Qin Official

In the spring of the 22nd year of the Qin Dynasty, in January, the east wind thawed, stinging insects began to stir, fish climbed onto the ice, otters sacrificed fish, and swan geese came.

On the outskirts of Fangcheng County, standing on the grass where the snow was about to melt away, Hei Fu drew his hard bow into the shape of a full moon and aimed his arrow at the flock of geese returning north in the sky. After taking a few breaths, he loosened his grip and the arrow left the string!

Although he had a perfect posture, his accuracy was far off, and he didn't even shoot down the goose feather...

"Hahaha, Chief Heifuting's shooting skills are just shooting green heads. Want to shoot down a wild goose? Let's forget it."

Gong Ao on the side laughed, but when he opened his bow and shot at the wild geese, he also failed. The two of them struggled with the wild geese and found nothing. On the contrary, Xiao Tao and Dongmen Bao had already returned with two mallards.

Heifu and the others arrived at Fangcheng County, Nanyang County as early as the beginning of the twelfth lunar month. The weather this year was not very good. The entire north encountered heavy snow. The snow was two feet five inches deep, so the prisoners and garrison soldiers from Nanjun County were asked to stay in Fangcheng County. Stay put.

Fangcheng is not a city, but the "Great Wall". As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to prevent the Xia's chariots from driving south, the Chu State built many dangerous fortresses, mainly square fortresses, with defensive functions on the high mountains around the Nanyang Basin, called square cities. In the Warring States Period, these cities were connected with walls made of stones or mounds of earth, forming the Great Wall of Chu, which stretched for more than 300 miles. It was like a "gate", guarding the northern border of Chu State.

Fangcheng County is the east entrance of this square Great Wall.

But since Nanyang County was captured by the Qin State, Fangcheng became the outpost of the Qin army's attack on the Chu State. This time they attacked Chen Cai eastward, the army set out from Fangcheng County. The camp left by the army that attacked Chu last year became a ready-made shack for the prisoners and garrison soldiers who arrived later.

Because the rain and snow didn't stop, Heifu and the others were stationed on the spot for a whole month. Anyway, they had nothing to do, so Heifu and his men continued to pick up weapons and practice. Especially his shortcomings, archery, have been strengthened under the guidance of Xiao Tao. However, he can only achieve no miss for more than ten steps. Any further away and he will miss the target. As for difficult operations such as shooting geese, it is really difficult for him.

Gong Ao, a thief from Yan County, and the garrison soldiers he escorted also lived next to Heifu and the others. Although Gong Ao had a bit of a wicked mouth, and from time to time he would sarcastically say some weird things that satirized the Qin government, but we were still fellow residents of Nan County. There is a lot of contact on weekdays. From time to time, we would make appointments to go to the camp to shoot birds and improve the food of the garrison soldiers.

When everyone returned to the wall where they were stationed, Ji Ying and Bu Cheng had already squatted by the earthen stove to boil water. When everyone worked together to pluck wild animals, Li Xian, who had gone to the county town to buy salt, also came back. He also told Heifu some news.

"Ting Pavilion Chief, another group of garrison prisoners have arrived in Fangcheng. I asked about them and they said they came from Nanzheng, Hanzhong County."

After hearing this, Heifu was thoughtful.

"Nanzheng is far enough away from here. Even the Nanzheng garrison has arrived. This is probably the last batch."

For more than a month, the garrison soldiers and prisoners had nothing to do here to avoid the wind and snow, but many major events happened in the world!

First, in mid-November, Chen Ying, who had been besieged by the Qin army for a long time, surrendered to Qin. It is said that the former prime minister of Qin, Chang Pingjun, persuaded him to surrender. Unfortunately, Heifu's history is half-baked and he knows a few historical celebrities who fought between Chu and Han. But as prime ministers during the time of Qin Shihuang, he only knew one Lu Buwei and the other Li Si. The name of Xiong Qi, Lord of Changping, had never been heard of, let alone his complicated relationship with the royal families of Qin and Chu.

Chen Ying, as the accompanying capital of the Chu State and an important town in the north, fell. After the fall, the King of Chu was already frightened by the Qin army. He ignored the opposition of the main war faction Xiang Yan and others in the country and hastily negotiated peace with the Qin State.

After regicide and usurping the throne, King Chu of Chu, who had not yet stabilized his internal affairs, agreed to cede Chen Ying, Shang Cai, and the area west of Qingyang south of the river to Qin in exchange for peace.

When the news of the truce between Qin and Chu came, the Anlu County garrison was very happy. They were recruited for this war. Now that the war is over, they can all disperse and go home soon.

The others were okay. Although their shoes were worn out a lot from walking, they also saw a big city like Nanjun Wancheng and felt that the trip was worthwhile. Only Dongmen Bao, who has always been belligerent, is impatient. After all, his wife is almost due to give birth, and Dongmen Bao is anxious to go home and hold his son...

But Heifu poured cold water on everyone and told them not to be too optimistic.

"The war with Chu State has temporarily stopped, but the war is far from over. It is still early for us to disband and return home!"

Heifu has already figured out Qin's intention to attack Chu this time: one of the purposes of the Qin army's attack on Chen Ying is to beat the Chu state and make the Chu king sever his desire to unite.

