My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 863 Exciting

After hearing this, some ministers turned pale, some made faces, and some lowered their heads, not knowing what they were thinking.

Feng Quji looked calm. He had always wondered how this young emperor could remain so calm after taking office. On the surface, a large group of ministers cheered "Long live the emperor", but behind the scenes, they acted on their own and did not offer any help to the emperor's new policies.

In essence, it was the emperor's inaction policy that angered the powerful.

Feng Quji had always thought that the emperor was really interesting. He would not bow to him, would not compromise with the ministers, and yet he could continue to sit on his high position as if nothing had happened.

The emperor has only one trump card in his hand, and that is the empire's army.

However, the essence of governing a country is to share the food, not to fight. If you don't share the food with your brothers, no one will be willing to protect his interests.

The ministers were simply unwilling to obey his orders and cooperate with the new policies.

Feng Quji was still sighing, saying that the emperor was so patient that he had not taken any action until today.

When Feng Quji heard the emperor lose his temper and show off his power today, he was secretly happy.

No one can sustain long-term stress.

As long as you bear pressure, there will always be a day when you want to release it.

This is the law of nature.

The emperor can no longer hold back, and the Feng family will take action.

Wang Wan naturally saw Feng Quji laughing on the other side, and he looked at Feng Quji meaningfully.

The old prime minister was still quite majestic, which made Feng Quji feel a little uncomfortable.

Feng Quji has always been very polite to his old boss.

But his old superiors were not very kind to him and often joined forces with the emperor to suppress him.

Fortunately, he is a sensible man, otherwise the Qin court would have been divided long ago.

Humph--

Feng Quji turned his head away and chose to ignore Wang Wan's gaze.

The ministers were used to following the emperor's orders on a daily basis, and it was difficult for them to express their opinions in the court.

Zhang Cang could tell that the emperor was planning to take action against those villains, so he was naturally happy.

It seems that the Qin court will need to be thoroughly cleaned up next.

Shang Qingmao was trembling for a long time, and a lot of cold sweat appeared on the back of his neck.

He sighed in his heart, the emperor is the emperor after all, the legitimate emperor. He only needs to open his mouth and countless people want to serve him.

These clan ministers, after all, are not of one mind. They always seem unreliable at critical moments. At times like this, shouldn't someone take the lead and rebuke the emperor?
Why are they all mute?

Shang Qingmao looked around and found that everyone was looking down.

The emperor sat on a high seat, looking down and gazing quietly at all the court officials as if he were looking at a dying enemy.

Shang Qingmao raised his eyes angrily and glanced at the emperor secretly. As he was looking at the emperor, Shang Qingmao found that the emperor's cold eyes fell on him, and Shang Qingmao suddenly felt cold.

Shang Qingmao quickly lowered his head.

The moment he lowered his head, Shang Qingmao's face turned red.

I felt like I had done something wrong and shouldn't have, and I was very ashamed.

Qin II looked at Shang Qing Mao, who had a face similar to that of his old father. He looked calm and dignified, had an excellent appearance, and was a well-deserved representative of the royal family, but unfortunately, he didn't have much in his head.

Shang Qingmao is a conservative old aristocrat who is unwilling to innovate.

Compared with the old nobles of the Qin State a hundred years ago, the nobles today have long lost their integrity.

Some nobles did not even obey the most basic traffic rules in Xianyang. Relying on their status as royal relatives, they did whatever they wanted and drove however they wanted.

They don't have the time to defend the dignity of the nobility, but they will have endless energy to defend the principle of "no punishment for doctors".

The atmosphere in the hall became strange for a moment.

Zhang Cang had seen through the so-called imperial court. Court meetings were not used to govern the people's livelihood, but to fight for power and divide interests.

Government offices were not set up to solve problems for the people, but to be built to show off to the emperor, to show to those who wanted to leave their names in history, and to allow some people to have a meal.

The people rely on themselves to make a living, and if something really happens, there is no one they can count on.

The emperor's reforms were indeed for the benefit of the people, but he had to first protect his own status, his power, and ensure that people who obeyed him were in power, because only by accomplishing these things could he implement the content of the reforms.

However, 90% of our energy is spent on preparing for reform, while the real reform is still on the way.

Xiao He was a little nervous, angry and helpless. Can't everyone just attend court properly and do their work properly? Why do they have to fight with each other every day?

Is this interesting?

Xiao He was understanding some things that were not written in "The Way of Being an Official", and wrinkles had begun to appear on his forehead.

As a court judge who did not like to argue with others, Xiao He just wanted to do things impartially. He started with himself and took the lead in not accepting bribes and not giving convenience to others.

But the situation now is exactly the same as his initial unwillingness to come to Qin to work.

