Chapter 388: A Heart Still Glows Like Cinnabar

In the spring of the first year of Jian’an, though the lords of the realm were in open turmoil everywhere, each still clung to a final shred of reason.

The diplomacy and planning carried out during the spring planting season in fact showed that they were all holding back large-scale military movements until after the planting was done… Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were like this, Gongsun Xun and Gongsun Zan were like this, and Liu Biao and Liu Bei were like this too.

This was especially true of Liu Xuande. The troops under his command were three thousand recruits from Danyang, with Tao Qian discreetly supplying coin and grain from behind. He clearly had the chance to strike first and seize Jiujiang, yet he still halted by the Huai River and took the initiative to send a memorial to Chang’an. This was not only a political gesture, but also a consideration that with spring planting imminent, he was unwilling to use full-time soldiers to wreck Jiujiang’s most basic agricultural work.

To be fair, how could anyone — even the people of Jiujiang who were about to become his enemies — not like such a man? Let alone Zhang Zhao, Zhang Zibu, whose stance was already biased to begin with. Seeing that Liu Bei could not easily move from the Huai River, he abandoned his plan to flee to Jiangdong and instead chose to stay in Fuli to help Liu Bei manage the rear.

And this man Zhang Zhao was a foremost celebrity of Xuzhou. Once he had joined Liu Bei, he prompted scholars from Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, and elsewhere to begin taking seriously that Liu, Governor of Yu, who held a mere six counties.

Yet scholars are always habitually hesitant and cautious, which stands in stark contrast to the swift and resolute manner of military men.

Long before spring planting had ended, messengers were already traveling back and forth without cease. The General of the Guards, Gongsun Xun, held sole dominance in Chang’an. His stance was clear, his attitude decisive. He crisply and cleanly rejected certain courtiers’ suggestions of “mediation” and directly issued an edict in the young emperor’s name from the Imperial Secretariat, proclaiming to all the realm: Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are Han ministers in name but Han traitors in deed. Every subject of the House of Han is to join in punishing them. Whoever obtains the heads of these two, dead or alive, shall be enfeoffed as a Marquis of Ten Battalion Commander!

That said, this was not the first time the central authority had ordered the arrest of the two Yuans — Dong Zhuo had done so as well. Moreover, the territory and population now directly ruled by the two Yuans together amounted to a full third of the realm. If one squinted and boasted, one could even drag in a place like Yangzhou and claim it was half the realm. So no one expected this imperial decree to actually accomplish anything in particular.

But then again, the General of the Guards, Gongsun Xun, was not someone like Dong Zhuo who rose to power through mutiny, nor did he commit any acts of exceptional cruelty that might shake the hearts of the realm. Quite the opposite — he was a hero of the campaign against Dong, a general assisting the government known to all the realm. He was therefore able to mobilize the residual influence of the House of Han… And in this realm, though it was in fact carved up by warlords, everyone in theory was still a subject of the House of Han and had to use the name of the Han to conduct their affairs. Moreover, this realm still held a great many loyal ministers and scholars deeply influenced by Confucianism. At the same time, many low-level officials and common folk did not fully grasp the larger picture, but they understood the meaning of the words “imperial edict.”

Thus, once the edict was issued, not to mention Yuan Shu, even in Yuan Shao’s territory, where he had clearly already personally appointed local officials and modeled his own General of Chariots and Cavalry headquarters on Gongsun Xun’s, there were still many who, unwilling to bear the name of “Han traitor,” resigned from office one after another.

They did not oppose, but neither would they participate.

Yet, setting aside these mid- and lower-level effects, for those who understood the situation, it meant that the Gongsun clan and the Yuan clan, the Northern Coalition and the Guandong Coalition, had at last, after the campaign against Dong Zhuo, completely torn away all pretense and openly broken with each other!

In fact, as the edict was issued, the two Yuans also began publicly posting proclamations, denouncing Gongsun Xun and Gongsun Zan as rebels, accusing the Gongsun clan of plotting treason and seeking to replace the House of Han, and calling upon all the realm to join in punishing the Gongsun clan.

