Chapter 390: Gonghe Anew

Xu Xuan and the others never imagined that after Fan Chong spoke with Old Man Tian, he would change his mind overnight, summon them, and announce the cancellation of the ceremony where the Liu-surnamed cowherd boys would draw lots to choose an emperor — and instead take a different path.

"Gonghe?"

Although Xu Xuan had once served as a prison clerk, his cultural level was limited to having heard one or two classics; he had no idea such a period even existed in history.

It was "Old Man Tian" who wagged his head and recited: "Long ago, King Li of Zhou provoked the people's uprising and fled to Zhi. Then the Duke of Shao and the Duke of Zhou jointly administered the government, calling it 'Gonghe.' For fourteen years, the realm had no sovereign; the two dukes governed Zongzhou, reformed governance, and emulated the legacy of Kings Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang — this is what later enabled the restoration under King Xuan of Zhou."

What Wang Mang believed, of course, was the account in the Grand Historian's book, but none present could have imagined that this Old Man Tian, who first proposed Gonghe, was himself the exiled "King Li of Zhou."

Wang Mang said: "Now the realm is without a master, with countless Han pretenders springing up everywhere. To rashly enthrone an emperor is improper — and to decide it by drawing long and short lots? That is utterly childish. Rather than quarrel endlessly, why not emulate the ancient system and create a Gonghe anew!"

Xu Xuan still could not grasp it, and the other two Elders had even lower cultural levels. Remembering there were several great Confucian scholars in the prisoner camp, they sent men to find them — only to learn that Huan Tan had been left behind in Pei due to illness. The most learned man currently with the army was Liu Penzi's elder brother, Liu Gong.

As a descendant of Prince Jing of Chengyang and son of the Marquis of Shi, Liu Gong had studied under renowned teachers in his youth and was thoroughly versed in the Book of Documents, able to debate the classics with great fluency. Yet when Xu Xuan and the others summoned him to confront "Old Man Tian," he discovered that his own learning, compared to this old gentleman's, was like a firefly's glow vying with the sun and moon!

Old Man Tian not only had thorough mastery of the Five Classics, but could cite all manner of obscure allusions with effortless ease, leaving Liu Gong dumbfounded — and in the end, Liu Gong was actually won over by Old Man Tian.

"Old Man Tian quotes the Book of Documents: the Emperor was in the past the Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven, as the eldest son of August Heaven, should hold fast to the great Dao, truly grasp the mean, impartial and unbiased, shepherding the people on Heaven's behalf, extending to all things."

"And the various ministers and officials govern the people on the Son of Heaven's behalf."

"If the Son of Heaven's position is vacant, there is nothing wrong with a worthy man temporarily communicating with Heaven in his stead."

Back in the day, Wang Mang had left the imperial throne vacant and worked as "Acting Emperor" for several years — he was certainly no stranger to this set of rhetoric.

And after five or eight years of Gonghe, a suitable Son of Heaven could then be chosen.

Liu Gong's shift toward supporting Gonghe also had a selfish motive: the Liu imperial clansmen, taken captive by the Red Eyebrows, felt these roving bandits were bound to be defeated sooner or later. If someone among them were made emperor, it would do nothing to improve the others' situation, while they would constantly face the danger of execution. Once the Red Eyebrows collapsed, whoever was emperor would certainly suffer disaster.

Such an emperor was better not made at all — far better to follow Old Man Tian's advice and let the Red Eyebrow Elders flounder about on their own.

Xu Xuan and the others were not entirely satisfied with this outcome. They stared at Wang Mang and muttered among themselves: "Elder Fan has petty men whispering in his ear..."

But Fan Chong's power to rally men was unmatched. Many in the Red Eyebrow Army also opposed enthroning a Liu as emperor. By comparison, since no one understood this "Gonghe" anyway, it sounded plausible enough — and so it was rashly approved.

Wang Mang proposed that Fan Chong could take the title "Duke of Zhou," Xu Xuan "Duke of Shao," Xie Lu "Grand Duke," and Yang Yin "Duke of Bi" — reviving the titles of famous ministers from the Zhou dynasty and establishing a Four-Duke Gonghe. Under Wang Mang's explanation, this "gong" was not the gong of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, but the gong of "all under Heaven held in common"!

