Chapter 2 Chapter Two Liu Bang Starts to Build Momentum

In 256 BC, during the Warring States period, the second year after the Qin-Zhao-Handan War, the life and death of two important figures shook and will shake the historical stage of China.One is the last emperor of the illustrious Zhou Dynasty who ruled the country for 800 years——King Zhou Nan, known as the King of Shame, died in shame this year because of his age, and the Zhou royal family surnamed Ji came to an end.And another hero surnamed Liu was born in the family of Liu Zhijia, a farmer in Fengyi, Sishui County, in this year.Since he already had three boys who were able to eat well, Father Liu, who was happy to have a new mouth, was not interested in giving his newborn son an official name at all, so he simply called him Liu Ji, which means Liu Laosi.

This Liu Laosi is three years younger than Qin Shihuang, with a dragon's nose (Long Zhun) and seventy-two moles on his left thigh. Several years later, he and Qin Shihuang with a hornet nose (Bee Zhun) are still in Xianyang City Once met.At that time, Qin Shihuang was accepting mountain shouts and dancing worship from the masses under the colorful clouds that everyone was looking forward to, while Liu Laosi was holding labor tools like a migrant worker on a construction site, raising his head and watching stupidly among the crowd - he was pressing the button at the time. The law stipulates that he should serve corvee in Xianyang City, and Qin Shihuang's ostentatious ostentation deeply shocked him.He threw away the thing in his hand, sighed with a strong nasal dragon nose and said, "Wow, that's what a man should do!"

This lowly Liu Laosi soon threw down his agricultural tools and replaced it with a three-foot sword, and raised the sword to conquer the world, and changed the life of the Qin Dynasty, which will not be mentioned later.Assisting him in completing this historical task, there are other demon kings in chaos.Most of these people fell to the ground before and after the Qin-Zhao Handan War in 256 BC, and came to this magnificent but increasingly sparsely populated human stage. Liu Laosi's scientific name is Liu Bang, but it was taken after he became emperor. He used to be called Liu Ji. The so-called "Bo Zhong Shu Ji" means Liu Lao Si, but it is not ruled out that it is Liu Lao San— Because sometimes the third is also called the quarter-for example, the "third runner-up" is the third place in the competition.Anyway, let's call him Liu Bang according to historical habits.Liu Bang has a beautiful beard, a cheerful personality, and often likes to bully people (he later went to work as an official in the yamen, and the officials in the yamen all laughed and insulted and joked, and sometimes he also peed in the hat of a Confucian) .Liu Bang is especially cold about wine and lesbians, and he usually loves to give alms.As for studying, he said afterward that it was a very headache, and besides studying, he desperately looked down on the production work that usually relies on strength to make ends meet, so such people had to go to the county government to make a living.Liu Bang became a petty official, so he could mix his salary.

We need to talk about the officials at that time.Han Feizi said: "The prime minister must start from the state, and the fierce general must be sent to the army." As a fan of Han Feizi, Qin Shihuang put an end to the long tradition of relying on blood ties to become an official in the Spring and Autumn Period, and adopted two methods: selection and examination. The great procedure of selecting officials, thus technically practicing Han Feizi's theory. Officials and officials are actually not the same. Those who get a lot of salary are called officials, those who get a little salary are called officials, and those who don’t get a salary are called scholars.Together with the peasants and businessmen, they are all white.

If you want to be an official, you must first be an official.There is another nickname for officials here, which is called "official close to the people", which means that they are in direct contact with the broad masses of the people, such as those who collect electricity bills.Generally speaking, officials are running errands for officials.The first way to be an official is to be "selected", that is, to be recommended.If you have a well-connected family and know people in the government, you may be promoted to be an official in the county, responsible for filling out forms, stamping and so on.

The Qin Dynasty was "selected" as an official, and the requirements were similar to the current ones. First of all, "good deeds" were required, and "poor families" were also not acceptable.But these two are actually one. As long as the family is not poor and can afford to entertain the "media" at that time (that is, some people with big mouths who can eat and talk), after these people yell, there will be "good deeds" up! With "good deeds", you can be "selected".For example, not far from Liu Bang’s hometown to the southeast, there was a young man named Han Xin in Huaiyin, Jiangsu. Hang around, and when you are too hungry, you will find a "floating mother" from the laundry company to eat.

