"Fellow warriors, can you please take the sack off my head? I'm so bored."
The sight in front of him was blocked by sacks, but the fading light and the hard bricks under his feet told Xu Shi that they were probably in a dungeon.
This was the first time Xu Shi had begged. He remembered that he was kidnapped on his way from Langya County to the dock "Langya Terrace".
The attackers were heavily armed, but they were quick and ruthless. They killed Xu Shi's men without hesitation and spared his life. They also poured into his mouth a drug that made him sleepy after drinking it.
Let him sleep day and night in a small space, and when he wakes up, he no longer knows what time it is.
No matter what, Xu Shi knew that he was destined to miss the Chengshanjiao promise.
Xu Shi, whose courtesy name is Fu, is from Langya. His family has been a Fang Warlock since his father Xu Ping's generation. The circle of Fang Warlocks is actually very small. Xu Ping once worked for Zhao Pingyuan Jun, Chang'an Jun and others, and Lu Ao was a disciple of Xu Ping.
He also taught Xu Shi.
However, Xu Shi is different from other alchemists. He really makes a living on the sea. In terms of his ability to look at the stars and identify locations, he is no less than the most experienced fisherman in Qi. After all, you cannot always stay on the shore when searching for immortals. Once you leave,
On the coast, one has to rely on stargazers like him to judge the direction.
This is also the reason why Lu Ao strongly recommended him to Qin Shihuang. The magicians also prepared a routine for Xu Shi to appear on the stage: in the vast sea at Chengshanjiao, Xu Shi led a man to drive a boat.
Ye Xiaozhou came riding the wind and waves. After landing, he was floating in the air and kowtowed before the king...
What a wonderful start, but Lu Sheng and the others did not expect that Xu Shi was intercepted before they even got on the boat!
At first, Xu Shi scolded him as a guest of the Langya County Governor, and then used the usual slang in the world to test him, and finally turned into a plea that he was willing to pay a ransom.
But the group of people who kidnapped him said nothing, as silent as cold swords. They just pushed him into the prison and made him sit down on a pile of straw with his hands still tied.
In shackles.
After listening to the voices, a figure stood in front of Xu Shi, patted him, and said with a smile: "Mr. Xu, I'm offended."
"Who are you?" Xu Shi raised his head and asked.
"who?"
The middle-aged man laughed loudly: "Of course they are pirates! Haven't you heard that Lord Canghai, Sima Yongmen, and Tiandu specialize in killing Qi people like you who surrender to Qin?"
"Pirates?"
Xu Shi also laughed. The leaders of the "sea pirates" mentioned above were his old acquaintances. This time Warlock Fang suggested that Emperor Qin Shi Huang's overseas pursuit of immortality was inseparable from Cang Haijun and others.
.
But these secrets cannot be told. Xu Shi can only tell his most basic judgment...
"In Langya and Jiaodong, how can there be any pirates who speak with a Nanjun accent? If I guessed correctly, you should be the retainers of Jiaodong County Guard!"
After a moment of silence, Gong Ao burst out laughing after his identity was revealed.
"Mr. Xu is really amazing. Even now, I'm not afraid of you knowing that my county guard has been keeping an eye on you six months ago (see Chapter 498). People are carefully watching you. The county guard is concerned about your every move! Now he is even going out of his way to
Send me to get you."
"With my status as the Jiaodong County Sheriff, I let my subordinates pretend to be officials, so their comings and goings are strictly regulated. Guan Liang will not stop the inspection. If you guessed it right, I am in Jiaodong now, right? In Jimo?"
Xu Shi shook his head as he spoke: "No, it won't be that fast, and it's not worth the risk to take me to Jimo. I heard that Jiaodong County is guarding Langya, and there is a small town in the middle of Jimo, and they want to build a fishing port. I
Maybe he was brought here?"
"Mr. Xu is really smart."
Gong Ao applauded and took off the sack cover on Xu Shi's head, allowing him to breathe heavily, but in this dark dungeon, Gong Ao's face was still unclear.
This was Gong Ao's only kindness. The heavy cell door was closed. Xu Shi struggled to remember, but he only heard Gong Ao's voice gradually going away, coming from the crack in the door:
"Noon has arrived, but you can't go anywhere today!"
