DLERB -Chapter 155 The Silver Mine Collapsed and Li Si Went Mad—While I Was Playing with a Windmill?

Xianyang, Prime Minister’s Residence.

The night was deep.

But Li Si had no intention of sleeping. He was wide awake, full of energy.

Before him lay a desk piled high with bamboo slips like a small mountain.

Every scroll came from various commanderies and frontier strongholds of Great Qin.

And every single one recorded the same thrilling development.

The Great Qin Dragon Notes.

“Reporting to the Chancellor: South Commandery reports that merchants from the Three Han states exchanged three shiploads of grain for fifty thousand Dragon Notes, now stored in the official granary!”

“Urgent report from Beidi Commandery: the Right Wise King of the Xiongnu has offered three thousand warhorses, only requesting Dragon Notes in exchange for salt and iron!”

“Secret report from Shu: local noble clans have emptied their entire fortunes to exchange for Dragon Notes; copper coins have nearly disappeared from circulation!”

Li Si picked up one scroll, then put it down.

Then picked up another.

The wrinkles on his face blossomed into a full chrysanthemum of joy.

He could already see it—

Great Qin’s treasury overflowing with endless supplies.

And what Qin paid in return was merely paper printed by the Imperial Workshop, bearing a black dragon.

“Prince Nine… truly a divine talent!”

Li Si sighed sincerely and lifted his teacup, preparing to moisten his smile-dry throat.

He called his confidants over, full of pride.

“Do you see? This is cutting off the enemy at the root!”

“All wealth under heaven will belong to Great Qin! This strategy can secure Qin for a hundred years!”

At that moment—

A subordinate responsible for intelligence rushed in from outside, face pale with panic.

“Chancellor!”

He held a bamboo slip sealed with black wax.

It was an emergency military report from Dongying, marked with the highest level of urgency.

The previously relaxed atmosphere instantly froze.

Li Si’s heart tightened.

He set down his cup and snatched the report.

He broke the seal and unfolded it.

Line after line of shocking text appeared before his eyes.

His smile froze on his face.

As if instantly carved into ice by a winter wind.

“Ishimi Silver Mine… Tunnel No. 3 collapsed…”

“Over a hundred laborers killed or injured…”

“Crown Prince Fusu executed the supervising centurion on the spot to enforce military discipline…”

Li Si’s hand began to tremble uncontrollably.

But he did not care about the dead, nor the executed officer.

He kept reading.

His eyes locked onto the final line like they had been nailed there.

And that sentence struck him like a thunderbolt.

“…Deep ore veins are far harder than expected; pickaxes cannot penetrate; extraction extremely difficult; production may sharply decline…”

“Clang!”

He did not simply drop his teacup.

He overturned the entire desk with all his strength!

Bamboo slips, teaware, brushes and ink—all crashed to the floor.

“Useless! A bunch of useless fools!”

He roared.

Scalding tea soaked his official robes, but he felt nothing.

He only felt a coldness rising from his feet, freezing his entire body.

“The silver mine…”

Li Si’s voice was dry like stones grinding together.

“The foundation of Dragon Notes is that silver mine!”

He paced back and forth frantically in his study.

“The root… is about to break?”

“The sky is going to fall!”

He suddenly stopped, veins bulging on his forehead.

“Prepare the carriage! I will enter the palace immediately to see His Majesty!”

He shouted toward the door.

But after shouting, he suddenly slumped as if all strength had been drained.

“No! Come back!”

“I cannot go! At this moment, His Majesty hates nothing more than words that shake morale—I will be courting death!”

Li Si panted heavily, forcing himself to calm down.

The mind honed through decades of political struggle began to race.

He grabbed his frightened confidant.

“Go! Immediately go to the Imperial Workshop. Bring me every record, every text on mineral veins, geography, and surveying within Great Qin!”

“I refuse to believe it!”

“Across the vast world, aside from that broken island—there is no second silver mountain!”

At the same time, Zhangtai Palace.

Bright as daylight.

In front of Qin Shi Huang lay an identical emergency report.

He merely glanced at it.

Then, expressionlessly, tossed it into the fire pit beside him.

The bamboo slip crackled as it burned, quickly turning to ash.

