200-201: TO BETTER!
The capture of his family was terrible news for
Yang Weili. This was a clear blow to his cause, which was already damaged by his questionable strategy. His plan had been to avoid an actual war and instead get into a long conflict of attrition fought through sieges. That way he would avoid more losses of lives in this internal conflict. Of course, this strategy had been highly criticized by some of his followers, chief among them
Hu Zan, who had argued for a more offensive approach. Now that his family had been captured, Yang Weili was once again pressured by Hu Zan to go on the offensive, to destroy the rebels and the barbarians trying to destroy Yang Province. While he had previously pushed back against this idea, the governor now realized that he needed a new approach if he ever hoped to turn this mess around. He agreed that they needed to get proactive, and quick, to which Hu Zan simply answered
“Then let us hope that you finally listened to me before it is too late.”
It took a week to reorganize his army and prepare it for combat. This meant ridding it of a lot of its siege equipment and unnecessary supply that could slow them down. As for the commands, he would obviously be one of the officers leading the troops. Hu Zan made it clear that he would be commanding as well, or else he would leave and return to his commandery. Yang Weili agreed, but did not give him control of the center as the general had expected. This honor went to Quaid Quach, the southern barbarian chieftain who now served Yang Province. This was a shock to many, Quaid Quach first among them. He had to race to go meet the provincial forces, as he was still overseeing the defenses of his own territories when he was called upon. While Quaid Quach was an excellent military commander, his presence among the officers was badly received. He was the enemy Chen Wen had once planned to crush into submission, yet here was Yang Weili handing him command of the troops. And he claimed to be Chen Wen’s successor? Hu Zan certainly felt slighted by this, and in private discussed with his Lieutenant Cai Zhong his growing disgust with the governor’s cause.
Quaid Quach certainly took advantage of his presence on the war council to suggest a target. In August of last year, barbarians had risen up close to his lands following a still ongoing barbarian invasion. These had ravaged the countryside and were now moving north, closer to the provincial forces. Maybe it was arrogance on their part or they had gotten lost, but they did present a perfect opportunity to deal with the revolt. While there were some accusations that this was all a barbarian ploy, these were quickly shut down. Surprisingly, Hu Zan was critical of those throwing accusations, voicing the fact that this was a good and competent plan. These barbarians could be dealt with in one swoop, removing the possibility that they became an annoyance while their own army faced Lu Jun’s forces. Neither Yang Weili nor Hu Zan would admit that they also hoped to get their hands on all that loot the barbarians must have accumulated, of course.
As agreed, the army left its current siege and moved against the barbarian host close to them. Having not faced any real resistance since they started their rampage in August 199, the barbarians were confident that they could also defeat this incoming army. In February, they arrogantly launched an assault on the provincial forces. Yang Weili was able to use that confidence of theirs to draw them into a trap, allowing Quaid Quach to annihilate the rebellious barbarians. While the leader of the uprising escaped the actual battle, he was quickly caught up by a pursuit force led by Hu Zan, who proudly presented him to Yang Weili. This little victory proved a great morale boost to the men and even gave some officers hope that their governor could finally turn this around. If they were able to have that much success against the rebels, then they might win this!
As they made their way back to rebel territories, Yang Weili was told in April that Administrator Teng Dexia of Changsha Commandery had died. This left the general Bu Baoxun as the only viable candidate to replace him. This was quite awkward for the governor, as he had appointed Teng Dexia on the advice of Hu Zan, passing over Bu Baoxun for the promotion. The general was quite pissed over the previous snob, and quite depressed that he had been treated this way. The death of his former master Su Dai also continued to weight on his conscience. When Yang Weili sent news of the appointment and offered to give him a command as a way to make up for the past snub, Bu Baoxun refused. This was lazy of the governor to offer this as if it would magically fix everything, he thought. Instead, he would stay in Jing Province and help protect it from its enemies. And that way he wouldn’t have to deal with Yang Weili and his companions.
