Chapter 724
"Your Majesty, the State Uncle has already pacified Tu An and will return to the court in a few days, and without the State Uncle around during this period of time, there is no chaos on the frontier side, I am worried that when the time comes, the State Uncle or other people with ulterior motives will use this excuse to keep the State Uncle in the court ah."
"Especially those military generals, without the State Uncle and their several great generals in the court, they are being overwhelmed by the civil officials in everything, and will certainly try to keep a great general as the head of the military generals to sit in the court to fight against the civil officials and fight for the interests of the military generals."
Zhao Gao began his slanderous speech while giving a foot massage to Qin Shi Huang, who was also worried about this matter.
Just six months ago, he was worried about Li Linfei's ability to take on important responsibilities, whether he would be able to lead a real army and fight against the two Mongolian kings.
He had no idea that in just half a year's time, Li Linfei had already destroyed three countries in a row, and his achievements were no worse than those of the Meng and Wang.
However, because of the assassination at the birthday banquet and the slanderous words of Zhao Gao as instructed by Li Linfei, Qin Shi Huang complained about how Li Linfei was so capable and could not be more mediocre and wasteful!
"What do you think we should do then? I can't force the uncle out of Xianyang, can I?"
Qin Shi Huang was helpless, if he dared to do so, I'm afraid it would be Li Lin Fei who would lead his troops into Xianyang and drive him off the dragon chair, or even out of the earth and into hell!
Zhao Gao hastened to bend over, "Your Majesty, I have been thinking about this matter these days, and only yesterday I suddenly remembered that Your Majesty had ordered the construction of the imperial tombs, and hadn't there been a total of three real and two fake imperial tombs built?"
"At this moment, however, there is only one suspicious tomb in charge of its construction, and there is still a shortage of two people in charge of the construction of the imperial tombs, as well as the chief governor who knows all the secret matters and oversees the construction of the three imperial tombs."
"So I thought that I might as well assign Uncle Guo to be this chief governor, after all, Uncle Guo's merits and loyalty are more than enough to do this, and this matter is important enough to serve as a very reasonable excuse for Uncle Guo to leave Xianyang, and to be able to deploy him to the battlefield whenever needed."
Qin Shi Huang's eyes lit up, good, this was really two birds with one stone, being able to keep Li Lin Fei away from the imperial court while having a suitable excuse, and solving another of his long-standing worries.
"And, Your Majesty, in addition to that, the same excuse can be used to transfer General Meng Yi out to take over the construction of one of the imperial tombs and find someone to take over the Meng family army there, so that the prestige of the Meng family in the Meng family army can also be broken."
Not bad, not bad!
Qin Shi Huang subconsciously nodded his head, after the previous transfer of troops to Li Lin Fei first to conquer the Rong Di, then a new border army, and finally the death of Meng Tian to replace the general, with so many changes, even if the Meng family army is handed over to someone else is no longer a problem, absolutely no need to worry about the Meng family army will have any resistance!
"This solution is good, but who will take over the Meng family army?"
The Qin Dynasty is a military power with many generals, and it is not too easy to find someone who is capable of taking over the Mongolian army, but these generals either do not have enough prestige or are difficult to be accepted by the Mongolian army, or they are already in other major armies like the Mongolian family.
Thinking of this, Qin Shi Huang once again rose with deep suspicion and caution about this unrivalled prestige of the two Meng Wang families in the army.
"Your Majesty, I have a candidate!"
"Tell me!"
Zhao Gao hurriedly responded, "Your Majesty, the person I am talking about is General Li Yu Li, the Sheriff of Shangxian, whose father is Lord Li Si, the Prime Minister, and is proof enough of a clean and reliable family."
"Father and son, one literary and one martial, have no previous cumulative influence on the army, no need to worry about the tail being as big as the two Meng Wang families, moreover, General Li Yu is the disciple of the late General Meng Tian, General Meng Yi is also a good personal friend, he goes to accept the Meng family army, even if the Meng family army has some discontent, it will not be too big, General Meng Yi will also take the initiative to solve it for the sake of friendship with General Li Yu. "
The eyes of Qin Shi Huang are getting brighter and brighter, yes, how come I didn't think of this person, at this moment, thinking about it, this person is really the best person to take over the Meng family army and dismantle the prestige of the Meng family in this Meng family army ah!
"The late General Meng Tian and this General Li Yu are absolutely loyal subjects who are purely selfless for the country and the people and the king.
Bang!
Qin Shi Huang ruthlessly slapped the table, "No need to say, let's do as Ai Qing said, transfer the uncle to supervise the construction of the imperial tomb, transfer Ai Qing Meng Yi to be responsible for the construction of the real imperial tomb, and transfer Li Yu to take over the Meng family army."
