Diqin Designer

Chapter 449 The Great Qin Brother is Too Kind!
The Xiongnu were the Qin's most trusted vassal, and as the Xiongnu Chanyu, Touman was naturally treated with high honors by the Qin.

Before the carriage even reached the palace square, Touman and his men saw a group of people waiting there in the distance. They had been there long before the carriage arrived, so they had obviously been there specifically to wait for them.

Upon seeing who was in charge, Touman and the other leaders were initially surprised, but then felt a strong sense of being valued by the Great Qin: Great Qin, our big brother, still values ​​us!
The person standing at the head was none other than Fusu, who had been summoned back from abroad by the First Emperor due to the upcoming Games and Exposition of the Nations. Apart from Fusu, the other princes were also summoned back to Xianyang.

The reason was that the First Emperor felt that this was the first sports meet and exposition held by the Qin Dynasty, and his sons should not be absent. He wanted them to witness and participate in this history.

But Li Nian knew the First Emperor's mindset. The First Emperor felt he owed his sons something and wanted to make up for it in other ways, wanting their lives to be better than in the original history. This was the First Emperor's way of compensating his sons as a father, except for that brat Hu Hai!
However, Hu Hai has now been excluded. The entire court and the public maintain a tacit silence regarding Hu Hai's whereabouts, as if the Qin Dynasty had never had a prince named "Hu Hai".

Today, Touman Chanyu arrived in Xianyang, and the First Emperor sent Fusu to greet him on his behalf. This was to demonstrate the friendship between the two countries and show the importance that Qin attaches to the Xiongnu: How about it if Qin sends its crown prince to welcome you? Isn't that enough to give you face and show that we value you enough?

Touman and the others truly felt the importance that Qin placed on them, and thought to themselves that Qin was a really good older brother and someone they could get along with!
As soon as the carriage came to a stop, Touman and the others quickly got off. The fact that the Great Qin sent the Crown Prince to greet them showed that they were being treated with respect and were willing to give them face. However, if they were to put on airs because of this and deliberately make the Crown Prince of Great Qin wait, then they would be truly ungrateful and would not be able to distinguish who was the king and who was the prince.

Seeing Touman and the others get off the car, Fusu greeted them with a smile and a group of people behind him. If there were modern people here, they would feel that this scene was so familiar, as if a leader of one country was welcoming a leader of another country in a later era.

That's right, this was also done by Li Nian. He modified the original etiquette for welcoming foreign guests in the Qin Dynasty and incorporated some etiquette from later generations.

Seeing Fusu approach, Touman had a thought: if Maodun hadn't died, he would probably be very tall and strong by now.

Touman and the others already knew that Maodun's death was not as simple as trespassing into the forbidden area of ​​the Qin imperial palace, but they had long since concluded on Maodun's death and did not mention or investigate the matter.

What else can we do? Should we seek revenge against Li Nian, the one who supposedly killed Maodun, or against the person behind Li Nian?

The situation here is too complicated. If they keep pressing the issue and don't let it go, they might end up getting themselves into trouble. It's better to just pretend they don't have this son.

Although Maodun was his son, his death was also beneficial to him. Given Maodun's character, if he had lived, one of them, father and son, would probably have died sooner or later.

Regarding offspring, Touman and the First Emperor reached a consensus: they both tacitly agreed to pretend that they had no sons.

Touman composed himself and, along with the others, bowed to Fusu: "Touman greets the Crown Prince!" Why didn't they bow first? Did they expect the Crown Prince of Qin to bow to them first?
Fusu reached out to help Touman, who was bowing in greeting, and said with a smile, "The Great Qin and the Xiongnu are brotherly nations. Chanyu and all of you need not be so polite. Please rise!"

Touman straightened up with Fusu's help, and then saw five or six strange people not far away. Each of them had a wooden board in front of them, and they seemed to be holding something in their hands. While looking at him and the Crown Prince of Qin, they were smearing the wooden board with the things they were holding.

A hint of doubt flashed in Touman's eyes, but seeing that the Crown Prince of Qin was not acting strangely, he knew that what these people were doing must have been permitted. But what exactly were they doing?
If Touman could walk up to those wooden planks, he would find that these people were quickly drawing the scene of him being helped up by Fusu, depicting his and Fusu's actions and expressions.

These people were the illustrators of the Daqin Daily. In this era without cameras, they used their skills to paint news scenes and then submitted them to the newspaper.

How could such a historic scene as the Crown Prince of Qin welcoming the Xiongnu Chanyu not be recorded and published in the newspaper so that the people of Qin could know and witness it?
To ensure the artists could capture the images smoothly, Fusu deliberately helped Touman for a little longer. Touman understood that Fusu was intentionally helping him, and although he didn't know why Fusu was doing this, he had to give face to the Crown Prince of Qin. Therefore, Touman cooperated with Fusu with a smile.

