In the busy time, another month has passed.
The weather is getting warmer and there are already signs of spring.
The Jingjia Ban finally completed the task ahead of schedule and delivered the remaining one thousand flying crossbows to the Western Chu Army.
A total of 1,200 flying crossbows and 700 "our weapons" were given to the Meng Mansion "our army".
In the central tent of the Western Chu Army, Lord Changping counted the number of flying crossbows, and his grin never closed.
Ying Zheng looked at Lord Changping's unpromising look and smiled inwardly, but his words were rather harsh: "Now that I have fulfilled my promise, I wonder if Lord Changping can fulfill something as well."
Chang Pingjun's face froze.
"The King's kindness must only be repaid on the battlefield by the Western Chu army." Lord Changping said.
"Are you serious?" Ying Zheng asked suspiciously.
"Of course I mean it sincerely." Lord Changping said with some fear, "It is the duty of the soldiers to go into battle and kill the enemy for the king. Even if there is no reward from the king, the soldiers should fight with blood."
"Of course I can trust you, otherwise I wouldn't have asked you to establish the Western Chu Army." Ying Zheng paused and said, "But I don't know if the officers and soldiers of the Western Chu Army have the same idea as you."
Lord Changping let out a breath, calmed down his mind, and said: "When I was ordered by the king to go to Yingcheng to recruit bandits, I was extremely nervous at first. I always felt that these people in the mountains and forests were not well managed. Even if they join the army, they will definitely get into trouble often. But unexpectedly, these people abide by military discipline very much, maybe because their fathers were sergeants."
"Rebirth of the Great Era of Fighting Waves"
"Actually, I don't care about their origins, but what they think now." Ying Zheng looked directly at Lord Changping, with such firm eyes that he couldn't lie even if he wanted to.
"Your Majesty." Lord Changping cupped his hands and said, "Let's put it this way, if Qin and Chu go to war, no one can say whether the sergeants of the Western Chu Army will be able to attack the soldiers of the Chu State. , but if another country attacks, the Western Chu army will fight bravely to kill the enemy, there is no doubt."
"Hahaha..." Ying Zheng laughed and said, "What I am waiting for is your truth. If this is the case, then the task of protecting the palace will be left to you."
"Defend the palace?" Lord Changping thought he heard wrongly.
Defending the palace is a matter for the Imperial Guard, and other armies cannot get involved even if they want to.
Besides, who has the courage to attack the palace! ?
Ying Zheng knew that the heat had come, so he told Lord Changping the important things about Lao Ai.
"How courageous!" Changping Jun said angrily, "I don't dare to confront you openly, but I secretly recruit troops and plot to cause chaos."
"So, I have no choice but to lead my troops to protect the Queen Mother." Ying Zheng sighed softly and said, "Although the Queen Mother was blinded, she is still my mother and my closest relative. "
"In this case, your Majesty, just go to Yongcheng without any worries." Changping Jun said righteously, "Xianyang is handed over to the minister, whether Lao Ai comes back or not."
"Okay!" Ying Zheng said smoothly, "For safety reasons, I plan to move everyone in the palace to Jingyao, where a part of the Meng family army will be left behind, and the surrounding areas outside the city will also be guarded by Wang Jian and Ying Cheng. Waiting for someone to set up an ambush, the only vacancy is in this city. Even if you want to catch a turtle in a jar, you still need someone who can catch the turtle."
"Hahaha..." Lord Changping laughed, "The king entrusting such an important matter to Wei Chen shows great trust in Wei Chen, and in the face of such meritorious service, Wei Chen can only do his duty."
"Okay, then we've made an agreement." Ying Zheng said.
"It's a deal!" Lord Changping said with great confidence.
"The high-five is an oath." Ying Zheng stretched out a palm.
Changping-kun also extended his hand without hesitation.
Snapped……
The two palms hit one place, but their thoughts were different.
After leaving the station of the Western Chu Army, Ying Zheng rode back to Gucheng Palace.
