Chapter 217: Perceptive to the Finest Detail

Ye Teng still remembered how, over ten years ago, when he was promoted to Governor of Nanyang Commandery in Han, he had felt the immense weight of his responsibility and traveled to Xinzheng to visit Han Fei.

"Dare I ask, young master, how does one detect treachery?"

Considering the many powerful magnates in places like Luyang and Ye County, and how minor officials also liked to deceive their superiors, Ye Teng had at that time left his seat and humbly sought instruction.

Han Fei was a renowned Legalist scholar of the realm, yet he was a stutterer. He struggled for a long while before finally forcing out a single sentence.

"To detect treachery, one uses... the seven... techniques."

With that, Han Fei pushed the seven scrolls of bamboo slips piled high on his desk toward Ye Teng. In stark contrast to Han Fei's halting speech, the slips were covered in elegant Han script. The seven scrolls of "Inner Congeries of Sayings: The Upper Series," in a sweeping torrent of nearly seven thousand words, exhaustively laid out the seven techniques and six subtleties for detecting treachery...

Those bamboo slips were a gift more precious than gold or fine jade, a famous work that even the King of Qin would slam his table in praise of upon reading. Ye Teng could not bear to put them down and spent several days carefully reading them three times. After setting down the scrolls, he sighed deeply. Young Master Han Fei was clearly a few years younger than himself, yet between the lines, it was as if he had read all of history and seen through to the very essence of the human heart.

The more he read, the more alarmed he became; the more he read, the more his heart chilled. Was there truly only profit to speak of between people? Was the relationship between lord and minister an eternal game, utterly incapable of open-hearted sincerity, of a true meeting of minds?

A great portion of those scrolls discussed how a ruler could see through the inner thoughts of his ministers, with methods such as the technique of observation and listening, the technique of hearing individually, the technique of holding wisdom, the technique of reversed words, and the technique of reverse investigation.

But Han Fei also wrote in his book that to flexibly apply these seven techniques, in the final analysis, the ruler must still possess one ability: to be perceptive to the finest detail.

"A ruler must be like Li Zhu, able to see beyond a hundred paces and discern the tip of an autumn hair!"

One who understands the strategies of governance will certainly have foresight and be perceptive to the finest detail, for without clear perception, one cannot see through hidden matters.

Ironically, the greatest use of these scrolls Han Fei gifted him was for Ye Teng to apply the knowledge flexibly, becoming a "treacherous minister who usurps the lord" that a ruler could not easily detect. He smoothly deceived the King of Han. Until the eve of his surrender to Qin, King An of Han still believed that Ye Teng was a loyal minister of Han, ready to die for his country...

After surrendering to Qin, Ye Teng was promoted to Governor of Nan Commandery and continued to use these techniques to manage his subordinates, rooting out and dealing with those treacherous officials who looked down on him as a surrendered minister of Han and deliberately tried to deceive him.

Today was no exception.

The young man before him, of humble origin and dark complexion, who had suddenly soared upward within two years—with Ye Teng's twenty years of experience navigating the political arena, he could see at a glance that this man was hiding many things in his heart.

If one simply looked at the native places of Hei Fu, Yue, and Zhong side by side, and learned that the astonishing innovations in agriculture, crafts, and medicine over the past two years had actually come from three men of the same family, any perceptive person would find it suspicious.

"The Magistrate of Anlu County is as stupid as a dog or a swine," Ye Teng cursed inwardly. To have missed such a glaring flaw—probably he was too overjoyed by seeing one political achievement after another?

Ye Teng was no fool. At a single glance, he could tell that Hei Fu was the instigator behind these matters.

Dealing with this young man harboring a fluke mentality required no overly complicated method. Ye Teng got straight to the point and directly exposed the truth.

One must find every way to raise questions that make the other party uncomfortable, isolate them, make them feel plunged into crisis, and simultaneously observe their reaction.

This was one of the great pleasures of being in a position of power.

When a person is in a state of crisis, their naked self is revealed; the rationality that masks their exterior is lost, and they unconsciously blurt out their true thoughts...

This method had never failed him in ten years.

"Is it coincidence? Or is there another reason? Hei Fu, today you had best speak the truth!"

A high official of the two-thousand-bushel rank, whose word alone decides life and death, plunder and reward for the entire commandery—though Ye Teng appeared thin as a blade, in that instant, he was imposing without any show of anger.

