The expression on his face was completely devoid of shock. In its place was a burning excitement that bordered on madness!
He saw a blade.
A blade even sharper and more terrifying than he had ever imagined!
A supreme, murderous weapon capable of helping him sever every single shackle in this realm!
"Zhao Gao!"
His voice rang out in the empty, vast hall like a thunderclap!
"Pass down My decree!"
"Summon High General Li Xin! Court Architect Li Si! Wei Liao! Enter the palace to discuss matters immediately!"
"At once!"
Zhao Gao trembled violently from the terrifying aura that suddenly erupted from Ying Zheng, and he scrambled away on hands and knees.
"As you command! As you command!"
Zhangtai Hall returned to silence once again.
Ying Zheng bent down and picked up the bamboo slip that had fallen onto the sand table.
He looked at that name, looked at that number, and chuckled softly.
The laughter grew louder and more unrestrained, finally turning into a roar that looked down upon the entire world!
"Hahahaha! Good! A fine Wei Zhe! A fine monstrosity of Great Qin!"
A short moment later.
Three figures walked hurriedly into Zhangtai Hall.
Li Xin, who led the way, was still wearing his sleeping robes with only an outer garment draped over him, obviously just woken from his dreams.
Li Si and Wei Liao, who followed behind him, were also disheveled and wore grave expressions.
"Your ministers pay respects to the Great King!"
The three of them bowed in unison, their hearts filled with doubt and unease.
An urgent summons in the middle of the night must mean a major event.
"Great King, has the situation on the northern front changed?" As a military commander, Li Xin was naturally most concerned about the war.
Ying Zheng turned around. The excitement and fanaticism on his face had already vanished completely, replaced by an unfathomable calm.
"Not the northern front."
He walked over to the sand table, reached out his hand, and gently pushed over the chess piece representing Yiyang.
"It is the southern front. The Vanguard Camp has won."
Upon hearing this, Li Xin relaxed his tense body, and joy appeared on his face.
"Good! Meng Tian truly lives up to expectations! With our first battle won, our army's morale will surely soar!"
Li Si also stroked his beard and smiled. "The Great King possesses sagely calculations; this is the heavens blessing our Great Qin. The destruction of Han is within reach!"
Wei Liao also nodded in praise.
In their view, this was merely an expected victory.
"The heavens bless?"
The corner of Ying Zheng's mouth curved into an inexplicable smile.
He casually tossed the bamboo slip onto the desk in front of the three of them.
"Take a look for yourselves."
"See whether it is the heavens blessing Great Qin, or if some... monster has emerged."
The three of them felt a chill in their hearts, all sensing the abnormality in Ying Zheng's tone.
Li Si was the closest. He stepped forward and picked up the bamboo slip.
He only took a single glance, and the face that always wore a confident smile instantly froze.
His hand began to tremble slightly.
"This... this... over ten thousand beheadings? Twenty thousand captives? Our casualties... fewer than five hundred?"
Li Si's voice became shrill from extreme shock; he could not believe his eyes.
"What?!"
Hearing this, Li Xin charged forward in a single bound, snatching the bamboo slip right out of Li Si's hands.
As the High General of Great Qin, he knew better than anyone what this casualty ratio meant.
When his gaze fell upon Wei Zhe's name and the blood-red numbers trailing behind it, this old general—who had lived a lifelong military career and climbed out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood—suffered a violent sway!
"Thud."
The bamboo slip in his hand slipped once more.
Li Xin's eyes stared fixedly at the ground, his lips trembling, yet he could not utter a single word.
He was not shocked.
He was terrified.
It was the most primal terror born from a pure soldier facing another form of martial might that defied mortal limits and could not be understood!
State Grandee Wei Liao picked up the bamboo slip.
This strategist, well-versed in the military arts of the world and skilled in unorthodox ploys, stood frozen in place after reading it.
He muttered to himself.
"A single man broke the formation, beheaded the general, and forced a surrender..."
"This... this is not the art of war, this is... gods and devils..."
The entire Zhangtai Hall fell into a dead silence.
