Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 84 Gao Pian
When Zhao Huai'an and his troops arrived, they were astonished by the welcoming ceremony organized by Yang Qingfu.

On the fragrant meadows beyond the borders, thousands of soldiers, dressed in brand-new military uniforms, stood in huge tents that dotted the plains. The officers at the front, each wearing a cloak and a feathered helmet, stood respectfully on either side.

Zhao Huai'an saw his elder brother Xianyu Yue on his left beckoning to him, and quickly led his men over.

He himself stood behind Xianyu Yue, while Bao Yidu's generals stood about fifteen or sixteen steps away from Zhao Da, together with the generals' personal guards from other vassal armies.

At this time, the generals of the outer vassal states kept arriving. Unlike Zhao Dayao, who was busy with military affairs and was a little slow, they arrived at the last minute, which only showed a certain non-cooperative attitude.

They came to western Sichuan to resist the Nanzhao Kingdom, but they couldn't stand Gao Pian's temper.

As soon as Zhao Da stood up, Xianyu Yue whispered to him:
"The messenger just reported that Minister Gao's convoy is already five miles away and will arrive in another hour."

Zhao Da nodded, it seemed he had arrived in time, but he didn't know if the other generals had made it.

Being late for your first meeting with a high-ranking leader is never a good thing.

The atmosphere was oppressive, and no one spoke. Zhao Da could only carefully observe his surroundings, as was his habit.

To the east of the procession, there was a place enclosed by a blue curtain. Through the gauze curtain, one could not see clearly, but from the shadowy figures and graceful postures, one could tell that a group of women were sitting inside.

Zhao Da didn't think much of it, assuming it was the female relatives of General Yang and other generals who had come to welcome Gao Pian.

On the outer side of the procession were two squads of elite soldiers in bright armor, all of whom were the best of the Sichuan-Western military governors. They stood under the shade of the trees, each carrying a five-colored flag with dragon, tiger, bear, and leopard designs.

Then, behind the welcoming party, a huge tent was set up in the shade of the trees. Yang Qingfu even spread cloth on the surrounding meadows, preparing for the triumphant generals to sit cross-legged.

Each seat had a small table, and a maidservant knelt beside her to serve. Fresh fruits and vegetables had also been prepared and placed on the table.

This shows that our Marshal Yang really put a lot of effort into dealing with this Minister Gao.

Which of these lavish displays don't cost money?

Zhao Da looked left and right, and only after he felt relieved did he tug at Xianyu Yue, who was in front of him:
"Old Yue, are all my generals from western Sichuan here this time? Please introduce them to me."

Xianyu Yue now regarded Zhao Da as one of his closest family members, and looked at him with affection, smiling as he said:

"The only ones who haven't arrived yet are Zuo Du Ya Ya Li Xiang and Ding Bian Jun An Zairong, but the others are almost here."

Then, Xianyu Yue quietly began to introduce the civil and military affairs of Shu to Zhao Da.

Standing at the very front was naturally Yang Qingfu, the deputy military governor, followed by various powerful figures from the Western Sichuan government, including the military commander, judge, secretary, finance commissioner, investigator, and inspector, covering many systems in Western Sichuan, including civil, military, and financial affairs.

In addition to these military governors, there were also officials from the military governor system, the financial administration system, and the agricultural settlement system. In short, there was a large group of people with scarlet fish-shaped pouches hanging from their waists, and there were also two people with purple-gold fish-shaped pouches hanging from their waists.

One was Pei De, who held the titles of Military Commander, Grand Master of the Palace, Acting Left Vice-Chancellor of the Crown Prince, Vice-Prefect of Chengdu, Censor-in-Chief, and Cavalry Commandant; the other was Liu Zhen, who held the titles of Deputy Commissioner of Agricultural Development, Grand Master of the Palace, Acting Minister, and Vice-Minister of Personnel.

When Xianyu Yue rattled off such a string of titles, Zhao Da thought there would be many people, but he didn't expect it to be just two old men.

Looking at the two old men standing at the front of the procession, almost alongside Yang Qingfu, Zhao Da understood that this time, officials from the military, government, and finance departments had all come to greet them.

Thinking of this, Zhao Da felt secretly guilty. He hadn't expected that the big shots from western Sichuan would arrive so early, while he, a mere general, was still late.

