Chapter 327: Outrageous

"If only Your Majesty could truly weep from the heart at Liu Bosheng's funeral. How fine that would be."

At the end of the tenth month, in Wancheng, Nanyang, Li Tong, courtesy name Ciyuan, made this lament upon returning home after a day of mourning.

As founding stalwarts among the very first to rise against Wang Mang, the Li clan of Wancheng, though nearly exterminated by the Xin Dynasty in the early days, had reaped rich rewards under the Greenwood Han regime: Li Tong became Grand General and King of Xiping; Li Yi became General of the Household of Five Majesties and King of Wuyin; and a clan cousin of the Li family, Li Song, was appointed Chancellor.

Liu Xuan had played this hand well — these royal titles and high offices swung the Li clan firmly behind the Gengshi Emperor and away from supporting the Liu Bosheng brothers. Yet Li Tong, mindful of old ties, had, after his first wife perished under the Xin Dynasty's butcher's blade, taken Liu Xiu's youngest sister as his second wife.

He saw his own family as the glue between the Gengshi regime and the Liu Xiu brothers. When Gengshi had earlier refrained from executing Liu Bosheng and instead dispatched him into the Passes, Li Tong had labored mightily to mediate.

Now the outcome was plain: Bosheng had died in battle on the Wei River, and the Greenwood Han strategy of entering the Passes had failed on the verge of success — but the Greenwood itself had also pulled back from the brink of schism.

Yet when Deng Chen and Yin Shi returned bearing the dire tidings, before the assembled civil and military officials, Li Tong had clearly glimpsed — the moment Liu Xuan, the imperial crown upon his head, learned the news, he had very nearly burst out laughing!

By all reason, an emperor's mind runs deep; he ought to have trained his emotions, kept them under strict control. On such an occasion, he absolutely would not laugh — unless he simply could not help it.

Though Liu Xuan promptly buried his face in his sleeve and "wept," that undercurrent of delight could not be concealed, leaving the assembled ministers exchanging bewildered glances.

The whole court knew of Gengshi's wariness toward Liu Bosheng. Being poor at adapting on the fly was one thing, but since, at the urging of Li Tong and others, he had staged a grand funeral for Liu Bosheng in hopes of uniting sovereign and subjects, he ought at least to have put on a convincing show.

Yet that day, though Liu Xuan wore hempen mourning garb and personally attended in the unhemmed sackcloth prescribed for a younger brother's mourning, when the time came to wail, it was nothing but dry howls. His acting was so poor that even Li Tong felt embarrassed.

This could not help but remind him of an old affair from the Former Han.

"When Liu He, the King of Changyi, was invited by Huo Guang to the capital to preside over Emperor Xiaozhao's funeral — which was tantamount to making him emperor — this Liu He, as he neared the capital and protocol demanded he weep bitterly, actually claimed a sore throat and said he could not cry. Even at the funeral hall, he merely produced dry howls. This later became one of the major charges Huo Guang used to depose him."

Our own Gengshi Emperor, it seems, shares a certain marvelous affinity with Liu He.

Had it been only that, it might have been let pass. But what followed was even more outrageous. When conferring a posthumous name upon Liu Bosheng, Liu Xuan resorted to petty cunning. On the one hand, he insisted on granting a rare double posthumous name, of the kind only men like Huo Qubing and Huo Guang had received in Han times, to show the highest honor. Yet on the other, after consulting Confucian scholars on the choice of name, he personally selected "Feng Yi Zhuangmiu King"...

By the rules of posthumous titling, among the meanings of the character Zhuang — whether "died on the open field," "vanquished foes and quelled disorder," "delighted in force and achieved valor," "repeatedly undertook campaigns," "martial but unfulfilled," or "martial virtue firm and resolute" — all fit Liu Bosheng's life well. That part was indeed fitting.

But the character Miu that followed was laden with implication! Among the Former Han kings who had received this posthumous name — such as the Miu King of Guangchuan, the Miu King of Pinggan, the Miu King of Changsha — none were decent sorts. They were either wildly dissolute and reckless, or degenerates who delighted in killing slaves with blades and dismembering them.

