Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1965: The Seven Stars of Azure Dragon (Twelve)
Facing the excited Moon Goddess, Yan Fei was silent for a moment, then returned to a calm tone and replied, "I know what I am doing, and you don't need to worry about me."

"No need... Ha!" The Moon God showed a mocking sneer and replied in a gloomy tone, "If you hadn't dragged me into this, I would have listened to you. But now... Humph!"

"You can quit at any time." Yan Fei replied to her calmly.

The Moon Goddess just sneered, and stopped discussing this topic with her, and returned to the Star Soul:
"If you can't be sure that the woman in Yingyu won't cross the line, then why not just kill Xinghun directly."

"Xinghun is dead. At most, the ship will be in chaos for a while. Mirage has already penetrated deep into the East China Sea. Without force majeure, it will not go back no matter what."

"But if that woman dies..."

"I have my own plans." Yan Fei did not give Yue Shen a clear response. She said something vague and perfunctory, then left.

At the same time, in the lower cabin of the Mirage, Tianming was imprisoned.

This place has now become a ruin.

The door specially made to lock in the morning and the thickened and reinforced walls had collapsed. The whole room looked as if it had just been demolished, with broken tables, chairs, benches, wooden boards and bricks everywhere.

Tianming sat cross-legged alone in the ruins, looking up at the roof... or rather the floor above, his face filled with sadness and heaviness.

But soon someone came and interrupted his solo emo.

Xinghun looked at the mess in front of him and Tianming, who was sitting in the ruins with no intention of escaping, and asked in confusion:
"You did all this?"

Tianming suppressed his inner emotions and returned to his usual carefree self, and replied angrily:

"Who am I asking you to ask me?"

"I was lying down and trying to digest my food, when suddenly a layer of white mist came over me and I passed out. When I woke up, I looked like this."

"How did you guys drive the boat? What weird place did you sail to?"

Not only did Tianming refuse to admit his mistake, he also turned the tables and blamed Xinghun - but in fact, he was indeed the one who made the mess, he just did it when he was not in a clear mind.

Xinghun looked at Tianming suspiciously, "You mean, you fainted after coming into contact with the mist?"

"Yeah." Tianming nodded without blushing or panting, "Any questions? Could that fog be the poison gas you released?"

Xinghun felt that Tianming was lying to him, but he had no evidence to expose him, so he could only put aside his suspicion for the time being and replied coldly:

"The fog was just an accident."

"If you say so, then so be it." Tianming curled his lips in disdain, as if to say that I would believe it, and then asked, "This place has become like this now, I can always change my cell, right?"

Xinghun waved his hand with a gloomy expression and said, "Just wait."

Then he just walked away.

Tianming didn't care about it. He cleared a space in the ruins and lay down directly, with an attitude of taking things as they come and living from day to day.

After Xinghun left, they sent several times more people to keep an eye on Tianming, and then there were no further actions.

It’s not that he was unwilling to move Tianming to a new cell, but cells are not something that can be changed just like that.

In fact, after talking with Gu Xun, Tianming immediately made this request to the Yin-Yang School.

The Yin-Yang family also agreed - they really didn't dare to force Tianming too much, and they would generally try their best to meet any requests that could be met.

Although this request was a bit over the line and there was a risk of Tianming getting out of control, they still compromised after Tianming expressed his determination.

But there were no additional special cells on the Mirage, and Tianming had a lot of requests this time.

The Yin-Yang family could only arrange for someone to urgently build a new one.

There is no doubt that this house cannot be renovated in a short period of time. What's more, they still had the big problem of Mirage to solve at that time, and they simply couldn't spare many people to deal with this matter.

Now that the mirage has been dealt with, they can focus on solving Tianming's demands, but his old cell can't wait to be blown up first...

Xinghun is also in a dilemma now.

Fortunately, Tianming seemed to have given up the idea of ​​escaping and really just wanted to move to a place with a better environment, which saved Xinghun a lot of trouble.

But he still had to figure out how to accommodate Tianming.

If the renovation of the new cell could be completed in time, he would not bother with it and let Tianming live in the ruins for two days and then move into a new home.

If the renovation of the new cell was slow, he estimated that he would have to find a place to temporarily house Tianming.

The kid doesn't want to run away now, but if he is left there in the ruins, he will have to run away.

