No one dared to speak.
The civil officials with skills and intelligence looked at Gan Luo, lowered their heads and said nothing.
The generals who had increased their skills and military strength looked at Wang Xi, raised their heads with an indignant look on their faces but did not dare to say a word.
The people in the outer circle were even more confused about these words, as these words were not originally meant for them.
Freedom, democracy, and fairness are not as good as letting them eat the sacrifices until the heavens have finished eating them. The fine wine and delicious food are what these people desire.
They just thought that Ying Chengjiao was suffering from insanity, that Ying Chengjiao was crazy, that Ying Chengjiao was disrespectful to heaven and the king, and that he would definitely be punished by heaven.
But because the First Emperor had been sitting upright on the high platform and had never expressed anything, the common people who revered him as a god would not have expressed anything either.
The prestige of the First Emperor was really too high.
God will definitely punish this bastard!
The people thought to themselves.
Ying Chengjiao opened his arms, facing the wind, with a slight smile on his face.
“It feels great.”
He turned around and walked down the platform, without stopping when passing by the First Emperor.
As he walked, he said, "Excuse me, my brother."
"How do you want me to cooperate?" The First Emperor, who had always had a tacit understanding with Ying Chengjiao, said in a deep voice.
In the past, he could guess what Ying Chengjiao was going to do and what he wanted to do, and most of those were also what he wanted to do, so he could cooperate well.
But today, even if Ying Chengjiao told him everything he wanted to do, the First Emperor still didn't know how to cooperate.
First, what Ying Chengjiao said was not what the First Emperor wanted to do, and was seriously inconsistent with his philosophy of governing the country.
Second, the First Emperor did not believe that his brother really wanted to make rules as he said and wanted all the civil and military officials of the Qin Dynasty to be under his control. This was something that even the First Emperor himself could not do.
Since King Xiaogong of Qin appointed Shang Yang to important positions, six generations of Qin kings, including King Huiwen of Qin, King Wu of Qin, King Zhaoxiang of Qin, King Xiaowen of Qin, and King Zhuangxiang of Qin, have worked hard.
Only in this generation of Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the Qin Law established as the rule of the Great Qin, allowing the Qin State to unify the world.
Wanting to re-establish the rules means offending the vested interests of the current rules.
These people were definitely not the common people who could not even get enough food to eat, but the court officials who could enter the Xianyang Palace.
It's okay to use Gan Luo as an example to scare the monkeys and establish authority.
To attack all the nobles of the Qin Dynasty would not be an attack but a way to commit suicide.
As long as the First Emperor believed that something was right, he could suppress it on his own and push it forward regardless of opposition from all the civil and military officials in the court. This was already the pinnacle of tyranny in history.
Like Ying Chengjiao, who said to his face that he would kill him if he did not obey him, the First Emperor could not and would not do such a thing. It was too crazy.
"random."
Anyway, no one can kill me, so what if I fail?
The voices accompanied the sound of Ying Chengjiao's footsteps, without interfering with each other.
The First Emperor stared at Ying Chengjiao's back with a serious face and cautious eyes.
"Shang Yang's reforms offended the Qin nobles, and he was torn into pieces by five oxen. Wu Qi's reforms offended the Chu nobles, and he was shot through the heart with thousands of arrows and died.
"Shen Dao founded the Legalist school but did not dare to sell it to a single country because he knew that reform would inevitably lead to the strongest retaliation from the local nobles.
"Those who have carried out reforms throughout the ages rarely have a good ending. You are even crazier than them. Cheng Jiao, why are you like this?"
Ying Chengjiao chuckled and whispered, "Why does my brother work so hard every day and review at least one stone of memorials?
"Why did they abolish feudal fiefdoms and set up thirty-six prefectures after conquering the six kingdoms?
"Why build a highway to connect the east, west, south and north of the Qin Empire, so that the army can reach the destination in ten days?"
Because I know I am right, because I want the Great Qin to last for thousands of years, and because I want to do the most for the Great Qin in my lifetime.
The First Emperor answered in his heart but did not say it out loud.
The three questions asked by Ying Chengjiao are not questions, but answers to the questions he raised.
"You think you're right."
The First Emperor stood up and spoke.
"Of course."
Unless two thousand years of civilization evolution has been a regression and backwardness.
Ying Chengjiao thought, talked, and walked as he did so.
"I cannot support you."
