Chapter 900: Side Story 4: The War-Crazed Woman's Damascus

Side Story 4: The War-Crazed Woman's Damascus

Side Story 4: The War-Crazed Woman's Damascus

In the first year of Xianyong of the Great Zhou, 986 CE, the various Xia states of the Five Far West Provinces gathered in the Republican Assembly Palace in Kangju City.

After years of continuous enfeoffments, there were now nine kings and three dukes in the Transoxiana region. They were:

The An Principality, ruling over what would later be all of Turkmenistan, eastern Uzbekistan, northeastern Iran, and the Caspian coast. Its Great King was of the line of Zhang Zhao's second son, Zhang Xianyu.

The Jin Principality, ruling over what would later be western Uzbekistan. Its Great King was Li Congde, eldest son of Li Shengtian.

The Zheng Principality, ruling over northeastern Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan. Its founding Great King was the founding-era general Bai Congxin, and the current reigning Great King was Bai Congxin's second son, Bai Xuanyi.

The Song Principality of the fifth imperial son, Zhang Xianxi, ruling over what would later be Tajikistan and southeastern Kazakhstan.

The Xu Principality, ruling over what would later be Kyrgyzstan, northern Kabul in Afghanistan, and the entire Congling, that is, the Kashmir region. Its Great King was the seventeenth imperial son, Zhang Xianze, whose mother was Lang Yi, a Tibetan woman from Songpan.

The Liang Principality, ruling over more than half of what would later be Afghanistan. Its Great King was the thirteenth imperial son, Zhang Xianmin, born of Gao Xingzhou's eldest daughter, Gao E'niang.

The Qi Principality, ruling over what would later be southeastern and southern Iran. The mother of King Zhang Xianji of Qi was Great King Zhang's raised loli, Physician Zhao Rongniang.

The Cao Principality of the eighth imperial son, Zhang Xianzai, ruling over what would later be central and northwestern Iran, including part of Azerbaijan.

He was the second son born of Empress Cao Yanxi. He had served as crown prince substitute for nearly ten years, and only after Crown Prince Zhang Xianjing's position was secure did he leave to take up his fief.

Because the Cao Principality bore the mission of deterring the great Persian kingdom in Iraq and Guo Zhou'er's Zhongshan State in the Caucasus Mountains, and because Cao Yanxi doted on her son, nearly half the savings were emptied when he went to his fief. His maternal grandfather Cao Yuanzhong also left Zhang Xianzai a large inheritance before his death.

Therefore, among the Xia states of the Far West, the Cao Principality was the most militarily formidable after the An State, with a full thirty thousand infantry and cavalry, half of whom were armored.

And to support these armored soldiers, besides the Cao Principality's location on a key trade route, King Zhang Xianzai of Cao owned half a street of shops in each of the Divine Capital, the Eastern Capital, and Chang'an, with annual rents and taxes alone amounting to three hundred thousand strings of cash.

In addition, among the Xia states of the Five Far West Provinces was also the Zhao Principality of the third imperial son, Zhang Xianzhao, ruling over most of what would later be Pakistan and a small part of Kashmir.

He was the full younger brother of King Zhang Xiancun of Chu and the second son of Little Aunt Li Ruoliu. He had been much favored since childhood, so the Zhao Principality was quite wealthy.

As for the Zhongshan State, ruling over most of the Caucasus region, it had been granted by Zhang Zhao to Guo Zhou'er. Its territory was small and not on any transport route, and it mainly relied on exporting mercenaries and grain relief from the Transoxiana provinces.

The remaining Liao Principality of Zhang Xianjiong, the Shu Principality of Zhang Xiantai, and the Tang Principality of Zhang Xianli, son of his cousin Li Wenxiu, ruling over central India—

as well as the Shen Principality in India of Li Cunhui's second son, Li Zeyi, the Xiping Grand Duchy of Li Cunhui's third son, Li Zeyan, and the Dinghai Grand Duchy of Lu Ketu—were not counted among the Xia states of the Five Far West Provinces.

