Qin Official

"I...I really can't climb anymore."

Although Mount Tai is not very high, it is tantamount to a kind of torture for a fat man weighing more than 200 kilograms to climb from the foot of the mountain to the top. Zhang Cang shouted that he could not do it before he reached the halfway point of the mountain.

Hei Fu was in front, turned back and pointed at him, laughing and scolding: "Everyone in your entourage is honored to be able to climb Mount Tai with His Majesty and witness the ceremony of the Emperor's conferment of Zen. Only you, Zhang Zihu, turned pale when he heard that you were among them." Sour and bitter.”

Zhang Cang rolled his eyes: "I think His Majesty thinks that I always like to say in his ears, 'Heaven moves in its order, not for Yao to survive, not for Jie to perish', and he deliberately wants me to come up and suffer. If I had known this, I wouldn't have It would be great to mix in the disputes among the scholars and ask your Majesty to make me wait at the foot of the mountain and read the book carefully on the couch."

Today is August 15th, the day when Mount Tai is enshrined in Zen. The ceremony is carried out in two steps. The first is "enclosing", which refers to building an altar of earth on Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to heaven and repay heaven for the merits. It should be held on the top of Mount Tai. .

Qin Shihuang had planned to enshrine the Zen as early as a year ago, so he asked Jibei and Xuejun to build roads in the south and north of the mountain, and transformed the past trails into two paths, one on the sunny slope and one on the southern slope, that could accommodate chariots.

A side effect of this large-scale project was that the tigers roaming around Mount Tai were frightened and fled, and were hunted by the government. One albino tiger was even captured and presented to the emperor as an auspicious sign.

Since the time of Confucius, the wild people who have been hiding in the mountains and forests of Mount Tai all year round, escaping from the "harsh government that is more fierce than tigers", have no choice but to risk their lives and dig deeper into the hills.

Of course, Xue County and Jibei County would not let the impoverished barbarians who suddenly ran out disturb the emperor's conferment ceremony. They searched the mountains many times and tried to make sure that no one was left behind.

Early in the morning, Qin Shihuang abandoned a group of Confucian scholars and took important officials to climb the mountain from Yangpo. He was sitting on the chariot himself, and was carried by more than a dozen guards in turn at the front. It was as easy as taking a cable car to a scenic spot in later generations, and he could also look at the surrounding scenery. But it was a hardship for the ministers, no matter they were old or young, fat or thin, they all had to walk on two legs.

Everyone rode the carriage and walked four or five miles, climbed over the threshold-like cliff "Tianmen Creek", and arrived at Zhongling. Next, the road turned into stone steps made of stone slabs, with a total of more than 7,000 steps, leading to the top. This is the largest project in Xue County in the past few years. Although it was criticized by the Yin and Yang alchemists for destroying Feng Shui, it made it much easier for the emperor to climb mountains.

It was already noon, the autumn sun was shining on Mount Tai, the heavy fog on the top of the mountain had dissipated, and the slippery stone steps had dried up a lot. It was a good time to climb to the top.

Hei Fu pointed to the front and said to Zhang Cang: "Prime Ministers Li and Wang, and Ye Tingwei, are already over sixty years old, but they still insist on following His Majesty with a cane, not to mention that you and I are in our prime. ? Get up quickly, do you still want me to carry you?"

"Come on." Zhang Cang shamelessly stretched out his hand as if his butt was stuck to the stone slab: "As long as you can move your back!"

"You fat guy..."

The emperor's chariot was already far ahead. Hei Fu waved and asked two Lang Wei to help Zhang Cang and forcefully carry him up.

As a result, when they reached the top of the mountain, Zhang Cang recovered, but the two Lang Wei were exhausted.

Hei Fu couldn't help but laugh at him and said: "Hey, I'm carrying Zhang Cang to climb the mountain, I'm wearing three armors, I'm wielding a two-stone crossbow, I'm carrying fifty arrows, I'm putting it on top of the gun, I'm wearing a crown and a sword, I'm going to win three days' worth of food. And traveling hundreds of miles is even more tiring.”

It is already afternoon now, because it has just entered autumn, so we can't see the scenery of Cangshan Mountain covered with snow and the bright sky to the south. We can only see that the mountain is more rocky and less soil; the stone is gray and black, many square meters and few circles. There are fewer miscellaneous trees and more pine trees. The pine trees struggle to survive in the cracks in the rocks.

There are neither magnificent waterfalls nor traces of birds and animals. In short, it's just an ordinary scenery.

When Heifu looked back again, he found that the scenery at the bottom of the mountain seemed to be better. The evening sun shone on the palace, and the Wenshui and Cuulai were picturesque. The mid-mountain that he had just passed was covered with mist again, like a dancing streamer.

In front, Qin Shihuang, wearing a Xuanduan crown, has got off the chariot and is looking at the scenery up and down Mount Tai with his hands behind his hands. His face is serious and he doesn't know what he is thinking.

What followed was a hurried but orderly ceremony. According to the process that Feng Chang had rehearsed several times, Qin Shihuang and his ministers all wore grand ceremonial attires. Heifu and others wore leather bows on their heads and wore huts to assist the emperor in shooting cattle. etiquette and dedicate three prisons.

