My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

"Perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, my father did something unworthy."

"But I know that in my father's eyes, his death was not unjust."

"Between life and death, countless people choose to live, but in the end they just turn into a pool of mud."

"Some people die, but live forever. Some people live, but it seems that's all."

"Your Majesty, the men of the Lin family are not cowards."

"If you dare to do it, you dare to take responsibility."

Lin Changnian's words fell to the ground, just as clear and exciting as the chess piece that bounced on the ground just now.

Everyone looked at the ground, not knowing what to say.

Fusu looked at Changnian with a light burning in his eyes.

Qin II believed that he had made countless correct decisions in his life, but killing Zhao Gao was probably his most correct decision.

Because this was the only thing he did to do justice to the Lin father and son.

This year was the third year of the reign of Qin II.

The empire launched a vigorous industrial revolution, engaging in full factory production from textiles to pottery, from military equipment to civilian farm tools.

It may take a year to prepare fireworks, but only a moment to set them off.

In the sixth year of the reign of Qin II, that is, five years after Qin II ascended the throne, the five years of resting the people and reducing taxes ended.

The empire's farmland had expanded twice as much as before, and there was so much food that the people could not eat it all.

What's even more ridiculous is that the number of newborns in the empire has increased fivefold.

The number of hooligans in society is becoming fewer and fewer.

The empire reached an unprecedented level of prosperity, every household had enough food and drink, and the problem of poverty was solved.

However, a more serious problem arose.

When everyone is well fed and well watered, the social atmosphere naturally improves, and everyone becomes friendly, polite, and reasonable.

However, this has also given rise to the desires of some people.

A new round of corruption has begun, targeting those who once fought against the old forces.

As productivity increased, new conflicts broke out within the empire.

Too many products are produced, resulting in serious overcapacity, but domestic consumers are unable to digest them in a timely manner.

In order to make profits, businesses only think about producing more, selling more, and earning more. In their eyes, there is no overall situation, no great cause, they just want to make more money.

In just a few years, thanks to developed production tools and a peaceful and stable social development environment, products within the empire emerged like mushrooms after a spring rain, one after another, densely packed.

The products produced are piled up like a mountain.

The people were worried when looking at these mountains of products. No one had money in their pockets and the market began to stagnate again.

Seven or eight years ago, everyone had no money in their pockets, and the empire's market fell into a recession. The market was sluggish. The mountains of meat, milk, and fruit could not be dumped out anyway, and could not be distributed to the people.

Seven or eight years later, everyone has no money in their pockets, and there are mountains of products being given away for free. No one wants to take them because they take up space in their homes. Because there are too many products, they are no longer valuable. The things that everyone once worked hard to earn have now become garbage.

It seems to have changed, but it also seems to have not changed.

What hasn't changed is that the rich are still the rich and the poor are still the poor.

What has changed is that the lives of the rich have become richer, while the lives of the poor have become more difficult.

In the Da Zheng Hall, Chen Ping changed into the robes of a Shangqing and stood solemnly and respectfully in front.

Feng Quji still held the position of prime minister, but he had more white hair on his head.

The silver-white hair sparkled with golden light under the sunlight.

The young Prince Yao sat quietly in front of a desk set up on the side of the hall.

Fusu put a lot of effort into raising his son.

Prince Yao suddenly grew a lot taller, and he became very strong after eating beef every day.

What a pity, he only grows physically but not mentally.

While the ministers were discussing matters, he hid a picture album in his bag.

The emergence of paper has greatly enriched people's daily entertainment activities and also created jobs for many people.

By now the Qin Dynasty's papermaking technology had become very advanced, and comic books were the most popular on the market.

The Crown Prince of Qin had no time for entertainment. He had to read and write every day, and cultivate the six arts, and even music, chess, calligraphy and painting.

What our parents can endure, our children and grandchildren may not be able to endure.

Because people can never learn the essence, they always learn the superficial things and imitate the empty shells.

Qin Shi Huang and Qin Er Shi were both extremely talented in military and political affairs. In order to train Crown Prince Yao, these people told various war stories every day.

