Chapter 144: I Have Come to Hebei Province

Yecheng (present-day Linzhang in Hebei) lies east of the Taihang range and on the southern bank of the Zhang River. As early as over six hundred years ago, in the Spring and Autumn period, there were already walled settlements here. But its greatest fame comes from Ximen Bao governing Ye under Marquis Wen of Wei — his story of harnessing the river and throwing the witches in is known to nearly every woman and child. By the Han dynasty, Yecheng served as the capital of Wei Commandery; though not as prominent as Handan to the north, it was still a major city in Hebei.

Ma Yuan had been in the city barely ten days, yet he had already managed to infiltrate a rebel faction — purely a matter of chance and luck.

He figured the marriage alliance between the Ma clan and Diwu Lun had only been settled last month. Ordinarily, unless someone was paying special attention, news would take at least several months, even half a year or more, to slowly reach Wei. And now, with travel routes everywhere cut off by bandits, it would be delayed even further — what was there to fear?

Ma Yuan had always been bold, so he entered the city under his real name and soon drew one person's notice.

Yan Chun, a man from Tai County in Guanzhong, was a retainer in the household of Li Yan, Grand Governor of Weicheng. He kept an eye on the movements of outsiders. Hearing that a man of striking bearing named Ma Yuan had arrived at the government hostel in Yecheng and had even taught a lesson to a minor clerk who coveted his valuables, Yan Chun came to take a look.

"It really is Wenyuan." In his youth, Yan Chun had also been a knight-errant and had gotten to know Ma Yuan. Now, meeting an old friend, he was quite delighted and asked Ma Yuan about his experiences.

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"I heard earlier that Wenyuan was wanted by the court for releasing prisoners and had vanished. In the summer, there was a general amnesty — you should have been cleared of charges by now. Why not go home? What brings you here?"

Ma Yuan simply said, "I am all alone, a commoner with a criminal record — hardly fit to hold office again. Where else could I go? My two elder brothers are furious at me for not pursuing a proper career and have all but disowned me. So I thought I'd roam the lands of Yan and Zhao, see if there are any heroes worth following, and make something of myself. I heard the Grand Governor of Weicheng has lately been emulating Lord Xinling, recruiting men of chivalry and righteousness, so I came to take a look."

With someone to recommend him, Ma Yuan smoothly became a retainer of Li Yan, but he still remained on the periphery of the group, unable to take part in the rebellion plotting.

Yet with his exceptional martial skill and conversation, his manner of standing out like a crane among chickens, he quickly distinguished himself among the new retainers and eventually even caught the attention of Li Yan himself. After granting Ma Yuan an audience once, Li Yan promoted him all the way from a lower guest to an upper guest — his meals went from fish and no carriage to meat at every meal, with a carriage and horses to transport him.

It wasn't solely Ma Yuan's ability; Li Yan also had his eye on the fact that Ma Yuan's two elder brothers were both frontier officials holding real power. He thought, if he could send Ma Yuan to persuade the Governor of Yangzhou and the Commandant of Zengshan to join in overthrowing the Xin and restoring the Han, wouldn't the odds of success be much higher?

But what directly propelled Ma Yuan one step further, into the inner circle of the rebellion, was an incident that left him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

The chief strategist urging Li Yan to rebel against the Xin was a diviner from Handan named Wang Kuang.

Wang Kuang had followed Li Yan for many years. Seeing the realm gradually growing restive, he told Li Yan: "Since the Xin took the throne, commoners' fields and slaves may not be bought or sold; the coinage has been changed repeatedly; conscriptions and levies are frequent and vexing; the armies are in turmoil; the four barbarians encroach together; the hundred surnames seethe with resentment; bandits rise everywhere — the House of Han is due to revive. Your surname is Li; Li is a zheng note; zheng is fire — you shall be the Han's support."

And whenever Li Yan needed to employ someone, he first had to pass Wang Kuang's test: Wang Kuang would observe the guest or official's physiognomy from behind a curtain, then divine using their eight characters of birth.

