Chapter 460: Eradicate Evil Completely

By late September the weather turned steadily colder. On the newly opened fields at the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains, the hastily sown winter wheat had just sprouted. The local garrison troops still had to rely on army grain shipped from the interior. Once winter set in, the supply route would be cut off, so only one-third of the men could be left to hold the line; the rest would withdraw to the interior for the winter.

The Longxi troops and civilian laborers, led by Li Xin and Meng Yi, had already withdrawn to Longxi Commandery at the start of the month. The Beidi troops were also set to leave at the beginning of October. Heifu was now discussing the withdrawal arrangements with the army supervisor and the various commanders.

At that moment, Wushi Yan arrived with news he had obtained from the Yuezhi envoys, reporting that Modu had already killed Touman and proclaimed himself Chanyu at Juyan Marsh.

Heifu was not particularly surprised; he was merely curious whether the process matched what had happened in history. Prince Fusu, however, appeared exceptionally shocked.

"Killed his own father?!"

Prince Fusu found it somewhat unbelievable that anyone in the world could commit such a bestial act. In his mind, he branded Modu, who was around his own age, as a "supremely evil villain."

"If this were Qin, Modu's act would make him a target of universal condemnation. Everyone would have the right to slay him. How could he be acclaimed as the new Chanyu?"

Although cases of patricide to seize power were not unheard of during the Spring and Autumn period — for instance, King Mu of Chu killed King Cheng of Chu when he was denied the succession — as time passed, filial piety had grown increasingly important. The Hundred Schools of Thought diverged on many points, yet on the treatment of filial piety they were remarkably unanimous.

The Confucians, needless to say, regardless of which branch, all placed filial piety in an extremely high position.

Even the Mohists held that "a subject's or a son's failure to be filial to his sovereign or father" was the cause of chaos in the world, though they advocated that while loving one's own parents, one must also love the parents of others, so that others would in turn love one's own parents. Only by universal mutual love could there be universal mutual benefit.

Prince Fusu, deeply influenced by Confucianism and Mohism, naturally adhered strictly to filial piety and righteousness. Even though the deaths of his mother and uncle had created some estrangement between him and the Emperor, and he often remonstrated bluntly, even defying the First Emperor, he was nonetheless deeply filial and dutiful to his imperial father in daily life, never once missing his morning and evening greetings. On this point, even the First Emperor could find no fault. He disliked Fusu's excessive compassion, but he greatly appreciated his filial devotion.

Even in Qin, ruled by Legalism, filial piety was extremely important. Back in the day, Shang Yang had listed filial piety and fraternal duty among the "Six Vermin" that poisoned the state, but after Shang Yang's death, Qin once again began encouraging descendants to fulfill their filial duties.

The Qin Code imposed extremely severe punishments on the unfilial. If a sixty-year-old elder accused his son of unfilial conduct and sought the death penalty, the authorities were not to show leniency but were to promptly arrest the unfilial son and ensure he did not escape!

When Heifu first arrived in Xianyang, he had witnessed a case: a common soldier named Bing from a certain neighborhood at the East Gate was unfilial to his parents and had even kicked his own father. The father requested that Bing's feet be cut off and that he be exiled to a remote county in Shu Commandery, never to return home. The authorities accepted the case, exiled Bing as his father had requested, and sent him under escort to Chengdu...

Thus, in Qin, unfilial conduct was a major crime carrying legal liability. Back then, the First Emperor, precisely because he did not want to bear the stigma of being "unfilial," had ultimately brought his mother, Queen Dowager Zhao, back from the detached palace to Xianyang.

As they discussed filial piety in light of Modu's patricide, Heifu listened to Fusu's words and was reminded that, historically, Fusu had been forced to commit suicide precisely because of a fabricated charge of "unfilial conduct"...

"If a father demands his son's death, must the son die?"

That was probably Fusu's core value. If the historical accounts were true, Fusu, upon receiving the decree, had killed himself without a word of protest, never even suspecting it might be a forgery.

Should one call him sincere, or foolish? Or had the exaltation of filial piety by Confucianism, Legalism, and Mohism been driven so deep into his very bones?

Fusu and Modu were men of the same age, both eldest sons, yet they were two completely different kinds of people.

Ruthless and merciless versus soft-hearted and compassionate; a dark, deep, and brutal man versus a pure white lotus...

When faced with the threat of losing their position as heir, they had made diametrically opposite choices.

Seeing that Fusu was still filled with righteous indignation over Modu's act, Heifu smiled and said, "The Xiongnu custom is to disdain the old and the weak. Touman had suffered a crushing defeat and already lost the people's support. Modu seized the chance to kill him — this is actually quite in line with the Xiongnu temperament."

