Chapter 244: Weep! All of You, Weep for Me!

The Huanghuang Chamber Mistress Wang Yan and the deposed Crown Prince Wang Lin's wife — the daughter of the State Preceptor who brought disaster on herself by stargazing and took her own life — had been on good terms. In her youth, she had heard her catalogue the star chambers.

She had heard her say that a region in the heavens was specially marked out and called the "Grand Subtlety Enclosure," representing the celestial court, corresponding to the Emperor's palace chambers on earth.

And the Great White Star — Venus — was an omen of war. Whenever its position in the sky shifted, it was surely linked to the raising of troops and waging of campaigns. And if the two were to meet…

"When the Great White enters the Grand Subtlety, the realm faces calamity!"

It was not as though the Xin Dynasty had known only a day or two of calamity — the troubles had scarcely ceased from its very founding. At first, it was Wang Mang's fondness for stirring up trouble that provoked hostilities on all four barbarian frontiers. Later, though Mang wished for peace, the winds would not cease. At last, it came to this: all allies forsaken, Chang'an encircled by the flames of rebellion in the capital region.

Wang Yan had long foreseen this. From beginning to end, she had never thought well of her father's enterprise, especially after he, for the sake of his "ideals," had killed several of her elder brothers in succession.

All who stood in his way were stumbling blocks to him — herself included!

Wang Yan began to plan an escape route. Yin Lihua, whom she had requested from the Lateral Courts and brought to the Calm Stability Lodge, was her guarantee for the future.

Yin Lihua was the younger brother's wife of the Han general Liu Bosheng of Nanyang. Through this person, she might perhaps obtain leniency from the Liu clan of Chongling. But Wang Yan turned it over in her mind again and again: she herself was the last Empress Dowager of the Former Han, yet also Wang Mang's daughter — a most awkward identity. If the day truly came when Han troops breached Chang'an, she felt…

"The best ending would probably still be to throw myself into the flames, and never again face the House of Han."

But events unfolded beyond her imagining. The one now threatening Chang'an's safety was Diwu Lun, whose war proclamation made not a single mention of restoring the Han.

Chang'an had been in chaos these past few days. With the two commanderies north of the Wei responding to the call, the Emperor planned to conscript the city's able-bodied men to help resist the enemy. Marquises, earls, and high officials were secretly fleeing the city, heading to Longyou and Ba-Shu to take refuge.

Those who stayed behind were scrutinizing their own clan's relationship with Diwu Lun. Wang Yan could not escape the custom either, but Diwu Lun to her had been no more than a passerby in former days — she did not even recall ever having met him.

On the contrary, it was Diwu Lun's "accomplice," the State Preceptor Liu Xin, who had escaped and was at large, with whom Wang Yan could still exchange a few words.

Tonight, startled by the celestial sign of the Great White entering the Grand Subtlety, Wang Yan lay long unable to sleep. Then someone came to report that, at the hour of the cock's crow, countless torchlights had been seen within the Longevity Chamber moving south, passing out through the Vermilion Bird Watchtower…

"Could it be that Father has abandoned the capital and fled?" The Huanghuang Chamber Mistress entertained the thought — it did not match his usual style — and at once sent someone out to make inquiries. As the sky began to lighten, she received the answer.

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"It is His Majesty, leading the civil and military officials and their families and sons, going to the Nine Temples, the Bright Hall, and the Circular Moat at the southern suburb, to weep to Heaven and destroy the enemy!"

…

Wang Mang was actually quite adept at manipulating public opinion.

Back then, his return to power after being forced from office had relied on over a hundred officials and scholars writing letters of appeal to the court. Once he discovered how effective this "public sentiment" tactic was, Wang Mang became addicted to it.

Marrying his daughter to Emperor Ping of Han had relied on over a thousand commoners, Imperial Academy students, and Palace Gentlemen and minor officials guarding the palace gates and submitting petitions, insisting that the mother of the nation could be none other than Wang Yan!

Wang Mang's greatest achievement while serving as Grand Marshal of the Han — the construction of the Three Harmony structures at the southern suburb — had relied on mobilizing Imperial Academy students and commoners in a mass assembly, a hundred thousand in all. It was completed in just twenty days, and the quality was surprisingly good — it still has not collapsed to this day.

