Chapter 21: A Killing in Jest (5.5k)

Gongsun Xun did not get angry. He simply walked up to the northern steed that had brought ruin to two families, and calmly stroked the mane on its back:

"Brother Yigong, let him go. I will ask, and let him answer."

Only then did Han Dang release his grip, still seething with indignation.

"Young lord, please ask." The man kowtowed again, and the woman beside him hurriedly knelt as well.

"Are you Jia Chao or Jia Ping?"

"Jia Chao, the younger brother." The man — Jia Chao — quickly lowered his head and answered.

"Then the one tied up and detained in the pavilion today is naturally your elder brother, Jia Ping?"

"Yes."

"And who killed the people?" Gongsun Xun suddenly turned and fixed his gaze on him.

"I did!" Jia Chao answered without hesitation. "How could my elder brother, a mere farmer, kill anyone — let alone nineteen lives?"

"Your elder brother's devotion to his younger brother is something I can probably understand." Gongsun Xun pressed on, expressionless. "But tell me, Jia Chao — how can you sit by and watch your elder brother take the blame and die in your place?"

Han Dang narrowed his hawk-like eyes as well. What angered him was precisely this question — Gongsun Xun had brought them all here with every intention of extending a helping hand to this man, but only on the condition that the person being saved was not some coward who clung to life at any cost.

There was no helping it. Since the Spring and Autumn period, the prevailing ethos among the people had been to regard death as a homecoming. From high ministers down to commoners, anyone who clung cravenly to life was held in contempt. Even eunuchs and imperial in-laws, when they lost in political struggles, still upheld the principle that one's life was one's own and not heaven's to decide — they would slit their own throats when it was time, or throw themselves into a river, rarely hesitating!

Jia Chao's face flushed crimson, clearly deeply ashamed: "Jia Chao is by no means a man who clings to life — otherwise I would not have written my own name on the spirit screen right after the killing..."

Gongsun Xun and Han Dang exchanged a glance, their expressions softening somewhat. That statement, they had to admit, carried considerable weight.

"After the killing, I wrote my name, and my heart turned to ashes. I meant to simply leave, but just as I was about to go, I could not bear to part from my elder brother, so I secretly returned home to bid farewell to my brother and sister-in-law." Jia Chao lowered his head and spoke earnestly. "Unexpectedly... after my elder brother learned what had happened, he stopped me and said a few things."

"What did he say?" Gongsun Xun asked, frowning.

"He said... if I fled, according to Han law, those officials, fierce as goats, would surely come to seal and seize the family property. By then, the household would likely be stripped clean. And Old Master Ma was still alive — once he recovered, he would never let our family off. In that case, with me a fugitive living from hand to mouth, and him and our sister-in-law at home, stripped of land and money, they would simply be waiting to die — Old Master Ma would finish them off."

Gongsun Xun was inwardly speechless... This was probably the limit of a farmer's understanding. If you had fled and left your brother at home, Old Master Ma and the local officials would have had some lingering fear and might not have struck so ruthlessly. But in this situation, once they discovered that you, the murderer, were still here, they would stake their lives on killing you! How could you throw everything away for the sake of some land and money?

One must understand: keep the people and lose the wealth, and both people and wealth will be regained; keep the wealth and lose the people, and both people and wealth will be lost!

"That reasoning does hold some sense." Han Dang, standing nearby, urged impatiently. "Just tell us why it was not you who surrendered, but your elder brother!"

"My elder brother said..." Jia Chao hesitated, unable to stop himself from glancing at his sister-in-law, who buried her head even lower.

"What exactly did your elder brother say?" Han Dang pressed again.

"My elder brother said: there are three ways to be unfilial, and having no heir is the greatest. He and our sister-in-law have been married for years without a child. If I died, our Jia family line would likely end!" Jia Chao was overcome with shame. "So he hoped that I would stay behind in his name to care for our sister-in-law, while he took my name to confess the crime. That way, the dead man would be Jia Chao, and the living man would be Jia Ping. When a child was born in the future, it would naturally count as his — Jia Ping's — descendant..."

