Chapter Sixty: Brothers Quarrel at the Wall

  Four days later, Wu Guan. The envoy sent by Xianyang to visit Chu had been traveling over mountains and rivers, and finally arrived at Wu Guan before sunset.

  Wuguan is located north of the Dan River, originally named Shaoxi Guan, later renamed Wuguan. The pass is backed by a cliff to the north and faces a deep gorge to the south, with rivers surrounding it on three sides: east, west, and south. To the east of the city lies Sidao Ridge, particularly Diaolong Ridge which is steep and precipitous, "one path up the mountain, no room for side-by-side riding", serving as a screen for Wuguan. Its territory is known as "Qin head Chu tail" and is considered the "throat of Qin and Chu" and the "key to Guanzhong".

  However, as Qin State has been attacking Chu for years, it obtained a large area of Chu land. Now leaving Wuguan and going down to Danyang, we will arrive at Nanyang Commandery which belongs to Great Qin.

  "I, your humble servant, pay my respects to the Marquis of Wan! I beg the Marquis of Wan to forgive me for wearing armor and being unable to perform the full rites." A man in his mid-twenties bowed to the person at the front of the delegation.

  "Haha! General, you have done your duty to defend our great Qin's strong pass, what crime is there?!" Prince Wan waved his hand and laughed loudly, without any concern.

  "Marquis Wu has traversed mountains and rivers, I have already prepared a wine feast to welcome you and wash away the dust of travel. Please, Marquis Wu, follow me to take refreshment." said Erwu Bai Zhu with neither arrogance nor humility.

  "Thank you for your hard work, General." Prince Wan nodded in appreciation.

  "Please!"

  "Please!"

  That night, the host and guest were having a great time. After three rounds of drinks, Wan Hou pretended to be drunk and bid farewell to the host, returning to his room with about 200 guests. As soon as he entered the room, Wan Hou's drunken demeanor disappeared, and he calmly asked a black shadow in the room, "Is everything normal?"

  "Normal!" The dark figure croaked in a hoarse voice, brief and to the point.

  "It's still better to be cautious. The general guarding the Wu Pass is King Wang's man, and this time King Wang sent me as an envoy to Chu Country, he didn't have any good intentions."

  "Ah!" The dark figure responded with a single word and quietly retreated out of sight.

  The Crown Prince gazed at the elusive black shadow with a helpless smile. The dark guard assigned by his father was indeed a blockhead, having protected him since he could remember, but only responsible for his personal safety and refusing to listen to any other commands.

  "Father king, father king, do you know that your son has lived a bitter life?" The Prince of Yan sighed silently in his heart.

  Everyone knows he is the Crown Prince, the King of Yan, with a high position and great power, one anger and the whole world changes color, but no one knows his sorrow, his helplessness, his heart-stopping steps under his dazzling halo.

  Gongzi Shi was the son of Qin Huiwenwang and the younger brother of Qin Wuwang. When Wuwang became the crown prince, he succeeded to the throne, Gongzi Shi naturally had no opinion. However, when Wuwang died suddenly after lifting a tripod, the throne fell vacant, and the one who should have succeeded to the throne was Gongzi Shi.

  The reason for this was that King Wu died too quickly, without leaving behind any descendants. His birth mother, Queen Huiwen, wanted to establish her younger son, Crown Prince Zhuang, as the king of Qin in order to preserve her own position. Empress Dowager Xuan naturally preferred her own biological son to ascend to the throne and thus pushed forward her own son, Crown Prince Shi. At that time, the eldest son, Crown Prince Ji, was far away in the State of Yan as a hostage, while the youngest son, Crown Prince Ze, was only ten years old; only 15-year-old Crown Prince Shi was relatively suitable.

  At that time, Wei Ran, the younger brother of Queen Dowager Xuan, held great power in Qin. The result was naturally a victory for Queen Dowager Xuan's side. Just as Gongzi Shi was about to ascend to the throne, King Wuling of Zhao intervened, interfering with Qin's internal affairs and demanding that his preferred candidate, Gongzi Ji, be made king of Qin. With Zhao's national strength being great, Qin's upper and lower classes were at odds, and the defeated side of Queen Huiwen was restless. Queen Dowager Xuan had no choice but to change her mind and establish Gongzi Ji as the King of Qin.

  In this way, the throne that Gongzi Shi had finally obtained was snatched away by his elder brother Gongzi Ji. There is a saying that makes sense: when you have never had the opportunity to get something, you will not yearn for it too much, but when you can touch what you previously dared not hope for and then lose it again, your heart will become extremely resentful.

  Everyone is like this, and Gongzi City is no exception. The infatuation with power, the loss of the throne made him unable to extricate himself. From then on, a voice kept shouting in his heart "That throne is mine! Is mine!"

