Chapter 119: Mock Not a Youth Who Is Poor

"Wenshu truly is no ordinary man."

Deng Yu genuinely admired Liu Xiu. Most men, hearing that the woman they loved was about to be snatched away, would either fly into a towering rage and rush out sword in hand, or sink into utter despair, wallowing in self-pity.

Liu Xiu alone, after only a brief moment of distraction, gently freed his hand from Deng Yu's grip, went back inside unhurriedly, and changed into clothes suitable for receiving guests before coming out again.

"Let's go!" Deng Yu urged him once more.

"Go where?"

"Xinye, of course!"

But Liu Xiu only smiled. "Zhonghua, don't be hasty. Sit down first and explain things clearly. Who is it, and when did they send a marriage proposal to the Yin clan?"

Deng Yu, barely twenty years old, swore. "Who else could it be? Naturally, it's Wenshu's own nephew — and my clan nephew — Deng Feng. He has no respect for his elders!"

Liu Xiu suddenly understood. His second brother-in-law was Deng Chen, and this Deng Feng was precisely the son of Deng Chen's eldest brother, the direct-line eldest grandson of the Xinye Deng clan's main branch.

As for Deng Yu's family, they were already a minor collateral branch.

Liu Xiu kept his feelings deeply hidden. His admiration for the Yin daughter was known only to Deng Yu, with whom he had spent every day together in Chang'an; he had not even told his brother-in-law Deng Chen.

He never expected that someone from his own circle would beat him to it. A few days ago, Deng Feng had already carried a wild goose to her door for the naji betrothal rite. Deng Yu, the moment he heard the news, had raced south to inform Liu Xiu — truly a loyal friend.

According to Deng Yu's proposal, they should immediately gallop to Xinye, find Liu Xiu's brother-in-law Deng Chen, explain the situation clearly, and then have Deng Chen step in as an elder to make Deng Feng abandon this plan.

As he spoke, Deng Yu himself realized the logic of this plan was flawed, and he trailed off.

Not to mention that a graceful lady is fair game for any gentleman — Liu Xiu could hardly stop others from setting their sights on the Yin daughter. Moreover, Deng Yu was himself a member of the Deng clan and knew that marriage was no child's play. Would Deng Feng's father, the Deng clan patriarch, really abandon a marriage alliance just because of one Liu Xiu's objection?

Liu Xiu saw that Deng Yu was fretting on his behalf and merely consoled him. "Zhonghua, you've rushed all this way — you must be cold and hungry. Eat first, and we'll talk after."

Throughout the meal, Deng Yu remained distracted, yet he saw Liu Xiu eating as usual, taking large, steady mouthfuls. He thought to himself, "Isn't he the one who swore to marry the Yin daughter? Why am I more anxious than he is?"

Had Liu Bosheng been present, he would have noticed that today, Liu Xiu only picked from the dish closest to him, and he ate much faster than usual. Beneath that surface calm lay a faint, gnawing anxiety.

But Liu Xiu remained unflustered throughout, and even made a wager with Deng Yu. "Deng Feng's naji proposal will likely fail."

"Why?"

Liu Xiu smiled. "Forgive my bluntness, but the Yin clan has a thousand chariots, horses, and servants — their influence rivals that of a feudal lord. They are among the foremost magnates of Nanyang, second only to the Li clan of Wancheng. They probably look down on the Deng clan of the same county."

Deng Yu was unconvinced. "Wenshu, I don't like hearing that. Deng Feng is at least the direct-line heir. His great-grandfather served two generations as Inspector of Yangzhou and Jiaozhi, and his grandfather was Commandant of Yuzhang — all high offices."

Liu Xiu waved a dismissive hand. "The offices were not low, but look at where they served — all remote backwaters in Yang and Jiao provinces."

Deng Yu shot back, "You, Liu Wenshu — didn't your own great-grandfather serve as Governor of Feathered Forest Guard in Jiaozhou?"

"But by my grandfather's time, we had already returned to the Central Plains and he became Commandant of Julu." Liu Xiu said, "There's no need to bring up old pedigrees. If we really go back over a hundred years, my family were kings and marquises!"

Past glories were not worth flaunting. On that score, the Yin ancestors had never held any office, but perhaps they truly had the Kitchen God's blessing — this local magnate family had stumbled into tremendous luck. Their trade and farming prospered harvest after harvest, and over several generations, their wealth grew second only to the Li clan of Wancheng.

The Yin clan already had more wealth than they knew what to do with; what they urgently needed now was a tie to political power. Although the mother of the Yin maiden was also surnamed Deng, times had changed. A marriage proposal from the now-declining Deng clan would likely be politely refused. Liu Xiu had heard that the Yin family head had very high ambitions!

