Qin Official

When the wanderer returned home and took up the post of Lieutenant of Anlu County, Hei Fu had two feasts before he could do anything else.

The first meal was given to him by the Anlu County Magistrate and the County Magistrate. It was a public banquet and was held in the magistrate's residence. Only the "Big Three" of Anlu were present. The county magistrate Yong He sat as the chairman, Heifu and the county magistrate were on the left and right respectively, with the upper seat on the right. After Heifu entered the house, he acted like a junior. He said that the county magistrate was older than him and had a higher position than him, so he invited him to sit on the right.

Speaking of which, the counties and counties in the Qin State are different in this regard. The county guard is the chief, followed by the county lieutenant. The county magistrate is only a six hundred stone official, which is far from the level of the governor and the lieutenant. But in the In the county, the county magistrate is slightly higher than the county captain...

The officials and maidservants filed in with food boxes and provided food for the three of them. The female musicians from the county magistrate's family also played the piano and sheng, singing and dancing.

Heifu is no longer the ignorant wanderer he was just over a year ago. He is now an official in the county and has participated in many "upper class" occasions. He even had banquets at the county governor's house. Now he is He could learn to behave politely and speak appropriately, which made the county magistrate and county magistrate change their inherent impression of him as a "martial man".

The Qin State is a typical example of "only state officials are allowed to set fires, and common people are not allowed to light lamps." People are strictly prohibited from drinking in groups. But when your title level reaches a certain level, drinking becomes as common as drinking water. The premise is that you must be rich enough, because The price of wine in Qin is still very expensive.

While eating and drinking, the three of them were also chatting. The county magistrate and the county magistrate praised Heifu's young talent. He was the youngest county captain they had seen in the past ten years as officials, and said that they had already seen it. He is a sharp awl, and he stands out as soon as he enters the captain's pocket!

When this routine banquet was about to end, the county magistrate Yong He brought Hei Fu and the county magistrate into the courtyard, clapped his hands, and someone drove a carriage and horses into the spacious courtyard...

"As long as the commanders, chiefs, prime ministers and lieutenants all have special cars, which are provided by the stable, I will have someone choose a new car. Take a look at it, county lieutenant. Are you satisfied?"

"Thank you, magistrate!"

You can just let the stable manager do such a small thing, why bother to arrange it yourself? How could Heifu still not know that this was the county magistrate showing his favor to him? Thank you quickly.

However, he found that this car was a little different. He had seen the Sheriff's car with four horses and a shaft, while his previous car had a two-horse horse and a shaft, but he had never seen a car with three horses, black, red and yellow. Horses, packed together in this weird way...

Seeing the confusion on Mr. Hei's face, the county magistrate Yong He took the opportunity and stroked his beard and said with a smile: "There is a saying in "Xiao Rong" that four males are in Kongfu, and six bridles are in hand. Qiliu is the middle, and Quanli is the 骖... these three The carriage driven by the horse is like Anlu County! And the three of us are like these three horses!"

He pointed to the red horse in the middle: "The county magistrate, the big one is six hundred stones, the small one is four hundred stones. They are all responsible for governing the people, showing good deeds and admonishing righteousness, prohibiting rape and punishing evil, handling lawsuits and pacifying thieves, caring for the people's current affairs, autumn and winter. Classes are held together and plans are submitted to the county where they belong. The county magistrate is the head of all the officials in the county, so the subordinate in the middle is like me..."

Then he clicked on the two black and yellow horses on the left and right.

"The documents of the Prime Minister's Office are in charge of the warehouse and prison. Whenever there are thieves and thieves are found, and the name of the master is not established, he will search for them, investigate the cases, and find out the clues. In addition to the thieves, he also has to command the troops. This is The two galloping horses on the left and right are like the two kings!"

Yong He had some ink in his stomach. He borrowed a metaphor from "Qin Feng" and made it wonderful and unconventional, which made Heifu have a deep impression on him. This county magistrate is not simple!

As he said, the power structure at the county level in the Qin State is indeed like three horses driving the shaft, the county magistrate, the prime minister, and the lieutenant. Their powers seem to be separated, but there are also many overlaps.

Yong He said sincerely: "The chariot needs three horses to cooperate with each other to drive steadily. If one horse wants to go forward, one wants to go behind, and one wants to go left, the chariot will be difficult to move and may even fall into the ravine." Although Anlu's car is not big, it still carries hundreds of miles of land and tens of thousands of people. You two, we also need to cooperate sincerely!"

At this point, Yong He's implication became clear. He hoped that Heifu could keep pace with them.

Heifu's goal was to train troops, and he also needed the help of the magistrate and the prime minister, so he immediately handed over his hand and said: "Heifu is from a humble background, and he is a junior. In the future, he will need more guidance from the county magistrate and county prime minister in everything he does in the county!"

Hei Fu expressed his attitude, and the county magistrate and county magistrate couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Hei Fu was too young and liked to do random things. He relied on the county's backing to act independently in the county. Seeing that he was so calm and profound. The way of officialdom was relieved, and the banquet became cheerful again.

However, Heifu was also thinking about an interesting question during the dinner.

"If county administration is like a chariot and county officials are like horses, then who is the one who holds the six bridles in his hands and controls its direction?"

Sheriff? King Qin? Or the Qin Law itself?

