Chapter 699: Who Among the Realm's Heroes Can Be His Rival?

Diwu Lun's plan to first pacify Ba and Shu, then ride the current downstream, advancing by both water and land to crush the Eastern Han — this was an open stratagem, and his enemies naturally understood the stakes just as clearly.

In the third month of the twelfth year of the Han Jianwu era (AD 36), Grand General of the Western Expedition Feng Yi, acting on imperial decree, arrived at the great naval camp on Wuhu Lake. In a military council restricted to only a handful of men, he laid out for Liu Xiu the new situation in Jingzhou over the past half year.

"In the past, the Wei army lacked ships. Though they had a thousand squads of armored cavalry, there was no way to use them."

Feng Yi spoke gravely: "But as early as when Diwu Lun ordered Cen Peng to destroy Shu, he had already built several hundred warships. Now that Gongsun is dead, Diwu Lun can freely use the manpower and resources of Shu to expand his naval forces. In my judgment, at the earliest within a year, at the latest within three, Wei will surely mobilize the entire realm in a grand assault, uniting their strength across ten thousand li, and send all the forces of Yizhou and northern Jingzhou sweeping down the river. At present, the combined water and land troops of southern Jingzhou, plus newly recruited levies, total no more than thirty thousand. Once battle begins, I fear the cities along the river — Xiakou, Changsha — will all be unable to hold."

"The same is true of Yangzhou."

Deng Yu took up the thread: "Geng Bozhao, at the Huai River's mouth where it enters the sea, is building giant ships. It is said they are one hundred and twenty paces long, can carry over a thousand men, with wooden citadels built atop them, watchtowers raised, and gates on all four sides — on these ships, horses can gallop freely."

"And on Chao Lake, they are mass-producing light skiffs and assault craft. Their numbers are already nearly catching up to the Wuhu fleet."

What was even more fatal was that, just over half a year ago, Liu Xiu had still dared to personally take a boat to spy on the Wei army's Chao Lake naval camp, and had borrowed a boatload of arrows. But now, if a Han ship dared approach again, before even entering bow and crossbow range, the naval camp would unceremoniously fire cannonballs and stone shot at it!

Deng Yu could well imagine that if those cannons were mounted on Wei ships, the Han army's last shred of naval superiority would be utterly swept away!

Liu Xiu certainly had not forgotten the devastating blow Wei cannons had dealt the Danyang troops at Dangyang. His ace unit had collapsed under the thunderous roar of cannon fire and the crushing charge of cavalry.

He deliberated through the night with Feng Yi and Deng Yu, but the three men ran through ten full war games, and in not a single one could the Han army achieve victory — even when they halved the enemy's ships and troop strength and made the most optimistic assumptions, the result was the same.

Deng Yu grew somewhat disheartened. He tossed the red war piece onto the map and voiced to Liu Xiu another layer of his worry: "If one battle could preserve the dynasty, then I would die without regret. My only fear is that when the Wei army truly attacks, the hearts of everyone in Jiangdong will be seized with terror, and the common soldiers will likewise be afraid, unable to be rallied again. I fear we may not even manage that single battle!"

With the destruction of the Cheng family, the Eastern Han stood alone. Defeatism began to revive in the southeast. The four great clans of Wu and Kuaiji each harbored their own designs. Some time ago, several officials had even taken their families across the river and defected to Wei. Even among the naval troops Deng Yu controlled, deserters were increasing by the day. No one still had confidence in the war.

Feng Yi, his face still etched with exhaustion, continued pondering, searching for a way to snatch victory from defeat. It was Liu Xiu, however, who strode over to the map, picked up the war piece again, and moved it south — away from the Yangtze River!

"You two, look here. If we deploy our forces like this, what then?"

Deng Yu and Feng Yi looked over, and saw that the small Han army piece now rested on Lingnan — Jiaozhou!

…

"Your Majesty is divinely wise!"

Deng Yu had once favored establishing the capital at Jinling and dividing the realm with Wei along the river. Now that even this opportunity was lost, he too had been racking his brains, pondering how to prolong the Great Han's life, his gaze repeatedly turning toward Lingnan's Jiaozhou, which he had personally subjugated.

