Chapter 318: Blue Fields, Warm Sun, Jade Breeds Mist

Shang County was the first stop after Heifu's party entered the pass. Shang County was also called the "Shangwu Land." In the Spring and Autumn period it belonged to Jin, and because it lay at the upper source of the Luo River, it was also called Shangluo. Later, when Jin split into three, the Shang land fell to Wei. When Wei Yang entered Qin and presided over the legal reforms, he began a counteroffensive against Wei and seized this territory. Duke Xiao of Qin enfeoffed him with the fifteen townships of Shangwu, hence he was called "Shang Yang."

Now, over a hundred years later, in Shang County, one could find no trace of Shang Yang's tomb or his old belongings.

"His end was probably not a good one."

Heifu took a turn around the county and thought to himself.

Shang Yang's reforms strengthened Qin, but they made enemies of Prince Qian, the Crown Prince, and the ducal clan. What's more, he still held the six-hundred-li Shangwu land in his hands, equivalent to a third of Qin's territory. Duke Xiao of Qin had indeed fulfilled his promise to "divide the state," but the moment Duke Xiao died, all of this would become the very things that would doom Shang Yang...

If Shang Yang had been like in the TV dramas, calmly accepting arrest and martyrdom, he might truly have become a sage who died for the law. Unfortunately, as far as Heifu knew, Shang Yang's final struggles seemed rather unsightly and foolish.

When King Huiwen of Qin succeeded to the throne and Prince Qian's faction moved to settle accounts with him, Shang Yang's first reaction was to flee. As a result, because he had not brought his travel permit, he was turned away at the inns, thus giving rise to the idiom "hoist by one's own petard."

Shang Yang barely managed to cross the border with a forged travel permit and returned to Wei, but the people of Wei resented him for his past deeds — deceiving his close friend Prince Ang and slaughtering countless Wei people. They refused to take him in and even deliberately drove him back toward Qin.

Shang Yang was certainly tenacious. From the Wei lands beyond the river, he returned to his fief, rallied his subordinates, mobilized the soldiers in the town, and marched north to attack Xianyang, seeking a final path to survival.

But this desperate struggle was quickly crushed by Qin. Shang Yang was killed amidst the chaos of battle, then subjected to the punishment of being torn apart by five horses. His entire family was exterminated, and the admonition "Let no one rebel like Shang Yang!" was left behind, adding a blood-soaked case study to the crime of rebellion in the Qin legal code.

Fortunately, King Huiwen of Qin was wise. Though Shang Yang died, the Qin laws were not abolished. Otherwise, there would be no talk today of the King of Qin sweeping through the Six States.

"From the day Shang Yang framed the laws and ordinances for Qin, his fate was sealed."

Heifu had a sudden realization. Shang Yang's downfall was, on one hand, due to making too many political enemies and harboring too deep of grudges. He lost the upper strata and also failed to win the heartfelt devotion of the common Qin people of that time. When Shang Yang died, not a single person among the Qin populace pitied him.

On the other hand, his authority was entirely dependent on the Qin ruler, and the Qin laws and ordinances were constructed around the sovereign as the center. Neither the Qin ruler nor the Qin laws would ever permit the existence of a great enfeoffed lord occupying such vast territory. While Duke Xiao of Qin lived, he still trusted and valued him, but once a new ruler took the throne, killing him was an inevitable priority.

"Relying too heavily on the sovereign, serving the state with excessive zeal, and not hesitating to make enemies on all sides — such a position is bound to be as precarious as morning dew. In the end, the lord passes and the minister dies. Such were the cases of Shang Yang and Wu Qi..."

Carrying this insight, Heifu left Shang County the next day and continued traveling northwest.

The route they took was still the Wu Pass Road. This road was carved along the northern side of the Dan River valley and could hardly be called wide. Many sections were rugged with stubborn rocks and narrow, cramped paths. What was even more infuriating was the heavy traffic of carts and horses along the way.

Fortunately, Heifu's rank was relatively high, so most people yielded the road to him. It was also fortunate that it was not summer or autumn; otherwise, the rising river waters would frequently wash out the road.

This miserable travel experience only came to an end after they crossed the Yao Pass and traversed the remaining ridges of the Qin Mountains. Once over the pass, the view ahead suddenly opened wide. Farmland and cottages grew dense, and a stream rushed down from the Qin Mountains' remaining ridges, flowing slowly to the northwest.

This stream was the Ba River. The upper reaches of the Ba were extremely clear and icy cold to the touch. Gazing into the distance, one could see many people on the riverbed, digging with tools at the water's edge. A closer look revealed chunks of pale blue jade ore. The sun shone upon them, making them look hazy like wisps of cooking smoke — a marvelous sight...

