Chapter 71: A Step Too Late

Anlu County connects to Xiapu in the south and reaches Sui and Tang in the north; it is a vital transportation hub in Nan Commandery. Thus, boats and carts come and go frequently all year round, and with merchants entering the city to trade, commoners peddling grain, and garrison conscripts heading north for service, the transient population is considerable.

But no matter how many people wait outside, the daily city-gate opening time remains immovably fixed at sunrise.

However, there are always exceptions. On the twelfth day of the twelfth month, at the pingdan hour, before the sky had even brightened, the south gate of Anlu County was opened ahead of schedule.

In the night, a black-robed, black-capped official drove a chariot at the head, racing out; behind him on the carriage sat two more men.

"Isn't that Yue from the county jail?"

The county soldier guarding the gate said through a yawn. Under the torchlight, he recognized at a glance that the minor official driving was none other than Jail Clerk Yue, a subordinate of the county Jail Aide.

The Jail Aide is the chief officer of the Jail Office, in charge of litigation, punishment, and prison matters, while the Jail Clerk is a hundred-dan minor official under him. The Jail Aide holds the fort in the county seat; when a case arises, he generally dispatches a jail clerk to the incident site first.

So, while the sky was still dark, Yue had used an emergency pass to have the city gate opened and hurriedly led men out. The county soldiers all speculated that some case must have occurred in the outlying townships again…

"This year has truly been unpeaceful," the county soldier couldn't help but sigh.

They guessed right. Last night at the "rending" hour, just as the nighttime curfew began, Yue, who was on duty at the county jail, was sprawled over his desk snoring loudly when a jail warden hastily woke him, saying a township patrolman from outside had called at the gate with an urgent case to report…

Yue, his pleasant dream interrupted, had wanted to make that rule-ignorant patrolman spend a good night in the lockup, but then he remembered Grand Clerk Xi's nagging that "official business must not be delayed overnight." With a face full of reluctance, he had the gate opened and let the reporting patrolman in.

The visitor turned out to be someone he knew: Ji Ying, the postal runner from Huyang Station.

Once Ji Ying had stammered through the account of events, Yue's drowsiness instantly vanished!

He realized that this matter involved an anonymous letter, gang tomb-raiding, and a village clerk embezzling from his post — it was an extraordinarily serious case!

The matter being of grave importance, Yue dared not act on his own authority and hastily sent someone to summon his superior, Jail Aide Xi.

Xi was on his rest day today, relaxing at home, but he arrived at the county jail very quickly. He did not, however, listen to the oral accounts of Yue and Ji Ying, nor did he interrogate the implicated gongshi Quji. Instead, he first reviewed the deposition hastily written by Huyang Station Chief Heifu, which contained a brief summary of the case's developments.

The Qin legal code's "Miscellaneous Rules for the Interior" stipulates that when officials have matters to request instructions on, they must use written form and may not make oral requests!

Xi was a man who emphasized legal procedure. Only after all formalities were in order did he begin questioning the suspect, analyzing the case, and issuing instructions.

"The matter is urgent. After daybreak, it will be too late to request troops from the County Commandant. Yue, you are to swiftly drive a carriage, take Ji Ying and one sturdy jail warden, exit the city gate, and rush to Huyang Station. Order the Huyang Station personnel to assist you in seizing the Chaoyang Hamlet gatekeeper. Then make him confess his crimes and reveal the tomb raiders' hiding place. After daybreak, I will personally lead county soldiers there and catch them all in one sweep!"

Xi handed the exit pass to Yue, who accepted the order and departed. By the time they actually left the city, it was already the pingdan hour…

…

"Jail Clerk, is this case very big? Just now the Jail Aide was so solemn, I didn't dare make a sound."

The carriage was moving very fast and jolting violently. Ji Ying clung tightly to the carriage railing and asked cautiously.

"Never mind you not daring to make a sound — when the Jail Aide speaks, even we hardly dare to breathe. One careless wrong word and you're punished by copying twenty bamboo slips. Who'd want that…" Yue grumbled inwardly.

Last time they met, Ji Ying was still a case plaintiff; this time, he was already a postal runner, both of them public servants within the system. So Yue didn't need to hide anything and said with a laugh while driving: "Indeed. This is probably the biggest case the county jail has received since the start of the year in the tenth month!"

Setting aside the rarely seen anonymous letter and the scandal of a hamlet gatekeeper colluding with thieves, just consider those tomb raiders. Yue clearly remembered that a few days ago, the commandery had issued a document in which the Commandery Governor declared that tomb-raiding and grave-digging in Nan Commandery had become far too rampant and must be curbed!

