“Has Mr. Ning said anything about this?”
“He praised you… Do you believe that?”
The Yangtze flowed east; beyond the pleasure boat, the river reflected the moonlight, and in the distance, the lights of Jiangning glimmered across the land. It was deep into the night of Mid-Autumn. Few people knew that the man overseeing this colossal force that had already swept across Jiangnan—now the very figure the entire realm watched most closely—would be out here on this dark river, setting sail beneath the moonlight. Fewer still knew that such a meeting was taking place, here on this moonlit stretch of water.
Given the significance this meeting carried, the furnishings within the pleasure boat’s cabin were remarkably simple, and the manner in which the two men spoke to each other was correspondingly casual.
“…Stop being coy about it.”
He Wen reached out and pushed the teacup toward Qian Luoning. Qian Luoning looked at him with a smile and picked up the cup without much concern.
“He really did praise you. He said this was, at the very least, a progressive movement.”
“I know what ‘progressive’ means. And I suppose the ‘at the very least’ means the same thing as when he used to say ‘at the very least, patriotic’?”
Qian Luoning smiled faintly, which was as good as an admission. He took a sip of his tea.
“No more jokes,” Qian Luoning said. “In the years since you left, a great deal has happened in the Southwest. You’ve probably heard about the business with Old Bull-head. When that whole thing started, Chen Shanjun wanted to recruit my eldest brother, but he obviously couldn’t go, so I went instead.”
He Wen said, “The Overlord Blade’s lady is someone worthy of admiration.”
“We knew from the start that it would fail,” Qian Luoning said. “But during those two years with Old Bull-head, even watching it fail, there was at least something stirring, something impassioned about it… These past two years, the Southwest has kept an eye on your Fair Party’s affairs, but coming to Jiangning this time, I don’t see anything of the kind.”
“At least it’s a progressive movement.” He Wen smiled.
Qian Luoning looked at him. “Back in the Southwest, Mr. Ning used to run us through simulations—working out ways of social reform, hundreds of times over in those interest classes. Didn’t you ever look at any of that? Or did you look, and just forget it all afterward?”
His gaze remained calm, but his tone turned rather sharp. “Equality for all, redistribution of land, strike down the tyrants—how impressive is that, really? What’s so remarkable about it? Rebellions have shouted ‘equality for all’ since the slave societies of two thousand years ago. Long ago, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang asked, ‘Are kings and nobles born to their station?’ Huang Chao cried out for ‘Heaven’s compensating equality.’ More recently, the Holy Duke declared, ‘The law makes all equal, with no distinction of high or low.’ And that’s just the ones who actually made some noise—there were dozens, hundreds of rebellions with no momentum at all, every one of them also calling for equality and land redistribution. The gap between shouting that slogan and actually achieving it, the countless obstacles in between—these things were at least given some thought, some analysis, back in the Southwest. Mr. Ning… he had you look at all of it. But what is this?”
He gestured toward Jiangning. “Sure, through a great upheaval and an unrestrained orgy of killing, you’ve at least shown these poor wretches what ‘equality’ means. That’s what Mr. Ning was getting at when he called it ‘progressive’—but what’s the point of it? Two years spent on a frenzy of destruction, smashing everything to pieces, and then back to square one, with the only lesson learned being ‘never let this happen again,’ while the inequality just continues on as before… Never mind other people—the rebels themselves had no choice, but you, Fair King, did you not have a choice either?”
Qian Luoning’s words landed hard, though in truth this was the same stance he’d taken back in their old debates. After he finished speaking, the cabin fell silent. He Wen turned his teacup in his hands, his gaze shifting between Qian Luoning and the river outside the window. After a good while, he finally nodded.
He spoke solemnly. “Back at Jishan, I held a spirit of resistance toward what Mr. Ning taught. I dismissed his theoretical simulations as mere idle speculation, and never looked closely at them when I had the chance. Though they left some impression on me, I ultimately felt that simulation was simulation, and reality was reality. The Fair Party has had many problems these past two years, and what you say, Brother Qian, is correct. Though Jiangning alone doesn’t represent the whole picture of the Fair Party, one falling leaf tells you autumn has come. I accept your criticism—you’re right, that’s exactly how it is.”
