Chapter 109: Meeting under house arrest [Jinjiang genuine version only release·duang……
"Not at all," the First Emperor said calmly, his gaze lowering. He gazed calmly at the flushed young Xiongnu below him, and said indifferently, "Modun, I sent you back only to calm you down and understand the true situation you face now. I could have spared you then, but I can also kill you today! When the Qin State was weak, the Qin people were able to pursue the Western Rong fiercely, conquering thousands of miles of territory! Now that the empire has been established, the people of the Great Qin State will certainly not be afraid of the barbarians outside the Great Wall!"
"As a newly-minted Xiongnu prince, you harbor lofty ideals, hoping to create immortal achievements on your own. I fully understand your ambition. Unfortunately, despite being filled with ambition, young people often make the mistake of losing their composure and losing their sense of purpose at crucial moments."
"Modun, you must understand that it was I who gave you this second life, the ability to stand here and talk to me now! It was also I who provided you with food, drink, clothing, and education when you were injured and down and out! It is you who are begging me to help you return to the grasslands and seize power, not me begging you to return quickly! I am willing to use you because you are still useful, but you are not irreplaceable to me. Even without you, once I have completely incorporated the Baiyue lands into the Qin territory and have freed up my hands, my army will swallow up all the tribes in the Western Regions and the grasslands!"
Facing Qin Shi Huang's undisguised desire for possession of the land beyond the Great Wall for the first time, Maodun felt as if he was being stared at by a terrifying black dragon. His pupils trembled violently, and when he came to his senses, his face turned red and white again, looking very ugly.
He knew that the topic had become very dangerous at this point. If he continued to talk about it, the tall man at the top might really kill him in anger. After all, he was at the mercy of others.
Unwilling to accept this, Maodun had no choice but to lower his eyes, suppressing the anger and frustration that surged from his chest. He bowed to the black-clad Qin Emperor at the top of the table, using the Xiongnu's salute style, and said:
"Your Majesty, rest assured. I will never forget the kindness you have bestowed upon me. However, I am, after all, the child of Changshengtian, not Xuanniao. I also have my own mission to fulfill."
After saying this ambiguous sentence, the young Xiongnu prince bowed twice to the grandfather and grandson sitting at the top of the table according to the Qin etiquette, and then turned around and left in a hurry with somewhat disorderly steps.
Ying, the little fat boy who was sitting nearby, watched the whole process. Seeing the terrifying coldness in his grandfather's eyes, he lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. Then he stood up from his seat, grinned, leaned over to his grandfather's ear and whispered something.
The Emperor, who was already in a somewhat unhappy mood, couldn't help but show a hint of surprise in his narrow eyes after hearing the solution his grandson had come up with.
After his grandson finished speaking, the First Emperor looked at the fat boy for a while, as if he were a clever kid, with a mixture of amusement and satisfaction. Then he stretched out his big, bony hand to rub the little guy's furry head and whispered in agreement:
"Okay, then Grandfather will follow Ying's advice and leave the task of taming Maodun to you."
"Thank you, Father! I will definitely not let you down!"
When Qin Ying heard that her grandfather had agreed, she immediately imitated the manner of a subject and bowed respectfully to her grandfather. After making the promise, she grinned and rubbed her little head against her grandfather's wide black silk sleeves, acting coquettishly and foolishly for a long time. When she felt that the anger in her grandfather's heart had completely dissipated, she happily ran out of Zhangtai Palace on her two short legs, clasped in the sunset light coming in from the window.
The First Emperor, seated at the head of the table, watched the little fellow disappear at the entrance to the inner hall. A thought crossed his mind: "If Ying can truly tame Maodun, then some matters can be settled and announced."
Qin Ying had no idea what his grandfather was thinking. Because of the interruption of Maodun's affairs, he had no time to go to the prison. Instead, as soon as he returned to the mansion, he took out a small notebook and began to design a plan to tame Maodun.
After the summer came, the temperature in Xianyang City gradually rose.
At the beginning of the Xu hour, in the pitch-black night, a cool summer breeze carrying a light mist blew slowly from the surface of the Wei River, making the dense forests in the northern suburbs rustle.
After taking a bath, Maodun's clothes were very cool and his slightly curly black hair was still wet.
