The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

The river north of Echeng is more than ten miles wide. At a glance, you can't even see the outline of the land on the north bank. The evening breeze blows up the sparkling waves. The river tide hits the embankment of the dock and retreats lonely. There are still some sandbanks floating in the middle of the river.

These sandbanks of different sizes are called "Ezhu". Sixty years ago, it was also the autumn and winter. Qu Yuan was exiled to the south of the Yangtze River by the foolish King of Chu and came here.

The Sanlu doctor with a high hat and wide belt stood on the dock of Echeng and looked back at Yingdu. He sighed and left the poem "Riding Ezhu and looking back, ah, the autumn and winter wind"...

But now, if Qu Yuan was resurrected and stood in the same place, he might not be able to look back, because the ships of the Chu State have fled, and the tall Qin warships loaded with soldiers have set foot in the south of the Yangtze River.

Echeng stood by the river. In Heifu's opinion, this city was slightly larger than Anlu County. It had five gates, each named after its direction. Only the gate in the west corner was called Linjin Gate, facing the river to the north.

At present, since the E King had fled south with his armed forces, Echeng no longer resisted. The Linjin Gate was wide open, and some local elders came out to kneel and welcome the Qin army. Although this place was classified as "Southern Chu", its language and customs were not much different from those of Anlu and Zhucheng across the river.

So when Heifu took over the city with his troops, he did not feel the unkindness and hatred of the people in Chen County. The men, women, old and young in the city were still on guard against them, but when they heard the accent of the Anlu soldiers, they were not too afraid.

In the years before the Qin and Chu went to war, the two sides had frequent exchanges. Hei Fu remembered that when he was a pavilion chief, two of the first three robbers he caught were from Echeng, and the other child who followed the Qin people to rob the tomb of Ruo Ao was also from Dishaxian near Echeng.

Li You was also very satisfied with the attitude of the people in the city, and smiled to Hei Fu: "It seems that the method mentioned by the county magistrate, that the people of Nanjun should rule the southern part of Chu, is indeed worth a try."

This is the trick that County Magistrate Teng thought of for Qin to implement its rule in the southern part of the Yangtze River in the future. He believed that instead of sending officials who were not acclimatized to the local environment and did not understand the language from Xianyang and the Central Plains to serve as county magistrates, it would be better to choose local people of Nanjun who have recognized the laws of Qin and made contributions in the war as officials. This would reduce the resistance of the Chu people in the south of the Yangtze River and allow the administration to get on track as soon as possible.

Li You also joked that Heifu could consider it. After the war was over, he could go to Xianyang for a few years. When the Jiangnan region was established as a county, he might come to be a county lieutenant...

He made military achievements and became a five-rank official, entered Xianyang as an official, and then was sent to be a county lieutenant in a marginal county, and then worked hard to become a two-thousand-stone county governor... Although now that the six countries have been wiped out one after another, there are more people who have made achievements, and the five-rank official is not as valuable as before. It may take a right general or above to become a county lieutenant, but the promotion path of senior Qin officers is almost like this.

Just when Li You thought that if the counties in the south of the Yangtze River surrendered, he could take all the southern land of Chu before the beginning of spring, a military report from Dongting shattered his idea.

Seeing Li You frowning, Heifu secretly said, "Maybe the Bashu army in the west encountered obstacles..."

This time, Qin State took the southern land of Chu State and mobilized a total of three troops: the boat division, the Nanjun troops, and the Bashu troops.

When Wei Tu Sui set out from Jiangling, his hundreds of ships were carrying more than 10,000 soldiers from Bashu. They passed through Zuoyou Yunmeng, entered Dongting Lake, disembarked at the mouth of Xiangjiang River, and attacked Changsha and Qingyang, which is Hunan in later generations, under the leadership of the Bajun Wei.

Then the empty ships continued to move eastward, reaching the river between Zhucheng and Echeng to destroy the Ejun boat division, and then carried the Nanjun soldiers across the river. Li You's target was Echeng, and more than a hundred miles to the south, the largest copper mine in the world: Tonglu Mountain!

Unexpectedly, while the progress here was smooth, there was no news from the Bashu soldiers.

Heifu said meaningfully: "Chu has been operating Changsha and Qingyang for a long time. The Qu family also killed the envoys who went to surrender. They looked like they would never give up. I'm afraid they are facing a tough battle."

