Chapter 187: Refugees

The commandery office in Yecheng was divided into administrative and residential quarters, as strictly separated as the palace proper and the forbidden precincts.

And Ma Yuan was one of the very few who could enter the inner residence directly, without being announced or having an appointment.

Today, as soon as he stepped into the hall, he saw Diwu Lun sitting shoulder to shoulder with his daughter, eating together from the same table. Ma Yuan even caught sight of Diwu Lun placing food into Ma Chanchan's bowl.

In this era, the custom was to eat at separate tables — even among family members, and especially for wives and concubines, who usually sat at small side tables. Sharing a table was seen as a mark of extreme intimacy; for instance, Emperor Ai of Han and Dong Xian often sat, lay, and ate together...

So the rumor that Diwu Lun and his wife shared a harmonious and affectionate relationship had long since drifted beyond the commandery office. Ma Yuan was quite gratified by this, but seeing too much of it also cloyed, so he gave a cough to announce his arrival.

Seeing him come in, Diwu Lun rose and said, "My father-in-law has returned from Neihuang. Quick, add a table and a meal."

"No need." Though Ma Yuan had an empty stomach, he had no desire to eat this meal, and merely said he had important matters to report.

After leaning down to give his wife a few instructions, Diwu Lun went with Ma Yuan into the study. The bamboo slips and wooden tablets inside were still piled high; Diwu Lun disliked letting servants come in and disturb them. Fortunately, with a good wife and helpmate, the place was far tidier than the chaos of the past.

"More refugees have crossed into the commandery from the east," Ma Yuan told Diwu Lun, his expression grave.

Diwu Lun had anticipated the sharp increase in refugees after autumn. The previous year, a great drought had struck the lands east of the passes, with locusts descending like rain, and in some places the autumn harvest was practically nothing. On top of that, the imperial army had campaigned east, the Red Eyebrows had risen, and the two sides had fought repeatedly; in the regions that became battlefields, order collapsed, and the common people fled in droves.

"The populace of Qing Province and Yan Province have largely abandoned their villages. The old and weak die on the roads; the able-bodied join the bandits. Those unwilling to join the bandits flee to places that are stable and prosperous, seeking a way to stay alive."

Because Diwu Lun had governed it in perfect order, Weicheng Commandery had for a time become a place to which refugees flocked eagerly.

Toward the common people crossing from outside into Wei territory to take refuge, Diwu Lun had initially been welcoming. He had stationed five hundred soldiers at Liyang specifically to screen the people crossing the river, levied a heavy tax on wealthy households, and recruited impoverished people with no livelihood as soldiers. By gathering refugees, he had raised a military force, which had led to his present position. Now, those refugees who had enlisted early and earned much merit had already been allotted plots of land in Wushi County ranging from thirty to fifty mu.

But if too many refugees flooded in, that too would be a major problem — and the routes from Yan Province into Weicheng were not limited to the single river crossing.

Ma Yuan cursed. "After the great river in the east of the commandery changed course, Wei territory lost a natural barrier. Refugees from Shouliang Commandery can come straight across. The two thousand commandery troops under Commandant Shi Xiong can barely hold Yuancheng; they can't stop them at all. It's leaked through like a sieve."

Diwu Lun called these refugees "illegal crossers."

There were also those who sneaked in by way of Pinghe Commandery (Qinghe Commandery) to the northeast of Weicheng. He had heard that quite a few refugee leaders over there had already gathered hundreds or even thousands and risen in revolt, and the local authorities could not suppress them.

And Diwu Lun's control over the six counties in the east of the commandery was not strict; they were still in a state of "self-rule."

Ma Yuan told him, "At least several thousand refugees slipped in from the east of the commandery during the autumn harvest. Most have been absorbed as refugee laborers, tenant farmers, and slaves by powerful houses like the Dong clan of Guantao and the Xu clan of Ping'en."

How could a single powerful family gather a following of a thousand or more? Apart from locally recruited retainers, they largely took in all the drifting refugees. The refugees, to survive, attached themselves to powerful magnates, making those magnates' power even greater.

But the magnates' appetites were also limited. As a result, refugees were wandering aimlessly through Wei territory, and some had even made their way into Ma Yuan's defense sector.

Nor were these refugees all honest folk. Roaming about in gangs, they did tremendous damage to local order.

Diwu Lun had just finished dealing with matters in the northwest, and now trouble had sprung up in the east. It truly gave him not a moment to catch his breath. "It seems the gaping hole in the east of the commandery must be plugged."