Only the ragged, bellows-like breathing of the three great ministers of Qin could be heard.
After a long while, Ying Zheng's icy voice slowly sounded.
"Three beloved ministers."
"Now, tell Us."
"This monstrosity, how should We..."
"Reward him?"
"How should he be rewarded?"
The three chilling words pressed down like three great mountains upon the hearts of the three high ministers in the hall.
The air in Zhangtai Hall seemed to freeze at this moment.
Li Xin's weather-beaten old face was stark white. He looked at the bamboo slip on the ground as if looking at a venomous snake poised to strike.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Wei Liao's temples; the military strategies and tactical planning he took such pride in appeared pale and powerless before this simple, brutal battle report.
Only Li Si, after his initial stiffness, forced himself to calm down.
His deep pupils flickered rapidly, his brain operating at a terrifying speed.
Ying Zheng's gaze pierced straight toward him like a sharp sword.
"Court Architect, you understand the laws of Great Qin best."
"Tell Us, and also tell the High General and the State Grandee."
"According to the laws of Lord Shang, what reward does such a merit warrant?"
Li Si's heart gave a fierce twitch.
He bowed, his voice sounding somewhat dry from the effort of suppression.
"Reporting to the Great King, according to our Great Qin's twenty-rank nobility system, for every first-class enemy head severed, one's nobility rank rises by one level."
"Wei Zhe took one hundred ninety-six heads, which makes..."
His voice halted; he dared not speak the numbers that followed.
"Continue," Ying Zheng said, his voice devoid of the slightest ripple.
"...which makes the merit of one hundred ninety-six ranks," Li Si forced out the words with difficulty.
"Furthermore, Bao Yuan was a high general of Han, holding a rank equivalent to our Great Qin's Nine Ministers. To sever his head, according to the law, warrants a leap in rewards, raising his nobility by five ranks!"
"Combined... the combined merit is enough to let this man leap from a commoner by nine consecutive ranks, granting him the title of..."
Li Si's lips were trembling.
"Ninth Rank Fifth Official!"
Fifth Official!
The moment these three words came out, the bodies of both Li Xin and Wei Liao swayed imperceptibly.
What concept was that?
That was a true aristocrat in the imperial court who could participate in political discussions, possess a fief, and travel with chariots, horses, and attendants!
It was a ceiling that countless soldiers could fight and bleed for an entire lifetime on the battlefield and still never touch!
A new recruit who had enlisted less than three months ago was going to sit on equal footing with these high ministers after a single battle?
This was no longer a reward.
This was treating the century-old national laws of Great Qin as an enormous, ridiculous joke!
As soon as Li Si finished speaking, he immediately kowtowed to the ground.
"Great King! This minister believes this reward is inappropriate!"
He preempted everyone else to state his position.
"The military merit nobility system is the foundational pillar of our Great Qin's strength and must not be shaken. Yet this Wei Zhe is far too young, his foundation too shallow, and to suddenly ascend to a high position will surely make it hard to convince the masses!"
"Veteran generals in the army and titled nobles in the court will inevitably harbor grievances. Once public sentiment is unsettled, it will bring no benefit to the state!"
"Moreover, this man has a humble background and an untried disposition. To suddenly gain immense authority, should he breed arrogance, it might become a source of disaster! I beg the Great King to think twice!"
Every word he spoke came from the heart, each sentence uttered for the sake of the state and its altars.
Yet Li Xin and Wei Liao both detected a hint of something else within his words.
Wei Zhe originated from Shangcai.
That was Li Si's own fief.
A monstrosity that had emerged from right under his nose, about whom he knew nothing whatsoever, was now soaring straight to the heavens, breaking free of his control.
He was afraid.
At that moment, a clear and resolute voice resounded through the grand hall.
"The Court Architect speaks incorrectly!"
Everyone followed the voice and saw a young official clad in court robes, possessing a handsome visage, step out from the shadows at the side of the hall.
He was none other than Meng Tian's younger brother, Meng Yi, who currently served as Gentleman of the Household in the court.
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