Chapter 5: The Six Ministers of Fan
After spending about one ke (two hours) digging the grave, Lu Wucheng and Jin carefully buried Fan Dan and immediately set out eastward.
There was no reason for them to remain in Mengshen any longer.
As they began walking east through the muddy ground, Jin was no longer crying.
It was summer.
Wiping sweat from their foreheads, the two trudged forward over the unstable terrain.
Seeing signs of fatigue in Jin, Lu Wucheng offered to carry him, but Jin politely refused.
Inside his robe, he carried a small box containing Fan Dan’s hair.
Lu Wucheng had said that delivering it to Fan Dan’s son in the east would be for Fan Dan’s sake.
Therefore, Jin felt he had to walk there on his own feet.
However, from Mengshen to their destination, Buyong, was two hundred forty li (about 120 kilometers).
It was a harsh journey.
“By the way, Jin.
Have you ever met Master Fan’s son?”
“No.
I was born in Mengshen.
My parents died of illness, and when I had nowhere to go, Master took me in.”
“I see.”
“Lu-dono, where are you from?”
“Youshan.”
He answered curtly.
However, Jin continued to ask him various questions.
For Jin, Lu Wucheng was now the only person he could rely on, so it was only natural that he wanted to know more about him.
Also, talking helped ease the fatigue.
“Where is Youshan?”
“Further east than Buyong, where we are heading.
There is a state called Qiong, of the Feng clan, and it lies by the sea within its territory.
I grew up in the mountains there, learning scholarship and martial arts from my father.”
“Then why are you here near Mengshen now?
And what exactly do you do, Lu-dono?”
“It’s nothing grand.
If I had to say, traveling is my livelihood.
I hunt beasts in the mountains and fields, sell what I catch, or take on day labor to earn travel money, wandering the continent without any fixed destination.”
As he spoke, Jin’s eyes sparkled, and he eagerly asked about Lu Wucheng’s travels.
Thinking about what to tell him, Lu Wucheng decided to speak about the Zhi clan, which governed Buyong, their destination.
However, to speak of the Zhi clan, he first had to explain the state of Fan.
Fan was a state of the Jiang clan, the same surname as the Yu Dynasty, and was a great power further east than Guo.
When the restored Yu Dynasty in Guo submitted to Zhuan, it was the then Lord of Fan, Jiang Yiqi, who rose up to unite the states of the royal domain and drive out Zhuan.
Jiang Yiqi, posthumously titled Duke Zhuang, fought bravely against Zhuan but was defeated and killed.
At that time, many of the feudal lords personally led their armies into battle, and most of them died, causing the security of the royal domain to deteriorate rapidly.
This had occurred thirteen years ago.
Incidentally, the current King of Yu, Jiang Han, would later be posthumously titled King Cheng, and this year would be recorded in later histories as the eighteenth year of King Cheng.
Thus, Duke Zhuang’s campaign took place in the fifth year of King Cheng.
Now then, this great defeat determined the fate of Fan thereafter.
Fan had a system known as the Six Ministers.
There were three high-ranking civil positions called Cheng and three military positions called Jiang.
Each was ranked as senior, middle, and junior, and these six ministers supported the ruler and governed the state.
However, due to the defeat, the heads of three clans—the Wu clan, the Shi clan, and the Han clan—were killed in battle.
Specifically, the Wu clan held the position of senior general, the Han clan was middle minister, and the Shi clan was junior general.
At that campaign, aside from those three clans, the head of the Zhi clan, Zhi Nang, had also participated.
Zhi Nang was the senior minister and stood at the top of Fan’s political hierarchy.
After returning from the defeat, seeing that Duke Zhuang’s young heir, Jiang Gao, was in mourning, Zhi Nang used his position to spread the following claim:
“The Wu, Shi, and Han clans betrayed us and sided with Zhuan.
That is why Lord Fan was defeated.
However, because they allowed us to escape, they were killed by the enraged Duke of Zhuan.
We cannot punish the dead clan heads, but their clans must atone for their crimes.”
With that, he raised troops, destroyed the three clans, and seized all their lands and wealth for himself.
The one who resisted this was a man named Wei Ying of the Wei clan.
He was the head of the Wei clan and held the position of middle general, making him the highest military authority in Fan after the fall of the Wu clan.
Wei Ying allied with Wei Gong of the Wei clan, who held the position of junior minister, and fought against Zhi Nang.
However, seeing the battle turn unfavorable, Wei Ying secretly made peace with Zhi Nang without informing Wei Gong.
Angered by this, Wei Gong withdrew to his northern territory.
Afterward, Jiang Gao ordered a peace settlement among the clans, and the internal conflict in Fan was temporarily resolved.
Following the peace, the Six Ministers were reduced to three, abolishing the distinctions between civil and military roles, leaving only the title of minister.
Thus, Fan came to be governed by three clans: Zhi Nang as senior minister, Wei Ying as middle minister, and Wei Gong as junior minister.
“So Buyong, where we are heading… it is within the territory of the Zhi clan, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Was it true, what the Zhi clan said about the three clans betraying them?”
“Who knows.
I was at the far eastern edge at the time.
There is no way for me to know the truth.”
Most people believed that Zhi Nang’s claim was nothing more than a fabrication.
However, Lu Wucheng deliberately avoided stating that outright.
“However, the Zhi clan held the position of senior minister and bore the Jiang surname.
In a Fan that had lost a wise ruler like Duke Zhuang, there was likely no one who could question his words.”
Hearing this, Jin tilted his head in confusion.
“Um, Lu-dono.
May I ask something basic, even if it is a bit late?”
“What is it?”
“You keep mentioning clan names and surnames, but what is the difference between a clan and a surname?”