After learning Heifu's identity, Yan Zhen no longer regarded him as an ordinary prince, and became enthusiastic, and asked the vertical man to welcome the brothers into the study and give each of them a puff mat. Then, with the support of the slave and maid, he got up and squinted at the bookshelves on the three walls.

After a while, he placed six bamboo rolls covered in cloth on the low table, stroked his beard and said:

"Although there are many Qin laws, as a pavilion chief, his responsibilities are mainly to maintain road safety and arrest thieves, so he must be familiar with the six articles of "Thief Law", "Thief Law", "Arrest Law", "Prison Law", "Miscellaneous Law" and "Gu Law", which are these six volumes."

According to his words, Hefu picked them up one by one and saw that they were indeed these six laws.

Yan Zhen's speech became slower: "In these six articles, the government of the king, don't be in a hurry with thieves, so its law begins with "Thieves" and "Thieves". Thieves must be impeached and arrested, so he wrote two articles, "Prisoner" and "Arrest". Its cunning, overstepping, playful, fake, incorruptible, extravagant, and over-the-top are regarded as "Miscellaneous Laws", and "Laws" are added or subtracted. ”

After explaining it, Heifu probably understood that these six laws were the basis of Qin's laws, including all common crimes and their punishments, and they were also things that the pavilion chief had to memorize.

"Yan Zhang is really familiar with the law......

Heifu complimented Yan Zhen and asked, "I don't know these six laws, but they are the latest?" ”

Yan Zhen touched his beard and smiled: "This is natural, it was all newly copied in the first month of last year (October)." ”

It turns out that in the Qin State, the law is not unchanged for a hundred years, and Shang Ying made it clear back then: If the world is not governed together, the country does not need to be ancient! Therefore, Qin Lu will make up for profits and losses every few years.

But in this case, the problem arises again, the law is often easier, but there is no modern means of dissemination, and it can only rely on manual copying of the law. However, the language of these rules is so concise that sometimes the meaning of a single word can be very different if you make a mistake. Furthermore, if the law has changed, but the people below do not know it, and they are still using the old law, and there is a conflict, wouldn't it be bad?

In order to avoid this situation, from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty reform, a special "judge" was set up to keep and check the law, as well as to provide legal advice. Xianyang has three judges, one in the court, one in the Imperial History Mansion and one in the Prime Minister's Mansion. There is also one for each county, and Xi used to be a county judge for a while. Of course, the qualifications of this Yan Zhen in front of him are even older.

Every year, the laws and regulations changed in Xianyang must be stored in the "forbidden room", and the door is usually locked, and no one is allowed to enter or leave. All the decrees were sealed, and anyone who trespassed or deleted a word was punished with death.

The Forbidden Room is only opened once a year in October, when the Imperial Historian's Office summons judges from all over the country to check the letter of the law and return to the local government with the new decree to convey the spirit of the central government to all levels of government......

Although Yan Zhen retired from old age, he still got the latest laws every year because he had also been a teacher in the school, and his students would inform him of the latest situation.

These Qin officials have been working on the Fa all their lives, and in the end, the Fa has become a part of their lives. Even if he retired, people in the township would often come to consult him, which was also the reason why Yan Zhen had a high reputation in the local area.

Speaking of this, Yan Zhen seemed to think of something again, and he didn't bother to get up, so he pointed Heifu to the bookshelf and took down the two bamboo slips placed at the top.

Heifu took it in his hand and looked at it, it said "Chuan Shi" and "Xingshu", what does this have to do with the pavilion chief?

Yan Zhen explained: "As the pavilion chief, you don't just have to hunt down thieves, there are always guest houses and post posts in the pavilion, so you must learn the "Law of Passing Food" and "The Law of Writing". ”

The so-called "Law of Passing on Food" is aimed at the guest house, and the law that meals should be provided according to the previous official status and title, and Heifu has stayed in the guest house, so he understands.

As for the "Xingshu Law", it is mainly the Qin State's provisions on the transmission of documents.

