Chapter 229: Xia Child

Although the Commandery Governor had ordered Heifu and his men to "set out overnight," in this day and age, no one dared sail the Yangtze River at night. One careless moment striking a reef or running aground on a sandbar meant shipwreck and death. Even old boatmen who had made their living on this waterway for decades would not risk it.

So it was not until the early morning hours, when the sky finally showed a faint glimmer of light, that Heifu led a few soldiers aboard Ba Zhong's large boat. He stood at the stern, listening to the oars striking the water and the work chants shouted by the Ba people, watching the scattered lights of Yiling Dock shrink gradually into the distance.

He had finally broken free from Commandery Governor Ye's rather uncomfortable manipulation and begun to act independently. Heifu did not like the feeling of being bridled by someone else.

"The tiger tally is in my hand — another opportunity."

Heifu clutched that silver-gilt tiger tally, bestowed by the Commandery Governor. Although the State of Qin placed troops under the Commandery Commandant, in reality, the Commandery Governor also held military authority — or rather, in the beginning, the Commandery Governor had been the chief military officer.

A distant example was Zhang Ruo, Governor of Shu during the reigns of Kings Huiwen and Zhaoxiang of Qin. He not only governed the people in Shu but also led troops eastward by royal decree to attack Chu, seizing Zhi County, the home of the Widow Qing of Ba and Ba Zhong. A recent example was Ye Teng himself, who had once been Governor of Nanyang Commandery and led troops to destroy Han.

Thus, in Qin, the absurd situation could never arise where the commandery's top official, the Governor, touring the counties to exterminate some mountain bandits, powerful households, or barbarians, would need to request instructions from the second-in-command, the Commandant.

Heifu could only mourn silently for Li You. With a Commandery Governor as overbearing as Ye Teng, Li You's life as Commandant was far from comfortable. Fortunately, Li You's purpose was to train the Southern Commandery troops for the campaign against Chu, so in minor day-to-day matters, he tried his best to avoid conflict with the Governor...

This was actually a good situation. By the time of the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, the Grand Administrator was routinely called the "Commandery General," and the Commandery Commandant the "Deputy General." The Governor had already seized all military authority, leaving the Commandant with nothing to do. That is why, in the Three Kingdoms era, the various lords who rose against Dong Zhuo were mostly regional Commandery Governors.

In Qin, mobilizing troops without a tiger tally constituted the crime of "impeding military mobilization," usually punishable by death, and in severe cases, one's wife and children would be enslaved. But Heifu now had the tally in hand — entirely legal and legitimate.

"An ordinary bamboo tally can only mobilize fifty men. This silver-gilt bronze tiger tally is of very high specification; paired with the written orders from the Governor, it allows me to command all the troops of Yi Circuit!"

The journey to Yi Circuit was over eighty li by water. Setting out at sunrise, they would likely arrive around noon!

"Where the county governs barbarians, it is called a circuit." A so-called circuit was essentially Qin's "ethnic minority autonomous region," equal in rank to a county, governing remote areas where tribes lived together. Its chief official was not called a County Magistrate but a County Chief.

Not only Yi Circuit, but the Ba and Shu regions, where Qin people and Rong tribes lived intermingled, also had many "circuits." The characteristic of a circuit was that the barbarian tribes were not registered into the household system, and they were granted certain reductions in taxes and corvée labor.

For example, in the various circuits of Ba Commandery, Qin regulations stipulated that a Ba tribal chieftain paid an annual rent of two thousand and sixteen cash, and a poll tax of one thousand eight hundred cash every three years. Their commoner households paid an annual tribute of eight zhang and two chi of coarse Dong cloth, along with thirty baskets of chicken feathers, which were used to make arrows...

Compared to the registered Qin households, who had to pay nearly half their harvest in rent and taxes, this was considerably lighter.

