Chapter 39: Invisible imagination is the most deadly!
Night enveloped the Xianyang Palace. Bright torches were lit, and the dim red flames replaced the daytime sunlight.
On the corridors of the palace with carved beams and painted buildings, the exotic birds and beasts that looked exquisite in the daytime, under the cover of night, seemed as if they would break free from the pillars at any time and gallop through this most solemn and austere imperial palace in the world.
The Xianyang Palace at night was more mysterious and terrifying, and less bright and magnificent than during the day.
Teams of Langguan were armed with sharp weapons, long spears in their left hands and torches in their right hands, moving back and forth, not letting go of any suspicious person. They had the right to stop anyone.
"Langguan" should actually be "Langguan", which means the officers and soldiers under the corridor. "Lang" is the same as "Lang", so it is called "Langguan", also known as the Imperial Guards.
A team of Langguan, one Lang.
There are five lower-ranking officials and one middle-ranking official.
For every five Zhonglang, there is one Shanglang.
All Shanglang are under the jurisdiction of Langzhongling.
Langzhongling was a senior minister of the Qin State, with an annual salary of two thousand stones.
"stop!"
Two figures who were walking one after the other on the palace road bumped into a team of officials head-on. The official in the team immediately stopped the two.
"promise."
The two stopped as they were told.
They have to stop, and the officials have the right to execute first and report later.
If they did not heed the officer's orders and continued walking, they would be greeted by sharp bronze spears in the next second.
The lower officer raised his hand, and all the officials stopped. Twenty crackling torches dispelled the darkness, illuminating the two men clearly .
The former was a young eunuch wearing a dark blue coarse linen eunuch's uniform, and the latter was a man with a black veil on his face and wearing brocade court robes.
Xia Lang's gaze passed the young eunuch and fell on the masked man behind him.
Walking masked in the palace?
Xia Lang glanced at the sleeves of the masked man's robe and saw black stains on it. He recognized it as dried blood and his pupils contracted.
He put one hand behind his back at his waist, loosened and clenched it again - this meant that all the officials should be on alert.
"Boom~"
Twenty long spears gently paused on the ground.
When Xialang heard the voice, he knew that all the Langguan were ready for battle. He stared at the masked man intently and said in a low voice: "Password!"
"The moon is bright." replied the young eunuch.
Xia Lang felt a little relieved and nodded, the command was correct.
In the Xianyang Palace, the passwords changed every hour at night without any regular pattern.
"Who is he?" Xia Lang stared at the masked man and asked the young eunuch.
This is because there is an implicit rule that one should try not to interrogate those who can answer the passwords correctly and are different from ordinary people.
No one knows whether there are people here who handle secret matters for the First Emperor and are not allowed to be seen in the light - such as those secret guards who come and go without a trace.
Except for the leader of the secret guards Gai Nie and the deputy leader Zhao Gao, all the living officials below the rank of Zhonglang have never seen other secret guards.
"I am Chuan, serving in the Zhangtai Palace. This is Li Tingwei. His Majesty has ordered me to escort Li Tingwei out of the palace."
Tingwei!
Xialang was stunned and hurriedly bowed to greet him.
"Greetings, Lord Tingwei!"
The Chief Justice was a senior official of the Qin State with an annual salary of 2,000 dan. He was just a lowly official with an annual salary of only 150 dan, far from being a Chief Justice.
"No need to be polite, I can go now, right?" A vague and unclear voice came from the masked man's mouth. "Tonight, this is the seventh time that Si has been stopped!"
Wearing a black veil in the palace, which patrol brother would dare to let you pass?
Xia Lang heard Li Si's dissatisfaction and said in his heart: "Let him go!"
With the clatter of armor, a team of eunuchs made way for the young eunuch and the masked man to pass through.
When the eunuch and the masked man were halfway through the palace passage, the eunuch said casually, "Chuan, how long have you been serving His Majesty? It's almost your turn, right?"
The eunuch named Chuan kept walking, but there was a hint of smile in his voice: "No, I took office at You hour, and served Your Majesty for less than half an hour. It will be the first quarter of Zi hour before I can take my turn."
The eunuchs in Zhangtai Palace took turns on duty for three hours plus a quarter of an hour. Such secret matters were difficult to know if one was not on duty in Zhangtai Palace.
The lower eunuch finally relaxed and shouted to the young eunuch who had already walked out of the Langguan Passage: "Thank you for your hard work!"
The young eunuch did not respond, but the masked man's vague, inarticulate, angry voice came back: "I have heard similar words seven times!"
Xia Lang chuckled, shrugged his shoulders at his brothers, and said with a smile: "It's better to be careful."
The officials smiled knowingly.
This is how these low-level officials survive.
If the masked man they let escape tonight was an assassin, according to Qin law, their entire team of officials would be beheaded.
