Chapter Twelve: Chaos Erupts

  The king's account, Zhang Hai and other generals heard Hu Hai's words, and saw Hu Hai's appearance of wanting to find a seam in the ground to drill into, everyone did not feel a bit funny, only full of comfort.

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  What Hu Hai did in the past is no longer important to the generals now, what's important is what Hu Hai will do in the future. Knowing shame and then being brave, Your Majesty the Emperor has suddenly woken up, and it's not too late to mend the fold after losing a sheep. This is what everyone thinks in their hearts.

  Although Hu Hai spoke vaguely, the people in the account were all high-ranking generals of the Imperial Guard, and they still had this ability to lead. Without waiting for Wang Li's introduction, a general who sat below Wang Li stood up first, walked to the middle of the big account, knelt down on one knee, and said loudly: "The minister of the Imperial Guard, the front army general Meng Ke, pays homage to your majesty."

  At this time, Hu Hai woke up from his awkward and inexpressible state when he heard Meng Yi's voice, only to find that the generals in the tent did not hear him being dissatisfied or looking down on them for not knowing each other, but instead they all solemnly began to introduce themselves to him.

  Looking at the generals who were as enthusiastic as they were before the battle, Hu Hai knew he had thought too much. Feeling the same solemnity from the generals, Hu Hai could also feel their ardent expectations in their hearts.

  Huhai's mood improved, and he looked at Meng Guang, who was still kneeling on the ground after finishing his introduction. This was an exceptionally young general with a face as white as jade and a vigorous spirit. Huhai suddenly had an idea and asked: "General Meng, are you a relative of General Meng Tian?"

  When Hu Hai asked the question, Meng Yi loudly replied: "Your Majesty, General Meng Tian is my uncle." After saying this sentence, Meng Yi's expression changed slightly, but he didn't say anything else.

  "Oh, it's indeed a relative of General Meng Tian. Good!" Hu Hai said, raising his hand to signal Meng Kui to come forward. He saw the abnormal expression on Meng Kui's face, but he had his own thoughts and didn't say anything more.

  Meng Tian retreated to one side, and Zhang Han's deputy, a young general of similar age, immediately stood up and came to the center of the main tent, preparing to kneel on one knee. Hu Hai interrupted him, saying: "There is no need for you gentlemen to be formal, just speak from where you are standing."

  A young general who had already arrived in the middle of the great tent and was preparing to pay his respects said "Yes" but did not retreat back to his seat, instead standing in the middle of the great tent: "Your Majesty, I am Wang Gan, a forbidden army lieutenant."

  Hu Hai looked at Wang Gan standing in the middle of the big tent, and saw a faint shadow of Wang Li on his face. He smiled half-truly and half-falsely: "General Wang Gan, aren't you the son of Minister Wang?"

  Wang Yi, who was standing beside the throne of Hu Hai, hastily bowed and said: "Your Majesty is indeed a god among men. Wang Jian is just a humble subject's son." In his words, he flattered Hu Hai with a not-so-subtle boot-licking.

  When he heard Wang Li's obvious flattery, Hu Hai couldn't help but roll his eyes and thought to himself, no wonder this Wang Li wasn't killed by Zhao Gao who held great power like the Meng brothers, just from hearing this flattering remark.

  Hu Hai smiled and said: "Indeed, a tiger father has no dog son, good!"

  Then the remaining dozen or so Imperial Guard generals also introduced themselves one by one. Hu Hai did not find any more historical celebrities among these people, but two Mongolian generals among the remaining generals left him with a lingering impression to observe them for a while.

  In my heart, I couldn't help but sigh. The Meng family was indeed a great family of the Qin dynasty. Every member of the family was young and held high positions, and none of them were mediocre. Let's not mention Meng Ke, the other two were Meng Li, who was the General of the Rear Army, and Meng Gan, who was only 17 or 18 years old and already held the position of Xiaowei.

  Hu Hai deeply understood that promotion in the Qin military was difficult and required actual military achievements to advance step by step. At that time, the young men from large families did not enjoy much privilege or protection from their families, unlike later dynasties such as the Han and Tang.

  Hu Hai summoned all the generals to sit down and asked: "How many soldiers are left in Xianyang City?" He had too many questions he wanted to understand.

  Wang Li heard and stood up, bowing his body to reply: "I report to Your Majesty, there are still over a million troops stationed in Xianyang, all of whom are the elite of our Great Qin."

  Huhai finally asked a question he had not dared to ask, and with a thick face, said: "How many soldiers are there in the Imperial Guard that follow me on patrol?"

  Even if the generals in the account no longer care about Hu Hai's past, when they heard Hu Hai ask such a stupid question, everyone couldn't help but stare. This is the Imperial Guard that protects your life, and you don't even know how many people you brought out?

  The various generals stared at him with meaningful glances, but Hu Hai pretended to be oblivious, his face thickening as he silently cursed himself.

