The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Shang County was the first stop for Heifu and his party after entering the pass. Shang County was also called "Shangyu Land". It belonged to Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period. Because it was at the upper source of Luoshui River, it was also called Shangluo. Later, Jin was divided into three parts, and Shangdi was returned to Wei. Wei Yang entered Qin to preside over the reform and began to counterattack Wei. He seized this place and was granted 15 towns in Shangyu by Qin Xiaogong, so he was called "Shang Yang".

Now more than a hundred years have passed, but Shang County can't find Shang Yang's tomb or old things at all.

"Maybe it's not a good end."

Heifu walked around the county and thought secretly.

Although Shang Yang's reforms strengthened Qin, he offended Gongzi Qian, the crown prince, and the royal family, not to mention that he still occupied 600 miles of Shangyu, which was equivalent to one-third of Qin's territory. Qin Xiaogong did fulfill his promise of "dividing the country", but once Xiaogong died, all of this would become the thing that put Shang Yang to death...

If Shang Yang had been tied up and martyred calmly like in the TV series, he might have really become a saint who sacrificed his life for the law. Unfortunately, as far as Heifu knows, Shang Yang's final struggle seemed a bit ugly and stupid.

When Qin Huiwenwang succeeded to the throne and Gongzi Qian and his group wanted to settle accounts with him, Shang Yang's first reaction was to escape, but he was refused entry to the guesthouse because he did not bring the certificate, so there was the idiom of "binding oneself by magic".

Shang Yang finally relied on the forged certificate to cross the border and returned to Wei, but the people of Wei resented him for deceiving his close friend Gongzi Ang and killing countless Wei people. They refused to take him in and even deliberately drove him back to Qin.

Shang Yang was also able to struggle. He returned to his fiefdom from outside the Wei River, gathered his subordinates, mobilized the soldiers in the city, and attacked Xianyang to the north, seeking the last way out.

But this desperate struggle was soon put down by the Qin State. Shang Yang was killed in the chaos, and was sentenced to five horses to be torn apart. His whole family was executed, and he left behind the warning "Shang Yang is the best rebel!", adding a bloody case to the crime of treason in the Qin law.

Fortunately, King Huiwen of Qin was wise. Although Shang Yang died, the Qin law was not abolished, otherwise there would be no Qin King sweeping the ** today.

"From the day Shang Yang formulated laws for Qin, his fate was doomed."

Hei Fu seemed to have realized that Shang Yang's defeat was, on the one hand, because he made too many enemies in politics and had too deep grudges. He lost the upper class, and did not make the lower-level Qin people at that time love him. When Shang Yang died, no one in Qin State pitied him.

On the other hand, his power was completely dependent on the King of Qin, and the laws of Qin were also built around the King. Neither the King of Qin nor the laws of Qin would allow a large feudal lord with a large area to exist. When King Xiao of Qin was in power, he trusted him. Once a new king came, he would kill him as soon as possible.

"Too dependent on the king, too much effort to do things for the country, and not hesitating to make enemies on all sides, it is bound to be as dangerous as morning dew, and finally the king will collapse and the ministers will die, just like Shang Yang and Wu Qi..."

With this feeling, Hei Fu left Shang County the next day and continued to the northwest.

They still took the Wuguan Road, which was opened along the north side of the Danshui River Valley. It was not really wide. Many sections of the road were rugged and narrow, and there were many carriages along the way.

Fortunately, Hei Fu had a higher rank, and ordinary people gave way to him. Fortunately, it was not summer or autumn, otherwise the river would rise and often wash away the road.

This terrible journey experience came to an end only after they passed through Yaoguan and crossed the remnant of the Qinling Mountains. After crossing the pass, the front suddenly opened up, farmland and houses became dense, and a stream flowed down from the remnant of the Qinling Mountains and flowed slowly to the northwest.

This water is the Bashui River. The upper reaches of the Bashui River are very clear and cold to the touch. And from a distance, there are still many people digging something with tools on the riverbed. When we got closer, we found that they were pieces of light blue jade ore. When the sun shone on them, they looked hazy like smoke from cooking, which was amazing...

