Chapter 407: The Great Affairs of State

After leaving Loufan, the First Emperor of Qin arrived at Mayi County.

Yanmen Commandery is surrounded by mountains on all sides — the Yin Mountains' branch range to the north, the Guancen Mountains to the west with the Yellow River beyond, the Yanmen Mountains to the south, and the Heng Mountains to the east — with a long, narrow basin (the Datong Basin) in the center, through which the Ye River (the Sanggan River) flows from southwest to northeast across the entire territory. This terrain, easy to defend and hard to attack, is a strategic "lock and key" location in military terms.

Mayi County, situated in the middle of the Datong Basin, with the great river to its west and the vast steppe to its north, controls the vital thoroughfare between Yanmen Pass and Wuzhou Fortress. It strengthens Yanmen's outer defenses, serves as the lips to Yunzhong's teeth, and stands as a towering northern bulwark — the great shield of Dai North.

Mayi had only belonged to Qin for ten years, and most of its local populace were migrants from Handan and Julu. The county temple serving as a temporary palace still bore a distinct Zhao architectural style, which displeased the First Emperor, who ordered the officials to change it at once!

In the two years since unification, Qin had been attempting a "de-Six-Kingdoms" campaign: changing scripts, weights, and measures; confiscating their histories and texts into Qin's secret archives; and abolishing all the former institutions and official posts of the six kingdoms, enforcing only the Qin system. But making the people of the six kingdoms forget the past and see themselves as Qin subjects was truly no easy task.

As it happened, during his stay in Mayi, the First Emperor heard a case reported by the Assistant Commandant of Yanmen...

"Your Majesty, the people of Mayi have secretly built a shrine to Li Mu east of the city, where they mourn him every year with unending offerings of incense. The authorities have repeatedly destroyed it, but the Mayi people secretly revive the rites each time. Beyond Mayi, there are also shrines to Li Mu in Shanwu and Pingcheng."

The commandery office now faces a dilemma: the people of Yanmen Commandery cannot forget Li Mu, and repeated bans have failed to stop them. Should the authorities treat the Li Mu shrine as an illicit cult and intensify the destruction, or should they defer to local sentiment and turn a blind eye?

"How muddled!"

No sooner had the Assistant Commandant finished than the Commandant of Justice, Li Si, rebuked him: "The court has already established laws — those listed in the ritual code or shrine ordinances are orthodox rites; those not listed are illicit cults!"

"Illicit" means excessive, superfluous. The ancients said: "The great affairs of state lie in ritual and war." Since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, sacrifices have been divided into three great systems: heavenly spirits, earthly deities, and human ghosts. And these three, because of the feudal fragmentation, all bore intensely regional characteristics, with the deities of each region mutually excluding one another.

As for the sacrifice to human ghosts and ancestors, it goes without saying: "Spirits do not accept offerings from those not of their kind; people do not sacrifice to those not of their clan." Each state sacrificed only to its own ancestral spirits and would not recklessly claim another's forebears.

In terms of earthly deities, these were mainly mountains and rivers, governed by the principle that "the mandated sacrifices of the Three Dynasties did not extend beyond one's own borders." For instance, Qin sacrificed to the four famous mountains including Mount Hua; the people of Jin sacrificed to the three mountains of Taihang, Wangwu, and Huotai; the people of Qi had the three divine mountains of Penglai, Yingzhou, and Fangzhang, along with the "Eight Lords" deities; the people of Chu had Mount Wu and Mount Gang.

As for sacrifices to heavenly spirits, apart from the universally acknowledged "August Heaven Sovereign," every enfeoffed territory had its corresponding celestial field, and everyone recognized the heavenly boundary of their own state — there could be no mistake about it.

After unifying the realm, the First Emperor of Qin discovered that although politics had been unified and the axles and script standardized, the sacrifices in each region still followed their own ways.

The unity the First Emperor desired was the great unification where "all six directions share the same customs, and the nine provinces are threaded on one string." To integrate culture, from the very beginning of his imperial reign, he had set about formulating rites, music, and sacrifices — those seventy-odd Confucian Erudites were not kept idle; what they were helping the First Emperor do was to unify the realm's rituals and sacrifices.

First were the mountains and rivers. The Qin court compiled all the mountains and rivers of the realm, combining the seven great mountains of Qin's Guanzhong with the five great mountains east of the passes to form the "Twelve Peaks" and "Four Waterways." This was the officially recognized mountain-and-river sacrificial system, to be solemnly sacrificed to each year.

As for the mountain and river deities not selected, they were not rashly struck down in one blow. Though they did not receive offerings from the Son of Heaven's invocators, the commandery and county officials and people could sacrifice to them as circumstances warranted — after all, those who live by the mountain draw from the mountain, and those by the water draw from the water; they could not be slighted.

The mountains and rivers were settled, but human ghosts posed some trouble, because everywhere, local ghosts, monsters, and famous figures were constantly being sacrificed to — far too many. Treat them all as illicit cults? That would smack of a one-size-fits-all approach. Yet distinguishing them one by one would require far more manpower and effort than was available.

