Chapter 402: A Happy Event

Chen Ping was sighing with emotion that the Xiongnu custom honored the strong and despised the old and weak, but far away in Beidi Commandery, Heifu was doing the exact opposite: building the Qin dynasty's first "Home of Respect for the Aged."

This was a joint project between Heifu and the commandery governor Zhao Hai. Zhao Hai treated it as a political achievement, while Heifu used it as a way to boost morale and encourage the soldiers to fight bravely.

In the middle of the fourth month of the twenty-eighth year of the First Emperor of Qin (the fourth month of the lunar calendar), summer had already arrived in Beidi and the sunlight was warm. The "Home of Respect for the Aged" officially opened west of Yiqu County town. It was not a large place, and would take in the solitary, widowed old soldiers of Beidi Commandery who, over the past few decades, had been crippled or wounded from military service, corvée labor, or border defense and now had no one to support them.

In truth, Beidi Commandery was sparsely populated, with no more than thirty thousand households and a population under two hundred thousand, of whom only half were Qin people. So those who met these conditions numbered only about twenty or so...

Even building a courtyard specifically for them and hiring cooks and servants to care for them wouldn't cost much money in a year.

But Heifu still took this matter very seriously. On the day the Home of Respect for the Aged opened, he personally led three hundred select young men of good families there and had them draw water and chop firewood for these wounded and crippled old soldiers—who had been gathered from various counties and did not believe such a good thing could exist in the world—putting on a full display of earnest care.

The old soldiers finally believed it now and were moved to the point of hot tears brimming in their eyes, because they truly were a group struggling on the brink of death. Though wounded, they had not been awarded noble rank. Looking back, they felt it would have been better to have died in battle. After returning to their hometowns, they had also lost the ability to do heavy farm work. Because of their disabilities, no one was willing to marry their daughters to them.

"Like a tree whose branches and leaves are suddenly hacked away one day—even if it doesn't die, it can only barely cling to life."

One old soldier said, agitatedly slapping his bare, stump of a left foot. He had been wounded twenty years ago while serving in the military to resist the enemy when the six states attacked Hangu Pass. His leg had been torn off by the swiftly spinning long axle of a war chariot, yet he had miraculously survived.

But after returning, people often mistook him for a slave who had been punished with foot-amputation for fleeing, and he suffered endless grievances...

Only today did he feel that the wound and disability from that year seemed to hold a little value.

Heifu listened earnestly to every old man's story, patted their withered hands, and said: "Elders, be at ease. The Home of Respect for the Aged guarantees food, clothing, medical care, housing, and burial—all five guarantees complete—until you all pass on in peace!"

He had always felt that soldiers should not be treated as piles of white bones to serve as stepping stones for merit, nor as mules and horses to be ordered around at will, their deaths a matter of indifference. They were a group of living, breathing people. Since one was to urge them into battle, one had to properly handle the aftermath.

Heifu also proclaimed the great Qin policy to the three hundred young men of good families, and even to the commandery troops and garrison soldiers ordered to build the walls and repair the houses:

"The 'Way of Being an Official' states: As an official of Qin, one must eliminate harm and promote benefit, love and care for the myriad common people, and not punish the innocent. For the solitary, widowed, poor, and destitute; the old, weak, and those left alone; the disabled and the chronically ill—reduce or exempt their corvée labor, strictly forbid violent thugs from bullying them, and let the government care for their food, clothing, hunger, and cold. If ordinary commoners are treated this way, how much more so these soldiers who once exerted themselves and shed blood for the state, resulting in crippled limbs?"

Although Qin law was sometimes very cruel, at other times it was also very tender. These things that appear very "Confucian" were in fact also advocated by the Legalists—there was no need to wait until the Han dynasty. The Legalists had long since learned to wrap a layer of human skin over their cold inner hearts. Shang Yang's blunt truth that "rites and music, the Odes and Documents, cultivating goodness, filial piety and fraternal duty, sincerity, trustworthiness, chastity, and integrity, benevolence and righteousness" were all six vermin—people like Li Si would never say such things.

Contrary to the nomads, in agrarian civilization, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure. In grasping the seasons, climate, solar terms, seeds, soil, farm tools, and even cultivation methods, the young are far inferior to them. Moreover, since there is no need to migrate constantly and the harvest is relatively stable, supporting one's parents with a bit of frugality is not a difficult matter.

