General Qin

Qin Shihuang's convoy passed through Jimo all the way, and went north to Yeyi. They did not stop at these two cities, but continued eastward, and after a few days, they arrived at Huang County in the northeast of Jiaodong Peninsula.

When he got here, the first emperor rarely stopped.

He needs to do something very important to Qin here.

After the continuous rush, Zhao Tuo had some time to rest.

At dusk, Zhao Tuo and Ziying made an appointment to go to the city of Huang County to blow some air, so as to dispel the fatigue after the long journey.

However, the first emperor had a work addiction, and as soon as he went to the city to rest for a while, he just immersed himself in reviewing documents.

He probably disliked that Hu Hai's presence would affect his work, so he also sent Hu Hai to Zhao Tuo and Ziying.

Zhao Tuo is Hu Hai's sister-in-law, and Ziying is Hu Hai's uncle. Both of them are elders, and it seems reasonable to help the emperor bring up the baby.

In fact, Zhao Tuo is still Ziying's junior, so he has to be called an uncle like Hu Hai.

However, Ziying is honest and honest, seeing that Zhao Tuo is about the same age as himself, and he has a lot of admiration for Zhao Tuo's brilliant achievements.

After being called "uncle" by Zhao Tuo for the first time, Ziying waved his hand to say that the two were about the same age, and Zhao Tuo was also the title of Marquis of Lun, so it would be better to address each other as "son" and "junhou".

This is probably why Zhao Tuo was willing to make friends with Ziying.

If he had to call Ziying his uncle every time he saw Ziying, Zhao Tuo probably didn't want to have too much contact with him.

At this moment, the three of them were standing at the head of Huangxian City. The yellow sun was falling on their heads, and they could vaguely see a mountain peak on the south side.

"Uncle, brother-in-law. Father said that he would go to Laishan to worship the Lord of the Moon, and then set off for Zhifu Island. But I heard that the Lord of the Moon is the god of the Qi people. Why did the father come to sacrifice to these gods of the Qi people? ?”

Hu Hai pointed to the mountain shadow in the distance and asked Zhao Tuo and Ziying about it.

Ziying thought for a while, and said: "Probably to appease the people of Qi. My Great Qin destroyed the six kingdoms, and Qi surrendered directly after a great war. Its national power was not greatly damaged. Tian was moved into Guanzhong by the emperor, which may have caused dissatisfaction among many Qi people, so the emperor visited the east and sacrificed to the eight gods of the Qi people along the way, which is to save the heart of compassion."

As he said that, Ziying looked at Zhao Tuo and said with a smile, "Your Majesty, am I right?"

Zhao Tuo nodded and said, "My lord is right. In addition to appeasing the hearts of the Qi people, I think the emperor may want to integrate the conflicting Qin culture and the cultures of the six eastern countries, so that the world will eventually become one."

"Multiple cultures?"

Ziying was a little surprised, with a thoughtful look on his face.

Hu Hai opened his eyes, half understanding.

Zhao Tuo smiled, and looked at Laishan in the distance at dusk, as if he could see the Yuezhu temple on the mountain through the dim light.

He originally thought that the reason why Emperor Shi Huang urgently wanted to tour the East was because he was bewitched by Confucian scholars and alchemists, and only wanted to come here to enshrine Zen and seek immortality for the elixir of death.

But as the east tour progressed, Zhao Tuo discovered that the emperor's east tour actually had a certain positive significance.

One is that the emperor took the opportunity of inspecting the eastern border to understand the situation in the hometown of the princes, and used the emperor's power to deter those with malicious intentions, so as to achieve the purpose of stabilizing the territory.

The second is to enshrine Zen to promote the destiny, to carve stones and erect monuments to praise Qin Gong and Qin De, to seize the commanding heights of public opinion, and to brainwash the scholars of the six countries spiritually, so that they gradually accept the rule of Qin.

On the way of the east tour, the first emperor also offered sacrifices to the eight gods of Qi, and announced that they would be included in the sacrificial system of Qin. Fusion plan.

As we all know, in this ancient era, the important affairs of the country depended on sacrifices and soldiers.

Except for the seven heroes of the Warring States Period in the past, except Zhao, Wei, and Han who were culturally similar, most of the other countries had their own unique systems of worshiping gods.

Qin has God, Chen Bao, Nu Te, Feng Nu, Du Zhu, Sanshe Zhu and so on.

In Chu there is Taiyi, the Great Commander, the Lesser Commander, the King of Xiang, and Mrs. Xiang.

As for the state of Qi, there are eight more gods, named God, Lord of the Land, Lord of Soldiers, Lord of Yin, Lord of Yang, Lord of the Moon, Lord of the Sun, and Lord of the Four Seasons.

