Chapter 134: You Were a Lady Fair

There was no Champion County in this world until the Han dynasty, when Huo Qubing struck the Xiongnu and his merit surpassed all other armies. Emperor Wu of Han decided to carve out one township each from Rang and Wan counties, naming the new county after his title — and so this place came to be.

In the northern township of Champion County, there are mountain forests whose trees spread like feathers, overlooking the essential road from Nanyang to Wu Pass. This is Feather Mountain.

The rain had just let up. Inside a cave where mountain bandits hid, Jia Fu sat before a brown-faced man tied to a tree trunk, speaking with him.

"In my youth, my family was well-off, and I loved learning. I studied the Book of Documents under Scholar Li of Wuyin. You know the Book of Documents, I take it?"

The brown-faced man shook his head. "I can't read, let alone know any books, upper or lower."

Jia Fu laughed. "It's no matter if you don't. It's all ancient proclamations and documents on how sage kings governed — of no practical use whatsoever for daily livelihood."

"Back when I was studying, Master Li praised me, saying that with such bearing and ambition, and such diligence in learning, I was fit to be a general or chancellor."

If one looked closely by the light of the rising sun, Jia Fu did indeed have a fine face. Though the harsh mountain life had left him somewhat gaunt, his youthful gallantry was still plain to see.

"I had meant to follow the path of 'excel in learning, then enter officialdom,' devoting myself to the sage's books and entering the Imperial Academy. But later my family fell on hard times, so I set aside my studies and took a minor clerk's post in the county — the sort that earns a pittance in grain — and busied myself with mundane affairs."

Jia Fu's men brought in the meal: nothing but coarse brown rice, with no side dishes to speak of. Jia Fu merely drew a cloth-wrapped object from his bosom, unwrapped it layer by layer to reveal a yellowed lump of salt, and with great care scraped it with a knife, sprinkling the salt grains bit by bit onto his rice. This was his extravagant relish.

Heaven had bestowed rich iron ore upon Nanyang, yet left it desperately short of salt. Officials and common folk alike had to travel a thousand li to Hedong to fetch it.

Jia Fu licked the salt grains clinging to his fingers and broke off a small piece for the brown-faced man. "Once, I was ordered to accompany the Wujun Salt Commissioner to Zhaodui — Hedong — to transport salt. By then the realm was already somewhat unsettled. On the way there, the old clerks all boasted of their valor and told me I must guard the salt well, for it was the hope of the entire county."

"Sure enough, we ran into bandits on the road. I drew my sword and stood guard by the salt carts. Ahead, arrows shot by the bandit gang streaked past me one after another. I shouted for the county conscripts to resist — but at that moment, I kept feeling a chill draft on my backside. I turned to look. How splendid: those old clerks who always had duty on their lips had long since fled, the Salt Commissioner no exception. I alone, a petty pittance-earner, was still holding out."

"In the end, I led a dozen or so men and drove off over a hundred bandits. I don't even know how I managed it; I only remember taking several wounds. When I finally brought the salt carts back to the county, the elders all praised my good faith. But who could have guessed? The Salt Commissioner and old clerks who had fled had already returned to the county ahead of me and told the County Magistrate that Jia Fu had colluded with the bandits and given away all the salt. So the county arrested my uncle's family and had them killed."

"In my fury, I then truly took those salt porters and became a bandit. The very bandits I had driven off admired my valor and joined me as well — and so we became this band of several hundred."

Outside the cave, the bandits were gradually waking. Without needing Jia Fu to instruct them one by one, they set about their own tasks — mending clothes, or polishing bows and blades.

Reflecting on the past, Jia Fu's young face showed considerable regret. "I recalled my master saying I had 'the makings of a general or chancellor,' and so I took to calling myself General."

He looked at the uninvited guest who had been tied up all night, his body covered in dew. "Commander Ma, you hail from Greenwood and have seen much of the world. In your judgment — does Jia Fu deserve the title of General?"

The bound Ma Wu bared his teeth in a grin. "You deserve it. Your valor already surpasses ninety-nine out of a hundred Xin army officers. I've met plenty in Greenwood — they're all timid as chickens, not worth mentioning."

Jia Fu leaned back against a rock. "My story is told. How did Commander Ma come to be a bandit?"

In contrast to the handsome Jia Fu, Ma Wu was brown-faced and ugly. He simply said, "I'm from Huyang County in the Vanguard Commandery. As a youth, I wanted to be a Guard Commandant, suppressing bandits. Never thought I'd grow up to find I was born to be a bandit."