As it turned out, the moment Wang Kuang saw Ma Yuan, he was astonished by his features. He calculated using the tortoise-shell and milfoil method and was overjoyed, telling Li Yan: "This new retainer of yours, my lord, Ma Yuan — judging by his physiognomy, he is destined to become the Grand General who will restore the House of Han and expand its borders!"

Because of the Golden Casket Heavenly Writ that Ai Zhang fabricated out of whole cloth, Wang Mang had installed a gatekeeper and a cake-seller among his Four Supports and Four Generals, treating state affairs as child's play.

And Li Yan, the Grand Governor of Weicheng who wanted to rebel against Wang Mang, was no better. He trusted Wang Kuang without question and thus regarded Ma Yuan with even greater esteem. He had Yan Chun draw Ma Yuan into the fold and asked his views on the court. Ma Yuan naturally expressed plenty of discontent. Li Yan concluded the man was indeed usable and had Yan Chun lay out the situation for him.

Everything went as Ma Yuan had hoped — except that when they finally wanted to appoint him "Han-Restoring General," it completely dumbfounded Ma Wenyuan.

"Isn't this a bit too hasty?" Ma Yuan kindly reminded this bunch of rebels that someone who had just joined a few days ago ought to be observed a while longer; entrusting him with heavy responsibility so quickly could easily lead to trouble.

"No need to be surprised," Yan Chun told Ma Yuan. "Don't look at me like that, Brother Wenyuan — I'm a 'Han-Supporting General' myself!"

Only then did Ma Yuan realize that every single person Li Yan had brought into the rebellion's inner circle, to a man, had been promised an official post: the scholars and clerks became the Nine Ministers, the warriors and knights-errant became generals.

There was a Xin-Exterminating General, a Xin-Sweeping General, a Han-Upholding General, a Han-Flourishing General — at least a dozen of them. If they could be made generals, why couldn't Ma Yuan?

Seeing that if this went on any longer the pretense would become reality, Ma Yuan hastily dispatched Zhang Yu, who had come with him, to find a way to contact Diwu Lun and deliver a message, revealing the true situation in Yecheng — he felt it was time to close the net.

After all, from what Ma Yuan had seen in his brief ten days inside Yecheng, Li Yan and Wang Kuang were unlikely to accomplish anything great.

The great bandits of Qing-Xu and Jingzhou suffered from a lack of documents, banners, and systems — they had no clear objective. But Li Yan and Wang Kuang, who had long plotted rebellion, had gone in the opposite direction: like Wang Mang, they were far too obsessed with constructing theories.

Those slogans Diwu Lun had heard about in Dong Commandery were all composed by Wang Kuang for Li Yan. The idea was fine — raise the banner of Emperor Wen of Han, whom the people yearned for, and then call on the traditional allies, the Xiongnu and the Yue people, to send troops and bolster their courage.

Even the date for the uprising had been set: the eleventh month of the fourth year of Dihuang — still over a year away, plenty of time.

Li Yan had been recommended as Filial and Incorrupt. Truly, when the Filial and Incorrupt rebel, three years pass and nothing is done.

Even more outrageous, Wang Kuang had actually helped Li Yan calculate the fates of every one of Wang Mang's Four Supports, Three Dukes, Four Generals, Nine Ministers, and Six Supervisors, predicting their fortunes good and ill, which could be recruited after the Xin were destroyed and which must be killed, and so on and so forth — over a hundred thousand words in total.

But when plans are made in too much detail, reality often slaps you in the face. The diviner Wang Kuang falsely claimed that Liu Xin, whom Zhai Yi had once set up as emperor, was not dead but living under the alias Fan Chong — the very same Fan Chong who was the great chief of the Mount Tai bandits — hoping to draw the rebel army in as well to boost their momentum.

Yet the envoy Li Yan sent to Mount Tai had still not returned after a long delay. Either he had been robbed on the road by starving refugees, or he had been waylaid and killed by the Mount Tai bandits.

Seeing that they could not get in touch with Fan Chong, Wang Kuang went to see Li Yan and proposed another plan.

