Chapter 495: Open Conspiracy

The Red Eyebrow Army had little trouble mopping up the rabble under Dong Xian's command. On top of that, this "King Dong" had no stomach for a fight — his forces broke at the first clash, and he soon abandoned his army and fled, retreating back to the Great Wild Marsh with a few hundred battered survivors.

Word of this was quickly reported to the main camp in Wei by the Palace Gentlemen accompanying the army. For a time, the civil officials and military officers clamored incessantly for Dong Xian to be condemned and executed.

"Your Majesty, Dong Xian rashly advanced and suffered a crushing defeat at Zhencheng, squandering the moment of opportunity and preventing the other three columns from entering Heji. He must be severely punished!"

Diwu Lun was not yet so shameless as that; he merely put on an expression of profound regret. "It was I who ordered General Dong to march. It is only a pity that his army moved too slowly and failed to achieve a surprise effect, and was then set upon by several times their number of Red Eyebrows. This is no fault of his generalship. Attendants, take a detour at once to the Great Wild Marsh and bestow gold and silk to comfort and reward him, so that General Dong may redouble his efforts."

Of course he had to treat Dong Xian well. For Diwu Lun, using a few thousand turncoat soldiers to probe the Red Eyebrows' troop dispositions was an exceedingly good bargain.

It could now be determined that the Red Eyebrows' main force was divided into three great camps: Fifth Duke Yang Yin in the east, in the Leize area; Fan Chong leading the main force himself on the Pu River; and Fourth Duke Xie Lu around Puyang. The three camps together numbered over two hundred thousand, accounting for the greater part of the Red Eyebrow Army.

"From this, it seems the Red Eyebrows are not single-mindedly intent on seizing the pontoon bridge and striking Hebei. It is still the same old tactic of besieging a point to strike the reinforcements — only this time, they have made themselves the bait, hoping that our army's various columns will close in on Puyang for a decisive battle, whereupon their three great camps will fix upon whoever rashly enters Heji and pursue them relentlessly…"

This battle could be easy if one chose to make it easy. If Diwu Lun concentrated his forces at a single point and simply bulldozed forward, he could force the Red Eyebrows to withdraw. But what he sought was not a "Lesser Heji" but a "Greater Heji" — he aimed to annihilate the Red Eyebrows' main strength right here!

This had diverged from Diwu Lun's original plan. His initial intention had been to drive the Red Eyebrows out of the Central Plains and force them to scatter toward Qing Province and Huaibei, thereby making trouble for Xiuer and achieving the effect of driving the tiger to devour the wolf.

But after witnessing the Yellow River's ice flood and how utterly insignificant human strength was before such primordial force, Diwu Lun had slightly changed his mind.

He still hoped the Red Eyebrows could be made to serve his purposes — just not in this fashion.

Now that the Red Eyebrows' objective in this battle was clear, which plan to adopt in response became far more obvious.

"Issue an edict. Tell the Tiger Might General Zhang Zong at Baima: he may move!"

…

If Diwu Lun could stand at a commanding height, surveying the war based on intelligence from all sides and issuing deployments accordingly, then the laborers from Henei, the very bottom rung of the army, were trapped within the situation, utterly in the dark.

These past few days, the tens of thousands of laborers had once again been ordered to take up banners and wooden spears and stand on the northern bank of the great river, waving and shouting at the Red Eyebrow Army across the water until their throats were hoarse.

Yet the rations had not increased — still just a few bowls of thick congee with bean paste. The reason given was that since they had done no manual labor these past days and merely moved their mouths, there was no need to eat their fill.

"The headman says shouting takes no effort — why doesn't he come and try shouting for a few days himself?"

After the laborers under Xiang Ziping had licked their pottery bowls clean, they began to grumble again:

"They want us to make a mighty clamor, but they won't let us eat our fill. What's the meaning of this?"

"The Emperor knows our hardships. It must be the grain clerks skimming off the top!"