When he arrived at the city gate, he saw Zhao Gao walking towards the city gate in a hurry.
No need to ask, Zhao Gao must have come to see him, and it must be something important.
After the two met at the city gate, Zhao Gao said anxiously: "Your Majesty, Ying Cheng is back and is waiting in the study. He said he has something important to report to the King."
"Haha, good to be back!" Ying Zheng was overjoyed, "Let's go back to the palace."
When he returned to the study, he saw Ying Cheng chatting quietly with Li Si.
Ying Cheng's face was stern, while Li Si frowned.
Looking at the expressions of the two people, Ying Zheng couldn't help but feel nervous: "What happened?"
"Your Majesty." The two men stood up and greeted each other.
"Seeing that you all have sad faces, could it be that you have brought back some bad news?" Ying Zheng asked.
"The news that Ying Cheng brought back is indeed good and bad. Let him pick the important ones first." Li Si poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to Ying Cheng. He also winked and said, "Don't worry, we will go all the way." I’m tired from the bumpy journey, so let’s have a sip of tea before we talk.”
Ying Cheng understood the idea and took advantage of the time to drink the cup of tea to clarify his thoughts. Then he said: "Wei Chen arrived at Yongcheng and secretly inquired from the old clansmen about several things that the king told them. Old clansmen Although some information was provided, it was all hearsay."
"So, the old clan members came up with an idea to ask Wei Chen to find a way to get close to and control the master next to Lao Ai."
"Then Wei Chen used some special methods and finally found out everything he knew from the mouth of the master Liu Yuan."
Ying Zheng didn't care what method Ying Cheng used, but asked directly: "What did you find out?"
Ying Cheng cleared his throat and said: "Speaking of which, the king may not have thought that Lao Ai is from Yiqu, but his true identity is actually the young master of the Yiqu family. The son of King Qu's Yu Tu."
"Yiqu's surviving family?" Ying Zheng asked doubtfully.
"Yes, yes." Ying Cheng nodded, "After Yiqu merged with Da Qin, some Yiqu people did not want to surrender to Da Qin, so they left their hometown and moved to the northwest, settling in an uninhabited Gobi. Down here, we still live a life of hunting and herding. However, due to the environment, the range of activities is quite large."
Ying Zheng narrowed his eyes and said: "So, these Yiqu survivors will inevitably miss their original land in an extremely harsh living environment?"
"Yes, the longing for the homeland and the hatred for the Qin Dynasty are the pain engraved in the bones of Yiqu's survivors for generations." Ying Cheng said.
Ying Zheng seemed to have thought of something, and took a breath before saying, "You said that Lao Ai is the son of their old patriarch. Could it be that this was a carefully planned plan by their old patriarch?"
"Exactly." Ying Cheng nodded and said, "According to Liu Yuan, back then, the old patriarch Yu Tu spent almost all his money to send Lao Ai to Xianyang in order to have Lao Ai attach himself to the powerful. , so that one day, we can have our own power."
"What a good plan." Ying Zheng sighed, "After that, Lao Ai not only hooked up with Lu Buwei, but also entered the palace through Lu Buwei, and then even confused the Queen Mother."
Ying Zheng generally knew everything about what happened next, and even if he didn't know, he had some guesses.
Li Si said from the side: "So, it is the right decision for us to take advantage of Lao Ai's unstable foundation and force him to revolt. Just imagine that Yu Tu, the leader of the Yi tribe, has been planning this matter carefully for half his life. How can we not reap the fruits in our lifetime? If we let Lao Ai go for a few more years, the situation will be really hard to predict."
"That's right. Since Lao Ai must rebel, we should take action earlier to eliminate this disaster." Ying
Zheng said angrily, "But fortunately, we discovered it in time, thanks to Mr.'s previous reminder."
"Haha, Wei Chen was also guessing at the time. It wasn't until later that he heard him say that he was from Yiqu that he became even more suspicious," Li Si said.
