Chapter 570: Man-Made Calamity

"Since Commandery Governor Lü is injured and unable to manage affairs, the rebellion in Linzi City shall be handled by this official together with the Commandery Deputy and the Supervisory Censor. What say you?"

The next morning, after a full day and night of fierce battle, treading through the blood of vigilantes and rioters, Heifu entered the palace city where the Linzi Commandery officials had retreated. Using Commandery Governor Lü Yi's injury as a pretext, he unceremoniously produced Qin Shi Huang's edict ordering him to suppress the rebellion along with the tiger tally, and took over Linzi's defense.

Linzi's layout differed greatly from Xianyang's: the palace city was built adjoining the southwest corner of the great city, its northeastern section extending into the great city's southwest quadrant. Over four li from north to south and nearly three li from east to west, the terrain here was slightly elevated, thickly planted with emerald cypresses standing tall and blotting out the sun, and among the trees rose high platforms thrusting up from the ground.

These so-called high platforms were rammed-earth terraces tens or over a dozen meters tall, with halls and chambers built atop them. Nearly every ruler would build a high platform exclusively his own, so within Linzi's palace city, it seemed as though countless pyramids stood in clusters. Their bases were all very broad, the sides inlaid with smooth stone blocks — a magnificent sight to behold.

When the Tian Qi royal house still reigned, this was where the Qi kings dwelled and took their pleasure. The dialogues between Duke Jing of Qi and Yan Ying, the meetings of King Wei of Qi and King Xuan of Qi with Mencius and others — most took place atop these platforms.

After Qi's destruction, this place became the traveling palace of Qin Shi Huang, and in times of crisis, it served as the government's final inner citadel and bastion...

After the turmoil erupted in the city yesterday, the Qin officials and soldiers were scattered everywhere, unable to resist the rebels who had long plotted their attack. So Lü Yi led the commandery office personnel to relocate here, relying on the strong walls to resist.

Unexpectedly, their movements were leaked, and midway they were attacked by vigilantes led by Hua Wushang. Lü Yi was terribly unlucky — as his charioteer raced at full gallop, an arrow struck him in the back. Though he did not die, half his life was gone. Now being treated by physicians, he looked aged and wretched.

Upon learning that Heifu, Governor of Jiaodong Commandery, had already quelled the rebel faction at the eastern gate and that the Jiaodong troops were gradually retaking each city gate and ward, eliminating the disorderly bandits, Lü Yi forced himself up to express his gratitude.

"Had Commandery Governor Wei not come to our rescue, Linzi would have been doomed..."

At this point, Lü Yi was already incapable of managing the situation and could only rely on Jiaodong. So he agreed to let Heifu and the Linzi Commandery Deputy take charge of the defense, the transfer of authority handled very crisply — this fellow was still hoping that afterward, Heifu might put in a few good words for him.

Who could have guessed that Heifu's very next sentence would so enrage Lü Yi that he nearly coughed up blood!

"Commandery Governor Lü."

Heifu unceremoniously took over the tally and seal, then, all smiles, said to Lü Yi, who lay on a couch recovering from his wounds: "As the common proverb goes, seeing is believing, hearing is empty. In my view, what is happening now in Linzi Commandery is no mere bandit uprising at all, but an organized, premeditated restorationist rebellion! I shall report it thus to His Majesty. I trust Commandery Governor Lü will have no further objections?"

Lü Yi's face turned ashen as a dead man's. What awaited him would be the court's harshest punishment. Losing his post and rank was a minor matter; having allowed such a huge incident to erupt in the commandery city under his governance, and having deceived the Emperor by calling it 'mere bandits, not a rebellion' — hah, the crime of deceiving the sovereign. Keeping his head would be fortunate enough.

Having settled this minor personal grudge, Heifu immediately paid no further attention to this man already as good as dead. He summoned the surviving officials of Linzi to gather and discuss the aftermath of the Linzi rebellion.

Sweeping his gaze across the people in the room, whose faces were still smeared with ash and dust and who had not yet recovered from the great chaos, Heifu said gravely: "The rebel faction has scattered. From now on, our greatest enemy is the great fire within Linzi City!"

After a full day and night of street fighting, Linzi's armed uprising had been suppressed by Heifu, but smoke and flames still spread everywhere.

In the fierce battles between the Qin army and the vigilantes, casualties reached over a thousand. Though the process was bloody and brutal, each city gate was nonetheless retaken in turn. With Hua Wushang slain by Cao Can and his men, organized resistance gradually died down, and the armory was finally recaptured — yet most of the weapons inside had vanished, likely flowing into the civilian populace. This was a troubling problem indeed.

Although the five thousand Jiaodong troops had held the situation and prevented the scene of Linzi changing banners, what they faced was a capital city plunged into chaos.

Order had completely departed this great city. Opportunists looted and committed evil within the walls. Every household had its doors and windows tightly shut. Ownerless dogs and horses ran wild through the streets — they were terrified of the flames blazing everywhere!

The great fire had been ignited yesterday morning at the Qin commandery troops' barracks. The arsonists were subordinates of Prince Tian An. It burned and scorched several hundred sleeping Qin soldiers to death, and also served as the signal for the vigilantes to rise in revolt.