At this, even Gongsun Xun was left speechless.

This reasoning — how to put it? At first hearing, it sounded utterly absurd. But on careful thought, given the circumstances, status, and understanding of these two brothers, it was actually quite persuasive.

"Young lord!" Jia Chao struck his head against the ground once more. "After the killing, I was somewhat panicked, and since childhood I have always deferred to my elder brother in important matters, so last night I agreed in a daze. But now my brother has been tied up and taken away — in a few days his head will likely fall to the ground. My heart is in turmoil, and I do not know what to do... I beg the young lord, by all means, to show mercy and help. I am willing to repay with my life, just to bring my brother back!"

At these words, Jia Chao's sister-in-law also hurriedly began kowtowing.

Han Dang's expression now greatly relaxed — after all, unlike the cowardice they had suspected earlier, this matter of brothers vying to die for one another was deeply admirable.

Gongsun Xun, however, had some other questions he wanted to ask: "Is there truly no one in the entire district who knows you two brothers? Why did no one point it out during the interrogation just now?"

"In reply to the young lord," Jia Chao hastily answered, "we are brothers after all, and our features bear some resemblance. With disheveled hair, grimy faces, and covered in blood, it is hard to tell for certain from a distance. Moreover, last night my elder brother sought help from a master of the Way of Great Peace. That master, moved by my brother's protective love for me, persuaded the local headman — who is also a believer — and also agreed to lead the Way of Great Peace followers in the district to cover for us. Of the two hundred-some households in Dasang and Sanma districts, a hundred seventy or eighty are willing to heed the words of the Way of Great Peace master... So as long as Old Master Ma himself does not come to identify us in person, there will absolutely be no mistake."

In Gongsun Xun's mind flashed the image of that headman, cowering on the ground before Magistrate Cui, and that Way of Great Peace Daoist, holding his nine-section staff and leading the villagers in bowing to Magistrate Cui... and of course, that moment of terrible silence when the Bandit Officer ordered the fake younger brother — the real elder brother — brought forward for questioning.

If this was the state of affairs throughout the Julu countryside, then the Way of Great Peace was truly terrifying. No wonder, ten years from now, they would be capable of such a great affair.

In Gongsun Xun's view, moreover, the Way of Great Peace Daoist's motive in helping the Jia brothers was not entirely pure — he had probably taken a fancy to Jia Chao's courage and fierce spirit, and wanted to recruit him for his own use.

His intentions... were worthy of execution!

It must be said: people in different positions see the same matter differently. For Gongsun Xun, the focus of this affair had already shifted to concern and vigilance toward the Way of Great Peace. But for Han Dang, his mind was still solely on how to save the man. He hesitated, clearly wanting to ask Gongsun Xun to lend Jia Chao a hand as well.

Gongsun Xun naturally noticed his trusted follower's expression. Setting aside the fact that, having come this far, going with the flow would do no harm — even purely for the sake of securing Han Dang's loyalty, he could afford to make such a gesture.

However, after pausing briefly, Gongsun Xun still asked one more question: "Jia Chao, those words — fierce as a tiger, ruthless as a goat, greedy as a wolf — are they true? Were you truly forced by circumstance when you killed last night?"

"Absolutely true — I heard it with my own ears!" Jia Chao pressed his fist hard against the packed earth, scraping it until blood showed. "Young lord, you are from Youzhou and do not know the tyranny of these eunuch spawn here in Jizhou. They do not even regard two-thousand-bushel dignitaries with respect. This Old Master Ma, though he merely attached himself to a hanger-on of some eunuch's son, was more than enough to bring a family like ours to utter ruin... If I did not kill him, I truly did not know what path to survival remained. It is only a pity that toward the end my strength gave out, I made too much noise, and he escaped through the dog hole."

"Very well. Since that is the case, I will take you to see Magistrate Cui." Gongsun Xun did not quite believe that even two-thousand-bushel officials were held in contempt, but since there was indeed a cause behind it, and there was this matter of "brothers vying to die," he could naturally lend a hand along the way...

