Chapter 415: Dreaming of Peaches

Pi Tong had seen the walled supply roads the Wei army used to transport grain south of Julu City — they had been built two hundred years ago when Qin generals Zhang Han and Wang Li attacked Julu, with walls erected along the road and watchtowers raised, so that men, horses, and carts could travel within, safe from enemy assault. Remnants still stood to this day. Diwu Lun had grain and fodder brought up from Henei and Wei territory, then distributed to the central army under Geng Chun, which faced the main Copper Horse force on the front line.

Outside Julu, however, there were no such fine walled roads. Grain was shipped along a river that began in Henei, called the Huan River, which cut through Wei Commandery, ran all the way to Qinghe and Xindu Commanderies, and finally emptied into the sea at Bohai.

Pi Tong was following a boat laden with autumn grain back to his homeland. "Huan huan" describes a grand, brimming fullness — it is said the river is at its fullest in the third month, when peach blossoms ride the waters. But now it was the eleventh month, deep winter; the sky was dark and gloomy, the cold bit to the bone, and the peach trees along the bank had withered bare, just like the state of affairs in Hebei.

Qinghe had once been one of the regions worst plagued by roving bandits. Though the Copper Horse main force was not here, several bands — the Youlai, the Green Calf, and others — were active within its borders. Having received seals and ribbons from Liu Ziyu, they had transformed overnight into generals and lords, leading a few hundred or a thousand men each to seize hills and marshes across Qinghe, setting themselves up as local kings, even attacking county seats, with every sign of turning from roving bandits into entrenched brigands.

The soldiers on the boat told Pi Tong: "General Ma has not pushed north in haste these past three months. He has been busy in Qinghe, rallying the great families, rooting out the bandits, and clearing the Huan River waterway."

Pi Tong nodded. Ma Yuan's choice was correct. If those bands were left unchecked and the grain route severed, the main army would be trapped and encircled by the Copper Horse.

Once the boats reached the commandery border, the grain was transferred to overland transport, traveling several dozen li to reach the forward camp. Walled roads had been rebuilt along both sides of the route, with many watchtowers erected. Pi Tong noticed that the grain route was guarded mostly by local magnates, many of them familiar faces, and he could not avoid exchanging greetings all along the way.

"Isn't that Wei Commandery! Back from the south — don't tell me you've joined the King of Wei too."

"So it's Uncle Liu Bo!"

Pi Tong looked up and saw it was a local strongman from Tao County in Xindu Commandery. His enormous, rolling belly strained the seams of his ancestral Chu-style armor as he directed his retainers beneath a watchtower. His forebear, the Marquis of Tao'an, had been the uncle of the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, surnamed Xiang. Because he had helped Emperor Gao of Han destroy Chu, he had been enfeoffed as a marquis and granted the imperial surname Liu.

The Marquis of Tao's family could be counted among the founding heroes of the Great Han, and among their descendants had even been a Chancellor, enjoying treatment equal to that of the imperial clan. But times had changed...

"I no longer use Liu as my clan name. I have restored my original surname. Call me Uncle Xiang."

It seemed Ma Wenyuan's three months had not been spent in vain. He had indeed pulled the powerful families of Qinghe and Xindu into the King of Wei's camp. Compared to the Copper Horse bandits, who only destroyed and never built, the Wei army looked far more like the defender of order. Those who had once harbored doubts, hearing that the King of Wei had even pardoned the Zhao-Liu clan of Handan instead of executing them, now rushed to pledge allegiance with even greater zeal.

By now, Ma Yuan's forces had more than doubled from the ten-thousand-odd he had led north.

But Pi Tong had only one person on his mind. "Uncle Xiang, what has become of Liu Zhi, the Marquis of Changcheng, since he heard of the King of Wei's clemency toward the Zhao-Liu clan in Handan?"

"Him? Not a chance!"

This Uncle Xiang snorted with contempt. "Liu Boxian is a descendant of the King of Guangchuan, leftover dregs of the former dynasty. He's dead set on following the Copper Horse. Now he's been appointed a general and Commandant of Xindu — his office keeps getting bigger. I say he's heading straight for his own destruction!"

Changcheng County lay several dozen li west of the Xindu commandery seat. During the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han, a son of the Fallen King of Guangchuan had been enfeoffed there as a marquis, and from that point the Changcheng Marquis line had existed. When Wang Mang supplanted the Han, their title was stripped away just the same.

The current head of the Changcheng house was named Liu Zhi, courtesy name Boxian, also a local hero. When the realm fell into chaos, he had rallied three thousand kinsmen and retainers to defend themselves with arms, seizing control of territory spanning several counties.

When Liu Ziyu fled east to the Copper Horse, Liu Zhi had not hesitated for a moment to welcome him and pledge fealty. He was appointed General of the Valiant Cavalry and Commandant of Xindu, making him the most highly regarded among the imperial clansmen.

Yet even in Liu Zhi's household, as the Copper Horse and the Wei army prepared to clash at Xindu, fierce quarrels raged within.

