The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Deep in the mountains in the south of the Three Gorges, as if on the skirt of the Wushan Mountains, there is a clear river flowing. People can see the colorful horse teeth stones at the bottom of the river from ten feet away.

"It is said that when Kaiming of Shu State passed by this place during the Eastern Expedition, he named it Qingjiang, but we Ba people prefer to call it Yishui."

In late April, after several days of attack and defense in Yidao, Ba Zhong and his followers went upstream. Dan Hu, his loyal guard, was with him, and there was a black-faced man dressed as a Ba warrior. He wore leather, mulberry cloth, and straw sandals. As long as he didn't speak, he couldn't tell the difference from ordinary Ba people.

However, when Ba Zhong whispered with him, he used Xia Yan!

In the past few days, Ba Zhong has almost visited every Ba tribe in Yidao. As expected, the various Ba tribes have already started internal strife. It turned out that when attacking Yidao, the leaders of the Ba people found that the Qin people's resistance was so resolute that it was not like what the Chu envoy and Fan Qin said, that they would be vulnerable after killing the county magistrate and the county lieutenant.

So many tribal leaders regretted it. They took their tribes away from the battlefield and returned to the mountains. While watching carefully, they also began to worry about the revenge of the Qin army that might come at any time.

Sure enough, after the arrival of the reinforcements, the Qin people in Yidao did start to move out. Under the leadership of Heifu and Cheng Wuyou, they swept through some small tribes of the Ba people living in the villages and executed all the Ba people who had participated in the killing of Qin officials and soldiers!

When the tribes were wondering whether to continue to follow Fan Qin and go all the way on the road of rebelling against Qin, or to migrate away, the appearance of Ba Zhong gave them another choice.

"The county governor also knows that you have no choice, so he only punishes the main culprit, regardless of the accomplices. It is not too late to stop the rebellion now!"

Ba Zhong is the son of the Ba family. He has a noble status among the Ba people. His family's horse teams and ships often travel on both sides of the Yishui River, exchanging cloth, copper and iron from the outside world for rock salt and well salt produced locally, so he also has a high prestige in Yidao. Even though he is an envoy of the Qin State, he can come and go freely and his safety is guaranteed. After all, no one wants to offend the wealthy widow Qing.

Ba Zhong persuaded several tribes with emotion and reason, but everyone still had doubts, so they decided to reunite in Wuluo Zhongli Mountain according to tradition to discuss the matter together.

At that time, Fan Qin, as the leader elected by all local tribes, if he does not come, he will automatically give up the leadership of all tribes. Ba Zhong can persuade all tribes to attack together! If he came, Wuluo Zhongli Mountain was the ancestral land, and he could not bring too many people into it, otherwise Fan Qin would fall into a trap...

At this point, the plan of uniting the majority and attacking a small group was half achieved, and the meeting at Wuluo Zhongli Mountain would be the key to persuading the tribes to stop the rebellion.

So Heifu could not wait in Yidao, so he handed over the defense of Yidao to Cheng Wuyou, and he took two or three soldiers, dressed as Ba people, and mixed in with Ba Zhong's followers.

The narrow Yishui River Valley is clear in summer, with many lush trees and empty peaks on both sides. When someone passes by, hundreds of birds fly together and cry in harmony.

Ba Zhong continued to tell Heifu that this beautiful river valley not only gave birth to the ancestors of the Ba people, but it itself is simply the history of the migration of the Ba people. From here, we must first pass through Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, the earliest stronghold of the Ba people, and then Yanyang and Yicheng where they founded their country. Until the source of Yishui, there is a vast world where the Ba people multiply and spread out. It is not far from Bazhong's home, Zhixian County of Ba County.

When Bazhong was a child, he traveled east from Zhixian County, crossed hundreds of miles of mountains and forests, and arrived at Wuluo Zhongli Mountain to worship his ancestors. At that time, he was still young, wearing the traditional costumes of the Ba people, and returned to his ancestral land as a descendant of the Ba people. But now, he is going in the opposite direction. As an envoy of the Qin State, he is wearing summer clothes to persuade the Ba people not to make meaningless resistance.

At noon, everyone arrived at their destination, but saw that Wuluo Zhongli Mountain was located on the bank of Yishui River. The mountain was surrounded by water on all sides, with rippling blue waves. The island had five peaks scattered and strange rocks standing in rows. It had to be reached by boat.

However, what surprised Bazhong was that when he and the leaders of various tribes boarded Wuluo Zhongli Mountain by boat, he saw Fan Qin had brought a few warriors and waited here early!

The person standing next to him was a Chu man wearing a tall Chu crown and wide-sleeved Chu clothes!

It was a custom among the tribes that vendettas and fights were not allowed, and foreigners were not allowed to enter Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, but suddenly the situation became tense.

"Fan Qin!"

