The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people, and grain is the foundation of the country. In the Qin State, Guanzhong Xianyang specially set up a "Grist Management Internal History" to manage the national granary grain. It is said that the Xianyang granary has 100,000 shi of grain, and the Liyang granary has 20,000 shi of grain.

The local counties also set up granaries, which were managed by "Granary Managers". Like engineers, the rank of Granary Managers was 200 shi, which was equivalent to the director of the county grain bureau in later generations.

The Anlu County Granary is located in the Guansi District. These round grain storage earthen granaries are tightly protected by walls, and county soldiers are arranged to patrol inside and outside. Without the approval of the county magistrate and the county magistrate, no one can steal a grain from here!

This place is roughly divided into three areas, the hay granary for storing fodder, the barn for storing millet, and the rice granary for storing husked rice and millet.

Between the granary and the rice warehouse is a long room without walls, but with a tile shed on the roof, rows of stone mortars under the shed, and wooden pestles next to them.

Every day, the warehouse steward would send warehouse assistants to take out hundreds of stones of newly harvested millet from the granary and transport it into the long house, where the slaves serving sentences inside would pound it into brown rice and polished rice, and then transport it to the rice warehouse for storage.

Spring, summer, autumn and winter, regardless of the cold or heat, these poor female prisoners had to lift the heavy pestle to pound the millet continuously. The food salaries of county officials and the rations of frontline soldiers were all pounded out by them day after day.

If they could not complete the work, they would not be allowed to rest. Many people had worked for several years and their arms were almost disabled. No wonder "pounding" could become the most dreaded prison sentence, just like the "city day" served by men.

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the slaves and concubines started pounding rice early in the morning under the scolding of the warehouse assistants. As prisoners, they were wearing thin clothes and could not eat the pounded rice themselves, so they naturally had no enthusiasm for work. They just numbly raised and put down the wooden pestle, raised and put it down again, and their efficiency was very low. Fortunately, it was winter now, and the law was particularly lenient. They only needed to do two-thirds of the work in summer every day.

But even so, they had to pound 2 stone of millet every day, which took three or four hours. The worst was the slaves who were assigned to pound fine rice, who had to work from morning to night to complete the work.

Just as hundreds of slaves and concubines were working silently like zombies, a warehouse assistant suddenly came and called two adult slaves of similar stature and asked them to come out.

The two dishevelled concubines stepped out of the line uneasily, followed the warehouse assistant out of the shed, and came to the open space outside. They saw that the two county officials, the warehouse assistant and the county engineer, were all here!

The concubines bowed their heads in haste. One was wondering if she had committed a crime again, with a worried look on her face, while the other was wondering if her family had come to redeem her, with a smile on her face...

As a result, they were only assigned a new job, which was to pound rice.

But the difference was that the warehouse assistant and the county engineer and others asked the two concubines to use an ordinary pestle and mortar, and the other to use a device placed on the ground to "tread on the pestle".

The two women had no choice but to do the work as ordered. One held the wooden pestle high, and the other used her body weight to step on the wooden pole of the pestle up and down...

Half an hour later, the engineer called a halt, and then walked impatiently to the wooden bucket filled with rice to personally check how much rice the two women had pounded.

"The pestle and mortar pounded 3 dou, and the treading pestle pounded... 5 dou!"

He looked up in surprise and questioned the two slave concubines again. Sure enough, the one using the pestle and mortar was as tired as usual. The one using the treading pestle also wanted to say that she was tired and wanted to take a break. After being frightened by the officials, she told the truth that she was not tired and could pound more.

Heifu's brother-in-law looked at this scene and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was an honest craftsman. In the past, the highest official he had ever seen in the village was the village food official who came to inspect. Now he had to stand in front of two hundred stone officials. Without Heifu by his side, he dared not even breathe, let alone speak...

However, the engineer was cautious. After discussing with Cangshoufu, the two decided to pick another pair of slave concubines to try.

So, Yuan's heart was lifted again, and she stared at the person pounding rice, fearing that the slave concubine who used the treadle would be lazy and pound less rice.

Another half hour passed, and the new result came out. This time, the one who used the pestle and mortar only pounded 3.5 dou, while the one who used the treadle pounded 5.5 dou!

The county engineer no longer had any doubts in his heart, and was immediately overjoyed.

"He pounded so much even though he was unfamiliar with it. If he can become proficient, pounding 6 or 7 dou in half an hour will not be a problem, just like what Hei Fu recorded!"

The more the county engineer looked at the treadle pounder, the more he liked it. It had a simple structure, and the materials were everywhere, so the cost must be cheap. As for use, it was even more convenient, and it was learned once, and even half-grown children could sit on it to pound rice.

"This item is in line with the meaning of 'the greatest merit' in our country's 'Law of Works'. I will tell the county magistrate immediately!"

If this item is presented, it will definitely be praised. The county engineer feels that the punishment he suffered last year for making tools that do not meet the specifications can be erased, and he can even accumulate some merits!

The county engineer was daydreaming, and Cang Sefu beside him was also smiling.

