DLERB -Chapter 48 Everything Is Ready—Is Father Emperor Returning at Lightning Speed?

Li Si trembled as he received the small brocade pouch with shaking hands.

He opened it.

He only glanced once.

His pupils suddenly dilated.

He looked at the note inside the pouch, then slowly raised his head to look at the child in front of him—who was innocently preparing to drink lotus seed soup.

“Thud!”

Li Si’s knees slammed heavily into the cold ground.

His entire body trembled uncontrollably like a sieve.

In a hoarse voice, as if squeezing words out from the depths of his throat, he said:

“This minister… receives the decree!”

“This minister… will immediately give Master Chunyu… a grand burial!”

Outside Xianyang, beside the fields of hope

The wooden stake that had bound Chunyu Yue for half a month still stood there.

But now, it was empty.

Chunyu Yue’s body—like a dried corpse—had been carefully taken down.

It was not thrown into a mass grave.

Li Si personally brought people to deliver a high-quality nanmu coffin.

Several attendants were using clean water to wipe the dirt off the already stiff corpse.

Countless villagers who had heard the news gathered at a distance, pointing and whispering.

“That old man… is dead?”

“Good riddance! Opposing our young prince—he deserved it!”

“Why is the Chancellor here? Is he actually collecting the body?”

While the crowd was discussing, Li Si changed into mourning clothes and stepped in front of the coffin.

He bowed deeply to the crowd.

Everyone fell silent.

Straightening his body, Li Si wore an expression of profound sorrow and compassion.

His voice, carried by inner force, spread across the entire field.

“Fellow villagers!”

“Today, we are here to bid farewell to a true ‘seeker of the Dao’!”

The crowd froze.

A seeker of the Dao?

They were talking about that stubborn old Confucian?

Li Si ignored their confusion. He pointed at Chunyu Yue in the coffin, his voice suddenly rising!

“You all think Chunyu was a criminal?”

“Wrong!”

“You think he was tortured to death by the Crown Prince?”

“Completely wrong!”

Li Si looked around at the confused faces, tears in his eyes.

“Chunyu Yue devoted his entire life to the ‘rituals’ and ‘rites’ of Confucian teaching!”

“But when he was bound here in these fields of hope, day after day, watching the divine crop—the potato—sprout from the earth, watching all of you gain smiles of satiety…”

“He finally awakened! He finally attained enlightenment!”

Li Si pointed at the green fields, almost in a frenzy.

“He understood what the true Dao of the world is!”

“It is not empty talk in books! It is not rigid rules in the court!”

“It is ensuring that all people of the world have food to eat—and can survive!”

“This—this is the true Great Dao!”

“So!”

Li Si’s voice rang like a thunderous bell.

“Chunyu did not die in despair!”

“He passed on in peace—smiling—overwhelmed with joy at seeing the salvation of the people and the descent of the Dao into the mortal world!”

“He died for the Dao!”

“He is the first great Confucian of our Great Qin to be enlightened by the divine crop!”

The words exploded like thunder across the crowd!

Everyone was stunned.

This… could it be interpreted like this?

At that moment, an elderly farmer—secretly arranged in advance by the Jinyiwei—stepped forward excitedly.

He pointed at the wooden stake and shouted loudly:

“I remember! The Chancellor is right!”

“The night before yesterday, I passed by here with my own eyes and saw Master Chunyu… crying while looking at this field!”

“But… but he was smiling!”

“Yes! I saw it too!” another “villager” quickly added.

“His mouth was moving! It sounded like he was saying… ‘Dao’… ‘the Great Dao’…”

A single spark ignited a prairie fire!

The villagers were simple-minded and already held reverence for the “divine crop.”

Now hearing such mystical explanations, the last trace of doubt vanished instantly.

“So that’s how it is!”

“No wonder the young prince is kind—how could he truly torture someone to death!”

“He was enlightened by divine grace! That old scholar died well!”

Half an hour later.

In the largest tavern of Xianyang.

A storyteller enthusiastically slapped the wooden block.

“Listen closely, everyone! That great Confucian Chunyu sat in the fields of hope for half a month—and finally attained the Great Dao!”

“In his final moment—crack!”

“The rope binding him broke on its own!”

“And after exhaling his last breath, his body did not fall—but slowly turned around!”

The storyteller paused dramatically, building suspense.

Then he slammed the table!

“And bowed deeply toward the potato fields!”

“What do you call this?”

“This is called: ‘A great scholar’s transcendence—bowing to Shennong!’”

“The entire hall was shaken!”

