Chapter 288: The He-Cap

"The Commander is back!"

At nightfall, with a shout from Ji Ying, a flurry of footsteps surged through the Anlu barracks. The men, who moments ago had been half-heartedly going about their own tasks, all rushed to the camp gate. There they saw Heifu returning by carriage, escorted by two guards of the Palace Coach House. The four-horse cart halted at the camp entrance. The two men lifted down a heavy wooden chest, bowed to him with clasped hands, and took their leave.

Ji Ying, Dongmen Bao, and the others poured out and surrounded Heifu, welcoming him in like a hero. They sat him down on the mat and low table by the camp gate, then some kneaded his shoulders while others pounded his legs, every one of them grinning with fawning sycophancy.

Heifu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What are you lot doing?"

"Commander, you're the only man in Anlu County ever summoned into the presence of the King. This is no small thing."

Ji Ying carefully brushed the dust from Heifu as if he were a treasure that the King of Qin had personally blessed.

Today, merely catching a glimpse of the King's carriage and figure from over ten paces away had been enough to make these Anlu mud-legs turned officers and soldiers feel they could go home and boast about it for the rest of their lives. And Heifu had gone even further — his name had reached the King's ears, and he had been summoned by name by the King of Qin. What glory was this!

And so the men all started asking questions at once, nothing more than the same old things: what did the King of Qin look like? Was he thirty feet tall, with his upper lip the sky and his lower lip the earth? Bu Cheng even babbled mysteriously that he had been looking up all day and had seen auspicious clouds lingering over Huaiyang without dispersing...

"The King's appearance, ah..."

Only after they had finished their chaotic questioning did Heifu put on a mysterious air and say, "The countenance of a king cannot be described in ordinary words. I must not speak of it, and you must not hear of it."

The men couldn't help but be greatly disappointed. Just then, Li Xian led some men in, carrying the heavy wooden chest from the camp gate. He asked, "Commander, what is this? Could it be a gift from the King?"

"It is bestowed by the King upon the entire Anlu company. Open it!"

With Heifu's permission, the men opened the chest. Inside, neatly stacked, were cakes of gold. Even though they had just taken part in looting the treasury of the Chu royal palace at Shouchun and had broadened their horizons, the sight of so much gold still made them draw a sharp, cold breath!

"So much — it must be over a thousand liang, right?"

Gold was the upper currency of Qin, and men like Ji Ying still thought of it in terms of the liang commonly used in the commanderies and counties.

Heifu smiled. "A full hundred yi!"

One yi was twenty liang, so a hundred yi was two thousand liang! When they had plundered the Chu royal palace treasury, they couldn't take too much, and Heifu had only gotten ten yi. Of the rest, the officers took one or two yi, while the common soldiers got only ant-nose coins. Now the King of Qin had bestowed a hundred yi in one stroke — truly a grand gesture.

"The King said that in the campaign against Chu, the Anlu company achieved no small merit, and moreover captured Xiang Yan's command flag. He had said that whoever took the heads of Xiang Yan and Xiong Qi would be rewarded with a hundred gold. Although Xiang Yan's head vanished without a trace, the merit of seizing his flag is no less than taking a head, so he still bestowed a hundred yi of gold..."

A hundred yi — that was five hundred thousand cash! Even divided equally, each man would get five hundred cash, no small sum. Everyone rejoiced and congratulated one another.

They were all immersed in the joy of receiving gold. Only the observant Li Xian noticed that the cap Heifu wore was different from the one he had worn when he left...

When he left, it had been a double-board long cap. When he returned, it was a "he-cap," with a looped chin-tie and no tassels, bound with green cord, standing erect on the left and right.

"The Commander has been promoted in rank again!" he exclaimed, both startled and delighted.

Only then did the others take notice. The he-bird was a kind of wild pheasant, with black down atop its head and snow-white ear tufts that extended backward in a bundle behind its head, like a pair of white horns, giving it a fierce and murderous look. Though its wings were short and it was a poor flier, its red legs were thick and powerful. It walked with head held high and chest out, tail cocked, imposing and majestic, as if ready at any moment to fight to the death against any foe that dared invade.