As an official in charge of grain, who can know the wonderful use of this item better than Cang Sefu? Anlu has fertile land and is not short of millet, but the trouble is that there are limited servants and concubines, and the work efficiency is low. So often there is not enough white rice to pay, but you can only look at a pile of millet and worry...

When paying salaries, you can't give officials millet directly, right? That would make colleagues frown. When sending grain to the front line, you can't transport millet directly, right? Do you have to let the soldiers pound rice for half an hour before eating in the battle?

Now, this problem has been solved by the treading pestle. If it can be promoted in the county, not only will the efficiency of ordinary farmers in pounding rice be greatly improved, but the government will benefit the most. If all the hundreds of female prisoners sentenced to "pounding" in Anlu County use treading pestles, how much more millet can be pounded every day? At least one stone!

Cangshoufu calculated that 20 dou of millet can be pounded into 10 dou of millet. 10 dou of rice can be pounded into 6 and 2/3 dou of rice... In this way, on the basis of the original, as long as he wants, he can make the county warehouse pound more than 10,000 stones of rice every year!

"This is a great achievement, enough for me to get the first place in the county in next year's performance evaluation!"

Cangshoufu thought so, but his eyes met with the county engineer.

The county engineer smiled: "Thank you for your help, Mr. Cang, and prove the wonderful use of this thing. I will report it to the county magistrate immediately and order the craftsmen in the woodworking workshop to make a batch..."

Mr. Cang was not to be outdone: "I should thank the county engineer. This thing is related to the warehouse report. It is within my authority and obviously belongs to me. Let me tell the county magistrate!"

The county engineer's face froze for a moment, and he pointed at Yu and said: "Mr. Cang is wrong. This thing was sent by a craftsman. He is under my jurisdiction. If you want to snatch it, it will exceed your authority."

"The county engineer misunderstood."

Mr. Cang smiled and put his hand on the county engineer's shoulder: "How about this, since this matter is related to you and me, why don't we report it together?"

The two of them were talking in a low voice, but Yu was embarrassed. He kept looking back, hoping that Heifu would finish his work and come back soon. Otherwise, if the two officials asked him questions later, what should he do?

Sure enough, when the county engineer and the warehouse steward finished dividing the spoils, they turned around to ask him questions, but the taciturn man was dumbfounded and couldn't say a word.

"You, the craftsman... I can't tell you whether this artifact was made by you." The county engineer was very troubled. If they didn't ask more specific questions, how could they ask for credit for him? And also count their own achievements.

At this moment, in a government office yard not far from the county warehouse, there was a burst of exclamations, followed by continuous applause and praise...

The clerks waiting nearby turned their heads to look over there, and the county engineer and warehouse steward who were dividing the credit also looked up, wondering.

That yard was the office of the chief clerk, and it was unusually quiet on weekdays. What happened today?

Not long after, an excited warehouse assistant came over and told them what was going on.

"According to custom, on the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the chief clerk opens a hall to examine officials. Just now, there was a public official who was recruited by the county to be a pavilion chief. The chief clerk asked him to answer twenty questions about laws and regulations, and he actually answered all of them correctly!"

...

"All twenty questions correct? So amazing!"

The county engineer and the warehouse man looked at each other in surprise. The Qin State took law as the main principle, and anyone who was an official must know the law. When they were officials, they also had to pass the chief clerk's test first, and examine the "Law of Works", "Law of Equal Workers", "Law of Warehouses", "Law of Transmission of Food" and other laws related to their work.

Generally speaking, if you answer fourteen or fifteen of the twenty questions correctly, you will pass, sixteen or seventeen questions are good, and eighteen or nineteen questions are excellent.

As for all twenty questions correct? It will probably appear once every one or two years.

"Is that person a student of the school?" asked the warehouse man. If he was a student of the school who had studied law for three years, it was still possible.

"He's just a local official who didn't know the law a month ago. Oh, he's the one who captured three thieves not long ago and was made an official. He's well-known in the whole county!"

"Is it him?"

Upon hearing this, the county engineer immediately knew who it was, and the clerk who had been awkward for more than an hour and didn't say a word also shouted out in surprise.

"Is it Heifu?"

"Yes, that's Heifu." The warehouse assistant said, pointing to the county warehouse door: "Look! He's here!"

Everyone looked over and saw a burly young man striding towards them. His previous black cloth clothes had been changed into crimson clothes, and he was wearing a pair of xing ji on his feet. His bun was still wrapped in brown cloth, but on his forehead, there was a bright red cap as bright as blood!

As Heifu walked along, the Doushi assistants on both sides bowed to him, and Heifu just responded with a flat greeting.

When he walked in front of the county engineer and Cangshoufu, he no longer bowed down as before, but clasped his hands together and bowed slightly to the two of them.

"I am late, please forgive me, the two superiors."

The county engineer did not dare to be negligent as he had been when they first met in the morning. Together with Cangshoufu, he bowed slightly to Heifu and treated him with courtesy...

The Qin State Pavilion Chief was a Dou Shi official, and there was no special official uniform. The red hat and red clothes were his symbols.

At this moment, Heifu was no longer an ordinary commoner. After passing the assessment of the chief clerk, he was the Huyang Pavilion Chief, a "Qin official"!

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