Chapter 891

The divine capital Luoyang, the Purple Myrtle City, Xing'an Palace.

In a small hall on the northern side, forty-three-year-old Yelu Abuli could no longer sustain the image of the little loli she had once been in Sage Zhang's heart.

Yet her figure was still as petite as ever — so petite that, compared to the burly man kneeling before her, she looked like a pet dog standing beside a polar bear.

But the aura of the two was completely reversed.

Yelu Abuli's eyes blazed with fury as she mercilessly lashed her whip across the burly man's shoulder, the pain making him convulse involuntarily.

"Zhang Liulang, how mighty you are! Now that you've grown up, you no longer hold your mother in any regard. The throne of Lord of Lelang that I toiled and strained to secure for you — and you just pushed it away!

You must understand, that is no shabby honorary title with even its stipend lands discounted. It is a vassal kingdom with one province, four prefectures, seventeen counties, one hundred ten thousand households, and six hundred ninety thousand people.

Apart from the Yan, Chu, and An fiefs, it is larger and richer than the Zheng, Jin, and Song fiefs, and it lies within arm's reach of the Central Lands.

How many people have drooled rivers over it — and you dare treat it as a worn-out shoe?"

As it turned out, the one being furiously whipped by Yelu Abuli was none other than her son, the Emperor's sixth son, Zhang Xianjiong.

And what had made Yelu Abuli so angry was that Zhang Xianjiong actually refused to take up his fief in Lelang, insisting instead on joining the western expedition.

Although Zhang Xianjiong was about to turn twenty, seeing his mother so enraged, he still managed to put on a foolish grin across his broad, fleshy face.

"Mother, do not be angry. Though I will not go to Lelang, there is still Eighteenth Brother. Father has already agreed that the position of Great King of the Lelang province fief can be left to Shiba Lang."

Upon hearing this, Yelu Abuli nearly fainted with rage and immediately lashed out with another stroke of the whip.

Not only her — Xiao Sagezhi, a woman in her forties in the room but still as gorgeous as a peony, also twitched with anger.

The reason was simple: the "Shiba Lang" Zhang Xianjiong spoke of, the second son born to Yelu Abuli, Zhang Xianxu, was only nine years old.

Given the child mortality rate of this era, a nine-year-old still faced a certain risk of dying young — even imperial princes were no exception. For example, the Prince of Yong'an Commandery, who died four years ago with the posthumous name Shangdao, had already reached thirteen.

For Lelang, the Khitan-aligned civil and military meritorious officials led by Yelu Abuli had invested enormous manpower and resources. The gold, silver, and goods Yelu Abuli alone had gifted to Prince of Yan Murong Xinzhang exceeded one million strings of cash.

Now that Zhang Xianjiong refused to take up the fief, if anything were to happen to Shiba Lang Zhang Xianxu, all these early investments would go down the drain.

Because Yelu Abuli had borne only two sons and three daughters in total. Now that she was advanced in years, and the Sage's health was not what it once was, with as many as thirty-six consorts in the rear palace awaiting his favor, it was basically impossible for Yelu Abuli to conceive again.

As for Xiao Sagezhi — although this sister-in-law of Yelu Abuli was peerlessly beautiful and carried the halo of being a war-prize empress from an enemy state, enjoying unbroken favor —

Xiao Sagezhi was not fertile. To date she had only one son, younger than Zhang Xianxu: the Emperor's twenty-first son, Zhang Xianji, who was only six this year and had been frail and sickly since birth.

Therefore, Yelu Abuli was utterly speechless at her son Zhang Xianjiong's reckless maneuvering.

In their situation, even if Zhang Xianjiong wanted to go west, he should have left the throne of Great King of the Lelang province fief unresolved.

Because in that case, seeing how much effort Yelu Abuli had put into developing Lelang over the years, Zhang Zhao would certainly seek Yelu Abuli's opinion when choosing the vassal king.

Then even if something went wrong with Zhang Xianxu, she could still push Zhang Xianji forward. At worst, she could do as Guo Wan'er had done — find a prince whose mother's background was not too deep, or whose birth mother was already gone, to inherit the position. At least she would not lose everything.

