Chapter 572: The Executioner

"Too ruthless — the killing was simply too ruthless…"

After finishing the day's work and returning to his temporary quarters inside the army camp, Yan Hua's hands were still trembling faintly.

Yan Hua was the eldest grandson of the Yan clan of Gaomi County. His family had been the first old Jiang-Qi lineage that Commandery Governor Heifu had spent great effort winning over after arriving in Jiaodong — for that purpose, Governor Wei had even made a point of thoroughly reading the Yanzi Chunqiu to show his sincerity.

Although the Yan clan had declined, they still wished to recover the status they had held two hundred years ago, so they repaid kindness with kindness, actively aligning themselves with the authorities and sending Yan Hua to study at the Jimo Public School.

Half a year ago, Yan Hua passed the examinations and graduated smoothly, becoming a minor clerk at Heifu's side, specifically responsible for communication between the authorities and the common people of Jiaodong. When the First Emperor of Qin entered Jiaodong, Yan Hua was also able to accompany the entourage — though he was always at the very back — yet this alone earned the Yan clan immense prestige. After the various Tian clans fell from power, the Yan clan vaulted to become the greatest magnate family in Jiaodong. The act of relocating the Tian clans in one sweep had also thoroughly frightened the Yan clan, forcing them to serve the authorities wholeheartedly.

When the Linzi uprising erupted, Yan Hua traveled together with the clerks and disciples who had come out of the Public School. Serving as Heifu's interpreter, he led Qin soldiers in and out of the wards and lanes of Linzi. The previous days had been spent putting out fires and restoring order, but today, it was for seizing people and killing people…

As the situation stabilized, Heifu shed his mask of the good man and ordered the authorities and troops to search all three hundred wards of Linzi for rebel remnants who had slipped through the net, leaving not even the smallest nook or cranny unchecked — when the Qin army entered the city, they had shot and killed nearly two thousand rebels, and over a thousand more remained hidden among the populace. Add to that the large quantity of weapons that had gone missing after the arsenal fell, and if they sat back and did nothing, another rebellion might well erupt in the future!

Yan Hua and the others' work amounted to interpreting — conveying Qin policy to the ordinary people: re-implementing the weapons-recall order from several years prior, with all weapons to be confiscated without exception! If anyone had secretly kept arsenal weapons, voluntarily handing them over and explaining where they came from would earn exemption from punishment; if they were discovered in a search, they would be dealt with as rebel accomplices!

Furthermore, every single ward had to submit a list of the idle, good-for-nothing young toughs and gallants within its bounds. Without exception, these people were all rounded up — over two to three thousand of them! — and then screened. Those who had taken part in the rebellion were to be killed without mercy. Those who had not participated were still convicted of the crime of "unauthorized roaming," demoted to penal laborers, and put to work building houses for the tens of thousands of commoners on the city's east side who had lost their homes…

In the blink of an eye, the gallant swordsman — once a profession admired in Qi and commanding a handsome income — had become a rat that shunned the light, unable even to sustain its covert activities.

Finally, there were the old three staples of Qin law: encouraging denunciation, collective responsibility in groups of five and ten, and the extermination of three clans for rebels…

"Those who plot treason shall have their three clans exterminated! Father and mother, brothers, wife and children — all shall die! Their neighbors shall also be implicated and convicted."

Heifu had Yan Hua, Lai Sheng, and the others go ward by ward to announce this matter, while also telling everyone that informants could be exempted from punishment!

It was not only that neighbors who reported others could escape liability — Qin law also explicitly stipulated: if a wife reported her husband's crimes, not only was she not subject to collective punishment, but she could also retain her own personal property, including dowry slaves, clothing, utensils, and other assets…

For a time, there were no small number of neighbors who, to protect themselves, reported one another. Some gallant swordsmen's own wedded wives, in order to stay alive, ran over in public and denounced their husbands — men who had spent all day at home sharpening their swords with a rasp, then fled back after joining the rebellion. Then, after the Qin soldiers came to the door and seized the men, the wives would weep and wail as they tidied up the house, then take their dowries and return to their natal families.

The customs of the Qi region were open; it was very easy for women to remarry.

Within the city of Linzi, trust between one person and another vanished completely.

Of course, there were also those entire families, young and old, who went to their deaths with magnanimity. One gallant from the west of the city, called Dongguo Li, had also taken part in the rebellion. Unwilling to implicate his beloved wife, he took the initiative and told her to report him. But after discussing it with his parents, his wife actually admitted that the whole family had supported Dongguo Li in opposing Qin, because he had once received great kindness from the knight-errant Hua Wushang — the grace of being mentored and aided…

"A man of honor dies for the one who knows his worth. Though we are lowly, we understand this too."