"Officials are all the same everywhere, whether in the army or the commanderies. I only wonder how much of the seed grain for our families will be skimmed?"

Xiang Ziping listened to their talk, but his gaze was fixed on the pontoon bridge in the Yellow River. Suddenly he stood up — thick smoke was billowing into the sky above the river.

"The Red Eyebrow Army is burning the bridge."

Headman Wang's gong sounded again. The laborers were forced to grab buckets and rush onto the pontoon bridge to fight the fire, but facing that sea of flames, they ultimately lacked the courage to get close. The section adjoining the southern bank was completely burned and destroyed.

And so the heavy labor returned: the laborers were ordered to rebuild the pontoon bridge.

"Are they just toying with us?"

Some laborers were too indignant to contain themselves, utterly unable to make sense of these orders. "One moment they have us build the pontoon bridge, the next we abandon it and pull back. We wave flags and shout for days, and it doesn't scare the Red Eyebrows. Now the bridge is burned, and we have to rebuild it — and we're to do it right under the Red Eyebrows' noses!"

"Save your strength, everyone. Just go through the motions," Xiang Ziping said. "This time, they won't force us to finish it in a matter of days."

The others asked why, and Xiang Ziping smiled. "You've all been so busy scrambling for congee that you haven't noticed — has the main camp behind the Golden Embankment grown much quieter?"

True enough. The daily drills that had always been there were gone. Only the cooking fires rose on schedule as usual — but how had the Wei army's mealtimes become so quiet, utterly unlike their usual boisterous racket?

But this could only fool the Red Eyebrows on the opposite bank. The sound of the water, the shouting of the laborers — these masked everything, but they could not deceive Xiang Ziping.

"The Emperor used to ascend the Golden Embankment every day and personally enter the camp to inspect it, even coming to see the laborers. But these past few days, it has only been the five-colored banners and the Gold-Rooted Carriage making a circuit atop the embankment to be seen by the opposite bank. The Emperor himself has not shown his face. What do you all make of that?"

"The Emperor is ill?"

"The Emperor can't be bothered to sun himself and no longer comes in person?"

Xiang Ziping did not exactly look down on his fellow villagers, but he could not help feeling something akin to "a swan among swallows." He simply said:

"My guess is that the Emperor, along with the Ji Province troops, is no longer here!"

…

As one of the Red Eyebrows' "Four Dukes," Xie Lu had also never understood why Diwu Lun had gone to such lengths to build this bridge.

To let the Ji Province troops cross south by it? But the Red Eyebrows had no sooner arrived than they abandoned it and pulled back, only managing to tear up some of the bridge's planks in time.

To lure the Red Eyebrows into attacking across the pontoon bridge? A bridge so narrow that not even a single squad could stand abreast — no matter how fierce the Red Eyebrow warriors, charging across to face a broad, flat enemy on the opposite bank, would that not be suicide?

Very well, then. Since Diwu Lun could not bear to burn it, Xie Lu would help him burn it!

Building a pontoon bridge was difficult, but destroying one was easy. A fire ship loaded with a few jars of oil charged forward, and a hundred paces of the bridge adjoining the southern bank were reduced to ash and charcoal — enough to delay the Wei army for several days at least.

"With the Puyang pontoon bridge destroyed, the Ji Province troops on the opposite bank cannot cross for the time being."

And this precious window of time was enough for Xie Lu to swing his forces west to intercept the Tiger Might General Zhang Zong, who was marching east from Baima!

There was another thing Xie Lu could not figure out: why were the Wei army units rushing fastest to the battlefield all miscellaneous troops? First it was Dong Xian, that Red Eyebrow turncoat, and now the Sanhe soldiers under Zhang Zong. By all logic, these temporarily recruited troops should have been dragging their feet, following behind the main-line forces and only fighting when the wind was at their backs. Could it be that once they were under Diwu Lun's command, their nature suddenly changed?

