"Of course I know!"

Henry was not being formal at this moment. He saluted in the middle of the dusty road and shouted loudly, "I have been wronged, and I hope Doctor will uphold justice!"

After a while, the bamboo curtain of the carriage was slowly lifted, revealing a hand holding a bamboo scroll and the face of a middle-aged man. He wore a tied crown and a deep robe, with two arrow-shaped thick mustaches above his lips and brocade shoes on his feet. He truly looked like a refined and cultured official.

The clerk glanced at Henry and slowly asked, "What grievance do you have? Speak."

Henry said, "I am on my way to the county to serve as a soldier. Last night, I stayed at the inn with Doctor. This morning, I set out with my companions, and on the road, we encountered bandits robbing and killing merchants. We stepped forward to stop them, captured three of the bandits, and were about to take them to the county to hand over to the authorities, but who would have thought..."

At this moment, the Captain and others also arrived at the center of the road. Henry pointed at him and said, "Who would have thought that the local Huyang Captain wanted to seize the bandits and claim the credit for himself!"

After saying this, Henry's heart was pounding. He only hoped that he had not bet wrong, and that the official Doctor before him was a good magistrate who could distinguish right from wrong!

"May the superior official investigate clearly!"

The Huyang Captain was extremely flustered. He recognized the Doctor before him and hurriedly knelt down, bowing repeatedly: "This subordinate was only following procedure by asking a few questions, and had no intention of stealing credit or deceiving for reward! This soldier is making a false accusation!"

The two sides argued endlessly, but the Doctor in the carriage was not in a hurry. He held the bamboo scroll in one hand, stroked his mustache with the other, and his gaze shifted back and forth between Henry and Captain. He also looked at the others present, as well as the three bandits who were tightly bound, and quickly made up his mind.

"To determine who is telling the truth, you all escort the suspects and follow me to the county. Then it will be clear."

Finally, he revealed his identity: "This case falls under my jurisdiction. I am the prison officer of Anlu County, Jack!"

Chapter 0007 Jack

At dusk that day, in the government office of Anlu County, inside the main hall of the county prison, the county deputy of Anlu finally finished a day's work. He lifted his head from the mountain of documents, and as he was rubbing his sore neck, a minor official at the door reported that the prison officer Jack had returned.

"So soon?"

The Deputy was overjoyed and quickly straightened his clothes, actually intending to go out personally to greet him.

According to the Qin system, the county magistrate was the chief official of the county, governing from the county office, with a bronze seal and black ribbon, and a rank of six hundred bushels. The county deputy was the second-in-command, managing from the county prison, with a bronze seal and yellow ribbon, and a rank of four hundred bushels.

The Deputy's duty was to assist the county magistrate in managing government affairs, roughly equivalent to a modern deputy county head and court president. The prison officer was merely a subordinate official under the Deputy, in charge of litigation and criminal cases, similar to a court director. As a superior, there was really no need to greet him personally.

But the Anlu Deputy knew very well that this "Jack" was no ordinary subordinate. He had served as a clerk and magistrate in Anlu County for many years, known for his competence. Later, he was transferred to the neighboring Yan County as a prison officer, responsible for legal consultation and enforcement, and his reputation for impartial law enforcement even spread back to Anlu.

In the fifteenth year of King Zheng of Qin, Jack put down his pen and joined the army, participating in Qin's campaign against Zhao and garrisoning Pingyang, where he earned merit and was promoted from "commoner" to the fifth rank of "大夫". Of course, this Doctor was not the same as the "大夫" of the Spring and Autumn period, but merely a middling rank. Afterwards, Jack was transferred back by the Grand Administrator of Nanjun to serve as prison officer in the notoriously lawless Anlu County, in hopes that he could bring order.

Over the years, although Jack worked diligently and not a single wrongful case occurred under his hand, there were also no particularly outstanding achievements. So at first, the Anlu Deputy regarded him as an ordinary subordinate.

Until this July, when Jack's mother passed away and Jack returned home for burial and mourning. In the more than two months without Jack's assistance, the Deputy was shocked to find that his own workload had more than tripled! The other subordinates handling the prison, sealing and diagnosis, and legal documents were not as thorough as Jack, and many mistakes occurred.

Thinking about it, it made sense. In all of Anlu County, where else could one find someone like Jack, who could copy the entire Qin Code character by character and recite it backwards from memory?

The Anlu Deputy realized that Jack was truly his right-hand man in managing the county's criminal affairs and could not be neglected.

After going out, the Deputy saw Jack from afar and laughed heartily: "I have finally awaited your return!"

"How could a subordinate dare let the Deputy greet me in person? It is truly more than I deserve."

Jack was born in the forty-fifth year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin and was thirty-six years old this year. His hair was black and tied up, with two arrow-shaped mustaches above his lips, dressed in a narrow-sleeved deep robe—the standard attire of a clerk. Seeing the Deputy come to greet him, he quickly bowed and said he dared not accept such honor.

The Deputy helped Jack up and found that he was still the same as ever, always carrying a bamboo scroll inside his clothes for convenient reading while eating or riding, and his fingers were always stained with ink—who knew how many laws and decrees he copied each day?

"Jack, you really haven't changed a bit," the Deputy thought to himself.

The two returned to the hall together. The Deputy expressed his condolences for Jack's family loss, but Jack had long since recovered from the grief of losing his mother. This workaholic did not engage in much small talk with his superior, but got straight to the point, discussing the case he encountered at Huyang Pavilion today and asking the Deputy who should be responsible for it.