But by acting as he had, Zhang Xianjiong had effectively used up Yelu Abuli's one and only chance to choose. If something really did happen to Zhang Xianxu, it would be very difficult for Yelu Abuli to intervene in the selection of the next Great King.

Hearing his mother's analysis, Zhang Xianjiong suddenly felt he had done wrong and fell silent for a moment.

This was a difference in perspective caused by different stations in life. From the viewpoint of Yelu Abuli as a mother, the probability of a child dying young was not zero — and not small, either.

But Zhang Xianjiong had never considered the possibility of his younger brother dying young. Young people find it hard to feel the reality of life and death the way middle-aged and elderly people do.

However, even having done wrong, Zhang Xianjiong would not change his mind.

"I know Mother means well for me. But since the age of five, I have studied all the way from the Forbidden Palace elementary school to the Dragon Strategy Academy.

For fifteen years, through cold and heat, regardless of spring or autumn, I studied diligently under the supervision of Father Emperor and my teachers.

Riding, archery, the great spear, the long saber, astronomy and geography — even Turkic and Persian tongues I had to learn.

Now that I have graduated, my classmates all go out into the wide world to display what they have learned, yet I can only go to Lelang to take up a fief. I truly cannot accept this!"

The more Yelu Abuli listened, the angrier she became. She jabbed her finger at Zhang Xianjiong and cursed: "I, Yelu Abuli, have been shrewd all my life — how could I have given birth to such a stupid son!

Your classmates and comrades brave blades and arrows to go ten thousand li west. Do you think they go to display what they have learned? It is only because none of them is the eldest legitimate son of his house. If they do not go west, they can only idle away their lives waiting to die.

They go west merely to obtain a frontier fief that you could have right now with no effort — and one far inferior to yours. How can you be so stupid?"

Of all things she could have said, Yelu Abuli should never have said that going west was not about displaying one's learning. For Zhang Xianjiong, who had been stirred since childhood by Zhang Zhao and regarded the western expedition and ruling the barbarians as a Xia lord as his lifelong aspiration, this was extremely hard to accept.

"Mother, the western expedition and a Xia lord ruling the barbarians were decided by Father Emperor's far-sighted vision. They are the mission bestowed upon people like me by Heaven and our nation." Zhang Xianjiong raised his head stubbornly and looked at Yelu Abuli.

"Mother has never been to the Dragon Strategy Academy, nor even met my classmates and comrades. That is why you do not know that the reason they are willing to go west is not to build some petty fief in a wild land, but to expand living space for future generations.

They are heroes of our people — heroes who, a thousand years from now, will surely shine in the annals of history!"

Yelu Abuli felt as though a huge duck egg had suddenly been stuffed down her throat, choking her until her eyes rolled white. And she dared not refute him, because Zhang Xianjiong's words were the most politically correct words in the current Zhang-Zhou dynasty.

Seeing his mother silenced by him, Zhang Xianjiong grew even more agitated. He suddenly rose to his feet, paced back and forth twice, then shouted:

"I, Zhang Xianjiong, am the Buddha-son of the Supreme Heaven, the son of the Central Plains Emperor and the Khitan Wolf King. I was born to go west, to make all the tribes of the farthest west submit to the Great Zhou's Taohuashi Khagan. I am the Wolf Lord that the Supreme Heaven has appointed for them!"

Yelu Abuli stared at Zhang Xianjiong in disbelief. The more she looked, the more his domineering, confident, stubborn, and resolute expression resembled her grandfather Yelu Abaoji — whom she had seen only a few times but remembered with extreme vividness.

After a long while, deeply shaken and with a faint inexplicable panic, Yelu Abuli stood up. She retreated a few steps, slowly turned her back, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably.

At that moment, Yelu Abuli finally realized that the son she had relied upon to realize her political ambitions was not an existence she could control at all.

"What a fine Wolf Lord! I hear the Fu family's Zhang Shilang also refuses to take up his fief in Tokharistan, calling himself the Tiger of Youyan, wanting to become the Antila Khagan who will scourge the Romans.