  Wang Li heard this and was even more shocked, taking half a day to react before hastily saying: "Ah, Your Majesty's current inspection tour has a total of 200,000 imperial guards following in protection. Among them, the vanguard of 50,000 is led by me, your humble minister. The central army of 100,000 is led by Zhao Gao, the former middle general. The rear guard of 50,000 is led by Zhang Shao Fu. In addition to the miscellaneous laborers and farmers responsible for supplies and logistics who follow the army, there are over 500,000 people in total."

  When Wang Li said this, Hu Hai was stunned for a moment, he originally thought that the forbidden army accompanying him on his tour of inspection would be at most 10 million, but unexpectedly there were as many as 20 million people. This is not to mention the more than 30 million miscellaneous workers and farmers, adding up to more than 50 million people.

  "How much money does this cost?!" Hu Hai cursed loudly. "No wonder others want to rebel."

  Looking at Huhai, who was stunned and speechless after hearing his own words, Zhang Han hastily added: "Your Majesty, it's not that few, actually. Every time Your Majesty inspects a commandery, there will be soldiers from the commandery to escort you until you leave the commandery, and then the next commandery will take over, so Your Majesty doesn't have to worry about safety."

  Hu Hai was speechless and stared at Zhang Han for a moment, he didn't know what to say anymore.

  After a long time, Hu Hai asked: "How many troops does our Great Qin have now?"

  The generals in the account were obviously a bit unaccustomed to Hu Hai's words, and it took them a while to come around. Wang Li thought for a moment and said: "Our great Qin currently has over 1 million soldiers, among which 300,000 elite troops have been led by General Meng Tian to guard against the Xiongnu at Jiuyuan County, and General Ren Xiao leads an army of 500,000 to conquer the Baiyue in the south, now stationed in Nanhai, Guilin and other three counties."

  King Wei paused and continued: "Your Majesty has 2 million troops on patrol, more than 1 million garrisoned in Xianyang. The rest are distributed along the borders of our great Qin and throughout the various counties of the empire."

  Huhai listened to Wang Li's answer and thought quietly. He asked this question just to know how many troops he could really control in his hands. Now, counting the 200,000 who followed him, they definitely wouldn't run away, and there were also 100,000 Qin troops in Xianyang.

  Although the Meng brothers are now detained, Zhao Gao is dead and he will not destroy the Great Wall by killing these two brothers. According to the original history, the Meng brothers would rather be killed by Zhao Gao than start a rebellion, so the 300,000 Qin troops in Meng Tian's hands can also be controlled.

  Ren Tong didn't know who he was, but when he heard about the conquest of Baiyue, he thought it shouldn't be Zhao Tuo? He immediately asked: "Where is Zhao Tuo?"

  King Wang was surprised to hear Hu Hai ask about Zhao Tuo, after all, Hu Hai seemed not to know himself, how did he know Zhao Tuo? Although puzzled in his heart, he still replied: "Your Majesty, General Zhao Tuo is the deputy commander of the expedition against the Baiyue."

  King Ou understood this explanation, and indeed there was a person named Zhao Tuo. However, he did not expect that Zhao Tuo was not the commander-in-chief of the expedition against the Baiyue, but rather at the end of the Qin Dynasty when the world was in great chaos and the Qin Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, Zhao Tuo did not send troops to quell the rebellion, but instead led his army to establish himself.

  Now that he has come, will Zhao Tuo lead the troops to stand alone? If he can strangle the sprouts of rebellion before they germinate, it seems that these 500,000 people can still be won over.

  Just as Hu Hai was still pondering his greatest capital in hand, a eunuch rushed in to report: "Your Majesty, an envoy from Xianyang has arrived and requests to see the Imperial Secretary Zhao Gao."

  Upon hearing the eunuch's words, Hu Hai's brow furrowed involuntarily. Wang Yi, who was standing beside him and saw that Hu Hai looked displeased, hastily stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, regarding the matter of executing Zhao and his cohorts, we have controlled the news and it has not been leaked out. Therefore..."

  Huhai understood his meaning and immediately said: "Xuan."

  Before long, a dusty soldier entered the grand tent under the leadership of the eunuch. The soldier came in and saw Hu Hai sitting at the top of the grand tent, and he couldn't help but pause for a moment. He then quickly scanned the surroundings and stepped forward to kneel on the ground, saying: "Your humble servant pays his respects to Your Majesty."

  Huhai and others all saw the soldier's subtle glance after entering the account. Wang Li saw Huhai not speaking, took the initiative to stand up and said: "What news is being transmitted from Xianyang to Zhao Gao."

  The soldier was very sharp-eyed and respectfully presented a package that had been carried on his back. Wang Li took it over, opened the package, inside was a bundle of bamboo slips, Wang Li did not open the bamboo slips and turned around to present them respectfully to Hu Hai.

  Huhai did not take the bamboo slips and said, "Wang Ai, read it to me." In fact, Huhai was worried that he himself could not recognize the small seal script on the bamboo slips.

  Wang hastily and respectfully replied with a "yes", opened the bamboo scroll, scanned it briefly, and suddenly changed his expression, exclaiming in surprise: "Your Majesty, there is rioting by rebellious civilians in Qi County and other places."

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