The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In February of the fifth year of King Fuchu of Chu, in Zhongyangli, Fengyi, Pei County, there was a large mulberry tree in a small courtyard with two entrances, like a canopy. Under the shade of the tree, a father and son were confronting each other, and the atmosphere was quite tense.

Liu Ji, a 33-year-old bachelor with a thick beard and a cap on his bun, first looked at the leather ball on the ground that was disemboweled by a copper cone, then looked up at his angry father Liu Taigong and smiled.

"My father, if you are angry, just hit me. Why take it out on this ball? After all, I bought it at the market for thirty ants. What a pity..."

Liu Taigong looked a bit like Liu Ji, both with prominent foreheads and high noses. They were also handsome when they were young. Now that they are old, their hair and beard are gray, but they are not old enough to use crutches. When the weather is fine, they can still go to the fields to work with their son Liu Zhong.

The Liu family was once a doctor of the State of Wei. They moved to Fengyi only forty years ago. Although they were no longer a wealthy family, they still had two hectares of good land and a five-acre house. They raised dogs and pigs. If they took good care of them, the family could have enough food and clothing. Liu Taigong could even marry a concubine.

But now, at the age when he should be playing with his grandchildren, he couldn't stop because of his useless third son Liu Ji...

"Unfilial son!"

Liu Taigong was so angry that he sat on the doorstep. He and his second son had just returned home from planting rice, but he found that Liu Ji, who had disappeared while he was working, was playing Cuju with the boys from the same village.

Cuju was the favorite game of the Qi and Chu Qingxia. Liu Ji had superb skills and played Cuju very well. Those boys who were more than ten years younger than him could only kick blindly with brute force. With one kick, they smashed all the pots and jars in the yard!

Seeing that they were in trouble, the young men scattered. Aunt Liu in the house scolded the little brats and came out to clean them up. Only Liu Ji didn't take it seriously and laughed.

Grandpa Liu was so angry that he pierced Liu Ji's leather ball and cursed: "Liu Ji, are you my biological son? You are idle all day long, and you are nothing like me!"

Liu Ji couldn't help laughing and looked at his mother.

Liu Ao, who was standing by, didn't like what she heard. She stood up, put her hands on her waist, and scolded Liu Taigong: "Liu Ang, when you were young, didn't you fight cocks and play football in Zhongyang all day? I think the one who looks most like you is Ji'er!"

Liu Taigong's voice lowered a few degrees after his past was exposed: "That was when I was young. When I was in my twenties, I also worked as a farmer. Who is like this unfilial son? He is thirty-three years old and still hangs out with the boys in the village who are ten years younger than him. The year before last, he shamelessly asked me for thousands of dollars, saying that he wanted to do something big in Wei. What happened? He left with nothing, and he came back with nothing, even the scabbard was lost! Is this the big thing you said!?"

"Forget it." Seeing her husband bring up the old matter again, Liu Ao quickly tried to smooth things over and invited them to eat.

There were four people at the dinner table. The eldest brother Liu Bo died early, the second brother Liu Zhong had separated from the family, and the youngest brother Liu Jiao went out to study. Now there were only Liu Taigong's wife and concubine, and Liu Ji, a shameless parasite.

"No meat today."

Liu Ji looked at the simple meal with some pickyness, thinking. Since Qin and Chu went to war in Huaibei a few months ago, Fengpei, as a border town, had also become nervous. The Chu government asked them to hand in twice as much grain as in previous years.

Liu Taigong was still angry and turned away, not wanting to look at Liu Ji. Liu Ao doted on her son and filled his meal with rice. She also advised him earnestly:

"Ji'er, your father is right. I asked someone to match you up, but I heard that you are still doing nothing and don't want to marry a daughter. If you continue like this, will you not marry? Or learn from your second brother and help the family with farming and industry?"

Liu Ji said calmly: "Ji is a frivolous person and doesn't like farming."

To be honest, he actually looked down on his second brother who was stingy and cowardly and only knew how to dig for food in the soil.

"Then do you want to learn from your brother and go to study?"

The son born to Liu Taigong's concubine Li was called Liu Jiao. He was naturally fond of reading and was well-known in the village. He was sent to Fu Qiubo in Lu last year to learn poetry and books.

