Chapter 373: Dimensional Strike

In Chang'an, Ban Biao also finished his composition, his face weary.

His "Discourse on the Mandate of Kings" was finally written!

A grand essay of over a thousand words, it began with Emperor Yao receiving the mandate and focused on expounding the process by which Emperor Gaozu won the realm.

Gazing at the article he had poured his heart and blood into, Ban Biao's emotions surged. He thought to himself, "The common people of this age see that Han Gaozu rose from a commoner to win the imperial throne, yet they do not understand the reasons behind it, thinking it was merely a chance encounter with an age of violent chaos that allowed him to raise troops and seize power. And now, some itinerant persuaders even compare contending for the realm to chasing a deer, as if the one with the swiftest feet might luckily obtain it."

"They are all wrong!" Ban Biao fiercely waved a hand at the air.

"Do they not see the starving captives and convict laborers, suffering from cold and hunger with no place to go, who long for a set of coarse cloth shorts and a single dan of millet yet still cannot obtain them, and in the end their corpses are abandoned in the wilds? Why? Because poverty and success are determined by fate! If even poverty is predestined, how much more so the honor of the Son of Heaven?"

In his article, he summarized the reasons for Gaozu's rise, which were roughly five: first, he was a descendant of Emperor Yao; second, his physical form and appearance were marked by many marvels; third, he possessed divine martiality and had omens and confirmations; fourth, he was magnanimous, perceptive, benevolent, virtuous, loyal, and forgiving; fifth, he knew how to recognize and employ men of talent.

According to this ordering, the first and second were clearly more important than the latter three.

"A carriage drawn by lame and inferior horses cannot gallop a road of a thousand li; swallows and sparrows cannot fly the distance that a great swan can; small timbers like brackets and pegs cannot serve as pillars and beams; ordinary and vulgar men cannot occupy the throne of emperors and kings."

Who was meant by the inferior horses, swallows, and sparrows was self-evident without explanation: the Kings of Wei and Shu.

"The Book of Changes says: 'The tripod's leg breaks, overturning the duke's stew.' This is because they are not equal to the task. The Mandate of Heaven is hard to defy; the sacred vessel is ordained. Those who forcibly seek and covet the realm of Han will meet no good end. If one blindly covets power and profit, oversteps one's station to presumptuously seize it, fails to measure one's strength externally, and does not know one's fate internally, then one will surely lose the master who protects the family and forfeit the lifespan ordained by Heaven. One will meet the calamity of the broken leg and suffer execution beneath the axe and block!"

"But the true hero should cautiously avoid disaster, learn from Wang Ling and Chen Ying's clarity about their heavenly station, cut off the presumptuous ambitions of Han Xin and Ying Bu, pay no heed to the heresy of chasing the deer, faithfully guard the land for Han, and protect the common people, waiting to offer it up once a wise lord arises. In this way, one would not fail to become a King of Changsha, with blessings flowing to one's descendants and Heaven's emolument enduring forever."

Reading it over once more, Ban Biao was quite satisfied, feeling that this essay was sufficient to refute the heretical and fallacious doctrines Diwu Lun had commissioned others to write. The only thing left was to disseminate it.

He knew well that the King of Wei was small-minded. When he had first entered Chang'an, he had secretly executed a group of old loyalists of the Han restoration faction. Ban Biao certainly could not reveal his real name, or death would be certain. For caution's sake, he also dared not entrust it to anyone else's hands; he could only copy it himself.

With difficulty, Ban Biao heaved a large pile of heavy bamboo slips onto the desk, rubbing his aching wrist. "No matter, I write quickly."

"I can copy two essays a day; in five days, that's ten."

"Once they are gradually disseminated, they will surely spread from ten to a hundred, and a hundred to a thousand, so that all the world may know: the royal mandate lies with Han!"

……

"Shupi, why have you been so haggard these past few days?"

As a Secretary of Documents, Ban Biao was in charge of books and classics. He loved books by nature and performed his duties with great diligence and propriety, but these past few days he had been quite exhausted. Not only had he grown thin all over, but the dark circles under his eyes had also grown more pronounced day by day.

When the Director of Ceremonies, Wang Long, ran into him, he assumed that this young man of twenty-one did not know how to take care of his health and had been up all night in dissipation, and so he did not fail to offer some admonishment.

Little did he know that during the day, Ban Biao busied himself in the library, and after the evening drum sounded and he returned to the officials' dormitory, he would shut his door and, by the light of a candle that was never bright enough no matter what, copy his "Discourse on the Mandate of Kings."