"My lord, if we are to restore the Han, we must enthrone a Son of Heaven of the Han line. Otherwise, our name is not right and our words carry no authority."

Li Yan agreed. "But the real Liu Xin's whereabouts are unknown, and Fan Chong is too hard to reach. What if we instead enthrone a member of the Liu imperial clan from Hebei?"

During the Han, many vassal kingdoms had been established in Hebei. Apart from Zhongshan, from which Emperor Ping had come, there were also Hejian, Zhao, and Zhending. The present King of Hejian, Liu Shang, was still alive; in Handan there was Liu Lin, son of King Miao of Zhao; in Zhending there was Liu Yang, son of King Gong of Zhending. Under the Han they had been feudal lords; under the Xin they were local magnates — in Li Yan's mind, they were potential allies.

Wang Kuang, however, shook his head. "Those men are all descendants of Emperor the Classic of Filial Piety — their lineage is too distant; I fear they would struggle to command widespread allegiance. But recently, your servant has found a clansman of even purer blood."

Li Yan was overjoyed. "Could it be a descendant of Emperor Xiaoxuan?"

Everyone knew that, with the three successive breaks in the imperial line under Cheng, Ai, and Ping, the line of Emperor Yuan had no heirs left. Even the child Ying, whom Wang Mang propped up, could only be chosen from among the great-grandsons of Emperor Xuan.

Wang Kuang shook his head. "Closer still!"

"Does my lord know of 'Liu Ziyu'?"

This was a rumor that had swirled through court and countryside for decades — of course Li Yan knew of it.

Emperor Ai had no sons, whether because he was infertile or simply had no interest in women at all. But the dashing and debonair Emperor Cheng had once had quite a few children.

Many consorts — such as Empress Xu and Consort Ban — had been favored by Emperor Cheng and borne sons, but those children had either died young or vanished without a trace.

Where had they gone? That year, the Colonel-Director of Retainers had brought charges, saying they had all been murdered by the sisters Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Zhaoyi. In the Lateral Courts, any child born of the imperial favor died shortly after; countless others were forced to drink drugs that caused miscarriage. The dead infants were buried beneath the walls of the Lateral Courts prison, and their mothers were driven to suicide. Six palace slaves involved in the matter were also put to death — the accusations were detailed and damning.

It was also said that one of the children had been carried off by a palace matron, whereabouts unknown.

The affair had caused an enormous scandal at the time, but after a thorough investigation, it went nowhere. The Wang consort clan merely had Zhao Zhaoyi forced to commit suicide, and that was the end of it.

Although Emperor Cheng's son was never found, this piece of imperial gossip had spread through every corner of court and countryside.

The peerless pair of sisters, Feiyan and Hede — one slender, one plump — the palm dance and the bower of tenderness: men relished these tales endlessly.

Meanwhile, the women of the marketplace focused on the night before Emperor Cheng's death, when Zhao Hede, drunk, fed the emperor seven "Shenxu Glue" pills in a row. All night long, the palace maids heard nothing but the ceaseless laughter of the emperor and Hede from within the bed-curtains. The next day, the emperor was dead — drained of his yang essence.

As for Zhao Feiyan's affairs with other men in a desperate bid to conceive — all of it was spread in salacious detail. The common folk didn't understand matters of court and state, nor did they dare discuss them, but those little things between men and women in the bedchamber — heh heh heh — who didn't understand those?

And that son of Emperor Cheng who was reportedly smuggled out of the palace — one version held that he had not died, but was sheltered by a loyal old eunuch and lived among the common people. This story, along with the scandalous tales of Emperor Cheng and Empress Zhao, spread across the realm. How widespread was it? Even old farmers in the fields of Zhao and Wei could chatter about it with relish.

Li Yan knew that about ten years ago, someone had blocked the carriage of one of Wang Mang's ministers, proclaiming himself "Liu Ziyu of the Han, son of Emperor Cheng's lesser consort," and shouting that the Liu clan must be restored, demanding Wang Mang abdicate at once.

