Qin Official

In early July of the twenty-third year of the Qin Dynasty, two major events happened in Anlu.

The first was that more than a thousand enlisted soldiers gathered on the outskirts of the city, and the second was that at the initiative of the county captain Heifu, a rumbling "public toilet movement" started in the county!

"County Lord, when I was in Jiangling, I once heard the county governor say that farming is the main occupation of the people. The reason why the sage king guides his people is to focus on farming first. Therefore, the surface acres of the land are covered, thorn grass is grown in the valley, and there are many manure fields. Although it is a matter for farmers and common people, the government cannot ignore it, so in the "Tian Law" and "Cang Law", there are even regulations on how many millet and wheat seeds should be sown on one acre of land."

To Yong He, the magistrate of Anlu County, Heifu told him something that Magistrate Ye had said in a revealing tone. The meaning was obvious:

"The county governor attaches great importance to agriculture and attaches great importance to the method of composting and retting. He ordered the eighteen counties of Nanjun to implement it. Whoever can make the greatest achievements in each county will be the first in this year's plan!"

Yong He is a sensible man. This method was originally proposed by Zhong, a Tianzuo official in this county. Of course, he would pay special attention to Zhong and Heifu's suggestions, and soon agreed to Heifu's request. In addition to the barracks outside the city, A number of "public toilets" of different sizes have also been built in various streets and alleys in the county.

In fact, public toilets are not Heifu's original creation. During Li Xin's battle against Chu, those Qin Mo who accompanied the army not only helped build offensive and defensive equipment in the army, but also arranged for craftsmen and soldiers to dig public toilets in every new camp. bathroom……

Heifu once asked Cheng Shang, Mozi of Qin, and he said that Mozi invented it during many battles to defend the city.

"The city was attacked and defended for a year and a half. If the soldiers were allowed to deal with it everywhere, filth would flow everywhere. Diseases would soon appear, and the city would collapse without attack. So Zimozi set up toilets in the city, and every five There is a toilet every ten steps, and the bottom is like a well, surrounded by a wall eight feet high..."

Mozi invented the public toilet for the purpose of sanitation when attacking and defending a city, but it was just a single squatting pit. Heifu directly copied the large public toilets that could be seen everywhere in later generations.

So, under the order of the county magistrate, the county director in charge of civil engineering supervised a group of craftsmen and prisoners to dig out a cesspit at the designated location, build the pit, surround it with adobe, and a simple public toilet was built. . The public toilets near official temples and counties and cities are covered with tiles, while the public toilets in the inner courtyard are cost-effective and have thatch roofs.

In order to show their importance to this matter, the three county officials inscribed inscriptions on various public toilets: the county lieutenant Heifu inscribed the one next to the barracks, the county magistrate inscribed the one next to the market, the county magistrate inscribed the one next to the official temple, and In front of countless curious eyes, the three of them entered the large brick public toilet next to the official temple, so as to set an example...

Civil servants in the government, county soldiers in the barracks, and garrison soldiers are required to use public toilets from now on!

The majority of people in the county were also informed from door to door that anyone who defecated anywhere in the county from now on would be considered a crime of throwing ashes on the street. Although their hands would not be chopped off, they would still be severely fined!

Under Heifu's order, the watchmen and prison gates under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant system even wore red sleeves and strictly caught anyone urinating on the streets and in the prison!

The strict laws of the Qin Dynasty are no joke. It is said that at the beginning of Shang Yang's reform, in order to clean up the new capital of Xianyang, he promulgated a law that "those who discard ashes in the street will be punished." The most serious punishment could be to have their hands chopped off. For a while, no one in Xianyang was Dare to throw even a little rubbish on the street.

Just like that time, the people of Anlu County have been influenced by Qin's laws for many years and know that what the government says is not nonsense. So from the day when the public toilets were built and the ban was promulgated, when the people encountered three emergencies, they took toilet chips and ran away. Solve it in the public restroom.

At first, these poor people who were accustomed to being wild were not used to it, but then they discovered that public toilets not only had walls to block their sight, allowing people to hide their shame, but they were also not disturbed by rabbits, dogs, and bees that suddenly appeared in the wild. Since It's free, why not?

The reason why the government did this was naturally to facilitate the collection of manure.

In fact, it was only a matter of time. By the Song Dynasty, many private toilets would have sprung up in Chinese cities, which were open and free. Of course, it is not for public welfare, but for the precious fertilizer of manure. People who open toilets will find special people to collect the feces and then sell them to farmers in the countryside to make money.

This method of dedicated management, where a dedicated person collects feces and dumps it in one place, appeared in Anlu County thousands of years in advance. For this reason, the county magistrate set up a new clerk in Tiancao, with some guilty prisoners, who was responsible for collecting feces from public toilets. He also used the bell as a signal to encourage merchants and craftsmen's houses facing the street to also clean their toilets. Take it out and throw it away...

The manure that troubled Zhong was there immediately.

This "public toilet movement" initiated by Heifu not only allows manure to flow continuously from densely populated cities to farmland, but also has another benefit, that is, it greatly improves the sanitary conditions in Anlu.

