The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In Dou Ran's opinion, the little village chief "Zhong" who was sent to discuss surrender seemed timid. He stood in the middle of the tent awkwardly, looking back from time to time at the Chu soldiers holding blades and staring at him, laughing dryly, and then licking his lips continuously, with his shaking hands not knowing where to put them.

Like a thorn in the side, Dou Ran wanted this effect. How could he force the Qin people to surrender without showing his power?

"Let me ask you, how many Qin people are there in the city?" He was first concerned about the strength of the troops in the city.

The young garrison commander was stunned and quickly replied: "General, there are 600 people in the city..."

"You are lying!"

Sun Feng slammed the table and shouted angrily: "Every move of yours is seen by our scouts. How dare you falsely report the number of people?"

This sentence frightened the young garrison commander and he trembled and bowed quickly: "General, I am wrong! I dare not lie. We are soldiers from Nanjun and are under the command of Li Duwei. When Xiangcheng was defeated, we were separated from Li Duwei and could only go south with the five hundred masters. We gathered some people along the way. Five hundred people entered the city, plus the one hundred people in the town, it is six hundred, the scouts must have made a mistake..."

Sun Feng was blackmailing him, and the surrendered general Liao Ping on the side also actively assisted the two Chu lords to ask: "What is the name of your five hundred masters?"

Hei Fu looked at Liao Ping. His accent was very similar to Li You's. He should be from Shangcai. He probably surrendered to Qin last year. He has no psychological barriers to return. Hei Fu knew that although Li Xin brought mostly Guanzhong soldiers, there were also many people recruited from Shangcai as guides.

"The five hundred commander is Cheng Wuyou, also from Nanjun."

Hei Fu reported the name of his old boss. Anyway, he is now unknown whether he is dead or alive.

"I have never heard of this person."

Liao Ping frowned, but he did not doubt it. After all, there were more than 100,000 or 200,000 Qin troops, and there were two or three hundred five hundred commanders. If they were not under the same captain, it would be impossible for them to know each other.

The three of them did not ask anything wrong, so the topic turned to surrender.

Hei Fu asked cautiously: "Cheng Wubaizhu asked me to ask clearly, if he surrenders to Chu, can he be given land and houses according to the original treatment?"

"You still want land and houses?"

Dou Ran and Sun Feng looked at each other. This Qin general is very good at making requests. Sun Feng said: "How much land and houses does he want?"

"Wubaizhu's title is Guan Dafu, so he wants 700 acres of land and a house of 200 steps square. Wubaizhu said that if the general of Chu thinks that the land is too much, it is okay to give it according to the acreage system of Chu, so that he can be a rich man collecting rent in Chu..."

Dou Ran just wanted to laugh out loud. The Qin general inside was indeed a greedy and cowardly person. At this time, his mind was full of the treatment and land after surrendering, so he nodded happily and said: "Okay, I agree to this."

"Wubaizhu also said."

Hei Fu smiled awkwardly: "Verbal promise is not enough. He hopes that the general can sign a contract to prove it in the future..."

"Hey, he's really thoughtful."

In this way, Dou Ran and Sun Feng had no doubts about the sincerity of the surrender of the "Five Hundred Lords" who did not exist in the town. They simply asked someone to bring bamboo slips and wrote a piece of paper to the young garrison chief so that he could take it back and report.

At this time, it was the turn of the Chu people to make demands.

Dou Ran said: "Zhong, go back and tell Cheng Wubaizhu that he must take all the people to throw down their weapons from the top of the city before the sun rises, then take off their armor, line up in order, and surrender outside the city, otherwise..."

"I will lead the army to attack the city, and you will all be powdered!"

Dou Ran frowned and slapped the table. The row of Chu soldiers behind Heifu immediately raised their weapons and shouted loudly!

Heifu's legs softened and he hurriedly agreed, but he thought it was not good in his heart. It seems that the Chu generals are still very vigilant. In this way, their feigned surrender and sneak attack will be more difficult.

The surrender was almost discussed, but just when Heifu was about to turn around and leave, he hesitated, turned back and bowed again, saying: "I have already relayed the words of the five hundred masters, but I would like to ask the generals, if we ordinary military officers and soldiers surrender, how should we be resettled?"

This question made the three of them stunned, and Dou Ran sneered in his heart: "What else can we do? Send them to Wuyue to boil salt, or take them to Huainan and distribute them to the feudal lords as spoils of war, and make them farm slaves and mine slaves for them, working themselves to death, that's all."

Of course, this could not be said out loud, and the kind-faced Sun Feng smiled and said: "Zhong, go back and tell the soldiers of the Qin army that Chu is not like the Qin army, and there is no bad habit of killing prisoners. You will all be properly resettled. Chu has a vast territory and a small population, and there is plenty of land to settle you. As long as you are loyal to Chu, you can become Chu citizens."