The influence of Quaid Quach after his plan succeeded annoyed Hu Zan, who fancied himself the top military officer of Yang Weili. His frustration continued to grow with the appointment of Bu Baoxun as Administrator of Changsha Commandery, something he had been trying to avoid as he saw the general as a potential rival for power within the army. Yang Weili seemed either blind to this or didn’t worry about it. By May, Hu Zan had serious talks with Cai Zhong about packing up and going home. Still, out of sympathy for all those years serving together, Hu Zan went to the Governor of Yang Province and explained his many grievances. Fearing what would happen if he lost Hu Zan’s support, Yang Weili finally gave him what he had always wanted all those years: he made Hu Zan the new Commandant of the province, along with a hefty bribe to convince him to stay. This had the effect of mollifying the general for the time being, as he felt like he was finally receiving his rightful reward.
Notably, he also tried to offer the position of Chief Clerk to Chen Chengguo, who was still holed up in the south of Jing Province professing his family link to Chen Wen. If that was true, Yang Weili hoped to have a cousin of his old friend serve by his side to present a united front. But Chen Chengguo kindly refused the offer, using his infirmity as an excuse to stay home. To some in Jing Province, this was taken as a sign that Chen Chengguo did not support Yang Weili, although the man himself never said so. This left Yang Weili with his protégé Xiang Lang to continue on as Chief Clerk, although his protégé was a bit annoyed that he almost loss his post that easily.
Yang Weili’s new strategy had forced the rebels to reconsider their situation. Lu Jun had so far gained a lot from going with a strategy of besieging Yang Weili’s territory, and now had the man’s family in his jails. This whole strategy had also beneficiated Sima Juhe, who had positioned himself as Lu Jun’s man. Yet now Yang Weili was going on the offensive. While Lu Jun ignored the reports at first and didn’t understand what his advisors were talking about (as he had no understanding of warfare whatsoever), he was finally forced to realize that things were changing. This gave Zhang Yan the opportunity to regain centerstage. He had always believed that they should meet the enemy in battle, even if Lu Jun had always rebuffed him. Now though, he presented the need to stop Yang Weili from threatening the provincial capital. Taking it back would certainly boost the governor’s prestige and hurt the rebel cause. Annoyed, but unwilling to let Yang Weili achieve any success, Lu Jun gave command of the whole army to Zhang Yan.
Zhang Yan felt confident when he finally faced the provincial troops in August. He had almost double the number of men, and he heard of the disputes between the officers over the previous year. While Yang Weili and his generals were competent commanders, they were no Lü Bu, capable of making their way through a swat of soldiers unarmed. And he had survived Lü Bu, even if he had eventually lost that war. Fighting the governor’s army would thus be a piece of cake as long as he held his ground. From his base of operation within the city of Chaisang, Zhang Yan started to plan Lu Jun’s final victory, a successful battle that would put an end to the war and secure his position in the new regime.
But what Zhang Yan had failed to consider was that large battles of attrition had never been his field of expertise. The reason he had been able to survive Lü Bu for so long was due to his talent in guerilla tactic, and this would prove useless here. Meanwhile, both Yang Weili and Hu Zan had much experience in that domain. His information was also wrong on the internal problems of the provincial army. While it was true that Yang Weili had experienced disputes and challenges within his own ranks, most notably from Hu Zan, by the time of the battle he had succeeded in uniting his men behind the goal of defeating the rebellion. When the battle started, the provincial forces were able to stop Zhang Yan’s assault for two days without flinching. On the third day, a coordinated attack on the center actually forced Zhang Yan to leave the field, although his subordinates used this opportunity to push Hu Zan and Yang Weili into doing the same. At the end, Quaid Quach stood strong against their double assaults and was able to defeat them. Victory was to Yang Weili and his supporters.
