Chapter 113: Ningzhou, the Deaf-Mute

When the common people heard the news, they wished to bid farewell to Magistrate Di, but could not even catch a glimpse of him. They could only silently and tearfully gaze toward the direction of Ning Prefecture, united in their prayer: may Magistrate Di be safe.

Cui’er, already reunited with her family, quietly joined them in carving a longevity tablet for him. Many others, standing before the tablets they had long since carved for the Magistrate in their own homes, lit incense with profound solemnity.

Song Wen, having received the news, galloped twenty miles in hot pursuit, yet failed to catch even a speck of dust kicked up by the hooves of Di Ying’s horses. Frustrated, he detoured to the Di family estate and, picking up a farm tool, dug up three acres of land in a fit of pique.

...

Fearing that the Emperor might change his mind at any moment and have him executed, and anticipating Song Wen’s reaction, Di Ying rode with a light heart and great speed toward Ning Prefecture.

Ning Prefecture was not far from the Great Capital, separated only by Bin Prefecture. To its north lay Yuan Prefecture, to the southwest Long Prefecture, and to the northeast Fu Prefecture. In other words, Ning Prefecture was quite tightly squeezed. It was situated in the southeastern part of the Guan Mountains—the Liupan Mountains—bordered to the east by the Ziwu Ridge, to the south by Shaanxi, and to the north by Ningxia. The region was a mosaic of ridges and gullies, with plains, river valleys, and plateaus alternating in the central and western parts. The terrain was high in the northeast and low in the southwest, long from east to west and narrow from north to south.

Despite its modest size, it was home to sixteen different ethnic minorities.

Ning Prefecture was formerly known as Yiqu. To its west lay the ancient state of Xirong, also called the Yiqu Rong. The Yiqu people were steadfast and valiant, regarding "death in battle as a blessing, and death from illness as an omen." Their bravery and refusal to submit were key reasons why the state of Yiqu endured for hundreds of years. The state practiced universal conscription; in times of war, all able-bodied men went to the front, leading to a surplus of women over men. Yiqu law permitted intermarriage between clans after twelve generations, and if an elder brother died, the younger brother could take his widow as his wife. After settling on the Longdong Plateau, they began to engage in agriculture, gradually developing into a semi-agrarian, semi-pastoral people. After being conquered by the Qin, the survivors became indistinguishable from the people of the Tang.

The Emperor’s decision to reassign Di Ying to Ning Prefecture was, in truth, deeply insulting—an act of private retaliation by the aging monarch. Di Ying, however, chose not to dwell on it.

Upon taking office, he immediately threw himself into studying the local gazetteers and actively learning the languages of the various ethnic minorities. Blessed with a photographic memory and an extraordinary aptitude for languages, he had Peng Liang invite people from different ethnic groups every day to facilitate his studies.

Watching his remarkable master chatting away in "gibberish" with people of various attires, Peng Liang felt utterly dejected. Peng Liang was two years younger than his master and had always prided himself on his intelligence; even his martial arts master had praised his spiritual insight and ability to grasp concepts quickly. Yet, when it came to learning these languages, he felt he was nothing compared to his master.

Peng Liang could only find some sense of superiority by lording it over Zhao San and the ten guards. The guards, poor fellows, found the learning process grueling. In truth, the guards themselves had some linguistic talent, but Magistrate Di was like a taskmaster, assigning them such heavy workloads daily that they were nearly pushed to their breaking point.

However, compared to Huan Fan, both Peng Liang and the guards were much better off. Huan Fan was the Prefectural Secretary.

Ning Prefecture governed six counties: Anding, Zhenning, Xiangle, Pengyuan, Dingping, and Fengyi. The main responsibility of a Prefect was supervision, regulation, strategic planning, delegation, and coordination. Affairs within the counties were handled by the County Magistrates, while matters within the Prefecture city were handled by the Prefectural Secretary.

Huan Fan was fair-skinned and scholarly, neither fat nor thin, and had held the position of Secretary for three years. He had already achieved a flexible and proficient grasp of the languages of the ethnic minorities within the Prefecture. Upon discovering this, Di Ying, in addition to learning from the locals, would drag Huan Fan in every night for review, and also put him in charge of teaching Peng Liang and the guards.

This evening, Huan Fan did not appear. Di Ying, contemplating the affairs of the Rong people, surmised: "It is already the beginning of the tenth month; the winter wheat should be sown by now. I fear they are fighting over water in the fields again."

The water system in Ning Prefecture was well-developed and the soil fertile, so land had been cultivated everywhere—even on the mountains, where layers upon layers of terraced fields had been carved out. Irrigation was not always convenient. Some would dig canals to divert mountain spring water from above, irrigating layer by layer. But the water had to fill the upper fields before reaching the lower ones, and sometimes those below grew impatient, as the sowing season was quite compressed.

As for the owners of the upper fields, irrigation required the application of fertilizer. If the fields were not dammed in time after being filled, the water would overflow into the lower fields, and the fertilizer would wash away into someone else’s land. In short, for the sake of those few acres of land, many people spent their days brawling during the sowing or harvest seasons.

Di Ying had checked the local gazetteers and knew that no previous magistrate or secretary had ever been able to resolve this issue completely. Only Huan Fan had fared somewhat better. Despite his scholarly appearance, Huan Fan was exceptionally generous and forthright. He had entered officialdom through hereditary privilege, serving first as a Left Lingwei guard, then as a Registrar, and finally as a Secretary.

Because of his personality, he found it easy to "get along" with people, making his mediation of such disputes somewhat easier.

Di Ying, however, was not prepared to intervene in these specific local matters. He was busy reviewing case files.

From the second month of the first year of the Great Xia calendar to the third day of the tenth month of the seventh year, there had been 368 incidents of crimes committed by deaf-mutes within Ning Prefecture. Whether it was looting, kidnapping, breaking into homes, or nighttime murders, the variety of their methods was staggering. Some acted alone, some in groups of three or five, others in larger gangs, acting with blatant and extreme arrogance. Some confessed as soon as they were caught, some denied everything to the death, and others only pressed their thumbprints after much dragging out.

Di Ying found this very strange. The world was harsh and survival was difficult, even more so for those with disabilities. Yet, these individuals were able to band together to commit repeated crimes, and all of these perpetrators were deaf-mutes. Was there something fishy going on?

But Di Ying did not understand the method of communication used by deaf-mutes: sign language. Even if he wanted to interrogate the prisoners still in custody, they would not understand what he was asking, for none of them were literate. The only way to communicate with them was through a translator who understood sign language.

In the Great Xia Dynasty, there were many foreigners; when they first arrived, they would hire translators. The very word "translator" originated from this practice. Some foreigners, after staying in the Great Xia for a long time, were even appointed as court officials—for example, in the Imperial Observatory. Or, for instance... the Magistrate of Anding County, under Ning Prefecture, was one such person.

That magistrate’s original name was Tojiri Saburo, hailing from the small vassal state of Wa. After coming to the Great Xia to study, he changed his name to Xu Lang, based on the historical record that the population of the Wa state originated from the three thousand boys and girls taken there by Xu Fu.