Qin Official

Why are the people shocked by the impure fate of the emperor?

The people were separated and lost each other, and they moved eastward in the middle of spring.

Going to my hometown is far away, following Jiangxia in exile...

This is the poem "Sorrow for Ying" by Qu Yuan. A century ago, the Chu State was forced to move eastward. It was with this mentality that the local Chu people in the capital of Ying embarked on the road of exile.

In the autumn and August of the twenty-fifth year of the Qin Dynasty, in the same place, Jiangling, Nanjun, there were hundreds of households with the same idea.

Two to three thousand men and women stood on the pier with sad faces. They kept looking back at Jiangling and Nanjun. In the end, they were helplessly forced by the soldiers and boarded the long and narrow ship. They crowded in the cabin and remained silent.

"Where exactly are we going to be moved?"

There was a middle-aged son-in-law who hugged his wife and son and asked the young man next to him.

He was a lean young man, about seventeen or eighteen years old. He raised his eyes and said, "It is said that he is going to the south of the Yangtze River, to a new county called Nanchang."

During the chat, the middle-aged son-in-law learned that the descendant's name was "Xing" and that he was originally from Chu. He was deceived by his fellow villagers a few years ago and followed them to join a tomb-robbing gang organized by Qin people and dug graves in Anlu County. , but was caught by a pavilion chief named Heifu, and both the man and the stolen goods were obtained...

His accomplices were severely punished, but Xing was only 14 years old at the time and was not tall enough to be punished. Therefore, according to Qin law, he was judged by the judge to be "instigated by others and his height was less than six feet tall. He should be punished lightly and sentenced to Hidden official labor."

So Xing began his life as a hermit official in Nan County. Compared with the prisoner, the penalty for the hermit officer was light, but the work inside was not easy. In addition, Xing was from Chu and suffered from bullying.

And there was no hope for his future. When he became an adult, it would be difficult to obtain land. At most, he would work as a farmhand or even as a son-in-law.

So when Teng, the governor of Nanjun, was ordered by the King of Qin to recruit hermit officials, prisoners, concubines, sons-in-law, merchants, etc. to move to Nanchang, Xing took the initiative to express his willingness to join this immigration team.

Immigration is an old tradition of the Qin State. As early as the period of King Hui of Qin, the prince Chuiliji was appointed as the right guard and made a general to attack Quwo of Wei State. After occupying the local area, he expelled all his people and took the city. The land entered Qin.

At that time, Qin Dynasty had just left the country and did not trust the people of the Three Jin Dynasties who were "not happy to be Qin people". In order to completely occupy the new area, they often expelled the original residents and moved into the country's population. As for the immigrants, they were mainly composed of civilians and criminals. Wei offered Anyi, Qin sent out its people, recruited people to move to Hedong, granted them nobility, and pardoned the criminals to move there.

Immigration this time also has similar benefits.

"The government said that if farm laborers go to Nanchang, they can get land, and if they go to serve as ministers, they can get freedom. I am a Chu native living in the south of the Yangtze River. This time I apply for the army, which can be regarded as a return to my hometown."

Xing comforted the sad-looking uncle and said, "The adopted son-in-law can also become an ordinary citizen and establish a new household registration!"

But the son-in-law's family and others were not happy at all. They would rather make do in Nanjun than go to an unknown land to open up wasteland.

People on the ship began to ask various questions to Xing, such as how far it was to go to Nanchang, what the climate was like there, whether there were many wild animals, and whether there were ready-made houses.

Xing opened his mouth but couldn't answer. He was from Shaxian, Edis and had never been to Jiangxi.

The immigrants were even more disappointed. At this time, the wind and waves on the Yangtze River gradually became stronger. The ship was shaking and swaying, and the sounds of waves hitting the hull, the cries of children, and hoarse coughs were all loud. At night, some people even got seasick and vomited. , the smell in the cabin is extremely unpleasant...

Their turbulence did not get better until the boat entered Pengli Ze. Looking at the vast lake in front of them, the people from Nanjun seemed to have returned to the Yunmeng Ze, and their mood began to gradually improve.

But when the boat was anchored in Jiujiang, a person on the same boat was washing clothes stained by dirt on the water. He was dragged into the water by a large tuo (tuo) that was more than ten feet long. With her screams gradually disappearing, the lake turned red. one slice……

The immigrants' mood was low again. The fatigue of the journey diluted their remaining freshness and expectations. They just arrived at Shiqianyuan and landed silently. They no longer cared about the magnificence of Pengli Ze or the wonders of Lushan Mountain. They only cared about After arriving at the place, he wondered whether he could get the land promised by the government, whether he wanted to open up wasteland in a swamp, and shivered in the shack at night listening to the roar of wild beasts outside.

The further south they went, the more disappointed they became. Compared to Nanjun, the lower reaches of the Gan River were too remote and wild. They could even walk for ten miles without seeing a single person. And when they occasionally met people, they couldn't understand Xia Yan. A Yangyue man with tattoos and broken hair stood by the water, looking at the immigrants with dark eyes.

"From now on, I'm afraid we will have to live with snakes and scorpions, and coexist with barbarians and Vietnamese." The son-in-law walking next to Xing was a little desperate. He would rather his children be his son-in-law for generations than come to a place like this.

However, when they passed through a camphor forest and came to the shore of Gan River, their eyes widened!

On the east bank of the Gan River, which I thought was still a jungle, a brand new city appeared out of thin air!

It is not large in scale, only four miles square, with thick and square walls on all sides. No one knows what's going on inside the city, but outside the city, in addition to the tight roads, there are rows of fortified houses, which were used by the soldiers and ministers who built the city before. They have now been vacated, waiting for the new owner to enter. .