This was of course also nonsense. And how could those neutral power players — men like Tao Qian and Liu Yan — possibly be moved to any action by a mere letter? If men like them truly cared about such things, why did they not send troops back when the campaign against Dong Zhuo was underway?

Could Gongsun Xun compare to Dong Zhuo in the scale of his depredations or the degree of his violence and excess? Was Dong Zhuo’s threat not greater than Gongsun Xun’s? They did not oppose Dong Zhuo then, yet now they would oppose Gongsun?

On what grounds? Was this not sheer nonsense?!

In reality, even Liu Biao was only involved because his territory bordered Nanyang and there was no way to reconcile with Yuan Shu, so he was forced to passively take part.

But however it was, passive or active, in that spring of the first year of Jian’an, with the open break between Gongsun Xun and the two Yuans, and if one set aside the too-distant Jiaozhou and men like Tao Qian and Liu Yan who had no choice but to keep silent, the posture of two great camps facing off across the realm was already very clear:

On one side were the two Yuans, along with Sun Jian, Cao Cao, Han Fu, and their subordinate lords; on the other side were Gongsun Xun, Liu Biao, Gongsun Zan, plus Liu Bei, Liu Chong, Ma Teng, Han Sui, and the like… Of course, Ma Teng and Han Sui could not be counted on, just as Yuan Shao had never counted on Han Fu.

And so, as soon as spring planting ended, from Hebei to the Central Plains to Jingxiang, peasants who had been toiling in the fields one moment were conscripted the next from their plots to become laborers, auxiliary troops, or even front-line combat soldiers. Even earlier, the modest grain these peasants had harvested the previous autumn had barely sat in government granaries for a few months before being taken out again to serve as military provisions. Next, the armories left across the realm by the Great Han Empire were opened once more, and the last stockpiles of weapons and military equipment were distributed. The wealth and goods of the various provinces and commanderies were also gathered up, and then either used to buy influence and win people over, or distributed to soldiers and officers as rewards to boost morale.

For a time, along the battle lines that stretched for thousands of li, interlocking like the teeth of a dog, the flames of war instantly replaced the earlier beacon smoke.

And among these, Sun Jian’s forces were perhaps the quickest to act that year, and achieved the richest results — the reason was simple: at the end of the second month, as soon as he sent forth his troops, he slew Liu Chong, the Prince of Chen, accepted the surrender of nearly the entire military strength of the Chen kingdom, and seized the vast territory of the entire Chen kingdom, while his own losses were almost negligible.

The course of this battle was so simple it can be summed up in a few words; there is not much to tell.

First, although Liu Chong, Prince of Chen, was the only imperial prince at the end of Han to harbor ambition and actually rise to power, and was himself an acknowledged master archer, he ultimately lacked military experience and had never in his life experienced a real battle… It must be remembered that back when the lords campaigned against Dong Zhuo, Liu Chong had once wished to lead his troops north and west, but in the end only made a circuit around the borders of Chen and returned without fighting a single battle.

By the same logic, his subordinates were the same. Although the kingdom of Chen was densely populated, its fields fertile, and its military supplies plentiful, they had never seen blood.

Such a man, and such an army, even at twenty thousand against ten thousand, were naturally no match for Sun Jian, who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood campaigning north and south, nor for his veteran subordinates.

And more importantly, just as the Prince of Chen was leading his troops west to Chenting on the border between Chen and Yingchuan, dire news suddenly came from the rear — Luo Jun, the Chancellor of Chen, who worked in seamless tacit understanding with Liu Chong and could be considered the other great pillar of the kingdom, had been assassinated in the capital!

A decisive battle lay ahead, yet the Chancellor behind him was dead. Not understanding what had happened in the capital, Liu Chong panicked and immediately chose to retreat, attempting to lead his troops back to Chen County and then rally his forces with the capital at his back… But who was Sun Wentai? Without the slightest hesitation, he seized the opportunity at once, ordering his entire army to pursue and bite at the enemy’s tail, while personally leading a thousand veterans to cross the Wei River upstream, then striking Liu Chong’s flank as the enemy was crossing the river.

