The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

The world outside the pavilion seemed like the beginning of the world. Rain poured down from the thick clouds, swallowing up all the hope in the world and drowning all the ways out for the soldiers and prisoners.

Under the illumination of the torches, dark faces raised their heads, opened their mouths, and shouted desperate and angry words...

"If you miss the deadline, you will be beheaded..."

"The world has suffered from Qin for a long time..."

"If I die now, I will die, and if I make a big plan, I will die!"

Despair forced them to cut wood for weapons and raise poles for flags. A group of people clamored and shouted, "Are there any kings, princes, generals, or ministers?" They rushed into the pavilion and kicked open the door of the guest house.

The Qin official who was escorting them was sleeping inside. He was startled when he heard the noise and raised his head. Who else could that face be but Heifu! ?

…

"I actually had such a dream, it's really unlucky."

Heifu woke up with sweat all over his head and found that he was indeed in a strange guesthouse. When he opened the door, the weather outside was cold and sunny, with only a few clouds in the sky. Where did the heavy rain come from?

And the 50 Anlu County prisoners he escorted were also sleeping under the eaves of the guesthouse. They were thinly dressed, covered with some straw to keep warm, and shivered in the frost in the early morning...

"Tingzhang."

Xiao Tao, who was on duty at night, saw Heifu wake up, and hurried over to report stutteringly: "Last...last night, it was safe and sound."

"Thank you for your hard work." Heifu patted Xiaotao on the shoulder to encourage him. Li Xian, who was on duty with Xiaotao, also came over with red eyes to greet Heifu.

It is October 23, the 22nd year of Qin Wangzheng, and it is also the third day since they left Anlu County.

The five people from Huyang Pavilion need to escort 50 prisoners and 10 garrison soldiers to Fangcheng, Nanyang County, hundreds of miles away, to perform corvée labor. The deadline is to arrive before the first day of December. This is the task of Heifu and his team.

Before the departure, Heifu learned that most of the prisoners escorted this time were sent to prison by himself: there was the merchant Bao who participated in the false accusation against him last year, two tomb robbers who robbed the tomb of Ruo'ao, and many blind mountain villagers who were imprisoned and imprisoned, all of whom were enemies of him.

The county left lieutenant made such an arrangement, which was really sinister.

However, the left lieutenant did not expect these prisoners to be angry with Heifu, as in the dream, and rise up in rebellion to kill him.

Now is not the end of the Qin Dynasty, and it is the hinterland of the Qin State. It is really difficult to kill officials and rebel.

Moreover, these people all wear the symbol of prisoners on their necks: wooden clamps. There was a hemp rope on the clamp, which was tied when they rested, and their wrists were all tied together to restrict their movements.

This was the standard configuration for escorting prisoners, and we couldn't expect these prisoners to be obedient. On the contrary, the guards were fully armed, not only with swords and armor, but also equipped with two crossbows. It was unlikely that there would be a figure like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang among the prisoners, who would seize the sword and kill Hei Fu and others...

So Hei Fu guessed that Zuo Wei made such an arrangement in the hope that these prisoners who had grudges against Hei Fu would escape halfway!

Unlike the garrison soldiers, the prisoners were already criminals, and most of their families were taken as slaves and concubines. They were not afraid of those wearing shoes when barefoot, and everyone had no worries.

Moreover, it was a hard job to travel thousands of miles north in the winter. Southerners were full of fear of the north, especially the winter in the north. In "Chu Ci", the Chu people's imagination of the north is "the ice is thick and the snow is flying for thousands of miles" and "there are cold mountains in the north, and the dragons are trembling. The sky is white and cold."

In short, in the eyes of people on the banks of the Yangtze and Han Rivers, the north in winter is simply not a place for people to stay, and they must avoid going there. This fear of weather and hard labor may prompt prisoners to escape at any time.

The Qin State severely punished prisoners who escaped from garrison service, and there were corresponding punishments for escorts who let prisoners escape.

"It's not a capital crime, but I'm the head of the pavilion, and this is the end of it. If more than ten people escape, even I will be reduced to a city prison. The two or three people who are escorting together will also be punished..." Hei Fu explained their situation to everyone.

More than ten years later, the chief of Pei County, Liu, realized that he could not escape punishment because too many of the prisoners and soldiers he was escorting ran away. He simply made up his mind and took the remaining people to become bandits...

After hearing this, the people in Huyang Pavilion also realized the seriousness of the problem. The county left lieutenant was really insidious. This was clearly a borrowed knife to kill people. He wanted to use the prisoners' escape to convict them and drive them all out of the Qin Li team!

