The younger brother of the First Emperor

Chapter 335: The Real Inaction, the Silent Counterattack of the Old Qin Nobles

Chang'an Jun bought a mansion from a big businessman.

This mansion is located in Huxiongfang and originally belonged to Bie Gong.

However, after Lord Biao died, the descendants of the Biao family were arranged by the Bai family to serve as officials in various counties of Daqin. Only the old people of the Biao family lived in this mansion to guard the house.

Last month, the Bai family, one of the nobles of the old Qin Dynasty, was destroyed, and the Bei family, which was protected by the Bai family, also suffered a disaster.

Without the support of the Bai family, the Bei family was squeezed and blocked by local forces in various counties, and none of them could continue.

Some of the descendants of the Bei family died, and more of them sold everything they had and returned to Xianyang. They had only status but no money or power, and they didn't even know how to make a living.

In the end, they sold the old house to a cheap businessman whom they despised from the bottom of their hearts.

It’s simple, just give a lot of money.

The businessman wanted to use the mansion to get in touch with the Qin general, but his real intention was not to buy the mansion, so he offered a price that was more than five times that of the mansion.

Because of this incident, the few generals who were grateful for Duke Biao's kindness and were still willing to help the Biao family became even fewer.

The status of Qin.

Merchants are inferior to the people and are at the bottom.

Military generals, ranked first.

The top military generals looked down on the lowly merchants at the bottom and were extremely unwilling to live with them. When they heard that the lowly merchants had entered the General's Square and occupied Bie Gong's mansion, they were all extremely angry.

More than a dozen military generals who felt humiliated broke into the door of the inferior merchant and ordered him to get out.

How could the military generals who looked down on the lowly merchants have a good attitude towards the Bie clan who let the lowly merchants in?
Even Huan Xi, the most promising officer under Duke Biao's command, who had been supporting Biao clan openly or secretly, now stopped helping them altogether.

Huan Xi was still grateful to Duke Biao, but he only felt disgust towards his descendants.

When people leave, the tea gets cold, and no matter how deep the friendship is, it will run out one day.

It's not just love that matters when two people are well matched, but friendship as well.

The front courtyard of the former residence of the Biao family.

"My lord." Biehu, who had rushed back from Yongcheng, bowed his head and was very respectful.

At the age of knowing the destiny, the ingratiating smile on his face is more sincere than when he was young. He is completely different from the arrogant eldest son of Mr. Bie three years ago.

In front of the bent-over deer tiger, Ying Chengjiao sat in a rocking chair with his eyes closed, walking back and forth. His face looked rather unhappy, and it was unknown whether he heard the deer tiger's call or not.

Bie Hu observed that Chang'an Jun would not open his eyes for the time being, and he smiled bitterly. This was his true emotion.

If he had known earlier that Chang'an Jun would be the crown prince, he would not have mentioned that Chang'an Jun wanted Bi Shi to learn the new Qin script in Chang'an County.

Even if Chang'an Jun made the Bie clan farm and spin silk like untouchables, he, as the leader of the Bie clan, would also force his clan members to do so.

Who could have thought that from the glory of Duke Mu of Qin to the present-day old Qin Bai family, they would fall apart just like that?
Biehu patrolled everywhere and looked at the familiar jujube tree in the west corner of the courtyard, feeling more and more uncomfortable.

If he had not chosen the Bai family at the beginning, now... it's too late, everything is too late.

The tiger knew it was too late, but he still wanted to fight for it, and he fought for it with a bold face.

He is the leader of the Bei clan, and this is his duty.

"My Lord." He called again, his tone becoming more flattering.

The rocking chair stopped rocking, Ying Chengjiao opened his eyes, tapped the ground with his feet, and looked at the tiger:

"According to seniority, I should call you uncle."

"I don't deserve the title of Lord." Biehu was terrified.

The young man pursed his lips, with a complicated expression, and remained silent for a long time.

He wanted to act like a winner and ask Biehu whether he had chosen the wrong person.

He wanted to sneer and say, "I told you guys to go to Chang'an County and I arranged for you, but you didn't listen. Are you okay now?"
He wanted to be sarcastic and said, "Isn't this Lord Biao who went to Yongcheng to be an official? Why did he come to a small place like Xianyang?"

The young man was very angry about the choice made by Biehu and wanted to vent his anger. However, every time he was about to speak, he would think of the old man who had spared no effort to protect him, the old man who did not die on the battlefield but died in the officialdom.

Forget it.

Ying Chengjiao let out a long sigh:

"I bought this mansion to live in for a few days. I will return it to you for free."

Biehu's face lit up with joy. With this mansion that his father had worked hard to build, perhaps the popularity could be revived.

Then he looked embarrassed and stammered:
"This this……"

Ying Chengjiao waved his hand and lay down again.

Hu, who was standing aside, walked up to Biehu and stretched out his hand, motioning Biehu to leave with him.

The tiger became anxious.

He came here not to ask for a mansion, but to ask for a way out for the Bie family.

"My lord!" he called out urgently.

