Chapter 206: Entering Ying

On the tenth day of the first month, Heifu, dressed in plain clothes with a scarf wrapped around his head and a black robe, sat in a carriage. Behind him, the walls of Anlu City gradually blurred…

He was not alone. Yue, the Prison Section Clerk, was heading to the commandery seat on official business and traveled with Heifu. Too lazy to ride a horse, he hitched a ride on Heifu's carriage and volunteered to drive. He said with a laugh, "Officer of the Realm, the Left Commandant sent you a parting gift of a thousand coins. Is it really fine not to accept it?"

Parting gifts were an unwritten custom in the official circles of every state. When someone traveled far to garrison a post or take up an official position, colleagues would wrap coins in silk cloth as a send-off, calling it a parting gift — essentially a farewell red envelope. The minor clerks in the county seat didn't earn much, so most people only gave one or two hundred coins; close friends gave three to five hundred.

But today, when Heifu's friends and subordinates came outside the city to see him off, the Left Commandant's nephew, Yun Xiong, appeared at an awkward moment. He too put on a smiling face and offered a parting gift. Heifu weighed it in his hand — it felt like as much as a thousand coins…

Heifu knew perfectly well that the Yun clan was trying to curry favor with him, but he had no intention of wiping the slate clean of past grudges just like that. Smiling, he tossed the coin pouch back to Yun Xiong, saying that he appreciated the Left Commandant's goodwill, but if he accepted this "huge sum" —

"Wouldn't that make it a bribe from the Left Commandant to me?"

Heifu cracked a joke that turned Yun Xiong's face ashen, then clasped his hands toward the crowd and strode off without looking back…

"If it were given to me, I'd take it."

Yue laughed heartily and at the same time turned his head back to shout at the people behind, "We must reach Jiangling by the last third of the first month — no delays. Pick up the pace and keep up with the carriage! If anyone gets tired, take turns riding my horse. And keep a close eye on the prisoners!"

The three or five jailors, escorting two prisoners wearing wooden cangues and trudging along slowly, answered obsequiously. At the same time, one joked, "With a valiant hero like Officer of the Realm traveling with us, I doubt these two would dare run."

Heifu responded modestly, then asked Yue in a low voice, "Clerk Yue, what crime did these two commit? The county court can't even handle the trial and needs you to escort them to Jiangling personally?"

Yue shook his head. "These two brothers were so desperate for money they lost their minds — they dared to mint coins illegally at home!"

Heifu glanced at the two bedraggled men behind the carriage. "That's a serious crime."

After his trips to Wei and Chu, Heifu had been deeply struck by the contrast. In other states, private coinage circulated freely and the authorities couldn't control it, so they simply relaxed the laws and let you mint as you pleased. Qin, however, had the state mint coins uniformly, strictly forbidding local and private minting. Qin law explicitly stipulated: anyone caught illegally minting coins shall, in addition to having their home searched — that is, their property confiscated — and the coins and molds they produced seized, also be arrested, severely punished, and sentenced to hard labor as a wall-builder.

Even so, plenty of people still took the risk, because the face value of bronze coins was greater than the actual value of the raw material. Minting coins privately, as long as you weren't discovered, was absolutely profitable.

Yue said, "The banliang coins circulating in the market, though some have been in use too long and are damaged, are all the same size and fineness. The workshops mint coins according to the Xianyang standard. But in the twelfth month, some darker-colored coins appeared on the market — these had to be counterfeits. So Nu followed the clues and caught two craftsmen, and in their home found the bronze molds for minting coins, plus eleven hundred freshly made new coins!"

Thus the two were convicted of the crime of illegal minting. But during the Prison Section's interrogation, in an attempt to reduce their sentence, they revealed an even more shocking fact: the molds they used had been obtained from Jiangling. They claimed there was also an illegal minting ring in Jiangling, and the bronze coins they produced were indistinguishable in quality from the officially minted ones!

