Chapter 152

"Find a coffin and bury that woman of the Huang family on the spot."

After hearing Widow Zhang recount what Huang had done before her death, Hei Fu fell silent for a long while. He did not sever Huang's head, but instead ordered her properly laid to rest.

"She was a good wife and a loving mother, her devotion to her child deep as a cow licking its calf. A pity she was born into an age of chaos and separation… a true pity." He offered no further hypocritical words, merely waved a hand and sent a few Qin soldiers to handle the matter.

In the course of unification, how could every place be radiant with justice? Beneath the awe-inspiring might of the Qin army, countless wives had been torn from husbands, flesh and blood rent apart.

Hei Fu could guarantee that his own Huyou Township was the best-disciplined place in the Qin army's garrison zone — he dared not claim they never committed the slightest offense, but at least there had been no bullying of men or violation of women, no abuse of the local populace. Yet he could not play the good man forever, and above all he dared not neglect his duty by knowingly letting a wanted fugitive escape. Zhang Bo had handled this matter without sufficient secrecy; if it came to light afterward and an investigation was launched, Hei Fu would have a bitter fruit to eat.

Just then, Chen Ping, who had been bustling about all night, came over. He seemed to have something to say.

"Patroller, what should be done with this child?" Chen Ping pointed toward Zhang Er's son, Zhang Ao, whom Dongmen Bao had shoved into a small room and locked up.

"Deliver him to Waihuang or Daliang to complete the assignment. The higher officers specified they want him alive, so as to coerce Zhang Er into surrendering. Now that Zhang Er's wife is dead, only this orphan remains…"

He gave a helpless smile. "At the very least, it proves we did indeed capture Zhang Er's wife and son. The reward of twenty taels of gold will be enough for the soldiers under my command to return home in silken robes."

Although Hei Fu seemed to have heard the name Zhang Er in his previous life, he had no idea what deeds he had done, still less that the child inside the room, wailing for his mother, was in fact the future King of Zhao and Liu Bang's unlucky son-in-law.

Chen Ping, however, shook his head. "I once heard a saying: 'He who governs a state, when he sees evil, must be like the farmer anxious to root out weeds — cut away its leaves, dig out its old root, and never let it grow again.' This is the strategy of eliminating the weeds by pulling out the roots."

Hei Fu looked at Chen Ping. "What do you mean?"

A hint of ruthlessness showed in Chen Ping's eyes. He shaped his hand like a blade and swept it heavily downward. "Rather than keep him as a future calamity, better to kill him. Has my lord not heard the story of how young Shaokang of Xia took his revenge?"

Hei Fu, however, did not agree. "Once this child is handed over to the higher officers, he will most likely be taken back to Guanzhong and dealt with as a minor bondservant. For the rest of his life, he will be a penal laborer, keeping company with mud, earth, bricks, and stone. There is no need to worry."

He asked himself whether he had truly grown so cowardly that he needed to kill a seven-year-old child to dispel fear and soothe his own heart.

Chen Ping still wished to press his case, but Hei Fu's mind was already made up. "After you return, prepare your traveling gear. The day after tomorrow, when the grain is transported, you will accompany me!"

After the events of the previous day, Zhang Bo had fallen ill and could not manage affairs, so the Village Elder Zhang Fu temporarily assumed his duties as Se Fu. Zhang Fu was grateful that Hei Fu had let the Zhang family off the hook in this matter, and he agreed to every one of Hei Fu's grain requisition demands without exception. Pooling the strength of East Zhang and West Zhang, two thousand dan of grain and several dozen ox and horse carts were all being prepared, ready to set out the day after tomorrow.

When the villagers learned of the Qin grain levy, their complaints filled the roads. But when they also heard that the Zhang clan was lending grain, every commoner in the township was elated and heartened, for this would let them survive the lean weeks bridging late April and early May. Thus, when they were conscripted to escort the grain, it did not provoke much opposition — enough to muster over a hundred men.

Such was the power of the local gentry. Without the Zhang clan's assistance, these tasks could never have been accomplished by Hei Fu's fifty Qin soldiers alone, who could not even speak the local tongue. This was precisely why he would rather sacrifice Huang than fail to pull the Zhang clan onto the same boat as himself.

After Chen Ping had left, Zhongming came to Hei Fu's side. Gazing at Chen Ping's retreating figure, he said, "At first I thought Chen Ping was merely timid and filial. Now I see his heart is even more ruthless than ours — he would not even spare a seven-year-old child."

Hei Fu shook his head. Recalling Chen Ping's historical reputation for "household-extermination schemes," this was indeed his style.

"When a scholar kills, he is sometimes more ruthless than a warrior!"

"Because they need only issue commands and let others do the work; they never have to stain their own hands with blood."

Yet, on second thought, had he himself not done exactly the same thing the day before?

Hei Fu therefore dropped the subject and asked Zhongming, whom he had assigned to liaise back and forth at the Zhang residence, "What news from the town?"

