Qin Official

At three o'clock in the morning, Heifu was sitting under a tree, with his sword across his knees. Although the prisoners were tied to the tree in groups of two, and were watched by the guards, Heifu could still feel their restlessness... …

Desertion is contagious. In the army, one deserter will often lead the entire army to flee. Is it the same when escorting prisoners? It's usually as long as nothing happens. Once someone escapes, it will ignite the desire of others to follow suit, and they will run away in a swarm without being able to stop them.

So at this time, Heifu must not get hot-headed and chase the two people who escaped. Maybe those two people were captured, but everyone here was gone...

He asked Dongmen Bao and Li Xian to ride their bay-red horses and chase them along the tracks on the ground. The two prisoners broke the ropes that tied their wrists and removed the wooden clamps, but they had no time to untie the knotted hemp ropes on their feet. The two of them had three legs and could not run very far.

Heifu himself stayed on the spot to control the situation. He ordered Xiao Tao to hold a crossbow, climb up a tree and sit down from a high position, staring at the remaining prisoners without blinking. Ji Ying then went to bury pots and make rice to feed the garrison soldiers.

After a while, the rice was cooked, and Ji Ying brought a bowl to Hei Fu. He and Dongmen Bao lost the prisoner on duty at night. At this moment, he was very ashamed. He said guiltily in front of Hei Fu: "It's all my fault for not being very vigilant." , let the prisoner escape. Also, if I had not chosen this path, maybe nothing would have happened..."

Before setting off, Heifu discussed with everyone in the pavilion that they had two options for this business trip: one was to go north from Anlu County to Suixian and Tangxian, and then pass through Tongbai Mountain and enter Nanyang. County boundary, this road is 650 miles away from Fangcheng County.

The second road is further away, going west from Anlu County to Xinshi County, then passing through the hilly woods in front of you, to E County and Yan County, and then going north to Xinye and Wancheng in Nanyang County, and then to Fangcheng County, a total of 800 miles.

Ji Ying is a postman, and as the only one who has ever been out of Anlu County, Heifu asked him to choose the route.

Ji Ying said that although the first road is closer, Tang and Sui counties were conquered more than 20 years ago and are called "new lands". The public security is not very good and thieves often appear. Moreover, the Tongbai Mountain area is mountainous and densely forested, and something could happen if you are not careful, so it is better to take the western route. Although it takes a few more days to walk, there are towns and pavilions along the way, and safety is guaranteed. The only danger is the sparsely populated forest between Xinshi County and Jixian County.

Unexpectedly, something happened here.

Heifu didn't blame Ji Ying too much. After walking for several days in a row, everyone was very tired, and it was inevitable to lose focus for a while.

"We chose the road together. Maybe if we took the northern route, more people would escape. I believe Abao and Li Xian can capture the dead!"

He made an appointment with Li Xian and Dongmen Bao. If they didn't find anyone before dark, they had to come back...

It's noon now, there are still a few hours to wait.

Heifu knew that he couldn't act too nervous, so after finishing the meal, he pretended to be relaxed and asked Ji Ying to find water to polish ink, while he took out a pen and a blank slip and started writing on it...

What he wrote was a "slip of the deceased". The pavilion chief had the responsibility to write down the characteristics of the escapee: "The deceased is called Liao. He was a Chengdan for the crime of theft. He was twenty-five years old, six feet eight inches in length, and had a red face. , many hairs, no beard, one brown robe, one white singlet, one meter and one stone..."

In addition, there are tomb robbers who ran away with Liao, and they must also be recorded. If Hei Fu cannot catch them within today, he can only hand this document to the local pavilion chief at the next pavilion. Ask the local police comrades to issue a wanted order and arrest the fugitive criminals based on their physical characteristics. When he was the director of Huyang Pavilion, Hei Fu also took over a similar job.

Once he hands over the deceased Jane, it is equivalent to admitting that he let the prisoner escape. No matter whether the escapee is captured or not, Heifu will be held responsible. For every person who runs away, he will be fined 2A, which is equivalent to more than 2,000 yuan. But if you don't pay, you will be punished even more severely when you get to the place and do a head count.

