The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 32 Ideals are built
It was the harvest season in Guanzhong, and most people in the counties of Guanzhong were in the fields.

On the contrary, the city of Xianyang seemed a little depressed during this season, because people had all left the city and gone to the fields in the countryside to harvest grain.

Li You strode into Xianyang City. He was wearing a linen robe that was stained with mud and a pair of straw sandals that were barely enough to fit him. There were brown mud spots on his feet.

Those who didn't know him would think he was a farmer's child. Who would have thought that such a young man would be the prime minister's son.

When Li You walked to the door of the house, the servants of the Prime Minister's family did not recognize him at first, but after confirming it several times, they welcomed him in with great respect.

Before Li You even entered the hall, a servant came quickly and whispered, "Prime Minister, this..."

While speaking, he glanced at Li You who was walking towards him.

Li Si looked calm as he looked at the clerk and said, "What? If you change your clothes, you're no longer my son, Li Si?"

The servant nodded and stepped aside.

Li You walked into the hall and looked around.

When he saw his son standing in front of him, he neither greeted nor spoke.

Li Si raised his eyes slightly and glared.

Li You, who was originally quite arrogant, suddenly became dejected after being glared at like that, and sat down aside with his head lowered.

The old servant saw this scene and felt relieved, smiling quietly.

No matter what the son looks like outside, when he comes home and is glared at by his father, he becomes his childhood again.

Li You now feels like when he was a child, feeling aggrieved after being glared at by his father. He seems to realize that he has made a mistake, but he doesn't know where he went wrong.

"How's the canal going?"

Li You said, "Why bother asking such a question?"

Li Si said in a deep voice, "Assist the young master well. In the next few days, the troop deployment documents from Shuzhong will be delivered to you, and someone will hand them over to you."

Li You nodded slowly.

Li Si said with a straight face, "Let's go."

After hesitating for a long time and seeing that his father still had a stern face, Li You stood up with grievance and left.

Li You's spirit and energy are indeed different from before, but he is still a child in front of the prime minister, just a child with better spirit and energy.

In the past, Li You always wore silk clothes, and he looked very impressive in Xianyang City.

Now, Li You is wearing straw sandals and coarse linen clothes, and he still looks very impressive.

Of course, compared to the past, looking back at the present.

Li You strode through the city of Xianyang, and wherever he looked, he saw people wearing all kinds of clothes. Although they were now wearing straw sandals, he had a feeling in his heart that he had never had before. This feeling was roughly that these people had never dug the soil and had never suffered.

And now, Li You feels that no matter how difficult the situation is, he has the confidence to face it.

At the foot of Shangyan Mountain, Zhang Han was watering the mulberry seedlings, with three children holding torches beside him.

Occasionally, when mosquitoes bite, the children wave the torches left and right to drive them away.

It's almost September, and Guanzhong is still so hot. Zhang Han still has to water the saplings at night.

"General Zhang Han, why are you still watering the plants so late at night?"

Zhang Han looked up and saw the person coming in the torchlight. He wiped the sweat from his chin and replied, "Several trees have died this summer."

Looking at the green buds that had just sprouted under the firelight, Zhang Han added, "A mulberry tree with leaves will not die easily. If we keep it for another year, we won't need to water it every day."

Li You nodded and said, "Well, thank you, General Zhang Han."

"It's not that I'm busy. I just come to visit in my spare time."

The village is especially quiet at night. Even the chickens and ducks raised in each household lie down to rest. In this hot summer day, only at night can there be such coolness.

Zhang Han led the three children all the way to the village and said, "When the hot summer is over, we will plant more radishes and celery on the mountain."

Li You nodded, "Yes, there wasn't enough food last year, so we need to plant more this year."

Li You smiled as he spoke. In fact, after the hot summer passed, there was another happy event, which was General Zhang Han's marriage.

As the night wind blew, Li You said again: "Starting tomorrow, I will dig a few more vertical shafts."

Zhang Han nodded without saying anything more.

Li You stood in front of the door and remembered his father's words. He might have to leave here and go on a long journey.

What kind of troops were being mobilized from Shu?
There are only two major events in the court recently. One is the great harvest in Guanzhong, and the other is the Baiyue.

Li You was lying on the big rock in front of the door. Now he was about to mobilize troops from Shu, so perhaps a war would really break out.

Generally, those who could read those documents were the accompanying officials and generals.

Li You slowly closed his eyes. Since his father said so, he would be one of the people going to Baiyue.

The next morning, Li You went to dig a canal early with a wooden hoe and a basket.

Shusun Tong started teaching children at an early age.

