Chapter 166: The Commandant Inspects the Camp

None of the commanders and five-hundred-man chiefs garrisoning Yangcheng had expected that Commandant Li You, just arrived at the army camp, would immediately conduct a camp inspection.

"The Commandant inspects the camp! The Commandant inspects the camp!"

The slow, rhythmic drumbeats sounded, and orderlies reached every camp to relay the news, stirring a flurry of agitation.

Then, surrounded by a cluster of subordinates, Commandant Li You strode out of the main camp and, proceeding clockwise, began his tour of the enormous encampment.

Li You was not very old, only twenty-eight or twenty-nine. He wore a long robe under a leather outer cuirass, a rosette ornament at his chest, and upturned-toe shoes. On his head was a brown-feathered martial cap; his face was long, with a short beard. Though a military officer, his bearing was poised and refined.

As the son of the Commandant of Justice Li Si, he had received an excellent family education and could be called accomplished in both civil and martial arts. At seventeen he had entered Xianyang Palace as a palace guard, and a few years later was promoted to court gentleman, beginning his military service.

Strangely enough, although Li You was no longer young, he had long delayed formally taking a wife, and no one knew what he was waiting for. Only last year, when he was granted marriage to the King of Qin's eldest princess in a grand wedding held at Li Si's residence, did everyone suddenly understand.

The general the King of Qin most liked to promote was Li Xin, but the minister the King of Qin relied on most heavily was Li Si — on this point, not even the Chancellor Wei Zhuang could compare.

Everyone sighed with admiration, saying that Li You truly had a fine father.

After becoming the King of Qin's son-in-law, Fifth Rank Grandee Li You seemed to have a boundless future ahead. Sure enough, when a new war arrived, he too was appointed Commandant and sent on campaign with Li Xin.

Yet looking at the camp before him, Li You could not feel the slightest joy. Every family has its own difficult scripture to recite, and he had his own vexations.

Compared to the Guanzhong elite troops personally commanded by Commander-in-Chief Li Xin, or the soldiers from the various eastern commanderies under Vice General Meng Tian, the Southern Commandery troops were truly a force of dubious fighting ability — a tasteless morsel.

Li Xin had assigned such a weak brigade to Li You, and his reasoning was quite sound: Li You was originally from Shangcai in Chu, and could still speak fluent Shangcai Jing-Chu dialect. Giving him a batch of soldiers from the former Chu lands made it convenient for command and control. They would simply follow the main army, using the language advantage to garrison various places, without having to fight assault or breakthrough battles.

In Li Xin's view, this was looking after Li You, sparing him from personally facing arrows and stones.

But in Li You's view, his status as the King of Qin's son-in-law, far from earning him preferential treatment, had instead been met with a deliberate show of fairness, making him a sacrifice. Seeing Li Xin and Meng Tian, both from the same palace-guard background, serving as commander-in-chief and vice general respectively, he felt some unwillingness in his heart.

But words of complaint were not permitted, nor could he use his father's authority to have his assignment adjusted. When Li Xin set out from Xianyang, the King of Qin had personally bestowed upon him a battle-axe and authorized him thus: "The Left, Right, and Central Armies each have their separate duties. Those who overstep their station and petition upward shall die. The army has no second command; those who issue a second command shall be executed, those who withhold a command shall be executed, those who fail a command shall be executed!"

A commandant who bypassed the chain of command or expressed dissatisfaction with his assignment — no matter his background — the general had the authority to execute.

Li You could only take his five hundred personal guard soldiers, part ways with Li Xin and Meng Tian at Yangdi, and hurry to Yangcheng, hoping to use the remaining time before the war's scheduled start at the end of the ninth month to quickly get this army under control.

As soon as he stepped down from his war chariot, Li You had the drums beaten to summon the commanders and five-hundred-man chiefs. He spoke amiably, and everyone conversed in the Jing-Chu dialect, which imperceptibly narrowed the distance between him and the various officers.

After that came this whirlwind camp inspection. Li You had to know exactly what kind of army this was, and he also had to let the soldiers know who their commandant was! Soldiers not knowing their general, a general not knowing his soldiers — that is the greatest taboo before battle!

