Chapter 394: Crossing South

Standing on the walls of Wancheng, Liu Xuan seemed able to see the flames of Bowang Slope as well.

"Have we won?"

Late last month, the Red Eyebrow Army's two main forces attacked along separate routes. The northern force was blocked at Kunyang Pass, while the southern force crossed the Funiu Mountains and drove straight for Wancheng. The only pass standing in their way was Bowang Slope, located several dozen li north of Wancheng. With the Funiu Mountains at its back to the north, Hidden Mountain to the south, and the Bai River to the west, it was a rolling ridge where the Funiu range extended, making the terrain strategically critical.

The remaining kings of Greenwood gathered a great army and set an ambush at Bowang, planning to exploit the dense autumn woods after the leaves had fallen, set a fire to throw the Red Eyebrows into chaos, and rout this rabble in one stroke.

Who could have guessed that the Red Eyebrows' greatest skill was exactly this kind of chaotic melee? The two sides fought bitterly amid the flames for a full day and night, after which the Greenwood kings were defeated. Grand Marshal Zhu Wei, who had been ordered to oversee the battle at the front, retreated to Wancheng with his face covered in soot and ash and brought the dire news to Liu Xuan.

By the time Liu Xuan rang the bell to summon his ministers to discuss a strategy, the great hall could no longer be filled. Those "stable-scrapers, rotten sheep-guts, rotten sheep-heads" officials he had once promoted had all either fled or scattered. Liu Xuan now understood what it meant to be utterly abandoned by everyone.

Those who remained argued endlessly. The Prince of Yan and the Prince of Yuanshi from the Chongling imperial clan felt that since the Red Eyebrow Army had set up that "Liu Gonghe" as Emperor — he was, after all, of the same Han lineage — perhaps they could send an envoy to negotiate peace. They proposed that Greenwood Han declare its allegiance to Red Eyebrow Han, that everyone could renounce their royal titles, and that as long as Liu Xuan was enfeoffed as Prince of Changsha, they could divide the realm along the river and rule separately.

Zhu Wei grew frantic: "What 'Liu Gonghe'? We finally got the truth out of Red Eyebrow prisoners — the Red Eyebrows never intended to restore the Han! Those five chiefs rule in common council; they want no emperor at all. They are rebels without sovereign or father! How can we negotiate with them?"

The appeasement faction was instantly silenced. Then Li Tong and a few other Nanyang magnates who favored fighting spoke up: "We beg Your Majesty to immediately recruit dare-to-die warriors from the city and court officials, each leading their household servants and kinsmen to defend the walls. Wancheng was once held for half a year by Yan You and Cen Peng. The city now has ample grain stores. Order the common people to hold fast and fight to the death — perhaps we can wait for a relief army to arrive…"

What relief army was left? Liu Xuan held no hope whatsoever, but he still nodded his agreement. He knew that the powerful families of Nanyang were no longer of one heart with him.

"We shall personally lead the campaign and ascend the city walls to direct the defense!"

As he spoke, he solemnly handed the keys to the palace over to Li Tong, then began donning armor and drilling troops within the palace grounds. Even his consorts were made to wear armor, as if he truly intended to march out and meet the enemy.

Yet that very night, Liu Xuan secretly left the palace city and entered the military camp in the south of the city where Zhu Wei, Shentu Jian, and Liao Zhan were stationed. Once inside the command tent, Liu Xuan's two personal guards tore off the false beards made of horse tails — it turned out that the one with strength enough to hoist a banner was none other than his most beloved Consort Han, and the other was Consort Zhao.

Liu Xuan knew the situation was urgent. He could not possibly take all hundred-plus consorts with him; he could only steel his heart and take just two.

The Gengshi Emperor distributed the silk he had brought out to these last remnants of the Greenwood Army, selected nine hundred horses, and had them stand ready. The next morning at dawn, amid a fine, drizzling early-autumn rain, Liu Xuan, together with the three kings Zhu Wei, Shentu Jian, and Liao Zhan, took over ten thousand men and slipped away — not north to personally campaign against the Red Eyebrows, but fleeing south instead!

