Chapter 359: Chapter Seventy-Three

Chenggu County in Hanzhong Commandery sits on the upper reaches of the Han River, backed by the Qinling Mountains to the north and screened by the Ba Mountains to the south, set like an inlay at the center of the oval Hanzhong basin. The climate here is mild, the land rich and fertile, ideal for farming — the fields grow both rice and millet, along with mallow greens, mulberry, hemp, and beans. In times of peace, as long as wind and rain come in season, the people have ample food and clothing.

The broad waters of the Han River flow past the moss-covered foot of the county seat, and also past the cell where Feng Yan is held.

Feng Yan is tall; standing on tiptoe he can look out through the only window of this dark, dank prison and see, on the far bank of the Han, a stretch of sheer cliff standing abruptly by the water like carved white jade. The cooking smoke from farmhouses on the embankment drifts like mountain haze, like wisps of floating cloud.

A jailer surnamed Zhang once boasted that that is White Cliff Village — the hometown of Zhang Qian.

His legs growing sore, Feng Yan crouched down, pushed back his tangled hair, unwashed for over ten days, and used the white stone in his hand, by the faint light, to scratch another white mark on the wall. Counting from the first day, thirty-nine marks in all.

Feng Yan murmured to himself, "Feng Yan, ah, Feng Yan — in former days Zhang Qian journeyed west, was detained by the Xiongnu for thirteen years yet never dishonored his sovereign's charge, holding fast to the Han tally staff. You have only been shut in for a little over a month — can it be that you cannot endure?"

His stomach growled again, and his body itched unbearably. Feng Yan truly could not endure.

Last winter, having completed his mission in Shu and unable to wait any longer for Gongsun Shu to attack Wudu, and anxious to return and report, he did not wait for Hou Ba and the others but tried to take the Tangluo road back to Guanzhong — only to be captured by a Greenwood chieftain after a traitor betrayed him.

At the very first interrogation, a Greenwood soldier set a blade against his neck, then with a light slash, blood streaming down — and Feng Yan, who had been certain they would not dare harm him and whose tone had been quite defiant, went weak in the knees from fright. After a few more punches, he, who had never been beaten since childhood, spilled everything he had to tell…

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For instance, Diwu Lun's strategy of allying with Shu, and the Shu army's plan to attack Hanzhong after seizing Wudu — these were no longer secrets. Letting Greenwood know in advance and creating some trouble for Gongsun Shu was not a bad thing either.

But when it came to the distribution of spies in Hanzhong, Feng Yan looked utterly bewildered and pretended ignorance: "I am the Grand Herald of Great Wei, ranked among the Nine Ministers — how would I know such trifling matters?"

If he did not confess, there was still a chance of being rescued, or at the very least he could send word to Guanzhong and let the King of Wei think of something. But if all his subordinates were rooted out, then Feng Yan would have no hope left at all.

Greenwood was not willing to let the matter drop, but perhaps because someone had ordered them not to make things too hard for Feng Yan, they simply kept him locked up, with only one meal every two days.

Yet Feng Yan noticed that at first they brought him stinking swill, but gradually the food actually began to improve — back to two meals a day, with fish and meat. In recent days they even let him go out to bathe. After he had put on a full set of fresh clothes and headdress, Feng Yan finally met someone whose words carried weight.

From the other party's manner, Feng Yan knew the situation outside had changed and that they perhaps had need of him. He recovered the self-assurance and astuteness of a military advisor, and the moment they met, he identified the man's identity.

"I pay my respects to General Yan."

"How does Grand Herald Feng know it is me?" Yan Cen was in his thirties, with a purple birthmark on his face stretching from his eyebrow down to his cheek — the mark by which Feng Yan recognized him.

Feng Yan laughed. "I have long heard that General Yan is a man of Zhuyang in Nanyang, that he joined Greenwood at the end of the Xin dynasty, seized Champion County, and later followed the Greenwood King of Hanzhong, Liu Jia, into Hanzhong, becoming his right-hand man. A figure such as this — I have long known his name. How would I dare not know?"

