Chapter 434: Imperial Central Levy

"Let your old man see, how much travel money have all you officials given me?"

In the twenty-ninth year of the First Emperor, in the Hare Month (second month of the lunar calendar), on the outskirts of Pei County in Sishui Commandery, after bidding farewell to the various minor county officials who had come to see him off, Liu Ji plopped himself carelessly onto the ox-cart driven by Squad Leader Zhou Xie, cheerfully began tearing open the bundle of hemp-cloth pouches in his arms, and counted the farewell money the officials had gifted him.

Farewell money was an unwritten custom in the Qin bureaucracy: if someone was traveling far away to perform corvée labor or take up an official post, colleagues would wrap coins in hemp cloth and present them as a gift, calling it "farewell money" — in truth, it was a send-off bonus.

Liu Ji had been a village head for over three years. Although he often used his position to gather people for drinking bouts and had even fathered an illegitimate child with the Widow Cao, his private life riddled with stains, he did possess some ability. Using his old connections, he could keep the local rowdies in check and had done a decent job maintaining order at Sishui Village.

His generosity and competence had also helped him expand his social circle in Pei County. Now that it was Liu Ji's turn to lead men to Xianyang for corvée service, quite a few of the county's minor officials had come to see him off. Besides his superior Cao Shen and old friend Ren Ao, and Xiahou Ying the stable steward who always stopped his carriage to chat whenever he passed by, even a figure of real standing in the county — the Chief Clerk Xiao He — had come in person!

Liu Ji felt immensely flattered. As he opened everyone's farewell money and counted coin by coin, he felt utterly content. With this money, he need not worry about wine and meat for the journey.

But after counting Xiao He's gift, he froze.

"Five hundred coins!"

Liu Ji carefully counted again. It was indeed correct.

The minor county officials did not earn much. In a whole year, their salary was less than a hundred shi of grain, roughly three thousand coins. Even Ren Ao and Xiahou Ying, who were close to him, had only given three hundred coins — a month's wages.

"Clerk Xiao's salary is far more than a pittance, at least two hundred shi, right!"

Faced with Liu Ji's puzzlement, Squad Leader Zhou Xie muttered, "Besides, the Xiao clan are local magnates in Pei County. Giving an extra two hundred coins — why should the village head find it so strange?"

"That may be so, but Xiao He and I are hardly close acquaintances. Why would he give so much?"

Liu Ji's young friend Lu Wan sidled over. He was also heading west on this corvée assignment.

"Right. By all logic, I'm the one who's always owed Xiao He a few favors."

Liu Ji recalled his dealings with Xiao He. They had known each other for a long time. Xiao He was also a local, formerly a Chu official. When Liu Ji had followed his knight-errant boss Wang Ling in running wild through Pei County, he had once gotten into trouble, and Xiao He had let him off.

Years later, Xiao He became a Qin official, starting as a petty clerk in the merit assessment office. At that time, Liu Ji was still a commoner and went to the county seat to take the examination for an official post. Xiao He was ordered to test him on laws and ordinances, and all the questions he asked were simple ones.

Later still, Xiao He's official fortunes soared. In the court's drive to standardize the written script, he was the first to master the Qin seal script and could even write clerical script. The official documents he wrote on hemp paper were flawless, earning him the new county magistrate's high regard. He rose to Chief Clerk, overseeing all personnel appointments and dismissals for the entire county.

Coincidentally, around that time, Liu Ji helped Pei County's jail magistrate Cao Shen crack a cattle-rustling case, capturing the foolish thieves who hadn't paid him enough protection money. His accumulated merits raised his rank one step to Shangzao. Xiao He had him come to the county office to collect his credentials and had a conversation with him then.

For a superior of high status to condescend to befriend a subordinate of low status — this was out of the ordinary.

But true to his nature, Liu Ji stuck a banliang coin in his mouth and bit down on it, then laughed heartily. "Who cares! The money's real, that's what matters. Maybe Xiao He thinks your old man has talent and wants to befriend me!"

Though he said this, in his heart, Liu Ji quietly noted the debt of gratitude he owed Xiao He...

"When your old man becomes rich and powerful, I'll repay it double without fail!"

