Chapter 540: Lun and Xiu (Part 1)

As Sishui Pavilion drew near, the Gengshi Emperor, Liu Xuan, couldn't help but shiver again — this was an ailment he'd picked up in the south; he'd get the shakes even in the dog days of summer.

"Shenggong, do not be afraid."

A gentle voice came — it was Wu Han's "Front General," Deng Yu, standing beside him.

Throughout the whole of last year, he and Feng Yi had led a few thousand soldiers from Yuzhang into Jiangxia, attacked the E region, defeated the remnants of the Greenwood bands who were running amok there, recruited a large number of Jiangnan troops, then fought the forces of the King of Chuli in southern Jing, finally lifting the siege of Changsha and, incidentally, "rescuing" Liu Xuan, who was trapped in the city, escorting him north under Deng Yu's protection.

Deng Yu and Liu Xuan had no bond of lord and vassal; back when Liu Xuan was still in Nanyang, he had heard of this prodigy from Xinye and sent men to summon him into service, but Deng Yu would rather pack his bags and chase after the uncertain fortunes of Liu Xiu.

And now, their situations had completely reversed.

"When the time comes, do as we've agreed, and I guarantee Shenggong a carefree, peaceful, and pleasurable life for the rest of his days."

Deng Yu thus exhorted Liu Xuan, who had long since lost the swagger he'd had in Nanyang and was now all nods and bows; were it not for the imperial robe draped on his body, he would have had no bearing of the Son of Heaven at all.

But what Liu Xuan absolutely never expected was that when the boat docked at the Sishui Pavilion wharf and Deng Yu led him through the watchful, menacing ranks of Han troops to the front of the High Temple, they first encountered another "Emperor."

The Jianwu Emperor Liu Yong was also in rather sorry straits, but his treatment was even worse than Liu Xuan's; Liu Xuan, refusing to recognize the Liang Han regime, had already ordered Liu Yong stripped of his crown and cap and made to kneel before the temple gate to "welcome" Liu Xuan, declaring himself a guilty subject.

What welcome was this? It was clearly intimidation!

Liu Xuan's legs went weak; after entering the High Temple, he saw the tall, broad-shouldered Liu Xiu bowing before the spirit tablet of Emperor Gao. Hearing movement behind him, Liu Xiu turned his head and smiled.

"Your Majesty, Gengshi."

This form of address nearly scared Liu Xuan out of his wits, and with a thud he prostrated himself before Liu Xiu, sobbing uncontrollably: "Wenshu, just call me Shenggong, as we did in our youth when we were close as brothers."

Liu Xiu, too, had shed every ounce of the humility and caution he'd shown when he was meat on the chopping block; he simply couldn't be bothered to put on a show of sentiment before his ancestors, and only continued, smiling as he asked:

"Why does Shenggong kneel?"

Liu Xuan bowed again: "Before Emperor Gao, I dare not fail to perform the grand rite!"

He gritted his teeth and, following the words Deng Yu had taught him, said: "The unworthy descendant Liu Xuan, in visiting the High Temple today, comes to confess his crimes!"

"What crimes has Shenggong committed?" Liu Xiu looked at Liu Xuan; his anger toward this mediocre sovereign stemmed from more than just the injustice done to his own elder brother.

Liu Xuan said: "Years ago, the Chongling Liu clan raised troops against Wang Mang; the people's hearts yearned for Han and wished to restore the house of Han. But the Greenwood chieftains fought for power and gain; those men deliberately refused to install the greatly meritorious Bosheng brothers and instead made me, Liu Xuan, Emperor of Han, solely because I was weak and easy to bully. I, Liu Xuan, without talent, virtue, or merit, reluctantly assumed the throne, yet I heeded the slander of those commanders, dispatched Bosheng into the pass to die in battle, and pushed Wenshu aside, grieving our own kin and gladdening our foes."

"Afterward, I, Liu Xuan, governed without skill, so that the Red Eyebrow bandits entered Wan. I could neither die for the altars of state nor dared to defend the capital, but instead fled south in panic, crossing the river to take refuge, in a state more wretched than King Qingxiang of Chu abandoning Ying... It was fortunate that the King of Wu, Wenshu, took up the mandate in that time of peril, assumed the reins of state, rose in the southeast, campaigned to pacify the Huai region, struck down and destroyed the Red Eyebrows, and further dispatched troops to rescue me, Liu Xuan, from the brink of life and death."

"Recalling all that has passed, I, Liu Xuan, have disgraced my ancestors and am unworthy of the title Emperor of Han. I wish to abdicate the throne to the King of Wu!"

According to the agreement Deng Yu had made with him, as long as Liu Xiu accepted, the matter would be settled.

