Chapter 3 1. The Establishment and Sufferings of the Qin Dynasty

In the first month of the forty-eighth year of Qin Zhaowang, that is, three months after the famous Qin-Zhao Changping War, a boy was born in Handan, Zhaodu.In the endless night, no one can see the future, and many Handan people will not know who he is until thirty-one years later. At this time, the entire country of Zhao was mourning for the dead in the Battle of Changping.The birth of this child was too inopportune - to make matters worse, his father was from Qin. It has been 800 years since the battle of Muye.There were survivors of the Yin and Shang Dynasties who hid at the foot of Mount Huotai, unable to avenge their family and the country, so they died here.The descendants rose among the countries with the surnames of the concubines in Dahe, divided Qin and Jin, and became Qin and Zhao, the illustrious duo of the Warring States Period.

Now, the Terminator of the old era is born, regardless of his father's surname and mother's surname, his origin is from the "Ying" of the ancestor of Dongyi.His family seems to be just avengers, and their career should only be to end that era-the era that has a brand of shame in their blood.They ended the age, and they ended themselves. When the child was two or three years old, one day, his father suddenly disappeared with Uncle Lu, who often came to drink, and a group of soldiers came to ransack the house. His mother secretly took him to his grandfather's house and hid—fortunately, no one was there. They are very serious about arresting their mother and son.Orphans and widows lived like this for several years.In the past few years, heroes have been metabolized, and dynasties have risen and fallen.

In 256 BC, the 51st year of King Zhao of Qin, the king of Western Zhou entered Qin to offer land.It was also in this year, at the intersection of Chu and Wei in the east of the Guandong, there was a thunder and lightning, and there were dragons flying above the Daze.That seemed to portend something. To the southeast of Wangqi is Mount Mangdang, where the white snake was cut. In 221 B.C., the state of Qin wiped out Liuhe, and in the same domain, the tiger looked down on He Xiongzai!Qin Wang Yingzheng, who called himself the first emperor, was the first emperor in Chinese history——Qin Shihuang. He was the boy who was born in Handan that year.This is a character who combines hero and tyrant.He ambitiously established a unified system, and wanted to fundamentally eliminate the differences in the world, so that there would be no more wars in the world, so that the Great Qin Dynasty would be unified for all generations, from the second generation to the third generation.Books with the same text, cars with the same track, unified currency and weights and measures, set up prefectures and counties, attacked the Xiongnu, opened Baiyue, built the Great Wall, built Chi Road, burned books and buried Confucianism to unify thinking...

Some of his actions were so far-reaching that they continue to affect us today even through two thousand years.What he left us is not just the terracotta warriors and the majestic mausoleum on Mount Li.However, the history of the Great Qin Dynasty came to an abrupt end. Qin Shihuang's scale is vast, and most of his undertakings are indeed beneficial to generations to come-but he forgot one thing, the power of the people is not endless.His grand ambitions run counter to the requirements of ordinary people who have just experienced the disputes of the Warring States period and urgently need to rest from the wounds of war.Good motivation does not necessarily bring good results.

From the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period in 770 BC to the end of the Warring States Period in 221 BC, for five and a half centuries, there have been continuous wars. Chinese history has completed the transition from the slave era to the feudal era under such swords and swords.The whole society is tired of wars and endless conscripts and labor, but the unification of the Qin Dynasty did not decrease, but instead increased the burden on society. When the lofty ideals deviate from the actual conditions, tragedies will occur . From the perspective of the system, the series of systems that the Qin Dynasty had been effective in its own land were completely new things in the territory of the old six countries, and the common people were quite unfamiliar with them.In addition, the laws of the Qin State are strict. Although the Qin people can adapt to it, the people of the old six countries cannot accept it in a short time.Violence, while able to forcefully promote the system, also creates growing resistance among the people.The basis of legalist thinking is a perfect system, and the guarantee of the system relies on violence.The biggest flaw in legalist thought is that she can't solve such a simple problem: when you don't have enough violence in your hands, how do you ensure that the system is still obeyed?

This problem was later solved by Confucianism through the indoctrination of orthodox ideas.But this improvement is based on the lessons learned from the failed experience of the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shihuang collected the weapons of the six kingdoms and cast them into twelve golden men. From then on, he believed that the Guanhe River would be permanent and could be governed by his descendants for generations to come, and he no longer worried about the chaos in the world.Qin Shihuang was also a very extravagant and hedonistic person. During his reign, he conscripted corvee on a large scale many times.