Wasn't that just courting death? After a round of interrogation and torture by the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties, the man confessed he was merely an impostor, and the matter was dropped.

But Wang Kuang now told Li Yan: "That man was only a body double, sent to test Wang Mang. The real Liu Ziyu is still alive!"

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" Li Yan was overjoyed and did not even think to doubt it. The story of Liu Ziyu had spread far too widely. Popular hatred of the New Policies and nostalgia for the Former Han had become an unstoppable tide of thought. If they could raise this banner, they would surely win a massive response from the Liu clans and heroes of all the commanderies of Hebei.

Wang Kuang smiled. "Liu Ziyu goes by the alias Wang Lang. Back then, fleeing the persecution of the demon empress Zhao Feiyan, he escaped to Shu. He is versed in astronomy and calendrics, and a master of physiognomy and fortune-telling — he also makes his living as a diviner. It was he who discovered that there was the aura of a Son of Heaven in Hebei, and he told me to come assist you, Grand Governor."

"Now, Liu Ziyu has sensed that a great upheaval is about to sweep the realm. He has made his way by stages to Hebei and will arrive in Yecheng within days!"

……

Whether that so-called "Liu Ziyu," real or fake, ever made it to Hebei, no one knew — but Diwu Lun had indeed already set foot on this land at Baima Crossing.

Guo Hong, a subordinate clerk of the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties, asked Diwu Lun, "Court Gentleman Consultant, what do you plan to do next?"

Although Geng Chun, who had been sent to notify the Shepherd of Jizhou and the Deputy Shepherd Inspector, had yet to send word, with the three thousand troops of Zhiting Commandery now behind him, and with Ma Yuan acting as an inside agent sending back the true situation in Yecheng, Diwu Lun had gained a measure of confidence.

Diwu Lun studied the map in the Jizhou Admonition. "According to Wenyuan's verbal message, those involved in Li Yan's treason plot are merely a group of his retainers, along with the commandery chief who was persuaded to join — only a few dozen men. Most of the officials know nothing of it."

The accompanying Zhiting commandery chief proposed, "In my view, we should bluff and exaggerate our strength — raise many banners, claim that the court's General Jing Shang has arrived at the city walls with thirty thousand troops, surround one corner of Ye, and shoot an edict into the city denouncing Li Yan's crimes, declaring that only the ringleaders will be punished. When the scholars and officials in the city panic, what do you think they will do?"

Hmm — very likely, it would backfire and make the whole city unite behind Li Yan to resist…

In a normal dynasty, that would be a fine idea, but don't forget — this is the Great Xin!

In Puyang, the Xin Dynasty's sword can barely even behead the Xin Dynasty's own officials anymore, let alone here in Wei.

After all, whether it's the imperial army or the commandery and kingdom troops, the Xin armies' reputation is utterly foul — especially that relative of Jing Dan, the Grand Preceptor Xizhong, Jing Shang, who was sent by imperial command to pacify the bandits of Qing and Xu, yet proved useless against the outlaws and adept only at abusing the people, letting his men run rampant wherever they passed. The people of Yecheng would fear they'd massacre the city!

And among the Zhiting commandery troops, Diwu Lun could see plenty of men itching to get into Yecheng and do a bit of looting themselves.

In this situation, if you don't hurry and cut the knot loose, once you're too slow, it'll twist into a dead tangle indeed.

Granted, he was a married man now, no longer a carefree bachelor dog — he ought to adopt a somewhat more prudent strategy.

And after the fright in Puyang, where he'd been like meat on the chopping block, Diwu Lun was somewhat reluctant to enter a city and risk himself again. But if he wanted to accomplish great things, some risks had to be taken…

Hesitate, and you lose!

Diwu Lun made his decision decisively. "Isn't Li Yan still recruiting bold men? I will take men under false names and infiltrate the city, make contact with Wenyuan, and seize the chance to capture Li Yan."

"To catch the bandits, first catch their king!"

……

PS: Chapter 2 at 18:00.