You know, Qin's postal system is already quite strong. In addition to the fact that government documents must be delivered on time, ordinary soldiers thousands of miles away can send letters accurately to their homes by bothering the help of pen and knife clerks! The family can also hand over clothes, money and belongings to the postman of the Qin State and send them to the front line along the same route, which is more than 200 BC, which is really scary.

And the Huyang Pavilion that Heifu is going to happen to be a big pavilion with both a guest house and a post post, maybe the main official Peng will also test him.

"It's still Yan Zhang's thoughtfulness for me......

Heifu hurriedly bowed to Yan Chen, and then, what tireless, virtuous, and respectful, spring breeze and rain, came out of his mouth, and Yan Zhen was very happy to hear it. suddenly felt that this young man could be recruited as a pavilion chief at the age of 18, not for nothing, and the compliments made him itch.

He waved his hand happily and said, "You said that you can read and write, so very good, and copy these eight volumes of laws here, and then take them back and recite them proficiently, if you have any doubts, just come and ask me in the plaque." ”

"If I can pass the assessment and become the pavilion chief, I will never forget Yan Zhang, I will definitely inform everyone in the county that Yan Jun in the plaque is my mentor......" As he spoke, Heifu made a big salute to Yan Chen, and Yan Zhen also responded with a smile.

The relationship between teachers and students in the Qin State is far less important than that of later generations, but they are all understanding people, since everyone has their own needs, they can all benefit from this matter, why not do it?

……

After Heifu finished worshipping his teacher, Yan Zhen became a little tired, yawned and said that he wanted to take a nap, and asked the vertical man to take the Heifu brothers to a guest room next door.

After seeing the master talking and laughing with Heifu, the vertical man actually recognized this student, and his attitude towards them suddenly changed greatly, not only piling up smiling faces throughout the whole process, but also taking the initiative to find pens, ink, and sharpening for Heifu, and asked Heifu, do you need bamboo slips?

"How can this make ......" Heifu excused himself: "I have prepared the bamboo slips myself, how dare I defile the good slips of the Yan Zhang's family."

Then the erector stepped back and closed the door.

At this time, the whole process was silently shocked, and then he covered his stomach and laughed: "Brother Zhong, look at that upright face, what a villain!" ”

"Do you remember?" Heifu took out the wooden basket that his sister-in-law had helped him sharpen from the bamboo basket he was carrying, and spread it out on the table.

"Remember what?" Stunned, dazed.

"Remember this person's former and backward respects, remember the change in Yan Zhang's attitude towards me, and then think about it, why is this?" Throwing the question out of surprise, Hefu picked up the brush beside him.

Some people say that the brush was invented by Meng Tian, but it turns out that this is just a rumor. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius had already "the pen is the pen, and the sharpening is sharpening", and in this era, the use of brushes is more common.

As for ink, there was no such thing as ink that could be dissolved by dipping it in water, but some natural minerals with considerable hardness, which needed to be crushed with a grinding stone on an inkstone made of mussel shells, tiles or stones, and then added with a little water to write.

Hei Furang came over to help him study the ink, and then on the wooden slabs that were not rough or completely smooth, he began to transcribe them stroke by stroke, starting from "The Law of Thieves...... In fact, there are only twenty or thirty bamboo slips in each volume, concise and to the point, the number of words is not much, but the writing speed is really not fast, sometimes encountering words that cannot be written, it is even slower, in case of copying mistakes, it has to be scraped off with a knife, according to this speed, today he copied until the sun sets, at most he can copy four volumes.

When the elder brother was copying the decree, he tilted his head while studying the ink, thinking about the question his brother had just asked, and before he could think about it for a while, there was a whisper of conversation outside.

"I just want to see who Ah Weng's newly recruited disciple is."

Next, the door that was hidden suddenly opened a crack......

A girl with knotted hair poked her head in, looked at the two people in the room curiously, but saw that although she was not very beautiful, she had fair skin, clean hair, neat teeth, and was wearing a two-color skirt, which was very different from the village girl in the Jingchai cloth skirt she saw on weekdays.

Heifu was concentrating on copying the boring slips, and he didn't care at all.

Surprised, he raised his head and looked at the girl, stunned......