"Since battle with Diwu Lun means certain defeat, would it not be better to leave? At least the dynastic altars can be preserved."

But the matter was of immense consequence. Whoever proposed it first would easily be condemned by a thousand pointing fingers. Deng Yu had not dared to speak lightly of it. He never expected Liu Xiu to be the one to bring it up. Deng Yu was instantly overjoyed and immediately voiced his support.

"Even if the Wei army crosses the river with two hundred thousand men, Jiangdong and southern Jingzhou are vast. They must leave troops to garrison every region, so their momentum will be dispersed. But if Your Majesty abandons the land to preserve the people, and leads the army, the officials, and the populace south to Jiaozhou, your momentum will be concentrated. Meeting the dispersed with the concentrated — and considering that the Wei troops are mostly northerners, unaccustomed to the southern climate — if they cross mountains and rivers to fight us among the Five Ranges, the Han army's odds of victory will greatly increase!"

A tree dies if moved; a man lives. With this one move, the certain-death chess game before the Eastern Han ruler and his ministers suddenly had the possibility of continuing!

Only then did Deng Yu understand: Liu Xiu had appointed Zhu You as Governor of Jiaozhou the previous year, and had also dispatched Zang Gong to campaign against the Luo people. It seemed he had already been preparing for this.

Liu Xiu laid out his entire plan: "After repelling the Wei army's offensive, Jiaozhou, though small, still has seven commanderies, stretching several thousand li east to west, with a population of over two million. A state can be founded there. Its lands are all fertile plains, where farming can be done in season. With an abundance of fish and salt, and the profits of maritime trade, supplies will be easy to come by."

Having spoken, and seeing Deng Yu was quite supportive, Liu Xiu looked to Feng Yi: "Gongsun, what is your view?"

Feng Yi did not support this plan. He said, obliquely: "Jiaozhou is secluded in a corner of the sea. If used to contend for the realm, its armor, weapons, and provisions are insufficient to supply such an effort. If used to stubbornly hold a single corner, its mountains and rivers are too obstructed and cut off to be relied upon. In the Former Han, Zhao Tuo once ruled as king there, but in the time of Emperor Xiaowu, when the Tower Ships of the Conquering Seas arrived with troops from five routes, the Southern Yue Kingdom swiftly fell."

Deng Yu retorted: "Gongsun, you are being one-sided. Zhao Tuo faced two generations of heroic sovereigns — Emperor Gao and Emperor Xiaowen — yet he managed to survive independently. During Empress Lü's reign, he even declared himself emperor and sent troops to attack the border settlements of Changsha, defeating several counties before withdrawing, and the Han could not stop him. His kingdom was passed down for five generations and lasted a full century!"

Feng Yi, however, ignored Deng Yu. He merely bowed deeply to Liu Xiu and spoke with deep emotion: "I was originally a Confucian scholar. When the wars first arose, in those chaotic times when heroes contended, Feng Yi was never confused. Beneath the walls of Kunyang, at a single glance I recognized that Your Majesty was the true Son of Heaven. Thus I have followed at your side for over ten years, serving in the ranks, appointed as a great general, enfeoffed as a Marquis, entrusted with sole responsibility for Jingzhou. None of these things did Feng Yi care about. I wished for only one thing: to aid Your Majesty in restoring the Great Han!"

"Now, though the southeast is weak, along the line of the Great River, a battle can still be fought. I would rather die than fail to defend the Great Han's altars. Yet Your Majesty wishes to flee without fighting, to abandon ten thousand li of mountains and rivers, and go to that most remote Jiaozhou? Your Majesty — are you still that General Liu of Kunyang who 'showed courage in the face of a great foe'? Is Your Majesty truly willing to be a mere Wei Tuo, and hand over the twelve provinces of the north to Diwu Lun with both hands?"

"Gongsun!" Deng Yu reproached Feng Yi for his breach of decorum, but Liu Xiu stopped him. He raised Feng Yi up and sighed: "Since proclaiming myself Emperor, I have fought over ten battles, great and small, against Diwu Lun. Defeated time and again, yet I have fought on time and again. Our territory has shrunk smaller and smaller, but I do not begrudge the lost cities and walls. I only grieve that the officers who followed me have already been lost, more than half of them."

