Chapter 897: Extra 2: Hezhong — The Great Zhou Western King and the Republican Assembly

Extra 2: Hezhong — The Great Zhou Western King and the Republican Assembly

Extra 2: Hezhong — The Great Zhou Western King and the Republican Assembly

The Republican Assembly Zhang Xianyu spoke of was not some casual phrase — among the Hua-Xia states of the five far-western provinces, such an assembly truly did exist.

And it had been proposed, designed, and approved by Zhang Zhao himself.

The reason for its establishment was that the five far-western provinces were simply too far from the Central Lands — from Golden Orchid City (Shiraz) in the far west to the divine capital Luoyang was a full thirteen thousand li.

At such a distance, if the Hua-Xia states of the five far-western provinces were not given a mechanism to resolve the great majority of matters on their own, no one could say how many affairs would be delayed.

So under Zhang Zhao's design, the Hua-Xia states of the five far-western provinces brought out the model of the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao's joint administration after the people's uprising.

In this political design, the kings and grand dukes of the Hezhong Hua-Xia states first selected national scholars within their own domains, with candidates allotted according to the share each vassal state received.

After these vassal-state national scholars arrived at the Republican Assembly Hall in Kangju City (Bukhara), they formed the broadly representative Martial Guard Council.

The Martial Guard Council functioned like the former House of Commons of England, composed of enfeoffed vassals of the rank of junzi and below, along with great merchants; its head was called the Martial Guard Grand Master.

The two characters "Martial Guard" were in fact the characters "Guard Martial" in reversed order, taken from Duke Wu of Wei, who after the people's uprising of old led troops to Haojing and was ultimately raised up as regent.

At the same time, the words "Martial Guard" also pointed to the foundation of the five far-western provinces — namely, that they were guarded by Han enfeoffed vassals through force of arms.

As for the upper house relative to the Martial Guard Council, the lower house, it was called the Duke of Shao Council — Zhou had now become the dynastic name, so the Duke of Zhou naturally could not be used casually, but the Duke of Shao was still permissible.

The Duke of Shao Council was composed of enfeoffed vassals of the rank of regional lord and above from each vassal state, the state rulers, great Confucian scholars, eminent monks of the Six Dharma School, and officials dispatched by the court to each province; its head was called the Gong Bo.

Every five years, the Martial Guard Council nominated and recommended, and the Duke of Shao Council approved, the selection of the leader of the five far-western provinces, who was then reported to the court for the court's ratification, with a golden seal, precious register, and edict bestowed.

The leader's full title was Bearer of the Staff, Acting Regent over the Military and Civil Affairs of the Five Far-Western Provinces; since this position could only be held by a great king of a vassal state, it was also abbreviated as Regent King of the Five Provinces, commonly known as His Highness the Western King.

Hmm, now there was even a Western Lord — truly, there was no wrongly chosen dynastic name.

Once the Regent King of the Five Provinces was selected, the regent would, with court permission, form a regency government.

This regency government generally did not manage affairs; it only became operational in wartime, responsible for coordinating and commanding the unified actions of the armies of the Hua-Xia states of the five far-western provinces.

And by law, the officials of the Five Provinces Regency offices were composed of court-appointed circulating officials and officials of the five far-western provinces' Hua-Xia states in a six-to-four ratio.

Of course, in the seventeen years since the Five Provinces Republican Assembly began, the holder of the position of Bearer of the Staff, Acting Regent over the Military and Civil Affairs of the Five Provinces across all four terms had been one man alone — none other than the Great King of Anguo, Zhang Xianyu, who bore the title Western Medicine Master Vairocana Light King Buddha of the Six Dharma School.

That was why Zhang Xianyu was shouting for a Republican Assembly to be convened — because he needed first to use the Republican Assembly to complete authorization and mobilization, and only then could the Five Provinces Regency government begin operating and enter a wartime footing.

