Chapter 519: Crime and Punishment

Dingtao, on the lower reaches of the Ji River, had become a city of stench. The slaughter Dong Xuan carried out there cost over ten thousand Red Eyebrow captives their lives, and by the time Ma Yuan's force arrived, the corpses still had not been fully disposed of.

Dong Xuan, having received Diwu Lun's edict, traveled upstream along the Ji River. The further west he went, the fainter the stench became — yet even a hundred li from Dingtao, when he sniffed his old clothes, he could still seem to smell that foul odor!

This was not something a change of clothes or a few more baths could wash away. The sin was branded upon him, indelible, and would follow Dong Xuan for the rest of his life.

With the war over, the Red Eyebrow remnants scattered east and south, and order along the He and Ji rivers slowly returned — especially around the county seat of Jiyang, where it was even better. Wei army units controlled every village, ward, and post station, clearing out bandits who had exploited the chaos to loot, and set about restoring the relay stations. There were even black-robed officials reorganizing production. Spring plowing had been delayed a few days, but if they rushed the planting now, there could still be some harvest in the autumn — this absolutely could not be missed again.

But the refugees who had fled were not so easy to gather back. They had been terrified by the endless warfare and would rather hide in the mountain forests for years. Life was harsher, but at least there were no taxes or corvée labor — it was simply a matter of drowning all the newborns to ensure the adults survived, until the world was at peace again.

And so, those Red Eyebrow adopted sons and daughters whom Wang Mang had classified as "wild people" were not kept under the same tight control as the Red Eyebrow "countrymen" who still harbored thoughts of resistance. Their ropes had already been untied, and under the supervision of Wei soldiers, they were reclaiming the abandoned fields and then scattering millet seeds.

If those ten thousand captives had not been executed by Dong Xuan, would they be doing the same?

Dong Xuan stood by the field ridge and watched for a long time, then entered the Jiyang Palace to have an audience with His Majesty the Emperor.

This was also Dong Xuan's first time meeting Diwu Lun. Unlike Gai Yan, who could not see what made Diwu Lun a "hero" no matter how he looked, Dong Xuan's impression of Diwu Lun was extremely good. The restoration of order around Jiyang, the simplicity maintained within Jiyang Palace, the absence of excessive and elaborate ritual and ornament — all of it subtly revealed the Emperor's pragmatic, unostentatious character.

"Dong Shaoping."

Diwu Lun simply said: "You received an edict to come here, yet you wear no official robes, no seal and cord. Why?"

Dong Xuan answered expressionlessly: "Your servant is now a man awaiting punishment for his crimes. It is only proper."

Diwu Lun asked: "Then tell me, what are your crimes?"

Dong Xuan, however, said: "When a Governor of the two-thousand-bushel rank commits a crime, if the Inspector of Yan Province were present, the Inspector of Yan Province would determine the sentence. Since the post of Inspector of Yan Province is now vacant, it should be handed to the Commandant of Justice to decide. It is not for the guilty servant himself to opine."

Diwu Lun smiled. "The Deputy Commandant of Justice has traveled with the imperial procession and has already reached a conclusion on your sentence. He merely wishes to hear you speak."

Dong Xuan bowed twice. "The first crime: excessive cruelty and indiscriminate slaughter."

The laws of the State of Wei could not have been created out of thin air; to a great extent they continued those of Han and Xin, their origins tracing back to the Qin code. Under the law, bandits and outlaws were also protected subjects, and captives were similar. If an official, in handling a case, made no distinction between right and wrong and killed excessively, exceeding the punishment the offender deserved, that too was a crime.

For example, during the reign of Han Emperor Cheng, there was a cruel official, Yin Shang, who went to Jiangxia Commandery as Governor. Because he "arrested and killed many river bandits along with officials and commoners," he committed the crime of cruelty and was dismissed from office.

Indeed, the punishment for the crime of cruelty was dismissal from office — which was precisely why Dong Xuan had himself removed his official robes, seal, and cord.

It was only after such a major incident that Diwu Lun noticed the loophole in this legal provision: the crime of cruelty was too vaguely defined, and there was not even a sentencing standard based on the number of people indiscriminately killed.

There were historical reasons for this. The opposite charge to "cruelty" was "deliberately releasing prisoners" — that is, intentionally reducing an offender's punishment. Under the law, deliberately releasing prisoners carried the same penalty as the criminals themselves! If an official bore this charge, he very likely would lose his life!

