108: Chapter 108 After reading the newspaper, He Zhi's worldview was shattered.

"Very well, sir."

The middle-aged man's face lit up with joy; he hadn't expected to sell a newspaper the moment he opened for business.

"Here you go."

He handed a newspaper to He Zhi.

After taking the newspaper, He Zhi departed.

Upon hearing from the Shadow Guards that Zhao Fusu had spent immense manpower and a significant amount of time to produce this newspaper, he became very curious about what it actually was.

He Zhi had always kept the Shadow Guards monitoring Zhao Fusu's movements.

Having heard that Zhao Fusu was going to sell newspapers, he was the first to come and buy one.

After walking to a secluded spot, He Zhi sat down and curiously looked at the newspaper's content.

"Holy crap!"

"What on earth is this?"

At first glance, He Zhi doubted if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Heavens, what was he looking at?

"A map of the world?"

"The territorial scope of the Great Qin?"

Was their Great Qin's territory really so small?

He was in charge of intelligence work, and the Shadow Guards under him had infiltrated all forty-eight commanderies of the Great Qin.

Therefore, he knew that the general boundaries of the Great Qin were roughly the same as the outline drawn on the newspaper.

The powers surrounding the Great Qin were also similar to those depicted on the world map.

The more He Zhi looked, the more he felt the credibility of this world map was increasing.

But wasn't the territory of their Great Qin a bit too small!

He Zhi had traveled across the Great Qin.

From the northernmost tip of the Great Qin to the southernmost tip, it would take a month even on horseback.

Their Great Qin was clearly so vast, so why was it so small on this world map?

The powers surrounding the Great Qin were more than twice its size!

To the west of the Great Qin, there were large swathes of land, and there were many countries as large as the Great Qin.

For example, the Mauryan Empire, the Seleucid Empire in the Persian region, the Kingdom of Macedon, and the Roman Republic.

The Seleucid Empire was one of the successor states after the division of the Alexandrian Empire, with an area of about three to four million square kilometers, not losing at all to the Great Qin's 3.4 million square kilometers.

The Roman Republic was located in the Mediterranean region and was currently in a period of expansion; through the Punic Wars, it was gradually defeating Carthage to become the hegemon of the Mediterranean.

Although the Mauryan Empire had entered a period of decline, it still ruled the Indian Subcontinent, with an area of about five million square kilometers.

In Central Asia and West Asia, there was also a Parthian Empire, with an area of about one million square kilometers.

Over in Egypt, there was the Ptolemaic Kingdom.

It was a typical representative of the Hellenistic era, and its capital, Alexandria, was one of the world's cultural centers at this time.

As He Zhi read, his entire worldview was utterly shattered.

Originally, in his worldview, the only ones capable of challenging their Great Qin were the Xiongnu.

As it turned out, beyond the Xiongnu, there were so many powerful rivals.

How much territory a country can occupy basically shows how powerful that country is.

A powerful country's land area would not be small by any means.

The Mauryan Empire, the Seleucid Empire in the Persian region, the Kingdom of Macedon, and the Roman Republic—these countries all occupied vast lands, showing that their strength was extremely formidable.

However, even these powerful nations did not occupy much of the entire world map, just like the Great Qin.

The sheer size of the world shocked He Zhi's worldview, leaving him dizzy and unable to compose himself.

At this moment, he truly felt like a frog in a well that, by a stroke of luck, had managed to leap out of the well's mouth to see the vast, boundless land outside.

He felt that he himself was so insignificant.

The world was too big!

Their Great Qin was too small.

He Zhi felt a sense of resentment; why was their Great Qin so small? It wasn't even as large as the Mauryan Empire—was this reasonable!

He Zhi's entire state of mind deteriorated; the content of this newspaper was simply too explosive.

Could such explosive content really be shown to the First Emperor?

In ancient times with low average life expectancies, the First Emperor, in his forties or fifties, was not young; he had also consumed many elixirs, leaving residual elixir toxins in his body.

If his emotions became too agitated, would he suffer a cerebral hemorrhage, leading to a stroke?

Suddenly, He Zhi did not dare to show such sensational news to the First Emperor.

The First Emperor had spent his entire life, exhausting the nearly seven hundred years of Qin's accumulation, to destroy the six states, and had campaigned north and south to expel the Xiongnu and annex the Baiyue. Yet, the territory he had fought so hard for was so small on the world map.

To the First Emperor, wouldn't this be like a bucket of cold water being poured over his head?

He Zhi shook his head.

Their Great Qin must continue to expand!

Their Great Qin must become even more powerful!

He Zhi's heart surged with hot blood, filled with fighting spirit.

He continued reading the content on the first page.

It would have been fine if he hadn't looked, but once he did, he couldn't take his eyes off it.

What was this again?

Grand Preceptor Wen campaigned in Beihai for fifteen years?

As an intelligence chief, He Zhi knew that although a thousand years had passed since the Zhou Dynasty...

He still knew a lot of information about the Zhou Dynasty.

He had never heard of a figure like Grand Preceptor Wen when King Wu of Zhou overthrew King Zhou of Shang.

It seemed that King Zhou of Shang had never sent troops to attack King Wu of Zhou.

On the contrary, it was King Wu of Zhou who sent troops to attack King Zhou of Shang.

Regarding King Wu of Zhou's overthrow of King Zhou of Shang, he remembered it wasn't because King Zhou of Shang was that evil.

King Zhou of Shang was actually a relatively heroic and capable leader.

Campaigning in all directions, he was a very accomplished feudal king.

However, although the Shang Dynasty's strength was great, the Zhou state was also steadily growing and developing.

The Shang State had always adopted a policy of conciliation toward the Zhou state to limit its development. While the Zhou state appeared submissive on the surface, it already had its own ambitions in its heart.

The ancestors of the Zhou state wisely chose to submit to the Shang Dynasty.

While learning the technology and civilization of the Shang Dynasty, they steadily developed their own economy and military.

Soon, the Zhou state became a powerful force in the west that could not be ignored.

According to the records in the Bamboo Annals, when King Zhou of Shang was on an inspection tour to the border of the Zhou state, he once had a meeting with the Marquis of the West, Ji Chang.

The Ji Chang of that time, who later became King Wen of Zhou, was respectful on the surface but hid a fierce aura behind his back, which left a deep impression on King Zhou of Shang.

From then on, King Zhou of Shang was full of wariness toward the Zhou state.

He repeatedly sent envoys to the Zhou state to investigate its national and military strength.

But by the time he realized that the Zhou state's strength was not to be underestimated, it was already too late.

He placed the Marquis of the West, Ji Fa, under house arrest, wanting to curb the rise of the Zhou state. However, the wheels of history were rolling forward; this was already an unstoppable trend.

Against this backdrop, Ji Fa succeeded the throne as King Wu of Zhou.

In 1046 BC, King Wu of Zhou allied with the Xiyi lords and launched a surprise attack on the Shang capital, Zhaoge, while King Zhou of Shang led his army to campaign against the invading Dongyi.

This was equivalent to King Wu of Zhou stealing the base in the rear while King Zhou of Shang's main army was fighting enemies on the front lines.

King Zhou of Shang never expected King Wu of Zhou to be such a sneaky bastard.

Facing the attack of the Zhou army, King Zhou of Shang responded in haste.

He redeployed the main forces from the eastern battlefield and hurriedly conscripted hundreds of thousands of slaves and prisoners of war.

However, how could a ragtag army stand against the elites of the Zhou state?