Chapter 377: The Common People All Long for Our Great Xin

The once-prosperous Nanyang commandery now lay utterly desolate. An endless stream of disaster victims and refugees, supporting the old and carrying the young, sought to flee the famine, but with no surplus grain at hand they could only beg along the roads.

Sleeping in the open and eating the wind, their hardships were beyond telling. To their dismay, whether they fled past another county or even reached the very walls of Wancheng, the scene was the same. And so among these famine refugees, many starved to death alive, and many more collapsed dead on the road from poverty and sickness. Those lucky enough to survive were mostly emaciated, with the faces of swans and the shapes of turtledoves.

Among the refugees, the honest ones begged or scavenged wild greens in the fields to fill their bellies; the dishonest ones would rob and steal. And when hunger reached its extreme, even the honest would likely abandon their nature and begin to feed on one another — order collapsed into chaos. Small wonder the Red Eyebrows could take Runan so easily; the scene there was the same.

Yet the great fortified manors still towered over the open country. Every day, disaster victims who could no longer survive went to seek refuge with them. The number of strongmen retainers and slaves swelled by the day, nearly recovering to the levels of the Han era.

"Under my rule, there was the Wangtian system: all fields belonged to the state and could not be bought or sold, so naturally there was no seizure of farmland by officials or powerful families."

"There was also the Private Retainers Decree: slaves too could not be bought or sold, and thus the powerful dared not abuse the people too harshly."

Watching these scenes of misery, Wang Mang suddenly grew animated. He began repeatedly comparing his New Policies with the Gengshi regime.

"In the Tianfeng years, when a great drought struck the realm, I not only ate only vegetables myself but also issued an edict: wherever disaster struck, any person whose wealth fell below one hundred thousand was entirely exempted from taxes. I further ordered every commandery to distribute grain from their granaries, and at the same time opened all the mountain and marsh preserves across the land, allowing the common people to take whatever the mountains and marshes produced, to preserve the masses."

"Several hundred thousand refugees entered the Pass, and I ordered two hundred blocks of housing built within Chang'an to shelter the poor, specially establishing relief officials to aid them. At that time, even if it was not as those below claimed — that every person could eat fine grain and meat broth — they could still be fed and clothed. I also recruited able-bodied youths into the army, giving them a livelihood."

"But this Gengshi pretender emperor — what has he done? I hear that amid great disaster, he is still indulging in pleasure."

Wang Mang was stricken with grief and indignation. An emperor so frugal and people-loving as himself, losing to such a man? He could not accept it! At the same time, he began to understand more and more clearly why the Xin had collapsed.

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"My ministers failed me!"

His many policies were all good; it was the execution by those below that went wrong. Cunning officials and powerful families distorted his intent, seizing and plundering; the common people received no beneficent grace — that was never Wang Mang's original intent.

"My generals betrayed me!"

Mediocre commanders like Wang Yi, Wang Xun, and Lian Dan — in peacetime they boasted endlessly, yet in every battle they threw away a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand men. What court could sustain such losses?

"The one who betrayed me most of all — was Diwu Lun!"

And then there arose an ambitious schemer like Diwu Lun; the stab in the back from Hongmen was the direct cause of the regime's destruction. Now, looking at it, Wang Mang could only think: "This Gengshi and Greenwood are so worthless. If at the time I had sent a different general — if, say, Tian Yi had led a flanking force out of Wu Pass to raid Nanyang — perhaps the Greenwood Army would have been swept away like dead branches."

"The ones who threw the realm into chaos were not me — it was the various Han!"

At root, he had made no mistake. The fault lay with those who betrayed the Xin's gentle intent, the various Liu clan members fixated on restoration. Look at what they have reduced this fine realm to! And the Red Eyebrows, the Greenwood — originally they were all honest commoners, but they were exploited by the rebels! Now they regret it!

When they reached Xindu and Wang Mang saw his former fief reduced to nothing but blackened ruins and broken walls, with refugees drifting among them, their gaunt figures like wraiths, his fury deepened. He cursed Liu Bosheng for styling himself a second Emperor Gao but acting in the manner of Xiang Yu — and that he and Diwu Lun had perished together, dog biting dog, in Guanzhong, was truly a great good thing!

