Chapter 536: A Good Man

During the Chu–Han contention, the strategist Kuai Che urged Han Xin to hold Qi, saying in his own words: "Divide the realm into three, stand firm like a tripod's legs."

Inheriting that old master's fine tradition, Fang Wang — who is just as obsessed with the art of vertical and horizontal alliances and seeks to stop Diwu Lun from seizing the realm — now hopes to bring about that very situation.

But never mind the whole realm: in the midsummer of the second year of Wude (AD 26), with the Red Eyebrows annihilated, even the tiny Nanyang commandery had already become a "tripod stand-off."

Cen Peng, General Who Pacifies the South of Wei, was stationed at Wancheng, the capital of Nanyang commandery. For him, this city held too many memories and regrets. Cen Peng had once defended this place as a general of the Xin Dynasty, holding out for half a year, until — with no relief in sight — Yan You took his own life and Cen Peng was captured by Liu Bosheng.

Now Cen Peng had recovered Wancheng, but in the fighting against the Red Eyebrow remnants, the city's walls and buildings had caught fire. After the last enemies were mopped up, the city was nearly burned to the ground, and the three armies had to relocate to the estates of powerful clans in the surrounding area. These places had changed hands who knew how many times. The Red Eyebrows had carried out a thorough policy of striking down local magnates in Nanyang, causing the powerful families that once filled Wancheng to vanish overnight — which actually saved Cen Peng a great deal of trouble.

But the devastation of the Wan-Ye region also meant the Wei army could not requisition grain locally; every step they took depended on supplies from the rear. For this reason, Cen Peng did not rush his advance and currently controlled only half of Nanyang commandery.

One day, Cen Peng was standing before a map with his subordinates, discussing strategy.

"Gongsun Shu of Chengjia has coveted Nanyang for a long time. When the Red Eyebrows collapsed in the spring, Gongsun dispatched his Assistant General Jia Fu out of Yun Pass, marching along the northern foothills of Wudang Mountain to seize Wudang County, and then capturing Zhuyang County as well, so that he now faces us across the Han River."

"Cibo, are you acquainted with Jia Fu?"

Cen Peng called to an official attending nearby — none other than Yin Lihua's elder brother, Yin Shi. He had originally been a subject of Liu Xuan of the Greenwood Han, belonging to the faction of the Liu Xiu brothers, but when the Red Eyebrows swept into Nanyang, he chose to surrender north to the State of Wei and threw in his lot with Cen Peng.

Now, more than a year later, because Yin Shi was thoroughly familiar with conditions in Nanyang, Cen Peng had taken him as a trusted aide and recommended him to the Emperor, proposing that Yin Shi serve as acting Deputy Governor of Nanyang in order to attract Nanyang's bold warriors to their side.

Yin Shi replied, "When we were both serving under Liu Bosheng, I met him once."

"I hear that this Jia Fu, though quite young, was already well-versed in the Book of Documents. At the end of the Xin era, he inherited his father's post and became a county clerk. Sent to Hedong to transport salt back south, he encountered bandits on the road. All his colleagues fled; Jia Fu alone stayed, blade in hand, and fought the outlaws. A day later he returned unharmed, saying only that he had faced ten men alone, killed three with his own hands, and the rest of the bandits had fled — winning him the praise of the entire county."

"Seeing the misrule and fatuousness of Wang Mang's Xin, and with the Greenwood rising in the south, Jia Fu gathered several hundred followers to answer the call, proclaimed himself a general, and assembled his force at Wudang Mountain. Later he was recruited by Bosheng, then followed the Chongling clansman Liu Jia west into Hanzhong. When he later heard that Bosheng had died in battle, he lost heart, and together with Liu Jia surrendered to Gongsun Shu, becoming a Shu general."

Although Cen Peng was also a man of Nanyang, he knew Jia Fu only by reputation — by the time Cen Peng surrendered to Liu Bosheng, Jia Fu had long since gone west, so they never met. "I have always heard this man is skilled in battle. Is that truly so?"

Yin Shi said, "Bosheng once said: Jia Junwen has the might to break an enemy a thousand li away! That the Greenwood forces could take Hanzhong so easily was largely his doing."

Cen Peng merely laughed to his aides and said, "No wonder there are rumors from within the Passes that even His Majesty's beloved general Wu Han nearly suffered at Jia Fu's hands in Longxi. That the Shu flanking force could withdraw in good order was entirely Jia Fu's achievement."

