Chapter 164: Yangcheng

By late July, over on that side, Li Xin was brimming with heroic confidence as he laid out his strategy to crush Chu before the Qin officials and generals. Over on this side, the Qin garrison conscripts still had no idea when this endlessly delayed return home would finally end.

After spending half a month at Chenliu, Heifu and the others finally received new orders — not demobilization, but reorganization.

The soldiers from Nan Commandery were ordered to muster at Yangcheng County. The men immediately looked at each other in bewilderment, asking one another where Yangcheng was.

Someone who knew whispered, "South of the Ying River. It was originally a Chu county."

The moment he heard that place name, Heifu instantly recalled a text he had studied once, long ago.

"Chen Sheng was a man of Yangcheng, courtesy name She..."

Although that opening passage hadn't been required memorization, for some reason it had stuck vividly in Heifu's mind. So as soon as he heard they were being transferred to Yangcheng, it came back to him in a flash.

In mid-July, this batch of conscripts once again left Chenliu, marching southwest for over three hundred li. After crossing the Ying River, they arrived at Yangcheng County.

The outskirts of Yangcheng County had already become a sprawling military camp. Besides Heifu's group, the four to five thousand conscripts and penal laborers conscripted from Nan Commandery into Wei the previous year by order were all concentrated here. Unlike during the Wei conquest campaign, when they had been dispersed for separate garrison duties, this time they were being reassembled into a single regiment.

"They're preparing for field battle and shock assault," Heifu thought grimly. From the look of things, he truly hadn't managed to avoid Qin's first campaign against Chu.

Qin's wartime organization built upon its peacetime structure to form large-scale combat forces. First, based on factors like the nature of the enemy, overall troop strength was determined and a commander-in-chief for the three armies was appointed. For instance, in the earlier Wei conquest campaign, the combat strength deployed was eighty thousand, plus an additional hundred thousand conscripts and penal laborers, all under the command of Wang Ben.

Below the Grand General were several deputy generals, called Adjutant Generals. Qiang Hui, who had initially led Heifu and the others eastward to seize territory, and Yang Duanhe — father of Yang Xiong — were both Adjutant Generals. An Adjutant General typically commanded tens of thousands of men, called a Division, though not all were combat troops; many were civilian laborers.

Below the Adjutant General, the basic unit was roughly five thousand men, called a Regiment, commanded by a Colonel, also referred to as a Commandant.

Subordinates of the Colonel or Commandant were the Chiliarch commanding a thousand men and the Pentarch commanding five hundred.

The five hundred men from Anlu, Jingling, and Yanling were grouped together. Their Pentarch was no stranger to Heifu — it was Cheng Wuyou, a man of Yidao in Nan Commandery, whom they had briefly encountered during the assault on Outer Huang.

During the reorganization, Heifu, having already been promoted to the rank of "Grandee," was appointed Centurion.

A Centurion, as the commander of a hundred soldiers, was equivalent to a company commander in later eras.

Fingering the wooden tally used for troop deployment, Heifu couldn't help a sigh. Thinking back to his previous life, he recalled a classmate who had joined the military saying that the fastest route to company commander was graduating from a military academy — one year as a platoon leader, then promoted to deputy company commander, a 4+1 track. If someone made company commander in under two years, people would certainly be envious.

Yet now, after enduring so many dangers and clawing his way up through Anlu County and the battlefield, he had only reached the position of Centurion — the same rank once held by Centurion Chen and Centurion Bin of Anlu County. In his heart, he couldn't help feeling some dissatisfaction.

Starting from scratch and fighting your way up truly was far inferior to being born into the right family.

"It's also because the Wei conquest campaign went too smoothly," Heifu thought. "With so many heads taken, many people's ranks rose with the tide, and the value of military rank has been diluted. Before the war, a single Grandee rank would have been enough to become a Pentarch..."

Fortunately, his Centurion post had no political officer to supervise and divide his authority — he could rule by fiat. Under him were two Platoon Leaders, equivalent to platoon commanders in later times: his old subordinate Dongmen Bao, and Huai Mu, a man of Jingling County who had been the First-Up-the-Wall Platoon Leader during the Outer Huang assault.

Heifu still remembered how Huai Mu had suffered multiple wounds atop the walls of Outer Huang, even taking an enemy arrow through his right palm, yet still gripped his sword with his left hand and killed a knight-errant.

But looking at the dark-blue headscarf tied over Huai Mu's topknot, Heifu showed a trace of surprise. "Back at Outer Huang, you were already at the Ornamented Sash rank. You could have been promoted two grades then — why are you still Ornamented Sash? Hasn't your rank come through yet?"

Huai Mu's skin was dark, and when he smiled, his teeth looked very white. "The rank came, but I used it all to buy my family's freedom."

It turned out that Huai Mu's two younger brothers had broken the law and been reduced to bondservants. Huai Mu could only use his rank to redeem them — one rank grade to restore one slave to freedom. No wonder he had been willing to be first up the wall, fighting a bloody battle atop Outer Huang.

