Chapter 592: Since They Want War!

Yixusong gave a look, sending his son Adagu to lead the grief-stricken Amozai out of the great house.

Because the "gift" the Qin envoy had brought to the Ouyue was actually two heads preserved in lime, now laid out in the great house, their faces not yet decayed.

Yixusong could recognize them — this was the Lord of Gui who had sworn a blood oath with him years ago, Mona, Amozai's tebo (father), and the other, younger one, was Amozai's geda (elder brother).

Through the door and walls, Yixusong could still hear the child's weeping. The Yue people believe that a beheaded person's soul cannot cross the Rainbow Bridge and cannot return to the ancestors' side — to them, this is undoubtedly the cruelest way to die.

He shifted his gaze from the dead men's heads and looked at the Qin official, whose body was wrapped in fine cloth and who still wore shoes on his feet.

This man had been swaggering ever since he entered the settlement; when the Elders invited him into the great house to discuss matters, he had frowned and looked around for a long while, apparently dissatisfied at being received in such a "crude" building. Now he was glancing about, eyeing the Ouyue people's bare feet and tattoos with utter contempt, and from time to time speaking in the Qin tongue to the short Yue interpreter.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Yixusong pointed at the two heads and asked the interpreter, a Yangyue man who had once come to Ouyue with merchants. Although they were all Yue people, they did not share the same ancestors as the Twelve Tribes of Lingnan; their languages were merely similar.

The interpreter knew of Yixusong's ferocity and dared not act haughty. He quickly said, "The Superior Clerk says, the Lord of Gui had already offered his land and people to Great Qin, established as Cangwu County, yet he betrayed Great Qin. Now he has been executed, but the remnants of Gui have fled to Ouyue. The Governor of Changsha Commandery hopes that Ouyue will return them to Great Qin. Otherwise…"

The Qin official's expression grew stern. The lips beneath his splayed mustache opened and closed, his words sounding exceedingly sharp. The interpreter could only relay them verbatim: "The Superior Clerk says, otherwise, these two will be the fate of the Ouyue Lord!"

At these words, the several "Elders" wearing feathered crowns inside the great house looked at one another and began to murmur among themselves.

In Ouyue, although the lordship was hereditary, day-to-day affairs were all managed by the Elders, for they were not only the eldest but also the shamans, responsible for communicating with the ancestors and the gods.

The Elders had heard of the powerful Qin dynasty in the north, and faced with the Qin official's threats, they were somewhat worried.

Seeing this, the Qin official began to speak again.

The interpreter continued to relay: "The Emperor of Great Qin is like the sun, shining upon all four directions. Wherever boats and oars can reach, none do not submit."

"Gui recklessly attempted rebellion and has already had its clan exterminated. We hope Ouyue will make the correct choice and hand over the fugitives! Otherwise, the next time someone comes to Ouyue demanding people, it will be the army! They will destroy Ouyue like a herd of wild elephants trampling thatched huts flat!"

The threat landed with weight. The timid and fearful Elders turned pale. They had been unwilling to take in the Gui remnants in the first place. Now that mighty Qin had come demanding them, it was better to hand them over, lest the tribe be implicated.

But at that moment, Yixusong, who had been holding back for a long time, spoke.

"For a matter this important, shouldn't we consult the ancestors?"

…

"Don't worry, my tebo will definitely protect you."

Adagu comforted the good brother he had just met. The situation now was like a fawn running into a cattle pen, with a fierce wolf following its steps and prowling just outside the fence.

"Revenge."

Amozai's eyes were blood-red: "They killed my tebo and geda — I must have revenge!"

Just then, the door of the great house opened!

The great house was a circular stilt-style building, the place where the Ouyue tribe discussed matters. Yixusong came out first, barefoot but draped in white ramie cloth — only for important ceremonies would he dress this way. Three Elders followed behind him, quietly urging something.

Close behind them was the Qin official, whose every step exuded the arrogance of a great power's envoy, and beside him, the bowing and scraping interpreter.

When enemies meet, eyes blaze with hatred. Amozai felt for the stone knife at his waist and was about to charge forward, but he was stopped by Ouyue tribesmen.

Amozai shouted in fury: "Has the Lord of Ouyue, the bravest warrior of the Twelve Kingdoms, turned into a coward too?"

"Tebo, this…"

Adagu punched him to make him stop yelling and was about to speak, but Yixusong was not angered. He merely beckoned his son over, fixed his eyes on the soldiers and merchants the Qin official had brought, whispered something in his ear, and then led the Qin official through the settlement.

Face-tattooed women stopped pounding rice and poked their heads out. Hunters just returned, scraping bristles off a wild boar, watched the Qin envoy coldly. Naked children, in twos and threes, stared with hostility at these uninvited outsiders and spat at them.

The direction Yixusong led them was the sacred ground of the Ouyue people, a deep valley behind the settlement. Yixusong said they must seek instructions from the ancestors in person and asked the Qin official to wait and observe.

Apart from the side facing the settlement, the valley's other three sides were either towering cliffs or primeval forest, filled everywhere with thousand-year-old trees draped in twin roots, endlessly tangled long vines, and wet, slick emerald moss.

As soon as the Qin official neared the valley entrance, he abruptly saw dozens, even hundreds, of water buffalo skulls hanging all over the rock face, some already bleached completely white, others still slowly rotting and emitting a strange, foul stench.

The Qin official pinched his nose, not very willing to enter the valley, but by now it was no longer up to him. The Ouyue people suddenly turned rough, pushing and shoving him and the interpreter inside.

The three Elders had wanted to stop this, but they were blocked by the hunters who listened only to Yixusong.