Then came the more complicated ceremony of conferring land. Because the bad ideas of the Confucian scholars were rejected, the etiquette procedure was the same as that of worshiping the Emperor of Heaven in the suburbs of Xianyang. Qin Shihuang took the wooden shovel presented by the courtesy officer and did it himself, while the officials were helping.

Everyone worked very hard, especially Heifu, an old farmer who was praised by the emperor.

They looked like the leaders who personally went to the mountains to plant trees on Arbor Day, but their loose attire was really hard to work with.

Finally, the sealed earth was one foot or two feet wide and nine feet high. Qin Shihuang also buried a jade ultimatum written by himself in it. The content of the book is secret and no one knows because it is a private conversation between Qin Shihuang and God.

All the ministers looked solemn, followed the emperor, and under the orders of the ceremony officials, bowed down to the emperor again and again, and the ceremony was completed.

But for a moment, Heifu was curious.

"What is written in the jade decree buried under the seal? Is it a strict decree, or is it the emperor's innermost thoughts?"

Just when he suppressed his curiosity and was about to witness the second task of "standing stone inscriptions", the fifth doctor next to him, Qin Gongsun Ying, who was slightly younger than Heifu, raised his head and let out a sigh.

"Young Master Zao, look, why is the sky cloudy?"

Heifu immediately raised his head, and then he realized that in the sky where the clouds were white and the sun was shining just now, a large cloud of gloomy clouds floated in from the east...

…

"Look, look at the top of Mount Tai!"

When the Zen ceremony on the mountain was being held, although the Confucian scholars at the foot of the mountain shouted that the emperor was self-willed, they were always paying attention to every move above.

At this moment, seeing the sudden change in the sky, many Confucian scholars who were resentful because Qin Shihuang did not use them began to shout.

"Counting the time, I have just completed the ceremony of sealing the land." The Confucian of the Lezheng clan lowered his head and pinched his fingers.

"The success was achieved in the sky, but the result was covered with dark clouds. What does this mean?" At this time, the Confucian of the Qidiao family suddenly became open-minded and eager to learn, and asked questions while looking around.

"I think a shower is coming next. Your Majesty and the ministers will probably get wet." Confucius of the Zhang family gloated.

"Do you still remember what Confucius said! Mount Tai is not as good as Lin Fanghu? Is Mount Tai not as good as Lin Fanghu?" Someone remembered their discussion yesterday.

"That's right, Mount Tai has a spirit, and the sky has a feeling. He will never accept indecent sacrifices, nor will he accept... the conferment of a virtuous king."

The second half of the sentence is so fragile that no one dares to say it out loud.

But everyone's eyes are fixed on the dark clouds on the top of Mount Tai, and they are cheering for it deep in their hearts, hoping that it will get bigger and bigger, and then there will be an unprecedented heavy rain, which will completely destroy the Zen ceremony on the mountain and let the stubborn people use it. , the arrogant Qin Shi Huangdi was also soaked in water!

"Let him know that God is very clear and cannot be deceived!"

…

Gray clouds obscured the sun, and the huge projection swallowed up the light on the top of Mount Tai bit by bit.

Also swallowed up was Qin Shihuang’s good mood...

His tall body stood on the top of Mount Tai, looking up at the overcast clouds, his beard and hair trembling in the wind.

Qin Shihuang remembered what he wrote in the jade ultimatum buried in the seal:

"God bless the people, make you a king, and make you a teacher, but God is the one who restrains him and favors all directions."

"Yi Xiaozizheng, the first emperor of Qin, has brought peace to the world and is tireless in governing. He has slaughtered the country of the Xiongnu, stepped on the fortress of the Di and Qiang, and is based in the city of Qiongdu, connected to the wall west of the river. He is no closer than the battle of ten months, and is not far away from the two seasons. After all the hard work, we have plowed its courtyards and swept its huts, and the counties and counties have set them up, and the clouds have swept over them, so that there will be no more disasters for our descendants."

"Now that foreign troubles have been eliminated, I want to cultivate internal affairs, work hard and sleep nightly, and build long-term benefits. Practicing Zen, one world, will make people's hearts return to Qin, the country will be in the same wind, the nine states will be in the same line, and look to the sky..."

The dialogue between the emperor and the sky is like a son holding a report card and reporting to his father. Ultimately, the emperor wanted to show his proud work to heaven:

"Look, who can be better than me in the past and present? Have you ever had such a good son?"

But who would have expected, the result would be like this. The weather was fine at first, but suddenly it became cloudy and stormy.

In the dark, it seemed that there really was some supreme being controlling the changes in the situation, teasing Qin Shihuang, and ignoring his edicts.

Yin and Shang regarded heaven as their father, and Zhou people also respected heaven. Qin also inherited Yin and Zhou's beliefs. In the past few years, whether they were Confucian scholars, alchemists or shamans, they all repeatedly told the emperor: "The sky is bright and cannot be deceived. The wind and rain change in the four seasons. This is the emperor's punishment for the king's fault, just like the clear warning of a strict father."

The average son, when his father makes a bad face, will be frightened, at a loss, and even kneel down to admit his mistake.

The son is wrong, the son corrects it, the son never dares to do it again!

But Qin Shihuang was different.

The flames of anger burned in the eyes of this mortal emperor who wanted to live forever!

At this moment, Qin Shihuang even wanted to ignore it, let Tai'a's sword out of its sheath, then raise the sword and directly question the vast sky!

"God, why are you dissatisfied with what I have done!?"