The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In early May, after returning to Huoyou Township, Heifu first distributed the reward money to the soldiers who were stationed here when he was away, and then visited Zhang Fu's house without stopping.

Now Zhang Bo was sick due to anger, so whether it was the clan or the affairs of the township, it was all Zhang Fu who was in charge.

Heifu first told Zhang Fu that the 1,000 stones of millet that Zhang's family had donated could be used as a tribute to be awarded a title, and Zhang's family would receive a first-level title. What he promised was done.

After telling the good news, he immediately stated his purpose: "I am willing to help Chen Ping cut down the tree..."

When Zhang Fu learned that Chen Ping wanted to marry his granddaughter, he was stunned at first, and then overjoyed!

Not to mention that the marriage of his granddaughter has become a big worry for him. He married five men and all five died. Although none of them had a direct relationship with the Zhang girl, it was too strange after all. It would be bad for his reputation if it was spread out. Now Chen Ping is willing to accept it, how can he not be overjoyed?

Not to mention, Chen Ping is a handsome young man in the village. After he was cleared of the suspicion of "stealing his sister-in-law", Zhang Fu has begun to pay attention to him. Since Chen Ping was recruited by Hei Fu to work as a clerk in the Qin camp, he has made suggestions several times. On the one hand, he has been praised by Qin officials. On the other hand, he also offered the strategy of "lending grain to the people", which made Qin officials, Zhang family, and the people in the town win-win. Zhang Fu was amazed and believed that this young man had a promising future.

How could he not be happy to get such a good son-in-law?

Zhang Fu secretly thought: "With Chen Ping's appearance and talent, and with the support of my family, he may be able to command a county and become famous in the whole county in the future."

So Hei Fu's first matchmaking was a perfect match. Zhang Fu did not even consult his granddaughter and hurriedly agreed to the marriage. However, Zhang's ex-husband had just died in March, and the mourning period had not yet passed, so the date of the wedding was still set in March or April next year...

This matter was done in a muddle. Afterwards, in order to express his gratitude, Chen Ping took out the money that Hei Fu had given him before and invited Hei Fu to a banquet in the best wine shop in the village.

...

When he heard that Chen Ping was going to book the entire wine shop, the owner of the wine shop looked him up and down in surprise, and almost made a habitual sarcastic remark, but then he remembered that this was no longer the Chen Ping who ate his brother and sister-in-law's rice, was despised by others, and had nothing to do.

Chen Ping has now washed away the slanderous reputation of the past, and he is working under Qin Li, so people dare not look down on him.

"Chen Ping is rich now, and he will probably become a rich man in the village in the future." The shopkeeper said compliments, but Chen Ping didn't think so in his heart.

"Rich man? He is indeed a scumbag, and he underestimates me too much."

After the shopkeeper put on the wine and food with a smile, Hei Fu also arrived. The two of them greeted each other across the table and sat opposite each other. After this incident, their relationship became much closer. When they were drunk, Hei Fu couldn't help but curiously asked why Chen Ping had to marry the girl from the Zhang family...

"Mr. Chen was attracted by her beauty?"

After all, she was the most beautiful woman in the village. Hei Fu even imagined whether Chen Ping had a crush on the girl from the Zhang family when he was a child? But when she got married, he could only stand by the roadside and watch. When the wind blew up the gauze curtain of the bride's sedan chair, the young man was stunned and never forgot it...

"Stop wandering around!"

Chen Ping laughed after hearing this, amused by Hei Fu's imagination.

He looked around and saw that there were only two people in the tavern, and the shopkeeper was busy with his own business from a distance, so he leaned in and whispered: "The reason why I want to marry Miss Zhang is because of Zhang's wealth and Zhang Fu's reputation and power in this town..."

Chen Ping's eyes became extremely utilitarian, but very calm.

"Think about it, Zhang Er was a murderer on the run, poor and destitute. He married the daughter of a wealthy man in Waihuang and got financial support from his wife's family. He became a great hero of Wei State and even entered the government and became the magistrate of Waihuang."