But Xie Lu had no leisure to dwell on it. According to his agreement with Fan Chong, his task was to intercept the enemy coming from the west.

"Dong Xian has already been defeated in the east. If we can defeat Zhang Zong as well and smash two of the Wei army's flanking columns, then this trap at Heji will be broken by us!"

At that point, the initiative would return to the Red Eyebrow Army's hands. Whether they turned back to besiege Ma Yuan or simply withdrew south, they would be quite at ease.

Xie Lu had a total of fifty thousand men under his command. He left behind a camp of ten thousand — partly to keep an eye on Puyang, and partly to watch the Wei army's main camp in Wei, north of the river. If Diwu Lun, in a fit of desperation, tried to cross the river with a boat-borne force, they could stop him on the mudflats.

Baima County was very close to Puyang, no more than a hundred li or so. A fast-moving unit could cover the distance in two or three days.

Xie Lu's ambush force struck the Wei army thirty li west of Puyang. As expected, these were temporarily recruited Sanhe soldiers. After putting up only a token resistance against the Red Eyebrows, they began to collapse, fleeing in defeat westward.

How could Xie Lu easily let them go? He ordered four ten-thousand-man camps to form columns and began the pursuit that the Red Eyebrow Army excelled at above all else.

In the past, the Xin army, the Greenwood, Liang Han, and the Qi army had all collapsed and fled a thousand li under the Red Eyebrows' pursuit. Now the Wei army was no different.

But after another twenty li, the pursuit reached a small place called Chuqiu. Years ago, this area had been destroyed by the river and by war, leaving only a stretch of broken walls and rubble. Yet among the wild grass and marshland, there still stood a few hills crowned with the ruins of ancient structures. The scouts, however, reported back that a large force of Wei troops had been spotted ahead!

…

Xiang Ziping had guessed right. Unseen for several days, Diwu Lun had already gone from north of the river to south of it.

The troops left behind at the main camp in Wei were few, mostly laborers. When Feng Qin, tasked with serving as a decoy, nervously asked Diwu Lun, "If the Red Eyebrows cross the bridge to attack, how should I, your servant, respond?"

Diwu Lun's reply was just two words: "Burn it."

A person of high emotional intelligence would say that the Puyang pontoon bridge was purely a prop Diwu Lun used to execute tactical deception in this battle — a stroke of genius…

But viewed through the lens of low emotional intelligence, he was just an ordinary man who hadn't thought through exactly how to fight at the start. Anyway, he had plenty of conscript laborers on hand, so he'd build first and see how it went — as long as he had enough plans, his wits wouldn't be spent in vain…

Now Diwu Lun had finally thought it through clearly. He had already been secretly moving Ji Province troops toward Baima Ford to the west. Once he grasped the Red Eyebrow Army's intentions and deployment, he accelerated the main force's transfer. He also ordered Zhang Zong to expand defensive positions near Baima, screening the Ji Province troops as they crossed the river by boat. It took three days to ferry all thirty thousand men across.

After that, he ordered Zhang Zong to advance east and draw an attack from the Red Eyebrows' western camp, with the Ji Province troops concealed behind him. But their opponents, true to their battle-hardened reputation, did not charge in too recklessly. The moment they discovered the Ji Province troops lying in ambush behind the hills, they immediately halted their advance, using the lakes and gullies left by the floods to begin consolidating their forces!

Diwu Lun himself took command in the ruins of Chuqiu City. Back in the Spring and Autumn period, the State of Wei was originally located in what is now Henei. When it was attacked and destroyed by the Rong and Di barbarians, Duke Huan of Qi rescued Wei and built a new capital for it here — the relocation to Puyang came later.

But now, all that remained was a stretch of yellow-earth broken walls. Within the walls stood an earthen platform, high enough for Diwu Lun to direct the battle from above.

