Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 255

He needs to help the Empire's soldiers create new wars: if they can't be found outside, then find them inside.

For example, farmhouses!

If he could cut off all 100,000 heads, he would have earned his military merit...

Chapter 296 The Death of Tian Hu

Of course, the governance of a country requires long-term stability, but Wang Li is the heir to the Wang family's military power, and from a military perspective, he needs military merits.

When Wang Li followed his father Wang Ben in conquering Wei, he led his army to Licheng, which was on the border between Wei and Qi. It is now part of Dongjun.

He had noticed that Licheng was a city deeply influenced by the peasant school. During his time guarding Dongjun, Wang Li paid attention to the peasant school, which had 100,000 disciples, but at that time he had not yet thought of using these people's heads as military merits.

After all, at that time there were still the states of Chu and Qi that could be considered as meritorious achievements, while the peasants were simply a group of common people in terms of their social status.

But later, whether it was the destruction of Chu or the destruction of Qi, his grandfather and father made the greatest contributions, while he himself remained in Xianyang with nothing to do.

At the same time, and most importantly, his rival Meng Tian gained something in both wars, which widened the gap between him and Meng Tian.

Now that Meng Tian was in charge of the campaign to conquer Shu, Wang Li's suppressed jealousy suddenly erupted:

In terms of status, Wang Li is destined to inherit the title of Marquis of Wucheng from his grandfather Wang Jian or the title of Marquis of Tongwu from his father Wang Ben.

He has no shortage of money or beautiful women.

If Wang Li lacks ambition and merely relies on his father's legacy, he will still hold an important place in the imperial court, and others will only ever be envious of him.

However, Wang Li was very ambitious: he did not want to rely solely on his family's power; he wanted to make a name for himself in history through his own abilities.

Soldiers need military merit; if there's no war, then create one. The peasant school of thought came to his attention again: 100,000 heads were crucial. Even if the emperor wouldn't suddenly and without reason target the peasant school, he could still use private means to force this school of thought to revolt...

Once war breaks out, I will swiftly and forcefully suppress Dazeshan, and even His Majesty the Emperor will not say anything.

Therefore, even though he was far away in Xianyang, he still paid close attention to the initial intentions of Zuimenglou in Licheng to seek refuge with him.

For Wang Li, Zuimenglou was merely a brothel, and neither money nor sex mattered. However, Zuimenglou's ability to investigate farmers was very appealing to him.

Wang Li cannot leave Xianyang for the time being, but he can make arrangements in advance.

My grandfather, Wang Jian, has once again resigned due to illness and returned to his hometown. As expected, I will have to inherit the title of Marquis of Wucheng. Then, my father, Wang Ben, is in poor health, and I will have to take over his position as General in a few years.

The area under the jurisdiction of the Supreme General included Dongjun.

Once Wang Li becomes a general, his plan to force the peasants to rebel can be implemented.

As for the consequences of making mistakes in the process, he had already put them aside in his competition with Meng Tian: based on the accumulated merits of the Wang family, if he really failed, he could just behave himself for a while. Would His Majesty the Emperor dismiss the direct descendants of the Wang family because of a peasant family?

Considering the potential gains and outcomes, I think I can take the gamble.

Wang Li hoped to get himself and Meng Tian on the same starting line as soon as possible.

What's more, he has allies!

How could an imperial nobleman filled with jealousy and resentment not be targeted by the Luo Wang (a powerful and influential organization)?

Even though the Net and the Farmer's Clan have ceased hostilities, if they can force Wang Li to side with them, they can obviously use the Farmer's Clan again:

By fueling the flames, Wang Li confirmed the plan to force the peasants to rebel, and the Net of Law would gain huge benefits regardless of the outcome of the conflict between the two sides.

Wang Lisheng would naturally remember Luo Wang's help and feel grateful to Luo Wang. Moreover, the evidence that he was involved in forcing the peasants to rebel would also be obtained by Luo Wang.

