Chapter 876: Where There Are People, There Is Jianghu

Wang Liu did not die, but both his legs had been trampled and broken by the Persian cavalry's warhorses, and his ribs had been cracked apart as well. Every time he moved, he grimaced in pain. It looked as though he would not be getting out of bed for several months.

Of the ten veteran yabing guards who had gone out with Wang Liu, miraculously only three had been killed in battle.

For one thing, the protection of full-body armor was still strong. For another, the Persian cavalry had been frightened by Song Heishan and the others rushing over, thinking the Zhou army had come in force to wipe them out, so they had held back and not dared to strike killing blows.

By the time Chen Sanlang limped over to Wang Liu and the others, Song Heishan and his men had already chased the Persian cavalry farther away, leaving only a half-grown boy to watch over Wang Liu's group.

Wang Liu looked at Chen Sanlang. Though he was in so much pain he did not dare move his head, he still forced a grin up at the sky.

"After this, they'd better give me a Pacification Commissioner post, or it won't be justified."

Chen Sanlang did not know what to say, so he simply flopped down with a thud and lay there alongside Wang Liu and the others.

Together they stared up at the gloomy midday sky. No one knew who started it, but for some inexplicable reason they all burst out laughing.

In truth, Wang Liu and his men completely underestimated the significance of their blocking Salar's nearly two hundred elite cavalry.

Because at that very moment, outside Fort Zhenhu, the tens of thousands of Hu people who had seemed to submit had already risen in revolt.

These past years, life for these native Hu people had been truly bitter.

Originally, although they had also paid taxes and rendered labor service to the iqta holders and begs, those iqta lords had all been locals, often from families that had been passed down for over a hundred years. They were not particularly short of money and still had to care somewhat about appearances, so their exploitation had not been especially harsh.

But these Han people who came from the east were basically all penniless, coarse, murderous wretches, every one of them carrying loans on their backs. How could they possibly be as "gentle" as the old begs? Every single one of them squeezed the native Hu people to the death!

Bullying men and violating women, forcing sales and purchases — such things were simply basic operations.

Add to that the lack of a common language, different customs, and utterly different faiths, and large-scale resistance was only a matter of time.

Therefore, if those elite Persian cavalry with organizational leadership and military command ability had been allowed to enter the area outside Fort Zhenhu, it would have meant serious trouble.

The whole of Fort Zhenhu had only a little over two hundred garrison troops and somewhat more than three or four thousand Han people, but outside, the Hu people rising in revolt like a roaring sea numbered more than fifty thousand.

Even without regular Persian elite troops entering, they had already surrounded Fort Zhenhu and cut off the nearby key transportation routes.

If professionals had been directing them, they might well have been able to field twenty or thirty thousand infantry and cavalry.

At this critical moment of standoff, having tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry appear in the deep rear and block key transportation routes truly could directly affect the situation at the front.

Ningyuan Governorate, Xining City.

Xining City was located at the site of the former capital of the Ferghana kingdom, Kesan, a little to the northwest of what in later times would be the city of Namangan in Uzbekistan.

Whether in Zhang Zhou or in the still-unmoved Khotan Golden Kingdom, the status of the Ningyuan Governorate was somewhat special.

Originally, the land of Ningyuan was something Li Shengtian had planned to grant to Zhang Zhao after Zhang Zhao had conquered a vast realm for him, with Li Shengtian intending to take only one million mu of land in Ningyuan before enfeoffing the rest to Zhang Zhao, making him one of Khotan's double-headed eagles.

But afterward, events developed too quickly. Zhang Zhao rapidly returned east and gradually grew powerful, until he unified the Central Plains, and so the political planning for Ningyuan had been left hanging all along.

By now, the land occupied by the whole of Ningyuan was about fifty thousand square kilometers or so, roughly equivalent to the island of Taiwan.

Of that, the fertile basin was about twenty thousand square kilometers or so, about the size of Beijing and Shanghai combined.

It may not look large, but this place was truly rich!

The climate had four distinct seasons, a great river ran through the basin making transport convenient, and all around, snowmelt rivers from the high mountains crisscrossed the land and guaranteed irrigation.

Although it could not compare to the Jianghuai and Huguang regions of present-day Zhang Zhou, in Transoxiana it was uniquely blessed by nature.

As for the political model, the current Ningyuan very much resembled a Military Governor. Though it was called a strange-sounding "governorate," it would be more appropriate to call it the Ningzhou Ningyuan Army Military Governor.