Qian Luoning’s tone softened. “Whether I’m right or wrong doesn’t change anything now. As for you saying this isn’t the whole picture—I’m waiting for you to tell me what the whole picture of the Fair Party actually is.”
“Is that really all Mr. Ning said?”
“He discussed the Fair Party’s situation, but he didn’t give me any message to pass on to you specifically. You rejected his goodwill back then, and then… abandoned her after leading her on. Quite a few of the people who’ve come this time actually want to fight you.”
“There was never anything improper between Jingmei and me—don’t go making things up, don’t slander my integrity.” At this, He Wen smiled. “Is she doing all right? I actually thought she might come along.”
“That’s none of your business anymore. The Huaxia Army doesn’t send people out on missions carrying personal feelings like that. If she’d come, would she be here to talk feelings with you, or to talk business? How would that even work?”
The cabin fell briefly silent, and then He Wen nodded. “…That was petty of me to even think that. This is another area where I fall short of the Huaxia Army—I never expected Mr. Ning would have considered something like that.”
He poured himself a cup of tea, raised both hands toward Qian Luoning in a gesture of apology, then drank it down in one gulp.
“You’ve spent time in the Southwest, so there’s no need to hide certain things from you.”
Seeing him like this, Qian Luoning’s expression softened. “Over the years, the Huaxia Army has run simulations on the state of the realm, working out two major directions—one where the Huaxia Army wins, and one where… whichever of you wins instead. Based on these two possibilities, we’ve done a great many things. When Chen Shanjun wanted to rebel, Mr. Ning bore the consequences and let him go ahead. After last year’s Chengdu conference, we opened up all sorts of ideas and technologies—to Jin territory, to the minor courts in the southeast, to General Liu Guangshi, even, through indirect channels, to Dai Mengwei and several figures in Lin’an. We haven’t held back on any of it.”
“This was done with the following consideration in mind: if the Huaxia Army wins, we inherit whatever achievements you’ve accumulated along the way. If the Huaxia Army genuinely loses, then those achievements have already been spread across the entire realm regardless. The benefits of advances in natural philosophy, the spread of information, the enlightenment of the common people—everyone’s already seen the good that can come of these things.”
“Mr. Ning has always had that kind of vision,” He Wen said.
“And once you use methods like this to sweep across the entire realm, smashing it all to pieces, and once you’re all dead, we pick up the pieces afterward—at least we won’t have to explain all over again why people should be equal. That’s what Mr. Ning meant by ‘progress.’ But if you ask anyone’s honest opinion of that kind of progress, it’s nothing but pitiable and tragic.”
Qian Luoning paused. “A dog pushed too far will bite. A farmer who can no longer survive will kill. But that’s only an initial instinct—it can’t accomplish anything on its own. What actually accomplishes things is a set of rules that aligns with the natural order of heaven and earth—cool-headed observation, reason that has cast off self-interest, and the objective refinement of those rules. Back at Little Cang River and in the Southwest, Mr. Ning often used a term—’revolution.’ Do you remember it?”
“‘Heaven and earth undergo revolution, and the four seasons come into being; Tang and Wu’s revolution accorded with heaven and responded to man.'” He Wen nodded, then shook his head slightly. “The Book of Changes records it this way—renewing the mandate of heaven, changing dynasties, that’s what’s called revolution. But Mr. Ning’s usage was, in fact, something larger. He seemed to… apply the term ‘revolution’ to a more thorough transformation of an entire era—a mere change of dynasty alone wouldn’t qualify. I suppose I’ll just have to work out the rest of the meaning for myself.”
Qian Luoning nodded as well.
“…A couple of years ago at Old Bull-head, I actually got a deeper look at some things there. This time, when I spoke with Mr. Ning about all this, he brought up the rebellions of ancient times—the ones that failed, the ones that gained a bit of momentum, and then Old Bull-head, and now your Fair Party. Those rebellions with no momentum at all also claimed to be resisting oppression, claimed they wanted equality for all—and those words weren’t wrong, exactly, but they had no organization, no rules, their words never went beyond talk, and after some looting and destruction, they vanished almost immediately.”
