Chapter 142: Rebels, Why Make Life Hard for Fellow Rebels?

"The Emperor must be blind, sending a rebel to deal with a rebel."

On the road east, after Ma Yuan heard Diwu Lun recount the mission's full details in private, he only looked at him sidelong with those silkworm-brow phoenix eyes — the meaning was perfectly clear.

Diwu Lun merely gave a derisive smile. Ma Yuan had already marked him as a rebel back before Helan Mountain when he spoke of his "great ambition." Yet even so, he had kept the truth from his two elder brothers and still married his daughter to him. Now that the Diwu and Ma families were bound together, could he really sacrifice kin for righteousness?

Diwu Lun deliberately asked him, "Father-in-law, what do you make of this Grand Governor of Weicheng wanting to overthrow Xin and restore Han?"

Ma Yuan sank into thought, and only after a long pause did he murmur, "The realm is in upheaval; those stealing names for themselves are beyond counting. Tell me, is the Han he means to restore a true Han or a false one? In my view, Li Yan is just another of that breed."

That was exactly it — wave a "Restore Han" banner and you become justice incarnate? What would that make Lu Fang up in the northwest, then?

Besides, though all were rebels, rebels had their own factions. The Ma family had been great traitors back in the time of Emperor Wu of Han — otherwise his two elder brothers would not have so eagerly embraced the new dynasty. As for Diwu Lun, he had never once been a subject of the Han house. Only his grandfather, Diwu Ba, would occasionally, when the mood struck, rattle off a few proud battle records of mighty Han men rampaging through foreign lands.

The order or chaos of the realm does not rest on the rise and fall of one surname, but on the sorrow and joy of the myriad people. The former dynasty's strength and spirit were indeed worth remembering, but the darkness of its decline and fall cannot be ignored either. A Han loyalist in spirit alone — that he could not be.

So, they were clearly of a different stripe from this "Restore Han" crowd — fellow travelers make the bitterest rivals! For once, Wang Mang really had chosen the right men.

Because the situation was urgent, Diwu Lun, Ma Yuan, and Geng Chun could not afford to enter any of the walled cities or great towns along the way, nor did Diwu Lun have time to sketch maps of the terrain. Over a hundred riders galloped at a pace of a hundred li a day, and by the end of the seventh month they reached yet another commandery of the new order: the Rear Unit Commandery, Henei.

North of Henei (northern Henan), the Wei lands (southern Hebei) lay within easy reach.

Upon arriving there and making contact with Guo Hong, a clerk of the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties' office who had been ordered to arrive ahead of them, Diwu Lun was astonished to learn…

That after nearly a month of back-and-forth travel, Grand Governor Li Yan of Weicheng was still sitting unruffled in Yecheng as if nothing were amiss!

And those two senior officials, the Shepherd of Ji Province and the Vice Shepherd Inspector, had simply stood by watching from the north, doing absolutely nothing!

"What are you waiting for — me?"

…

The office of Shepherd had evolved from the Han dynasty's Inspector. After Emperor Wu of Han, the realm was divided into thirteen provinces, each with one "Provincial Inspector," whose primary duty was to oversee the two-thousand-bushel officials and the lawless acts of powerful clans in each commandery.

Back then, though the Inspector's authority was great, his rank and salary were modest, only equivalent to six hundred bushels.

After Wang Mang took power, to adapt to the new situation of local commanderies and princedoms gradually drifting away from the center, he formally changed the title of Inspector to Shepherd, based on the ancient text's phrase "At the seventh mandate he bestows a state; at the eighth mandate he makes a Shepherd." Their ceremonial standing matched the Three Dukes, and their salaries were increased several times over.

In recent years, as bandits multiplied in the commanderies, Wang Mang further granted Shepherds military authority, adding the title of General to coordinate bandit suppression across a province. However, as the Shepherds' focus shifted to suppressing bandits, the old oversight function slackened. Wang Mang decided to create the post of "Vice Shepherd Inspector" as the Shepherd's deputy, with duties and rank-salary identical to the old Inspector.

Geng Chun found this quite baffling: "Since the Shepherd commands troops and can deploy the commandery soldiers, and the Vice Shepherd Inspector has the authority to investigate local matters, to do nothing at all and simply wait for an imperial decree is truly inexcusable."

Ma Yuan agreed: "In the former dynasty, a Provincial Inspector could pursue and arrest conspirators in an emergency. During Emperor Zhao's reign, when Liu Ze, grandson of Prince Xiao of Qi, plotted rebellion, Inspector Jun Buyi of Qing Province discovered it, directly arrested the rebel, and only then reported to the Emperor. Under Emperor Xuan, when a popular uprising broke out in Ji Province, Inspector Zhang Chang of Ji Province likewise immediately mobilized troops to execute the ringleaders."