With a wave of his hand, he tossed the pouch of copper coins Xiao He had given him to Zhou Bo, the Material Officer Squad Leader who was walking silently behind the cart with a bow on his back.

"Zhou Bo, split this pouch of coins among the lads! Tell them not to run off just because the journey's long. Stick with me, Liu Ji, and when there's money, we spend it together; when there's wine, we drink together; when there's meat, we eat together!"

These words won a burst of cheers. Behind the grain carts was a group of farmers in tattered clothes, their faces caked with dust. They were a party of over fifty men, all corvée laborers conscripted by the county according to the household registers. But unlike the usual annual stint working in the commandery or county seat, this corvée assignment was to the imperial capital — Xianyang!

Liu Ji turned around and boosted the spirits of the laborers, each of whom had received ten coins.

"This is called an imperial central levy — you'll be doing construction for the Emperor's palaces. You'll get to see the sights of Xianyang, and if you're lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of the Emperor's carriage passing by!"

Other people's Qin officials, when escorting garrison soldiers and corvée laborers, were all terribly stingy. Only Village Head Liu was exceedingly generous. Since it wasn't his own money anyway, he spent lavishly on the laborers the whole journey. Sure enough, by mid-third-month, just as the group entered Hangu Pass, those two or three thousand coins of farewell money had been spent down to the last wen.

Draining the last mouthful of wine, Liu Ji tossed the leather flask behind him and began to bitterly regret it. "I shouldn't have been so greedy for drink in Luoyang. We're about to enter Xianyang, and I hear the markets there are truly bustling. Now that the money pouch is empty, what are we to do?"

But just as the group reported in at Hangu Pass, they received a bolt from the blue: the location for their corvée service had been changed. Not Xianyang — they were to go first to Zheng County!

Unable to see what the capital looked like, Liu Ji and the laborers were greatly disappointed. They could only, under the shouts of the Qin officials, be grouped together with men from other commanderies and counties, quicken their pace, and arrive before the deadline — otherwise, they would be punished. The law stipulated: if a delay occurred without additional levies being dispatched, the responsible officer was to be fined two suits of armor. Three to five days late: a reprimand. Six to ten days late: a fine of one shield. Over ten days late: a fine of one suit of armor...

The further Liu Ji walked, the more he sensed something was wrong. Their group of corvée laborers from Sishui Commandery had now swelled to a thousand men, and along the way, there were still over ten other columns of similar size. Besides the civilian laborers in cloth clothes, there were also soldiers wearing full suits of armor! The number of soldier-like men kept increasing, their expressions a mix of excitement and grim lethality. Liu Ji secretly thought this boded ill — this didn't look like going to do construction work; it was clearly the prelude to a battlefield!

But the question was, who were they going to fight? Had somewhere rebelled?

The Pei County group listened timidly as the Guanzhong Qin soldiers chatted excitedly in a dialect they could barely understand. During rest stops, the soldiers occasionally glanced at the Guandong laborers, their faces full of contempt. Someone suddenly said something that made the others roar with laughter and tossed back a word in reply.

Liu Ji understood. They were calling them "Chu people," and that word — it was "people of a conquered state"!

Though the court repeatedly enforced its laws and decrees, proclaiming the Nine Provinces interconnected and all customs unified under one wind, in each other's eyes, the other side was still "not of our kind."

Ten years ago, as a young knight-errant, Liu Ji would have drawn his sword and risen, blood spattering three feet. But now, as a Qin official and village head, Liu Ji merely yawned, pretended not to understand, and fixed his gaze on those in the column whose faces had turned pale from worry and fear, who looked ready to flee.

"Don't even think about running. If you're caught and dragged back, it won't be as simple as a fine of armor or a flogging!"

Zhou Bo and Lu Wan both nodded. The group obediently arrived at Zheng County, only to find it transformed into a huge military encampment. The guiding officials handed them over to a colonel, who arranged for them to stay in crude mud-brick huts.

Next to the Sishui Commandery laborers was a group of Suiyang men. Liu Ji, naturally quick to make acquaintances, went over to gather information.

Making his rounds, he saw a young man in his twenties sitting in the camp, using a needle he carried with him to help a companion mend clothes. Liu Ji walked over to strike up a conversation.

