Chapter 288: Gazing Westward Toward the Royal Army

Diwu Lun deliberately left the "Right Chancellor" post vacant. Jing Dan was not the only one with designs on that position and eager to prove himself — Ren Guang had the same idea.

At yesterday's council of war, Diwu Lun lavished praise on Geng Yan and assigned him some "grand envelopment, grand flanking maneuver" — it sounded quite novel and suited young Geng's taste so well that he even forgot his resentment at failing to secure the main assault. But to Ren Guang, the matter was rather intriguing.

"Ever since the Battle of Linjin, whenever a major campaign comes, the King has repeatedly made Wan Xiu the commander-in-chief. Partly it is because he values his steadiness, which matches the military maxim 'meet them with the orthodox,' but it may also be to let Wan Xiu pile up more merit so that, within the army, he can keep the Geng clan a peg lower."

Though Ren Guang normally appeared honest and unassuming, in his mind he had his own map of the political forces within the "State of Wei."

"The Left Chancellor Geng Chun goes without saying — kin by marriage to the King of Wei, his right-hand man."

"The Minister Coachman Geng Yan rendered great service in pacifying Weibei and was appointed General of Chariots and Cavalry."

"The Imperial Counselor Jing Dan has known the King of Wei the longest, yet he once served as a vassal of the Geng clan and is very close to Geng Bozhao."

"Then there is the Commandant of Justice Peng Chong, originally a defeated officer under Lian Dan, who was rescued by Geng Chun and followed him into Wei."

When Ren Guang tallied it up, he found that people with Geng-clan backgrounds actually made up a full third of Diwu Lun's makeshift inner circle — a rather large share, yet they could not simply be dismissed.

"Therefore, the still-vacant Right Chancellor post almost certainly cannot go to anyone connected to the Geng clan."

So he guessed that Jing Dan would likely stay in the Imperial Counselor post for some time yet, whereas he himself, by contrast, had a better chance of stepping up into a chancellor's seat!

Unlike the others, Ren Guang, a man from Nanyang, had come all alone to join Diwu Lun, with virtually no background and no friends. That looked like a disadvantage, but little did anyone realize it had become his greatest advantage.

On top of that, he was a former subordinate of Yan You. Recently Diwu Lun had learned that Wancheng had fallen and that Yan You had taken his own life, dying for the Xin. He grieved for a long time, even wore mourning for Yan You, and in private often sought out Ren Guang to talk about that stubborn old master of his in the art of war.

A solitary minister, someone with whom he could speak privately, every proposal of his lodged in the royal heart, no greed for power — only such a man could be placed in a chancellor's seat.

Of course, this was merely Ren Guang's own notion, but it already made him throw himself with extra zeal into his work as Superintendent of Grain.

Ren Guang had heard a story from the Han. When Emperor Wen of Han first took the throne, he asked Right Chancellor Zhou Bo: "How many legal cases are decided in the realm each year? How much coin and grain comes in and goes out of the realm each year?"

In the event, Zhou Bo, that rough old soldier, could not answer a single question. Sweat soaked his back, and he was ashamed at being unable to reply.

But when Emperor Wen put the same questions to Left Chancellor Chen Ping, that slippery Chen Ping, though he knew perfectly well, said: "If Your Majesty asks about legal cases, refer it to the Commandant of Justice; if you ask about coin and grain, refer it to the Superintendent of Grain."

The Chancellor handles the grand strategy, while the Nine Ministers are responsible for concrete affairs. This Superintendent of Grain, whose title had been restored to its original form, was in fact the Grand Minister of Agriculture of Han times. Because of Wang Mang's reckless meddling, "coin" was now nearly worthless and could be set aside for the moment; what Ren Guang needed to worry about was grain alone.

At present, Ren Guang had two major matters in hand: the autumn harvest and the transport of army provisions.

It was now mid-seventh month; in another month they could begin reaping the millet and wheat, and Diwu Lun's plan was to take Hedong before the autumn harvest!

The source of the army's grain was no cause for worry. Diwu Lun had dared to distribute the grain from the Great Granary to the people of Chang'an because he had something to fall back on.

After defeating Tian Kuang, they had seized several hundred thousand shi of grain at the Capital Granary in Huayin County by the Wei River — enough to feed the great army for half a year. Ren Guang had already organized Tian Kuang's surrendered troops and the division's manpower to haul it by cart and ship the grain to Fengling Ferry and Puban Pass. Diwu Lun had transferred over twenty thousand men who had fought in the Linjin campaign, each force holding one crossing, eyeing Hedong with predatory intent.

Yet Diwu Lun left the southern front to Wan Xiu and the others, while he himself rode to Xiayang County (Hancheng in Shaanxi), several hundred li away, to gaze at the opposite bank.

