Chapter 113: You Can't Guard Against Thieves for a Thousand Days

By the time the sun climbed three poles high, Hei Fu sat beneath a tree, his sword laid across his knees. Though the convicts were all tied to trees in pairs, watched by the garrison conscripts, Hei Fu could still feel their restless agitation…

Desertion is contagious. In an army, a single deserter often drags his whole squad into fleeing together. Escorting convicts is no different — usually nothing happens, but once someone escapes, it ignites the urge to imitate in the rest, and they scatter in a swarm, impossible to stop.

So at a moment like this, Hei Fu absolutely could not let impulse take over and chase the two escapees himself. He might catch those two, but everyone here would be long gone…

He sent Dongmen Bao and Li Xian riding his chestnut horse, following the tracks on the ground. The two convicts had frayed through the ropes binding their wrists and shed their wooden cangues, but the hemp rope knotted dead-tight around their ankles they had no time to untie — two men, three bound feet — they couldn't have run far.

Hei Fu himself stayed behind to hold the ground. He ordered Xiao Tao to take a crossbow, climb a tree, and watch from above, staring at the remaining convicts without blinking. Ji Ying was told to set up the cookpot and prepare a meal so the garrison conscripts could eat their fill.

After a while, the broth was ready. Ji Ying brought a bowl to Hei Fu. He and Dongmen Bao had been on night watch when the convicts slipped away, and now he was deeply ashamed. Standing before Hei Fu, he said guiltily, "It's my fault for not staying alert and letting convicts escape. And if I hadn't chosen this road in the first place, maybe none of this would have happened…"

Before setting out, Hei Fu had discussed with everyone at the station. For this official assignment, they had two routes to choose from. The first was to head north from Anlu County to Sui County and Tang County, then cross Mount Tongbai into Nanyang Commandery — this route was six hundred fifty li to Fangcheng County.

The second route was longer: travel west from Anlu County to Xinshi County, then cut through this stretch of hilly forest before them to reach Ruo County and Yan County, then north to Xinye and Wancheng in Nanyang Commandery, and on to Fangcheng County — eight hundred li in all.

Ji Ying was a postal courier, the only one among them who had ever been outside Anlu County, so Hei Fu let him choose the route.

Ji Ying said the first route was shorter, but Tang and Sui counties had only been conquered twenty-some years ago and were called "New Lands" — public order was poor, bandits often appeared. And the Mount Tongbai region was mountainous and densely forested; one slip and disaster struck. So the western route was better. Though it meant a few extra days of travel, the whole way was towns, villages, and station lodges — safety was assured. The only danger was this stretch of sparsely populated woods between Xinshi County and Ruo County.

As it turned out, trouble found them here after all.

Hei Fu did not blame Ji Ying too harshly. After days of continuous marching, everyone was exhausted; a moment's lapse was hard to avoid.

"We chose this road together. If we'd taken the northern route, even more might have escaped. I trust Ah Bao and Li Xian — they'll bring the fugitives back!"

He had agreed with Li Xian and Dongmen Bao: if they hadn't found the men by nightfall, they were to return…

It was only noon now; they still had several double-hours to wait.

Hei Fu knew he couldn't show too much tension. So after eating, he made a show of ease, telling Ji Ying to find water and grind ink. He took out his brush and a blank bamboo slip and began writing on it…

He was writing a "Fugitive Slip." A station chief had the duty to record the escapees' features: "The fugitive is named Liao, sentenced to shave and serve as a wall-builder for theft, around twenty-five years of age, height approximately six chi eight cun, reddish complexion, thick hair, no beard, wearing one brown padded robe, one white unlined garment, carrying one dan of grain…"

There was also the tomb robber who had fled with Liao — he had to be recorded too. If Hei Fu could not recapture them today, he would have to hand this document to the local station chief at the next lodge, asking the local constable comrades to issue a wanted notice and arrest them on his behalf based on the fugitive convicts' physical descriptions. During his time as station chief at Huyang Station, Hei Fu had handled a similar case once.

Once he handed over a Fugitive Slip, it was tantamount to admitting he had let convicts escape. Whether or not the fugitives were later caught, Hei Fu would be held accountable. For every man who escaped, he would be fined two suits of armor — equivalent to over two thousand cash. But if he failed to report it and the headcount came up short at the destination, the punishment would be even heavier.

