Qin Shihuandy – Board of China and Reform

Han Empire, which existed longer than all other dynasties in China’s history and has become a model of reign for many hundreds of years, not at stays. She was preceded by the Empire Qin, the first centralized Chinese state created by In Zhen, (Qin Shihuandi). In a matter of years, a unique education emerged in the ruins of seven battle kingdoms. A huge number of reforms were carried out, a standardized hieroglyphic letter was created, created almost from scratch road and irrigation systems, a lot of monumental religious and fortification structures were erected.

Military reforms and the Great Wall

The Empire, which, according to its creator, was supposed to exist for ten thousand generations, needed a strong army and reliable border protection. One of the measures to strengthen the defense capacity of the new state was the construction of the Great Wall of China, and this is now the main attraction of China. Some strengthening along the northern borders of the Middle Kingdom remained from Wei, Yan, Zhao and other kingdoms. On their basis, a solid strip of protective walls of a huge length was constructed. On the device, the Great Wall of the Wall was an earthen shaft covered on top of a stone. The height of the fortification reached 16 meters, the thickness at the top and bottom – up to five and eight meters, respectively. At the construction of a tremendous system of defensive structures, a huge number of people involved. From this army of builders could compare except that the number of builders of the Tomb of Qin Shihuandi, which became especially known in our time after the find of the famous terracotta army, consisting of almost 9,000 clay soldiers in full size.

The basis of defense performed powerful two-level towers. A typical garrison consisted of 145 warriors armed with swords, shields, crossbows and onions of three types. The ammunition of each archer consisted of one and a half hundred arrows with bronze tips. The defenders of the border crossings settled next to the wall together with their families and the time-free time was engaged in agriculture. Signal cords and rockets were used for communication, each subdivision had horse messengers to transmit important messages.

Qin Shihuandi created a powerful army, but the supply of military units scattered through the vast territory of the Empire often represented the problem. In Chezhen, large channels were reduced, but the military carriage would have not found wide use by water. The main ones remained slowly moving wheels. The greatest invention of that time is not due to due date – gunpowder. It was actively used when conducting festive fireworks, but in the army, the use of gunpowder was made only to signal missiles. Another serious drawback is the lack of military intelligence. In the Qin Army, they rely more on espionage and increased security of units both on the march and at the privals. With Qin Shihuhandi in China, there was a military service, although for some categories of citizens, the service was actually indefinite. Typically, men served two years, of which one year came to the training of military case, and one – to carry a garrison service. Demobilized in a month a year served in local militia.

Unification

Many transformations were associated with unification. In Zheng introduced a single money that went throughout the country. The state monopolized coins chasing and Karos death for violating this monopoly. Prior to this, all means, including Yashma, Kauri, Silver, Pearls and Tin. Monetary reform played a big role in the development of internal trade. And although the money was not yet called yuan as it was now, it was the first unification of the currency that has formed China’s monetary system.

The width of the road track was unified, the length of the axis of the chariot, the units of length, weight, area. Much attention Qin Shihuandi paid writing. Unified letters occurred due to the abolition of local writing of Chinese characters. Without this measure, a number of historians believe that it would be impossible to keep the unity of China for a long time, since regional writing options were subsequently transformed into independent forms of writing and increased the cultural gap between different regions of a huge power. Total "out of turn" was withdrawn about a quarter of the hieroglyphs that had previously existed. The resulting letter called "Small Simplified" (Xiao Zhuan) was the basis of modern writing of China.

Construction and other reforms

By order of Shihuhandi, defensive walls were destroyed around the cities and at the borders of the kingdoms included in the empire. This measure, along with the revolutionary transformations of the state management structure, was supposed to impede the growth of separatist trends. Similarly, a new one was actively built with the destruction of the old one: the roads were laid, the channels were rummaged, irrigation systems were created, majestic palaces were created, beautiful temples and powerful fortification structures. In construction work, enormous masses of the people were involved. Particularly large funds inserted the emperor to the arrangement of his new capital – the city of Xianyang. Xianyang joined transport channels and wide fifteen meters with all regions of the Empire.

Immediately after the proclamation of In Zhen Emperor Qin Shihuandi, the new ruler ordered to start the construction of his tomb. On construction, about 700 thousand people were involved. A huge number of workers was engaged in the construction of the Great Wall and the gasket of the channel system and roads. There was a 36-kilometer Linzui channel, allowed to cover with river transport Large territories of the southern part of China. Despite all the reforms, the Empire Qing briefly survived its creator, but much of the achievements of the Great Ruler was widely used by the subsequent rulers of China.