Chapter 232: Micromanagement

As for Liu Xiu, since the third month of the first year of Gengshi, when he followed the Greenwood generals into Yingchuan, two full months had passed. Liu Xiu felt his greatest gain here had been attracting a large number of outstanding talents from his home commandery to rally to his side.

In Xiangcheng County, there was Fu Jun, a Precinct Chief by origin — though he was merely a brave warrior. But Feng Yi, the commandery Investigator who surrendered with Fucheng County, was in Liu Xiu's eyes a commander of real talent. Nor did it stop there: Feng Yi also recommended to him a whole group of county worthies.

And recently, when they attacked Yingyang City to the north, a local strongman named Wang Ba, who served as County Jailer, came to offer his allegiance with a hundred retainers, and paid his respects to Liu Xiu: "General, you have raised righteous troops, executed corrupt officials, and committed no outrages against the clans. Wang Ba, recklessly overestimating his own ability, covets your awe-inspiring virtue and wishes to fill a place in your ranks!"

Liu Xiu was naturally overjoyed — not only because Wang Ba had also studied at the Imperial Academy and possessed considerable literary talent, but also because his name struck a pleasing note: "Wang Ba, Wang Ba — this is an omen of royal hegemony!"

"Xiu dreams day and night of achieving great deeds together with worthy men — how could I be of two minds?" Liu Xiu thereupon appointed Wang Ba as a military judge, to help him discipline his personal troops. "The best-disciplined contingent in the Han army" — this was the persona he was determined to uphold to the end.

The soldiers and officers under Liu Xiu's command gradually swelled in number, and besides seizing the vital stronghold of Kunyang, they had already taken seven or eight counties in succession, occupying nearly the greater part of Yingchuan, so that the entire southern and western regions of the commandery now formed one contiguous block.

In this way, the northern wall of Nanyang fell under Han army control. This wall stretched for several hundred li, with Luyang Pass as its western gate and Kunyang Pass as its eastern gate. Whichever direction the Xin army chose to attack, they would know in advance and could respond with flexibility.

However, when Zhu You, who had been sent to reconnoiter the Henan region, returned and reported to Liu Xiu the scene of the imperial court's massing forces, even someone as steady as Liu Xiu showed a trace of worry.

"General Liu, the Xin army — they claim to be a host of a million!"

……

As early as the previous month, Dou Rong, who had been repeatedly defeated by the Greenwood forces since the Battle of Tang River and had been fleeing all over Yingchuan, finally escaped to the Luoyang region via Huan Yuan Pass, the narrow defile between the two commanderies.

In Dou Rong's eyes, the Greenwood Army and the Han troops were utterly different from how they had been at the Battle of Little Chang'an. Back then, they had only just risen in revolt, and coordinating with one another was a serious problem. But after drilling against government forces for half a year, the various generals had grown increasingly adept at warfare, and now their morale was soaring. The soldiers under Dou Rong's own command, by contrast, standing beneath the banner of "Xin," found only discouragement.

He truly could not fathom how, under such circumstances, Yan You and Cen Peng in Wancheng were managing to hold that great city with an isolated army and persist to this day.

But when Dou Rong reported these hard-won lessons and experiences in full detail to Grand Minister of Works Wang Yi, the Great Xin's god of war was far from pleased.

"Has the Duke of Zhou perhaps been defeated too often? Why must you extol the enemy's strength and deflate our own prestige!"

Dou Rong could only hold his tongue for the time being. Yet during his period of rest and recovery in Luoyang, he received a personal letter from Diwu Lun…

Its contents greatly alarmed Dou Rong. Diwu Lun's emphasis on Liu Xiu was within reason — Dou Rong, having been chased all across Yingchuan, had witnessed firsthand how formidable this young man was. According to prisoners, the idea of dividing into multiple squads to harass the government army's supply lines before the Battle of Tang River had been proposed by Liu Xiu.

But Diwu Lun's description of "meteorites" verged on some sort of prophetic fabrication. Dou Rong could not make sense of it for the moment and chose to ignore it.

Dou Rong also cautiously mentioned to the Grand Minister of Works the need to be wary of Liu Xiu, but Wang Yi dismissed it: "The world knows of Liu Bosheng, but not his younger brother. The Son of Heaven has offered a bounty: one hundred thousand in gold for Liu Bosheng's head, fifty thousand for Liu Xuan's — yet Liu Xiu's name does not appear. He is a minor, insignificant commander. What is there to speak of?"

