The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Sima Xin, the prison officer of Xianyang South City, finished a day of hard work and returned to his home near the north bank of Wei Bridge. He stretched out his hands, closed his eyes slightly, and let the maid take off his Xiezhi crown and black official uniform.

When he changed into his daily clothes and entered the inner room, he saw his wife Cao coaxing his son.

"Don't cry, don't cry, try this?"

The child, who was crying and making a fuss, was handed a small lacquer bowl to his mouth by Cao. After drinking a sip, he opened his eyes wide, then burst into laughter, babbled and waved his hands, and wanted to drink more.

On weekdays, this child would be so happy only if he had honey juice and malt.

Sima Xin smiled, went over and hugged his son in his arms, first lifted him up high, and then kissed his tender face with his mouth full of prickly beards without saying anything, making his son cry again.

After Cao took her son, he looked at the reddish-brown soup in the lacquer bowl, sniffed it, and frowned, saying, "What is this?"

"This is something fresh that I bought this morning, called brown sugar."

Cao handed the child to the maid and began to chatter about the new things that were popular in the South City these days.

"Honey is expensive. Good Zhongnanshan honey costs seven or eight hundred coins per catty! Although molasses is cheaper, it is not sweet enough..."

The reason why these desserts are so expensive is that after Shang Yang's reform, Qin announced: "The price of wine and meat will be high, the rent will be high, and the price will be ten times higher." Raising the price of luxury goods can not only suppress merchants, but also save food.

Honey and molasses are also considered luxury goods, especially molasses made of malt and glutinous rice, which is considered to waste food like wine.

But on the other hand, if it can be sold, molasses can also become a huge profit!

The wealthy families in Xianyang have been complaining about the high price of molasses for more than a day or two. Now there is suddenly a cheap substitute, how can they not be happy?

As if she had gotten a great deal, Cao said to her husband: "It's not the same with brown sugar. One catty only costs four hundred coins, and it sells for a lot."

Four hundred coins, this is already a month and a half salary for a small official, and ordinary people can only look at brown sugar.

But for Sima Xin's family, aristocratic with military merits for generations and a "rich family" with a net worth of millions, brown sugar is a good thing with good quality and low price.

In the past ten days, thousands of catties of brown sugar have been sold to many similar wealthy families, which has also led to the fact that no one is interested in taro recently.

"I really don't know how this brown sugar is made. I have never seen it before." Cao finally finished her nagging, but she was still not satisfied.

After listening quietly, Sima Xin asked his wife to coax his son to sleep, and then said to her: "Today, someone reported to the city clerk that the price of brown sugar was different, the production method was questionable, and eating it might be harmful."

"Scare!"

Cao was shocked and hurried to wake up her son. She also wanted to pinch his throat to make him spit out the sugar water he drank. While tossing and turning, she cried and scolded: "Why didn't you say it earlier?"

Sima Xin stopped her and smiled: "This case is under the jurisdiction of the Nanshi prison officials. I have asked my subordinates to investigate thoroughly and found that the people who reported it were all honey and malt syrup vendors. Some of the clerks also ate brown sugar and found nothing different. As for why the sweetness is far better than malt syrup and can be compared with honey, the city clerk Yan from Nanjun explained that it is because the production method is very different from malt syrup and it does not use grain..."

Cao was relieved after hearing this, and then curiously said: "So, those who reported the incident will be falsely accused and punished?"

"It's not that simple."

Sima Xin asked his wife to close the door and whispered to her: "Most of the honey in Nanshi comes from Zhongnan Mountain, which is secretly managed by the Shi family, the fifth official. As for molasses, it is also made from wheat grown by the Zuo Shuchang Mai family. These two families have been in this business for more than ten years, and it has become a tacit practice in the market."

"Last month, those Nanjun merchants suddenly rushed in and squeezed into the market with brown sugar, making honey and molasses difficult to sell. How could Shi and Mai not be angry? Those people in the market were just instigated by the two families!"

"So that's it."

Cao was a little surprised. She never thought that there was such a deep entanglement behind the simple molasses.

"What are you going to do, my dear?"

Cao had been married to Sima Xin for many years and knew that he had always been careful to walk the line between national law and human feelings.

Sima Xin said: "Let's put it aside for now. Although the children of Shi and Mai are not high-ranking officials with real power, their titles are not low. I, a small official, cannot afford to offend them."

Cao said worriedly: "Are you going to bend the law for personal gain? Don't get caught by the censor..."

"That's what I'm worried about."

Sima Xin hesitated: "If it's an ordinary merchant, it's unjust. Even if they beg for mercy from the Xianyang magistrate, I can suppress it. If the case fails, I can also blame the censor who tried the case."

