Qin Official

"The government of Qi is inevitable. The ancients said that there are no two days in the sky and no two masters for the people. The Chu State, which was restored by the Xiang family and a few Chu nobles Zhao, Jing, and Qu, must perish! There can only be one central government in this world. ! The court governed by Xia Gong! One country, one weights and measures, one set of laws! "

This set of rhetoric was strange coming from the mouth of a Confucian scholar, but Heifu already understood that when dealing with rural sages, he had to send "big Confucianists" like Shu Suntong to deceive him.

"We still need to reuse Qin Shihuang's laws and regulations..."

The representatives of Chen Di's elders looked at each other. In the past ten years or so, they had had enough of the strict and harsh Qin laws.

"otherwise."

Shusun Tong shook his head and said: "Qin Shihuang did not want to rule, but he failed because he resorted to mob violence and torture. Xia Gong also thought that Qin Shihuang and Hu Hai's laws were too strict and strict, so he ordered the legal officials Qin Laws, abolish those that are too harsh and difficult to implement, and adopt those that are suitable for the time, and write nine chapters of laws. Now the Yushi Mansion is still making profits and losses, and in the second year of the regency, it will be implemented!"

He described the exciting part of the new Nine Chapters:

"Abolition of the five punishments, chariot splitting, clan three clans, etc., only retaining beheading, beheading, and abandoning the market."

"Also, most corporal punishments will be abolished!"

"Is this true!?"

Chen Difu, old men and other scholars all straightened up all of a sudden, with faces showing joy.

There are many kinds of corporal punishments in Qin's laws, such as tattooing (stabbing the face), cutting off the nose (cutting off the nose), cutting off the feet (cutting off the feet), palace (you know), etc., which are both physical harm and insulting, and the person who is being tortured , usually as slaves employed by the government: those who tattoo are used to guard the gates, those who are tattooed are used to guard the gates, those who are in the palace are used to guard the interior, and those who are beheaded are used to guard the confines.

However, Qin's laws are easy to violate and rarely merciful. At that time, more and more people were subjected to physical torture. There were so many palaces and gardens that needed to be guarded, so slaves with physical disabilities spread among the people.

Now Heifu decided to abolish some corporal punishments.

The punishment of torture was completely abolished, and tattooing was changed to a mark only for those with a suspended death sentence. Punishment such as crotch and beard shaving were raised. Punishment standards were improved. Cutting was changed to cutting off the left and right toes, which can also prevent escape. Castration was only given to rapists. , especially those pedophiles with “personal hobbies” should be kept!

Shusun Tong couldn't help but sigh at this moment: "In ancient times, there was no corporal punishment and the world was peaceful. However, during the reign of Emperor Qin Shihuang, there were nine corporal punishments but the turmoil continued, so Xia Gong reduced it."

After saying this, he glanced at Chen Difu and the old scholars. As expected, they were full of praise and said: "Xia Gong is benevolent!"

The reduction of penalties made many people feel relieved. It seemed that Xia Gong did not intend to pursue them for the crime of "being a thief". It stands to reason that everyone in Chen was rebelling. There was no way that Chen could hold them accountable with a population of hundreds of thousands.

There are still more than three months left before the "Second Year of the Regency", and Chen people are already looking forward to the early implementation of this new law.

The rent reduction is also quite exciting. You must know that in order to maintain the war, the Chu army levied and extorted money from the people, no less than Qin. On the contrary, they were looking forward to the "Qi government". Once the government was unified, The life will be stable.

Shusuntong continued:

"The same is true for education. Since the track, measurement, and currency are all the same, the same script must be implemented. The whole world must use a unified script and abolish their different characters. In the future, Duke Xia will build a county school and recruit local scholars and common people. When children enter school, they use official script and take exams in the county! They not only test laws and regulations, elegant language, but also history, etiquette, mathematics, etc. to select talents. They can serve as minor officials in counties, counties, towns, and towns, and they can join the imperial court as high officials. !"

