Chapter 263: A Family Letter

Diwu Lun still had much to attend to. As he spoke with Yin Lihua, he glanced up at the sun in the sky, and once he had finished his instructions, he was about to hurry off.

Unexpectedly, Yin Lihua rose from her seat and made a deep bow: "General, your words shall be written by this humble woman into my letter without fail. Yet this humble woman also has two presumptuous requests!"

At a time like this, she was still setting conditions — and two of them at that? Diwu Lun kept his expression neutral. "Speak freely."

Yin Lihua then brought up the matter of Wang Yan. Although Diwu Lun had treated the Ding'an Residence quite well, he had still sent men in to search it the day before, throwing everyone into a panic. Yin Lihua herself had been brought here and, seeing that she was in no danger for the moment, her heart still fretted for the mistress back in the palace.

Wang Yan had rescued her and was her benefactor — how could she dare forget? She now spoke with great care, venturing her humble opinion that treating Wang Yan well would bring Diwu Lun only benefit and no harm.

"So it is about this matter." Diwu Lun said, "The Empress Dowager Xiaoping shall be moved to Changle Palace."

"That is where a Han dynasty Empress Dowager ought to dwell. Worry no more."

Yin Lihua felt somewhat relieved, and only then did she bring up her own private affair.

"My family was taken captive from Xinye and brought to Guanzhong. My mother died on the road, I was sent to the Lateral Courts, and my father and younger brother were escorted to the Shanglin foundry to do hard labor — our family was scattered. Months ago, this humble woman was rescued by the Empress Dowager. Not daring to trouble her further, I merely saved up a little money and once sent someone to make inquiries, only to learn that my father had already died, his corpse cast outside the city onto the mass burial mound."

Though the matter was profoundly sorrowful, Yin Lihua did not weep and wail. Her tears — ah, they had long since been shed dry on the road to the capital, in the deep of night at the Ding'an Residence.

Only when she spoke of her younger brother did she barely fail to hold back, her voice catching a little: "And my younger brother Yin Xing, just fourteen years old, never suffered hardship from childhood to now. He too is at the Shanglin foundry. I had meant to slowly save up money and silk to ransom him, but it happened that the General raised his righteous army. Wang Mang, short of troops, actually sent envoys to grant amnesty to the prisoners in the city's various jails, conscripting them to fill the ranks. After they scattered, he may have been captured by the General."

"If it is at all possible, might I boldly ask the General to have his subordinate officers take note? For this kindness, this favor, this humble woman would have no way to repay you!"

Diwu Lun nodded. This Yin Lihua had first pleaded for the Princess of Huanghuang, then for her younger brother — first her mistress, then her kin. She was indeed a woman who knew gratitude and repaid kindness, and his impression of her improved considerably.

This was a trifling matter, easily done. He gave a word of instruction to Ren Guang, then hurriedly left Xuanming Ward to plan the mustering of the various regiments and prepare for the offensive against Tian Kuang.

Yin Lihua, for her part, at once ground ink and took up her brush. Raised from childhood with an aristocratic education, her hand produced characters delicate and graceful.

Casting her mind back, before their betrothal, she and Liu Xiu had only glimpsed each other from afar two or three times, and each time it was Liu Xiu tagging along with the Deng clan to attend a banquet at the Yin household. He was honest, courteous, and his gaze had indeed often strayed toward her — only the two of them had never had the chance to speak deeply.

And after the Chongling uprising, the Yin clan had been coerced into joining by their eldest brother Yin Shi. When Liu Bosheng took Xinye, he personally called at their door to propose the match on his younger brother's behalf. The Yin clan, under pressure, agreed. Once their bond was settled, a letter had even been exchanged, but Yin Lihua never had the chance to receive a reply before the battle of Little Chang'an erupted!

He should... be able to recognize her handwriting, shouldn't he?

