Chapter 7 Section five

The story is over. The exquisite bird copper lamp is still burning quietly, and the hot millet wine has long been cold. Han Dao: "What happened next?" Zhong Xiu said: "Just as the Guowei predicted, the empire is going to perish step by step, and no one can save her fate." Han Dao said, "I'm talking about the Lord Donghai. Didn't he say that he had some kind of immortality? The first emperor died in the sand dunes without trial? Didn't he get punished for this?" Zhong Xiu smiled desolately, and said, "He won't. Because he only stayed with Shi Huangdi for half a year before leaving."

Han Dao said, "Half a year? Could it be that Emperor Shihuang has been..." Zhongxiu said: "I said before, he is an evildoer. The evildoer doesn't have to keep chattering around the king. Half a year is enough to make the first emperor fall into the dream of becoming a fairy forever. On the day he suddenly disappeared, the first emperor seemed to go crazy. In the same way, I personally interrogated everyone who was ordered to wait for Lord Donghai. Then I killed them all. The next step is to search, to find. Xianyang was almost dug three feet into the ground, and the counties and counties also received his portrait and search secret orders The first emperor also sent Xu Shi to lead a group of people to search at sea, and he himself used the name of a tour to search around. During that time, the emperor looked very scary, his eyes seemed to be shooting fire, and he often walked around alone with his hands behind his back. Gritting his teeth and talking to himself. I don’t know what he’s cursing, but I just find it strange that even if Mr. Donghai’s resignation made his wish come true, he wouldn’t be so angry! It’s not the first time he’s been deceived by an alchemist. Later, his temperament became more and more elusive and moody. He was completely obsessed with alchemy, but sometimes he would point at the court warlocks and yell at them, calling them useless and deceiving the world. He said: "Only Mr. Donghai It's true, you're all fake!fake! "One year, he even buried more than 460 alchemists and Confucian scholars alive in a fit of anger, saying: "See who will dare to deceive me in the future!"Young Master Fusu was sent to Shangjun just because he said a few words about this matter.But until he passed away on the last parade, he never saw that Donghai Lord again. "

Han Dao said, "You said Qin Shihuang once drew his portrait to look for him? Does that portrait still exist?" Zhongxiu said: "Now the world is in chaos, and most of the local government offices have been destroyed. I'm afraid there will be no such portrait. There should be a picture in the archives of the palace, but it's not sure. It's been so long, and when Zhao Gao was in charge of the government, You messed up everything...By the way, aren’t you from the Chu army? Now the Chu army has taken over all the palace treasuries and is counting and moving the utensils, you can ask.”

Han Xin smiled bitterly, and said, "They are only interested in gold, silver and jewelry, and Liu Bang took all the books and documents." "Oh?" Zhong Xiu said thoughtfully, "Liu Bang is smarter than your king." Han Xin sighed and declined to comment. Zhong Xiu said: "But if that's the case, there's one more thing you might be able to see: the Mirror of Mind. That's the only thing left by Lord Donghai to Emperor Shi Huang." Han Dao said: "According to the state of mind! Is it the mirror your Guowei mentioned?" Zhongxiu said: "Yes. I have never seen the mirror in the harem before. But according to some servants, it can really reflect people's internal organs. What's more, when a person stands in front, the printed township is actually It’s not just about the same thing. The mirror can see the disease in the human body, but the emperor uses it more often to find the servants in the palace to see if they have any dissatisfaction. If there is, he will be executed on the spot.”

Zhong Xiu said: "It is said that if a woman has evil intentions, she will be terrified. But I don't believe it, it may be caused by nervousness. Those women from the Six Kingdoms who were captured in the palace, how many of them were not frightened when they first saw the Emperor? I guess it was because of this. A mirror must have killed many innocent women. Alas!" After leaving Zhongxiu's house, it was nearly dawn. One night, he heard a very long and ridiculous story. The story is very interesting.But returning to reality and imagining, what does that have to do with your own destiny?

Yes, all of this leads to him meeting the master, but that's just a trivial detail in the whole story.And he himself is the most insignificant figure among them—no, he is not even a task, he is just a tool used by the master to prove his worth. No one has ever really cared about or appreciated him, it's just the past or the present. The cold wind blowing on the body in the morning was bitingly cold.He folded his arms involuntarily. On the street, a few withered and yellow leaves were blown by the north wind and swirled all over the place.He thinks that he is also like this falling dead leaf, lonely and helpless, engulfed by the storm of troubled times, and he doesn't know where it will blow.

