Chapter 185: Do You Know Hei Fu?

To Dou Ran, this petty garrison chief "Zhong" sent to negotiate surrender looked utterly timid. He stood stiffly in the center of the tent, glancing back now and then at the Chu soldiers behind him with blades fixed on him, forcing a dry laugh, then kept licking his lips, his trembling hands not knowing where to put them.

Like thorns pricking his back — this was exactly the effect Dou Ran wanted. Without a show of might, how could they force the Qin to surrender?

"Let me ask you, how many Qin are in the city altogether?" His first concern was the troop strength inside.

The petty garrison chief froze, then hurriedly answered, "I venture to inform the General, there are six hundred men in the city..."

"You lie!"

Sun Feng at the side slapped the table and roared fiercely, "Your every move is under our army's scouts' eyes, and you still dare to falsify numbers?"

These words terrified the petty garrison chief into trembling. He quickly bowed and said, "General, this is an injustice! This lowly man would never dare lie. We are Southern Commandery troops, under Commandant Li's command. When Xiangcheng was routed, we lost contact with Commandant Li and could only follow the Five Hundred Leader southward. Along the way we gathered a motley assortment of men. Five hundred entered the city, plus the hundred inside the settlement — that is six hundred, no mistake. The scouts must have misread it..."

Sun Feng was bluffing him. The surrendered general Liao Ping at the side also eagerly helped the two Chu enfeoffed lords press the questioning: "What is your Five Hundred Leader called?"

Hei Fu looked at Liao Ping. His accent was very similar to Li You's — likely from the Shangcai area. He had probably only surrendered to Qin last year, so switching back now carried no psychological burden at all. Hei Fu knew that although Li Xin's troops were mostly Guanzhong soldiers, many locally conscripted men from Shangcai served as guides.

"The Five Hundred Leader is called Cheng Wuyou, also from Southern Commandery."

Hei Fu gave his old superior's name. In any case, his fate was now unknown.

"I have never heard of this man."

Liao Ping furrowed his brow, but he did not doubt it. After all, the Qin army had some one or two hundred thousand men, with two or three hundred Five Hundred Leaders. Unless they were under the same Colonel, they basically could not all know each other.

The three found nothing amiss, so the topic shifted to the surrender terms.

Hei Fu asked cautiously, "Leader Cheng the Five Hundred Leader sent me to clarify: if he surrenders to Chu, can he receive land and homestead according to his original rank and treatment?"

"He still wants land and homestead?"

Dou Ran and Sun Feng looked at each other. This Qin officer was certainly good at making demands. Sun Feng said, "How much land and homestead does he want?"

"The Five Hundred Leader's rank is Official Grandee, so he wants seven hundred mu of fields, plus a homestead plot two hundred paces square. The Five Hundred Leader said that if the Chu generals think that is too much land, granting it according to Chu's mu system would also be fine. That way he can become a rich old man living off land rents in Chu..."

Dou Ran only wanted to burst out laughing. The Qin officer inside was indeed a greedy coward who feared death. At a time like this, his head was full of post-surrender benefits, land, and homestead. He nodded cheerfully and said, "Fine, I agree to this."

"The Five Hundred Leader also said..."

Hei Fu smiled with feigned embarrassment. "A verbal promise won't do. He hopes the General can draw up a contract, as proof for later..."

"Heh, he thinks of everything."

With that, Dou Ran and Sun Feng had no further doubt about the surrender sincerity of the nonexistent "Five Hundred Leader" inside the settlement. They simply had someone bring bamboo slips, wrote a strip, and handed it to the petty garrison chief to take back and report.

At this point, it was the Chu side's turn to make demands.

Dou Ran said, "Zhong, go back and tell Leader Cheng the Five Hundred Leader that before the sun climbs three poles high, he must bring everyone to throw their weapons down from the city wall, remove their armor, line up in order, and come out to surrender. Otherwise..."

"I will lead the army to storm the city, and you will all be ground to dust!"

Dou Ran set his face stern and slapped the table. The row of Chu soldiers behind Hei Fu immediately raised their weapons and roared in unison!

Hei Fu cooperated perfectly, his legs going weak as he hurriedly agreed. But inwardly he thought, this is bad — the Chu generals are still highly vigilant. This would make their feigned surrender and ambush a few degrees harder.

The surrender was more or less settled. But just as Hei Fu was about to turn and leave, he hesitated, turned back, and bowed again: "This lowly man has relayed the Five Hundred Leader's words. But I would also like to ask the honored generals: for ordinary junior officers and soldiers like us, if we surrender, how will we be settled?"

This question caught the three off guard. Dou Ran sneered inwardly: What else? Sent to Wu and Yue to boil salt, or escorted to Huainan and distributed as spoils of war to the various enfeoffed lords, to be their field slaves and mine slaves, worked to death. That's all.

Of course, he could not say this aloud. The genial-looking Sun Feng said with a smile, "Zhong, go back and tell the Qin soldiers that Chu is not like the Qin army — we do not have the vile custom of killing captives. You will all be properly settled. Chu has vast land and few people, plenty of fields and soil to settle you. As long as you turn your hearts to Chu, you can become Chu subjects."

In any case, Chu no longer faced the threat of annihilation. The enfeoffed lords were unwilling to let their clan troops suffer further losses, so they thought to first trick the Qin into surrendering and disarm them. If they could avoid fighting, they would. Chu was not like Qin — they got no real reward for taking Qin heads.

