At three o'clock in the morning, 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 were watched by the guards, Hei Fu could still feel their restlessness...
…
Fleeing is contagious. In the army, if one person deserts, he will lead the entire army to flee. Is it the same with escorting prisoners? Usually nothing happens, but once someone escapes, others will be set on fire.
The desire to imitate is swarming and cannot be stopped.
So at this time, Heifu must not get mad and chase the two people who escaped. Maybe the two people were caught back, but everyone here was gone...
He asked Dongmen Bao and Li Xian to ride their bay-red horses and chase them along the tracks on the ground. The two prisoners broke the ropes that tied their wrists and removed the wooden clamps, but their feet were tied with dead knots.
But there was no time to untie the hemp rope, and the two of them could not run very far.
Heifu himself stayed on the spot to control the situation. He ordered Xiao Tao to hold a crossbow, climb up a tree and sit down, staring at the remaining prisoners without blinking. Ji Ying went to bury the pot and make rice.
, let the garrison soldiers have enough food.
After a while, the rice was cooked, and Ji Ying brought a bowl to Hei Fu. He and Dongmen Bao lost the prisoner on duty at night. At this moment, he was very ashamed. He said guiltily in front of Hei Fu: "It's all my fault for not being very vigilant."
, let the prisoner escape. Also, if I had not chosen this path, maybe nothing would have happened..."
Before setting off, Heifu discussed with everyone in the pavilion that they had two options for this business trip: one was to go north from Anlu County, to Suixian County, Tangxian County, and then through Tongbai Mountain and into Nanyang.
County boundary, this road is 650 miles away from Fangcheng County.
The second road is further away, going west from Anlu County to Xinshi County, then passing through the hilly woods in front of you, arriving at Yan County, Yan County, and going north to Xinye and Wancheng in Nanyang County, and then to Fangcheng
County, 800 miles in total.
Ji Ying is a postman, and as the only one who has ever left Anlu County, Heifu asked him to choose the route.
Ji Ying said that although the first road is closer, Tang and Sui counties were conquered more than 20 years ago and are called "Xindi". The public security is not very good and thieves often appear. Moreover, the Tongbai Mountain area
There are many mountains and dense forests, and accidents can happen if you are not careful, so it is better to take the western route. Although it takes a few more days to walk, there are towns and pavilions along the way, and safety is guaranteed. The only danger is in Xinshi County
This is a sparsely populated forest between it and Fuxian County.
Unexpectedly, something happened here.
Heifu didn't blame Ji Ying too much. After walking for several days in a row, everyone was very tired, and it was inevitable to lose focus for a while.
"We chose the road together. Maybe if we took the northern route, more people would escape. I believe Abao and Li Xian can capture the dead!"
He made an appointment with Li Xian and Dongmen Bao. If they didn't find anyone before dark, they would have to come back...
It's noon now, there are still a few hours to wait.
Heifu knew that he couldn't act too nervous, so after eating, he pretended to be relaxed and asked Ji Ying to find some water to polish ink, while he took out a pen and a blank slip and started writing on it...
What he wrote was a "slip of the deceased", and the pavilion chief had the responsibility to write down the characteristics of the escapee: "The deceased is called Liao. He was a Cheng Dan because of the crime of theft. He was twenty-five years old, six feet eight inches in length, and had a red face.
, many hair, no beard, wearing a brown robe, a white singlet, carrying one meter and one stone..."
In addition, there are tomb robbers who ran away with Liao, and they also need to be recorded. If Heifu cannot catch them today, he can only hand this document to the local pavilion chief at the next pavilion. Call the local police
The comrade issued a wanted order and arrested the fugitive criminal based on his physical characteristics. When he was the director of Huyang Pavilion, Hei Fu also took over a similar job.
