The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"The commander is back!"

At nightfall, with Ji Ying's shout, there was a surge of footsteps in the Anlu military camp. The people who were absent-mindedly doing their own things just now rushed to the gate. They saw Hei Fu returning in a carriage with the help of two Zhongchefu guards. They stopped at the camp gate. The two of them took down a heavy wooden box and bowed to him and left.

Ji Ying, Dongmen Bao and others rushed out, surrounded Hei Fu, welcomed him in like a hero, and asked him to sit on the table at the camp gate. Then they pinched his shoulders and pounded his legs, and smiled flatteringly.

Hei Fu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "What are you doing?"

"The commander is the only one in Anlu County who has been summoned by the king. This is a big deal."

Ji Ying carefully dusted Hei Fu, as if he was a treasure blessed by the King of Qin.

Today, just by seeing the king's carriage and figure from a distance of more than ten steps, these Anlu mud-legged soldiers felt that they could go home and brag about it for the rest of their lives. And Heifu was even more so. His name had reached the king's ears, and he was summoned by the King of Qin. What an honor!

So, everyone started asking questions at once, but they were nothing more than the same questions as before, what does the King of Qin look like? Is he three feet tall, with the upper lip being the sky and the lower lip being the earth? Bu Cheng even said mysteriously that he kept looking up today and saw auspicious clouds gathering over Huaiyang for a long time...

"The king's appearance..."

After they finished asking all sorts of questions, Hei Fu pretended to be mysterious and said, "The king's appearance cannot be described in ordinary words. I can't say it, and you can't listen to it either."

Everyone was disappointed. At this time, Li Xian also brought people to lift the heavy wooden box at the entrance of the camp and asked, "Captain, what is this? Is it a gift from the king?"

"It was given by the king to Anlu Quan, open it!"

With Hei Fu's permission, everyone opened the wooden box, but saw pieces of gold cakes neatly stacked inside. Even though they had just participated in the looting of the Chu Palace Treasury in Shouchun and gained knowledge, they still couldn't help but gasp when they saw so much gold!

"So much, I'm afraid there must be more than a thousand taels?"

Gold was the currency of Qin State, and Ji Ying and others still had the concept of "liang" commonly used in counties.

Hei Fu smiled: "A full one hundred taels!"

One tael is twenty taels, and one hundred taels is two thousand taels! When they looted the treasury of the Chu Palace, because they couldn't take too much, Hei Fu only got ten taels. Among the rest, the military officers took one or two taels, and the soldiers only had ant nose coins. Now the King of Qin gave a hundred taels at once, which can be said to be a big deal.

"The king said that in the war against Chu, An Lu led a great contribution and captured Xiang Yan's flag. He once said that those who got Xiang Yan and Xiong Qi's heads would be rewarded with a hundred gold. Although Xiang Yan's head disappeared, the merit of taking the flag was no less than beheading, so he still gave a hundred taels of gold..."

One hundred taels, that's 500,000 coins! Even if everyone divided it equally, they could get 500 coins, which was a considerable sum. Everyone was overjoyed and congratulated each other.

They were all immersed in the joy of getting gold, but the careful Li Xian discovered that the crown Hefu wore was different from the one he wore when he left...

When he left, he wore a long crown with two boards, but when he came back, he wore a "鹖冠" with a ring tassel and no ruí, with a green string as a string, and standing on the left and right!

"The leader has been promoted again!?" He was surprised and happy.

Everyone then noticed that the 鹖鸟 was a kind of wild pheasant, with black fluff on the top of its head and snow-white ear feathers, which extended backwards and protruded behind the head in bundles, like a pair of white horns, and looked murderous. Although its wings are short and it is not good at flying, its red legs are strong and powerful. When it walks, it holds its head high and its tail is cocked, looking majestic, as if it is ready to fight to the death with the invading enemy at any time.

This bird is a "desperate man" among birds, and it will never retreat when it fights. It is said that King Wuling of Zhao admired its resolute fighting spirit very much, so he decorated the crown with the tail feathers of the pheasant and gave it to brave warriors. When it came to the Qin State, it became a crown that imitated the forked ear feathers on the top of the pheasant's head. Only high-ranking officials, that is, the five great officials and above, could wear it.

Hei Fu smiled and said, "Yes, the king saw that my words were right. When he heard that I was already a Gongcheng and had made some contributions in Huainan, he said that there was no need to wait until Chu was destroyed to judge my merits, and he granted me the title of Wu Dafu in advance."

In the Qin State, there is often a theory that a soldier or commoner can never get a title higher than Gongcheng in his entire life, which means "the civilian title is no higher than Gongcheng!"

The ninth-level Wu Dafu is equivalent to the "Shang Dafu" in the Spring and Autumn Period, which is the ceiling of the title. The left Shuchang and the right Shuchang above are considered "Qing"...

Therefore, Hei Fu has reached the highest point in the eyes of ordinary people, which makes them amazed. Only Li Xian and others have not only praise, but also admiration, because they know that Hei Fu's ambition is to be a marquis like General Wang!

Unexpectedly, Heifu hadn't finished speaking yet: "The king also heard that I would be 22 this year, and he also sighed and said that he was also this age and had the ceremony of crowning in the Qinian Palace in Yongcheng. So he was inspired and gave me the crown on the spot and put it on me personally..."

Hearing that the King of Qin not only gave the title but also crowned Heifu personally, everyone fell silent. The Anlu camp was silent. After a while, Ji Ying's scream like a pig being slaughtered was heard.

"It's over!"

Everyone turned their heads and saw Ji Ying kneeling on the ground, his hands trembling, wailing exaggeratedly: "This crown was put on by the king himself, but I, but I accidentally touched it when I helped the commander to sit down. My dirty hands, which have not been washed after using the toilet, really deserve to be chopped off!"