However, from the simple camp and rampart arrangements before his eyes alone, Li You could tell that the quality of these Southern Commandery troops was far inferior to the Guanzhong elite...

The Qin army had its own system for encampment, especially for a permanent camp like this meant for a long halt. The perimeter had to be enclosed by a wooden wall eight chi high. An army of five thousand was further divided into a central main camp and left, right, front, and rear commands, each with its own assigned encampment. Boundary ditches were dug around each camp, and a strict prohibition was clearly issued: those not of the same "command" were not allowed to enter another's camp. If soldiers from another command trespassed, the commander was to punish them and implicate their hundred-man chief, squad, and file in collective responsibility; otherwise, the commander would share their crime.

As for the roads within the camp, a guard post was set up every hundred and twenty paces, responsible for restricting the movement of personnel and ensuring smooth traffic. Unless one carried the tally of a general or officer, passage was absolutely forbidden!

Besides strictly guarding against spies, this served another important purpose: starting from daily life, it taught the soldiers to obey orders, to learn to halt at a command and act at a command, stripping away entirely the laziness and slackness they had as commoners!

Yet the Southern Commandery soldiers' camp fell short. It was true that the ditches in the camp ran slantwise and the barracks were staggered according to the terrain. But in Li You's eyes, the trenches between different camps were dug very carelessly, the guard posts were too far apart, and the security was lax. Those going out to gather firewood or graze the warhorses also came and went in twos and threes, without forming up as a unit.

Even during his inspection, though the warning drums had clearly been beaten and orderlies clearly sent to every camp to relay the word, there were still people walking brazenly along the camp roads! And as they walked, they were shouting and making a racket.

Toward such people, Li You showed not a shred of courtesy. With a nod of his chin, the personal guard soldiers close behind him immediately stepped forward and seized them! Then, dragging the two men before a camp gate, they loudly proclaimed: "When the general enters camp, the gates are closed and the roads cleared. Those who dare walk about shall be executed, those who dare speak loudly shall be executed, those who dare disobey orders shall be executed!"

The words had barely faded when, before the eyes of the assembled commanders and five-hundred-man chiefs behind him, and the men who had come out of their tents in the camp upon hearing the news, the two unlucky soldiers returning from gathering firewood were pressed onto wooden stakes. The personal guard soldiers raised bronze axes and struck off their heads! These were then hung high upon the camp gate!

"The army's system: five men form a file, and the file guarantees one another; ten men form a squad, and the squad guarantees one another. The file chief, squad chief, platoon chief, and hundred-man chief of these two men — all shall be flogged twenty strokes!"

These four men immediately stepped forward, obediently stripped off their upper garments, and were beaten on the shoulders and back with rattan strips bound from bamboo splits — stroke after stroke, each sound entering the ear.

With this, the Southern Commandery soldiers, who had grown lax over the past two months, no longer dared disregard the prohibitions. They all stood mute and tongue-tied.

Li You merely watched the punishment with an expressionless face. The amiable superior who had chatted warmly with the commanders earlier had in an instant turned into a cold-faced commandant. The authority of a general was first established just like this.

Li You had studied both civil and martial arts since childhood, deeply influenced by the Legalist thinking his father revered, and he had infused this thinking into his military governance as well.

A hundred-zhang dike collapses from an ant's burrow; a hundred-chi hall burns from a spark through a crack.

Military regulations and discipline often begin to decay from small matters. Once they decay, a general cannot command his soldiers to halt or act, and fighting strength will be greatly discounted.

When the punishment was complete, Li You took the opportunity to leave the camp's main road and step into the smaller camp ramparts, beginning his inspection of the interior of the hundred-man encampments.

Walking along the road, one could not see much difference, but once inside, as he looked around, Li You's expression grew more and more grave, for not a single camp's soldiers satisfied him.

The soldiers had all learned at the last moment that the commandant was coming and had rushed out of their tents in a flurry, looking somewhat disordered. They stood by the roadside, watching this new commandant with curiosity and apprehension. Though they dared not whisper to each other, their eyes carried on plenty of conversation.