Afterward, the rebel army became locked in bitter combat with Qin soldiers rushing in from all directions, and no one extinguished the flames, causing it to rage ever more fiercely...

Because Linzi had a huge population and its wards were mostly wooden houses packed densely together, the flames spread rapidly. Now, as Heifu stood atop the palace city gazing into the distance, dense smoke still shrouded the sky above Linzi. Fire chased the wind, smoke and flame filled the heavens. The roar of flames, the crash of collapsing houses, the running and screaming of common folk all mingled together, like a seething, boiling cauldron.

Watching this scene from Linzi's palace city, Heifu's brows were tightly knit. He knew that he had prevented the rebel army from seizing the city and raising their banner of restoration, but if he could not prevent the great fire from burning this city to white ash, then the dead and injured would still be beyond counting. More terrifying still, four hundred thousand people would be left homeless!

"The court absolutely cannot resettle so many people at once. If the people of Linzi are displaced, losing their livelihoods and homes, it will undoubtedly send a steady stream of fresh troops to the Tian Heng brothers in Di County!"

If they cannot survive and the government is powerless to help, then they can only rebel, can only find a path to survival for themselves. This is a very simple principle. Dynastic rebellions and disasters, both natural and man-made, always follow each other like shadows.

But the good news was that the flames had only ravaged the eastern part of Linzi City, because Zhuangyue Avenue, twenty meters wide, separated eastern and western Linzi. It was said this had been designed during Guan Zhong's time — widening the spacing and rationally dividing the districts was the simplest and most effective fire prevention method of antiquity.

Even more gratifying, there were still several water channels running through the city, and every ward had wells. Artificially extinguishing this great fire was possible.

"My proposal to offer sacrifices to Guan Zhong at the Border-Pacifying Shrine was not made in vain..."

Thinking thus, Heifu immediately and decisively issued three orders:

"Have the soldiers take to the streets in squads of one hundred and go to the city's east to fight the fire!"

"Military judges shall lead men to patrol every street, lane, and ward, acting strictly according to the statutes. Those committing murder, arson, rape, or abduction are to be executed on the spot! Robbers and thieves are also to be arrested and brought to justice!"

"While fighting the fire and restoring order in the city, we must simultaneously continue to hunt down the rebel faction, especially Prince Tian An! Seal the city gates — no one is to enter or leave. We absolutely must not let those wretches escape!"

The intense firefighting lasted an entire day. By the next day, the flames were gradually extinguished one after another. As Qin soldiers reappeared in the wards, streets, and lanes bearing halberds and spears, arresting evildoers who had exploited the fire, and executing those who dared resist as rebel partisans, order slowly began to stabilize.

But by this time, over thirty of Linzi's three hundred wards had been destroyed by the great fire. The prosperous scenes of the past had become a scorched, black ghost realm. Several thousand people had perished in the sea of flames, and tens of thousands were homeless. They no longer possessed their former household prosperity and wealth, their high spirits and pride. Instead, they hung their heads dejectedly, some weeping for kin buried in the fiery sea, others staring dumbstruck at homes that now held nothing...

A message, disseminated under Heifu's direction by the public academy disciples he had specially brought from Jiaodong who could speak both the Qi and Qin tongues, also spread:

"This great fire is a man-made calamity, not a natural disaster!"

"The arsonists were Prince Tian An of Qi and Hua Wushang! Those who fought the fire were the Governor of Jiaodong Commandery, Lord Wei, and the Qin officials and soldiers!"

The Jiaodong public academy disciples, escorted by soldiers, proclaimed this matter door to door throughout the three hundred wards. In the past, these 'Qi traitors' who served as the tiger's claws would surely have been secretly scorned, but now, what they spoke was indisputable fact.

Think of yesterday: when the common folk of Linzi's eastern city saw a group of Qin soldiers charging toward them, they thought they were coming to kill them and take their heads, and were so terrified their legs trembled. They never imagined that the soldiers would instead head toward the fireground and help everyone extinguish the blaze!

Although the Qin soldiers did not do this voluntarily but were following orders from above, such a contrast was enough to fill the people of Linzi with mixed feelings.

Those innocents caught in the crossfire, after this incident, went from faintly hoping for Qi's successful restoration and a return to a life of light corvée and low taxes, to resenting those who had started the uprising...

"Though the taxes and labor levies are heavy, they are still better than having our homes burned and our friends and family buried in a sea of fire."

For a time, though Tian An did not quite become a rat everyone wanted to beat, the sympathy and goodwill the people of Linzi held for him had vanished completely.

Heifu next announced the reward for Tian An: if captured alive, a reward of one hundred jin of gold!

This was a single day's market tax from the Zhuangyue Market, and also the reward that, in the Tian Qi era, only the highest-valued martial champion could earn by cutting off two hundred heads in a row!

After Heifu's abrupt intervention, Prince Tian An's restoration game had ended before it even began. What remained to be played now was cat and mouse...

Great rewards are sure to produce bold men. Even those who originally both respected and feared the Prince would now find the courage to seize him for the money.

Barely two days later, Prince Tian An, who had been hiding here and there within Linzi City, was betrayed by a turncoat, captured by Qin soldiers, and brought before Heifu!

PS: Tomorrow's first chapter will be at noon.

(End of chapter)