Thinking thus, Yin Lihua could only strive to recall his features as she set brush to paper and wrote:

"Yin Lihua of the Yin clan bows her head and prostrates twice in salutation. Before the seat of Wenshu: Your handmaid has long sojourned in Guanzhong. Though toil and illness have been my lot, by the grace of the Empress Dowager Xiaoping and General Diwu, I have been rescued, and in my daily life suffer no particular hardship..."

Far away in Yingchuan, Liu Xiu was still a long way from receiving any letter, but he too, in the midst of his northward march, had stolen a moment to bend over his desk and write.

Many days had passed since the great battle of Kunyang. The baggage abandoned by the Xin army still had not been fully carted away after six or seven days of labor, and the tens of thousands of corpses strewn along both banks of the Zhi River had begun to rot.

That battle — the Xin army had truly suffered a catastrophic defeat. The tens of thousands left south of the Zhi River surrendered outright, while the two hundred thousand or more who had managed to flee northward also scattered in a single day, fleeing east and west, each man returning to his own commandery and county. Given the abilities of Wang Yi, the Kunyang war god, it would be impressive enough if he could rally a mere thirty thousand back to Luoyang.

Liu Xiu therefore proposed to the various chieftains that they harry the routed troops, neither too far nor too near, and push north to recover lost territory.

"Strike through to Huan Yuan Pass in one breath!"

Huan Yuan Pass was the boundary between Yingchuan and the Luoyang basin. Liu Xiu believed that after winning this pivotal battle, the Xin Dynasty was about to crumble and would have no way to muster more troops for suppression. Their next step must be to advance into the Central Plains. If they could try to seize the pass first, then once Wancheng fell, they could pivot the main army toward Luoyang, and the lands east of the pass could be settled!

In ordinary times, any words from Liu Xiu would inevitably have drawn many doubts, but now things were different. He was the great hero of Kunyang. Not only did Wang Chang, Ma Wu, and their ilk now follow Liu Xiu's lead as horses follow the head, but even men like Wang Feng looked at him with eyes no longer the same as before.

Had it been anyone else, to defeat three hundred thousand with a mere three thousand — such dazzling merit would surely have sent him soaring to the heavens. Yet Liu Xiu claimed no credit whatsoever. Not only did he yield the honors to the chieftains, content merely to add his name at the very bottom of the list, but he also distributed all the spoils of war among his subordinates, taking nothing for himself. In this way, he greatly won the hearts of the army.

But as for who had truly been the key to the battle of Kunyang, everyone could see it with perfect clarity. Feng Yi, Fu Jun, Wang Ba, and the other commanders, who had not yet fully submitted to him, now became convinced in heart and deed. When they pushed north to Jia County, Feng Yi even recommended to Liu Xiu a fellow townsman of imposing stature and dignified countenance, named Yao Qi.

The surname was quite rare, but compared to "Diwu," it still fell a little short.

Several days earlier, Liu Xiu had learned from a captured Assistant General of the Xin army that Diwu Lun had risen in revolt at Hongmen and was attacking Chang'an. There were no walls in this world impervious to the wind. Though Grand General Wang Yi had striven to conceal it, after the great defeat, the matter was no longer a secret.

"So Wang Yi received an edict from Wang Mang and withdrew his army in haste in order to rush back to Chang'an."

Liu Xiu was briefly stunned, then burst into laughter: "It seems that in this campaign, it was truly Boyu who lent a hand to the Great Han!"

Before, he had called him Lord Diwu; now, after the victory at Kunyang, his confidence had swelled, and his form of address had changed. Outwardly, Liu Xiu remained modest, but subconsciously, he already felt himself qualified to stand on equal footing with Diwu Lun.

Though the road was long and blocked by passes, and whether Diwu Lun had ultimately succeeded was still unknown, Liu Xiu already counted the matter as accomplished.

"The Xin army's morale is low, and they poured out in full force, leaving Guanzhong empty. And Diwu Boyu has always been renowned for his skill in commanding troops, his name equal to Dou Rong's..."

