The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Chaoyang Village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with 60 to 70 households and 400 people. It is the village with the most households in the Huyangting security area. However, when you get closer, you can see that its layout is not much different from that of Heifu's Xiyang Village. It is still surrounded by a wall, like a self-contained mountain stronghold, and the village gate is the only exit.

This layout is because, firstly, since ancient times, villages and communities have built walls to prevent thieves and robbers, and secondly, it was a mandatory regulation by the Qin State in order to control the population from wandering around and migrating at will.

Heifu is really grateful for this system. Otherwise, if a village can enter and exit at will, he will not be able to catch the person who sent the letter even if he has great skills.

When the three of them arrived outside the inner gate, the inner guard was squatting by the gate, holding a ceramic bowl and eating with a wooden dagger. Heifu's red cap and red clothes were obvious, and his identity was known without asking. The inner guard quickly spit out the food in his mouth, wiped his mouth, smiled and greeted him, bowed and said:

"I heard that a new head of Huyang Pavilion took office, but I didn't expect that I would be in Chaoyang Village on the first day. It's really a great love for this village."

The guard looked like a simple and honest middle-aged man in his 40s, with a yellow face and black beard, and his hair was wrapped in red cloth. He was obviously a high-ranking official. Heifu did not neglect him and bowed and said: "I'm sorry to disturb you for visiting rashly."

The inner guard waved his hands repeatedly: "No, the head of the pavilion is a senior official. We can't invite him even if we want to! What do you mean by disturbing or not? The head of the village discussed with me yesterday and said that he would visit the pavilion after the snow melted..."

He was very polite. Finally, he looked at the rope on Heifu's waist, narrowed his eyes, and asked with some vigilance: "I just don't know what the pavilion chief is here for? Is there someone in the village who has committed a crime?"

Heifu shook the two-foot wooden tablet in his hand and smiled: "Nothing, just a routine inspection. There are often thieves after winter. Yesterday, a wandering soldier was caught in Yangshuli and has been sent to the township. Chaoyangli is a big village, and we can't be lax in preventing thieves..."

The two-foot wooden tablet and the rope are two things that the pavilion chief carries with him. The two-foot wooden tablet is engraved with laws and is equivalent to a police certificate. The rope is used to tie up prisoners, which is equivalent to handcuffs.

Hearing that it was just a routine inspection, the prison gate seemed to be relieved. If someone in the village committed a crime, he might be implicated.

Heifu chatted with the prison gate at the door for a while, mainly asking if anyone from outside came in yesterday?

"Yesterday?"

The village guard touched his beard, his eyes turned, and he thought carefully, looking at Ji Ying and said: "I dare to tell the pavilion chief that except for this postman, no other people from the village entered yesterday."

"Then from yesterday afternoon to today, have any villagers gone out and not returned?"

"Those who went out hunting have all returned. Except for the two who went to the county to serve as night guards at the beginning of the month, no one else is staying outside."

Now, Hei Fu can basically be sure that if the village guard did not lie, the person who sent the letter is still in the village!

"Li Xian."

Hei Fu said: "You stay here with the village guard, Ji Ying and I will go to visit the head of the village." As he said that, Hei Fu also winked at Li Xian.

They had discussed it before. A pavilion chief and his guards came to Chaoyangli for inspection. It would be impossible to hide it. The person who wrote the letter would be panicked and rush out after knowing it. So Heifu asked Lixian to stay here. In fact, even the gatekeeper of the village could not completely clear his suspicion at this moment.

"What if that person climbed over the wall and ran away?" Ji Ying asked quietly as the two walked side by side.

"It's possible."

Heifu nodded: "In that case, as long as we ask the head of the village to count the number of people in the village, we will know who ran away. The person who ran away is the letter writer. Although we can't catch him for the time being, at least we know who did it."

The two walked towards the head of the village. On the other side, Lixian and the gatekeeper of the village chatted with each other. Looking at Heifu's back, he couldn't help but feel a little mixed.

He had a good family background, being a distant descendant of a larger clan in his hometown, the "Li Clan". He could read and write, and was also familiar with laws and regulations. However, because he was not made the "empress" by his father, that is, the successor, he could not inherit the title and land, and could only make a living as a soldier. He originally wanted to work as a minor official in the county, but in the Qin State, officials must have titles. He had no choice but to work as a guard in the vacant Huyang Pavilion to make a living, after all, he had a wife and children to support at home.