"Back then, I was a gallant in Huyang, upholding righteousness. I killed a son of a powerful local clan who was tyrannizing the countryside, and so had to flee south to Jiangxia to escape vengeance, meaning to be a fisherman for a while and live an honest life."

"Who could have known I'd run into the Six Guan prohibitions? The people of Jingzhou depend on the mountains and marshes, making their living by fishing and gathering. The court's Six Guan decrees forbade commoners from going up the mountains or out onto the lakes, saying these were all court assets. If you wanted to use them, you had to hand over a quarter of your catch. That was the commandery's word. By the time it reached the county, it became half your catch."

"On top of that, fishing and hunting were also subject to taxes and corvée. Under such crushing burdens, what fish could one catch? I couldn't stomach it, so I stabbed the clerk who came pressing for taxes and drowned him in the lake. Then I had no choice but to flee and become a bandit."

"There were plenty of common folk driven to banditry by hunger and poverty. On top of that, disaster struck Jiangxia. The Elders of Jingling and Xiyang raised troops at the commandery border, and I led my followers to join them. We rampaged through the villages and towns, opened the granaries and distributed grain, then evaded the commandery troops hunting us and headed north into Greenwood Mountain. The Grand Commander took us in, and that's how I joined the Greenwood Army."

Jia Fu sighed after hearing this. "Just as I thought — you and I were both forced into banditry by this absurd age. I once heard a saying in my studies: 'He who steals a hook is executed; he who steals a state becomes a lord.' How true. The real great thieves are sitting at ease in the court, the commandery offices, and the estates!"

This was how Ma Wu, a man of the Vanguard Commandery, came to be a minor Greenwood commander. He had returned to the Vanguard Commandery this time with his trusted followers under orders from the Greenwood Grand Commander Wang Kuang, to spy on the rumored imperial army that was supposedly massing to march south and suppress Greenwood.

After returning to his homeland, Ma Wu found that indeed, conscripts were being seized everywhere, gathering at Wancheng and Xiangyang. The more he saw, the more alarmed he grew. Though Greenwood had great numbers, most were the old, the weak, women, and children. Their fighting men numbered no more than seven or eight thousand. They had the natural defenses of the mountains and marshes, but against such odds, the outcome was uncertain.

Ma Wu was a bold one. He happened to hear talk in the streets that a court envoy was escorting Wang Mang's imperial son into the capital, passing west of Wancheng, and decided to pull off something big — a scheme to "divert disaster northward," so that the troops of the Jingzhou Governor and the Vanguard Grand Governor would not be aimed solely at Greenwood.

And so came the attack on the Yueqi Camp at West Township. Those well-equipped imperial troops were far too lax and careless; Ma Wu succeeded with just a dozen men.

His reasoning was crystal clear: "The Li clan is the Vanguard Commandery's greatest lineage. If the court exterminates their house and the two sides start fighting, the Vanguard Commandery will fall into chaos, and the encirclement of Greenwood will dissolve on its own."

Li Tong had schemed and calculated to frame Greenwood — never imagining that the real Greenwood was also looking to pin the blame on him. One could say he got exactly what he sought.

Thanks to Ma Wu's daring and decisiveness, the deed was now done. But it had drawn the Yueqi Camp and the frenzied Li clan riders in relentless pursuit, and several of his brothers had died on the flight. With nowhere else to go, he could only flee west to Feather Mountain and throw himself on the mercy of Jia Fu, who had once sent men to contact Greenwood.

Jia Fu, however, had his men tie them up at once. This old scoundrel had brought government troops down on them! Because of Ma Wu, the Feather Mountain bandits, who had previously drawn little attention, had suddenly become the focus of the entire commandery. Xin troops were massing at West Township from Wancheng, poised to march on this place.

Ma Wu had dealt with him in good faith, hiding nothing of what he had done — which infuriated Jia Fu. "Commander Ma, could it be you intend for me to shoulder part of the Xin army's strength on Greenwood's behalf as well?"

Though still tied up, Ma Wu was already addressing Jia Fu familiarly by his courtesy name. "If you're willing, Junwen, why ever not?"

He received a heavy punch from Jia Fu for that. Ma Wu merely coughed and laughed. "It's done now. What do you mean to do, Junwen? Tie me up and deliver me to the Xin envoy?"

Jia Fu thought it over — then untied Ma Wu. "Better to be a bandit in the mountains, free and unrestrained, than to serve as an official in the court."