He copied from sunset until midnight the next day. When he was unbearably drowsy, he tied his hair to a beam and pricked his thigh with an awl, throwing himself into the task with tremendous passion.

Sometimes, awakened by the crowing of a rooster, he would suddenly start up and find that he had fallen asleep on his desk. The ink, not yet dry, stuck to his hands, the marks of the bamboo slips were imprinted on his face, and those ideas seemed carved into his very bones.

By the fourth day of copying, he truly could not hold on any longer, so he reported sick and rested for a day. He finally finished writing ten duplicate copies. His bamboo slips were exhausted, and he had to find a way to have his family send more — he dared not buy them in large quantities in Chang'an; Diwu Lun's Embroidered Uniform Guard had a very keen nose.

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When Ban Biao, his complexion haggard and his form withered, entered the palace, he discovered that the officials in every bureau were all holding some yellow things, reading and discussing them.

Curious, Ban Biao walked over and even had two copies thrust into his hands.

"Discourse on the Fall of Han?"

"Discourse on the Faults of Han?"

There were five articles in all, narrating from different angles the fact that Han's virtue was exhausted. Besides recalling the seven deaths and seven destructions since the reigns of Han Chengdi and Aidi, pointing out that the ills of the Xin Dynasty actually originated with Han, there were also those that recounted the absurdities of the various Han claimants today...

They were all the works of Diwu Lun's court-appointed literati. Men like Du Du and Fu Long already possessed outstanding literary talent, and now, after their articles had been polished and revised, they were quite excellent. The piece Wang Long had written at Diwu Lun's behest was no less inferior to Ban Biao's essay; they became sharp swords, each word stabbing him in the heart.

Only now did he realize Diwu Lun's ulterior motive in testing policy essays. But seeing that the bureaus of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers had all distributed quite a few, Ban Biao grew anxious. Just how many hands had Diwu Lun mobilized to copy so many in a single night?

"These articles... where did they come from?"

"From the Privy Treasury. I hear that the King ordered craftsmen to make a device. From now on, there is no need to copy by hand; one article can be reproduced a hundred times in a single day!"

"A hundred, a thousand copies printed in a day?"

This was a dimensional strike. Ban Biao lost his composure, his expression growing increasingly ugly. In comparison, what did his own effort of copying two a day, traveling by starlight and moonlight, amount to...

Looking down again to read, he felt that every word was Diwu Lun and his court-appointed literati mocking him. These words, not slowly copied by hand, were soulless bureaucratic essays.

But he dared not tear them up in public. He merely handed them to someone else and stumbled out of the palace, requesting another day of leave.

However, the scholars of Chang'an had also begun to disseminate these things in the lanes and alleys, discussing them heatedly. The buzzing sound filled his ears. Some were concerned with whether the civil service examinations two years hence would use these articles as templates, while others read those proofs that "Han's virtue is exhausted" and deeply agreed.

Diwu Lun combined two major technological breakthroughs to form his own propaganda weapon. He had craftsmen work overtime to make paper and start printing, first printing a thousand copies to circulate in the Chang'an Imperial Academy and among the scholars of the Five Tombs. The most easily understood piece was written by Cheng Gong and could be read aloud to the illiterate.

Beyond this, he also had people write gossip articles suitable for spreading on the streets, such as: Lu Fang was of barbarian stock and recognized the Xiongnu Chanyu as his elder by marriage, becoming a puppet emperor. The lineage fabricated by this barbarian was riddled with errors; in name a Han emperor, he was in truth a traitor to Han. Liu Ying was an imbecile; the article exaggerated the degree of his idiocy and fabricated that consummating with his "Empress" required the assistance and guidance of several matrons. Liu Xuan had stolen the Han imperial title without a shred of merit and lived a life of boundless debauchery. Liu Ziyu was a fraud; since the end of Han, fifty-three Liu Ziyus had appeared in the realm, and so on...

These were matters that ordinary people could understand and take an interest in. The busy farming season had passed, and some commoners, idle anyway, found it not bad to bask in the sun and gather at the pavilion to listen to some excitement.

Vulgar, slanderous! Ban Biao's lungs nearly burst with rage. The common people were ignorant and foolish, actually believing such gossip and hearsay. But the various Han claimants were indeed disappointing; so far, not a single wise sovereign capable of carrying on Han Gaozu's enterprise had appeared.