"The same is true for Chen Yu. If he had not been favored by Gongcheng of Kuxing in Zhao and recruited as a son-in-law, how could he have the money to make friends everywhere and finally become a local celebrity?"

After listening to this, Hei Fu understood that a successful marriage in Chen Ping's eyes was not about love and affection between husband and wife, but about mutual complementation of marriage.

To sum it up with a famous saying that Hei Fu has forgotten which sage said, it is:

"There is no need to elaborate on the principles of heaven and human feelings. Marriage is about profitability!"

The collapse of Daliang and the demise of Wei State brought a huge shock to Chen Ping. He truly felt the trend of the times, so he began to think about his future.

Although he is now a clerk in the Qin camp and receives three stones of grain a month, he is only a temporary worker. The war is over, Heifu and his men will leave sooner or later, and then he will be unemployed again?

Chen Ping certainly won't wait for that day to come. According to his understanding of Qin's laws and systems in the past two months, after Heifu and his men leave, military control will end, and the official county magistrate, county lieutenant, and county magistrate will take office in Yangwu County.

Should he go to Yangwu, or go to a neighboring county to apply for a job as an official? After all, he has the advantage of knowing Qin characters, and now he can understand the Guanzhong dialect.

But after thinking about it, Chen Ping gave up this plan.

Although the Qin army has swept across Wei and destroyed Wei's country, Chen Ping's identity as a "Wei person" has not completely disappeared in his heart. What's more, his brother and sister-in-law are still in the house, so Chen Ping plans to give priority to local development and see the situation first.

The Qin government has strict restrictions on the place of origin of officials. The main chiefs of counties and prefectures are not locals, but are directly appointed from other places by Xianyang. However, the subordinate officials of the county office, as well as the officials and assistant officials at the township level, are all locals.

Therefore, Chen Ping estimated that the future of Huyou Township would still be decided by the local tyrants. The relationship with Zhang, the reputation among the township party, and the wealth he possessed were still the basis for his local foothold.

At present, Chen Ping has only washed away the stigma of the past, got the attention of Zhang, and earned a little money to prove that he was "self-reliant". However, these are still far from the "great ambition" that he hid in his heart and dared not tell anyone.

Of course, he dared not tell anyone about that ambition, because no matter who he told it directly, others would laugh at him.

Chen Ping did not lack talent, he just lacked a stage to perform. When Hei Fu was there, for reasons that were still unknown, he provided him with many opportunities to show himself. But Chen Ping couldn't leave his hometown and go to Nanjun with Heifu, so he had to find a new supporter for his future development...

You can be ambitious, but you must be down-to-earth. This is the principle of Chen Ping's career.

After listening to Chen Ping's true intention, Heifu couldn't help but sigh. This is indeed Chen Ping. Even his marriage is calculated so meticulously and utilitarian.

He understood Chen Ping's choice. Yes, for a poor and lonely talented person like Chen Ping, getting the support of the rich and powerful Zhang family is the most convenient way to success!

But Heifu asked worriedly: "The lady Zhang has a reputation for killing her husband, aren't you afraid..."

"What are you afraid of? In my opinion, the deaths of the five people were all accidents, and they were not blessed to enjoy the beauty."

Chen Ping was already drunk, and he rarely let himself go. He laughed loudly, but his eyes were full of confidence.

He patted his chest and said loudly: "Don't worry, patrolmen, Chen Ping is lucky enough!"

...

In mid-June, it was the hottest time of the year. The heat wave hit Huyou Township, the valley breeze blew, the lotus leaves in the ponds were in full bloom, and the cicadas on the roadside trees were chirping.

A team slowly walked out of the Qin army garrison camp outside the township and slowly moved south. They were Hei Fu and his men.

At this time, it had been more than a month since Hei Fu acted as a matchmaker for Chen Ping. During this month, Huyou Township was peaceful and peaceful. Except for strengthening patrols to prevent refugees from Daliang City from running around, there was nothing else to do. Everything was the same as before.

