Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 322

This journey to the east was filled with many events, and Ying Zheng vaguely felt that the effects of Yun Zhongjun's elixir were not as effective as before. According to the imperial physician Xia Wuqie, this was due to the change in environment and the fact that he was far more exhausted than when he was in Xianyang, which was a normal situation.

When Ying Zheng heard Xia Wuqie, who had made great contributions in the assassination attempt on Jing Ke, say this, he felt slightly relieved, but at the same time, he was thinking of urging the Mirage to set sail as soon as possible.

However, due to the matter of the Yinghuo Stone, and the crucial importance of coordinating the war in the northern frontier, His Majesty the Emperor temporarily suppressed his desire to summon Yunzhongjun.

Suddenly, another battle report arrived from Dongjun and Baiyue. Ying Zheng did not delay and returned to his desk to read it personally.

It's quite a coincidence that Baiyue and Dongjun, which are far apart, were able to send battle reports at the same time.

Thinking of this, His Majesty suddenly glared at the attending eunuch and asked sternly, "Did the messengers from Dongjun and Baiyue arrive at the Sanghai territory at the same time?"

"Your Majesty, yes." The eunuch knelt and kowtowed, replying, "The battle report from Dongjun was personally delivered by the General's personal guards and is currently still in Sanghai City."

"Because Baiyue is located in a remote area, communication has always been escorted by Luowang, and there has been no delay along the way."

The eunuch's reply was completely unambiguous in tone, and even if the simultaneous delivery of the battle report was not a coincidence, asking him would be pointless.

Ying Zheng solemnly withdrew his gaze and raised his hand to open the battle report from Dongjun first: the Baiyue region has been in conflict for many years, but the Grand Commandant Tu Sui died in battle there. The urgent battle report is naturally important, but compared with the Yinghuo Stone that fell in the Central Plains, its priority is still much lower.

Good news came from Dongjun: the disciples sent by the Yin-Yang School while escorting the Yinghuo Stone accidentally discovered the plot of the anti-Qin rebels to seize it halfway. They took the initiative to cooperate with Wang Li, and the two sides put on a show together, catching the anti-Qin rebels off guard.

General Wang Li killed Xiang Liang, the second son of Xiang Yan, who had repeatedly opposed the empire, along with many other members of the Xiang clan. According to the list, the Xiang clan was nearly wiped out, and the remnants of the Chu state were completely annihilated in this battle.

The escort team carrying the Yinghuo Stone, following closely behind in the battle report, is moving at a slightly slower pace and is expected to arrive tomorrow.

Upon seeing the successful battle report, Ying Zheng couldn't help but smile. After two assassination attempts, the execution of Xiang Shi, one of the masterminds behind the first assassination, was undoubtedly good news that came at just the right time. However, the subsequent evidence in the battle report that the farmers of Dazeshan were involved in the rebellion made his smile only flash by.

After the Mohists came the Agriculturalists... Are all these schools of thought going to be enemies of my Great Qin?

"I remember the leader of the Farmer's School of Heroes is in Sanghai?" The eunuch, whose voice was indifferent and devoid of emotion, answered truthfully, having been instructed by Zhao Gao in advance: "Your Majesty is wise. Lu Wei, the leader of the Farmer's School of Heroes, has not yet returned to Daze Mountain since he was invited by Prime Minister Li to come to Sanghai at the beginning of the year."

"What did he do in Sanghai?" Ying Zheng continued to press.

"Lu Wei, the leader of the peasant chivalrous family, initially had close ties with Xiaoshengxianzhuang in Sanghai. Later, after Prince Fusu invited Master Xiaomeng of the Taoist Tianzong sect to accompany him, he also took the initiative to discuss Taoism with Master Xiaomeng several times."

"The Agricultural School, the Confucian School, the Taoist School?" Ying Zheng's voice grew lower and lower as he read. The relationship between the various schools of thought had never been so good before. If one had to say, the academic conflicts between these schools had always existed.

In the past, they might have greeted each other politely when they met, but that was about it.