Although Xinghun had sent more people to keep an eye on him, it was unrealistic to expect these people to stop Tianming.
Tianming knew nothing about Xinghun's troubles and had no interest in knowing.

He was minding his own business.

The mist spit out by the mirage also has an effect on him, so after the mirage was shrouded in the mist, he fell into the illusion just like Yue Shen and others... Strictly speaking, he is not as good as Yue Shen and is closer to ordinary people on the mirage.

However, unlike those people who were driven insane and socially dead by hallucinations, he was trapped in a serious illusion - some scenes that seemed real and not real, familiar and unfamiliar to him.

The scenes and people in the illusion seemed very familiar to him, but he had no memory of those places or people.

His time in the illusion was short.

Tianming, who was already in a daze, quickly lost all consciousness and fell into a coma - so he didn't lie to Xinghun, he was indeed unconscious, but it was only for a very short time.

When he came to his senses again, his cell was in ruins.

There was no doubt that it was he who demolished the house, although Tianming himself didn't know how he did it.

He didn't care about this matter. It was not the first or second time that it happened.

Since there is nothing wrong with your body, there is no need to worry about it.

He was more concerned with the visions he saw.

Although he had never been to the places in the illusion and had never met those people, Tianming guessed the truth.

That should be his 'memory' from before he could remember anything.

This sounds a bit contradictory. If you don't remember things, you shouldn't have any memories. If you have memories, you should remember things.

However, Tianming has become accustomed to all the abnormalities in himself, and his thoughts are very jumpy and bold when he makes guesses.

Although it is just a guess, in Tianming's opinion, it is basically the fact.

However, what made Tianming very melancholy was that the illusion was like a dream. When he was immersed in it, everything seemed very real and perfect, but after waking up, only some vague impressions remained.

No matter how Tianming tried to recall, all that appeared in his mind were blurry images - blurry scenes, blurry faces.

If he could see the exact same scene in reality, he might be able to match it up, but if not... these images are of almost no value. And if nothing unexpected happens, these blurry images all happened more than a decade ago, and the chance of reappearing in front of Tianming is zero...

But Tianming still didn't give up and kept recalling the scenes in the illusion over and over again.

Because of a woman - she is the person who appears most frequently in the illusions.

Even though he could not recall the woman's appearance at all, Tianming could feel her deep sadness and delicate tenderness just through the blurry image.

If he guessed correctly, that woman should be... his mother.

Tianming recalled the memories in the illusion over and over again, using all his strength to try to break through the fog that shrouded his memory, just to get a look at his mother.

Even though he couldn't undo what had happened in the past, he still wanted to take a look at his mother...even at any cost.

Sadly, it seemed that he was unable to even respond to this pitiful request.

Tianming, who was lying in the ruins, opened his tightly closed eyes and looked blankly at the dark and gloomy space. He had no sadness or anger. He just sighed and closed his eyes again.

………………

While Mirage broke through the fog and successfully embarked on the journey to find immortals, everything in the empire continued to advance in an orderly manner.

The twenty-four elements of the land of farmers have four core elements, namely spring birth, summer prosperity, autumn killing and winter destruction.

This is not only the core feature of the Earth and Ze Array, but also the basic characteristic of the four seasons.

As time came to the end of autumn, the temperature throughout the empire dropped, and all life in nature was wiped out.

Before the "winter dieback" comes completely, it is the time for many animals to collect and store supplies for the winter.

The same is true for humans.

In order to obtain enough supplies for the winter, nomadic tribes outside the northern border began to attack the empire's borders in wave after wave, plundering all the supplies that could be plundered.

For them, if they succeed in looting, they can increase supplies and allow more people in the tribe to survive the winter. If they fail, they can consume the excess population and allow the remaining people to survive the harsh winter - of course, they prefer the former.

The latter can only take care of the present, as life will be difficult for the tribe after the spring of next year.

The nomadic tribes in the north had a hard time, and the people of the empire had a hard time too.

Although it was approaching the New Year (the tenth month in the Zhuanxu calendar), the people of the empire did not have the time or leisure to prepare for the New Year celebrations.

As the saying goes, winter comes and summer goes, autumn harvests and winter stores.

Generally, in winter, all creatures in nature become quiet, waiting for the coming spring.