"This is an ill-omened posthumous name! Is Your Majesty suggesting that Liu Bosheng's name ill matched his substance, or that he harmed others and obscured the worthy?"

"Name ill matching substance" mocks Liu Bosheng for styling himself the realm's foremost hero, only to be defeated at the hands of that Diwu brat, his life lost and spirit extinguished. "Harmed others and obscured the worthy"? It cannot but make one feel that here Liu Xuan still nursed hatred for Liu Bosheng's early opposition to making him emperor!

Such subtle strokes of Spring and Autumn brushwork were certainly not the sort of game the Greenwood chieftains would play — those rough-and-ready bosses understood nothing of such things. It was all Liu Xuan's own doing.

But if others did not understand, how could Liu Bosheng's old followers — Yin Shi, Deng Chen, and the like — fail to grasp it? They were either Imperial Academy students or gentlemen of great houses. Yin Shi sighed inwardly, telling himself only to endure. Their Yin family, he reflected, had already done all that duty and honor demanded of the Liu clan. Deng Chen, meanwhile, burned with righteous fury, daring to rage but not to speak.

Liu Xuan was no more courteous toward Liu Bosheng's former subordinates. Those men had accompanied Liu Bosheng within the Passes and committed numerous acts of presumption — how could they be let off lightly? Where would the Son of Heaven's dignity be?

He therefore followed the wishes of the Greenwood chieftains: Deng Chen was stripped of his Nine Ministers post, his nephew Deng Feng replacing him. Wang Chang, who had violated edict by privately mobilizing troops to support Liu Bosheng, was stripped of his "Wuyang King" title and ordered to hand his Hongnong defense sector over to the Wuyin King Li Yi, whom Liu Xuan trusted considerably — and then to roll back and beg forgiveness!

As for Li Tong's cautious proposal — "Liu Xiu should be recalled and granted his elder brother's royal title" —

Liu Xuan was quite displeased. He declared that Liu Xiu, dispatched as an envoy to the Red Eyebrows, had fled to the Liang region and vanished without a trace. Who knew whether he had absconded in fear of punishment? He adamantly refused, nor would he permit Liu Bosheng's son to inherit.

After this whole string of maneuvers, Deng Chen and the other old followers of Bosheng were sorely disillusioned, and Li Tong, too, shook his head in dismay. This emperor of theirs — call him a fool, yet every so often he could flash a petty cunning like "borrowing a sword to kill," and even succeed at it.

Call him wise, yet he let slip a golden chance to unite the Chongling Liu clan, and indeed the entire Nanyang and Greenwood factions, insisting instead on venting his spleen with cheap tricks unfit for the stage — and in doing so, bungled the greater cause.

"Petty cleverness without great wisdom. Short-sighted indeed."

Liu Xuan was like a musician who could pass in an ensemble, filling a place among the rest, but when called upon to perform a solo in the role of "Son of Heaven," the things he did were always absurd.

A thoroughly mediocre sovereign. In an age of peace, he might perhaps have made a passable custodian of the realm, but in this present age of great contention — could he be deposed?

Yet the Greenwood chieftains liked precisely such a man — pliant of ear, and quite indulgent of their plundering. Wang Mang had been "dead" in the deep forests of Hanzhong for barely three months; the various lords stood arrayed, and the discipline of some Greenwood Army units was already fast approaching that of the Xin Dynasty's imperial forces of old!

And with Liu Bosheng's death, once the great crisis of internal schism had dissolved into nothing, one question now confronted the Gengshi regime: to move the capital, or not?

Liu Bosheng's old followers, along with surrendered officials who had once served the Xin Dynasty, very much hoped Gengshi could fight his way into the Passes.

Deng Chen, for all his indignation toward Liu Xuan, still kept Bosheng's dying words in mind — "Better give it to a household slave than to a traitor of the realm" — and still forcefully argued his case: "Your Majesty rose from Jing and Chu; your sovereign authority is not yet fully exercised. You have but newly proclaimed your reign, yet west of the Passes, bold spirits like Diwu Lun and others contend in pursuit of Wang Mang. Some have illicitly seized the capital, styling themselves King of Wei; others have occupied Longyou, presumptuously enthroning the Former Han Crown Prince Ying under the usurped title of Emperor."