This was already beyond what Anlu County could handle. Yue was ordered to escort these two to the commandery seat and hand them over to the commandery court's law officer for trial.

At the same time, Yue sighed with emotion, "Ah, with Lord Xi not here, handling these cases has been much more sluggish."

Heifu smiled. "I heard that Lord Xi was transferred to the commandery seat last year and is also serving in the Commandery Prison Section?"

"Indeed." Yue said, "Because Lord Xi achieved the top rating in his three-year performance evaluation, he caught the eye of the Supervising Censor, who recommended him to the commandery. Thus he earned a promotion and is now serving as Left Prison Section Clerk in the Commandery Prison Section."

In Qin, the commanderies and counties already had divided sections, but not the neat six sections of later times; instead they were subdivided even more. As far as Heifu knew, besides the Chief Clerk, there were sections for Merit, Granaries, Fields, Households, Prisons, Troops, and Bandits — equivalent to the various bureaus at the provincial level. The chief officer of each section was called a "Yuan," nominally the same rank as a county magistrate but actually somewhat higher, and could not be held by anyone below the rank of Eighth Grade.

Under each section chief were two assistant officers, designated Left and Right, generally held by those of Officer of the Realm or Seventh Grade rank. Xi was only of Fifth Grade rank, yet he had been promoted to Left Prison Section Clerk — definitely an exceptional promotion.

Heifu felt a bit helpless. "I thought that after returning, I'd be one rank higher than Xi. Who'd have thought our positions would still be the same."

This time he had been summoned to serve in the commandery seat, and the post he was taking up was precisely "Left Troops Section Clerk."

"It would be great if Officer of the Realm were going to serve in the Bandits Section."

Yue joked, "Maybe after Lord Xi cracks this case, you could even help catch the criminals."

Heifu burst out laughing. "I'd like to work with Lord Xi too."

That was what he said, but working in the Troops Section was exactly what Heifu needed most right now. The Bandits Section was equivalent to the provincial public security department, in charge of law and order. But the Troops Section was equivalent to the provincial military district, specifically managing conscription, training, combat, and other military affairs.

Heifu also already knew that the person who had transferred him to this post was the newly appointed Commandant of Nan Commandery, Li You. The implication was clear without being stated.

Li You wanted to achieve real results in Nan Commandery!

Heifu secretly speculated, "In the first campaign against Chu, the outstanding performance of a remnant force from Nan Commandery made Xianyang sit up and take notice, and Li You also got a taste of the benefits of leading such troops. So he applied for a field assignment to take overall charge of Nan Commandery's military affairs. This is preparation for the second campaign against Chu."

The Commandant oversaw military officers and armored soldiers, with an official salary rank of two thousand bushels, which happened to match the rank of Left Commoner Chief. Nan Commandery was also a major frontline commandery for the campaign against Chu. If Li You personally conscripted and trained the troops, then led them into battle, it would be easier to earn merit.

For the people of Nan Commandery, this was both good news and bad. The good news was that they would finally not be treated as a "miscellaneous force" like in the last war, doing things like luring the enemy, filling in moats, and covering the rear. The bad news was that when war broke out again, Nan Commandery might have to conscript even more soldiers and bear heavier responsibilities.

But at least the commander for the second campaign against Chu was Wang Jian. Just hearing that name made Heifu feel inexplicably much more at ease — at the very least, far more reliable than having Li Xin as commander.

"Li You is from Shangcai, and those who've attached themselves to Li Si are mostly wandering scholars and civil clerks. Presumably, he has few people available who understand military affairs and are familiar with this commandery, so he summoned me to serve in the Troops Section. With Li You as my patron, I don't need to worry about being pushed aside. I still need to think carefully about how to achieve results…"

Thinking this, Heifu yawned and dozed off in the swaying, jolting carriage.

