Chapter 744: Rehe Palace

Hebei Province, Chengde Prefecture.

Historically, the Manchu Qing's Chengde took its name from "inheriting the grace of the ancestors," but here with Sage Zhang, it takes its name from "inheriting the compassionate grace of the Buddha."

Chengde Prefecture is now a veritable Buddhist realm. The entire prefectural city, including its surroundings, was built around the great temples.

Under Zhang Zhao's orders, Murong Xinzhang and Gao Xingzhou successively conscripted over a hundred thousand laborers from various peoples, building more than twenty temples large and small from Lion Peak to Ox Mountain.

These temples were all basically built in the style of the Six Dharma Sect.

This was inevitable, because Zhang Zhao intended, like the Manchu Qing court, to use religion to bind the peoples of the high plateau, the grasslands, and the Songmo region. This meant he could not promote the complex and philosophy-laden Buddhism of the Central Plains.

What these common people could accept, what could make them all believe, needed to be more direct, more superstitious, to suit their current level of productive development.

On Lion Peak, the Great Zhaoming Temple stands at the very top, and it is also the most magnificent, carrying an implicit air of being first among all the temples.

In fact, this can be seen from the name alone. In the entire Zhou Kingdom today, there are only three Zhaoming Temples.

One is in Dunhuang, where sacrifices are offered to Zhang Xiaosong and Zhang Yichao, the heroic ancestors of the Longshe Zhang clan of Shazhou.

One is in Liangzhou, where the primary sacrifices are to the heroes who died returning to the nation in righteousness, and to the martyrs who once held out alone in the Four Garrisons of Anxi.

The one in Chengde Prefecture is the third.

Moreover, it differs from the Buddhas of the Three Ages worshipped in the Great Hero Halls of ordinary temples — namely Shakyamuni Buddha, Maitreya Buddha, and Kasyapa Buddha.

In the Zhaoming Temple, these have been replaced with Shakyamuni Buddha, Dipankara Buddha, and a Buddha image wearing a vajra mask.

This is an embodiment of the Six Dharma Sect's doctrine. Dipankara Buddha corresponds to the theory of Laozi converting the barbarians, Shakyamuni Buddha naturally corresponds to the Buddha, and the third vajra-masked Buddha is naturally my Supreme Heaven.

Only, according to the Six Dharma Sect's doctrine, the Supreme Heaven, the Greatly Compassionate, Greatly Wise, Perfectly Enlightened Wheel-Turning Dharma King, is merely the fleshly incarnation in this world of the Supreme Heaven, the Greatly Compassionate, Greatly Wise, Perfectly Enlightened Buddha.

Before the spirit within this fleshly body returns to the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss — that is, before I, Zhang the Supreme Heaven, pass into nirvana and ascend — this Buddha image will always wear its mask, and the Buddha's body will be carved only of wood, with no gilded body and no painted decoration.

At this moment, I, Zhang the Supreme Heaven, have finally returned with the great army from beyond the frontier. Not only has he returned, he also held a grand victory celebration in Chengde Prefecture, with rewards bestowed upon all the various forces.

Yan Jin was granted an additional one thousand households, with an actual fief of one hundred households, two manors around Luoyang, posthumous honors for three generations of his ancestors, and portraits of six generations of his ancestors.

Do not underestimate this, because Yan Jin, how to put it, essentially had no family genealogy at all.

When he himself came down from the Qingtang Plateau, he had no name. He only knew his surname was Yan, and that he was probably a descendant of Yan Chao of Taiyuan, the last hero of Hexi to resist the Tibetans.

Correspondingly, Yan Jin's grandfather had no name, his father had no name, and his mother had died even earlier.

So when Yan Jin was garrisoning Taiyuan, Zhang Zhao could only directly confer posthumous honors up to Yan Chao. Below Yan Chao and above Yan Jin, six generations of people were entirely blank.

And this time, Zhang Zhao, conferring posthumous honors in his capacity as Emperor, came to solve this problem for Yan Jin. For example, Yan Jin's father — Zhang Zhao posthumously granted him the title of Duke of Pingtao and Prefect of Shazhou.

From then on, Yan Jin's father could be referred to outwardly as Yan Pingtao or Yan Shazhou, and these two official titles could also be carved onto his spirit tablet.

For Yan Jin, his father was no longer the nameless slave-soldier in his memory who served the Dongdai his whole life, known only as the wild ass of the Langqu household, but a concrete figure with a name and an official rank.