When Liu Zhi summoned the various branches of the clan to discuss donating grain to supply the Copper Horse army that was about to pass through Changcheng on its way to reinforce Xindu, the matter touched their vital interests, and the elders of each branch immediately exploded.

"Has every Liu under heaven died out? Why must Changcheng alone provide grain? And thirty thousand shi in one breath, no less!"

Liu Zhi had a splitting headache over this. One only had to understand the different sources of military provisions for the Wei army and the Copper Horse to see why the powerful families of Xindu, Qinghe, and other commanderies were throwing their support wholesale to Ma Yuan.

Ma Yuan had spent months operating in Qinghe, wiping out small bands of brigands and clearing the river channels. Grain was shipped in from Wei Commandery, tens of thousands of shi every month. At present, it not only met the needs of the main army but could even be used to relieve the armed retainers of powerful families who had been driven from their homes by the Copper Horse and had come to pledge allegiance.

The Copper Horse army, by contrast, had no man like Xiao He at Liu Ziyu's side, nor any logistics or supply system. They fed themselves by waging war, plundering wherever they went. But Hebei had been in chaos for years; the common households had long since been picked clean of grain. The Copper Horse therefore fixed their gaze on the wealthy and the great houses. Some powerful families had clearly submitted to Liu Ziyu and had even been enfeoffed as marquises, yet the Copper Horse ignored all that, seizing their grain and even violating their womenfolk, driving many to defect to Wei in fury.

As more and more people abandoned their fortified manors and estates to flee south and join the Wei army, the remaining powerful families were saddled with ever-heavier grain levies. The household of Liu Zhi, Marquis of Changcheng, had become the chief scapegoat.

The elders could not help but complain to Liu Zhi: "Household head, all the Emperor has bestowed is a single great black steed and some embroidered bedding and clothes. We hold empty titles of general and commandant, yet Changcheng is expected to bear the grain supply for the entire army. No family fortune, however deep, can withstand such drain!"

Someone gathered his courage and proposed: "In the past, we felt that when the skin is gone, what can the fur adhere to? Between Han and Wei, we of the Liu imperial clan could only support the Succeeding and Reviving Emperor. But the King of Wei's magnanimity far exceeds anything we imagined. The Zhao King's line in Handan — was it not spared from clan extermination? Those who offered their allegiance willingly were even enfeoffed as earls..."

Before the words had fully landed, Liu Zhi, who had remained silent all this while, rose abruptly. His towering eight-zhang frame strode before the speaker, and an iron hand clamped around his throat. "What, do you mean to follow the example of the Marquis of Tao — change Liu to Xiang and flee south to join Wei?"

The Xiang family, granted the surname Liu, could change their surname when dynasties changed. But the blood of Emperor Gao flowed through their veins!

Liu Zhi would sooner exhaust his family's entire fortune than betray that bloodline. What was more, he had met Liu Ziyu in person. Compared to the mediocre King of Zhao, the King of Zhending, or the King of Guangyang, this emperor truly had the bearing of a brilliant sovereign! Here in Hebei, if he did not rely on him, was he supposed to pin his hopes on Liu Yong or Liu Xiu in the south?

He admonished his family: "Harbor no delusions. Diwu Lun's generous treatment of the various Liu houses in Hebei is nothing but a ploy to drive a wedge between us and the Succeeding and Reviving Emperor — just like the rumors he has had spread, claiming the Emperor's identity is false. Once the house of Han topples again, we shall be meat on the block and fish on the board. When that day comes, even if you wish to trade grain for your lives, you will not be given the chance!"

The family's grumbling was suppressed for the time being, but Liu Zhi knew full well that his household's grain could at most sustain the Copper Horse eastern army of thirty thousand men for a month or so. If Ma Yuan simply dragged things out, the Copper Horse might well disintegrate on their own.

"The only chance now is to defeat Ma Yuan before the snow falls and seize his grain and fodder."

And so the future of Liu Ziyu's regime actually hinged on whether they could push south and capture the grain of Wei Commandery and Henei. They could not afford to drag this out; they had no choice but to attack.

The Emperor still trusted him. Liu Zhi was the deputy commander for this campaign. He knew that besides their own combined force of forty thousand — his household troops, the Copper Horse, and the Xindu city garrison — there was also the Cheng Tou Zi Lu, a splinter band of the Red Eyebrows who had accepted Liu Ziyu's title of "King of Jibei" in Pingyuan Commandery, Qing Province. They were leading twenty thousand men and advancing on Qinghe.

"In this campaign, our forces total sixty thousand. We shall strike Ma Yuan's twenty thousand."

Though they outnumbered the enemy, Liu Zhi's confidence was far from full. He merely thought to himself: "If only we can cut his grain route and use our superior numbers to prevail!"

In the first ten days of the eleventh month, Pi Tong arrived at the Wei army's main camp in Piyang County, several dozen li south of Xindu. There he met the long-renowned Ma Wenyuan.

