Chapter 89: Cao Yuanxin's Responsibility

This woman is insane! That was Zhang Zhao's only thought. If she went out like this, she was finished! She could look forward to Samoruoshi Temple!

But... if Cao Yuanxin really went through with it, Zhang Zhao was finished too!

No matter how much Li Shengtian's love extended to those around her, if he ran into something like this — and before a crowd, impossible to cover up — he absolutely could not tolerate it. It had nothing to do with whether it was true or false, but with a man's dignity.

Seeing Cao Yuanxin already pulling out a second pearl hairpin, Zhang Zhao caved! He understood she was only frightening him, but he did not dare gamble. If this woman really had gone mad, then all his plans would be washed away.

"Whatever conditions Aunt-in-law has, please state them. As long as your nephew can accomplish them, he will certainly comply!" Fine! Under Cao Yuanxin's threat, cousin became aunt-in-law.

Cao Yuanxin smiled faintly, casting him a look that said, At least you know what's good for you.

"Cousin's demand is very simple, Zhang Erlang. Between the Great Sage Son of Heaven and the Guiyi Army, you may choose only one!

Either you keep currying favor with the Great Sage Son of Heaven however you like — I won't interfere — and from now on you stay in Khotan and inherit your mother Princess Fengtian's status and bloodline.

Or you go back to Dunhuang right now. If you think you can beguile the Great Sage Son of Heaven into helping you seize back your family estate, don't even think about it. The Great Jin Kingdom and the Guiyi Army must never have the slightest friction between them!"

Damn it. Zhang Zhao really wanted to curse. Cao Yuanxin had just scared the cold sweat out of him — over this little matter.

He had never planned to stir up conflict between Khotan and the Guiyi Army and then fish for profit from it!

"Aunt-in-law, rest assured. I came here to win merit and build a career in Khotan, not to sow discord. His Excellency the Great King also knows my aspirations — otherwise why would he have gifted me armored soldiers and let me come to Khotan?"

"His Excellency the Great King may have had reasons he was forced to let you go, but that does not mean he trusts you. You men — what wouldn't you do for power?" Cao Yuanxin rose to her feet and looked at Zhang Zhao with open disbelief.

"Don't blame your cousin for putting on this act today. Khotan and the Guiyi Army truly cannot be thrown into chaos. In times like these, if the two houses unite, there may still be a chance of self-preservation. If these two houses also fall into enmity, we are all finished."

Zhang Zhao fell silent. Why did everyone assume he would stop at nothing to seize back the Guiyi Army foundation that had originally belonged to the Zhang family? He clearly had no such intention!

Still, this served as a warning to him. He believed he could coexist peacefully with the Cao family, but that did not mean others saw it the same way.

At last he understood where that loneliness in Cao Yijin came from. Probably, in the Guiyi Army today, apart from him and Cao Yijin and half of Lady Cao Sanniang, nearly everyone had forgotten the original purpose for which the Guiyi Army was founded: to break through to Ganzhou and Liangzhou, link up with the Great Tang, and return to the motherland.

This was also the first time Zhang Zhao clearly realized how arduous and difficult the road he was about to walk would be. Without a transmigrator's perspective and certain usable technologies — gunpowder, for instance — the probability of walking this road to the end was infinitely close to zero.

"Cousin, rest assured. I, Zhang Erlang, even if I must take back my family estate, will not do it at the cost of the lives of the last hundred thousand or so Han people in Hexi and Anxi. I will use my own methods!"

"You do have a bit of a hero's spirit after all!" Cao Yuanxin nodded in praise.

"But my dear cousin Erlang, you seem to know far too little about matters between men and women. Did you think that by sending two girls who have not yet come of age to the Son of Heaven, and adding a method for their upbringing, the Son of Heaven would wait several years before favoring them?

How naive! Have you never heard of 'testing the flower'?

A little girl of eleven or twelve, once she starts whispering pillow talk, has no sense of measure at all. And you actually dared to send your enemies to the side of the Great Sage Son of Heaven — don't forget, you are the man who killed their father!

But then again, perhaps it is precisely because of that that the Great Sage Son of Heaven trusts you all the more.

