Qin Official

Tian An lost the high-spiritedness he had when he took action. Now he is in a very embarrassed state. He is wearing a Confucian scholar's uniform that is obviously too big, but his Confucian crown is missing. He was also punched in the face by a Qin soldier. There are some bruises on the corners of his mouth and body. He was tied up with ropes and held in front of Heifu, Linzi County Supervisor and Cheng.

The leader of the rebellion like Tian An, Mr. Tian Qi, must be interrogated and imprisoned by three senior officials.

"Are you Tian An? Why did you rebel?"

Linzi County Magistrate asked this question, and my husband glanced at him. Isn't this nonsense, but he didn't say anything.

Tian An raised his head and smiled at the corner of his bruised mouth: "The county magistrate is joking. How can we talk about rebellion when we expel the Qin invaders and regain our homeland?"

"Be bold!"

The censor of Linzi Prison complained about the case, but failed to scare Tian An. He laughed and said: "Qin Yi destroyed my country, starved to death my father, captured my people, treated my relatives harshly, and even regarded the princes, princes, and grandsons as ministers, concubines, and chariots." I went to Qin to satisfy the desires of the tyrant. Now I am trying to uproot the fields, so that there will be no sacrifices in my ancestral graves, and the ancestors will not be able to eat blood."

"I have a national feud, a father's feud, and a family feud with Qin. In the past, the ninth Xianggong of Qi could still take revenge, let alone today! If he didn't take revenge, Tian An would be a useless person. Now, you come to ask me, why are you rebelling against Qin? Really? The most ridiculous thing in the world!"

"If today's thing is not done, Tian An will die. It's a pity that the fool is cowardly and resents me after being provoked by you, and some people even betray me. Otherwise, I will be sitting in the hall today, and you will all be prisoners!"

Tian An cursed loudly. From the moment he was betrayed and arrested, he knew that he would die. When a person is not afraid of death, he has nothing to fear.

The Linzi County Magistrate and the Supervisory Yushi looked at each other. There was indeed something wrong with their question. In fact, Tian An's interrogation today was just a process to convict him of treason, and then he could be sentenced to the Yi clan.

"Chief Wei, look..."

The county magistrate wanted to end the interrogation quickly, but Hei Fu stopped him and looked at Tian An's shabby Confucian robe:

"I heard that for the past seven years, you have been pretending to be a Confucian scholar and hiding in Linzi City. Although it is a fake identity, you must have some knowledge to hide your eyes from others. If I am not wrong, you studied Gongyang Chunqiu, right? ?”

Gongyang Chunqiu was written by Gongyang Gao, a Qi man who was a disciple of Zixia. He specialized in studying "Spring and Autumn" and wrote a biography for him, explaining Confucius's "little words and great meanings". He dictated his ideas to his descendants and passed them down from generation to generation, thus giving birth to the "Gongyang Sect".

However, this school of thought has always been described but not written in the past. It was not until paper became popular that its words were put down on paper.

Heifu is very interested in the Gongyang sect. During the book-burning and book-repairing dispute last year, he heard Zhang Cang say that all Confucianists followed the rule of law, but the Gongyang sect had a tendency to follow the rule of law and become kings. closest. He also advocated "great unification", believing that the king was ordered to control the first month to unify the world, so that all things could be worshiped accordingly, so he called it "great unification".

It sounds good and is in line with the core values ​​of the Qin Dynasty, but unfortunately, just a little bit of this theory is enough to be regarded by the Qin Dynasty as a scourge and was brutally suppressed.

That is the "great revenge!" that the Gongyang faction is most passionate about. Gongyang Chunqiu greatly praised Qi Xianggong for avenging his ninth generation, believing that the king and father must be avenged, and revenge has risen to the level of etiquette.

But in the Legalist view, private revenge is a major crime that affects the ruling order and must be severely punished. Therefore, in the Qin Dynasty, no matter what the reason was for killing someone, there would be no room for forgiveness.

What's more, if the Gongyang faction's theory of revenge becomes popular, wouldn't the six countries that were destroyed by Qin have many more people who want to avenge their homeland?

Han Wu promoted Gongyang Chunqiu in order to wage war against the Xiongnu in the name of revenge. However, in the Qin Dynasty, it was absolutely impossible for the theory of revenge that undermined national integrity and national unity to become mainstream!

As a result, Gongyang Chunqiu was classified as a forbidden book by Li Si, and it was directly forbidden to be burned and not retained! Almost all the few manuscripts have been taken away, but after all, there is an old tradition passed down orally. Gongyang Chunqiu is still secretly spread among the people of Qi by Confucian scholars within the school, and it has become more and more popular in the past year. wide.

Because Zhutian needed this theory, the three brothers Tian An and Tian Heng brothers from Di County in front of them all took action under the banner of revenge for Qi State and King Jian of Qi...

"It is only right to avenge our motherland and our father!"

Relying on this slogan, Moroda can fool many light warriors and passionate young people into joining the rebellion.

Hei Fu would not discuss with Tian An whether revenge was right or not. He just smiled and asked, "You said the Linzi people who didn't help you rebel were fools? There was a hint of blame in your words, but your Tian family's revenge is irrelevant. What's going on in Linzi, Guizhou Province?"

"They are from Qi and have received favors from my family for hundreds of years. How can they not repay the kindness of generations of kings?"

What Tian An said is natural and correct. In your opinion, this is indeed the case.

