Chapter 103: Cold Crane and Wild Tiger [Jinjiang Authentic Edition - Crane Tamer]...
"Li Si?"
Seeing that the Chief Justice, who had come to Qin from Chu since his father's death and had accompanied him and his ministers in Xianyang for a full twenty-eight years, was now trembling with his lips and looking up at him with an aggrieved expression, the First Emperor was a little puzzled. He frowned slightly and shouted in confusion to Li Si who was kneeling below him.
Li Si came to his senses and immediately stood up from his seat together with Zhang Han, who was kneeling beside him, and bowed to take his leave.
After watching the two important ministers leave one after another, the First Emperor, who was sitting at the lacquer table at the top, lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then gave a command to the eunuch standing beside him with his brows lowered and his head bowed:
"Tomorrow, go to the harem and tell Madam Qiang to tell her, when the eldest lady comes to see her again, to tactfully warn her that if the women in the eldest young master's mansion listen to the stories made up by novelists, they should avoid the emperor's eldest grandson. He is young and too intelligent. Don't let him be influenced by the stories made up by novelists."
"promise."
The black-robed eunuch bowed respectfully, and then heard His Majesty ask in a complex and low voice:
"How's Hu Hai doing? Is there any trouble again tonight?"
"In reply to your Majesty, at the beginning of the evening hour, news arrived from the Qinxue Palace stating that the Eighteenth Young Master regained consciousness in the evening and had his pulse examined by the young physician who remained within the palace. He obediently took his medicine and drank a bowl of porridge, and is now in good health. The Eighteenth Young Master was very well behaved tonight and did not cry or make a fuss. He washed and dressed early, attended to by the palace servants, and retired to bed. Envoy Zhao remained by his side."
Upon hearing this, the First Emperor quietly rubbed the jade pendant around his waist with his slender fingers without saying another word.
…
In the dark winter night, the biting cold wind slammed against the carved glass windows, making a very loud sound.
Qin Ying, who had no idea that when Old Li brought Zhang Han back to the palace to report to his grandfather, he also took the opportunity to complain to his grandfather about his words and deeds in front of Zhang Liang, went to the main courtyard to see his mother and father after returning to the mansion. He briefly explained to his silly father what he had done in the southeast city, and then happily returned to his own courtyard on his two short legs. With the help of his wet nurse, he washed and dressed, lay in his rosewood bed in his little nightgown, and could not help but call up his system panel with a surging heart.
Looking at the Zhang Liang strategy task bar on the floating light screen, which was glowing red and changing from a red "negative number" to a black "zero", the little fat boy was in an extremely good mood. Even when looking at the "zero" floating on the light screen, he could see that it was round and cute.
After all, Zhang Liang's situation is different from that of Lu Zhi and Zhang Cang. Zhang Liang is indeed separated from the Qin royal family by "national hatred and family feuds". And tonight, relying on those domineering quotes of later generations that can make people feel numb, he was able to increase Zhang Liang's favorability by 30% without breaking or building. This is already a very big improvement!
Qin Ying thought about it while stroking his chubby chin with his chubby little hand, pondering it seriously. The significant increase in his favorability showed that the method he carefully designed to conquer Zhang Liang was generally correct. Zhang Liang spent all his family wealth and deliberately planned to overthrow the Qin Dynasty outside the city. On the surface, it seemed that he wanted to recover his motherland and avenge the royal family of Han, but in fact, deep down he was still unwilling to give up and wanted to let the family of "Five Generations of Prime Ministers of Han" return to the glorious position it deserved.
After all, he is a smart man with great ambitions. Seeing that the difficulty of overthrowing the Qin Dynasty is becoming unattainable, if the royal family can give him a step to step down and paint him a big pie of "prime minister's family", Zhang Liang, who is from the prime minister's family, cannot help but be tempted. However, this matter cannot be done by his grandfather, the emperor, but only by him, the little grandson of the emperor who is two generations apart.
After all, the only prime minister with real power in his grandfather's family could only be "Li Si", and Qin Ying's future team of ministers was still blank. Anyone could see that the prime minister of a small vassal state could not be compared with the prime minister of the first unified dynasty!