As it happened, at this very moment, Wang Yi also received an eight-hundred-li urgent edict from the court. It was a personal letter from the Emperor, full of detailed instructions on how Wang Yi should conduct the coming campaign: he was to divide his forces, with one army striking Kunyang and the other attacking Luyang, rather than bunching up in one place.

Dispatching a general without giving him the tiger tally, demanding he first seek approval before acting — it was like tethering a hunting dog while demanding it bring back more game. Emperor Wang Mang was just such a contradictory man. It was fortunate that Wang Mang had not stated outright that this advice came from Diwu Lun.

Faced with this micromanagement, the Grand Minister of Works was very displeased, and complained to Dou Rong: "In the Warring States period, the Qi general Kuang Zhang was ordered to attack Chu and faced the Chu army across the Tang River. He delayed battle for a long time, waiting for the right moment. King Xuan of Qi thereupon sent an envoy to urge him on."

"Kuang Zhang replied: 'If Your Majesty wishes to strip me of my office, or even execute my entire clan, I shall obey the royal command. But here before the two battle lines, when to advance and how to advance — on these matters, I alone shall decide! There are cities one does not attack, ground one does not contest, and sovereign commands one does not accept!'"

Wang Yi looked at his beloved concubine's elder brother: "Duke of Zhou, do you think I could use this to reply to His Majesty?"

The Grand Minister of Works was getting carried away. Dou Rong, for his part, felt that splitting off one force to take the Luyang route was a sound suggestion — and one of the rare occasions when Wang Mang's interference in military affairs was actually correct. He thus urged him strongly:

"For many years the Grand Minister of Works was not entrusted with important tasks; now he has been given several hundred thousand troops, like Wang Jian of Qin in former days. His Majesty's motto is 'employ men without suspicion,' but in truth he is obstinate and distrustful, and delights in making the army's orders issue from multiple sources. Now that the armored troops of the Guanzhong heartland have been emptied out and entrusted solely to the Grand Minister of Works, if you do not follow Wang Jian's example of sullying your own reputation, that is one thing — but how can you rashly defy orders, and thereby give the Son of Heaven cause to sit and grow suspicious of you?"

"At present, you should make winning the military contest your chief duty; it is inadvisable to oppose the Son of Heaven. In any case, the hundred thousand troops under the deputy commander, Grand Chancellor Wang Xun, are mostly drawn from the various commanderies. He has likewise received the imperial edict and does not obey the Grand Minister of Works' orders. It would be better to send him via Luyang Pass, while the Grand Minister of Works proceeds via Kunyang. Together with Diwu Lun, who is advancing south from Wu Pass, the three forces will then converge upon Wancheng!"

Wang Yi thus grudgingly agreed. He thereupon took personal command of three hundred thousand troops, and in the middle of the fifth month they marched out of eastern Luoyang, passed through Yanshi, and entered Yingchuan via Huan Yuan Pass, retaking the various counties seized by the Han army and pressing straight toward Kunyang.

Meanwhile, Grand Chancellor Wang Xun led the hundred thousand troops scraped together from the various commanderies and kingdoms out of western Luoyang, detoured through Yi Que Pass, and advanced along narrow roads toward Luyang.

On the day the troops marched out, two elite Northern Army divisions — the Hu Cavalry and the Tiger Guard — led the van and brought up the rear. The three hundred thousand troops had emptied the armories of Guanzhong and Luoyang of their equipment. Decked out with banners and pennants, if one did not draw close enough to see the conscripts' low morale and scrawny arms, they did indeed cut a fine figure.

Such an immense army clogged the open fields and roads of the tiny Luoyang plain so tightly that not a gap remained. Seen from afar, the banners were like a forest, the masses of men like mountains. Grand Minister of Works Wang Yi laughed heartily: "With such a host to fight, who can withstand it! With such a host to besiege a city, what city will not fall?"

Wang Yi demanded that the troops march at a rate of thirty li per day, while the vanguard he personally led was to achieve a speed of forty li per day.

