Chapter 21: A Million Qin Soldiers Are Forged Here

That day, just past dawn, a fierce drumbeat erupted from the southern gate training ground…

Heifu opened his eyes at once. He had slept poorly the night before. To describe this room with a line of poetry: "By the bed the roof leaks, not a dry spot to be found; the rain drips like unbroken hemp threads!" Besides that, the cramped space reeked of mildew, not to mention the stench of foot sweat…

That had been their plight last night. Only after the rain stopped in the latter half of the night could they barely fall asleep, so at this moment everyone was still deep in slumber.

Heifu glanced at the hazy light outside the window, got up and dressed, then began waking the others in the room one by one, starting with Ji Ying and Dongmen Bao.

"Up! Gentlemen, up with you!"

Dongmen Bao apparently hated being called. He sat bolt upright, glared fiercely at Heifu, and nearly swung a punch before remembering who he was. He switched to rubbing his hair and rose from the bed.

Ji Ying ground his teeth and rolled over. Only when Heifu yanked off his bedding did he cry out about the cold and get up.

The rest were much the same. Uncle Chao and the brothers Zhi and Mu were already searching for their shoes. The two brothers Ke and Buke also struggled to their feet. What surprised Heifu was that the silent, taciturn Xiao Tao had flipped up in one roll before he even called him — apparently he too had woken early.

The hardest to rouse was still the one called Ping. No amount of shoving and prodding could stop his mumbling refusal to rise, until Dongmen Bao, losing patience, jumped over, grabbed him by the collar, and bellowed curses. Only then did Ping wake, bleary-eyed.

Once everyone stepped outside, they discovered that despite last night's light rain, today was still a bright, sunny day.

"Once the afternoon hits, we'll be in for it," Uncle Chao sighed. Unlike working their own fields, conscripts on labor duty much preferred overcast days.

When they arrived at the training ground, Heifu realized that their squad was actually the first to arrive, and with everyone present. The other squads trickled in sporadically, yawning and listless. Still, in the end no one dared slack off and stay away — everyone knew what the price for that would be…

By the time the sun had fully risen, across the vast training ground, ten rooms in all, over a hundred men had assembled.

But this so-called "assembly" was really just a crowd standing in a clump, utterly devoid of order. The conscripts were all from the same county, some even from the same village or ward, connected by ties of kinship. Of course they greeted each other when they met, strolled over to exchange a few words, asked after each other's families, chatted about this year's harvest, heard that so-and-so had another chubby baby boy…

Heifu took in the whole scene. He had assumed that many of these men had served as conscripts before and received training in previous years, so there would at least be some order. Reality, however, made his jaw drop.

Uncle Chao was shaking his head too, clearly displeased by the young men's performance. He said to Heifu, "Those with rank, the veterans — most were conscripted by the commandery governor two days ago to garrison the border. That's why the ones who came are mostly new recruits and common soldiers."

"So that's it." Heifu understood. This was probably what the two traveling merchants in the eating house yesterday had talked about: because the King of Qin was attacking Yan, attacking in the north and defending in the south, the Qin–Chu border needed to be guarded. So those left behind were mostly new recruits around twenty years old, their military quality generally low.

In short, though no one was shouting, the buzz of whispered chatter was incessant. Discipline was utterly lax, the training ground a tangled mess.

What finally silenced the crowd was a piercing clang of metal…

"Dong!" The bronze mallet struck the bell with a great boom. Everyone stopped talking and turned toward the small earthen platform at the front of the training ground. There, bells and drums were already in place. County soldiers, holding halberds and spears, jogged out and formed a line, heads high and chests out. Though to Heifu's eyes their formation was hardly neat, they were far better than the sloppy conscripts.

At that moment, two Hundred-Leader Commanders in painted armor also mounted the earthen platform. Heifu stood on tiptoe and saw that the Hundred-Leader Commander Bin, who had given them trouble yesterday, stood on the right, while Hundred-Leader Commander Chen stood on the left. Throughout the entire process, the two exchanged not a single word, carrying out their duties with icy formality — a clear sign of how poor their relationship was.

Hundred-Leader Commander Chen was in charge of training the conscripts. Seeing that the hour was about right, he stepped forward, cleared his throat lightly, and began to speak…

"The autumn harvest is now complete; Anlu has enjoyed a great bounty. By order of the county magistrate and the county commandant, we have summoned you gentlemen to assemble here as conscripts — half a month of military drill, half a month of labor service…"

"Why drill? The ancients said: 'Men often perish where they lack ability, and are defeated where they lack practice. To send an untrained people to war — that is to cast them away.'"

This Hundred-Leader Commander Chen, as expected of someone who had studied and graduated from the academy, spoke in a refined, bookish manner, occasionally tossing out an "the ancients said." But Hundred-Leader Commander Bin stood to the side with a face full of scorn, and the common soldiers and conscripts on the training ground looked utterly baffled. After all, words spoken by ancients two or three hundred years ago were beyond the understanding of these country bumpkins.

