Chapter 84: King Yangdong's Trump Card

In the Tonghe Hall, the terrifying aftermath of that firecracker's explosion left the several purple-robed monks who had entered together frozen in shock.

Countless specks of yellow mud had flown everywhere, and that chinaberry-wood table looked as if it had truly been struck by heavenly thunder — a great crater had been blasted out of its surface, and all around were traces of violent scorching by flame.

An expression of utter disbelief appeared on Li Shengtian's face. That lump of yellow mud had weighed at least four or five jin, and Zhang Erlang had packed it down extremely solid.

Yet this time, apart from the mud specks splattered everywhere, it had completely vanished without a trace — and had even blasted a great crater into his chinaberry-wood table.

As the ruler of a kingdom, Li Shengtian grasped the value of this thing almost instantly. After sweeping his gaze around the room once, he asked in a deep voice.

"How large was that divine device just now?"

Good heavens — he was already calling it a divine device. Zhang Zhao was about to open his mouth to speak, but Li Shengtian waved a hand, signaling him to keep quiet.

Before long, a palace attendant came over carrying a thick writing-brush shaft.

"Son of Heaven, it was roughly the same size as this object."

Li Shengtian held the brush shaft, even more shaken inwardly. A thing no thicker than this slender brush shaft could produce such destructive power.

If...! Li Shengtian did not dare think further. He struggled to keep his voice from trembling, and nodded toward Zhang Zhao.

"Come with me!"

This was a temple built directly within the royal palace — not in the inner palace, of course, but in the outer palace, not far from the Five Phoenix Tower.

Zhang Zhao had just followed Li Shengtian inside when the temple gates creaked shut behind them.

Only now did Zhang Zhao realize why those purple-robed monks looked so sleek and well-fed. Damn — apart from the few eminent monks at the front, the rest were all human-shaped vajra warriors!

These were warrior monks! No wonder they didn't look like vegetarians.

The master guarding the temple gate held a crescent-bladed spade, stood about one meter eighty, and wore only a simple purple robe in the dead of winter — his whole body muscular, though... not bulging at all.

But with those thick arms, thick legs, and round, full belly, you could have no doubt that with this build of reserves, he could fight in armor on and off for several hours.

This, in fact, was the standard fierce-general physique of the cold-weapons era. Those protein-powder musclemen of later ages, thrown onto a cold-weapons battlefield, would probably be exhausted within half an hour.

Only a fierce man like this master — waist three chi around, with goods in the belly — was a true killing machine on the battlefield: strong enough, and with enough endurance!

Zhang Zhao touched his own belly. In fact, his build was now moving in this direction too. The lesson from last time at Yuni City, when he nearly collapsed from exhaustion halfway through the fight, was still vivid in his mind.

"Erlang! What you said could blast open the walls of Shule — it was that divine device you just demonstrated, wasn't it?"

Only after the whole temple had been shut and sealed did Li Shengtian, accompanied by several fierce warrior monks, lead Zhang Zhao into a secret chamber.

"I hear from my elder sister that you chant the Ksitigarbha Fundamental Vow Sutra extremely well, and often recite sutras in Dunhuang to deliver the dead, accumulating much merit. This is the Tripitaka Master Senggadamo — the Ksitigarbha Fundamental Vow Sutra was composed by the Tripitaka Master."

Zhang Zhao, who had just sat down, immediately stood up again. A Tripitaka Master! The title alone told him this was no ordinary figure. That poor monk Tang Sanzang of the Eastern Land of the Great Tang in Journey to the West — his title originally meant "a Great Tang master versed in the Tripitaka."

The Tripitaka refers to the Abhidharma Pitaka, the Vinaya Pitaka, and the Sutra Pitaka. Only one who has mastered these three branches of the Dharma can be called a Tripitaka Master. In Confucian terms, that would be a great Confucian scholar; in Daoist terms, a perfected being.

Moreover, this monk wore extremely plain hempen robes, his beard and hair all white, aged and venerable — yet his eyes were extraordinarily bright. From his appearance alone, he was clearly no ordinary monk.

Not to mention that he had composed the Ksitigarbha Fundamental Vow Sutra, a Buddhist scripture that would remain extremely famous even in later ages.

"This pious man, Zhang Zhao of the Zhang clan of Nanyang, pays his respects to the Master!"

