Qin Official

The leader of the Li family, Li Ping, is over sixty years old and very old. Although he still serves as the third elder, he has long been unconcerned with officialdom and is only focused on how to continue the development of the clan.

Last night, Li Xian, a tribesman, came to report that the county magistrate and county lieutenant needed Li Ping to go to the county to discuss the matter regarding a local boy who had not graduated from school and wanted to evade military service.

"Is there such a thing?"

Li Ping was highly respected in his hometown, and the local stingy men would have to visit him in person if they wanted to ask for something. However, the county magistrate and county captain had invited him, and at least they had to give him some face, so the old man reluctantly took an Anchao, accompanied by his son. Heading towards the county seat, Li Xian volunteered to drive for him. Along the way, Li Ping also chatted with the most present member of the clan...

"Li Xian, how old is Li Cang?"

"Five years old."

Li Ping nodded: "I think this boy is smart, just like you when you were young... You are in the county and don't go home often, so why not let him come to Dazong more often and spend more time with his brothers?" Let’s learn to read by the way.”

"Thank you, Patriarch, for your trouble." Although Li Xian did not look back, his hand tightened on the bridle of the car.

When they left the village and arrived at the familiar Huyang Pavilion, there was already a team of crossbow officers waiting. It was Xiao Tao, the commander of the village, and his men.

Seeing Li's carriage and horses approaching, Xiao Tao nodded to these carefully selected subordinates and silently surrounded them, as if for protection, with wings on both sides of the carriage.

"That's true of the county captain. I'm not a stranger, so I need to be treated with such courtesy when I come to the county town."

Although Li Ping was a little surprised, he only regarded it as a preferential treatment given to him by the county and did not take it seriously.

He looked at the Huyang Pavilion passing by and began to lament the past, saying that he had never realized that Heifu could be so capable. He had risen from a small pavilion chief to an official. Although his rank was only two hundred dan, he was still an assistant. But his status is much higher than that of a Cao official in the county.

"It's a pity that the marriage was not negotiated after all."

The old man felt a little regretful. After being rejected by Hei Fu in the twelfth month of last year, he was sulky for a month. When he learned that Heifu was recommended by the county captain as a county official, he regretted it. He wanted Li Xian to help his family marry Heifu's brother, and then he learned that the Yan family from Yunmengxiang had already taken the lead...

"The Heifu family may become the third powerful family in this county under the Yun family and the Li family! Even if my family cannot be friends with them, at least they are not enemies." The patriarch could only comfort himself in this way.

Just walking slowly like this, in the afternoon, the last pavilion before arriving at the county town was already in sight. Li Xian, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke. Those terrible words were like a sword, piercing the heart of the old man!

"Clan Chief, the correspondence between you and the Dou clan of Chu State has been revealed..."

Li Ping thought he had heard it wrong because of his age, and looked at Li Xian in front of him in astonishment.

"You...what did you say?"

Li Xian said: "Dooran has already told everything. What the clan leader revealed to Douran in his letter almost exposed Heifu's identity, caused Linyang's false surrender to fail, and put County Lieutenant Li You in danger. Now that the County Sheriff has been assassinated, Jiangling Dasuo Assassin, Neijian, this matter has been thoroughly investigated by the county, and the county officials will come to arrest him soon. The county magistrate and county lieutenant invited the clan leader to come today, not for some school disciples who have deserted the military service, but to arrest them. Ask about this!”

The old patriarch was so shocked that he could hardly sit still. It took him a while to recover. At this time, he looked at the soldiers guarding the left and right wings. There was no protection at all! They were obviously escorting him with bows and arrows in hand and sending him to trial! And Li Xian was ordered to deceive him!

"Leham!"

After regaining consciousness, Li Ping pointed at this most promising disciple and cursed: "Why didn't I see it before? You actually have the heart of a beast!"

"Clan leader, please lower your voice."

Li Xian still drove the car steadily and sighed: "If I really had the heart of an animal, I would not tell the patriarch this. The reason why I tell you is to do my last bit to save the descendants of the patriarch. The patriarch can You know, what is the crime of being an insider and a liaison with the princes?"

After all, Li Ping had been the third elder in his hometown, and he also understood the laws of Qin. It is said in "The Law of Thieves" that in addition to being cut in half for those who rebel and work for the enemy's country, their parents, wives, children, and brothers and sisters, regardless of age, will all be executed. . As for the crime of interfering with the princes, I will abandon the city, and my parents, wife, children, brothers and sisters will be tattooed as city guards!

