The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Find a coffin and bury Huang on the spot."

After listening to Zhang's account of Huang's actions before her death, Heifu was silent for a long time. He did not behead Huang, but had her properly buried.

"She was also a good wife and loving mother, and she loved her children deeply. Unfortunately, she was born in a chaotic world... What a pity." He did not say more hypocritically, but waved his hand and asked a few Qin soldiers to do the matter.

In the process of unification, how could there be glory and justice everywhere? Under the mighty power of the Qin army, I don't know how many wives and children were separated, and flesh and blood were separated.

Although Heifu could guarantee that Huyou Township, where he was located, was the place with the best military discipline in the Qin army's garrison area, he dared not say that there was no violation of the slightest, but at least there was no bullying of men and women, and humiliation of local people. But he couldn't be a good guy forever, especially he didn't dare to neglect his duty and let the wanted criminal escape knowingly. Zhang Bo didn't keep this matter confidential. If someone found out and investigated, Hei Fu would suffer.

At this time, Chen Ping, who had been busy all night, came over and seemed to have something to say.

"Youjiao, how should we deal with this kid?" Chen Ping pointed to Zhang Er's son, Zhang Ao, who was locked up in a small room by Dongmen Bao.

"Send him to Waihuang or Daliang for the task. The superiors specified that he must be alive so as to force Zhang Er to surrender. Now Zhang Er's wife is dead, and only an orphan is left..."

He smiled helplessly: "At least it proves that we have indeed captured Zhang Er's wife and son. The reward of 20 taels of gold is enough for my soldiers to return home in glory."

Although Hei Fu seemed to have heard of Zhang Er's name in his previous life, he didn't know what kind of deeds he had, let alone that the child crying for his mother in the house was actually the King of Zhao in history, Liu Bang's unlucky son-in-law.

Chen Ping shook his head: "I have heard a saying that when a ruler sees evil, he should be like a farmer eager to remove weeds, hoeing off its leaves and digging out its old roots, not letting it grow again... This is the strategy of cutting the grass and eradicating it."

Hei Fu looked at Chen Ping: "What do you mean?"

Chen Ping's eyes showed a trace of cruelty, and he waved his hand like a knife, saying: "It is better to kill it than to leave it as a future trouble. Haven't you heard about Xia Shaokang's revenge?"

Hei Fu disagreed: "After this kid is handed over to the officials, he will most likely be taken back to Guanzhong and treated as a minor official. He will be a criminal for the rest of his life, living with mud and bricks, so there is no need to worry."

He asked himself if he was not cowardly enough to kill a seven-year-old child to eliminate his fear and comfort his heart.

Chen Ping wanted to persuade him again, but Heifu had made up his mind: "After you go back, prepare your luggage. You will also go with me to transport grain the day after tomorrow!"

After what happened yesterday, Zhang Bo was ill and could not manage things, so the third elder Zhang Fu temporarily took over his position as the treasurer. Zhang Fu thanked Heifu for letting Zhang go in this matter, and agreed to all his grain collection requests. With the efforts of Zhang from the east and Zhang from the west, two thousand stones of grain and dozens of ox-horse carts were prepared, and they could set off the day after tomorrow.

When the villagers learned that the Qin people were collecting grain, they complained, but after hearing about Zhang's loan of grain, the villagers were all excited, because this could allow them to survive the lean period at the end of April and the beginning of May. In this way, when they were called to escort grain, they did not cause much opposition, and were enough to gather more than a hundred people.

This is the power of the local village tyrants. Without Zhang's assistance, these things could never be done by Heifu and his fifty Qin soldiers who could not speak the language. That's why he would rather sacrifice Huang and drag Zhang to stand on the same boat with him.

After Chen Ping left, Zhong Ming came to Hei Fu, looked at Chen Ping's back and said: "At first I thought Chen Ping was just cowardly and filial, but now it seems that he is more cruel than us, and he doesn't even want to let go of a seven-year-old child."

Hei Fu shook his head, thinking of Chen Ping's reputation in history as a "family extinction plan", this is indeed his style.

"When scholars kill people, they are sometimes more cruel than warriors!"

"Because they only need to give orders and let others do it for them, without having to stain their hands with blood."

But think about it carefully, wasn't it the same for me yesterday?

So Heifu stopped talking about this matter and asked Zhongming, who was arranged by him to communicate with Zhang's house, "What happened in the city?"

Zhongming said, "Zhang Fu asked me to report to the patrol that Zhang Er's friend Chen Yu (yú) sent someone to contact him, but he ran away after realizing something was wrong. They failed to capture him alive and could only shoot him to death..."

