strictlysupreme Chapter 544: The Reign of Qin Shi Huang
Chapter 544: The Reign of Qin Shi Huang
One morning, Ying Zheng woke from his sleep with a start, suddenly feeling a violent throbbing in his temples. The clashing of the jade beads on his crown became distant, and memories that did not belong to this world surfaced in his mind.
That was the time and space where Su Mohui originally lived. The powerful countries' powerful ships and cannons blasted open the door of future China. The flames of the Old Summer Palace illuminated the sky red, and the Dunhuang murals were cut and smuggled amid the sound of camel bells.
He saw his own mausoleum, the Terracotta Warriors, reduced to a tourist attraction, and later generations mocking the "legacy of the First Emperor" in foreign languages, but no one remembered the Qin oath of "wherever the sun and moon shine."
"Your Majesty!" Su Mohui's voice pierced the chaos. Ying Zheng snapped back to his senses, realizing his palm had gripped the scabbard of the Tai'a Sword, its newly engraved cosmic pattern stained with blood.
He looked at the commemorative column outside the Xianyang Palace, and suddenly another image emerged on the bronze surface: it was the earth divided into hundreds of countries, wars were burning on various continents, and the Xuanniao flag of the Qin Dynasty had long faded into an illustration in a history textbook.
"It turns out that in another time and space, my descendants actually destroyed the mountains and rivers to this extent." Ying Zheng's voice was as low as a dusk drum. His fingers stroked his forehead, where a pale golden ring pattern similar to Su Mohui's was emerging.
That is the mark of the fusion of the power of national destiny and system authority after the awakening of historical figures.
During the morning court session that day, he was silent for a long time, looking at the envoys from all nations below the stairs. The Persian astrologer, the Roman consul, and the Mayan priest all bowed their heads in confusion, but they did not know that a new fire had been ignited in the emperor's eyes.
Three days later, the sound of the bells in Xianyang Palace announcing the "Universal Epoch Order" echoed throughout every city across the globe. Ying Zheng personally melted the characters "Da Qin" from the pillar commemorating his achievements, and a grander totem emerged from the liquid bronze.
The golden dragon's wings formed the outline of the Nine Provinces, while its tail feathers stretched out to connect the seven continents. The new Chinese name, "Huaxia," was written by Emperor Ying Zheng in modern Song typeface. The strokes combine the strength of Qin seal script with the ease of regular script, symbolizing the connection between ancient civilization and the future.
"From today on, the old system of using countries to record years will be abolished." Ying Zheng held up a bronze scepter engraved with "Year 1 AD". The edge of the scepter was engraved with the Gregorian calendar formula derived by Su Mohui.
"The year I conquer the world is no longer the 53rd year of the Qin calendar, but the beginning of the Chinese era—the year 1 AD." He glanced at the frightened astrologers. "The movement of the sun, moon, and stars should be shared by all people, just as my land is not divided into east, west, south, or north."
The most dramatic transformation took place in the Hall of Characters. Su Mohui presented a modified movable type model for Chinese characters. The horizontal and vertical lines of Song typeface embodied the simplicity of Qin bamboo slips and the essence of later printing techniques.
"English, Arabic, Sanskrit..." she pointed to a cross-reference chart on the wall. "All of these can be preserved as dialects, but the 'essence' of the common writing system"—she deliberately used the Latin root—"is to ensure that every citizen of China can understand every word of the Qin Code."
Three months later, the first edition of the Huaxia Tongdian was published. The cover depicted a black bird holding an olive branch, circling a global map. The title page boasted the words, "Today, the world has one script, one wheel gauge, and one customs," written in seven different fonts. The newest, "Song" font, carved like a knife and an axe, became the official global script.
In the library of Alexandria, scholars translated Homer's epic into Chinese characters, and the top of each bamboo scroll was printed with the date "AD X".
In the market of Daliang, the signs of foreign merchants are no longer decorated with a jumble of cuneiform and Greek letters; instead, the uniform Chinese price tags sparkle in the sun.
