PS: Sorry, there's a late update for a meal.

There was a suffocating smell in the air, and Han Xin wrinkled his nose and couldn't help but sneeze heavily.

The sleepy old man who was leaning on the corner of the wall noticed that someone was coming, and hurriedly stood up in a panic, and Nuo Nuo was about to kneel down when he stood in front of Han Xin. Although he didn't know Han Xin's identity, he knew that the people who could come to this place must be something he couldn't afford to offend.

Han Xin stretched out his hand to stop the dying old jailer and said softly; "The old man doesn't have to be polite, I can go in and visit by myself, you can get busy."

The old man opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but he just lowered his head and simply said 'no', and took out the key to open the cell door. Han Xin flashed and walked in, and when he saw the old pawn locking the cell door again, he couldn't help frowning, seeing that the old pawn's face was as usual, he didn't stop it when he thought that this was the custom.

This prison was somewhat unexpected by Han Xin. Originally, he thought that the prison prison, as the name suggests, was a place where felons were imprisoned, just like the tiger chair and chili water of his time, which must have been a very bloody and violent place.

However, it was a bit of a surprise to him that if it was not built underground, it would look no different from an ordinary dwelling, but because the air was not very circulating, the air seemed a little depressing.

The passage was not long, and a little further on there was a room, which looked very simple, with a bed and a table, and only a narrow window above it could be used for ventilation and light, so that the room was a little dim. A middle-aged man was sitting on the table, looking intently at the chess game on the table, but he didn't seem to hear Han Xin's footsteps.

The man was disheveled, bearded, and looked extremely powerful. It's just that his hair has turned gray, and his complexion is quite vicissitudes, and he can't tell his true age. Although the room was not locked, he had anklets as thick as his arms on his feet, presumably because he was worried that he would escape.

Han Xin gently walked to the table and sat down by himself, but the man was still watching the chess game intently, ignoring Han Xin.

The chess game on the table is the game, according to legend, Emperor Yao created for teaching his son Danzhu, the game is quiet, the chess is round and moving, the law of heaven and earth, self-reliance on this play, the world has no solution, and the Go of later generations is based on this. It's just that Han Xin is a little puzzled that the game of chess is a game of wits between the two sides, using their own minds to lay out and set up a formation, so that the other party is deeply trapped in it and unconsciously, if this middle-aged man plays chess with himself, wouldn't it be his own guess of his own mind, how can this win!

Sure enough, the black and white on the chessboard were evenly matched, each occupying half of the country, and there was not much place to settle, but the big man didn't know it, and he was still thinking intently.

Han Xin couldn't help but smile slightly and said; "This game has become a dead end, why do you bother with it, General Li, why don't I play a game with you?"

General Li didn't appreciate it, but instead raised his head sharply and glared at Han Xin viciously, his eyes were full of murderous energy, which made people dare not face it. Han Xin was not afraid at all, he still looked at him with a smile on his face, General Li was a little surprised to see him so calm, so he withdrew the murderous aura that overflowed on his body.

After a long silence, he said slowly; "I've been playing this game of chess for eight months, but I was defeated by your kid's words, and if I changed the old man's hot temper, I would definitely kill you. Luckily, you're lucky, and if you're older, your temper will be much better. ”

"Eight months?" Han Xin couldn't help but be stunned.

General Li nodded, and the smile on his face was a little bitter, as if muttering to himself. "You think I play chess to be competitive? Is it for the sake of self-cultivation? It was a fart, and His Majesty sent me a chessboard, because he was worried that I would go crazy, so I had something to do. ”

looked up at the sunlight outside the window, and looked at the wall along the sunlight, Han Xin also looked at it, only to see that the wall was densely painted with vertical strips, and he heard him say in a calm tone; "Since I came in, I have played a total of thirty-two games of chess, and today should be the twelfth day of April in the fortieth year of the First Emperor."

Only then did Han Xin realize that the dense vertical strips on the wall were actually used by him to record the date, and it was no wonder that he was like this, changing to any normal person who had been imprisoned for more than 20 years without any contact with the outside world, and not going crazy already showed that this person was extremely determined.

General Li seemed to feel that he was talking too much nonsense, so he shook his head with a smile and said no more, just leaning against the corner of the wall and meditating.

