Is Cheng Miao still alive? At noon the next day, when Heifu arrived in Yunyang County with his subordinate Dong Fei and several Lang Wei, he received a positive reply from the prison Peng Cao: not only is he alive, but he is also alive and well.

Cao Zhi was the brother-in-law of Sima Xin, a jailer in Xianyang South City, who knew Dong Fei, and as soon as he heard that Heifu had come to inspect on the emperor's order, he immediately respectfully invited him to the county prison.

"Cheng Miao, a subordinate minister, is working outside, and his subordinates are allowed to send someone to bring him back......"

Heifu looked at this small county prison, the layout was somewhat similar to An Lu's, giving him a sense of familiarity, and he turned around and said, "How long will it take?" ”

"Half an hour back and forth, I hope the officials will wait for ......"

Let people serve soup to Heifu to quench his thirst, and the county Cheng accompanied Heifu to chat awkwardly, while Cao Ji retreated outside the hall and asked his acquaintance Dong Peng in a low voice: "Your Majesty wants to see Cheng Miao?" ”

Dong Fei shook his head.

Cao Yao's face changed: "Your Majesty wants to kill Cheng Miao?" ”

Dong Fei still shook his head: "Zhonglang Hu Ling said that His Majesty ordered him to come and see what Cheng Miao was doing, as for whether he saw it or killed, Zhong Lang Hu Ling didn't say it, and I didn't dare to speculate on the emperor's heart." ”

Cao Ji just breathed a sigh of relief, but Heifu called him to the court again and asked about Cheng Miao's deeds.

"What year was Cheng Miao imprisoned and what crime did he commit?"

Cao Ji hurriedly said: "Official, Cheng Miao has been in prison for ten years, and the crime is Fan Yuzhi's rebellion, Cheng Miao was recommended by him as a prison official, and entered the palace as a lang. When Fan Yuzhi defected, Cheng Miao did not confess his guilt, but defended Fan Yuzhi, and His Majesty was furious, sentenced him to be a subordinate, and sent him to Yunyang to serve his sentence......"

"I see."

Heifu suddenly realized that Qin allowed officials to recommend others as officials, but once the recommendation was successful, the sponsor and the recommended person were tied together. If the person being lifted commits a crime, the host will sit together because of improper recommendation, and vice versa. More than ten years ago, Lü Buwei and Chang Yu fell, and their guests who were officials in the court were almost swept away.

Qin Shi Huang hated betrayal the most, Fan Yu served as a Zhonglang general, and many times went out to conquer the city, for Qin to make great contributions, but after being defeated by Li Mu, he chose to defect, the emperor was of course extremely angry, with a thousand catties of gold, the reward of the Yi family to capture Fan Yuzhi.

Cheng Miao did not draw a clear line in time, but defended him, and it was good that he was not executed.

However, the person who can make Qin Shi Huang remember it for ten years will never be so simple.

Heifu asked again: "What kind of labor has he done in Yunyang in the past ten years?" ”

Qin did not support idlers, and forced criminals sentenced to prison to work if they were able to work. Even if a prisoner is sentenced to death, he has to work in exchange for food before he dies.

So in the state of Qin, prisoners and vassals can be regarded as synonymous.

Cao Ji glanced at the county and replied honestly: "Although Cheng Miao is a subordinate, because of the saying in "Sikong Law", the subordinate minister has a chance to be a worker, don't think of him as a servant, a raiser, and a city. Cheng Maung was familiar with the law and could write well, so the government did not send him to work as a coolie, but worked under Ling Shi to assist in the arrest of criminals. Except for the fact that there is no money, and they have to live in a prison after returning every night, the rest are no different from ordinary officials, deducting food and clothing, and they can get four yuan for each official business......"

Heifu smiled: "So, what you said about Cheng Miao working outside, in fact, he followed Ling Shi to handle the case?" ”

The county Cheng's face was not very good-looking, and he glared at Cao Ji, who also wiped his sweat and responded: "Only, that's exactly the case." ”

Let Cheng Miao serve a light sentence is his idea to the county Cheng, although it makes sense in law, but if His Majesty becomes angry, they will also be affected.

"It's good to have a specialty."

Heifu secretly said that this appearance is lucky, and the treatment he enjoys now is probably similar to that of Song Jiang who was assigned to Jiangzhou in the Water Margin, as long as he doesn't write anti-poems and die, it will not be a problem to live in such a mess.

