Chapter 444: Two Kings

Diwu Lun naturally would not go to see Wang Yan lightly. In his own words…

"At her age, with her status, people will talk. I'm not the same as before — I have to be circumspect."

So ordinarily, he would send the young Palace Gentleman Yin Xing to run errands, and sometimes even have Yin Lihua — who had risen from the cocoonery to become a female official — relay messages for him. Yet even as Diwu Lun spoke of being "circumspect," he remained very interested in how Wang Yan reacted to news such as the destruction of the false Liu Ziyu.

Only today he was likely to be disappointed, because Wang Yan was quite indifferent to the Martial Virtue Emperor's accession.

It could not be helped — she was, after all, a woman who had personally lived through the collapse of two dynasties: as the mother of one realm and the princess of another.

First, her husband's house, the Han Dynasty — overthrown, unbelievably, by her own father. Wang Yan's reaction at the time had been far more violent than now, because Wang Mang, whether at home or in public, always played the part of a loyal Han minister, and had even taught his daughter to think the same. In her early years, Wang Yan had wanted only to be a virtuous empress dowager. In her own words…

"I wish to emulate the service of Empress Dowager Qiongcheng."

To raise a son not her own to adulthood and have him carry on the Han ancestral temples — that would have been enough for her.

Later, when she learned that her father harbored treasonous designs, Wang Yan grew deeply resentful, though she did not dare show it in face and speech the way the old Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun did. When Wang Mang carried out his abdication and usurpation, her grief and indignation redoubled, and in her heart she even felt some guilt toward the Han. She therefore chose to plead illness and stop attending court, using defiance to express her disappointment in her father.

Fifteen years later, when the Xin Dynasty came crashing down amid the shouts of the Boar-Rush Braves, what she felt was bewilderment and dread.

Whether meeting Diwu Lun was fortune or misfortune was hard to say. The misfortune was that her hesitation to seek death cost her forever the chance to die for Han or Xin at the final moment and earn a fleeting line of praise in the histories. The fortune was that Diwu Lun never went out of his way to humiliate or torment her.

When you have seen such great storms, small waves no longer surprise you. Diwu Lun had already rebelled against Xin and refused to restore Han; his intent to set himself up as emperor was obvious to all. When something is that inevitable, what reaction do you expect from her? A simple "oh" would already be generous.

But Yin Lihua told Wang Yan something that Diwu Lun had not instructed her to relay.

"After the Martial Virtue Emperor ascended the throne, he issued an edict enumerating Wei Ao's crimes, declaring that Wei Ao has colluded with the Qiang and the Hu, and coerced Hexi and Guanzhong. He has announced a western campaign against Longyou."

Upon hearing this news, Wang Yan at once grew anxious — fretting over her nominal son.

"This military move is probably not just a casual strike," Yin Lihua said. She had witnessed the cruelty and chaos of war. "The Martial Virtue Emperor surely intends to destroy the Western Han, just as he swept across Hebei."

These words threw Wang Yan's heart into greater turmoil. She had always felt guilt toward the pitiful Child Ying. Her father had stolen the realm that rightfully belonged to him, then imprisoned him until he became a simpleton. The Wang family had wronged the House of Han, and had wronged the Child Ying as well.

At that moment, Yin Lihua suddenly asked, "Does the Empress Dowager wish to save the Child Ying?"

Wang Yan sighed. "He is my child in name. Though I never raised him and have no bond of nurture, the nominal tie remains — how could I abruptly sever it?" But how to save him, and by what means? She herself was now a golden canary caged by Diwu Lun.

Yin Lihua bowed low. "Then I beg the Empress Dowager to share the Martial Virtue Emperor's burden: in the name of the former Han Empress Dowager, proclaim the deposition of Liu Ying!"

What? Wang Yan was shocked. In truth, Diwu Lun had kept her around partly with the idea of "holding the Empress Dowager to command the various emperors."

After all, the House of Han ruled the realm by filial piety, and an empress dowager even possessed the legitimate authority to depose an unqualified emperor. That Prince of Changyi, Liu He — after Huo Guang used Empress Dowager Shangguan to declare him unfit to be emperor, he abdicated in tears and sobs after a mere twenty-seven days.

But Wang Yan had her own bottom line. She had always refused to become Diwu Lun's tool against the various Han claimants — even against Lu Fang or Liu Ziyu she had refused to take part, let alone against the Child Ying.

Diwu Lun had always stopped just short of pressing the point and had never forced her — until today.

"Yin Lihua." Wang Yan angrily called her former serving maid by name. "Have you now become Diwu Lun's falcon and hound as well?"

"Your handmaid is thinking of the Empress Dowager's welfare." Although the mistress-servant bond between Yin Lihua and Wang Yan had ended, in her heart she still remembered this savior of her life, and she began to explain her reasoning.

"First, the Child Ying is simple-minded. His proclamation as emperor was not voluntary — he was used by people with their own agendas. I have heard my brother say that the Wei clan of Longyou and the Gongsun Emperor in Shu are in frequent contact. They may abandon the Child Ying at any moment, yet dare not openly depose him. They might do him harm, just as Xiang Yu killed the Righteous Emperor."

