Chapter 235: Conquering the Stone Kingdom (Part 1)

The Stone Kingdom, today’s Uzbekistan, is located in the Fergana Basin in Central Asia. Its capital is the city of Tokhar. Among the Nine Clans of Sogdians, it lies farthest to the east and is the second-largest among them, second only to the Kang Kingdom. The country was named “Stone” due to the numerous oval boulders found there. Near the capital, Tokhar, there lies a huge rock called “Farhad,” which serves as a symbol of the city.

In the third year of the Xianqing era of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court officially established Tokhar as the capital of the Great Yan Prefecture, appointing the king of the Stone Kingdom, Qu Zhaomu, as the governor of Great Yan.

The Stone Kingdom held a special meaning for Li Qingan. During his first attack on Shuiliye, the utterly weak army of the Stone Kingdom, along with the two princes competing for the throne, and even earlier, the skeletal remains of people from the Stone Kingdom buried under yellow sand—under those remains, he discovered a gemstone emitting flames. Those flames reminded Li Qingan of the passionate and lively smile of the people of Shakuhara, as if it were still before his eyes. A chance encounter, like a faint violet lilac petal drifting across his lips—though the beauty was gone, Li Qingan could never forget her.

The midsummer season in the River Region was unbearably hot. The vast Tang army marched across the endless plains. The soldiers, riding on their horses with sun-darkened faces, carried leather sacks on their backs. Each Tang soldier was equipped with a spear, a sword, a round shield, and bows and arrows. They carried water bottles and often raised their hands to shield their eyes as they looked around. This unfamiliar land filled the Tang soldiers with curiosity.

At the rear of the army were the heavy supply carts, consisting of thousands of flat wagons, each pulled by three camels. The carts were loaded with food, supplies, and various military equipment. Three thousand Tang cavalry soldiers protected the flanks, while ten thousand troops sent by the Ningyuan Kingdom were responsible for transporting these supplies.

At that moment, a group of cavalry rushed forward from afar. The leading scout officer reported loudly to Li Qingan, “General, envoys from the Stone Kingdom seek an audience!”

“Where are they?”

“Ten miles away. Without your permission, they dare not come closer.”

“They?” Li Qingan asked. “How many are there?”

“Over a hundred, along with ten thousand sheep, said to be as a reward for the Tang army.”

A mocking smile appeared on Li Qingan’s lips. Only now, at the last moment, did they come to offer their respects. He had spent a month organizing his troops in Shuiliye, yet they hadn’t shown up. Did they think he would stop at Shuiliye?

“Bring them here!”

The scout officer replied and turned toward the edge of the grassland. Li Qingan turned to his guide and asked, “How far is Tokhar from here?”

The guide was a Turkic merchant who had traveled along the Silk Road for many years. He took a Chinese name, Ma Wanli, and spoke fluent Chinese. When Li Qing’an asked him questions, he pointed to a huge circular rock in the distance and said with a smile, “General, do you see that rock? It’s called ‘Farhad’—it’s the symbol of the Kingdom of Shi. It’s about fifty li away from Tuozhi City. There’s a river beside the rock, called the Jinque River. Its water is clear and sweet. In summer, we usually camp by the river and set off again when it gets cool at night, arriving in Tuozhi City by dawn.” It was nearly noon, the hottest time of the day. Li Qing’an found his reasoning sensible and ordered, “Camp by the river ahead, and set off after dark!” The Tang soldiers, who had been listless from the heat, immediately perked up upon hearing the order to camp and hurried toward the small river. Li Qing’an rode past the huge round rock named ‘Farhad,’ which was as tall as several stories of buildings in later times and covered an area of over twenty mu. Upon getting closer, he realized it was actually an enormous cobblestone. Less than a hundred steps away was a clear stream—clearly the bed of a once-great river that had disappeared over time, leaving only a narrow stream less than ten zhang wide. In fact, Li Qing’an didn’t know that over a thousand years later, the place beneath his feet would be Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan and a famous city in Central Asia. The Tang soldiers began resting by the river. Since they only rested for half a day, they didn’t set up tents but simply rested on the spot. The riverbank was crowded with people and horses drinking water, with cries of people and neighing of horses creating a noisy scene. Dozens of cavalry patrolled both banks upstream—this was essential for camp safety to prevent poisoning or blocking the river. Just then, large flocks of white sheep appeared in the distance, driven by riders wielding long whips on either side. Behind the sheep were dozens of Sogdian men in black robes—envoys from the Kingdom of Shi who had come to seek peace. About two li downstream was a wooden bridge. Soon, the sheep filled the bridge as they surged forward. Hundreds of Tang cavalry rushed to meet them and soon brought the dozen men in black robes before Li Qing’an. An elderly man with white hair knelt before Li Qing’an, and everyone behind him followed suit. The old man raised high a golden plate containing soil from the Kingdom of Shi and declared in Chinese, “By the decree of the Great Tang, the King of Shunyi and the Tuyun Tulu of the Kingdom of Shi present the land of the Kingdom of Shi to General Li of Anxi.” Li Qing’an was stunned. He glanced at the old man and asked, “Are you the king of the Kingdom of Shi, Tulu?”

