"My son has grown up like this, why would I hate to die!" Zhang Zhao never expected that he would hear something similar to what Concubine Wang Gong said to Zhu Changluo from his biological mother.
In a simple Zen room in the Guanyin Temple in Dunhuang, the Song family held Zhang Zhao's hand. The strong love in his eyes made people's hearts heavy, so much so that everyone in the Song family began to tremble.
Zhang Zhao looked at his mother, she and his aunt Princess Fengtian were completely two different people.
Princess Fengtian has sharp eyes, is fast-paced in her work, and can judge the situation. She is a standard strong woman from the royal family.
But Song's whole person was exactly the same as Zhang Zhao's impression ten years ago, as if she hadn't changed in the past ten years.
Petite in stature, with delicate features, she was like a vigilant rabbit. Apart from the words she burst out with excitement, she had no words and just continued to chant the Buddha's name.
Okay! Zhang Zhao also recited the "Dharani Mantra" with his mother. This is what the son of man should do. Zhang Zhao also took the opportunity to clear his recently disturbed thoughts.
"Mom, do you want to go to Liangzhou with your son? Dayun Temple in Liangzhou is also a famous temple!"
Zhang Zhao tried to make the request, but he estimated that the Song family would not agree.
Sure enough, Mrs. Song looked at Zhang Zhao happily, obviously satisfied that her son was by her side to accompany her in reciting the Dharani mantra.
"Let my son go, there is no need to worry about it. It has been more than 20 years, and my mother has long been used to it. As long as you are safe, that's fine."
"Okay! Then the son will retire. Once he has established a foothold in Liangzhou, he will pick up his mother and live with her!"
After Zhang Zhao kowtowed and saluted, he left. Mrs. Song did not look at the back of Zhang Zhao as he left. Only after Zhang Zhao had gone far did she stand up and lean on the door of the Zen room, with tears streaming down her face.
"Is your mother still unwilling to go with you?" Outside Guanyin Temple, Princess Fengtian was waiting outside with a full set of carriages and horses. She had had enough of chanting Buddha's name in the past twenty years and did not want to continue.
"No! She is used to this and is timid. She cannot face it as openly as her mother!"
Zhang Zhao shook his head. Mother refers to the Song family, and mother refers to Princess Fengtian. They can clearly tell the difference.
"Are you going to go back to Khotan for a while, mother?" Zhang Zhao was stunned for a while, and then asked Princess Fengtian.
After Zhang Zhao's matter was resolved and Cao Yuanzhong officially took power, Princess Fengtian expressed her thoughts of returning to Khotan.
"I have been away from home for twenty years, and both my parents have passed away, but fortunately there is an Erlang here. Once you Erlang leaves Dunhuang, I have no worries anymore. I have lived a comfortable life for a few years, and I might never come back again.
It’s also unknown!”
Princess Fengtian glanced at the scenery outside the carriage and let out a long sigh.
More than 20 years ago, when she was a teenager, she married here with wonderful longings. At that time, her husband was from a famous family, a descendant of a great hero, handsome and eloquent, and he was the leader of a country. Everything seemed so...
of perfection.
But what happened next was like a nightmare, with defeat after defeat and then a coup.
Her biological son also died of dysentery, and her husband died in depression. If it hadn't been for Zhang Zhao, she wouldn't have known how she could have survived.
"If I had known what would happen later, I would have advised you, don't be so overjoyed, it's good to be safe!"
"But I won't agree, right?" Zhang Zhao also sighed with nostalgia.
Zhang Chengfeng's biggest mistake was not that he didn't know how much he weighed, but that he thought an aging regime was still an enterprising young man.
If everyone in the Guiyi Army was like him, they might not be defeated by the Ganzhou Uighurs. Unfortunately, except for him, the emperor in white, the rest of them had already lost their morale.
"You and your son are really similar in this respect. Both of you want to keep tossing!"
Princess Fengtian sighed at Zhang Zhao because she didn't think it was a good idea for Zhang Zhao to go to Liangzhou.
