Chapter 668: Jia Fu

Deng Feng and Jia Fu had been partners for nearly seven years. The two had once rampaged across the State of Wei's Danyang territory, their fame spreading throughout the realm. They had also faced Cen Peng in battle and, outnumbered, retreated here — a case of mutual respect born of shared adversity.

Once, when the two were drinking and grew drunk, Jia Fu confided to Deng Feng: though his body remained in the Cheng family's service, his heart already belonged to the Eastern Han!

"When the King of Hanzhong (Liu Jia) was still alive, I saw the chaos of the Gengshi court and the unrestrained excesses of its generals, so I tried to persuade the King: though the House of Han has revived and Your Highness serves as a bulwark by kinship, Gengshi is not fit to accomplish great things. Better to plan early — rather than perish alongside that fatuous ruler in Wancheng, why not establish your own rule, carry on Liu Bosheng's ambition, and raise the banner of restoring the Han?"

"But the King of Hanzhong sighed and said, 'Your words are grand, but I am a mediocre king, unfit for such a task. Bosheng's younger brother Liu Wenshu is in Jiangdong and will surely be able to carry this out. If you, Sir Jia, wish to do great things, you would do better to take a letter from me and go to him.'"

"Who could have guessed that before I could set out, Wei and Shu one after another plotted against Hanzhong. He who eats another's food must be loyal to his affairs, so I turned back, hoping to fight one more battle for the King of Hanzhong. Little did I expect to be swept up in all manner of upheavals, and so I muddle-headedly became a subject of Emperor Gongsun."

Later, when Wei and Wu fought the great battle at Xiangyang, Jia Fu had intended to go and offer his allegiance, but by then he was no longer alone — he had many subordinates under his command, mostly Nanyang troops who had been conscripted to attack Hanzhong during the Gengshi era. Blocked by Cen Peng, he was forced to remain in Shangyong once more, and there he stayed for six full years.

In seven years, the young general of old had grown a thick, full beard; the warhorse he had ridden in campaigns north and south had died of old age in its stable; his subordinates had taken wives and fathered children in Shangyong. This remote mountain basin had become the final home of this band of men without a home.

Until war once again shattered the quiet. Jia Fu now felt the time had come for him to set out anew.

"Emperor Gongsun cannot fully employ our talents. Facing the sharp edge of the Wei army, the Cheng family will certainly be unable to hold out this time. Looking across the realm, the only one who can contend with Diwu Lun is the Han Emperor, Liu Wenshu — him alone!"

Jia Fu invited Deng Feng to go with him. Deng Feng's uncle, Deng Chen, was one of the Eastern Han's Nine Ministers. Since they had reached a dead end in the Cheng family's service, why not cast aside past grudges and join forces against the Wei army?

Deng Feng, however, gave no answer for a long time. He merely drank and stroked his beard. Though he was only in his early forties, the years of wandering and hardship had already threaded strands of white through it.

"Diwu Lun is a treacherous hero, bent on exterminating all the heroes of Nanyang, and even the great clans of the realm. He has already stripped the Deng clan and other great Nanyang families of their lands and given them all to slaves — more hateful even than Wang Mang. I will certainly not go over to him. As for Liu Wenshu…"

Deng Feng raised his head proudly: "Liu Bosheng and Liu Wenshu cared only for their so-called great cause of restoring the Han, yet they ruined Nanyang and destroyed the entire Deng clan. I, Deng Feng, can say with a clear conscience that I owe the Liu clan of Chongling nothing — and I have no wish to go to them!"

"Junwen, go on your own. Those old Nanyang comrades in the army who are unwilling to leave Shangyong may stay behind and follow me in holding this corner of the land. This place shall be the last refuge of the sons of Nanyang's heroes."

Jia Fu thought it a pity. "The two upstream commanderies are already lost; Shangyong cannot stand alone. Fengxian, do you mean to die for Emperor Gongsun?"

Deng Feng laughed. "Not so. Whether Shangyong or Chengdu can hold out longer — that remains to be seen!"

Deng Feng was confident he could hold Shangyong and Fangling for half a year, a full year, or even longer, for these two places were truly too remote. Located in the mountains of what would later be northwestern Hubei, far from passes and routes of communication, their territory was hemmed in on all sides by forests, the terrain steep and perilous. In the Qin and Han eras, they were a famously notorious "holy land of exile."

In Qin times, the clans of Lao Ai and Lü Buwei were relocated here. The last ruler of Zhao, King Qian of Zhao, also ended his days in Fangling.

