Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1942: Demon Slayer (Part )

Gu Xun did not comment on this, and nodded calmly, "Well, we really have to wait, wait for Yanri to come back, and wait for Gongshu Enemy to arrive."

"Speaking of which, this old man Gongshu Chou is quite busy. He hasn't finished the work at Lingqu and was urgently transferred back to Sanghai. It's quite a hassle."

"Lingqu Canal..." Zhang Han hesitated for a moment and changed the subject, "Speaking of which, I heard that the Lingqu Canal project is progressing very smoothly. I think the war in Lingnan will be restarted soon."

Gu Xun glanced at him and said with a smile, "Do you still have time to pay attention to Lingnan's affairs?"

Zhang Han smiled and replied, "War is a matter of life and death, so we must be careful."

"The Lingnan War involves the rise and fall of the entire empire. I dare not ignore it."

The empire is now in a precarious situation, if not in turmoil.

If the war in Lingnan breaks out again, the little remaining resources will probably be thrown into it.

If the war goes smoothly and there are continuous victories, then it would be fine. But if the war goes badly and there is another defeat, I am afraid the foundation of the country will be shaken.

What Zhang Han called the "rise and fall of the empire" was indeed all dependent on this.

"This is something the emperor should worry about, not you. Just take care of your job."

"You should understand the principle of not interfering in other people's affairs if you are not in their position."

Gu Xun really had no interest in these messy things now, and replied to Zhang Han indifferently.

"Your Excellency is right. I was just curious for a moment." Zhang Han readily followed suit and immediately said that he was just playing around.

"By the way, why did the emperor leave you in Sanghai?" Gu Xun changed the subject and asked.

"Your Majesty ordered me to clean up the whole matter of Xiaoshengxian Manor and minimize the impact."

Gu Xun chuckled, "Everyone has been killed, the manor has been burned down, and you still want to reduce the impact?"

“How else can we reduce the impact?”

Gu Xun's tone was very calm, but his dissatisfaction with Ying Zheng was obvious in his words.

Zhang Han didn't dare to offend either side, so he could only ignore both sides and only talk about himself:
"I am only doing my best and doing it with reluctance."

This is true.

The destruction of Xiaoshengxianzhuang by the empire caused adverse effects that were completely irreversible.

Stimulated by this, the various schools of thought became more determined to resist the empire, and Zhang Han was powerless to change them.

Ordinary people were in a panic because of this, and rumors were everywhere in the streets. Zhang Han could only try his best to calm the situation.

But rumors are difficult to stop or control with human power, at least in the pre-Qin period, and Zhang Han's expertise was not very suitable.

Rather than saying that he is trying to reverse the public opinion of this incident, it would be better to say that he is just trying to suppress the heat and wait for the people to forget about it on their own.

However, his methods of suppressing the heat were very crude, and the common people of this era did not have much to do for fun. Such a big event was enough for them to talk about for more than a month, so so far, Zhang Han's efforts had little effect.

Gu Xun no longer cared about the reputation of the imperial court and Ying Zheng, and was too lazy to give Zhang Han any advice. He just continued to ask:

"Are you done with Sanghai? Are you going to follow the East Tour convoy?"

Zhang Han shook his head, smiled bitterly and replied, "The Emperor ordered me to return to Guanzhong after the incident in Sanghai is resolved."

"The situation in the empire is turbulent, and even the Xianyang area is experiencing some unrest. His Majesty the Emperor has ordered me to return to Guanzhong to stabilize the situation."

"Also, the imperial mausoleum is almost finished. His Majesty asked me to supervise the work to ensure that no problems occur with the prisoners at Mount Li."

Hundreds of thousands of prisoners gathered in Mount Li all year round to build the imperial mausoleum. Although they were all poor people who were ragged and could not even get enough food, the gathering of so many people was more or less a source of unrest.

If a disturbance were to break out, it would be a huge trouble, especially as the imperial mausoleum is about to be completed, people's hearts would inevitably be uneasy.

It was normal for Ying Zheng to arrange someone to keep an eye on it, but it was hard to say that he had no other intentions when he arranged Zhang Han to go.

Logically speaking, even if Ying Zheng did not want to keep Zhang Han by his side, he should have sent him to the eldest prince Fusu to wait for orders, instead of sending him straight to the Mausoleum of Emperor Li in Mount Li.

However, Gu Xun couldn't guess what Ying Zheng was thinking.

Human hearts are fickle and the most difficult to understand.

The only way to see through people’s hearts is to infer the causes from the results - and it may not be accurate.

What consequences Ying Zheng's actions would lead to did not depend on his personal thoughts, but also on the thoughts of many other people, such as Zhang Han, Fusu, or someone else.

