Chapter 12: Granted the Rank of Gongshi

Then they heard Xi announce: "Common soldier Heifu has captured the Qin murderer-bandit Pan, as well as one Chu bandit, and is to be rewarded with 9 liang of gold. Ji Ying has captured one Chu bandit and is to be rewarded with 2 liang of gold."

Ji Ying sensed something was off and hastily asked, "Superior Clerk, is it not 14 gold for every man taken alive?"

"Not so." Xi shook his head. "The statutes say: for capturing one member of a bandit gang, the reward is 14 liang of gold — that is correct. But Pan and his group numbered fewer than five men, so they do not constitute the crime of gang banditry, as was already explained earlier. The statutes further stipulate: for capturing one murderer-bandit of your own state, the reward is 7 gold. As for foreign bandits, alive or dead, the reward is only 2 gold…"

"So that's how it is!" Heifu suddenly understood. It seemed Qin law was not only meticulous in its punishments but also stingy to the last penny in its rewards. Sure enough, reward money was not so easy to get — and didn't this just mean: foreigners aren't worth much.

But this way, the reward they received had been invisibly slashed by a great deal. Heifu couldn't help but feel the sting; why, of all the rotten luck, did these bandits have to be exactly four men?

What he did not know was that the crime of gang banditry only counted Qin people. Even if ten Chu men and four Qin men committed banditry together, it still would not constitute the crime of gang banditry…

At this point, Xi asked again, "Do you have any further doubts?"

"I do!"

Before Heifu or Ji Ying could answer, a fierce shout rang out from below the hall. The curly-bearded bandit Pan, who had already confessed, struggled up from the ground, hoisted his cangue, and protested, "It was said I was worth 14 gold — how come it's been halved now!"

This was enough to make one not know whether to laugh or cry. Heifu looked at Pan somewhat helplessly, while Xi, long accustomed to such convicts, simply waved a hand. The jail clerks dragged the shouting Pan away to await his fate: being paraded through his home village and cruelly executed.

Even after he had been hauled far away, Pan's voice still echoed through the county jail: "Heifu, you said you'd let me see that gold! You said 14 gold! I won't accept this — won't accept it!"

Heifu was stunned. That a man facing death would be fixated on this, of all things — truly, he did not know whether to mourn or to sigh…

What a pity — until his dying moment, Pan never got to touch that gold!

A cough from Xi brought Heifu back to his senses.

"Your reward money — once I have reported to the County Magistrate and the County Assistant, you may collect it today. However…"

Xi looked at Heifu, thoughtful.

The statutes say: in all cases of trial and interrogation, one must first hear the oral testimony and record it, allowing the person under interrogation to speak freely as much as possible. Even if one knows there are lies, do not immediately cross-examine; first record the points of doubt. Only when both sides have nothing more to say does the judge then cross-examine point by point according to those doubts.

For all these years, Xi had conducted trials according to this procedure of "hear the testimony — cross-examine — explain the contradictions."

But today was somewhat different. Although he knew there were major problems with the testimony of the Huyang Village Chief and the merchant Pan, he had not exposed them, intending to tear it all apart in one go at the very end. Who would have thought that Heifu, through nimble cross-examination, would make those men reveal their own flaws, thus sparing him the trouble…

If Heifu were a disciple who had studied law in the academy, or a clerk who had worked in interrogation for many years, Xi would not have been surprised. But Heifu was merely a common soldier who knew a few characters, and his family had no officeholders — this was what made it astonishing.

"This lad is a promising talent. If he were of clerk or official lineage, I would want to send him to the academy to study law."

And so, Xi spoke with earnest gravity: "Heifu, this official sees that your martial skill is not ordinary, you can write and read, and your speech during cross-examination was apt — yet you are merely a common soldier. A pity."

"Many thanks for the undeserved praise, Superior Clerk!" Heifu caught the appreciation in Xi's tone and hurriedly said, "This humble man also wishes to serve the state, but suffers only from having no rank of nobility."

Xi smiled. "A rank of nobility is not hard to obtain. Right now there is an opportunity."

Heifu was taken aback. "What opportunity?"

"You do not know?" Xi looked at him strangely and explained, "Taking one murderer-bandit alive is equivalent to taking one head in battle! One may be rewarded with 7 liang of gold, or be granted one step of noble rank."

"Is that so?" Heifu looked at Ji Ying. It was Ji Ying who had told him how much reward gold could be earned by capturing bandits, but he had never mentioned the matter of being granted noble rank.

"I too only heard it mentioned by a minor village clerk, but I only remembered the reward gold." Ji Ying scratched his head. In truth, this was understandable — although the Qin state encouraged officials to disseminate the law among the common people, no matter how much dissemination there was, ordinary folk among the people still only had a half-baked understanding.

Xi pointed out to him: "If you are willing to forgo those 7 liang of gold, you can raise your rank to Gongshi. Are you willing?"

At these words, Heifu, who had been somewhat disappointed by the greatly reduced reward, was instantly overjoyed beyond measure.

He had never imagined that the noble rank he had dreamed of day and night was, at this very moment, within easy reach!

