Although Heifu told Zhong that "the days will get better and better," as soon as Zhong left, their more prosperous days fell into the trough in vain.
Because the military exercise training is over, the soldiers have to start their main job: corvee service.
When mentioning corvee, many scenes immediately came to Heifu's mind:
The 700,000 prisoners in Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum at Lishan, the Qin Great Wall stretching for thousands of miles, Wan Xiliang who was buried alive in the Great Wall, and Meng Jiangnu who cried the Great Wall down...
Of course, the prototype of the last story has been around for a long time. It is called "Qiliang's Wife", but it is about something that happened in the Spring and Autumn Period of Qi State, which was spread by later generations and blamed on the Qin Dynasty. After all, "the beauty of the world belongs to the Qin Dynasty."
Shun, Yu, Zhou and Kong; the evil in the world belongs to Jie and Zhou." In the eyes of later generations of scholars, the violent Qin Dynasty "burned books and harassed Confucian scholars", but it was ten thousand times more evil than Jie and Zhou. Such a cruel thing must have been done by you! He Po
It's the same as the law of windows. Since the Qin Dynasty was so dark, there would be more people to add to it, and the crimes would become even more numerous.
Although the story is false, the heavy corvee is indeed true. Most of the heroes of the late Qin Dynasty who rose up in rebellion more than ten years later were caused by the corvee.
Therefore, Heifu went to the construction site where he was serving with trepidation and was ten times more cautious than his training.
Fortunately, Chen Baijiang's attitude toward Heifu became better and better. On their way from the south gate to the east gate, they even chatted with Heifu.
He popularized science and said that the highest-level corvee in the Qin State was called the "Yuzhong Fa Zheng". It was a corvee assigned by the capital to work in Xianyang. Although King Yingzheng of Qin was in his prime, his royal tomb would be the future
Construction of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum has begun, but the current scale of construction is not large, unlike the later as many as 700,000...
Mentioning Xianyang, Chen Baijiang's eyes sparkled. He never wanted to go to the capital to take a look. Even if he lay on the roadside and took a sneak peek at the king's car, he would be satisfied. See the splendor of Xianyang and feel the glory of the king. That is what every Qin Dynasty
The moment that officials look forward to most.
Heifu knew that ten years later, a Sishui pavilion chief wearing a bamboo leather crown and a big beard would also have the same idea as Chen Baijiang, go to Xianyang to serve, and say to Qin Shihuang's chariot, "A man should be my man."
So" the emotion.
In addition, the labor required for civil engineering and transmission that each county levies on its own is called "constant work", and the types are various. Some are for repairing fences for forbidden gardens and national public pastures, and some are for building city walls, dams, or expansion for counties.
County government building.
The last type is temporary corvee, which is not included in the annual "live within one's means", that is, the government's financial plan. The project must be approved by the higher-level government, because in theory, the Qin State does not advocate casual conscription of labor. That day, Heifu was watching in the county jail
In "The Way of Being an Official" that he came to, there is a sentence: "When troubles arise from time to time, slow down the order and rush to attack", which really amazed him.
Unfortunately, Heifu and his team's turn happened to be the heavy work of heavy work, building the city wall...
Originally, the east city of Anlu County was built along Quyang Lake and had no walls. Perhaps considering that there would be war with the Chu State in the future, Anlu, as a border county, must strengthen its defense, so it decided to build an east city wall. Last year, it was reported to the county.
After getting permission, construction began one after another after the autumn harvest. In addition to more than a hundred prisoners working day and night, a new guard had to be called in to build a section every month.
After Chen Baijiang handed over a hundred more soldiers to the "county Sikong" in charge of the project, the task was considered completed.
As the foreman in charge of the project, County Supervisor Kong gave Heifu and the others a cold face and announced many prohibitions, such as no cheating, no laziness, etc. Violators would be severely punished.
"If you disobey Sikong despite repeated admonitions, these prisoners will be your fate!"
County Secretary Kong frightened them and pointed his finger at a group of people already working on the construction site...
The weather was already very cold in mid-to-late October, but those people were in ragged clothes, wearing ocher-brown prison clothes. Their lower clothes could not even cover their bodies. Their hands and feet were red from the cold, but they still had to work non-stop under the supervision of the foreman.
"Brother Heifu, isn't that the merchant Bao who was punished as Cheng Dan for falsely accusing you and me a few days ago?"
Ji Ying's sharp eyes recognized the shambling guy among the prisoners at a glance. He was none other than the merchant Bao who had repaid them with kindness and vengeance!
Bao seemed to have seen the two of them, and was stunned for a moment. He accidentally spilled the basket of soil in his hand, and was immediately whipped. He quickly cried out in pain, lowered his head and continued to work. It had only been half a month since they last met, and he was already completely
He has lost his former wealth, his hair and beard have been shaved, and he looks lonely...
Next, Ji Ying found the three pavilion soldiers from Huyang Pavilion, who were working together to move a big stone that was in the way. He raised his head and looked at Hei Fu. Ji Ying's eyes were full of fear, and all the hatred he had felt before was gone.
They are exhausted. Chengdan is the hardest labor, and they will have to serve their sentences here for several years.
Finally, they also discovered a Chudi thief who had been captured and sentenced. He had dark tattoos on his face and a wooden clamp around his neck. He was doing heavier work and was shouted around by the foreman.
"Only one was found, where is the other one?"
Ji Ying looked for a long time, but still couldn't find another Chu thief. Looking at the miserable appearance of the prisoners, he said with fear: "Thanks to Mr. Hei's wit that day, otherwise, if we had lost the lawsuit, you and I would have lost the case."
