DLERB -Chapter 171 From This Day Forward, Establish the Zhenhai Office—And Wait for Rome to Deliver Its Weapons!

“Borrowing arrows with straw boats.”

The four words were spoken lightly.

Li Si froze.

Still bent in a bowing posture, he did not move at all, like a clay statue.

His mouth hung slightly open, but no sound came out.

His mind was blank, buzzing uncontrollably.

Ying Zheng froze as well.

The hand gripping the Tianwen Sword stopped in midair.

For the first time, those eyes—restored to the vigor of a twenty-year-old and capable of looking down upon the world—lost their focus.

He stared at the sand table.

At the place marked “Rome.”

Then at his eight-year-old son.

Inside the great hall, only the candle flames flickered, stretching the shadows of the three men long and distorted across the floor.

A long time passed.

So long it felt like an entire century.

Only then did Li Si’s body tremble ever so slightly.

With great difficulty, he raised his head.

The color had long drained from his face.

He was paler than paper.

He looked at Ying Ziye.

His throat bobbed up and down as though clogged with sand.

“Y-Young Master…”

At last, he forced out the two words, his voice as dry as stones grinding together.

“This… this must absolutely not be done!”

Li Si’s voice suddenly rose, carrying terror and pleading even he himself had not noticed.

“That… that sea…”

His lips trembled.

He shuffled forward on his knees, almost grabbing Ying Ziye’s legs.

“That sea… how… how could anyone cross it?”

“The Classic of Mountains and Seas records that beyond the Eastern Sea lies Guixu—the Bottomless Abyss!”

“Our Great Qin tower ships can barely sail a hundred li offshore! Beyond that lies certain death!”

“Storms! Sea monsters! Losing one’s way! Those are not things human strength can overcome!”

The Prime Minister of Great Qin—the empire’s greatest mind—had completely lost his composure.

It was not that he did not believe.

He simply did not dare to believe.

This had gone beyond everything he had learned or understood in his entire life.

This was no strategy.

This was mythology. Madness. Delirium.

He looked toward Ying Zheng, his voice nearly breaking into sobs.

“Your Majesty! The Ninth Young Master is still a child—perhaps these are merely dreams he has seen!”

“You… you absolutely must not take them seriously!”

“If this succeeds, it would indeed become an achievement never before seen in all history!”

“But if it fails…”

Li Si did not dare continue.

The price would be one Great Qin could never bear.

Ying Zheng ignored him.

Ying Ziye ignored him as well.

The boy simply bent down and picked up the black lodestone from the floor.

Then he walked to Ying Zheng’s imperial desk.

On the desk sat a small iron paperweight.

Ying Ziye reached out and snapped off a tiny iron fragment from the edge.

Crack.

A piece no larger than a fingernail fell into his palm.

He placed the iron piece in his left hand.

The black lodestone rested in his right.

Before Li Si’s eyes, he slowly moved his right hand closer to the left.

At a distance of one chi—

Nothing happened.

Half a chi—

Still nothing.

Three inches—

Li Si’s eyes widened.

He saw the iron fragment in Ying Ziye’s palm suddenly tremble slightly.

As though it had come alive.

Ying Ziye continued bringing the lodestone closer.

Two inches.

One inch.

Whoosh!

A faint sound sliced through the air.

The iron fragment seemed yanked by an invisible hand.

In an instant, it crossed the remaining distance.

With a snap, it firmly attached itself to the black lodestone.

Li Si felt as though he had been struck by lightning.

He stared fixedly at the iron fragment, every hair on his body standing on end.

What kind of sorcery was this?!

Ying Ziye raised the lodestone with the attached iron piece, showing it to Li Si.

The innocent smile still remained on his face.

“Prime Minister,”

“Look.”

“It runs over by itself.”

He paused, then spoke in the simplest tone imaginable—

yet uttered words that made Li Si’s soul tremble.

“Our tower ships will carry the largest lodestones possible—refined from entire mountains.”

“The Roman ships will carry hearts made from iron mixed with lodestone powder.”

“Our ships move close to theirs.”

