Chapter 418: A Man's Heart Is Set on Reckless Advance

"Grandee of the Officials?"

Lady Zhang's voice was so loud that even the child in her arms was startled awake. Paying no mind to his wailing, she tugged at Chen Ping and pressed him: "Promoted three ranks in a row?"

"Indeed."

Chen Ping's smile was restrained, but inside he felt a measure of pride.

"The Commandery Commandant first promoted me directly to the rank of Bugeng, then petitioned Xianyang for a reward on my behalf. The Imperial Secretary assessed the merit and promoted me straight to Grandee of the Officials! The corresponding cap and sash arrived just today."

"Heavens." Lady Zhang could scarcely believe it. "Does this mean your rank is nearly catching up to my elder brother's?"

Zhang Cang had entered Qin service ten years ago and was still only a Grandee of the Dukes. Chen Ping, in a mere year, had shot up to a position close to his. How could Lady Zhang not be stunned? She even felt as though "a meat pie had fallen from the sky."

"This rank of mine didn't just blow in on the wind."

Chen Ping pointed at his skin, roughened and weathered by the wind and sand beyond the frontier, and at the old calluses on the insides of his thighs that could not be shown to others — all marks left by months of ceaseless travel. That was the toil. And the extraordinary deed he had accomplished had thrown the Xiongnu into internal chaos: Modu was driven out, and two of the four tribes of the Henan region, terrified by Touman, had risen in revolt.

"In the Commandery Commandant's words, the intelligence I gathered on conditions beyond the frontier could save the Qin army over a thousand dead. And that letter of mine alone was worth the slaughter of several thousand Xiongnu soldiers!"

So Chen Ping felt he fully deserved this merit. And Heifu had further promised that once this campaign ended and the total achievements were tallied, Chen Ping's rank might even be raised once more...

This meritorious deed brought more than just a change of cap, sash, and robes. If Chen Ping were willing now, he could already take up a post as Chief Clerk of a county bureau, or even as an official of the rank of County Deputy in a border commandery. Yet he still preferred to remain at Heifu's side, continuing as Chief Clerk to the Commandery Commandant.

"When Gong Ao abandoned his post as Acting Commandant of Nanchang and came to join the Commandery Commandant, was it truly, as he claimed, out of regard for loyalty and honor? I fear not. What Gong Ao saw was the endless stream of opportunities for merit that come with staying at the Commandery Commandant's side! In this campaign beyond the frontier, if he can win some gains, won't that be far swifter than staying in the backwaters of Yuzhang planting sugarcane and hunting river bandits!"

There was one thing Chen Ping had told no one. On his way back to Beidi Commandery in his light carriage, he had passed through Fushi in Shang Commandery. At that time, the First Emperor of Qin was conducting an inspection tour there. Chen Ping had stopped his carriage at the Fushi post station to drink water, and as he watched the Emperor's procession pass in the distance, a thought had suddenly sprung into his mind:

"If I relied on an introduction from Wushi Yan, perhaps I could directly gain an audience with the Emperor and lay out my stratagem of sowing discord in person!"

The thought had set his heart pounding. Reaching the ears of Heaven — that was everyone's goal. Such an opportunity to make an impression was truly a chance one could seek but never force.

But then, Chen Ping had dismissed this tempting notion.

He was a rational man. He took personal gain as his foundation, but he also weighed the consequences.

First, ever since the Gao Jianli affair, the Emperor no longer drew close to men from the Six Kingdoms. As a former subject of Wei, Chen Ping's chance of directly meeting the Emperor was vanishingly small — let alone winning the Emperor's favor and soaring to the heights of power.

Second, to do so would mean bypassing the chain of command and submitting a memorial for the sake of personal advancement, betraying Heifu. His reputation would be ruined, and he would never again receive Heifu's patronage...

"It would be a shortsighted move."

After weighing the matter, Chen Ping suppressed the idea and dutifully returned to Beidi to report.

Fortunately, Heifu had not treated him shabbily. With this great merit and the rank of "Grandee of the Officials," Chen Ping now stood plainly as the foremost of Heifu's advisors. Gong Ao could no longer look down on him!

"However, my rise in rank stops here for now. Gong Ao, on the other hand, can still go and seek his own glory..."

