Qin Official

After leaving Loufan, Qin Shihuang arrived in Mayi County.

Yanmen County is surrounded by mountains, with branches of Yinshan Mountain to the north, Guanchuan Mountain to the west, the Yellow River on the outer edge, Yanmen Mountain to the south, Hengshan Mountain to the east, and a long and narrow basin (Datong Basin) in the middle, with Yeshui (Sangqian) River) runs through the entire territory from southwest to northeast. This geographical situation is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and it is a "key" place in the military.

Mayi County is located in the middle of the Datong Basin, separated from the river in the west and the vast desert in the north. It controls the main road between Yanmen Pass and Wuzhou Fortress. The vassal guards of Zhuang Yanmen are the lips and teeth of the clouds, standing tall in the north, which is Dai Dai. The great defense of the north.

Mayi had only been under the Qin State for ten years, and most of the local people immigrated from Handan and Julu. The county temple used as a palace still had obvious Zhao architectural style. This made the First Emperor very unhappy when he saw it, and ordered the government to change it!

In the two years since its unification, Qin has been trying to carry out a "de-Six Kingdoms" campaign: changing its writing, weights and measures, confiscating its history books and adding them to Qin's secret collections, and abolishing all the past systems and official positions of the Six Kingdoms, and only implementing the Qin system. But it is not easy to make the people of the Six Kingdoms forget the past and regard themselves as Qin people.

No, during his stay in Mayi, Qin Shi Huang heard a case reported by the Prime Minister of Yanmen County...

"Your Majesty, the people of Mayi secretly set up a shrine to Li Mu in the east of the city to commemorate Li Mu every year. The incense continues, and the government destroyed it many times. However, the people of Mayi secretly set up sacrifices to worship Li Mu. In addition to Mayi, there are also shrines to Li Mu in Shanwu and Pingcheng."

Now the county government is faced with a dilemma: the people of Yanmen County have never forgotten Li Mu and have repeatedly banned it. Should the government regard Li Mu's temple as a temple of obscenity and intensify its efforts to destroy it? Or is it based on the wishes of the local people and turning a blind eye?

"It's so confusing!"

As soon as the county magistrate finished speaking, Li Si, the court captain, reprimanded: "The imperial court has established laws. Those who are included in the sacrificial canon or ancestral order are considered to be serious sacrifices, and those who are not included are considered to be obscene sacrifices!"

"Yin" means excessive and extra. The ancients once said: "The great affairs of the country lie in sacrifice and military service." Sacrifice since the Shang and Zhou Dynasties has been divided into three major systems: gods, earth, and humans and ghosts. And these three, due to the division of princes, all have strong regional characteristics, and the gods in various places are mutually exclusive.

Needless to say, when it comes to ancestor sacrifices of humans and ghosts, "gods will not sacrifice those who are not human beings, and people will not sacrifice those who are not their tribe." All countries will only sacrifice their own ancestors and gods, and will not recognize their ancestors indiscriminately.

In terms of land, it is mainly mountains and rivers. There is a saying that "three generations of people have sacrificed their lives, and the sacrifices should not exceed Wang". For example, the Qin State worshiped four famous mountains such as Huashan; the Jin people worshiped the three mountains of Taihang, Wangwu, and Huotai; the Qi people worshiped Penglai, Yingzhou, The three sacred mountains of Abbot also have the "eight masters" of gods; the Chu people also have Wushan and Gangshan.

As for the Sacrifice of the Gods, in addition to the "Haotian God" that everyone recognizes, all the territories that are sealed are divided into stars. Everyone must be sure to identify the sky boundaries of their own country, and they must not be mistaken.

After Qin Shihuang came to power, he discovered that although the politics were unified and the carriages were on the same track and the books were on the same text, the sacrifices in various places still went their own way.

The unification that the First Emperor wanted was the unification of "the six continents share the same style and the nine states share the same common ground". In order to integrate culture, he began to formulate rituals, music, and rituals from the beginning of his reign. Those more than seventy Confucian scholars and doctors were not just freeloaders. What they helped Qin Shihuang do was to unify the etiquette and sacrifices in the world.

The first is the mountains and rivers. The Qin Dynasty officials collected the mountains and rivers of the world, and took the seven famous mountains in the Qin Guanzhong and the five famous mountains in the Guandong to form the "Twelve Mountains and Four Dams". This is a mountain and river sacrificial system recognized by the government, and grand sacrifices are held every year.

As for the gods of mountains and rivers who were not selected, they were not rashly beaten to death. Although they were not accepted as officials by the emperor, county officials and people could worship them as appropriate.

The mountains and rivers are taken care of, but there are some problems with humans and ghosts, because local ghosts and celebrities are often worshiped in various places. There are too many, and they are all regarded as obscene temples? There is a blanket suspicion, but there are not so many manpower and time to identify them one by one.