Thus a phenomenon emerged: many local irregular shrines and illicit cults, unrecognized by the authorities, saw the common people sacrificing and praying at them, and the officials largely let them be.

But the shrine to Li Mu was different, because he had been Qin's enemy — a mortal foe!

The First Emperor remembered especially well: Li Mu — this name had appeared countless times in frontline military dispatches, and accompanying it each time were two great defeats of the Qin army...

That was in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of the First Emperor's reign. During that period, Wang Jian crushed the Zhao army at the Battle of Eyu, and the Qin general Huan Yi attacked Pingyang in Zhao, killing the Zhao general Hu Zhe and taking a hundred thousand heads. Zhao appeared utterly incapable of resistance, and the Qin court and populace were filled with rejoicing, believing the destruction of Zhao was only a matter of days.

Only Zhao Gao told the First Emperor that Huan Yi was prone to arrogance and might suffer a setback...

Sure enough, when Li Mu returned from Yanmen to Zhao and took over command, Huan Yi's nightmare began. At the Battle of Yi'an, the Qin army was completely annihilated, and Huan Yi fled in defeat.

The following year, the First Emperor, unwilling to accept this, again ordered an attack on Zhao, but Li Mu once more routed the Qin army at Fanwu...

It was the greatest defeat Qin had suffered since the First Emperor assumed personal rule, and Li Mu had become the greatest obstacle to the First Emperor's unification of the realm.

Fortunately, in the years that followed, Wang Jian faced off against Li Mu, the two trading blows with neither gaining an advantage. In the end, Wang Jian relied on a stratagem of sowing discord, causing the Zhao Chancellor Guo Kai to slander Li Mu, leading to Li Mu's execution — only then was the Qin army able to easily destroy Zhao...

Such a man — a hero to the Zhao people, but a hated foe to the Qin people — how could sacrifices and mourning for him be permitted?

Therefore, Li Si believed that all shrines to Li Mu within Yanmen Commandery should be destroyed, and those performing the sacrifices punished according to the law.

"Those who arbitrarily erect irregular shrines shall be fined two suits of armor!"

The Legalists held that heavy punishment is the most effective deterrent. To win the people's obedience through leniency is not as good as winning it through severity. Fierce fire, which the people see and fear, thus rarely causes death. Gentle water, which the people trifle and play with, causes many deaths.

After a round of fines, let us see who still dares to cling to the memory of Li Mu!

At this point, Meng Tian, who was beside them, spoke: "Your Majesty, I too have heard of this matter. After some inquiry, the local soldiers told me that their sacrifices and mourning for Li Mu are not for his enmity against Qin, but out of respect for his defense of Dai and Yanmen against Xiongnu incursions, and pity that he was destroyed by a fatuous ruler and treacherous ministers, dying a miserable death..."

Ever since the defeat in the first campaign against Chu, Meng Tian had been lingering in Yunzhong and Yanmen. After destroying Dai and breaking Qi, and a brief stint as an official at court, he had returned here.

Thus, he understood the border situation better than Li Si.

"Although King Wuling of Zhao established Yanmen, Yunzhong, and Jiuyuan, after the Battle of Changping, Zhao declined sharply, caught between Qin and Yan on two fronts, and its border defenses grew lax, giving the Xiongnu their opportunity. By the time Li Mu came to Yanmen as commandery governor, Yunzhong and Jiuyuan had been successively abandoned and fallen into Xiongnu hands, and Zhao's border had already retreated to the line of Shanwu and Pingcheng."

"Dai and Yanmen border the barbarians and were repeatedly raided. The people suffered unbearably, and the border generals were helpless against the Xiongnu. When they sallied forth, they were often routed by the Xiongnu; the border population was plundered and abducted, and farming and herding could not proceed normally. Only when Li Mu took command did the previous approach change."

Li Mu's strategy was one Meng Tian rather admired. He adopted a defensive posture: each time the Xiongnu invaded, as soon as the beacon fires brought warning, he immediately gathered his forces and withdrew behind the Great Wall to hold firm, leaving the Xiongnu with nothing to gain. Over several years, the Xiongnu came to think Li Mu was cowardly, unaware that he had long been drilling his troops in secret within the Wall, while feigning defeat all the while, making the Xiongnu ever more arrogant.

Finally, Li Mu had merchants scatter vast herds of cattle and sheep beyond the frontier, covering the hills and plains, to lure the Xiongnu in. But while the Xiongnu were scrambling for the livestock, he struck with thirteen hundred chariots, thirteen thousand cavalry, fifty thousand armored soldiers, and a hundred thousand infantry — half of Zhao's total strength — routing over a hundred thousand Xiongnu riders. The Chanyu fled, and for more than ten years thereafter, the Xiongnu dared not approach Zhao's border cities.

Afterward, Li Mu destroyed the Chanlan, crushed the Eastern Barbarians, and recovered Yunzhong and Jiuyuan.

In Meng Tian's heart, Li Mu was worthy of being his predecessor. Coming to Dai and Yanmen, taking over Zhao's border troops and Loufan warriors, and preparing to campaign against the Xiongnu, he felt a strong sense of "carrying on Li Mu's work."