This was a fine opportunity to intervene in the east of the commandery. Looking at the map, Diwu Lun said, "Father-in-law, take your troops and shift east to Yin'an County (Nanle, Henan). Then use the old trick — keep recruiting soldiers."

"Even if we plug the gap at Yin'an, refugees can still come through Yuancheng and other places. It treats the symptoms, not the root cause."

Ma Yuan, always bold, laughed. "I do have an idea that could settle it once and for all!"

He pointed to the area on the map between the old course and the new course of the great river. "Let me march east and extend the territory under Weicheng's control eastward, all the way to the new course of the great river!"

Diwu Lun said, "You mean, take over for Shouliang Commandery — whose government has already collapsed, its officials merely holed up in the commandery seat to avoid the Red Eyebrows — and administer the six counties of Dongwuyang, Liaocheng, and the rest? Push our commandery's controlled border to the new course of the great river, and set up defenses along the river, so as to control the influx of refugees?"

"Exactly." Ma Yuan said, "This region was the western border of Qi, around Liaocheng, during the Warring States period. The land is flat, the soil fertile, with no mountain or river barriers; it has always been a thoroughfare linking north and south, east and west. And it connects to Wei territory in the west, serving as the lips of our commandery. During the Warring States, Zhao, Wei, and Qi often contended for supremacy here. If we can take it, we can hold the Red Eyebrows at the new river, and we won't have refugees coming and going and running wild as they please."

This was indeed a good plan, but a major reason Diwu Lun had left the six counties in the east of the commandery to their own devices was that his military strength and number of officials were both stretched thin. His main energy was devoted to the three northwestern counties; attending to one meant losing grip on the other.

So although Ma Yuan's plan was ambitious, Diwu Lun felt that suddenly expanding the board was not appropriate. Instead, it would saddle him with six more counties in collapsed order as a burden.

What was more, this would be crossing borders to seize and occupy the territory of another commandery — something that could not be done while the imperial army was still undefeated. Expanding territory would have to wait a while longer.

"We'll need to recruit another batch of subordinate clerks and raise two thousand more soldiers before we have enough to do this."

Ma Yuan went off to prepare the shift of troops to the east of the commandery, but then Geng Chun came calling.

Vice-Governor Geng had come to report to Diwu Lun on the annual accounting from each county.

"Boyu, ah, Boyu, it is just as you said — having weapons in hand makes all the difference. Compared to last year, when we first arrived in Weicheng and the counties wantonly deceived us, this year's autumn harvest accounts from every county in the commandery have all been submitted ahead of schedule."

"Would they dare not submit them?" Diwu Lun gave a cold laugh. Never mind last year's killing of a chicken to warn the monkeys — just the momentum of his crushing of the Li clan with heavy troops in the autumn, seizing the three northwestern counties, was enough to make every County Magistrate and powerful magnate tremble with fear upon hearing of it. At a moment like this, no one dared stick their neck out.

The only exception was the "Three Zhaos" in the north of the commandery. The terms Diwu Lun had sent Feng Yan to negotiate with Handan's Zhao Liu were to exempt those three counties from land tax. For now, his urgent task was to control the east of the commandery, so he could only temporarily tolerate three little pigs snoring beside his bed — but sooner or later, he would slaughter them.

But Geng Chun also brought Diwu Lun some bad news.

"The subordinate clerks sent to each county have all heard rumors and slander circulating among the people, saying that you intend to seize the lands of all the powerful families and small farmers in the commandery and distribute them to the refugees!"

Diwu Lun had already learned of these matters from Huang Chang. He supposed it was a side effect of distributing land to the Boar-Rush Braves.

In any era, natives tied to their land and reluctant to move will always harbor hostility toward refugees from outside. The accents so different from their own, the eyes burning with hunger, the greed when looking at one's own fields, homes, wives, and daughters, the living space squeezed by the influx of great numbers — all of it was enough to make natives instinctively loathe and hate refugees, to see them as locusts, to wish to drive them out and exterminate them before anything else.

And in the eyes of the people of Wei, Diwu Lun was indeed the ultimate representative of outside forces. Not only did he recruit refugees as soldiers, he had also divided up the Li family's land to settle the Boar-Rush Braves. Even without people harboring ill intent stirring things up behind the scenes, these rumors had plenty of fertile soil in which to grow.

Although Diwu Lun, by the military force in his hands, could temporarily suppress all dissent, as more and more refugees flooded into Weicheng, the conflict between natives and newcomers would only grow greater.

