Chapter 308: Xiangjun Xia County, two armies confront each other!

Chapter 308: Xiangjun Xia County, two armies confront each other!

As soon as these words came out, Li Si's forehead hit the ground heavily, making a dull sound. Obviously, he was using this method to express his unwavering loyalty and willingness to surrender to Gao Yao.

Seeing Li Si's actions, Gao Yao couldn't help but burst into laughter. While laughing, he stretched out his hand to signal Li Si to stand up quickly: "Hahahaha... Mr. Li Si, please stand up quickly, please stand up quickly! If it weren't for you, how could I, Gao Yao, have such a glorious life now? From now on, we will treat each other as friends, no need to be so polite, no need to be so formal!"

"Absolutely not! Etiquette cannot be abandoned, my lord!" Li Si hurriedly clasped his fists and bowed, his voice urgent and firm. "I, Li Si, am fortunate to have witnessed the ups and downs you have experienced along the way, and how you have walked step by step to reach such a glorious position today. My lord, you are truly a rare talent, and Li Si admires you very much."

At this moment, Li Si's mind was working rapidly. He reacted quickly and expressed his intention to serve Gao Yao without hesitation. Although Gao Yao's words were obviously praise and affirmation of him, Li Si did not show any pride. After all, he had served Qin Shihuang for a long time and knew how to please the superiors and win their favor.

More importantly, in Li Si's eyes, Gao Yao is now completely different from the person who needed to flatter him in the past to gain benefits and help. Back then, Gao Yao exuded an aura of shrewdness and calculation; but now, Gao Yao gives him the feeling of a high and mighty ruler, as if he carries the majestic and domineering aura that Qin Shihuang exuded when he was still the King of Qin before he became emperor. This huge change made Li Si secretly marvel in his heart.

Even though Fusu, who has now ascended the throne, does not exude even half the power of Gao Yao! The gap is too obvious. As for the issue of address and courtesy, the ancient officialdom was much stricter and harsher than the officialdom of later generations.

In the eyes of later generations, even if one is in the officialdom, if one accidentally says the wrong thing, at most he will be ostracized by others; however, in ancient times, if one accidentally says the wrong thing or does the wrong thing, even his life may be in danger! In this case, a smart person like Li Si naturally dared not be careless.

"Hahaha, come, come, come, eat, eat, come on!" Gao Yao beckoned Li Si to continue eating, while waving his hand. In the blink of an eye, several maids came up gracefully and began to serve the two of them.

Two maids walked straight to Li Si and sat down. At first, Li Si showed a trace of displeasure on his face, thinking to himself: Isn't this obviously humiliating me? I used to be the prime minister of a country, but now I have to sit at the same table with a few maids. It's simply breaking the rules and breaking the sense of propriety! But when he saw that Gao Yao was also accompanied by a maid, although he still couldn't hide his anger, he couldn't get angry on the spot, so he had to suppress his anger.

This situation only lasted for a short period of time. After Li Si personally experienced and enjoyed the meticulous and attentive service of the maids, he suddenly realized the beauty and benefits of this. At this moment, Li Si couldn't help but raise a satisfied smile at the corner of his mouth.

In the end, Gao Yao generously gave the two maids to Li Si as a reward, so that he could take them back and continue to enjoy this treatment. When Li Si was drunk and slowly left with the gentle company of the two maids, Gao Yao just raised his hand and waved casually, and the other two maids who had been waiting beside him quietly retreated to the side.

At this moment, Erniu, a burly man with steady steps, slowly walked into the main hall. He stood there respectfully, quietly waiting for Gao Yao to give further instructions and orders.

"Erniu, judging from the current situation, everything is going smoothly. I believe Li Si will act as we expect, but even so, the necessary surveillance work should not be relaxed at all. After all, this Li Si might be a bait deliberately released by the enemy!" Gao Yao looked ahead with deep eyes and said thoughtfully.

"My lord, if this is true, should I just..." Before Erniu could finish his words, a hint of ruthlessness appeared on his face. At the same time, his right hand subconsciously reached for the sword at his waist, obviously preparing to go and get rid of Li Si immediately to prevent future troubles.

However, Gao Yao quickly waved his hand and interrupted Erniu's next words without hesitation. In Gao Yao's opinion, the action that Erniu wanted to take at this moment was really unnecessary.

