Chapter 103: A Dragon Has Three Heads

From his high vantage directing this ambush, Lu Fang had hoped the routed troops would roll back like a pearl curtain and throw the newly arrived company into chaos as well, so he could lead his men in a counterattack and win a great victory — using that battle record to prove the Xin army was paper-thin and persuade the dependent Qiang and Hu tribes to join him.

But the new Major's seasoned ruthlessness exceeded Lu Fang's imagination.

At Diwu Lun's single command, the crossbowmen worked their mechanisms and loosed — though their movements were still somewhat clumsy and trembling, they obeyed the Major's order and shot down their own allies without the slightest mercy.

Company Commander Luo was thrown from his rearing horse; he crashed face-down to the ground, only lifting his head and stretching a hand forward, still hoping Diwu Lun would pull a brother up, and cried out unwillingly:

"Major Boyu, you're shooting wrong — we're your allies!"

It's precisely allies that I, Diwu Lun, am shooting!

As for the foot soldiers following close behind, they were stunned senseless by this sudden volley of stray arrows — to the west, the rebels in merciless pursuit; to the east, a rain of bolts that made no distinction between friend and foe. They had no idea what to do.

As Diwu Lun's sword swept down again, another dense barrage of hailstones struck — after a dozen more men were shot down, the remaining routed troops came to their senses and no longer dared to face that edge head-on, fleeing only to the left and right.

Zang Nu drew his crossbow for the third time. His arm strength was ample: where others used the standard six-dan crossbow, he used an eight-dan one, and needed no foot — hand-strength paired with the power of his waist sufficed.

It was a bit embarrassing to admit, but although they had been shooting allies just now, Zang Nu felt it was even more satisfying than killing bandits! Who told these so-called "regulars" to treat the Boar-Rush Braves with such arrogance and rudeness these past few days, and to constantly bully the common folk along the road?

"Truly ruthless." Lu Fang clicked his tongue involuntarily after witnessing it all, not even having time to call his own men back.

The village Bailiff whom Lu Fang had duped into lameness — convinced he truly was a descendant of the Han house and enfeoffed as "Grand Commandant" — had been killing with reddened eyes during the pursuit of the Xin army just moments before. Now on horseback, leading the Qiang and Hu riders, he reenacted Company Commander Luo's style, charging forward with howling battle cries — and took a volley of arrows as well.

The Grand Commandant's luck was poor; he dropped dead on the spot, falling right beside Company Commander Luo. The rest immediately wheeled their horses and retreated, none willing to advance any further.

Earlier they had exploited the narrow valley, charging out from both flanks while Company Commander Luo's men were looting the baggage carts, catching the Xin army off guard.

But in a face-to-face pitched battle, whether Qiang and Hu riders or retainers, their equipment was no match for the enemy's, nor could their order compare — better to keep playing the game of luring the enemy deep.

So Lu Fang had the horns sounded and ordered his men to pull back. At the valley mouth they postured and preened, deliberately hurling abuse to goad the Fifth Company into entering the valley.

Yet the Fifth Company turned a deaf ear and stood fast where they were. Diwu Lun was clear on his side's advantage: perhaps because they had started drilling standing postures early these past months, the Fifth Company's defense could be called peerless.

When the routed troops and bandit riders had charged at them just now, though the Boar-Rush Braves were afraid in their hearts, their feet seemed nailed dead to the ground — not moving meant not moving! Every tactical maneuver was executed subconsciously, exactly as drilled in daily training.

But once they started moving, they would surely reveal their true colors, instantly dissolving into a mob of scattered stragglers — wouldn't that be abandoning their strength to play to their weakness?

And so, the two rookie chickens stopped pecking at each other and just glared!

The two sides, separated by a li, cursed each other out in their respective dialects, inquiring after the female relatives of the opposing household — a cacophony of filth. But if you listened closely, you'd find they only wanted to say one thing: "Come over here!"

Seeing the battle stalemated before it had even truly begun, Lu Fang knew his side could not afford to drag things out, and could only sigh at his ill fortune.

Though he had little education, his eye for things was not bad. Ten years ago he had already sensed that the realm might not remain stable for long; after years of planning, he had finally reached this momentum today.

Lu Fang very much wanted to make Sanshui County his base. The county seat's fortifications relied on rich springs that could naturally irrigate the fields; the valleys to either side were suitable for both farming and herding, enough to sustain several thousand troops.

With the aid of the Qiang and Hu tribes, to the east one could cross the Qinglong Mountains into the heartland of Beidi, and to the south one could link up with the seat of Anding Commandery, bordering Chaona and Xiao Pass — from either direction one could advance into Guanzhong.

To the north it bordered Tewu; if he could seize that place, with its rich canal-fed plains he could both station troops and stockpile grain, and also communicate with the Xiongnu, relying on them as external support.

If he could gain the support of the Grand Chanyu, then when the realm fell into turmoil he could raise the Han banner high, recruit the brave men of the six commanderies, and truly make something of himself — it was a perfect place to start a career.

