When the military battle reports from outside the Great Wall were rushed to Xianyang by Xinqi day and night, the capital of this majestic empire was immersed in joy.
In the eldest princess's mansion.
Ying Yinman lay lazily on the bed, with her silky hair hanging down, giving her a different kind of beauty in her casualness.
In her hand she held several pages of yellow paper filled with text. They were letters home written by a beloved man from beyond the Great Wall.
"Zhao Tuo can't change his habit of being glib. How can he write such shameful things on it? What if others see it?"
Ying Yinman's face turned red and he spat.
She raised her eyes and saw that there was no one else in the room, then she looked at the letter in her hand again.
Ying Yinman held these pages of letter paper tightly with both hands, as if they were the most precious treasures in the world. She read them again and again, with a smile on her face.
After a while, a wet nurse came to the door holding a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and whispered: "Princess, the baby is hungry."
"Well, come here."
Ying Yinman smiled.
She always remembered that Zhao Tuo once said that breastfed children will have a deeper relationship with their mothers and will be better at their growth and development.
So even though there were several wet nurses in the princess's residence, Ying Yinman still insisted on feeding her by herself.
She looked at the little baby in her arms, and at the small facial features that looked like Zhao Tuo, her eyes became particularly gentle.
"When you grow up, you should be like your father and be a hero who stands upright."
…
After the news of the Qin army's victory outside the Great Wall spread.
In Zuo Geng Shejian's house, several nobles were holding a gathering of old friends.
"Ahh! The general has won another great victory. I, Black Bottom, really want to follow the general to fight outside the Great Wall!"
In front of all his friends, the right concubine, who had long black buttocks, drank all the wine in his glass, beat his chest and stamped his feet, howled and cried.
Shejian, Zhongli Mei, Lu Wan and others saw this and rolled their eyes.
Li Shang was still young and came from a ranger background, so he said jokingly: "I heard that Brother Black Buttocks just took a concubine a few days ago. Now he drinks fine wine and eats delicious food all day long. He has a beautiful wife and concubine in his big house. My life is so enviable, why would I want to fight outside the Great Wall in the bitter cold?"
Black Butt glared at him and said: "What do you know! Do you think that these days of hugging beautiful women, drinking wine and eating meat are what Black Butt wants? Let me tell you, Black Butt is the happiest in my life. It was when I was still in my youth and followed the general to attack the State of Yan!"
"Although I was just a nobody at that time and didn't even have a title, I could live in a camp with the general and listen to the general's teachings every day. Thinking about it now, that was really the best thing in the world!"
"Shejian, do you think so? I still remember that you were so poor that you didn't even have a bedding. The general took pity on you and let you sleep under his bed."
Black Buttocks said, looking at Shibama in amusement.
Shejian's face remained normal, but his eyes were a little red, and he seemed to hear a vague voice of "I share the same robe with you" in his ears.
He said calmly: "Okay, the general has won a great victory in the Northern Expedition. This is something worthy of joy. We are gathered here to congratulate the general. Why do we need to say these words."
"We are all former generals, and now we hold the positions of lieutenants in the capital. Naturally, we cannot easily ask for war, so as not to prove what we say. You see, this time, in addition to Brother Zhao Guang escorting the soldiers to join the army as a county lieutenant, the West Qi, Bai Rong, Zhang He and others are all commanders and soldiers from other counties and have no chance to participate in the war. We are all the same, so there is nothing to complain about."
Black Butt curled his lips and said no more.
Instead, after Zhongli Mei drank a sip of wine, he asked Shejian a topic: "Brother Shejian, I heard that after the Chi Road leading to Longxi was successfully built, I now intend to build another road leading to the north to make it easier to go to Longxi." Transporting grain and soldiers to Beihu?"
Hearing this, everyone looked at Shejian.
They mainly served in the lieutenant and guard system, responsible for guarding the capital and the Qin Palace. In terms of information, they were not as well-informed as Shejian, who worked in the Taiwei Mansion.