All the Sogdian states practiced a system of two kings, one principal and one deputy, meaning there were two rulers in one country. The origin of this system is unknown, and the Kingdom of Shih was no exception. The principal king was called Tūtun, while the deputy king was called Yinatūtun. “Yina” means “small” in Turkic, so the deputy king was also known as the “Minor Tūtun”. Currently, in the Kingdom of Shih, the principal king is aligned with the Abbasids, while the deputy king is aligned with the Tang Dynasty. Yet it is the principal king who has come today.

In fact, even before the Abbasids expanded eastward, both the principal and deputy kings of the Kingdom of Shih were loyal to the Tang Dynasty. During the Kaiyuan era, the principal king of Shih, Mohe Duō, joined forces with the military governor of Beiting, Gai Jiayun, to attack Tuhuoxian, son of the Turkic ruler Sulu. They achieved a decisive victory at Suoye and were honored by the Tang court with the title of King of Shih, along with promotions and ceremonial banners. The following year, he was further granted the title of King of Shunyi. The current principal king, Teli, is the son of Mohe Duō and has inherited his father’s title as King of Shunyi.

In reality, Teli is only in his fifties. A few years ago, he fell seriously ill and nearly died, leaving him weak. Coupled with the Tang army’s westward advance, which could bring retribution for past conflicts with the Abbasids, the immense pressure caused Teli’s hair and beard to turn white within a month. Today, he has come in person to apologize to the Tang army.

“I am King Teli, the principal king. I have no face to face the military governor-general under the Great Khan. Please punish me!” After saying this, he placed a golden plate on the ground, removed his black robe, exposing his upper body, and had thorny branches stuck on his back. This was not a Sogdian tradition but a practice learned by Teli from the Han people during his time in Chang’an—“bearing thorns to apologize.” As he removed his clothes, his attendants also took off their black robes and exposed their upper bodies like the king.

Li Qing’an did not help him up just because he had thorny branches on his back, nor did he treat him favorably because he was the father of Shijulan. With a cold snort, he said sternly, “Since the Abbasids are not by your side, you bring thorns and land to surrender. But if the Abbasids were by your side, what would you bring? Spears and arrows, wouldn’t it?”

Terrified, Teli kowtowed repeatedly and said through tears, “Even if I had ten thousand times the courage, I would never dare to defy the Great Tang. It’s true that I was forced by the Abbasids to send troops. In fact, the army of the Kingdom of Shih is already under Abbasid control. The decision to attack Suoye was made by the Abbasids themselves; I had no say in it at all.”

If Li Qing’an didn’t have the intelligence from the Han-Tang Society, he might have believed Tule’s words. But the information from the Han-Tang Society made it clear to him that when the Northern Court first attacked Suiye, the Kingdom of Shi was not under the coercion of the Arabs. On the contrary, the Arabs were engaged in civil war at the time and had little control over the distant Kingdom of Shi. They only had a single army stationed in Ashbalikh and Talas in the north, led by Judir. Both Ashbalikh and Talas were far from Tuozhi City. At that time, the Kingdom of Shi was completely independent. Yet King Tule sent ten thousand troops to support Judir—led by his son Yuan’en—proving beyond doubt that it was his decision.

Looking at the old king, whose face was covered in tears and who seemed sincere, Li Qing’an suddenly remembered what Gao Xianzhi had done in history. Just like him today, Gao Xianzhi led an army to attack the Kingdom of Shi. Under the pretense of peace talks, he lured King Tule and his nobles out of the city and captured them all, then ordered his troops to loot Tuozhi City. The reason why Gao Xianzhi did this is not recorded in history. Now, Li Qing’an understood—it must have been because Gao Xianzhi, like him, saw through the King of Shi’s hypocrisy.

