Chapter 393: Warmth

In the twelfth month of the twenty-eighth year of the First Emperor's reign (the twelfth lunar month), snow began to drift across the northern lands. At first it was only scattered flurries, and though the air was somewhat bleak and chill, the residents of Yiqu City could still manage easily enough. But the snow continued the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, until Yiqu City was a vast expanse of white both inside and out. The drifts buried the roof tiles, and the cold wind came howling, whipping up swirling snowflakes…

The temperature plummeted. The poor shivered in their thick but utterly uninsulating coarse-hemp brown clothes, relying on the lingering warmth of stove ashes to survive the freezing nights. The rich donned furs of every kind of animal, burning charcoal and drinking wine indoors to keep warm, yet still they could not escape the relentless cold that seeped in everywhere.

But in the Commandant's residence, it was a completely different scene.

When Chen Ping's wife, Lady Zhang, accepted the mistress's invitation and brought her son Chen Mai into the inner chamber, she was astonished the moment she stepped inside!

Unlike the bitter cold outside, the room was impossibly warm! The moment she entered, the snowflakes on the tips of her hair melted away completely, and her son Chen Mai's little face, flushed red from the cold, quickly grew warm as well…

"Madam, why is this room so warm?"

Lady Zhang looked around but saw no charcoal braziers or anything of the sort, which surprised her even more.

Ye Zijin merely smiled and did not answer, instead inviting mother and son to sit on the platform couch and have some pastries.

This couch was different from the usual low wooden couches — it was built of brick, raised several feet above the ground, so one had to climb up onto it. Lady Zhang also came from a prominent family and had been educated in the Confucian tradition since childhood, with an emphasis on proper womanly bearing, so she was very mindful of not committing any breach of etiquette.

But Lady Ye did not stand on ceremony. Without further ado, she affectionately scooped up little Chen Mai and placed him on the couch first.

Chen Mai was only one year old and could not yet speak, only making babbling sounds, but once on the couch he was exceptionally delighted. Lady Zhang, worried her son might crawl around and knock over the vessels on the low table atop the couch, had no choice but to climb up after him.

The moment her backside touched the couch, she immediately felt a surge of warmth. Startled, she looked down and touched it with her hand, discovering that the couch was extraordinarily hot, as if… as if a stream of hot air were rolling around inside it!

"It is a heated kang — an earthen bed built around the room, with a fire lit beneath it, upon which one sleeps, eats, and lives. Hence it is called a kang. In this harsh winter, its sole purpose is to draw warmth from it."

Ye Zijin cleared up her confusion. As it turned out, not only was the space beneath the brick couch hollow, but the walls of this new room were also hollow "cavity walls." A flue was dug beneath the wall, and the opening for adding fuel was located under the eaves of the adjacent building. When charcoal fire was burned in this opening, the heat would travel along the cavity walls and warm the adjoining main room, making the kang couch especially warm. Ye Zijin could curl up on the kang like a cat to rest and nap, without having to shiver beside a charcoal brazier like the mistresses of other households.

To avoid waste, she had also had the cooking area moved from the eastern kitchen to the adjacent room, killing two birds with one stone.

After explaining the principle of the heated kang, Ye Zijin told Lady Zhang an amusing story: "You should know, the Commandant is terribly afraid of the cold…"

Heifu, a southerner in both his past and present lives, was indeed extremely afraid of the cold. After just a few light snowfalls the previous month, he had already been complaining that he couldn't bear it, and once the twelfth month arrived, he was shivering uncontrollably. Because he dreaded the cold, he racked his brains to devise a way to keep himself and his family warm, and finally came up with this thing called a "heated kang."

One need not have eaten pork to have seen a pig run. Heifu put forward the idea and had craftsmen who specialized in building houses and repairing stoves perfect it for him, drawing on the semi-subterranean cave dwellings common on the Loess Plateau. Before the heavy snow arrived, they had built this new room.

"With this room, we can pass a warm winter in the northern lands this year."

Heifu was thoroughly satisfied with this. After lighting a fire in the fuel opening and confirming that the smoke would not backdraft into the main room and cause danger, he instructed Ye Zijin to have someone build a room with a heated kang in the small courtyard of Chen Ping's house once the snow stopped…

"The Commandant and Madam truly show my family the greatest kindness!"

Lady Zhang promptly bowed deeply to Madam Ye. The previous winter, Chen Ping had left her when she was eight months pregnant and gone alone to Xianyang to attend Heifu's wedding banquet. Though she understood her husband, she had not been without some resentment in her heart.

This autumn, Chen Ping had again followed Heifu north as his retainer when Heifu took up his post in the northern lands. Though her husband had leaped from a mere village clerk to Chief Clerk to the Commandant, and Lady Zhang was delighted for him, the northern lands were a mix of Hua and Rong peoples, and she was not at all accustomed to it. Moreover, Chen Ping was busy all day managing government affairs for Heifu, so she could only see him once at nightfall. The next morning when she woke, he was already gone without a trace. Though she did not speak of it, Lady Zhang felt somewhat dejected in her heart.

