[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-overthrowing-han":3,"chapter-overthrowing-han-overthrowing-han-chapter-72":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Overthrowing Han",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1222831,1620,"Chapter 72: Autumn Wind","overthrowing-han-chapter-72",72,"\u003Cp>At the turn of summer to autumn, a north wind suddenly rose, bending the grasses and trees low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Great Han, north-east of Pingcheng in Yanmen Commandery of Bing Province, below White Deng Mountain, a few roe deer of varying coat colors were grazing with heads lowered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, an arrow whistled in from afar, hurtling straight toward one of the paler-coated roe deer. Yet, perhaps because the wind was too strong, the arrow, originally aimed at the neck, deviated considerably and only struck the deer in the thigh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun, who wore a light armored jacket and a pheasant-feathered helmet and had loosed this arrow, was greatly disappointed, but it did not matter — this roe deer had, after all, lost its mobility. The other deer, seeing their companion attacked, neither hid nor fled, merely flaring the white fur on their rumps, as if that could frighten off the dozen or so elite light cavalry bearing blades and bows who had suddenly appeared on the hill over there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this, Han Dang, Cheng Pu, and the other elite guards following Gongsun Xun hesitated no longer and each drew their bows, taking down the entire herd of roe deer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Today we shall roast roe deer to eat.\" Having failed to kill with a single arrow, Gongsun Xun, halting his horse amid the gusts of autumn wind, seemed somewhat listless. \"The wind is strong; we must find a spot sheltered from the wind and free of vegetation to start a fire, lest we spark a mountain blaze... Let us go to that river valley from last time!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The men naturally hastened to agree, and they draped the deer over their horses and headed straight for the river valley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Young lord.\" Once they arrived, Han Dang was about to draw his dagger to skin the deer but suddenly stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What is it?\" Gongsun Xun, who had just seated himself on a slab of bluestone, could not help but be curious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why don't you make the cut?\" Han Dang said, pointing to the dead roe deer that had been shot in both the knee and the neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why?\" Gongsun Xun grew even more bewildered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmm...\" Han Dang replied in a rather mysterious, lowered voice. \"Young lord, look at this roe deer — its color is so pale. Could it barely pass for a white roe deer? Though I have read little, I still know that a white prey animal is considered an auspicious omen, is it not?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun immediately burst out laughing: \"Just hurry up, skin it, and roast it! A white roe deer? This deer has clearly just changed into its winter coat early with the shifting seasons, which is why it looks somewhat white compared to the others... If you don't believe me, flip it over and look at its rump — that is what you call white fur!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Han Dang flipped the roe deer over and took a look at its rump, and was thoroughly embarrassed... Seeing this, the rest of the men, even the steady Cheng Pu, could not help but burst into laughter, so mortifying Han Yigong that his first cut of the knife went straight through the deer's white rump, gouging a large hole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Setting aside this minor episode, the men immediately began roasting the deer. Dining in the wild, there were not so many formalities — it was simply a matter of building a fire, boiling some hot soup in a clay pot, and then cutting up the deer, roasting it over the fire, and finally smearing it with air-dried salted fish... Indeed, the specialty salted fish of the Anli Trading Company was convenient to carry; once air-dried, it could be crushed and sprinkled into soup or smeared onto roasted meat, both extremely handy, and it even carried a faint hint of umami!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And ever since this method of use was invented by the herdsmen, this item had in fact vaguely begun to serve as a hard currency across the grasslands and border regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On this matter, Gongsun Xun's venerable mother had an appraisal: whether Xianbei or Great Han, the laboring people are always the greatest inventors, and she, Lady Gongsun, could only rank second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Young lord!\" Just as the men had finished boiling the soup and roasting the meat and were about to feast, a sweat-drenched rider with a Liaoxi accent suddenly appeared at the entrance to this small river valley. \"I have finally found you... Clerk Lu sent me to deliver a letter!