Chu has been developing Hunan for a long time. As early as the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Changsha, which was rich in millet and rice, was an important granary of Chu. As the saying goes, "Chou (chóu), Pang, Changsha, are the millet of Chu." When Wu Qi entered the Warring States Period, he annexed the Manyue in the south, and then had Dongting and Cangwu, almost incorporating the entire Hunan into the territory of Chu, which has been 160 years.

After the Battle of Yan and Ying, many people in Yingdu fled to Changsha and rebuilt cities there. Because Qingyang and Changsha were both granted to the Qu family as county lords, the Qu family was the descendant of Qu Yuan and had always been anti-Qin, so the Chu people there were the most fierce in resisting Qin.

As expected, Li You sneered and slapped the silk book, saying: "The Ba County Commandant was blocked at Wujia Pass and had no success for more than a month, while the entire Qu family was mobilized to fight, singing Qu Yuan's "National Mourning" and "Lament for Ying" by the Miluo River. The Bashu soldiers had a hard time and could only ask me for help. I hope that after I take Echeng, I can go to support and destroy the Qu family together."

Hei Fu asked: "What do you think, Commandant? Will you help or not?"

"The Qu family has thousands of soldiers and is the largest feudal lord in the south of the Chu State. Of course, we have to help and annihilate them!"

Although Li You was dissatisfied with the Bashu soldiers, he did not dare to ruin the overall situation. He planned to send people to seize Tonglu Mountain first, control the mineral deposits there, and then attack Shaxian and go along the river to reinforce.

After hearing his plan, Hei Fu's heart moved and asked: "The commander wants to go to Changsha, what about Fan, Ai, and Gan land south of Jiujiang?"

These places are Jiangxi in later generations. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Jiangxi was the territory of the Yangyue people, and the Chu State only had a few small towns on the riverside. It was not until Wu Qi that "Yangyue was taken in the south and Chen and Cai were annexed in the north". From then on, the Chu State controlled Jiangxi and went deep into the end of the Ganjiang River. The "Limen Pass" was built at the northern foot of the Wuling Mountains, facing the Baiyue across the mountains. This place became the southernmost place of the Chu State and even the seven countries of China. As for Guangdong and Guangxi? I'm afraid it looks not much different from the Amazon rainforest...

Although it has been operated for more than a hundred years, the development of Jiangxi is not as good as that of Jiangdong, let alone Changsha. The Chu State only has a few feudal lords there, gathered in four or five counties and towns, maintaining a point-like rule. 90% of the area is still the territory of the Yue people.

Li You was ordered to take over the land in the south of the Yangtze River, and Jiangxi was naturally within his target. Although it was obviously more important to go to Changsha to eliminate the Qu family at the moment, he couldn't just ignore it...

When Li You was hesitating, Hei Fu took the opportunity to volunteer: "I am willing to share the worries of the captain and lead the troops to the east!"

...

When Hei Fu returned to his troops, they had already completed the robbery of the E Jun's treasury. Ji Ying was shouting at everyone to move the bronzes out of the E Jun's mansion. Seeing Hei Fu coming, he happily reported to him:

"County lieutenant, although the E Jun's treasury is not as good as the Shouchun Chu King's Palace, it is also different from ordinary feudal lords. His mansion is built like a palace, and gold (bronze) wares are everywhere. Not only are they of good quality, but they are also large!"

After that, he pointed at Dongmen Bao who was carrying a large tripod with several soldiers and said, "According to the instructions of the county lieutenant, the large ritual vessels will be left to the commander-in-chief, and the rest will be distributed to the county lieutenants of each county. We, the military officers, will pick up some small and insignificant vessels and take them back to make copper materials and melt them, which can also exchange for a lot of money!"

"Of course, the E King is rich in Chu."

Hei Fu picked up a copper knot that fell on the ground and found that there were more than ten lines of gold inscriptions on it. It turned out that these were the boat knots and car knots issued by the King of Chu to the E King, stipulating that the E King's cars and ships were basically not required to pay taxes when passing through the territory of Chu. This was a great privilege. In addition, the E King controlled the mining of Tonglu Mountain, which was why he was so rich.

Unfortunately, the E King who fled in a hurry did not have time to take all this away, and it was all cheap for the Nanjun soldiers.

Heifu thought to himself, "Why did Lieutenant Li leave the Qingyang Qu family alone and come to fight the E Lord? I guess he thinks that the E Lord has more money to make. Poor Lieutenant of Bashu, he just had to chew on a hard bone without meat..."

As the war deepened, the mentality of the Qin army also changed. At first, they only went for the title and land, but after tasting the sweetness of Shouchun, the Qin soldiers suddenly found that robbing the nobles of the Chu State seemed to make as much money as the reward from the King of Qin.

