The Xianyang Palace at night was terrifyingly quiet.

The cold moonlight reflected on the faces of the Yulin guards who were patrolling the night outside the hall, and they still maintained a neat military posture, still guarding their majesty dutifully. From the period of Qin Xiaogong to the present, hundreds of years are like a day.

The palace people carried lanterns on tiptoe and walked carefully in each palace. Their faces were tense, and their eyes looked around nervously at the dark corners where the fire did not shine, as if they were ready to come out of there at any moment to pounce on a man-eating demon.

It has come to the new year, which is January of the third year of Qin II. According to the past practice of the Qin Palace, on the first day of the New Year every year, the King of Qin must personally perform a ceremony of sacrifice and worship the Emperor of the Quartet, to pray for good weather and peace in the coming year. And this year's ceremony Xianyang Palace is much more deserted, and the sacrifice is to invite an old nobleman who does not know his age to preside over it, because their emperor, His Majesty the Second Emperor, is sick.

Hu Hai's illness was a heart disease, but it was not caused by the fear of losing the battle at the front, in fact, he didn't even know that the Qin army on the front line was defeated. The whole Xianyang was already worried about the state of Qin, but Zhao Gao still told him that the world had been decided, and Zhang Han would soon return to the court.

His illness was caused by excessive fright. In the past two years, Hu Hai has been playing and having fun, indulging in women, and his already thin body has been hollowed out by wine, so that his energy has deteriorated day by day, he is drowsy all day long, and often hallucinates.

One day he was playing with the palace people, and suddenly jumped up with fear on his face, pointed to the palace door and shouted in fear; "Don't come, don't come." Immediately trembling and crawling under the table, the palace people refused to come out no matter how hard they persuaded him, until the chief priest Taibu came, and crawled out from under the table with a pale face.

It turned out that Hu Hai saw his brothers and sisters who died tragically in a trance, and they were turning into the tragic appearance before they died to ask him for their lives. Since then, Hu Hai has no intention of playing, often talking in a nervous mouth, looking around vigilantly with wide eyes all day long, and sometimes suddenly pointing to a corner and yelling, asking the palace people to dig three feet into the ground. Even the palace people who took the entire Xianyang Palace became nervous, and they were very nervous every day, and they would never dare to go out in the middle of the night if they had nothing to do.

Seeing that the emperor was like this, the country's situation was declining, and the courtiers were panicked, so Zhao Gao asked Taibu to invite a high priest to Xianyang Palace to suppress disasters and evil spirits for the emperor. The high priest tinkered in Xianyang Palace for a day, pinched his fingers and calculated that the emperor was insincere during the sacrifice, and was contaminated with filth and things, so that the emperor moved to the side hall, fasted and cultivated himself behind closed doors, and asked the four emperors for guilt.

Hu Hai was convinced of this, and immediately moved to the side hall to avoid trouble, and the state affairs of the entire Qin State were no longer asked, and all of them were entrusted to Zhao Gao. Every time Zhao Gao held a court meeting, he held the right to act as the Son of Heaven on behalf of the emperor, just like the emperor.

At this time, Xianyang had already fallen into a panic. The great victory of Dingtao reported four months ago made the Qin people rejoice, and Zhang Han became the savior of the Qin Empire. Immediately after the elite Northern Army went south to join Julu, a steady stream of baggage and supplies were sent to the front line through the straight road, and the Qin people were not afraid of hard work to step up their work, just so that the front line could defeat the rebels and re-pacify the Kwantung region.

At this time, Great Qin seemed to have seen the hope of Zhongxing, but the battle report that came after March made the entire Qin State fall to the brink of despair in an instant.

The Qin army was defeated, and it was so badly defeated. Wang Li's more than 200,000 northern troops were almost wiped out, and he himself died in the chaos, while Zhang Han was defeated in ten battles, suffered heavy losses, and was forced to retreat to the Thorn Plains and Yin Ruins.

At the court meeting, the question of whether to rescue Zhang Han had exploded, and the courtiers were divided into two factions. Lao Cheng's serious faction believed that it should be rescued, because Zhang Han was the mainstay of the Qin State, and the army in his hands was also the last army that Great Qin could rely on. If Zhang Han is also defeated, then the national situation of the Qin State will be truly irretrievable.

The other faction is Zhao Gao's cronies, who insult Zhang Han meanly, wearing the clothes of the minister but wantonly cursing Zhang Han's incompetence with foul language like a street shrew, accusing him of being disobedient and should be severely investigated.

These two factions scolded each other in court, and the whole court was in chaos. At this time, Zhao Gao, who had not spoken, suddenly stood up, raised his voice and said loudly: "What is the noise, I don't look at your identity, all of them are ministers, and there is no etiquette at all." ”

The ministers were afraid of Zhao Gao's power, and suddenly fell silent, only to hear a small muttering in the crowd; "The Qin State is going to die, so what do you care about."

