Chapter 476: They Are Getting Anxious

Ma Yuan personally oversaw the rear guard, withdrawing with the last contingent of troops to Xingyang City. Dong Xuan, who had earlier been ordered to the rear to inspect the various divisions, also arrived to report.

"Shaoping, what is morale like in the areas behind Xingyang — Chenggao, Aocang, and the rest?" Ma Yuan asked him.

Dong Xuan replied, "Passable."

Ma Yuan frowned. "What do you mean, 'passable'?"

Dong Xuan said, "The soldiers are rather baffled by this unexplained withdrawal. There have been occasional rumors that the front has been defeated, but anyone who dared spread them has been ferreted out by the junior officers and beheaded. Though the men are somewhat disheartened, they keep saying — who is leading this army but the Commandant of State? Most believe that as long as they follow his orders, victory will come in the end. The Colonels, too, are convinced the General must have a follow-up stratagem and dare not voice dissent."

A withdrawal is harder than an advance — it tests not only training and discipline, but also the trust the rank and file place in their commander. Dong Xuan dared say that if an ordinary general were in charge, a great-stride retreat abandoning over ten cities like this would have been enough to shatter morale and set everyone on edge.

Ma Yuan listened and laughed. "Just as I thought."

He had confidence in his subordinates. His years of service and battle record spoke for themselves — even young Geng had to bow his head before him, let alone anyone else.

Dong Xuan further reported: "The Commandant of Henan and General of Tiger Might, Zhang Zhujun, has also come to Xingyang."

"Zhang Zong?" Ma Yuan paused, then understood. "This Zhang Zhujun must have come to beg me for a fight."

The Wei army had two valiant commanders: one was Zheng Tong, the other Zhang Zong, who had distinguished himself at the battles of Tongyuan and Zhouyuan. The former was of the direct line; the latter came from Dou Rong's Hedong faction. Both had earned their brevet titles through accumulated merit. Diwu Lun had once joked that if Ma Yuan was "Swift Hooves," then these two were "Monkey-Anxious" — they often finished a battle covered head to toe in wounds. So Diwu Lun had left them in the Central Plains theater to recuperate, and they had thus missed the Hebei and Longyou campaigns. A year without a fight, and they were bursting with pent-up energy.

When Ma Yuan decided to pull back, Zheng Tong had been utterly baffled. Zhang Zong was different — he had read books and understood military doctrine. After paying his respects in his usual headlong manner, he raised his head and said, "A great battle is imminent. This junior officer dares request to serve as the General of the Agile Cavalry's vanguard."

Ma Yuan deliberately said, "The whole army thinks I am withdrawing to hold the natural stronghold of Hulao, waiting for General Winter to force the Red Eyebrows back, or for reinforcements from Hebei and Guanzhong to arrive. What great battle?"

Zhang Zong smiled. "When His Majesty was in Chang'an, he ordered the military texts from the 'Seven Summaries' in the Tianlu Pavilion to be printed and distributed to all generals of brevet rank and above. I received a copy and often peruse it. Recently I read 'The Three Generals' by the Imperial Preceptor Yan Erudite, which recounts how Lord Wu'an, Bai Qi, fought Zhao at Shangdang — the Qin army feigned defeat and fled to lure Zhao deep into the trap, leading to the battle of Changping."

"I also read the biography of Wang Jian. When Wang Jian fought Chu, he likewise first fortified his walls and held firm, only then launching his counterattack."

"This junior officer has heard that over the past half year, the Commandant of State has been in Chenliu day after day, ordering the laborers to strengthen walls and raise ramparts, having me reinforce Hulao, spending whole days resting the troops and letting them bathe, playing games within the camp — making the soldiers' hearts ready for use, much like Wang Jian. And now he temporarily withdraws to evade the Red Eyebrows' sharp edge. Therefore, this junior officer believes..."

Zhang Zong looked Ma Yuan straight in the eye and said, "Though the Commandant of State is a descendant of Mafu, his pupils are distinctly black and white — he has the air of Bai Qi about him."

"Hahaha." Ma Yuan pointed at Zhang Zong. "His Majesty said that you, Zhujun, possess not only valor but also wisdom. Half a year unseen, and your wisdom has grown still further."

This was where Ma Yuan felt Zhang Zong surpassed Zheng Tong. The General Who Sweeps the Field still suffered from a lack of book learning — a deficiency that a few literacy classes at Weiyang Palace could hardly remedy.

Zhang Zong was right. The reason Ma Yuan kept retreating was precisely that he wanted to fight a great battle, just as Bai Qi and Wang Jian had done!

"Moreover, the Red Eyebrows are massive in strength — said to number several hundred thousand. Even discounting those forcibly conscripted, the enemy still outnumbers us."

So Ma Yuan needed to make the Red Eyebrows divide their forces somewhat.

Thus he did not relieve Puyang, letting the unlucky Wang Hong tie down tens of thousands of Red Eyebrows. He also left Chenliu as an obstacle that the Red Eyebrows could not ignore, drawing away another several tens of thousands. Dong Xian, as an idle chess piece, could serve a similar purpose.