But to his surprise, Liu Xiu did not follow the script, and instead sighed: "Shenggong, you overwhelm me with shame. I dare not accept."

Liu Xuan froze; though mediocre, he was not entirely stupid, and so he began to remove his own crown, cap, and robes: "No matter what, I, Liu Xuan, cannot bear the great throne. Today, in the High Temple at Sishui Pavilion, before the face of Emperor Gao, I hereby abdicate!"

With these words, he removed his crown and cap, along with the seal and cord of the Green Han regime, placed them before Emperor Gao's spirit bier, then retreated on his knees to the temple gate, where he knelt alongside Liu Yong.

Liu Yong tilted his head to look at him; Liu Xuan met his gaze. One could not call it mutual admiration — only shared misery.

And at that moment, Deng Yu, outside the High Temple, began to cry out with perfect timing.

"The year before last, the Northern Han's Liu Ziyu was defeated and perished; last year, the Western Han's Liu Ruzi Ying was destroyed; Liu Yong usurped the throne, Lu Fang posed as a false Liu, and now, with Gengshi's abdication added, the Great Han is without a sovereign!"

From the initial yearning for Han at the end of the Xin Dynasty to the successive destruction of the various Han regimes now, this was undoubtedly the low tide of the Han restoration cause.

But Lai Xi shouted urgently: "The King of Wu still remains! Who says Han has perished?"

The assembled ministers echoed: "Indeed! When Wang Mang usurped the throne, the King of Wu rose in righteous fury, raised troops, shattered Wang Yi's three-hundred-thousand-strong army at Kunyang, executed Li Xian in Huainan, broke the Red Eyebrows at Pengcheng, and pacified Xu and Yang; all within the seas have received his grace. Among all the Liu clans under heaven, who can compare?"

Yet Liu Xiu shook his head and firmly declined.

Liu Xuan spoke again, crying out in a hoarse voice: "The Gengshi realm was largely won by the King of Wu and his brother, and the rivers and mountains of the Fiery Han that remain today are likewise the King of Wu's achievement. Above, he matches the heart of Heaven and Earth; below, he is the refuge of the common people. May the King of Wu obey the will of Heaven and ascend the throne as the Son of Heaven of Han!"

Liu Xiu declined again. Qiang Hua, a former student of the Imperial Academy and Liu Xiu's classmate, who had long been prepared, stepped forward at the right moment, holding high a prophetic apocryphal text. By some unknown art, it faintly shimmered with a crimson glow.

"The Crimson Talisman Apocryphon records: 'Liu Xiu raises troops to strike down the unrighteous; the Mao and Jin, cultivating virtue, shall be the Son of Heaven.'"

"It also says: 'At the turn of four and seven, Fire shall be sovereign,' which is precisely today, the twenty-seventh day of the fifth month!"

Qiang Hua cried out: "The great mandate of August Heaven cannot be delayed!"

For a moment, the multitude seethed with excitement; the Han troops at Sishui Pavilion all shouted: "We beseech the King of Wu to ascend the great throne at once!"

Only then did Liu Xiu emerge from the High Temple, bow to the crowd with clasped hands, and say: "Since such is the will of Heaven and such is the will of the people, dare I, Liu Xiu, not reverently accept?"

The ceremony had long been fully prepared, and the imperial robes, garments, and crown were all complete. The rite was held right at the High Temple of Sishui Pavilion; Liu Xiu re-entered the temple, kindled a pyre to announce to Heaven, performed the yin sacrifice to the Six Venerable Ones, and made the wang offering to the host of spirits.

The invocation read: "August Heaven, Lord on High, and Earthly Spirits of the Soil, have shown favor and bestowed the mandate, entrusting the common people to me, Liu Xiu, to be as father and mother to them. I, Liu Xiu, dared not accept. Yet the assembled ministers and all the lords, without prior counsel, spoke with one voice. Now, though Wang Mang is destroyed, Diwu and Gongsun have usurped the throne, obliterated the various Liu, stolen the sacred vessels, coerced the loyal and good, and are fiercely cruel and without the Way, such that men and ghosts alike burn with hatred. As a descendant of the Grand Ancestor, Emperor Gao, how dare I not accept this mandate in the face of peril, to rescue the altars of our Han?"

Thereupon, the era name was set as Jianwu, a general amnesty was declared for all under Heaven, it was proclaimed that captured Red Eyebrows and others were all spared the death penalty, Liu Xuan was enfeoffed as King of Huaiyang, and Liu Yong as Marquis of Liang.

"Elder Brother."

As the ceremony in the High Temple drew to a close, Liu Xiu felt the thigh-slapping dagger he held in his hand, tucked within his sleeve, and silently sighed to the heavens: "Your little Xiu has done it."