"The Spring and Autumn Annals record 'Qi Xiaobai entered Qi' — he is not titled 'Marquis,' for he had not yet paid homage at the ancestral temple. By the same token, Diwu Lun has now struck down Liu Bosheng. If we allow him to take the lands south of the Wei at his leisure and seal the Wu Pass, the power of the old Qin will take shape. Then, though Your Majesty may lie at ease in Wancheng, you will yet have to fret over Diwu Lun's every move in the northwest. How could you rest your head in peace?"

But this whole argument was taken by Liu Xuan as an attempt to use his own "borrow a sword to kill" stratagem against him — to make the Greenwood main force clash bloodily with Diwu Lun, while the Deng clan plotted intrigue with the vanished Liu Xiu. It only worsened Deng Chen's punishment; his marquisate was stripped as well.

And there was an even larger question: even Liu Bosheng, the Greenwood Han's mightiest fighter, had broken his lance within the Passes. Whom could they send on campaign who could prevail against Diwu Lun?

The Greenwood chieftains looked at one another. Their mountain-stronghold factionalism remained severe; each wanted to preserve his own strength, and none was willing to gnaw on hard bones. They all said: "We hear that the Passes and Chang'an have already been plundered bare by Diwu Lun, and the Shanglin palaces were distributed by Liu Bosheng to the powerful families south of the Wei. Entering the Passes holds no profit. As for the High Temple... wasn't the High Temple in the capital burned down? We can just build another one in Luoyang."

Indeed, what the Greenwood chieftains advocated was moving the capital to Luoyang. Men of roving bandit stock, they had grown weary of Wancheng and were keenly interested in the "Center of the World," said to be no less prosperous than Chang'an.

But the great Nanyang clans like the Li family spoke in opposition, with ample reason: "Your Majesty, Luoyang is not safe!"

"In the past, when Emperor Gao of Han had already destroyed Xiang Yu, his chief ministers, mostly men from east of the mountains, largely urged establishing the capital at Luoyang, saying: 'Luoyang has Chenggao to its east, Xiao and Mian to its west, the River at its back, and faces the Yi Pass. Its natural defenses are sufficient to rely upon.'"

"Yet the Marquis of Liu, Zhang Liang, countered that though Luoyang possessed these defenses, the area within was small, barely a few hundred li across, its fields thin, and it was exposed to enemies on all sides — no land suited for wielding military power."

"This was so even after Emperor Gao had already unified the realm. How much more so now, when east of the Passes there are still those who defy the royal mandate!"

Li Tong pointed eastward and said: "The King of Liang, Liu Yong, though he has accepted his title, refuses to allow Your Majesty's two-thousand-bushel officials into his commandery. This man has colluded with Dong Xian of the Red Eyebrow splinter force; the two of them hold Liang, Dingtao, Shanyang, and Pei, and are now advancing troops into Lu and Donghai, carving out a domain in the east. His ambitions are not small."

Even more critical was the Red Eyebrow Army, which had seized the lands of Huaibei and Huaiyang to forage. Several hundred thousand roving bandits, their fighting strength not to be underestimated. Whether to open hostilities or offer amnesty — Liu Xuan needed to give a definite answer.

"From Huaiyang to Luoyang is six hundred li; the Red Eyebrows can reach it in ten days. From the Liang region to Luoyang is seven hundred li, with the added convenience of the Hong Canal — they would likely be even faster than the Red Eyebrows."

"Add to that, separated from Luoyang only by the Yellow River, lies Henei Commandery, held by Ma Yuan, a subordinate of Diwu Lun. Though Your Majesty may have the heart to personally approach the front lines, you must also guard against those men seizing control of the river's boats and vessels to raid Luoyang!"

This speech doused half the ardor in Liu Xuan's heart, which had been heating up to go see the excitement of Luoyang for himself.

Li Tong pressed his counsel further: "What is more, the south is hardly tranquil either."

"Though the self-styled rebel in Runan has been destroyed, in the southeast there is Li Xian, a former Xin Dynasty two-thousand-bushel official who rose to prominence attacking river bandits. Relying on the ten thousand armored troops in his hands, he has dared, without transmitting any writ of submission or offering up his territory, to proclaim himself 'King of Huainan.' He has appointed generals, invaded commanderies and counties, and holds the three commanderies of Lujiang, Liu'an, and Jiujiang."