Chen Ping knew himself well. He understood he was a man of stratagems, not one suited to marching and fighting. This time, with the First Emperor ordering Beidi Commandery to campaign beyond the frontier, Heifu would personally lead the army, accompanied by Gong Ao and others, while Chen Ping was left behind in the commandery seat to handle logistics and provisions.

With his wife's help, he donned his full official robes and put on his board cap. A glance in the bronze mirror showed him — tall and handsome to begin with — looking more radiant than ever. Lady Zhang's heart fluttered at the sight; she only just stopped herself from exclaiming, "My lord is so very handsome — how could Sir Xu ever compare?"

Before leaving the house, Chen Ping also instructed his wife: "I am going to see the Commandery Commandant lead the army out of the city. When you have free time, visit the Commandery Commandant's residence often. His wife is now six months with child — help her out where you can."

With that, Chen Ping picked up his two-year-old son, Chen Mai, and murmured, "I only hope that the Commandery Commandant can produce an heir this time. He is nearly twenty-seven, no longer young. If he has no heir, who will inherit such a high rank, such vast lands, and the brown-sugar enterprise already worth over ten million cash?"

"He kicked me!"

Inside the Commandery Commandant's residence, separated by a single wall, Heifu — already armored and ready to depart — was kneeling on one knee in a most undignified manner, holding his wife's legs and pressing his ear to her swelling belly, as if he could hear the breath and stirring of the new life within...

A husband is sometimes just like a child. Ye Zijin reached out and reluctantly stroked Heifu's topknot, but when her hand touched his armor, she withdrew it into a fist and hid it in her sleeve. A smile came to her face. "Is he urging you, my goodman, to be on your way a little faster?"

"Or perhaps he's cross that I cannot stay by his side..."

Heifu rose to his feet and sighed. "'The king's service is full of hardship; I have no leisure to rest. Do I not long to return? I fear the bamboo dispatches.' That poem — that's how it goes, isn't it? Though in this case, I brought this on myself."

He had no choice but to bring it on himself. The First Emperor had appointed four Commandery Commandants across the four border commanderies. Meng Tian and Li Xin were veteran generals, Feng Jie was a second-generation noble — Heifu alone had taken up his post with nothing to his name. If he did not produce some results, he feared he would disappoint the Emperor...

As his wife had once advised him, an official career was like rowing a boat against the current — if you did not advance, you fell back. Once you climbed onto this pole, there was no retreat. Either someone kicked you down behind them, or you fought your way upward.

With her husband about to go to war, Ye Zijin did not mope in melancholy like the wives of ordinary households. Instead, she put on a brave smile and said, "If my goodman does not seek out his own opportunities and win merit and a marquisate, our child will not even have a family name."

"True, true."

Heifu glanced at the sky outside. It was getting late; he had to set out at once.

"Fortunately, I won't be gone for years on end this time. Two months at most, one month at least."

Heifu gave only a rough estimate, refraining from recklessly planting any flags. By his reckoning, this campaign beyond the frontier would involve only seven or eight thousand men from Beidi Commandery. The objective was to help the Xuyan Rong, who had resolved to submit to Qin, hold the Huamachi salt lakes and build a fortress there as a supply depot, in preparation for further advances the following year.

So he should be able to make it back in time for the birth of his first child.

"I wove a scented sachet for my goodman." Seeing that Heifu was about to leave, Lady Ye, belly swollen, began searching on the couch.

"Isn't that a Nan Commandery custom?"

Heifu found it a little amusing. His wife had lived in Nan Commandery for a few years and in many ways was becoming more and more like a person of Jing-Chu. Qu Yuan had once written, "I pluck fragrant blossoms to send to the one I long for." For the people of the Jing-Chu lands, giving aromatic flowers and herbs as gifts to a lover or husband was the most established way of expressing affection. And placing dried fragrant herbs inside an exquisite silk pouch — that was a scented sachet.

Green, green is the sash you wear; long, long are the thoughts I bear.

Lady Ye handed Heifu a sachet wrapped in a brocade kerchief. When Heifu moved to open it, she frowned and insisted, "I hope my goodman will wait until he is outside the city to look."

Heifu nodded. He embraced his wife's belly once more and kissed it, while Ye Zijin placed the heavy helmet on his head. Once he wore it, Heifu was no longer a gentle husband, but a general commanding thousands upon thousands of troops on the battlefield!

"Three years."

