Qin Official

When Zhongli Mei was brought to Chenggao Pass Mansion, Heifu was standing in the courtyard shooting a crossbow.

What he was shooting at was a dummy hanging on a tree. Heifu was dressed in powerful clothing and holding an ancient Qin-hand crossbow. Every time he fired his arrow, he hit the vital part of the dummy fifty steps away, whether on the head, chest, or abdomen.

Of course, there are also occasional shots in the legs and feet.

After Chen Hui reported that the person had been brought, Heifu put down his crossbow, turned around, and saw Zhongli Mei who was tightly tied with ropes by the guards, and even shackled to make it difficult to move.

Zhongli Mei was pinned to the ground. Heifu approached him, knelt down and looked at his appearance carefully. After looking at it for a long time, he sighed:

"It is indeed you. The thief who escaped from me eighteen years ago, even though he is wearing armor and growing a beard, I can still recognize you."

He pointed at the dummy behind him that was full of arrows: "It's much harder to hit the legs and feet than the chest and abdomen. I'm right, Ao... no, it should be Zhongli Mei. If you hadn't shown mercy with your arrows that day, There is no such thing as Mr. Xia in this world."

Zhongli Mei raised his head and said, "I also recognize you. The black-faced pavilion chief back then ruthlessly brought more than a hundred people in Blind Mountain to justice, but in order to help an innocent public servant, he gave him four thousand for nothing. Qian, I committed a murder and wanted to return to Chu State, but you were able to find out through clues. I have never seen such a capable pavilion chief before. "

Hei Fu nodded: "I have never encountered such a difficult thief as you before that."

The two fell into silence immediately, as if they were caught in memories of the Anlu mountains and forests, the Qinchu border eighteen years ago, the selfless pursuit, the thrilling confrontation between police and criminals, and the momentary fear of life and death.

Zhongli Mei burst out laughing, followed closely by Heifu:

"It's still as good as before. Although I am the meanest and humblest Qin official, a mere pavilion chief. I only catch thieves and eliminate evil, handle cases, investigate cases, and ensure safety for ten miles, but I live a very fulfilling life."

He is just like this, but he has been pushed to the forefront little by little by this era.

There is no other way. If you don't follow the trend, you can only be knocked down by the tide and become a simple name on the slip: Heifu.

And what alerted him was precisely Zhongli Mei's arrow!

"I returned that arrow of yours at Runan Ferry. That Chu Qicong escaped with injuries, are you right?"

Zhong Lizhen said: "It is indeed me, but Mr. Xia is merciless and wants to kill me."

Hei Fu spread his hands: "This is obviously what you said when you left that day, saying that Qin and Chu will fight in the near future. You and I may meet again on the battlefield! At that time, we will greet each other with fighting. I remember clearly Clearly!"

Zhongli Mei nodded: "That's true. Knowing that the battle in Linyang was a public one, I'm convinced."

Cherishing each other was probably the reason why Zhongli Mei didn't kill him directly back then. He regarded himself as a scholar and also recognized the other person as a "scholar".

Just like that, Hei Fu sat on the steps and talked to him. It sounded a bit like old friends meeting each other, and they were having a good time.

If it weren't for one sitting high on the steps, one would be a prisoner on the steps, tied tightly with a rope.

Zhongli Mei had been tied for a long time, and the skin on his wrists was broken, and the blood flow was not smooth. He could not help but grin, and Heifu smiled playfully: "Are you trying to say that the binding is too urgent, please beg for mercy?"

"It's indeed very tight." Zhongli Mei raised the heavy shackles and said, "Can you loosen them a little?"

But Hei Fu had no intention of letting him go, and joked: "The tiger tying has to be tight, not to mention, this is the French Open that is 18 years late, you just have to bear it first, and..."

Hei Fu looked at Chen Hui: "I heard that you want to surrender to me?"

Zhong Limei said: "Xia Gong also saw that the Xiang family did not save me. I held on to the isolated city for many days. I asked myself that I would not let the Xiang family down. Since the regent is tolerant and does not bear the grudge, thousands of people under my command can be freed." , Zhongli Mei is willing to surrender!"

Heifu smiled and said: "Okay, good birds choose trees to roost in. Many people have said this to me when they came to seek refuge, but you... Zhongli Mei!"

He stopped smiling, pointed at Zhongli Mei and said: "I just don't believe that Zhongli Mei, who was able to sneak into Qin alone for the sake of the Chu Kingdom, and who has been running around seeking to restore the country for more than ten years after the country's fall, will surrender!"

Zhongli Mei denied it flatly: "Xia Gong, I want Chu State to get away from the disaster of war as soon as possible."