There were problems with the Qin court. They had been rotten from the beginning since Shang Yang's reforms. They did not treat people as human beings, but as animals.

Squeeze as hard as you can.

The so-called bureaucracy did give many common people unprecedented opportunities, allowing them to have the chance to become close to the emperor.

The so-called military merit system also gave people from the lower classes the opportunity to become generals.

However, these two systems essentially drive everyone to work hard, to scramble, and to compete.

The bad is here.

There is fighting and strife in the court every day.

The emperor fought for power with his ministers all day long.

But Xiao He knew that he had no right to accuse the emperor of not doing his job properly. It was precisely because the emperor fought with these ministers every day to ensure that his position was the highest that the emperor could protect himself.

Every time he saw the emperor fighting with powerful officials, Xiao He felt guilty because he couldn't help. Moreover, the emperor did this to clear the way for himself, so he had to work harder.

Once Xiao He took the position of the Chief Justice and was paired with Meng Yi, it was like cleaning up the Chief Justice inside and out.

In other words, all the legal officials in the entire Supreme Court were Qin II's men.

With control of this institution, there is no need to worry about not being able to implement clean and honest administration in the future.

No one wanted this to happen, but Zhang Han just watched the show from the sidelines.

As one of the nine ministers of the empire, he was responsible for the emperor's treasury and the construction of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

However, he had closest contacts with retired dignitaries, nobles living behind the scenes, wealthy businessmen, and aristocratic families.

Sometimes Fusu even suspected that Zhang Han would one day kill him at the will of those high-ranking officials and those behind the scenes.

Normally, there was no vitality in the court meetings, and the ministers did not even have the energy to speak. However, as soon as the emperor announced the adjournment of the court, the ministers' eyes lit up and they ran out of the palace with brisk steps.

The court was always dead silent, and no one spoke. The ministers looked like dead fish from a plague floating in the riverbed in summer, their eyes rolled back and their bellies bulged out.

Fusu saw that his ministers were always like this, without even feeling helpless. He had long been accustomed to it.

This is the situation caused by the fact that the upright people cannot become high-ranking officials.

In this situation, if the emperor is clear-headed and unwilling to let these people continue to be in power, the ministers will go crazy and want to pull the emperor off the throne.

But if the emperor is an arrogant person, the atmosphere in the court will be good, everyone will cheer "Long live the emperor", and the court will be full of joy.

What could Qin Ershi do? He could only be glad that he was not a tyrant.

But today's situation is different. After being threatened by Fusu, the ministers actually got angry one by one. After repeated speculation, Shang Qingmao took the initiative to stand up and ask, "Your Majesty mentioned the expansion of the Ecological Technology City a few days ago. I think this matter has great potential."

"One workshop can produce 20,000 pieces of cloth a month. If this continues, the common people won't have to complain about the cold anymore."

Shang Qingmao smiled and said, "I, your humble servant, would like to take the lead in building an ecological technology city in Nanyang County."

"This Nanyang County was originally part of the Kingdom of Han, bordering the Kingdom of Chu and close to the two counties of Bashu. If we can build an ecological and technological city here, it will surely win the hearts and prestige of the people for Your Majesty."

"What the common people lack most is food and clothing, right? If they have food and clothing, they will naturally support Your Majesty."

Shang Qingmao smiled, as if there was a flower on his face.

Zhang Cang looked at Shang Qingmao and opened his mouth in surprise.

He had no idea that his father-in-law had this side to him.

Zhang Cang suddenly remembered a sentence the emperor often said before. At that time, he just thought that Prince Hengyang was not pragmatic. Now thinking about it again, the emperor really saw through people and things.

"You can never wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep, unless he wants to wake up himself."

Then, another shocking scene appeared.

Shang Qing Mao suddenly turned against the emperor and spoke in favor of Qin II.

At that moment, everyone seemed to have returned to the period when the retired emperor was in power.

Everyone spoke according to the emperor's expression and no one dared to say no.

Those days of bustling crowds and exciting emotions seem to have returned again.

Zhang Han never thought that Shang Qingmao would turn against him before him. What a shameless man.

Before the incident happened yesterday afternoon, he was drinking tea with me and speaking ill of the emperor.

At this moment, they began to support the emperor's idea.

Zhang Han immediately said, "Your Majesty, I ask Your Majesty to allocate these cloths to the prisoners who are building the mausoleum. Most of the prisoners have committed minor offenses, and they have no family members to provide them with food and clothing while they are building the mausoleum."

As Zhang Han spoke, he actually shed two tears in class.

"I beg Your Majesty to have compassion on these prisoners and make them some clothes first."