"In just ten short years, I have lost Ma Wu, Lai Junshu, Liu Zhi, Yao Qi, Jia Fu, Ma Cheng, Li Tong, Jian Tan…"

As he named these departed loyal and good men, a glimmer of tears seemed to show in Liu Xiu's eyes. He grasped Feng Yi and Deng Yu's hands and said: "I am unwilling to let Gongsun, Zhonghua, and all the civil and military officers throw away their lives in vain any longer!"

"Rather than lose the mountains and rivers by fighting to the death, it is better to retreat, survive, and preserve the dynastic altars!"

Liu Xiu made a pledge to Feng Yi: "To leave for Jiaozhou is precisely to ensure that the hope of reviving the Great Han is kept alive and never extinguished!"

"Once I am in Jiaozhou, I will not sit and grow old amid the layered mountains and vast waters. In times of peace, we can repair the natural defenses, subdue the barbarian tribes, stockpile grain, and train troops. Given time, we can obtain a hundred thousand armored soldiers. Even if Diwu Lun raises every northern soldier, two hundred thousand strong, to attack, the road south is long and arduous. Lingnan is hot and humid, and epidemics are frequent. Before the northern soldiers even bloody their blades, two or three out of every ten will have sickened and died. The troops will be exhausted, their provisions cut off — they will repeat the defeat of Commandant Tu Sui in the Qin dynasty!"

"Yet Diwu Lun will not be content until he has destroyed me. If one attempt fails, he will levy troops for a second, and a third!"

In Liu Xiu's plan, the Five Ranges would become a grindstone to wear down the flesh and blood of the Wei army, just like the Gouding campaign in Wang Mang's time. By then, Wei's able-bodied men would all be conscripted for war, while the old and weak transported supplies. The people would suffer under the military burdens, and deserters would be many. Under Diwu Lun's rule, there would be turmoil within and without, the common folk exhausted, and bandits rising everywhere.

"If Wei suffers repeated setbacks at the Five Ranges, and then trouble arises in the north — such as provincial rebellions, Qiang and Hu incursions on the borders, or even Diwu Lun dying of illness…"

By now, Liu Xiu could only hope for his own longevity, that he might outlive Diwu Lun and then teach his sons and grandsons a lesson. He sighed inwardly, but his spoken words grew ever more impassioned: "When that time comes, the Han army can cross Hengpu Pass to threaten Yuzhang, and emerge from Huangxi to press against southern Jingzhou. Eastward, we can sweep through the Seven Min regions, opening the routes of boats and carts to Ouyue. Westward to the farthest reaches of Nanzhong, we can employ the bows and arrows of the Bo lads. We can even build seagoing ships, hoist sails, and in an instant strike our oars at Wu, Kuaiji, and Jiangdu, displaying our might at the Huai shores! Nothing will be impossible."

It seemed Liu Xiu had indeed thought this through. Feng Yi was persuaded, and with tears streaming down, he begged forgiveness for his offense.

Even a diehard loyalist like Feng Yi had been momentarily unable to accept it upon learning Liu Xiu intended to flee south to Jiaozhou. It was easy to imagine that if this matter spread, a great schism would inevitably erupt within the Eastern Han. Liu Xiu believed the majority of his old subordinates would follow him, but what of the gentry clans of Jiangdong, and the local soldiers of southern Jingzhou, Yuzhang, and Danyang? They would likely change their banners at once and respectfully welcome the Wei army.

Therefore, the entire matter had to be carried out in secret. Liu Xiu had already dispatched Zhu You and others to take up their posts in Jiaozhou. This great relocation would still take another year or half a year to complete. When the time came, Liu Xiu would use the pretext of traveling to Chongling in Lingling Commandery to offer sacrifices at the ancestral tombs, while in reality carrying out the southern migration.

Zhuang Ziling was right: that the Han was about to fall was something known to both the wise and the foolish — and not just as of today!

But he would not be the sacrificial ox, nor the orphaned calf.

He would be the lead ox, leading the herd to survival!

Though his resolve was set, after Feng Yi and Deng Yu left, Liu Xiu still felt a wave of desolation.