Although Fengpei was called "Western Chu", it was very fond of Confucianism because it was close to Zou and Lu. Learning Confucianism is also a way out for young people. The better ones will be invited by the county magistrate of Chu to be retainers. At the worst, they can also hold funerals for others and make some spare money. When Liu Ji was young, he learned to read from the elders in the town. In his mother's view, as long as her son is diligent, he will definitely succeed and will not be worse than the concubine's child!

Unexpectedly, Liu Ji showed disgust on his face. He hated Confucian scholars and Confucianism the most. When he was a wanderer, he saw those poor Confucian scholars in Pei County. He would snatch their tall Confucian caps and urinate in them!

"Or, become a merchant? Or slaughter dogs and sell wine. If you need capital, I still have some spare money..."

Fengpei, like Chendi, is a trader in fish and salt, so there are many merchants among the people, and there is no excessive discrimination against businessmen, which is also a way out.

Liu Taigong on the side spat: "Let him sell wine and slaughter dogs, I'm afraid he will get himself drunk first?"

Hearing this, Liu Ji couldn't help it, and handed the bowl of rice he had just eaten to his mother again: "Mom, wait until this period is over before thinking of a way out for me. Now I have to hide at home. If I show up rashly, I might be arrested by the government and forced to defend the city like my neighbor A Wan!"

Lu Wan was a neighbor of Liu Ji's family. The two were born on the same day of the same month of the same year. The villagers held sheep wine to congratulate the two families and also urged them to become brothers.

When the two grew up, they were really like brothers. They also worshipped a teacher in the county to learn to read and write together. They were classmates and loved each other. Later, they also became knights together. Lu Wan often followed Liu Ji as a younger brother. When Liu Ji committed a crime and the Chu officials came to look for him, he often went to Lu Wan's house to hide.

But this time, Lu Wan was not smart enough. He was caught by the men who came to capture young men in the early spring. He was tied to a straw rope and taken to the Fengyi military camp. They said they would make them soldiers to defend the city against the enemy. The old couple of the Lu family could only shed tears, fearing that he would not be able to come back after the war...

"What kind of enemy to defend? This small Fengyi can be easily captured by only 500 Qin soldiers! If the Qin army came with 3,000 people, they could sweep Pei County and advance to Sishui..."

Although Liu Ji spoke Chu dialect and wore Chu clothes, he was not loyal to the King of Chu and the County Magistrate of Pei County. He had seen the world. When he saw the collapse of the Wei Kingdom under the attack of the Qin Army, he knew at that time that Fengpei, which was close to Wei, could not escape.

So after he came back, he was lazy and didn't want to do anything. Studying and doing business? What's the use? The world is about to change! No matter what he had done in the past two years, he would have to start over sooner or later. He was just waiting for the day when everything would turn upside down!

At this moment, a question came from outside.

"Is Liu Ji here?"

...

Hearing someone calling his name outside, Liu Ji was startled, put his empty bowl on the ground, and ran to the barn. Liu Taigong didn't care about being angry at this time. After his son hid, he slowly opened the door, but saw a clerk in red clothes and red hat outside...

Liu Taigong was also a well-known person in the village. Seeing that it was just the most humble young clerk, he refused with a stern face: "Liu Ji is not here, and I don't know where the unfilial son has gone, whether he is dead or alive! Go look for him somewhere else!"

The clerk at the door stuck his head in, glanced at Liu Ai and Li who looked a little nervous, and then looked at the four pairs of bowls and daggers on the table. How could he not know what was going on? Then he smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, don't you remember me? I'm Ren Ao from Pei County! I'm a good friend of Liu Ji. I once had dinner with him at home. He got drunk and you chased him away with a broom..."

"Liu Ji told me personally that he was at home and asked me to come here to find him if I had anything."

Mr. Liu hesitated for a moment, and seeing that the man was indeed friendly, he let him in and shouted to the yard. Liu Ji immediately jumped out of the straw pile where he was hiding. He didn't care that his body and head were covered with straw, and he laughed and greeted him, hugging the clerk.

"So it's Ren Ao!"

