Qin Official

"Tomb robbing!?"

Everyone's eyes widened when they heard Qu Ji say this word.

"That's right, it's tomb robbing."

Quji explained: "It was the day before the twelfth lunar month, the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. I went to visit my uncle's house in Daqingli. When I came back, it was raining lightly. There was a small room in the wilderness between Daqingli and Chaoyangli. The hut is sheltered from the rain, and the hut was originally used to look after the fields, but no one has used the fields since they were abandoned.”

"After waiting for a long time, I fell asleep unknowingly. When I woke up, it was almost dark and the rain was still falling outside. Several people came outside the house and were arguing. I saw them carrying swords and fearing He was a thief, and he was hiding under the couch without letting them see him, so he overheard what they were discussing..."

Qu Ji said that he heard at least four people talking in the house. They complained about the bad weather. Otherwise, the tombs of the nobles of the Chu Dynasty could be dug up smoothly and all the gold, silver and bronze items inside could be transported out and sold. Lose……

He was frightened when he heard that. After the rain stopped, those people left. He bravely followed their footsteps up the mountain, only to find that they were digging under a hidden mountain. They were really robbing tombs. Before he was discovered, Quji hurriedly ran away and crawled to the ground. When he returned home that night, he fell ill.

"It's really outrageous to rob a tomb."

Pu Zhang muttered that he was already half buried in the earth and had asked his children and grandchildren to help him find a burial place, so he valued this very much. Hearing that someone was robbing a tomb nearby, he suddenly felt sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox. He didn't want to be dug up again after death, and his bones were thrown into the wild, with his soul uncertain.

Several other young people did not share his feelings and were discussing the reliability of this matter.

Dongmen Leopard said: "Between Daqingli and Chaoyangli is a wilderness. There are no tombs for nobles."

Ji Ying also didn't believe it: "I'm also from the same hometown, why haven't I heard of it?"

"Indeed there are."

Li Xian spoke, with a gloomy expression: "There is also a legend in my family. Although there have been no large tombs in recent decades, there were quite a few hundreds of years ago."

"Hundreds of years ago?" Everyone was a little surprised, it was a little far away from them.

Li Xian said: "Of course, they are all the cemeteries of some county princes and princes from the Chu Kingdom. My uncle said that there are not many others in the Chu Kingdom. These nobles are the most numerous. There are many princes and large fiefdoms. They are all miscellaneous. , there are several within a hundred miles. After these nobles died, they looked for places to be buried near mountains and rivers. There are quite a few of them in our Anlu County alone."

Li Xian was born in the Li family, and Li Shi was a minor doctor when Chu ruled Jianghan. His understanding of the past of those nobles was much better than that of Heifu and others who came from a bitter background.

Heifu also heard about the luxury of noble burials in this era: the coffin must have multiple layers, the burial must be deep, the deceased must have many pieces of clothing, the burial embroidery must be rich, and the tomb must be tall.

Especially when a prince dies, the wealth stored in the treasury must be emptied, and then the body of the deceased must be decorated with gold, jade and jewelry, tied up with silk and cotton belts, and the chariots and horses must be buried in holes. There must be a lot of money. They make curtains and curtains, bells and cauldrons, drums, banquets, jugs, mirrors, spears, swords, feathers, ivory, and leather, and place them in the palace of the deceased and bury them, and then they are satisfied.

Although this situation was strongly discouraged by the Mohists, it still did not help. Compared with the Central Plains, the Chu region is particularly popular with elaborate burials. The Chu people are influenced by various myths and ghosts, and attach great importance to the afterlife. They have also imagined a series of gods in charge of life and death, such as Da Siming and Shao Siming, to worship. , is still popular today.

Nanjun is the hometown of Chu State, and there are many tombs of Chu nobles hidden in the mountains. Because of the heavy burials, they have attracted the greedy eyes of tomb robbers. Most of the descendants of these noble tombs of the Chu Kingdom moved eastward with the King of Chu when Bai Qi destroyed the capital of Ying more than fifty years ago. They could no longer take care of the blood of their ancestors. This intensified the rampant tomb robberies, and Nan County became a paradise for tomb robbers.

However, the Qin government did not acquiesce to this behavior just because the tombs of Chu nobles were stolen. On the contrary, the State of Qin also believed that tomb robbers digging up ancestral graves was an act that was harmful to nature and inferior to animals, so it "prohibited it with severe severity and serious crimes" and legislated to severely punish tomb robbers!

Tomb robbing, especially a tomb robbing involving multiple people, if it happened in their small Huyang Pavilion, it would definitely be a big case!

