Chapter 506: Kidnapping

Cao Can was ordered to escort the prisoner Tian Guang back to Jimo for detention, and incidentally to bring that thousand-man garrison to guard the commandery seat, guarding against the possibility that the Jimo Tian clan, upon hearing of the Yeyi affair, would grieve for their own kind and make any reckless moves. But the Jimo Tians were, after all, not the Yeyi Tians — far weaker and more hesitant. The Tian Jiao brothers had merely shut their gates and stayed indoors these past few days, making no significant moves.

So Cao Can hastily threw Tian Guang into the jail, and then set about packing his bags to return to Yeyi at once.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door from outside — it was Xiao He.

"Brother Cao, are you leaving already?" Xiao He bowed to Cao Can in greeting. "Why such haste?"

"I can't afford to delay."

Cao Can invited Xiao He inside to sit, and remarked with an air of feigned casualness, "The Commandery Governor has transferred me to the Military Section, as Right Clerk of the Military Section, to assist the Acting Commandant of Yeyi, Gong Ao, in jointly managing the troop recruitment and military farming."

"The Military Section is more important than the Bandit Section, and Right Clerk is half a rank higher than Left Clerk — this is a promotion, a good thing." Xiao He, however, appeared genuinely delighted for Cao Can. As for whether he harbored any other thoughts in his heart, that was impossible to tell.

Then, inevitably, the two fell to discussing the troop recruitment and military farming decree that Heifu had issued in Yeyi County.

"Is the Commandery Governor emulating Wu Qi's method of recruiting the Wu Troops?" Xiao He mused.

Although the soldiers of the feudal lords were mostly conscripted levies — farmers in peacetime, serving in wartime — there were also quite a few recruited troops in the lands east of the Pass.

The most famous were the Wu Troops of Wei. The selection for the Wei Wu Troops was extremely strict, but as long as one could pass the physical and combat skill examinations, one would receive land and a house, be exempt from taxes, and enjoy very generous benefits.

"Not so."

Cao Can, however, thought otherwise. He said, "I've heard that the Wei Wu Troops recruited either sons of good families or wandering knights skilled in martial arts. But who has the Commandery Governor recruited this time?"

He counted off on his fingers: "Left-lane dwellers, hired farmhands, live-in sons-in-law, peddlers, craftsmen, hired laborers — these people can be soldiers? And the assessment is extremely lax; anyone without injury, illness, or disability can pass."

These people shared one common trait: they were utterly destitute, mostly peasants who had lost their land to the oppression of merchants and nobles. They were the true "propertyless class," possessing no means of production whatsoever. With no land to farm, they were forced to seek other livelihoods — doing petty trade in the markets or selling their labor for wages.

Cao Can knew a thing or two about military affairs, and told Xiao He something he had heard back in Xue Commandery: "Back then, Qi prized the Skilled Warriors. Apart from the troops of the Five Capitals, whenever war broke out, they would recruit wandering knights from the markets as Skilled Warriors and hired laborers as auxiliary troops. In battle, a Skilled Warrior who took a head would be rewarded with redemption money. These Skilled Warriors and auxiliaries were practically mercenaries — they could manage when the fighting went smoothly, but the moment things turned unfavorable, they fled faster than anyone."

"These are the soldiers of a doomed state. Those without fixed property have no constancy of heart. These people possess neither extraordinary courage nor formidable martial skill; they fight for market wages. No troops are weaker than these."

So, though both were recruited troops, the Qi Skilled Warriors were no match for the Wei Wu Troops, and the Wei Wu Troops, in turn, could not compare to the Qin Elite Soldiers, where every man was a warrior.

The Qin dynasty also recognized that these people were not a good source of soldiers, so when conscripting, they only used them for hard labor and did not admit them into the army. Even when conscripting for distant garrison duty, in principle, they did not draft the left-lane dwellers.

Within the village lanes, the wealthy lived on the right side, the poor on the left. "Left-lane" referred to the impoverished class composed of hired farmhands, tenant farmers, and the like — they had no land or fixed property, could not fill their bellies, and lacked the means to support distant garrison service.

Because they were too poor, they could not even scrape together enough provisions for the journey, so much so that even the authorities found them troublesome.

In short, these people were utterly worthless — the most superfluous dregs of society.

