The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

When I left, it was raining and snowing. Today, I think of it and the willow trees are swaying.

After more than a year, when he returned to Yingyang again, standing on the battlefield of the past, Hei Fu looked at the ground in front of him that was still buried tightly and had not been turned over, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, the thing he was most worried about in the past year did not happen. The comrades buried here were not disturbed or insulted... It seems that not every Chu person likes to dig up the grave and whip the corpse like Wu Zixu.

But the densely packed Qin swords on it have disappeared.

But Heifu could remember this place even if he closed his eyes. The stream was nine hundred steps to the east, the city was one mile to the west, the hill was three hundred steps to the south, and a little more than a hundred steps to the north was the locust tree that Huaimu leaned against when he died in battle. In order to facilitate identification in the future, Heifu buried him at the foot of the tree and piled up a few stones as a mark...

And now, Heifu's charioteer Sangmu was kowtowing to his brother there under the guidance of Ji Ying and others, crying while kowtowing.

Heifu's tears had already flowed at that time. He just said silently in his heart: "Heifu kept his promise and went and came back. You two don't need to stay any longer and can return to your hometown!"

"Captain, the local county doctor is here!"

Li Xian, who was ordered to enter the city to arrest the local feudal lords and officials, returned. Heifu looked back and saw a trembling middle-aged man in silk clothes following behind him. It was Doctor Yingyang.

The Yi Dafu of Chu State was actually equivalent to the Xiangshoufu of Qin State. Although he was called a Dafu, he was actually just a small village head. More than 10,000 soldiers from Nanjun, as the vanguard of the Southern Army, had broken through Pingyu and rushed to the city. The Yi Dafu, who had less than 100 men under his command, wisely chose to surrender. Because the Qin army was notorious, the Yi Dafu was still worried about his life. When Li Xian asked him to leave the city, he was still worried.

"Yi Dafu."

Hei Fu smiled and said, "Do you know that the Qin army's axe just brushed your neck... If I find that these tombs have been dug up and the corpses of hundreds of comrades have been insulted, you will be a ghost under my long sword now!"

Yi Dafu was startled and his legs were slightly weak. It turned out that when he came here to take up his post, many people suggested that he dig up the tombs of the Qin people. But Doctor Yingyang believed in ghosts and gods, and thought that digging up human graves was unlucky, so he only asked people to remove the sword that was used as a tombstone, but he was too lazy to care about the corpses underneath...

"Just use it as manure to nourish the crops and atone for his atrocities!"

Unexpectedly, his original thought saved his life today!

But he didn't have time to be thankful, because Heifu immediately threw him a difficult problem.

"According to the order of the captain, you are allowed to return to your original position and serve as the lord of the town to appease the people and maintain order. A hundred generals will stay to watch you. The next time I come back, you have to prepare 328 coffins for me! I want to transport the bones of the soldiers who died in the battle here!"

"More than 300!?"

Doctor Yingyang complained bitterly, that would take all the people in the town a month to do it. Now it is spring plowing, where can so many people come from?

Heifu ignored his complaints and threw a bag of gold cakes in his arms to the doctor of the city, about ten taels.

"I don't want you for nothing. If you can do it, I will pay you money. This is the deposit. You should do it well."

Dongmen Bao, who was ordered to enter the city to search for food and returned with a full load, also drew his sword and threatened the doctor of the city fiercely: "If we don't see three hundred coffins when we return, Nai Gong will let you lie in the coffin too!"

The conqueror can do whatever he wants. Heifu left the doctor of the city holding the money bag with a bitter face and left. He had to organize everyone to eat quickly. They could only stay here for a while and continue on the road in the afternoon. They had to arrive at Qinqiu City today to rest.

When Heifu returned to the army's resting place, the military commander Zhang Han had just organized everyone to tie up obstacles such as deer antlers on the road. At this moment, he was also sitting in the carriage, drinking water and eating rough dry food slowly.

"Shao Rong, you have worked hard."

Hei Fu looked at the obstacles that had been set up and praised: "We are only stopping here for half an hour, but Shao Rong has not forgotten to be careful and alert."

"Building bridges and roads, and constructing camps are the duties of the military commander. Even if you only stay for a moment, you must be on guard against sudden attacks by the enemy. If something goes wrong, and it is later confirmed that it was caused by the military commander's carelessness and dereliction of duty, I will be arrested and punished by the military judges." Zhang Han said.

