Chapter 19: A Grave Case

The sky had just begun to brighten. Gongsun Xun, who had not slept well all night, set out on the road with Han Dang and the others. They honestly retraced their steps along the route they had mistakenly taken the day before, asking everyone they met for directions. When they came upon a small village called Dahuangli, they made a point of stopping to rest their feet and beg a bowl of hot broth… there was no helping it — they had truly been parched the day before.

Just as this group obtained precise directions from Dahuangli and prepared to set off again, they suddenly saw dust billowing on the road and heard the rapid beat of hoofbeats. It was unmistakably a troop of black-clad government clerks riding fast to escort several official carriages into the village. The moment he saw the carriage retinue, Gongsun Xun, long accustomed to being a clerk himself, understood — this was likely the County Magistrate of Nanhe County arriving in person.

Sure enough, when the carriage door opened, out stepped an imperially appointed official wearing a bronze seal and black silk cord. Listening to the forms of address used by the surrounding clerks, it was unmistakably this county’s Magistrate Cui Min, Magistrate Cui, who had arrived.

The village headman and prominent households of the village were greatly alarmed and hurried forward to kneel and pay their respects. But this six-hundred-dan Magistrate Cui (by Han dynasty regulation, a county magistrate’s rank was set according to the county’s registered households, ranging from three hundred dan to one thousand dan) would not even look at them. The clerks around him bustled about, but only to request hot broth and fodder… which actually let everyone in the village breathe a sigh of relief.

With a little inquiry they learned that the previous night, a monstrously grave case had occurred in Sanmali. The County Accessory Thief-Catcher and Jail Clerk of Nanhe County, Julu Commandery, were utterly incapable of handling it on their own, so Magistrate Cui had been forced to come in person.

“What do you mean?” Gongsun Xun had no intention of provoking this county magistrate whom he had never met. But after he himself withdrew far away, he still could not help sending Han Dang and the others to inquire about it… nor could he afford not to. When asking for directions earlier, he had already learned that Sanmali and Dasangli were adjacent, and the latter was precisely where that Jia Chao’s home was located — his own destination on this journey.

And besides, when a lean, battle-hardened frontier cavalryman who rode horses and wielded blades had just returned home and immediately such a major case occurred, one could not help but let the imagination run wild.

“It’s Jia Chao! Who would have guessed — the scoundrel actually had such nerve. In one breath he slaughtered nineteen people of a prominent household in the village. And after killing them, he didn’t flee. In the dead of night, he had the headman of Sanmali ride to report to the authorities, while he himself had the headman of Dasangli sit with him at the gate of that prominent household’s home, waiting for the county clerks to arrest him.” As Han Dang spoke of the man’s audacity, his face instead showed a trace of admiration. After all, this was a man who had dared to raid a camp with only thirty riders — why would he truly care about such a matter?

“Do we know why?” Gongsun Xun asked curiously. “He had just returned home — how could such a thing erupt?”

Yet the moment the question left his mouth, Gongsun Xun himself found it pointless. Though he did not know the specifics, to commit such a crime immediately upon returning home, and against a rural prominent household at that, and even to kill without fleeing — nine times out of ten, his family had been oppressed, and he had been driven to rise up and kill in desperation.

At this thought, Gongsun Xun’s mind turned, and he hastily changed his order and instructed one matter: “Since we’ve encountered this, I cannot ignore it. Go to the baggage and fetch my clan uncle’s visiting card. I wish to have an audience with this Magistrate Cui of Nanhe County!”

“Young sir, you come from Liaoxi?” The county magistrate, a man of about forty or fifty years, was clearly startled and uncertain upon reading the visiting card presented to him. “Gongsun of Liaoxi, serving as Chief Clerk of Right Beiping, Gongsun Zhao… could this Gongsun Zhao be the one recently mentioned in the court gazettes as having led troops to rout the Xianbei in a great victory… what is he to you?”