The great river was far too wide — no ordinary waterway could compare — and the number of ferry boats was limited. They could send only a little over a thousand men across at a time. If they tried a forced crossing against the enemy's main strength, the vanguard would be struck mid-crossing, and assaulting the riverbank uphill would inevitably cost them grievous losses. If they could not establish a bridgehead, there would be no way to build a pontoon bridge and bring the rear army across; the river crossing would end in failure on the verge of success.

As for places with good hydrological conditions where a pontoon bridge could be built to supply a great army's crossing, between Qin and Jin there were only four: Puban, Longmen, Fengling Ferry, and Maojin.

Fengling Ferry and Maojin were in Weinan; Puban and Longmen were in Hexi.

Puban was the first choice for travel between Guanzhong and Hedong in peacetime, but now Wang Xun had burned the pontoon bridge and stationed a large force there on guard.

The "Junior Tutor" Dou Rong, who had come along with the entourage, currently held no specific office and was more like a "counselor" Diwu Lun kept at his side. He said: "Two hundred years ago, when Western Wei saw the Han army massing in Xihe and making a show of boats as if to cross at Linjin, they sent their main army to the opposite bank at Puban to resist."

"But Han Xin, taking advantage of the moment when their crack troops were all at Puban, concealed a force and crossed from the Longmen ferry at Xiayang, smashed their flank force, and raided Anyi — and Western Wei was destroyed."

The tools for crossing the river were being gathered from various places by Ren Guang, Song Hong, and others, and delivered to the front in succession. Diwu Lun made it clear he wanted everything: besides boats and wooden rafts, he also had men make sheepskin rafts by the method used in New Qin-zhong.

But what interested Diwu Lun most was still the "wooden jar" that Han Xin had used back then, the same thing the locals used to float across the water when fleeing famine.

The locals showed him the object. Using the large pottery wine jars produced near Xiayang, they bound them together with rope and clamped them between wooden planks — this was called a "wooden-jar float." The buoyancy of a single such float could carry several men with absolutely no problem.

Diwu Lun personally climbed inside and tried it out. On land it was fine, but in the water you constantly had to bail as you drifted. Apart from armored soldiers and wooden oars, you also had to bring a ladle. Because of its bizarre shape, steering was not easy either. If your luck was poor, you could drift scores of li downstream. Unless a man had excellent swimming skills and strong nerves, he absolutely could not ride one.

It seemed that Han Xin's strategy back then had been to use "special forces" to land and launch a surprise attack on the enemy's rear.

But that battle was not so easy to replicate. Wang Xun was no fool; with so famous a battle example right before his eyes, he could not possibly leave it unguarded. He had also stationed a strong force to hold the Longmen ferry. Given his superior numbers, whether a surprise attack could succeed was anyone's guess.

"Great King, the water is high in the seventh month."

Someone began to lose heart and proposed: "Why not wait until the water drops somewhat before winter, and then attack?"

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The Yellow River's waters — they are high no matter the season. Diwu Lun disagreed. The Greenwood men already controlled Wu Pass, and their main force could enter Guanzhong at any time. Who knew whether hunger might drive them to open hostilities against Weibei? The time left to them was one month at most.

And just as Diwu Lun spurred his horse and led his men along the riverbank on an inspection tour, he caught sight of something drifting in the water.

It was certainly no turtle, but rather the very wooden-jar float Diwu Lun had just tried out. It had been launched from an unguarded spot on the opposite bank and was drifting toward the western shore.

The several men aboard were paddling furiously with their small wooden oars, but perhaps because the large jars had been soaking too long and had cracked, the more they paddled westward, the more the craft seemed to sink, until at last it vanished from sight, leaving only a few men stripped to the waist, struggling to swim!

Fortunately, Diwu Lun immediately ordered boats to row out and pick them up. After these men were rescued and brought ashore, the one in the lead turned out to be an old subordinate from Wei whom Diwu Lun had left behind in Hedong on the pretext of "wounds and illness" when he had gone west to Chang'an on his great venture — Zhao Pang!

"General… Great King!"

Zhao Pang was soaked through. Over two months ago, Diwu Lun, planning for defeat before planning for victory, had told him to take two hundred men and find an excuse to stay in Hedong; seizing a small ferry crossing should have been no problem.

But they had never imagined that Wang Xun's great army would pour into Hedong in one breath and post several thousand men at every crossing. Zhao Pang and his men instantly lost their chance. Today he had risked death to cross the river precisely to report the situation in Hedong to Diwu Lun.

He led forward a scholar who had crossed west with him and had nearly drowned, and who had just vomited up half a bellyful of Yellow River water: "This man is named Yang Mao, a native of Fenyin in Hedong."