On the journey south, Liu Xuan kept turning his head back toward Wancheng. No one could tell if the moisture on his face was rain or tears. Consort Han said, "Your Majesty, according to Nanyang custom, before leaving home, one must dismount and bow in thanks to the city!"

Liu Xuan nodded, halted the column, dismounted, and bowed once toward Wancheng. Then he remounted and said to Consort Han with forced cheer:

"Wancheng is fine, but it is no place to linger. The Son of Heaven should dwell upstream. We shall take you, my lady, and cross south — back to our homeland!"

…

Liu Xuan's flight this time was utterly dishonorable. That morning, when the Prince of Xiping, Li Tong, heard that the Greenwood Army outside the city had all bolted at once, he was still anxiously organizing the city's defenses. Greatly alarmed, he immediately went to knock at the palace gates to report.

Who could have expected that once the palace gates were opened, utter chaos reigned inside? The hundred-plus consorts Liu Xuan had abandoned were shrieking and running wildly in every direction, all crying that the Emperor could not be found!

"That brat — he actually ran!"

Li Tong stamped his feet in fury. The news could not be contained, and Wancheng instantly fell into turmoil. When the powerful families and prominent clans in the city saw this, they thought: how can we possibly hold out now? They ordered their household troops to escort them as they fled back to their fortified estates. The city's defenses collapsed at once. The common people, who had often heard that the Red Eyebrows were ferocious and even ate people, feared that after last year's prolonged siege, Wancheng would suffer yet another calamity, and they too fled in haste.

"Elder Brother, what do we do?" The Prince of Wuyin, Li Yi, had never imagined that Liu Xuan and the Greenwood commanders would leave without even a word. All his tireless service over these two years, believing he had worked his way into Greenwood's inner circle and earned Liu Xuan's trust — in the end, he was still just a discarded pawn.

"Had I known it would come to this, I would never have done it!"

Li Tong glared at his younger brother. With Liu Xuan and the Greenwood forces gone, Wancheng was utterly indefensible. He had no wish to relive the catastrophe of two years ago, when the Li clan, after their failed uprising, was besieged by the Xin army and nearly exterminated.

Li Tong had also made inquiries into the Red Eyebrows' character and understood clearly that this was absolutely not a force they could coexist with.

The bad news was that the Li clan would likely have to abandon their fields and homes and flee into the wilderness as well.

The good news was that most members of the Wancheng Li clan had already been slaughtered by Wang Mang's Grand Governor and Dou Rong during the anti-Xin uprising — fifty-six souls perished, and few core members remained. A single cart could carry them all.

"Elder Brother, shall we follow His Maj— Liu Xuan south to Sui County?"

Li Tong recalled that the previous month, Liu Xuan had dispatched the Prince of Dingtao from the Chongling imperial clan to Changsha to "pay respects at the ancestral tombs." This flight south most likely would pass through Sui County, then follow the Greenwood forces to Jiangxia Commandery and cross the river to the Chongling Liu clan's ancestral homeland in southern Jing.

But having learned this lesson, Li Tong never wanted to serve alongside a mediocrity like Liu Xuan again.

"No. We'll head for the Ming'e Three Passes southeast of Nanyang. Our cousin Li Song was ordered to hold them with three thousand men as a precaution against the Prince of Huainan attacking. Our family can take refuge there."

The Ming'e Three Passes encompassed a territory of four counties, theoretically under the jurisdiction of Jiangxia Commandery but currently controlled by Greenwood. Situated between Nanyang, Jianghan, Runan, and Huainan, the region was a maze of mountains and forests, highly defensible.

The reason for choosing that place as a refuge, aside from having one of their own in command of troops there, was that Li Tong still harbored hopes for that man.

