Qin Official

Flickering and flickering, firewood was lit in the narrow and dark room, reflecting the figures of Hei Fu and his sister-in-law.

These days, lighting basically relies on fire. Rich people use animal fat "paste", beeswax, and insect wax, and insert a twister to light it. However, the light is not very bright, and the lamp is usually as small as a bean. Heifu and the others couldn't afford to light those things at all. When necessary, they would carefully light a small firewood with flint. They also had to be careful when lighting to prevent the house from being set on fire. The probability of fires these days is much higher. in later generations.

Under such lighting conditions, Citron quietly took out a large basket of heavy things from a corner of the house...

Without looking, just by listening to the sound, Hei Fu knew that this was money, a basket full of half a tael.

"Heifu, this is the reward that the county asked the county to distribute. How much do you think it is?" Citron lowered his voice.

Hei Fu didn't bother to guess. He had already counted the money today until he felt weak. He just glanced at it under the dim light and saw that there were almost ten buckets. Then he smiled and said, "Ten thousand dollars?"

"Yes, it's ten thousand dollars!"

Citron is a simple craftsman who rarely leaves the countryside. He is used to being poor in his life and has never seen so much money. After he just got the money back today, after being excited for a while, he became suspicious again, always feeling that someone was coveting it outside.

So he simply locked the money in the house, and stood guard outside the door alone, pacing like an ant on a hot pot, looking at everyone passing by with suspicion, just waiting for Hei Fu to come back and let him make up his mind. .

Heifu has indeed seen the world. After all, he just received more than fifteen thousand rewards in the morning, and gave away four thousand in the blink of an eye in the afternoon. So I wasn't too surprised and just asked: "Besides money, are there any other rewards?"

"Yes, yes."

Seeing that his brother-in-law remained calm despite such a huge sum of money, Tong couldn't help but admire him. He took out a piece of brown silk and said, "I was also honored as a nobleman, and from now on I will be just like you, Mr. Hei..."

After saying this, Citron discovered that the head of Heifu's head had been replaced by an earthy red turban, and he couldn't help being shocked: "Are you already a superior?"

"I was just promoted to a noble title at noon today." Hei Fu touched the bun on his head and smiled calmly: "I was about to tell my sister-in-law that it seems that today, my family is blessed with double happiness!"

At this time, Citron was even more happy and dancing: "Yes, yes, it's a double happiness. If your mother, eldest brother and your sister knew about it, I don't know how happy they would be."

While Citron was having fun alone, Heifu sighed silently, because he felt that a first-class title plus ten thousand dollars was a huge reward in Citron's opinion, but Heifu thought that, Compared with the usefulness of the treadmill, these merit rewards are still less...

According to the demonstration at the county warehouse that day, the efficiency of pounding grain can be nearly doubled by using the treadmill properly. In the past, two concubines could do the work with pestles and mortars, but now one person can do it in the same time using the treadmill.

If this were left to future generations, would it be rated as the "Major Invention of the Year"?

"It seems that although the Qin State pays more attention to skills, the status of craftsmen is still low. Just a few titles and rewards can be spent. The income from inventions is not very high." Hei Fu said.

What he didn't know was that after the two of them presented the treadmill to the county, Cang Shifu thought that it should be rewarded with ten thousand yuan, while the county engineer thought that it would be more appropriate to reward it with a first-class knighthood. The Anlu County Magistrate could not decide, and felt that the function of this object might not be evaluated by the county, so he reported the two imitation treads together with the documents to Nan County.

After reporting to the county, the county guard asked the county engineer from Jiangling City to weigh the value of the treadle, and then decided to reward him with a double reward, including titles and money.

At this time, after thanking Hei Fu repeatedly, Qun pushed the money in the basket towards Hei Fu and said: "Hei Fu, although you warned me, to outsiders, I thought of it myself. It has nothing to do with others. But you and I both know the truth! It was your idea to step on the dirt, but you gave it to me. It is a great honor for me to get the title of Duke. You take the money!"

"Sister-in-law, I have received a lot of reward money for capturing the tomb robbers. Since the money was given to you by name, how can I take it?"

Citron was very stubborn and insisted on Hei Fu accepting it, but Hei Fu couldn't resist in the end and had to agree to Citron. The two of them would split the money 50/50. But Citron refused to do it, insisting on dividing nine into one, one for him, and nine for Heifu.

While the two were arguing, Citron remembered something again and quickly put down what he was doing and asked Heifu for advice.

It turned out that in addition to his title and money, Citron was also good at craftsmanship because of his human nature. During these days when he was assisting in making treadmills in the county, he was favored by the county engineer and asked him to stay in Anlu County to work as a craftsman. He could take it with him. The family members moved their household registration to the county.

Citron didn't know what to do for a while and wanted to ask Heifu to help him make an idea.

"Sister-in-law, this is a good thing."