Heifu thought to himself, "To the registered Qin people, this seems unfair, but it was a conciliatory and co-opting strategy Qin had no choice but to implement in order to smoothly rule these regions. Besides, if they ignored local conditions and still collected the exact same grain and copper cash as rent and taxes as in the interior, wouldn't that be forcing the Ba people, more than half of whom still lived by fishing, hunting, and gathering, to revolt?"

Rites and laws are established according to the times; decrees and ordinances each follow what is appropriate. This was the wisdom of the Legalist school. However, people in this world view all things with the mindset of not worrying about scarcity but about inequality.

At that moment, Ba Zhong also made his way to the swaying stern. He had already put on a bamboo hat to shield himself from the splashing waves and shouted to Heifu in the wind, "Left Military Clerk, the wind at the stern is strong — why not go into the cabin!"

Heifu followed Ba Zhong into the cabin. The space inside was cramped, and he noticed that besides Ba Zhong, there was also a Ba warrior with a tiger tattoo on his arm, his head shaved bald except for a single tuft of hair, sticking close to Ba Zhong's side.

On his back was a wooden shield, and his right hand rested on the willow-leaf sword at his waist as he watched Heifu warily. He was probably a bodyguard the mining boss Widow Qing had assigned to her son.

"This is Danhu."

Ba Zhong introduced him: "He is a Cong warrior. This tribe is also called the Board-Shield Barbarians, the most valiant and battle-hardened branch of the eight Ba tribes. It is said that eight hundred years ago, the Board-Shield Barbarians served as the elite Ba troops and took part in King Wu's campaign against Zhou. At the Battle of Muye, the Ba troops, fierce and sharp, served as the vanguard, singing and dancing to intimidate the Yin people, slaughtering them until their blood made shields float. Thus the world has a saying: 'King Wu attacked Zhou, with songs in the front and dances in the rear'..."

Hearing this, Heifu recalled that last year in Huyou Village in Wei, when he first visited the home of the village notable Zhang, Zhang Fu had spoken of King Wu of Zhou's "Great Wu" dance. It seemed its prototype was indeed the dance of the Ba people. On a battlefield of life-and-death combat, charging the enemy lines while singing and dancing — they truly were a unique people.

Danhu seemed to understand that his master was praising him to Heifu. He proudly patted his muscular arm, pointed at the tiger-shaped tattoo on it, and rattled off a string of Ba dialect.

"What did he say?" Heifu was curious.

"Danhu says he is a tiger-shooting warrior among the Ba people."

Heifu was surprised. "Don't the Ba people revere the tiger? I see your boat is even painted with a white tiger design."

Ba Zhong laughed. "It is true the Ba people revere the tiger, and it is also true that they take pride in shooting and killing fierce tigers. Because tigers eat people, people can only kill them. We believe this is equivalent to gaining the tiger's ferocity and strength. A tiger-shooting warrior will be esteemed by the tribe and tattoo a tiger on his body as a mark. No matter which tribe he goes to, he will be received as an honored guest."

"Furthermore, the government also offers rewards for shooting fierce tigers. It is said that during the time of the late ruler King Zhaoxiang, a white tiger ran amok in the territories of Shu, Ba, and Han, harming over a thousand people. King Zhao thus offered a reward, seeking anyone who could kill the tiger, promising a fief of ten thousand households. At the time, a Ba man from Langzhong in Ba Commandery named Liao Zhong and others shot and killed the white tiger. King Zhao, because Liao Zhong was a Ba man, was unwilling to grant him a noble title, so he ordered the Governor of Ba Commandery to carve a stone covenant with him, exempting one qing of his fields from land tax, and even if he had ten wives, they would not pay poll tax... This later became custom: whoever could shoot a man-eating fierce tiger would have their household's taxes and poll tax reduced or exempted."

Heifu praised, "So that is how it is. Truly a brave warrior!"