Deng Yu realized that Liu Xiu, far away in Caiyang, knew the Yin clan inside and out, even better than he did. "Where did Wenshu learn all this?"

Liu Xiu gave a mysterious smile but did not answer. In truth, Yin Lihua's elder brother, Yin Shi, had let it slip while drunk.

As it happened, Yin Shi was precisely one of Liu Bosheng's junior followers. He deeply admired Bosheng's chivalrous and righteous ways and often came to Caiyang to hang around. Unfortunately, his family had recently forced him to go to Chang'an to study at the Imperial Academy.

In the end, the two of them did not go to Xinye. Liu Xiu took Deng Yu sightseeing around the area, while Deng Yu tossed and turned restlessly.

A few days later, they learned from a reply letter from Deng Chen that Deng Feng's matchmaker had been politely refused when she came to present the naji gifts. The reason given was that the Yin daughter was too young…

"What kind of reason is that? Sixteen is definitely not too young! It's just as Wenshu predicted — the Yin clan looks down on my family!"

Deng Yu's loyalty had suddenly swung back to his friend, and he grew indignant, nearly shouting something like, "Mock not a youth who is poor!"

At the same time, Deng Yu admired Liu Xiu more and more. "Wenshu is truly the kind of hero the legends speak of — one whose face does not change when Mount Tai crumbles before him, and whose eyes do not flicker when a startled deer bolts beside him!"

But if even the powerful and established Deng clan had been rebuffed, then the third son of the Chongling Liu clan, which had fallen even further, had even less chance of winning her hand, didn't he?

Liu Xiu could currently win over Yin Shi, but he could not sway the Yin family head. In his present status as a commoner with no office, it was fundamentally impossible to propose — it would be nothing but a self-inflicted humiliation.

Deng Yu could not help but worry. "The Yin maiden's beauty is famed throughout Xinye and the surrounding counties. If another suitor with great power and influence proposes and the Yin clan accepts, what will Wenshu do then?"

Liu Xiu maintained his usual composure. Pointing to the vast mountain range stretching for a hundred li to the south, dense with pines and cypresses, he asked, "Zhonghua, do you know what mountain that is?"

"Greenwood Mountain." Deng Yu certainly knew it. It was the border mountain separating Nanyang from Jiangxia and Nan Commandery. Because its pines and cypresses stayed green year-round and never yellowed even in deep winter, it was called Greenwood.

In recent years, the times had grown ever harder. Famine struck Jingzhou, and the people gathered in the wilderness, forming several bands of bandits large and small — among them Zhang Ba of Nan Commandery and Yang Mu of Jiangxia, each with a following of ten thousand.

The most powerful group, however, was the "Greenwood bandits," who had occupied Greenwood Mountain for three years. Men from the Xin, Wang Kuang and Wang Feng, had been chosen as their leaders for their skill in settling disputes.

Originally, Greenwood had only seven or eight thousand followers, but last year, Wang Mang twice levied property taxes on the commanderies, driving yet another huge wave of people who could not survive into rebellion. Greenwood's strength swelled. Including women, children, and the elderly, they now numbered twenty to thirty thousand. They also recruited Nanyang's Ma Wu, Yingchuan's Wang Chang, and other gallants with criminal records. With both soldiers and commanders, they had become the foremost among Jingzhou's many "bandit" groups.

Caiyang, being one of the southernmost counties in Nanyang, was only about a hundred li from Greenwood. Fortunately, the Greenwood Army had a strong attachment to their home region and mainly attacked southward, targeting counties like Anlu in Jiangxia, and had not crossed to the northern foothills of the mountains. But even so, Nanyang was on alert three times a month, and the authorities had already permitted powerful local families to organize their own armed forces in preparation against the bandits. This was precisely a golden opportunity for the Liu brothers to expand their own armed following.

Liu Xiu thought to himself, "The Odes say: 'The hundred rivers boil and surge, the mountain peaks crumble and fall. High banks become valleys, deep valleys become hills.' Today I am but a commoner, unable even to set foot through the Yin clan's gate — but who can say what the future holds?"

Facing Deng Yu's naive question, Liu Xiu merely pointed at Greenwood Mountain and said, half in earnest, half in jest, "If such a day truly comes, then at worst, I'll simply take my retainers and followers, snatch the bride, and flee south to join the Greenwood Army!"

……

"I've been in the army for exactly one full year, and a full third of that time was spent on the road."

This was Diwu Lun's reflection after emerging from the towering, rugged mountains of Longyou.

