Chapter 558: We, the Sovereign, Are Well

"We, the sovereign, are well; the realm too is well — but are the black-headed commoners well?"

At the Jimo village school, Heifu held up a crude copper speaking-trumpet and repeated this decree of the First Emperor of Qin three times.

The entire marketplace suddenly fell silent. Wealthy households, merchants, gallant swordsmen, black-headed commoners — everyone stared at one another, their expressions more colorful than words could describe.

Seeing this, a trace of a smile crept onto the corner of Heifu's mouth.

"Just as I thought."

Unlike ordinary people, from Heifu's perspective, the course of this affair was far more heart-pounding…

Ever since the First Emperor had left Jiaodong and proceeded to Langya and Donghai on his inspection tour, Heifu had been immersed in the hectic work of expelling local strongmen and redistributing land, as well as building ships and recruiting soldiers.

When word arrived in early third month that the First Emperor had been attacked on the mountain road south of Ju County in Langya Commandery, it gave him a tremendous fright!

Heifu's first reaction was: "Zhang Liang, Bolangsha, mistakenly struck the secondary carriage?"

Heifu did possess this bit of knowledge. As early as when he was in Xianyang, he had obliquely sounded out Zhang Cang, asking where Bolangsha was — and guess what? Bolangsha was right in Zhang Cang's home, Yangwu County!

Heifu had also taken the opportunity to inquire about the Hannite Zhang Liang, but ultimately came up empty-handed. All that was known of this man was that he was the eldest son of the Zhang clan, Chancellor of Han. In the twenty-first year of the First Emperor — that is, Heifu's second year since transmigrating — after the Xinzheng Rebellion, his whereabouts became unknown, and there was no way to trace him, because for these eleven years, no trace of him had appeared anywhere in the realm.

Far from being reassured, Heifu grew even more vigilant.

"Worthy of Zhang Zifang. A man like that — that's the kind of dangerous element who knows how to preserve himself and bide his time!"

The worst part was, you knew he would strike, but you had no idea when or where.

However, as history underwent massive shifts, the First Emperor, acting on Heifu's westward expansion proposal, had first moved against the Xiongnu and postponed his eastern tour. By the time he set out this time, he did not pass through Yangwu County at all, but instead took the line through Chenliu and Dingtao, entering Xue Commandery via the Kangfu defile.

On the subsequent journey to Mount Tai and Linzi, Heifu followed in attendance. After arriving in Jiaodong, he personally handled all security and traffic control along the route, and everything was perfectly proper — no incidents occurred. Had an incident occurred, regardless of whether the Emperor was harmed, as commandery governor, a charge of dereliction of duty would have been unavoidable.

In short, when he saw the First Emperor off from Jiaodong, Heifu breathed a long sigh of relief. He had assumed the Bolangsha incident was completely off the table, yet he never expected trouble to break out in Junan. Although he guessed it might be Zhang Liang's belated assassination attempt, the reports that came were ambiguous. The First Emperor was an extremely cautious man; whether he lived or died was known only to those closest to him. To the commandery governors, only an edict was sent, demanding they conduct a realm-wide manhunt, investigate all suspicious persons, and dig three feet deep if necessary to find the assassins!

Heifu carried out each order, but as he mulled the matter over carefully, he could not help but feel a chill run down his spine.

Historically, after the First Emperor died, his death was concealed by Li Si and Zhao Gao. The death was kept secret and no mourning was issued; everything proceeded as usual. After all, the Emperor was normally secretive and did not readily reveal his whereabouts or allow outsiders to see him. According to the more legendary accounts, several cartloads of abalone were even used to mask the increasingly overpowering stench of the corpse…

Heifu naturally began to suspect: was the imperial traveling palace's vague and ambiguous account of the Emperor's condition a sign that history was staging itself ahead of schedule?

If the First Emperor were dead right now — and assassinated to boot — what would happen?

Heifu, whose imagination had always run wild, quietly began to mull it over…

…

The first thing Heifu thought of was: "Would Zhao Gao stir up trouble the way he did historically?"