In the Republican Assembly Palace, the kings of the nine Transoxiana Xia states—An, Jin, Zheng, Song, Xu, Liang, Qi, Cao, and Zhao—along with the royal envoys of the five states of Tang, Shu, Shen, Liao, and Zhongshan, all eighty-seven scholars of the Summoning Court, and all four hundred thirty-three scholars of the Military Guard Court, were fully assembled.

Full of high spirit, a born war-crazed woman, fully worthy of the saying "a woman no less than any man," the Defender of the Realm Princess Zhang Yuan, under the gaze of over a thousand eyes, delivered an impassioned speech from the high platform of the Republican Assembly Palace.

She proclaimed that the Divine Continent of the Middle Earth should be held in the hands of nations of ritual and civilization, and that those uncivilized barbarians must have the people of the Middle Earth teach them what ritual is, what the Three Bonds and Five Constants are, what ruler and subject, father and son are.

As descendants of the last Heaven's Chosen One among mortals, they had the duty to use the swords in their hands to make all people on the Divine Continent know the wisdom of the Supreme Heaven.

Hmm, my great Supreme Heaven Zhang Zhao, Emperor Zhang, made his last prophecy five years ago.

He said in his mystical manner that, based on his analysis and reasoning of world geography, the Eastern Shen Body Continent should have two landmasses, north and south, and the Southern Zhan Continent also had large and small divisions—the small one barren, the large one covered in ice and snow.

The Western Niu He Continent was not due west but to the southwest, and the Northern Ju Lu Continent lay beyond the farthest north, a land of ice and snow.

Afterward, Zhang Zhou's ocean-going fleet set out southward from the Eastern Continent Zhenlu Governorate (the Yucatan Peninsula) to explore, and soon discovered the New Yin People Archipelago (the West Indies).

Then, following these islands as if they were guiding the way, they finally reached the Southern Eastern Continent, where they encountered even larger numbers of Yin people descendants.

At the same time, another fleet set out from Hoi An (south of Da Nang, Vietnam), first passing through the already mostly charted islands of the Southern Seas and heading south, and soon discovered the Small Zhan Continent (Australia), which was indeed extremely desolate, with deserts and gobi stretching from east to west, and only a few natives living like beasts.

As for the Western Niu He Continent, it had long since entered the view of the Zhang Zhou people, for the appearance of black people was quite distinctive.

From then on, the entire Chinese civilization's division of the world was basically settled.

The later North and South Americas were the Northern and Southern Eastern Shen Body Continents, abbreviated as the Northern and Southern Eastern Continents.

Africa was the Western Niu He Continent, abbreviated as the He Continent.

Oceania was the Small Southern Zhan Continent, abbreviated as the Small Southern Continent, while Antarctica was the Great Southern Continent.

The Northern Ju Lu Continent, abbreviated as the Lu Continent, was the later Greenland.

Eurasia was collectively called the Divine Continent of the Middle Earth.

Among it, East Asia was called the Middle Earth.

Southeast Asia was called the Southern Seas.

The three eastern, western, and central Siberias were divided into the Eastern, Western, and Central Xianbei Wastelands.

Central Asia and Iran were called the Far West.

Russia excluding Siberia, plus Ukraine, Belarus, and other northeastern European countries, was called the Distant West.

The Middle East excluding Iran was called the Flourishing West.

Europe excluding old Russia was called the Great West.

South Asia kept its old name, India.

Do not underestimate this geographical division. Once the regions were fixed—especially once the name "Divine Continent of the Middle Earth" was set—large numbers of Zhou people began to feel that unifying the Divine Continent and establishing small states everywhere with Zhou people as Great Kings and meritorious officials had become a matter of course.

The representative of this was the Defender of the Realm Princess Zhang Yuan. She had grown up in the new era, and everything she saw was the matchless might and vibrant vitality of Zhang Zhou.

Their generation had inherited the martial virtue tradition of the war maniacs of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, but had never suffered through those days of utter darkness, and so they were extremely confident and possessed a towering sense of mission.

Thus, the speech of the Defender of the Realm Princess Zhang Yuan caused an enormous sensation among the Xia states of Transoxiana.

