across the Quartet

Chapter Ten of Shame

Hearing the old man's voice was different, Gai Nie thought to himself: "He emphasized the word 'Leave Handan early', not to persuade them, but to persuade me. Xiaozhuang knew that Zhao State would perish sooner or later, he was as careful as a hair Predicting the opportunity, but in order to save my life; he has treated me so kindly, how should I repay him? It seems too common to die for him, like his subordinates. I, the national scholar reported it——yes, Xiao Zhuang is playing chess with me wholeheartedly. In the future, if I ask for anything, I must go through careful consideration and planning, and I can no longer be so reckless and reckless. Otherwise, it will appear that my opponent is too much It's useless, it will definitely spoil his interest."

After going through life and death, his spirit finally calmed down from the grief, indignation and despair of being overwhelmed, and he began to think about all the adventures he had encountered since he was rescued.

It is not difficult for the younger brother to speculate that he will be in danger when Zhao died, so he gave Qijiesan as a gift; however, even if Gai Nie faked his death by taking medicine, Wei Zhuang could know exactly where the "corpse" was abandoned, It is really strange that a famous doctor was arranged in Handan for diagnosis and treatment in advance.Unless... the quicksand's eyeliner had already been mixed into the Qin army?As far as Gai Nie knows, quicksand has mainly been active in South Korea in the past few years, and moved to Chu State after Han was destroyed; distrust.How did Wei Zhuang manage to throw himself into the enemy camp without showing any trace?

At this time, the dumb girl who had been taking care of him for the past few days came in through the curtain from the outer room, and gestured to him to ask him where the old man was going.Gai Nie said apologetically, "Senior Ji was taken away by a group of Qin people. I speculate that they will not harm senior, but the generals of Qin may have taken a fancy to senior's medical skills and wanted to invite him to serve in the army."

Speaking of this, he suddenly felt a flash of inspiration, and jumped up from the straw mat.

——If it was Wei Zhuang's original purpose to say that the old man was forcibly "invited" to the Qin military camp, then many things would make sense.

When I was in Chu State, Gai Nie had nothing to do every day, so he often talked with his juniors about what he saw after leaving the valley; their views on the world's major events were much deeper than when they practiced in Guigu.Once the two discussed that when the city was broken, if the leading generals allowed the army to burn, kill and loot, there were two types of people in the city who were most likely to survive: one was women and the other was craftsmen.Women can be distributed as rewards to soldiers under their command, and skilled craftsmen are cherished by any country.This is why the Mohists, who never pursued high officials and high salaries, became a powerful force that was not restricted by the feudal lords.Wei Zhuang once joked that with his senior brother's skill in cutting wooden crossbows, he could pretend to be a carpenter, and the enemy was reluctant to kill him; but he himself had to pretend to be a butcher, showing off his skills of cutting meat and deboning.

Gai Nie suddenly said, I can cut meat and deboning.

He is more than good at it. His skills of cutting clothes from animal skins, using deer tendons to make bow strings, and picking tiger bones to dig out bear gallbladder in Ghost Valley are not only outstanding among teachers;Wei Zhuang thought about it carefully, and he really didn't find that he had any skill that could surpass his senior brother, so he couldn't help being a little angry.He said, Zhuangshang knows astrology and astronomy, knows five elements and gossip, Qimen Dunjia, tortoise and divination are all proficient, and he is also familiar with music, rituals, horse hunting, dog fighting... After a long pause, he said, it is really impossible, kill people Is it a craft?

Gai Nie didn't understand the meaning of comparison in his sentence, but continued to say that except for wood, stone, gold, and iron craftsmen, musicians, alchemists, witch doctors, etc., most of them would be let go, or even taken as trophies.Wei Zhuang nodded in agreement.

At that time Ge Nie didn't notice that there was a hint of meaning in his junior brother's eyes, but now that he thinks about it, what they were discussing was a strategy to mix secret work into the enemy army!The ingenuity of this method is that firstly, these people are of low status and are not easy to attract attention; secondly, the craftsman skills needed are selected by the Qin people themselves. Thinking from their perspective, how can the enemy count as the meticulous work they arranged? Will be selected?So don't be too suspicious.

