Chapter 102: Destroying a Kingdom

In the end, Northern Township of Sanshui County heeded Diwu Lun's "advice." However hard it was, they scraped and squeezed and still sent out four hundred dan of grain — enough to feed the army of two thousand for six days.

After the "Han soldiers" had come extorting grain once, and now being levied again by the Xin army, the villagers' faces grew as bleak and bitter as the barren land outside.

The grain was laid on wooden planks and slid down sack by sack from the top of the wall; no one dared come out.

Just as Diwu Lun had expected, when Liangqiu Ci arrived with the rear force, their dry rations nearly exhausted, and learned that Northern Township refused to open its gates, he flew into a rage.

And that Company Commander Luo, who had witnessed Dong Xi's death alongside Diwu Lun, seized the chance to offer counsel: "Colonel, this township must have already gone over to the rebels — that's why they fortify their walls and hold out on their own. Better to storm this little settlement and execute the township bailiff to answer for the crime!"

And then conveniently slaughter the thousand-odd commoners inside, passing them off as rebel heads, right? The more the Xin Dynasty tries to suppress bandits everywhere, the stronger the bandits grow — truly, we have you lot to thank for pouring oil on the fire.

"Preposterous!"

Diwu Lun rebuked Company Commander Luo: "What we wanted in the first place was grain. Now that the army provisions have been sent out, why make trouble for the villagers? If we turn hostile and attack, driving Northern Township to truly join the bandits, they'd strike us from both within and without — that would be far worse."

Company Commander Luo laughed: "Major Boyu is too merciful. Barren mountains and foul waters breed cunning folk. Lu Fang and the Ma bandits, coming and going between north and south, mostly pass through this township — perhaps it was right here they colluded. If you ask me, among the people in this settlement, if you drag out ten and kill three, none will be wronged."

By that logic, among the thousand-odd men of Dong Xi's Xing Army, killing every other one wouldn't be wronging anyone either. It seems executing only the ringleaders still falls somewhat short.

Diwu Lun argued strenuously with Liangqiu Ci. In the end, Colonel Liangqiu grew impatient and waved his hand: "Consider Northern Township fortunate — it's only because they ran into this colonel, who is benevolent and righteous."

"In my view, Company Commander Luo's plan is too harsh, and Boyu is too soft — neither is good."

"Go, tell the township bailiff to have the township send out another two hundred dan of grain, plus forty fat sheep. Then this colonel shall pardon their crime of sitting by and failing to report bandits passing through their territory!"

And so by evening, the officers were dining on the local fine tan sheep meat, while the common soldiers could only dry-swallow their saliva.

Only in the Fifth Camp did Diwu Lun take the dozen-odd sheep Liangqiu Ci had allotted to his side, slaughter them all, and boil them with straw to make soup, so that every soldier could have a few mouthfuls.

"Whether soldiers come or bandits go, it's always the common folk who suffer. So it has been since ancient times."

Wan Xiu, like Diwu Lun, ate none of the mutton. He simply sat beside him and offered comfort: "Still, that Northern Township was spared is thanks to you, Boyu, serving as the vanguard. Had it been Company Commander Luo, they would surely have been slaughtered to the last. Boyu, you've already done all you could."

Wan Xiu sighed again with emotion: "I had thought things would be better once we reached the frontier. Who would have guessed it's worse than Guanzhong?"

Diwu Lun shook his head: "This is not a malady unique to one camp or one company, one commandery or one county. When the whole world looks like this, it means the age's sickness has penetrated to the marrow."

Because they truly could not scrape together enough grain, the township had to offer another local product to make up the count: licorice root. Diwu Lun was also allotted a few sacks of it. As it happened, he'd had a cough lately, so he chewed two stalks. The taste was faintly bitter at first, but after a while, a sweetness returned.

One wonders whether this land that grows licorice root might, after its intense bitterness, taste sweet once more.

"Junyou," Diwu Lun suddenly asked Wan Xiu in return, "tell me — this ailing patient, the world — how is it to be treated?"