"Hey!" The huhu sound was not urgent, but it drowned out the tiger's noise. Everyone has his or her own expertise.

Hu pushed and shoved the tiger, with a polite fake smile on his face that kept people at a distance:
"Guest, please don't disturb my master. Please go away."

"How dare you!" The tiger who was being pushed away said dignifiedly in front of Hu: "My father and the prince are..."

"Guest." Hu interrupted again, his smile fading: "You also said that he is your father, please leave!"

The tiger still refused to leave.

So, Gou Jian of Lu dragged Juque to see off the guests.

The tiger left.

When I was leaving the door, I tripped over the threshold that I had walked across for half my life and scraped my palm.

He climbed up with great difficulty, stumbled away, and looked distraught.

Hu snorted coldly, muttered "what a birdman", closed the door, lay down on the same rocking chair as his master beside the door, and waited patiently.

The lord said that Wang was not Wang.

Hu didn't understand what it meant to be Wang or not Wang, and he didn't ask. He enjoyed the process of solving the puzzle. This was the world he chose.

Two days later.

A man from the Wang family who claimed that he was expelled from the family tree and was not allowed to use the surname Wang came to the door, and was led into the mansion by a look on his face saying “So this is the Wang family, not the Wang family!”

He asked this Ms. Wang (not Ms. Wang) to wait for a moment while he went to go find his master.

Ever since the master bought the mansion of Huxiongfang, he has been visiting Huxiongfang every day.

In less than half an hour, Chang'an Jun rushed back and met with Wang Fei, who had been waiting anxiously for more than an hour.

When Wang left, she was all smiles.

----

Early in the morning of the same day, before daybreak, the brass lamps in the Prime Minister's Mansion were already lit.

Xiong Wen sat at the desk in a single layer of clothing, tapping lightly on the bamboo slips with his fingertips.

The documents piled on his desk almost blocked his vision. The top volume, a report on "Emergency Relief for Drought in Hedong", had been left hanging for three days, and the cinnabar inkstone used for marking had dried out and cracked into fine lines.

"Chief Registrar!" Xiong Wen called out in a raised voice with a bad tone in his voice.

The elderly chief clerk Gongsun Ji walked in slowly from the outer room with a hunched back.

The old man walked lightly, as if he was afraid of disturbing something. He held a weak oil lamp in his hand, and the dim light reflected on his wrinkled face, making him look particularly old.

"What does the Prime Minister want?" Gongsun Ji's voice was hoarse, as if he had not spoken for a long time.

"Bring the grain book from Hedong County." Xiong Wen said without raising his head.

Gongsun Ji was silent for a moment before he slowly said:
"Reporting to the Prime Minister, the clerk in charge of the grain register has asked for leave." Xiong Wen paused for a moment with the pen in his hand, and finally raised his head:

"Take a leave? When?"

"Yesterday." Gongsun Ji whispered, "He said his mother was seriously ill, so he rushed back to Pinyang overnight."

When it comes to the word "Pinyang", the old man's tone seems to be heavier.

Xiong Wen's face darkened slightly. Pinyang...what a great place!

If there is no innuendo, then Pinyang is only a day's journey from Xianyang. If it is really urgent, I should be back today.

Xiong Wen did not say anything, and continued to ask:
"Then ask Zhang Gu to get it."

Gongsun Ji showed a trace of embarrassment on his face:
"Zhang Gu...went to Mount Li yesterday to check the stone materials for the royal mausoleum."

"Stones for the royal mausoleum?" Xiong Wen's voice suddenly rose, his anger difficult to contain: "Isn't that the business of the Shaofu Supervisor? When did it become my turn to be in charge of the Prime Minister's Office?"

"Yes, but the Shaofu sent someone yesterday to say that he urgently needed someone who was familiar with measurement, so he loaned Zhang Gu out." Gongsun Ji raised his head with a normal expression, as if this was just a small matter.

Xiong Wen stared at him for a long time, then suddenly sneered:
"Where's the spare key?"

"It's in the hands of the chancellor." Gongsun Ji answered fluently: "The chancellor caught a cold the day before yesterday and has not recovered yet."

Xiong Wen slammed the table and stood up, and the bamboo slips on the table fell to the ground with a clatter.

The movements of these middle-level officials who came from the Qin aristocracy seemed to be carefully calculated, but there was always that missing link at the most critical moment!
"Get out!" Xiong Wen shouted sternly.

Gongsun Ji responded indifferently, without getting angry, and slowly left.

The next day, Xiong Wen personally went to verify everything Gongsun Ji had said.

The left prime minister of the Qin Dynasty discovered that the granary official happened to take leave when the disaster relief report was delivered. He said that Pinyang's mother was ill, but the medical records were verified and his mother had recovered three months ago.

The Zhang Gu was sent to check the stone materials for the royal mausoleum, which was not to be completed until ten years later. The ink on the Shaofu's loan document was not dry yet, which was obviously a temporary forgery.

The spare key was in the hands of the chancellor, and according to the physician, the chancellor's cold was simply caused by drinking a few too many glasses of wine.