I never expected our Yelu family to have raised a Wolf of Khitan as well. You two really are true brothers. I can no longer control you!"

Watching his mother Yelu Abuli's receding figure, Zhang Xianjiong slowly let out a breath.

He knew his mother's thoughts: she wanted him to take up the Lelang fief so that she could, like Consort Cao, mother of his elder brother the Prince of Yan Murong Xinzhang, enjoy the thrill of being a regent queen.

But this was not the life Zhang Xianjiong wanted, and Father Emperor would not let a mother of only forty go to Pyongyang.

Perhaps in eight years, when Shiba Lang grew up, Father would grant Mother this small wish. That would be best for everyone.

In Ci'an Hall, Empress Cao Yanxi and the Emperor's fourth son Zhang Xianjing presented a completely different scene.

Zhang Xianjing, who had just turned twenty this year, kept fiddling with the sword at his waist — one moment striding about the room striking a martial pose, the next stroking the steel-plate, cloth-faced iron armor before him, his excitement overflowing.

Empress Cao Yanxi, meanwhile, bent over her desk writing furiously. Letter after letter was sorted and filed by the palace maids beside her, then dispatched to various secret places that had never before entered Cao Yanxi's line of sight.

And the people receiving letters in those secret places were not famous ministers or great generals, nor meritorious officials or wealthy merchants, but large numbers of grassroots warriors in the Helong, Guanzhong, and Ningxia regions — men like Chen Laochong of Pingxi Fort.

Most of these warriors had received great favors from the Cao family, and some were Cao family sons themselves who had been scattered to various places. The Cao family had long worked to cultivate this force, making them relatively loyal to the Cao family to a certain degree.

Absolute loyalty was out of the question. After all, the one sitting on the throne now was not merely an emperor — he was the Great Emperor of the Central Lands, the Khagan of the steppes, the Shahanshah of the farthest west, and moreover the Living Buddha of the Supreme Heaven.

Before an emperor like this, everyone else was nothing more than a follower of his faith.

Cao Yanxi could now use past favors to have those below select the finest warriors to protect Zhang Xianjing on his journey west, but as for anything else, the letter would probably be reported before it was even sent.

After personally writing more than sixty letters, Cao Yanxi looked up at Zhang Xianjing, who still wore an excited expression, smiled at him with tender affection, and did not let anyone disturb him.

This Zhang Xianjing had not had it easy!

Although everyone at court knew he was the crown prince, he had never received formal recognition.

Duke of Dunhuang, Prince of the Guiyi Commandery, Prince of Liang, Crown Prince — in this four-part progression, Zhang Xianjing had gotten stuck at Duke of Dunhuang and could go no further.

Above him was the scrutiny of his father, Sage Zhang, an emperor unprecedented through all history; in the middle were the expectations of his mother, Empress Cao Yanxi, and of the followers who had staked everything on him; below him were the covetous glares of at least thirty brothers.

This caused Zhang Xianjing, the great majority of the time, to rigidly maintain the proper bearing expected of a crown prince, the heir to the realm.

Only when he came to his mother Cao Yanxi did Zhang Xianjing have a brief crack through which the lively side of his character could show.

"Does my son know why your imperial father chose this moment to mobilize a great army, appoint you as its commander, and send you west to campaign against the Arabs?" Cao Yanxi waited until Zhang Xianjing's excitement had passed, then slowly asked.

Zhang Xianjing nodded. "Your son knows. The Arabs were once a great power under heaven, able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Great Tang, and they are also the farthest place where our Hua Xia rule over barbarian subjects can reach. Only by storming the city of Baghdad and destroying the Black-Robed Arabs can Father's martial achievements reach their limit."

Cao Yanxi also nodded. "That is only the first layer of the reason. Does my son know the remaining layers of meaning?"

Zhang Xianjing thought for a moment, then said: "If there is more, your son can only think of one point. Second Brother, Great King of Anguo, Zhang Xianyu, this time led Fifth Brother and Tenth Brother on the western campaign, winning three battles in three fights. He both resolved the chaos among the Hua Xia kings in Transoxiana and recovered all of Khorasan and Persia — an enormous achievement.

