The Battle Outside the Map (1) [Map]
Where would they fight?
The area north of Yin Mountain where Tanshihuai was gathering his forces was, from Bing Province’s western perspective, directly opposite to the north.
So I could roughly guess the direction from which Tanshihuai would advance.
Yin Mountain was part of the mountain range that would later be called the Yin Mountain Range.
In other words, Tanshihuai would likely push through the Yin Mountain Range and head south.
“After passing through Guanglu Pass and striking Wuyuan Commandery, it seems he will march along the Yellow River.”
Huyan Gu, the head of the Huyan clan, predicted Tanshihuai’s advance route as if he were the Chanyu’s own advisor.
His gaze swept across several of Hozheng’s sons.
They nodded subtly, their faces grave.
Even when Hozheng had still been Left Wise King, the Huyan clan had already sent women ahead to prepare for the future.
Once Hozheng took the Chanyu throne, he had caused a great uproar to promote that woman to Yanzhi.
By placing Xubu’s woman as the first Yanzhi—Geon Yanzhi—the Huyan clan woman was pushed to the second position, Da Yanzhi, three years earlier.
In short, Huyan Gu seemed determined to play the role of “in-law” with the sons of the Huyan Da Yanzhi.
Well, even so, his prediction was sound.
Even if they fought for dominance within the Southern Xiongnu, every man here had already tasted war against the Han.
Huyan Gu’s eyes left the young men.
“The real problem is what happens after we strike Wuyuan Commandery. Marching west along the Yellow River leads to Shuofang Commandery and Beidi Commandery; going east leads to Yunzhong, Qingyang, and Yanmen Commanderies.”
The statement that we could not know which direction he would choose to attack Bing Province.
In the Chanyu palace, they were now choosing the single most advantageous place to confront Tanshihuai’s great army.
To do that, we would have to draw the Han army deep into Bing Province and calculate the exact moment when they would expose their weakness.
“If they had meant to attack the three eastern commanderies of Yunzhong, Qingyang, and Yanmen, wouldn’t they have gathered the army again at Tan Han Mountain?”
It was Xubu Chang who spoke.
His words carried weight, yet Huyan Gu’s expression twisted, irritated by his rival’s reasoning.
“Then the intention would be too obvious. He might have chosen the path through Guanglu Pass from Yin Mountain. Once he reaches Wuyuan Commandery, the road to Shuofang and Beidi lies open to the west. We could concentrate our forces there and strike east instead.”
After striking east, draw fresh troops from the Han’s eastern lands to form a long front from Wuyuan to Yanmen… then we would have no idea where the enemy would strike, and the enemy would be free to toy with us at will.
That was Huyan Gu’s thought.
“If the intention is so obvious,”
I was startled by the voice that had joined the conversation—besides Xubu Chang and Huyan Gu.
Yufuluo, my father, Yufuluo.
During the previous Great Chanyu Tute Ruoshi Gongzhu he had been the Chanyu’s grandson; now he was the Chanyu’s nephew.
The weight of his words had grown accordingly.
“Both sides are the same. Tanshihuai has other routes to reach Beidi or Shuofang without passing through Guanglu Pass.”
Northwest corner of Shuofang Commandery.
Ambiguous terrain the Great Wall could not protect.
He could bypass the fortresses of Shuofang Commandery—Jilu Pass and Gaogua Pass—and avoid the treacherous Yingwu Valley of Beidi Commandery, slipping through the land between the two commanderies.
“At the time when the deposed former Beidi Taishou Ha Yu faced Tanshihuai, the Han army had already advanced along that route.”
Yufuluo sounded skeptical of both Xubu Chang’s and Huyan Gu’s opinions.
“My nephew, Yufuluo Wang, where do you believe Tanshihuai will head if he passes through Guanglu Pass?”
“Different Chanyu, I believe Tanshihuai will strike straight at our position in Miji.”
Well, it was not merely because I was his father… yet it was a sound opinion.
There was no reason for Tanshihuai to avoid a frontal clash with us.