He then sighed with feeling: "Having just finished fighting in the Long region last year, he's been transferred south again. Truly, I don't know whether to praise Gongsun Shu for knowing how to use men, or to laugh that Shu has no other generals?"

Having said this, Cen Peng pointed to the southern part of Nanyang and continued: "Last year Gongsun Shu sent a fleet east, but it was defeated by Qin Feng, the King of Chu and Li. Though Chu is a small state, it still stands stubbornly in Jingzhou — only, being preoccupied with guarding against Chengjia, it instead let Liu Xiu's generals seize Changsha in southern Jing."

But Chu had also struck back, capturing Jiangxia Commandery. Now straddling the Yangtze and holding the core region of Chu, it too had not missed the opportunity presented by the Red Eyebrows' collapse.

"Deng Feng, a general of Chu, comes from a prominent Nanyang clan. He now leads his troops in occupying ten counties south of Xinye."

Hearing this, Yin Shi's face showed shame — he too was a man of Xinye. Cen Peng had ordered him to go south and deliver proclamations calling on the local magnates who had returned home to submit to Wei, but even backed by the powerful State of Wei, Yin Shi's summons carried nowhere near the weight of Deng Feng's; very few answered the call.

"Deng Feng's prestige in Nanyang is simply too great, surpassing even the Liu Xiu brothers. When the Red Eyebrows entered Wan, everyone fled — only Deng Feng was determined to hold Xinye, and he saved most of the Nanyang clans." Yin Shi could not forget the scene when everyone parted ways at Xinye: the Nanyang magnates who had once propped up the Greenwood Han regime split into three, each going their separate way.

"Deng Feng is indeed a fine general." Cen Peng had heard the story of how, a few years ago, Deng Feng had "badly defeated" Dou Rong on the opposite bank of the Fengling Crossing. Although Wei generals liked to use this to mock Dou Rong's lack of martial skill, it also proved that Deng Feng was no ordinary man.

"But is such a fine talent content to serve a mere state like Chu?" In Cen Peng's view, the shape of the realm was already fairly clear: Wei held half the land, with Wu and Shu next in strength. As for Zhang Bu, King of Qi, and Qin Feng, King of Chu and Li, they were merely minor powers surviving in the cracks. Could they really accommodate a great general like Deng Feng?

Yin Shi understood Cen Peng's meaning and said, "In the past, Deng Feng was not loyal to Liu Xuan; now, I imagine, he is not loyal to the King of Chu and Li either. He is loyal only to Nanyang!"

"A fine stalwart who loves his homeland."

Cen Peng said with emotion, "What a coincidence — His Imperial Majesty wishes to govern Nanyang with men of Nanyang. I have been ordered to hold Wancheng; am I not also a man of Nanyang? Cibo, you have old ties with both Deng Feng and Jia Fu. I hope you will write to them and keep those former bonds from being severed."

Yin Shi understood at once. Cen Peng was a general both wise and brave, who wielded force and diplomacy in equal measure.

But as for Jia Fu, that was one thing. As for Deng Feng — this man had once sought a marriage alliance with the Yin family, even before Liu Xiu had. Yin Shi felt that it might be better for him and the Yin family to each serve their own lord...

Though Yin Shi appeared quite deferential, even somewhat timid, before Cen Peng, his expectations for his own family's future were exceedingly high. The Yin clan had lost too much in the great chaos at the end of the Xin era, which had profoundly changed Yin Shi's temperament. He was convinced that only rewards rich enough could repay the sacrifices of his parents and lineage.

Cen Peng's gaze fell upon the southeast on the map. "The Han army stationed at the three Ming'e passes — has it still made no move westward?"

This was rather strange. The three Ming'e passes, serving as the western border of Wu Han's territory, had also gathered a large number of Nanyang magnates fleeing the Red Eyebrow chaos. By all logic, seeing the Red Eyebrows smashed by the Wei army, these men should be jubilantly returning home to exact revenge. Why such restraint?

"I fear they must have received a strict order from Liu Xiu: not a single Han soldier is to cross the Tongbai Mountains."

As far as Cen Peng knew, the Han army's mobile forces were not large, and were split in two — half with Liu Xiu north of the Huai, the other half with Feng Yi and Deng Yu in southern Jing. If the Han army could not restrain itself and divided its forces again to contest Nanyang, it would leave its other fronts even more exposed, giving the Central Plains Wei army an opening instead.