And when he usurped the Han, an even more staggering 487,572 people submitted petitions; princes, dukes, marquises, and the imperial clan all kowtowed and urged him to ascend the throne.

To this day, though Wang Mang's halo of sagehood has shattered, he can still mobilize over ten thousand people: the crowd of officials whose fates are tightly bound to the Xin Dynasty and their families; the Palace Gentlemen guarding the palace and Chang'an, and the soldiers of the Central Fortress Battalion; plus over a thousand Imperial Academy students who had stayed on at the Academy.

With so many people, instead of dispatching them to reinforce the Ba River and the Wei Bridge, he dragged them to the south. It truly was not to flee, but rather a response to last night's celestial sign of the Great White entering the Grand Subtlety.

Faced with yin-yang celestial signs, the Xin Dynasty's efficiency was astonishingly high. The hours of the day had already been renamed, using the Five Phases as designations: the approaching hour was called "Year Lodging"; Shen-Water became "Water-Aiding General"; Right-Geng became "Wood-Carving Colonel"; Front-Bing became "Yellow Earth Commandant."

Wang Mang even devised a mnemonic chant and had the Palace Gentlemen recite it: "Grasp the jade axe, hew the withered wood; pour forth the great water, extinguish metal and fire."

But that was not enough. Recalling what Zhang Han and Cui Fa had said — that the ancient texts recorded that when the realm faced great disaster, one should weep to suppress it — Wang Mang accordingly led the crowd here, wishing to cry out and appeal to Heaven for deliverance, so as to reverse that ill-omened star sign.

He had not left the city for a very long time. Today, the imperial carriage was drawn by six horses, their coats dressed in embroidered dragon-pattern cloth of five brilliant colors, a riot of hues, and atop their heads were affixed three-foot-long single horns. They pulled Wang Mang's canopied chariot.

Upon arriving at the Bright Hall, Wang Mang, in full ceremonial robes, solemnly stepped forward and knelt upon the Altar of Heaven to worship the August Heaven, the Grand Unity, the God Above, laying out the full account of his mandate omens.

Those twelve divine vessels upon which the Xin had founded its state were brought out. The first was the White Stone of Wugong; the second was the Three-Branched Patterned Horse — though the horse was dead, its hide had been preserved.

The third was the Iron Covenant; the fourth, the Stone Tortoise; the fifth, the Yu Omen Token; the sixth, the Patterned Scepter; the seventh, the Dark Seal; the eighth, the Stone Writing of Maoling; the ninth, the Dark Dragon Stone; the tenth, the Divine Well — merely the ring of stones around its rim.

The eleventh was the Great Divine Stone; the twelfth was the bronze omen and silk diagram presented by Ai Zhang.

The twelve divine vessels encircled Wang Mang, as though channeling spiritual power into him. Wang Mang stretched forth both arms and cried out to the heavens: "August Heaven has already decreed and entrusted the realm to thy servant Mang. If thy servant Mang has done wrong, then let thunder descend and strike thy servant Mang dead!"

So saying, he bowed low and prostrated himself. The assembled officials, the hundred officers, the army, and the Chang'an townsfolk who had been dragged along to make up the numbers all held their breath and waited. Had a bolt of heavenly thunder truly come and struck Wang Mang dead, that would indeed have been a divine act.

But the thunder never came. Instead, the first pale light of dawn appeared at the horizon. It seemed today would be a fine day — let it be taken as Heaven silently acknowledging Wang Mang's innocence.

And so Wang Mang began his bitter weeping. At times he beat his breast and stamped his feet; at times he prostrated himself and knocked his head. He wept until his breath was spent and he nearly fainted, more grievously than when his uncle Wang Feng, Emperor Cheng of Han, Emperor Ping of Han, his own mother, Wang Zhengjun, and others had died.

As for the tears he had shed when his aging wife, his own sons, and his grandsons died — compared to today, those were but a single ladle drawn from the sea.

