Chapter 500: One Man's Heart

"A secret order has arrived: someone has reported that you take bribes, turn a blind eye to the private salt trade, and line your own pockets. Is this true?"

Zhou Gao had been dead drunk, but these words now jolted him completely sober. He threw himself to the ground at once, sweat pouring down like rain.

He too was a man from Guanzhong and understood Qin law well. Qin was famed throughout the world for its harsh punishments and severe laws — not only toward the common people, but toward officials as well. A great many statutes were drawn up specifically to address crimes by officials; when an official transgressed, punishment was invariably applied, with absolutely no room for leniency.

That was why, when Master Xun entered Qin several decades ago, he found its officialdom clean and upright: every official was respectful and frugal, none dared embezzle or take bribes, none dared neglect their duties, and administrative efficiency was extremely high.

And within the laws governing officials, embezzlement and bribe-taking were regarded with particular abhorrence. If the giving and taking of bribes reached the value of a single copper coin, the offender was sentenced to tattooing — the face branded with characters and hard labor imposed! This punishment not only fell upon the offender himself, but also carried the "three-generation proscription": his descendants for three generations were likewise barred from holding office.

Zhou Gao raised his head and stared at the damning real-name letter of accusation in Heifu's hand. Since the sender could afford paper, it was probably the work of some official in Xiami County. No more than three people knew about his affairs; given just a little time, Zhou Gao was certain he could trace it!

But at that moment, Heifu's voice rang out again: "Magistrate of Xiami, the statutes say: a keeper who steals from his charge, if the value reaches ten gold pieces, is executed and exposed in the marketplace. This letter says the bribes you have taken far exceed that sum. What explanation do you have?"

"This humble official... this humble official..."

Just as Zhou Gao was racking his brains for an excuse, Heifu did something that utterly stunned him!

Heifu walked straight over to the candle, held the letter to the flame, and let it burn until nothing was left!

"Commandery Governor, this..." Zhou Gao could not react.

Heifu laughed heartily. "I find this letter full of exaggerations and unworthy of belief. I fear it is a deliberate attempt to throw the officialdom of Jiaodong into chaos!"

Although he had burned a blank letter to trick Zhou Gao, Heifu understood well that three feet of ice is not formed in a single day. In truth, the corruption in Jiaodong's officialdom had begun several years ago...

After Qi surrendered, those rough, battle-hardened soldiers from west of the pass who had risen in rank through military merit came east of the pass. They beheld the dazzling, sensual worlds of Linzi and Jimo, and from then on, a whole new door swung open for them.

Because Jiaodong was so far from Guanzhong, the Qin officials dispatched there were few, and the Qin laws that had once constrained officials became effectively meaningless. Everything now depended on self-discipline and self-restraint.

For the first year or two, Zhou Gao, an old soldier, still held fast to his bottom line, refusing all bribes of money, silk, jewels, and treasures. But every man has his weaknesses, and his were lust and wine. This line of defense was soon breached by the beautiful women, wine, and meat sent by powerful elders and merchants, and he sank deeper and deeper.

Slowly, this good warrior who had once been single-mindedly devoted to farming, fighting, and rising in rank developed a new passion: money. Once you had money and silk, would lovely women and tender beauties ever be lacking? He turned a blind eye to the private salt operations springing up everywhere, colluding with them in exchange for material pleasures.

Watching the man before him, who now looked as if he had been granted a great amnesty after seeing a blank letter go up in flames, Heifu sneered inwardly. He could not help recalling a passage he had heard in his previous life.

"There may be some communists who were never conquered by enemies with guns, who deserved the title of hero before such foes; yet they cannot withstand the attack of sugar-coated bullets — they are bound to lose the battle before these sugar bullets."

These words applied just as well to the Qin dynasty.

Heifu had sent men to investigate in secret beforehand. Zhou Gao was not the only one guilty of corruption. In all of Jiaodong's officialdom, there was practically no one who dared claim to be clean and spotless! Even the Supervisory Censor, whose duty it was to inspect officials, was implicated!

If one cast one's gaze a little further, one would discover that corruption ran rampant in more than just Jiaodong Commandery alone.

