Chapter 337: Truly Fragrant

When Wei Ao continued his eastward advance and reached Zhouzhi, the local "common folk" who had been stubbornly resisting greeted him with the same delight as before, hoping that the Western Han could protect them — they who had once thrown their lot in with Liu Bosheng — from having their homes confiscated by Diwu Lun.

And it was here that Wei Ao encountered several eminent Confucian classicists from Chang'an.

"State Duke."

Wei Ao was well-versed in classical studies and had often mingled with Liu Xin at the Imperial Academy, so he was quite familiar with these men. He hurriedly helped up the white-haired old scholar leading them, a man named Guo You: "When State Duke Guo was a Court Consultant during the Xiaoping reign and Erudite for the Book of Changes, I, Wei Ao, attended your lectures many times and gained much from them…"

The credentials of those behind him were even more illustrious, but Wei Ao stopped short of mentioning them. This Guo You had been a hot commodity in Wang Mang's court. When Wang Mang appointed one Libationer for each of the Six Classics for the Crown Prince, Guo You was among them, ranked as a high minister and serving as Libationer — he could be counted as one of Liu Xin's faction.

But when Wang Mang's Crown Prince was deposed, Guo You slunk away in disgrace and returned to the Imperial Academy to resume his post as Erudite.

"How fares the Imperial Academy?" The only news Wei Ao had of the Academy was that, on the eve of Wang Mang's defeat, the man had led the Academy students in wailing to heaven and beating the earth — yet it seemed heaven was unmoved, and in the end, Diwu Lun could not be stopped.

Guo You had lost his former grace and elegance. His white hair was somewhat disheveled by the winter wind, and he clutched tightly at a greasy, filthy fur cloak worn far too long. He hung his head and said: "After Diwu entered the capital, the several thousand Imperial Academy students surrendered and scattered one after another. When Liu Bosheng entered Chang'an, he set a torch to Wang Mang's Nine Temples, and the sparks spread to the Academy, burning several dormitories. The students still living there dared not stay. Some went north of the Wei to join Diwu Lun, others fled to Youfufeng to offer their service to you, General."

But Guo You's home was in Chang'an, and he could not bear to abandon his household possessions. He would rather die than leave — after all, he had once mocked his neighbor Zhang Song from the same ward, and now he had no face to go and join Diwu Lun.

As he spoke, a sudden rumble was heard — it was Guo You's stomach growling loudly, to his great embarrassment.

Wei Ao hurriedly ordered hot food to be prepared. These great scholars, who in former days would not eat meat unless it was properly cut, now devoured the meal ravenously. It seemed they had been starving for a long time. In this chaos of war, even with household servants and retainers escorting them, reaching Zhouzhi, two hundred li west of Chang'an, had been no easy feat.

When the meal was done, Guo You bowed low to Wei Ao: "I beseech the Grand General to rescue the people of Chang'an!"

With bitter tears, he recounted the plight of Chang'an over the past two months and more, since Liu Bosheng's defeat and death.

"In the tenth month, the Greenwood mutineers, freed from Liu Bosheng's restraint, plundered Chang'an wantonly as they retreated, seizing women and carrying off whatever grain remained in every ward and hamlet."

"In the eleventh month, the weather turned bitterly cold. Firewood and food in the city were both exhausted. The people of Chang'an could endure no longer, and many began fleeing — some north of the Wei to join relatives and friends. Diwu Lun did not forbid it."

"By then, fewer than two hundred thousand remained in Chang'an. Since the twelfth month began, rain and snow have not ceased. A dou of rice costs seven thousand cash. A catty of bronze vessels looted from the palace cannot be traded for a catty of rice. My household still had a little surplus grain. We set up a small mill and ground our own beans and wheat. With no firewood, we chopped up our door planks to burn. One day we ate congee, the next day we ate bu tuo. Look how thin this old man's hands have become."

"And in many neighbors' homes, the rice jars are empty, and at night there is no fire to ward off the cold. In a perfectly fine ward like Shangguan Hamlet, among the great houses that once displayed their emblems of honor, three or four people die of cold and hunger every single day."

"Robbery and murder are rampant. In some wards, there are even those who burn dried human dung to cook corpses for food."

"The nights are too cold. Crowds have surged into the palace halls to hack down beams and pillars. The reeds of Taiye Pool have all been torn up. The fruit orchards in Jianzhang Palace have all become firewood."