This bird was the "desperate warrior" of the avian world — once it fought, it never retreated. It was said that King Wuling of Zhao so admired its indomitable fighting spirit that he used he tail feathers to adorn caps, giving them to warriors who fought bravely. In Qin, this evolved into a cap modeled after the forked ear tufts atop the he-bird's head. It could not be worn without high rank — only those of Fifth Grand Master and above could wear it.

Heifu smiled. "Indeed. The King found my speech appropriate and, hearing that I was already a Gongcheng and had achieved some further merit in Huainan, said there was no need to wait until Chu was destroyed to assess achievements. He promoted me in advance, bestowing the rank of Fifth Grand Master."

In Qin, there was a common theory that a commoner soldier could never, in his entire lifetime, attain a rank above Gongcheng — that is, "a commoner's rank does not exceed Gongcheng!"

The ninth rank, Fifth Grand Master, was already equivalent to the "Upper Grand Master" of the Spring and Autumn period. It was the ceiling of the rank system. The ranks above it, such as Left Commoner Chief and Right Commoner Chief, were considered "Minister" ranks...

So Heifu had already touched the highest point in the eyes of ordinary men, leaving them marveling in awe. But for men like Li Xian, besides admiration, there was also respect, for they knew that Heifu's ambition was to be enfeoffed as a Marquis, just like the old General Wang!

Unexpectedly, Heifu had not finished. "The King also heard that I would turn twenty-two this year and sighed, saying that he himself had undergone the capping ceremony at the Qinian Palace in Yongcheng at that very age. So, on a whim, he bestowed this cap on the spot and personally placed it upon my head..."

When they heard that the King of Qin had not only bestowed rank but had personally capped Heifu with his own hands, everyone fell silent. The Anlu camp was utterly still, not a sound to be heard. Half a beat later, Ji Ying let out a shriek like a slaughtered pig.

"It's over!"

Everyone turned to look. Ji Ying was kneeling on the ground, hands trembling, wailing in exaggerated despair. "This cap was placed on the Commander's head by the King's own hands! And I — when I helped the Commander to his seat just now, I accidentally touched it! These filthy hands of mine — I haven't even washed them since using the latrine! They ought to be chopped off!"

Everyone burst into laughter. Li Xian, however, felt there was more to this than met the eye and pressed curiously, "Commander, what did you say to the King?"

"Nothing much."

Heifu couldn't help but sigh inwardly. King Zheng of Qin truly lived up to the praise that he "could humble himself to others." His skill at winning hearts was truly formidable. Any other man, after receiving such a shower of gold, a promotion in rank, and being personally capped by the King, would already be weeping tears of gratitude, kowtowing and pledging his life unto death.

This was something Heifu had not anticipated. Inside the royal tent, he had indeed been somewhat stirred, and even after coming out, his emotions had not yet fully settled.

But he had calmed down now. There would be gratitude, but not to the point of handing his life over to the King of Qin. So he said, "The King asked about my background. Hearing that I was a commoner soldier who started as a village head and rose step by step to my current post of County Commandant and Company Commander, he couldn't help but sigh and quote a saying of Han Fei's."

"What saying?" Everyone was impatient to hear more.

Heifu said, "The King said: 'Prime ministers must rise from the prefectures and departments; fierce generals must emerge from the ranks.' Then the King suddenly glanced at General Wang and Commandant Li and asked me with a smile if I had ever thought of becoming a general."

"How did the Commander answer?" The men crowded their heads in front of Heifu, eyes wide, ears pricked.

"I told the King: Of course I have!"

"Though Heifu is now as lowly as dust, in ten or twenty years, I too wish to follow the example of Commandant Li and General Wang, to be a general for the King, to suppress rebellion and earn merit, and then to have inscribed on my tomb passage: 'The Tomb of Heifu, General of Qin.' This is Heifu's ambition!"

Heifu remembered that he had straightened his back then and said to the King of Qin a famous line that every later generation would know, one that, in the greater context of Qin, was also politically correct!

"A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier!"

"Thus, a soldier with ambition must desire to become a general and seek enfeoffment as a marquis. He who does not desire to be a general or a marquis has short ambition..."

Elsewhere, inside the royal tent, King Zheng of Qin was still mulling over this line of Heifu's. He praised him to Li You: "What a small company commander of high and spirited ambition. Li You, your eye is good. Given time, this lad may well become a capable general."

