Chapter 782: Suyab

Time went back one year.

The fourth year of Shaoming, the first day of the second month, Anxi Province, northwest of Gumo Prefecture, the Boda Ridge.

Yao Yuanfu tightened the padded jacket on his body, still feeling a bit of wind leaking through, so he found two ropes and cinched the jacket tighter, until it was tight enough to affect his breathing.

After that, he put two large wooden boards strung with hemp rope onto his back — these were actually a pair of skis.

Do not think this thing was invented by later generations; the ancients were not that foolish. Something so simple for walking on snow, requiring no great technology, had long been worked out through countless real-life experiences.

The Boda Ridge is the Biedieli Pass northwest of Wushi County in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the later People's Republic.

This place had always been an important pass on the Silk Road, but it was abandoned after the Great Tang declined and the Tibetans cut off the Hexi Corridor.

Guo Guangcheng was wrapped up like a zongzi, and with a grin he took out a small pouch and handed it to Yao Yuanfu.

Yao Yuanfu took it and shook it; he could hear the sound of liquid sloshing, and immediately broke into a grin.

At the Boda Ridge in early February, the wind cut to the bone, and the lowest temperature could drop to minus ten-some degrees. At this time, no matter what water one carried, it would freeze; only strong liquor would not solidify and make a sloshing sound.

Guo Guangyi, who proclaimed himself Khagan at Suyab, was far cleverer than Zhang Zhao had imagined. Ever since his rebellion, he had kept a close watch on the movements over at Shule, and along the Tang Monk's Ancient Road from Shule to Suyab he had established more than ten sentry posts and a fortified stockade. At the slightest sign of trouble, word would be sent to Suyab.

After Hu Guang arrived in Khotan, he immediately sent out several groups to test the Tang Monk's Ancient Road, but without exception they were discovered and beaten back. Even in winter, a small number of men held fast on the ancient road.

Realizing that the other side had long been prepared, Hu Guang immediately changed strategy and settled down to train his troops.

On this western campaign, he had brought only four thousand infantry and cavalry; the rest of the army would have to be recruited from Anxi and Beiting.

But the military strength of Anxi and Beiting had declined rapidly ever since Zhang Zhao returned east, especially after the Gaochang Uyghurs were dealt with.

Because Zhang Zhao had taken away the great majority of the elite troops, especially the elite officers, and on top of that, the capable fighters left in Anxi and Beiting had basically all been wiped out by Zhang Zhao.

After that, the Silk Road kept recovering, and after two hundred years of war, a great deal of the population had been lost. A large batch had also gone to garrison Ningyuan (the Fergana Basin), so the whole region was vast and sparsely populated.

This meant that throughout Anxi and Beiting, there was an abundance of arable good farmland and rich, fertile pasture, and the trade routes were thriving. How many people could still settle their minds to military preparedness?

Everyone was busy seizing the good opportunity to get rich, busy bearing and raising children.

Look at Li Shengtian and Cao Yuanxin — neither of them kept military preparedness in mind. That couple, in order to fulfill their long-cherished wish of seeing the Central Plains, actually threw aside state affairs and ran off together. Li Shengtian even wanted to just stay in the Central Plains and not return to Anxi.

If the two of them were like that, could the people below them be any better?

And as for these Hu people of Anxi and Beiting — how to put it — they actually rather liked lying flat and idling about in pleasure.

So in just a bit over ten years, throughout Anxi and Beiting, the upper ranks were cultured and idle, the lower ranks indulged to their hearts' content in the good life brought by the golden age, living far better than the common people of the Central Plains.

Only, the consequence was that Hu Guang, who had originally come to put down the Guo family rebellion at Suyab, was forced to first take up the military affairs of the three institutions of Anxi, Beiting, and the Kingdom of Jin.

Every day he was busy starting almost from zero — recruiting soldiers, training troops, forging weapons and armor — and simply had no time to lead a large army on campaign.

No wonder Guo Guangyi dared to rebel. It turned out that Shule's deterrence over Suyab had almost vanished. If not for Suyab's small population, and his fear that Zhang Zhao would personally lead troops, that dog might well have dared to come down the mountain and attack Shule.

And so Hu Guang trained troops for five months straight, and along the way fattened up the four thousand brave warriors who had come to Anxi with him.