After putting down the battle report from Dongjun, Ying Zheng kept the matters of the various schools of thought in mind, intending to deal with them later. Then he picked up the battle report from Baiyue.

The battle report sent by Ren Xiao was also good news: Yi Yusong, the leader of the Xiou tribal alliance, who was the most determined to oppose Qin among the Baiyue, fell into a Qin army trap and was killed by a thousand arrows. The Qin army took the opportunity to launch an attack, defeated the Yue army that was hastily fighting, broke through the mountain pass and penetrated a large part of the Yue people's forests.

We will press our advantage and further expand our gains.

Yi Yusong was not only a stubborn anti-Qin leader, but also the source of the Yue people's confidence in their resistance. With his death, the remaining Yue people's fighting spirit would no longer be strong, and the war in the Baiyue region, which had lasted for many years, was likely to finally come to an end.

Upon receiving this report, His Majesty the Emperor immediately put aside his unpleasantness with the various schools of thought. The campaign against the Baiyue region had tied up a large amount of Qin's manpower, material resources, and financial resources. Even after the Lingqu Canal was opened, the cost of transporting one shi of grain to the Baiyue front was almost equivalent to ten shi. The losses along the way far exceeded the actual consumption at the front. Moreover, the Yue people could eat fish and beasts raw, and the Qin people could not obtain any supplies from the Yue people at all.

Once the Baiyue people submit, most of this army that has been campaigning in the south for many years can withdraw to the Central Plains, either to suppress the rebellious rioters who have already begun to rise in strength, or to hand it over to Meng Tian to attack the grasslands and slaughter the wolf tribe!

Even the 100,000 disciples of the Farmer School cannot be ignored. Without the attrition of the Baiyue, the Qin army could easily march on Daze Mountain and force the Farmer School to submit and be dismantled!

Ying Zheng felt a sense of relief, but just then, the sound of hurried footsteps outside the hall made him frown slightly. It turned out that a young eunuch was coming to present another urgent report.

The urgent military order had just arrived from the Chu region, giving His Majesty a bad feeling: There was no ongoing war between Qin and Chu, so could this hastily sent report be...?

A perceptive eunuch quickly took the battle report from the young eunuch's hand and handed it to the First Emperor's desk. Ying Zheng opened it, and the contents instantly ignited his anger, which had just received two pieces of good news.

The rapid emotional ups and downs in a short period of time caused His Majesty's headache to relapse. Ying Zheng felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, and his upper body trembled as he supported his head with his left hand. The eunuch serving him quickly took out another pill from Yun Zhongjun on the table and fed it to Ying Zheng. The medicine took effect immediately, in just over ten breaths, but Ying Zheng closed his eyes and did not fully recover until a quarter of an hour later.

Looking again at the battle report sent from Chu, Ying Zheng stood up and coldly ordered the eunuchs to immediately summon Li Si and Meng Yi.

"In Jing County and Fan County, located south of the Yangtze River, a rebellion was launched in the name of a Chu princess. The rebel leader, known as Duke Jing, was joined by Yue King Ouyang Yao and Wuzhu. Thirty thousand rebel troops ravaged Jiujiang Commandery, Guzhang Commandery, and Donghai Commandery, and have already plundered many counties."

In the Qin Dynasty, a rebellion suddenly arose, with the command of 30,000 soldiers...

Chapter 400 Not even the seeds are spared

"Have you found out the identity of the rebel leader?"

Ying Zheng changed into formal attire and received Li Si and Meng Yi in the main hall. The brightly lit hall was particularly eye-catching on the seaside at night, like a bright, short, stout lighthouse.

"Your Majesty, Jing County and Fan County are both settlements formed spontaneously by the local people. The magistrates of the two counties were elected by them and then appointed with the permission of the Chu State."

"Later, after General Wang Jian captured Shouchun, the two counties and King Ouyang Yao of Dong'ou were awed by the might of our Qin army and became the first group of Chu to surrender. In addition, they were located in remote areas, and at the time, the empire's energy was focused on Guangling City, which was still resisting. Therefore, they were treated leniently and the officials of the two counties were not changed."