Liu Bang was lucky, because his family still belonged to the quasi-middle class, so he went through the exercise very happily and was selected as an official.Some people say that Liu Bang is a hooligan, which is wrong.He has been working in the "county government" since he was an adult. In addition to being "selected", the Qin Dynasty also had an examination path to be selected as an official-this is a bit similar to the current civil servant examination.Before the exam, there are remedial classes that can be taken, which are called "learning rooms", and the teachers in them are all current officials.What officials teach are the detailed provisions of national laws and various interpretations when they are implemented, the so-called "teaching with the law".In this way, everyone only studies laws and decrees without studying "Poetry", so that their minds will be clear and uniform, which is also called unified thinking.The rulers of the Qin Dynasty believed that the simpler the people's minds-the so-called "weak people", the easier it is to manage, and the country will be "strong".On the contrary, if the "people are strong", the country will be "weak".This has been clearly discussed in the works of Mr. Shang Yang, the pioneer of Legalism pursued by the Qin Dynasty.

No matter what, if you listen to the teachers of officials in the "school" to teach national laws and regulations, if you study well, can recite more than 9,000 words, and have no major problems in character, you can go to various departments of the county to be officials. . After serving as an official for a long time, he can become an official, which means that he can receive a salary of several hundred shi or thousands of shi (half of which is paid for food, and half of which is converted into money).So, how to change from an official to an official?There is an idiom called "overwork leads to illness". In the Qin Dynasty, "overwork" can be "promoted"!

"Lao" is a score sheet for the examiners.Every time an assessment is made in the county, the person who completes the indicators best (for example, a certain official is responsible for collecting electricity bills, he collects a lot of electricity bills, and collects five years of electricity bills in one year), then he is called "the most", You can get some "labor".If the electricity bill he charges is pitifully low, only for one month a year, and his grades are ranked last compared to his colleagues, then he is called a "temple", and he will be deducted a certain amount of "labor".

Accumulating "labor" can become an "official", thus realizing the transformation from official to official.And if you repeatedly deduct "labor", then there will be no future. It can be seen that although the professional bureaucracy system of the Legalist government two thousand years ago was just beginning, its precision science is no worse than that of modern foreign companies. As an official, it is actually not easy to pass the assessment and "work hard" to become an official.Let's talk about the evaluation indicators of the miser. There are many "cowards" in the Qin Dynasty. This is the most difficult grassroots position in Qin. Similar to the current directors, they all belong to "officials". , hair crossbow miser, court miser, and so on.