Just as when he had entered and left Shu the previous year, Diwu Lun did not take the same route back to the capital this time. With nearly two hundred private followers and personal guards, riding in chariots and on horseback and carrying their own provisions, he left Tewu County and headed south toward Anding Commandery.

The capital of Anding Commandery, called Gaoping in the Former Han era (modern Guyuan, Ningxia), was now called Pumu.

"Knowing Wang Mang's habits, shouldn't it be the other way around — called 'Pinggao'?"

This region fell within the traditional Six Commanderies, but the Qiang and Hu tribes that Emperor Wu of Han had relocated inland also lived intermingled here. The roads were far from peaceful. Even with so many men fully armed, Diwu Lun's party was attacked by bandits three times, and they fought them all off.

Upon inquiring, he learned that these were not remnants of Lu Fang's forces from Sanshui, but several other bands of brigands. After all, under Wang Mang's policies, neither Chinese nor barbarian was having an easy time. These problems had always existed, and they certainly could not be solved just by killing one Lu Fang.

Leaving Gaoping and heading south, they reached the famous Xiao Pass. The scars of its burning by the Xiongnu two hundred years ago were no longer visible; the pass stood tall and grand. But Diwu Lun knew that the reason the Xiongnu could no longer easily penetrate this deep was not because of Xiao Pass's formidable defenses, but because the New Qinzhong region to the north still stood as a shield.

South of Xiao Pass stretched the steep and treacherous Long Mountains (Liupan Mountains), which separated Anding and Tianshui commanderies. Diwu Lun led his men eastward. Upon reaching the Jing River valley, the roads improved somewhat. As long as they followed the solidly frozen river southeast, they could travel all the way to Changling.

And so, Diwu Lun's map gradually filled in another corner of Liang Province.

But the journey was so long — so long that one could feel the four seasons change along the way. When they left Tewu, the great river was just beginning to freeze over with the spring ice breakup. By the time they returned to Guanzhong and saw those familiar vast plains, the Jing River was nearly thawed.

In the first month of early spring, the east wind melts the ice, hibernating insects begin to stir, fish rise beneath the frozen surface, otters line up their catch like sacrificial offerings, and the wild geese return from the north.

The weather improved, and the column of men from Liewei Commandery was filled with laughter and cheer. After all, when they saw Mount Ganquan on the far bank of the Jing River, it meant home was near.

For Zheng Tong and Zang Nu, they were no longer the conscripted exiles who had set out in despair, not knowing whether they would live or die tomorrow — now they were trusted former subordinates with official rank, clinging firmly to General Diwu's coattails.

But the opposite riverbank was far from quiet — a clamor of voices rose like a vast construction site. Diwu Lun gazed across and saw laborers, some pulling, some dragging, straining by every means to haul enormous beams and pillars from Mount Ganquan to the banks of the Jing River, where they would wait for the ice to melt completely before floating them downstream.

Mount Ganquan had been stripped of its great trees as far back as the Qin dynasty — these beams and pillars had actually been pried loose, by sheer force, from the Ganquan Palace itself!

A century ago, Emperor Wu of Han had waited anxiously within this very palace for word of the great battle in the northern desert fought by Wei and Huo. But by the Xin Dynasty, the Emperor rarely ventured out of Chang'an, and so the palace had fallen into disuse, seldom visited by anyone — even the soldiers and palace maids who guarded it had been released back to the common folk.

"Why tear down a perfectly good Ganquan Palace? Surely they're not sending it into the capital to use as firewood?"

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Diwu Lun did not grasp the meaning behind this scene and only joked with the others — by all logic, Chang'an's fuel supply couldn't be so short as to come to this.

He had no idea what fresh madness the court was cooking up now. He simply quickened the pace with his soldiers, and two days later they arrived outside the walls of Changling.

He had his subordinates halt outside the city while he took a few men with him, intending to enter and pay a visit to the commandery's Grand Governor, Zhang Zhan, to sound out the recent rumblings at court and figure out exactly why Wang Mang had summoned him and Dou Rong back.

But just as Diwu Fu produced their city-entry pass — a Large Spade Worth a Thousand coin, worth a thousand cash — the gate officer, who recognized Diwu Lun, clasped his hands toward him and offered a well-meaning warning: "General Boyu, it is not that this humble official means to make trouble, but the Large Spade Worth a Thousand, along with all coins large and small, were abolished at the start of the month. You can no longer use these to enter or leave the city. The commandery may let it pass, but when you go to Chang'an, be sure to remember!"

At these sudden words, Diwu Lun's powerful frame jolted, and he cried out in his heart: "What — Wang Mang has done it again, again, and again, and launched yet another currency reform!?"