Chapter 334: Breaking Ground at the Foot of Mount Li

When Blackie arrived with Ba Zhong at his residence beside the Wei Bridge and saw the tiered towers and high halls, the carved beams and painted rafters of this mansion, he couldn't help but exclaim, "What a huge estate."

It wasn't that he was ignorant — he had even entered the Zhangtai Palace, and where under heaven was there a house larger than that? Besides, Blackie's own mansions in Jiangling and Anlu were no smaller than the Ba residence.

But this was the capital. As later generations would say, living in Chang'an is no easy matter. The housing prices in the capital were nothing Jiangling or Anlu, those third- or fourth-tier cities, could compare to.

Tradition says the Duke of Zhou established the rites and with them the Nine Branches of Mathematics. In the Warring States era, the study of calculation spread widely, and the six states each had their own mathematical texts. Now those texts had been gathered in the stone chamber of the Censorate. When Blackie went to find Zhang Cang, he was in the process of collecting the damaged remnants of old writings, deleting and supplementing.

And so Blackie happened to see a mathematical problem written above.

"Now take a bond; one year's price is 2,500 cash. Now take 1,200 in advance; ask, how many days of work are required?"

Translated into later-age terms: Zhang So-and-so works for someone with an annual salary of 2,500 cash. Now he wants to buy a house but has no money for the down payment and wants to draw 1,200 cash of his wages in advance. The question is, how many days does Zhang need to work to pay back that 1,200 cash?

A petty clerk on a grain stipend earns 96 shi of rice per year. At the current rice price of 30 cash per shi, plus some travel subsidies, that comes to an annual income of around 3,000 cash — the salary of an ordinary civil servant in Xianyang.

Relying on such an income, buying a house in Xianyang was no easy feat. It was said that a small dwelling of just over a hundred square meters, enough to shelter a family of five, started at 10,000 cash. Compared to later ages, that wasn't too expensive; after a few years of hard work, with relatives helping to scrape together the sum, at least the down payment could be made...

As for the grand compounds where ministers and high officials lived, depending on the size of the plot, prices ranged from 500,000 to a million!

Ba Zhong's current rank was Gongcheng. According to the land-and-dwelling allotment system, he was entitled to 20 dwellings on nearly 80 mu of residential land, so he had set up this great luxury mansion, and located at a prime spot like the Wei Bridge to boot. For less than two million cash, it absolutely could not have been acquired!

But two million cash to the Ba clan was a mere drizzle!

In the Qin dynasty, the standard for a comfortable household was a family wealth of 100,000. The standard for those wealthy households relocated to Xianyang was a million. If one could reach ten million, one was deemed "magnificently rich."

But the Ba clan's wealth probably had to be described in units of "a hundred million." Every year, just from mining and refining cinnabar and selling it to the authorities, they earned a brimming fortune, not to mention the businesses in Bo slaves, well salt, and horse caravans. It was said the Ba clan kept a thousand servants and a private armed force of two thousand in Ba Commandery, with over ten thousand dependents — ample proof of their formidable financial might.

"This place was originally the detached villa of a retainer of Lao Ai. After Lao Ai fell from power, my mother bought it and had it renovated so I would have a convenient place to live when I came to the capital."

Ba Zhong hinted with a beaming smile, "Villas like this one are actually quite numerous in Xianyang. If the Chief of the Palace Attendants' Household needs one, you may take your pick..."

Truly a man of wealth — a two-million-cash grand mansion, offered as a gift just like that!

Blackie had now also become a close minister of the emperor, and the Ba clan's gesture was not without intent to curry favor. But Qin law was very strict in this regard. The Censor-in-Chief, who was specially charged with supervising all officials and relied on hunting big tigers to build his political record, could be watching at any moment. Blackie dared not take the risk.

So he politely declined, "Qin law decrees that even accepting a single coin warrants a sentence, let alone a mansion. Brother Ba, please do not speak of this again!"