"The second most beautiful jade is blue."

Heifu pointed to the prosperous county town that was looming on the other side of the Ba River, and said to his cousin and the driver Sangmu: "We have arrived at Lantian!"

...

"You won't believe it, but a hundred years ago, the State of Chu had fought here."

While resting by the water, Heifu told the driver Sangmu about the story he heard from Zhang Han, a man from Guanzhong, when he was in the army.

Even though Sangmu was an honest man, he was shocked and a little bit unbelievable.

"Lord, this is already the heart of Guanzhong. We came from Nanjun and passed through several dangerous passes. It took more than a month. How could the Chu army reach here!?"

"Absolutely true."

"At that time, Qin Prime Minister Zhang Yi deceived King Huai of Chu and promised to cede 600 li of Shangyu land. King Huai of Chu believed it and broke off relations with Qi. As a result, Zhang Yi said that he only promised to give Chu 6 li of land..."

"Then King Huai of Chu is really stupid."

Sangmu laughed a lot. Although he was a Western Chu from Nanjun, he no longer had any sense of belonging to Chu. When the authentic Chu people mentioned King Huai of Chu, they all pitied him, as if they were mourning a relative. In history, Xiang Yu's uncle and nephew took advantage of this mentality of the Chu people and created another "King Huai of Chu".

But in the eyes of Heifu, Sangmu and others, King Huai of Chu could not be described in other words except stupidity.

In short, after being deceived by Zhang Yi, King Huai of Chu was furious and launched a large army to attack Qin. As a result, he was defeated by Chu Li Ji in Danyang, 80,000 Chu soldiers were beheaded, more than 70 Chu generals including Qu Gai were either killed or captured, and Hanzhong was also taken away by the King of Qin.

King Huai of Chu was unwilling to give up. After the defeat in Danyang, he mobilized the feudal lords of the whole country to continue attacking Qin. As a result, the Qin army lured the enemy deep into the country and let them pass Wuguan. They fought all the way to Lantian. With Xianyang in sight, they could destroy Qin at any time, but they were ambushed by the Qin army and the Chu army was annihilated...

The powerful Chu, which once fought against the King of Zhou and the Central Plains with the power of a single country and controlled one-third of the world in the Warring States Period, began to decline from the battles of Danyang and Lantian.

No wonder Qu Yuan was so heartbroken. He happened to be born at a time when Chu was declining.

It was only mid-January, and it was still early for the deadline to enter Xianyang. Heifu asked the convoy to take a small detour. He wanted to take a look at the old battlefield of Lantian, but he was stopped by a patrol of Qin soldiers before he got close.

After some inquiries, Heifu learned that the old battlefield in front of him was now the station of the "Lieutenant Army".

He had done his homework before entering the pass, so he knew that there were three armies stationed in the Guanzhong area of Qin.

Among them, the Langzhongling Army, where Heifu was likely to take up his post, was the Qin King's personal guard officer corps, with 700 Langguan and 3,000 Langwei, stationed in the palace.

There was also the Weiwei Army, which was responsible for the defense and security of Xianyang City and its suburbs, with a total of 10,000 people.

In addition, there is the Lieutenant Army. As the garrison troops in the Neishi area, the Lieutenant Army is divided into several commanders. There are not only Wuguan Commander and Hangu Commander guarding the pass, but also Lantian Commander, Linjin Commander, Yongxian Commander, etc., with a total number of no less than 50,000.

This area is the camp of Lantian Commander, and Heifu and his men almost broke into the military restricted area.

Fortunately, he was just unintentional, and he had the status of Zuo Shuzhang, so he was only warned by the team of Lieutenant Soldiers and let them go.

Heifu looked back in the car and saw from a distance that the camp of the Lantian Lieutenant Army was neat, with flags flying, and the sound of soldiers training was endless. It must be a more elite unit of the Qin State.

They were stationed in Lantian, probably to prevent the Chu Army from attacking this place a hundred years ago.

Unfortunately, in history, the Qin State's defense was still broken all the way from Wuguan and Lantian.

And they were Chu people...

