Chapter 405: Knights Use Violence to Defy the Law

Heifu had no way of knowing that there was another crucial reason the First Emperor trusted Qin's native shamans and spirit mediums more, and rejected the eastern magi's eastern-tour proposals: after the Gao Jianli case, the First Emperor had lost all trust in "people of the former feudal lords." Although he did not rashly expel foreign guests as he had in that earlier year, as long as someone was a remnant of the Six States, they could forget about getting close to the emperor, and would never receive important appointments.

The First Emperor's standard for distinguishing "Qin people" from "people of the feudal lords" was the territory of Qin at the time he ascended the throne. At that time, Qin's lands already included Ba, Shu, and Hanzhong; it had crossed Wan and held Ying, establishing Nan Commandery; in the north it had taken the lands east of Shang Commandery, holding Hedong, Taiyuan, and Shangdang commanderies; in the east it reached Xingyang, had destroyed the two Zhou, and established Sanchuan Commandery.

Apart from these, all other newly conquered regions counted as "people of the feudal lords."

And so, for most of this northern tour, the First Emperor's carriage traveled through relatively friendly territory.

Hedong's Anyi went without saying — ever since the twenty-first year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (286 BC), when Wei was forced to cede Anyi to Qin, this had been Qin land. King Zhao of Qin drove out every Wei person within Anyi's walls and resettled it with pardoned convicts from Qin lands. Several generations had passed, and they had become loyal subjects of Qin, just like Nan Commandery. The local people lined the roads at Puban, at the salt pools, and at Anyi to welcome the emperor's arrival.

"When We returned to the kingdom from Handan all those years ago, the people of Hedong welcomed Us just the same…"

The First Emperor sat in the imperial carriage, lifted the curtain, and looked out at the sea of people. Fragments of his childhood flickered past.

At that time, the First Emperor had been only seven or eight years old. He had suffered every misery and humiliation in Handan, and toward distant Xianyang he had felt only a stranger's alienation. The first place that gave him the feeling of "coming home" was here in Hedong, in Anyi.

He vaguely remembered his mother holding him tight in the carriage, when suddenly a clamor rose outside. Mother and son, like startled birds, were terrified. Though the young prince was afraid, he still bravely stood in front of his mother, fists clenched.

But the people surging toward them all knelt beyond ten paces. They only wanted to see the young prince Zheng, who had been wandering and suffering for so many years…

An aged Anyi farmer raised high the steamed millet rice in his hands, offering it for the prince to eat.

The First Emperor could not remember whether he had eaten it. He only remembered that it was winter, and rain and snow had covered the road the whole journey, yet mother and son's hearts were warm, because they knew they were finally safe, no longer in mortal peril.

"Long ago when we set out, rain and snow filled the road. Now that I have returned, the millet and sorghum are just in bloom!"

In excellent spirits, the First Emperor issued a decree in Anyi: for those towns that had welcomed him over thirty years ago, the people under their governance would all receive "one year's remission" — that is, exemption from one year of corvée labor.

The First Emperor stayed three days in Anyi and performed sacrifices at the "Ruins of Xia." But the impression left by the next stop, Taiyuan Commandery, was not nearly so pleasant…

In the first days of the last month of summer (the sixth month by the lunar calendar) of the twenty-eighth year of the First Emperor, he arrived at Jinyang.

"Jinyang. Wonderful."

Still in the carriage, the First Emperor said to the accompanying Commandant of Justice, Li Si, with a cold laugh: "On the very first day of Our reign, We received a piece of news — Jinyang had revolted! It was fortunate that General Meng Ao put it down for Us!"

Li Si bowed his head. "Your servant had just arrived at Xianyang at the time. I remember the incident…"

That inauguration gift the people of Jinyang had given him — the First Emperor still remembered it to this day. So he granted the place no remission or favor whatsoever.

Twenty-eight years had passed. Jinyang remained the same, but its people were utterly changed. Meng Ao was dead; his son Meng Wu was also old and decrepit, in even worse health than Wang Jian. No one knew how much longer he had to live.

The old generals were withering away. Of the cohort of commanders who had been active on the battlefield before the First Emperor took personal rule, the only one still fit for use was Qiang Hui.

What gave him comfort was that a new generation of talented generals was rising in numbers. Meng Tian and Li Xin had once disappointed the First Emperor, but both had turned shame into resolve and achieved considerable merit on the frontiers in recent years. Feng Jing and Li You, though sons of officials, could also be considered somewhat capable.