The farmer wins, which is even better. Wang Li's weakness will be completely in the hands of the Net.

After all, if the former scenario occurs, it's uncertain whether Wang Li, who wins, will be severely punished even if his deeds are exposed. However, if he loses, the Wang family will definitely pay the price.

From this perspective, Luo Wang actually hopes that the farmers can win by a small margin: if Wang Li can be controlled by Luo Wang, it is more important than ten farmers!

Therefore, Zhao Gao of Luowang always treated Wang Li with great respect, which Wang Li appreciated: a mere Zhongchefu official was nothing in his eyes, but Zhao Gao could provide him with information about the emperor's attitude, which was very important.

A new conspiracy targeting the peasants is brewing. In Licheng, Mi Lian is surprised to learn from Hua Ying that Imperial General Wang Li has taken the initiative to contact Zui Meng Lou.

Hua Ying and Zui Meng Lou's attempts to curry favor with Wang Li began after the fall of Wei, because of Wang Li's identity: at that time, Chu was still in existence, and Hua Ying wanted to try to find some information related to Chu from Wang Li.

The response to the trial was better than expected; Wang Li actually paid attention to Zui Meng Lou, which surprised Hua Ying.

Unfortunately, Wang Jian attacked Chu and Wang Li was recalled to Xianyang, so the relationship was temporarily severed.

Before the Chu Kingdom was destroyed, Princess Chang had already disappeared. Hua Ying's main purpose in contacting Wang Li at this time was to find an official backer for Zui Meng Lou.

While a peasant's reputation might be enough to deal with troubles in the martial arts world, it wouldn't be enough to deal with Qin Dynasty officials. This was a significant reason for the princess's disappearance.

Unexpectedly, the gift was quickly accepted by Wang Li after being sent to Xianyang. Hua Ying had thought that the mere Zuimenglou had long been forgotten by Wang Li, but the mention of the peasant family in the letter made Hua Ying more cautious:

Wang Li was very interested in farming, so after Hua Ying communicated with the Zhu family, she deliberately used some less important information to reach some good deals with Wang Li.

When Mi Lian returned last year, she showed a close relationship with the peasants. When Zhu Jiatang went to Siyuetang to inquire, he found that Mi Lian's status was not low. Since Mi Lian herself was willing, he did not interfere.

Hua Ying then reported her contact with Wang Li to the princess. After some hesitation, Mi Lian made her own decision and ordered Zui Meng Lou to cut off all contact with Wang Li.

As a result, this year, Wang Li actually took the initiative to inquire about the situation of Zuimenglou without receiving any reports from Zuimenglou. Such enthusiasm was very inconsistent with Wang Li's status. Even Mi Lian could see that Wang Li's attitude was abnormal. Unable to understand it, she decisively reported it to Ji Yan.

Zhu Jia had mentioned the communication between Zuimenglou and Wang Li at the Farmers' Meeting, so Ji Yan had known about Wang Li's interest in the Farmers' Clan for a long time. Now, with Mi Lian's report, she only needed to analyze it carefully to confirm that Wang Li was after the Farmers' Clan's head.

Although Xiao Yan'er has no way of investigating Wang Li's personality, the greatest value of the Farmer's Clan lies in its 100,000 disciples. It is unlikely that anything else could attract Wang Li's attention so much except for these 100,000 disciples themselves.

Ji Yan had no authority to react to this level of possibility, so she could only pass the message on to Lu Wei.

After receiving the letter, the dignified Duke Jing of Jing County was not in a hurry. Instead, he calmly made plans for the affairs of Jing County, wrote another letter and sent it to Chen Ping urgently, before leisurely making his way to Dazeshan.

Lu Wei knew about the connection between Zuimenglou and Wang Li earlier than anyone else. In addition, given the current state of power struggles within the empire, he naturally knew Wang Li's desire for military merit.

Lu Wei even guessed Wang Li's plan to force the peasants to rebel.

However, he had no way to infiltrate Xianyang and kill Wang Li, so for the time being he could only let the other party do as he pleased.