When Hei Fu asked him if he could still endure the hardship of marching, he smiled and said, "I am just a little bumpy in the car. The soldiers have traveled more than a hundred miles since the day before yesterday. Aren't they more tired?"

Hei Fu said, "It's refreshing to pursue the victory. More than a year ago, we fled in Huaibei in the biting cold wind, and we walked much more than this."

At the same time, he patted the cloth tied to his calf and said, "Besides, with this thing, the soldiers' march is not so hard!"

Zhang Han didn't have time to ask along the way. At this moment, while eating, he asked curiously, "I asked the soldiers in Nanjun, and they said that this thing is called leg wrapping. It was you, the leader of Anlu, who suggested that the captain promote it in the army. It is not seen on weekdays, but it is wrapped together during the march. What is the use of it?"

Hei Fu said, "Shao Rong is from the north, so he doesn't know. This thing is very common among the people in the south."

This leg wrapping was not invented by Heifu out of thin air. As early as when he was a pavilion chief in Anlu, he found that some hunters and woodcutters in the mountain forests often wrapped a layer of cloth on their calves when they entered the forest.

After Heifu asked a few people, they told him that there were many low shrubs and weeds in the mountains, and there were also many hard rocks. In addition, there were many insects and snakes in the Yunmengze area. If you only wear a skirt and straw sandals, the exposed legs are easy to get hurt, so they wrapped a layer of cloth to avoid them.

When he went to quell the Yidao Rebellion, Heifu was even more surprised to find that many local Ba warriors did not wear shoes and socks, and walked barefoot on the rocks as if they were on flat ground. But they carefully wrapped their calves with animal skins or cloth, because there was only soft flesh on the calves, and no thick calluses on the soles of the feet...

Inspired by this, combined with the leggings commonly seen in military-themed movies in later generations, Heifu included leggings in the military supplies when he trained soldiers in Anlu, and asked the arsenal to prepare thousands of long linen strips for leggings when preparing linen for wounds. After trying it several times, he promoted it among the soldiers.

Being a military officer is good. With his order, thousands of soldiers in Anlu set out with leggings and walked to Yan County. After more than 200 miles, the effect of leggings was revealed.

In addition to leggings to prevent snakes, insects and plants from scratching the skin and flesh like woodcutters and hunters in various parts of Nanjun, leggings can also prevent mud and small stones from entering the inferior shoes worn by everyone during long-distance marches, and can also relieve the pain in the soldiers' legs. Except for a few people whose legs were swollen because they were tied too tightly, it proved to be a very useful equipment.

Heifu suggested this method to Li You, and got his approval. It was also promoted among the county soldiers under Li You's personal command. If the superior likes it, the subordinates will follow suit. Soldiers from other counties also followed suit, so they walked to Nanyang with leg wraps wrapped around their legs, and then walked to the front camp to join the army of other counties...

Because their "Southern Army" of 70,000 to 80,000 people originally recruited more soldiers from the southern counties, except for the Nanyang people who lived in the plain basin who were a little surprised, Ba County, Shu County, Hanzhong, which were more rugged and tree-filled than Nan County, were not surprising.

So, to this day, leg wraps have become a very common equipment in the Southern Army, and only Zhang Han and other northerners find it strange.

Heifu also complained: "Nowadays, most soldiers in Nanjun prefer leg wraps, but most soldiers in Nanyang do not pay much attention to them. Some even think it is stupid to wear leg wraps. Some put the distributed leg wraps in the bags on their backs, and some even discard them. Therefore, after two days of marching, the Nanyang soldiers could not march faster and could only lag behind."

"So that's it! I never thought that this thing would have such a miraculous effect." Zhang Han nodded and planned to learn this method himself.

As he spoke, Hei Fu stopped two soldiers who were sitting on the ground and tying their leg bandages, saying:

"You can't sit down when tying your leg bandages, you have to stand up and make sure the tightness is appropriate. If it's too tight, it will cause poor blood flow in the calf, causing more pain, and even crippling the leg. If it's too loose, it won't work."

As he spoke, Hei Fu walked over and demonstrated it to them personally. He untied the cloth strips, and then started from the heel, and circled around the knee below the knee. This way, he could also protect the shoe opening and prevent mud and stones from entering.

Only then did he realize that the shoes of the two soldiers were already tattered, with their big toes sticking out, and they were still wearing thick winter clothes. It was too hot to march in the spring.

"Where are your summer clothes and new shoes?" Hei Fu asked with a straight face.

The two Qin soldiers were speechless and could only say with a bitter face: "There are no summer clothes or new shoes."