However, the one the First Emperor held in highest regard was still the Commander of Beidi, Heifu — a young man of immense potential, skilled in both letters and arms, of humble origin and without a power base. But Heifu was far too young. Having learned the lesson of Li Xin's Chu campaign, the First Emperor did not intend to raise him abruptly to high rank; he planned to temper and cultivate him slowly…

Because his impression of Jinyang was poor, the First Emperor stayed only two days. During those two days, he also heard of another matter that ruined his appetite.

The matter was this: the Commandant of Taiyuan came to report that in Ci County near Jinyang, there seemed to be activity by old associates and partisans of Jing Ke!

"Reporting to Your Majesty: in Ci there is a swordsman named Ge Nie. His family is wealthy, and he frequently associates with swordsmen of the Six States. Over twenty years ago, the villain Jing Ke once traveled through Ci and discussed sword theory with Ge Nie. When Jing Ke's plot failed, Ge Nie vanished. Your servant sent men everywhere to arrest him and post rewards. Recently, he was denounced — it turns out he was living in seclusion at Qiuyou. He has now been seized by the authorities. May I ask Your Majesty how he should be dealt with?"

The commandant sought to claim credit for this, but the First Emperor only felt a surge of disgust. He threw down his chopsticks, his face clouded with displeasure.

Wandering knights and swordsmen — these were the people the First Emperor loathed most in his life, and those with any connection to Jing Ke even more so.

He always felt that these remnants of Crown Prince Dan and Jing Ke, bent on killing him, were like vermin that could never be exterminated.

Would the emperor lower his dignity to interrogate a dying remnant insect? Of course not. The First Emperor merely waved his hand impatiently and ordered the Commandant of Justice, Li Si, to handle it according to the law.

And so Ge Nie — an old man who, to avoid Qin's harsh laws, had hidden in the mountains, taking joy in swinging a wooden sword, utterly devoid of any intent to assassinate or rebel — was, solely because he had associated with Jing Ke many years ago and had been branded "Jing Ke's friend" by outsiders, convicted by the Deputy Governor of Taiyuan on two charges: "unauthorized absence" and "plotting treason." He was beheaded at the eastern market of Jinyang…

In the courtroom, the old swordsman Ge Nie, his beard and hair streaked with white, cried out his innocence without cease. In his youth he had been a famous swordsman of Ci, his family wealthy, and he had often associated with men of the Six States. But to call him Jing Ke's friend — that was a monstrous injustice.

"This old man does not accept this!"

After the verdict was handed down, Ge Nie shouted over and over.

"It is true that Jing Ke once came to Ci to call on me and discuss sword theory with me. But the two of us had considerable disagreements in our understanding of sword moves and sword methods. I thought Jing Ke had no real skill, only knowing how to boast and chase fame. I flared up in anger and glared at him, and he left in shame that very night, departing Ci and never meeting with me again. How could I be his old friend or partisan? I do not accept this! I demand a review!"

A review meant the accused did not accept the judgment and requested a retrial. A county-level judgment could be appealed to the commandery; a commandery-level judgment could be appealed to the "supreme court" — the office of the Commandant of Justice.

Ge Nie had, after all, been a Qin subject for a long time. Though he was unruly and unwilling to follow rules, he still knew something of the Qin legal system.

But as it happened, Li Si, the Commandant of Justice, was right there in Jinyang. So Ge Nie requested a review in the morning, and by the afternoon, Li Si came in person to retry the case.

In the end, he rejected Ge Nie's appeal, holding that the crime of plotting rebellion was unpardonable, and upheld the original verdict…

Li Si's reasoning was impeccably high-minded: "The knight-errant is one of the state's five vermin. The Six States did not rid themselves of these vermin people, but fed them with heavy taxes — and thus they became ruined kingdoms, extinguished courts!"

"Knights use violence to defy the law. Taiyuan has always retained the lingering customs of Zhao. The young men who wished to study the sword under Ge Nie were many. For every ten who study the sword and play knight-errant, ten households' farmland lies fallow, and the town gains ten men who use their sword skill to commit crimes and break the law. Therefore, those who defy the law must be executed!"

The Legalists detested two kinds of people above all: first, the Confucians; second, the knights. They wished them all dead to the last man. Now, because the emperor, to balance the court and scholarship, permitted Confucians to serve as Erudites, the Legalists could not easily move against them. But the knights among the common people were different — ever since Qin's unification, they had become rats scurrying across the street, beaten by all.