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun hurriedly rose upon hearing this, and as he did so, he handed the roe deer leg in his hand to the man, gesturing for him to water his horse and drink some soup. Only then did he take another piece of roe deer ribs, sit back down on that stone, and begin to read the letter that Lu Fan had sent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were many letters, not only from Lu Fan, but also some that had been delivered to the military camp and then forwarded by Lu Fan... For instance, the very first letter was a family letter written by Lady Gongsun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Opening it, it was roughly a report on her safety, some news about the situation in Liaoxi, and then continued hesitation over whether or not to send the young lady of the Zhao family over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After reading it, Gongsun Xun shook his head helplessly, thinking only that he would write back later to tell his old mother that life here could not yet be called stable, and it would be best not to let the young girl come to this place to suffer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking further down, there was a letter from Gongsun Zan, and this letter — Gongsun Xun knew its contents without even reading it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be said, the two brothers were now one in Shanggu and one in Yanmen; although they belonged to two different provinces, they were in fact separated only by the Gaoliu Fortress in Dai Commandery, making communication even more convenient and their exchange of letters frequent... However, back and forth, they discussed only one issue: Gongsun Zan's future prospects and path forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speaking of which, the luck of Gongsun Xun's cousin, a man of great fortune, was truly quite poor. On the day of the battle at Lulong Fortress, he had just been newly married and was holed up in Lingzhi; then during the Liucheng-Yang Le battle, worried that Zhao Bao, being of eunuch lineage, might hinder his own future, he followed his father-in-law to Shanggu, and ended up missing out on everything!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, with his own fierce, daring spirit and his ability to fight and struggle, he would have surely earned himself some official rank no matter what.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what was the situation now? Now, it was mainly Gongsun Zan alone, endlessly hesitating over whether to return to Liaoxi. In any case, Gongsun Xun advised him to go back, because once back in Liaoxi, Zhao Bao could surely arrange a Filial and Incorrupt nomination for him within a year or two... After all, now that Gongsun Xun himself had a future, the pure and unblemished Gongsun Fan had gone to Luoyang, and the bold-featured Gongsun Yue was still young, among the younger generation over there, apart from a certain Tian Kai, there was practically no one capable!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gongsun Zan himself had far more considerations:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, in the direction of Shanggu and Dai Commandery, the court had already appointed the famous general Xia Yu as Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan, and he was drilling troops and sharpening weapons all day — by all appearances, a great battle was imminent, and he feared that if he returned to Liaoxi, he would, by some twist of fate, miss the chance for merit again. Second, he was also reluctant to easily leave his father-in-law, Prefect Hou, who had been constantly promoting him, lest he be criticized and leave a stain on his name, thus affecting his future prospects...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, considering these two points, the prudent course would be to cease entertaining any superfluous ideas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gongsun Bogui, just like that Gongsun Wenqi, simply could not suppress his own ambition for success — especially when he saw that his clan cousin, who had grown up mingling with him, had already risen to a post with a salary of a thousand bushels, and was right there in the neighboring commandery, an eyesore... And so, this fellow had to, almost every ten days, stir up the impulse to return to Liaoxi all over again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Consequently, Gongsun Xun also received a career consultation from his clan cousin almost every ten days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stuffing Gongsun Zan's letter casually to the bottom, Gongsun Xun's eyes then could not help but light up — it turned out the next letter was one that Gongsun Fan had sent via a retainer from Luoyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Opening it, it was indeed good news.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It turned out that the barbarians in the Lujiang region had rebelled again! The court, considering that Teacher Lu Zhi had once served as Grand Administrator of neighboring Jiujiang, where he had both suppressed the local barbarians and was familiar with the local customs and conditions, figured he should be quite experienced in handling such matters, and thus appointed him Grand Administrator of Lujiang, hoping he could suppress this group of barbarians as cleanly and efficiently as he had last time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, this appointment also triggered a knock-on effect. When Teacher Lu emerged from the Eastern Pavilion and was about to set off, probably feeling that the Goushi Mountain Academy was too much of an empty name and truly did not wish to mislead his disciples, he took the opportunity to formally disband Goushi Mountain... All disciples were given a brief assessment; he wrote recommendation letters for some, and for those he did not wish to write for, he simply dismissed them to return home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Gongsun Fan also specifically mentioned that, according to his elder brother's request, he had privately given that Liu Bei some money and goods as travel expenses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After reading this letter, Gongsun Xun was actually quite moved with emotion — this, he thought, must be what they called 'historical plot,' a pity he was not present to witness it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flipping to the end, it was finally Lu Fan's own letter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And though it was called a letter, it was more like an official dispatch, entirely reporting on official matters that had piled up while Gongsun Xun was neglecting his duties to go hunting. The first page roughly stated how much armor and weapons had arrived, how many bows, crossbows, and arrows had arrived, and how the construction of the garrison camp was progressing... However, when he turned to the last page, Gongsun Xun grew angrier the more he read!