Chapter 269: The Puppet Emperor

Time returns to the beginning of the sixth month, in Wuyuan Commandery, where the grasses grow lush and green.

The Xiongnu Chanyu of this generation was the youngest son of Huhanye. His Han name was very short — answering Wang Mang's call for "no two-character names," he had changed it to "Yu" in his youth, simple and clear.

But his honorific title was very long and awkward, the full form being: "Huduershidaogaorudi Chanyu." The most interesting part of this title was "Rudi," which in the Xiongnu tongue means "filial."

It turned out that decades ago, after Huhanye submitted to the Han and declared himself a vassal, the Xiongnu and the Han court grew close. Not only did they admire Han clothing and food in material culture, but the "benevolence and righteousness spreading to the barbarians" that worthy scholars yearned for had also subtly taken root. The Xiongnu noticed that Han Emperors all added the word "filial" to their titles and actually imitated the practice, so five consecutive Chanyus also appended "Rudi."

But considering how the Xiongnu's Modu killed his father, and how Yu and his five brothers succeeded one another, each in turn marrying his predecessor's widows according to tradition — this "filial piety" becomes rather intriguing.

The Xiongnu, however, did not care about such things. For Chanyu Yu, the sixth month was not only the season when the tribal mares dropped their foals, but also the day the Xiongnu would once again become a "great nation of the hundred barbarians."

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The states of the Western Regions had broken away from the Xin Dynasty ten years ago. Xiongnu envoys once again galloped across the Pamirs and the Celestial Mountains. In the east, the Wuhuan had also submitted to the Chanyu several years prior. As for the south, the Great Wall, left without soldiers to guard it, was no longer an impassable natural barrier but a neighbor's fence one could cross at will. Since Chanyu Yu's accession alone, he had entered the frontier three times. The Xin Dynasty, busy suppressing internal rebellions, had mounted only the feeblest of counterattacks.

And today, Chanyu Yu personally came to Guanglu Fortress to do something that even the great Modu Chanyu had never done: enthrone a Han Emperor!

Every time he recalled the actions of the Xin and Wang Mang, Chanyu Yu felt fury. It was the Xin Dynasty that had broken faith first, demoting the Xiongnu, recklessly altering their names, repeatedly sending great armies to the frontier, and even plotting to split the Xiongnu into fifteen parts.

"Wang Mang once made the husband of the Ninghu Yanzhi, the Right Grand General, into a Chanyu, keeping him in Chang'an to recruit traitors from the Hu lands and set up a rival royal court."

"Why can I not, here on the steppe, also enthrone a Central Plains Emperor?"

The candidate was ready-made: Lu Fang of Anding Commandery. Ever since he attempted to coordinate with the Xiongnu to seize New Qinzhong by the Yellow River over three years ago and was routed by Ma Yuan, he had been living in exile among the Xiongnu.

Both his brothers were dead. Nursing his hatred, Lu Fang once again recounted his fabricated life story to the Xiongnu. Though the Xiongnu knew it was hardly credible, Chanyu Yu gladly accepted this "man of the Liu clan" who had Xiongnu blood. Recently, as the Xin Dynasty's frontier armies were transferred south to suppress the Greenwood and the Red Eyebrows, leaving Bing Province empty, Chanyu Yu struck Wuyuan with ten thousand Hu horsemen and seized everything north of the Yellow River in a single stroke.

The site chosen for the formal investiture was Guanglu Fortress. This was the starting point of the Xiongnu's tributary visits to the Han. Chanyu Yu's father, Huhanye, had come here three times, traveling south to pay homage to the Han Emperor. Now, the relationship between the two sides had completely reversed.

As the Xiongnu's puppet, Lu Fang wore a bizarre, mismatched set of robes and crown, leading a group of "great Han loyalists" who had fled beyond the frontier to join the Hu at the end of the Han era and now returned, as they kowtowed before Chanyu Yu.

Chanyu Yu understood Han speech. Mounted on his horse, he spoke arrogantly to Lu Fang: "The Hu and the Han originally swore brotherhood. Later, the Hu fell into decline, and my father, Huhanye Chanyu, turned to the Han. The Han dispatched troops to protect him, and thus the Hu, generation after generation, declared themselves vassals to the Han. Now the Han, too, is severed. You, as a descendant of the Liu clan, have come to submit to me. I enthrone you as Emperor. Henceforth, you must honor and serve me, and we shall also be brother nations."

"In the past, the Han was the elder brother and the Hu the younger. Henceforth, the Hu shall be the elder brother and the Han the younger. What say you?"

Lu Fang performed the jishou obeisance toward the Chanyu. That head of his, which no blade seemed able to sever, bowed low, as if it were grass beneath the horse's hooves: "How dare I, your vassal, forget the hierarchy of noble and base, and speak of brotherhood with the Great Xiongnu Chanyu, established by Heaven and Earth, set in place by Sun and Moon?"