As early as during the war of annexation, every time the Qin army destroyed the capitals of the princes, they put their palaces on Beibei of Xianyang, adjacent to Jing and Wei in the south, and the palaces and houses belonged to Zhou Pavilion. . In the first 200 years, Qin Shihuang toured the counties in Longxi and Beidi and made a letter palace in Weinan.The road from Ziji Temple leads to Lishan Mountain, which is the front hall of Ganquan.Build corridors, belong to it since Xianyang, and rule Chidao. In 219 BC, he visited Mount Zouyi, Mount Tai, and Mount Langye in the east, built the Langye Terrace, and engraved stones to record his achievements. The stele is still there today.Xu Fu was sent to lead thousands of boys and girls into the sea to seek immortality.

In order to get out of Zhou Ding in Sishui, more than a thousand people entered the water to seek it. After crossing Mount Heng and Mount Xiang, 3,000 criminals were ordered to cut down the trees in Mount Xiang, Zheqi Mountain, and moved 30,000 households in the head of Guizhou to the foot of Langye Terrace. In the first 215 years, when he arrived at Jieshi, Lu Sheng, a native of Yan, begged to envy the gate and made a high oath.Destroy the city walls and break through the dikes.Make Han Zhong, Hou Gong, and Shi Sheng ask for the medicine of immortality.On the northern tour, General Meng Tian sent 300,000 troops to the north to attack the Xiongnu and take the land south of the Yellow River.

In the first 214 years, the land of Luliang was slightly taken, Guilin, Xiangjun, and Nanhai were set up, and 500,000 people were relocated to Wuling.The city river was blocked, and Meng Tian crossed the river to take Gaoque, Yangshan, and Beijiazhong, and built pavilions and barriers to prepare for the Xiongnu. The land south of the Yellow River captured from the Xiongnu was 44 counties, and the Great Wall was built, and the violent forces were outside. More than ten years. In the first 213 years, those who were not upright in the administration of prisons were envoys to build the Great Wall and garrison the land of South Vietnam.

In the first 212 years, the straight road from Xianyang to Jiuyuan and Yunyang was built for 1,800 miles, and it was not completed for several years.Cheng Afang Palace and Lishan Mausoleum used 700,000 prisoners.Three hundred palaces were built in the middle of the pass, and more than four hundred outside the pass. Thirty thousand families moved to Liyi, and fifty thousand families moved to Yunyang. In the first 211 years, 30,000 families in Yuzhong, Beihe were moved. In 210 BC, the First Emperor went on a tour of Yunmeng, Qiantang, and Kuaiji, and went north to Langye and Zhifu, where he died in the sand dunes.

After Qin II succeeded to the throne, he built the Lishan Mausoleum and the Afang Palace on a larger scale, and did not give the common people any respite. When the Kanto peasant uprising army marched into Guanzhong, the courtiers of the Qin Dynasty also raised objections to the heavy corvee. Sending troops to attack, many people were killed, but it didn't stop. There were many robbers, and they all used garrison, water, transfer, and work, and the tax was heavy. Please save the author of Afang Palace, and reduce the number of garrisons." It's not that the Qin army killed less, but it still couldn't suppress it, mainly because the state imposed too much corvee and the people were struggling to survive.To stop thieves, the only way is to reduce corvee. According to the laws of the Qin Dynasty, all adult men between the ages of sixteen and sixty are required to perform military service. In the first year, depending on personal conditions and the needs of the time, they were divided into military officers, knights, and boats.But in fact, due to the large-scale foreign military operations of the Qin Dynasty, the age and duration of military service violated the regulations of the decree. In addition to military activities, the transportation and deployment of logistical supplies to support military activities is also quite disturbing.The transportation conditions at that time were quite poor. It often took 30 minutes to transport grain from the southeast coast to the northern front, and only one stone could be transported. In order to maintain constant nationwide mobilization, the Qin Dynasty used strict laws. The popular punishment at that time was to cut off people's noses, because so many people were subjected to criminal law that people suddenly saw a person with a nose and felt that he was ugly.Another type of criminal law is castration. "The Story of Sanfu" stated: "During the time of Qin Shihuang, there were 720,000 people in the hidden palace, and the force of the cut men was as high as a mountain." As for other general penalties, there are countless.The heavy corvee and the harsh criminal law brought about the chaotic times at the end of Qin Dynasty where "the mountains were full of robbers and the death was chaos".