Chapter 613: This Is Not Peace

When Huan Tan traveled south it was the end of the first month; the ice and snow north of the Huai had not yet completely melted. By the time he returned to report, it was already late in the second month. Along the banks of the Si River, Huan Tan witnessed this scene:

A group of people were busy in the fields. Among them, one man guided a plow pulled by an old horse, while behind him others worked harrows to level the soil or hoes to weed. A person carrying a seed basket carefully scattered precious grain seeds.

Not far away, a squad of Wei soldiers with halberds and spears sat chatting beneath a tree, serving as both overseers and protectors.

Gazing at this scene, Huan Tan unexpectedly shed silent tears.

This greatly surprised the attendants beside him. One must know that in Huainan, Huan Tan had met his clan nephew Huan Rong — a reunion of family after many years of life-and-death separation — yet the two did not embrace and weep. Instead, they had been at each other's throats the entire time.

On his return journey, Huan Tan also heard that his hometown of Longkang in Pei County had been destroyed by war. The old Huan family residence, which had survived the Red Eyebrow torrent, failed to escape calamity this time. As for who was responsible, the Han side claimed it was Gai Yan's Yuyang Raiders, while the State of Wei side said it was burned during the "Wu bandits'" southern retreat. For a time, truth was hard to distinguish from falsehood.

Even so, Huan Tan had not shed a single tear. Why, then, passing by the Si River and seeing an utterly ordinary spring plowing scene, did he weep?

After wiping away his tears, Huan Tan said to everyone on the boat: "If you, gentlemen, were men of Huaibei like me, you would understand."

He sighed with deep emotion: "Since the realm fell into chaos at the end of Wang Mang's reign, Huaibei has known no peace. First the Red Eyebrows swept through, killing officials and slaughtering great households. After the Red Eyebrows left, order everywhere utterly collapsed. For a time, bandits ran rampant, a great famine struck, and refugees filled the land."

"Liu Xiu's hold on Huaibei was brief, and it suffered war again. The common people had barely returned home before they were forcibly displaced by the struggle between Wei and Wu. On this journey south, what I saw on the northern bank of the Huai River — once-rich lands now with famous cities standing empty and uninhabited, a hundred li without a single soul — is beyond counting. The walled towns are thus, the village lanes likewise deserted. Fine fertile fields lie empty and untended, overgrown with weeds, wild hares darting through them."

"Reckoning from this, from the third year of the former dynasty's Dihuang era until now, a full seven years, the common people of Huaibei have had few years when they could peacefully plant in the spring. Some counties and townships have seen total harvest failure year after year, even reaching the point of cannibalism. Faced with such a tragic sight, how could one not weep? Today, His Majesty has only just entered the Huai-Si region, yet he can already restrain the troops and restore farming at the earliest moment. Faced with such benevolent governance, how could one not shed tears?"

Everyone suddenly understood. Looking again at this spring plowing scene, they finally grasped how hard-won it was, and then thought — was not their own homeland of Guanzhong or Hebei the same?

Before Diwu Lun came and after Diwu Lun came were two utterly different things. The warlords had no year-round plans; when hungry they plundered, when full they discarded the surplus. They collapsed and scattered, countless numbers destroying themselves without any foe. That so-called "Tongma Emperor" Liu Ziyu — his followers once survived by eating mulberries. And Qin Feng, the Chu-Li King of Jing-Xiang, when there was no food, sustained himself by scooping up "water weeds and snails."

"The art of securing a state lies in strengthening the army and ensuring ample food. Among the feudal lords who survive today, men like Liu Xiu and Gongsun Shu all emphasize agriculture and have plans, which is why they can prosper for a time. But even the two of them combined do not equal His Majesty."

Huan Tan had grounds for saying this. As it happened, when he arrived at Xiapi, the newly appointed "Governor of Xu Province," Fu Long, was there conducting the spring plowing ceremony. Fu Long told Huan Tan: "His Majesty had long anticipated that Liu Xiu would refuse. Wei and Wu cannot cease hostilities; though the great war is not yet over, His Majesty is determined to sustain war through war, applying the military-agriculture colony policies of Yu Province and Yan Province to Xu and Huai."

Military-agriculture colonies were, of course, not Diwu Lun's invention. From Emperor Wen of Han to Emperor Wu of Han, there were planned efforts to recruit people for military-agriculture colonies on the frontiers in Bing Province, Hexi, and even the Western Regions, embedding soldiers among farmers — producing grain in peacetime, and taking up weapons to fight when the Xiongnu invaded. By the time of Emperor Xuan of Han, Zhao Chongguo submitted his three strategies for military-agriculture colonies, establishing army colonies in He-Huang to guard against the Di and Qiang.