Fan Chong, however, disliked these old aristocratic titles: "Better to simply call us Duke Fan, Duke Xu, Duke Xie, and Duke Yang — plain and clear."

Plus the other Elder, Feng An, who was guarding the Red Eyebrows' rear route in Pengcheng Commandery, as Duke Feng — making it ultimately a Five-Duke Gonghe.

Wang Mang's face fell. Why five again? In the past, this had been the Xin Dynasty's auspicious number, but now Wang Mang loathed that number with a passion.

The remaining Elders and Attendants in the Red Eyebrow Army kept their posts, but it was also proclaimed that henceforth each Elder would oversee ten thousand men and one commandery, and each Attendant would oversee a thousand men and one county.

As for Fan Chong, after this affair, he greatly admired Old Man Tian and actually made him "Libationer," while also agreeing to absorb a batch of scholars into the Red Eyebrows. Fan Chong still wished to maintain fairness within the army, but they truly could not continue as they had before.

As for the era name, Wang Mang proposed the first year of "Re-Gonghe," but Fan Chong tilted his head, thought it over, and decided it must bear the Red Eyebrows' own color. He directed Liu Gong to write down two characters.

"From this day forth, it is the first year of Chihe!"

"Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

Cui Fa had been stunned speechless by old Wang Mang's series of maneuvers, thinking the Emperor wanted to rise from the ashes. When the night was deep and all was quiet, he came to offer his congratulations: "With the aid of these three hundred thousand Tiger Guards, restoring the Xin and returning Your Majesty to the imperial throne is just a matter of days!"

Cui Fa was right about one thing: Wang Mang truly did place great hopes on the Red Eyebrows.

Why fixate on the Red Eyebrows in particular? Wang Mang recalled when the Red Eyebrow Army first rose — the rebel multitudes in Qing and Xu numbered in the hundreds of thousands, yet they had no written insignia, banners, or identifying marks. The court found this strange, and Wang Mang had said at the time: "Could this be like the armies of the Three Sovereigns of old, who had no written commands or posthumous titles?"

This remark of his was ridiculed by Yan You, who said: Your Majesty is mistaken — it is simply because the Red Eyebrow Army is too grassroots and knows nothing of such things.

But now Wang Mang felt that Yan You had been wrong, and he had been right! Compared to the Wang Army and the Greenwood, the Red Eyebrows were the purest — they truly were the army of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors!

Yet Cui Fa still underestimated Wang Mang's ideals. He was not doing this to rebuild the Xin Dynasty, still less to become emperor again.

Wang Mang sighed and said: "In Hanzhong, I spent whole days in thought, reflecting on the beginning. My original intent was to restore the governance of the Three Dynasties of Yao, Shun, and Yu — so why did the realm's affairs grow ever more corrupt?"

Cui Fa pressed his head to the floor: "The ministers misled Your Majesty. We, your servants, were incompetent."

"No, it was not only the ministers' fault — I too made grave errors!"

Wang Mang, having learned from his pain, said: "The first mistake I made was when I governed on behalf of the child Ying. I was deluded by the crowd, and in a moment of confusion, I harbored selfish motives and accepted the title of Acting Emperor, wishing to turn the Liu realm into the Wang family's possession. Thus from Acting Emperor to true Emperor, it spiraled beyond control."

Now Wang Mang felt only that this had been a wrong path!

"The ancients said: the Three Sovereigns held the realm as public, the Five Emperors held it as family. But the First Emperor of Qin called himself Emperor and wished to make Qin last ten thousand generations — that was using one man's selfish heart to possess the realm."

Wang Mang said with disgust: "I cast aside Qin governance, refusing to call myself Zhen and using Yu instead. Yet I was so blinded that I kept the title of Emperor, wishing to make the Xin last thirty-six thousand years. That was imitating the precedent of the tyrannical Qin — a great error!"

This master of institutional reform felt his ambitions surge anew.

