On the first day of the third month of the 26th year of the first emperor, at sunrise (5 o'clock to 7 o'clock), the sky will be bright, standing under the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, wearing a hitch pig (xiè zhì) crown, the gray-haired court captain Li Si looked up.

The left in front of the palace is the slope, the emperor can ride the chariot to go up, the right is the three hundred and sixty steps, for the ministers to pick up the steps, the foundation stone stands on the tall wooden pillars, the ground made of stones, the golden wall belt, the rare jade between them, the luxury of its building is beyond the reach of other palaces......

The lantern-lit palace is as bright as the sun in the day, the pottery cockroach winds over the eaves a few feet above the ground, and the sculpture of a bird with wings ready to fly, emitting the first song of the empire.

Looking up and drilling, this is the feeling that the disciples of Zhongni have for Kongqiu, and for Li Si, no matter how many times he looks up to the top of power, it is this feeling.

In retrospect, the first time he came here, it was 20 years ago, when he had already left Shangcai, entered Xianyang for several years, first became a guest of Lü Buwei, and helped him compile the "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period", so he was appointed by Lü Buwei as a lang, and was able to enter Zhangtai Palace and meet His Majesty for the first time.

From the first meeting, Li Si understood that although Lü Buwei was in power to the Qin State, sooner or later he would wither and die, but the Qin Wangzheng in the year of the weak crown would rise like the rising sun......

So he began to clear his relationship with Lü Buwei early, and after the prince of Qin took office, he quickly changed his court, tried his best to obey the decree, coerced Han to weaken Wei, Po Yan, Zhao, Yi Qi, Chu, and died in the Six Kingdoms, captured his king, and the king of Qin became the son of heaven and called the emperor.

In this process, Li Si asked himself for a lot of credit, and he was also rewarded by the emperor, and his official position was from Lang to Keqing, and he was also a court lieutenant, and the title was also mentioned as the seventeenth-level chariot chief, and the eldest son Li Youshang Qin Princess, Zhongzi also had the same opportunity.

The emperor is the most trustworthy, and no one is on the right side of Li Si!

Today, he is no longer a rat in the toilet, but a powerful minister that everyone envies.

But people will not be satisfied with climbing to the top of power.

Today is the first great court meeting of His Majesty after the emperor, the three princes and the nine kings are finished, and the convoy with torches drives out from all over Xianyang, gathers to Zhangtai Street, and goes to the Longshou Gate in a mighty way.

Only four cars were allowed to drive directly under the main hall.

The four cars are the right prime minister Kui Xiang, the left prime minister Wang Juan, the imperial historian Feng Quji, and the court lieutenant Li Si.

After the four ministers got out of the car, after giving in humbly, they were automatically sorted according to their official positions, and the order of ascending the ranks was divided.

It's a pity that although Li Si is the emperor's closest minister, he can only rank last among the four.

So, from Li Si's point of view, the three figures in front of him stood between him and the pinnacle of power.

"The right prime minister is dying of old age, one meal and three arrows, his life is short, and he is not enough to worry about."

"The imperial historian Feng Quji, when he first took up this position, his ambition is not strong, and he has no great contribution to the country, so it is impossible to be promoted again in a few years, so there is no need to worry."

Holding Bai Yugui up the stairs, and automatically ignoring Kui, who was a little difficult to walk, and Feng Quji, who was kind to him and had little ambition, Li Si locked his eyes on the second person.

Wang Juan, named Zuo Xiang, has great power, and anyone with a discerning eye knows that Kui will definitely step down soon, and Wang Juan will sit in the position above 10,000 people under one person. In addition, he was originally a person from Shandong, and he had been mixed in Jixia, and he had a hot fight with Dr. Seventy recently, and he also introduced a lot of Yin and Yang families to Qin, and everyone pushed the end of the first five virtues, thinking that the Zhou Dynasty was a fire virtue, and the Zhou Dynasty Zhou De was to overcome fire with water.

So he persuaded the emperor to set Qin as the beginning of water virtue, and made measures such as changing the name of the river to virtue water.

Wang Juan thought that he had meritorious, so he was triumphant, and walked with his head held high and his chest held high.

