jdhmnovel Chapter 536: The Reign of Qin Shi Huang
Chapter 536: The Reign of Qin Shi Huang
At midnight, a cold fog filled the beacon tower. Su Mohui stood on the tower, looking at the system prompt interface flashing before her eyes:
[Ding Dong: The probability of Hu Hai succeeding to the throne has dropped to 8%, and the progress of eliminating Zhao Gao's remnants is 63%.]
Her gaze gradually moved farther and farther, landing on the parchment in Fusu's tent in the distance, where there was a silhouette of a person practicing with a sword.
The moonlight gave his outline a silver edge, and his neat "Thirteen Armor-Breaking Styles" were powerful and vigorous, making him completely different from the image of a scholar who annotated classics during the day.
At some point, the wind and snow started to pick up. "Have you seen enough, sir?"
Fusu's voice suddenly fell on Su Mohui's ears wrapped in snow grains. He didn't know when Fusu had come behind him. He could smell the unique cedar fragrance of the northern border on his body.
The half piece of jade in his palm was emitting a strange blue light. It was the fragment of national destiny that Su Mohui found on the Great Wall in his third reincarnation.
Su Mohui stared at the flickering candlelight in his eyes, and suddenly understood why Fusu in history committed suicide before forging the imperial edict.
This seemingly weak young man had already witnessed the collapse of the empire in countless parallel time and space.
"Sir, have you ever thought about this?" She took out a handkerchief embroidered with wheat ears and covered the broken jade with it. "Across the sea, there is a land called Wa. Their warriors will be there a thousand years later..."
But before she could finish her words, Fusu suddenly grabbed her wrist and said, "Father sent a letter to Meng Tian yesterday, saying that he dreamed of the Great Wall collapsing and only the black bird carrying stones to mend the sky."
The moment he loosened his hand, the wheat ear pattern on the handkerchief matched perfectly with Ying Zheng's cinnabar annotations in the Xianyang secret report, as if it had been predestined.
Fusu's palms were warm and powerful, and the thin calluses at the base of his thumb gently brushed against Su Mohui's skin. These were the marks left by years of practicing martial arts and reviewing bamboo slips.
At the sound of the fifth watch horn, Su Mohui saw the newly arrived baggage cart outside the tent piled with bronze parts. That was the prototype of the dragon-bone waterwheel that Ying Zheng had built in three months according to her description and the drawings she mentioned.
Fusu was standing beside the baggage cart, discussing the details carefully with the craftsmen. The moonlight illuminated the silver ornaments in his hair. It was an amulet that Su Mohui had made for the survivors using the ancient method of the Zhao State in one of his reincarnations. But now it became a key mark in rewriting history.
Meng Tian stood beside the shaft of the carriage and handed her a scroll of silk book. On the cover, four large characters "Xu Fu's voyage to the East" were written so clearly that they could be seen through the back of the paper. The signature was stamped with Ying Zheng's personal seal.
"Supervisory Censor," Meng Tian suddenly lowered his voice, "Last night, a fast horse from Xianyang delivered a message that all of Zhao Gao's clansmen have been relocated to Shu." He pointed southeast, where the sky was just beginning to turn pale. "And the 'Drainage Map' that you left at the Mausoleum of Mount Li has been presented to Your Majesty today."
Su Mohui nodded and continued talking to Meng Tian. After he left, she touched the cinnabar that had not yet dried on the silk book, and suddenly heard a sound from the system.
[Ding Dong: Detected that a historical figure has awakened autonomously. Current probability of Fusu awakening: 23%].
She looked up at the distant bonfire on the snowy plains where Fusu was demonstrating the use of a crossbow surrounded by soldiers. He would occasionally look down at the improved crossbows in the soldiers' hands, then look up at the sky, his eyes filled with thought and anticipation for the future.
As the first rays of sunlight passed over the Yin Mountains, Su Mohui unfolded a new map and added a line of small words next to "Wakoku": "Xu Fu's fleet needs 300 stones of sulfur to break the fog at sea."
