Chapter 315: A Girl Changes Eighteen Times as She Grows Up

"You've come at an unlucky time, Left Chief of the Masses — Lord Xi was transferred to Dongting Commandery just last month."

Heifu had few acquaintances in Jiangling. The day after visiting Li You, he went to the commandery prison bureau to see Xi, only to learn that he had already been reassigned.

Dongting Commandery was a newly established commandery, merging the western part of the former Chu Dongting Commandery with Qin's Qianzhong Commandery. Its rough extent corresponded to later-era western Hunan and parts of Guizhou and Chongqing. The counties under its jurisdiction were all concentrated along the banks of the Yuan, Li, and You rivers, with the commandery seat at Yuanling County.

"May I ask what post Lord Xi has gone to take up in Dongting Commandery?" Heifu asked the petty clerk of the prison bureau.

"Appointed as Qianling County Deputy." The petty clerk beamed. "A four-hundred-bushel senior official — it's quite a promotion."

Qianling County (present-day Liye) lay beside the You River, so its transport links were still fairly convenient. Heifu keenly felt the bad timing, but was also happy for Xi's promotion.

That said, conditions in Dongting Commandery were no better than in Jiangxi. It had few registered commoner households. Apart from the Qingshui Ba people Heifu had dealt with, the areas near the Li and You rivers were home to the Five Creeks Man settlements, while the upper reaches of the Yuan River bordered the Western Ou, with large numbers of Yue tribes whose allegiance fluctuated. And unlike the flat, open lands of Nanchang, those places were mostly deep mountains and ancient forests — taking a post there was no cushy assignment.

The prison bureau clerk said to Heifu, "Over half the officials in Dongting Commandery are holdovers from the former Qianzhong Commandery; most of the rest were transferred from Nan Commandery. Quite a few have also been sent to Changsha Commandery. Right now, the number of officials in Jiangling city has dropped by nearly half — all gone to take up posts in the new commanderies and counties."

This was exactly what Heifu had seen in Jiangxi. After destroying Chu, Qin's territory had instantly expanded by a third. Officials from Guanzhong and the lands east of the mountains did not understand the Chu dialects, and if sent there, they were easily sidelined and deceived. So Nan Commandery's Qin officials, who belonged to the same Jing-Chu dialect region and had steeped themselves in Qin law for years, became hot commodities. A former petty grain-salary clerk transferred there could become a ranked official; a former assistant clerk transferred there could transform overnight into a senior official.

This practice facilitated the rollout of Qin law in the new commanderies and counties. Moreover, it meant that the connections Heifu had previously built up in Anlu and Nan Commandery now spread into the three commanderies of Jiujiang, Dongting, and Changsha — which was not necessarily a bad thing.

Since his visit to Xi had come to naught, Heifu returned to his lodgings. The next day, he brought the most elaborately prepared gift and went to the commandery governor's residence to pay a call on Ye Teng, who was about to be transferred...

Heifu had once been a regular guest at the governor's residence, but when he came again this time, he found the place looking like it was in the middle of moving house. Ye Teng's aide, Chief Clerk Lu Dang, was directing bondservants and slaves as they packed up all manner of things.

"I must reach Xianyang before the first month of spring — traveling north in the dead of winter really is rather rushed."

Though Lu Dang's mouth grumbled, his face was beaming. He was Ye Teng's personal retainer and could accompany him into Xianyang; his own status and position would naturally rise with the tide.

He led Heifu to the study. The old man Ye Teng, who set Heifu's teeth on edge, was in there sorting through books, seemingly torn over which to take and which to leave behind. Once inside, Heifu immediately bowed with clasped hands and said, "Your subordinate Heifu pays his respects to the Neishi!"

Ye Teng turned his head. Seeing it was Heifu, whom he had not laid eyes on in two years, he did not try to intimidate him as at their first meeting. Instead, he smiled and said, "This old man has yet to formally assume office. Right now, I am neither commandery governor nor Neishi — merely a tiresome old fossil."

