Chapter 185: Bowing His Head to the Ground

Though he had gone to the banquet with misgivings, the Li brothers did not even have anyone search Liu Xiu's person. This "Feast at Hongmen" was not quite what he had imagined. The small knife Liu Xiu carried in his bosom, which he called "Fan Kuai," never came into play at all.

Li Tong was exceedingly cordial, meeting Liu Xiu in private within his residence. He spoke of his admiration for Liu Xiu's elder brother Liu Bosheng, grumbled about their mutual "old acquaintance" Diwu Lun, and only then said to Liu Xiu in a low voice:

"Now the realm is in turmoil and famine, the Greenwood troops are surging, the the Xin troops have risen, and Nanyang is in upheaval, sorely afflicted by both imperial forces and bandits. At a time like this, the powerful families must join hands to protect themselves."

"Looking across the heroes of Nanyang, the rest are nothing much. Those worth planning great affairs with are only the Li clan and the Bosheng brothers!"

"Moreover, the prophecies say, 'The Liu shall revive, the Li shall assist.' Bosheng has been secretly gathering retainers and purchasing arms and armor. The Li clan is willing to honor Bosheng as our leader and rise in response within Wancheng!"

The moment Liu Xiu heard these words, he immediately bowed his head to the ground before Li Tong and said, "Lord Li, your lofty righteousness is unmatched. If we can gain the Li clan's aid, the great cause is within reach!"

The Greenwood Army had already fought its way to Sui County, and raising the standard was imminent. Liu Xiu had come to Wancheng on his elder brother's orders precisely to contact retainers and friends, and incidentally to try to procure some crossbow mechanisms. The Li clan's agreement to join them was a gift from heaven.

Yet while Liu Xiu appeared delighted on the surface, in his heart he had not the slightest trust in the cheerfully smiling Li brothers.

"The Li clan is wealthy, the foremost in Nanyang. In the past they always circled around the officials. Now they suddenly seek me out to discuss this, their words are evasive, and they even express willingness to serve as auxiliaries. My family killed their half-brother by a different mother — we are their mortal enemies."

But being on another's turf, he could only play along. Liu Xiu merely raised one misgiving: "If we undertake this great affair, Lord Li, your father holds office in Chang'an. What of him?"

Li Yi said, "Our uncle has his own means to extricate himself. Wenshu need not worry on his account. Just convey the Li clan's proposal to Bosheng."

They had no intention of settling matters with Liu Xiu on the spot, either, treating him merely as the younger brother sent to pass word to Liu Bosheng.

After all, Liu Xiu had always kept a low profile, hidden beneath his elder brother's radiance, his reputation unremarkable. Had Diwu Lun not specially dispatched someone to recruit him, and had he not once earned Yan You's regard and served a few days as a minor officer in the army, the Li family would have regarded him as no more than a passerby.

Though each side nursed its own calculations in private, on the surface they struck an immediate accord, conversing together until the sun had shifted, clasping hands in the utmost delight.

Since Liu Xiu remained wary, he did not lay out the Chongling Liu clan's detailed plans in full, offering only some ambiguous information. The Li family, by contrast, to demonstrate their sincerity, directly gave Liu Xiu one hundred crossbows — all contraband whose sale the authorities expressly forbade.

It was only after Liu Xiu had left that Li Tong stroked his beard and said, "No wonder Diwu Lun associated with this man and specially recruited him. Looking at him now, Liu Wenshu is steady, composed, and substantial. He does indeed possess some exceptional qualities."

"Is that so? I didn't see it."

Li Yi, however, did not share this view. "Liu Xiu may have come and gone from Wancheng many times, but he has not a single deed worth praising. He merely basks in his brother's renown. He agreed to our invitation yet hesitated half the day before leaving his door. When he met us, he bowed his head to the ground, trembling with fear. His speech was timid, he dared not make a decision on any matter, and he has none of his brother's heroic, commanding spirit."

"In my view, this Liu Xiu is a man of the villages, fit at best to serve as a messenger bearing word. He is hardly worth mentioning!"

……

Upon returning to his lodgings, Liu Xiu immediately dispatched Zhu You to Chongling to deliver a letter to his elder brother. The Li family's initiative in seeking an alliance was a major new variable and the family had to be informed.

He also secretly observed the Li clan's movements, to determine whether they were colluding with the authorities and using words to deceive them, or whether they truly intended to undertake the great affair.

The Li family was indeed making preparations. Not only were they stockpiling weapons and crossbows, they also purchased large quantities of crimson robes and red headscarves — for the Han house was famed for its virtue of fire, and these could serve as the insignia of troops when they rose. They also invited Liu Xiu to secret discussions several times and had even drawn several of the city's bureau clerks into their fold.

"It seems the brothers Li Ciyuan truly intend to rebel."

What was laughable, however, was that while Li Tong on this side was already preparing to revolt, his father Li Shou was still in Chang'an, utterly ignorant of it all.

"Much like my own family." The ones nominally in charge of the Chongling Liu clan were the elder generation, such as their uncle Liu Liang. They remained in the dark to this day, believing that Bosheng was drilling troops to defend against the Greenwood bandits!

