Wandering the Heavens

"Is it so difficult to admit that you are wrong? You always find excuses to justify your actions." Yi Xiaochuan felt that Meng Tian was quibbling.

"Meng Yi! You really disappoint me. If you still don't grow up and do something that brings shame to the Meng family, I will have no choice but to let you die together with the Hun assassins and be loyal to His Majesty." After saying this, Meng Tian left Yi Xiaochuan's room.

"It was you who forced me to admit that I was Meng Yi, and now you want to use my life to win the emperor's favor. How can you be so cold-blooded!" Yi Xiaochuan shouted loudly, enduring the severe pain in his buttocks.

Meng Tian himself felt bad as well. He had finally found his younger brother, but he didn't know who had taught him to become like this.

Yu Xian was much more relaxed and began to teach Xiao Yue some simple introductory martial arts to strengthen her body. The experience of being taken to the palace this time made him notice one thing: the Qin Emperor collected books from various schools of thought before the Qin Dynasty, as well as written materials from all over the Qin Dynasty, as well as books on criminal laws, taxes, etc. The former of these things was burned by Xiang Yu, and the latter was obtained by Xiao He, laying the foundation for winning the Chu-Han War.

In order to pass on and grasp the basic situation of the Qin Dynasty, and also to prevent these things from falling into the hands of the enemy, Yu Xian arranged for the Jinyiwei to infiltrate the institutions responsible for guarding these classics, and to formulate a plan for transferring and preserving these classics.

First, they dug a tunnel, and after the death of the Qin Emperor, Zhao Gao and Hu Hai were unable to attend to the funeral, so they used bamboo slips to replace the classics of the Hundred Schools of Thought and hid them in a prepared place. Second, during the period when Zhao Gao killed Hu Hai and Ziying killed Zhao Gao, they gradually replaced the information of the Qin Dynasty.

Before Liu Bang entered Xianyang, all written materials were transferred away.

During this period, the Hun assassin was finally found. During the fight, Meng Tian blocked a poison arrow for Yi Xiaochuan, which finally awakened some of Yi Xiaochuan's conscience. He agreed to leave Xianyang and lead the Meng army to the grassland.

Just as Meng Tian and Yi Xiaochuan left, an urgent memorial was delivered to the palace, saying that the royal tent of the Tuan tribe was raided by unidentified forces, and all adult men were killed and a Jingguan was built.

There is a big banner on the Jingguan, which reads "Those who openly offend the Qin will be punished even if they are far away; those who are brave and righteous will be killed even if they are strong."

There was also a manifesto written on a special material, which recounted the fact that Tu'an had crossed the Great Wall several times to invade the Qin Dynasty.

According to the women who survived in the royal tent, this group of people also brought the queen and General Jin who were on their way to Daqin to visit their daughter. They executed King Tuan and the queen together on the charge of invading Daqin and attempting to overthrow it.

Their fighting style was different from any known army. When they withdrew, they burned their companions' bodies into ashes and took them away. The arrows and damaged weapons stuck in the bodies were taken away, and even the strips of cloth torn off their clothes were picked up and thrown into the fire and burned to ashes.

The Emperor of Qin was very puzzled. After years of fighting, the Qin Dynasty had already formed a complete system of mobilizing troops. No troop movement could be hidden from his eyes. This vigorous and resolute fighting style was also different from the steady and cautious style of the Qin Dynasty.

Unable to figure out who had done it, he set his eyes on the manifesto that was sent along with the memorial. This thing, three feet long and two feet high, was made of an unknown material. It felt light in his hand, and on it was a manifesto written in small seal script, with more than a thousand words.

Looking at the thin thing with thousands of words written on it in his hand, and then looking at the bamboo slips piled on the desk and all over the room, the Emperor of Qin was slightly thoughtful, and then he asked someone to call Prime Minister Li Si and Shaofu Zhang Han.

As for the tragedy of the Tuan tribe, who cares?

There was also Concubine Li who fell ill every other day. At this moment, the Emperor Qin's mind was full of the majestic army of terracotta warriors that he was going to bring into the underground, so he didn't even remember that there was such a person in the harem.

