Chapter 361: Protective of His Own

"A mere provisional commandant — what's that compared to attending the Right Chief's wedding? It's only four hundred dan of grain a year. I don't want it anymore!"

At the banquet, Gong Ao explained his reason for resigning from office, leaving Heifu not knowing whether to laugh or cry — should he be moved by Gong Ao's deep loyalty and sense of honor, or should he curse him for handing the post of Nanchang County Commandant, which Heifu had so painstakingly arranged, straight over to an outsider?

Before Heifu could speak, Ji Ying, seated across from Gong Ao, could no longer hold still. He swallowed the slick noodle soup he had slurped into his mouth, pointed his chopsticks at Gong Ao, and scolded: "A'Ao, before you said those words, did you spare a single thought for me? I would have liked to be county commandant, but unfortunately my rank wasn't high enough back then, so I could only keep managing the postal relay."

He then turned to complain to Heifu: "Chief... no, Right Chief, when this fellow first wanted to resign, Xu Shu, Yue, and I tried hard to dissuade him, but he was dead set on his own way. He made the excuse that an old wound from the battle of Tongyang had flared up and he couldn't serve as a clerk, then wrote his resignation letter. I refused to deliver it for him, so he sent a clansman to hand-deliver it all the way to Jiujiang Commandery."

During the battle of Tongyang, when Heifu had gone out of the city to feign surrender, Gong Ao had risked his life to assassinate a centurion who was trying to force Heifu to flee. He took a spear thrust to the calf, deep enough to see bone, and it still ached faintly in winter and autumn.

Heifu nodded. What he wanted to know was: hadn't Li Xian, who was responsible for coordinating his old subordinates, stopped this?

"By the time Li Xian found out, it was already too late. He came all the way from Poyang to Nanchang specially to give me a thorough tongue-lashing."

Gong Ao touched his own face, as if the spittle Li Xian had sprayed while berating him for disregarding the bigger picture were still there.

"Li Xian said Nanchang couldn't do without me, but I thought, Xu Shu has already risen to the post of Chief Clerk, and Yue is already Prison Clerk — official appointments, dismissals, statutes, and litigation all run in perfect order. Now that Nanchang has no more military troubles, even if I come to Xianyang, nothing will go wrong. On the other hand, if the Right Chief gets married and only Ji Ying, one man from the old unit, shows up, wouldn't that look shabby? Anyway, among all the provisional commandants and assistants in Jiangnan, I'm the most useless, so let me come on behalf of everyone! To drive the secondary carriage for the Right Chief!"

Just as in later ages no wedding is complete without a carriage, when a meritorious noble married, the bridal procession had to have a magnificent four-horse enclosed carriage as the bridal car, with several secondary carriages before and behind it, forming a full motorcade, and then the bride would be brought from her mother's home to her husband's. The difference was that the groom had to drive the carriage himself.

The secondary carriages were driven by the groom's friends and relatives — indeed, the more the better — but the post of Nanchang County Commandant was the last safeguard Heifu had placed in Nanchang to protect his sugarcane and brown sugar enterprise and to guard the interests of the Southern Commandery men! Although Xu Shu, Yue, and Ji Ying were still serving as officials in Nanchang, without Gong Ao, a county commandant who held military authority, to back them up, their words would certainly not carry the same weight as before. How could this impulsive fellow not have thought things through before acting?

In fact, Gong Ao really had thought about it, and quite a lot at that.

"Besides coming to lend support to the Right Chief, the reason I resigned is that I don't get along with the new county magistrate. Our words don't click, and we've been at odds over governance the whole time..."

Ji Ying grumbled: "There aren't many people you do get along with."

Zhao Tuo also laughed: "Those junior clerks of mine who go to Nanchang on business often say that Lord Gong has a fierce face and is hard to get along with."

Jing also seemed about to speak but held back. He was young and treated Gong Ao like an older brother, so he was embarrassed to expose his shortcomings.

Gong Ao ignored them and continued: "The Right Chief knows my temper. I was afraid that one day another dispute would break out and, in a fit of rage, I'd tie up the county magistrate and give him a whipping. If that really happened, I wouldn't care about being arrested and thrown in prison myself, but I feared it would implicate the Right Chief."