As a result, such a phenomenon has emerged. Many local strange and obscene temples are not recognized by the government. People offer sacrifices and pray, but the government does not pay much attention to them.

But Li Muci is different, because he was once the enemy of Qin, the enemy of life and death!

Qin Shihuang especially remembered that Li Mu, this name appeared countless times in frontline military reports, which was followed by two major defeats of the Qin army...

That happened in the 13th or 14th year of Qin Shihuang. During that time, Wang Jianlan defeated the Zhao army in a battle with him. Qin general Huanjue (yi) attacked Zhao Pingyang again, killed Zhao general Huju, and beheaded 100,000 people. Seemingly helpless to resist, the Qin government and the public were filled with joy, feeling that the destruction of Zhao was just around the corner.

Only Zhao Gao said to Qin Shihuang that Huanjuan was prone to arrogance, and I was afraid that he would be wrong...

Sure enough, as Li Mu returned to Zhao from Yanmen and took over the command, Huanjue's nightmare began. In the Battle of Yi'an, the entire Qin army was wiped out, and Huanjue was defeated and fled.

The following year, Qin Shihuang was unwilling to accept it and continued to attack Zhao, but Li Mu defeated the Qin army again at Panwu...

That was the biggest defeat Qin suffered after Qin Shihuang took office. Li Mu turned out to be the biggest obstacle to Qin Shihuang's unification of the world.

Fortunately, in the next few years, Wang Jian and Li Mu faced each other, and the two of them went back and forth, and neither one could take advantage. In the end, Wang Jian relied on a counter-intuitive plan to make Zhao Xiang Guo Kaijin slander and kill Li Mu, so that the Qin army could easily destroy Zhao...

Such a person was a hero of the Zhao people but an enemy of the Qin people. How could he be allowed to be sacrificed and mourned?

Therefore, Li Si believed that all Li Mu temples in Yanmen County should be destroyed and the worshipers should be dealt with in accordance with the law.

"Those who are good at building strange temples will be awarded the title of Erjia!"

Legalists believe that heavy punishment is the most effective means of deterrence. It is better to convince the people with leniency than with violence. The fire is so fierce that the people look at it and fear it, so they die quickly. Water is weak, and if people play with it, many people will die.

Once the fine is imposed, let’s see who dares to miss Li Mu!

At this time, Meng Tian on the side said: "Your Majesty, I have also heard about this. After some inquiries, the local soldiers said that they sacrificed to commemorate Li Mu not because he was an enemy of Qin, but because they respected him as his successor. Yanmen resisted the Xiongnu invasion, but he was killed by a foolish king and traitorous ministers, and died miserably..."

Since Meng Tian was defeated in the first attack on Chu, he has been lingering in Yunzhong and Yanmen, destroying the dynasty and defeating Qi. After serving as an official in the court for a short time, he returned here.

Therefore, he understands the border situation better than Li Si.

"Although Yanmen, Yunzhong and Jiuyuan were established during the reign of King Wuling of Zhao, after the Battle of Changping, the Zhao state declined greatly and was attacked by Qin and Yan from both sides. The border defenses were lax, which gave the Xiongnu an opportunity. Come to Yanmen to do Li Mu's work When I was the governor, Yunzhong and Jiuyuan had been gradually abandoned and fell into the hands of the Xiongnu, and the Zhao border had retreated to the line between Shanwu and Pingcheng."

"The border barbarians in Yanmen were invaded several times, and the people were miserable. The border generals were unable to do anything to the Huns. When they went to war, they were often defeated by the Huns. The border population was plundered, and the fields and livestock could not be carried out normally. Until Li Mu became the general. , just changed the previous method."

Meng Tian admired Li Mu's strategy. He adopted a defensive stance. Every time the Huns invaded, the beacon sent an alarm and immediately gathered his troops and retreated to the Great Wall to defend, leaving the Huns with nothing to gain. Over the past few years, the Huns thought that Li Mu was timid, but they did not know that he had been training quietly in the Great Wall for a long time, but he kept pretending to fail, which made the Huns become more arrogant.

Finally, Li Mu asked merchants to place a large number of cattle and sheep outside the fortress, all over the mountains and plains, to lure the Huns to come. However, when the Huns were fighting for the cattle and sheep, they used 1,300 chariots, 13,000 horses, and 50,000 soldiers. Half of Zhao's 100,000-strong army attacked them and defeated the Xiongnu's more than 100,000 cavalry.

After that, Li Mu destroyed Xiu, defeated Donghu, and recovered Yunzhong and Jiuyuan.

In Meng Tian's heart, Li Mu was comparable to his predecessors. He came to Dai and Yanmen, took over Zhao's border soldiers and Loufan warriors, and attacked the Xiongnu, which had the meaning of "carrying on Li Mu's legacy".

