Chapter 10: Which Hand Struck You?

The Chief of Huyang Village was named Zhen, a man in his early twenties who lived in the county seat. It was said he was a relative of the County Left Commandant. He had inherited his father's noble rank, the third grade of "Zanniao." Relying on his martial skills, he passed the Qin state's official examination and was appointed Chief of Huyang Village. Having achieved success at a young age, he had always been arrogant and reckless.

Perhaps because Zhen held a noble rank and an official title, he was allowed to recount the incident first…

"I beg to inform the superior officer."

Zhen seemed very familiar with interrogation procedures. First, he bowed respectfully to the presiding magistrate, then spoke slowly:

"That day, I was inside Huyang Village, drilling with weapons alongside a few of the village's young men, when I suddenly received a plea for help from a local merchant, Bao. He said a gang of bandits had attacked him nine li south of the village."

"I dared not delay. I immediately mustered the thief-catchers and village guards and rushed to the scene. When we arrived, we found three bandits already bound, but the two men who had captured them were whispering to each other on the spot, and I did not know what they were plotting."

"Suspicious, I approached to interrogate them. As is customary, I checked the two men's identity tallies and travel permits, while also asking how the two of them had managed to capture four bandits. Unexpectedly, the common soldier named Heifu hemmed and hawed. At the first sign of disagreement, he actually started a fight with me and even struck me! Later, when he saw the superior officer's carriage and horses, he knocked over the thief-catchers and village guards, ran into the road, and falsely accused me of trying to steal his credit and swindle the reward… That is the whole affair. I have no other explanation."

"He's lying!"

Ji Ying grew frantic, but he at least remembered why he had been struck earlier and held his patience until the Huyang Village Chief finished speaking before hurriedly refuting him.

"Chief of Huyang Village, I've never met you before, we have no grudge or enmity — why would I falsely accuse you? And how would I, alone, dare to strike you, a village chief, right in front of all the Huyang Village men?" Heifu could not hold back and began to cross-examine him.

The Huyang Village Chief rolled his eyes. "Perhaps you have some unspeakable secret, or perhaps you rely on your superior martial skill and hold no respect for senior officials."

At this point, Xi signaled that Heifu could give his statement. Heifu then recounted the whole story again: how the Huyang Village Chief, coveting the reward for the three bandits, had first tried to coax them into sharing the credit, and when that failed, had planned to seize it by force…

"It's just that when this humble man ran to the roadside to cry out his grievance to the superior officer, he was too frantic and accidentally knocked over the thief-catchers and village guards — that is all. As for the village chief's claim that I resisted with force and even struck him, absolutely no such thing happened. I do not know why he would say such a thing… That is the whole affair. I have no other explanation."

Heifu had more or less figured out how the Qin legal courts worked. They emphasized procedural fairness, and the magistrate possessed strong meticulousness and logic, weighing both witness testimony and physical evidence — truly very similar to court trials of later ages.

Under these circumstances, did the Huyang Village Chief still dare to spout such lies out of sheer wishful thinking? Or had he prepared in advance?

A sense of unease stirred in Heifu. He looked again at the merchant Bao, who was sweating profusely despite the late autumn weather, and faintly guessed the reason…

In the hall, the presiding magistrate Xi listened to both statements while recording on bamboo slips the two points where their accounts contradicted, then raised his questions.

"First: did the Huyang Village Chief Zhen attempt to coax Heifu and the other man into sharing the credit and swindling the reward?"

Heifu and Ji Ying, of course, said yes!

The village chief, thief-catchers, village guards, and the others flatly denied it, saying no!

When the three bandits were asked, they said that at the time they had been bound off to the side, too far away to hear clearly.

Thus, the merchant Bao, as a witness, became the crucial point. Xi cast an inquiring look at him, but saw Bao hesitate for a long while before cautiously answering, "This humble man knows nothing of such a matter…"

"No! The scoundrel has retracted his testimony after all!"

At these words, Heifu's heart sank, and Ji Ying flew into a rage, shouting, "You treacherous merchant! We clearly saved your life, yet you repay kindness with enmity and collude with these people to commit fraud!"

"I was never locked up with them — how could I collude and commit fraud?"

