The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

After burning down the houses in Blind Mountain, Heifu and his men went to the county town the next day to report and receive rewards.

Everyone entered the temple empty-handed, but came out with their hands full. Everyone was still smiling and congratulating Xiao Tao.

"Xiao Tao's arrow was a lifesaver. If it had been a little later, we wouldn't be standing here now." This was Dongmen Bao's praise.

"Don't think he's silent on weekdays, but he's really reliable at critical moments." This was Ji Ying's praise.

"Xiao Tao's title of a duke is well deserved." This was Li Xian's words, but there was some loneliness and envy in his eyes.

Xiao Tao was a dull young man who didn't talk much and was always inconspicuous. Now he suddenly became the focus, and his face flushed with anxiety. He touched the "official scholar" scarf on his head and felt that it was not real. After leaving the official temple, he immediately bowed to Heifu and said:

"I can have... today, today, thanks to the head of the pavilion."

Heifu quickly helped him up: "Xiao Tao, this time, the merit and title are all based on your own ability. If you hadn't shot the village guard and bluffed with the copper whistle to scare the villagers, I'm afraid it would be more dangerous. It should be us who thank you."

As the leader of the pavilion, Heifu was very fair when reporting the case. He praised everyone's performance truthfully without hiding anything. Especially Xiao Tao, perhaps because the expectations for this young man were not high, his bravery and intelligence always gave people surprises.

In the end, the government decided that Xiao Tao was the number one meritorious official, so the village guard who instigated the villagers to kill officials and flee was beheaded as the first level, and Xiao Tao was awarded the title of public scholar.

Because there are many people in Blind Mountain, they are just a group of unruly people, neither a group of bandits nor fugitives, so it is difficult to discuss rewards. In the end, except for Xiao Tao who was promoted to Gongshi, they were collectively rewarded with only 30 gold, equivalent to 15,000 coins. Hei Fu got more than 5,000 coins, and the rest of the money was divided according to their different merits.

In this way, Ji Ying and Li Xian, who were still soldiers, could not help but envy Xiao Tao. Li Xian kept silent, but Ji Ying sighed and said that he didn't know when he could get a title.

It was still Qiu Dao Dongmen Bao who thought openly. He patted the shoulders of the two of them and laughed: "With Hei Fu leading you, are you afraid of missing the opportunity to make merit and get a title? You two, don't you see how much gold and coins you have been rewarded in the past six months?"

It would be better if they didn't say it. Once it was mentioned, everyone thought carefully and it was true. Since Hei Fu took office on a snowy day, although they only solved two cases, they were both major cases that shocked the whole county.

The title of Qin is not so easy to earn, but the money is really a lot. Before, everyone's family was not rich: Dongmen Bao was a porter, Xiao Tao's family was poor, Ji Ying and Li Xian's family was slightly better, but they could only make ends meet.

With the money from the reward, the four people now have the level of a middle-class family, their clothes are not shabby, and they can even think about getting themselves a suitable sword. In this way, they only need a horse, and the things that are indispensable for men in this era will be complete.

They attributed all this to Heifu. There are many pavilions in Anlu County, as many as 10 or 20, but not every pavilion has such good luck. The pavilion chief must be capable to lead his men to earn credit...

"It's not my credit, it's the cooperation of everyone." Heifu was full of humility.

It was a good thing to be trusted by his subordinates, but Heifu also realized through this incident that his future path to promotion would not be as smooth as before.

Why? It was not because someone in the county deliberately suppressed him, but because... the experience bar for upgrading had become longer.

When he first came to this era, Heifu had also thought: "Since a soldier can get a first-level title if he kills an enemy head; in this way, as long as he kills 20 enemies, he can get a 20th-level title?"

He quickly rejected this stupid idea. How could a title be so easy to earn? If that were the case, Qin would definitely be "Marquises everywhere, and commoners as many as dogs".

The Qin government was not stupid. Shang Yang, who formulated this merit system, was very smart!

Slowly, Heifu found out that the calculation methods for military merits of officers and soldiers were very different. For example, he is now a Shangzao, and in the army, he is at least a sergeant, or even a garrison chief.

In war, he had to lead 50 men to the battlefield. First of all, he had to ensure that the number of deaths in the garrison was less than the number of beheadings, so as not to be punished. The garrison chief had to lead the soldiers to kill the enemy and behead them. If he himself was cowardly and did not get any heads, he would be executed!

But even if he chopped off a few heads, the garrison chief still could not be promoted, because military law stipulated that only after the "hundred-man team" had captured 33 heads, the hundred generals and garrison chiefs could be awarded titles.

In short, soldiers were promoted according to individual merits, while officers were promoted according to collective merits.

In addition, in order to prevent senior officers from not doing their jobs and competing with ordinary soldiers for merits. Qin law even explicitly stipulated that those with titles above the rank of doctor should command the soldiers to charge well and should not stop suddenly to cut heads. If they did so, they would be exiled!

So it is not surprising that every time Wu'an Jun Bai Qi fought against the enemy, he was extremely pursuing the number of beheadings. As far as Changping is concerned, if Wu'an Jun had not cut off the heads of 400,000 Zhao soldiers, I'm afraid that the officers and soldiers at all levels below would have ended up with a futile effort because the number of heads cut off was not enough...

Although the superficial reason was "fear of chaos", the real purpose was still to behead. Therefore, the life and death of those Zhao soldiers were no longer decided by Bai Qi alone, or even by the King of Qin, but were pushed under the butcher's knife by the Qin military merit system and the desire of hundreds of thousands of Qin soldiers for promotion and merit...