Now, messengers summoning the national scholars of both councils began galloping toward the Hezhong Hua-Xia states; a great war was about to begin.

Mulu Prefecture, by the Tianshui River, Tianjin Ford.

Wei Silang, Wei Yingxiong, was eating breakfast: two fried eggs, a piece of mutton chop left over from last night, and a plate of scallions and purple onions mixed with olive oil.

The staple was freshly baked flatbread with a small bowl of curry, plus a bowl of white rice porridge — far more lavish than anything back in Qian County, Guanzhong.

One could even say that back in Guanzhong, for several generations of his Wei family, even festival and New Year feasts had not been as lavish as this ordinary day's breakfast.

Oh yes, and there was also a small bowl of peanuts soaked in vinegar. This was a side dish Wei Yingxiong had to have at every meal.

Twenty-one years ago, the last bite of hometown food Wei Yingxiong had eaten was vinegar-soaked peanuts handed to him by his father.

A bad feeling lingered in Wei Yingxiong's heart. Last year his eldest brother had written that their father's health was very poor and he kept clamoring to see them one more time.

"A caravan should pass through tomorrow. Take out fifty strings of cash and buy some rare goods. After the new year, you will return to Guanzhong with me to see our parents and pay respects to the ancestors."

The woman seated below Wei Yinghu, whose features clearly showed Hu beauty, heard this and an involuntary gleam of surprised delight shot from her eyes. She nodded vigorously, and though she said nothing, her joy was written all over her face.

The matter of Xia lords and Yi subjects — when it came to choosing wives, the Han warriors of Hezhong were actually a rather intriguing subject.

This place was ten thousand li from the heartland of the old country, and marrying a proper Han woman was not easy.

The long journey, the difficulty of adapting to the climate, most women's natural fear of blades and war, and the fact that she could marry perfectly well in the Central Lands with no need to come to Hezhong — all these were tigers blocking the road for young Han women coming to the five far-western provinces.

Even if they did come, most were, in terms of looks and age, the sort that defied easy description.

Of course, there were also those whose looks, age, and even talent were all presentable, but for someone like Wei Yingxiong — a lord's son, short, ugly, and built like a dwarf tiger — such a match was basically out of the question.

And Wei Yingxiong did not want to marry one anyway; such Han women generally had a rather high opinion of themselves and were very difficult to deal with.

Like his seventh brother Wei Yingbiao, who married the sixth daughter of the Great King of Zheng, Bai Congxin — Princess Baihe. What a misery that was.

Wei Yingbiao, a stately Lord of Linhai who governed twenty-seven thousand households and more than three hundred thousand people, had to watch Princess Baihe's face just to take a concubine. One could not imagine anything more stifling.

It was not until five years ago, when the Great King of Zheng, Bai Congxin, passed away and the succeeding Great King of Zheng, Bai Xuanyi, did not share the same mother as Princess Baihe, leaving her without strong backing from her maiden family, that Wei Yingbiao finally dared to bring back the concubines he had kept outside and the children they had borne.

So Wei Yingxiong was quite open-minded about it. Others, unable to marry Han women, would at least marry a steppe woman or plateau woman whose looks were close to a Han person's, or even a black-haired, brown-eyed Sogdian woman who resembled a Han.

Not Wei Yingxiong. He married three Hu beauties in his fief in one go, each more beautiful than the last, and each waited on him like he was the great master of the house.

Was that not better than marrying some Zubu barbarian girl with big hands, big feet, and rough skin, who could not even speak proper Han speech yet still held her head high pretending to be a refined Han maiden, demanding this and that?

Still, as satisfying as it was, there were aftereffects. The sons born of these Hu beauties carried somewhat Hu features, and in the present five far-western provinces, they truly did not have the prospects of children born of Zubu women or Tibetan wives, who were almost indistinguishable from Han.