The merchant Bao threw caution to the wind. With the swagger of a marketplace brawler, he beat his chest and declared, "It is true that you two saved me from the bandits. But here in this hall, before the Prison Scribe, if I speak even half a word of falsehood, may the Hill Ghost visit my home!"

The Hill Ghost was one of the many local superstitious deities. It was said that whichever household it visited would fall into dire poverty. For a merchant to swear such a venomous oath, he was truly going all out.

Ji Ying was so furious he wanted to leap over and strike the merchant, but Heifu held him back and said to Xi, "Prison Scribe, this merchant is a man of Huyang Village and is well acquainted with the village chief and his men. That very day, he acted as their mouthpiece, trying to make us share the credit with Huyang Village. His testimony cannot be trusted!"

"Whether it's trusted is not for you to decide! It is for the Prison Scribe to discern!"

Seeing the situation reverse, the Huyang Village Chief began to smile.

Xi, however, did not show partiality to either side's account. He turned the page and moved on to the next question.

"Second: did Heifu truly strike the Huyang Village Chief?"

Heifu knew why the Huyang Village Chief and his men wanted to slander him this way. Qin law stipulated that if a common soldier brawled with someone, he committed the crime of "private affray." Because the other party was an official, the offense was one grade more severe, to be judged as "malicious wounding." The punishment was to have one's hair shaved off and be sentenced to one year of wall-builder labor — hard toil like constructing royal mausoleums or city walls.

So the Huyang Village Chief and his men insisting that Heifu had struck them was truly malicious in intent.

Heifu and Ji Ying, of course, vehemently denied it, saying they knew the law forbade such things and would never dare use force against an official.

The Huyang Village men, however, spoke with absolute certainty, all saying they had seen Heifu strike the man — probably because he relied on his superior martial skill and held no respect for officials.

As for the three bandits, they said their view had been blocked by the village guards at the time, and they had not seen clearly.

The two sides gave opposing accounts, so the merchant Bao once again became the key witness…

"With my own eyes, I saw Heifu swing his fist and strike the village chief!"

By now, Bao no longer cared about any pangs of conscience and began frantically slinging mud at Heifu, vividly describing how Heifu had quarreled with the village chief, how he had become angry from shame, and how, relying on his superior martial skill, he had raised his fist and struck — all depicted with lifelike color.

While Bao gave his statement, Heifu pressed his lips together and said nothing. Ji Ying, listening to all this, grew as frantic as an ant on a hot griddle.

"We are doomed, doomed!"

Ji Ying knew the situation had turned extremely dire. The final testimony on both questions raised by the Prison Scribe was against them. If both were confirmed, he and Heifu would face severe punishment!

Not to mention the "crime of malicious wounding" for striking an official — if their accusation that the Huyang Village Chief had tried to steal credit and swindle the reward was not upheld, they would also face the "crime of false accusation!" According to Qin law, a false accuser would receive the punishment corresponding to the crime they had falsely alleged — this was "false accusation back-sentencing."

With both crimes applied together, not only would he and Heifu fail to get any reward money, they would suffer severe penalties. Perhaps the very next day, their faces would be tattooed, and they would be reduced to government slaves, banished to the frontier as garrison soldiers, and their families might even be implicated.

On the other side, the Huyang Village Chief Zhen seemed to see the scales of victory slowly tipping toward his side and grew immensely smug.

It seemed the news passed from outside was correct — those behind-the-scenes maneuvers had been of some use after all. This merchant Bao had always been timid; with just a little intimidation, he had come over to their side.

He was already pondering how he would celebrate once he won the case. Perhaps he could go enjoy himself at the women's alleys in the city and mock Heifu's foolishness and overestimation of himself to the women nestling beside him…

A mere common soldier, daring to bring a charge against an official? Ridiculous!

By this time, the merchant Bao had finished his statement.

After recording the key testimony, Xi looked toward Heifu and the other man. "Do you two have anything else to say?"

This was their last chance to defend themselves. Otherwise, they would have to entrust their fate to Xi's judgment.

But Ji Ying had no other recourse. Muttering about his innocence, his head drooped lower and lower…

At that moment, Heifu stepped forward. He requested of Xi, "Superior Officer, may I ask the merchant Bao and the others one question?"