"Second, old ministers like Liu Xin are quite obstinate. When Longyou falls, they are very likely to take the Child Ying with them and die for the Han."

With Yin Lihua's words, Wang Yan could already picture it: the Child Ying smothered in his sleep, or, when Longyou was breached, old Liu Xin carrying him on his back as he leapt into the water.

"Even if he escapes harm from disloyal ministers or loyal ministers, few rulers of fallen states ever meet a good end."

Yin Lihua continued, "It would be better for the Empress Dowager to make a gesture — to preemptively declare that the establishment of the Western Han was not Ying's wish, and to depose the Child Ying in the name of his mother, the Empress Dowager. That way, the treacherous will have no reason to harm him, the loyal will have no cause to drag him into dying for the altars, and the Martial Virtue Emperor may no longer make things difficult for him."

"The Empress Dowager would be freeing the Child Ying from shackles and heavy burdens he should never have had to bear. This is saving him."

Yin Lihua appealed to both emotion and reason, and Wang Yan slowly began to waver. At last, she said quietly, "In your opinion, how should I write it?"

Yin Lihua had her own ideas. She proposed directing the attack at Liu Xin and the Wei clan, thereby exonerating the Child Ying.

"So be it."

After hesitating for a long while, Wang Yan murmured, "The House of Han has been dead for over ten years. Would it not be better to let the departed rest in peace? Why torment them by borrowing their corpses to resurrect their souls?"

If the various Han claimants had shown any promise, it might be one thing — but this Green Han, Hu Han, Northern Han, Western Han — not a single one could fight, and they had made themselves laughingstocks more than once. Every day they existed, the hard-won virtuous legacy of the House of Han eroded all the faster.

"The Han altars as I knew them died over ten years ago. What remains today is merely a lingering echo, a fading sound in an empty valley."

Her eyes brimmed with tears she had first shed over a decade ago. "It is time to close the coffin lid for good!"

…

Yin Lihua left the Everlasting Palace carrying a letter with ink still wet and handed it to her younger brother Yin Xing, who was waiting outside.

Yin Xing was taken aback. "Elder Sister, this is…"

"This is the Empress Dowager Xiaoping's supplementary memorial, along with a denunciation of Liu Xin and Wei Ao in Longyou. If the Martial Virtue Emperor issues this together with his declaration of war, it will yield twice the result with half the effort."

Yin Lihua said, "Deliver it to the Martial Virtue Emperor. This will be your merit."

"But Elder Sister…"

Yin Lihua shooed him away. "Ask no more. Go, quickly!"

Yin Xing said, "Should I say that Elder Sister persuaded the Princess of Huanghuang?"

"The Everlasting Palace has informants. The Emperor surely knows already — no need for you to add superfluous flourishes."

Yin Lihua urged her brother to hurry off. Watching his retreating figure, she sighed.

Her elder brother Yin Shi had finally attached himself to the Wei army, serving under Cen Peng, but Yin Lihua no longer wished to see him. Her younger brother, however, was different. Yin Lihua had placed the last trace of her attachment to the family entirely upon him.

The Yin clan of Xinye would rise again — though in a way she had never imagined back in Nanyang.

Wang Yan's denunciation of Longyou was a congratulatory gift for Diwu Lun's accession, one that could give the Martial Virtue Emperor a powerful new weapon in the propaganda war.

But Yin Lihua had not lied — this was also for Wang Yan's sake.

As a figure entangled in countless threads with the former dynasty and the dynasty before that, Wang Yan's position would only grow more awkward after Diwu Lun became emperor.

And Wang Yan had no leverage to negotiate conditions. Her willing cooperation this time should earn her some favorable treatment.

"This benefits two sides… no."

Yin Lihua thought to herself, "All three sides stand to gain!"

…

"Quite a few conditions."

Diwu Lun looked at the memorial Wang Yan had submitted through Yin Xing and could not help but laugh.

"This truly is a fine bargain."

"With a flick of her lips, she scolds Liu Xin, saying the old man first helped the Xin supplant the Han — betraying his own clan, an act of unfilialness. Then he reinstated the child Ying, casting the young sovereign into peril, which makes him no true loyal minister either. And Wei Ao harbors sinister designs — in name a Han General, in truth a traitor holding the sovereign hostage. Everything that has happened since the Western Han, she says, has never been the child Ying's own wish."

But all that aside, Wang Yan's document was truly the finest denunciation to use against Longyou.

In exchange, Wang Yan hoped that after Diwu Lun had eliminated Longyou, he would spare the child Ying's life, grant him proper treatment — even if it were like Tang banishing Jie to Nanchao.

"Yan, as the mother of the child Ying, is willing to be exiled with her son to a desolate shore, to live as a common woman."

At the same time, Wang Yan also requested that Diwu Lun protect the tombs of the former dynasty. Lately, people in Guanzhong had begun openly entering the Han dynasty's dozen or so sprawling tomb parks, felling the grave-tending trees, even robbing the burial goods.