Heifu stood up and said: "There is a saying in "The Law of Robbery" that robbing a tomb is the same crime as murdering or maiming others. The lighter ones will be tattooed as Chengdan, and the more serious ones will be punished with zhé... The reporter , there will also be rewards for those who arrest you!"

He looked at Qu Ji and said with some regret: "Master Qu Ji, you are neither making false accusations nor slandering. What is there to be ashamed of? Why don't you come to the pavilion to report the case in person, or tell Li Zheng and ask Li Zheng to inform the villagers? Officer? In that case, not only will there be no punishment, but there will also be rewards. Why bother to take such a trick and submit an anonymous letter? "

Qu Ji also heard Hei Fu's regret, and said with a wry smile: "The director of the good teaching pavilion knew that I was confused when I came. Because the bride at home was pregnant, I didn't want to take risks. But I couldn't turn a blind eye. Then I came up with the idea of ​​sending an anonymous letter to inform the government. No matter whether it was successful or not, it would at least make my conscience clear. At first, I was lucky, thinking that no one would guess it was me. Who knew that the pavilion director was so good at knowing things? God found my home..."

This is also human nature. Quji is just a young official with no background, but there are countless tomb robbers. If after he reports the crime, the government does not catch the thief, but those thieves know that Quji reported the crime and become angry. What should I do to take revenge on his family?

"There is a second reason..." Quji stopped talking, looked at everyone in the room, stared at Heifu and said, "I only want to say it and the pavilion chief will listen!"

…

After Hei Fu sent everyone out, he turned around and asked Qu Ji, "Everyone has left. Just say what you want to say."

"I want to thank the pavilion chief first."

Qu Ji bowed to the ground on the straw mat and said, "Ting Zhang Xie did not tie me up with a rope today in front of my wife. He also said that he only wanted to ask me for questions. Otherwise, with her weak temperament, she would definitely be frightened." Already..."

Hei Fu asked him to get up: "Although I am the chief of the pavilion and enforce the law in accordance with the law, who does not have parents, wives and children? Where there is no need to make things difficult, I will not deliberately make things difficult."

Qu Ji smiled bitterly and said: "I have also heard some laws in the countryside, and I know that I have committed a crime this time. I just don't know what kind of punishment I will be punished. I hope the pavilion chief can tell me."

"If you submit a letter anonymously, you will be fined three liters, which is equivalent to more than 4,000 yuan. If you cannot pay it off, you will have to do labor for the government."

Heifu said: "With your family's financial resources, it's not difficult to pay it off?"

"The pavilion chief thinks highly of me. These four thousand dollars are enough to bankrupt me." Qu Ji looked bitter.

A wealthy family in this era probably had a fortune of about 100,000 yuan, cattle, horses, and servants. A middle-class family can afford to raise cattle with about 20,000 yuan. Heifu's family can barely reach the ten thousand yuan standard now. I thought that the family's situation would be better, but it is worse?

Quji began to complain, saying that he had spent thousands of dollars on his marriage last year, and now that he didn't have much money left, he might have to sell off everything in the house, including his little wife's dowry, in order to collect the fine.

"My wife's dowry must never be sold. It is emergency money. When the children are born, they will be raised and raised."

Qu Ji gritted his teeth and said, "If it doesn't work out, I'll go work for the government."

He sighed every word, and said it was very desolate. With his sick body, he probably couldn't do any heavier work.

Although Heifu felt sorry and sympathized with him, and even felt a little apologetic, he couldn't just let go of Ji.

In the Qin State, as an official, he would be severely punished for being "in prison". Hei Fu didn't want to shave his hair and go to keep company with the former head of Huyang Pavilion.

It is also impossible for him to conceal the truth and report the crime of mitigating the disease, otherwise he would be guilty of "miscarriage of justice". If the penalty is unintentional, you may only be fined. If it was done intentionally, it would be a crime of "not being straight".

Haha, by then, he may be sent to the even more desolate Qianzhong County to expand the border. The Huyang Pavilion who framed him for stealing seems to be in Qianzhong County.

Heifu could only say sorry to Quji in his heart: I'm sorry, I'm a policeman.

Then he comforted Qu Ji and said, if he goes to the county tomorrow and can explain clearly what happened, maybe the jailer will be given a lighter sentence?

Even Heifu himself was not sure about this. Thinking about the unselfishness of Yu Hexi, he knew that he would never let go of any violation of the law.

But Qu Ji was encouraged and bowed again: "Thank you, Mr. Pavilion. Then I will tell the truth!"

He raised his head and made up his mind: "Pavilion Chief, the reason why I would rather submit a letter than come to report in person is because that day, the thieves who robbed the tomb mentioned a person's name during their discussion! "

"Who?" Heifu asked.

Qu Ji lowered his voice and said word by word: "Chaoyangli, inside the prison gate!"