So escorting corvée laborers truly was a thankless, grueling task. No wonder the Left Commandant had assigned Hei Fu to do it.

Of course, Qin law did not beat a man to death with a single stroke. "If one in charge of convicts loses them, but can personally recapture them or have kin and acquaintances do so, the offense is removed and no guilt attaches…" This meant that if Hei Fu himself, or his kin and friends, could stay behind and work with the local beat officers to catch the fugitives, he could be deemed innocent!

After finishing the "Fugitive Slip" as a precaution, Hei Fu recalled this clause and thought to himself: "A dozen or so years from now, Liu Bang will face the same choice I do. Perhaps because too many men fled along his route, even if he mobilized all his buddies and brothers in Pei County, he couldn't catch them all one by one — so he chose to become a bandit instead."

But Liu Bang's choice was not one Hei Fu could learn from.

Never mind that this was the era when Qin's unification of all under heaven was the irresistible tide, with the First Emperor still in his prime and a dozen-odd years left to live — anyone rebelling at this time was courting death. And then there was Liu Bang himself, a man so unflappable he could watch his own father about to be boiled alive and still laugh and say, "Kindly share a cup of the broth with me." After turning bandit, when the authorities arrested his wife and children, he remained utterly unmoved.

Hei Fu was different. Hei Fu cared about his family. His mother, his brothers, his nephews and niece back home — they were all his bonds. He had worked so hard to arrange everything for them; he could not abandon them just because he momentarily feared punishment.

Time passed slowly. Aside from the occasional birdsong overhead, the surroundings were utterly still, the atmosphere extraordinarily oppressive. As the sun slanted bit by bit toward the west, the woods gradually darkened. Ji Ying began pacing nervously back and forth. Xiao Tao grew restless up in his tree. As for the convicts, they grew more agitated by the moment, and the garrison conscripts guarding them were whispering among themselves…

"Ah Bao's wife is seven months pregnant. He's had thoughts of running before — what if…" Ji Ying's anxiety reached a peak, and he began entertaining wild speculations.

Hei Fu glared at him. "Ah Bao has always valued loyalty above all. Is he that kind of man?"

Ji Ying froze, then shook his head in shame. "No. I was grasping at shadows."

He stepped closer and said quietly to Hei Fu, "Brother Hei Fu, if the men can't be brought back this time and you're fined four suits of armor, I can pay half the money…"

Hei Fu smiled. "I know you just arranged a marriage match in the hamlet last month, set for next year. The betrothal gifts cost quite a bit. Two thousand-odd cash — that's your entire savings."

Ji Ying muttered, "I, Ji Ying, am no faithless man. Since I lack the skill to catch them, I can only offer money… Besides, if the money's gone, I can earn more following you, Brother Hei Fu."

He had it all figured out. But just then, from the other end of the road, came a clamor of neighing horses!

"It's… it's the thief-catchers! They're back!"

Xiao Tao shouted from the treetop. The words had barely left his mouth when Li Xian came charging up on horseback, shouting as he rode straight up to Hei Fu before leaping down and cupping his fist. "Station Chief, we have not failed your command!"

A smile broke across Hei Fu's face. He saw that the chestnut horse also carried a blood-soaked man. Li Xian shoved him, and the body thudded heavily to the ground before the convicts…

The man was clearly dead, his whole body covered in dried bloodstains. A sword-pierced wound gaped in his back, nearly bursting through his chest.

The convicts recoiled in horror. This man was the very tomb robber who had escaped earlier!

"Hahaha! We're back!"

Dongmen Bao's wild laughter arrived right on cue. At his waist hung a blood-dripping human head — none other than the petty thief Liao, whom Hei Fu had described on the "Fugitive Slip" as "reddish complexion, thick hair, no beard." The severed head, its body gone, stared with bulging eyes, dead but far from resigned.

Following Li Xian's example, Dongmen Bao tossed the head before the convicts. His fierce eyes blazed. "These two really had the gall, sneaking off while your old man wasn't looking. A pity — they didn't run fast enough!"

…

If a rotational conscript performing corvée labor deserted without armed resistance, he could only be captured alive, not killed.

