Chapter 115: Three Visits

In the eleventh month, the land beyond the northern frontier lay frozen under bitter skies. The "passes within the frontier" that Diwu Lun had spoken of had long since lost the crispness of autumn. The north wind cut like a blade, fine snow fell in flurries, and looking out at the Helan Mountains, they gleamed like clustered jade, the forests on their slopes robed in silver. As for the watch-fort they were living in…

It had frozen solid into a block of ice!

Fearing that the Hu nomads, driven by winter hunger, would come again to raid the harvest margins, Diwu Lun had left Tewu County and taken up permanent station at Beiyi Watch-Fort, not far from the Long Wall. At this moment, he knelt on the heated brick bed, reading a military treatise.

Fortunately, there was no shortage of crop stalks here for fuel. If those ran low, dried cow dung could make do — enough to keep the army warm until spring. The cartload of coal briquettes that Diwu Ba, worried his grandson would freeze, had sent from the Guanzhong region was reserved for honored guests.

The door was pushed open, and a man covered in snowflakes slipped inside — it was Wan Xiu. He brushed the icy slush from his beard and brows but, declining the invitation to climb onto the heated bed, only bowed respectfully to Diwu Lun and reported on the defenses along the border wall.

Wan Xiu was always so deferential. Had this been Ma Yuan, he would have clambered up laughing and made himself at home long ago.

"Colonel, no movement of the Hu nomads has been sighted at any of the beacon towers."

Since the last incursion, the frontier had abruptly grown quiet again. It made sense, when one thought about it. West of the Helan Mountains lay mostly desert and gobi, where not even sheep could graze. The nearest large tribe was four hundred li away, contesting territory. Had they not seized the opening last time, it truly would have been difficult for them to come.

But Diwu Lun only instructed Wan Xiu: "When you relay word to Lian County and Shanghe City, say that Hu cavalry tracks are frequently sighted along the border wall — only that they were too far off to light the beacon fires."

Wan Xiu was puzzled. "Why?" Then, as if struck by sudden understanding, he said: "Colonel, could it be that you mean to fatten the bandits to magnify your own importance?"

"That is only one reason."

Diwu Lun said: "People are all the same. They do not fear death — what they fear is a lack of ease. They will throw away their very lives, just to have ease."

"Was not the last incursion the result of sixty years of peace, of having grown too accustomed to ease? Even when war broke out beyond the frontier, everyone still thought the Hu nomads had not come for so long and clung to wishful thinking. In the end, a band of herders stabbed all the way to the great river — a humiliation beyond measure. Over these past months, New Qinzhong has finally, with great difficulty, rebuilt its martial readiness. Young men who know shame and seek courage have eagerly joined the Fifth Battalion, training in riding and archery. We absolutely must not let them slacken again."

Wan Xiu acknowledged the order. Diwu Lun then asked him: "Where is Wenyuan? Did he not return with you?"

"These past few days, Wenyuan has taken a liking to the life of a beacon soldier. Right now, he is probably crouched at some beacon tower or other."

"Doesn't he find it cold? Is the heated bed in my room not warm enough?" Diwu Lun grumbled. Lately, he had felt that Ma Yuan was deliberately avoiding him.

After spending the better part of a year together, Diwu Lun had become convinced that Ma Wenyuan was a talent of the highest order — a man fit to be a general in the field or a minister at court!

Ma Yuan was literate, had studied military texts, and was clearly of a scholar-gentry background, yet he could go into the mountains and countryside on his own, had herded horses and pastured sheep, and knew the hardships of the common people intimately. He had also served as an official for several years and saw through the problems of the Xin Dynasty from top to bottom. After arriving at the frontier, he had built a following from nothing, and since joining Diwu Lun to carry out heaven's justice, he had been as fluid as drifting clouds and flowing water — first beheading Ru Chen, then Lu Fang (unconfirmed).

And from what Diwu Lun had observed and probed, although Ma Yuan was deeply dissatisfied with the court, he harbored no great ambitions. He was willing to follow Diwu Lun's orders, the sort who took things one step at a time…

Diwu Lun suspected that, most likely, he was waiting for an enlightened lord.

A thousand soldiers are easy to raise, but a single general is hard to find. They had already done so many head-risking deeds together and had more or less figured out each other's temperaments. Diwu Lun, thinking the time was naturally ripe, had opened his heart before the Helan Mountains the month before.

Though his words came from the depths of his being, he still chose what he thought Ma Yuan would want to hear. He did not even mention his own plans to sharpen his blade against the powerful families, only seeking to draw him into the fold.

The result, however, was not the imagined scene of a mighty frame trembling, followed by a bowing of the head in allegiance.

Ma Yuan simply did not agree. The man's mind, beneath a seemingly rough and forthright manner, was in truth meticulous.

Reflecting on it afterward, Diwu Lun realized that Ma Yuan's reply, though seemingly sincere, was full of artful dodges.

