Chapter 614: The Home of Emperors

Qi and Lu were the great rear area of Xu and Huai; if Qing and Yan were unsettled, the Huai River defense line Diwu Lun had built would also be insecure. Yet on this eastern tour, the first place he reached was Feng and Pei, which lay right at Pengcheng's doorstep.

Feng and Pei were the home of emperors. Of the more than one hundred and forty Marquises in the early Han, over sixty had native places in or near Feng and Pei, and among them were several vassal kings and occupants of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers. The Feng-Pei meritorious clique only gradually withdrew from the stage of history in the Wen and Jing eras. Such a place naturally received great political consideration; tax remissions were indispensable, and when a new Emperor ascended the throne or a Crown Prince was born, the imperial hometown folk were certain to gain some benefits. Over two hundred years, both culture and economy flourished exceedingly.

"When I was in Guanzhong, I traveled back and forth to Xinfeng often. It was on a Xinfeng street that I first met Jingtong — we happened to encounter Ju Wuba leading two tigers into the city."

On the road to Feng and Pei, Diwu Lun recounted this past event to the accompanying Grand Herald Feng Yan.

"It was not actually on the main street, but in front of the residence of General of Renewal Lian Dan..." Feng Yan thought to himself, though he did not know whether Diwu Lun still remembered Lian Dan. He naturally dared not say this aloud, and only mumbled assent. To ride in the same carriage as the Emperor was certainly an honor, but more than that it was trepidation. After all, His Majesty now was not the same as when he first raised troops; he too had learned to be much wiser.

"It is said that Xinfeng was built because Liu Bang, mindful of his father the Retired Emperor's melancholy homesickness, ordered master craftsmen to replicate it. Not only were the village lanes, roads, shops, and community schools made exactly the same as Feng Town, but even the old acquaintances from the countryside — the peddlers carrying poles and selling cakes, the cockfighters and dog-racers — were all relocated there. When people from Feng arrived at Xinfeng, they could recognize their own homes one by one; even the chickens, dogs, cattle, and sheep could identify their household dwellings."

Diwu Lun had a good impression of Xinfeng city, and said: "Today I have come to old Feng; I must see whether it matches Xinfeng!"

Yet when the imperial carriage reached Feng and Pei, to say nothing of relics from the former dynasty, the place — whether city walls or village lanes — was everywhere desolate and withered. The young butchers and peddlers in Feng County, the sellers of wine and cakes, the cockfights and kickball games — not a trace of them remained. Along the banks of the Si River lay rich, fertile fields; it was clearly the finest season of mid-spring, yet those laboring there were pitifully few. Upon inquiry, they were all soldier-farmers belonging to the Pei Commandery of the State of Wei.

From the mouths of local officials, Diwu Lun learned the recent circumstances of Feng and Pei: several years ago, the Red Eyebrow Army had rampaged through, but the city walls of Feng and Pei were sturdy and thus preserved. Afterward, Liu Yong and Liu Xiu contended for supremacy. Both were descendants of Liu Bang, and therefore they placed great importance on Feng and Pei, sending men to protect it. The locality survived, and Liu Xiu even proclaimed himself Emperor here.

Yet before Liu Xiu's imperial throne had even warmed, Diwu Lun dispatched Ma Yuan to lead troops in raiding and harassing the area. Feng and Pei lay at the very edge of the Han army's reach; Liu Xiu was unwilling to contend with the Wei army here, chose to pull back, and with pained reluctance abandoned this land where the Gao Emperor's dragon had risen.

Once he left, the masses of Feng and Pei followed and fled. No one knew when it started, but a rumor had spread that Diwu Lun bore hatred for the house of Han and intended to exterminate all the realm's Lius and the old partisans of the Han dynasty — and the hundred thousand common people of Feng and Pei were counted among them.