Where the pen tip hovered, the ink naturally smudged out the outline of the black bird spreading its wings - just as Ying Zheng had annotated in the Xuanshi Hall, in this time and space disturbed by the reincarnations, the iron hoof of the Qin Dynasty will eventually crush the "death of the second generation" recorded in history books, and carve a new chapter belonging to the awakened ones on the shores of the East China Sea.
At the same time, the system prompt sounded again.
[Ding Dong: Congratulations to the host for activating the next historical anchor point, 210 BC, Ying Zheng's Eastern Tour].
Su Mohui looked at the route that was becoming increasingly clear on the map and suddenly chuckled.
She knew that when Fusu distributed the improved crossbows to the northern border, and when Xu Fu's tower ships began to cut down the giant trees in Shu, the Qin Empire, which had passed like a meteor in history books, began to grow roots that resisted time because of the thirty-one rings of a reincarnation.
The Qin King's sword in her sleeve will eventually be witnessed together with Ying Zheng's Tai'a sword on the Langya Terrace during the eastern tour - the so-called destiny has always been a sharp edge forged by the blood and fire of mortals.
.........
Deep in the imperial prison of the Xianyang Palace, tallow candles on bronze candlesticks were emitting oil, casting a long shadow of Ying Zheng on the stone wall.
Su Mohui handed the silk handkerchief soaked in ice water to Ying Zheng, and looked at the Zhao Gao clan members being dragged in by Meng Tian's personal guards at the bottom of the stairs.
The jade pendant with the Chinese character "Zhao" on the leader's waist was still dripping with blood. It was the same token she had ripped from the assassin's body when she was assassinated in Jiuyuan Camp three days ago.
"According to the law, those who plot treason should be exterminated along with their entire clan." Ying Zheng's voice, mixed with the sound of torture instruments colliding, echoed in the sealed stone chamber.
He spread out the "Distribution Map of Zhao Gao's Followers" that Su Mohui had compiled overnight. Next to the thirty-six county strongholds circled in cinnabar, there were notes of evidence of "salt and iron smuggling" and "secret communication with the Huns".
When Ying Zheng saw the sign that read, "Hu Hai's biological mother's descendants are hiding in Langya County," he suddenly sneered and threw the bamboo slips to the warden. "From this day forward, all Zhao family retainers will be conscripted into the Lingnan garrison, never to return. All servants in the palace will be sold, and are forbidden from entering the capital."
Ying Zheng's methods have always been swift and decisive, and it took only seventeen days to eliminate the remaining rebels.
When the last of Zhao Gao's personal guards was beheaded at Hangu Pass, Su Mohui was demonstrating the "rest and bath system" to Ying Zheng in the front hall of Xianyang Palace.
The bronze chimes in the front hall of Xianyang Palace suddenly played the "Shao Music". Upon hearing the sound, Su Mohui knelt on the floor tiles with coiled dragon patterns, looking at Ying Zheng who was standing on the steps with his hands behind his back.
The emperor's eyebrows and eyes were shrouded in shadows under the crown, but the cold light of the Taia sword at her waist pierced the twilight, making the bamboo slips in her hand shine slightly.
"Your Majesty, do you know why merchants often evade taxes, and why the people are so full of complaints?" she suddenly spoke, her fingertips tracing the cinnabar-painted pictures of the people on the bamboo slips. "If officials only know how to curry favor with the emperor, and if merchants only care about exploiting their employees, then the foundation of the Great Qin..."
Before she finished speaking, she heard the sound of the night watchman outside the hall. She unfolded the second scroll of bamboo slips. The "rest order" marked in red pen was particularly eye-catching under the candlelight.
Ying Zheng suddenly raised his hand and slammed it down on the table. The twelve tassels on his crown collided with each other, making a clear sound. "Working hours shall not exceed three hours a day. For every five days of work, the people shall be allowed two days of rest. Workshops shall not impose forced labor."
His voice was as cold and hard as the granite of the Qinling Mountains, but his pupils shrank slightly when he scanned the annotation on the bamboo slips that said "Female households can receive double the number of oxen for plowing."
He was very familiar with that handwriting; it was written by his "other self" on the silk booklet that Su Mohui had given him. He snorted coldly, "Do you know how much money and grain would be spent on such a policy?"
The emperor's voice was low and cold, but it could not hide the slightest hesitation in his tone.