"And directly to the south, in Nan Commandery and Jiangxia — the very cradle of the Greenwood — the land is now occupied by Qin Feng and Tian Rong. Though these men have accepted the titles of Governor and General, they likewise refuse to allow the Jingzhou Shepherd appointed by Your Majesty to enter their territory. As a result, commanderies like Changsha in Jiangnan can only raise the Han banner from afar, with virtually no real communication possible."

"Once the capital is moved to Luoyang, the south will be beyond our reach. It will allow men like Li Xian to grow powerful, and make communication with the southern commanderies and counties even harder. Changsha and Lingling are the founding lands of the Chongling Liu clan — how can Your Majesty bear to abandon them? To desire first to establish the capital at Luoyang while forsaking the south is to fail to recognize the root while contending for the branch."

Though Li Tong was concerned that if Liu Xuan moved north, Nanyang would again suffer the calamity of war, to the detriment of their great Wancheng clans, his every word was soundly reasoned.

Indeed, the Chongling Liu clan had its origins in the south. Their ancestor was a son of Emperor Jing of Han, the Ding King of Changsha. By operation of the "Decree Extending Favors," he had been enfeoffed at Chongling in Lingdao County, Lingling Commandery — that desolate, bird-shunned backwater — and thus this family came into being. It was not until the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han, when Chongling proved too harsh, that the Marquis of Chongling tearfully pleaded, and the marquisate was relocated to Baishui Township in Nan Commandery — a mere sixty-odd years ago.

Some clan elders, such as the State Elder Liu Liang, still cherished the thought of returning to Changsha and Lingling to offer blood sacrifices to the founding ancestor, to tell him that the descendants of Chongling had become emperors of the Great Han!

If the High Temple in Chang'an could not be visited for homage, the ancestors in Changsha and Chongling must not be neglected.

Under Li Tong's persuasion, Liu Xuan at last abandoned the plan to move the capital. He would remain in Wancheng for now, first stabilizing the perilously shaky rear while strengthening control over the east of the Passes. Going north to contend with Diwu Lun and the Northern Han for the realm could wait.

But when he calmed his mind and looked carefully, the hidden perils the Greenwood Han needed to deal with were truly too many. Liu Xuan could not help but ask: "In the opinion of the King of Xiping, which front should we address first?"

"The King of Liang need not be rushed. Li Xian, and Tian Rong and Qin Feng in the south, must be dealt with — but none of these are imminent."

"The most urgent matter is none other than the Red Eyebrows!" Li Tong voiced the anxieties of the great Nanyang clans. He had heard that the Red Eyebrows, unlike the Greenwood, remained in a state of roving banditry, specializing in killing powerful and great families. They had to be dealt with before anyone could sleep in peace.

Li Tong laid out his bold proposal: "If the Red Eyebrows could be made to serve us, guided westward to strike Diwu Lun's Guanzhong, they would be a sharp sword indeed!"

Whatever Liu Xuan might think, Li Ciyuan regarded Diwu Lun as a mortal enemy of the Greenwood Han. When Diwu Lun had come to Xindu in Nanyang to fetch Wang Mang's son, the two had already crossed paths. Li Tong had been badly bruised by this "passerby" Diwu Lun and knew how formidable the man was — he could not be allowed to consolidate Guanzhong in peace.

Liu Xuan frowned. "Liu Xiu's whereabouts are unknown. Who could go and persuade the Red Eyebrows to submit for me?"

He looked at Li Tong. "Is the King of Xiping willing?"

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Li Tong was badly startled. His last dealings with Diwu Lun had been a case of lifting a rock only to drop it on his own foot — would today repeat yesterday's affair? Fortunately, he already had someone in mind. "The the Xin troops' commander, General Zhenwei Ma Wu, can shoulder this mission!"

"Ma Wu — Liu Xiu's brother-in-law…" Liu Xuan thought to himself, though he at least refrained from saying it aloud, since Li Tong was also Liu Xiu's "brother-in-law."