The Governor was equivalent to a Military Governor, the Deputy Governor to a Deputy Military Governor, and the offices below — the Chief Troop Commander in charge of the army and the Secretary in charge of administrative affairs — were simply copied directly from the old Military Governor's headquarters.

Then at the most basic level, the sixty-seven estate lords corresponded to offices under a Military Governor such as Prefect and Pacification Commissioner.

At first, Ningyuan had been governed for a time by Li Shengtian's eldest son, Li Congde, as Governor, that is, as Military Governor.

After Zhang Zhao rose to power, Li Shengtian very tactfully handed the post of Governor to Zhang Zhao's old servant Zhang Zhong.

In the current Ningyuan, Zhang Zhong served as Military Governor, while Ma Jirong, a Khotan Han who was a trusted confidant of Li Shengtian, and Tian Xianzhong, a Khotan man who was a trusted aide of Li Congde, served as Deputy Military Governors.

Of these, Ma Jirong concurrently controlled the army, commanding ten thousand infantry and cavalry, while Tian Xianzhong concurrently served as Secretary and managed administration.

Below them was Xue Shouli, the Ningyuan Chief Troop Commander, who controlled ten thousand infantry and cavalry. He came from one of the Five Surnames and Three Wang families and could be considered half a member of the eastward-return faction.

As for the royal private army controlled by old Zhang Zhong, it could be seen as an inner-household army or a young lord's army, with Dang Jin serving as its Young Lord's Chief Commander.

As for old Zhang Zhong as a person, how to put it — he was actually quite capable. From the fact that before Zhang Zhao's transmigration, he, as an old servant, had been able to rush about east and west and bring together a great number of factions, one could see it.

Never mind whether he succeeded in the matter; at least he dared to attempt it, and that alone deserved to be called remarkable.

In truth, given the circumstances at the time, old Zhang Zhong was destined to fail, because by then the Zhang clan had already completely lost both legal legitimacy and the people's hearts.

Old Zhang Zhong had neither Zhang Zhao's extra thousand-plus years of knowledge, nor Zhang Zhao's prowess as a match for ten thousand. If he could have succeeded, then he would not have been old Zhang Zhong — he would have been Zhuge Liang.

So at the start of the transmigration, Zhang Zhao looked down on old Zhang Zhong's abilities, but after gradually coming to understand him, he kept him in Ningyuan to guard his final retreat.

Facts proved that Zhang Zhao's choice was entirely correct.

In the twenty years since Zhang Zhao returned to the Central Plains, old Zhang Zhong had steadily held Ningyuan for him as that final retreat in case the eastward return failed.

One must understand that Ningyuan was ten thousand li from the central lands, yet extremely rich, and there had never been any shortage of various forces coveting the place. The most energetic among them was the Crown Prince of Khotan, Li Congde.

Not long after Zhang Zhao had first returned east, the Crown Prince of Khotan, Li Congde, insisted on going to Ningyuan to serve as Governor.

Li Shengtian, mindful of domestic stability and Li Congde's dignity, could not very well stop him too forcefully. After all, in legal terms, Li Congde had that right.

At the critical moment, it was Zhang Zhong who voluntarily stepped back and personally invited Li Congde to Ningyuan, resolving the problem.

Then he turned around and invited Li Shengtian's eldest sister, the Sage Zhang's legal mother, the Empress Dowager Ciyou, who was then returning to Khotan for a family visit, to come to Ningyuan to recuperate.

With that great Buddha in residence, even if Li Congde had been given a hundred times the courage, he would not have dared to swallow up Zhang Zhao's properties in front of her. So after serving as Governor for a little over a year, Li Congde hastily and dejectedly scurried back to Khotan.

But after returning to Khotan, Li Congde was unwilling to accept defeat. Urged on by the civil and military officials under him, he recommended Zhang Zhong for the post of Ningyuan Governor, but had both Deputy Governors, Ma Jirong and Tian Xianzhong, sent from the Khotan faction.

Then he also had ten thousand infantry and cavalry of the Khotan army, which at that time was not yet the Golden Kingdom's provincial army, stationed in Ningyuan, and afterward expanded it locally to twenty thousand men.

Faced with the impending sidelining, old Zhang Zhong remained unruffled and immediately began consulting with the seven founding veterans of the Hanshan Capital who had remained in Ningyuan.

In the end, it was decided that, led by Zhang Zhao's maternal cousin Song Zhongyi, they would begin forming an inner-guard army under the designation Ningyuan Army within the royal estates under their control that belonged to Zhang Zhao.

At the same time, he had Cao Xi, one of the seven founding veterans who came from the Cao family, disguise himself and slip into Shule to explain the stakes to Cao Yuanxin.

