Chapter 435: The Last Emperor

Zheng Xing was hauled into the room by Ju Wuba, tossed to the floor like a chick in a talon. Had Wang Mang not stopped him, Zheng Xing's head would have been twisted off long ago!

"Your Majesty misunderstands."

Zheng Xing kowtowed repeatedly to Wang Mang. "I recognized Your Majesty half a year ago, but I have kept it secret and never spoken of it!"

"Only the dead keep their mouths shut forever," Ju Wuba said savagely. One nod from the old Emperor was all it would take — he could kill a man without spilling a drop of blood.

Wang Mang, however, shook his head. "That won't be necessary. My identity is bound to become known to all under Heaven sooner or later."

The words sounded rather strange, but at least Zheng Xing had escaped death. Only now did he take in his surroundings. The hut Wang Mang lived in was nothing more than a single-courtyard dwelling, furnished entirely with earthenware and pottery; he slept on a straw mat and a rush bed. By comparison, Xu Xuan and the other Red Eyebrow Elders had already seized the manors of powerful local families and were living a life of bell-ringing and feasting off bronze tripods.

"His Majesty has not changed at all," Zheng Xing reflected silently.

In personal virtue, the old Wang Mang was indeed exceedingly self-disciplined.

Zheng Xing bowed again to Wang Mang. "Xu Xuan grew suspicious of Your Majesty's identity, but only thought you were a former Xin minister. He sent this humble servant to identify you, and I deliberately pretended not to recognize you. Xu Xuan never imagined — no one could have imagined — that Your Majesty, believed to have already perished, would instead be living under an assumed name among the very Red Eyebrow rebels you once outlawed, and so utterly at ease…"

That the Emperor should be working as a subordinate of the bandits he had once put wanted orders out for was indeed somewhat ironic, but Wang Mang had his own explanation.

"Robber Zhi's name was on everyone's lips, his fame shone like the sun and moon, and he is remembered alongside Shun and Yu without end; yet the gentleman does not honor him, because he did not accord with ritual and righteousness."

Wang Mang said, "Fan Chong merely does not understand ritual, but he does possess righteousness — his fundamental nature is still good. In ancient times, Gongshan Buniu of Lu used the city of Fei to rebel against the Ji clan and summoned Confucius. Confucius wished to go, but Zilu was very displeased and said, 'If there is nowhere to go, so be it — why must you go to the Gongshan clan?' But Confucius replied, 'If someone summons me, would it be for nothing?'"

"'If there were one who would use me, I would make a Zhou in the East!'"

To use the Red Eyebrows to revive the rites of Zhou in the East — trust Wang Mang to come up with such an idea.

Zheng Xing was a great Confucian scholar and naturally understood these classical allusions, but he still failed to grasp the point. "Your Majesty means to aid Fan Chong in restructuring institutions, redistributing land, and abolishing slavery — is it that you wish to borrow the Red Eyebrows' strength to re-ascend the imperial throne? To rebuild the Xin?"

"The Xin is already dead." Wang Mang actually acknowledged this fact. "I cannot restore what cannot be restored."

"As for the title of Emperor?" Wang Mang grew angry just speaking of it and sneered. "In those years, misled by my ministers, I went so far as to supplant the House of Han and ascend the throne as Acting Emperor. Then, in a moment of selfishness, for the sake of my family line, I became a true Emperor, intending to pass the realm down for thirty-six thousand years. That was truly a mistaken path."

"Qin rose from the Western Rong, swallowed the Six Kingdoms, and then proclaimed itself the First Emperor. This institution of the Emperor is in truth the wicked governance of Shang Yang, Zhang Yi, Lü Buwei, and Li Si!"

"When the name is not correct, the reality is difficult to carry out. To think I could bring about Great Peace by being Emperor — that was truly going south while driving the chariot north!"

Wang Mang was utterly convinced that the thing which had once made him forget his original intent was precisely this title of "Emperor." That crown, seemingly glorious, was in fact a curse, as if possessed of a demonic power that twisted his selfless and impartial mind, ultimately leading to catastrophic error.

The old madman had been bottling this up for a long time. Today, having at last encountered someone with whom he could debate the classics, he simply poured out all his aims at once.

"After I lost the realm, I reflected on my suffering. Since the Qin, the imperial system has been the root source of chaos and calamity under Heaven. If any change is to be made, the only way is to alter the very form of the state and restore the ancient institutions."

"Henceforth, the lord of all under Heaven may only be called the Son of Heaven — Heaven's eldest son, shepherding the people on Heaven's behalf, nothing more."

The moment the topic turned to restoring antiquity, light kindled once more in Wang Mang's eyes. "In the ancient times of Great Peace and Modest Prosperity, the earliest was no more illustrious than the era of Fuxi, the middle none more glorious than Tang and Yu, and the most recent none more renowned than Cheng and Zhou."

