The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Will we live here for the next month?"

Walking to the leftmost hut in the row, Hei Fu frowned.

It was obvious that the house had been built a long time ago. The walls were made of earth, but many of the adobes were cracked and had holes. The wooden door was also old and there was even a fist-sized hole. On the roof, the thatch pressed by wooden beams and earth blocks was blown up by the wind, making people worry that they would be swept away at any time, and they didn't know whether it would leak in the rain...

In short, it was similar to the construction site shacks he had seen in his previous life, barely enough to accommodate him. The only thing that was acceptable was that the ground outside was shoveled clean, without a single weed left.

Ji Ying had already gotten used to it. After all, he had been a night watchman twice. He laughed at himself and said, "I miss my residence in the county prison. At least it doesn't leak, and I don't have to train to work."

As he said that, he pushed the door open for Hei Fu and joked, "Please come in, gentlemen."

"A good soldier, you know how to respect and humble yourself."

Hei Fu could only accompany him to have fun in misery. He had no choice but to bend down and go in, because the door was less than seven feet wide.

After entering the room, he found that there was no oil lamp inside, not even firewood was lit, and it was already a little dim. After his eyes adapted to the dimness in the room, Hei Fu could see the interior clearly.

In the narrow room, there was an aisle in the middle that could accommodate two people walking side by side. On the left and right sides, there was a soil platform about ten feet wide, slightly higher than the aisle, with a total of ten straw mats. This means that the night watchmen lived in "ten", ten people in one room.

When he entered the room, there were seven people chatting in the room. When Heifu came in, they stopped talking and turned around. Seven pairs of eyes looked at the uninvited guest!

At this time, Ji Ying also came in. Before he entered the room, he was shouting: "Are there people from Yushui Township?"

After he entered the room, he looked at the people inside, and his face suddenly became happy. He pointed at the two people on the bedding on the left and shouted: "Aren't these the two brothers, Zhu and Mu! It's your turn to serve in the first day!"

Heifu looked over and saw a small-eyed, round-faced dwarf who was only six and a half feet tall. Next to him was an eight-foot-tall strong man with big arms and thick shoulders, who was taller than Heifu. If Ji Ying hadn't shouted it out, he would never believe that these were two brothers...

"We are cousins." The two answered their doubts. They also recognized Ji Ying and smiled as they recognized him. It turned out that although they did not live in the same village, they served together last time, so they knew each other.

Heifu was a little embarrassed to call them by their names. 彘 means pig, and 牡 means bull, not peony. Did the parents of this pair of cousins agree in advance? They actually gave them names of animals.

But thinking about it, I felt relieved. Most of the common people in this era did not have surnames or clan names, which were things that only nobles had. They were named after an object after they were born. As for whether they were chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, flowers, plants, or trees, it all depended on fate. The nickname of Emperor Wu of Han was also 彘儿.

If parents did not want to refer to objects, they would also call them in order of age, such as Jiying. There was also the useless youngest son of Mr. Liu in Fengpei, Chu State, Liu Ji, who was almost 30 years old and had not yet married. He was idle all day long...

In addition, you may also be given a name that suits the occasion, such as Heifu, because he was born a black and fat boy. His younger brother Jing was named because his mother was frightened when she was about to give birth after ten months of pregnancy.

Therefore, the two brothers were particularly envious of their eldest brother Zhong. The name Zhong was given by their parents after they invited a fortune teller of that era, "Ri Zhe", to their home and looked through the imperial calendar "Rishu" of that era. It was very formal, decent and nice to hear...

After that, Zhui and Mu also helped introduce the other five people in the room.

"This is Xiao Tao, from Yunmeng Township." Xiao Tao was a short young man, the same age as Hei Fu. He was very shy and sat in the corner, taciturn.

"This is Ping, Ke, and Bu Ke, all from the vicinity of the county town."

Ping was in his twenties and indeed had an ordinary appearance. Like most common people of that era, he had blank eyes and dull gazes, and there was nothing impressive about him.

And that "Ke" and "Bu Ke" were also brothers. The names together were too funny, but Ke had acne scars all over his face, and Bu Ke had a pair of cross-eyed eyes and was also quiet with his lips pursed. Normally, brothers would not be conscripted together, but they were all adults and separated from their families, and were not "cohabitants", so they were conscripted together.

In general, these people were about the same age as Heifu, and at most they had participated in military service once or twice.

"This is Chao Bo, also from Yunmeng Township."

Finally, Zhu introduced the one closest to the innermost. This person was older, looked to be about 37 or 38 years old, with a long goat beard. I wonder if he was called "Bo" because he was the first brother in the family, or because he was older and got the honorific title?

Chao Bo was obviously a person of higher status in this group of people. He did not stand up and bow like the others, but just sat leisurely on the couch, nodded, and pointed at Heifu and said, "Young man, where are you from?"

Heifu had been silently remembering everyone's names just now, and now he bowed to them and said, "I'm from Yunmeng Township..."

"So we are from the same hometown." Chao Bo smiled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"You are young, so this is your first time to serve. It's okay. I will take care of you in the future... What's your name?"

"Heifu." Heifu smiled and replied softly.

"What!?" As soon as this was said, everyone in the room was shocked. Chao Bo, who was sitting cross-legged because of his age, stood up suddenly and looked at Heifu in surprise and said, "You are Heifu!"

"The Heifu who fought against the three thieves?" Zhu and Mu also looked at him in surprise.

Has my reputation spread to this place? Heifu was a little surprised and had to nod.

"Half of Anlu County is talking about your deeds today. We were just talking about you." The two brothers Ke and Bu Ke came over to talk, and their words were full of compliments.

"You... you... can you really, can you take the sword with bare hands?" Xiao Tao, who had been silent all the time, also spoke. It turned out that he was a stutterer. The look he gave Heifu was full of admiration.

Ji Ying was very proud now, and raised his head again and said: "Of course, Heifu brother is very good at martial arts. It was me who helped Heifu catch the thief, and he was even made a public official!"

"Really amazing." Ping, who lives in the county, also cast an envious look. He was concerned about Heifu's title.

"It's nothing." Heifu was still very humble, and waved his hand and said: "Everyone, please sit down and talk. From now on, we are all comrades. This is Heifu's first service, and I hope you can take care of me."

Everyone looked at each other and sat down again. However, with just a few short sentences, Heifu had already judged their attitude towards him.

Zhui and Mu were normally curious; Ke and Bu Ke were slightly afraid, perhaps because they were afraid that Heifu was a brave and aggressive person who would bully them; Ping envied Heifu's title; Xiao Tao was a young man's admiration for the brave, perhaps Heifu's courage to fight against the three thieves was what he longed to have...

As for Chao Bo? He looked like an old hand, and it was not clear what he was planning for the time being.

At this moment, Heifu realized that eight of the ten straw mats in the room had simple bedding spread out, and only two were still empty, which were probably the places reserved for Heifu and Jiying...

If you count them this way, there is still one person missing in the room.

"Where did the other person go?" Jiying also found out, he sat casually beside Zhui's bed and asked.

"That official went to the toilet." Zhui said cautiously, as if he was a little afraid of that person.

"So, there are two officials in this room."

Heifu took advantage of the last bit of light before dark and looked at the clothes of everyone in the room. He found that the rest of them were ordinary people, but he didn't know what kind of person the other official was and whether he was easy to get along with.

Just at this moment, the wooden door outside was kicked open by someone!

The cold wind blew in with the rain, and then a loud voice sounded:

"What bad luck, Nai Gong just went to pull the arrows, and it rained!"

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