However, the previous old man who was proficient in medical skills would be taken away by the Qin people, but it was the result of deliberate foreshadowing and induction.Before the city of Handan was broken, Gai Nie once met Wei Zhuang in the warm building.At that time, he claimed that he was just passing by here and gave Ge Nie some advice.But on the same day, Gai Nie received a report from his subordinate "mountain ghost", saying that dozens of families in the east of Handan City were infected with strange diseases at the same time. Said it was because there was something unclean in the well.That is to say, almost at the same time when Xiaozhuang arrived in Handan, the "strange disease" appeared.Now a similar illness seems to have occurred in the army of the Qin State. The Qin people only need to inquire about it a little, and they can learn that a foreign genius doctor in the east of the city is good at treating this disease, so they naturally invite him to the camp for questioning.Of course, the old man surnamed Ji can also poison and cure the disease by himself, but the water sources in the city are often guarded, and after the Qin army enters the city, the patrols must be more stringent. Only Wei Zhuang can do it himself to ensure safety.

Gai Nie soon thought that if it was one of Wei Zhuang's arrangements to send this divine doctor Ji to Qin when Handan City was broken, then he might have used similar means when Xinzheng City was broken.That is to say, from then on, Wei Zhuang used the most covert method to quietly send a group of dark men with deep intentions to Qin.

As for the girl who has been taking care of him for a few days just now, she can understand human speech and can make noises, so she is probably not born deaf and dumb;Gai Nie happened to know that there was a group of women in the quicksand who could not speak because they swallowed coals. They were slaves kidnapped by Wei Zhuang from the black market. This woman must be one of them.When Gai Nie was in Chu State, he had more or less acquainted with Quicksand, but he had never met the current one.It can be seen that this woman was not in the team that followed Quicksand to escape from Xinzheng.He once thought that Wei Zhuang got the map near Handan from him and arranged eyeliner in the city in order to find out about Guo Kai's escape. Now it seems that his guess was completely wrong; Wei Zhuang was not out of conspiracy Guo Kai's wealth did not take action, but long before Han's death, he arranged this girl and the old man surnamed Ji with excellent medical skills in Zhao State; they had stayed in Zhaodu for at least three years and were familiar with In this way, even if the Qin people want to trace their origins, it is not easy to see the flaws.

After thinking through all this, Gai Nie has a seventy-eight percent understanding of why he was rescued.In order to save his life, Wei Zhuang most likely used an extremely precious dark thread buried in the net.The pawns on this line were not prepared for him at first, but for a more far-reaching plot; but because of Ge Nie's futile stubbornness, Wei Zhuang had to take the risk of exposing his eyes and ears early, and got it from the Qin camp. Message, take action yourself.And the old man surnamed Ji who rescued him forced Gai Nie to make a promise that he would never reveal his identity and that even if they met again, he would pretend to be a stranger.

Now that things have happened, in order to let the painstaking efforts of the younger brother not be let down, at least it must be done when it is right and wrong, from the beginning to the end.

He solemnly thanked the mute girl, and then pointed to the door.The girl lowered her head knowingly and saluted, and opened the curtain for him with one hand; obviously she has always been loyal to her master's orders, and after he wakes up, it doesn't matter whether he lives or dies, whether he goes or stays.

After many days, Gai Nie set foot on the streets of Handan again.He looked around and took a deep breath.

The road was washed by a heavy rain, and the blood and smoke had faded a lot.Among the ruins on both sides of the road, there are faintly visible people bowing their heads to clean up the courtyard or repair the house; the carts coming and going are carrying grain, stone, wood, livestock and corpses, and from time to time there are armored Qin soldiers patrolling and interrogating.Gai Nie was afraid of being recognized, so he tore off his clothes, covered his face with his hair, and pretended to be a madman while muttering.He wandered around the streets at first, but he didn't see many living people except Qin soldiers, so he couldn't help feeling sorry for him.However, after walking a certain distance, they suddenly saw a long queue forming on the road. When they got to the head of the queue, they realized that there was actually a Zhao State official warehouse in front of them, which was now under the control of the Qin army and was distributing rations to the residents of the city.Seeing this, Gai Nie felt relieved, and secretly thought: Since the Qin people are willing to open warehouses to release grain, it can be seen that they will never slaughter civilians; Wang Jian is indeed a generation of famous generals that even General Li Mu praised.

At this moment, there was a sudden clamor in the middle of the team, and it spread to the tail of the team.It turned out that the grain and grass in the city were limited, and the Qin army could only release grain to the Zhao people after guaranteeing their own logistics. However, there were too many hungry people. Can not help but panic.Seeing the chaos, the Qin soldiers guarding the warehouse immediately surrounded them on both sides, and dispersed the noisy people with halberds and horsewhips.But there are hungry people lying on the ground howling and unable to cry, letting the rain of sticks and whips fall on their bodies - saying that Dao would rather be beaten to death than starve to death.Qin Bing had no choice but to carry him up and throw him far away.Gai Nie couldn't bear to see it, but there was nothing he could do about this kind of thing.