Han Xin didn't bother him, just looked at him silently from the side, and couldn't help but feel a little emotion in his heart. In the past, the young famous generals who were brave and good at fighting, bravely crowned the three armies and Wang Jian were reduced to the point of passing the time with a solo game for more than 20 years, which has to make people sigh at the impermanence of the world.

Li Xin was born in the old Qin people of Longxi, and the Li family mostly ran the family slightly, and several people were the county guards of the Qin State, and the family background was prominent. Li Xin was a young talent, and the first emperor of the same age valued his bravery and strategy, and took him, Wang Ben and the Mengshi brothers as his personal followers, and regarded him as his confidant. Li Xin's fame was much earlier than that of the Montessori brothers, and he had broken the Zhao army and the Qi army several times, and won the Yan Prince Dan, collecting all the Yan and Dai lands for the Qin State, and was known as the two young talents of the Qin State together with Wang Ben at that time.

The first emperor wanted to destroy Chu, so he summoned the generals to ask, Li Xinyan said that 200,000 elites could destroy Chu, and the general Wang Jian Laocheng was serious and insisted that Qin should pour the power of the country, and Chu could not be destroyed without an army of 600,000. The First Emperor laughed; "The general is old, why is he cowardly."

With Li Xin as the main general and Meng Tian as the deputy general, he led 200,000 elites south to destroy Chu. Li Xin and Meng Tian went all the way south, defeating the Chu army Yu Pinghe and Bedqiu successively, and forcing the Chu capital Shouchun with a great victory. At that time, the whole country was in a panic, and the king of Chu recruited all the soldiers of Chu State, and won 400,000 troops to meet the Qin army under the command of Xiang Yan.

Li Xin and Meng Tian were proud and unstoppable, but Xiang Yan was scheming and strong, and the two armies had won and lost each other several times, and they could not stand against each other in the face of the city father. At this time, there was a large-scale rebellion in the rear of the Qin army, and Changping Jun led the land of Yingchen to oppose Qin and return to Chu, which not only cut off the grain route of the Qin army, but also seriously threatened the flank of the Qin army.

Li Xin was forced to withdraw his troops and return to Qin, while Xiang Yan took advantage of the situation to cover up the killing, winning five consecutive battles, killing seven captains of Qin, and the Qin army was defeated, with more than half of the 200,000 troops lost. At that time, it was the time when the fortunes of the Qin State were prosperous, and the defeat of Li Xin in Chu was heard, and the whole country of Qin was shaken, and the first emperor was angry with Li Xin, not only stripped him of his position, but also imprisoned him in the dungeon that did not see the light of day, and Meng Tian, who was the deputy general, was only demoted and punished, and then had to be reused.

In fact, the defeat of the Qin army's city father, in the final analysis, was the first emperor's improper use of personnel, he appointed the nobleman of the Chu State, Changping Jun, as the guard general of Yingchen, and handed over the henchmen of the Qin army to a Chu man to take charge, and finally forced the 200,000 Qin army into a desperate situation, which was not a loss of war, but a mistake in employing people. It's just that as the first emperor of great talent and strategy, he naturally does not allow his subjects to question his decision-making, and he cannot make mistakes, so Li Xin became a scapegoat.

This also made Han Xin's sympathy for Li Xin great, and he lowered his head and thought about his words in his heart.

After sitting quietly for a while, Li Xin suddenly opened his eyes and stretched out his hand to pull a red rope beside the bed. A faint bell rang in the distance, and a moment later the cell door was opened, and the old jailer limped in, saying that there was a food plate in the middle, thinking that it was Li Xin's lunch.

The meal was simple, just coarse bean rice and a few mixed vegetable leaves that looked like there was no oil or water. Li Xin ate very carefully, taking small bites with a wooden broom spoon in his mouth, chewing carefully, and even had an expression of enjoyment on his face. In the end, it was very clean, and there was no residue of bean rice left.

After eating, Li Xin put down the pottery bowl, took a deep breath, looked at Han Xin intently, and said in a deep voice; "Tell me, what merit do Your Majesty have to show off to me this time."

Han Xin couldn't help but be stunned, and looked at Li Xin with puzzled eyes. Li Xin smiled self-deprecatingly, and said with his hands; "On September 12 of the 24th year, he sent someone to tell me that Wang Jian captured Shouchun, captured the king of Chu, and the state of Chu perished."