Heifu let his wife adjust his collar and hang his sword from his leather belt. He could not help but sigh with emotion. "Since returning from Yuzhang, three full years have passed. Great Qin has not fought for three years — horses set loose on the southern hills, swords and halberds stored in the armories. I too have been rushing about at court and in the provinces. If I don't move again soon, I fear flesh will start growing on my thighs!"

"Commandery Commandant!"

"Hail, Commandery Commandant!"

Outside the gates of Yiqu City, when Heifu's war chariot came galloping up, Five-Hundred-Leader Wang Wei, Squad Leader Gongsun Bailu, Yiqu White Wolf, and the others all saluted him.

The horses were four meticulously chosen black steeds, each standing over six chi and five cun at the shoulder. Mulberry Wood served as the charioteer, and Gong Ao, clad in heavy armor, stood as the chariot-right, sword and halberd in hand to protect Heifu's safety.

Heifu turned his head to look back at the top of the gate tower. The Commandery Governor Zhao Hai, the Commandery Deputy Yin Tong, and the others who had just toasted him farewell all cupped their hands in salute. Standing in the gateway arch, Chief Clerk Chen Ping bowed so low his hands nearly touched the ground.

Looking ahead, both sides of the official road were filled with chariots, riders, banners, and pennants. Among them, the three hundred "Sons of Good Families" that Heifu had painstakingly built up were the best equipped, wearing flat leather cavalry caps, dark light armor, and crimson battle surcoats. In addition to swords, spears, and bows, they also carried arm-drawn crossbows.

There were also a thousand Rong cavalry, mainly drawn from the five tribes of Dacheng. One hundred of them had been detained for brawling last autumn. After Heifu discussed the matter with the chieftains of the five Dacheng tribes, they gave these hundred men a chance to redeem themselves, letting them serve as death-sworn soldiers and act as the vanguard. These Rong men were fierce in private feuds and just as formidable in public warfare.

In addition, there were five thousand commandery soldiers, their spears and halberds like a forest. Seen from afar, dust and smoke spread across the horizon; the army's appearance was deeply imposing — war chariots rumbling forth, banners and pennants fluttering bright.

At this sight, Heifu's spirit could not help but swell with valor.

During the second campaign against Chu, Heifu had witnessed grand spectacles of hundreds of thousands of troops! But at that time, he was merely a minor company commander, a supporting player on the battlefield — wherever the banners of Wang Jian and Li You pointed, there he had to rush.

But today was different. He was a chief official of a commandery, the true commander of these six thousand-plus soldiers! And the expedition they were about to embark upon was no longer a civil war, but a journey to expand the frontiers for the Huaxia people.

"A true man... by nature prizes the rampage!"

Murmuring these words in his heart, Heifu had Gong Ao raise the commander's banner and point it north!

He shouted the command that Qin Shi Huang had written in his imperial edict.

"The Son of Heaven commands me, to build a wall in that northern land!"

It was only after leaving Yiqu City several dozen li behind, when they stopped at the next county to make camp and cook, that Heifu remembered the scented pouch his wife had gifted him.

He lit a candle and took it out to look. The pouch was made of exquisite patterned silk, embroidered with elegant floral designs, and stuffed full of dried northern fragrant grasses. Ye Zijin had picked these herself outside the city in high summer. She spent all day there embroidering her needlework — not only making close-fitting undergarments for Heifu, but also crafting this item, surely...

And what surprised Heifu was that the pouch also had a few lines of tiny characters embroidered on it.

He could not help but softly read them aloud: "A bird is on the southern hill, a net is set on the northern hill. Thinking of my lord, what can be done about the long road? If only I had a fine horse to follow my lord..."

These were not verses from the long-circulated poems, but a parting poem Ye Zijin had thought up herself. It had a touch of the Book of Songs' rhythm, and also a hint of the Songs of Chu's melody.

"Impressive!"

Heifu could not help clicking his tongue. "I never imagined my wife had such skill. I can only occasionally copy a line, but she can compose her own poems!"

As Heifu journeyed on his distant campaign, within Yiqu City, in the Commandant's residence, the wind whispered softly. Only a tiny yellow sparrow flew into the chamber, hopping upon the se-zither, making the strings tremble with faint notes:

"A bird is on the southern hill, a net is spread on the northern hill.

The bird flies high of its own accord, what can the net do?

If only my lord is safe, I shall ask for nothing more!"

(End of Chapter)