Chapter 168: Short Arms

"Here comes the Blanket Centurion."

When Hei Fu reached the tent, he happened to overhear two centurions whispering — and the subject of their talk was none other than himself...

The moment they saw Hei Fu enter, the two centurions, who wore the board-crown of the Grandee rank, immediately stopped talking, but their eyes kept conversing, full of mockery as they flicked toward Hei Fu.

Hei Fu ignored them, sat cross-legged off to their side.

A few days ago, thanks to his immaculate housekeeping and outstanding performance during drills and exercises, Hei Fu had caught the attention of Commandant Li You, who afterward ordered him transferred into his personal "Short Arms" unit.

The so-called Short Arms were not vanguard troops who charged into battle, but the personal bodyguards of an officer.

According to Qin military regulations, once a man reached the rank of Five Hundred Commander, he no longer had to brave arrows and stones himself, and could direct his subordinate centurions and platoon leaders from the rear as his five hundred men charged into the fray — but at that point the officer still needed men around him for protection, and thus the Short Arms came into being.

Short Arms generally numbered one-tenth of the total troops an officer commanded. For example: a Five Hundred Commander had fifty Short Arms, a Regiment Commander had one hundred Short Arms, and a Commandant who commanded anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand men had five hundred to a thousand Short Arms. As for Lieutenant Generals and Grand Generals, the same rule applied, and the personal Short Arms around them were even more numerous.

So Hei Fu's current post was roughly equivalent to a guard company commander in later ages. His duty was no longer charging into battle or being first up the wall at a breach, but protecting the safety of Li You, his "division commander."

At receiving this post, Hei Fu was of course secretly overjoyed. Though the chances of taking heads and earning rank were fewer as a Short Arm, it also spared him from grievous casualties. Ask yourself, once battle begins, where on the battlefield is safest? Without question, right beside the general or commandant. Only if the fighting reached an extreme deadlock would they be sent out as fresh troops; otherwise they rarely had the chance for close-quarters combat.

But there was an exception — and that was if Li You met an unfortunate death in battle.

Military law stipulated: "Should an officer fall in battle, his Short Arms shall be held lightly." If the commanding officer died in battle, all of his Short Arms were to be executed. An ordinary Short Arm could redeem himself by taking one enemy head, but a Short Arm officer of Hei Fu's rank had to kill an enemy commander of rank equal to the commandant — otherwise death was certain.

That was something nearly impossible to achieve. So in this war, Hei Fu was indeed far safer, but his life was now bound together with Li You's.

"He's Li Si's son and the King of Qin's son-in-law, after all — he won't die that easily."

A stone in Hei Fu's heart settled to the ground. This way, he was one step closer to the minimum requirement for "escaping death" in this war.

But Li You had his own calculations in transferring Hei Fu to the Short Arms.

The day after Hei Fu reported for duty, Li You praised his "orderly and proper" housekeeping methods in front of everyone, then ordered the Short Arms' Five Hundred Commander to adopt Hei Fu's methods and spread them among the several hundred Short Arms...

Li You was a man who liked uniformity and neatness, believing that details could determine success or failure. But he also knew that enforcing blanket-folding across the entire army was unrealistic, so he began by trying it with those Short Arms who came from the Guanzhong region.

Who would have thought this would earn Hei Fu no small number of complaints. Not everyone could understand why they had to go to this extra trouble upon waking in the morning, and even several Short Arms centurions muttered about Hei Fu because of it, giving him a nickname behind his back.

"The Blanket Centurion."

They muttered this nickname under their breath in the Guanzhong dialect. These several centurions, without exception, all hailed from Guanzhong. They were either sons of military officer families with hereditary ranks, or descendants of noble houses whose lineages stretched back centuries. Two of them had even served rotational duty within Xianyang Palace as Palace Guards.

The horses the few of them tethered outside were all fine Longxi steeds, much taller than the jujube-red horse Hei Fu had bought in Anlu County. The clothes beneath their armor were silk of excellent quality, far surpassing Hei Fu's hempen and kudzu garments. Even their complexions were considerably fairer than his, a commoner's son who had toiled and baked under the sun in the fields since childhood.

When Hei Fu, a man from a small county in Nan Commandery who spoke with a Jing-Chu accent, squeezed into their circle, he was immediately met with isolation and exclusion.

They appeared courteous and refined, the corners of their mouths carrying faint, shallow smiles, but the looks they directed at Hei Fu were full of disdain and contempt.

Hei Fu did not fly into a rage over this. He simply sat off to the side, apart from the group. As a newcomer just arriving, it was best to watch his words and actions carefully.

At that moment, hurried footsteps sounded again outside the tent. A young man, his forehead covered in sweat, ducked inside. He did not join the idle chatter of the other four, but plopped himself down right beside Hei Fu.

"Almost late again."

Among the several centurions of the Short Arms bodyguard, not everyone rejected Hei Fu. There was one exception — the man beside him now, Zhai Chong.

Though Zhai Chong was not old, just in his twenties, a full beard had already climbed up his cheeks, and together with his face, which bore foreign features, it had become his trademark.

After sitting down, he was still adjusting his clothes and grumbled, "Having to fold blankets the moment we get up — Centurion Hei Fu, this is all thanks to you."

This was good-natured teasing. Hei Fu smiled and was about to reply when their commanding Five Hundred Commander entered. Everyone immediately rose to their feet.