As far as Huan Tan knew, when Liu Xiu to the south first took Huainan and Jingnan, he also imitated his ancestors and established military-agriculture colonies, but all on a small scale, needing to consider the interests of local powerful families everywhere — far less bold than Diwu Lun.

The Red Eyebrow Army had overturned the tables of Yan Province and Yu Province completely, making it convenient for Diwu Lun to clean the house before inviting guests. He thus issued an edict: "The Qin people annexed the realm through intensive agriculture; Emperor Xiaowu secured the Western Regions through military-agriculture colonies — these are the excellent models of former ages. Now, in the aftermath of great chaos, the people are scattered, the land and estates have no masters — all shall be public fields!"

Thereupon, people were recruited for military-agriculture colonies on the Central Plains. In two years, they had already harvested a million hu of grain. Had they still relied entirely on grain from Guanzhong and Hebei, there would have been no means to campaign in all directions.

Now, in urgently establishing military-agriculture colonies in Huaibei, Diwu Lun also had his own purpose.

Fu Long smiled and said: "Some ministers worry that Huaibei and Xu Province were ruled by Liu Xiu for two years. This man is renowned for benevolence, virtue, trustworthiness, and righteousness, and he has methods of governance. They fear that some scholars and common folk may mistakenly believe his words and harbor thoughts of longing for the Han in their hearts."

"But His Majesty does not believe 'the people's hearts long for the Han.'"

Fu Long imitated Diwu Lun's gesture at the time and demonstrated it for Huan Tan: "When His Majesty performed the ceremonial plowing outside Pengcheng, he grabbed a handful of grain seeds and showed them to the crowd, saying, 'The people's hearts long for grain!' Huaibei is so devastated — whoever can restore local production, whoever can amass a million hu of grain, will win the hearts of the scholars and commoners of Xu Province!"

"That is indeed the case." Huan Tan believed Diwu Lun had seen things very accurately. Those vague and illusory propaganda efforts could not be neglected, but tangible things mattered most of all.

"Yan Province and Yu Province have mostly been converted to civilian colonies, placed under the jurisdiction of Grand Commander Ren Guang. But here in Huaibei, they remain military colonies."

Fu Long told Huan Tan: "What the Grand Master Huan saw along the road should be military colony soldiers overseeing the labor of Wu army captives from Huainan and Jiangdong."

At this, Huan Tan stopped praising Diwu Lun. This emperor was excellent in every way, but in some areas he calculated too meticulously. He thought to himself: "Could it be that His Majesty thinks, even if Liu Xiu agreed to the prisoner exchange, before the formal handover, these four thousand captives could still plow tens of thousands of mu of land for Wei?"

Now that the prisoner exchange had failed, the Huainan and Jiangdong captives would likely remain in the north for a long time. Naturally, they could not be fed for nothing. If they were unwilling to voluntarily join the Wei army, they would probably spend their lives as military colony tenants, firmly bound to the land.

By the time Huan Tan returned to Pengcheng, this city that had endured so much suffering finally no longer bristled with spears and halberds. The damaged walls and city gates were being repaired. Only the countless new grave mounds dotting the wilderness outside the city told the tale of this bitter battle.

Huan Tan entered the Chu King's Palace to pay his respects to Diwu Lun. The Emperor indeed asked him: "Junshan, on your journey north, did you see the spring plowing everywhere?"

Diwu Lun said, not without pride: "We must ensure that Yan Province and Huaibei are all connected, from Pengcheng to the Central Capital at Luoyang, with agricultural officials and field soldiers, the sounds of chickens and dogs, and field paths linking one to another, restoring the prosperity of former days."

"I only hope to see this scene soon." Huan Tan expressed cautious blessings, then briefly recounted what he had seen and heard in Huainan. At the same time, he presented a thick memorial, filled with details there had been no time to report orally, which he had recorded on the return journey.

"Liu Xiu refuses a truce, is unwilling to exchange prisoners, and would not even see you, Junshan, merely proclaiming that he will counterattack Huaibei to 'seal the corpses at Yao Valley' for Lai Junshu and Liu Zhi?"

Diwu Lun immediately ordered someone to draft his reply: "Duke Mu of Qin was defeated by Jin three times. Wenshu has suffered one defeat in Jing-Xiang, with ten thousand men drowning in the Han River, and two defeats in Xu-Huai, with fine generals and close ministers dying in battle. How about suffering one more defeat, losing Huainan, and letting Wei and Wu divide the realm along the River?"

