Chapter 471: Reform

Let us turn back to the Central Plains in the ninth month of the first year of Wude.

Huaiyang Commandery in Yu Province was once an extremely prosperous land, with nine subordinate counties. In the last great population census during Wang Mang's rule, Huaiyang had 135,000 households and 980,000 people, roughly comparable to Wei Commandery in the north.

But now, Huaiyang, swept through successively by the Greenwood and the Red Eyebrows, lay utterly desolate — it would be fortunate if even half its households and population remained.

Everywhere were gaunt, starving people, and there were also bandits who dyed their eyebrows and called themselves Red Eyebrows, but were in truth scattered robbers blocking the roads to loot.

Yet no one dared rob the carriage approaching head-on; not only was it escorted by genuine Red Eyebrow soldiers in armor, but a "giant" nearly ten feet tall cleared the way ahead, bearing a great halberd.

Inside the carriage sat upright a white-haired old man — he too had dyed his eyebrows red, for this was the chief advisor to the Red Eyebrow Grand Duke Fan Chong: Elder Tian.

"Elder Tian, Chen County is near."

Wang Mang nodded, but his gaze rested uneasily on the abandoned hamlets, and as they drew near Chen County, the situation was no better. Everywhere were famine victims clutching pottery bowls and begging; some even had straw markers stuck in their hair. When Wang Mang's carriage paused briefly, they surged forward, hoping to sell their children along with themselves — anyone who could afford horses, and had those two shaft horses so sturdily fed, could surely afford to keep people too.

"Have pity, have pity. For two years we couldn't farm properly, fleeing famine elsewhere was no different, we could only come back. The grain the Red Eyebrows gave in relief is all eaten. If we don't do this, the whole family will starve."

"Sir, my daughter is only twelve, just the right age to be a maidservant."

As if sensing Wang Mang's gaze, the quick-witted famine victims hastily corrected themselves: "A foster daughter, we beg you, sir, to take her as a foster daughter — just give her food to eat, that's all."

Under Wang Mang's impetus, the Red Eyebrows had proclaimed the abolition of slavery, but those below seemed to have misunderstood; what they eliminated was the term "slave," not the reality of slavery.

At this technique of changing the name without changing the substance, even Wang Mang, that madman of renaming, would have to call them true experts.

Wang Mang was a man of great benevolence; how could he bear to see the people suffer? With a sigh, he ordered the grain on the carriage distributed to these people, nor did he take their children. Leaving behind the frantic scramble in the carriage's wake, old Wang Mang felt his heart would shatter.

The arrival of the Red Eyebrows, that army of ancient benevolence and righteousness, had not improved conditions in Huaiyang. The entire Liang-Chen region had fallen into anarchy, bandits swarming up everywhere, worse than under Liu Yong's rule. Wang Mang could only console himself thus: "The root of everything lies in the land. Once the fields are divided, all will be well."

The words were not wrong, but it was just like when he was Emperor, comforting himself that as long as the reforms succeeded, the age of the Three Dynasties would descend, and all prior sacrifices would have been worthwhile.

Wang Mang was simply unwilling to admit that the Red Eyebrow Army, that "army of the Three Dynasties" in which he had placed such high hopes, was gradually becoming just like everyone else. No matter how rich the ideal, it could not overcome human nature itself.

What was more terrifying was that the autumn harvest had just ended, yet Huaiyang was once again stricken by famine. Even if they truly could distribute land to the common people and urgently plant winter wheat, the harvest would not come until summer of the next year. How were they to survive this greater half-year?

Bones of the frozen dead lay by the roadside, yet the wine and meat behind vermilion gates still reeked of excess. The Red Eyebrow soldiers who had driven out the powerful families and moved into the fine mansions of Chen County were living quite comfortably.

When Wang Mang entered Chen County, he saw everyone on the streets with dyed red eyebrows. The Elders and giants either rode tall horses, brimming with pride and swaggering through the markets, or were draped in silks and satins, followed by "foster sons and daughters" carrying heavy loads, which passersby regarded as unremarkable. Ordinary Red Eyebrow soldiers gathered in groups of three or five, idly gambling with their surplus grain as stakes, or watching variety shows in the busy markets to kill time.