“…Mr. Ning said: anyone can work themselves into a fervor, anyone can loot and destroy, anyone can shout for equality—but that kind of fervor accomplishes nothing on its own. But among those movements that gained a bit of real momentum, there were always some people who genuinely held to lofty ideals, who set down real rules, who reasoned things through and built real organization—and it was by using these things to contend against the laziness and fervor inherent in human nature that they managed to build up some real momentum.”
“…At Old Bull-head, Chen Shanjun gathered a group of people who held very lofty ideals of their own, and who had also learned organizational discipline from the Huaxia Army. But what they wanted was the purest form of equality… they genuinely wanted to equalize the means of production itself. But throughout the whole process, the people around them who weren’t quite so lofty-minded ended up dragging them down in every possible way, even accelerating their corruption. In the end, they failed. None of these movements managed to successfully carry out a true revolution, to open up a genuinely new chapter never seen before.”
“…As for your side, Mr. Ning doesn’t have a very specific judgment yet, but he did say two things—more or less meant for you to hear.”
He paused slightly here. He Wen straightened up, sitting more formally, listening as Qian Luoning continued:
“The first is this: any fervent and radical movement, if it lacks a strong core capable of restraining it at all times, will end up with the most extreme elements rising to the top. These extremists will drive out the opposition, then drive out the moderates, then go on to drive out even the less radical factions among their own ranks, until finally everyone is consumed in an extremist bonfire. Once the extremists gain the upper hand, there’s no room left for anyone else to survive. Since arriving, I’ve already seen this happening with your ‘King of Hell,’ Zhou Shang—aren’t his forces already close to becoming the largest faction among you?”
He Wen smiled faintly. “There are certainly quite a few of them now, though the Great Radiance Sect’s momentum has picked up again lately as well.”
“Fat Lin… he’ll have to be killed sooner or later…” Qian Luoning muttered.
He Wen said, “What’s the second thing?”
“The second thing is…”
Qian Luoning looked at him.
“Any so-called revolution that doesn’t take the self-renewal of the people as its core will, in the end, collapse into farce.”
“…”
Qian Luoning spoke each word deliberately, one at a time. He Wen, whose face had still carried a smile a moment before, now grew visibly serious, his gaze turning toward the river outside the window, complicated thoughts churning beneath the surface.
After a long while like this, he rose, walked to the window, and let out a long breath.
“…Brother Qian, do you know… how miserable life has been for the people of Jiangnan since the Jurchen left?”
“We’re living in an age of chaos—who in this whole realm isn’t miserable?”
He Wen reached out and tapped the window frame. “After that young emperor in the southeast took the throne, the Jurchen dragged their war all across Jiangnan, starting from Jiangning, burning, killing, and plundering their way through. By the time it was all over, tens of millions of people across Jiangnan were left homeless, all of them starving. Once people start starving, they start fighting each other for food. The Fair Party’s uprising came at the best possible moment, because ‘fairness’ is the best possible slogan for fighting others over food. But a slogan alone means nothing—the real advantage we had at the start was actually that we flew your Black Banner’s name.”
He turned back to look at Qian Luoning.
“In truth, do you think I didn’t know that for a force this large, rules matter most of all?” His gaze turned sharp and cold. “Even if I hadn’t known it back then in Jiangnan, by the time I came back from the Southwest, I’d heard it said countless times over. So from the very beginning, I was setting rules for the people under me. Anyone who broke those rules—I killed plenty of them! But Brother Qian, how vast is Jiangnan? How many starving people are there? And how many people did I actually have under my command at the time?”
“…Flying the banner of Huaxia, all of Jiangnan quickly fell under the Fair Party’s name, but my own territory was only ever one small patch of it—everywhere else was full of various other forces who’d risen up opportunistically. Killing one wealthy household could feed dozens, even hundreds of homeless people. How could you expect them to hold back from killing? I set some rules, starting of course with that Book of Fairness, and I recruited some people when we gathered our forces—but by that point, several other factions had already gained real momentum of their own.”