Chen Ping, also seated on the mat and introduced to everyone by Heifu, suddenly understood. This was probably the real reason Gong Ao had resigned.

According to Qin law, if a recommended person committed a crime and had not yet been promoted from his original post, the recommender would also be implicated. During the reign of King Zhao of Qin, Chancellor Fan Ju had been ruined by the two benefactors he himself had recommended. If Gong Ao ever caused a major scandal while in office, unless His Majesty showed mercy, a whole year's efforts really could be wiped out overnight.

Among this batch of cadres sent south, Xiao Tao and Dongmen Bao had sufficient rank and were directly appointed by Jiujiang Commandery. Apart from Gong Ao, Heifu had only recommended Li Xian, but Li Xian had already been promoted from his initial post as Provisional Commandant of Poyang to Poyang County Assistant. Even if he got into trouble, it would no longer implicate Heifu.

So, thinking it over carefully, the weakest link in Heifu's official career was actually Gong Ao!

Chen Ping was rather sensitive to such matters, so he asked Gong Ao: "What is the name of that Nanchang magistrate? Where is he from, and where did he hold office before?"

After clarifying the Nanchang magistrate's name and place of origin, Chen Ping looked at Heifu. His meaning was obvious: it would be best to investigate this Nanchang magistrate's background afterward. Hopefully it was just a coincidence, not a deliberate scheme.

Heifu had also caught on by now. Thinking of it this way, Gong Ao eliminating a hidden danger himself wasn't entirely a bad thing.

But he still gave Gong Ao a stern scolding, his face dark.

"You say the Nanchang magistrate often opposes your views, makes things difficult at every turn, and treats the southern expedition soldiers very harshly. It was already like that while you were there; now that you've resigned in anger, he'll certainly go even further. Xu Shu, Yue, and Ji Ying are all subordinates of the county magistrate. Without you, the county commandant, who else can contend with the magistrate for the soldiers' benefit?"

To put it more seriously, Heifu's interests in Nanchang would very likely be suppressed. He had been counting on Nanchang to become his second sugar production center, after Anlu...

"Gong Ao was reckless and failed the Right Chief's recommendation!"

Gong Ao's face showed shame. "Li Xian advised me the same way, but by then I had already submitted my resignation letter. It was too late to chase it down."

He valued personal bonds deeply and took the interests of the southern expedition soldiers most to heart. Back when the First Emperor had wanted the soldiers to garrison the land on the spot, Gong Ao had voiced their discontent on their behalf.

He raised his head. "But the Right Chief can rest assured. Although I've resigned, I will not leave Nanchang, and I will make up for this!"

"How will you make up for it?" Ji Ying gnawed on the meat in his hand, shaking his head repeatedly. Gong Ao's resignation had greatly weakened the voice of Heifu's southern cadres in Nanchang.

Gong Ao declared resolutely: "I will take the entire Gong clan and move to Nanchang, to set up fields, houses, and estates there!"

"What?" Zhao Tuo was slightly startled. Chen Ping, seated at the end of the banquet and having barely gotten a word in, was also stunned.

This Gong Ao was just too damn upright!

Although Nanchang already had several thousand settlers and garrison troops, it was still a remote, wild frontier, not to mention the "water gu" that made people turn pale at its mention — schistosomiasis. That was the reason men in Jiangnan died young. Everyone else was thinking of how to move away, yet Gong Ao wanted to move his family from the rich and fertile Yan County to Nanchang. Had he gone mad!

Though Gong Ao was not old, after his uncle's death he had become the clan head by virtue of his "Grand Master" rank, and the Qin authorities welcomed this sort of migration to fill the wild lands.

"Have you thought this through?" Heifu asked Gong Ao.

"I've thought it through!"

Gong Ao ground his teeth. "As the saying goes, the local strongman is cast of iron, the county magistrate flows like water! I, Gong Ao, will become the strongman of Nanchang County and put down roots there! I refuse to believe I can't outlast this dog of a magistrate!"

He was locking horns. Everyone found Gong Ao's decision to stake his official career and his clan's future on a moment's impulse both laughable and lamentable, but this was exactly the sort of thing Gong Ao would do.

