Chapter 402: Rice for Meals, Fish for Soup

In mid‑August, Diwu Lun's carriage crossed the Taihang range and reached Wen County in Henei Commandery.

"This time I have entered Henei with only light cavalry, travelling through the autumn crops and observing the harvest. Wherever I pass through commandery borders, no local officials may hastily repair roads or bridges, nor make the common folk leave their towns and villages to come out and greet me."

Although the King of Wei had issued an edict beforehand saying no one need come, Feng Qin, the current Governor of Henei, could not stay away.

Feng Qin was only twenty‑three, the youngest two‑thousand‑shi official in the State of Wei, and no one could envy him for it, because this Feng Weibo had followed the dragon from the very beginning.

Once he had welcomed the King of Wei's carriage and Diwu Lun stepped down, Diwu Lun immediately excused him from formal ceremony and, smiling, asked whether his mother was well.

There was no other meaning to it: Feng Qin was famous as a filial son. When Diwu Lun first summoned him to office, Feng Qin had actually been too proud to take a post and declined before Diwu Lun — was that not showing off in front of a master? Diwu Lun directly commended his mother, and a filial son could not refuse. After five rounds of gifts were sent, Feng Qin could hardly decline again and could only enter Diwu Lun's fold.

Feng Qin was eight chi and three cun tall, a full chi taller than Diwu Lun, so he had to bend his waist as hard as he could to make himself shorter than his lord, bowing with clasped hands to thank him on his mother's behalf.

As a planning clerk, he had overseen the distribution of land in Wei Commandery, calculating and weighing the scale of each man's merit and the richness or barrenness of the soil, granting fiefs in proper order, until every retainer was satisfied and convinced. Later he became a Merit Evaluator, assisting Geng Chun in holding Wei Commandery.

After Ma Yuan captured Henei without bloodshed, Diwu Lun did not trust the local great families, so he chose Feng Qin for the post.

Now a year had passed, and with the King of Wei visiting Henei again, Feng Qin was confident he could present a satisfactory annual report!

"Do you know why I have made a special trip to Wen County?" Diwu Lun asked. Although his territory had expanded more than tenfold and the number of good ministers and capable commanders under him had grown, he still held Feng Qin in high regard. First, he was an old subordinate, known through and through and loyal enough; second, Feng Qin was quite skilled in mathematics, and as a young man his mind was nimble.

Feng Qin understood: "Your Majesty must wish to see how the rice I proposed planting in Wen County when I first took office last year has turned out."

Wen County had a long history, traceable back to the Shang‑dynasty You‑Su clan and the home of Daji… It bordered the Yellow River, the climate was suitable, and streams from the Taihang range washed through it. The springs ran warm year‑round and the land was flat — a fine place for agriculture.

But crops are precious things. Too little water is no good, and as Wen County showed, too much water is also troublesome. Henei had a dense population, and the dry land suited to millet and wheat was long since crammed with hamlets and farmers. When Feng Qin took office, he looked at all the low‑lying, waterlogged land lying idle along the river and thought it a pity. After mulling it over, he proposed an idea to Diwu Lun: plant paddy rice!

"When you first suggested growing rice in Henei, I thought you had read too many books and muddled your head."

But Feng Qin had his grounds. During the reign of Emperor Ai of Han, a minister named Jia Rang was dispatched to Henei and Wei Commandery to inspect the Yellow River flood damage. That man proposed upper, middle and lower strategies for water control, and by the way also offered some suggestions for improving local farming. One of them was to take advantage of Henei's abundant water resources and try planting rice. Rice yields more per mu than millet or wheat and can feed more people.

At the time, Feng Qin saw large stretches of low‑lying land along the river in Henei lying empty, while disaster refugees from other commanderies kept flooding in endlessly. Ma Yuan's conscription could not absorb so many people, and they had to be given something to do. So Feng Qin found a way to obtain northern rice seed from the Ji River region and set the refugees from Dingtao to trial planting.

The northern limit of rice cultivation had previously only reached Jiyang. Trying to grow rice north of the Yellow River was bound to face many difficulties of climate and water and soil, yet from what Diwu Lun saw on his inspection today, it had actually grown rather well.

The river water shimmered, nourishing the land. Golden rice paddies stretched as far as the eye could see, the heavy ears of grain bending the stalks. Farmers were hard at work harvesting. The once low‑lying, waterlogged land had been turned by Feng Qin, using outside refugees, into a full five thousand qing of paddy fields — a rare sight in the north.

After making a circuit, while resting at a post station, Feng Qin had steamed white rice brought in and invited Diwu Lun to "taste the new grain." He tried it and found it was round‑grained non‑glutinous rice.