Hei Fu was a little surprised and asked: "Didn't I ask you to prepare everything before the army set out from Anlu? And before the spring, I asked you to write letters home and ask your families to send the necessary things together. In early February, Nanjun just released a batch of clothes and money. If you are short of them, why don't you buy them in the military market?"

"Captain."

One of the soldiers knelt down and said with a bitter face: "I also asked my parents and sisters to send summer clothes or cloth and money in the letter, but my mother just died at home, and we have held the funeral, so we have no money to send..."

Another one also said that his father broke his leg while repairing the house, and his family was busy treating his injury and had no money to send.

"So we could only borrow money from Shi Changyuanbai in the army to buy new shoes. Unexpectedly, the shoes made in the military market were still good before departure, but they were damaged when they arrived here..."

This is an encounter with unscrupulous merchants who cut corners. Hei Fu looked at these two ordinary soldiers with simple words and faces tanned and red by the sun, which reminded him of the history. It was also in this war that the brothers Hei Fu and Jing asked their families to send summer clothes and money, and said "otherwise they will die". They were also so helpless and anxious.

And in their slightly confused eyes, they had no idea how long this war would last...

Thinking of this, Hei Fu felt sorry for his fellow man, so he called his assistant Qu Ji and said, "Go to my baggage cart and get the extra two pairs of shoes and two summer clothes!"

Gong Shi Qu Ji was stunned: "That was sent by the commander's family, and it was sewed by the commander's mother herself..."

But Hei Fu was very determined and said loudly: "The soldiers are like my hands and feet. The summer clothes and shoes woven by my mother are worn by my hands and feet. What's the difference between me wearing them myself? Go quickly!"

After Qu Ji went to get the two summer clothes and shoes, Hei Fu personally handed them to the two soldiers and asked them what their names were?

"You are a melon."

"You are a sunflower!"

As expected, one is short like a melon, the other is thin like a sunflower. The two soldiers of the same age as Heifu had tears in their eyes. Holding summer clothes and shoes, they bowed to Heifu and were grateful.

"The commander is still so eager to do good!" After Heifu sent them away, Quji couldn't help but sigh. He was also favored by Heifu in the past.

"Heifu really loves his soldiers like his own children. No wonder they love you so much." Zhang Han also stroked his short beard and saw that Heifu's skills in winning people's hearts became more and more skillful and natural.

"It's my fault as a county lieutenant and commander."

Heifu shook his head. These two were named after plants in the ground. It seems that their families are not doing well. Once something small happens, the family, which is not rich to begin with, will immediately fall into trouble.

He recruited such people into the army. It is already very good that they can stay and keep up with the team until now. Before the army set out, he only took a cursory look and asked the garrison chiefs. Seeing that no one was short of food or clothing, he set out with confidence.

But many problems only become apparent after they are on the road, for example, no one knows how long it will take for their shoes, which were originally in good condition, to fall apart.

According to the Qin army system, these things were originally prepared by the soldiers themselves, so it was useless to ask the military carriages responsible for baggage, as they only took care of military rations and replacing damaged armor.

Hei Fu called Ji Ying: "Pass the order down, and ask the garrison chiefs to report the number of people in their garrisons who are short of summer clothes and have damaged shoes, and I will make up for them! As the commander, I will not let any soldier go on the road barefoot!"

"Thank you, commander!"

After this order was passed down, cheers and gratitude rang out among the Anlu soldiers.

Zhang Han asked curiously, "Do you have so many spare summer clothes and shoes in your carriage?"

"I don't have any in my carriage, but there are some in the next city of Chu that we will occupy."

Hei Fu pointed to the county doctor who was ordered by him to lead the Chu people in the county to cut wood and make more than 300 coffins, and said with a smile, "Sun Feng, the Lord of Qinqiu, is an old acquaintance of mine, just like the captured Hu Gong Dou Ran. I need 300 coffins in this small town, so it's not difficult to buy 300 summer clothes and 300 pairs of shoes from him temporarily?"

Zhang Han couldn't help laughing, "Didn't you tell me that the ten taels of gold cakes just now were your last savings?"

Hei Fu disagreed. The strict discipline of the Qin army was against the Qin people, but when fighting in foreign countries, they were never the Liberation Army that "never took a needle or a thread from the people". The Qin people were so actively involved in the war, and it was not just the title that attracted them. Besides...

"So what if I don't have money? At worst, I can carve a wood deed and write him an IOU!"