Today, he finally understood the root cause of Zhao's defeat.

Nothing more than two words, money and food.

The existence of the army, in addition to the bloodshed on the battlefield, there are many people who don't know, don't want to, don't mention the consumption.Tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people do not work in production, food, clothing and weapons are all enshrined by others, and there are countless people who guarantee the places to store grain and the channels for transporting grain.Therefore, the law of war says that if the country is poorer than the teacher, it will be lost far away, and if it is far away, the people will be poor;

The foundation of the Qin State is the word "farming and fighting" that Shang Jun emphasized most during the reform.The wealth accumulated for several generations and the territory opened up were not accumulated until the current king of Qin succeeded to the throne.Even so, the King of Qin still attached great importance to lobbyists like Yao Jia and Dunwei, and bribed the important ministers of the six countries at any cost, because such a price was still too small and too small compared to supporting an army.

Because of money and food, Qin Jun can fight a war of attrition, but Zhao Jun cannot.Because of money and food, during the Battle of Changping, Zhao Guojun and his ministers would rather choose Zhao Kuo, who was greedy and aggressive, than Lian Po, who was cautious and stubborn.

With the emptiness of Zhao today, even if there is no foolish King Zhao and treacherous ministers who betray the country, they can only support it for another three to five years.Because the national foundation of Zhao State has been shaken from the foundation.Losing Taiyuan, losing Jinyang, losing most of the land that produces food and people, the army that can be supplied should have been halved compared to the past; .With a small population, in order to support the army, taxes can only be increased; and the consequence of tax increases is that farmers are more miserable. In order to survive, they are willing to abandon the land and flee for refuge. In the end, the food that can be harvested is less than in previous years. , the treasury is naturally becoming more and more overwhelmed.Li Mu was stationed in Yanmen to resist the Xiongnu, relying on Daguan City to support the frontier army, and did not get a single coin from the treasury.However, to fight against a behemoth like the Qin State now, one can only rely on the treasury, which is already riddled with holes, and the outcome is needless to say.

Ge Nie took a deep breath.After countless blood and fire, although Zhao's fate has not been reversed, it seems that the "Tao" he pursued in his heart is one small step closer.

As you hear the news, you can die in the evening.

Everything is over.Zhao's ancestral temples and shrines have all been destroyed.Handan will become a county of Qin State, just like Taiyuan, Shangdang, Hedong, and Yingchuan.Countless Zhao people have become subjects of Qin State, and their fate is naturally firmly in the hands of Qin State's decrees and ordering officials, which cannot be changed by soldiers who take "protecting their homes and defending the country" as their mission.What's the point of staying in Handan now?

Might as well, as the senior said, leave this place early.

He was contemplating when he suddenly heard louder and louder wailing from the south.He guessed that another barn door had just been closed. Although he knew he couldn't change anything, he couldn't help but move south.

Halfway through the journey, several ox carts full of goods came in front of me.The drivers of the carts were all Qin soldiers. Seeing Gai Nie stumbling along the road, they couldn't help shouting and cursing loudly, and at the same time they swung their long whips at him.Gai Nie didn't dare to dodge or use his skills to resist, so he had to take a few whips.Unexpectedly, the coachman was very heavy handed, but Gai Nie had just recovered from his serious injury, and his joints were not flexible enough. He was hit by a whip on his knee and immediately tripped and fell into a puddle by the side of the road.He even scrambled to get up, his head was covered with muddy water, Qin Bing laughed out loud at seeing the funny.

Although Gai Nie's body hadn't recovered to ten percent at this time, and he had lost his sword, he could only raise his hand to take the lives of these Qin soldiers.But he didn't take it as an insult. Instead, he felt that he was very good at pretending to be crazy, and he felt at ease; besides, although these Qin people were rough, they never killed innocent people indiscriminately, and they were willing to distribute food. Gai Nie's impression of them had already unconsciously improved many.He lay down in the puddle and groaned repeatedly, but the soldiers ignored him and drove away in the bullock cart.

Gai Nie saw the bullock cart gradually going away, and he could have jumped up, but suddenly he felt a faint sense of vigilance—he crawled to the side of the road, with one ear always touching the ground.The sound of a large number of chariots and horses could be heard in the distance. Judging from the direction, they were driving from the north gate to the Zhao Palace in the south.The rhythm of the horseshoes and the rolling of the wheels formed a kind of majestic majesty in the neatness, which was quite different from ordinary carts carrying goods.Gai Nie has been in the army for a long time, and he knows that the carts are well-trained horses, and several horses drive side by side to pull very heavy bronze chariots. Needless to say the brilliance.