"If it were not an absolute last resort, how could I ever abandon Jiangdong, Wu, Kuaiji, Yuzhang, and southern Jingzhou, and hand these fine mountains and rivers over to Diwu Lun for nothing?"

But ever since the Battle of Dangyang, the outcome had already been sealed. It truly could not be reversed by human effort. Even if that battle had not been fought, how much difference would there have been in the final result? From what point in time had he, Liu Xiu, lost the possibility of prevailing against Diwu Lun? Huaibei? Xiangyang? Or even earlier?

Perhaps, in his heart, Liu Xiu had already accepted the fact that he ultimately could not defeat Diwu Lun?

"No!"

Liu Xiu strode out of the military stockade and stood atop the river dike. Before him rolled the mighty Yangtze. He gazed westward, as if looking at the moon, and also as if gazing from afar at the opponent of his lifetime: Diwu Lun.

He would not give up. He would continue to fight this battle — a battle that in Diwu Lun's eyes had already been decided.

So long as the blazing Han banner still flew over some patch of land, so long as the altars of the House of Han could still continue their incense and fire, he had not yet lost!

Liu Xiu's gaze hardened once more with resolve. Facing the river waters, he swore an oath:

"Liu Xiu may be defeated for a time."

"But the Great Han — "

"will not perish!"

…

In the fourth month of the twelfth year of Wude, Diwu Lun had already left Chengdu and traveled east into Ba Commandery, arriving at the city of Jiangzhou — which in later ages would be Chongqing.

Jiangzhou City was built after Zhang Yi destroyed Ba during the Qin era. It lies on the eastern part of the Yuzhong Peninsula, its walls rising with the mountain contours, houses stacked tier upon tier like stair steps, climbing from the foothills all the way up the slopes — already a mountain city. It faces the river on three sides, and now at the turn of spring and summer, the river waters swell and flood, stretching as far as the eye can see.

At this very moment, Diwu Lun stands at the easternmost edge of Jiangzhou City, where the Long River and the Jialing River converge at the tip of the Yuzhong Peninsula and flow east together. Two thousand years from now, this place will be called "Chaotianmen Wharf," a forest of masts and sails, boats and barges shuttling back and forth.

You dwell where the Long River ends, I dwell where it begins. Over there, Liu Xiu has sworn an oath by the Wuhu riverbank to be Diwu Lun's "rival" for all time. Diwu Lun, too, gazes out at the Long River, the nine-eared jade pendant that has traveled back and forth between Liu Xiu and him several times now held in his hand, his eyes deep and pensive, as if lost in thought.

But he is not simply thinking of Liu Xiu from afar — he is pondering matters far more profound.

Diwu Lun recalls what he said before his teacher's grave, at Yang Xiong's tomb, a little over a month ago.

"Master, the war is over — but not completely over."

"Yet whether Liu Xiu flails and struggles, stubbornly defending the river, or flees south to Jiaozhi with his civil and military confidants — none of that matters!"

As early as when they discussed the river-crossing strategy in Chengdu, the sovereign and ministers of the State of Wei had already made all manner of predictions and conjectures, and even drawn up interception plans: Ma Yuan proposed that the Western Army of Yizhou could dispatch a flanking force from Ba Commandery, through Qianzhong, into Zangke, then follow the "goji berry sauce" route that Emperor Wu of Han once used to attack Nanyue — striking Lingnan via the Zangke River!

He thought that junior general Yun A, the one who had slipped through the Yinping byway, was perfectly suited to carry out this mission…

Diwu Lun gave his assent.

Returning to this day, this hour, Diwu Lun gazes at the river and continues in a low voice:

"Liu Xiu is no longer my rival!"

This is not the pride and complacency of a victor, nor is it looking down on Xiù'er's death throes. On the contrary, Diwu Lun has always deeply respected Liu Xiu — and annihilation is the greatest respect of all.

It is simply that, as the war nears its end, Diwu Lun has discovered that compared to the straightforward rival in the contest for the realm, many terrifying, intractable "rivals" are now revealing themselves, one after another!

No matter how formidable Liu Xiu is, he is still just a man, with weaknesses, with limits — but those new rivals…

They are not human.

…

PS: Tomorrow evening, the final chapter — the grand finale.