"Through this exile, I have thoroughly awakened!"

Wang Mang understood now: the Xin Dynasty had failed because the return to antiquity had not gone far back enough, and the institutional reforms had not been thorough enough!

Cui Fa stared at Wang Mang in shock. After all these years, His Majesty had not changed at all — he had only grown more extreme, more mad.

Xu Xuan and the others believed the Red Eyebrows could not escape their roving-bandit pattern because they had no emperor.

But Wang Mang saw it the other way. In this formalist's eyes, the title of "Emperor" was soaked in the black blood of the tyrannical Qin — every drop filthy. He had been blinded by greed when he placed that foul thing upon his own head! It was all its fault!

The Gonghe administration was only the first step of Wang Mang's grand plan. He would help the Red Eyebrows carry out institutional reforms, implementing what had been blocked by powerful Liu-surnamed magnates before. Then, using the Red Eyebrows' formidable military strength, he would annihilate all those regimes calling themselves kings and emperors — Diwu Lun's, Gengshi's, Yuantong's, all of them!

"Since the Three Dynasties had no Emperor, only the Son of Heaven, and no complex bureaucracy of a hundred offices, yet achieved great governance..."

"From this day forward, beginning with the Red Eyebrows, we shall abolish the imperial system, the yellow-canopied carriage and the yak-tail banner on the left, and ultimately return to primal simplicity, recreating the Three Dynasties!"

Wang Mang, already half-mad from the blows of reality, had finally found his new life's purpose.

Henceforth, who became emperor did not matter.

Having no emperor — that mattered greatly!

Meanwhile, when word reached Wancheng that all three armies had failed at the brink of success, the Greenwood Emperor Liu Xuan collapsed onto his imperial couch and murmured:

"All is lost. The Red Eyebrows are coming to seize my imperial throne."

According to reports, after a brief stop at Shangcai, the Red Eyebrows had changed their era name to "Chihe." Because the Greenwood scouts could not understand what the Red Eyebrow Army meant by "Gonghe" — the Red Eyebrow Army themselves did not understand it either — they mistakenly believed the Red Eyebrows had enthroned a man named "Liu Gonghe" as emperor and were coming to snatch Liu Xuan's throne!

Faced with the Red Eyebrows' westward advance, the Gengshi court erupted in furious debate, arguing endlessly over the Greenwood regime's future.

The Nanyang magnates, led by Li Tong, courtesy name Ciyuan, strongly advocated holding firm!

Li Tong had originally hoped the Greenwood and the Red Eyebrows would destroy each other, winning his brother-in-law Liu Xiu the chance for a triumphant return. He never imagined the Greenwood would prove so incapable — the Red Eyebrows were advancing swiftly and could reach Nanyang by the seventh month, their troops at the very walls of Wancheng.

The powerful families of Nanyang could not run away with their lands and wealth — they still hoped to hold on if they could.

"Your Majesty, though one column has been wiped out, the other two still have remnants. If we recall the various armies to Nanyang, and add the support of the Nanyang clans, we can muster a hundred thousand men — enough to withstand the Red Eyebrows!"

What was more, there was still Liu Xiu to look to. It was said that the King of Wu's territory lay in Linhuai and Jiangdong; marching north would bring him to Pei Commandery. With Liu Xiu's ability, if he struck the Red Eyebrows' rear and caught them in a pincer with Nanyang, victory or defeat was far from certain!

But everyone else was terrified by the Red Eyebrows' ferocious momentum. Zheng Xing, a man from Kaifeng in Henan Commandery, was a disciple of Liu Xin, but when the realm fell into chaos he was in his hometown and surrendered to the Greenwood faction. He came to the court at Wancheng and became Chief Clerk of the Chancellor's office.

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Zheng Xing thus offered his counsel to Liu Xuan: "Your Majesty rose from Jingchu and Nanyang. Though you bear the title Son of Heaven, you have not yet had the chance to extend grace and favor to all under Heaven. In the Henan lands especially, Your Majesty has long delayed going north to pacify the people. This minister fears Yuzhou will grow estranged from Your Majesty. Now all the ministers say we must first quell the Red Eyebrows and only then move the capital — this is putting the cart before the horse!"