"The Way of Tang and Yu was abdication, not hereditary transmission. The kingship of Yao and Shun benefited all under Heaven and did not benefit themselves. Abdication without transmission is the pinnacle of sagehood. Benefiting all under Heaven without benefiting oneself is the utmost of benevolence. Rectify oneself, then rectify the age — the sage's Way is then complete."

"If we wish to see the governance of the Three Dynasties reappear, we must restore the Three Dynasties' method of abdication!"

Wait — who was going to abdicate to whom?

"I! I shall be the one to abdicate!"

Wang Mang said, "I shall have the Red Eyebrows sweep across all the provinces. Those who have falsely assumed the title of Emperor shall be the first to be struck down and destroyed."

Wang Mang's dream was still to re-enter Luoyang and Chang'an, and to drag Diwu Lun — the man who had betrayed him — down from the throne he had taken for his family's private gain.

"When that time comes, Han and Wei alike will be extinguished, and Gongsun in Western Shu cannot last long either. I shall then make my identity known to all under Heaven. After that, I will hand over the position of Son of Heaven, select the most suitable man, and make him the new Son of Heaven — just as Yao raised up Shun!"

Zheng Xing was stunned speechless. The Red Eyebrows hated Wang Mang to the marrow. If they learned his true identity, what awaited the old Wang Mang was likely nothing short of being hacked to death!

He voiced this private misgiving, but to his surprise, Wang Mang burst into loud laughter. "That would be a good thing! Every man, even a sage, must die one death."

Wang Mang had once had a dream. In the dream, it was said that his lifespan would not exceed that of Confucius — that is, seventy-three years. He had barely three years left. He had already died once in Hanzhong; did he need to fear a second death?

Wang Jujun spread his arms wide, utterly without fear. If that day came, he would accept it with perfect equanimity.

"If so, the Red Eyebrows will slay Wang Mang, the last Emperor since the Qin — and together with him, they will kill the imperial institution itself!"

…

In the second month of the second year of Chihe (AD 25), as the old Wang Mang resolved to fight the imperial institution to the death, a certain transmigrator was in Henei, receiving round after round of exhortations from his ministers to ascend the throne.

This was not the first time. As early as the year before last, when Diwu Lun had driven out the Wei clan and pacified Youfufeng, his senior fellow apprentice Wang Long had already proposed performing sacrifices at the White Emperor Shrine in Yongcheng to formally establish the imperial position.

By last year, when Diwu Lun crossed the river from Henei to march on Luo, the great Confucian scholars of both regions had staged the farce of the "white fish leaping into the boat." And, one had to admit, the fish soup really was quite delicious…

Now that Diwu Lun had also conquered and pacified Hebei, You, and Ji, his power was even stronger, and so those urging him to ascend appeared in an endless stream.

The formula for urging ascension was actually quite simple. It was nothing more than lavishly extolling how brilliant and martial the King of Wei was, how his achievements towered to Heaven, how he was unprecedented through all ages, unmatched by any, and had won the hearts of all under Heaven; without him, they would all be nothing; to save the myriad people from fire and water and recreate a glorious age, they could not do without him. If a few auspicious omens were added on top, it was even more perfect.

Dou Rong's memorial urging ascension, for example, was the finest of the lot. "Since the Great King first rose at Hongmen, Wang Mang collapsed of his own accord. Later you took Quyang, and the northern provinces were pacified. You hold two of the three parts of the realm, straddling provinces and holding territory, with a million armored soldiers at your command. In martial force, none dare oppose you; in civil virtue, none can refuse your words. Your servant has heard that the imperial throne cannot long lie vacant, and Heaven's Mandate cannot be modestly declined. May the Great King take the altars of state into account and the common people to heart."

"The Duke of Zhou was not very good at mathematics," Diwu Lun said with a laugh to the person beside him. "It's only three and a half provinces' worth of territory — at most one-third, not two-thirds. Where does two-thirds come from?"

Because he controlled the documents and maps of Chang'an, Diwu Lun had a clear understanding of the population sizes of the various provinces. According to the last census of the Great Han — the household count of the second year of Yuanshi, conducted under Wang Mang — the realm had over 12 million households and a population of over 59.5 million. Some of this was certainly inflated by local officials seeking merit, and some was concealed by powerful families and commoners to evade taxes; the two roughly canceled each other out, and the true figure likely surpassed the 60 million mark. Such a vast population, still mostly crammed into the Central Plains, was precisely why the contradictions of the late Xin period had been so acute.

To break it down by province: over twenty years ago, the capital region had 7 commanderies and 132 counties, with 1.52 million households and 6.682 million people. Amid the chaos, the capital region was undoubtedly the most fortunate. Though it had seen warfare, the fighting was mostly swift and decisive, and no roving bandit hordes had burst in. Its population had decreased by at most one-tenth — 6 million was a safe estimate.

Ji Province had fared somewhat worse. It formerly had 4 commanderies and 6 kingdoms, with a population of 1.13 million households and 5.17 million people. After the great chaos of Liu Ziyu and the Copper Horses, its population had likely been savagely cut by twenty or thirty percent, leaving perhaps a little over 4 million.