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, unable to restrain himself, he actually hurled the roe deer ribs in his hand violently to the ground:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That Zang barbarian is pushing people too far!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Young lord?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Commander, what exactly has happened?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether it was Han Dang, Cheng Pu, or the other guards around, all were essentially Gongsun Xun's own private confidants, and seeing this scene, they naturally hurriedly rose to inquire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Zang Min still absolutely refuses to allocate troops to us. This time, when I pressed him urgently, he actually sent over two hundred penal slaves to fob me off! And not a single horse!\" Gongsun Xun brandished the letter paper in his hand, utterly furious. \"Wasn't it just that day when elder cousin Bogui cursed his son in front of Yuan Shao's gate? Is there any need to be so petty?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The men, hearing this, also looked furious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, Gongsun Xun was actually wronging the Gentleman-of-the-Household Charged with the Xiongnu, Zang Min Zang Boqing, and he himself probably knew this — it was just that his anger was too great, and he was utterly helpless, so he slung mud at the man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be said, from the time he received his appointment and hurried to Yanmen, over three full months had already passed, but Gongsun Xun's so-called Separate Division was thoroughly a bare-commander affair — otherwise, he would not have been so idle as to come hunting at White Deng Mountain, and to have been hunting for several days straight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the problem, it was both direct and frustrating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, it was not a problem of the garrison location. The court had clearly given Liu Kuan face, and with a broad stroke of the brush, had Gongsun Xun's Separate Division stationed outside Pingcheng (near the later Datong), which was the northernmost end of the Datong Basin. This place connected eastward to Gaoliu, the strategic western gateway of You Province, with the core region of Bing Province behind it — no matter how you looked at it, it could still be called conveniently located, and could not be considered bitterly cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it was also not a problem of armor and weapons. The Great Han dynasty's ironware was under unified official management, the scale of smelting need not be elaborated on, and the supervision and distribution of military equipment were also very strict. Thus, Gongsun Xun had very early on received iron armor, weapons, bows and arrows, armor plates, spearheads, ox sinew... all sorts of finished and semi-finished military equipment, calculated according to full complement. And even up to now, supplies were still continuously arriving along the Datong Basin or from Gaoliu to the east.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At present, the real problems lay in the two major areas of soldiers and horses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to the organizational directive in the official documents, Gongsun Xun's Separate Division was supposed to command one cavalry company, one infantry company, plus one battalion of crack troops — that is, half a company of crossbowmen and archers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And by rights, these units should have been detached and allocated by the Gentleman-of-the-Household Charged with the Xiongnu, Zang Min.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But a moment's thought makes it clear: when it came to actual implementation, among the five battalions and dozen or so divisions directly under Zang Min, which troop commander would be willing to detach his own elite soldiers? Zang Min's word was useless!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And besides, the post of Gentleman-of-the-Household Charged with the Xiongnu itself, just like the Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan over at Gaoliu, was a permanently established but not permanently filled post. At this point in time, it even carried the flavor of being temporarily deployed for the sake of war... Since a great battle could break out any day, even fewer people were willing to part with their elite troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even to be fair, although campaigning beyond the frontier required the assistance of Hu cavalry, if the Han army commanders — whether the Gentleman-of-the-Household Charged with the Xiongnu or the Colonel Protector of the Wuhuan — did not have enough elite Han troops to hold the line, could they really command these Xiongnu and Wuhuan people?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, even out of public-spiritedness, Zang Min did not want to divide troops and horses to Gongsun Xun... To put it bluntly, though both were subordinates, who told you to be a Separate Division? When the latter got truly desperate, he just allocated two battalions of penal slaves to deal with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here, it is worth adding a remark: the so-called penal slaves referred to criminals who had been sentenced to military service, existing as a kind of military slave, generally used as shock troops or for menial labor, their status extremely low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for horses, aside from the selfish motives of the various commanders under Zang Min, there was also the reason that the local economic base of Bingzhou was simply too weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be said, the border commanderies of both Bingzhou and Youzhou received grain and funds sent from the inner provinces and kingdoms — that is, so-called central fiscal support. But Youzhou, guarding the Liaohe Plain and the Hebei Plain, had a decent capacity to generate its own resources; with the two combined, life there was basically sustainable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Bingzhou was a different story — it was too poor, and its population too sparse. For example, Yanmen Commandery was already one of Bingzhou's three core major commanderies (the other two being Shangdang and Taiyuan), yet across Yanmen's dozen or so cities, there were only 120,000 registered inhabitants — not even matching the poorest commandery in neighboring Youzhou!