And so this case was made ironclad by Li Si.

In secret, Li Si's reason for insisting Ge Nie must die was this: "The rebel faction is cunning. Last year His Majesty softened his heart and pardoned a Gao Jianli, and the man immediately plotted treason, nearly offending the imperial countenance. Against these rebels, better to kill the wrong man than to let one go!"

Thus, just as the First Emperor's carriage left Jinyang and continued north, Ge Nie was executed in the market of Jinyang. There were the indignant shouts of an old swordsman, the wordless sighs of onlookers — but no snow fell in the sixth-month summer…

…

Ten days later, the news that Ge Nie had been beheaded in Jinyang reached Julu Commandery. Beside the boundless Great Land Marsh, in a small courtyard hidden among mountain forests, a thunderous slap on a table rang out!

"Ge Nie was a hero of the Jin lands! In his youth his sword skill was superb — ten men could not get near him. And now he has been executed by the tyrant Qin without cause. How hateful!"

Inside the room, a fierce warrior of forty-odd years, with thick beard and hair and a powerfully built frame, trembled with rage. That single punch of his had just split the low table clean in two, sending splinters flying everywhere…

His name was Lu Goujian. In his youth he had been a roving knight of Handan, spending his days idling in the markets. When Jing Ke roamed through Handan, Lu Goujian had once played liubo with him. Midway through the game, the two argued over the sequence of moves. Lu Goujian had a violent temper; he immediately flipped the board and berated Jing Ke furiously. Jing Ke did not argue with him, merely left with a chuckle, and they never met again.

Lu Goujian had simply taken Jing Ke for a coward and thought nothing more of it. Only ten years later, when news came that Jing Ke had failed in his attempt to assassinate the Qin king, did Lu Goujian feel endless regret over that past incident…

"I truly understood Jing Qing so little. I once rebuked him over a trifling matter. I never imagined that he and I harbored similar intentions."

As a man of Zhao, Lu Goujian had seen Handan destroyed and the Qin king come in person to Handan to bury alive hundreds of his enemies — among them several of Lu Goujian's own patrons. He too had harbored the intent to assassinate the Qin king, but Jing Ke had beaten him to it.

In the end, Lu Goujian could not help adding with regret: "Alas! Though Jing Ke had the courage to stab the Qin king, he did not study the art of the刺杀 sword!"

After that, Lu Goujian secretly left Handan and came to the sparsely populated shores of the Great Land Marsh, living by fishing and hunting. He also gathered men of Yan and Zhao who opposed Qin, assembling them here in secret to practice swordsmanship. Men like Chen Yu had come to this place in those years…

But with Qin's unification of the Six States, the anti-Qin movement had entered a low tide. Now, with the anti-Qin cause long stalled, and hearing one after another of the fall of "heroes" like Gao Jianli and Ge Nie, Lu Goujian's righteous fury was impossible to quell.

The commoner-clothed man beside him, however, was utterly composed. He picked up the silk letter that Lu Goujian's palm strike had sent flying and said:

"Sir Lu, razing famed cities and killing heroes — this is what the tyrant Qin has been doing all along. But the men of resolve among the Six States are like leek leaves: cut them and they grow back; you can never kill them all. The tyrant Qin's conduct will only cause more people to abandon all hope in it, and drive every knight-errant and hero under heaven to the end of the road…"

"Zhang Zifang! In your eyes, has the death of Sir Ge actually become a good thing?"

Lu Goujian grabbed Zhang Liang—who had disguised himself as a merchant, relaying messages between Chu and Zhao, trying to unite all the anti-Qin patriots under heaven—and roared:

"You swore so confidently before that the tyrant would go on an eastern inspection tour and perform the Feng and Shan sacrifices this year, telling us to wait for the chance to help you assassinate him. And what happened? I've received word that after Zhao Zheng killed Ge Nie, he turned straight north—he's heading for Yanmen and Yunzhong!"

After cursing, he flung Zhang Liang aside. The more he brooded, the more furious he became. His rage lifting his hair up against his cap, he snatched the sword hanging on the wall and made to storm out:

"No, I can't stay hidden here growing mold any longer! I must take my retainers and set out tonight for Yanmen and Yunzhong—ambush Zhao Zheng on the mountain road!"

(End of chapter)