Once he hands over the deceased person's note, it is equivalent to admitting that he escaped the prisoner. No matter whether the escapee is captured or not, Heifu will be held responsible. For each person he escapes, he will be fined two ounces, equivalent to two thousand
It's a lot of money. But if you don't pay it, you'll be punished even more severely when you get to the place and do a head count.
Therefore, escorting corvees is really a thankless job. No wonder Zuo Wei appointed Heifu to do this.
Of course, Qin's law did not beat people to death with a stick. "If the person is killed, he can arrest himself and his relatives and know him, except for the crime..." This means that if Heifu himself, or his relatives and friends can survive,
Come down and work with the local police to capture the fugitive, then he will be considered innocent!
After finishing "The Dead Man's Notes" in preparation for a rainy day, Heifu remembered this incident and thought: "More than ten years later, Liu Bang must have faced the same decision as me. Maybe it was because there were too many people running along the way. Even if
Even though we mobilized our partners and brothers in Quanpei County, we couldn't catch these people one by one, so we chose to turn the grass into bandits."
But Heifu cannot learn from Liu Bang's choice.
Not to mention that now is the year when the Qin State is unifying 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. Let's just say that Liu Bang can watch his old father being killed.
A calm man who was cooked to death and still said with a smile, "I'm lucky to have a piece of the pie." After falling into the grass, his wife and children were arrested by the government and remained indifferent.
Hei Fu is different. Hei Fu cares about his family. His mother, brothers, nephews and nieces are all his ties. He has managed to arrange everything. He cannot ignore them just because he is temporarily afraid of punishment.
Time passed slowly. Except for the chirping of birds in the air from time to time, the surroundings were lonely and the atmosphere was particularly depressing. As the sun tilted a little to the west, the forest gradually darkened. Ji Ying began to pace back and forth nervously, and Xiao Tao also
He was restless in the tree. As for the prisoners, they became even more restless. The garrison responsible for guarding them was also whispering something...
"A Bao's wife is seven months pregnant. He has thought about escaping before. Could it be..." Ji Ying's heart palpitated to the extreme and he started 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 approached Heifu and whispered to Heifu: "Brother Heifu, if you can't catch him this time and you need to pay Sijia, I can pay half of the money..."
Heifu smiled and said, "I know you just announced your marriage in Zhongzhong last month and decided to get married next year. Proposal will cost a lot, more than two thousand dollars, which is all your savings."
Ji Ying muttered: "I, Ji Ying, am not an unjust person. Since I don't have the ability to arrest people, I can only pay for it... Besides, if the money is gone, I can still make more by following Brother Heifu."
He thought clearly, but at this moment, there was a loud noise from the other end of the road!
"Yes... I wanted to steal them, they are back!"
Xiao Tao, who was sitting on the tree, shouted loudly. As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xian rushed over on horseback, shouting, and rode until he was in front of Hei Fu. Then he jumped off the horse and said with cupped hands: "Pavilion Commander, we are lucky to have lived up to our orders!
"
Heifu smiled. He saw a bloody man lying on the maroon horse. Li Xian pushed him and landed heavily in front of the prisoners...
But they saw that the man was already dead, with dried blood stains all over his body, and a sword-pierced wound on his back, which almost came out of his chest.
The prisoners were shocked. This man was the tomb robber who escaped earlier!
"Hahaha, we're back!"
Dongmen Bao laughed wildly and arrived as promised, only to see a bloody human head pinned to his waist. It was the little thief Liao who Heifu wrote on the "Slip of the Dead" with "red face, many hairs, and no beard".
, the bodyless head’s eyes were wide-eyed, and he died unwillingly.
Dongmen Leopard imitated Li Xian and threw his head in front of the prisoners. His fierce eyes shone brightly: "These two people are so brave. They actually ran away when Nai Gong was not paying attention. It's a pity that they didn't run fast enough."
!”
…
If a prisoner serving as a corvee escapes and there is no force to resist, he can only be captured alive, but his life cannot be harmed.