Ying Ziye grinned, revealing rows of white teeth.

“Then their iron ships…”

“…will come toward us on their own.”

“And their iron crossbows…”

“…will turn around by themselves.”

“Then…”

“They’ll aim at their own people.”

BOOM!!!

Li Si’s mind felt as though a real bolt of heavenly thunder had split it clean in half.

He understood.

At last, he truly understood.

And in that instant, he did not feel admiration for the brilliance of the scheme.

What he felt instead was an indescribable chill.

It surged from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

Freezing his entire body like he had fallen into an icy abyss.

This was not strategy!

This was not military doctrine!

This was the method of gods and demons! The power of creation itself!

He looked at the eight-year-old child before him.

That innocent, youthful smile now seemed more terrifying than the fiercest ghost from the deepest abyss.

Thud.

Li Si’s legs gave out.

The Prime Minister of Great Qin—the towering figure beneath one man and above ten thousand—

collapsed onto the floor without warning.

He gasped desperately for breath, as though every bone in his body had been ripped away, leaving behind nothing but a heap of flesh.

It was over.

The world was going mad.

Ying Zheng did not even glance at the fallen Li Si.

His gaze remained fixed upon the massive sand table from beginning to end.

Unlike Li Si, he did not dwell on how it could be accomplished.

He was an emperor.

The only thing he cared about was what could be gained.

The moment Ying Ziye finished speaking—

he understood.

Completely.

He saw it.

He saw the invincible fleet forged with the full strength of Rome—

turning its weapons upon itself before the tower ships of Great Qin.

Destroying itself.

Blasting itself into drifting wreckage upon the sea.

He saw Rome’s gold.

Rome’s lands.

Rome’s people.

All becoming spoils of war.

All becoming part of Great Qin’s territory.

“Hah…”

A strange sound escaped Ying Zheng’s throat.

His expression slowly twisted beyond control.

Step by step, he walked toward the sand table.

He stretched out his hand.

His fingers brushed across the mountains and rivers of Great Qin, across the Great Wall.

Then crossed that vast blue ocean.

And finally—

they slammed down upon the red-marked territory labeled Rome.

His fingernails even gouged into the wood.

“Haha…”

He laughed.

At first, it was a low laugh, like muffled thunder rumbling deep in his chest.

Then the laughter grew louder.

More uncontrollable.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The entire Zhangtai Palace trembled beneath his wild laughter.

This was not relief.

Nor joy.

It was the primal roar of a supreme predator—one that had starved for far too long, only to suddenly discover a brand-new hunting ground untouched by anyone else, rich beyond imagination.

His laughter shook the heavens.

Li Si, collapsed on the ground, felt his soul nearly shatter from the sound.

He looked at the laughing First Emperor.

Then at the calm Ninth Young Master.

Suddenly, he realized—

these two truly were father and son.

A pair of madmen…

who intended to drag the entire world into the palms of their hands.

Abruptly—

Ying Zheng’s laughter stopped.

Like a red-hot blade suddenly plunged into icy water.

He turned around.

The madness and excitement on his face vanished without a trace.

In their place remained only absolute majesty and cold authority.

His gaze fell upon Li Si.

“Prime Minister.”

The voice was not loud.

Yet it carried the crushing weight of collapsing mountains.

Li Si jolted violently and scrambled back to his knees.

“Y-Your servant… is here…”

Ying Zheng looked at him and spoke word by word, each syllable striking like iron against stone.

“Draft the decree!”

Li Si abruptly raised his head, horror filling his face.

Then Ying Zheng’s domineering voice rang through the great hall:

“From this day forth, establish the ‘Zhenhai Office’ in Donghai Commandery!”

“It shall oversee all matters related to overseas expeditions!”

Ying Zheng’s eyes once more turned toward the vast sand table.

Within them burned endless greed and ambition.

“I shall personally watch…”

“…how many weapons those fat sheep beyond the horizon forge for Great Qin!”

He paused.

His voice grew even darker.

“I do not only want their weapons!”

“I want their gold as well!”

“And their lands!”