This was the case during wartime, and it was also the case for officials to evaluate merit in peacetime.

When Heifu was still a soldier or a public official, he was basically promoted to a higher level for each great merit, but when he was promoted to Shangzao, it was another matter.

The county magistrate told him that his merit this time had been recorded in the merit slips, and he had to make another great merit before he could be promoted to the third level "Zhan Niao".

"It's just a small pavilion department. It's a blessing to solve two major cases in half a year. I don't want any more trouble in the jurisdiction. If this continues, the road to promotion will be far away..."

Thinking of this, Heifu led the people of Huyang Pavilion to the gate of Anlu County. The embers in Blind Mountain were still hot, and here, the cruel death penalty was about to begin...

...

The Qin State did not have the later "autumn and winter execution" tradition. Generally, the trial, judgment, and punishment of the case were completed within two months, and the death penalty was no exception. Even the food provided to officials was fussy, so how could the death row prisoners be allowed to eat and drink for free in prison?

The 13 main criminals in the Blind Mountain case will be executed outside the market today, and the people of Anlu County are crowded with people watching.

The ten people who were tortured were better. They just beheaded and the bodies were split. Although the dead bodies were humiliated, they didn't suffer too much.

The chariot was different. When the carriage began to move slowly, the criminals screamed for mercy and the sound of bones breaking resounded throughout the Anlu market. Because the scene was too bloody and cruel, even several officials who watched the execution vomited bitter bile.

Xiao Tao, Ji Ying and others also turned pale, and Li Xian turned his head away, unable to bear to watch.

On the contrary, Dongmen Bao was very excited. This guy was born with a special preference for blood.

Hei Fu also looked a little pale, and soon withdrew from the execution site. Although there was some physical discomfort, for some reason, compared with the slight pity for the executed thief "Pan" when he first came to this era, his sympathy was not so overflowing.

Perhaps it is because, regardless of the past and present, all the police have similar experiences. From the naivety of the newcomers to the numbness of the commonplace, Heifu's heart has become much harder after what he has seen and heard for half a year...

In this situation, he suddenly remembered a sentence that the senior police officer who told them about his experience in fighting against human trafficking in his previous life warned them:

"A kind person cannot command an army, and a good person cannot be a police officer!"

Although he had some complaints about Qin Lu's implicate of dozens or hundreds of people, Heifu knew what they had done and they deserved to die. For the extremely vicious criminals, is there any other way except to stop evil with evil?

If you want to kill demons, you must first become the blood-stained Wei Tuo!

Heifu has such an awareness.

When the execution was over and everyone was walking on the road to the South Gate, Heifu found that the people around him looked at him with some unusual eyes.

If the first time he captured the three thieves, he made a name for himself, and the people of Anlu County simply praised him, but the praise did not last long and was forgotten in a month or so.

Then the second time, Heifu gave 4,000 yuan to Gongshi Quji, and his reputation for "righteousness" spread throughout the county, and the people of Anlu County respected him. The respect lasted longer, but only a few years.

And this time, Heifu led the people of the Pavilion Department to capture more than a hundred people and brought them to justice, almost wiping out an entire village. In addition, today the government publicly executed 13 people in a cruel way, warning the people of the whole county "Don't imitate!"

So the eyes of the people of Anlu County looked at Heifu and his men, and they became respectful and fearful. When they saw them from afar, they had to bow to them carefully and then step aside.

Although he felt the change in the eyes of others, Heifu still smiled and nodded to everyone who greeted him.

Dongmen Bao was different. He pursued the feeling of being looked up to and respected by others. He was very happy, with a bulging belly, and even walked with a proud look...

However, not everyone was in awe of them. At the crossroads leading to the South Gate, there was a rider, riding a galloping horse, and he didn't slow down at all, and passed by them. Not only did Ji Ying sit on the ground in fear, but Dongmen Bao was almost hit!

"Don't you have eyes, you bastard?"

Dongmen Bao pointed at the horse's butt and cursed, but the rider on the horse just looked back and even smiled.

Dongmen Bao was so angry that he gritted his teeth and said, "Heifu, do you want to chase him and see who is so bold? Charge him with galloping in the street!"

Before Heifu could speak, Ji Ying quickly got up and said, "Abao, don't make trouble. Look at the rider's dress. He must be a messenger sent by Nanjun."

He himself was a member of the postal system, so he was naturally familiar with the identity of that person.

"When a messenger delivers an expedited letter, even if he rides a horse in the street, no one will say he is not a messenger. Besides, he carries a yellow bamboo tube on his back. Did you see it?"

Heifu also asked curiously, "What is the meaning of the yellow bamboo tube?"

Ji Ying said, "That color is used by the government to report victory! It must have been first transmitted from Xianyang to Nanjun, and then passed down from county to county..."

"Report victory?" Everyone looked at each other, and for a moment they didn't understand where the victory came from.

Hei Fu's face changed again and he said, "Could it be..."

He turned around and looked to the north. In the sky above, the thick clouds were blown to pieces by a gust of wind...

Hei Fu's guess was correct. Sure enough, the next day, the magistrate of Anlu County sent a postman to announce a good news to all the villages and pavilions!

"Good news from the north. By order of the king, the general has taken Yan Ji City and captured the head of the assassination of the king, Prince Dan! The army has returned in triumph! Congratulations to the king, Qin will win!"

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