He stood in the courtyard of the hostage mansion under the bright moon, watching the palace servants running around in the courtyard. Soon, many tall Qin soldiers wearing black armor and sharp swords on their waists appeared outside the courtyard. As soon as these elite soldiers arrived at his place, they not only surrounded the entire hostage mansion with three layers inside and three layers outside, but even locked the two black lacquered doors from the outside with large gold locks. It was obvious that they were putting him under house arrest like a suspect.
Maodun squeezed his two big hands hanging at his sides until the knuckles turned white. He felt deeply humiliated, but he understood Qin Shihuang's great ambition to tame and control him so that he could control the entire grassland in the future.
It's just that he can't leave the hostage house. If Qin Shihuang thinks that this can make him panic, he is totally wrong. Maodun looked at the two black lacquered doors tightly closed under the moonlight, suppressed the anger in his heart with a gloomy face, turned around and went back to the house to sleep.
However, things were not as simple as he thought.
On the morning of the second day, Maodun waited in the hostage house for a long time but could not find the teachers who were supposed to teach him the culture of the Great Qin. He frowned and looked at the palace servant beside him and asked:
"It's already this late today, why hasn't Professor Doctor come to the Proton House yet?"
The middle-aged palace servant bowed slightly upon hearing this and replied indifferently:
"In reply to the Xiongnu Crown Prince, the hostages of the Qin Dynasty are not qualified to study with the palace doctors."
When Maodun heard this, he immediately understood. If he was previously an ally of the Huns who was regarded by Qin Shihuang as a future minister and cultivated, then after the failure of the negotiations in Zhangtai Palace yesterday, he had lost his "alliance halo" and completely became an ordinary hostage. How could a hostage be worthy of studying?
He pursed his lips to avoid humiliating himself, turned around and went back to lie down in the house.
However, the Qin Dynasty's hostages were not limited to being unable to read.
On the third day, when Maodun opened his eyes, he found that the ten young and capable palace maids who served him in the hostage palace had all been replaced by mute old palace maids.
These old palace servants who were mute and moved very slowly could not even communicate normally with him, let alone serve him attentively. He frowned. As long as he had food and clothing, it didn't seem to matter whether the people who served him spoke or were smart.
On the fourth day, Maodun found that his closet was empty. The Xiongnu clothes that Qin Shihuang had ordered people to send to him were also taken away without a single piece left. Only the old clothes he wore when he first came to Xianyang were left. He was so angry that he almost laughed. He had never seen such a stingy emperor, but he could still keep his composure. It was just a piece of clothes. The more you wear in the summer, the hotter it will be. People outside the Great Wall are not so particular. As long as he wraps a piece of rag under his body, he can wear it casually. He does not feel ashamed, but he doesn't know if these Qin people will find it eye-piercing.
On the fifth day, Maodun saw the wild vegetable soup on the table during breakfast. The fragrant noodle soup, millet soup and goat's milk were gone. He clenched his fists, endured the bitter taste of the wild vegetables, and finished the unpalatable soup with suppressed dissatisfaction. He finally made it to noon, but found that lunch was also gone. When he was starving until the evening, he found that apart from the wild vegetable soup, there was only a small bowl of hard wheat rice.
He didn't want to make a fool of himself by these annoying Qin people, so he picked up the ceramic bowl with an expressionless face and scooped a mouthful of wheat rice into his mouth with chopsticks. The husks on the wheat grains had not been removed cleanly, and his throat was sore after one mouthful.
Maodun looked at the food in the bowl in disbelief. Could this be for the nobles?
He always ate meat on the grassland, and after coming to Xianyang, he also ate delicious wheat. How could he have ever eaten wild vegetables and unprocessed hard wheat?
Looking at the wheat rice and then at the boiled wild vegetables, Maodun's face turned green. He glanced at the two old palace servants in front of him, and as if to vent his anger or fill his stomach, he frowned, with the veins on his forehead bulging, and put mouthfuls of food with a difficult taste into his mouth.
On the sixth day, the meal was still the same awful wheat rice with boiled wild vegetables. Not a single drop of rice, meat, or noodles, not even a speck of oil! Even Maodun's favorite tea was ruthlessly removed by the palace servants.
On the seventh day, Maodun deeply felt the malice of the Qin royal family towards foreign hostages. Only two of the ten mute old servants were left after being withdrawn.