Judging from the current situation, he may be able to clear his name, but "connecting with the princes" cannot escape. Liping can already see the fate of himself and his family.

Liping looked around at the county soldiers escorting him and the eldest son in front of him who was kept in the dark. He knew that he would not be able to escape today, so he asked somewhat dejectedly: "How do you plan to save him?"

"If any of the parents, wife, children, and brothers and sisters report the crime to the government in advance, they will be exempted from the punishment of being sentenced together."

"Patriarch, if you want your children and grandchildren to be exempted from the blame, when you get off the car at Shiliting to go to the toilet, tell them to report you first when they enter the county town!"

Li Xian stopped the carriage, turned around for the first time, looked directly into Li Ping's desperate eyes, and bowed:

"This can be considered Li Xian's way of repaying the patriarch for his teachings from childhood to adulthood!"

…

An hour later, a dramatic scene took place in the official temple of Anlu County.

Just as Liping and his eldest son entered the hall, the county magistrate, the county magistrate, the right lieutenant, and the left lieutenant looked at each other and were about to attack, but Liping's son suddenly fell to the ground and said on the spot that he would report his father and fight with the Chu State. There is correspondence between the Dou family!

"I discovered this first and sued Li Xian..."

Li Ping's eldest son's eyes were red, and although his heart was bleeding, his father had to kneel down before him in the toilet and had to recite the lines that Li Xian taught him...

The right lieutenant of the county, Zheng Shuo, gave Li Xian a meaningful look and said, "If you tell the officials first, you will be exempted from the crime of sitting down." There is something fishy in this... But since Li Ping successfully surrendered, he didn't say anything. .

"Treason!"

Liping didn't seem to notice such an incident. He tremblingly raised the dove stick in his hand and hit his son hard. While beating, he burst into tears.

He recalled that decades ago, when the Qin State captured Anlu, several of the Li family's children who were ordered by the Ruo'ao family to resist the Qin people returned home injured, but were tied up by the then clan leader, Li Ping's grandfather.

My grandfather personally cut off his head and gave it to the Qin army to show his surrender.

Liping, who was less than 10 years old at the time, was shocked when he looked at the bloody heads.

Afterward, his grandfather sighed and told him that the survival or destruction of local clans and powerful leaders like theirs was related to hundreds or thousands of lives. It was no longer the loyalty of one person, or the honor and disgrace of a few people.

"Did you see that gecko?"

He still remembered that his grandfather pointed at the gecko crawling on the dark wall, suddenly reached out and grabbed the gecko's tail! The gecko was frightened. After spilling a stream of sour filth, it suddenly broke off its tail, crawled forward quickly, got into the gap in the wall and disappeared...

"Those tribesmen who were beheaded are the tail of this gecko."

With his dirty hands, his grandfather picked up the struggling tail and showed it to Li Ping: "Only by sacrificing everyone can the clan continue."

In the course of hundreds of years of development, each family has learned the trick of "gecko tail cutting". When the family is threatened, some members of the clan will be sacrificed.

But Liping didn't expect that one day, it would be his turn to have his broken tail...

After being pulled away by the officials, he looked at the four county magistrates and bowed down angrily: "The law says that a son will sue his parents, a woman will sue the Duke, and a slave will sue his master, his parents, and his wife. This is not the case in the public office." , don’t listen and abandon the accusation. I hope you will abandon this rebellious son like me! I don’t have such a son!”

At this time, County Zuo Wei Yunman, who had been watching coldly for a long time, spoke up: "Lijun is said to be skilled in laws and regulations, but he is so old that he has forgotten the following laws. The laws and regulations also say that he will rebel with the city, town, and pavilion, and surrender to the princes, inner realms, and generals." The sins of princes and other crimes are not included in this case!"

…

Looking at the farce in front of him, Anlu County Zuo Wei Yunman couldn't help but feel a little amused.

There is no room for two tigers in one mountain. Although he and Li Shi did not have any major conflicts, they had always been at odds with each other. Today, Yun Man was relieved to see that the old man who had always treated him with such contempt had such a fate of betrayal and alienation.

"It seems that I didn't get anything from the official temple today."

