Chapter 341: Traitor!

Ye Zijin lay within the bed-curtains, her face somewhat pale. Though it was the third month of warm spring, she was still covered by thick bedding. A female gynecology physician sat beside the couch taking her pulse.

The term "below the girdle" refers to the area beneath the girdle vessel. Women commonly suffer from ailments below the girdle, hence physicians specializing in obstetrics and gynecology are called gynecology physicians.

Though physicians in the world are predominantly male, and many schools even mandate teaching only men and not women — especially wound physicians active on battlefields, nearly a hundred percent of whom are men — there are exceptions. For the convenience of treating noblewomen, gynecology physicians are predominantly female…

After a full round of inspection, listening, inquiry, and pulse-taking, the gynecology physician released her hand and said to Ye Zijin, "How does the Gentle Maiden feel at present?"

The young girl said somewhat bashfully, "A stabbing pain in my lower abdomen, and my whole body feels cold."

The gynecology physician revealed a kindly smile — this was something every woman had to go through. "At what age did the Gentle Maiden begin her monthly courses?"

"My monthly courses came before my coming-of-age ceremony."

Ye Zijin said softly, "At that time there was not much discomfort. When I arrived in Xianyang this year in the first month, perhaps due to the exhaustion of the journey by boat and cart, my menstruation stopped for a month. By the third month, the pain suddenly arose…"

"The Gentle Maiden's ailment is blood and qi stabbing pain within a woman's abdomen, obstructed menstruation below the girdle, and fullness and pain in the lower abdomen. It is a common condition and nothing serious…"

Although the female physician said this was a common ailment for women, Zijin still felt quite unwell. At this moment, she could do nothing but furrow her brows and rest on the couch.

The gynecology physician said this ailment had both internal and external causes. The external cause was external pathogenic wind and cold entering the body, entering the vessels from below and causing the pain.

Zijin suddenly recalled that although her family were originally people of Han in the Central Plains, for the past seven or eight years they had lived in Jiangling in Nan Commandery, accustomed to the hot climate there, eating and drinking the same as the locals. Arriving abruptly in northern Xianyang, she had suffered no small amount of wind and frost hardship on the road — it probably had some effect on her body.

"As for the internal cause, it is deficiency of qi and blood."

As she spoke, the gynecology physician also introduced treatment methods to the young girl.

"This ailment has no quick-acting medicine; it can only be slowly regulated."

Besides ordinary medicinals, the gynecology physician also recommended to Zijin a product that had been selling well in Xianyang recently.

"Brown sugar?"

The gynecology physician said, "Indeed. Nan Commandery brown sugar is sold throughout the market. The Chief Physician Xia uses it as a guiding ingredient in medicines, and those bitter medicinal decoctions become less difficult to drink. Furthermore, brown sugar is said to have excellent effects in harmonizing the spleen and soothing the liver, supplementing blood, invigorating blood, clearing stasis, and expelling lochia."

And after a court case, the brown sugar from Anlu had its stigma washed away and was even selected by the Privy Treasury into next year's tribute goods. Chief Physician Xia Wuju also proved brown sugar's potential as a medicinal ingredient. Its fame grew ever greater, and the last few hundred jin of brown sugar began to rise in price and sold out completely — now it can no longer be bought on the market.

Ye Zijin found this somewhat amusing upon hearing it. Her household was not lacking in this item; just last month, that person had sent fifty jin as a gift, but her father stubbornly bought it at market price, unwilling to incur the ill repute of "accepting bribes from former subordinates."

Since it was prescribed by the gynecology physician, she would follow it. She then had her maidservant instruct the kitchen to cut some brown sugar and boil it into a soup with old ginger, to be served in a lacquered ear-cup.

This was a Chu-style lacquered ear-cup brought from Nan Commandery, made of ramie-core lacquerware, oval in shape with a curved belly and flat base. It was light in weight; Zijin lifted it as if it were a thin wing. Both inside and outside the cup were painted in vermilion with phoenix-bird patterns and cloud-qi patterns. The brown sugar water held within looked no different from ordinary medicinal soup.

But the smell was far more pleasant. Holding the ear-cup in both hands, the girl parted her sandalwood lips slightly and drank a little, immediately feeling a sweet silkiness on the tip of her tongue.

"Much more palatable than bitter medicine."

The young girl revealed a smile. After puffing her cheeks and blowing gently on it, she raised her slender neck and drained the remaining sugar water in one go.

Two cups of brown sugar water down — whether it was truly miraculously effective or just psychological, her body warmed up, and the pain in her lower abdomen seemed to lessen as well.