Yang Mao's face had just been wiped dry of river water, but now it was wet with tears. He prostrated himself at Diwu Lun's feet: "The people of Hedong have long suffered bitterly under Wang Xun! Day and night we gaze toward the Great King, longing for deliverance, as a parched land longs for sweet rain."

Diwu Lun's interest was piqued, and he told him to speak slowly.

Riotous soldiers harming the people was a traditional art of the Xin armies — what Diwu Lun had seen them do along the road in Beidi, the slaughter Peng Chong had witnessed in Wuyan County — Wang Xun had done the whole repertoire upon entering Hedong!

Yang Mao said: "After Wang Xun took control of Anyi, the officials plundered and looted, the soldiers raped and violated; the dead numbered in the hundreds."

"Fenyin on the opposite bank also suffered calamity. In their search for grain, they extorted food from every household, and the riotous soldiers seized the chance to run amok. My younger brother argued with them and was killed for it!"

What Yang Mao recounted, though Diwu Lun had expected it, still showed he had overestimated the discipline of the royal army. The bewilderment after the Xin's collapse could only be vented and masked through burning, killing, and looting. Hedong was originally a rich and prosperous land; stirred up by them, the people were utterly destitute, and not a few local powerful families also suffered calamity and were deeply resentful toward Wang Xun. In truth, Wang Xun might have wished to settle in Hedong for the long term, but after learning of the Xin's destruction, he could no longer fully control his three armies. He could only let them do as they pleased.

Zhao Pang also reported that in Fenyin, a man of Yangquan Township named Zhang Zong had rallied a force of several hundred and called himself General.

"We persuaded him, and got Zhang Zong to raise the Great King's banner. Taking the protection of the people as his charge, within a few short days he gained a response of several thousand men. Now Wang Xun is dispatching troops to suppress Yangquan Township. Seeing the great army massing on the western bank, your servant has come specially to report."

After hearing this, Diwu Lun could only sigh and say: "When Heaven wishes something destroyed, it first makes it mad!"

Then he said to Yang Mao and the other Hedong men who had crossed the river to join him: "I raised righteous troops to punish the violent and expel Wang Mang, using the name of 'comforting the people and chastising the guilty'! And now, that watchword remains unchanged!"

"Since Wang Xun is tyrannizing Hedong, I shall turn my army eastward, slay him, and restore peace to the people of Hedong!"

With that, Diwu Lun looked at Zhao Pang and Yang Mao and smiled: "My great army will cross the river in a few days. Do you still dare to take a boat back across and serve as my liaisons with the righteous forces of Hedong, calling them to rise?"

The two men spoke in unison: "We dare!"

After Diwu Lun returned to Xiayang city, he summoned everyone and immediately finalized the plan to attack Hedong.

Dou Rong and the others were all very curious — Diwu Lun had essentially walked the entire riverbank. Where exactly did he intend to launch the main assault, and where the surprise attack? Longmen, Puban, or perhaps Fengling Ford and Maojin?

"No main assault, and no surprise attack."

The crowd was stunned, but Diwu Lun said: "First, Wang Xun's soldiers have learned of the Xin Dynasty's collapse. Their morale is shattered, sustained only by massacring cities and abusing the people. Our army, fresh from the great victory at Linjin and duly rewarded, and with the State of Wei newly founded, has every man's morale soaring!"

"Second, Wang Xun has lost all popular support. From powerful clans to common folk, all across Hedong resist him constantly, forcing Wang Xun to divert troops for suppression. His grip on Hedong is far weaker than that of the Western Wei's King Bao two hundred years ago. The people of Hedong long for our rescue, and many are willing to lend their aid. Before crossing, our army numbers only thirty thousand — but after crossing, with the locals' help, it will be as if we have three hundred thousand!"

"Men like Wang Xun are no longer a royal army, but remnant bandits of a fallen dynasty. We are the army of benevolence and righteousness — striking them will be like crushing dry weeds and rotten wood!" In truth, Diwu Lun did not wish for a stone to smash an egg; on the contrary, he hoped the enemy would resist fiercely. The fiercer, the happier he would be. Before contending with the well-armed and powerful Greenwood and Longyou forces, not a single opportunity to drill his troops could be missed!

"In short, the enemy's defensive line is riddled with gaps, their troop strength uneven. They cannot guard against everything. Once our army succeeds at one point, the rest will follow in succession."

"On the twentieth day of the seventh month, gather all boats, sheepskin rafts, and wooden buoy jars. The entire army will cross the river."

Diwu Lun's mind was made up. He sent men to deliver orders to Wan Xiu and the others.

"From Xiayang to Puban, within a hundred li, every place is a surprise attack, and every place is the main assault!"

……

PS: Chapter 3 at 18:00 (will be about an hour late)