Chapter 72: The Bronze Furnace of a Chaotic Age

On the twelfth day of the twelfth month, at high noon, Anlu County Prison Scribe Xi arrived with a few county soldiers the County Commandant had assigned him, only to find he had made the trip for nothing. Of the six tomb robbers, one was dead and five captured; even the ward chief who had turned a blind eye to the theft had been seized and brought to Huyang Pavilion.

Heifu's net had not only been cast in time, it had been cast beautifully — every last criminal had been caught in one sweep.

The prison officers who had been itching to crack a big case were somewhat disgruntled, but Xi felt no displeasure at all. He praised Heifu, saying that although the Huyang Pavilion Chief had only just taken office, he had acted decisively and made the correct judgment.

As a pavilion chief overseeing local security, one must have a scale in one's heart for when to catch thieves and how to catch them. Though Heifu had not waited for orders from the county and had struck overnight, this fell within the discretionary authority of his post.

Although one tomb robber had died during the capture, that man had violently resisted arrest with a blade and deserved his death — but had it been a minor offender whom the pavilion chief or thief-catcher deliberately stabbed to death, they too would bear criminal liability and be sentenced to hard labor as a wall-builder.

Xi concluded, "I shall report your merits to the County Magistrate and the County Deputy. With such meritorious service, your probationary pavilion chief post will soon become a full pavilion chief post."

In Qin, all officials served a probationary period, generally one year; outstanding performance allowed early confirmation. Upon confirmation, the word "full" could be prefixed to one's official title. Xi said that, if all went smoothly, from the first month onward, Heifu would no longer be "probationary pavilion chief" but "full pavilion chief."

"Does that mean, once spring begins, Jing can enter the county town academy as a disciple?"

Heifu's heart leaped with joy, and he hurriedly thanked the Prison Scribe.

After a few brief words of praise for Heifu, Xi immediately set to work without pause, inspecting the stolen goods Heifu and his men had brought back.

"Not bad. These are indeed burial objects from Dou Xin's tomb."

He examined the ding and gui vessels the tomb robbers had removed over and over, washing away the dirt and studying the inscriptions upon them, confirming what Li Xian had said: this tomb was indeed the resting place of Dou Xin of the Ruo'ao clan.

"Are all the stolen goods here?" Xi set down the ding and gui and swept his gaze over Heifu, Li Xian, Dongmen Bao, and the others, as if trying to read any telltale sign on their faces.

Heifu replied, "Reporting to the superior officer, not one piece is missing — everything is here!"

Qin law imposed extremely harsh penalties for concealing stolen goods, treating it as equivalent to theft. If Heifu and his men had secretly stashed away even a single lacquerware piece, once discovered, they would be immediately dismissed from office. And if the value of the concealed goods exceeded 110 cash, it would no longer be a matter of merely losing one's post and paying a fine — they would be sentenced to hard labor as wall-builders...

Heifu had therefore kept an extremely tight watch on his men, telling them not to ruin a great undertaking for a moment's greed.

At last, Heifu asked Xi with curiosity, "May I venture to ask the Prison Scribe, how will these stolen goods be dealt with?"

After capturing the tomb robbers, Heifu had already conducted a rough interrogation. As it turned out, the tomb-robbing cases in Nan Commandery were most severe around Yidao, where the tombs of the former Chu kings lay, followed by Jiangling; around Anlu they had been relatively rare...

But in recent years, these tomb robbers had begun colluding with one another. A market specializing in buying bronze burial objects and funerary lacquerware had emerged spanning Nan Commandery, the Chu region of E, and the lands south of the Yangtze — openly trading in the belongings of the dead with shocking brazenness.

He was suddenly curious: could it be that already, in this era, there was an antiques trade?

The tomb robbers' answers, however, left Heifu utterly dumbfounded. As it turned out, these men did not rob tombs to dig up antiques. The lacquerware, which did not easily rot, could be sold as new with a bit of treatment, while the bronze burial objects could be thrown back into the furnace, melted down, and recast into new bronze wares for sale.