Heifu knew that a characteristic of modern civilization was the construction of urban underground pipelines and the subsequent establishment of public health. It was on this basis that the West finally defeated infectious diseases such as plague.

However, for thousands of years, China's population was larger than that of Western Europe. Except for some special periods of war and famine, why did China have less trouble caused by the raging of large infectious diseases? Some foreign scholars believe that the Chinese tea culture and excrement disposal must make great contributions.

The former made drinking water hygienic and harmless due to the consistent use of boiling water. The latter allows urban feces to enter the land circulation system.

Even when filth was piling up on the streets of London and Paris and diseases were rampant in the medieval cities of Western Europe, due to the good construction and management of public toilets, cities in the Song Dynasty were famous for their sanitation and cleanliness, and were known as "the streets are full of flowers".

However, perhaps because the population growth was too intense, this good habit went backwards in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Especially in the Qing Dynasty, Heifu remembered seeing it in an interesting anecdote: everyone had to pay for public toilets in Beijing. Therefore, people defecate in the streets, and women also defecate in the streets. In addition, the urine of cows and horses continues to increase, causing heavy filth and filth, and you can smell it everywhere you touch... Pedestrians often defecate on the road. Although there are severe punishments from officials, it is still decadent. The wind is irreversible, and some officials are defecating on the road...

When the British envoys came to China for the first time, they saw this scene in big and small cities. They used to have filthy cities, but now they pride themselves on being civilized and despise China.

However, those things that happened in later generations may have been changed as Heifu set up the first public toilet in Anlu.

For a time, the filth that once spread all over the city and in the villages disappeared. Every morning at dawn, the merchants and craftsmen of Anlu and the poor people in Luzuo woke up sleepy. The first thing they did was not to go directly behind the walls or around the corners. , or it is convenient to go to the field, but go to the public toilet.

Under the supervision of minor officials, the industrious feces-digging prisoners who walked around the streets, wearing linen masks and pushing feces carts, collected the waste from public toilets and households and transported it to composting sites on the outskirts of the city, where the manure was then used Entering the public fields and crops in the suburbs.

Heifu looked at this scene with emotion.

"Without the strong execution power of the Qin government and the people's 100% respect and obedience to the government, no dynasty would have been able to accomplish these things within ten days."

He turned around and exclaimed in surprise to his younger brother: "Only now do I understand how remarkable Shang Jun's Yimu Lixin was! With fifty taels of gold, he bought the government's reputation and a century-old hegemony!"

After being nourished by the dividends of war for a hundred years, the credibility of the Qin government has reached its peak!

So Heifu also began to be confused. Why did this dynasty fall apart so quickly after more than ten years?

"Perhaps, only by arriving in Xianyang can we solve this mystery."

That will happen in the future. Now, looking at the changes in Anlu County due to him, and the changes in a good direction, Heifu feels very accomplished.

What he wants, of course, is not something trivial like "two thousand years ahead of India", but something that has positive value to this country and nation to appear earlier and be maintained.

The cornerstone of civilization is built bit by bit.

In mid-July, the county magistrate, county magistrate, and county lieutenant Heifu gathered in the hall of the Anlu official temple to discuss together, and the county magistrate with the best handwriting wrote a slip.

This is a letter informing Ye Teng, the governor of Nanjun County, about the affairs of Anlu County and proposing to promote it in Nanjun County to solve the problem of insufficient manure and at the same time change the bad custom of open defecation.

The county magistrate Yong He was very much looking forward to his achievements being known to the county magistrate. At the same time, he was glad that Heifu returned to Anlu to take up a post. In just half a month, he had led them to achieve a political achievement!

Yong He was sure that when this letter arrived in the county, it would definitely be taken seriously by the county governor!

He didn't know what Heifu, who was seriously examining the words on the slip, was thinking.

"It's a pity that a loud slogan is missing."

Looking at this strict official document, Heifu showed a narrow smile.

He had already thought of the slogan.

"Stress civilization and establish new trends! Work hard to create the first national-level sanitary county in Qin!"

"County Lieutenant, is there anything wrong?" Yong He asked.

"Nothing, nothing." Heifu quickly stopped thinking and signed his name on the slip...

…

At the end of July, Governor Ye also received a petition jointly written by the Anlu County Magistrate, Cheng and Wei.

After reading through it, his expression changed from weird to admiring, and then from admiring to laughing.

"Why does father look different?"

In the study, Zijin, who had brought rice and porridge to Ye Teng, asked curiously.

Ye Teng was actually blaming the difference in the title and praising the fact of the content. He was laughing at Heifu's uncanny mind and actually made up his mind from the toilet, which the upper class avoided talking about.

Ye Teng looked at the porridge and rice, and his appetite suddenly increased. He pushed the slip to his daughter: "Read it for yourself... Look at that black man, he has done great things just after returning to Anlu County."

Zijin was also curious. When he took a look, he saw a few big characters written on the slip.

""Book of Yannan County's Public Toilets"?