Wang Mang wept as he spoke. On one hand, he recounted his own merits, believing that he had revered Heaven and modeled himself on the ancestors, toiled with utmost diligence — and yet had been forsaken by all. He felt quite wronged. On the other hand, he recited his own achievements in over a thousand words, hoping that August Heaven might hear: "Why not utterly destroy this host of rebels?"

Especially Diwu Lun! Wang Mang hoped that, ideally, a meteorite would fall from the sky and smash him to death on the spot!

Perhaps Wang Mang felt that weeping alone was insufficient in sincerity, not enough to move Heaven above. So he called upon the assembled officials who had followed him, and the gathered Imperial Academy students, to weep together. He decreed: Imperial Academy students and common folk who joined in the weeping would be given free meat broth to drink, and also distributed money and silk. Those who wept well would be given official posts!

Whether out of genuine sorrow, or because grain supplies in Chang'an had been tight lately and they had not tasted meat for a long time, the crowd accordingly sat among the Nine Temples and the Bright Hall, each one wailing aloud. A chorus of lamentation arose, a spectacle of magnificent scale.

Thus they wept from the cock's crow until daybreak, and on until the morning meal. After several double-hours, their voices all grew hoarse. Fortunately, the supply of food and drink was unceasing; when their mouths went dry, they drank congee, and when they had drunk their fill, they continued weeping. The Imperial Academy students were also required to chant the prayer texts.

Of course, there were also those who, weeping and weeping, suddenly felt the scene was utterly absurd — truly like holding the Emperor's and the Xin Dynasty's funeral in advance. Unable to restrain themselves, for a moment they actually burst out laughing.

But these laughs were drowned out by the louder wailing. In any case, everyone had their mouths open — the untalented could easily pass for the skilled.

At a dynasty's end, strange phenomena abound; all manner of unimaginable scenes take their turns upon the stage. The tragic and the laughable are not so far apart. This is what the Book of Changes means by "first wailing, then laughter"!

Perhaps moved by the crowd's sincerity, Wang Mang, in his delight, decreed that all five thousand who had joined in the weeping would be appointed Palace Gentlemen!

But so many official robes and seal cords could not be issued all at once, so they could only stuff into each person's hand, as proof, one of those wooden tablets bearing the reign-era name "Thirty-Six Thousand Years" that had been stored in the Bright Hall back then.

Wang Mang even had a wild fancy: "The front lines are short of troops. These people's weeping is so sorrowful — they must be loyal subjects of the Xin. Why not issue them weapons and dispatch them to reinforce the Ba River?"

Yet when the sky had fully brightened and the crowd, having eaten their fill of meat congee, dispersed, several thousand of the Xin Dynasty's reign-era wooden tablets lay discarded on the ground. Someone as clever as Diwu Lun had been shouting "I don't want to be an official" six years ago. Even the dullest among them — at this critical juncture, who still wanted to be an official of the Xin Dynasty? Having eaten and drunk their fill, taking the distributed silk as travel funds, the Imperial Academy students all fled and vanished one after another.

And Song Hong, the Minister of Works, who yesterday had been the only one to propose a reliable measure — after finishing the arrangements for transporting money to the front lines as rewards, he returned to Chang'an and saw this scene. He was instantly dumbfounded.

When he further learned that the Emperor had taken the silk originally meant for the frontline soldiers and distributed more than half of it to this pack of wailers, Song Hong shook his head without ceasing. Raising his eyes to the sky, he sighed:

"The whole court of ministers, the entire city's populace — weeping from night to dawn, and from dawn to night — can they weep Diwu Lun to death?"

…

Just as Wang Mang was orchestrating his great ceremony of weeping to Heaven, in the early morning of the twenty-ninth day of the fifth month, three armies also reached the banks of the Wei River.

Geng Yan, who had pierced through Wei North in three days, brought his own brothers Geng Shu and Geng Guo, along with three thousand soldiers who had subdued several counties, received countless rewards, and were in soaring spirits. In addition, over ten thousand allied troops formed from the powerful families and gallant swordsmen of Jingwei Commandery threatened the Western Wei Bridge!

The Thin Willows Encampment guarding Chang'an still stood, only the General Yafu was nowhere to be seen; instead, the three tigers of the Geng clan flaunted their might.