But if the service was garrison duty, it took on a military character, and Hei Fu was effectively their superior officer. In the army, a superior had the authority to order a soldier's execution without judicial trial! Hei Fu likewise had the right to treat convicts who fled in defiance of orders as deserters and put them to death.

"To flee now is death either way" — these were no empty words.

Upon reaching the next station lodge, Hei Fu wrote up the dead convicts and the circumstances into a formal report, handed it to the local station chief, and asked him to relay it to Anlu County on his behalf. With that, the matter was closed.

After this incident, the convicts, cowed by the execution of one to warn the rest, attempted no more escapes. On the seventh day of the journey, the party reached Ruo County without further alarm. By this point, a quarter of the distance had been covered.

Yet Hei Fu still could not relax. As the saying goes, you can be a thief for a thousand days, but you cannot guard against thieves for a thousand days. A man's energy is limited, and passive vigilance drains it all the more. Twenty days of travel still lay ahead; there would always be moments of laxity. Next time, he might not be so lucky as to catch and kill the fugitives.

So Hei Fu racked his brains, trying to think of a way to make the convicts settle down and behave.

When they set out from Anlu County, Hei Fu had earnestly told the convicts that this journey north to serve was a chance to redeem themselves. Qin law stipulated that if bondservants or wall-builders distinguished themselves in battle, they could use a single rank of merit to restore their own freedom. Likewise, merit ranks could redeem family members — two ranks for parents, only one for a wife or child…

Yet the convicts merely stared at Hei Fu as if he were a fool. Some even muttered under their breath that the work they'd be doing was mostly hauling grain and filling in ditches — what merit could they possibly earn? And since Hei Fu was the very man who had personally sent them to prison, the convicts both feared and hated him; his words carried no credibility with them.

So the approach he'd used before on law-abiding commoners — intimidation through "the majesty of Qin law" — would not work here.

After much thought, Hei Fu finally came up with an idea.

While resting and regrouping in Ruo County, he sought out one of the garrison conscripts, a middle-aged man with unbound hair that hung loose, his face dark and swarthy. When Hei Fu found him, the man was sitting on a stone slab, idly fiddling with some yarrow stalks, occasionally looking up at the sun, closing his eyes and muttering incantations — the very picture of a mystical charlatan.

"Bu Cheng, what are you doing?"

At Hei Fu's call, Bu Cheng hastily scrambled the yarrow stalks on the ground, rose, and cupped his fist with a smile. "Station Chief, I was consulting the Day Book to calculate tomorrow's weather — cloudy or fair."

"Your weather predictions have been fairly accurate this whole journey. Even the convicts believe them and think you're no ordinary mortal."

Hei Fu was amiable enough with the garrison conscripts, but he knew perfectly well that Bu Cheng's "calculations" were less divination and more guesswork based on reading the clouds.

He asked, "I heard from Ji Ying that you're something of a renowned diviner in Yunshui Township, with a family tradition of the Day Book."

"The villagers flatter me, they flatter me." A rural shaman could not compare to the lofty alchemists of Yan and Qi. Men like him helped people inspect homes, pick auspicious dates, or officiated at funerals to scrape together a living. So Bu Cheng wore coarse hemp clothing, bowed and scraped, and had not the slightest whiff of transcendent sage about him.

Moreover, in Qin, even a diviner cannot escape corvée service — when an official stood before him, Bu Cheng was just as nervous as any common black-headed peasant.

"Don't be afraid." Heifu said with a chuckle. "I only want to ask, how much do you usually charge for one divination?"

Bu Cheng hesitated, unsure what Chief Heifu was planning. After a long pause, he raised a single finger and said, "For a common soldier, ten coins… for an official, five coins."

That's actually quite cheap. Heifu laughed. "Only five coins? Then what if I were willing to pay three hundred coins to ask you to perform one divination?"

As he spoke, Heifu pressed a heavy cloth pouch into Bu Cheng's hand. When Bu Cheng opened it, inside were gleaming Qin banliang coins. The common diviner's eyes instantly lit up…

Heifu had no other choice. Since this group of convict laborers could no longer be intimidated by Qin law…

Then he could only borrow the words of ghosts and spirits to frighten them!

(End of chapter)