At dusk on this day, in the Anlu County Official Temple and the main hall of the county prison, Anlu County Cheng finally finished his day's work and raised his head from the pile of slips.

"Coming back so soon?"

The county was overjoyed, and hurriedly dressed up, and planned to go out to greet him in person.

In the Qin system, the county takes the county order as the prefect, governs the county temple, and the copper seal is black ribbon and the rank is 600 stones. The county is the deputy official, governed in the county prison, and has a copper seal of yellow ribbon and a rank of 400 stones.

The duty of the county magistrate is to assist the county magistrate in the management of government affairs, which is equivalent to the deputy county magistrate and the president of the court in later generations. And the prison is only a subordinate official in charge of litigation and prison under the county, which is equivalent to the president of the court, as a boss, there is really no need to greet him in person.

However, Anlu County Cheng knew very well that this "Xi" was not comparable to ordinary subordinates, this person had been a clerk and commander in Anlu County for many years, and was known as a capable person, and later he was transferred to neighboring Yan County as a prison officer, responsible for legal answers and legal enforcement, and his reputation for impartial law enforcement even came back to Anlulai.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of King Qin, he participated in the battle of Qin to attack Zhao, defended Pingyang, made contributions, and never rose to the fifth level of "doctor", of course, this doctor is not the same concept as the doctor in the Spring and Autumn Period, but just a medium title that is not high. Subsequently, Xi was transferred back to Anlu County, where public security was extremely poor, and he was imprisoned, hoping that he could restrain lawlessness.

In the past few years, although he has worked diligently and has not had a single unjust case in his hands, there are no outstanding deeds, so Anlu County Cheng also treated him as an ordinary subordinate at the beginning.

Until July this year, Xi's mother died of illness and returned to her hometown for burial. For more than two months, without Xi's assistance, the county was stunned to find that his work was more than three times heavier than before! Other subordinate officials did not manage prisons, sealed medical examinations, and made letters, and there were many mistakes.

It's right to think about it, looking at the entire Anlu County, where can you find a follower like Xi, who can copy the entire Qin Law stroke by stroke, and memorize it backwards?

Anlu County Cheng woke up, it turned out that Xi was his right-hand man in governing Anlu Prison, but he couldn't be lazy.

After going out, the county leader saw Xi's figure from afar, and laughed and said: "Ben Cheng is finally here!" ”

"How dare the subordinates let the county greet me, it's really killing me."

Xi was born in the forty-fifth year of King Qin Zhao, Chinese New Year's Eve is six years old today, with dark hair and a crown, two sagittal mustaches on his lips, wearing narrow sleeves and deep clothes, and the standard dress of a scribe.

The county general was happy to help him up, and found that he was still the same, and there was often a roll of bamboo slips in his clothes, so that it was convenient to eat and read during the ride, and his fingers were always stained with ink, who knows how many laws he had to copy in a day?

"Xijun really hasn't changed at all." The county sighed in his heart.

The two returned to the hall hand in hand, and the county Cheng sighed at the funeral of Xi's family, but Xi had already come out of the pain of losing his mother. This workaholic did not say more greetings to his boss, but went straight to the point, talked about the case he encountered when passing through Huyang Pavilion today, and asked the county Cheng, who should be responsible?

The county man frowned, this matter involves a pavilion chief who knows the law and violates the law, which is a bit tricky, plus he has been busy with the case for the past two months, and he can't wait to come back to share some work, so he stroked his beard and said: "Since it is a case that Jun encountered on the way, that Shiwu Heifu also reported to Jun, so Jun will try it, how about it?" ”

"Joy will never shirk!"

Xi this person has no hobbies, but he has a soft spot for adjudicating cases and copying Qin law, and any difficult case can be easily solved. He has not been in contact with the prison for more than two months, and Xi feels uncomfortable, he is like a rusty steel knife, and he urgently needs a case to sharpen it.