What surprised Su Mohui the most was Ying Zheng's interpretation of "acting in the same way" -
He did not force the Qin rituals on everyone, but allowed each country to retain its core customs while achieving unification in the underlying systems: the rest and muting order applied to all free people, the proportion of women's participation in politics was written into the "Constitution of China", and even the Inuit in the Arctic Circle received wooden plaques engraved with Chinese characters that read "Awarding Nobility for Military Merit".
"What I want is not uniform obedience," he said as he reviewed the modern legal texts Su Mohui brought with him, "but to ensure that all Chinese people, no matter where they are, can live under the same set of rules."
When the first wooden kite carrying the "Chinese Envoy" flew high into the sky, the pattern painted on the fuselage was no longer the black bird totem, but a new emblem that combined the Chinese character "Hua" and the outline of the earth.
But in the secret room of the Xianyang Palace, Ying Zheng still kept the original Xuanniao flag. The Japanese coral fragments and Persian glass pieces at the corners of the flag gleamed, as if telling the epic of the empire's conquest from Japan to Antarctica.
Su Mohui stood before the newly constructed "Space-Time Pavilion," which housed the seeds of civilization gathered from across time and space. The system notifications had long since vanished, replaced by the power of national destiny shared with Ying Zheng in her mind.
She knew that in this rewritten world line, Chinese characters were no longer a symbol of invasion, but had become the umbilical cord that unified global civilization; the AD calendar was no longer a symbol of Western-centrism, but a new era ushered in by the Chinese Empire.
On the night of the New Era, Ying Zheng ascended the Zhangtai Observatory alone. Gazing at the Big Dipper, he recalled Su Mohui's words about the "wheel of history."
Now the wheel has rolled across all continents, and he has personally carved new lines into the spokes—those about unity, about civilization, and about vows never to repeat the past. When the morning mist rises, a new line of Chinese characters appears on the stone wall of the observatory:
"Wherever the sun and moon shine, Chinese civilization endures forever." — Emperor Qin Shi Huang's reign was established in the first year of the Common Era.
The words sparkled in the morning dew, and seemed to resonate with the whole world.
From then on, whether it was the farmers on the Euphrates River or the hunters in the Amazon rainforest, when they wrote their names, the same horizontal, vertical, left and right strokes flowed from their pens.
When they looked up at the sky, what they saw was no longer the divided sun and moon, but the same, eternal light of civilization belonging to China.
...........
Several more years passed.
The copper clock in the Xianyang Palace had just struck three o'clock in the morning, and Ying Zheng was standing on the white marble steps of the observatory, holding the Tai'a sword.
Seventy-three years have carved deep wrinkles on his forehead, but the tassels on his crown are still as bright as before - that is the mermaid silk that Su Mohui improved with the power of the system. The never-fading black bird pattern trembles in the night breeze, just like his restless mood at the moment.
"Your Majesty, the stars are giving a warning; the Purple Star is slightly dim." Before the astrologer in attendance finished speaking, Ying Zheng suddenly heard a long-lost mechanical voice in his mind: [Congratulations to the host for exceeding the target of the National Destiny copy. The current world line stability is 100%. You can choose to leave the world or stay permanently].
He stroked the pattern of the universe on the hilt, where the warmth of Su Mohui's fingertips was still retained. Every mark of the thirty-seven-year journey was as clear in his memory as yesterday.
As the morning mist drifted over the palace walls, Su Mohui appeared at the corner of the observatory. She still looked as young as when they first met, but the Qin Wang sword in her sleeve had a few more lines tempered by time.
"Sir, are you here to say goodbye?" Ying Zheng turned around and saw a light golden ring flowing behind her ear, which was a sign that the system authority was activated.
"The anchor point for the next reincarnation has appeared." Su Mohui handed over the crystal ball condensed by the power of the system, and the flames of war in another time and space emerged in it. "I should go, Your Majesty—"