Chapter 9

Zhang Zhao, born in the second year of Qianhua of the (Later) Liang (912), was the youngest son of Zhang Chengfeng, the White-Clad Son of Heaven of the Western Han Jinshan Kingdom; grandson of Zhang Huaiding, the third Military Governor of the Guiyi Army; great-grandson of the great hero Zhang Yichao; and he had an elder brother, Zhang Geng (geng, fourth tone), who died during the Cao clan's replacement of the Zhang.

The place where he lived was the Hexi Corridor, far from the Central Plains and isolated in the northwest, and the Western Han Jinshan Kingdom was a state that even history enthusiasts rarely know, because not only was its territory small, it also existed for only about four years, and historical records about it are pitifully scarce.

The only thing certain is that this small state was the only Han regime in the northwest, established in the two prefectures of Gua and Sha of the Guiyi Army by Zhang Chengfeng, grandson of the great hero Zhang Yichao who recovered the six commanderies of Hexi — that is, the protagonist's ill-fated father.

"West" referred to the direction, "Han" to the Han people, and Jinshan lay southwest of Dunhuang, the later Altun Mountains; at this time the people around Dunhuang regarded Jinshan as their protective sacred mountain, and it once became a byword for Shazhou.

Thus the meaning of the Western Han Jinshan Kingdom was "the Jinshan Kingdom established by Han people dwelling in the west"; however, although Zhang Chengfeng used the title "Your Majesty" and called himself the White-Clad Son of Heaven, he did not use the title of Emperor.

Zhang Zhao's nominal mother was the younger sister of Li Shengtian of Khotan, daughter of the King of Khotan, Yuchi Tianpiluomo; his actual mother was Lady Song, the wife's niece of Cao Yijin, who succeeded the Zhang clan as Military Governor of the Guiyi Army.

After the Cao clan replaced the Zhang, the young Zhang Zhao was taken to live at Shouchang, southwest of Dunhuang, his maternal grandfather's home; his legal mother Lady Yuchi and Lady Song were both still alive.

Although Zhang Zhao grew up tall and big, he was by nature weak-willed; perhaps after witnessing the miserable fates of his father and elder brother, his mind had simply been shattered, and in all his nineteen years of life he had done nothing but chant the Buddha's name.

His one and only act of stubbornness was that recently he suddenly insisted on going to find a cave temple to worship the Buddha, and no matter how everyone tried to persuade him, he refused to go back; even when his birth mother Lady Song sent people to urge him, it was no use, and the old servant Zhongweng could only deliver him grain and rice every two days — this should be the very cave into which Zhang Chao transmigrated.

Old Zhongweng's family had been hereditary retainers of the Zhang household for generations; after the Cao clan replaced the Zhang, Zhang Zhao, under the strenuous protection of his legal mother Lady Yuchi and birth mother Lady Song, kept his life, and was settled by the Cao family in Shouchang, southwest of Dunhuang.

Because Shouchang lay southwest of Dunhuang, anyone going to Shouchang had to pass through Dunhuang, which made it convenient for watching and surveillance; Zhongweng was the only old servant who followed him.

And Ge Duo, nicknamed Bald-Fur Tiger, was a band of horse bandits that had recently risen around Shouchang; "dagan" meant a Uyghur chieftain, and its members were mostly Kucha Uyghurs who, decades ago, had been forcibly relocated by the Tibetans to live in the Qilian Mountains.

In recent years, after the Tibetans declined sharply, they could no longer control these Uyghurs, so the Uyghurs began coming down from the Qilian Mountains in groups to settle or pasture in the two prefectures of Gua and Sha, where living conditions were better; Bald-Fur Tiger was one of the larger bands among these Uyghur horse bandits.

At present it is the second year of Changxing of the Great Tang — note, this Great Tang is not the awe-inspiring Li Tang, but the Later Tang established by Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang, that bizarre sovereign who was fond of actors and could sing a few lines himself, who in the first half of his life upheld the dying wish of the Prince of Jin's three arrows and awed the realm, and in the second half loved actors so much he nearly destroyed himself and his state.

And the second year of Changxing is the second reign title of Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang, who came out to pick up the pieces after Li Cunxu's death; by this time the Later Liang of the filial father and loving son, the Great Tang loyal minister Zhu Quanzhong and his sons, had already been finished off, and even Li Cunxu, who destroyed them, was gone too.

