According to records, the mercury in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang was provided by a woman, so who was this woman? Why did he have such a great ability to have the privilege of supplying mercury to the First Emperor Yingzheng?
There are too many legends left by this man to future generations, and he unified the world and established the first feudal dynasty that was truly unified. In addition, he conquered the Xiongnu in the north, baiyue in the south, and ended hundreds of years of chaotic warfare in the land of China. He also left behind the Great Wall, a wonder of the world, the Qin Terracotta Warriors, including the Afang Palace, which was burned down by Xiang Yu.
There are really too many legends left by Yingzheng, he is always called a tyrant by later generations, in fact, Yingzheng can really be regarded as an emperor who is diligent and loves the people. Yin Zheng's love is love in a broad sense, and Meng Tian led an army to defeat the Xiongnu, making it not difficult for the Xiongnu to go south to herd horses, and later build the Great Wall. The Great Wall consumes a lot of people's and material resources, and has been criticized by the Chinese people, becoming a major black spot in the criticism of Yingzheng.
But later emperors have proved to the world more than once that the role of the Great Wall in defending the nomads in the north is irreplaceable. With this Great Wall, the defenders can attack and retreat, and with fewer troops, they can defend the northern pass, and this siege is blessed.
It is said that Yingzheng is absurd, but There are not many children of Yingzheng, he has not even established an empress in his life, and the only woman who has a scandal with him is the protagonist in this article- Huaiqing.
Yingzheng conquered Kyushu and had higher expectations for the sea
Yin Zheng was born to conquer, Qin is located in the west, and the ocean in the east is a place where he has never set foot. In Yingzheng's heart, although he unified the world, but in the east of this sea, there must be countless secrets and wealth, in his cognition, the world is not the land of the six kingdoms, but the whole world.
In order to continue to fulfill his dream of world domination, Yin Zheng felt that time was too tight, so he ordered Xu Fu to go to the mysterious East to find the elixir of immortality. Although Yin Zheng did not wait for Xu Fu's elixir until his death, his yearning for the sea never stopped.
Although Yin Zheng longed for immortality, he must have understood in his heart that people would eventually die, otherwise how could he invest so much energy to build the Lishan Tomb? In the design of the entire tomb, in addition to the unprecedented terracotta warriors, it is the sea of mercury in the tomb.
According to the detection of archaeologists, the mercury in the tomb is about 1.2 billion cubic centimeters, equivalent to about 1200 cubic meters of mercury, which can be converted according to the density of mercury, which is about 1600 tons of mercury.
There are two advantages to collecting so much mercury in the tomb: (1) embalming; mercury is most commonly used in ancient times is embalming, and when the prince will embalm the corpse after death, most of them use mercury to soak, and then use jade plugs to block the seven tricks, so as to achieve the purpose of embalming. The large amount of mercury in the tomb on the one hand creates a vast ocean scene, and on the other hand, it makes the corpses soaked in it immortal for thousands of years. (2) Anti-theft; the emperor's tomb has undergone thousands of years of development, and it is not unusual for it to be stolen and excavated. Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms in his lifetime, and countless people wanted to crush him, but they could not do it for thousands of years. The high concentration of mercury vapor can easily kill people who approach, and once the tomb is opened, thousands of mercury gushes out, and there will be no grass within a few miles.
The design is subtle enough, but where does more than a thousand tons of mercury come from? Who is the woman mentioned in the opening paragraph, and does she really have such a great ability?
She had a scandal with Qin Shi Huang
There were almost zero women who had gossip with Qin Shi Huang, and Huai Qing had the honor of becoming one of them. Sima Qian has a record of her:
Ba widow Qing, who first got the Dan Cave, and was good at its profits for several lifetimes, and the family was not troubled. Qing, widows, can also keep their jobs, defend themselves with money, and do not see violations. The Qin Emperor thought that he was a virgin and a guest, and huaiqingtai for the sake of the daughter. Isn't it true that husbands despise people and pastors, widows in poor villages, resist all kinds of multiplications, and are famous in the world?
