The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

At noon, Hei Fu sat under a tree with his sword across his knees. Although the prisoners were tied to the tree in groups of two and watched by the guards, Hei Fu could still feel their restlessness...

Desertion is contagious. In the army, if one person deserts, the whole group of people will flee together. It is the same for escorting prisoners. If nothing goes wrong, it will be fine. Once someone escapes, it will ignite the desire of others to follow suit, and they will swarm away and cannot be stopped.

So at this time, Hei Fu must not rush to chase the two escaped people in person. Maybe the two were caught, but the people here all ran away...

He asked Dongmen Bao and Li Xian to ride their red horses and chase after the footprints on the ground. The two prisoners broke the ropes tied to their wrists and removed the wooden clamps, but they did not have time to untie the knotted hemp ropes on their feet. With two people and three legs, they could not run far.

Heifu himself stayed where he was, and ordered Xiaotao to hold the crossbow, climb up the tree and sit down, staring at the remaining prisoners without blinking. Jiying went to cook rice for the soldiers.

After a while, the rice soup was cooked, and Jiying brought a bowl to Heifu. He and Dongmenbao lost the prisoners while on duty at night, and he was very ashamed at this moment. He said to Heifu guiltily: "It's all my fault that I was not vigilant enough and let the prisoners escape. Also, if I hadn't chosen this road at the beginning, maybe nothing would have happened..."

Before leaving, Heifu and the people in the pavilion discussed that they had two routes to choose from for this official business: one was to go north from Anlu County to Sui County and Tang County, and then cross Tongbai Mountain to enter the territory of Nanyang County. This road is 650 miles away from Fangcheng County.

The second route is farther, going west from Anlu County to Xinshi County, then passing through the hills and forests in front of you to Yu County and Yan County, going north to Xinye and Wancheng in Nanyang County, and then to Fangcheng County, a total of 800 miles.

Ji Ying is a postman, and as the only person who has been out of Anlu County, Hei Fu asked him to choose the route.

Ji Ying said that although the first route is closer, Tang and Sui counties were conquered more than 20 years ago and are called "new lands". The public security is not very good and thieves often appear. Moreover, the Tongbai Mountain area is mountainous and densely forested, and accidents can happen if you are not careful, so it is better to take the west route. Although it takes a few more days, there are towns and pavilions along the way, and safety is guaranteed. The only dangerous place is the sparsely populated forest between Xinshi County and Yu County.

Unexpectedly, something went wrong here.

Heifu did not blame Jiying too much. After walking for several days, everyone was very tired and it was inevitable that they were distracted for a while.

"We chose the road together. If we took the northern route, there might be more people who escaped. I believe that Abao and Lixian can capture the dead!"

He and Lixian and Dongmenbao made an appointment that if they did not find anyone before dark, they must come back...

It was only noon now, and there were still a few hours to wait.

Heifu knew that he couldn't show too much nervousness, so after dinner, he pretended to be relaxed and asked Jiying to find water to grind ink. He took out a pen and a blank bamboo slip and started writing on it...

He wrote "Dead Man's Notes", and the pavilion chief had the responsibility to record the characteristics of the escapee: "The deceased is Liao, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for theft. He is about 25 years old, about 6 feet 8 inches tall, with a red face, thick hair, no beard, wearing a brown robe and a white single coat, carrying a stone of rice..."

In addition, there are tomb robbers who ran away with Liao, and they must also be recorded. If Heifu can't catch them back today, he can only hand over this document to the local pavilion chief at the next pavilion. Ask the local police comrades to issue a wanted order and arrest the escaped criminals according to their physical characteristics - when he was the pavilion chief at Huyang Pavilion, Heifu also took over a similar job.

Once he handed over the deceased's letter, it was equivalent to admitting that he had let the prisoner escape. Regardless of whether the fugitive was captured afterwards, Heifu would be held responsible. For each person who escaped, he would be fined two armors, equivalent to more than 2,000 yuan. But if he did not hand it over, he would be punished more severely when he counted the number of people at the place.

So escorting corvée was really a thankless and arduous task. No wonder Zuo Wei appointed Heifu to do this.

Of course, Qin law did not kill people with one stick, "If a general dies and can capture the fugitive himself or his relatives know about the capture, he will be innocent..." This means that if Heifu himself, or his relatives and friends can stay and capture the fugitive together with the local police, he can be considered innocent!

After writing the "Dead Man's Letter", Heifu remembered this and thought: "More than ten years later, Liu Bang will face the same choice as me. Maybe he chose to become a bandit because there were too many people running away. Even if he mobilized all his friends and brothers in Pei County, he couldn't catch them one by one. "

But Liu Bang's choice is something Heifu can't learn.

Not to mention that it is the time when Qin unified the world, the First Emperor is in his prime and can live for more than ten years. Anyone who rebels at this time is seeking death. Liu Bang is a calm man who can watch his old father being boiled to death and smiles and says "Lucky to have a share of the pie". After becoming a bandit, he was indifferent when his wife and children were arrested by the government.

Heifu is different. Heifu takes care of his family. His mother, brothers, nephews and nieces are all his ties. He has finally arranged everything. He can't ignore them because he is afraid of punishment for a while.

Time passed slowly. Except for the occasional bird calls in the sky, the surroundings were quiet and the atmosphere was particularly depressing. As the sun tilted towards the west, the forest gradually darkened. Ji Ying began to pace back and forth nervously. Xiao Tao was also uneasy on the tree. As for the prisoners, they became more and more agitated. The guards in charge of guarding them were also whispering something...

"Abao's wife is seven months pregnant. He had thought about escaping before. Could it be..." Ji Ying's heart palpitated to the extreme, and he began to make random guesses.