But the more they wanted to train Prince Yao in this way, the more rebellious he became.

How to say it, while other children sleep until noon every day and then ride cows to graze, Prince Yao has already gotten up and studied for two hours.

Two hours is not a small number. There are twelve hours in a day, and this has already taken up one-sixth of the time, not to mention the rest of the time.

While other children were watching the millet in the field with the starry sky above their heads, or catching fireflies in the fields, Yao had already collapsed on the couch due to exhaustion.

Even children would never follow the rule of working at sunrise and resting at sunset, because it is too absurd.

It's simply unbearable for human beings.

But Yao has to go through such a life.

What a good child, but he was turned into a tool.

It was created and assembled by servants, ambitious people, and maids, who tried to create a prince that would satisfy Qin II.

It’s not that Qin II didn’t care about Yao.

Instead, Fusu's concern and care for Yao became a sharp sword, and was used by people with ulterior motives to torment Prince Yao over and over again.

The emperor saw that Yao was very tired, so he asked him to attend fewer classes and sleep more.

The servants gave the prince a stimulant.

The emperor saw that Yao was very good at mathematics and had memorized the multiplication table very well, so he praised him a few words. The teachers then found ways to let Yao take more math classes and encouraged him to further his studies in mathematics.

Gradually, Yao himself realized that those people who stayed by his side did not make him learn this or that out of love, but they just wanted to please his father.

This is a suffocating palace.

Yao was too young and he had no ability to solve some problems. As time went on, Yao began to become numb.

He became a tool at the mercy of those people.

He even gradually became numb and listened to what these people said, but in his heart he gradually became disgusted with these eunuchs.

He was disgusted with his identity as the crown prince, disgusted with everything in the palace, and disgusted with his studies.

He only liked court meetings, where no one's eyes were on him. He liked playing this dangerous game, hoping that one day his father would find out that he actually didn't like court affairs.

Yao hid the book in his sleeve, and the young official would indulge him at this time. This was because the young official loved Yao, but he did not think Yao understood political affairs, so he chose to let him go.

But unfortunately, the Shao Nei Shi thought that Yao did not understand important political affairs, but he thought that he did.

At every court meeting, he listened carefully, keeping his eyes and ears open.

He observed the emperor's every move, hoping to find out what the emperor cared about so that he could make a breakthrough in the future.

He observed the emperor's deployment of each minister and his attitude towards each minister, promoting him openly and demoting him secretly, combining the real and the fake.

He observed every detail of the emperor clearly, and Prince Yao always kept it in mind and pretended not to see it.

"Your Majesty, I think the most urgent task is to tighten restrictions on merchants."

"Restrictions, why restrictions?" Zhou Qingchen, who was promoted to Shangqing, shouted loudly, "If restrictions are imposed, where will the empire get the money to build dams and provide disaster relief to the people?"

"The Empire just finished the Lingqu project last year, and the Imperial Mausoleum was just roughly completed this year."

"But there are still many places where money is needed. How can we suppress so many prisoners?"

Zhou Qingchen shouted loudly, glancing towards Qin II from time to time.

Over the years, the emperor became increasingly silent, saying only three words every day: "OK", "Good", and "Great Good".

The three sentences were repeated over and over again.

As a result, the ministers became more respectful to the emperor.

But, I became more and more scared.

Because the emperor's mentality is getting better and better now. When something happens, he will smile first, but after a few days the troublemakers will disappear.

In the past, people who said something wrong could still say a few words, "Your Majesty, please spare my life" before they died; but now the climate of the empire has changed, and people who said something wrong don't even know they said it, and they go to the underworld without knowing it.

The emperor said nothing.

Zhang Cang's face darkened. "Your Majesty, the wealth in the empire has increased twenty times compared to six years ago. However, among the common people, the poorest people don't even have a straw mat, but the assets of the rich have increased nearly a hundred times, and some even a thousand times."

Zhang Cang was very angry. As the Minister of Agriculture, he had been trying his best to suppress the price of grain. He didn't know whether the people of the empire would be able to afford food if he was not there.