"In that case, I am at ease."

Hei Fu let out a long breath of relief and said happily, "I won't hide it from the General, but we are actually from Southern Commandery. Three generations ago, we were also Chu people. Only later were we forced to submit to Qin and serve in its wars. In truth, to this day Southern Commandery is still called Western Chu! We also regard ourselves as Chu people."

Southern Commandery, along with Huaibei, Pei, Pengcheng, Chen, Cai, and other places — although these areas belonged to two different states, culturally and customarily they were still classified as "Western Chu." Their customs were close, their language mutually intelligible, and they indeed shared many similarities. They differed far more from Eastern Chu in Donghai and Wu-Yue, and Southern Chu in Yuzhang and Changsha.

Hei Fu seized the chance to rail against Qin: "Qin officials in Southern Commandery exact more than half the harvest in taxes. Men labor at farming but cannot produce enough provisions; women spin and weave but cannot make enough clothing. That aside, the hardest to bear is the endless corvée labor, and the harsh, exacting penal laws. Picking up a mulberry leaf on the way, picking up a single coin on the road — all punished with heavy sentences! Those tattooed on the face, feet chopped off, reduced to convict laborers and bondservants — they are beyond counting!"

After pouring out grievances for a long while, he declared with righteous indignation, "We soldiers of Southern Commandery have all long suffered under Qin. Now that we have the chance to become Chu people again and receive fair treatment, I cannot tell you how overjoyed we are!"

"That makes sense."

These words struck a chord with the surrendered general Liao Ping. He joined in, expounding at length on Qin's brutal rule over Shangcai this past year. He too had long suffered under Qin, which was why he surrendered to Chu and was willing to become a Chu man again.

In short, the two sang in harmony, denouncing Qin's governance as utterly worthless, as if merely raising an arm and calling out in Shangcai or Southern Commandery would make the locals kill Qin officials and surrender to Chu.

Sun Feng watched their faces and expressions, knowing they were desperately currying favor to leave a good impression on the Chu men. He smiled outwardly, but inwardly felt deep contempt.

Dou Ran, however, looked as if he were listening to a joke. After the two had railed fiercely for a while, he asked Hei Fu, "Which county in Southern Commandery are you from?"

"This lowly man is from Anlu County."

"Anlu County? Wasn't it called Yunyi before? That is my Ruo'ao clan's old homeland!" Dou Ran's interest grew upon hearing this.

"The General is a descendant of the Ruo'ao clan?"

Hei Fu feigned astonishment and bowed again to Dou Ran: "This lowly man often heard the elders back home say that in the days when the Ruo'ao clan was still there, life was ten times, a hundred times better than under Qin rule! If Qin had not forcibly seized Anlu, this lowly man would have been born the General's subject. It is still not too late. After we surrender to Chu, I hope the General will take me in! This lowly man is willing to serve the General as a household retainer for generations."

"Hahaha, well said. I grant you this."

This shameless posture of claiming a master amused Dou Ran. He agreed casually, then asked Hei Fu another question.

"The Ruo'ao clan still has old retainers and old acquaintances in Anlu County. They told me that the year before last, the Ruo'ao clan tombs were robbed by a gang of grave robbers. Do you know of this?"

That had happened two years ago, when Hei Fu had just become Chief of Huyang Village. Recalling it now felt like a lifetime ago. Who would have thought the news had traveled all the way to Chu?

His feelings were somewhat complicated for a moment, but he said, "How could I not know? It was a major case that shook the entire county. When the grave robbers were executed, this lowly man even went to watch. It was deeply satisfying."

Dou Ran continued, "It is said the case was cracked by a minor village chief, but the letter did not mention that village chief's name. What was he called?"

Hei Fu's palms began to sweat. He almost suspected he had been exposed and nearly lunged to seize Dou Ran, but behind him several fully armed Chu soldiers had their halberds and spears trained on him. Unarmed, he would certainly die.

He forced himself not to panic, pretending that man was someone else, and said calmly, "He was called Hei Fu."

"Hei Fu, what a strange name."

Dou Ran murmured the name, then asked further, "Do you know Hei Fu? Was he conscripted into the army this time?"

Hei Fu smiled as if nothing were amiss. "This lowly man is from the northern outskirts of Anlu County town, in a different township from Hei Fu. I only know the name, not the man, and even less whether he is in the army. In any case, among those who came to Tongyang, there is no such person... Even if he really did come to Chu, perhaps he has already died at Xiangcheng."

"What a pity."

Dou Ran suddenly felt a sense of loss. He sighed and said, "I hope he is still alive. That minor village chief, though a Qin official, at least did not let the thieves defile my ancestors' coffins. The Ruo'ao clan owes him a debt of gratitude."

"If he came to Chu and was willing to pledge allegiance to me, I could, just as I promised that Five Hundred Leader, gift him seven hundred mu of fields as recompense!"

PS: "Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Merchants": "From north of the Huai River, Pei, Chen, Runan, and Nan Commandery — this is Western Chu. East of Pengcheng, Donghai, Wu, and Guangling — this is Eastern Chu. Hengshan, Jiujiang, Jiangnan, Yuzhang, and Changsha — this is Southern Chu."

(End of Chapter)