Compared to the last time he arrived in Xianyang City in a hurry to show off his military power, Zhao Hongrun was finally able to take a good tour of the new capital of Qin this time.
In fact, before Zhao Ran, Wei Yang and other Xianyang nobles came out of the city to greet them, Zhao Hongrun was chatting with Weiyang Jun Ying Hua, Yangquan Jun Ying Bo, Lantian Jun Ying Ban and others while observing the Xianyang city wall.
The city wall of Xianyang is really high. It is taller than any county town in Wei State. It is more than ten feet high, or even nearly twenty feet high. And how high is the tallest well-mounted chariot built by the Wei army?
Twelve feet!
Therefore, it has to be said that the towering city wall of Xianyang is a very severe test for any army trying to attack.
And this is one of the reasons why Weiyang Jun Yinghua sacrificed more than 60,000 tattooed troops but failed to capture Fenghao, and Wuxin Hou Gongsunqi led hundreds of thousands of troops but failed to capture Xiagui - Fenghao, Xiagui's
Although the city wall is not as high as Xianyang, it still has a wall of more than ten feet. As long as there is no huge disparity in strength between the attacking and defending sides, it will be really difficult to conquer this kind of city.
Through Zhao Hongrun's observation, he discovered that Xianyang's city walls were basically built with large stone bricks five feet long, three feet wide and high, and the gap between the two bricks was extremely small. This construction technology
, which made Zhao Hongrun very doubtful whether Qin also knew how to mix cement.
After his insinuation, he realized that the people of Qin had already known how to use lime as a cementing material for building materials, which was only one step away from cement.
There is no way, the eight hundred miles of Qinling Mountains are too rich in mineral deposits. The Qin State's mineral deposits are not comparable to those of Central Plains countries like Wei State, which have few mountains in their territory.
But in general, Qin is still generally poor. According to Zhao Hongrun, it took the Qin people a full thirteen years to build Xianyang, using 400,000 ordinary people's labor force. This made Zhao Hongrun secretly shake his head: the construction efficiency was too low!
With the same time and the same labor force, Zhao Hongrun could even build a Great Wall that surrounded the entire Wei State, or lay a road network on at least 70% of Wei State's land, given that Wei already had cement.
Stepping into the city, Zhao Hongrun's evaluation of Qin's "generally magnificent buildings" immediately disappeared, because after passing the city gate, he looked at the buildings in the city and found that they were generally ordinary civil construction houses.
It was simply a thatched cottage, which made Zhao Hongrun feel that he was not in the capital of Qin, but in a small mountain village.
Perhaps noticing Zhao Hongrun's expression, the chief concubine Zhao Ran explained in a low voice: "This is the 'Jili', where common people live."
Zhao Hongrun nodded and said nothing more.
According to his understanding of Qin's system, he felt that Qin's system was really strange.
On the one hand, Qin's class system is as harsh as Chu's, dividing the lowest common people into two types: "nobles" and "untouchables." Juemin are common people with titles, such as the lowest level in the military merit system.
"Gongshi".
Only common people with meritorious titles can enjoy the protection of Qin's laws. Even the upper-class nobles of Qin cannot harm the nobles arbitrarily or plunder their property.
Relatively speaking, people who do not possess any merit are called "untouchables", and their status is the same as that of slaves.
The Qin Army's tattooed army, which the Wei Army was quite afraid of, was composed of at least 70% of these "low-income people" who were eager to improve their social status through military exploits.
According to the harsh Qin laws, untouchable households have no personal freedom, are not allowed to own land, and are not allowed to own personal property. It is also strictly forbidden to marry between untouchable households and noble citizens. If such a thing happens, one party will be deprived of his or her status as a noble citizen.
It is no exaggeration to say that Qin was even more harsh than Chu in this regard.
But from another perspective, the Qin State does not exclude lowly households from being promoted to nobility or even nobles through military merit. In fact, the Qin State strongly advocates it.
The Qin State was even more enlightened than the Wei State in this regard. At least in the Wei State, even if civilians obtained aristocratic status, they would not be able to truly integrate into the circle of established nobles in a short period of time.
But it is this harsh yet enlightened strange Qin law that makes the Qin people, who are already tough in their folk customs, become more advocating for military merit. Everyone is eager to continuously gain military exploits on the battlefield and gradually improve their social status.
This turned Qin into a ferocious beast, with all the people supporting the country's continuous expansion.
Wei is not afraid of war, while Qin is eager for war. This sentence alone is enough to express the mentality of the people of the two countries.
Of course, the so-called "Qin State is eager for war" refers to the continuous victory of wars. As long as they can win the war and obtain sufficient war benefits, both Xianyang and the people will ignore the number of people who died in the war, but if they encounter
The people of Qin were stunned when Wei Gongzi Run allowed them to lose battles time and time again.
Just like the recent two wars between Wei and Qin, the Qin State did not gain any war benefits, and hundreds of thousands of people died in the war in vain. No matter the nobles or civilians were unwilling to continue such unprofitable wars.
Along the spacious street that could accommodate ten carriages running parallel, Zhao Hongrun and his party rode deep into the city under the guidance of Zhao Ran and Wei Yang.
On both sides of this broad street, a row of Qin soldiers holding swords and spears stood on each side, restraining the refugees who crowded together in the alleys and houses along the way.
Obviously, the reason why this street is so spacious is because Qin soldiers drove the refugees who originally built shacks to live on the street to other places.
Fortunately, when the refugees were forced to leave Fenghao, Xiagui and other cities, the Wei army did not treat them too harshly, let alone massacre them wantonly. This made these refugees look at Wei people like Zhao Hongrun calmly, not
As for the incident like when Zhao Hongrun passed a town that had been plundered by the Northern First Army before attacking Pilao Pass, he was stoned by a local child.
