Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1920: Setting Sail ()

An old man of this age would be treated with great respect in an ordinary family.

Even the emperor had to treat such an old man with courtesy. People like Ying Zheng who were devoted to seeking immortality would be even less willing to commit such a sin of killing.

Zhang Liang’s pointing out of Xunzi’s old age was the most correct approach.

It's no use talking to Ying Zheng about anything else, only this works.

But his subsequent words were clearly diss Zhao Gao.

Chun Yu Yue was old, so it was normal for him to faint after walking a few steps. But my uncle was even older, so it was even more normal for him to be talking nonsense due to tiredness.

Since the emperor has accepted the first statement, it would be better for him to accept the second one as well.

This was almost a provocation, and was obviously not conducive to Zhang Liang's purpose of exonerating Xunzi, but he still said it.

Fu Nian, who was always steady, had no intention of making amends for him. He just stood up with Yan Lu and bowed to the emperor to apologize.

Obviously, even Fu Nian was unwilling to bow to the emperor again.

Since Master Xun has taken the lead in expressing his attitude, they, the younger generations, have to show some respect as well, and this is what they mean.

Ying Zheng had a gloomy face, and his eyes swept over the three brothers of Fu Nian one by one, without saying a word for a long time.

………………

At dusk that day, a streak of light fell into Xianyang City without anyone noticing.

Soon after, the Imperial Master's Mansion welcomed the return of its master.

However, Gu Xun did not stay in the mansion - there was no one in the Imperial Master's Mansion now.

Jingwei and others who usually lived here had all left. At this time, there were only two relatives of Guxun left in Xianyang - Zi Nu and Madam Mingzhu.

The former usually stays in her Zi Lan Xuan, while the latter likes to stay in An Xiang Pavilion.

Gu Xun simply changed into casual clothes and headed towards the Zi Lan Xuan pleasure boat on the Wei River - it was almost night, and Zi Nu usually stayed on the boat at this time.

Along the way, Gu Xun did not avoid anyone, and announced to everyone openly that he had returned to Xianyang.

The news of his return immediately began to spread in all directions at a speed several times faster than his walking speed.

At this time, there were basically no important figures in Xianyang, but there were still many middle and high-level officials and dignitaries in the empire.

They were the ones who were concerned about Gu Xun's return.

These people don't know much important information, but they like to judge the situation on their own and make decisions based on it.

Strictly speaking, their attention to Gu Xun at this time was a sequel to Fusu being exiled from the capital.

There are many truly loyal and righteous people among the officials of the empire. They have their own selfish reasons for choosing to support the eldest prince Fusu to become the crown prince, but more of them sincerely feel that Fusu is more suitable for the position of crown prince and is wholeheartedly dedicated to the empire.

But more people just want to gain benefits by taking advantage of the issue of establishing a crown prince and taking sides - in this matter, the Qin State has a good example.

Now that the eldest prince has lost power, rumors have begun to spread that Gu Xun and the emperor are not on good terms. These former loyal supporters of the eldest prince's faction will inevitably have other thoughts.

However, Gu Xun has not fallen after all, and the Meng family, which has made great military achievements, obviously has no signs of giving up on the eldest son, so these fence-sitters are somewhat hesitant.

They were eager to find out more information from Gu Xun so as to make a choice they thought was beneficial.

Gu Xun was definitely not interested in dealing with them, and allowed those who were interested to watch him to watch him. Not long after, he arrived at the bank of the Wei River.

Compared with the famous Qinhuai River in later generations, the current Jing and Wei rivers are obviously not lively enough - mainly because these two rivers themselves are not suitable for seeking pleasure and the comfort level is slightly poor.

However, after Zi Nu developed it, many people are still willing to come here to enjoy the completely different taste from the land.

However, it was not dark yet, and the pleasure boats on the river had no lights hung, which meant they were not open for business, and there were not many people around.

Gu Xunzhao found the largest pleasure boat on the Zhun River. He did not take the small boat to pick up passengers at the pier. Instead, he took a step and jumped directly. He crossed the river as lightly as a bird flapping its wings and landed lightly on the pleasure boat.

The people on the boat obviously knew Gu Xun. They did not show any panic. They were all silent and just bowed to Gu Xun.

Gu Xun waved his hand as a signal, and then hurried into the cabin.

As Gu Xun expected, the purple woman was indeed here now.

As soon as he entered Zi Nu's room, Gu Xun saw her sitting cross-legged in front of the dressing table, fixing her makeup.

Seeing this, Gu Xun took the initiative to step forward and help her comb her hair, while observing the lover who had been with him for many years through the mirror.

Like Yan Lingji and others, time did not leave many traces on Zi Nu's face. Everything seemed to be the same as when Gu Xun first met her.