He smiled faintly and said, “Things can’t be explained in just a few words. It’s not as simple as you giving me land as a symbol so I can control the Kingdom of Shi. I’ve come to the Kingdom of Shi this time to resolve some lingering issues. But rest assured—once you surrender sincerely, my Tang troops won’t massacre ordinary civilians. As for how to deal with you, we’ll discuss it after we enter the capital.”

After saying that, Li Qing’an waved his hand. “Take them away!”

……

In Samarkand, the capital of the Kingdom of Kang, in front of the largest Zoroastrian temple in the Transoxiana region, thousands of Arab soldiers were destroying the giant statue of the god Ahura Mazda. The twenty-zhang-tall statue, with its majestic presence and hands raised toward the sun, was the largest Zoroastrian statue in Sogdiana. Along with the temple, it was the last sacred relic of Zoroastrianism in Transoxiana. For hundreds of years, whenever the first rays of sunlight appeared on the horizon at the beginning of the new year, hundreds of thousands of Zoroastrians from all over would kneel devoutly in the vast square before the statue, some even traveling from as far as Persia.

During the decades of the White Arabs’ campaigns, due to the statue’s profound symbolic significance, it was used by the White Arabs as a means to stabilize the situation in Transoxiana and has been preserved to this day. But today, after suppressing uprisings by Shiites and Zoroastrians, the Abbasid dynasty, as punishment, ordered the destruction of the temple and the statue.

At the order to demolish it, fifty chains a hundred zhang long were wrapped around the statue’s head, neck, and waist. Thousands of Arab soldiers and hundreds of camels pulled with all their might, causing the statue to start shaking. Finally, amidst screams and shouts, the statue crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust dozens of zhang high. It shattered into dozens of pieces. Immediately, hundreds of temple worshippers, led by two elders, broke through the security lines, rushed over crying, and hugged the statue while wailing in grief.

But the collapse of the statue was just a prelude. A large-scale demolition of the temple began. Thousands of Arab soldiers swarmed in, using iron picks and battering rams to strike the temple’s walls. The worshippers hiding inside fled in panic, creating chaos.

Manzur, sitting two li away, watched coldly as the towering statue was brought down. His heart was filled with disappointment and anger. A few months earlier, he had received definite news from the Persian Zoroastrians that the Eye of Light, desired by the Abbasid Caliph, had already been secretly sent to a temple in Samarkand four hundred years ago for worship.

But an hour earlier, the Arab army had searched every corner of the temple without finding any trace of the flame gem. In other words, it was highly likely it was no longer in the temple.

With the statue’s collapse, he felt a slight sense of relief.

At that moment, a group of soldiers brought in two Zoroastrian elders. An officer bowed and reported, “Your Highness, it is said they know the location of the Eye of Light.”

“Is that so?” Manzur stared sharply at one of them. “Do you know where that gem is?”

The two elders knelt down and wept, saying, “The statue has fallen. We beg Your Highness not to destroy the temple, and we will tell you the truth.”

Manzur sneered. “How dare you bargain with me? Speak! Where is the gem? Perhaps I will spare your lives.”

The two elders exchanged a glance and said painfully, “The gem was taken away thirty years ago when General Qubad conquered Samarkand. It is now in the Kingdom of Stone.”

“The Kingdom of Stone?”

Manzur grew angry and snapped, “How dare you lie to me!”

“We would never dare deceive Your Highness. The gem has always been with the king of the Kingdom of Stone.”

One of the elders handed over a yellowed document. Manzur flipped through it. It detailed in Sogdian script how the sacred Eye of Light was escorted to the Kingdom of Stone thirty years ago, along with the king’s seal confirming its receipt.

Man Sul believed it—he had indeed been sent away. At this moment, he became interested in the paper on which the records were written. He had long heard that in the distant East, paper was used to record history and spread culture and art on a large scale. One of the important reasons for his journey to the East was to learn the art of papermaking.

In history, Man Sul was the true founder of the Abbasid Empire. He built the city of Baghdad downstream of the Tigris River. Under his rule, Arab culture and art flourished greatly, and it also changed the course of European history. At this moment, his attention turned to paper.

He closed the document and smiled faintly. “Very well! I won’t mention the Eye of Light. If you can tell me how to make this kind of paper, I will temporarily spare your temple.”