Liu Chong’s twenty thousand raw recruits, in the midst of retreat and halfway across the river, were hit simultaneously by a pursuit and a flank attack. Of course they collapsed utterly, and Liu Chong himself was killed by a stray arrow amid the chaos of the routed troops.

The battle ended thus: both Prince and Chancellor were dead, and even the Director of the Palace Retainers directly subordinate to the Prince of Chen died on the battlefield. So when Sun Jian’s great army swiftly arrived beneath the walls of Chen County on the second day of the third month, Han Tuo, the Tutor to the Prince of Chen, simply came out of the city in person, bowed his head to the ground, and addressed Sun Jian as “General,” thereby leading the people in surrender.

Han Tuo was advanced in years and a celebrated scholar of Hebei. Surprised and delighted, Sun Jian dared not be remiss. He personally dismounted to help the old man up and escorted him all the way into the city, showing the utmost respect.

Yet what was even more surprising and delightful was that after entering the city, Han Tuo, disregarding his aged and frail body, personally led Sun Jian to a certain place.

“General, please look.” As a nervous local clerk tremblingly opened the gates to the place, Han Tuo strode in unhurriedly, head held high, and pointed to the vast complex of buildings before him, speaking calmly. “Here there are two hundred thousand shi of grain, over five thousand crossbows, no fewer than one hundred thousand arrows, and some swords and such… I do not understand the rest, but the grain alone, if used sparingly, could originally have sustained the Prince of Chen’s twenty thousand troops for over a year.”

Sun Jian was naturally overjoyed… It must be understood that after parting ways with Cao Cao and Liu Bei, he had still chosen to remain in Goushi in Henan. At that time, he had been preparing to build up his strength to defeat Duan Wei and seize Luoyang. However, after Gongsun Xun completed his campaign against Dong Zhuo, Duan Wei transformed into a subordinate of the court and the General of the Guards, and this Inspector of Yuzhou, appointed by Yuan Shu, had no choice but to fall back to Yingchuan.

But whether in Henan or Yingchuan, as one of the largest previous battlefields, agricultural production had basically been abandoned. Yuan Shu had previously kept him on a leash by controlling the military grain supply, and now it was even worse.

And now, to suddenly obtain two hundred thousand shi of grain — how could he not be overjoyed?!

In fact, not only Sun Jian, but men like Huang Gai, Zu Mao, Zhu Zhi, Jiang Qin, Sun Jing, and Wu Jing were all ecstatic.

Yet in the midst of his excitement, Sun Jian, ordinarily so high-spirited and brimming with heroic bravado, this time did not let his delight show outwardly. He even turned back around and bowed deeply to Han Tuo, speaking with earnest sincerity: “For Lord Han’s kindness, I shall be grateful until my teeth fall out and beyond.”

“The General has read the Analects as well?” The white-haired Han Tuo was momentarily taken aback at this. “He actually knows the meaning of ‘until the teeth fall out’?”

He answered on the spot, and it was not mockery at all, but genuine surprise… Yet precisely because of this, Sun Jian’s trusted followers around him grew exceptionally angry.

But for some reason, Sun Wentai, who ordinarily feared nothing in heaven or earth and especially did not fear these bookish scholars, still did not get angry this time. Instead, he continued to behave courteously and speak with humble words.

“The Tutor misunderstands.” Sun Jian smiled wryly. “Though I came from the ranks of soldiers in my early years, over these ten-odd years, I have risen from Assistant County Magistrate to Commandery Assistant, from Major to Grand Administrator, and only finally to General and Inspector… In these ten-odd years, though I have not mastered the classics, how could I truly have never read a book or learned any propriety at all?”

Han Tuo sighed deeply upon hearing this, then folded his hands and faced him squarely: “Since General Sun claims to have read books and know propriety, I have one matter to ask of you…”

Sun Jian visibly tensed, his entire body stiffening with nervousness: “Please speak, Kingdom Tutor.”

