Chapter 26: Restoring Morale

(Requesting recommendation tickets)

"Think it's too little?"

Yuan Bai was slightly taken aback. He looked Heifu up and down, then said with a hint of contempt, "Judging by Heifu's clothes, his family doesn't seem wealthy. How much money can he put up?"

"I truly don't have much money." Heifu laughed. "But I can stake myself. If I fail to take first place, I will personally go to Yuan Bai's house and serve as a manservant for two years, plowing and tilling your fields. How about that?"

"Two years as a manservant?" Yuan Bai hesitated. Still, this Heifu had a robust physique and should be a good hand at farm work. Moreover, he was famously fierce — even just using him to guard the house and courtyard wouldn't be a loss.

So Yuan Bai extended four fingers and said, "It's settled then. If the Gui Shi doesn't take first place, you will serve as my manservant for two years. If the Gui Shi really does take first place, I will give you four gold!"

"Four gold?"

Heifu burst out laughing and said, "Does Yuan Bai think I can't count? Four gold is 2,304 cash. As far as I know, a manservant's daily wage is at least six cash. Working day and night without rest for two years comes to over four thousand cash! Shi Chief Yuan Bai, why is the rate for hiring a manservant from your household so cheap?"

Exposed in his trick, Yuan Bai's face flushed red. At this point, not raising the price would truly be unreasonable, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "Fine! If you take first place, I will give you four thousand cash!"

Four thousand cash — though not a huge sum, to the current Heifu it was already a small fortune. Heifu immediately nodded. "It's settled!"

"Good!" Yuan Bai was also very pleased, feeling he had gotten a great bargain, and said, "I'll go right now and fetch a clerk I know from the county to draft a contract for us, carve the tally sticks as proof, and neither of us shall renege!"

With that, Yuan Bai returned to the Jia Shi and told his subordinates about the matter. He told it as a great joke, and that group immediately burst into roaring laughter, each one mocking Heifu as utterly foolish and grossly overestimating himself.

Little did they know, after Heifu turned around, his heart was also blooming with joy. He thought to himself, "Whatever I lack comes right to me. Just a few days ago I was worrying about not having enough money to spend! Four thousand cash — it's as good as in hand!"

"Shi Chief, what did Yuan Bai say to you?" Just then, the other nine men in Heifu's shi also came over.

After Heifu recounted the incident in full detail, Ping, Ke, and Buke — the three who lived in the county seat — turned pale with shock and said, "Shi Chief, you've likely been swindled. That Yuan Bai's family were originally merchants back in the Chu state, extremely wealthy, and they often lend money to ordinary soldier-troops and Gongshi. When it comes time to collect, they always demand heavy interest."

Dongmen Bao also said with a grave expression, "When my father was still alive, he too once borrowed from the Yuan Bai family, and when it came time to repay, the amount had increased considerably!"

Heifu nodded. It seemed this Yuan Bai family had built its fortune on moneylending. Although the Qin state's laws prohibited using pledges as debt guarantees, and those unable to repay their debts could work off the sum through labor service, the Yuan Bai family had likely been very careful to skirt the edges of the law.

He asked, "How did such a family manage to attain the rank of Shangzao?"

Dongmen Bao said, "I recall it was in the fourth year of the present king's reign. A famine struck Qin, and the great king decreed that any soldier-troop who contributed 1,000 shi of grain could receive one rank of nobility. The Yuan Bai family were already Gongshi, and at that time they contributed a full thousand shi of grain in one go, obtaining the Shangzao rank."

That was the one and only time Qin ever traded grain for ranks. Unfortunately, Heifu hadn't been around for it, and even if he had, he had no grain. One thousand shi of grain, at this year's grain prices, was equivalent to 80,000 cash. Seen in this light, the Yuan Bai family was indeed quite wealthy.

By now, the others had also realized the gravity of the situation. Ping, Ke, Buke, and the rest couldn't help but start grumbling. It was clear they feared Heifu would drag them into it.

Heifu, however, laughed. "Gentlemen, set your minds at ease. This matter is solely a private contract between me and Yuan Bai. Even if I lose, one man does the deed and one man bears the consequences — it has nothing to do with anyone in the shi."

Only then did Chao Bo and the others in the shi breathe a sigh of relief. After all, they had only known Heifu for a few days, and there was absolutely no need to wade into this murky water with him.

Only Ji Ying, out of concern, was so anxious he was nearly beside himself. To him, this matter was simply Heifu jumping into a fire pit of his own accord. He muttered, "I still have over a thousand reward cash unspent. If we can't take first place when the time comes, I'll give all that money to Yuan Bai. At the very least, it can spare Brother Heifu a few months of servitude."

Though Ji Ying usually seemed unreliable, at critical moments he was quite loyal. Heifu was somewhat moved and patted Ji Ying on the shoulder. "Don't speak such defeatist words. I believe we are certain to seize the top prize!"

Dongmen Bao agreed, "Indeed! Enough of that useless talk. When the time comes, we must take first place and leave Yuan Bai, the Jia Shi, and all the other conscripts who look down on us with nothing to say."

However, the others still looked at each other in dismay, showing no great reaction.

……

That afternoon, Yuan Bai, just as he had said, brought a clerk from the county, along with Hundred-Leader Chen to serve as a witness for the two of them, to draft the contract and carve the tally sticks as proof.