Most of the things in the Chu Palace were sent to Xianyang, but the treasure houses of the nobles in various places were cheap for the soldiers. After this battle alone, Heifu felt that his property had increased by 20 or 30 taels, and the bronze, gold, silver and jewelry obtained by Li You were converted to more than 100 taels...

Even Tu Sui, the captain of the fleet, got exquisite bronzes worth dozens of taels. The fleet specially left a fleet to transport these spoils back to Nanjun.

"War money." Hei Fu couldn't help but sigh: "It's really easy to make money."

"Brother, is this behavior allowed by law?"

A timid voice came from the side, it was Hei Fu's younger brother Jing, who also wore the Qin army's black armor. Jing had graduated from the academy last fall. When Hei Fu returned, he just caught up with him and the lady of the Yan family, and then encountered the campaign to conquer Jiangnan.

Jing was no longer a disciple, and he had been "separated" from Hei Fu, so he lost the preferential treatment of exemption from military service and not being conscripted at the same time as cohabitants. In addition, Hei Fu wanted to help him get gilded, so he let him join the army and become a clerk. Jing was holding a pen to record these shocking wealth, and he was uneasy. The young man learned to follow the rules in the academy, and it was the first time he saw such a scene.

"When the water is too clear, there will be no fish."

Hei Fu said lightly, and comforted him: "Besides, the feudal lords of Chu who resisted Qin were not protected by the law. Part of their private property was given to the meritorious service, and the rest was distributed to the soldiers to comfort the suffering of the war. What's wrong with that?"

However, it was not time to roll around in these properties. Hei Fu asked the military officials to come to him for a small meeting after moving the treasury of the E Lord.

"The captain's plan has changed. He will no longer advance eastward, but will turn around to help the Bashu soldiers fight Qingyang and Changsha. He ordered me to continue to go downstream with the Louchuan boat division to capture Jiangxi."

"Where is Jiangxi?" Dongmen Bao and others looked at each other. Hei Fu said it smoothly, and the place name had not appeared yet.

"It is Fan, Ai, Yugan and other places south of the Yangtze River."

"Only Anlu led one?" Li Xian asked with concern. Although Hei Fu brought out 1,500 people this time, and even Xiao Tao was a leader of 500, it was still not enough.

"Five hundred men from Yan County, five hundred from the county, five hundred from Jingling, plus the Anlu soldiers, a total of three thousand men, all under my command."

Heifu took out the tiger talisman that Li You gave him and said with a smile, "From now on, I am the 'Sima of the Separate Department'!"

The subordinates of the Duwei include the military Sima, whose rank is six hundred stones. Among them, those who lead other camps are called Sima of the Separate Department. The number of soldiers they lead varies from time to time and is not fixed. Their status is between that of the Duwei and the leader, and they often serve as the commander of a detachment.

When everyone heard this, they knew that Heifu had been promoted again, so they bowed down and congratulated him.

This time, Heifu took the initiative to volunteer to share Li You's worries, and also took the opportunity to ask for the person he liked.

The three five hundred masters are Gong Ao from Yan County. This guy has officially become a five hundred master by relying on Heifu's military exploits. There is also Shi Anpu, the Wei of Jingling, with whom Heifu had a good relationship when he was a pavilion chief. Finally, there was Man from Ying County. He stayed in Nanjun during the war against Chu but didn't make it. This time, he finally came along.

With these old acquaintances as subordinates, Heifu was very confident in conquering Jiangxi.

Although Jiangxi was a large territory, it was still a wild place. Three thousand people were enough. The feudal lords of Chu there were also poor, and there were many Yue tribes. I'm afraid there wouldn't be much money to be made. It was a job that everyone avoided, but...

"Although there are not many troops, this is also the first time I lead the army on my own!"

This is what Heifu pursued. Although it was not bad to follow Li You, he wanted to lead the army alone. This was not only a training for himself, but also a rare qualification.

"In this way, there is no need to share the credit with the superiors. Everything during this period is up to me!"

In the words of later generations, it is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix!

Besides, although in the eyes of Li You and the others, Heifu's trip was just to conquer a few small counties and subdue a few Yue tribes, but thousands of years later, the description of this military action might become...

"Heifu conquered a province!"

Or "Heifu, the hero who opened up Jiangxi!"

"The people of Jiangxi will remember me, maybe they will build a sculpture for me, or name a main road 'Heifu Road'." Heifu thought happily...