Chapter 398: Sheep Eating People

"The Rong people have a saying: 'A single leaf before the eye hides Mount Jitou from sight.' That saying is about me."

The next day, after seeing the Commandant of Beidi Commandery, Heifu, off from Wushi County, Wushi Luo remarked to his younger brother with this sentiment.

Yesterday's conversation with Heifu and Chen Ping had stirred Wushi Luo deeply.

He had always regarded the trade with the Xiongnu and Yuezhi as his family's source of wealth, thinking that if the two tribes were swept away by Qin, this transit trade business would be impossible to continue, and so he had held a negative attitude toward the Western Expansion Plan.

But Heifu had provided him with a new line of thought: not only could the trade continue, but the Wushi caravans could travel even farther and reap even greater profits!

Wushi Luo had already decided that in the third month, he would dispatch a caravan to detour through Huangzhong and go take a look at what Heifu called the "Western Regions."

That was the long-range venture. Before leaving, Heifu had also pointed Wushi Luo toward a short-range venture: wool.

When Heifu and Li Xin went to Mount Jishi to perform the river-source sacrifice, the local Qiang people, rich in shepherding experience, had told him: the Qiang sheep was domesticated from the wild argali. On the wild sheep, there are two types of wool. One is coarse wool, roughly as thick as human hair. The other is down, which grows close to the skin. The down is specifically for keeping warm in winter, so every year after spring begins, the down on the sheep's body sheds, and new down grows back after autumn begins.

Over thousands of years, the Qiang people selectively bred the wild sheep, forming the Qiang sheep. The wool it produces no longer differentiates into coarse wool and down; its thickness falls between the two. Moreover, it does not shed in spring but instead, like human hair, keeps growing continuously. In this way, not only is the wool's uniformity very good, but the yield is also greatly increased.

Only this kind of wool can be twisted into yarn and woven into woolen garments.

After arriving in Beidi Commandery, Heifu discovered that the local area also had sheep, but they were somewhat different from the sheep of Longxi and Huangzhong, possibly a separate subspecies. This sheep was also called the Tan sheep; its meat was delicious, a delicacy even in later ages. But its wool was as coarse as that of the wild sheep, so the local Rong tribes did not shear it to spin cloth. Instead, they directly skinned the animals for fur, or used the wool to weave rough felt tents — making clothing from it was out of the question.

This was the reason the wool textile industry in Beidi and among the Xiongnu was far inferior to that in Longxi and the Qiang territories.

Introducing this new industry into Beidi was also a way to bring new vitality to the local livestock economy.

"Yi Dun built his fortune on salt ponds, because salt ponds are inexhaustible and everyone must consume salt. Wool is the same. Even if it were only used by the border commandery armies, the need would be over a hundred thousand garments! If one day it spread throughout the realm, so that everyone in the north relied on it to survive the harsh winter, the need would be over ten million garments! But now, after half a year, Longxi Commandery has only managed to weave two thousand..."

Although the woolen garments of this era were heavy with grease, had a rather strong smell, and were hand-woven in loose, crude styles that did not match the aesthetic sensibilities of the Central Plains people, their ability to retain warmth far surpassed silk and hemp. He could not say for elsewhere, but beyond the Passes, in the bitterly cold regions of Daibei, Yan, and Liaodong, they would certainly be very well received.

Heifu hoped that Wushi Luo could purchase more Qiang sheep, raise them in Beidi, and develop a local wool textile industry, which could well serve as a new source of wealth.

The hides and meat of livestock were one-time transactions, but wool could be sheared continuously for ten years.

Commandant Hei was of course not considering this purely out of selflessness for the Wushi. The two thousand woolen garments woven by Longxi Commandery last year — Longxi kept one thousand for itself, and gave five hundred each to Beidi and Shang commanderies — were truly in short supply. If Beidi Commandery could raise several thousand Qiang sheep and open a few textile workshops, the clothing problem for the commandery troops would be solved.

Any policy requires an economic foundation — unification is so, and expansion is so. Humans do not do things without profit. Without economic ties, pure conquest cannot last. If the wool textile industry could expand further and reap enormous profits, the dynasties of the Central Plains might no longer view the steppe as "useless land," but would instead diligently seek to control it! Perhaps a thousand years hence, the nomads, forced to retreat step by step, fleeing into the great desert with almost no living space left, would bitterly denounce this act of "sheep eating people"...

With both the long-range and short-range strategies laid out before him, Wushi Luo could not help but admit: "The Commandant did not lie. He has indeed given my family a business worth hundreds of millions in cash!"

As merchants, they valued the principle of returning a plum for a peach. Wushi Luo instructed his younger brother to immediately prepare the caravan that would go to the Xiongnu in the second or third month. From now on, their Wushi clan would exert all their strength to assist Qin Shi Huang's national policy of Western Expansion!

"The Commandant will arrange for some officials to infiltrate the caravan, to go deep into the Xiongnu heartland along with the merchants, to scout their military preparedness and draw maps."

And the leader of these Qin officials was none other than the Commandant's Chief Clerk, Chen Ping!

