On the way back to the palace, Ying Zheng called Lu Buwei to his side and rode horses side by side.
"Father Zhong, I named the newly built palace 'Gucheng Palace'." Ying Zheng said.
"Gucheng Palace..." Lu Buwei whispered, "it seems to have more charm than the name of Xianyang Palace."
"Do Lu Wen and Lu Wu need help?" Ying Zheng asked.
"It's not necessary for the moment. If we are too busy, I can send someone else." Lu Buwei said, "By the way, Your Majesty, after I checked all night, I found out a few details."
"As expected." Ying Zheng said, "After all, there are more than 3,000 guests. It is not difficult to blend in."
Lu Buwei nodded and said: "I will continue to investigate. There should be some that are hidden deeper and have not been discovered."
"We also need to check other mansions. Not all the fine works are in Xiangfu's mansion." Ying Zheng said.
"Your Majesty is still thinking carefully. I will order someone to find out what's going on." Lu Buwei said.
"Don't make any noise and act in secret." Ying Zheng said, "In addition, the people sent by Father Zhong to various countries must also be careful. The spies they sent to Qin will definitely take the same action if they are purged."
Lu Buwei cupped his hands and said, "Old minister, I respect the king's orders."
"Father Zhong, I have one more thing to do," Ying Zheng said.
"Your Majesty, please speak." Lu Buwei said softly.
Ying Zheng looked a little worried and said: "In the days when I was kidnapped by the kidnappers, I was often forced to travel and rested in a cave at night. I heard from the robbers that when I was traveling, I encountered many tombs of the Zhou royal family. Because It is left unattended and is often visited by tomb robbers, but most of the tomb robbers never return because they are trapped in a trap."
"What does the king mean?..." Lu Buwei was speculating on what Ying Zheng meant by these words.
"What I mean is that I also want to build such a mausoleum for myself to prevent tomb robbers from invading, and it must be self-contained and large-scale." Ying Zheng said.
Lu Buwei said: "If the king really unifies the country in the future, then it will be a great achievement for thousands of years. No amount of tombs can be built too much."
"Although I am still young, I should prepare early." Ying Zheng said solemnly.
"The old minister started planning this matter. After measuring the feng shui, he started to design and construct it." Lu Buwei said.
"Don't worry, Father Zhong. I think we should first select some craftsmen who know how to build mausoleums and pottery and clay sculptures among the craftsmen who imitate Jiuding, and place them separately. I want to exchange opinions with them." Ying Zheng said.
Lu Buwei cupped his hands and said, "Yes, Your Majesty."
Lu Buwei was a little confused. He just wanted to find people who knew how to build mausoleums. Why should he choose craftsmen who knew how to make pottery and clay sculptures? However, Lu Buwei did not ask.
Ying Zheng's real purpose is to imitate the military warriors in King Wu's tomb. After all, it is still too early to talk about building a nine-story mausoleum. We must proceed step by step. What's more, the internal secrets of King Wu's tomb cannot be known to Lu Buwei for the time being. .
After entering the city gate, Lu Buwei rushed to the Lu Mansion, while Ying Zheng first went to the place where the ancient Cheng Palace was built to take a look.
Lu Wen and Lu Wu were busy, and when they saw Ying Zheng coming to visit, they all stepped forward to salute.
Ying Zheng knew nothing about building palaces, so he came to visit out of curiosity. After walking around for a while, he returned to the palace.
Just after noon, Lu Buwei sent ten craftsmen.
All the craftsmen came to Ying Zheng's study, knelt down and saluted Ying Zheng.
After Ying Zheng let all the craftsmen stand down, he asked: "Is there a foreman among you?"
The person standing at the front took a step forward and said respectfully: "Xiaomin is the foreman of these people."
"What's your name?" Ying Zheng asked.
"The common man's name is Jing Fan, and he is from the Chu State." said the foreman.
Ying Zheng nodded, looked at everyone again, and asked, "Aren't you all from Qin?"
Everyone told them where they were from.
Among the ten people, three were from Qin, and the rest were from every country.
