Qin Official

"Junhou, what did he say?"

Lu Jia bowed his head and muttered several words, but Ziying couldn't understand him very well because he spoke the Chu dialect, and not everyone can speak Mandarin...

Heifu signaled Li Cang to repeat Lu Jia's words: "Supervisor, he said that what happened at Yangshan Pass is not an isolated case. In the past few months, two to three thousand people in the army have fled!"

"Two or three thousand people!?" Ziying was a little surprised. How could this be possible? Jia He's reply to the court only said that everything was business as usual, except that a few unruly people escaped...

"Every word of the villain is true."

Lu Jia held his hands towards Ziying, but looked at Hei Fu. He knew that this person was the real person in charge.

"When General Jia evacuated South Vietnam, he ran ahead, leaving the garrison troops in various places with no time to follow, and thousands of people were left outside the Five Ridges. After returning to Chen County, seeing the end of the one-year garrison period, everyone wanted to return to their hometowns, but the court refused If you agree, you can only stay in Changsha for a long time. The poem goes, a gentleman is in battle, and neither the sun nor the moon is there. Is there a 丷? The soldiers want to return home from the corvee, so they have no fighting spirit and their morale is low."

"At this time, General Jia wanted to make up for his defeat, so he ordered his soldiers and corvees to build three passes and build more roads in Wuling, in order to attack Yue again. It was spring rain, and there were many sick people. The soldiers and corvees were afraid of death and refused to go. General Jia punished them at every turn, reducing them to prisoners and driving them as vanguards to fill ravines."

" Miasma occurred frequently in the mountains, and the number of dead increased day by day. Many soldiers had grudges and often escaped while practicing Taoism in order to survive. General Jia could not catch him, so he had to cover up. This time, the corvee from Qianchu in Yangshan Pass, It was not that he had the intention to cause trouble, but that he couldn't bear it. General Jia despised others, gave him less food and clothing, and had to dig mountains and cut beheads every day. Once someone fell ill, he would just throw him off the cliff to feed the wild animals without treatment. Everyone was heartbroken, so they argued with the officials who were escorting him. , but was whipped by General Jia’s cronies, causing conflicts, and finally captured the pass..."

Heifu stroked his beard: "You are in Chen County, so you know very well what happened at Yangshanguan."

Lu Jia explained: "The villain happened to be on the way to Yangshan at that time, and among the thousand people, many of them were from my Huainan hometown. They also know that the families of the rebels are all in Shouchun, how dare they do this?"

"What do you intend to do by informing me of this matter?"

Lu Jia said: "I heard that the lord is the general in charge of the southern expedition. I must know the truth and maybe prevent the catastrophe."

"What disaster?"

Lu Jia said: "The Lord has noticed that the morale of the army is depleted and he is unwilling to fight with the Yue people, let alone attack his own soldiers? If they are sent to attack Yangshan Pass, more trouble will probably occur. , when changes occur in the army, it will not be as simple as losing a Yangshan Pass."

Li Cang told Ziying every word Lu Jia said in his ears. The more Ziying listened, the more surprised he became. Lu Jia's analysis of the situation was exactly the same as that of Changnan Hou.

However, Heifu did not trust Lu Jia gullibly: "Those who hold their positions seek their own affairs. As a junior official, you are very concerned about this matter."

"To be honest, General, Lu Jia does have selfish motives."

Lu Jia smiled: "I don't want my fellow villagers to die in vain and their families to be punished. This is one of the reasons."

"In the chaos of the army, I, a scholar without martial arts, may not be able to survive, and that's the second reason."

Lu Jia paid his respects again: "I am from Shouchun. I remember when I was young, the Qin army broke into the city. The first army that entered the city was the Nanjun soldiers under the banner of 'Li'. The rest led each other, They all plundered civilians, raped and killed them. Only one of them, the hundreds of people who had captured General Xiang Yan's military flag, were in good order. They only captured the wealthy households of the emperor and never disturbed the civilian households. Later I found out that this was Chang. The Anlu soldiers under Nanhou..."

