The younger brother of the First Emperor

Chapter 362: The Blackened Ying Chengjiao, I Will Use the Scale Punishment to Prove the Kingly Way

When a person dies, everything is empty, referring to the people who are killed.

But Ying Chengjiao, who had killed someone, was blank-minded for a moment and was in a daze, not knowing how he returned to his mansion.

His face was as gloomy as water, and he mechanically took off the gorgeous clothes stained with the blood of his master. He did not jump into the hot water bucket that the servants had adjusted to the appropriate temperature.

Instead, he stood by the well, drawing bucket after bucket of ice-cold water and pouring it on his immature body.

The summer heat could not penetrate deep underground wells, so the wealthy and powerful often sank fruits and vegetables into the wells to cool them down. The cold well water made the young man shiver twice, and his lips turned pale.

The moonlight is slanting, the weather is hot but people are cold.

The boy's skin turned pale as he looked up at the sky. For some reason he thought of the Purple Star that the unknown official had mentioned at the banquet yesterday.

His eyes wandered around, but he couldn't find Ziwei.

There is a saying that goes "How can the light of a firefly compete with the brightness of the bright moon?" The same goes for starlight.

When the Grand Historian Xishi Bingshu was teaching him astronomy, he had said that no matter which star it was, such as Tanlang, Mars, or Ziwei, most of them could only appear when the moon was set.

"Master." Hu shouted while standing outside the courtyard door.

Only "hu" can transmit the sound so far without raising the pitch. No mortal can have a mention in history books.

"Li Tingwei has been waiting outside for a long time. He said that the master wants him to come tonight." Hu didn't hear any response and continued to speak.

Only then did Ying Chengjiao remember that this was indeed the case.

The two prime ministers held a banquet.

The poem "Li Sao" was performed and recited at the banquet. In coordination with the two, a poet from Chu State even replaced bamboo slips with iron slips to assassinate Ying Chengjiao. This was no small matter.

Ying Chengjiao was the crown prince of Qin, the most noble person in Qin besides King Zheng. There was a popular saying among the high-ranking officials of Qin: Don't treat the crown prince as anything less than a king.

The assassin was captured on the spot and the banquet was disbanded on the spot.

The two ministers volunteered to interrogate the man. They looked extremely nervous and claimed that they would definitely give Ying Chengjiao an explanation.

Ying Chengjiao refused.

He brought the assassin back to his mansion to interrogate him personally.

Xiong Wen and Xiong Qi invited him to a banquet, where they demonstrated the power of the Chu faction in the court in front of Ying Chengjiao, and acted humble in front of the ministers. Ying Chengjiao saw all the tricks of the Chu faction.

Wang Kuan said that there was no good banquet and that the two sides were colluding with the State of Chu. Ying Chengjiao had only watched half of the play of the old Qin nobles.

The boy wanted to watch the remaining half with Li Si.

"Bring Li Si over here in a moment." Ying Chengjiao shouted, exhaling a breath that was slightly cooler than the hot air.

Wiping his body with the prepared towel, and changing into the newly brought clothes by the servants, the young man with wet hair took a look at the dark wellhead that looked like the entrance to the abyss, and felt that he was getting closer and closer to the abyss.

"The white-washed one is three points weaker, and the blackened one is ten times stronger. How come it's ten times stronger? Why don't I feel it?" The young man smiled bitterly and laughed at himself.

Away from the well, he shouted again:
"Bring me the assassin from yesterday!"

After this shout, the two confused pupils in the young Danfeng's eyes sparkled again, shining like stars.

The bright moon is in the sky.

There are no stars in the sky, but there are stars on the ground.

The moon in the sky cannot control the people on the earth.

When Li Si entered the courtyard, he saw Chang'an Jun at first sight.

The red robe under the moon is like blood.

There is an exotic bird embroidered on it, named Phoenix.

The knowledgeable Li Tonggu couldn't help but feel a little worried.