From the time Wang Mang tore down the Sweet Springs and other palaces to build the Nine Temples, to Diwu Lun emptying out all the valuables and letting the Chang'an people loot the palaces themselves, to Liu Bosheng dividing up even the Shanglin imperial park — the majesty of the Han house had been violated again and again, and now it was trampled deep into the mud.

Even Wei Ao, the Western Han's Grand Marshal and Grand General, had no thought of restoring it.

As Guo You spoke, the old scholars who had come with him all wiped away tears. The once-arrogant nobles and relatives of Chang'an, who had not suffered even when Wang Mang changed the dynasty, were now tasting the bitterness of cold and hunger for the first time.

So this was what a world in chaos was like!

When they had finished their tearful, sniveling account, Wei Ao gave a look, and Wang Zun, a magnate of Baling, slammed the table and rose:

"It is all Diwu Lun's fault!"

"The grain is all north of the Wei, in Diwu Lun's hands. He has banned grain barges and blockaded merchants, causing this tragedy in Chang'an. This is a great evil!"

But Guo You and the others looked at one another. After being plundered by the Greenwood men and then freezing and starving for two months, the mindset of the Chang'an people had undergone a curious shift. There were certainly those who cursed Diwu Lun, but more and more had begun to miss that month when the King of Wei had occupied Chang'an.

His army's discipline was better than the Greenwood men's, after all. What lingered even more vividly in memory was that Diwu Lun had opened the government granaries and distributed grain — for free! And before withdrawing, he had let the Chang'an people rush into the palaces and loot them madly. Without the surplus grain Diwu Lun had given them, they would have starved to death back in the tenth month.

They had not cherished it months ago, and only after it was gone did they regret it bitterly.

When the people of Chang'an had nowhere left to turn, joining Diwu Lun was their first choice. Those still able to walk either fled north of the Wei to beg for survival, or the able-bodied young men set aside their identities as Imperial Academy students, merchants, or city dwellers, hoping the Wei army, come to provide relief, would take them in. They were willing to do anything.

Even Guo You and his companions had been pushed forward by the city folk, pleading with them to come here — and not to join Wei Ao, either.

Guo You cupped his hands: "May I ask, Grand General, how much grain have you brought?"

Why was this old scholar, who had never in his life cared about the five grains, asking such a thing? Wei Ao was very wary and did not give a clear answer, saying only, "A great deal."

Relying on the harvest from Chencang, plus what the local strongmen from various places had scraped together after being intimidated, it was enough to feed Wei Ao's army of three divisions south of the Wei River.

"Is it enough to feed two hundred thousand people in Chang'an?"

Of course it wasn't! Even selling off the entirety of Longyou would not produce enough grain to feed the capital. What was more, Wei Ao had no intention of entering Chang'an in the first place. The High Temple had been burned, the palaces emptied. The capital that everyone had once fought to seize had now become a mess no one wanted to take on.

So Wei Ao merely said offhandedly, "Enough, enough. More grain carts are still on the way."

But Guo You saw through the perfunctoriness in Wei Ao's words. He merely bowed again and said, "This old man has an unseemly request."

"Chang'an is on the verge of people trading their children to eat. It is about to become a city of corpses. The only one who can save Chang'an now is you, Grand General!"

"But if the Grand General does not have enough grain, it would be better to withdraw your troops, so that Chang'an may be spared the clash of arms."

"Since the end of last month, every day, Wei army troops have been setting up porridge stalls at the three northern gates of Chang'an. They have also proclaimed that Diwu Lun will enter Chang'an in the twelfth month, bringing grain, fodder, and firewood."

Unlike the cold indifference and schadenfreude that had marked Diwu Lun's departure, the people of Chang'an were now waiting with desperate hope for the twelfth month to arrive, for the King of Wei to reach his loyal Chang'an.

"But lately it has been said that because the Longyou troops are about to arrive, Chang'an may become a battlefield, and the Wei army must defend outside and cannot enter the city for the time being."

Wei Ao understood: "So State Duke Guo is a lobbyist for Diwu Lun?"

"We are merely entrusted by the people of Chang'an to come and plead. We beseech the Grand General, for the sake of the common people of Chang'an, to take one step back!"

Guo You and the others began wailing again, leaving Wei Ao deeply embarrassed.

By all rights, they were flying the orthodox banner of the Han Son of Heaven, and entering the city as a royal army to rescue ten thousand people on the verge of starvation was entirely proper.

