Qin Official

The world outside the pavilion is like when the heaven and earth first opened, with rain pouring down from the thick clouds, swallowing up all the hope in the world and drowning all the ways out for the garrison soldiers and prisoners.

Under the light of the torch, dark faces looked up, opened their mouths, and shouted words of despair and grief...

"If you miss the deadline, all laws will be cut off..."

"The world has been suffering from Qin for a long time..."

"If you die now, you will die, if you make a big plan, you will die!"

Desperation forced them to cut down trees into soldiers and raise poles into flags. A group of people clamored and shouted that the princes and generals should be peaceful? They all poured into the pavilion and kicked open the guest room door.

The Qin official who was escorting them was sleeping soundly inside. He was startled when he heard the noise. He raised his head and saw that face, who could it be if it wasn't Hei Fu! ?

…

"It's really unlucky to have such a dream."

Heifu woke up sweating profusely and found that he was indeed in a strange guest house. When he opened the door, the weather outside was cold and clear, with only a few clouds floating in the sky. Where did the heavy rain come from?

And the 50 Anlu County prisoners he was escorting were sleeping soundly under the eaves of the guest house at the moment. These people were thinly dressed and covered with some straw to keep out the cold. They were shivering in the early morning frost and dew...

"The pavilion chief."

Xiao Tao, who was on duty at night, saw that Hei Fu was awake and hurriedly came over to report in a stuttering voice: "Last...last night was safe and nothing happened."

"Thank you for your hard work." Heifu patted Xiao Tao's shoulder to encourage him. Li Xian, who was on night duty with Xiao Tao, also came over to say hello to Heifu with red eyes.

It is now the 22nd year of the Qin Dynasty, October 23rd, and it is also the third day since they left Anlu County.

The five people from Huyangting need to escort 50 prisoners and 10 garrison soldiers to Fangcheng, Nanyang County, hundreds of miles away to serve as corvees. The deadline is to arrive before the first day of December. This is the task of Heifu and the others.

Even before departure, Heifu knew that most of the prisoners escorted this time were sent to prison by himself: there was the businessman Bao who participated in falsely accusing him last year, and there were two tomb robbers who robbed Ruo Ao's tomb. There are also many blind mountain residents who have been convicts and become prisoners, and they can be regarded as enemies with him.

The county's Zuo Lieutenant made this arrangement with sinister intentions.

However, Zuo Wei did not expect these prisoners to be angry with Heifu and, like in the dream, rise up in chaos and kill him.

This is not the end of Qin Dynasty, but it is also the hinterland of Qin State. It is really difficult to kill officials and rebel.

Moreover, around the necks of this group of people, they all wore the symbol of prisoners: wooden pliers. There is a hemp rope on the clamp, which is tied when resting, tying their wrists together and restricting their movement.

This is the standard configuration for escorting prisoners. We cannot expect these reform-through-labor prisoners to be obedient. On the contrary, the pavilion soldiers were fully armed. Not only did everyone carry swords and armor, but they were also equipped with two crossbows. It is unlikely that someone like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang would appear among the prisoners. He grabbed the sword and killed Hei Fu and others...

So Heifu guessed that Zuo Wei arranged this in order to hope that these prisoners who had a grudge against Heifu would escape halfway!

Prisoners are different from garrison soldiers. They are already criminals, and most of their family members have been taken as concubines. They are not afraid of wearing shoes when they are barefoot, so everyone has no worries.

And in this winter, traveling all the way north is really hard work. Southerners are afraid of the north, especially the winter in the north. In "Songs of Chu", the Chu people's imagination of the north is "increased ice and high mountains, flying snow thousands of miles away" and "there are cold mountains in the north, with dragons and dragons. The sky is white and haohao, but the cold is condensed."

In short, from the perspective of people on the coast of Jianghan, the north in winter is simply not a place for people to stay, and they must avoid going there. This fear of weather and hard labor may prompt prisoners to take time to escape at any time.

The State of Qin severely punished prisoners serving in the garrison for escaping, and there were corresponding punishments for escorts who escaped.

"It's not a death penalty, but as the chief of the pavilion, I have reached my end. If more than ten people escape, even I will be reduced to a city guard. The second and third sons will also be punished as the escorts..." Heifu expressed their situation to everyone in this way.

More than ten years later, Chief Liu Ting of Peixian County, because too many of the prisoners and garrison soldiers he was escorting escaped, he knew that he could not escape punishment, so he simply changed his mind and led the remaining people to become bandits... …

With this said, everyone in Huyang Pavilion also realized the seriousness of the problem. The county Zuo Wei was really insidious. He was clearly trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife. He wanted to take advantage of the escape of the prisoners to convict their group and drive them all out of the Qin officials!