Heifu had been wrong — not everyone was driven by profit. In this age, not far removed from antiquity, people were still simple and honest, and those who would die for what they believed to be righteous "yi" were truly not few.

Several days later, the old, the weak, women, and children packed the Linzi wards that served as prisons. When the Qin clerks went in to take stock, the tally of those arrested made one involuntarily draw a sharp breath.

"The rebels numbered roughly three thousand. Two thousand are now dead, and we are confirming their identities one by one and hunting down their families. Another five hundred have already been captured, and several hundred are still at large. Adding these up, if the three clans are exterminated, it will be at least ten thousand people…"

Even the Linzi Commandery Assistant hesitated. After all, human hearts are made of flesh — at the thought of killing ten thousand people in one stroke, anyone's teeth would chatter.

"We ought to report to His Majesty via official dispatch and let His Majesty make the decision."

A number this large — even Heifu could not make the call. When slaughtering Xiongnu, his hand had never faltered, but now he felt some hesitation, and so he kicked the ball to the Emperor.

Heifu merely hinted at the end of the memorial, saying that population was the most precious resource under heaven — the Jiaodong salt fields and gold mines were still short of many hands. The bondservants laboring there were mostly bachelors; perhaps the women could be sent there, and the children sent to the Office of Punishments in Guanzhong…

The vast numbers of offenders' family members were detained for the time being, their sentences not yet carried out. But their husbands, brothers, and sons who had directly participated in the rebellion were, together with Tian An, executed at the Zhuangyue Market!

On the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month, at the Zhuangyue Market — the very place where Su Qin had been torn apart by five horses all those years ago — Prince Tian An suffered the "Five Punishments" there. The rule that punishment does not reach the grandees had long since vanished, but to see a worthy prince, once so noble as to be beyond price, dismembered and hacked into mincemeat — a death so ghastly was enough to shake to the core the people of Linzi who had been forced to come and watch.

Heifu was right: the times had changed. In the new era, everyone had a new identity, and bloodline could no longer guarantee your safety.

Besides Tian An, several hundred more heads fell to the ground. The executioners' axes and halberds had their blades rolled from chopping off heads and were replaced several dozen times over. Fresh blood flowed across the Zhuangyue Market; when you stepped on it, it was sticky and clung to your feet.

Yan Hua vomited on the spot watching this. After returning, he threw away all the clothes and shoes that had been spattered with blood droplets and could not recover his composure for half the day. Only one thought occupied his mind: "If killing five hundred is already so horrifying, what of ten thousand?"

"Brother Yan, can it be that you actually sympathize with the rebels?"

Lai Sheng, who shared a courtyard with him, was unperturbed. His family was poor; although he had won the "scholarship" several times in a row during his time at the Public School, he was used to frugality and could not bear to throw away blood-stained clothes. Squatting in the courtyard, he was washing them himself with well water. Seeing Yan Hua's ashen face, he smiled and called him over to sit by the well while he offered some guidance.

"Brother Yan, think carefully. Back when the Tian clan usurped Qi, how many members of the Guo, Gao, Yan, and Bao clans did they kill? How many loyal to the Lü clan's ducal house did they kill? If you add them up, if not ten thousand, then at least five thousand! And the Tian clan was ruthless to the extreme — they didn't even spare the young and weak child ruler of Qi!"

"Had the Commandery Governor not suppressed the chaos, had the Tian clan succeeded in their restoration and rebuilt the state of Qi, they would have settled scores afterwards. I fear the Yan clan, and people like us who work for the Qin authorities, would have been brutally slaughtered. And at that time, no gallant's family would come and sympathize with Brother Yan!"

"So in this matter, either we kill them, or they kill us!"

Lai Sheng had thought it through thoroughly. He understood clearly that everyone who had come out of the Public School was already bound to the Qin dynasty. If this great tree came crashing down, their own circumstances would be miserable. Therefore, helping the authorities suppress the restorationist rebellion was the only choice!

Yan Hua thought about it and found it true, but his character was soft — he still could not quite get past this threshold.

