While the Xiang Family group was raising hell in rebellion in Kuaiji, over in Fengyi of Pei Commandery, there was a man who was nearly numb with despair.
He was none other than Liu Ji, the wandering hero and Sishui Pavilion Chief who had met Xiang Yu and Xiang An once before—the third son of the Liu family.
"Why am I still running into this kind of bullshit when I'm already over forty?" He sat on a large rock by the roadside with a look of utter hopelessness, staring at the procession before him.
As the Pavilion Chief of Sishui, he was currently escorting conscript laborers to Xianyang. Xianyang was rebuilding the mausoleum on Mount Li and Afang Palace, requiring a vast number of workers. Laborers were therefore drafted from all over, with the local pavilion chiefs responsible for escorting them.
The Qin Dynasty's labor conscription was truly brutal.
Between garrisoning the borders and guarding cities, massive construction projects, regular military service, and workers building official roads, more than three million people had been conscripted. Yet the Qin Dynasty's registered population was only a little over twenty million!
And the work itself was extremely grueling. Of every ten laborers, only two returned home whole. Another two might make it back missing a piece or two. As for the rest, they truly ended up buried in Xianyang—if they were buried at all.
To say that the people feared conscription like wolves and tigers would not have been an exaggeration.
After all, everyone had family. No one could guarantee that they would be one of the two who came back intact.
So, some of the laborers in Liu Ji's escort party had secretly slipped away.
Liu Ji counted them and realized the numbers were off.
After walking a little farther, he discovered