Chapter 377: Trail of Blood and Tears

Fuhan was not a city — just a solitary watchtower, standing where the Li River met the great Yellow River. At least it wasn't built of rammed loess, but of far sturdier black stone. Looking up, Heifu could glimpse a few faces framed by tangled beards peering out from between the battlements.

These were the garrison troops Li Xin had left behind after seizing the Taoxi region a year ago. Not many — one platoon of fifty men. Yet when the platoon leader came to pay his respects to Li Xin, he reported only forty-eight remained.

"Five days ago, two men went out hunting together and never returned. I sent a squad of ten to search, but found nothing. Perhaps they ran into a wild beast, or encountered the Qiang of Huangzhong — captured and killed…"

Li Xin said nothing, merely nodding at Qiang Huang.

Qiang Huang was already fuming and cut the platoon leader short: "No need to guess. One of them did indeed fall from a cliff and die. As for the other — he deserted!"

With a wave of his hand, the soldiers dragged forward a filthy Qin soldier, his hands bound behind his back.

It turned out that after seeing his comrade fall to his death, this man had lost his nerve. Having endured nearly a year of garrison duty on this bitter, cold frontier, he could bear it no longer and resolved to flee. But luck was not on his side — as he walked along the Tao River, he ran straight into Li Xin's column. The scouts, finding his behavior suspicious, seized him and quickly identified him from his clothing and travel permit as a deserter from the Qin army.

By military law, desertion was punishable by death. And under the collective-punishment statutes, if one man fled, the penalty extended to the other four in his squad. The three surviving squad-mates were flogged, and afterward, officials would be sent to the deserter's home to hold his parents and family accountable…

It was precisely these draconian military laws that kept the majority of these frontier garrison troops from deserting.

Li Xin understood the hardships of the border guards, so after delivering this slap, he immediately gave them a sweet date to eat.

"This general has come not only to bestow clothing, food, and rewards upon you, but also to rotate the garrison."

At the news that their bitter frontier days would soon end, all forty-eight men of Fuhan Fortress erupted in cheers.

After having the main army set up camp outside the watchtower, Li Xin spoke to Heifu about the difficulties of establishing outpost garrisons beyond the border.

"Fuhan is one hundred eighty li from Didao, with no road along the way — one can only advance slowly along the Tao River. The troops garrisoned here depend entirely on Didao for their monthly supplies of food and clothing. Though I send men every month, there are always times when supplies fail to arrive, especially after winter sets in…"

Perhaps feeling that a southerner could never grasp the terror of a Qiang-land winter, Li Xin had the platoon leader come over and show Heifu a trophy left by the cold — a frostbitten, rotting ear.

"And one toe as well. This humble officer's injuries are light — that deserter lost two fingers to frostbite outright, and one of his ears is nothing but a lump of flesh!"

Though summer had already arrived, the platoon leader still shivered recalling the previous winter. Fuhan Fortress had just been completed then, and its defenses against the cold were poor. Heavy snow had sealed the roads, and Didao could send nothing for three months. They had to ration what little they had, hunt game to stave off hunger, drape animal pelts over their bodies, and huddle together for warmth around the fire.

Heifu nodded. He understood — the further west one went, the higher the altitude and the harsher the winter. In the height of summer, it was merely cool here; by early autumn, one would already need winter clothes. Fuhan lay at the very edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where one occasionally saw highland creatures like yaks. If even cattle needed such thick pelts to ward off the cold, how much more so did men?

Under such bitter conditions, surrounded for a hundred li in every direction by Qiang and Rong tribes whose language they could not understand, life was unbearably monotonous. Stay too long, and a man's spirit truly could break.

Heifu voiced his own puzzlement: "North of the Didao Long Wall and east of the Tao River, there is plenty of fertile land. Taoxi has some pastureland too, but it is mostly mountainous, bitter, and cold — hard to grow the five grains, and difficult to station troops. Why must the General build a fortress at Fuhan?"

From Heifu's perspective as a man of later ages, the lands west of the Tao River, even two thousand years later, remained various ethnic autonomous counties populated by Tibetans and Qiang — and they were not even a necessary route into the Hexi Corridor. Abandoning them would be no great loss.

"This Fuhan Fortress — it absolutely had to be built!"

But what Li Xin said next gave Heifu quite an education.

"The Right Chief of the Masses may have heard that the Western Qiang originate from the Sanmiao, a branch of the Jiang lineage. When Shun exiled the Four Evils, he banished them to Sanwei. The Qiang lands stretch from west of Mount Long to the headwaters of the Yellow River, a thousand li of territory. They border the barbarians beyond Shu and Han to the south, and the Yuezhi to the northwest. They have no fixed abode, following water and pasture. Grain is scarce; their livelihood is herding."

Heifu sketched a map in his mind and realized this region was essentially half of what would later be Gansu.

Setting aside the Qiang's deep ties to the Jiang-surnamed Four Peaks during the Yin and Zhou eras, and their love-hate entanglements with the Zhou royal house — the Qiang's entanglements with Qin all began two hundred years ago, in the time of Duke Li of Qin.