"I concentrate into one; the enemy divides into ten — thus I attack his one with ten, so I am many and the enemy few. When one can strike the few with the many, the foe I actually engage will be limited."

To put it plainly, it was "concentrating superior forces." In contrast to the Red Eyebrows, Ma Yuan, by contracting his battle lines, concentrated troops that had been scattered across Henei, Luoyang, and other places. Through the space he yielded, he bought time. In the small area of Chenggao, Aocang, and Xingyang alone, he had massed forty thousand men.

The Wei army's method of counting — unlike the Red Eyebrows, who made no distinction between soldiers and civilians — did not even include the laborers Dou Rong kept sending in a steady stream.

"There is another reason."

Since Zhang Zong was a man who understood, Ma Yuan also shared with him the cunning thought lurking beneath his own bluff exterior.

"The great families of Henei and Henan are getting restless again. When asked to contribute grain and men to support the army, they hem and haw and make excuses. Letting the Red Eyebrows advance a little westward will also help Duke Dou — give those people a good scare!"

Unlike the Red Eyebrow Army, which struck at virtuous gentry, local tyrants, flies, and tigers all alike, Diwu Lun believed one thing: "The great clans and powerful families can be divided infinitely."

His strikes against the powerful were therefore differentiated by region and type — pulling in one group while striking another. In Guanzhong they were to be rooted out; in Longyou they were to be preserved. In Hebei, not a single one of the Liu clan was to be spared, while the non-Liu clans were largely left untouched...

In the Henei region, which had submitted peacefully very early on, Diwu Lun had adopted a policy of conciliation.

In reciprocation, when Diwu Lun struck Hebei, the great families of Henei had contributed large amounts of coin and grain, earning the privilege of a tax exemption this year. But after autumn, the Colonel Director of Retainers, Dou Rong, had hoped that even if they paid no tax, they might donate a little grain — because the Red Eyebrows' incursions into Yuzhou had sent a flood of refugees into the Luoyang area, and with Ma Yuan continuously expanding the army, grain supplies were running short.

At this, the great families balked. Stingy and tight-fisted, they were willing to hand over only three-digit amounts of grain.

But as time moved into midwinter, the great magnates of Henei — who had earlier complained they "didn't have a single grain left" — stirred at the news and grew enthusiastic about donating grain and manpower.

The great Confucian scholar Fu Zhan — who, during his tenure as a two-thousand-bushel official in Henei, had toward Ma Yuan "neither fought, nor surrendered, nor fled; neither died, nor made peace, nor held his ground" — had previously maintained the persona of "caring nothing for worldly affairs, devoted solely to learning," permitting only his son Fu Long to sit the examinations and take office, while he himself concentrated on transmitting the Way and teaching disciples, reciting the Odes and Documents all day long.

Yet recently, at Dou Rong's urging, old Fu Zhan had made a rare departure from his study. In Henei Commandery, before the powerful families who were still muddled and grudging that bit of grain, he raised his arms and cried out: "Gentlemen, please hear a word from this old man!"

"I am a man of Langya, and with the Red Eyebrow leader Fan Chong, I count as something of a fellow townsman. I have always known his character."

This claim lent credibility to the half-true, half-fabricated account Fu Zhan proceeded to deliver: "To my knowledge, Fan Chong and his ilk are all good-for-nothings from the poor side of the village gate — they put no effort into the fields, but instead steal their food and wear fine clothes, devoting their strength to plunder and brigandage. Seizing upon the great chaos at the end of the Xin dynasty, they have banded together with vicious gangs, driven and coerced the common people, first wreaking havoc in the hamlets, then encroaching upon and savaging the commanderies and counties."

"It has now been seven years since the Red Eyebrow bandits began their rebellion. They have tormented and slaughtered a million living souls, trampled across more than five thousand li through the various provinces. Wherever they pass, homes — great or small — and people — rich or poor — are plundered to the last scrap, not a blade of grass left behind. The cities they cross are left in utter ruin. Anyone they meet on the road is stripped of their clothes and searched for coin and grain."

Fu Zhan recounted the Red Eyebrow Army's atrocities, both real and rumored, as reported from the Central Plains: "The Red Eyebrows claim to be a million strong. How did they get that million? All are good common folk taken captive. The men are given one handful of rice a day, their brows forcibly painted red, and driven to the front lines to die in the ditches. The women are given half a handful of rice a day and herded into the women's camp, to be debauched by their Giants and Elders — and when they starve, they are butchered for meat! Anyone who dares flee has their feet chopped off on the spot as a warning to the rest."

"Any household with more than five dan of grain that does not hand it over to the bandits is put to the sword! They seize private property — any family that owns fields is stripped of them and the land divided up. They violate women, dig up graves, and stop at no evil!"

