Chapter 600: Cat and Rat

In late April of the thirty-third year of the First Emperor's reign, outside Chu County City, Granary Section Clerk Xiao He stood at the post station, ledger in hand, watching the relay road where an unbroken stream of oxcarts and handcarts arrived one after another, loaded with millet, wheat, beans, and other grains. Draft animals strained forward, laborers pushed from behind, drenched in sweat, as carts large and small creaked and rumbled along.

All of this was grain and fodder being transported from the southern counties of Jiaodong Commandery to the Chu County granary for storage. As Granary Section Clerk, Xiao He was responsible for tallying and inspecting the grain, and he had to supervise the local Granary Overseer to clearly define responsibility — not a single error could be allowed.

In the original course of history, Xiao He was precisely an expert in logistics and supply. He held the Guanzhong region, turning it into a solid rear base for the Han army, continuously sending troops, grain, and pay to support the war effort. Now that he was in charge of the Granary Section, it was a case of putting the right man to the right job.

"Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section."

Xiao He had just finished checking this batch of grain with the Granary Overseer and personally watched it be stored and sealed. At that moment, a scholar-official in his thirties who had been following behind the grain convoy rode up, dismounted, and greeted Xiao He.

"Chief Clerk Chen."

Xiao He dared not be remiss toward Heifu's chief advisor Chen Ping and hurriedly returned the greeting.

Chen Ping said, "Well then, Chen Ping personally escorted the grain — no errors, I trust?"

Xiao He replied, "Chief Clerk Chen is meticulous in his work — not one cart too many, not one cart too few."

"That is good to hear."

Chen Ping glanced left and right and smiled. "Sufficient food means sufficient troops. Only by ensuring ample army provisions can the great army across the sea do battle. Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section, would you accompany me on a stroll through this granary?"

Since Chen Ping proposed it himself, Xiao He naturally could not refuse. He handed the ledger to the Granary Overseer, gave him a few words of instruction, and then invited Chen Ping to inspect this newly built great granary.

The granary covered a vast area, its earthen storehouses rising like the clustered mounds of the Jiaodong hills. Each earthen storehouse held a full ten thousand shi of grain.

Patting the thick granary wall, Xiao He explained, "There are one hundred such earthen storehouses at Chu Granary. That means it can hold a million shi of grain. Though it is only half full at present, by the sixth or seventh month it will surely overflow with grain, enough to supply the eastern expedition army for an entire year!"

Chen Ping nodded, lost in thought. Walking through the fortress-like, heavily guarded Chu Granary, Chen Ping's attention was caught by several tabby cats sprawled atop the granary roofs, yawning and basking in the sun. He pointed at them and said:

"There are quite a few cats about."

Xiao He said helplessly, "As the Chief Clerk surely knows, the Granary Statutes are strict. Not only must different grains be stored separately, but if a granary door or window is not shut tight enough to admit a finger, the official in charge is held culpable. If there are more than three rat holes in a granary, the penalty is a fine of one shield. Jiaodong has many rats, and this Chu Granary has over a hundred earthen storehouses, so we had no choice but to keep a few dozen cats to catch the rats."

"It's good to keep more."

Chen Ping smiled and recounted an amusing story: "You may not know this, but the Commandery Governor is quite fond of cats. He often buys fish strung on willow twigs to feed the tabbies at home, much to his wife's frequent complaints. Yet the Governor argues with perfect conviction, saying that when cats dwell in the hall, the horde of rats disperses. Now that Jiaodong grows more prosperous by the day, yet officials high and low show signs of slackness, inevitably breeding some fat rats — so it's best to keep a few more cats to kill these fat rats!"

Xiao He nodded. Rectifying official discipline was something Heifu had always emphasized. But what he did not expect was that Chen Ping would continue on the topic of cats and fat rats:

"But in my view, the grain stolen by a hundred fat rats does not even match one-tenth of the loss incurred in transit during this grain shipment…"

He seemed to be speaking with hidden meaning. Xiao He, cautious, did not dare rashly take up the thread, but Chen Ping went on as if to himself:

"Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section surely knows that last year all the commanderies of Qi were in turmoil. Only Jiaodong, relying on the Governor's foresight, exterminated the various Tian clans and remained untroubled. Moreover, the Governor dispatched followers of the Agricultural School to every county, teaching the farmers composting methods and the songs of the seasonal nodes, so the autumn harvest was quite abundant. Across the commandery, public and private fields totaling over six million mu yielded fifteen million shi of millet and ten million shi of wheat."

Xiao He nodded. "That was already a bumper harvest."

Chen Ping, however, asked, "Then dare I ask Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section, after this bumper harvest, how much did an ordinary farming household in Jiaodong actually gain?"

Under Chen Ping's steady gaze, Xiao He finally answered a question directly.

"At present in Jiaodong, one adult man with a household of five works one hundred mu of land. Adding together millet, wheat, and beans, the annual harvest is three hundred shi. The authorities collect a rent of one and a half shi per mu, which takes 150 shi, leaving only 150 shi. Each person consumes one and a half shi per month; five people eat 90 shi of grain per year. Subtract another 10 shi set aside for seed grain, and 50 shi remain. Fifty shi can be exchanged for 2,500 cash. The people of Qi are fond of rites and sacrifices — deducting the community sacrifices, tasting the new harvest, and spring and autumn ancestral rites costs 300 cash, leaving 2,200. Clothing and shoes cost 300 cash per person; five people use 1,500 per year. Thus each household is left with only 700 cash."