The reason Wei Yingxiong had not gone back all these years was partly his worry that if he brought back a pile of bodhisattva-beautiful wives and sons who looked like Sunu, he would anger his father into some serious illness.

Of course, it was not as if there were no solution.

In the present Zhang Zhou, there were actually quite a few people who looked Hu but were in fact Han.

For example, certain the the Shatuo military nobles from Hedong and Daibei.

For example, Li Shengtian, who had died fifteen years ago and whom the present Sage had personally borne the coffin for like a son, burying him on Mount Beimang in Luoyang where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, posthumously honored as the Western Righteous Ancestor Sage Son of Heaven, with the posthumous title Kang, commonly known as the Emperor-Supporter.

And here in Hezhong, the Bai clan of the Great Kings of Zheng, and the Xue, Pei, and Li families of the Five Surnames and Three Kings.

These all had considerable Hu blood and Hu features — Li Shengtian in particular looked entirely Scythian, more Hu in appearance than the Sogdians and Khorasanis of Hezhong — but could you call them Hu?

Absolutely not!

Thus in the five far-western provinces, a system of recognition had formed: one must be able to speak fluent Heluo official speech, be able to recite from memory the one hundred short tales of Chinese heroes compiled by Sage Zhang in his Anxi years, and have served two or more years in one's vassal state.

Those who met these three conditions were granted a bronze fish tally, with name, origin, native place, and other information engraved inside, and wore a blue fish pouch — and that made one a Han person.

Going a step further, one was required to be able to recite one of the classics — the Book of Changes, the Book of Documents, the Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Analects, the Classic of Filial Piety, and so on — and could then be granted a silver fish tally and wear a silver fish pouch.

Naturally, this requirement was not low. When it came to study, some people simply lacked the talent and got a headache at the sight of a book.

Such people could instead take part in the Grand Township Archery Rite held by the Republican Assembly of the five far-western provinces, obtain the rank of Captain, and finally travel back to their ancestral homeland, pay respects to family elders, and learn the customs of their native place. Upon returning, they too could be granted a silver fish tally and wear a silver fish pouch.

As for the highest level, the gold fish tally and gold fish pouch, those required going to the Central Lands to sit the civil or military examinations, and could only be obtained after returning.

And to encourage this practice of returning to the country to take the examinations, the Republican Assembly of the five far-western provinces would fully reimburse travel, lodging, and meal expenses.

Therefore, in the five westernmost provinces, to tell whether a man is Han Chinese and gauge his strength and status, besides looking at his features, you also had to look at what color sash he wore at his waist and what kind of fish tally he could produce.

This was also why Wei Yingxiong's wife was so pleased. Wei Yingxiong had seven sons and three daughters. His sons had basically no talent for scholarship, but they were all first-rate with spears and staves. Of the seven sons, all except the youngest, who was not yet of age, had obtained the title of Captain.

The most outstanding among them, his second son Wei Weizhao, had obtained five captain's titles: spear and staff, foot archery, heavy crossbow, horsemanship, and line-breaking. He was a renowned young warrior throughout the State of Anfan and even among all the Hua-Xia states of the five westernmost provinces. Bai Xuanyi, Great King of the State of Zheng, had once praised this young man as having the bearing of his great-uncle, the Great Tang's famed general Bai Xiaode.

But because of Wei Yingxiong's worries, he had not been able to travel to the Central Plains, his ancestral homeland, and for now still wore only a bronze fish tally and a blue fish pouch.

So his wife and children were all waiting eagerly for Wei Yingxiong to take them back to their homeland for a visit, to trade their fowling pieces for cannon.

Even Wei Yingxiong's two unmarried daughters jumped for joy when they heard. Once their father and brothers received certification, they would be able to obtain corresponding certification as well. Whether they remained at home or married out in the future, their status would be entirely different.

The youngest daughter ran out the door laughing, then expertly mounted a tall horse and rode happily toward Tianjin Ford to inform her brothers, who were standing watch at the crossing.