“These two hundred thousand shi of grain are in fact not my doing at all. I am merely a Kingdom Tutor who reads books and writes poetry on ordinary days.” Han Tuo pointed casually at the granary from outside, speaking with a serious expression. “How could I claim heaven’s work as my own? This is…”

“I know.” Sun Jian hurriedly stepped forward and answered. “This is the work of Luo Jun, Luo Xiaoyuan, the Chancellor of Chen… Luo Xiaoyuan was from Wushang in Kuaiji, and I am from Fuchun in Wu Commandery. Though we are from neighboring commanderies and had never met, our homes were separated only by the Zhe River, and we had long heard of each other’s reputations. The year before last, when I was appointed Inspector of Yuzhou, I even wrote him a letter. I never imagined…”

“General, say no more of this.” Han Tuo suddenly cut him off. “It is enough that you know it was Luo Xiaoyuan’s doing. I have one matter to ask of you.”

Sun Jian immediately looked abashed: “Please speak, Kingdom Tutor.”

“Since Chancellor Luo is dead, there is no use saying more.” Han Tuo spoke expressionlessly. “He originally had a son and a daughter, but the son died young. So now he has only one daughter, raised at his side, who is just eleven this year, along with her mother…”

“I will raise her.” Sun Jian said hastily. “I will marry her mother, and I will certainly raise his orphaned daughter to adulthood and marry her into a good family.”

“Slay her father, seize his kingdom, marry his wife, and raise his daughter?” Han Tuo suddenly asked in return. “Does the General consider this to be kindness?”

The men behind Sun Jian were all furious, because according to custom, especially the customs of Jiangdong, this was indeed considered kindness.

Yet Sun Wentai once again restrained his subordinates: “Then what does the Kingdom Tutor think should be done?”

“My nephew Han Rui was a fellow student of the General of the Guards and Governor Liu of Yu, and thus has received significant employment under the General of the Guards, recently being appointed as Prefect of Chang’an. I wish to send family members to escort Chancellor Luo’s widow and orphaned daughter via Luoyang to Chang’an… I ask the General to dispatch troops to escort them.” Han Tuo answered slowly. “In this way, I can be said not to have failed my old friend.”

Sun Jian lowered his head and gave a dry laugh: “Does the Kingdom Tutor distrust me so much? In truth, not only the surviving family of Lord Luo — even if the Kingdom Tutor himself wished to leave, I would have nothing to say…”

“That will not be necessary.” Han Tuo shook his head repeatedly. “In ordinary times, it would be one thing. I would be eager to leave the Central Plains at once and seek out my nephew in Chang’an to live out my old age in peace. But now the realm is in chaos. Here in the kingdom of Chen, the ruler is dead and the chancellor is dead. As the only remaining official of the two thousand shi rank in the kingdom, unless I die, how could I leave without an imperial edict?”

Sun Jian could do nothing but nod: “In fact, Huanyuan Pass is now in the hands of Duan Wei, the Intendant of Henan, only five hundred li from here… Let the Kingdom Tutor send his family with Lord Luo’s survivors to that place, and I will personally lead a troop of cavalry to escort them. At the earliest, they can enter the pass within twenty days, and we can receive a reply within a month. How about that?”

Han Tuo cupped his hands slightly, then simply turned and took his leave with some of the clerks.

And watching him, aged and frail, walking slowly, taking a long time just to turn and leave the storehouse, Sun Jian and all those below him remained silent.

It was only long after the man had disappeared from sight that Zhu Zhi, inside the storehouse gate, frowned, cupped his hands, and offered counsel: “My lord, this man clearly harbors resentment. When he first came to surrender outside the city gate, he was fine, but later he could not suppress it and began to flaunt his age and seniority… You should dismiss him at once and send word to the General of the Rear to appoint a trusted man as Chancellor.”

"Of course we must send word to Nanyang," Sun Jian said, his face somber. "But now both the Prince of Chen and the Chancellor of Chen have died unnatural deaths, and what's worse, the two of them had always been deeply cherished by the people of the kingdom. If I dismiss this State Tutor as well, how am I to settle the hearts of the people here? Junli, times have changed. I am now the Inspector of Yuzhou — can I afford to ignore such things?"

