But as with most other historical construction sites it never had a major military significance, hostile conquerors from the steppes of Asia never let them be stopped by stone or bricks. The wall is still there never the less, and the memory of those who died during the construction is also there. They have left their traces in the world of literature. It hasn't earned its reputation for nothing, the Wall of Tears or the longest burial place in the world is some of the more infamous names for the Great Wall of China.
Traditional Chinese historians has nothing kind to say whatsoever about Shi Huang , despite the first Qin emperor's impressive achievements. He is described as gruesome tyrant who tormented his people with much severer things than the Great Wall. On one occasion when he sailed up the Yangtze river he became delayed by the wind at a holy mountain. He became absolutely furious and sent 3,000 men to punish this mountain; and they had to cut down every single tree on that mountain and they even had to paint the mountain red.
The Emperor also ordered huge migrations of the population which must have caused great suffering for the generation that had to go through with them even if it proved useful in the long run. 30,000 farmers were sent to the non-populated regions at the northern border, he also dispatched an army of all kinds of trash to the regions near the southern border to make way for 500,000 Chinese colonists who were sent there to expand his kingdom.
After three attempts on his life, Shi Huang lived in constant fear of assassination and during his first years on the throne he was constantly traveling to make sure he was safe on his throne as a ruler by removing all untrustworthy elements. In the meantime he began the construction of a huge palace in the capitol Xianyang with secret underground passages and other nice things to prevent further attempts on his life, no one would know where Shi Huang was unless he wanted them to. In 212 BCE Shi Huang started a new construction project, over 700,000 men worked with the construction of A fang and the nearby mausoleum at Mt. Li. First he built A fang (which means "at the side of the capitol"). The palace's large dimensions should obviously give any spectator a sense of awe at the grandness of Shi Huang's new dynasty. A rough estimation says that about 3 million people were occupied with their Emperor's constructions, which was, at that time, about 15 percent of the population.
"A fang" measured 675 meters from east to west and 112 meters from north to south. It is said that the colonnade could house 10,000 persons and between the floor and the roof, there could stand banners that were 15 meters high. Shi Ji says that 270 palace's were built in the original Qin country in the valley of the river Wei and over 400 palace's outside the valley.
Its dimensions was tremendous, assures the poet Du Mu several centuries afterwards; according to the poet the palace could house hundreds of thousands of people, including 3,000 concubines of which several of them hadn't seen the emperor's face in 36 years. The construction didn't last long unfortunately, it was burned down a few years after the master-builders death by a rebellious peasant mob. But it took 3 months before the fire went out, says the same poetical source.