The story about the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang

From 230 years ago to 22 1 year ago, Qin Shihuang adopted the strategy of far-reaching and near-attacking, divided and alienated from each other, and launched the war of Qin destroying six countries. Qin Shihuang destroyed Korea in 17 years, Zhao in 18 years, Wei in 22 years, Chu in 24 years, Yan in 25 years and Qi in 26 years. Finally, the first unified, multi-ethnic and autocratic centralized state in the history of China, the Qin Empire, was established.

Build the Great Wall

After the Qin dynasty destroyed the six countries, it began to build the Great Wall in the north, collecting more than 400 thousand civilian workers every year. At that time, the productivity was extremely low, so men could not eat bitterness and women could not knit clothes. So many people are recruited to engage in unproductive labor, and the only result is that the death toll cannot be counted. Thousands of miles away, there are corpses everywhere, and rivers of blood are flowing. It is not surprising that five out of ten households want to rebel. The folklore of "Meng Jiangnu cried down the Great Wall" also reflects the complaints of ordinary people about the construction of the Great Wall from one side.

The Great Wall, which stretches across Wan Li, is not only a single wall, but a complete defense engineering system composed of various fortifications such as the wall, watchtower, Guancheng, Dunbao, Yingcheng, Wei Shuo and Zhencheng beacon tower. This national defense engineering system is commanded and controlled by military command systems at all levels. Taking the Ming Great Wall as an example, nine military jurisdictions, Liaodong, Yuji, Fu Xuan, Datong, Shaanxi, Yulin, Ningxia, Guyuan and Gansu, were set up on the defense line of the Great Wall in Wan Li, and the Great Wall with a total length of more than 7,000 kilometers was defended and restored, starting from Yalu River in the east and reaching Jiayuguan in the west. It is called "Nine Borders Town", and each town has a company commander as the military chief of this section of the Great Wall, under the command of the Ministry of War. The defensive forces along the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty were about 1 10,000 people. The company commanders are generally stationed in the town, while other officials at all levels are stationed in health centers, city camps, Guancheng and enemy towers and piers on the city walls.

Great wall national defense engineering architecture

The defense engineering building of the Great Wall has accumulated rich experience in the construction process of more than two thousand years. First of all, in terms of layout, when Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall in Wan Li, he summarized the experience of "blocking roads because of dangerous terrain". This principle has been followed for more than two thousand years and has become an important basis for military deployment. Based on the principle of "using local materials and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude", many structural methods have been created. There are rammed earth, rubble, masonry and other structures; In the desert, the structure of willow branches, reeds and sand grains is also adopted, which can be called "ingenuity" and has been preserved in Yumenguan, Yangguan and Xinjiang in Gansu for more than 2,000 years.

The remains of the Great Wall in the Western Han Dynasty.

The composition of the Great Wall

The walls of the Great Wall

The Great Wall is the main part of this defense project. It is built on steep mountains or plains, and it is built according to the needs of topography and defense function. The places built in plains or passes are very tall and strong, while in steep mountainous areas, they are relatively low and narrow, in order to save manpower and cost. Even some of them can't be built in the steepest place, and the methods of "cliff" and "chopping gable" are conveniently adopted. The walls of Juyongguan, Badaling and the Great Wall in Hebei, Shanxi, Gansu and other areas have a building wall on the top of the wall, which is more than one meter high to prevent patrol soldiers from falling. Outside is the crib wall, about 2 meters high. The upper part of the stack wall is provided with a lookout, and the lower part is provided with a shooting hole and a rolling stone hole, which are used for observing the enemy situation and shooting rolling stones. On the top of some important city walls, there are also layers of barriers to resist the enemies who boarded the city walls, just in case. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, when the famous anti-Japanese star Qi Jiguang was transferred to Yuji Town as the company commander, the fortifications of the Great Wall were greatly improved, and enemy towers or platforms were set at the top of the wall to accommodate patrol soldiers and store weapons, food and socks, which greatly strengthened the defensive function of the Great Wall.

