Chapter 465: He Who Does Not Plan for the Whole

"I just said it offhand — why take it so seriously?"

That day, Heifu had just returned from a council at Xianyang Palace when Zhang Ping came calling again, still about the matter of finding that man.

A few days earlier, Heifu had arrived back at his residence in the capital; the next day happened to be the winter solstice, which was Heifu's twenty-eighth birthday. With neither wife nor brothers by his side, only old friends and former acquaintances came to offer congratulations.

Zhang Cang, Cheng Shang, and Zhang Han's younger brother Zhang Ping were all present. Over wine and idle chat, Heifu casually mentioned how, back when he followed the Tongwu Marquis Wang Ben on the campaign against Wei, during the battle at Waihuang, he had seen on the city wall a gallant, strapping fellow with a magnificent beard.

"That gallant had just cut down a Qin soldier. From his stance, it looked like he was about to fight me blade-to-blade to the death. Who'd have thought that the very next instant, he'd suddenly shout 'Protect Lord Zhang!' and take to his heels. Thinking back on it now, it really is laughable."

"Yesterday, on the way to Zhangtai Palace with His Majesty, I spotted a big-bearded man in a conscript's black tunic by the roadside at the North Gate Street. He looked seven or eight parts like that local gallant. A pity he vanished in a flash — His Majesty's carriage was right behind me, and I couldn't very well dismount to search, so I had to let it go."

Heifu had told it as a drunken joke and thought nothing more of it. He never expected that Zhang Ping, whom Zhang Han had instructed to "serve Commandant Wei as an elder brother," would take it to heart and afterward make a special trip to the conscript camp, hoping to help Heifu find that man.

But the previous year, the First Emperor had summoned one hundred fifty thousand laborers from east of the mountains, and now a hundred thousand were concentrated in Xianyang, with thirty or forty thousand of them assigned to snow-sweeping duty that day. With numbers so vast, Zhang Ping had no way to search, so he commissioned the Xianyang Director of Works to help. A day later, he was handed over a hundred-odd thick-bearded men. Zhang Ping, thoroughly pleased, brought them for Heifu to inspect...

A dark, dense mass of over a hundred thick-bearded men — Heifu was utterly speechless at the time. Those who thought well of him might assume he was recruiting sturdy retainers; those who thought ill of him might suspect he had some peculiar proclivity!

Heifu casually scanned the group; the man he had seen that day was not among them. He simply treated them all to a meal and sent them on their way.

He clapped Zhang Ping on the shoulder and told him the matter ended here: "Perhaps I was mistaken that day. You needn't busy yourself further — focus on proper business. No need to stir up a storm through the whole city."

When a senior official moves his lips, the petty functionaries run their legs off. Heifu had not anticipated that a single remark of his would set off such a farce. Zhang Ping's blunder had startled the snake in the grass; now, even if he truly wanted to find the man, it would be hard to do so.

Heifu was quite exasperated. It wasn't just Zhang Ping — after two years away serving in Beidi Commandery, he found that everyone in Xianyang, apart from the Emperor and his still-sour-faced father-in-law, the Neishi Teng, now treated him with a subtly altered attitude.

In the past, he had been at most a close minister to the Emperor, favored for a time but without real authority. Now, however, he was every inch a frontier grandee, with illustrious battle honors to his name, and was further entangled in ties with the Eldest Prince, galloping full-tilt down the road from general to chancellor...

So those who wished to curry favor with Heifu were truly not few.

What caught Heifu's attention most, however, were the changes in attitude from two particular men.

One was Zhao Gao. In public, Zhao Gao was always exceedingly proper, none of his former petty maneuvers, and in his conversations with Heifu there was even a hint of ingratiation — but this only made Heifu raise his guard.

Two years earlier, the Neishi Teng had already deduced that there was bad blood between Zhao Gao and Heifu. Zhao Gao was Prefect of the Central Chariots, and he was Neishi — the two had no direct connection. But Zhao Gao's son-in-law, Yan Le, was a subordinate of a subordinate of a subordinate of the Neishi. Over these two years, Ye Teng had secretly kept men watching Yan Le, but disappointingly, although Yan Le came from humble origins, he was scrupulously honest and his official record was not poor.

On the first night back in Xianyang, when Heifu visited Ye Teng, Ye Teng tossed the dossiers on Yan Le and Zhao Gao's younger brother Zhao Cheng at Heifu and said coldly, "Zhao Cheng serves as a court gentleman at Linguang Palace and has always been by-the-book. As for Yan Le, he is shrewd and capable, handling cases strictly according to law — an able official, far better than that Sima Xin you recommended. No wonder Zhao Gao took him as a son-in-law."

So the only fault Ye Teng could find on Zhao Gao was an incident eleven years prior: when Empress Dowager Zhao passed away and the court was in grand mourning, Zhao Gao, who was supposed to be on duty at Zhangtai Palace, took an imperial horse out of the palace against orders because his mother was gravely ill and dying and he could not report to the Emperor. He was caught by Meng Yi.

But that matter had already been pardoned by the First Emperor, and no one could pursue it further.

That was also the last time Zhao Gao ever erred, the last time he acted with reckless audacity. Afterward, he grew ever more cautious and circumspect.

"Wouldn't have guessed — so he's a filial son?"

At the time, Heifu spread his hands and said, "Father-in-law, Zhao Gao holds high office and great power, yet does not covet wealth, and even restrains his kin from wrongdoing. A man like that — what he seeks is very great indeed!"

"You make it sound as if everyone becomes an official just for money."