Regarding this matter, as well as the previous matter of the Emperor, Li Si did not raise any objections, and everything obeyed Wang Juan, looking like he was respected......

Therefore, some people in the court discussed that Xiaolangguan Heifu and Zhao Gao, the commander of the CRRC Mansion, meant to call the emperor, but it was Li Si, the emperor's closest minister, who looked away this time......

"Look-a-eye?"

Li Si sneered in his heart, he had never looked at it in twenty years!

He saw the emperor's ambition to dominate the world, so he suggested that the king of Qin should act as a minister, and make the princes lobby to break through, and serve as the chief historian to personally preside over the matter.

He saw that although the emperor was forced by the pressure of the clan and the old Qin people in Guanzhong, he issued an order to expel guests, but in fact he was unwilling to expel guests, so he went to the "Book of Expulsion of Guests", which was extremely brilliant and sprinkled thousands of words, so that the king of Qin was happy, and after passing on the ministers, he reversed the situation in one fell swoop.

The matter of the Yizun number is of great benefit to Heifu and Zhao Gao, but for Li Si, it is only a small benefit.

So he deliberately attached himself to Wang Juan, dedicated the name "Emperor of Thailand", and gave enough face to Prime Minister Zuo, so that Wang Juan thought that he was willing to live under him, and he would also seconded Wang Juan's suggestions after that.

He knew that Wang Juan would make a bold suggestion today at the instigation of that group of doctors and Confucian scholars......

"The victory or defeat of you and me, the career of the next ten years, and the national policy of Great Qin will be determined by today's court meeting!"

As soon as he thought of this, Li Si quickened his pace, but at this moment, the right prime minister who was walking with a dove cane in front of him, after climbing three hundred and sixty steps, he saw that he was about to reach the top, but he almost fell down with one foot in the air!

If this old prime minister falls down here, I'm afraid that this old man will die immediately!

Fortunately, when it was too late, a black-faced official who had been staring at the old minister on the steps came up a few steps and supported Kui.

"Right Prime Minister, watch your step!"

Lang Guan helped Kui to walk steadily to the top of the hall, asked his subordinates to take care of him, and bowed to the three people who came up one after another: "The subordinates have seen Prime Minister Zuo and Doctor Yushi...... And Tingwei! “

Wang Juan looked at the Lang official who spoke with a little Nanjun accent, looking at his dress, as well as the seal ribbon around his waist, which was one of the three orders of Zhonglanghu, riding, and car.

Lang Guan is mostly the children of the nobles in Guanzhong, because he is not involved in production, and he is a northerner, so he is white, but the person in front of him has a black face, I am afraid that he is not the "black man" who has recently won the emperor's favor because of the name of Yizun......

They are in a high position, and they will not talk much to a small Zhonglang Hu Ling, nodding, and entering the hall one after another with the almost ugly Kui.

Only Lees stopped as he passed through Heifu.

Hefu still maintained a pretentious posture, very respectful.

Li Si turned his head and looked at the three hundred and sixty stone steps below, as well as the palace gates, streets and alleys, Weishui, and Xianyang in the distance, and he didn't know whether he was talking to himself or to Heifu.

"The old man has gone up and down the Zhangtai Hall countless times, so he knows that there are not many people who can climb to this position and see clearly where they came from."

Li Si glanced at Heifu again, and said lightly: "You, you're doing a good job." ”

He used not Guanzhong dialect, but Shangcai dialect.

"Only, Heifu Xie Tingwei taught......" Heifu also replied in the Nanjun dialect.

There are no superfluous words, no intimate movements, everyone is smart, everything is self-explanatory.

Li Si immediately walked into the hall, the short contact between the two was very ordinary, and no one heard what he said, and Heifu's subordinates who were on duty outside the hall, the ceremonial officials who greeted the ministers in the palace, and the imperial history who picketed whether everyone's etiquette was in accordance with the norms, did not notice.

Only under the stairs, Zhao Gao, who was also looking up at the pinnacle of power, watched this scene faintly, watching Li Si's short stay on Heifu's side, but showed a smile of unknown meaning......