Watching his own vanguard pull back like a receding tide, Diwu Lun turned to Dou Rong and smiled. "The recruits from the Three He regions put on a convincing feigned rout."

Dou Rong hurriedly said, "In my view, it may not have been entirely feigned…"

Although he was the chief official over the four commanderies of the Eastern Sili region, Dou Rong was desperate to disparage the armed forces under his jurisdiction again and again, painting them as utterly worthless.

"Even with the Tiger's Might General commanding them, one tiger leading a flock of sheep still cannot withstand a great battle."

"The Ji Province troops trained by the Left Chancellor, on the other hand…" Dou Rong looked toward the columns of soldiers emerging from the hills on either side of the Chuqiu ruins and could not stop praising them. "They've campaigned across Hebei and Henan without losing cohesion — they can truly be called a strong army."

But the Ji Province troops had an even more serious problem with powerful local clans in their ranks than the Three He troops did. After all, given Geng Chun's background, assembling an army meant relying on the powerful clans to supply men, plus incorporating some captured Tongma rebels into the mix.

If you wanted to talk about a "commoner army," you had to look at the divisions under Ma Yuan — mostly recruited and trained from refugees and disaster victims fleeing Yu Province and Yan Province.

But you couldn't view it purely through the lens of class, either. Whatever cat catches the rat is a good cat.

Still, the troops Diwu Lun trusted most were his own elite core forces. The General Who Sweeps the Field, Zheng Tong, had led twenty thousand men across the Ji River and was currently moving north as well. He would reach the Chuqiu battlefield within two days, at which point they could achieve local numerical superiority.

At that moment, a frontline scout came racing back to report: "Your Majesty, the Red Eyebrows have spotted our main army — they are withdrawing!"

"Withdrawing where? Puyang?"

"No — southward, toward the Pu River!"

…

Sixty li southeast of Chuqiu, on the banks of the Pu River, lay a county seat called Lihu. This was where Fan Chong and the more than one hundred thousand Red Eyebrows under his direct command were concentrated. The location was neither too close nor too far from the He and Ji rivers in any direction — if any flank fell into bitter fighting, Fan Chong could bring the main force to its aid at any time.

"The Wei army's Ji Province troops are definitely not north of the Yellow River. Xie Lu has fallen for the ruse."

The moment Xie Lu discovered the Wei army was larger than expected, he had immediately sent a man to bring word to Fan Chong. He himself fought while retreating, trying to close in on the Pu River. But the Wei army's Ji Province troops also had considerable chariots and cavalry. Hemmed in from multiple sides, Xie Lu could no longer move and was forced to halt on the spot and stand off against the Wei army. Whether a major battle had already begun there was unknown.

Night was now falling, and assembling the troops would take some time. Fan Chong ordered a ten-thousand-man camp, the fastest marchers, to serve as the vanguard. Each man took two packs of millet rations and set out at once — they should be able to reach Chuqiu by late the following night.

If Fan Chong took the main force and rushed to the battlefield first thing the next morning, the earliest they could arrive would be noon the day after. Yet he still hesitated.

"Xie Lu's strength is roughly equal to the Wei army he's facing — he most likely cannot win. If I don't relieve him, he may be defeated and destroyed, and then I'll be caught in a pincer. But if I go to his aid, what about Ma Yuan to the southeast? He has at least tens of thousands of troops under his command, and cavalry too!"

That was right — the three thousand Yuyang shock cavalry in Ma Yuan's hands had now become a sharp sword hanging over the Red Eyebrows' heads. How Fan Chong wished it had been Ma Yuan who had first thrust deep between the He and Ji rivers. If he could concentrate over a hundred thousand troops and annihilate Emperor Diwu Lun's father-in-law, this war would be half won.