Juwuba was a man of few words as always, while Cui Fa listened to the old emperor vent his grievances, inwardly unconvinced.

Though the people of Xindu spoke constantly of missing the Xin Dynasty, what they missed was merely the welfare Wang Mang had granted the fief's residents, the good fortune of tax exemptions. If Wang Mang truly revealed his identity and the people of Xindu believed it, the first thing they would likely do is...

Seize him and drag him to Wancheng to trade for a reward!

Wang Mang, however, did not see it that way. He still regarded the realm as his own domain. This fine bolt of silk — he could slash at it with his brush as he pleased, but seeing it so ruined in the hands of Gengshi and Greenwood, he was suddenly stricken with heartache, and that heart of the Duke of Zhou reborn, that zeal to save the world, stirred once more.

But before Wang Mang could make any plans, their group — a giant, an old man, a scholar, and a mule — proved far too conspicuous. The people of Xindu spotted them and spread word, and soon a Greenwood commander passing through the area surrounded them with troops.

This was an army on the march, numbering over a hundred, with a steady stream of more troops behind them. They surrounded Wang Mang's party so tightly that not a drop of water could seep through, spears and pikes leveled at them, archers behind — escape was impossible.

Had Juwuba been alone, he might have fought his way out, but fearing that the clash might harm his emperor, he could only shield him from the front and obey the Greenwood soldiers' shouts, joining their long column.

The column was full of rounded-up refugees, their eyes filled with bewilderment.

Cui Fa was terrified, thinking their identities had been exposed. He hurriedly explained, claiming they were a wealthy family fleeing bandit troubles from the west. Wang Mang took the alias "Old Man Tian," Cui Fa was his household steward, and Juwuba took the alias "Tian Elai," a bodyguard.

To their surprise, the Greenwood commander did not even glance at Wang Mang — he had come for Juwuba.

"What a mighty warrior!"

The Greenwood commander could not stop praising Juwuba. The man stood one zhang tall, with a massive girth — placed on a battlefield, he would surely be a fierce champion. What a waste that he merely carried his old master's load.

The commander was delighted: "I came to Xindu to press men for the fight against the Red Eyebrows, and to encounter such a figure — what luck! One man worth ten conscripts!"

"Commander, shall we abandon the white-haired old man?"

"Take the man, the mule, and all! His hair may be white, but he still has spirit and can work — he can gather dung and tend the fire, can't he? At worst, we hold him as a hostage, so this loyal giant will serve me!"

Drought and disaster do not distinguish between regime names. They roam the human world at will. The mountains and rivers that can block an army cannot necessarily block a natural calamity.

By late in the fourth month, Guanzhong too could not escape the drought. The red sun hung in the sky like a fierce fire, baking the fields dry and the rivers parched, scorching the trees and withering the grass. More than half the millet shoots in the fields had yellowed and died. Truly, heaven and earth brought calamity, and the myriad people suffered tribulation.

"Fortunately, we heeded the King's edict early and dug irrigation channels near the newly opened fields in Shanglin County."

Du Shi, the Water Supervisor of the Capital Region, was still shaken by the narrow escape. In years without waterworks, agriculture depended entirely on the whims of nature. Faced with a prolonged drought, apart from hauling water from afar to irrigate the parched and cracked earth, the common people could only wail to heaven, staring blankly at the clear sky, hoping for clouds to rise and rain to fall.

Pure agriculture carried enormous risk. Even wealthy households, though they possessed broad fields, would become poor with no harvest; the destitute, who lived by tilling for others, now had no means of survival at all. Everywhere one heard men wailing and women weeping, everyone crying out in hunger.

But with irrigation channels, the drought could still be somewhat controlled. The White Canal and Zheng Guo Canal north of the Wei River could continuously supply water to the rich, fertile lands, allowing the granaries of the State of Wei to keep the millet and wheat alive even under the great drought, giving some hope for the coming summer harvest.

South of the Wei in Shanglin County, water sources were even more abundant than in the north. Under orders, Du Shi worked with the county's military-agricultural soldiers and civilians to dig small channels branching from the rivers through the farmland. Newly built waterwheels then lifted the channel water to every plot of land, barely managing to alleviate the drought.

