The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

It was not until he saw it with his own eyes that Heifu realized that the national plan of Qin was not decided by the king or emperor of Qin, but adopted the same strategy as later generations: holding meetings.

For example, during the reign of King Xiaogong of Qin, Shang Yang, Gan Long, Du Zhi and other ministers held a meeting in front of King Xiaogong. After a debate, King Xiaogong of Qin tended to Shang Yang, and the reform began.

During the reign of King Huiwen of Qin, Zhang Yi and Sima Cuo also debated whether to attack Han or destroy Shu, and Sima Cuo won in the end.

During the reign of King Wu of Qin, Chu Li Ji and Gan Mao debated on attacking Yiyang.

Even during the reign of King Zhao of Qin, although King Zhao of Qin was adamant about the guilt and life and death of Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wu'an, he also followed the situation and asked the ministers to hold a meeting to vote...

This kind of meeting in front of the emperor was called "court discussion", which was also the theme of every court meeting.

This is not only the tradition of Qin, but also the advocacy of Han Feizi, which Qin Shihuang highly praised: "Although the ruler is virtuous, he cannot make decisions alone! He cannot defeat the masses in strength and wisdom. Rather than using one person, it is better to use the whole country..."

Of course, the result of the meeting is by no means the minority obeys the majority. The process of these court discussions is very similar to a debate. The king does not personally participate in the discussion, but only serves as the host and referee, watching coldly, but has the final decision.

The previous discussion of the title and the current dispute over the feudal counties are also the same...

From Heifu's position, Wang Wan, the first debater of the affirmative side, has not spoken yet, and the second debater, Zong Zheng, one of the nine ministers, stood up and questioned what Li Si meant by what he said just now? Is there any suspicion of slandering the ministers?

Li Si, the first debater of the negative side, is not afraid of offending people today. Things like political views should either not be expressed, or once they are spoken, they must stand firm and never hesitate to retreat.

He smiled: "I say, the feudalism is a conservative idea!"

Without waiting for Zong Zheng to retort, Li Si bowed to Qin Shi Huang again: "Your Majesty, please allow me to explain in detail!"

"Yes."

As a referee, Qin Shi Huang gave the opposing side a chance to speak, and the affirmative debaters had to stop and listen carefully to Li Si's flaws.

Li Si said: "Just now, you said that Zhou had the world and divided the land like a melon, established five ranks of duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, and enfeoffed the sons and daughters as princes. There were more than a hundred princes, like stars, scattered all over the world, just like spokes gathered around the wheel hub, gathered around the Zhou emperor; together for the pilgrimage, apart for the guards, is that so?"

What he said was correct, Zong Zheng and others had to nod in agreement.

Who is Li Si? A disciple of the scholarly tycoon Xunzi, he is also a scholarly tyrant himself. He has been to Jixia and Lanling. He is very familiar with Confucianism. When he sees that the other party has fallen into the trap, he immediately uses his own spear to attack his shield!

He talked eloquently, "But why do you avoid talking about what happened next? The Zhou Dynasty lasted only a hundred years. When King Yi of Zhou came to power, he was supported by the princes and went down to the hall to welcome the princes in person, violating the etiquette and hurting the dignity. Although King Xuan of Zhou had a revival, he was unable to decide the successor of the Duke of Lu. In this way, it gradually declined. By the time of King Li of Zhou and King You of Zhou, the princes became more difficult to control. Gong Houbo openly acted as the emperor, and the Duke of Shen colluded with the Quanrong to invade. After King Ping moved east, Zhou had already listed itself as a vassal. Since then, some people shot arrows at the king's shoulders, and some people asked about the weight of the tripod. The princes were rebellious, and no one regarded the emperor as the emperor anymore."

"So I think that the doctor said that Zhou lasted for 800 years, but in fact it was only 300 years. After 550 years, the so-called Zhou emperor was just an empty name! The reason is that Zhou was divided into more than a hundred princes, and finally the royal family invaded and declined, and the princes were too powerful to be eliminated..."

After talking about the disadvantages of Zhou feudalism in one breath, Li Si concluded: "Therefore, many of the sons and nephews of Zhou Wenwu have the same surname, but the grace of a gentleman is cut off after five generations. After hundreds of years, the princes have become estranged. In order to annex land, they attack each other like enemies and punish each other. Even the Zhou emperor cannot stop it. They are even attacked by the princes and gradually decline."

