The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Why are you here again?"

In the stone room of the Censorate, Zhang Cang raised his fat face from the pile of books and looked at the uninvited guest Heifu with some impatience.

Heifu smiled bitterly: "Zihu, do you dislike me?"

"How dare I."

Zhang Cang stood up with the table and muttered: "It's just that when Heifu was a counselor, it was fine, it was an idle job. Now as the Zhonglang Huling, guarding the Forbidden City, except for the rest, he should never leave the king's presence, but he still has time to come to the storage room, so I'm surprised."

Heifu said helplessly: "Today, I was ordered by His Majesty to find the book."

"Your Majesty asked you to come to get the book?"

Zhang Cang was a little surprised: "Isn't this the business of the usher?"

"It's not to take it and send it to the inner court, but to let me read it myself." This is what made Heifu uneasy.

He said, "How do I know where the book is? I can only ask Zihu for help."

Zhang Cang became interested: "What book does your majesty want you to read?"

"The Shuhou volume in Qin Ji."

Qin Ji is the name of the Qin history book. The book is hidden in the "Mingtang Room" next door. With Zhang Cang's help, Hei Fu quickly found the old bamboo slips.

He sat down on the desk with good lighting, opened the scroll, skipped the records of Shu Cancong Yufu, Du Yushi Kaimingshi, and jumped directly to the battle of Qin's conquest of Shu.

"In the ninth year of King Huiwen, Zhang Yi, Sima Cuo, Duwei Mo and others attacked Shu from Shiniu Road. The King of Shu resisted them from Jiameng and was defeated. Bashu then returned to Qin..."

"In the tenth year, King Huiwen appointed the son of the King of Shu, Tongguo, as the Marquis of Shu, and Chen Zhuang as the Prime Minister of Shu. Six years later, the Marquis of Shu, Tongguo, and Chen Zhuang rebelled. King Huiwen ordered the chieftain Gan Mao, Zhang Yi, and Sima Cuo to attack Shu again. Chen Zhuang was afraid and killed the Marquis of Shu to surrender. Then Chen Zhuang was executed and the Kaiming clan was wiped out..."

Hei Fu only heard about this period of history roughly and did not know the details, but the emperor specially ordered him to read it, which must have a deep meaning.

"In the seventeenth year, King Huiwen appointed Qin Gongzi Yun as the Marquis of Shu. Because the military chiefs in Shu were still strong, he moved tens of thousands of Qin people to settle there. In the twenty-seventh year, Zhang Ruocheng built Chengdu."

"So that's how Chengdu came about..." Although Hei Fu likes sweet food, he also likes spicy food and likes Chengdu and Chongqing very much.

He continued to read: "In the 14th year of King Zhaoxiang, Shu Hou Yun offered sacrifices to mountains and rivers and presented gifts to the king. The king and his close ministers were killed. The king suspected that Shu Hou Yun wanted to rebel, and was furious. He made Yun commit suicide and executed 27 of his ministers..."

He was shocked when he read this, and understood the intention of Qin Shihuang to let him read this history.

Sure enough, reading further, there was another rebellion.

"In the 15th year of King Zhaoxiang, the king again appointed Prince Wan as Shu Hou. In the 30th year, it was heard that Shu Hou Wan wanted to rebel, and the king executed him again. Then the Shu Hou State was abolished, Shu County was established, and Zhang Ruo was appointed as the county governor... Later, King Xiaowen appointed Li Bing as the county governor of Shu..."

After reading it, he was speechless for a long time, just sighed and covered his face.

Good guy, I was slapped in the face by the emperor's dry goods!

Zhang Cang certainly knew the content of the bamboo slips. Seeing that Hei Fu behaved differently, he whispered: "What did you say to His Majesty?"

"Nothing else."

Hei Fu smiled again. This matter was a small lesson given to him by the emperor. He had to keep his mouth shut, but thinking carefully, it was an honor to receive Qin Shihuang's advice.

Qin Shihuang's meaning was very clear. Hei Fu's "one country, two systems" policy was not new. And the advice of "using the border marquis to suppress the land of Rong Bo and the barbarians" had been implemented by King Huiwen and King Zhaoxiang in Shu long ago, but the result was not very good.

Whether it was the Shu Marquis of Kaiming or the two princes of Qin, they all had a bad end. Instead, it was the neighboring Ba County. No sons were appointed to guard, and the county was directly established, because the ethnic policy implemented on the Ba people was reasonable, and there had never been any major chaos.

"This is a case of rebellion against the marquis but not against the county..."

Hei Fu's smile was somewhat bitter. He understood what the emperor meant: young man, if you want to make suggestions on national affairs, you should learn more!

He finally understood why the emperor and the Legalists insisted on the comprehensive county system and would never divide the counties...

This matter was a foregone conclusion and could not be changed by his few words.

...

Sure enough, the next day, when Hei Fu was on duty in the Sihai Guiyi Hall, the emperor summoned all the ministers and announced the decision on feudalism and counties at the court meeting.

"During the Three Dynasties, the emperor established a country, the princes established their families, the ministers had concubines, the officials had two clans, and they respected each other. Although thousands of people praised them, this was a private world!"

"Qin was different. It used the law as a teaching, officials as teachers, rewards were not given to relatives, royal family members were not allowed to be registered without merit, princes and grandsons of the second generation were commoners, and the common people and soldiers could be listed in the court for their achievements in farming and fighting. This was a public world!"

Standing in the hall, Hei Fu's throat moved, always feeling that this was not right, but thinking of his own experience, it was not wrong.

Although he became rich by relying on Li You, in the final analysis, it was the relatively fair military merit system of Qin that allowed him to rise.