Heifu could not help feeling a twinge of toothache. The ding and gui vessels from this tomb were exquisitely crafted; even that tomb-guardian beast, if placed in a museum in a later age, would be a treasure drawing the eyes of crowds.

Yet the tomb robbers of this era disposed of them by selling them as mere bronze stock and household utensils.

"As I thought — no matter the era, tomb robbers are all short-sighted wretches. Aside from wrecking mausoleums and destroying cultural relics, such people serve no purpose whatsoever."

Heifu recalled how, in his past life, many people who had barely skimmed a few tomb-robbing novels would start spouting off, equating archaeology with grave-robbing, saying things like "archaeology is just state-sanctioned tomb robbing" and so on.

That was the greatest slander against archaeological workers!

Admittedly, due to the particular circumstances of the era, there had indeed been negative repercussions.

But true archaeology is the complete opposite of tomb robbing. Nowadays, proactive excavations have become exceedingly rare; most are rescue excavations carried out only because construction or tomb robbing has exposed ancient graves. Thus archaeological workers always arrive one step behind the tomb robbers, sighing in dismay at the sight of burrows everywhere and tombs in utter ruin. They can only bend their backs and clean up the tomb robbers' vile mess, yet they must still suffer the unmerited abuse of certain online trolls.

Tomb robbing aims to steal burial goods and sell them for profit; tomb robbers will use any means to destroy a tomb. As for the artifacts they extract, they select them solely by market value, consigning vast quantities of historically invaluable relics to destruction.

Heifu had heard in his past life how some tomb robbers, after bringing out the gorgeous silks from Chu tombs, had no idea how to preserve them. As a result, within a few short days, Chu silk garments that could have become treasures, carefully safeguarded by researchers, carbonized into piles of blackened garbage and were tossed into fetid ditches.

Imagine, too: if the Yunmeng Qin bamboo slips — which record the stories of Xi, Heifu, and Jing, along with many Qin statutes — had passed through the hands of tomb robbers, what would have become of them?

Bamboo slips buried underground for two thousand years are easily ruined. Without proper protection, the writing blurs and vanishes, the bamboo carbonizes and blackens, and over a thousand slips of Qin law would have returned to dust, unknown to the world.

As if they had never existed in this world at all.

But under a proper rescue archaeological excavation, the bamboo slips would receive the best protection, be treasured in museums, and become a window through which we understand the details of our ancestors' lives. They would become knowledge accessible to everyone in the nation, not the private collection of some foreign plutocrat, for whom a historian wishing to study them must humbly beg the new "owner" for permission.

Admittedly, the tomb occupant certainly wished not to be disturbed by anyone. But over a thousand years, seas turn to mulberry fields; most tombs have long since ceased to receive offerings, their descendants having migrated and drifted away, forgetting their existence. By that point, a tomb is no longer one person's burial place, nor the private ancestral shrine of a single family and surname, but has become the shared wealth of this people, this nation!

Equating tomb robbing with archaeology is like equating violent rape with seeing a doctor for a gynecological condition.

So Heifu was very curious: how did the Qin of this era handle stolen tomb goods?

Xi stroked his beard and said, "Though men have been left to guard Dou Xin's tomb, the burial goods are numerous. Word will likely spread before long, stirring the covetousness of the surrounding commoners. Rather than leave them unattended and tempt people to crime, it is better to remove everything. The lacquerware and gold objects will be sent to Jiangling for the Commandery Governor to dispose of; then the coffin chamber will be filled in on the spot. Without burial goods, Dou Xin may perhaps rest undisturbed..."

As for what fate awaited those bronze vessels sent to Jiangling City? Xi said they would most likely be thrown into the furnace and melted down to cast weapons and farming tools.

Heifu fell silent at once. It seemed that in the handling of stolen tomb goods, the methods of the Qin authorities and the tomb robbers were not so very different. After all, this was antiquity — a museum? No such thing existed, unless an item made its way to Xianyang and became a decoration in the Qin king's palace.