As for the latter, Diwu Lun only intended to deal with the grave robbers according to ordinary law, without imposing special prohibitions — who could blame him, with so many Han imperial tombs, protecting them would be an enormous expense. As for the child Ying…

"If I can capture the child Ying alive, I will let him endure in this world as one of the Two Kings and Three Ke, tending the Han ancestral temple."

This was said to be an ancient tradition: if one enfeoffed the descendants of the two preceding dynasties, they were called the Two Kingly Successors; if one enfeoffed the descendants of the three preceding dynasties, they were called the Three Ke. Through such "privileged treatment" — granting fiefs and performing ancestral sacrifices — one showed respect, demonstrated the legitimate lineage the present dynasty carried on, and marked its orthodox status.

The most typical example was the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou took the descendants of Shun, together with those of Xia and Song, as the Three Ke, using this to express the principle of reviving extinguished states and continuing severed lines.

During the Qin dynasty, this tradition was broken off. In the Han, it was revived again, and so Ji Jia, a descendant of the Zhou house, was made Lord of Zhounan, with rank equivalent to a Marquis. Emperor Cheng of Han enfeoffed Kong Ji, the fourteenth-generation direct-line grandson of Confucius, as Duke of Yin Shao Jia.

As for the Xin Dynasty, best not even mention it. Wang Mang, who knows from where, dug up so-called descendants of the Yellow Emperor, Shaohao, and Zhuanxu, expanding the scope without limit — every other man was a Two Kings and Three Ke.

Since Diwu Lun had already ascended the throne and founded a new dynasty, this tradition too must be critically adapted and carried forward.

"The Three Dynasties are too remote to trace back. It will suffice to have the successors of the Han and the Xin Two Kings." Diwu Lun gave his promise: "I will emulate the Zhou's enfeoffment of Weizi Qi, and grant the child Ying an empty marquisate. It shall be called… the Marquis of Anle!"

"As for the 'successor' of the Xin Dynasty — since Wang Mang's sons and grandsons are mostly dead, and no ordinary person's virtue qualifies them to carry on the Xin bloodline and sacrifices…"

A playful smile appeared on Diwu Lun's face. "I consider the Princess of Huanghuang, who understands the greater good, to be most suitable. If it could be so, that too would be a fine tale!"

…

After Diwu Lun ascended the imperial throne, besides making Lady Ma his Empress and Wu Ming his Crown Prince, he also increased the households of all his ministers and changed the noble titles of several Marquises — Wan Xiu was among them.

"The Marquis of Gonggao."

Gonggao County lay in Hejian Commandery in Ji Province. It was not particularly wealthy, but Wan Xiu was deeply fond of his new marquis title. In his home, he still kept a broken bow he had never been willing to part with! Everyone knew it was a gift from the Martial Virtue Emperor to honor Wan Xiu's "Righteous Breaking of the Strong Bow."

"Gonggao also sounds like 'high merit.' Junyou, do not grow complacent. You are barely forty, the realm is not yet settled, and you must still shoulder heavy responsibilities!"

After returning to Chang'an, Diwu Lun soon summoned Wan Xiu and began discussing serious matters with him. He hoped that Wan Xiu, the most core of his core followers, would stand firm as a great general and not be surpassed by the bricks that came later.

"I once obtained a 'Discourse on Liang Province' written by my late teacher. In it, he said…"

"The Black River and the West River stretch across, bound to the Kunlun. Its garments brush the Gate of Heaven, its borders drawn as the bounds of Yong. Whenever the last king reigned, the line was often lost. The High God, uneasy, commanded the Han to establish Liang. Along the Long Mountains it went, arrayed as the western wilderness."

"I often study maps, and so I dare to assert: Guanzhong is the upper reach of all under Heaven, and Longyou is the upper reach of Guanzhong! In former days, the Qin arose from Tianshui, and only when they finally crossed Mount Qi eastward did they swallow the six directions. And when Han Gaozu marched north against the Three Qin, to secure his rear, he first dispatched troops westward into Longyou."

"In order to first campaign in Hebei, I have indulged the Longliang forces for too long. It is time to thoroughly eliminate this sharp thorn that has been lodged in my back for two years, itching from time to time!"

Diwu Lun said: "This campaign will also be divided into three routes. The Eastern Army will serve as the main force, setting out from Guanzhong to launch a frontal assault on Long Slope! Junyou will be the commanding general, and I shall accompany the army on a personal expedition!"

"Your servant respectfully accepts the command!" Wan Xiu answered.

Compared to the fiercely spirited young Geng, or Ma Yuan, or Cen Peng who revealed the talent of a commander, Wan Xiu was in truth barely capable of leading a large army alone. That he had reached his present status was more a function of "seniority" and "loyalty."

But now, whenever Diwu Lun went on a personal expedition, he always liked to assign a general who was steady in command and not overly assertive to his own route. The reason, in the end, was actually to…

Facilitate micromanagement!

…

PS: The second chapter will be in the middle of the night.