Several dozen li east of the Thin Willows Encampment, Wang Yuan, styled "General Qiongcheng," after raising his troops in response, led the powerful families of Liewei Commandery and twenty thousand retainers to the Central Wei Bridge.

The descendants of Xiao He, the descendants of Fan Kuai, the descendants of Zhang Liang — over twenty households of Former Han marquis descendants from Changling and Yangling — today held a grand reunion. Moved by Wang Yuan's persuasion, they had sent troops in response. But quite a few of them still looked down on Diwu Lun, a man of humble origins from the fallen dynasty, and their enthusiasm still lay in restoring the Great Han, believing that Diwu Lun was merely "the vanguard for the Gengshi Son of Heaven of Nanyang."

At the far eastern end lay the domain of the "Five" banner. Diwu Ba, known as the "General of the Five Tombs," had arrived at the Eastern Wei Bridge with Diba Biao and Diba Jiao, leading the clan levies from Linqu Village and the able-bodied men of Changling — over ten thousand strong.

From Diwu Ba to Diba Jiao, every one of them believed that after this battle, their clan, a serpent coiled in hiding for two hundred years, would finally transform into a dragon!

With this three-pronged assault, even if they merely copied the tactic and burned the Wei Bridge, the Archers Battalion, stretched thin defending such a long line, could no longer hold.

Under this urgent pressure, Wang Mang, just returned from the southern suburbs, issued an edict redeploying the Chang River Hu Cavalry — originally the reserve force for the Ba River army — to the north.

Diwu Lun seized this opening. His soldiers might be poor at fighting, but they were all first-rate at manual labor.

At the upper reaches of the Ba River, the front ranks were elite troops, shields raised, trading volleys with the Garrison Cavalry Battalion on the opposite bank that was trying to stop them — arrows flying back and forth. Behind them, thousands of new recruits carried sack after sack of sand, as if they meant to force a sandbag bridge into existence.

Under the Garrison Cavalry Battalion's urgent calls for help, the Northern Cavalry Battalion and the Infantry Battalion sent half their strength as reinforcements, drawing away yet more of the enemy's forces.

This was a reenactment of the Marquis of Huaiyin, Han Xin's, damming of the Yong River. Though the Ba River was broad, it was still only a tributary of the Wei. As sack after sack of earth was thrown in, an embankment gradually took shape. The flow from upstream slowed, making some downstream stretches shallow enough to wade across.

"Last night's celestial signs were an omen of our army's great victory!"

Diwu Lun spurred his horse along the eastern bank, raising his sword and shouting. Over the past few days, every time a county north of the Wei was taken, he had dispatched runners to announce it to every camp.

"Changling has surrendered."

"Yangling has fallen!"

"A great victory at Anling."

"Pingling sues for surrender!"

"Maoling has risen in revolt!"

"The Array Commandant and Capital Commandant have both turned to our side!"

"Chang'an is surrounded!"

The soldiers' mood shifted from shock to delight, and finally to taking it all for granted: "Is it not a common thing for our righteous army to crush Wang Mang's forces?"

Diwu Lun needed the doubting new recruits to feel that they were marching toward victory, and that the enemy was too weak to withstand a single blow! He needed those who had once feared war to start rubbing their hands eagerly by the riverbank, grumbling about why the attack had not yet begun.

After four days of ferment, morale was even higher than at Hongmen. Some even had the nerve to follow the company officers' call to "wade in, wade in," dipping their feet into the Ba River to test the waters.

As Diwu Lun personally beat the war drums, twenty thousand men seized this fleeting moment. Along a battle line stretching over ten li, shouting slogans of victory, they began fording the Ba River in force, striding through the waves!

"Punish the tyrant! Punish the tyrant! Punish the tyrant!"

The defending Infantry Battalion and Northern Cavalry Battalion stared slack-jawed at the scene. The shouts grew closer and louder, drowning out even the rumbling war drums on both banks and the rippling of the river beneath their feet.

This scene could truly be described as: Cloud-dragons and wind-tigers all wheel and turn; when Venus invades the moon, the foe shall be destroyed!

……

PS: Tomorrow's update at 13:00.