Chapter 343: The Six Commanderies Are All Good Families

Standing atop the walls of Chencang, watching Wei Ao lead several thousand men westward, Wei Cui frowned and kept silent. Only when the tail of the column had vanished from sight did he snort through his nose.

"My nephew is soft and irresolute — not like a son of the Six Commanderies, but more like a Confucian scholar from east of the pass."

Though he looked down on his nephew's manner, the man was after all the Grand Marshal and Grand General. His departure was bound to stir unrest, so Wei Cui had no choice but to summon the heads of the various clans, feast them with wine, and steady their morale before battle in the way the men of the Six Commanderies loved best — great slabs of meat and brimming bowls of wine.

Wei Cui raised his bowl and swept his gaze over the gathering: Yang Guang of Longxi, Niu Han of Didao — all outstanding heroes of Longyou. "Every one of our ancestors," he declared, "could rightly be called a son of a good family."

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A "son of a good family" meant a youth from a middling or wealthy household worth a hundred thousand or even a million in coin, who could furnish his own warhorse, armor, and weapons. The Six Commanderies were Jincheng, Longxi, Tianshui, Anding, Beidi, and Shang — Xihe Commandery was often included as well — all frontier regions west of the pass.

These commanderies lay hard against the Xiongnu; Han people lived intermingled with Qiang and Hu tribes, and so martial virtue ran deep. From their youth, the sons of good families with some means began training for war, cultivating prowess and strength, with archery and hunting as their foremost pursuits. They were much favored by the Han emperors and were often recruited to fill the ranks of the Gentlemen of the Palace Guard, or joined the army where their skill at riding and shooting won them merit and fame as renowned generals.

Wei Cui still remembered the battlefield tales his father's generation had told him.

"In the middle years of Emperor Wen of Han, His Majesty, stirred to sudden resolve, donned martial attire himself, personally mounted his horse, and led the stalwart warriors of the Six Commanderies' good families in galloping and shooting through Shanglin Park, drilling in battle formations and gathering the empire's finest troops. Thus the sons of the Six Commanderies rose to prominence."

"In the time of Emperor Wu of Han, the sons of the Six Commanderies were selected to guard Jianzhang Palace. They were first called the Jianzhang Camp Cavalry, later renamed the Feathered Forest Guard — meaning 'wings of the state, flourishing as a forest.'"

Which of the ancestors of the sixteen great Longyou houses seated here had not once stood guard with halberd in hand at Emperor Wu of Han's side? Had not ridden and shot with him through Shanglin?

And in the decades-long Han–Xiongnu wars, it was the sons of the Six Commanderies who charged into the breach of death. Often a grandfather or father would die south of the desert or in Hexi, and his sons and grandsons would press on in his wake, enlisting again to gallop across the northern desert and the Western Regions. On every li of this vast Han frontier, the blood of the Six Commanderies' sons had been spilled!

Wei Cui drank and praised them: "Li Guang of Longxi, master of mounted archery, took many heads and captives, hailed as the Flying General. Zhao Chongguo of Jincheng, a man of deep courage and grand strategy, who from youth loved the bearing of a commander, studied the arts of war, and understood the affairs of all the border tribes — at the Battle of Tianshan his fame blazed bright; he spurred his horse through Hehuang and every Qiang tribe trembled. Gan Yanshou of Beidi, who as a youth and a son of a good family, skilled in riding and shooting, joined the Feathered Forest Guard — his stone-throwing and leaping were beyond compare. Together with Chen Tang, he garrisoned the Western Regions, beheaded the Zhizhi Chanyu, and spread Han might ten thousand li!"

Others — Fu Jiezi of Yiqu, Gongsun He, Xin Wuxian and Qingji of Didao, Wang Yu of Yuzhi — all won renown through valor, too many to count.

Looking back, those were truly the golden years of the Six Commanderies' sons. Even now the songs are stirring, the spirit still lingers.

Yet all of this came to an abrupt halt after the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han, when lasting peace was made with the Xiongnu. When the wily hares are dead, when the soaring birds are spent, what use are the hounds and the bows? With the frontiers quiet, the court no longer dispatched armies on campaign, and so the path to rank and office through military merit that the Six Commanderies' sons had followed for over a hundred years came to an end.