Let's talk about Tian Yufu again. The legalist government of the Qin Dynasty stipulated that cattle should be appraised in April, July, October and the first month every year.Among them, the first month’s assessment is a big test. If the cattle in a certain township are the best, a pot of wine and ten pieces of dried meat will be rewarded to the farmer in the township. by day).And once the assessment is at the end, the farmer will be reprimanded, and the subordinate in charge of raising cattle will have to work less for two months. As for the breeder who raises cattle, he is also tested. If the waistline of his cattle loses weight, the breeder will be beaten ten times for every inch of thinness-as the cattle become thinner, the people are beaten more and more. fat.If the cattle he raises are relatively impotent, ten large cattle will not give birth to four young calves.As a result, these impotent cattle not only caused the breeder to be fined, but also caused the stinger (director) in charge of raising the cattle to be fined a shield.When a cow dies during grazing, it should be reported to the stinger in charge of raising the cattle immediately, and the stinger will then report to the county officials. For the cause of death, the corresponding person shall be held accountable, and compensation shall be made at different price rates.If the report is not promptly made, causing the cattle to rot before the autopsy, then no matter whether there is responsibility or not, compensation will be made at the price of fresh beef. So we have reason to believe that if you are an incompetent official and you are in charge of a group of undedicated breeders who like to steal cattle feed, sooner or later you will kill a few cattle, then wait to go bankrupt and pay for it.If you can't afford it, it's okay, you can be arrested and called a prisoner, commonly known as a labor reform prisoner.In the Qin Dynasty, there were many construction projects waiting for reform-through-labor prisoners to repair. They all wore work clothes issued by the state (called "Zhe Yi", that is, prison clothes). As a new prisoner, you have to wear prison clothes to work for several years. Just how much work is equivalent to it (a gay man works a little more than a lesbian daily work).After several years, you have accumulated enough labor—enough to compensate for the cattle you killed, and you can announce your release after serving your sentence! Later, when the world was in chaos, these criminals were released and organized into an anti-rebel army. They fought bravely, because beheading the enemy's head can be equivalent to "labor". With this precious "labor", you can pay for cattle!Maybe some people waited until the Qin Dynasty collapsed and the smoke flew away, and the cattle hadn't paid enough! In fact, it is not bad to be this kind of reform-through-labour prisoner. Although there is no salary, the state manages the food every day. Let's talk about the crossbow skimmer.A crossbow skimmer is an official in the army. If the soldiers he disciplines shoot with crossbows and fail to achieve the accuracy stipulated by the law, then he will be punished and fined to hand over two shields, which means that he has not taught well. War horses also need to be fed and trained by people. If the horse "runs as fast as the order" (does not listen to people's commands) during the assessment and fails to meet the assessment requirements, the Sima of the county will be punished, and even the county magistrate and Cheng will be punished separately. Punishment: If the quality of the horse is too bad, the Sima will be fined with two leather armors and dismissed from his post. The county magistrate and Cheng will also be punished with two leather armors. Let’s talk about the officials in charge of mining. They were rated as inferior twice, and the director in charge of mining (the stinger) was punished with a pair of armors, and the deputy director (zuo) was punished with a shield.He was rated as inferior for three consecutive years, and the stingy man in charge of mining was punished with two first grades, and he was permanently dismissed. Finally, let’s talk about warehouse cowards, who were the most miserable of all kinds of cowards in the Qin Dynasty.Warehouse stingy——the director of the warehouse, the door of the warehouse under his jurisdiction cannot be "fingered". If the door is so wide that a finger can be inserted, or the window is so wide that "the grain can come out", then he will be punished.The cracks in the doors and windows are fixed, and no mouse holes are allowed. According to the law, if more than two mouse holes are found, the warehouseman and the higher-level officials will be reprimanded; Hand over a shield.If there are a hundred mouse holes, then unless he is a rich man, he cannot escape the fate of being a prisoner and building the Great Wall, so the warehouse manager must pray every day, begging the mice to let his warehouse go.However, even if the mouse hole is done, the temperature and humidity of the warehouse are still a problem. If the grain is accidentally moldy, and the natural loss rate of the grain exceeds one-tenth of the law, then not only will he be held accountable, but even Higher-level county magistrates are responsible for compensation.So this warehouse miser is the most difficult job. If he dared to catch fire, it would be a felony, and the county magistrate must bear the responsibility together.If you lose documents, deeds, seals, and measuring instruments, you will also be punished.The stored leather was bitten by insects, and he was fined with a pair of armor, and a shield for the county