Instead, if he had truly gathered a great army, he should have struck Miji in one swift blow, crushed our leadership, burned Lishi County on the way south, and kept pushing until he reached Saji.
Even if it meant raising tiger cubs for our Xiongnu, the reason the Han could not simply abandon us… was that the army which had vanished in the previous campaign still lacked the strength to defend Luoyang.
“Yufuluo Wang, would Tanshihuai truly plan such a war?”
The speaker this time was Dangwu On-don, the Dangwu Gudu Marquess.
“Where exactly does Tanshihuai’s purpose lie? As always, he raids somewhere, plunders thoroughly, and returns.”
Yufuluo shook his head.
“If that were the case, he would have scattered his forces like last year and struck Liang, Bing, You, and the three provinces. But this time his gathering of troops mirrors the Han’s pacification army. They must have felt the need to unite the entire Xiongnu under Tanshihuai. If there is any difference, they gathered then for defense; this time it is for revenge. They wish to burn our blood with us.”
Yufuluo’s words were correct.
In front of him sat my grandfather Qiangqu, staring only at the floor.
Originally a man who had become Chanyu after Hozheng’s death but perished in rebellion for serving the Han too faithfully.
Like such a man, Qiangqu said nothing.
All opinions had been voiced.
I approached Hozheng on my knees, closing the distance.
“...Chanyu, do you have any thoughts to add?”
“Tengri has spoken: this victory will not lie south of Guanglu Pass.”
Xubu Chang, Huyan Gu, Yufuluo, and Dangwu On-don all held differing views, yet one point united them.
That when confronting Tanshihuai we must wait for him to pass through Guanglu Pass and strike Wuyuan Commandery.
The Great Wall had long ceased to function; one of its fortresses, Guanglu Pass, was so ruined it could no longer defend itself.
If the fortress defense failed while holding the pass—as Juyong Pass had fallen to the Wuhuan—both we and the Southern Xiongnu would be finished.
Hunkering down in a fortress and blocking the enemy was never the Xiongnu’s specialty.
Above all else.
“Since the Xiongnu split north and south, our inner home has been Mobei… yet a hundred years have already passed. Are not all of you here people whose true home is Bing Province?”
Actually, the remark had been made with Wuyuan Commandery—my father’s home—in mind.
As a disciple and one who wished to continue ruling Yufuluo, I had to protect Yufuluo’s home to some extent.
“This fight is both a battle to manifest Tengri’s will upon the earth and a battle to defend our homes.”
At a time when most of Bing Province’s army had scattered.
If the Xiongnu army merely watched the Han people of Bing Province being plundered, the integration between Xiongnu and Han in Bing Province would recede further.
Bing Province was the home of the Han people; we must not see ourselves merely as nomadic birds flying above it.
Bing Province must be the home of both Han and Xiongnu.
Home.
This word stirred the hearts of all present.
“Therefore we must immediately pass through Wuyuan Commandery and exit beyond Guanglu Pass.”
And there was one more thing we aimed to seize.
“We must not allow Tanshihuai to dictate the battlefield.”
The greatest obstacle to the northern expedition was the first step beyond the Great Wall.
If we could take even one step outside the Great Wall this time, the road to the northern campaign would become far easier.
“We will leave Guanglu Pass, and we will force the battlefield we desire upon Tanshihuai.”
***
Recently, Empress He’s heart had swelled like that of a new bride.
She had become empress.
Her elder brother had been summoned to the emperor’s side and made Governor of Henan.
And her younger sister had not become the wife of Zhang Yang, the emperor’s close attendant.
She had heard since childhood that she was pretty, yet she had never imagined she would become an empress.
Though her stepbrother He Jin had earned some money from butchery, at best he might have become the concubine of some elderly minister.
Originally looked down upon because she was Rong, perhaps she had married into the same Rong family.
Yet… the days had been so happy she wondered if it was truly allowed to be this happy.
Above all, her hope was her son Liu Bian.
The emperor had not enfeoffed him as crown prince, but since she had become empress she assumed it would happen soon.