Gentle, slow-acting remedies — someone had proposed them back in the Cheng and Ai reigns of the Former Han, but the Han Emperors concealed their illness and shunned treatment, never trying it through. Emperor Ai of Han only believed in the quack prescription of "receiving a new mandate," renaming himself "Chengsheng Liu the Emperor of Great Peace."

And as for fierce, drastic medicine — didn't Wang Mang use plenty of it? Yet the result only injured the body more severely, and did nothing whatsoever to cure the disease.

Wan Xiu thought for a moment and said: "I do not know. We can only be the blade that cuts away festering sores — enforcing Heaven's way, cutting away a little wherever we see it."

This was the limit of what Wan Xiu could conceive. Diwu Lun understood. This topic was set aside for now; deeper discussion would have to wait for the right moment, when Ma Yuan was present, to raise again.

Diwu Lun only urged the army clerks to keep a close watch on the soldiers: "The grain and meat we have eaten today all came from the common folk of this township. We must not repay kindness with resentment by destroying the crops in the fields. Any who disobey will be executed!"

Having obtained grain and lambs, Liangqiu Ci settled down with a clear conscience beside Northern Township, still fifty li from Left Valley. The camp was pitched for several days. Aside from sending out roaming scouts to reconnoiter Left Valley and to make contact with the Commandant of Anding Commandery, he did not take a single step further south.

Not only was Diwu Lun perplexed — that Company Commander Luo, single-mindedly set on winning merit to fill the vacancy left by Dong Xi's death and become a Major, was also anxious.

Liangqiu Ci, however, laughed at them for being too young, and explained the reason for his own hesitant inaction.

"Think on it, all of you. Left Valley Township sits squarely between Northern Township and Sanshui County town. It is a major settlement in the county. That Lu Fang has been building his power there for years, gathering several hundred followers, holding out by relying on the terrain. Whoever arrives first will inevitably have to fight a bitter battle with him."

Diwu Lun understood. Liangqiu Ci's meaning was: whoever arrives first and fights first takes the heavier losses. He intended to sit on the sidelines and watch, waiting until the friendly force had worn the enemy down almost completely, then go pick the peaches!

Diwu Lun was instantly speechless. Yet Liangqiu Ci had still miscalculated, because the Commandant of Anding Commandery had the exact same plan. Having gathered three thousand commandery troops, he stopped at the county town forty li south of Left Valley and likewise did not take half a step north.

When Liangqiu Ci learned of this, he was greatly alarmed, exclaiming only that he had been too careless.

With both sides hesitating and refusing to advance, the granary in Sanshui County certainly held more grain than Northern Township. Liangqiu Ci was destined to be the one who could not hold out first.

The agreed rendezvous date of the fifteenth of the seventh month had long since passed, and Liangqiu Ci grew more and more anxious. The grain they had extorted from Northern Township was nearly gone, the sheep all slaughtered, and no more food could be squeezed from this impoverished township.

With no other choice, hearing from his roaming scouts that the grain near Left Valley was about to ripen, Liangqiu Ci could wait no longer. After dragging his feet for many days, he finally struck camp and marched south.

On the road, right in front of Diwu Lun, he cursed the Anding Commandant furiously: "For such a huge remnant of rebels to emerge in Anding, he already can hardly shirk the blame. Yet instead of actively pressing the extermination campaign, he waits for our army, which came to help, to go first. This is truly outrageous. Has the Anding Commandant not a shred of shame left?"

Only after the Xin army had gone far, far away, and it was certain they would not turn back for a surprise return, did the township settlement, which had kept its gates shut for days, open them wide.

The common folk looked at the millet stalks stripped bare by the soldiers and wanted to weep but had no tears. They discussed whether they should simply harvest early, to spare themselves another visit once this batch of soldiers finished suppressing the bandits.

There were also children, directed by their parents, wandering through the filthy campsite. They searched and searched until they found the place where the Xin army had stockpiled grain, and one after another, they knelt. Like little chicks pecking at rice, they lowered their heads and picked up fallen grains from the ground bit by bit, carefully pinching them in their hands.

……

The northern and southern government armies hesitating and refusing to advance — this should have been a good thing. But Lu Fang in Left Valley was also full of indecision.

