Chapter 244: The Arrow Is Already on the String

The tenth time — Li Xian read the silk letter sent from the commandery seat ten times over. Only after he was certain he had memorized nearly every word did he toss it into the brazier to burn. He watched the silk slowly twist and warp in the flames, turning to char. Once he confirmed not a shred remained, he pushed open the door and stepped out.

He now lived in a small courtyard for minor clerks at the official residence in Anlu County, where he had his own room. After leaving, Li Xian greeted his courtyard colleagues as usual, ate a casual morning meal, then headed to the County Sheriff Office where he worked.

These past few days were the critical juncture for conscription, so the Sheriff Office was extremely busy. Quite a few Village Chiefs and township clerks waited outside, all holding bamboo slips in hand, ready to submit their village or township conscription reports. The Commandant had ordered that the conscription task must be completed by the fifth month, with units formed in the townships and villages according to household registration. Once the summer harvest finished in the sixth month, they were to assemble at the county seat for training.

Li Xian skirted around these township clerks and entered the office. He first went to a room by the entrance, and in front of a gatekeeping junior clerk, picked up a brush. On a wide wooden tablet listing the names of the twenty-eight clerks of the Sheriff Office along with the dates, he drew a circle in the column for today.

In Qin, every clerk in the commanderies and counties had their own file, and attendance days had to be recorded daily — travel and leave both had to be noted. If absences were too many, by year's end the Chief Clerk would raise charges. This was essentially the equivalent of clocking in at work in later ages.

"The Left Sheriff still hasn't come in today?"

After finishing his check-in, Li Xian asked the junior clerk casually.

"You said it."

Li Xian was now the Sheriff Clerk the Right Sheriff valued most, so the junior clerk smiled ingratiatingly and said, "He's been absent seven or eight days this month already — claims he's ill at home."

Li Xian nodded and looked toward where the two County Sheriffs worked: the main hall was Zheng Shou the Right Sheriff, the side hall was Yun Man the Left Sheriff. Originally, Zheng Shou, as an outsider official, though he held the senior post, had to consult the local power broker Yun Man on everything.

That was until half a year ago, when Heifu returned with many local sons who had earned merit. Most of these men were recruited into the sheriff system. From then on, the wheel of fortune turned — the Yun clan could no longer monopolize power. Zheng Shou began reclaiming considerable authority, and Yun Man, perhaps sensing something, had been reporting sick at home these past few days and had not come to handle affairs.

"The Left Sheriff's days are numbered," Li Xian thought, recalling what the silk letter had said.

But the Left Sheriff's residence was a high-walled compound like a fortress, with nearly a hundred servants and retainers. A direct assault would be difficult, and what was more, nearly half the county troops were Yun clan sons and kinsmen.

"The Village Chief says he'll reach Anlu tomorrow. I have only one day to prepare in advance..."

Thinking this, around the hour of Mo, Li Xian made an excuse of inspecting the county troops' training and headed toward the drill ground near the south gate.

The drill ground had a wooden palisade and a guard post. Li Xian was a familiar face here — a couple of casual questions and they let him in. Just as he reached the edge of the drill ground, he heard a burst of cheering.

At the archery targets, the onlookers were packed like a wall. The county soldiers watched, clapping and cheering as they did.

Drawing closer, he saw a Platoon Chief of no great stature standing sixty paces out. Unlike most people who aim for ages, he barely seemed to aim at all before the arrow was loosed. One arrow followed right on the heels of the last, the next arrowhead chasing the tail of the one before. The crowd heard only twang, twang, twang — three bowstring sounds — and then the distant target caller reported that all three arrows had struck the bullseye!

This rapid-fire archery was truly formidable, and hitting the mark from sixty paces out made it all the rarer. Among the new recruits in the elite archer corps, all were astonished. They looked at Platoon Chief Xiao Tao, who was usually silent and withdrawn, stammering so badly he needed others to relay his words — who would have guessed he actually had real skill.

The veterans nearby began boasting to the newcomers about Platoon Chief Xiao Tao's exploits: from Blind Mountain, where one whistling arrow cowed a hundred men; to Tongyang City, where his arrows struck down Xu Yang and quelled the rebellion; to the battlefield, where his precise shot stopped a Chu general from committing suicide. The listeners were full of admiration.