magistrate and county magistrate. In addition, for the official in charge of household registration, he was fined to pay two pairs of leather armor for delaying the application for household registration.Opening the forged documents but failing to detect them is also punished with two sets of armor.The officials who manage the labor must recover the service members themselves when they flee, otherwise they will serve in place of the fugitives.Public utensils should be marked, if not, the stingy man in charge of utensils will be fined with a shield.The serial number on the utensils does not match the record book. For large utensils, you will be punished with a shield, but for small utensils, you will be exempted from the crime.Horses and cattle need to be marked, and if they are marked in the wrong order, they will also be fined with a shield. We have reason to believe that not all poor people built the Great Wall. The laws of the Qin Dynasty restrained more officials like cowards, and there were many unqualified officials who went to build the Great Wall with their buttocks.In fact, the unearthed laws of the Qin Dynasty stipulated that if an official accepted a penny of bribes, he would tattoo to repair the city wall.Misappropriation of public funds in the government will be punished as theft.Even if you use the public horse to carry your own luggage (the public car is used privately), you will be sentenced to exile.Officials who bent the law for personal gain, concealed false reports, failed to implement central policies, neglected their duties, and used their power to do bad things would all be punished with various punishments including dismissal and exile. "Historical Records" clearly records that Qin Shihuang specially ordered a group of officials who tried criminal cases for personal gain and perverted the law and made unfair judgments to be assigned to repair the Great Wall. It can be seen that it is not easy to be an official in the Qin Dynasty.It is not easy to be an official, which is a sign of social and political maturity.If in a society, being an official is a very comfortable and risk-free thing, it is actually not a good society.It was with this meticulous legalist government that the Qin Dynasty achieved the great cause of defeating the six kingdoms, and in the following short fifteen years, completed such magnificent projects as the Great Wall, Chidao, the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, and Terracotta Warriors. The field misers from all over the Qin government domesticated fat and strong bulls, the agricultural misers carefully selected high-quality seeds (the germination rate of seeds is an indicator for examining him), and the responsible men used the manufacturing misers to create exquisite tools (tools Both have error detection standards), and finally made this dynasty proud of its agricultural achievements, which can supply Meng Tian with 400,000 troops galloping in the vast north for a long time, and 500,000 troops guarding and fighting in the vast south, as well as countless construction workers on construction sites. rations.In the end, the food accumulated by all kinds of stingers was piled up in famous large warehouses such as Ao Cang. It was not eaten up until the fall of the Qin Dynasty, and it continued to supply the world until the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. (It is said that the warehouse in Liyang is 20,000 shi per plot, and the warehouse in Xianyang is 100,000 shi per plot. One plot means a pile. The scale is huge, which shows the developed agricultural management level of the Qin people.) We have to pay sincere respect to this dynasty that was full of efficient management and superb rule of law 2,000 years ago. After being selected as an official, Liu Bang entered his probationary period, which is what he called "trying to be an official" in the history books.His trial site is on the Sishui Pavilion on the outskirts of Pei County.The kiosk is an ancient police station built next to the main road, one every ten miles, and the main duty of the kiosk chief is to arrest terrorists—thieves! Liu Bang served as the head of the pavilion, and he was in charge of two "soldiers": one was the father of the pavilion, who was in charge of cleaning, and belonged to the internal staff;Liu Bang's supervisor is Ting Shifu.If Liu Bang's "Ting Zhang" is equivalent to the director of the police station in a township, then his superior "Ting Shi Fu" is the chief of the police station in the county. Although there was no radar at that time, divination was possible.The fortune teller fiddled with some straw sticks, then raised his head, and told the policeman (Mr. Begging the Thief) which direction to go and on which day to act, so that the robber could be caught.Sometimes it can even be predicted that the robber is an old man missing a few teeth.This is obtained from an unearthed "Japanese Book". If the thieves caught by Liu Bang hadn't changed the fate of the thieves catcher, Liu Bang's future career might have stayed at the level of Yi Jie Ting Shifu (the chief of the county police) at the highest level. One day, Liu Bang escorted a group of reform-through-labor prisoners to Lishan (to repair the mausoleum for Qin Shihuang) with his own begging robbers.These reform-through-labour prisoners have a complex composition. According to my estimation, among them are ordinary people who broke the law (such as cattle thieves who stole cattle), some "dead people" who had evaded military service or labor service, and some reactionary academic authorities who gathered to discuss "Poetry" and , and the breeder who