The name Tianjin Ford came from twenty years earlier, when Crown Prince Zhang Xianjing had led a great army across the river there by building a pontoon bridge. It had since become one of the key transport routes connecting Baoshan and Dingyuan Provinces in the Hezhong Province.

The Gobi around Mulu City was vast, and the only land suitable for farming and herding lay along the banks of the Tianshui River. Therefore, the fief of Baron of Tianyang Wei Yingxiong, who governed seven thousand households and fifty thousand people, consisted of the land on both sides of the river for more than two hundred li upstream from Tianjin Ford.

Also enfeoffed along the Tianshui River was another vassal of Tibetan origin, the Qu (Duo) clan. Wei Yingxiong was upstream, hence his title Baron of Tianyang; this other one was downstream, and was called Baron of Tianyin.

The money tree that was Tianjin Ford was guarded by the two of them, each responsible for one year at a time.

Of the commercial taxes and the rents from the ford's post station, inns, and eating houses, they could keep twenty percent; the remaining eighty percent was handed up to An Xiaoyuan, Baron of Mulu, who garrisoned Mulu in the State of Anfan.

An Xiaoyuan was the son of the great hero An Sicun, who in the great battle of Fort Jia-san that shattered the Buweixi dynasty, had held off a full ten thousand Arab troops with only a hundred men on Zhuangzhi Mountain outside Fort Jia-san, pinning down the main Arab force.

After An Sicun died in battle, Zhang Xianyu, Great King of the State of An, moved by his loyalty and righteousness, took his two sons in and raised them at his side.

When they grew up, he even married his second daughter, the Princess of Tongcheng, to An Sicun's second son An Xiaoyuan, carved out land and enfeoffed him as Baron of Mulu there, giving him command of two sons, six men, and twenty-seven patrol inspectors, governing sixty thousand households and three hundred fifty thousand people.

And after Baron of Mulu received this eighty percent of taxes, he would keep thirty percent of it and hand fifty percent up to the Anfan shogunate. This was how it was done throughout the five westernmost provinces.

For the collection of commercial taxes, the lesser vassals below provided the men and effort and kept twenty percent; the governing lord or regional baron kept thirty percent; and fifty percent went to the provincial shogunate.

As for land taxes, they were handed directly up to the shogunate in the form of tribute, while corvée labor was apportioned by head count and wealth.

As for land taxes, they were handed directly up to the shogunate in the form of tribute, while corvée labor was apportioned by head count and wealth.

The lords and regional barons within a vassal state could not directly manage the viscounts, barons, and patrol inspectors below them; they only had command authority when authorized by the provincial shogunate or in wartime. Every vassal, great or small, was a direct subject of the vassal king.

Those whom the lords and regional barons enfeoffed below themselves were their household retainers and private troops. These men were carved out from the lords' and regional barons' own lands, and therefore were entirely under their command.

Viscounts and below were not permitted to carve out land, lest they be unable to pacify and hold their territories.

When young Miss Wei arrived, Wei Erlang Wei Weizhao was at the ford drinking alone in gloom. Although his father Wei Yingxiong had been enfeoffed as a baron, and a large-scale baron governing seven thousand households at that, those below viscount could not carve out land.

That meant that this Baron of Tianyang title had no share at all for Wei Weizhao. Apart from never lacking food and drink, all he could do was receive a starting fund from his father after starting a family, and then go seek a living in the various offices of the vassal state himself.

Of course, with Wei Weizhao's abilities, it would be no problem for him to serve as a Chief Commander in the Great King's Three Guards.

But by now the situation in the Hua-Xia states of the five westernmost provinces had basically stabilized. There was little need for swords and soldiers anywhere, and it was foreseeable that Wei Weizhao, for all his skills, had a future he could see the end of at a single glance.

This was why, at just his teens, he was so despondent that he had to drink alone.