Xiao Tao, for his part, merely smiled and told everyone to quiet down and stand together to hear him teach archery techniques.

Archery for the battlefield did not need all the elaborate refinements of the Spring and Autumn nobility learning the bow, where one's inner will had to be upright before one could speak of hitting the mark. Xiao Tao taught them directly the eye method, body method, and foot method.

The so-called eye-training method, of course, could not be like the legend of staring at a louse until it seemed the size of a cartwheel. The most basic requirement was to make the eyes "unblinking" — a fixed, unwavering stare. As for the foot method, it was "left foot forward, right foot sideways." As he spoke, Xiao Tao demonstrated for the crowd in slow motion: right foot set crosswise, shifting the body's weight onto the back foot, the left toes aligned with the target.

It was at that moment he spotted Li Xian.

"Left... left hand like bracing a boulder, right hand like brushing a branch. The right hand releases, the left hand knows nothing — this is the Way of archery. All of you, study this and practice it once more..."

With that, Xiao Tao told the men to practice on their own and walked over to salute Li Xian with clasped hands.

Li Xian smiled. "In the army, skill really does speak for itself. These elite archers are thoroughly won over by you now."

Xiao Tao said sheepishly, "I... I only secretly learned a bit of the Village Chief's way of leading troops."

"Among us old hands who've followed the Village Chief, you're the only one who's picked up some of the art of drilling soldiers." Li Xian knew he himself could never treat the rank and file with true sincerity, and Dongmen Bao was just a brute — fine for charging and killing, but put him in charge of troops and it would be a mess. It was a pity Xiao Tao's stammer limited his prospects; otherwise, his future would not stop at Platoon Chief or Centurion.

"Come to think of it, Xiao Tao, this archery method you're teaching the county soldiers — isn't it the very same archery you taught the Village Chief back in Wei?"

At the mention of this, both of them couldn't help laughing. Heifu's martial skills were outstanding, only his archery was bizarrely poor. After two years of practice he'd made no great progress, barely reaching the passing mark of an ordinary elite archer.

After chatting a bit more about how each of them had been lately, Li Xian lowered his voice: "The Village Chief will arrive tomorrow."

Xiao Tao was first delighted, then startled. "Wh... what is he coming for?"

Li Xian did not answer directly but asked first, "Of the two hundred Anlu county troops in the city, how many will act on the commandery's tiger tally?"

"All of them will answer the call..."

"And if the commandery's order is to surround the Yun clan and arrest Yun Man? There are plenty of Yun clan sons and old associates among the county troops... when it comes down to it, how many will obey?"

Xiao Tao understood. He pointed at the elite archers practicing their shooting. "I can't vouch for the rest, but under my command... these fifty bows and crossbows — wherever the Village Chief points, that is where they will aim!"

After leaving the drill ground, Li Xian first made a trip home. Just as he reached the door, Ji Ying, who had arranged to meet him at this hour, happened to arrive nearby as well.

"You lot go deliver the message tablets first — I'm stopping at Clerk Li's place to beg a drink of water!"

Ji Ying, who now managed the postal relay for an entire township, came over with a grin. Only after entering Li Xian's house did he hand over a bamboo slip covered with records.

"These are newly uncovered matters."

Li Xian looked it over. What was written on the slip were incident after incident, case after case concerning the Yun clan's sons and old associates. Though it was all just a running ledger, every entry had a time, a place, and the people involved — not baseless fabrications.

Ji Ying said helplessly, "Adultery, private feuds, buying people from Chu as slaves, plus slaughtering oxen, group drinking, gambling — pile up all these crimes and they could cost a few of the Yun clan's county clerks their posts. But for Yun Man, none of it touches him; at most it's failing to discipline his clansmen. These past few months, though I've used my position to intercept quite a few of the Yun clan's message tablets, I've come up empty-handed. Lately they seem much more wary — they've even stopped slipping private letters into the official dispatches."

It was clear that Yun Man seemed to have caught an unusual scent and was starting to be cautious.

"That's enough." Li Xian put away the bamboo slip and smiled. "The Village Chief has already verified Yun Man's capital crime. If this crime is confirmed, it's enough to execute that wretch! Add in these offenses by his clansmen and kinsmen, and the Yun clan is sure to fall!"

"Really!" Ji Ying was overjoyed and said with a laugh that the Village Chief was truly formidable.

