The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

That night, after everyone left, Heifu smiled at the mess of cups and plates on the banquet.

"The way everyone left must have been shocked by my bold words..."

"Brother, not only them, I am also still immersed in your words, and I haven't recovered yet." Jing said on the side.

He looked up at Heifu, with a trace of uneasiness in his eyes: "Brother Zhong, are dukes, marquises, generals and ministers really not destined by birth? Why do people always tell me that I am born a noble from childhood to adulthood?"

Jing was still a little hesitant, because in Nanjun, which had been ruled by the State of Chu for hundreds of years, the theory of bloodline was very popular.

The kings of Chu in all dynasties claimed to be of Zhurong bloodline. The bronze inscription of their surname was not "Xiong" in later generations, but "Yan", which means offering sacrifices to the sky with a straw-shaped wine, which means that the destiny is granted by God. Since the reign of King Wu of Chu, there have been only two non-royal officials in the past five hundred years. One of them, Wu Qi, was attacked by many people because he wanted to abolish the hereditary feudal system of Chu and suppress the nobles. He did not have a good ending.

Therefore, this idea of "born noble" is still popular among the people of Nanjun.

Facing his brother's doubts, Hei Fu asked him back: "Remember the stories I told you? Fu Yue was promoted among the builders, Jiao Ge was promoted among the fishermen and saltmen, and Guan Yiwu was promoted among the scholars. Are these people born to be wise ministers? They are all born in humble families!"

"In addition, the Yun family is also of noble birth, and is the descendant of the ancient Yun State, but where is Yun Man now? I am of humble birth, born of the same mother as you, and was once a commoner, with no name or money. What position do I sit in now?"

Thinking of this, Hei Fu felt that he was really an inspirational example. In terms of birth, he was even more of a loser than Liu Bang and Chen Sheng!

Fortunately, he did not fall into the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, nor did he fall into the Spring and Autumn Period, but came to the end of the Warring States Period.

Chinese history can be divided into the era of hereditary nobles with "races" and the era of imperial bureaucracy without "races". The former is better than ability, and the latter is better than ability. These two eras were divided by the Warring States, Qin, and Han dynasties, and Heifu and his people stood in the changing world.

The wars of the Warring States had torn apart the high walls of hereditary nobles and hereditary salaries in the Spring and Autumn Period. The royal family fell, and the scholars rose. The scholars, warriors, and strategists of humble origins entered and left the courts of various countries and became ministers. The slogan that the prime minister must come from the state and the fierce general must come from the ranks was also shouted out.

Unlike Chu, which continued to follow the old hereditary path, Qin's military merit system went to another extreme: "Those who have military merits will receive higher titles according to their rates." This means that anyone who has made military merits can enjoy titles and salaries regardless of their origins and social classes. Military merit is the most necessary condition for receiving titles and salaries.

In addition, "the royal family cannot be a member of the family without military merit." This abolished the hereditary privileges enjoyed by the royal family and nobles. They could no longer obtain high positions, high salaries, titles, and fiefdoms just by blood relationship as in the past. It is said that even Qin Wangzheng's younger brother Cheng Qiao did not have a title at first. He became a feudal lord by going to Korea as an envoy and obtaining a lot of land and cities for Qin.

From being of a certain kind to being of a certain kind, it took a long time to prepare, and it was definitely not just a sentence from Chen Sheng. The greatest achievement of the sentence "Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of a certain kind?" was to dethrone the emperors of the ten thousand generations.

Hei Fu dared not say that now, because that would be a rebellion. He could just change it cleverly and combine it with the military merit system.

A person's achievements are made, not born. Destiny is in one's own hands. Only by one's own efforts can one change the unequal fate!

Having said that, in Qin, even if ordinary people were lucky enough to be beheaded and promoted to a higher rank, they could only become Gongcheng at most, and it would be difficult to get promoted afterwards. This is a ceiling for class mobility. Before Hei Fu, I don't know how many people bumped into it and got their heads broken and bloodied.

Because those above the fifth rank of doctor are equivalent to "ministers" and begin to record their native places separately.

But Heifu threatened to break through this ceiling and set a small goal for himself first: to be a marquis! To get a family name!

This lofty ambition awakened Li Xian, Dongmen Bao, Ji Ying, and Xiao Tao who were present, and made their scalps numb, as if a new door had been opened in front of them!

Everyone did not dare to have the same ambition, but they also understood that if Heifu could really reach that step, their followers would certainly not lose benefits.

Doctor? County lieutenant? Maybe there is hope to go further!

So, the next day after returning, the spirits of the originally lazy people were refreshed!

Dongmen Bao no longer yelled about holding his son all day long. After returning to the village, he took out the hand halberd that he had not practiced for a long time and started to practice it in a serious manner.

Xiao Tao also stepped up the training of the bow and crossbow material officer. He found his goal at once: to assist Heifu with all his strength!

Ji Ying also quietly changed his ambition of "being a doctor" to "being an official doctor!"

Li Xian was more diligent in his official duties and assisted Hei Fu in preparing for military training.

Even Jing, who was sure that he would not graduate before the war, picked up the boring laws and regulations after returning to the school and recited them again.

Hei Fu saw all this and was very satisfied.

"On the day I took office, the county magistrate Yong He said to me that politics is the carriage and officials are the horses, and we are all driven by others."

"But in my opinion, my ambition is like the carriage. I can't push it by myself. Aren't all the people my horses? In terms of wisdom and potential, they certainly can't compare with Chen Ping, a horse. They are just ordinary mules and horses in the county and township. They are not fast, but very loyal. They listen to my instructions and walk steadily. These horses have different temperaments and hobbies. They will get tired and lazy. In order to prevent them from falling behind, they must be whipped from time to time!"