But Ma Yuan had held steady — just as at the Battle of Aocang, he had held back until the very last moment before striking. That unmoving army corps to the south was a thorn in Fan Chong's side. Old Ma had already shifted to two county seats between the Pu and Ji rivers and garrisoned them. If the Red Eyebrows attacked him, he would fall back and defend from behind the city walls. If the Red Eyebrows ignored him, he would swiftly advance north and deliver a crushing blow to the Red Eyebrow Army's rear!

By this stage of the war, the battle of wits and courage between the commanders on both sides had been pushed to its limit. Every scheme had been laid bare; all that remained was open stratagem exposed under the blazing sun — you knew full well the danger in such a choice, yet you had no choice but to make it.

"The Wei ruler and his ministers are all skilled in the use of troops. Though their numbers are clearly smaller than mine, they've managed to virtually encircle me."

Fan Chong ultimately made up his mind. This battle would come down to whether he could defeat Diwu Lun at Chuqiu, or whether Ma Yuan would be the first to break through the Pu River and strike his rear!

"Fortunately, Dong Xian in the east has already been defeated. Have Wugong Yang Yin close in westward and use the Pu River to protect my back."

But Yang Yin had already been defeated twice in a row by Ma Yuan at Aocang and Dingtao. With a mere thirty or forty thousand men under his command, could he stand against a Ma Yuan force of comparable size?

"It doesn't matter."

Along with the uncle and nephew of Wang Hong, the Governor of Dong Commandery, sent to Suiyang City, there was also an order from Fan Chong.

Fan Chong counted the days. The game had passed its midpoint — his "owl piece" should also begin to move.

"Ergong Xu Xuan has already pressed the tens of thousands of Red Eyebrows from Liang and Chen toward Dingtao. With him and Yang Yin, one south and one north, as long as they can hold up Ma Yuan for five days… no, three days!"

"Even if I cannot slay Diwu Lun, I can still drive him back!"

…

In the Liang region, Xu Xuan of Suiyang had indeed already set out. The main army reached the midpoint between Dingtao and Suiyang, which happened to be a post station also named "Chuqiu" — a mere coincidence of names, not the same place as the Chuqiu north of the Pu River.

Wang Mang did not know why Xu Xuan was bringing him along with the army, but he had not refused. His land redistribution and abolition of slavery in the Liang and Chen regions had gone very poorly; the reforms had entered deep waters, and after moving to a different region, the locals harbored even greater hostility toward the Red Eyebrows.

Perhaps because the sage's fateful limit of "seventy-three" was drawing ever nearer, Wang Mang had lately felt his body gradually beginning to fail him.

What kept him clinging to life was perhaps only the obsession in his heart to "restore the Three Dynasties." Wang Mang felt only regret — this decaying, broken body — how could it contain such soaring ambition?

Hearing that Diwu Lun was battling Fan Chong between the He and Ji rivers, he thought it over and then agreed to accompany the army. If Fan Chong could capture him, perhaps the grievances between the two men need not wait until the Red Eyebrows marched into Luoyang and Chang'an — they could be settled here, ahead of time.

While resting at Chuqiu Post, Wang Mang, jolted and shaken from the long journey, could not recover his strength for half the day. Yet Xu Xuan sent someone to invite him over.

"Old Tian."

The Red Eyebrow soldier delivering the message glanced at Ju Wuba, who never left Wang Mang's side, then lowered his eyes and said, "Lord Xu requests Old Tian to come over — he says there is an important matter to discuss!"

…

PS: Only one chapter today.

Spent some time working out the plot. The rest is basically sorted out now — should be able to maintain two updates. This month will wrap up Volume Three.

Lately my body and condition really haven't been keeping up. I told myself "finishing the novel smoothly is victory" and revised my writing plan. So no more million words — all side plots have been cut. Even if I write the main plot in finer detail, there's actually not much left. The main text of the novel will conclude with Volume Four. The day I clock out is drawing closer and closer.

(Volume Five will serve as an extras collection, for follow-ups, extrapolations, and character biographies where the timeline is too long. I figure I'll write as many extras as there are chapters I end up owing, haha.)