Just as beads of sweat were faintly forming on Hei Fu's forehead, unexpectedly, a faint, elusive sound of a qin drifted in from outside, breaking the tense atmosphere.

The qin playing was not very skilled, like a beginner trying to play under someone's guidance, somewhat stiff and occasionally going off-key.

Ye Teng furrowed his brows, but then his anger subsided, and a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He was no longer in a hurry to hear the answer. He closed his eyes and listened to the qin in silence...

To Hei Fu's ears, the faint, off-key qin music was like heavenly music! For this music had saved him.

Faced with Ye Teng's sudden, assault-like questioning, he had not even had time to think. Unexpectedly, after the qin music began, Ye Teng's imposing manner weakened somewhat, and his pressing questions became less intense.

Hei Fu immediately seized this moment, racing against time, desperately thinking in his mind how he should answer!

He had never imagined that his behavior, which he had once prided himself on as clever—exploiting loopholes in Qin law to bring his relatives along to wealth and honor—would become the biggest flaw now. Indeed, the names of three men from one family, reaching the Governor's ears in a short time through three different matters—no wonder he was suspicious.

What should he do now? Who was Ye Teng? He was not someone who could be brushed off with the usual mantra of "taught by my father."

Then he recalled that before entering the residence, Xi had said that Ye Teng had already asked him about Hei Fu's situation, and Hei Fu shuddered even more.

It was likely that Ye Teng already knew his background like the back of his hand. In this situation, deception and evasion were the worst possible choices.

Relying on being Li You's trusted man and refusing to admit anything to the death?

That would also be useless. Did he not see how Ye Teng spoke of Li You as if speaking of a child next door? Matters that should have been discussed between the Governor and the Commandant, he decided on his own, only sending a letter to inform Li You afterward. Yet Li You did not dare utter a single complaint...

Thanks to the idle chat with those two minor officials on the way here, Hei Fu had at least gained some understanding of what kind of man Ye Teng was: a domineering and autocratic Governor, a harsh official who had executed four hundred criminals in a single day, and also an upright official perceptive to the finest detail.

He had to think of a response that suited his temperament, rather than blindly courting death.

Hei Fu thought to himself, "If he wanted to embarrass Li You and investigate my crime of injustice, why not just try me in open court? Yet he specially summoned me to his private residence, dismissed the attendants for a secret talk—doesn't this mean..."

"Ye Teng doesn't want to push things to the extreme either?"

That was right. Not every Qin official was as stern and impartial as Xi.

As the life-saving qin music slowly faded away, Hei Fu also figured it out: telling the truth as it was, was the best choice right now.

Of course, it had to be the "truth" that Ye Teng wanted to hear.

"This subordinate official is guilty!"

Like a student caught by a teacher for helping classmates copy homework, Hei Fu prostrated himself in fear and trepidation, confessing his guilt.

Ye Teng slowly opened his eyes. "Guilty of what?"

"The crime of injustice. All the aforementioned things were indeed thought up by Hei Fu, then discussed with my elder brother and brother-in-law, and then carried out by them!"

Then, Hei Fu explained the origins of these inventions. He said that, pitying his mother and sister-in-law's toil in pounding grain, he had a sudden inspiration while looking at the well-sweep used to draw water at home, and so he asked his brother-in-law to build the treadle trip-hammer.

Later, seeing the copper officials at Mount Ji lacking labor and the slow pace of ore crushing, and fearing it would affect the efficiency of copper smelting and the speed at which the arsenal replenished weapons, he then gazed at the streams and rivers and got the idea to modify the treadle trip-hammer into a water-powered trip-hammer...

As for composting and retting fertilizer, Hei Fu simply said that he was originally the son of a farming household and had spent his days dealing with dung, soil, and urine before reaching adulthood, and had discovered it by chance one time.

As for the wound-dressing technique, he shifted the blame onto that "strange encounter" in his youth, saying that after scraping his leg, he met an old man with crane-white hair and a youthful face who helped and taught him. This was exactly how Hei Fu had boasted to Chen Wujiu back then.

Finally, Hei Fu said sincerely, "Although Hei Fu concealed some facts, if it were only Hei Fu's idle fancies, I could not, like my brother-in-law, easily construct complex devices, nor could I, like my elder brother, not shun filth and grime, never slackening a single day through spring, summer, autumn, and winter, wholeheartedly tending the farmland and proving that composting and retting fertilizer can indeed increase the yield of millet and rice!"