In the Former Han, commoners and base slaves who broke the law were mostly driven to places like Hexi, but political prisoners of higher status were concentrated almost entirely in Shangyong and Fangling.

Over the course of the Former Han dynasty, a total of twelve feudal kings were sentenced to exile in the two counties of Shangyong and Fangling — from Zhang Ao, the Prince of Zhao and husband of Princess Luyuan, eldest daughter of Han's founding emperor Liu Bang, to Liu Quji, the Prince of Guangchuan in the time of Emperor Xuan, who madly plundered the tombs of ancient emperors and kings and "murdered sixteen innocents, perverse and utterly devoid of principle." The last was Liu Li, the Prince of Dongping, ruthlessly suppressed by Wang Mang in the time of Emperor Ping… Even Liu He, the deposed emperor who reigned for only twenty-seven days as Prince of Changyi, was originally destined for Fangling before finally being sent back to his old home and exceptionally re-ennobled as Marquis of Haihun.

As for the countless fallen officials exiled here, they were beyond numbering — so much so that when the subordinates of Deng Feng and Jia Fu took wives, tracing back a few generations, the women were mostly descendants of banished officials from other lands. This was proof enough that escaping these two counties was exceedingly difficult, and if one stubbornly defended them, it was equally hard for outsiders to get in.

Deng Feng said: "The most critical pass in Shangyong Commandery is none other than Yun Pass. This place is close to Wu Pass, shields Hanzhong, and is also the throat connecting to Nanyang. Ma Yuan will certainly take it. Facing a two-pronged assault, I cannot hold it by force and can well afford to abandon it, falling back to Shangyong and Fangling."

"If Shangyong Commandery is likened to a rib, then Yun Pass and the banks of the Mian River are the only places with meat on them. Shangyong and Fangling are both hard bone! Ma Yuan may rely on his strong teeth and come try to gnaw on them if he likes. I can hold them with three or four thousand men, but he will have to commit ten times that number to attack. With that much leisure, he'd do better to send them against Gongsun or Liu Xiu."

Since Deng Feng's mind was made up, Jia Fu pressed him no further. After all, among his old troops there were plenty who had grown accustomed to local life and were unwilling to follow him on further adventures — they could be left in Deng Feng's care.

A few days later, outside the city of Shangyong, the two men parted. Jia Fu removed the seal of "Governor of Shangyong" bestowed by Gongsun Shu and solemnly placed it in Deng Feng's hands. He bowed to him with clasped hands, then took with him nearly half of Shangyong Commandery's troops: over three thousand men.

Deng Feng silently returned the bow from afar. "With this we part. Junwen, take care!"

As Jia Fu's column receded into the distance, who would have expected a single chestnut horse to turn back? It was Jia Junwen, returned to the walls of Shangyong. He waved his arm vigorously and shouted to Deng Feng:

"Fengxian, guard this place with the sons of Nanyang! In a year or half a year, when I, Jia Fu, lead an army north to campaign and come again to Hanzhong, I hope that when you see my banner, you will lead your troops out of these mountains, and you and I will once more form a pincer, each supporting the other, and finish the task left undone seven years ago: this time, we will surely take Wu Pass and fight our way back into Guanzhong!"

…

Jia Fu had been planning his departure from Shangyong to join the Eastern Han for years, and he naturally had a detailed scheme. In the first ten days of the fourth month, he led three thousand soldiers with a month's provisions to Fangling (present-day Fang County, Hubei).

If one headed east from here, one could follow the northern foothills of the Jing Mountains and reach the western side of Xiangyang — a place Cen Peng had now fortified like an iron barrel. Jia Fu's three thousand men were certainly not going to throw their lives away there.

Heading due south was equally impossible. Jia Fu and his men would encounter a vast, ancient primeval forest — the mysterious Shennongjia of later ages, which no human strength could cross.

To bypass the natural barriers and the enemy and reach his destination, there was only one route: threading through the narrow path between the Jing Mountains and Shennongjia to a river called the Ju. After rushing for hundreds of li through the mountain forests, it would join the Yangtze near Jiangling, the capital of Nan Commandery!

This route was by no means Jia Fu's invention. As early as the Warring States period, after the Qin general Bai Qi attacked Chu and fought a great battle with the Chu army near present-day Xiangyang, he faced the Jiang-Han defense line where Chu had concentrated all its strength. Bai Qi, with considerable cunning, circled west of the Jing Mountains and crossed the Ju River. This move of avoiding strength to strike weakness thoroughly disrupted the Chu army's defensive arrangements, allowing the Qin forces to reach the Yangtze with ease, capture Xiling, and then advance downriver, fighting again to burn Yiling and Xiling and humiliate Chu's ancestors.

