"Alas! You fool! Li Lin colluded with the remnants of the Chu Kingdom. From the very beginning, his approach to me and to you was all for a purpose! He was sent by a descendant of Xiang Yan, a remnant of the Chu Kingdom, to attempt to overthrow the Qin Dynasty!"
"What? No! This is impossible! Father, you must have been deceived!"
Princess Manyin looked at the First Emperor with disbelief, as if she could not accept this statement at all.
Who is Xiang Yan?
Everyone in the Qin Dynasty knows this.
He was the most famous general in the late Chu state, and once defeated the combined forces of Li Xin and Meng Tian.
He can be considered the last great general of the Chu state.
But Xiang Yan has been dead for who knows how many years.
The person who has inherited Xiang Yan's will and is now being treated as a top-level wanted criminal by the Qin court is Xiang Liang, a descendant of Xiang Yan.
(Xiang Liang and Xiang Bo were both Xiang Yu's uncles, but Xiang Yu's father died very early.)
Could it be that Li Lin is colluding with Xiang Liang?
"How could it be impossible? You can't see into someone's heart, silly daughter. I recognize Xiang Liang's handwriting. When I executed Gao Jianli, I found a letter written by Xiang Liang on his person. I still keep that letter to this day!"
The First Emperor shook his head; he too refused to believe that Li Lin was a traitor who colluded with the remnants of the six states and secretly communicated with them.
But the facts are right in front of us.
This naturally made him harden his heart.
"No! Impossible, Father! There must be a mistake. Li Lin could never be that kind of person. If he were, I would be the first to refuse to believe it! Show me that piece of yellow cloth. I won't give up until I see this evidence!"
The First Emperor sighed, wiped his feet clean, put on his shoes, walked to the table beside him, took out the yellow cloth that had been searched from Li Lin's house that morning, and also took out the bamboo slips that Xiang Liang had written to Gao Jianli in the past.
It was handed to Princess Manyin.
She frowned, unfolded a yellow cloth, and wrote red characters on the cloth, which looked as vivid as fresh blood.
"My dear brother Li Lin, how have you been lately? ... I heard in Kuaiji Commandery that you have been appointed Imperial Censor of Qin, which greatly surprised and delighted me. I hope you will continue your efforts and quickly place your trusted confidants in the Qin court. You said before the new year that you would take action against that old dog Ying Zheng, but now there is no news. I understand your predicament and hope that you can act soon. When he passes away and the Qin court is in turmoil, I will raise an army of 100,000 in Kuaiji, unite the feudal lords of the six states, advance westward to Hangu Pass, break through Xianyang, destroy Qin, and restore the old kingdom. If you can do this, my brother, you will become the King of Guanzhong..."
"this......"
She slowly read the words on the yellow cloth, one by one. The more she read, the more frightened she became, and the more she frowned.
The text on the yellow cloth totaled over seven hundred words, many of which were expressions of concern and care. Most of the text concerned Xiang Liang asking Li Lin why the plan he had promised before the new year had not yet been implemented.
And some speculation about what Xiang Liang would do after Li Lin killed Ying Zheng.
In conclusion.
Throughout the entire piece, she appears to be both angry and resentful.
If Li Lin really was colluding with Xiang Liang, even she would probably want to tear him to pieces.
Then, she unfolded the scroll of letters Xiang Liang wrote to Gao Jianli.
This one is much shorter than the previous one, containing only about fifty words.
But what she found most strange was...
These two documents contain different content, yet the handwriting is exactly the same.
In other words...
These two documents were indeed written by the same person.
Her eyes widened instantly, and tears streamed down her face.
"Father, it's actually true!"
"Yes, I couldn't believe it either, so I immediately threw Li Lin into the imperial prison. I didn't intend to kill him at first, but after returning to the palace, I took out the words on this bamboo slip and compared them one by one, and that's when I decided to kill him."
The First Emperor sighed; he knew that reality was far too cruel.
It's unbelievable that someone as intelligent as Li Lin would collude with Xiang Liang's remnants.
No wonder that brat said before that the Qin Dynasty was going to perish and that he had to find another way out.
Now let's take a look.
Everything matches up.
If it were a year ago, then it really would have been possible.
The First Emperor had been thinking about this in bed for a long time and was increasingly convinced that Li Lin was very likely to be true.
After all, this is very much in line with his timid and cowardly personality, and his desire to survive.
They believed that the Qin Dynasty was beyond saving.
Finding a new job in advance is perfectly in line with normal human logic.
Inside the prison.
Li Lin, lying on the hay, was unaware that the First Emperor had already decided to kill him. Even Princess Manyin, who had always been quite fond of him, could no longer stop the First Emperor.
After all, who can blame them when the methods used to frame them are so clever?
"Oh ho! Isn't this Li Zhongcheng? What, you've ended up in this imperial prison too? What crime have you committed? Hasn't His Majesty always favored you? Weren't you very arrogant?"
Just as Li Lin lay on the ground conserving his energy, carefully considering what methods Taishi Teng and the others had used to enrage the First Emperor.
The person in the next room seemed to have spotted him.
He couldn't help but shout.
Li Lin found the voice intriguing. When he was imprisoned earlier, he was wearing a hood, so the people around him didn't recognize him immediately, and he didn't recognize the people around him immediately either.
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