Chapter 246: Appointment as Anlu Commandant

The reason Nan Commandery is called "Nan" — South — is that, relative to the Qin heartland of Guanzhong, it lies rather far south, and the summers here always feel especially long. In early June, as the plum rains dissipated and the heat wave swept back in, the steadily climbing temperatures made it seem as if the ancient Cloud Dream Marsh itself were about to boil and steam…

In this sweltering weather, Heifu happened to be on leave, so he stayed home with no desire to go anywhere — but his driver, Sang Mu, was getting restless.

"Master, today they're executing Yun Man and Li Ping at the market. Aren't you going to watch?"

Heifu was sitting before a blank bamboo slip, brush in hand, deep in thought. Hearing this, he replied, "From the moment I arrested those two, their fate was sealed. What is there to see?"

He waved a hand. "Go by yourself. I'm not going out today."

Sang Mu answered and headed out. He had been involved in this matter from start to finish, even serving as a messenger to deliver Heifu's verbal message to Li Xian, so today he was very eager to see the "fruits" that Heifu and the others had spent more than half a year plotting.

By now, half a month had passed since Heifu had "double-detained" Anlu Left Commandant Yun Man and Yushui Township Sanlao Li Ping on the spot. Because Heifu had Li Xian devise a plan to trick both Yun Man and Li Ping into coming together and arrested them then and there, he eliminated the possibility of armed resistance from either family. Upon hearing the news, the Yun clan's retainers and servants scattered and fled, while the Li clan obediently dared not make a move.

Heifu left some commandery troops behind to assist Anlu County in arresting the fleeing Yun clan members and retainers, while he himself rushed the two prisoners to Jiangling without pause, handed them over to the Robbery Section and the Prison Section, and thus completed his mission.

While Heifu was away, Dou Ran, that tough man, could not endure the water torture and confessed everything he could.

And the letters seized from the Li household were all ordinary personal greetings. In this era, there is a common saying: "Serve a family for three generations, treat them as your lord; for two generations or fewer, treat them as your master." It means that as a household retainer, if you serve three generations, you must regard them as your own prince and never betray them; for four generations, you regard them as your master, whose single word holds power over your life and death.

The Li clan had served the Ruo'ao lineage for over ten generations — a bond so deep that no national border could sever it.

Yet this was Qin, where the law stood above all human sentiment, where stealing a single mulberry leaf warranted a theft charge, and picking up lost property and keeping it was likewise a crime. The Li clan's conduct was like someone on the mainland in the sixties or seventies of the last century maintaining a constant correspondence with Taiwan — all too easily branded with the label of espionage.

The commandery office had no shortage of harsh officials, most adept at scrutinizing details. Those reminiscences of the friendship between the two families could be interpreted as nostalgia for Chu and dissatisfaction with the Qin authorities.

Those seemingly ordinary pleasantries could be interpreted as leaking the recent situation in Anlu — especially the details they revealed about the Ruo'ao tomb-raiding case that Heifu had cracked, which had very nearly plunged Heifu and Li You into mortal danger…

Heifu remembered that after this was verified, Commandant Li was furious: "If that old fool had said a little more, this commandant and Heifu might well have become Dou Ran's prisoners!"

Soon, Li Ping's crime of "colluding with foreign lords" was confirmed, and he was sentenced to public execution. Because his son and Li Xian had rendered meritorious service by reporting him, the crime stopped with his person and did not implicate his family or clan. Upon learning of this verdict, the old man laughed heartily, declaring that his death was a worthy one, which stirred a pang of sympathy in Heifu…

Yun Man's case was somewhat different. The cautious Yun Man had long since destroyed every letter. According to Dou Ran's confession, although the two families had dealings, they were all on a commercial level, each using their own authority to exchange goods during the peacetime between the two states…

The Yun clan sent their surplus grain and leather to E District in exchange for Chu's more abundant gold, tin, and lacquerware! All trade was conducted in secret across the vast Cloud Dream Marsh, and it was precisely because of this that the Yun clan's wealth earned them the title of the richest in Anlu, known as "Yun Half-County"!