accidentally did not complete the assessment task.In short, a bunch of poor people. These people walked out of Peixian County and entered the neighboring Fengxian County area. Some martial arts masters among them felt uncomfortable going to Lishan Mountain, so they used lightness kung fu and fled.There may be only two or three of Liu Bang's begging robbers, and they can't be caught at all.As the team drifted away, fewer and fewer reform-through-labour prisoners ran away.Liu Bang reckoned that by the time we got to Lishan Mountain in Shaanxi, I and the three beggars might be the only ones left, so how could I ask the Emperor Qin?Why don't I tie up with the three begging thieves and go directly to Lishan to repair the mausoleum. Liu Bang was very politically ambitious, and it was not his fault, it was because some people at the time fooled him so that he had to do so.Liu Bang often drank in the bar opened by Mrs. Wang, but as a probationary police official, he had no money at all, so he resorted to a trick commonly used by some undecent officials at that time, deliberately pretending to touch his pocket, Shouted: "Oh, I forgot to bring money! Let's count together at the end of the year!" Ms. Wang had been prepared for a long time, came over and said with a sneer: You are a new policeman, why did you lie and say that you forgot to bring the money after drinking?The old policemen would throw the bottle after drinking! Only then did Liu Bang blushed and admitted that he was a new policeman with a shallow career and still in probationary period.So Mrs. Wang said: Since we are new policemen, let's settle accounts together at the end of the year. Unexpectedly, several times, Liu Bangyi drank too much when he was happy, and lay down and fell asleep.Wang Lao saw that there was a yellow dragon snoring like thunder lying on top of this guy.What's even more strange is that on such a day, there are extraordinarily many customers, and the sales are several times that of other days.Ms. Wang felt that if the old Huanglong sent someone to bring Liu Bang the wine money, at the end of the year, there would be no more talk about asking for his money.Therefore, Liu Bang drank Wang's wine for nothing for a long time.It was the same in the tavern of a man called a warrior woman. Another time, an old man saw Liu Bang's daughter-in-law, that is, Lu Zhi, working in the farmland, so he exclaimed: "Wow! This little lady is the face of the world's nobles!" He also looked at Liu Bang's two children—— The two little guys are helping their mother to manure the crops in the field: "Wow! These two are the lives of noble people! A princess and an emperor!" Lv Zhi took the two children and didn't have the heart to use manure, so he ran back to report to Liu Bang.As soon as Liu Bang heard this, he immediately went to catch up with the old man and asked, "Mr. Consultant, would you please take another look at my humble appearance?" The old man stared, took a look, screamed, and vomited three catties of blood: "Wow, don't scare me! The wife and child just now are the appearance of a king, as for you, you are even more precious!" After hearing these words, Liu Bang had lofty ideals from then on, and he often secretly laughed, became more optimistic, and was extremely happy about the future.People who are in a good mood and have lofty ideals are usually very humorous: when Liu Bang was the head of the pavilion in Surabaya, he often had fun with the officials in the county—that is, "insulting"—presumably he put his arms around their necks and pressed them Forced them to call father on the desk, Sima Qian said that he did this to every official, reflecting Liu Bang's happy and confident mood. People with lofty ideals don't care about ordinary gains and losses.Liu Bang saw that all the reform-through-labour prisoners had run away halfway this time, so he simply gathered them together and treated everyone to a hearty meal with public funds.The thief asked him: "Mr. Pavilion Chief, this entanglement is used for two thousand miles, and you have eaten it all?" "It doesn't matter, we'll break up after we've eaten up. You, you, and you, you fellow laborers, don't need to be reformed through labor, so why don't I quit my job as an official, and you all get separated too!" Go, and I will pass away from now on!) Among them, ten strong men felt that Liu Bang had the demeanor of a gangster, and they all said, "Fourth brother, we will not leave. Seeing that you are so open-minded, benevolent and loving, it is really hard to find a second in the rivers and lakes. We Be your little brother." "But how can I feed you guys who are crazy about eating?" "The nearby Mangshan Dangshan is a stretch of land, rich in luster and rocks, let us follow you up the mountain!" So, the benevolent and loving Liu Bang got drunk and took the ten brothers to the direction of Mount Mangdang to become a bandit, a promising career. They walked to the edge of a swamp, and suddenly a big snake came in the way. The brothers turned pale with fright, and asked to back up.Liu Bang said: "Don't reverse the car - a strong man is on the road, there is no fear! Let me go and watch." After finishing speaking, he pressed the bronze sword in his waist, which was the only weapon of these ten people, and stretched his head forward go. I saw a huge white snake coiled in the middle of the road, spraying its core, practicing qigong facing the space.Taking advantage of his drunkenness, Liu Bang drew out the sword in his waist, and heard the roar of the tiger and the dragon chant, he swung the sword away, but saw the white light shining on the stars, and immediately cut the white