  Although Gongzi Shi accepted the arrangement of Xuan Taihou and willingly abdicated, this does not mean that he is willing to submit to the arrangement of fate. Xuan Taihou had once said to herself that if Gongzi Ji was incompetent, she would support him in taking his place. If so, the story of "brother dies and brother succeeds" will be staged again in Qin Guo.

  But Gongzi Yi was too clever and too wise. Gongzi Shi had waited bitterly for 14 years, only to get a title of Prince Yan. Then he hoped that his brother, the king, would be in poor health, so if Gongzi Yi died early, he still had a chance to take over. But in the following years, the king remained healthy as ever, and occasional minor illnesses only made Gongzi Shi rejoice in vain.

  So Gongzi Shi decided not to wait any longer. He wanted to learn from his other brother, Gongzi Zhuang, and if he couldn't get what he wanted by waiting, then he would take it!

  As the King of Qin gradually gained power, his intention to pass on the throne to his eldest son became more and more apparent. Especially now that the King of Qin is already fifty-two years old but still robust! This made Prince Shi even more grateful for his careful planning so many years in advance.

  Perhaps sensing the discontent of Gongzi Shi, the King of Qin became increasingly wary of him. Many perilous diplomatic missions were assigned to Gongzi Shi, just like his current trip to Chu. The past events of Qin's treacherous killing of King Huai and the recent atrocities of burning Yiying and flooding Yingdu were still fresh in mind. Would the people of Chu so easily put aside their grievances and come to the aid of Qin?!

  Gongzi Shi was very suspicious of this. The hatred between Qin and Chu was so deep, and the land of Chu was full of unruly knights-errant, this visit to Chu would absolutely not be smooth sailing, and it's possible that there would even be an assassination attempt. If his "good king brother" were to send an assassin to murder him and then frame Chu, only to magnanimously forgive Chu, wouldn't he have become the sacrifice for the reconciliation of the two nations?

  "I'd trade my life for Chu's pardon to Qin, and my death for the elimination of Qin's crisis. What a wonderful plan! But I'm not yet enlightened enough for that, my good king brother!" Prince Shi sighed silently, revealing a hint of ruthlessness.

  "Empress Dowager, is this also your decision? Have you too decided to abandon me?" The Crown Prince suddenly burst into tears. As the Empress Dowager's own son, why was he treated so differently? If someone had to be sent as an envoy to Chu State, why not send one of the King of Qin's sons?! Why did even his beloved mother agree with this?!

  The king of Qin's decision made Gongzi Shi think in the worst possible direction, that is, the queen mother had already begun to support the king of Qin and wanted to get rid of him by taking advantage of his trip to Chu State, after all, the journey to Chu State was indeed too dangerous.

  Actually, Gongzi Shi was really misunderstood by King Qin and Empress Dowager Xuan this time. Because the mission to Chu State is too important, King Qin and Empress Dowager Xuan thought of sending a senior minister as an envoy to show that Qin State attaches great importance to Chu State.

  Two of the senior officials were either too old or not high-ranking enough, and although Prince Wu was more suitable, he was more interested in military affairs and did not have the eloquence of Prince Shi. The eldest son of the King of Qin had just fallen ill and was not fit for long-distance travel, so reluctantly, Prince Shi, who was the younger brother of the current King of Qin, was sent to Chu State with great difficulty.

  As for the dispute between King Qin and his two younger brothers, Gongzi Shi and Gongzi Huan, Empress Dowager Xuan actually knew everything clearly. It was all because she thought Gongzi Shi was wronged at that time and promised to follow the brother-to-brother succession system. Who would have expected that King Qin's body was so good, and he had great talent and strategy, which made Empress Dowager Xuan have no reason to support Gongzi Shi to take the throne? Looking at Gongzi Shi, who was only two years away from being 50 years old, it was clear that even if he waited for the throne, he would be very old. Meanwhile, King Qin's eldest son, Zhu, was favored by her and was strong and capable, making him the most suitable candidate to be the crown prince.

  The proverb says that the palm and back of the hand are all flesh, and hitting anywhere will hurt. Empress Dowager Wang was still a woman no matter how she commanded the wind and clouds, and she would age and cherish her relationships. Especially as Empress Dowager Wang grew older, she wanted to be harmonious and peaceful even more. For this reason, she scolded Wei Ran and Bai Qi for frequently interacting with Crown Prince Shi, and delayed the matter of establishing a successor, hoping to drag it out until Crown Prince Shi completely gave up.

  But Shang Taihou underestimated the hearts of men and Gongzi Shi's thirst for power. Although on the surface, Gongzi Shi was no longer on good terms with Wei Rang and Bai Qi, and sometimes even quarreled with them in court due to differing opinions, in private, the three were still as close as ever.

  For this trip to Chu State, Gongzi Shi expressed obedience, but in fact, he had other plans in mind.