Wei Weizhao let out a long sigh. He wished he had been born a few decades earlier, so that he could have caught the good days of his father's generation, when the Xia were lords and the Yi were subjects, and carved out a vast fief for himself as a vassal.

The more he brooded, the more frustrated he grew. Wei Weizhao waved a hand and sent the squad leader of his household retainers to fetch him two more jin of wine.

The retainer squad leader wore a mail shirt of rather mediocre workmanship. Dark-faced and curly-haired, he was clearly the son of serfs brought from India.

This was a very common sight in the five westernmost provinces, because the great majority of the fubing soldiers of Han composition had been allotted to the prosperous regions, becoming the core base of the vassal kings' power.

The lower the rank of nobility, the fewer Han fubing armored soldiers one had under one's command. By the level of viscount, only a small number of Han remained—men on good terms with the viscount who did not wish to go serve as patrol offices in the high mountains and deep valleys.

At the level of baron and below, the fiefs had virtually no Han armored soldiers at all.

For example, on the Wei family's fief, of seven thousand households, only a little over a hundred households were herding folk of various tribes from the grasslands, along with the families of Wei Yingxiong's wives and concubines, who counted as the ruling class.

Of the remaining six thousand seven or eight hundred households, five thousand five hundred were Sogdians, Persians, Oghuz, and other Turkic-speaking groups.

They were the native inhabitants, each household farming and herding traditional small plots of land, bearing taxes and corvée labor.

The remaining one thousand two hundred households were basically all slaves bought from India over time. The land they farmed and herded belonged directly to the Wei family, so in fact they were the Wei family's serfs.

However, being a serf did not necessarily mean one's status was low. After all, the Wei family governed seven thousand households and fifty thousand people. Relying on the Wei family's eight fathers and sons alone, even with three heads and six arms they could not manage it all.

So they needed to promote a batch of trusted men from among these serfs, whose persons and property were entirely dependent on them, to become private retainers.

Some of these retainers were sent out to other estates to assist Wei Yingxiong's sons as stewards; others formed the Wei family's private troop of one hundred twenty men, responsible for keeping order, catching bandits, and most importantly collecting taxes within the baron's domain.

For example, the retainer squad leader at Wei Weizhao's side, Wei Youfu, had a status far above the freeholding farmers under the Wei family. He could even be considered half a member of the ruling class.

The curly-haired, dark-faced Wei Youfu had just stepped out of the guard post at Tianjin Ford when he saw in the distance a cloud of dust kicked up by horses' hooves. It seemed a dozen or more riders were approaching.

Alarm bells rang loudly in the mind of this loyal dark-faced Indian. With a strange cry, he bolted and scrambled toward the top of the watchtower.

There was a bronze gong up there, used for warning. Once struck, wolf-smoke would be lit at three secret locations around the ford.

Then Tianyang Fort, twenty li upstream, and Tianyin Fort, seventeen li downstream, would receive word.

After receiving the warning, Baron of Tianyang Wei Yingxiong could assemble fifty grassland cavalry, one hundred fifty household retainers, and his five sons skilled in bow and horse within two quarters of an hour and come to support.

Likewise, Baron of Tianyin Qu (Duo) Gui would also come rushing with no fewer than thirty grassland cavalry, one hundred household retainers, and three or more Han armored soldiers.

In the five westernmost provinces today, the political situation and public order were basically stable. Occasionally some native noble who resented being stripped of his privileges would stir up trouble, but it was never more than a dozen or two elite fighters dragging along eighty or a hundred farmers.

So this arrangement was quite suitable, because such troublemakers clearly could not defeat the Wei and Qu families' dozen or so fierce armored warriors, seventy or eighty grassland cavalry, and two or three hundred household retainers—not to mention that the Wei and Qu families would also light wolf-smoke to notify the Han vassals great and small nearby.

But this time, before Wei Youfu could even climb to the top of the watchtower, the galloping riders charged into Tianjin Ford.

