The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In the first month of the spring of the 22nd year of Qin Wangzheng, the east wind thawed the ice, hibernating insects began to rustle, fish came out of the ice, otters offered fish as sacrifices, and wild geese came.

On the outskirts of Fangcheng County, standing on the grass where the snow was about to melt, Heifu pulled the 12-stone hard bow into a full moon shape and aimed the arrow at the flock of geese returning north in the sky. After aiming for a few breaths, he loosened his hand and the arrow flew away!

Although he had already made a full posture, his accuracy was far off, and he didn't even shoot down a goose feather...

"Hahaha, Heifu Pavilion Master's archery skills are only good at shooting green-headed geese. Want to shoot down geese? Forget it."

Gong Ao on the side laughed, but when he shot at the wild geese himself, he also missed. The two of them were entangled with the wild geese and got nothing, but Xiao Tao and Dongmen Bao had already returned with two mallards.

Heifu and his men arrived at Fangcheng County, Nanyang County, in the beginning of the twelfth lunar month. The weather was not very good this year, and the entire north encountered heavy snow, with a depth of two feet and five inches. Therefore, the prisoners and soldiers from Nanjun were required to stay in Fangcheng.

Fangcheng is not a city, but a "Great Wall". As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to prevent the chariots of the Xia Dynasty from driving south, the Chu State built many square castles with defensive functions on the mountains and ridges around the Nanyang Basin, which were called Fangcheng. In the Warring States Period, these castles were connected with stone or earth walls to form the Chu Great Wall that stretched for more than 300 miles. It was like a "gate" and guarded the northern border of the Chu State.

Fangcheng County is the eastern entrance of this square Great Wall.

But since Nanyang County was captured by the Qin State, Fangcheng has become the outpost of the Qin army's attack on the Chu State. This time, the army set out from Fangcheng County to attack Chen Cai in the east. The camp left by the army that attacked Chu last year became a ready-made shack for the prisoners and soldiers who arrived later.

Because of the continuous rain and snow, Heifu and his men stayed there for a whole month. Anyway, they were idle, so Heifu and his men continued to practice with weapons. Especially his weakness, archery, was strengthened under Xiao Tao's guidance. However, he could only shoot arrows within more than ten steps without missing a target. If he shot farther, he would lose his accuracy. As for difficult operations such as shooting geese, it was too difficult for him.

Gong Ao, a thief from Yan County, and the soldiers he escorted also lived next to Heifu and his men. Although Gong Ao's mouth was a bit wicked and he would say some weird things to satirize the Qin government from time to time, they were all from Nanjun and had a lot of exchanges on weekdays. They also made appointments to leave the camp to shoot birds together from time to time to improve the food for the soldiers.

When everyone returned to the wall where they were stationed, Ji Ying and Bu Cheng had already squatted by the earthen stove and boiled water. When everyone worked together to pluck the hair of the wild animals, Li Xian, who went to the county town to buy salt, also came back and told Hei Fu a piece of news.

"Captain, another group of garrison soldiers and prisoners have arrived in Fangcheng. I asked and they said they were from Nanzheng, Hanzhong County."

After hearing this, Hei Fu was thoughtful.

"Nanzheng is far away from here. Even the garrison soldiers from Nanzheng have arrived. This is probably the last batch."

In the past month or so, the garrison soldiers and prisoners have been doing nothing here to avoid the wind and snow, but many major events have happened in the world!

First, in mid-November, Chen Ying, which had been besieged by the Qin army for a long time, surrendered to the Qin State. It is said that it was the former prime minister of Qin, Changping Jun, who persuaded him to surrender. Unfortunately, Hei Fu's history is half-baked. He knows a few historical celebrities in the Chu-Han War, but he only knows one prime minister during the Qin Shihuang period, Lu Buwei, and one Li Si. The name of Changping Jun Xiong Qi was really unheard of, let alone his complicated relationship with the royal families of Qin and Chu.

Chen Ying was the secondary capital of Chu and an important town in the north. After the fall of Chen Ying, the king of Chu, who was already frightened by the Qin army, became a frightened bird. He hastily negotiated peace with Qin despite the opposition of Xiang Yan and other pro-war factions in the country.

After killing the king and usurping the throne, the king of Chu, Fu Chu, who had not yet stabilized the internal affairs, agreed to cede Chen Ying, Shangcai, and the areas west of Qingyang south of the Yangtze River to Qin in exchange for peace.

When the news of the truce between Qin and Chu came, the garrison soldiers of Anlu County were very happy. They were recruited because of this war. Now that the war is over, they will be able to disband and go home soon.

Others were fine. Although they wore out a lot of shoes from walking, they also saw big cities like Wancheng in Nanjun and felt that the trip was worthwhile. Only Dongmen Bao, who has always been warlike, was impatient. His wife was about to give birth, and he was anxious to go home and hug his son...

But Hei Fu poured cold water on everyone, telling them not to be too optimistic.

"The war with Chu has stopped temporarily, but it is far from over. It is still a long way to go back home!"

