The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Dongmen Bao will lead 500 men to guard the east of the temple, Li Xian will lead 500 men to guard the west of the temple, Xiao Tao will lead the bow and crossbow officers to guard the street entrance, and no one can pass!"

After giving the orders one by one, Hei Fu said to everyone: "My friends, today the king has appointed An Lu to lead the Langzhong Lingjun and the Zhongchefu Guard to protect the king. What an honor it is. Although they are guarding the outermost area, they should not be careless!"

"Yes!"

The military officers straightened their backs and shouted loudly, feeling very proud, because they won this job by themselves.

Yesterday, the King of Qin still stayed in the army and ordered people to slaughter sheep and pigs, and feasted the three armies, which greatly boosted the morale of the Qin army. Afterwards, the King of Qin also inspected the military appearance of each camp. At Li You's suggestion, there was one more program than usual, which was the "Bing Ball" performance of the Nanjun Corps.

With the King of Qin watching, Heifu had no choice but to go into battle himself and compete with Li You's short-soldier guards. The King of Qin saw that everyone was wearing armor and standing in formation on the field, which really seemed like a military struggle, so he became interested and added a prize for them:

Zhao Gao sent a message on behalf of the king: "Whoever wins on the field between Anlu Yili and Li You's short-soldier guards will be able to guard the king's wings when he inspects Huaiyang tomorrow!"

From officers to soldiers, all the Qin army regarded the King of Qin as a god, and the players on both sides suddenly had unlimited strength. So Heifu experienced the most difficult game in half a year. The score between the two sides was deadlocked and the fight was extremely fierce. In the end, after paying the price of several people being injured in the collision, Anlu Yili barely won.

So today, the King of Qin led hundreds of officials and generals to inspect Huaiyang City. In addition to the Langzhong Lingjun and Zhongchefuwei on the inside, Anlu Yili was also able to clear the field on the periphery.

After Heifu arranged for everyone to guard various places, he hurried to the location of Shun Temple. Langwei and Zhongchefuwei on the way had already recognized him. Heifu was summoned by the King of Qin and personally granted a Heguan. Although his title and position were still not high, he seemed to be a rising star.

Shun Temple is located in the west city of Huaiyang. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the descendants of Yu Shun were granted this place by King Wu of Zhou to guard the ancestral worship of Yu Shun, so this temple was built. Therefore, the building looks simple and ancient, and it has a history of at least seven or eight hundred years.

Nowadays, the periphery here has been surrounded by Langwei and Zhongchefuwei. The temple gate and roof tiles have been repaired. This is the first stop after the King of Qin entered Huaiyang.

"After all, the day before yesterday, the Qin Dynasty's destruction of Chu was compared with Yu Shun's expulsion of the Sanmiao. It would be unreasonable not to offer sacrifices..."

When Heifu walked to the temple gate, the music of You Yu clan, "Da Shao", played by Feng Chang, had just come to an end, and then there were long and difficult sacrificial texts:

"Shun founded twelve states, sealed twelve mountains, and dredged rivers. He used elephants as a model for punishment, pardoned five punishments, whipped as an official punishment, beat as a teaching punishment, and gold as a redemption punishment... Respect, respect, only the punishment is compassionate! Exiled Gonggong to Youzhou, exiled Huandou to Chongshan, banished Sanmiao to Sanwei, and killed Gun at Yushan. With these four crimes, the whole world was convinced! This is the power of Yu Shun!"

The King of Qin was wearing the crown and robes that he wore on formal occasions again today, and was offering sacrifices in the temple. In addition to Feng Chang and other officials, there were also two Confucian scholars wearing high Confucian hats and wide Confucian robes behind him?

Li You was not able to enter the temple either, so he just stood in the temple corridor and said, "He is a Confucian scholar from Xue County."

Xue County was one of the four counties established by the King of Qin in the newly conquered Chu Huaibei area, including Chen County, with its seat in Huaiyang; Sishui County, with its seat in Liu County; Donghai County, with its seat in Tan County; and Xue County, with its seat in Lu County.

Xue County was actually the former site of the State of Lu, as well as Teng, Xue, and Zou. Zou and Lu were the bases of Confucius and Mencius, and the places with the most Confucian scholars in the world. However, the State of Qin had always disliked Confucian scholars, so how could they follow the King of Qin into the palace? This was a strange thing.