But the old monk merely glanced at him, smiled, and nodded, without saying a word. Li Shengtian, however, was growing impatient. He took out the brush shaft he had brought from the Tonghe Hall and asked.

"Erlang, if a single firecracker of this thickness can blast apart an earthen wall made of five jin of packed yellow mud, then how much would it take to blast apart the walls of Shule?"

Hearing the two of them bring up the matter of collapsing the walls of Shule again, a flicker of surprise passed over the old monk's face, which had been as still as an ancient well. For the first time, he carefully studied Zhang Zhao.

"To answer my uncle: that firecracker just now was actually not yet perfectly made, and the burial site was not carefully calculated.

If it could be calculated in advance, collapsing the walls of Shule would not require too much gunpowder — at most a hundred jin would do the job. It's just that Khotan has no shortage of sulfur, but saltpeter is truly hard to obtain, and will require my uncle to make every effort to procure it."

Li Shengtian waved a hand. "Rest easy, Erlang. So long as we can breach the walls of Shule and fulfill the long-cherished wish of four generations of Khotan's kings, no amount of money or goods is too great a cost. What other requirements do you have? Put them all forward at once!"

Zhang Zhao nodded. This was exactly the sentence he had been waiting for from Li Shengtian.

"As long as my uncle can procure the needed materials, the rest will not be much trouble.

It's just that the walls of Shule are no ordinary walls. Firecrackers alone will not suffice — the sealing will be inadequate, and the full power of the gunpowder cannot be brought to bear. Moreover, the burial sites must be chosen with great care.

This nephew dares to ask my uncle to grant me several dozen highly skilled carpenters, and to permit me to recruit three hundred miners in East River Prefecture!"

East River Prefecture lay to the east of Khotan city, roughly around the area of later Luopu County. At this time, East River Prefecture administered Khotan's only coal mine.

Specifically, it was near the later Buya coal mine, and a special administrative office had even been established there.

In a place like Khotan, the use of coal had a far longer history than in the Central Plains. After all, if they burned only firewood here, the desert would swallow the land within a few decades.

Carpenters and miners — this showed that the path Zhang Zhao wanted to take was the old route of me, the Wind-Thunder Counselor King Yangdong: pack black powder into coffins, recruit miners, and carry out tunnel-blasting.

Although gunpowder now existed, having Zhang Zhao build cannons and firearms was unrealistic — every aspect fell short. But packing gunpowder into coffins for demolition was entirely feasible.

"You intend to blast open the walls of Shule by digging tunnels?" Li Shengtian guessed Zhang Zhao's plan at once, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"Granted! I shall issue the order at once for the Prefect of East River Prefecture to recruit three hundred miners for you!"

"Uncle! I wish to go recruit them myself. Handling gunpowder requires elite men — ordinary miners cannot do the job!" Zhang Zhao quickly indicated he wanted to go himself.

"That works too! Then I shall issue you an edict, granting you leave to go recruit on your own!"

Li Shengtian agreed without hesitation. The two of them, by tacit understanding, did not mention the matter of Li Ruoliu, for compared with the capture of Shule, it was utterly insignificant.

"However! How long must I wait before I see real results?"

Li Shengtian naturally would not be convinced that Zhang Zhao could collapse Shule city just because of the small explosion he had produced today.

Before all the large investments, he certainly wanted to see a scene that came close to Shule city.

Fortunately, Zhang Zhao had long been prepared. He cupped his hands in salute. "Uncle, this nephew has already ordered men to reinforce a section of wall at Yaotou Ridge, built entirely to the standard of Shule's walls. In ten days, I respectfully invite my uncle to grace Yaotou Ridge with his presence!"

When Zhang Zhao finished speaking, the old monk Senggadamo, who had not been resting with his eyes closed, opened his eyes and looked at Zhang Zhao with a piercing gaze.

"I have heard that the young lord intends to restore the Zhang family. If you can truly aid our Buddha in breaching Shule city and punishing the Qarakhanid deputy khan (Bughra Khan), who has turned his back on the Buddha, then this old monk may be able to convene the great virtuous monks and Dharma masters of Khotan and Qiangtang to acknowledge the young lord as a reincarnation of a Buddhist guardian deity, and may also aid the young lord with a force of monk-soldiers!"

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