Chapter 9: After the Battle

"Your name is Cheng Pu, styled Demou?" The next morning, inside Lulong Fortress after the battle, Gongsun Xun stared at the man before him with unconcealed curiosity... Well, he couldn't help it. He'd thought that being from Liaoxi himself, running into a Han Dang, Han Yigong, in such a remote region was already an unexpected delight. He never imagined there'd also be the foremost of the Jiangbiao Tiger Ministers!

And what's more, the two of them together seemed to further confirm both men's identities, as well as his mother's account — the only thing that left him utterly speechless was: if not for his own intervention, why on earth would these two have ended up running off to the south in the near future?

One a man of Liaoxi, the other of Youbeiping... why?

"I dare not be addressed as 'my friend' before the Young Lord." Cheng Pu, with his square face, was after all a commandery clerk and clearly had some education, so his bearing and manner were far superior to Han Dang's. "This humble person is Cheng Pu, Cheng Demou."

"Regardless, I truly must thank Brother Demou for saving my life this time." Gongsun Xun came back to his senses and, heedless of the blood and grime still covering him, immediately seized the opportunity, grasping the other man's hands directly.

Do not think a handshake is something simple. In the Han dynasty, a handshake was a very intimate gesture. Historically, the Grand Thaumaturge Emperor Guangwu, Liu Xiu, relied on the phrase 'clasp hands and chat merrily' to win over who knows how many famous generals.

Of course, for Gongsun Xun, raised from childhood alone by a certain transmigrated authoress of women's fiction, this simple, easy, yet remarkably effective method of winning people over was practically an essential tool for home, travel, and profiting from disaster — everyone in Yangluo City knew, none better, that Assistant Scribe Gongsun of the Accounting Office loved to go touch people's hands the moment he met them!

Come to think of it, just yesterday evening before the battle began, he had clasped hands and chatted merrily with Han Dang!

"Ah, Scribe Gongsun." Cheng Pu looked down at his own grasped hands; for the moment, it was awkward to pull them away, so he simply let it be. "Last night, though I led troops to provide support, the enemy camp had already collapsed by the time we engaged. I truly dare not claim credit... Besides, Your Excellency's heroic valor is what truly wins admiration. Though the enemy scattered extremely quickly in this battle, there were still nearly three hundred heads taken — a rare great victory for the You Province commanderies in these years. Throughout Lulong Fortress, they are spreading the Young Lord's renown."

"Ah!" Gongsun Xun shook his head repeatedly. Three hundred heads was indeed a rare great victory for the border commanderies in these years, but with the age of chaos about to dawn, three hundred heads counted for nothing as renown.

And besides, these heads were of no use to him anyway! By Han dynasty custom, since he had not yet undergone the capping ceremony, he could only be stuck at the rank of two-hundred-dan Assistant Scribe by regulation. He couldn't even properly serve as a commandery bureau chief, let alone as an imperially appointed official. Add to that his need to go away for study, and this battle merit could only be distributed to others. He might as well trade it for something else.

Of course, it would be best to let the credit go to Cheng Pu and Han Dang, so that these two would owe him a debt of gratitude while also securing a good future for themselves. That way, at the very least, when he returned from Luoyang in the future, he'd still be able to find these two in this place.

Thinking of this, he glanced sideways and hurriedly released one hand, then called over the other Jiangbiao Tiger Minister, who was chatting and laughing with someone else: "Brother Demou, look — last night, those thirty-odd riders were all brave men who set life and death aside. How could the renown be mine alone? Take this Han Dang, Han Yigong, for instance — he was the first to propose the night raid, and his tally of kills last night was also extremely high. Both of you are tiger warriors, standing side by side today, complementing each other perfectly. You must get properly acquainted."

Cheng Pu and Han Dang exchanged a glance and each performed a salute.

However, unlike Han Dang, who was puffing out his chest and brimming with high spirits, Cheng Pu still maintained a humble posture and then spoke these words: "Pu is a subordinate clerk to the Chief Clerk of Youbeiping. When the lord is troubled, the vassal dies. In that situation at the time, I was duty-bound to fight to the death. I truly dare not claim credit."

At these words, Gongsun Xun and Han Dang both suddenly understood.

This, you see, touched upon a unique political dynamic of the Eastern Han — the famous Eastern Han dual monarchy system.

What is meant by the dual monarchy system? It means that for the scholars and officials of the Eastern Han dynasty, they generally had two objects of loyalty akin to sovereigns.

One, naturally, was the Emperor of the Great Han — this requires no further explanation.

The other, however, referred to one's own patron who had recommended them.

Han dynasty appointments operated on a recommendation system. So whoever recommended you for office was naturally your greatest benefactor. One could even say that the recommender held a kind of authority over the recommended akin to that of a sovereign, parent, or teacher.

For example, why did commandery administrators hold such immense power at this time? Why did Han people generally regard the commandery as a state and the commandery administrator as its sovereign? The answer is simple: most commandery clerks in the Han were universally appointed and employed by the commandery administrator.

Behind this phenomenon was, in truth, a reluctant mutual compromise after the Great Han's centralized, unified ideology was shaken by local powerful clans.