Thus, cruelty at worst cost you your office, while releasing prisoners could cost you your head — so of course one would lean toward harsher sentences.

Diwu Lun reflected on this: "Though Han Emperor Wen abolished mutilating punishments, the law remained harsh. Superiors and inferiors drove each other on, taking severity as wisdom; the harsh and cruel gained public renown, while those who judged cases leniently faced future trouble. Was this also the reason the Han period produced so many cruel officials, and why the treatment of common people was so excessively brutal?"

Diwu Lun therefore intended to increase the penalties for acts of "cruelty," to at least draw a red line. But that was all for later. Dong Xuan had broken the law before the code was revised, so he still had to be judged by the original standard. Although Diwu Lun had once fabricated false charges to destroy many powerful families north of the Wei River, when it came to the laws he himself had promulgated, he was quite serious and would never take the lead in undermining them because of personal feelings or preferences.

Though it was backward feudal law, upholding the interests of the ruling class, having law was still better than having none.

And below the hall, Dong Xuan continued to state his own crimes: "The second crime: acting without orders."

"Your Majesty just last year promulgated the wartime statutes. Unless two armies are engaged in battle, the execution or capture of over a hundred bandits or prisoners must be reported to a General; over a thousand, reported to the Son of Heaven. For fewer than a hundred, a Governor of the two-thousand-bushel rank or an Assistant General may decide on his own authority, or may also decide if he possesses a Shangfang horse-beheading sword."

"The captives executed at Dingtao numbered as many as eleven thousand five hundred and thirty-six. Your servant neither reported to State Commandant Ma, nor reported to Your Majesty for a decision, and had no imperially bestowed sword on his person. To execute first and report later — this is a major crime."

Diwu Lun asked in return: "And how should this crime be punished?"

Dong Xuan said: "The Wei code, inheriting from the Han and Xin dynasties, has the crime of forging an edict, which is further divided into three grades: forging an edict causing great harm, forging an edict causing harm, and forging an edict causing no harm."

"Among them, forging an edict causing great harm is punishable by waist-chopping."

"Forging an edict causing harm is punishable by public execution in the marketplace."

"Forging an edict causing no harm is punishable by a fine of four jin of gold." In early Han it had been only four liang; this was already the increased fine from the time of Han Emperor Wu.

"Acting without orders is one grade lower than the crime of forging an edict, and the punishment is also reduced by one grade. As for whether what your servant did caused great harm, harm, or no harm — that is not for your servant to decide."

Dong Xuan was indeed thoroughly versed in his profession. These charges were, in practice, determined by the objective consequences they produced.

After all, Han ministers frequently forged edicts, especially envoys sent to foreign states. From Chang Hui to Feng Fengshi and Chen Tang, they would casually forge an edict to kill a king in the Western Regions or launch a war. Whether they were punished afterward depended mainly on whether they had won — this was something Diwu Ba, when he was alive, had once recounted to Diwu Lun with great relish.

And judging by this incident, Dong Xuan's unauthorized killing of captives, viewed in the context of the entire He-Ji campaign, had not harmed the situation. It had even freed up the Dingtao garrison to block a Red Eyebrow flanking force from entering the battlefield, allowing Diwu Lun to calmly annihilate Fan Chong's main force — it had, on the contrary, been meritorious.

However, according to the principle that "he who forges an edict on his own authority, though he has merit, shall not be rewarded," it still warranted no reward.

Therefore, the Deputy Commandant of Justice's judgment on Dong Xuan was as follows: for excessive cruelty, dismissal from office; and for "unauthorized action causing no harm," a fine of two jin of gold, equivalent to two gold cakes.

Diwu Lun said: "State Commandant Ma shared in your crime, stating himself that leaving over ten thousand captives who had not yet submitted at Dingtao was an enormous error. For this incident of cruel slaughter of captives, he too must bear half the responsibility."

Ma Yuan had originally wanted to have his own household stripped of its fief to allow Dong Xuan to keep his office, but Diwu Lun had not agreed.

"The State Commandant will pay half your fine on your behalf. Dong Shaoping, you need only pay the remaining one jin of gold to the Commandant of Justice's office, and then you may return home as a commoner."

Ten thousand people lost their lives, while Dong Xuan lost only his office and some gold — it was indeed unequal, but that was the law.

One would have expected Dong Xuan to act as though granted a great amnesty, bowing his head in gratitude for the imperial grace. Unexpectedly, he said directly: "One jin of gold — your servant cannot produce it."