Hei Fu had already figured out the intention of Qin's attack on Chu: one of the purposes of the Qin army's attack on Chen Ying was to strike Chu and make the King of Chu stop his intention to form an alliance.

The second purpose was to control the Honggou, which was a canal dug during the reign of King Hui of Wei, connecting the Wei capital Daliang and Chen Ying. It was the most important transportation line between Liang and Chu. Now that Chen Ying had changed hands, Wei's support was completely cut off.

So Heifu guessed that the Qin army in the Chencai area might turn back to attack Wei, and these prisoners and garrison soldiers were prepared for this war to destroy Wei...

His guess was confirmed. The Qin war machine had no intention of stopping. Throughout December, garrison soldiers and prisoners from Nanjun, Hanzhong, and Nanyang counties gathered in Fangcheng County in an endless stream.

Every day, new teams arrived and were arranged to rest in the old camp under the wall.

The number of prisoners and garrison soldiers increased from hundreds at the beginning to one thousand, thousands, ten thousand, and tens of thousands... until the entire area of 10 miles inside the Fangcheng wall was densely packed with temporary huts. When eating breakfast and cooking, half of the sky was filled with black smoke.

When Heifu went out, he would meet these people, greet them, chat with them, and exchange food. Everyone spoke with different accents: the strong Chu accent of the people in Nanjun sounded very friendly, and the accent of the people in Nanyang could be understood even if they spoke slowly. But the soldiers from Hanzhong, especially those who wore hair and animal skins and dressed like barbarians, spoke obscure dialects that were completely incomprehensible...

Heifu knew that what made everyone travel hundreds of miles to gather here was a series of documents sent from Xianyang to various counties, and the documents were engraved with the will of the King of Qin!

Under the order of the King of Qin, these people from different counties were like small streams, manipulated by a huge force to gather together, gradually merged into rivers, and then merged into lakes.

The strong control of the Qin State over the grassroots was fully demonstrated when the war was approaching.

As expected by Heifu, after the snow melted in early January, everyone was gathered together, standing densely inside the square city, and for a time, people were shoulder to shoulder and crowded.

Hei Fu made a rough estimate and found that there were about 30,000 people, including about 5,000 from Nanjun, 10,000 from Hanzhong, and 15,000 from Nanyang.

The Nanyang County Lieutenant and Fangcheng County Lieutenant, who were in charge of commanding these garrison soldiers and prisoners, climbed up the wall and shouted to the crowd. In this era, there were no loudspeakers, so they could only let a few tall and strong soldiers stand every few dozen steps and pass on the message one by one, so that the county lieutenant's words could spread everywhere.

"The king's decree says: The King of Wei first agreed to submit to Qin."

"But he broke the alliance and wanted to attack Qin with the remnants of Han and Zhao."

"I want to punish him with soldiers and officials."

"Let Shao Shangzao Wang Ben lead the army of Chen Ying to go first."

"Nanyang, Hanzhong, Nanjun and other counties sent garrison soldiers and prisoners to assist them."

"If the prisoners and garrison soldiers do their best and have merit, they should be rewarded with titles; if they do not obey orders and are guilty, the generals and lieutenants will punish them!"

After the King of Qin's edict was read out, the military orders and regulations that the garrison soldiers and prisoners must abide by were read out again. At this time, everyone, including Gong Ao, had turned their heads and looked at Heifu. The meaning was very clear: "Heifu is right, it is indeed going to attack Wei!"

...

Early in the morning of the second day after this gathering, the county lieutenants who escorted the prisoners ordered everyone to cook. After a hearty meal, more than 30,000 people left their shacks, crossed the ancient Great Wall of Chu, and walked out of Nanyang County.

Because there were too many people, they were divided into two groups when leaving Fangcheng, each with about 15,000 people, taking the Yingchuan County and Shangcai routes respectively.

"Heifu, where are we going?"

Heifu and his group took the Yingchuan route. More than 10,000 soldiers and prisoners formed a long snake on the long road, passing through towns and villages along the way, but they did not stop and were in a hurry.

Ji Ying and others were all from small counties and had never seen such a big scene. The county lieutenant who led them forward did not announce the destination, so everyone was a little uneasy. The Wei State was so big, where would they be assigned to fight?

Heifu knew.

"There is only one possibility."

He pointed to the northeast and said with a smile: "Daliang!"

Daliang, the capital of Wei, is the richest and most prosperous city in the Central Plains. There are flourishing flowers, majestic palaces, and Wei soldiers and knights. The loyalty of Xinling is glorious in Daliang...

A huge war to destroy the country will unfold there.

"I finally caught up."

Hei Fu sighed. He knew that he was still involved in the tide of this great era, step by step, getting closer and closer to the center of the storm...

Although at this moment, he is just a small pavilion chief, just a small drop of water in this black wave, thrown among tens of thousands of people, it will be lost in the crowd and difficult to find traces.

But Hei Fu firmly believes that when the dust of the war settles, he will become one of the trendsetters in this great era of "Six Kings End, Four Seas One"!