So everyone followed Hei Fu's arrangement and divided into two groups to take turns to guard at night.

On the first and second days of the departure, Hei Fu did not dare to close his eyes. He kept guarding the fire and staring at the figures of the prisoners.

In this way, Hei Fu, who had not closed his eyes for two days, finally couldn't hold on on the third day. When he arrived at the pavilion in Xinshi County to rest, he slept in the pavilion until dawn...

Fortunately, except for that nightmare, everything was normal.

At this time, the prisoners also got up one after another. They pushed aside the straw on their bodies, rubbed their sore necks, and looked at Heifu, who was squatting on the ground and gargling with willow branches, with unkind eyes. Heifu knew that in the past three days, many people must have been thinking about escaping day and night. Anyway, if they didn't run, their fate would not be much better. It was common for prisoners to die in winter service. In the face of cruel reality, Heifu had no ability to fool these desperate people.

It was okay when they were resting, as there were ropes to tie everyone to the beams, but it was a big problem when they were walking.

Although the food for Heifu and the other five people could be provided by the pavilions on the road, the food, drink and chewing of the sixty prisoners and garrison soldiers had to be brought by themselves. Therefore, each prisoner had to carry a stone of food, and there was no way to tie everyone together.

If these 50 people winked at each other while walking on the road and ran away, Heifu and the other five people alone could not catch them.

So after having breakfast in this pavilion, Hei Fu asked Ji Ying and Li Xian to cut the long hemp rope into several sections and let 50 prisoners with bitter faces stand out. First, pick a prisoner who has a grudge against Hei Fu, and then pick a prisoner who is not familiar with him. In groups of two, tie the hemp rope to one of their feet and tie it into a knot...

"Two people in a group, whether walking, resting, eating, or going to the toilet, must act together. If the other person escapes, the remaining person will also be regarded as an accomplice and be punished together!"

In this way, although the speed of advancement is slowed down, there is no need to worry about them suddenly running away while walking on the road. Most of the people who run away will trip each other because of lack of tacit understanding and surrender.

Not only that, Hei Fu also summoned the 10 free soldiers and assigned them tasks.

"You are all good soldiers and civilians, with parents, wives and children at home. You should know what will happen if you run away and do not have labor service..."

"I will not treat you badly. I will make sure you are well fed and clothed along the way and can sleep well in the house. But you must also help me guard the prisoners. When you are on the road, two people will guard ten prisoners. After arriving at Fangcheng County, Nanyang County, if no prisoners escape, I will give you 100 coins each, plus a pair of cloth shoes..."

As soon as these words came out, the 10 soldiers were overjoyed. When they went out to do labor service, the biggest consumption was shoes. When they arrived at the place, their shoes had been worn out long ago. Hei Fu contracted their shoes, which made many people feel relieved. And the 100 coins were enough to buy a rough winter coat.

Hei Fu was not short of money. After a year as a pavilion chief, he received a lot of rewards for repeatedly catching thieves. In addition to the harvest from hundreds of acres of land at home, even if he bought cattle and horses, he still had more than 5,000 left. So when he went out this time, he exchanged all the remaining copper coins for easy-to-carry gold cakes, about ten taels.

He calculated in his mind: "If I only spend one or two thousand coins, I can let these garrison soldiers help me watch the prisoners. It's really a good deal."

Although Hei Fu made many arrangements and felt that everything was foolproof, on the fifth day of their departure, they passed through Xinshi County and Yu County, and stayed overnight in a forested and hilly area for dozens of miles. The escape still happened...

"Tingzhang, Hei Fu! Something bad has happened!"

Hei Fu was hastily awakened by Ji Ying and Dongmen Bao who were on duty. He rushed to the scene of the incident and looked at the rope that was broken by hard objects on the ground and the two removed wooden clamps. Hei Fu's face was heavy.

Li Xian, holding the list, counted the number of people and reported: "It was a thief who worked as a city guard. He ran away with a tomb robber!"

After questioning the prisoners on the side, Dongmen Bao also reported with sweat on his forehead: "The thief seemed to be able to open the lock. He unlocked the wooden clamp in a few strokes. I was too sleepy and took a nap. When I woke up, I..."

"Chase!"

Hei Fu glared at Dongmen Bao and Ji Ying, looked at the footprints of the couple running towards the south forest, and ordered: "We must chase them back! We must see the person alive or the body dead!"

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