Zhu Zhi sighed at these words and said nothing more, but beside him Sun Jing could not help frowning and interjecting: "Actually, elder brother, I've been meaning to tell you this before, only the advance was too swift and there was no time... Both of these matters are of grave consequence. The Prince of Chen is the first Liu clan prince to die an unnatural death since Dong Zhuo's rampage; and the affair with Lord Luo is as bad as it could possibly be. What kind of conduct is it to pretend to visit as a guest, then suddenly cut him down with a single blade at the banquet? What sort of thing is that? Has such a thing ever been heard of under heaven?!"

Sun Jian's blood surged even hotter, yet he was so mortified he did not know how to respond.

"This is not the Marquis's fault," Wu Jing, seeing the situation, hastily interjected to soothe him. "The Prince of Chen insisted on taking the field himself and was struck by a stray arrow and died. As for that Luo Jun, he was a fellow man of Jiangdong, and the Marquis had hoped to draw him in as an ally — no one wished for his death... It was Yuan Shu who sent the assassin."

"Let us set that aside for now," Sun Jian said, forcibly suppressing his pent-up anger, and turned helplessly to Zhu Zhi to ask, "Junli, do you think I should go pay my respects at Lord Luo's place?"

"At a time like this, it is best not to bring the matter up again. Pretend it never happened — that is best," Zhu Zhi urged with effort. "Just go about your business as usual... Otherwise, people will instead assume it was the Marquis himself who did it!"

"What if I were to take the assassin's head and offer it in sacrifice to Lord Luo?" Sun Jian ground his teeth. "Is that man not waiting south of the city with his dozen or so companions to collect their reward?"

"Then it would be even harder to wash clean," Zhu Zhi said, equally helpless. "And besides, the assassin is a man of the General of the Rear — if you kill him..."

Sun Jian could not help but sneer coldly, and turned his gaze toward Zu Mao at his side. Zu Darong froze for a moment, then abruptly understood, and immediately put his hand to his sword and departed.

"Marquis," Zhu Zhi said, utterly helpless.

"I will only kill the man — no public announcement, no sacrificial rites." The fierce tiger of Jiangdong waved his hand wearily, then fixed his gaze on the vast granaries before him, and his mood settled slightly. "As you said, just go about our business!"

Zhu Zhi and the others hastily bowed their heads.

Yet before anyone could raise their heads, they heard Sun Jian let out a cold laugh: "But even so, what comes next is still troublesome... Chen was taken too quickly, and I have not yet figured out how to face Meng De! But the Liang Kingdom and Peibei, which he holds, are right before our eyes now."

At this, Huang Gai, Zhu Zhi, Jiang Qin, and the others all fell silent.

However, as it turned out, while Sun Wentai had not made preparations, Cao Mengde, who had lost Yuan Shao's protection and was driven into dire straits, had long been prepared.

On the fourth day after the fall of Chen County — that is, the sixth day of the third month — a letter from Cao Cao arrived by fast horse from the Liang Kingdom to the northwest. Sun Jian opened the envelope and found only a single sheet of white paper with just one line written on the front:

"On that day upon Mount Goushi, our order of seniority was clearly set — elder brother by two months. Thus you are the elder brother, and I the younger. Now that blades are drawn between us, the younger brother cannot but retreat three stages to repay that old kindness."

Now, the Liang Kingdom had a large population, but that was because it lay at the heart of the Central Plains; in terms of area, it was a standard small kingdom. To retreat three stages would mean Cao Cao was offering up half of the Liang Kingdom as a gift.

To this, Sun Jian gave no credence, and told his trusted aides plainly that he believed this was Cao Cao's stratagem — both to delay troops and to sow confusion. If he truly believed it and his resolve wavered, then halting here would go without saying; but even if he advanced swiftly, with the other man's military experience, he might well take advantage of his own light, rash advance to launch an ambush.

In short, his meaning was clear: ignore this letter, and follow the original plan — advance into the Liang Kingdom neither hastily nor slowly. As for the back of the letter, where Cao Cao had written in small characters asking him to offer sacrifices to Luo Xiaoyuan on his behalf, Sun Wentai pretended even more thoroughly not to have seen it.