Therefore, escorting corvees is really a thankless job. No wonder Zuo Wei appointed Hei Fu to do this.

Of course, Qin's law did not beat people to death with a stick. "To kill a person, if he can arrest himself or someone close to him, he will be arrested, unless he is innocent..." This means that if Heifu himself, or his relatives and friends can survive, Come down and work with the local police to capture the fugitive, then he will be considered innocent!

After writing "Jane of the Dead" to prepare for a rainy day, Heifu remembered this and thought: "More than ten years later, Liu Bang must have faced the same decision as me. Maybe it was because there were too many people running along the way. Even if Even though we mobilized our partners and brothers in Quanpei County, we couldn't catch these people one by one, so we chose to turn the grass into bandits."

But Heifu cannot learn from Liu Bang's choice.

Not to mention that now is the year when the Qin State is destined to dominate the world. The First Emperor is in his prime and can live for more than ten years. Anyone who rebels at this time will be seeking death. Let's just say that Liu Bang was a calm man who could watch his old father being cooked to death and still smile and say, "I'm lucky to have a piece of the pie." After falling into the grass, he was indifferent even when his wife and children were arrested by the government.

Hei Fu is different. Hei Fu cares about his family. His mother, brothers, nephews and nieces are all his ties. He has managed to arrange everything. He cannot ignore them just because he is temporarily afraid of punishment.

Time passed slowly. Except for the chirping of birds in the air from time to time, the surroundings were lonely and the atmosphere was particularly depressing. As the sun tilted toward the west, the forest gradually darkened. Ji Ying began to pace back and forth nervously. Xiao Tao was also uneasy in the tree. As for the prisoners, they became even more restless. The garrison responsible for guarding them They are also whispering something...

"A Bao's wife is seven months pregnant. He has thought about escaping before. Could it be..." Ji Ying's heart palpitated to the extreme and he started to make random guesses.

Heifu glared at him: "A Bao has always been the most loyal person, could he be that kind of person?"

Ji Ying was stunned and shook his head in shame: "No, I was just guessing."

He approached Heifu and whispered to Heifu: "Brother Heifu, if you can't catch him this time and you need to pay Sijia, I can pay half of the money..."

Heifu smiled: "I know you just announced your marriage in Zhongzhong last month. You have decided to get married next year. Proposal will cost a lot, more than two thousand dollars, which is all your savings."

Ji Ying muttered: "I, Ji Ying, am not an unjust person. Since I don't have the ability to arrest people, I can only pay for it... Besides, if the money is gone, I can still make more by following Brother Heifu."

He thought clearly, but at this moment, there was a loud roar of horses from the other end of the road!

"Yes... I wanted to steal them, they are back!"

Xiao Tao, who was sitting on the tree, shouted loudly. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xian rushed over on horseback, shouting, and rode until he was in front of Hei Fu. Then he jumped off the horse and said with cupped hands: "Pavilion Commander, we are lucky to have lived up to our orders! "

Heifu smiled. He saw a bloody man lying on the maroon horse. Li Xian pushed him and landed heavily in front of the prisoners...

But they saw that the man was already dead, with dried blood all over his body, and a sword-pierced wound on his back, which almost came out of his chest.

The prisoners were shocked. This man was the tomb robber who escaped earlier!

"Hahaha, I'm back!"

Dongmen Bao laughed crazily and arrived as promised, only to see a bloody human head pinned to his waist. It was the little thief Liao who Heifu wrote on the "Slip of the Dead" with "red face, many hairs, and no beard". , the bodyless head's eyes widened, and he died unwillingly.

Dongmen Leopard imitated Li Xian and threw the head in front of the prisoners. A pair of fierce eyes gleamed: "These two people are so brave. They actually ran away when Nai Gong was not paying attention. It's a pity that they didn't run fast enough." !”

…

If a prisoner serving as a corvee escapes and does not resist with force, he can only be captured alive, but his life cannot be harmed.

