Chapter 234: The Princess’s Disappearance

Li Qing’an had never realized the importance of intelligence as much as he did today. West of Suiye, mountains rose and fell in succession—mountains, grasslands, and deserts alternating with each other. The vast distances and unfamiliar lands ensured that the Tang Dynasty and the Abbasids knew little about one another, making intelligence extremely crucial.

After taking control of Suiye, Li Qing’an’s first action was to select dozens of people from the Turks and send them disguised as merchants to the River Region to gather information about the Abbasids.

A month had passed, and information from the River Region began to trickle in. The Abbasid army had suppressed rebellions in small states such as the Shi State, the Lesser Shi State, the Dong’an State, and the He State. Only the large states of the An State and the Kang State remained unrested. The Muslims were ruthless—thousands of Shiites were captured and turned into slaves. The kings of the Shi State, He State, and Lesser Shi State were all killed. As for the remaining Kang State and An State, the Abbasids showed no leniency; those who refused to surrender were met with brutal slaughter.

During this month, Li Qing’an also stabilized the situation in Suiye. He ordered that the private property of the Turkic people not be seized and allowed them to graze freely in Suiye. He also provided food for the elderly and orphans. Soon, he received a lead and had Dumoji’s body exhumed. Li Qing’an buried him with the honors reserved for a great chief in Helie City and permitted the Turkic people to pay their respects. After a series of appeasement measures, the Turkic people’s fear gradually subsided.

Li Qing’an then selected 10,000 strong men from the more than 20,000 Turkic prisoners of war to join the Tang army. He also detained all Islamic missionaries in Suiye and organized these 10,000 new soldiers to rebuild the Zoroastrian temples destroyed by the Abbasids. Li Qing’an personally participated in the construction of the temples.

With these effective measures, the Turkic people gradually sided with the Tang Dynasty. These 10,000 new Turkic soldiers began to serve him wholeheartedly. By June, Li Qing’an’s army had grown to 100,000 men: 50,000 from the Anxi and Beiting armies, 30,000 from the Tianwei Army, 10,000 mercenaries from the Gelaoguo and Shatuo tribes, and the newly added 10,000 Turkic soldiers.

However, the pressures on Anxi and Beiting were evident. The Uyghurs in the north were like wolves lurking in the shadows, while the Tibetans in the south never lost their ambitions toward Anxi. Originally, the main task of Anxi and Beiting was defense—north and south—so 20,000 troops for Beiting and 24,000 for Anxi were sufficient. But with the addition of the powerful Abbasids, these 44,000 troops proved inadequate. This was precisely why the imperial court merged Anxi and Beiting and sent 30,000 troops from the Tianwei Army to assist in the fight.

On the other hand, the Anxi army lacked sufficient food supplies, and transporting food from the interior was a long and inconvenient process, which prevented the Anxi Beiting army from expanding. To address this issue, the imperial court began relocating military households to Suiye the previous year and moved 1,500 artisan households to Beiting, with the aim of making Anxi Beiting self-sufficient. At this moment, Li Qing’an had no time to slowly organize his troops. The Arabs were about to suppress the rebellion in the Hezhong region, and once that was done, they would surely turn eastward to drive the Tang forces out of Hezhong. To gain the upper hand, Li Qing’an launched a westward strategy in June of the tenth year of Tianbao. He entrusted Beiting to Feng Changqing, giving him 15,000 troops to defend against the Uyghurs, and Anxi to Li Fei Shouyu, with 20,000 troops to defend against the Tibetans. He also left Duan Xiushi to guard Suiye, while Li Qing’an personally led 50,000 troops on his first western expedition. At the end of June, the Tang army of 50,000 troops arrived at the Kingdom of Ningyuan. Ningyuan was already under the control of Li Fei Yuanli. Leading 3,000 troops, he advanced swiftly and, with the help of the local military and civilians, captured the capital city of Kese, controlled by the puppet king appointed by the Arabs, in just one day. The puppet king committed suicide out of fear of punishment. The 50,000-strong Tang army stopped outside Kese. The king of Ningyuan had been killed in the Arabs’ first attack, and after the puppet king committed suicide, the kingdom was temporarily ruled by the former king’s son, Wumochuo. When Li Qing’an’s army arrived outside the city, Wumochuo and Li Fei Yuanli went out to meet them. Wumochuo knelt on the ground and respectfully kowtowed to Li Qing’an, saying, “Your humble servant, Wumochuo, pays his respects to the Grand General!” Wumochuo was about thirty years old, not tall but sturdy, with broad shoulders and a square face and large nose, giving him a friendly and trustworthy appearance. Li Qing’an dismounted and helped Wumochuo up, then sighed and said, “Your father was loyal to the imperial court and preferred death to surrendering to the Arabs. His dedication is admirable. I will report to the emperor to grant posthumous honors to your father. But for now, the priority is to restore production and stabilize the country’s order. You will act as the king in his absence.” Wumochuo was overjoyed and quickly bowed to Li Qing’an, saying, “I will do my utmost to follow the Grand General’s orders and assist the Tang army in its western campaign. Please, Grand General, enter the city and rest.” Li Qing’an nodded and turned to Li Guangbi, saying, “Set up camp here and set out after resting for two days!”