There was a debate between the court and the public about the Baiyue, but the First Emperor never expressed his opinion, so no one discussed the matter anymore.

As for the First Emperor's true plan, probably only a few people knew it. It is not difficult to guess who these people are. They are probably Meng Wu, Li Si, Feng Quji and Wang Ben.

Today, Censor Zhang Cang came to Zhangtai Palace to attend the court meeting.

Seeing Prime Minister Li Si approaching with a smile on his face, Zhang Cang bowed slightly and said, "Prime Minister."

Li Si looked around and said, "It's dark."

Zhang Cang nodded.

"Is the young master still at the bridge?"

Zhang Cang explained, "My lord, you have been guarding the riverbank, and the Xianyang Bridge is almost completed."

Li Si reached out and patted the outside of his shoulder, whispering, "There's been a lot of talk in the court lately about you conscripting civilians."

"Cang heard about it."

Li Si asked in a low voice: "The previous strategy for selecting officials..."

Zhang Cang lowered his posture slightly and whispered, "Prime Minister, I have recently heard that many doctors in the court have made many comments about the young master's control over the common people and enslavement of his servants."

Li Si first glanced at the people who entered the hall one after another, and hummed softly: "Don't worry about it."

The Prime Minister seemed to be implying that he would deal with them sooner or later.

Zhang Cang continued, "Prime Minister, I have been with you for nearly a year. Whether it's digging canals or building the Xianyang Bridge, I've learned a lesson."

"Oh? What's the reason?" Li Si still stood there.

Everyone occasionally looked at the prime minister in the front row. In the quiet and orderly hall, Li Si was responding to their gazes with a forced smile.

Li Si heard Zhang Cang's words again.

"Prime Minister, the young master had canals dug to irrigate the fields. In just over a year, hundreds of acres of barren land were transformed into fertile soil. The harvested grain made Shangyanshan the richest village east of the Luo River."

"In order to build the Zhengguo Canal and enable Qin to expand eastward, how many Qin royal family members and people were killed." In his heart, Zhang Cang always believed and was convinced that Li Si and the First Emperor were both people with great ideals.

For the sake of a great ideal, killing some people who stand in the way of the ideal is nothing... For Li Si and the First Emperor, it is nothing at all.

For you, this may not even be a bad thing; it may even be a good thing.

It has only been a few years since the construction of Zhengguo Canal, even those who were killed because of its construction.

If we dig them out now, they might still be intact, with their clothes intact.

Until the court meeting began, Zhang Cang, after paying his respects to the First Emperor with everyone else, stood in the court like a statue.

Thinking again, Zhang Cang remembered what Shusun Tong said. The young master had promised that he would send 300 children to fight in the war, and would give them household registration after they had military merits.

When Zhang Cang thought of this, his mind became much clearer.

At the court meeting, Li Si and the Confucian scholars started arguing over the issue of standardizing the writing system and the wheel gauge.

In the hall, Li Si waved his sleeves and started arguing with everyone. The result of such court discussions was often that the prime minister would not give in, forcing the Confucian scholars to give in again and again.

Li Si stood in the hall and said loudly: "The first major event after the unification of Qin is to standardize the writing system and the wheel gauge!"

After today's court discussion ended, and after nearly three years of debate, the Qin Dynasty officially began to standardize its writing system and its wheel gauge.

A group of people left Xianyang on swift horses and rushed to various parts of the world to read the emperor's will. The Qin Dynasty announced to the world that from now on, the characters of the six countries could only exist in the only books, and everything they learned and wrote had to be written in Qin's characters.

Fusu was sitting by the river grilling meat. He was very happy when he heard the news from Tian An.

The people from the Western Regions brought a lot of good things. Fusu asked Tian An to buy some pepper, crush the pepper and mix it with salt, and sprinkle it on the barbecue, which was especially delicious.

At dusk, Fusu was sweating profusely as he fanned himself with one hand and grilled skewers with the other.

Tian An took the string of meat handed to him by the young master with a smile. The old man had bad teeth and could only eat more fatty meat.

The food and fodder for Xiwei Bridge were hung on the side of the bridge by someone with a hemp rope tied around his body, and the bridge surface was being chiseled out one by one. The three words "Xianyang Bridge" were chiseled out one by one.

Fusu was very satisfied with the three small seal characters. After the man climbed back onto the bridge, he said, "This big brother, your craftsmanship is quite good."

The middle-aged man smiled and bowed, saying, "Sir, this is a family craft."

Hearing the other person's accent, Fusu asked again: "Where are you from?"

