Chapter 584: The Great Advance

Pengcheng was practically synonymous with Xu Province — not only was the provincial capital located there, it was also Xu Province's northern gateway, ringed by hills and ridges, where the Bian and Si rivers converged. Northward one could reach Qi and Lu; westward it bordered Liang and Song.

Now the west had been seized by the State of Wei, but the north was a quasi-ally of the Han army — at least, that was what Fang Wang had promised Lai Xi when he headed north months ago: "With just a few words from me, the King of Qi, Zhang Bu, and Xu Xuan of the Red Eyebrows can all turn swords into peace with the Han and join the Vertical Alliance. From then on, the north will be worry-free, and the Grand Marshal can focus entirely on defending the western border."

Yet today Fang Wang had hurried back, and what he brought was dire news: the Kingdom of Qi had collapsed, Zhang Bu had lost vast territories, and he had retreated to just three commanderies in Langya.

"I had nearly persuaded the Red Eyebrows, but who could have guessed that Zhang Bu would not even hold out a month before the Wei army routed him."

Back in Pengcheng, Fang Wang described the catastrophe of the Qing Province defeat to the Eastern Han "Grand Marshal" Lai Xi: "Now Zhang Bu's tens of thousands of troops have scattered and fled. He can only fall back to Langya by way of the Yishan hills in Jiaodong. I fear he cannot withstand the Wei army's offensive and will not survive the winter!"

Fang Wang invoked the "Vertical Alliance pact" that had never actually been finalized: "Zhang Bu has already joined the Vertical Alliance. According to the covenant, if one party is attacked by Wei, the other lords must immediately send relief — save the perishing, rescue the doomed — lest the Qin-destroying-the-Six-States tragedy repeat itself. I have long heard that the Grand Marshal is a man trusted by all under heaven. I dare request that you dispatch the troops of Pengcheng and swiftly aid Zhang Bu!"

Lai Xi detested this strategist. Though he valued trust and honor in his life, that did not mean he would play the fool: "This covenant you speak of — has His Majesty affixed the imperial seal to it? Have you smeared blood on your lips with Zhang Bu?"

"The Great Han has only exchanged alliance documents with Chengjia. As for Zhang Bu, is that not still being negotiated by me, Master Fang?"

"With matters so urgent, how can I be allowed to go back and forth exchanging covenants? Months of travel — I fear by the time the Han Emperor learns of this, Zhang Bu will already be defeated and dead."

Fang Wang pointed north and said: "The Grand Marshal has always understood military affairs. You should know how vital the Langya region is to Xu Province. Langya connects to the Huai and Si rivers to the south, and runs to Qing and Qi to the north. Since ancient times, whenever there was conflict between north and south, this was inevitably the route by which one contended for the Central Plains. Fuchai marched north from here to invade Qi and attack Lu. After the Yue people destroyed Wu, they too emerged from Langya to covet Qing Province. During the Chu-Han struggle, when the Gao Emperor ordered Han Xin to break Qi and secure Linzi, then pursued eastward to Gaomi, the Tian Qi state was on the brink of collapse. Xiang Yu was still able to set aside enmity and send his great general Long Ju with two hundred thousand troops to rescue Qi — precisely because he knew that if Langya were lost, an enemy from Qi could drive straight to Pengcheng via the Yi and Si rivers!"

Lai Xi acknowledged his point, but then shook his head: "Yet Long Ju buried two hundred thousand Chu troops at the Wei River, leaving Xiang Yu short of forces and forcing him to make the Covenant of the Hong Canal with Han."

Lai Xi had also heard that the main Wei invasion force in Qi was commanded by Geng Yan. A few years ago, he would have eagerly led a great host north himself to fight a satisfying battle against young Geng. But that was no longer possible — he was the anchor-stone Liu Xiu had left in the north to hold the Si River region steady. His Majesty and the main force were in Jingchu; the Huai North absolutely could not go wrong.

Fang Wang persisted in his earnest plea: "General, you know the first point but not the second. The Chu general Long Ju suffered a great defeat for two reasons: first, he underestimated the enemy; second, he employed the wrong strategy. The present situation closely resembles that time. The Wei army is like Han Xin — fighting far from home, exhausting themselves in battle, conquering commandery after commandery, their edge unstoppable. The Qi army, by contrast, is prone to collapse and scatter. Even if the Grand Marshal sends support, you must not hastily decide the outcome with Wei. Instead, you should exploit Langya's terrain, dig in deep, and hold firm."

"I have heard that when the Wei army first arrived in Qing Province, the You Province shock cavalry refused to obey orders, plundering wealthy households. This has already turned the gentry against them. Given time, chaos is inevitable — enough to turn Qing Province into a quagmire that firmly traps Geng Yan."

Fang Wang's plan was actually quite good. If Lai Xi had sufficient troops, he would certainly have adopted it. But now he had troubles he could not speak of.

For Lai Xi had just learned the news from Jingxiang: Deng Yu's army had been destroyed, Ma Wu had died in battle, and the Han army's struggle for Xiangyang had ended in total defeat. Even if Liu Xiu had seized Sui County and preserved the defensive line along the western foothills of the Dabie Mountains, it could not salvage the overall situation.