"Chen Ping, do you truly wish to go as a spy, following the merchants beyond the frontier to investigate the true situation of the Xiongnu?"

After leaving Wushi County, Heifu summoned Chen Ping to ride with him in the same carriage and asked him one final time.

Heifu was somewhat reluctant to let Chen Ping court danger. For one, the two had known each other for several years now; they were superior and subordinate, but also had some friendship. For another, he knew that Chen Ping had the talent of a future prime minister. If he were lost among the Xiongnu, or if an accident occurred and he were detained for many years like Zhang Qian or Su Wu, would that not be a terrible waste?

Chen Ping, however, was very resolute: "The reason an enlightened ruler and a worthy general move and overcome others, achieving success beyond the masses, is foreknowledge. Foreknowledge cannot be obtained from ghosts and spirits, cannot be inferred from analogous events, cannot be verified by calculation — it must be obtained from people, from those who know the enemy's situation."

"Since the Commandant intends to use troops against the Xiongnu next year and seize places like Helan, apart from training the commandery troops and the sons of good families, the most important thing is to ascertain the true situation of the Xiongnu. Relying solely on the observations of ordinary merchants is far from enough. There must be dedicated people to observe secretly. Their population numbers, the routes of communication — all must be confirmed one by one."

Heifu shook his head. "Even so, you need not go in person."

He patted Chen Ping. "You are the Commandant's Chief Clerk, my right-hand man. How could I risk losing you?"

Chen Ping was somewhat moved, but still said: "The Art of War states: Of all matters in the three armies, none is more intimate than the spy; of all rewards, none more generous than those given to spies; of all matters, none more secret than espionage. Without sage wisdom, one cannot use spies; without benevolence and righteousness, one cannot direct spies; without subtlety and ingenuity, one cannot obtain the truth from spies!"

"Forgive Ping's bluntness, but among the aides and retainers by the Commandant's side, one must be both trusted and wise, able to read expressions and discern subtle points. For such a person, besides Chen Ping, who else is there?"

Heifu fell silent. If his old subordinate Li Xian were here, he would also be a good candidate, but as things stood now, indeed only Chen Ping was capable of the task. The rest of his subordinates, like Gong Ao, were fine for brandishing blades and swords, braving arrows and stones in person, but to act as spies? Absolutely not.

So, after all his pondering, Chen Ping was still the most suitable.

Heifu did not know that, historically, after Chen Ping joined Liu Bang, he first served as Protector-Army Commandant, and later as Protector-Army Commandant of the Capital. The post of Protector-Army Commandant of the Capital also existed in the Qin dynasty; it was a military intelligence agency directly subordinate to the emperor. Its internal duty was to supervise ministers and generals on behalf of the sovereign; its external duty was to carry out espionage activities. Because he controlled both internal and external intelligence, he naturally participated in the highest-level major decisions, becoming the sovereign's advisor. In later terms, the Protector-Army Commandant of the Capital was the intelligence chief, the spymaster — somewhat like an ancient KGB.

Understanding this, it is not difficult to see why Chen Ping, who clearly studied the teachings of Huang-Lao, became famous in later ages for "conspiracy and intrigue" — because this was his fundamental professional duty.

And now, the young Chen Ping, eager for merit, wanted to seize this rare opportunity, and was about to embark on this path of no return — conspiracy and espionage — many years ahead of time...

In the end, Heifu agreed to Chen Ping's request, allowing him to go beyond the frontier with the Wushi caravan in the second or third month to scout the enemy situation among the Xiongnu. He could not wait any longer.

While in Wushi County, Heifu had heard that the Commandant of Longxi, Li Xin, had already built a small settlement on the opposite bank of Mount Gaolan, at the place that would later be Lanzhou, to serve as a Qin army border post. Because some gold was unearthed while building the walls, it was named "Jincheng."

With Jincheng established, the work of opening up farmland and garrisoning the area could also be carried out locally. There were no powerful tribes in that area, and it was not far from the several hundred li of territory east of the Yellow River that Li Xin controlled.

While Heifu felt happy for Li Xin, he himself could not afford to fall behind. Qin Shi Huang was a ruler who favored rapid policy implementation; Heifu had to produce results as quickly as possible, to let the emperor see that the Western Expansion policy was being steadily implemented in Beidi Commandery.

Heifu and Chen Ping discussed the espionage operations against the Xiongnu in the carriage. Their convoy traveled north from Wushi County, skirted Mount Jitou, and followed the Great Wall built during the reign of King Zhao of Qin all the way northeast, inspecting the border defenses along the route.

The Great Wall in Beidi Commandery was mostly rammed from the local loess on the spot. Outside the wall were the deep gullies dug from extracting the earth, and combined with the natural mountain terrain, this amounted to three lines of defense. However, more often than not, it was not continuous but intermittent, making it not very difficult to sneak across.

Thus, after traveling over three hundred li along the Great Wall, the party arrived at the northernmost fortress of Beidi Commandery: Northern Xiao Pass!

(End of Chapter)