Chapter 236: Chanling

It is said that when King Wu attacked the Shang, eight hundred lords gathered in alliance at Mengjin, and among them was the Ba state. Many Ba warriors traveled a thousand li to join King Wu of Zhou's ranks, setting out with him from the banks of the Wei River and journeying all the way to the great city of Shang in the Central Plains. At the Battle of Muye, they sang and danced, rendering great service to King Wu in his campaign against Zhou…

Now, Heifu had the good fortune to reenact that very scene. After the incident at Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, the Ba people submitted to Heifu's demands and followed him away from Yidao, marching southeast.

However, when Heifu and Yiling County Commandant Ling Kui, leading over a thousand soldiers and three thousand able-bodied Ba youths, crossed two hundred li and arrived at Chanling City, they discovered they had made the trip for nothing.

The Chu army, rumored to have gathered nearly ten thousand men here, had long since vanished without a trace, leaving behind only an empty camp. Crows and magpies circled and swooped above it. Some Qin soldiers were still inside collecting the remaining military supplies, carrying off huge sacks of grain and discarded weapons, chatting and laughing as they walked into the city.

When they saw the crowd of barefoot Ba people clamoring noisily as they approached, the Qin troops grew extremely tense, mistaking them for enemy forces. Two thousand men immediately deployed into battle formation outside the city walls. Only when Heifu personally rode forward and declared his identity did their hostility dissolve.

As Heifu passed by the city wall, he noticed that bodies were still being collected here. The air was thick with the stench of carrion crows that feed exclusively on rotting flesh. In the moat and defensive ditch, many floating corpses still drifted. Chanling's yellow-earth ramparts were battered and broken, still bearing traces of fire, and the city gate was bristling with arrows. One could well imagine that, at the same moment as the battle at Yidao, fierce fighting had also erupted here.

Only after he met Commandery Commandant Li You and a host of familiar military clerks and county commandants inside the city did he learn what had transpired here.

As it turned out, as soon as Commandery Governor Ye Teng learned that the Chu army's main thrust was aimed at Chanling, he immediately boarded a boat and returned to Jiangling, mobilizing the local commandery troops to cross the river in support — after all, Chanling's importance far exceeded that of a mere place like Yidao. This force, personally commanded by Commandery Commandant Li You, numbered four to five thousand men, with follow-up reinforcements streaming in continuously from the counties along the great river.

Faced with the Qin army's rapid reinforcement, and with no breakthrough achieved on the Yidao side either, the Chu army's commander decisively chose to retreat. The Qin forces, insufficient in number, did not pursue deeply, and thus this early-summer offensive came to a hasty end.

"What a pity!"

Heifu secretly lamented in his heart. Had the Chu commander harbored any wishful thinking, he might now be facing a pincer attack from the Qin army and the Ba people, and the dead would number far more than a few hundred.

But aloud, he flattered Li You, saying, "Thankfully the Commandery Commandant arrived in time, preventing the Chu men from succeeding. Otherwise, had Chanling been lost, Yidao could not have been held either. This summer and autumn, Southern Commandery's war preparations would have been severely disrupted, and it might have been difficult to send troops to Huaibei to participate in the destruction of Chu!"

Li You, however, shook his head helplessly and said, "Not so. Although Chanling was not taken in this battle, the Chu men's objective has already been achieved."

"This subordinate would like to hear a detailed explanation."

Heifu put on a puzzled expression, eager to receive Li You's instruction.

Li You addressed everyone: "Any clear-eyed person can see that the Great King is bent on destroying Chu — how could the Chu men not know? The reason they sent envoys to incite the Yidao Ba people to rebel, and then dispatched an army to attack Chanling, was simply to put pressure on Southern Commandery, to prevent Southern Commandery from concentrating its efforts on preparing for the great war. The Chu army's main force south of the river is still intact. When the time comes, if Southern Commandery sends all its commandery troops to Huaibei, Chanling, Yidao, and even Jiangling may all be raided by the Chu army again."

Heifu understood that although the decisive great battle was still far off, the jostling between Qin and Chu on the margins had already begun. The King of Chu and Xiang Yan would not sit idly by awaiting death; they would try to find Qin's weak points. With no weak points at Shangcai or Liang-Song, they would start from the marginal corner of Southern Commandery…

The Chu men's plan could be said to have half succeeded. Southern Commandery, separated from Chu by the great river and with borders interlocking like dog's teeth, had to consider its own safety first. So Li You altered his original plan. He decided that when troops were dispatched after autumn, he would keep twenty thousand men in Southern Commandery to guard against Chu, and take only ten thousand to Huaibei to rendezvous with the main army.

