Qin Official

It was late May in the thirty-eighth year of Qin Shihuang.

Xiao He, the governor of Nanjun, stood at the Yingxian dock and watched the last batch of grain and civilians board the ship and leave.

As those sail shadows went eastward along Yangshui, Wu Zhonghou's brother, the honest-faced "Tuntian Commander" Wei Zhong breathed a sigh of relief, saluted Xiao He solemnly, and said from the bottom of his heart:

"Zhongzhi has no other skills except farming. I can gather the hundreds of thousands of grains required by the front line. But without the proper coordination of Governor Xiao, Nanjun, where most of the young men are already soldiers, will never be able to assemble 50,000 civilians in one month." Go north..."

Xiao He quickly returned the gift: "He just did his best."

"Chief Xiao, please don't be humble."

Wei Zhong showed an honest smile: "My brother came back with a letter and repeatedly asked me to follow Governor Xiao's plan."

"He also said that I am not as good as Xiao He in controlling the country, nurturing the people, providing wages and supplies, and never ending the food supply!"

"Wu Zhonghou thinks so highly of me?"

Xiao He was a little confused. Generally speaking, the coordination work in the rear area is thankless. The army attaches great importance to military merit. Those who have worked hard, witnessed the war, beheaded and conquered the land are often praised, while civil servants are considered " He just talks in writing and ink," and the soldiers didn't think he had any merit.

"But he is Marquis Wu Zhong after all."

Xiao He thought to himself: "In this world, the general who attaches great importance to food, grass, and transportation is the most important, so he can understand my contribution. Xiao He has not worked hard and slept in vain these days..."

It turned out that after a year of hard fighting, the people of Nanjun were tired, their enthusiasm for war had declined, and they no longer wanted to serve on the front line and transport food, so Xiao He took several measures.

The first measure is the old rule of the Qin State: in this battle of entering the pass, all those who serve in Nanjun will be given one level of civil nobility. Although there was no mature land left in Nanjun, the common people had long since given up on allocating land to the frontiers, so Xiao He then changed it and allowed them to open hundreds of acres of land in the mountains and forests near Lilu, and it was not counted as taxable land. .

Xiao He can't make the decision on such a big matter, but Heifu agreed to this method: "Having one hundred acres more rent-free land than other counties should be regarded as a benefit to the elders of Nan County..."

The leaders of Guizhou are unwilling to serve because they will lose money from long-distance service, so give them some benefits.

The second measure is to reasonably allocate tasks based on the actual situation of each family. According to the "Garrison Law", cohabitation is not allowed in parallel. Two men from a family cannot serve together. They must be reasonably distributed according to the corvee roster. Officials with a hundred stones or less also had to take the lead in taking turns, which alleviated the issue of fairness to a certain extent.

Thirdly, in response to the service members’ worries about production delays at home, the Li and Zhong organizations organized mutual aid and mobilized all the farm slaves, ministers and concubines in the township to help the families serving on the front line with some work.

Fourth, the first thing is to improve the living conditions of the service members. Xiao He requires that from this month onwards, every pavilion and post in Nanjun should set up 10-15 large pottery cauldrons, stock up on firewood, and distribute more food from the county warehouse. Specially designed to provide food and water for civilians, each pavilion also strives to have a barefoot doctor who was established in Changsha County during the Southern Expedition to take care of the sick.

Although those barefoot doctors who don't actually have any medical skills can't cure serious diseases at all, at least hot water and rice and a person with the name of "physician" can give the laborer great comfort and believe that he is not filling a gap when he goes to the front line. of.

In this way, the corrupt officials who arbitrarily allocated service quotas have been killed before, and the lives and interests of the service members have been protected. What is left?

Xiao He thought it was enough, but Heifu on the front line sent a team back, consisting of Jia, Changyou, and Dwarf...

"We still need to do more propaganda work." These were the original words of Marquis Wu Zhong.

This is Heifu’s complement to Xiao He’s measures: propaganda and mobilization in the name of “protecting jobs and defending the fruits of success.”