Gai Nie was concentrating, and he also made a sound in his mouth: "Two horses, two horses, four horses, four horses, four horses, six horses... six horses?!"

He trembled all over, afraid of hearing it wrong, he gathered his true energy into his ears and listened more carefully.And that special carriage, as if it had been run over from the heart, became more and more clear.

The emperor drives six.Now that neither the Son of Heaven nor the royal family of Zhou have disappeared, who else in the world calls himself the Son of Heaven?

He thought of a possibility.Rather, this is the only possibility right now.

It was as if a ray of light rose from his eyes, making his heart beat slightly faster.Although I don't know whether the end illuminated by this beam of light is ominous or good, but it is a bit stronger than before when I seemed to be groping around in the dark.

At this time, the wailing and crying in the south not only did not stop, it seemed to be more mournful and miserable than before. With the sound of chariots and horses gradually going away, there was a cruel harmony in it.

When Gai Nie stood up from the ground, a brand new idea was born in his heart.This is still a desperate plan, but it is very different from the one-man-one-sword, from the north to the south of the city.This time, the martial arts and swordsmanship he was good at were useless.He had to use his least proficient skills to fight for a chance to control the situation.

He followed the cries all the way to find it, and saw a team of prisoners led by ropes on a road in the south of the city, being driven by Qin soldiers towards the palace.There were hundreds of people on this road, no matter men, women, old or young, rich or poor, they all seemed to be civilians with no martial arts skills. I don't know what crimes they committed.Gai Nie frowned, found a gap, bent down and got into the team, and grabbed the rope with his hands.His footwork was light and soundless, coupled with his unkempt face and ragged clothes, no one noticed when there was an extra one in the line; the Qin soldiers guarding on both sides would never think that anyone was going to sneak in among the prisoners.

The team walked closer and closer to the royal city. Gai Nie looked up and noticed that the outer walls of the royal palace in front of him had been demolished, revealing a spacious square in front of the palace—only two huge pits were dug in the square at some point, piled up on three sides. On the top of the mound stood many soldiers with copper shovels.

Gai Nie felt a burst of anger rush out of his chest—this group of people was going to be sent to be murdered!

Seeing the layout in front of the square, the "prisoners" beside them immediately understood their fate, and the crying broke out again, straight into the sky.A herald official stood in front of the huge pit, holding bamboo slips, and loudly read the crimes of the prisoners.

Gai Nie didn't listen, but he felt more and more absurd - it turned out that these people were all residents who lived near the residence of King Qin in Handan when he was the hostage, within a radius of [-] steps.The king of Qin and the queen mother lived in Handan and were often bullied by the Zhao people. Now the king of Qin wants to punish these enemies heavily in order to show his filial piety to the queen mother.

Among the hundreds of people who were about to be murdered, perhaps a few of them were enemies who had offended the King of Qin back then, but such a wide range of consecutive sittings was really appalling.Among the prisoners on death row, someone grabbed the guarding soldiers and cried for mercy, shouting: "My family of seven lives in a thatched hut near Dongshi, a few streets away from the residences of protons from various countries. If you dare to lift it up, how could you have been rude to King Qin?"

Another woman with a baby in her arms cried loudly: "It was 20 years ago that King Qin and the Queen Mother lived in Handan. This child was only born last year. Is it also a crime?"

No matter how miserable they were, most of the Qin guards were indifferent and looked disdainful.One of them, who looked like a junior military officer, said coldly: "The law in our country has always been strict but not lenient. If one person breaks the law, the whole army will sit together. Only in this way can the citizens report each other's illegal behavior and give the criminal the greatest punishment."

Martyrdom with the flesh and blood of innocents, is this the punishment given to sinners?Ge Nie was furious, but suppressed it forcefully—he knew very well that it was useless to convince these people in front of him.What he needs is a voice from top to bottom that everyone in the world can hear.

He concentrated his energy and walked out of the crowd.The guards on guard thought that someone was going to escape, so they stabbed with spears from both sides, but Ge Nie waved his arms and threw the man and the spear away.The crowd suddenly became commotion, and more soldiers bent their bows and pointed their arrows at this place.But Gai Nie stopped in front of the huge pit.He looked up at the majestic palace, the high platform was full of guards and officials, surrounded by a figure who couldn't see clearly at the top.

He used his inner strength to spread his voice far away, the sound was like a bell, resounding through the royal city.

"Dare to ask, is the one watching the punishment above the king of Qin? Or the king of the world?"