Once he felt that there was enough time for the painters to capture the scene, Fusu released Touman's support and invited him, "Chanyu and all the chieftains, please come with me. My father and all the officials have been waiting for you at Zhangtai Palace for a long time!"

Fusu invited Touman to go first, but Touman knew he couldn't really go first, so he let Fusu go first and followed a step behind Fusu on the left. The Xiongnu leaders followed behind Touman, while the Qin officials who came with Fusu to welcome him followed behind Fusu. They walked along with the two of them.

Touman had only taken a few steps with Fusu when the Qin soldiers lined up on both sides suddenly made a move, almost making Touman and the others think that they were about to attack them. However, after the sudden movement, the Qin soldiers stopped standing there quietly. It was clear that they were not going to attack them, but rather it was a welcoming gesture.

While on the carriage, Touman and his companions noticed that the Qin soldiers lined up on both sides wore different clothing and carried different weapons than the Qin soldiers they had seen before. They also noticed that these Qin soldiers were almost the same height, weight, and build, and were of similar age and appearance.

These are clearly Qin soldiers specially selected by the Qin people for the welcoming ceremony!

Touman and the others once again thought, "As expected of the eldest brother of Great Qin, they are so professional in doing things!" If it were them, how could they have come up with such ideas?
When they get back, they will also build a set of these, so that when other nations and tribes visit in the future, they can broaden their horizons.

Touman and the others continued forward with Fusu. A burst of music began to play. As soon as the music started, Touman and the others recognized it. They remembered that it was the music that was played every month when the Qin embassy raised the Qin flag. It was the Qin national anthem!
Wait a minute, the Qin people are playing the Qin national anthem now, could it be that theirs will be played later?

As soon as the idea popped into Touman's mind, sure enough, when the national anthem of the Qin Dynasty ended, the music of their Xiongnu national anthem began, making Touman and his group feel even more the importance and courtesy that the Qin Dynasty showed to their visit.

Brother Qin really gave them so much face, I'm moved to tears, family!

Upon seeing that the Qin Dynasty had a national flag, national anthem, and national emblem, Touman and his people thought these things were good, so they made a set for them as well. Thus, the Xiongnu became the second country in this era, after the Qin Dynasty, to have a formal national anthem, national flag, and national emblem.

The Xiongnu have adopted many of the policies of the Qin Dynasty, which is why they are sometimes jokingly referred to as "Little Qin" by some countries and tribes.

But the Xiongnu didn't care at all. Although it was difficult for them to create such things, their elder brother knew how. They could simply learn from their elder brother. If they thought something was good, they could just adopt it. As the younger brother, what was wrong with learning from the elder brother?
After the national anthem finished playing, Touman and the others thought it was over, but suddenly a cannon shot rang out. Hearing the cannon shot, Touman and the others were all startled, but they managed to control themselves and did not show it.

Come to think of it, this is Xianyang, the capital of the Qin Dynasty, and the Crown Prince of Qin was leading the way for them. How could anyone possibly bombard them with cannons?
This should also be a kind of welcoming ceremony for them by the Qin people. It is said that during that triumphant return ceremony, the Qin Emperor also used cannons to welcome the triumphant soldiers. I never thought that they would enjoy such treatment today.

Unfortunately, this is something we can't learn from. The Qin people haven't officially sold their cannons yet, and even if they did, they wouldn't be willing to use their precious cannons for such a thing. Only the Qin, the big brother, would do that.

But how impressive! Using cannons to welcome foreign guests—when will they ever be able to do that? Touman and the others were filled with envy.

Touman counted in his mind that after the first cannon shot, there were twenty more cannon shots, for a total of twenty-one cannon shots.

There must be a reason for the number of cannon shots. I wonder what level it is that they were welcomed by the Great Qin with twenty-one cannon shots.

It might be at a level only below that of the Qin Emperor!

Touman's guess was correct. As the number one junior brother of Qin, Qin set a ceremonial cannon salute of twenty-one shots for Touman's visit. This number was only the number of shots for a Qin crown prince under the First Emperor. Other countries would have fewer shots for their kings or leaders.

As the national anthem played and cannons fired in salute, Touman and his men felt increasingly valued by the Great Qin, experiencing the courtesy shown to them by their elder brother. Regardless of the elder brother's intentions towards them, at this moment, they were truly given ample face.

Following Fusu, Touman and the others arrived outside Zhangtai Palace. Before Fusu could enter the palace to report, a strong male voice came from inside the palace: "My brother must have arrived. My beloved ministers, come with me to welcome my brother!"