Having said this, Huai Mu clapped his chest and declared, "Huai Mu has no other skills, but on the battlefield, I dare to charge the enemy lines when ordered. From now on, we will be the ones charging ahead, but we will also rely on the Centurion behind us for aid."

Huai Mu had already told everyone how Heifu had bandaged and dressed their wounds during the Outer Huang battle. Seeing that Huai Mu and Dongmen Bao — both once gravely wounded — were now alive and kicking, the soldiers newly assigned to Heifu's command immediately looked at him with new eyes, convinced that their Centurion truly possessed the skill to save the wounded and rescue the dying.

Ji Ying also shouted out, "Though the Centurion is no physician, he earned the praise of a medical officer from Xianyang, who was even willing to become his disciple and learn his wound-dressing techniques!"

Bu Cheng seized the moment as well, holding high a scroll of miscellany copied from the Daybook and peddling superstition: "Those whom the Centurion's hands have aided — even the Arbiter of Fate will not take them!"

And so, with Huai Mu and Dongmen Bao giving personal testimony, and Ji Ying and Bu Cheng embellishing the tales, within a single day Heifu had the new conscripts all bowing obediently before him. With another war clearly inevitable, no one dared guarantee they wouldn't be wounded. Having such a miraculous Centurion at their back settled the conscripts' hearts considerably.

After the reorganization was complete, Heifu and the others were assigned a new task — not combat, but helping to harvest grain in Yangcheng County...

By mid-August, the land was a sea of gold. With the assistance of the Qin soldiers, the harvest in Yangcheng County was nearing its end. The Qin army was certainly not here doing volunteer work — they were seizing their own military provisions. The entire Nan Commandery regiment of five thousand men was counting on Yangcheng's grain to feed itself.

Heifu tossed a large bundle of millet stalks onto the ridge, wiped away sweat, and sat on the ridge to drink water. He asked a stooped, elderly local farmer beside him, "Old sir, how does this year's harvest compare to past years?"

After half a month of contact, the farmers on this patch of land were no longer so afraid of the Qin troops. Since all those concentrated here were of Nan Commandery origin, and Nan Commandery had once been Chu territory — as was Yangcheng — both sides spoke the Jing-Chu dialect. Though accents differed considerably, they could generally understand one another.

The ability to communicate is a crucial way humans distinguish kin from stranger.

Although it pained them that the Qin would take a third of the harvest, under Chu rule, the local Chu County Governor, the "Duke of Yangcheng," had collected roughly the same land tax.

So the old farmer rambled on, saying that because of the previous year's war, many households, hearing the Qin army was about to occupy this place, had moved away in advance. Much land had gone fallow. Fortunately, the Qin troops stationed here had organized soldiers to take over the abandoned fields and plant millet and wheat, so at least there was some harvest.

As they chatted, the conversation flowed freely. Heifu talked with the old farmer about daily life for a while, then suddenly asked, "Old sir, have you ever heard of a man in this county named Chen Sheng?"

"Chen Sheng?" The old farmer blinked, seeming to search through the scattered names in his mind.

"He should be a hired laborer, tilling fields for others."

That was the only thing Heifu knew. Since he was in Yangcheng, he couldn't help wondering: was Chen Sheng also in this county? He wondered if, at this very moment, Chen Sheng was sitting on a field ridge just like him, sighing that line, "How can a sparrow know the ambitions of a swan..."

"This old man has never heard of this person Chen Sheng."

After thinking for a moment, the old farmer shook his head and pointed east of Yangcheng. "But in Yangcheng's East Township, there is indeed a Chen clan. Several hundred strong, all living together in one hamlet. This Chen Sheng the Centurion seeks might be a member of that Chen clan. The Chen descendants flourish, and there are many impoverished sons among them who, having no land of their own, can only work as tenant farmers for others."

Heifu's interest was immediately piqued. "Where in East Township is that Chen clan hamlet?"

"Right by the Ying River. But, Centurion, at present, that place is empty of people and houses! When the Chen clan head heard that the Qin bandits... the Qin army was going to occupy this place, he took the entire clan and moved away!"

Heifu asked further, "Do you know where they moved to?"

The old farmer shook his head. "I only know they followed the Ru River. Perhaps they went to Dun County, perhaps to Xiang County..."

"Xiang County?"

Heifu nodded thoughtfully, but his mind was already no longer on the untraceable Chen Sheng.

Xiang County lay just a hundred and fifty li southeast of Yangcheng. It was said that Chu had also concentrated nearly ten thousand troops there, and moreover, that place was the fief of the Xiang clan...

Chu's last famed general, Xiang Yan; his son Xiang Liang; and, over a decade later, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, Xiang Yu — a gathering of talent, all originating from there. Although the main body of the Xiang clan had since moved to Xiaxiang, Xiang County remained a key Chu stronghold north of the Huai River.

This time, the Qin army's opponent was no longer the fragile, easily crushed Wei, but a Chu bristling with soldiers and fierce generals!

"Qin is far too hasty in fighting this war." Heifu looked up at the sky, dark clouds threatening rain, his heart heavy with worry.

(End of chapter)