"Come, let's go see how the envoy Zizhang harassed passes through today."

He led Ma Wu to the mountain ridge, where one could see the road to Wu Pass in the distance. After the attack, the Vanguard Grand Governor Zhen Fu had taken the matter with the utmost gravity and assigned a full thousand soldiers to escort the mission out of the commandery border.

Ma Wu pointed and told Jia Fu that the troops he had attacked were likely elite imperial soldiers from the capital — but they were all show and couldn't take a hit. Cen Peng, traveling with Diwu Lun, however, maintained tight security and showed no openings at all.

The Yueqi Camp was still the vanguard, Cen Peng brought up the rear, and Diwu Lun's mission, along with the carriages of the imperial son and daughter, were hemmed in the center by commandery troops. Under the distant gaze of Jia Fu and Ma Wu, they drew nearer and nearer, then halted. A man was sent with a silk document, which he nailed to a large tree halfway up the mountain.

That afternoon, Jia Fu and Ma Wu saw this "proclamation." Ma Wu could not read and could only listen as Jia Fu recited it. It was Diwu Lun denouncing the Feather Mountain bandits, rebuking them for breaking the law, colluding with Greenwood and certain villainous magnates of the Vanguard Commandery to attack the envoy — a heinous crime. The Vanguard Commandery would send a great army to exterminate them, grinding them to dust.

Ma Wu laughed heartily at this. "This envoy has quite the big mouth."

But though he spoke with contempt, Ma Wu knew that this convoy could not be attacked now, or he would drag all his men down with him. His scheme, played to the end, had been a bit too clever for its own good, but it had still diverted some troops away from Greenwood. With just a dozen men, he had tied down several thousand — worth it!

Jia Fu, however, studied the proclamation this way and that for a long time, then simply said, "Why do I feel this document is telling us..."

"Run!"

When Diwu Lun arrived at Xi County with his large force, he gave Deng Ye such a fright that the man thought he had gone back on his word and was bringing men to suppress him, and nearly fled with his followers as well.

Fortunately, Diwu Lun later sent trusted aides to inquire: did Commander Deng still consider their deal valid?

"Valid, of course it's valid. Everything as agreed."

Deng Ye now felt even more that Diwu Lun was not to be trifled with. From now on, he would never rob the Diwu clan's merchant caravans heading to Nanyang. He would even send men to escort them out of the county border, lest they be ambushed by some ragtag petty thieves mad with hunger.

Diwu Lun laid traps and tripped up many of the Vanguard Commandery's powerful magnates, but he had no intention of making trouble for bandits who were mostly poor folk forced into outlawry. Even for the Feather Mountain bandits, he had left a proclamation to scare them off. If they were smart, they would decisively flee. Otherwise, once the Vanguard Commandery resolved to send a large army to suppress them, a few hundred bandits could not hold out.

Upon reaching Xi County, they had entered the territory of the Right Wing Commandery. The Right Wing Grand Governor and the Wu Pass Commandant had sent other troops to meet them. Cen Peng, who had escorted Diwu Lun for over ten days, could not cross the border without commandery orders and had to stop here and turn back.

Diwu Lun was rather reluctant to part with Cen Peng and personally bid him farewell. After finishing a flask of wine, he said, "The age is unsettled, the common folk hungry and cold, many forced into the mountains as bandits — nearly every commandery, every county has them. The Vanguard Commandery, I fear, will not be peaceful either. Going forward, Junran... what are your plans?"

Diwu Lun's words carried a hidden meaning, but Cen Peng did not seem to read into it. He merely remained silent for a long while, then said, "What else can I do? Fulfill my duty with all my heart, hold fast with resolve — that is all."

Whether he felt their acquaintance was too shallow to speak deeply, or truly had left himself no retreat, was unclear. After all, Cen Peng had once killed members of the Liu clan who raised the banner to restore the Han, and was deeply bound to the Wang Mang dynasty.

A talent fit to be a general — if he were to die as a sacrificial offering for the doomed Xin Dynasty, perishing in the chaos of the age, it would be too great a pity. As they parted, Diwu Lun gave Cen Peng his own armor as a gift; Cen Peng's build was roughly the same as his.

"Then allow me one bold statement."

Diwu Lun cupped his hands and bowed deeply to Cen Peng, thanking him for his diligent protection throughout the journey.

"Whatever the situation may be in days to come,"

"wherever Diwu Lun may be, a door will always be left open for you, Junran!"

……

PS: Chapter 2 at 18:00.