The biggest underground army

When Qin Shi Huang unified China at the age of 22, he is said to have ordered the construction of his mausoleum on a massive scale.He chose the cemetery at the northern foot of Mount Li because of its beautiful scenery, plus the fact that the mountain sun produces jade, the mountain Yin is rich in gold, and both are perfect, which is in line with his superstitious thought.He not only sent over 700,000 "prisoners" from all over the country, but also recruited a large number of civilian men from Shandong and Henan.During the construction period, Qin Shi Huang also ordered Li Qi to gather thousands of boys and girls in advance to be buried for him.When Li Si saw the imperial edict, he was struck dumb with fear.He thought that if so many people were to be buried there would be strong opposition from the people.Once the people rose in rebellion, the Qin Dynasty could not be guaranteed.But if he fails to do so, he will surely die if he offends the emperor.After much thought and deliberation, he had to submit a letter saying, "Minister Li Si, dare to die to tell you that if you conscription so many young men and girls to be buried, it will cause chaos in the world. It would be better to use pottery to be martyred, so as to protect the peace of Daqin."The First Emperor of Qin thought this was reasonable, so he changed his mind and immediately ordered Li Si to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country to fire a grand guard of honor for the expedition, and required that the pottery men and horses that were fired should be as big as real horses.

A brickmakers from among the peasants and read to them the imperial decree, ordering them to burn the pottery men and horses as scheduled.If not, there will be no amnesty.

But these craftsmen could only burn bricks and tiles, and none of them had ever made a potter or a horse. They had tried many times to do so without success.More than a hundred craftsmen were beheaded.Among the slain craftsmen, one of the old craftsmen came up with an idea. Before he died, he told his son to fire in separate kilns.The son buried his father with tears. According to his father's instructions, the clay figures were fired separately in a single kiln and then combined.With this method, the pottery man and pottery horse were finally fired successfully.

After the success of the experiment, the craftsmen worked together, night after day, and finally fired thousands of pottery figures and horses on schedule, and arranged these clay figures into neat formation according to Li Si's requirements.