Wei Youfu was still climbing when a padded arrow wrapped in cotton, trailing a strange whistle, struck three inches above his head—astonishingly precise.

Wei Youfu immediately stopped moving, because enemies would not use a padded arrow on him. That thing was for training, with no arrowhead; it stung a bit but could hardly wound. And secondly, with the other side's archery that accurate, whether he moved or not no longer made much difference.

But his mouth was not idle. Though drenched in cold sweat from fright, he still shouted at the top of his lungs, telling his young master Wei Weizhao to flee at once.

Wei Weizhao of course did not flee, because the riders wore brocade robes with the three-hares-sharing-ears pattern that only Han nobles favored.

This emblem had once been common in the Dunhuang region. Some said it represented the Dharma's past life, present life, and future life; others said it represented the Daoist "one begets two, two begets three, three begets all things."

In any case, the three-hares-sharing-ears pattern had originally not been popular in the Central Plains. It was only after Zhang Zhao settled the realm that this emblem, popular in Dunhuang, became one of the favorite emblems of Han nobility.

"Adjutant Zhang has come here—could it be that the Great King has some errand to send?" Wei Weizhao, with a dozen or so household retainers, cupped his hands and asked the foremost rider.

The newcomer was Adjutant Zhang Zheng of the Prince of An's mansion, of Menggu origin, the son of a household slave the Great King of An had brought from the grasslands.

Adjutant was a rank of lower eighth grade, with no fixed duties, assigned flexibly by the Great King. It was considered a trusted position at the Great King's side within the princely mansion.

Wei Weizhao had assumed Zhang Zheng had come looking for him, because Zhang Xianyu, Great King of the State of An, knew that Wei Weizhao was skilled in bow and horse and had outstanding martial arts, and had once shown interest in summoning him to service.

But Zhang Zheng had not come to see Wei Weizhao. He looked at Wei Youfu, still crouched warily in the middle of the watchtower and staring at him, and said to Wei Weizhao, "A good servant. You've trained him well, Wei Erlang!"

Then Zhang Zheng took a scroll of brown silk from his waist, had his men raise the great royal-command banner and the banner of the staff of authority of the Regent of the Five Provinces, and shouted:

"By order of the Great King of Anguo, Bearer of the Staff, Governor-General of the Military and Civil Affairs of the Five Provinces: Wei Yingxiong, State Scholar and Baron of Tianyang, is to arrive at the Republican Assembly Hall of Kangju before the fifth day of the ninth month to attend the emergency Republican Assembly."

"I must also go notify the vassal state scholars east of Mulu City. I would trouble the Wei brothers to select some regular conscripts and auxiliary conscripts who know the roads."

At this time in Transoxiana, the herders of the grasslands were also broadly considered Han people.

Had the Xiongnu not said in former years that they were descendants of the Xia? Now that the court had entered an era of Xia lords and Yi people, in which the strength of the grassland folk was needed, the court naturally picked up that old claim.

Therefore, the grassland people were also considered Han people, and some called them the Various Xia People.

Of course, they were not entirely the same. For example, if a man from the grasslands had not managed to become a vassal, he would be placed under fief management, settled on a scale of one lord or baron managing more than one hundred households.

For every hundred households a small temple of the Six Dharma Sect was established, and a senior teacher who had returned from advanced study in Dunhuang, Liangzhou, Chengde, and other places was sent to oversee the faith of these grassland people.

Within the hundred households there were no officials, but there was a hierarchy of Punishment Knights, Guiyi young lords, armored soldiers, regular conscripts, and auxiliary conscripts.

Among them, the Punishment Knights, besides being peerlessly brave, also had to be people who could be trusted in matters of religious faith.

Every Punishment Knight also had to serve guard duty at the Forbidden Palace in the divine capital Luoyang, and only after being personally invested by the Emperor, who is the Supreme Heaven, could he be called a Punishment Knight.