Coincidentally, the Supreme Court.

The midday sun shone through the window lattices of the Supreme Court, casting mottled shadows on the ground.

Li Si stood in the hall, the bamboo slips in his hand almost crushed by him.

"Why has the Liyang murder case been delayed for half a month?" His voice was low, but it was like the calm before the storm.

The secretary Sikong Qian knelt in the hall, his face full of fear.

He was a thin man in his early thirties, with high cheekbones and small, bright eyes. He was rubbing his hands nervously:
"My Lord, the case file format is incorrect!"

He knelt a few steps forward and pointed to an almost imperceptible blank space on the edge of the scroll:

"According to the Rules of Running Script, there should be a half-inch space here but it is not."

Li Si frowned even more tightly:
"Just because of this half-inch gap?"

"Not only that!" Sikong Qian's voice suddenly became a few notches higher, as if he had been convinced.

He unfolded a three-meter-long bamboo slip and tapped on it quickly with his fingers:

"Your Excellency, please take a look. The autopsy record is not stamped with the medical officer's private seal, the murder weapon map does not use the official cinnabar, and the date signed by the plaintiff is written in the wrong format..."

Every time his finger pointed, Li Si's face became darker.

Each of these so-called "flaws" was so small that it was almost harsh, but they did violate a certain rule of Qin law.

"Where is the medical officer's private seal?" Li Si asked coldly.

Sikong Qian showed an embarrassment:
"The officer in charge of the seal was temporarily transferred to count the instruments of torture the day before yesterday..."

"What about the official cinnabar?"

"It's locked in the warehouse, and the key is in the hands of the treasurer." Sikong Qian bowed his head and said, "The treasurer went back to his hometown to worship his ancestors and has not returned yet."

Li Si immediately understood that these flaws were all secretly created by the Qin officials who were in charge of the case files.

Every procedure was stuck at a link controlled by a descendant of a certain aristocratic family, like an elaborately woven net that tightly trapped the operation of the entire Supreme Court.

He said "hmm" calmly, and checked carefully after Sikong Qian left.

The official in charge of the medical officer's private seal was temporarily transferred to count the torture instruments. The register of the torture instruments warehouse showed that the batch of torture instruments had been counted half a year ago.

The official decided that the cinnabar should be locked in the storehouse, and the key was held by the treasurer. The treasurer's ancestor worship was actually to attend a private banquet held by a member of the Xi family.

The date format of the plaintiff's signature was wrong because the clerk in charge of instruction happened to be assigned to copy an unimportant book on that day...

It is not by chance that there are three, Taicang.

In the Taicang yard, Wang Wan, the commander of the grain department, stared at the sand table with veins bulging on his forehead.

The small flag on the sand table representing the grain team has not moved for three days.

"Where is the grain team heading to Bashu?" His voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

Zhang Xie, a clerk in charge of warehouses, stood aside with an innocent look on his face.

He is a middle-aged man with a round face and a slightly plump face, always with a harmless smile:
"You left early!"

Pointing at the record on the bamboo slips, he lightly stroked it with his fingers:

"Master Wang, please see. It was shipped out of the warehouse five days ago at 3:05 pm. All the formalities are complete."

"Then why haven't I received any report yet?" Wang Wan's voice began to tremble.

Zhang Xie spread his hands:

"I don't know about that. Maybe he was delayed on the way."

Just then, a minor official from the Wang family hurried in and whispered something in Wang Wan's ear.

Wang Wan was stunned at first, and then he laughed out of anger.

The grain carts had been circling around the outskirts of Xianyang for five days and were still circling in the same place. The escort officer was now leisurely fishing by the Wei River.

"Why don't you follow the route?" Wang Wan asked sternly.

Zhang Xie still smiled:

"The map was lent to the Shaofu Supervisor by the one in charge of maps and books, and the guide suddenly got dysentery and was recuperating at home."

After a pause, he added:

"Each grain truck was loaded 'according to regulations', but it was probably overloaded by three buckets, which caused frequent damage to the axles."

Wang Wan's fists were clenched so hard that they made a creaking sound. Although he had no martial arts skills, he now wanted to use force.

Each of these reasons sounds reasonable, yet extremely absurd.

Maps, guides, load-carrying capacity... every link has been tampered with, but no obvious mistakes can be found.

One day later.

After completing the investigation, Wang Wan became even more furious.

The map was lent to the Shaofujian by the one in charge of maps and books. The ink on the Shaofujian's IOU was fresh, and it was obviously written temporarily.

The guide was "suddenly struck with dysentery," but the medical officer's records showed that he had simply eaten something unclean, and the medicine he was prescribed was enough to cure him that day.

The "overload of three dou of grain according to regulations" was actually secretly added by Zhang Xie, a warehouse official, when he was personally supervising the loading.

Such a scene occurred not only in these three government offices, but in all the government offices in Xianyang.

This was a counterattack by the old Qin nobles against the tyrant King Zheng of Qin.

Inaction?

Let me show you what real inaction is!

(End of this chapter)