The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Tomb robbing!?"

When everyone heard Quji say this word, their eyes widened.

"Yes, it was tomb robbery."

Qu Ji confessed: "It was the day before the La Festival, the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month. I went to visit my uncle's home in Daqingli. When I came back, it rained lightly. I took shelter in a small house in the wilderness between Daqingli and Chaoyangli. The house was originally used to look after the fields. No one used the fields after they were abandoned."

"After waiting for a long time, I fell asleep unknowingly. When I woke up, it was almost dark. It was still raining outside. Several people came to the outside of the house and were arguing. I saw that they were carrying swords and knives. I was afraid that they were thieves, so I hid under the couch and didn't let them see me. Then I heard what they discussed..."

Qu Ji said that he heard at least four people talking in the house. They complained about the bad weather. Otherwise, the tombs of the nobles of the Chu Dynasty could be dug up smoothly, and all the gold, silver and bronze wares inside could be transported out and sold...

He was terrified. After the rain stopped, those people left. Quji followed them up the mountain with courage, only to find that they were digging under a hidden hill. They were indeed robbing tombs. Before being discovered, Quji hurriedly rolled and crawled down. When he returned home that night, he fell ill.

"It's really against the will of heaven to rob tombs."

Pu Zhang muttered. He was already half buried in the ground. He had asked his children and grandchildren to help him find a burial place, so he took it very seriously. Hearing that someone was robbing tombs nearby, he felt sad. He didn't want to be dug out after his death and thrown into the wild, with his soul wandering.

The other young people did not feel the same way as him and were discussing the reliability of this matter.

Dongmen Bao said, "Between Daqingli and Chaoyangli, there is a wilderness, where are the tombs of nobles?"

Ji Ying was also a little unconvinced: "I am also from this place, how come I have never heard of it."

"Indeed, there are."

Li Xian spoke, his face gloomy: "There is also a legend in my family. Although there are no large tombs in recent decades, there were many hundreds of years ago."

"Hundreds of years ago?" Everyone was a little surprised, it was a bit far away from them.

Li Xian said, "Yes, they are all the tombs of some county lords and feudal lords in the Chu State. My uncle said that there are not many other things in the Chu State, but these nobles are the most. There are many feudal lords, and the fiefdoms are large. There are many of them within a hundred miles. After these nobles died, they looked for places near mountains and rivers to bury them. There are many in our Anlu County alone."

Li Xian was born in the Li family, and when the Li family ruled Jianghan in the Chu State, they were just small doctors. Their understanding of those noble old friends is much better than that of Hei Fu and others who came from a poor background.

Heifu had also heard about the luxury of the burial of nobles in this era: the coffins must be multi-layered, the burial must be deep, the deceased must have many clothes, the embroidery must be rich, and the tomb must be tall.

Especially when the princes and lords died, the treasury must be emptied of the treasures stored, and then the gold, jade and jewelry must be decorated on the body of the deceased, tied with silk and floss, and the carriages and horses must be buried in the grave. In addition, a lot of curtains, bells, drums, tables, wine pots, mirrors, spears, swords, feather flags, ivory, and leather must be made and placed in the deceased's bedroom and buried before they were satisfied.

Although the Mohists strongly advised against this situation, it still did not help. Compared with the Central Plains, the Chu area was particularly popular with lavish burials. The Chu people were influenced by various myths and ghosts, and they attached great importance to the afterlife. They also made up a series of gods in charge of life and death, such as the Great Siming and the Lesser Siming, to worship, and they are still worshipped today.

Nanjun, as the former site of the Chu State, has many tombs of Chu nobles hidden in the valleys. Because of the heavy burial objects, they attracted the greedy eyes of tomb robbers. Most of the descendants of these Chu nobles moved east with the King of Chu when Bai Qi broke Yingdu more than 50 years ago. They could no longer take care of their ancestors' blood and food, which exacerbated the rampant tomb robbing, and Nanjun became a paradise for tomb robbers.

However, the Qin government did not condone this behavior just because the tombs were stolen from the Chu nobles. On the contrary, the Qin State also believed that tomb robbers digging up ancestral tombs was an act that was against the will of heaven and worse than beasts, so they "forbade it with severe power and heavy crimes" and legislated to severely punish tomb robbers!

Tomb robbing, especially tomb robbing by multiple people, happened in their small Huyang Pavilion, which was definitely a big case!