Zi Nu also looked at Gu Xun behind her through the mirror and said with a smile:

"The person who came earlier hurriedly reported that you had suddenly returned, and in the blink of an eye you actually showed up."

"Why, can't we find anyone at the Imperial Master's Mansion?"

Gu Xun helped her with her hair and replied with a wry smile, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you this?"

"Don't tell me about what Yan Fei and the others did. You don't know anything about it."

Zi Nu's eyebrows turned, showing her charm, and she replied with a smile, "So this is what the State Master is thinking about."

"Are you willing to tell me?" Gu Xun helped her put in the hairpin and fixed her purple hair, then took a half step back and asked with a smile.

Zi Nu stood up and turned to face Gu Xun, chuckling softly, she replied, "They don't want to tell you, but I can't be sociable."

A complex light flashed across Gu Xun's eyes, but he didn't seem to mind it:

"If you don't want to talk about it, then don't talk about it. It's a good opportunity to talk about something serious."

"What's the important matter?" Zi Nu asked leisurely.

"We should leave." Gu Xun sat on Zi Nu's bed, his expression turned serious and he said, "Your Zi Lan Xuan and Ming Zhu's An Xiang Pavilion should both move."

"Leave now?" Zi Nu's face suddenly changed when she heard that, and her attitude was no longer as frivolous as before.

Gu Xun smiled at her, "Why, do you still want to wait until the last minute to leave?"

"Besides, you have so many people to support, you can't just leave whenever you want, so you'd better make preparations early."

"Within three months, all those who should be evacuated will be evacuated."

Zi Nu looked at Gu Xun and asked again, "It's hard to conceal this. Aren't you afraid that the Emperor will break off completely with you?"

"The imperial laws do not stipulate that officials' families must live in Xianyang, nor do they stipulate that businessmen are not allowed to leave Xianyang." Gu Xun did not care about this and replied calmly, "If the emperor is dissatisfied, he can remove all my official positions."

"It seems that the rumors are true. You and the emperor really had a big fight?" Zi Nu didn't care about it at all. Instead, she was more willing to take the opportunity to gossip about it.

Gu Xun rolled his eyes, "What do you think?"

Zi Nu smiled and ended the topic.

She was one of the few people in the world who knew Gu Xun best, so she naturally knew that it was impossible for him to really quarrel with Ying Zheng. At most, they would just have some disputes. She asked that question just now just out of habit to tease her man.

"You came back just to remind us that it's time to retreat?" Zi Nu asked, changing the subject, "Is it enough to send a message back about this matter?" "On the one hand, I'm dealing with trivial matters in Xianyang, and on the other hand, I'm too lazy to care about Sang Hai's affairs and want to avoid Jingjing." Gu Xun's eyes were empty and he answered lightly.

"Sanghai's affairs... They are also in Sanghai, don't you want to take care of this matter?" Zi Nu asked with a slightly gloomy look in her eyes, meaningless.

Gu Xun leaned back and lay on the bed, closed his eyes and responded, "So what if I want to intervene? Who among you is willing to let me intervene?"

"If you want to take care of it, there is always a way." Zi Nu's eyes drooped further and further, as if she was about to close her eyes, and she replied softly.

"No, I have no choice." Gu Xun replied in a strong tone, "There are some things that I can intervene forcibly, but there are some things that my intervention will be useless."

"You won't give up until you are totally defeated."

"..." Zi Nu was silent for a moment, then changed the subject and asked, "Over in Sanghai, the Mirage may set sail at any time. Are you not going to care about that?"

"Mirage can't leave for the time being." Gu Xun replied with certainty.

"Is there a problem with the boat?" Zi Nu asked in surprise.

"It's the sea that has a problem." Gu Xun replied with a smile, "There's a trouble in the East China Sea waiting for the Yin-Yang family to deal with it."

"If this problem is not solved, the ship may not be able to go far."

"What kind of trouble could there be in the sea?" Zi Nu became even more confused about this topic.

She didn't know much about the sea. At most, she occasionally heard that Gu Xunti's fleet of Liusha encountered various problems at sea and sank the ship. But could those troubles affect Mirage?
Although she had never seen the legendary giant ship that consumed ten years of the empire's manpower and resources, she had heard more than one person mention its size.

In her opinion, that thing cannot be called a boat.

What kind of trouble could such a thing get into at sea?
The most dangerous thing is the storm, but the storm is just a kind of weather, not the norm at sea. It can only block the mirage for one or two days at most.

"It's a big trouble." Gu Xun replied with a smile, "But I think the Yin-Yang family will have a way to solve it, but they don't know it yet."