He slowly walked back to the barracks, and the people in the camp said: "Where did you go? Your Majesty has sent people to look for you several times, and Yafu has also looked for you twice." Han Xin was surprised: "Looking for me? Your Majesty and Yafu are looking for me? What's the matter?" The man said: "I don't know. You can ask yourself. It seems that the king is in a hurry, you'd better hurry up." Han Xin responded and went out. Not long after, Fan Zeng hurried over and asked, "Where's Han Xin? Are you back?" The people in the same camp said: "I'm back."

Fan Zeng breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's good to be back. I thought he... By the way, where is he now?" The people in the same camp said: "I'm going to see the king." "Going to see the king?" Fan Zeng asked strangely, "Does the king need anything from him?" Humanity from the camp said: "Yeah, I don't know what's going on, but I sent people three or four times. As soon as he came back, we told him, and he left." Fan Zeng sat down and said to himself doubtfully, "It's strange, this time the king is interested in him?"

Fan Zeng's elbow brought a chipped and incomplete bamboo slip to the ground. Fan Zeng picked it up and looked at it casually, and his eyes lit up immediately.The incomplete bamboo slips read: "Guanzhong... has the solidity of the Wei letter, the danger of the mountains and rivers, this is the karma of the emperor of all ages, and it must not be discarded lightly. However..." The rest of the characters are unclear. Fan Zeng raised his head and said, "Who wrote this? It's a good idea." Humanity from the same camp said: "Han Xin wrote it, wrote and revised it all night. We don't have that kind of leisure!"

"Well, is that so?" Fan Zeng took over the fragmented couple of slips on the case one by one, nodded from time to time and said to himself, "Well, that's right, it makes sense." Suddenly, holding a bamboo slip, he stood up abruptly, his hands trembling slightly.On the bamboo slips it was written: "Zhongchen, the halberd-handling man, believed in his deadly words: Your Majesty..." The words on the back were scraped to a point where it was not light. Fan Zeng said: "This... so it turned out to be his memorial to the king?" The fellow camper said: "Probably so! Why don't you write so seriously?"