As Zhang Yan was forced to retreat to the south, Yang Weili and his men celebrated was seemed like an unlikely victory. They had triumphed over a stronger enemy and sent it packing. What other proof did they need to show that they were favored by Heaven in this war? Yang Weili then made a controversial decision. Instead of ordering a fast pursuit, he slowly followed the retreating army of Zhang Yan and sent a peace offer to Lu Jun. Fighting a long war would be hard and violent. The Governor of Yang Province thus preferred to take the easier path of peace, offering white peace to the rebel leader, to make it as if nothing had ever happened. The old man was baffled by this. Yang Weili had won a single battle and now he thought that he could dictate the terms of peace? Did that idiot forget how he still held his family? Lu Jun refused any offer of peace, instead sending Sima Juhe with reinforcements for Zhang Yan.
The provincial army finally caught up to Zhang Yan in October, almost two months after their earlier victory at Chaisang. They now hoped to reproduce their previous accomplishment and defeat the enemy army, which was still a thousand men stronger even after its defeat. But this time Zhang Yan had learned his lesson and prepared accordingly. Placing himself close to a river, he forced Yang Weili and his men to traverse it to fight him, refusing to meet them on their side. This obviously put the provincial troops at an early disadvantage, but Hu Zan and Yang Weili had accounted for this in their strategy. What they hadn’t expected was the arrival of Sima Juhe’s reinforcements. Thanks to the slow advance of Yang Weili and his men, the former Yellow Turban leader had been able to arrive just as the battle was reaching its peak. To their credit, Yang Weili and his officers were able to achieve a mostly organized retreat. Losing a hundred men was little, considering that they had a river at their back and needed to get across again. Still, this show of discipline didn’t change the fact that they had lost the battle.
Once safely away from the rebels, the provincial army had to come to term with what had happened, and more importantly, put the blame on someone. Cai Zhong, possibly on Hu Zan’s behalf (or even orders), was the first to come forward and put the blame for this whole mess on Yang Weili. His peace attempt and his slow advance had cost them their advantages, allowing Zhang Yan to reorganize and prepare himself. Not only that, but they might have won if Sima Juhe hadn’t arrived out of nowhere on the last day of fighting and reck their formation.
“A week less would have given us victory!” he declared. Certainly, the feeling among the ranks and files by the end of the year was that their leader had wasted their momentum. Yang Weili tried to explain his reasoning, but it did nothing to convince people that he hadn’t fucked up. Hu Zan point blank told him
“All those deaths that happened and all those to come. They will be your fault.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Yan’s celebrations were cut short by the arrival of Sima Juhe. The two men feuded over Lu Jun’s favor, with Sima Juhe often coming out on top. Zhang Yan had hoped that a successful campaign would allow him to become Lu Jun’s right-hand man in the province once victory was achieved. Although this plan went awry for a while, at the end of the day he still managed to defeat Yang Weili’s army. But Sima Juhe had other instructions. Following his earlier defeat, Lu Jun decided that from this point on the two commanders would share command of the war. Annoyed at being robbed of his sole authority, Zhang Yan still couldn’t do much but spit at the snarky general who brought the news. They would have to tolerate each other, even if they had no plan to cooperate.
January 201 did not bring any new fortune for Yang Weili. His war council had decided that the best strategy (and possibly the only left) was to go challenge the rebel again, this time on favorable grounds. But then morale dropped again as news of another barbarian uprising arrived. Already there were two barbarian hosts destroying Yang Province that the Governor had ignored so far. Now he was receiving letters from Bu Baoxun and Xiang Lang that barbarians had risen up in the south of Jing Province and requested his help to deal with it. Sadly for them, Yang Weili’s focus was now on winning the civil war, with the barbarians taking a back seat in term of priority. This was perceived my many in Jing Province as abandonment by their governor, who clearly focused on one of his two provinces at the expanse of the other.
It was in March 201 that the two armies met once again at Bufu. Hu Zan, who had been growing more and more dissatisfied of the war, had wanted them to chose a territory within their own lands and lure the rebels in a trap. This idea had been rejected by Yang Weili, who wanted to strike at the heart of rebel territories to hurt their morale and force them on the defensive. Hu Zan also accused Yang Weili of being lazy in his preparations, something that had become a staple of his general management of both the war and the provinces. Tensions were at their highest when the two armies appeared at the horizon. But then, Sima Juhe rode in front of his troops, challenging Yang Weili to a duel, if he dared.
