The younger brother of the First Emperor

Chapter 199 The changing situation
Outside Xianyang City.

Lu Buwei stared at the world's number one city without walls in front of him, and at the central royal palace that reached into the sky a hundred meters high, and was stunned for a long time.

Li Si, who had just joined Lü Buwei's school and was highly favored, walked up to his master and said respectfully and naturally:

"What are you looking at, my lord?"

"Looking at my burial place." Lu Buwei murmured.

He knew that he would never be able to escape from Qin in this lifetime...

Having lost the Lu's Chamber of Commerce, he no longer has any way out.

"Let's go..." Lu Buwei got on the carriage.

The five-horse royal carriage moved slowly, carrying the Qin prime minister, into Xianyang.

Five days after returning to Xianyang, Lu Buwei finalized the candidates who would go to various countries to sell the Chamber of Commerce.

On the sixth day, except for Li Si who was going to Qi State with the Dianshi Mi Chen, no one else set off yet.

Those in charge of other countries all left Xianyang.

These people will pass through Hangu Pass and go east of Mount Xiao.

On the same day, King Chu of Qin returned to Xianyang.

The next morning, Prince Chu of Qin held a grand court meeting in the front hall of Xin Palace.

Lü Buwei was granted the title of Marquis Wenxin, and his fiefdom was Luoyang, with a population of 100,000 households.

The head of civil officials is the prime minister, and the highest title of nobility is the prince.

Lu Buwei, who is forty-three years old this year, has reached the highest official rank and is the most powerful official in the country.

The court was in great shock, and many military generals were dissatisfied and made a big fuss.

Why should they have to step over mountains of corpses, wade through seas of blood, and fight for their lives to achieve the first-class title?

Wang Ling, one of the Four Dukes, now only has the ninth-rank title of Five Great Officials, eleven ranks lower than Lu Buwei!
How could Lu Buwei, a lowly merchant bird, who had no military merit, suddenly become a marquis of the twentieth rank?
Military merit title, military merit title.

Only those with military merit can be promoted to a higher rank.

Since he defeated the Eastern Zhou Kingdom, Lu Buwei has not fought a war since then. Where did his military achievements come from?

Doesn't he just sit comfortably in his house every day, writing a few words with a pen and fiddling with bamboo slips?
Can pen, ink and bamboo slips kill the enemy?

Official position.

Most of the generals don't care. The king can let anyone he wants to serve. How many years can they serve?
Knighthood.

Military generals care a lot about it because the title is hereditary.

Lu Buwei was Marquis Wenxin.

If there is no major disaster, Lu Buwei's eldest son will also be Marquis Wenxin.

Faced with the turbulent public opinion in the court, Prince Chu of Qin only said that the prime minister had made great contributions, but did not specify what the great contributions were.

Prince Chu of Qin used his dignity and prestige as a king to forcibly suppress the anger of the generals.

Afterwards, Prince Chu of Qin announced that Qin would close its borders to the outside world after one month.

Except for Xianyang, all other parts of Qin were not open to the outside world.

After entering Hangu Pass, foreigners can only take one route.

The road to Xianyang.

After the grand court meeting, all the generals looked at Lu Buwei with unfriendly eyes.

If Lü Buwei had not walked fast, he would have been forced into a duel by contemporary Qin generals such as Yang Duanhe and Fan Yuqi.

Prince Chu of Qin took Prince Zheng of Qin, who was attending the grand court meeting, to the dining palace for dinner.

While the father and son were eating, Prince Chu of Qin dismissed his attendants and examined his son:

"What do you think of watching politics today?"

The ten-year-old Prince Zheng put down his chopsticks and stated his opinion:
"My father deliberately caused a conflict between the military and the commander in order to curb the commander's power.

“Without military authority, no matter how powerful a division commander is, my father can take it back at any time.

"The policy of closing the country to the outside world, I think father is trying to block the news and paralyze the other countries... Is father planning to do his best to control the flood in Guanzhong?"