After these Punishment Knights returned to the Five Provinces of the Far West, even vassals below the rank of lord and baron could not compare to them in status, and every year they received rewards from the imperial house.

They were not only the main force in war, but also an important means by which the court restrained the various vassal kings of the Five Provinces of the Far West and maintained centripetal force.

In fact, such Punishment Knights also existed among the Han people, though more concealed—those warriors of Captain rank and above who had gone to the Central Plains to pay homage at the ancestral tombs, were thoroughly versed in the classics, and could wear the silver fish pouch and hold the silver fish tally.

The recognition of a Guiyi young lord was much simpler. Apart from requiring some bravery, the authority to recognize them in religious matters lay with Zhang Xianyu, the Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light King Buddha of the West, and the Six Dharma Sect of the Five Provinces of the Far West.

The Punishment Knights and the Guiyi young lords together formed the main force of the cavalry among the various Xia states of the Five Provinces of the Far West. They received dual leadership; they were the sharp blades in the hands of the Xia kings, and also the golden headbands upon their heads.

But precisely because of this characteristic, the Punishment Knights and Guiyi young lords were not numerous. If they were too many, they would too greatly weaken the authority and sense of security of the Xia kings.

Therefore, for a lord or baron like Wei Yingxiong, among the grassland herders under his control there were only a small number of armored soldiers and a certain number of regular conscripts.

These grassland cavalry were utterly incomparable to the Punishment Knights and Guiyi young lords, and they accepted the leadership of the vassals.

That was why Zhang Zheng, who had come to deliver the message, only requested that a few regular conscripts and auxiliary conscripts be provided as guides.

But Wei Weizhao was completely stunned by Zhang Zheng's words, because the Republican Assembly was held only once a year. There could be only one reason for convening a special assembly in autumn. His eyes flew wide open, and he stared at Zhang Zheng in joyful surprise and shouted:

"Adjutant Zhang, is His Highness the Western King convening the Republican Assembly so urgently because there is to be a war?"

Zhang Zheng had come out precisely to propagandize for the war. After all, the Five Provinces of the Far West had been at peace for so many years. The Han armored soldiers who had originally come from the Central Plains to conquer the realm were all men of great family and great wealth. Twenty years ago they had lost Tianjuan City to the Persians precisely because the Han armored soldiers had eaten their fill and could no longer fight.

Therefore Zhang Xianyu was still somewhat worried, afraid that the Han armored soldiers below had lost their former ferocity.

But Zhang Zheng had not expected that the instant he nodded, thunderous cheers erupted. Wei Weizhao and his two brothers leaped to their feet, and the serving regular conscripts and auxiliary conscripts also cheered fervently.

Even that Indian brother Wei Youfu up in the watchtower excitedly jumped down and sang and danced.

Twenty years!

Enough for the next generation to grow up.

Men like Wei Yingxiong of the Five Tigers of the Wei family had eaten their fill and could no longer fight, but beneath them there was still a crowd of sons who could not inherit the title!

These children had been diligently practicing the killing arts since birth. Not one of them was willing to idle away his days waiting to die. Their fathers had eaten their fill, but they were still hungry.

Even a lackey like Wei Youfu was waiting—waiting for his one and only chance to rise.

That is, to win merit in war alongside his master, then learn Chinese characters, speak the Han tongue, read the classics, and finally go to a conquered land and become a strange sort of Han person. That was the only way out for someone like Wei Youfu.

At this moment, Wei Xiaomei also came riding to Tianjin Ford. She too had heard the news of the coming campaign, and she gazed with adoration at her broad-shouldered, thick-waisted elder brothers.

"Youngest Sister, go back quickly and tell Father that the Great King is convening the Republican Assembly!

Tell Father that your elder brother is escorting Adjutant Zhang to Mulu City. Once we have won victory, we will return to Guanzhong in glory to see Grandfather."

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