Chapter 123: Stored Grain

On the third day after the Qin forces occupied Chenliu, Li Shang sat on a straw mat in his home in Gaoyang Village, polishing the only valuable thing in the house: a bronze sword. As he polished, he ground his teeth in fury.

The shame of being ruled by a foreign state, the guilt toward his fallen comrades — all these emotions filled his heart with a righteous indignation he could not quell.

As a wandering knight, Li Shang had not a shred of goodwill toward the Qin state. Today, the newly appointed Qin official by the city gate had proclaimed the legal ordinances, demanding that the people of Chenliu obey them. Items such as: "Any gathering of three or more persons to drink without cause shall be fined three taels of gold," and "Any able-bodied man who does not engage in productive labor but idles and roams all day shall be charged with the crime of 'wandering under the sun'"...

This meant that the pastimes once beloved by the gallant knights of Wei — gathering with friends for amusements, singing mournful songs with fervor, raising wine cups in grand feasts — would all be forbidden. Without travel permits and identification tallies, they could not even leave the city gates. Wasn't this just taking their lives!

Freedom, the thing wandering knights prized above all else, was suddenly bound tight by the harsh Qin laws. Under Qin rule, they could only obediently farm and serve as soldiers.

In the midst of his indignation, a bold idea suddenly sprang into Li Shang's mind. No longer caring about sulking at his elder brother, he immediately said to Li Yiji, who was poring over a worn bamboo scroll:

"Elder Brother, since Qin bans wandering knights and strategists and holds Confucian scholars in no esteem, why don't we leave Chenliu and go to Suiyang!"

Li Yiji raised his head and quietly regarded his hotheaded younger brother.

Li Shang said excitedly: "Those three thousand Wei soldiers earlier retreated in that direction. It's said that the King of Wei's younger brother, Lord Ningling, Prince Jiu, is in Suiyang right now, recruiting men of the Three Jin, backed by Qi and Chu, to jointly resist Qin. With your talents, Elder Brother, you might well be employed by him. Perhaps you could even persuade Qi and Chu to form a coalition, strike back, and drive out the Qin!"

His original motive for wanting to do this was not some notion of "restoring the Wei state," but rather to reclaim his own "free" life.

Yet Li Yiji looked at his naive younger brother as if he were a fool.

"Go to Suiyang? Persuade Qi and Chu to form a coalition and attack Qin? My younger brother, you've listened too much to the boasting of those gallant knights who claim to have been retainers of Lord Xinling. What Lord Xinling and Lord Tang could not accomplish — can I, a lowly commoner from Gaoyang, achieve it?"

Ten years ago, had Li Yiji not harbored similar ideals?

His family had fallen on hard times; in his youth, he had not even enough food and clothing. To raise his young brother, he had to start as a petty wine seller, later posing as a Confucian scholar, writing letters for others to make a living, and only slowly did he become a disciple of some obscure Wei strategist, learning a bit of the arts of vertical and horizontal alliances.

All practitioners of the vertical-horizontal school had idols they worshipped — in the distant past, Zhang Yi and Su Qin; in recent times, Tang Ju of Daliang City.

Li Yiji had originally wished to emulate Su Qin, who tied his hair to a beam and stabbed his thigh with an awl to stay awake, thoroughly studying the strategists' arts while also gathering Confucian learning, then traveling among the feudal lords of the realm, relying on his silver tongue to accomplish some earth-shaking great deed.

But in these ten years, what he had waited for was instead the news of the six states falling one after another.

And so, astute as he was, he understood: the golden age of the vertical-horizontal strategists was gone forever.

For the arts of vertical-horizontal to be useful, the feudal lords of the realm had to maintain a balance of power. In this kind of one-sided war where Qin alone dominated, lobbyists and strategists became a minor craft — useless.

Going to seek service with Qin at this point seemed a bit late as well. The King of Qin's side was already crowded with talents of every kind. To try and have a lord-minister encounter like the Wei predecessors Zhang Yi and Fan Ju?

The forty-year-old Li Yiji stroked his beard and thought it rather unrealistic.

He knew his own weight very well: the court at Xianyang was not short of men like him who could offer schemes and plans.

He should forget about sudden wealth and honor; surviving came first.