Hei Fu glared at him: "A Bao has always been the most loyal person, could he be that kind of person?"

Ji Ying was stunned and shook his head in shame: "No, I was just guessing."

He walked closer and whispered to Hei Fu: "Brother Hei Fu, if you can't catch the person this time, you need a fortune of four hundred taels, I can pay half of the money..."

Hei Fu smiled: "I know that you just talked about a marriage in the village last month, and it is scheduled to be married next year. The marriage proposal cost a lot, more than two thousand yuan, which is all your savings."

Ji Ying muttered: "I, Ji Ying, am not a righteous person. Since I can't catch the person, I can only pay the money... Besides, if the money is gone, I can earn it again by following Brother Hei Fu."

He thought clearly, but at this moment, there was a loud neighing of horses from the other end of the road!

"Yes... they are back!"

Xiao Tao on the tree shouted loudly. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xian rushed over on horseback, shouting, and rode in front of Hei Fu, then jumped off the horse and bowed, saying: "Captain, we have fulfilled our mission!"

Hei Fu smiled. He saw a bloody man lying on the red horse. Li Xian pushed him and fell heavily in front of the prisoners...

But they saw that the man was already dead, with dried blood all over his body, and a wound pierced by a sword on his back, almost through his chest.

The prisoners were shocked. This man was the tomb robber who had escaped before!

"Hahaha, we are back!"

Dongmen Bao's arrogant laughter also arrived as promised, but he also saw a bloody head on his waist. It was the little thief Liao who was written by Hei Fu on the "Dead Man's Letter" as "red face, thick hair, no beard". The head without a body had wide eyes and died unwillingly.

Dongmen Bao imitated Li Xian and threw the head in front of the prisoners. His fierce eyes shot out light: "These two are really brave. They took advantage of the public's inattention and ran away. Unfortunately, they didn't run fast enough!"

...

If the night guards who served corvée labor escaped and did not resist with force, they could only be captured alive, but not killed.

But if they served as garrison soldiers, it would be a military service, and Hei Fu was equivalent to their superior. In the army, superiors have the power to directly order the killing of soldiers without judicial trial! Heifu also had the right to regard prisoners who disobeyed orders and fled as deserters and kill them.

"If you die now, you will die too" is not just a saying.

After arriving at the next pavilion, Heifu wrote a letter about the dead prisoners and the events, and handed it to the local pavilion chief, asking him to send a message to Anlu County on his behalf, and the matter was over.

After this incident, the prisoners were frightened by killing the chicken to scare the monkey, and no more escaped. On the seventh day of the journey, the group arrived at Yu County without any danger. So far, a quarter of the journey has been traveled.

But Heifu still didn't let his heart go. As the saying goes, there are only thieves who can do thieves for a thousand days, but there are no thieves who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. People have limited energy, not to mention passive coping, which consumes more energy. There are still twenty days to go, and there will always be negligence. Next time, I am afraid that I will not be so lucky to catch and kill people.

So Heifu thought about it and had to think of a way to make the prisoners settle down.

When leaving Anlu County, Heifu had earnestly told the prisoners that this trip north to serve was a chance for them to atone for their sins. Qin law stipulated that as long as the slaves and concubines and the city guards made meritorious deeds on the battlefield, they could use the first-level title to restore their freedom. Similarly, the title could also redeem the freedom of relatives. Parents needed two levels of titles, and wives and children only needed one level...

However, the prisoners just looked at Heifu as if he were a fool. Some people even whispered that what they did was mostly transporting food and filling ditches. How could they have any merit? Moreover, as the person who sent them to prison, no one believed what Heifu said.

Therefore, it would not work to use the "dignity of Qin law" to deter the good people and soldiers in the past.

After thinking about it, Heifu finally came up with an idea.

While resting in Yu County, he found a middle-aged man with a dark face and loose hair among the garrison soldiers. When Heifu found him, he was sitting on a stone slab, fiddling with some yarrow, occasionally looking up at the sun, closing his eyes and muttering something, looking mysterious.

"Bucheng, what are you doing?"

Hearing Heifu's call, Bucheng hurriedly messed up the yarrow on the ground, stood up and smiled and bowed, saying: "Captain, I am calculating the weather tomorrow according to the "Daily Book"."

"You have calculated the weather quite accurately along the way, even the prisoners believe it and think you are not an ordinary person."

Heifu's garrison soldiers were quite kind, but they also knew that Bucheng was not so much calculating as guessing by looking at the clouds.

He asked, "I heard from Ji Ying that you are a well-known fortune teller in Yushui Township, and your family has inherited the "Daily Book".

"You are too kind, you are too kind." The village charlatans could not compare with the high-ranking alchemists of Yan and Qi. These people helped people to look at houses, calculate days, or organize funerals to make a living, so Bu Cheng wore coarse linen clothes, bowed and nodded, without any taste of immortality.

Moreover, in Qin State, even fortune tellers could not escape military service. When the official stood in front of him, Bu Cheng was as nervous as ordinary people.

"Don't be afraid." Hei Fu said with a smile: "I just want to ask, how much does it cost for you to do a divination on weekdays?"

Bu Cheng was a little entangled, and he didn't know what Hei Fu was going to do. After a while, he raised a finger and said: "For divination by a soldier, ten coins...for divination by an official, five coins."

It's really cheap, Hei Fu smiled; "Only five coins? What if I am willing to pay three hundred coins and ask you to do a divination?"

As he spoke, Hei Fu stuffed a heavy cloth bag into Bu Cheng's hand. When he opened it, it turned out to be the shining Qin Banliang. The eyes of this folk divinationist suddenly lit up...

Hei Fu was helpless. Since these prisoners could no longer be frightened by Qin law...

Then, he could only scare them with the words of ghosts and gods!

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