Taiheiki

Chapter 181 Lin Yi Kingdom

"You know about the Kingdom of Lin-yi, right?"

"I know, I know!" Baffa replied cautiously, "It's a small country, not far from Rinan County. Our merchant ships have passed through there several times to replenish fresh water and food, and to repair our ships. However, there are no valuable local specialties, only some slaves, coconut palms, and the like. It's very poor!"

“Hmm!” Wei Cong nodded: “But do you know? The King of Linyi is preparing to annex Rinan, Jiuzhen, and Jiaozhi of the Han Dynasty. No, it should be said that they are already invading the two counties of Rinan and Jiuzhen. According to the document sent by the governor of Rinan County, the King of Linyi is using every means to capture and purchase elephants, wanting to build an army of one hundred war elephants to annex Jiaozhou of our Han Dynasty in one fell swoop.”

Bafa was stunned by this astonishing news. He was speechless for a moment, and after a long while, he finally replied, "This, this—I really didn't know. This, this King of Linyi actually dared to provoke the Great Han. He is simply extremely arrogant."

Wei Cong remained silent, looking calmly into the other man's eyes until Bafa lowered his head, avoiding his gaze. Only then did he say in a deep voice, "Yes, this is arrogant, or you could say audacious. As for the specifics, that depends on who wins and who loses in the end." He paused slightly, then continued, "Bafa, I need you to do something!"

"Your humble servant will obey your orders!"

"The sea is a lawless place. You've been a maritime merchant for so long, you should have a group of people who are willing to kill for you at sea, protect you, and do anything else?"

“Yes!” Baffa nodded awkwardly. Throughout history, merchants and pirates have often held both positions. For him to have built such a successful maritime business, he must have had a group of armed men under his command; otherwise, he would have been thrown into the sea to feed the fish long ago.

“Very good. King Linyi must be short of money, soldiers, weapons, everything right now. If you take your men and ships and pretend to join his army, wanting a share of the spoils, I think he would welcome you. Do you understand what I mean?” Wei Cong laughed.

"You want me to be an inside man?" Baffa asked cautiously.

“Good!” Wei Cong nodded. “Of course, to avoid exposing your true identity, you can tell the King of Linyi that you offended me in Panyu, so I confiscated all your property, and that you hold a grudge. You can tell him about my attack on Jiaozhou from the north and my battles with the local forces there. Tell him that the Han people are killing each other, and that this is the perfect opportunity to conquer the entire Jiaozhou and establish a new kingdom. I will have your property confiscated in Panyu. Of course, after the war, I will compensate you double for your losses. Once you arrive in Linyi, do as I say in the silk scroll I gave you. Unless you receive my orders, you don’t need to do anything else, understand?”

"You don't have to do anything?" Bafa asked, somewhat puzzled, as he took the silk scroll from Wei Cong.

“Yes, the dagger should only be used for a fatal blow! Don’t do anything that would arouse the suspicion of King Linyi, understand?” Wei Cong said with a smile.

"I understand!" Baffa's spirits lifted. "Then I'll go back and prepare immediately!"

"Yes, I will send twenty men to you. Take them with you. Don't worry, these men are all local natives of Jiaozhou whom I selected. They look no different from the Lin-yi people! Go and prepare!"

"Then I'll take my leave!" Bafa knelt respectfully before Wei Cong, then backed away to the door before turning and leaving.

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"Are you really planning to attack the Kingdom of Linyi?" Yuan Shao asked with a smile.

“Of course!” Wei Cong marked the map and answered without turning his head, “I won’t leave myself any worries before heading north to attack the Moth Bandits!”

"What I mean is, is the time you've allotted enough? If I'm not mistaken, your operation plan for Linyi is supposed to end by March of next year! And it's already the end of October! Is that enough?"

“Benchu!” Wei Cong raised his head: “You may not know the climate here. It’s warm all year round with no ice or snow, so there are no four seasons, but there is a dry season and a rainy season. During the rainy season, the roads are muddy and floods destroy roads and bridges, making it impossible to march or fight. And the dry season is from September to March of the following year. So even if the war isn’t over by March next year, I will have to retreat!”

"I see!" Yuan Shao nodded. "What if the bandits retreat into the mountains and forests, avoiding battle and waiting for the rainy season next year? What will you do then?"