"Don't be in a hurry to act, just wait patiently for a while! We have to cast a long fishing line to catch the big fish. If this Li Si is really just a bait, then we are the fishermen sitting on the fishing platform; but if not, let's wait and see how it develops later." Gao Yao looked into the distance with deep eyes and said slowly.

Erniu, who was standing nearby, understood Gao Yao's words and nodded respectfully, "Yes!" Then he turned around and left, quickly arranging relevant matters.

Erniu knew that this matter was of vital importance and must be foolproof. He carefully selected a group of smart and capable confidants, gave them detailed tasks, and asked them to closely monitor Li Si's every move, making sure that all of Li Si's whereabouts could fall under Gao Yao's control.

At the same time, Gao Yao also began to prepare for his trip to Xiangjun. Not long ago, he received accurate news that the current imperial court had sent a large army with a total of nearly 100,000 people, and they were now approaching Xiangjun within a hundred miles. This army was aggressive and fierce.

The generals who led this army were Meng Yi and Li Xin. Gao Yao was well aware of Meng Yi, who was Yi Xiaochuan. As for Li Xin, Gao Yao also knew him well. As early as the Warring States Period, Li Xin was already a famous general. Although he was perhaps slightly inferior to Wang Jian, he was still a veteran with many years of experience.

When Gao Yao first learned that Li Xin was also participating in the battle, he was quite surprised. In his eyes, Yi Xiaochuan's move was tantamount to dragging the old general who had retired to the countryside and enjoyed his old age back to the battlefield filled with smoke. This shows how strong Yi Xiaochuan's intention to destroy the southern border, or in other words, how strong his intention to destroy Gao Yao was.

The most crucial point is that Li Xin, a veteran general who has experienced hundreds of battles, does have extraordinary strength. He has been on the battlefield for a long time and has made great achievements. His name is so powerful that even Gao Yao is afraid of him and dares not treat him with contempt.

Li Xin has made countless contributions throughout his life, and his brilliant achievements are remarkable. It is appropriate to describe him as "outstanding" and "brilliant". Facing such a strong enemy, Gao Yao had to be fully prepared.

Time flies, and three days pass in a flash. On this day, Gao Yao led 30,000 troops to Xiangjun. In this huge army, there are not only a large number of elite soldiers, but also a large amount of baggage and supplies. In order to reach the destination quickly, Gao Yao personally led 5,000 brave cavalry as the vanguard and set off first, galloping all the way to Xiangjun.

The journey from Dongting Lake to Xiangjun was long and full of dangers, but there was only one strategically important point on the way, which was the city renamed Xia County. In fact, Gao Yao, who was meticulous and far-sighted, had already anticipated that there was a high possibility of war with the imperial court in the future, so he prepared for the rainy day and started to carry out comprehensive repairs and reinforcements in Xia County early on.

After careful renovation, the walls of Xia County were as solid as a rock, and their magnificence was even no less than that of ordinary county towns. Moreover, at this moment, there were already 50,000 elite soldiers stationed in the city, with a strong military presence and high morale. Even if the court sent 100,000 troops to attack, it would not be easy to easily conquer Xia County.

As Gao Yao arrived in Xia County, the 100,000-strong army led by the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan also arrived less than ten miles away from Xia County and began to set up camp. It can almost be said that the real battle had just begun from this time.

In the magnificent and endless military camp of the imperial court, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan was sitting on a tiger-skin chair in the tent, listening solemnly to his subordinates reporting to him the various intelligence they had collected.

The subordinate knelt on one knee, not daring to look up at Yi Xiaochuan, and said hurriedly: "Sir, I have found out the latest situation. Gao Yao concealed his whereabouts and sneaked to Kuaiji to participate in the war! In addition, the Chu army suffered a disastrous defeat on the battlefield and suffered heavy losses!" After hearing the news, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, who had been calm and composed, finally couldn't help but frowned slightly, and a trace of worry began to surge in his heart.

You know, the previous series of assassination plans against Gao Yao all ended in failure. Not only that, even the assassination operations against the big and small officials in the southern border mostly failed. Although Yi Xiaochuan did not hesitate to use a lot of manpower and material resources, and even human lives to fill this huge hole, the results achieved were still insignificant like a drop in the bucket.

Nowadays, due to the occurrence of multiple assassination incidents, officials at all levels in the southern border have already fully increased their vigilance. They have strengthened their own defense measures and worked closely with each other, making it increasingly difficult for Yi Xiaochuan to succeed in subsequent assassination attempts.