Ba Zhong translated this to Danhu. The Ba warrior, simple in his thinking, seemed very pleased. His gaze toward Heifu softened considerably, and he even took the small, grimy, round-bottomed pottery jar strapped to his back and, without another word, handed it to Heifu...

"What is this?" Heifu did not understand the gesture and looked questioningly at Ba Zhong.

"Danhu wishes to share the salt in this jar with the Left Military Clerk."

Ba Zhong explained that the Ba people's ancestor, Lord Lin, had once settled at Salt Water, and the various lands along the gorges where the Ba lived all abounded in well salt and rock salt. For generations, they had been inseparable from salt. The Ba people were not accustomed to using Qin's banliang coins, but instead used salt and cloth as currency.

The Ba warriors also believed that it was precisely this salt that gave them sufficient strength to hurl spears and wield their signature bronze willow-leaf swords, so they carried it with them at all times. When eating, they used salt to season fresh fish with their rice; before battle, they would nibble a small piece, hoping to receive the blessing of the Salt Water Goddess. When meeting someone they got along with, sharing salt was also a form of Ba etiquette.

"Like offering someone a cigarette when you meet them in later ages?" Heifu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Danhu had already thrust the salt jar before Heifu. Hard-pressed to refuse such hospitality, Heifu had no choice but to accept the jar, pick out a piece of salt, and, under Danhu's eager gaze, put it into his mouth. A harsh, bitter saltiness instantly flooded his mouth...

It was a taste he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Seeing Heifu eat the salt, Danhu appeared even happier and spoke another long string of the Ba language. Ba Zhong translated: "Danhu believes the Left Military Clerk is also a warrior and hopes for a chance to compete in martial arts with you."

"I'm afraid I'm no match for him." Heifu shook his head, thinking to himself, if Dongmen Bao fought this man, who would come out on top?

When Danhu finally went out of the cabin to stand guard, Heifu poured some fresh water into his mouth. Seeing Ba Zhong's amused expression, he said, "I see that you are different from the others. Not only can you speak the Xia tongue and wear Xia clothing, but you also know historical allusions. You do not seem like a Ba man, but rather like a Qin person..."

Ba Zhong replied, "My family are local chieftains. Since childhood, my mother hired a tutor to teach me speech, writing, and etiquette. I have also grown accustomed to wearing Qin clothing and styling my hair in the Qin fashion. And strictly speaking, when I called myself a barbarian yesterday, I was actually mistaken."

He pointed at himself. "On the household register, I am in fact a 'Xia Child'!"

"Xia Child?"

Heifu had also browsed the "Statutes on Dependent States" in Jiangling, which dealt with managing the barbarians in the circuits. Seeing this term, he immediately understood.

He remembered a passage of legal Q&A in those statutes: "If a true subject chieftain of a vassal state commits a crime punishable by shaving the beard, he may redeem the punishment with money."

It also asked, what is meant by "true"? Answer: A child born to parents who are barbarians of a vassal state subject to Qin is called "true."

What is meant by "Xia Child"? Answer: If the father is a Qin person and the mother is a barbarian of a vassal state, their child is called a Xia Child. If the father is a barbarian of a vassal state and the mother is a Qin person, their child is also called a Xia Child...

It could be understood this way: "true" meant ethnic minority household registration, and "Xia Child" meant Qin household registration. Interestingly, Qin regulations stipulated that only when both parents were ethnic minorities would the child born be registered as an ethnic minority. If either the father or the mother was a Qin person, the child born could not be registered as an ethnic minority, but only as a Qin household...

This system was quite thought-provoking. When the King of Qin annexed Ba, he made the five inner clans and eight outer tribes of the Ba people barbarian chieftains, granting them the rank of Bugeng, and the Ba clan of Zhi County was even enfeoffed as Grand Master, with reductions on the taxes they paid.

At the same time, Qin also migrated settlers to the Ba region, encouraging the local Ba chieftains to marry Qin women generation after generation, and Qin garrison soldiers and exiled convicts were also encouraged to marry Ba women.