“The reason the emperor has not yet enfeoffed the crown prince is probably because he has lost so many sons and his heart is wounded.”
Poor emperor. The emperor must feel that way, thinking that if even Bian became crown prince and left the world first, what then.
So when she received the summons from the emperor Liu Hong after so long, Ha said she must soothe the emperor’s heart and set out for the depths of the palace with barely enough composure to keep her face.
As she walked, something felt wrong.
She muttered “strange” and, hearing the sound of a baby crying, unconsciously stopped.
A baby crying.
Her heart began to pound.
The heart of a mother who had given birth reacted to the baby’s cry.
“Quickly—someone, no, lead me to where the baby is crying!”
There was no need.
The closer she came to the place the emperor had summoned her, the louder the baby’s cry grew.
What on earth had happened?
When she finally arrived, her swollen happiness was exactly overturned by an equal measure of fear.
“Empress… Mother…?”
Her mother-in-law was kneeling on the floor, covering her face with both hands, trembling violently.
The baby’s cry came from the cradle.
Ha approached the cradle as if running and lifted the infant.
“Xie…”
One of the emperor’s two sons.
A newborn baby born this year.
Ha had never thought of Xie as a rival to her son Bian. Bian was nine this year; Xie was a newborn.
Instead, when Bian returned from visiting his aunt Wang Min’s quarters, he had said, “Mother, my brother is very cute,” and Ha had thought that even with the age difference they could be good siblings.
Moreover, how kind Wang Min had been.
The only person who had treated her—low-born and subtly ignored in the harem—as a true brother.
Grateful for that kindness, Ha had brought Wang Min, who had given birth to her son Liu Xie and endured the jealousy of the other concubines, to her side to protect her…
…Where was Wang Min?
She nearly dropped the baby.
As a mother of one child, the instinct never to hand the baby over to that monster barely saved Xie.
Wang Min lay in a pool of blood.
In front of her… her husband, the emperor, was alone, tilting his wine cup as if nothing had happened.
“Empress.”
She could not answer.
“Empress!”
“Uh, ah, yes… yes, Your Majesty.”
Ha’s voice sounded foolish even to her own ears.
“Closer.”
She understood why her mother-in-law could do nothing but tremble.
She herself felt as though she would fall.
Yet with fear of the emperor she barely moved her feet.
The moment she saw Wang Min’s horrific face in the corner of her vision, Ha squeezed her eyes shut.
It was not the blood.
The resentment toward her husband, the mother’s sorrow toward the son Xie she had to leave behind… those things remained in the dead man’s eyes, impossible to look upon.
“All of the emperor’s children are the empress’s children, separate from their biological mothers.”
“…Yes?”
“Xie is the emperor’s son. So the biological mother Wang Min is troublesome and has been removed as a burden.”
“Ah, still, a baby…”
Confused, rolling her eyes, she met her mother-in-law Dong Taohou’s gaze.
The empress shook her head violently, warning her not to do that.
As a person before mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, a warning not to defy the emperor’s words if you do not wish to die.
Ha bit her lips tight.
“Let us consider Wang Min’s life as taken by the empress.”
Ha’s tightly closed lips trembled.
“Here, take this.”
The mother’s instinct screamed not to hand the baby over to that monster, yet the fear of death drained the strength from her arms.
Liu Hong picked up Xie,
“Mother.”
He called.
“Mother!”
When Liu Hong shouted and Xie began to wail, Dong Taohou crawled forward and reached the emperor.
Liu Hong handed Xie to the empress.
“This child will grow up in the mother’s hands… well, roughly called ‘Donghou’.”
After death, Liu Bian, Donghou Liu Xie.
Ha could not fathom why Liu Hong was doing this.
It was already difficult just not to faint.
“Empress, raise Bian well. If you do not, I will have no choice but to choose ‘Da An’.”
Tears of fear poured from Ha’s eyes.
Looking at such a Ha, Liu Hong smiled and added,
“It would be good if things go well with Taiping Dao, and praying with the daosers would be good too.”