Qin Official

Before Heifu took office, he heard that there was a road back to the middle road in Beidi County and the transportation was convenient, and he was secretly happy for a while.

But when he arrived at the pavilion where Jingshui and Nishui met in early September, he found that the flat road back to the middle continued upstream along Jingshui. However, their group had to take a trail north along the Nishui River. Yiqu City, the capital of Beidi County, was still more than a hundred miles away...

Roads in plateau mountainous areas are mostly built along these large and small river valleys, and farmland and villages are mostly distributed along these river valleys. Mud water is as its name suggests: one stone of water, six buckets of mud. It was late autumn, the runoff was wide, and the turbid river water rushed down. The loess on the river bank was eroded and peeled off in many places, and in some places, the road collapsed, making their journey very difficult.

And the further north you go, the higher the terrain becomes, and you have entered the real "Loess Plateau." However, unlike Heifu's impression of a barren plateau with its face facing the loess and its back facing the sky, the air is also more humid, making it much more livable than in later generations. . The vegetation here is extremely rich. As far as the eye can see, at least half of the place is covered by withered forests and grasslands, and some hunters who cannot tell whether they are Hua Shirong are chasing deer on it.

Although there was more vegetation than in later generations, the loess underfoot was as thick and compact as it would be two thousand years later. Moreover, there are ravines and ravines that appear to be not far away, but it is very likely to go up and down many times, which greatly affects the speed. The local people are trapped in this area, which creates different customs for five miles and different pronunciation for ten miles.

When resting in the counties along the way, Chen Ping went to the shops as usual and found that Niyang was the last county mainly based on farming. As he continued to go north, not only did the price of millet begin to rise, but the price of millet in front of him also began to rise. The scenery I saw was also very different...

There are still farmlands along the river, and farmers with white headscarves on their heads are harvesting grass from the fields. Sometimes there will be herdsmen in twos and threes wearing sheep fur, waving whips in their hands, driving black goats from the loess plateau to the river to drink water and eat grass.

Sometimes when Heifu saw them with braided hair and skillful horseback riding, he thought they were Rong people. When he got closer and asked, he claimed to be from Qin people decades ago. Sometimes I saw a person in Xiaoyi who had his hair turned to the right and wore clothes with a right gusset. He thought he was from Qin. He was open-mouthed but could speak fluent Rong language...

After walking for another day, Heifu was even more surprised when he arrived at a small town called "Beibin" built on the plateau.

"This is where the Zhou people lived before they moved to Bin?"

Heifu was a little unbelievable. He looked around and saw that this place was really a barren place. There were shrubs and plateaus everywhere, and the soil quality was not good. In such a barren place, if you sow a handful of millet seeds, you won't be able to harvest much after half a year. How do people live?

Chen Pingdao: "I heard that during the decline of Xia, Gong Liu's ancestor Bu Chu (ku) abandoned his career in Hou Ji and fled between Rong and Di. It was probably here. I guess he followed the customs of Rong and Di. , do you make a living here by raising animals and hunting?”

The Zhou people mixed with the Qiang and Rong here and became a small tribe. It took several hundred years for the Zhou people to resume farming life and establish a city-state under the leadership of Gong Liu.

Heifu secretly said: "No wonder Jiang Shang and other ancient Qiang powerful chiefs tried their best to support the Zhou Dynasty to fight the Shang Dynasty. After hundreds of years of getting along with each other, Ji Zhou and the Qiang have long since intermarried and mixed blood and become one family..."

But think about it, the ancestors of Qin and Zhao also made a living by herding horses and driving in the Rongdi wasteland. Going back, everyone's distant ancestors had similar experiences.

Here, farming and animal husbandry, Hua and Rong, do not seem to be as distinct as Heifu imagined, but like two rivers flowing together.

"Huarong is a place where agriculture and animal husbandry coexist... This is Beidi County!"

He understood better the meaning of the first word Nestern gave him.

At this thought, Heifu also asked people to speed up the pace. In early September, after more than ten days of trekking, he finally approached the capital of Beidi County: Yiqu City!

…

Ye Zijin opened the curtain of the carriage again, and there was a pavilion ten miles away from Yiqu City. According to the usual practice, all the officials of Beidi County's lieutenant system, without exception, were here to welcome Mr. Hei...

The post of a county lieutenant is in charge of guarding and guarding, and the post of military officer is related to martial arts. In peacetime, they are responsible for catching thieves, public security, customs defense, garrison, and training. In war, they can directly command troops to fight. The officials directly under him include soldiers Cao Yu, thieves Cao Yu, Wei Shi, etc., as well as county captains.

After the officials greeted each other with wisdom, Hei Fu also got in the car and explained to his wife the arrangements after entering the city. Seeing that his face was happy, Ye Zijin asked, "Why is my beloved so happy?"

Hei Fu smiled and said: "There are four great joys in life. Does my wife know what they are?"

There was no such saying at this time, Ye Zijin shook his head, and Heifu said: "Light rain comes after a long drought, meeting an old friend in a foreign land, night of flowers and candles in the bridal chamber, gold medal... Well, when I was conferring a title of marquis and worshiping a general, I happened to meet one of them. ."

