The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

At the ceremony of King Wei surrendering to the Qin army, King Wei Jia was a sad loser. He imitated the ancient ritual of Wei Ziqi surrendering to King Wu of Zhou, bare his body, tied himself up, led a sheep and a straw, knelt in front of Wang Ben's chariot and bowed three times, extremely humble, and regarded himself as a servant of Qin.

"Wei is like a marquis in Guannei to Qin, who has always asked for and demanded from me... Although I am not virtuous, I have caused the King of Qin to be angry and hurt my country, which is my fault..."

"But if the King of Qin can look back on our past friendship, not forget the country of Wei, and follow the old example of Wei, so that I can get a county to worship my ancestors, it is the King of Qin's kindness, and I wish for it. I dare not hope for it, but I dare to reveal my heart, and I hope the general can tell the King of Qin..."

In the heart of the King of Wei, perhaps he hoped that this attitude of non-resistance and submission could be exchanged for the King of Qin's forgiveness, just like King Wu of Zhou released Weizi Qi and King Zhuang of Chu released Zheng Xianggong, so as to preserve the country of Wei.

After all, he was different from King Xi of Yan who sent people to assassinate the King of Qin, King Qian of Zhao who appointed Li Mu to defeat the Qin army repeatedly, and King An of Han who sent Zheng Guo to Qin as a spy in an attempt to exhaust Qin. King Jia of Wei has been on the throne for three years and has been obeying Qin's orders. Last year, Xinzheng in Yingchuan County rebelled and a prince of Han, Hengyang Jun, asked for Wei's help. King Wei hurriedly sold them out and reported the matter to Qin.

When Wang Ben attacked Chenying in Chu, Wei had tens of thousands of troops behind the Qin army, but did not dare to move at all and even allowed the Qin army to pass through. Unexpectedly, Wang Ben turned around and stabbed Wei in the heart with a knife.

Therefore, King Jia of Wei felt a little aggrieved. Now he dared not think of hoping that Qin would retain his throne. He only wished to be moved to a certain county and become a feudal lord like his former vassal Wei State. This was better than King An of Han being imprisoned and killed, and King Qian of Zhao being exiled to the remote mountains of Hanzhong and his whereabouts unknown...

However, as the victor, Wang Ben had no expression on his face. After King Jia of Wei finished expressing his wish, he got off the car and helped him up, saying with a smile: "Your wish can be stated to the king in person after arriving in Xianyang!"

King Jia of Wei's face turned pale in an instant. No matter how humble his attitude was, it could not change his fate of becoming a Qin captive.

The King of Qin was not King Wu of Zhou, let alone King Zhuang of Chu. The tender and affectionate act of destroying a country and preserving its altar and blood and food was already an old story in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. In the new era, Qin's strategy was firm: "No pardon for conquering the country!"

Not only was King Jia of Wei to be taken to Xianyang, but even the concubines and beauties in the palaces of Wei were required to leave the city within today.

They had a hard time in the besieged city, but now they were still reluctant to leave the familiar palace. But King Jia of Wei had accepted his fate like a frost-bitten eggplant, so what could they do? Under the threat of weapons, these delicate bodies with fine clothes and delicious food could only cry and sit on the chariot that Wang Ben had already prepared, and follow the King of Wei to the west.

Standing in the Qin army and watching this scene, Hei Fu only remembered a sentence in the textbook.

"Concubines, concubines, princes and grandchildren, left the palace and came to Qin in a chariot, singing and playing music every day, and became Qin palace ladies."

The treasures, treasures, and beauties that Wei State greedily collected in successive dynasties were just wedding clothes for Qin in the end.

After that, the ministers and nobles who came to offer sacrifices with the sacrificial vessels of the State of Wei, learned that they would be taken to the pass immediately, and caused a commotion and protest. However, under the threat of the Qin army's spears and halberds, they soon surrendered, but as they walked westward with one foot deep and one foot shallow, some of them looked back at Daliang City from time to time, sighed with each step, recalled the past, and could not help but feel sad and tears soaked their clothes.

I don't know who started it, these nobles and officials who were once elegant and proud, and now prisoners in a miserable state, sang a ballad in unison.

"The millet is scattered, and the millet is ripe. I walk slowly, and my heart is choked. Those who know me say that I am worried, and those who don't know me say what I want. Who is this person, heaven?"

...

"What did those nobles and princes of Wei sing when they went west?"

On the first day of May, the day after King Jia of Wei surrendered to the Qin army, Heifu and Chen Ping also left Daliang City, which had become a swamp, and began to return to Huoyou Township.

While resting on the road, Heifu recalled the situation yesterday and asked Chen Ping about it. He only knew that "those who know me say that I am worried, and those who don't know me say what I want", but he didn't quite understand what the whole poem meant.

"It's "Shu Li", a piece in Wang Feng." Chen Ping had recovered from the shock of witnessing the collapse of Daliang City, the fall of Wei, and the westward migration of the royal family.