Every decision made by each person may change the final outcome.

You can infer a person's thoughts by tracing the cause and effect, but you cannot infer a group of people's thoughts.

Fortunately, Gu Xun didn't worry about the answer. He just let Ying Zheng think whatever he wanted and he would do as he pleased.

"It's not bad to look at the imperial mausoleum. Those prisoners really need someone reliable to keep an eye on them."

"Why, you don't want to go?" Gu Xun asked with a smile.

Zhang Han laughed bitterly again, "This...under the emperor's order, how can I not obey?"

"But the construction of this imperial mausoleum..."

In this era, visiting the imperial tombs was not as serious as being banished to the cold palace, but it was also an unimportant and menial job.

The most important thing is that, strictly speaking, the imperial mausoleum was never completed.

The construction of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor began when Ying Zheng ascended the throne of Qin - of course it was not called the Imperial Mausoleum at that time, and it has not been completed until now.

On the one hand, this is because the scale of the expansion is constantly increasing, and on the other hand, the construction of the imperial mausoleum cannot stop as long as the emperor is alive.

Even if the project was completely completed, they still had to continue to repair it, even if there was no work to do, and they had to continue to do it until the emperor died.

If someone dies but the mausoleum has not been completed, you can bury the person and continue to build it, but you cannot finish the mausoleum before the person dies.

Otherwise, wouldn't that be urging the emperor to die?
Of course, this is not an explicit rule, it is just an unspoken rule, and it also depends on the emperor's personal thoughts.

Ying Zheng was quite keen on building his own mausoleum and started the construction when he first ascended the throne. However, he also longed for immortality, and everyone in the court and the country knew it, so no one dared to offend him with such a thing.

If there is no hope for promotion, it would be nice to just take such an idle job and wait for death, but it is not time for Zhang Han to retire yet, so it is not a good idea for him to guard the imperial mausoleum so early!

Gu Xun patted Zhang Han on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Since we are here, let's make the best of it."

"It's not a bad thing to have some free time for a while, right?"

There was a gleam of thought in Zhang Han's eyes, but he was not sure whether Gu Xun's words had any deeper meaning, and if so, what it meant. He could only put it aside for now and take it one step at a time.

While the two were chatting, Yanri had already returned.

It can be seen that Yanri is very anxious, or rather, he dares not be negligent in the slightest.

"Oh, you're back soon?" Gu Xun deliberately teased when he saw this.

Yanri could only smile and reply, "Time is tight, I dare not neglect it."

"What did the Yin-Yang family say?" Gu Xun didn't seem to have any intention of deliberately making things difficult for him. He simply made a joke and then got down to business.

Yanri quickly replied, "The Yin-Yang family looked at the blueprints, and the right guardian Yueshen said that the stargazing instrument should be an improvement on the original one on the Mirage." "As for that special crossbow, they don't know anything about it."

"What is the stargazing instrument used for?" The people from the Ji Nu Yin Yang School didn't know either, so Gu Xun only asked about the stargazing instrument.

"The Moon Goddess Guardian said that she might be able to use this to observe the stars to confirm the location of the sea mirage monster, so that she can use the crossbow to shoot it outside the fog."

"This way, it's resolved." Gu Xun smiled with his hands behind his back and commented lightly.

The Yin-Yang School members observed the stars to confirm the location, and then shot the target with a crossbow. This process became feasible.

Although there are still a lot of problems, such as whether the specific form of Moon Goddess's positioning of the mirage monster can be converted into the shooting direction of the mechanical crossbow, whether the position of the mirage monster can be hit by the mechanical crossbow, and whether the mechanical crossbow can penetrate its defense.

These factors will determine whether you will ultimately be successful.

However, these are difficulties that need to be overcome in the actual operation process. There is nothing wrong with the idea of ​​this method itself and it is still feasible.

The direction can be calibrated, the hit rate can be improved, and the destructive power can be enhanced.

"Next, we just need to wait for Gongshu Chou to arrive and ask him to confirm the effect of the crossbow."

"By then, we will have an explanation to the emperor, and this matter can come to an end."

………………

"Tianming, don't you see any chance here?"

In a private house somewhere outside Sanghai Port, Shao Yu folded his arms and sighed.

They have been keeping an eye on the developments in the city these days, trying to find the right opportunity.

But the Empire's actions have always been restrained. It has only strengthened its defenses. The only slightly radical action was the imprisonment of a group of fraudulent alchemists and sorcerers.

"It's unrealistic to rely entirely on the Empire to give us opportunities. We have to find ways to create them." Tianming replied calmly, lying lazily.