snake in two.The blood of the snake sprang up and wet the robes of these God's chosen people. The snake blood also fell on people's lips. When they licked it, the taste was like the fate of this group of people. It was a little sweet and a little bitter.The brothers all shouted together: "It's so awesome, it's so cool!" Since then, Comrade Liu Bang, former director of the Sishuiting Probationary Police Station in Peixian County, broke away from the organizational relationship and embarked on an extraordinary road full of grass and thorns.This is the story of Gao Zu's snake-killing uprising.This white snake represents the Qin emperor in the west. Li Zicheng once complained in his proclamation of war against the Ming Dynasty: "The emperor is not too bad, but he is always deceived. All the ministers form cliques for personal gain, and few are just and loyal. The fat of the people is squeezed by this group of gangster bureaucrats." Once it’s done, all the money will go into the private pockets of these bureaucratic groups.” What Li Zicheng opposed was these dark bureaucratic groups. But the situation of the Qin Dynasty was different.Officials at all levels of the Qin Dynasty were trembling and acted in accordance with their duties. They were restrained by various assessment indicators, and there were no scenes of rampant corrupt officials.From the side view, the official administration of the Qin Dynasty is still good.For example, Liu Bang, as the head of the police station, went to two taverns opened by Wang Yu and Wu Fu to drink.He drank wine for a year, but he dared not say that he would not give him money——Later, it was Mrs. Wang and the others who saw him possessed by a yellow dragon, so they took the initiative not to accept his money.From the perspective of the tavern owner, the director of the police station has some real power, but Liu Bang dare not renege on his debt.It can be seen that the officials at that time did not dare to take advantage of the situation to oppress others and take free food for free. Liu Bang escorted the reform-through-labor prisoners to Lishan, and a few escaped in the middle. He knew that the law was strict and there was no room for accommodation, so he had to kill himself and voluntarily escaped from his job. It stands to reason that the emperor always turned a blind eye to his bureaucratic team, but Qin Shihuang was extremely strict with his team. He once sent a group of officials who criticized the case to repair the Great Wall. This is probably unique in ancient times. matter. Under such strict requirements, we have reason to believe that the Qin Dynasty’s official governance was quite good, and the officials should not dare to intercept the wealth collected from the localities and remitted to the central government, or make additional exploits under clever names.The wealth that the Qin government plundered from the people went directly to the high end of the central government.In addition to the personal consumption of the supreme ruler, a large amount of this wealth was invested in wars to open up territories and empire expansion. From the perspective of long time and space history, it is a great thing for the Qin Empire to rule the world and make great achievements.After all, he has done something by collecting money. In contrast, future generations such as Hou Fangyu of the Ming Dynasty said: "The people of the Ming Dynasty added taxes, soldiers, punishments, labor, floods, droughts and plagues, and officials. Invasion and fishing are added, and tyrannical annexation is added. The common people are one, and those who add are seven." The common people are exploited, and what do they do with the money they scrape out?In fact, it is not as good as the old Qin can be used for expansion and construction. The large amount of wealth that the Ming Dynasty collected from the common people was stuffed into the private pockets of corrupt officials such as Liu Jin.The soldiers and food and salaries of the Ming government army were not enough at all.The foreign achievements of the huge government of the Ming Dynasty are not as good as the empire of the old Qin Dynasty with 30 million people.The money collected by the Ming government from private extortion was used to support the luxurious life of these parasites. However, it is not good to be too "clean and honest". Emperor Qin had just tried imperial autocracy and had no experience. Centrifugal force occurs.When the world was in chaos later, the officials of the Qin Dynasty in various counties and counties often became the main force and initiators of the anti-Qin—for example, Liu Bang and his colleagues Xiao He, Cao Shen, etc., and even the magistrates of the counties where Liu Bang worked. in this way.Therefore, the emperors of later generations learned how to behave. Between the masses of the people and the bureaucrats, they only provoke one group. With the bureaucrats supporting and protecting themselves, even if they encounter such a vigorous movement as the Yellow Turban Uprising and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they can pass the bureaucrats. They suppressed it. The later emperors used both Confucianism and Legalism. While using the strict assessment of the Legalists to control the officials, they also emphasized "benevolence, righteousness and morality", that is, turning a blind eye to the officials and allowing them to present a "big area". "Low corruption" only requires them to be loyal and abide by the morals under the so-called officialdom system, and their performance and integrity, law-abiding and ability are second.So the bureaucracy was tied to the emperor.