This measure, combined with the regulations in the "Statutes on Dependent States" on how children of interethnic marriages were registered, was bound to produce an inevitable result: true Ba people grew fewer and fewer, while Qin-Ba mixed-blood people, who were considered Qin people, grew more and more.

Decades had passed. Zhi Circuit, originally entirely Ba with very few Qin people, after several generations of intermarriage, now had over half its population as registered Qin households, and had smoothly been changed from a circuit to a county. The Ba chieftains, under the influence of their Qin mothers and wives, were gradually being assimilated into Qin people...

The Ba Zhong before his eyes was the most typical example. Although in his heart he still considered himself a Ba man and would say "I am a barbarian" when meeting a Qin official, who knew how many more generations this insistence on identity could last.

"This idea, it is said, was thought up by Zhang Yi after he followed Sima Cuo to conquer Ba Commandery..."

There were conciliatory policies of tax reduction to make the various Ba tribes submit to Qin, and also the assimilation of the Ba upper class, silently and imperceptibly altering the population ratio of Qin to Ba people locally.

This was perhaps the reason for Qin's success in conquering Ba and Shu and permanently incorporating these two regions into the Huaxia domain.

"And speaking of which, the Widow Qing of Ba might also be a Qin woman, not a Ba person? That would be quite a discovery."

With that thought, Heifu ate his morning meal together with Ba Zhong on the gently rocking boat: fish cured with well-salt from the Ba region.

Just then, a burst of shouting came from outside.

"The Yi Road is almost in sight!"

……

Heifu and Ba Zhong came out to look and saw that the ship's large ramie sail had already been unfurled — a rigid balanced fore-and-aft sail, rigged to let the easterly wind help the vessel slow down.

The wooden boat floated on the water like a dragonfly, its oar blades rising and falling in neat unison. Gripping the railing, Heifu gazed toward the distant land.

They had already drawn close to the southern bank of the Great River and were slowly rounding a thickly wooded headland, carefully avoiding the pine-covered cliffs. Not far ahead lay the crude, makeshift dock of Yi Road.

Men on the boat were running back and forth hauling on ropes, while Heifu carefully observed the situation at the dock.

This dock, to say nothing of comparing it with Jiangling, fell far short even of Yiling — so crude that only a few fishing boats were moored there. Fishermen hawked their catch, and a few stark-naked children played along the shore to escape the heat. It all looked perfectly peaceful.

The county town of Yi Road, every bit as rough-hewn, lay two li south of the dock. Heifu could already make out its low, dirt-yellow walls.

Heifu was deeply worried, because the registered commoner households of Yi Road were concentrated in just a few hundred households within the county seat. Even if every household supplied one conscript, they could only muster five or six hundred men — yet the local Ba people numbered ten to twenty thousand...

To fight many with few — would it work?

Ba Zhong, for his part, was more interested in the river beside the town wall: "That is the Yi River. Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, where Lord Lin was born, lies just thirty li upstream..."

When Heifu disembarked, two minor clerks guarding the dock happened to come over to inspect what the large ship was carrying. If the goods were to enter the county market, they would have to be taxed according to law.

Then Heifu revealed his bronze seal and yellow cord, along with the commandery governor's letter and the tiger tally, and the minor clerks immediately prostrated themselves.

"Take me to the County Magistrate and the County Commandant at once!"

Hearing Heifu's demand, the two minor clerks exchanged glances and reported: "Neither the County Magistrate nor the County Commandant is in the county town..."

Startled, Heifu asked: "Where have they gone?"

With a baffled look, one minor clerk said: "The County Magistrate received word yesterday and set out this morning for Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, to handle a land dispute between two tribes! The County Commandant also went along with the county troops! Only the County Assistant remains behind in the town now."

"No!"

Heifu and Ba Zhong exchanged a look, both sensing grave trouble.

"We have still arrived one step too late!"

(End of Chapter)