It was only a pity that Lu Fang grew greedy and made one wrong move, sending his younger brother to recruit that Ma Canal Commander, which went awry and gave Diwu Lun the chance to shift the blame, leading to the government troops' advance. He was forced to rise prematurely, and in the end, responders were few.

It seemed the common people of the six frontier commanderies had not yet reached the point where they simply could not go on.

Fortunately, Sanshui also leaned against the Greater and Lesser Luo Mountains to the west. The surrounding land was all arid, but the Luo Mountains alone were like a patch of jade upon the Loess Plateau, dense with forests — he could use the mountain terrain to his advantage and escape at any time. The Xin army was brutal, and killing captives was the norm; Lu Fang's subordinates had no choice but to follow him on the run.

Seeing that his chance to win a great ambush victory and rally hearts anew was gone, Lu Fang sullenly withdrew his troops, ordering his men to retreat west into the depths of the Luo Mountains and plan anew. Only at the moment of departure did he turn back with bitter hatred, looking at the Fifth Company that had ruined his grand scheme, and said:

"This King is merely relocating his capital of his own accord — sooner or later, I shall return!"

Watching Lu Fang withdraw into the Luo Mountains, the Seventh Squad Leader requested battle: "Sect Leader, shall we pursue?"

"Pursue what — pursue them right into an ambush?" Diwu shook his head. Do not enter a forest in pursuit. The Fifth Company might hold its own in a standoff with the enemy, but once they blundered into the mountains and got ambushed, their rout would be no different from the Xin army regulars.

And so the Fifth Company's first battle ended hastily. Diwu Lun had men clean up the battlefield. Zhang Yu went hopping over to check and came back to tell Diwu Lun that Company Commander Luo was, in fact, still alive — just gravely wounded.

"No, you saw wrong. Company Commander Luo is dead."

Diwu Lun's tone was icy. He shot a meaningful glance at the Seventh Squad Leader — Squad Leader Biao was best suited for dirty work, and with a grin he took the order and went.

A dead man who cannot quibble is the most convenient to pin blame on. You were the one who defected to the enemy earlier, and you were the one who delayed the Fifth Company's pursuit and let Lu Fang escape — there's no running from that now.

As for the rest of the Xin army regulars, dead was dead for nothing, and those lucky enough to survive no longer dared come within half a step of the Fifth Company.

They also captured a few rebel prisoners who had taken crossbow bolts but not yet died. These confessed that the man who had charged on horseback and dropped dead just now was Lu Fang's "Grand Commandant."

Although the Fifth Company was completely unscathed — only a few soldiers had twisted their ankles from nervousness during the march — overall, under Liangqiu Ci's command, one Company Commander was dead, over a hundred were wounded or killed, and they had only beheaded one "Grand Commandant" plus a few rebels. The gains hardly made up for the losses.

When Diwu Lun returned to report, he had expected Liangqiu Ci to be vexed, feeling a great merit had slipped away. To his surprise, Liangqiu Ci's expression remained perfectly normal upon hearing it — even the news of Company Commander Luo's death left him utterly unmoved. He merely had someone bring up a severed head and asked Wan Xiu, who was going by the alias Ren Xia, to identify it.

"Take a look — is this the Ma Canal Commander?"

Wan Xiu was startled. He fixed his eyes on it and saw that it was not Ma Yuan at all, but an ugly, pockmarked face — probably someone Liangqiu Ci had picked out from among those who surrendered in Left Valley City.

"Yes or no?" Liangqiu Ci's tone hardened. Diwu Lun hurriedly coughed twice, and only then did Wan Xiu steel himself and say that this was indeed the bandit chief, the Ma Canal Commander.

"Hahaha! The Ma Canal Commander came to relieve Left Valley and was beheaded by this Colonel's subordinates — the Ma bandits have been exterminated!"

As long as Liangqiu Ci was in a good mood, that was fine. Diwu Lun stepped forward and bowed, apologizing for his failure to capture Lu Fang.

But Colonel Liangqiu's face changed again. Casually pointing at a severed head with Qiang and Hu features, he said: "Boyu, you're truly confused. Did you not, just now, already cut off Lu Fang's head and present it?"

When did I... Diwu Lun froze. Wait — of course. How had he not thought of that?

Liangqiu Ci said smugly: "Lu Fang is dead, the rebellion is pacified. Even if someone emerges from the mountains later, it will probably be his brother or son using his name — they won't amount to anything."

Colonel Liangqiu, you absolute bloody genius!

This maneuver left Diwu Lun marveling. It seemed that to get by in the Xin army, one truly had to be utterly shameless.

But only a moment later, Diwu Lun discovered someone who was Liangqiu Ci's match.

It was the Commandery Prefect of Anding, who had finally arrived at Left Valley City with the commandery troops in a blustering huff. Liangqiu Ci was just about to show off the "Lu Fang head" he had taken, when to his surprise the other side first raised a head impaled on a spear.

The Anding Prefect stood on his war chariot and laughed heartily: "Colonel Liangqiu, you didn't expect this, did you? Though you took Left Valley first, the rebel Lu Fang fled south with a few attendants and was beheaded by my unit! The bandit's head is right here!"

