General Qin

In the eighth year of Emperor Qin II's reign, the emperor died in Xianyang Palace.

Prince Qiming succeeded to the throne and became the third emperor.

The little emperor was the same age as Zhao Tuo's daughter Zhao Yun. She was just fifteen at the time and was not yet an adult, so she had no ability to govern the world.

According to the edict left by the second emperor, Zhao Tuo, the right prime minister of the Zhenguo Marquis, Li Yu, the Wentong Hou Tingwei, and Wang Wan, the left prime minister of the Siche concubine, were appointed as Gu Ming ministers to jointly assist the third emperor in governing Qin.

At this time, the situation in the world was stable. In the past few years of the reign of the second emperor, the people of Guizhou Province had become increasingly relaxed. They gradually had a sense of belonging to the Qin State and began to regard themselves as Qin people.

Although there was a rebellion by the barbarians in the Northeast last year, with Li Xin, a veteran general, leading his troops to conquer, it was just a disease of moss and mustard and could not cause any big trouble for Qin. Not to mention that the Qin army led by Wang Li had just defeated Wusun and captured Kunmo. After returning, his head was hung at the North Gate, and his army was powerful all over the world.

Under such circumstances, the handover of the Qin throne was very smooth.

Zhao Tuo was appointed as a minister to assist the country, and Fusu placed hope on fulfilling their common ambition. Naturally, he worked conscientiously and focused his energy on governing the country.

For Zhao Tuo, the most important things are several aspects.

The first is to change the law and reform the old law from the past war period to adapt to the unified situation of today's world and allow the social environment to develop in a more relaxed direction.

Zhao Tuo knew very well that disasters would breed under high-pressure rule. Only by being tolerant can we be inclusive, as was the case in the Han and Tang Dynasties in history.

The second one is that Zhao Tuo gradually loosened the government's control on business, encouraged business development, allowed the economy of the four directions to circulate, and developed special business groups to go to the barbarian areas of the four directions to trade with the local indigenous people and spread the culture of the Central Plains.

In his opinion, once the caravan is used properly, it may play a greater role than the army.

The third is to vigorously develop science and technology. Since the establishment of the Engineering School, a large number of professional and technical talents have been trained, some of whom have been sent to counties and counties as engineers to spread advanced technologies. Others stayed in Shaofu and continued to study and invent various technological products.

For example, gunpowder has made great progress during the reign of Emperor II. Although it is not comparable to that of later generations, its power is not small, and it is now being used to mine minerals.

Speaking of technology, we have to mention those talents from the Immortal Cultivator Sect.

Ever since the death of the First Emperor, Zhao Tuo had been very unhappy with Lu Sheng, Xu Shi and others, and wanted to punish them. At that time, news came from Rizhao County that the Qin State's naval engineer had discovered a large island overseas. It was vast, like Another continent.

"Japan."

Zhao Tuo knew the situation in that place and had different thoughts in his mind.

There seem to be a lot of gold and silver mines on this big island, and they are easy to mine.

If Qin had not occupied the land of Three Koreas, he would not be very interested in the Japanese Islands. After all, it was too far to cross the sea from Qin's mainland, and the gains would outweigh the losses.

But it’s different with the land of Sanhan.

The closest distance between Sanhan and Japan is more than a hundred miles, and it is by sea. If there is a favorable wind, you can easily reach it in one day.

It's just that the technology of sea-going ships was not developed enough these days. The Qin army's navy sailed across the sea. On the way back, it encountered a tsunami and strong winds, capsizing half of the ships. It can be seen that navigation between the two places is not easy.

Zhao Tuo thought of Lu Sheng and Xu Shi who used to be alchemists from the Immortal Seeking Sect. They went to sea many times and had rich navigation experience, so they were relatively professional in this area.

Therefore, he assigned tasks to each of them.

Xu Shi was responsible for exploring safe routes to Rizhao County and the land named Japan by Zhao Tuo, and led people to establish a colonial port in Japan.