But first, Li Yiji had to scold his younger brother awake — this brother who could not bear to part with the wandering-knight life.

"My younger brother." Li Yiji did not stand on ceremony; he snatched his brother's sword and said: "You need not go to Suiyang. I wager that within two months, not only will Daliang fall, but the Great Song Commandery will also inevitably be lost!"

"Why is Elder Brother so certain!" Li Shang refused to concede.

Li Yiji said smugly: "I need not step outside my door to know the great trends of the realm."

The words that followed left Li Shang dumbstruck.

"Chenliu is the strategic hub of Wei, a crossroads leading in all four directions, a gathering place for armies, with tens of thousands of piculs of stored grain and city defenses extremely strong. Yet the Wei general did not defend it but abandoned it, leaving all the stored grain here entirely to Qin. One can see his folly is beyond remedy!"

"The Qin, however, see clearly. Attacking and seizing Chenliu first was precisely to control the arteries that converge here like spokes on a hub, and to capture Chenliu's stored grain. A king takes the people as his heaven, and the people take food as their heaven. With the Qin army holding Chenliu's grain, the main force advances east and will soon sweep through the counties of eastern Wei, then converge on Suiyang. Lord Ningling has always been weak and cannot shoulder a great responsibility. He absolutely cannot turn back the raging tide; he cannot become a second Lord Xinling!"

Li Yiji declared with certainty: "This Wei state is doomed! In any case, wherever you flee will be Qin commanderies and counties. You had best abandon this notion early, rein in your wandering-knight ways, and be a good, obedient subject under Qin rule."

Li Shang listened, utterly deflated. He plopped down onto the straw mat, hugging his scabbard in silence.

Li Yiji patted his topknot and said: "You are close with those gallant knights who fought the Qin army — it's hard to say whether someone might denounce you. Starting tomorrow, stay at home and go nowhere. I will go and make the acquaintance of the newly appointed Qin officials, and try again to see if I can also become a local petty clerk for Qin."

"Elder Brother previously refused to serve as a Wei clerk; why do you now want to be a Qin clerk?" Li Shang was utterly baffled.

Li Yiji looked at his younger brother and sighed: "Did I not say it? Only those who do not cling rigidly to things but can move with the world can survive in this age. If I do not become a Qin clerk to shelter you, who knows when you might be arrested by the Qin officials on the charge of being a gallant knight who idles and roams!"

Li Yiji's conjecture was correct. The primary objective of the Qin army's dispatch to occupy Chenliu was indeed Chenliu's stored grain.

At the Chenliu granary, the unit stationed nearby on orders was precisely the one Hei Fu belonged to. Looking back at the mountain-like piles of grain stores, he felt a touch of emotion.

It was both laughable and exasperating: those three thousand Wei soldiers had fled too quickly and had not had time to burn down this granary. And the Wei Magistrate of Chenliu, knowing that Chenliu probably could not be held, was just about to steel himself and set it ablaze — when the elders of Chenliu stopped him.

"The spring plowing has already been delayed. The grain in the Chenliu granary is our last hope. If it is burned to ashes in a single blaze, what will the tens of thousands of common people of Chenliu eat?"

The Magistrate of Chenliu's heart softened. Under the desperate pleas of the local people, he actually gave up on burning the grain, and in the end, the Qin army profited.

The people take food as their heaven. Whoever controls the grain holds the lifeline of the local populace. That was why, although the people of Chenliu still bore hatred toward the Qin army that had conquered this land, no one had risen up in resistance anymore.

At this very moment, the Qin army was busy inventorying the grain in the Chenliu granary, hulling the millet into rice to serve as army provisions.

Just then, Hei Fu was astonished to see several treadle-operated tilt hammers being transported over from the baggage unit. Once set in place, the garrison soldiers were put to work at the stone mortars outside the granary, hulling day and night without rest.

It had been barely a year since his family had presented this device to the Master of Works of Anlu County. He had not expected the Qin government to be so efficient: not only had it been popularized in the various counties and townships of Nan Commandery, but the Qin army had also adopted the treadle hammer — named the "Anlu Hammer" — as essential equipment to carry on military campaigns, putting it into widespread use.

