Chapter 268: Three Hundred Coffins

Long ago when I departed, the rain and snow fell thick and heavy; now on my return, the willows and poplars sway in tender green.

When I left it was still the bitter cold of winter; now that I am back, it is already the bright spring of the third month.

After more than a year away, returning once more to Tongyang and standing on the battlefield of old, Hei Fu looked at the ground before him — still tightly packed, undisturbed, not turned over — and let out a breath of relief.

Thank heaven, the thing he had worried about most all this past year had not come to pass: the comrades buried here had not been disturbed, not been dishonored... It seemed not every Chu man was fond of digging up graves and flogging corpses like Wu Zixu.

Only the dense thicket of Qin swords planted above the graves had vanished without a trace.

Yet even with his eyes closed, Hei Fu could remember this place: the stream nine hundred paces to the east, the town one li to the west, the small hill three hundred paces to the south, and just over a hundred paces north, the locust tree against which Huai Mu had leaned when he fell in battle. To make it easier to find later, Hei Fu had buried him right at the foot of that tree and piled a few stones as a marker...

And now, Hei Fu's charioteer Sang Mu, guided by Ji Ying and the others, was there kowtowing before his elder brother, weeping bitterly with every bow.

Hei Fu's own tears had already been shed back then. He only said silently in his heart: "Hei Fu has kept his word, gone and returned. You men need not wait much longer — your souls can soon return home!"

"Company Commander, the local town grandee has been brought!"

Li Xian, who had been ordered to enter the town and seize the local enfeoffed lord's officials, had returned. Hei Fu turned to look and saw behind him a trembling middle-aged man in silk robes — none other than the Tongyang Grandee.

A Chu town grandee was in fact only equivalent to a Qin township steward; though graced with the title "grandee," he was really just a minor village head. The Southern Commandery troops, over ten thousand strong, serving as the Southern Army's vanguard, had already taken Pingyu and now bore down on the town with overwhelming force. With fewer than a hundred men under him, the Tongyang Grandee had wisely chosen to surrender. But because the Qin army's ferocious reputation preceded it, this town grandee still feared greatly for his life, and as Li Xian escorted him out of the town, he remained deeply anxious.

"Tongyang Grandee."

Hei Fu, however, laughed and said: "Do you realize that the Qin army's axe and halberd have just grazed past your neck? Had I found these grave mounds dug up and the bones of my several hundred comrades dishonored, you would now be a ghost beneath this company commander's longsword!"

The Tongyang Grandee started in fright, his legs going slightly weak. As it turned out, when he had first come to take up his post, quite a few people had advised him to dig up those Qin grave mounds. But the Tongyang Grandee believed in ghosts and spirits, and thinking that disturbing graves was ill-omened, he had merely ordered the swords planted as grave markers pulled out, while the corpses beneath he could not be bothered to touch...

"Let them serve as manure, nourishing the crops, to atone for their atrocities!"

He had never imagined that this fleeting thought back then would today save his life!

But he had no time to count his blessings, for Hei Fu immediately threw a difficult task at him.

"By order of the Commandant, you are to remain in your original post, serving as town master here, pacifying the people and maintaining order. A Hundred-Man Commander will be left behind to keep an eye on you. The next time I return, you must have ready for me three hundred and twenty-eight inner and outer coffins! I intend to transport the bones of the soldiers who fell here back home!"

"Over three hundred?!"

The Tongyang Grandee cried out in dismay — that would require every person in the entire town to labor for a full month, and right now it was the spring planting season; where was he to find so many hands?

Hei Fu ignored his complaints and tossed a pouch of gold cakes from his bosom to the town grandee — roughly ten taels.

"I am not asking for them for free. If you can accomplish this, I will pay you in coin and silk. This is the deposit. Do the job well."

"One more thing," Hei Fu added, remembering another matter. "Those swords planted here — were you the one who sent men to take them?"

The town grandee hastily denied it, but Hei Fu said with a stern face: "You are the town master. Even if someone else took them, the account still falls on your head. Let us settle it thus: there were fifty swords in all. Each sword offsets the cost of two coffins!"

The grandee listened, utterly dumbstruck.

At that moment, Dongmen Bao, who had been ordered to enter the town to search for grain and was now returning with full loads, also drew his sword and threatened the town grandee with a murderous glare: "If we come back and do not see three hundred coffins, your old man here will make sure you lie inside one yourself!"

Conquerors can indeed do as they please. Leaving the coin pouch in the hands of the bitter-faced town grandee, Hei Fu strode off. He still had to organize the men to eat quickly; they could only pause here a short while and would resume the march after noon. They had to reach Qin Hill Town by day's end before they could rest.

When Hei Fu returned to the army's halting place, the Army Supervisor Zhang Han had only just finished organizing the men to set up chevaux-de-frise and other obstacles along the necessary approach. Now he too sat on the carriage rail, eating coarse dry rations with water, unhurried and methodical.

"Shaorong, you have worked hard."

Hei Fu looked at the arranged obstacles and said admiringly: "We are only pausing here for half a shichen, yet Shaorong still does not forget to keep careful watch."