One half of the tally contract was handed to Heifu. On it was written:

"In the twenty-first year, tenth month, day of Wuzi, Hundred-Leader Chen of the county, Clerk So-and-so, and others record: Heifu, a Gongshi of Yunmeng Township, states of his own accord that in the grand competition of conscripts ten days hence, should he fail to achieve the top rank, he is willing to become a manservant of Shangzao Yuan Bai, tilling his fields and performing labor service for two years. Shangzao Yuan Bai also states of his own accord that should Gongshi Heifu achieve the top rank, he is willing to give four thousand cash to Heifu…"

After this were the names that the two of them personally signed.

By this point, not only had the matter become known to all the conscripts, but it was also set in stone with legal guarantees. If either party reneged afterward, the other could file a complaint with the county jail and have the magistrate enforce it — equivalent to a private contract in later ages, complete with a notary.

Everyone felt that this Heifu was truly racing further and further down the road to self-destruction. Not only had he locked horns with Hundred-Leader Bin, but now he had signed this contract that seemed certain to lose. As Heifu walked along the path, people all over the training ground were pointing and whispering about him.

After this incident, although Heifu still spoke lightly of it, he had unconsciously begun to intensify the training for the men of his shi.

But to make a group of farm boys with virtually no educational background learn the about-face drill and instantly distinguish left-face from right-face — how easy was that? And during about-face, someone always turned the wrong way, making it look utterly chaotic.

It was the seasoned Chao Bo who thought of a solution for him: have everyone take off the shoe on their left foot and wear only the right one. With that, the number of mistakes indeed decreased.

Moreover, Qin army training was not like the military drills of later ages — beatings were permitted. Whenever anyone made a mistake, Heifu would mercilessly bring a stick down on them! By his count, the three from the county seat — Ping, Ke, and Buke — along with the somewhat dull-witted Mu, were beaten the most.

The taciturn little Tao, however, once again made Heifu see him in a new light. He was actually the one in the squad who made the fewest mistakes, and Heifu couldn't help but praise him a few times.

But even so, overall progress remained slow. Throughout the afternoon of the fourth day of the tenth month and the entire morning of the fifth, their training remained stagnant. Add to that all the worries, the exhaustion from high-intensity training, and the bewilderment at Heifu's unconventional training methods — aside from Dongmen Bao, whose fighting spirit remained high, little Tao, who silently grasped things, and Ji Ying, who was barely holding on, the morale of the Gui Shi men had plummeted to rock bottom.

"This can't go on…" During mealtime, Ji Ying voiced his concerns to Heifu.

Heifu nodded. He knew that relying solely on exemption from next year's corvée, the reward of one jug of wine and ten dried meat strips, and the various punishments during training was no longer enough to make these weak-willed men persevere to the end. And these men, long accustomed to being looked down upon, were also indifferent to the mockery and taunts from the other shi. He needed to give them a greater stimulus.

So that afternoon, Heifu went to request that Hundred-Leader Chen allow the Gui Shi to take some time out to repair the leaky roof. Although Hundred-Leader Chen was somewhat displeased, this was a normal request, so he agreed.

Thus, that afternoon, the Gui Shi men, who had been tightly wound for days, finally had a moment to relax. Led by Heifu, they went outside the training ground to gather dry thatch, borrowed a ladder, repaired the thatched roof, then plastered mud over the thatch and weighed it down with wood. Once it dried and hardened, they would no longer have to worry about leaks when sleeping at night.

After completing this task, thinking that they wouldn't be soaked by leaks that night, everyone was somewhat cheered. Perhaps because working together had brought them closer, they began chatting animatedly, the previous gloom swept away entirely. Heifu also made an effort to converse with each person.

In his previous life, when he served as a drill instructor for university freshmen, he had encountered similar problems — some boys wouldn't cooperate, always causing trouble, and overall morale was very low. At such times, one couldn't just keep punishing them, as that would only make them more negative about the whole thing. Instead, one should try to communicate, understand them, and even become their friend. That way, those little brats who cared for neither heaven nor earth would actively participate in training.

When the atmosphere was at its warmest, Heifu, heedless of the mud still all over his hands, cupped his hands and bowed deeply to the group. "Gentlemen, the reason Heifu made that contract today with Yuan Bai of the Jia Shi was for nothing else but to fight for our pride! Yuan Bai is certain we will lose, the Jia Shi mocks us, and the other conscripts also think it's absolutely impossible for us to take first place. But Heifu believes you gentlemen can do it, and I hope you gentlemen will also believe in Heifu…"

"Shi Chief, what are you saying?"

Everyone was somewhat moved, and after saying this, Heifu raised his head and got to the most crucial point.

"When the grand competition is over, if the Gui Shi achieves the top rank, aside from the meat and wine bestowed by the County Commandant, Heifu will absolutely not keep those four thousand cash for himself alone. I shall share the gold with you gentlemen!"

The moment these words fell, every man in the Gui Shi had his eyes light up!

PS: Those who have committed offenses redeemable by fines and those who have debts to the public treasury shall be summoned on the appointed day. If they are unable to pay or compensate, they shall labor for the public on the appointed day, at eight cash per day of labor; those fed by the public shall labor at six cash per day. — "Eighteen Types of Qin Statutes: Overseer of Works"

(End of chapter)