Chapter 290: Joining Forces

By the end of the seventh month, the King of Wei, Diwu Lun, was about to arrive at his loyal Anyi.

"Hedong is the old land of Wei. Though ruled by Qin for a century, during the Chu-Han struggle it was also called Western Wei, and Anyi was the Wei capital. Your Majesty's title spreads very easily in Hedong."

Standing on his war chariot, Diwu Lun nodded — this had indeed been a consideration when they settled on his royal title. Over the several hundred li from Puban to Anyi, the people of Hedong had been so fervent that they truly came out "bearing wine jugs and carrying broth." This had little to do with the royal title itself; it was more because Wang Xun's army had committed so many atrocities in Hedong, stirring both heaven's wrath and the people's hatred. By driving them out, Diwu Lun had naturally become the one who "punishes the cruel and brings peace to the people."

The city of Anyi sat upon tiered rising slopes. Gazing southeast, one could see the Zhongtiao Mountains. Its outer wall was enormous, with a circumference exceeding twenty li — it well deserved its status as the metropolis of Hedong.

Wan Xiu, who had commanded the river crossing and the Battle of Anyi, was already waiting outside the city with the various generals and the elders and officials of Hedong. Seeing Diwu Lun's intertwined-dragon banner, he came forward and prostrated himself.

"Since crossing the river, you seized Anyi in mere days. Your speed, Junyou, rivals even that of Han Xin."

"It was all thanks to Your Majesty's proper direction, the soldiers' willingness to give their lives, and the assistance of the elders of Hedong."

Among the generals under Wan Xiu, the one who had achieved the greatest merit was the Right General of the Household, Zheng Tong. After crossing the river, he had routed an enemy force several times his size with just eight hundred men, then chased them all the way, smashing through reinforcements that came to their aid along the way. Zheng Tong's troops were mostly deathsworn elite, one man picked from ten. This single charge had carried them all the way to the outskirts of Anyi, giving Wang Xun no small fright.

Diwu Lun had someone bring out the Flying Tiger Banner, which symbolized the honor of being first to ascend the walls in battle, and personally bestowed it upon Zheng Tong. Clapping Zheng Tong on the shoulder — his face now bore many more scars from glancing arrows — Diwu Lun said, "With such great merit, you can be a general again."

Zheng Tong, however, refused repeatedly. "Anything over a thousand men, and I cannot lead them. I am only cut out to be a Major! I can't even handle being a Colonel leading five thousand, let alone a General."

After fighting several battles, Zheng Tong now knew what he was good at. Charging into enemy lines and executing orders — that he could do. Commanding a large army and holding a sector on his own — that he could not. Directing operations from the center was far too much trouble, nothing like the ease of leading a charge at the front.

He truly ought to be placed in such a position. But once all of Hedong was taken and the King of Wei established ranks and titles, a marquisate was absolutely guaranteed to be his.

Apart from Zheng Tong, the other units that had crossed the river, such as the Seventh Biao, had also achieved considerable results. This time, Diwu Lun had placed his best-trained, highest-morale troops at the very front. After the landing, once they achieved a point-breakthrough against the enemy, it developed into a large-scale rout, like dry weeds crushed before the wind. Wang Xun's army had withdrawn without putting up much resistance; none of them were willing to fight the Wei soldiers to the death.

This caused Diwu Lun's plan to "train troops through battle" to miscarry once again. Too many were surrendering in formed units. Now that they had heard the Xin Dynasty had fallen, who would still foolishly play the loyal subject of the Great Xin? If he didn't fight them, he couldn't train his troops. If he did fight, he couldn't encircle and annihilate them completely; if they scattered and fled into the mountains to become bandits, the resulting calamity would be endless.

As a result, after the river crossing was secured, the number of prisoners had already swelled to twenty or thirty thousand, and there weren't enough men to guard them — for these prisoners had committed such heavy atrocities in Hedong over the past month or so that the locals seethed with resentment.

Diwu Lun, for his part, felt this was not a problem.

"On my way to Anyi, I passed by Xiechi. Looking out from the carriage, it was a vast expanse of gleaming white. Weibei relies heavily on Xiechi for its salt. Do you all think we have too few slave laborers to dig salt?"

Everyone understood. Those units that had actively "risen in revolt" could be reorganized where possible. As for those who had surrendered passively and were deeply resented by the people, there were plenty of places for them to dig salt, dig iron, and dig coal. Hedong was rich in resources, with offices for iron and salt.

The composition of Wang Xun's army was no different from the forty thousand men Diwu Lun had taken over at Hongmen, yet now their fates were worlds apart.

Zhao Pang and others also introduced Diwu Lun to the local elders and powerful families of Hedong, as well as to Zhang Zong, who had responded to the Wei Commandery river-crossing campaign and achieved great merit.

"From your accent, you don't sound like a man of Hedong."

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"I am a man of Luyang in Nanyang, who drifted here by chance."