Surely they could still serve as Gentlemen of the Palace Guard at court? But the Han had already transformed, retiring warriors and employing Confucian scholars. Those who excelled in the Five Classics found it easy to gain office and promotion; the Feathered Forest and Qimen Guards were less sought after than students of the Imperial Academy, and the quotas allotted grew ever smaller.

"The imperial in-laws, the Confucian scholars from east of the pass, and the men of the Five Tombs have joined together to squeeze out the sons of the Six Commanderies."

This was the conviction Wei Cui had formed from sixty years of experience. He struck the table in indignation and let loose a sweeping denunciation.

The Five Tombs townships, built up after Emperor Wu's reign, had reached their full flourishing after a century of growth. The men of the Five Tombs cultivated a strong tradition of classical study; rich merchants, great gallants, and high officials emerged in constant succession. Longyou, by contrast, was being pushed further to the margins day by day. The once-proud sons of good families who went to the capital now found themselves reduced to gatekeepers and doormen for the lords and ministers of the Five Tombs and the east — for in the frantic competition for even a single court post, the men of the east and the Five Tombs had plunged into a cutthroat struggle. How could the rough-hewn men of Longyou possibly outcompete them?

When Wang Mang replaced the Han with the Xin Dynasty and launched campaigns against the Western Regions and the Xiongnu, Wei Cui had thought it a fine chance to restore the standing of the Six Commanderies. But the shocking weakness of the Xin armies instead cost the lives of many of their sons — and the Xin court only grew fonder of Confucianism.

The great houses of Longyou had tried to adapt. The Wei clan itself had produced Wei Ao, a man well-versed in the classics — and what of it? He could still only serve as a minor clerk under Liu Xin, unable to break into the upper ranks of the Xin court.

And so when the realm fell into chaos and Fang Wang brought Liu Ying to them, Wei Cui realized at once: this was a heaven-sent chance to revive the Six Commanderies!

"If the Han Son of Heaven were under Longyou's control, and we sat in the court as the Three Excellencies and the Nine Ministers, as men above all others, our sons would never again have to fear being kept down by the wicked youths of the Five Tombs and the Confucian scholars from east of the pass!"

Such was Wei Cui's fond delusion.

"But now the men of the Five Tombs want to pull the same old trick and drive us back into the mountain valleys of Longyou!"

"Diwu Lun and his clan — men of Changling. Ma Yuan, Geng Yan, Wan Xiu, Yuan She — men of Maoling…"

In Wei Cui's eyes, this so-called State of Wei was nothing but a pack of Five Tombs men who had pushed Diwu Lun to the fore. Even the Shu kingdom to the south had a Maoling man, Gongsun Shu, as its king.

The men of the Six Commanderies could not stand the men of the Five Tombs. In their eyes, the Five Tombs were full of wicked youths — men who leaned on their swords and horses, made light of wealth and played at gallantry, drank wine and composed essays, skilled in private feuds but cowards in the wars of the state. Every time a campaign was launched against the Xiongnu or the Western Regions, they had dragged the sons of good families down!

"We have fought for the Han emperors, shed our blood on the frontier fortresses, campaigned in distant foreign lands."

"We have fought for the common people of the realm, shielding Guanzhong and the lands east of the pass from Qiang and Hu raids for two hundred years."

"And in the end, what have we gained?"

Boiled and eaten, cast aside, forgotten, pushed to the margins — their indignation smoldered in their hearts. Now was the time to reclaim by force the glory that was rightfully theirs, to hold Youfufeng, and even to press further — to let the sons of the Six Commanderies have a turn at sitting upon the realm.

Wei Cui dashed his wine bowl to pieces on the ground and drew his sword! Inside the hall, the crash of shattered cups rang out unceasingly; Yang Guang, Niu Han, and the others also rose, swords in hand!

"This time, the sons of the Six Commanderies will fight for themselves!"

…

Much as Wei Cui scorned the "wicked youths of the Five Tombs," they had to admit that the Maoling man Geng Yan, with tremendous courage, had crossed the mountains to launch a surprise attack on Qian County, single-handedly altering the entire course of the war.

