The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In early February of the 27th year of the reign of Qin Shihuang, Nu, the prison official of Anlu County, received a report from the county's Tian Zuo Li Zhong.

Although Zhong's title and position were not high, he was the most powerful man in the county and the elder brother of the Right Shuzhang Heifu. Nu did not dare to neglect him and immediately received him in person.

Zhong was already over 30 years old. He used to be a dark and thin farmer. After becoming rich in recent years, his face became much rounder, but his clothes were still simple, wearing a linen shirt.

Although Heifu was famous and the best in Anlu, Zhong had always been very low-key. He worked honestly in the county temple and inspected the farm work conscientiously. Sometimes he would even go barefoot and carry a hoe to the fields to demonstrate the deep plowing method from Guanzhong to the people.

It was hard to imagine that such an honest man would be involved in a lawsuit, let alone as a plaintiff.

After being invited to court by Nu, Zhong explained the reason for his trip.

"Someone actually claimed to be the mistress of the Right Minister and had a child born out of wedlock?" Nu was shocked after hearing this.

A mistress is the "mistress" in ancient times. "Child born out of wedlock" is the name for illegitimate children in Qin law. Because unmarried adultery is not encouraged by the government, children born out of wedlock have a very low status and no right to inherit their status. The better ones are recognized by their fathers and may get some property. The worse ones are no different from servants at home.

Although Qin Shihuang enacted laws to crack down on adultery, "children born out of wedlock" in Nanjun still appear in an endless stream. After all, the land of Jingchu and Yunmeng has had this tradition since ancient times.

For example, five hundred years ago, Dou Bobi, a noble of the Ruo'ao clan of the Chu State, had an affair with the daughter of the Duke of Yun State and gave birth to a child. In order to cover up this scandal, they abandoned the baby in Yunmeng Lake, where it was raised by a tigress and fed with milk. The baby was not afraid of people. The son of Yun State thought it was a divine creature, so he took it back to Yun State and ordered his daughter to raise it. He named it "Dou Gu Yu Tu", which means "child suckled by a tiger".

So it is normal for officials in Nanjun to have mistresses outside, but Nu does not believe that Hei Fu would do such a thing.

"Many years ago, You Shuzhang was the head of Huyang Pavilion. I was the county prison officer and often interacted with him. I knew that You Shuzhang only loved to play with warriors and was not interested in women. When he met women flirting and tempting in the streets and alleys, he did not look away. In those two years, let alone being a mistress, he never even went to a brothel!"

"That's right."

Zhong said, "But the woman claimed to be from Yuzhang, Jiujiang County, and was a prostitute in the military market. Three years ago, my second brother passed through Xunyang during the southern expedition and invited her to sleep with him..."

"This..."

Nu was not easy to judge now. The army was the loneliest. The Qin army had hundreds of thousands of people to attack Chu, and it took two years to completely destroy Chu. As a result, many children born out of adultery emerged in Chu like mushrooms after rain in the past two years. They were all seeds left by Qin soldiers in the local area. As for whether those Chu women were voluntary or forced, it was unknown.

Zhong sighed and said, "Zhongdi never mentioned this to us, but the woman told us the time and place, even Zhongdi's title and authority at that time. My mother always wanted Zhongdi to have a son. After hearing this, she saw that the three-year-old child was dark-skinned and looked a bit like Zhongdi when he was young, so she believed it..."

Elderly people are always gullible, and they also think that the more children and grandchildren, the better, and there is nothing wrong with having a son born by a concubine.

But the eldest wife doesn't think so.

"Fortunately, my brother's wife only asked one question, and the woman revealed her flaws."

At this point, Lian Zhong couldn't help but admire his brother's wife's calmness and rationality. If it were an ordinary woman, she would definitely be jealous, but she just asked the woman coldly.

"You said he slept with you several times. Did he send someone to summon you to the big tent, or did he sneak into the brothel on his own?"

The woman said that the man came by himself at night. She had asked about it, but the man who called himself 'Sima Heifu of the other department' said that he was of noble status and it was not good to summon her directly to the big tent, so he came in disguise.

In fact, Ye Zijin was a little unsure at the time. During the pleasure of the boudoir, although her husband claimed that he had never touched a woman before, Zijin was a little skeptical.

The husband was skilled. Except for the wedding night when he was more sympathetic to her and stopped at a light touch, he couldn't stop after that. He always asked her to do some embarrassing postures. He might be a veteran in the romantic field. Although he didn't hear of any bad deeds, he must have had many women, otherwise how could he be so skilled?

Although there was suspicion, from the story told by the woman, Ye Zijin also guessed that this matter was probably false.

"Did he pay her afterwards?" Ye Zijin asked another key question.

The woman hesitated for a moment and said no. He only gave her a piece of linen to make clothes. The next day, he left with the army and disappeared.

However, she kept this incident in mind. She did not have sex with anyone for several months until she became pregnant. She kept waiting by the river with her belly bulging, but the officer who claimed to "come to pick her up after the truce" never showed up again.

After giving birth to the baby, the woman raised it alone for two years. After asking around, she managed to get a verification and took the ship arranged by Heifu to transport the families of soldiers between Xiakou and Jiujiang for free, and came to Anlu...

"Hearing this, my mother and I knew that this kind of idiotic thing was definitely not done by Zhongdi."

Zhong handed over the evidence, which was a roll of bamboo slips and a thread-bound book with hemp paper. This was something Heifu had just made. In the past, a book had to be divided into many volumes, but now it can be compiled into one book.