Yun Man's crimes were no longer simple "colluding with foreign lords" but rather using his official position to conduct smuggling operations. Fortunately, the all-encompassing Qin legal code had corresponding provisions.

Xi, who was in charge of adjudicating the case, first bowed in shame to the Commandery Governor and Commandery Deputy to beg forgiveness, saying that he had been in Anlu for many years yet had never known the Yun clan was secretly doing such things — it was his dereliction of duty. Then, holding the legal statutes, he solemnly declared:

"Lord Shang said: When grain is produced, gold perishes; when grain perishes, gold is produced. For every tael of gold brought within the borders, twelve dan of grain are transported beyond the borders! If gold, pearls, and jewels are hoarded within the borders and traded for grain, the granaries will empty and the state will weaken! When the passes are not strict and the prohibitive net is full of holes, grain and provisions all become the enemy's!"

"Yun Man colluded with foreign lords — that is his first crime. As a County Commandant, he knowingly broke the law and privately traded with a foreign state — that is his second crime. The statutes forbid grain from leaving the borders — that is his third crime!"

Xi, a man who could not tolerate a speck of dust in his eye, angrily rebuked him in court: "The Commandery Governor once authored 'The Way of Being an Official,' which states that officials have five failings: first, disdaining scholars while prizing goods and valuables; second, being disloyal to the court; third, being fond of personal gain while in office; fourth, receiving orders without respect; fifth, caring only for one's household and neglecting the government office. Commit one of the five, and you are a bad official; commit three of the five, and you are stripped of rank and dismissed. Now Yun Man has committed all five — this is truly great evil and defiance of the sovereign, a crime punishable by death."

"For all the above crimes, judged together, the sentence is death by waist chop!"

By this point, no amount of sophistry from Yun Man could save him. Together with Li Ping, he was sentenced to be executed today.

With his old grudge avenged, Heifu should have been happy, yet for some reason, he felt rather listless afterward and did not even want to watch his old enemy's death throes.

When evening came, Sang Mu returned. At mealtime, he excitedly recounted how enormous the crowd of onlookers at the execution had been — how on that sweltering day, the county magnates and township magnates of Anlu, dressed in convict red, were slaughtered in the market like livestock…

"Li Ping was quite composed and faced his punishment calmly. Yun Man, on the other hand, clung to life and feared death, struggling for a long while until filth ran down his legs, and in the end they had to knock him unconscious before hauling him onto the execution platform."

Sang Mu described the scene of Yun Man's death: "The blade wasn't sharp enough — it took three chops to sever his waist. Yun Man's upper body writhed and crawled forward two or three steps before finally stopping still, his eyes wide open, impossible to close no matter what. Truly horrifying!"

Heifu listened quietly, his mouth full of food, but his heart felt no stir. Perhaps Yun Man thought himself deeply wronged; it was just a pity that the character for "misery" had so many strokes — who knew how many he could have written…

After washing down the millet with fish soup, Heifu said, "He indeed should have died with his eyes open, because the Li clan at least lost only one clan head, while the Yun clan withered entirely, branches and leaves alike."

One must eradicate evil completely. After arresting Yun Man, Heifu had also instructed Li Xian and Ji Ying to submit all the dirt they had gathered on the Yun clan over the past half year in one go, initiating a thorough investigation from top to bottom.

When a wall is falling, everyone gives it a push. This move immediately set off a wave — in Anlu County and Jiangling, those filing accusations against the Yun clan were beyond counting: adultery, illicit dueling, purchasing people from Chu territory as slaves, as well as cattle slaughter, group drinking, and gambling. Every single charge was well-documented and verifiable.

And so, the Yun clan, whose descendants and old associates had once spread throughout Anlu County, collapsed overnight. Except for Yun Man's nephew Yun Xiong, who was shrewd enough to flee into the Cloud Dream Marsh with a few men on the very day Heifu went to Anlu to arrest Yun Man, virtually no one in the entire Yun clan escaped.