He knew very well that he could be propped up in this position solely by the Chanyu's decree. This "Han" regime north of the frontier was an empty shell. Lu Fang had fled to the Xiongnu alone, all his trusted followers lost. The Han loyalists who had defected to the Xiongnu from the Western Regions and the Central Plains during the Han era were cultured men who did not believe his story; these men became the Three Excellencies. The frontier folk and refugee leaders of Wuyuan who had risen locally also did not submit to him; this group became the Nine Ministers. Lu Fang was a solitary man. Without Xiongnu support, forget "restoring the Great Han" — he feared someone would take his head by the next morning.

Lu Fang kowtowed once more: "The closest ties between Han and Xiongnu were the marriage alliances of the Wen and Jing reigns. I am willing to marry the Great Chanyu's daughter. Henceforth, I shall be the humble son-in-law, and the Great Chanyu shall be of the father-in-law's generation!"

"The Xiongnu and the Han, close as father and son!"

"What Han Emperor? What Liu Wenbo? Do they take me for a fool who does not know the Han imperial lineage? How could a great-grandson of Emperor Wu of Han possibly still be alive!"

While Lu Fang was "restoring the Han" in Wuyuan, he also sent "imperial edicts" to the various commanderies of Bing Province, proclaiming that they should surrender to the Great Han at once and together destroy the Xin Dynasty. As a major commandery south of Wuyuan, Fushi County in Shang Commandery received it relatively early. One look at the absurd format, and recalling how Ma Yuan had told them Lu Fang's story as a joke, Colonel Ma sneered and tore the document to shreds.

When Diwu Lun revolted in Chang'an, Colonel Ma had also hesitated. Unlike his younger brother, he believed the great trend under Heaven was still to restore the Han and raise the Liu. Even if the Xin Dynasty was doomed, Diwu Lun's attempt to start a new enterprise would be quite difficult. Ma Yuan was already bound to Diwu Lun — should he himself exercise the special skill of the great gentry clans and switch allegiance to another? But constrained by geography, there was no "Han" nearby to turn to, so he could only grit his teeth and answer Diwu Lun's call.

Now, when this "Xiongnu Han" regime proclaimed that he should surrender, Colonel Ma felt as disgusted as if he had swallowed a hundred flies.

Though the Ma family were not Han loyalists — they had even been exterminated by Emperor Wu of Han — his ancestor Ma Tong had once campaigned against the Xiongnu, marching from Jiuquan to the Celestial Mountains, forcing Cheshi to surrender before returning. One could say Ma Tong's rebellion was a pity, but when facing the Xiongnu in battle, the men of the Ma family had never flinched.

"I am not willing for later generations to mention the Ma clan and, besides rebellion, add the infamy of ushering the Hu through the frontier!"

This matter instead steeled Colonel Ma's resolve. He immediately sent men south to inform Diwu Lun of the situation.

With the emergence of this great enemy in the north, Xiongnu incursions would likely grow more frequent. Now he had no choice but to lean on Diwu Lun's support.

"I can only hope that Boyu will quickly pacify Hexi and link it with Shang Commandery into one contiguous territory. Only then can he give us some support and keep the frontier secure."

When Diwu Lun received the news from the north, he was filled with mixed emotions. First, Lu Fang was tenacious. Second, with the collapse of the Xin, every faction was making its grand entrance onto the stage. The realm was without a master, and the era of changing banners atop the city walls had arrived.

His own time grew even more pressing. The great northwest was now far too chaotic; who knew if he would later have to fight civil and foreign wars simultaneously.

Since the cavalry from Shang Commandery could not come, Diwu Lun did not hesitate. The day after he reached Chongquan City, Wan Xiu had already finished building a pontoon bridge over the Luo River. After linking up with Diwu Lun, the great army crossed the Luo!

This Luo River was easier to cross than the Ba River — not because it was narrower or shallower, but because Tian Kuang had barely ten thousand men under his command, too few to defend the long riverbank. He had simply concentrated his forces in the commandery capital to the southeast: Lijin City.

After crossing the pontoon bridge, Diwu Lun immediately summoned Wan Xiu and held a council of war with Jing Dan and others: "Avoiding field battles and holing up in a solitary city — is Tian Kuang waiting for reinforcements? Where has the Grand Chancellor, Wang Xun, reached?"

Wan Xiu reported: "He has already entered the old Hangu Pass. But the scouts General Peng Chong sent out south of the Wei River have penetrated as far as the Capital Granary, yet they have not seen Wang Xun's great army. They captured scattered stragglers fleeing west, trying to return home, who say Wang Xun went from Fengling Crossing to Hedong!"

Hedong? Good heavens — so the warlord free-for-all has begun, with everyone scrambling to seize territory.