Zhao Gao's eyes were cold, and he glared at the ministers angrily and said sharply; "Who said that, stand up!"

The ministers were silent, and no one dared to stand up, Zhao Gao looked at the black pressure on a piece of people's heads, and had to give up for the time being, thinking that he would go back and ask his cronies who chewed their tongues.

Zhao Gao coughed twice and said; "You cultivators should be flustered, Guanzhong is a place of four stops, with Hangu Heavenly Danger in hand, we can naturally sit back and relax, it's a big deal to give up Kanto, and our Qin State will return to the way it was twenty years ago."

He looked up to the sky and smiled, and said pretending to be arrogant: "With me Zhao Gao in one day, Daqin will not perish." ”

Zhao Gao squinted his eyes, thinking that such a heroic remark would arouse a round of applause from the ministers, but he only heard the loud applause of a few cronies, and most of the officials still silently lowered their heads and said nothing.

Zhao Gao snorted heavily, his face displeased, thinking that it seemed that he would have to make more efforts to rectify this group of ministers and ministers. These old guys neither dare to offend themselves, nor do they go along with themselves, they keep a calm face and don't say a word every time, which makes Zhao Gao embarrassed.

"As for Zhang Han......" Zhao Gao deliberately pulled into his voice, pretending to be groaning, but he actually had an idea in his heart.

Most of the officials turned their heads sideways, stretching out their ears to hear what Zhao Gao was planning, after all, he was the real person in charge of the current Great Qin, not the little emperor who would only hide in the deep palace and have fun.

Zhao Gao's eyes flashed with a hint of fierceness, and he shouted loudly; "He has more than 400,000 soldiers, but he can't even beat a few anti-thieves, I think he can't beat it, he doesn't want to fight, and he desperately asks us to save the soldiers. What does he want to do? He wants to hollow out the imperial court, he wants to hollow out our Great Qin, he wants to support the army and self-respect, and wants to establish himself as the king! ”

Zhao Gao's roar sounded like thunder in the hall of Jique Palace, and all the ministers were dumbfounded. Originally, they were still discussing whether to reinforce Zhang Han, but Zhao Gao directly gave Zhang Han an accusation of rebellion!

A cronie of Zhao Gao took the opportunity to stand up and pat the horse; "What the prime minister said is right, this Zhang Han knew at a glance that he was born against the bones, obviously there were 400,000 troops in hand and asked for help from Guanzhong, I saw that the news that Wang Li's entire army was wiped out before was also false, it must be that he annexed Wang Li's army, and killed Wang Li as the top culprit, the prime minister must send someone to thoroughly investigate his crime of rebellion."

Zhao Gao's cronies made noise one after another, claiming that they were. Zhao Gao smiled and stretched out his hand to signal quiet, and said complacently; "Everyone's words are wrong, you think Zhang Han is in the hands of a large army. As the saying goes, a dog will jump off the wall when he is in a hurry, if we force him urgently, if he counterattacks and attacks Guanzhong, it will not be good. ”

"Why don't we make a decree, urging him to quickly send troops to fight the rebels, we can give him food and grass, but there is no reinforcement. At that time, Zhang Han fought with the rebels in the Kwantung region, whether it was victory or defeat, it was good news for my Great Qin. We just need to hold on to the pass, and we can sit back and relax, you say yes, hahahaha! ”

In fact, Zhao Gao had Zhao Gao's plan, he naturally didn't really think that Zhang Han would have the idea of supporting the army to become the king, and he also knew that the Qin army was really defeated in the Battle of Julu.

Zhao Gao Pingsheng is conceited and is the best at figuring out people's hearts, he knows that although Zhang Han is ambitious, he has no ambitions, at best he just wants to support the army to protect himself, if the turn is called the king, he Zhang Han will never be able to do it. The reason why he wanted to deduct the basin on Zhang Han's head was because Daqin was so erosive that someone had to take responsibility, and this person must not be him Zhao Gao.

It used to be Li Si, so now it's time to talk about Zhang Han.

And he also has one of the deepest concerns, if he replaces Hu Hai as emperor, then this kind of border general with troops outside is his biggest threat. He, Zhao Gao, can master Xianyang and Guanzhong, but he will definitely not be able to master hundreds of thousands of Qin troops. So no matter what, he doesn't want Zhang Han to become bigger, it is best that he loses both the rebels in Kwantung and guards the gate for himself.