In fact, the reason Gongsun Xun felt that if he only recommended these two men, they would never escape his grasp when he returned, was precisely based on this social reality.

By the same logic, regarding the present Cheng Pu and that utterly cowardly Gongsun Zhao — the former was the latter's subordinate clerk, the latter was the former's patron. So for the time being, a bond of lord and vassal naturally existed between them, though not very strong, yet very distinct in nature. That was why, last night, when Gongsun Zhao displayed such cowardice atop Lulong Tower and was ignored by the officers below, Cheng Pu, a mere clerk in plain robes, directly stepped forward to plead for permission to fight — it truly carried the flavor of 'when the lord is shamed, the vassal dies.'

And speaking of the commandery administrator and Gongsun Zhao, it must be said that this clan uncle of his had finally done something proper today. With the great victory here at Lulong Fortress involving the combined efforts of two commanderies, he had already sent fast riders to invite the Administrator of Youbeiping and the Administrator of Liaoxi to come here together, to inspect and tally the heads, and to discuss the aftermath of this battle.

Presumably, with such a rare great victory, these two 'lords' should both arrive in person very soon.

For Gongsun Xun, this actually saved him trouble, because he would no longer need to escort several cartloads of goods through the chaotic situation all the way to distant Yangluo.

Meanwhile, just as Lulong Fortress was filled with joy and excitement from top to bottom, the Xianbei who had fled the entire night finally halted their steps... though they were in a rather wretched state.

"Dog slave!" Mohu Kou lashed out with his whip at a lowly herdsman wearing a dirty sheepskin. "All of you, go break the ice and fetch water! Lord Kezuique needs his wounds cleaned!"

At the command, a dozen or so low-ranking deserters and herdsmen immediately scattered with a hubbub, heading to the Luan River to chop ice and fetch water. But just as Mohu Kou turned back with a fawning smile, he was met head-on with a lash of the whip as well.

"You too!" An armored soldier directly subordinate to the Kezuique tribe held a horsewhip, his face full of impatience.

Mohu Kou clutched his cheek, once again torn and bloody, his hair disheveled, and couldn't help but glance at Kezuique sitting over there. However, one entire side of Kezuique's cheek had been ripped open, and the other side had a large hole bored through it. After fleeing the entire night, his whole face was now terribly swollen, and he could not utter a word at all.

Mohu Kou even reckoned that the lord's consciousness was blurred at this moment — how could he possibly give him any justice?

"Still not going?!" The armored Xianbei soldier grew impatient again and lashed out with another whip stroke.

Mohu Kou was both humiliated and furious, but seeing a full five or six armored warriors before him, he dared not say much more. He could only flee in wretched haste.

The north wind howled, and the Luan River, having forcibly burst out from the Yanshan mountain range, was a natural wind tunnel. A dozen or so Xianbei, who had fled in such disarray from the main camp that they hadn't even managed to put on their robes, trousers, or shoes properly, were supposed to chop ice and fetch water in such a place. Having finally raised a stone and smashed open a thick layer of ice, before they could even take out waterskins to fill, a gust of wind would come and freeze it over again. They had no choice but to stir the broken ice away with their hands.

In the freezing cold, with many also bearing wounds, their hands quickly became a bloody mess, and their feet, planted on the ice, could not squat steadily either.

"Lord Mohu." Finally, a defeated soldier, utterly unable to bear it any longer, cautiously pleaded with Mohu Kou, who was sitting by the riverbank. "Could Lord Mohu go ask those men for a long spear? We could use a long spear to stir away the broken ice."

Mohu Kou, clutching his face and wrapped in his leather coat, furrowed his brow at these words. Though his face was also injured, he had not lost his senses like Kezuique. He saw the situation here perfectly clearly, so in the end, he nodded and decided to go ask those domineering personal guards for a long spear.

And then, he received another round of whipping!

This time, Mohu Kou was truly enraged. How could there be such bullying?!

Think of the Han people's Anli Trading Company — also a great and established enterprise. He had been their downstream agent for many years, and they always made a point of ensuring their agents didn't suffer losses, never once looking down on him. Yet today, among his own Xianbei people, just a few personal guards beside a lord, and defeated troops at that, dared to humiliate him time and again like this?!

By what right?!

The more Mohu Kou thought about it, the more his anger simmered. And seeing that Lord Kezuique was still unconscious even after his wounds were cleaned, a bold notion suddenly arose in his heart.

"Go to your tribe to settle for a while?" The leader among Kezuique's personal guards looked at Mohu Kou's fawning expression, slightly startled at first. But then, glancing down at his own still-bare left foot, he instead asked impatiently, "How far is it from here?"

"Not far." Mohu Kou grew increasingly obsequious. "Only twenty or thirty li. If we leave now, we can certainly arrive by tonight... I still have two jars of fine wine in my tribe, plundered some time ago, which I've never been willing to drink."

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"The Mohu tribe, being of the White Xianbei, dwelt during the reign of Emperor Huan beside Liucheng in Liaoxi. Their chieftain, named Mohu Kou, whenever he acquired goods through plunder, would divide them equally, deciding everything on the spot, never showing any partiality. Thus he won the utmost loyalty of his followers." — New Book of Yan, Scroll 61, Biographies 11

(End of Chapter)