Hei Fu stood up and said, "It is said in the "Law of Robbers" that tomb robbery is the same crime as murder and injuring people. The lighter punishment is tattooing and imprisonment, and the heavier punishment is crucifixion... There are rewards for those who report and arrest!"

He looked at Qu Ji and said with some regret: "Gong Shi Qu Ji, you are neither making false accusations nor slandering, so what is there to be ashamed of? Why don't you come to the pavilion to report the case in person, or tell the head of the village and let the head of the village inform the township officials? In that case, not only will you not be punished, but you will also be rewarded. Why bother to resort to such a bad idea and write an anonymous letter?"

Quji also heard Heifu's regret, and said with a wry smile: "Let the head of the pavilion know. First, I was confused for a moment. Because my wife was pregnant, I didn't want to take risks. But I couldn't turn a blind eye, so I came up with the idea of sending an anonymous letter to inform the government. Whether it succeeds or not, at least I can have a clear conscience. At the beginning, I was lucky and thought that no one could guess it was me. Who knew that the head of the pavilion was so good at predicting things and found my house the next day..."

This is also human nature. Quji is just a small official with no background, but there are several tomb robbers. What if after he reported it, the government didn't catch the thieves, but the thieves knew that it was Quji who reported it, and they were angry and retaliated against his family?

"There is another reason..." Quji hesitated, looked at everyone in the room, stared at Heifu and said, "I will only tell the head of the pavilion!"

...

After Heifu sent everyone out, he turned back and asked Quji, "Everyone has left, just say what you want to say."

"I want to thank the head of the pavilion first."

Quji bowed to the ground on the straw mat: "Thank you, head of the pavilion, for not tying me up with a rope in front of my wife today, and said that you only want to ask me questions, otherwise she will be scared with her weak temperament..."

Heifu asked him to get up: "Although I am the head of the pavilion and enforce the law according to the law, who doesn't have parents, wives and children? I won't deliberately make things difficult for you where you don't need to make things difficult."

Quji smiled bitterly and said, "I have also heard some laws and decrees in the village. I know that I have committed a crime this time, but I don't know what kind of punishment I will be punished with. I hope the head of the pavilion can tell me."

"Anonymous letter, fined three grades, equivalent to more than 4,000 yuan. If you can't pay it off, you will do labor for the government."

Heifu said, "With your family's financial resources, it shouldn't be difficult to pay it off, right?"

"The captain thinks too highly of me. These four thousand coins are enough to bankrupt me." Quji looked bitter.

A rich family in this era probably had a family fortune of about 100,000 coins, with cows, horses, and servants. A middle-class family could afford to raise cows with about 20,000 coins. Heifu's family could barely reach the standard of 10,000 coins now. I thought Quji's family would be better off, but it was worse?

Quji began to complain, saying that he had spent several thousand coins on his wedding last year, and now he didn't have much money left. He was afraid that he would have to sell everything in his home, and even his young wife's dowry, to raise the fine.

"My wife's dowry must not be sold. It's emergency money. When we give birth to children, we have to raise them up."

Quji gritted his teeth and said, "If it doesn't work, I'll go to work for the government."

He sighed and said it sadly. With this sick body, I'm afraid he can't do any heavy work.

Although Heifu felt sorry and sympathetic, and even a little sorry, he couldn't let Quji go.

In the Qin State, as an official, "releasing prisoners" would be severely punished, and Heifu didn't want to shave his hair and go to accompany the former Huyang Pavilion Chief.

He couldn't hide the truth and reduce Quji's crime to report, otherwise he would be guilty of "missing the sentence". If it was unintentional, he might only be fined. If it was intentional, it would violate the crime of "unrighteousness".

Haha, by then, he might be sent to the more desolate Qianzhong County to expand the border. The Huyangtingqiudaomai who framed him seemed to be in Qianzhong County.

Heifu could only say sorry to Quji in his heart: Sorry, I am a policeman.

Then he comforted Quji and said that if he went to the county tomorrow and explained the whole thing clearly, maybe the prison official would give him a lighter sentence?

Even Heifu himself was not sure about this. Thinking of the iron-faced and impartial prison official Xi, he knew that he would never let go of any violation of the law.

But Quji was encouraged and bowed again: "Thank you, Pavilion Chief, then I will tell the truth!"

He raised his head and made up his mind: "Pavilion Chief, the reason why I would rather write a letter than come to report it in person is because, that day, the thieves who robbed the tomb mentioned a person's name when they were discussing!"

"Who?" Heifu asked.

Qu Ji lowered his voice and said word by word: "Chaoyangli, Lijianmen!"

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