Chapter 34 Between the Plate Building and Construction

Although Heifu said to Zhong that "life will get better and better", as soon as Zhong left, the days of these night guards fell into a trough.

Because the military training was over, the night guards had to start their main work: corvée labor.

When mentioning corvée labor, many scenes immediately emerged in Heifu's mind:

The 700,000 prisoners in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang in Mount Li, the Qin Great Wall that stretched for thousands of miles, Wan Xiliang who was buried alive in the Great Wall, and Meng Jiangnu who cried the Great Wall down...

Of course, the prototype of the last story has already existed, called "Qi Liang's Wife", but it is about something that happened in the Spring and Autumn Period of Qi State, which was falsely attributed to the Qin Dynasty by later generations. After all, "the beauty of the world is attributed to Shun, Yu, Zhou and Confucius; the evil of the world is attributed to Jie and Zhou." In the eyes of later scholars, the tyrannical Qin "burning books and burying scholars" is ten thousand times more vicious than Jie and Zhou. Such a cruel thing must have been done by you! Just like the Broken Window Law, since the Qin Dynasty was so dark, there were many people who would add a few more strokes, and the crimes would become even more numerous.

Although the story was false, the heavy corvée was indeed real. Most of the heroes at the end of the Qin Dynasty who rose up in rebellion more than ten years later were caused by corvée.

Therefore, Hei Fu went to the construction site where he served with a mentality that was ten times more cautious than training.

Fortunately, General Chen Bai's attitude towards Hei Fu was getting better and better. On the way from the South Gate to the East Gate, he even chatted with Hei Fu.

He popularized the science and said that the highest-level corvée in the Qin State was called "Yu Zhong Fa Zheng", which was the corvée assigned by the capital to work in Xianyang. Although Qin Wang Ying Zheng was in his prime, his royal mausoleum, which would later become the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, had already begun to be built, but the current construction scale was not large, unlike the later construction scale of up to 700,000...

When mentioning Xianyang, Chen Baijiang's eyes sparkled. He wanted to visit the capital all the time, even if he had to lie on the side of the road to secretly take a look at the king's carriage. Seeing the splendor of Xianyang and feeling the king's glory was the moment that every Qin official looked forward to the most.

Hei Fu knew that in a decade or so, a head of Sishui Pavilion wearing a bamboo crown and a big beard would have the same idea as Chen Baijiang, go to Xianyang to serve, and sigh at Qin Shi Huang's carriage, "A real man should be like this."

In addition, the laborers needed for civil engineering and transmission that the counties and prefectures levied on their own were called "Hengshi", and there were many kinds of laborers, some of which were for repairing fences for the forbidden gardens and state-owned pastures, some for building city walls and dams for the counties, or expanding the county government building.

The last type is temporary corvée, which is not included in the annual "living within one's means", that is, the government's financial plan. The project must be approved by the higher-level government before it can be established, because in theory, the Qin State does not advocate arbitrary conscription of labor. In the "Ways of Being an Official" that Heifu saw in the county prison that day, there is a sentence "If things are not done at the right time, slow down the order and rush to collect", which really surprised him.

Unfortunately, Heifu and his group of guards were assigned to the hardest work of the hard work, building the city wall...

Originally, the East City of Anlu County was built along Quyang Lake and had no walls. Perhaps considering the future war with the State of Chu, as a border county, Anlu must strengthen its defense, so it decided to build an East City Wall. Last year, it was reported to the county and approved, so it began to be built one after another after the autumn harvest. In addition to more than a hundred prisoners working day and night, guards had to be called every month to repair a section.

After General Chen Bai handed over more than a hundred guards to the "County Sikong" in charge of the project, the task was completed.

As the foreman in charge of the project, the county magistrate gave Heifu and his men a cold look and announced many prohibitions, such as no cheating, no laziness, etc. Those who violated the rules would be severely punished.

"If you don't listen to the instructions and contradict the magistrate, these prisoners will be your fate!"

The county magistrate threatened them and pointed his finger at a group of people who were already busy on the construction site...

The weather was already very cold in mid-to-late October, but those people were ragged, wearing ochre-brown prison uniforms, and their lower garments could hardly cover their bodies. Their hands and feet were red from the cold, but they still had to work non-stop under the supervision of the foreman.

"Brother Heifu, isn't that the merchant Bao who was sentenced to city prison for falsely accusing you and me a few days ago?"

Ji Ying was sharp-eyed and recognized the staggering guy in the prisoner pile at a glance. It was the merchant Bao who repaid their kindness with hatred!

Bao seemed to have seen the two of them, and was stunned for a moment. The basket of soil in his hand accidentally fell, and he was immediately whipped. He cried out in pain and lowered his head to continue working. In just half a month, he had completely lost his previous plumpness, his hair and beard were shaved, and his expression was lonely...

Next, Ji Ying found the three guards of Huyang Pavilion, who were working together to pry a big stone that was in the way. They looked up at Heifu and Ji Ying with fear, and the previous hatred was completely exhausted. Chengdan is the most difficult labor, and they will have to serve their sentences here for several years.

Finally, they also found a thief from Chu who was captured and sentenced. He had a dark tattoo on his face and a wooden clamp on his neck. He did heavier work and was ordered around by the foreman.

"Only one was found. Where is the other one?"