A group of outstanding petty officials who had completed "Learning to Strengthen the Army" set off from various counties and went to the villages to explain this truth to the illiterate villagers...

"The common people's urgent demand is peace, but we can only enjoy peace if we kill the snake and leave it to our own harm. We must completely overthrow Hu Hai and let Wu Zhonghou rule the world."

"Aren't most of the soldiers on the front line from Nanjun? If no one is willing to deliver food, then it will be our own children who will starve!"

Heifu even found several "families" living there in Wancheng, Nanyang, as well as champions raised by nobles.

Heifu provided ideas, Jia figured out the lines of the script, and encouraged talents to take charge of the acting. Finally, he created a model play called "The Northern Expedition Can Enjoy Peace."

The plot is nothing more than this: the Zhong family of a certain Nanjun County was oppressed by excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes. At this time, Hu Hai and Zhao Gao planned to kill and usurp the throne, and became more and more rebellious, and wanted to capture all the people of Nanjun to be prisoners.

After receiving the imperial edict from the First Emperor, Marquis Wu Zhong raised troops to quell the Northern Expedition, rescued the people, reduced rents and burned coupons, and began to recruit soldiers and servants. The story of Qian Shouzhong resolutely joining the Northern Expedition and following Marquis Wu Zhong to the north to fight against thieves. Although his mother was reluctant to give up, she resolutely sent him off...

But just like this vulgar story that purely serves politics, with its chaotic stage and outrageous acting skills, when it was performed in Jiangling City, the people were dumbfounded and relished in watching it.

"If Marquis Wu Zhong cannot overthrow the false emperor, then the beast will return to Nanjun, and my family will also suffer. Brothers and sisters, please go to the north to enjoy peace!"

When the advocate who was pretending to be a mother said these words in a Nanjun dialect, the whole Jiangling was boiling like thunder. The whole audience was moved and applauded endlessly...

A song adapted from the "Military Song of the Northern Expedition" tinkered by Heifu, any song can be used, also sounded in Jiangling City:

"Tax reduction, tax reduction, tax reduction, go to the front line, go to the front line!"

"The Northern Expedition is difficult to achieve, and the Northern Expedition is difficult to achieve. Enjoy peace, enjoy peace!"

For a time, the citizens of Jiangling City enthusiastically signed up to become slave laborers.

This effect was something that the officials of Nan County had never imagined. Even Xiao He, who was praised by Hei Fu as "I am not as good as me", was stunned and said to himself:

"Wu Zhonghou is really comparable to the ancient sages. He can think of things that we have never thought of. He also knows Nanjun well enough and knows the preferences of the people in his hometown. "Yangchun" and "White Snow" cannot impress them. This is what they love. The play of "Xia Li" and "Ba Ren"."

"He said that he is not as good as me in controlling the country and caring for the people. It is really a humble statement."

In this way, after the efforts of Hei Fu and Xiao He, at the end of May, the conscription work in Nan County was finally completed successfully. A total of 50,000 people from all counties combined went northward, accounting for almost one-seventh of the remaining men in Nan County...

One hundred thousand sons and one hundred thousand soldiers. In order to win this war, the people of Nanjun have sacrificed too much.

Looking at the servants who were carrying food, clothing and mats on their backs, walking or taking boats to the north, Xiao He raised his hands and bowed to them:

"I hope Wu Zhonghou can succeed in this battle."

"I hope that the two or three sons who went north today can all be returned!"

…

It was the end of May in the thirty-eighth year of Qin Shihuang.

Although they are far away from Wudang Mountain, the Nanjun Guizhou shrike who went north to serve will still dream of that huge roar.

He could never forget that when he was passing by Wudang Mountain, he heard a loud noise in the distance, like thunder. He raised his head, but the sky was clear...

"What a hell."

At that time, the servants were very scared, thinking that it was a ferocious beast lurking in the mountains, but since then, there has been no sound again.

But the huge reverberating thunder would reappear in Shrike's dreams from time to time.