Luckily, I was in the back; otherwise, if I had fallen into the eyes of someone with ulterior motives, I might have been in trouble.

Zhao Da thought he was late, but to his surprise, another group arrived one after another, all of them prefects from various prefectures under the jurisdiction of western Sichuan.

Then there were the generals and officers of the outer domains such as Boye, Yanhai, and Ganying, who were much more indifferent than the generals of Xichuan.

After all, no matter how capable Gao Pian was, he was not their military governor.

……

Time passed slowly, and it was fortunate that Yang Qingfu chose this shady spot to set up camp; otherwise, these high-ranking officials from Xichuan would definitely not have been able to stand it.

Even so, the two old men in front could no longer stand it and sat on the couches, where several Kunlun slaves held up umbrellas to cool them down.

Zhao Huai'an glanced at the Kunlun slaves a few more times. They were all dark-skinned, and he couldn't tell if they came from Southeast Asia or were African slaves sold here by Arabs.

Just then, a loud horn sounded from ahead, startling countless birds in the surrounding forest.

Some birds, in their panic, flew over the crowd and left droppings, drawing angry curses from the Xichuan civil and military officials below.

But there was no time to change clothes, because Gao Pian, the high-ranking official from Bohai, who was also the Chancellor of the Imperial Secretariat and the Military Governor of Xichuan, had arrived.

Everyone stood at attention, awaiting the arrival of the triumphant army.

……

The dull bugle call resounded across the fields, the booming drums roared like thunder, and dust swirled as the flags slowly appeared on the western horizon.

Because the generals of western Sichuan had been following Yang Qingfu to gather troops in Shuangliu, they had never met the new military governor before. Although they had heard of his many legends and military achievements, this was the first time they had met him.

Therefore, everyone stood on tiptoe and craned their necks, curiously looking at the smoke and dust in the west.

Zhao Da was no exception; he also wanted to see what kind of person this high-ranking official was.

But as they watched, a sense of absurdity suddenly arose in everyone's hearts.

What appeared before the generals was not a victorious army, but rather a group of white-clad children, carrying banners bearing the characters "Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Zai, Qian, Po." Behind them were numerous Yellow Turban warriors, carrying various Shinto figures or totems such as "turtle," "snake," and "Shang god crow," among which the figures of "Thunder God," "Lightning Goddess," and "Mysterious Woman" were the largest and most conspicuous.

Following the strongman, there were dozens of people dressed in yellow shirts, yellow trousers, and yellow headbands, burning paper figures of people and horses as they walked, while people scattered small beans along the way.

At this moment, a tremendous chanting sound came from the procession, which all the generals from western Sichuan who were waiting to greet them heard. Those people were actually shouting:
"With the protection of gods and spirits, all evil cannot invade; the divine goddess's army vanquishes all enemies."

A profound sense of absurdity filled everyone's hearts; they never imagined that the renowned high-ranking official from the western frontier would make his first appearance like that of a shaman.

But an even bigger shock was yet to come. After the Shintoists had passed by carrying their ritual implements and banners, what appeared before the generals was a herd of elephants.

The most eye-catching of the elephants is the male elephant at the front, which carries a golden elephant palanquin with a high-hanging silk umbrella. The exquisitely woven fabric depicts a boar covered in thunder and with long tusks.

Two people were sitting on the elephant chair. One was a Taoist priest who looked to be over fifty years old, but was full of energy and exuded masculinity in every move.

The other person, however, felt extremely uncomfortable, as if sitting on pins and needles, and dared not turn around at all, only smiling obsequiously at the fifty-year-old Taoist priest beside him.

Zhao Da had sharp eyesight and even though he was behind, he could still see the person in the sedan chair clearly. Wasn't that the Nanzhao Crown Prince Longshun, whom he had previously managed to snag?

How did this prisoner suddenly become a guest in a sedan chair? Could that Taoist priest in his fifties be the same person as that high-ranking official?
Just as Zhao Huai'an was in disbelief, his eyes suddenly sharpened.

The elephants behind them had baskets filled with heads on both sides; Zhao Da estimated at a glance that there were over a thousand.

No wonder that old bastard Long Shun didn't dare to look back at all.

Following the herd of elephants, a colorful cavalry unit slowly approached, exuding a chilling aura.