Li Ciyuan looked back at Wancheng, unable to tear himself away. If, back then, he had not chosen Liu Xuan but had chosen the Liu Bosheng brothers instead, how would things have turned out?

"Last time I chose wrong. But this time, Li Tong will not make the same mistake again!"

"Though the Prince of Wu was unwilling to come to Wancheng to take over this mess, with Liu Wenshu's talent, he will sooner or later sweep through Huainan. When that time comes, the Ming'e Three Passes will become the forward outpost for counterattacking Nanyang and reclaiming our homeland!"

…

After Liu Xuan and the Wancheng Li clan fled south one after another, the "relief armies" that had gathered north of the city also scattered in a single wave. The Red Eyebrows trampled over the blood-soaked corpses of Greenwood and closed in on the capital of Wan.

Wancheng, as one of the Five Capitals, would be the largest city they had entered in all their years of campaigning across the realm.

Wang Mang was now a favored man at Fan Chong's side, appointed as "Libationer" and frequently summoned for consultation.

He was the Senior Libationer, while Liu Gong, who hailed from the Prince of Chengyang's line, was the Junior Libationer. After a long string of wanderings, the Red Eyebrows had also begun to absorb scholars. This old man and young man were treated well, each provided with a mule to ride.

When he learned that Wancheng had fallen without a fight, Liu Gong was deeply disappointed in the Gengshi regime.

"Liu Xuan actually fled."

Once upon a time, as the first regime to raise the cry of "Restore the House of Han," Greenwood Han and the Gengshi Emperor had been the hope and beacon for all who bore the Liu surname. But now this regime had sunk into stagnation and decay, cruelly carved up by various powers, and the Red Eyebrows, who had likewise risen from the grassroots, had delivered the final blow!

Looking at it now, they were indeed the descendants of that minor marquis of Chongling in Changsha — their vision was too narrow, and they were destined never to sit securely on the imperial throne!

As for Liu Xuan's prospects, Liu Gong was equally pessimistic. He said to Wang Mang, "Old Tian, back then Wang Mang also abandoned his capital and fled, calling it his 'Southern Hunt,' yet in the end he lost his head in Hanzhong."

"In my view, Liu Xuan, like that old villain Wang Mang, does not have long to live!"

"Old Tian, why are you glaring at me? Has your disciple said something wrong?"

Earlier, in Runan, Liu Gong had been so awed by "Old Tian's" erudition that he insisted on becoming his disciple, hoping to study the Five Classics. Old Tian, however, showed little enthusiasm.

Liu Gong had not given up and often ran errands for Old Tian, never realizing that with his blunt words today, he would never succeed in taking this teacher.

Being compared to Liu Xuan, Wang Mang could only suppress his towering rage. He could hardly say that he was still alive, so he cursed inwardly: "Ignorant whelp! How can this be the same? I was betrayed by the national traitor Diwu Lun and had no choice but to go on an inspection tour. Liu Xuan, on the other hand, is simply fatuous and incompetent, squandering an excellent situation and thus fleeing…"

When Greenwood was on the rise, Wang Mang had been deeply wary of Liu Bosheng, declaring that whoever could take his head would be enfeoffed with fifty thousand households and rewarded with a hundred thousand jin of gold. As for Liu Xuan… merely a thousand households and a hundred jin of gold. Thinking back now, if even Chen Sheng and Xiang Yu had yet to rise, how much less could this sort of mediocre fellow?

But if one had to compare, when Wang Mang first became Emperor, his situation was infinitely better than Liu Xuan's, he had far more time, and his external environment was more favorable than Greenwood Han's. From that perspective, Liu Xuan's talent for ruining things was still far inferior to Wang Mang's.

But those were all things of the past. Wang Mang had now been reborn and found a new purpose for himself, mingling among the Red Eyebrows — this pure army of the "Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors." What he could not accomplish in the past, he could now personally carry out step by step, with no more mediocre officials or treacherous sycophants to stop him!