Qin Wang Zichu did not comment, but served his son a bowl of mutton soup filled with mutton:
"Mutton is a warming and nourishing meat, so eat more."

Prince Zheng responded and took the bowl with both hands.

Eat the meat in silence and drink the soup in silence.

The ten-year-old boy finished eating the meat and drinking the soup, put down the spoon, and suddenly asked:

"Father, do you hate Mother?"

Qin Wang Zichu did not answer.

It seemed that the mutton in his mouth was extremely difficult to chew, and required his full concentration.

Prince Zheng looked gloomy and had no appetite, so he did not ask again.

The boy forced his body to eat.

Almost at the same time when Prince Qin Chu put down his bowl and chopsticks, the young man also put down his bowl and chopsticks.

Prince Zheng of Qin absentmindedly placed the porcelain bowl on the table and heard a slightly heavy sound of the bowl hitting the table.

The slightly heavy voice was still ringing, and Prince Zheng of Qin suddenly heard his father asking:
"If one of you and your mother must die, who do you want to die?"

Prince Zheng raised his head and met his father's eyes.

The indifference and ruthlessness in his father's eyes shocked and frightened him.

His lips trembled and he could hardly make a sound.

His eyes were wide open, but he was not looking at anyone.

The ten-year-old boy's mind was blank, as if he had died once.

When he comes back to life.

"Father!" he shouted.

He stood up anxiously and hurriedly, looked around, and stayed where he was again.

It was unknown when Prince Chu of Qin left, and only Prince Zheng was left in the back hall of the dining palace.

The boy's legs went weak and he slumped down in the chair, clutching his head with both hands.

[If I hadn’t asked too many questions, if I had put the bowl down more quietly, would my father not have…]
afternoon.

Prince Zheng found his mother and told her everything that happened in the dining palace today, his voice trembling.

Zhao Yaotiao's naturally charming face was full of pity as she touched her son's head:

"Nothing, your father is teasing you."

She hugged her son, patted his back gently, and kept comforting him.

After coaxing her son away, Zhao Yaotiao stood in front of the bronze mirror and looked at her own slim figure.

The jade hand slid across the perfect jawline and fell between the majestic breasts.

She bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth and let out a charming moan.

Her face flushed, she smiled shyly, pointed at herself in the mirror and said:

"What does Qin Yiren want to do? How can you resist him?

"Since you have entered his circle, you can only obediently devote your body and soul to him.

"There is nothing you can do except trust him completely...you have to make your son king.

"Your name is Yaotiao, not Yaoyao."

Eight days later.

Mi Chen, an envoy from the State of Qin, passed through Xinzheng, the State of Han.

The Qi army made a great fanfare and was in high spirits, as if they wanted to let the whole world know that the Qin prodigy was engaged to the Qi princess.

Hanwang Palace.

Ji Yaoyao was summoned by King Han Ran to discuss the marriage between Qin and Qi.

All the famous officials of the Kingdom of Han gathered in the discussion room, even Han Fei, who never left the Donghai Palace.

It seemed as if the Qin envoy was not passing through Xinzheng on his way to form a marriage alliance with Qi, but came to Xinzheng specifically to form a marriage alliance with Han.

Ji Yaoyao was absent-minded during the entire discussion.

In the atmosphere where the Korean monarch and his ministers were facing a great enemy.

Ji Yaoyao tilted her head, supported her chin with one hand, and stared at one place with unfocused eyes.

[Qian'er should be very unhappy, right? Is he worried about upsetting that Bai family girl?]
[Qin Zichu is so anxious, is he going to die?]
[Poor sister, she clearly guessed Qin Zichu's sinister intentions, but she could only pretend not to know.]
[Like me back then… deeply stuck in the mud, but unable to extricate myself.]
"Yaoyao, Yaoyao? Yaoyao! Yaoyao!!!" Han Wangran shouted four times in a row.