Liu Ji had also spent time in the Wei region, and the two quickly warmed up after a few words.

"Your younger brother is called Guan Ying, a silk peddler from Suiyang. How should I address you, elder brother?"

The young man was a merchant. Merchants and live-in sons-in-law were often the first to be conscripted for corvée labor.

"Liu Ji of Pei County."

Guan Ying quietly told Liu Ji, "I hear that gathering the Guandong laborers here is to escort grain and fodder elsewhere. Rumor has it we're going to fight the Hu people..."

Liu Ji suddenly understood. Zheng County was not the final destination of this journey!

Although the court had changed the corvée laws the previous year, having northerners garrison the north, southerners the south, and westerners the west so they need not be relocated far away, the people living in the Central Plains, due to their large population, still formed the main force sent to these three regions. This year, moreover, the hundred thousand men from each commandery under the "imperial central levy" had been temporarily reassigned as laborers to transport grain to the northern frontier.

"So we really are going to war."

Having thought they would come to Xianyang, work for a year, and be done with it, who could have guessed they would instead be driven to the distant and unfamiliar northern frontier? Everyone was somewhat worried, afraid they might die out there. Lu Wan, in particular, began trembling for no apparent reason.

Squad Leader Zhou Bo, however, tightened his grip on his bow and arrows. He was also from Pei County; his ancestors had migrated from Juan County and made a living for generations weaving silkworm-breeding mats, often playing the panpipe and singing dirges at funerals to scrape together a meal. Unlike his father and grandfather, Zhou Bo was tall and powerfully built, able to draw a stiff bow, and his archery was superb. Hearing they were going to the frontier to join a campaign, he could not help but entertain thoughts of seizing the chance to earn merit and gain a noble rank...

"Forget about it."

Liu Ji, however, poured cold water on him, pointing at the group of armored and helmeted Qin soldiers. "Fighting battles and earning merit — that's their business. We — we're just hauling grain, building roads and bridges, raising walls and digging trenches in the wilderness, doing hard labor. That's all..."

Early the next morning, the colonel in charge of them assembled everyone and gave them a speech. The theme was simply that the Xiongnu had invaded the north and were harassing the border regions, and His Imperial Majesty had already ordered the commandery commandants and generals to lead troops beyond the frontier to strike the Xiongnu.

"Pacifying the border and resisting the barbarians is not solely the affair of the border regions, nor solely the affair of Guanzhong — it is the affair of all the capped-and-sashed people under Heaven!"

The colonel was named Zhang Yi. As he gave his pre-battle mobilization, the man spoke in a bookish, refined manner, telling the garrison soldiers and corvée laborers tales of Guan Zhong, You Yu, Sima Cuo, Li Mu, Qin Kai, and others. His words were impassioned and stirring, enough to make one's blood boil... or so he thought.

The illiterate corvée laborers from Sishui Commandery had never even heard the names of these five men. They couldn't quite grasp it — clearly it was the border regions fighting the Hu people, so what did it have to do with them, people from Sishui Commandery, not even half a coin's worth?

No matter how many grand principles were spoken, it was like a chicken talking to a duck. But the colonel did not care whether they understood the great significance of pacifying the border. After he finished speaking, he announced the place where they would all be serving their corvée duty for the coming months.

"Laborers of Si River Commandery, to Upper Commandery!"

"We're supposed to go to Upper Commandery!" Liu Ji shook his head repeatedly. This road was a long one.

Colonel Zhang then continued, "Laborers of Dang Commandery, to Beidi Commandery!"

The laborers immediately broke into discussion. Never mind the misery of the Pei County laborers — among the Dang Commandery laborers beside them, Guan Ying, the silk peddler from Suiyang who had spoken with Liu Ji, scratched his head and asked his companion:

"What sort of place is Beidi Commandery?"

In early April, Heifu, Commandant of Beidi Commandery, also arrived at Yiju Village in Niyang County, the southernmost part of Beidi Commandery. Here he would await the fifteen thousand laborers from east of the pass assigned to him by the emperor, as well as the army supervisor responsible for escorting them — the Young Master, Fusu...

(End of chapter)