Yet disputes and brawls over water between the upstream and downstream sections of the channels grew ever more frequent. The King of Wei had no choice but to order the Governor of the Capital and the Commandant of the Capital's office to dispatch troops to suppress them, and also tasked Du Shi with centrally managing the opening and closing of each channel's sluice gates. Anyone caught fighting privately was sent to dig more channels.

"The fine Qin tradition of being brave in public war and timid in private feuds must still be upheld."

The King of Wei, while inspecting the various channels, said: "Beidi and Shangdang are at war, and so is Guanzhong — this battle is a fight to the death against the Drought Fiend and famine!"

The more than three hundred officials who had passed the examination in the third month, after over a month of training, were now being put to use. Some ran errands at Diwu Lun's side; others were dispatched to Weibei and Weinan to assist with grain transport, channel digging, and other tasks. Among the grassroots officials, they were no longer all former dynasty holdovers — now there were men of the King of Wei among them, injecting a measure of vitality into the stale system.

Diwu Lun sought to control the famine. For now, the famine was mainly in Weinan. The newly opened fields in Shanglin were still far from harvest, and Chang'an still had two hundred thousand mouths crying out to be fed.

When Weinan starved, they shifted the burden to Weibei... The old rule applied: relief through labor. Idlers were recruited to dig channels in Shanglin County. Carts streamed south from Yueyang across the Wei Bridge in an endless line. The Great Granary, once emptied by Diwu Lun, was piled high again with aged grain from Weibei to serve as their rations. The East and West Markets also released a portion of grain to stabilize prices. The Embroidered Uniform Guard patrolled both markets; any hoarding was met with the iron fist of the authorities.

After the last round of mild anti-corruption measures, having seen the King of Wei deal harshly even with his own clan, the officials did not dare engage in blatant, large-scale graft — at most, petty pilfering.

"This way, at least it won't be as absurd as disaster relief under Wang Mang. Back then, ten thousand dan of grain would be distributed, only to fatten the officials handling it. The common people got not a single grain, yet could only boil grass and wood into paste, countless starving to death. And the officials still deceived Wang Mang, telling him the disaster victims were all eating meat broth — and Wang Jujun actually believed it!"

Diwu Lun was deeply sarcastic about disaster relief in Wang Mang's era, calling it "trying to cover great evil with petty kindness."

"Many places hit by disaster dared not report it, simply because Wang Mang disliked people recounting calamities. Moreover, disasters were linked to official salaries — whoever reported one suffered for it."

"And the so-called tax exemptions for impoverished disaster victims were exploited by local powerful families and cunning officials. In the end, it was the rich who got the exemptions, while the poor bore even heavier levies."

"'Built two hundred blocks of housing in Chang'an to shelter the poor'? Those who moved in were mostly reckless young toughs. The poor who lived at the foot of the imperial city walls were driven away by officials, terrified that Wang Mang might catch sight of them."

Had Wang Mang's disaster relief not been so inept, there would not have been so many impoverished soldiers following Diwu Lun in rebellion.

But that did not stop Diwu Lun from emulating Wang Mang by taking the lead in "eating only vegetables" during the famine.

What he ate was alfalfa, which he had ordered planted extensively in the Shanglin parks and gardens at the start of spring, anticipating a great famine.

Zhang Qian's journey west brought back not only heavenly horses and grapes, but also this plant. In Emperor Wu of Han's time it was grown as an exotic species; now it had gradually spread and was the finest fodder for army horses.

This is good stuff — it grows across three seasons, yields several cuttings a year, and is highly nutritious.

It was already high summer. The alfalfa, harvested once in spring, was now growing wild again like tumbling embroidered balls, covering every inch of the gardens and enclosures. The shoots stood over a foot tall but were still tender, best plucked with the fingers.

The grain shortfall was far too large, and the old grain stores north of the Wei River could not fill it. Diwu Lun called on the people of Shanglin to eat wheat rice mixed with alfalfa, and even took the lead himself — after court sessions he made his officials share the meal.

Diwu Lun would not let the kitchens prepare it in overly elaborate ways. If one meant to experience eating chaff and drinking gruel, there was no need to sweeten the husks with honey and deceive oneself.