You had better thank this cousin of yours properly. They are now under my upbringing, and within three years, they will not appear beside the Great Sage Son of Heaven's pillow."

Only then did Zhang Zhao notice that the two daughters of the Sanpoba he had presented to Li Shengtian really were among Cao Yuanxin's serving women.

Little girls of eleven or twelve! You ancients really know how to play. I bow in defeat!

As she spoke, Cao Yuanxin walked out the door, and Zhang Zhao followed to see her off.

Once outside, he saw at a glance that he had been intimidated by this woman, because beyond the door there was no one except a small number of palace attendants.

Both ends of the street were sealed off by large numbers of palace guards. Even if Cao Yuanxin had run out with her hair disheveled, no one could have seen her.

"Cousin Erlang, your cousin will remember what you said. If you truly only wish to win merit and build a career in Khotan, then you had best walk the path of winning merit and building a career. Do not take a single wrong step!"

As she spoke, Cao Yuanxin glanced at the two Sanpoba daughters. The threat was obvious: she could help Zhang Zhao take these two women in hand, but she could also release them early!

The night passed without incident. The frustrated Zhang Zhao hurriedly left Khotan city and made for his Yaotougang.

The day before, Li Shengtian had gone to Samoruoshi Temple to worship the Buddha, and had even spent a night there. Cao Yuanxin had been rushing to Samoruoshi Temple, and along the way she had not forgotten to stop by and give Zhang Zhao a show of force.

As for whether Li Shengtian had some special predilection, and how Cao Yuanxin held Li Shengtian's heart — Zhang Zhao no longer dared to think about it!

All he wanted now was to let Li Shengtian see the power of black powder as quickly as possible, and get back to his favorite place — the battlefield. Only on the battlefield could he feel a sense of belonging that was his own.

The stretch of wall at Yaotougang had already been repaired to rough completion: more than three meters high and more than five meters thick, basically about the same as the walls of Shule.

Fortunately this was the Western Regions. If it had been the Central Plains, with those strong cities over ten meters high, foundations more than fifteen meters wide, and tops twelve or thirteen meters wide, ordinary black powder probably could not blast them open at all without digging tunnels for months.

Dunzhu was swinging a shovel, steadily digging earth. Beneath the newly built wall, they had already dug out a small burrow, apparently meant for placing the black powder.

Zhang Zhao suddenly felt something was off. He had planned to simulate wartime tunneling to blast open the walls of Shule.

But in wartime, how would the enemy let you dig beneath their walls so leisurely? Done this way, there was little point in having Li Shengtian come watch!

Dunzhu scratched his head in puzzlement. Digging a hole in this spot was already hard enough for him; if they had to dig from far away, he really did not understand it.

Nearby, Cao Yanming, who had been finding fault with everything about the two slave girls Zhang Zhao had brought him, suddenly turned around.

"Young lord! Not only do we have no one here who knows how to dig tunnels, we don't even have enough digging tools. Dunzhu, you can send him to cut people down and he'll manage, but send him to dig a tunnel and he probably can't even find his bearings."

Zhang Zhao reflected that this was true. He had oversimplified the matter of tunnel blasting. In history, the Eastern King Yang's use of this tactic had never failed because he had a group of elite miners under his command — men with rich experience working underground, and unafraid to die.

More importantly, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom lay more than nine hundred years in the future. The experience and working methods accumulated by generations of miners by then were far beyond anything this era could match.

Moreover, the miners under the Eastern King Yang were Chenzhou miners of extraordinary endurance and hardiness, handpicked from among thousands. How could the fool miners of unknown race he had scraped together in Khotan compare with them?

Damn it. How to keep the tunnel from veering off course? How to shore up the roof? How to ventilate? The quality of the tools — all of this would take enormous effort!

At this thought, Zhang Zhao, who wished he could split one man into two, swung onto his horse. He needed to go find Li Shengtian now.

Besides getting the miners in place immediately, he also needed a batch of blacksmiths. Because he planned to forge a set of specialized tools — Luoyang shovels and the like! Miner's picks and such — they had to start making them right away.

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