Even if they lacked the nerve to send troops directly to quell the unrest, they could at least have learned from Inspector Wei Xiang of Yang Province during the Zhao-Xuan era — be assertive, and "demote and dismiss" many of the two-thousand-bushel officials in the commanderies under their jurisdiction.

Diwu Lun said, "Perhaps they feared alarming Li Yan and pushing him into a swift rebellion."

In truth, it was more likely sheer mediocrity and a lack of decisiveness. After all, the way of officialdom in the Xin Dynasty now was: more action, more mistakes; less action, fewer mistakes; no action, no mistakes. Some senior officials would rather sit paralyzed than take the initiative.

The good news was that Li Yan, unaware his plot had been exposed, was also waiting and had not hastily raised his banner in revolt. If Weicheng were laid waste, it would do Diwu Lun, the newly appointed Acting Grand Governor, no good at all.

The situation in Weicheng was now unclear. Li Yan held full military and administrative power over a commandery and certainly had his core loyalists. If Diwu Lun and his party rashly entered, they might simply be delivering their own heads.

"No matter what, we must still establish contact with the Shepherd of Ji Province and the Vice Shepherd Inspector. Clerk Guo, where are those two gentlemen now?"

Guo Hong, a man of Yingchuan, had once been ordered by the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties to arrest Diwu Lun at Xuanming Quarter. But Diwu Lun knew he was only a minor clerk carrying out orders from above, so he laid the grudge solely on Chen Chong and Kong Ren and did not make things difficult for Guo Hong.

Guo Hong simply said, "I hear the two gentlemen are still in Julu."

Julu was Geng Chun's hometown. Diwu Lun called on him by name: "Then I must trouble you, Boshan, to make a trip. Deliver the duplicate edict to the two gentlemen and have them dispatch the troops of Ji Province's commanderies southward."

"I'll pretend I'm just returning home to visit family, passing through Weicheng Commandery. Li Yan should not suspect anything." Geng Chun was usually all grins and jokes, but when it came to business he was serious. He accepted the order and departed.

Diwu Lun himself had another destination. The Emperor's edict instructed him to proceed to Dong Commandery bearing the imperial tally, to advise Grand Governor Wang Hong of Ziting Commandery (Dong Commandery) to send troops to Weicheng. Although Ziting belonged to Yan Province, it was the closest place to the Wei lands, especially to Yuancheng County, Wang Mang's ancestral home. If nothing else, the ancestral tombs had to be protected first!

But when Diwu Lun was about to set out, Ma Yuan would not travel with him.

"I'm going to Yecheng."

Ma Yuan was a man who liked to make his own decisions: "Boyu doesn't just need external force; he also needs an inside man."

"Isn't Li Yan recruiting bold men from all quarters for his grand scheme?"

Ma Yuan clapped his chest and laughed. "Now, the renowned hero of the Guanzhong region, Ma Wenyuan, has come to join him! Shouldn't he hurry to stop eating and rush out to welcome me?"

…

Traveling east from Henei along the great river for several days brought one to Dong Commandery (Puyang, Henan).

As far as Diwu Lun knew, this commandery was on Wang Mang's blacklist, because over a decade ago, just before Wang Mang became regent and prepared to usurp the Han, it was Governor Zhai Yi of Dong Commandery who had stirred up a great wave of opposition against him.

Back then, Zhai Yi allied with Liu Xin, great-grandson of Emperor Xuan of Han and Marquis of Yanxiang, taking advantage of the autumn military review to mobilize the commandery troops and issue a proclamation denouncing Wang Mang to all provinces and commanderies. He harshly condemned Wang Mang, calling him a Han Duke in name but a Han traitor in deed, accusing him of poisoning Emperor Ping of Han, fraudulently obtaining the regency title, holding the Son of Heaven hostage to command the nobles, and scheming to seize the Han realm.

In the end, he even enthroned Liu Xin as Son of Heaven, establishing a rival court, and gathered over a hundred thousand men. The momentum was so immense that Wang Mang was nearly scared into abandoning his plan to usurp the Han.

However, by then the realm was already weary of Han rule. Zhai Yi's uprising was all thunder and no rain, easily put down by Wang Yi and Yan You. He himself was dismembered and his body parts displayed in public. As for that "Son of Heaven," Liu Xin, his whereabouts were unknown — some thought him dead, others thought him fled.

Afterward, Wang Mang seemed to feel Dong Commandery was too large, so during his reforms he split it in two: the eastern part became "Shouliang Commandery," the western part "Ziting Commandery." To control this region where Zhai Yi's remnant followers operated, he also dispatched one of his own clan to serve as Grand Governor.