Yet what was the fate of such a man? Even more tragic than Bai Qi's. Bai Qi at least could fall on his sword and cut his own throat, but Li Mu could not.

For according to the old soldiers of the region, Li Mu had a congenital disability — his right arm was crooked and could not straighten, and he always wielded a blade with his left hand. Even when kneeling before King Qian of Zhao, his right arm could not reach the ground, and he was forced to wear a prosthetic to show respect to the Zhao king — yet the treacherous minister Guo Kai accused him of concealing a weapon and plotting assassination and rebellion!

In the end, when Li Mu was ordered to take his own life, because of his disabled right hand, he drew his sword to cut his throat but could not reach his own neck. Ultimately, he held the long sword in his mouth, braced it against a pillar, and drove himself onto it to die!

When Meng Tian had heard the full account of Li Mu's deeds, he could not help but sigh with deep emotion — a general who had won a hundred battles, reduced to such an end. It was truly lamentable.

Of course, he could never have imagined that, in history, he himself would meet a similar fate...

So in Meng Tian's eyes, allowing the local people to sacrifice to Li Mu was entirely reasonable and not greatly improper. Were it not for the official robes he wore, he would wish to pay homage to Li Mu himself.

Seeing Meng Tian, a junior, contradicting him here, Li Si was inevitably displeased and said:

"General Meng is quite the admirer of Li Mu — not only emulating his tactics but also wishing to preserve his shrines. Perhaps it is because both of you have served as generals in Dai North? I have heard that Li Mu's authority was immense: he could appoint officials at will according to his needs, and the taxes of Dai and Yanmen were sent directly into Li Mu's field headquarters as military funds. General Meng, is this something you also wish to emulate?"

Li Si's words were somewhat cutting. Seeing this, the Prefect of the Palace Chariots, Zhao Gao, secretly delighted...

"I have absolutely no such intention."

Meng Tian bowed low and said: "I merely believe that damming is not as good as dredging. Permitting the people of Yanmen to sacrifice to Li Mu would instead stir the locals to share a common hatred against the Xiongnu, which would benefit next year's military operations!"

Li Si remained opposed:

"Your Majesty, in former times, when King Zhao was ill, the common people bought oxen in the village to pray for the king. Yet when King Zhao learned of it, far from rewarding them, he fined them two suits of armor, saying: 'To pray without decree and on one's own authority — this is to love my person. But if I, loving my person, were to alter the law and let my heart follow theirs in turn, then the law would not stand. If the law does not stand, that is the path to chaos and ruin. Better to fine each person two suits of armor and return to governance by law!'"

"Now, if we have laws and do not abide by them, permitting the people of Yanmen to sacrifice at Li Mu's shrine, then in the future, the people of Chu could also sacrifice at Xiang Yan's shrine, and the people of Yan could sacrifice at the shrines of Crown Prince Dan and Jing Ke. I submit that illicit cults must be destroyed, and the law of the state must be upheld!"

The First Emperor was as he had always been: when his ministers disputed, he merely listened in silence, reserving only the final judgment.

His hand tapped lightly on the desk, and suddenly he looked toward Zhao Gao, who seemed utterly unconcerned: "Zhao Gao, what is your view?"

Zhao Gao bowed low: "How dare this petty minister presume to comment on the words of the two lords? However... I recall that before Your Majesty's northern tour, the Commandant of Beidi Commandery submitted a memorial, saying that in the second and third months, he had, by Your Majesty's command, traveled through the counties and gone to offer sacrifice at the Chaona Pool. During that time, he discovered that the Hua and Rong peoples of Beidi Commandery often sacrificed to local wild foxes and mountain spirits. All of these are illicit cults — tolerating them is not permissible, yet a blanket ban is also inappropriate. He has already undertaken measures to regulate and reform them locally. Your Majesty ordered me to draft an edict in reply, which is how I know of this matter."

"Since the Commandant of Beidi seems to have some insight into regulating illicit cults, why not send a messenger to ask him, Your Majesty? Perhaps he might again offer some uncommon perspective..."

With those words, Zhao Gao lowered his head. Meng Tian noticed nothing amiss, taking it as the Emperor's routine call for his ministers to deliberate. Li Si, however, cast a meaningful glance at Zhao Gao, then lifted his head again with full confidence.

Qin Shi Huang laughed. Though he understood every thought in his ministers' minds, he took great pleasure in watching them vie against one another.

"Approved! Dispatch an edict at once to Beidi Commandery to inquire! Within one month, you must give me a reply!"

……

The Emperor's messenger rode light and fast, bearing the edict. Changing horses but not the rider, he galloped along the newly completed straight road at extreme speed. In just over ten days he reached Yiqu City and delivered the Emperor's edict into Heifu's hands.

Heifu received the edict with the utmost deference and had someone escort the messenger to rest. Returning to the inner chamber, he said to his wife, who was three months pregnant and resting peacefully at home:

"No matter which side I support, I will offend someone! If I claim ignorance, His Majesty will think I am playing dumb, and groundless resentment will grow. That certain someone is truly insidious, deliberately kicking this ball to me!"

(End of chapter)