He still remembered that when he received a notice at noon inviting him to come to the official temple, his suspicious nephew Yun Xiong blocked the way and urged: "I hope my uncle will think about it again. This matter is quite strange. Li Xian is a black man." My husband's confidant suddenly sued the head of my family for something. Why did the Li family suddenly have the crime of interfering with the princes? Could it be that his dealings with Dou Ran were discovered? In that case, my family might also be implicated! Uncle can't Go rashly!"

Yun Xiong knew very well that his family was not clean either. Before the war between Qin and Chu, he had frequent contacts with Chu, exchanging leather and feathers for gold and tin that Nanjun was short of. But in the past few years, as the two countries became enemies, they had restrained themselves a lot. After hearing that Dou Ran of the Ruo'ao family was captured, they did not dare to step out of line.

However, because Dou Ran was secretly sent to Nan County, and only a few people knew about it during the trial, Yunman thought that Dou Ran was still detained in Nanyang County.

So he said disapprovingly: "Dooran has been captured for more than half a year. If the matter had been leaked, the censor would have come to the door with the county soldiers. Now it's just Li Ping who has been reported by his family, and it's just dog bite dog. Li Shi is a good person after all. Di Xianghao, this matter has alarmed the county magistrate and county magistrate, and now the three officials are going to interrogate Li Ping together and they have called me to go, how can I be absent?"

With this mentality, Yun Man sat in the official temple. His old rival was now a prisoner, which made him feel very comfortable.

But this feeling is fleeting, and the next step is the death of the rabbit and the sorrow of the fox.

Although Yun Man told his nephew not to worry and that nothing would happen to his family, Yun Man was still very worried about Heifu's revenge.

He now regrets extremely why he made such an enemy in the first place and failed to slap him to death. Now this guy's backstage supporter is actually stronger than theirs.

"Fortunately, Li Shi got into trouble first, which at least attracted the county's attention..."

Just when Yun Man thought that with Liping being arrested, today's events were over, the right lieutenant of the county, Zheng Shuang, whispered a few words to Lieutenant Shi Lixian, but suddenly stood up, stopped everyone from leaving, and announced something.

"There is another matter that has not been reported to the county magistrate or county magistrate. The county magistrate is aware of this matter and has sent a public official to investigate the case thoroughly. He is now outside the city."

As soon as these words came out, the county magistrate and county magistrate were very surprised, and Yun Man's expression changed drastically.

Wait a minute, it takes at least ten days to go from the county government to Anlu. So why is the official from the county outside the city?

So, this case was originally discovered in the county?

Only then did he suddenly realize that for some time, outside the official temple hall, a group of county soldiers had been standing by the door holding crossbows. Their eyes were not staring at Li Ping, but at him! The black man's confidant Li Xian also looked at him with a half-smile.

Yun Man felt that something was wrong and sweat broke out on his forehead, but before he could excuse himself to go to the toilet and leave, there was a sound of footsteps outside.

The "official doctor" mentioned by the county lieutenant has arrived!

Seeing that there was no time to escape, Yun Man could only think hard about who the official official who came could be. His family had a wide network of connections, including officials and above.

At this time, the visitor had arrived at the lintel of the hall door, but he saw people crowding in front of him and behind him. There were quite a lot of people coming! And walking in the front was a black-faced Qin official wearing a double-plate long crown, but the black tassel under his chin had been replaced by a yellow tassel...

Yun Man's eyes are about to burst. If the Qin official is not a black man, who else can he be? ? When did he become a public official?

Hei Fu held his sword in one hand and held up the official documents issued to him by the county with the other hand. He entered the hall and everyone in the hall, including the county magistrate, stood up and saluted him, because Hei Fu had the county's mandate!

"By order of the county guard and county captain!"

Heifu looked at everyone in the hall. They were all familiar old faces. Except for Yun Man, they all bowed to him and obeyed his orders.

"According to a thorough investigation by the jailer and thief Cao, Yun Man and Liping are suspected of having liaisons with foreign countries, and have arrogant relationships with Hu Gong Douran of Chu State. The left soldier Cao Shiheifu was ordered to arrest the two of them and bring them to Jiangling for trial!"

After saying that, he looked at Yun Man, who was neither bowing nor bowing, but his face was ashen the whole time, and said with a smile: "Mr. Yun, don't be in a daze, now hand over your official seal, crown, and official uniform, and follow me." Let’s go!”

(Chapter 2 at night)