In any case, Wang Li cannot leave Xianyang in the short term. The only time to take action against the peasants is after he succeeds Wang Ben as the Supreme General. By then, the peasant rebellion will have been well prepared.

The worst-case scenario would be that after the peasants defeat Wang Li, he would have the Star Soul faction take action against the First Emperor ahead of time, causing internal strife within the empire. The timeframe is expected to be similar, as the people have long since grown weary of the Qin Dynasty.

As for Zhao Gao, if Zhao Gao's slight concern for the overall situation prevents him from teaching Hu Hai how to be a tyrant, then let him die prematurely!

The letter that Lord Xia Kui sent to Chen Ping was his hint that Chen Ping could take action against the Tian family of Chi You Hall. This time, the threat from the peasant family needed to be completely eliminated!

The farmers remained silent after that.

This will be the result Chen Ping obtained during his interrogation of Tian Mi. Lu has not yet returned to Daze Mountain, and cleaning up the Tian family will have nothing to do with him.

The Tian clan of the Farmers' Clan was once the largest clan in the Farmers' Clan. However, due to the changes of Lieshan and Kuiwei, the once glorious Tian clan disciples suddenly became ostracized by disciples of other clans. As a result, they had no choice but to seek refuge with Tian Hu of the Chiyou Hall, the only remaining one of the six halls.

Earlier, under Xiao Yan'er's provocation, a conflict broke out between the Tian clan and outsiders in the Chi You Hall. Tian Hu unconditionally stood on the side of the Tian clan, and with almost all of the Tian clan members joining him, he had many subordinates of his own clan and decisively replaced all the managers in the Chi You Hall with disciples of the Tian clan.

This provocation was ultimately resolved by Tian Hu using unreasonable methods. Outsiders were suppressed to the bottom, but this also provided Chen Ping with great convenience: with Tian Hu making such an arrangement, he only needed to create the list of people to frame according to Tian Hu's appointment.

The key to this frame-up lies in Tian Mi's 'sincere confession' and the evidence of crimes investigated by A Yu of Lieshan Hall. Chen Ping, as the nominal neutral hall master, bears the main responsibility for the purge of the Tian family.

Gonggongtang's identity is sensitive, so we must remain neutral. Ayu's surname is also sensitive, so we must remain neutral as well.

Ji Yan will become Chen Ping's accomplice, and Mi Lian will be sent to persuade the Zhu family. Tian Shi's fate is sealed.

The arrest of Tian Hu will be carried out by Wu Kuang: Tian Mi gave a complete account of the scandal at Kuiwei Hall more than ten years ago, and the reason why Wu Kuang and his brother Chen Sheng ended up in such a state was all due to Tian's planning.

If we're talking purely about hatred, aside from Chen Sheng, who was imprisoned in the Qin state's death row, Wu Kuang harbored the deepest hatred for the Tian family.

He would never show mercy to Tian Hu.

Not long after the upheaval at Spring Valley Manor, another massacre targeting the Chi You Hall began...

When Lu Wei returned to Daze Mountain and was surprised to hear the news, he only found Tian Hu's corpse and a list of most of Tian's disciples who had been imprisoned.

Tian Hu shouldn't have died, but Chen Ping helplessly explained that Tian Hu was unwilling to follow Wu Kuang to Kuiwei Hall to confront Tian Mi in court, and even took the initiative to gather Tian's disciples to lead Chiyou Hall away from the peasant family.

Left with no other choice, a civil war broke out. In the chaos of the battle, he was accidentally killed by mistake, and the disciple who had mistakenly killed Tian Hu also died in Tian Hu's final, frenzied attack.

If we disregard the fact that Tian Hu's chest wound originated from the Jingni Sword, Lu Wei believed this explanation and solemnly revealed it to the public...

The farming community was now completely united!