The First Emperor turned his back to Ying Chengjiao and whispered in a low voice so soft that only he could hear it.
But although the voice was small, there was no more hesitation.
The First Emperor made up his mind and would not change it easily.
On the high platform, the sound of Ying Chengjiao's footsteps disappeared along with his figure.
The First Emperor walked to the center of the platform, wearing animal skins on his shoulders, a plain robe, a hemp belt around his waist, and a hazel stick tucked into the belt.
This outfit is exactly the same as Ying Chengjiao's, and the two have similar body shapes.
In the carriage, the two sets of clothes were placed together. The names of the First Emperor and Ying Chengjiao were not written on them. Whichever set the two men took was the one they took.
"May Heaven and Earth bless our Great Qin!"
The First Emperor shouted loudly, his voice breaking through the air and spreading far across the washed blue canvas above his head.
"May Heaven and Earth bless our Great Qin!"
All the civil and military officials shouted in unison, following the words of the First Emperor.
"May Heaven and Earth bless our Great Qin!"
The people shouted wildly, looking at the king in their eyes, the god in their hearts.
"May Heaven and Earth bless our Great Qin!"
Everyone in the audience had red faces and were shouting at the top of their lungs, venting their emotions with such force that they were about to faint from lack of oxygen if they shouted two more times.
The First Emperor was surrounded by overwhelming support and emboldened by the voices of the people and nobles.
Standing on the platform, high above, he looked down at his subjects.
"But I will not stop you. I believe in my own judgment, and I also believe in your vision. If you win, the world is yours. If you lose, I will support you."
After lightly stepping on the footprint left by Ying Chengjiao on the platform made of white jade, the First Emperor's eyes revealed a thoughtful look.
Does God exist?
This guy is so arrogant and domineering, and he doesn't get punished?
This question is actually of no use to him. Regardless of whether Tian exists or not, he will just do what he thinks is right.
But as the king of the Qin Dynasty, the king of the world, the First Emperor was not so happy about having a sky above his head.
After unifying the country, he changed the title of Son of Heaven to Emperor. One of the reasons was that he didn't want to hear the word "Zi".
The shouting below continued. The First Emperor took a look and was suddenly stunned.
Then he suddenly looked up at the sky, his eyes gleaming with doubt and blasphemy.
"God, didn't you see that?" The First Emperor narrowed his eyes and spoke softly, but every word was sonorous. "No one kneeled down."
Perhaps he was angered by Ying Chengjiao, or perhaps he was attracted by the power of the First Emperor.
In short, under the high platform.
Those who shouted "Heaven and Earth, bless our Great Qin" did not kneel down.
They probably didn't mean to do it, they just forgot for a moment.
But some things are easy to forget but difficult to remember again.
"May Heaven and Earth bless our Great Qin?"
Ying Chengjiao sat on the steps where he had just sat and did not go down immediately.
The white jade was a little cold, which made his butt a little icy, but it couldn't cool his strange passion.
He looked at the crowd below, which was surging with enthusiasm, and everyone was standing.
Stretch yourself.
Yawn.
“It feels great.”
“Dance!”
The vast, ethereal and deep voice of the First Emperor fell from the high platform as the momentum below the stage gradually died down.
The actors and actresses came in one after another.
Those who were dressed in animal skins and pretended to be corpses, and those who were holding hazel sticks and driving away demons.
Imitating the dancing of animals such as pigs, dogs, cows, sheep, monkeys, chickens, tigers, leopards, etc.
It is said that this song has been passed down since ancient times, but it is impossible to find out which ancient legend it came from.
The sound of the guzheng is long and melodious, the sound of the chimes is ethereal, the sound of the green flute is sometimes sharp and sometimes soft, the sound of the pipa is sometimes fierce and sometimes graceful...
With the actors’ hard work, the scene was soon plunged into a sea of ​​joy.
The people of Yongcheng, who usually have no entertainment activities, regardless of adults or children, men or women, old or young, all sang, danced, made noise and noise like crazy.
That look was even more terrifying than when Ying Chengjiao went crazy on the stage before.
It is no wonder that Zigong watched the wax festival and said that the people of the whole country went crazy about it.
All the sounds blend together in this annual grand carnival, which should have lasted for a long time.
But this year, there was another small incident.
A sharp, piercing sound.
The tone and loudness of the sound far exceeded the sounds of all the musical instruments in the world, causing the entire Yongcheng area to fall into a brief stagnation.