“He is my clan uncle.”

“So that is how it is. I am from Qinghe Commandery and once served as the Revenue Clerk of Qinghe Commandery. At that time I had a colleague named Gongsun Fang, who was very close friends with my clan younger cousin Cui Yan. Both of them are now studying under the great Confucian scholar Zheng Xuan. I wonder…”

“Also a clan uncle, though from the Qinghe branch… My Gongsun clan is a towering great clan, stretching from Liaodong to Beihai, with clansmen all around the shores of Bohai.” Now that connections had been established, Gongsun Xun also hastened to change his form of address. “To be frank with you, Uncle, this young one comes from the main line in Lingzhi, Liaoxi.”

“So that is how it is… Liaoxi. If it is Liaoxi, worthy nephew, what brings you to this place?”

“Traveling to Luoyang to pursue my studies.”

“Traveling to Luoyang to pursue your studies? Then, worthy nephew, why have you not hastened on your way, but instead linger here without moving on?”

“In reply to Magistrate Cui, this young one came to visit a friend,” Gongsun Xun answered with due courtesy.

“In this impoverished and remote countryside, where would a ‘friend’ be?!” This Magistrate Cui seemed to speak with a sense of gnashing teeth.

“To be frank with Magistrate Cui, my original intent was precisely to go to Dasangli to see this Jia Chao who has killed someone.” Gongsun Xun remained neither servile nor overbearing, instead carrying himself with an air of openness. “Back then at Lulong Fortress in Liaoxi, when the Xianbei raided the border and my clan uncle Gongsun Zhao dispatched troops for a night attack, I was serving as a clerk of Liaoxi Commandery and also took part in the battle. This Jia Chao also fought side by side with us that day, so we share something of the bond of comrades-in-arms. For his return home this time, it was also I, this young one, who gifted him the money and goods… Hearing that he slaughtered an entire household the moment he returned home, I imagine there must be hidden circumstances, and so I cannot simply ignore it.”

“I knew it!” Magistrate Cui finally lost his composure in exasperation. “The moment I saw the words ‘Liaoxi’ on the visiting card, I should have known you were connected to that Jia Chao who just returned from Liaoxi! You claim to come from a renowned family, young in years, with a bright future ahead — why must you wade into this murky water?! You just said yourself that when you were at home in Liaoxi, you also served as a clerk in the commandery. You must know that the law of the land is merciless.”

“It is precisely because I am young with a bright future that I cannot ignore this matter!” Gongsun Xun replied without the slightest retreat. “Magistrate Cui… in years past, Yuanjie Gong (the famous scholar Zhang Jian) killed a man for a friend, and all under Heaven praised him for it. What sort of figure was Yuanjie Gong — do I need to explain to you? Even remote as Liaoxi is, in a neighboring commandery a few years ago there was also the deed of Yang Fangzheng (Yang Qiu). Because someone insulted his mother, he gathered a crowd and killed that official’s entire family. And what was the result? Did he not also become renowned throughout the land, get recommended as Filial and Incorrupt, and enter official service? Even if Jia Chao is of low birth, he is a friend I have acknowledged. How could I abandon him and look away? Magistrate Cui, let me speak plainly. If his heart’s desire is fulfilled and he seeks only death, then so be it — this young one will never disregard the law of the land. But if there is still some grievance in his heart, is Zhang Jian the only one who dared to avenge a friend? Is Yang Fangzheng the only one who dared to gather a crowd and kill before even coming of age?!”

As he spoke, Gongsun Xun actually gripped the hilt of his blade right in front of the other party’s crowd of law enforcement personnel.

Yet Magistrate Cui, as well as the surrounding county clerks, were all left speechless… because what the other party said was, in truth, the damn mainstream values of this era. What the Great Han dynasty emphasized was precisely the great righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Annals — vengeance must be had, and grace must be repaid. And once one committed such a deed, one was certain to win fame and establish oneself!