The Red Eyebrow vanguard had already gone to take control of Wancheng, while Fan Chong's main force had halted to rest at "Qushen City," twenty li to the north. This was a township that had originally been Greenwood's last line of defense; now everyone had fled, and all the grain, armor, and baggage there fell into the Red Eyebrows' hands at no cost.

Wang Mang leaned on his pigeon-staff and went to pay a visit to Fan Chong. The time had come. Before entering Wancheng and formally taking over Nanyang, the Red Eyebrows — no, their Chihe regime — had to do two things first.

"Lord Fan, there is an old saying: even with eyes as keen as Li Lou's or hands as skillful as Gongshu Ban's, without compass and square, one cannot form circles and squares!"

"The Red Eyebrows have campaigned across several provinces from Mount Tai in the east, yet have never been able to gain a firm foothold. The root cause is this: upon arriving in a place, you failed to establish proper rules, so the local people never understood what the Red Eyebrows truly wanted."

Fan Chong still held considerable respect for this old Libationer who had first proposed the republic. Though the man's speech was always bookish and long-winded, never getting to the point, Fan Chong always felt that this old fellow understood him better than his old brothers like Xu Xuan, who had drifted further and further away.

Staying roving bandits forever was no solution — many were weary of it. Fan Chong's goal was to lead his three hundred thousand brothers and sisters under his command to find a "Happy Land" where they could live in peace and stability, yet he was unwilling to follow the old path of the Greenwood.

He truly did want to hear how Old Tian would lay out a plan for the Red Eyebrows, but first he put on a stern face and said: "Quite a few scholars have come to admonish me in the past, and the counsel they offered was not even worth soiling my ears. Old Fan will speak plainly from the start: there are three matters Old Tian need not mention."

Fan Chong extended his index finger. "First, no talk of granting special treatment to the Liu imperial clan. Those people have spread through every commandery and county over the past two hundred years, gorging themselves on the fat of the land long enough. Now that they have fallen under Red Eyebrow rule, it's time they went hungry! Whether they were clan heads or lineage chiefs, great lines or lesser lines, whether their ancestors were marquises or kings — all of them shall be thrown into the captive camps to labor!"

He extended his middle finger. "Second, no talk of generous treatment for powerful local families. If they open their fortified manors and granaries and hand over every last measure of grain, we may spare their lives. But if they refuse to surrender, we will storm them by force!"

"Third…" Fan Chong stroked his great beard and burst into hearty laughter. "On this point there's no need to worry — Old Tian would never counsel me to declare myself king or emperor!"

Wang Mang, who always wore a face of bitter resentment, now also broke into delighted laughter. Fan Chong's words suited his taste exactly!

Too late did they meet — Wang Mang felt that he and Fan Chong were true kindred spirits! If only…

But it was not too late to build the Three Dynasties together now!

Wang Mang had already come to see the remnants of the Former Han and the corrupt powerful magnates as the reason his reforms over the past decade and more had failed. And in order to restore the governance of the Three Dynasties, Wang Mang had steeled his resolve to eradicate the brutal remnants of the Qin system — including the title of Emperor and the entire imperial institution itself!

"What Lord Fan thinks is exactly what this old man thinks!"

Wang Mang said: "In the Spring and Autumn period, the sage Guan Zhong once said: 'That from which the kingly way begins is taking the people as the root.'"

The original words were actually "That from which the hegemonic way begins," but Wang Mang disliked the word "hegemonic," and so he spoke only of the kingly way.

"The first matter I wish to speak of concerns precisely the people!"

"I hope that once Lord Fan enters Wancheng, he will proclaim the first decree of law under the republic, and that is…"

Wang Mang spoke the two words that he had longed to act upon but had always been forced by circumstance to conceal and speak of only in veiled terms.

"Abolish slavery!"

…

PS: There will be an extra update tomorrow.