The Neishi Teng glared at his son-in-law, then pointed at himself: "Don't you also hold high office and great power without coveting wealth, and restrain your kin from wrongdoing?"

Heifu replied with righteous conviction, "My family has its own estate; we lack neither food nor clothing — why would I need to embezzle? The friends I make are either trusted fellow-villagers or people worth associating with..."

"I see more than that."

The Neishi Teng seemed to see right through Heifu's heart: "Those unmoved by wealth are usually after another thing — power! Think of it this way, and Zhao Gao's thoughts are not hard to fathom. The reason he works so diligently is to maintain his weight in His Majesty's heart. With His Majesty's favor, he has an unending stream of power. He also knows that as a close minister, should he lose His Majesty's trust, he would lose everything overnight!"

He, Ye Teng, was the same — what he tirelessly pursued was a position second only to one man, above all others!

"You wish to strike back at Zhao Gao, but I advise you not to act rashly. A reckless move will only scratch his skin, because all this is decided not by Zhao Gao, but by His Majesty!"

True as those words were, Heifu was unwilling to accept it. He did not believe Zhao Gao's faction was truly unassailable. One day, that greedy fox's tail would show.

Of course, there was also one other person — Li Si. On this return, Li Si treated Heifu with great courtesy and praised him incessantly, but the more he did so, the clearer Heifu understood that he and the Li family had truly gone their separate ways...

Toward Heifu, Li Si no longer had any scruples about "forming a faction," and now regarded Heifu as an outsider who could not be used for his ends. After all, the old Chancellor Kui Zhuang was nothing more than a stamp; he was about to retire, leaving one chancellor post vacant.

With the Imperial Secretary Feng Quji having disappointed the Emperor over his son Feng Jie's great defeat, Li Si had become the strongest contender.

But the Neishi Teng also had a chance. Over the past two years, logistics for the northwestern campaigns had all been supported by the Neishi. Ye Teng had earned merit for provisioning and supply, been promoted one rank in nobility, and was now a Four-Horse Team Leader.

So the relationship between Li and Ye was very delicate, which made things awkward for Heifu, caught in the middle.

How to grab Zhao Gao by his pigtail and bring him down early, and how to properly manage his relationship with Li Si — these were the questions Heifu most needed to ponder after returning to Xianyang.

Compared to that, the thick-bearded man he had glimpsed only once was no great matter at all. Since he hadn't been found, let it go.

Zhang Ping felt he had bungled the task and was somewhat embarrassed. Unexpectedly, Heifu then said to him:

"You needn't be disheartened. Why fret over such a trifle? Once spring comes, places like Helan beyond the frontier will need large-scale construction of city walls and post stations. I shall recommend you to His Majesty. Beidi Commandery will establish two Commandery Directors of Works — one in Yiqu City, overseeing road-building, and one at Helan Mountain, overseeing wall and city construction. You shall be the Commandery Director of Works in charge of building walls and cities."

"Thank you, Commandant Wei!"

Zhang Ping was overjoyed to hear this. He was the same age as Heifu — to be sent out at twenty-eight from a two-hundred-bushel petty post in the Privy Treasury to serve as a four-hundred-bushel Commandery Director of Works was truly a happy turn.

"No need for thanks. Shaorong and I are the closest of friends; you are like my own younger brother. Just call me Elder Brother."

Heifu's real purpose in continually promoting Zhang Ping was to draw in Zhang Han. This Brother Zhang Han was now merely an official foreman of works, eating dust year-round beyond the northern frontier, but in the future, he would be no ordinary figure...

Even if he never got the chance to be a general as in history, doing infrastructure work was not bad either.

Then Zhang Ping recalled another matter.

"Wei... Elder Brother, come spring next year, will Beidi Commandery still be sending troops to strike the Xiongnu?"

If a large force was to be dispatched against the Xiongnu, where would the manpower for large-scale construction come from?

"The sortie beyond the frontier is called off. Next year, Qin troops will no longer cross the Tangwen Pool and the Yin Mountains, and will focus on establishing new counties and moving settlers to open up farmland."

Heifu sighed. "Today, my Chief Clerk Chen Ping reported in with two pieces of news — one good, one bad. The good news is that the Yuezhi prince sent to pay court has already entered Longxi. The bad news, however, is that the Yuezhi King sent scouts through wind and snow to reconnoiter near Juyan Marsh, and of the thirty thousand Xiongnu who were there, not a single soldier or horse remains!"

"Modun deceived the Yuezhi King. Though he claimed he would not leave until spring, in truth, right after murdering the Chanyu Touman, after only a brief rest and reorganization, he immediately took his horde and, before the heavy snows descended, fled back to the northern desert. By now, he should have already reached Longcheng..."

Longcheng lay deep in the northern desert. The Qin people knew only its name, and that it was over two thousand li north of the river bend, but not its exact location.

Heifu said with self-mockery, "My luck seems poor lately — the people I want to find, the things I want to do, never work out."

What happened to the cheat-code life? Could the cheat be a fake?

Still, the next person he was going to find had a name and a clan — the monk could run, but the temple couldn't hide!

"Pei County, Sishui Commandery — Liu Bang... No, he should still be called Liu Ji at this point."

He who does not plan for the whole cannot plan well for a single part. Setting up the board requires attending to every facet. Since matters beyond the northern frontier were on hold for now, it was time to turn his gaze back to the Central Plains, back to the lands east of the mountains, where great chaos might erupt in the future...

Heifu thought to himself, "There aren't many years left. Should I send someone to casually look around, take a peek, and see whether that fellow has become a village chief yet and wormed his way into the ranks of Qin officials?"

(End of chapter)