In fact, she wanted to persuade Zhang Zhao to go back to Khotan with her. Wouldn't it be better to go to the west to fight some weak chickens, occupy a large territory, and become emperor behind closed doors?
"It doesn't matter if we go to Khotan, then the child can be left with Aiguli to her mother! Aiguli's son Xianyu is destined to be the king of Talas, so it would be good for my mother to help me train him.
In addition, Ningyuan's son owns a 400,000-acre Wangzhuang, and he also asked his mother to take care of it on his behalf."
Zhang Zhao has already decided on the generation of descendants. The virtuous will be celebrated for their longevity, the wise and wise will be worthy of the clan, and the cultivation will be refined. For the sake of good luck, he has compiled forty generations of characters.
From now on, his son will be called Zhang Xian. After the prince ascends the throne, he will change it to a single name to avoid taboos.
"You are really good at arranging people. When mother arrives in Khotan, she has to take care of a lot of things for you!" Princess Fengtian slapped her forehead in anger.
But Zhang Zhao could tell that he was very happy to have a daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and things to take care of.
"Mother, just think of this as your child's escape route! If Liangzhou fails to be taken, I can still return to Khotan and settle down, right?"
Zhang Zhao said with a smile, but Princess Fengtian nodded solemnly.
....
After arranging things for his two mothers, Zhang Zhao had to go back to military reform. Didn't he want to change the Fengtian Army into the Guiyi Army? He might as well change the Yucheng Army that Li Shengtian gave him.
Originally, Zhang Zhao's system was based on the model of town-army-battalion-capital-general-team-fire.
There are ten people in one fire, and the leader is the fire chief.
The five fires form a team, with a standard of fifty people, and the leader is the leader of the team.
The two teams are composed of a general, with a standard of one hundred people, and the commander is the general.
There are three generals and one capital, with a standard of three hundred people, and the chief is the head of the capital.
Gu Jun
The three capitals form a battalion, with a standard of 900 people, and the commander is the commander of the battalion.
Three battalions form an army, plus one of the capital's personal guards, with a standard of 3,000 people. The commander is the military envoy.
There is no fixed quota for the town. Generally, two armies start with 6,000 people, and the commander is the town army envoy.
Now that Zhang Zhao wants to invite an envoy to the rebel army, he must of course raise the level of the army.
So the town and army were exchanged, and the standard for a town was 3,000 people. The chief simply appropriated the title from later generations and directly called him the town's chief soldier.
The army became unfixed, with officers serving as military envoys. The Fengtian Army and the Yucheng Army were merged into the Yijun Army.
The original Fengtian Army was renamed Hanhai Town, with Yan Jin as the Commander-in-Chief. The Yucheng Army was demoted to Yucheng Town, and Liu Zai was promoted to Commander-in-Chief.
Zhang Zhao obtained more than 900 elite men from the Guiyi Army, plus his original guards of Hanshandu, to form the new Hanshandu.
It was personally commanded by Zhang Zhao and appeared as his personal bodyguard and the decisive force in the battle formation.
At the same time, in addition to his original six-cao setup, a horse cao was added specifically to serve his horses.
These second-, third-, and fourth-generation Han blood horses and broken-eared horses were extremely precious, and Zhang Zhao planned to make more than 6,000 Guiyi troops into cavalry.
They are divided into rangers, mainly for reconnaissance, cover, and spying on intelligence, as well as armored cavalry, archers and mounted heavy infantry.
"Military envoy, Yin Yaozi is back!" Yin Yaozi was wearing a red robe for the first time, and his face was filled with joy.
Zhang Zhao waved his hand to organize his obeisance, "Go! Go and see your little girl first. If you have anything to do, we can talk tomorrow. Just call Liu Di."
Yin Yaozi left happily. For him, it was definitely a great surprise to marry Cao Yuanshen's daughter, Cao Sixiniang.
What is the identity of Yin Yao? His parents died young, and he is a low-level loser who is looked down upon by everyone in the Yin family.
What could make him happier than being able to marry a wealthy daughter who in the past could only stand on the street corner and look up at him.
