Chapter 19: Survivors of the Six Kingdoms [Jinjiang Authentic Edition Exclusive Release: Colorful Clothes on the Outskirts of the City…
When the sun sets in the west and the golden crow sinks to the west, the tired birds return to their nests.
Outside the city of Xianyang, in villages and towns of all sizes, men and women dressed in colorful clothes, each holding farm tools and wearing sweat-soaked scarves, walked along the winding loess road towards their homes with tired expressions and heavy steps.
These people looked like farmers, but most of their exposed skin was very white, and the clothes they wore were not the short clothes that ordinary farmers wore, but long robes with curved hems.
Their strange attire invisibly reveals these people's insistence on and pride in their previous identities. They are not native Qin people, but nobles and wealthy families of fallen nations who have been relocated from the former territories of the Six Kingdoms to Xianyang by His Majesty the Emperor over the past ten years. With the arrival of 120,000 households and nearly hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the originally desolate suburban areas have gradually become lively.
Before the Qin Dynasty unified China, there were seven major powers coexisting on the land of China. Each vassal state had a unique flag and representative color based on its own theory of the Five Elements.
The Qin people living in the western frontier respected the virtue of water and believed in the black bird, so the flag of the Qin Dynasty was the black bird flag with water patterns, and the Qin people also valued black.
As a brother country, Zhao State also believed in Xuanniao, but because it was split from Jin State, Jin State advocated the virtue of fire and the people of Jin valued red, so the flag of Zhao State was a two-color flag with seven parts blue and three parts red. On weekdays, the people of Zhao also preferred to wear red and blue clothes.
Like Zhao, Wei and Han, which belonged to the Three Jins, the former later inherited the fire virtue of Jin, and the people of Wei also inherited the red clothes that the people of Jin loved to wear, while the neighboring Han began to promote the wood virtue, and accordingly, the Han people also preferred the vibrant green on weekdays.
In addition to the Three Jins, the Yan people who lived in the northernmost part admired the virtue of water just like the Qin people, but they were descendants of the Zhou emperor and did not believe in the black bird, so the Yan people valued blue and preferred the color of water.
In contrast, the Chu State, a vassal state that was also called "barbarian" like the Qin State, had a free and romantic style. The Chu State advocated the virtue of earth, and the Chu people usually wore khaki clothes.
The remaining Qi State was adjacent to the East China Sea. Apart from its friendly relations with the Qin State, its relations with the Three Jins, Yan, and Chu were mediocre. In its early years during the reign of Jiang Qi, Jiang Qi advocated the virtue of fire, and the people of Qi valued red. Later, the Tian family replaced Qi, and Tian Qi added the admiration for the virtue of gold to the admiration for the virtue of fire, so gradually the people of Qi began to value purple again.
Now, after many years, the seven powers that coexisted have long since merged into the unified Qin Dynasty. However, these nobles and wealthy families who fell into the pain of class decline because of the Qin Dynasty's destruction of their motherland, even though they live in the suburbs of the imperial capital, the pride in their bones and the dreams of the past in the dead of night still make these people from the former lands of the six kingdoms like to wear the clothes of their motherland and work outside all day long. One reason is that they have been used to wearing the clothes for many years, and the other is that they have an invisible resistance and dissatisfaction with the tyranny of Qin that destroyed their motherland!
Even if the Qin laws were detailed and the penalties were harsh, they couldn't control what people wore on a daily basis, right? Gradually, the old Qin people got used to the spectacle of colorful clothes fluttering in the suburbs and just let it go.
No matter what era it is, class decline is extremely painful. Over the years, among this huge group of migrants living in the suburbs, some people gradually accepted their fate and became immigrants from the six kingdoms as the Qin people called them. However, many people were unwilling to accept their fate at all, and had been lying dormant, silently waiting for the opportunity to overthrow the tyrannical Qin and recover their motherland. These rebellious people were collectively called the "remnants of the six kingdoms" by the Qin people.
After dark, all the immigrants and remnants of the six kingdoms returned to their homes and stayed indoors under the strict curfew of Qin law, fearing that they would violate Qin law and be caught by the Qin people and sent to the government for punishment.
However, no matter how strict the law is, there will always be some rebellious people who dare to defy it.
It was deep in the night, and in the dense forest, several oil lamps were lit in a mud and thatched house deep in the forest.
The bean-sized flame of the oil lamp flickered slightly, barely illuminating the scene inside the room.
Seven or eight middle-aged men in green and khaki clothes were kneeling on straw mats and talking in low voices.
Waves of howling wild beasts could be heard from outside the dilapidated wooden window covered with cobwebs on the wall. However, this did not affect the conversation between the Korean and Chu people at all.
A middle-aged Korean man in his thirties, with fair skin, beautiful features, and a cold expression, wearing a green robe, knelt in the main seat. After patiently listening to a Chu man report the news he had gathered from the royal city today, he couldn't help but curl his lips slightly in sarcasm.
"It seems that Ying Zheng has grown older in recent years. He is also a doting grandson. He actually let a baby inherit Ying Zhu's title of lord."
"Oh—a tiny baby like this, aren't you worried he won't be blessed enough to bear it?"
Seeing the sarcastic smile on his master's face, the retainer kneeling beside him couldn't help but ask tentatively:
"Master, since this eldest grandson of the Emperor is so favored by Ying Zheng, do we need to send someone to the Prince's Mansion in the royal city to approach the new Lord Xiao'an?"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man couldn't help but frown and thought for a moment, then pursed his lips and sighed, "Don't worry, let's observe for a while."
"promise!"
…
At the same time, in Qingzhu Palace, a child's earth-shattering and devilish voice was heard from the side hall, startling several owls that were standing on the century-old locust tree with their brown eyes open, ready to catch mice for food. They all spread their wings and flew away.
"Wow—Mother! Mother! Father is so partial!"
"Look at my face. The scars from Qin Ying's beating in Zhangtai Palace yesterday haven't even faded yet. How could my father confer the title of 'Prince of Anguo' on that little bastard today and grant him such a good fiefdom?!"
"Wuwuwuwuwu, I don't accept it! Father is partial!"
It's late at night, but I can't calm down.
The four-year-old Hu Hai, with his pig-like face swollen red and blue and purple from being beaten by the "Ten Slaps of the Dragon", felt as if the sky above his head had collapsed again. He rolled around on the wooden floor like a tantrum, and cried loudly to Madam Qing who was sitting on the soft couch, complaining about the unfairness of his fate!
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