"I am originally from Wei, and now I am on duty in the workshop."

Fusu said: "Give him two more bags of wheat."

Tian An took two more bamboo slips from the side, had someone load the wheat onto the cart, and then handed it to the craftsman the young master had just praised.

When it comes to building a country, standardizing the writing system and the wheel gauge is the most necessary foundation.

As for building a home, Fusu felt that building the Northwest was also construction, building civilization was even more construction, and humanistic construction was even more indispensable.

Building a bridge here will benefit the people on both sides of the West Wei River, and will also allow the troops from Guanzhong to pass through the bridge and point their spearhead directly at the Huns and the Western Regions.

For this reason, Fusu did not intend to build a bridge with very gorgeous decorations from the beginning.

No matter how gorgeous the decoration is, it cannot withstand the baptism of time. Now, it is enough for this bridge to be stable, ancient, simple and practical.

When October comes in Guanzhong, the autumn rain in western China always arrives on time.

The dripping rain hit the deck of Xianyang Bridge.

This was the first time Prince Fusu stepped onto the newly built bridge.

Although the craftsmen had gone back and forth on this new bridge many times.

In the eyes of everyone, Prince Fusu's ability to walk on this bridge is of great significance to them. Even if they walk on it thousands of times, it cannot compare to Prince Fusu's walking once.

Fusu stepped on the solid bridge surface and strode forward.

Behind Prince Fusu was a large group of craftsmen, several officials and several soldiers.

Everyone followed the young master's footsteps from one end of the bridge to the other.

While walking, the young man would suddenly stop to look at the carvings on the bridge or the river under the bridge.

The dense autumn rain fell on my body, but I didn't feel too cold. The young man's footsteps continued, and the people behind him also continued their footsteps.

Only when they reached the other side of the West Wei River did Fusu turn around and lead everyone back.

Zhang Cang came with a group of cavalrymen. "Sir, I have borrowed cavalrymen from General Wang. We only have these ten or so."

The road beside the bridge was still a little muddy. Fusu walked under the eaves and said, "Let the cavalry run back and forth."

Zhang Cang nodded when he heard this and gave a few instructions to the cavalrymen around him.

The neighing of war horses was heard, and a group of cavalrymen rode their horses onto the bridge. Then they ran back and forth several times and headed west, running farther and farther, as if they had no intention of coming back.

Fusu asked doubtfully, "Do they have something important to do?"

Zhang Cang replied, "When the Prime Minister learned that the Xianyang Bridge was completed, he intended to send them west to mobilize the war horses."

"The Prime Minister... he really did come by chance." Fusu sighed.

"Sir, the Prime Minister said one more thing."

"What else?"

Zhang Cang bowed and said, "The Prime Minister said that now that the Xianyang Bridge is complete, the army can cross it and march directly to the Western Rong. There is a piece of land in the Western Rong, a river valley surrounded by high mountains on both sides. I heard it is an excellent place for raising horses."

Of course Fusu knew where that was. That place actually had another name, called Hexi Corridor.

On the other side of Guanzhong, at the foot of Shangyan Mountain beside the Luo River, a wedding is being held. General Zhang Han is getting married today.

There is a mansion at the foot of the mountain, which Zhang Han built with his own hands in the past six months.

Today was a happy day, and Zhang Han dressed neatly for a rare occasion. He took out his best clothes to marry his wife.

There were few guests at this wedding, and Zhang Han was alone, so only the villagers were there to make the event lively.

Li You came leading a warhorse, already dressed in Qin army armor. He approached and said, "General Zhang Han, I'm here to say goodbye."

"Why?" Zhang Han stepped forward and asked in confusion.

Li You patted the warhorse beside him, standing in the drizzle, and said, "Maybe we really have to conquer the Baiyue. I have received military orders to rush to Shuzhong to mobilize troops."

During this year, Li Youzhen has changed. He has become less playful and more mature.

Perhaps, suffering can really make a person mature,

Li You jumped onto his horse and, sitting on it, said, "General Zhang Han, I dare not delay the military order. I will rush to Shuzhong right now and will drink with you when I come to Guanzhong again!"

Zhang Han asked again, "Are you going alone?"

Li Youdao: "I have the military order to mobilize the troops. One person is enough. Let's go!"

After saying this, he waved his whip, and the warhorse neighed and ran into the rain.

Zhang Han was also a general in the army. He clenched his fists, as if infected by Li You's passion. Looking at the figure that had become hazy in the rain, he thought to himself, "When you come to Guanzhong again, Shangyan Mountain will have a completely new look."

(End of this chapter)