Finally, Li Si tried to find someone to investigate what kind of people could commit such a shocking crime. For the Qin Dynasty, they would not be able to sleep until these people surfaced.

They could even attack King Tuan's tent easily. If one day they target Xianyang City, there would be no way to defend against it.

Shaofu Zhang Han was captured from the construction site of the Imperial Mausoleum of Mount Li to study paper. The Qin Emperor could see that this paper was more convenient than bamboo slips, and the cost should be very low.

Seeing that the work in Xianyang was on track, Yu Xian left a brocade bag for the Jinyiwei, which contained the order to rescue the prince and princess who were forced to be buried alive. The directions and methods were also included. They just needed to follow the instructions and open it after the city of Xianyang was under martial law. After visiting Zhao Gao, he left Xianyang with Xiaoyue and headed for the Great Wall. Prince Fusu was a good man and should not die.

At that time, whether to rob and kill the envoy who forged the edict or to break into the barracks and take Fusu away depends on the specific situation.

"Sir, are we heading north?" Xiaoyue couldn't ride a horse, so she could only sit in the carriage and move forward along the straight road.

"Yes, there is something going to the north." Yu Xian was riding on his horse and looking at the scenery on both sides of the straight road.

At this time, the Guanzhong Plain was covered with trees, which was far from the barren reality of yellow sand everywhere.

Not only Yu Xian and his group were on this straight road, but there were also soldiers heading to the Great Wall for a change of guard, farmers returning home after completing their corvée labor, and people on their way to the Great Wall to perform corvée labor.

Xiaoyue had experienced the fall of her country and her family, but she was still young at that time and gradually forgot about it after entering the palace. However, the experiences during this period awakened her dormant memories.

"Sir, hasn't His Majesty unified the world? Why does he still need so many people to perform labor service?" Xiaoyue couldn't help but feel confused as she watched groups of ragged, skinny people hurrying on their way.

"The unification of the world is just the beginning. It is easy to conquer the world, but difficult to keep it. His Majesty the Emperor has established an unprecedented country on this land, and these corvée labors are necessary means to better control this country." After all, she was his disciple, so Yu Xian naturally had to explain to her.

"But sir, in order to better control this country, do we have to do these things?" Xiaoyue didn't understand the relationship between performing corvée labor and controlling a country.

"Eight hundred years ago, King Wu defeated King Zhou and established the Zhou Dynasty. He divided the royal family and meritorious officials into four directions and asked them to expand the territory. Five hundred years ago, King Ping moved eastward and the princes fought for hegemony. More than two hundred years ago, the three families divided Jin and the Tian family replaced Qi. The princes' struggle for hegemony turned into a chaotic melee until the unification of Qin." Yu Xian took out the water bag and took a sip of water.

"Because of the unification of the Qin Dynasty, this land has established an unprecedented order. The common ruler of the world has become the ruler of the world. In order to quickly spread the will of the ruler of the world to every corner of this land, it is necessary to unify the original seven languages into one, change the seven currencies into one, and so on. There are also weights and measures for the width of the tracks, etc."

"In addition to the above, we also need to build a very long road so that the imperial edicts, local memorials, military mobilization, material allocation, etc. can be delivered as quickly as possible. Such a road is needed."

"But, these people..." Xiaoyue frowned.

"Xiaoyue, do you know how long the average lifespan of a person is in Daqin?" Yu Xian asked a seemingly irrelevant question.

Xiaoyue shook her head to indicate that she didn't know.

"Twenty years old. That is to say, at least half of the Qin people died before the age of twenty. Taking into account wars, famines, plagues, etc., there were even more Qin people who did not live to the age of twenty. But His Majesty the Emperor was almost fifty years old. When the Qin Dynasty destroyed the State of Qi, His Majesty was thirty-nine years old. In order to better hand over the world to the next emperor, seeing that he was getting closer and closer to death, His Majesty tried his best to do everything he could think of, at any cost, because the emperors of later generations might not have such prestige and power as he did. This is why even after the world was unified, the people still had to perform such heavy corvee labor." Yu Xian stated this fact as calmly as possible.