Looking at the brown sugar cut into chunks on the lacquer tray, ready for her to add to her cup at any time — perhaps from the long-distance transport, its color was no longer the bright red of the beginning, but instead showed some dark brown — the young girl glanced at it, covered her mouth, and muttered, "I think it shouldn't be called brown sugar anymore."

She thought teasingly, "Dark in color yet sweet — dark-faced and sweet-mouthed. Wouldn't 'black sugar' be more fitting?"

Speak of black sugar and black sugar arrives. A few days later, just as Ye Zijin's period had passed and her body was much recovered, Heifu finally found time during his rest day to pay a visit to the Ye residence…

…

With three attendants standing behind each side, Neishi Teng and Heifu, host and guest, sat facing each other in the hall. Neishi Teng, expressionless, gestured for Heifu to go first. Heifu bowed toward Neishi Teng, then picked up the arrow by his hand, aimed at the bronze pot between them, and threw it.

The arrow flew true and landed squarely in the bronze pot. Heifu revealed a smile. "Neishi, please!"

Today was a rest day, and they did not discuss official business. Host and guest could hardly just sit there stiffly, so following the custom of the times, they played pitch-pot. The one who landed more throws won, and the loser drank a set number of cups. Throwing arrows and drinking wine was just the thing to fill the awkward gaps with nothing to say — quite nice.

But from Ye Teng's mouth, it was framed entirely differently. He said flatly, "My residence's courtyard is not spacious enough to set up a target and prepare bows for paired archery. Besides, your poor archery is well-known; I won't make things difficult for you. Better to learn from the Xianyang nobles and play pitch-pot for amusement."

Heifu's close-quarters combat was not bad — he could fight evenly with brave warriors like Dongmen Bao — but in archery, even after several years, he still had made little progress.

He could only say awkwardly, "Whenever I have free time, this humble officer also often practices with bow and crossbow."

"As a Guard serving beside the Emperor, one cannot afford the slightest lapse."

Ye Teng sighed with emotion. "I hear that the Prefect of the Central Chariots, Zhao Gao, though nearing forty, rises every day at sunrise to practice swordsmanship and archery, and drives his chariot for several li at a gallop, all to keep his body from growing slack. Beyond martial arts, he also excels in law and script — especially his fine calligraphy, which only the Commandant of Justice and Humu Jing can match. A great reason His Majesty has trusted and favored him for twenty years without diminishing favor is that no one beside him can match his devotion to duty."

Heifu was struck with awe. The Prefect of the Central Chariots, Zhao Gao, managed the Emperor's chariots and had duties only when the Emperor traveled. So ordinarily, he only entered the palace when the Emperor wanted him to draft edicts, and Heifu did not see him often.

Every time they met from a distance, Zhao Gao would show a smiling face, come forward to greet Heifu, his words proper, neither servile nor overbearing.

But Heifu always felt that behind that smile as warm as spring breezes was likely the heart of a venomous scorpion. So he only feigned civility with him while secretly staying very much on guard.

From pitch-pot to archery, Heifu could tell that his old superior was giving him guidance.

"A Guard close attendant must be like a fully drawn crossbow, storing full power, ready at any moment to nock an arrow and release. And the only person who can pull the trigger is His Majesty!"

"There are several hundred Gentlemen-Attendants in the palace. Although His Majesty has recently seemed to trust and value you greatly, you must not grow arrogant from favor. You must know that everything you have now is bestowed by His Majesty! Without His Majesty's gracious favor, you are nothing! Those who flatter you and try to win you over will abandon you overnight!"

Ye Teng was instilling in Heifu the way of serving as a subject, but Heifu could not quite agree with this particular statement.

He had reached this position step by step through his own military merit; he was no minister advanced by favoritism…

But verbally, he still had to assent obediently.

Taking advantage of Ye Teng picking up an arrow to throw, Heifu composed his words and brought up another matter with his old superior.

"When I came over the Wei Bridge, I saw some migrants relocated from Shandong, some driving carts, some pushing handcarts, heading west from Weinan."

"Yes, the first batch of relocated captives has arrived."

Ye Teng contemptuously referred to the migrants from the former Six States of Shandong as "relocated captives," meaning forcibly relocated migrants from defeated states.

If even this "Viceroy of Zhili" of the Great Qin held such an attitude, one could hardly expect those migrants to receive good treatment. Although those being relocated were at least households of middling means with wealth of a hundred thousand coins or more, or merchants and artisans, the immovable property in their hometowns was obviously impossible to bring with them. The relocation was also hurried; traveling to their relocation sites, few had surplus wealth. By the time many families reached Xianyang, they were no different from beggars.