He was a Chu person, so he could naturally see that Chang'an Jun was wearing a gorgeous Chu costume. If he had seen him in the daytime, he would only admire it.

But this was at night.

Li Tonggu didn't know that while he was waiting in Chang'an Jun's mansion, Ying Chengjiao led his troops out and killed seventeen people.

If I knew, I would only feel more uneasy.

"Greetings, my lord." Li Si bowed.

"Tonggu is here." Ying Chengjiao pointed to a stone bench beside him and said, "Sit down."

Li Si organized his thoughts and sat down as he was told. He looked at the assassin who was tied up on the bluestone slab, thinking about how to make him speak.

He was at the scene when Chang'an Jun was assassinated at the banquet between the two prime ministers yesterday. He guessed that Chang'an Jun asked him to come to interrogate the criminal.

Not only was the assassin's body tied up, his eyes were also covered with black cloth, and his mouth was covered by a wide black cloth tied behind his head. He could only make "woohoo" sounds to express his anger.

Ying Chengjiao walked up to the assassin who was kneeling on the ground and pulled off the cloth covering his eyes.

The assassin, who had just regained his sight, saw a bright red color in front of his eyes. In the bright red color that made him dizzy, he saw a face that was childish but majestic.

"I won't introduce myself." Ying Chengjiao tore off the wide black cloth in the assassin's mouth: "You assassinated me, so you must know who I am, right?"

"Who in Qin doesn't know you?" The assassin's eyes widened and his tone was surprisingly calm: "Don't waste your efforts. Since I want to kill you, I have never thought about living."

"Dying is a very easy thing." Ying Chengjiao flicked his long sleeves, bent down, and wiped the blood from the assassin's mouth with his fingers: "Living is more painful than death. It's a little harder, but not much harder."

He lowered his head, looking at the blood on his hands, as if casually:

"Do you believe it?"

The assassin sneered and spat in Ying Chengjiao's face.

If those Qin dogs in the Supreme Court said this, he would believe it.

But when these words came from Ying Chengjiao's mouth, he really didn't believe it.

There is no wiser man in the world than Prince Chengjiao of Qin. How could the wisest man treat him like this? The most wise man would have killed him.

He is not afraid of death.

Ying Chengjiao raised his sleeves to cover it, and the beautiful red dress was stained with a flaw.

"It seems you don't believe it." The young man took out a dagger from somewhere.

He kicked the assassin over, holding the dagger in his right hand and holding the assassin down with his left hand.

The red sleeves gleam coldly, and the knife falls as the hand rises.

A scream echoed through the summer night.

"Do you know why I use this kind of fishing net to tie you up?" The boy stabbed you a second time, a third time, and a fourth time...

The assassin kept screaming as the knife continued to strike, and the young man kept talking:
“Because it’s easy to cut meat.

"Lingchi was a punishment I came up with. At first I thought it had no disadvantages. When I was seven years old and witnessed an execution myself, I discovered that the disadvantage of this punishment was that it was too demanding on the executioner's knife skills.

"If you're not careful and hit too hard, the person being punished will die. Isn't that too easy for you?
"So I came up with the idea of ​​using a fishing net with holes the size of a finger to tie the person up, and the executioner would just have to cut off the flesh that was sticking out of the net, like this.

“I’m a swordsman, not a knifeman.

"But you see, it's cut pretty well."

Ying Chengjiao grabbed the assassin's hair and showed him his work on his arm.

The assassin's arm was covered in blood, and amidst the blood were pits of flesh the size of a little finger.

The assassin's brain was in so much pain that he couldn't recover for a while.

When he came to his senses, he tried to look up and looked at Ying Zi, the wisest man in the world, with a smile on his face, as if he was looking at an evil ghost.

Li Si, who was watching from the sidelines, looked normal, but he felt a chill in his heart on this hot night.

He originally thought that Chang'an Jun was not a rigid gentleman, but now he believes that Chang'an Jun is simply cruel!