Whether the Wei Kingdom was destroyed or not seemed to have nothing to do with this township.

In early June, with the official Qin official transferred to Yangwu, the time for Hei Fu and his men to evacuate was getting closer and closer. The garrison soldiers in Anlu and Yan County, who had been away from home for more than half a year, could not wait.

After half a month of preparation, Heifu handed over the local defense to the new patrol officer, who was indeed a local nobleman as Chen Ping expected. Then, he left the camp where they had been stationed for several months with the people who were eager to return home.

Although under Heifu's control, the Qin soldiers almost did not harm anyone in the local area, the locals did not show much gratitude to him. There was no situation in the TV dramas where the honest officials were transferred and the people brought their old and young to stay and see them off. The only people who came to see them off were Zhang Fu and his son, and Chen Ping and a few others.

"I will remember what the patrol did for the village. As for the great kindness of the patrol in saving the Zhang family, I will also let my descendants remember it in their hearts and never forget it."

Zhang Fu asked people to prepare meat and wine to toast Heifu, and also asked Zhang Zhong and other children and grandchildren to toast the squad leaders and platoon leaders under Heifu one by one. This made the straightforward Dongmen Bao mutter: "It is still the old Zhang from Xizhang who has a bit of humanity, much better than the old man from Dongzhang."

When it was Chen Ping's turn to toast Heifu, Heifu sighed:

"It seems that I will not have the opportunity to see Mr. Chen marry Miss Zhang. The two taels of gold are the gift I left in advance."

Chen Ping bowed and said: "The patrol not only helped me, but also gave me a lot of money. Chen Ping really has nothing to repay."

Perhaps because of this feeling of "nothing to repay", Heifu and his companions had already walked more than ten miles away from the township, but Chen Ping still rode the horse borrowed from the Zhang family and accompanied them all the way to the border of Huyou Township.

Seeing that they would reach the border of Waihuang County if they went further, although the war was over now, it was still not safe to walk alone on the road, so Heifu persuaded Chen Ping to stop.

"Mr. Chen, let's stop here."

"The reason I accompanied you here is that I have something I have always wanted to ask the patrol."

Chen Ping dismounted, bowed to Heifu, raised his head, and raised the doubts that had been hidden in his heart for months.

"When we were drunk that day, You Jiao said that from now on, he would consider Chen Ping as his friend. Then Chen Ping dared to ask You Jiao, why did you deliberately help me to clear my grievances when we had never met before?"

"I have asked my uncle and sister-in-law, You Jiao sent people to investigate carefully, and only found me after knowing the truth of this matter. After that, he recommended me to the Qin camp as a clerk, gave me food, divided my reward, and treated me like a confidant. What virtue and ability does Ping have to make You Jiao so worried?"

Chen Ping is a utilitarian person, and he has never believed that there will be things in the world without reason. Hei Fu's attention and support for him have exceeded common sense.

At first, he was worried that Hei Fu had bad intentions, or even a Longyang follower, but later he found out that it was a misunderstanding.

This made Chen Ping even more confused, and he was puzzled. If he didn't know the reason, he would never be at peace.

Hei Fu pondered for a moment, and no longer perfunctorily responded as usual. He smiled and said, "Maybe it's because I felt that you were different from ordinary people when I saw you for the first time, Mr. Chen?"

"I'm a poor scholar from my village, what's the difference?"

Hei Fu pointed at himself and said, "You may not believe it, but after seeing you, a sentence suddenly flashed through my mind."

Chen Ping asked, "What is it?"

"Can this gentleman rule the world one day?"

After saying that, Hei Fu laughed loudly, bowed to Chen Ping, and rode away without staying for long, leaving only a sentence in the distance.

"There is a time to meet in life. After sending you thousands of miles, we must say goodbye. Chen Ping, you and I will say goodbye here, and we will meet again!"

The horse's hooves rolled up the dust and quickly went away, leaving only Chen Ping standing there like a wooden chicken, his face full of horror even more than before.

"Rule the world! How did he know what I want to do in my heart!?"