But it seemed the fruits of Grand Governor Wang's decade-plus of benevolent governance here were about to be lost. If the Rear Unit could still be considered stable, after Diwu Lun entered Ziting, he found large numbers of refugees moving from east to west along the muddy Yellow River. The gates of cities and towns along the way were tightly shut, as if facing an enemy state.

Diwu Lun hurriedly ordered his subordinates to put away the envoy's tally staff, fearful of revealing his identity. After all, the reputation of an imperial envoy was far too foul. Being robbed and killed by bandits acting on Heaven's behalf, or being surrounded and beaten to death by righteous, indignant refugees, happened from time to time — one had to be on guard.

In early August, after Diwu Lun arrived at Puyang, the capital of Ziting Commandery, he presented the tally of a Grand Master of Splendid Happiness and entered the commandery office, where he met the Grand Governor of Ziting, Wang Hong.

Wang Hong, courtesy name Gongxian, was in his fifties. As far as Diwu Lun knew, he was a great contributor to the Wang clan's usurpation of the Han: Wang Hong's father was Wang Tan, Marquis of Ping'a, one of the "Five Marquises." During Emperor Ai of Han's reign, when the Wang clan was suppressed and even Wang Mang was driven from the capital, Wang Hong alone managed to serve as a Regular Palace Attendant.

Emperor Ai of Han favored men and doted on Dong Xian, appointing him Grand Marshal. After a few years as Emperor, feeling that the world's troubles were beyond remedy, he grew rather weary. Who knows what got into him, but at a small banquet in Qilin Hall, Emperor Ai raised his wine cup, pointed at Dong Xian, and said to the assembled ministers, "I wish to emulate Yao yielding to Shun. What say you?"

He was casting himself as Yao and Dong Xian as Shun — openly proposing to abdicate!

Though many emperors of the Liu house swung both ways, loving a man to this degree was truly unique to Emperor Ai alone. Little did he know, he was practically killing Dong Xian.

These words stunned all the ministers, Dong Xian included. Before Dong Xian could respond, Wang Hong, then serving as a Regular Palace Attendant, rose and rebuked Emperor Ai harshly: "The realm is the realm of the Exalted Emperor, not Your Majesty's possession. Your Majesty inherits the ancestral temple and should pass it down to sons and grandsons without end. The succession is of the utmost gravity — the Son of Heaven speaks no words in jest!"

These words were righteous and stern. Emperor Ai fell silent and displeased, and ordered that Wang Hong never again attend a banquet.

Emperor Ai and Dong Xian were Wang Mang's enemies, so having Wang Hong rebuke them so bluntly was immensely satisfying. Once word of this incident spread beyond the palace, it made the scholars even more utterly disillusioned with the Han Son of Heaven.

When Emperor Ai passed away and Wang Mang returned to power, Wang Hong contributed greatly to the purge of rivals and was regarded as the number-two figure in the Wang clan.

Yet as Wang Mang's power grew ever more secure, Wang Hong was gradually squeezed out of the Wang clan's inner circle, with Wang Yi and others overtaking him. After the Xin Dynasty was established, Wang Hong was only enfeoffed as a marquis, far below the several Upper Dukes. The world had assumed he would at least be among the Four Supports, Three Dukes, or Four Generals, or at worst receive one of the Nine Ministers or Six Overseer posts. Who would have thought he would end up banished to Ziting Commandery as Grand Governor? Though a wealthy commandery, it still carried a whiff of exile.

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Was it a policy disagreement with Wang Mang, or was he feared and distrusted by his cousin? No one knew. In any case, when trouble broke out in Weicheng this time, the first person Wang Mang thought to rely on was not the Shepherd of Ji Province, but still his cousin Wang Hong. Presumably, a member of the imperial clan must be a diehard loyalist of the Great Xin.

But strangely, when Wang Hong met Diwu Lun, he seemed rather nervous, at odds with the composed bearing he had shown when rebuking Emperor Ai back then. Could it be that men grow more timid with age?

"Hong bows in greeting to the envoy. May I ask, for what matter has the heavenly messenger come to our humble town?"

Diwu Lun glanced at the commandery assistant and the others nearby, drew close to Wang Hong, and said in a low voice: "I have come by the Son of Heaven's command. I must ask the Grand Governor to dismiss his attendants before I dare read the edict!"

Wang Hong looked at the young Diwu Lun, as though sensing the killing intent he carried before a great deed. He merely drew a deep breath and said that he must solemnly bathe and change his robes before he dared receive the edict.

Diwu Lun told him to do as he pleased, and simply clasped his hands behind his back in the hall, looking at the screen, the mirror stand, the lamps and candles. He waited a while, and only then heard chaos erupt in the commandery residence, someone crying out in alarm:

"Summon the physician at once — a great calamity has befallen!"

"Lord Wang has taken poison!"

……

PS: Chapter 3 at 18:00.