It was all thanks to Diwu Lun's insight that the various factions were not a monolithic bloc, which led Feng Yan to begin sorting the Greenwood forces into categories and compiling a roster. He had his subordinates investigate the backgrounds and preferences of the Greenwood kings, paying particular attention to Hanzhong. Under the onslaught of gold ingots, the effort met almost no resistance — they had even learned the appearances of Generals Yan Cen and Jia Fu under the King of Hanzhong, Liu Jia.

"Only…" After praising Yan Cen, Feng Yan shook his head with a smile. This praise-then-restraint would stir curiosity and prompt a question, giving him the perfect opening to sow discord.

"Only it is a pity that General Yan is not much trusted by Liu Jia. Military authority and the prosperous territories — Liu Jia prefers to entrust them to Jia Fu. The General can only hold counties like Chenggu and the Tangluo road."

Yan Cen did not bite. "Sir, your attempt at sowing discord is far too clumsy. I have now been enfeoffed and made a general, with several thousand men under my command. The King of Hanzhong treats me generously."

So — he wanted more money?

Feng Yan laughed loudly. "Is that so? Then why have I been locked up in Chenggu for over a month, instead of being sent to the Hanzhong commandery seat and handed over to the King of Hanzhong?"

"Could it be… that the situation outside has changed?"

Feng Yan probed with a guess: "Has Gongsun Shu of Ba-Shu taken Wudu? Has my lord the King of Wei seized Yao Pass and Right Fufeng? Or has internal strife broken out in Greenwood?"

The first two he had guessed correctly. The King of Wei's power had swelled dramatically, while Greenwood had no effective countermeasure. With the Shu army now controlling Wudu, Gongsun Shu was beginning to threaten Hanzhong from three directions — Ba Commandery, Sword Pavilion, and Wudu — and Diwu Lun had unified Guanzhong, with small units frequently probing the various mountain passes.

Yan Cen could only feel that Greenwood would likely not be able to hold Hanzhong much longer…

Though he did not admit it outright, his expression betrayed him, and Feng Yan at once grew smug.

Unlike Wang Lang, who relied on empty bluff, Feng Yan's method was more akin to a fox borrowing the tiger's might — with a powerful regime at his back, he could operate with ease. So he helped himself to wine and meat; these days of hardship had truly left him starved.

After swallowing a piece of meat, Feng Yan cupped his hands toward the north. "My lord the King of Wei raised a righteous army, devoted himself to good governance, and is not stingy with gold toward meritorious officials. Now he has hundreds of thousands of garrison troops, a thousand ranked officers, has swallowed Guanzhong in one sweep, his dragons stampeding at Wu Pass, his tigers glaring at Hanzhong. He need only send men to strike Baoxie and Ziwu, and Hanzhong will be cut into several pieces. With a pincer attack from north and south alongside the Shu army — may I ask how Greenwood could possibly hold out?"

This was precisely what worried Yan Cen. He nodded slightly, and Feng Yan grew even more animated, immediately dragging out someone "unfit to be a ruler" for comparison.

"I have also heard that Liu Xuan the Gengshi Emperor is a mediocre man. In his realm, rewards and punishments are unclear, orders are inconsistent, ruler and ministers wallow in debauchery, the imperial clan acts with impunity within the capital region, and noble in-laws run rampant in the city. Moreover, he is narrow-minded — he deliberately let Liu Bosheng die in Guanzhong. Liu Jia and Liu Bosheng have always been close, and it is for this reason that Gengshi, knowing Hanzhong is caught between Wei and Shu, sends no aid."

On one side, a ruler and his ministers united in purpose, generous with rewards; on the other, a ruler and ministers locked in internal strife, rewards and punishments uneven. Now that Wei had become the most powerful faction, whom to side with — was there even a question?

Feng Yan felt that being captured was far too humiliating; he absolutely had to persuade Yan Cen to defect. "Liu Jia is of the Chongling imperial clan, so naturally he must follow Liu Bosheng's example and die a martyr for Greenwood Han. But the General is neither of the Liu surname nor has been made a king — must he perish along with Liu Jia?"

"Sir's words are reasonable. Yan Cen was truly discourteous before."