The one who played the guzheng stopped playing, the one who struck the chimes stopped striking, the one who played the green flute stopped playing, and the one who plucked the pipa with disordered fingers stopped plucking.
The actors, whether wearing animal skins or not, stopped chasing and looked in the direction of the sound in a daze.
Ling You, who was singing a song whose meaning she didn't even know, closed her mouth and opened her eyes wide to look for the source of the sound.
The actors who were pretending to be animals and imitating animal movements stood up and looked in the same direction.
The common people who were joining in the fun were straining their necks to find what was making such a loud noise.
Under the high platform, there was a group of burly men dressed as servants of Lord Chang'an's mansion, each holding a musical instrument with a mouthpiece like a trumpet and a stem like a flute, which no one had ever seen before.
They held the copper rod in the middle with both hands, and moved their fingers back and forth on it lightly like playing a flute.
The shrill sound came from these dozen or so never-before-seen musical instruments, and they drowned out all the mixed sounds at the scene.
"What is this?"
The First Emperor was halfway down the platform and stood behind Ying Chengjiao. He looked at the people below who were obviously from the Armored Sect and spoke in a suspicious voice.
"Suona." Ying Chengjiao grabbed the hand of the First Emperor and wrote the word "Suona" on it. "Among all musical instruments, Suona is the king."
Listening to the only voice in the whole audience, the First Emperor withdrew his hand and snorted coldly.
"King? In my opinion, he is clearly a scoundrel among the musical instruments! Just as scoundrel as you!"
This is a famous musical instrument hooligan.
Ying Chengjiao stood up with a smile, looked at the disrupted wax sacrifice ceremony, and walked down the stairs.
"I shouldn't have anything to do later. I'll go back to Xianyang first."
"With me." The First Emperor and Ying Chengjiao walked down the stairs together, saying without any doubt.
How can this guy be so bold? He has just made so many enemies, yet he dares to go alone.
Ying Chengjiao was helpless and said, "There is no need to do this, my brother. No one in the world can kill me."
"I don't care whether you live or die. I'm just afraid that you'll make another mess for me when I'm not around!"
"well."
Ying Chengjiao sighed.
"promise."
A child of eight or nine years old ran under the servant who was playing the suona, blinking his big eyes and staring at the suona with a gleam in his eyes.
The Qin people had few toys in their childhood. All they had were the hard-working figures of their parents and news of death from one family after another.
The servant who was playing the suona happily noticed the little guy under him, took his mouth away from the mouth of the suona, squatted down, held the suona in front of the child and said with a smile: "Do you like it?"
Perhaps it was because the servants' uniforms did not look noble enough, or perhaps it was because the children were not yet grown up and could not feel the sky.
The child's eyes followed the movement of the suona and he nodded excitedly.
"I have two."
The servant took out another suona from his arms, and waved one in each hand, looking very proud.
The colors in the child's eyes became brighter.
"Give you one!"
Looking at the suona handed to him, the child wanted to take it but didn't dare to.
He twisted his hands and shook his head with his pale face.
"I have no money."
He turned his head and looked at his mother behind him.
"Neither does my mother."
His father died when he followed Tongwu Hou Wang Ben to attack the State of Wei.
The Qin State won the battle, but his father died and his family lost.
He and his mother haven't had a full meal for a long time. He is nine years old, but his height is the same as that of a six or seven-year-old child.
The offerings distributed at the end of the Wax Festival, the daily food of the nobles, were what the mother and son had been looking forward to for the entire year.
"If it's not nice, how can I ask a kid like you for money? Take it!"
The servant stuffed the newly-taken suona into the child's hand without saying a word, and continued to play the tune as he moved forward with the large group.
Chang'an Jun said that he wanted to circle Yongcheng and let everyone in Yongcheng be brainwashed by suona today!
The young child who took the suona involuntarily was stunned for a moment, then ran back to his mother holding the suona which was too heavy for him.
Holding up the suona, he said excitedly: "Mom, look!"
The mother, who had been watching the child, touched the child's head lovingly.
"Mother, how much can this be exchanged for? How much corn can it be exchanged for?"
The child put the new suona into his mother's hands without hesitation and never played it once from beginning to end.
He was afraid that if he blew the whistle, he would lose a penny.
Mother took it with her rough hands that were used to farm work and looked at it carefully.
"Mother doesn't know either, but it should be at least twenty coins."