After these two powerful declarations, the emperor ordered the usher to read out the final verdict:

"Today, the world is suffering from endless fighting because of the existence of princes and kings. Thanks to the ancestral temple, the world was initially settled, and the country was re-established. This is to build up troops, and it is difficult to ask for peace! The discussion of feudalism and counties is in the court of justice!"

"Therefore, I will not enfeoff my sons and daughters, but divide the world into 36 counties, and each county will have a governor, lieutenant, and supervisor!"

The victory and defeat have been decided, and the doctors at the end of the hall fell into silence. They were extremely disappointed with the new dynasty.

After a light sigh, the left prime minister Wang Wan took the lead in bowing and praising, expressing his obedience to the emperor's decision!

Li Si also bowed with the ministers, but when he bowed his head, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth that no one noticed.

This is not only a dispute between him and Wang Wan for the future right prime minister, nor is it just a dispute between feudal counties, but also a dispute between legalism and Confucianism.

In the past few months, the Confucian scholars' jumping up and down finally got a wake-up call. The emperor still trusted the Legalist politics the most.

And Li Si, he, will always be in the emperor's heart!

...

The four seas returned to the palace, and the ministers bowed and praised the emperor's decision. Qin Shihuang's ears suddenly rang with the words that had been lingering in his ears for the past twenty years.

"Qin Wang Zheng, do you still remember... the ambition of the ancestors to unify the world?"

"I remember, I have realized this ambition."

He held the jade seal carved from the Heshi Bi with both hands and stamped it heavily on the edict!

"More ambitious ambitions, unprecedented great achievements, will be realized in my hands!"

If the world is a carriage, then the emperor is the driver, shaking the long chariot and ruling the world!

He waved his whip to lead the world away from the "feudal-division" road that had lasted for thousands of years, and to lead the people of Kyushu to a brand new path!

Poetry says: "The Zhou Road is like a whetstone, and it is as straight as an arrow. What the gentleman walks on is what the villain looks at."

Confucian scholars praised the Zhou government, but in the eyes of Qin Shihuang, it was just a stale and conservative way.

The Qin Road is the way of following the kings, the way of bringing forth the new from the old, and the way that no matter gentlemen or villains, everyone can make the best use of their talents!

It is also the way of the eternal system!

Even though Hei Fu's advice that day made him hesitate a little, the Qin Emperor's heart was as hard as iron. He would not allow repetition, and he would never go back!

His eyes always looked forward, passing over the heads wearing high crowns and martial crowns, looking outside the palace gate, looking into the distance.

Qin Shihuang seemed to see the captives of the six kingdoms in shackles, wading through the turbid waves of the Wei River, and building new towering palaces on the loess of the north slope of Xianyang.

He saw the opening of Hangu Pass in the east, and 120,000 nobles and common people from the six kingdoms were coming west with their families.

He saw the soldiers of the world being collected one by one, and the Guanliang River defenses that had been built on the neighbors were destroyed one by one. The big rivers were no longer a problem, and the obstacles of the past became smooth roads.

He also saw the vast land under his rule.

The land extended to the sea and Korea in the east, to Lintao and Qiangzhong in the west, to the Five Ridges in the south, to the river in the north, and to the Yinshan Mountains to Liaodong. And to the south of Limen and Jiuyi, there was an unknown lush forest and seaside waiting for the Qin people to explore.

He also saw that on both sides of Zhangtai Street, clerks from various government offices were sealing copies of his edict and handing them to the postman, who then sent them by boat and car to various places and delivered them to the governors, magistrates, and chancellors of 36 counties and thousands of counties. Then they were passed on to the village officials and village officials who read them aloud to the illiterate people.

What followed was the unanimous shouts of 30 million people.

"Long live your majesty!"

"Long live the Qin Dynasty!"

...

After Qin Shihuang left the palace in his carriage, Heifu, who was not on duty tonight, stood there for a long time.

"The emperor thought he could cut off the knot of feudalism and division and lead the world on a new path. Little did he know that China's two thousand years of order and chaos had just begun!"

Can he be blamed? I'm afraid not.

Hei Fu fell into deep thought: "Each of us, whether ancient or time traveler, can only find the answer from known history."

"After seeing the quick destruction of Qin and the benefits of the parallel implementation of counties and kingdoms by Han, future generations will think about whether Qin's enfeoffment can take a different path. But Qin Shihuang and Li Si saw the great chaos caused by Zhou's implementation of enfeoffment and the three rebellions in Shu caused by Qin's enfeoffment of Shu Hou!"

But then again, the decision made by the emperor today was not wrong in the general direction

Although it is easy to break the waist at too fast speed, although his stubbornness will aggravate the sharpness of the contradiction. But the wheel of history rolls forward, the trend of the times is mighty, and the choice made by this firm, enterprising, and fighting man at this moment, even if it is not perfect, is it not worthy of respect?

Hei Fu found that he couldn't help but worry about the future of the empire...

Although personal life and honor are the most important, it is impossible to be indifferent and let it go within the system.

At this time, he also walked down the stairs, along the central axis of the palace, and came to the gate of Zhangtai Palace. The guards also had holidays. Heifu had been in the palace for ten days and finally had a rare rest.

Unexpectedly, outside the palace gate, a man stopped him and said with a bow:

"Zhonglang Huling! I haven't seen you for three years. You didn't recognize me when I was in the palace just now?"

Looking at the young man in front of him who was dressed like a public servant and about his age, Heifu was stunned, and then he was happy.

"It turned out to be Brother Ba!"

It was Ba Zhong, the son of Ba Guafu Qing, who joined hands with him to quell the rebellion when the Ba people in Yidao, Nanjun, rebelled!

However, why did the son of this mine owner come to Xianyang?