This led to a heated dispute between the Governor and his Commandant. Hu Zan was appalled that Yang Weili even considered accepting the duel, to which his liege answered that if he refused, he would be accused of cowardice and morale would plummet. Hu Zan replied that he should send someone else then. It was suicide for him to go, and at this point he might just fight
Liu Siyuan, as at least this would lead to a quicker death. But Yang Weili insisted that he had to go. When his Commandant accused him of acting out of vain glory seeking, the strategist pointed out the problem of the situation. Who else could they send? The only one remotely competent in one-on-one fighting was Quaid Quach, and he was fully aware of how well the barbarian was received within their ranks. How would it look for him to send a barbarian kill a fellow Chinese? No, he had to be the one to do it. To this, Hu Zan threw his hands in the air in frustration.
“Then I won’t be there for your failure”, he answered. Yang Weili told him that he could just stay in the camp then.
Yang Weili went to fight Sima Juhe in an open space between the two armies, so that everyone could see their leaders duel it out. The former Yellow Turban actually seemed surprised that the strategist agreed to the challenge, and laughed at him for his stupidity. Yang Weili quickly charged at his opponent, but Sima Juhe just snickered at him and dodged his attacks with ease. He was full of confidence, convinced that he would easily defeat the governor. When the rebel went on the offensive, Yang Weili could barely block his strikes, and soon enough he ended up on the ground screaming, severely injured. Before Sima Juhe could deliver the final strike, loyal soldiers broke ranks and came to their lord’s rescue, saving a now unconscious Yang Weili from certain death.
When he woke up the following day, Yang Weili first noticed how painful it was to move with his wound to the chest. The duel had left him badly injured, and he was in no shape to go lead an army on the battlefield, especially after this humiliating personal defeat. But the second thing he noticed left him a lot more worried. There was no sign of his Commandant anywhere. In fact, neither Cai Zhong nor their men were in the camps. As it turned out, Hu Zan had been quite literal when he spoke of not being there. Now convinced that Yang Weili was a failure as both a commander and a governor, Hu Zan had packed his bags and went home. However, he couldn’t simply go crawl to Lu Jun, not that he wanted too. Both men were as useless as the other in his eyes. No, he was the one who should have succeeded Chen Wen. He was the one who won Yang Province its independence, and now he was the one who would bring it back on track. As soon as he arrived home, Hu Zan rose in revolt against Yang Weili.
The general had been smart enough to garner allies for his new rebellion, realizing that he might not have the troops to take Lu Jun or Yang Weili alone. In this, he had managed to gain the support of two individuals. The first one was a barbarian chieftain who had been subject to Yang Province named Huang Rang. His loyalty to the province and the revolt was dubious, but he was a powerful chieftain that knew how to command his men. Having such a warrior fighting for him was sure to put fear in the heart of his enemies. The other one was a more civilized man, the Chinese Administrator of Kuaiji Commandery named Tang Gu. Tang Gu was the grandson of Tang Mao, the Commandant of Yang Province in 190. Considering how Yang Weili had ruined his grandfather’s reputation and career, Tang Gu was all too willing to join any revolt against Yang Weili (the only reason he didn’t join Lu Jun’s was because the old official had no respect for the Tang Clans since its fall from grace).
But Yang Weili couldn’t give too much attention to this betrayal, as he still had a battle to fight. But the situation was not in his favor. His defeat in the duel, followed by the flight of Hu Zan and his men, had demoralized the troops, who now felt abandoned and weakened against an enemy that was roaring for their blood. The fact that Yang Weili’s state forced him to rely even more on Quaid Quach did nothing to improve morale. Now they had a barbarian commanding them. Officers certainly started to grumble among themselves. When the battle finally took place, it was a disaster, Quaid Quach losing a third of the men due to a pincer maneuver from Zhang Yan and Sima Juhe. If it wasn’t for the two men’s inability to cooperate, the provincial forces might have been destroyed right them and there.
