#3
好文。我与你不谋而合。
Twelve princes were beheaded in Xianyang, and ten princesses were dismembered in the Du county near Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum. They were buried in the outskirt of the underground city. All the children of Qin Shi Huang were killed by their brother Huhai, all except one known as Prince Gao, who offered to be buried as a human sacrifice in his father’s mausoleum. Qin Er Shi was pleased to read his offer and gave his family 100,000 taels of gold for the funeral. All the courtiers involved in this so-called coup d’état were executed. All their properties were confiscated.
When the construction of the mausoleum was completed in 209 BC, Prince Gao was buried alive near his father’s burial chamber. Qin Er Shi decided that the late emperor’s concubines who had no children should be sacrificed, too. All the craftsmen who built the burial chamber and mechanical devices were killed and buried in the outskirts of the underground city. After the funeral ceremony, the inner passageway was blocked, and the outer gate lowered. The mausoleum was covered by layers of dirt as thick as 35 meters. Trees and grass were planted on the mound as if the hill was never touched by human hands. It was said that a division of imperial guards was disbanded, and the soldiers settled down in a nearby village as civilians. They swore to guard the mausoleum forever, generation after generation, which meant that their sons would be guards, too, and so would their sons’ sons.
That night after the funeral ceremony was completed, Zhao Gao knelt before his family altar and cried, “The spirits of my father and my ancestors, I evoke you to listen to me. I’ve avenged you. I’ve avenged the deaths of tens of thousands of the Zhao people. I’ve avenged the humiliations Qin inflicted on Zhao. I, a single man, a humble man, a man wronged by my compatriots, a man they called traitor, a man without manhood and everybody looked down upon, a man misunderstood by all, today, I’ve avenged myself! I’ve had everybody of the Qin tyrant’s family killed, except one whom I still need to use. I’ve fooled them all. I’m kneeling before you, the spirits of my father and my ancestors, telling you this with pride: I, your loyal son, your loyal grandson, the loyal subject of Zhao, I’m standing above Qin, I’m trampling on the Qin throne. You hear me? I’ve avenged you. But I’m not done, yet. I vow I shall destroy Qin, every inch of it. This is only the beginning.”
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