Chapter 111: Hating the House, Hating Even Its Crows

"You want us to escort convicts and garrison soldiers north?"

The news Heifu brought back stirred a huge uproar in Huyang Village.

"What kind of rotten assignment is this? Didn't we just finish our corvée rotation last year? And we even got a year's exemption because we won first place in the drill competition."

When Dongmen Bao heard that he too was on the conscription list, he was so furious he started bellowing on the spot. Any other time, this brash man would have gladly gone along, but now things were different.

His wife was already six months pregnant!

Over the past half year, Dongmen Bao had given up his old habit of roaming and carousing on leave; every rest day he dashed straight home. He'd even bragged smugly to everyone that he was going to have a son, counting on his fingers the days until his wife's due date. Now a single order from the County Commandant's office was forcing him to tear himself away from his pregnant wife — how could he be willing?

"This should be garrison duty, not corvée rotation."

Ji Ying, standing nearby, corrected him, but that only made Dongmen Bao more despairing. Corvée rotation meant laboring close to home in the same commandery or county, doing earthworks and construction — a month at most and you were back. Garrison duty was different: you were sent to the border to guard and serve, usually for a full year, and if war dragged on, it could last even longer.

That meant Dongmen Bao, heading north to serve, would miss one of life's great moments — holding his newborn child in his own hands, witnessing his own life continue through that child…

"After a year, my son will already be crawling all over the place!"

Furious, he punched a pillar, then suddenly looked up and said, "Heifu, you just accepted this?"

Ever since returning, Heifu had kept a dark expression and said nothing. It was Li Xian beside him who stepped in to smooth things over: "The Village Chief is subordinate to the County Commandant; when an order comes from above, those below carry it out. If you refuse or oppose it, that's insubordination — you'll be seized and punished on the spot. Constable, in this matter, the Village Chief had no choice either."

Li Xian knew that under Qin law, the "old," the "young," and the "disabled" could be exempted. None of them fell into those categories, so in principle, conscripting one or several of them alone was not a problem.

But the strange part was that, besides Heifu, Dongmen Bao, and Li Xian, even Xiao Tao and the postman Ji Ying were on the conscription list. Aside from the elderly Village Father and Yu Liang, who wasn't close to Heifu, practically everyone in Huyang Village had been swept up. Wasn't that far too unusual?

They'd rather let Huyang Village's security collapse than not send its entire backbone north to labor — anyone could feel the County Left Commandant's deep, deep grudge…

At that point, Heifu stood up and said to everyone, "This matter started because of me. The County Left Commandant has always resented me over his nephew, the former Village Chief Zhen, and his son-in-law, Platoon Leader Bin. While the Right Commandant was here, he didn't dare act rashly. Now that the Right Commandant has been transferred, the County Commandant's office has become the Yun clan's private court, and he's begun throwing his weight around without restraint."

Heifu had only half the story right. The reason Left Commandant Yun Man was retaliating against him so hastily was precisely because he feared him. Over the past year, Heifu had earned merit and risen in rank in quick succession — a pace that already made the Left Commandant uneasy. He wanted to "deal with" Heifu before the new Right Commandant took office.

He had swallowed a bellyful of anger in the county town today, yet now he could only keep holding it in. With a somewhat indignant air, he said, "I argued with reason before the Left Commandant, saying that Huyang Village could do without Heifu, but not without all of you. If the entire village post is emptied out, local security will likely fall into chaos again!"

"But the Left Commandant wouldn't listen. He had only one thing to say, over and over."

Heifu looked into everyone's eyes and said, "'If you refuse, you'll be charged with defying orders!'"

"This is absolutely outrageous!" Now it wasn't just Dongmen Bao — even Ji Ying and Xiao Tao were enraged. This was far too unjust.

