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After seeing Huang Zhong off and returning to the Cui Estate, Fei Qian was immediately hit with shocking news: Dong Zhuo's forces had dispatched an army to raze the Chang clan's stronghold in Yangren. In a single day, the Chang family's fortified manor had been breached, and nearly a thousand people—members of the Chang family and their retainers—had been slaughtered.
When Cui Hou brought him this news, Fei Qian was not only stunned but also felt a twinge of relief.
Thankfully, he had insisted that Huang Zhong's group take a detour. Originally, Zhang Zhongjing had planned to take the Liangdong route, passing through Nanyang to reach Jingxiang. Though this path was much shorter, it happened to be the very route where Yuan Shu was mobilizing his forces to attack Dong Zhuo.
Had Fei Qian not insisted on diverting Huang Zhong and Zhang Zhongjing away from that road, they might have stumbled right into the conflict between the two armies. After all, Yangren lay directly on that route.
While Huang Zhong and Zhang Zhongjing's party had avoided disaster, Fei Qian now found himself facing a problem of his own.
This situation…
Was extremely troublesome.
Dong Zhuo's forces had spread the word that the Chang clan of Yangren had privately stockpiled weapons and plotted rebellion. But what was the truth? Most likely, it boiled down to one of two possibilities: either the Chang clan had openly resisted Dong Zhuo's order to requisition grain, or they had connections with the Yuan family, providing support for Yuan Shu's army.
As for the accusation of rebellion—ha! A minor local warlord like the Chang clan couldn't even muster enough troops to stage a revolt. What basis was there for such a claim?
Fei Qian wasn't the only one who found this suspicious. Even Cui Hou seemed uneasy. Though his expression remained composed, there was a flicker of unease in his eyes.
The Chang clan of Yangren wasn't a prestigious noble family, but they were an established local power in the Luoyang region. Their fortified manor was no less formidable than the Cui Estate. Yet, such a clan had been effortlessly annihilated by Dong Zhuo, vanishing without so much as a ripple.
Since arriving in the Han Dynasty, Fei Qian had come to understand that the so-called feudal society wasn't static. Like the various "-isms" of later eras, it was divided into different stages, each representing the interests of different classes.
In the earliest periods of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States eras, the system was dominated by aristocracy, where bloodline determined status, and governance was structured around enfeoffed nobles.
As productivity and population grew, the power of these nobles expanded, and the central authority of the Zhou Dynasty gradually weakened, eventually leading to the chaos of the Warring States period.
Then, Qin Shi Huang emerged, unifying the Central Plains and establishing a centralized commandery-county system to address the flaws of the Warring States era. However, this provoked fierce resistance from the remnants of the aristocracy, leading to the Qin Dynasty's swift collapse.
The root cause wasn't the harshness of Qin's laws—after all, the Qin people themselves hadn't rebelled—but rather that these laws targeted the aristocracy. The commandery-county system dismantled the nobles' local dominance, replacing hereditary positions with appointments by the central court. How could the aristocracy tolerate that?
Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, succeeded in replacing the Qin Dynasty because he managed to reconcile the conflict between the remnants of the aristocracy and centralized authority. He retained the commandery-county system but allowed local nobles to recommend and hold positions in the central and local governments. Meanwhile, the old aristocracy, based purely on bloodline, gradually evolved into a new ruling class—the scholar-gentry.
Yet, over time, this new scholar-gentry class deviated from its original progressive role, becoming entrenched in local dominance and competing with the central court for power.
Now, the eastern gentry's opposition to Dong Zhuo wasn't necessarily due to his alleged tyranny, but because his political maneuvers threatened their interests. Dong Zhuo, a westerner, had abruptly seized control of the court, depriving the eastern gentry—represented by the Yuan family—of the political gains they had fought so hard to secure after toppling the eunuchs and the imperial relatives. This was the root of the current conflict.
Though Fei Qian didn't know that Dong Zhuo's envoy delegation had already been killed by the Yuan family, he could guess that the massacre of the Chang clan was Dong Zhuo's way of signaling his refusal to compromise.
Now, there was no room for negotiation—only force could resolve the dispute.
Cui Hou tried to keep his voice steady as he said, "The heads of the Chang clan have been piled into a jingguan in the eastern part of the city. Luoyang is becoming increasingly dangerous…"
This was already the second jingguan Dong Zhuo had erected since entering Luoyang. The first had been after the Yangcheng assembly, where hundreds were executed. Now, the scale of the Chang clan's massacre—nearly a thousand heads—was even larger.
Fei Qian could sense the sorrow hidden in Cui Hou's words. After all, the Cui family had been in Luoyang for years and likely had some dealings with the Chang clan. Now, in the blink of an eye, old acquaintances had become victims of the blade. Emotionally, it was hard to bear.
Beyond that, Fei Qian also detected Cui Hou's anxiety. The Cui family was only slightly more powerful than the Chang clan. If Dong Zhuo turned his blade on them, how long could the Cui family hold out?
Fei Qian said, "Brother Yongyuan, we are now at the mercy of the butcher's knife. Luoyang is on the brink of war. How are the preparations coming along?"
By shifting the topic to Cui Hou's preparations, Fei Qian was reminding him that in such chaotic times, there was no room for sentimentality—only immediate action mattered.
Cui Hou replied, "Everything is being prepared, but… well, there's the matter of my family. I'm not sure how to bring this up…"
Seeing Cui Hou hesitate, Fei Qian suddenly realized his own oversight. He had been so focused on Huang Zhong's situation that he hadn't considered Cui Hou's concerns. No wonder Cui Hou had rushed over.
"My apologies for the oversight, Brother Yongyuan!" Fei Qian said. "Huang Zhong's group hasn't gone far yet. If you're worried about your family, you can send some men to escort your father to join them on their way to Jingxiang. With Zhang Zhongjing's medical skills, your father should be safe. Though Jingxiang may not be as prosperous as Henei, I promise he'll be treated as an honored guest."
Overjoyed, Cui Hou clasped his hands in gratitude and immediately left to arrange for an escort. Soon, forty or fifty men were dispatched to accompany Cui Hou's father, Cui Yi, to catch up with Huang Zhong's party.
Fei Qian and Cui Hou saw Cui Yi off, accompanying him for a couple of miles before finally stopping at his insistence, watching as the group disappeared into the distance.
This incident served as a wake-up call for Fei Qian. Fortunately, it wasn't too late to make amends.
*****
T/N: "京" (jīng) means "capital" or "prominent," and "观" (guān) means "to display" or "a spectacle." Together, it signifies a macabre public exhibition of power.
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