Flags fluttered in the wind, including those of generals such as "Gao", "Zhang", "Liang", "Chen", "Feng", "Dong", "Yu", "Yao", "Han", "Zhuge", and "Shen".

There were also military flags with names such as "Jinghai", "Tianping", "Changwu", "Zhaoyi", "Fufang", and "Hedong", as well as some flags with names such as "Pingxia", "Hunmo", and "Linyi", which were clearly indicative of the tribes.

The battlefield was a forest of weapons, the armor gleamed in the sun, and the neighing of warhorses and the clatter of their hooves seemed to shatter the very earth.

The army stretched endlessly to the horizon, followed by an even more boundless array of carts, horses, cattle, and sheep—these must have been Gao Pian's spoils of war.

At this moment, Yang Qingfu, Pei De, and Liu Zhen, who were at the forefront, had already led the officials from various systems of the shogunate to greet them, and Zhao Da, along with his elder brother Xianyu Yue, also joined the crowd.

But for some reason, as Zhao Da looked at the crowd ahead, a question suddenly occurred to him:
Why didn't the military supervisor Zhou Congyu come?

Before Zhao Da could delve deeper into the issue, he saw that the Shinto believers in front of Gao Pian's procession, holding prayer flags, paper horses, and totems, had stopped on both sides, subtly separating the Sichuan soldiers on the periphery.

The elephant carrying the magnificent golden chair slowly came to a stop at the shout of a mahout.

At this moment, led by Yang Qingfu and others, they bowed down, followed by the generals who knelt on one knee, and the warriors from both the inner and outer vassal states who came to greet the carriage all knelt down, shouting:

"We eagerly await your arrival, Your Excellency."

Only then did the fifty-year-old Taoist priest, who was sitting high on the elephant carriage, stop talking to Long Shun beside him.

He glanced at the civil and military officials of western Sichuan and the generals of various vassal states below, a slight smirk playing on his lips. Without dismounting, he shouted from above:

"Everyone, get up."

So Yang Qingfu and the other two stood up, the other generals stood up, and finally the outer guards stood up.

Just as Yang Qingfu was about to step forward to greet Gao Pian and go to the back area to rest.

After all, this time, in addition to introducing the civil and military officials of western Sichuan to the envoy, there was also a banquet to reward the meritorious officials and soldiers at this stage.

For example, the reward for Zhao Huai'an's initial victory over Qiongzhou had not been issued yet, because they were waiting for Gao Pian to arrive.

After all, Yang Qingfu had already completely backed down, so naturally he wouldn't dare to make Gao Pian uncomfortable in terms of fame and status.

But at that moment, a dozen or so people suddenly came running from the west. Their mounts had been taken away by the soldiers on the outskirts, and now they were running along, their armor plates clanging and rattling.

They didn't want to attract Gao Pian's attention, so they rushed to the back of the procession as soon as they arrived. But Gao Pian, sitting high on his elephant chariot, would never have missed their movements and commotion unless he was blind.

Sure enough, Gao Pian saw those people, chuckled, and then called out:
"killed."

Yang Qingfu was stunned for a moment, then quickly turned around to look. The people who had just joined the ranks were Li Xiang, the Left Chief of Staff, An Zairong of the Dingbian Army, and their soldiers.

He hurriedly stepped forward to explain, when suddenly two heavily armored knights, wielding eighteen-foot lances, rushed straight towards him.

The two men, Zhang Lin and Liang Zuan, were both renowned generals in the army.

Just as Li Xiang and An Zairong were about to wipe their sweat, they suddenly saw two heavily armored knights rushing towards them. Before they could react, a flash of cold light appeared, and their heads were cleanly sliced ​​off by the steel lances.

Seeing the two bodies separated from each other, Zhao Da couldn't help but grip the horizontal sword in his hand. Xianyu Yue pressed down on his arm with his hand, and then pulled him and the other generals back.

It was at this moment that Yang Qingfu swallowed hard, tilted his head back, and asked:
"Both generals have rendered meritorious service, so why does the Prime Minister want to kill them?"

Backlit, Gao Pian's face was blurred as he uttered a faint sentence:
"Oh? You've done a good job? Then reward me!"

At this point, the generals fell silent, a deathly stillness.

Only the heads of Generals Li and An rolled on the meadow, eventually coming to a slow stop.

(End of this chapter)