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for places beyond the three major commanderies — Yunzhong, Dingxiang, Xihe, Shuofang, Wuyuan, and the like — those were simply the poorest and most miserable places in the entire Great Han! They could only maintain governance through garrison outposts!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And given all this, the armies of Bingzhou could basically only be sustained by central fiscal support, so it was hardly surprising that Zang Min was increasingly reluctant to allocate funds for Gongsun Xun to buy horses, or to directly assign him the warhorses for a full cavalry company. To put it bluntly, Bingzhou did not lack horses — it lacked money, and yet horses were precisely the most valuable commodity here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, to borrow the words on the official dispatch that General of the Household Zang sent to Commandant Gongsun: the affairs of state are difficult, and everyone ought to be understanding toward one another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, understanding was one thing; from Gongsun Xun's perspective, who could stop him from cursing out loud right here?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Could the penal conscripts be pressed into service, however barely?\" Han Dang asked with a frown. \"If we pick through them, we could at least scrape together that crossbow company, couldn't we?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The penal conscripts are far too much trouble,\" Cheng Pu said, his brow also tightly knit. \"It's not that these men lack martial strength, but that every one of them has no will to fight. Moreover, the court would never allocate military pay or equipment for penal conscripts.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then what exactly are we to do?\" Han Dang grew anxious as well. \"Without horses and without soldiers, aren't we just an empty shell? Is General of the Household Zang not afraid the court will hold him accountable?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"He's ordered me to recruit troops locally in Yanmen Commandery!\" Gongsun Xun, having finally caught his breath, said with a cold sneer. \"He says that once I've recruited some soldiers, and when the winter grain and funds arrive, he'll then arrange for me to get some horses from the Xiongnu. In any case, his meaning is to take it slowly — in two or three years, we'll always be able to fill out the authorized strength!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Perhaps... we could write to Lord Liu and try?\" Han Dang could not help but suggest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"To trouble the current Grand Commandant over such a trivial matter — even if it were done, people would laugh at us,\" Gongsun Xun shook his head repeatedly. \"If you were talking about going all out to impeach a Two Thousand Shi official, that would be one thing...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But what are we to do then?\" Cheng Pu asked with difficulty. \"We can't really spend a year or two just to scrape together men and horses, can we? By then, let alone earning merit, I fear we wouldn't even be able to set foot on the battlefield.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Two or three hundred horses wouldn't actually be that hard,\" Gongsun Xun said through gritted teeth. \"In horse-producing lands, that's merely two or three million cash. I'll write to my mother and ask her to spend the money to buy horses for me in Shanggu and Dai commanderies; when the time comes, we can go directly to neighboring Gaoliu to receive them. The biggest problem is still the soldiers! Never mind that Yanmen's population is sparse and conscription is difficult — are raw recruits and veterans even the same thing?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Dang and Cheng Pu both fell silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Let's go!\" After pondering repeatedly, Gongsun Xun suddenly picked up a pierced-ear pottery jar beside him, gulped down several fierce mouthfuls of hot broth, then wiped the short whiskers at the corner of his mouth and abruptly called for the rest of the men to move out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Young Master, are we returning to Pingcheng?\" Han Dang asked hurriedly as he handed over the horse reins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No, to Yinguan — the seat of Yanmen Commandery,\" Gongsun Xun took the reins and swung onto his horse. \"We're going to go squeeze some perks out of the Grand Administrator of Yanmen!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In the beginning, when the Grand Ancestor was twenty, he garrisoned Pingcheng as a detached commandant. He once went hunting on Mount Baideng and returned with a white deer.\" — Old Book of Yan, Volume 1, Annals of the Martial Emperor, Grand Ancestor\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PS: There is also a new book group, 684558115; those interested may join.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",3449,"2026-06-04T19:42:03.441Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","8db8cdedaf9be423a515e590f9bccc7d5ad8fb4bc5ca3bba00d54e5306a57ea9","overthrowing-han-chapter-73","overthrowing-han-chapter-71",548,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Foverthrowing-han-cover.jpg"]