Each sound was louder and more urgent than the last. Ji Yaoyao came back to her senses and raised her pretty face:

"Hmm? Your Majesty, please speak."

Her phoenix eyes slanted into her temples, and when they moved slightly, they flashed with a gleam of light, and her majesty seemed even greater than that of Han Wangran.

Han Wangran was a little displeased, but he didn't show it. He said sincerely:
"When we joined forces with Zhao, Wei, Chu, and Yan to attack Qin, Qi did not participate.

"Now that the five of us have finally forced Qin into a situation where it cannot develop, Qi wants to form an alliance with Qin. Isn't this stabbing us in the back?

"The union of Qin and Qi is like a horizontal line running from west to east.

“Our country is at the western end of this horizontal line.

“If Qin sends troops and there is no rescue, our country will be the first to suffer.

"How can we balance Qin and Qi?"

Ji Yaoyao glanced at the ministers in the room:
"Didn't you say so?

"Qin had just started to control the floods, and couldn't do anything for a year or so.

"Qin's confidence lies in Qi.

"If you want to rule Qin, you must rule Qi..."

Ji Yaoyao spoke eloquently, and most of the Han officials nodded in agreement.

This is exactly what they just said.

They didn't know that Ji Yaoyao was just daydreaming and didn't listen to what they were saying at all.

What Ji Yaoyao said was what she thought the Han ministers would say.

She could come up with three or four strategies in the blink of an eye.

Ji Yaoyao from South Korea was good at scheming and was known as the female Shen Buhai.

His son Ying Chengjiao was of similar character.

Qi State, Jixia Academy, inside Ying Chengjiao’s house.

Ying Chengjiao said lightly:

"The teacher is taking advantage of my father's favor and relying on him to gain more power.

“In turn, my father relied on my teacher’s desire to gain power and authority to force him to continue to increase his investment in Qin.

"Go back and give my message to the commander.

"When he was gazing at his father, his father was also gazing at him."

Li Si bowed sincerely:
"Stein will bring it."

"Can we leave this time?" Ying Chengqiu asked with a smile.

Li Si nodded, the pride in his eyes disappeared into the deepest part, replaced by shock.

Far away in Qi State, he was able to know what was happening in Xianyang just by relying on the Lu Chamber of Commerce to move west to Qin State.

This requires not only a clear understanding of the situation, but also a deep understanding of Qin Prince Chu and Qin Prime Minister Lu Buwei.

Li Si believed that he could not guess the reason why the Lu Chamber of Commerce moved westward because he only knew their lord Lu Buwei, but not the Qin King Prince Chu.

If the young man had simply analyzed the situation thoroughly, Li Si's shock would not have lasted.

He thought that if he were in the young man's position, he would also be able to say that.

It is not uncommon for a son to understand his teacher and father.

But the young man not only described the situation, he also told him that his lord's title was Wenxin, and that his fief was Luoyang with 100,000 households, as if he was in the court in person.

Li Si thought to himself that this was something he could not do no matter what.

His lord Lu Buwei did not remind him of this.

Li Tonggu didn't think that his master wanted to surprise him. His master was not that boring.

[Perhaps... the master does not know that the Second Young Master is so miraculous...]
He thought about leaving.

The moment he turned around, he heard a somewhat sharp voice:

"My brother is in trouble. I will kill your entire family and exterminate your three clans."

Li Si stood there in shock and looked back in horror.

He saw the boy stroking the tiger's head innocently, smiling with a pure look on his face.

So Li Si suspected that he had heard it wrong.

[How could such an innocent and virtuous man, Cheng Jiao, say such cruel words?]
The child raised his extremely innocent smile and looked at Li Si:

"Why don't you leave? I really don't care about food."

Li Si was a little dazed.

Just now, it seemed, seemed, probably, the sound I heard was so sharp...

He responded and left, not sure whether he was hallucinating.

After dealing with the affairs of Qi State, Li Si returned to Xianyang, Qin State with his junior brother Zhang Cang.