Those who held official posts were all investigated. A few whose crimes were severe were to be executed along with Yun Man, while the majority lost their positions and were even reduced to convict laborers doing wall-building or grain-pounding.

It is no exaggeration to say that a full third of the clerical posts in the various sections of Anlu County were vacated overnight!

Every fruit has a seed planted at the very beginning. The old grudge was settled, and this was no longer something Heifu concerned himself with.

While Sang Mu was off watching the execution, he had been weighing his words and had written a short, simple, and easily understood official document…

…

The next day, when Heifu went to work at the County Commandant's office, everyone was still buzzing about the previous day's execution. Li You also brought up the old matter again, lavishly praising Heifu for devising the plan to arrest Yun Man and Li Xian, and for bloodlessly dissolving a chaos that could have led to unrest in the border county.

Heifu, however, gravely told Li You: "Commandant, Anlu's calm is only an illusion. The fall of the Yun clan, while removing a malignant tumor for Anlu, has also forcibly cut away a chunk of flesh, causing no small harm to Anlu itself. Right now, in the Anlu County Commandant's office, half the clerks have been dismissed for their ties to the Yun clan, and there aren't enough hands to handle daily affairs. Moreover, the Anlu County Right Commandant is an outsider whose conduct fails to command respect. The conscription and training in Anlu County may be affected, and it could even become a weak point for Nan Commandery, giving Chu an opening to exploit…"

Anlu was a major county in Nan Commandery, with over ten thousand registered households and the capacity to conscript over a thousand soldiers. Moreover, during the previous year's campaign, the Anlu men led by Heifu had all delivered standout performances, so Li You intended to make the Anlu troops, together with the commandery troops, the main force of the Nan Commandery corps. If this affair hindered conscription, that was not an outcome he wished to see.

"Since Heifu has brought this matter up with me, he must already have a plan. Speak freely!"

Heifu drew the bamboo slip from his bosom and presented it with both hands before Li You's desk.

Li You looked it over and found it contained several proposals addressing the current situation in Anlu, including swiftly calming the people's hearts while simultaneously promoting outstanding low-level clerks and title-holders to fill the vacancies left by the Yun clan's fall.

Heifu reiterated the ideas in the document, saying: "Magnate families entrenched in local regions are not unique to Anlu — they have always been one of the stubborn ailments of Nan Commandery. Governor Ye once toured the counties to rectify this, executing several hundred people in a row, which made the county magnates somewhat restrain themselves, but they still remain a force too large to easily cut off. Though they no longer dare to poison the land, those who, like Yun Man, use public office for private gain are by no means few."

"Take Anlu as an example. Now that the Yun clan has fallen and the Li clan has also lost its clan head, this is in truth an excellent opportunity to eliminate the power of the magnate families in one stroke! Those lowly clerks buried in hamlet posts and village wards, who had no hope of advancement because they lacked family background and could find no path, now have a hope of rising!"

Heifu saw it very clearly: the small-peasant household of five to eight members — that was the very foundation upon which the Qin state and its military were built. Compared to the clan magnates, these people were the greatest beneficiaries of the military-merit ranks.

"Well said! In that case, if we have capable personnel to coordinate and carry this out, we can certainly make Anlu recover swiftly and emerge even stronger than before!"

Li You clapped his hands in praise, then hesitated: "Anlu is a major county, and this vacated post of Left Commandant indeed requires a suitable candidate to fill it…"

At this point, how could he not understand the unspoken meaning behind Heifu's proposal today? He smiled and said, "The Right Commandant must serve away from his home county, but the Left Commandant can be held by a local. Heifu, you are a man of Anlu, familiar with its circumstances, and you know military affairs. If I appoint you as Anlu County Left Commandant, can you stabilize the situation in Anlu and, moreover, train those thousand-odd Anlu lads into an elite force for me?"

(End of Chapter)