Qin Official

Under the Qin system, if a county produces a lot of iron, it will be assigned an iron official, who is responsible for drum casting. If its county does not produce iron, it will be assigned a small iron official.

Beidi County originally had only a small iron official and no iron mines mined by the government. However, with the discovery of the Yiju Iron Mine in Niyang County, Heifu proposed setting up an iron official here to mine iron, smelt it, and forge weapons nearby.

This suggestion was approved by the Prime Minister's Palace and the Shaofu Palace, and Zhang Ping, a junior official in the Shaofu Palace, was sent to assist Heifu with hundreds of craftsmen and thousands of prisoners.

In the late afternoon of the 28th year of Qin Shihuang (the fifth lunar month), Zhang Ping arrived in Yiqu County and met Hei Fu.

Zhang Ping is Zhang Han's younger brother. He is the same age as Heifu and even older than him. However, when he was in Xianyang, Zhang Han asked Zhang Ping's brother to work with Heifu and took him to Heifu's house for banquets several times. The two of them also Considered familiar.

After exchanging pleasantries, Zhang Ping told Hei Fu two big news.

First, the construction of the palace in Guanzhong was temporarily suspended. Zhang Han was ordered to go to Shangjun to supervise the construction of a newly launched major project: the straight road!

This happened half a year ago, and Heifu already knew it. Zhang Ping told him that the first phase of the straight road project had been successfully completed.

Zhang Ping said: "There is a road from Xianyang to Fushi, but from Fushi to Yunzhong, which belonged to Qin and Zhao in the past, the road was blocked. More than ten years ago, Yunzhong belonged to the Queen of Qin, and there was also a direct road. It was very inconvenient for carriages and horses to travel between the two places, so Your Majesty asked my brother to go to Fu Shi, garrison 100,000 soldiers and prisoners, and use the military road under the Great Wall during the reign of King Qin Zhao to widen the roadbed, cut mountains and valleys, and build a road to the north."

"Your Majesty and the Young Master are pressing hard. My brother can only ask people to supervise the construction day and night. It will be completed in half a year. It is seven or eight hundred miles from Fushi to Beihe, and two thousand prisoners have died from exhaustion..."

This is just the beginning of the huge straight road project. The road built by Zhang Han is only a narrow road that can accommodate two horses running parallel. It is far from the standard expected by Qin Shihuang. I am afraid that more manpower and material resources will be spent to continue to widen it from County roads were turned into "highways" to facilitate the rapid dispatch of troops in the future.

Heifu understood Qin Shihuang's intention in doing this: "In any case, Shangjun and Yunzhong are the main battlefields for fighting against the Xiongnu, while my main army's Beidi and Longxi where Li Xin is located are just flanks..."

It can be said that the day when the straight road is fully opened to traffic will be the time when the Qin Dynasty uses force against the Xiongnu!

The four counties, the four guards and the lieutenants generally have a cooperative relationship, but secretly, there is also competition. Who doesn't want to show his ability in this war and in front of the emperor?

So while Heifu was urging Northland to prepare for war, he was also paying attention to the movements of the other three counties.

Zhang Ping told Heifu the second big news:

"Your Majesty canceled the east tour this year and changed it to the north tour. When I came to Beidi County, the imperial driver had already left Baqiao in the east and planned to cross the river from Puban to Hedong and Taiyuan!"

…

Zhang Ping talked endlessly about the chaos in Xianyang court at the beginning of spring over where the emperor would go on his next tour. Hei Fu also listened with interest. It seemed that he missed a lot of good things while he was away in Xianyang. Although Nei Shiteng also mentioned it in a letter, Zhang Ping did not give it in detail.

Zhang Ping said: "Doctor Zhou Qingchen said that at that time, the land of Qin was only a thousand miles away, and it was thanks to your Majesty's divine power that the sea was pacified. With the princes as prefectures and counties, everyone would live in peace and contentment without the danger of war. It has been passed down to the ages. Since ancient times, it has not been as powerful as your Majesty." Virtue. Since ancient times, emperors have been appointed to the throne, but they have never granted Zen? Your Majesty should patrol the counties eastward and grant the title of Mount Tai and Zen Liangfu..."

How can a black man not know the thoughts of a Confucian scholar? It is generally believed that the granting of Zen status originated from Shun and Yu, and some say it originated from Fu Xi. However, after Shun and Yu, no one granted Zen status. Duke Huan of Qi once had such an idea, but was dissuaded by Guan Zhong.

The Confucians are the most enthusiastic about enshrining Zen, because they are people who are engaged in etiquette and are the most proficient in these ancient rituals and music. Moreover, both Taishan and Liangfu were in Guandong Lu, which is the base camp of Confucianism.

He persuaded the First Emperor of Qin to grant Zen status, which was tantamount to peddling the Confucian theory of "emperors are ordered to grant Zen status" in disguise. As long as the emperor accepted it, Confucianism would gain a foothold in the important matter of "sacrifice" for the country.

Doctors and Confucian scholars all supported Feng Chan, especially Shusun Tong, the "doctor waiting for the imperial edict" whom Heifu knew, who was the most active.

If Qin Shihuang in the past thought that his virtues surpassed those of the Three Emperors and his achievements surpassed those of the Five Emperors, he would definitely do this thing that would greatly satisfy his vanity. However, what Confucian Doctors did not expect was that Qin Shihuang rejected this proposal...

"Although I am within the same sea, I have not yet expelled the barbarians and driven the land into desolation. Is it too early to enshrine Zen at this time?"