"This minister wishes Your Majesty to move the capital to Chengzhou, with Chenggao held on the left, Mianchi blocking the right, Songgao before you, the great Yellow River behind. Establish Xingyang, settle Henan — a barrier a thousand li north to south, and enter Ao Granary. With a domain a hundred li square, eightfold, it is more than enough for your pleasure, curbing the power of the feudal lords in the east while keeping the Red Eyebrow calamity far to the south."

Liu Xuan did feel some inclination to go north to Luoyang. Wang Kuang's column had not suffered too badly and still held the northern route from Wuyang and Kunyang into the Central Plain. To move the capital for now and evade the Red Eyebrows' edge — it was not impossible…

"Folly!" Li Tong, greatly alarmed, denounced him harshly: "Your Majesty, behead Zheng Xing, and the realm will be at peace!"

"Right now, though Nanyang's offensive strength is lacking, it still has the power to resist the enemy. How can there be a principle where subjects and people still wish to fight to the death, yet the Son of Heaven abandons the capital first?"

Liu Xuan also knew full well that if he showed any intent to flee at this moment, morale would likely scatter even further. He merely placated Li Tong and declared with solemn gravity that he would live and die with Nanyang!

Yet in private, Liu Xuan had men prepare a number of mule carts and donkey carts, ready to move the capital with his hundred-odd consorts should things turn dire.

And the Greenwood generals were also privately discussing another path.

Shentu Jian, the King of Pingshi, and Liao Zhan, the King of Rang, conferred in secret: "The Red Eyebrows are close by in Runan — they could arrive any day. Now that northern reinforcements are not coming, Gengshi holds only Nanyang. I fear it will fall sooner or later. In my view, we would do better to muster our troops and plunder the great clans of Nanyang to enrich ourselves, then take the women, children, silk, and cloth and head south to Sui County, Pinglin, and those parts. If we truly cannot hold on, at worst we go further south and return to Greenwood Mountain!"

For a time, three opinions — moving the capital north, heading south, or holding firm — clashed openly and covertly at the Wancheng court, and hearts scattered in disarray. Meanwhile, next door, the Red Eyebrows, who had barely stabilized their own people through that bizarre maneuver of the "Five Dukes' Joint Rule" and were single-mindedly bent on destroying Gengshi, were far more united.

But whatever Liu Xuan and the Greenwood chieftains planned, Li Tong was unwilling to go anywhere. He resolved to unite the various powerful families of Nanyang, fortify the walls and clear the fields, and use the ever-taller strongholds to block the Red Eyebrows' assault, while hoping the King of Wu would return quickly from Jiangdong — that children's rhyme, "Win or lose, it's in Jiangdong," was something he had had his men spread!

Yet a few days later, the household steward Li Tong had earlier dispatched to Jiangdong brought back Liu Xiu's reply, reporting that Yuzhang Commandery had been seized by Li Xian, the King of Huainan, and the route was completely cut off. Upon opening the letter, Li Tong's heart went cold.

"Though I, Xiu, have taken Danyang, my troops are weary and spent, the grain is not yet ripe. To the north, the King of Liang and the Red Eyebrows at Pengcheng block the way — the roads are severed. To the west, Li Xian, King of Huainan, has cut across Yuzhang and claims a hundred thousand men."

"My heart longs to rush to the king's aid and wishes only to return at once, but in truth I cannot. I bow and bow again, and beg Ciyuan's forgiveness a thousand times over!"

Li Tong understood Liu Xiu. In an instant he grasped it: they had once heartlessly abandoned Liu Bosheng, and now, Liu Xiu would likewise abandon Gengshi!

He released the letter and wept: "Wenshu, ah, Wenshu. You are a clever man — unwilling to wade into these murky waters and take over Gengshi's rotten mess."

"You only want to wait until the Red Eyebrow Army has burned Nanyang and Yuzhou to ashes, then march your forces north from the southeast and carve out a new realm of rivers and mountains!"