And so Feng and Pei emptied. Most fled to Xu Province, settling in Pengcheng, Xiapi, and other places. Some slipped into the great marshlands and hills west of Pei where Liu Bang had slain the white serpent, building stockades to defend themselves, hoping to wait out the chaos of the age there: bandits and fierce tigers were nothing compared to the terror of war.

As for the powerful great households leaving, Diwu Lun could not have been happier. But the small landowning farmers — Diwu Lun still hoped they would return. The land of Feng and Pei was rich and fertile, and as the connecting zone between Xu Province, Lu, and Dingtao, if it remained desolate, it would greatly affect north-south military maneuvers.

"If they do not return before the winter wheat is planted, these fine lands along the Si River will be confiscated for public use as military farmlands."

Diwu Lun issued an edict encouraging the refugees to return home. To dispel the rumors and allay their fears, Diwu Lun decided to do a great thing in Feng and Pei:

"Pay homage at the Gao Temple!"

In the Han dynasty, aside from the Gao Temple in Chang'an, temples were also established in the commanderies and kingdoms. After all, he was the founding sovereign. In the later reforms of the ancestral temple system, the local temples of other emperors were abolished, but Liu Bang's temple remained quite firmly standing. Especially in the land of Feng and Pei, even after the Han dynasty perished, the Gao Temple was carefully protected by the local gentry and commoners, who regarded it as a divine patron guarding the region.

Liu Yong had come to pay homage; Liu Xiu had come to pay homage. Now an Emperor of a different surname had arrived — truly a rare sight. If Liu Bang had a spirit in heaven, he would surely rub his eyes and glare at Diwu Lun, saying: "You are not of my seed. What are you doing here? Learning from me how to scrounge a meal?"

Diwu Lun had certainly not come to claim ancestry and return to the fold; it was purely for political purposes. Moreover, back when he established his capital at Chang'an, he had already ordered the restoration of the Chang'an Gao Temple, which had been destroyed by fire, to show that he would not engage in retaliatory persecution against the Former Han. Conveniently, right next to the Gao Temple, he built the "Qi Zhuangwu King Temple" for his own ancestor Tian Heng, setting these two old foes to singing against each other on opposite stages.

First time awkward, second time smooth. Coming now to the Feng and Pei Gao Temple to put on false sentiment, Diwu Lun bore absolutely no psychological burden.

As he recited the dry, lifeless sacrificial text, he was utterly without shame, brazenly declaring: "The virtue of Han has reached its end — this is the will of Heaven and the hearts of the people. The false Liu Ziyu usurped a title in Hebei; the Wei clan held the last dynasty's Crown Prince hostage in Longyou. They called it restoring the Han, but in truth they stole the state. I, Lun, have already subdued and pacified them. Today there remains an unworthy descendant, Liu Xiu, who borrows his ancestor's banner to carry out the rending of the land and the brutalizing of the people. The Gao Emperor, below the springs, cannot rebuke him. I, Lun, as a later king, shall punish him on behalf of the former king!"

If Liu Bang had a spirit in heaven, he would surely burst from his coffin, wishing for nothing more than to join his descendant Liu Xiu — that rare promising scion — in beating Diwu Lun savagely.

Only after the hypocritical ceremony was complete did Diwu Lun speak a word of truth to Feng Yan and the others.

"Of all the emperors and kings past and present, those I hold in heartfelt admiration number but a few — and among them is Liu Bang!"

Diwu Lun indeed praised Liu Bang unstintingly: "The Gao Emperor, from the station of a commoner, took up his sword and rose in Feng and Pei. Thereafter, in three years he destroyed Qin, in four years he pacified Chu, and opened an entirely new era. Since antiquity, no founding enterprise had ever been so swift. This was absolutely not luck, but destiny!"

Liu Bang's merits need not be listed one by one; what Diwu Lun paid closer attention to was the speed with which he unified the realm: "The world bustles and hustles, now full, now empty, now ordered, now chaotic. The succession of Zhou, Qin, and Han in former days is just like the transfer of the tripods today from Han to Xin to Wei. As for the likes of Liu Xiu and Gongsun Shu, they are comparable to Xiang Yu and Wei Bao."