This last was the most crucial point. Even if the other side were men of grassroots origin like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, as long as circumstances permitted, this crowd could eagerly clutch their ritual vessels and go trotting off to collaborate. If they met a "true Son of Heaven" like Liu Bang, they would bear even the rudeness of having their feet washed in their faces — and smile through it.

The Red Eyebrow bandits alone were absolutely not to be joined. And after hearing of their land-equalization in Nanyang, it was doubly, utterly out of the question! This was digging up the very roots of the powerful families!

Fu Zhan's white beard quivered with rage at the Red Eyebrows' outrages: "Moreover, ever since the Three Dynasties of Tang, Yu, and Xia, the bonds of ruler and subject, father and son, high and low, noble and base, have been as orderly as cap and shoe — never to be inverted. Yet the Red Eyebrow bandits recognize neither ruler nor father. From their false dukes and false officials down to the lowliest soldier and menial servant, all address one another as 'brother.' They prate absurdly of 'common harmony' and slander the imperial system!"

"These several hundred thousand Red Eyebrow bandits dwell in ease, wealth, honor, and glory, while they regard the millions of coerced people across the realm's provinces as less than dogs, swine, oxen, or horses. Such is their cruelty and brutality — no man of blood and breath can hear of it without grief and loathing."

Worthy of a great Confucian — every word old Fu Zhan spoke struck the sore spots of men with homes and property. Wives and daughters, land and estates, houses and homes, coin and grain, life itself, hierarchy and status, even the still-orderly existence under Wei rule — the moment the Red Eyebrows arrived, all would be swept away into nothing!

"Now the Red Eyebrow bandits have reached the opposite bank of the Great River. Will you gentlemen still not exhaust your strength to aid His Majesty the Emperor of Great Wei and his generals in stopping these bandits? Do you mean to wait until the Red Eyebrow bandits rampage across Henei and drive you off as captives? If that day truly comes, this old man would rather leap into the Yellow River than bow in submission to the Red Eyebrow bandits!"

With trembling hands, he drew from his bosom a silk document inscribed with a pledged grain amount. "Though I am not a wealthy man, I am willing, together with my disciples, to contribute a thousand dan of grain to aid His Majesty the Wei Emperor, Commandant of State Ma, and Colonel Director of Retainers Dou in ridding the world of this great scourge!"

To donate some coin and grain, to continue supporting the Wei army in hopes of stopping the Red Eyebrows and preserving their other immovable property — this was the natural choice. The great families, who had been full of complaints, were jolted awake by Fu Zhan's speech and hastened to declare their stance. The grain they offered up jumped from three digits to four.

Dou Rong, who had orchestrated all this, glanced at the dumbstruck Governor of Henei, Feng Qin, and smiled. "What did I tell you? Letting them do the talking is far more effective than us talking ourselves hoarse!"

The rumors, true and false, had so thoroughly blackened the Red Eyebrows' name among the powerful families and even the common people of Henei that days later, when the Yuyang shock cavalry — whom the people of Jizhou had warily kept at arm's length in Hebei — arrived in Henei and needed to bivouac for half a month to fatten their scrawny horses back up, they were met with an enthusiastic welcome from the locals that left Gai Yan overwhelmed by the unexpected favor.

"The people of Henei are so much friendlier than those of Jizhou!"

They had been thoroughly terrified by the Red Eyebrows. These fierce and ruthless Youzhou shock cavalry, who brought with them the chill wind of the frontier, now appeared positively handsome and gentle in the eyes of the Henei gentry and maidens.

Whether it was Ma Yuan or Gai Yan — whoever could beat back the Red Eyebrow Army, the scholars and gentry of Henei and Luoyang would hail him as the hero who had saved ritual and music!

With the great Confucians mobilizing support, the recruitment of laborers and collection of grain in Henei and Luoyang proceeded quite smoothly. Dou Rong coordinated the effort, sending a steady stream of supplies to the front.

Ma Yuan, for his part, ordered the grain stored in Wude County in Henei — because of that county's auspicious name, Diwu Lun had built a traveling palace there, which in ordinary times could also serve as a barracks and granary.

As for the remainder, it was transported in broad daylight to Aocang, at the junction of the Great River and the Honggou Canal, for storage — and guarded by a contingent of several thousand troops, neither too many nor too few.

The Ao Granary sat on the open plain, with no natural defenses of mountains or rivers apart from a single narrow Honggou Canal.

This looked like a vulnerability, but Ma Yuan had deliberately made it so.

"The Red Eyebrows tried to use Puyang to hook me; today, I will use the Ao Granary as bait to hook the Red Eyebrows!"

Ma Yuan sighed to Zhang Zong, Dong Xuan, and the others, "My stratagem is not particularly brilliant. The Red Eyebrows' hook was straight, but at least it dangled in the water. My hook, however, hangs three feet above the water!"

"But unlike that rotten bait at Puyang, the Ao Granary is a fragrant bait everyone wants to swallow! The Red Eyebrow fish, ravenous and desperate for grain, will not be able to hold back — they will leap up and gulp it down!"