This defeat convinced Yang Weili to abandon his strategy of offensive battles and return to his old plan to win the war through sieges. With Hu Zan having now joined the war, this conflict had turned into a three-way fight for control of Yang Province. The Governor hoped to turn this situation to his advantage, as Lu Jun now had to deal with another contender. While Yang Weili recuperated with his forces and besieged cities, the two rebels would fight it out between themselves and weaken one another. This seemed to be working when in June hu Zan led an attack against a small host loyal to Lu Jun, destroying it and claiming his first victory of the civil war. Sadly, the provincial army was still pursued by Zhang Yan, who forced a battle late June and utterly annihilated what was left of Yang Weili’s forces, with only five hundred men making it out alive.
Yang Weili fled into Jing Province, hoping to find support and recruits to help him. But if he hoped that he was getting back to safety, then he was in for a rude awakening. The failures of Yang Weili since October 200 had finally convinced some of Jing Province’s officials that he had to be removed. They went to Chen Chengguo and asked the old man what was his opinion of Yang Weili. Chen Chengguo’s response was
“Yang Weili is the Governor of Yang Province.” This was interpreted by the conspirators as meaning that Yang Weili WAS NOT the Governor of Jing Province, and so should be kicked out of office. So they revolted. Unlike Lu Jun or Hu Zan, who were personally fighting to take over Yang Province, these rebels tried to put Chen Chengguo in charge of Jing Province, even though he did not join their rebellion. Yang Weili would later find out that the ringleader of the plot was none other than Xiang Lang, his Chief Clerk and protégé, which was like twisting the knife in the wound for him.
What remained of the provincial forces were still unaware of what was happening when they entered Jing Province. Trying to use this to their advantage, a 200 men host lured them into a trap at Xiakou. However, Yang Weili saw the signs of an ambush from a mile away and was quick to prepare his forces. When the rebels finally struck, they were themselves caught by surprise by how efficiently the provincial troops defended themselves. The small rebel force was soon routed, with the captured soldiers revealing the revolt that had just erupted in Jing Province. The soldiers started to panic at this news, realizing that what was supposed to be a safe haven had turned into a death trap. Yang Weili did his best to calm them, but he had little time to do anything else as a bigger enemy host arrived to their position, this time defeating them and forcing them to flee back south.
The prospect of having to go back to fighting Zhang Yan and Sima Juhe wasn’t a pleasing one. Seeing how his men were weakened, tired and demoralized, Yang Weili sent a letter to Lu Jun, telling him that he wanted to end the war, on Lu Jun’s terms. Lu Jun who was too old to leave the provincial capital by this point, had the Governor escorted to him with a promise of safe passage back to his own lands once this was over. Lu Jun made it clear that he wanted the seal of Yang Province and that Yang Weili would be banished for life, never to come back again. Yang Weili, seeing as he had no chance of winning, simply asked that Lu Jun did not involve himself in his own affairs in Jing Province. Having never cared for anything outside of Yang Province, the old official agreed to this last clause. On the 21st of August, 201, Yang Weili formally relinquished control of Yang Province to Lu Jun and left, never to return. Abandoning the province that he had helped expand and develop was a hard thing to swallow, as he felt as if he was abandoning Chen Wen’s dream. Yet he had no other choice, and now he needed to focus on safekeeping Jing Province.
But the situation didn’t look brighter when it came to Jing. The rebels had more men than he did, and there were still those barbarians raging in the south destroying everything. After being allowed to return to his own domain, he sent Quaid Quach and what remained of their army to stop the rebels. But while they were always losing men, it seemed that their enemies kept recruiting more troops. A failed attempt to stop their advance in October convinced Yang Weili that he couldn’t win this either. However, surrendering to the rebels was not an option. This time he would end up getting thrown in a cell, if he was left alive at all. After a few weeks of being confronted with this dilemma, Yang Weili finally had an epiphany. He could take the third option. While he might not be able to protect the province, someone else surely could. He just needed to give it to a righteous man, someone he could trust and who was respected for his talent. And he just had someone in mind…
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PS: Yes, I lied in the title. I know, I’m a monster. 