The same was true of the Yin clan of Xinye and the Deng clan. The younger generation — Yin Xing, Deng Chen, and the like — were all secretly planning the great affair with Liu Bosheng, while the family heads themselves remained oblivious. But no matter: when the time came, a single person's response would be enough to drag the entire clan into the water.

As Zhu You traveled back and forth between Chongling and Wancheng, Liu Xiu also learned the latest developments in the south.

"You should know, Wenshu, that more and more people are joining the Greenwood Army. Sui County can hold out until winter at most. Bosheng, meanwhile, has also made contact with Ma Wu, a Greenwood commander he once met. As it happens, among the Pinglin troops — the first in Nanyang to rise in response — there is even a kinsman of your family, called… Liu Xuan."

"So it is Liu Shenggong!"

Liu Xiu knew Liu Xuan. He lived in another ward; both were descendants of the Marquis of Chongling. Their two branches had split only in their great-grandfather's generation, making him a second cousin. They had crossed paths plenty of times during the New Year and festivals. His bloodline was closer to the Chongling main line, and he was also a great landowner, with more land than Liu Xiu himself.

A few years earlier, because a retainer under his patronage had broken the law, Liu Xuan had faked his death to escape and fled to Sui County. Now Liu Xiu was guiding the Greenwood Army and also handling liaison between the various Liu branches of Chongling and the Greenwood forces.

In Wancheng, the Grand Governor of the Vanguard, Zhen Fu, was pressing the various powerful families to contribute funds and manpower, to join him in marching against the Greenwood Army and relieving Sui County.

The Li family, while sending word to their elderly father far away in Chang'an to flee at once, also decided to rise up when the Vanguard army marched south, seizing Wancheng in one stroke, then striking from north and south to catch the government forces between two fronts. The date was set for…

"The first day of winter!"

With the Liu-Li alliance essentially sealed and the date fixed, Liu Xiu looked back on these several years of preparation, his heart full of emotion.

"It has been but a short three years since I fled home from the Imperial Academy. Now, the Red Eyebrows are in the east, the Greenwood in the south, the four barbarians are stirring, Wang Mang's defeat and ruin are manifest, and the Nine Provinces are plunging into chaos."

Compared to his elder brother, Liu Xiu felt that he had merely done a bit of trivial work in Wancheng. But regardless, he had at least played a part in it.

"Elder Brother, the day we have long awaited — the revival of the Han house — is finally at hand!"

"The change in Heaven's mandate is now complete!"

……

By the first ten days of the ninth month of the third year of Dihuang, Diwu Lun had also left Wu'an and begun his return journey to Yecheng.

Even in a jolting carriage, Diwu Lun did not neglect his work. Leaning against the carriage wall, he studied the map of the entire commandery.

"Seizing the three northwestern counties in one stroke has both advantages and disadvantages for me."

"The advantage is capturing the iron mines and the strategic terrain. It ensures the iron supply for the whole commandery and secures the commanding heights overlooking Handan."

"The disadvantage is that it stretches the defensive perimeter, leaving my forces stretched thin."

At present, the troops under Diwu Lun's command were divided into several parts.

Over a thousand of the Boar-Rush Braves who had been allotted farmland, led by the Agricultural Colony Colonel Wan Xiu, were stationed at Wu'an and She County. They kept watch on Zhao Liu on one side, guarded the iron mines on the other, and suppressed the remnants of Li Neng's faction.

There were also five hundred iron-office convict laborers. Because Diwu Lun did not fully trust them, he had broken them up and dispersed them among the various counties, leaving only a portion at the ironworks.

In addition, there were five hundred conscripts, commanded by the commandery military adjutant Geng Yan. Diwu Lun had transferred him to Liyang County in the south.

The main force consisted of three thousand refugee soldiers, under the command of Colonel Ma Yuan, divided into three battalions. One thousand were stationed each at Liangqi in the north, Yecheng in the center, and Neihuang County in the southeast, primarily to keep an eye on the commandery's powerful families while also covering the eastern part of the commandery.

As a result, his troop strength was somewhat insufficient. It was fine when nothing happened, but if trouble arose, he would likely have to rob the east wall to mend the west.

These five thousand men were all standing troops. Unlike the vast numbers of temporary hands that powerful families mobilized on the spur of the moment when they rose, these men were essentially detached from production. Diwu Lun had to provide six to seven thousand shi of grain each month for their supply, which was already tight. It was only thanks to the twenty thousand-plus shi of grain seized after toppling the Li family that he had bought some more time.

But the troops were training in the south of the commandery, and hauling grain over mountains and ridges from afar was not cost-effective. So Diwu Lun calculated the remaining stores in Yecheng's granaries. After winter set in, he could recruit at most two thousand more new soldiers. Any more and the rations would become strained, unless…

"I make the powerful families donate grain."

Furthermore, in the six counties of the commandery's east, which Diwu Lun had yet to control, there were still two thousand commandery troops. Early in the year, Diwu Lun had played a trick, setting the subordinate official Shi Xiong and the Personnel Section Head, Chai of the Chai clan, to watch each other. Though they did not trust one another, they still had to obediently guard Yuancheng for Wang Mang.