Yan Cen rose from his seat and bowed, raising his wine to toast Feng Yan three times, the birthmark on his face reddening further. "Yan Cen has long harbored the wish to pledge allegiance to the King of Wei, but had no one to make an introduction. A few days ago my subordinates were ignorant and offended you, sir — I have already punished them!"

At this, Yan Cen had several of his men brought in — they turned out to be the very Greenwood soldiers who had "given Feng Yan a severe beating" the month before. Now one had a broken hand, another was missing his nose and ears. This Yan Cen was quite ruthless in his methods.

"Is Lord Feng satisfied?" Yan Cen asked with a smile. When Feng Yan hesitated, Yan Cen gave a look, and a soldier's right hand was also chopped off. A scream rang out, and the courtyard was instantly drenched in blood.

Feng Yan was badly startled and hurriedly said it was enough.

As servants knelt on the ground wiping up the sticky blood, Yan Cen's expression did not change. He began to speak of the current situation in Hanzhong. "At present, Jia Fu leads over ten thousand men at Nanzheng, holding the Baoxie road and simultaneously guarding Yangping Pass to block the Shu armies from Wudu and Sword Pavilion. Liu Jia is stationed at Xicheng, holding off the Shu army from Ba Commandery."

"And I am positioned between the two — the Micang road to the south, the Tangluo road to the north, controlling both north-south routes."

There was no helping it. Though Hanzhong is hemmed in by two mountain ranges, there are far too many passes and roads running north and south; if forces are not divided to garrison them, gaps are inevitable.

Yan Cen fetched the confiscated tally staff of Feng Yan, bowed, and presented it to him with both hands. "I shall see Lord Feng back to Guanzhong at once. I only hope you will put in a few good words for Yan Cen."

It was done, just like that? Feng Yan was first stunned, then overjoyed. If he could catch a rabbit while beating the grass — getting Yan Cen to open the Tangluo road so the Wei army could march south and seize Hanzhong — it would be yet another great achievement for him!

He reached to take the tally staff, only to find that Yan Cen still held it in a death grip. Yan Cen raised his head to look at Feng Yan and smiled. "Yan Cen very much looks forward to the day when he and Lord Feng serve as ministers in the same court!"

Only then did he release his grip, sending Feng Yan stumbling backward several steps. Still shaken, Feng Yan forced himself to reply with feigned composure, "As long as General Yan pledges himself to Great Wei, the rank of Marquis is hardly worth mentioning!"

He did not linger, but departed in haste.

"Only willing to grant a marquisate?"

Yan Cen smiled and waved as he watched Feng Yan disappear into the distance, but his smile faded. "Feng Yan looks down on me. The King of Wei will sooner or later proclaim himself emperor — am I not worth the promise of a kingship?"

With that, he waved a hand and ordered the courtyard swiftly cleaned. In these chaotic times, how could one put all one's eggs in a single basket?

"Tomorrow, this general will entertain the King of Shu's envoy in this very place!"

…

Hanzhong had become a gathering place for envoys from every side. Besides Wei and Shu, Feng Yan did not know that his lifelong rival, another dog-headed military advisor, was also in Hanzhong — at this very moment, hundreds of li west of Chenggu, beneath Yangping Pass, gazing up at the pass and sighing.

This was the road he had taken last year when he went as an envoy to Nanyang. Back then, Wudu Commandery was still in the hands of the Wei army; once through Yangping Pass, one entered Greenwood territory, and envoys from both sides came and went without hindrance.

But now, west of Yangping Pass lay the Shu army's encampment. Gongsun Shu had taken advantage of the Wei clan's decisive battle with Diwu Lun at Right Fufeng to march north from Shu territory and seize this commandery, then immediately turned his forces east, following the Han River in an attempt to capture Hanzhong Commandery.

Fang Wang looked at the pass that sealed the road ahead so tightly. The Greenwood general Jia Fu, under orders to defend it, was blocking the Shu armies coming from Wudu and the Jinniu road. The enemy had attacked for over a month without breaching the pass by half a step.

But the war had also blocked Fang Wang's way home, and he could only anxiously gather news in Hanzhong.