After this episode, they continued to travel north along the Bashui River. When they arrived here, they were considered to have entered the suburbs of Xianyang. However, they saw that this place was flat and flat, with yellow soil stretching for thousands of miles and fertile fields everywhere. It was the busy season for spring plowing, and the old Qin people in Guanzhong were busy in the fields.

This year's harvest was good. There was sufficient rain in the spring, and the winter wheat in the fields was lush and green. When the wind blew, the tender green wheat seedlings were undulating. In those bare fields, millet and beans had been planted. The ditches beside the fields were also scattered and orderly. The water conservancy projects organized and repaired by the government could bring the Bashui River here to irrigate the crops.

As far as Heifu could see, almost every family used oxen to plow, but he didn't know whether they were their own oxen or borrowed from the village.

He heard that Guanzhong had a lot of water conservancy and oxen plowing. With intensive farming, the per-acre yield was twice that of Nanjun! Half of the military rations that the Qin army used to attack Wei and Chu were transported from Guanzhong. I wonder if Ye Teng, who became the internal historian, promoted the composting method, and whether it could help Guanzhong's grain production to a higher level?

When they passed by, the farmers in the fields were sowing seeds and singing simple Qinqiang folk songs...

"The king's policies are unremitting day and night. He cares for the people and works hard. He eliminates doubts and establishes laws, and everyone knows what to do. He promotes agriculture and eliminates the end, and the people are rich."

Although they were all words of praise, everyone still had the energy to sing, which showed that they could eat enough on weekdays. Moreover, although everyone's face was tanned into the same bronze color as Heifu by the sun, they were all smiling.

They were happy that the war had come to an end, and they also felt proud that the people in the suburbs of the capital were at the feet of the emperor. When they saw the passing foreigners, they shouted and greeted them loudly.

"Why are these farmers so proud? If they were in Nanjun, they would just lie down in the grass and sleep after the spring plowing. How could they have the energy to shout?" Sangmu asked Heifu, a little confused.

"Don't underestimate these farmers. Maybe one of them will have a higher title than you!"

After following Heifu for more than two years, Sangmu's title has gradually risen. He didn't believe that it was not going to be changed now. When he stopped the car to water the horse, he asked the old farmer who was chatting in the pavilion.

As a result, the old farmer looked at this ignorant outsider with contempt and said with a thick Qinqiang laugh: "Official doctor."

Sangmu was convinced now.

Heifu said to him: "The children of Guanzhong have fought for more than a hundred years. After several generations, even if each generation is promoted by one level, it is amazing."

"I think their family is also very rich."

Yan couldn't help but think about it. He suddenly felt that the two thousand kilograms of brown sugar on the car would definitely be sold at a good price in Xianyang and Guanzhong!

After passing through dozens of prosperous villages where chickens and dogs could be heard, a stone pier and wooden bridge across the Bashui River appeared in front of the group...

The bridge was a hundred steps long, with a towering Huabiao at the bridgehead. Each stone pier on the bridge was carved with various auspicious beasts. Looking at the other side, you can see a five-mile embankment and thousands of willow trees, which is spectacular.

Several Guanzhong officials who had been traveling with them from Lantian enthusiastically introduced to Heifu: "This is the Ba Bridge. After crossing the Ba Bridge, you can cross the Weishui River from Bashang, and Xianyang will be right in front of you!"

However, just as the group was about to board the bridge, a fully armed group of people came from the west bank of the Bashui River. They all had serious expressions, were wearing armor and carrying swords, and had strong bows and crossbows on the bridge. Looking at their flags, they were the "Weiwei Army" guarding Xianyang!

More than a thousand Weiwei troops occupied Baqiao and announced that Baqiao was under martial law today and would not be accessible until the afternoon!

"The Weiwei troops have all been dispatched. Could it be that the King of Qin is traveling?"

Heifu's eyelids jumped. He saw that the leading Qin general looked familiar. He walked closer and saw that it was his old boss during the war to destroy Wei, Yang Xiong!

However, Yang Xiong, who was once high and mighty, was only the Zuo Shuchang in terms of his dress. He had been caught up by Heifu!