Here, Wang Mang also saw an acquaintance.

A man with a basket on his head was performing variety acts beneath the market flag. Wang Mang's old eyes were too dim to see clearly, but it was Ju Wuba who turned back and said to him, "That man, though his hair is shorn, looks like the Grand Preceptor."

Wang Mang drew closer and looked — sure enough, it was his nephew, Grand Preceptor Wang Kuang. Back in the Battle of Chengchang, Wang Kuang had coordinated with Lian Dan and delivered a hundred thousand Xin Dynasty troops to the enemy, establishing the fame of Fan Chong of the Red Eyebrows and Dong Xian. Afterwards, he fled back to Luoyang, only to be attacked by the Greenwood and miserably captured by the Greenwood Grand Commander Wang Kuang.

The victor and the vanquished actually shared the same name. The Greenwood Wang Kuang was quite displeased by this, so he made the captive change his name to "Wang Kuang," kept him by his side as a trophy to show off, and made him a jester.

Now, the Greenwood Wang Kuang had perished under the Red Eyebrow tide, yet Wang Kuang had survived. Only, the once-dignified Grand Preceptor and Duke now clung to life by making people laugh — truly, one could not tell whether to weep or to rejoice.

Wang Kuang strenuously balanced the baskets on his head, stacking them one by one, striving to stand straight and maintain his balance. But just as he stacked the fifth, in a daze he seemed to glimpse a giant among the crowd, and then a familiar white-haired old man. For a moment his concentration broke, and he swayed, sending the baskets tumbling from his head, rolling across the ground, as he himself fell too.

The Red Eyebrow soldiers burst into loud laughter, while Wang Kuang, enduring his master's beating, lifted his eyes again as he shielded his head — but the figures he had seen earlier had vanished. Had it been an illusion?

Arriving early is not as good as arriving at the right moment. When Wang Mang entered the former Prince of Huaiyang's mansion, one of the victors of the Battle of Chengchang had now also become a captive, no different from Wang Kuang.

The "King Dong" of Liang Han, Dong Xian, was bound tightly with ropes and pinned beneath the hall, glaring furiously at Fan Chong, who sat high in the main seat.

"Fan the Giant, you truly haven't changed one bit."

Wang Mang remembered it very clearly: in the second year of Dihuang, the great defeat at Chengchang, Lian Dan dead in battle, a hundred thousand troops lost, and the names of the three great Red Eyebrow commanders had been presented upon his imperial desk.

Fan Chong of the Mount Tai Red Eyebrows went without saying.

Chi Zhaoping of the Great River Red Eyebrows had attacked Wei Commandery, intending to burn Wang Mang's ancestral tombs, but was defeated by Diwu Lun and drowned herself in the river.

The last was this Yanzhou Red Eyebrows, led by Dong Xian, which had risen at Juye Marsh and later developed southward, merging with Liang Han and being enfeoffed in Donghai Commandery.

Dong Xian was indeed quite loyal to Liang Han — after all, he had married Liu Yong's younger sister. While returning to Liang territory to coordinate with the Liang army in a decisive battle against the Red Eyebrows, he was defeated. Like Liu Yong, he hid and fled east and west, but unfortunately lacked the Liu clan descendants' talent for escape. Liu Yong slipped away to Qufu, while Dong Xian, just as he was about to flee back to Donghai, was captured by a detached Red Eyebrow force and delivered to Chen County.

The Red Eyebrow Army had no codified laws, only the verbal covenant that "murderers die, those who wound compensate for the wound." Recently, with Wang Mang's meddling, "people shall have land and fields" and "no keeping of slaves" had been added, but it remained quite rudimentary.

Thus, how to deal with this "Red Eyebrow traitor" Dong Xian was still open to debate, so today amounted to a "public trial" of Dong Xian.

Yet when Dong Xian heard Xu Xuan denounce him for "siding with Liu Yong and betraying the Red Eyebrows," he burst into loud laughter, then glared at Fan Chong and said, "Was it not you, Fan the Giant, who betrayed the Red Eyebrows?"