After Kunyang, the Greenwood Han soldiers all scorned the Xin commanders, but Liu Xiu could never forget the battle of Little Chang'an, the heavy losses Yan You and Dou Rong had inflicted on their side. Had Yan You not fallen ill, the subsequent battle at the Tang River would have been truly difficult to call. And Diwu Lun was, after all, the disciple to whom Yan Erudite had transmitted his art of war.

"If this is so, the shape of the realm is bound to change utterly!"

Liu Xiu was first seized with worry, for he had originally devised the strategy for Liu Bosheng, advising him to emulate the Founding Emperor — to lie low like a dragon or serpent in order to preserve himself, outwardly paying homage to the Gengshi Emperor and treating him as the Righteous Emperor of Chu. In truth, he was to continue winning the hearts of the gentry, forging marriage alliances with the various Nanyang clans, taking Wancheng, and strengthening the army's might, with the chief aim of entering the pass to destroy Wang Mang as soon as possible. If they could achieve "he who first enters Guanzhong shall be king," they could retrace Liu Bang's old path.

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Yet to this day, Wancheng had still not been taken, while Diwu Lun had already jumped the gun and turned coat. Once Wang Mang died at his hands, the great name of "First Meritorious Minister in the Execution of Wang Mang" would be his, and the plan of the Liu Xiu brothers would suffer a massive deviation.

But after mulling it over carefully, his worry turned instead to joy.

"Boyu has abandoned the perishing Xin and turned to the sagely Han. From now on, he is one of our own."

"For the cause of restoring the Han, for my brother and me, this is by no means a bad thing!"

Thereupon Liu Xiu immediately wrote two letters.

One was a family letter, informing Liu Bosheng of the upheaval in Guanzhong and devising a new strategy for him.

The other he would find a way to send to Guanzhong — but it was not addressed to Yin Lihua, whose fate was unknown. The letter would not even mention a single word of her.

It was not that Liu Xiu did not care in his heart for his betrothed's safety, but one must distinguish clearly between what is great and what is small, what is weighty and what is light, what is urgent and what can wait!

To Diwu Lun, Liu Xiu was not writing to urge surrender, but merely to renew old ties.

And so Liu Xiu, stroking the jade sword pommel that Diwu Lun had gifted him all those years ago, set brush to paper and wrote: "Bearer of the Gilded Mace of Han, Assistant General, your ox-and-horse runner Liu Xiu prostrates twice in salutation. At the feet of Boyu: Long have we not seen each other, and in my heart there is constant fond remembrance..."

At the very moment Liu Bosheng received word of the great victory at Kunyang, he also read his younger brother's letter beneath the walls of Wancheng, and could not help but laugh.

"My younger brother has crushed the rebels! As his elder brother, I too must exert myself!"

Having learned of the upheaval in Guanzhong, and combining it with the situation at Kunyang, Liu Xiu asserted in his letter that the shape of things to come would closely resemble the end of Qin and the struggle between Chu and Han.

"Liu Xuan is the Righteous Emperor; the Greenwood men are the likes of Xiang Ji and Ying Bu; Diwu Lun, as a Xin minister who turned against Xin to seize Guanzhong, is Zhang Han and the Three Qins."

And Liu Bosheng was to be Liu Bang! As for Liu Xiu himself, his role remained that of Xiao He and Cao Shen.

But the plan they had set earlier — "first to enter Guanzhong" — was now unworkable, given that Liu Xuan had suddenly been propped up by the Greenwood faction. Liu Xiu believed that with Diwu Lun entrenched there, if Liu Xuan were willing to offer sufficient benefits — say, the position of one of the Three Excellencies, or even the promise of a non-royal kingship — this man might possibly raise the Han banner. But Guanzhong would inevitably be regarded by him as his private preserve.

Therefore, it was inadvisable to go and contest territory with Diwu Lun. Liu Xiu proposed that his elder brother, after Wancheng surrendered, should propose to Liu Xuan that he take a detached force to go and seize Runan and Pei Commanderies to the east, with an eye toward Yu Province.