"When the sun and moon illuminate all the land of the Qin Dynasty, and the barbarians, Rong and Di are all subdued, it will not be too late for me to grant me the title of Zen again!"

Therefore, the matter of becoming a Zen can only be given up.

"Next are the alchemists of Yan and Qi, who also urge your Majesty to patrol eastward."

The Yanqi alchemists were a group of people recruited to Xianyang after the unification of Qin, including Lu Sheng, Han Zhong, Hou Sheng, etc. The famous Xu Fu had not yet come.

They saw that Qin Shihuang was obsessed with the art of immortality and believed in destiny, so they went along with it. The saying "Xianyang Palace is like the purple star, and the Wei River is like the Milky Way" was their fault. Large-scale construction projects waste people and money, and are of little use to future generations. In history, if Xiang Yu caught fire, all of this would be reduced to ashes.

Heifu did not jump out to quarrel with them, because he knew that although these people were strange and eccentric people, they also had some unexplainable abilities, which were similar to magic. It was easy to fool people. The key was that the emperor believed This set...

His method was to encourage the traditional shamans of the Qin State to let these declining and almost extinct local sages stand up and lobby Qin Shihuang about the Queen Mother of the West and the Kunlun Ruins.

These legends are supported by the detailed "Biography of Emperor Mu". Compared with the fairy mountains in the East China Sea blown by the alchemists, they sound more real. Although they categorically said that King Yan Zhao had been there, King Yan Zhao was not as good as King Mu of Zhou. Longevity is not very convincing.

Therefore, Qin Shihuang now prefers to open up new territories first and look for the Queen Mother of the West by the way. He is much less interested in the fairy mountains of the East China Sea.

Seeing that the emperor rewarded Lao Wuya with a lot of gold but refused to give it to them, how could the alchemists be willing to accept it? Together, they thought it was because the emperor visited the west and saw the scenery in the west. They believed that if the emperor went to the east and saw the vast sea in Zhifu (fu) and Langya, he would definitely change his mind and have thoughts about overseas fairy islands again.

So the alchemists spoke like lotuses, and Han Zhong, who was good at "gaining qi", even said that the golden light shining in the Si water recently may be the reappearance of the great cauldron lost when King Yan of the Song Dynasty destroyed the country...

But even so, it could not shake the emperor's yearning for the Queen Mother of the West, and he was determined to postpone his eastward patrol of the seaside.

Although the Eastern Tour was cancelled, the emperor was a man who couldn't rest. By chance, the road from Yunzhong to Fushi was also open. Since he plans to use troops against the Xiongnu after the straight road is repaired next year, out of concern for national policy, the emperor will of course make a trip north to see Taiyuan, Yanmen, Yunzhong, and Shangjun where he has never set foot.

This was something Heifu never expected. Historically, Qin Shihuang did go to the east in this year. He traveled eastward to counties, went to Mount Tai to engage in Buddhist rituals, looked at the overseas fairy islands by the sea, looked for the lost Zhou Ding in Surabaya, and then went to Nanjun Dongting to go crazy. Cut down all the trees in Xiangshan Mountain... By the way, it seems that he was assassinated by a certain restorationist in Bolangsha? (This happened in the 29th year, Heifu remembered it wrong)

But now, all the above historical events have disappeared! Or it was postponed because Qin Shihuang changed his schedule!

History came to a sudden stop in front of Heifu, and then suddenly turned a corner. Although the general direction has not changed, the scenery on the roadside may be very different from the original!

"The butterfly effect. In this case, my time traveler's foresight of historical events will be greatly reduced?"

…

While Heifu was thinking about the pros and cons of this matter, Chen Ping and his party had already left the foothills of Helan Mountain and trekked for more than a month along the east side of the north-flowing river, passing by the areas of Aiyang and Loufan.

In Chen Ping's eyes, within these hundreds of miles, the scenery once again changed dramatically. The green grass of Helan grassland gradually turned into dry swamps, rocky beaches covered with wormwood, and finally, at the bend of the river, there appeared A stretch of rolling sand dunes, with the strong wind blowing, the yellow sand flows slowly...

"Is this the 'quicksand' that people in the Central Plains talk about?"

As a mainlander, Chen Ping had never seen a desert before and couldn't help but be surprised.

As night fell, the travelers set up camp on the edge of the desert, dug stoves to cook, lit the dried cow dung and poplar branches they carried, and lit up a lonely smoke. Nearby, the surging river is surging, and the western afterglow is blood red and falling slowly. The whole world seems to have a broad and rough beauty.

Chen Ping couldn't help but sigh: "If I hadn't asked the county captain to let me go with him, I wonder if Chen Ping would have been able to see such a scenery in his life?"

In this situation, Chen Ping felt like he had something to say, but he couldn't find the right words.

If Heifu were here, he would definitely recite, "The solitary smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun is setting in the long river" to impress Chen Ping.

It's a pity he's not here.

U Thiyan could understand Chen Ping's mood. When he and his brother saw the desert outside the Great Wall for the first time, he stood there and marveled at the wonders of heaven and earth.

He walked to Chen Ping, pointed to the endless desert and said: "Kujie Sand, this piece of quicksand is called Kujie Sand by the Huns. It means 'string on the bow', because it is located at the bend of the river, east and west. Continuous, always in the river, like a string hanging on a long river bow!"

"The people in the Central Plains call this area: Shuofang!"

Genius website address:. Mobile version reading URL: m.