"But the strange thing about this is that the origins of those merchants in Nanjun Anlu are unknown. They must have the confidence to dare to do business in Xianyang, but no matter how the censor asks, they are unwilling to tell the people behind them. The more this is the case, the more afraid I am. If I offend a big shot, it will be bad..."

Therefore, Sima Xin often scolded Shi, Mai and their merchants for being greedy and forgetting wisdom. Perhaps they were used to oppressing small merchants for more than ten years, and finally threw all the problems on them. Did they really think that they could be protected in everything just because they secretly gave officials sweets and honey?

Sima Xin didn't want to indulge them anymore, so he decided to delay the case until he found out the forces behind those Nanjun merchants. The safest way was to write a love letter to Nanjun to find out.

However, when he and his wife were about to fall asleep, the servant knocked on the door and said that Dong Jun sent his brother to deliver a letter to Sima Xin.

Sima Xin got up and dressed in a bad mood, saying, "What letter did Dong Yi send in the middle of the night?"

Cao was sleeping in a daze, muttering, "Maybe he finished his guard duty and it's finally his turn to rest, so he asked you to have a drink again."

"That's right, I haven't seen him for a long time since Zhang Shaorong left."

Sima Xin, Zhang Han and Dong Yi were all from Xiayang, the internal historian, and they were of similar age. The three of them almost joined the army. Zhang Han and Dong Yi had better family backgrounds, so after joining the army for several years, they were selected to serve as Lang in the palace. Only Sima Xin took the promotion route of a minor official, and at least he got the position of an official doctor and a prison officer in the southern market of Xianyang.

The relationship between the three has always been very good. They are not brothers, but better than brothers. Unfortunately, after Zhang Han was sent out, they met less.

However, when Sima Xin opened the letter with a curse, he widened his eyes!

This is not a letter from Dong Yi, but one delivered by someone else!

Sima Xin calmed himself down, walked under the candlelight and looked again, but saw a line of words written at the beginning of the bamboo slip:

"Zhonglang Huling Heifu bows again!"

...

Sima Xin was stunned for a long time when he saw this name.

No matter how ignorant he was, he couldn't have been unaware of the emperor's order to the ministers to "discuss the title of honor" a few days ago, and naturally knew who the two people who were in the limelight were.

"This Heifu has been quite trusted and loved by the emperor recently..."

Looking down, he found that it was all unimportant content.

This Zhonglang Huling talked about his "long-standing reputation" of Sima Xin, saying that he often heard his good friend Zhang Han and his subordinate Dong Yi mention Sima Xin's proficiency in laws and strict handling of cases, and he yearned for it. After he came to Xianyang, he was promoted by the emperor and had to stay in the palace, so he couldn't socialize with Sima Xin.

"Strict in handling cases? Fair in enforcing the law?" Sima Xin felt something was wrong. He asked himself, when he just graduated from the academy and wore the Xiezhi crown, he was indeed like this.

But slowly, he found that even in Xianyang, where the emperor was standing, there were many shadows that could not be illuminated by laws and regulations.

There were too many powerful people here, and the social relations were complicated. Although even the princes and grandsons did not dare to bully men and women openly, small violations of the rules and laws also happened from time to time...

The fairness of Qin law was relative. When the status of the two parties was very different, the laws and regulations often could not play a role.

After being immersed in the big dye vat of Xianyang for a long time, Sima Xin also became sophisticated and smooth, and began to turn a blind eye to some cases.

He shook his head and continued to read.

Hei Fu finally got to the point, saying that he finally had a day off now, and hoped that after Sima Xin finished his official duties, the two of them could meet up and get to know each other under the introduction of Dong Yi.

At the end of the letter, he said: "These are just some gifts from my hometown, not a token of respect..."

The letter was humble and specifically asked to make friends with him. Sima Xin was flattered and quickly asked the servant to hand him the small box.

He waved his hand to let the servant go down and carefully opened the lacquer box, but he almost bit his tongue!

What was placed inside was not something else, but a piece of reddish brown sugar! It was exactly the same as the sugar his wife bought to feed her son!

"That's right!"

Looking at the letter and then at the piece of brown sugar, Sima Xin suddenly realized.

"Zhonglang Huling Heifu is from Anlu, Nanjun!"

"Those merchants who sell brown sugar are also from Anlu County!"

...

Half an hour later, Sima Xin, who had been thinking about his life for half a night in the yard, finally got back into the warm bed in the cool breeze.

After a long silence, he embraced his wife Cao, who was still half asleep, and whispered something in her ear that woke her up completely.

"Tomorrow, I will handle the case impartially! Clear the injustice for Anlu merchant Jia Yan!"