The Six Arts of the Gentleman in the Bright Moon of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1010 Jie Linglang [Please subscribe*Please vote]

"A certain percentage of the annual taxes go to the public treasury, and the rest goes to the national treasury. The expenditure of the national treasury is decided by the king and the nine ministers."

Li Si nodded. This was a great reform and would also prevent the king from being incompetent and bringing trouble to the world.

However, this would also result in the court officials undermining the king.

But Li Si thought about it and it was unlikely. If a king could be sidelined by his court officials, what was the difference between that and being incompetent?
It would be even more harmful to allow such a king to control the national treasury.

"I will propose this to the king!" Li Si recorded this matter. As for whether Ying Zheng would agree, he had no idea.

After all, it involves Ying Zheng's purse.

In other words, no one can replace Li Yao's ability, otherwise, for Li Yao's suicidal behavior of causing the construction of the Lishan Mausoleum to stop every other day, Ying Zheng would have killed him thousands of times.

"Secondly, if you want the world to accept the fact of unification, you must first ensure that the people of the world live a better life than before. Not to mention a higher level, at least let them live and work in peace and contentment, and have enough food and clothing. Only in this way will the people remember the good things of Qin."

"The people are loyal to us!" Li Si understood immediately.

This is also what the Qin State wanted to do, so in his newly revised Qin Law, he clearly stipulated the standards of taxes and corvée that the people needed to bear. The most important thing was that corvée in Qin had to be paid.

In the past, corvée labor required people to provide their own production tools and even food and clothing.

But who made Li Yao able to make money? So, when it came to matters like corvée labor and military service, Ying Zheng just waved his hand and gave him money!

"Don't think about mobilizing the army to suppress everything. The royal power cannot be passed down to the countryside, but knowledge and ideas can be passed down!"

“The people actually ask for very little!”

"Food, clothing, shelter and transportation. It is enough to have enough food and clothing. The elderly have a care, the young have a care, and the sick have a cure. What else do you need to have a king, a prince, a general or a minister?"

Yan Yan said with a smile.

Why is his reputation so high in Bingzhou? There are over a hundred tribes of all sizes in the entire grassland, but why does no one rise up to rebel?
It was just that Bingzhou provided these tribes with food and clothing so they did not have to fight for survival.

This is the fundamental reason why Bingzhou has been developing steadily.

The people have sharp eyes and can sense who is good to them.

"Li Yao!" Li Si called out his own surname again.

This thing still costs money, and a lot of money.

One difficult thing to understand about Qin's use of Shang Yang's method is its self-rescue in years of disaster.

In years of great disaster, the government would not open its granaries to release grain to help the people, to prevent the people from gaining something without working and having to wait for rescue from the court.

Of course, the government is not doing nothing. It will only provide production tools to the disaster-stricken areas, and the rest will be up to the people themselves.

This is neither reasonable nor unreasonable.

The root cause was that the imperial court had no money and no food.

The Qin State was also going through its most difficult time during the time of Shang Yang. At that time, even rats entered the national treasury and had to leave crying. How could the Qin State save the people?

Later, the Qin State was caught in wars year after year, and the national treasury was full of money, so there was not enough surplus food to support the people.

"The most important thing is that the government should let the people know the purpose of what it does, rather than just leaving an order and asking the people to execute it."

"For example, when building the Zhengguo Canal, why was it possible for the Qin State to complete it in just ten years with 300,000 people, and without any riots?"

"Because Zheng Guohe and His Majesty told the gentry and people in Guanzhong what benefits the construction of Zhengguo Canal would bring to them!" Li Si suddenly realized.

Some of the imperial court's large-scale projects required conscription of labor, but many times the people were not told why they were doing so.

The results of doing it subjectively and passively are different. "Therefore, it is necessary for the Qin State to arrange some scholars in each county to explain the government orders to the people. After all, it doesn't cost much money and can even make a fortune."

Yan Yan said with a smile.

"Can you still make money?" Li Si was surprised.

"If you want to be an official, do you need to be familiar with laws and regulations?" Yan Yan asked back.

"Yeah!" Li Si nodded.

This is the origin of the term "retainers". Many retainers first entered the official's court, helped the officials handle government affairs, and were then recommended by the officials.

"Then there are so many scholars in the world, anyone can be recruited as a disciple?" Yan Yan asked back.

Li Si shook his head, this is impossible.

Unless one is a particularly famous person in a place, it is extremely difficult to enter the mansions of those officials and become their aide.

After the imperial examination, this behavior was called "xingjuan", but very few people were actually noticed, and Li Bai failed in his attempt.

"People who can study so well must have some money in their family!" Yan Yan said with a smile.

Li Si nodded again. Although he came from a humble background, his family actually had some money.

"So, we can recruit some scholars who have just graduated from private schools in government offices to assist government work, and this opportunity can only be obtained by paying."

"Those with money can directly enter the government to study, and those without money can help the government to answer government orders for the people."

"This is also the only way for the vast majority of scholars in the world to get involved in government affairs."

Li Si's eyes lit up.

The money does not need to be much, calculated on a monthly basis, about ten or so cents a month, and families with children who can send their children to school can afford it. Those who cannot afford it can become Jie Linglang, and the government can also give the money to Jie Linglang from those who pay the money.

In this way, Qin's talent pool will be greatly expanded.

Whether these interns who entered the government directly or the officials, they were all scholars with a certain reputation in the local area. Therefore, when there were new government decrees, local people would seek answers from them first.

In this way, Qin's government orders could reach the countryside directly from the capital.

Once the people know what the government is doing, who would go and rebel for no reason?
Once this matter is thoroughly implemented, there will be no local unrest as long as the government does not commit suicide.

Even if someone wants to cause trouble, the common people at the bottom will no longer blindly follow them.

The people’s support is just around the corner.

"Learn from ancient times!" Li Si really wanted to know where Yan Yan got these brilliant ideas.

If scholars were asked to help the government with work, they had to give them money and say thank you, expressing their gratitude to the government for giving them this opportunity.

As for how many people can be recruited by the government and officially enlisted, it depends on their respective abilities.

But in this way, Qin's talent pool is abundant, and many of them can be used directly.

If Qin had had such policies and systems in place earlier, Li Si would not have had to take the huge risk of blocking Lu Buwei's carriage to recommend himself when he first entered Qin.

Therefore, Li Si was very sure about how high the passage rate of this policy would be.

If this succeeds, all the scholars in the world will remember his kindness.

He will definitely show the scholars a way to rise.

(End of this chapter)