"The general is a virtuous general. Now that he is in danger and has been ordered to go south as the commander-in-chief, he will definitely not want to see the center army collapse due to the resentment of the soldiers. Only the general can save such a dangerous situation!"

Heifu nodded: "I heard you speak in a very organized manner. You can also quote scriptures and read books?"

"Read it?"

"Which one is among the top ten?"

Lu Jia raised his head: "When I was in Shouchun, I learned poetry and calligraphy from a Confucian scholar. The year before last, I was arrested for hiding books. I was sent here. Because I am literate, I became a book assistant."

"It's Confucian..."

Heifu nodded and let Lu Jia go down.

Ziying came over and said, "General, can this person's words be trusted?"

"pretty close."

After arriving in Chenxian County yesterday, it seemed that I had a drinking party with Jia He and all the captains, chatting and laughing, but secretly, Li Cang was sent to each camp to check the situation in the name of rewarding the troops. The morale of the Chenxian camp was depleted and soldiers were killed. Complaints are all understood.

While they were drinking heavily last night, one of Jia's captains, named "Xin Yi", took advantage of the toast and secretly stuffed a small roll of paper into Heifu's palm. Xin Yi complained to Jia He. He said that a year ago, Xiao Tao, an old subordinate of Heifu, volunteered to help the army, but was abandoned by Jia He...

"In Changsha Camp, what we want to treat is the physical illness of the soldiers."

Hei Fu stood up and said: "But here, what needs to be cured is the disease in the soldiers' hearts!"

What's wrong? Resentment!

Heifu has led troops for many years, and he knows best that when running an army, one must pay attention to the "harmony" between the king, generals, soldiers, and people, so that there will be no resentment among the three armies. When morale is depleted and the corvee wants to return, we must not use grudges to resolve grudges.

Otherwise, resentment will lead to more terrible turmoil. In history, it goes without saying what happened to Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. The Tang Dynasty fell in Huangchao, and the disaster was caused by Guilin. It was also caused by a group of garrison soldiers who wanted to go home.

Don’t underestimate the temptation to go home.

"But how can we appease the resentment of soldiers who want to return but cannot return?"

Ziying was very distressed. According to the regulations, the service period of the Qin Dynasty garrison soldiers was one year. A year ago, new soldiers should have come to replace the Southern Expeditionary Army and let them go home.

But Qin Shihuang issued a death order. If Baiyue is unjust, the soldiers of the Southern Expedition will not be able to go home!

As a result, hundreds of thousands of people had no choice but to serve overdue on the front line year after year. That was it. Jia He mishandled the situation and punished them severely, which undoubtedly ignited the anger of the entire army, and then they fled and made troubles.

Even if Heifu is the general, he has no right to release the soldiers from their corvee service.

"We can only settle for the next best thing."

Heifu smiled, as if he had an idea, and asked Li Cang to notify General Jia He and the captains to come here for a meeting. Then he took Ziying and whispered a few words.

Ziying looked hesitant: "Is this really the case?"

Heifu’s words were unquestionable: “This is the only way!”

…

"The supervisor is a member of the royal family, your majesty's nephew, and the eldest son of the prince!"

Half an hour later, when Jia He and the four captains arrived, Heifu didn't mention anything else. He first blew Ziying, saying that he was Qin Shi Huang's eyes and ears in the south, and asked the captains to Feeling fear.

Later, Heifu followed the procedure and showed the gold-plated tiger talisman, as well as the documents and the scepter, showing his authority to command the three armies.

He relayed Qin Shi Huang's will to conquer Yue in two years, and solemnly said:

"If you want to conquer South Vietnam, you must secure the three passes. Now that the Yangshan Pass garrison has rebelled and the mountain road has been cut off, it should be recovered immediately. But I heard that the army sergeants are quite resentful and difficult to control. What do you think should be done? ?”

Jia He didn't take it seriously at all: "Your Majesty, if the soldiers have some minor grievances, just punish them."