So everyone followed Heifu's arrangement and divided into two groups, taking turns to keep vigil at night.

On the first and second days of departure, Heifu did not dare to close his eyes. He kept guarding Huo Liao and stared at the prisoners.

In this way, Heifu, who had not closed his eyes for two days, finally couldn't hold on anymore on the third day. When he arrived at the pavilion in Xinshi County to rest, he slept in the pavilion until dawn...

Fortunately, except for that nightmare, everything was normal.

At this time, the prisoners also got up one after another. They pushed away the straw on their bodies, rubbed their sore necks, and looked at Heifu, who was squatting on the ground and gargling his mouth with willow branches, with evil eyes. Heifu knew that in the past three days, many people must have been thinking about escaping day and night. Anyway, if you don't run away, the end will not be much better. It is common for prisoners to die in winter service. In the face of the cruel reality, Heifu has no ability to fool these desperate people.

It was fine when resting, as there were ropes tying everyone to the beams, but it was a big problem when walking.

Although the food for Heifu and the other five people could be provided by the public food provided by the pavilions on the road, the sixty prisoners and garrison soldiers had to bring their own food, drink and chews. Therefore, each prisoner had to carry a stone of food, and there was no way to tie everyone together.

While walking on the road, these 50 people winked at each other and ran away. Heifu and the five of them alone could not catch them.

So after having the morning meal in this pavilion, Heifu asked Ji Ying and Li Xian to cut the long hemp rope into several sections, and asked 50 prisoners with grim faces to stand up. First pick a prisoner who has a grudge against the black husband, and then choose a prisoner they don't know. They work in pairs, tie the hemp rope to one of their feet, and tie it into a tight knot...

"Two people work together, whether they are walking, resting, eating, or using the toilet, they must act together. If the other person escapes, the remaining person will also be regarded as an accomplice and will be punished even if he is sentenced!"

In this way, although the speed of progress is slowed down, there is no fear of them suddenly escaping while walking on the road. Most of the people who ran away would trip each other up and get caught without any help due to lack of tacit understanding.

Not only that, Heifu also summoned the 10 free garrison soldiers and assigned them tasks.

"You are all soldiers and good citizens, with parents, wives and children at home. You should know what will happen if you run away and work hard..."

"I will not treat my second or third son badly. I will let you have enough food, clothing, and sleep in the house along the way. But you will also help me guard the prisoners. When we are walking on the road, every two people will watch ten prisoners. Prisoner, after arriving at Fangcheng County, Nanyang County, if no one of the prisoners escapes, I will give each of you a hundred coins, plus a pair of cloth shoes..."

As soon as these words came out, the 10 garrison soldiers couldn't help but be overjoyed. When they went out to do corvee work, their shoes were the most consumed. When they arrived, their shoes had long been worn out. Heifu contracted their shoes, which made many people relieved. . And that one hundred dollars is enough to buy a rough winter coat.

Heifu was not short of money. After serving as the chief of the pavilion for one year, he received a lot of rewards for repeatedly catching thieves. Plus the harvest of hundreds of acres of land at home, even after buying cattle and horses, he still had 5,000 yuan left. many. So when he went out this time, he exchanged all the remaining copper coins for easy-to-carry gold cakes, about ten taels.

He made a calculation in his mind: "If I only spend one or two thousand dollars to let these garrison guards guard the prisoners for me, it will be a good deal."

Although Heifu had made many arrangements and felt everything was safe, on the fifth day of their departure, when they were spending the night in a forested and hilly area spanning dozens of miles from Xinshi County to E County, their escape still happened...

"Pavilion Chief, Hei Fu! Something bad has happened!"

After being hurriedly woken up by Ji Ying and Dongmen Leopard who were on duty at night, Hei Fu rushed to the scene of the incident. He looked at the rope that had been broken by hard objects on the ground and the two wooden pliers that had been removed. Hei Fu looked heavy.

Li Xian, who was holding the roster, counted the number of people and reported: "It's a little thief who works as a gangster, and he ran away with a tomb robber!"

After questioning the prisoners on the side, Dongmen Bao also reported with sweating profusely: "That little thief seems to know how to open locks and untied the wooden pliers in a few clicks. I was too sleepy at the time and took a nap. When I woke up, At once……"

"Chase!"

Heifu glared at Dongmen Bao and Ji Ying, looked at the footsteps of the pair running towards the woods to the south, and ordered: "We must chase them back! If they are alive, they will see the people, if they die, they will see the corpses!"