The Han people of the Far West believed that their fathers' generation had been the vanguard of the first "Xia rulers over Yi subjects," and now it was their turn to launch the second sacred war of Xia rulers over Yi subjects.

Immediately after Zhang Yuan finished her speech, the nine kings and three ducal states of the Five Far West Provinces began mobilization.

The Tang and Shen principalities in India also began stockpiling large quantities of grain, preparing to provide support by both sea and land, while simultaneously beginning large-scale roundups of the peoples of the Indian states that had not yet submitted, to be used in the future to fill the Five Far West Provinces.

In the Divine Capital Luoyang, after thirty years away from home, the fifty-three-year-old eldest imperial son, Great King Zhang Xiancun of the Chu Principality, returned home once more.

Zhang Zhao held a grand ceremony for his eldest son, and the already enthroned Xianyong Emperor Zhang Jiong personally came out beyond the imperial city to welcome him, staging a harmonious scene of father and son, elder and younger brother, loyalty, filial piety, fraternal respect, and deference.

After meeting his mother Li Ruoliu, Zhang Zhao summoned Emperor Zhang Jiong, King Zhang Xiancun of Chu, and the imperial great-grandson Zhang Nengkun for a small internal meeting.

Zhang Xiancun was still very grateful that Zhang Jiong had agreed to let him return to accompany their mother through her final days, so he took the initiative to speak:

"The Chu Principality has this time smashed a host of small states in northwestern India. The Ahzhali sect of Dali remnants who had earlier pioneered India have also been brought back into the fold.

Your son is currently mobilizing personnel to go open up the Yingyang Plain. In the future, the new capital of the Chu Principality, Yingnan, will be built on the Yingyang Plain."

The Yingyang that Zhang Xiancun spoke of was the later Ganges Delta, roughly equivalent to Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.

This place is still all swamps, with rivers running wild and crocodiles and Bengal tigers roaming everywhere in its primeval state, but even so, its future prosperity is visible at a glance.

Zhang Xiancun continued: "The land of Yunnan has a population similar to the Central Plains and customs close to ours. It was part of the state under the Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties, and to this day dozens of great Han clans remain there. It is a piece of the golden vessel, not a place a subject can hold for long.

Therefore, I ask that over thirty years, in three steps, the land of Yunnan be returned to the state. Afterward, the Chu fief should take the Yingyang plain as its heartland and establish its capital at Yingnan."

At this time the Chu fief was vast, encompassing all of later Yunnan, western Guizhou, southwestern Sichuan, northwestern Vietnam, all of Laos, northern Thailand, most of Burma, northeastern India, all of Bengal, and southern Tibet as well.

It had over twelve million people and was said to hold six marquises, seventeen earls, and forty-three lords, its wealth the greatest in the south.

But the finest part of the Chu fief was still the basins of Yunnan, Guizhou, and southwestern Sichuan. Zhang Xiancun's decision was tantamount to handing the most essential territory back to the court.

Emperor Zhang Jiong's eyes suddenly widened. The Chu fief of the King of Chu, Zhang Xiancun, had twelve million people, and its national strength surpassed even the Yan fief. It was the greatest entrenched power among all the vassal states.

At the same time, Zhang Xiancun's own younger brother, the fifteenth imperial son, the King of Chen, Zhang Xianyuan, had been enfeoffed in Annan.

That position had originally belonged to the King of Zhao, Zhang Xianzhao. Fearing that the brothers' combined power would grow too great, Zhang Jiong had forcibly sent the highly capable Zhang Xianzhao off to India to serve as King of Zhao.

But who could have known that the King of Chen, Zhang Xianyuan, was no easy mark either? Over the years he had governed Annan into considerable wealth and strength.

What Zhang Jiong feared most now was the two brothers joining forces. If that happened, it would be a great state of twenty million people, and if it truly rose in revolt, even ten years might not be enough to pacify it.