"Since Bai Qi's thirty-thousand-strong army could make it, my three thousand can too."

Jia Fu had long since sent men to scout the route. It was no smooth highway for a large army, but merchants traveling between Hanzhong and Nan Commandery used it frequently. Groping their way forward, they finally reached the territory of Nan Commandery at the end of the fourth month, just as their grain ran out and before the rainy season descended.

No sooner had they arrived, travel-worn from the north and without yet having raised clear banners, than Jia Fu's force drew the attention of the local powers. What stunned Jia Fu most was that before they could even declare their intentions and request grain and provisions from this small township, the local Bailiff and Elders came bearing the half-seal of the Cheng family to offer their allegiance. They entered the camp gate in a daze and prostrated themselves before Jia Fu, knocking their heads on the ground:

"We, your humble servants, are the Bailiff and Elders of North Township in Linju County. We never imagined that the celestial troops, the royal army, would come from the north. Overwhelmed with trepidation, we wish to surrender the seal and cord of the false Emperor Gongsun and pledge our allegiance to Great Wei!"

…

This scene left Jia Fu unsure whether to laugh or cry. Without ceremony, he took the seal and cord, imprisoned the men, and then led his soldiers straight into the township. Before the local strongmen, who had already hung five-colored flags on the walls, could sense something was wrong and shut the gates, he stormed the township temple and beheaded every last one of those who had planned to sell themselves to the State of Wei!

Only two days later, when Shu troops in Linju County heard that North Township had fallen and hurriedly dispatched soldiers to guard it, they were astonished to find the White Emperor's banner still flying there. Only after they cautiously probed and sent men to meet Jia Fu was the misunderstanding cleared up.

So they were friendly forces after all!

Although Jia Fu intended to go over to Liu Xiu, he had not yet broken with Gongsun Shu and was still nominally the Cheng family's "Governor of Shangyong." When he reached the county seat of Linju and met the County Magistrate who had come to greet him, he put on a stern face and rebuked him: "How has the defense of Nan Commandery come to this? I led a guest army through the territory, and the locals mistook us for Wei troops. The Bailiff and Elders, far from holding the land for Emperor Gongsun, swarmed to surrender. Linju is the northern gateway to Jiangling, and it is already like this — what of the other places?"

Under this pressing interrogation, the Linju County Magistrate told the truth: "Governor Jia, since the start of the fourth month, Cen Peng's Wei army has advanced south from Xiangyang, pressing upon the Jiang-Han region and drawing daily closer to Jiangling. The Prince of Yijiang's main army can only focus on defending Dangyang. Linju County, tucked away in the northwest of the commandery, suffers three panics a day — rumors are flying everywhere!"

Jia Fu saw that this County Magistrate was anxious and uneasy; perhaps he too harbored thoughts of defecting to the enemy. After all, Nan Commandery had submitted to the Cheng family only six or seven years ago and had been given by Gongsun Shu to the "Prince of Yijiang," Tian Rong, to govern as a fief. Local officials naturally felt no strong loyalty to their ruler's ruler.

Witnessing this state of affairs, Jia Fu abandoned all hope for the morale of Nan Commandery's forces. He merely announced: "Hanzhong has already been recovered. By Emperor Gongsun's order, I am coming south from Shangyong to reinforce Jiangling! I wish to see the Prince of Yijiang at once!"

These words somewhat reassured the County Magistrate, but Jia Fu's own heart sank.

He was no reckless fool. He silently assessed the situation: "Diwu Lun first ordered Ma Yuan to attack Hanzhong, frightening Gongsun Shu into pouring all the troops of Ba and Shu into defending his northern gateway. Then, immediately after, Cen Peng — who has been stationed in the south for seven years and is not easily moved — advanced his main army south into Jiang-Han. It seems this is Diwu Lun's linked stratagem! Relying on the Prince of Yijiang, Tian Rong, alone, Jiangling absolutely cannot be held. If Jiangling falls, the Cheng family in Western Shu will face a two-pronged assault from Wei, and their destruction will be only a matter of days!"

He had never imagined that even after leaving Shangyong, he still could not escape the shadow of this great war.

Then Jia Fu's furrowed brow relaxed slightly, and he actually laughed. "But since I am here, Cen Peng's attempt to take Jiangling will not be so easy!"