Chapter 797: The War for the Belly

Though it was only the twentieth day of the eighth month, this year's cold wind seemed to have arrived a little early.

In the howling autumn wind, the tens of thousands of people outside the walls of Hushui City shivered in the open ground.

They had just endured twelve hellish days, and most of them lacked food and drink; even the small amounts of leather armor and leather goods on their bodies had been eaten clean.

Later on, once water had also become a precious commodity, the taste of fire-roasted leather was truly beyond words.

At the worst moments, even urine had to be fought over before there was any to drink.

And now, all of them craned their necks, their noses twitching rapidly as they greedily sniffed the faint, elusive fragrance in the air, their eyes fixed dead on the steamed mixed-grain cakes and the pot of boiled mutton offal soup not far away, countless dark heads swaying left and right with the scent.

A small child, seven or eight at most, probably too hungry to bear it any longer, crawled with difficulty to Bai Congxin's feet and knocked his little head against the ground again and again, pleading weakly in fluent Tang speech.

"Young lord, have mercy. Your servant is so hungry. I dare not ask for much—just grant me half a cake!"

The soldiers, officers, and clerks all around could not help turning their faces away, unable to bear the sight; the weak, childish Tang voice shattered the defenses in their hearts.

Bai Congxin let out a long sigh, then suddenly ran forward two steps and kicked the kneeling Luo Dingzhong flat onto the ground, pointing at his nose and cursing.

"Look! Just look! Whose sin is this? It is the sin of you men!

In the old days, how loyal were the Five Surnames and Three Royal Houses! How heroic were your ancestors! They remained steadfast unto death, refusing to yield even with blades and axes upon them.

Yet when it came to your generation, a mere Guo Guangyi, a few threats, and you abandoned the glory of your ancestors and the noble blood in your veins.

And in the end, what did your compromise win you? Your wives, children, and elders about to starve to death, and yourselves dying a shameful death bearing a disgraceful name.

When you go below the earth and meet your ancestors, and they ask you, 'Does Suyab still stand? Are our descendants safe?'—how will you answer?"

Luo Dingzhong was truly broken now. Although his ancestors were of the Uyghur royal house, when Zhang Zhao founded the state he had posthumously vindicated Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, Pugu Huai'en, and others, so if he counted his maternal ancestor Pugu Huai'en as an ancestor, the word "heroic" could still be applied.

He wept bitterly and prostrated himself on the ground, knocking his head until blood streamed down. When Guo Guangyi had first risen to power, he had been the one most opposed to it, and now the memory only made his pain worse.

"Your descendants are worthless, and have disgraced the glory of their ancestors. I wished to die, but I still have attachments. I beg Lord Bai to give these tens of thousands of people a way to live. I am willing to go to the Divine Capital and be publicly executed outside the Vermilion Bird Gate!"

Once Luo Dingzhong wept, a great crowd of people all began weeping too. The wounded able-bodied men and the famished women and children knelt all over the ground, their weeping and pleading intertwining in the air.

Bai Congxin sighed again and said the words Luo Dingzhong had been hearing most often lately: "If you had known this day would come, why did you do it in the first place?"

"These people are certainly guilty, but what do the women and children know? I beg the Grand Protector-General to be merciful." Xue Shouli could despise a true traitor like Guo Guangyi to the extreme, but when it came to the people of Hushui City, he still found it hard to be ruthless.

"We beg the Grand Protector-General to be merciful!" It was not only him; Li Jixun, Lu Sanlang, and the others also could not bring themselves to do it.

Bai Congxin nodded. "Children under ten, pregnant women, and elders over fifty may all come forward and eat and drink something first. As for you, Luo Dingzhong—give me one reason why I should let you live for now."

After giving these instructions, Bai Congxin pretended to drink water and slowly paced over to Secretary Zheng Guizhong, speaking in a low voice.

"In a while, find some people to observe. Any young child who offers food to their parents, any pregnant woman who gives her food to a wounded husband or to her parents or in-laws—keep all such people and put them to important use later."