As the Prime Minister of the Empire, Li Si had almost all the information about the counties and prefectures in the country memorized. In addition, the seriousness of this incident made him spend the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to find the local records and read them through before he came. Therefore, he calmly introduced the local history to His Majesty the Emperor.

The appearance of the rebel army was urgent, but it did not need to be dealt with hastily: the lands of the former six states had been razed to the ground by the Qin Dynasty, and the rebellion in just two counties was hardly worth mentioning.

After being enraged by the rebellion, Ying Zheng was not in a hurry to make a decision that night. The longest stage of military and national affairs is the preparation stage, and the actual time spent in battle is only a small part of that.

So he listened calmly as Li Si continued speaking:

"Later, when the army marched south to conquer the stubborn Yue people, the empire conscripted laborers and provisions from the two counties. They provided the full amount and were very obedient. Every year, they paid 20% more taxes than other counties south of the Yangtze River. They were the representatives of the empire who were law-abiding and law-abiding."

"Behave yourself and keep to your own standards?" Ying Zheng pronounced these four words heavily, then glanced at Li Si, who had stopped, and said, "You can continue."

"Yes... The magistrate of Jing County is named Yan Shen. He rarely appears in public. The more famous person in the county is the county clerk, Xiao He, who is a disciple of the Taoist Renzong sect..."

At this point, Li Si clearly sensed that the emperor's imposing presence above him had intensified. He lowered his head slightly and continued without being interrupted: "Xiao He is a man of exceptional talent. I have read his official documents; though the writing is not ornate, it is very neat and clear. The court originally intended to observe him further before promoting him to Xianyang, but unexpectedly, this happened..."

“Wu Rui, the magistrate of Fan County, is a descendant of King Fuchai of Wu. He is no more than thirty years old and is respectfully called Lord Fan by the people of Fan County... The banner of Lord Jing that the rebels raised this time should have originated from this.”

"What's strange is..." Li Si paused slightly, pondering the more detailed intelligence from the south reported by Luo Wang, and slowly said, "I originally thought that Lord Jing was either the county magistrate Yan Shen or the county assistant Xiao He, but this time, on the fake call to action issued by the rebels, both of their names appeared after 'Lord Jing,' proving that this Lord Jing is someone else, but his identity is unknown."

"Furthermore, the appearance of the four characters 'Fan Jun Wu Rui' at the end further confirms this guess..."

"So, in other words, a rebellion has broken out within the empire, yet the court doesn't even know the identity of the rebel leader?" Ying Zheng looked down at the emperor, his anger rising once more.

"Your Majesty, I believe that this 'Lord Mirror' is likely an incarnation of a famous figure from the Central Plains," Meng Yi stepped forward, bowed, and expressed his opinion.

While listening to Li Si's introduction, Meng Yi was also reviewing more intelligence sent by Luo Wang. From this intelligence, Meng Yi discovered several suspicious points.

"The three southern prefectures reported that the total number of rebel troops in various places was about 30,000. However, based on the marching signs they reported, the rebels who attacked Donghai Prefecture were no more than 3,000. The same was true in Jiujiang Prefecture and Guzhang Prefecture. The total number of rebels in the three prefectures was less than 10,000. This is a huge discrepancy from the information in the battle report. Therefore, the scale of the enemy this time is not as large as it appears."

"Moreover, the emergence of this rebellion is extremely strange: there was no warning, no reason, and the banner raised was 'resistance against tyranny,' but the empire has been waging war against the Baiyue for many years, and in recent years it has been taking a policy of appeasement towards the Jiangnan region. The rebellion of the two counties seems to be just a rebellion for the sake of rebellion, which is not reasonable."

In fact, Meng Yi had a rebellious thought he didn't say: even if rebellion were to occur, it shouldn't start in the Jiangnan region.

