The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

On the third day after the Qin occupied Chenliu, Li Shang sat on a straw mat in his home in Gaoyangli, wiping the only valuable thing in the house: the bronze sword. While wiping, he gnashed his teeth.

The shame of being ruled by a foreign country, the guilt for his dead companions, and all kinds of emotions made him indignant.

As a knight-errant, Li Shang had no good feelings towards the Qin State. Today, the newly appointed Qin official read out the legal documents at the city gate and asked the people of Chenliu to abide by them. Such as "Three or more people drinking together without reason will be fined three taels of gold", "Strong men who do not work and wander all day will be punished for Jiangyang" and so on...

This means that the husbands' gathering games, sad songs, and drinking parties that the light knights of Wei State once loved will be banned. If there is no verification and transmission, they can't even get out of the city gate. Isn't this going to kill them!

Freedom, the thing that the knights valued most, was suddenly restrained by the strict Qin laws. Under the rule of Qin, they could only farm and serve as soldiers.

Indignant, Li Shang suddenly had a bold idea in his mind. He didn't care about being angry with his elder brother, and immediately said to Li Shiqi who was flipping through a torn bamboo slip:

"Brother, since Qin banned knights and strategists and did not value Confucian scholars, we might as well leave Chenliu and go to Suiyang!"

"The three thousand Wei soldiers retreated there before. It is said that the brother of the King of Wei, Prince Ju of Ningling, is in Suiyang and is recruiting people from the Three Jins to fight against Qin with the support of Qi and Chu. With your talent, it is possible that he can use it. Maybe he can persuade Qi and Chu to unite and counterattack to drive away the Qin people!"

His original intention of doing this was not to "restore the Wei Kingdom" or something like that, but to regain his "free" life.

However, Li Shiqi looked at his naive brother as if he were a fool.

"Go to Suiyang? Persuade Qi and Qin to join forces to attack Qin? My brother, you have listened to too much bragging from those knights who claimed to have been retainers of Lord Xinling. What Lord Xinling and Lord Tang could not do, how could I, a humble man from Gaoyang, do it?"

Ten years ago, didn't Li Shiqi have similar ideals?

His family fell into poverty, and when he was young, he had no food or clothing. In order to raise his younger brother, he could only start as a wine vendor. Later, he pretended to be a Confucian scholar and made a living by writing letters for others. Gradually, he worshipped a little-known strategist of the State of Wei as his teacher and learned some skills.

Those who learn the art of diplomacy have their own idols, such as Zhang Yi and Su Qin in the distant past and Tang Ju in Daliang City in the near future. Li Shiqi wanted to emulate Su Qin, who hung his head on the beam and pierced his thigh with a needle, read the art of strategists, and learned the knowledge of Confucian scholars, and then traveled around the princes of the world, relying on his eloquence to do something spectacular.

But in the past ten years, what he waited for was the news that the six countries fell one after another.

So the smart him understood that the good times of the strategists were gone forever.

For the art of strategists to be useful, the princes of the world must maintain a balance of power. In this kind of one-sided war with the dominance of Qin, lobbyists and strategists have become a side path and are useless.

It seems a little late to go to Qin at this time. The King of Qin is already surrounded by talents from all walks of life. Want to have a meeting between the monarch and the ministers like Zhang Yi and Fan Ju, the predecessors of Wei?

The 40-year-old Li Shiqi touched his beard and felt that it was not realistic.

He knew his own weight very well. The central government of Qin did not lack people like him who could give advice.

Forget about sudden wealth, just survive first.

But first, Li Shiqi had to scold his brother who couldn't give up the life of a knight-errant.

"My brother." Li Shiqi was not polite, and took his brother's sword and said: "You don't have to go to Suiyang. I guess that within two months, Dasong County will definitely not be defended!"

"Why are you so sure, brother!" Li Shang was not convinced.

Li Shiqi said complacently: "I don't need to go out to know the general situation of the world."

The next words made Li Shang stunned.

"Chenliu is the strategic point of Wei State, a suburb with convenient access to all directions, and a meeting place for soldiers. It has tens of thousands of stones of grain and is well defended. However, the general of Wei abandoned it and left all the grain to Qin State. It is hopeless!"

"The Qin people saw clearly that they attacked Chenliu first in order to control the main roads where the roads converge and seize the grain in Chenliu. The king regards the people as his heaven, and the people regard food as their heaven. The Qin army took the grain in Chenliu and marched eastward. It will soon be able to sweep the counties in the east of Wei and gather in Suiyang. Ningling Jun has always been cowardly and unable to shoulder the heavy responsibility. He will never be able to turn the tide and become the second Xinling Jun!"

Li Shiqi said firmly: "This Wei State is doomed! Anyway, no matter where you flee to, it will be a county of Qin. You should give up this idea as soon as possible, restrain your chivalrous behavior, and be a good and obedient citizen under the rule of Qin State."