When it comes to winning people's hearts, my Sage Zhang's methods are absolutely brilliant — he always strikes at the softest place in his subjects' hearts with a single move.

On this campaign beyond the frontier, Yan Jin first captured the Khitan strategic stronghold of Shangjing Linhuang Prefecture, then crushed the Heichezi Shiwei, then advanced north to the vicinity of the Great Xianbei Mountains, intimidating the leaders of the Thirteen Tribes of Shiwei, the Dadan, the Xi, and other peoples into surrendering.

For such great merit, first, his noble rank was not raised; second, he was given only a fief of one hundred households.

This thing yields about a thousand catties of grain and rice a year, a few dozen air-dried chickens and ducks, a dozen or so salted fish, a dozen or so catties of cured mutton, and some fresh vegetables at the seasonal festivals.

For someone of Yan Jin's status, it is hardly different from nothing. Only those two manors are worth a bit of money.

But when Yan Jin learned that Zhang Zhao had posthumously honored six generations of his ancestors, he wept uncontrollably.

He, always known for his composure, actually got roaring drunk at the victory banquet. Not only did he strip off his shirt and perform songs and dances, he also got into a fight with Huang Yingda. One could say he was extremely happy, so much so that he let himself go completely.

Bai Congxin's noble rank also did not change, but Zhang Zhao specially approved him to recruit one thousand households of herders at Woluoduo City.

Because Sage Zhang knew what this fellow was thinking — he dreamed of restoring the Bai clan's Kingdom of Kucha.

Compared to that wish, noble rank and such were never Bai Congxin's priority. After all, once he finally went out there, his rank would certainly be raised to the level of Great King of a vassal state.

At that point, whether he wanted to be King of Kucha or Great King of the Bai Kingdom, there would be no problem.

And besides giving Bai Congxin the authority to recruit one thousand households of herders, Zhang Zhao was also gathering scholars to compile a family genealogy for him.

This Bai clan originally descended from Prince Bai of the State of Qin. He was the heir of Duke Wu of Qin, only in the end the ducal position was seized by his uncle, Duke Wu of Qin's younger brother Duke De of Qin.

His descendants then began using Bai as their clan name. Bai Qi, the God of Slaughter of the Warring States, was a descendant of Prince Bai.

Zhang Zhao is now having people compile it, saying that during the time of Duke De of Qin, a branch of Prince Bai's descendants was forced to migrate west, eventually settling in Kucha, becoming the ancestors of the King of Kucha and of Bai Congxin.

As for why some members of the Bai clan have yellow hair and green eyes, that is surely because they married too many barbarian beauties and mixed their blood.

Uh, if you still want to ask why most of them have this sort of appearance, that would be rather impolite, wouldn't it?

As for the others, Li Cunhui was advanced from Duke of Su to Duke of Wei. Hmm, now he can be addressed as Li Weigong, which delighted Li Cunhui so much that snot bubbles appeared on the spot.

The rest — Huang Yingda, Yang Jiye, and others — all received rewards, and even Pan Mei obtained the noble title of Count of Yuancheng.

And after holding the victory banquet, Zhang Zhao did not intend to leave Chengde Prefecture, because next, he was going to convene in Chengde a grand election assembly of the nomadic, hunting-fishing, and semi-agricultural tribes of the three regions: the high plateau, the grasslands, and Songmo.

At this election assembly, Zhang Zhao intended to obtain the title of Heavenly Khagan, and to complete in Chengde Prefecture the basic division of the Six Dharma Sect's dioceses for these three regions.

At that time, monastic official systems of Living Buddhas, Great Virtues, and Chief Monastic Supervisors would be established in Qingtang, the Western Sea, the Western Desert, the Northern Desert, the Southern Desert, the Great Xianbei Mountains, and the Lesser Xianbei Mountains.

One eight-hundred-li express dispatch after another was delivered before Zhang Zhao. In fact, even while Zhang Zhao was on the grasslands, Empress Cao Yanxi still informed Zhang Zhao of major court affairs at a frequency of one letter every five days.

And besides Empress Cao Yanxi, Pei Yuan, who oversaw the court administration, Commissioner of Military Affairs Guo Tiance, Commander of the Brocade Guard Zhang Liecheng, and the Emperor's absolute confidant, Vice Director of the Chancellery Liu Tao, each also sent eight-hundred-li express dispatches to Zhang Zhao at irregular intervals of three to five days.