…
"It's almost dark."
Seeing the sun gradually setting in the west, Qin Shihuang stood up with an angry face and looked at the panicked magicians.
"Where is Xu City?"
"Your Majesty, Xu Shi..."
Hou Sheng's head was covered with sweat. According to the agreement, Xu Shi should have arrived near Chengshanjiao as early as yesterday. He only waited for noon to arrive and appeared in a boat. However, he waited and waited, but he didn't see a single figure!
Xu City capsized halfway? Xu City suddenly didn’t want to come? No matter what excuses the magicians came up with, it was useless. Qin Shihuang was an extremely proud man. In this world, others were always waiting for him, and there was never a time when he was waiting for others.
Today, if An Qisheng hadn't said something like "Xu City may have encountered a mirage on the way and entered the fairy mountain", Qin Shihuang would have waited a few hours longer.
But do they know how precious the emperor’s time is? The piles of memorials pulled behind the driver are still waiting for His Majesty to pick up the lamp to review them!
The plan was ruined and time was delayed. In the eyes of Qin Shihuang, the death penalty was not a pity!
The emperor had a sullen face and said nothing. Seeing this, Prime Minister Li Si knew that Qin Shihuang was extremely annoyed, and immediately looked at the magicians with a sneer and said:
"An Qisheng said that there is a mirage at Chengshan Corner, but it cannot be seen today. Lu Sheng said that Xu Shi would come to visit at noon, but Xu Shi was nowhere to be seen. Ye Tingwei, according to the law, what kind of crime is this?"
Ye Teng said unhurriedly: "Prime Minister, it is a crime for Qian Shou to miss his term of service, not to mention that Xu Shi missed his term as emperor! He has committed the crime of deceiving the emperor! The crime is unpardonable! As for Lu Sheng and others, they all also lied.
The crime of breach of trust may be punished by imprisonment."
The faces of the warlocks were pale, but Lu Sheng still refused to give up and continued to stare at the sea. At this time, he saw a small boat rowing across the coast and approaching the dock of Chengshan, and then said: "The boat is coming, it is Langya's boat, Your Majesty
, this may be Xu City!”
But it was not Xu Shi who was on the boat, but someone sent by the Langya County Sheriff to report that Xu Shi was robbed on the way to Langya Pier. By the time the Langya government sent people to the scene of the crime, they had disappeared.
…
"Being robbed?" Lu Ao immediately looked at Jiaodong County Sheriff Heifu, who had nothing to do with him, but he didn't dare to point it out to his face.
Heifu was very indifferent and analyzed: "This may be the work of pirates."
"How can you see it?" Lu Ao asked rhetorically.
"The rebel pirates heard that Xu City wanted to find a fairy island for His Majesty to seek immortality, so they naturally wanted to kill him quickly. Mr. Xu is probably in danger now..." Heifu shook his head and said.
Lu Ao felt that 80% of the time it was not pirates but Hei Fu, but he couldn't tell the truth. Could it be revealed in person that they also had dealings with those "pirates"? He could only break his teeth and swallow blood, and said
:
"Your Majesty, this move is an enemy of His Majesty's path to immortality. We must order the government to pursue him and search for the whereabouts of Xu City to catch the culprit..."
"enough!"
But Qin Shihuang's thoughts at this moment were no longer in that Xu city, or even seeking immortality. He only felt that he had been a fool for a day here!
Although what happened today was that Xu Shi was kidnapped, overall, Warlock Fang who continuously let him down could only be described in three words: Unreliable!
Is it really reliable to rely on these people to find fairy mountains and seek immortality?
Qin Shihuang became more and more angry as he thought about it, and finally ordered: "Order the government to search for the whereabouts of Xu City, and see the person alive and the body after death. In addition, I favored the other warlock too much, which made him proud and proud, and he repeatedly missed the deadline.
Take away the title you were given previously and continue working as a commoner!"
"Your Majesty! I am waiting..." Lu Sheng and Han Zhong were completely dumbfounded and wanted to argue again, but Qin Shihuang waved his hand impatiently:
"Let all the magicians go down, I don't want to see you again for the time being!"