"Penalty?"

Heifu shook his head: "The Art of War says that if a soldier is punished before he has surrendered, he will not obey, and if he refuses to obey, it will be difficult to cure. Now that the soldiers want to return home and are separated from the generals, I am afraid it is not appropriate to simply punish them with severe punishment... But General Jia said That’s right, for the sake of military integrity, the punishment cannot be overdue. Some people have returned in defeat, but they have concealed their achievements to escape punishment. It has been a long time..."

His voice became urgent, he threw the military talisman in his hand and shouted: "Second and third sons, take down Jia He!"

Before he could finish, more than 20 people walked out of the house, led by Sang Mu, followed by Heifu's carefully selected personal guards when he was in Anlu. They were wearing armor and holding sharp knives. They pushed Jia Heheng down. Pulling it is like a soap eagle chasing a purple swallow, like a tiger eating a lamb.

Jia He was a little confused and shouted that he was wronged. The other four captains also looked at each other in shock.

Ziying, who had been persuaded by Heifu, stood up and solemnly announced:

"It is said in military law that when a general with more than a thousand men marches to the north in a battle, defends and surrenders, flees from the ground and flees, he is ordered to be called a 'national thief.' , Men and women are treated as officials. When there are more than a hundred people, if there is a battle, they go north, defend and surrender, leave the ground and flee, and are ordered to be 'military thieves'. If they die and their families are disabled, men and women are treated as officials."

"As a general, Jia He commanded 40,000 soldiers and civilians. However, he abandoned his army and fled, losing thousands of troops. He also lost Panyu, Longchuan and other cities. He was guilty of being a national thief and an army thief. In order to cover up the defeat, he falsely reported beheadings and did nothing. The general's virtue is stationed in Chen County, but he behaves carelessly, causing many in the army to flee, and even some rebels in the city. He has no talent as a general, so now he is removed from the post of assistant general!"

Jia He shouted angrily. He was trembling and timid when the incident happened, but compared to the West Route Army, the battle damage in the middle route was less exaggerated. With a little cover-up and the addition of more than 10,000 "Yue people" heads, Even if the losses were offset by the gains, the court did not punish him. After all, the south was in a mess, and rashly replacing the frontline generals would only make things worse.

I thought this article was over, but Heifu had just arrived, and there were only a few thousand people around him, so they didn't dare to do anything to him.

Unexpectedly, retribution comes so quickly!

The other four captains were trembling with fear. According to this statement, if they really wanted to be investigated, would they not be able to escape?

Hei Fu's words put everyone at ease: "Don't worry, gentlemen, I have thoroughly investigated. The defeat of South Vietnam and the flight of the soldiers were all the fault of Jia He. What do the four captains think?"

"The general is aware of it, that's exactly what it is!"

The four people responded indifferently, and some people sued Jia Hei and wanted to draw a clear line with him.

At this time, there was a commotion outside, but it was the soldiers brought by Jia He who were captured by Li Cang and the people from Changsha Camp. The other party resisted, and blood was seen in the fight.

Someone dragged Jia He down, and Heifu scanned the crowd again: "Although Jia He has been captured without a fight, his bodyguards of a thousand short soldiers are still there. In order to prevent them from causing chaos, four captains are needed to lead their troops to surround him." , control it, who wants to go there?”

The four of them were hesitant, but Hei Fu smiled: "After General Tu died in the battle, it was Zhao Tuo who collected the remaining soldiers and retreated to Guilin, which was a meritorious service. Therefore, I have written to your Majesty and recommended him to be the assistant general on the west route. Now there is also a shortage in the middle route. I am a partial general, but it is a pity that I am not very familiar with you, so I don’t know who is qualified for the job, otherwise..."

This time, there was no hesitation, and one person came out immediately. He was a colonel from Guanzhong who was over thirty years old. He was also the one who pretended to be drunk last night and stuffed the note into Heifu's hand.

"Your Majesty, Xinyi is willing to go!"