But if you are serving as a garrison, it has a military nature, and Heifu is equivalent to their superior officer. In the army, superiors have the power to directly order the killing of soldiers without judicial trial! Heifu also has the right
Prisoners who disobey orders and flee will be treated as deserters and killed.
"Today's death is also death" is not just rhetoric.
After arriving at the next pavilion, Heifu wrote a love letter about the dead prisoner and what happened, and gave it to the local pavilion chief, asking him to send a message to Anlu County on his behalf. The matter was considered over.
After this incident, the prisoners were frightened by the killing of the chicken as a warning to the monkeys, so they did not flee again. On the seventh day on the road, the group arrived at Fuxian County without any danger. By now, a quarter of the journey had been covered.
But Heifu still didn't feel relieved. As the saying goes, you can only be a thief for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. Human energy is limited, let alone dealing with it passively, which consumes more energy. There are still twenty days left.
There will always be times of negligence during the journey. Next time, I'm afraid I won't be so lucky to be able to kill someone.
So Heifu thought about it and had to find a way to make the prisoners calm down.
When setting off from Anlu County, Heifu once told the prisoners earnestly that this time going north to serve was an opportunity for them to atone for their sins. Qin law stipulates that as long as they serve as concubines and perform meritorious service on the battlefield, they can
Use the first-level title to regain your freedom. In the same way, the title can also redeem the lives of your loved ones. Parents need two levels of title, while wives and children only need one level...
However, the prisoners just looked at Heifu like a fool, and some of them whispered that most of what they did was transporting food and filling gullies, so how could they deserve any credit? Moreover, Heifu personally sent them there.
People who are in jail are even less likely to believe what they say.
Therefore, it will not work to use "the majesty of Qin's laws" to intimidate, as we did to good people and soldiers in the past.
After thinking about it, Heifu finally came up with an idea.
While resting in Fuxian County, he found a middle-aged man with a dark face and an unknotted bun in the garrison. When Hei Fu found him, the man was sitting on a stone slab, fiddling with some random things.
Yarrow, sometimes looked up at the sun, closed his eyes and muttered something, looking lost in thought.
"Bu Cheng, what are you doing?"
Hearing Heifu's shout, Bu Cheng quickly shook up the yarrow on the ground, stood up, smiled and cupped his hands and said, "Pavilion Chief, I am calculating tomorrow's cloudiness and sunshine according to the "Rishu"."
"Throughout this journey, your calculations have been quite accurate. Even the prisoners believed you were true and thought you were not a mortal."
The Heifu garrison soldiers were quite amiable, but they also knew that this divination was not so much calculated as guessed by looking at the clouds.
He asked: "I heard from Ji Ying that you are a well-known fortune teller in Jianshui Township, and your family has the "Book of the Day"."
"The country people praise me, the country people praise me." The magicians in the countryside cannot compare with the tall Yanqi alchemists. These people help people look after houses, calculate the days, or organize funerals for people to make ends meet, so Bu Cheng wears burlap clothes.
, nodded and bowed, without the slightest hint of immortality.
What's more, in the Qin State, even a diviner could not escape from serving. When an official stood in front of him, the fortune teller was as nervous as an ordinary Guizhou leader.
"Don't be afraid." Heifu said with a smile: "I just want to ask, how much does it cost for you to do a divination on weekdays?"
The fortune teller was a little confused, and he didn't know what Chief Heifu's plan was. After a while, he raised a finger and said: "The fortune teller for the soldiers, ten coins... The fortune teller for the officials, five coins."
It's really cheap, Heifu said with a smile, "It only costs five dollars? What if I'm willing to pay three hundred dollars for a divination?"
While talking, Hei Fu stuffed a heavy cloth bag into the fortune teller's hand. When he opened it, he saw that it was a bright Qin Banliang. The eyes of the folk diviner suddenly shone...
Heifu was helpless, since these prisoners could no longer be frightened by Qin's laws...
Then, we can only use the words of ghosts and gods to scare us!