His first priority was to find his lord, Lu Buwei.

After recounting his experience with Master Chengjiao, Li Tonggu asked the question that he was not sure whether he had heard or not:
“…I don’t know if it was hallucination or not.

"When I was about to leave, I seemed to hear Master Chengjiao say that his brother was in trouble and wanted to kill my whole family and exterminate my three clans."

Lü Buwei gathered his disciples and told them his title. The disciples were shocked and told his favorite retainers calmly:

"You heard it right. Cheng Jiao also said something similar to me."

At that time, he was still more merciful and only said to kill me... Lu Buwei thought of the young man who vomited again and again when he saw the battlefield full of corpses, and suddenly he missed him a little.

A chill suddenly rose up, spreading from Li Si's heart to his whole body.

Thinking of the rumor circulating in Xianyang that Prince Chengjiao had killed someone at the age of seven, Li Si forced a smile and said:

"Prince Chengjiao asked me to tell my lord.

"When the master gazed at the King of Qin, the King of Qin also gazed at the master."

Lu Buwei nodded and shook his head with sigh.

The disciple's words were as sharp as usual.

After sending Li Si away, Lu Buwei unfolded the bamboo slips he had been holding in his hand.

The bamboo slips were sent by King Chu of Qin.

The general content is to recruit a large number of people to Guanzhong to control the flood, and to fight the flood as a war, a war against the sky!
"If Cheng Jiao knew that Your Majesty was suffering from goiter, he would have come back on his own instead of sending a message..." Lu Buwei murmured, "Your Majesty, since you can't stop the flood, you have to mobilize the whole country to control the flood and fight against the sky. You want to unify the world in your lifetime and complete the unfinished hegemony of the five generations of Qin kings. But can your body still hold up until then? The Qin State should follow the kingly way, not the hegemonic way..."

April 9th, the first year of the reign of King Qin.

The State of Yan attacked the State of Qi, and Qi destroyed Yan and brought chaos to the entire territory of Yan.

When the news reached Ying Chengqiu, he was in class.

I glanced at the audience and felt a headache.

He was able to sternly reject the engagement with Princess Tian Yan of Qi.

He can also be cruel enough to refuse admission of beautiful girls.

He also relied on the Qi State's culture of emphasizing etiquette and respecting people, and took advantage of his status as a scholar of Jixia Academy to refuse to give face to King Jian of Qi and the Queen Mother, refused to enter the palace, and gave them no chance of matchmaking.

But he couldn't not give lectures at the Jixia Academy...

He had to win over the various philosophers and students at the Jixia Academy, and that was why he came.

Every time he gave a lecture, the seventh princess, Tian Yan, sat in the middle seat in the first row.

Every time, the seventh princess Tian Yan lowered her head and cried silently, crying from the beginning of class to the end of get out of class.

"Seventh Princess, please stop crying. What have I done to you?" The boy, who had ignored the girl for nearly two months, couldn't help himself anymore.

In just these two months, his popularity in the Jixia Academy has been on fire, but his reputation has taken a sharp turn for the worse - the rumors that Yingzi had seduced the seventh princess, Tian Yan, and then abandoned her were very well-founded.

The young man hated these students who controlled the big bosses so much that he wanted to arrest them all and send them to Guanzhong of Qin State to build the canal.

He is only eight years old!
He is not that beast like Ying Zheng!

Tian Yan lowered her head, said nothing, and held back her tears.

The students of Jixia Academy looked at the Seventh Princess with pity, sympathy and admiration.

When it comes to Ying Chengjiao, how hateful, shameful and inhuman it is.

Ying Chengjiao: “…”

[It’s none of my business! What did I do?!]
He felt that his Qin blood had awakened... He wanted to kill all the students in this school!
"Seventh Princess." The young man knocked on the small table in front of Tian Yan helplessly, gritting his teeth and said, "You must clear my name today!"

(End of this chapter)