Zheng Guizhong was startled for a moment, then quickly nodded. He understood Bai Congxin's meaning: after starving and thirsting for more than ten days, to still give one's food to one's parents could only be done by someone of the utmost filial piety.

The people of Transoxiana had received little moral instruction and rarely possessed such virtue. Those who could do this were, with extremely high probability, people who had received the Central Plains education in which filial piety is the foremost of all virtues.

Such people were naturally their own people, and of course should be put to good use.

Luo Dingzhong, meanwhile, took the opportunity to organize his words. Just now Xue Shouli had quietly come over and told him what Bai Congxin was most concerned about, which matched Luo Dingzhong's own guesses fairly closely, so he still had a certain degree of confidence.

"Grand Protector-General, your servant believes that now that the heavenly troops have come east, there are two matters, one short-term and one long-term, that urgently need to be resolved. In the short term, the Samanid Persians are the dominant power in Transoxiana, with a population of four million.

Among them are twenty thousand armored soldiers called ghulams, another thirty thousand of the so-called 'al-awliya' standing army, thirty thousand levied iqta cavalry, and over one hundred thousand levied Mutawwa infantry.

They can also use gold and silver to hire from the Arab lands holy warriors of considerable fighting ability. Therefore defeating them is not difficult, but occupying them is not easy.

In the long term, the people of Transoxiana are not of our kind. They lean on the Arabs, have not received the kingly transformation, and are even harder to civilize. To rule as Xia lords over Yi subjects in this land will be extremely difficult."

Bai Congxin's face showed no expression at all, while in the distance the children, pregnant women, and elders had already begun eating and drinking. The remaining able-bodied men and healthy women grew even more ravenous, all casting burning gazes at Luo Dingzhong, which made him feel the pressure even more intensely.

"Your servant believes the Grand Protector-General should not rush to attack the Samanid Persians now, because Emir Hamid has already lost control of the situation.

The one now in power is Hamid's son Salih, who has long been known in the Samanid realm as an enlightened ruler and enjoys great support among his people. He will not submit easily."

Bai Congxin agreed with this point, because the last time Sage Zhang had led them into Bukhara, Bai Congxin had specifically analyzed it with Zhang Zhao.

At that time, had Nasr II and Hamid, father and son, not been fighting each other, and had Hamid not been a weak man, they would never have been able to enter Bukhara at all.

Moreover, Bukhara was a strong fortress of Transoxiana. Last time it had not been taken by assault; Hamid had voluntarily surrendered the city. This time no one would surrender it, and even if they could reach the walls of Bukhara, a siege would take at least half a year to even begin.

Bai Congxin grew somewhat interested. "Then in your view, what should our army do next?"

The flame of hope ignited in Luo Dingzhong's eyes, and he said loudly: "Your servant believes the great army should immediately capture the city of Shiguo!"

"Shiguo City?" Bai Congxin thought for a moment, then looked at Luo Dingzhong with puzzlement. "Are you deceiving me, thinking I am newly arrived in Transoxiana and ignorant of Samanid affairs?

The governor of Shiguo City, Amir, is the largest military province within the Samanid Persian realm. Our great army has just arrived—why should we capture Shiguo City and solve the source of internal strife for Salih? Could we not ally with Amir and take Bukhara instead?"

Luo Dingzhong certainly did not think that way. In fact, no matter who came to Transoxiana, they would know that the governor of Shiguo City intended to rebel.

Because the word "Amir" was actually just another way of saying "Emir," with only one insignificant syllable missing. The governor of Shiguo City calling himself Amir made his disloyal intentions glaringly obvious.

"Lord Bai, please hear your servant out." Luo Dingzhong hastily explained. "If our great army has come east to capture Bukhara and install someone close to us as ruler of the Samanid Persians, then naturally we could ally with Amir, the governor of Shiguo City.

But if we intend to rule as Xia lords over Yi subjects in this land, then we cannot ally with him, for two reasons.