Cao Xi laid out the pros and cons and finally persuaded Cao Yuanxin so that half a year later, Xue Shouli — who came from one of the Five Surnames and Three Wang families, belonged to the eastward-return faction but had not returned east — was sent to Ningyuan to take up the post of Chief Troop Commander, gaining control of ten thousand of Ningyuan's twenty thousand Golden Kingdom provincial troops.

In this way, among Ningyuan's twenty-five thousand troops, those close to Zhang Zhao immediately grew from five thousand to fifteen thousand.

At the same time, although Ma Jirong had been sent by Li Congde, he was in fact a trusted confidant of Li Shengtian, and Li Congde did not have absolute control over him. Moreover, the Ma family was a great Han clan and naturally leaned somewhat closer to Zhang Zhao.

At this point, all of Li Congde's petty tricks had been neutralized.

This was true ability. Old Zhang Zhong used no harsh measures, and did not even let the struggle extend beyond the borders of Khotan, yet he easily deflected Li Congde's offensive without damaging their relations.

And once Li Congde's meddling had been beaten back, the others all lowered their banners and fell silent as well.

For everyone had realized that old Zhang Zhong was not merely an old man resting on his past achievements in Ningyuan, but a capable and loyal minister who could truly hold Ningyuan for Zhang Zhao.

Thereafter, as Zhang Zhao's strength rose steadily — especially after he destroyed the Gaochang Uyghurs, joined forces with Li Shengtian at Kucha, recovered Anxi and Beiting in one stroke, and utterly crushed Saktu Khan beyond any hope of recovery — the situation in Ningyuan became completely stable.

Even Li Congde, who had previously coveted Ningyuan, began to admire and respect Zhang Zhong.

Not only did he send trusted ministers to Ningyuan every year to offer birthday congratulations to Zhang Zhong, he also took the initiative to arrange a marriage, having his younger brother, the Marquis of Yanqi, Li Congyu, marry Zhang Zhong's eldest daughter, thereby drawing the two families closer.

And when Zhang Zhao heard of Zhang Zhong's achievements, he too was full of praise.

Originally, Zhang Zhong had given his sons the generational character "Lie," because he had once been a mere servant of the Zhang family and was not true Zhang clan stock, so he did not dare to place himself among Zhang Zhao's elders.

When Zhang Zhao learned of this, he made a point of entering Zhang Zhong into the Zhang family genealogy, acknowledging Zhang Zhong as a member of his uncles' generation, and in his family letters he addressed him as "Venerable Zhong."

Zhang Zhong's sons, originally named Zhang Lieshun, Zhang Liesong, and so on, all changed their names to Zhang Zhaoshun, Zhang Zhaosong, and the like.

Zhang Zhao treated them as his own younger brothers, and at Zhang Zhong's own request, once Zhang Zhaoshun and his brothers, along with the sons of Ningyuan's other chief officials, came of age, they would all travel to the divine capital Luoyang to serve as guards in attendance upon Zhang Zhao.

In Xining City, in the rear courtyard of the Governor-General's residence, old Zhang Zhong had not yet risen when Huabu's shout came from outside.

"Young lord, get up! Lord Hu, the Censorial Envoy of Anxi and Beiting, has sent men from Suyab."

The moment Zhang Zhong heard that Hu Guang had sent someone, he scrambled out of bed and called for the maidservants to dress him. Huabu, impatient with how slow the maids were, personally helped Zhang Zhong put on his clothes.

Looking at Zhang Zhong — seventy-one years old, yet still with a full head of black hair and nimble limbs — Huabu suddenly found it a little amusing.

Back then, at fourteen, she had seen that Zhang Zhong was already old and decrepit, and so she had been determined to marry this husband more than thirty years her senior.

She had figured that after a few years, once Zhang Zhong passed away, she could take the inheritance and remarry someone she actually liked.

But who could have known that Zhang Zhong's health was astonishingly good? Twenty years passed in a flash, they had five children, and Huabu had been worn into faded middle age — yet he still showed no sign of letting go and departing for the west.

By the way, Huabu no longer went by Huabu, but by Huajin — taking Hua as her surname and Jin, the most precious of all cloths, as her given name. It had been bestowed by Zhang Zhao.

Wherever there are people, there is a jianghu — to say nothing of men at the level of Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang.

A great man once said that a party without factions is a strange thing indeed; in the late tenth century, that was all the more common.

Specifically, in the view of Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang, there was something questionable about Bai Congxin.

Within Zhang Zhao's original following, there were in fact several factions.