Although local gentry who have received Chu-style education are more accustomed to Chu writing, and their daily communication is definitely based on Chu dialect, after more than ten years of domestication, there are not a few who can calligraphy and speak the elegant dialect of Guanzhong.

Therefore, their opposition to this point is far less than when Shu Tongwen was first implemented, and they are very happy that their children have the opportunity to advance to the rank.

Heifu also has his own considerations. He believes that although the Qin Shihuang Emperor's writings in the same text are an epoch-making good thing, the promotion of writing and Mandarin must rely on profit and education, rather than an administrative order and hope that everyone will be there overnight. As long as the Plenary Session talks about future generations until the 21st century, there are still a lot of people in remote areas who cannot speak Mandarin. Can they all be arrested and beheaded?

Therefore, the language can be discussed. After all, dialects have too much inertia and cannot be changed within hundreds of years, but the writing must be unified. This is the biggest factor in China's ability to maintain its unification for more than two thousand years.

Moreover, it is easier to unify the script than to unify the language, because it only requires forcing one percent of the population to be scholars. In order to make money and enter the upward ladder, scholars will study hard. After a generation, few people will recognize the different words of the Six Kingdoms, and then through them they will influence 99% of the illiterate people.

Then, Shu Suntong came to the point that Chen was most concerned about:

"Government according to the customs."" Chu people can still wear Chu clothes, speak Chu language, use Chu rituals, eat Chu food, and worship their gods. They will not destroy it as a temple of obscenity. They can even learn to Poems and books are not banned by the government."

"Regardless of whether you are a noble or a commoner, except for following the laws and regulations, your daily life and customs will not change." And the county chiefs are appointed by the court. However, in the villages, they all use elders. The three elders will still be the three elders, and the village chief will still be the three elders. For the sake of length."

While talking, the seals and ribbons from the village were brought up. There were some old people and some stingy men. Scholars from Chen who were willing to come here were all appointed as officials, although most of them had been officials in Qin in the past.

"I also hope that you can publicize Duke Xia's politics more, so that the people of Chu can put down their hostility, and let Chen land regain peace as soon as possible!"

…

"Bo Qin was granted the title of Lu, and it took three years before he came to report to the government. Zhou Gong said, why is it too late? Bo Qin said: 'Change the customs, change the rituals, and mourn for three years and then get rid of them, so it is too late.'"

"The Taigong was granted the title of Qi, and in the fifth month he reported to the Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou said, what's wrong? The Taigong said: 'I simplified the etiquette of the emperor and his ministers, and followed the customs.'"

"When the Duke of Zhou and his successors heard that Bo Qian was late in repaying the government, he sighed and said: 'Wow, in the later generations of Lu, things have been done in the north! The government is not simple and easy, and the people are not close; if the people are easy to approach, the people will return.'"

After hearing Shusuntong's report, Heifu smiled and said: "The First Emperor of Qin chose Lu back then, but now, I have to choose Qi."

Although, their original intention is the same: to truly unify the world, not only administratively, but also culturally, to truly achieve the goal of "Kiuzhou has the same consistency, the world has the same style"!

However, Qin Shihuang adopted administrative orders and wanted to implement and establish a set of behavioral norms through strict laws and bans on local culture...

It looks great, but wake up, this is China.

There is an intricate network of relationships in the local area. If you try to change the norms and customs that have been maintained for hundreds of years simply by relying on laws and regulations, it will inevitably become superficial.

Therefore, compared to Qin Shihuang, Heifu is more inclined to only use administrative orders and legal decrees as backing and intimidation, and use cultural means to find solutions to problems: obey human nature, pass examinations and education, and give the scholars of the Six Nations a ideological foundation. Orientation, to guide people to have centripetal force towards the imperial court.

These are the so-called two different policies of "forbidden convenience" and "people's obedience".

Although in this process, Heifu had to delegate some powers to local governments.