"Hush, the Lord Tingwei hasn't gone far yet."
"Brother, we need to change the way we ask questions next time. It's not safe enough for other teams to ask the same question."
"You are the only cautious kid. I'll leave this to you. If you can come up with a method that other teams don't have, the brothers will pool their money to send you to the tower for a meal!"
"Hey, can you give me more so I can have a concubine?"
"Go away! Go and dream on!"
Within the stern and cold palace walls, this rare moment of joy for the young officials only lasted for a few moments.
Afterwards, they all grasped their torches and spears tightly, continued to be careful in their words and actions, and focused on patrolling.
They walked in unison. There were twenty of them, but only one sound of footsteps hitting the ground. They were like twenty robots.
The moment of whispering and laughing just now seemed as if it had never happened.
With a whoosh sound.
Just in front of this team of officials, a figure suddenly appeared, like a ghost, and stopped them.
All the palace guards were as if they were facing a formidable enemy, their muscles tensed, and their bronze spears ready to swing at any time.
When the firelight revealed the figure's face, the officials breathed a sigh of relief. The leading official saluted with his fists, then said apologetically but firmly, "Password!"
"The moon is bright."
"Greetings to the Lord of the Chariot House, Lord of the Chariot House, please don't blame me."
The man who came was none other than Zhao Gao, the Minister of Chariots, who was known to everyone in the Xianyang Palace, including the palace officials, palace maids, and eunuchs.
Zhao Gao stood there with an indifferent expression, not wanting to say anything more to the group of eunuchs. He asked directly, "Did you see a eunuch leading a masked man in a black veil passing by here just now?"
All the officials felt a sinking feeling in their hearts, and began to have wild thoughts.
Lord Chefu came in person to chase them, could it be that there really is something wrong with those two people?
Are we going to just give up our lives?
If I had known this, I should have been more cautious!
Xia Lang was also confused, but he did not dare to hide it.
If those two men were assassins, and he said he saw them, then his team of officials would execute them by beheading.
If he said he didn't see it, it would be found out later that all the officials in this team were from the three Yi tribes.
"My Lord, there were indeed two people passing by here."
"Which way?"
"Go this way."
Xialang turned and pointed in the direction the two men were heading.
Whoosh
When he turned around again, there was no one in front of him and Zhao Gao had disappeared into the distance.
After seeing this scene, all the officials breathed a sigh of relief, and each of them felt like they had survived a calamity.
If those two people were really assassins, Zhao Gao would ask them to stay where they are and not move.
"Hum." Xia Lang called out.
"Brother." The young official who had been particularly cautious just now responded.
"Think of a few more, and the brothers will find you a concubine."
"Damn it, no more meat for the next month! I'll give you fifteen cents!"
"Damn it, no one needs a bite of food, I'm also fifteen!"
"Fu, my family is rich. I will make up for what you can't make up!"
Fu, who had just been laughing and asking for a concubine, did not look overjoyed when he heard Xia Lang's promise and his brothers' words.
This officer, who was recognized as the most cautious in the team, looked back with lingering fear.
The deep night was like the gaping mouth of a prehistoric beast, which would devour all twenty of their lives if they were not careful.
"Yes." Fu said very carefully.
What he was responsible for was not to come up with a few questions, but to take out a team of Langguan and the amulet of twenty lives.
…
Zhao Gao's sudden appearance startled the young eunuch and the masked man.
The young eunuch bowed in greeting.
When the masked man saw that it was Zhao Gao, he suddenly tore off the veil on his face and said gloomily: "Zhao Gao, are you here to see me make fun of you?!"
Li Si's face was swollen like a pig's head, covered with blue and black and purple and red, as if his head had been thrown into a dark dye vat.
Zhao Gao did not respond to Li Si. He looked at the miserable state on Li Si's face without any emotion and said calmly, "Password."
"The moon is bright." The young eunuch replied.
Zhao Gao then walked up to Li Si and handed him a black medicine bottle, half the size of a palm, with an exquisite shape and printed with the Qin totem black bird.
"Apply externally, three times a day, and it will heal in three days. This is a special external medicine for your majesty. Li Tingwei is the second person who has used this medicine. Your majesty ordered me to bring a message to Li Tingwei."
Li Si's expression moved, and the pig head that looked funny and pitiful forced a look of overjoyed expression, and was about to bow to greet.
He was stopped by Zhao Gao and could not move his arms.
Li Si was shocked and finally determined that even if Zhao Gao was beaten with ten sticks, it would be easy to kill him.
"No need to do that. This is not an imperial decree. Your Majesty said he was just speaking casually." Zhao Gao whispered, "The feudal system was established by the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty was destroyed by the Qin Dynasty. The Qin Dynasty imitated the Zhou system, but it was not good in the end."