Moreover, in order to take Jingxiang, the main forces were all in the west. The three commanderies of Huai North under Lai Xi's jurisdiction had a mere thirty thousand men. He had no desire to divide his forces further. What was more, Lai Xi did not trust Zhang Bu, nor did he trust the people of Langya. He could not risk sending his own troops only to have them ruined and destroyed by "friendly forces" — the losses would be enormous.

Unwilling to tell Fang Wang the truth, Lai Xi only voiced another suspicion of his.

"Diwu Lun, relying on his superior numbers and troops, is likely striking in more directions than just Jingxiang and Qing Province!"

Fang Wang was startled: "The Grand Marshal means..."

"In recent days, scouts and spies have detected a large number of Wei troops at Suiyang in Liang Commandery. By their accents, they seem to be from Yu Province."

Lai Xi gave a bitter laugh: "It seems the Han Emperor's assessment was not wrong. It is not only neighboring Qing Province that is on fire — I fear even Pengcheng in Xu Province has been targeted by that villain Diwu!"

In the early seventh month of the third year of Wude, Diwu Lun had already left Wancheng. Passing through Yingchuan Commandery, the imperial carriage was now on the road to Suiyang in Liang Commandery.

With the great Jingxiang campaign concluded for the time being, the remaining tasks — hunting down Deng Feng and Jia Fu, attempting to retake Sui County from the Han army, and other assorted "minor" matters — Diwu Lun had left entirely to Cen Peng. Because of Cen Peng's achievement in annihilating "twenty thousand" enemy troops in Jingxiang and destroying Qin Feng, the King of Chuli, Diwu Lun formally proclaimed Cen Peng "Grand General Who Guards the South"! With this, Cen Peng became, after Ma Yuan, the second person to have the word "Grand" added to his general title.

Immediately afterward, Diwu Lun hastened to Suiyang. Choosing this place as his eastern temporary residence was deeply meaningful: Suiyang was not only the terminus of the Hong Canal and a great metropolis of Guandong, a hub of boats and carts that made troop and grain transport quite convenient, but its geographical position was also critical — it commanded the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Huai rivers and served as the rear strength for the Bian and Luo regions. In simple terms, to the northeast, one could dispatch troops to invade Qi and Lu; to the southeast, one could threaten Xu Province and Huai North.

Diwu Lun figured that if young Geng's seizure of Qing Province went poorly, he would personally go support him and give his backside a kick. Then, with a bit less daring, he would swallow Lu and Qi one by one, taking it slowly.

If the campaign against Qi succeeded, then he could be bolder and proceed with everything according to the original plan.

And when he rested in Yingchuan Commandery and learned the eastern battle reports — Geng Yan and Gai Yan had swept all before them, seizing Linzi and pursuing their victory to sweep across Jiaodong, with Zhang Bu retreating to Langya —

Diwu Lun could not help but laugh: "It seems our dynasty's 'Grand Generals' will soon have a third."

As everyone knew, the more such titles there were, the less they were worth. He had spent considerable thought on cultivating his generals so that their strengths were evenly matched.

After so many years, he had grown accustomed to schemes unfolding with ease. Now, whether in Jingxiang or Qing Province, things were going more smoothly than anticipated. Diwu Lun was in excellent spirits and merely asked the Master of Writing, Zhu Di, beside him: "Issue an edict to Dong Xuan, the Magistrate of Yangzhai."

Ever since Dong Xuan had taken it upon himself to execute the Red Eyebrow prisoners after the He-Ji campaign — and because the slaughter was so great and he had not reported it to the throne — Diwu Lun had demoted him to Magistrate of Yangzhai County. This time, when the Emperor toured the south and passed through Yangzhai, he saw the county seat in perfect order. The rumored great magnate clans of Yangzhai had been brought to heel by Dong Xuan, utterly submissive. "Butcher Dong" had killed over ten thousand people — what did slaughtering a thousand or so of their kinsmen matter to him? They all kept their sons and younger brothers in line, not daring to break the law.

In chaotic times, harsh laws must be applied. Rebuilding order could not rely solely on ruthless officials, of course, but without ruthless officials who dared to kill as the vanguard, in many places the court's authority could not penetrate at all. The situation of "better to wrong a two-thousand-bushel official than to wrong a great magnate clan" would play out once again.

Diwu Lun was quite approving of the situation in Yangzhai. Although Dong Xuan still had that foul temper, the man was worth employing in a somewhat greater capacity.

"Since Dong Xuan assumed the post of Yangzhai Magistrate, he has governed this difficult region with skill. Now that Qing Province has just been pacified, powerful clans and great merchants hold heavy sway there. Seizing land, plundering slaves, hoarding goods, harboring bandits, and murdering officials must be far from rare."

This was the lesson Diwu Lun had learned from seizing Ji Province. All the above situations had occurred in the various commanderies of Ji Province, and the control measures were still quite mediocre to this day. Qing Province was a place that neither the Red Eyebrows nor the Tongma had been able to take — the power of the local strongmen could not be underestimated. So it needed to be dealt with strictly from the very start.

