The younger brother of the First Emperor

Chapter 2: Hear thunder before seeing any men or horses!
On the east wall.

Meng Wu's eyes widened in his head, and his mouth, which had just closed, opened again, but he didn't say anything.

"Investigate quickly!"

Ying Chengjiao pulled down Meng Wu's arm, pried open his palm, and pressed the object shining with golden light hard into Meng Wu's palm.

"Yes!" (Note 1)

Meng Wu leaned over with his head down, tightly holding the object handed to him by the second young master in one hand.

He reached his other hand into the fold of his lapel and took out the Hangu Tiger Tally, which Mu Qin had always carried with him since he became the defender of Hangu.

Golden light shone from both of Meng Wu's hands.

He put the tiger parts of his left and right hands together to create a tiger standing on all fours with its mouth open and its tail curled.

Meng Wu held the tiger in front of him.

It seems that this thing is one piece. Without careful observation, it is very difficult to see that there is a gap that runs from the middle of the tiger's head to the tiger's body and ends at the tiger's tail. (Note 2)

The complete tiger talisman is three to four inches long, slightly more than two inches high, and about one and a half inches wide. (Note 3)

The whole body is green and made of bronze.

There are forty golden inscriptions on each of the left and right halves:

[The symbol of the military armor, the right one is the king, the left one is the Hangu Pass. ]

[Whenever a soldier is fifty or more and is wearing armor, he must present the king's seal before he dares to act.]

[The matter of burning (fan, second tone) and sui (sui, fourth tone), although the mother will meet the talisman, the funeral (yi, fourth tone) will be performed.]

Meng Wu stroked the tiger talismans on both sides, his fingertips passing over the golden characters, without any feeling of bumps and depressions, as if the golden characters were originally grown on the green tiger's body.

The craft is called inlaid gold, which requires rare and superb skills and is almost never seen among the people.

The process is to carve grooves with words on the surface of the object and melt the gold wire into the grooves little by little.

Then use sandpaper to polish it carefully until you touch it with your fingertips with your eyes closed and there is no strange feeling.

The appearance is accurate and the craftsmanship is superb.

At this time, Meng Wu was basically certain that the Hangu Tiger Tally in his hand was authentic, the only thing left was the last step: weight.

He gently broke the tiger talisman into two halves, held them in each hand, and weighed them gently...

"Hurry up!"

Ying Chengjiao urged.

He could not accept that Qin Shihuang, who left the idea of ​​great unification to future generations, suffered an accident because of him.

He was very impatient, and it showed on his face without any attempt to hide it. He was under a lot of pressure.

Meng Wu looked at the two halves of the Hangu Tiger Tally in his hand and was motionless for a moment.

He knew that the king doted on the prince in front of him the most, otherwise he would not have directly agreed to help fifty people.

But after confirming that the Hangu Tiger Tally was authentic, he still didn't quite believe that it was a gift from the king.

[Stolen, right?]
He raised his eyes slightly, trying to gauge the prince's expression.

Ying Chengjiao immediately noticed Meng Wu's little move.

It is clear that the Qin general is not doubting the authenticity of Wang Fu, but is doubting himself and the origin of Wang Fu.

He totally understands.

Among all the tiger seals of the Qin State, the Hangu Tiger Seal is an extremely special one, and its importance ranks among the top three.

With the tiger talisman of Hangu Pass, he took control of the defenders of Hangu Pass.

And controlling the garrison of Hangu is equivalent to controlling Hangu Pass.

The Qin State resisted the six eastern states entirely by relying on the Hangu Pass.

After Hangu Pass was breached, Guanzhong became a vast fertile land, flat as a plain with no strategic locations to defend.

Since the founding of the Qin State, Hangu Pass has only been broken once by the coalition forces of Qi, Wei and Han.

That time, the entire Qin State fell into panic.

In order to avoid national destruction, the country sent envoys to cede land and seek peace without waiting for the allied forces of the Three Kingdoms to enter the pass.

As long as Hangu Pass remained, the Qin State would be invincible.

This is an extremely important piece of Hangu Tiger Tally, which controls the Hangu Pass, the lifeline of the Qin State.

Extremely suddenly, without any warning, a seven-year-old child was brought to Hangu Pass.

If Ying Chengjiao was the general guarding Hangu Pass, he would not believe it either.

It has only been seven years since Xinling Jun Wei Wuji stole the seal to save Zhao, and the lesson from the past is right in front of us.

But understanding does not mean acceptance.

Without waiting for the prying eyes to fall on his face, Ying Chengjiao pointed at the half tiger talisman that symbolized the king's talisman in Meng Wu's right hand and asked:

"Have you completed the inspection? Is the tiger talisman real or fake?"

Meng Wu raised his eyes and looked at him, his gaze was deep, as if he wanted to see into the depths of Ying Chengjiao's heart, and he said nothing.

Ying Chengjiao snatched the royal talisman and held it in front of Meng Wu.

“It’s clearly engraved here!

"This is the talisman for mobilizing troops. The right hand is in the king's hand, and the left hand is in the hand of the commander guarding Hangu Pass.

"Whenever you want to mobilize more than fifty soldiers, you must use the Hangu Left Talisman together with the King Talisman.

"Only when you encounter an emergency situation where you need to light a beacon fire, you don't have to match the talisman and can handle it yourself.