“Holy Child! Our young prince is a heavenly Holy Child descended from the heavens!”

The label of the “tyrant” was completely washed away at this moment.

Ying Ziye’s image, within just one hour, transformed from a “decisive and somewhat ruthless young prince who is kind to the people” into a “Holy Child in the mortal world who can enlighten great scholars with divine crops”!

His public reputation reached an unprecedented peak.

Li Si stood on the second floor of the tavern, looking at the emotionally charged crowd below, his eyes burning with fanaticism.

He knew—this was the moment.

He walked downstairs and stood in the center of the crowd, raising his voice again.

“Everyone! It is a great blessing for Great Qin that a Holy Child has descended and divine crops save the people!”

“But!”

Li Si’s tone suddenly changed, his face filled with indignation and rage.

“There are traitors in the court! Corrupt ministers!”

“It is that eunuch Zhao Gao! Out of jealousy toward the young prince’s achievements, he has been slandering him day and night on the road of the Emperor’s return!”

“He claims the young prince is a tyrant! He claims the divine crops are demonic!”

“He intends to wait for the Emperor’s return and have the young prince punished—and take away the potatoes and sweet potatoes from all of us!”

“BOOM!”

The entire tavern—and soon the entire city of Xianyang—erupted.

“What?!”

“That damned eunuch dares?!”

“If anyone tries to take my potatoes, I’ll fight them to the death!”

“Protect the young prince! Protect the divine crops!”

“Fight them!”

The people’s emotions boiled over completely.

At the same time, Lantian Garrison

Wang Jian and Han Xin stood on the training ground.

In the center stood over three thousand soldiers—standing crookedly, sitting sloppily, entirely without discipline.

They were exactly the three thousand rogues Han Xin had previously identified.

A one-eyed soldier swaggered forward.

“Generals, you called us trash who can’t make it on stage—what exactly do you want? Just give it to us straight!”

Han Xin said nothing.

Wang Jian stepped forward and spoke in a deep voice.

“The Crown Prince Regent intends to form a new army—the ‘Divine Strategist Army’!”

“To defend Xianyang! To protect… the young prince!”

The one-eyed man froze, then burst out laughing along with the others.

“Us? Don’t joke around!”

“We’re worthless lives—we don’t want to be cannon fodder for some noble brat!”

Wang Jian did not get angry. He only slowly added:

“The young prince said: the Divine Strategist Army will have full rations every day.”

“Meat in every meal!”

“And the horses will be fed with fodder made from the divine crop vines from the experimental fields!”

The laughter stopped instantly.

All the soldiers’ eyes lit up.

The one-eyed man swallowed and asked cautiously:

“General… is that true?”

Wang Jian nodded heavily.

Another soldier asked:

“Why are we protecting the young prince?”

Wang Jian’s voice echoed across the training ground.

“Because someone wants to take away the divine crops your families rely on!”

“Someone wants your parents and brothers to go hungry!”

In that instant—

The eyes of all three thousand soldiers changed.

The laziness and rogueishness vanished.

Replaced by a feral, wolf-like ferocity—like starving beasts guarding their food.

“Damn it!”

The one-eyed man roared first.

“Anyone who touches my family’s potatoes—I’ll be the first to rip his head off!”

“Count me in!”

“And me!”

“And me!”

Morale erupted instantly!

Three days later — Xianyang Palace, study room

Everything was ready.

Li Si and Wang Jian stood respectfully before Ying Ziye, unable to hide their excitement.

“Your Highness! The city’s hearts and minds are ours! Petitions from the people have piled up like mountains—just waiting for His Majesty’s arrival!”

“Your Highness! The three thousand soldiers of the Divine Strategist Army are fully assembled! New armor equipped, horses fed, morale at its peak!”

“The forged evidence against Zhao Gao is also complete!”

“Everything is ready!”

Ying Ziye nodded in satisfaction.

Swinging his little legs, he said in a childish voice:

“Good.”

“Then let Father Emperor take a good look at the gift his son prepared for him.”

Just at the moment when everything was ready—only waiting for the First Emperor’s arrival three days later—

“REPORT——!!”

A Black Ice Platform scout burst in in a state of panic, practically crashing through the doorframe.

His face was not joyful at all—only endless terror.

He cried out in a trembling voice:

“Report—!”

“The eastern expedition convoy… forced march! They have already passed Hangu Pass!”

“Estimated…”

The scout looked up, eyes bloodshot and filled with despair.

“Estimated to arrive in Xianyang by tomorrow morning!”