Ying Zheng smiled and said sincerely: "In Great Qin, whether in the court or in the countryside, there are many people from other countries who choose to serve their master. I want you to become true people of Qin, are you willing? "
All the craftsmen were shocked.
They were recruited to the Qin State by Lu Buwei, and they originally came only for high rewards. There has been no news about Jiuding for nearly a year, and Lu Buwei has no intention of letting them go home. Considering that Jiuding is so mysterious, everyone has a premonition that Lu Buwei will silence them.
Now that I heard Ying Zheng say these words, I instinctively felt a certain amount of doubt in my heart.
Ying Zheng saw the doubts of the craftsmen from the expressions of everyone, and said: "What I mean is that you no longer need to return to Lu Mansion or be controlled by Lu Xiangbang. From now on, you will all serve me, okay? "
Jing Fan, the foreman, was thinking fast, rolling his eyes in a circle, and then he fell to the ground: "Jing Fan, a common man, is willing to obey the king's orders at any time."
When all the craftsmen saw that the foreman had knelt down, they all knelt down as well.
Ying Zheng smiled and helped Jing Fan up and said, "Get up, all of you. From now on, you will be the citizens of the Qin Kingdom. If you have wives, children, and children at home, I will send someone to pick them up and reunite you."
The craftsmen looked at Ying Zheng with burning eyes, and their hearts were filled with joy.
"The first thing I want you to do is to help me imitate a few pottery figurines." Ying Zheng said.
"May I ask, Your Majesty, what kind of pottery figurines are they?" Jing Fan asked.
After the experience of Jiuding, most craftsmen are no longer as quick to boast about imitations as before, and they feel a little less confident.
Ying Zheng did not answer Jing Fan's question directly. Instead, he pulled Li Si over and said, "This is my gentleman, his name is Li Si. From now on, he will arrange what you all have to do in the future."
Jing Fan cupped his hands and said, "Then Mr. Lao will be here."
"Brother Jing, you're welcome." Li Si said, "Then just let me go."
Li Si took the craftsmen to resign to Ying Zheng and left the palace.
Li Si took stock of a kiln outside the west city gate in advance. Li Si also placed the terracotta warriors here, and these craftsmen will be arranged here.
In fact, Ying Zheng wanted to do this in the previous wave, that is, the group of craftsmen who were building the Gu Cheng Palace, to get them out of Lu Buwei's control. Unfortunately, Lu Wen and Lu Wu had been supervising the work, so they had to wait until the project was completed.
After seeing off the craftsmen, Ying Zheng returned to the inner room of the study.
Opening the secret compartment, he took out the "Agricultural and Food Classic" and read it carefully.
There are some words in "Nong Liang Jing" that Ying Zheng can understand, but most of the words are different from Qin characters. Some of the incomprehensible characters are very similar to the character Qin, but relying solely on guessing is obviously not enough.
The reason for this situation is mainly due to the hundreds of years of division, which led to the writing of the Shang Dynasty or older gradually evolving into writing that has different regional characteristics in various countries and is spread locally on a small scale.
Qin writing is no exception. After hundreds of years of evolution, many characters unique to Qin have been formed, and what Ying Zheng learned was exactly the characters after this evolution, the "Agricultural and Food Classic" and the " The words in the Book of Changes are the true Chinese language.
The unification of words is imperative.
Because of the difference in writing, there will be differences in the inheritance of civilization. Countries cannot communicate normally with words. Over time, they will truly become several strange countries, and China will inevitably split.
Having made up his mind, Ying Zheng took out the upper part of the "Book of Changes" and tidied his desk.
Ying Zheng walked out and ordered Zhao Gao to get some silk.
Not long after, Zhao Gao handed two rolls of white silk to Ying Zheng.
Ying Zheng took the silk satin into the inner room, then opened it and spread the satin on the desk.
Ying Zheng wrote the words Qin, Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, Qi, Yan, and Zhou across the top of the silk. Then according to the order of pronunciation, all the characters of Qin were written vertically in the first row, that is, under the words marked Qin.
Ying Zheng wants to build a Chinese character library, so that no matter which country’s character corresponds to a character in the Book of Changes, he will find the corresponding Qin character based on the table of this character library, so as to understand how this character is written in each country. and the corresponding ancient symbols.