"Yet now the Commandery Governor is sweeping up landless left-lane dwellers in droves. Apart from swelling his numbers, what use are they?" Cao Can was rather puzzled.

Xiao He, however, clapped his hands together after hearing this and praised, "The Commandery Governor's strategy is brilliant!"

"Oh?" Cao Can glanced at his friend. "Brilliant in what way?"

Xiao He said, "Once Tian Guang and his son fell, a vast amount of their family's land was left vacant."

"And in Jiaodong, the Commandery Governor has thoroughly offended all the Tian branches. The locals of Yeyi, who for generations have received the favor of the Lord of Anping and his sons, hate him to the bone. Though the Commandery Governor has eliminated the Tian clan, he lacks people who can support his control over Yeyi. Relying solely on the thousand troops requested from Linzi will likely not be enough."

"What remains in surplus is land; what is lacking is people. Finding a way to use land to attract people — is that not perfectly natural?"

Cao Can, however, laughed. "If you want to attract people, you should attract the sons of good families. What use is there in attracting a bunch of left-lane dwellers and hired laborers?"

"Because they are the only ones the Commandery Governor can recruit…"

Xiao He sighed. "It has been over five years since Qin entered Jiaodong and established the commandery. From the Tian branches above to the common peasants below, all are deeply discontented — because Qin seized the Tian properties and increased the land tax on the commoners. The scholars and people resent it. Looking across all of Jiaodong, those who have suffered the least harm are precisely the destitute left-lane dwellers and hired laborers."

Because these people had no oil or water to squeeze in the first place.

By the same logic, after Heifu took down Tian Guang and his son, the ordinary commoners of Yeyi would not only refrain from applauding — they would instead feel sympathy for Tian Dan's descendants. Under such sentiment, Heifu's petty enticements of Tian land and houses could not possibly win them over.

Only those who lived in hardship, toiling at backbreaking labor every day — the left-lane dwellers, hired farmhands, hired laborers — would covet the benefits Heifu dangled before them. This was a golden opportunity to change their status and position!

Xiao He said, "Fifty mu of land about to be harvested, one mu for a house, a year's rent exemption, and the chance to enter a new household register, casting off their former debased status. If I were a left-lane dweller, a live-in son-in-law, or a hired laborer, no matter what the people around me said, I would scramble to sign up!"

"Seventy thousand mu of land, fifty mu per person — that can recruit at least over a thousand able-bodied men, over a thousand households."

Xiao He calculated the sum. It did not seem like much, but these thousand-odd households would become the crucial foothold for Heifu to establish himself in Jiaodong.

"Once they accept this land and house, these left-lane dwellers and hired farmhands will have no choice but to follow closely behind the Commandery Governor, obeying every order of the authorities. They will even take up weapons and turn them against their former neighbors."

"Because this land and house are not secure. If one day Tian Du returns with his retainers, if one day the authorities collapse — they will lose everything!"

Xiao He had analyzed the sinister intent behind Heifu's move. This was tantamount to binding over a thousand households to the authorities. Any attempt to subvert the government would no longer be an easy matter.

"So that's it."

Cao Can understood as well. So Heifu was recruiting these people not to make them soldiers or defend against bandits, but truly to bolster his own power.

Having grasped this point, he began to approve of Heifu's move. "Though for now they are only weak troops fit for farming, with diligent training and the education of their children, in ten or twenty years, these thousand-odd households might well become another Wei Wu Troops…"

"Ten or twenty years?"

Xiao He, however, smiled. In the past, he had felt that Qin's rule east of the Pass was unstable and could totter at any moment. But now, seeing Heifu's methods, he began to have doubts.

Yet he did not think that the realm could achieve lasting peace and stability simply by copying Heifu's policies. Rather, he believed that if the Qin dynasty governed its commanderies and counties by Heifu's methods, the turmoil everywhere would likely grow even worse!

Stroking his beard, he said, "The Commandery Governor is truly bold. This move is no less than poking a hornet's nest. Once word spreads, not only will the various Tian branches grieve for their own kind, but other wealthy households and local strongmen will also have to weigh the implications. And the scholar-officials across the realm will likely curse this matter without end!"

Cao Can did not understand. "Why would they curse it?"

Xiao He said, "Because, to put it bluntly, this is the authorities robbing the rich to aid the poor!"

"Though it was Tian Guang who stirred up trouble first and thus brought this upon himself, how do you know this will not become the norm?"