Liu Di was the craftsman leader captured by Zhang Zhao in the city of Bukhara. His original name was Qadir. His ancestors were craftsmen captured in the Talos War. His family had been manufacturing siege equipment for the Persians for generations.
Liu Di is particularly good at building large and small trebuchets, and he is a senior technical talent who combines the technical advantages of Chinese and Persian-style trebuchets.
"I need a small trebuchet that can be mounted on the back of a camel. It should preferably be operated by about fifteen people. Can you design it?" Zhang Zhao handed a sketch of his imagination to Liu Di.
Liu Di's Chinese is still very substandard, but he can probably communicate. This is also an important reason why he can become the leader of the craftsmen.
He carefully looked at Zhang Zhao's imaginary picture and felt that it was a little unreliable.
"This camel is bimodal. I have rarely seen it before. I don't know its strength and endurance. The minimum trebuchet of this kind is more than two hundred kilograms. A dromedary camel can't even carry it.
Moreover, a two-hundred-pound trebuchet can only fire arrows the size of a fist, so it is difficult to pose a threat to the city wall."
Zhang Zhao touched his chin and thought for a while. The difference between Bactrian camels and dromedary camels is that Bactrian camels are stronger and stronger.
It is said that it can carry a maximum load of four to five hundred kilograms, and can carry the load intermittently for about four days, which just meets Zhang Zhao's needs.
The dromedary is faster and is suitable as a mount for camel cavalry, but Zhang Zhao has no use for it.
As for the difficulty in posing a threat to the city wall, it doesn't matter, because what Zhang Zhao wants to imitate is the Poxi Army, the mysterious Xixia army. This camel cyclone cannon is used to smash the heavy step phalanx, and there is no need to smash the city wall.
"The Bactrian camel is a specialty of Hexi. Don't worry about your strength and endurance. I won't use this small trebuchet to smash the city wall.
Go down and gather people for research and development! If you can design it, all the craftsmen in the future will be managed by you!"
Liu Di nodded, but before he could get down, Mrs. Cao Sanniang ran in like a gust of wind, "Erlang, go to Qingxi Palace quickly. I'm looking for you if I have something urgent!"
Zhang Zhao's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Cao Yijin was dying? Without any time to think about it, he turned around and ran out the door, following Cao Sanniang to Qingxi Palace.
....
In the Qingxi Palace, when Zhang Zhao arrived, the three Cao brothers and several third generations of the Cao family were already there. Cao Yuanzhong saw Zhang Zhao coming in and quickly waved to him.
"Your Majesty, your Majesty, passed out again at noon today. He is now very breathless. The doctor said that he will not survive for twelve hours.
Yaoge Luo Jingqiong, the Uighur prince of Ganzhou, has arrived in Suzhou with his army. The military report is with Luo Bingmao. You should go to him quickly and set off tonight!"
"Leaving tonight?" Zhang Zhao asked in surprise.
To deal with the Uighur army in Ganzhou, Luo Yingda, the military envoy in front of Jiedu Yamen, would be in charge, but in fact Zhang Zhao was the one who coordinated the overall situation.
But at this time, Cao Yijin's time was running out, and the Ganzhou Uighurs had not yet marched westward from Suzhou, so why did he leave now?
Cao Yuanzhong sighed sadly, "This is what King Ling Gong meant. He knew that you were in a hurry to take Liangzhou, and yesterday he specifically ordered you to leave before him... so as not to delay your important event. It's just that you and Shi
I’m afraid Jiuniang’s marriage will have to be declined!”
Zhang Zhao nodded and said nothing. He really didn't have time to finish Cao Yijin's funeral before leaving.
Great changes are coming in the Central Plains, and he must capture Liangzhou. Otherwise, if he misses this opportunity, it will be too late.
"Yan Nai, let's go with Zhang Erlang! This is what the Duke of Ling has specially ordered!"
Lady Cao Sanniang's eyes sparkled, and she kowtowed to the palace where Cao Yijin slept in the meeting hall of Qingxi Palace.
This chapter has been completed!