Of course, merely lending a hand was already enough — because for a commoner like Jia Chao, without the intervention of a noble scion like Gongsun Xun, he could go his entire life without ever getting close enough to Magistrate Cui to speak a single word.

"Why must you meddle in so many affairs?" In the post-house within the pavilion, Magistrate Cui, who had just settled in, was so agitated that even his Qinghe dialect burst out.

"When a friend asks for help, how can one refuse?" Gongsun Xun held his head high and chest out, impervious to both soft and hard persuasion. Having grown up in the commandery office, he knew perfectly well that this Magistrate Cui could do nothing to him.

"Then let the younger brother come and exchange for the elder brother — why must I release them both?" Magistrate Cui was still fuming.

"Brothers vying to die — this is where righteousness lies!" Gongsun Xun remained unyielding. "If you, my lord, make no gesture in response, do you not fear that word will spread and tarnish your unsullied reputation?"

"Worthy nephew, why do you press me so hard?" Magistrate Cui was utterly exasperated. "I worked many bitter years to earn this post of county magistrate."

"The county lord is my elder — I am doing this for your own good." Gongsun Xun pretended not to hear the latter half of his sentence. "Even if word spreads and your superiors pursue the matter, everyone under heaven will say that you, my elder, are a man who values righteousness above office."

Magistrate Cui — Cui Min of the Qinghe Cui clan — was both frantic and furious. Left with no choice, he stepped out of the pavilion building, drove all the clerks and attendants far away, then turned and shut the door of the post-house himself before finally speaking his mind:

"Worthy nephew, since you call me an elder, how can you not grant me a path to survival?"

"What is the county lord saying? How has this come to a matter of survival?" Gongsun Xun was dumbfounded.

"Within these closed doors, I will speak plainly." Cui Min took hold of the other's hand, his expression most earnest. "Worthy nephew, you are young after all... Do you know that what I fear is not some superior official? Superiors — what of them? We are all men of the same path; one can always talk things through. But this case faintly implicates the spawn of eunuchs!"

Gongsun Xun nodded: "I did just hear the real Jia Chao say something to that effect — but it was merely a lackey of some eunuch's son."

"That is enough!" Magistrate Cui answered at once. "One cannot be too careful. What if this case stirs up a storm, and Old Master Ma, nursing his grievance, entangles his way up layer by layer until finally some random clan nephew of Regular Attendant Zhao is drawn in? What am I to do then?"

"Regular Attendant Zhao's clan nephews — if not thirteen or fifteen, then surely seven or eight. Why should the county lord be so fearful?" Gongsun Xun frowned slightly.

"When you met me earlier, did you not mention Zhang Jian, Zhang Yuanjie? How can you not understand the tyranny of the eunuchs?"

"I will not hide it from the county lord." Gongsun Xun lowered his head. "I used Lord Yuanjie as an example today only because I happen to know him... The year before last, when he fled from Qingzhou beyond the frontier, he traveled on my family's merchant ship and even stayed at my home for a few days. I only know that his fame is immense, and when my family told me some of his deeds, I merely remembered the matter of him killing a man for a friend. As for the affair between him and the eunuchs — I, a lad from Liaoxi, truly do not know the details."

"Is that so?" Now it was Magistrate Cui's turn to be stunned. "So Lord Yuanjie is now taking refuge under your family's protection?"

"Within these closed doors — once I step outside, I will deny it." Gongsun Xun hastily added a reminder.

"Of course, of course!" Magistrate Cui nodded repeatedly. "Let us not speak of Lord Yuanjie, but only of the eunuchs... Do you know that the sons and nephews of eunuchs can regard two-thousand-bushel officials as nothing? How much more so a mere six-hundred-bushel county magistrate like me?"

This was the second time Gongsun Xun had heard such words today. And unlike hearing them from Jia Chao's mouth, when Magistrate Cui said them, he could not help but believe: "What do you mean by that?"