As the de facto head of the Qin State's judiciary, even he, the Chief Justice, could not bring himself to carry out the torture of lingchi.

A child under the age of thirteen not only performed the execution himself without batting an eyelid, but was also studying how to make the torture of lingchi better carried out. What a lousy gentleman!

"Tonggu, have you ever been to the kitchen?" Ying Chengjiao suddenly turned around and asked with a smile.

Li Si shuddered, and felt that the somewhat childish and somewhat cute face was so terrifying. Feeling that he had lost his composure, he quickly lowered his head and said:
"Yes. I came all alone from the East. If I hadn't been to the kitchen along the way, I would have starved to death."

"A gentleman should stay away from the kitchen. It seems that if you know the ancients, you can't be called a gentleman."

"Si Ben is not a gentleman, Chang'an Jun is." "I am not a gentleman either, I have been in the kitchen." The young man kicked the assassin down again, and the assassin lay flat on the ground.

The boy stepped on the assassin's thigh and raised the knife:

"My entry into the kitchen had nothing to do with starvation, it was purely for fun.

"I remember that it was an afternoon when my grandfather caught a big carp for me from the Wei River. It was glittering with golden light and looked very beautiful.

"I asked my grandfather, why is this carp so golden? I want something golden, too.

"Grandfather said that the scales on the carp are shiny gold, and Jiao'er wants to scrape them off.

"A cook was ordered by the king to scrape the scales of a fish and took the big carp into the kitchen. I didn't know what fish scales were at that time, but I followed him in to get the shiny golden scales as quickly as possible.

"As soon as I entered the kitchen, I saw the chef scraping with a knife. I thought it was fun and wanted to try it myself, but the chef's knife was too big and too heavy for me to lift.

"So I held the knife handle and asked the chef to hold my hand to hold the knife handle, and scraped the fish scales over and over again.

"Finally, I scraped all the scales off the big carp. My grandfather praised me for being a good boy who did whatever he wanted.

Ying Chengjiao held the dagger, with the blade resting on the assassin's thigh.

The assassin gritted his teeth and stood still stubbornly, with fear hidden deep in his eyes.

Li Si swallowed unconsciously, and clenched his hands tightly in his sleeves.

"Now I can use the knife. I don't need a cook to help me scrape the fish scales." The blade was tilted at 60 degrees. The young man looked at the assassin with admiration. His thighs couldn't stop shaking but he didn't struggle much. He nodded and smiled, "I'll take what I want myself."

The extremely sharp blade slid down very smoothly.

The assassin's eyes bulged out and his face turned so red that his features could not be seen clearly.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, his legs thrashed about, he turned left and right, and his blood stained the bluestone slabs.

"Tonggu." Ying Chengjiao retreated to Li Si's side, pointed at the assassin and said with a smile: "Look at him, doesn't he look like a big carp coming ashore?"

His temples were wet with cold sweat, and Li Siqiang smiled:
"picture."

Li Si had only seen in history books that the superiors carried out such cruel acts and enjoyed doing so.

King Jie of Xia built a wine pool and drowned his ministers for fun, and King Zhou of Shang tied criminals to bronze pillars, set them on fire, and watched their miserable plight with a smile on his face.

Li Si had always been skeptical of the cruel records of the two last kings of the Xia and Shang dynasties in history books. In order to legitimize the current dynasty, it was a common practice to discredit the previous dynasty.

Li Si saw the current Chang'an Jun with his own eyes.

The assassin kept screaming.

Li Si didn't understand why Chang'an Jun could laugh in the dark night while listening to the screams like those of a ghost.

He laughed because Chang'an Jun was laughing, so why was Chang'an Jun laughing?
"Big carp." Ying Chengjiao, who had walked to the assassin's side at some point, kicked the assassin again and again, speaking gently, "Do you believe it?"

The assassin didn't know whether he was stunned by the pain or felt that he was not a brave man if he was defeated so quickly. Although he stared at Ying Chengjiao with eyes full of fear, he still clenched his teeth and said nothing.

