Sky Curtain: A Review of Historical Foes and the Secrets of Ministers

The rants in the sky continued, completely disregarding the near-breakdown of the Qin emperor and his ministers.

In the scene, Zhao Tuo grabs a kettle and gulps down a mouthful of water, looking utterly aggrieved.

"When Xiang Yu and Liu Bang led their fierce army into the Central Plains, it was as if they were entering an empty land."

"Before his death, my old commander Ren Xiao held my hand and asked me to protect this pure land of Lingnan."

"If I don't order the blockade of the Five Ridges, am I supposed to just stand by and watch Xiang Yu and Liu Bang storm in and slaughter my hundreds of thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians in Lingnan like wheat?"

"I am doing this to protect the borders and the people, preserving the flame of Chinese civilization in the south!"

"As a result, in their mouths, I became a traitorous rebel who took advantage of the chaos."

At this point, Zhao Tuo suddenly pulled out a rusty woodcutter's knife from off-screen and brandished it a couple of times.

"Do you know what Lingnan was like two thousand years ago? My soldiers and I spent our days playing wilderness survival games in the primeval forest, slaying poisonous snakes with our left hands and fighting wild boars with our right. When we couldn't sleep at night, we had to climb trees to steal bananas from wild monkeys!"

Outside the Fengtian Hall in the Ming Dynasty world.

"Pfft—" Old Zhu couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Climbing a tree to steal bananas? This old rascal is quite something."

But then, Old Zhu's face turned cold again, and he spat out a contemptuous spit.

"Bah! Such high-sounding words! All this talk about protecting the borders, ensuring the people's safety, and preserving the nation's heritage is nothing but a scheme to carve out a territory and become a local tyrant!"

"If you're really that tough, then lead those hundreds of thousands of troops north to defend the emperor and clash with those Xiang Yu and Liu Bang! What's with this excuse about the Hundred Thousand Mountains? What kind of fierce battles haven't we fought when we were conquering the world? This guy is clearly a sly one!"

Ying Zheng's face had turned ashen.

Xiang Yu? Liu Bang?

These two names appeared yesterday.

They've appeared again today, and judging from the tone of their words, it seems that the Qin Dynasty was flattened by these two people!

"Guards!" Ying Zheng roared.

"Your subject is here!" Meng Tian immediately stepped forward.

"I order the Black Ice Guard again! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, dig out Xiang Yu and Liu Bang for me! I will exterminate their entire families, ten generations each!!"

Against the backdrop of the sky, Zhao Tuo's performance reached its climax.

He sat down cross-legged, pulled out a crudely made bamboo scroll from somewhere, and began to read it.

"Besides, when the Qin Dynasty was in trouble, Xianyang was thousands of kilometers away from me, separated by mountains."

"When that unlucky carrier pigeon from Xianyang finally flew thousands of kilometers, exhausted and coughing up blood, it landed on my shoulder and told me: 'Brother Tuo, the court is in trouble, return quickly.'"

"Snapped!"

Zhao Tuo slammed the bamboo slips to the ground and cried out in anguish, "I hadn't even wiped the mud off the bamboo slips properly when the second carrier pigeon arrived!"

"The carrier pigeon says: Brother Tuo, forget it. The Qin Dynasty is over. Xiang Yu burned the Xianyang Palace to ashes, and Liu Bang's Han Dynasty has already gone public!"

Zhao Tuo stood up, spread his hands in front of the screen, and posed a soul-searching question: "You want me to lead the troops back to rescue the emperor?"

"By the time I've assembled my army, and hacked my way out of the primeval forest with my machetes, the entire tenth anniversary celebration of the Han Dynasty will have been over, okay?!"

"What would I do if I went back? Go back to give Liu Bang a wedding gift?!"

The main hall of Xianyang Palace was completely silent.

All the ministers lowered their heads, staring intently at their toes, as if they could see a flower in the floor tiles.

Xiang Yu... burned Xianyang Palace to ashes?