But after taking the county seat, their position grew precarious. Geng Yan had falsely claimed that Longyou was already defeated — how else could they have penetrated so deep? — and so tricked the locals into helping him beat back wave after wave of Longyou assaults. Yet as the days passed, this story collapsed on its own. Geng Yan had fewer than seven hundred men under his command; he had to fend off enemy sieges while also keeping watch over the two or three thousand people inside the county.

So on a snowy day, when the Longyou troops were huddled in their camp, he drove the town's residents out: "Two armies are at war here — I cannot bear to let you die or be wounded."

The Longyou soldiers, thinking it was a Wei sortie, struck back in panic and killed not a few innocent civilians…

This was Geng Yan's deliberate doing. The man was ruthless; after this incident, the people in the county despaired of the Longyou troops, and no one spoke of surrender again.

In the last ten days of the twelfth month, Wei Ao's banners appeared outside Qian County. He sent men to the walls to call for surrender, saying that Diwu Lun was already defeated, the Wei main force annihilated, and the King of Wei had fled back to Yueyang and would never come to their relief. He hoped Geng Yan would surrender soon.

"I have long admired General Geng. In Wei you are General of Chariots and Cavalry, enfeoffed as a marquis. If you submit to the Great Han, your rank and title will be restored. Together we shall revive the house of Han, and yours will be a deed to match Guan Ying and Zhou Bo!"

"May I ask Lord Wei — is it the Han of the Liu clan you are reviving, or the Han of the Wei clan?"

Geng Yan, utterly unconvinced, had his men reply from the ramparts: "The mandate of Heaven shifts; the sacred vessel passes to the man of virtue — this is the natural order. The reigns of Emperor Ping and Emperor Ai failed in governance; Wang Mang succeeded them. The Han mandate is exhausted. For you to seek to restore the Han is no different from trying to bring the dead back to life — though forcibly raised, they cannot endure, and in the end they will rot away."

"The various Han regimes now standing side by side are nothing but local generals and great clans borrowing the name. Liu Ying is a dull-witted fool, a mere puppet; the real power lies in your family's hands. In name you are Han ministers, in truth you are Han traitors! The so-called Son of Heaven's decrees do not go beyond your own gates. The common people know not whom to follow; the scholars dare not rest secure. Roving armies rise on every side, until the innocent beat their breasts and long even for Wang Mang's reign!"

"You are not saving the realm — you are throwing it into chaos!"

"Only the King of Wei rose in arms to punish tyranny and drove out Wang Mang. The myriad families turn their hearts to him; the four quarters look up to his virtue. Now he has secured Guanzhong, with three hundred thousand armored troops and a hundred fine generals. How can your rotten-grass firefly glimmer from Longyou and Nanyang compare to the bright moon in the sky? Have you not heard the ancients say: 'Those who follow Heaven prosper; those who defy Heaven perish'? It is I who would counsel Lord Wei: if you lay down your arms, shed your armor, and come in surrender with due ceremony, the King of Wei, mindful of old ties, may yet grant you a marquisate."

When these words were relayed back, Wei Ao could not help a wry laugh. "This young General Geng — not only is he bold and sharp in battle, his eloquence is formidable too."

This was one of the great differences between the scholars of the Five Tombs and the men of Longyou: they cultivated both the civil and the martial arts. As migrants, their thinking was flexible, unbound by regional prejudice, embracing the strengths of both east and west of the pass. No wonder that after the reigns of Emperor Yuan and Emperor Cheng, they had kept the Six Commanderies' men down.

Since no agreement could be reached, the only option was to attack. This thorn had to be pulled out, or it would forever fester in the mind. Wei Ao needed to hurry back west to steady morale, so he handed the task of assaulting the county seat to Yang Guang, a leading figure of Longxi, who attacked daily with several thousand men.

Having learned from the lesson of Geng Yan's surprise raid, they also stationed a force of over a thousand troops on the Qianshan plateau, making it impossible for the Wei army from Beidi to slip through again.

Inside the town, food was still ample, but arrows were exhausted. They tore down houses and broke up timbers to make weapons, holding on in a desperate, stubborn defense.

Geng Yan had his men pour water over the city walls so that it froze into ice, making it hard for the Longyou ladders to catch hold. The enemy assaults were beaten back time and again. When the fighting grew exhausting and the casualties mounted day by day, with relief still nowhere in sight, even Major Meng Ze began to lose heart and waver.