Ji Ying looked for a long time but still couldn't find the other Chu thief. Looking at the miserable appearance of the prisoners, he said with fear: "Thanks to Hei Fu's wit that day, otherwise, if we lose the lawsuit, you and I will have to serve the city labor here for three to five years instead of half a month!"

Hei Fu also nodded. Traveling to Qin State is indeed a dungeon of hell-level difficulty. It doesn't mean that you can go smoothly if you follow the general trend of the world. As a small person, you have to be careful to avoid various illegal acts. If you take a wrong step, you will fall into the abyss. There is no second chance at all.

Thinking carefully, I was too reckless in training a few days ago. I never left a way out for myself when gambling with others. It seems that I have to be more cautious in the future and can't take such risks.

The county Sikong didn't talk nonsense with them. He immediately arranged the tasks. Each of them had his own work to do. So, on this bleak winter day, under the supervision of the county magistrate and the urging of the small foremen, on the construction site covered with yellow earth, more than a hundred night watchmen and more than a hundred prisoners were shuttling back and forth like a group of worker ants.

Although Heifu was a squad leader, he could not sit idle. He took a large basket of soil passed by his comrades and thought to himself: "It turns out that the city walls of this era are not made of bricks..."

He saw in the county that the foundation and floor of the official temple were paved with bricks, but the city walls of this era were not made of bricks, but rammed earth.

Rammed earth wall building is very particular. At the beginning, under the command of the foreman, everyone put together thick wooden boards, and inserted a column called "zhen" outside every two wooden boards. Ropes were also tied between these columns, like clamps to fix the wooden boards so that they would not collapse. Thus, four wooden walls were erected to form a narrow and long square frame, which looked like the scaffolding of building in later generations.

It is said that this four-plate city-building method was brought to Jianghan by Wu Qi from the Central Plains more than a hundred years ago, eliminating the backward two-plate wall in the local area. As time passed, the locals did not remember Wu Qi's name much, and this four-plate method was probably the only thing he left in Chu...

Hei Fu's task was to constantly shovel soil with the iron "hoe" of this era, put it in a bamboo basket, and let people carry it along the "scaffolding" to the wooden wall and fill it with soil. At this time, the results of the training a few days ago were revealed. They passed it in turn, very orderly and efficient.

When it was full of soil, the city guards and prisoners were asked to swing the heavy pestle in groups of three or four and smash the loose soil pile!

Hei Fu knew that the wooden boards were called "plates" and the pestle was called "building". This process is called rammed earth. Mencius said that "Fu Yue was raised in rammed earth", which means that Fu Yue, the minister of Wu Ding of Shang Dynasty, also swung a big pestle and pounded the earth at the beginning...

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

As the prisoners shouted again and again, they swung the big pestle again and again and pounded the earth, and the loose dry earth was slowly tamped, becoming more and more solid and harder, until the iron hoe could not pry it open with a shovel. So sprinkle water and apply a layer of mud, and a section of the city wall is completed.

After the construction is completed, the scaffolding is removed, and the inserted poles pressed in the rammed earth can still play a reinforcing role.

Hei Fu still doubted the quality of the city wall. He stabbed the dried walls with a dagger and found that he was overthinking. It was really as hard as stone. Their lifespan may not be as good as stone walls. After thousands of years, they will definitely become shorter or even disappear due to wind and rain, but their defense is good and can withstand the bombardment of stones.

Therefore, the best way to attack a city in this era is not to use trebuchets, but to dig tunnels or send water to slowly soak the city...

If you think about it carefully, the Great Wall of Qin was also built with rammed earth, but Heifu was shocked when he silently calculated it in his mind.

More than two hundred people worked for several days, but they only built a small section of the wall.

How long is the Great Wall? Even if it is not as exaggerated as ten thousand miles, it is at least several thousand miles. How much labor is needed? The transportation and population of the northern border are much worse than those of Jianghan. How many people will die?

Later generations all said that the Qin built the Great Wall, and the dead were together.

In the past two days, Heifu did see with his own eyes that a prisoner suddenly died due to illness or overwork, and was carried away. Everyone just looked at it numbly, without any surprise, which shows that this is a common thing...

"Be careful not to raise a boy if you give birth to a boy, and feed a girl with breast meat. There are corpses supporting each other under the Great Wall!"

This is not a rumor, but a real voice from the people. Thinking of this, Heifu shuddered.

He didn't dare to think too much about ambitions and a distant future. He just wanted himself and his family to live a good life first, and avoid dying in the ditch. He must not fall into such a situation!

Therefore, he should quickly find a way to upgrade his title to the nobility, so that he can be exempted from labor service forever and have the ability to protect his family.

Just as he was thinking about it, he heard a shrill cry, and the night watchmen put down their work and looked over. But he saw a man wearing feathers and disheveled hair singing a weird ballad and slowly walking over. He was a local witch. The county magistrate walked behind with a cold face. Behind him, two foremen held a shirtless man with tattoos on his face tightly...

"Brother Heifu, he is..."

Before Ji Ying could say anything, Heifu recognized him. He was one of the Chu bandits they captured last month. He hadn't seen him for a few days and didn't know what happened to him? Now he was brought out again. What was he going to do?

When they got closer, Heifu was shocked to find that the left foot of the Chu bandit prisoner was missing from the knee down!

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