She Jian thought for a while and realized that this matter was not considered a top secret. Many departments already knew about it, so he nodded and said: "It is true. This year, the general is going to conquer the Hu people. He will send out hundreds of thousands of troops, and he will need a lot of food and supplies." , and the roads along the way are either in the Gobi desert or through mountains and valleys, which are steep and difficult to travel, resulting in great transportation losses."
"The emperor intends to consolidate the defense line and immigrate to the border after regaining the northern Xinjiang. Therefore, he ordered the Taiwei and several ministers to discuss the construction of a highway through the mountains and valleys directly to the northern Xinjiang to facilitate subsequent military operations and immigration. Plan. The route of this avenue is still under discussion and has not yet been determined.”
Lu Wan praised: "The mountains and valleys lead directly to northern Xinjiang. The emperor has to do another big thing. Nowadays, apart from war, it is very difficult to achieve the meritorious service and promotion we want. The person in charge of building this highway It should be considered a great achievement, but I don’t know who built the road?”
Shejian shook his head and said: "We haven't decided yet, let's not talk about this anymore, let's have a drink and congratulate the general!"
"Okay, let's congratulate the general!"
Everyone raised their glasses and toasted to each other for the general's victory outside the Great Wall.
…
In the residence of Tingwei Li Si.
Li Si, who is over sixty this year, is sitting in the room with the table in front of him filled with golden oranges.
It is now the beginning of September in autumn, which is the season when his favorite oranges are ripe. Next to the oranges are filled with various kinds of dipping sauces and pasta, which look quite delicious.
But at this moment, Li Si had no intention of feasting.
He looked at Li Yu, who had just returned from the palace, and said seriously: "Has the eldest son given up admonishing the emperor?"
Li Yu nodded hurriedly and said: "I have conveyed my father's words to the eldest son. He feels that what his father said is that he is not ready to give any advice."
Hearing this, Li Si breathed a sigh of relief.
The incident originated from Yan and Qi Fang sorcerers from the east.
Yan and Qi are close to the sea. They are known as fairy islands in the sea and legends about the immortality of immortal gods have always been believed by people.
King Yan, King Qi, etc. were all loyal fans of this group of alchemists, and their influence is evident.
As the Qin Dynasty destroyed the six kingdoms, this group of Fang magicians were also recruited to Xianyang. Among them, the famous ones include Hou Sheng, Lu Sheng and others.
These people had their own means to please the king, and they recognized that the First Emperor longed for immortality and longed for immortals.
They often publicized mysterious things, and used some strange and confusing tricks that made it difficult for people to explain the truth, which made the First Emperor trust them quite a bit.
As the general leads the army to the expedition, and the palace of Qi in Weibei is about to come to an end.
Lu Sheng and others seized this opportunity and stood up to advise the emperor. They said that building a palace in Weinan would symbolize the Ziwei Yuan in the sky, and use the Wei River to correspond to the Milky Way in the sky. They could benchmark Xianyang and the Tiangong Palace, which would fulfill Qin's destiny and show the emperor's supremacy. Bit.
Qin Shihuang has always been fond of this, and he takes it for granted.
Before the construction of the palaces of the Six Kingdoms was completed, corvees were recruited again to overhaul a new palace in Guanzhong to symbolize the "Emperor Star" in the sky.
At the same time, because the Wei River corresponds to the Milky Way, he also wanted to expand the Fudao Cross Bridge built on the Wei River during the reign of King Zhaoxiang to resemble the Tianji Pavilion Road.
This is another major construction project.
Although Li Si knew that building these palaces would be of no benefit to the country, he knew more clearly that this was the will of the First Emperor.
Legalists have always respected the emperor.
After the unification of Qin, the imperial power reached its peak.
The emperor's will is everything.
Whatever the emperor says is what it is.
