Chapter 129: Fighting Over Heads

Heifu and his men arrived at the encampment south of Outer Yellow City to find the place had turned into a "melon patch" — outside the originally empty camp gate, the ground was now densely packed with countless round objects, accompanied by the thick stench of corpses and blood…

Those objects were human heads. Like a scene out of a horror film, everywhere Heifu looked, there were heads, hundreds of them!

Now, the Qin army had lined them all up for the purpose of assessing merit and bestowing rewards. As far back as Lord Shang's era, it was decreed: "After battle, the severed heads shall be displayed for three days and inspected for three days, so that the general may, without doubt, confer ranks and rewards upon the officers and men."

This meant that after a battle, the enemy heads taken were to be publicly displayed for three days and verified by military law officers. After three days, if the general deemed them correct, ranks would be awarded to everyone according to merit. This process was called "head inspection."

It was already the third month, and the weather was gradually turning hot. Under the blazing sun, that smell… tsk tsk… One can imagine that this procedure would cause intense discomfort not only to modern people, but even to those from the other six states.

That was why Lu Zhonglian, a Confucian scholar of Qi who had witnessed similar scenes, declared with certainty to his acquaintances upon returning home: "That Qin — it is a state that has cast aside ritual and righteousness and honors only head-taking for merit!"

Truth be told, those words were not wrong.

Even Heifu and his men had to pinch their noses as they approached. Yet, despite such a vile environment, there was still a group of people in the midst of it, pointing and arguing at the center of this "melon patch." A military law officer sat on a straw mat, frowning as he recorded something on a wooden tablet in his hand, while two involved parties were bound and pinned down by soldiers off to the side, undergoing intense interrogation by several junior clerks!

One of them was Heifu's subordinate, Gong Ao of Yan County!

"Law officer!"

Heifu hurried over. Without rushing to ask what crime Gong Ao had committed, he followed procedure and first cupped his hands toward the military law officer, saying: "Under the command of Five-Hundred-Leader Yi, Xin Platoon Leader Heifu, together with the men of Xin Platoon, has taken four heads in the city. I request the law officer inspect the heads!"

The military law officer was a middle-aged man of forty with a square face. Judging by his attire, he should be a "Bugeng" rank. Hearing that Xin Platoon had more kills, he sent several minor clerks under him to take and examine the heads that Li Xian was carrying, and further instructed: "Inspect them carefully. See if there are any heads of children or women mixed in."

As he spoke, he sneered: "Just now a platoon came to present heads, reporting seventeen enemy kills, yet five of the heads were those of women and children. For such scoundrels who kill innocents to claim merit, according to military law, there will be no reward, and severe punishment! Their platoon leader, at the very least, will be charged with the crime of injustice! Stripped of rank, exiled to garrison the frontier!"

Heifu, hearing this, shot a glance at Li Xian beside him, making Li Xian somewhat uneasy on his feet. But inwardly he thought: "My intention at the time was also to kill that gray-haired old man. No rule says an old man can't be a knight-errant climbing the wall to resist. If the law officer questions us, we just all keep our stories consistent. The platoon leader is still too upright…"

Heifu's four kills were all genuine, so there was no problem. They were soon placed together with the previous twelve kills from attacking the west wall — this "melon patch," though seemingly chaotic, was actually arranged in order by platoon.

Only then did Heifu point at Gong Ao, who was being interrogated by the junior clerks ten paces away, and ask: "Law officer, this man is a squad leader of Xin Platoon. May I ask what crime he has committed to be bound here?"

"So he is your subordinate." The military law officer shook his head and recounted the incident to Heifu.

It turned out that a quarter-hour earlier, a platoon had escorted Gong Ao and another man before the military law officer, along with a dust-covered head. The platoon leader of that platoon said that while his platoon was ordered to search for remnant enemies in the north of the city, they discovered two soldiers fighting and struggling over a head, so they seized them and brought them back.

"I did not fight over a head!"

Gong Ao, his face pressed into the ground, shouted with difficulty: "This head was indeed cut off by me!"

The other man confronting him, a scrawny Qin soldier, also hastily cried out: "Law officer, see clearly! This head was clearly cut off by me. I was just about to hang the head on my belt when this man came over. He had no kills himself, saw the head, and his eyes turned red with envy. Seeing that I am thin and weak, he conceived a wicked idea, drew his sword to fight for it, and that is how we came to blows!"

"Bah! Nonsense! I, Gong Ao, would never stoop to such a despicable act."

The two each stuck to their own story, and for a moment the military law officer found it difficult to judge.

Matters like fighting over heads were something he saw all too often; they happened in every campaign. Sometimes there would be over a dozen cases, and there were even instances of Qin soldiers killing each other, cutting off the heads of straggling comrades to present as kills.