However, removing the identity of the pavilion chief's official, the case encountered today is not complicated, and he has a plan for how to try it, so he asked the county for instructions:

"In my opinion, the case can be divided into two. First, Shang Jia Bao sued for robbery. Second, it is a case of Shiwu Heifu and Ji Ying suing the chief of the Huyang Pavilion and begging for theft...... Only when the crime of theft in the previous case is determined and the execution is carried out, can the subsequent case be tried. ”

Similar to lawsuits in later generations, there is a fixed process for litigation and trial in the Qin State, and if a case wants to enter this process, someone must first denounce it before it can be used as the beginning of a trial. If the victim denounces it himself, it is a "self-confession", which is equivalent to the "plaintiff" in later generations.

Xi also said that now the three thieves have been tied up in the county jail, and a doctor has been arranged to treat the injured thieves and stop the bleeding. The self-confessors and defendants of the two cases were also brought back by him, and the case will be officially opened soon!

"Xijun is really resolute, you do things, I can rest assured." The county was very satisfied, so he became the shopkeeper with peace of mind, and let Xi make his own choice......

……

After saying goodbye to the county, he hurried to his office without stopping, and his two subordinates, the commander "Fu" and the jailer "Le", had been waiting here for a long time.

It was also a coincidence that his subordinates were named, and he often said to Nu that if he found someone called "Mourning" to do the paperwork, their small official office would have made up the four emotions of "Joy, Anger, Sorrow and Happiness".

Xi didn't have time to laugh, he wrote on the case "sealed diagnosis", that is, the trial principles and procedures of the case, and said: "You should know that before the interrogation begins, you must first determine the name, identity, and place of origin of the criminal and the self-indicator. ”

The two nodded: "It's natural." ”

Xi then arranged: "Angry, your face is fierce and terrifying, so you are responsible for asking the three thieves and intimidating them a little." ”

"Le, you have a good face and a good voice, so you are responsible for questioning the three self-informants, so that they should not panic and wait for the interrogation with peace of mind."

Nu Hele hurriedly said yes, since they knew that their boss had returned, they understood that their hard days of working overtime had come again, but fortunately, this prison Pengxi had rich experience in handling cases, and they all knew what kind of people to use and what methods to use.

"As for the Huyang Pavilion Chief and the thief and others......"

Xi stopped his pen, raised his head, and said coldly: "As the pavilion chief, but he knows the law and violates the law, it can be seen that he is a bold and reckless person, I heard that he still has some background in the family, and I am afraid that you will not be able to cope with it, so let me go and meet him in person." “

Nu and Le only agreed, saying that they would do these things early tomorrow morning.

"Tomorrow morning?"

Xi shook his head and said, "It seems that this official has not been in the past two months, and you have been slacking off a lot." ”

He stood up and began to instruct the two: "As early as when Shang Jun changed the law, he demanded that the government must complete the official affairs of the day and not delay overnight!" ”

Angry and Le's scalps are numb, and the person that the boss admires the most is Shang Jun, who likes to emulate everything and will say it.

Sure enough, Xi pointed his finger upwards and quoted a sentence from Shang Ying.

"Shang Jun said, the king who rules by the sun, the strong who governs by the night, and the cuts who govern by the night!"

A country that can handle all government affairs on the same day will be crowned king in the world; Delay until the night is over, and the country can be strong; But if it drags on overnight and does it again tomorrow, such a country will be weakened!

He said earnestly: "Although we local officials dare not say that what they have done can help the king of the world, they do not dare to say that they can make the Qin State strong. But at the very least, our slackness should not weaken the country......"

Anger and Le looked at each other, isn't it just overtime, how can it be related to national affairs?

In fact, there is another sentence that Xi did not say clearly.

He had already heard that the head of the Huyang Pavilion who committed the crime was actually the nephew of the county Zuowei (deputy director of the Public Security Bureau)!

The Qin State system, the right and left second lieutenants in large counties, the main collection of thieves, military service. Zuo Wei is the fourth largest official in Anlu County, ranking above Xi, and the reason why the county Cheng handed over this case to Xi Lai for trial is that he is afraid of making enemies with Zuo Wei.

Zuo Wei's family has a very good background in Anlu County, and they have a wide range of guests, if they can't handle this case quickly, I am afraid that there will be many dreams at night, giving people room for favoritism and fraud!

Thinking so, Xi picked up the pen on the case, sharpened it, and strode out.

"You don't have to wait until tomorrow, Nu, Le, you and the others will go out with me immediately and interrogate them overnight!"