After the great defeat at Zhouyuan, the Wei clan had lost over ten thousand men, though they had at least preserved their main cavalry force and withdrawn west of the Long Mountains. From then on, they no longer had the slightest desire to move eastward. From an "orthodox" power still qualified to contend for the realm, they were now thoroughly bottled up in Longyou.

"The alliance between the two Han factions I orchestrated failed to cause Diwu Lun much trouble."

"It was Feng Jingtong's Wei-Shu alliance that actually bore fruit."

They were like a bargain-basement Zhang Yi and Gongsun Yan — one side's victory was destined to bring the other's defeat and dejection.

But Fang Wang refused to concede. "It is not that my stratagems were poor, but that the Greenwood was too foolish. Liu Xuan, that mediocrity, cared only for internal feuds, and the mediocre officials under him were equally useless — they squandered a golden opportunity to pincer Diwu Lun."

Fang Wang casually sketched a rough map of the realm's situation. Night fell early in the basin between the mountains; outside, it was so dark one could not see a hand before one's face, yet in his mind, things grew brighter and brighter!

"Shu already controls Wudu, and Diwu Lun's ambitions likely lie in Bing Province and Hebei... Gongsun Shu will sooner or later take Hanzhong."

"I must find a way to enter Shu."

Since returning to Long for the time being was impossible, Fang Wang had conceived a new idea.

"I shall go pay my respects to the King of Shu, Gongsun Shu. He must be made to understand."

"Wei and Shu are friends no longer."

"A Long-Shu alliance is the way to counter Diwu Lun's unification of all under Heaven."

……

Feng Yan had already gone north, back to Guanzhong; Fang Wang wished to head south into Ba-Shu. The mutual deceit of these political strategists had only just begun in this age of chaos.

But there was a white-haired old man whose heart had turned to ashes, who no longer cared in the slightest about the great affairs of the realm.

Wang Mang, nearly forgotten by the world and recalled only occasionally when cursing the former dynasty, sat aboard a boat drifting slowly eastward down the Han River. He had once possessed all under Heaven, yet now had lost everything. Though not yet dead, the various powers already treated him as nothing more than the deceased emperor of a fallen dynasty.

The boat had been seized. Juwuba's colossal frame easily propped the pole, while the coerced boatman steered in terror — this had been Cui Fa's idea: "Since the overland routes are checked by the Greenwood, we might as well travel by water."

Cui Fa and Juwuba merely wished to accompany the old emperor on his final journey, to see their loyalty through to the end.

Ever since learning last autumn that Wang Yi's three-hundred-thousand-strong army had been annihilated at Kunyang, Wang Mang had completely collapsed. Even when Cui Fa went out and heard news that Diwu Lun and Gongsun Shu had each declared themselves king, Wang Mang said not a word. He was like a walking corpse — first sleeping endlessly, then suffering whole nights of insomnia, just sitting dazed beside the campfire.

Whether he was pondering the drama of his life, or regretting that he should not have placed such trust in Diwu Lun, no one could tell.

It was not until spring stirred, when the ice and snow on the mountain forests melted and streams began to babble, when he heard the birds calling in the woods and saw the wildflowers outside, that Wang Mang finally voiced his last lingering wish.

"Yesterday, I dreamed of the emissary of the August Heaven, the Supreme One, the Sovereign on High."

"He said that Confucius died on the day of jichou in the fourth month of the sixteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu, at the nominal age of seventy-three."

"The emissary said that my allotted lifespan shall not exceed that of Confucius."

Wang Mang was the same as ever, still measuring himself against Confucius. Born in the fourth year of the Chuyuan era of Emperor Yuan of Han, he had been sixty-nine when Diwu Lun launched his surprise attack, and was now seventy. At most, he had only two or three years left.

He began to wonder where he should be buried after his death. His hometown of Yuancheng in Wei Commandery? Or Chang'an? He had built no imperial mausoleum for himself, and his late wife likely would not wish to share a grave with him after death.

Wang Mang thought for a long time. There was only one place he now wished to go. It was where he had spent the most leisurely period of his life.

"I wish to return to the Vanguard, to the Xindu fief, and have a look."

The boat set off once more. Wang Mang raised his head and saw a pale waxing moon.

"To see whether the realm without me has truly, as they say, become a better place."