The land, grain, and pie in Weicheng were only so large. There was not enough to go around between Diwu Lun and the local powerful houses and common people; adding an endless stream of refugees made things even tighter.

Endless internal competition led nowhere. In the end, the only way out was to cross the commandery border and make the pie bigger. Ma Yuan's proposal lingered in Diwu Lun's mind; it could well be set as a future goal.

But as for Geng Chun's suggestion to send subordinate clerks everywhere to announce the commandery office's policies in order to refute the rumors, Diwu Lun felt it would be of little use.

As everyone knew, rumors took just a moving mouth, while refuting them ran your legs off. Trying to reason with people was nowhere near as effective as precisely stoking their anxieties. So his countermeasure for now was...

"Only rumors can fight rumors!"

Huang Chang was very skilled at this. Diwu Lun had already dispatched him with subordinate clerks to carry it out.

"Go to every county and spread the word: the great Red Eyebrow army is about to cross the river into Weicheng. If the powerful magnates and the common people do not rally around Lord Diwu to face this together, the peace of Wei territory will soon be lost!"

Geng Chun laughed. "But the word outside is clearly that the imperial army won a great victory at Wuyan."

Diwu Lun shook his head. "It is precisely because of the great victory at Wuyan that the Red Eyebrows will have to shift and cross the river to come here."

This was perfectly logical.

"Also have people continue to spread: 'The great imperial army is about to pursue the Red Eyebrows and cross the river into Weicheng. If the powerful magnates and the common people do not rally around Lord Diwu to face this together, the peace of Wei territory will soon be lost.'"

Geng Chun clapped his hands and laughed heartily. "Brilliant! When the people of Wei hear the Red Eyebrows are coming, they merely wet themselves in terror. But if they hear the imperial army is coming, I fear they will shit their pants and flee to become refugees themselves."

In any case, to the powerful magnates and common people of Wei territory, both were synonymous with utter ferocity and malice. The Red Eyebrows had the typical mindset of refugee leaders: sweeping through every region, producing nothing and living by plunder. They mainly killed the upper and middle classes, but innocent commoners inevitably suffered as well.

And the imperial army was even more unadulterated. The armies of the General of Renewal and the Grand Preceptor mainly killed the middle and lower classes — the slaughter at Wuyan was proof. When an army ran out of control and went mad, it even struck at powerful houses!

Though the ballad sung outside went, "Better to meet the Red Eyebrows than the imperial army" — choosing the lesser of two evils — the best thing was to encounter neither bunch.

Since the people of Wei feared that Diwu Lun would sacrifice their interests to feed the refugees, he would simply create an even greater panic, playing up the threat of invasion by outside forces, and make the powerful houses of Weicheng Commandery understand that they had no choice but to rely on Lord Diwu. After all, any single family, taken alone, was absolutely no match for the imperial army or the Red Eyebrows.

In fact, it was Geng Chun who made a request to Diwu Lun, saying he needed to leave Wei Commandery for a while.

Diwu Lun was taken aback. "Boshan, you're not thinking of following my example and resigning, are you?"

Geng Chun shook his head. "Not at all. Didn't the General of Renewal send an envoy to rebuke Boyu harshly, demanding that the Boar-Rush Braves must reach Wuyan by the tenth month to regroup?"

"Of course. The Boar-Rush Braves suffered heavy casualties in their bitter fight with the Li clan, and with 'rebels' rising everywhere in Wei — how can we possibly go?"

"These matters need someone to go and report them to the General of Renewal. An ordinary minor clerk would hardly be equal to the task."

Geng Chun volunteered. "Why not let me make the trip on Boyu's behalf? I can also see for myself whether the imperial army truly won a great victory at Wuyan, and whether the main Red Eyebrows force has actually been wiped out."

This bore on the future choices of Wei Commandery — they really did need someone trustworthy to go and assess the situation.

But with the chaos out there, leaving Wei territory meant courting danger. It didn't seem like Geng Chun's style. Diwu Lun eyed him doubtfully, and Geng Chun told him the truth.

He set aside his usual joking manner and said gravely, "The Red Eyebrows and the imperial army are about to decide the outcome. The situation in Yan Province looks grim. I'm worried about my father's safety, and I'd like to stop at Dingtao along the way!"

……

PS: Aaah, getting up in the morning is getting harder and harder. I have to hold on.

(Chapter 2 at 13:00.)

(Chapter 3 at 18:00.)