The peasant woman made her judgment based on the copper rod of the suona, and that was all she could judge.
Musical instrument, she is just an ordinary peasant woman, how could she know its value.
The peasant woman put the suona in her arms so tenderly that she did not let the child return it.
Those who do not eat the food given out of pity will not starve to death. The nobles who are well fed have nothing to do with the common people.
The peasant woman saw the sparkling look in the child's eyes as he looked at the suona and knew that her child wanted to play it, but she didn't even want to let the child try.
If you blow it once, will you lose one penny?
There were many suonas played by the disciples of the Pijia Sect.
The disciples of the Mohist school, headed by the great scientist, played more suonas.
But there were few new suona sounds heard in Yongcheng.
If you blow it once, will you lose one penny?
The Qin State was at war for years, and nine out of ten families suffered a loss.
The desolate sound of the suona could only make the area near the platform still for a moment, and soon everyone started moving.
Some were singing, some were dancing, some were chasing, and the sounds of various musical instruments were heard, making the crowd more and more joyful.
The whole Yongcheng was immersed in joy. Dozens of disciples from the Pijiamen Sect were playing the suona with all their might. No matter where they went, they were the most handsome guys.
The scientist listened intoxicatedly to the sound of suona, which is known as the rogue musical instrument in modern times.
"Your Majesty said that the suona is an instrument that sends death and welcomes life."
Look up at the sky.
"I will give you life today."
Step into the crowd.
"Come and welcome the people's livelihood."
An hour later, the First Emperor announced that heaven, earth, ghosts and gods had enjoyed the sacrifice.
The cheers of the people of Yongcheng reached the sky, ten times louder than the sound of shouting "Heaven and Earth, bless our Great Qin".
Many civil and military officials frowned and looked at the cheering people with dissatisfaction.
They didn't know why these people were so excited, they found it incomprehensible, they thought it was so noisy.
In the kitchen, the maids went up to the platform in order and took down the sacrificial offerings such as pigs, cows, sheep, and fine wine.
He distributed the food in his hands to the people lining up in front of him amidst their eager and eager eyes.
The people lined up in an orderly manner and would not cut in line no matter how eager they were, because of Qin's law.
During the reign of King Huiwen of Qin, there was a year in Yongcheng where more than a thousand people were killed or injured in a stampede and scramble over the distribution of sacrificial offerings during the Wax Festival.
Since then, there has been a special provision in the Qin Law that no one is allowed to fight for the offerings when they are distributed during the wax sacrifice, and violators will be punished depending on the severity of the crime.
The wax sacrifice ceremony had reached its final step, and there was nothing more that the First Emperor needed to do.
A day of hard work.
The First Emperor felt a little tired as he had to read the sacrificial text, preside over the ceremony, and clean up the mess for some young man.
When he was outside, he was still majestic and showed no sign of tiredness.
As soon as Fang got into the luxurious carriage, he took a quick look at Ying Chengjiao lying on several layers of animal skins and said expressionlessly, "Get up."
Ying Chengjiao put his hands behind his head, tapped his legs, and hummed the suona music outside.
After hearing the Emperor's order, he stopped the song without taking out or lowering his legs, turned his head and asked impatiently, "What's the matter?"
The First Emperor looked at Ying Chengjiao coldly and said, "Can you get up?"
Ying Chengjiao rolled his eyes, and sat up as if he really couldn't do anything to you, and said, "Speak."
The First Emperor naturally walked to Ying Chengjiao, pushed Ying Chengjiao off the animal skin with his butt, lay on it himself, and sighed comfortably.
Phew~
This guy really knows how to enjoy himself!
"That's too much! Before you came here, I asked you if I wanted to lay one for you, but you didn't want one, and now you come and grab mine!"
Ying Chengjiao scolded the First Emperor, and sitting in the position where the First Emperor was reviewing memorials, he patted the cushion under him in dissatisfaction.
Not soft at all!
There was only one piece of floor in the entire carriage, which was covered with animal skins ten centimeters thick. It was arranged by Ying Chengjiao before he got on the carriage.
"What we did today was a spur-of-the-moment decision, or was it something we had planned for years?"
"It was a sudden idea, but it was also a long-term plan." Ying Chengjiao flipped through the memorials boredly and said, "I originally planned to wait a few more years, but now that I have reached that high platform and have this opportunity, I won't wait any longer."