Thus, the day after Li Linfei returned to Xianyang, he was sent to Mount Li to dig the tomb and build the imperial tomb, and within a few days, Meng Yi was also sent there.
Of course, in order to make amends and appease Li Linfei, he did not explicitly remove his authority as general of the town, and he was still nominally in charge of the army, only temporarily ordering him to supervise the construction of the imperial tomb, while the 200,000-strong army at the border was handed over to his lieutenant Peng Yue, but the three uncles and nephews of the Xiang family were asked to leave the army on excuses.
In order to prevent Li Linfei from becoming disgruntled and causing a mutiny, Qin Shi Huang broke the rules of the Qin Dynasty and once again divided the feudal system, giving Li Linfei, Wang Li, Li Si, Meng Yi and other top civil servants and military generals with outstanding merits, and reinstating the five levels of titles that had been abolished in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, and giving each of them a fiefdom of absolute autonomy and independence.
For example, Li Linfei's ancestral address in his family register, which he now calls his hometown in the Great Qin, is Changsha County.
For example, Li Linfei was given his ancestral address, which he now calls his hometown of Changsha County in the Great Qin, as a result of his great achievement in destroying the three kingdoms, and he was given the entire state of Changsha, the uncle of the Great Qin, the great general of the protector of the state, and the waiter of Changsha.
However, in order to avoid the recurrence of vassalism, those whose fiefs were larger than a township could only stay in their fiefs a maximum of three times a year.
The family members were also forbidden to live in the fief for more than two years at a time, thus reducing the control over the fief to a minimum.
Chapter 725
Of course, there is no doubt that Li Linfei had secretly encouraged Zhao Gao to make a side-step, so that a top military general like him would have no complaints even if he was deprived of his power, and would not be unacceptable to Qin Shi Huang, but would also allow him to rightfully claim the land in the future, which is simply the best of both worlds!
What's more, the next period of drama will take place here in the imperial tomb, especially the attribution of the Heavenly Star and the appearance of Cui Wenzi, which Li Linfei absolutely cannot miss.
And another thing is that in the real world, the tomb of Qin Shi Huang has never been discovered, only a few terracotta warriors and horses have been found in the burial pits, and there is also a high possibility that it is not a real imperial tomb, but a fake suspected mound.
Although this is two worlds, things like the imperial tomb, even if they are not exactly the same, most of the things are still very similar, such as the site selection, feng shui, the arrangement of the organs, the size of the scale and the cover-up done after the final closure, etc., things that have nothing to do with the plot, I'm afraid, will be very, very close!
"Your Majesty!" Not long afterwards, because Li Linfei had offered terracotta warriors and horses, the Yellow Tomb was desperately short of artisans to make terracotta figurines, so Zhao Gao took the opportunity to lift Yushu out of the cold palace to send her to the imperial tomb at Mount Li, and found the opportunity to get onto Yushu's carriage halfway.
"What are you doing here?"
Because of Li Linfei's relationship, all along Zhao Gao and Yushu had a very good relationship and there was no enmity between the two, but after all, previously Yushu's mother had been caught by Zhao Gao's design to fish out before she was arrested, leading to her final death by poison, so it was impossible for Yushu not to hate Zhao Gao.
"Your majesty ...... No, now that you are no longer a majesty and you are not in the palace now, I will also call you Yushu, in the capacity of a brother!"
Zhao Gao sighed and said, "You know something about my relationship with Lin Fei, you are his sister, which is the same as being my sister, I will not do any harm to you."
"I am also sorry for what happened before, but after all, I am the Order of the Central Chariot, the personal eunuch in charge of His Majesty's diet and living, someone has poisoned and poisoned His Majesty, Yushu, tell me old brother, should I find a way to find the person?"
From the beginning to the end, Yushu had no heart, and like Yi Xiaochuan at the beginning and Meng Yi nowadays, she was the kind of saintly mother bitch, so although she obviously hated him so much, and obviously had an indirect hatred for Zhao Gao for killing his mother, she simply did not know how to refute him, and even her hatred had somehow disappeared for a large part.
"It looks like you can understand the difficulties of being a brother, but you understand, but after all, I am still a bit sorry for you, so the only thing I can do for you is to ask His Majesty to send you to Mount Li to repair the imperial tomb and do hard work!"
Yu Shu was puzzled, hadn't she just said she was sorry and meant to compensate herself? How could she turn herself into a servant or even a slave in the blink of an eye?
"And when we get to Mount Li, I will scold and humiliate you a bit, and I will also leave two eunuchs to bully you and supervise you, so that you can suffer some hardships."