This father-in-law of the King of Wei, Grand General of the Valiant Cavalry and State Commandant of the State of Wei, was as unpretentious as an old soldier in his dealings with others. Yet once seated, his conversation was as refined as that of a great Confucian scholar. By virtue of his origins, he could move freely among the powerful and great clans; by virtue of his experience as a bandit, he could mingle just as easily with refugees and common soldiers.

Though this was his first meeting with Pi Tong, Ma Yuan did not treat him as an outsider in the slightest. He not only had scouts report military intelligence in Pi Tong's presence but also pulled him along to share a meal.

Ma Yuan did not go in for that "eat the same as the common soldiers" routine. He enjoyed good flavors, and his kitchen often prepared a little something extra on the side.

"We don't stand on ceremony in the army. Wei Commandery, share my table and tell me about the situation at Julu as we eat."

Pi Tong did not stand on formality either. He lowered his chopsticks to the minced fish before him and found it fresh, tender, rich yet not greasy. He asked, "What fish is this? The flavor is superb!"

Ma Yuan was mixing broth into his millet rice, paying no mind to etiquette. He lifted the bowl and ate, his chopsticks scraping the bottom until it faced the sky — in the army, eating was all about speed, because you never knew if urgent military intelligence might arrive the next moment, or if drums and bells would sound, forcing you to spit out your food and rush out, with no telling when you would next sit down to eat. Every extra mouthful you could get down was a gain.

After one bowl had gone down and he had wiped his mouth, Ma Yuan smiled and said, "This is blowfish."

At these words, Pi Tong was horrified. The blowfish was a creature of the waters between river and sea, shaped like a giant tadpole, with markings like a tiger and a white belly — yet its flesh was lethally poisonous. Pi Tong had once seen someone eat this fish by mistake; the man's lips and hands had gone numb, he could not open his eyes, could not swallow his saliva, could not even draw breath, and in the end his life had ended in utter, total paralysis.

And now, Pi Tong felt his own tongue going numb and the back of his neck stiffening. He knew a little of medicine. By all reason, he should at once thrust his fingers down his throat to vomit up the food, or gulp down fecal broth to purge himself and save his life.

But Ma Yuan was acting as if nothing were wrong, picking his teeth and watching him with a beaming smile!

This was outright poisoning!

Pi Tong had only just pledged allegiance to the King of Wei and been ordered to serve under Ma Yuan's command. It would not do to show fear before his commanding general. Suppressing the urge to slam the table and storm out, he strove to remain composed and said, "I have heard that blowfish is poisonous. If it is not cooked thoroughly, whoever eats it is certain to die. General, you bear the heavy trust of the King of Wei — you truly should not court danger like this! The death of one Pi Tong is of no consequence, but if anything were to happen to you, General, the entire situation on the eastern front would be overturned."

"Wei Commandery, you worry too much."

Ma Yuan was unconcerned. In his youth, he had spurned a perfectly good place at the Imperial Academy and the path of Filial and Incorrupt, ignoring the career track his elder brothers had painstakingly paved for him, choosing instead to roam the realm with a sword at his side, serving as a local inspector, becoming a bandit and a fugitive — all because he loved the thrill of dancing on the edge of a blade.

"So long as you remove the liver and the eyes, the poison of this fish dissipates on its own."

He savored the flesh poised between deadly poison and exquisite flavor. Was warfare not the same? Victory was as sweet as honey, but if the slightest misstep occurred in that delicate balance, as the general of a defeated army, one would likely find one's corpse wrapped in horsehide.

Ma Yuan even took Pi Tong to see the blowfish they had hauled up. Having swallowed great quantities of water or air, they had puffed up into balls once out of the water.

"When the blowfish faces danger, it swells up, trying to intimidate its enemy so they cannot find a place to bite."

"But that swollen, hulking body is nothing but an empty shell."

"Just like Liu Ziyu and the Tongma right now — they seem to have many troops, but in truth they are a rabble, a mob gathered like crows."

"The scouts report that the various Tongma divisions, sixty to seventy thousand men, are converging on Xindu and Qinghe. They mean to break through on my eastern front!"

At last they had come to the real point. Pi Tong braced himself and asked, "The enemy outnumbers us several times over. How does General Ma plan to meet them?"

"Like gutting a blowfish — I'll tear out its liver and gouge out its eyes!"

Ma Yuan said, "I will handle the business of splitting the scales, slicing open the belly, and taking the liver myself. But I need you, Wei Commandery, to slip into Xindu for me."

"Liu Ziyu's Chancellor Li Zhong is in truth the eyes of the false Han. Without that man to coordinate them, no matter how many more Tongma and Cheng Tou Zi Lu send, they will be nothing but loose sand. They think they can surround and annihilate me, Ma Yuan?"

"To borrow a phrase His Majesty the King of Wei likes to use when cursing people — they're practically dreaming of eating peaches!"

……

PS: Second chapter at 23:00.