So Lai Sheng continued: "The Commandery Governor has already done his utmost to avoid excessive killing. Didn't he say so himself? This entry into Linzi was to curb the violence of the rebel soldiers, to quell the arms of a chaotic state, to secure a city of a thousand zhang, and to bring peace to a town of ten thousand households — no longer making decapitation the priority. Had it been some other general, wouldn't he have filled the city with corpses and let the blood in Linzi overflow the walls? The Commandery Governor has already saved thousands upon thousands of lives in Linzi. Even for those rebels' families, in his memorial he tried his utmost to save them, wanting to spare the lives of the old, the weak, the women, and the children…"

"Still, it would be best if there were no more killing. After all, they are all fellow countrymen of Qi."

Yan Hua shook his head and sighed: "I only hope that Linzi can settle down, and that once the various Tian clans are expelled, there will be no further source of turmoil — just like Jiaodong is now. Wouldn't that be good…"

"Let us hope so."

After Yan Hua went back inside to rest, Lai Sheng stared at the bottomless well water and murmured to himself: "If I were His Majesty, I would still kill those ten thousand or so people, to eliminate future troubles…"

He caught himself immediately, gave himself a slap, and cursed: "Lai Sheng, oh Lai Sheng, have you no wish to live, spouting such nonsense!"

…

On the second day of the fifth month, in the thirty-second year of the First Emperor of Qin, within the Linzi traveling palace — the temporary headquarters of the authorities — the Linzi Commandery Supervisory Censor solemnly held aloft an edict that had been delivered by the relay stations at eight-hundred-li urgency.

"Commandery Governor Wei, this is His Majesty's edict. Does the Commandery Governor… wish to open it personally?"

"Since it is addressed to the three of us, what difference does it make who breaks the seal?"

Heifu shook his head. "Supervisory Censor, you read it."

He was still a little worried that once it was opened, inside would be written, with simple brutality: "Bury them all!"

The Supervisory Censor nodded and unfurled the edict. It began with a thorough reprimand of the Linzi Commandery Governor, stripping him of his office and rank to await punishment, and then went on to single out Heifu for praise regarding his measures in suppressing the rebellion.

Next came the disposition of the rebel families from the Linzi uprising…

"The rebels' fathers and mothers are to be buried alive. The women are to be sent to the bitter cold lands of Yuyang in Liaodong, to be wives to the armored garrison troops. The children are to be sent to the Office of Punishments in Guanzhong…"

The First Emperor had adopted one and a half of Heifu's proposals. The women were not given to Jiaodong either — probably because exile so close by was deemed too light a punishment. Throwing these Qi convict women into the state of Yan, which had a generations-long blood feud with Qi, was a rather ruthless move.

The remaining elderly, at least three to four thousand of them, were all people in their twilight years. Although the Qin dynasty respected the aged, elderly bondservants — both male and female — held the lowest status. The Legalist officials considered this group incapable of work and a waste of grain, not worth keeping alive…

"This is already the best possible outcome."

Heifu consoled himself. Had he not quelled this upheaval and extinguished the great fire, the dead in the city of Linzi would have numbered far more than thirty or forty thousand!

At that moment, the Supervisory Censor looked toward Heifu, hesitating as if wanting to speak. Could it be that the edict had not been read to the end?

"His Majesty further says: the execution of the rebels' parents shall be personally overseen by the Jiaodong Commandery Governor!"

Heifu took the edict and scanned it twice. It was indeed so.

After a long silence, he slowly cupped his hands toward Pengcheng. "Heifu… obeys the order."

This meant that, under the watchful eyes of all, he must personally give the command to send three or four thousand white-haired elders down to the Yellow Springs!

The emperor's intention in doing this could not be more obvious — he was forcing Heifu to be the executioner, to be stained with blood that could never be washed off, the blood of the people of Qi!

In times of crisis, integrity is revealed, each deed recorded in the annals of history. In Qi, the grand historians' bamboo slips; in Jin, Dong Hu's brush. The people of Qi had a tradition of recording history. Though the state of Qi was now destroyed, many scholars still remained among the common folk. This bloody stain on Heifu's record could never be erased!

"Well now, in the history textbooks of later generations, I'll be added to the list of executioners who massacred rebel armies and slaughtered the innocent!"

Heifu shook his head helplessly. As he walked out, he pondered to himself, "In Chinese history, who were all those great figures who suppressed 'rebel armies' for the court and got blood on their hands?"

"Was it Yue Wumu, Qi Shaobao, the Sage Wang, Zeng, Hu, Zuo, and Li? Or was it…"

Heifu chuckled. "Cao Mengde?"

(End of Chapter)