…
After the alchemists resigned in disgrace, seeing that Qin Shihuang's anger had not subsided, no one dared to mention this matter again. Only Heifu stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, going to sea to find immortals cannot be accomplished overnight, so there is
It doesn’t matter if there is no Xu City…”
Qin Shihuang glared at him: "What do you mean by this?"
Everyone looked at Hei Fu, but heard Hei Fu say sincerely to Qin Shihuang: "When your Majesty was in Longxi, he said that he wanted to find the Queen Mother State of the West, but he did not intend to lead a group of people to the extinct territory like King Mu of Zhou did.
That is an irresponsible act of abandoning the world. His Majesty said that he will never leave the territory of Da Qin for even one step!"
"Now, if Your Majesty follows what Warlock Fang said and rashly sails into the East China Sea to look for the elusive fairy mountains, how will this be different from when King Mu of Zhou abandoned his country and entered the Western Regions? You might as well give me one year as you said before.
It’s time to first eliminate the pirates along the coast and the evil waves in Jiaodong. When this sea becomes the inner lake of the Qin Dynasty and the waterway is discovered, it won’t be too late for Your Majesty to come to Jiaodong again and send people to search for immortals!”
Qin Shihuang nodded and said nothing, and after a long time he said: "I heard from Ye Tingwei that your wife is pregnant again, and do you plan to name this second son 'Fubo'?"
"That's right." Hef nodded.
"If you attack the Xiongnu, you will be named Polu, and if you attack Pinghai, you will be named Fubo... You are really loyal to your duty." Qin Shihuang sighed for a long time and helped Hei Fu up.
"Compared to the magician Fang who has difficulty accomplishing great things, you are the loyal warrior of the Qin Dynasty and the pure minister who can accomplish great things!"
Hearing this, Heifu quickly thanked him, Li Si agreed, Zhao Gao and his younger brother Zhao Cheng looked at each other with unclear meaning, Ye Teng smiled and stroked his beard, and Zhang Cang breathed a long sigh of relief.
Qin Shihuang had made up his mind. He once again looked at the stone tablet at the "End of the Sky" at Chengshan Corner: "Who erected this?"
Li Si, a knowledgeable man, replied: "Your Majesty, this was established here by King Min of Qi during his eastward patrol. King Min of Qi thought that Chengshanjiao was the eastern boundary of Qi's territory and the end of the known heaven and earth."
"Xiao Qi, Tian Tian is really stingy."
Qin Shihuang called King Qi Min by his name, shook his head and said: "According to ordinary people's understanding, there is no land east of here, and it is indeed the eastern boundary of China."
"But they were wrong!"
Amidst the sound of waves, Qin Shihuang declared his sovereignty over the distant sea level: "It is said in "Song of Qin" that there is the East China Sea to the east, not to the East China Sea!"
He glanced at Li Si and ordered: "Prime Minister, have someone erase the words on this stone tablet and change it to Qin Zhuan."
Li Si promised: "Your Majesty, what words should be engraved?"
"In the end of the day, just add one word."
Qin Shihuang said proudly: "The sky has no end!"
"Just like my territory, it will not be limited to the coast. The fairy islands in the sea and the other unknown nine states must also be explored one by one and turned into the territory of Qin! In the whole world, is it the land of the king, and the Great Qin
There is no end to the sky!"
All the ministers were full of praise, saying that although only one word was changed, the spirit and style were different from heaven to earth...
Heifu reminded him that when he said he wanted to open up the Western Regions and look for the Queen Mother State of the West, Qin Shihuang said, fight there!
The same goes for the east side.
Penglai? Yingzhou? Abbot? If there really is one...
"Fight it!"
"Your Majesty is so talented and courageous!" No one dared to object, everyone was clapping their hands and applauding. Regardless of whether the maritime border opening was realistic or not, everyone was flattering.
Only Hei Fu congratulated him, but he sighed in his heart.
"After going around for a long time, I still can't get out of this vicious circle of 'fighting the fire with a salary'! The only difference is who will take the lead in this matter, me or the magicians!"