"Building bridges and roads, constructing camps and ramparts — these are the Army Supervisor's proper duties. Even if we stay but a quarter-hour, we must guard against a sudden enemy raid. If something goes wrong and it is afterward confirmed that the Army Supervisor's negligence and dereliction caused it, I would be seized and interrogated by the military law officers." So said Zhang Han.

And when Hei Fu asked whether he could still endure the hardship of the march, he laughed and said: "I merely get jolted about a bit on the carriage. The soldiers have marched over a hundred li from the day before yesterday until now — are they not far more weary?"

Hei Fu said: "Riding the momentum of victory, our spirits are light. Over a year ago, fleeing through Huaibei against the biting cold wind, we walked far more than this."

At the same time, he slapped the cloth strips wrapped around his calves and added: "Besides, with these, the soldiers' marching is not nearly so grueling!"

Zhang Han had not had a chance to ask along the way, and now, taking advantage of the mealtime pause, he said curiously: "I asked the Southern Commandery soldiers, and they said this item is called puttees, and that it was you, the Anlu Company Commander, who proposed to the Commandant that it be adopted throughout the army. Normally one never sees it, yet when marching, everyone wraps them on together. What exactly is its use?"

Hei Fu said: "Shaorong is a northerner, so it is natural you do not know. This item is very common among the common folk of the south."

These puttees were truly not something Hei Fu had invented out of thin air. As early as his days as a village chief in Anlu, he had noticed that hunters and woodcutters in the mountain forests would often wrap a layer of cloth around their calves when entering the woods.

After he asked a few of them, they told him that in the mountains, low shrubs and weeds were many, and hard rocks were plentiful. Moreover, the Cloud Dream Marsh region had many insects and snakes. If one wore only a lower garment and straw sandals, the exposed legs were easily injured, so they wrapped a layer of cloth to protect against such harm.

When he went to suppress the Yi Circuit rebellion, Hei Fu was even more surprised to discover that many of the local Ba people warriors wore neither shoes nor socks, going barefoot and walking on mountain rocks as if on level ground. Yet they were very careful to wrap their calves in animal hide or cloth, because the calves had only soft flesh and lacked the thick calluses of the soles of the feet...

Inspired by this and combined with the puttees commonly seen in later-era military films, Hei Fu, when training troops in Anlu, included puttees in the list of military supplies. He had the armory, when preparing linen cloth for bandaging wounds, also prepare over a thousand long linen strips for wrapping legs. After testing them himself several times, he introduced them among the soldiers.

It is good to be a military officer. At his single command, over a thousand soldiers from Anlu all wrapped puttees and set out on the march. By the time they reached Yan County, after a journey of over two hundred li, the effect of the puttees became evident.

Beyond guarding against snakes, insects, and cuts from grass and brush like the woodcutters and hunters of Southern Commandery, on long-distance marches the puttees also prevented mud and small stones from entering the poor-quality shoes the men wore, and reduced soreness in the soldiers' legs. Apart from a few individuals whose legs swelled because they wrapped them too tightly, they proved to be very useful equipment.

Hei Fu then proposed this method to Li You and obtained his approval, and it was also promoted among the commandery troops under Li You's direct command. What the superior favors, the subordinates are sure to emulate; the soldiers of the other counties also imitated it. And so, with puttees wrapped, they marched to Nanyang, and then on to the frontline main camp, joining up with the armies of the other commanderies...

Because their "Southern Army" of seventy to eighty thousand men was largely conscripted from the southern commanderies and counties, aside from the Nanyang men who lived on plains and in basins and found it a bit strange, the regions of Ba Commandery, Shu Commandery, and Hanzhong were even more rugged and forested than Southern Commandery, so they took it in stride.

Thus, by this day, puttees had become very common equipment in the Southern Army, and only northerners like Zhang Han found them odd.

Hei Fu also grumbled: "As things stand now, the Southern Commandery troops mostly like the puttees, but the Nanyang troops largely disregard them. Some even think wearing puttees looks stupid. Some put the issued puttees into the packs on their backs, and some even throw them away. That is why on this march, after two days of walking, the Nanyang troops' marching speed has never been able to pick up, and they can only bring up the rear."

"So that is how it is! I never imagined this item could have such remarkable effect." Zhang Han nodded, intending to learn this method himself.

As they spoke, Hei Fu also called out to two soldiers sitting on the ground nearby wrapping their puttees, and shouted for them to stop:

"When wrapping puttees, you must not sit down. You must stand to wrap them, to ensure the tightness is just right. If too tight, the blood flow in the calves will be impeded, making them more and more sore, and may even cripple the legs. If too loose, it will have no effect."

As he spoke, Hei Fu walked over and personally demonstrated for them. He unwound the cloth strip and, starting from the heel of the shoe, wound it round and round up to the bend of the leg below the knee. This also protected the shoe opening, preventing mud and stones from entering.

It was only then that he noticed these two soldiers' shoes were already tattered beyond repair, their big toes poking out, and on their bodies they still wore thick winter clothing — marching in the spring heat, they were unbearably hot.