It seems cumbersome, but this is the only feasible solution at the moment.
This writing lasted two days. Apart from eating and sleeping, Ying Zheng was busy with this.
On this day, just after breakfast, Zhao Gao walked in from outside, cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I have seen that the king has been busy for two days. I wonder if there is anything I can do for you to relieve the king's worries. .”
Ying Zheng thought for a while and said: "I have sorted out all the characters in Qin these two days. They are sorted by pronunciation. There is still a small part that I have not finished. You can fill it in for me, and then check to see if there is anything missing. Text. Finally, write the row of Zhao Wen corresponding to the Qin Wen in front."
Zhao Gao cupped his hands and said, "I obey the king's orders."
The comparison with the "Book of Changes" has been completed. Now it is just a matter of improving the Chinese character library, so this work can only be completed by Zhao Gao.
At this time, a young eunuch came to the door from outside, raised his hands and said sharply: "Your Majesty, please see Princess Nansu."
"Oh? Invite me quickly." Ying Zheng said urgently.
Ying Zheng had not seen Princess Nansu for a few days. On the one hand, he missed her a little. On the other hand, Ying Zheng remembered that Princess Nansu had told her to send a message back to Chu State last time. He must have had some clues.
Princess Nansu walked into the outer door with graceful steps and bowed affectionately: "Nansu has met the king."
"Princess, there is no need to be polite." Ying Zheng stepped forward and helped Princess Nansu up.
Facing her future husband, Princess Nansu had a hint of shyness on her face and said softly: "Your Majesty, Nansu came here this time to report something."
"Let me guess what it is." Ying Zheng pretended to be thinking, "But did your father have any reply?"
Princess Nansu nodded and said, "Your Majesty's guess is correct. My father replied to the message."
"I wonder what King Chu said?" Ying Zheng asked.
"My father scolded the Wei State for its unjust acts and wanted to send troops to conquer the Wei State." Princess Nansu said, "Later I heard that the king had sent troops to conquer the Wei State, so I lost some of my anger."
Ying Zheng smiled and nodded. King Chu's reaction was as expected.
Princess Nansu continued: "My father also said that the Chu army will be ready to respond at the junction of Chu and Wei at any time. If Qin wins, the troops will not move; if Qin loses, troops will be sent to stop it. At the very least, the safety of Lord Chang'an must be ensured."
"That's fine." Ying Zheng said, "Princess, please wait here for me."
After saying that, Ying Zheng stood up and entered the inner room.
When he came out, Ying Zheng held a row of bamboo slips in his hand.
Ying Zheng sat next to Princess Nansu, unfolded the bamboo slips, pointed to the words on it and asked, "Can the princess read these words?"
Princess Nansu read it over and said, "Some can recognize it, but most of them can't."
"If you know which one you know, point it out to me." Ying Zheng said.
Princess Nansu pointed out the characters she knew, and they were all Chu characters.
Ying Zheng looked at Chu Wen circled by Princess Nansu, and suddenly thought of something, and shouted out the door: "Zhao Gao."
Zhao Gao entered the door and raised his hands and said: "Your Majesty, this servant is here."
"Come and take a look. Do you recognize this character?" Ying Zheng said seriously.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Zhao Gao walked up to Ying Zheng and looked at the word Ying Zheng pointed at.
"This..." Zhao Gao frowned and said, "It should be the character for 'horse'."
"Haha..." Princess Nansu couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.
"You, don't talk nonsense if you don't know." Ying Zheng was very happy when he saw Princess Nansu smiling, and teased Zhao Gaodao, "This is the word for 'deer', which is Chu Wen!"
"What the king has taught me is that in the future, slaves who don't understand will definitely stop talking nonsense." Zhao Gao said awkwardly.
Seeing Zhao Gao's expression, Ying Zheng and Princess Nansu laughed together.
Little did they know that Ying Zheng's move to tease Zhao Gao in order to make Princess Nansu laugh was misinterpreted by later generations, causing Zhao Gao to suffer eternal infamy.