Shaking his head, the shrike stood up. They were the earlier batch of slave laborers who went north. Although Governor Xiao He and Marquis Wu Zhong had improved the conditions of slave laborers, tens of thousands of people were gathered in Danyang, and there was still only one place to sleep. Hay, not only people are resting on it.

Snapped! The shrike swatted a fat flea that was still on his neck, leaving a pool of blood on his palm.

"Dare to suck Naigong's blood."

After cursing, he walked out of the temporary shack. Although it was only early in the morning, it was already a little hot. Looking around, I saw that the Jindu in Danshui County (Siwan Township, Xichuan County, Henan Province) was full of grain ships from Nan County, and the grain ships on them were being unloaded.

The boat is equipped with a paddle wheel, paddles and oars, and the use of hands and feet makes it easier to travel against the current.

Generally, they loaded grain in Jiangling, followed the Yang River into the Han River, and then went upstream to Xiangyang. Xiangyang is the center of water transportation for the Northern Expeditionary Army. There are two Tianjins. Boats go back and forth, anchored on the banks, thousands of sails gather, and tens of thousands of people gather to continuously transport food, soldiers, and materials to the garrison on the tributaries of the Han River.

Most ships will continue northwestward in Xiangyang, enter Danshui, and arrive here.

Waterways are the most convenient and fastest way of transportation in this era. Real strategic-level transportation of battles uses waterways to transport materials from all over the place to the battle supply stations, and then they are transferred by manpower to the front line.

Although Danshui County is further upstream, it is also navigable during the flood season. With luck, if there are trackers pulling the boat, you can even sail the boat to Shangyu in one go. But there were also many dangerous shoals, with narrow valley bottoms in some places, tangled mountains, and rushing water. In order to prevent the Southern army from entering Wuguan, the Northern Army sank large ships in many places, cutting off the waterway.

Therefore, the Northern Expeditionary Army stored Nanjun's grain in Danshui County, and the servants naturally gathered here. From then on, they had to rely on manpower to send the grain outside Wuguan and into the rice bowls of the soldiers on the front line...

Danyang's civil servants were under the charge of Nanjun Wei Xiaotao. The civil servants were divided into different rates, Bai, Shi and Wu according to their place of origin. The petty officials who brought them here transformed into Bai Chang and Shi Chang and led the civil servants to the warehouse on the shore. Waiting for assignment.

Today is the last day of May. It is said that troops have gathered on the front line. The Northern Expeditionary Army needs to continuously transport food to Danyang. Shrike and the others have just arrived and rested for a day before starting their official work.

But looking around, the shrike found that there were no oxen or horses allocated to them. It seemed that this time it was not the job of driving the oxen and horses, but that they had to work harder...

After all, the number of oxen, horses, donkeys and mules is limited. More often than not, the laborers have to carry heavy poles, or two people pull a heavy "chariot" with many grain bags piled on it, and travel through mountains and rivers at the speed of a turtle to reach the place. My hands are almost useless.

"The shoulder is going to suffer."

The shrike showed a wry smile and touched the calluses on his shoulders, which were left by years of hard work. It was no more work than usual. He heard that this was a trek of hundreds of miles. The roads along the way were difficult and he had to rest for two nights before he could reach the front line.

But what Shrike didn't expect was that the warehouse official assigned a strange car to each of them.

The cart is made of wood, but it is different from the ordinary rickshaw "chariot" that is pulled by two people. This wooden cart is more compact, with two handles at the front and back, which can be pulled forward and pushed back. The most unique thing is that the cart only relies on a single handle. Turn on the ground...

This... can one wheel pull it steadily? The shrike was a little dazed and couldn't help but ask:

"What kind of car is this and why is it so weird?"

The warehouseman responsible for distributing wheelbarrows showed a trace of disgust and said impatiently:

"This was made by the Mohist. Marquis Wu Zhong said it, so it's called 'Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse'!"

…

ps: I'm on a plane for my honeymoon. It's impossible to update in the middle of the night. It's just enough to maintain the appearance of constant updates. Good night.

. m.