Li Tong said, "First, Ma Wu is stationed in Yingchuan, close to Huaiyang. Second, he esteems martial valor and chivalry — he may well match the temperament of the Red Eyebrows' Fan Chong."

There was a third point he did not voice. Li Tong still thought of Liu Xiu. Word had it that Liu Xiu had fallen among the Red Eyebrows and been taken captive. He could have Ma Wu go and see the truth of it; if Liu Xiu could be rescued, it would repay his friendship with those two brothers.

Liu Xuan hesitated. "But the man is nothing more than a common warrior's courage — can he really persuade the Red Eyebrows to submit?"

"Dispatch an eloquent scholar as his deputy to accompany him, and it will do," said Li Tong. He recommended several men, and only then did Liu Xuan grudgingly agree.

But after Li Tong left, this emperor so adept at petty cunning sent someone to deliver a secret edict to a Greenwood commander far away in Chenliu.

"The Grand General of the Guard, Zhang Ang, is King of Huaiyang. Now that Huaiyang is occupied by the Red Eyebrows, he has lost his fief. Tell Zhang Ang: if the Red Eyebrows refuse to submit, dispatch troops and strike them!"

In Liu Xuan's eyes, the Red Eyebrows were nothing but a rabble of scattered soldiers. What was so remarkable about winning a few battles against the Xin army? How could they possibly withstand the Greenwood troops, now equipped with elite armor and weapons after seizing the armories of the great commanderies of the Central Plain?

And this move would also turn the Red Eyebrows' fury upon Ma Wu, causing that Greenwood commander — who had once backed Liu Bosheng for emperor — to die at the Red Eyebrows' hands. Would that not be splendid?

Just as he was thinking this, a soft, coquettish voice rose from behind the curtain.

"Your Majesty, are you not done yet?"

"Finished writing — coming, coming." Liu Xiu tossed aside his brush, had the decree sent out, casually flung off the mourning garb he had been wearing for show for Liu Bosheng, and at once returned beaming into the arms of his flock of palace beauties to resume the feast.

…

Liu Xuan was once again trying to "borrow a sword to kill a man," but as a near-puppet emperor, how much control he actually had over the Greenwood commanders at the front was anyone's guess.

In early eleventh month, after Wang Chang in Hongnong had acted on his own to send troops to aid Liu Bosheng, the Greenwood "King of Huaiyang" Zhang Ang, stationed in Chenliu, also discovered that the grain within his jurisdiction — ravaged by years of war and with spring planting and autumn harvest disrupted — was proving insufficient to eat. He too grew restless and began to stir.

His every move was under the eyes of the scouts and sentries across the river in Henei Commandery.

"Commandant Ma, the Greenwood's Zhang Ang has marched on Puyang. Grand Governor Wang Hong of Dong Commandery is at his wits' end and has sent his nephew to beg for help!"

For months now, Ma Yuan, one of the Three Excellencies of Great Wei, had been so idle in Henei that he could only play with his grandson.

But after Diwu Lun sent Diba Jiao to escort Ma Yuan's wife and child to Guanzhong, Ma Yuan no longer even had his little grandson to play with, and was suddenly at a loss.

And since Diwu Lun required Henei and Wei Commandery to maintain peace with the Northern Han, there was nowhere to fight even if he wanted to. Wan Xiu, young Geng, Jing Dan, and the rest were all cutting a swath through Guanzhong, piling up battle honors — he alone was left out in the cold.

Now, hearing that the Greenwood Han was attacking Puyang, Ma Yuan rose abruptly to his feet.

"Dong Commandery has Baima Ford — and boats."

"When the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold. We must preserve Wang Hong. What's more…"

Ma Yuan donned his armor at lightning speed and said with a laugh, "The King has just crushed Liu Bosheng. Tell me — will the Greenwood forces strike west into Guanzhong to avenge him?"

Huang Chang and the others could not be certain and could only say, "Perhaps they will."

That was exactly what Ma Yuan had been waiting to hear. He put on his helmet as well. "Even if we do no more than keep a portion of the Greenwood army tied down beneath the walls of Puyang from across the river, we are still sharing the King's burden!"

…

PS: Tomorrow's update at 13:00.