"My beloved met his old friend here?"

When Ye Zijin thought about it, her husband was from Nanjun and had never been to Beidi before. He probably didn't know the local officials. How could he be an old friend?

"During the first attack on Chu, the man Paoze fought with in Linyang was called Zhai Chong!"

The Battle of Linyang was the battle in which Heifu became famous. Ye Zijin also heard about it, but Heifu seldom talked about it. But when he returned to Anlu, Nan Junxiang Dang Paoze came to visit. Looking at the lively banquet and drinking wine, Heifu suddenly sighed:

"It would be great if Huaimu was still alive..."

After hearing this, Sang Mu, the loyal charioteer beside her husband, attended and bowed down, weeping. Only then did Ye Zijin know that Sang Mu was Sang Mu's elder brother, who died in the war in Linyang, and his body was buried in the "Martyrs Cemetery" in Yan County. "inside.

She knew the significance of that battle to her husband, and also knew that Hei Fu was a sentimental person, so she smiled and said, "It's a coincidence that we met the old Paoze!"

Heifu nodded: "Besides me, among the hundred generals who fought with the Chu people that day, there were three others, all of whom were serving in Nanjun. Tu Si was a member of the Tuju tribe and was transferred to Changsha to work with Zhao Tuo. Only Zhai Chong, he was A native of Shangjun, he is now an official and a military officer in Beidi County, and he happens to be my subordinate."

"Bing Cao Zuo Shi, isn't this the position that Liang Cao held many years ago?"

After all, Zhai Chong is not a direct descendant of Anlu and has not taken advantage of Heifu's promotion train. Of course, Zhai Chong's development is not as good as that of Anlu's old subordinates.

Although this person didn't behave too much, he was willing to sacrifice his life and blood together. Having an acquaintance would help Heifu get familiar with the local situation as soon as possible and carry out the plan expected by Qin Shihuang...

While he was talking, there was a loud shouting outside.

"We are blocked and delayed in welcoming each other. I hope the commander-in-chief will not blame you!"

Heifu is a county magistrate with a weight of two thousand dan, which is equivalent to a high-ranking official. He is also in charge of the provincial military region, public security department and other departments. When the officials come to greet them, they are all respectful. Who dares to make a noise outside?

When he got out of the carriage, he saw two tall and strong men prostrating themselves on the roadside of the pavilion. One was in military uniform and the other was wearing armor. They all have leopard heads, eyes, and tiger beards, just like brothers.

"Who is this?"

Heifu asked, pointing at the two of them.

He has changed into a crimson robe, and wears a green ribbon with a silver seal on his waist. He has been in Xianyang for two years, and he speaks without anger or authority.

Zhai Chong was about to answer on his behalf, but Hei Fu said, "Let them speak for themselves."

"Your Majesty, Gongsun Bailu! Yuzhi County Lieutenant!" said the man in armor. He raised his eyes and peeked at Hei Fu, and found that he was so much younger than herself. He couldn't help but feel envious.

"Your Majesty Yiqu Bailang! General Ohara!" said the man dressed as a soldier. His accent was very thick and sounded strange.

Yuzhi County is a small county not far to the north of Yiqu City, and Dayuan is a large loess plateau between Nishui and Jingshui. Later generations called it "Dong Zhiyuan". The main source of soldiers and cavalry.

Heifu looked at the two of them and saw that they were indeed sweating profusely from running. It didn't look like they were doing it on purpose, so he said: "The law is not guilty of being late to meet the officials, but if we are marching and fighting, you two will be like today." , if it’s too late…”

He said with a straight face: "Then I will kill him to show favor to the three armies!"

The second general said yes at first, and then stepped aside.

"I thought my beloved was going to kill someone to establish his authority."

When the motorcade started again and Heifu entered the car, Ye Zijin mentioned that when her father went to Nanjun to take office, he found an excuse to chop off the head of a minor official who was delayed for some reason.

"We can't pick these two people to attack even if we stand up."

Heifu also did some homework before coming here, especially the local forces in the North, and he had a general idea.

He said to his wife: "This Yiqu Bailang and Gongsun Bailu, do you know who they are?"

Ye Zijin shook his head: "I don't know."

"Both of them are powerful rulers of the North. If they are killed for no reason, half of the North will be in chaos. That's it. They have another identity."

Heifu's next words immediately aroused the woman's curiosity.

"Did you know that Empress Dowager Xuan gave birth to two sons for Lord Yiqu? After the death of Yiqu, Lord Yiqu's family was slaughtered, and only two sons survived. Among these two people, one of them took Yiqu as his surname, It showed that he would not forget his father's family. But one man was ashamed of this identity and only recognized his mother's family, so he took Gongsun as his surname... This is the origin of the Yiqu and Gongsun surnames!"

Ye Zijin understood clearly that this was a big gossip that the Qin court kept silent about! Then he said excitedly: "So, Gongsun Bailu and Yiqu Bailang should be the great-grandsons of Empress Dowager Xuan?"