He suppressed his anger, unable to debate with anyone, his face turning a livid blue. Only after returning to his residence did he vomit a mouthful of dark blood. Leaning over the bucket, he broke down and wailed loudly.

"Alas! Now I understand what it means: 'All the world is turbid; I alone am clear. The multitude are drunk; I alone am sober!'"

……

By the fourth month, Diwu Lun's propaganda pamphlets, along with large batches of newly made summer clothing, had been delivered to the front lines.

"Truly fine things." The Front General Jing Dan, who had been ordered to lead troops to attack Shangdang Commandery, clicked his tongue in wonder upon seeing these items and leafed through them one by one.

"These articles — those people in the city who follow Bao Yong and wish to devote themselves to dying for Han in loyalty should really read them!"

Jing Dan raised his head and looked toward the capital of Shangdang, besieged on three sides: Zhangzi City.

Since the third month had begun, in just a single month's time, the war in Shangdang was already nearing its end.

This commandery was subordinate to Bing Province. To its west lay the Fen River basin of Hedong; to its east, beyond the Taihang Mountains, lay the Hebei plain. Shangdang lay between the two. The commandery's land was extremely high, a companion to the heavens, hence its name Shangdang. It was a crucial meeting point between the two rivers and had been a key strategic location for attack and defense since the Warring States period.

It was for this place that Qin and Zhao fought the Battle of Changping. When Qin fully seized Shangdang, it then occupied the commanding heights and controlled the fate of the Three Jin. In the early Han, Han Xin captured Shangdang and then descended upon Jingxing.

Although Shangdang was a fortress solid on all sides, girded on the east by three passes, when facing Hedong to the west, apart from some hills, it lacked any particularly good defenses. Moreover, the Northern Han regime was already in great chaos: Liu Ziyu had suddenly disappeared on the road to meet his bride; the King of Zhending and the King of Zhao were blaming each other and had even broken out into war; the King of Guangyang was pacing in bewilderment, at a loss; and to the east, the Tongma Army had begun advancing westward.

At this critical juncture, who still cared about the life or death of Governor Bao of Shangdang? Bao Yong was now like the Han general Feng Ting, bereft of Zhao reinforcements. Facing the Wei army's massive assault, he could only retreat in defeat after defeat and hold out in Zhangzi City.

The one ordered to come to the front lines to reward the troops was the Palace Gentleman Fu Long. After a month of training, the Palace Gentlemen had been assigned to different posts. In Diwu Lun's words, this was an "internship." Because Fu Long was resolute and principled, Diwu Lun had dispatched him to the Bureau of Diplomatic Reception.

Only after taking up his post in Diplomatic Reception did Fu Long understand why Feng Yan, despite being an early follower who clearly worked very hard to gain the position of Chancellor, was instead increasingly marginalized.

He was dissatisfied that the King of Wei was ignoring Hanzhong, bluntly stating that this would repeat the downfall of the Three Qin Kings. He began to exaggerate the strength of the Shu army, boasting of Li Xiong's wisdom and Gongsun's talent. The King of Wei paid him no heed, instead displaying Cen Peng's memorial and ordering Feng Yan to refute it. Feng Yan ultimately could not out-argue Cen Peng, and after drinking, told the Palace Gentlemen things like, "My labors in entering Shu have been ruined in a single day," feeling quite aggrieved.

He dared not blame the King of Wei, so he turned his anger toward Cen Peng, looking down on this "surrendered captive," considering his views those of a rank-and-file veteran that had ruined a great plan. If Gongsun Shu were allowed to grow powerful in the future, Cen Peng would bear full responsibility!

What, a marquisate and fief, a lifetime of wealth and rank aren't enough — you still have to be made Chancellor, served and coaxed like a father and mother before you're satisfied?

Core positions are limited; when someone steps in, someone else must step out. Some climb onto the heated kang, while others have to go sit on a cold bench — all decided by the sovereign's will.

Later, Feng Yan finally realized belatedly what was happening. Once he grasped the King of Wei's strategic intent to take the north first, he again requested orders to travel east, boasting that with a mere three-inch tongue he could persuade Shangdang and Taiyuan to surrender, without wasting a single soldier.

The King of Wei gave only one comment: "I take the realm by the way of arms; the campaigns of my officers and men are primary, the vertical-horizontal stratagems secondary. Jingtong, your labors are great and your merits high — for now, rest at home in ease and wealth. No need to rush about."