…

After taking care of his superiors and colleagues, he still had to reunite his subordinates who had been separated for half a year. So the next day, Heifu also held a banquet in his county captain's mansion, and all his old subordinates were invited. In addition to his younger brother Jing, there were also Li Xian, Xiao Tao, Dongmen Bao, and Ji Ying.

The people who came today were all our own people, so there was no need to be polite. They just sat in a group. After not seeing each other for a long time, they all happily talked about their old friends and showed Hei Fu's official seal on the table...

Heifu is now "more than four hundred stones", so his seal has been changed from a hundred stones with a cyanotic ribbon to a yellow ribbon. Everyone is passing it on carefully as if holding a pearl, and they are full of envy.

This is awe and envy for power, but everyone also feels that this official seal contains their hard work. So under the influence of alcohol, everyone began to reveal what they had done, consciously or unconsciously, in front of Hei Fu.

"It's been really hard these past six months."

Although Ji Ying is still thin, he is newly married and is living a good life. His complexion gradually becomes plumper and rosy. He begins to tell how in the past six months, he has used the opportunity of being a rural postman to secretly open the folders of many Yun family members. In the private messages in the official documents, a lot of dirty information about the Yun family's children was found.

Heifu smiled: "I remember that when I was at Huyang Pavilion, I almost opened an anonymous letter."

Everyone laughed.

"I'm not the same person I was then."

Ji Ying likes to brag, so he quickly said: "Now I can open the letter and restore it again, and no one else can see the flaw!"

While he was talking, he put on a show and found an official document that Heifu had not had time to open. After observing the ink pad on it, he actually carved one with a radish on the spot, and then deftly opened the rope that bound the letter. After checking the contents, he reconstructed it again. The newly made red-letter ink pad on the rope was actually fake, which made Heifu's brother shocked and dumbfounded...

"This is just a little trick of yours."

Dongmen Leopard looked disdainful: "Yunman has several manors in Beijiao Township, and there are dozens of guests there. After the pavilion chief arrested Yunman, those guests tried to cause trouble. It was I who led the village pavilions, local people, and The county soldiers led by Xiao Tao surrounded the manor, and the chaos was finally settled after a fight... Xiao Tao, please say something!"

Xiao Tao still said few words, but he finally stammered: "If you want... to contribute the most, you should also... be the one who benefits from it."

No one has any objection to this. When Hei Fu was away, Li Xian was responsible for coordinating them. They united to bring down Yun Man and did not become a piece of sand. In those few days, it was Li Xian who designed to deceive Yun Man. Arriving at the official temple, he was captured.

So Heifu asked everyone present to toast Li Xian with a glass of wine!

Li Xian smiled bitterly and said: "In that case, I also deceived the leader of the Li clan. Now that I am not cast aside by the clan, I am very satisfied. How can I dare to take credit?"

He replied to Heifu: "If no county captain had discovered Yun Man's major crimes in the county, our trivial crimes would not be able to bring him down. Now that the pavilion chief has returned and won the position of county captain, we The planning of these six months has not been in vain.”

"good."

Dongmen Bao also said: "From now on, the county captain has the final say in the Anlu County Lieutenant's Office, and our good days are finally coming! I don't have to be as cautious as before, for fear of being caught by the Yun family." Do you want to hold on to the handle?"

Ji Ying also encouraged: "When will the county captain go to the county? It's time to take us with him to show off his majesty!"

"I came to Anlu to serve as county captain, not just to rest and show off."

Heifu put down his cup and said seriously: "I am here to train more than a thousand disciples of Anlu into a powerful force! I'm afraid the second and third sons don't know it yet. After the autumn harvest, Qin and Chu will go to war again. Got it!"

Except for Li Xian, everyone else was a little surprised and looked at each other in confusion.

"Are we going to fight again?"

They reacted later, and said with uneven hands, "We will try our best to assist the county captain in training his troops!"

In the midst of the response, Heifu was sensitive to something strange, that is, in everyone's speech and behavior, they seemed to have no enthusiasm for the war in the past, but instead revealed a sense of success and satisfaction...

"It's only been half a year since I left the army, and these guys are already slacking off?"

Heifu was a little hesitant, but then he came to his senses.

"It's normal to be content with the status quo!"

After all, they are just a group of people from the county and township. They have not received a good education or a high level of knowledge. Unlike when they left Anlu two years ago, they were all poor and most of them had no titles. Everyone had been promoted and made a fortune during the war. Now that Yun Man, their old enemy, has also been killed, they have fallen into a state of losing their goals, and may even feel that "this life is enough."

For the upcoming war, everyone is not very enthusiastic. That's right. Since we have everything, why should we risk our lives to fight? Even if they are not chaffinches, they are at most green-headed ducks in the county and township. Heifu cannot ask everyone to have the ambition of a swan!

Even his close confidants are like this, so how can he talk about training a strong army?

So after Heifu thought for a moment, he suddenly smiled and said: "It's been a long time since I had a good chat with my second and third sons. It's rare to get together here, so I want to say that I have a lot of fun today!"

He stood up and said: "Back then, we were from humble backgrounds and often suffered from cold and hunger. We were either busy making a living or trying to avoid dying in the ravines. Now we are all Qin officials and have received titles. Although our family wealth is not much, it is enough. My wife is rich, and since there are no worries about livelihood, I want to hear about your next plans and ambitions, everyone is here to express their ambitions!"