Diwu Lun offered a self-criticism: "Liu Bang had already fought and won at Gaixia in four years, yet I have now been Emperor for over four years since destroying Xin, and have only secured two of the realm's three parts. I am not the Gao Emperor's equal."

Feng Yan this time had finally gauged Diwu Lun's thoughts accurately, and offered counsel: "Yet Liu Bang was nearly sixty before he attained the imperial enterprise, and for ten years thereafter the vassals rose and fell in ceaseless rebellion; he never achieved true unification. Your Majesty, however, is in the full vigor of spring and autumn, not yet thirty. Once Wu and Shu are swept clean, the nine provinces will naturally be at peace, without the calamities of rebellion that plagued the early Han."

Diwu Lun nodded. In the early Han, Liu Bang was less an Emperor than a primus inter pares. To resolve the great enemy Xiang Yu, he had ceded vast interests to the kings of different surnames — tantamount to deferring the contradictions until after unification. This led to the brutal slaughter of pacification campaigns in the early Han. Only because of this was the Han unable to concentrate on dealing with the Xiongnu. At the Battle of Baideng, a great hero of his age also reached a dead end, and could only hand the realm to his wife with heavy heart, leaving behind even more hidden perils.

And Diwu Lun intended to resolve these contradictions conveniently during the course of the war.

That was why, back when he destroyed Xin and struck the Red Eyebrows, he could not afford to be slow, striving for swift and decisive battles — toppling the decayed former dynasty, crushing the Red Eyebrows who would destroy the order of the realm, preserving the lifeblood of the world.

Only the destruction of Wu and Shu could not be rushed. Diwu Lun reflected that his offensive north of the Huai River last autumn and winter had been somewhat impatient; he had always wanted to lure Liu Xiu's main force into a decisive battle in Xu and Huai, to settle the realm in a single fight! As a result, the Wei army suffered no small damage. Fortunately, he had come to his senses midway and did not push recklessly to the end. Had he truly fought a Fei River or a Red Cliffs and turned the situation into a Three Kingdoms, then he, Diwu Lun, would have become the disgrace of transmigrators.

After paying homage at the Gao Temple, perhaps because his mood was good, Diwu Lun granted Feng and Pei yet another enormous benefit.

"In the Former Han, Liu Bang exempted Pei County from corvée labor and taxes, but he resented that Feng Town had once betrayed him and refused to grant the exemption. Later, when he returned to his hometown, it was only thanks to the elders of Pei County pleading on behalf of Feng County that he finally consented."

This rule of exempting corvée and taxes had been enforced in the Han dynasty for a full two hundred years, and was only abolished when Wang Mang supplanted the Han. However, Liu Yong and Liu Xiu had restored it.

Now that the rulers had changed their surname again, such preferential treatment was, of course, gone.

"Yet considering the successive years of war and calamity in Feng, Pei, and the surrounding areas, for all those holding one hundred mu or less, the land tax and levies are remitted for one year, and halved for the three years thereafter. Those who abandoned their land and fled the chaos, if they return and re-register before the summer planting, shall receive the same remission."

The meaning was very clear: Liu Bang still bore a grudge over Feng County's betrayal, but he, Diwu Lun, cared not a whit about what Feng and Pei had been over the past two hundred years, or whether their hearts still yearned for the Great Han!

Before Diwu Lun left Feng and Pei, he looked back at these two cities, like ruins and ghost towns, wondering when they might flourish again. So long as the people of Feng and Pei were willing to return, as a transportation hub, this place could still revive.

"Forget the past. Look forward."

Having completed his performance in Feng and Pei, Diwu Lun continued north along the Si River. Passing the treacherous Kangfu pass, where carts could not travel abreast, he entered the hills of central Lu. As the upper reaches of the Si River drew nearer, Qufu came into sight.