But on what basis was this person remembered by Qin Shi Huang? Before Heifu came, he asked some of Qin Shi Huang's former close ministers, and they said that when Cheng Miao was a councilor, he was ordered by the emperor to revise the Qin script, but unfortunately he committed a crime later, and the matter was over......

This time the emperor sent Heifu to visit the prison, or it had something to do with it.

At this time, Cao Ji also said that the little money that Cheng Miao got every time he went out was used to buy pen and ink and slips, and whenever he had spare time, he always worked hard in prison......

Heifu became interested, and didn't want to wait for Cheng Miao to come back, so he asked Cao Ji to take him to Cheng Maung's residence in prison to have a look.

After entering Yunyang Prison, Heifu found that the prison here was also divided into three, five, nine and so on.

The most inferior was the one where Cheng Dan lived, there were no bedding, no windows, just some moldy straw on the ground, and ten people were crammed into a small area, and there was a foul smell inside.

The medium is the room of the prisoners such as the ghost salary, the white can, the Si Kou, and the chong, although the food is poor, the bedding is damp, and it can be accommodated, and there are five people in a room - there is a very interesting thing that Chungmi used to be a heavy punishment alongside Chengdan, and in recent years, stepping on the rice and water mill have become popular in the world, and Chungmi is not so tired, so it has become a medium punishment.

The best place is located on the second floor of the prison, except that the door is locked from the outside and the windows are railed, which is not much different from ordinary houses......

"Officer, this is Cheng Miao's residence."

Heifu opened his mouth slightly, what kind of cell is this, it's clearly a calligraphy exhibition room! But I saw that the mottled walls on three sides were covered with slips full of dense black characters, and there were hundreds of them.

"These are ......"

Cao Ji said with a smile: "It was Cheng Maung who wrote it in the past ten years, and he used the money given for each official case to buy pen and ink books, and there was nothing wrong with the book, so we did not interfere." ”

After carefully bypassing the horizontal slips on the ground, Heifu approached the wall and took a closer look, which was not written as an anti-poem, but "The Way of the Officials" that every Qin official had to recite.

"Whoever is a ruler must be pure and upright, prudent and steadfast, selfless in judgment, meticulous and meticulous, quiet and not harsh, and judge ...... reward and punishment."

After just one glance, he immediately noticed that the fonts on these slips were quite different from what he saw in daily life!

It is not the most common Qin seal, although the Qin seal has been improved from the complex seal of the Zhou Dynasty, but it still retains some of the habits of the golden text, such as rounding and turning, horizontal and vertical, the thickness is basically the same, and it must be written slowly.

It's not the Six Kingdoms scripts of different shapes such as Wei and Chu that Heifu has seen.

"It's a bit like the shorthand style of the clerk of the southern county when recording the case......

Later generations dug up the Qin Jian, basically this kind of shorthand font, officials often subconsciously simplified the seal, reduce the strokes, and the glyph was also changed to square flat.

No, the font in front of me has become more thorough than the shorthand style of the small seal, almost every word has been simplified, the circle is square, and the arc is straight.

That's right.

Heifu was a little excited, because he saw a font here that had been handed down to future generations, not an ancient seal character that he felt unfamiliar no matter how he learned it.

"It's ......"

"Lishu!"

"Thank you for the name!"

Just as Heifu blurted out these two words, a middle-aged man wearing a prisoner's ochre suit and gray hair also appeared at the door, he looked at the room full of ten years of hard work, and sighed:

"Lishu, Lishu, Liren Shu; Lishu, Lishu, and also Zuo Seal Book can't catch it! Good name!"

After speaking, he bowed heavily to Heifu: "Cheng Miao's ten years of books are all here, even if Your Majesty wants to give me death, Cheng Miao can end up with a smile!" ”

"Cheng Jun's words are serious."

Heifu walked over to support Cheng Miao, and at the same time looked at the other two walls, there were some comparison tables of seal characters and official scripts, four thousand seal characters, almost all of which corresponded to one by one, thoughtfully.

I understand in my heart why Qin Shi Huang has never forgotten Cheng Maung, which may be related to a national policy that the emperor intends to implement recently!

"The car is on the same track, the book is the same!"

This time, the emperor moved to Lin Guang Palace, but he brought Li Si, Zhao Gao, and Hu Wujing, the three major calligraphers, and sent him to see Cheng Miao, and the purpose was very obvious.

"Why don't I take advantage of this and do that?"

An idea that has been hidden in Heifu's heart for a long time, under the temptation of the full house of Lishu, can no longer be held back at this moment......