Chapter 392: Crafty Hares and Flying Birds

After settling the land dispute among the five tribes, Heifu did not hurry back to Yiqu City. Instead, he took over a hundred personal guards and toured the various parts of Dayuan.

"Atop Dongzhi Plain, a wondrous sight unfolds; the boundless flatland stretches far to meet the sky." Later generations would use this verse to praise Dayuan. Indeed, compared to the surrounding thousand li of crisscrossing ravines and loess ridges, Dayuan is like an immense, flat, and unbroken plain. Once deep inside it, one can hardly believe they are walking on a high plateau.

Every so often, Heifu would step down from his carriage and have the accompanying Field Overseer, Assistant Field Officer, and other agricultural officials examine the water and soil. They found that Dayuan has thirteen streams evenly distributed within a two-hundred-li radius, the forest coverage is quite good, and the soil erosion common in later ages is virtually nonexistent. The soil everywhere is deep, loose, and soft, extremely suitable for farming.

Back then, if the ancestors of the Zhou people had been able to defeat the many Rong tribes here, they might well have settled and made their home in this place.

The old, dark-faced field official tossed aside the soil in his hand, licked his lips, and said, "Commandant, as long as there is enough water, this land can grow not only millet but also wheat."

Another Field Overseer added, "Dayuan is so flat that plowing the fields is very easy. If we have sufficient manpower, opening up a million mu of new farmland would be no problem at all..."

After receiving this report from the field officials who specialized in agriculture, Heifu became even more certain that Gongsun Bailu's proposal—to transform Dayuan from pastoralism to farming in order to support a larger population and resolve the pasture disputes—was feasible.

A later saying goes: "Eight hundred li of Qinchuan cannot compare to the edge of Dongzhi Plain!" For a very long time to come, this would be a fertile land known as the "Granary of Longdong." As the area in Beidi Commandery most suited for agriculture, even with current farming techniques, it could easily support ten thousand households. Yet now, with just over ten thousand Rong people living here, it is considered crowded—this is practically a waste of resources.

However, Heifu's thinking differed slightly from Gongsun Bailu's.

"Forcing the Rong people to abandon herding and take up farming is like forcing a warhorse to shed its saddle and be harnessed to a plow."

The Confucian scholars say: The peoples of the central states and the Rong and Yi, the inhabitants of the five directions, each have their own nature, which cannot be changed. Those in the west are called Rong; they wear their hair loose and dress in skins, and some do not eat grain. Those in the north are called Di; they wear feathers and furs and live in caves, and some do not eat grain.

There is some truth to this saying. The most obvious difference between the Rong-Di and the Huaxia is not bloodline, but way of life. The Rong-Di's living habits are deeply ingrained and cannot be altered by a single government decree. Although the Dayuan Rong people practice a mix of farming and herding, from what Heifu observed, they undoubtedly rely primarily on animal husbandry. They measure a family's wealth by the number of livestock they own. As for fields, they casually burn a patch of forest, scatter seeds everywhere, and do no intensive cultivation, nor do they apply fertilizer or irrigate the land.

Forcing them to abandon herding and devote themselves to farming would certainly meet with enormous resistance. Even if it succeeded, Heifu very much doubted whether the grain the Rong people grew would be enough to feed themselves.

Besides, if all the Rong people went off to farm and neglected mounted archery, Beidi's cavalry would lose a large source of soldiers.

Therefore, Heifu's plan coincided perfectly with Gongsun Bailu's second idea!

"Commandant, if you ask me, since Dayuan can no longer accommodate so many people and livestock, and the ban from fifty years ago is outdated, why not petition the imperial court to relax the prohibition and allow the five tribes to migrate elsewhere to graze? Otherwise, even if you, Commandant, make the five tribes reconcile, in a few years they will still end up in chaotic fighting and bloodshed. When that time comes, the matter probably won't be solvable by a simple tug-of-war."

Heifu had not expressed his opinion on Gongsun Bailu's proposal at Pengyang. Gongsun Bailu did not know that the plan brewing in the mind of this new Commandant was far more radical than his own!

On the first day of the tenth month, after returning to the commandery seat, Heifu did not even go home. He went straight to the Commandant's office and summoned the留守 Chen Ping to see him. He told Chen Ping what he had seen and heard, and put forward a bold plan.

"Within three years, I intend to make all the Dayuan Rong people voluntarily relocate, and then repopulate the area with immigrants from Guanzhong and Guandong!"

"Voluntarily relocate?"

Chen Ping was slightly taken aback.

Heifu had his own scheme: "Having no fixed abode, following the water and grass, with little grain in the land, making a living from livestock herding—these have always been the customs of the Rong people. It was only because King Zhao treated Dayuan like a dog pen and penned the five tribes inside it. If the government removes the fences, the five tribes will still migrate."

During the half-month Heifu was away, Chen Ping had not been idle. After taking up his new post as Chief Clerk to the Commandant, he had immersed himself in the office day and night, completing the tasks Heifu had thrown at him—such as verifying the commandery troop rosters and preparing winter clothing and fodder. Then, without pause, he began receiving the "annual accounting" bamboo slips sent from each county, categorizing and filing them one by one, so busy he barely had time to drink water.