The civil and military officials, seeing this, all felt that with Liu Xiu's attitude so hardline, the war in the Two Huai region would never end. It seemed His Majesty's troop withdrawal plan would have to be postponed, and the military-agriculture colony plans for Si River and other commanderies would also have to be shelved.

Yet Diwu Lun said: "Liu Xiu's reply is meant to pin down the Wei army, keeping over a hundred thousand men from the three armies stationed long-term in the Two Huai region. This way, the soldiers will surely grow weary, and grain transport will falter."

The war had reached a point where the Wei army was now engaged in completely "exterior-line operations." As long as Huaibei could not feed itself for a single day, the supply lines from the Central Plains were enough to drag the state to ruin.

Liu Xiu, though he had lost Huaibei, had the Huai River as a screen. Extending westward were the world's most perilous passes — the Ming'e Three Passes and the Sui County defiles of Nanyang. Insufficient for attack, but more than enough for defense. Relying on the water network of the Yangtze and Huai, his movement of personnel and supplies was even more convenient than Diwu Lun's — this counted as interior-line operations.

Therefore, Diwu Lun had no intention of engaging in a prolonged stalemate with Liu Xiu in the Two Huai region.

"Of the hundred thousand-plus soldiers, half can be withdrawn to the Central Plains for rest and reorganization."

The portion to be withdrawn was naturally Geng Yan's You-Ji Corps. Since they began assembling last year, these soldiers had been campaigning away from home for a year. They had not adapted well to Huaibei's climate, suffered a defeat, and also encountered a severe typhoid epidemic, which had considerably diminished their combat effectiveness. If they were not allowed to return home, resentment would likely grow, and they would have even less will to fight.

Moreover, the Grand General of Chariots and Cavalry, Geng Yan, was a sharp blade — using him for defense was a waste. Diwu Lun planned to let him rest and reorganize in the Central Plains. Should war break out in Jing-Chu or the Two Huai region, the tiger tally, along with a mobile force, would be placed in young Geng's hands, sufficient to rush to the aid of any front.

As for the person to remain and hold the line, Diwu Lun had long since chosen him: the Left Chancellor, Geng Chun.

"Boshan governed Ji Province for several years. He not only destroyed the remnant Tongma bandits and pacified Hebei, clearing it of thieves and brigands, but also recruited people for military-agriculture colonies in Julu and other commanderies. In every province and commandery, agricultural officials were appointed, grain was stockpiled wherever they were, and a million hu of grain was obtained. This allowed us to campaign in all directions without worry of grain shortages."

Geng Chun's character was steady and prudent, and he understood military affairs sufficiently. Using him to take charge of the overall situation in the east was naturally most fitting.

Diwu Lun also selected three subordinates for him — one civil and two military.

The civil official was Fu Long. Since entering Qing Province, Fu Long had repeatedly achieved merit in diplomacy. He had even entered Chengyang alone and persuaded the King of Qi, Zhang Bu, to surrender, allowing the You-Ji Corps to drive straight south and laying ample groundwork for Diwu Lun to take Huaibei. Most importantly, Fu Long was sufficiently loyal. He was thus promoted to "Governor of Xu Province," becoming the fastest-rising official among the first batch of civil service examination candidates.

The General Who Conquers the East, Zhang Zong, and the General Who Sweeps the Field, Zheng Tong, would each lead troops from Yan Province and Yu Province to garrison Si River and Pei Commanderies.

In this way, with Cen Peng in the Nanyang and Runan direction to the west, and Geng Chun and the others in Huaibei, Diwu Lun's first line of defense against Liu Xiu was formed. Even if Liu Xiu disregarded martial virtue and launched a surprise attack on Huaibei, the generals should be able to withstand the first wave of assault, giving the Central Plains forces time to rush to their aid.

At this point, Diwu Lun had also achieved the objectives of the "Xu-Huai Campaign." But this war had also exposed a great many problems within the Wei army, so much so that by the later stages of the war, it was like a spent crossbow bolt at the end of its flight, even suffering consecutive minor defeats. This meant that Diwu Lun could not drag these ills out until after unification; he had to carry out necessary reforms before the final decisive battle.

Before leaving Pengcheng to head north and inspect Qi and Lu, Diwu Lun looked back at this "Xu Province region" and left Geng Chun and the others with a single sentence.

"This is not peace."

"Only a two-year truce!"