"On the eighth day of the seventh month of the twenty-fifth year, he sent someone to tell me that Wang Ben invaded Liaodong, killed Yan Wangxi, and destroyed Yan."

"On February 18, 26 years, Wang Ben and Meng Tian attacked Qi, and Tian Jian, the king of Qi, surrendered, and this time the person he sent told me that he was no longer the king of Qin, but called himself emperor, he was the first emperor of Great Qin, and his successor would be the second emperor and the third emperor until thousands of generations."

"On November 19 of the 28th year, he told me that the wild land of Lingnan had also become a county under his rule,"

"On the sixth day of the fifth month of the thirty-second year, he said that Meng Tian expelled the Xiongnu for more than 300 miles and collected the land of Henan, and proudly told me that the Xiongnu were no longer a threat to the Qin, because he wanted to build a great wall that had never been built in the world."

Li Xin said that his breathing became more and more rapid, his eyes gradually reddened, his fists clenched, and his low roar was like that of a wounded beast.

"I know he's humiliating me, and he wants to prove to me that the original failure was entirely my fault, and that he was the first emperor who stood high, the great emperor who swept away the six kingdoms! He will never be wrong, it will only be me who will be wrong. ”

"He's in a weak heart, he's like a child who does something wrong but tries his best to cover it up, hahahaha, this is our proud majesty, no one knows him better than me. Everyone thought that he didn't kill me because of his kindness, but I knew that he was torturing me and making me bear the humiliation I shouldn't have took. ”

After being excited for a long time, Li Xin's heavy breath gradually calmed down, stared at Han Xin and said; "Tell me, he's brought you something new and great this time. I think too, it's been eight years since the last time, and he hasn't had a single trace of merit to boast to me, which doesn't look like him at all. ”

Han Xin stared at him silently for a long time before he slowly spoke; "You miscalculated, this time I am not a messenger sent by the First Emperor."

Li Xin was stunned for a moment, and then asked; "No, who are you? Where is he? ”

"He's dead."

"Dead." Li Xinhuo stood up with a bang, staring at Han Xin with wide eyes, "How did you die, when?" ”

Han Xin looked at him and said calmly; "Three years ago, I died in the Dune Palace."

Li Xin was stunned there, but there was a blank look in his round eyes, he looked at Han Xin a little overwhelmed, and suddenly felt empty in his heart. The First Emperor, who had been fighting with him for half his life, told him so suddenly that the First Emperor was dead, he was a little flustered, and muttered in his mouth; "Dead, dead, even if you count it, he's in his fifties, and he's about the same, but what should I do if he's dead......."

looked at Han Xin again and asked; "After he dies, who will be the emperor, Fusu?"

Han Xin shook his head, and told him about Hu Hai's succession to the throne and being killed by Zhao Gao after the death of the first emperor, as well as the succession of Ziying after the Kwantung Rebellion. Li Xin was stunned when he listened, and he was stunned there for a long time without saying a word, lowering his head and not knowing what he was thinking.

When he raised his head, Li Xin's expression had returned to normal and he spoke; "Is it now that the army of the Six Kingdoms has attacked the city of Xianyang?"

This time it was Han Xin's turn to be surprised, he looked at Li Xin in some surprise and said; "General Li, how did you find out?"

Li Xin smiled lightly, but his expression was not proud, he just said lightly; "The original guard was a sturdy jailer, but a month ago he was replaced by an old and disabled jailer, and as far as I know, if it were not for the mobilization of the whole country, this kind of disabled old guard would never be used for service. Originally, I still wondered if the First Emperor had lost patience with me and wanted to give me a happy death, but now I think it's because Xianyang is also threatened. All the young and strong have gone to the battlefield, and the waste people who guard me can only be old and weak. ”

Han Xin stared at his eyes for a long time, but he was a little disappointed. Because when Li Xin said that Xianyang was threatened, there was no trace of abnormality in his eyes, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him, which was obviously not what Han Xin wanted to see.