Even so, he had found time to browse the Beidi Commandery registers on the various Rong tribes and had gained some understanding of the Dayuan Rong. Hearing Heifu's words now, he asked:

"This subordinate dares to ask the Commandant, where can they be relocated to? You must know, the Rong people of Beidi are not limited to the five tribes of Dayuan. Along the Jing River, there are the Wushi Rong and the Chaona Rong; along the Ni River, there are the Yuzhi Rong and the Yiqu Rong, each occupying their own pastures. Beidi may seem vast, but truly flat and livable places are not many..."

In his view, the Dayuan Rong were already the troublemakers of Beidi. If they were inserted elsewhere, they would likely cause conflict and disrupt Beidi's order. It would be better to confine them to one place.

Therefore, when Heifu went to handle the Dayuan Rong dispute, Chen Ping had even offered a vicious scheme to "use Rong against Rong": seize the opportunity to create disputes among the five tribes, make their mutual slaughter even worse, and let them wear each other down. The government would support two tribes in attacking three, or vice versa, until all five tribes were weakened, and the government and immigrants would reap the benefits.

Heifu, however, disagreed. "When hunting dogs fight among themselves, their bloodlust is aroused, and they may even bite their master. Moreover, hunting dogs are meant for hunting. Now, the crafty hares are not yet dead, and the flying birds are still here. How can we be in a hurry to put away the bows and cook the hounds?"

His vision was not limited to the territory of Beidi, but extended to the vast distance beyond.

"Bring the map!"

The assistant clerks hurriedly hung up the map of Beidi Commandery.

Heifu and Chen Ping walked over to the map. Heifu said, "All the hustle and bustle under heaven is for profit; all the comings and goings under heaven are for profit. Over the past few decades, whenever the Qin army recruited Rong cavalry, the Rong people vied to enlist. The reason, aside from their hardy, fierce, and brave nature—considering death in battle auspicious and death from illness inauspicious—was that by conquering the six states, they could earn bounty gold, and the spoils they seized could be kept as their own."

"With the realm unified, for the past two years, the Rong cavalry have had no battlefield to prove themselves. Not daring to harass the registered commoner households, they could only clash with each other, and private feuds became rampant."

"But what if now, in lands beyond our borders, there were new prey for them to tear apart and plunder, and even to seize their rich, fertile pastures? Would the five tribes still cling to Dayuan and remain unmoved?"

Chen Ping's heart stirred. He also knew that Heifu's appointment as Commandant of Beidi was an important part of Qin Shi Huang's grand "Westward Expansion" plan. Li Xin of Longxi Commandery's target was Hexi; Qiang Hui and Feng Jie of Shang Commandery's target was the Xiongnu's Henan territory; Meng Tian of Yunzhong Commandery's target was the Zhao cities of Jiuyuan and Gaique Fortress, seized by the Xiongnu. As the initiator of the plan, how could Heifu not have his own target?

"The crafty hares and flying birds the Commandant has his eye on, could they be..."

Chen Ping's gaze found Xiao Pass on the map, and then his eyes moved upward. Beyond the border, most of the area was blank, occupied by sprawling deserts and mountain ranges...

But it was not entirely empty!

Indeed, Heifu had long since identified the prey in his heart.

It lay beyond the Great Wall, north of Xiao Pass, south of the Helan Mountains, on the banks of the great river!

Heifu found its approximate location, clenched his hand into a fist, and slammed it heavily down on the spot!

"Here is a land flowing with milk and honey! It can not only allow the five tribes of Dayuan to relocate and graze, but also establish new counties and towns, and send immigrants to open up military farms!"

That place, in later ages, would be called "Lingzhou" and "Yinchuan." It also has a resounding name:

The Southern Frontier Beyond the Great Wall!

The tenth month had arrived. Six hundred li north of Xiao Pass, the chill from the north was felt even earlier.

A young nobleman of eighteen or nineteen, wearing a golden crown ornament and a black leopard-skin cloak, with a powerful bow on his back and deerskin boots on his feet, was riding his fiery red steed at a gallop across the withered yellow grassland. The horse had long, slender limbs and light, swift hooves, racing forward and leaving the crowd of Xiongnu riders far behind, arriving first at the felt tent!

The young man reined in his horse and turned back, raising his bow high. He was the victor of this race!

"Helan!" The Xiongnu riders who arrived one after another behind him cheered, throwing their felt hats at the feet of the young man's horse to show their admiration.

"Helan!" The Xiongnu women who had been waiting a long time at the felt tent also ran over, laughing, stretching out their hands, their round faces lifted, longing for the prince's favor.

But the young man paid them no attention. His eyes were fixed on the Helan mountain range, its peaks laden with silvery frost and snow, watching the snowflakes blown by the strong wind fall halfway down the mountainside.

"Helan," in the Xiongnu language, is the name of a fine steed. He liked this mountain, liked the winter pasture at its foot, even though this was just one of the Xiongnu's many territories.

Because the prince felt that this mountain had some mysterious connection with him.

On the day he was born, the great shaman had lifted his bloodied body high, placed him on a horse's back, and proclaimed a prophecy about the prince:

He, the son of the Xiongnu Chanyu Touman, the prince Modun of the Luandi clan, was destined to be a fine steed that would gallop across ten thousand li!

(End of chapter)