"Where are your summer clothes and new shoes?" Hei Fu asked with a stern face.

The two Qin soldiers stammered, not daring to speak, and could only say with bitter faces: "We have no summer clothes, and no new shoes."

Hei Fu was somewhat surprised and asked: "Before the great army set out from Anlu, were you not ordered to prepare them fully? And before spring began, I also had you write letters home, asking your families to send the needed items together. In early second month, Southern Commandery had just sent a batch of clothing, coin, and silk. If you lacked these things, why did you not purchase them at the army market?"

"Company Commander."

One of the common soldiers knelt down and said with a bitter face: "In my letter, I also asked my parents and sisters to send summer clothes or cloth or coin, but my family had just lost our mother and held the funeral rites — there was no coin to send..."

The other also said that his father had broken his leg while repairing the house, and the family was busy treating his injury, so no coin was sent either.

"So we could only borrow coin in the army from our squad leader Yuan Bai to buy new shoes. Who would have thought that the shoes made at the army market, which were fine before we set out, would be worn through just by the time we reached here..."

They had encountered unscrupulous merchants who skimped on materials. Hei Fu looked at these two ordinary common soldiers, their speech plain and honest, their faces sun-darkened to a blackish red, and it reminded him that in history, during this very war, Hei Fu and Jing, the two brothers, had desperately begged their family to send summer clothes and coin, even saying "otherwise we shall die" — the same helplessness and urgency.

And in their faintly bewildered eyes, there was no way at all to know how much longer this war would continue...

At this thought, Heifu felt a pang of sympathy for his fellow creatures, and called out to his clerk, Quji: "Go to my baggage cart and fetch the two spare pairs of shoes and two summer tunics!"

The Gongshi-rank Quji hesitated: "Those were sent from home by the Company Commander's family — sewn stitch by stitch by the Company Commander's mother herself…"

Heifu was resolute, and said loudly: "The soldiers are like my own hands and feet. The summer tunics my mother wove, the shoes she stitched — letting my hands and feet wear them, how is that different from wearing them myself? Go, quickly!"

After Quji went and brought back the two summer tunics and the shoes, Heifu personally handed the items to the two soldiers, and asked them their names.

"This humble one is Wang Gua."

"This humble one is Dong Kui!"

Indeed, one was short and squat like a melon, the other lean and thin like a mallow shoot. The two young soldiers, about Heifu's own age, had tears in their eyes. Holding the summer clothes and shoes, they bowed and kowtowed to Heifu, overwhelmed with gratitude.

"The Company Commander is as zealous for justice as ever!" After Heifu had dismissed them, Quji could not help but sigh with emotion — he, too, had once received Heifu's kindness.

"Heifu truly loves his soldiers like his own newborn children. No wonder they hold you in such esteem." Zhang Han also stroked his short beard, observing that Heifu's skill at winning hearts had grown increasingly practiced and natural.

"This is my own dereliction of duty as County Commandant and Company Commander."

Heifu shook his head. These two were actually named after plants from the fields — it seemed their families were not well off either. Once even a minor mishap occurred, a household that was never well-to-do to begin with would instantly fall into dire straits.

That he had recruited such men into the army, and that they could endure until now, gritting their teeth and keeping up with the column, was already remarkable enough. And before the army set out, he had only given a cursory glance, questioned the platoon leaders, and seeing that no one lacked clothing or food, had set off with his mind at ease.

But many problems only become apparent once the march is underway — for instance, no one knows just how long a pair of shoes that seemed perfectly fine will take to fall apart.

According to Qin army regulations, such items were to be provided by the soldiers themselves. So appealing to the army quartermaster in charge of supplies was useless — they only handled military rations and the replacement of damaged armor and weapons.

Heifu then summoned Ji Ying: "Pass the word down — have each platoon leader report the number of men in their platoon lacking summer tunics or with damaged shoes. I will make up the shortfall for everyone! This Company Commander will not let a single soldier march barefoot!"

"Thank you, Company Commander!"

After this order was relayed, a wave of cheers and gratitude rose among the Anlu soldiers.

Zhang Han asked curiously: "Do you really have so many spare summer tunics and shoes on your cart?"

"I have none on my cart. But the next Chu city we are about to occupy does."

Heifu pointed at the town steward who, by his order, was about to lead the Chu people of the town to fell timber and make over three hundred coffins, and smiled: "Sun Feng, the enfeoffed lord of Sleeping Hill, is, like the captured Duke Hu Douran, an old acquaintance of mine. In this little town, I've already demanded three hundred coffins. What difficulty is there in purchasing three hundred summer tunics and three hundred pairs of shoes from him on the spot?"

Zhang Han could not suppress a laugh: "Didn't you tell me that those ten gold cakes just now were the last of your savings?"

Heifu was entirely unconcerned. The Qin army's strict discipline applied to Qin people, but when campaigning in foreign states, they were never the kind of liberation army that "never takes a single needle or thread from the common folk." The Qin people participated in war so eagerly, and what drew them was never just noble rank. Besides…

"What does it matter if I have no money? At worst, I'll carve a wooden tally and write him an IOU!"

(End of chapter)