Hei Fu said happily: "People go to higher places and water flows to lower places. If you come to the county to work, your future will definitely be better than living in a small village in the countryside."

Citron hesitated: "It's just your sister..."

Heifu said: "Didn't the county engineer allow my sister-in-law to move her household registration to the county town? My sister has longed for the county town for a long time, and she is full of praise for the county's fabrics and silks. She will definitely be happy to be able to move to the county town! Besides, , after one month, I will be an official official, and I can let Jing come to the county school to enroll as a disciple and learn laws and regulations. When the time comes, my father-in-law and sister’s family will be in the county, so they can take care of him..."

There was another reason Heifu didn't say. His brother-in-law was skilled in craftsmanship and simple. He didn't have any bad intentions. He would have been buried in a small village. Heifu thought of the now popular Ting Wei Li Si's metaphor about the rat in the hamster and the rat in the toilet: "The virtuous and unworthy people are like rats, it depends on where they are!" In this world, the only capable people are those of the past. Only by walking in the center can you highlight your own value.

Among the craftsmen in the country, the skill of citron may only be average, but there is still a black man.

Because of Qin's unique household registration system, the soldiers responsible for farming and fighting were not allowed to play with their skills or get involved in business. So Hei Fu was thinking that in the future, whatever artifacts he wanted to create for future generations, he would have to borrow the hands of his sister-in-law. In this way, Hei Fu could not only make what he wanted to do, but also get help from his relatives. Why not?

So Hei Fu pushed the money that had been pushed over by the citron in the opposite direction and said: "Sister-in-law, so you keep half of the ten thousand money to buy property in the county. Don't worry, no matter who is in my family , the days to come will get better and better, and the road will get wider and wider!"

…

Pavilion Chief Heifu, who lives in a small county in Anlu, thought that the Xian Tamei incident had finally come to an end. But he didn't know that this was not the end, but the beginning.

On the day after they received the reward, outside the Jiangling Chuanshe, the capital of Nanjun, Jiangling City, the hub for sending and receiving government mail documents, two "Tadi"s rushed out of Jiangling, together with a message expressing "urgency" Urgent letters were moved onto the "transfer truck" specially designed to transport urgent letters.

Then he set up his horse shaft, passed the carriage out of the north gate of Jiangling City, and galloped north along the straight Tu Road...

"Those who write this book should not stay. When the book is pounded in Yihai in January, I will go to court..."

The passerby in the car only had to look at the date on the envelope to know that it was an urgent letter. The trip had to be quick, and it had to be delivered to Xianyang City before the pounding time on January 10. He was accompanied by a subordinate of the county engineer.

So from that day on, this transmission vehicle started walking non-stop.

Under the Qin system, there is a Yi Chuan for 30 miles and a pavilion for 10 miles. The Yi Chuan can replace horses and repair vehicles, and the pavilion has accommodation buildings. The descendant could only stop in a hurry and let the father of the pavilion feed the horse, while he showed the talisman and the descendant, and ate the free rations provided to the officials on the business trip. Because his title is high, the food is good, and there are pickles, leeks, green onions, etc. to go with the meal.

According to the provisions of the "Xingshu Law", postal mail must record the mileage traveled on the day and the distance through the cities for subsequent assessment. So while resting in the pavilion, he could only write down his journey with a pen under the light as big as a bean:

One hundred and eighty miles from Jiangling to Dangyang...

One hundred and eighty-five miles from Dangyang to Yan County...

A hundred miles from Yan County to Canglangshui, Sanxiang...

It is two hundred and forty miles from Canglangshui to Deng County...

They came to the shores of Jianghan where the water network was crisscrossed.

They drove into the densely populated Nanyang Basin.

They passed Wuguan, engaged in trade, and entered the heart of Qin, the Guanzhong Basin.

They passed through Lantian and saw no smoke from Yunuan, but they caught a glimpse of the heavily armed Qin army camp.

They went around the forest, crossed the Weishui River, and saw the huge city from a distance, although it was not protected by city walls, but it still looked majestic...

It was a long journey to Shuiyi River. On January 10, after traveling day and night for twenty days, in time for the final date, the descendants and envoys from Nanjun finally arrived at the end of the trip, Xianyang Chuanshe.

Xianyang Chuanshe collected mails and letters from all over the country. In the early spring, it was warm and cold, but the clerks in soap clothes were sweating profusely sorting out various letters. If something went wrong, they would be Heavy penalties.

The urgent letter from Nanjun was finally assigned manpower. An old postman who could run around the streets and alleys of Xianyang City with his eyes closed drove a carriage and delivered the letter and the letter in accordance with the requirements of the letter. When he arrived at the "Shaofu" located in the east of Xianyang City, he was handed over to a young official named Zhang Han...

PS: I’m home, I’ll update as normal during the Chinese New Year.