Diwu Lun was taken aback. What kind of joke was this? Dong Xuan had previously been acting Governor, drawing an annual salary of two thousand bushels. Although conditions in these chaotic times were difficult and the officials' salaries had been discounted, there should still have been a hundred bushels of grain at least.

The Embroidered Uniform Commandant Zhang Yu hurriedly came over and whispered into Diwu Lun's ear, recounting the scene his men had witnessed after being sent to the Dong household, which he had not yet had time to report.

"Dong Xuan's native place, Yu County, was sacked by the Red Eyebrows. His clan is scattered and now lives in Chenliu. Your servant sent men to look, and the entire family is still in a humble lane. In the house are only a few hu of barley and one broken-down cart. There is not a single servant in the household, and his wife must hull grain with her own hands."

Governance east of the passes was far inferior to that within the passes — this was an objective fact. Especially in Chenliu, an enemy-occupied area the Wei army had only just taken over, cases of officials embezzling property were too numerous and simply impossible to investigate fully. Dong Xuan had been an official in Dingtao; even if the Red Eyebrows had looted it a few times, there was still profit to be had. How could the life of a two-thousand-bushel official have ended up like this?

"Then what about Dong Xuan's salary?"

Zhang Yu said in a low voice: "Either used to aid his clan's sons and younger brothers, to send them to school, or exchanged for grain and lent to the hungry and poor in his home village."

Once he heard that this was not the false integrity of Wang Mang's officials, but true incorruptibility, Diwu Lun looked at Dong Xuan once more — this time, deeply, his feelings complicated.

Here was a cruel official who killed men like scything flax, and also an incorruptible official of spotless integrity, and moreover a capable talent whom Ma Yuan praised endlessly and fervently hoped Diwu Lun would retain. People — how complicated they were.

Diwu Lun understood in his heart and gave Zhang Yu a look, signaling him to voice the question that was inconvenient for Diwu Lun to ask himself.

Zhang Yu grasped the intent and said: "In the time of Former Han Emperor Cheng, after the Governor of Jiangxia, Yin Shang, was dismissed for the crime of cruelty, it was not long before he was appointed Commandant of the Right Assistant because bandits had risen in the Southern Mountains, and later promoted to Bearer of the Gilded Mace, supervising major criminals."

"On his deathbed, Yin Shang told his son: 'When a true man serves as an official and is dismissed for the crime of cruelty, afterward the Emperor will recall that cruelty makes bandits and great magnates fear him, and will most likely reappoint him. But if one is dismissed for weakness and dereliction of duty, he will be cast aside for life with no chance of being employed again! The disgrace of that is greater than corruption and taking bribes...'"

Zhang Yu asked bluntly: "Dong Shaoping, when you resolved to kill the Red Eyebrow captives, did you harbor the same thought as Yin Shang?"

The words had barely fallen when Dong Xuan abruptly raised his head, neck stiff, and glared at the Emperor's great favorite, Zhang Yu.

"These words from the Embroidered Uniform Commandant are the greatest insult to Dong Xuan!"

"Nor is there any need to hide it: at the time, your servant did indeed know that according to the law, his crime did not warrant death. That was what your servant relied upon to dare to act."

"But that was all. I sought neither death nor merit. Your servant thought only of tying down the Red Eyebrow flanking force, of fulfilling his duty to the utmost. I never thought about what would come after."

"Your servant is incapable, and can think of no better way — he could only knowingly break the law. The ancients said: no calamity surpasses killing those who have surrendered. The blood of ten thousand men is enough to cut off Xuan's line forever; how could he ever have thought of using it to dye the tassels of his own official cap red?"

"Now a great crime has been committed, ten thousand have gone down to the Yellow Springs, and it can hardly be undone. The office has already been stripped. I ask only to borrow coin and silk to pay the fine, then withdraw to the fields, to return home with my villagers, and wait for the day my life ends — there in the Yellow Springs to bear the hatred of ten thousand wronged souls. Even if my soul is scattered and destroyed, it is Xuan who brought this upon himself."

With this, Diwu Lun's understanding of Dong Xuan was complete.

He was resolute, unbending, and upright — he governed by the letter of the law and dared to make hard decisions. But his adaptability was weak. Faced with a trolley problem, he had chosen the clumsiest solution. Had Diwu Lun been at Dingtao, he would have handled it differently — but you cannot demand that every man be brimming with stratagems.