"Of course, of course. I was merely jesting, a jest." Ba Zhong laughed heartily and invited Blackie into the residence for a banquet.

Blackie, for his part, felt no envy. In terms of social status, as a Left Chief of the Multitudes, he was far higher than Ba Zhong. As long as Blackie had the money, he too could set up seventy dwellings in Xianyang.

The problem was, he had no money...

His current annual salary was a thousand shi, equivalent to 30,000 banliang coins, but to set up a grand mansion, relying on a fixed salary alone was far from enough. Through years of campaigning, relying on rewards and plunder, Blackie's personal wealth exceeded a million, but all his spare cash had been invested in the brown sugar business. So upon arriving in Xianyang, he could only make do in a small courtyard provided for officials.

"I wonder how my cousin is doing selling brown sugar in the Xianyang market north of the Wei?"

Blackie had been busy with palace guard duties these past days and hadn't followed up on the matter. So before entering Ba Zhong's residence for dinner, he sent his charioteer Sang Mu to the opposite bank of the Wei Bridge to take a look and see how things stood. His own house-buying plan hinged on brown sugar selling big in Xianyang.

After entering the mansion, Blackie followed Ba Zhong to a small pavilion. Though night had not yet fallen, candles had already been lit around the pavilion, illuminating the surroundings as bright as day. Beautiful maidservants stood with heads bowed in attendance at the sides. On the stone table here, wine vessels and platters had been set; lacquer dishes held some fruits and vegetables, and wine was being heated on the stone table as well.

By Qin law, three or more commoners were not permitted to gather and drink. The various officials had no alcohol prohibition, but they could not be too flagrant either. The sole exception was when the court held celebratory events and specially permitted subjects to gather and feast — this was called "bestowed revelry."

Today, after the emperor announced his edicts, to celebrate the founding of the empire, he also declared a great revelry for all under heaven. With the alcohol ban lifted, the fragrance of wine wafted everywhere along both banks of the Wei Bridge.

The two took their seats and raised their cups, toasting each other's health. Ba Zhong congratulated Blackie on his promotion to Left Chief of the Multitudes and on becoming Chief of the Palace Attendants' Household, able to constantly attend the Son of Heaven.

Blackie first toasted Ba Zhong's mother for receiving the First Emperor's public commendation and being enfeoffed as the Chaste Widow.

"To be personally honored by the emperor — since the Three Dynasties, there has never been such a precedent!"

That said, people of this era were relatively open-minded about relations between the sexes; men and women could freely court during the Shangsi Festival. Chen Ping of Yangwu County, when choosing a marriage partner, did not disdain a daughter of the Zhang family who had remarried multiple times.

Even so, widows under heaven were not few, but to have the emperor erect a chastity arch in her honor — this was the sole instance. For a woman from a frontier commandery, for a merchant, it was truly the utmost glory...

It wasn't like some melodramatic TV plot where the emperor harbored some intention toward the Widow Qing. According to what Ba Zhong said, his mother was already over fifty, while the emperor was only thirty-eight this year; his tastes could not possibly be that peculiar.

As far as Blackie understood, the emperor's veneration of the Widow Qing stemmed from two considerations.

First, the First Emperor truly placed great importance on a woman's "chastity."

This was understandable. The emperor's mother, Zhao Ji, in her early years in Handan, had been a socially adept and flirtatious figure, first hooking up with Lü Buwei, then marrying the Noble Son Yiren. After becoming Queen Dowager, she went further, hiding Lao Ai in the palace and debauching the inner chambers.

His mother's licentious behavior had likely left an indelible impression on the emperor's childhood. Thus, after the First Emperor quelled Lao Ai's rebellion, he had the two sons born to the Queen Dowager stuffed into sacks and beaten to death, and imprisoned the Queen Dowager in a side palace. Although he later yielded to public opinion and welcomed Queen Dowager Zhao back to Ganquan Palace, mother and son had become mortal enemies and never reconciled before her death.