Dongmen Bao and the others were equally clueless. Heifu had to quietly explain that Hundred-Leader Commander Chen was telling them why the conscripts needed training: if they were driven onto the battlefield without proper drill, it would surely lead to a crushing defeat where "the army is destroyed and the general slain" — it would be sending them to their deaths.

"It means 'sweat more in peacetime, bleed less in war'… Do you understand now?" Heifu whispered to Dongmen Bao and Ji Ying.

"So that's it!" The two suddenly saw the light. Dongmen Bao cursed under his breath, "Such a simple thing, why make it so complicated? Heifu, you might as well go up there instead!" His respect for Heifu had now grown another layer.

"A mere Gongshi like me — what qualifications do I have?" Heifu smiled, but inwardly a thought occurred to him.

He had heard that in the Spring and Autumn period, the nobility would use the four seasons' hunts to train the people of their domains. That was probably the origin of routine military training.

After centuries of development, in the Qin state of today, this had become a system guaranteed by law. Consider: every month in Anlu County, over a hundred conscripts were trained; in spring, summer, and autumn, the number could reach two or three hundred. Over a year, that was two thousand. Across the entire Nan Commandery's eighteen counties, that was nearly forty thousand men. Qin had over twenty commanderies — that meant close to a million men…

Doing the math, Heifu could not help but draw a sharp breath. Now he finally understood how Qin had managed to crush the four hundred fifty thousand Zhao troops at Changping, and how it could mobilize armies of two hundred thousand or six hundred thousand to destroy Chu.

A tree that fills a man's arms grows from a tiny shoot; a nine-story terrace rises from piled earth.

The ever-victorious million-strong Qin army was built from ant-like, insignificant conscripts and common soldiers like him!

At this point, Hundred-Leader Commander Chen's address was drawing to a close. He said that although the conscripts were not yet formal soldiers, they were still subject to military discipline! Those who shirked, loafed, or disobeyed orders would face the harshest punishment! He then announced the specific content of the first half-month's "military drill."

"Master Wu said: 'To sit and then rise, to march and then halt, to go left and then right, to advance and then retreat, to divide and then unite, to form up and then disperse — only when every change has been practiced are they given their weapons.' This is what the conscripts must train. As for martial skills and weaponry, you shall study those in the army when you serve as regular soldiers or garrison troops!"

At these words, Heifu immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Aside from some skill with a short sword or dagger, he truly knew nothing about the weapons of this era, let alone the bow and arrow.

On the other hand, those drills — walking, standing, sitting, turning left and right, advancing and retreating — were things still emphasized in modern armies over two thousand years later. China, in particular, took endless delight in them and had turned them into an art form. Any high school or college student who had gone through military training understood, let alone a police academy graduate like him.

Finally, Hundred-Leader Commander Chen came to the key point of the day: "In the art of employing troops, instruction and discipline come first. One man learns to fight and teaches ten; ten men learn to fight and teach a hundred. It is my duty as Hundred-Leader Commander to instruct you hundred men! The hundred are divided into ten squads. Though a squad or a file is small, it cannot be without a head. Today we shall select squad leaders and file leaders!"

He glanced at the conscripts standing in a disorderly clump, furrowed his brow, and ordered the county soldiers: "Have everyone separate and stand according to their room groups!"

The county soldiers came over, shouting and directing, and marked out ten areas on the training ground, arranging everyone to stand separately by the rooms they lodged in. What seemed a simple task took a full quarter-hour. The ten squads were finally separated and, in order from right to left, assigned the designations Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui.

Their squad was "Gui Squad."

"Those with rank, and those willing to serve as squad leader or file leader — step forward!"

Hearing this, Heifu nodded at Dongmen Bao, and the two stepped forward together. Only, Heifu took two steps forward, while Dongmen Bao halted one step behind him.

The two Hundred-Leader Commanders descended the earthen platform and inspected each squad in order. A civilian clerk followed behind them, tallying the number of men in each squad and recording the names of the squad leaders and file leaders.

When they reached Gui Squad, Hundred-Leader Commander Chen spotted Heifu at once and smiled. "Gui Squad has only two men with rank?"

Facing his "savior," Heifu replied respectfully, "I venture to inform the Hundred-Leader Commander: only Heifu and Bao are Gongshi. The other eight are all common soldiers."

"Between you two, who shall be squad leader, and who file leader?"

Dongmen Bao answered on his own initiative, "Heifu is squad leader; this humble man is file leader."

"Good, very good." Hundred-Leader Commander Chen was quite pleased and was about to have the clerk beside him record it.

But at that very moment, Hundred-Leader Commander Bin's scornful voice rang out from the side.

"This Heifu is a conscript serving for the first time — at best he has the brute courage of a common man. And he can be squad leader!?"

(End of chapter)