"Chen Yu?" Heifu frowned. Another person whose name he had never heard of.

"Zhang Fu said that this person was a Confucian scholar from Daliang and a close friend of Zhang Er. Later, Chen Yu went to Zhao. Although Zhao was destroyed now, Chen Yu is still a famous scholar in Zhao. His reputation even spread to Henei County. Many of his subordinates are heroes from Yan and Zhao. Now the person who came to contact him died and did not return. I am afraid that Chen Yu has known that things have changed. He hopes that the patrol will be more careful..."

...

When Zhou Shi learned that the group of visitors from Zhao were looking for him, he was repairing his crossbow.

Zhou Shi was about thirty years old and had a sparse yellow beard, which was his most obvious feature. He was from Huangchi, and his family had served as soldiers of the Wei State for generations. His grandfather and father had died in battles with the Qin army, so Zhou Shi hated the Qin people and wanted to eat their flesh alive.

But his anger alone could not stop the powerful Qin. In January and February of this year, the Qin State destroyed the last main force of the Wei State with an unstoppable offensive, surrounded the city of Daliang, and sent people to attack and surrender the surrounding counties and towns.

Zhou Shi, who served as a military official in Yangwu County, prepared his troops and planned to be loyal to the Wei State and defend this place. Unexpectedly, the Yangwu magistrate listened to the advice of Zhang Bo, a doorman, and chose to surrender to Qin!

Zhang Bo had a personal loyalty, but no national loyalty. When Zhou Shi heard the news, it was too late. He could only take some of his men who were willing to follow him to kill Yangwu and exile in the wild swamps and woods.

But he did not give up, because as long as Daliang did not fall, there was still hope for the Wei State. As the most loyal soldier to Wei, Zhou Shi began to avoid counties and towns, wandering in the mountains and forests where the Qin army could not reach, absorbing people who were willing to join him, and soon gathered more than a hundred Wei people.

They began to attack the Qin people who were alone, blocked the Qin army's riders who communicated with each county, and even organized an attack on the grain transport team of Yangwu County. Unfortunately, the Qin people had already mastered the arsenal of Yangwu County and were well-equipped. Zhou Shi and his men only had time to burn some of the grain and grass, and then left more than a dozen bodies and retreated.

"Our strength is not enough to compete with the Qin army stationed in the county."

After understanding this, Zhou Shi no longer tried to recapture Yangwu, and began to turn his attention to the townships.

The Qin people's rule in the villages was not strong, and they usually only sent a garrison of fifty people to maintain order. At present, all places were transporting food to Daliang, and this was the most vulnerable season. Zhou Shi could choose to lead people to attack the grain team, or he could directly attack the villages. As long as he captured a village, the Qin army would have to send people to chase him.

In this way, perhaps he could buy a little time for Daliang...

The place Zhou Shi wanted to attack the most was Huyou Township. Zhang Bo persuaded the Yangwu County Magistrate to surrender, and Zhou Shi had always been resentful of this.

Unfortunately, since the Qin people entered Huyou Township, the relationship between the Qin army and the Zhang family did not become strained like other villages. The Qin army of more than fifty people did not intimidate the people, bully the women, and cause mass incidents like the garrisons in other places.

The peaceful Huyou Township made Zhou Shi unable to attack.

I thought that the grain collection might make the people of Huoyou Township angry, but the people Zhou Shi sent to investigate came back and said that everything was normal in the township. Zhang and the Qin army reached an agreement and were willing to lend grain to the people as grain collection to help them overcome difficulties...

Zhou Shi was disappointed, but fortunately, his men brought back a group of people when they brought back the news.

Or, they brought them back under the coercion of that group of people.

Zhou Shi stopped his work and looked at the man standing in front of him with his head held high. He saw that this man was less than 30 years old, eight feet tall, wearing Confucian clothes and a Confucian cap on his head, but he had a sword hanging around his waist.

"Are you Chen Yu? A famous scholar in Zhao?"

"It's me." Chen Yu's eyes were red, maybe he hadn't slept all night, or he had just cried.

Zhou Shi always looked down on weak Confucian scholars, thinking that they were useless and would only run away with ritual objects and bamboo slips when the country was destroyed, so he laughed and said, "I don't know why Chen Sheng held my men hostage and came to find me?"

Chen Yu bowed to Zhou Shi and said, "When I led people to sneak into Yangwu territory, I heard that Zhou Jun recruited more than a hundred warriors and fought against the tyranny of Qin with his own strength. I admire him very much. Now I am willing to bring ten knights from Zhao to help you and attack Huyou Township with you..."