King Wei of Qi, King Xuan of Qi, King Xiang of Qi, and the Queen are very good to the people of Linzi. After the death of Qi, the people should remember their old kindness and help them restore their country and take revenge, instead of watching indifferently and adding insult to injury!

But Heifu shook his head: "I have read some books and know that there were more than one and two coups and street battles in Linzi in the past. It took four coups for the Tian family to gain the status of a prince. On two occasions, he fought with Guo, Gao and others. The Duke fought against Zhuang Yue, and he could only win with the help of the people of the country. Have you ever thought about why today, only light knights are helping you, but the common people in Guizhou have not followed you?"

Because they are ignorant, because they are ungrateful?

Without waiting for Tian An to answer, Heifu said: "It's not for anything else, just because even the people in Guizhou feel that there is no chance of winning in this matter."

"Your enemy is no longer the decadent Jiang Qi nobles, but the illustrious Qin Dynasty at its peak! After capturing Linzi City, you still have to face the Jiaodong Division, defeat the Jiaodong Division, and the imperial army to attack. Although Linzi has With a population of 400,000, how can we defeat the Qin army of 600,000?"

"So what the people of Linzi want now is to muddle along, instead of accompanying you and playing a restoration game with no hope of victory and being implicated in the end. This is human nature!"

Before the emergence of modern nation-states, we should not place too high expectations on the patriotic enthusiasm of ordinary people. Even loyalty to the emperor should be questioned.

If Tian An seizes Linzi, if the world is full of joy and responds by killing Qin officials, the situation will be great, and the people of Guizhou will join in one after another without minding the icing on the cake. But you want them to risk being defeated by the Yi tribe and go out of their way to help?

This is probably the weakness and compromise of small businessmen and citizens. As property owners, they are different from the light-hearted and evil teenagers with fewer bonds.

Confucianism says that a gentleman is known for his righteousness, and a villain is known for his benefit. Unfortunately, there are very few true gentlemen in the world. We are all villains.

So Shang Yang saw it clearly: "What I call benefit is the foundation of righteousness!"

In the Legalist view, human nature loves profit, and there is a pure and naked interest relationship between people. "Profit" is the only driving force for all human behaviors and interactions.

So Shang Yang lured the people with benefits and let them engage in farming and warfare.

Therefore, a thousand-year bloodline is no match for military honors. Therefore, all the nobles and nobles of the six countries were trampled under the feet of Qin officials! The reason lies in politics, power, war, and benefits.

Moroda, who was facing the danger of eviction, fought tooth and nail to keep his "profit". Qingxia, who had been imprisoned for several years, also worked hard to help in order to regain his "profit".

But in order to preserve the "profit" that they can still survive, the common people in Guizhou will of course choose to sit back and wait and see what happens.

Everyone is only loyal to their own life, and it will not change even if the world changes.

"Tian An, do you know why you lost? If you can't give the people of Guizhou immediate benefits, don't expect them to go through fire and water for you. Qi and Qin have no eternal grudges or massacres, so let them pay more taxes. If you serve more corvees, you will complain, but you will not rise up. Therefore, the people who have enmity with them are no longer the Qin officials, but the careerists and light knights who burned down their houses and almost destroyed the city. !”

"Absurd!" Young Master Tian An seemed to be shocked. He was dissatisfied, but his face was ashen.

Heifu will not evaluate Tian An's actions from the moral high ground, but just wants to tell him an indisputable fact.

"Tian An, accept your fate."

Heifu's voice was like a heavy hammer, hitting Tian An's heart.

"Times have changed!"

After saying that, he no longer paid attention to Tian An with pale lips. Heifu waved his hand and asked someone to take him down.

"There is nothing left to ask. Let the jailer inflict five punishments on Tian An in the city of Zhuangyue, and then show the owl's head to the public! The body will be wrapped in a straw mat and buried with the ceremony of a Guizhou head!"

When Tian An was dragged down, he still raised his neck and said:

"Tian An must let the world know that the prince and grandson of the Tian family are by no means cowards!"

"A city with ten houses must have loyal men! Although Tian An is dead, there will be no end to those who want to avenge Qi! Those who want to overthrow the violent Qin in the world will also rise up in groups!"

The voice gradually faded away, and the Linzi County Prime Minister and the Supervisor and Censor looked at each other. They never thought that this Heifu County Governor was really eloquent, and he was worthy of being someone who could argue with the Prime Minister about burning books and repairing books.

They didn't know that Heifu's words today were just based on his feelings.

Throughout the ages, after the overthrow of "tyranny", what ushered in was often not a time of peace and prosperity, but repeated chaos and suffering.

It was like this at the end of the Qin Dynasty, it was like this in the Khmer Rouge, and it was like this in the Middle East. There are too many examples. The prosperity of the people was miserable, and the destruction of the people was miserable.

Harsh government is fiercer than a tiger, but for the people, orderly harsh government is better than disorderly chaos!

Furthermore, to end the tyranny, is it really the only way to smash the world to pieces, drain the blood, make everyone exhausted, and then put it back together again to embark on a new reincarnation?

At least in Heifu’s view, not necessarily!

But blood, more or less, will always be shed. There is no revolution in the world that does not shed blood, and there is no one who suppresses "revolution" without bloodshed!

"Both of you."

After Hei Fu thought about it, he looked at the Linzi County Magistrate and the Supervisor with a friendly smile: "Earlier, we sent soldiers to put out the fire to build virtue. Next, we will use punishment to kill and kill to build power!"