These burial goods had simply been born in the wrong age. In these times, ornate and exquisite ding and gui were just like their owners' noble bloodlines — no longer worth anything...

From bells and tripods to swords and plowshares — perhaps that was the greatest difference between the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States! The chaotic age was a bronze furnace; heroes and commoners alike pumped the bellows and loaded the charcoal, melting everything down to be recast. The flames of war forged and hammered, burning away the ornament of a culture so richly refined, shattering the old era that Confucius yearned for, yet also smelting into being a new form of civilization.

Seven hegemons and nine tripods, the Hundred Schools of Thought — from body to core, they slowly fused into one. And now the King of Qin glares at the lands east of the mountains; the furnace fire burns ever hotter. The six directions and eight wastes are on the verge of unification; the colossal form of the first Huaxia empire is already poised to emerge!

While Xi had the men load the stolen goods onto carts for transport to the county seat, Prison Officer Yue also finished the first interrogation of the tomb robbers. He had questioned each one thoroughly on their place of origin and identity, recording it all on bamboo slips and presenting them to Xi for review.

"Prison Scribe, the juvenile Xing claims to be from the E region of Chu, a fellow townsman of the dead tomb robber, and says he was tricked into coming. The other four are Qin people, their places of origin scattered across Nan Commandery: one from Anlu, two from Xinshi, and one from Jingling..."

Xi scanned the deposition, then personally went to verify with each of the thieves one by one. When he came to the bandit ringleader "Chang," who claimed to live in Xinshi and whose status was commoner, Xi seemed to sense something amiss. His thick brows furrowed slightly, and he began to scrutinize Chang's features closely, his suspicion deepening.

Xi did not immediately interrupt Chang's statement. Instead, he pretended nothing was wrong, walked to the rear courtyard, and then said to Heifu, "Huyang Pavilion Chief, does your pavilion have the wanted circulars issued by the commandery and county?"

Heifu hurriedly replied, "Yes."

"Go fetch them at once!"

In a short while, Heifu retrieved from his office hall those wooden wanted tablets that he had only glanced over once.

Xi took them and examined them one by one. Finally his gaze froze, and he gripped one in his hand!

He told Heifu and the others to keep silent and follow him as he slowly walked to the front courtyard, stopping behind the group of tomb robbers.

Xi had Yue continue asking the tomb robbers some inconsequential questions while he himself stood with both hands behind his back, holding that wanted tablet. Suddenly he shouted, "Xing, Rank-and-File!"

Instinctively, the tomb robber ringleader who called himself "Chang" turned his head in bewilderment...

But in an instant, he realized he had fallen for the trick. His face paled dramatically, and he immediately dropped his head!

But on Xi's face, the smile of a wildcat that has caught a cunning rat had already spread.

As for Heifu, he only managed to steal a glance and see that the wanted circular was for a habitual tomb robber, one Xing, Rank-and-File of Jiangling County, and that the reward for him was...

"Twenty taels of gold!"

PS: Recommending a new historical novel, *Poetry and Blade* — a veteran author, quality guaranteed.

A youth crossed over and landed in the home of an undying old soldier — the sages' teachings pass through his heart, and a long saber stays in his hand.

His blade cleaves in all directions, the songs of lament cease; his poems steady the rivers and mountains, the nation's fate upheld.

And more — overturning clouds and rain, covering the sky with a single hand!

Overturning clouds and rain — the affairs of the rivers and lakes; the youth grips his sharp blade and slaughters every ox-ghost and snake-god. Covering the sky with a single hand — the schemes of court and temple; the youth rides the rising wind and sweeps away all decay and sorrow.

A gentleman has bearing — standing with him, one shares heart and soul. A beauty topples cities — white robes, sword dance, zither, chess, calligraphy, painting; the fair one yearns for spring — it's not in vain to walk this world once.

(End of chapter)