Needless to say, Zhang Liang was very arrogant in his heart. What he was most proud of was probably his family's glorious past of "five generations serving as prime ministers of Han". He was deeply proud of his family of prime ministers. It was like a crane reflecting its own reflection in the water. If he really wanted to regain his position, the first step was to ruthlessly shatter the supreme glory in Zhang Liang's mind and let him know that the family in his mind that "five generations served as prime ministers of Han" was really too "friendly" to the powerful neighbor Qin!
After shattering the family glory in his mind, a "Prime Minister's Pie" with greater wisdom, greater challenges, higher difficulty and more dazzling halo will be hung in front of him, hanging him every day. As long as Zhang Liang has a little desire to prove his family's reputation and to prove to future generations that their Zhang family is truly a "Prime Minister's Family" and has the talent and ability to be a "Prime Minister", he does not believe that Zhang Liang will not be willing to work for him and for the Qin royal family one day in the future. Now the first step has been completed, and the dazzling pie of the second step has also been drawn. Next, if you want to continue to improve Zhang Liang's favorability, you have to find a way to let him slowly participate in the state affairs of the Qin Dynasty, even if he is locked up in prison.
Qin Ying's big eyes rolled around, and her little brain quickly planned. After she made a rough decision in her mind about the direction to attack Zhang Liang, a strong sense of sleepiness rushed over her head like the rising tide, one wave after another.
The chubby kid yawned, then used his mind to close the system panel. He closed his eyes and, half-conscious, thought again: "Zhang Liang is a cool, aloof crane. I want to learn to be a crane trainer. Xiang Yu is a tiger, a reckless, brave tiger. I want to learn to be like Wu Song. No matter if he's a big tiger or a small one, I'll beat him down with my fists first. And Liu Bang, what is Liu Bang..."
With eyes full of love, wet nurse Chun looked at the little grandson of the emperor, who had been playing with the air for a while before going to sleep every night for two years, and then closed his eyes and fell asleep obediently. Seeing that the grandson was slowly falling asleep, she stood up from the table and blew out the candle in the glass lampshade at the end of the bed until only one candle was left. Then she bent down across the wooden railing and gently tucked the quilt into the little baby. As she was about to leave, she saw that the eldest grandson of the emperor, who had returned from outside the palace tonight, seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood. He couldn't help but smile and mumbled in his sleep:
"Hey, Lao Niu is a rogue. His face is thicker than the soles of Boss Cao's shoes..."
Listening to the weird little baby voice, wet nurse Chun couldn't help but look a little funny. She didn't understand what the emperor's eldest grandson was dreaming about at the moment. There was an "old cow" and a "gadfly", and she didn't know who "Boss Cao" was?
In the quiet winter night, the little fat boy Ying was sleeping soundly wrapped in his little quilt.
At the same time, in the Xianyang prison, the uncle and nephew of the Xiang family, who had been imprisoned in the cold prison for two days and one night, were lying on a straw pile covered with a straw quilt and resting their eyes late at night when they suddenly heard panicked shouting coming from the prison.
The uncle and nephew were awakened by the sound and immediately turned over and climbed up from the straw pile. Through the hardwood prison door, with the dim light of the oil lamp in front of the door, they saw from the gap in the railings inside the door that in the middle of the night, Qin soldiers in black armor were holding down with both hands a tall and elegant middle-aged man who looked like a scholar walking in from outside.
On the other side of the cell, Han Huo, who was imprisoned with a blood-stained cloth covering his forehead, was clinging to the wooden railings with both hands, crying and shouting at the soldiers coming towards him:
"Master! Master! Where on earth are you tyrannical people taking our Master?!"
"Suspect, shut up! If you scream again, we'll drag you out and chop you up!"
The elite palace soldiers who couldn't sleep late at night and had to work overtime under the control of Zhang Liang felt very aggrieved. When they heard the thieves in Hanyangli shouting, they immediately shouted angrily.