But Lady Ye was extremely kind to her and her son, giving them clothes and sharing her food. Though she knew this was likely the Madam's way of helping the Commandant manage his subordinates, the fact that she went to such lengths deeply moved her, and she said with emotion:

"Madam treats my son and me better than close kin or distant relatives!"

She then began to ramble on about how their household had fared every winter back in Yangwu County.

Although Lady Zhang's family was wealthy, Chen Ping still wanted to maintain some face and could not endlessly spend his wife's family's money. So when winter came, they still could not afford to burn charcoal. Chen Ping was devoted to learning and would borrow books from the Zhang family to copy. He was also a man of his word and would return them on time. On heavy snow days, the inkstone would freeze over, and his fingers would be too stiff to bend, yet he never dared slack off in the slightest.

"With this warm kang, my good husband will no longer have to endure such hardship."

However, while the women were curled up on the kang chatting idly, Heifu and Chen Ping could not enjoy this warmth. At this very moment, they were braving the wind and snow, heading to the commandery troops' barracks to reward the soldiers…

…

Yiqu City had five hundred commandery troops and five hundred garrison conscripts. The commandery troops were the standing army, while the garrison conscripts were men levied from various places west of the Pass to serve. In this weather, apart from the few who had to stand guard on the city walls, everyone else was huddled inside their quarters.

In the commandery troops' barracks, inside a large room that housed ten men, the ten of them were neatly gathered in a tight circle. Their daily ration of firewood had already been burned up, so they could only wrap their bedding around themselves, stretch their hands over the still-warm pit ashes, and squeeze together for warmth, talking incessantly as if that might make the room a little warmer.

"I'd really love a jug of hot wine."

The old squad leader, his nose red from the cold, sighed in this way.

"A warm woman would be even better," the scrawny squad commander chuckled lewdly.

"There are brothels in the market ward — can you afford to go?" The commandery troops began to jeer.

At that moment, a garrison conscript from Weinan swallowed and said, "I'd rather have some hot soup cakes."

"What are soup cakes?" Several garrison conscripts from the northern lands and Longxi turned to him and asked curiously.

"It's a food brought by those relocated captives from east of the mountains who can only eat wheat." The Guanzhong garrison conscripts did not know that this dish had actually come from their Commandant's own kitchen; they assumed it was a custom from east of the Pass.

"You all know wheat flour, right? First, mix the flour with cold meat broth, then knead and roll it to the thickness of chopsticks, cut it into one-foot lengths, and slice it with a knife as thin as leek leaves. Then boil it in soup until it's fully cooked, take it out of the pot, and add some scallions, chives, or winter mallow according to your taste. Wealthy households can even pour a layer of minced meat over it… This stuff is perfect for snowy days — one bowl down and the cold is completely gone!"

As this garrison conscript spoke, the other nine men all licked their lips, feeling a pang of hunger in their bellies. Their bodies seemed to grow even colder, so they could only squeeze tighter, wishing they could crawl into each other's clothes…

Just then, the door to the room was suddenly shoved wide open! Wind mixed with snowflakes poured into the room, and the space that ten men's body heat had barely managed to warm was once again filled with bitter cold.

"Who is it!?"

The squad leader rose cursing, ready to swear loudly, but when he looked closely, he was stunned.

A man stood in the doorway, dressed somewhat oddly: he wore a crimson official robe on the outside and a dog-fur hat on his head, with a black woolen garment of the Qiang and Rong tribes underneath, a sword at his waist, and a dark complexion. After pushing open the door, he swept his gaze over the shivering soldiers inside and broke into a smile:

"This Commandant heard that you fellows wanted to drink hot wine and eat soup cakes, so I have brought them to you!"

…

The snow had stopped. In the barracks kitchen, the stove fire was burning vigorously, and the aroma of meat broth wafted everywhere. Every squad of commandery troops and garrison conscripts brought their own earthenware cauldrons and placed them directly on the stoves, where the cooks Heifu had brought from Guanzhong made soup cakes for them. Once cooked, they simply carried the cauldrons away, found a flat spot on the ground, and let everyone ladle out their share with their bowls.

The barracks were immediately filled with the sound of ravenous slurping, punctuated now and then by someone scalding their mouth from eating too fast.

"Take your time, fellows, don't burn yourselves — today there's enough for everyone!" The wheat harvest in the Inner Scribes region had been bountiful this year, and Heifu had sent a good amount over.

"Thank you, Commandant!"

The Commandant's words were relayed throughout the barracks, and a cheer immediately erupted.

Besides the soup cakes, there was also the rice wine they had been craving for so long. Warmed by the stove, each man received a cup. As it went down their bellies, they immediately felt a warmth spreading inside.

Everyone was thoroughly satisfied, and some even shed tears as they drank.

"In all my years as a commandery soldier, this is the only Commandant who has ever cared whether we were cold or warm!"

Watching the garrison conscripts pat their bellies contentedly as they burped, and listening to the commandery troops' words of gratitude, Heifu turned to Chen Ping beside him and said, "Your idea was a good one."