Zhongming replied, "Zhang Fu asked me to report to the Patroller: Zhang Er's friend Chen Yu sent men to make contact, but they sensed something was wrong and fled. We failed to capture them alive and could only shoot them dead…"

"Chen Yu?" Hei Fu frowned. Another name he had never heard of.

"Zhang Fu says this man is a Confucian scholar from Daliang and Zhang Er's closest friend. Later, Chen Yu went to Zhao. Although the Zhao kingdom has now been destroyed, Chen Yu remains a notable scholar in Zhao, his reputation even spreading to Henei Commandery. Many knights-errant of Yan and Zhao serve under him. Now that the men he sent to make contact have died without returning, I fear Chen Yu already knows something has gone wrong. He hopes the Patroller will exercise great caution…"

Hei Fu pondered briefly, then gave the order: "Call Chen Ping back! I have matters to discuss with him."

……

When word came that those visitors from Zhao were looking for him, Zhou Shi was in the middle of repairing his crossbow mechanism.

Zhou Shi was around thirty years old, his most distinctive mark a sparse, yellowish beard. He was a man of Huangchi; for generations his family had served as Wei heavy infantry. Both his grandfather and father had died in battle against the Qin army, and so Zhou Shi hated the Qin people, wishing he could devour their flesh raw.

But the fury of one man alone could not stop mighty Qin. In the first and second months of this year, Qin, with an irresistible offensive, had crushed the last main force of Wei, surrounded the city of Daliang, and dispatched men to subdue and summon the surrender of the surrounding counties and townships.

Zhou Shi, serving as a military clerk in Yangwu County, had sharpened his weapons and fed his horses, intending to die loyal to Wei and hold this place. Who could have guessed that the Magistrate of Yangwu, persuaded by Huyou's Zhang Bo, would choose to surrender to Qin!

Zhang Bo was a man who understood personal ties and minor loyalties, but had no sense of the great righteousness of a state's survival or ruin. By the time Zhou Shi got the news, it was already too late. He could only take those followers willing to join him, fight their way out of Yangwu, and live as fugitives among the wild marshes and forests.

But he did not give up, for as long as Daliang held out for a single day, Wei still had hope. As a heavy infantryman of the highest loyalty to Wei, Zhou Shi began avoiding the counties and townships, roaming the hamlets and wooded hills beyond the reach of Qin power, drawing in those willing to join him. Soon he had gathered over a hundred Wei men.

They began attacking lone Qin soldiers, cutting off the mounted couriers traveling between Qin-held counties, and even organized a raid on a Yangwu County grain convoy. Unfortunately, the Qin had already seized the Yangwu County armory and were well equipped; Zhou Shi's men only managed to burn part of the fodder before retreating, leaving over a dozen corpses behind.

"Our strength is still not enough to contend with the Qin troops garrisoned in the county seat."

Realizing this, Zhou Shi no longer attempted to retake Yangwu and began shifting his targets toward the townships.

Qin rule in the townships was not strong; generally they sent only one platoon of fifty men to maintain order. Now, with grain being transported from every direction toward Daliang, this was the season when defenses were most vulnerable. Zhou Shi could choose to lead his men in raiding a grain convoy, or he could directly attack a township town. As long as he seized a single township, the Qin army would be forced to send men to hunt him down.

In this way, perhaps he could buy just a little more time, a sliver of opportunity, for Daliang…

The township Zhou Shi most wanted to attack was Huyou. Zhang Bo had persuaded the Yangwu County Magistrate to surrender, and Zhou Shi had nursed a bitter grudge over it ever since.

Unfortunately, ever since the Qin troops had garrisoned Huyou Township, relations between the Qin army and the Zhang clan had not soured as they had in other townships. That Qin unit of fifty-odd men had not, like garrisons elsewhere, coerced the commoners, violated women, or provoked mass disturbances.

The unbroken calm of Huyou Township gave Zhou Shi no opening to strike.

He had thought the grain levy might at last stir the people of Huyou to seething resentment, but the scouts Zhou Shi sent out returned with word that everything in the township was as usual. The Zhang clan and the Qin army had reached an agreement: the Zhangs were willing to provide grain as loans to the commoners, counting it toward the levy, helping them through the crisis…

Zhou Shi was greatly disappointed, but fortunately, along with this news, his men had also brought back a group of people.

Or rather, forced by that group of people, they had been brought back.

Zhou Shi stopped his work and looked at the man standing before him with head held high. He saw a man not yet thirty, eight chi tall, dressed in a Confucian scholar's robes and wearing a Confucian cap, with only a sword hanging at his waist.

"So you are Chen Yu? The notable scholar of Zhao?"

"I am he." Chen Yu's eyes were red, either from a sleepless night or from having just wept.

Zhou Shi had always looked down on frail Confucian scholars, considering them utterly useless, men who, when the state fell, would only clutch their ritual vessels and bamboo slips and flee. He laughed. "May I ask what matter brings Scholar Chen to coerce my men and insist on seeking me out?"