At this, Diwu Lun felt both joy and worry. The joy was that Tian Kuang had once again been sabotaged by inept allies. Without reinforcements, he was at a disadvantage; his forces were less than a third of Diwu Lun's.

The trouble was that Wang Xun had withdrawn with sixty or seventy thousand men. If he managed to gain a firm foothold, it would add considerable resistance to Diwu Lun's future campaign in Hedong. But on second thought, he mused: "Given the Wang army's quality of bringing disaster to the state and its people, perhaps it won't necessarily be resistance..."

Everything would have to wait until they had crushed Tian Kuang, that tough, stubborn bastard. The army camped at Dali, just one day's march from Lijin City. Diwu Lun remained highly wary of Tian Kuang — the man was skilled in warfare, full of stratagems. He ordered Zhang Yu and Diwu Pingdan to take men and thoroughly search every loess tableland and ravine between Dali and the Luo River, ensuring no ambush troops were hidden in the rear.

Fortunately, the terrain here was relatively gentle, not yet the typical loess plateau. If it had been like the mountain folds of New Qinzhong, where ravines crisscrossed a vast hundred-li expanse, the kind Ma Yuan had once slipped into and the Wang army had failed to search completely even after a month — that would have been a disaster.

Though he had not been able to wait for the cavalry from Shang Commandery, Diwu Lun did encounter a pleasant surprise.

"Grand General! The people of Fu County, hearing that the General has risen against the tyrannical Xin and is campaigning in Hexi, have revolted in response. This old man has brought his fellow villagers to lend their aid!"

The leader was a man past fifty — none other than the Deer Village Bailiff of Fuchou Township, the very man who, when Diwu Lun served as a Household Clerk in the Division of the Master, had taken him to visit Xuan Bing and Xuan Biao, father and son. Though Fu County lay east of the Luo River, it had been administratively assigned to Liewei Commandery. Who would have thought that a connection formed years ago could still prove useful today?

This group marched south. Passing through Ya County and Zheng County, they shouted, "Come along, come along!" Seeing that Tian Kuang's cause was lost, the two counties also raised Diwu Lun's banner. The crowd snowballed, reaching three or four thousand.

Though this battle might not necessarily need them, and their arrival might even be more hindrance than help, this gesture of goodwill had to be commended.

"Even a hamlet of ten households must have its loyal men — that saying speaks of men like Bailiff Lu." Diwu Lun remembered that this man had been marked with a tick in his little notebook back then. He gladly received him and asked how his name should be addressed.

"Lu Zai."

"Then you shall be the Magistrate of Fu County, concurrently serving as Major!"

With this batch of fresh troops, the forces surrounding Lijin would be sufficient — at the very least, they could be used as civilian laborers. But just as Diwu Lun was about to advance east and besiege Lijin, a local strongman from Zheng County who had come south with Lu Zai, a man named "Li Bai," bowed deeply to him and said: "Grand General, you must not only look at Lijin ahead and ignore the danger behind you!"

Diwu Lun studied this man closely. He had a face like crowned jade and went by the courtesy name "Zishu." Diwu Lun asked him: "Where, sir, is this danger you speak of?"

His rear consisted of the three-thousand-strong rear guard holding the pontoon bridge. Further back, he did not know whether the man meant the turbulent and treacherous Chang'an, or Yuan She in the north, watching the situation in the Guanzhong-Longxi region — surely it could not be Lu Fang in Wuyuan, beyond Shang Commandery?

Diwu Lun even considered the several thousand men Lu Zai had brought. Could Tian Kuang's diehard loyalists have infiltrated them?

Li Bai, however, shook his head: "According to what this humble man has learned, before Tian Kuang withdrew to Lijin, he left several hundred death-sworn soldiers west of Dali. They all carry dried rations and are simply waiting for the General's main force to move against Lijin, so they can strike from the rear!"

"General!" Zhang Yu was indignant at this: "From east of the Luo River to Dali, we have scoured every gully over several days, even finding the fleeing commoners!"

Diwu Pingdan also protested his innocence: "Mount Shangyan is not high, barely a hundred paces, and the trees have been mostly cut down. I personally went up and circled it — there is absolutely no way several hundred men could be hidden there."

Both men had been meticulous in their work and had indeed searched carefully. Diwu Lun looked at the informant Li Bai with puzzlement, but saw him smile and shake his head: "The two gentlemen cannot be blamed, for Tian Kuang's ambush troops are not on the ground."

Li Bai pointed a finger downward. "It's underground!"

At these words, Jing Dan, a native of the Shiwei region, was the first to suddenly understand.

"You mean the Dragon Head Canal?!"

……

PS: Got up late. Chapter 2 at 13:00 (about an hour late).

(Chapter 3 at 18:00.)