The second purpose is to control the chasm. The chasm is a canal dug during the reign of King Wei Hui. It connects the Wei capital Daliang and Chen Ying. It is the most important communication line between Liang and Chu. Now that Chen Ying has changed hands, Wei's Backup was completely cut off.

So Heifu guessed that next, the Qin army in the Chen and Cai areas would probably turn around and attack Wei, and these prisoners and garrison soldiers were prepared for this war to destroy Wei...

His guess was confirmed, Qin's war machine showed no intention of stopping at all. Throughout December, garrison prisoners from Nanjun, Hanzhong, and Nanyang counties continued to gather in Fangcheng County.

New teams arrived every day and were arranged to rest in the old camp under the wall.

The number of prisoners and garrison soldiers gradually increased from the initial few hundred to a thousand, thousands, ten thousand, tens of thousands... until the entire ten-mile-long area inside the square city wall was densely covered with temporary shacks. While cooking, half the sky was filled with black smoke.

Heifu would meet these people when he went out, greet them, chat with them, and exchange food with them. Everyone spoke with different accents: the strong Chu accent of the Nanjun people sounded very friendly, and the Nanyang people's accent could be understood if they spoke slower. But those garrison soldiers from Hanzhong, especially those with hair hanging down, wearing animal skins, and dressed as barbarians, spoke in obscure dialects that were completely incomprehensible...

Heifu knew that what made everyone travel hundreds of miles to gather here was a document sent from Xianyang to various counties. What was engraved in the document was the will of the King of Qin!

Under the order of King Qin, these people from different counties seemed to be small streams, manipulated by huge forces to gather together, and gradually merged into rivers, and then merged into lakes.

Qin's strong control over the grassroots was vividly demonstrated when the war was approaching.

As expected by Heifu, after the spring snow melted in early January, everyone was gathered together, and the inside of Fangcheng was densely packed. For a while, people were shoulder to shoulder and crowded.

Heifu made a rough estimate and found that there were about 30,000 people, including about 5,000 from Nanjun, 10,000 from Hanzhong County, and 15,000 from Nanyang County.

Nanyang County Lieutenant and Fangcheng County Lieutenant, who were responsible for commanding these garrison prisoners, climbed up the wall and shouted to everyone. There were no loudspeakers in this era, so a few tall and fat soldiers could only stand every few dozen steps and deliver the message one after another, so that the words of the county captain could be heard in all directions.

"Dawangzhi said: The king of Wei first agreed to submit to Qin."

"I have betrayed my alliance and plan to attack Qin with the remnants of Han and Zhao."

"I want to kill him with soldiers."

"Instruct the young master to make Wang Ben and Chen Ying's army go first."

"Nanyang, Hanzhong, Nanjun and other counties sent garrison soldiers and prisoners to assist them."

"The prisoner and the garrison soldier tried their best with their lives, and if they have merit, they will be rewarded with honors; if they failed to use their lives, they are guilty, and they will be punished by the generals and captains!"

After the King of Qin's edict was read out, he read again the military orders and regulations that the garrison soldiers and prisoners must abide by. At this time, everyone, including Gong Ao, had turned their heads and looked at Hei Fu. The meaning was obvious: "Hei Fu is right, he is indeed going to attack Wei!"

…

Early the next morning after this assembly, the county captains who escorted the prisoners ordered everyone to bury pots and make rice. After a good meal, more than 30,000 people left their shacks and crossed the ancient Great Wall of Chu. , out of Nanyang County.

Because there were so many people, when they left Fangcheng, they were divided into two parts, each with about 15,000 people, and took two routes respectively, Yingchuan County and Shangcai.

"Heifu, where do you think we are going?"

Heifu and the others took the Yingchuan line. More than ten thousand garrison soldiers and prisoners walked like a long snake on the long road. They would pass by towns and villages along the way, but they did not stop, and they were traveling very fast.

Ji Ying and others came from a small county town and had never seen such a big scene. The county captain who led them did not announce where the end point would be, so everyone was a little uneasy. Wei State is so big, where will they be assigned to fight?

But Heifu knew it.

"There's only one possibility."

He pointed to the northeast and said with a smile: "Daliang!"

Daliang, the capital of the Wei State, is the most prosperous and prosperous city in the Central Plains. There are flourishing flowers, the palace of the capital, and the chivalrous soldiers of Wei. The meaning of Xinling, the famous Daliang...

A huge battle to destroy the country will begin there.

"I finally caught up."

Heifu sighed. He knew that he was still involved in the wave of this great era. Step by step, he was getting closer and closer to the center of the storm...

Although at this moment, he is just a small pavilion director, but in this black wave, an inconspicuous drop of water, thrown among tens of thousands of people, will be lost in the crowd, and it will be difficult to find a trace.

But Heifu firmly believes that when the dust of the war settles, he will become one of the trend-setters in this era of "six kings, one in the world"!

Ride the wind and waves and stand towards the waves!

PS: It will be released at 12 o'clock in the evening. I hope everyone can at least give me an initial subscription. 6 chapters will be released on the first day. In March, the rhythm of three updates a day will be maintained. If you can, I hope you can vote for me in March.