"Today's rotational duty before the Commandant's tent... shall be performed by Centurions Zhai Chong and Hei Fu."

When the Five Hundred Commander read out the two characters "Hei Fu," the four men off to the side exchanged glances again, revealing deeply meaningful smirks...

Hei Fu knew exactly what they were smirking about.

They were smirking at him for being "a man without a clan name or surname."

"Centurion Zhai spends all day mingling with me — aren't you afraid of being isolated by the other centurions too?"

After Hei Fu and Zhai Chong received their orders and left the tent, Hei Fu asked, as if it were nothing.

"Isolated?"

Zhai Chong stroked his beard and laughed. "There's something Hei Fu doesn't know. I come from Shang Commandery — unlike those wealthy counties along the Wei River in Guanzhong, it's a poor and remote place too. And my ancestors were Di tribesmen. I've suffered no small amount of exclusion from those few on ordinary days. With Centurion Hei Fu selected by the Commandant into the Short Arms, at least I have a companion."

With that, he said quietly to Hei Fu, "The army is a place where one speaks with one's own ability. Those sons of the fat-land gentry rely on their birth and look down on Centurion Hei Fu. But in my eyes, a centurion who was born a commoner, yet through his own skill earned merit, won rank, and fought his way up to the rank of Grandee — you are the one most qualified to look down on those who merely bask in their fathers' achievements!"

"I thank Centurion Zhai for his words."

But Zhai Chong seemed to want to say more, then hesitated. Hei Fu noticed, stopped walking, and cupped his hands toward him.

"Centurion Zhai need not hold back. Speak your mind."

"Now that Hei Fu is already a Grandee in rank, it is time to pick a surname for yourself. I've heard the elders of my clan say that among us White Di of Shang Commandery, aside from the Di kings, ordinary people originally had no concept of surnames — they were all called directly by name, distinguished only by tribal name. It wasn't until later, after we were annexed by Qin and went to Xianyang, that we were mocked as barbarians for having no surnames. And so all the White Di people took 'Zhai' as their surname..."

Climbing up from the bottom was never easy. Perhaps in the eyes of those four, in the twenty or thirty years of their lives, the only people they had ever seen without surnames were the household slaves and convict laborers.

Hei Fu sighed inwardly, then bowed with clasped hands. "Centurion Zhai's words come from the heart. Hei Fu will certainly take them to heart. Allow me to go back and think on it."

Hei Fu did not hurry back to rack his brains, trying to add a surname for himself and pick a new given name just to avoid being snickered at.

Slap a surname on himself, pretend to be descended from some ancient noble line — would that make people look up to him? Would that let him squeeze into their little circle? A joke!

Rather than waste time on empty names, he might as well think about how to make Li You trust and rely on him more. That was something solid and real.

After arranging for the men under his command to deploy in groups of ten around the main camp, Hei Fu stood outside the tent, listening to the voices of Li You discussing military intelligence with the regiment commanders and Five Hundred Commanders inside, lost in thought.

Compared to ordinary officers, the advantages of being a Short Arms bodyguard were enormous — not only was it safer on the battlefield, but it also gave one easier access to military intelligence. For instance, what Li You and the officers inside were discussing was precisely the problem that had plagued this army for months: morale.

The morale of the Nan Commandery troops remained low. Though under the mountain-like intimidation of Qin law, no one was foolish enough to desert, most of the men had no heart for battle. After a year of campaigning far from home, the conscripts of Nan Commandery had nothing left in their hearts but the desire to go home. So every one of them appeared listless and drained, and the camp was filled with an atmosphere of dejection.

After a round of discussion inside where everyone voiced their own opinions, there was still no result. Though the regiment commanders all proposed solutions, the troops were weary and the army exhausted — this was no longer a problem that could be solved by the techniques of punishment and reward.

Hei Fu stood ramrod straight outside the tent entrance. Only after all the officers attending the meeting had departed did he walk in with quick, small steps and bow before the desk.

"This subordinate officer greets the Commandant."

"It's Hei Fu. You're on rotational duty today..."

Li You seemed somewhat troubled, his left hand pinching the space between his brows. Seeing it was Hei Fu, he told him to rise.

Hei Fu, however, did not rise. He lowered his head and said, "The Commandant was just now discussing with the officers how to rouse morale. The regiment commanders debated heatedly, and their voices were loud. This subordinate officer happened to be outside and inadvertently overheard. This subordinate officer is guilty."

"This isn't exactly a secret."

Li You sneered. "The Southern Commandery troops are homesick — everyone in our army knows it. I'm afraid even the Chu army camp already knows it too."

Going into battle with the army in such a state, Li You, commanding several thousand troops for the first time, couldn't help feeling somewhat uneasy.

At that moment, an idea struck Li You. He pointed at Heifu and said, "You're also from Southern Commandery, and you rose up from platoon leader step by step. You know the soldiers' hardships well. Do you have any solution?"

As a Commandant parachuted in from above, with officers not knowing the troops and troops not knowing their officer, Li You was beside himself with worry. He had transferred Heifu to his side as a personal guard — aside from admiring the exceptional insight Heifu had shown in their exchange that day, wasn't it also because he wanted a junior officer who understood the army's morale to provide him with counsel?

This was exactly what Heifu had been waiting for. He immediately said, "This subordinate does have one idea. I wouldn't dare claim it can restore morale, but it can at least settle the soldiers' hearts!"

(End of chapter)