But this way, all the credit rests on Second Brother. The court's control west of Anxi was already weak. If the court does not send troops, then first, Persia may not hold, and second, the people west of Anxi will know only the Second Imperial Brother and not the court."

"My son is indeed clever. But there are two more points you have not seen." Cao Yanxi took Zhang Xianjing by the hand and sat him down, then continued explaining:

"Third, the reason your title has stopped at Duke of Dunhuang is largely because among the older princes, you are the only one without military achievements.

Look at your eldest brother, Xinchang — he is an invincible commander under heaven, who conquered the four provinces of Lelang, Joseon, Chaori, and Penglai for the court.

Your brother, Great King of Chu, Zhang Xiancun, pacified Yunnan, sent troops to help recover the Jinghai Army, and over ten years extended the frontier southward by two thousand li, establishing one hundred and twenty-one vassals great and small.

Recently he even submitted a memorial saying that the thirty thousand troops of the Chu fief are fully prepared and can move out at any time to occupy eastern India.

Your second brother Xianyu, fifth brother Xianxi, and tenth brother Xiantai are all now renowned for their military exploits.

Add to that the fact that your father is a mounted emperor without equal in all history — if my son has no military achievements, how will you sit securely on the throne in the future? How will you become the Taizong Emperor enshrined in our Great Zhou's ancestral temple?

Fourth, your imperial father has said that the new three capitals of Hanshan — Fengming, Huxiao, and Hewu — are the future divine instruments for securing the realm. Who but you and your imperial father is worthy to command such divine instruments?"

The Fengming, Huxiao, and Hewu capitals Cao Yanxi mentioned were newly established under Hanshan Capital.

Their entire force was equipped with large numbers of five-thousand-jin, three-thousand-jin, and two-thousand-jin "Divine Might Supreme General" heavy cannons, several-hundred-jin "Martial Might Grand General" quick-firing cannons with gun carriages, as well as large quantities of nine-section cannons, crouching-tiger cannons, and heavy firearms such as the great wall guns.

Even within these three capitals, the cavalry lances of the heavy-armored elite cavalry had been replaced with three-eyed guns, and their hand crossbows had been replaced with handguns.

Although the old four capitals were also equipped with firearms, they basically only had heavy cannons and a certain number of quick-firing cannons; the degree of firearm proliferation was far below that of the new three capitals. That was why Zhang Zhao said that a hundred years hence, the firearms of the new three capitals would be the divine instruments that secured the realm.

Zhang Xianjing's heart felt as though it had suddenly been opened. He understood what this war meant. As long as he made no major blunders and perfectly accomplished the storming of Baghdad and the capture of the Black-Robed Arabs' caliph to bring him to the Divine Capital, his position as crown prince would be secure.

"In that case, who does Mother think your son can rely on?" Zhang Xianjing still had a good sense of his own limits. He knew that although he had entered the Dragon Strategy Academy, he could not compare to those brothers of his, all bulging muscles and minds full of military strategy.

His maternal Cao family had also risen through civil office; the military tradition had long ago been abolished by his maternal grandfather Cao Yuanzhong. He had no actual battlefield experience whatsoever, so letting him take command of the western expedition army would be harming him. That was why he asked this.

The smile on Cao Yanxi's face deepened. That Zhang Xianjing, under such temptation, had not lost his head and fantasized about personally leading the army to smash a powerful enemy could already count him as a qualified politician.

"Rest assured, your imperial father arranged everything long ago!"

Zhang Zhao had indeed arranged everything. From the Divine Capital Luoyang to Baghdad, the straight-line distance was twelve thousand li, and the actual distance was over seventeen thousand li.

An army marching sixty li a day without stopping would still need nine and a half months. How could he possibly entrust such an important expedition to a greenhorn like Zhang Xianjing?