Everyone laughed, and Li Xian felt that the matter was not that simple, and curiously asked: "What did the commander say to the king?"

"Nothing."

Hei Fu also couldn't help but sigh, Qin Wang Zheng really lived up to the praise of "being able to serve people", and he was really good at winning people's hearts. If it were anyone else, he would have burst into tears and bowed his head to die after being rewarded, given a title, and personally crowned by him.

This was something Hei Fu didn't expect. When he was in the king's tent, he was indeed a little excited, and after coming out, his mood was still not calm.

But he had calmed down, and he was grateful, but he didn't give his life to the king of Qin. So he said, "The king asked about my origins. Hearing that I was a commoner, I started as a village head and gradually rose to the rank of county lieutenant and commander. I couldn't help but sigh at what Han Fei said."

"What did he say?" Everyone was eager to hear more.

Hei Fu said, "The king said that a prime minister must start from a prefecture, and a brave general must start from a soldier. Then the king suddenly looked at General Wang and Lieutenant Li, and asked me with a smile, have you ever thought about becoming a general?"

"What did the commander answer?" Everyone's heads came to Hei Fu, eyes wide open, ears pricked up.

"I said to the king, of course I want to!"

"Although Heifu is as humble as dust now, in ten or twenty years, I am willing to follow the example of Li Duwei and General Wang, serve the king, fight against the rebellion and make meritorious deeds, and then write the words 'Tomb of Qin General Heifu' on the tomb. This is Heifu's ambition!"

Heifu remembered that he stood up straight and said to the King of Qin a famous saying that everyone in later generations knew and was also politically correct in the general environment of the Qin State!

"A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier!"

...

"So soldiers with ambitions must want to be generals and seek titles. Those who don't want to be generals and titles have short ambitions..."

On the other side, in the king's tent, Qin Wangzheng was still muttering Heifu's words and praised Li You: "What a young commander with high ambitions. Li You, you have a good eye. This boy may become a general in the future."

Heifu did not embarrass Li You, nor did he act too deliberately. He rushed to Qin Wang as soon as he saw him, forgetting who his benefactor was. This made Li You very satisfied, so he smiled and said, "Maybe it was because I saw General Wang was granted the title of Guannei Marquis today, and I was jealous for a while, so I had this idea in my mind."

The King of Qin looked at Wang Jian again: "Before he came in, General Wang complained to me that he was old and wanted Meng Wu and others to take over military affairs and return to Guanzhong to retire. Compared with what Heifu said, he was really old-fashioned. General, can you still eat when you are not old?"

"I am indeed old, and I can't compare with the aggressiveness of young people."

Wang Jian didn't mind at all. After destroying the State of Chu, he was no longer burdened. He acted very naturally, much more relaxed than before the expedition. He took the initiative to hand over the military power, but the King of Qin refused and insisted that he should finish the battle of Chu first.

The game between the monarch and the minister was implied in this handover and push.

The King of Qin wanted to show that he trusted his people, and Wang Jian wanted to show that he was not greedy for military power.

Wang Jian said meaningfully: "Since the officers and generals in the army have such ambitions, why should we worry about the remnant of Chu, Liaodong, Daidi, and Qi being in turmoil? Why should we worry that the ambitions of the Qin ancestors and the king to unify the world cannot be realized?"

Does he really care about the position of a prince? Hey, Wang Jian was eager to have more princes and generals under the King of Qin, so that the Wang family would not feel lonely in their high position...

The two of them stopped talking about this topic tacitly, and Li You hurriedly said: "The king will inspect the three armies tomorrow, so why not let Heifu and the soldiers of Nanjun practice military ball for the king? During the long period of our army and the Chu people, the soldiers used this as a game. It is different from the fancy Cuju of Qi and Chu, but it has more killing and solemn meaning. Military officers can practice command and break into the battle..."

The King of Qin agreed. Seeing that it was late at night, the King of Qin, who had been traveling all day, was not tired at all. He was about to discuss the security situation in Huaibei with Wang Jian, and how to continue to eliminate the remnants of Chu and seize Jiangdong and other places, but Zhao Gao hurried in.

"Your Majesty, this is an urgent letter from General Meng of Huainan..."

Li You's eyelids jumped, fearing that Huainan had changed when Wang Jian was away. Wang Jian was calm. As Meng Wu's boss, colleague, and opponent for many years, he knew very well that this man was no less skilled in military operations than his father Meng Ao, and that there would be no changes in the places that had been occupied.

"Or there might be unusual movements by Xiong Qi of Jiangdong and the remnants of the Chu army."

As expected by Wang Jian, Qin Wang Zheng unfolded the military report and glanced at it, sneering: "Meng Wu reported that Xiang Rong and others were in Juchao in Huainan and supported Xiong Qi as king..."

Everyone fell silent, and Li You did not dare to speak directly. As the son-in-law of the King of Qin, he knew very well that what the King of Qin hated most was betrayal!

And Changping Jun Xiong Qi was the one who betrayed the king recently!

Changping Jun grew up with the king. He was once a trusted and trusted minister and served as prime minister for ten years. The relationship between the king and his ministers was so admirable, and the betrayal was so infuriating.

The king's visit to Huaiyang this time may also be related to this knot in his heart.

"My uncle, who is ambitious but incompetent, can never forget the past. He rebelled against Qin and joined Chu in order to take back all the things that originally belonged to him. But in my opinion... he is just a beast imitating the appearance of a human, wearing a collar and a crown, which only adds to the laughter. He can't save the lost Jingchu, but will be buried with it."

After a sigh, the King of Qin didn't even bother to mention this matter, but smiled at Wang Jian: "General Wang, if you want to make progress, you should first correct the rear. Tell me all the information about the newly established counties and garrisons in Huaibei!"