Take Pei County, for example. The Magistrate of Pei County arranged a housewarming banquet for his good friend Lü Gong and had Organization Chief Xiao He preside over it. Guests were required to contribute a thousand coins before they could take a seat of honor. Was this not corruption and using power for private gain? Xiao He and Cao Can were thoroughly accustomed to such things.

The Village Head of Sishui, Liu Ji, ate meat and drank wine without paying; the tavern keeper's wife would eventually cancel his wine tallies and let him consume for free. Perhaps Liu Ji used his personal charm to bed the tavern keeper's wife into submission, but was this not also commoners currying favor with a petty official and local bully, a disguised form of paying protection money in exchange for shelter?

Using power to trade for money and beautiful women — this is an instinct nearly every official is born with.

To put it bluntly, ever since Qin unified the realm, in the entire land east of the pass, from six-hundred-bushel county magistrates down to measly grain-scoop village heads, there was not a single one who strictly disciplined himself and refused to take a single coin in bribes!

Perhaps there was only one exception, and that was Xi...

As for the rest? The Qin officials Master Xun had once observed — "none but were respectful and frugal, emerging from the public gate and returning to their homes with no private affairs" — had, for the most part, already degenerated and rotted.

This was an open secret throughout the empire. So long as officials did not go too far, there was a tacit agreement that no one would expose it, because once a thing was brought to light and the affair blew up, attracting the imperial court's attention, the law would still be enforced with severe punishment.

The Emperor was not fond of having a heap of lice beneath him, sucking the blood and flesh of the money and grain that ought to be handed up.

The Qin legal code was forged by the Legalists to safeguard the sovereign's power. Only one person possessed legal immunity. Therefore, in Qin, only one person was entitled to be corrupt — and that was the Emperor!

Heifu pondered this for a long time and finally reached a conclusion: in the final analysis, Qin's corruption began from the top down. The Emperor himself indulged in the most extravagant luxury, building palaces and mausoleums on a colossal scale, stuffing Guanzhong full of the beauties of the Six Kingdoms. Those below saw this with their own eyes — how could they not form their own ideas? Would they still foolishly discipline themselves for the sake of the state?

One man's heart is the heart of a thousand, ten thousand men. Qin loves extravagance and splendor, yet the people also long for their homes; why must you take from them every last penny, only to squander it like mud and sand?

If the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams will be as well. This is a systemic problem. In the Great Qin's anti-corruption campaign, you can strike down the flies below, but as for that tiger at the very top — His Majesty the First Emperor — who dares strike him? Who dares remonstrate? Cast aside the root to treat the branches, and in the end it can only be a tiger's head and a snake's tail!

These things were not deeply felt in Xianyang; it was only after Heifu traveled east of the pass that he began to understand.

Even so, Heifu had no intention of letting Zhou Gao and the commandery's most seriously corrupt officials off the hook. He merely hoped that, before they were finished, they could still generate a little residual heat and help him land a big fish.

And so Heifu launched into his spurious ramble. He poured a cup of wine and spoke a string of "heart-to-heart" words to Zhou Gao, who, after that fright, was still trembling with fear.

"Magistrate of Xiami, there is no need to be so uneasy. You and I both understand: the laws strictly forbid amassing wealth through corruption, but abiding by that is far too difficult."

"We serve as officials in outer commanderies, a thousand leagues from home. Of the money and grain we send back, less than half reaches its destination. We must also keep a number of advisors and retainers under us, yet the salary we receive is the same as in Guanzhong. Our outgoings constantly exceed our income. This truly is a case of expecting the horse to run while denying it grass."

"Furthermore, the land east of the pass is not like Qin territory. Everyone here pursues profit. Those local petty officials refuse to work diligently for the public good; they will only act if there is some small gain in it. Thus, when senior officials amass wealth, sometimes it is not for the money itself, but a kind of expedient adaptation..."

He dipped his finger in wine and wrote the clerical-script character for "official" on the low table, then began to recite lines from a television drama he had watched in his previous life:

"How is the character 'official' written? Two mouths, one above and one below. You must first feed the mouth above before you can feed the mouth below. If you want to govern the people, don't you still have to rely on all those officials, great and small? If you cannot feed them, who will be willing to work for us!"

Zhou Gao was dumbfounded. Although he was corrupt, deep inside he felt a faint sense of shame, along with the cowardice of having broken the law. Yet the Commandery Governor spoke of corruption as if it were perfectly justified! One grand principle after another — could it be that he too was one of us?