Fan Zeng paused and said, "Oops! Just yesterday a bookworm contradicted the king over Dingdu and was killed. Why is he at this time... Oh! How long has he been with the king?" With a bang, the memorial was smashed to Han Xin's feet. "Do you want to do this overlord of Western Chu?" Xiang Yu said angrily, "It was wrong to kill Ziying, it was wrong to make Pengcheng the capital, it was wrong to give Hanzhong to Liu Bang, it was wrong to seal Tianshi, it was wrong to seal Zhaoxie, it was wrong Zhang Er, Chen Yu, Zang Tu... are all wrong! Is it true that I have done nothing right since I entered the customs? If I don’t listen to you, I will repeat the same mistakes of the Qin Dynasty? Hey, it’s terrible, what are you doing? Amazing words! Who conquered and destroyed the Qin Dynasty? It was me! I saved the world from the fire and water, liberated the people from the upside down, and restored the six kingdoms. Who would not be grateful to me? Who would not say that I handled it properly? You actually put me and That stupid king? You know a fart!" Han Xin looked at the scattered brochures under his feet and remained motionless.After Xiang Yu finished cursing, he calmly said: "Now Your Majesty is doing the rewarding business. Many people praise His Majesty just to get more benefits when entrusting him. They don't care about His Majesty's country, they only care about their own interests. Your Majesty should not be rewarded." The praise of such a person blinds..." "Presumptuous!" Xiang Yu roared, "I can't tell the truth? You want to teach me a lesson? Oh, those who say good things about me are flattering me. If you point your nose and scold me like this, should I listen carefully? Don’t forget your identity! How dare you talk to me like this, a halberd-handler? You’re out of your mind! Come on! Pull him down and whip... no, seventy sticks!" Han Xin looked at Xiang Yu in astonishment, more surprised than afraid. Two guards came over from left to right and grabbed Han Xin's arm. "Stop!" With a majestic shout, Fan Zeng stepped into the palace gate.The two guards couldn't help but let go of their hands. Xiang Yu said, "Yafu, are you here?" Fan Zeng walked to Han Xin's side and said, "Go out first and wait for me outside, I have something to tell you later." Han Dao said, "Yes." He raised his head and gave Fan Zeng a grateful look, and then backed out. Fan Zeng said to the surrounding guards: "You all go down too." The guards looked at Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu waved and said, "Go down." Everyone retreated, and the door of the palace was closed. Fan Zeng bent down to pick up the memorabilia on the ground, flipped through it, and said, "Just for this, you want to beat him?" Xiang Yu said bitterly: "It's not just that. Yafu, you didn't see the tone he spoke just now, you're teaching me a lesson! It's crazy. If you don't give him some trouble, I think he will... ..." Fan Zeng said: "Aji, no matter what Han Xin wrote or said, I just ask you one question: Can you let him go?" "I can't do it!" Xiang Yu turned his head away and said, "Yafu, you don't know how annoying his words are..." "Okay," Fan Zeng said, "Then you simply kill him!" "Kill him!" Xiang Yu was taken aback, turned around, and said, "But...but he's not guilty of death." Fan Zeng sat down, put his hand on Xiang Yu's shoulder, and said word by word: "Ah Ji, do you know what is meant by 'a scholar can be killed but not humiliated'? For a person like him, you either don't touch a single hair of him, or you just put him in the same place. He killed him. If you humiliate him and let him live again, one day he will suffer backlash!" Fan Zeng's expression and tone were very serious.But Xiang Yu looked at him, suddenly smiled, and said, "Why didn't I hear that he "backbited" the kid who forced him to drill into his crotch?" Fan Zeng said: "The time has not yet come. Ji, this is not a joke, have you thought about it? How are you going to deal with him?" Xiang Yu said helplessly: "Okay, then for Yafu's sake, let him off this time." Fan Zeng seemed a little disappointed, and said, "Oh! So be it." Xiang Yu asked strangely: "So? Yafu, are you still not satisfied?" Fan Zeng shook his head, sighed, stood up and walked out. Xiang Yu said, "Yafu, didn't I do what you wanted?" Fan Zeng stopped, turned around, and said, "For your sake, I would rather you choose to kill him." The complex road rising in the sky connects majestic and magnificent palaces, like a bridge across the Milky Way. Fan Zeng and Han Xin walked gently on a high road.From there, you can see the magnificent and unfinished Efang Palace in Shanglin Garden in Weinan from a distance.Down the road again, there are soldiers of the Chu army who are carrying property in an endless stream.They busily walked between the various palaces, carrying their hands on their shoulders, and transported out the treasures gathered by the empire in the past in boxes and cages, and several generals shouted and commanded loudly among them. Fan Zeng walked slowly, and said, "I agree with every word you said. Aji's entrustment was indeed too hasty, leaving a lot of hidden dangers, and the matter of Dingdu is also the same. You are wronged today, For my sake, don't take it personally, okay? Han Xin looked at the row upon row of palaces in the distance, smiled lightly, and said, "Yafu, the matter is over, it's nothing." Fan Zeng stopped and stared at Han Xin.After a while, he sighed and said: "You are too scheming, I can't see through you. But whether you are sincere or perfunctory, can you listen to a few words from the heart of an old man? I know, you are very intelligent. But What a counselor has to do is not to put forward the most correct suggestion, but to put forward the most effective suggestion. If you know that a kind of suggestion is unacceptable to the king, or the king has made a mistake but it is irreparable, then there