"General — could it be that the King of Wei has truly been defeated and retreated, and has abandoned us?"

Geng Yan used snow to wipe the blood from his blade clean, then asked Meng Ze in return: "Back then in New Qinzhong, when the King of Wei watched the Xiongnu rampage — did he not dare to cross the river?"

Wei Ao and his own uncle distrusted each other, but Geng Yan had considerable faith in Diwu Lun.

"When two armies meet face to face on the field, the King of Wei is a middling horse."

He thought to himself: "But when it comes to strategic planning and seizing the moment, the King of Wei is the top horse!"

Otherwise, how could Diwu Lun, when everyone opposed him, have dared to lead eight hundred men into Guanzhong and, conjuring something from nothing, topple the Xin dynasty?

Geng Yan looked out at the Longyou troops beyond the city walls. "My seven hundred men have tied down at least four or five thousand Long soldiers. Add the troops Wei Ao led west in retreat, and the enemy at Chencang can't possibly exceed twenty thousand."

"The Long army has divided — this is a once-in-a-thousand-years chance. If the King of Wei can't seize it, then he's nothing but a broken-down nag!"

……

Diwu Lun's two armies had also converged. Over twenty thousand troops reached Mei County — the hometown of Bai Qi, the famed general of Qin. This much Diwu Lun knew.

What he did not know was that, a little over a hundred years from now, the last great hero of the six commanderies' good families, Master Dong, would build an enormous fortress here: the Mei Fortress.

But the Mei County of today was utterly empty. There was no towering fortress, and even the grain had all been carried off or burned. Army provisions had to be hauled from the rear by civilian laborers from the Five Tombs and Chang'an.

"This is the Wei clan's plan — to stretch our supply line thin, so their cavalry can circle around and strike our rear."

Led by Wan Xiu and others, the prevailing view was still that they should wait until spring warmth melted the snow, when the Wei River and its canals could carry grain, and only then advance westward at a measured pace.

Diwu Lun countered with a question for the assembly: "Can Geng Yan hold out at Qian County until next year?"

No one knew.

"If our army hesitates and fails to advance, the Wei clan can calmly dispatch a large force to besiege General Geng."

"Right now, they have worries at their rear and have already shifted a large body of troops to keep an eye on Geng Bozhao. Only eighteen thousand men remain around Chencang."

The main components of the Long army, aside from the cavalry of the six commanderies' good families, included the Hu Cavalry Camp, the retainers of the sixteen great houses, and some of the great-house armed bands from Youfufeng and Weinan.

In numbers, the Wei army held absolute superiority. After the northern and southern routes joined forces, they had over twenty thousand regular soldiers, and at least thirty thousand civilian laborers accompanying the army.

"If we take it slowly, the laborers will have to shuttle constantly between the Five Tombs and Youfufeng, hauling grain along a route three to four hundred li long. They will inevitably be harassed and cut off by Longyou cavalry."

A month ago, the Long army's supply line had been long, while Diwu Lun was fighting on home ground — that was why he could afford to drag things out.

But now the situation was reversed. He either had to pull the army back to the Five Tombs and Chang'an, wait out the winter, and fight again next year — or he had to send grain over a long distance.

"Chencang is barely a hundred-odd li from here — three days at the slowest. Better to order the three armies to carry ten days' rations and advance westward in full strength, forcing the Longyou forces to fight a decisive battle with their weaker troops!"

Wan Xiu and the others voiced misgivings: "What if the Long army follows Your Majesty's own example — strips the countryside, fortifies the walls, and holes up in walled towns and fortresses?"

Diwu Lun laughed. "Then he'll have to worry about our army, once it enters the Chencang area, splitting off a force northward to rescue Geng Bozhao and completely sever his line of retreat through the Long Slope Road!"

In Wei Cui's eyes, this war was the six commanderies against the Five Tombs.

It was the good families' sons against peasant-conscript soldiers.

But in Diwu Lun's heart, it was also "the common people" against the common people!

And a natural battlefield lay stretched between the two sides.

"Below Mount Qi."

"The Zhou Plain!"