Legacy of Heroes
The Yellow Turban Rebellion
Chapter 1: Choosing a Path
In the latter decades of the second century A.D the Han Dynasty, the ruling body of China had become a large and cumbersome machine that no longer functioned within the systems created at its birth. It was a beast plagued by corruption and incompetence which left many of the common folk to live in poor conditions. This sense of failure of the Han government led to a rebellion in the north east, led by the Great Teacher Zhang Jiao, a scholar who did not approve of what the Han Dynasty had become.
In 183 A.D Zhang Jiao had begun to raise his rebellion on the banks of the Nen Jiang River near Qi Qi Har. After a long and harsh winter the Han government was severely low on food surplus and the demand for government provisions from the common folk was overwhelming. This provided a fuel for Zhang Jiao's rebellious spark the likes of which neither faction could envisage.
4th June 184 A.D, village of Shen Dao
Beneath an almost cloudless sky on a gentle summer night the village of Shen Dao had gathered together to discuss the harvest. The entire village had formed a throng of bodies around the village square to listen to the advices of several of the men; women stood holding young babies in their arms while the children pushed their way between the legs of their families, young adults had perched themselves on the thatched roofs of their homes in groups watching as one man addressed the populace.
"The harvest will not yield what we need. The winter has been cruel, the land will not produce what we require - of this I am now certain. I have requested food from the Emperor but once again our need has been overlooked. We face starvation."
"And we face it alone!" A voice called out from the crowd.
"Yes, we face it alone." The speaker nodded. He was an old man but had long been the village elder, even before he was the oldest left alive. "I can see no way for us to survive this great challenge without loss."
"I know a way." Bellowed a deep voice and a heavily built man stepped out of the crowd. "Zhang Jiao has promised food to all who join him. The Emperor no longer provides for us, he no longer cares. We should cut our bonds with him and join the Great Teacher."
"Bian Xi!" Shouted a young man as he leapt to his feet on a thatch roof and pointed an accusing finger at the new speaker. "How dare you turn your back on the Emperor, he has never faltered before. He has always protected us from harm and disaster. You swore an oath to give him your allegiance and now you would break it so easily over this?"
"Perhaps you are too young to understand Zhou Cai, unless we find food people will die. It may be me, it may be you or it may be your brother, your father or your mother. Are you willing to risk the lives of the people you love for some . . . silly oath?" Bian Xi replied.
"We all took the same oath, we all knew that sometimes sacrifice was required in service to the Emperor."
"We do not serve the Emperor!" Bian Xi roared and turned to address the crowd again. "How can we give our allegiance to a man who will not send us food when we face starvation? How can we hold to our bonds when he has cut them? We no longer serve the Han Dynasty, we serve ourselves and we need food, Zhang Jiao has that food. There is no more need for talk, the options are clear: live or die. My family will be leaving at dawn; anyone who wishes to travel under my protection may come with us." The man finished his speech and then strode through the crowd towards his home, calling for his sons.
Zhou Cai turned to two of his friends, both well built, like Bian Xi. They expressed a quick agreement with their father before dropping down from the roof and making their way home. Zhou Cai sighed and looked around at the rest of his friends. His younger brother Zhou Qin sat behind him, higher up on the roof, pursing his lips and trying to look like he understood the dilemma. Beside Qin perched Pan Yu and his love, Xi Ba who were holding hands and whispering their opinions to each other as they held their heads against each other.
"I will ask my father what he thinks." The last member of the group said softly and Cai turned to regard his best friend, sat at his side. "He will surely understand if Master Bian Xi has made a shrewd decision."
"He is betraying the Emperor and worse, he is trying to lead others into betraying him too."
"You have always wondered how I beat you so often at Go, Zhou Cai," The younger boy said, keeping his eyes fixed on the crowd below. "Would you like me to tell you?"
Zhou Cai frowned and then nodded. "I would."
"You think in a line. If something blocks your path, you decide how to remove it before you go around it. In life, things are not so simple. You must always find a way to go around that which blocks your way. There is always a reason for everything even if it is unclear to you; it may be clear as water to another."
"I don't understand."
The younger friend dropped from the roof and looked back at him. "You may not see the reasoning behind Master Bian Xi's decision but he does, if he did not he would not be making it." He explained and then left.
Zhou Qin then shuffled down beside his older brother and as Cai looked back he realised Pan Yu and Xi Ba had already climbed down. The crowd was beginning to disperse and families were heading home, most of them discussing if they would follow Bian Xi or not.