And those Qin soldiers wearing armor and carrying guns, patrolling the waterside in a line of ten, gave the immigrants a long-lost sense of security.

Heifu's men were originally from Nanjun. They had been bored here for several months and saw many fellow villagers. Regardless of their previous status, they all greeted them warmly across the Gan River. After everyone crossed over, there were also The generals and the village chief arranged for the soldiers to prepare the first meal for them.

After eating the long-awaited hot soup and rice, and seeing that each household had a small shack that could provide shelter from the wind and rain, many of the immigrants had tears in their eyes.

This situation is much better than they imagined.

"Nanchang, the name is really good. Just like Nanjun, there is also Nan." Someone said, as if this simple reason made them feel more affectionate towards their new home.

Xing ate half of the meal and froze suddenly. He looked at a Qin official who was being cheered by soldiers and officers to inspect the immigration situation, and was in a daze.

The son-in-law, who had regained hope, pushed him, and then came back to his senses. He excitedly pointed at the retreating figure of the Qin official and said: "He was the pavilion chief who captured me at that time!"

The son-in-law quickly covered his mouth: "Young man, don't dare to talk nonsense! I heard others say that this is the highest official in the local area, the county magistrate, Sima, the man who built Nanchang City! How could he be the number one? Where is the little pavilion chief who arrested you years ago? You must have remembered it wrong."

"It's really him!"

Xing was a little excited. He still remembered that on that cold night after the snow in the twelfth lunar month, when he was young, he was forced by his comrades to go down to the tomb to search for bright objects. However, the people above were suddenly attacked. The wind blew loudly outside. He was scared to death, and when he hugged him and cried, it was this person who pulled him up...

"Although his attire has changed and he has grown a beard, his dark face and eyes will never be forgotten in my life!"

…

Heifu did not greet the immigrants one by one. After taking a rough look around, he and Zhang Han climbed to the top of Nanchang City to gaze at the results of their joint cooperation in the past few months.

Nanchang City was planned in accordance with the construction rules in "Kaogong Ji". It is square and square, with straight streets. Although its interior is small, it has all the necessary features, whether it is government offices, soldiers' barracks, or even spaces reserved for shops. The location has it all.

Of course, public toilets are also indispensable.

There is a city gate in each of the four walls of Nanchang. It is called Luling Gate in the south, Tonggan Gate in the west, Fanyang Gate in the east, and Jiujiang Gate in the north. They are named after the places they lead to in their respective directions.

The two of them were standing on the Tonggan Gate, looking west.

Heifu looked at the new city that suddenly became lively after the arrival of the immigrants, and showed a satisfied smile: "The first batch of immigrants has arrived, and the food for the winter and seeds for next year have also been transported from Nanjun. First, taking advantage of the autumn and winter slack, outside the city Build houses, open up fields, and build fences in each area to guard against wild animals. When the population exceeds 2,000 households, we will build a ten-mile stretch."

Today is the day when Nanchang was founded, and these immigrants should be the first batch of Nanchang citizens.

Zhang Han said: "Heifu is not afraid that those immigrants will find the weather hot and unbearable when they arrive here, and they will flee one after another? I heard from Zhao Tuo that similar things happen on the road."

If it were Zhang Han, even if he was given a hundred hectares of land, he would not want to spend the rest of his life in this hot and humid hellish place. What's more, there is also the kind of water poisonous disease that northerners have never seen before. It is scary to think about it. After being led by Heifu to see the miserable condition of several infected soldiers, he no longer dared to drink raw water, and Stay away from all wild bodies of water, and even boil water for bathing.

"For the head of Guizhou, how can we avoid suffering from diseases? Besides, who dares to resist when the government relocates the people?"

Heifu sighed. He came from a lower-class background and could understand the lives of ordinary people in this era. Who would be willing to leave their hometown if there was no other way?

He knew that similar small-scale immigration had already begun more than ten years ago, when the Qin Dynasty came to power. In the cases of Lao Ai and Lu Buwei, thousands of their families moved to Shu. Nowadays, the remnants of the Six Kingdoms from all over the Central Plains are also flocking to Bashu and Jiangnan under the forced orders of King Qin.

For example, the Zhuo family in Handan was moved to Bashu, and the Kong family in Wancheng, Nanyang also moved into Shu. These hundreds of households of farmhands, son-in-laws, and ministers from Nanjun will also become the first agricultural population in Nanchang City.

Bashu and Jiangnan are to Qin these days, just like the Thirteen Colonies and Australia are to Britain in later generations.

"Even if some people are reluctant, after coming here for ten or twenty years, after several generations of reproduction, they will become native Nanchang people. Where is their hometown?"

Heifu patted Zhang Han and said with a smile: "This is my hometown. What matters is not the present, but how I will live here in the future! What we have to do is to build cities and houses to protect them from wild beasts." to find out how to cure the water poison."

He is not omnipotent, so he can only count on the doctors sent by Xianyang and Nanjun. Maybe after knowing the principle, he can find a cure?

Just a few days later, a doctor from Xianyang arrived, but it was Hei Fu's old acquaintance, Chen Wu Jiu, who was addicted to marijuana.

Heifu's report attracted the attention of Qin Wangzheng and the imperial physician Ling Xia Wuqi. However, because this kind of disease had never been seen in the north, they were still skeptical, so they sent Chen Wujiu, who had been promoted to an official, to check it out.

In addition to several doctors, Chen Wujiu was accompanied by a special envoy from the King of Qin.

He brought good news and bad news to Heifu...