is no need to say it. Whether the ability can be brought into play depends on whether it can be trusted and reused by the king. If you are disqualified from speaking because you offend the king, then what is the use of brilliant insights?" Han Xin respectfully said: "What Yafu said is very true." Fan Zeng frowned.He doubted the respectful attitude of the young man in front of him, but he had no choice but to say, "I don't know what's on your mind. If you don't listen, I can't help it. A Ji is young, and so are you." .Actually, you should be able to get along very well. I really don’t know how this happened. I’m getting old, and I wanted to ask you to replace me... Sigh!” Fan Zeng shook his head, sighed again, and staggered forward slowly. Han Xin suddenly developed a feeling of sympathy for the gray-haired old man.This old man bears too many burdens: the righteousness of the monarch and his ministers, the heavy entrustment, and even a feeling similar to the licking of the father's generation to the children and grandchildren-this point Xu even Fan Zeng himself is not aware of.All this weighed heavily on his old body. But he can't stay because of his sympathy for an old man, and spend all his efforts on a person who is completely unworthy of help—this time he wrote the letter, it was his last temptation to Xiang Yu.Now, he has completely given up hope on Xiang Yu. Fan Zeng said again: "Han Xin, do you feel that Aji has changed recently?" Han Dao said: "Well, it seems to be a little bit. Since entering Xianyang, the king has not listened to persuasion much, and the killing is too heavy. Killing and surrendering generals is a taboo. The king should not kill Qin Ziying." Fan Zeng said: "Yes, there is still the matter of setting the capital, so many people can't persuade him. He was not like this before. Power is such a thing!" Han Xin vaguely felt that it wasn't entirely caused by power, there seemed to be something else, but he couldn't say it, so he just kept silent. At the end of the complex road is a palace with carved beams and painted buildings.Walking in, there are people coming and going inside, and the noise is extraordinary.The threshold of the palace gate has been pried off, so that the carriage can be driven in directly, and the bolts of brocade silk and various copper and lacquerware can be loaded.Precious gold and jewelry are neatly arranged on a large lacquer case, and a literary historian is carefully counting and registering them.Seeing Fan Zeng coming, he knelt down and saluted. Fan Zeng waved his hand and said, "Do your work." He walked along the lacquer desk.Golden toads, coral trees, jade ruyis, carved ivory tubes... colorful and dazzling.There was no joy on Fan Zeng's face, but he seemed preoccupied.Grabbing a handful of pearls casually, he let go of his fingers and watched the crystal clear and round pearls fall back into the dowry, and said, "Han Xin, what do you find missing in these palaces in Xianyang?" Han Dao said: "There are many belongings, but there are few books and documents." Fan Zeng nodded, and said worriedly: "You are the only one who noticed this. They are all fascinated by the beauties here, who cares about this? I told A Ji, and he didn't care at all. Alas! Sooner or later, Liu Bang will become our confidant's serious trouble." Han Xin was silent. After leaving the temple and walking for a while, Fan Zeng suddenly stopped and said, "Aside from books and documents, I always feel that there is one thing missing here, and it is a very important thing, but I just want to come. Han Xin, can you check the book for me? When people get old, their brains don’t work well.” Han Dao said: "No way, jade seals, talisman festivals, ancestral temple ritual utensils...we got all the important things!" Fan Zeng shook his head and said: "No, there must be something else, I have this feeling. Go find it. The list of all the property of Qin State we got this time is in the military master's book. You can check it, maybe you can find it. What do you think of?" The state of Qin has too many properties, and the list is piled up like a hill. Han Xin sat down and flipped through the volumes one by one.He has the ability to see and see ten lines, but even so, it took him nearly three hours to read all the handbooks.After closing the last bamboo slip, he began to meditate with his eyes closed. The chief secretary said strangely: "Han Langzhong, what are you looking for? Have you found it? Do you want me to help? Yafu asked me to try my best to help you." Han Xin was silent. After a while, he opened his eyes, smiled slightly, and said, "No, I already know. Thank you for your kindness." After speaking, he stood up, rubbed his numb legs, and walked out go. The Master Bookkeeper looked at his back in bewilderment. "You already know?" Fan Zeng said in surprise, "You found it so quickly? What is missing?" Han Dao said: "Jiuding." Fan Zeng suddenly realized: "So it's this... I said it must be something very important, but I just can't remember it. That's right, it's the national treasure of this town." Suddenly there was worry in his eyes, "Jiuding, Jiuding, it has been passed down since ancient times. , Those who win the Jiuding will win the world. Now the Jiuding is not in A Ji's hands... Sigh!" Seeing Han Xin again, Zhong Xiu felt a little strange. "What about your master," Zhong Xiu said, "Didn't I tell you all about it?" Han Dao said: "No, it's something else. Sir, I have a lot of knowledge. I want to ask you one thing: Why is the Nine Cauldrons so important in the legend? Isn't it just the Nine Cauldrons?" Zhong Xiudao: "Nine tripods are not nine tripods, but only one tripod. The name of this tripod is 'Jiuding'. According to legend, it was made by Xia Yu gathering gold from Kyushu. It symbolizes the world of Kyushu, so it is called 'Jiuding'. Because of this, it has become a symbol of power, almost as important