Zhou Shi was very wary of this Confucian scholar with an authentic Daliang accent, and sneered, "Recover Huyou Township? Although you are from Wei, you have already fled to Zhao. Why are you helping me for no reason?"

"To be honest with you, Mr. Zhou, I am a close friend of Zhang County Xia of Waihuang. Before the fall of Waihuang City, he sent his wife and son to Zhang's house in Huyou Township for temporary refuge, and then I secretly took them away. I thought that although Zhang Bo surrendered to Qin, he still remembered his old friendship and would keep his promise. Who would have thought..." Chen Yu gritted his teeth and said, "Unexpectedly, the day before yesterday, Zhang suddenly changed his mind and told the local Qin officials about this matter. The Qin officials and Zhang forced my sister-in-law to death and left her body outside. They also kidnapped my seven-year-old nephew and now he is imprisoned in a camp outside the town..." After listening to this, Zhou Shi shook his head and said, "I only have more than a hundred people under my command, which is not enough to besiege the town. From what you said, since the Qin officials and Zhang have joined forces, there are fifty armored soldiers, plus Zhang's two hundred child servants, and the people of Huyou Township do not want to rebel against Qin, wanting to break through Huyou Township and rescue your nephew? It's nothing but a fool's dream." "Then I have a second plan." Chen Yu was unwilling to give up, and said: "When my followers were investigating outside the village, they saw dozens of ox-horse carts gathered in the town, and food was continuously transported out of Zhang's house. I think they are going to transport food to the Qin army camp in Daliang, either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow! By then, my nephew will definitely be taken along, and I hope Zhou Jun can join us in attacking the food team."

"This strategy is not a bad idea."

Zhou Shi stood up and looked at Chen Yu who was eager to try and smiled: "Well, can a Confucian scholar also kill people?"

Chen Yu was stunned, and then laughed.

"Mr. Zhou is prejudiced against Confucian scholars!"

"I have heard that Zhong You, a disciple of Confucius, was coarse and brave. He wore a rooster's crown and a pig's sword. Later, he worshipped Confucius as his teacher, learned Confucian etiquette, and became a Confucian scholar."

"Zhong You served as the mayor of the Wei State's official Kong Que's home and governed the city for him. At that time, there was a civil strife in Wei State, and the rebels besieged Kong Que. At that time, all the warriors under Kong Que fled out of the city, but Zhong You went against the flow and entered the city. He killed all the rebels on the road. When he arrived at Kong Que's home, the rebels ordered a hundred people to besiege Zhong You with spears. Zhong You took the sword and fought against a hundred people with his own strength. He was wounded dozens of times, but he still stood firm and killed more than ten people in the counterattack..."

"In the end, Zhong You couldn't stand it anymore, and his hat and belt were cut off by the spear. He said, 'A gentleman dies but his hat and belt cannot be removed', so he tied a tassel and died..."

After saying that, Chen Yu suddenly drew out the two-foot-long sword from his waist. Zhou Shi's men nervously took a step forward, but Zhou Shi raised his hand to stop them.

Chen Yu sat on the ground and played the sword, saying, "Although I am a Confucian scholar and I like Confucianism, I admire Zilu and hope to be a Confucian knight. That's why I interacted with Zhang Er and became close friends with him."

"Mr. Zhou asked me if I could kill people? Hahahaha, when I was in Liang, although I was young, I drew my sword and killed a bully in the market, and then fled to Zhao. In Kuxing, Zhao, I met bandits who wanted to take my clothes and hat. I drew my sword and killed two people. Only then did the local rich man Gongcheng be surprised and called me as a son-in-law. Relying on the wealth of my wife's family, I became famous in Zhao..."

"Unfortunately, within two years after that, the tyrannical Qin conquered Handan, and Kuxing was also incorporated into Hengshan County. Qin's laws were strict, and they did not like Confucianism and banned knights. So the former economics met and talked about the past and the present, and the former husbands gathered to play games and sing sad songs. They are all gone... My precious sword has been covered in dust for a long time..."

After Chen Yu sighed, he stood up again with his sword, bowed respectfully to Zhou Shi and said:

"Zi Lu said that those who eat his food do not avoid his difficulties; for me, those who cut their necks and fight each other do not avoid his difficulties! Now is the day when I will use this long sword to kill Qin officials, punish traitors, and drink blood again."

"It will also teach Zhou Jun that Confucian scholars can also kill people!"