The two Zhou's slipped off the roof and made their way through the crowd to their small home, a single story wooden building with a thatch roof, inside their father and mother sat at a small wooden table discussing the meeting. They looked up as their boys entered and Zhou Cai was quick to voice his noble opinion.
"Who does Bian Xi think he is, turning his back on the Emperor like that?"
"Sit down Cai," His father said. "We won't be leaving with Bian Xi, none of us." He looked at Qin and then his wife.
"I know but he is encouraging others to betray the Emperor. We should report him." Cai answered as he sat.
"Report him to whom?" His mother asked.
"Uncle Ma Ri Chan, he is a garrison Captain in Bei Jing. He could come out here and arrest Bian Xi."
"Even if we rode out personally on our best horses your uncle wouldn't be able to get here in time to stop Bian Xi." His father, Zhou Ji replied.
"Then we should stop him ourselves, we should arrest him and take him to Uncle Ma." Cai argued as Qin slipped away into the bedroom.
Zhou Ji sighed. "Very well Cai, in the morning we shall see just how many people are going to follow Bian Xi, if there are many, you and I shall arrest him."
"Good." Cai said and then marched to his room.
5th June 184 A.D, village of Shen Dao
As the sun rose over the hills and spread its warming glow across the village, Shen Liang blinked and looked about himself. Master Bian Xi stood at the eastern edge of the village, his wife and youngest son were busying themselves packing belongings onto a small cart and other families were beginning to emerge from their homes.
Fathers and older sons would approach Bian Xi and have a low spoken and brief conversation which he could only imagine was them asking permission to travel with him. Then they would return to their wives and other children and help with packing things onto carts or into sacks that the family would carry.
Bian Xiang stood in the distance between his father and the rest of his family, watching closely all those who were to join their exodus. Liang looked around for his other friends, Pan Yu, Xi Ba and the two Zhou's but they had not come. He smiled to himself as his father stepped out of their home and stood beside him.
"Many have chosen to follow Master Bian Xi." Liang said as he watched them pack.
"Yes, more than I had guessed. This should work nicely." His father smiled.
"The more that leave, the fewer mouths there are to feed here." Liang nodded.
"And the fewer mouths there are to feed, the fewer deaths we will have." Shen Jiao nodded in agreement with his son.
As the two stood side by side nodding their agreements with one another anyone who cared to look would have staked their right arm the two were father and son, despite the thirty-five years between them and the notable difference in Shen Jiao's thin white hair and lengthy beard to his sons much thicker black hair and lack of facial hair, the eldest looked like an exact prediction of the younger's aging.
"Father, I have made a decision," Shen Liang turned and looked into his father's eyes. "I shall go with Master Bian Xi and join the Great Teacher."
His father gave a single nod of his head. "Your path is yours to choose Shen Liang, as I have chosen mine," He looked up at the rising sun. "We must all find our own way in life and as my destiny falls, so yours must rise as the sun rises on a new day."
"The Great Teacher believes that new day rises to the fall of the Han, I believe that path is not yet clear," Liang joined his father's gaze at the distant sun. "What I know is certain though, is the more mouths that leave this village, the more lives will be spared and it is that truth which calls me to follow Master Bian Xi."
Shen Jiao turned back to his son and before walking back into their home, he laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It is your time, Shen Liang. I have always known you would become a great man. In times to come I shall be forgotten but you, my son, will be remembered forever," He smiled. "I ask only that you remember me."
With a tear in his eye and a faint smile Liang promised. "I shall, always, father."
Without either one saying it, both father and son felt this would be the last they would see of each other. Liang took one last look at the rising sun, the symbol he would always use to remember this last talk with the man who he admired the most and then strode away towards Bian Xi.
He gave a smile to Bian Xiang who nodded back as the crowd began to draw close to Bian Xi, they were disheartened. They were leaving their home, forced out by a power they could not control and abandoned by those who should protect them.
Master Bian Xi made no address to those following, when his family were ready he merely led them along the road, his youngest son pulling their cart and refusing help from his brother. The exodus moved off from the village and Liang walked slowly, allowing the crowd to pass him until he was the last in line.
Footsteps clapped into the road behind him as two people ran to catch up, a moment or two later a breathless Zhou Qin appeared on his left, with a worried looking Zhou Cai on his right. Liang gave each of them a gentle smile before Cai, breathlessly asked.