After several camp ramparts, Li You finally saw clearly what exactly these Southern Commandery troops lacked compared to the crack Guanzhong brigades he had led before.

It was not just the strictness of military discipline, nor just the quality of the soldiers themselves, but also their overall morale!

The Southern Commandery troops had been conscripted during the campaign to destroy Wei and had now been away from home for nearly a year. They had already started on the road home, only to be notified that their service term was extended and they would have to fight another war. Any person would feel resentment at this. So the Southern Commandery troops were somewhat slack and low in morale, with little enthusiasm for this war.

Li You could understand it, but he could not allow them to remain so lax.

"The art of war says: if the general is frivolous, the ramparts low, and the troops restless, one may attack. With an army like this, I fear they would be routed at the first Chu assault even defending their camp, let alone meeting the enemy in the field."

Before Li You set out, his father had told him: in this campaign, simply avoiding mistakes would suffice; be cautious in all things. But now it seemed that with an army whose morale was low before the war even began, even avoiding mistakes would be very hard to achieve.

Thinking thus, Li You had nearly finished walking through the entire camp. But when he stepped into the very last encampment, his eyes suddenly lit up!

A hundred soldiers were arrayed there well in advance. Though they varied in height and build, at a single glance Li You found them uniform and orderly.

The hundred men stood on the open ground before the camp in ten rows and ten columns. The men in the first two rows, without exception, wore armor. Though the color, texture, and length of the clothing underneath differed, they seemed a single whole. The men in the rear rows also held halberds and spears, heads high, chests out, feet together — every one of them standing ramrod straight!

Seeing Li You and his party arrive at the camp gate, a hundred-man chief wearing a single-board long cap immediately stepped out of formation, jogged up to Li You, bowed to him with clasped hands, and loudly reported: "Left Command, Seventh Hundred, all one hundred and three men present, awaiting the Commandant's inspection!"

"Awaiting the Commandant's inspection!" The men also bowed with clasped hands. Even the formerly slack Dongmen Bao, Ji Ying, and the others were now utterly obedient.

Li You saw that this hundred-man chief had a dark-complexioned face, but a tall, straight bearing and proper etiquette. Looking further at the hundred soldiers behind him, fully prepared and with high morale, the frustration of the morning's inspection was instantly swept away. He nodded and looked toward the assembled commanders and five-hundred-man chiefs at his side: "Under whose command is this?"

"Under your subordinate's command!"

Five-Hundred-Man Chief Cheng Wuyou hurriedly stepped forward, pointing at the hundred-man chief: "This hundred-man chief is called Heifu!"

"Hundred-Man Chief Heifu, your soldiers are quite orderly in formation."

Li You offered only a single word of praise, but unlike the previous camp ramparts, he did not merely glance at the gate and leave. Instead, he strode into the camp, his eyes scanning left and right.

He discovered that this camp rampart was laid out very properly: the ditches were deep enough, the dirt roads were tamped flat and smooth, without even a slightly larger pebble, and the latrine was located over ten paces from the camp rampart...

"The camp is well laid out too." Li You looked the junior hundred-man chief squarely in the eye again and asked him: "Where did you learn this?"

"I learned it by following Five-Hundred-Man Chief Cheng," Heifu replied, deftly crediting his superior.

Li You smiled but did not take it seriously. Did he not know full well that Cheng Wuyou was a rough fellow? The four hundred-man chiefs under him previously had all been a complete mess, far inferior to this camp.

After looking around, he was quite satisfied inwardly. But as he passed an open tent, he seemed to catch sight of something and immediately stopped, ordering a personal guard to lift the flap of the grayish tent.

The very first glance upon entering drew an "Oh?" from Li You — a sound of surprise that made the commanders and five-hundred-man chiefs outside look at each other, wondering what was happening inside. Only Heifu revealed a slight smile, fully confident.

Li You was genuinely shocked.

When the Commandant inspected the camp, the formations were orderly and the camp itself was laid out by the book — Li You had seen plenty of armies like this in the Guanzhong region.

But for the bedding inside every tent to be folded neat and tidy on its own cot — this was the first time Li You had ever seen such a thing since the day he was born!

(End of Chapter)