Zhang Liang, who was grabbed by the soldiers, put into dirty prison clothes and pushed into the last cell, couldn't help coughing twice. After the soldiers left, he waved to the many guests in the nearby cells who were looking at him with worried eyes in the dim light, and replied in a hoarse voice:
"Ahem, Huo, I'm fine, you guys should rest first."
The anti-Qin elements who were captured by Meng Yi in the middle of the night from Hanyangli along with Han Huo felt their hearts instantly turned cold when they heard the words of the head of the family.
With their shoulders close together and their heads put together, the uncle and nephew of the Xiang family watched and listened through the wooden railings with their eyes wide open and their ears pricked up. Finally, they understood what was going on.
It turns out that this strong man who had just been captured by the Qin soldiers was the "boss" that Han Huo had proudly and confidently told them in Han Yangli's adobe house the night before about having infiltrated the deep palace and lurking around the tyrant to do things?
Tsk—were the anti-Qin heroes in the suburbs of Xianyang really that weak? They'd painstakingly lurked outside the city for over a decade, yet before they'd even raised their banners and launched a major rebellion, they were instantly wiped out by Qin soldiers?
Alas, if they had known this, the uncle and nephew would have stayed in Chu and developed quietly. Why would they have to get involved in this mess?
Unfortunately, knowing it earlier is priceless.
Looking at the "anti-Qin people in the imperial capital" who were all killed, Xiang Liang felt complicated, but Xiang Ji couldn't help rolling his eyes. He lay back on the straw pile, angrily pulled the tattered straw quilt and closed his eyes to sleep.
In the current situation, what else could he not understand?
He and his uncle traveled thousands of miles from Chu to Xianyang, but before they could do anything bad, they were thrown into jail!
He hadn't figured it out for the past two days, but now, seeing this "capable man" who had infiltrated the palace, he finally understood. These anti-Qin elements lurking in the suburbs for years had long been secretly targeted by Ying Zheng! Ying Zheng's city-wide search for thieves was also targeting these anti-Qin forces in the suburbs! However, because no one in the palace was there, the uncle and nephew were unable to understand the true situation in Xianyang. They were mistaken for two fools and were counted as part of the anti-Qin forces in the suburbs by the Qin soldiers. They were arrested together and thrown into the deserted imperial capital prison!
Humph! How abominable!
Xiang Liang looked at his eldest nephew's angry look, and felt very aggrieved and helpless. But now the two of them were locked up here, like fish on the chopping board. Now that they had lost the initiative, he did not ask for anything else, but only hoped that the "tyrant" would not really kill them with a single blow, but would directly include them in the rebel forces on the outskirts of the city and drag them to the vegetable market to be chopped to death.
Even if one of them really had to die, he hoped that it would be him, not Ji...
Xiang Liang lowered his head and sighed deeply. Zhang Liang, lying alone on a pile of straw across two cells, couldn't help but relive what had happened in the snow-covered courtyard before curfew. Even though he had stopped thinking about it, every word and every sentence uttered by the two-year-old child echoed over and over in his mind. The thought of that outrageous, bizarre, and unbelievable language that didn't even fit the child's age made him...
"Mr. Zhang Liang! If you obey me, I will give you the position of Prime Minister of the Great Qin!"
Zhang Liang's fair face couldn't help but feel slightly hot. He really couldn't understand how Ying Zheng, who was so aloof, could raise such a lively grandson?
Qin Ying values him so much, so Ying Zheng probably won't kill him easily. Even if he wants to open his mouth, it's estimated that in two days, the little baby will come to the prison again and say some weird and stirring words to him, right?
Zhang Liang pursed his lips, his eyes filled with thought, but the next day, Qin Ying did not come.
On the third day, Qin Ying didn't come either.
…
On the tenth day, the emperor's eldest grandson still didn't come.
It's been a month.
Two months.
Three months.
In the blink of an eye, the last days of winter faded away, spring passed, and early summer arrived. The temperature in the prison rose, but the short and stout little An Guojun still did not come!
Mr. Zhang Liang: “Hmm…”
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