Shoot.. Not yet?
The tension is killing me.
still waiting......jean... pleaaaaaaaseeeee!!!!
gotta have my dose of astp... and be the lead in the pack
hahahahaha
sorry guys, was sick yesterday so no updates. Just a short and boring one today, just a lot on the new positions and policies, which took me a lot of time to research for the right official ranking.
There'll be no updates til next week coz I'm flying off tomorrow for a work trip. But at least I didn't leave you guys with a cliffhanger.
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That afternoon, Wang Wan, Lord Changping, Li Si, Wang Chi, Wang Lin entered the palace to see Xiao Pan to suggest that the Qin imperial family formally use Zou Yan’s ‘Complete Book of Five Virtues’ as the national book and to formally appoint Ji Yanran as the respected ‘Female Tutor’, to be in charge of drafting the change in policies in line with the mystical creature’s ‘new government’.
Even Xiang Shaolong, the engineer of this plan, did not expect that black dragon’s influence will be so formidable that quite a number of officials who were originally on Lu Buwei’s side have now changed their loyalty towards Xiao Pan.
Xiao Pan immediately called for a court session and Ji Yanran read out the new policies in court.
During the court session, all the officials looked excited but Lu Buwei and Zhu Ji were in shock.
But under such superstitious and mystical atmosphere, no one dares to openly oppose Xiao Pan who has received spiritual blessings.
The beautiful Learned Lady Ji wore a grand, long black robe embroidered with dark gold thread with a tall headgear. With a stately expression, she first announced that River Wei will henceforth be known as ‘Holy River’. As River Wei is one of the rivers connecting to the Yellow River, in other words, the whole of the Yellow River has now become the Holy River.
Because less water is available during the winter season, the tenth month where winter begins will now become the first month of the year. Followed by the ‘Black as Color’*, where colors correspond to the Five Elements and water corresponds to the color black.
*From Elements of Color, in traditional Chinese art and culture, black, red, blue-green, white and yellow are viewed as standard colors. These colors correspond to the five elements of water, fire, wood, metal and earth.
Therefore black is now the main color in dressing, ornaments, pennants etc.
Followed by ‘Six as Lead’, whereby in the Five Elements, the number six correspond with Water so henceforth the various utensils will use the number six as a benchmark.
For example, official hats should be 6 inches long, carriages should be 6 foot wide and 6 foot equals to one pace.
On seeing this grand event which he single handedly planned unfolding, Xiang Shaolong’s whole head was numb with excitement.
No one will be able to understand this event’s far and wide influence on the Qin dynasty other than him, and it has left an indestructible mark on the history of China.
After Qin unified China, the empire was divided into 36 commanderies, because 36 is the self multiplication of 6.
Another example is the classification of the numbers of wealthy merchants in the world in Xianyang as ‘120,000 households’ because 120,000 is 6 times 20,000.
The last key political change is to make use of Ji Yanran to announce the execution of the ‘Three Lords and Nine Ministers’ system which Li Si meticulously planned in order to strengthen Xiao Pan’s central power.
It is create disorder in the previous official system Lu Buwei established in the past by abusing his power and to twist the situation where they were previously bound by around.
On the surface it looks as if most of the people can still maintain their own authority and Lao Ai seems to be holding even greater power but in secret, it has become a situation where Lao Ai will keep Lu Buwei in check while Xiao Pan will once again gain tight control of the military and finances.
Lu Buwei is still the Premier, while Lord Changping is now the Grand Commandant instead of the Left Premier and Feng Qie is now the Imperial Secretary. Together they are known as the Three Lords.
The duties of the Three Lords are clearly defined.
The Premier is the head of the administrative officials and reports directly to the ruler and will be given a gold seal and purple ribbon to assist the Qin ruler in political matters of the country.
This is akin to denying Lu Buwei’s identity as his ‘Uncle’ to feign his position as Regent. A premier is not the equivalent of the Ruler, but will have to seek the Ruler’s opinion in every matter, thus strengthening the power of the imperial rule.
Lord Changping’s role as Grand Commandant is to assist Xiao Pan in taking charge of the whole country’s military affairs so that the Qin army will have a unified commander, imperceptibly cutting off the independent rule that men like Meng Ao, Du Bi had been enjoying with the armies under them.
This reform is similar to merging the old positions of Left Premier and Grand Marshal, and also akin to integrating the powers of Xu Xian and Lu Gong into one post. Through Lord Changping, Xiao Pan can directly control the Qin military, the strongest army in the world.
This position is also assigned the gold token and purple ribbon.
The last of the Three Lords, the position of the Imperial Secretary is the brain juice of the super intelligent Li Si who came up with this brilliant plan to reduce Lu Buwei’s power.
On the surface, the Imperial Secretary is similar to Li Si’s previous position of Chief Clerk, helping Xiao Pan handle all memorials and edicts, just that there’s now the added responsibility of keeping an eye on the duties and authority of the officials.
But when Ji Yanran described the detailed responsibilities, she pointed out that whatever affairs that the Premier is handling, the Imperial Secretary has the authority to question but the authority to oversee the Imperial Secretary is something that Lu Buwei as the Premier will not possess.
So it became that the Imperial Secretary will keep the Premier in check, ostensibly and obviously reducing quite a lot of Lu Buwei’s influence.
Feng Qie used to be in charge of the judicial system and is a very upright person so no one dares to raise any objection about him taking on this position.
From this one can see how capable Xiao Pan is in using the people under him.
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thanks so much jean...
every one... told u.. i'd be the one!!!
Ah, didn't get 1st
But 2nd aint bad
I wonder if this the end of Lu Buwei ARC ? Is XSL heading to another new adventure?
greetings from indonesia! Now in my hotel reading comments, you sure sure having fun trying to be first huh. Too bad no prizes.
Unfortunately May updates will be slow as I'll be travelling almost whole of the last 2 weeks of May.
Been away for some time on business , welcome back jean , great to know you are back on the job
Last edited by tu22m3f1; 04-28-11 at 10:44 AM.
Numero U..
Oh, bugger!!!
so, Jean. Do you like the traffic over there?? hahaha..