So when Zhang Xiancun now took the initiative to propose moving the Chu fief to Yingyang, Zhang Jiong was first shocked, then moved. Before he could speak, the King of Chu, Zhang Xiancun, went on:

"Your Majesty need not worry that no one will oversee this matter after this old minister departs. When I came to the Divine Capital, I already explained it to Jian, and he agreed as well."

Jian was the twenty-four-year-old heir of the King of Chu, Zhang Nengjian.

Only now was Zhang Jiong truly convinced. This elder brother of his had always arranged everything, great and small, perfectly, and with a fine sense of the larger picture.

Recalling his earlier suspicions, his face could not help but flush. The thought he had harbored of using this chance to break up the Chu fief suddenly made him too ashamed to bring it up.

"Elder Brother, just call me Silang. We are all family here—why call me Your Majesty?" Emperor Zhang Jiong shook his head, a smile appearing on his face.

"The land of Yingyang is still a wilderness. To move the fief rashly, even spread over thirty years, would inevitably unsettle people's hearts. Besides, the Chu fief was established by our imperial father's grace—how can it be moved on a whim?"

The pot was tossed to Zhang Zhao. This was also the best option when a question was hard to answer. I, Sage Zhang, old and crafty with age, had long since thought out a response.

"As Dalang says, the land of Yunnan is a piece of the golden vessel and cannot be split from the realm for long. But our Zhang family believes that the able should labor more. The territory you won through bitter effort—how can it be casually taken away?

In your father's view, better to do this: after Dalang passes on, divide the Chu fief in two.

The part in Yunnan, like Annan, will only enfeoff a king without establishing a government; he will only manage suppression.

The part outside Yunnan will be no different from the other vassal states."

This was the best plan available. Zhang Xiancun and Zhang Jiong had no objections and agreed cheerfully. But then Zhang Zhao shifted his tone.

"The Chu fief is powerful and has no strong enemies around it. Dividing it in two is also a way of storing up blessings for your descendants. But your second brother's An fief must be strengthened.

The five provinces of the Far West are simply too distant from the Central Plains. Without a backbone, it will not do. Remember my words: the An fief can only be strengthened, never weakened.

You must do your utmost to maintain a strong leading state among the five provinces of the Far West, and that leading state must in turn depend on the court's support to remain above the other states. Only thus can the standing of Chinese civilization in the Flourishing West and the Far West be guaranteed, and even its influence extended to the Far West beyond."

Zhang Jiong thought for a moment and understood Zhang Zhao's painstaking intent. Over ten thousand li away, with the transportation conditions of this era and constraints on every side, it was fundamentally impossible to directly control the five provinces of the Far West.

In fact, even a local vassal king could not fully control them. That was why Zhang Zhao had devised the two republican chambers, and given Zhang Xianyu the identity of the Medicine Buddha and the title of Western King.

And over all these years, Zhang Jiong had also come to realize the importance of the republican assembly's existence and of strengthening the An King's line. Only with both in place could the five provinces of the Far West be kept stable for one or two hundred years.

As for what came after, that would be left to later generations.

And so, once Emperor Xianyong, Zhang Jiong, gave his consent, the republican assembly of the five Far West provinces, already in operation for nearly five years, could finally continue.

Zhang Zhao no longer had to worry that after he was gone, Zhang Jiong would go back and meddle in the daily affairs of the five Far West provinces, or move against Zhang Xianyu.

In the seventh month of the first year of Xianyong, the speech of the Princess Defender of the State, Zhang Yuan, at the Republican Assembly Hall in Kangju reached the Central Plains, and at once a single stone stirred a thousand waves.

Among the people, the sense of mission to complete the second "Xia rulers over Yi subjects" since the Western Zhou, and the longing of true men to display their might in foreign lands and pacify the barbarians, was thoroughly ignited.

Emperor Xianyong, Zhang Jiong, seized the moment to announce that the Grand Heir, the Prince of Dunhuang Commandery, Zhang Nengkun, would serve as commander and that a great western expedition army would be formed.

The entire Central Plains rejoiced. Meritorious officials and great merchants, officials and gentry, and men of civil and martial talent among the people all answered the call.