Fortunately, however, Zhang Xianyu had already heavily damaged the great army of the Buyid dynasty at Fort Jia-3 and gathered an army of over fifty thousand, so the court's army this time did not need to send too many — around thirty-five thousand would suffice.

After more than ten days of mobilization, Zhang Zhao ascended a platform in the southern suburbs of the Divine Capital Luoyang to appoint the generals, announcing the establishment of a full-authority field headquarters for the campaign against the Arabs, with Zhang Xianjing as Commissioner-in-Chief bearing the imperial staff.

His adopted son, the famous general Duke of Dai, Yang Jiye, was appointed Field Headquarters Chief Commissioner.

His adopted son Marquis of Raole, Yelu Xiuge, and adopted son Marquis of Shunyi, Seljuk, were appointed Commissioners.

His grandnephew, Duke of Xiguan Commandery, Zhang Deqing, was appointed Vanguard Troop Commander of Horse and Foot; the sixth prince Zhang Xianjiong and seventh prince Zhang Xianxian were appointed deputy generals.

The great generals Dang Jin and Tian Chongjin were appointed Left and Right Troop Commanders of the central army; the Vice Minister of War Lu Duoxun was appointed Army Supervisor.

From the old four capitals and new three capitals of Hanshan Capital, twenty thousand horse and foot were drawn; the Left and Right Yulin Guards and the two garrisons of Hanhai and Wuwei each contributed three thousand horse and foot; and three thousand elite cavalry were conscripted from the upper and lower Khitan ten-thousand-household units — together forming the great army.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao also began forcibly imposing levies at court: all meritorious officials, military officers, and wealthy merchant households were required to pay money to purchase noble titles in Persia proper and Khorasan, and to send two or more sons or nephews, equipped at their own expense with weapons, warhorses, and retainers, to accompany the campaign.

The mobilization order also reached down to the grassroots. The seven provinces of Helong, Guanzhong, Ningxia, Hedong, Hebei, Henan, and Andong were each to conscript two thousand households, for a total of fourteen thousand households — altogether ninety thousand Han warriors — to migrate to Persia proper and Transoxiana.

The twelve ten-thousand-household units of the steppe, having already sent over one hundred thousand people to Transoxiana, were now again to send ten thousand households, over sixty thousand people, to accompany the campaign.

The highlands were also required to send nine thousand fubing soldiers from three garrisons, along with fifty thousand family members, to accompany the campaign.

Although these people did not need to be in place immediately, Zhang Zhao gave them only three months to prepare.

With his prestige having reached its current level, Zhang Zhao acted with such direct brutality. He had discovered that waiting for the fellows below to voluntarily step forward and share the burden was wishful thinking — better to simply issue the order.

After arranging the expedition, Zhang Zhao specially summoned Zhang Xianjing, and father and son had a good drink together.

In fact, besides the two points Zhang Xianjing had guessed and the two Cao Yanxi had mentioned, there was another important reason Zhang Zhao had Zhang Xianjing supervise the army.

That was to let him go to Transoxiana, Khorasan, Persia, and even the Arab lands to broaden his horizons.

If the crown prince of the Zhang Zhou dynasty did not understand these places at all and did not broaden his vision, how could he keep this unprecedented empire going for a few more decades, and make Hua Xia rule over barbarian subjects truly take deep root in the hearts of the people there?

Father and son drank themselves thoroughly drunk, and the two also spoke many heartfelt words.

Just as Zhang Xianjing was tearfully talking about the pressure of being Duke of Dunhuang, Princess of Qi, Zhang Qinan, came running in crying.

It turned out that her husband, Commandant of the Escort Cavalry and Duke of Jiangning Commandery, Li Yu, had gone mad for some unknown reason and insisted on following the army to the Arab lands, saying he wanted to see with his own eyes what a nation destroyed and a family ruined looked like.

The tiger has had a few minor health problems recently. Went to the hospital for a checkup — blood sugar two hours after a meal was high, blood pressure was also high, heart rate too fast, a whole body of problems. Got a pile of medicine, so updates have been a bit slow these past couple days. Sigh, from now on I need to eat less and exercise more.

(End of Chapter)

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