Li Xian said, "The Village Chief will reach Anlu tomorrow with the commandery troops, passing through North Suburb Township first. Send word tonight to Dongmen Bao — have him ready the troops and clerks from every village in the township."

Ji Ying was thrilled to hear this. They had been plotting for half a year since returning, and on Heifu's instructions had been meticulously careful not to commit any offense the other side could exploit. They had racked their brains and exhausted their minds — now it was finally being put to use.

"Time to strike?"

Li Xian mimicked Xiao Tao's manner, making the gesture of drawing a bow to the full like a full moon, aimed toward the Yun clan mansion. "The arrow is already on the string!"

After seeing Ji Ying off, Li Xian thought for another moment and realized he had already arranged everything. All that remained was to wait for Heifu to arrive in Anlu, and then the North Suburb township troops and clerks, along with the county soldiers and elite archers, could coordinate with the commandery troops to control the situation and suppress any possible resistance from the Yun clan.

"In that case, only one matter remains..."

When Heifu's silk letter had arrived the previous night, Li Xian had briefly hesitated — was there a way to satisfy both sides, to neither fail Heifu nor destroy his own lineage?

Li Xian knew his clan. As a house of grand ministers who had served the Ruo'ao clan for four hundred years, the clan elders had never forgotten their old masters. They not only often told the young clansmen tales of the past, but secretly observed festivals from the Chu period and held the Siming sacrifice. Generation after generation, the clan heads had also maintained close ties with the Dou lineage.

To say the Li clan were Chu spies working against Qin was a joke — the whole clan put together didn't have the nerve. It was merely a lingering attachment to the past. So if they were implicated for that, it would truly be an injustice.

That was why Li Xian had briefly thought: "Perhaps I could race back to the village on horseback, meet with the clan head alone, and have him quickly destroy the old letters and then take his own life in advance..."

That way, the blame could be pinned on the clan head, the trail would be severed, and too many people would not have to be dragged in.

But Li Xian immediately dismissed the idea.

"If a lord is not circumspect, he loses his kingdom; if a minister is not circumspect, he loses his life; if a matter of secrecy is not handled with circumspection, disaster follows."

The clan can be saved by other means later. What must be done now is to first preserve my own official career and prospects — and the matter Heifu entrusted to me!

Therefore, he still had one last thing to do!

By this time it was already the afternoon closing hour. The clerks and officers of the official compound, having finished their day's busy work, were walking out chatting and laughing. Li Xian, as usual, exchanged greetings with them.

Only when he stepped into the hall where the County Right Commandant worked did Li Xian draw a long breath. He put on an expression of flustered terror, deliberately did not even remove his shoes, and hurried inside, prostrating himself before County Right Commandant Zheng Shou, who was just preparing to go home — startling him badly!

"Commandant Clerk, what has happened?!" Zheng Shou thought the Chu army on the other side of Cloud Dream Marsh had attacked!

Li Xian, weeping and with tears streaming down, said: "This subordinate has a matter to report to the Right Commandant!"

"What matter?"

"While on leave returning to my home village, this subordinate inadvertently discovered that the head of the Li clan of Yunshui Township has been exchanging letters with the state of Chu! He may even be a Chu spy!"

"Ah?"

Zheng Shou was greatly alarmed. The Li clan was the second most powerful magnate family in this county. Its sons and clansmen occupied half the posts in Yunshui Township and had always been relied upon heavily by him. But his own Commandant Clerk was himself a member of the Li clan — surely he would not frame his own lineage?

"Every word this subordinate speaks is true. I absolutely dare not deceive."

"What is to be done?" The Right Commandant grew somewhat flustered. He had always relied heavily on the Li clan's sons to maintain balance with the Yun clan. Now that the Li clan was in trouble, half the men under him would become unusable.

"To avoid alerting the snake, it would be better to first lure the Li clan head into the city. Once he enters the County Commandant's hall, we can then arrest him."

Li Xian kept his head lowered, concealing his crafty eyes and his true purpose.

"This matter is of great importance. Could the Right Commandant notify the Left Commandant, Lord Yun, to come together to the county office tomorrow to interrogate the Li clan head? I have heard that the Yun clan and the Li clan have always been at odds. I imagine the Left Commandant would be most willing to assist the Right Commandant in seizing the Li clan!"

(End of Chapter)