Heifu, however, turned stern again. "Magistrate of Xiami, do you now understand why I am not investigating you?"

Zhou Gao honestly shook his head. "This humble official does not know."

Heifu said, "You ought to be clear on this as well: if I were to investigate this matter strictly, you would not be the only one to lose your post and your head. It could mean every official in Xiami County, and might even implicate many senior officials and chief clerks in the commandery headquarters!"

"When that time comes, half the officials of Jiaodong will be swept away in one stroke. How then am I to govern the commandery? How am I to cope with His Majesty's Eastern Tour, which will soon begin?"

At this, Zhou Gao finally saw the light. He thought to himself, "Indeed, if the investigation is pursued to the end, Jiaodong will fall into chaos. Without us county officials, who will build the traveling palaces, open the roads, dig the gold mines, collect the rents and taxes, and supervise the black-headed commoners in their corvée service for the Commandery Governor?!"

"A man must learn to be flexible."

Heifu sighed. "It was only after steeping in officialdom for several years that I too came to understand this principle. One cannot be overly strict, not only with officials, but with powerful elders and great clans as well."

Hearing this, Zhou Gao immediately sensed there was more to these words than met the eye.

Sure enough, Heifu came to the point at last and suddenly asked, "I hear you have very close ties with the Tian clan of Yeyi?"

The Tian clan of Yeyi was the moneybags who had stuffed Zhou Gao full. And he was not the only one — even the Magistrate of Yeyi County followed the lead of Tian Guang and his son Tian Du as if they were his masters. After all, Yeyi had once been the Tian family's private fief. They possessed over a thousand private armed retainers and immense prestige. It was no exaggeration to say that if the Tian brothers raised a single shout in the marketplace, they could rally several thousand men, seize the city, and rise in revolt!

This was the legacy left behind by the Lord of Anping, Tian Dan, not easily erased.

And it was precisely because they had bought off the local grandees that the private salt trade dominated by the Tian clan of Yeyi in those two districts could run so rampant.

With matters having come to this point, Zhou Gao no longer dared to evade or lie and admitted that he often associated with Tian Du.

"That is very good. I have a matter in which I need your assistance."

Zhou Gao knew that his wretched life was held in the Commandery Governor's hand — death or pardon hung on a single word. He said hurriedly, "Commandery Governor, please give your orders."

Heifu said, "I wish to invite the head of the Tian clan of Yeyi, Tian Guang, to meet me in Pingdu."

Pingdu was a township in Yeyi, not far from Xiami. A major event had recently occurred there. Heifu had ordered men to search the entire commandery for mineral deposits. Although a gold mine had been discovered in Qucheng, Huang County, it was located deep in the mountains and difficult to exploit.

Pingdu had also located a mine. Though not as large as the one at Qucheng, the vein was shallower and easier to excavate, so they planned to establish a "Gold Extraction Office" at Pingdu.

Heifu said, "Ye Town was, after all, once Tian clan territory. Opening the mine at Pingdu — matters like organizing the workforce — will require the assistance of Tian Guang and his son. Inviting them to meet there was precisely to discuss this."

Zhou Gao understood. This was probably what the Commandery Governor meant by "flexibility." Ah, it seemed that after half a year here, he too had finally realized that without relying on the local great clans, governing the region was impossible.

But Zhou Gao added weakly, "Tian Guang is a cautious man by nature and does not easily leave Ye Town…"

Heifu gave a cold laugh. "I am the Commandery Governor, after all. Must I lower myself to go to Ye Town and call on him at his door? Choosing Pingdu instead of Jimo has already given Tian Guang enough face! Bring the letter — I'll speak, you write!"

After having Zhou Gao write the letter, Heifu paced a step, feeling this alone would not be enough to win Tian Guang's trust and lure the man here, so he said:

"Right, also mention one more matter in the letter — convey it to the Ye Town Tian clan on my behalf."

Heifu straightened his expression and said, "This Commandery Governor has a nephew named Wei Yang, sixteen years of age. I have heard that Tian Guang has a daughter, fourteen years of age. I wish to seek a marriage alliance with the Tian clan on his behalf — to present betrothal gifts and welcome her in marriage as his lawful wife, so that our two families may forever be on good terms!"

(End of Chapter)