One was the low-ranking Guiyi Army officers led by Yan Jin and Ma Yaozi.

Another was the sons of the great Guiyi Army families, led by Song Zhongyi and the fallen Qu Wulang.

The third was the remnants of Zhang Chengfeng's loyal ministers, such as Yin Yaozi and the brothers Fan Quan and Fan Shun.

And the last faction was the bandit faction: Bai Congxin, Ma Shacai, as well as Dunzhu, Qiong Reduojin, and the like.

At the very beginning, Bai Congxin's standing had been very high, as could be seen from the personnel alone.

Among the one hundred and eight original followers who had gone with Zhang Zhao, the bandit faction included not only top masters like Bai Congxin, Ma Shacai, Qiong Reduojin, and Dunzhu — their numbers even accounted for forty-nine of the one hundred and eight.

So at the very start, within Zhang Zhao's core following, apart from Zhang Zhao himself, Bai Congxin held the highest position; even Yan Jin had to step back a little.

Under these circumstances, although Zhang Zhao had long known that Bai Congxin's ambition was to rebuild the Bai clan's kingdom and restore the Bai royal house — and Bai Congxin had never concealed this ambition from anyone —

in the eyes of Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang, Bai Congxin was still a problem.

Could the king of some petty frontier Hu state ruling a mere one or two hundred thousand people compare with being a founding hero of the Great Zhou, the second man beneath the Son of Heaven?

The feeling was as absurd as if, in later ages, someone were to refuse a seat among a republic's council of elders and insist on going to be president of Zimbabwe instead.

Thus, in the eyes of loyal ministers like Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang, who resolutely defended the interests of our Sage Zhang, Bai Congxin was a man with long-held schemes and a disloyal heart — not so faithful a subject after all.

Against such a man, Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang naturally had to be on their guard.

After all, the lands of Transoxiana were destined in the future to be enfeoffed in grand style to Zhang Zhao's sons, to rule the Xia and shepherd the barbarians.

The Sage's sons had not yet grown up, so Bai Congxin had seized the initiative.

If they gave him their unreserved, all-out support and let Bai Congxin conquer all of Transoxiana by his own strength alone, could the Sage still smoothly enfeoff his sons there?

Even if the enfeoffment went smoothly, Bai Congxin's prestige would already be sky-high. With the emperor so far away, would the various princes be any match for a famed general and great commander like Bai Congxin?

Of the many enfeoffed vassals in Transoxiana who had won great merit under Bai Congxin, would they listen more to Bai Congxin, or more to the princes?

Even the relocation of the Khotan Golden Kingdom's fief would be thrown into turmoil.

Therefore, over the years, whether it was Hu Guang's Anxi Army, the Ningyuan Army under Zhang Zhong's control, or the Golden Kingdom's fief troops —

every time, they only appeared at the critical moment, in the guise of saviors, to help Bai Congxin deliver the decisive blow or turn the tide.

This time was the same. After three or four months of standoff, Bai Congxin was clearly beginning to struggle.

Yet the Anxi Army did not return to Shi Kingdom City at the first opportunity, and the Ningyuan Army and the Golden Kingdom's fief troops had still not carried out full mobilization even now.

In fact, for Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang, even if Bai Congxin were defeated, they would not be afraid.

Losing Bai Congxin and Lu Sanlang's force of nearly two hundred thousand would merely delay the control of Transoxiana by five or eight years.

Besides, even in defeat, the losses would be thirty to fifty thousand at most — it would not mean the loss of all two hundred thousand.

This kind of behavior — how to put it — in later ages would be seen as utterly damnable!

But at this moment, it is hard to say whether it was good or bad. Even if Zhang Zhao himself knew of it, he could not pass judgment, and could only pretend not to know.

Because in the final analysis, Zhang Zhong and Hu Guang were defending Zhang Zhao's interests.

And in terms of defending the interests of Zhang Zhao or the court, they had done very well — for no one could be certain whether Bai Congxin truly harbored no other intentions in his heart.

This is why, throughout history, many rulers clearly saw their trusted subordinates commit unforgivable errors, yet could not bring themselves to punish them harshly.

If you punish them, then in the future no loyal minister will offend people and risk his life for your interests again.

When any matter involves power and interests on this scale, everything becomes incomparably complicated.

The men Hu Guang had sent were none other than his fierce general Li Jiwo and his trusted Secretary Lu Duoxun. Li Jiwo had come to inform Zhang Zhong of Hu Guang's assessment.

His arrival essentially meant that the Ningyuan Army and the Golden Kingdom's fief troops were about to move out and prepare to march through the Heavenly Gate Pass at any time.

