Qin Official

On the first day of March in the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor's reign, at sunrise (from 5 to 7 o'clock), the sky was still dark. Standing under the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, wearing a Xièzhi (xièzhi) crown and a gray-haired Tingwei Li Si looked up.

In front of the palace, there is a slope on the left, where the emperor can ride a chariot, and on the right, there are 360 ​​steps for ministers to climb. There are tall wooden pillars standing on the foundation stone, a stone floor, and golden walls. , with rare jade stones in between, the luxury of its architecture is unmatched by other palaces...

The palace was lit up with lanterns and was as bright as the sun during the day. The pottery dragon snakes were hovering on the eaves several feet above the ground. There were also sculptures of black birds spreading their wings and about to take flight, emitting the first call of the empire.

Looking up makes you taller, drilling makes you stronger, this is how Zhongni's disciples felt about Confucius. For Li Si, no matter how many times he looked up at the pinnacle of power, he still felt this way.

Looking back, the first time he came here was twenty years ago. At that time, he had left Shangcai and entered Xianyang for a few years. He first became a disciple of Lu Buwei and helped him compile "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", so that he could be recognized. Then he was appointed as Lang by Lu Buwei and was able to enter Zhangtai Palace and meet His Majesty for the first time.

From the first meeting, Li Si understood that although Lu Buwei had great power over the Qin State, he would wither and die sooner or later. On the contrary, the Qin Dynasty in its weak years would rise like the rising sun...

So he began to distance himself from his relationship with Lu Buwei early. After the King of Qin came to power, he quickly changed his family. He tried his best to follow the law, threatened Han and weakened Wei, defeated Yan, Zhao, Yi, Qi, and Chu, conquered the six kingdoms, and captured the king. , the King of Qin became the Son of Heaven and was called the Emperor.

During this process, Li Si felt that his contribution was not small. He was also rewarded by the emperor. His official position was from Lang to guest minister and court captain. His title was also mentioned to the 17th level, the commander of the carriages and carriages. His eldest son Li Youshang was Princess Qin, and his middle son There are also opportunities for the same.

The emperor trusted the most, and no one could surpass Li Si!

Today, he is no longer a toilet rat, but a powerful minister that everyone admires.

But people will never be satisfied with climbing to the top of power.

Today is the first major court meeting after His Majesty became emperor. The three princes and nine ministers have arrived. A group of motorcades holding torches drove out from all over Xianyang, gathered at Zhangtai Street, and headed to Longshou Gate in a mighty manner. After entering, The ministers' carriages and horses stopped, and they walked in with jade and Gui in their hands.

Only four vehicles were allowed to drive directly in and arrive under the main hall.

The four carriages are the Prime Minister Wei Zhuang on the right, the Prime Minister Wang Wan on the left, the imperial censor Feng Quji, and the court captain Li Si.

After the four ministers got out of the car, after some humility, they took the initiative to sort out the order of ascending the steps according to their official positions.

It is a pity that although Li Si is the emperor's closest minister, he can only be ranked at the bottom of the four.

Therefore, from Li Si's perspective, the three figures in front stood between him and the pinnacle of power.

"The right Prime Minister Wei is very old. He has three meals and three arrows. His life is not long, so there is no need to worry about it."

"Feng Quji, the imperial censor, first took up this position. His ambitions are not strong and he has not made great contributions to the country. He will not be promoted again within a few years, so there is no need to worry."

After holding Bai Yugui up the stairs, Li Si automatically ignored Wei Xiang, who was struggling to walk, and Feng Quji, who was kind to him but not very ambitious, and then set his sights on the second person.

Wang Wan, named Zuo Xiang, has actually assumed great power. Everyone with a discerning eye knows that Wei Zhuang will step down soon, and Wang Wan will take the position of one person below ten thousand people. In addition, he was originally from Shandong and had been in Jixia. Recently, he had a fierce fight with the Seventy Doctors and introduced many Yin and Yang families to join the Qin Dynasty. Everyone recommended the Five Virtues of the First Dynasty, thinking that the Zhou Dynasty was a fire virtue, and the Qin Dynasty Zhou De uses water to overcome fire.

So he persuaded the emperor to designate Qin as the beginning of Shui De Shui, and took measures such as changing the name of the river to De Shui. Today's court meeting will first announce this.

