Qin Official

"It's execution by mutilation."

Dongmen Bao was also on the side. He put down the iron shovel in his hand and said, "He was probably unwilling to be a prisoner and tried to escape. I heard that for a prisoner like this who has been a prisoner all his life, his toes will be chopped off for the first time. , ran for the second time, broke his left foot, ran for the third time..."

"If you run for the third time, you will definitely die..."

Heifu took a breath of cold air and saw that the Chu thief was covered in mud and bruised. He must have just been captured. This guy can really run, and he still tried to escape without his left foot.

Dongmen Leopard also sighed and said: "I really admire this man's perseverance. If it were me, without my left foot, I would definitely be resigned to my fate."

"Maybe he just wants to die." Hei Fu didn't know what his emotions should be. Was he feeling guilty? Not that, sympathy? A little bit, but mostly, I'm just glad that I'm not that Chu thief.

But they saw Wu Zhu and the county Sikong bringing the broken Chu bandit to the corner of the city wall that Heifu and the others had just repaired. Wu Zhu was mumbling something, looking up at the sky for a while, then lying on the ground, mumbling, as if he was doing something. What ceremony...

"What is this going to do?" Heifu felt a little uneasy.

Uncle Chao on the side seemed to have seen a similar scene. After pondering, he slowly said: "After the city wall is repaired, this person must be sacrificed and buried inside the wall. Pray to the local lake gods and mountain ghosts to keep the city wall strong and not fall down for a hundred years!"

As soon as these words came out, the young guards were all shocked, and Hei Fu was even more shocked.

"Could it be said that although Wan Xiliang was buried in the Great Wall, it is a rumor, but similar things have happened?"

Heifu knew that although the Legalists who dominated the Qin State tended to be atheistic, they believed that relying on heaven and earth was not as good as relying on oneself and the law. But among the Qin people, from the Loess Plateau on Longshang in Guanzhong to the banks of Jianghan on the banks of Yunmengze, superstition is still very strong.

Especially in Nanjun, which was once the hometown of Chu State, witches and ghosts are prevalent. Although the prefect of Nanjun denounced this as "obscene and evil customs" in his official document, in fact, even the Qin government was offering sacrifices to a large number of gods, such as the three official shamans Wu Xian, Dashen Jueqiu and Ya Tuo. . Anlu County also has Chu gods such as "Yunzhongjun", "Da Siming" and "Shao Siming" recognized by the government. Temples and altars can be seen everywhere in the city and outside the city.

Even the small Quyang Lake has a "Quyang Lord". Although the Qin State does not allow boys and girls to be thrown into the lake as sacrifices, every time a city is built or a road is built, one or two death row prisoners will be killed from time to time...

In the end, the Chu thief, who was tortured by the severed foot, looked like a dog or a pig, and his throat was cut and killed on the spot. The person who did it was clean and tidy, and he was not allowed to suffer any more. The blood flowed into Quyang Lake, dyeing a corner of the lake red, and complemented the bright red sunset in the sky.

Then, during the ceremony held by the feathered shaman, a copper arrow cluster was embedded in the chest of Chu Thief. In the long singing, Chu Thief's body was carried to the corner of the city wall by everyone. The specially left gap was sealed with adobe bricks...

From now on, his flesh and blood will be condensed with this city wall, drying up and decaying. He can only see the light of day again in the next troubled times when the wall bricks peel off.

At this point, this section of the city wall is truly completed.

It was night, and the County Sikong, who had been keeping a straight face for half a month, finally showed a smile. He asked the cook to cook a pot of broth for the watchmen, so that everyone could have a full meal, and called the chief of each item. Let’s thank them together...

"In the past half month, the work of the watchmen has been heavy and there have been many complaints. Thanks to the proper restraint of the second and third sons, the city wall can be completed on time."

After the county Sikong's narration, Hei Fu learned that it turned out that the chief foreman was not easy. The Qin State had a special "Sikong Law" for civil engineering matters, which was down to the smallest detail, including the formwork, horizontal timbers, etc. for building walls. The loss of building materials, the specifications and quantity of each meal for the watchmen and prisoners are clearly stipulated.

In the Qin State, do you want to manipulate and profit from it like some of the contractors of later generations? Go ahead and dream!

What makes County Sikong even more frightened is that another article of "Corruption Law" also requires that if he makes an error in estimating the labor required for the project before starting work, causing the construction time to exceed the deadline by more than two days, he will be punished for "ignorance." and be punished.