When it came to settling old scores, Dong Xian's memory was excellent. He enumerated: "Back then, after the great battle at Chengchang, when we had beheaded Lian Dan, the three of us gathered to confer. At that time, I proposed heading south to attack Dingtao City."

"And Chi Zhaoping proposed heading north, entering Hebei, to destroy Wang Mang's ancestral tombs."

Wang Mang's brow twitched as he listened. Come to think of it, Diwu Lun had already proclaimed himself emperor, yet still had not laid a finger on Wang Mang's ancestral tombs — though both lines descended from the Tian clan, the two families had split extremely early. Those buried at Yuancheng in Wei Commandery had not a half-penny's relation to Diwu Lun.

"Had Fan the Giant followed Chi Zhaoping's counsel, the Red Eyebrows would have swept through Hebei. Those Tongma and the like would not have needed to wait for Liu Ziyu; they would have joined the Red Eyebrows, and You, Ji, Qing, and Yan would all be dyed red!"

"And had you followed my counsel, we could have encompassed Liang and Chu, and fought a decisive battle with the Xin Dynasty in the Central Plains. Would it have been the Greenwood's turn to fight the great battle of Kunyang?"

Dong Xian said bitterly, "But Fan the Giant agreed to neither, and instead led the troops back to his hometown. For two full years, he led three hundred thousand Red Eyebrows in circles around Qing, Xu, and Yu provinces, allowing the Greenwood and Diwu to grow into powers. It was for the future of my brothers under command that I joined hands with Liu Yong."

He felt it was Fan Chong's indecisiveness that had buried the Red Eyebrows' golden opportunity for expansion, and that Fan Chong must bear responsibility for the Red Eyebrows' division!

"On the battlefield I couldn't beat you — my skill was inferior. But for you all to charge me with crimes — are you even qualified? Fan the Giant doesn't want to be emperor — that's your choice. But I wanted to be a king, a marquis, a general, a minister — what wrong was there in that?"

Faced with Dong Xian's rebuttal, Xu Xuan had no words, and even somewhat agreed. It was Fan Chong who laughed heartily, rose, and said, "You and I merely joined hands to fight a battle, sharing the name of Red Eyebrows. We were neither lord and vassal, nor father and son. You simply walked your own path — you truly did not betray me."

But Fan Chong's face darkened: "Yet you betrayed the brothers and sisters of the Yanzhou Red Eyebrows!"

"For the bait of a royal title that Liu Yong dangled, you gladly took the hook. You yourself became a feudal lord, but the hundred thousand Yanzhou Red Eyebrows — those who had been tenant farmers before remained tenant farmers still, driven and ridden by the lords and ministers of Liang Han like oxen and horses. Why do you think it was so easy for the Red Eyebrow Army to break Suiyang? It was because former Red Eyebrow warriors, unable to bear their servitude, attacked the city gates from within and let us in!"

"How to deal with you should not be decided by us."

"It should be decided by the Red Eyebrow warriors whom you betrayed!"

Fan Chong waved his hand: "Drag him out! Take him to the market and let the Red Eyebrow warriors who came from Suiyang cast stones. A stone to the left means death, to the right means life! If left outnumbers right, then tomorrow you will be beheaded. If right outnumbers left, then shave your eyebrows and go wherever you wish! Just don't come before my eyes to be an annoyance."

These words rang with such force that for a moment Dong Xian could not refute them. Those who had followed him to become marquises and grow rich were indeed a minority; the rest lived worse than under the Xin Dynasty. Soldiers in name, they were slaves in reality. Fan Chong, by contrast, had suppressed his ambition and desire. Though corruption among the Red Eyebrows' middle and upper ranks was hard to avoid, the rank-and-file Red Eyebrow warriors still received somewhat fairer treatment, could get land, and were issued grain.

Are kings, marquises, generals, and ministers born of special seed? This was indeed the most stirring slogan those who rose in revolt could shout. Back then, Chen Sheng had proclaimed himself king right here in Chen County to attack the Qin. The Red Eyebrows should have walked such a path too — only Dong Xian had the bad luck to run into a Fan Chong who wanted to lead his people in search of a true "Promised Land," and Fan Chong, in his moment of bewilderment, had then encountered "Elder Tian."