In barely three months, the western expedition army was fully recruited: forty thousand infantry and cavalry in all.

Among them were six thousand elite cavalry of the Central Plains, ten thousand light cavalry of the steppe, four thousand Silver Spear sworn followers of Guanzhong, one thousand foot skirmishers of Ningxia and Hedong, two thousand heavy infantry of the Jurchen and Shiwei, three thousand crossbowmen of the Jianghuai, and two thousand light armored archers of Korea and the Land of the Morning Sun.

In addition, there were twelve thousand elite troops drawn from the Hanshan Capital and the various personal armies, chiefly the finest cavalry and new-model troops carrying various artillery pieces.

In the ninth month, before the Han armies of the Central Plains and the Far West had even finished assembling, the Fatimid Caliph al-Aziz unexpectedly struck first, sending one hundred fifty thousand troops in an offensive.

The Great King of Persia, Ansu, full of confidence, led sixty thousand infantry and cavalry out to meet them—and then made a spectacular fool of himself.

His army of tens of thousands fought two battles northwest of the Heaven-Blessed City (Baghdad) and lost both. Over ten thousand were killed, and he could only flee back to the Heaven-Blessed City in disarray and hold it to the death.

Well, Ansu had been getting a bit full of himself these years. Especially after the third siege of Damascus, when he nearly broke through the city, Ansu had fancied himself quite a military talent, and he had grown somewhat dismissive of the fact that the core strength of Persia was the ten thousand infantry and cavalry Zhang Yuan had brought.

The result was that on the battlefield, without the Princess Defender of the State, Zhang Yuan, to steady them, the several thousand Han infantry and cavalry who took the field were unwilling to exert their full strength, while Ansu's own Persian troops, grown accustomed to easy living these years, were simply no match for the Fatimid Mamluks.

The Persian infantry in particular lived up to their tradition of collapse, unbroken since the Sassanid dynasty, and were thrashed by Arab cavalry far fewer in number.

In less than half a shichen of battle, the army of tens of thousands broke and scattered. Had the several thousand Han troops not shielded him, Ansu would barely have made it back to the Heaven-Blessed City.

After this battle, Ansu gave up all hope. While holding the Heaven-Blessed City tightly, he sent riders flying to Kangju to beg the Princess Defender of the State, Zhang Yuan, for aid.

In the tenth month, Zhang Yuan, on receiving the news, had only one or two thousand guards at her side. She could only go to ask the King of An, Zhang Xianyu, and the nearest King of Cao, Zhang Xianzai, for help.

Zhang Xianyu at once ordered the King of Cao, Zhang Xianzai, who commanded thirty thousand elite infantry and cavalry, to send troops to the rescue. Zhang Xianzai personally led twenty-five thousand troops from the City of the Same Branch (Tehran), with the Lord of Shengyuan, Wang Yaowu, as vanguard, to break the siege.

In the twelfth month, the Cao fief army reached a point more than ten li south of the Heaven-Blessed City. Zhang Xianzai ordered the army to pitch camp, lifting the siege of the city's south gate and steadying the hearts of those within.

Nor was he in a hurry to attack. The Fatimids had a full one hundred fifty or sixty thousand troops, of whom at least seventy or eighty thousand were elite. There was no need to gamble his men's lives on winning against the odds.

On the sixteenth day of the twelfth month, the Fatimid Caliph al-Aziz personally directed eighty thousand troops and came to attack Zhang Xianzai.

For unless he dealt with the Cao fief army, he could not seal off the Heaven-Blessed City completely, and then there would be no point in the siege.

On the nineteenth, battle was joined.

The Cao fief army had camped on high ground. Zhang Xianzai used chevaux-de-frise to block the Arab cavalry's charges and deployed a great formation of infantry against cavalry with bows and crossbows, raining arrows down on the Arab army from above.

He also ordered Wang Yaowu to command three thousand elite cavalry concealed within the formation, to burst out suddenly once the Arab army's strength was spent and the chevaux-de-frise were pulled aside.

It was just this one simple, crude tactic, and it beat the Arab army into helpless frustration.