As it turned out, after the destruction of Chu, the King of Qin had rewarded people according to their merits, and of course Commandery Governor Teng, who had delivered an extra two million bushels of army provisions over two years, had not been overlooked. On top of Ye Teng's conspicuous achievements in governing Nan Commandery for seven or eight years, he was formally enfeoffed with the rank of Grand Superior and appointed as "Neishi" — news that had already spread throughout Nan Commandery.

At present, Qin had over thirty commanderies. The newly conquered frontier commanderies were the least valued, the commanderies east of the mountains came next, and the Neishi territory alone was the most important. This administrative district governed the capital Xianyang and over forty counties in the metropolitan region, holding jurisdiction over the entire Guanzhong plain and the Shangwu lands. It had the largest population and the richest tax revenues, and could only be held by a senior minister.

For this reason, the Neishi was privately called the "Tenth Minister" — a metropolitan grandee capable of standing toe-to-toe with the Nine Ministers of the court.

Ye Teng had someone offer Heifu a seat. Once the two were seated facing each other, Heifu observed that Ye Teng seemed to have aged somewhat: the wrinkles on his forehead were deeper, and a few more white hairs had appeared at his temples. Ye Teng, for his part, saw that Heifu, after a journey to the remote south, seemed to have gotten even more sun-darkened, and with a mustache now grown above his lip, he looked considerably more steady and composed.

"Leading three thousand men of Nan Commandery deep into untamed lands, opening up a thousand li of territory, establishing six new counties. For an entire year, all the coin, grain, taxes, and levies from these places passed through your hands. In name a county magistrate or commander, in reality a frontier proconsul — how did that feel? Proud of yourself?"

Heifu replied, "There were moments of pride, but more often, it felt like standing on the edge of a cliff, or as though treading on a thin layer of ice."

"That's exactly right."

Ye Teng, with a hint of a mentor's testing intent, was thoroughly pleased to hear Heifu say this. He laughed heartily. "The higher the office, the greater the authority — all the more must it be so!"

He then pointed at Heifu. "I hear the King has summoned you to court as well. Do you know what office you will be appointed to?"

Heifu said, "Commandery Governor Li told me I might be made a court gentleman officer, though I don't know whether it will be a Gentleman General, an Outer Gentleman General, or one of the three lower deputy generals: the Central Chariot, Central Cavalry, or Central Household."

"Whichever general it is, you will be serving before the King. Since you were once this old man's subordinate, I will give you a parting phrase: tremble with caution, as if treading on thin ice, as if peering into an abyss. An overly sharp edge and reckless daring may indeed draw attention, but if you take one careless step and fall, you will end up like Li Xin — doomed beyond redemption."

Heifu picked up the thread: "I heard that General Li has been employed by the King again, achieving merit in the Liaodong campaign, and there are signs he is regaining favor."

Ye Teng snorted derisively. "Shallow. Li Xin can never return to his former position. He disappointed the King once, and that one time alone is enough to bar him from the court forever. Do you still remember your first visit to this old man?"

How could Heifu possibly forget? That time, Ye Teng had exposed his entire background, frightening him into a cold sweat, and for a while he had even regarded the old fellow as his mortal enemy. It was only gradually that he realized Ye Teng simply enjoyed playing power games and probing people's hearts, and had no real intention of making trouble for him — and that hostility had slowly faded.

Of course, the favorable impression Heifu had of Ye Teng's daughter might also have played a part in that.

Now, with both of them heading to Xianyang as fellow outsiders, when Heifu looked at his old superior again, he instead felt a touch more warmth. There might well be occasions in the future when he would need to rely on him.

Ye Teng gave a cold laugh. "Compared to the various ministers in Xianyang, what am I? When they engage with you, they seem as pleasant as a spring breeze, but in truth, they are scrutinizing your every detail at every moment. Before them, if you let your guard down, one moment of carelessness and they will devour you, bones and flesh and all!"

"So once you reach Xianyang, remember firmly: speak little, listen much, and observe keenly!"

"This junior will engrave the Neishi's instruction upon his heart!"

Heifu bowed again. When he raised his head, after a moment's hesitation, he still brought up the incident that had occurred in Nanchang.