After careful deliberation, Heifu optimistically discovered that if misfortune had befallen the First Emperor, Zhao Gao, as the charioteer, would bear inescapable responsibility. His father-in-law Ye Teng knew of Heifu's enmity with Zhao Gao; as Commandant of Justice, he could arrest Zhao Gao and throw him in prison on the spot — it was not impossible. Besides, looking on the bright side, perhaps that hammer-blow had smashed Zhao Gao to death? Now that would be interesting.

And if the First Emperor were dead, there were two possibilities: one, he had left a testamentary edict; two, he had not.

If he had left an edict, it could only name the Young Master Fusu, because the Young Master Huhai was still young — thirteen or fourteen years of age. The state depended on an elder sovereign; even if the Emperor disliked Fusu, he would not choose a child ruler to ascend the throne.

Although Ziying accompanied the Emperor, he was merely a Fifth-Rank Grand Master, and also the son of the traitor Lord Chang'an; he had no qualifications whatsoever to inherit the throne.

If there were no edict, and the First Emperor had no crown prince, then a selection would have to be made from among the various princes.

It would likely fall to the three great figures — Li Si, Wang Ben, and Ye Teng — to deliberate and decide. According to traditional clan law, with a legitimate son, one appoints the legitimate; without a legitimate son, one appoints the eldest. In the absence of other candidates, Fusu was still the first heir.

And let us not forget, at this moment Fusu was not elsewhere — he was in Xianyang! And he was on very good terms with the Meng Tian brothers.

Meng Tian and Li Xin guarded the northwest with a great army of over a hundred thousand. Upon receiving the news, returning to the Guanzhong region to secure it would be as easy as flipping a hand. Li Si was a civil official; even if his son Li You held Sanchuan, facing Meng Tian, who could not be stopped at all, he would not dare act recklessly in the matter of imperial succession.

So, putting himself in Li Si's shoes, Heifu concluded that Li Si's optimal choice would be to confirm Fusu's succession, exchanging the merit of enthronement to continue serving as Chancellor. At most, he would pull in Wang Ben, making Wang Ben Grand Commandant; Li and Wang would cooperate, carving up the court and isolating the Commandant of Justice, Ye Teng.

"So, purely in terms of the impact on the central government, the First Emperor's passing at this moment might not necessarily be a bad thing. The timing is just right; power would transition smoothly."

But this state of affairs would last, at most, until the realm descended into chaos.

That's right — the realm descending into chaos!

Unlike a natural death, if the First Emperor died from an assassination, it would be like a signal, a signal stirring the remnants of the Six States to rise in rebellion!

The wind stirred by the little butterfly's wings had already profoundly affected the era; many places were no longer the same as before.

Not to mention other places, just take Qi. Because Heifu had come to Jiaodong as commandery governor, the situation had changed dramatically!

Although undercurrents surged in Qi, the Qin officials did not move against the various Tian clans, and the Tian clans did not rebel against the Qin dynasty. They would have limped along in this state of high autonomy until the end of Qin. Heifu, however, had stirred up these deep waters.

He had exterminated the Ye County Tian clan and forcibly relocated eight Jiaodong Tian clans in total. This style of violent demolition was clearly pouring oil on the fire of the barely maintained relationship between Qin officials and the Tian clans.

The balance had been broken; the situation in Qi was highly unstable. As long as the First Emperor lived, no one dared to act out of line and could only obediently await their fate. But if something happened to the First Emperor, among the seventy-two cities, as long as there were one or two Tian clans with backbone — who would rather shatter like jade than survive as mere tile — rising up on the news of the First Emperor's death, they might truly be able to stir up some serious trouble!

Jiaodong itself had no Tian clans left, but it was still surrounded by Langya, Linzi, and Jibei.

If only Qi rose in revolt, everything would still be manageable. But if all the lands east of the passes rebelled, Heifu would be in dire straits.

He had no confidence that, relying on a thousand or so Qin soldiers, a few thousand local commandery troops of questionable loyalty, and the recently subjugated ten-thousand-plus households of left-lane commoners who might shift with the wind at any moment, he could suppress an uprising. Holding Jiaodong would already be an achievement.