His dream was not merely to let the Han altars continue.

It was to revive the Great Han that belonged to him and his elder brother!

To advance according to their vision, their commands!

"In name, a revival; in truth, a re-forging!"

When he emerged from the High Temple and ascended the altar at Sishui Pavilion, gazing upon the Fiery Han's crimson banners once more fluttering over Pei County, with the gaze of his heroic ancestors behind him and the reverent eyes of over ten thousand officials, soldiers, and officers before him, even a man of such profound thought as Liu Xiu could not help but be stirred.

"No wonder Emperor Gao once said, 'This is how a true man should be!'"

In that moment, Liu Xiu truly felt a touch of that "A great wind rises, the clouds fly and scatter" sensation.

But Liu Xiu did not let himself become giddy; he quickly calmed down, swept his gaze over the crowd, and began the speech he had long been preparing.

"That I, Liu Xiu, can succeed to the Han line is largely due to the strength of all you gentlemen."

"And with my elder brother Bosheng, Chen Jun, Du Mao, and batch after batch of able and ambitious men pressing forward one after another, only thus has this day's situation been achieved."

After finishing his opening remarks, Liu Xiu's tone shifted:

"However, since the final years of Wang Mang's Xin Dynasty, the realm has been in chaos, and the call to restore Han has been spoken for over ten years now."

"We are the ninth-generation descendant of Emperor Gao; to restore Han, We cannot yield to any other, and though We die nine deaths, We shall not regret it!"

Liu Xiu pointed toward the assembled officials and soldiers: "But for all of you, for the petty officials and common soldiers, and even for the teeming masses, why restore Han?"

If he was not of the Liu clan, why restore the Han? It was indeed a good question. At first the assembled officials looked at one another in confusion. For men like Deng Yu, the answer was of course that they had followed Liu Xiu and walked this road together — either won over by his character, or seeking to become princes, marquises, generals, and ministers. If by some twist of fate, men like Jia Fu had halfway through thrown in their lot with another lord, then naturally they would no longer take restoring the Han as their own mission.

And for the great mass of ordinary soldiers, they were simply going along with the crowd. In their daily lives, hardly anyone really cared whether the banner flying overhead read "Wu" or "Han" — it made little difference. As long as the grain ration was enough and life was tolerable, who cared!

As the heralds spread this question through the army, everyone began debating it, their faces showing bewilderment.

This was precisely why Liu Xiu had raised the matter again. Since he was fated to fight the strong from a position of weakness, he could not rely on military means alone — he had to rely on people's hearts.

He had to have something that set him apart from the other warlords! A future that only he could promise!

And so Liu Xiu continued: "Emperor Gao rose from humble origins, reversed a world in chaos and set it right, and pacified all under Heaven. Emperor Xiaowu, of heroic genius and grand strategy, struck the mighty Hu in the north and subdued the fierce Yue in the south... But today, We shall pass over all of them without mention."

"We shall begin only from the time of Wen and Jing."

"In the early Han, the harsh and burdensome laws of the cruel Qin were swept away, and the people were given rest. By the time of Emperor Xiaowen, he was most reverent and frugal, and he further abolished the mutilating punishments. During his entire reign, only three hundred people in total were sentenced as criminals. After him, Emperor the Classic of Filial Piety carried on his legacy, and within fifty or sixty years, all within the seas was prosperous and wealthy. How wealthy? In the capital, stored coin accumulated to the hundreds of millions; in the treasuries the ropes rotted and the coins spilled across the floor. The grain in the Grand Granary was piled like mountains, even overflowing outside. In every commandery and kingdom, millet was so cheap it cost ten cash a dan. Looking across the whole realm, every person had food to eat and clothes to wear."

Liu Xiu's words may have been somewhat exaggerated, but they still stirred longing in the hearts of the ordinary soldiers.

Yet the time of Wen and Jing was, after all, too distant now — over a hundred years, several generations past. Even when the old grandfathers in the villages told stories, they seldom spoke of years so far back.

Fortunately, there was another era that Liu Xiu could rightfully extol.

Then they heard Liu Xiu say: "And the Zhaoxuan Restoration was no less than Wen and Jing. Classical learning flourished so greatly that it transformed customs and mores, and the common people grew honest and generous. Officials were at peace in their posts, the people delighted in their work, stores and livestock increased year by year, and households multiplied and rested secure. Moreover, the Xiongnu Chanyu, cherishing righteousness, bowed his head and declared himself a vassal, so that the northern frontier was at peace for several decades. For a time, the people suffered neither internal nor external corvée, and could rest their shoulders upon the fields."