The difference in the system of worshiping the gods also represents the difference in culture and thought.

For believers, heretics are always the worst enemies.

Qin Shihuang seemed to know this too. While he was pursuing the unification of government orders, he required all counties and counties in the world to have one character, one currency, and one weight and measure.

In terms of beliefs, he chose to be inclusive, and did not force the princes to give up the gods they believed in. Instead, they selectively absorbed the gods of other princes into the sacrifices of the Qin State.

Among them, the eight gods of Qidi pay the most attention.

In the past, the emperor sacrificed to the sky on Mount Tai, and Liang Fu sacrificed to the land, and now he is planning to perform sacrifices on Mount Lai, where the people of Qi worship the Lord of the Moon. This is to show an attitude.

The eight gods of Qidi are now the righteous gods of Qin, and the gods that you Qi people worship are the gods of my Great Qin.

This reminded Zhao Tuo of the Roman Empire, which also absorbed the gods of the opponent into its own god system every time it conquered a region or nation.

The two great empires of the East and the West both chose this method by coincidence.

I conquer you, not destroy your gods, but I want to make your gods become mine.

Doing so can not only eliminate the resistance of the conquered because of their beliefs, but also accelerate the rapid integration of the two originally different cultures.

What Emperor Shihuang is doing now is probably another unification of thought after the unification of characters, currency, and weights and measures.

While Zhao Tuo lamented the "unified thought" of the first emperor, he once again became wary of Lu Sheng and other alchemists.

"Lu Sheng is really well-prepared, and he doesn't leave any flaws in his work. Obviously, the overseas islands in the northeast of Huang County are closer, and there are often mirage scenes, but they still gave up and deliberately led the emperor to Zhifu Island. , I am afraid it is because of this reason."

Thinking of this, Zhao Tuo's eyes gradually turned cold,

Going northeast in Huangxian County is Penglai District of Yantai City in later generations. Its geographical location is near the seaside. It is said that some people have seen the appearance of a fairyland there. After going out to the sea for a certain distance from there, you can come to dozens of islands called Changshan Islands by later generations, where the water vapor is abundant, and it is a good place to watch the sea.

But Lu Sheng and the others gave up here and chose Zhifu Island farther away.

"Although mirages often appear on the seashore in summer, they have never been regular. They are just a word of fate. Sometimes you may not be able to see them after waiting for a few years. Lu Sheng also knows this. If the emperor is in Huangxian The seaside or the overseas islands are waiting for the mirage, but if it does not appear in the end, the emperor will probably be furious, and even anger them."

"But Zhifu Island is different. It is the place where the people of Qi worship the Yang Lord, one of the eight gods. The emperor wanted to sacrifice to the eight gods of Qidi. He would have gone there. Even if the mirage did not appear in the end, the emperor would not be as angry as in other places. The sacrifice of the eight gods is probably a way out for Lu Sheng to find for himself, this old guy is really a smart man."

Zhao Tuo secretly sighed, he only thought of this after he knew that the emperor was going to Laishan to sacrifice to the Lord of the Moon, and he felt that Lu Sheng was a talent, much more witty than that Hou Si who made medicine in Xianyang.

"It's a pity that he entered the immortal way by mistake. I don't know how elusive the road to seeking immortality is. I want to see how these alchemists will end up if there is no mirage appearing on Zhifu Island."

...

"Grand Lu, a letter has arrived. Xu City has successfully captured the strange beast in the sea, and is now waiting on Zhifu Island. When the emperor arrives, he can present it to the emperor."

At the same time, Han Zhong happily reported to Lu Sheng with a letter.

"It's so good. The matter of the fairyland is elusive, and no one knows when it will appear. If the emperor goes to Zhifu Island but doesn't see the fairyland, although there is the temple of the Lord of the Sun to offset the sin, it is still not safe. Now Xu Shi came here to capture the strange beasts in the sea, which can prove the theory of overseas, so even if the fairyland does not appear, the emperor will not be disappointed and blame us."

Lu Sheng stroked his white beard and laughed.

The emperor's east tour is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for their alchemists. They want to take this opportunity to show the emperor the mysteries of overseas, prove the existence of immortals, and ask the emperor to give money to people and support them to go out to sea to find immortals.

But it's not safe to rely on such a big event only on the wonders of the fairyland. That's not Lu Sheng's style, so when he was in Xianyang, he had already contacted the well-known alchemists in Qi.

Xu City!

"Historical Records Fengchan Book": The first emperor then traveled eastward to the sea, paying homage to the famous mountains and rivers and the eight gods...the eight gods: the fifth is the Lord of Yang, and the shrine is Zhifu. The sixth moon is the Lord of the Moon, and the Lai Mountain of the temple.