"Now, the 550 years of chaos left by the Zhou Dynasty have finally been unified by your majesty's divine power, and all are counties of Qin. For the sons and meritorious officials, it is enough to use public taxes to reward them. Why repeat the mistakes of the Zhou Dynasty? Therefore, I think that feudalism is not a good policy. Setting up counties in various countries is the way to bring peace to the world!"

After Li Si finished speaking, the hall was silent, leaving only the excited sound of the historian Hu Wujing in front of Heifu standing, recording on the silk with his pen.

As a historian, I have to record the words and deeds of the ministers in the court. The most boring thing is to record a bunch of praises when I have nothing to do in a day.

On the contrary, it is much more interesting to record the scene of the debate between the ministers who hold completely opposite attitudes.

However, what disappointed Hu Wujing was that after Li Si finished speaking, the ministers and scholars who supported the feudal side did not organize a decent counterattack.

As expected of a famous writer who once wrote the famous article "Remonstrance against Expelling Foreigners", Li Si's words were logically clear. Not only could the doctors not find any flaws, but even Wang Wan could not think of a rebuttal for a while...

Fortunately, Qin Shihuang did not embarrass Wang Wan for too long. He did not agree with the county system, nor did he flatly deny feudalism. Instead, he ordered: let the prime minister, the chief censor, the nine ministers, the internal historian and other important officials go back and submit memorials to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of feudalism and county systems, as well as their own views, and submit them to the palace tomorrow.

Then, he signaled the usher to shout "Stop drinking, leave the court!" and ended the first grand court meeting after he became emperor...

After the emperor's sedan chair left the hall under the escort of the guards, Wang Wan breathed a sigh of relief. With this time buffer, he could at least sort out his thoughts and refute Li Si, a villain who was inconsistent!

He glanced at Li Si, who had already torn his face, waved his sleeves, and left the hall angrily with the ministers such as Zongzheng and the doctors.

Li Si smiled calmly, not afraid at all. He had been condescending to Wang Wan for a long time. In the past period of time, he had been agreeing with Wang Wan on trivial matters, which made him relax his vigilance. Today, he suddenly stated his position and was fully prepared for a decisive battle.

In terms of debate, he only dared to admit that he was in the top three, but compared to writing articles and memorials, playing with words, and being in the court... No, in the whole world, who is his Li Si's opponent?

Unless the soul who died in Yunyang Prison resurrected, Li Si would be afraid...

"When you were alive, I felt like a thorn in my side day and night, but now that you are dead, sometimes I feel, really, lonely..."

Li Si shook his head and sighed. Unlike the way he walked when he came, Li Tingwei widened the belt around his waist, straightened his back, and strode out of the hall!

...

With the dispute between feudalism and counties on the table, the court struggle between Wang and Li has become clear. The ministers have different thoughts, some hold the feudal view, and some say that counties are good. During the whole process, Heifu, who has been watching coldly, feels that he has learned a lot.

After the court meeting, Heifu, Meng Yi, and Wang Li led the guards to escort the emperor back to the palace. They thought secretly:

"Li Si's last words are really vicious, especially the word "meritorious ministers", which is clearly a crazy hint that many ministers support feudalism because they are dissatisfied with the status quo and want to divide the land and enfeoff the monarchs..."

At present, Qin no longer enfeoffs real titles, even Wang Jian is a fictitious title, and at most enjoys the empty title of a city lord.

"Hey, although the emperor asked the ministers to go back and reorganize their words and compete in the memorial, those military officials who supported feudalism before, as long as they are smart enough, no longer have the courage to support it openly, right?"

Similarly, Heifu looked up at the tall back of the emperor on the sedan chair and discovered a hobby of Qin Shihuang.

Unlike the King Xuan of Qi in the story of "Playing the Yu to Fill the Numbers", Qin Shihuang did not like to listen to the grand ensemble of the ministers, because in that case, he would not know who was better.

The emperor, like King Min of Qi, liked to listen to everything and asked all the ministers to express their opinions on something, just like asking the musicians to play the sheng alone. In this way, he could understand everyone's talents, kick out the Nan Guo who was mixed in, and grasp everyone's political inclinations.

He guessed right. This method was what Han Fei said: "The ruler must know the reason for the ministers to speak, and ask the ministers who do not speak. Then the ministers dare not speak recklessly, nor dare to remain silent..."

This is the art of a shrewd monarch to sit in the south.

"In this way, ministers like Ye Teng who watched the show all the time will not be able to remain silent."

Hei Fu gloated over the misfortune, but he never thought that when he was guarding the palace that night, he, who was not qualified to talk about this matter, was singled out by Qin Shihuang and asked to express his opinions on the feudal lords and counties...