If they charged straight up, the bow and crossbow fire was too dense to endure. If they retreated, the enemy cavalry would strike them from the high ground.

If they tried digging pits to lure the enemy cavalry down and then surround and destroy them, the Cao fief army, holding the high point, easily saw through the Arab army's petty scheme.

In the end, Aziz Khalifa simply gave up besieging Tianjuan City and instead used his main army to besiege Cao Guofan's army — he figured the Persian troops in Tianjuan City wouldn't dare come out and attack anyway.

This move did prove effective: the Arab army used its numbers to pin down Cao Guofan's army and also cut off their access to water.

But inside Tianjuan City, there were actually six or seven thousand Persian Han troops.

They could give Ansu a small lesson on the battlefield to fight for the highest treatment within the Great Kingdom of Persia, but they absolutely would not — and dared not — stand by and watch Cao Guofan's army be devoured.

So while the Arab army threw everything into besieging Cao Guofan's army, the Persian Han troops inside the city practically forced Ansu to organize ten or twenty thousand retinue soldiers to sortie with them as a diversion.

Aziz had never imagined that Tianjuan City still held several thousand Han troops with real fighting strength, because in all the months he had fought there, he had never encountered these men fighting to the death — he had taken them for mere cannon fodder.

But the moment they took the field, they dealt the Arab army a savage blow. Cao Guofan's army would often signal at night from afar with fireworks, calling the Persian Han troops to strike at a single point, so that the Arab siege could never fully close.

In the second year of Xianyong, 987 CE, in the third month, the Arab army had endured bitterly for several months and lost several thousand men, yet remained utterly helpless against Cao Guofan's army outside the city and the Persian Han troops within it.

The rainy season was fast approaching, and more critically, the allied army of the various Xia states of the Five Western Provinces should be arriving soon. Exhausted and somewhat despairing, Caliph Aziz let out a long sigh and could only choose to withdraw.

Cao Guofan's army had held out against an enemy eight times its strength for nearly half a year, fully demonstrating the might of one of the top two military provinces among the Xia of the Five Western Provinces, and laying a solid foundation for the allied counteroffensive.

In the fifth month, the allied army of the various Xia states of the Five Western Provinces finally arrived, fielding a total of one hundred ten thousand troops.

Of these, An Province contributed twenty-five thousand, Liang Province twenty thousand, Zheng Province twenty thousand, Qi Province fifteen thousand, Zhao Province, Xu Province, Song Province, and Jin Province five thousand each, plus ten thousand civilian sworn followers.

Added to the twenty-five thousand Cao Province had already fielded, that made a grand total of one hundred thirty-five thousand troops — half infantry, half cavalry — and since the infantry basically all had warhorses, camels, and the like, they could be counted as mounted infantry.

In the sixth month, south of Damascus, along the banks of the Barada River, the allied army of the various Xia states of the Five Western Provinces, together with the soldiers and laborers conscripted by the Great King of Persia, Ansu, came streaming onto the battlefield in a vast host of two hundred thousand.

The Barada River was the lifeline of Damascus. The lands irrigated along its banks fed the people of Damascus and earned the city its reputation as a paradise on earth — it could not be left undefended.

Caliph Aziz was clever. He abandoned the piecemeal tactic of intercepting them at every point along the way, and instead waited at the Barada River, rested and ready, for the allied Xia army.

And though the allied Xia army was weary, its morale was high — and the boundless wealth of Damascus spurred them on.

The Fatimid Caliph Aziz, watching from afar the allied Xia army still marching in a long single-file column, was overjoyed. He believed he had already taken the measure of the allied Xia army's fighting strength outside Tianjuan City, and so he devised a plan to strike them head-on.

On the eleventh day of the sixth month, the Arab army concentrated forty-five thousand elite troops and hurled them at the ten-thousand-strong vanguard of the allied Xia army just as it reached the banks of the Barada.

But the Arabs had miscalculated. That ten-thousand-strong vanguard was the very foundation of the Western Medicine Master, Lapis Lazuli Light King Buddha, Great King of An, Western King of the Great Zhou — Zhang Xianyu — the capital upon which An Province stood as the foremost power among the Xia.