At that moment, the crying stopped without warning.It was eerily quiet all around, and the light sound of the sharpshooter tightening the bowstring could almost be heard in the distance.A young man with the appearance of a general raised his left hand, and did not issue a command for the time being, as if he was in a dilemma whether to kill him directly or capture and torture his accomplices.

Fortunately, at this time, a messenger in black trotted down from the base of the platform like a gust of wind, and sent an order: "The King of Qin invites the strong man to come forward and speak."

The young general frowned in embarrassment.He nodded to his subordinates, and immediately four tall and mighty guards came out; Ge Nie put his hands behind his back, allowing a pair of sharp iron halberds to rest on his neck and another pair of spears to his back.The five of them moved together cautiously like this, walked up the steps step by step, and stopped three feet away from the gate of the palace.

This was the first time Gai Nie met the world-famous monarch.Regarding King Qin, there are too many malicious and exaggerated legends in the six kingdoms of Shandong, almost describing him as a cruel and tyrannical monster.But Ge Nie only saw a somewhat deep young man with sharp eyes. Although he was used to making judgments, he was not domineering, arrogant or cruel as rumored.At this moment, a smile could even be discerned from the corner of his mouth, and he asked loudly:

"How about the king of Qin? How about the king of the world?"

"If the great king is only the king of Qin, the people of Xia Zhao have nothing to do with the king. If the great king is the co-lord of the world, Gai is also a man of the world, and he is willing to serve the emperor."

"Oh? How are you going to serve the widow?"

"I have a treasure that I want to present to the king."

"What?"

"Zhao Kingdom."

"...Zhao State? The widow's army has just taken down the capital of Zhao State, so why do you need someone else to offer it to you?"

"I heard that the giant python has devoured large prey such as cattle and sheep. If you cut open its belly before it digests, the prey will still be intact. Only when you wait for the flesh and blood to blend together can the cattle and sheep become the python's own flesh and blood. The kings of Qin have conquered the State of Zhao many times in the past dynasties. They captured the city, killed people and filled the city, and invested countless troops and food. Now the king finally got the State of Zhao, but he still regards the people of Qin as Qin people, and the people of Zhao as Zhao people. If you regard Zhao as a vengeful enemy, then what is the point of taking down Zhao Guo?"

"The widow understands the meaning of the gentleman. After entering the city, the general has already condemned people to appease the people and included them in our country's register. Even the abolished king of South Korea, the widow only moved him to Yiyang and did not harm him. However, these people are widows now. and the enemy of the Empress Dowager, so it cannot be forgiven."

"The national captain of your country once said - those who are recruited by soldiers, farmers do not leave their fields, merchants do not leave their houses, and scholars and bureaucrats do not leave their government offices. Therefore, soldiers are not bloody and the world is close. It is indeed a righteous deed. However, King Han has always claimed to be a courtier of the King of Qin. This move does not completely reassure the people of the world. On the contrary, Handan and the king have old grievances. If the king can forgive even the enemies of Handan, who else can't tolerate it? What? If you have such tolerance, you will surely make the world return to you, and the hearts of the people will follow suit.”

King Qin smiled playfully. "If the widow insists on refusing to let the widow and the Queen Mother's enemies go, is there no room for tolerance?"

"Don't dare. The king stooped to come to Zhao to avenge his mother. This is the righteousness of filial piety; however, most of the people here are caused by entanglements. Many people have never met the queen mother, and some were born after the king entered the Qin Kingdom. Killing these people can neither punish the real sinners nor benefit the king's reputation. What is wrong with the child? If the king can forgive the old grievances with the spirit of the emperor, the world will be shocked. This is the righteousness of Yao and Shun."

King Qin was silent.Gai Nie met his four eyes, and there was no trace of happiness or anger in those pair of black eyes like lacquer.He didn't have much confidence in his persuasion skills, but now he was sweating and clenched his fists, as if he had encountered the most uncertain battle in his life.In the silence, he had no choice but to let go of the backhand that had been buried for a long time.

"I heard that there is a national treasure in the State of Zhao. King Zhaoxiang wanted to exchange it with fifteen cities, but he never did. Now that I know the whereabouts of this object, I wonder if the king would like to exchange the life of the city of Handan with me?"

The king of Qin's eyelids were slightly lowered, and suddenly he laughed loudly, "Before, I heard you talk about benevolence, filial piety, Yao and Shun, and thought that you studied Confucianism; did you expect that you are a Jia man?" Although his tone was stern, there was a gleam of longing in his eyes. The expression made Ge Nie feel relieved.

At that moment he knew that he had won the bet.

TBC