But in general, the looks that these refugees looked at Zhao Hongrun and other Wei people were still full of unkindness and hostility.
Objectively speaking, this is the purpose of the marriage between Wei and Qin. Through the marriage of the two royal families, the two parties will be eliminated. Currently, the main purpose is to eliminate the hostility of the Qin people towards the Wei people. Who allowed the Wei army to attack the Qin mainland?
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Looking at the gloomy expressions and haggard faces of those refugees, Zhao Hongrun felt quite uncomfortable.
After all, he has always adhered to the principle of "war makes civilians go away". Even if he attacks a country, he will not persecute its civilians. But this time, he tacitly allowed Sima An to massacre the tribes in Sanchuan who were unwilling to surrender to Wei.
The common people of Qin State also expelled the common people of Qin from their homes.
Is this the anxiety caused by the danger of the fall of Wei State, or the anger caused by the death of Liu Wangshu?
Zhao Hongrun was also a little confused.
The team continued to move towards Xianyang Palace. Gradually, the nearby buildings changed their appearance. They were no longer ordinary mud houses and thatched houses, but houses neatly built with bricks and stones. The closer they got to Xianyang Palace, the more the buildings
The more particular it becomes.
It is not difficult to guess that Zhao Hongrun and others have arrived at the aristocratic mansions in Xianyang City. However, even these elegant aristocratic mansions are far from the aristocratic mansions of the Wei State. The aristocratic residences of the Qin State have only one characteristic: they are large.
!
In addition to being large, the buildings of the Qin State are generally very simple. For example, the palace gate of Xianyang Palace that Zhao Hongrun just passed by, and the palace wall, it is simply a wall, unlike the Bianjing Palace in Daliang of the Wei State.
, the outside of the palace wall is carved with lifelike paintings of mountains and rivers, flowers, birds, fish and insects.
Simple and practical, less fancy and more reliable, perhaps this is also the characteristic of Qin architecture.
But no matter what, when Zhao Hongrun and others came to the main palace of Xianyang Palace, they Wei people were still shocked, because the palaces in Xianyang Palace are generally high-rise buildings, especially the main palace, with a foundation as high as ten dozen
ten feet.
For this reason, Princess Yulong was so shocked that she secretly asked Qin Shaojun whether the foundation of the main palace was originally a hill.
When Qin Shaojun told her that a platform was built by gathering earth, Princess Yulong couldn't understand at all: Why should we put more effort into building a high platform first, instead of building a palace directly on flat ground?
Although they could not understand the cultural outlook of the Qin people, the high-rise buildings of the Qin State still shocked Zhao Hongrun and other Wei people, and they vaguely felt a majestic and majestic atmosphere.
While looking around, Zhao Hongrun took the lead on the stone steps. After he climbed onto the high platform, he saw King Qin wearing a black royal robe, a sword tied to his waist, standing outside the main palace gate with his hands behind his back.
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It must be admitted that even if the King of Qin only came out of the palace to greet him, it would be regarded as giving Zhao Hongrun enough face. After all, Zhao Hongrun's status in the Wei State was considered to be a minister, not a prince, but when the King of Qin returned, he was the king of the Qin State.
Not far from King Qin Hui's side, Zhao Hongrun saw the envoy from Wei State who was on an envoy to Qin State, Du You, the Minister of Rites.
The people behind Zhao Hongrun, whether they were from Wei or Qin, all stopped knowingly and watched Zhao Hongrun slowly walk back to King Qin alone.
At this time, King Qin Hui left his ministers and followers behind him and walked over alone.
With a distance of about one foot apart, the two people stopped in a tacit understanding and looked at each other.
Seeing this scene, Qin Shaojun couldn't help but feel a little nervous, because she knew very well that both Qin Wanghui and Zhao Hongrun had stubborn tempers that refused to show weakness to others. She was worried about whether there would be any conflict between the two. After all, as far as she knew
, Zhao Hongrun had led the Wei army to Xianyang City a while ago.
Facts proved that her worries were completely unnecessary.
"My Majesty, Ji Run, pays homage to His Majesty King Qin." After observing King Qin's reply at close range, Zhao Hongrun cupped his hands and clasped his fists, looked directly at the latter, and bowed slightly.
To be fair, King Qin Hui was not very satisfied with Zhao Hongrun's salute, because the latter looked directly at him from beginning to end, as if to say: I salute you just because you are the king of Qin.
The King of Qin had never met such an arrogant young man.
But despite this, there was still a slight smile on his face.
After all, even if he was bound by etiquette, the young master Wei in front of him, who almost drove his Qin country to a dead end, had to adhere to the etiquette of a junior, which made him feel inexplicably good.
Of course, if it were Zhao Hongrun who had saluted King Qin so arrogantly, he would have kicked him to the ground.
This boy has the right to be arrogant in front of him!
"I have ordered people to prepare a banquet in the palace and have a drink with Mr. Run... Please!"
"Your Majesty, King Qin, please come first."
Under Qin Shaojun's astonished gaze, King Qin put his left hand on Zhao Hongrun's right wrist, made an invitation, and invited Zhao Hongrun into the main hall.
Not to mention Qin Shaojun, even Zhao Ran, Wei Yang, Weiyang Jun Yinghua, Yangquan Jun Yingbo, Lantian Jun Yingban and other Qin people were very surprised: When did my king become so good-tempered?
In full view of everyone, King Qin invited Zhao Hongrun into the palace while looking back at the junior from time to time.