First, the Samanid Persians lean on the Arabs and are wealthy. Merely capturing Bukhara is not enough to make them submit, because they can continually recruit holy warriors from all over the Arab lands to come.

I have heard that the Arab realm is vast, bordering the great western empire of Daqin, with an enormous population, and with the Heavenly Square religion serving as a bond. As long as the Samanid Persians hold out in one place, what we will face is an endless stream of holy warriors. With enemies both within and without, we certainly cannot hold the land for long.

Therefore, your servant believes it would be better to capture Shiguo City and adopt the posture that unless Salih offers five million dinars and a princess of the Samanid royal house, we will drive straight for Bukhara.

And this Salih, though commonly called an enlightened ruler, is in truth nothing more than a Shi Chonggui. Now that the largest military province in his realm has been dealt with by us, and he can recruit holy warriors from the west, he will certainly refuse to submit, and may even want to lead a great army north to drive us out.

At that time, our army will station elite troops in Shiguo City and tens of thousands of elite cavalry in Talas and Baishui City, luring the Samanid army north to attack.

Once they have battered themselves bloody against the strong walls of Shiguo City, we will suddenly strike with our elite cavalry, and they will inevitably suffer a crushing defeat.

Repeat this several times, until they have no soldiers left to use and no holy warriors dare come again.

And in every one of these battles, our army will not seek plunder, but will strive above all to inflict maximum casualties, killing off all their able-bodied men who march north.

After several years or even more than ten years, those in the Samanid Persian realm who still dare resist, and the holy warriors who dare come from the west, will have mostly died off. At that point, entering Bukhara will be much easier."

If Zhang Zhao had been here, he would have immediately recognized this set of tactics: it was the same approach the Later Zhou used against the Southern Tang—pinning down Shouzhou and besieging it repeatedly, but in reality killing off the Southern Tang's effective strength.

Bai Congxin's interest grew even stronger. He waved his hand. "Continue. What is the second benefit?"

Luo Dingzhong replied: "The second benefit is naturally that Amir, the governor of Shiguo City, in order to rebel, has stockpiled an enormous quantity of grain, fodder, weapons, and equipment in and around Shiguo City.

It is said that one granary alone holds four hundred thousand shi of rice and grain. Breaking them open would be enough to feed the great army for several years."

Moreover, the city of Shiguo is a great city of the Hezhong region with a population of over eighty thousand. Taking Shiguo City will also let our sons who have come ten thousand li enjoy themselves a bit and steady the army's morale."

"That's not bad," Bai Congxin said with a hint of a smile. "Then tell me further — in the long run, to make the Xia rule and the Yi the people of this land, what other clever measures do you have?"

Luo Dingzhong gritted his teeth. "Kill. Kill selectively. Kill until their women outnumber their men. Then for every man brought here from Han territory, give him five or more wives.

Regardless of looks, regardless of age — as long as she can still bear children, stuff her into his household. And make it a rule that they must produce children. Once a child is born, the court will supplement them with grain.

Then make another rule: any person of Hezhong who marries his sister or daughter to someone from the Central Plains will be permitted to have his whole family follow the Six Dharma Sect and become one of our own.

In this way, in just one or two generations, we can create a hundred thousand or even several hundred thousand sons of Tang in this land, and we will be able to stand firm."

Bai Congxin and Hu Guang exchanged a glance. Indeed, only a local could understand the situation this clearly. This man could be kept.

So Hu Guang stepped forward and said, "Great Protector-General, when we set out on the western campaign, although the Sage granted us discretionary authority in the field, he did not authorize us to decide how to dispose of the people of Suyab. We should first report their matter to the Sage and ask the Sage to decide."

Right! Bai Congxin brightened. This matter should indeed be left to the Sage to decide. "Then get up first. Clean yourselves up and prepare to eat."

That one word — "eat" — brought tears streaming down the face of Luo Dingzhong, whose knees had gone numb from kneeling. The thirty thousand or so people remaining in Hushui City had, for the time being, been spared.

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