According to the plan, a total of one hundred twenty thousand households were to be relocated westward, and of course they could not all be placed in Xianyang. As far as Heifu knew, Xianyang was merely a transit station. Of those "relocated captives," ten thousand households would be relocated to Beidi Commandery, ten thousand to Longxi, ten thousand to Ba Commandery, ten thousand to Hanzhong, and twenty thousand to Shu Commandery. The remaining fifty thousand households would be distributed among the various counties of Neishi. Averaged out, among Neishi's forty counties, each county would receive one thousand households. This meant that at least one hundred thousand mu of new land would need to be opened up just to suffice.

And for Xianyang, which had been assigned ten thousand households of relocated captives, Weibei was already densely populated with no room to place them. These migrants arriving in succession could only be placed in Weinan.

But even so, at least a million mu of new farmland would be needed to accommodate this enormous migrant population!

"His Majesty wishes to open the Five Parks such as Shanglin for the relocated captive people to farm!"

The so-called Five Parks referred to multiple royal hunting parks distributed south of the Wei River, covering an enormous range. They stretched east from Lantian and Yichun along the Zhongnan Mountains westward to Changyang and Wuzha, then turned east along the Wei River, the land spanning over three hundred li.

This was a relatively sparsely populated area of Guanzhong. Within the parks, ridges and peaks undulated, deep forests and giant trees rose in uneven ranks, rivers flowed, and pools and marshes clustered thickly, nurturing countless species of birds, beasts, fish, and turtles. For the past hundred years, it had been the ideal hunting ground for the Qin royal house.

But opening the Five Parks was an unprecedented first.

As early as the time of King Zhao of Qin, when Qin suffered a great famine, Chancellor Fan Ju requested of King Zhao of Qin, "The grasses, trees, vegetables, acorns, dates, and chestnuts of the Five Parks are enough to keep the people alive. I beg that they be opened."

Yet after pondering it for a time, King Zhaoxiang of Qin refused this request — for a reason that left the men of Shandong speechless, but which the Qin people found wholly convincing: "By Qin law, the people are rewarded for merit and punished for crimes. To open the Five Parks' vegetables and grasses now would be to reward the people regardless of whether they have merit or not. Rewarding the people with and without merit alike — this is the path to chaos. Better to abandon the jujubes and vegetables and govern well, than to open the Five Parks and bring disorder!"

And so, even as famine ran rampant, the iron-hearted King Zhaoxiang of Qin would rather cling to the statutes than open the parks for the people to feed themselves. While the deer of the Five Parks bounded joyfully within, the common folk who starved to death outside were beyond counting.

This was the single most condemned act of King Zhaoxiang's entire life.

Yet Qin Shi Huang made a different choice from his great-grandfather: he resolved to open the Five Parks, allowing tens of thousands of relocated people to settle there, live, and break new land.

The Intendant of the Capital, Teng, was full of praise for this policy: "Your Majesty's benevolence above benefits the state's needs, and below increases the enterprise of farming and sericulture — a hundred boons, and not a single harm."

But then he shook his head and added: "Yet even if we begin tilling now, we have already missed the spring planting. I fear that not until the autumn of next year will the relocated captives be able to produce their first harvest of grain. Until then, they must all be supported by the authorities. Although public latrines have been widely built throughout the Guanzhong region to collect night soil and begin composting and retting fertilizer — and Guanzhong already yields the highest grain output per mu in all under Heaven, and with the benefit of fine fertilizer, a bumper harvest next year is certain — still, with the sudden addition of fifty thousand households, three hundred thousand mouths to feed, I fear grain prices will soar."

One of the duties of the Intendant of the Capital was to maintain grain prices in Guanzhong. If the price of grain were to skyrocket to two or three hundred cash per shi of rice, then his official career would be at its end.

"I do have an idea."

Hei Fu had been asking about the relocated captives with an ulterior motive all along, and he immediately proposed: "I can help the Intendant resolve his troubles, and allow the authorities to solve next year's grain crisis months in advance!"

"What idea?"

The Intendant of the Capital, Teng, wore a smile. He knew Hei Fu was full of ideas — in letting him through the door today, had he not been hoping for exactly this sort of counsel?

For the sake of the girl who had caught his eye, to escape bachelorhood as soon as possible and win himself a fine wife, Hei Fu — this loyal minister of later ages, a member of the Rice Party — chose, at this very moment, to resolutely betray the organization!

The Rice Party traitor Hei Fu, utterly without shame, offered the Intendant of the Capital, Teng, a suggestion.

"Plant wheat!"

PS: That was close — almost missed the update. Only one chapter today; will make it up tomorrow or the day after.

(End of chapter)