"Xia Gong must remember that eighteen years ago, with my ability, I could escape quietly at any time. Why did I delay the crime until it happened? I had to take several other mediocre farmers with me, even using my body as bait. , to buy time for the six people who can’t ride a horse? In fact, they are not Chu State craftsmen, they are just ordinary people who can’t survive in Chu State.”

"At the beginning, I crossed the river among the refugees from Chu State, hiding my identity. After arriving in Qin State, everyone discovered that there was no good life as rumored. There was not much difference between Qin and Chu. As a person who has perished, It was so difficult to be treated fairly in a foreign country, so everyone regretted it and wanted to escape back to Chu State. Although it was not much better there, at least it was their hometown and they still had relatives."

"It's not difficult for me to leave alone, but if I leave them alone and are discovered later, everyone will have to serve their sentences together. I don't want others to suffer for me, so I want to bribe the prison gate to forge a test for us. , who expected that he would regret it midway, so I had no choice but to kill him... This is the reason for that case."

"In order to save six Chu people, I was willing to take risks."

"Today, we are willing not to fight just to save thousands of people in the city."

"Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the situation in the world has been decided. Why should the millions of people in Chu deserve to be punished? The Xiang family has brought about its own destruction, but the Chu people do not need to be buried with them!"

"Therefore I am willing to surrender to Duke Xia. The only problem Duke Xia has is the Chu people's dissatisfaction. Everyone in Chu knows the enmity between the regent and me. If the regent can release me, then the people of Chu will realize that they will not have to suffer revenge and will have no intention of resisting. I am willing to recruit the ministers of Chu to surrender as regent. If this is the case, it will not be difficult for Chu to be determined!"

Heifu seemed a little moved by these half-truths and half-false words from the bottom of his heart: "Sounds good."

"But Zhongli Mei."

He suddenly smiled again and said: "Did you really understand the situation by doing this? Or are you still stubborn and want to use these words to gain a foothold in our army, slowly gain my trust, and finally assassinate me to do it for you?" Chu has won a chance to survive!?"

"You want to be Yaoli who assassinates Qing Ji from behind."

"Or is it the second Gao Jianli who is hiding in the Qin Palace and assassinating the First Emperor?"

…

Following Heifu's sudden change of attitude, Zhong Lizhen was pushed to the ground again by the guards, with his face pressed against the ground.

"I know what you're planning."

At this moment, Heifu was truly condescending, pointing at Zhongli Mei and saying:

"I've seen too many people like you."

"For example, Gao Jianli was blinded by smoke ten years ago. As a palace music official, he still did not forget to avenge Jingke and the Yan Kingdom. I hurried into the palace that day, intending to stop this, not only to protect the first emperor, but also to save him."

"No, we can't say it was to save him." Heifu shook his head.

"What I want to save is Qin Shi Huang's growing fear and discrimination against the people of the Six Kingdoms!"

"But I was too late. Gao Jianli's building was thrown out. It was not only the building that was smashed, but also the last hope of the First Emperor to treat the Six Kingdoms well. From then on, the First Emperor never got close to the people of the Six Kingdoms, and even wanted to rely on war to destroy the Six Kingdoms. The strength is in Haidong, but it is wasted in Lingnan!"

The great unification has turned into a truce for more than ten years.

"Gao Jianli thinks that what he has done is worthy of Jing Qing and the people of Yan. Everyone in the world praises him and thinks he is a brave man."

"But in my opinion, he has done a great evil thing!" Heifu gritted his teeth.

"The same goes for you. From the perspective of the Chu State, you can call yourself a lone hero, but in my opinion, you are a villain who wants to bring the world into ruin!"

Zhong Lizhen leaned against the cold ground and sneered: "I didn't mean to do this, but I didn't expect that you are so afraid of death? Is this how you want to be a hero in the world?"

"Be bold!"

Chen Hui reprimanded, but Hei Fu asked him to step back and keep a few guards. Next, he wanted to say a few heartfelt words to Zhong Lizhen, an old friend.

"Whether a hero is a hero or not is not decided by you and me, but by history books and future generations."

Heifu asked someone to lift Zhong Lizhen up and let him stand up straight.

"What we look at is not whether he is heroic in making decisions, whether he takes the lead in fighting, or whether he is aboveboard, but whether he is a person who has built up and inherited the world, rather than destroying it."

"And you're right, I am indeed afraid of death." He laughed to himself.

"At the beginning, I wasn't very afraid. I once captured three thieves in Yunmengze, and led people to arrest tomb robbers who killed people and stole goods. The most dangerous thing was going deep into the blind mountain and being besieged by hundreds of mobs..."

"At that time, I only thought about doing things and being a good pavilion director. I never thought about that much."

Or maybe you are confident enough and want to change this era in the right way.