Guancheng

Guancheng, the Great Wall, is the most concentrated defensive stronghold on the Wan Li Great Wall defense line. The position of Guancheng is very important, and it is chosen in a favorable defensive terrain, so that it can receive the effect of resisting powerful invaders with very few troops. The ancient name "one person is above ten thousand people" vividly illustrates the importance of managing the city. Guancheng along the Great Wall is large and small, with a large number. As far as the Guancheng of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty is concerned, there are nearly 1,000 Shanhaiguan, Huangyaguan, Juyongguan, Zijingguan, Daomaguan, Pingxingguan, Yanmenguan, Pianguan, Jiayuguan, Yangguan and Yumenguan in the Han Dynasty. There are many small passes near some Daguancheng. For example, there are more than a dozen Xiaoguancheng near Shanhaiguan, which together constitute the defense engineering architecture system of the Great Wall of Wan Li. Some important passes have several lines of defense, such as Juyongguan, Nanguan, Beiguan and Shangguan. Badaling, the north entrance, is the most important outpost of Juyongguan.

beacon tower

The beacon tower is one of the most important components of the Wan Li Great Wall defense project. Its function is to serve as a facility for transmitting military information. Beacon, a tool for transmitting information, has existed for a long time. After the completion of the Great Wall, it was well used and gradually improved, which became the best way to transmit military information in ancient times. The way to spread is to burn smoke during the day and raise fire at night, because the sun is very strong during the day and the fire is not easy to see, and it can be seen far away at night. This is a scientific and quick way of information transmission. In order to report the number of invading enemy soldiers, the number of smoke and fire is used to distinguish. In the Ming Dynasty, the number of cigarettes and torches was also increased, so as to enhance the effect of alarm and make military information transmit thousands of miles in an instant. In the absence of telephone and radio communication in ancient times, this method of transmitting military information can be said to be very rapid. The layout of the beacon tower is also very important. It is important to arrange it in a place where mountains are dangerous, or where peaks turn, and it must be that all three stations can see each other for easy viewing and transmission. Beacon Tower used to be called Pavilion, Pavilion Tunnel and Beacon Tower in Han Dynasty, and Yandun in Ming Dynasty. In addition to transmitting military information, it also protects the safety of diplomatic envoys, provides accommodation, supplies horses and other services. In some sections of the Great Wall, there are only beacon towers and pavilions without walls, which shows the importance of beacon towers in the Great Wall defense system.

burning books and burying Confucian scholars alive

At that time, hundreds of schools of thought contended in the society, which seriously hindered Qin Shihuang's thought of unifying the people of the six countries and threatened the rule of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, in order to unify the thoughts of the people of the original six countries, Qin Shihuang began to destroy all the hundreds of works except the legalists that year, and only allowed the people to leave books on medicine, divination and planting. It was not until the demise of the Qin Dynasty in 206 BC that it was called "book burning".

In the second year after the book burning began, that is, 2 12 BC, Qin Shihuang killed more than 460 Confucian scholars and alchemists in Xianyang, Qin Dou at that time, in order to further repel different political ideas and opinions, which was known as "pit Confucianism" in history.

Historical achievements

From 222 years ago, Qin Shihuang began to build a large-scale galloping road with Xianyang as the center and extending in all directions, similar to modern expressways. Running in the same lane, the implementation of "cars in the same track", with a width of 50 steps. Chidao has several functions, one is to facilitate traffic and management of the old places of the six countries, the other is to facilitate the supply of the front line of the northern war, and the third is to facilitate the smooth inspection of the first emperor. Except for Qin Zhi Road and Qin Plank Road, most of them were built on the basis of Qin's hometown, the old roads in the Six Kingdoms and the roads built during Qin's conquest of the Six Kingdoms. The famous lanes include Shang Jun Road, Linjin Road, Dongfang Road, Wuguan Road, Qinplank Road, West Road and Qin Zhi Road.

After Qin Shihuang destroyed the six countries, in order to facilitate the transportation of troops and materials needed for conquering Lingnan, he ordered Shilu to dig a canal to connect the Xiangjiang River in the Yangtze River system with the Lijiang River in the Pearl River system. This canal was finally completed from the 20th year of the Emperor (2 19 BC) to the 23rd year (2 15 BC). Lingqu is one of the oldest canals in the world. It has been the main waterway transportation route between Lingnan and the Central Plains for more than two thousand years. Therefore, the project is one of the national key cultural relics protection units.