The game between the central and local governments will last forever, but during the reign of Emperor Qin Shihuang, was the imperial power in the lower counties of Guandong?

Unfortunately not.

The First Emperor initially tried to relocate the royal families of the six kings, but local nobles immediately took over the place.

The First Emperor continued his migration and moved 120,000 households into Guanxi, hoping to break the local network of relationships, but soon there were light knights in the local area who took over.

Qin Shihuang began to tighten the law and massacre light knights, but there were small nobles and nobles who mixed into the local system to take over. In the original history, Qin officials such as Xiao He, Cao Shen, and Liu Ji all relied on the local power they controlled. Rebelled against Qin.

There was no way to go now.

Otherwise, kill all the local scholars as well!

How about sending out troops to kill people door to door according to the list of local officials in the government?

But even if the entire Kanto region was not forced to rebel, and the entire scholar class was successfully killed, the central government was faced with a new problem: Who should govern the place?

Rely on an airborne official who can't speak the local dialect and has a dark look in his eyes?

Relying on a group of illiterate farmers?

Or mobilize the slaves to stand up and take charge?

It is obviously unreliable. Therefore, Qin's government, which was originally good in Kansai, basically encountered a lot of trouble in various places in Kanto. What Qin officials encountered was not an enemy regime that could be eliminated, but a soft as water. , a local force that is firmly rooted and cannot be wiped out.

It cannot be eliminated, it can only be cooperated.

There was no convenient way to transmit information, all of which hindered the exchanges between the central government and the grassroots. Even if Qin Shihuang was crazy about building Chidao, the phenomenon of "imperial power not extending to the counties" was still formed in Guandong.

A series of functions such as household registration management, military service recruitment, customs education, tax collection, and rural security are all carried out by others. Without them, the place would be nothing more than:

"paralysis."

The imperial court wanted to completely control the place, but Guandong was too vast and had a large population. Even if the disciples from the Xianyang School were spared to become officials, it would be a drop in the bucket.

Therefore, once the local "Qin officials" also rebelled against Qin, Guandong would collapse instantly. How could the few county magistrates who were parachuted in withstand it?

Heifu saw Qin Zheng's difficulties in Guandong for more than ten years and tried to find a solution.

He finally discovered that there was no way to solve the problem overnight, and he could only boil the frog in warm water.

"Qi Zheng first."

Relying on the centripetal force of at least one generation, people all over the world can identify with this country.

"Practice again."

By establishing a ladder for advancement, using official positions as bait to induce scholars to learn Qin characters, elegant dialects, and history, etiquette and other books published by the court, the purpose of brainwashing is achieved. Do you think the imperial examinations are only for selecting talents?

A steady stream of local scholars who joined the system were given a unified education, turning them into "Qin officials" and then assigned to serve as officials in other places. Little by little, they helped the central government gain the upper hand in the game with the local governments.

Only in this way can we realize the imperial power in the counties in the vast Kanto little by little!

"I'm only thirty-seven this year."

"I am willing to spend twenty years, one generation, to accomplish this!"

But first, he wants to end the war!

Heifu still wants to list Xiang Ji as the chief culprit of the world, making the Han and Wei people hate him. He will also completely annihilate those Chu soldiers who insist on resisting Xiang Ji to the end in the disaster war, leaving no future troubles. !

But for those Chu people who have illusions about the new regime, Heifu has to change his strategy.

"Xiang Ji abandoned his family and country, brutalized the people, took pleasure in slaughtering the city, and committed evil deeds in the world, destabilizing the Central Plains, and robbing the innocent people of their lives. I will be punished by heaven for the rest of my life!"

Just like what King Wu of Zhou preached back then, they were to punish the tyrannical King Zhou on behalf of heaven, not to massacre the Yin people.

Heifu also promised that this war is not a war to exterminate the Chu people, but a war to eliminate the thugs.

"To enslave those people from the thieves..."

Heifu said those two words:

"liberation!"