"How to create opportunities?" Shao Yu asked with his hands spread out.

"Then we have to wait until they get moving." Tianming replied.

"What if they don't move?" Shao Yu asked with a smile.

"It's going to have to happen sooner or later. If we don't, how are we going to deal with the Mirage's departure?" Tianming replied confidently, "Hasn't there already been some movement today?"

At this time, Shi Lan, who was staring at the mirage by the window, turned around and asked, "Tianming, have you decided to target the Yin-Yang family?"

"Not necessarily." Tianming shook his head and replied, "The Yin-Yang family is determined to stay in the Mirage. It's too troublesome to deal with them. If there is no suitable opportunity, we can change the target."

"Didn't Luowang send someone here? I think they are also suitable."

"This one is indeed much easier to deal with." Shao Yu interrupted with a smile, "According to the current intelligence, Luowang has only one top-level killer named Yanri, and there are not many killers of other levels."

"With our current strength, it's just right for us to swallow these Luowang killers."

Killing one or two masters of the Yin-Yang School is a huge profit, and killing one or two Luowang Tianzi killers is also a huge profit.

Neither Tianming nor Shaoyu Shilan had any objection to this.

"I just don't know if Luowang really only came to send Yanri alone." Shi Lan added.

With their strength, killing one Tianzi killer is possible, and killing two is not impossible, but the preparations required are completely different.

Shao Yu heard this and said, "It can be confirmed that the Six Sword Slaves and Zhao Gao are in the East Tour Caravan and cannot leave."

"Apart from the Six Sword Slaves, Luowang also has at least three first-class Tianzi masters: Yanri, Quexie, and Shulou."

"Yanri is clearly in Sanghai, while Quexie and Shulou... may be both there, or they may not be there."

“I’m not sure…”

"Set up a trap and force them to show up?" Tianming suggested.

"How to set up the game?" Shao Yu tilted his head and asked back.

"Find an opportunity to surround and kill Yanri." Tianming said, "If there are still Tianzi killers in Sanghai, they will definitely rescue him. If not, just kill Yanri directly!"

Shao Yu touched his chin and raised his doubts, "If there are no other Tianzi killers, it would be easy to deal with. We can just kill Yanri directly."

"But if there are other Tianzi killers, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find opportunities after this siege."

"Arrange enough manpower. If one is killed, then two are also killed. Just do it in one step!" Tianming had already made arrangements for this.

"This...what if there are three?" Shao Yu asked with a smile.

"For three of us, it all depends on the situation and luck." Tianming rolled his eyes.

With their current manpower, it would be barely possible to surround and kill two Tianzi killers, but it would be basically impossible to kill three, unless they could be completely separated.

………………

At the same time, thousands of miles away, in Xianyang, Guanzhong, is the Imperial Mausoleum of Mount Li.

It is always a bustling scene here, but for the people in the "painting", they don't want to be part of this scene.

Among a group of pale, skinny and ragged prisoners, there was a tall man who stood out.

This person is naturally Chen Sheng, the head of the Kuiwei Hall of the Nong family.

And by his side is always the head of Kuiwei Hall, his good brother Wu Kuang.

In a blink of an eye, the two of them had been in Mount Li for quite some time.

After this period of training, the two have gradually become familiar with life here.

Although both men were strictly restrained, with heavy shackles on their bodies to ensure they could not escape, their lower limbs were mainly restricted, leaving their upper bodies largely free.

Therefore, both of them worked very efficiently, especially Chen Sheng, who possessed divine power, but his movement speed was very limited.

Although most of the people in Mount Li were criminals, in the final analysis it was just an excuse for the imperial court to increase their labor service. There were not many evil people who had actually committed serious crimes.

Those who manage prisoners and supervise projects will not deliberately make things difficult for these poor people as long as they can complete their work on time.

Therefore, Chen Sheng and Wu Kuang lived a good life. Not only did they always complete their tasks on time, they also found time to help others and made many good connections.

During this period of time, the two gradually came to understand the undercurrents among these hundreds of thousands of prisoners.

No one likes to work themselves to death and not get paid a penny.

It is impossible for these prisoners to be exploited and oppressed by the empire without complaint.

The most important reason why they can still work peacefully is that not far from Mount Li is the Lantian Camp, where a large number of elite imperial troops are stationed.

Although there were quite a few prisoners among them, they had no armor or weapons, had never received any training, and even did not have enough food to eat. They were generally pale and thin, and physically weak.

With this average quality, if they really fight with the regular army, hundreds of thousands of people may not be enough to kill the enemy's 10,000 people.

The number of people in cold weapon combat is important, but it is not the only important thing.