The old man named Tsunaro-kun hurriedly put the venison from the tachyon into a pottery dish with intricate patterns in front of him, and hurriedly proved his innocence.
"Ze Wan doesn't think so! Ze and this guy are incompatible with each other!"
The old man had a correct attitude and a firm tone. He just raised three fingers and swore to the ancestors of the heaven and earth, ghosts and gods.
But the middle-aged man sitting in the first place did not let the old man off for this. He chuckled, picked up the wine bottle, and offered a toast to the old man from afar.
Without waiting for the old man to react, he drank the wine in one gulp and said, "Tsangcheng-kun is wiser than me and many others. This time we are against the insidious and cunning Shuzi, and we should take Gangcheng-jun as our leader."
As soon as he finished speaking, a wry smile appeared on the old man's face. He raised his wine bottle and was about to give it back before saying something.
At the right time, the two people sitting in the first seats on the left and right sides moved quickly. Before the old man could raise the wine bottle to his chest, the wine bottles they held in both hands were already aimed at the old man.
"We will be led by Tsunade-kun!"
"We will be led by Tsunade-kun!"
The two have different timbres and uneven voices. The only thing they have in common is that they speak very fast, as if their mouths are borrowed.
It is easy for ordinary people to speak quickly and have difficulty articulating, but the two of them not only spoke clearly, but also spoke loudly enough for the entire hall to hear clearly.
After speaking, the two of them held up their wine bottles and drank the wine in one gulp, just like the men above them.
The old man's face suddenly became unsightly, and his wry smile turned gloomy. His eyes turned unkindly to the person in charge, the person first on the left, and the person first on the right.
Just as his eyes turned, all the guests on the left and right sides were seen holding wine bottles with both hands.
Among them there are tall and thin people who have not used the spoon today, and there are fat people who have been wrapped three times around their waists and changed their food twice.
There are those who are young and cautious and taciturn, and there are also those who talk loudly and are filled with indignation and wish they could take the whole palace to Xianyang Prison and kill Ying Chengyu in order to take revenge.
Everyone present raised the wine bottle, which was level with either the pork belly or the muscular chest, and pointed it at the old man.
"We will be led by Tsunade-kun!"
"We will be led by Tsunade-kun!"
"We will be led by Tsunade-kun!"
"..."
Their voices were like shattering doors and windows.
After that, he held up the wine with both hands and brought it to the entrance. The strong wind caused by the fanning of the sleeves of the robe made the thirty-six high-quality candles mixed with ambergris in the hall tremble.
As a result, the main hall flickered in and out of light, and the figures of the people present were also looming, making it impossible to tell whether they were humans or ghosts.
When the candle burns steadily and the hall becomes bright again, the wine bottles of King Chu on the wall are crystal clear, and the texture of the slaughtered beef and mutton on the table is clearly visible.
Everyone's faces were filled with eagerness and expectation, and their eyes looking at the old man were full of trust.
The old man had a look of reluctance, and with an experienced hand that looked like dry bark, he placed the wine bottle filled with fine wine on the table with a loud "duang" sound.
"Tsunari-kun, what do you mean?"
The upper middle-aged man looked puzzled, and there was a hint of evil in his brows.
Everyone present remained silent, still looking at the old man with eager, expectant and trusting expressions.
It's just that his brows moved closer inward, gathering unformed dark clouds.
"Wait until you are done and then drink."
The old man explained.
"Hahahahaha, Tsunade-kun is getting stronger and stronger, but your ambitions are far behind those of ours!"
The upper middle-aged man laughed loudly, slapped his thighs, and praised the old man repeatedly.
His name is Meng Jiakun, and he is the head of the Meng family.
The Meng family is deeply rooted in the Qin State and has a longer history than the Gan family, the chief family that can be traced back to Qin Xiangong.
The Meng family, the Xi family, and the Bai family are the three oldest aristocratic families in Qin today.
The three families have high status in the Qin family, which can be seen just by looking at their seats.
In addition to Meng Jiakun sitting in the first chair, Bai Fei, the head of the Bai family, sat first on the right seat, and Xi Shu, the head of the Xi family, sat first on the left seat.
This has something to do with Yu Yin, the ancestor of the three families, but not much.
The real reason is that most of the income of other aristocratic families comes from selling scrap iron with the Gan family.
But the three families are not. The money earned from selling scrap ironware is a small part of the three families' economic sources. The bulk of it is that the three families have a monopoly on the supply of prostitutes and actors in the Qin State.
Just by selling well-trained concubines, the three families can prosper. This is also the reason why the three families can dominate this banquet in Gan Luo's absence.
Bai Fei praised the old man loudly for being a man who could enlighten the marquis, while Xi Shu said that if there was no Lord Tsunagi to lead him today, we would really not dare to go to war with that Shuzi.
After the heads of the three great Meng Xibai families praised him, no one in attendance did not praise the old man.
The old man responded to everyone who praised him one by one, holding and complimenting him. His words could scratch the itch in the heart of every family head.
To describe a person who is considerate in all aspects of his dealings with others, the four words "excellent in all aspects" are often used.
All the old man could say, the smile on the face of the head of the aristocratic family is getting bigger and bigger, the joy is getting stronger and stronger, and he truly understands what each head of the aristocratic family likes to hear and what he has done, it should be said that he is eighty-faced.
While the old man was talking, the venison in the decorated dishes had already become cold.
