Diqin Designer

Chapter 146: Cold Winter Night, Long Live the King

It was not until a clear "dang" sound was heard that Li Nian and the other princes of the Great Qin finally ended their standing in the Tuquan Palace.

"set off!"

Following behind Ying Zheng, Li Nian and other princes of the Qin State rushed to the first stop of today's ceremony - Shangchou, Wuyang, one of the four shrines of Yong.

According to the process agreed upon by Ying Zheng and his ministers, the first step of the enthronement ceremony was to worship heaven and earth, and to inform the heaven and earth that nurtured all things: I, Ying Zheng, will be crowned emperor today!
Offering sacrifices to heaven and earth is an ancient activity. All seven kingdoms had places dedicated to offering sacrifices, and Daqin was no exception.

The most important sacrificial site of the Qin Dynasty was Shangchou, Wuyang, in Yongshan, which was located more than 30 miles northwest of Yongcheng and was later called the "Yongshan Blood Pool Site."

This is also the reason why Li Nian is not in Xianyang. He needs to accompany Ying Zheng to Yongcheng to offer sacrifices to heaven.

Li Nian originally thought that he would have to stay in the Qin Palace for the rest of his life, but he didn't expect that he would have the opportunity to go out. Although he would still be restricted, it was still better than staying in Liuying Palace all day.

After leaving the palace, Li Nian sat in a carriage owned by Emperor Ying Zheng, surrounded by Qin cavalrymen with torches lit. The team was so long that it looked like a fire dragon traveling through the darkness.

Li Nian opened the window of the carriage and looked out, only to see a little fire not far away on the road. It was obvious that someone knew about the movement and was watching with a torch.

Suddenly, there was a noisy sound, as if someone was shouting something.

During these days, Li Nian also learned some Qinqiang opera. These voices seemed to be shouting "Long live the king!"?
Then, as if aware that everyone was shouting the same words, the noisy voices merged into one, becoming uniform and loud, and really shouting "Long live the king!"

Although he couldn't see who was shouting in the dark, Li Nian knew it must be the Qin people from Yongcheng: most of these Qin people were holding torches, kneeling on the ground with their families, worshiping the entire team, and shouting "Long live the king who exempted them from corvée and taxes."

'There are so many simple people, but unfortunately in the original history, they were forced by the First Emperor and Hu Hai to "fear that Pei Gong would not become the King of Qin"! I wonder what the First Emperor thinks now? '

Li Nian thought about it with great interest, and really wanted to know what expression and thoughts Ying Zheng had when he heard those voices shouting "Long live!"
In the carriage ahead, Ying Zheng naturally also heard the shouts of "Long live the king!" Although people had shouted "Long live the king!" to him before, those were more of flattery and fear. But now these shouts coming from all directions in the darkness were full of love and respect from the bottom of their hearts.

These Qin people may have been waiting by the road early in the morning, regardless of the cold winter night, just to wait for him to pass by, so that they could kowtow to him and shout "Long live the king!"

This was a feeling that Ying Zheng had never experienced in the past few decades, and an indescribable emotion surged in his heart.

Is this the feeling of being respected by the people?
It seemed quite good, more pleasing to the ear and more real than the respect shown by the officials, concubines and eunuchs when they paid homage to him.

This is what is called the people's heart, this is what is called the people's will, and this is what is called the power to rule the world!
At this moment, he thought of many things: what Li Nian said about the death of the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty, the people's needs were actually very simple, the old Qin people were afraid that Pei Gong would not become the King of Qin, and the one Li Nian mentioned...

Ying Zheng's expression became complicated.

He didn't do much, but these people respected and loved him so much. With such people around, why should we fear the nobles of the Six Kingdoms or Chen Sheng and Wu Guang?

Even if the six kingdoms all rebelled, with these people around, it would only take one more conquest, one more destruction of the six kingdoms, and one more unification of the world.

But in the history that Li Nian talked about, why did he fail to know all this, and even pushed these old Qin people who should have been loyal to him into opposition? Yes, that him was too arrogant and proud, thinking that his achievements were unparalleled, his power was overwhelming, and his way of governing the country was flawless. Even if his ministers gave him correct advice, he would not listen.

In a sense, Lu Sheng and Hou Sheng's evaluation seems to make some sense!
Ying Zheng began to really think about a problem. Perhaps the Qin laws of the past were no longer suitable for the world today. The Legalist way of governing the country really had problems.

Hearing the endless "Long live the king!" outside, Ying Zheng ordered: "It is cold in winter and it is easy to get sick. Let them go home and don't wait for me here."

After giving this order, Ying Zheng added: "Don't drive them away, persuade them with words. If they don't want to leave, don't force them to leave!"

Ying Zheng originally wanted to give each of these people one cent, but it was inconvenient to travel at this time, so he did not issue the order.

Upon receiving the royal order from Ying Zheng, some Qin soldiers immediately left the team and headed towards the people not far from the road, holding torches.

Seeing the Qin soldiers approaching with torches, the people of Yongcheng were still a little scared and stopped shouting "Long live the king!". After the Qin soldiers told them that the king was worried that the cold winter night would make them sick, and that he had sent these Qin soldiers to persuade them to go home, even louder shouts of "Long live the king!" were heard.

This ceremony of enthroning the emperor was an unprecedented event in ancient times. Ying Zheng attached great importance to it and brought along everyone who could and should be brought along, and naturally all the nobles of the Qin Dynasty were also on this trip.

Hearing the cheers outside, Chunyu Yue's eyes welled up with tears. He pointed outside excitedly and said to Su Xu and others sitting in the carriage: "This is the will of the people, this is the implementation of benevolent governance!"

In another carriage, Li Si, who was sitting with his eldest son Li You, was also looking outside. Through the torches, he seemed to see the people of Yongcheng kneeling not far away.

This was a scene he had never seen in all his years in politics: the people could trust and respect a king so much that they were willing to brave the cold and darkness to pay homage to the king.

What made Li Si feel that his values ​​that had been held for many years had somewhat collapsed was that the king did not use the Legalist techniques of governing the people, but only issued some people-friendly decrees, which led to this scene.

Although Li Si was not a pure believer in Legalism, and Legalist thought was just a tool in his eyes, he still believed in it quite a lot. But at this time, he couldn't help but have a thought: Can the world be governed without Legalist thought?
But this thought was quickly wiped out by Li Si. He still felt that the Legalist thought was the best thought in the world today, and that other schools of thought were inferior to it, although he sometimes would not follow the Legalist thought completely.

"No, these people are only grateful to the king because they have benefited from him, but people's hearts are hard to satisfy. Once they open their mouths, they will definitely ask for more benefits in the future. If they are not satisfied, they will become resentful and even more difficult to govern."

Human desires are hard to satisfy. Even if one gets what they want, they are often not satisfied and will only crave more. When this is not satisfied, they will become resentful and even hateful.

In another carriage, Liu Ji and Fan Kuai were sitting in the carriage.

In order to satisfy his vanity of being called the emperor in front of the founding group of the Han Dynasty, Ying Zheng brought Liu Ji and others to Yongcheng.

Hearing the shouting outside, Liu Ji curiously opened the car window and looked out.

The cry of "Long live the king!" echoed through the heavens and earth, and rose and fell in the night sky. A sentence emerged in Liu Ji's mind: "I should live like the King of Qin, and a real man should be like this!"

(End of this chapter)