It can be seen that no matter what kind of admiration and emotions Yin Zheng is in, he once built a Huaiqingtai for Huaiqing. And Ba Qingzhen's home has mines, she is not like me, there are window frames and door frames in the house, and Ba Qing's home, there is really a Dan placer mine. What is dansha, dansha is the raw material for survival mercury.
That is to say, Ba Qing is likely to be the largest supplier of mercury to Yingzheng, and perhaps she became acquainted with Yingzheng in the case of supplying mercury. After all, such a large amount of mercury supply, the price must be negotiated by the bosses of both sides to be assured, and the two may have a secret affection when they come and go.
Presumably, in addition to the "product", the two must have talked a lot about private stories. Otherwise, how does Yingzheng know that Ba Qing is rich and not extravagant, widows no longer marry, and the local reputation is also very good.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this factor that In addition to paying baqing normal expenses, Yingzheng also built a Huaiqingtai to recognize Huaiqing's merits.
Ba Qinglian's smelting method of mercury is estimated to have been all dedicated to Yingzheng, after all, there are people with mines in their families. According to the Records of the Heavenly Works:
Where cinnabar, mercury, silver vermilion are the same thing. Where mercury is raised, or tender white sand is used, every thirty catties of mercury is added to the kettle, and thirty catties of charcoal are also used. “
At the ancient level of production, with high-quality ore, burned for 10 hours, it is possible to produce about 6 kg of mercury. According to this method, the thousands of tons of mercury in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang must not be able to be produced in a short period of time. Mercury is highly volatile, and it is highly toxic, refined from afar, and needs to solve the problem of containerization, the storage of mercury, and the artificial problems taken by the mountain high road.
It can be seen that it is extremely convenient to transport raw materials to the vicinity of Lishan Mountain, refine, store, and after the completion of the mausoleum, the mercury is charged. So the question arises again, where do so many raw materials come from?
Where do the raw materials come from
The above-mentioned Huaiqing, although she is rich and invincible, she is from the Bashu region. At that time, transportation and excavation undoubtedly cost huge manpower and material resources. In the process of unifying the world, Yin Zheng gathered the world's famous rich merchants in Xianyang, and Huaiqing should have met the King of Qin in this way.
Ba Qing has a mine in Bashu, which is the raw material of mercury, no matter how Yingzheng treats Huaiqing with courtesy, the mercury raw material she has to pay cannot be less. Judging from Huaiqing's strength, most of the mercury in Lishan Tomb should have come from her hand. However, considering the huge amount of mercury in the Lishan Tomb, it is inevitable that it will not be able to meet the demand by relying on transportation in the Bashu region.
Xunyang County in Shaanxi also has sufficient mercury reserves, second to none in the country and even in Asia, according to relevant classic records, the reserves in the Xunyang area reached a staggering more than 50 million tons, and the history of its mining can be traced back to Qin, which shows that Yingzheng did not do the stupid thing of giving up near and far.
Transporting ore from the Xunyang area, smelting or smelting, is much more convenient than the Bashu region, the reason why the ore was finally mobilized in the Bashu region, the only reason that can be explained is that the mercury demand for Lishan Tomb is huge, and it is impossible to meet the requirements by relying on one place alone, nothing more.
postscript
From my personal point of view, the reason why the mercury in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is so much, on the one hand, is to meet The yearning of Yingzheng for the Eastern Sea, and on the other hand, it is also for the internal anti-corrosion of the tomb, in addition to which it has become a forbidden area for tomb robbers. Imagine that once the tomb is opened, the oncoming mercury vapor can solve the small group of tomb robbers. If it continues to be developed, the mercury that seems to burst out of the river will inevitably make the grass grow for miles and miles, and the mercury will pour out, whether it will cause the rest of the switches in the tomb is unknown.
So far, everything in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is still a mystery after all, and what we have discovered is only a little bit of fur.