But if they are serving as a garrison, it has a military nature, and Heifu is equivalent to their superior officer. In the army, superiors have the power to directly order the killing of soldiers without going through judicial trials! Heifu also has the right to treat prisoners who escape against orders as deserters and kill them.

"Today's death is also death" is not just a saying.

After arriving at the next pavilion, Heifu wrote a love letter about the dead prisoner and what happened, and gave it to the local pavilion chief, asking him to send a message to Anlu County on his behalf. The matter was considered over.

After this incident, the prisoners were frightened by the killing of the chicken as a warning to the monkeys, and did not flee again. On the seventh day on the road, the group arrived at Jixian County without any danger. By now, a quarter of the journey had been covered.

But Heifu still didn't feel relieved. As the saying goes, a thief can only be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against a thief for a thousand days. Human energy is limited, not to mention passive coping, which consumes more energy. There are still twenty days to go, and there will always be times of negligence. Next time, I'm afraid I won't be so lucky to capture someone.

So Heifu thought about it and had to find a way to calm down the prisoners.

When setting off from Anlu County, Heifu once told the prisoners earnestly that this time going north to serve was an opportunity for them to atone for their sins. The laws of Qin stipulated that as long as the concubines and Cheng Danqung performed meritorious service on the battlefield, they could be punished. Use the first-level knighthood to regain your freedom. In the same way, a title can also redeem the lives of relatives. Parents require two levels of title, while wives and children only require one level...

However, the prisoners just looked at Heifu like a fool, and some of them whispered that most of what they did was transporting food and filling gullies, so how could they deserve any credit? Moreover, as the person who personally sent them to prison, Heifu’s words were even more unbelievable.

Therefore, it will not work to use "the majesty of Qin's laws" to intimidate, as we did in the past to deal with good people and soldiers.

After thinking about it, Heifu finally came up with an idea.

While resting in Fuxian County, he found a middle-aged man with a dark face and an untied bun in the garrison. When Hei Fu found him, the man was sitting on a stone slab, fiddling with some random things. Yarrow, sometimes looked up at the sun, closed his eyes and muttered something, looking lost in thought.

"Bu Cheng, what are you doing?"

Hearing Heifu's shout, Bu Cheng quickly scattered the yarrow on the ground, stood up, smiled and cupped his hands and said, "Pavilion Chief, I am calculating tomorrow's cloudiness and sunshine according to the "Rishu"."

"Throughout this journey, your calculations have been quite accurate. Even the prisoners believed you were true and thought you were not a mortal."

The Heifu garrison soldiers were quite friendly, but they also knew that this divination was more guessed by looking at the clouds than calculated.

He asked: "I heard from Ji Ying that you are a well-known fortune teller in Jianshui Township, and your family has the Book of the Day."

"The country people are full of praise, the country people are full of praise." The magicians in the countryside cannot compare with the tall Yanqi alchemists. These people help people look after houses, calculate the days, or organize funerals for people to make ends meet, so Bu Cheng wears burlap clothes. , nodded and bowed, without the slightest hint of immortality.

What's more, in the Qin State, even a diviner cannot escape the service. When an official stands in front of him, the fortune teller is as nervous as an ordinary Guizhou leader.

"Don't be afraid." Heifu said with a smile: "I just want to ask, how much does it cost for a divination on weekdays?"

The fortune teller was a little confused, and he didn't know what Chief Heifu's plan was. After a while, he raised a finger and said: "The fortune teller for the soldiers is ten coins... The fortune teller for the officials is five cents."

It’s really cheap, Hei Fu said with a smile, “It only costs five dollars? What if I’m willing to pay three hundred dollars for a divination?”

While talking, Hei Fu stuffed a heavy cloth bag into the fortune teller's hand. When he opened it, he saw a bright Qin Banliang. The folk diviner's eyes suddenly shone...

Hei Fu was helpless, since these prisoners could no longer be frightened by Qin's laws...

Then, we can only use the words of ghosts and gods to scare us!