"Let me tell you a few things." Magistrate Cui sighed. "Nowadays there are the Ten Regular Attendants; in the late Emperor's time there were the Five Marquises — all great eunuchs whose power overshadowed the court. Among the Five Marquises was one called Xu Huang, a man from Xiapi in Xuzhou. His nephew was the Prefect of Xiapi. I won't dwell on how he committed his evils, but I will tell you about one local family. The head of that household was a high official of the two-thousand-bushel rank who had served as Grand Administrator of Runan. That nephew of Xu Huang took a fancy to the Grand Administrator's daughter, and also to the Grand Administrator's family background, so he wanted to take her in marriage..."

"Naturally, the Grand Administrator was unwilling to marry her off?"

"Of course. And then, my worthy nephew, what do you suppose that nephew of Xu Huang did?"

"He broke in, seized the girl, and forced the marriage?" Gongsun Xun could only follow that line of thought.

"Seize her he did. Had he married her afterward, it might have been tolerable." Magistrate Cui gave a cold laugh. "But this nephew of Xu Huang dragged the daughter of that two-thousand-bushel Grand Administrator back to his home, and neither married her nor took her as a concubine. Right there in his own garden, he sport-killed her in front of a crowd..."

"What does 'sport-killed' mean?" Gongsun Xun suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"It means he made the Grand Administrator's daughter flee barefoot, while he and his guests chased from behind with bows and arrows, killing her as if on a hunt... After the kill, he buried her on the spot, and went right on being Prefect of Xiapi as if nothing had happened."

Gongsun Xun was dumbstruck.

"That is a distant case. There is one closer to home — the matter of Lord Yuanjie..."

"Didn't you say you wouldn't speak of Lord Yuanjie's affair?" Gongsun Xun hurriedly gave an awkward laugh. "Besides, Lord Yuanjie's case involves the issue of the Partisan Prohibitions, and we border commandery folk don't pay much mind to the Partisan Prohibitions..."

"Is that truly how border commandery folk think?" Magistrate Cui retorted dismissively.

Of course not, Gongsun Xun thought to himself. It was just that my mother had a rather lofty and penetrating view on this matter, and I myself found my mother's reasoning sound.

The so-called Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions, put plainly, was this: the scholar-officials denounced the eunuchs for meddling in governance and praised one another to the skies; the eunuchs seized upon the latter, accusing them of "forming factions." In the end, the Emperor personally stepped in and had the "faction-forming" scholars killed, arrested, or dismissed, and finally forbade these "Partisans," along with their kin, disciples, and descendants, from ever holding office.

And Lady Gongsun's view on the Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions was actually quite simple: neither side in that struggle was any good. On one side, the imperial power was using the eunuchs as a blade to carve out its own channel for appointing officials; on the other, the scholar-officials wanted to keep monopolizing the power to recommend officials. In the end, both sides tore off all pretense, and the Emperor simply played the card of "your whole family is barred from office," implicating three degrees of kinship.

Going even further, according to Lady Gongsun's self-assured interpretation, from a long-term perspective, the scholar-officials' self-righteous monopoly could not sustain a strong state regime. On the contrary, the Emperor's style of solitary autocrat and enemy of the people was more conducive to maintaining the operation of a centralized state.

Of course, when Lady Gongsun said this, she had probably never witnessed just how arrogant and lawless those "extensions of imperial power" she spoke of — the eunuchs — truly were!

"That the border commanderies were untouched by the Partisan Prohibitions — that I can believe," Magistrate Cui shook his head. "Back then, the General Who Crosses the Liao, Huangfu Gui, was ashamed that he had not been listed among the Partisans, so he petitioned to be imprisoned himself. Yet the late Emperor simply ignored him. Clearly, the court understood perfectly well the role you border commanderies play and absolutely did not want you affected by these matters. Add to that the bitter cold of the border commanderies and their sparse population — the eunuchs' influence simply could not reach there, and they never committed their evils among you. That is why you still harbor a few illusions... But my worthy nephew, this is the interior! And what we are discussing is my situation, not yours!"