Wei Cong laughed: "I was indeed worried about that before, but I'm not now!"

"Oh? Why do you say that?"

“Benchu, have you forgotten that the King of Linyi gathered a hundred war elephants?” Wei Cong laughed. “If he wanted to avoid war, why would he keep so many war elephants? To escape to the mountains and forests, kill them, and roast them for food?”

"Excellent!" Yuan Shao clapped his hands and laughed, "I had forgotten about that. I suppose you sent this foreign merchant over there so that he could turn against you at a crucial moment?"

“Benchu ​​knows me well!” Wei Cong laughed. “To be honest, I’m not afraid of the King of Linyi attacking me with the entire army of the country, but I am afraid that he will retreat into the mountains and forests and fight me for a long time. When the wind shifts from southwest to northeast and the rain stops, the King of Linyi’s death will be imminent!”

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The capital of Lin-yi, Xiangpu (located near the ancient Vietnamese capital of Hue). Whatever name the Han Chinese gave this city centuries ago, it has been erased by the Cham people. Now it is called Xiangpu, Indrapura, the place where Indra resides, the greatest city of the Cham people. King Qu Heng of Lin-yi kneels before the statue of Indra, praying alone. He does this before every campaign—alone in a room with the statue. This makes him feel one with Indra, able to hear the voice of the god.

“Indra!” Qu Heng raised his arms and prayed to the statue, “My grandfather was just a slave who fell into a deep ravine while herding cattle. He begged you for help, and you not only saved him but also gave him divine iron. My ancestor used the divine iron to forge a knife and led his people to drive out the Han people and establish their own country. He was grateful for your protection, so he erected your statue in the best house in the city and named himself after you.”

More than thirty years have passed. Under your protection, the Kingdom of Linyi has grown increasingly powerful, now the largest of all the cities occupied by the Han people. But this still does not match your might and glory. Now you have allowed the Han people to kill each other, attacking their own cities. I will lead a hundred war elephants northward, trampling the walls and soldiers of the Han people under my feet, making Longbian City my new capital, and building an even more magnificent temple for you within its walls, so that your fame may spread to the ends of the earth!

After reciting the prayer, Qu Heng knelt before the statue, his face pressed against the limestone ground, his eyes closed, awaiting the divine response. He didn't know how much time had passed, but in the darkness, he heard a resounding voice: "Set off! My child, you will surely enter Dragonbian City wearing a crown!"

"I heard it! I heard it!" Overwhelmed with joy, Qu Heng repeatedly kowtowed to the statue, deeply grateful for the divine revelation. It took him a long time to regain his composure. He walked out of the temple and said to the ministers and generals waiting at the entrance, "Indra has revealed the truth; I will surely enter Dragonbine City wearing a crown!"

"Really? Indra is protecting our king; we will surely win!"

"God bless our king, victory will surely be ours!"

"Your Majesty, issue the order! Send out the troops immediately!"

The ministers and officers beamed with ecstasy, and even the surrounding guards were caught up in the joy, cheering in unison. The Cham people (also known as the Champa) are one of the oldest ethnic groups in Southeast Asia, originating from the Malay Peninsula and South India. As a foreign people, they were deeply influenced by Hinduism. Therefore, the state established by the Cham people differed drastically from the traditional Chinese prefecture-county system; instead, it was a mandala system—a multi-layered international order. This can be simply summarized as: a central circle (the capital and its directly controlled surrounding area), a middle control circle (cities, tribes, and villages subordinate to the central circle), and an outer tributary circle (requiring only tribute, with no other obligations). This system has two key characteristics:
1. The political entities that make up the system remain stable.

2. The entire system is unstable.

A king's rule was often limited to the capital and its surrounding area; the farther away, the weaker his control. The territory may appear vast, but the area the king actually controlled could be quite small.

Entities outside the central circle possess a degree of independence and often replace the central city, forming new systems. Even if they are eliminated, new independent entities will form due to the isolation caused by the rainy season.