Zhang Cang's anger sounded so powerful to Chen Ping that it seemed as if his heart was bleeding.

Meng Yi naturally also supported Zhang Cang.

"It's time to curb it. Since ancient times, the problem is not the lack of wealth but the inequality of wealth. Moreover, these people have been able to accumulate so much wealth, I'm afraid they didn't use legitimate means."

Meng Yi and Zhang Cang spoke continuously, and the villains in the court suddenly dared not speak.

In fact, Zhang Cang couldn't stand these people. He read too many books and spent almost the first half of his life dealing with books. This atmosphere made him out of tune with the world, and everything he said and did sounded like he was out of touch with the world.

It’s just that some people are out of touch with the real world and don’t understand the sufferings of the people.

Some people are out of touch with the world because they don't understand how bad human nature is.

Zhang Cang often couldn't stand his own kind.

They are very jealous and can't stand seeing him do well. What they hate most is that he doesn't even bother to deal with these villains. No matter how much these villains influence him, he always insists on being himself and never becomes that villain.

One time, Zhang Cang was reading a book alone and he was doing nothing.

A big fly saw him glowing, so it deliberately came over and circled around him, flapping its wings and making noises.

In fact, this big fly thought he was some great person. He wanted to prove to Zhang Cang that he was great.

But he is very pitiful, a frog in a well all his life.

He doesn't know who he has offended, but he just sits there acting self-righteous and showing off.

Zhang Cang, he was originally a person with a good temper.

However, he thought about what his master taught him: "Repay evil with good, how can you repay good? So repay evil with justice, and repay good with virtue."

Zhang Cang finally killed the fly.

Speaking of which, it feels so refreshing.

A person who doesn't even know his own weight, needless to say, doesn't even know how he died.

But there are too many people like this.

Zhang Cang would feel very depressed sometimes, and he would have thoughts of becoming autistic and withdrawing from the world.

But there were so many villains that Zhang Cang was forced to think in reverse.

Since bad people in this world live so well, live so calmly, and live so smoothly, why can't I live better, live more calmly, and live more smoothly.

If I die, these villains will become even more rampant.

With this kind of thinking, Zhang Cang slowly recovered over the years. He became taciturn and would not speak unless it was a critical moment.

Before the so-called prosperous times came, countless good people were forced to awaken, and they stood up and fought back with weapons in hand.

As the saying goes, a heart of a bodhisattva and means of thunder.

Many people who changed the historical pattern and destiny of China were like this. They had a kind heart and ruthless means.

Only in this way can things be accomplished.

To grind a kind-hearted person into one with a heart of steel, one must know how much suffering he or she must have gone through and how many people’s dirty hearts he or she must have seen during this period.

Fortunately, Zhang Cang survived and now sits firmly in the position of Minister of Agriculture.

No one can touch him, he has already learned how to be an official.

Although the past ten years have been extremely difficult.

Zhang Cang's career as an official would be considered absurd by anyone. He was arrested and thrown into prison many times, and his marriage was also despised by most scholars.

This kind of experience is a fatal blow to officials.

For big shots, the best thing is face.

But what about Zhang Cang's face? It was rubbed to the ground.

It is conceivable how much criticism he has endured over the years. However, Zhang Cang persisted for ten years.

After ten years, Zhang Cang has become the Iron Man among fried dough sticks.

Among a group of old hands, he still insisted on his own opinion.

They say there are many honest officials, but that is just the case. Nothing in the world is immutable, especially people, who are the easiest to change. It is very easy for an honest official to become a corrupt official.

Everyone looked to Qin II and asked him to make a decision.

At this time, Qin II looked at Zhang Cang and Zhou Qingchen, looking at one and then at the other.

Zhang Cang and Zhou Qingchen looked at the emperor and shouted at the same time, "Your Majesty, let me make the decision on this matter."

Qin II looked at Zhang Cang's eager eyes, but his gaze fell on Zhou Qingchen.

Then, he looked at Zhang Cang again. The emperor's eyes were rather deep, and they looked even more mysterious through the tassels.

"I'll leave this matter to you." (End of this chapter)