A tribal leader was furious and scolded: "How dare you bring outsiders into our ancestral land!"

Fan Qin wore an exaggerated feather crown, a leopard skin, and a knife on his waist. Facing the accusations of the crowd, he pointed at Ba Zhong and others and sneered: "Didn't you also bring a Qin person?"

...

Everyone looked over, but the black-faced man next to Ba Zhong remained calm, because Fan Qin's finger was not pointed at him, but at Ba Zhong who was wearing Xia clothes...

Ba Zhong was startled at first, and then laughed: "Chief Fan is really easy to forget things. I am not a Qin person. I am Ba Zhong from Zhi County, a descendant of Lin Jun, and a son of the Ba family. We just met them a few days ago."

"That's natural. It was you, Xia Zi, who told the Qin people about our strengths and weaknesses, so that we were not able to attack the Yi Road! At the beginning, you, the unworthy descendant who abandoned your ancestors and regarded yourself as a Qin person, should have been captured and imprisoned in the Red Cave to reflect on yourself!" Fan Qin began to criticize Ba Zhong first.

"As long as you care about Linjun and the interests of the Ba people, you are still a Ba person! I ask myself that I have never done anything to compare with the Ba people!" Ba Zhong defended himself.

"On the contrary, it was Lord Fan who accepted the gifts of the Chu people and coerced the Yidao tribes to rebel against Qin. It was a self-destructive act. Now hundreds of people have been killed and injured under the city of Yidao. Will he continue to sacrifice more lives before he stops?"

At this time, the Chu man next to Fan Qin appealed in the language of the Ba people: "Otherwise, although Yidao has not been broken, the Chu army has now surrounded Chanling and will be conquered in a few days. Once Chanling is broken, what is the point of Yidao? Don't be fooled by this Xia Zi!"

Ba Zhong was not to be outdone: "Why did I hear that the governor and lieutenant of Nanjun County of Qin State have personally dispatched a large army to support Chanling? The Chu army has not been able to break Chanling so far, and I am afraid that it will eventually be defeated. When the Qin army arrives and retaliates, the ancestral land along the Yishui River may not belong to the Ba people!"

He began to shout loudly: "Ask yourselves, each tribe pays 2,160 coins in rent every year and 1,800 coins in head tax every three years. And each household in the clan pays 56 coins in corvée tax, 82 feet of cloth, and 30 tufts of chicken feathers every year. Compared with the taxes levied by Chu when it ruled Yidao more than a hundred years ago, it is not heavy, and it is relatively light compared with the Qin people who registered households at the edge of Yidao City. The Qin government has never forced us to abandon the way of our ancestors. Is there any change if we return to Chu? Since there is no profit, why rebel against Qin!"

"The Qin official betrayed his faith and killed my brother! How can I not avenge this?" Fan Qin's hand has already touched the blade at his waist. Seeing that a fight is about to happen, he brought a lot of people with Wu Luo Zhongli Mountain and occupied a high ground. If they fight like this, Ba Zhong and his men will not have the upper hand.

At this moment, a call suddenly sounded, and the Nuo performer of the Ba people who stayed in the local area to worship Linjun came out while blowing the buffalo horn.

"Who dares to kill each other in Wuluo Zhongli Mountain, in the Chihei Cave, in front of Linjun?"

A witch in a feather robe came down the mountain. Her face was painted with thick patterns, and her age could not be seen clearly, but from her old tone and wrinkled back of the hand, it can be known that she is not young.

In ancient times, the Ba people "did not have a ruler, and all served ghosts and gods", and it is still the same today. The status of ghost and god wizards is very high. And women are often used as witches to undertake various sacrifices, divination and other things. All women who have participated in sacrifices are considered to be special people who can communicate with ancestors and ghosts and gods, and are given special respect.

Seeing that the people who were still arguing inside the witch finally stopped and bowed to the ground, Hei Fu hesitated for a moment and bowed down with them, but he did not follow the others in shouting slogans that he could not understand.

The witch looked at the leaders in front of her and said in a hoarse voice: "This is related to the survival of the tribes. How can we listen to the instigation of outsiders? According to the ancestral law, if a decision cannot be made on a certain matter, the leaders of the tribes will throw their swords into the stone cave. Those who can hit the target can command everyone! Follow me into the stone cave, and the rest of you wait outside!"

"Ba Zhong, you are also a leader of the Ba people, so go in with me!"

After saying that, the witch left. The leaders of the Ba people looked at each other. Fan Qin was not afraid at all and walked in front. Ba Zhong followed at the end. Before leaving, he looked back at his confidant Dan Hu and Hei Fu, who was dressed as a Ba warrior, and nodded slightly...

Hei Fu understood, and his eyes intentionally or unintentionally stared at the Chu envoy who was protected by Fan Qin's confidant!