Heifu had not disgraced Li You, nor had he put on an overly deliberate display, throwing himself at the King of Qin the moment he saw him and forgetting who his true patron was. This greatly satisfied Li You, who smiled and said, "Perhaps today, seeing General Wang enfeoffed as Marquis of Guannei, his eyes grew hot and the thought sprang up in his heart."

The King of Qin looked again at Wang Jian. "Before he came in, General Wang was just complaining to me that he is old and wishes to hand military affairs over to Meng Wu and the others and return to Guanzhong to retire. Compared to Heifu's words, that was truly full of declining spirit. General, can you still eat?"

"Your servant is indeed old, and cannot compare to the keen进取 of the young."

Wang Jian did not mind in the slightest. With Chu destroyed, his burden was gone. He acted very naturally, much more relaxed than before the campaign, and took the initiative to offer to hand over his military authority. But the King of Qin would not accept it, insisting that he finish the Chu campaign first.

In this exchange of offering and refusal lay the hidden game of sovereign and minister.

The King of Qin wished to show that he trusted those he employed without suspicion; Wang Jian wished to show that he did not cling greedily to military power.

Wang Jian said meaningfully, "Since the officers and men in the army can have such ambition, what worry is there that the remnants of Chu, Liaodong, Dai, and even Qi will not be pacified? What worry is there that the ambition of Qin's past rulers and the Great King to unify all under heaven will not be realized?"

Did he truly care about this position of Lord Marquis? Heh. In his heart, Wang Jian would be more than happy if the King of Qin had a few more marquises and generals under him — it would save the Wang family from the loneliness of standing too high where the air is thin...

The two men dropped the subject with tacit understanding. Li You quickly said, "Tomorrow the Great King will inspect the three armies. Why not have Heifu and the Southern Commandery troops perform a drill of military ball for the Great King? During that long standoff between our army and the Chu forces, the soldiers played this as a game. Unlike the fancy cuju of Qi and Chu, it has more of a sense of lethal combat. Officers can use it to practice command and breaking enemy lines..."

The King of Qin naturally had no objection. Seeing that the night was deep, yet the King, who had traveled all day, showed not the slightest fatigue, he was about to discuss with Wang Jian the security situation north of the Huai and how to continue wiping out the remnants of Chu and seize Jiangdong and other regions. But at that moment, Zhao Gao hurried in.

"Great King, an urgent dispatch from General Meng in Huainan..."

Li You's eyelid twitched, fearing that in Wang Jian's absence, there had been a relapse in Huainan. Wang Jian, however, was calm. As Meng Wu's longtime superior, colleague, and rival, he knew very well that this man's command of troops was no less than his father Meng Ao's. A region already occupied would absolutely not relapse.

"Perhaps Xiong Qi and the Chu remnants in Jiangdong have made some move."

As expected by Wang Jian, King Zheng of Qin unfolded the military report, swept a glance over it, and sneered: "Meng Wu reports that Xiang Rong and others have enthroned Xiong Qi as king at Juchao in Huainan…"

Everyone fell silent. Li You dared not speak at all. As the son-in-law of the King of Qin, he knew perfectly well that what the King hated most was betrayal!

And Lord Changping, Xiong Qi, was precisely the man who had recently betrayed the King!

Lord Changping had grown up together with the Great King, had once been a trusted and vital minister, serving as Chancellor for ten years. The more celebrated their ruler-minister rapport had been back then, the more infuriating the betrayal was now.

The Great King's eastern inspection tour to Huaiyang this time was perhaps also connected to this knot in his heart.

"This uncle of mine, great in ambition but meager in talent, can never forget the past. In betraying Qin and turning to Chu, he wants to seize back everything that once belonged to him. But in my eyes… he is no more than a beast aping the manner of a man, donning robes and sashes, donning a cap and girdle — merely adding to the ridicule. The moribund Jing-Chu cannot be saved by him; he is merely burying himself along with it."

After this brief lament, the King of Qin deigned not to speak another half-word on the matter. Instead, he smiled at Wang Jian and said: "General Wang, he who wishes to advance must first set his rear in order. Report to me in full the troop deployments in the newly established commanderies and counties north of the Huai!"

PS: I worked on this chapter from the front for ages… wasn't satisfied with any of it, deleted it all. Let's just leave it like this. I'll make it up with three updates tomorrow.

(End of Chapter)