The Qiang and Hu roaming scouts under his command had also been sent north and south. By his estimate, there were over two thousand men to the north, and the commandery troops garrisoned in Sanshui County town to the south numbered as many as three thousand.

"They are actually ten times my number." Lu Fang seethed inwardly. Their Anding Commandery was located in the northwest, the land barren and mountainous, with few households to begin with. Sanshui County had a population of just over ten thousand. Left Valley Township, with three thousand residents, was already a major settlement, but even so, it could only muster five or six hundred able-bodied men.

And the men Lu Fang had sent to other townships to incite the Qiang and Hu tribes to join the rebellion returned one after another.

Though he had declared himself king, it was, after all, a makeshift troupe cobbled together by a local strongman. The titles Lu Fang bestowed on the chieftains of the Qiang and Hu tribes mostly took their names from the places where they pastured.

Titles like Marquis of Bitter Water, Marquis of Sweet Water, Marquis of Willow Spring, Marquis of Old Tree Stump, and so on were handed out as if they cost nothing. Nor was there any restriction to tribes of fifty or more; anyone who could come and lend support got a marquis title per head!

But the worthies of Sanshui were no fools. Several thousand troops from two government armies were bearing down on them, faster than they had expected. All harbored the thought of "whoever wins, we'll help," and none agreed to Lu Fang's call — they just watched the show.

This made Lu Fang lose more and more confidence.

Had he truly been a hero, he would have seized the moment when the northern and southern government armies each had their own schemes and defeated them one by one. But Lu Fang found that the "Grand Preceptor" and "Grand Minister of Agriculture" under his command were also beginning to discuss abandoning him and slipping away. If they pulled their followers out, by the time they returned, Left Valley might already have changed banners.

In the end, only one tribe to the west, which Lu Fang had enfeoffed as "Marquis of Great Luo Mountain," was willing to join. Lu Fang was overjoyed. He also learned that the government army at Northern Township had already begun advancing toward Left Valley, and figured the southern force would move soon too. He finally made his decision.

"As matters stand, this king has no choice but to..."

Lu Fang gazed at the Han characters on the large red cloth, hot tears brimming in his eyes.

"Abandon the capital!"

……

When Diwu Lun and the others marched into Lu Fang's "capital," Left Valley Township, they found it was indeed a rare good place amid these desolate mountains and remote wilds.

The headwaters of the Bitter River flowed past its eastern side. Here, the water was still drinkable. The land along the banks was open and flat. Although Lu Fang had ordered his followers to make a hasty harvest of the millet and wheat, because they had left in such a rush, plenty remained — making the fields look as though horses had gnawed at them, patchy and uneven.

The gates of the township settlement were thrown wide open. The township Elder, unwilling to follow Lu Fang in fleeing into the mountains, surrendered the town. However, he was soon informed against — he had served as Lu Fang's regime's "Grand Preceptor." And so, together with the "Grand Minister of Agriculture," he was beheaded by Liangqiu Ci.

Also meeting the same slaughter were over a hundred people who had surrendered in the hope of leniency. Because nearly all of them had been promised marquis titles by Lu Fang, Liangqiu Ci's merit-reporting memorial thus became: "Your subordinate officer burned White Ridge, crossed the Bitter River, passed through Northern Township, struck Left Valley, fought a bloody battle for a full day, and razed its capital settlement. In total, two rebel false generals, thirteen false household officers and false commandants, and eighty-five false marquises were beheaded!"

Just from the tone of this battle report, you'd think Liangqiu Ci had pulled off a feat on par with Wei Qing or Huo Qubing — like he'd toppled a kingdom!

Unfortunately, Lu Fang himself got away. According to surrendered men, yesterday Lu Fang — the Left Guli King and Western Pacification Prince — fled west in panic with the queen mother, queen, Crown Prince, princes, and the rest, planning to burrow deep into the Great Luo Mountains.

And just then, the scouts returned to report they'd spotted over a dozen of Lu Fang's baggage carts and horses, twenty li west of the settlement, crawling slowly along a side path toward the mountains.