Lu Sheng was old and not suitable for going to sea, so Zhao Tuo asked him to build new ships. Once the new ships were built, they would not only be able to navigate Japan, but also better communicate with Baiyue along the sea route.

In addition to technology, Zhao Tuo’s fourth focus is culture.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius established private schools and popularized education. Later, various schools of thought began to contend with each other. Disciples of various schools spread all over the world, and culture flourished. The Jixia Academy in Qi State was one of the representatives.

Zhao Tuo believes that cultural obstruction is worse than sparseness, and sparseness and guidance can turn disadvantages into advantages.

Therefore, he advocated the establishment of various schools of thought, not only to support the imperial examination system and to pave the way for the subsequent imperial examination system, but also to take advantage of this opportunity to guide the thoughts of various schools of thought.

Times have changed, and the schools of thought that were born during the troubled times are no longer in line with today's situation in some aspects.

Disciples who want to join the school must accept a slight standardization by the government of the ideas they inherit.

For example, we advocate the necessity of unification and firmly believe that the world must be unified and China must be one.

Some articles that are obviously divisive are not acceptable and must be deleted.

If you don't accept it, you won't be able to join the various schools of thought.

At the same time, he also guided and promoted various ideas such as the world's nations are one family, and the use of Xia to transform barbarians.

This also lays the foundation for Qin to better digest North Korea, Baiyue, grasslands and other places.

If the people trained by Zhuzi's schools were not qualified to be recommended as officials, Zhao Tuo also gave them a new way out.

Go to Haidong, Rizhao, Hexi, Jiuyuan, Nanhai, Guilin, Minzhong, Xiangjun and other newly conquered barbarian areas to promote Chinese ideas. As long as you stay in those barbarian lands for three to five years, you can return to your country as an official. If If you can make a significant contribution, there will be additional rewards.

Although the barbarian land is notorious, there must be a man with a heavy reward. Zhao Tuo gave him an official position and offered a reward for property. Among the young people who graduated from the various schools and failed to find a way out, there were always a few passionate people. , with a ruthless heart, he accepted the order and agreed to go to the barbarian land, thinking that he would work for a few years and fight for his future.

The Zhuzi School occupies a large proportion in Zhao Tuo's plan.

But everything always has two sides. For example, the prosperity of various schools of thought will inevitably touch the interests of some people.

For example, the current leader of Legalism, Wentong Marquis Li Yu, felt very unhappy.

Before Zhao Tuo's reform, Legalism had been dominant in the Qin State for more than a hundred years. In addition to military merit, another way for Qin people to rise was to study law in a school, and then become an official.

Therefore, the people of Qin were eager to study the law. Legalists had a very high status in the Qin State because they controlled an important way to become an official.

Zhao Tuo's reform this time was equivalent to extracting the benefits that the Legalists had monopolized in the past and distributing them to other schools.

All schools of thought benefited, but Legalism alone suffered.

This is a naked conflict of interest.

Li was appointed as a Tingwei by the Second Emperor, and all the pressure on the Legalists fell on him.

If he was an old man like Li Si, he might still be patient, or he might have other tricks to deal with him.

But Li Yu was young and had always been prejudiced against Zhao Tuo. When he saw Zhao Tuo attacking the Legalists, he was very angry.

He had forgotten most of Li Si's teachings, and relying on his status as a minister who also cared about life, he could not help but confront Zhao Tuo sometimes.

In November of the second year of the third year of the Qin Dynasty, the contradictions intensified openly in the court.

Li Yu publicly criticized Zhao Tuo's policy of selecting disciples as officials, believing that these people did not understand the law and would bring chaos to the world if they served as officials in the court and counties.

Only legal officials are the foundation for the existence of the Qin State, and we must not abandon the fundamentals and pursue the inferior.