Han Xin still asked without giving up; "Isn't it General Li that you didn't have a trace of worry when you heard the news of Great Qin's danger? You must know that you were also a great general of Great Qin. ”

Li Xin didn't go back directly, the smile on his face was a little strange, and he asked rhetorically: "If you were me and were imprisoned here for twenty-one years, would you still worry about Daqin and Xianyang?" What does all this have to do with me? ”

With a faint sigh, Li Xin closed his eyes and sighed; "I'm just a dying person, and since the First Emperor is dead, I don't seem to have any meaning in living."

"What if Great Qin needs you now?" Han Xin asked rhetorically.

"I have long been abandoned by the Qin State, and Li Xin, the general who was full of ambition and dedicated to serving the country, has already died, and he has already died back then." After speaking, Li Xin closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, intending not to say a word again.

Han Xin didn't give up, he said slowly word by word; "General Li, I know that it was a great blow to you back then, and everyone in the world thinks that you are just an arrogant person who talks about war on paper, but don't you want to wash away your shame? If you prove to the world that you are skilled, your talent, and your ability to turn the tide and save Great Qin from fire and water, isn't this the best response to the words that slander you? ”

Han Xin suddenly knelt down on one knee, and said with sincerity on his face: "General Li, now that Great Qin is about to fall, I need you very much to go out of the mountain, please give Great Qin a chance, and give yourself a chance." ”

Li Xin still hadn't opened his eyes, but from the sound of his gradually rapid breathing, Han Xin could already feel that these words had moved him.

Li Xin closed his eyes just to think better, he was considering, he was thinking.

Finally, Li Xin opened his eyes, but there were some strange colors in his eyes.

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

At dawn the next day, more than 100 cavalrymen were already waiting at the west gate of Xianyang. Han Xin glanced at these knights, these knights were all old troops that Li Xin had summoned from Xianyang City in half a day, most of them were old people, many of them had even turned white, but they were all straight, and they were trying to raise their chests.

From the critical eyes of a general, these people are all old and not suitable for killing on the battlefield, but their experience makes up for their lack of physical strength, and I think this is also Li Xin's intention in choosing them.

Han Xin looked into the distance along the morning sun and whispered to Li Xin beside him; "General Li, the barriers on the southeast, north and south sides of Xianyang have been lost, only a few walled cities in the west are still in the hands of my Qin State, but they can't support it for long, so I hurriedly ask you to leave the city and rush to Longxi, I hope you will forgive me."

Li Xin nodded, and said simply; "I see."

Raising the whip and galloping a few steps, he suddenly turned the horse's head, stared at Han Xin and said; "Young man, I want to ask you, do you really trust me so much? You must know that the Qin State has long lost its meaning in my heart, but the humiliation it has brought me is far more than my remembrance of it, so you are not afraid that I will never return? Or support the army to stand on its own in Longxi and sit back and watch the Qin State fall? ”

Han Xin smiled slightly, but there was bitterness in his smile, "I'll tell you the truth, the question now is not whether I can trust you, but that I have no one available." Longxi is where your family is located, the county guard is your brother, the county guard of the northern land and the county lieutenant of the upper county were the old departments of your expedition to Zhao, who else can take on such a heavy responsibility besides you. Now there are only two choices in front of me, either stick to Xianyang and wait for death, or choose to trust you to gamble, do you think I have any other choices? ”

Li Xin was a little surprised to get such an answer, he didn't expect Han Xin to answer so frankly, and immediately looked up to the sky and laughed; "Good, I like honest people."

After speaking, he waved his horsewhip, and galloped westward without looking back, and more than a hundred subordinates behind him roared, Han Xin raised his head and silently watched Li Xin's back, until his back disappeared from sight, and then said to his own soldiers; "Let's go back to the city."

"The order went down and ordered all the defenders of the walled city to abandon their defenses and withdraw to Xianyang."

"No!"

On April 13 of the third year of the Second Dynasty, the Qin army completely abandoned the defense of Xianyang's periphery, and all of them retreated to Xianyang to prepare to hold on to help, and the coalition army took advantage of the situation to surround Xianyang and completely cut off the connection between Xianyang and the outside world.

At this time, Xiang Yu had already moved to Xianyang City, and three days ago he had received exciting news from his father Fan Zeng. A large number of siege equipment transferred from Kanto has arrived at Hangu Pass, and is being transported to Xianyang, accompanied by enough grain and grass to support the siege in March.