To the south of Qinghe Town, there is a big mountain called Funiu Mountain.

There is a river called the White River at the foot of Funiu Mountain.

Funiu Mountain is a branch of the Qinling Mountains, the watershed of the Huai River and the Han River, and the Baihe River is a tributary of the middle reaches of the Han River.

The county seat of Pheasant County is located on the bank of the clear and rippling White River.

Pheasant County may not be very clear to later generations, because it was changed to Xiangcheng in the Tang Dynasty, and was changed to Nanzhao County in the Ming Dynasty, and then continued to be used until New China.

Pheasant County is the gateway to the north of Nanyang County, known as the north choke Ruluo, the south control Jingxiang, has always been a place for soldiers.

Nanyang is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, surrounded by mountains on three sides, only the south is a flat river directly to Xiangyang, the terrain is flat and the agriculture is developed, and the grain produced can almost feed most of the Qin country, even after two thousand years, it is still the main grain producing area in China.

The county seat of Pheasant County is not large, the radius is only ten miles, and like other cities of the same era, it is surrounded by a city wall about two zhang high, the city wall is made of rammed earth, and there are arrow towers and towers on it, but both the city walls and towers look dilapidated, and many places have even collapsed.

The situation in the city is not very good, except for the two main roads that crisscross and lead directly to the four city gates, all the private houses and buildings in it are mainly thatched houses, but there are also many wooden houses and stone houses, of course, the roof is still thatched, these houses are densely packed to form many small streets criss-crossed, the number is not less than 3,000 households, the streets and alleys are full of people, cattle, horseback, carts, burdens, bustling and loud noise, more than Qinghe Town is more than 100 times more prosperous.

There is a bluestone building in the center of the city, although the appearance is rough, but it is like standing out from the crowd facing the city gate in the south, it looks very eye-catching, there is a large plaque three feet high and five feet wide hanging above the gate, there are four large seal characters written on it in black lacquer, it looks full of thick and majestic atmosphere.

This house is the county government of Pheasant County.

The county order, the county commander and the county lieutenant all work in the county office, and in the official system of the Qin Dynasty, the county commander is the head of a county, in charge of the county's government affairs, and the central government is unified and appointed.

At this time, in the lobby of the county office, a middle-aged scribe was kneeling in front of the low case and looking at a roll of bamboo slips that had just been delivered, and the county lieutenant and the county magistrate were standing quietly next to them at this time.

If Chen Xu was here, he would definitely be able to recognize this middle-aged scribe as the one who bought his big snake in Qinghe Town a few days ago.

The middle-aged scribe's name is Jiangbei Ting, which is the new county order that the blacksmith Gu Shan said in his mouth, and it has only been three or four days since he arrived in Pheasant County to become the county commander.

But before he sat down on his ass and the situation in the county had not yet been clarified, he was made sad by an urgent letter sent from the Nanyang County Government.

"Liu Xiancheng and Fang County Lieutenant have come to take a look, how should we deal with this matter!" After reading it, Jiang Beiting handed the bamboo slip in his hand to the county next to him.

The county man is more than forty years old, with a long black face and beard, wearing a black bamboo crown, looking quite old and serious, he took a few pieces of bamboo slips and wrote the official document and handed it to the county lieutenant after reading it, and waited for the county lieutenant to read it and returned it to the county order before he stroked his beard and said: "Lord Jiang, the subordinates of the Chi Road that built Xianyang directly through Nanjun and Changsha have long heard of it, but I heard that it has not yet been out of Shangluo, why do you suddenly want to repair the road from Nanyang to Jiangling in Nanjun, and now it is the time of summer wheat harvesting, the consequences are unimaginable......"

The county lieutenant also nodded hurriedly and said: "Lord Jiang, what Liu Xiancheng said is good, now is the time of harvest, you must not use large-scale servants to build roads, once you miss the harvest of summer grain, tens of thousands of people in Pheasant County will be starving, and the old and young and weak people will definitely not survive this year's cold winter, so please think twice!" ”

Jiangbei Pavilion held the bamboo slip, and his brows slowly condensed into a Sichuan character.

The construction of Qinchu Avenue from Xianyang to the southeast was something he had heard in Xianyang a few years ago.

Four years ago, he was still a small official in the Xianyang Internal History Mansion, when the Great Qin had just destroyed the Chu State, there was news from the court, Prime Minister Li Si proposed to build the Qin Chu Road, in addition to allowing the King of Qin to tour the southeast, but also to strengthen the connection between Xianyang and the old Chu places, keep the government decrees unimpeded, so that no one rebelled and remained in the dark.

Li Si's proposal naturally hit the hands of Qin Shi Huang, and after the destruction of Great Chu, the strength of Qin and the confidence of Qin King have exploded, and the remaining Yan and Qi countries have almost become his pocket, so Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of Qin Chu Chi Road from Xianyang to Shangluo, Nanyang, Xiangyang, Jiangling, and Linxiang.

Although Qin Shi Huang's plan was good, but it was too hasty, although the Chu State was destroyed, but the Chu people were not dead, a large number of Chu people did not want to serve Qin, and the Qin law was harsh, so a large number of hungry people and wandering soldiers gathered into bandits in the territory of Chu State, occupying the mountains for the king to rob the house, and the army of Qin State was transferred to attack Yan State and Qi State, one in the south and one in the north, although the Qin army was strong, it was far away from water and could not quench the thirst of the near, resulting in the planned Qin-Chu Avenue almost stopped after being built from Xianyang to Shangluo.

A few months ago, the Qi State surrendered, the Qi kings and nobles were all moved to Xianyang, and the world was returned to one King Qin ascended the throne as the first emperor.

The small officials and ordinary people in Pheasant County may not know these news, but Jiangbei Pavilion, who has just come from Xianyang, knows it very clearly.

The reason why it is necessary to build a large-scale Chi Road from Nanyang to Jiangling is because Wang Ben's army captured nearly 30,000 official slaves and 100,000 Qi soldiers from Qi State, all of these officials and slaves are nobles and wealthy families involved in Qi State bureaucrats, among which there are many civilians, who were forcibly driven to build the Chi Road from Shangluo to Nanyang, because this Chi Road is all in the inaccessible mountains, the road is rugged and treacherous, as for the life and death of slaves, no one cares, anyway, they are all Qi kings and nobles, it is good to die, so as not to rebel in the future, And more than 100,000 soldiers were sent to the northwest desert to build the Great Wall, and naturally no one cared about life or death.

Once Shangluo and Nanyang are connected, then Xianyang's control can easily penetrate into the territory of Old Chu, and it is not surprising that now the Nanyang County Guard has notified the subordinate counties to recruit people to build the Chi Road from Nanyang to Jiangling.

Moreover, Jiangbei Pavilion believes that the officials of Nanjun and Changsha County should also receive almost the same orders as themselves, His Majesty the First Emperor and Prime Minister Li Si have long been unable to hold back, and this time they will build this Qinchuchi Road in a very short period of time.

Xianyang City and the county guard can't help but listen to the orders, but as a Jiangbei Pavilion who has been in the Inner History Mansion for a few years, he knows the importance of food in this era, and the county lieutenant is right, once the summer grain harvest is missed, maybe half of the people in Pheasant County will starve to death this year, and the situation in other places will not be better than Pheasant County.

Could it be that His Majesty the Emperor is going to starve all the people of Chu to death to prevent future troubles?