For unlike the armies of other states, the Qin people flocked to these bloody, stinking, generally shunned dead men's heads like ducks to water, even going so far as to come to blows over them. Because in the eyes of the Qin, a human head was no longer a human head, but "hard currency" that could be exchanged for rank!

At times like this, the military law officer had to act like a county prison clerk adjudicating a case, summoning eyewitnesses and questioning them one by one.

But whether it was Bu Cheng, who had been operating with Gong Ao, or the comrades of that other head-fighting Qin soldier "Man," when they arrived they had only seen the two drawing blades against each other, and had not witnessed the cause of the incident.

Military law was harsh, and the consequences of perjury were dire. Bu Cheng and Gong Ao had no deep bond, so of course he dared not lie, and the same was true of Man's comrades. So after a round of questioning, the military law officer had learned nothing and could only continue to judge based on the two men's testimonies and the characteristics of the head.

At that moment, a medic responsible for treating the wounded and also assisting in head inspection came over holding a report on the disputed head. The military law officer took it and saw it was written: "Head inspected: short hair, one wound on the left forehead, five inches long, deep to the bone, resembling a sword scar; the neck cut is short and uneven…"

The military law officer had someone inspect the weapons of Gong Ao and Man, and found both were swords, both stained with blood. For a time, it was impossible to determine who had killed this man and cut off his head.

Throughout this process, Heifu and his men had been listening from the side. After Bu Cheng finished his testimony, he leaned close to Heifu's ear and said: "Platoon leader, when Gong Ao was assigned to our platoon beneath the walls of Daliang, he once said he must earn much merit so his rank would not be lower than the platoon leader's. Could he have…"

Bu Cheng was suspicious of Gong Ao. He had never had much liking for this scion of a fallen clan who always wore a haughty face.

Heifu, however, shook his head and said quietly: "Although I am not fond of Gong Ao either, given his nature, he should not be one to stoop to fighting over a head."

True enough, Gong Ao was riddled with all the foul habits of a fallen noble scion — discourteous to others, brimming with arrogance — but it was precisely this arrogance that made him disdain fighting over a single head.

In fact, during the assault on the wall, Gong Ao had been the second to leap onto the ramparts after Dongmen Bao. With Dongmen Bao's cooperation, he had personally killed a knight-errant. But when Heifu was about to distribute the heads internally, Gong Ao, with an air of pride, had yielded that head to Dongmen Bao, who had been wounded and carried away.

Though he did not say it aloud, the meaning was clear: he somewhat admired Dongmen Bao's bravery and intended to give up a kill that should have been his, just to help Dongmen Bao reach three heads, so he could rise directly from Gongshi to Zanniao — promotion from Shangzao to Zanniao already required two heads.

"I would not stoop to fight a dying man for a head." At the time, Gong Ao had spoken these words with a face full of pride and petulance.

This reminded Heifu of a story.

In the south there was a noble bird called the yuanchu. It considered itself exalted, perching only on parasol trees, eating only bamboo seeds, drinking only from sweet springs. One day, a carrion-eating bird called the chi got hold of a rotting rat. Just as the yuanchu happened to pass by, the chi looked up and screeched, terrified that the yuanchu would snatch it away…

Though Gong Ao certainly could not compare to a true "yuanchu," his pride and petulance were a match for it.

Just as Gong Ao, his face flushed red, protested in his own defense: "If a head was not cut off by my own skill, I would not deign to earn merit from it. How could I fight another over such a thing?"

Seeing that Gong Ao's foul mouth was beginning to offend people, even irritating the military law officer, Heifu quickly stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said: "Military law officer, these two each stick to their own story, and neither the head nor the weapons can determine whose kill it is. I do have an idea…"

"You?"

A junior clerk beside the military law officer looked at Heifu with some skepticism. Thinking he meant to plead for his subordinate, he said: "Platoon leader, this matter is for us law officers to handle. Why are you meddling? Do you also understand the art of adjudicating cases?"

"Of course I do." The junior clerk was rude, but Heifu, far from anger, smiled.

A joke! Teasing out threads, searching for evidence, finding the culprit — this was Heifu's old trade when he was the Great Qin Hound!

Not taking offense, Heifu ignored the junior clerk and directly bowed to the military law officer, saying: "This humble officer is untalented. Before enlisting, I was a village headman in Anlu County, Nan Commandery, and once solved three major cases that shook the entire commandery. Thanks to the guidance and instruction of the county prison clerk and scribe, I do have a slight understanding of the scribe's art and the method of adjudicating cases! Why not try my method? Who is right and who is wrong, who is true and who is false — one test will tell!"

PS: Chapter 3 will be in the evening, after 10 o'clock.

(End of chapter)