The Marquis of Linhai, Wei Yingbiao, long famed as the greatest general of the Far West, was among them.

So too was Hu Qingtian, Marquis of Baishui, the adopted son of Hu Guang, posthumously enfeoffed as the Loyal and Martial King of Suyab — a man who had borne the title "match for ten thousand" since the age of sixteen.

Among the core two thousand cavalry were the younger generation of bears and tigers: Wei Weizhao, the peerless archer and rider son of Wei Yingxiong; Li Yanxi, son of Li Zun, Duke of Tianshui Commandery; Chen Fangtian, the Wanli Exemplar; and others.

They detected the Arab army before it even drew near. Wei Yingbiao made an instant decision: the ten thousand elite cavalry would not seek high ground to defend, nor turn and flee — they charged straight at the Arab army.

Hu Qingtian led from the front. The front ranks of heavy-armored shock cavalry first loosed a fierce volley from horn bows and crossbows, then followed with massed bowfire, and when they closed to striking range, they struck hard with cavalry lances.

The Arab army was caught completely off guard. Their infantry and cavalry, their missile troops and melee troops, had not yet deployed when the allied army smashed their "skullcap" to pieces.

The Arab command was thrown into chaos from the very first moment. Of the forty-five thousand elite troops, fewer than ten percent had finished donning their armor. Everywhere were screams and figures fleeing in wild panic.

After roughly the better part of a shichen, the Arab army had been cut into three or four chunks, large and small, unable to coordinate head and tail or left and right — total collapse was only moments away.

In the emergency, the Arab commander-in-chief, the Fatimid general Ja'far, tried to raise the great green banner of the Fatimid dynasty to rally the scattered troops to him.

At the critical moment, Wei Weizhao keenly sensed this. He led the hundred knights of punishment under his command to break off from the melee with the disordered Arab troops and charge hard at the green banner.

As a result, Ja'far's banner had barely gone up — it had not drawn in many scattered troops, but it had drawn in Wei Weizhao!

"The Sage awaits news of our victory in the divine capital!"

"Supreme Heaven watches over me — He knows His true son is the bravest warrior under heaven!"

After the brief chant and the buff it bestowed, Wei Weizhao spurred to the front. One hundred riders charged several hundred heavily armored foot soldiers, and his men roared like mountains and seas, each fighting as a hundred — they quickly broke through the enemy formation.

Seeing Ja'far ringed by armored guards, Wei Weizhao reckoned this must be a person of importance. He immediately spurred forward to strike. When his warhorse was shot out from under him, he simply fought on foot, wielding twin maces in a ferocious assault.

Ja'far had once been the deputy of the Fatimid dynasty's legendary general Jawhar al-Siqilli. His days of peerless valor had been twenty years ago; now past fifty, his prowess was far from what it had been.

Wei Weizhao, by contrast, was only seventeen, his martial prowess already approaching that of the Dunzhu of old. Looking at Ja'far, he was like a fierce tiger eyeing a fat sheep.

Amid a heaven-shaking din of blood and screams, Wei Weizhao single-handedly scattered Ja'far's dozen or so personal guards, then, under the terrified gaze of hundreds of eyes, battered the Arab commander-in-chief, the famed general Ja'far, into pulp.

With a thunderous crash, at the very moment of Ja'far's death, the great green banner he had raised was also sent toppling. It seemed less like it had been rallying hearts and more like it had been summoning disaster upon Ja'far.

And as the great banner crashed down, the Arab army utterly collapsed. Forty-five thousand men, facing ten thousand super-elite allied Xia troops, could not even hold out for two shichen. More than six thousand were cut down on the field, over half were killed or wounded, and the rest fled in disgrace toward Damascus.

The allied Xia army seized the moment to pursue, smashing straight through the Arab army's blocking line on the Barada River.

On the twentieth of the sixth month, the allied Xia army began the siege of Damascus.

In this fourth siege of Damascus, the army committed was no small-scale affair of tens of thousands, but a host of nearly two hundred thousand.