Seeing that the place was getting hotter, Meng Jiakun sat at the top and observed the situation below, eating meat and drinking calmly.
From time to time, Bai Fei and Xi Shu, who are closest to him, look at each other and smile at each other, the smile is mocking.
The banquet was full of joy.
…
Two masked men in black came to Xianyang Prison with the imperial edict of the First Emperor.
After verifying the authenticity, the jailer of Xianyang Prison removed the intertwined bronze swords and let the two people in.
After the two entered, they were subjected to three more rounds of inspections along the way. After the three rounds of jailers confirmed that the four words "Ordered by Heaven, Live Long and Prosperous" stamped on the imperial edict were genuine.
The last wave of jailers sent one person and led the two of them outside a cell.
He opened the cell door, let the two of them in, and left the key in the hand of the masked man who was walking behind him.
The tall and tall masked man took the key and stood in front of the cell door, as if guarding.
"You don't come to see me, you idiot, but you want me to come to see you?!"
Walking towards Ying Chengyu, who was lying on the bed, the masked man took off his veil, revealing a calm and insolent face. He was none other than the founder of the Qin Empire, the First Emperor Ying Zheng.
His face was full of unfriendliness towards Ying Chengyu.
"Brother, I've never dressed up like this before. How about it? Tell me how you feel?"
The First Emperor was always open-minded and open-minded in his actions, and he never bothered to play any dirty tricks. Even if he visited privately incognito, his face was still exposed - except for important officials in the court, limited by the times, not many people in the world knew the true face of the First Emperor.
"There won't be a next time." The First Emperor sat on the half of the bed that Ying Chengyu had left when he stood up, and said with an unkind expression, "I'm very busy, you'd better have something important to do."
The Great Qin Empire was established a year ago, after many of the hero families went to fiefdoms to sit in power. Some of the riots have improved slightly from the first year, but not much and it will take time to digest.
For the First Emperor, the biggest advantage of these heroic families going to the fiefdom was that he had to deal with fewer memorials than last year.
The First Emperor, who really felt the changes, when criticizing the memorial to Chou Shi, sometimes thought that if this land was sealed off at that time, the memorial would be the turn of the emperor to review, and he could go to bed.
The enfeoffment system is actually not bad.
Although the princes from various places shared some of the memorials, the First Emperor still had a huge amount of memorials to deal with, and the First Emperor still did not have much free time.
As a monarch who created an unprecedented unified empire, almost everything the First Emperor had to do was to create new things, and he did not have much experience to learn from previous dynasties.
So the First Emperor was really busy.
In other words, no matter who reaches this position, as long as he has a little ambition and wants to do something, he will be very busy.
"Brother Huang, does he know about witchcraft?" Ying Chengyu said thoughtfully.
"That's why you asked me to come here?" The First Emperor's face became even more ugly, and he suppressed his anger and said, "The Queen Mother Huayang treats you very well. You should know this matter better than me."
"Is there really witchcraft? If I had known that what Huayang Mother said was true, I would have learned it." Ying Chengyu said regretfully: "At that time, I thought Huayang Mother was just teasing me, and so was Huayang Mother. I remember you asked me once. Why don't you ask me a few more times and show it in front of me and I will learn."
"Why are you studying witchcraft?" Seeing his brother's interest, the First Emperor frowned and said, "If you are interested in witchcraft, you can ask Concubine Chu. There should be no one in Guanzhong who knows better than Concubine Chu."
"This damn girl knows witchcraft?" Ying Chengyu widened his eyes and said, "She never told me."
The First Emperor was about to make a move and said, "Go and ask her yourself."
The First Emperor was very busy and had no time to talk with his brother about witchcraft or not. The First Emperor was not curious about witchcraft at all.
What is the use of witchcraft? The witchcraft is prevalent in the Chu Kingdom. Will it be crushed by my warriors from the Qin Dynasty?
"If something happens, something happens." Ying Chengyu hurriedly grabbed the First Emperor and said with a smile: "Brother Emperor will announce a decree tomorrow. Is it okay if the Qin State does not have any concubines?"
"No." The First Emperor flatly refused without thinking.
A concubine is a slave.
Although feudalism gradually replaced slavery during the Warring States Period, slaves still existed widely until the Qin Dynasty, and even continued into the Qing Dynasty.
The concubines had two important meanings in the Qin Dynasty, which were also part of the Qin farming and warfare system.
The first is plowing.
The Qin Dynasty carried out great construction projects. Although there were many prisoners of war in the Qin Dynasty, there were also many prisoners in prison.
However, with the Great Wall, Chidao, imperial mausoleums, palaces, ditches, etc., a large number of projects requiring manual labor, the Qin Dynasty was in a state of shortage of manpower all year round.
If too many civilians were forcibly recruited to work on the project, the reduction in the number of people working on the land would lead to a poor harvest, which at the least would make it impossible for the Qin Dynasty to fight foreign wars, and at worst it would lead to famine.
Moreover, civilians were forcibly recruited to build the Great Wall, roads, ditches, etc., which required labor costs and food, clothing and housing. The civilians were protected by Qin laws, which cost a lot.
Qin had too many civil engineering projects and could not afford to hire so many people, so Qin needed concubines.
The concubines, who are not paid, can be beaten and scolded at will to rush the work, cannot farm, are not protected by Qin's laws and have no one to care about them, are very useful.
The second is war.
