Volume 1: Entering Great Qin for the First Time Chapter 54: Granting a Surname (Third Update)

  Although he was surprised at Hu Hai's sudden change of name for the Black Guard, and did not understand the meaning of Dragon Guard, the kneeling Sixteen Wei still chose to cater to the emperor's intention.

  "Thank you for granting us a name!" Everyone thanked in unison!

  The Son of Heaven has existed since ancient times, but the True Dragon Son of Heaven is not commonly used. The emperor calling himself the True Dragon Son of Heaven was only used after Liu Bang. Because Liu Bang considered himself to be the reincarnation of the White Dragon, at that time in Great Qin, dragons were not yet famous.

  As a descendant of the First Dragon, Hu Hai naturally had a special fondness for dragons. He changed his name very simply.

  "Hmm, Long Wei has been established, so I will bestow another thing upon you." Hu Hai said with a smile.

  "Thank you for your gift, Your Majesty!"

  "Hey, hey! Don't rush to thank me, listen first if you're satisfied or not. If not, I'll take back this reward!" Hu Hai hastily said, he didn't know if granting a surname was a great honor at that time, but in later generations it would definitely be a heavenly virtue.

  "We dare not!"

  "Don't say you dare not, first listen to me finish. I have decided to bestow upon you the surname Ying, from now on use Ying Yi to Ying Shi Liu as your names, is that good?" Hu Hai asked.

  This reward was far beyond everyone's expectations, and all sixteen of them were stunned for a moment.

  To put it crudely, happiness came too suddenly and joy was too overwhelming, so that the 16th Wei, including the 6th Wei, who were kneeling on one knee, couldn't help but feel like they wanted to pee.

  The first lieutenant was the first to react, and he knelt down on the ground with a "thud", knocking his head on the ground and sobbing: "Win one, thank Your Majesty for granting a name. Win ten thousand, die without regret!"

  He said, with three loud knocks on the ground, Hu Hai's heart was racing.

  Good grief, do you want to crack your skull open?! Seeing that he still wanted to continue kowtowing, Hu Hai was afraid that his first personal guard would knock himself dead on the spot just because he had given him a name, and hastily shouted:

  "All right! All right, stop kowtowing, or I'll worry that you'll knock yourself dead. You're my first imperial guard, don't die from kowtowing before you even take office, or I'll be the one who's tragic. Alright, alright, get up."

  Although I don't know what a tragedy is, the tone of Hu Hai's words was very clear. Ying Yi awkwardly touched his forehead with a large lump of mud and smiled: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, Ying Yi has thick skin, he won't die from a bump!"

  Hearing this, looking at him with a muddy face still smiling foolishly, Hu Hai couldn't help but laugh.

  "We won two (from three to sixteen) thanks to Your Majesty's gift of a name! We ministers are willing to die ten thousand times!"

  The remaining fifteen people also reacted and knocked their heads in unison.

  "If you all like this reward of mine, then I'll be more generous. Are the Black Guards not all nameless and surname-less men?" Hu Hai said.

  Winning over these people, as soon as they heard Hu Hai's words, their eyes lit up instantly, and it was clear that they had already thought of what Hu Hai wanted to do. Instantly, one by one, they nodded continuously like little chickens pecking at rice.

  "In that case, since Hei Wei has been renamed Long Wei, from now on everyone will have the surname Long. In Long Wei, we'll start with Long One and go all the way to the last person. When you leave Long Wei or sacrifice yourself for the country, I will give each of you a new name!"

  From then on, names starting with "Long" would be the fixed name for every Dragon Guard, and once you entered the Dragon Guard, you would all be granted the surname Long.

  "It will be the same with you. When you are old and about to retire from Long Wei, I will give you a new name with the surname Ying. What do you think?"

  Huhai smiled and said.

  "We, your subjects, thank Your Majesty for the great kindness bestowed upon Long Wei! May Your Majesty live forever and ever!" Ying Yi and others knocked their heads to the ground in gratitude.

  They all knew that Hu Hai's words today could be said to be the greatest blessing for the Long Wei people who had been hiding in secret and changing their names, to receive a name bestowed by the Emperor of Great Qin himself, what an honor would it be?

  "Everyone get up. I still have some things to entrust to you. If there's anything incorrect in what I say, wait until I finish speaking and then point it out to me."

  "We obey your orders!"

  Win one and others hurriedly bowed their heads in response.

  "I have done many absurd things in the past, but now that my father has enlightened me, I see that the world is already in a state of great chaos. Therefore, I must reunify the world as quickly as possible, and to do so, I must rely heavily on you, Dragon Guards." Hu Hai said solemnly.