…

Nan Commandery was a large commandery, spanning a thousand li. The distance from Anlu to the commandery seat was not short — a full four hundred-plus li. Heifu and his group traveled for seven or eight days in total, heading west all the way, passing Xinshi, Yundu, and Dangyang, then entering the north-south thoroughfare of the Xia Road and turning south.

When they encountered hunger, thirst, or fatigue, they rested at the roadside pavilion lodges. Watching the Pavilion Chiefs and Pavilion Fathers bustling about to serve them, Heifu recalled his early days at Huyang Pavilion.

By the eighteenth day of the first month, the travel-worn group finally approached the central region of Nan Commandery.

Pedestrians on the road gradually increased: merchants traveling north and south, garrison soldiers serving their corvée labor, disheveled convict laborers, minor clerks walking hurriedly — an endless stream. Sometimes they even had to step aside to the left of the road to let others pass.

This area was also beside Yunmeng and the Great River. By mid-first month, the weather had already warmed. The rice paddies along the road stretched endlessly; in the distance, village hamlets stood tall; nearby, hundreds and thousands of farmers and bondservants were scattered across the fields, driving oxen to plow.

Field Supervisors and Assistant Field Clerks in black uniforms stood on the ridges. They glanced over at Heifu's group but merely looked casually before turning their heads back to continue urging everyone to work the fields diligently.

"As expected of the commandery seat."

Yue clicked his tongue. "When Officer of the Realm walks through Anlu County wearing a double-board cap, he inevitably draws constant gazes, and people turning back to salute him are endless. But here, not even at the commandery city yet, the minor clerks by the fields seem so accustomed to it — they just glanced once and looked no more."

"What does my rank of Officer of the Realm count for in the commandery?"

Heifu laughed involuntarily. He had long heard that in the commandery city, Eighth Grade officers were as common as dogs, and Fifth Grade officers filled the streets. Only an official of Ninth Grade rank was worth anyone's attention.

At that moment, a city appeared before them.

A wide, deep moat encircled the city, its waves shimmering in the twilight. Crossing the moat, they faced a majestic city gate, above which were two large characters.

"Ying County."

Heifu let out a breath. He had reached his destination.

"Officer of the Realm, we must part ways here."

Reluctantly, Yue got off Heifu's carriage and clasped his hands in farewell. They still had to go around this city and travel five or six li south to reach the true commandery seat: Jiangling.

It turned out that after Qin took control of the Jiang-Han region, it had split the former Chu capital of Ying into two. The former Chu royal palace area of Jinan City to the north became Ying County, while the residential and market district to the south was called Jiangling County. The Commandery Governor and Commandery Deputy were stationed in Jiangling, whereas the Commandant of Nan Commandery was stationed in Ying County, which had higher walls and was easier to defend but harder to attack.

The Commandant's headquarters was generally not in the primary county but had its own separate garrison location — this was also the norm in Qin.

Heifu watched from the fork in the road as Yue and the others escorted the prisoners into the distance. Then, after taking a deep breath, he told the driver to head toward the gate of Ying County.

Unlike Jiangling, which was bustling and crowded with merchants, Ying County had more of the character of a key military stronghold.

Banners fluttered atop the five-zhang-high city walls, where commandery soldiers patrolled. Over a dozen gate guards, holding spears and wearing armor, stood in two lines on either side of the city gate.

Heifu presented his identity card, travel permit, and the appointment notice Li You had sent him. The gate guard scrutinized every character, repeatedly looking up to observe Heifu's face. Only after checking and finding no issues did he allow him into the city.

"Qin is far too strict, and the conscription came so urgently — I didn't even have time to change my name with the household clerk at the county seat. If the records don't match up during inspection, it'll be real trouble."

Heifu was silently cursing his luck, still not recovered from the gloom beneath the city gate, when suddenly someone ran into the middle of the road ahead and stopped his carriage!

"Hold up!"

PS: I have something on this evening, so the update won't be until 11 PM or even later.

(End of chapter)