When Hei Fu asked, he said with some contempt: "The Confucians are boastful and eloquent. Instead of talking about laws and regulations, they talk to you about benevolence and righteousness. They are arrogant and self-righteous. However, they are ambitious but incompetent. They are unwilling to do small things and cannot do big things. They are also unwilling to obey the rules. This is what Han Fei called "Confucians use laws to confuse prohibitions."

"Don't look at them shouting loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. In fact, they lobby and beg for official positions everywhere. They will serve whoever gives them a bite of food. Before Qin defeated Chu, these people worked in Chu. Now that Chu has perished, they hurried to Qin. If they are used to govern the country, the country will be weak and chaotic. It's okay to use them to manage etiquette. After all, those etiquettes of ascending and descending, and the details of the festival, can occasionally come in handy, and most people can't master them in their lifetime. So the king ordered them to be doctors to assist Fengchang in presiding over this sacrifice, but these Confucian scholars thought they would be reused by the king. Look at their expressions, how proud they are!"

Li You's father, Li Si, was a legalist, and he did not get along well with Confucianists. Especially the traditional Lu Confucianists, they were like water and fire, so Li You ridiculed Confucian scholars a lot, which was also the view of most civil servants and military officers of Qin State on Confucian scholars. The King of Qin just used them as decorations.

While the sacrifice was going on, Hei Fu saw Ji Ying coming hurriedly, and hurried over to ask: "What happened?"

Ji Ying said: "A young Confucian scholar was caught at the street corner, saying that he came to respond to the king's call..."

"The sacrifice has already started, why did you come just now?"

Hei Fu felt that there was a trick, and told Li You about it. Li You frowned slightly: "The king did recruit three Confucian scholars, but only two came, and one has not arrived yet. Let's go and take a look."

When they came to the heavily guarded street corner, they happened to see a Confucian scholar in his twenties with wide robes and sleeves explaining to Dongmen Bao. This was really a case of a scholar meeting a soldier and being unable to explain his reason. The Confucian scholar was twisted by Dongmen Bao and knocked down. After searching him, he only found a bamboo slip.

At this time, the young Confucian scholar also saw Li You and Hei Fu coming, and seeing that they looked like officers, he cried out that he was wronged.

Li You felt that something was wrong: "Who are you? You are a young boy pretending to be an old Confucian! What do you want to do!"

"I am the eighth-generation grandson of Confucius, the disciple of the great Confucian of Lu, Kong Yu, and Shusun Tong."

...

Li You knew very well that Kong Yu was the third Confucian scholar appointed by the King of Qin as a doctor, and the most important one among the three.

First of all, because he was a descendant of Confucius, he naturally had a family tradition and reputation; secondly, Kong Yu's father Kong Shen had served as the prime minister of Wei for nine months, and was also the title of the king of Wei, and was quite famous in Wei and Lu; thirdly, Kong Yu was indeed well-versed in classics and history, with wonderful literary talent and good at discussing ancient and modern times.

But he did not respond to the call, but sent a disciple, what did it mean?

Hei Fu also took the bamboo slips, glanced at it, and showed it to Li You. This was a letter written by Kong Yu to the King of Qin.

Kong Yu said in the letter that he was terrified when he heard that the King of Qin had summoned him, and he wanted to come to help the King of Qin with the sacrifice immediately. However, he was in mourning for his mother and could not leave his thatched cottage at home, so he ordered his disciple Shusun Tong to come and thank the King of Qin...

Li You and Hei Fu looked at each other, they thought that this was an excuse, Kong Yu just didn't want to come.

"What an arrogant Confucian scholar, you are worthy of being the descendant of Confucius." Li You sneered.

Seeing Li You's dark face, Shusun Tong broke out in a cold sweat. In fact, his teacher said "In the past, Confucius traveled around the countries but did not enter Qin. How can his descendants enter it?" He was planning to resist and not come. Shusun Tong knew that this was a way to die, so he persuaded him to write a letter and sent it himself, hoping to use his eloquence to eliminate the anger of the King of Qin.

But don't let the King of Qin not see him, or he will be driven away by the Qin people outside!

So he rolled his eyes and bowed to the two of them respectfully, saying: "My master has another thing to say, and I must tell the King of Qin in person. This involves the legitimacy of Qin's acquisition of the world!"

Li You didn't believe it at first, but the young scholar was so sure, and he couldn't figure out what the King of Qin meant, so he frowned and asked Hei Fu to search Shusun Tong thoroughly, and he went to ask the King of Qin for instructions.