Since, under Wang Mang's micromanagement, this campaign had now turned into a three-pronged advance — Diwu Lun taking the upper route, Chancellor Wang the middle route, and the Grand Minister of Works and Dou Rong the lower route —

the question of which was superior and which inferior would have to be settled on the battlefield.

"Before Chancellor Wang breaches Luyang, within ten days or a month, I shall flatten Kunyang and kill this 'Liu Xiu' the Duke of Zhou speaks of."

"And before Diwu Lun reaches Wancheng, I shall likewise crush the Bosheng brothers and sever the head of the one who has usurped the imperial title!"

The heroic spirit of that fearless eastern campaign years ago, when he had turned back the tide at the last moment — it had returned! Wang Yi's ardor soared; in that moment, his aura truly seemed to swallow ten thousand li like a tiger!

"Strike camp! Southward march!"

……

"According to the terms of my edict, today, the fifteenth of the fifth month, is the day the Grand Minister of Works and the Grand Chancellor are to leave Luoyang and march south."

In truth, according to Wang Mang's original plan, Diwu Lun was also supposed to lead his "eighty thousand" conscripts south today. But Diwu Lun had delayed again and again, missing two auspicious days containing the number "five."

Wang Mang was very displeased, and said to Grand Marshal Dong Zhong, who had been ordered to shuttle between Hongmen Camp and the court: "It has been over half a month since he entered the court. Why is Diwu Lun still not ready?"

Dong Zhong no longer bothered to cover for the various officials responsible for conscription and grain transport. He simply described the wretched state, exhaustion, and low morale of the conscripts in full, making a thorough case for Diwu Lun. He told the Emperor that for Diwu Lun to have, in a mere ten-odd days, barely managed to sort those tens of thousands of rabble — who resembled refugees more than soldiers — into rough ranks with "the strength for a single stage of a march" was already no small feat.

Wang Mang indeed knew nothing of military affairs — otherwise he would never have harbored the delusion that "a southern campaign of several hundred thousand troops is certain to win." Much of what Dong Zhong described, he was actually hearing for the first time. Ordinarily, the generals deceived their superiors and concealed the truth from those below, and never breathed a word of such things.

Dong Zhong also relayed a request from Diwu Lun, asking the Emperor to allocate a cavalry unit to assist him — the Yue Cavalry Battalion, for instance…

But Wang Mang's memory was, at this moment, uncannily sharp. He actually recalled that the colonel of the Yue Cavalry Battalion, Cheng Zhong, had once accompanied Diwu Lun in escorting his bastard son back to court. The two knew each other and seemed to have some connection.

Thereupon the Emperor made a sweeping stroke of his brush and changed the allocated battalion from the Yue Cavalry to the Garrison Cavalry Battalion!

Moreover, the Garrison Cavalry Battalion would not rendezvous at Hongmen, but would instead wait at Lantian — the obligatory route south to Wu Pass — together with the army supervisor Wang Mang had assigned to Diwu Lun.

Dong Zhong asked cautiously: "May I know who His Majesty has appointed as army supervisor…?"

"Master of Fates of the Five Majesties, Marquis of Tongmu — Chen Chong!"

Wang Mang had already selected a perfect combination for Diwu Lun: his superior Liangqiu Ci, with whom he had a grudge, as deputy general; the Garrison Cavalry Battalion, with which Diwu Lun had never cooperated, as a supporting wing; and finally, Diwu Lun's personal enemy as army supervisor. In this way, a perfect balance of power was established — it would not hinder Diwu Lun's command in battle, yet it would keep a watch on him, ensuring this somewhat rash young man dared not act recklessly.

That Diwu Lun had taken the initiative to propose Chen Chong as an accompanying supervisor was a major reason Wang Mang had finally set his mind at ease about him.

As for Chen Chong, upon suddenly receiving this appointment, even a man as wily as a snake showed a flicker of astonishment. His thoughts ran entirely contrary to Wang Mang's: "This brat means to emulate Sima Rangju killing Zhuang Jia, or Li Guang slaying the Commandant of Ba — he intends to put me to death within the army!"

……

The next day, when Dong Zhong returned to Hongmen and relayed the Emperor's orders to Diwu Lun, Diwu Lun was not at all surprised by Wang Mang's routine machinations.