He had brought up the earlier incident at Xiliu Pavilion. On the one hand, it was to express admiration for Diwu Lun — two years had passed, and their positions had, in a sense, reversed.

Yet within those words lay a deeper meaning: "Boyu, back then when I asked you to travel together, you hesitated. This matter is of tremendous weight — why not let me hesitate for a few days, think it over carefully, and then give you my reply!"

And so it had dragged on for over a month. To use an imperfect analogy, it was like a desperate suitor chasing a goddess: she neither refused nor accepted, just kept things ambiguous, treating you as a backup. Truly a heinous crime!

Still, after days of brooding, Diwu Lun felt he himself had been too impatient.

"I only focused on figuring out Ma Yuan himself, but I never considered the stance of the entire clan behind him."

In this era, unless one was an oddity like Yang Xiong, whose line had been a single heir for five generations, a person was always bound to their clan — inseparable, unbreakable.

Diwu Lun had more or less grasped Ma Yuan's misgivings: "Back then, when Ma Yuan secretly released Wan Xiu and fled into the outlaw life with him, the reason he did it so readily was that he considered it a minor offense, unlikely to implicate his clan, something he could do based on personal likes and dislikes."

"But the ambition I revealed is too great — outright rebellion and treason. If things go wrong, the price is the extermination of his clan! He dares not promise lightly."

Furthermore, Ma Yuan's second elder brother, Ma Yu, held the post of Colonel of the Central Ramparts, a mainstay of the Great Xin's central Northern Army.

His third elder brother, Ma Yuan, was the Governor of Zengshan (Shang Commandery), stationed just north of Diwu Lun's home, Liewei Commandery — a full two-thousand-bushel official, holding military and administrative power over an entire commandery.

If one compared quantity alone, disregarding quality, the strength of the Diwu clan plus Diwu Lun was probably only a tenth of the Ma clan's.

So, on what grounds could you expect an entire great family to join your cause as a subordinate?

To put it plainly, Diwu Lun's capital was still insufficient. No wonder Ma Yuan hesitated.

"No ear has ever been truly persuaded by a mouth alone."

"I cannot easily talk Ma Yuan around."

"And Ma Yuan cannot simply persuade his elder brothers to aid me."

It seemed that merely discussing aspirations and ideals would not work. Interests would have to be bound together. Bind them he must, dragging Ma Yuan and the entire Ma clan aboard the pirate ship!

Having thought it through, Diwu Lun consoled himself: "No matter. In later ages, there were three visits to the thatched cottage. I can emulate that."

"At worst, it just means three visits to the Ma estate in Maoling!"

Diwu Lun tossed a dry stick into the blazing fire: "If I can't win you over, can I not win over your daughter?"

While Diwu Lun was scheming to recruit others, he never expected that someone else was coming to recruit him.

The door was knocked upon once more. Zhang Yu, unable to bear the northern cold and sniffling from the chill, came in to report: "Clan Head, Colonel Dou has arrived!"

…

Since the temperature had plummeted two days ago, the personal guard of the Fifth Battalion had been wrapped in thick fur coats, burning charcoal indoors and drinking wine to keep warm, yet still struggled to shake off the cold that seeped in everywhere.

The north wind swept the ground, flattening the white grass. The weather today was just as wretched, with dense, dark clouds massed overhead. The snow flying from the sky had yet to stop, and the wind lashed like a whip, stinging faces raw.

As he followed Diwu Lun outside the fort to await Dou Rong, Diwu Biao could not help but curse: "What is Dou Rong doing here in this damned weather? Isn't he the same rank as the Colonel? Both have even been enfeoffed as barons. Why must we come out to greet him?"

Diwu Lun did not answer. Chang'an was too far from New Qinzhong; the court's formal rewards had not yet arrived. His own title of Colonel, after all, carried the word "acting," and could not compare to Dou Rong's genuine article.

Moreover, Diwu Lun held Dou Rong in considerable respect, because this "friendly army" was unlike any of those flashy, worthless wretches they had crushed in the past.

In Diwu Lun's little notebook, Liangqiu Ci had initially been marked with a "?". Among a pack of vicious wolves, he was already a rare "good man."

But Dou Rong — Dou Rong was a great big checkmark!

Diwu Lun had heard that Dou Rong's troops had stood out from the rest even when they were at the Hongmen encampment. Dou Rong also embezzled from the payroll, but the extra grain and clothing he obtained, he kept not a scrap for himself and distributed it all. He allowed majors and company commanders to take a small cut, but the bulk reached the soldiers. As a result, Dou Rong's army had the fewest losses from desertion during those months.

When the great army broke camp, Dou Rong drew on his family's resources as a powerful house of Pingling and used carts loaded with grain and cooked meals to feed the Boar-Rush Braves, saving many more lives.

On the march toward Shuofang, given Lian Dan's military discipline, there had been no shortage of abuse of the common people, yet Dou Rong voluntarily took up the rear as the rearguard, and along the entire route, his men committed no major offenses against the populace.