If the court dispatched troops too late, or the war went unfavorably, causing the entire east to rebel, Heifu would be surrounded on all sides by the gallant swordsmen of Qi and Chu, trapped in Jiaodong, this nook at the extreme east. In the end, being forced to flee east across the sea to Joseon was not impossible…

Tsk, in that case, he would truly become the shame of all transmigrators.

Although in the long run, Heifu was confident he could fight his way back, the process would still be a bit awkward. After the great chaos was quelled and the court situation stabilized, it would be very hard for Heifu to claim a share of the spoils. His ambition to become the de facto helmsman of the empire would be doubly difficult.

"Thank goodness I dealt with Liu Ji early…"

Heifu could not help grumbling to himself. The Child of the Plane was under his claws, ready to be crushed at any moment. In a perilous situation, nothing was more reassuring than this.

As for defecting to the anti-Qin camp as a Qin official? Well, it would be like Okamura Yasuji, whose hands were drenched in the blood of countless patriots, suddenly switching sides to join the Communists — would you believe it? The Xiang clan, Zhang Er, the various Tian clans — Heifu's enemies were truly not few.

Moreover, given Qin's strength, as long as the central government did not descend into chaos, it would be very hard for the anti-Qin heroes to win. Not to mention that history had been thrown into utter chaos by Heifu; Liu Ji, that main force, had already knelt, and Xiang Yu was still underage now, right? And he, together with his uncle Xiang Liang, had been relocated to the Guanzhong region to stay, living in Yueyang City. Heifu had also sent men to keep an eye on them.

He obviously did not know that the youth Xiang Liang kept by his side was actually Xiang Zhuang, fraudulently using Xiang Yu's name…

In short, after mulling it over, Heifu realized that if the Emperor passed away at this moment, it would be very disadvantageous for him.

"All my covert arrangements over these years would be completely disrupted. The things I've painstakingly built up would instead become a wedding dress for others. Even Jiaodong's new policies, which are just beginning to flourish, would have to be abandoned halfway…"

If the realm immediately descended into great chaos, then all this investigation of things, all this learning for practical application, all these cabbages and radishes — everything would have to be set aside. First, fight! Fight until the heavens and earth turned dark, then talk! One could only hope for a swift and decisive battle, so that Huaxia would shed less blood and Modu, that wild wolf, would not ultimately reap the benefits.

History would become like a runaway horse, no longer within Heifu's grasp. By the time he seized the reins again, perhaps twenty or thirty years would have passed.

A thing like the greater momentum — once you fail to seize it, reclaiming it is extremely difficult. Heifu could only secretly prepare while immediately sending trusted aides to Donghai Commandery to investigate the situation and establish contact with Ye Teng.

Fortunately, Heifu's worst-case scenario did not materialize. After a few days' delay, more detailed news arrived — news from Ye Teng!

"His Majesty is unharmed!"

……

After Ye Teng described the day's events in his letter, Heifu finally understood. That sudden iron awl had indeed struck the main carriage the Emperor was riding in, but it only hit the wheel, causing the carriage to overturn — it did not smash through the window.

Thinking about it, that large iron awl was really only about a hundred jin in weight, thrown by human hand, not a cannonball. But how big was Qin Shi Huang's Gold-Root Carriage? Two zhang long, one zhang wide! It needed six horses to pull it forward, and it was fully enclosed. Where exactly was the Emperor seated — front or back? An outsider had no way of knowing.

The assassin had to guess and accurately strike the Emperor's seated position from an extreme distance of over ten zhang away to kill with a single blow. Even a slight deviation would fail — the difficulty was extremely high.

Beyond that, there was one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news was that Zhao Gao seemed to have been injured in the incident, crippling one arm. It was said a panicked horse had trampled and broken the bone.

The bad news was that it was precisely thanks to Zhao Gao's superb driving skill, managing to force the carriage into a sharp turn, that the iron awl which would have struck the carriage roof ended up only hitting the wheel. Although the carriage overturned and the panicked horses bolted, at least Qin Shi Huang was not gravely wounded or killed on the spot.