Two "Lu Fang heads" of completely different appearance and age became the absurd finale to this farcical pacification campaign.

Diwu Lun, however, knew that both were fakes — add the one still on Lu Fang's own neck, and this "Western Pacification King of the Great Han's Left Guli" had three heads.

If Lu Fang were clever enough, he would surely make the false real and trumpet it far and wide, claiming he had three heads and six arms and could not be killed no matter how you cut him.

Perhaps Lu Fang could use this story to hoodwink another crowd of gullible men and women in the northwest, winning willing followers.

In contrast, Liangqiu Ci and the Anding Adjutant were locked in an endless dispute over whose severed head was genuine, neither able to sway the other, so each could only send his own to his superior to claim credit.

On this point, Anding Commandery, being closer to the capital than Han Wei was, held an undeniable, enormous advantage.

Several days later, at Gaoping (present-day Guyuan, Ningxia), the capital of Anding Commandery, Grand Governor Wang Xiang received the transmitted head from his Adjutant. Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately drafted a memorial and dispatched relay riders to carry letter and head together at full speed to Chang'an.

Wang Xiang was an imperial kinsman — the son of Wang Tan, Marquis of Ping'a, one of the "Five Marquises" — and he knew his cousin Wang Mang's temperament very well.

"This Lu Fang plotted rebellion and insurrection in Anding Commandery, yet I, as Grand Governor, failed to detect it at all, and had to wait for General Swallowing-the-Hu to alert me before I sent commandery troops to suppress him."

"If Lu Fang was slain by Anding Commandery, then I can still atone for my fault with merit. Otherwise, I fear I will face a reprimand!"

"As long as it is delivered fast enough, once the Son of Heaven, in his great joy, proclaims a reward and fixes it in an imperial edict that cannot easily be retracted, then even a fake will become genuine!"

The relay riders changed horses but not men, galloping day and night for eight days, and arrived at the capital at the tail end of the seventh month. They delivered Wang Xiang's memorial, together with the "Genuine ● Head of Lu Fang," to the Grand Marshal's residence, and it was then passed into the Shoucheng Hall.

Yet at that moment, the atmosphere inside Shoucheng Hall was exceedingly delicate. From the Nine Ministers and high officials down to the junior eunuchs, everyone walked on eggshells, terrified of touching the Emperor's displeasure.

It turned out that several days earlier, on the renwu day of the seventh month, at the hour of bu, a bizarre natural disaster had struck the capital. A violent gale and torrential thunderstorm swept in from the northwest, destroying houses and snapping trees.

The hundred-year-old great elm at the southeast corner of the Zhaoning Hall pond within the palace had also toppled in the fierce wind, crashing down squarely onto the western wall of the Eastern Long Lane and pressing directly onto the Eastern Pavilion.

That alone would have been bad enough, but what was far more dire was that the empire's audience hall, the "Wanglu Hall" — the former front hall of Han times — also suffered calamity: the fierce wind wrecked its western wing and the changing chamber in the rear pavilion.

The property damage of shattered walls and broken tiles, even the casualties, were minor matters. What the Emperor and his ministers cared about most was: what exactly did this uncanny celestial phenomenon portend? Was it a sign of instability in the court and the realm? Did it foretell a colossal upheaval in the northwest?

The Emperor had not held court for several days in a row. From State Preceptor Liu Xin and State General Ai Zhang to Marquis of Shuofu Cui Fa and Marquis of Tongmu Chen Chong, all were summoned frequently by Wang Mang to discuss the implications of this event.

Someone at court obliquely suggested that it was probably connected to the military campaign against the Xiongnu in the northwest, which sent Wang Mang into a towering rage. Did this portend that the Xiongnu would sweep in like a gale and drive straight for Chang'an? If so, that only proved the correctness of his preemptive strike against the Xiongnu!

His obstinacy had reached such a pitch that it only lacked someone shouting aloud, "He who will destroy Xin is Hu!"

Meanwhile, Cui Fa, observing the heavens for Wang Mang, further discovered that today the moon had deviated from its orbit, trespassing against the front star of Heart, an omen of great calamity.

It happened that Anding Commandery's memorial arrived today, and only then did many learn that so great a rebellion had erupted on the border between Anding and Weirong. Lu Fang's story, while laughable, also added a layer of worry. After all, the rebellions in Haidai in the east and Jing-Yang in the south had already persisted for two years, growing ever larger in scale. If trouble also broke out in the west, then the Great Xin would truly be leaking wind from every quarter.

"So that's it!"

At this moment, State General Ai Zhang, who had risen to power through flattery and the presentation of auspicious omens, slapped his forehead and declared:

"Though the fierce gale damaged a side chamber of Wanglu Hall, the main hall remained utterly unscathed, and the wind passed in an instant. Is this not exactly like this laughable rebellion — which, though it nearly brewed a petty trouble in the borderlands' armpit, was instantly quelled by our Great Xin's royal army? Clearly, this is no calamitous anomaly, but an auspicious omen of great victory!"

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(Initial Subscription Bonus Chapter 6/8)