In recent years, with the increase in corvée labor, some people in the empire have indeed complained, and the number of people abandoning their homes and becoming thieves has increased significantly, but overall, they can still live in peace.

If even the people of the Central Plains could tolerate it, the people of Jiangnan should be able to tolerate it as well. Moreover, the leaders of this rebellion happen to be the local county magistrate and assistant magistrate. What reason would they have to organize this rebellion?

After much deliberation, there are only two possibilities:

First, the governors of the three prefectures did everything else behind the emperor's back, which forced two of the prefectures to rebel.

Secondly, this rebellion itself is not important; rather, it is someone who wants to use this rebellion to plan other, even bigger conspiracies!

These two options make it easy to eliminate one and choose the other. Therefore, Jing Gong's identity is not just the initiator of this rebellion, but an ambitious man who intends to overthrow the Qin Dynasty!

Meng Yi's thoughts were easily understood by Ying Zheng and Li Si with just a little prompting. His Majesty the Emperor coldly asked, "Who do you consider to be the suspects?"

“Since the magistrate of Jing County is a disciple of the Human Sect, we can perhaps trace our investigation outwards from the Human Sect.” Meng Yi said in a deep voice, “Furthermore, we cannot let the magistrate Yan Shen go, since we can make a disciple of the Human Sect submit to a lower position. The Yan family is a prominent family, mostly distributed in the north, which is also a point that can be investigated.”

"The Taoist Human Sect... I remember the Shadow Guard is investigating the former leader of the Human Sect, Xiaoyaozi?" Li Si asked curiously. He knew a lot, including the relationship between Xiaoyaozi and his subordinate Luo Wang. However, Luo Wang was a very complicated organization. Although it was nominally under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Mansion, Zhao Gao often reported directly to Ying Zheng.

For the time being, Li Si was not worried that the Luo Wang issue would implicate him, so he could ask the question in a relaxed tone.

“That’s right, but it seems that Xiaoyaozi has disappeared into thin air, and the Shadow Guards have no way to trace the clues.” Meng Yi shook his head and said, “Xiaoyaozi should not be that Jing Gong. He has not had a deep connection with Xiao He in the Human Sect, and if he were Jing Gong, he would not have let himself be exposed.”

“Even the original leader of the Human Sect wasn’t qualified to become Lord Mirror. There are very few people in the world whose status is above Xiaoyaozi.” Li Si’s face remained calm as he systematically eliminated suspects in his mind.

“That’s right, so this person can’t hide for long.” Meng Yi nodded; he already had several major suspects.

The emperor, high above, listened to the two ministers' discussion, his thoughts unusually heavy: Xiaoyaozi was related to Luowang, and Luowang was extremely close to his eighteenth son, Huhai. Could Jinggong be someone inside the empire?

Could this rebellion by traitors be another part of the unfinished power struggle within the empire?

If that's the case, as the emperor of the empire, he cannot allow things to continue developing in such a baseless manner!

"Regardless of who Jing Gong is, suppressing the rebellion is the top priority." After finishing his conversation with Meng Yi, Li Si bowed to His Majesty the Emperor again: "I believe that we can send the General who is still in Dongjun with 30,000 battle-hardened armored soldiers south. With the power of their battle-hardened armor and their familiarity with complex terrain, they can quickly pacify the two counties."

"No need." Ying Zheng had his reasons. The Hundred Battles Armored Soldiers were indeed elite, but with the Golden Fire Cavalry heading north to fight the Wolf Clan and the Dragon Tiger Cavalry protecting Sanghai, the only flexible army that could be mobilized at will in the Central Plains was the Hundred Battles Armored Soldiers. The other county and prefectural troops had limited capabilities.

The Qin soldiers in Guanzhong also had the task of guarding the hundreds of thousands of corvée laborers, making them difficult to mobilize.

Following Meng Yi's line of thought, if the enemy's plan to launch this rebellion was indeed for some other purpose, then it was even more important not to let the battle-hardened armored soldiers also head south and leave the Central Plains!