...

After whipping his men, Hei Fu also threw himself into the tense conscription work in Anlu County.

According to the plan of the county, each county prepared a list of conscription in May, and small-scale formation training was carried out in the townships and pavilions in June. In July, the county continued to reorganize so that they could recognize the golden drums and flags. In August, weapons were distributed and tactical training was carried out...

However, in June, a major case occurred in Anlu County, and the local order was somewhat chaotic. The conscription work was also delayed, and the current progress was much slower than planned.

Heifu asked Lixian to review the drafted conscription list for himself. Qin State had a universal conscription system. After the age of 17, they would be recorded in their native place and be ready to be conscripted at any time!

Young people aged 17 to 20 mainly performed corvée labor, that is, building walls and roads, transporting food, etc. Heifu worked as a wall repairer in the county. Last time, he was also dragged to escort prisoners. When destroying Wei, he was a baggage unit. He relied on his connections to get into the combat unit.

After the age of 20, they were "strong" and had to continue to be garrison soldiers and regular soldiers. One year in the local army of the county, that is, the county soldiers, and one year in the frontier or central garrison.

Of course, most people in Nanjun did not have the opportunity to go to Xianyang, and they were directly stationed nearby, anyway, Nanjun itself was a border area. It was during these two years of military life that the loosely disciplined people were trained by military law into orderly soldiers, with the concept of queues and the ability to identify drums and gongs. When they heard that they were going to fight, they would not show fear, but would be happy to hear about war.

After the regular army service was completed, all young people of appropriate age were transferred to the reserve service. In addition to serving one month of corvée in the county every year, once a war broke out, they would be called up and enlisted immediately. They were exempted from service until they were 56 years old (those with titles) or 60 years old (those without titles).

Unlike the last war to destroy Chu, Qin State had some hasty and casual conscription. This time, the entire Nanjun strictly carried out conscription this summer in accordance with the "Garden Law".

Li Xian was indeed an efficient official, and was familiar with everything in the county lieutenant's office. He presented the bamboo slips and said, "County lieutenant, Anlu County has one county town, more than 1,000 households, and three townships, Beijiao Township, Yunmeng Township, and Yushui Township. There are 30 pavilions in the three townships, and each pavilion has five to ten villages."

"According to the old conscription rules of previous years, each village will send out a squad of soldiers, and the Wulao or Lidian will serve as the squad leader and the Shizhang; the two pavilions will send out 50 soldiers together, and a pavilion leader will be selected as the tun leader, and then a county official who applied for the conscription will be the 100 generals. In this way, the 100, tun, shi, and wu are all composed of villagers who know each other!"

This is the Qin State, where everyone is a soldier and classical militarism! The grass-roots organizations in peacetime can be transformed into military organizations in wartime. According to the different titles of the recruits, they will hold different positions in the army...

In this way, the three townships alone can send out nearly a thousand soldiers, plus the soldiers recruited by the county, there should be more than a thousand people, which has reached the number required by Li You.

They will be organized into a group, with Heifu, the county lieutenant, as the leader, with two 500 masters, a short-armed personal guard of 100 generals, and medical and emergency personnel and other logistical personnel.

Heifu thought secretly: "Speaking of which, the 900 people who will be joined by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang to garrison Yuyang in the future will also be a group composed of two counties, right? The two of them also served as the head of the garrison, and the two officers who were killed were actually county lieutenants!"

Heifu certainly would not let this happen in advance, so he asked Li Xian to carefully sort out the list, give priority to recruiting the property owners, and don't let the propertyless people from the left join the army! Evil teenagers and light knights are unstable factors in the army.

"I want a group of elite soldiers composed of the sons of good families in Anlu! Merchants and craftsmen will be incorporated into the baggage train!"

He arranged: "All villages and pavilions must complete the conscription before the first day of July, train in the villages and pavilions for ten days, organize the troops, and bring everyone to the county town to assemble on July 10th!"

While the conscripts from various villages were about to gather in the county town to receive training from Hei County Lieutenant, Hei Fu was also arranging a private matter.

Moving!

When the county magistrate Teng was in charge of the county, he praised the composting method for greatly increasing the grain production in Nanjun, which was a great contribution to the country and the people. Therefore, when Heifu was finally granted the title of Gong Dafu for his "advice on medical care and emergency treatment", his uncle Zhong was also rewarded by the county and was granted the title of Zhanniao...

Not only was his title high, but Zhong was also recruited to Anlu County as a Tian Zuo Li, as the deputy of Tian Shaofu, which was equivalent to the "Deputy Director of the County Agricultural Bureau" in later generations, and he would take office at the end of June.

In this way, the three brothers of their family were all in the county, and they couldn't leave their mother alone at home, right? So, after discussing with Zhong, Jing, and their mother, Heifu made a decision: to move the family to Anlu County!

Heifu went through the household registration formalities at the county magistrate's office and returned to his hometown during his day off. He saw the lush banyan tree in the sunset of Yunmeng Township from afar, and he felt reluctant to leave. The old door with cracks in the house, the gradually aging yellow dog, and every brick and tile, all had the warmth of home.

But he had to leave after all, and his family and home could not help but move with Heifu's pace.

The next day, seven or eight ox carts, either rented or borrowed, pulled all kinds of belongings that his mother was reluctant to throw away and set off for the county town. Standing in the sunset, while dealing with the congratulations of the villagers, Heifu had a mischievous thought in his mind.

"From now on, my family will also have a town household registration!"