Tang Jun began setting up camp outside the city, while Li Qing’an entered the city with Wumu Chuo. Although Kese City was the capital of Ningyuan Kingdom, it was extremely small, roughly the size of a minor county in the Tang Dynasty. There were over two thousand households living inside the city, while the rest of the people lived in tribes scattered throughout the area, mainly engaging in pastoralism. The horses of Ningyuan Kingdom were the famous Dayuan horses. During the western expeditions led by Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in the Western Han Dynasty, thousands of Dayuan horses were obtained from here and brought back to Chang’an.

The buildings in Kese City were mainly made of stone. The houses were low and crowded tightly together. There was only one road in the entire city, leading straight to the palace. The road was made of mud and not very solid, causing dust to fill the air and turning the few sparse trees yellow.

“Your Highness, any news about the whereabouts of Princess Heyi?”

When Qi Yade conquered Kese City, chaos reigned inside. The king was killed, and Princess Heyi escaped the city amid the chaos but went missing. The Arabs were offering a reward for her capture, and Ningyuan Kingdom was also searching for her, but her whereabouts remained unknown. There were rumors that she had fled back to the Tang Dynasty, but there were no records of her in Beiting or Anxi.

Li Qing’an was very concerned about Princess Heyi’s whereabouts. Not only was she the only princess from the Tang Dynasty married into a foreign kingdom, but she also knew his true identity and that the phoenix-patterned jade was not something he had carried since childhood. Li Qing’an must find her.

Wumu Chuo sighed and said, “I’ve been investigating this matter and have gathered some clues.”

“Tell me, what clues?”

“When the princess fled Kese City, she was accompanied by twenty guards. But not long after leaving the city, they encountered a group of Arab troops and engaged in a fierce battle. In the end, the princess fled alone to the east, while eighteen of her twenty guards died. Two were injured and captured. I’ve already found one of them. He said the princess fled in the direction of Suiye. Whether she fell into the hands of the enemy forces is unknown. But one thing is certain: she isn’t listed in the Arab captives’ records. I’m most worried that she might have been captured as a slave.”

Li Qing’an nodded and said, “If she fled to Suiye, things might be better. After all, the enemy forces came from the west, and the war hasn’t reached Suiye yet. I guess she might have hidden. I’ll do my best to find her and give Ningyuan Kingdom an answer.”

Wumu Chuo was overjoyed and said, “Thank you, General!”

Li Qing’an waved his hand and asked, “What about the food supply? How many troops does Ningyuan Kingdom still have?”

“Reporting to the great general, the sheep of Ningyuan Country are scattered among various tribes. The Arabs haven’t stolen many sheep; they mainly plundered the national treasury, taking all the jewels, gold, silver, and valuables. As for the army, we can still assemble ten thousand troops to support the Tang forces.”
“Very good! For now, gather two thousand sheep and send them to the military camp. Discuss the details of the army with General Lifi, and we will provide the equipment.”
The two walked while talking and soon entered the palace.
……
Bukhara, the stronghold of the Shiite leader Sharik and the most concentrated area of Shiite believers, was now in the bloodiest phase of suppressing Shiite uprisings. The Muslim general Ibn Tusahb had been fighting to quell the uprising in An Country for two full months. Over a hundred thousand Shiite believers had been killed, and with those who died from disease and starvation, a total of two hundred and fifty thousand had lost their lives.
Ibn Tusahb’s ten thousand troops had also suffered nearly half their losses, yet he still hadn’t managed to capture Bukhara.
In mid-June, the most critical moment for Bukhara arrived. Abu Muslim, the governor of Khorasan, and Prince Mansur of the Abbasids led an army of seventy thousand to Bukhara.
The massive army marched swiftly along the roads, with the trees along the paths covered in the corpses of slain Shiite believers—men, women, the old, and the young. In the hot and humid weather, these corpses were undoubtedly a source of disease.
Abu Muslim was extremely angry. First, Suyab had fallen to the Tang forces. Due to its distance, he could still claim it didn’t affect the overall situation, but his failure to capture Bukhara left him without a proper excuse.
This gave Mansur an opportunity to send troops. His fifty thousand Syrian troops entered Transoxiana. Old Ali had been ordered to attack Egypt and had already left with his forces. Now, Transoxiana was under the joint control of Muslim and Mansur. Clearly, the Abbasids had extended their influence to this region.
Mansur was actually Jafar, who had officially changed his name and become the prince three months earlier. If nothing went wrong, Mansur would become the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty.
Mansur covered his nose with a handkerchief and said unhappily to Muslim, “In such hot weather, why aren’t the corpses buried or burned? An epidemic could destroy the Arab army. General Muslim, your men not only can’t fight but seem to lack even basic common sense.”
Muslim, with a dark expression, ordered his subordinates, “Pass my order: immediately find people to burn the corpses. There’s no time to waste—execute it right away!”
He then turned to Mansur and said, “I will give Your Highness a satisfactory explanation!”