At this point looking at Yushu's puzzled face, Zhao Gao suddenly smiled, "Don't worry, it's all a bitter ploy! You still don't know from being locked up in the cold palace all this time that the person in charge of overseeing the construction of the imperial tomb today is your brother Li Yun Li Lin Fei, while the supervisor of the construction of this imperial tomb that you are going to be sent to do work on is Meng Yi, the Yi Xiaochuan of that year!"
Yushu's eyes widened as she finally understood what Zhao Gao meant, and by this point the last bit of hatred she had for him had disappeared.
Never mind that Yushu had a lover who had forgotten her mother, if she were to hate, the first one she should hate would be Qin Shi Huang, for it was Qin Shi Huang who had given the poisoned wine.
And the second hatred should have been her own, for it was she who had forgotten the mission she had left Tu'an with, and it was she who had forced her mother to return to her present to Xianyang.
It was also she who continued to disagree with the assassination of Qin Shi Huang afterwards, which forced her own mother to take the risk and eventually die when the matter was revealed.
As for Zhao Gao, as he said, in these days when he and Yushu had no enmity nor had they ever confronted each other, there was absolutely no need for him to frame Yushu, what he did was just what he was supposed to do as a sycophant and as the Order of the Central Chariot!
"Right, there is another thing I want to tell you, you'd better do some mental preparation."
After thinking about it slightly, Zhao Gao thought that there was something that it would be better for him to talk to Yushu in advance and give her a precautionary shot, so that it would be good for her and Li Linfei.
At least the same thing, he said it and could give an explanation, others said it and it would be good if they didn't add fuel to the fire!
"What is it?"
"Before when you were sent to the cold palace, didn't Lin Fei go to fight the Huns? Then a month and a half after you were sent to the cold palace, Lin Fei had already broken the Xiong Nu's royal capital and returned to the court, and after that, without waiting for a rest, he was sent by His Majesty to lead an army to attack Tu'an, and just a month ago, Li Lin Fei had already destroyed Tu'an, making it a county of the Great Qin.
"What? Yu Shu sat down paralyzed at once.
"Don't worry, your father and the others are fine, which is why Zi Liang and I tried everything we could to take the initiative to have him lead the troops to attack Tu'an."
"After all, this war between Tu'an and the Great Qin is unavoidable, either the Great Qin will send an army to attack Tu'an because your mother assassinated His Majesty, or your father will die in the Great Qin because of your mother.
"Taking the initiative to send an army to avenge your mother's death, this war cannot be avoided, and the outcome I think you should know."
Could she not know this? If she didn't know, why had she been sent to Great Qin to make peace in the first place?
There were only a few tens of thousands of people in Tu'an, and only 10,000 soldiers, and even if all the people were armed, there would only be 20,000 men and horses, and there was only one result of going to war with the Great Qin, and that was the destruction of the country.
The only result of war with the Qin was the destruction of the country and the death of the family. "If others led the army, your father and his men would surely die, but Lin Fei led the army, but he could replace them with Li Fei.
"In this way, Zhao Gao explained what had happened between himself and Yushu, Li Linfei and Yushu, and sent them to Meng Yi after picking everything out.
Chapter 726
After sending two young eunuchs to bully Yushu, two more were ordered to poison the water in the middle of the night to draw in Cui Wenzi to treat Yushu as well as those artisans and corvée workers.
Not long afterwards, a heavenly star fell on the upper county and the time came for the elixir of immortality to appear.
"Old Cui, it's been a long time!"
On the night when the heavenly star fell, countless people saw a huge fireball streaking across the long sky like a falling star. Li Linfei then went to Meng Yi's place and met Cui Wenzi, who had just arrived, and Yushu, who had fainted from exertion as well as poisoning.
"Li Linfei, what brings you here?"
Seeing Li Linfei arrive, Meng Yi's brow furrowed, while Cui Wenzi, who was just about to greet Guo Dong at the side, froze for a moment.
Didn't this Xiaochuan always call Li Linfei by his old name? Why did he now change to calling him by his full name? And this tone seemed to be very unwelcoming, right?
"Why can't I come? As long as it has to do with the imperial tomb, there's nothing I can't manage, and there's no place I can't go to, including you! Moreover, I don't talk to people who forget their ancestors by counting them!"
"You ......!" Meng Yi was furious at his words, but he couldn't say anything, after all, no one forced him to change his name and surname at first, unlike Zhao Gao, which was given a name by the emperor, and if he didn't accept it, he had to die, and he ...... so from then on, Li Linfei and Meng Yi had a complete falling out.