Gongsun Xun gave an awkward laugh.

"In any case, since you do not wish to hear it, I will say no more." Magistrate Cui shook his head. "But you must understand my predicament. First, the eunuchs are powerful; for them, destroying a family and wiping out a household is a commonplace affair. Moreover, these eunuch kinsmen have no learning or moral sense whatsoever. If this matter blows up, who knows whether some clan nephew of Attendant Zhao Zhong might feel I have insulted him and bear me a groundless grudge? What then? Second, as a scholar-official myself, if the affair truly does blow up, involving the crimes of eunuch family members and their minions, and also a righteous act of brothers vying to die for one another — if I do not help, I fear I will be scorned by scholarly circles. So I ask you, here in this private chamber, can I beg my worthy nephew to let me off? I am only in my thirties; if an opportunity arises in the future, I will surely repay you handsomely!"

Gongsun Xun wanted to open his mouth and argue, but the story of the "sport-killing" of the two-thousand-bushel official's daughter was right before his eyes. Besides, the magistrate had spoken with such sincerity that he truly felt a little embarrassed. "Actually, my lord, there is no need to go that far... I do have an idea that might satisfy both sides."

"Oh?"

"My lord, release the elder brother who is in custody, let him go back to being Jia Ping and living his life. As for the younger brother who committed the murder, I will take him myself and flee far away. Then, my lord, you go to the prison, find a vicious criminal of similar build who deserves death, gag him, let his hair loose, make him filthy. When the Grand Administrator's writ arrives, behead him at once and declare that it was Jia Chao... Would Attendant Zhao's family or Eunuch Ma really go to the trouble of examining the corpse?"

"That... that could indeed work!" Magistrate Cui suddenly saw the light. "But my worthy nephew, you are a mere youth who has not yet come of age — how can you be so bold?"

"We border commandery folk excel at nothing so much as killing and arson." Gongsun Xun gave another awkward laugh. "I beg my lord's pardon for the display."

"A man who excels at killing and arson, yet is going to Luoyang to study... Gongsun Xun, is it? In the future, you will surely achieve great things!" Magistrate Cui slapped the table, either in praise or in mockery.

"In that case, I shall trouble my lord no further." Gongsun Xun rose to his feet, knowing full well how unwelcome his visit had been. "Please dismiss your attendants so I may take the man and leave, and never again offend my lord's sight..."

"Very well." Magistrate Cui nodded. "That will make things convenient for everyone... But my worthy nephew, before you go, I have a word of advice for you."

Gongsun Xun had already reached the door and was about to pull it open, but he stopped in his tracks.

"My worthy nephew," Magistrate Cui said, stroking his beard, "do not think that because you are from the border commanderies, you can watch the fire from across the river. In the realm today, the eunuchs and the scholar-officials are irreconcilable. Since you have come to the interior, and are going on to Luoyang, you must pick a side. I ask you: if you border commandery folk must pick a side, can you possibly side with the eunuchs rather than the scholar-officials? When General Huangfu petitioned to be listed among the 'Partisans' back then, was he truly just making trouble out of nothing? You are a clever man — ponder this carefully..."

Gongsun Xun was jolted with alarm. He stood stunned at the doorway for he knew not how long, then turned around, bowed solemnly to Magistrate Cui, and only then turned back and pushed the door open to leave.

"When the Grand Ancestor passed through Jizhou, there was Cui Min, Prefect of Nanhe in Julu, a renowned scholar of Qinghe, who met the Grand Ancestor and was greatly astonished. He said: 'I have seen many famous scholars of the realm, but never one like you, my lord! My lord, hold yourself well, and in the future you will surely achieve great things. I entrust my wife and children to your care!'" — Old Book of Yan, Scroll 1, Annals of the Martial Emperor Grand Ancestor

PS: Thanks to Mao Buhuai for the red-tier patronage. Also, the new book group is open; interested readers can join at 684558115.

(End of Chapter)