Thus, respecting the aged, filial piety, and fraternal duty actually became universal values recognized by various schools of thought—Legalists, Confucians, Huang-Lao, and others. Even the Mohists, who liked to take unorthodox approaches, merely hoped that people would "love others' parents as their own, and love others' brothers as their own."

This makes it easy to understand why many later dynasties liked to "govern the realm with filial piety," because this is the universal value of China's agrarian culture, something that can never be wrong.

Incidentally, Heifu also announced that in the future, should corpses from the chaos of battle be too difficult to identify and impossible to transport back to their hometowns, they would be buried in the "Cemetery of the Loyal." This was something he had suggested Li You implement in Nan Commandery the year Chu was destroyed.

With these two measures in place, the three hundred young men of good families and the thousand commandery troops and garrison soldiers followed Heifu, faced the direction of Xianyang, and loudly declared:

"Relying on His Majesty's blessings and the tolerance of the laws and ordinances, Qin soldiers who take heads gain noble rank, the wounded and crippled are cared for, and the fallen in battle are buried. How dare we not fight bravely to slay the enemy and rejoice at the news of war?"

After finishing his official duties, Heifu hurried home. The Commandery Commandant had always been a very diligent person, but today he clocked out right on time. The clerks of the Commandant's office immediately found this very strange.

Because just the day before, Ye Zijin had told Heifu a happy piece of news: her monthly period had not come this month, and it was very likely that, under Heifu's diligent cultivation these past two months, she was pregnant...

This was a tremendous happy event! Heifu had lived two lives, yet this was his first chance to become a father. Although the final result was not yet certain, it already made him indescribably excited.

When his wife saw this little-boy demeanor of Heifu's and teased him about it, Heifu said with a serious face: "Is there any father who does not long for his firstborn son or daughter as if longing for sweet rain?"

As it happened, at the very moment Heifu spoke these words, several hundred li to the north, the matter of the Xiongnu Chanyu's eldest son, Prince Modu, not being loved by his own father was becoming known to everyone across the grasslands through a wedding gift...

Chen Ping had been at Helan Mountain for several days now and had finally waited for Modu's happy event. On the day of the wedding feast, Prince Modu rode back on his chestnut steed, eight chi tall at the shoulder, carrying his "Yanzhi," who was dressed in feathered garments.

"Yanzhi" is a phonetic translation of a Xiongnu word. Because of the cheering all around, the interpreter could only loudly tell Chen Ping that this word could also be understood as "principal wife."

"The Chanyu can have many Yanzhi, and the foremost among them is called the Zhuanqu Yanzhi. But everyone else, including the princes, can only have one Yanzhi. Before the Yanzhi dies, they may not marry another principal wife and can only take concubines."

Chen Ping nodded. The Central Plains was about the same.

While observing the differences between the Xiongnu and the Central Plains, Chen Ping also discovered many commonalities. For example, the Xiongnu people worshipped Heaven. The full title of the Xiongnu Great Chanyu was "Chengli Gutu Chanyu."

"Chengli" means "Heaven" in the Xiongnu language; "Gutu" means "son"; "Chanyu" means "vast and great."

So "Chengli Gutu Chanyu," translated into the Xia tongue, means "the Great Son of Heaven"...

Prince Modu was born to Touman Chanyu's "Zhuanqu Yanzhi," but she had passed away many years ago. It was said that Touman Chanyu had recently obtained a beauty from the distant Western Regions, established her as a Yanzhi, and doted on her greatly. A few years ago, she had also given Modu a younger brother...

But in any case, as Touman's eldest son, Modu attracted much attention and was regarded as the future successor. He had also been sent to graze his herds at Helan Mountain, the best pastureland in the Hetao region.

With the eldest son getting married, Xiongnu tribes from a thousand li around all sent people to attend. The various groups gathered together, and the fully armed young and middle-aged men alone numbered a mighty four to five thousand riders, not to mention the countless women, children, and slaves. They brought vast numbers of livestock and set up camp on the expansive Helan Mountain grasslands, quickly erecting felt tents with wicker frames.

The wedding was held under the vast blue sky, a feast for the entire populace. Men and women alike wore Hu-style clothing with an upper jacket and lower trousers, covered by painted leather vests, and bound with horsehair leggings. Nobles adorned their heads with gold and wore bronze belt hooks at their waists, using animal fat to slick their braids jet-black and glossy.

