The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

The beautiful wooden door with hollow carvings was kicked open by Dongmen Bao, making a loud crackling sound. Hei Fu followed closely behind. He frowned and glanced at the luxuriously decorated room. He saw Bai Ling hanging on the beam, swaying back and forth with the wind, but there was no one on it.

"Run away?" Dongmen Bao panted, holding the short spear and looking around, somewhat unwilling.

"Hush." Hei Fu made a gesture of silence to him, and listened carefully, and he could hear nervous breathing coming from the bed.

Hei Fu understood, and nodded to Ji Ying and Gong Ao behind him. The two immediately went in, squatted down, and found the person they wanted to catch under the bed.

Looking at the official of Chu State curled up under the bed, Hei Fu smiled at him: "Will you crawl out by yourself, or take my sword first?"

"I'll come out, I'll come out."

The official trembled and crawled out of the bed. He was short and fat, with a pair of mustaches on his face. His original high crown had long been lost. There were spider webs on his bun, which made him look a little embarrassed. After he came out, he sneezed a lot of dust under the bed.

"Is it the county magistrate of Dun County?" Hei Fu asked.

"I'm not... I'm a cook..."

The fat official raised his head and was about to deny it, but found that the Qin official in front of him was not asking him, but two maids in the mansion.

The maid nodded tremblingly.

So, a moment later, the county magistrate of Dun County was carried by several strong men of Qin State and walked to the main hall of the county magistrate's mansion.

"Where are you taking me?" The county magistrate was a little flustered, but he didn't dare to struggle.

"The captain invites you."

Hei Fu walked in front holding his sword. At this moment, the county magistrate's mansion had long been occupied by the Qin army, and there were short-armed guards everywhere. This place would become the temporary command post of Captain Li You in Dun County.

They left Yangcheng on October 1st and headed southeast along the Yingshui River. They quickly defeated more than a hundred sentries deployed by the Chu State on the border and entered Dun County.

They arrived in Dun County on October 3rd and broke through the city in the evening of the next day. It was very fast, but considering that Dun County was just a small county, the city was no more than two feet high and there were only three or four hundred soldiers, it was not surprising.

"Did the Chu army abandon the city directly? Where are the Chu cavalry scouts who had fought with the Qin cavalry several times near the Yingshui River a few days ago? Why are they nowhere to be seen?"

Hei Fu felt a little uneasy. The less resistance he encountered, the more he felt that there was a fraud. He knew that this war would fail, but he didn't know how it would fail. He could only be cautious day and night.

I just hope that the failure did not start with their army.

Thinking of this, they had already arrived at the main hall of the county magistrate's mansion. Hei Fu asked his subordinates to follow him and threw the county magistrate of Dun County, who was used to a life of luxury, into the hall. He also kicked him on the leg and made him kneel in front of the captain Li You.

"Captain, the county magistrate of Dun County has been brought here. He did not hang himself, but hid under the bed."

The short-soldier personal guards in the hall all smiled contemptuously when they heard this.

Li You was looking through some bamboo scrolls that he had found in the mansion. They recorded the records of the Chu army stationed in the local area, so he did not look up at the prisoner and asked directly: "Dun County Yin, do you know your crime?"

Dun Yin said in a trembling voice: "I could have abandoned the city, but I stayed here when the general's army was approaching because I had a duty to defend the land. I was innocent to Chu, but I might be guilty to Qin..."

The first half of the sentence was not humble, but the second half immediately revealed its true colors: "But I am willing to govern the people for the general, stabilize the people's hearts, and redeem my sins with merits!"

"So, you are willing to surrender?"

Li You looked at Dun Yin, only to find that he was also looking at him steadily, his eyes widened.

Seeing Li You raise his face and look at him for a moment, Dun Yin couldn't help but show joy on his face, and stood up and said: "My dear nephew, it turned out to be you!"

As he moved rashly, Hei Fu and two of his men immediately stepped forward, pressed Dun Yin back to the ground, and put the sword on his neck!

"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding! I am really an old friend of the captain!" Dun Yin hurriedly explained.

Li You looked Dun Yin up and down, but he couldn't remember who he was, so he asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Cai Cheng. I was a county official in Shangcai in my early years. I worked as Li Si... No, I was Li Gong's superior and I was on good terms with him..."

Li You shook his head, still without any impression. Although their family was indeed from Shangcai, Chu, his father Li Si went to Lanling to visit Xunzi and became his disciple since he could remember.

A few years later, Li Si returned from his studies, but he only stayed for a few days, took his brothers hunting and playing for a few days, and then left a sentence "Long stay in a humble position, a difficult place, not the world but hate profit, rely on inaction, this is not the sentiment of a scholar", and then went west to Qin to look for opportunities.

It was from that time that the Li family went from an ordinary poor scholar's family to a road of rapid development.