Then there was You Province. Before the war, it had 9 commanderies and 1 kingdom, with a population of 880,000 households and 3.8 million people, concentrated mainly in Guangyang, Zhuo, and Bohai. Bohai had first suffered Yellow River floods and then man-made calamity; it was now utterly ruined, with over half its inhabitants having joined the Copper Horses. You Province's population was thus at most 3 million, and many of its border commanderies had merely "submitted upon receiving a proclamation."

Finally, there was Bing Province. It had formerly possessed nine commanderies, with a population of 820,000 households and 3.8 million people — roughly comparable to You Province. But the devastation it suffered far exceeded that of its eastern neighbor. Under Wang Mang, years of protracted confrontation with the Xiongnu along the border had caused the collapse of order in the frontier commanderies and mass flight of the border population. Wuyuan, Shuofang, Dingxiang, Yunzhong, half of Xihe, and half of Dai Commandery were still in the hands of the Hu and Han under Lu Fang's rule, with several hundred thousand people. As for the King of Wei's Inspector of Bing Province, although he held populous regions like Taiyuan, Shangdang, and Shang Commandery, 2 million would be a generous estimate.

Behind these cold, hard numbers were millions of living, breathing human lives, vanished in the span of just a few short years — dead from famine, fled or perished from war. If the late Han had only seen "seven kinds of death and seven kinds of flight," the causes driving the common people to flee and die now were far more numerous.

Diwu Lun recalled only one old matter from the former dynasty. When Liu Bang attacked King Xin of Han and passed through Quni County in You Province, he ascended the city walls and looked out, feeling the county seat was extraordinarily imposing, comparable even to Luoyang. He asked his attendants about the local household count and was told: "In Qin times there were thirty thousand households. Later, with repeated warfare, the common people mostly died or went into hiding. Now there are only five thousand households."

The chaos at the end of the Xin had not yet become as catastrophic as that at the end of the Qin, but if it continued a few more years, it would likely be much the same, with the population cut in half.

This gave Diwu Lun an even stronger sense that time would not wait for him. "If the realm is unified and returned to stability a year earlier, then a million fewer people will die."

By conventional reasoning, the more times the ministers urged ascension, the better — once was fine, many times even better. The more people and organizations urging, the better. Put on a show of refusing several times, go through five declinations and five yieldings, and look! It's not that I have ambitions; it's really that you all insist I do this — it's truly the will of the people, what everyone hopes for.

But Diwu Lun once again refused to follow the script. Or rather, once circumstances had ripened to the point of inevitability, he had no intention of wasting time on empty formalities and elaborate ritual. The very first time the crowd urged him, he gladly agreed — far more decisive than when he had entered Chang'an!

Was he supposed to imitate the Red Eyebrows and set up a republic? Delaying the imperial title the year before and last year had been for the sake of seeking development, but now, dragging it out further would actually harm internal unity.

However, from "agreeing to become Emperor" to formally assuming the title, there had to be a process of preparation. Diwu Lun first set the time and place. "The first day of the fifth month of this year, in the front hall of Weiyang Palace in Chang'an."

Once this news was out, hearts in the mobile court were greatly settled. Only if the King of Wei ascended one more step could his generals, officials, and officers all pursue advancing a step further themselves.

It was also while in Henei that Diwu Lun received word of the civil war between the two Lius of Liang and Wu, and of the Red Eyebrows striking east into Liang territory…

"The various princes of western Liang-Han have scattered at the mere rumor of their approach. The Red Eyebrows have already swept through Huaiyang, and their vanguard has reached the outskirts of the Liang capital, Suiyang!"

……

Compared to Diwu Lun, who had only received delayed reports, Liu Zhi, who had hurried south from Bohai intending to throw in his lot with the Liu clan's last hope, saw the situation with far greater clarity!

In early February, when Liu Zhi and several young men of the Liu clan reached the outskirts of Suiyang, what they saw was a scene of the Red Eyebrows cheering and leaping on the city walls.

Suiyang was a strong fortress, but many former Red Eyebrow troops were inside the city — originally under Dong Xian. Prince Dong had become Liu Yong's brother-in-law, yet the common Red Eyebrow soldiers had gained no real benefit and had long been full of resentment. Now that the giant Fan had returned with the main Red Eyebrow army, the former Red Eyebrow troops in the city hardened their hearts, rose up, and opened the east gate, allowing the Red Eyebrows to capture the Liang capital in just over ten days!

"Liang Han is finished."

Liu Zhi stared blankly at the falling Han banner. This was already the second "Great Han" he had witnessed collapse this year. Even if Liu Yong's main force still existed, it had now, like the Western Han and the Green Han, become a broken Han!

Tears of unwillingness streamed down Liu Zhi's face, but he fiercely wiped them away, reined in his horse, and turned around:

"Let's go — keep heading south, and join the King of Wu!"

……

PS: Trying to adjust my schedule, a little late. Chapter 2 at 18:00.