Apart from bringing him some coarse wheat rice and unpalatable wild vegetables in the morning and evening to keep him from starving to death, the two old servants would not do anything else to help him.
Not only did he have to do a lot of trivial things, but throughout the day, he couldn't even hear the voice of outsiders!
No one paid any attention to him, and no one looked at him straight in the eye.
The huge hostage house was empty. When the two mute old servants delivered food to him, they looked at him as if he were a transparent person. No matter what he said, how he yelled, or even fought, the two of them still ignored him, treating him as air and not giving him any feedback at all.
In just one month, the Xiongnu prince, who had grown a lot taller after being well-fed by the Qin royal family for more than two years, became thinner at a speed visible to the naked eye. Not only did he look unshaven, but his mental state was also not very good.
Every day in the palace, Qin Ying would listen to the soldiers' reports on the situation in the hostage house in the northern suburbs. After learning about Maodun's condition, she would curl her lips in a sarcastic tone. This was just the beginning. Even the most majestic Saker Falcon could not withstand being locked up day after day, and could not withstand the mental torture of not being able to eat or sleep well, and being ignored. After a few years, he would become depressed or anxious.
Maodun's temperament was even more rebellious than Xiang Yu's. In addition, due to the huge cultural differences between the two sides, it was the Xiongnu prince who was anxious to return to the grassland to seize power, not their Qin royal family. So he might as well endure and waste time. He wanted to see how many years the future "Khan" on the grassland could endure and waste time with him in the northern suburbs!
…
"Boom--" loud thunder sounded in the night sky, and the heavy rain in midsummer crackled on the land of Baiyue.
On the banks of the Li River, thanks to the day and night efforts of more than 200,000 Qin people, the Lingqu Canal, which could determine the success or failure of the Baiyue War, was finally dug through by the Qin people. This also meant that the fast and safe transportation route for the Qin soldiers' food and fodder was completely in the hands of the Qin people.
"Hualala--" the heavy rain fell into the surging river, and the river water wrapped in mud and sand rushed forward fiercely.
The Yue people, who had been secretly conducting guerrilla warfare to disrupt the Qin people's progress in building the canal, turned pale with fright when they saw the canal between the two rivers being connected bit by bit by the Qin people using divine thunder and their bare hands.
Under the dense raindrops, Fan Kuai, who was charging very fiercely, was full of murderous aura. Like his colleagues around him, he roared and rushed into the hiding place of the Yue people. He raised his sword and slashed it. The spurting blood and the screams of fear and pain splashed all over his body. Heads fell from the air to the muddy ground, and were scattered all over the ground under the heavy rain.
The war among the Baiyue was extremely fierce.
After several heavy rains in Xianyang City, the sun was shining brightly in the daytime, and the bright light made people dizzy.
In the prison that is cool in winter and warm in summer, the smell in the prison becomes more unpleasant as the summer heat surges, and the mental state of the prisoners locked in the prison becomes increasingly depressed as time goes by.
Zhang Liang, who was as thin as a bamboo, leaned against the stone wall and looked up at the small window on the wall. Outside the window, the sun rose and set, and the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter rotated. No matter it was sunny or cloudy, the scenery he could see was as big as the window.
The "正" characters arranged along the wall, one row after another, were almost spreading to where he slept. Everything outside was closed to him. Zhang Liang pinched the short wheat straws with his fingertips, stared at the more than 500 short wheat straws arranged in the shape of the "正" character beside him with his eyes lowered, not knowing what he was thinking.
Just at this moment, the sound of iron chains colliding with copper locks was heard outside the numerous cells. Zhang Liang, who was sitting with his back against the stone wall and eyes closed, didn't even bat an eyelid when he heard the footsteps of the jailer getting closer and closer to his cell door. The jailer came at this time, either to bring him water or dinner, it was impossible for him to let him out, right?
He twitched the corner of his mouth in self-mockery, and was about to lie down on the straw bed and close his eyes to rest, when he heard a "creak" sound as the prison door was pulled open by the jailer from the outside. The next moment, a voice like the sound of nature rang out outside the door -
"Mr. Zhang Liang, please come out and accompany us. His Royal Highness the Emperor's eldest grandson wishes to see you."