Instead, he appointed Fu Long to the front. The King of Wei liked this man for his reliability in handling affairs, his familiarity with the figures of Hebei, and the way he called one one and two two, never stirring up any mischief.

For some people, using them less is actually saving them.

Fu Long said: "The Court Guest Feng and Bao Yong are friends, and he requested orders to come and persuade Bao Yong to surrender. But His Majesty did not grant it. His Majesty said, 'Bao Yong is an obstinate man. To persuade him to abandon the Han and submit to Wei — how difficult that would be. No need to make a wasted trip.'"

"The Court Guest Feng merely wrote one letter, which this subordinate official has brought here."

"His Majesty was not wrong. Bao Yong himself truly cannot be brought to surrender."

Jing Dan had seen firsthand in these days just how diehard this man was. Bao Yong had a certain ability — he had once routed the local Qingdu bandits and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Zhongyang by the Northern Han. He dressed plainly, cared for the common people and his soldiers, and had no real faults to pick at. In times of peace, Jing Dan would have been happy to befriend Bao Yong and share wine and cheerful talk, but now they faced each other with blades...

"Each merely serves his own master."

So thought Jing Dan, as he had men on the earthen rampart shoot Feng Yan's silk letter, along with many of Diwu Lun's propaganda pamphlets, into the city of Zhangzi.

The letter Feng Yan wrote was aimed specifically at Bao Yong. It said only that under the Han, the people suffered seven kinds of ruin without a single gain, seven kinds of death without a single chance at life. For people today to claim that the Han era was all peace and contentment, and on those grounds to support a Han emperor, is truly absurd.

And these very words were spoken by Bao Yong's own father — who was imprisoned by the muddled Han Emperor Ai, then executed by Wang Mang. The one who killed Bao Xuan was not Wang Mang alone, but also the fatuous ruler Han Emperor Ai and the treacherous minister Dong Xian. To now exhaust one's loyalty for the Han — is that not absurd?

It further said: The Northern Han calls itself the orthodox line, yet when the northern frontier fell, it sent no troops to recover it; when Shangdang was besieged, it sent no troops to relieve it. Its military prestige is utterly spent, its state authority waning by the day, rebellions on all sides, the Tongma invading from the west. No word at all from Liu Ziyu — the odds are grim. Even if he still lives, he is a false Liu. Does Bao Yong truly intend to die a martyr's death for him?

The King of Wei, by contrast, has already secured the Three Adjuncts; Hedong and Beidi have answered like wind. His achievements shine so bright that the sun and moon across the heavens, the rivers and seas across the earth, are insufficient as comparisons.

If you make an enemy of him with the single commandery of Shangdang, it is a mayfly shaking a great tree — sooner or later your cause will fail and you will be in peril. I urge you to think thrice!

A day later, a reply was shot out from the city. Jing Dan opened it and at once laughed.

"Bao Junchang says he hereby severs his friendship with Feng Yan."

This letter, aside from rebuking Feng Yan for deceiving a friend and betraying trust — cursing him until the blood ran cold — was truly neither servile nor overbearing, proper in courtesy and principle, such that even Jing Dan found himself rather liking it.

"Yong has heard: One who pledges allegiance as a subject holds no second heart; the wisdom of the water-carrier guards the borrowed vessel and does not yield it. Thus Yan Ying, at the covenant, faced with hooked halberds, did not alter his words; Xie Xi, defending Cheng, threatened with Jin and Lu, did not surrender his town."

"A true man acts with propriety in mind, conducts himself with righteousness in thought — never has one who turned his back on these preserved both his person and his name!"

"Though I am but a dull and timid man, am I one who cravenly clings to life and fears death? Hooked halberds at my throat — my heart will not change. This, truly, is my resolve."

His stance was so firm — it seemed a fight to the death was unavoidable.

Reading this far, Jing Dan furrowed his brow. What was noteworthy was that Bao Yong's letter also revealed a piece of news that, in Jing Dan's view, was quite unbelievable.

Bao Yong firmly believed that the Han emperor he served, Liu Ziyu, was the true Son of Heaven. But Liu Ziyu's current whereabouts had become a mystery — some said he was with the King of Zhending, some said he had been placed under house arrest by the King of Zhao, some said he was dead. Yet in this letter, Bao Yong actually declared...

"Though the various kings have disordered the government, my sovereign has already made an eastern progress to Xindu and gained the allegiance of several hundred thousand Tongma troops, taking the title 'Tongma Emperor.' Before many days, he will drive west to relieve Shangdang and restore the Han realm!"