“Fusu has done well.”

Qin Shi Huang spoke, his voice slightly hoarse but satisfied.

“Compassion does not command armies, and kindness does not govern a state.”

“Now… he is even managing the mine laborers well.”

“That’s more like a descendant of the Ying family!”

The assistant supervisor of the Imperial Workshop lowered his head even further in fear, barely daring to breathe.

Qin Shi Huang no longer looked at him.

His gaze fell on a massive blueprint.

It was a design for a multi-deck warship—three times larger than any Qin naval vessel in existence.

But his expression was full of undisguised irritation and impatience.

“So this is the answer Gongshu Chou spent months producing for me?”

The assistant trembled and forced himself to explain.

“Your Majesty, it is not that Master Gongshu is not trying his best. It is just… ocean waves are not like river currents. The hull is too large; the keel cannot bear the weight. If it encounters a storm…”

“Difficult?”

Qin Shi Huang sneered and cut him off.

He casually picked up a heavy bronze dragon-shaped paperweight from the desk and weighed it in his hand.

“I destroyed the Six States and unified the world. Was that easy or difficult?”

He stepped closer to the blueprint.

“What I want is a sea beast that can cross the ocean and crush everything in its path—not your excuses about difficulties!”

Before his words finished—

He suddenly swung his arm.

The heavy bronze paperweight whistled through the air and slammed into a delicate ship model built according to the blueprint.

“BOOM!”

A loud crash.

The model shattered into pieces, wood splintering everywhere.

“Tell Gongshu Chou!”

His voice thundered like lightning.

“If the keel is not strong enough, forge it from iron!”

“If wood is not hard enough, reinforce it with copper!”

“If he gives me another excuse, I will throw everyone in the Imperial Workshop into the furnace!”

“They will become ballast for my invincible warship!”

Nine Prince’s Residence.

Ying Ziye was lazily sitting on a soft carpet.

In front of him was a strange wooden contraption.

A small copper pot heated over a candle. A thin bamboo tube connected the pot to a tiny wooden windmill.

Steam hissed out, weakly spinning the windmill.

“Sigh…”

Ying Ziye sighed.

“Thermal energy conversion efficiency is still too low…”

At that moment, Qinglong walked in silently and handed over a bamboo slip with both hands.

Ying Ziye didn’t even look up as he took it.

He unfolded it, glanced once, and a trace of pity flashed across his youthful face—completely out of place for his age.

He set the bamboo slip down.

“Qinglong.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Tell me… has my elder brother read all those sage books straight into a dog’s stomach?”

Qinglong remained silent.

Ying Ziye stood up and walked to a crude world map hanging on the wall.

“A tunnel collapse, a hundred dead. He sees it as the loss of a hundred laborers, so he kills the centurion. Looks decisive, doesn’t it?”

He pointed at Dongying on the map.

“Wrong. Completely wrong!”

His voice suddenly rose.

“He only sees past losses, but never how to prevent future ones! He only knows punishment through killing, but has no idea how to solve the root problem!”

He crumpled the bamboo slip in his hand.

“Does killing a centurion make the rocks softer? Does it restore silver output?”

“No!”

“All it does is make everyone afraid. And when people are afraid, they stop reporting problems!”

“Next time there are warning signs of collapse, they’ll hide it! No one will dare speak!”

“The result is worse collapses! More deaths! Greater losses!”

He slammed the paper ball to the ground.

“Idiots! A bunch of fools who only know how to solve problems with whips and swords!”

The anger in him seemed to rise further.

He suddenly stood up.

His small body moved with astonishing speed.

With one kick, he overturned the low table filled with snacks.

Fruit and pastries scattered everywhere.

“Brush and ink!”

He shouted toward the palace entrance with all his strength.

His voice was sharp and childish—

Yet carried a chilling, ruthless intensity as if it could cut through everything.

The guards outside shivered and rushed in.

“Go to the Imperial Workshop!”

He pointed toward the gate, face flushed red.

“Bring me Gongshu Chou’s most talented mute apprentice who works with gears!”

The guards froze.

Mute apprentice? There was such a person in the Imperial Workshop?

“Didn’t you hear me?!”

His voice sharpened even further.

“Tell them—half an hour!”