This is Zhao Gao, who is proficient in the art of scheming, but has no sense of the overall situation. He just took it for granted that everything was under his control, but he didn't know that everything was out of control. A year ago, he contemptuously ridiculed Li Si for being too conceited and talented, and that he was the way to bring about his own destruction, but now that it was his turn, he made the same mistake. He overestimated himself, but underestimated the people of the world, so Li Si laughed at him for his political shallowness and ridiculousness before he died, but unfortunately he himself would never understand his ridiculousness.

Now that he has made up his mind, Zhao Gao let it go. On the one hand, he ordered his henchmen to lead more than 20,000 elites to Hangu Pass to repair and strengthen it to prevent the enemy in Kwantung, and a messenger sent an envoy in the name of Hu Hai to issue a sternly worded edict, the full text of which was only sixteen words; Destroy the thief with all your might, and there must be no mistake. Delay the fighter, military law dispose!

After Zhang Han received the will, he looked up to the sky and sighed. He sighed that his selfishness was the trouble, he missed the best opportunity to fight, and let Xiang Yu become big out of thin air. He sighed again about the crumbling Jiangshan Sheji of the Qin State, although he now has the heart to preserve, but he has no power to return to the sky.

He was also sighing to himself, he Zhang Han worked hard for Daqin and the emperor all his life, but he ended up being suspicious all the time, how could he not be cold.

At this moment, he also wants to enter the army, wants to compete with Xiang Yu, and wants to be ashamed, even if he dies in the army, he Zhang Han is much more at ease, instead of being tormented by self-blame all day long here. However, he knew that the Qin army, which was now demoralized, was by no means the opponent of the Chu army, not to mention that there were various anti-Qin coalition forces on the side to help. He had no choice but to swallow his anger and retreat to protect himself, waiting for help from Guanzhong, but what he was waiting for was the emperor's fluttering but heavy sixteen words.

Zhang Han did not give up, he still had illusions, thinking that His Majesty must have been blinded by a traitorous villain like Zhao Gao, so he would not distinguish between right and wrong, and did not understand the grim situation on the front line. He thought that this kind of time was not the time to be rash, he had to send someone to Xianyang to meet His Majesty to explain the truth, and he must send to rescue the soldiers, otherwise Daqin would really be doomed.

What he was going to send was his left arm and right arm, Changshi Sima Xin, his most trusted deputy.

After Sima Xin received Zhang Han's order, he did not leave immediately, but slowly prepared in the camp for a day.

In fact, he was not willing to go to Xianyang at the moment. If he won the battle and showed off his martial arts and went to Xianyang to accept the reward of the Son of Heaven, then he must be very happy. But the problem is now that the Qin army has suffered heavy defeats one after another, losing his armor and losing heavy losses, and he went to Xianyang to wagging his tail and begging for mercy, begging for the sympathy of the imperial court to send rescue soldiers.

No one wants to be a dog, and so does he, Sima Xin.

But he couldn't help but go, Yu Gongzhang Han was his superior, and the military order could not be violated, and now the army had indeed reached a critical moment of survival. Yu private, he is the number two person in the army, if the army is gone, what is he Sima Xin?

So Sima Xin let out a long sigh, thinking that it seems that he still has to go, so let's leave tomorrow morning. That Zhao Gao is extremely greedy, it seems that this time it will cost a lot!

Slowly paced back to his mansion. Although the conditions were simple during the war, Sima Xin was different from Zhang Han, he liked luxury enjoyment, so he still worked hard to make the mansion very magnificent.

Walking to the front of the mansion, the guards saw that Sima Xin was back and hurriedly knelt down to salute, Sima Xin nodded, and entered the door by himself, when his henchman butler greeted him with a smile on his face.

"Is there anything going on today?" Sima Xin took the wet wipes handed by the housekeeper, wiped his face and hands, and asked slowly as he entered the door.

The butler laughed; "Returning to the general, there is nothing important today, but someone came to the door, saying that it was the general, your old friend."

"The deceased?" Sima Xin looked at the housekeeper with some surprise, stopped and asked; "What's his name?"

There was a hearty laugh in the distance: "Hahahaha, Brother Sima is so forgetful, have you forgotten your little brother?" ”

The person who came was a sturdy man in his thirties, not tall and five in stature, but long and majestic, looking at Sima Xin with a smile.

A hint of surprise flashed in Sima Xin's eyes, and then he quickly changed into a smile on his face and greeted him, hugged the big man, patted him on the shoulder and smiled; "It turned out to be you, brother, I haven't seen you for a long time."

"Come on, come on, let's talk in the study."

Sima Xin enthusiastically took the big man's hand through the courtyard and walked into the study. After closing the door, Sima Xin slowly turned around, the smile on his face slowly faded, and he turned to say with a gloomy face full of warning; "Cao Yao, what are you doing here for me, did Xiang Yu send you?"