"Will there come a day when the court, without any justification, suddenly seizes the land and houses of the Xiao and Cao clans and distributes them to the left-lane dwellers of Pei County?"

Cao Can's face darkened. "It would not come to that."

Xiao He sighed. "Indeed, it should not come to that. But I also hope the Commandery Governor will stop in time and not play with fire only to burn himself! Not to truly cast himself as Wu Qi or Shang Yang! Wu and Shang, facing the fury of an entire state's nobles and strongmen, met miserable deaths — let alone one man, alone, offending the remnant nobility of six states and making himself the enemy of the whole realm!"

…

On the one hand, Xiao He felt that Heifu's decree was far too reckless — permissible once, but not to be repeated. But he was merely a Libationer in charge of education, with no standing to interfere. He figured Chen Ping must also be aware of this and would admonish Heifu accordingly. So he merely shook his head and, on Heifu's orders, had the several dozen disciples trained by the public school go out and publicize the matter, stirring up the left-lane dwellers and hired laborers to eagerly sign up.

Watching his astonished students, Xiao He thought to himself:

"If the Commandery Governor does not stop, leaving everything else aside, the sons of the local wealthy households and the scholars will also become alienated from him."

Meanwhile, in the city of Yeyi, upon hearing the decree proclaimed, five or six hundred local left-lane dwellers and hired laborers had come to enlist. Heifu was thoroughly satisfied.

"Once this is publicized across the entire commandery, by the end of the sixth month, recruiting over a thousand people will be no problem. Settle them and their families in Yeyi, and after the autumn harvest, they will receive the promised grain and thus become settled. From then on, these people will no longer be 'useless' left-lane dwellers, hired laborers, and hired farmhands, but a force that helps sustain my rule…"

These people would be branded as Qi traitors. The wandering knights who valued loyalty and righteousness, and the commoners who had for generations received the Tian clan's favor, would curse them as "ungrateful wretches." But these people had never really received any benefits from the Tian clan to begin with — they only wanted to survive and live a better life.

In the years that followed, to hold onto the land and property they had gained, this group could only rally under the banner of the government.

"Rule with the law-abiding, chaos will surely come and the state will be whittled away; rule with the lawless, order will surely come and the state will grow strong."

Heifu now understood the meaning of that line in the Book of Lord Shang — he needed to cultivate a "lawless" class in Jiaodong.

High cliffs become valleys, deep valleys become hills. The social strata of Jiaodong were about to undergo a transformation unseen in centuries — this was what Heifu meant by "no construction without destruction."

"But this fire can only burn little by little — it must never be allowed to spread without limit…"

He was not worried about the fire growing too large and slipping out of control; he was afraid that once it blazed too fiercely, it would be struck by violent storms and extinguished in an instant.

Heifu had no doubt that when the left-side commoners at the bottom were driven past the point of survival, they would indeed, spurred on by those with intent, cry out: "Are kings, lords, generals, and ministers born of certain seed?"

But to incite them to rise up on their own, to strike down the local magnates and divide the land? That was no different from a fool's daydream. Compared to the propertied class, this stratum was still far too weak, and the land annexation of this era was nowhere near the point where people could not survive.

At most, the government could forcibly relocate the powerful families on various pretexts, then resettle people using the surplus land.

For Heifu, that was enough. Land revolution and class struggle were floods and savage beasts — the moment Heifu dared to start down that path, he would certainly become the enemy of every powerful and wealthy household under heaven, even including his friends and subordinates. Zhang Han, Zhang Cang, Xiao He, Cao Shen — whose family was not a great landowner with fields stretching to the horizon? And those fellow townsmen from Nan Commandery, under Heifu's patronage, had also become part of this class.

Everyone had worked together, using Qin's military-merit rank system to climb step by step from the bottom, becoming Qin officials and trampling the nobles of the Six States beneath their feet — it sounded stirring and heroic.

But the youth who slays the dragon will sooner or later grow scales and become a vicious dragon himself.

"So, I am not mobilizing the masses…"

Standing atop the walls of Yeyi, watching the left-side commoners in their coarse brown tunics lining up to await testing, their faces full of hope for a new life, Heifu thought to himself:

"I am simply taking them hostage! Forcing them to serve as the tiger's claws!"

(End of chapter)