This was what my Emperor Zhang relied upon to dare to remain in Chengde Prefecture after the battle north of the desert.

Although he was far away, military power was firmly in his hands, and he understood the affairs of the court quite clearly.

The Rehe Palace is also located on Lion Peak, only not at the summit but at the foot of the mountain.

The name was given by Zhang Zhao, derived from the several enormous hot springs outside the palace. Craftsmen used unique insulated channels to divert the hot spring water into the palace, forming a hot river one li long.

So Zhang Zhao simply named this palace the Rehe Palace.

Soaking in hot springs in winter is a top-tier pleasure. Emperor Zhang lay stark naked in the faintly scalding water, surrounded by serving maids carrying warm premium Jiangnan rice wine infused with red dates, goji berries, and tangerine peel.

Dried longans, walnuts, and other nut snacks were also abundantly available. Steam rose in the air, as if in a fairyland.

Zhang Zhao sighed. Without cashews and peanuts, he always felt a bit regretful.

What fucking supreme emperor, what blissful Dharma King — he couldn't even have a bite of tomato-braised beef brisket, scrambled eggs with tomato, roasted sweet potato, or steamed corn.

To eat a big crab or oysters and such, he still had to run to the seaside himself, and big lobsters were not even commonly catchable yet.

Hotpot was even more out of the question — the spiciness of dogwood always tasted a bit strange, nowhere near as good as chili peppers.

Meal after meal, it was mutton and more mutton, or else deer and horse meat that was both gamey and tough.

Beef was out of the question entirely. He himself had just issued a strict order: throughout the realm, even if a single plow ox died, it had to be reported immediately to the prefect of its prefecture.

The County Magistrate of the county in question had to inspect it personally and confirm that it was a natural death, or that it had genuinely died of illness or an accidental fall, and so on.

Only after it was recorded on the books could the government purchase it, and then sell the beef in a unified manner.

For plow oxen whose deaths were not caused by one of those three reasons, the punishments ranged from twenty strokes of the heavy bamboo to three days in the cangue, all the way up to exile — the regulations were minutely detailed and severe.

There was no help for it. To restore production, the plow ox was the most important tool of production, bar none.

And Zhang Zhao himself, apart from the few meals of beef he had eaten out on the steppe, could only eat beef as a sacrificial offering after the annual rites to Heaven, Earth, and the ancestors.

Zhang Zhao even deliberately refrained from eating yak meat as well, for fear of starting a trend of eating beef, after which high officials and nobles would slaughter plow oxen and pass the meat off as yak.

Still, it was not without its benefits. Zhang Zhao lightly beckoned with his hand, and in the distance a little beauty — full hips, slender waist, breasts like upturned jade bowls, no more than sixteen or seventeen, at least a seven out of ten — hastily gathered up her long hair with both hands, then sank down into the water, head and all.

After a moment she raised her head again, then took another breath and sank back down.

By the time Zhang Zhao's appetite was thoroughly stirred, the girl, water droplets sliding down her body, blinked her glistening eyes and arranged herself into position.

This was the youngest daughter of Duosage, a great chieftain of the Northern Zubu. To conquer them, kill them, and take their beautiful wives and daughters — that was one of the most important rights of a great Khagan of the steppe.

The serving women around them turned away of their own accord, and even screened themselves off with white silk cloth.

Ten minutes later, Junior Supervisor Dong came over holding a stack of secret reports. He had just sorted out the five eight-hundred-li express dispatches that had been delivered to Zhang Zhao.

Zhang Zhao took them and glanced at them. The first name that met his eye was Cao Renzun's, and after that he did not read further.

Because Cao Renzun was Zhang Zhao's greatest target this time. Apart from his actions in the Hexi Merchant Association, which had angered Zhang Zhao, this fellow had also done something Zhang Zhao absolutely could not forgive — something that could even be called touching his reverse scale.

When I, Sage Zhang, expressed my hope to bring the Xia people under Chinese rule, and to use religion and armor to seize the lands along the Transoxiana and the shores of the Western Sea, Cao Renzun ran his mouth wildly in Dunhuang.

He said: "Our ancestors endured every hardship to come to the Great Tang and become Tang people. Now you want us to run back and be barbarians again — have you lost your minds?"

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