"Now that the Li clan of the northwest has been expelled, and my own men have been installed as the county magistrates, commandants, and assistants in each county, the next step is to seize authority over the six counties of the commandery's east!"

The enterprise of unifying Wei Commandery was only half complete. This winter, the burden was heavy and the road long. What Diwu Lun worried about was that external conditions would not wait for him to complete his plans step by step.

As he was pondering this, his attendant Zhang Yu and others beside the carriage let out cries of alarm.

"My Lord, look — locusts in flight!"

Diwu Lun leaned out from the covered carriage and gazed toward the distant sky. Sure enough, a scene that blotted out the heavens unfolded — countless locusts, no one knew how many tens of thousands, swarming in flight.

"Strange. It's already deep autumn — how can there still be locusts!"

Diwu Lun sighed. "Perhaps they flew over from the south bank of the Great River. I've heard that east of the passes, at the turn of summer and autumn, there was a great famine — locusts filled the sky, and men ate one another."

They had probably devoured everything on the far bank of the Great River and then followed the wind across. Swarm after swarm, they might well keep flying until they reached the Taihang Mountains before stopping.

But these locusts had come to Wei Commandery a little too late. The autumn harvest was already over, and the winter wheat had just been sown but not yet sprouted. At most, the locusts could nibble a few vegetable leaves — they posed no fatal blow to Wei Commandery. A grasshopper after autumn hasn't long to hop; once winter sets in, they can just wait to die off.

As for the locusts that dropped exhausted in various places, they could at least bring some rare protein to the hunger-racked common folk in certain counties. The only worry was that these locusts, flying out of season, might lay eggs in Wei territory, planting a hidden threat for next year's harvest.

Most people believed locusts were divine creatures; those who prayed and respectfully sent them off were many — all the more so in an age rife with portents and apocrypha.

But back when Diwu Lun served as a bureau clerk in his hometown and once encountered a locust plague, he had learned that the order to catch and kill locusts did not need to wait for a genuine transmigrator like himself to advocate it. Another "suspected transmigrator" had already issued it.

As early as the second year of Yuanshi under Emperor Ping of the former dynasty, after a massive locust plague struck, the Duke Who Pacifies the Han, Wang Mang, dispatched envoys to catch locusts. To encourage this practice, he even had the common people turn in the locusts they caught to officials, paying them by weight in pecks and bushels. This was very likely the first time in history that the court mobilized the entire populace to exterminate locusts.

And Diwu Lun had also heard that this summer, east of the Yellow River, a locust plague broke out — locusts blotted out the sky and flew as far as Chang'an, entering the Shoucheng Chamber and crawling up the halls and pavilions. The common folk saw it as a calamitous portent, but Wang Mang declared it an ordinary occurrence and once again mobilized officials and people, setting bounties to catch and strike them down.

"So, Wang Mang, oh Wang Mang — are you superstitious, or are you not?"

It was now four years since he had come to this era. No one knew how much longer the Great Xin could hold out, and Diwu Lun still could not quite figure Wang Mang out.

Be that as it may, Wang Mang's decrees did give local authorities the convenience to openly arrest and punish those shamans and invocators who babbled that "locusts are Heaven's will and must not be killed but worshipped." When disaster descended from Heaven, they could make small struggles and human efforts — burn them when they should be burned, eat them when they should be eaten. When you're starving, this was all meat.

Though these sudden locusts would not cause too much damage to Wei Commandery, anyone could imagine what the flying locusts above, combined with the locusts on the ground, meant: with the imperial army passing through, how dire the situation south and east of the Great River would become. No wonder that during what should have been a bountiful autumn harvest, more and more refugees kept fleeing to Weicheng, solving Diwu Lun's manpower problem — while the Red Eyebrows in Yan Province grew ever stronger.

By the time Diwu Lun returned to Yecheng, Geng Chun came at once to inform him of a major event.

"General of Renewal Lian Dan and Grand Preceptor Wang Kuang have reported their achievements to the court and widely distributed victory dispatches to all commanderies. The imperial army has annihilated the main force of the Red Eyebrows at Youyan County in Youyan Commandery — formerly Dongping Commandery! Tens of thousands of heads taken!"

Youyan Commandery was Dongping; Youyan County was the Han-era Wuyan County, forcibly renamed by Wang Mang. It lay across a single Zhiting Commandery from Weicheng, no more than three hundred li from the commandery border — reachable in ten days. Word was that it had been seized by a detached force of the Red Eyebrows the month before.

This was absolutely major news that could change the situation east of the passes. Yet upon hearing this great victory, Diwu Lun's first thought was of the imperial army's signature art — all those Lu Fang heads flying wildly through the sky.

Diwu Lun looked at Geng Chun. "The main Red Eyebrow force is destroyed. This great victory… Boshan, do you believe it?"

Geng Chun shook his head with certainty. "I don't believe it!"

…

PS: Sealed by a cold snap, got up a bit late. Chapter 2 at 18:00.