"You are going too?"
"I am," Liang nodded. "It is the path I have chosen."
"You would choose to betray the Emperor?" Cai stepped ahead of him and turned to face him.
"I would choose to do my part for our village. Zhou Cai, by leaving with Master Bian Xi we are reducing Shen Dao's need for food and saving the lives of those we have lived with and those . . . we love."
Zhou Cai paused for a moment and thought, while Qin and Liang continued to walk passed him. The honourable teen then ran back in front of them and smiled.
"Then we shall come too." He smiled, looking to his brother.
"We shall? What about father and mother?" Qin frowned and Cai paused as he searched for the right words.
"They will understand." He replied and fell into step with his two companions at the back of the caravan.
The travellers continued on for most of the day, eating on the move as Bian Xi set a slow but constant pace. Shen Liang had smiled the whole morning and shared memories with the two Zhou's; they had eaten bread that one of the families had generously shared with them and by early afternoon they were nearing Bei Jing.
Shen Liang took his leave of the Zhou brothers and made his way to the front of the crowd to speak with Bian Xiang and his father. He turned back before he reached them and smiled his usual soft smile as he noticed Zhou Cai and Zhou Qin had disappeared. Calmly he approached Xiang.
"I must speak with your father, urgently."
Xiang frowned but called his father regardless, Bian Xi looked puzzled at Shen Liang, having never been interested in his sons group of friends, except for the outspoken Zhou Cai. "Who are you?"
"My name is Shen Liang."
"What do you wish to say, Shen Liang?"
"I do not think it would be wise for you to continue on this road," He looked ahead towards Bei Jing. "Until a few moments ago, Zhou Cai and his brother Zhou Qin were travelling with us."
"That does not seem like Zhou Cai." Bian Xi frowned.
"Indeed. I believe he is, as we speak, rushing ahead to find his Uncle Ma Ri Chan, a Captain of a garrison in Bei Jing. He will lead them back here and arrest you all for treason."
"What! Why would he do that!" Bian Xi roared.
"He believes strongly in the oath to the Emperor and he will not stand to see us betray that oath."
"That little worm!" Bian Xi turned to look ahead and drew his family sword.
"Master Bian Xi," Liang gently touched his arm. "These people are under your protection, you must lead them to safety."
"How can I? There is only one road." He rounded on the youth, desperation in his eyes and the crowd behind him began to unsettle.
"First, you must convince everyone that they may only take what they can carry."
Zhou Cai had no trouble in finding his Uncle in Bei Jing, he had merely announced himself to the first guard he'd seen as Ma Ri Chan's Nephew and ordered that he be taken to his Uncle at once. The two young Zhou's had swiftly explained the situation to their Uncle and he had assembled a force of riders with a haste that neither of the young peasants had seen before.
They now rode west along the road with their Uncle at the head of a two dozen strong cavalry detachment and another garrison Captain named Huangfu Song by his side. The force moved at a pace that Zhou Cai and his younger brother struggled to keep up with on their loaned warhorses.
"Father, stop!" Called out one of the riders nearest to Cai and Ma Ri Chan halted the troop with a movement of his arm.
"What have you seen, Ma Yi?" He asked as he and Huangfu Song made their way back towards Ma Yi.
"There are cart tracks, leading through the trees back there." Ma Yi pointed behind them. The two Captains looked at each other and then signalled the troop back.
As Ma Yi had said, several sets of wheels had crushed the undergrowth between the trees, heading towards the river. The Han Captains urged their men into the trees and Zhou Cai could feel Shen Liang's hand in this.
"He knew," He smiled, thinking out loud. "He knew all along why I joined the group."
"Then why didn't he say something before?" Qin asked as he walked his horse beside his older brother.
"Why make a move before he needed to? He knew my plan and he had all day to devise an escape. I thought he would have concocted something more intelligent than this, however."
Qin laughed softly. "Yeah, carts can't outrun cavalry on a road, they have no chance trying to push their way through . . . a forest?" Qin finished in surprise as the cavalry troop came across a glade of abandoned carts.
"They are not here." One soldier spoke up.
Zhou Cai could only bring himself to utter one thing. "Shen Liang."
As night began to lay its blanket over the hills north of Bei Jing and a thin cover of cloud rolled over, Bian Xiang and his father sat around a small fire with Lady Bian, Bian Xin and Shen Liang. Bian Xi looked at the sixteen year old opposite him and smiled.