All these figures were stored in Xiao He's mind. Though individual households might vary, the general picture was accurate.

And it did not end there — the court would still collect the poll tax. For a household of five, at 23 cash per person, that came to over a hundred.

In the end, just over 500 cash remained. By purchasing power, that was equivalent to less than a thousand yuan in later times. This was the annual discretionary spending of a small farming household in Jiaodong Commandery. To them, this was already extremely comfortable, but should they encounter the misfortune of illness, death, or funeral expenses, or should the court levy the poll tax a few more times, this household would be unable to make ends meet.

Chen Ping clapped his hands in praise. "Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section is indeed a capable official. It is just as I said — even with a bumper harvest, the common people of the commandery only achieve basic food and warmth, with no great improvement in their lot. If the harvest is poor or there is a great famine, the small farmer will be struggling on the line of hunger and cold."

Xiao He gave a dry laugh. "It would not come to that."

"Whether it would or not, Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section surely knows better than I."

Chen Ping said with some feeling, "I would also dare say that Jiaodong, after two years under the Governor's administration, though its per-mu yields still cannot match Guanzhong, is at least among the best of the empire's forty commanderies — and even so, this is the situation. In commanderies and counties with even lower per-mu yields, where the land rent and poll tax collected are just as high, there it truly is a case of men straining at the plow yet not producing enough grain for provisions, and women spinning and weaving yet not producing enough clothing!"

Xiao He asked cautiously, "What does the Chief Clerk mean by this…?"

"Exactly — the court's land rent is too heavy!"

There was no one else nearby, and Chen Ping assumed the manner of speaking from the heart with Xiao He:

"Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section, like me, is a student of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi. You must know that this rent of over half the harvest — aside from the people of Qin proper, who have long been accustomed to it, among the common folk of the other commanderies, who can endure it for long? To say nothing of the able-bodied men of the household being periodically called away for corvée service, even as far as Yuyang or Yuzhang… Not every commandery can treat outside garrison soldiers and corvée laborers as kindly as our Governor does, ensuring they are well fed and clothed."

Xiao He looked away and spoke of other things. "How much rent to collect and how many times to levy taxes — these are set by the court and have been so for over a hundred years."

Chen Ping lowered his voice. "In truth, the Governor has long since submitted remonstrances on this matter, proposing that rent and taxes must be reduced, with a tax of one-tenth or one-twelfth being appropriate. But His Majesty still has campaigns to fight south and north, the mausoleum at Mount Li and the Great Wall on the northern frontier to build, and the realm of the Queen Mother of the West to seek — all of these require able-bodied men, coin, and grain. Therefore, rent, taxes, and corvée absolutely cannot be reduced!"

"All the Governor can do for now is to do his utmost to increase the per-mu yields of the Jiaodong people, keep the poll tax to once a year with absolutely no additional levies, and, as promised, exempt some of the poorest households from taxes."

Xiao He knew what he ought to say at this moment. "Indeed, the Governor is not only an excellent official of the court but also a father-and-mother official to the common people."

He then shifted his tone. "That said, it is precisely because of this — the people's taxes being somewhat heavier, so the authorities obtain more grain, plus the coin earned from salt-drying and the gold mines — that the granaries can overflow, that the Governor can build sea-going ships in great numbers at Qingdao Harbor, and organize manpower to dig canals and ditches in every county. Compared to the sight of empty coffers and granaries two years ago, I no longer have such headaches."

This slippery Xiao He — no matter how Chen Ping probed and tempted him with words, he would not reveal his own stance.

Chen Ping, however, said with profound meaning:

"But it is precisely because he took note of Jiaodong's prosperity that His Majesty appointed the Governor as Army Supervisor, with the eastern expedition army's food and clothing to be borne by Jiaodong alone…"

Chen Ping knew Fusu's plan for the campaign: from the sixth month at the earliest until the following spring, for eight or nine months, the army's food and clothing would all have to be supplied by Jiaodong.

Fusu's great army, soldiers plus laborers, totaled thirty thousand men, along with many draft animals. Add to that Jiaodong's own naval forces, the wastage in grain transport, and the risk of ships foundering in wind and waves — at the fullest estimate, at least one hundred thousand shi of grain would have to be shipped out every month, totaling a million shi. The Chu Granary, so painstakingly filled, would be emptied.

And this did not even count the ships and manpower Jiaodong had prepared for this war.

"Two years of Jiaodong's hard work, a full year of the common people's toil — all spent on this war. And this is merely to supply an expedition of a few tens of thousands of men."

Chen Ping turned toward the south.

"If that great war in the south, mobilizing hundreds of thousands, were to break out, would it not throw half the realm into turmoil and unrest?"

Xiao He dared not take up the thread any further. Chen Ping gave a rueful laugh and began to chant a poem.

"Fat rats, fat rats, eat not our millet! Three years we have served you, yet you show us no regard. We shall leave you and go to that happy land. Happy land, happy land — there we shall find our place…"

"Clerk Xiao of the Granary Section, though the common people rejoice that the Qi rebellion was quelled without spreading to Jiaodong, and for now remain docile, in their eyes, are we Qin officials who go down to the villages pressing for grain and conscripts not also fat rats, whom they long to drive away one day?"

With these words, Chen Ping gave Xiao He a deep bow and strode off.

Xiao He returned the bow. A long while later, only when Chen Ping's figure had vanished from sight did he raise his head, his eyes full of bewilderment.

"Was Chen Ping merely complaining to me? Or was he hinting at something? Were these his own words, or did the Governor put him up to this?"

(End of chapter)