The First Emperor still had not forgiven Queen Dowager Zhao. When deliberating the imperial titles, he honored King Zhuangxiang of Qin as Grand Emperor, and the tombs of his grandmothers, Queen Dowager Huayang and Queen Dowager Xia, also received additional enfeoffments — only Queen Dowager Zhao was omitted.

His childhood trauma made the emperor extremely sensitive to improper relations between men and women. He had once ordered the Censorate and the Commandant of Justice to revise the laws concerning adultery, encouraging the catching of adulterers, to the point that once caught, they were directly drowned in pig cages and beaten to death...

Now, by deliberately raising the chastity arch to honor the Widow Qing of Ba, it was not without the hope that all women under heaven would follow her example.

Secondly, the Ba clan had also reciprocated the favor, repeatedly contributing coin, silk, and grain as military funds to aid Qin in destroying the six states. Ba Zhong, moreover, had spent years traveling through Ba and Nan Commanderies, easing relations between the Ba tribes and the Qin authorities.

And Ba Zhong's trip to Xianyang this time, aside from thanking the emperor for his bestowal on his mother's behalf, had another mission.

"Several thousand shi of cinnabar, transported from Ba Commandery into Guanzhong — whether by the plank roads or taking the detour through Wu Pass — is no easy matter."

In the midst of their wine-warmed cheer, Ba Zhong spoke in a low voice to Blackie about his family's biggest trade.

"His Majesty is fond of cinnabar. I hear from them that the fangshi can use cinnabar to refine elixirs of immortality. Furthermore, when cinnabar is heated, it becomes quicksilver, and the mausoleum His Majesty has ordered the Commandant of Justice to construct at Mount Li also requires enormous quantities of quicksilver!"

The early Qin tombs were all built at the old capital, Yong. It was only from the time of Duke Xiao of Qin that a new royal tomb district was designated in Zhiyang County east of the Ba River. King Huiwen, King Zhaoxiang, Queen Dowager Xuan, and others were all buried there.

The First Emperor's mausoleum alone was sited at the northern foot of Mount Li, east of Zhiyang. Although the emperor was in his prime, this mausoleum had been under construction for a full twenty-six years since he ascended the throne at age 13 and was beginning to take shape...

But now, with the First Emperor's upgrade from King of Qin to Emperor, the mausoleum's specifications also had to be raised a notch, so it was decided to resume construction. Given the First Emperor's nature — that whatever he undertook had to surpass all past and present — one could well imagine how grand the Mount Li Mausoleum would be.

Blackie mused to himself, "Since the great project at Mount Li has been launched, then the terracotta warriors must also be starting to be fired, right?"

In his previous life, he had visited the terracotta warriors. Aside from marveling at the steep ticket price, he had also gained a completely new impression of Qin, and had spent an entire afternoon wandering around the Qin Mausoleum park, posting a Moments update. Back then, he could never have expected that one day he would become the First Emperor's security guard.

"They say the terracotta warriors are modeled on the Court Gentlemen's Guard and the Garrison Guard troops. Perhaps someone from the Privy Treasury will come knocking and, based on my appearance and height, make a general figurine!"

Thinking of this, Blackie found it especially amusing; history and reality seemed to intertwine.

Just as Blackie was imagining himself transformed into a large ceramic action figure, standing inside a glass case for later generations to view and study, Ba Zhong's subordinate — the Ba warrior Dan Hu who had once shared salt with Blackie on the boat — walked in and spoke a sentence in the Ba tongue.

"Chief of the Palace Attendants' Household."

After Ba Zhong nodded and dismissed Dan Hu, he said to Blackie, "Someone from my family at the Xianyang market has come to report that your cousin seems to have run into a bit of trouble over there..."

"What?" Blackie was first taken aback. Who had eaten a leopard's gall, daring to cause trouble for him!

As soon as Ba Zhong's words fell, hurried footsteps sounded from outside — it was Sang Mu returning. He came to the pavilion, prostrated himself, and said, "Master! There's trouble!"

(End of chapter)