Careerist in Qin Dynasty

Chapter 400 Don’t let go of any seeds
"Have you found out the identity of the rebellious leader?"

Ying Zheng put on his formal clothes and met Li Si and Meng Yi in the main hall. The brightly lit hall was particularly conspicuous on the seaside at night, like a bright, fat lighthouse.

"Your Majesty, Jingxian County and Fanxian County are both settlements formed spontaneously by the local people. The county magistrates of the two places are also elected by themselves and appointed with the permission of the State of Chu."

"Later, after General Wang Jian conquered Shouchun, the two counties and King Ouyang Yao of Dongou were shocked by the power of our Qin army and became the first batch of surrenders of the Chu Kingdom. In addition, they were located in a remote area, and at a time when the empire's energy was concentrated on Guangling City, which was still resisting, was treated leniently and the officials of the two counties were not changed."

As the Prime Minister of the Empire, Li Si had almost all the information about all the counties and counties in the world in his mind. In addition, the seriousness of this incident made him spend a stick of incense to find the files there and read them before coming, so he took it easy and calmly. His Majesty the Emperor introduced local history.

Although the appearance of the rebel army is urgent, there is no need to deal with it urgently: in the past, the lands of the six countries were all trampled by the Qin Dynasty, and the rebellion in a mere two counties was simply not worth mentioning.

After Ying Zheng was furious at the emergence of rebellion, he was not too eager to make a decision tonight. The longest stage of military affairs is the preparation stage, and the actual battle time only accounts for a small part of the scale.

So he listened to Li Si calmly and continued:

"Later, when the army went south to conquer the stubborn Yue people, the empire recruited civilians and food and grass to the two counties. They provided them in full and were very obedient. They also paid two taxes more than other counties south of the Yangtze River every year. Cheng is a representative of the empire who is law-abiding and self-reliant."

"Stand by yourself?" After Ying Zheng recited these four words, he glanced at Li Si who stopped and said, "You continue."

"The magistrate of Jing County between the two counties is named Yan Shen. This person rarely appears. The more famous one in the county is the county magistrate Xiao He, who is a disciple of the Taoist sect."

When Li Si said this, he clearly noticed that the pressure on His Majesty the Emperor above the hall was getting heavier. He lowered his head slightly and continued without being interrupted: "Xiao He is a talented person. I have read the official documents he submitted. Although the diction is not elegant, it is very neat and clear. The imperial court wanted to promote him to Xianyang after examining him for a while, but did not want something like this to happen first."

"Wu Bin, the magistrate of Fan County, is a descendant of the former King Wu Fuchai. He is only thirty years old. He is honored as Fan Jun by Fan County. The banner of Mirror Duke for this rebellion should come from this."

"It's just weird." Li Si paused for a moment, thinking about the more detailed southern intelligence reported by Luo Wang, and said slowly: "I originally thought that Duke Jing was either the county magistrate Yan Shen or the county magistrate Xiao He, but this time he betrayed me. In the fake summons issued, both names appear after 'Ming Gong', which proves that there is another person named Mirror Gong, but his identity is unknown."

"And the four words 'Fan Jun Wu Bin' appear together later, which further confirms this guess."

"In other words, there is a rebellion in the empire, but the court doesn't even know the identity of the rebel leader?" Ying Zheng looked at His Highness, the anger in his tone rising again.

"Your Majesty, I believe that the identity of this 'Mirror Duke' is probably the incarnation of a famous Central Plains figure." Meng Yi stepped forward, bowed his hands and expressed his opinion.

While he was listening to Li Si's introduction just now, he was also reading more information sent by the follow-up Luowang. From this information, Meng Yi discovered several doubts.

"The three counties in the south reported that the total number of rebel troops in each place was about [-]. However, based on the marching signs they reported, the number of rebels who invaded Donghai County was only [-]. The same was true for Jiujiang County and Guzhang County. The three counties together were less than [-]. Ten thousand is quite different from the information in the battle report, so the scale of the enemy this time is not as grand as it appears."

"And the emergence of this rebellion itself is extremely strange: there is no warning or reason, and the banner is 'resistance to tyranny'. However, the empire has been conquering Baiyue for many years, and in recent years it has been appeasing the Jiangnan area. The two counties It seems that rebellion is just for the sake of rebellion, which is not reasonable."

In fact, Meng Yi had one rebellious thing that he didn't say, that is, even if there was to be rebellion, it should not first appear in the land south of the Yangtze River.

In recent years, with the rise of corvee labor, some people in the empire have indeed complained, and the number of people abandoning their homes and becoming thieves has increased a lot, but overall they can still live in peace.

Even the people in the Central Plains can endure it, but the people in Jiangnan can't bear it. Moreover, the leaders of this rebellion are the local magistrates and county magistrates. Why do they need to organize this rebellion?

After thinking about it, there are only two possibilities:
First, the governors of the three counties did everything else without telling the empire, forcing the two counties to rebel.

Second, the rebellion itself is not important. Someone is planning other bigger conspiracies through this rebellion!

It is easy to eliminate one of these two options and choose the second. In that case, Duke Jing’s identity is not just the initiator of this rebellion, but an ambitious man who intends to subvert the country of Da Qin!Meng Yi could think of all the things that Ying Zheng and Li Si could think of with a little reminder. His Majesty the Emperor asked coldly: "Who do you think are the suspected targets?"