The Wei army's offensive against Lu happened to fall between Qing Province and Xu-Huai. On one flank, a detached force advanced south from Qing Province; at Qufu, Liu Penzi led infiltrators to sneak in and incited the local Kong and Yan clans to rise up. The fragile rule of the Red Eyebrow Army remnants in the area swiftly collapsed.

Pushing aside the carriage curtain, Diwu Lun gazed at a green, rocky mountain peak and asked the erudite master Huan Tan, who shared his carriage: "Junshan, what mountain is this?"

As soon as he said it, Diwu Lun himself was amused by the line.

It was Huan Tan who, when the carriage stopped, went out to look: "Strange rocks in myriad piles, winding like threads — this is Mount Yi, also called East Mountain."

Diwu Lun said: "Is this the East Mountain of which Confucius said, 'Climbing East Mountain, one sees how small Lu is; climbing Mount Tai, one sees how small the world is'?"

Huan Tan replied: "Exactly. In former days, the First Emperor of Qin toured the commanderies and counties eastward and ascended Zou's Mount Yi. He erected a stele, deliberated with the Confucian scholars of Lu, carved the stone to praise Qin's virtue, and discussed the matters of the feng and shan sacrifices and the worship of mountains and rivers. Today, as Your Majesty passes East Mountain, might you wish to leave behind a stone inscription or two?"

"Junshan, are you urging me to perform the feng and shan sacrifices?" Diwu Lun laughed in spite of himself.

Huan Tan was quite serious: "If Your Majesty can achieve unification before forty, then spend twenty years restoring peace to the realm and inaugurating a brand-new system, even if you emulate the Qin Emperor and Han Wu in performing the feng and shan sacrifices, what harm would there be?"

As far as Diwu Lun knew, Wang Mang had constantly yearned to come to Lu to perform the feng and shan sacrifices. It was only a pity that his three planned attempts were all delayed by the Yellow River flooding, Xiongnu incursions, the Western Regions rebellion, and other matters. By the time of the fourth plan in the Dihuang years, Mount Tai was overrun by the Red Eyebrows — the sacred mountain had become a bandit lair. Could this be Heaven's will? Wang Mang then sealed his lips and never mentioned feng and shan again; whoever brought it up was dismissed from office.

Diwu Lun had no interest in feng and shan or such matters for the time being, and merely said: "Junshan, you know full well that on this entire eastern tour, I have been required to pay respects at spirits and temples all along the way. Paying homage to the Former Han emperors and the Tian Qi ancestors has been busy enough. Mount Tai and East Mountain — let us forgo them for now!"

Just as Diwu Lun said, this eastern tour was laden with political significance, and here in Lu, where he now was, there was yet another temple awaiting his visit!

Diwu Lun's gaze turned toward Qufu. That city, through centuries of cultural construction, had been draped in a layer of sacred radiance, as if it were the Jerusalem of Huaxia...

"In the early Han, after Liu Bang pacified Huainan and passed through Lu, he sacrificed a grand offering of cattle, sheep, and pigs at the shrine of Confucius. The Gao Emperor, who read little, still did so. I, who have at least finished reading the Five Classics, how could I pass by without paying homage?"

If paying homage at the Gao Temple was Diwu Lun's way of setting at ease the hearts of the "Former Han subjects" who had once belonged to Liu Xiu's rule, then heading straight for the Confucian Temple was for...

Diwu Lun pointed at Huan Tan and laughed: "Setting at ease the hearts of the realm's Confucian scholars!"

Hearing these words from Diwu Lun and looking at the Emperor's kindly smile, Huan Tan, for some reason, felt a twinge of pity for the Kong and Yan clans and the rest in Qufu. He spoke his mind truthfully:

"Though they are fine words, I cannot help feeling that Your Majesty's statement..."

"They're up to no good!"