Of course, the main reason is that Li Linfei is too murderous. To exterminate the Rong Di, he first killed the king's city, killing almost all the princes and nobles, and even burned the most elite army of more than 100,000 people in one fire.
Then, to destroy the 300,000 strong army of the Xiongnu, he set fire to the forest and dug up the river, destroying the dike.
It was for this reason that Li Linfei was able to destroy the Xiongnu in a month or so, taking half of the territory, leaving only the bitterly cold lands to the north, which he did not care to occupy, leaving them to go and grab land from the Vikings and the ancestors of the old Maoists.
This was followed by the capture of more than a million slaves from the Huns and Rong Di in succession, but in just six months nearly a quarter of them died of exhaustion! Such a practice was simply not half acceptable to Meng Yi!
"Lin Fei, aren't you being a bit too harsh?"
Through the quarrel between the two of them and their questioning of Meng Yi, Cui Wenzi figured out what had happened after he left, and couldn't help but look at Guo Dong and frown slightly as well.
"Old Cui, do you think so too?"
Li Linfei shook his head, "Old Cui, I admit that I have killed many people in the past year or so, and I am afraid that more than a million people have died directly or indirectly at my hands close to two million, not much worse than when Wu Anjun Bai Qi."
"But Old Cui, how can there be a war without people dying? Instead of letting the soldiers of the two countries get into a tug-of-war and end up getting nothing, with no less than 100,000 dead I'm afraid, and still almost equally divided between the two sides, then why not let all the Rong Di and Xiongnu people be the ones who die."
"One is as punishment for their aggression, and the other is that both are equally dead, I choose them to die while the people of the Great Qin live, at least I am the general of the Great Qin and I protect my soldiers and my people."
"And I have also destroyed the Rong Di and Xiongnu, expanded the land for the Great Qin by 3,000 miles adding twelve counties, eliminating the border problems of the Great Qin, and for at least a hundred years the border gates will no longer have to suffer from the invasion of the Hu people!"
"Old Cui, how many children of Yanhuang and the people of China do you think this will save from the sword and survive?"
Cui Wenzi's face eased slightly, and although he wanted to shiver a little at the cold-bloodedness of Li Linfei's words, Cui Wenzi had to admit that Guo Dong's choice was the most correct one.
"And those prisoners of war slaves, yes, I captured the people, and a small percentage of those who died from exhaustion today did so because they were tired from repairing the imperial tomb."
"But I took a million prisoners of war and saved a million people because of it, and the construction of the imperial tomb, the Great Wall, the Straight Road, and the Afang Palace right next to Xianyang, and so on, each of them required a huge amount of forced labour."
"Nowadays, however, the vast majority of the people, and all the hard, tiring, dirty and dangerous work is done by these prisoners of war, and most of the country's corvée is thus exempted, directly benefiting millions of people, counting their families and the subsequent corvée that will be conquered by no less than five million people as a result."
Meng Yi and Cui Wenzi were stunned, this was an account that they had never really calculated.
"His Majesty is of a nature you all know, he only wants results, he doesn't ask how many corvée men will be exhausted in the process."
"So that means all these people are destined to be exhausted, maybe replacing them with corvée and folk will extend the time a bit, from half a year to a year or two? But what's the difference?"
"And now, it's the prisoners of war and slaves who are exhausted, not the people of my Great Qin! I don't think I made the wrong choice, and if I had it to do over again, I would still do the same and take more prisoners of war."
"But aren't prisoners of war human lives?" Meng Yi could not help but shout and interrupt him, and this was what he could not accept the most.
"It's human life!" Unexpectedly, Li Linfei gave an answer that was beyond Meng Yi's and even Cui Wenzi's expectation without hesitation. But the next words told them that Li Linfei was still the same Li Linfei, and had never changed from the beginning to the end!
"But human life is also noble and low, and in my eyes, as foreigners, as invading bandits, their lives are low! If they are not of my race, their hearts will be punished."
"And the people of the Great Qin, or these people who were the subjects of the Six Kingdoms a few years or ten years ago, who are hardworking, honest, hard-working and willing to work, are far more noble than these Hu captives on the grasslands who only know how to herd horses in summer and rob in winter!"
"Moreover, these millions of prisoners of war are dead, ask the Rong Di or Xiongnu, or the East Hu, the Great Moon Clan, the Fuyu Kingdom who have not yet been destroyed, who dares to say a word."
Gulp! When Li Linfei said the last sentence, a monstrous murderous aura and a sky-rocketing battle spirit emerged from his body, causing Meng Yi and the mysterious and unpredictable Cui Wenzi, who had also commanded hundreds of thousands of troops and fought in the sands, to gag involuntarily, not to mention the two eunuchs at the side.