Ying Zheng's hand, gripping the sword hilt, trembled slightly.

His proud Qin Pass, the Xianyang Palace, which he built with the hard-earned money of countless people, was burned down in a single fire?!

"Very well...very well." Ying Zheng laughed in extreme anger, his laughter revealing a chilling tyranny.

"Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Huhai, Zhao Gao... So this is the end of the Qin Dynasty. It seems my methods weren't ruthless enough, and the Qin laws weren't strict enough!"

The Tang Dynasty world, Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin, sitting on a folding stool, shook his head and chuckled upon hearing these words.

"This Zhao Tuo certainly has a silver tongue; he makes cowardice and timidity sound so elegant and refined. But what a vulgar thing to say about giving money as a gift when a company goes public!"

Changsun Wuji, standing to the side, said with a smile, "Your Majesty, this must be a colloquialism from later generations; it does sound quite novel."

Li Shimin put down his teacup, a hint of arrogance flashing in his eyes. "However, Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty through bloodshed. He gained the empire, yet he ruthlessly slaughtered his meritorious officials. If it were me, with all the talented people in the world at my disposal, how could I possibly kill my meritorious officials?"

The military officer standing nearby, upon hearing this, muttered to himself, "Isn't the greatest contributor you? Besides, how can you call yourself a contributor if you haven't destroyed a country?"

Sure enough, Zhao Tuo on the sky seemed to hear Li Shimin's inner grumbling, and the scene changed.

Suddenly, Zhao Tuo brought out a plate of grilled oysters from somewhere, with a chilled earthenware pot next to it.

He peeled a lychee for himself, popped it into his mouth, and looked completely content.

"Hey, you know what, the lychees from Lingnan are really sweet. Those bumpkins from the Central Plains have never even touched a peel."

"In the early years of the Han Dynasty, I had already humbled myself and submitted to the Han. That madwoman Empress Lü insisted on imposing an economic blockade, forcing the vassal states to turn against me. I was just so angry that I declared myself Emperor Wu of Nanyue, wasn't I?"

"This is what you call outrageous? You shameless bastard!"

"Looking back at those big shots in the Central Plains, I feel nothing but contempt."

As Zhao Tuo slurped up an oyster, he sneered, "Look at that old codger Liu Bang, he's just like a wild dog guarding its food. He slaughtered all the meritorious officials like Han Xin and Peng Yue, proving the saying 'when the birds are all gone, the good bow is put away.' He lived in constant fear and died young. What did he gain?"

"And then there's Emperor Wen of Han, who calls me 'elder senior' with a voice clearer than a nightingale, and writes letters urging me to return to Han, speaking more eloquently than a street vendor selling quack medicine."

"As for those pedantic scholars in the Central Plains, they can't even clean themselves of their own lice, and when the Central Plains are filled with starving corpses, they don't utter a sound. Now they have the nerve to complain that the clothes of my Southern Yue are not in accordance with etiquette?"

Finally, Zhao Tuo picked up the enormous golden seal, waved it at the camera, and laughed wildly.

"How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan?"

"I've cultivated farmland in this desolate land, educated the people, and become their local emperor. I'll enjoy the sea views and seafood every day, living to be over a hundred years old. Let them fight like dogs in the Central Plains!"

"Keep the music playing, keep dancing!"

The video slowly went black as Zhao Tuo danced smugly.

Ying Zheng stared intently at the gradually darkening sky, his mind replaying the treasonous information he had just received.

The dynasty died after only two generations? Xianyang was burned down?

If someone else had told him this, he would have torn them to pieces long ago, but the strangeness of the sky forced him to believe it.

Suddenly, a crazy idea exploded in his mind.

"Since this celestial canopy knows everything, even the future, then... does it know the secret to immortality?"

Ying Zheng's breathing suddenly became rapid.

If I could live forever and sit on the dragon throne of Qin for all eternity, how could Hu Hai, Zhao Gao, Xiang Yu, or Liu Bang possibly stir up any trouble?