Anyway, Chu State was no longer worried about its demise, and the feudal lords did not want their clan soldiers to be lost again, so they thought about tricking the Qin people into surrendering and disarming them first, and not fighting if they could. Chu State was not like Qin State, and they had no actual reward for cutting off the heads of the Qin army.

"In this case, I feel relieved."

Hei Fu breathed a sigh of relief and said happily: "To be honest with the general, in fact, we are from Nanjun. We were also Chu people three generations ago, and later we had to obey Qin and serve and fight for it. But in fact, Nanjun is still called Western Chu! We also consider ourselves Chu people."

Although Nanjun and Huaibei, Pei, Pengcheng, Chen, Cai and other places belong to two countries, they are still classified as "Western Chu" in terms of culture and customs. They have similar customs and languages, and there are indeed many similarities. Compared with the Eastern Chu of Donghai and Wuyue; the Southern Chu of Yuzhang and Changsha, they are more different.

Heifu took the opportunity to curse the Qin State again: "Qin officials collected most of the taxes in Nanjun. Men's hard work in the fields was not enough for food and wages, and women's spinning and weaving was not enough for clothes. That's fine, but the most unbearable thing is that there are too many corvée labor, and the criminal law is harsh. If you pick up a piece of mulberry leaf or a penny on the road, you will be sentenced to a heavy punishment! There are countless people who have been tattooed and chopped off their feet and become prisoners and slaves!"

After complaining for a long time, he said indignantly: "We, the soldiers of Nanjun, have suffered from Qin for a long time. Now we have the opportunity to become Chu people again and be treated fairly. I don't know how happy we are!"

"That makes sense."

These words touched the surrendered general Liao Ping, and he also joined in, talking about the brutal rule of Qin over Shangcai in the past year. He also suffered from Qin for a long time, so he surrendered to Chu and was willing to become a Chu person again.

In short, the two men sang the same tune, disparaging the Qin government as worthless, as if they would kill the Qin officials and surrender to Chu if they just went to Shangcai and Nanjun and raised their arms.

Sun Feng looked at the faces of the two men and knew that they were trying their best to please the Chu people in order to have a good impression. They smiled on the surface, but they were very contemptuous in their hearts.

Dou Ran looked like he was listening to a joke. After the two men scolded him fiercely, he asked He Fu, "Which county in Nanjun are you from?"

"I am from Anlu County."

"Anlu County? Wasn't it called Yunyi in the past? That's the hometown of my Ruo'ao clan!" Dou Ran became more interested when he heard it.

"Is the general a descendant of the Ruo'ao clan?"

Hei Fu pretended to be surprised and bowed to Dou Ran again, saying, "I often hear the elders in my hometown say that when the Ruo'ao clan was still around, the days were ten times or even a hundred times better than those under the rule of Qin! If the Qin had not seized Anlu, I would have been a subject of the general since I was born. It's not too late now. After we surrender to Chu, I hope the general can take me in! I am willing to be a family servant for generations."

"Hahaha, that's a good idea. I promise you."

His shameless attitude of recognizing his master made Dou Ran laugh. After he agreed casually, he asked Hei Fu another question.

"The Ruo'ao clan also has old officials and acquaintances in Anlu County. They told me that the Ruo'ao clan's tomb was robbed by a group of tomb robbers two years ago. Do you know about this?"

That happened two years ago when Hei Fu had just become the head of Huyang Pavilion. Thinking back now, it seemed like a lifetime ago. Who would have thought that it would be reported to Chu.

He felt a bit complicated for a moment, but he said, "How could I not know? That was a big case that shocked the whole county. When the tomb robber was executed, I went to watch. It was really gratifying."

Dou Ran said again, "It is said that the case was solved by a small pavilion chief, but the name of the pavilion chief was not mentioned in the letter. What was his name?"

Hei Fu's palms were sweating. He almost suspected that he had been exposed. He almost jumped up to hold Dou Ran hostage, but there were several fully armed Chu soldiers behind him holding spears and halberds against him. He was unarmed and would definitely die.

He tried not to panic, pretending that it was someone else, and said calmly: "His name is Heifu."

"Heifu, what a strange name."

Dou Ran kept repeating the name, and then asked: "Do you know Heifu? Has he been recruited to join the army this time?"

Heifu smiled nonchalantly: "I am from the northern suburbs of Anlu County, and from a different township from Heifu. I only know his name, not the person, and I don't know if he is in the army. Anyway, there is no such person among the people who came to Yingyang... Even if he really came to Chu, he might have died in Xiangcheng."

"What a pity."

Dou Ran suddenly felt lost, and sighed: "I hope he is still alive. Although the young pavilion chief is a Qin official, at least he didn't let the thieves destroy my ancestor's coffin. Ruo Ao owes him a favor."

"If he comes to Chu and is willing to submit to me, I can give him 700 acres of land as a reward, just like I promised the five hundred masters!"