"Since the Magistrate of Jingxian County is a disciple of the Renzong, we might be able to inquire from the Renzong." Meng Yi said his plan in a deep voice: "Even if a disciple of the Renzong can be brought down, the county magistrate Yan Shen cannot let him go. However, the Yan family belongs to everyone, and they are mostly distributed in the north, so this is also a point that can be traced."

"The Taoist Sect. The Shadow Secret Guard I remember is tracking Xiaoyaozi, the leader of the Original Man Sect?" Li Si asked curiously. He knew a lot of things, including the relationship between Xiaoyaozi and his subordinate Luowang, but Luowang is a very complicated organization. , although nominally under the control of the Prime Minister's Government, in many cases Zhao Gao was directly responsible to Ying Zheng.

For the time being, Li Si is not worried about the snare issue implicating him, so he can ask this question in a relaxed tone.

"Exactly, it's just that Xiaoyaozi seems to have disappeared out of thin air, and the Shadow Secret Guards have no way to trace the clues." Meng Yi shook his head and said: "Xiaoyaozi should not be the Mirror Gong. He has no deep connection with Xiao He in the Renzong, and if he It’s Mr. Jing, so I won’t let myself be exposed.”

"Even the original head of the Renzong is not qualified to become Duke Jing. There are not many people in the world whose status is higher than Xiaoyaozi." Li Si's face was calm, and he was ruling out the suspicions one by one in his mind.

"Yes, so this person can't hide for long." Meng Yi nodded. He already had several major suspects.

His Majesty the Emperor listened to the speeches and discussions of the two ministers, and his thoughts were extremely solemn: Xiaoyaozi was related to Luo Weng, and Luo Wen was extremely close to his eighteenth son Hu Hai. Could the Mirror Guild be from within the empire?

Is this traitor rebellion still part of the unfinished struggle for power within the empire?

If this is the case, as the emperor of the empire, he cannot allow the situation to continue to develop without a bottom line!
"No matter who Mr. Jing is, countering the rebellion is the first priority." After Li Si finished the conversation with Meng Yi, he bowed to the emperor again: "I think we can send the general who is still in Dongjun to lead the thirty thousand battles. The armor-piercing troops go south, and with their ability to penetrate armor in a hundred battles, and their familiarity with fighting on complex terrain, they can quickly pacify the two counties."

"No need." Ying Zheng has his own considerations. The armor-piercing soldiers who have fought in hundreds of battles are indeed elite, but under the premise that the golden fire cavalry goes north to fight against the wolf clan and the dragon and tiger cavalry protect Sanghai, the only flexible army left in the Central Plains can be mobilized at will. The armor-piercing unit has limited capabilities as the other county soldiers and county soldiers.

The Qin soldiers in Guanzhong also had the task of guarding the hundreds of thousands of corvees, and it was inconvenient to mobilize them.

Following Meng Yi's thinking, if the enemy really has other intentions in setting up the rebellion this time, then they cannot let the armor-piercing soldiers go south and away from the Central Plains!

"The Southern Army has killed the Ouyue leader Yi Xusong. The peace of South Vietnam is just around the corner. Zhao Tuo is left to lead an army of 20 to guard South Vietnam. Ren Xiao leads an army of [-] to clean up the land south of the Yangtze River!"

"I obey the decree." Li Si and Meng Yi were quite free in their discussion just now, but His Majesty the Emperor has already made a decision, and it has become the decree.

Li Si lowered his head and his pupils were particularly solemn. His original intention to mobilize the Hundred Battles Armor-Piercing Soldiers was because of the other plans of the 'Mirror Duke'. However, the Hundred Battles Armor-Piercing Soldiers are powerful and have the ability to achieve quick victory and quick recovery. Such a choice It was a decision that would cause the least damage to the empire.

But according to His Majesty the Emperor's wishes, he sent 20 troops to attack the two counties that had at most [-] troops, and according to Meng Yi's analysis, there were only [-] rebels. The purpose was obviously not just the rebellion itself: His Majesty wanted to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River just like he did with South Vietnam. Clean everything up and completely eliminate hidden dangers.

This decision sounds right, and it is of course the best to make it once and for all, but the time is wrong for Li Si: not long ago, the empire just decided to take the initiative to attack the wolf tribe in the north, and a large number of resources were tilted towards the north.

Originally, it was difficult to transport food to South Vietnam. However, after all, there have been mature routes over the years, and the front line is relatively stable and stable, so it only needs to be maintained. However, if we follow the emperor's will to go eastward and attack the two counties, there will definitely be consequences. New losses.

No matter how big the empire is, the supplies are not endless.
The cost of hundreds of thousands of corvees, the cost of hundreds of thousands of wolf tribe troops in the Northern Expedition, the cost of tens of thousands of armor-piercing soldiers, dragon and tiger cavalry following the eastward patrol, the cost of maintaining the Baiyue Land, and the mirage will set sail after a while. The cost of the ceremony, and the cost of an additional 20 troops to attack Jiangnan. These are only on the surface.

The accumulated wealth of the empire can still be supplemented by the resources of the six countries when it attacks the six countries. But now it has the whole world, and its expenses like running water cannot get any valuable gains from the wolves, Yue people, and rebels. The national treasury is depleted. We can only take more from the people.

But so what?Li Si could only abide by His Majesty the Emperor's decision.

Even if the people have no extra food, they will always have some seeds to cultivate the next year!

(End of this chapter)