The combination of Fan Chong and Wang Mang had created the Red Eyebrow Army's current bizarre, neither-fish-nor-fowl system — something about a Republic of Joint Governance, Five Dukes ruling together. Few people understood these ancient allusions into which Wang Mang had poured such painstaking effort, and Fan Chong was no exception.

But for Fan Chong, as long as he didn't have to be emperor or king, it was fine. He too was beginning to be unable to restrain the private desires below him; maintaining a surface equality was the utmost effort Fan Chong could make.

And for those below, they too were using a simple, easy-to-remember way to understand the Five Dukes' Republic.

"Grand Duke Fan is the First Emperor, Second Duke Xu is the Second Emperor, and so on — five emperors in all."

This bore an uncanny resemblance to a certain Emperor Wude's "Five Virtues Complete." Xu Xuan heard it, but did nothing to stop such talk.

Only after they had finished deciding Dong Xian's sentence did Fan Chong find the time to deal with Wang Mang.

"The reason I asked the old man Tian to come to Chen County is to discuss a matter of great importance!"

Fan Chong was indeed deeply troubled. For all the Red Eyebrows' present sweep across the Central Plain like a blazing fire, beneath the surface lurked nothing but hidden perils.

Never mind that everyone from the Elders down to the Red Eyebrow soldiers was gradually succumbing to habits of arrogance, extravagance, lechery, and sloth — there was an even more pressing calamity bearing down on them.

Back in those days, after they rose in arms they fought a roving war across several provinces, drawing their supplies by storming cities and breaching strongholds. When they took a place and broke open its fortified manors, they forced the powerful families to hand over grain. But the money and grain of the great households in any region were limited; once the Red Eyebrow Army had eaten them out, they could only move on to seize new territory. In the course of years of shifting campaigns, they would pause briefly in one spot and then leave — that is what is meant by "roving bandits." What they could not finish themselves, they distributed to the starving people, drawing in the bottom layers of society who could no longer survive, and so the army's ranks swelled larger and larger.

Fan Chong could ignore the life or death of the millions of local people under his rule, but he did care about the hundreds of thousands of Red Eyebrow brothers and sisters. To secure their food supply, he had taken Wang Mang's proposal to distribute land and abolish slavery in Nanyang and Runan, attempting to establish a rear-area supply base. But distant water cannot quench present thirst, and roving for plunder could not yet be abandoned.

The original impetus for attacking Liang Han came from this. At first they only meant to seize a wave of grain, never expecting that Liang Han too was a hollow shell that would collapse at a single thrust. The Red Eyebrow Army broke into Suiyang with hardly any fighting and, finding the opportunity, shifted its main force to the Central Plain to feed itself.

Now Liang Han has been destroyed, the "traitor" Dong Xian has been captured, and the chief enemies in Yu Province have been wiped out — yet the great problem that plagues the Red Eyebrows has come round again.

Once again, and yet again, the grain is not enough.

The Red Eyebrows in Yan Province have rejoined into a single force, and together with all manner of "sworn sons and daughters," the army has swollen from three hundred thousand to over five hundred thousand. At least four hundred thousand are crammed into the five commanderies of Yu Province: Huaiyang, Yingchuan, Liang, Runan, and Pei. The rich lands of Liang and Chen can only feed them for half a year. The powerful households that could be tortured and plundered are now all dead, and not a single grain of rice remains in the city granaries.

Fan Chong was sorely vexed and could only pin his hopes on the new policies Wang Mang was organizing in Nanyang, wanting to know how the harvest had turned out.

Ever since he had begun "reforming the system" anew, Wang Mang's spirit and bearing had greatly revived. He had once more become that reformer who held the cosmic ratios in his heart, who could take heaven and earth as his scroll and trace out squares and circles with a wave of his hand. He rose confidently and declared:

"Grand Duke, the well-field system in Nanyang and Runan has achieved full success!"

…

PS: Chapter 2 will be up in the middle of the night.