So a few days ago, the county secretary Kongcai had a straight face and had extremely high requirements for the quality of the project. Although it was not as high as the later generations of Helian Bobo who built ten thousand cities and would kill people if he stabbed an awl within an inch, it was almost the same. Lazy criminals They were all beaten to death.

Fortunately, Heifu and his team's project was successfully completed on October 29th!

But just when Hei Fu and others breathed a sigh of relief, County Sikong took a sip of the broth and said with a wry smile: "Don't think, second or third son, that it will be over once the city wall is built. In the next year, if something goes wrong with the wall, Still want to question us!"

It turns out that Qin's civil engineering projects had a "warranty period", and the foreman and the labor force who built the city were responsible for the section they built. If there is a quality problem within a year and the city wall cracks and collapses, the watchman responsible for the construction will be taken back to repair it again. The warranty period does not include your time in corvee service!

"So cruel!"

Hei Fu couldn't help but be speechless. He could only pray that the Chu bandit who was embedded in the city wall could really do something to prevent the rain next year from being too heavy and the lake water from rising too high, otherwise he would be unlucky. This corvée was really hard, and Hei Fu didn’t want to do it a second time.

But if you think about it carefully, if this "accountability warranty" system can be passed down to future generations, the rainbow bridge collapses, high-rise buildings crack after one month of completion, and other bastard incidents will not be so common. At least in the Qin State, everyone can pat their chests and guarantee: "In our Qin Dynasty, there are no shoddy projects!" - although tofu has not been invented yet in this era.

Heifu knew that because the rammed earth was so strong, it would be difficult for grass to grow on the remaining sections of the Qinzhi Road after two thousand years.

Dujiangyan, Lingqu, and other projects completed in the Qin Dynasty have basically maintained their original appearance in modern times and are even still in use.

easy to say, hard to do.

But the question is, when productivity is so backward, how much blood and sweat of more prisoners must be shed in order to meet this standard?

That night, Hei Fu lay in a temporary shack under the city wall, unable to sleep for a long time. The cold wind blew outside, as if the Chu thief embedded in the city wall was mourning.

It has been more than a month since he came to this era. Here, he witnessed the strictness and precision of Qin's laws and the efficient operation of Qin's officials, just like what Xunzi saw when he entered Qin: "The people are simple, and the music is not beautiful." If someone is dirty, he will obey without being frivolous, and he will be very afraid of being obedient. In the government of the city, all the officials are solemn, and they are all thrifty, respectful, loyal and loyal..." At least, most of them are like this. It has to be said that Qin Law It is indeed a pioneer of the times.

But Heifu also saw another side that Xunzi failed to see. This was still an era full of barbarism. For the common people, life was always difficult and dangerous. If you accidentally broke the law, you would be severely punished and would be punished forever. No possibility of turning over. Although the proportion of prisoners in Qin is not as high as the streets, it is still high enough.

Advancement and barbarism dance together, humanity and ruthlessness coexist. This is the Qin that Heifu feels. The real Qin is not as unbearable as later generations smeared, nor is it as beautiful as Qin fans advocate...

After wandering like this for most of the night, Hei Fu fell asleep.

On the second day, when the construction period finally came to an end, Heifu and the others were called by the county Sikong to sign a wooden document with the seal of the official temple stamped on it to prove that the service period had expired. This is called "to".

County Sikong said that this document will be divided into two parts, one part will be sent to the place of household registration in advance, and the other part will be left to the guards to keep by themselves, so don’t lose it.

You claim to have returned from service? That doesn't count, it must be certified by the government.

If the recruited soldier returns to his hometown and is found to have escaped privately, he will be punished with four months of hard labor in the frontier... So, don't think about cheating, be honest, serving is for everyone The obligations that citizens of Qin must fulfill.

After completing these formalities, they returned to the school field to regroup. General Chen counted the number of people again before announcing that the service was over and that they would leave the school field before tonight.

Everyone in Guishi breathed a sigh of relief, congratulated each other on the successful conclusion of the service, and planned to make an appointment to go home together.

But at this moment, Chen Baijiang called out to Heifu in a friendly manner, saying that the county right lieutenant wanted to see him for something!

…

PS: Before the blockade was destroyed, the Sikong general and the gentleman who block the blockage are guilty. They should be ordered to restore the wall. Do not count it as corvee. ——"The Law of Corvene"

The use of human beings embedded in the city wall as a sacrifice is not a random fabrication. At the corner of the south wall of the ancient city of Liye, the bones of a male prisoner who had been punished were indeed unearthed and placed here as a sacrifice.