Ying Zheng nodded, then looked at Ying Cheng and said, "Didn't you say that there are good and bad things in this news? Now that Lao Ai's identity is confirmed, this is considered a good thing, but what about the bad news?"
Ying Cheng's face darkened, and he cupped his hands and said: "Back to the king, the bad news is that Yu Tu, the leader of the Yi tribe, united the surrounding Rong and Di tribes in an attempt to take advantage of the king's blessing of the crown ceremony, which may lead to disagreements with Prime Minister Lu. At the right time, he cooperated with Lao Aili and Yingwai to attack the cities and fortresses of Da Qin in an attempt to restore the country."
"Hmph!" Ying Zheng said coldly, "We are just waiting for work to clear up the grievances left behind. We are also just in time to see who are the enemies of Da Qin in Xirong and Beidi, and we will let them never come back."
"No, Your Majesty," Li Si dissuaded.
Ying Zheng looked at Li Si in confusion: "Why?"
Li Si explained: "The king's crowning ceremony is no different from the new king's enthronement. The Rongdi tribes in the northwest want to take advantage of the king's unstable foundation to rob him. Their original intention is not sincere. I want to help Yiqu recover his country. But if the king kills all the tribes that invaded, it is very likely to anger all the Rongdi tribes. By that time, there will never be peace on the northern border."
"That's just like what we did to Yiqu back then, swallowing up those tribes." Ying Zhengyi said righteously.
Li Si shook his head and said: "The land of Yiqu is essentially different from the land of Rongdi. The reason is that the land of Yiqu can be suitable for farming, while the other Rongdi lands are only suitable for herding." Raise livestock. For thousands of years, the reason why the Central Plains region has suffered from the barbarians in the north is because the barbarians have no fixed place to live, so they can only be driven away but cannot be destroyed."
"What's your suggestion, sir?" Ying Zheng asked.
Li Si thought for a while and said: "For the current plan, Wei Chen suggests that we act in advance and force Lao Ai to take action in advance. In this way, their strategy of coordinating internal and external cooperation will be meaningless, and for us, it will happen to be destroyed." After defeating Lao Ai, there will be enough time to deal with Rong Di's criminals."
"Okay, let's do it!" Ying Zheng said happily.
"However, Your Majesty, there is another matter here, Wei Chen, which does not seem to be a good thing." This time, Li Si did not let Ying Cheng speak, but he mentioned it to Ying Zheng.
Looking at Ying Cheng again, his expression became a little unnatural.
"Sir, please speak." As soon as Ying Zheng entered the door, he felt that something was wrong between the two of them.
I saw Li Si saying extremely seriously: "After the minister said this, the king can get angry, but he must also stay rational and not be impulsive."
Ying Zheng had never seen Li Si's expression like this before, and he couldn't help but feel a little more impatient: "Okay, I just agree."
Li Si breathed a long sigh of relief and said: "This matter is related to the reputation of the Queen Mother. If the king does not want to make it public, then no one else will know about it."
Ying Zheng had guessed it, and his heart suddenly felt like a knife. Although Li Si had hinted at it, he still couldn't let it go: "Could it be that the queen mother really had an affair with that Lao Ai, so that..."
"What Wei Chen wants to say is that the Queen Mother and Lao Ai not only had an affair." Li Si's tone was as slow as possible, "and they also had an heir."
As soon as these words came out, it was like a thunderbolt from the blue, exploding in Ying Zheng's ears.
"What?" Ying Zheng stood up suddenly, his face seemed to be twitching together, and bloodshot eyes oozed.
Li Si and Ying Cheng didn't say another word, they just looked at Ying Zheng with comforting eyes.
Boom!
Ying Zheng's fist, which seemed to be about to bleed, hit the table hard.
"Lao Ai!!" Ying Zheng, furious, said through gritted teeth, "If I don't cut you into pieces, it will be hard to forgive the hatred in my heart!"