“…In less than half a year, more than half of Jiangnan was already ablaze. Brother Qian, do you understand how fast that is? Even if all the other factions had fully submitted to me, I couldn’t have managed them properly anyway, so all I could do was maintain a superficial unity under this one banner. Because at that point, I still felt that at least I was the one in charge, that I’d have the chance to gradually reform them over time. I organized some enforcement squads to patrol around, investigate their problems, then negotiate and pressure them. At first, of course, it did no good, but once everyone had finally been brought together under one banner, things improved somewhat. But in many more places, they’d already established their own way of doing things. Because the whole thing had spread so incredibly fast. In two years, we’d nearly swept across all of Jiangnan, pushing as far as Xuzhou.”
The night wind blew in off the river. He looked out at Jiangning in the distance, pausing briefly. Qian Luoning came over to stand beside him. “Fair King, are you telling me you botched things, and how many hardships you faced doing it?”
He Wen shook his head. “I made several mistakes.”
He said, “First of all, from the very beginning, I shouldn’t have issued the Book of Fairness, shouldn’t have told everyone that anyone who followed my methods was a brother in my cause. I should have done what Mr. Ning did—set strict rules, raise the threshold, and drive out the bad elements. At that time, all of Jiangnan was starving, and if I’d done that back then, the people who ate at my table would have willingly followed those rules—reforming themselves first, as you said, before going on to fight others. That’s the thing I regret most.”
The wind moaned. He Wen paused slightly. “And even having done that, in that first year, when the various factions were gathering, I could have set even stricter rules, weeding out those who committed wanton evil while flying the Fair Party’s banner. But honestly, I let myself get swept up and dizzied by how fast the Fair Party was growing.”
He took a deep breath. “Brother Qian, I wasn’t born knowing things the way Mr. Ning was. He could hole himself up in some remote mountain gully in the Southwest, running cadre training programs year after year, endlessly rectifying his own ranks, even after his forces had already grown strong—waiting until the enemy came to attack him before finally breaking out of the greater and lesser Liangshan ranges. Within a single year, the Fair Party had spread everywhere, and everyone was calling me Fair King. I let it go to my head a little. Sure, they had some problems, but that was only because I hadn’t had the chance to correct them more—shouldn’t I at least give them some initial understanding? That was my second grave mistake.”
“…By the time everyone’s territories had merged into one, I truly was Fair King in fact as well as name. When I sent out enforcement squads to administer justice in various places, Brother Qian, they’d all give me face—whoever had committed some wrongdoing would, at first, be dealt with strictly, at least in a show for my benefit, never talking back. But in this very process, what’s now known as the Fair Party—now split into five great factions—was actually formed from dozens of smaller factions merging into one. And then one day I suddenly realized that they had begun influencing my own people instead…”
He Wen’s voice turned cold as he spoke, like some dark prophecy crawling up one’s spine.
“…What you saw in Jiangning today isn’t the whole of the Fair Party. Now that the Fair Party’s five factions each hold their own territory, in the areas I originally controlled, some things have actually been preserved—but no one can stay untouched by it all… Starting from earlier this year, this atmosphere of indulgence and idleness on my own side has only grown worse. Some people talk about how things are done in the other factions, and when it comes to my measures for land redistribution, they’ve started paying lip service while doing as they please behind my back. Some of those in positions of power have begun defiling other men’s wives and daughters, transferring vast tracts of fertile land under their own names, awarding themselves the finest houses, the finest possessions. I’ve investigated some of it, but…”
“But your own enforcement squads have started to grow corrupt too, haven’t they?” Qian Luoning finished the thought for him.