The Great Tang had already become a gradually blurring concept in the hearts of the Han people of Hexi.

He had not slept well at all last night, his mind constantly recalling the Zhang Chao he had encountered in his dream, as he walked out of the temple where Qi Xiahu had arranged for them to rest.

This temple was located near the summit; looking down the mountain, there was an enormous valley.

Quite a lot of good farmland had been opened up in the valley, and a small stream ran through it; the mouth of the valley was narrow and easy to defend but hard to attack, and with the distance from the mountain to the valley mouth, it was perfectly suited to serve as a peach-blossom paradise in troubled times.

But now, this peach-blossom paradise was probably about to be lost, because tents clearly in the Uyghur style crowded the stream bank — at least thirty or forty of them — and around the tents some Uyghur women were laughing loudly as they drew water by the stream.

What "coming to plan a great undertaking together" was this? This was plainly coming to seize the magpie's nest like a turtledove.

"A fine great undertaking Zhongweng planned! How does it feel to seek a tiger's skin from a tiger?" The old man Zhongweng came over covered in dust and grime, and Zhang Chao could not resist mocking him.

After accepting Zhang Zhao's memories he discovered that this old man had been plotting to restore the glory of the Zhang clan since he was a few years old; with this true son of Zhang Chengfeng having not the slightest will for it, the old man was like the eunuch more anxious than the emperor, busying himself for more than ten years, and finally accomplished this "great undertaking!"

Laughable and lamentable!

"Young lord... I...!" With just one sentence, Zhang Chao made the old man's eyes redden; however foolish he was, he had seen Ge Duo's attitude and methods last night — the obsession he had clung to for over ten years had been utterly shattered in a single night.

He had thought the great undertaking was as good as done, thinking of "winning over" the Uyghurs for his own use and thereby reviving the Zhang family; only now did he discover that the Uyghurs had merely been deceiving him with honeyed words these past days.

The matter had not even succeeded yet, and their man-eating faces were already beginning to show; once it succeeded, the next ones to be eliminated would probably be the few of them.

On his aged face, a few tears fell from his withered eye sockets; his gray-white hair was unkempt, tangled like a bird's nest, and his dark, sun-blackened face was crisscrossed with furrows, every part of it proclaiming the pain in his heart and the suffering of his life.

Zhang Chao suddenly could not bear to say anything more; according to his memories, this body, because it was suspected by the Cao family, was loathed by pigs and unloved by dogs; even his legal mother Lady Yuchi and birth mother Lady Song did not dare pay him too much attention, for fear of incurring the Cao family's displeasure.

Therefore, in the seventeen years of Zhang Zhao's life, his only kin, the only one who treated him as master, as of imperial noble blood, was this old servant Zhang Zhong.

The two of them silently circled this crude temple for half a day; Zhang Chao searched everywhere, wanting to see whether the divine image from his dream would appear here.

Several women sweeping and cleaning looked at him curiously, chattering a little; clearly his identity as the son of the White-Clad Son of Heaven was very mysterious to these ordinary people, and there were even two urchins who darted in front of Zhang Chao to look at his face, then under their mothers' scolding ran swiftly away again.

Suddenly, Zhang Chao jolted; at the entrance of the temple's main hall, an oil lamp that was extremely familiar to him lay alone on the ground.

"Zhongweng, who is this divine image?" In the temple's main hall, Zhang Chao, who had rushed in impatiently, finally found the exact same existence as the divine image in his dream — a statue whose colors had flaked away and which was cracked everywhere, yet still awe-inspiring.

"This is the young lord's great-grandfather, the heaven of the Han and non-Han peoples of the six commanderies of Hexi! Grand Guardian of the Great Tang, imperially enfeoffed Duke Who Founded Nanyang, Military Governor of the Guiyi Army, Lord Zhang, taboo name Shang-Yi-Xia-Chao!"

Without the Grand Guardian, we would still be under Tibetan rule like pigs and dogs; without the Grand Guardian, the Han folk of Gua and Sha would probably have become barbarians like the Wenmo, who know not their ancestors and know not culture or learning!"

Old Zhang Zhong was full of excitement, and a look of pride shone on his furrowed face — an infinite longing for the glory of the past.

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