"Appoint Dong Xuan as Governor of Beihai, to take office immediately."

From the memorials of Li Zhong, the Inspector of Qing Province, Beihai Commandery not only had powerful clans and great merchants deeply entrenched in the salt, iron, and trade businesses, but also had pirates who had been active since the previous dynasty causing chaos.

"The wicked are ground down by the wicked. Let Butcher Dong go meet those fellows. Clear the thorns and cut the brambles for me — only after the weeds and brush in the field are removed can good crops be grown later."

After speaking this line with deep meaning, Diwu Lun busied himself again with reviewing memorials and inquiring whether all the participants in his grand plan had taken their positions one by one.

Zhu Di reported each in turn: "The General Who Conquers the East has already brought thirty thousand Yan Province troops, and the Right Chancellor has brought over fifty thousand Yu Province troops. Both have arrived at Suiyang, awaiting the reception of Your Majesty!"

"Good." Diwu Lun said: "Geng Bozhao is fierce as a tiger, ruthless as a goat — how urgently he wages war. By the time I reach Suiyang, he will surely have already begun his assault on Langya. Counting the You and Ji Province forces that Geng and Gai have dispatched southward to strike the enemy's flank, we can at least muster a hundred thousand, and proclaim it an army of two hundred thousand."

Both these routes pointed to one place: Pengcheng!

By the time Diwu Lun reached Suiyang, it was already the end of the seventh month. Perhaps because too many had died in the previous year's wars, or perhaps because the Red Eyebrow captives had cast aside their swords and grasped plows with sufficient diligence, the millet fields outside the city were about to welcome a bountiful harvest.

But there was no need to wait for the millet ears to bow their heads — the granaries of Suiyang were already filled with grain from Sanhe, several hundred thousand bushels of it, enough to feed the eighty thousand troops here for half a year.

"Over three hundred years ago, King Hui of Wei dug through the Hong Canal, connecting the Great River and the Ji River with the Huai River."

"Now, this canal has brought considerable convenience to the 'Wei army' once again."

Diwu Lun was full of praise for the Hong Canal. Using the canal, his transport commander Dou Rong had continuously shipped manpower and grain from Luoyang and Sanhe eastward, turning Suiyang into a perfect forward base.

Nor was there any need to worry about a campsite for this massive army — they had all been arranged to settle within the Liang Garden outside the city's eastern suburbs.

This Liang Garden had been built by the King Xiao of Liang during the Former Han. That prince had set his heart on a younger-brother-succeeding-elder-brother scenario, dreaming of being the Son of Heaven of the Han house. Later his dream was shattered, but that did not stop him from indulging in the pleasures of an emperor in his personal life. From its planning stage, Liang Garden was modeled on the Shanglin Park in Guanzhong. It was vast in scale, over three hundred li in circumference, with palaces and lodges linked together, rare fruits and fine trees scattered among them, and exotic birds and beasts kept for the King of Liang's hunting excursions. Many pavilions, terraces, and towers were built within the garden — the Wild Goose Pool and Crane Islet, like fairylands — and it gathered the realm's literati and poets, leaving behind many enduring rhapsodies.

Only, when the Red Eyebrow army stormed Suiyang the year before last, out of some unknown mentality, they actually set Liang Garden ablaze. According to the Red Eyebrow leader Fan Chong, he felt Liang Garden was too fine and feared his men would sink into indulgence there — so he would rather burn it.

As Diwu Lun walked through it, he could imagine how in former days the garden's halls and palaces had blazed with lantern light, song and dance clamoring, Sima Xiangru and others vying to compose rhapsodies and toast with wine, driving the sumptuous feasts to their peak. Now only charred, blackened ruins of walls remained. The dense bracket sets, the exquisite latticework — all had burned to ash, turned to dust.

Vast swaths of rare and exotic trees had been destroyed. The bamboo groves that were once dense, the withered trees that were once stark and vigorous — all burned to bare ground. Regrettable as it was, it proved convenient for the Wei army. They set up camp among the vast, deserted ruins of Liang Garden, with no shortage of water, and could even hunt wild hares that had escaped from "Hare Garden."

And because Liang Garden was so large, the Red Eyebrow army had not managed to set every palace alight. Two of the "Seven Terraces" survived, and Diwu Lun's temporary residence was arranged at the "Clear and Cold Terrace," protected on all sides by the three armies.

The Clear and Cold Terrace, lonely for so long, was not clear and cold today. The Right Chancellor Dou Rong, the General Who Conquers the East Zhang Zong, and others gathered together in lively bustle. Diwu Lun was to convene a military conference here — first, to inform everyone of the victories in Jingxiang and Qing Province and boost morale; second, to make deployments for the autumn offensive against Pengcheng in Xu Province.

Fear not the thief who steals, but the thief who covets.

Diwu Lun had indeed long coveted Pengcheng, the pivot between north and south, and had run through countless scenarios in his mind. Today he wasted no words. As Dou Rong and the others sat upright and attentive in the hall, he had the Master of Writing point to Pengcheng's position on the hanging map and began:

"In the Xu Province region, there have been at least five large-scale campaigns across the dynasties..."