Li Shang was very discouraged after hearing this. He sat down on the straw mat, holding the scabbard and said nothing.

Li Shiqi patted his hair and said, "From tomorrow on, you will make friends with those light knights who are fighting against the Qin army. It is hard to say whether someone will report you. You should stay at home and don't go anywhere. I will make friends with the newly appointed Qin Chenliu magistrate and try again to see if I can also be a local official in Qin."

"Brother didn't want to be a Wei official before, why do you want to be a Qin official now?" Li Shang was very puzzled.

Li Shiqi looked at his brother and sighed, "Didn't I say that only those who are not stagnant in things and can move with the world can survive in the world. If I don't become a Qin official and protect you, you may be arrested by the Qin official for the crime of light knight wandering one day!"

...

Li Shiqi's guess was correct. The reason why the Qin army sent troops to occupy Chenliu was indeed the grain storage in Chenliu.

At the Chenliu warehouse, the "thousand men" that Heifu was ordered to guard nearby were the ones who were ordered to guard nearby. Looking back at the mountain of granary, Heifu was a little emotional.

It's funny to say that the three thousand Wei soldiers ran too fast and didn't have time to burn the granary. When the Chenliu magistrate of Wei knew that Chenliu might not be able to defend it, he was about to set it on fire, but it was the elders of Chenliu who stopped him.

"The spring plowing has been delayed, and the grain in the Chenliu warehouse is the last hope. If it is burned one day, how will tens of thousands of people in Chenliu eat?"

The Chenliu magistrate was soft-hearted. Under the pleading of the local people, he gave up burning the grain, which finally benefited the Qin army.

Food is the first necessity of the people. Whoever controls the grain will strangle the lifeline of the local people. Therefore, although the people of Chenliu still hate the Qin army that conquered this place, no one has jumped out to resist.

At this moment, the Qin army was busy counting the grain in Chenliu Granary and pounding the millet into rice to serve as military rations.

At this time, Heifu was surprised to see that several treading pestles were transported from the baggage troops. After they were placed, the soldiers pounded the grain day and night with the stone mortar outside the granary.

It had only been a year since his family presented this item to the engineer of Anlu County. He never thought that the Qin government would be so efficient. It was not only popularized in the counties and towns of Nanjun. In the Qin army, the treading pestle named "Anlu pestle" also became a must-carry equipment for the army to go on an expedition and was widely used.

Now, everyone in Anlu County was very proud, especially the talkative Ji Ying, who began to brag to his comrades from other counties.

"This thing was made in Anlu County, so it's called Anlu pestle! What, you don't even know where Anlu is? Hey, how ignorant and shallow!"

He pointed at Heifu and said, "The craftsman who made this thing is Heifu's brother-in-law! Heifu, these people don't believe it, come over and say something!"

Heifu smiled and ignored it, letting Ji Ying continue to brag.

He thought: "It seems that the Qin government is indeed extremely efficient in spreading technology. In this way, the pestle will also spread throughout the six states of Shandong with the pace of the Qin army's conquest, and perhaps it will help the post-war devastated economy to recover quickly."

Thinking of this, Heifu felt that he had made a huge contribution to the improvement of productivity in this era.

Well, although this time, Heifu did good things without leaving a name.

After the Qin army stayed in Chenliu for four days and stabilized the local order, Zhonggeng Qiangwei issued a new combat strategy.

More than 10,000 garrison soldiers were divided into four parts: 1,000 people stayed in Chenliu, a 2500-man commander from Guanzhong was appointed as the temporary Chenliu magistrate, and the two 500-man commanders were Chenliu Cheng and Chenliu Wei. This was what the Qin army often did after conquering a place, letting military officials take office and implement military control.

In addition, 1,000 people transported the grain from Chenliu Cang back to the west. More than 100,000 people gathered under Daliang City. Eating was a big problem. One of Qiang Yu's missions was to take food from the enemy and feed the army.

Qiang Yu himself led 6,000 main forces to continue eastward, heading to the Dasong County of Wei State in the east: there was the center of the remnant forces of Wei State. Ningling Jun Wei Ju had 5,000 soldiers, backed by Qi and Chu in Suiyang, recruited people from the Three Jins, and tried to resist stubbornly. These stubborn elements must be cleared.

As for the remaining 3,000 people, they were divided into three parts, heading south, north, and northeast of Chenliu County to capture the three nearby counties.

The good news is that the thousand men that Heifu and his team are with will also march northward, aiming for Waihuang County!

"In an army of ten thousand, merit is hard to come by, but in a single battle of a thousand men, the opportunities are many times more!"

Heifu secretly made a decision that he must not miss this opportunity!

...

Just as Li Shiqi dressed up and began to try to talk to the Qin officials who stayed behind, Heifu and his team also left Chenliu with the army and headed for Waihuang County.

At the same time, fifty miles to the north, Zhang Er, the governor of Waihuang, was also pacing anxiously in his mansion...