Cai Cheng was anxious and said quickly: "Twenty years ago, before Lord Li left Shangcai, he took the captain and Zhongzi, led the yellow dog, and went out of the east gate of Shangcai to hunt cunning rabbits. At that time, I was also riding back from hunting, and I chatted with Lord Li at the east gate. At that time, I asked the captain how old he was and whether he could learn to read."

Seeing that Li You seemed to remember something, he pointed to his hand and said: "At that time, I also carried a wild child and gave it to Lord Li. Lord Li asked the captain to take it, but the captain didn't remember it? A few years later, when Lord Li took the captain and his brothers to Qin, I went to the captain's house and remembered the captain's appearance."

"It seems that this happened. It turns out that he is really an old friend of my father."

Li You smiled, but he was not very happy. He just waved his hand and asked Hei Fu and others to let Cai Cheng go, give him a mat, and bring a bowl of water for Cai Cheng to drink.

Cai Cheng probably hid under the bed for too long. He drank the water and wiped his mouth. He saw that the son of the resigned official whom he looked down upon in the past has now become a dignified Qin captain, high above, while he himself has become a prisoner, and his life and death are decided in a single thought. He couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

"That was thirty years ago. At that time, Li Gong was young and had just started working as a minor official in the county. He always liked to watch rats. When we asked him why he was so interested in rats, he said that he saw rats in the toilet of the official residence eating filth. Whenever people or dogs came, they would run away in fear. In the granary where we worked, the rats in the granary ate stored millet and lived under the big house all year round, so they didn't have to worry about being disturbed by people or dogs."

"At that time, Li Gong sighed to us and said that a person's virtue or vice is like a rat, which is determined by the place where he lives."

"So a few days later, Li Gong resigned from his position as a minor official and went to Lanling to worship Xunzi as his teacher, saying that he wanted to learn some kind of emperor's art. At that time, many colleagues laughed at him, but now..."

Cai Cheng looked at his own embarrassed appearance, and then looked at Li You, who was majestic and occupied his mansion, and shook his head and said: "We are indeed rats in the toilet, and Lord Li is already a rat in the warehouse..."

After he finished speaking, he felt that this was not right, and quickly changed his words: "No, Lord Li and the brothers of the Duwei are all phoenixes and swans!"

This was the first time that Li You heard that his father had such a past, and he immediately became amiable and chatted with Cai Cheng in his hometown dialect.

In the first few years after Li Si arrived in Qin, he was just a servant of Lu Buwei and served as the chief historian of Qin. His status was not high. After Lu Buwei fell and Zheng Guo was exposed as a spy, the King of Qin expelled foreigners. As a foreigner living there, Li Si was almost driven away. It was only with an article "Remonstrance to Expel Foreigners" that he was valued by the King of Qin, and from then on he rose rapidly and became the Minister of Justice.

It was not until then that he took Li You and his brothers to Qin. That year, Li You was already a teenager. When the whole family left Shangcai, he was still wearing cloth and looked exhausted. At that time, he never expected that more than ten years later, he would marry the princess of the King of Qin and return to his hometown with a large army...

"After this war is over, I will return to Shangcai to worship my ancestors."

While listening to Cai Cheng's compliments, Li You thought about what would happen after the war. Perhaps the conquest of Dun County was too smooth, which gave him the illusion that the war might end soon.

"What an inspirational story." Hei Fu listened to the conversation between Li You and Cai Cheng and felt that Li Si's experience was simply a role model for all aspiring young people in this era. It was a pity that the time full of opportunities had passed.

However, the metaphor of rats in the toilet and rats in the warehouse can only be applied in Chu. If it were in Qin, the warehouse clerk would be so nervous when he saw a rat that he had to catch and kill it and then block the rat hole, because Qin law stipulated that if there were more than three rat holes in the warehouse, the warehouse keeper would be punished. So in Qin, the life of rats in the warehouse was probably worse than that of rats in the toilet.

After reminiscing about the past, Li You finally got to the point and began to ask Cai Cheng about the movements of the Chu army.

"I heard that they all retreated to Xiangcheng."

Cai Cheng had already said everything he knew, and complained: "It is said that Shangzhuguo is in Xiangcheng. I wanted to go there, but I was afraid that Shangzhuguo would blame me for abandoning the city."

The "Shangzhuguo" he mentioned was Xiang Yan, the highest military commander of Chu, second only to Ling Yin.

Hei Fu listened to this important military information and nodded secretly. It seems that he was not wrong. The reason why the Chu army gave up Dunxian and other border towns was probably because they did not want to be defeated by the Qin army one by one because of the division of troops to defend the land. Instead, they planned to concentrate together, so that the Qin army would not have any advantage in terms of manpower when fighting over a long distance.

"Do you know how many Chu soldiers there are in Xiangcheng?" Li You asked again.

Cai Cheng thought for a while, stretched out his hands, and said: "I also heard from the military officers who went to deliver food. They said that Shangzhuguo was in Xiangcheng and concentrated 100,000 troops!"