"The Southern Army has already beheaded Yi Yusong, the leader of Ouyue. The pacification of the Southern Yue region is just around the corner. Zhao Tuo will lead 100,000 troops to guard the Southern Yue, while Ren Xiao will lead 200,000 troops to clean up the Jiangnan region!"

"Your subject obeys the decree..." Li Si and Meng Yi had been quite free during their discussion, but since His Majesty the Emperor had made a decision, it was now a decree.

Li Si's lowered eyes were particularly solemn. He originally intended to mobilize the Hundred Battles Armored Soldiers, but he was considering that "Jing Gong" had other plans. However, the Hundred Battles Armored Soldiers were powerful and capable of achieving a quick victory and return. This choice would be the one that would minimize the losses to the empire.

However, according to His Majesty the Emperor's intention, he sent an army of 200,000 to attack two counties where there were at most 30,000 rebels, or even only 10,000 according to Meng Yi's analysis. His purpose was clearly not just the rebellion itself: His Majesty wanted to clean up the entire Jiangnan region, just as he had dealt with Nanyue, and completely eliminate the hidden dangers.

The decision sounded right; a one-time solution would certainly be best. However, the timing was wrong for Li Si: the empire had just decided to launch a preemptive strike against the wolf tribe in the north, and a large amount of resources were being directed towards the north.

Originally, transporting grain to the southern Yue region was difficult, but over the years, mature routes have been established, and the battle lines have remained relatively stable. Therefore, it is only necessary to maintain the status quo. However, if we go east to attack the two counties as ordered by the emperor, it will inevitably result in new losses.

Even the largest empire has its limits; resources are not inexhaustible...

The costs include hundreds of thousands of corvée laborers, hundreds of thousands of wolf tribe soldiers on the northern expedition, tens of thousands of battle-hardened armored soldiers and dragon and tiger cavalry accompanying the eastern tour, the cost of maintaining the Baiyue lands, the cost of the mirage departure ceremony later, and the cost of another 200,000 troops attacking Jiangnan... These are just the visible costs.

The empire's accumulated wealth could be replenished by the resources of the six kingdoms when it attacked them, but now that it possesses the whole world, its spending is like flowing water and it can't get any valuable gains from the wolf tribe, the Yue people, or the rebels. The empty treasury can only be squeezed twice as much from the people.

But what could he do? Li Si had no choice but to obey the Emperor's decision.

Even if the people have no surplus grain, they will still have some seeds to plant the following year!

Chapter 401 The Emperor's Star is Dim

It was already past midnight when Li Si and Meng Yi left the seaside palace, and by the time their carriage returned to Sanghai City, it was already dawn.

However, they didn't have time to rest much. Although Xiao Na felt unwell in the carriage, it provided the necessary energy to recover. As soon as they returned to their respective residences, they immediately began to carry out their respective tasks.

Li Si had to find a way to provide Ren Xiao's 200,000-strong army with ample provisions:

Although there is no need to recruit soldiers separately this time, the original supply route for the Southern Army Corps was to enter the Li River and Gui River through the Ling Canal and then move south, relying on the waterways of Lingnan to ensure the smooth flow of supplies. Now that the army is moving east, the grain will have to be transported by land again after entering Lingnan, and the losses in this process must be made up.

How to make amends will test the abilities of Prime Minister Li Si.

Meng Yi must follow the clues of "Jing Gong" to investigate the conspirators hiding in the Central Plains who intend to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, which requires the assistance of Luo Wang.

The Luo Wang is a powerful assassin organization that spans the entire world. Its intelligence capabilities are superior to those of the Shadow Guard, especially in the Chu and Baiyue regions, where information has been collected and investigated for a long time.

Therefore, even though Meng Yi never liked Zhao Gao, he still took the initiative to summon him.

Of course, Meng Yi first needed to confirm that Jing Gong had no connection with Luo Wang: although linking a rebellious leader who threatened Qin with his colleagues within the empire was extremely malicious, Meng Yi believed that Luo Wang was capable of such a thing...

...