On the way to the barracks, the weather had been dreadful. The blizzard had come on fiercely, the wind lashing like a whip, stinging their faces painfully.

But Chen Ping had strongly urged Heifu: "It is precisely this kind of weather that is suited for winning people's hearts…"

Going out today had been Chen Ping's idea: "The Art of War says, 'Regard your soldiers as your own infants, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; treat your soldiers as your beloved sons, and they will stand by you unto death.' The Commandant intends to campaign against the Xiongnu next year — you must first win the hearts of the soldiers!"

Besides delivering food and hot wine, Heifu had also brought one more thing for the commandery troops and garrison conscripts.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Heifu ordered the squad leaders and fireteam leaders to step forward, then had the covered carts, their loads draped with sackcloth, driven in. One by one, woolen garments — some white, some black, some black-and-white — were distributed to the soldiers.

"Isn't this the woven-hair clothing the Qiang wear?"

Men from Longxi were no strangers to it; the Qiang in that region often wore such things.

But the men from Beidi were somewhat baffled. It turned out that although Beidi also had long-wool sheep, the wool was far too coarse and unsuited for spinning thread, so such clothing was uncommon there.

"Warm as this garment is, it reeks — a stink of sheep."

A garrison conscript from Longxi said this, but when he received his woolen garment, he discovered with surprise that, though it did have a strange smell, it was nowhere near as strong as he had imagined.

It turned out that in the spring, Heifu had traveled to the Qiang lands in Longxi. Watching the Qiang shear sheep had inspired him, and he had submitted the "Memorial on Shearing Sheep for Clothing." This memorial was approved by Qin Shi Huang. Following Heifu's suggestion, the Wushi Luo was ordered to send trading parties into Huangzhong, where they purchased large numbers of long-wool Qiang sheep and drove them to Longxi to be bred. By means fair and foul — buying, tricking, seizing — scores of Qiang women were brought within the passes to teach the weavers the arts of shearing and spinning.

The Eastern and Western Weaving Workshops under the Privy Treasury, along with the Mohists, pooled their ideas and discovered that the plant ash used in papermaking could also degrease wool. So after the final shearing of autumn, they rushed to produce a batch of woolen garments with a much fainter odor. The clothing was finished in the eleventh month and dispatched separately to Beidi, Shangjun, and Longxi.

Because snow made the roads difficult, the five hundred woolen garments only reached Yiqu City today. Chen Ping proposed to Heifu that they not delay a single day but deliver them to the commandery troops at once!

"The Commandant once said, adding flowers to brocade is not as good as sending charcoal in the snow. Delivering clothes today is just like giving charcoal!"

After the garrison conscripts and commandery soldiers, shivering in the snowy weather, put on these garments, they found them a bit itchy, but at least they were not as cold as before.

Besides the woolen garments, there were even some dog-fur hats. Heifu personally placed one on the Five Hundred Leader, whose ears, red from the cold, were now protected. Deeply moved, the man immediately prostrated himself, pressing his forehead into the snow...

But then another problem arose. The commandery troops and garrison conscripts numbered over a thousand men, yet there were only five hundred woolen garments, and the dog-fur hats numbered barely more than twenty. How were they to be divided?

This task Heifu did not need to handle personally; he entrusted it to Chen Ping.

Just as Chen Ping divided sacrificial meat fairly, distributing clothes and hats was no trouble for him. He ordered the Hundred Leaders and Garrison Leaders to step forward and gave them the dog-fur hats and the best woolen garments. Next, he had the squad leaders and fireteam leaders step forward and allotted them woolen garments.

After that, the men were arranged in order by rank of nobility, and the items were handed out one by one...

In this way, every man with a noble rank basically received a woolen garment. The remaining men were arranged by age, and the distribution continued until the supply carts were empty.

The Qin army was strictly hierarchical to begin with, so no one had anything to say about this method of distribution.

"With at least five garments per squad, when rain or snow comes, can't we just let the men going out on duty wear them?" As he spoke, Heifu took off his own woolen garment and handed it to a very young-looking lad whose face was already cracking from the cold!

"How can you say you have no clothes? I will share my robe with you!"

Led by Heifu, the commandery troops and garrison conscripts followed suit one after another, just as they had earlier huddled together for warmth. Everyone shared the warm, cold-blocking woolen garments. The song "No Clothes" gradually swelled in volume, spreading through the encampment, spreading through Yiqu City!

"How can you say you have no clothes? I will share my undershirt with you!"

"How can you say you have no clothes? I will share my lower garments with you!"

"The king is raising his hosts. I will polish my lance and blade, and march alongside you!"

Within the song, it seemed as if all Yiqu City were ringed by hearth-fires, and this warmth that sprang from the heart seemed about to melt the frost and snow covering the city...

The following month, when word of this reached Xianyang, it earned the praise of Qin Shi Huang. He ordered the commandery and county commandants west of the passes to emulate the act. From this time on, the practice of officers sending clothes and food to the soldiers in winter gradually became a custom, which later ages called:

"Sending Warmth"!

(End of Chapter)