CHAPTER 60: CHAPTER 60: ZHAO FENG’S HUGE PROFIT! CHEN TAO’S REGRET!!

"I can’t take all these weapons; there isn’t enough room in my Portable Space."

Zhao Feng glanced at his Portable Space. It was already about a third full, with everything piled up together. However, for Zhao Feng, even if things were jumbled, he could still extract them with precision. He couldn’t possibly take all the weapons belonging to five thousand men.

I can do without the long weapons like spears and halberds. But I can’t abandon the short weapons, crossbows, and battle armor. I can squeeze them in.

Zhao Feng pondered for a moment and an idea formed. He walked over to the nearly one thousand iron swords and absorbed them all into his space, followed by the crossbows and battle armor.

After stowing these away, Zhao Feng’s Portable Space was ninety-nine percent full. Of course, the items weren’t arranged neatly but were piled up haphazardly; otherwise, they really wouldn’t have fit. Zhao Feng didn’t take any of the remaining long weapons, as there was simply no more room.

With these weapons, I just need to secretly recruit some men, and I can raise a force of one thousand armored soldiers.

Looking at the weapons in his space, Zhao Feng was deeply satisfied. Coming to this treasury was absolutely the right move.

And I’ve taken so much that even if someone from the army comes to inspect this treasury later, they’ll never suspect me. No single person could possibly move this many weapons.

There’s also a Hall of Elixirs... Are there really Spirit Pills inside? It’s probably just a bunch of poisonous pills made from heavy metals, right?

Zhao Feng walked out and looked toward the last stone chamber. He wasn’t holding out much hope for this one. In this era, or rather in ancient times, monarchs yearned for immortality. But the so-called life-prolonging elixirs were all fakes, or more accurately, poisons. Consuming too much was a death sentence. Historically, Emperor Qin Shi Huang died suddenly during an inspection tour of Shaqiu. His death was also caused by consuming too many of these poisonous pills, leading to heavy metal poisoning.

He entered the so-called Hall of Elixirs. Upon stepping inside, he was met with the fragrance of alchemy.

It smells like they added a lot of tonics to the concoction, but all those good ingredients were wasted. The so-called ’refining’ process just turned them into poison. I’ll just leave these ’goodies’ for Li Teng to deal with.

Zhao Feng glanced around. The stone chamber indeed contained many pills, but he had no interest in them. He then confirmed there was nothing else in the secret passage. He left the chamber and continued toward the other end of the passage.

The King of Han wanted to leave the Han Capital and the palace without a sound, and even Han Fei was unaware of it. He must be using this secret passage. This was the only chance to capture him. If he succeeded, the merit from capturing a king would allow Zhao Feng to advance even further and earn a greater title of nobility.

「Han Royal Palace」

As the Han Surrendered Soldiers gradually departed from the palace grounds, the Qin Sharp Soldiers had taken complete control of the royal palace.

「Han Assembly Hall」

Li Teng stood in the great hall, with a group of his war generals behind him.

"The Han Capital has been completely conquered by our Great Qin! Congratulations, General, on achieving the miraculous feat of destroying a state for Qin!" a Deputy General exclaimed.

However, Li Teng’s expression was not joyful. "The King of Han has not yet been captured," he said gravely. "Only by capturing him can the state of Han be considered truly destroyed."

"Don’t worry, General," a Deputy General immediately added. "Our forces have sealed off the entire city, and we’ve dispatched a Cavalry Camp to pursue him. Even if the King of Han did manage to escape Xinzheng City, he can’t have gotten far. We will definitely capture him."

"Let’s hope so." Li Teng sighed. "If the King of Han has truly escaped, the glory of this conquest will be greatly diminished."

The kingdom had fallen, but its king had fled. If the King of Han escaped to another state and rallied their troops to attack, it would give those states a legitimate pretext to wage war against them. This was not a good thing at all, which was why Li Teng was so worried. If the King of Han couldn’t be found, if he truly got away, it would surely spell future trouble for Qin.

"In your opinions, Generals," Li Teng turned, his face serious as he looked at the men, "if the King of Han truly escaped from Xinzheng, to which state do you think he would flee?"

"Replying to the General," a Deputy General answered instantly, "it must be the state of Wei."

"Why not the state of Chu?" Li Teng countered.

"The Chu State has always been considered a barbaric land," the Deputy General replied immediately. "Han, on the other hand, shares a common heritage with Zhao and Wei as one of the Three Jins. If the King of Han has truly escaped, he would certainly flee to Wei and then pass through to Zhao to seek protection. As for Chu, its relations with our Great Qin are decent, so he wouldn’t go there. The king would never step foot in such a supposedly uncivilized region."

Li Teng nodded and smiled. "That is what I was thinking as well."

"So please rest assured, General. With the strength of our cavalry, we will certainly catch the King of Han," the Deputy General guaranteed once more.

At this moment, Li Teng turned his head to look at Chen Tao. "General Chen, your Wanjiang Division’s contributions to this siege were indispensable. Especially Zhao Feng, with his divine strength, broke the city gate single-handedly. If he hadn’t breached the gate, it would not have been so easy for our army to conquer the Han Capital."

Chen Tao immediately stepped forward and said respectfully, "What the General says is true. If not for Zhao Feng, our army certainly couldn’t have breached the city so quickly. The primary credit for breaking the city in this battle belongs to Commander Zhao Feng."

Although Chen Tao had secretly hoped Liu Wu would be the one to earn the glory for breaching the walls, the Qin Army’s merit system was strict, with reports going directly to the throne, and no one dared to falsify military achievements. After all, it was the very foundation of Qin’s power.

"Zhao Feng," Li Teng said with a smile. "Very good. Having him transferred from the Logistics Army into your division was truly a stroke of luck for you."

"The General is right; it was indeed my good fortune. Without Zhao Feng, I would not have earned this merit," Chen Tao replied in agreement.

"However, after this," Li Teng continued slowly, "Zhao Feng is due for a promotion. I have already reported his merit to the Military Judge. The honor of being the first to breach the city is enough to raise him another rank."

"In the Qin Army, military merit and ability come first," Chen Tao replied at once. "Since Commander Zhao Feng has the ability, I have no reason to stand in his way."

Deep down, however, Chen Tao felt a pang of regret.

Sigh... If only I had sent Zhao Feng up from the beginning instead of suppressing him in favor of Liu Wu. My Wanjiang Division wouldn’t have lost so many Sharp Warriors, and I fear I’ve thoroughly alienated Zhao Feng now.

In this battle, everyone had witnessed Zhao Feng’s immense combat strength and his boundless potential. While deploying his own confidant as the vanguard wasn’t an egregious act, it had likely destroyed any possibility of a close relationship with Zhao Feng in the future. Given Zhao Feng’s current achievements, it was entirely possible he might one day be promoted to a position above his own. Nothing was certain.