"

At this, she smiled coquettishly and spoke to Zhang Zhao in a voice so sweet it was cloying.

"Young lord, you may now say what your condition is!"

Zhang Zhao set Li Ruoliu down on a low table with splayed legs and gently pinched her fair, delicate chin.

"My demand is simple: you will bear me a son! Otherwise, when the Great Sage Son of Heaven asks me why I am helping you, how am I to answer?"

Li Ruoliu's eyes darted about, and then sudden understanding dawned.

"So the young lord has also taken a fancy to this Zhongyun Kingdom! Wait! No! You have not taken a fancy to Zhongyun Kingdom — you want to use Zhongyun Kingdom as a base, to strive to retake Dunhuang and the Jinshan Kingdom!

Hee hee! You actually want to become your uncle's brother-in-law — how shameless!"

At this, Li Ruoliu suddenly dashed out of the room in a frenzy, and a moment later came running back in, pulling along a bashful-faced maidservant.

"Wonderful! You actually want to retake the Jinshan Kingdom! I, Li Ruoliu, love such an ambitious man. Only such a man is worthy of me carrying his child for ten months!"

"However!" Li Ruoliu said, shoving the shy maidservant into Zhang Zhao's arms.

"One night of pleasure does not guarantee conception. One more person is one more assurance. This is Mei Niang, who grew up with me since childhood. We are as close as sisters, sharing weal and woe. Now she should share in your favor as well, to thank the young lord!"

Zhang Zhao held Mei Niang, trembling in his arms like a little bird, and his appetite was already thoroughly whetted.

He reached out and stroked Mei Niang's delicate, slightly baby-plump cheek. Come to think of it, he was right — one more belly meant one more chance!

"Are you willing?"

"A willow of humble grace, blessed by three lifetimes of virtue — may the young lord show me tenderness!"

Mei Niang's trembling voice seemed squeezed out of her throat. The moment the words were out, her face was already as crimson as if drunk.

What bliss!

Only now did Zhang Zhao truly understand why men needed power. It was not because power was a man's aphrodisiac, but because power could turn a man into a walking aphrodisiac!

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