Wang Wan thought she had accomplished something, so she was so proud that she walked with her head held high and her chest held high.

Regarding this matter, as well as the previous matter of discussing the emperor's title, Li Si did not raise any objections. He obeyed Wang Wan in everything, as if he respected him...

Therefore, some people in the court discussed that the memorials written by Xiaolang Guan Heifu and CRRC Zhao Gao were intended by the emperor, but Li Si, the emperor's closest minister, was mistaken this time...

"Did you make a mistake?"

Li Si sneered in his heart. In twenty years, he had never looked past him!

Seeing the emperor's ambition to unify the world, he suggested that the King of Qin conduct political intrigues, provide money and jade, and envoys to lobby the princes to defeat them one by one. He also appointed Chang Shi to personally preside over the matter.

He saw that although the emperor was under pressure from the clan and the old Qin people in Guanzhong, he issued an order to expel guests, but in fact he was unwilling to expel guests, so he wrote the "Book of Remonstrance and Expulsion of Guests" with thousands of words of literary talent, which greatly pleased the King of Qin and spread the message to the people. The minister turned the situation around in one fell swoop.

Discussing the title was of great benefit to Heifu and Zhao Gao, but it was only a small gain to Li Si.

So he deliberately attached himself to Wang Wan and gave him the title "Emperor Tai", which gave Prime Minister Zuo enough face and made Wang Wan think that he was willing to serve under him and would also second Wang Wan's subsequent suggestions.

He knew that Wang Wan, encouraged by the group of doctors and Confucian scholars, would make a bold suggestion today...

"The outcome of you and me, our official career in the next ten years, and Great Qin's national policy for all eternity will be determined by today's meeting!"

With this thought, Li Si quickened his pace, but at this moment, the right prime minister Wei Xiang was walking in front of him with a dove stick. After climbing 360 steps, he was about to reach the top, but he missed his footing and almost fell down!

If this old prime minister falls down here, his life will be lost immediately!

Fortunately, just a moment later, a black-faced man, who had been staring at the old minister on the steps, came up and supported Wei Xiang. "Right Prime Minister, watch your step!"

Lang Guan supported Wei Zhuang and walked steadily to the front of the top hall, asked his subordinates to look after him, and then bowed to the three people who came up one after another: "I have seen Prime Minister Zuo, Yushi Dafu... and Tingwei!"

Wang Wan looked at the Langguan who spoke with a Nanjun accent. Judging from his dress and the seal around his waist, he should be one of the three orders of Zhonglang household, riding and chariot.

Lang Guan is mostly a descendant of Guanzhong nobles. Because he is not engaged in production and is from the north, he has a fair complexion. However, the man in front of him has a dark face. I am afraid he is the "black husband" who recently won the favor of the emperor because of his title...

Because of their high position and authority, they would not talk much to Hu Ling, a young lieutenant. They nodded, and then entered the palace one after another with Wei Xiang, who almost made a fool of himself.

Only Li Si stopped when passing Heifu.

Heifu still maintained his bowing posture, very respectfully.

Li Si turned around and looked at the 360 ​​stone steps below, as well as the palace gates, streets, Weishui River, and Xianyang in the distance. He didn't know if he was talking to himself or to Hei Fu.

"I have been up and down Zhangtai Hall countless times, so I know that not many people can clearly see where they are coming from after climbing to this position."

Li Si glanced at Hei Fu again and said calmly: "You did a pretty good job."

What he spoke was not Guanzhong dialect, but Shangcai dialect.

"Only, Heifu Xie Tingwei taught me..." Heifu also replied in Nanjun dialect.

There are no unnecessary words, no gestures of intimacy, everyone is smart, everything is self-explanatory.

Li Si immediately walked into the palace. The brief contact between the two was very ordinary, and no one heard what he said. Heifu's subordinates who were on duty outside the palace, the etiquette officers inside the palace who greeted the ministers, and those who inspected everyone's etiquette to see if they were in compliance with the regulations. None of the censors noticed.

Only under the stairs, Zhao Gao, the commander of CRRC, who was also looking up to the top of power, looked at this scene faintly, and looked at Li Si's brief stay beside Hei Fu, but he showed a smile of unknown meaning...