Chen Ping had been about to say, why resort to such a poor strategy? He himself had plenty of ways to let Gong Ao turn the tables on the Nanchang magistrate and drive him out. But after glancing at Heifu, he swallowed the words in his mouth.

A clever man never flaunts his cleverness at every moment, especially when his master is about to speak.

Heifu sighed but did not stop him. He rose and toasted Gong Ao with a cup of wine, then said with a faint smile: "Gong Ao's resolve, though worthy of encouragement, is a foolish method — first resigning in anger, then moving the whole clan over. Not something you gentlemen should learn!"

"Ji Ying, when you go back, tell everyone still in Jiangnan: if you encounter similar matters in the future, first send word to inform me. Heifu's position may not be high, and I may not hold much real power, but making a mere county magistrate vacate his seat — that I can still do!"

These words were spoken with immense confidence, and everyone's morale soared! Chen Ping also nodded to himself secretly. As expected, Heifu had not only placed all his men in key commandery and county posts, but also showed himself to be fiercely protective of his own. It seemed he had not made the wrong choice in coming to serve him.

After finishing the matter of Gong Ao, Heifu then brought up the transfer of his sworn brother Zhao Tuo.

"You gentlemen should also know that in the sixth month of last year (the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor), the Yue people of Qianling County in Dongting Commandery, incited by Chu remnants who had fled into Xi'ou, gathered a crowd and rebelled. After they were suppressed, although Dongting Commandery used conciliatory measures and only executed the chief culprits, the Yue people in Dongting and Changsha commanderies remain restless and maintain close contact with the lords of Xi'ou and Nanyue beyond the Five Ridges."

"Shanggan and Limen Pass have Xiao Tao guarding them, so the region is peaceful, but Dongting and Changsha need troop reinforcements. Jiangnan is crisscrossed with rivers and lakes, so His Majesty has decided to have General Tu of the Left Chief rank shift his garrison to Changsha and serve as Commandant of Changsha Commandery. General Tu, mindful of your talents, has requested to transfer you to the Cangwu region of Changsha."

Although Zhao Tuo had followed Heifu for a time, he still formally belonged to the tower-ship troops under Commandant Tu Sui. His transfer was not something Heifu could interfere with.

Xunyang, by the Yangtze River, was certainly richer than Cangwu. Zhao Tuo took it in stride and laughed: "Though I'm a northerner, I always seem to end up soaking in the lakes and waterways of the south!"

Heifu thought to himself: "Brother, you might end up soaking there for several more decades, and finally become a true southerner who time-travels while chewing betel nut..."

In addition, Zhao Tuo conveyed the apologies of their other sworn brother, Wu Rui. Wu Rui's father, Wu Shen, had just passed away, so he could not come to Xianyang.

"Gan is scorching hot year-round, with no winter snow. In the Yue tongue, there isn't even a word for snow. If he came and saw the sky full of heavy snow, he'd probably be terrified."

Zhao Tuo laughed, not knowing that in history, for the latter sixty or seventy years of his own life, he would never again feel the chill of a snowflake touching the back of his hand...

Heifu had always harbored a faint worry. Although the Emperor had no immediate intention of using force against Nanyue and Xi'ou, the southward transfer of Commandant Tu Sui and Zhao Tuo might be a harbinger.

"The common people have just been unified, the lands east of the mountains are not yet stable, and Jiangxi and Hunan are still undeveloped. To forcibly go and conquer the tropical rainforests of Guangdong and Guangxi at this time — though it would benefit later generations, it would be harmful to the present. Better to delay a few years, and at least build the roads through Changsha and Yuzhang first."

Heifu planned to find an opportunity after his marriage to admonish the First Emperor. Although many of his suggestions had been rejected by the Emperor, on the matter of the southern expedition, as someone who had once stood atop Limen Pass and gazed out toward the Five Ridges and the Yue provinces, he had considerable authority to speak!

That was all for later. Heifu's most important task now was not to embrace the world in his heart or keep an eye on the political situation, but to free up time to do one thing for himself.

Get married! Lose his virginity!

"A transmigrator as self-disciplined as me is pretty rare, right? Normally, in six or seven years, the women around a guy would be enough to fill a harem, plus countless ambiguous confidantes."

Mocking himself like this, Heifu also felt full of anticipation for the wedding procession the day after tomorrow...

(End of chapter)