[Meng Tian is in Jiuyuan. Looking at the Xiongnu in front of him, it is tens of millions of miles away from east to west and from north to south. How can such a beautiful land be allowed to be occupied by the Xiongnu? Please mobilize the people to repair the Great Wall and conquer the Xiongnu! ]
Oh, you also want to fight the Huns. That’s great. Little Taotie will be there soon. Don’t worry.
The First Emperor lay flat on his back with his eyes closed, sunk into the animal hides beneath him, unwilling to move except for his lips.
"I won't let you enlighten the people and stop you from doing what you want, but you're doing this to me. I've said that you can do what you want in the seven counties of the northwest, and the results will speak for themselves. You're too impatient. Let me do a better job on this matter."
Ying Chengjiao sneered, "Let you do it? If you do it, won't you be in opposition to these people? When the reform is completed, you will just leave and send me up to suffer. That's wishful thinking."
Whoever wants to change the law will suffer backlash.
"Now that things have come to this, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's talk about something else." The First Emperor adjusted his posture to make himself more comfortable and said, "Since you love the people so much, why don't you make more sacrifices?"
There are many offerings to the sky during the wax festival every year, but there are even more people in Yongcheng.
The chickens, ducks, fish, meat, pigs, dogs, deer, sheep, fine wine and delicacies piled densely on the platform were simply not enough to be shared.
"It is better to retreat and make a net than to stand by the river and envy the fish. How much can I contribute as a sacrifice? Can it feed the whole city of Yong? It is just a meal."
Ying Chengjiao walked to the door of the carriage, lifted the curtain and looked outside.
“It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. The ‘fish’ in the beginning refers to the fish of the flesh, while the ‘fishing’ in the end refers to the fishing of the fisherman.”
"It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish." The First Emperor recited it softly and said with a smile, "You are a boy who always makes sense. This sentence is quite clever."
The noise and laughter outside echoed in the originally relatively quiet carriage.
The most obvious sound is the piercing suona sound, which stands out among the many other sounds.
"Does this piece have a name?"
"A hundred birds pay homage to the phoenix."
"It sounds joyful, but a little undignified."
Before the Qin Dynasty, joy was not based on music and dance, but on solemnity and dignity.
As a noble, how can you be so unreserved?
"That depends on who is listening. My brother will be happy if he listens."
The First Emperor opened his eyes, propped up his head with one hand, tilted his body to look at his brother, and said casually, "Are you listening?"
Could it be that the song I copied was for myself?
Ying Chengjiao rolled his eyes and said, "Of course I am happy."
“Who would not be happy to hear this?”
"sky."
Ying Chengjiao pointed above his head, squinted his eyes, and looked at the ministers who got on the carriage with unhappy faces.
And you.
The ministers even thought that the people, who were laughing and joking, were too noisy. How could they like the suona, which was making its first public appearance in the world?
"What does the heaven mean?"
"I fight against the heavens, and the heavens listen to my own sorrows and joys."
The First Emperor closed his eyes and thought about the ministers and people who were standing below the platform and shouting, "Heaven and Earth, bless our Great Qin."
"I was speaking the sacrificial oration on a high platform and it was hard to breathe after I finished speaking. But I didn't feel the same way when I spoke it on flat ground. Why is that?"
"The oxygen in the air is thinner, so the same exercise will naturally feel more tiring than on the ground."
"Sheep breath? The breath exhaled by sheep?"
The First Emperor was puzzled. He heard another word he had never heard before.
"It's hard to explain this to you. Let me think about it." Ying Chengjiao stroked his chin and said, "You've been to Mount Tai. Doesn't it feel similar to speaking on a high platform?"
The First Emperor recalled for a moment and said, "I am more tired than today. Is it related to the sheep spirit you mentioned? Those Confucian scholars told me that Mount Tai is a sacred place."
"I don't know if Mount Tai is sacred or not, but I know you are tired because of the height. You read the same text aloud, and the higher you go, the more tired you will be."
"Is that so?" The First Emperor nodded doubtfully and decided to go back and build a three-meter-high building in Xianyang.
When Yongcheng was full of joy.
Xianyang was also full of joy.
The Wax Festival was celebrated by the entire Qin State, regardless of region.
There were so many people in Xianyang city that they occupied all the roads originally used for carriages and horses.
This made it impossible for a horse from Han to get on the road at a speed of 800 li.
But regardless of whether the highway was used or not, the news from Han had reached Xianyang, waiting for the First Emperor to return.