In the ninth month, the allied Xia army repeatedly defeated reinforcements coming from the direction of Jerusalem. Seeing no hope of relief, Caliph Aziz — who had never imagined he would fall into such dire straits so quickly — could only stake everything on one desperate throw in his despair: he resolved to lead the entire army out of the city for a decisive battle with the allied Xia army.

For the Fatimid dynasty had held Damascus for barely more than a year, and its rule was far from secure. If the siege dragged on, the people inside the city might well sell him out.

At the end of the ninth month, the two sides deployed outside Damascus for the decisive battle.

Zhang Xianyu placed the provincial armies of An, Xu, Song, and Jin in the center.

The provincial armies of Cao and Zhao formed the left wing.

The provincial armies of Qi, Liang, and Zheng formed the right wing.

The Zhongshan and Persian troops were held in reserve. All three divisions went forth at once — a single all-or-nothing throw.

In the fighting, the cavalry of Zheng Province and Song Province broke through the Arab lines in succession, and the heavy infantry of Xu Province, with its large numbers of Tibetan armored soldiers, after taking certain casualties, drove the Arab center's infantry inward into a concave bulge.

By the afternoon of the second day, the Arab army was weary and hungry, and fear began to spread through the ranks. Before the allied Xia army could launch its final assault, they fell apart on their own.

Tens of thousands of soldiers wailed and wept, trying to flee back into Damascus. The allied Xia army seized the moment, drums and horns shaking the heavens, and struck hard. Caliph Aziz, unable to stem the rout, drew his blade and cut his own throat in despair.

The Fatimid army collapsed entirely. Only a small number crossed the Lebanon Mountains and put to sea from Beirut, fleeing to North Africa.

On the third day of the tenth month, in Damascus, the Grand Imam and Grand Akhund of the Pragmatist sect, the former chief judge of the Hamdanid dynasty, and representatives of the great merchants came out of the city to surrender.

They announced that the Pragmatist sect accepted the Six Laws School's concept of the Five Heaven-Inspired Sages, agreeing that Mahmud was only one of the Five Sages, and that Kong Qiu of the Central Lands and the Supreme Divine Emperor Zhang Zhao were the first and the last of the Heaven-Inspired Sages.

On the twenty-second of the tenth month, the allied Xia army captured Jerusalem and its surroundings, and began building warships in preparation for crossing the sea to attack Alexandria.

On the twenty-fourth of the tenth month, Cao Guofan's army stormed Beirut.

On the twenty-sixth of the tenth month, the provincial armies of Song, Xu, and Zheng captured Aleppo and repelled a Byzantine intervention force from the Anatolian plateau.

On the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the State-Protecting Princess Zhang Yuan entered Damascus, welcomed by her elder brothers.

She reorganized the Syrian Governorate into the Zhangwei Province, renamed Damascus as Zhaoge, and submitted a memorial to her elder brother, the Xian Yong Emperor, preparing to turn the Great Kingdom of Persia into the Wei Vassal State.

From then on, all the power of the Great Kingdom of Persia was firmly in the hands of the Princess of Wei. She rewarded her husband Ansu with a hundred beautiful women from the various peoples, converted the Great Mosque of Damascus into Ansu's Palace of Ease, and let Ansu go be his King of Ease.

To her elder brothers, Zhang Yuan was likewise extremely generous. Under her coordination, the Arabs of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Aleppo, and other places contributed more than 3.5 million strings of cash in goods and over ten thousand young women to reward the troops.

The many soldiers and officers of the various expeditionary provinces who were willing to remain all received grants of large tracts of land.

A new era had finally begun to take root in the Western Prosperity region.

And almost at the same time, the western expeditionary army led by the Imperial Grandson-heir Zhang Nengkun also reached Transoxiana.

The timing was just right. He had not come to take part in the Fourth Siege of Damascus, but to batter down the walls of Constantinople.

The new book has been uploaded and is still under review. It is expected to meet everyone tonight or tomorrow. I look forward to the book friends' comments and corrections.

(End of Chapter)

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