"One who stands by a stream envying the fish cannot obtain them; the one who steps back and weaves a net is the one who brings the fish up! Compared to me, my brother-in-law and elder brother deserve more to be rewarded and granted ranks! Therefore, Hei Fu is guilty, but my brother-in-law and elder brother are not!"

Hei Fu took all these matters upon himself in one breath. He was also thinking that if Ye Teng would not let it go and continued to press, he would say that at the age of seventeen, after a serious illness, he suddenly had an awakening, and from then on, he saw through everything clearly!

What, is it a crime to be smart?

Unexpectedly, Ye Teng nodded and said, "That you can speak the truth is enough."

Hei Fu, tensely preparing to answer the next question, felt as if he had suddenly grasped at empty air...

"I am already aware of this matter. Though you did have the fact of being untruthful, you lacked the intent to deliberately deceive. While the laws and ordinances do not permit officials to neglect their proper duties, merely thinking about it and offering a suggestion is no fault. From now on, there is no need to hide this matter — you may let everyone know. Otherwise…"

Ye Teng looked at him and said gravely, "Even if it is an undertaking that benefits the state and the people, in the eyes of the Great King, you still cannot escape the impression of being 'untruthful'! Timber fit for catalpa-wood vessels will then become a great yet useless oak tree!"

This was the reason Ye Teng insisted on getting to the bottom of it today.

Ye Teng cupped his hands toward the north. "The method of composting and retting fertilizer, and the water-powered trip-hammer — all must be sent to Xianyang for the Great King to review. Their efficacy is enough to shake the court and the commonwealth, and become an aid in the campaign against Chu. But imagine this: when the names of you three brothers are presented together before the King, even I can spot something suspicious — how much more so the Great King?"

Ye Teng knew it better than anyone: King Zheng of Qin was also a devoted practitioner of Han Fei's doctrines. In the application of law, method, and political leverage, no emperor past or present could surpass him. Ye Teng would never dare deceive the King of Qin the way he had hoodwinked the King of Han. A treacherous defector-general in Han, once in Qin, could only become a loyal minister who fulfilled his duties to the utmost.

The fiercest and most cunning wolf, once it reaches the King of Qin's feet, becomes a tail-wagging dog.

If one were unwilling, the only alternative was to rebel like Lord Changping. But in Ye Teng's view, that was a dead end. The greater momentum was already set — Lord Changping was nothing more than dry bones in the great burial mound that was Chu…

What the Great King detested most in his life was betrayal; what he was most sensitive to was deception! Lü Buwei, Lao Ai, Fan Yuqi, Lord Chang'an — consider the fates of those who betrayed and deceived the Great King.

A king who must inspect over a hundred jin of bamboo slips each day will not overlook a single detail.

Therefore, if one did not prepare an explanation in advance, trouble was certain. It was hard to say whether even he, the Governor of Nan Commandery, might also bear the charge of failing to investigate.

This was also why Ye Teng had held back the "method of composting and retting fertilizer" submitted by Anlu and had not dared to immediately forward it to Xianyang. He had to get to the bottom of this before he could decide the next step.

If Heifu had just now spouted a load of nonsense — ha, though it would not have led to sudden punishment or execution, this man's official career would have been more or less finished for life…

As it was, he had spoken the honest truth, and was still worth helping.

Hearing the Commandery Governor mention the King of Qin, Heifu also put on a look of sudden realization. "This humble officer thanks the Commandery Governor for the grace of saving my life!"

"You understand now?" Ye Teng revealed a smile.

With the matter laid out to this extent, how could he not understand? Heifu could only say, "This humble officer engraves it upon my heart! I shall never dare forget it in this life!"

"Then take your leave. The medical and emergency rescue soldiers you are to train — you must handle this task well!"

In just a few sentences, he had made the promising Heifu owe him a "life-saving grace." Ye Teng was quite satisfied. Though the man was a minor figure now, who knew when that debt might prove useful someday?

His objective achieved, he clapped his hands and had the subordinate clerk outside come in to see the guest off. Before parting, he did not forget to add a few more words of instruction.

"You are young, and your name has already reached the ears of the Great King. The road ahead is still long — do not let petty gains and trivial matters ruin your future prospects! Back then, Master Han Fei gave me a parting line; today I pass it on to you…"

Ye Teng said solemnly, "For a minister who commits a great crime, his act is to deceive his lord, and his crime warrants death!"

(End of Chapter)