“…” He Wen fell briefly silent. “People used to ask, back then, why Mr. Ning had to kill the emperor—why not play along for a while first, quietly building up strength, and some even thought that, given his ability and his achievements, he might one day have risen to become chancellor, and only then killed the emperor and rebelled, so that things might not have had to be as difficult as they are today. But… if you had become chancellor within the old territory of the Wu dynasty, how many of the men serving under you would have stayed clean? Those already-corrupted officials of the Wu bureaucracy—they’d all have been your brothers-in-arms. And once they’re your brothers, you can’t avoid dining and drinking with them…”
“…The two things Mr. Ning said are both entirely correct… The moment you let your guard down even slightly, things start sliding toward the extreme. Do you know, Brother Qian? At the very start, they all followed me, gradually filling out the rules within the Book of Fairness. They didn’t take equality as some self-evident, natural truth—they simply did as I told them. But as one year passed, then two, the reasoning around why people ought to be equal, why the world ought to be fair, grew more and more elaborate. And the most popular version of that reasoning, in the end, was this: the wealthy are always guilty and must all be killed; all things in this world must be made just and equal; grain must be distributed equally, land must be divided equally, and ideally, wives too should be handed out equally to everyone, because fairness in all things, equality for all people, is the highest principle in this world.” He raised a hand and pointed upward.
“…When people talk about it, many say they don’t much like Zhou Shang, but when it comes to killing the rich, they all still rush over to join in just the same. Drag the man up onto the platform, and halfway through his statement, pelt him to death with stones, then ransack his household and burn it down. Whenever we investigated afterward, people would claim it was just righteously outraged commoners acting on impulse—and besides, was that family even rich? There was no fire before, after all. Then they’d take the money and hide it at home, waiting for the day the Fair Party’s business was all over so they could become rich men themselves…”
He Wen let out a cold laugh. “As for Zhou Shang today, you’re right—his forces just keep growing. All his men think about, day after day, is where to go fight another battle, sack another city. If this keeps developing the way it’s going, I suspect he’ll be marching into Lin’an before I even need to lift a finger. And in the process, some of his people, too impatient to wait, have started filtering through the relatively wealthy people already under their control, claiming the earlier round of ‘crime investigation’ was too lenient, that it needs to be done again… Devouring each other.”
Qian Luoning smiled. “…That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
He Wen paused. “…So, in the first half of this year, I missed my third opportunity… By the time I realized what was happening, I should have done something about it right then.”
“And now?”
“Now… the other factions have grown increasingly difficult to deal with. Zhou Shang and Xu Zhaonan’s forces have already surpassed mine in numbers. Gao Chang’s troops have already adapted to large-scale battlefield warfare. Shi Baofeng has connections across every faction and can already rival me in trade. And on my own side… within the Fair Party, there’s growing discontent with my rules. I’ve tried holding some classes modeled after Mr. Ning’s methods, tried rectification campaigns, but somehow I always feel my will outstrips my ability—the results have been minimal…”
“So this Jiangning gathering…” Qian Luoning looked at him, speaking each word deliberately, “…what exactly are you planning to do with it?”
The river wind sighed, gently rocking the pleasure boat. He Wen stood by the window, gazing out at the faint, distant night scene of Jiangning. After a long while, he finally shook his head, his voice trailing off.
“…I… haven’t quite decided yet.”
…
“…Maybe I should just kill you right now.”
“Is Master Qian that good a swimmer? Think you could escape?”
“Here’s how it’d go—I kill you one-handed just like that, then commandeer the boat, either threaten the boatman or buy him off, sail straight up the Yangtze back to Chengdu, and report back to Chairman Ning that the matter here’s been resolved, the ungrateful bastard’s dead, and my mood’s much improved. How’s that plan sound?”
“Hard to argue it doesn’t have a certain logic to it…”
“I’d run the Fair Party better than you… Also, you people tore down Mr. Ning’s and the Su family’s old estate. Mr. Ning’s going to be angry.”
“…Old Qian, this’ll shock you. I did it on purpose.”
“…”
“…”
“Never mind… you’re beyond saving…”
“Ha, ha.”
“You’re doomed… I’ll just call you King of Doom from now on…”
The bright moon shone with clear radiance; the night wind swept across the sky, driving clouds that rolled and churned like mountains collapsing and seas overturning.
Above the waves of the Yangtze, two figures stood at the dim window of the pleasure boat, gazing out at the distant riverbank, sighing now and then, shaking their heads now and then, as though performing some strange yet harmonious little drama.
The fifteenth of the eighth month was about to pass.
Somewhere beyond their sight, all the chaos about to engulf the whole of Jiangnan was only just beginning…