"The King raised the soldiers' noble ranks, yet also ordered them to clear and open up land on the spot, garrison the various counties, and forbade them to return home. The soldiers did not see this as a reward, but regarded it as banishment. I had great difficulty suppressing their resentment, and I promised them that once I reached Xianyang, I would report this situation to the King and see if there might be a more appropriate solution..."

After returning to Jiangling, Heifu had made inquiries and learned that the Nanchang incident was not an isolated case. Similar things had happened in Changsha and Dongting. The Nan Commandery troops were homesick and none were willing to stay in the wilds as agricultural garrison corps. If this matter were handled poorly, they might forever lose the motivation to fight for the King of Qin, for the state of Qin.

Ye Teng understood the King of Qin's temperament very well, so Heifu wanted to consult him first: should he speak up, and if so, how?

"There is no more appropriate solution."

Ye Teng, however, sighed and said, "The land under heaven is only so much. The central plains have no land left to spare. Are we to snatch it from the mouths of the common people and powerful nobles of the five conquered states? That would be pouring oil on a fire! What the King is doing is correct. In a few decades, these new commanderies will become fertile territory..."

"As for the soldiers' state of mind? There is no need to dwell on it overmuch."

Ye Teng did not take the grievances of those several thousand soldiers to heart. He smiled and said, "Lord Shang once said: The people cannot be consulted at the start of an enterprise, but they can share in its successful completion. Those of the highest virtue do not conform to vulgar custom; those who achieve great things do not plot with the multitude! In ten or twenty years, they will understand that the King's decision was the right one!"

There was truth in those words, but what Heifu saw was a bottomless black hole: for Qin's unique merit-rank system to sustain itself, it needed more and more land, and the most convenient way was, of course, continued expansion. But the more wars fought, the more military merit accrued, and sooner or later the land would be insufficient to distribute, which would then require new wars — a vicious cycle. While the six states still existed, it was manageable; just keep annexing. But now that the realm was on the verge of unification, the King of Qin would sooner or later turn his blade against the Xiongnu and the Hundred Yue.

Looking at this process from the perspective of a time-crosser, territorial expansion and the spread of civilization were undoubtedly beneficial to the nation and the people as a whole. But it was rather unfair to the soldiers exiled to the frontier to open up wasteland. The number of those nursing grievances would only grow, and if this continued, sooner or later it would shake the government's credibility and even endanger the very foundation of its rule...

"Ye Teng says that seizing land from the powerful and commoners of the inner commanderies is pouring oil on a fire, but isn't the King of Qin's method just carrying firewood to put out a fire?" Heifu thought to himself. But he had no better solution for the moment, and could only wait until he reached Xianyang to consider it further.

Just then, a gentle voice sounded behind him.

"Mother sent me to ask: will Father be keeping his guest for the evening meal?"

Heifu turned around and saw a young woman draped in a white fox-fur cloak, wearing a blue-green ruqun dress underneath. She was tall and slender, with phoenix-like bright eyes, her features like exquisitely carved white jade. A smile played at the corners of her mouth, and her bearing was refined and demure, giving her the air of a well-bred young lady from a distinguished family.

Heifu nearly failed to recognize her. Only after staring for a good while did it dawn on him — wasn't this Ye Teng's daughter, Zijing?

Those cheeks that had once held a touch of baby fat had now become a sharp, delicate fox-face, and the chest that had once been rather flat had now filled out amply.

In two years unseen, the girl's figure had blossomed, as if bathed in spring rain and summer breeze, a tiny bud unfurling into a gorgeous flower...

What had not changed was only the keen intelligence in her eyes, tinged with a hint of cunning inherited from Ye Teng.

If two years ago she had merely caught Heifu's eye, then now, she was enough to make a man drool with desire!

"Could it be that the Left Chief of the Masses no longer recognizes me?"

Seeing the young woman cover her mouth and giggle, and hearing old man Ye Teng behind him let out a displeased cough, Heifu realized he had lost his composure and hurriedly lowered his gaze to exchange courtesies with her.

"The encouragement the fair maiden gave me at the Shangsi Festival — Heifu has engraved it in his heart. How could I dare forget?"

Inwardly, he marveled, "It's true what they say — a girl changes eighteen times as she grows up. The high school girl has finally grown into a college girl!"

(End of chapter)