The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In mid-September, north of Anlu County, at the Shili Pavilion, the willows on the roadside had already withered, and the leaves were about to fall off, revealing a sense of desolation.

From afar, watching the carriage carrying Du Xian and his few luggage slowly leave on the dirt road, the officials who came to see him off also said goodbye to each other and prepared to ride back.

Hei Fu was about to leave, but was stopped by someone.

"Hei Fu Pavilion Chief."

Hei Fu turned around and smiled, "Chen Baijiang, is there anything else?"

Chen Baijiang looked at the simple hair crown on Hei Fu's head, and his mood was a little complicated.

When they first met a year ago, Hei Fu was just a little night watchman who had just received a title. He was pinned to the ground and was in danger of losing his life. But a year has passed, and unknowingly, Hei Fu's current title is actually equivalent to Chen Baijiang, but his official position is slightly inferior.

But now is not the time for him to be jealous, because with Du Xian's departure, both of them have lost their backers and have become grasshoppers on the same rope.

"I didn't understand the law before, and I thought that the right lieutenant would take Chen Baijiang away with him."

On the way back to the county town with the horses, Hei Fu said with emotion. After all, Chen Baijiang was able to become a general from a student in the school in one step, thanks to the recommendation of the right lieutenant. In the past year, the right lieutenant may have favored Hei Fu, but he still trusted Chen Baijiang the most.

"That's impossible."

Chen Baijiang seemed to have expected this day, and shook his head and said, "The Law of Appointing Officials states that if an official is transferred to another place, he must leave alone and cannot take his former subordinates with him. Even the county official is transferred as such, let alone a mere county lieutenant?"

"I only know the law of catching thieves and robbers, but I don't know much about the appointment of officials by the court."

Hei Fu also slowly realized that the appointment of officials in Qin was very different from the retainer politics of the six states in Shandong.

In Chu, Wei and other countries, from princes and ministers such as Xinling Jun and Chunshen Jun to local officials such as Zhang Er, the magistrate of Waihuang County, all liked to keep retainers.

Retainers were mostly poor scholars who traveled around, were kept by their masters, and served the keepers, and then looked for personal development opportunities and realized their personal values. The relationship between them and their masters was a personal dependence relationship between "lord" and "minister", emphasizing loyalty to the individual.

Therefore, whenever an official from Wei and Chu went to take up a post in a local area from the capital, he would bring dozens or even hundreds of retainers with him. After arriving at the local area, he would place these people in important positions one by one to facilitate the competition with local forces. When he left office, he would take away all these "ministers and guests" who were attached to him, leaving none behind. His successor would naturally bring a group of new retainers to settle in.

If this official could not make it in the country and wanted to go abroad to develop, those retainers who were loyal to him would follow him all the way.

Only the Qin State had its own national conditions and a system of its own, which prevented the emergence of such retainer and old-fashioned politics.

Not only did several senior officials in the counties need to serve in other places, but when they left office or were transferred, even if they admired a subordinate, they could not take him away. All of them had to stay in their original positions. There were arrangements in the laws for their promotion and transfer, and no personal interference was allowed.

Qin law was very vigilant against forming cliques for personal gain. This regulation was obviously intended to prevent the emergence of factionalism. Even if the superior promoted the subordinate, the two parties were still superiors and subordinates, and they were all employees of the government. It was rare for the subordinate to regard the superior as the "lord".

Therefore, more than 30 years ago, after Bai Qi, the Lord of Wu'an, stepped down, he walked alone to Duting and committed suicide without any relatives or friends.

Bai Qi was indeed an excellent general, but without him, the war wheel of Qin would continue to turn. Because the strength of Qin was not due to the personal charm of a certain prince, nor to the temporary gathering of thousands of retainers, but was strictly maintained by laws and regulations, so that it could last for a hundred years.

Of course, there were also unusual times, such as the two foreigners, Lu Buwei and Lao Ai, who brought the eastern retainer culture to Xianyang, raised thousands of people, appointed people based on personal connections, and corrupted the government's laws and regulations for a while.

It's a pity that they didn't last long. After Wenxin Jun and Changxin Hou fell one after another, thousands of retainers were either arrested or exiled, or like Li Si, they quickly joined the original system of Qin and were directly loyal to the king. Nowadays, only nobles such as Changping Jun and Changwen Jun are allowed to keep a small number of guests.

So today, the transfer of the right lieutenant of Anlu County can only be done alone, just like when he came...

This system is naturally good for the country, but for Heifu and Chen Baijiang, their good days will end as soon as Du Xian leaves.

The chief officials come and go, but the deputy assistant officials have long controlled the local government offices. This is also a problem brought about by taking office in a different place. The game between the central and local governments will always continue. The most difficult thing to deal with is the confidants promoted by foreign officials like Heifu. They can't leave, so they can only bite the bullet and stay, hoping that the next right lieutenant can continue to use them.

This situation is very likely to happen. After all, no foreign official would be willing to be sidelined by local forces. Since it is impossible to bring his own confidants to take office, the only option is to use the people left by the previous one.

"But the new right lieutenant may not take office until mid-October. Before that, the Anlu County Lieutenant Office is the one-man show of the left lieutenant. Heifu Pavilion Chief, you and I should be very careful..." Chen Baijiang felt sympathetic. He knew very well that the left lieutenant Yunman was not a broad-minded person. He might take advantage of the time difference to purge the right lieutenant's confidants.

"Even if it is the left lieutenant, he dare not openly violate the law and take revenge."

Heifu was not so afraid. In the past year or so, although he had a deep hatred with the left lieutenant and offended many people when handling cases, many people who were imprisoned because of him hated him and wished him dead.

But at the same time, Heifu also got to know a large number of grassroots officials of Qin, such as Xi, Nu, Le, as well as Cang Qiangfu and the county engineer in the county. Although they were not close friends, Xi was a true gentleman. If Heifu was treated unfairly, he would even stand up for him.

Among the people, Heifu's reputation was also very good. He gave money to buy horses, which made him famous for "benevolence" and "honesty". Even if Zuo Wei hated him to the core, he had to consider the public opinion when dealing with Heifu.

So Heifu was very open-minded: "Zuo Wei can only bring up the matter of the missing thief last time, accuse me of dereliction of duty, and force me to resign. When the time comes, I will resign. Going home to farm is better than being in fear all day long." With his current title, whether he is an official or not, when the war comes, he can at least be a village chief.

Having said that, in the next few days, Heifu still raised his vigilance and asked his subordinates not to act rashly. Heifu had already felt that the Yun family had set their sights on him. At this sensitive moment, he did not want to give them a handle.

Ten days passed cautiously like this. In late September, the county left lieutenant's revenge did not come. Ji Ying, who went to the county town, brought back a shocking news to everyone.

"Second brother, something bad has happened."

As soon as he entered the door, Ji Ying held up the document sent by the county lieutenant and shouted: "Qin and Chu have gone to war!"

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