"Keeping it a secret?" Zi Nu was naturally unwilling to do so when she saw that Gu Xun was unwilling to reveal the truth.

Gu Xun lay there and raised his arms and waved them. "You will know the whole story in a few days. It's meaningless to know this kind of thing earlier."

"You are the boss, you have the final say." Zi Nu did not force it after hearing that.

Gu Xunze turned over and fell asleep:

"I'm going to sleep, you should be busy."

Zi Nu was stunned when she heard this. She went forward and saw that Gu Xun had already fallen asleep.

"You'll sleep well." Seeing this, Zi Nu couldn't help but shake her head and laugh. Then she extinguished the candle she had just lit and left the room.

………………

While Gu Xun was sleeping in the painting boat at night, a major earthquake broke out again in Sanghai.

It was almost evening when Ying Zheng's convoy left Xiaoshengxianzhuang. Following closely, a piece of gossip began to spread in Sanghai City - a conflict broke out between the emperor and Xiaoshengxianzhuang, and both sides parted unhappily.

This information immediately detonated the peace that Sanghai had barely maintained, causing an uproar.

No one understood why Xiao Shengxianzhuang had a conflict with the emperor.

Local officials didn't understand, the people didn't understand, and even other factions of Confucianism didn't understand.

In the eyes of those who don't know enough about the situation, Confucianism values ​​loyalty to the emperor the most, and it is impossible for a direct conflict with the emperor to occur under any circumstances.

To those who know relatively more, this is even more incredible - they all know that Fu Nian personally supported the imperial court some time ago, and had the intention of challenging other Confucian factions.

How come they are fighting with the emperor again all of a sudden?
It wasn't until another piece of gossip spread that everyone's doubts were resolved - the incident of the book burning order made everyone understand what Xiaoshengxian Manor had done.

If it were them, they would be considered loyal to the emperor if they did not assassinate him on the spot.

What followed was a bigger storm.

The conflict between the emperor and Xiaoshengxianzhuang that had been spread before caused more panic among the local people.

They were afraid that the emperor's actions against Xiaoshengxianzhuang would affect them.

Now almost everyone is getting anxious.

Ordinary people didn't think too much, but their simple ideas made them think it was a pity to burn good books.

As for the various schools of thought, there is no need to mention them.

The local officials in Songhai were also very dissatisfied with this - they didn't care whether the books were burned or not, as it did not affect their current prosperous life.

But they are definitely needed to execute and promote the book burning order.

This matter is not only troublesome, but also dangerous - if the people of the various schools of thought cannot defeat the emperor, can't they defeat them?
It would be a great loss if you get angry and lose your life.

Of course, not executing it is not an option, as it would be easy for the emperor to purge him.

It would not be the case that absolutely no one was happy about the Book Burning Order.

Some anti-Qin forces were still very happy.

They didn't care at all whether private collections of books were burned or not, they just wanted to see the empire's demise accelerated - they wanted to add fuel to the fire of all the empire's decrees, and it would be best if the empire was completely burned to ashes that day.

However, whether it is the accelerators or the opposition of the anti-Qin forces, as enemies of the empire, they cannot directly jump out to resist the emperor's will.

The first ones to speak out must be, and could only be, the local tyrants in the Qi and Lu regions - the Confucians.

Without even waiting for one night, Confucian scholars in the entire Sanghai region, led by Chunyu Yue and other Confucian doctoral officials, began to protest, demanding that the emperor abandon this absurd order.

Ying Zheng was also a straightforward person. As soon as the Confucians called for it, he officially passed the policy of burning books and issued an official decree to announce it to the world.

This meant that the Book Burning Order officially became a basic policy system of the empire, and people all over the world had to obey and cooperate with it.

Of course, this is a big job. It doesn't mean that he can start burning books as soon as he issues the order.

Now he is notifying officials in all counties to start preparing for the execution of the book burning order. Once the Mirage's voyage is completed, he will formally proceed with the book burning.

This naturally led to a fierce counterattack from the Confucian scholars of Sanghai, but unfortunately the Confucian scholars had no power and no military force. Faced with Ying Zheng's domineering behavior, they could only write letters of protest under the leadership of several doctoral officials.

Then they couldn't even enter the gate of the general's mansion.

The emperor's cold response further aroused the emotions of the Confucian scholars.

In short, in the eyes of many people, the Confucian scholars gathered in the city seemed to be planning to directly attack the general's mansion and kill the dog emperor.

Of course, whether they will actually take action and whether they dare to take action is another matter.

Confucian scholars...it cannot be said that they have no martial ethics, it just depends on the situation.

When facing the emperor, they really have no martial virtue.

At least before the book burning order is actually implemented, the chances of them rebelling are very low.

(End of this chapter)