After Li You left, Hei Fu had the young scholar's high hat and wide robe stripped off and searched from inside to outside. Surprisingly, although Shusun Tong was stripped naked and stood on the street, he was not unhappy at all. Instead, he kept laughing and talking, and spoke Guanzhong quite fluently. No wonder Ji Ying and the others could understand it just now.

"Where are you from?" Hei Fu always felt that he seemed to have some impression of the name "Shusun Tong", perhaps another historical celebrity.

"I am from Xue."

"Why would a Xue person speak the language of Qin?" Heifu threw the clothes back to him. After checking, the Confucian scholar was indeed unarmed and should not be an assassin.

"I once followed the Master in Daliang and lived in the residence of the Prime Minister of Wei. I often met Qin envoys passing through Wei, and I talked with their attendants and servants. After a long time, I learned it."

He smiled and said, "I felt at that time that Qin would surely go out and conquer the world. Perhaps we would all become the people under the rule of the King of Qin. It would not be bad to learn Guanzhong dialect as soon as possible."

This is a witty Confucian scholar, and he is not the same as the pedantic Confucian scholar in Heifu's impression.

At this time, Li You also sent someone to tell Heifu and others that the king had finished the sacrifice and asked him to take Shusun Tong over.

It was a take, not an invitation. It seems that the King of Qin was still a little angry that Kong Yu did not respond to the summons.

"I'm sorry." Hei Fu smiled and bowed to Shusun Tong, then asked Dongmen Bao and others to hold the thin Shusun Tong on both sides and directly carry him to the entrance of Yu Shun Temple, and pushed him to the ground, just a few steps in front of the King of Qin's feet.

The King of Qin was more than eight feet tall, and with the crown, he looked even taller than the sky. He looked at Shusun Tong with his hands behind his back, and his shadow was cast over him. He said lightly:

"I heard that when the Duke of Lu summoned him, Confucius set out immediately without waiting for the carriage and horses to be harnessed. His face was as red as a thorn, and his feet were as trembling as a thorn. It seems that although Kong Yu is a descendant of Confucius, he has completely forgotten the words and deeds of his ancestors. He was so negligent when the emperor summoned him, and sent a little disciple to deal with me?"

The King of Qin, who didn't like Confucian scholars, felt even more disgusted at this moment. He wanted to wave his hand and let Hei Fu and others drag Shusun Tong down again, but Shusun Tong bowed his head to the ground in a hurry and shouted:

"How dare I disobey the emperor's summons? However, I am in mourning for my mother and cannot go. However, I am grateful for the king's kindness in recruiting him. I have read the words of Confucius in my home and asked him to present to the king a matter related to the Qin State that is not recorded in the history books! This is related to the orthodoxy of Qin's acquisition of the world!"

Seeing Shusun Tong say this, the King of Qin gave him another chance and nodded to let him speak.

Shusun Tong bowed again and said, "When my teacher returned to his hometown to mourn, he asked us to repair the old house, but we found some ancient books and bamboo slips in the old house. They were family letters hundreds of years ago! They were written by Confucius himself!"

"Is there such a thing!?"

The King of Qin was not interested in Confucius. He just wanted the Kong family to be his yes-man and decoration. He did not show anything. Instead, the two elderly Lu Confucian scholars behind him who had just been promoted to "doctors" were very surprised. How could they not know about such a big thing? But they could only continue to listen.

Shusun Tong raised his head and smiled, "It is recorded in the family book that in the 20th year of Duke Zhao of Lu, Confucius was 30 years old. At that time, Duke Jing of Qi and Yan Ying came to Lu, and Duke Jing asked Confucius, 'In the past, Duke Mu of Qin was a small country. Can such a country and monarch be called a hegemon?'"

"At that time, Confucius replied, 'Although Qin is small, Duke Mu has great ambitions; although it is in a remote place, he is upright. He promoted Baili Xi, made him a senior official, talked with him for three days, and gave him the government. With this, Qin can not only be a hegemon, but also a king!"

"It turns out that Confucius had predicted that Qin would rule the world three hundred years ago! And the king has inherited Duke Mu's hegemony, and will start the kingly rule of the nine states!"

After Shusun Tong finished speaking, the King of Qin did not say anything, but the two old Confucian scholars behind him were stunned, while Li You and others were stunned, a little surprised.

"This guy."

Hei Fu lowered his head, suppressed his laughter, and cursed secretly. He finally knew what kind of person Shusun Tong was.

"He is also shameless!"