The Generals of the Zhe Clan
In the early Five Dynasties period, the Zhe clan of the Tanguts in the northwest rose to prominence amid the chaos. Taking "loyalty and courage" as their blade, they protected both banks of the Yellow River, caught between Khitan cavalry and the political machinations of the Central Plains. Zhe Zongben, Military Governor of Zhenwu, used fire oxen to defeat the Shatuo and made a blood sacrifice to the Yellow River, laying the foundations of the family creed, "Fight war with war." His grandson Zhe Congruan took up the mantle, using ground-listening warnings and salt-brick walls to repeatedly defeat powerful enemies at Fox Maze Valley, Mount Helan, and elsewhere. He also forged marriage ties with Shatuo Li Cunxu and the Han Chinese Yang Ye, and the Tangut-Han Chinese united "Loyal and Courageous Army" struck fear across the northern frontier.
Facing the suspicions of Zhu Wen of Later Liang and the ambitions of the Khitans, the Generals of the Zhe Clan used sesame as a bond, linking the Tangut salt routes with the Central Plains' cloth trade. Yang Yanqiong wielded sesame cloth like a blade as she navigated the court in Bianjing. While pursuing the enemy across the desert, Zhe Yuqing discovered a broken wolf-head stele, unearthing the mystery of the Tangut people's origins. The marriage between Zhe Deyi and a princess of the Liang royal house served as a political bargaining chip while also exemplifying the blending of Tangut and Han cultures.
Zhe Congruan "defied imperial orders but did not rebel," controlling the Yellow River with twelve linked forts. Using ingenious tactics such as sesame-oil lamp formations and gunpowder mines, he repelled the enemy, always binding the family's fate to the people along the great river. Their loyalty and courage served not the imperial throne, but only to keep the sesame-oil lamps burning bright on both banks of the Yellow River. The wolf-head battle standard and Vermilion Bird banners shone side by side, while sesame fibers and golden blades and iron spears wove together, composing a stirring northwestern saga of Tangut and Han people united in heart, defending their homeland and protecting its people. Amid the flames of war in the Five Dynasties, they raised a monument to the spirit of "the great river as shield, loyalty and courage as spear."
Theme: The Generals of the Zhe Clan were no less loyal and courageous than the Generals of the Yang Clan.