Diwu Lun, who in a previous life had been a southerner, still preferred this to millet and wheat. It was only a pity that while his heart wanted it very much, his stomach resisted a little. After twenty‑four years, his stomach had become a millet stomach. What it loved most was the millet rice produced in the Five Tombs. As for rice and wheaten foods? Fragrant they certainly were, but they all required some getting used to.

At that moment, the disaster refugees from other commanderies who had come to present the rice began to sing a song.

"Heaven sent down a lord of divine brilliance, bestowing on us a kind and loving father. He came among the people spreading virtue and grace, his boons and kindness bestowed in due order. He dug channels to widely irrigate, opened canals to make sweet rain."

At once, the accompanying crowd burst into loud praise: "This extols Your Majesty for opening channels and creating rice paddies, turning thin, saline land into fertile soil, so the people depend on its bounty!"

Diwu Lun had wine and meat bestowed on them, but turning back, he said quietly to Feng Qin, "The ever‑lofty Feng Weibo has learned to put on this sort of show too?"

Feng Qin reddened a little. In truth, the common folk had originally been grateful to him, but his mother was cautious. She felt that Feng Qin, so young and suddenly a two‑thousand‑shi official, now winning the hearts of the refugees so thoroughly, might make the King of Wei think too much. So she had the words altered into a song praising Diwu Lun.

"Weibo truly has a fine mother." After hearing him explain the whole story, Diwu Lun took no offence, but instead encouraged him: "The people's song also contains genuine feeling. The places in Henei suited to rice are probably not limited to Wen County alone. The rest can be put to full use as well."

In Henei Commandery, which had not experienced the toppling of local strongmen and redistribution of land, the grain that could be collected was not enormous, but the newly opened riverside paddies belonged to the government. The outside refugees were effectively tenant farmers: they could be charged forty per cent rent, or fifty per cent if they borrowed oxen, and if they also borrowed farm tools it rose to sixty per cent.

"The great chaos under heaven is likely to last several more years. For every extra shi of rice Henei harvests, one more person can be kept alive."

Henei and Wei Commandery had plainly become the war base in the east. The bamboo of Qi Garden, all cut down, could make a million arrows. The millet, wheat and rice collected as rent from the two commanderies together amounted to a full four million shi!

This was what sustained the Hebei campaigns and the entry into Luoyang. In the second year of the Central Plain's division, Henei and Wei Commandery could still remain intact and prosperous — this was Diwu Lun's good fortune, and the good fortune of all under heaven.

After inspecting the granaries, Diwu Lun returned to Heyang County. The Colonel Director of Retainers, Dou Rong, had led the Hedong river fleet and entered Luoyang a few days ahead of the King of Wei. Now he crossed the river in person to report on the war situation: "Chenliu and Huaiyang have both surrendered to Liang Han. The Greenwood false King of Zheng, Liu Ci, cannot stand alone. He has already abandoned Luoyang and fled south, retreating east to Zheng territory, and also shows signs of surrendering to Liang."

The Greenwood forces had shattered in just two months, especially in the north: some surrendered, some fled. Only Wang Kuang remained, holding twenty or thirty thousand troops and occupying Yingchuan Commandery, but surrounded by the Red Eyebrows, Wei, and Liang Han. The man was probably still hesitating over whom to join.

Diwu Lun currently had no interest whatsoever in Yingchuan; at most he would send an envoy to trick Wang Kuang into staying neutral.

Hearing that Zhang Zong had swiftly advanced east and occupied Chenggao, taking over the Ao Granary, which had been burned to ruins, and that the Yique Fortress and Huanyuan Pass south of Luoyang were all under Wei army control, the conditions for moving south were ripe.

Only then did the King of Wei explain clearly to the core personnel of his travelling court why he insisted on entering Luoyang despite the pressure on troops and grain supplies.

Diwu Lun said: "In the past, the Han Emperor Gao left Xiao He to guard the Guanzhong heartland. I now entrust the Chancellor of the Left and Feng Weibo with Henei and Wei territory, to hold firm, transport supplies, keep the army fully provisioned, lead and encourage the troops and horses, guard against Greenwood and roving bandits, and permit no one to cross north."

Since Henei was so important, leaving it exposed to enemy attack would be most unwise. But if they could seize the land within a hundred li around Luoyang, it would be like adding an outer tower south of the river!

Over the past year, Feng Qin had set up defences everywhere along the several hundred li of riverbank in Henei, yet there were gaps everywhere. Had Ma Yuan not taken the initiative to draw the flames of war toward the Puyang area and crossed the river several times to attack Greenwood, it would have been very hard for Henei to remain at peace.

Now the main forces had been shifted north, and the watch posts and barriers along the river could neither stop the refugees nor, in the future, hold off Liang Han armies with their own river fleet. Diwu Lun had no wish, when he next concentrated his strength on Hebei, to be vexed along the Yellow River by the rapidly swelling power of Liang Han.