If you have to serve Chengdan labor here, it will not be half a month, but three to five years!"
Heifu also nodded and traveled to the Qin Kingdom. It was indeed a hell-level difficulty dungeon. It does not mean that you will have smooth sailing if you just follow the general trend of the world. As a small person, you have to be careful to avoid all kinds of illegal activities. If you make a wrong step,
It's an abyss with no second chance.
Thinking about it carefully, I was too reckless in training a few days ago and never left myself any way out when betting against others. It seems that I need to be more cautious in the future and not take such risks.
The County Sikong did not talk nonsense to them, and immediately arranged the tasks, and each item had its own work. So, on this dim winter day, under the supervision of the County Sikong and the urging of the small foremen, the loess-filled construction site
Above, more than a hundred watchmen and more than a hundred prisoners shuttled through it like a group of worker ants, coming and going in a hurry.
Although Heifu was very tall, he could not be idle. He took the large basket of soil passed by the robes and thought to himself: "It turns out that the city walls in this era were not made of bricks..."
He saw in the county town that the foundation and floor of the official temple were paved with bricks, but the city walls of this era were not made of bricks, but of rammed earth.
Building walls with rammed earth is very particular. At the beginning, under the command of the foreman, everyone put together thick wooden boards, and inserted a pillar called a "frame" outside every two wooden boards. Ropes were also tied between these pillars.
It is like clamping sticks to fix those wooden boards to prevent them from collapsing. Thus, four wooden walls are erected to form a long and narrow frame, which looks like the scaffolding used to build buildings in later generations.
It is said that this four-version city-building method was brought to Jianghan by Wu Qi from the Central Plains more than a hundred years ago, eliminating the local backward two-version wall. Time has passed, and the local people do not remember much of Wu Qi's name. This four-version method, probably
It was the only thing he left behind in Chudi...
The task of Heifu and the others is to constantly shovel soil with the iron catalpa "hoe" of this era, put it in a bamboo basket, and have people lift it along the "scaffolding" to the wooden wall, and keep filling it with soil. At this time
, the results of the training a few days ago have been revealed, they passed it on in sequence, very orderly and efficient.
And when it is filled with soil, let Cheng Dan and the prisoners work in groups of three or four to pick up the heavy ramming pestle and smash it against the loose mound of soil!
Heifu knew that those wooden boards were called "ban" and the tamping and pestle was called "building". This process was called ban building. Mencius said, "Fu Shuo moved it between the ban building", which means that Fu Shuo, the minister of Shang Wuding, once
At the beginning, it was also a hard job of wielding a big pestle and pounding the soil...
"Hey! Hey! Hey!"
As the prisoners chanted slogans again and again, swung the big pestle and smashed the soil again and again, the loose dry soil was slowly tamped, becoming more and more rigid, and harder and harder, until the iron shovel was used hard
It couldn't be pried with a shovel. So water was sprinkled and a layer of mud was applied, and a section of the city wall was completed.
After the construction is completed, the scaffolding is removed, and the poles pressed into the rammed earth can also play a reinforcement role.
Heifu still had some doubts about the quality of the city wall. He stabbed the dried walls with a dagger and realized that he had worried too much. They were really as hard as stone. Their lifespan may not be as good as stone walls. Thousands of years later,
It will definitely become shorter or even disappear due to wind and rain, but its defense is good and it can withstand being bombarded by rocks.
Therefore, the best way to attack a city in this era is not to use slings, but to dig tunnels, or soak them in water slowly...
Thinking about it carefully, the Great Wall of Qin was actually built with rammed earth, but Heifu calculated it silently in his mind and couldn't help but feel shocked.
There were more than two hundred of them, and after working for several days, they could only build a small section of the city wall.
How long is the Great Wall? Even if it is not as exaggerated as tens of thousands of miles, it is at least a few thousand miles. How much labor is needed? The transportation in northern Xinjiang and the population are much worse than that of Jianghan. How many people will die?
Later generations all say that when Qin built the Great Wall, the dead belonged to each other.
In the past two days, Heifu did witness with his own eyes that a prisoner suddenly collapsed and died, whether due to illness or overwork. He was carried down, but everyone just watched numbly without any surprise, which shows that this is a common occurrence.
thing……
"Be careful not to raise a boy when you give birth to a boy, but use your breasts to feed a girl. If you don't see the corpses under the Great Wall, they will be leaning on each other!"
This was not a rumor, but a real folk voice. Thinking of this, Heifu couldn't help but shudder.
He doesn't dare to think about too big ambitions or too far into the future. He just wants to live a good life for himself and his family first and avoid dying in the ravines. He must not be reduced to such a situation!
Therefore, it is better to find a way to upgrade the title to a permanent one as soon as possible. In that case, you can be permanently exempted from hard labor and be able to protect your family.
Just as he was thinking about it, he heard a shrill cry. The guards all put down their work and looked around. They saw a man wearing feathers and disheveled hair slowly walking over singing a strange song. It was exactly a man.
The local Wu Zhu and County Sikong walked behind with a frosty face. Behind him, two foremen held a shirtless man with a tattoo on his face...
"Brother Heifu, he is..."
Without waiting for Ji Ying to say anything, Hei Fu recognized him. He was one of the Chu thieves they captured last month. He hadn't seen him in the past few days and didn't know what happened. Now he was taken out again and he didn't know what he was going to do.
When they got closer, Hei Fu was shocked to find that the Chu gangster's left foot was missing from the knee down!