"The finest among lesser jades is called 'lan' (blue)."

Heifu pointed at the indistinct, bustling county town on the opposite bank of the Ba and said to his cousin and the driver Sang Mu, "Lantian is here!"

"You might not believe this, but a hundred years ago, Chu once fought its way to this very spot."

While resting by the waterside, Heifu told his driver Sang Mu an anecdote he had heard from Zhang Han, a man from Guanzhong, during his time in the army.

Even though Sang Mu was an honest fellow, he was shocked and found it somewhat unbelievable.

"Master, this place is already the heartland of Guanzhong. We traveled from Nan Commandery, passed through several perilous passes, and spent over a month on the road. How could the Chu army possibly have reached here!?"

"Absolutely true."

"At that time, the Qin Chancellor Zhang Yi deceived King Huai of Chu, promising to cede six hundred li of the Shangwu land. King Huai of Chu believed it to be true and severed diplomatic ties with Qi. But then Zhang Yi claimed that what he had promised to give Chu was merely six li of land..."

"That King Huai of Chu was truly foolish."

Sang Mu found it laughable. Although he was a man of Western Chu from Nan Commandery, he already felt little sense of belonging to Chu. Authentic Chu people, when mentioning King Huai of Chu, all pitied him as if grieving for a kinsman. Historically, Xiang Yu and his uncle had exploited this sentiment among the Chu people to set up another "King Huai of Chu."

But in the eyes of Heifu, Sang Mu, and others, King Huai of Chu could not be described with any word other than foolish.

In short, after being deceived by Zhang Yi, King Huai of Chu flew into a rage and launched a massive army to attack Qin. As a result, he was soundly defeated by Chuli Ji at Danyang. The Chu army lost eighty thousand heads, and over seventy Chu generals, including Qu Gai, were either killed or captured. Hanzhong was also seized by the King of Qin.

Unwilling to accept this, after the great defeat at Danyang, King Huai of Chu mobilized all the enfeoffed lords of the entire state and continued his attack on Qin. The result was that the Qin army lured the enemy deep into their territory, letting them pass through Wu Pass and advance all the way to Lantian. With Xianyang seemingly within sight and Qin on the verge of annihilation at any moment, who could have expected that the Qin army would spring an ambush, annihilating the Chu army completely...

The mighty Chu, which had once single-handedly rivaled the Zhou King and the various Huaxia states of the Central Plains, and which even into the Warring States period held one-third of all under Heaven, began its decline precisely from the Battles of Danyang and Lantian.

No wonder Qu Yuan was so bitterly grieved. He was unfortunate enough to be born at the very juncture of Chu's decline.

It was only the first month now, and the deadline for entering Xianyang was still far off. Heifu had the convoy make a small detour, intending to go see the old battlefield of Lantian. Unexpectedly, before they could even get close, they were stopped by a patrol of Qin soldiers.

After some questioning, Heifu learned that the old battlefield ahead was now the garrison ground of the "Capital Commandant Army."

He had done his homework thoroughly before entering the pass, so he knew that the Qin capital region of Guanzhong was garrisoned by three armies.

Among them, the Court Gentleman Commandant Army, where Heifu was very likely to take up his post, was the King of Qin's personal guard officer corps, consisting of seven hundred court gentlemen and three thousand guardsmen, stationed within the palace.

There was also the Guard Commandant Army, responsible for the defense and public order of Xianyang City and its near suburbs, numbering ten thousand.

Besides these was the Capital Commandant Army. As the garrison force for the Interior Region, it was further divided into several commandants. There were not only the Wu Pass Commandant and Hangu Pass Commandant guarding the passes, but also the Lantian Commandant, Linjin Commandant, Yong County Commandant, and others, numbering no fewer than fifty thousand.

This area was the encampment of the Lantian Commandant, and Heifu's group had nearly barged into a restricted military zone.

Fortunately, it was unintentional, and with his status as Left Chief of the Masses, he was merely admonished a few times by that squad of Capital Commandant soldiers before being allowed to leave.

Heifu turned his head to look back from the cart. From a distance, he could see the neat and orderly encampment of the Lantian Capital Commandant Army, with banners fluttering and the sounds of officers and soldiers drilling rising and falling without end. It was clearly one of Qin's more elite units.

Their garrison at Lantian was presumably also to prevent a repeat of what had happened a hundred years ago, when the Chu army fought its way to this very place.

Unfortunately, in history, Qin's pass defenses were still breached all the way through from Wu Pass to Lantian.

And it was still by the people of Chu...