Although an outsider, this Zhang Zong enjoyed a modest local reputation. Resenting the brutality of Wang Xun's army, he had raised three or four hundred commoners in revolt, raising the banner of opposing the Xin. Later, persuaded by Zhao Pang, he had switched to Diwu Lun's banner, gathering a following of several thousand. The reason Wang Xun's army had been so pathetically fragile was also because the people of Hedong had coordinated from within, tying up no small amount of their energy.

Diwu Lun encouraged Zhang Zong, Yang Mao, and the others, appointing Zhang Zong as Assistant General and sending him with envoys to go and summon the various counties of Hedong to surrender. He had reviewed the Hedong archives; the last census recorded twenty-four counties and a population of nearly a million — a major commandery by any measure.

The next three objectives were: first, to swiftly restore the Yellow River pontoon bridge at Puban, linking Hexi and Hedong together; second, to extend governance across all the counties of Hedong, restore order, and secure the autumn harvest — Diwu Lun could waive Hedong's grain tax this year, but at the very least, Weibei should not have to ship grain here for relief; third, over ten thousand of Wang Xun's troops had not surrendered and had fled into the Zhongtiao Mountains, the Huo Mountains, and other areas — suppressing the bandits alone would take a long time.

These matters seemed simple on the surface, but handling them was far more difficult than fighting a battle. As for the choice of Governor for Hedong Commandery, Diwu Lun felt there was someone by his side who had been idle for quite a while and could finally be put to use.

"the Duke of Zhou." Diwu Lun looked toward Dou Rong, who had been following by his side these days serving as an advisor, and said with a smile, "I entrust this commandery of Hedong to you, the Duke of Zhou!"

For one thing, Diwu Lun's Nine Ministers were each busy with their own duties, either overseeing the military or managing the civilian population, and had no time to spare. A local could serve as an assistant, but was not yet worthy of winning Diwu Lun's full trust. He would appoint a trusted aide as Commandery Commandant to control the troops, and hand the civil affairs over to Dou Rong — let him see just how capable Dou Rong was at governing a region.

Dou Rong, after declining twice according to custom, accepted the appointment, though inwardly he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"For years, my heart has been set on going to Hexi — I never imagined I would end up in Hedong!"

Having arranged the chief officials for Hedong, Diwu Lun asked Wan Xiu, "Where is Wang Xun now?"

Speaking of Wang Xun, it was rather laughable. Earlier, thinking he had many troops, he had sent a man to see Diwu Lun, proposing they "recognize each other as kings." Later, seeing that Diwu Lun was determined to cross the river, he immediately lost his nerve and sent another envoy, this time requesting to be made a "Duke of State." He had previously been the "Duke of Zhangxin," and changing it to "Duke of Zhangwei" would also be acceptable — he was willing to submit to the King of Wei and become a vassal beneath a vassal. Diwu Lun still refused.

After Diwu Lun's great army came charging over, Wang Xun no longer harbored any illusions of requesting a marquisate, and instead simply fled.

Wan Xiu said, "Seeing the river defenses lost and the people of Anyi not rallying to him, Wang Xun took his remaining ten thousand or so troops and fled north toward Pingyang. General Seventh is leading several thousand men in hot pursuit!"

"Had I known it would come to this, I should have joined forces with Tian Kuang back then and crushed that whelp Diwu."

Wang Xun, retreating north along the Fen River, cut a rather wretched figure. He recalled how, when he first heard that his old partner, the Grand Minister of Works Wang Yi, had thrown away an army of three hundred thousand in a single stroke at Kunyang, he had been quite astonished, thinking Wang Yi truly useless — even if he had been leading three hundred thousand pigs, it shouldn't have ended so badly.

"If I had taken Wang Yi's place at Kunyang, even at worst, I could have brought the army back."

Wang Xun was very confident in his ability to withdraw. He had led a hundred thousand men in retreat from Luyang and lost only thirty thousand along the way.

Yet now, it seemed Wang Xun had overestimated himself. From the day he entered Hedong, Wang Xun had faced a dilemma: should he keep the army concentrated, or disperse it? If concentrated in one place, there wasn't enough grain to feed them. If dispersed, given their morale and discipline, they would become festering sores plaguing the countryside. Wang Xun's orders became rather ineffective, and when he needed them, he simply couldn't pull them back.

Hence the scene of Wang Xun's army scattering at the mere rumor of the Wei army's river crossing.

Wang Xun had voluntarily abandoned Anyi and headed north. The people of Hedong felt not the slightest identification with him; moreover, with the news that Diwu Lun had occupied Chang'an, Wang Mang had fled, and the Xin Dynasty had collapsed, people's hearts were even more unfathomable. When Diwu Lun came attacking, who knew how many powerful families and daring youths within the city were itching to chop off his head and present it to the King of Wei!