"Do you know when I started to be afraid?" Heifu turned around and looked into Zhongli Mei's eyes, as if he saw his childish reflection eighteen years ago:

"After I was shot with an arrow by you!"

That arrow not only penetrated his calf, but also his outlook on life.

"I just realized how fragile human life is."

"I told myself that my life is more important than Qin Shi Huangdi!"

Since then, Heifu has changed a lot. Everything he does is no longer for justice and conscience, but to make himself safer.

As your status rises little by little, you become more and more timid in fighting. If you can't help but take risks, you won't take risks.

In order to achieve the right goal, I will no longer be stingy with using despicable means, and I will even package myself in a high-sounding way!

He went from a village commander who needed to charge into battle to a Sima who could be treated as an abandoned son at any time. Even if he became a prince or a frontier official, it was not safe. The emperor gave the order, and the black husband must die. Qin Shi Huang was a strong man. People, Heifu must, can only be his "Wu Zhonghou"!

Whether alive or dead.

But Heifu did not dare to be an enemy of the First Emperor, but he was very good at bullying his mentally retarded son Hu Hai.

"Now, I don't have any worries anymore."

Hei Fu lamented: "But I immediately became the biggest weakness of the entire Great Qin!"

How could Heifu not understand that the temporary system he established has a natural weakness, that is, it is extremely unstable in terms of inheritance. It is okay for him to live for one day, but if he is gone, the government may be destroyed.

Although the eldest son has been appointed as the "eldest son", that is, the heir, how can the weak and weak son convince the powerful think tanks? If Heifu has both advantages and disadvantages, his subordinates can fight a "Successor War" !

"Zhongli Mei, you found it difficult to defeat me in battle, so you wanted to seize my biggest weakness."

"As long as I die suddenly, this newly created Great Qin will fall apart, and the Chu Kingdom will be reborn from nirvana, right?"

Zhongli Mei was silent for a long time, neither admitting nor denying: "Since Mr. Xia doesn't believe it, then just kill me."

"Kill you?"

Hei Fu laughed: "I am not an ungrateful person. I took revenge when I attacked Chu for the first time. Now, I want to repay you for not killing me back then!"

"But I will not repeat the mistakes of Qin Shihuang. I will not let you have the opportunity to be the second Gao Jianli."

"You will not see me again, but will move to a distant place and never see me again!"

"This way, I don't have to kill the taxi driver I respect, and you can be my horse bone and be used by me."

Although, this bone is still far away.

Heifu gave Zhongli Mei a verdict.

I also settled the grievances of the past eighteen years!

"Want to see the scenery of the desert with solitary smoke and the sun setting over the long river? I'll take you there!"

"Go and see the scenery of the Western Region, and see what the sky is like."

"Perhaps then, Zhongli Mei, you can come out of the narrow confines of sacrificing yourself for Chu."

Heifu waved his hand, and the guard began to drag Zhongli Mei towards the door. From the beginning to the end, Heifu did not loosen a knot for him.

Zhong Lizhen didn't struggle or be hysterical. He only knew that his gamble had failed.

"Heifu, you must have been the leader of Huyang Pavilion back then..." He just sighed when he was taken away.

"The same goes for you, you are no longer what you were before."

Heifu stopped the guard and said to Zhongli Mei:

"Remember, Zhongli Mei."

"The reason why I spared your life is not because of the Xiang family general in front of me, Duke Zhongli, who is dedicated to extending Chu's life."

"It's because that eighteen years ago, even though he was a Chu spy, he still had a conscience that transcended his nationality. He would put himself in danger for six Chu officials, spare the lives of the stable officials and others when the stables were burned down, and even A Chu scholar who does not burn his cattle but does something and does something else!"

"That me, Qin Li Heifu, is the opponent I have always respected!"

…

Zhongli Mei was taken away. He would be packaged as a Chu general who accepted the righteousness and surrendered to Heifu. He would be rewarded with a generous title and then sent to a distant place to become a rich man.

And Heifu will once again forgive an enemy, allowing those unsteady county officials and generals in Chu State to think carefully about the future.

But for Heifu personally, this incident has greater significance. He settled a personal grudge.

Putting down the crossbow in his hand, this time, he finally accurately hit the leg of the dummy on the tree.

Eighteen years ago, Heifu's childish and impulsive side died under Zhongli Mei's arrow.

"Without that arrow, I wouldn't be where I am today."

Heifu murmured, and now is the time to truly move forward.

"In this world where innocent people are being brutalized, and father and son are brutally murdered in the middle of a melee, it's time to put an end to it!"

Chen Hui was summoned, and Heifu gave the order:

"Xingyang has fallen and the Chu army is about to retreat. Send someone to inform Guan Ying, Sui He, Li Shiqi, Dongmen Bao, Zhang Liang, and... Chen Ping!"

"Let's get started!"

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