At noon, the massive Arab reinforcements finally arrived at Bukhara. Dusapu was extremely panicked and hurried to meet them. He knelt before the Muslim and Mansur, saying respectfully, “I pay my respects to the governor and the crown prince. May Allah bless you.” The Muslim asked coldly, “How many troops do you have left?” “About five or six thousand,” he replied. “I don’t want an estimate—how many exactly?” Terrified, Dusapu whispered, “Four thousand eight hundred.” The Muslim flew into a rage. Glaring at Dusapu, he said, “I gave you ten thousand elite Khorasan troops, yet you lost five thousand two hundred. Do you realize your crime?” Dusapu knelt repeatedly in fear. “When I conquered the State of Shi, I lost only two hundred men. But the State of An was different—they not only had the king’s army fighting but also women and children from various tribes, all armed and ready to kill. I was completely unprepared. Please, governor, spare me!” “Spare you?” The Muslim snorted harshly. “If I spare you, the caliph won’t spare me. Bring him here!” At his command, a dozen burly men rushed forward. The Muslim pointed his whip at Dusapu and ordered, “Throw him down and behead him; display his head as a warning!” “Pity me!” Dusapu cried out in terror. “Considering I conquered the State of Shi, please spare me once and let me atone for my sins!” “Behead him!” Uncompromising, the Muslim ordered. Moments later, a scream was heard, and a soldier brought over Dusapu’s bloody head on a plate. At that moment, Mansur sighed and said, “Governor, you should give him a chance.” The Muslim sneered, “He lacks common sense and almost caused an epidemic. He deserves death!” Mansur smiled faintly and added, “ Killing him is enough. I still need to go search for the Eye of Light for the caliph. I hear Persia has already given that flame gem to the State of Kang. Governor, I intend to lead my troops to Samarkand. You take care of Bukhara alone.” “No! We’ll go together. Conquering Bukhara won’t take long.” He immediately said to his trusted general Abad, “I’ll give you forty thousand troops. You must conquer Bukhara within a day. Tell all the soldiers that whoever enters Bukhara first will receive the queen and wealth of the king of Bukhara as a reward.”

The drums roared like thunder as the Abbasid army launched its attack. Forty thousand of the finest troops from Khorasan surged forward like a black tide, overwhelming Bukhara. Giant stones rolled through the air, crashing down on the city walls with a roar, while massive fireballs streaked across the sky like meteors. Dozens of enormous siege towers approached the city walls like monstrous beasts, rumbling forward. At the city gates, two thousand men braved arrows and used giant battering rams to attack the gates, leaving Bukhara on the verge of collapse. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians from Bukhara fought desperately to resist the Abbasid army’s assault, but their strength was far inferior to that of the Khorasan forces, and they could not withstand their massive attack. Two hours later, with a thunderous crash, the city gates finally gave way. Thousands of Abbasid soldiers rushed into Bukhara. Abu Muslim immediately ordered a massacre, and tens of thousands of troops entered the city, marking the beginning of a brutal slaughter. Sharik, the leader who initiated and directed this Shiite uprising, escaped Bukhara through secret passages and did not die until fifteen years later in the holy city of Mecca. … Half a month later, the uprising in Samarkand was also suppressed. The Abbasid dynasty completed its brutal crackdown on the Shiites, and Abu Muslim turned his attention eastward. On the very day Bukhara fell, fifty thousand troops from the Tang Dynasty marched into the Kingdom of Stone.