It would be far easier to push the frontier forward and set up defences at the three or four unavoidable choke points: Hulao Pass, Yique Fortress, and Mount Song. The Ao Granary also locked down the water route; even if Liang Han launched boats from the Hong Canal to raid Henei, they could not escape his eyes.

"To use an analogy, Henei is like Weibei — the teeth; Luoyang is like Weinan — the lips."

"The lips cannot part from the teeth: Luoyang needs Henei's grain to relieve its crisis. The teeth cannot part from the lips: Henei needs Luoyang outside to serve as its shield."

Dou Rong and the others at once put on expressions of sudden enlightenment: "Just think — during the struggle between Chu and Han, even when the Han Emperor Gao was at a great disadvantage, he refused to abandon Xingyang and Chenggao or let the Chu army enter Luoyang. Had he done so, could Henei and Hebei have been preserved? Could Han Xin have conquered Qi at his leisure? Your Majesty has thought deeply and thoroughly!"

The spirit of the Wen County conference was to be conveyed to the frontline generals: only defend, do not attack. Whoever got hot‑headed and advanced beyond the passes of Luoyang to keep fighting outward would earn no merit, but rather guilt!

"I am taking Luoyang not for the sake of attack."

"But for the sake of better defence!"

…

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Diwu Lun reached the riverbank and gazed across at the ancient Meng Ford on the opposite shore.

The ten‑thousand‑li Yellow River, after passing Sanmen Gorge, finally grew gentler below the Northern Mang hills, its current slowing and becoming suitable for ferrying.

Meng Ford had both a crossing and a pass. It faced the Yellow River to the north and leaned on the Mang range to the south, sheltered by mountain and river. Over a thousand years ago, King Wu of Zhou had reviewed his troops here, and the eight hundred lords of the west had all come.

After Dou Rong brought Yang Bao of the great Hongnong Yang clan into Luoyang, he organized the local great merchants and powerful families to await the King of Wei at Meng Ford. Soldiers, officials, and locals who had come to watch the spectacle together numbered eight thousand.

As Diwu Lun's boat sailed south across the river, the Embroidered‑Uniform Commandant Zhang Yu and the Master of Writing Zhu Di stood at the prow as part of the escort. Zhu Di even raised his head to look at the sky.

When Diwu Lun asked what he was looking at, Zhu Di only said: "It is said that when King Wu of Zhou crossed the river here to attack Zhou, a fire descended from above and covered the area below, reaching as far as Wangwu, and turned into a crow, its colour red, its cry a deep booming sound."

That was the origin of the Zhou dynasty's virtue of fire. But today the weather was clear, with only a few drifting clouds; there would probably be no strange celestial sign. No matter how hard Zhu Di craned his neck upward, it was no use.

But there was one thing that human effort could accomplish.

As the boat drew alongside the bank at Meng Ford, Dou Rong came forward with the local elders to welcome the King of Wei, but they heard a burst of exclamations rise from the riverside!

"A white fish! A white fish!"

A group of Luoyang venerables came forward carrying a wooden tub and excitedly presented it before Diwu Lun.

He looked down — good heavens — inside was a great carp whose scales flashed with white light!

For a moment the acclaim was unending. Dou Rong and the Luoyang crowd prostrated themselves and congratulated Diwu Lun: "When King Wu of Zhou crossed the river midstream, a white fish leaped into the royal boat. Now, as the King of Wei enters Luo, a white fish has also leaped from the water, caught by the common folk and presented — this is Heaven's will!"

The apocryphal Five Powers implications woven into this were well worth pondering carefully. Those at court desperately trying to prove that the King of Wei corresponded to the Metal Power would be delighted.

Diwu Lun swept his gaze over the crowd. At this station, one had to grow accustomed to such things. He did not expose it outright — that would have been far too tactless — but instead went with the current, saying: "If I recall correctly, after the white fish leaped into the boat, King Wu bowed down, took it, and offered it in sacrifice. Is that so?"

Everyone confirmed it. Diwu Lun said: "In that case, I too shall go to the place where the Duke of Zhou divined the site and chose the dwelling, and use this fish to sacrifice to the Luo River deity!"

Seeing the King of Wei agree, everyone was overjoyed — only Zhang Yu, carrying the wooden tub, suffered. The fish's tail lashed a faceful of rank water onto the Embroidered Uniform Commandant, yet he could only endure it. At the same time, not believing in this so-called "auspicious omen" at all, he secretly asked the King of Wei just how the fish was actually to be disposed of.

"Since it has come all this way, can we release it back alive?"

Diwu Lun laughed quietly: "What is a sacrifice? It is enough that the deity smells its fragrance. The remaining flesh — I shall eat it myself."

"Have the kitchen prepare a meal of rice and fish stew. I shall share it with the Luo River deity — is that not delicious?"