Strangely enough, although Chen Ping always claimed to be a student of Huang-Lao, Heifu felt that he was not like a pure and inactive Huang-Lao disciple at all. Instead, he was a pragmatist. He had learned a little bit of Confucian poetry, etiquette, and sophistry and conspiracy of the diplomats.

Chen Ping told Heifu that this "Shu Li" was written by some of the nobles of the Zhou Dynasty who were captured and marched north after the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed by the Quanrong. Seeing that the former ancestral temples and palaces were all covered with wheat and millet, they felt sad about the overthrow of the Zhou Dynasty and hesitated to leave, so they wrote this poem.

"It is very consistent with the mood of the nobles of Wei State." Heifu thought.

They were not part of the siege army, so they only watched the beginning of the surrender ceremony and could not watch the whole process. They were not even qualified to enter the city, so they could not see the Qin army enter the Wei Palace to search for nobles hidden in various places and carry out carts of ritual objects and treasures.

Hei Fu only heard the people who went in and covered their noses after coming out. Except for the royal nobles who took shelter in the palace and basically survived, there were a lot of casualties in the city, most of whom died of plague, and a small number were swept away by the flood that rushed into the city when the wall collapsed.

Because the water attack made the food moldy, many civilians starved to death. Almost every family had someone die, and there was no place to bury the bodies. There were rotting corpses in every village, and the smell was extremely unpleasant.

"Fortunately, Gong Ao was not brought here." Hei Fu thought to himself. Seeing this situation, the angry young man would think of the tragedy that Bai Qi's attack on Yan brought to their family.

In this way, for the Qin army, Daliang, where the plague was rampant, lost its value. They asked those who were still alive and able to move to leave the city on their own and disperse to various places. As for those who are too sick to move, there is no need to spend energy to treat them. Let them disappear with this dead city...

After the population leaves one after another, Daliang will be abandoned. When they come back in a few years, the palaces and high platforms of Liangcheng in the past will be deserted. The streets and lanes will definitely not be as prosperous as the city. Only after the flood recedes, there will be a lush millet seedling that absorbs the nutrients of the corpses and grows to its heart's content. Maybe there will be one or two wild pheasants crying occasionally.

The millet is scattered, and the millet is fruitful.

But the destruction of a city and the destruction of a country are not easy to do. The Wei State did not simply die from external violence, but from internal decay and its own mistakes.

This mistake has now forced more than 100,000 people in Daliang City to leave their homes in a hurry.

So on the road that Heifu and his companions were on, there was a crowd of people behind them that could not be seen at a glance. Most of them had just run out of Daliang City. There were ox-horse carts of rich families, and more were rickshaws of poor families, loaded with valuable items they could rescue from their homes. This caused people on the road to shout, curse, and cry.

The lost people stumbled in the crowd to find their relatives, and even some bad guys blatantly looted property and insulted women. The Qin army guarding them only came occasionally to maintain order, causing this endless team of refugees to move very slowly.

These people will be dispersed to Chenliu, Waihuang, Yangwu and other places for resettlement, but their future livelihood is unknown. The nobles became the common people, the princes and grandchildren had no food and clothing, the farmers who lost their land became hired tenants, and the merchants and craftsmen were slightly better off and could pick up their old trades in various counties and towns, but without the prosperous Daliang, it was still unknown whether they could support themselves and their families.

Heifu rode on his horse, turned his head, looked at the refugees passing by slowly, those numb faces and those blank eyes, and sighed slightly...

Conquest and unification have never been warm and affectionate, but mostly violent destruction, which only makes the people suffer.

Fortunately, as early as the day when Liangcheng collapsed, Heifu had asked Dongmen Bao and others to take the villagers of Huyou Township back first. Now there are only seven or eight people left, including Chen Ping and Ji Ying. At least they can arrive in Waihuang before the refugee team.

When they arrived in Waihuang, they found that a porridge shed had been set up outside the city to help the Wei people who were resettled there. There were also several Qin people dressed as doctors standing outside the city. Many people coming out of Daliang had epidemic diseases, and the doctors had to check them one by one and stop them outside the city.

Qin law specifically stipulates that people with epidemic diseases must be isolated. For example, if leprosy is confirmed, they must be immediately sent to the "leprosy resettlement" for isolation to prevent infection. But if the condition is serious, the patient may be "determined to be killed". He heard that Xiao Tao's mother died in this way.

Heifu and others were not immune. After riding to the door, the doctor inevitably came to ask questions.

However, the doctor in Waihuang was Chen Wujiu, an acquaintance of Heifu. He passed by Waihuang a few days ago, but because Heifu was busy with Yang Xiong to lure the enemy, he had no chance to meet him.

Now Chen Wujiu saw Heifu, after a few words of greeting, he winked and asked Heifu to follow him to the porridge shed, and said to him: "Heifu, I just have something to find you! It's about the advice on bandaging and stopping bleeding, and battlefield rescue. My teacher Xia Gong has replied to the letter!"