Shang Qingmao was about to vomit after listening to this. This old man, he told me yesterday that the emperor was hypocritical, extremely harsh to the ministers who worked respectfully, not allowing any mistakes, but hypocritically giving clothes to the common people who had nothing to do with him.

Most of the ministers, like Zhang Han, were angry about Shang Qingmao's sudden rebellion.

Feng Quji seemed to be still sitting upright, but his face was blue and white. These people really have not changed their bad habits.

Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with my behavior on the surface, and the emperor could not find any fault with me.

Feng Quji was sweating silently.

Is it easy for him to be the emperor's father-in-law?

Zhou Qingchen knelt down, and he felt as if some thunder floated into his ears.

Everyone looked at Shang Qingmao and Zhang Han in panic.

Everyone was denouncing these two people in their hearts.

"What a fence-sitter."

Then Feng Quji spoke.

"Your Majesty is devoted to the people, and we, the ministers, will naturally assist you with all our strength. But, Your Majesty, you have only built the city, so won't you also transform it next?"

Feng Quji was also under great pressure, and suddenly he had an idea.

Why not take advantage of this opportunity to get the emperor's consent to start construction? As long as construction starts, people will be needed, and as long as people are hired, money will be spent, and as long as money is spent, everyone will have money to share.

Wouldn't the problems of those aristocratic families and wealthy businessmen be solved?

When Qin II heard this, before he could say anything, Zhang Cang stepped forward to stop him.

"The people's livelihood is the most important thing for the empire now, and solving the problem of food is the most important thing. The establishment of an ecological technology city is for the purpose of inventing technology, which essentially cannot solve the problem of food."

"Spending the energy of the people on rebuilding the city, isn't this the same as when the emperor was in power? The country is just wasting the people's energy, isn't this putting the cart before the horse?"

“If this is how we help the people, I don’t think we need to build this Eco-Tech City.”

Zhang Cang's tone was very stern. He was completely infuriated by the minister's sudden change of attitude today.

How come everyone has become a good person now?

Didn’t you keep silent before?
Not only Zhang Cang was angry, Meng Yi couldn't sit still either, he really couldn't stand the villain's face. He kept moving left and right, without any determination.

If such a person is appointed as one of the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, wouldn't it bring shame to the empire if it got out?
But Zhang Cang's stern tone was actually directed to the prime minister of the time.

This made Meng Yi hesitate for a moment whether he should agree with him.

When Feng Jie heard this, he got furious.

The young country bumpkins who knew nothing and were brought back from the countryside by the emperor always went against his father, but Feng Jie endured it all the time.

They thought that patience and concession would make these guys respect their Feng family, but in the end, they became even more arrogant.

This happened in the imperial court, and he openly pointed at his father's nose and cursed him. Doesn't this mean he doesn't respect the Feng family?

If it weren't for his father's hard work, would he be able to sit firmly on the throne of emperor today?

He can't even tell who is the enemy and who is the friend, so what right do he have to say that about his father?

"Grand Minister of Agriculture, the Prime Minister is the head of all the ministers. How can you speak to him like this?"

"Do you still have the distinction between superiors and inferiors? As the Minister of Agriculture, you should only be responsible for the agriculture under your charge. You actually pointed fingers at the Prime Minister. How can you be a minister with the most basic etiquette?"

The court suddenly became exciting.

Everyone's heart became inexplicably restless.

Feng Quji wiped his sweat. How come his stupid son, who was usually so cowardly, was so brave today?

"Well, don't be partial. Let the Minister of Agriculture speak for him."

Feng Quji tried to comfort his son.

Feng Jie gritted his teeth and looked at Zhang Cang angrily, his eyes seemed to have two knives.

Zhang Cang felt a little trembling when he saw Feng Jie's look.

They both followed Qin II to the battlefield. Zhang Cang supervised the battle, while Feng Jie led the charge.

Feng Jie is really capable.

A lot of people were killed on the battlefield.

Zhang Cang remembered those scenes, and he had always been respectful to Feng Jie.

Zhang Cang was speechless for a moment, but the doctor Mao Jiao stood up and said, "What kind of talk is this? When did discussing political affairs involve official ranks? This is happening in front of His Majesty."

"If you question the Prime Minister's opinion, you are disrespecting him. Then aren't all of you here guilty?"

Feng Jie frowned, "What does Doctor Mao mean?"

"If according to Censor Feng's reasoning, the Grand Minister of Agriculture questioning the Prime Minister's opinion is disrespecting the Prime Minister, then the entire court of civil and military officials did not respond to Your Majesty's previous ideas. Isn't this looking down on Your Majesty?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of everyone in the court changed drastically.

Only then did Feng Jie realize that his words had been too harsh.

(End of this chapter)