Then, they began slaughtering hundreds and thousands of cattle and sheep. The aroma of roasting meat filled the grasslands. The crowd feasted on grilled meat seasoned with green salt and drank fermented mare's milk freely, sitting around campfires laughing and joking with one another. The noise was so loud that even the ground squirrels underground scurried away in panic.

Unfortunately, Chen Ping's current identity was that of a government "accountant" accompanying a merchant caravan. He was not qualified to approach Modu's great tent and could only watch from afar as esteemed guests like Wushi Yan went in one by one to pay respects to the tall and sturdy Prince Modu and present their gifts...

First was the steed, eight chi tall at the shoulder, that Prince Modu sat upon. This was a gift from a western merchant named "Kang," and it gave Modu plenty of face. It was said that this state lay far to the west of the Yuezhi, beyond the great desert and mountain ranges. Its people had high noses and deep-set eyes. Even Wushi Yan was meeting one for the first time, and they could only communicate through the Xiongnu language.

The Lord of Baiyang in Hetao presented a small lamb forged from pure gold; the Lord of Loufan offered a long whip with a silver handle and a trained eagle-hunter; the Lord of Xuyan gave a steed carved from green salt and a gilded scimitar; the Linhu presented a great coat woven from a hundred sable pelts.

A Xihou from the Yuezhi offered ten camels; a Daren from the Donghu presented five leopard skins.

Among them, Wushi Yan's gifts were especially lavish: three hundred jin of brown sugar, ten bolts of embroidered silk, thirty bolts of brocade, and forty bolts each of red fine silk and green silk gauze...

Besides the guests who had come from afar, the various Xiongnu tribal leaders, commanders of ten thousand riders, and commanders of a thousand also each presented gifts.

But as he looked at these gifts, Prince Modu's expression grew darker and darker.

Because the most important gift he was waiting for had still not arrived.

Only after night had long fallen did several riders arrive belatedly. All the Xiongnu people began to cheer. What they brought was the Great Chanyu Touman's wedding gift for his son!

Modu broke into a smile and personally stepped forward to greet the several envoys. They carried a pine chest decorated with gold swiftly forward. After paying respects to Modu, they opened the chest in front of everyone...

Modu's smile vanished, and his expression became exceptionally grim!

Inside the chest was not the item he had been hoping for, but merely a very ordinary leopard-skin hat...

The Xiongnu nobles ceased their clamor and looked at one another. The surroundings became eerily quiet.

Chen Ping detected this hint of something amiss. The interpreter told him in a low voice: "According to Xiongnu custom, when the eldest son marries, the Chanyu gives him a silver-crowned eagle cap representing the 'Eldest Son,' that is, the status of successor, second only to the Xiongnu Chanyu's golden-crowned eagle cap..."

"Father and son are at odds. He wants to depose the elder and establish the younger?!"

Chen Ping's eyes could not help but light up. He immediately turned his head to look at Modu, wanting to know how he would react.

Fly into a great rage? Or openly fall out with him on the spot? At this critical juncture when Qin was about to use military force against the Xiongnu, if the Xiongnu Chanyu and his son were at odds, it would truly be a great happy event for Heifu!

However, Modu merely remained silent for a long while, then put the leopard-skin hat on his head, knelt in the direction of Touman City, placed both hands on his chest, and kowtowed three times, loudly thanking his father! Then, he shouted a few words and strode directly into his felt tent to fulfill the groom's duties. Soon, the Yanzhi's completely unrestrained cries came from within—among the Xiongnu, on the wedding day, if the bride does not cry out loudly, it means the groom is useless.

The awkward atmosphere ceased. The Xiongnu people began to revel once more, returning to their joyful laughter and chatter, as if what had just happened had not occurred...

"What did Prince Modu say just now?" Chen Ping was most concerned about this point.

The interpreter said, "The Prince says that what he loves most is the leather his father hunted with his own hands. He has worn it since childhood, and it surpasses crowns of gold and silver, and surpasses all the gifts of today!"

The response was quite proper, but Chen Ping first nodded slightly, then shook his head slightly, thinking to himself, "The affair of Duke Xian of Jin and Li Ji — I fear it is about to play out among the Xiongnu!"

He watched the figure inside the felt tent — Modu, whose shadow, cast upon the tent wall by candlelight, appeared enormously large.

"Only, I wonder — is this Prince Modu a Shensheng, or is he a Chong'er?"

(End of Chapter)