Not to mention that this matter is also related to the Tianji Emperor Star, which corresponds to sensitive things such as destiny. Li Si does not dare to speak on this matter.
In the Qin court, all the ministers were experienced veterans. Under such circumstances, they all kept silent and allowed the emperor to build his new palace.
If the ministers did not say anything, corvee service would start again, great construction projects would be carried out in Guanzhong, and Guizhou chiefs would be recruited from all over to serve.
Such a scene made Fusu, the eldest son, feel inappropriate.
Standing in the position of the eldest son of the Qin State, he felt that the empire was now using hundreds of thousands of troops to conquer the Hu people, and the various counties in the country were convening people to build Chidao, and at the same time they were also carrying out various unification projects, which had already made the people restless and the head of Guizhou was exhausted. , dying on the road can be described as miserable.
Moreover, the homeland of the Six Kingdoms was initially determined, and the people's hearts were unstable. Under such circumstances, the emperor had to carry out major civil engineering works. Building such a high-standard palace was not beneficial to the country, and completely harmed the interests of Qin.
Fusu believed that as the eldest son of Qin, he had the responsibility to dissuade his father when he made such a move.
But Fusu was reminded by Zhao Tuo that he was no longer so reckless. It would be difficult for him to negotiate without Zhao Tuo.
Li Yu, his wife's younger brother who often plays with him, takes another path.
Fusu informed Li Yu of his intention to remonstrate with the emperor, in order to obtain the opinions of his wife.
Li Si was shocked when he heard Li Yu's message.
His legitimate daughter married the eldest son, and they were Weng's son-in-law. The two were natural allies, and Li Si was naturally very attached to Fusu.
Li Si quickly conveyed many of his words through Li Yu and persuaded Fusu to come down.
He estimated that if Fusu really had the courage to persuade the emperor, he would probably be scolded and his weight in the emperor's heart would be reduced.
"The palaces of the Six Kingdoms have been renovated. It's not a big deal to build another Xin Palace. As long as the emperor likes it, there is no need to go and anger some common people."
Li Si thought to himself, he knew that Fusu was quite compassionate. If he stayed in Xianyang, he might have another conflict with the First Emperor in the future, which would be really troublesome.
When Li Yu saw his father's appearance, he rolled his eyes and made a rough guess.
He chuckled and said, "Father, I heard that the emperor wants to build a highway, leading all the way through the mountains and valleys to northern Xinjiang. This is a huge project, and there will be meritorious deeds after it is completed."
"But our Qin clan cannot be a member unless it has military merit. Although the eldest son has been crowned, he has no merit to speak of."
"It is better to persuade the eldest son to ask for orders and ask the emperor to preside over this highway project. This will not only allow the eldest son to get meritorious service and be far better than other young masters in the future, but also keep the eldest son away from Xianyang and avoid making suggestions again."
Li Si was startled, then realized what he was doing, looked at his son, nodded and said with a smile: "Your idea is like shooting two birds with one arrow. It's really good."
"Let the eldest son leave Xianyang to take charge of this big project of cultivating Taoism. Not only will it help him accumulate merit, but it will also allow him to see more of what the real world is like along the way.
"When he sees too many corpses in the wilderness of Guizhou, and human lives are like nothing, he will get used to it, and it will just change his temperament."
"The common people in Guizhou are just tools of the ruler."
"The emperor of the empire cannot have compassion."
Li Si said lightly, with a ruthless light flashing in his eyes.
"Historical Records: The Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin": In the twenty-seventh year... Yan built the Xin Palace in Weinan, and ordered the Xin Palace to be the Ji Temple, like the Heaven's Ji.
"Sanfu Huangtu": The first emperor was very poor and extravagant, so he built the Xianyang Palace. Because of the Beiling Ying Hall and the four gates, it was the Purple Palace, where the emperor lived. The Wei River runs through the capital and resembles the Han Dynasty. Cross the bridge to the south and take advantage of the method to lead the cows.