"And I, your younger brother, shall march north to pacify Luoyang and spy out Jizhou and Hebei."

Liu Xiu even earnestly and tirelessly tried to counsel his elder brother. He had never expected Kunyang to go so smoothly, and hearing that his brother had also seized quite a bit of territory, he felt the two brothers' edge was now a little too sharp. To avoid arousing the suspicion and wariness of Gengshi and the Greenwood men, Liu Xiu's suggestion was…

Pretend to have a falling-out!

"Let the elder brother slight the younger, and the younger refuse to submit to the elder. In this way, Gengshi will want to use the elder to restrain the younger, and the younger to restrain the elder — only then can both be safe."

At this proposal, Liu Bosheng merely laughed it off. "Wenshu, you simply think too much."

He was a true man, and scorned such petty tricks.

As for Liu Xiu's long-term plans for the future — first, they did not suit Liu Bosheng's heart. A true man should point his blade straight at Guanzhong, go to the capital and pay homage at the High Temple. If Diwu Lun had sense, he would surrender and yield the road; if not, he would simply be struck down!

And besides, it was still too early to speak of such things — Wancheng had not even been taken yet!

Speaking of this matter made Liu Bosheng's blood boil. Originally, in the assault on Wancheng, he had not been the main force. The Greenwood, Pinglin, and the Xin chieftains, coveting the treasures, goods, wealth, and women within the city, and thinking the Xin army was already too broken to withstand a single blow, had all scrambled to be the first to scale the walls.

Liu Bosheng, on the other hand, had been sent off to the periphery to continue receiving the various Nanyang counties that had not yet surrendered.

Because the Greenwood Army's discipline was so poor — nearly a match for the imperial army — many counties refused to surrender. For instance, at Mount Bo County to the west, when the Greenwood's main force attacked, they could not take it. The Mount Bo County Magistrate ascended the city wall and declared, "If it is the Grand Chancellor Liu Bosheng who comes, we will surrender at once."

The Pinglin men were furious, but their siege could not prevail, so they had no choice but to let Liu Bosheng take the field. The moment he showed his face, Mount Bo immediately opened its gates and welcomed his troops to garrison there. His reputation was secondary; the main point was that the military discipline of Liu Bosheng and Liu Xiu's brothers, though perhaps slightly inferior compared to Diwu Lun's, stood out among the Greenwood brigands like a crane among chickens — they could truly be called a righteous army.

On this side, however, the Greenwood chieftains had no experience in storming fortified cities, and the people within the city, fearing a massacre, still held out hope that the Xin dynasty's main army would arrive. Coupled with the wholehearted cooperation of Yan You and Cen Peng, from the second month to the sixth month, Wancheng — originally the great base of the Nanyang rebellion — actually held out for nearly half a year, its Xin banners never falling!

Liu Xuan had no choice but to ask the Chongling clan elder Liu Liang to take the field and summon back Liu Bosheng, who had been fighting fiercely on the periphery and by the end of the fourth month had nearly advanced to Wu Pass, to take charge of the siege. During this period, over ten thousand Xin troops sent by Wang Yi, who had crossed the Fangcheng Mountains to reconnoiter the area, were also defeated by Liu Bosheng, who was encamped north of the city, and failed to break the siege.

Yet the city still would not fall. When news of the decisive battle at Kunyang arrived, Liu Bosheng was overjoyed and had the news shot into the city on arrows, but Cen Peng on the walls dismissed it as a trick and absolutely refused to believe it.

It was not until today, when the many banners Wang Yi had abandoned and prisoners taken at Kunyang were sent to the foot of Wancheng's walls to shout the news, and even word of Diwu Lun's revolt in Guanzhong had spread up to them, that the defenders erupted in an uproar.

A moment later, Liu Bosheng's subordinate officer Liu Ji strode into the tent, beaming with delight, and reported:

"Grand Chancellor, Wancheng sues for surrender!"

…

PS: Had some matters, so it's a bit short. The next chapter will be longer.

(Chapter 2 at 18:00.)