After this little interlude, they continued traveling north along the Ba River. Reaching this point, they had effectively entered the outskirts of Xianyang. The land here was a flat, boundless plain, with yellow earth stretching for a thousand li and fertile wilderness as far as the eye could see. It was the busy spring plowing season, and the old Qin people of Guanzhong were all toiling in the fields.

The year's prospects were good. The early spring rains were plentiful, and the winter wheat in the fields was already lush and verdant. When the wind blew, the tender green wheat shoots rippled unsteadily. In those bare fields, millet and beans had also been sown. The ditches and canals along the fields were well-arranged, part of a waterworks project organized and repaired by the authorities to divert water from the Ba River to irrigate the crops here.

From what Heifu could see, nearly every household was using oxen for plowing. He just didn't know whether they were their own oxen or borrowed from the village.

He had heard that Guanzhong had many irrigation works and promoted ox plowing. With intensive and meticulous farming, the yield per mu was twice that of Nan Commandery. Half of the army provisions for Qin's campaigns against Wei and Chu were shipped out from Guanzhong. He wondered if, after Ye Teng came to serve as Interior Minister and promoted the methods of composting and fermenting fertilizer, he could push Guanzhong's grain output up another notch.

As they passed by, the farmers in the fields, while sowing seeds, were also singing a rustic Qin-dialect folk song...

"The Great King's governance, from dawn to dusk unceasing. He cares for the black-headed ones, toils diligently at the essentials. Removes doubt and sets the law, all know what to avoid. Elevates farming and suppresses secondary pursuits, the black-headed ones are enriched."

Although these were all words of praise and glorification, the fact that the people still had the energy to sing showed that they could usually eat their fill. Moreover, every face, though tanned by the sun to the same bronze hue as Heifu's, was brimming with smiles.

There was joy that the fighting could come to a halt for a while, and also the pride of people living in the capital's outskirts, right under the Son of Heaven's feet. When they saw outsiders passing by, they all loudly called out greetings.

"Why do these farmers look so pleased with themselves? Back in Nan Commandery, after the spring plowing is done, we just want to lie in the grass and sleep. Who'd have the strength to shout?" Sang Mu was somewhat puzzled and asked Heifu.

"Don't you underestimate these farmers. Pick any one of them at random, and his rank might just be higher than yours!"

Having followed Heifu for over two years, Sang Mu's rank had also slowly risen; he was now a No-Geng. Somewhat disbelieving, when they stopped to water the horses, he asked an old farmer idling at the pavilion hostel.

The old farmer cast a contemptuous glance at this ignorant outsider and, in a thick Qin accent, laughed and said, "Grandee of Officialdom."

This time, Sang Mu was thoroughly convinced.

Heifu said to him, "The sons of Guanzhong have fought for over a hundred years, accumulating experience across several generations. Even if each generation only rose one rank, it would still be extraordinary."

"Their families must be very wealthy as well, I imagine."

Yan couldn't help making a few sly calculations of his own. He suddenly felt that the two thousand jin of brown sugar loaded on the cart would surely fetch a fine price in Xianyang and Guanzhong!

After passing through dozens of prosperous village hamlets, strung together in an unbroken chain where the crowing of cocks and barking of dogs could be heard from one to the next, a stone-pier wooden bridge spanning the Ba River came into view before the group…

The bridge was a hundred paces long. At its head stood a soaring ornamental pillar, and every stone pier along the bridge was carved with various auspicious beasts. Gazing toward the opposite bank, one could see an embankment stretching five li, planted with ten thousand willows — a truly magnificent sight.

A few minor officials from Guanzhong, who had traveled the same road with them all the way from Lantian, enthusiastically introduced it to Heifu: "This is the Ba Bridge. Once you cross the Ba Bridge and then ferry across the Wei River from Bashang, Xianyang will be right before your eyes!"

However, just as the group was about to ascend the bridge, a fully armed company of men and horses came riding up from the western bank of the Ba River. Every face was stern; they wore armor and carried swords, and powerful bows and crossbows were set up on the bridge. Judging by their banners, it was actually the "Palace Guard Army" defending Xianyang!

Over a thousand men of the Palace Guard Army seized the Ba Bridge and announced that it was under martial law for the day and would not be passable until the afternoon!

"Even the Palace Guard Army has been mobilized — could it be that the King of Qin is traveling?"

Heifu's eyelid twitched. He also found the Qin general leading them familiar. Drawing closer for a look, it turned out to be his old superior from the campaign to destroy Wei — Yang Xiong!

Yet the once lofty Yang Xiong, judging by his attire, now held a rank of only Left庶长 — Heifu had already caught up to him!

PS: The second chapter will be in the evening, rather late.

(End of chapter)