Zhang Liang opened his eyes immediately upon hearing the words "Emperor's eldest grandson" and instinctively stood up, leaning against the stone wall. Seeing that the short, stocky figure wasn't among the jailers, he suppressed the disappointment that rose in his heart and walked forward with as calm a look as possible, saying, "Okay."
But the moment he stepped out of the prison door, he stopped again and said calmly to the black-clad jailers who turned to look at him with confused expressions:
"Please fetch me a bronze mirror, a razor, and a clean prisoner's uniform. I need to bathe."
The black-clad jailers felt like their ears were about to ring when they suddenly heard this outrageous request. Since when has a suspect been able to make demands on the jailers?
Although their mouths twitched uncontrollably, they suppressed the complaints that surged in their hearts when they thought about the importance His Royal Highness the Grandson attached to this Korean. They replied with a cold face:
"Okay, sir, come with us."
"Thank you very much."
After Zhang Liang bowed, he walked out with several black-clad jailers under the worried or expectant gazes of his followers in the cells on both sides.
About two quarters of an hour later, after taking a bath, he put on a clean prison uniform. He took a razor and carefully trimmed his messy hair in front of a bronze mirror. After cutting off a lot of hair, he tied up the wet black hair with a wooden hairpin. Under limited conditions, he tried his best to make himself clean and decent.
At three quarters past the hour of You, the red setting sun had begun to move slowly westward, and the sky was filled with brilliant clouds. The beautiful golden clouds burned all the way from west to east.
After being imprisoned for nearly two years, Zhang Liang stepped out of the prison for the first time. He couldn't help but tilt his head and squint his eyes, and half-shielded his face with his thin palms to block out the overly bright light. The breeze blowing in his face was warm with the summer heat, but he was so excited that his whole body was shaking from the inside out. It had been a long time since he had tasted the taste of freedom!
This time when he meets Qin Ying, if he cannot completely convince that little devil with his talent and ability and make her willingly accept him, then he will not be named "Zhang"!
"A-choo—" At the same moment, in the East City and West Market, the plump little Ying, dressed in a crescent-shaped white silk summer robe, sneezed, instantly attracting the attention of everyone around him. Before Zhang Han could ask worriedly, he wiped his nose with a handkerchief, waved his hand and smiled, "Nothing serious, it's not a cold. Perhaps someone is thinking of this grandson of the emperor."
Zhang Han felt relieved when he heard this. His Majesty treated the eldest grandson like a precious phoenix egg all day long. He didn't dare let his grandson get sick just by going out with him.
After wiping his nose with a handkerchief, bored Ying Xiaopangdun'er used his mind to call up the system panel. He saw that in the time it took him to sneeze, the progress bar for the Zhang Liang quest had increased from "93%" to "96.6%." What did this mean? It meant that "Liang Baihua" must be thinking about him!
The little fellow couldn't help but tilt his furry head back with delight, glancing at the beautiful sunset glow overhead. He thought to himself, "Today is the last time! If he can't completely pluck all of Zhang Liang's little white flowers from Gaoling, he won't be called 'Ying'!"
The big one and the small one both had the idea of completely conquering each other and were determined to charm each other to death. At the last moment of the evening hour, the wooden door of the courtyard was finally pushed open from the outside with a "creak".
When the big and the small looked at each other from a distance, both of them could not hide their surprise.
The elder one had never expected that the younger one would ask him to meet in the snowy courtyard where he was arrested in winter. Every blade of grass and every stone in the courtyard was exactly the same as when he lived there before, as if he had never been arrested or imprisoned, but had simply returned home from his duty in the palace. This realization made Zhang Liang look at the fat boy with a complicated look. He felt that although the methods used by this royal little devil to deal with people were extremely cunning and weird, he was indeed very good at touching people's hearts.
My naivety never expected that "Liang Baihua" had been imprisoned for almost two years, and her body had become extremely thin, but her skin had become whiter and whiter, and her face, which looked like a pretty girl, was still very beautiful, wasn't it?
Seeing the elegant and handsome "Little White Flower from High Mountain" walking slowly towards her, Qin Ying subconsciously took a breath, but the next moment, her soft little belly was still disobedient and "duang~" pushed out the silk robe gorgeously.
At the age of four, he felt for the first time that this fat, short and stocky little figure was a detriment to the dignity of the eldest grandson of the Emperor, Ying, who was under his control: "..."
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