These four thousand men had originally thought they were coming to fight a war, but instead they had plunged headfirst into a jar of honey.

Anxi and Beiting were rich and prosperous; every day there was endless beef and mutton to eat, and endless grape wine to drink.

Moreover, this place had also gone through several hundred years of war, so there were more women than men, and the Hu women were open in their ways. On top of that, they admired the looks of Han men, and every day countless of them surrounded the camp, casting flirtatious glances and swaying their hips in temptation.

Quite a few households even offered money for a single night of pleasure, just to get seed. The yellow-haired, green-eyed Hu women were the most numerous, every one of them hoping the next generation of their family would have black hair and black eyes.

Five months of this was simply like being in heaven.

But Hu Guang did not simply indulge them; he worked with both looseness and tightness, and those with no bottom line at all were quickly rapped on the knuckles by him.

The less a man could control the thing between his legs, the stricter Hu Guang was with him, and the fewer rewards he gave.

The more ambition a man had in his heart, or at least knew how to restrain himself, the more freedom he was given, and rewards were handed out often.

In this way he kept them for five months, until the brave warriors themselves felt they had let down the court's pay and let down Great General Hu's kindness, and only then did Hu Guang come out to assign the mission.

The mission was this: since Guo Guangyi of Suyab had blockaded the Tang Monk's Ancient Road, and the road from Shule to Suyab was impassable, then switch to another one.

From Gumo, head northwest, cross the Boda Ridge, find the Zhenzhu River (the Naryn River), follow the Zhenzhu River southwest all the way, and launch a surprise attack on Suyab!

For this, Hu Guang selected the three hundred most elite men, and equipped each with double armor.

Hu Guang did not believe that everyone in the Guo family of Suyab was willing to follow Guo Guangyi and become Hu people at this moment, when the sons of Tang were clearly about to become honored again.

He did not believe that the Guo family, after holding out at Suyab for seventy years without forgetting their homeland, and after successfully returning to the nation, would be willing to collectively betray the two-hundred-year wish of their ancestors.

Of course, selecting three hundred men did not mean only three hundred set out; a full two thousand set out.

Only, the main task of the remaining one thousand seven hundred was not combat, but to serve as two-legged mules for the three hundred armored soldiers, carrying their armor, weapons, and other supplies.

Yao Yuanfu opened the wine pouch and took a great gulp. Instantly he felt his body warm up considerably. Although this was actually deceiving the body, it was still far more comfortable than enduring it head-on.

He turned his head to look at the column of men staggering about in the wind and snow, and said with a smile to Guo Guangcheng, "We've finally crossed this dog-begotten mountain range. Better than I expected — only two hundred-some men lost, not the five hundred-some the two of us thought."

Guo Guangcheng also laughed. "Lord Yao, you are the peerless fierce general personally chosen by the Sage. Whether we can take Suyab in this campaign depends on you and the hundred bears and tigers under your command."

The hundred personal guards Yao Yuanfu had gathered were all fierce men who had fought the Khitan at Baituanwei Village in years past, and who had risen in revolt with him outside Yanshi City.

These elite yabing guards of the Central Plains might be a bit lacking in discipline, but when it came to killing on the battlefield, those who saw it truly trembled with fear.

Just then, one yabing guard passed by the two of them, and hearing Guo Guangcheng's words, immediately grinned.

"Sir Guo, rest assured. The Sage gave our parents thirty strings of cash for their old age, and after arriving in Anxi, Great General Hu has given us fat sheep and fine wine day after day, with Hu girls and young women in endless supply. We must of course repay kindness with gratitude, and slaughter those earthen chickens and clay dogs until the blood flows like a river!"

Another yabing guard chimed in with a laugh, "Right. When I was in Kucha, I already enjoyed thirteen Hu women, and at least nine are with child.

No matter what surname they bear later, or what they look like, the seed has been left. I have enjoyed fine wine and beautiful women, and now it is time to repay the Sage's grace."

Guo Guangcheng was a little embarrassed, because what he actually wanted to say was: still, do not kill too savagely.

Because Suyab City did not only contain traitors like Guo Guangyi; many of them were his own Guo family relatives. If they were all slaughtered indiscriminately, he would not be able to cry even if he wanted to.