Ren Ao was also someone Liu Ji met when he was a light knight with Wang Ling in Pei County. He worked as a clerk in the county magistrate's office. Although he was a clerk, he was very loyal and very much to Liu Ji's taste. The two of them became close friends. This time, the county wanted to arrest young men, and it was Ren Ao who told Liu Ji in advance so that he could go out and avoid the limelight.

He invited Ren Ao to sit down and eat, and habitually said: "Good wine and good meat..."

After saying this, he remembered that this was his home, not a wine shop, so he had to touch his beard awkwardly and asked his mother to pour some water.

Ren Ao was not like Liu Ji's group of chivalrous brothers in Fengyi, who came here to eat and drink for free. He said to Liu Ji in a serious tone: "I came to Fengyi this time for official business."

"Oh?" Liu Ji was quick-witted and reacted: "Is the county going to collect grain again?"

"Yes! Families on the left side of the street have to pay two stones of grain each! Families on the right side of the street have to pay five to ten stones!"

When Liu Taigong heard this, he jumped up immediately: "Five stones? After paying this grain, my family will have to eat dirt!"

This is of course an exaggeration. Their family is considered a small landlord. No matter how difficult it is, they still have dozens of stones of grain in their home. But this is the third time since October last year that grain has been collected, and the amount collected is more each time, and they are eager to dig out every extra grain from the people's homes! Liu Ji's family has to live a tight life, and those poor families in the county may really have to eat dirt like in a disaster year.

"It seems that the army on the front line is running out of food. They can't hold on any longer."

"Yes, I heard that in Huaibei and Huainan, almost every household has to send one or two men to the front line, either as soldiers or to transport food, because Qin has gathered hundreds of thousands of troops."

In this way, Chu has almost pulled one-tenth of its population to the front line. Five hundred thousand people, plus livestock, need nearly one million dan of food every month. Although Chu is rich, its granaries are becoming increasingly empty. The King of Chu is anxious. He first asks for food from the feudal lords, but it is still not enough. Now he can only think of ways from the people.

But the people are also in trouble. Almost all the men of the right age in the family have been pulled to the front line, or they have served as soldiers nearby to guard the city. In February, the busy farming season, only the elderly and women can work in the fields. It is already miserable. Now the King of Chu has ordered the counties to search for food, which is really worse.

Spring planting has been delayed, and it is still a long way to summer harvest. How can we survive these months of lean season?

"I think the Chu Kingdom is going to be ruined!"

Liu Ji did not grit his teeth and feel grief-stricken like most people, but smiled.

He knew that there would be such a day two years ago!

He advised Ren Ao not to work for the county magistrate anymore and go home to hide early. Ren Ao also had this idea. The people of Fengpei have changed their nationality three times between Song, Wei and Chu in the past hundred years, almost one generation at a time, so their nationality is very weak.

Just as Liu Ji and Ren Ao were discussing the current situation, the door of Liu Ji's house was knocked again!

And this time, the knock was particularly urgent! It really looked like an official was coming to arrest someone!

Liu Ji hurried to hide in the barn again, while Liu Taigong impatiently opened the door.

"Who is it again?"

When the door opened, it was a Chu soldier wearing armor but without weapons, with a face full of anxiety. He knocked on the door and looked inside and outside. It seemed that there was chaos over there.

Liu Taigong was shocked: "A Wan? Aren't you supposed to be a soldier in the city to defend the city?"

"Liu Gong! What city are you still defending!"

Lu Wan was anxious and shouted: "The Qin army broke in, and they were so dense that we couldn't stop them at all. The city only shot a wave of arrows, and the doctor of the city took the lead and ran away. We also followed in the rout. Fortunately, I listened to what Brother Ji told me before and ran when I saw the situation was not good! Otherwise, I would have become a Qin captive and would never see Liu Gong and Brother Ji again!"

...

In mid-February, Xiang Yan, who was in the Huaibei camp, also received news that the Qin army had invaded, Fengpei had fallen, and Lu and Pengcheng were in danger. His face changed.

"Could it be that Wang Jian deliberately lured the main force of our army to wait here? He defended the south and attacked the north, intending to sweep across the east?"