After receiving it angrily, he saw that it was written in official script as "Nanzheng Ji". The handwriting inside was very beautiful, as if it was written by a woman...

"It was written by my second brother when he went to Yuzhang in the south. It records the daily marching and formation, local customs, and what he did. My sister-in-law copied it on paper for him."

As for the night when the woman said that "Hei Fu" sneaked into her shack, although the location was in Xunyang, the old bamboo slips and paper books clearly recorded:

"The boat passed Jiujiangzhouzhu. Before it was ten miles away, the wind and clouds suddenly surged, and the waves were huge. We quickly tied the rope to Xunyang. We stayed in this town that night, boarded the tower ship to visit the five hundred masters Zhao Tuo, talked with him until late at night, and stayed on the boat. The next day, the sky cleared again, and we set off."

This way, it doesn't match up. Although the woman denied it flatly and said that she remembered the exact day wrong, Hei Fu remembered it clearly. He only stayed in Xunyang for one night, so the lie was exposed.

Afterwards, the woman confessed honestly. She had actually guessed that the officer who came to stay overnight that day was just bragging and pretending to be Hei Fu. It was impossible for him to be a senior official like Sima of another department. But she still came across the river with her son with a one-in-ten-thousand hope.

"My mother sympathized with them and wanted to take in the mother and son, but my sister-in-law disagreed."

When Zhong first met Ye Zijin, he only thought she was a gentle lady who spoke and acted softly, but today, she showed her strength!

She said: "If this woman is really the mistress of my beloved, and this child is really the son of my beloved, I will properly settle him, raise him with good food, and treat him as my own."

"But they are just hypocritical people who are lucky. If I take them in, rumors will spread all over Anlu and Nanjun. The common people in the village are mostly people who like to be lively and would rather believe it. If they hear it, it will become true!"

Every word of this is reasonable, so Zhong's mother took a step back and said that if she didn't want to keep her, then don't keep her. Don't blame this poor woman. Give her some money and let her go back to Xunyang.

Ye Zijin still disagreed. She bowed to the ground, her voice was gentle, but her attitude was very firm.

"Mother, rewarding without persuading is called stopping good, and punishing without punishing is called tolerating evil. Although this woman is pitiful, she has done something illegal. If we give her money and let her go, not to mention that my family has committed the crime of harboring evil. When the people in the county see that this woman has benefited, I am afraid that in a few days, women with children in their arms who pretend to be the sons of good men will be stepping on the doorstep!"

The girl gave the only solution: "Report the crime to the authorities, ask the government to clarify the case, and then send the woman back to her hometown for trial. We must find the villain who pretended to be a good man and owed a romantic debt!"

Although the Qin law is strict, there are still many criminals, and impersonation and fraud also happen from time to time. For example, a few years ago, a student of the Nanyang Academy pretended to be the son of Feng Wuze, which caused a great impact, to defraud money. The army on the southern expedition was mixed, and it is not ruled out that an officer pretended to be a superior in the brothel.

The military officer who pretended to be Heifu is the source of all evil and must be caught and severely punished.

"Only in this way can this matter be settled!"

This is why Zhong came to be the plaintiff today for the first time.

"Madam You Shuzhang... is worthy of being the daughter of the county governor. She acts with the remaining power of County Governor Ye." Nu praised her endlessly, thinking that this lady was really not to be messed with.

Zhong also nodded in agreement, and brought the crying girl to the county temple. He also asked his sister-in-law worriedly:

"My family has implemented the law by doing this, but will the county people think that we are unkind to treat orphans and widows like this?"

Ye Zijin had her reasons: "Brother, a gentleman loves others with virtue, and a villain loves others with tolerance. I think we should love like a gentleman, not pity like a villain. Besides..."

"We have built ships, opened a sugar factory, entertained the elders, and raised children. The kindness and virtue our family has shown in Anlu is enough, and the people of Anlu also love our family very much, but I think there is still something missing..."

"What is missing?" Zhong asked. Unknowingly, when Heifu was away, their family had already taken Ye Zijin as the backbone.

The girl, who had just become a wife, was no longer obedient in front of Heifu, and there was a faint sense of power in her smile.

"Awe!"

...

Just when Heifu was cleared of suspicion of keeping a mistress and having a child by adultery by his wife, thousands of miles away in Pei County, Sishui County, in the village next to Sishui Pavilion, the bearded Liu Ji lifted a sleepy baby high up and laughed.

"This nose, this forehead, is exactly the same as mine! It's really my child!"

The pale and sweaty widow Cao lay weakly on the shabby straw mat, showing a relieved smile. She had already begun to look forward to being honored as "Tingzhang Madam" after marrying Liu Ji.

But her smile soon froze. After Liu Ji finished teasing the baby named "Fei", he lowered his head and said something to the widow Cao with confidence.

"I admit that this child is mine. I will send two stones of millet every month to support you and your son, but I cannot marry you!"

He said shamelessly: "My wife is going to marry a lady of good character, you can only be my concubine..."

The widow Cao's face suddenly changed. She was so angry that she grabbed a piece of soil and threw it at Liu Ji, cursing.

"Liu Ji, you damned bastard! You were a playboy in the past, and now you are a petty official. You have no money and no house, and you still want to marry a lady from a famous family? Bah!"

She hugged Liu Fei and cried, "Your mother doesn't care about you raising him, and this child is not yours. It is born by me and the shoemaker next door. Get out!"

Liu Ji quickly dodged, ran out of the door, and stuck his head in, grinning and said, "Cao, I only promised to raise you in advance, but not to marry you. A real man must keep his word. You wait, I will pick up the food for this month now!"