At first the officials ate it quite happily. Steamed alfalfa was not really hard to stomach — chewy, faintly sweet, neither bitter nor astringent — and it even cleared out their fish-and-meat-clogged guts. But a few meals now and then were one thing; wild greens every single day, who could bear that? After several days, the sight of alfalfa turned their faces green.

Diwu Lun only said, "We can at least eat ours with vinegar and garlic. The common folk can only steam it and dry-swallow it with wheat rice — is that not far more bitter?"

"So long as the summer harvest has not yet come and the famine has not eased, I shall eat this alfalfa every day! What the people eat, I shall eat!"

When the lord suffers, his ministers worry. The officials naturally could only follow suit — at most slipping home to cook a private meal on the side.

But Diwu Lun's next declaration truly terrified them: "When the people eat dirt, I shall lead you all in eating dirt as well."

"And if the people are driven to the point of man eating man…"

Diwu Lun pointed at the assembled officials one by one. "Then not only shall I issue an edict and cut my hair to take the blame upon myself — the Nine Ministers will also have to see a few of their number replaced!"

This was far too harsh. In a drought and famine, was it not normal for a few people to starve? A minister ventured to remonstrate: "Great King, these are chaotic times — they cannot be compared to a golden age. Even if tragedy occurs, the Great King should not blame himself."

"Wang Mang, muddled and foolish as he was, ruined the realm's affairs, yet at least he still had the heart to save the people. Now the other provinces suffer famine too, but the Gengshi regime and the rest do nothing to relieve it, caring only for their pleasures and their brawls. Every Han under heaven is worse than Wang Mang! Compared to them, Great King, you are like Yao and Shun!"

Diwu Lun had once been curious what exactly the various Han regimes had abolished and what they had restored. After sending agents under Huang Chang and others to infiltrate the Green Han, he roughly summed it up like this:

"The Xin abolished — the Han restored. The Wang clan abolished — the Liu clan restored. 'Yu' abolished — 'Zhen' restored. Chang'an abolished — Chang'an restored. Xin dynasty ancient robes abolished — Han official dignity restored. Five-rank nobility abolished — Marquises and full Marquises restored. The Heavenly-pattern cap abolished — the Liu clan cap restored. The Xin calendar abolished — the Han calendar restored. Royal fields abolished — land annexation restored. Private dependents abolished — slave-buying restored. The Boar-Rush Braves abolished — Han army death-squads restored."

Wang Mang had once overhauled every Han institution, and the Gengshi regime had changed them all back again.

But most of these "abolitions" and "restorations" were a change of soup without a change of medicine — sometimes not even the soup was changed, only the broken bowl that held it, and the situation was even worse. The Han the people longed for was a Han of light corvée and low taxes. How had they instead gotten a "Han" whose halls were packed with beasts and rotten wood for officials, whose exploitation even surpassed the Xin Dynasty?

The people were poor as before, oppressed as before. The gruel and bean curd still tasted the same. The Han they had called for with a thousand cries had indeed returned — and the burden on their shoulders had plainly grown heavier. How could they not be disappointed?

In sum, one line captured it: lately, in many commanderies and counties beyond the borders, a sentiment of "the heart yearns for the Xin" had emerged. Quite a few people regretted rebelling. The reason was not that the Great Xin was too good, but that the various Han regimes were too rotten!

"Then I am all the more obliged to provide relief!"

Diwu Lun saw that his officials were growing somewhat smug, convinced that the State of Wei was already a lighthouse unto the world, and so he reminded them: "The ancestral hall of the Diwu clans in Linqu Village was originally called the 'Liren Hall,' taken from the 'Liren' chapter of the Analects."

"In that same chapter, there is a passage I am very fond of."

"'When you see a worthy man, strive to equal him; when you see an unworthy man, look within and examine yourself!'"

However badly the various Han regimes did, Diwu Lun could listen to it as amusement — but his own regime, however many shortcomings and problems it had, must still walk toward goodness and toward the right!

"I scorn to compete in rottenness with unworthy men like the Gengshi regime and Wang Mang."

"If we are to compete, let it be in goodness with the reigns of Wen and Jing, Zhao and Xuan!"