"A son murders his father, then marries his stepmother — they are no different from beasts."

Fusu shook his head. "Truly despicable, and truly pitiable."

But then he added helplessly, "Though Qin has established laws against unfilial conduct, popular customs are still poor. When a Qin family is wealthy, the sons split off and set up their own households as soon as they come of age; when the family is poor, the sons leave to become live-in sons-in-law. Lend a father a farming tool, and they act as if they are bestowing a favor; if a mother picks up a dustpan and broom, they stand there and scold her. They nurse their children without avoiding the father-in-law; when a daughter-in-law is at odds with her mother-in-law, she answers back with biting sarcasm."

"To treat one's own parents with such neglect and insolence — if this behavior is left unchecked, we will hardly be any different from the Xiongnu."

In Qin, any household with two adult males that did not divide into separate families had its land tax doubled. This led to the demise of extended families and the proliferation of small peasant households. Once divided, families naturally grew distant. With heavy taxes and poor land, each household barely had enough to feed itself and raise its children, so the care of the elderly was often shirked and passed around. Families like Heifu's, where everyone loved and cared for one another, were truly rare.

Writing filial piety into the Qin Code was also a means of compelling these impoverished and weak small households to once again shoulder the responsibility of caring for the aged.

What else could be done? Could the state be expected to care for the elderly on your behalf? That was something even later ages could not accomplish. From "One child is best, the state will help with eldercare" to "Eldercare cannot rely entirely on the government," in the end, one still had to rely on oneself; there was no counting on others.

Having said this, Fusu cupped his hands toward Heifu. "Qin has laws against unfilial conduct, but it lacks the principle of state-supported eldercare. This is truly a major deficiency. Yet you, Commandant-General, have established the Veterans' Home in Beidi Commandery, taking in and supporting orphaned and widowed old soldiers. This is truly a benevolent policy, one that ought to be extended to the commanderies and counties of the interior!"

"This is heading in a dangerous direction."

Heifu thought to himself, This prince seems to have serious objections to Qin's approach of "governing filial piety by law." But then, social problems like this could hardly be blamed solely on the statutes and Qin laws, could they? Every dynasty and every era was the same — such was the evil of human nature.

Since this touched on state governance and legal statutes, Heifu could not delve into a deep discussion with Fusu. He therefore coughed lightly, skipped the topic, and brought up a matter of more immediate concern to them both.

"General Li and I were merely a detached force of the main army, yet we routed the Xiongnu and sent them fleeing from their lands. The King of the Yuezhi saw this with his own eyes and is already terrified. He is most eager to establish diplomatic ties and make peace with Qin. He is willing to become a vassal state of the Great Qin and even submit as a subject to His Majesty. He previously agreed to kill Modu and present his head. Now that Modu has proclaimed himself Chanyu, the Yuezhi King has again sent envoys to explain the situation to Wushi Yan, and has also agreed to send one of his sons to Helan to accompany us to Xianyang for an audience with His Majesty..."

Fusu nodded. "For the distant borderlands to come to court — this is a matter of great significance."

The First Emperor had never been fond of accepting tributary states; at most, he would first annex them and then establish "dependent states" under the commanderies, which in practice were equivalent only to minor native chieftaincies.

But the Yuezhi were different. They were a great power of the Western Regions, and since the Zhou dynasty, they had never again paid court to the Central Plains. The Emperor should be pleased by this.

Heifu continued, "The King of the Yuezhi has also agreed to one more thing: starting next spring, he will open the Hexi Corridor, allowing Qin merchants direct and unimpeded passage to the Western Regions. He will also return all the Qin merchants he previously detained..."

A year and a half earlier, Heifu had persuaded Wushi Luo, under the pretext of searching for the Kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West, to attempt to open the "Jade Road" and explore the Western Regions. Wushi Luo had dispatched a merchant caravan that detoured through Longxi and the Qiang territories, traveled through Huangzhong, and proceeded northwest along the Qaidam Basin.

The merchants bribed the Qiang chieftains along the way and recruited guides, and were not harassed. After several months of travel, they finally emerged from a pass in the Qilian Mountains and arrived at a realm called "Wusun," located roughly in the area of later-era Dunhuang. Wusun had a population of a hundred thousand and, like the Xiongnu, was a nomadic state.

They spent the winter in Wusun, and when spring arrived this year, they had originally intended to continue westward to see a place the Wusun people called "Loulan." However, it happened that the Yuezhi were attacking and plundering Wusun. This group of Qin merchants was captured, taken back to Zhaowu City, and detained for over half a year.