Chapter 297 Xiao Yu

Tian Hu was instantly killed by Ji Yan with a single sword strike. Admittedly, this was partly due to Tian Hu not being on guard, but it also shows that Xiao Yan'er is becoming increasingly confident in her improved skills over the years, and therefore has begun to resolve problems more often with force.

This approach is more direct and often more effective.

Whether it was Tian Hu this time, or Ying Bu, whom A Yu reported last year, she demonstrated top-tier strength in the martial arts world.

This is only natural: Ji Yan is exceptionally talented and has been taught by a renowned teacher. Although she looks like a delicate young girl, she is incredibly fast. Underestimating her by her appearance will come at a terrible price.

Ying Bu and Tian Hu are both known for their bravery, and such opponents are targets that Ji Yan likes in every way.

She has already demonstrated her wisdom and loyalty, and now she is beginning to show her strength in combat, revealing her undeniable ability to stand alone.

As for the slight flaw left by the variant of Chiyou Hall, four out of the six halls are their own people, and Chiyou Hall itself is about to be cleaned up, so the Zhu family won't say much.

This person, with a thousand faces, understood the importance of eliminating the Tian family, especially since Tian Hu was never innocent.

However, this also revealed that Chen Ping was a direct descendant of the chivalrous leader Lu Wei. A rough calculation showed that although A Yu of Lieshan Hall was only the acting hall master, everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before he was officially appointed. Ji Yan of Siyue Hall was able to ascend to the position of leader because he was a loyal dog of the chivalrous leader. As for Gonggong Hall, there was no need to say more.

All the managers in Chiyou Hall are members of the Tian clan. Their fate is another matter, but the new hall master will definitely not be chosen from the Tian clan. If nothing unexpected happens, this position will be appointed by the leader of the knights.

However, this puts the Zhu family in an awkward position.

Lu Wei was aware of the Zhu family's potential concerns, so he planned to reassure them later. The Zhu family was still useful and didn't need to be eliminated for the time being. Putting aside other matters, if anything unexpected happened in the Tomb of the Six Sages, only the Zhu family could fill the vacancy among the current hall masters. The other members were his direct descendants and certainly couldn't be sent into the tomb for seclusion.

Now that the ringleader has been eliminated, the important question is how to deal with the other members of the Tian family, who have been the dominant force in the farming community for decades.

We certainly can't kill all of them: after all, there are two elders in Tian Guang's tomb and the Tomb of the Six Sages in Lishan who are members of the Tian clan, and it would be difficult to explain to them that we had exterminated the Tian clan.

Excessive severity in the extermination of the Tian clan could easily cause other disciples to harbor other ideas.

Therefore, spreading the evil deeds of Tian Meng, Tian Hu, and Tian Mi is of great importance. Their crimes should be aggravated layer by layer in the subsequent investigation, making them bear as many sins as they can. Then, ordinary disciples of the Tian family should be persuaded to repent, while stubborn disciples should be resolutely suppressed. A group should be brought down and another group punished. This task of investigation should still be entrusted to Chen Ping.

The trigger for the Chiyou Hall incident was the framing of the former head and steward of Kuiwei Hall by Tian Hu, Tian Mi, and the deceased Tian Meng fourteen years ago.

It's reasonable to entrust the review to Chen Ping, the current head of the Kuiwei Hall.

Chen Ping will definitely sentence all the Tian family members to severe punishments, and then he should step in to pardon some of the members to win over the hearts of the people.

Having made up his mind, Lu Wei, accompanied by several hall masters, went to inspect the imprisoned members of the Tian family.

Then he was attacked: among the Tian family disciples, who were filled with frustration, fear and other emotions, there were some die-hard loyalists.

Sensing the clear killing intent beforehand, Lu Wei's lips curled slightly. With one hand behind his back, he drew his sword, Tunhai, and before the several hall masters behind him could react, he severed the attacker's right arm with a single stroke.

The bony demon, with its light purple skin and eye-catching arms, turned its head 180 degrees, ignoring the pain of its severed arm, and continued to pounce on Lu Wei with an expressionless iron mask.