But he also knew that with Longyou's strength, he could not possibly control Chang'an.

The Wei clan's eastward expedition this time was merely to lend the strongmen a hand, coordinating with the Greenwood Han to pin down the King of Wei, so that Diwu Lun could not turn his full attention westward after unifying the lands south and north of the Wei.

Yet now, the situation had become rather awkward.

The Greenwood forces' pinning effect on the Wei army was not as great as imagined.

Diwu Lun's regime had not, as the powerful families claimed, been wracked by panic and on the verge of collapse.

Nor had the people of Chang'an become a burden to him. He strung them along with porridge sheds, treating the Chang'an people like refugees and disaster victims, yet conscripted their able-bodied young men into the militia. According to Guo You's account, how many men did Wan Xiu have now?

Wang Zun, however, leaned in and said to Wei Ao, "Grand General, why not pretend to agree? Our army can simply halt at Zhouzhi and see what Diwu Lun does."

"If Diwu Lun is unwilling to send troops, grain, and firewood into Chang'an as promised, then he will be reviled by the people of Chang'an and lose all popular support."

"And if Diwu Lun does as promised, a large number of his men will be tied down by the starving people of Chang'an. It will be as if our army has gained another great force. We can then advance further east and dispatch riders from the six commanderies to raid Diwu Lun's grain convoys. Repeating this, the trap Diwu Lun has dug in Chang'an will ensnare him instead!"

Although Wei Ao felt this was not entirely honorable, war is a game of deception, and one cannot attend to every consideration. He merely helped Guo You up and pledged, "Our army's grain convoy is still far away in Chencang. Distant water cannot quench Chang'an's immediate thirst. To prevent further deaths from cold and hunger, I would rather let the villain Diwu occupy the capital for a few more days than see a single person freeze or starve to death."

Tears streamed down his face: "After all, I, Wei, have come here by the command of His Majesty the Yuanshi Emperor precisely to deliver the people from hanging upside down and to succor the 'common folk' from cold and hunger!"

…

By the time Zhu Di arrived at the southern outskirts of Chang'an bearing Diwu Lun's edict, he discovered that the place had been turned into a vast conscription ground.

Regarding this eastward advance of the Wei forces, from Diwu Lun to the overall commander in Weinan, Wan Xiu, everyone was actually quite composed — they had seen through the Longyou faction's outward bluster and inward weakness, its lack of real strength. Besides, in this heavy snow, relying on cavalry for a long-distance raid was no easy task. Having learned the lesson from last time, when a certain someone nearly pierced through Weibei, scouts and ambush troops were placed west of Kunming Pool, so they were not entirely deaf and blind.

And after Wan Xiu learned that Wei Ao had halted his troops at Zhouzhi, his boldness only grew. He shifted his forces directly from Duling County east of Chang'an to the north of the city, using the old Northern Army barracks and ramparts to encamp the three armies.

The gruel stations also opened outside the three northern gates — Luocheng Gate, Chucheng Gate, and Heng Gate — but they were no longer free. When Zhu Di arrived at this familiar place, he saw two large placards hanging from the gruel sheds.

One read: "Take Up Arms, Earn Your Grain."

The other read: "Work Instead of Relief."

Considering that most people could not read, there were also soldiers carrying a brass gong, maintaining order among the starving crowds while explaining: "The King will soon enter Chang'an. To preserve order within the city, we are recruiting able-bodied young men as soldiers. You will not be sent to distant battlefields, only assigned to city defense and such duties. The pay is three shi of grain per month. We are recruiting only ten thousand men — first come, first served; latecomers get nothing!"

Three shi of grain was just enough for a family of five to scrape by. In the past, Chang'an residents would have watched such recruitment with cold indifference, but now, after two months of freezing and starving, who still cared about the dignity of the capital's people? The queue before the "Take Up Arms, Earn Your Grain" placard was packed tight.

They were led by army clerks to the Northern Army barracks, issued simple weapons and uniforms, and given rudimentary training at the same time.

City dwellers had always been the most despised source of recruits — too calculating, unwilling to risk their lives, and poor in discipline. But since they were not meant for combat units, only to maintain city defenses and realize Diwu Lun's hope of "Chang'an people governing Chang'an people," a bit of casual drilling was enough.