But what will happen to such a character? It was even more miserable than Bai Qi. Bai Qi could kill himself with his sword, but Li Mu couldn't do it.

Because according to local veterans, Li Mu was born with a disability. His right arm was rickety and unable to straighten, so he always held the blade with his left hand. Even when he knelt down to King Zhao, his right arm couldn't reach the ground, so he had to make a prosthetic limb to show respect for King Zhao. However, the traitor Guo Kai said that he was hiding a murder weapon and wanted to assassinate and commit rebellion!

Finally, when Li Mu was sentenced to death, because his right hand was disabled, he drew his sword to kill himself but could not reach his own neck. In the end, he held the long sword in his mouth, pressed the sword against a pillar, and died!

After Meng Tian heard about Li Mu's deeds, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. It was really a pity that a general who had always victorious in every battle should end up like this.

Of course he would not have thought that he would have a similar ending in history...

Therefore, in Meng Tian's eyes, it was reasonable and reasonable for the locals to worship Li Mu, and there was nothing wrong with it. If he were not wearing this official uniform, he would also like to worship Li Mu together.

Seeing Meng Tian, ​​a junior, competing with him here, Li Si was inevitably unhappy and said:

"General Meng admires Li Mu very much. Not only does he imitate his tactics, but he also wants to preserve his temple. Or is it because he and you are both generals in Daibei? I heard that Li Mu has great powers and can be used according to his own wishes. It is necessary to set up officials at will, and the taxes from Dai and Yanmen are directly sent to Li Mu's shogunate as military expenses, General Meng, do you want to imitate this?"

Li Si's words were a little heart-wrenching. Zhao Gao, the commander of CRRC on the side, felt secretly happy when he saw this...

"I have absolutely no intention of doing so."

Meng Tian bowed down and said, "I just feel that blocking is worse than sparing. Allowing the Yanmen people to sacrifice Li Mu will actually arouse the local people to share the same hatred with the Xiongnu, which will be beneficial to the military in the coming year!"

Li Si still objected:

"Your Majesty, back then, King Zhao was ill, and the people bought oxen to pray for the king. As a result, when King Zhao found out, he not only refused to reward him, but instead punished him, saying: 'Being good at praying without ordering is a sign of love for others. Husband loves me. I am a man, I am a man who changes the law and follows it with his heart, the law is not established; the law is not established, which is the way to chaos and destruction. It is not as good as punishing two armors and then reincarnating them!"

"If the law is not followed now and the people of Yanmen are allowed to sacrifice to the Li Mu Temple, then in the future, the Chu people can also sacrifice to the Xiang Yan Temple, and the Yan people can also sacrifice to the Prince Dan and Jing Ke Temples. I think that the Yimen Temple will be destroyed and the national law will be established! "

Qin Shihuang was still the same as before. When his ministers argued, he just listened quietly and only cared about the final verdict.

He tapped the table gently with his hand, and suddenly looked at Zhao Gao, who seemed to have nothing to do with him: "Zhao Gao, what do you think?"

Zhao Gao bowed down and said, "How dare I, a young minister, to speak arbitrarily about the words of the two monarchs? But... I remember that before His Majesty's northern tour, the Beidi County Lieutenant wrote a letter saying that in February and March, he had been ordered by Your Majesty to visit the county. , went to Chao Naqiu to worship. During the period, it was discovered that the people of Huarong in Beidi County often sacrificed to the local wild fox mandrill. All of the above are obscene temples. They cannot be allowed to be allowed, and it is inappropriate to ban them altogether. He has rectified the gains and losses in the local area. His Majesty ordered his ministers to prepare an edict. Reply, I know this."

"Since the Beidi County Lieutenant seems to have some experience in renovating the temple of obscenity, why don't your majesty ask the envoy to ask him? Maybe he can tell some unusual insights..."

After saying this, Zhao Gao lowered his head, but Meng Tian didn't notice anything. He just thought it was the emperor's normal discussion among the ministers. Li Si glanced at Zhao Gao meaningfully, but then raised his head confidently.

Qin Shihuang laughed. Although he knew what his ministers were thinking, he was happy to watch them compete with each other.

"Yes! Send an edict to Beidi County quickly to ask! You will give me an answer within one month!"

…

The emperor's messenger rode lightly to deliver the edict. He changed horses without changing people, and galloped along the newly repaired straight road at an extremely fast speed. He arrived at Yiqu City in ten days and handed the emperor's edict to Heifu.

Heifu respectfully took the edict and asked someone to take the envoy to rest. After returning to the inner room, he said to his wife, who was three months pregnant and was raising the baby at home:

"No matter which side you support, you will offend someone! If I say I don't know, it will make His Majesty think that I am pretending to be confused, which will create an excuse for nothing. Someone is really insidious and deliberately kicked the ball to me!"