"The King's Talisman is here, it complies with the order! Why don't you give the order? But is this half of the Tiger Talisman fake?!"

There was silence on the wall, except for the sound of breeze blowing. Meng Wu still didn't speak.

Ying Chengjiao took two steps closer to Meng Wu and said coldly in a voice that only the two of them could hear:
"I only need 500 cavalry to search for people. I don't want to transfer all 3,000 defenders of Hangu Pass! This will not affect the defense of Hangu Pass.

"Now I hold the tiger talisman of Hangu Pass." You give me soldiers and horses now, and report to my grandfather afterwards, and we will cooperate. No one can say you are wrong.

“No, if you see the tiger talisman and don’t obey it, you are not following the king’s orders, which is no different from rebellion.

"At this moment, the Great Father has great trust in you. He knows that you are cautious and you don't care, but can you guarantee that you will always be trusted like this?"

Ying Chengjiao slowed down his speech and spoke each word with emphasis.

"By then, will today's events be brought up again?"

Meng Wu felt a chill in his heart, and felt that the prince's eyes were even colder than the battlefield of Changping where 450,000 Zhao dogs were buried.

[What a child prodigy! He's just a birdman!]
The commander stationed at Hangu Pass lowered his eyelids as he had not been to the capital for a long time.

"The tiger talisman is real. This is to mobilize the troops for you, young master."

He turned around and was about to order his personal soldiers to gather troops.

"Wait a minute!"

Lu Buwei, who had been silent all this time, shouted loudly, and Meng Wu stopped moving.

"Meng Wu!"

Ying Chengjiao shouted loudly, and the sharp young voice exploded.

Meng Wu glanced at Lu Buwei and called a personal soldier over.

"Quickly dispatch 500 cavalry!"

"only!"

The personal soldier received the order, ran down the stone steps and went to deliver the message himself.

Lu Buwei narrowed his already small eyes, revealing the commercialism of a businessman, and gave a bitter smile.

"Even if you are favored by the king, you should not be arrogant. If you mobilize the troops in Hangu Pass for no reason, you will offend the king."

Ying Chengjiao picked up the Thousand-Li Eyes and walked towards the stone steps at the pass, saying as he walked:
"The Zhao caravan should have arrived at Hangu Pass three quarters ago.

"Now I look down from here with my thousand-mile vision, but I can't see even the shadow of a carriage or a horse."

He paused, looking serious.

"There must be something fishy about this!"

Lu Buwei looked stunned.

"This is all conjecture. Can you mobilize 500 cavalrymen based on this?"

"Not bad!"

"That's a bit arbitrary..."

Seeing Ying Chengjiao standing at the top of the stairs without stopping, Lu Buwei caught up with him and said:
"Since you have decided to do this, just lead fifty people to find him. Why do you need to use the tiger talisman and summon five hundred people?

"Before the battle, five hundred men left Hangu Pass. This matter could not be concealed from anyone.

"The ministers knew that it was the prince who took the Tiger Seal of Hangu Pass and were afraid that some treacherous people would use this to attack the prince.

"How about just taking fifty people?"

Ying Chengjiao suddenly stopped.

"The Zhao delegation consisted of 232 people.

“If they were unable to reach Hangu Pass on time due to an assassination attempt, and not one of the 232 men could escape and report the incident, how many assassins would there be?

"Fifty cavalrymen, more than enough to find someone, but what about fighting?"

Lu Buwei did not answer the question directly.

"This is Hangu Pass. No one would dare to assassinate us, let alone so many assassins."

Ying Chengjiao stared at Lu Buwei's face.

The father asked him to treat him with respect, and the legendary businessman, who was addressed as "Sir", bowed his head slightly to show that he dared not look him in the face, and behaved extremely respectfully.

"You want my brother dead."

The boy's tone was completely declarative, as if he had already determined this matter.

"Why would Bu Wei want the eldest son to die?"

Lu Buwei put emphasis on the word "long", his expression unchanged, like an emotionless stone or wooden sculpture.

Ying Chengjiao's eyes narrowed into a line.

"I don't need you to remind me that I'm not the eldest son.

“Not everyone in this world wants to be a king, and not everyone can become a rare commodity in your hands.

"Although my father is the crown prince, he won't be able to protect you if I find out that you are plotting to murder my brother!"

Lu Buwei was sweating profusely, as he actually felt a strong murderous intent from the young man who had always been kind and had never even killed a chicken.

His waist bent again and his head was almost touching the ground.

"Bu Wei dare not..."

Just after the beginning of the year. (Note 4)
The Hangu Pass is open.

Before seeing any men or horses, you hear thunder.

Horse hooves broke the silence of the afternoon, and five hundred Qin cavalrymen came out one after another, forming a black line that meandered eastward.

…………

【Note 1: People of the same level or superiors responding to subordinates are called "Nuo". People of the subordinates responding to superiors are called "Wei". The "Wei" in "Weiwei Nuonuo" and "Nuo" are derived from this. 】

【Note 2: The word "合" originally meant that the tiger talisman was compatible.】

【Note 3: One Qin cun = 2.31 cm. 】

【Note 4: The twelve hours are divided into Chu and Shi, which are used to express twenty-four hours. For example, Wei Chu is : p.m., and Wei Shi is : p.m.】

(End of this chapter)