"Garrison Cavalry it is, then. Still three thousand troops: a thousand horse, two thousand foot. Since they're not acquaintances, I won't have to consider personal ties when admonishing the Garrison Cavalry colonel — that actually makes things easier…"

He asked Dong Zhong in return: "How have the Grand Marshal's discussions with the State Preceptor and the General of the Guard progressed? On what day exactly do you plan to rise up?"

"The twenty-eighth of the fifth month." Dong Zhong disclosed this date, making Diwu Lun fight the urge to roll his eyes and collapse in disbelief.

"Why?"

Diwu Lun found this decision utterly baffling. Wang Mang had given him a strict deadline: he absolutely had to pick the last auspicious day in the fifth month containing a "five" — the twenty-fifth of the fifth month — and must break camp by then!

He had already gone south himself — was he supposed to remonstrate by force from several hundred li away?

Dong Zhong, however, wagged his head and declared, "On this matter, the State Preceptor long ago sent trusted men to deliberate with us. The prognostications say: 'At the four-seven juncture, fire shall be master.' Four times seven is twenty-eight; add to that the day's celestial sign of Venus in broad daylight — if we launch the action on that day, success is assured!"

Diwu Lun had previously learned that Wang Mang insisted on the auspicious number "five" for every army expedition and had laughed about it for quite a while; he never imagined there would be something even more absurd!

Liu Xin's scholarship was outstanding, but for an old pedant like him to manage a mutiny — with this degree of dithering and roundabout scheming — he was practically dead set against success.

Dong Zhong and the others had even laid out the entire plan: "The Duke of Weixin shall enter the capital on the twenty-fourth of the fifth month to receive the axe and battle-axe from His Majesty. On the twenty-fifth, he shall hurry back through the night to Hongmen, take command of the troops, and march south. On the twenty-sixth, the army shall encamp at Lantian and rendezvous with the Garrison Cavalry Battalion. On the twenty-seventh, they shall reach Yao Pass…"

This Yao Pass, several dozen li south of Lantian County, was the first defensive barrier beyond the pass. Back when Liu Bang entered the pass to destroy Qin, he was blocked there and had to fight a battle, finally taking it by Zhang Liang's stratagem.

"On the twenty-eighth, the Duke of Weixin may launch the great undertaking, leading the army to seize Yao Pass. Thus he can close the pass and cut off any enemies from beyond it, then wheel back to strike the Yue Cavalry Battalion south of the capital, while we within the city raise signal fires to coordinate…"

All this forced stalling just to scrape together an auspicious number of days made the whole plan riddled with holes — could they really not see it themselves?

Diwu Lun watched Dong Zhong enthusiastically lay out the scheme, and feared they actually believed their own strategy was flawless!

Diwu Lun could listen no longer; he could no longer keep up the pretense. As he had suspected, these people were not ones he could work with.

"I shall follow your counsels, gentlemen." Diwu Lun struck the rhythm in praise, declaring the plan utterly foolproof and vowing he would carry out his part as agreed.

Yet after Dong Zhong had left, Diwu Lun set himself a true date for the rising.

"The twenty-fifth of the fifth month!"

Since that was an auspicious number, it was not only the day the great army would break camp and march south, but also the grand occasion of Wang Mang's wedding to the new Empress of the Shi clan.

An ordinary household throwing a wedding feast would be thrown into frantic confusion; how much more so the Son of Heaven's nuptials? For those few days, the whole of Chang'an would be seething with excitement — slipping one or two people out of the city would be no trouble at all.

Suppose — Diwu Lun was only supposing — that on this great day of rejoicing, just as the bride was on the road, the court were suddenly shocked to learn that a great treason was brewing among the Three Dukes. The various colonels of the Northern Army, responsible for defending the outskirts of the city, would find their normally smooth chain of command and communications thrown into utter chaos…

Diwu Lun's band of raw recruits could not fight a positional battle; they could only fight a chaotic one.

"The countdown has begun."

Exactly ten days remained. Diwu Lun felt sorry — truly sorry — only for the fact that he was about to ruin the old king's final, fleeting joy, like a brief flash of life before the end: "You have indeed treated me generously, and I have no fitting gift to offer…"

"I can only add one more 'five' to Your Majesty's great day of rejoicing!"

…

PS: Tomorrow's update will be at 13:00.