Romance of the Former Han Dynasty (10)

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.joinet.net.au>]

Romance of the Former Han Dynasty (10)

Li3 Si the Prime Minister, Zhao4 Gao the chief eunuch and Hu2 Hai4 the
heir apparent returned to Xian2 Yang2 with the hearse of the First
Emperor. Hu Hai was installed as the Second Emperor of Qin2 (Qin2 Er4
Huang2 Di4). On the ninth month of 210BC the body of First Emperor was 
put to rest in the specially prepared hugh grave at the foot of Li4 Shan. 
 
Second Emperor feared that General Meng2 Tian2, who was Fu2 Su's 
supervisor and the commander-in-chief of the troops overseeing the 
construction of the Great Wall, might rebel against him. So Second 
Emperor ordered General Meng2 Tian2 to take his own life and threatened 
him if he disobeyed his whole family and every member of his Meng2 Clan 
will be exterminated. Meng2 Tian2 had no choice but to obey and he 
committed suicide.  After the death of Meng2 Tian2 Second Emperor 
relocated Meng2 Tian2's family to Shu Prefecture (present day Sichuan 
province). Meng2 Tian2 was best remembered for his invention of 
writing the Chinese characters by a brush made of animal hairs.

Second Emperor proved to be a stupid person and an idiot. He spent most 
his time in wining and womanizing and had no time to govern the country. 
Gradually, Li3 Si the  Prime Minister and Zhao4 Gao, the chief eunuch took 
over the reins of power.

The vast majority of people suffered greatly under the rigid and severe
rule of the Qin2 government. Riots erupted throughout the empire, soldiers
mutinied and the people were in open revolt. 

Liu2 Bang was a peasant who joined the Qin2 army as an ordinary soldier. 
He rose to the rank of an officer in charge of a town called Si4 Shang3 in
Jiangsu province. One day he was ordered to escort a group of fifty 
conscripted workers to march North to help build the tomb for the First 
Emperor. En route to the tomb site, it rained heavily and many  
conscripted workers ran away, leaving very few workers to escort. He 
thought that by the time he reached the North all of them would have run 
away, and the Qin2 Authority would punish him. If he could not reach the 
destination on time he would also be punished for insubordination. Since 
he would most probably be punished one way or another, he decided to 
rebel against the Qin2 Authority. Liu2 Bang told the remaining men that 
he was not going north but head for the hills to become a bandit and rob 
government offices. Fourteen men accepted his invitation and formed a 
brigand which soon grew to more than one hundred men.
 
The district officer of Pei4 wanted to rebel against the government of 
Qin2 as he saw no future for him as an official of a collapsing central
government. Fearing that the local people would not support him, two of 
his assistants, Xiao He2 and Cao2 San, advised the district officer to 
invite Liu2 Bang to help organise an armed force. The district officer 
agreed.   

Another assistant, Fan2 Kuai4, was despatched to look for Liu2 Bang who 
was eventually found in the nearby hill. Liu Bang learnt about the district
officer's plan and, with his whole brigand, followed Fan2 Kuai4 back to 
the city.
 
On arrival at the gate of the walled city, the district officer saw the
two hundred men with Liu2 Bang and became frightened that he might not be
able to control them. He ordered the gate to be shut. Liu2 Bang and his men 
were left outside the walled-city.  

Locked out of the city, Liu2 Bang contemplated his next move. He had no
food and shelter and knew that his followers desert him if he could not find
a solution within a few days. 

He wrote a letter and tied it to an arrow and launched it into the city.
The letter was for the people in city asking them to kill the district
officer and unite with him to destroy the Qin2 Government. As the people had
suffered much under the Qin2 Government, they responded to Liu2 Bang's 
appeal and had the district officer killed. They opened the city gate and
welcomed Liu2 Bang and his brigand into the city.

Liu2 Bang gathered all the people together and told them about the collapse 
of the Qin2 Government. He told them that if they did not get organised 
quick they could be in a great mess and a thorough defeat. Liu2 Bang was 
elected as the new district officer.

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.