But five days later, on the eleventh day of the third month, as Sun Jian personally led thirty thousand troops across the border between Chen and Liang, he and his subordinates were stunned to discover that the southwestern half of the Liang Kingdom truly held not a single soldier.

From the famed city of Yan County, to the famously prosperous Yangliangju and Gushu County along the banks of the Sui River — all were devoid of troops... In five or six days, half the Liang Kingdom had been practically handed over as a gift to his 'elder brother' Sun Jian. Even scout riders reported that Cao Cao had not even defended Qiao County, which lay at the northernmost edge of Pei. As for Cao Cao's own father, Grand Commandant Cao Song, and Cao Cao's younger brother Cao De, they had long since abandoned their home after the spring planting.

Of course, Sun Wentai, who had now reached the Sui River, could hardly be bothered with these trifling matters, because Suiyang was right before his eyes.

"Cao Mengde is also a man who long followed the Guard General through many battles," Sun Jian remarked with feeling, reining in his horse by the Sui River and gazing at the stout walls of Suiyang faintly visible on the opposite bank. "From the standpoint of military doctrine, his retreat of three stages is absolutely correct. First, it naturally inflates my arrogance; second, knowing his troops are weak and few, rather than meeting me in open battle, he uses the Sui River as a defensive line and holds fast to Suiyang; third, he deliberately stretches my supply lines to exhaust my provisions... Only, he does not yet know that I seized two hundred thousand dan of grain in Chen — more than I can possibly eat. So I can cross the river from upstream or downstream at my leisure, neither hastily nor slowly, seize the rest of the Liang Kingdom, and finally besiege the city at my ease."

The surrounding commanders naturally burst into laughter and all voiced their agreement.

After this bout of jesting, one of his subordinates, eager for merit, could not help but ask with a serious expression: "In that case, Marquis, when shall we cross the river?"

Sun Jian hesitated briefly: "First send out scout riders to see where the defenses are lax upstream or downstream, to facilitate the crossing."

The surrounding officers naturally accepted the order.

And in just two short days, before mid-month had even passed, the scouts had clearly determined that upstream, Xiahou Dun was garrisoned at Ningling and used it as a base for patrols, while downstream, lacking any strongpoint, they could only have Xiahou Yuan lead a small force of cavalry to laboriously patrol using Suiyang as their base.

In other words, Sun Wentai could now easily give the order to cross the river. And indeed, this time he did not hesitate at all, but immediately ordered Jiang Qin to detach three thousand troops downstream to build a pontoon bridge and prepare to cross the river and establish a fortified camp.

Yet barely half a day after Jiang Qin had left the main camp, Sun Jing, who had been supervising grain transport in the rear, suddenly arrived. Disheveled and utterly exhausted, he also brought with him a prisoner bound hand and foot.

"How dare you bind State Tutor Han?!" Sun Jian flew into a towering rage.

"Elder brother!" Sun Jing knelt and knocked his head on the ground, panting heavily, his eyes bloodshot, his indignation impossible to quell. "Ask this old villain yourself what he has done!"

Sun Jian was momentarily stunned and could not help but look at Han Tuo, who had been thrown to the ground.

"What could I have done?" Han Tuo, his hair and beard all white, had been thrown to the ground inside the camp bound hand and foot, his body bearing wounds. Now he propped himself up with difficulty against a soldier's leg and sat up, utterly unperturbed. "I only seek to fail no man in life, and fail no ghost in death — that is all."

——————I am the dividing line that fails no man——————

"Jian was brave, fierce, steadfast, and resolute. Rising from humble and obscure origins, he guided Wen and slew Zhuo, blocked the mountain passes, and possessed the fervor of loyalty and valor." — Dianlüe, annotated by Pei Songzhi of Yan

PS: Continuing to offer a book as sacrifice, The Tribulation of Tomorrow, the new book by the great author Xiong Langgou... A true top-tier author on Qidian, a great master author, a guarantee of quality. I hope this sacrifice can extend my life.

(End of chapter)