Once everyone had cursed enough, Heifu continued, "I once heard a saying: 'Love a person, hate a person, and it extends even to the crows on their roof.' The Left Commandant wants revenge on me, so he singled me out to escort convicts and garrison soldiers north. Over the past year, all of you gentlemen have been close to me and are seen by outsiders as my trusted men, so you've been dragged down because of me. Heifu is ashamed."

With that, he bowed deeply to everyone with clasped hands!

Heifu saying this made even Dongmen Bao, who had just been raging, feel embarrassed first. He hurriedly returned the salute and said, "Just now I was angry for a moment and spoke without thinking. This has nothing to do with Heifu — the blame lies entirely with that Left Commandant Yun Man, using public office to settle a private grudge!"

In his fury, he suddenly blurted out, "We can't just let him have his way either. Why not just skip this garrison duty…"

The words had barely left his mouth when everyone turned pale with shock. Heifu rebuked him sharply: "Absolutely not! That's seeking your own death! You'd be walking right into the Left Commandant's trap!"

You have to understand, in Qin, evading corvée fell under two crimes. One was "shirking service" — refusing to report to the labor site. The authorities' punishment for that was fifty lashes once caught. If you set out but arrived late for some reason, the punishment was actually not as severe.

The second was "deserting corvée" — fleeing after assembling, after eating the grain provided by the authorities, or even partway along the journey. This was more serious; if caught, you'd be sentenced to hard labor as a wall-builder or grain-pounder.

But note well: those penalties were only for corvée rotation. If you dared do the same during garrison duty, you were courting death. Garrison duty was a military conscription; garrison soldiers were managed under military law. If you deliberately fled midway, you could be executed as a deserter…

"Last year in Anlu County, a barbarian living by the Cloud Dream Marsh was conscripted to garrison the border in Qianzhong Commandery. He fled halfway. After being captured, he quibbled that as a barbarian, as long as he paid the annual fifty-six cash corvée tax, he was exempt from corvée rotation. That may be true, but garrison duty was not waived, so he was still sentenced to be cut in two at the waist…"

After Heifu finished this story, he fixed his eyes on Dongmen Bao and said, "A-Bao, if you run and get caught, you won't escape death either. Not only will you drag us all down with collective punishment, you'll implicate your mother and your wife too. And that unborn child of yours could become a little bondservant, shamed for life because of you!"

Cold sweat beaded on Dongmen Bao's forehead. He had no choice but to abandon this reckless impulse and scratch his head. "Then what do we do?"

"I went to the county jail to ask. The Left Commandant's conscription of garrison personnel this time, though somewhat irregular, does not violate any statute or ordinance. So no one can call him out on it. We can only obey."

"Isn't that just too infuriating!" Dongmen Bao ground his teeth; the others felt the same.

"Gentlemen, set your minds at ease. I, Heifu, swear an oath right here."

Heifu clasped his fist toward everyone. "Today, we are constrained by our status and rank and cannot defy orders. But one year from now, when we return after completing our service, I, Heifu, will no longer be a mere petty village chief. I will earn merit and rank on the battlefield and fight for a position higher than his, higher than Yun Man! When that day comes, I will make the Yun clan pay the price for today's tyranny and injustice!"

…

Heifu's speech at least steadied the "morale" of the Huyang Village men. Willing or not, everyone began actively preparing for the journey north to serve garrison duty — some settling family affairs, others buying winter clothes and gear.

But three days later, when Heifu received in the county town the list of the fifty convicts they were to escort, he couldn't help but curse aloud.

"That Left Commandant — he won't rest until he's put me in my grave!"

On that wooden tablet, the names and places of origin — the vast majority were people Heifu himself had captured over the past year, people who had become convicts at his hands!

From the merchant who falsely accused him and Ji Ying last year, to the two grave robbers from the tomb-raiding case, to over a dozen villagers from Blind Mountain — as far as the eye could see, the tablet was densely packed with Heifu's personal enemies.

Heifu now understood completely why Scribe Anpu had said this northward escort mission would put his life in danger!

(End of chapter)