"You saved the lives of everyone today, young Liang."
"It will matter little if we are caught tomorrow. We have lost many provisions and those who follow you are disheartened."
"I will send hunters out at dawn to gather food." Bian Xi stoked the fire idly.
"No," Liang shook his head. "We must move quickly at dawn and head further into the hills, before we turn east to Cheng De."
Bian Xi pursed his lips and mused, nodding he said. "If that is what you think we should do, young Liang."
With his advice given, he took his leave and strode up the crest of the hill to gaze southwards towards the road. Bian Xiang stepped up beside him and Liang mused out loud.
"Zhou Cai will not let this rest so easily. He will spur his Uncle into a pursuit."
"Do you think they will find us up here?"
He shook his head. "No, they will not. However, we must not take the lowland pass at Qin Huang Dao; we must stay in the rough terrain as far as Tong Liao."
"Why have you not told this to my father?"
"He may grow tired of taking advice from me; if he does you must convince him not to take the road at Qin Huang Dao." He turned to face his friend. "They will be watching that road."
"I shall make sure we stay in the hills." Smiled Xiang.
6th June 184 A.D, Han military barracks, Bei Jing
The window into the Captain's office grew brighter as the sun took to the sky behind a shield of light clouds. Zhou Qin sat and watched his brother pace the room. They were waiting for their Uncle to tell them they could go. After Shen Liang had helped Bian Xi's caravan escape the Han patrol the day before, Ma Ri Chan, on the advice of his son-in-law Huangfu Song had called off the search for the missing traitors.
When the troop had returned to Bei Jing the two young Zhou's had been introduced to their cousins Ma Yi, Ma Heng, Ma Xiang and Ma Lin – who all served in their Uncle's unit - and to their cousin Huangfu Chen, Ma Ri Chan's daughter and wife of Huangfu Song but Zhou Cai had been unsatisfied.
Qin had watched tediously as his brother had appealed to Uncle Ri Chan's sense of honour not to allow Bian Xi and the other traitors to escape. Finally their Uncle had surrendered and promised to speak to the Imperial Commander of Bei Jing and request permission for he and Huangfu Song to take half of their garrisons each and pursue Bian Xi.
Outside on the forecourt cousins Ma Yi and Ma Xiang were holding two dozen troops at the ready with horses on standby in the stables. If Ma Ri Chan and Huangfu Song returned with the news Cai was hoping for then the unit would move out and attempt to track down Bian Xi and Shen Liang.
"Do you really wish to see Liang and Xiang arrested, brother? They could be executed."
Cai stopped, looking down. "They have broken their oath to the Emperor, they chose their own fate." He said and Qin thought he could hear regret.
Then there was commotion in the courtyard and before Cai could step outside their Uncle briskly entered. He looked at them both and beckoned them after him. He swept out into the courtyard where horses were being brought to his men and Huangfu Song and their cousins Yi and Xiang were overseeing them. Three horses were brought to their Uncle and he pulled himself into a saddle.
"I've sent word to your father, you're coming with us." He explained as they were handed the reins to a horse and a spear each.
Qin's eyes lit up, they were joining the army. He had a spear and a horse, for a fifteen year old who had never really taken to the peaceful life of a peasant, this was a dream come true. To be thrust into a position of power and justice.
He looked across at his brother who had already mounted his horse, his eyes burned with an excitement not too dissimilar to his own but Qin knew it wasn't the same. His brother's heart burned with a want for justice, a desire to serve the Emperor even above two of his own friends and a caravan full of those he shared his life with. Qin pulled himself into his saddle and was approached by a rider, clutching his own spear with ease at his side. The rider gave both Zhou's a smile and winked at him.
"Cousins," Ma Lin, their youngest cousin turned his horse in front of them. "Father has asked me to watch you both and make sure you stay safe."
"We will be safe." His brother answered frostily and spurred his horse forward.
"Thank you cousin Lin," Qin smiled. "I may need to be watched."
Ma Lin nodded and smiled at his youthful cousin as the troop rode out and headed west. Ma Ri Chan called his Nephews to the front of the column and explained his plan as they rode. They would ride to Qin Huang Dao and vet groups of people travelling through the pass to the north east where Zhang Jiao's camp was. He would need both Zhou Qin and his brother to pick out anyone they knew to be arrested. The plan was set and the troop was on the move, sooner or later Shen Liang and Bian Xiang would be under arrest.