On the first day of March in the twenty-sixth year of the First Emperor's reign, at sunrise (5 o'clock to 7 o'clock), the sky was still dark. Standing under the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, wearing a Xie Zhi (xièzhi) crown and a grey-haired Tingwei
Li Si raised his head and looked up.
In front of the temple, 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 already left Shangcai and entered Xianyang for several 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 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 on. After the King of Qin came to power, he quickly changed his family. He tried his best to follow the law and threatened Han, weakened Wei, defeated Yan, Zhao, Yi Qi, Chu, and 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 ranged from Lang to Guest Minister and Court Wei, and his title was also mentioned to the seventeenth level.
There are also the same opportunities.
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 ministers 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 chariots 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 climbing 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 Prime Minister on your right is very old. He only has one meal 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 fixed his sights on the second person.
Wang Wan, named Zuo Xiang, has actually assumed great power. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that Wei Zhuang will step down soon, and Wang Wan will take the position where one person is inferior to ten thousand people. In addition, he is originally from Shandong, and he also served in Jixia
I have been hanging around, and recently I have had a heated relationship with the Seventy Doctors, and I have also introduced many Yin and Yang families to Qin. Everyone recommends the Five Virtues of the First Shi, thinking that the Zhou Dynasty was the virtue of fire, and the virtue of Zhou Dynasty in the Qin Dynasty was to use water to defeat 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 he had accomplished something, so he was so proud that he walked with his head held high and his 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 were discussing that the memorials written by Xiaolang Guan Heifu and Zhao Gao, the commander of the CRRC, were intended by the emperor, but Li Si, the emperor's closest minister, was wrong this time...
"Did you make a mistake?"
Li Si sneered in his heart. In twenty years, he had never looked past it!
He saw the emperor's ambition to unify the world, so 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 the chief minister 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 great literary talent, which greatly pleased the King of Qin and spread the message to all the people.
The minister later reversed the situation 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 followed 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 career in the next ten years, and Great Qin's everlasting national policy will all depend on 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!
If this old prime minister were to fall down here, his life would be lost immediately!
Fortunately, just a moment later, a black-faced official, who had been staring at the old minister on the steps, came up and supported Wei Zheng. "Right Prime Minister, be careful where you step!"
Lang Guan supported Wei Zhuang and walked steadily to the front of the top hall, asked his subordinates to take care of him, and bowed to the three people who came up one after another: "I have seen Prime Minister Zuo, the imperial censor... 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 thought he was 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 did not have much time to talk to Hu Ling, a young lieutenant. They nodded and entered the palace one after another with Wei Xiang, who almost made a fool of himself.
Only Li Si stopped when passing by 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 are doing quite well."
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, and the etiquette officers inside the palace to greet the ministers, checked whether everyone's etiquette was in compliance with the regulations.
None of the censors noticed it.
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...