In September of the 20th year of Qin Wangzheng (227 BC), in Anlu County, Nanjun of Qin State, it rained in the evening by the Yunmeng Lake, causing ripples on the lake water and hitting the banana leaves in all directions. Only those that fell on the roof of the guesthouse were unwillingly blocked by the tiles.

In a simple guesthouse by the lake, the "Sheren", the owner of the shop with gray temples, was humming a Chu folk song while busying around, but heard a dog barking outside, followed by a heavy knock on the door.

"Someone is coming so late." He cursed, then slowly moved over to open the door.

"Thank you, old man!"

The visitor came in in a panic. He was wearing a wet brown coat, a trousers, straw sandals, and a hairpin with a wooden stick. He fixed his hair on the left side of his head. When he looked up, he saw that he had dark skin, regular features, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and no beard under his chin. He was a young commoner of about 17 or 18 years old...

The young man wiped the rain off his face, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and bowed to the servant, saying, "Old man, it's raining and I want to stay in the guesthouse for one night."

"Do you have any proof or message?"

When he heard that this person wanted to stay in the hotel, the servant instantly became shrewd from an ordinary country old man, and his eyes swept to the short sword on the young man's waist.

"There is a certificate."

The young man dug into his bag and carefully took out the "certificate" made of poplar wood and the "transmission" cut from willow wood. Seeing that the words on them were not wet by the rain, he breathed a sigh of relief and handed them to the servant, introducing himself at the same time.

"I am Shiwu from Yunmeng Township, Anlu County. You can call me Heifu!"

"Heifu?"

The servant had many acquaintances in Yunmeng Township, but he had never heard of this person. His eyes wandered back and forth between the "certificate" and Heifu's face. This seriousness made Heifu feel as if he was checked by the police for his ID card in his previous life, and he broke out in a cold sweat for a while...

Heifu couldn't help but feel guilty, because his identity could be said to be real or fake!

It turned out that he was no longer the original Qin "Heifu", but a student of a police academy in a certain province in the 21st century. After graduation, he was admitted to the county police station. He went to the lake with his friends to celebrate, but unfortunately drowned while trying to save a little boy who fell into the water.

When he woke up again, he found himself lying on a hard couch, surrounded by a group of "strangers" in simple clothes, asking about his well-being.

Later he found out that these were his mother, brother, younger brother, etc. He probably encountered a clichéd plot called "time travel" in novels, and he went back more than 2,000 years ago and became a young man named "Heifu" from Anlu County of the Qin State!

"Heifu, isn't this the Qin soldier in the 'earliest family letter in China'?"

He had watched some programs reporting on the Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips, and was particularly impressed by the "Heifu Wooden Slip", but he did not expect that he would become the owner of that letter...

Thinking of his future, he shuddered, because the TV program said that Heifu wrote the letter in the military camp. The two brothers were just ordinary soldiers in the Qin army. Not only did they have to carry out combat missions, but they also lacked food and clothing. They had to write letters to their families asking for money to buy clothes. They said that if they didn't send money, someone would die! Urgent!

It is unknown whether Heifu sent the clothes and money he asked for to his family, but one thing is certain by archaeologists: during the excavation, only this letter was found in the tomb without Heifu's remains. In other words, Heifu was likely to have died in the war between Qin and Chu, leaving only this letter, which was taken into the tomb by his family as a thought...

"Will I die on the battlefield and my body will be gone?"

Heifu began to rack his brains to figure out how to avoid the fate of dying in the future. Before he could figure out a plan, the local village chief (lizheng) suddenly came to his door and asked to see him!

It turned out that Heifu was 17 years old this year. According to the laws of the Qin State, as an adult man, he should be "registered", that is, registered as a household name, and assume the obligation of military service.

Hei Fu was dumbfounded, thinking that he was going to be drafted to the battlefield. Although he had received some training in the police academy in his previous life and had seen blood during his internship, fighting alone is one thing, and fighting on the battlefield with millions of people is another.

His elder brother "Zhong" laughed after hearing his concerns and answered Hei Fu's doubts.

Qin State was very thoughtful in this regard. As the first time in his life, Hei Fu only needed to serve as a "night guard" in Anlu County for a month, helping the government to repair the city and stand guard, or receive military training. He would not go to the battlefield. Hei Fu was relieved.

The deadline for the Anlu County night guards to gather was the first day of October. Now it was the end of September, and the service period was imminent. Hei Fu had to pack his bags and set off in a hurry.

When they said goodbye outside the inner gate, his mother and elder brother gave him many instructions and warnings, which made Heifu, who lost his mother at a young age in his previous life and was lonely in his childhood, feel a little warmth of home and gradually began to accept this identity...

At this time, Heifu felt much more at ease. He thought: "Since I am here, I will make the best of it. Anyway, it is still early for the battle that determines my life and death. There is no point in worrying. It is better to watch and listen more, understand this era well, and slowly think of a way to save my life."

So Heifu put his anxiety behind him and began to look curiously at this country called "tyrannical Qin" in history books.

You don't know until you see it, and you will be shocked when you see it. Along the way, the Qin system

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