Yao Yuanfu understood Guo Guangcheng's current awkward mood very well. He patted Guo Guangcheng on the shoulder. "Erlang, rest assured. I know what I am doing."

Outside Suyab City, the work of repairing the inner city was still continuing. Just outside the inner city, a broad moat had been diverted from the Suyab River, winding around the inner city.

In a highland border region like Suyab, building a great city complete with inner city, outer city, and moat was extremely costly in manpower and resources.

Outside the city, overseers in long robes with horsewhips in hand could be seen everywhere, shouting and berating. Large numbers of laborers, who in February could only wear thin single-layer clothes, toiled bitterly.

From time to time, someone would stumble and fall into the muddy ground flecked with ice. Some crawled back up under the lash of the whip; some never got up again.

Guo Guangjie watched all this without the slightest sympathy in his eyes. What he cared about was when the defenses of Suyab City could be completed, making this city a truly impregnable city.

According to his elder brother Guo Guangyi's estimate, once the ice and snow melted, the Khotan army would certainly come up again through the old Tang monk road.

Though this old road was precipitous, transporting supplies along it was simply too difficult, and it could not be held at all, so Suyab was the best place for a defense.

Guo Guangjie thought of this, and a faint smile appeared on his face. If they could defeat the army coming from Khotan this time, then his elder brother's position would be completely secure, and he would smoothly become the Khagan of Suyab and Talas. After that, he would destroy the Samanid Persians and become the Gur-khan of Transoxiana.

Guo Guangyi was not tall in stature; one could even say he was quite short.

Zhang Zhao was not entirely clear how he had suddenly appeared, and even Guo Guangcheng had little impression of this man. That was because Guo Guangyi, from the very beginning, had not been with the Guo family of Suyab. He was one of the Tang cavalry whom Zhang Zhao had dispatched to follow Li Guoshou in garrisoning Talas.

Back then, after defeating the governor of Tashkent under the Samanid Persians, Zhang Zhao had transferred sixty thousand soldiers and civilians of the various peoples of Suyab to garrison Talas, with Li Guoshou in overall command.

He ordered Bai Congxin to train a cavalry force in Suyab to serve as their escort, and this cavalry force was called the Tang cavalry by the various peoples of Suyab.

Guo Guangyi first spent several years in Talas. Though his stature was not imposing, his horsemanship was superb and his archery was not bad either. More crucially, he was very good at ingratiating himself, and he gained Li Guoshou's regard.

Li Guoshou, though Zhang Zhao had pushed him to a high position, was not himself very capable. Gradually, he handed over all the affairs of Talas, great and small, into Guo Guangyi's hands.

Guo Guangyi did not disappoint Li Guoshou's expectations. Not only did he stabilize the situation in Talas, he also used the advantages of its location to make Talas more and more prosperous.

After that, Li Guoshou married his daughter to Guo Guangyi. Two more years passed, and Li Guoshou's only son fell from his horse while out hunting, breaking his neck outright, leaving Li Guoshou without even a single grandson.

From then on, Li Guoshou could only rely on Guo Guangyi, whom he could not do without and who had already grasped the great power of Talas.

Up to this point, if Guo Guangyi had been a Han man whose heart yearned for his homeland and who understood the greater cause, his future would at the very least have been that of a king of a great vassal state in Zhang Zhao's plans, and a heroic figure in the history books.

But as it happened, Guo Guangyi had risen from the lowest ranks. In the old Guo family of Suyab, unless one reached a certain height, one could not receive the family's internal cultural education about the sons of Tang, and Guo Guangyi had never experienced any of that.

Do not be fooled by his Han appearance; his way of thinking was entirely Uyghur.

More importantly, he had been born in Suyab and grown up in Suyab, and he believed that Suyab plus Khotan was the whole world.

He had never seen the Great Tang or the Central Plains at all, and he could barely even speak Han language in a muddled way, with basically no sense of belonging.

What happened after that was simple. This was not simply Li Guoshou and the Guo family of Suyab reaching a reconciliation.

Guo Xuanli and Li Guoshou had fought openly and covertly for over a decade; they could not possibly have reconciled so easily.

This was an ambitious man swallowing up the forces of two families and beginning to dream a grand dream of empire.

(End of Chapter)

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