Ying Chengjiao gave a thumbs up and said "good job", then stepped hard on the assassin's scaly thigh.

"Believe it!" the assassin screamed at the top of his lungs, "I believe it! I believe it! Aaaaaaah!"

The young man turned a deaf ear and swung his knife.

"This is your reward for not believing." The young man smiled and raised his hand again: "This is your reward for speaking late."

The knife falls again.

The assassin was torn apart.

The boy stepped back and smiled.

Li Si's heart palpitated, and he unconsciously put one hand on his thigh, staring at the red knife on the boy's red sleeves, as if the blood-stained dagger would fall on him in the next moment...

"Tonggu, I just realized today that your official duties are really difficult to do." The young man tilted his head and said with sympathy: "I really can't find out the answer by asking."

Li Si: "..."

Li Tonggu, who felt like he was going to be infected with madness, wanted to shout to Chang'an Jun at this moment - Lord! Did you ask? Why don't you ask! !
"Yes." Li Si agreed with an ugly smile.

He didn't dare to ask, let alone shout.

"It's better not to say it." The boy said to himself.

He walked over, squatted down, grabbed the assassin's hair, and fixed the assassin who was rolling away from him, and said with a smile:
“I am a person who likes both strong men and scales.

“After scraping your scales, I will give them to your parents, wife and children and invite them to eat them.

“If they don’t eat them, I’ll scrape their scales off too.

“They eat, and I wait until they are done eating before scraping their scales off.

"Do you believe what I said?"

The assassin who still had a glimmer of hope in his heart was shattered, and seeing Ying Chengjiao was like seeing a ghost, with blood dripping from his mouth:

"You are not a human... You are a beast, a beast! You shall not die well! You shall not die well!!!"

"I don't know whether I will die a good death or not." Ying Chengjiao grabbed Hongxiu and gently wiped the blood from the assassin's mouth: "I only know that you and your parents, wife and children will definitely die a bad death. I will do it myself. By the way, do you have any clansmen? How many clansmen are there? Can you help me break the record of scraping thirty-eight big carp in one go?"

"You win, Chang'an Jun, you win!" The assassin laughed miserably, blood flowing from his mouth: "I'll tell you! Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you!"

Two servants dragged the trembling assassin away, and the bloodstains were obvious under the moonlight.

Ying Chengjiao has his own people to conduct interrogations, and they will report detailed results to Ying Chengjiao after the interrogation.

"If I have to do everything myself, won't I be exhausted to death?" This is what Ying Chengjiao often said.

"Tonggu." Ying Chengjiao patted Li Si's shoulder with his bloody and fleshy hand, which was used to scrape the scales with a knife, and asked with a smile, "Do you think I have a talent for torture?"

Li Si was silent.

The boy was also silent.

After a long time, Li Si said:
"My Lord has told me many things about you. I know you well. I know everything from birth."

Li Tonggu mustered up his courage and raised his head:

"So, you must know what fish scales are."

Li Si only recognized one person as his lord and was only one person's retainer - Lu Buwei.

"Master really valued you when he was alive. He told you everything." The young man sighed, his smile faded, and his face was expressionless: "Tonggu, you are smarter than I thought."

"Your Excellency is too kind."

"Xunzi can only persuade, but I will use the knife."

"..."

"On this land, only my brother and I can play like this. No one else can, not even you."

"..."

"If I find out you torture me again without our permission, I will scale you like a big carp."

"..."

"You may say this is unfair and immoral. Yes, I am unfair and immoral."

"Sir, I have never thought of this."

"That means I am judging you by my own standards."

"This is how a king should be, this is how a ruler should be."

"I'm in a bad mood today and I'm too lazy to use my brain to speak clearly."

"The laws I make serve the king and the princes. I will make laws and do things the way the king and the princes want me to."

"Oh? So obedient? What if I ask you to bark like a dog?"

"Wang."

"Good dog."

"Wang!"

(End of this chapter)