Three feet of ice did not form in a single day. Tomb-raiding in Nan Commandery has deep, long-standing roots and is not something that appeared only in recent years. Going far back, one can trace it to the story of Wu Zixu excavating the tomb of King Ping of Chu and flogging the corpse three hundred times. More recently, one can trace it to over fifty years ago, when the Qin general Sima Cuo entered Yiling and set fire to the mausoleums of successive Chu kings…

In that war that changed the ruler of the Jiang-Han region, many tombs of Chu kings and nobles were destroyed by the Qin army, and many burial goods flowed out. The tomb raiders who looted in the chaos made a fortune from it. Having tasted the marrow, they fixed their sights on the Chu noble tombs scattered everywhere and began frantically digging them up.

Though, if he searched his heart, regarding the robbing of those Chu nobles' tombs, a Qin clerk of commoner birth like Yue would gloat and say, "Well robbed!" — still, tomb-raiding, however you put it, is an act against heaven and reason, and is explicitly forbidden by the statutes. Wartime destruction is one matter, peacetime protection is another. Whether robbing Qin tombs or Chu tombs, the perpetrators should be caught and severely punished.

Now, just days after the commandery document was issued, a tomb-raiding case has emerged in Anlu. If it can be solved, it will be a great boon for the Anlu Jail Office; if it cannot be solved and the tomb raiders escape, they will be reprimanded by the commandery, and perhaps even have their service merits docked…

"I only fear I've already arrived a step too late, and let those tomb raiders flee…" Yue thought to himself.

As they spoke, the sky gradually brightened. By the time the sun had fully leapt out of the east, the carriage Yue and the others drove had also reached the outskirts of Huyang Station…

What a coincidence — Station Chief Heifu had just changed his clothes. Hearing the sound of carriage and horses outside, he walked out of the station lodge, bowed to Yue with a smile, and said: "Commanding Clerk, long time no see!"

"Heifu, now is not the time for pleasantries."

Yue jumped off the carriage, not even having time to return the salute, and pulled Heifu by the arm, hurriedly instructing: "The Jail Aide already knows about the matter you requested instructions on. This case is no small affair; he specially sent me to handle it. You must quickly have the station patrolmen assemble, select weapons, and set out with me in one ke."

Heifu grinned: "Assemble, and go where?"

"To catch the bandits and arrest the thieves, of course!"

Yue made arrangements as a matter of course: "You and I will first go to Chaoyang Hamlet, seize its gatekeeper, then interrogate him and pry from his mouth the hiding place of the tomb raiders, and then afterward…"

Having said this, Yue recalled something else and began to encourage Heifu: "Speaking of which, Heifu, though this is your first time serving as a clerk, your methods are seasoned and your schemes astute. Not only did you find a way to ferret out the anonymous letter writer, you also concealed the real reason for his arrest, so the Chaoyang Hamlet gatekeeper was not alerted."

He patted Heifu on the shoulder and smiled: "As things stand, what you, the station chief, needed to do is already done. Next, you only need to act according to the county's instructions!"

Yue was kind-hearted. He figured that Heifu, only a few days into his post and suddenly encountering such a major case, would be somewhat at a loss even if he had courage and knew the statutes. Hearing that Yue himself was coming to take charge of the case and be fully responsible for formulating the arrest plan, Heifu should breathe a sigh of relief and feel the burden lift, right?

Yet Heifu only wore an awkward expression.

Yue spoke far too fast, leaving no gap at all. Heifu opened his mouth several times in succession but found no chance to speak, and could only listen helplessly with a smile.

"Ah, I only hope that gatekeeper hasn't grown suspicious and fled, and even more that he knows the thieves' hiding place… Although I rushed over before dawn, I was ultimately a bit late. I just fear those thieves were cunning and have already finished digging the tomb and fled overnight."

When Yue finally finished speaking, Heifu was about to open his mouth.

But unexpectedly, Dongmen Bao, covered in bloodstains, burst out from the doorway and shouted: "Heifu, I've already tied up that tomb raider and the hamlet gatekeeper in the courtyard!"

Hearing these words, Commanding Clerk Yue, who was in the middle of encouraging Heifu, immediately wore a very strange expression.

"Heifu, could it be that you…" Yue looked at Heifu, his face astonished.

Heifu could only cup his hands toward Yue and say: "Commanding Clerk, I didn't even have time to tell you — those tomb raiders, along with the Chaoyang Hamlet gatekeeper… I captured them all last night and brought them here! Caught in the act with the goods, not one missing!"

PS: When there is business to request instructions, one must use writing; no oral requests, no detaining requests. — "Yunmeng Qin Slips, Miscellaneous Rules for the Interior"

Begging for recommendation votes…

(End of chapter)