Zhangtai Palace.
Li Si was kneeling on the ground.
In his hands, he held a thick account book.
“Your Majesty,”
His voice was hoarse from crying, yet carried an extreme, almost manic excitement.
“Wan’guo Workshop… has come alive.”
“All Dragon Notes in Xianyang were bought up within a single hour!”
“Those who sold them in panic now regret it deeply—they are offering three times the gold price and still cannot buy even a single note!”
Li Si raised his head. His face, aged overnight, was now flushed with vitality.
“The imperial treasury… not a single tael of gold was spent!”
“Instead, we absorbed the people’s idle wealth—gold, silver, copper coins—totaling… over nine million in gold value!”
“The Great Qin treasury is not only unbroken…”
“It is richer than ever before!”
At the front of the hall, Qin Shi Huang stood by the imperial desk.
The overturned desk had already been restored by eunuchs.
Listening to Li Si’s report, a smile appeared on his young face.
“Hahaha…”
His laughter started low, then grew louder.
“HAHAHAHAHA!”
“Good!”
“A perfect example of ‘turning crisis into opportunity!’”
He slammed his hand on the desk.
“My Ziye is truly a divine talent!”
All the ministers below bowed deeply.
“The Ninth Prince is a genius beyond his time—blessing for Great Qin for eternity!”
“With this event, the credibility of Dragon Notes is as solid as a rock!”
Praise filled the hall.
At that moment—
“Report!”
A heart-rending scream echoed from outside.
A courier, covered in mud, stumbled into the hall.
His helmet tassel had fallen off, his face covered in bleeding cuts.
“Donghai Commandery! Eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch!”
Using his last strength, he raised a sealed bamboo tube high into the air.
Then collapsed to the ground unconscious.
The laughter in the hall stopped instantly.
A Black Ice Platform guard picked up the tube and presented it to Qin Shi Huang.
The emperor broke the seal.
Pulled out the parchment inside.
He only glanced once—and his brows furrowed.
“A fleet?”
Wang Jian stepped forward.
“What troubles Your Majesty?”
Qin Shi Huang handed him the parchment.
“Read it yourself.”
Wang Jian scanned quickly.
“A fleet never seen before, appearing off the coast of Donghai Commandery?”
“Ships enormous in size, no sails, yet hundreds of oars on both sides moving in unison—fast as galloping horses?”
At this, the ministers erupted in shock.
“What kind of ships are these, so strange?”
An official from the Ministry of Works immediately stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, impossible! A ship that travels thousands of li a day without sails defies all reason!”
“It must be exaggeration from the Donghai governor!”
A general also stepped forward, disdainful.
“Your Majesty, Great Qin’s prestige reaches across the seas.”
“It must be some small foreign state, hearing of our might, coming to pay tribute!”
“In my opinion, we only need to send an envoy with silk and porcelain to proclaim Great Qin’s decree, and they will naturally disperse.”
Voices of agreement rose one after another.
“General Zhang speaks wisely!”
“We have just conquered the Xiongnu and obtained the Eastern Sea silver mountain—our national power is at its peak. What is there to fear?”
Qin Shi Huang listened and nodded slightly, finding it reasonable.
Just as he was about to speak—
“Report—!”
Another shout.
Even more shrill, even more terrified than before.
A second courier rushed in.
One of his arms hung limply—clearly broken from falling off a dying horse.
“Your Majesty! Second urgent report!”
“That fleet… has landed!”
“Thousands of people have disembarked from the ships!”
The courier gasped for breath, face filled with terror.
“They… they are not from the Central Plains!”
“Golden hair… blue eyes… high noses!”
“The armor they wear is so bright it reflects light!”
“They… they did not loot or set fires…”
“Instead… they formed square formations!”
“Just like… just like our Great Qin military formations—perfect and seamless!”
“In their hands, they carried a flag!”
“On it… is a golden eagle!”
At this point.
Everyone in the hall—those who had just been chatting casually—froze in place.
Not pirates?
A military force?
A well-trained army from overseas?
Li Si’s voice turned dry.
“What… are they trying to do?”
The courier trembled and pulled out a second parchment from his chest.
“They did not speak a word. They simply held that eagle flag and marched step by step toward the Donghai Commandery governor’s office!”
“The commandery commandant did not dare act rashly and has already deployed a large army to surround them!”
“But… but they show no fear at all!”
“It’s as if… as if they cannot see our army at all!”
A wave of sharp intakes of breath filled the hall.
Thousands of men, facing tens of thousands of Qin troops—yet treating them as nothing?
What arrogance was this!
“They’re rebelling!”
A hot-tempered general roared immediately.
“Your Majesty! This is an invasion!”
“Please allow me to lead thirty thousand troops and bury these ignorant barbarians at the Eastern Sea coast!”
“No!”
Meng Yi immediately objected.
“The situation is unclear. We must not act rashly!”
“They have not attacked yet—perhaps they have other intentions.”
The hall instantly erupted into argument.
War faction and peace faction shouted at each other, faces red with anger.
Qin Shi Huang’s expression also darkened.
His hand rested on the hilt of the Tianwen sword.
Whoever dared to act so recklessly on Qin soil—there could only be one fate: death.
At that tense moment—
A childish voice lazily rang out.
“Why are you all arguing?”
Everyone stopped.
They turned around.
Ying Ziye had somehow walked to the center of the hall.
He was still holding half a candied hawthorn stick.
He glanced at the arguing ministers as if looking at a group of fools.
“Isn’t it just a few thousand foreigners?”
“Do you really need to make such a fuss?”
Qin Shi Huang looked at his son.
“Ziye, you know who they are?”
Ying Ziye licked the candied hawthorn.
“Of course I do.”
He walked to the huge map hanging in the hall.
His finger crossed the territory of Great Qin, crossed the Eastern Sea, and pointed toward a distant western region not even marked on the map.
“Father.”
“On the other side of this vast ocean, very far away…”
“There is another country as strong as Great Qin.”
He spoke word by word.
“Their name… is Rome.”
Rome?
The ministers looked completely confused.
They had never heard this name before.
Qin Shi Huang’s gaze sharpened instantly.
He remembered the strange stories Ying Ziye had once told him—about the world beyond the seas and the stars.
“And how should we respond?” Qin Shi Huang asked, his voice unconsciously lowered.
Everyone in the hall leaned in.
They wanted to hear what this unpredictable Ninth Prince would say.
Ying Ziye bit into his candied hawthorn, the crunch crisp and clear.
“Father.”
“They are not here to wage war.”
“Nor are they here to pay tribute.”
He paused.
Then, under everyone’s tense gaze, Ying Ziye grinned, revealing a row of small white teeth.
“They’re here… to deliver money.”
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