Chen Yu cupped his hands toward Zhou Shi and said, "When I led my men secretly into the borders of Yangwu, I heard that Lord Zhou had recruited over a hundred brave men and, by his own strength alone, resisted the tyranny of Qin. I deeply admire this. Now I wish to bring the ten knights-errant of Zhao under my command to lend you our strength, and join you in raiding Huyou Township…"

Zhou Shi was deeply wary of this Confucian scholar who spoke with an impeccable Daliang accent. He sneered. "Retake Huyou Township? Though you are a man of Wei, you long ago ran off to Zhao. Without cause or reason, why would you help me?"

"I will not hide it from Lord Zhou. The County Knight-Errant of Waihuang, Zhang Er, and I are sworn friends who would die for one another. Before Waihuang fell, he sent his wife and son to take temporary refuge with the Zhang clan of Huyou, after which I was to secretly escort them away. I had thought that although Zhang Bo surrendered to Qin, he still remembered old ties and would keep his word. Who could have guessed…"

Chen Yu ground his teeth. "Who could have guessed that the day before yesterday, the Zhang clan would suddenly renege and report this matter to the local Qin officer? The Qin officer and the Zhang clan together drove my sister-in-law to her death, exposed her corpse in the open, and then abducted my seven-year-old nephew. He is now imprisoned in the camp outside the town…"

After hearing this, Zhou Shi shook his head. "I have only a hundred-odd men under my command, not enough to besiege a township town. From what you say, since the Qin officer and the Zhang clan are in league, with fifty armored soldiers plus the Zhang clan's two hundred servants, and since the people of Huyou have no desire to revolt against Qin — to want to break into Huyou and rescue your nephew? It is no different from a fool babbling in his dreams."

"Then I have a second plan."

Unwilling to give up, Chen Yu continued, "While my retainers were scouting outside the township, they saw several dozen ox and horse carts being assembled inside the town, and grain being carried out in an endless stream from the Zhang residence. I imagine it is meant to be transported to the main Qin army camp at Daliang — if not tomorrow, then the day after! At that time, my nephew will surely be taken along as well. I implore Lord Zhou to join us in raiding the grain convoy."

"This plan is not entirely without merit."

Zhou Shi rose to his feet. Looking at Chen Yu, who was itching for action, he laughed. "However — can a Confucian scholar truly kill?"

Chen Yu froze for a moment, then burst into loud laughter.

"Sir Zhou, you hold a prejudice against Confucian scholars!"

"I have heard that Zhongni had a disciple named Zhong You. By nature he was crude and boorish, fond of courage and strength. He wore a cap of cock feathers and girded a sword of boar hide. Only later did he take Confucius as his master, study Confucian rites, and become a Confucian scholar."

"Zhong You served as steward of the estate of Kong Kui, a grandee of Wei, governing his domain. At that time, civil strife broke out in Wei, and rebel troops besieged Kong Kui. In that moment, every warrior under Kong Kui fled the city — only Zhong You went back in against the tide. He met rebel partisans on the road and slew them all. When he reached Kong Kui's residence, the rebels ordered a hundred men with dagger-axes and spears to surround and attack Zhong You. Sword in hand, one man against a hundred, he took scores of wounds yet still stood firm, and struck down more than ten of them in return..."

"At last Zhong You could hold out no longer. His cap-string was severed by a halberd stroke. He said, 'A gentleman dies with his cap in place,' then tied the string and died..."

When he finished speaking, Chen Yu suddenly drew the two-foot sword at his waist. Zhou Shi's men tensed and stepped forward, but Zhou Shi raised a hand and stopped them.

Sitting on the ground, Chen Yu plucked the sword and said, "Though I am a Confucian scholar and fond of Confucian arts, I revere Zilu and aspire to be a Confucian knight-errant. It is for this reason that I associated with Zhang Er and we became sworn friends unto death."

"Sir Zhou asks whether I can kill? Hahaha — when I was in Liang, though still young, I once drew my sword and slew a vicious youth who was bullying and tyrannizing the marketplace. For that I fled to the land of Zhao. At Kuxing in Zhao, I encountered mountain bandits who sought to strip me of my robes and cap. Again I drew my sword and rose up, killing two of them. It was this that so astonished a wealthy local, the Gongcheng clan, that he summoned me as a son-in-law. Relying on my wife's family wealth, I gained some small renown in Zhao..."

"Regrettably, less than two years later, the tyrannical Qin breached Handan, and Kuxing was annexed into Hengshan Commandery. Qin law is harsh and severe, it disdains Confucian arts and prohibits wandering knights. Thus the gatherings to discourse on classics and discuss past and present, the fellowship of men coming together in sport and play, the mournful songs and impassioned laments — all are seen no more... My treasured sword, too, has long lain covered in dust..."

After this sighing lament, Chen Yu rose again, sword in hand, and faced Zhou Shi, cupping his hands with the utmost respect:

"Zilu said: He who eats another's bread does not shirk that other's peril. For me, a friend to whom I would cut my throat does not shirk his peril either! Now is the day this long sword of mine shall strike down Qin officials, slay traitorous villains, and drink blood once more."

"Let it also be known to Sir Zhou: Confucian scholars, too, can kill!"

(End of Chapter)