The same goes for people. In winter, we should try to do as little as possible, rest and recuperate until the cold winter passes and spring returns.

But the Empire is different.

When winter comes, corvee labor often becomes heavier.

The reason is very simple - whether it is the Great Wall, the Straight Road, the Afang Palace in Xianyang, or many other projects, construction never stops in winter.

If the project is to continue, someone has to work, but working outdoors in the cold winter could result in frostbite or illness, or even freezing to death.

There are fewer laborers serving, but the progress of the project cannot be slowed down, so naturally the only option is to add new manpower and transfer more people to serve.

The only good news is that the Lingqu Canal project in the south has finally come to an end, the basic construction has been completed and it can be put into use.

This freed up a large number of manpower.

However, the project here no longer needs manpower. But soon after the war in Lingnan is restarted, more manpower is needed to transport military supplies - the weather in Lingnan is warm, and even though it is almost winter, it is not as bone-chilling as in the Central Plains, so the army can operate as usual.

Fortunately, now we have the Lingqu Canal, the difficulty of transporting materials by water is much different than before by land, and the number of laborers required is also greatly reduced.

If the conditions were still the same as during the First Lingnan War, at least 300,000 civilians would have to be mobilized to barely guarantee the supply of logistical materials.

Given the current situation of the empire, if hundreds of thousands of strong laborers are withdrawn, I am afraid there will be no one to farm the land next year.

The Lingqu Canal not only reduced the demand for manpower, but more importantly, improved the stability of the supply line.

During the First Lingnan War, the empire's supply lines were cut off every other day. The logistics department kept sending in waves of people and supplies, but the troops on the front lines were always suffering from various shortages and difficulties.

In a sense, the fact that hundreds of thousands of troops could hold out against the Baiyue tribes for such a long time under such circumstances is also a side testament to the strength of the imperial army.

Let’s talk about the Lingnan War.

Ying Zheng once again mobilized an army of 100,000 and joined more than 200,000 troops in Lingnan, totaling 300,000 troops. With Ren Xiong as the main general and Zhao Tuo as the deputy general, he marched into Baiyue again.

This time, the imperial army's attack was unstoppable.

It was not only the stable logistical support brought by the opening of the Lingqu Canal, but also the personal abilities of Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo.

The two men perfectly learned from all the mistakes made by General Tu Sui in the First Lingnan War. They no longer acted recklessly or violently suppressed local tribal natives. Instead, they implemented a conciliatory policy.

Of course, the First Lingnan War had already turned the Central Plains and the Baiyue into a mortal feud.

Such a short time is not enough to resolve this blood feud.

Simply relying on appeasement will not help Ren Xiong and his men stabilize the rear.

So they wrote to the emperor, "Send all the fugitives, sons-in-law, and merchants as soldiers."

The so-called "fugitives, son-in-laws, and merchants" are people who intend to flee, sons-in-law, and merchants.

These people are of low status in the empire and are second-class citizens with little human rights, but they are given priority for any dirty or strenuous work.

Sending them as soldiers is not to make them cannon fodder, but to make them immigrants.

Whenever Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo conquered a place, they would leave enough people behind to serve as immigrants and stabilize the rear.

Because of the First Lingnan War, the Baiyue people suffered heavy population losses, and these immigrants were enough to suppress them.

In order to protect their own survival, these merchants who were the sons-in-law of deceased relatives did their best to develop Lingnan, building infrastructure, developing agricultural activities, and running businesses.

It was certainly unrealistic to expect them to bring about immediate changes to the Baiyue in Lingnan, but they did greatly stabilize the Qin army's rear strongholds. At the same time, they could also urgently recruit a wave of able-bodied men when the army was severely depleted in manpower.

Under the steady and cautious tactics of Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo, Nanyue and Xiou, which had suffered heavy losses in the First Lingnan War, no longer had the power to resist and could only be eaten away bit by bit by the imperial army.

Only Luoyue still had some strength to resist, but it was alone and powerless to turn the tide. When Nanyue and Xiou were completely destroyed, its fate was also sealed.

The war in Lingnan went smoothly, which seemed to prove to the world that the empire was still the empire and that it still had the power to conquer everything.

However, it is difficult to say whether this is a proof of the empire's strong military power and its remaining foundation, or the last rays of light before the empire's decline.

After all, Lingnan had no ability to resist.