The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"This is an anonymous letter, you still open it!"

Hei Fu pressed Ji Ying's hand that was reaching for the straw rope and scolded him harshly. At the same time, he also noticed that Li Xian did the same thing as himself, but when he saw that Hei Fu had stopped Ji Ying, he quietly retreated.

"I..." Ji Ying was shocked by the reaction of the two. After a long pause, he finally remembered the instructions of the previous postman to him, and immediately broke into a sweat.

It turned out that the Qin State law specifically stipulated that if you received an anonymous letter, you must not open it! If you open it, it is a violation of the law and you will be fined one Jia...

If Ji Ying had opened the letter just now, he would have to pay a fine of more than 4,000 yuan. Like the pavilion chief, as a grassroots civil servant, the postman also has a basic salary, but only 50 shi of food rations a year. According to the grain price of "40 shi of rice" after the fall of this year, he would have to work for two years without eating or drinking to pay it off.

"Fortunately, fortunately, otherwise it would be terrible."

Ji Ying wiped his sweat and was thankful, while Hei Fu took the wooden letter in his hand and frowned to check it.

Because the Qin State's relay-style postal system was strictly checked, it would basically not allow an anonymous letter to be transmitted between multiple locations. So there is only one possibility for this letter, that is, it was secretly thrown in by someone while Ji Ying was delivering the letter.

Although Hei Fu didn't know the content inside, it was most likely a letter of denunciation! He wanted to use the postman's hand to hand it over to the government.

Although the Qin State's laws and regulations were strict and encouraged the people to report adultery, they also made strict regulations on reporting. Once the report was false or exaggerated, they would face "false accusation and counter-attack".

Therefore, the Qin government's attitude towards anonymous reports was clear: if they followed the reports in the letters and arrested people and executed them, I am afraid that everyone in the Qin State would be in danger, so this kind of attack without paying any price could not be encouraged, and anonymous reports would not be accepted! You can't even take a look at it...

Unless you have caught the person who sent the letter, you can open the letter, compare the testimony, and ask for clarification.

"Ji Ying, do you know who sent this letter?" Hei Fu asked.

"How should I know..." Ji Ying felt very wronged, "I didn't know there was such a letter in the backpack until just now."

"Captain, since the person who sent the letter has not been caught, you should burn it."

Li Xian knew this law just like Hei Fu, and the way to deal with it suggested in the law was to "burn it". It was a hot potato to keep it, no matter what was written in it, just burn it and get it done.

Hei Fu seemed to have his own plans. He asked everyone to stay calm and asked Dongmen Bao to call Pu Zhang, Xiao Tao, and Yu Liang to the main hall. He, as the head of the pavilion, wanted to hold a small general meeting...

...

A moment later, in the small hall, on several straw mats, all members of the Huyang Police Station sat.

Dongmen Bao, the thief, Pu Zhang, the father of the pavilion, Ji Ying, the postman, Li Xian, Yu Liang, Xiao Tao, and Hei Fu, a total of seven people.

On the table in front of them, there was the anonymous bamboo slip.

"That's what happened."

Hei Fu briefly recounted the incident and glanced at the six people.

"As Li Xian said, the law stipulates that if you encounter an anonymous letter and fail to catch the writer, do not open it and burn it."

Everyone nodded, thinking that this was a proper way to deal with it.

Hei Fu paused for a moment and then said, "But you also need to know that the law also says that if you can catch the person who sent the letter, you will be rewarded with two concubines!"

"Reward two concubines?"

When everyone heard this, except for Li Xian who knew this rule, their faces changed.

The so-called concubines are male and female slaves, male slaves are servants, and female slaves are concubines.

Qin was not the "advanced feudal country that abolished slavery" as preached in later history textbooks. On the contrary! The laws of this country were very advanced, but in some aspects, they were also quite backward. The proportion of slaves and prisoners in Qin's population was the largest among the seven countries!

For example, in Anlu County, there were hundreds of male and female prisoners and slave concubines who worked as city guards, ghost firewood, and rice pounding for the government. In addition, almost every household of civilian officials and nobles had one or two slaves. Some families, such as Li Xian's family, had dozens of slaves...

A large part of these slaves were barbarians from the surrounding areas, or prisoners captured in war. The Qin law stipulated that "the enemy surrendered and became a slave." When Qin fought with the six countries, the dead were beheaded and the living were captured. A large part of them became slaves and flowed into Qin. Of course, there were also Qin people who were implicated in crimes and became slaves. In the military merit system, some people rose and some fell, maintaining the balance of this pyramid.

The children of slaves and concubines were also slaves, which led to an increasing number of slaves in Qin. Slaves could only redeem themselves and their families for freedom if they made meritorious deeds on the battlefield. This was the only way out.

The status of slaves in Qin was extremely low. Although the Qin law stipulated that slaves could not be killed or abused at will, they could be regarded as property and allowed to be bought and sold. In all parts of the Qin State, there was a phenomenon of "setting up slaves and maids in the market, and putting them in the same stalls with cattle and horses". In the market of Anlu County, an adult slave or concubine was worth 4,300 coins, equivalent to a piece of armor or 100 stone of rice. As for underage slaves and concubines, the price was even cheaper, only 2,500 coins.

In other words, two adult slaves and concubines, plus a child, could be exchanged for a working ox or a good horse. It was true that people were inferior to animals...

Hei Fu naturally rejected this system, but now he was just a small pavilion chief. Under the tide of the times, he could not even protect himself, let alone change the system.

He could only sigh silently and said, "Of course, two concubines, even two female slaves, are not enough for us to divide."

As soon as this was said, except for the serious Li Xian and the old Pu Zhang, the other four laughed, especially Ji Ying, who laughed the most lewdly. Everyone was a young man with blood, and they all understood it, only Xiao Tao was still a little confused.

"But it's different if it's money. Two concubines are equivalent to 8,600 reward money. At that time, we can choose not to have concubines, but to have reward money!"

Hearing such a large amount of money, everyone reacted differently.

Dongmen Bao, Ji Ying, and Xiao Tao were familiar with this scene and smiled at each other.

Pu Zhang's squinting eyes widened, and Yu Liang clenched his fists, licking his lips with his tongue, and he was a little moved.

Only Li Xian had a blank expression, and seemed not to take the money seriously.

Hei Fu saw the expressions of the six people one by one, and smiled: "So, I want to try to see if I can catch the anonymous writer. If I can catch him, I will share the reward money with everyone in the pavilion!"

"Okay! Listen to the pavilion chief!" Dongmen Bao, Ji Ying, and Xiao Tao were Hei Fu's best friends, so they had no objection. Yu Liang was poor and needed money, so he also cheered and agreed.

Pu Zhang was the father of the pavilion and did not participate in the arrest. Although he was somewhat tempted, he shook his head in the end and said that he was old and would not participate in the affairs of young people.

Only Li Xian bowed to Hei Fu and said, "Pavilion Chief, the reward for catching the anonymous writer is so high, far exceeding that of ordinary murderers and thieves, because it is difficult to determine the whereabouts of the writer. As long as he is not seen by others, he can pretend to be nothing. It is not like murder, there is a corpse as a clue, and it is not like theft, so we can find the whereabouts of the property. How should we find it?"

In Li Xian's opinion, this matter is very troublesome. If the letter can be opened to see the content, perhaps the identity of the writer can be roughly guessed. But now the letter is lying there and cannot be opened. They can only guess blindly. How difficult it is to catch the person.

However, this problem did not seem to scare Hei Fu. He saw him say confidently, "Otherwise, this matter is difficult to say, but it is also easy to say!"