Cen Peng could not stop praising this attitude. As a man who had long been away from home, he understood the feeling well. Nanyang people set great store by native ties; their scarred homeland and ancestral graves lay right before their eyes, yet they could hold themselves back — this showed that Liu Xiu had not let victory go to his head.

Truly a man whom the Wei Emperor admired and had his eye on!

Cen Peng recalled that back when the Xin Dynasty had not yet fallen, Diwu Lun, far away in Wei Commandery, had several times sent letters hoping Cen Peng would find a way to get Liu Xiu to the north. It was only a pity that before Cen Peng could act, Liu Xiu had fled.

He thought further: "His Majesty's opponents are Liu Xiu and Gongsun Shu; my opponents are Jia Fu and Deng Feng."

"I must submit a memorial to the Emperor explaining this. Jia Fu and Deng Feng cannot be recruited without offering them a rank of two thousand shi and a general's title with a designated name. If we succeed, not only can we subdue the enemy without fighting, we will also gain great generals for Wei!"

Factional struggles among the Wei state's generals were already showing early signs, but Cen Peng alone was entirely free of envy toward the worthy and able. After entering Nanyang, he had recommended a great number of talented men to Diwu Lun in one breath. In his conduct toward others, he was indeed a good man.

Diwu Lun, for his part, would not treat this beloved general — a key figure he had carefully cultivated — unfairly. To let an honest man suffer loss was something both sovereign and ministers kept firmly in mind. Cen Peng's memorial had only just been sent off when an edict from Chang'an arrived first!

"Previously, by His Majesty's edict, in addition to the ranks of General of Agile Cavalry, General of Chariots and Cavalry, General of the Guard, and Generals of the Front, Rear, Left, and Right, four Expedition Generals and four Garrison Generals have been added, also as substantive ranks, while the four Pacification Generals are designated-name ranks."

"The edict reads: Cen Peng, General of Pinglin, since the first year of Wude, has been entrusted with a region, defending against Shu invaders in the west at Ziwu, pacifying the Red Eyebrows in the south into Wan and Ye, securing the borders, with achievements in pacification and command. He has presented captives and severed ears, his merits conspicuous. Let Cen Peng be made General Who Guards the South, with command over all military affairs in Nanyang and Runan. The affairs of the south are entrusted entirely to the General!"

When the edict was proclaimed, Cen Peng's trusted subordinates were all overjoyed. Cen Peng had joined Diwu Lun relatively late, and had often served as a general left to hold the rear, missing the major battles. His most outstanding victory was still the great triumph at the Ziwu Road.

Meanwhile, Wu Han, whom Diwu Lun had used as a dagger's point, was already General of the Rear, having pulled ahead of Cen Peng.

Now, Cen Peng had finally accumulated enough seniority and military merit. With the restructuring, he had leapt in one bound from a designated-name rank into the substantive generals. Although he was still at the bottom of that list, it meant he was now qualified to open his own headquarters, and his men's futures had brightened considerably as well.

Yin Shi alone, amid the rejoicing, detected something a little different.

"Why is the general's title 'Guards the South' and not 'Expedition Against the South'?"

"I fear it is not merely to spur General Cen to win greater merit in the future — there is a deeper meaning..."

A difference of a single character made the intent quite clear. Yin Shi guessed Diwu Lun's purpose:

The south was not the future main axis of the Wei army's advance. On the Nanyang–Runan line, there would be no major battles to fight for the time being!

"Peaches must be eaten one at a time. First east, then west. Next year we must concentrate our strength to settle Qingzhou. As for Jingzhou? Let Cen Peng hold Wancheng well and slowly restore production. Leave the south for Gongsun Shu and Liu Xiu to fight over for now! It will also save them from joining hands early and pulling off a 'link Wu to resist Wei,' with the two weaker ones facing the one strong one."

In the Weiyang Palace at Chang'an, Diwu Lun was explaining future strategy to several of the Nine Ministers and generals, and added:

"If Feng Jingtong can truly persuade Gongsun Shu to kill Fang Wang, not only will it remove a key strategist from the enemy, it will also make Wei Ao uneasy at heart. If Gongsun Shu can turn on Fang Wang and kill him today, might he not kill Wei Ao tomorrow? Though we have seized Liangzhou, Wei Ao never wanted to contend for the realm in the first place. I even have a bit of old friendship with him — why must it be life or death between us?"

Diwu Lun was also quite shameless; having taken every advantage, of course he would say that.