"Yixusong, you will bring disaster upon Ouyue!"

The Elders shouted at the valley entrance.

Yixusong turned around, his expression growing solemn.

"Yixusong will never betray a friend, still less let his tribesmen become slaves."

He revealed a cruel smile: "And I think the ancestors will like this new offering!"

…

After entering the valley, the wooden stakes on both sides still had skulls mounted on them, but they were no longer ox heads — they were… human heads! Looking down the path, stark white, there were over a hundred of them!

The Qin official struggled to remain calm, while the Yue interpreter trembled with fear. Though he was a Yangyue from north of the mountains, he had heard of the customs south of the ranges.

The further south one went, the more savage it became.

"The Southern Yue believe that through headhunting, the strength and courage of the dead are absorbed into one's own body, granting oneself greater power. Though Ouyue is not as zealous about blood sacrifice as Southern Yue, they still hunt heads from time to time to sacrifice to the field god."

They had arrived. Yixusong touched the stone knife at his waist and stared at the crude murals on the rock face depicting Ouyue warriors hunting heads for sacrifice. His words were icy.

He too was a warrior who had tasted blood and hunted heads. The Ouyue's headhunting season was generally during the yearly grain sowing or harvest, or when crops failed — taking the heads of enemy tribes, or the heads of outsiders who trespassed into their hunting grounds without permission.

Before sowing, they would take the seeds to the place where human heads were sacrificed, perform the rites, and mix in some of the ash from the sacrificial heads, believing this would bless the grain to grow well. After a head was hunted, it was often stuck on a bamboo pole outside the house, with a basket of charcoal placed beneath it so the blood from the head would drip onto the charcoal. The charcoal ash was then distributed to every household in the village to be scattered in the fields.

After the sowing season passed, the heads would be brought here together, placed atop wooden pillars, and offered to the ancestors.

"Ouyue has offered hundreds of human heads to the ancestors — and now you think you can frighten me with just two?"

Yixusong revealed a contemptuous smile and raised both hands.

"Ancestors, Frog God — this Qin man, without permission, trespassed into the settlement of the Ou people, and before my very eyes, demanded to take away guests who have eaten our rice and salt, and finally, threatened the Ou people with enslavement and death!"

"The dry season is about to end, the frogs will lay eggs, the trees will sprout, and the time to plant the grain is coming! He is the best offering!"

The tribesmen pinned the Qin official down, tore off his cap and sash to expose the fair skin of his neck, and pressed him to the ground, while Yixusong drew his bronze sword and advanced step by step.

The Qin official, not scared out of his wits, still kept opening and closing his mouth, saying something.

Yixusong asked the Yangyue interpreter, who was pressed against the rock wall trembling: "Is he begging for mercy?"

"It's not begging for mercy…"

The interpreter stammered: "He says, the territory of Great Qin is larger than a hundred Ouyue put together. Great Qin has many soldiers and vast numbers of generals. Where its great army passes, the earth shakes and mountains sway. Its numbers are so vast they could drink dry the rivers of Ouyue. Even if you kill him, His Imperial Majesty and the Governor will avenge him, trample Ouyue flat, destroy your ancestral worship grounds, cut off the heads of you and your son, and turn everyone into bondservants…"

Yixusong's sword tip hovered above the Qin clerk's neck. He seemed to waver, seemed to hesitate.

The Yue interpreter pleaded, "Lord of Xi'ou, you must not kill a Qin man. You will bring disaster upon Xi'ou, upon all the Yue people of Lingnan!"

"If the water buffalo dares not gore the tiger, will the tiger then refrain from eating the buffalo?"

"If the water buffalo offers up its companions to sate the tiger's hunger, can it secure a lifetime of peace?"

War is right at our doorstep; its outbreak is only a matter of time. Rather than grovel and bow, better to prepare early, to steel the Yue people's resolve now.

Yixusong posed two rhetorical questions in succession, then raised his sword high.

His voice made the blood of Adagu and Amozai, who had just arrived clutching the severed heads of Qin soldiers, boil with fervor.

"Even if the Qin soldiers outnumber the leaves in the forest! Even if they outnumber the stones in the Li Stream! My determination to resist is firmer than the Hundred Thousand Mountains!!"

Yixusong's sword slashed down with crushing force!

……

In the thirty-third year of the First Emperor of Qin, in the mid-spring month (the second month), after personally inspecting the "Academy of Agriculture" and returning to the palace, the First Emperor received an urgent report from Changsha Commandery!

This was already the third memorial in two months.

The earliest memorial reported that the Yue tribes of Cangwu County, incited by Xi'ou, had rebelled.

But Tu Sui was not without ability; the rebellion was quelled swiftly. The second memorial stated that "the rebellion is pacified, the rebel chieftain beheaded." The only blemish was that a small number of tribesmen had fled to Xi'ou. Tu Sui had already dispatched a suitable envoy to press them with authority and entice them with profit, striving to make Xi'ou hand over the fugitives. This third memorial should have been about that matter.

But after the First Emperor broke the seal and read it, he discovered it was indeed about that—yet it was no good news at all.

"The Lord of Xi'ou refuses to surrender the rebel fugitives, and has slain five Qin envoys and soldiers, beheading them. He released only the interpreter and the merchants to return, bearing the corpses back!"

Snap. The memorial was closed. His Imperial Majesty's eyes narrowed, fury swirling in his pupils.

"Mere barbarian Yue, daring to show disrespect to a great state? Since the Yue want war, then We shall give them war!"

PS: Chapter 2 will be up in the evening.

(End of chapter)