But even so, Li Xian still had some pride in his heart. Not only did he look down on Xiao Tao and Yu Liang, who were also guards, but he also didn't take the thief Dongmen Bao seriously. In the past few months, if he hadn't been there, the affairs of the pavilion would have been in chaos.

So Li Xian was a little conceited, thinking that with his ability, he could be the head of the pavilion.

However, after Hei Fu arrived, Li Xian's pride slowly disappeared.

This head of the pavilion was awarded a title for his meritorious service, and won the championship in the military performance of the night watchmen, and was favored by the county's right lieutenant. He was not the kind of person who got the position by nepotism, so Li Xian had nothing to say, but he was still a little dissatisfied in his heart.

But when he heard that Hei Fu answered all 20 legal questions correctly in the assessment, Li Xian was also stunned. He was not sure that he could achieve such a good result.

In the subsequent anonymous letter incident, Hei Fu showed meticulous judgment and narrowed the scope of suspects little by little. This surprised Li Xian even more. He always felt that this head of the pavilion seemed to have received special training in case-solving by the clerks...

So Li Xian admired Hei Fu, but was unwilling to give up.

Time passed quickly, and a moment later, Hei Fu and Ji Ying returned from the head of the village.

"What's going on?" As soon as Heifu arrived, he asked Lixian to come over and whispered, "Did anyone want to go out just now?"

Lixian shook his head: "I've been watching, and no one came."

Heifu pondered and said, "So... the person who sent the letter is either too timid and is still hiding in the village, not daring to go out. Or he is too brave and thinks that we will definitely not find him, or... he has already climbed over the wall and ran away!"

"Should we ask the head of the village to gather all the people in the village and count the number of people?" Ji Ying felt that they were very close to the person who sent the letter, and he was eager to fight.

"If you can avoid disturbing the people in the village, don't disturb them. If you make the place restless, we will have done nothing."

Heifu thought for a while and said, "Just now I asked the head of the village carefully and found out that there are only twenty people who can read here. Among these twenty people, only three people had contact with Ji Ying yesterday and had the opportunity to send letters!"

"Three people!?" Lixian's eyes lit up, which made it much easier to find.

"Should we arrest these three people and interrogate them together?"

"No hurry." Hei Fu said, "We don't know what the man wants to report. If we arrest so many people rashly, we may alert the enemy and even scare them away."

Now, what Hei Fu is most concerned about is not the identity of the "Chaoyang Masses", but the content of the letter written by that person. He knew that sending anonymous letters was illegal, and the postman and the head of the post office might burn it without reading it. Even so, he still took the risk to send it. There must be something wrong when things are abnormal. He must unravel the mystery like a surgical operation and find out bit by bit!

After thinking for a while, Hei Fu said, "Well, let's not make it public for now. Go find these three people separately to see if they are still at home, and then test them with words!"

...

"Bang bang bang."

In Chaoyang Village, the door of a certain public official's house was knocked loudly!

"Who is it?"

The official was holding his son in the room. After a long time, he came out impatiently and opened the door. He looked at the person knocking on the door fiercely. It turned out to be a thin man with a playful face. It was the postman who came to his house yesterday to congratulate him on the birth of his son...

"What's the matter?" The official was very confused. He had no relatives serving in the army, so it was impossible for someone to send him a letter.

"Official, come here, I have something to tell you." Ji Ying was mysterious. After the official came over, he whispered in his ear: "I have seen that object!"

"What?" The official was puzzled.

"It's that object!" Ji Ying blinked and tried his best to hint at the official.

"You're sick!" Gongshi was still confused. After scolding Ji Ying in a bad mood, he slammed the gate and continued to coax his son...

"You are so rude, there must be something wrong with you!" Ji Ying was so angry that he screamed, causing the neighbors to look out and look at him. He quickly covered his mouth and slowly retreated.

At the same time, at the other end of Chaoyangli, Li Xian also said goodbye to Tian Dian's house. He looked serious and frowned in the direction of Lidong.

"The most suspicious person, Tian Dian's son, has also been ruled out. Is the trick of the pavilion chief to pretend to know and ask questions without being exposed really useful?"

Li Xian was full of doubts, and at the same time, he became more and more curious about who the letter writer was and what the purpose of the letter was...

"I don't know what happened to the pavilion chief?"

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