Unlike monarchs in the Chinese system who centralized power, the Cham kings could only expand their control by cultivating their authority and gaining the trust of more people. They even resorted to religion, building temples and sponsoring monks to imbue themselves with divinity and gain the faith of more citizens. Qu Heng was such a figure; in the eyes of the Cham people, King Qu Heng was the incarnation of Indra, and with such obvious divine revelation, victory seemed inevitable.

Before Qu Heng could give the order, a servant hurried up the stone steps of the temple. When he was seven or eight steps away from Qu Heng, he stopped, knelt down and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, a merchant named Bafa requests an audience. He claims to be from Jiaozhi and has presented a gift, saying that he has important matters to report to you!"

“A gift? Bafa? From Jiaozhi?” Qu Heng frowned. At this moment, a minister leaned closer and whispered, “Your Majesty, I have heard of this person. He is a very wealthy merchant with his own fleet. He travels between Pizong Kingdom and Panyu every year. His business is very large. He has passed through here several times in the past!”

"Has its own fleet? A big merchant?" As a seafaring people, the Zhan people did not discriminate against merchants. Moreover, a merchant fleet that could travel between Pizong Kingdom and Panyu was a force to be reckoned with. Qu Heng nodded: "Very good. Take him to my reception room and let him wait a moment!"

In fact, Bafa didn't have to wait long before Qu Heng arrived. Perhaps because of the generous gifts, his face was full of smiles: "Honorable guest, please sit down, please sit down, no need for formalities! Guests like you are always welcome here. What can I do for you?"

“Your Majesty, Indra’s favorite, warrior among warriors, just judge!” Bapah’s face was full of indignation: “I beg you to grant me just revenge!”

“A just revenge?” Qu Heng frowned. “What’s wrong? Have you been treated unfairly here?”

“I have indeed suffered injustice, but not here!” Baffa said angrily, “but in Panyu, where the greedy Han governor robbed me of my property: five shi of ambergris, twenty shi of rhinoceros horn, fifteen shi of ivory, as well as coral, various gemstones, tortoiseshell, and a whole ship full of spices. That damned fellow, using the pretext that I violated their laws, seized my ship and all the goods and money in the warehouse. If it weren’t for my loyal servant, I would probably be waiting to die in the Han prison right now!”

"This—" Qu Heng was stunned. After a long while, he replied, "Honorable guest, I sympathize with your plight. But none of this happened on my territory, and I'm afraid I can't do anything about it!"

"Powerless?" Papah stamped his foot and said, "Indra, aren't you planning to attack the Han people? It was upon hearing this news that I brought all my possessions here. I have hired three hundred elite warriors, and together with my original guards, I am sailing with my fleet to join your army and exact righteous revenge on the greedy Han people!"

Hearing that Baffa was arriving with soldiers and a fleet, Qu Heng's heart stirred slightly. He didn't take the few hundred mercenaries seriously, but Baffa's fleet was indeed formidable. Capable of traversing the vast ocean for years, shuttling between the Malay Peninsula and southern China, Baffa's sailors were far superior to those small boats that could only navigate within sight of the shore. Whether for naval battles or transporting supplies, they would be of great value to Qu Heng's future conquests. Not to mention, this wealthy merchant was very rich; having more money was never a bad thing during wartime.

"Indeed, I do intend to attack the Han people, but your enemy is in Panyu! That's quite far from here, and it's unlikely that my army can reach that far!"

“Your Majesty, do you know that there are actually two Han Chinese governors in Jiaozhou?” Bafa said. “One is named Zhang Pan, who is currently in Jiaozhi; and the other is named Wei Cong, who plundered my property and is my enemy.”

This Wei Cong was actually a daring and reckless bandit. He originally lived in a place called Yuzhang, hiding in the mountains and forests, making a living by plundering the surrounding villages, with less than a thousand men by his side. However, a year ago, a large-scale uprising broke out in the south of the Han people. Hundreds of thousands of rioters took up arms, besieged cities, burned villages, killed officials, and blocked roads.

The Han emperor was forced to devote all his resources to fighting these rioters. Taking advantage of this, Wei Cong led his men south from Yuzhang, crossing the mountains into Jiaozhou. Jiaozhou was at peace at the time, and no one was prepared for an enemy coming from the north. He easily captured Panyu City, defeated the local officials who opposed him, and became the master of five northern counties of Jiaozhou!

(End of this chapter)