Thus, although Zhao Gao had lost the use of one arm, what he gained in return would likely be promotion, ennoblement, and the Emperor's redoubled trust...

"Has Zhao Gao turned on some kind of cheat too?"

Heifu felt a bit irritated, but deep down, he found that he had actually breathed a sigh of relief at Qin Shi Huang's survival.

This vividly drawn emperor of the ages, who so desperately longed for immortality — yet all mortals must die, none can escape this curse of flesh and blood. It was just that Heifu felt the First Emperor of Qin should not die in such a wretched manner...

As for the First Emperor of Qin himself, he may have suffered a fright and minor injuries, but nothing serious. The only problem was that his movements were always deliberately shrouded in mystery, and after the assassination attempt he became doubly vigilant.

Even if he showed himself, letting the people of Donghai Commandery see he was unharmed, the geographical isolation of news meant other commanderies and counties could hardly have a television broadcast to witness the scene. Thus, spread by those with intent, rumors naturally swarmed up.

Even so, Heifu still could not fully set his mind at ease, until Qin Shi Huang learned that rumors were spreading everywhere and issued an oral decree. Not just in Jiaodong, but all commandery and county governors and magistrates in the Qi, Chu, and Liang regions were to beat drums before their office halls, assemble the common people, and proclaim this sentence to them:

"We are safe, and so the realm is safe — are the common people safe?"

This oral decree was very much in Qin Shi Huang's style: brief, not a single superfluous word added, yet the meaning was made perfectly clear!

To the officials and common people, this was the Emperor reporting his safety to them!

And to those with ulterior motives, this sentence was Qin Shi Huang's declaration of contempt, and the most resounding response to the rumors:

"Wretched subjects, We are perfectly fine!"

"Our realm is also untroubled. All your schemes are wasted effort. Behave yourselves — go do whatever you ought to be doing!"

Watching this single sentence shock the thousands gathered at the Jimo District School into utter silence, Heifu could not help but sigh with emotion. Only the First Emperor of Qin himself had such power — with one sentence, he could suppress the clamorous chaos!

After a long moment, the crowd finally reacted. Those who had already become law-abiding subjects of the authorities, the hired laborers of the eastern alleys who had grown accustomed to shouting "Long live the Emperor" three times at the imperial carriage during Qin Shi Huang's stay in Jimo, began one after another to pray for the Emperor's blessings and congratulate one another. The marketplace of Jimo seemed to return to its normal order.

This time, no one dared to spread rumors lightly anymore.

Because Qin Shi Huang was very likely truly still alive! He had even issued an oral decree, personally telling the people that he was perfectly fine!

For a time, petty villains shut their mouths, and silence reigned.

In any case, seeing this scene, Heifu, amid his emotions, could not help but recall a poem.

"On this tiny globe, a few flies batter themselves against the wall.

Buzzing and droning — a few shrill shrieks, a few pitiful sobs.

Ants climbing a locust tree boast of a great kingdom — how easy is it for a mayfly to talk of toppling a great tree!"

Posterity has a saying: All men must die, but some deaths are weightier than Mount Tai, while others are lighter than a goose feather!

Yet the weight of Qin Shi Huang's life and death was no longer merely Mount Tai — what sat on the other side of the scale was plainly half the realm!

This, perhaps, was the weight of a "great leader." His life or death could entirely serve as the dividing line of an era, like the sun and moon trading places.

"The lingering rays of the setting sun still blaze with ten thousand zhang of brilliance. Even after the First Emperor's passing, his residual might awed distant lands — how much more so while he still lives?"

All schemes ended here, but Heifu's gaze once again turned toward the distance.

"The undercurrents in Jiaodong have been quelled by a single sentence — but what of the other places?"

What he needed to consider next was the chain of consequences this unexpected event would trigger, and how he himself could reap the greatest profit amid the aftershocks!

……

PS: Chapter two in the afternoon, chapter three in the evening. Also, what I'm asking for isn't monthly tickets, it's event likes — anyone can give a free like at the end of any chapter. It stops at midnight tonight. Once the target is reached, the monthly ticket red envelopes double — go vote, go vote now.

(End of chapter)