as the jade seal. Back then, the king of Chu Zhuang just asked the weight of the tripod, which shocked the Zhou Dynasty, which is the reason.” Han Dao said: "So that's the case, I'm really ignorant. Then I would like to ask, sir: Is the Jiuding very big?" Zhong Xiu said: "I don't know about it. But it is said that when casting the tripod, even the tribute from the barbarians in the distance was used. It should not be small." Han Dao said, "Why, sir, have you never seen Jiuding?" Zhongxiu said, "Yes." Han Xin was surprised and said: Isn't sir a court official?How could such a township jade have never been seen before? " Zhongxiu said: "Not only me, I have never seen civil and military officials in the whole dynasty." Han Xin became more and more curious as he heard it, and said, "What's going on? Isn't the Jiuding a ritual vessel? Isn't it to be taken out during sacrifices?" Zhong Xiu shook his head and said, "Jiuding is not an ordinary Ding Yi tool. I don't even know what it is used for. I only know that it is an unknown thing to people other than the Son of Heaven." Han Xin was taken aback, and said, "What do you mean, sir?" Zhong Xiu said: "Forty-nine years ago... yes, it was forty-nine years ago. I remember it very clearly. It was the fifty-second year of King Zhaoxiang, when the Qin army invaded Luoyi, the capital of Zhou, and lasted for eight hundred years In this way, the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed by our Qin State. The strange thing is that after the capture of Luoyi, the jade seal of the Zhou Dynasty was found, the ritual vessels of the ancestral temple were found, but the Jiuding was not found. The soldiers were not reconciled and arrested the Zhou Palace Zhong's eunuchs and maids interrogated him to find out the whereabouts of Jiuding. All the people who were interrogated said the same thing: only the emperor can touch Jiuding. Except for the kings of Zhou, no one has ever seen Jiuding—the most trusted servant is no exception. But King Nan of Zhou has passed away, so we can’t bring up the deceased to ask questions, right? So the soldiers of the Qin Army could only search separately. They moved the entire royal city back and forth like a pair of scorpions, almost turned it upside down, and finally found a The Jiuding was found in the labyrinth with a tight layout. They happily carried the Jiuding out, transported it back to Xianyang, and presented it to King Zhaoxiang. King Zhaoxiang ordered that after ten days of drinking, he would be given a rank of honor. Guess what happened to those soldiers gone?" Han Dao said, "Of course I was rewarded heavily." Zhong Xiu said: "A big reward? After returning to Xianyang, all the soldiers who had contacted, escorted, or even seen Jiuding were invited to the celebration banquet in the palace. Afterwards, none of these people came back alive!" Han Xin was shocked and said: "Finding Jiuding is a great achievement, why don't you reward and punish?" Zhongxiu said: "Who said no rewards? Rewards. The rewards that King Zhaoxiang gave to the families of those soldiers were three times the rewards for military exploits! As for those soldiers, it was not painful to die. The people who restrained said that there was no one on the corpses. Scars, should be death by drinking poison. But everyone knows why, why both rewards and death." Han Dao said: "Then...how did Jiuding deal with it?" Zhongxiu said: "All subsequent kings of Qin, like the previous emperor of Zhou, kept the Nine Tripods tightly hidden and did not allow anyone to approach them. Over the years, only when King Zhuang Xiang died, an eunuch once took advantage of the chaos of the national funeral, Peeped at the secret room where Jiuding was placed. As soon as the first emperor ascended the throne, he immediately ordered him to be killed. At that time, Xiangguo Lu Buwei was in power, and Lu Xiangguo advised him not to kill people right after he took the throne. It was very unknown. But he didn't listen and said:' Unless I don’t want to be the King of Qin!’ Then Lu Xiangguo could only follow him. Can you believe it? He was only thirteen years old that year!” Han Dao said, "Why? I just took a look." Zhongxiu said: "So the Jiuding is an unknown thing." Han Xin thought for a while and said, "Did the eunuch tell anyone about Jiuding after peeping and before he was killed?" Zhong Xiu said: "I said it, just a few words, secretly told his brother. Later, it spread secretly, but no one understood the meaning of this sentence." Han Dao: "Which two sentences?" Zhong Xiu said: "The first sentence is 'Jiuding is not a tripod', and the second sentence is 'That thing can attract ghosts'." Han Xin was taken aback and said, "What does this mean?" Zhong Xiu shook his head and said, "I don't know. Everyone is dead, so I'm afraid no one will know what these two strange words really mean." Han Dao said: "Could it be that no one has ever seen Jiuding and survived? Except for the king?" A strange look suddenly appeared on Zhongxiu's face, and he said, "Yes." Han Dao: "Yes? Who?" Zhong Xiu said slowly: "Do you still remember the Donghai Lord I told you about?" Han Xin said unexpectedly, "He? That immortal warlock?" Zhong Xiu nodded and said: "Yes, that's him. As far as I know, he is the only one who has entered the secret room and survived. And it was Emperor Shi Huang who took him there at that time. He has been in for a long time , I don’t even know what I’m doing!” Han Dao said, "How could a quack warlock be interested in Jiuding?" Zhongxiu said: "Who knows? Maybe he thinks it has something to do with alchemy. By the way, it's a coincidence that he left without saying goodbye the next day after taking the secret room. Well, maybe it's this The masculine power of the country's most important weapon suppressed his sorcery, making him unable to continue playing. From this point of view, this thing is not completely unknown."