Qin Official

On the other side, Heifu and Ji Ying were taken to the county jail by the warden after they arrived in Anlu County. However, it was not a cell, but a guest house in the county jail. It was said that this was specially prepared for their "self-reporting" of. The room was not big, but it was quite clean. There were two straw mats on the floor, which allowed them to rest, but they were not allowed to move around freely. Someone had to keep an eye on them when they went to the Muxuan (toilet). Two meals a day were provided - of course, both. Just the roughest rice.

Ji Ying was very uneasy. When Heifu closed his eyes to rest, he kept pacing back and forth, worrying about this and that. After a while, he suddenly asked:

"Brother Heifu, do you think Doctor Xi can handle the case impartially?"

"It should be possible..." Heifu replied casually while lying on the straw mat.

When he heard that "Xi" had signed up for his number, he was slightly surprised. He remembered that the TV program in his previous life said that the biggest discovery of Yunmeng Qin Jian was not the letter written by "Hei Fu" to his family, but the letter titled "Xi". "The coffins of Anlu County officials were filled with excerpts of Qin laws, which opened the door to the Qin Dynasty for archaeologists...

Except for the more than a thousand scattered slips copied by Xi himself, there were no other valuable burial objects in the coffin. This shows how much this was a civil servant who loved his job.

Such a person should not be violating the law, right?

It's funny to say that, at this point, Heifu can only place his hope on Qin Lu's fairness and justice.

It was already dark, and the two of them fell asleep in a daze. Unexpectedly, someone suddenly pushed the door open and entered!

Heifu stood up quickly, and in the faint light from the outside, he saw a friendly-looking clerk in soap clothes, holding a pen and sharpener. His attire was a replica of the "literary official" in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses.

Seeing Ji Ying and Hei Fu saluting him, the clerk smiled and said, "No need to be polite. I'm just a small clerk fighting for food. I'm not an official. You sit down and talk."

So Hei Fu and Ji Ying knelt down on the straw mat. The jailer who called himself "Le" sat opposite them. He placed a small wooden frame holding bamboo slips on the case, lit the anointing lamp, and after yawning, he began made routine inquiries.

The questions they asked were nothing more than the names, identities, and place of origin of Heifu and Ji Ying, and most importantly, whether they had any previous criminal records!

"No, absolutely not!" Ji Ying shook his head like a rattle.

Heifu also said that he has three brothers in his family, all of whom are good citizens and have never done anything illegal.

"It's better if you don't have it." Le smiled with a smile on his face, but the words he said made people shudder.

"If you have a previous crime and deliberately conceal it, it will be very detrimental to you when the county magistrate informs the township and the village about it!"

The two still said that they had never broken any laws, and Le Cai did not mention it.

After a while, Heifu couldn't hold it back and asked: "Sir, the two of us are here to serve in the county. The deadline is the first day of October. If we miss the deadline..."

Le gave him reassurance: "Don't worry about your service. The county magistrate has sent a document to the county captain explaining the situation. You just need to cooperate with the case."

Le also told them that after the information asked today is recorded, it will be sent to their place of origin for verification, and the township and village are required to respond in writing, which is called a "Yuan Shu". This is not only the case for the plaintiff, but also for the defendant. After their identities are confirmed, the formal trial will begin.

Heifu said: "May I ask the superior, when will the interrogation be held?"

Le smiled and said: "The place where the thief confessed is not far away. It's in a neighboring county. It only takes two days to get the love letter back and forth. If nothing else happens, the prison trial will start in three days. At that time, you will report your actions and you will be with me." The person being accused explained the incident to the court, listed the witnesses and physical evidence, and then questioned each other..."

Hei Fu was stunned, huh? The emotional trial of the Qin State is for the defendant and plaintiff to fight each other, while the court silently listens and then makes a decision.

At that time, both parties in the lawsuit will have to act as their own lawyers and have a heated exchange of words?

This was something Heifu didn't expect. His impression of ancient trial trials was that Master Qingtian in various costume TV series would slap the prisoner with a thick arm and hit the prisoner...

Finally, when the young official left, he left a few words.

"At that time, you only need to state the truth, and you must not lie! Remember, remember!"

After the door closed again, Ji Ying began to worry, because although he had heard some knowledge about the laws from the village officials, especially the fines he had to pay for any crime he remembered very clearly, he had never litigated with anyone, and he had never filed a lawsuit against Bo in court. .

"What should I do?" He looked at Heifu and asked.

"Cold salad!"

Heifu fell asleep.