Xi was slightly surprised that Heifu could remain so calm in such a desperate situation. He nodded. "You may ask."

Heifu paced over to the merchant Bao. "You say you saw with your own eyes me swing my fist and strike the Huyang Village Chief?"

Bao struggled to straighten his posture. "I saw it."

"How many punches did I throw?"

"O… One punch."

To keep his testimony from being too far-fetched, he only dared to fabricate that Heifu had struck the village chief once before being restrained by the others.

"Then let me ask you — did you see clearly? Which hand did I use to strike him?"

Heifu raised both hands. His family had tilled the soil for generations; these were hands shaped by years of labor, calloused palms, arms thick and powerful. It seemed that with the slightest forward thrust, he could choke the life out of the shifty-eyed merchant Bao…

Bao retreated half a step in guilty alarm, his two small eyes darting left and right, unable to make up his mind. In the end he could only fall back on common sense and declare with certainty, "It must have been the right hand! Yes, the right hand!"

Heifu smiled without speaking. He turned back around and asked the men of Huyang Station, "You also claim you saw me swing a fist at someone. Which hand was it?"

The thief-catcher and the station conscripts looked at one another. In the end they all chose to echo the merchant Bao's account: "It was the right hand."

Finally, Heifu came to stand before Zhen, the Chief of Huyang Station. The two were of a height. Their eyes met — each had already marked the other as a mortal enemy. Today, one of them would die, and the other would live!

Heifu gave a cold laugh. "Chief, you took the beating yourself. Surely you haven't forgotten?"

The Huyang Chief sensed that something here might be a trap, but at this stage, if he gave a different answer, it would surely rouse the prison clerk's suspicion — which would be even worse. So he jabbed an impatient finger at Heifu's right hand: "It was your right hand that struck me — hit me right in the gut…"

As he spoke, he even lifted his tunic. There was indeed a faint bruise on his abdomen — the Huyang Chief had ordered one of his own station conscripts to land a hard blow there.

Before his words had faded, a great burst of laughter suddenly erupted from a corner of the hall!

"Ha ha ha! Ridiculous — truly ridiculous!"

Everyone fixed their eyes and saw it was the shackled, curly-bearded bandit "Pan," laughing so hard his whole body shook.

"Prisoner, why are you laughing?" Xi stopped the jail clerk who was about to go discipline Pan.

Pan raised his head and said, "I'm laughing at how stupid this chief and this merchant are. I remember it perfectly clearly — Heifu drew his sword with his left hand, and kept the blade in his left hand the whole time after. That's why none of us could read his moves and we fell into his trap."

"When he fought me bare-handed too, his left hand struck with greater force. Whenever he punched me, he always led with the left — it hurt like hell. The chief and the merchant don't know that, yet they falsely accuse him of wounding them with his right hand. Isn't that laughable?"

At these words, the merchant Bao, the Huyang Chief, and the rest were instantly struck dumb. And within the hall rose the rustling sound of clerks' brushes racing to record the testimony.

"Exactly. How could I possibly have used my right hand?"

Heifu also rolled up his right sleeve and extended it before the Commandant Clerk Nu. There on his right elbow was a wound, already scabbed over. "May the superior clerk examine it closely — my right hand was injured while capturing the bandits. Even now I can barely move it freely. How could I have wounded anyone?"

"Doctor, it is indeed so." After a careful inspection, Nu turned back and reported.

A look of surprise crossed Xi's face as he listened to Heifu's statement with keen interest. The Huyang Chief and the merchant had long since turned ashen as dirt.

Heifu slowly walked to the center of the great hall. At this moment, he had become the undisputed protagonist of this judicial inquiry.

"What's more, just as Pan has confirmed, even without the injury, whenever I fight, I always throw the first punch with my left hand. As for why…"

Heifu grinned at them, flashing a mouthful of big white teeth, then raised his left hand high above his head, like an athlete declaring victory after a match:

"Because I am left-handed!"

PS: The mutual cross-examination between plaintiff and defendant is based on the "Mao's False Accusation of Jiang's Ox Theft Case" recorded in the Zhangjiashan Han Bamboo Slips, which took place in the first year of King Zheng of Qin's reign. Votes and recommendations are welcome.

(End of chapter)