This time, the soldiers' response was warmer. Although the southeast was more stable than the Central Plains and other places ravaged by war — at least there was no cannibalism — life was indeed far worse than before. They still remembered how, as children in the village lanes, when they heard the elders speak of ancient times, the elders would often speak with longing of the Zhaoxuan Restoration they had experienced in their youth. Memory would even embellish it, filling that era with an ideal happiness.

Of course, as for why the Zhaoxuan Restoration had come to such an abrupt halt, Liu Xiu naturally shifted the blame entirely onto the Wang clan of imperial affines, dismissing it in a single phrase.

Liu Xiu hated Liu Xuan — not only because he had stolen the fruits of victory that belonged to his own brothers and indirectly caused his elder brother's death, but even more because Liu Xuan and his ilk were utterly incompetent. They had squandered the magnificent opportunity, at the end of Wang Mang's Xin dynasty, when people's hearts yearned for the Han!

After Emperors Gao and Hui, the Han had produced one worthy and sage ruler after another. Their profound benevolence and deep grace were still fresh in memory. Even though the reigns of Yuan, Cheng, Ai, and Ping that followed were utterly dark, because Wang Mang had usurped the throne in time — and because Mang's rule was even more benighted and chaotic — people's feelings toward the house of Han had instead turned from resentment to a lingering, unbroken nostalgia.

Yet men like Liu Xuan, incompetent and without strategy, had handed this splendid situation over to Diwu Lun on a platter. The realm sank into even more agonizing chaos. People brimming with fervent hope welcomed the "Han army," only to find a band of bandits. As affairs went from bad to worse, the people of the Central Plains actually began to miss the "rough peace" of Wang Mang's time.

Later, under the Red Eyebrows' unchecked rampage, the Central Plains grew even more chaotic. By comparison, the rule of Diwu Lun and Gongsun Shu seemed like benevolent governance, so much so that the various provinces surrendered one after another and no longer spoke of restoring the Han.

Feng Yi had once summarized the reason to Liu Xiu: "Only when there is the chaos of a Jie or a Zhou can the achievements of a Tang or a Wu be seen; men long famished and parched are easily filled."

Fortunately, in the Xu and Yang regions of the southeast, which Diwu Lun had not had time to seize, Liu Xiu had played the role of rescuer amid the great chaos. His army's discipline was considerably better than that of the Greenwood and the Red Eyebrows. In both provinces, whether powerful families or commoners, people had a fairly good impression of him, and they did not hold "Han" in the same contempt as they did in the Guanzhong region.

This was the only thing Liu Xiu possessed. Though in his heart he wished to create something anew, on his lips he had to cling stubbornly to restoration, calling upon the lingering grace of his ancestors and kinsmen to steady people's hearts and give them hope.

"What Wang Mang sought to restore was the illusory and intangible Three Dynasties."

Liu Xiu declared, his words ringing with force: "But to Xiu, the Great Han is the true Three Dynasties! The Zhou had Cheng and Kang; the Han has Wen, Jing, Zhaoxuan — splendid indeed! It is plain to see that the institutions of the house of Han can rival the institutions of the Duke of Zhou!"

Stubborn old Confucians might disagree, but for ordinary people, talk of the Three Dynasties left them blank and unknowing, while mention of Zhaoxuan stirred a response. Naturally, they all shouted their approval in unison.

"Those under Heaven who loudly proclaim the restoration of the Han are not few, but We differ from all the other Lius!"

Liu Xiu cupped his hands once more toward the assembly: "The reason We dare to ask you, my lords, to aid Us in reviving the house of Han..."

"... is because We shall, one day, cause the institutions of the house of Han to once more bring peace to the realm! To resume the interrupted enterprise of Wen and Jing, and bring again the peace and prosperity of Zhaoxuan!"

When these words were finished, Liu Xuan and Liu Yong both stood dumbstruck as wooden chickens. During their own times as emperor, one had been lost in pleasure, the other steeped in power struggles and profit, taking everything as their due — when had they ever harbored thoughts so profound? The two men finally understood where they fell short compared to Liu Xiu.

For a time, the officials sang praises and the soldiers raised their arms and roared. Liu Xiu's enthronement ceremony was truly a vivid and rousing affair. If Liu Bang in the high temple at Sishui Pavilion had a spirit in Heaven, and saw that among a flock of unworthy descendants, one who could fight had at last emerged, he would surely have been greatly comforted.

But a certain man with no regard for martial honor was determined not to let Liu Xiu pass this day of great joy in comfort.

Just as Liu Xiu, swelling with pride and satisfaction, descended from the altar platform, Lai Xi hurried over to report:

"Your Majesty, a vanguard of nearly ten thousand Wei troops has broken through the Feng County defense line and is now pressing toward Pei!"