As for "Work Instead of Relief," someone was also beating a gong and explaining: "The King of Wei wishes to use grain from Weibei to relieve Chang'an, but he lacks sufficient civilian laborers. Since it is Chang'an people eating the grain, it is only right that Chang'an people transport it themselves. Those whose age or strength does not qualify them as soldiers may serve as civilian laborers. Follow me to the Middle Wei Bridge to haul grain. Each day you will receive half a dou of food. If there is any surplus, you may take it home to share with the old, weak, women, and children."

Naturally, some grumbled: "Weren't they giving out grain for free just a few months ago?"

But they only dared mutter under their breath, stirring no response. Everyone was so famished their bellies clung to their spines — who had the energy to make trouble? Growling stomachs drove them to set aside "dignity and face" and step forward.

Follow the official account: Book Friends Base Camp — follow and receive cash and coins!

There was even a special recruitment drive for educated men. Another brass gong rang out among the long lines of Chang'an's starving: "Those proficient in composition or mathematics shall be appointed as army clerks, with a daily salary of one dou of grain!"

That was as much as enlisting as a soldier — matching the old "petty-clerk" salary! And the work was light and respectable. Those Imperial Academy students who had not managed to flee in time, along with the city's scholars, suddenly swaggered with pride again. One after another, they left the soldier and laborer queues and surged toward the newly erected tent.

Here there was a simple test: pick up a wooden stick and write a few casual sentences in the snow to prove they were indeed literate. Once inside the military camp, civilian clerks would test them again on mathematics and other subjects to screen them, so no one could pass themselves off as something they were not.

It was at this moment that Zhu Di witnessed a real-life "drawing legs on a snake."

Among the crowd of Confucian scholars and educated men squatting on the ground, heads down, writing with sticks, one man wrote quickly and dashed off several sentences in one breath. Feeling that was not enough, he began to add theatrics and launched into a lengthy essay.

This infuriated those waiting behind him, who cried out in righteous indignation: "You wretch! They told you to write a few sentences, and you go spouting off an entire treatise — what for? Get moving, look how many people are still waiting behind you!"

The tattered-robed Confucian refused to back down. He turned his head and retorted stubbornly: "Nobody said I couldn't write more!"

Then he raised his head and said with a smile: "Superior clerk, what I wrote is the King of Wei's proclamation — I've memorized it by heart!"

Zhu Di went over to look, and it really was. Amused inwardly, he later entered the camp, paid his respects to Wan Xiu, and remarked: "A few months ago, if the King had done this, he would have been roundly cursed by the people of Chang'an." He had traveled to and from Chang'an many times and remembered the city's arrogance vividly.

Wan Xiu nodded: "But now, it has become 'delivering the people from hanging upside down' — nothing but praise."

In Wang Mang's later years, chaotic conscription and press-ganging, combined with repeated defeats on the frontier, had thoroughly ruined the army's reputation, turning it into a deep pit everyone feared. Scholars naturally scorned enlistment; city dwellers had their own trades and livelihoods; and merchants, lowly as their status was, had no wish to court death and endure such hardship either.

But all these considerations were cast aside in the face of hunger and cold. Whoever could give them a mouthful of food was a sage king!

In chaotic times, there was no need for so many city dwellers and merchants, and Diwu Lun had no wish to feed them for nothing. They all had hands and feet — better to put them to full use.

Diwu Lun's attitude was: let them fight their war, I will fight mine. Against Longyou, defense was necessary, but the great task of taking over Chang'an could not be neglected. He therefore dispatched Wan Xiu, the Minister Steward Song Hong, and Ren Guang — three men — to take charge of this matter. Within days, those volunteering for the army streamed in endlessly; the ten thousand soldiers were nearly at full strength, and those willing to serve as civilian laborers hauling grain at the Wei Bridge numbered in the tens of thousands.

The Chang'an people who had once dismissed Diwu Lun with contempt were now the perfect embodiment of what one might call "a delicious about-face"!

After reading Diwu Lun's edict and understanding the King of Wei's plan, Wan Xiu could not help but laugh and say: "A few days ago, the Greenwood officers captured at Yao Pass said that the Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan believed the King of Wei had two hundred thousand troops under his command, and therefore dared not launch an offensive himself, instead letting Cen Junran and the Marquis of Shangyan take the pass at their leisure."

He looked at the Chang'an able-bodied men continuously pouring out of the city, hoping to become soldiers or to work for relief, and said: "A casual remark has turned into prophecy. Very soon, soldiers plus civilian laborers — the Wei army bearing spears, halberds, and hoes will number far more than two hundred thousand!"

……

PS: Second chapter at the usual time.