  "We your subjects would rather die than betray you!"

  When Hu Hai spoke, the guards responded in unison. These people were born to exist for the emperor and were a sharp sword protecting imperial power. From the death of the First Emperor to Hu Hai's arrival, they had been cooped up in this not-so-large castle for over a year.

  Now hearing the Emperor's intention is that it is necessary to reuse Longwei, which makes everyone excited.

  "I entrust you with three tasks, which must be completed as soon as possible."

  First, I don't know how your previous intelligence work was, but now you must quickly establish a secret intelligence network covering all counties and prefectures of the Great Qin. I want to know about any events happening anywhere in the Great Qin at any time. This requires you to set up a channel or method for rapid message transmission.

  Especially first establish the current rebellion in Surabaya and other counties and the original Chu state secret intelligence network. The intelligence network of various counties in Qin can come slowly, but these places are now the focus, cannot relax.

  Secondly, I will let Dun Ruo hand over the outer hall of Hei Bing Tai to your control. You must take control of all the personnel and actions in the outer hall of Hei Bing Tai within the shortest time possible, and coordinate with Long Wei's actions behind. Don't leave any ears or eyes for anyone in the imperial court.

  Thirdly, immediately dispatch the inner guards to secretly investigate this land survey matter of mine, and see if there is anyone who has been corrupt or deceitful behind my back, or if there are any officials in the court who have colluded to deceive me. These are all matters that you, Rong Liu, are responsible for, I entrust them to you."

  Huhai finished speaking and smiled at Ying Liu.

  At this time, Huhai only discovered that the winning six was only slightly shorter than the men next to him, and he was probably about the same height as himself now, at least 1.75 meters tall, a woman of this height in ancient times was an anomaly.

  Of course, in pre-Qin times, there was no such practice as foot binding that crippled women.

  "Your Majesty, rest assured that I, Ying Liu, will make sure to fill every corner of our great Qin with achievements."

  "Hmm, I'm relieved then." Originally, Hu Hai wanted to take a look at the tall woman when he heard Ying Liu's voice, but for some reason, her hair was covering her face and he couldn't see clearly.

  "The rest of you, let me think about your tasks. Now, win one, take me to see the training of the dead soldiers and various military equipment. You all go busy yourselves." Since he couldn't see clearly, Hu Hai gave up very simply and turned to Win One instead.

  "It is Your Majesty!"

  Apart from Yingyi, everyone else bid farewell and left.

  Originally, Hu Hai wanted to ask the four people led by Ying Er who were in charge of which aspect, but thinking that they didn't even know about Ying Yi, and they were all deaf-mute dead soldiers, so he gave up on this idea and prepared to wait for them to be called over individually to ask.

  After a dozen or so people retreated, Ying Yi took Hu Hai to tour the entire palace.

  ……

  The sky on the grassland is always exceptionally blue and vast, with more than 50 knights galloping across the endless grassland.

  "Mr. Su, are we going to take the Jiuyuan Road through Xianyang and then head south to Nanyue or take the Yuanluo Road directly back to Nanyue from the Qiang territory?" A loud and rough voice came from the front of the galloping horse team, overpowering the muffled sound of horseshoes.

  This group of knights is none other than Su Yue and Meng Chong's party who have come from afar to the grasslands.

  It was probably because of the dense hoofbeats that he couldn't hear Su Yue speak, so Meng Chong raised his hand and said: "Young masters, dismount and take a rest!"

  Upon hearing Meng Chong's order, the galloping knights quickly reined in their horses and dismounted to drink water or eat dry rations. Meng Chong jumped off his horse and walked briskly to Su Yue, who was still on horseback, saying: "Mr. Su, get down and take a rest. Let's discuss our next move."

  Day after day of wind and rain, made the originally elegant Su Yue now look a bit disheveled, his originally neatly combed hair was now messy, his face covered with thick fatigue.

  "Also, General, please help me down from the horse, my legs are numb and I can no longer dismount." Su Yue said with a bitter smile.

  Meng Chong burst out laughing and stretched out his arms to pull Su Yue directly off the horse, saying: "Sir is delicate and tender, why must you suffer so much, running thousands of miles to this godforsaken place."

  Su Yue was held down by Meng Chong and placed on the ground, only awkwardly smiling and not responding.

  After putting down Su Yue, he sat down beside him and said: "Mr. Su, the people who came to meet us are King Teng's men of Xiongnu, right? This time, the young master let you come all the way to this grassland, could it be that it was to see the Chanyu of Xiongnu? How did the young master know the Chanyu of Xiongnu?"