The calculation was not hard. Money could be obtained immediately, but it would be spent within a year or half a year. A noble rank, however, was an iron rice bowl. Although in the short term it brought no great benefit, just the farmland granted by the authorities, with grain grown and accumulated over months and years, would be worth far more than seven gold — though, just as in later ages, the ownership of that land still belonged to the state, the holder could not buy or sell it, and heavy taxes had to be paid every year.

After a moment's thought, Heifu immediately bowed with clasped hands and said, "Many thanks for the guidance, Superior Clerk. Heifu is willing to take the noble rank!"

…

As they walked out of the main hall of the county jail, Ji Ying's mouth was nearly crooked from grinning.

Although his misunderstanding of the law had reduced the imagined 14-gold reward to a mere 2 gold in the end, when converted into over a thousand ban-liang coins and tucked into his pouch, it was still satisfyingly heavy. The coins, strung together on cords, clinked and jingled as he walked, a sound incomparably pleasing to the ear…

"This much money, if exchanged for grain, is enough to feed me for the better part of a year."

He could not help but look gratefully at Heifu, who was walking ahead. The moment they stepped out of the hall, he even abruptly knelt and bowed to Heifu!

"Ji Ying, what are you doing?"

Heifu, whose own cloth satchel now held over a thousand coins in reward, hurriedly moved to help Ji Ying up. But Ji Ying would not rise, and instead said with deep emotion, "I, Ji Ying, know my own abilities. It was all thanks to Brother Heifu's support that I could share in the glory, capturing bandits and earning merit alongside you, and obtain this reward money."

"Furthermore, just now in the hall, if Brother Heifu had not exposed the false testimony of that dog of a village chief and the treacherous merchant, I would likely have had my head shaved and been reduced to a wall-building convict laborer…"

The moment he thought of the beating he had received, Xi's cold ruthlessness, and the harsh sentences imposed on those involved in the case, Ji Ying shuddered with lingering fear.

"Thinking of it this way, Brother Heifu, you are my savior!"

As he spoke, he knocked his head heavily to the ground before Heifu!

Heifu sighed inwardly. This Ji Ying, though talkative and fond of gossip, was in truth not very cunning. The reason he had shared the merit with him back then was out of consideration that one man alone could not escort three bandits. What happened afterward only proved that Heifu's decision had been correct. If he had not shared the merit with Ji Ying at the time, it was hard to say whether Ji Ying might have been coerced and bribed by the Huyang Village Chief into giving testimony unfavorable to Heifu during the interrogation…

Human nature is evil and selfish — this was the fundamental premise upon which Shang Yang established the legal system of Qin, and it is also the truth. Heifu, living a second life and dwelling in a Qin state where the laws and statutes were meticulous and harsh, had to tread carefully at every step. How could he not keep an extra eye out?

But now, Ji Ying thoroughly regarded him as his benefactor, which was also a good thing.

With some effort, Heifu pulled Ji Ying to his feet, brushed the dust from his clothes, and smiled. "We're brothers — no need for such courtesy. For the next month, you and I still have to serve our corvée duty as gengzu soldiers in the county seat. We'll need to support each other."

"That's right…"

Only then did Ji Ying seem to remember something. He looked at the top of Heifu's head and grinned. "I haven't yet congratulated you on being granted the rank of Gongshi. This is a fine thing! From now on, you are a man of rank!"

Heifu beamed as well and touched his own head. The black cloth that had been wrapped around his topknot, marking his status as a black-headed common soldier, had been removed and replaced with a brown headscarf.

Just moments ago, Heifu had witnessed yet again the swift and resolute efficiency of the Qin authorities. No sooner had he expressed his wish to become a Gongshi than Xi had dispatched men to deliver the day's trial results and reward details to the county office, for the County Magistrate and the County Commandant to review.

It turned out that the ranks of Gongshi and Shangzao were conferred by the county government of one's registered place of origin. Ranks above those had to be reported to the commandery. Those of Grandee and above had to be reported all the way to Xianyang.

The work of conferring rank had to be completed within three days; otherwise, the County Commandant responsible for the matter would be removed from his post.

Because the authorities had issued documents confirming Heifu's identity just two days earlier, all the procedures were in order. Thus, in merely the span of one shichen, the County Commandant's approval came down:

"Common soldier Heifu has captured one murderer-bandit, equivalent to taking one head in battle. He may be rewarded with one step of noble rank, and is hereby granted the rank of Gongshi!"

PS:

"When persons of another state commit banditry, and it is not the authorities who raise the pursuit, and there is no squad leader or platoon leader directing the capture, the reward for capturing them is two liang of gold." — Refer to "The Case of Shi and Others Capturing Bandits and Seeking Reward."

"Anyone who transfers a captive to another person in order to confer noble rank shall be sentenced to shaving the beard." — Miscellaneous Excerpts of Law: Statute on Capturing Bandits

"He who can capture alive one member of a gang of bandits, or behead two, shall be granted one step of noble rank." — Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year — This is a Han dynasty statute.

(End of chapter)