When ordered south to New Qinzhong, Dou Rong commanded five full-strength battalions, yet he did not allow his soldiers to trample the fields. If any violation occurred, though he did not cut his hair in place of his head, he directly paid compensation on the spot — far more generous than Diwu Lun, that pauper who grudged his money but not his hair.

Even more remarkable was that when Diwu Lun first arrived here and led his soldiers in planting alfalfa, Dou Rong, having also missed the planting season for winter wheat, set his soldiers to planting beans on the open ground. Here was another man who wanted not only to destroy but also to build!

He also repaired irrigation ditches in Lingwu, visited the powerful families one by one, and comforted the old and weak in the villages — in short, everything Diwu Lun had done, Dou Rong did too!

So Diwu Lun both respected and guarded against Dou Rong.

Whether it was pretense or not, in a world this rotten, to still refrain from doing evil was already exceedingly rare. For such rare creatures, every single one counted, and Diwu Lun respected them from the bottom of his heart.

As for guarding against him... this Dou Rong clearly had no small ambitions. With the air of someone planning to establish long-term military farms in New Qinzhong, did he want to seize territory? Truly, no sooner had they driven off one wolf than a tiger came stalking in behind.

Diwu Lun felt as if a giant character for "DANGER" was hovering right above his head!

Yet he was helpless. If he hadn't taken the initiative earlier to share credit with Dou Rong, the superior's direct subordinate, then although Lian Dan could hardly turn black into white and make Diwu Lun a second Han Wei, he could certainly ensure Diwu Lun got nothing at all.

Watching Dou Rong lead a troop of horsemen, braving the wind and snow to arrive outside the fort, Diwu Lun also stepped forward several paces to greet him.

"Colonel Dou!"

"Boyu!" Dou Rong rode at the very front. Upon arriving, he dismounted and bowed to Diwu Lun with clasped hands. "You and I are colleagues, and both men of Guanzhong. Pingling is not far from Changling — we are practically half fellow townsmen. There's no need for such formality; just call me by my courtesy name."

"Zhou... Duke of Zhou." That courtesy name was a bit much. Diwu Lun did not want to call it too often and end up dreaming of Dou Rong's aged face at night.

Diwu Lun said, "The weather is freezing and the ground frozen; it's no time for military action. Why has the Duke of Zhou come all this way? Could something have happened in Lingwu County?"

If he hadn't chosen such weather to come, how could he demonstrate his diligent eagerness to court talent? Dou Rong laughed heartily. "I heard that recently, Boyu has been purchasing fur coats from powerful families and wealthy households to distribute among your soldiers against the cold. As it happens, my unit has ample supplies, so I'll share some with you, Boyu."

Diwu Lun suddenly understood and thought to himself, "Is he bringing warmth to my troops?"

As he spoke, Dou Rong clapped his hands, and several large carts behind him came forward carrying sheepskin coats. It truly moved Diwu Lun — the kind of moved where his expression feigned surprise and gratitude — and following custom, he repeatedly declined.

"Even in the Duke of Zhou's army, not every man has one to wear; you are hardly overflowing with supplies. How could I receive such kindness without having earned it? It's enough that my soldiers share a few men to each coat."

Dou Rong pushed Diwu Lun's hands back and said earnestly, "Does the Book of Songs not say: 'How can you say you have no clothes? I will share my robe with you. The king is raising his hosts; I will sharpen my spear and dagger-axe.'"

"You and I, Boyu, are stationed in New Qinzhong by imperial decree, jointly defending against the Xiongnu, sharing a common foe. You, Boyu, resist the barbarians at the front, like the lips; I, in the rear as support, am like the teeth. How can the teeth care only for their own warmth and ignore the biting cold of the lips? Accept them — you absolutely must accept them!"

The man was very eloquent. Diwu Lun could only accept the goodwill. Besides the sheepskin coats and winter garments, Dou Rong had also brought wine, which he told Diwu Lun to distribute among the soldiers to drink against the cold.

It all felt far too similar to how he himself usually shared his clothes and food with his subordinates. Diwu Lun invited Dou Rong into the fort for a detailed talk. He saw Dou Rong glancing left and right, greatly admiring the defensive works and equipment Diwu Lun had set up. Once inside the warm room, Dou Rong saw the coal stove set there and let out a deep, mournful sigh.

When Diwu Lun asked him why he sighed, Dou Rong finally said, "I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, Boyu, but for so many years now, the very sight of coal has nearly brought me to tears!"

—————

PS: (Launch bonus chapters 8/8, complete)

I have matters to attend to and will be away from home. I won't have time to fulfill the alliance leader bonus chapters until the 28th, at the end of the month. I'll aim for three updates a day during the double monthly ticket period. Also, I currently owe 11 chapters for the Silver Alliance and 15 chapters for regular alliance leaders.

Starting tomorrow, I'll adjust the update schedule: the morning chapter stays the same, and the second chapter will be moved earlier to around 13:00.