At this, the men from Anlu County were bursting with pride, especially the loose-tongued Ji Ying, who began boasting to comrades from other commanderies and counties.

"This thing was made by Anlu County, so it's called the Anlu Hammer! What, you don't even know where Anlu is? Heh, truly ignorant and shallow!"

He then pointed at Hei Fu and said: "The craftsman who made this device is none other than Hei Fu's brother-in-law! Hei Fu, these fellows don't believe it — come over and say something!"

Hei Fu smiled and paid no attention, letting Ji Ying continue his bragging.

He thought to himself: "It seems the Qin government is indeed extremely efficient at spreading technology. This way, the treadle hammer will spread throughout the lands east of the mountains with the Qin army's conquests, perhaps helping the war-ravaged economy recover a bit faster."

Thinking this, Hei Fu felt that he had made a tremendous contribution to the advancement of productive forces in this era.

Well, although this time, Hei Fu had done a good deed without leaving his name.

He suddenly recalled that in Anlu County, the spring plowing was also in full swing. His eldest brother Zhong was helping the Assistant Field Official test the compost-fertilizing method. Without him there, how was it progressing? And when would that method spread to the Central Plains?

After the Qin army had been stationed in Chenliu for four days and had stabilized the local order, Lieutenant General Qiang Hui issued a new operational strategy.

The more than ten thousand garrison soldiers were divided into four parts: one thousand men to hold Chenliu, with a Commander of Two Thousand Five Hundred from Guanzhong appointed as the temporary Magistrate of Chenliu, and two Commanders of Five Hundred serving as the Assistant Magistrate and Commandant of Chenliu respectively. This was standard practice after the Qin army conquered a place — having military officers take local office on the spot and impose military rule.

In addition, one thousand men were to transport the grain from the Chenliu granary back west. With over a hundred thousand men massed outside Daliang City, provisions were a huge problem. One of Qiang Hui's missions was to draw sustenance from the enemy and feed the main army in return.

Qiang Hui himself would personally lead six thousand main-force troops to continue advancing east, heading to the Wei state's Great Song Commandery in the east: that was the center where the remnants of Wei's power had gathered. Lord Ningling, Wei Jiu, had five thousand troops at Suiyang, backed by Qi and Chu, recruiting men of the Three Jin, attempting to resist stubbornly from his corner. These diehards had to be swept clean.

As for the remaining three thousand men, they were divided into three detachments, dispatched south, north, and northeast of Chenliu County to attack and seize the three nearby counties.

The good news was that the thousand-man unit Hei Fu and the others were in would also be advancing north — their objective: Waihuang County!

"In an army of ten thousand, merit is hard to come by, but in independent operations of a thousand men, the opportunities multiply severalfold!"

Heifu made a silent resolution — this time, he absolutely must not miss his chance!

……

Just as Li Yiji finished straightening his robes and cap and began trying to strike up conversations with the Qin clerks left to garrison the area, Heifu and the others also departed Chenliu with the army, advancing toward Waihuang County.

At the same time, fifty li to the north, Zhang Er, the Magistrate of Waihuang in the Wei Kingdom, was also pacing anxiously back and forth within his residence…

PS: Chapter.

Li Sheng, styled Yiji, was a man of Gaoyang in Chenliu. He loved reading, but his family was poor and fallen, leaving him without means to provide for his clothing and meals, so he became a neighborhood gatekeeper clerk. — Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Li Sheng and Lu Jia

Zhang Er was a man of Daliang. In his youth, he served as a retainer to the Wei Prince Wuji. Zhang Er once fled for his life and wandered to Waihuang. A wealthy man of Waihuang had a daughter of great beauty, who was married to a worthless husband; she fled from her husband and sought refuge with her father's retainer. This retainer had long known Zhang Er, so he said to the daughter: "If you truly wish to seek a worthy husband, follow Zhang Er." The daughter listened, and at last arranged a decisive divorce, marrying Zhang Er. At that time, Zhang Er had escaped and was wandering; the daughter's family generously provided for Zhang Er, and because of this, Zhang Er attracted retainers from a thousand li away. He then took office in Wei as the Magistrate of Waihuang. His reputation grew ever more esteemed from this. — Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Zhang Er and Chen Yu

(End of chapter)