In fact, how could our Magistrate Cui not see at this moment that this young man surnamed Gongsun before him might very well truly wish to use this to make a name for himself? And come to think of it, if the case had no twists and turns, there would be no harm to this young man either. It was merely following along for a trip — could he lose a piece of flesh over it?

But if an opportunity arose, why shouldn’t someone seize the chance to gain some reputation here in Hebei before leaving?

However, the matter was not so simple.

The thing was, when someone came to the county seat late at night yesterday to report the case, they had already roughly outlined the circumstances. And although this Magistrate Cui of Nanhe County had not yet had time to investigate, in his heart he had already formed some personal, general views on the case… The dead were from the household of the prominent Ma, Old Ma. It was plainly a bunch of rustic local strongmen who had only just risen to power by clinging to the claws and fangs of eunuch associates. So, some things could be guessed with one’s eyes closed. It was likely that this family had been somewhat unscrupulous in oppressing the village, and happened to run into a fierce soldier like Jia Chao, who had licked blood off the edge of a blade, and thus brought disaster upon themselves.

And since the case involved the claws and fangs of eunuchs wreaking havoc in the countryside, and the uncapped youth before him had just invoked the name of Zhang Jian, who became renowned throughout the land by opposing the eunuchs, Magistrate Cui naturally had an additional layer of concern:

One must understand, these eunuchs — no one under Heaven today could afford to offend them. If one truly offended them, it truly meant the ruin of one’s family and the extermination of one’s line. But if one submitted to eunuch power and one’s reputation was stained, then the scholars would not tolerate you either… Because in this Han dynasty, everyone had to care about face and reputation. A shameless person, unless he cut himself and sent himself into the palace, generally could not rise in the world. And after the two Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions, those anti-eunuch scholars, though they could not hold office, instead increasingly controlled public opinion.

Have you not seen? That Zhang Jian, because he offended Hou Lan of the Ten Regular Attendants, fled for his life along the roads, seeking refuge at every door he looked upon. How many scholars under Heaven did not hesitate to ruin their families and exterminate their lines to protect him? Later on, even the officials pursuing him voluntarily abandoned their posts and fled, and even said to the scholars protecting Zhang Jian, “Such righteousness — please let me share half of it”?

Such force of momentum truly inspired respect to the point of fear.

Of course, originally, the remaining living people in this case were all commoners, and commoners in this era did not count as people, much less had the qualifications to discuss high-end topics like public opinion and reputation. If he just went there, claimed to be enforcing the law impartially, put on the face of a Legalist harsh official, and killed those who should be killed and buried those who should be buried — wouldn’t that be the end of it?

But then again, a scion of the Liaoxi Gongsun clan traveling to Luoyang for study was right before his eyes. That was a great clan that had held two-thousand-dan posts for generations. All around the shores of Bohai, in seven or eight commanderies, there were branches of their clansmen, and they also had the reach of trading firms. His own home commandery of Qinghe also lay just within the sphere of this family’s influence, and Qinghe was, damn it all, precisely the birthplace of the Partisan movement… This forced Magistrate Cui to have no choice but to consider this issue of public opinion.

The fodder was fed, and the horses recovered their spirit. The hot broth was drunk, and the men warmed their bodies.

But after setting out again, Magistrate Cui, looking outside his carriage at Gongsun Xun riding a tall, large horse with his four or five blade-gripping, bow-slung attendants, felt his head practically splitting with pain!

“Jian, facing death, fled in desperation and hardship, seeking refuge at every door he looked upon. None did not honor his name and conduct, ruining their families to shelter him.” — Book of the Later Han, Biography of Zhang Jian

PS: There is also a new book group. Interested students can join: 684558115.

Seeking favorites, seeking recommendations… Also, yesterday’s ‘很如羊’ was not a typo; it is a phonetic loan character used by the Grand Historian.

(End of Chapter)