And when the day's policy briefing ended, the elderly Grand Preceptor Zhang Zhan, together with the Minister of Ceremonies Wang Long, and from the oversight apparatus the Chancellor's Rectifier Huang Chang and the Palace Aide to the Censor-in-Chief Xuan Bing — all four entered with grave expressions and reported to Diwu Lun the summarized memorials gathered from the various regions.

"Your Majesty, the results of the public vote are out!"

For this exercise in sham democracy, Diwu Lun had selected only a few places where conditions allowed the common people to cast their tiles. Besides the Wei army and the Red Eyebrow captives, these included Chang'an, Luoyang, Wugong County in Right Fufeng, and Yuancheng County in Wei Commandery. Among them, Wugong and Yuancheng were respectively Wang Mang's fief and ancestral land — equivalent to Diwu Lun deliberately giving him an edge to silence the realm's criticism. If even the people of these two places wanted Wang Mang dead, then truly not even Heaven could save him.

From the third month to the fifth, nearly a million people took part in the tile-casting — on paper. The real "ballots" probably didn't reach even half that; a third would be generous.

Of course, when the numbers were reported up, they were full and complete.

The result was that only a portion of the Red Eyebrow Army, mindful of the good he did as "Old Farmer," wanted him to live. Everyone else wanted Wang Mang dead, and so the tiles cast to the left reached a full ninety-five percent!

As the oversight body, Chancellor's Rectifier Huang Chang swore a solemn oath that the tile-casting process was fair, open, and impartial, with absolutely no instance of officials or soldiers coercing the common people into casting for Wang Mang's death.

It was the upright and principled Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk Xuan Bing who noted that in some places the masses simply followed the crowd, or the numbers fell short and failed to reach half, so the village heads and clans cast votes on their behalf, afterward casually padding the names by hundreds or thousands...

But these flaws were dismissed by Superintendent of Ceremonial Wang Long as "harmless trifles that do not detract from the greater good."

Diwu Lun was indifferent. Sham democracy — just go through the motions, put on a show, and that was enough.

After reading through the figures, he merely raised his eyes to the sky and sighed.

"Such is the will of the people."

"Such is the will of Heaven!"

Wang Long and Huang Chang both prostrated themselves and extolled him: "Your Majesty should carry out Heaven's punishment on behalf of Heaven and execute that single man, Mang!"

In their hearts, the two were delighted. This way, Diwu Lun had hijacked public opinion and thoroughly resolved the awkward trouble of executing his former master. He would fully represent the will of Heaven and the people, and need not leave the world any grounds for reproach.

Xuan Bing remained silent, but he too felt Wang Mang deserved to die.

It was Grand Preceptor Zhang Zhan who could not bear it in his heart. He was a former minister of the previous dynasty and an active participant in Wang Mang's reforms, and he knew that Wang Mang's "original intent" had not been bad. Though now a senior statesman of the Wei dynasty, Zhang Zhan still held a trace of pity for the old Emperor.

Moreover, his relationship with Diwu Lun was out of the ordinary — he had once been Diwu Lun's patron, and now he was honored as Grand Preceptor. So he gritted his teeth and made a proposal:

"Your Majesty."

"Jie of Xia did not cultivate virtue, but wounded the hundred clans with military might. He reviled Heaven and insulted the spirits, wallowed in debauchery and extreme tyranny. In those days, the people had no means of livelihood, and all cried: 'When will this sun perish? We shall die together with you!'"

"Yet despite Jie's great evils being such, after Cheng Tang accomplished his revolution, he merely banished Jie of Xia to Nanchao, leaving behind a beautiful name for a thousand ages."

Having reached this point, his meaning was abundantly clear. For a moment, Wang Long shot a sidelong glance, Huang Chang looked askance, and Xuan Bing focused his attention and listened closely.

As for Diwu Lun, he had already reined in his expression, and neither joy nor anger could be read upon it.

Zhang Zhan, who had been a good-natured man all his life, looked toward Diwu Lun and spoke full of earnest hope: "Now, though Wang Mang's evils equal those of Jie and Zhou, Your Majesty's benevolence far surpasses that of Tang and Wu."

"The public trial is concluded. That Wang Mang brought calamity upon the realm is established beyond doubt, and killing him accords with public reason and the hearts of men. But if Your Majesty were to emulate the former ages and specially pardon Wang Mang, merely stripping him to commoner status and exiling him to a distant land — this would both answer the will of Heaven and the people, and manifest benevolence and virtue. It would also allow Wang Mang to keep his waning life and spend his remaining years repenting his former crimes. In this minister's view, that would be the heaviest punishment of all for Wang Mang!"