And Lu Duoxun had come to Zhang Zhong to study administrative affairs. In recent years, with the assistance of the civil officials Zhang Zhao had sent, Zhang Zhong had been carrying out reforms to the imperial estates in Ningyuan.

At present in Ningyuan, the imperial estates — to be precise, the estates owned by Zhang Zhao — number thirty-nine in all, and each estate is exceptionally large.

The smaller ones are seventy to eighty thousand mu, the larger ones two to three hundred thousand mu, totaling four million three hundred thousand mu of farmland, with stored grain exceeding one million five hundred thousand shi.

These reserves are the solid guarantee Zhang Zhao has prepared for his sons to rule the Xia and shepherd the Yi in the River Region.

Last year, the civil-official delegation headed by Song Qi — a Qionglin Academician, Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and former Prefect of both Jinan and Guide Prefectures — came specifically to manage the imperial estates for Zhang Zhao.

On Song Qi's advice, the imperial estates will gradually be organized into two classes of people: pure tenant farmers and garrison troops of the guard-battalion system, in preparation for the sons' impending westward journey.

After hearing Li Jiwo's analysis, Zhang Zhong glanced at Dang Jin beside him. Only after seeing Dang Jin, who was well versed in military affairs, nod steadily did Zhang Zhong rise to his full height.

"Young Erlang, go rest for the night. This old man will set to work at once."

North of the Yaxartes River, at Heyang Town, lay Bai Congxin's main camp. Fifty-three thousand Han troops were spread in an irregular oval around the east, west, and south sides of Heyang Town, very tightly concentrated.

This was the fourth month of the standoff, and the fighting between the two sides was no longer as fierce as at the start.

Like the darkness before dawn, both sides had now sounded out each other's true strength. What would erupt next would not be skirmishing, but a decisive battle.

Lu Zhen, Lu Sanlang, rushed into Bai Congxin's command tent, pacing in frantic circles. Clutching a dispatch in his hand, he said in a flustered, exasperated tone:

"Lord Bai, look — not only have tens of thousands of Hu risen in revolt at Zhenhu Fort, the Persians have actually found our great weak point.

If Wang Liu at Yingchun Fort had not, by sheer accident, recklessly thrown himself into blocking two hundred Persian elite troops at Yingchun Fort, we would all be dead here by now."

Bai Congxin took the dispatch and looked it over, but a smile spread across his face. "Haha, Lu Sanlang, do you see? This is what is called fortune — this is the Mandate of Heaven.

The River Region is destined to belong to us Han people. That wretch Abu Yusuf may scheme with all his cunning, but he cannot overcome this Heaven-ordained rise of the Han and fall of the Hu!"

Lu Sanlang had not expected Bai Congxin to say this. His agitation eased somewhat, but he was still anxious.

He knew Bai Congxin's thinking. Hadn't Hu Guang and Zhang Zhong been playing this game of extreme tug-of-war all along?

Bai Congxin had simply pulled in his forces and let the Persians enter the line from the Stone Kingdom City, White Water City, Hu Water City, to Talas, putting on a show of fires everywhere and being barely able to hold on, all to prod them into sending troops faster.

"That fellow Hu Guang is far off in Suyab, and Zhang Zhong is already past seventy. Their intentions are even harder to fathom. If they truly dare not come to our rescue, we will suffer a great loss — years of painstaking effort will be destroyed in a single day!"

Lu Sanlang could not help muttering on. Only then did Bai Congxin rise and pat him on the shoulder.

"I would wager Hu Guang is absolutely not in Suyab right now. He must be at Talas, or may even have reached White Water City already. Zhang Zhong is old and crafty as a fox; he has surely long since made his mobilization preparations and is only waiting for Hu Guang to send him word.

Rest assured, they will arrive in time."

Lu Sanlang sniffed. "Lord Bai trusts those two murderous wretches so completely?"

A resolute look came over Bai Congxin's face. "I do not trust them — I trust the Sage. Others may not understand me, Bai Congxin, but the Sage certainly does.

All these years the Sage has granted full authority to Hu Guang and Zhang Zhong, so he must have given them certain instructions.

If we were to perish, I believe that even with Hu Guang's and Zhang Zhong's standing, they could not escape the death penalty. So they will certainly come."

"Good!" Lu Sanlang gritted his teeth. "Since Lord Bai says so, then I am at ease.

I will go down and make arrangements now. The moment the Anxi Army and the Jin Kingdom's vassal troops arrive, we will swallow up that dog-slave Abu Yusuf!"

(End of Chapter)

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