This meant that the commandery troops of Jiangling and Ying County, as well as the soldiers from the counties along the great river, would not be deployed to fight abroad.

"In that case, staying in the commandery or along the great river will very likely end up as a leisurely garrison posting."

Heifu secretly committed Li You's plan to memory. Afterwards, when Li You inquired about the situation at Yidao, he led Li You up onto the battered and broken battlements, and pointed toward the three thousand Yidao Ba people several li away, who were being warily encircled by Qin troops.

Gazing at the Ba people sitting back-to-back in clusters, Li You was somewhat astonished. "I was just about to relieve the crisis at Chanling and then send men to rush to Yidao's aid. Who would have thought you would pacify the rebellion first, and even win back the local Ba tribes, driving them to fight for Qin? How did you accomplish this?"

Heifu then recounted in full everything that had happened in Yidao over the past half month. When Li You heard how they had persuaded the Yidao tribes to kill the ringleader Fan Qin at Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, he could not help but clap his hands in praise. "Well done! The crux of the Ba rebellion lay in their chieftains. Once Fan Qin was dead, they naturally collapsed."

Li You greatly admired Heifu's ability and methods, but Heifu said he had merely come up with the idea, and that the credit for persuasion mainly belonged to Ba Zhong, the son of the Widow Qing…

"Furthermore, there is another reason this subordinate lured the Ba tribes to follow me here, aside from wishing to assist the Commandery Commandant in lifting the siege!"

Heifu cupped his hands toward Li You and said in a cold, grim tone, "Commandery Commandant, the Ba people rebelled and killed the Yidao County Magistrate and County Commandant. Although the blame has all been placed on Fan Qin and his followers, among these people, there are not a few whose hands are stained with Qin blood. Now, constrained by circumstances and persuaded by Ba Zhong, they have submitted once more. But who knows when some trifling matter might set them rebelling again? If we let them be unchecked, I fear it will be hard to make them sincerely submit."

"You mean…"

Li You's heart could not help but jolt. He lowered his voice. "To bury all their able-bodied men alive?!"

Heifu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Where had Commandery Commandant Li's thoughts wandered off to?

This sort of method was not unfamiliar to Qin's generals. Over thirty years ago, after the Battle of Changping, under the multiple pressures of grain supplies and military merit, Bai Qi had used the pretext that "the Zhao soldiers are fickle; if they are not all killed, they may cause unrest" to slaughter every last Zhao soldier who had surrendered!

All the able-bodied men of the Yidao Ba people were right here, while the Qin troops numbered at least five or six thousand, holding absolute superiority in numbers and equipment. If they truly suddenly rose up and massacred them all, with forethought against the unsuspecting, it would not be too difficult.

This was a method to exterminate an entire people. It appeared very tempting. If actually carried out, although it could ensure the Yidao Ba people would never recover, the future troubles would also be considerable.

First, Heifu's reputation would be utterly ruined. He had solemnly sworn to bring the Ba people to Chanling, only to treacherously slaughter them all. From then on, every Ba person would hate him enough to eat his flesh raw.

Second, the Yidao Ba people would be dealt a heavy blow, but what of the hundreds of thousands of Ba people in Ba Commandery, Southern Commandery, and Qianzhong Commandery? Could they be exterminated one by one with this method? Obviously impossible, and it would also run counter to Qin's policy of conciliation. Once word of this spread, all the Ba people on the Qin-Chu border would likely surrender to Chu.

So Heifu smiled and said, "This subordinate did not mean that. I merely believe that to win over the Ba people, unadulterated conciliation and favor are not viable; they must also be periodically hammered into line. It is a pity the Chu men withdrew so swiftly, preventing the Ba people from witnessing them being routed. But now that a great army is massed here, why not seize this opportunity to have all the officers lead their soldiers in martial exercises outside the city, displaying Qin's might to the Ba people, letting these ignorant frontier barbarians know the awe-inspiring power of the Qin army! Then we can press the chieftains to hand over the murderers who took part in killing Qin officials and soldiers, bring them to justice, and vindicate the aggrieved souls who perished at Yidao!"

PS: Chapter 3 at 1 o'clock

(End of chapter)