It so happened that Qin had already launched its war against the Xiongnu. The Yuezhi watched from the sidelines and, seeing how mighty Qin was, crushing the Xiongnu as easily as breaking dry twigs, dared not harm those merchant-envoys. This time, they were sent back as well, along with a considerable gift of cattle and sheep...

The Yuezhi population was only a little over two hundred thousand, with tens of thousands of men able to draw a bow, and they were a semi-sedentary people without the strategic depth of the Xiongnu. They had no wish to invite a punitive expedition by the Qin army. No matter how persuasively Modu spoke, the King of the Yuezhi was unwilling to go to war with Qin. He turned around and sold Modu out, hoping to curry favor with Qin by doing so.

"If the Western Regions can be opened without war, that would be a good thing." Fusu had some mild criticism of the First Emperor's quest for immortals and longevity. In his view, anything that could be resolved peacefully should not require resorting to force.

"Borrowing a path through another's territory is, after all, unreliable."

Heifu, however, shook his head. "What those merchants brought back was not only intelligence on the conditions of states like Wusun and Loulan. They also learned one thing: it turns out that from Wusun, there is a direct route to Juyan Marsh, and from Juyan Marsh, crossing the shifting sands and the great desert, there is another route to Helan and the Ordos Loop!"

"In light of this, I have a plan."

Fusu nodded. "General, please speak."

Heifu said, "This man Modu — he could offer up his wife and gift away his horses just to save his own skin, showing extreme forbearance, and then he murdered his own father. He is truly a man of wolfish ambition. His conduct closely resembles that of Goujian. If we do not eliminate him and allow him to take command of the Xiongnu, I fear he will become a hidden calamity."

"It would be better to send troops again to strike Juyan Marsh. First, to annihilate the Xiongnu remnants and eliminate future trouble; second, to establish outposts and trading stations at Juyan Marsh, giving the Central Plains an additional route to the Western Regions that does not require borrowing passage through the Hexi Corridor."

Of the two reasons, the former was the more important.

Out of disgust for Modu's patricide, Fusu did not raise many objections, but he added:

"Modu still has a following of ten thousand riders, and Juyan Marsh lies over a thousand li away, separated by shifting sands and a great desert. In the previous great battles, many of our horses perished. Now, with winter about to set in, the troops will find it hard to march, and transport and supply will be extremely difficult. I fear the losses would be too great..."

In this offensive against the Xiongnu, the Qin army's greatest losses were not in soldiers but in warhorses. The horses were far more delicate than men. The stockpiles accumulated in the border commanderies over several years were more than half depleted. Fortunately, they had seized quite a few Xiongnu horses; otherwise, the Qin cavalry would have had to wait several more years before they could be fully equipped with two horses per man.

Heifu replied, "What you say is quite true, Your Highness. The main army is gradually withdrawing, and with the freezing winter weather, deploying troops would indeed be inadvisable."

"But according to the Yuezhi King's envoy, Modu will spend the winter at Juyan Marsh and only lead his followers north when the snow melts next year. Our forces could combine the chariots and cavalry of Beidi, Longxi, Shang, Shuofang, and Yunzhong Commanderies. At the start of the first month, just as the weather begins to thaw but the cold still lingers, we could launch a lightning raid on Juyan Marsh! We would annihilate Modu and the Xiongnu remnants completely!"

Heifu, whose guiding principle in all dangerous matters was to let others take the lead, naturally had no intention of going himself. When he reached Xianyang and reported this matter to the First Emperor, he would strongly recommend Li Xin as the commander...

Fusu listened and remained silent for a long while. Then he looked at Heifu rather strangely and said:

"General, your fixation on killing Modu is truly profound..."

So I've been found out? Heifu also knew that his repeated, relentless pursuit of Modu, determined to kill him and be done with it, was indeed rather obvious. But he could no longer afford to care about that, and said with a smile:

"I simply feel that in fostering virtue, one must spread it wide; in eradicating evil, one must root it out completely. That is all!"

PS: The Son of Heaven questioned Zhang Qian several times about the lands of Daxia and the like. Qian, having by then lost his marquisate, therefore said: "When your servant dwelt among the Xiongnu, I heard that the Kunmo, king of the Wusun, was named Kunmo. Kunmo's father, Nandoumi, originally lived together with the Great Yuezhi in the lands between Qilian and Dunhuang — a small state. The Great Yuezhi attacked and killed Nandoumi, seizing his territory, and its people fled to the Xiongnu." — Records of the Grand Historian, Biographies of Zhang Qian

(End of chapter)