"At that moment, it was like fighting a fire or calming a boiling pot — not a second could be lost."

Diwu Lun could not approve of Dong Xuan's methods, but he understood the situation he had faced.

"Dong Shaoping." Diwu Lun then said, "There is no need to go borrowing."

"That one jin of gold — I shall lend it to you."

Diwu Lun's expression grew solemn. "The Red Eyebrows have been defeated, and Yingchuan Commandery has only just submitted to me. Many official posts stand vacant. I intend to appoint you on probation as County Magistrate of Yangzhai, and withhold your first two months' salary to repay the gold. Are you willing?"

A mere county magistrate — two full ranks lower than the Governor post he had briefly held. Dong Xuan looked at Diwu Lun. "Your Majesty — are you still willing to employ your servant?"

Diwu Lun replied, "The realm is now in chaos. Yingchuan teems with bandits and remnants of the Red Eyebrows, plaguing the common people. Yangzhai is full of powerful clans and great magnates who seize the chance to swallow up land and oppress the folk. Without a martial, vigorous, and stern official, who could possibly bear that duty and take pleasure in it?"

"You need not go home. Proceed directly to your post. And remember — your task there is to break the powerful houses and lift up the poor and weak."

"This time, I hope you can not only suppress the bandits and powerful clans, but also deliver the ten thousand people of Yangzhai from fire and water. Can you do it?"

"Your servant will exert himself to the utmost!"

Dong Xuan hesitated for a long time. He had already steeled himself to go home and take up the plow and the books. Only after Diwu Lun spoke those words did he reluctantly give his assent.

The only way to quiet the anxiety and dread in his heart, even a little, was to keep working without pause — never, ever let himself be idle.

When punishing one man makes the whole army tremble — punish him.

When employing one man makes ten thousand fear — employ him.

Moral judgment was tossed aside by Diwu Lun. Both the dismissal and the reappointment of Dong Xuan rested on these two principles. Dong Xuan now carried his own aura of death. Those powerful clans and great surnames of Yingchuan, entrenched there since the Warring States, the Qin, and the Han — let them try running wild in front of him.

But before taking his leave, Dong Xuan said, "Your Majesty, your servant has one more word. Though it risks overstepping my office, I cannot keep silent."

"I have heard that Wang Mang, the former emperor of the Xin Dynasty, has already reached Jiyang."

"Yet I have pondered the statutes and ordinances, and there is no ready provision by which Wang Mang can be dealt with."

"When a county magistrate breaks the law, the Governor and the commandery aide judge him. When a two-thousand-bushel official breaks the law, the Regional Shepherd and the Commandant of Justice judge him. When one of the Three Excellencies breaks the law, the Son of Heaven judges him."

"But Wang Mang was once the Son of Heaven. By whom shall his crimes be tried and judged?"

To Dong Xuan, who adjudicated strictly by the letter of the law, this was a deeply difficult matter. The question he raised was also the one that most troubled the ministers of the State of Wei.

This was unlike the First Emperor of Qin's handling of the rulers of the Six States, or Liu Bang and Xiang Yu's handling of the Qin Prince Ying. Diwu Lun had once stood in the bond of ruler and subject with Wang Mang. Had Wei simply declared the Xin Dynasty illegitimate, that would be one thing — but in order to proclaim that "the virtue of Han is exhausted," Diwu Lun had formally acknowledged the Xin Dynasty's succession from the Han.

So — who was to judge Wang Mang? Dong Xuan could hardly involve himself; he was not qualified. Or rather, looking across the whole realm, no man alive had that standing.

Even if Diwu Lun, as the new Son of Heaven, personally tried and judged him, morally and theoretically it would still be hard to justify. It would inevitably invite the mockery of "the winner is king, the loser a bandit," and fall short of true justice.

This made the problem ever more tangled. Many high ministers — men like Geng Chun — had therefore proposed following the example of King Tang of Shang, who exiled Jie of Xia: spare Wang Mang's life and banish him to the Three Perils Mountain — that is, to the Hexi Corridor.

The old man would certainly die out there anyway, and it would also display Diwu Lun's "benevolence." Would that not kill two birds with one stone?

But Diwu Lun had no intention of fobbing the matter off so. Faced with Dong Xuan's reminder, he only smiled and said:

"The man to judge Wang Mang — I already have someone in mind!"

…

PS: Second chapter coming in the middle of the night.