By then, Qin had already established hegemony over the Western Rong. Short on labor, they launched massive strikes against the Qiang tribes west of Mount Long, capturing many and taking them back to Guanzhong as slaves.

One of them, a Qiang man named Wuyi Yuanjian, became a Qin bondservant — "Wuyi" in the Qiang tongue means "slave." His wife was a Qiang woman who had suffered the punishment of nasal amputation, her nose cut off.

Later, Yuanjian rallied a group of his own people and fled Guanzhong. Pursued by the Qin, who even set the mountains ablaze to try to burn them alive, they survived only by hiding inside a cave.

After escaping to Longxi, the Qiang heard that Yuanjian had lived through the raging fire. Astonished, they believed he had divine protection and acclaimed him as their chieftain. Having lived in Guanzhong, Wuyi Yuanjian had learned the Qin people's advanced farming techniques and taught them to the Qiang, earning their respect and trust. More and more flocked to him, and his became the largest tribe.

But good times did not last. By the time Yuanjian's great-grandson Ren Jifu was chieftain, Duke Xian of Qin had just ascended the throne. Determined to restore the achievements of Duke Mu, he marched his troops to the headwaters of the Wei River, sweeping away the remaining Rong tribes and also striking hard at the increasingly prosperous Qiang, shattering them into fragments.

"From that time on, the Qiang split into three branches."

Li Xin had the platoon leader spread out a map drawn on a sheepskin scroll. Pointing to the map's northeastern corner, the region east of the Yellow River, he said: "Some Qiang mingled with the various Rong tribes here — that is the first branch. This is also the area the Right Chief of the Masses proposed we seize."

This was the area around what would later be Lanzhou.

Li Xin then pointed to the waterways and great lake in the map's northwestern corner: "This is Huangzhong and the Western Sea. The Qiang chieftain Ren Jifu led his tribe in migrating here. The He-Huang Qiang are the most numerous."

His finger then moved southward: "There were also several Qiang tribes that did not go to Huangzhong, but chose to migrate south instead. They crossed the Ci-Zhi River bend and traveled several thousand li west, entering the lands west of Shu Commandery, scattering among the high mountains and deep ravines. Some became the Yak breed — Qin calls them the Yuezui Qiang. Some became the White Horse breed — Qin calls them the Guanghan Qiang. Some became the Shen Wolf breed — Qin calls them the Wudu Qiang… This is the third branch."

After hearing all this, Heifu could only think of one word to describe it: tragic!

The history of the Qiang was practically a volume of blood and tears — enslaved by Qin, hunted by Qin. Driven from their homeland, scattering west and south in a great dispersal — it was nothing short of a Trail of Blood and Tears.

Having finished describing the three major regions where the Qiang congregated, Li Xin tapped a black square at the very center of the map: "Fuhan is here, commanding the corridor between the Li River and the Tao River."

"A corridor?"

"Indeed. West of the Li River are high mountains; east of the Tao River are the Qin fortifications, blocked by the Long Wall. Only the land between the two rivers lies lower — it is the critical north-south passage for Qiang migrations."

Heifu understood now: "By establishing a fortress at Fuhan, the General not only keeps a close watch on the Huangzhong Qiang, but also aims to prevent the Qiang of the three regions from communicating and linking up with one another!?"

"Exactly!"

Li Xin continued: "This Commandant has no interest in Huangzhong. But I believe that the Qiang, scattered and divided, are nothing to fear. Yet if they were to unite under a single leader as they did two hundred years ago under Wuyi Yuanjian and oppose Qin — then the calamity of the Western Qiang would be no less than that of the Yiqu back then!"

His assessment was sound. As far as Heifu knew, though the Qiang seemed harmless now, two hundred years later, by the time of the Former and Latter Han dynasties, the Qiang would indeed become a great scourge, plaguing all of Longxi and even Guanzhong itself.

But if Fuhan Fortress could be expanded into a walled city, or even if the Long Wall could be extended to this point, it would effectively cut off the Qiang of the three regions from one another.

Heifu cupped his hands in salute: "The General does not underestimate the Qiang just because they are fractured and weak — truly the bearing of a steady, great commander."

Li Xin shook his head: "Xin is a man who brought ruin to his army and disgrace to his nation. How could I dare be arrogant or conceited again?"

Still, Li Xin had his worries. The existence of Fuhan Fortress was essential, but how to sustain it, improve the garrison troops' lives, and prevent further desertions — that was another difficulty.

Moreover, this platoon of garrison troops had only just, after great hardship, grown familiar with the local environment. In a year they would be rotated out and replaced with fresh men.

"I do have an idea that might solve this problem."

After carefully studying the local conditions, Heifu seized the moment and put forward an idea that was not exactly novel.

Having witnessed the advantages of the high saddle and stirrups, Li Xin was quite eager for Heifu's steady stream of ideas. He clasped his fists: "Xin is all ears!"

"It's very simple."

Pointing beyond Fuhan Fortress, at the open valley floor beside the Li River, Heifu said: "Military farming!"

(End of chapter)