The two elders were stunned. Their thoughts had shifted so quickly from gems to papermaking. One of the elders suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said, “I do have a clue about papermaking.”

“Speak! What clue?”

After thinking for a moment, the elder replied, “Last year, east of Khorasan, there was a battle between the Arab forces and the Tang forces. At that time, the Muslim general captured over a thousand Tang soldiers and settled them in Samarkand. Among them were many craftsmen. Our temple once hired a dozen Tang painters to create illustrations for us. I remember one of them saying they knew how to make paper. Your Highness can go look for them.”

Man Sul was overjoyed. For now, he set aside the matter of the Flame Gem. He quickly asked, “Where are these prisoners now?”

“We don’t know. You’ll have to ask the Muslim general.”

“I understand!”

Pleased, Man Sul stood up and waved his hand. “Pass my order: suspend the demolition of the temple!”

Man Sul mounted his horse and, surrounded by hundreds of followers, rushed toward the military camp outside the city. The temple was saved, and the square was filled with joy. The worshippers knelt before the sun, thanking the supreme god for his intervention. The Arab soldiers also gradually left the temple.

At that moment, the two elders quickly went to the west side of the square, where twelve women in black were kneeling in prayer before the statue.

“Kuran!” one of the elders called. One of the women stood up. She removed her veil—it was Princess Kuran of the Shi state.

“Elder, what is it?”

“Come with me!”

Kuran followed the two elders into the temple and into a secret room. One of the elders whispered, “Give me the Eye of Light.”

Only the three of them knew the secret about the sacred Eye of Light being with Kuran. Kuran took out a personal leather pouch and retrieved the Flame Gem given to her by Li Qing’an, handing it to the elder.

The elder placed the gem on the table and knelt down. Under the dim light, flames burned within the gem, with what appeared to be a mysterious eye at its center.
“O Ahura Mazda, the supreme god! Bless your faithful!”
They knelt on the ground, praying in silence. After reciting a passage from the scripture, one of the elders solemnly handed the gem to Kulan, saying, “We can only deceive Mansur for a while; he will soon discover the truth. The temple is likely beyond saving. To protect this last sacred relic, take it and return to the Stone Kingdom immediately. May Ahura Mazda watch over you.”
“May Ahura Mazda watch over you!”
……
In the military camp outside the city, the governor of Khurasan, Muslim, was silently studying a map. Behind him stood General Ziyad and Saud, who had fled from Bukhara.
He had already heard that the Tang army had taken control of Bukhara, but he had just learned that the Tang army had changed its commander. After defeating Gao Xianzhi last year, he had known that the Tang Dynasty would invade Bukhara again. For this reason, he sent spies disguised as merchants to gather information about Gao Xianzhi—his personality, hobbies, habits, and more. He had collected a great deal of information.
However, the change in command meant that all his months of effort were in vain, as he knew nothing about this new commander.
“My lord governor, I know a little about this Li Qing’an,” said General Ziyad softly behind him.
“Hmm, go on.”
“A few of my men escaped from the battle of Bukhara the year before last. They say this Tang commander is highly skilled with bows and arrows; he himself is an expert archer. Judir was killed by one of his arrows in battle. So we should focus on defending against arrows.”
“I’m also very worried about the Tang army’s archers!”
Muslim sighed deeply. “From the Tang soldiers I captured last year, I obtained many Tang bows—they are indeed very sharp. Unfortunately, none of the prisoners knew how to make them. Moreover, their armor is very sturdy. It’s clear that the Tang army is a formidable opponent, even stronger than the Byzantines. We must not take them lightly. To deal with the Tang army, I decide to use the Macedonian phalanx. You must speed up training!”
“I understand, my lord. Training is almost complete.”
Muslim nodded and then said to another general, Ben Humaid, “I’m worried that the Stone Kingdom may not be able to carry out my strategy. You must lead three thousand light cavalry to the Stone Kingdom immediately. If you arrive too late, don’t rush back. Instead, station yourself in Talas in the north. If the Tang army shows signs of advancing further west, send troops to Ashibulai City to force them to send reinforcements. Do you understand?”
“Yes! I will follow orders.”

Just then, someone at the door reported, “Governor, Mansur has arrived!”
Abu Muslim was surprised. He quickly hid the map and said to his generals, “Remember, under no circumstances must you reveal to him that Bukhara has been lost.”