No Imperial Edict for Anxi

After the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang Empire's western territories were left isolated in a far-off wasteland. Beiting had fallen, and Anxi was cut off from Chang'an. In Kucha, the last of the "White-Haired Soldiers" still waited for an imperial decree that would never come. Guo Huaixin, a descendant of the last generation of White-Haired Soldiers in Anxi, clutched half a tiger tally in his hand. He believed that "as long as the city stands, its people stand," but dared not admit that Chang'an might have forgotten them long ago. Pei Yunqing, an official from Chang'an banished to the Western Regions, carried a secret decree with signs that its seal had been broken. He had come to Anxi hoping to use it as a stepping stone back to Chang'an, but deciphered four words instead: "Anxi may be abandoned." Mi Wei, the female leader of a Sogdian merchant caravan and a Zoroastrian priestess, believed only in profit, not in empire. Yet her trade routes were the only lifeline for three hundred military and civilian households. Tibet's army besieged the city. The Uyghurs watched and waited. Chang'an remained silent. Three people, three different visions of the Tang, were bound together by an impossible mission: within seven days, evacuate three hundred households and the Anxi Military and Civilian Register from Kucha, while making it appear that Anxi was still being defended in the name of the Tang. Beyond the city walls were Tibetan armored cavalry. Within them waited the blades of the peace faction. In the shadows lurked betrayal by the Sogdian merchant caravan, a forged decree from a secret envoy in Dunhuang, demands from the Uyghur Khagan, and the cold hand of a Chang'an Secretariat official. And all they had were half a tiger tally, a secret decree, a trade route, and a truth that grew clearer by the moment: There would be no reinforcements. No decree. No Chang'an. Guo Huaixin had to hold the city. Pei Yunqing had to calculate the odds. Mi Wei had to leave. Three separate fronts, five reunions, and one great schism. In the end, they discovered that Chang'an had forgotten Anxi. So Anxi became Chang'an itself.