Facing Li Yu's opposition, Zhao Tuo treated it calmly, while other ministers went into battle one after another, and Li Yu retreated steadily.

"Damn it, the Zhao thief controls the power of the country, and the court is full of his followers. He has no regard for me, a minister appointed by the late emperor to assist the country. Does this thief look like Lu Buwei in the past?"

When Li Yu entered the palace to meet the Queen Mother, he couldn't help but express his anger.

Especially the name Lu Buwei he mentioned made Queen Mother Li Shu's face change suddenly.

She first glared at her brother. Lu Buwei had an affair with the Queen Mother. Can this be a wild analogy?

But if you think about it carefully, Zhao Tuo's situation now is somewhat similar to Lu Buwei's in the past.

The emperor was still young and had not yet been crowned to rule, so all the power of the country was controlled by one person.

Moreover, Zhao Tuo's situation seemed to be even worse, because before the death of the second emperor, he appointed three ministers to assist the young emperor.

But now Prime Minister Zuo Wang Wan is getting older. The middle-aged man in his forties when he unified the world has turned into a decrepit man in his sixties. As he got older, his energy was gradually losing. In addition, some of Zhao Tuo's actions were in Wang Wan's interests, so Wang Wan tended to Zhao Tuo's side.

This is equivalent to Zhao Tuo having the power to control the prime minister at the same time and suppressing Li Yu, another minister who cares about life.

Li Shu felt the danger.

At the same time, this incident also aroused her resentment towards the Zhao family.

"My son is the destined emperor, and he proposed marriage to the Zhao family because he admires them. Zhao Tuo is so arrogant that he dares to refuse the late emperor's request. It is really abominable."

When Li Shu thought about this, she became angry.

When Li Yu heard this, he also said angrily: "Two years ago, I proposed marriage to Zhao Tuo on behalf of Qiming, but he refused because the woman was still young. Oh, we are just asking for marriage, and we are not asking for immediate marriage. It doesn’t matter, you can just promise to get married first and then consummate the marriage when you reach adulthood. I think he clearly looks down on us!"

Li Shu clenched her teeth, anger flashed in her eyes.

How could her son not be worthy of Zhao Tuo's daughter?

Why did Zhao refuse the royal family's proposal?

How dare you, Zhao Tuo!

Li Yu also became more and more angry as he talked. For him, it was not only the Zhao family's refusal to marry, but also the resentment accumulated by the Legal family due to Zhao Tuo's suppression in the past few years, as well as the resentment accumulated by the two sides during the struggle for governing power.

Various contradictions have accumulated deeply.

He said sternly: "Zhao Tuo is a traitor with a good face and an evil heart. The late emperor was deceived by him and thought he was a loyal and good minister, so he specially ordered him to assist the country. Unexpectedly, the late emperor had only been away for two years, but he would win over Wang Wan and take over everything. It is really unreasonable for the great power of the court to humiliate me, a minister who cares about life, in every possible way."

"I see that all the people in this court are members of his Zhao family, and all the counties and armies in the world are his Zhao Tuo's old subordinates. The world only knows that there are marquises who govern the country, but they don't know that there is an emperor! I'm afraid the Zhao thief is still so powerful. In the past, Lu Buwei's superiors said that he was Tian Chang of Qi, but I'm afraid it's not quite the same."

A sharp light flashed in Li Shu's eyes.

Powerful ministers and monarchs naturally have conflicts.

In the era before Qin unified the world, there were many examples of powerful officials killing kings.

Not to mention the separation of the three Jin families, the Tian family replaced Qi.

In the thirty-sixth year of regicide in the Spring and Autumn Period alone, the heads of countless monarchs fell to the ground.

Even in the Qin State, there was an example of Duke Huai of Qin being forced to commit suicide by his powerful ministers and establish a new king.

She, the queen mother, and Li Yu, the young emperor's uncle, were the absolute defenders of the monarchy.

Now there are powerful officials in the court who control the government.

How will they choose?