From this point of view, the Qin State is indeed famous for its Legalism. It tries cases strictly and has its own rules, rather than following the officials' personal preferences.

Not to mention that he has his own reasons for this matter, let's just say that when he was in the police academy in his previous life, he took a torture class and went to the court to attend many times. Wasn't it just to confront the defendant? He was so scared!

For a moment, Heifu actually looked forward to the "interrogation" in three days.

…

In the imagination of ordinary people, the trial process in ancient times probably looked like this:

Outside the county government office, there is a sea of ​​people. Above the lobby, a plaque with the four words "Mingjing hangs high" hangs high in the middle. Below it sits the county magistrate, wearing a black gauze hat. There are three guillotines of dragon, tiger and dog at the bottom of the hall. When the prisoner was brought up, the government officials on both sides shouted "mighty", and Master Qingtian slapped the prison wall, pointed at the prisoner and said: "Hit him with a three hundred killing stick first!"...

However, on the day of the "interrogation", that is, the day of the meeting in court, what Heifu saw was this:

This interrogation was not held in the county temple yamen, but in the county jail, which was separated by a wall. The county jail had a prison inside and a main hall outside. From the outside, it looks like a small courtyard, without any of the grandeur that a government official should have. It's just that the paved roads are paved with stones, and even the fallen leaves have been swept clean.

After entering the main hall, Heifu found that there was no place where people could play drums and complain about grievances, and it was not open to the public. There was a "罘罳", which is an earthen screen, blocking the entrance. It was painted white and covered with ink. There are several lines of Qin seal characters written on it.

Heifu is already literate, otherwise how could he go to the military camp and write letters home? But I saw that what was written above was an article called "The Way of Being an Official".

"Anyone who is an official must be pure and upright, cautious and firm, be selfless in review, observe meticulously, be quiet and not harsh, and be responsible for rewards and punishments..."

Then there are the "Five Good Deeds" and "Five Disadvantages"... These are the requirements of the Qin State for officials, big and small. Translated into vernacular, they are to be honest and loyal to their duties, to prohibit false publicity for personal gain, to be close to the people, and to be an official, they must eliminate harm for the people. It should be similar to the content in the "Certain Guidelines for Leading Cadres of the Communist Party of China to Conduct Politics with Integrity".

In short, Hei Fu was stunned. Is this still the legendary "violent Qin?"

"I hope the officials who are reviewing the case today can really do these things."

Under the guidance of the jailer "Le", Hei Fu and Ji Ying walked around the screen and entered the main hall. Only then did they realize that the judge sitting in the hall was not the Anlu County Magistrate or the County Prime Minister, but the jailer Xi! Today he is dressed in black, wearing a Xie Zhi crown, sitting upright, looking very majestic.

Seeing this man, Heifu felt a big stone fall in his heart. He heard from the jailer Le that this Doctor Xi was famous for being selfless and selfless in Anlu County, and he was highly relied upon by the county magistrate. If he handles the case on his behalf, there should be no problem, right?

At this time, Xi was already trying the case of "stealing merchant Bao". When Heifu and the others were brought into the hall, it happened that the merchant "Bao" was confessing that he went to the township that day and was on the roadside nine miles away from Huyang Pavilion. The experience of running away in fear when thieves robbed someone.

Then, it was the turn of the three shackled thieves to kneel in the hall and state the facts of their crimes.

The bearded man who had fought with Hei Fu first confessed: "My name is Pan. I am a soldier from Jingling County. I live in a certain place. I was drafted into the army in February last year and went to fight in Zhao Kingdom in the north. Because of the heavy rain, I was afraid of the distance. He fled and later fled to Yunmengze to work as a thief and got acquainted with three other people. His crime was just as the merchant Pan said, and he had not committed any other crime."

Jingling County is one of the 18 counties in Nanjun. It faces Anlu County across Yunmengze. While the big man was making his statement, the officials sitting on the left and right in the hall were all holding pens and scratching notes on the wooden and bamboo slips. The seriousness is like the transcribers in the courts of later generations. They would record every word and deed of the criminal and then seal it up as archives and store it in the warehouse. Most of the Qin slips unearthed in later generations are similar.

The chief judge Xi did not interrupt Pan during his statement, but kept writing on the slipper. It was not until he finished speaking that he asked again: "Apart from the robbery of the merchant Bao, are there no other crimes?"

Pan hesitated and said, "No!"

At this time, Ji Ying turned his head and muttered to Hei Fu: "I remember that day, didn't he say he had several lives on his hands..."