Touman was quite familiar with the Qin language and could understand these words. He was very surprised by the content of the words. The speaker must be the Qin Emperor. He did not expect the Qin Emperor to refer to him as "my brother" in the words.

Immediately afterward, the light changed, and Touman and the others saw a tall figure walking out of the hall. Knowing that this was the Qin Emperor, they dared not look directly at him and lowered their heads slightly.

The Emperor Qin was willing to call him "my brother," which was a polite way of putting it. If someone truly believed that he was the Emperor Qin's brother, then he would be ignorant of the proper order of things.

Although they dared not look directly at the figure, Touman and the others still saw something. The figure was wearing a black dragon robe, carrying an emperor's sword, and wearing a pair of finely crafted red shoes, and was striding towards them.

Before the figure even got close, Touman and the others hurriedly bowed. This time, unlike when they bowed when they saw Fusu, they knelt on one knee to pay their respects.

After all, the person they were paying homage to at this moment was not the Crown Prince of Qin, but the real Emperor of Qin, the man at the pinnacle of power in the world—the First Emperor of Qin!
They were the Chanyu and chieftains of the Xiongnu. It would be beneath their status to kneel completely before the Emperor of Qin, but the Emperor of Qin was indeed of higher status than them, so they should pay their respects with a higher degree of courtesy. Before they came, Touman and the others had agreed that when they paid their respects to the Emperor of Qin, they would kneel on one knee.

Touman and the others greeted the First Emperor in the elegant language of Qin: "Touman of the Xiongnu pays his respects to Your Majesty!"

The First Emperor was quite satisfied as he watched Touman and the others kneel and pay their respects to him. He felt a strong sense of accomplishment, for this was to have the rulers and leaders of his own country kneel before him and pay homage to him.

No wonder some emperors in later generations liked the idea of ​​all nations paying tribute; they enjoyed the thrill of having other countries submit.

But the First Emperor only lingered in this pleasure for a few seconds before pulling himself out of it. He was a man destined to become the greatest emperor of all time, and he would not be limited to this achievement. He wanted to go even further and become a model for future emperors.

The First Emperor bent down and supported Touman's shoulders, laughing loudly, "I have long wanted to meet the Chanyu, but unfortunately I have never had the opportunity. Today, I see that the Chanyu is indeed extraordinary! Chanyu and all the chieftains, please rise!"

The more the First Emperor looked at the plump figures of these people, the more satisfied he became. Li Nian's method of raising the Xiongnu as "pigs" was quite effective. The more the Xiongnu Chanyu and chieftains resembled pigs, the more beneficial it would be to the Great Qin. The Great Qin was not afraid of them being pigs, but it was afraid that they would not want to be pigs!
The more prosperous a person's physique, the more it indicates that they are addicted to pleasure. And when people are addicted to pleasure, it is easy for them to lose their sharpness and ambition. How much ambition do these people still have?
I'm afraid there aren't many left!
Moreover, while they indulged in pleasure and enjoyed a peaceful life, there must have been someone bearing the burden for their enjoyment. These people were none other than the common people and slaves of the Xiongnu.

One side enjoys pleasure while the other bears the burden for their pleasure. This will inevitably lead to the accumulation of contradictions between the two sides, causing a division in the Xiongnu society. The longer this goes on, the deeper the resentment will become. How many Xiongnu commoners and slaves will still be willing to follow the Chanyu and chieftains who are like pigs?

When those Xiongnu students from the Great Qin International Academy return to the Xiongnu, it will further disrupt the already fragmented Xiongnu society, making it easier for Great Qin to profit from the chaos.

Directly annexing the Xiongnu might not sound good, but saying "the Qin Dynasty brought the Xiongnu under its rule in accordance with the will of the Xiongnu people" sounds much better.

Don't talk nonsense. Our Great Qin is not the kind of state that casually invades and annexes other countries. It was the local people who invited us to come, and that's why we went there to bring them progress, civilization, and prosperity!

After Touman and the others expressed their gratitude and rose, the First Emperor continued, "The Great Qin and the Xiongnu are brotherly states. I am the Emperor of Great Qin, and the Chanyu is the ruler of the Xiongnu; we should also be brothers. As far as I know, I am older than the Chanyu, so I will address the Chanyu as 'younger brother.' Would the Chanyu be willing?"

Touman knew that although the Emperor Qin seemed to be asking for his opinion, there was really no room for him to offer any suggestions. He respectfully replied, "That is indeed my wish, but I dare not ask!"

Upon hearing Touman's words, the First Emperor's smile deepened, and he said, "I did not expect that you would also know this saying. This sentence comes from the second part of 'Gongsun Chou' in Mencius. It is Mencius's reply to King Xuan of Qi. Even in Qin, not many people know this sentence."

(End of this chapter)