Where to go next? This was a difficult choice. As a force that had not cleanly cut ties with the Xin Dynasty, Wang Xun was now a rat scurrying across the street, with everyone crying out for his blood: Diwu Lun had crossed the river and seized Anyi; Ma Yuan had already captured Ekou Pass and advanced to occupy Jiang County; in Shangdang, Bao Yong, raising the banner of "Han," had dispatched troops to attack Duanshi, the eastern gateway of Hedong.

Under this three-pronged pincer attack, this was also the reason Wang Xun had been forced to divide his forces.

And so, after Wang Xun hurriedly fled to Pingyang County at the end of the seventh month, he still felt unsafe. His subordinates offered him advice: "Grand Chancellor, why not go north?"

"North lies Taiyuan. Zhao, with Jinyang, was still sufficient to hold off the Qin and stand as a hegemon among the Seven Warring States. To the left is the defensible terrain of Mount Heng, to the right the barrier of the Great River, and to the north are the powerful Hu. The Grand Chancellor previously dispatched ten thousand men to take over Taiyuan; if you now go to join them, with twenty thousand armored soldiers, you can still make something of it."

Make something of it how? Wang Xun had also heard of the establishment of the "Hu Han" north of the frontier. This Han Son of Heaven, surnamed Lu, was not as particular as the Western Han or Northern Han, and still held a welcoming attitude toward a Xin Dynasty remnant like Wang Xun. At worst, he could surrender Taiyuan to the Hu Han and borrow Xiongnu troops to oppose Diwu Lun — he could be another King Xin of Han...

With this thought, Wang Xun abandoned Pingyang County, where resistance was equally frequent, and continued pressing north. By the time he reached the borders of Yang County (modern-day Hongdong County, Shanxi), the three armies were exhausted, and the column had stretched into a long snake, scattered and broken.

Wang Xun was tired too, so he rested and drank water beneath a large locust tree. He observed that this place had the Lüliang Mountains to the left and the Huotai Mountains to the right, with the Fen River valley in between. The road was beginning to narrow, and once they entered the Rat-and-Sparrow Gorge, it would become even harder to traverse.

Minister of Education Wang, still somewhat unwilling to accept his inexplicable defeat, suddenly burst into loud laughter: "If I had left a force lying in ambush here, and they struck when Diwu Lun's pursuers arrived, they would certainly have routed them utterly..."

Yet his laughter had not faded when, with a sudden roll of drums, a small force of cavalry burst from the woods. At their head was none other than the young white-horse general, Geng Yan — clearly holding the rank of Grand Coachman and General of Chariots and Cavalry among the Nine Ministers, yet still loving to lead the charge himself!

Diwu Lun had told him to execute a "grand detour, grand envelopment" — in truth, it was to send Geng Yan on a long, roundabout route so that Wan Xiu and the others could claim the main credit. He never imagined that young Geng would take it seriously. In just twenty short days, he had led his reorganized Yue Cavalry Camp to reinforce Shang Commandery, dispatched a deputy general to subdue Xihe, and then personally led two thousand men across Mengmen, took Langgao, and then pressed south along the western foothills of the Lüliang Mountains — and he had truly managed to envelop them!

Though he had only a few hundred cavalry left at his side, and they were utterly exhausted, the moment they charged out now, flying the Wei banners with irresistible momentum, they scared the souls out of Wang Xun and his remnant defeated troops!

And Geng Yan had never lacked the courage to fight thousands with mere hundreds!

"The enemy has just arrived, their formations not yet set, their front and rear unconnected — strike their forward cavalry, assault their flanks, and the enemy will surely flee. The enemy, at dusk, wishes to return to camp; the three armies are fearful. Harass their two flanks, swiftly strike their rear, press close to their camp entrance, and give them no chance to enter — the enemy will surely be defeated."

Geng Yan spotted Wang Xun's banner and knew he had caught a big fish. He raised the cavalry lance in his hand high and shouted, "Gentlemen!"

"Our detached force is about to achieve great merit once again!"

Just as Geng Yan was chasing Minister of Education Wang all over the Fen River valley, on the first day of the eighth month, Diwu Lun arrived at Wenxi County, a hundred li north of Anyi.

"Wenxi — is there a story behind this place's name?"

Hearing Diwu Lun ask this, Dou Rong, now Governor of Hedong Commandery, replied: "When Emperor Wu of Han was on an imperial tour to the Gou family estate, he passed through Tong Village in Zuoyi. There he received word of the great victory over Southern Yue, and in his great joy, he renamed the place 'Wenxi' — 'Hearing the Joy.'"

Diwu Lun nodded. "A truly fine name. Today our armies join forces here — how fitting!"

Before long, a troop appeared in the distance as well, likewise flying the banner of "Wei." Diwu Lun personally rode forward in his chariot, spread his arms wide toward the veteran commander galloping toward him, and laughed heartily:

"My esteemed elder!"

……

PS: Chapter 2 at 13:00. (Will be about an hour late.)

(Chapter 3 at 18:00.)