"Company Commander Luo is burning to distinguish himself — he's already taken five hundred men and gone after them!"

"And the Anding Dependent Prefect is also marching north with his troops!"

"We can't let Anding Commandery steal such a great achievement from us."

Liangqiu Ci truly yearned to earn a "kingdom-toppling" merit this time and said at once, "Lu Fang may be among them. Boyu, take your men and go support Company Commander Luo at once!"

Diwu Lun acknowledged the order. He'd pulled his troops out precisely to find a soft opponent for a fight, to give his soldiers some confidence and build experience. If they went back without firing a single arrow, the whole trip would have been for nothing.

"All squads, advance west with me. Obey the drum signals — no independent pursuit. Halt every li, re-dress ranks, and tighten formation!"

West of Left Valley Settlement, the Great Luo Mountains stretched for a hundred li, weathered and solemn, standing there in silence and stillness.

They could see Company Commander Luo's troops far off, chasing ahead in complete disorder. Company Commander Luo was desperately eager for promotion to Major and had already thrown his whole force into a full-on charge.

"Clan Head, let's chase after them too!" The Seventh Squad leader was getting anxious, but Diwu Lun shook his head. "We mustn't rush."

He watched Company Commander Luo lead his men into the narrow gorge of the Great Luo Mountains and vanish from sight, yet Diwu Lun remained unhurried. He simply ordered the troops to halt and re-form every li to wait for stragglers, then pressed on, growing more vigilant the closer they got to the gorge mouth.

When they were still one li from the gorge mouth, the valley suddenly erupted as if a pot had boiled over. Company Commander Luo's troops, who moments before had been aggressively chasing Lu Fang's tail, came pouring back out in a routed stampede — every man panicked and bedraggled, banners askew. From the look of it, they had definitely been ambushed inside the gorge.

And behind them, several hundred of Lu Fang's men came charging out in pursuit — tenant retainers and Qiang barbarians alike, brandishing the great red Han banners. The "rebels" were all locals and clearly adept at mountain warfare: some rode on horseback, drawing bows and loosing volleys; others raised short weapons and cut down the Xin troops.

Ridiculous as it was that Lu Fang pretended to be Liu clan kin and "restored the Han" by founding a kingdom, the man had worked his way up from a village strongman to where he was today — he had some brains after all. Underestimating him would cost you.

"Halt!"

Diwu Lun rapidly issued orders, forming the six squads into the simplest square formation. Just as they had drilled: the sword-and-shield squad in front, shields braced, half-crouching; spears and halberds behind, bodies low, long weapons thrust forward.

At the rear stood the tall crossbowmen of the elite archer squad, all nervously stringing their weapons and leveling them.

But the first thing they faced was not the enemy — it was their own allies, fleeing in blind panic, and leading the stampede was none other than Company Commander Luo.

"First to snatch the glory, and first to run."

Diwu Lun sneered and spat a curse. The honest man Zang Nu, whom he'd assigned to the elite archers as a centurion, had no idea what to do and came to ask for instructions.

If they let this mob of routed soldiers crash into the formation they'd struggled so hard to assemble, the Boar-Rush Braves, who had never seen battle, would certainly fall into chaos. That would trigger a chain-rout, and Diwu Lun himself might very well be buried here.

At this point, there was nothing for it but to carry the fine tradition of striking down friendly troops through to the end. Besides, this Company Commander Luo was on Diwu Lun's list anyway — no injustice there.

"Well, well! Company Commander Luo has surrendered to the rebels and turned his blade on us — he's trying to smash through our lines!"

Cursing furiously, Diwu Lun drew his sword and pointed it straight at the "friendly troops" drawing closer and closer.

"Spear-and-halberd squad, level your long weapons! Anyone who dares break our formation — kill without mercy!"

"Elite archer squad!"

Diwu Lun bellowed at the top of his lungs: "Crossbows, aim forward."

"A hundred paces. Ninety paces. Eighty paces."

Diwu Lun could now clearly see the terror on Company Commander Luo's face. His sword swept down.

"Loose!"

"All who trespass on our formation are enemy raiders!"

…

PS: Chapter 3 at 18:00.