Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 529: Father and Son [Fusu]

My name is Fusu.

The eldest son of the Qin Empire and the eldest son of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

Since I was born, I have been placed with high hopes, carrying the future and glory of this huge empire.

Within the towering walls of the Xianyang Palace, I spent countless days and nights, witnessing the Qin Dynasty's transition from being a country ruled by princes to being unified under the heavens. My father's great talent and strategy are like a towering mountain, always standing in my heart and becoming the goal of my lifelong admiration and pursuit.

Since I was young, my father personally taught me and taught me the strategies of governing the country.

He often took me to attend court meetings, letting me listen to the ministers' advice and feel the changing situation in the court. I watched my father's majesty and decisiveness in the court, and my heart was filled with awe and longing.

I long for the day when I can sit on the high dragon throne like my father, overlooking the world, seeking the welfare of the people of the Qin Dynasty, and letting the reputation of the Qin Dynasty spread throughout the world.

As I grew older, my father found a teacher for me. His name was Chunyu Yue.

I followed my teacher's advice and studied Confucian thoughts and content, but I disappointed my father.

I couldn't understand why there was a problem between my teacher's thoughts and my father's thoughts. I didn't even quite understand why my father asked me to become a disciple of Chunyu Yue and listen to Chunyu Yue's words, but in the end, after I had learned it, he began to criticize me and my teacher's thoughts.

The teacher's thought is very simple, which is "benevolence". Sometimes I actually feel that the teacher's thought is not quite right - from the perspective of a ruler, but I also don't understand my father's thoughts and policies - those policies have already bent the backs of the people.

I walked all over Xianyang City and even visited the surrounding counties. I discovered another problem. The harsh Qin laws had almost destroyed half of the entire Qin State. All the common people lived in fear every day - or it could not be said to be living, but surviving. They just lived for the simplest problem, which was to live.

The strict Qin laws were like shackles that shackled them and bound them all tightly to a warship.

The common people are on the verge of collapse.

Before the unification of Qin, they had been living in war for hundreds of years. The Seven Kingdoms and even earlier countries were not good to the people, or were very bad.

I once thought about what was the reason why Qin was able to unify the country?

Of course, there is my father's great talent and strategy, but there are probably other reasons - a reason that no one has thought about, such as the people's tolerance for war has reached its limit.
Why should they help our Qin State to unify the world?

That was because they saw hope, the hope that Qin could end the war as soon as possible, so in the end Qin won, and its soldiers crushed all the countries.

But...after the war, did the people live the life they wanted?

I don't think so.

Because the lives of the people were equally difficult and even the war had not stopped - the Qin Dynasty was still moving forward slowly.

I don't know when my father is going to end the war within Qin.

But I was well aware of the heavy suffering that war brought to the people, so I had disagreements with my father on some policies.

I have repeatedly advised my father to implement benevolent policies, reduce the burden on the people, and avoid excessive labor and harsh punishments.

However, I forgot.

Before I was a minister, I was my father's child.

Gradually, my father began to be disappointed in me. I even learned from the eunuchs beside him that I had been given up by him... Because of my stubbornness and stubbornness, my father no longer regarded me as his heir.

At first I doubted the accuracy of this news, but then I gradually discovered that this news was true.

When I went to look for my father that day, I heard him tell General Wang Jian that Fusu could not become emperor.

These words came out of my father's mouth and entered my ears. There was no way I could have heard them wrong, so what Zhao Gao said was right. My father has removed me from the list of heirs.

I began to understand this matter.

At first I was very sad and even angry. I felt that I had never done anything to let my father down, nor had I ever forgotten his teachings. But why? Why did something like this happen?

When the grief and sorrow slowly faded away, only one thing remained in my mind.

That is to do your part well.

Since my father no longer considers me as his heir, I will be a good minister - set an example and tell my father that I am not greedy for this position, and I don't want to occupy the throne.

I began to regard myself as a subject rather than the heir to this huge empire.

But for some reason, my father didn't seem satisfied - he always felt that I was doing something wrong, and even started to reprimand me, more seriously and unacceptably than usual.

Until something happened.

Burning books and trapping Confucians.

In fact, I understand that my father burned books in order to strengthen his rule - after all, my teacher was indeed not very cooperative, and in such a situation, keeping the people ignorant was the best measure - but how pitiful must those common people be?

Are they facing such difficulties just because of the conflict between their father and Confucianism?
What kind of pain is this?

Moreover, although those Confucian scholars should not criticize the court, if they and the alchemists were killed one by one, my father's reputation would definitely become worse - he is already a tyrant now, I dare not imagine what will happen next.
So, I submitted a petition to the emperor to try to stop him from killing those Confucian scholars and alchemists.

But in the end it failed.

My father was furious and scolded me in the court for being disloyal to the emperor and my father.

This was a very serious accusation, and for a moment I didn't know how to defend myself.

Yes, perhaps I should admit that I was a little dissatisfied and a little discouraged at that time.

After all, in my opinion, I have done enough, but so many things have not been able to change or stop my father, so why should I go on and continue to make my father hate me?
So when my father decided to punish me, I did not back down. Instead, I argued with him.

Eventually, I was sent to Shangjun to guard the border with Meng Tian.

Time passed by so quickly that I even thought I might live in Shangjun for the rest of my life. After all, my father was visibly fed up with me - he was even unwilling to write me a letter, and I never received a reply to any of my letters.

In this way, day after day, I lived with the grasslands and cattle and horses on the frontier, and slowly saw the vastness of the grasslands. My mind seemed to become more open as well, and everything was so normal.

Very peaceful.

At that time, I thought that I might spend my whole life on the frontier.

But things seemed to have taken a slight turn for the better. Until that day came, I thought my father didn't like me, even hated me, and never considered me as his heir, but things just happened to be so coincidental.

On the day of my death, I finally saw the love my father had for me.

In fact, I'm not really sure he's my father.
In other words, I was only truly certain that he was my father on the day he "died".

This is the long story of my life. Let me tell you slowly.

That was in the thirty-sixth year of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s reign.

An imperial edict from the Central Plains reached the grassland. I was extremely devastated and shocked to learn that my father was going to sentence me to death. The words in the edict were very harsh, accusing me of being an unfilial son.

I couldn't hear any other voices around me. At that time, all I could think about was what I should do about this matter.
My father really wants to sentence me to death.

At that time, Meng Tian asked me, saying that my father would never sentence me to death, let alone with such a simple reason? There must be a conspiracy, it must be someone else's conspiracy, so I went back to Xianyang City and asked my father before speaking.

I was so frustrated that I didn't want to argue with my father anymore. What I was more afraid of was seeing my father's angry and questioning eyes. There was disgust in his eyes towards me, as if he was asking me, "Why did you come?"

I was even more afraid of hearing from my father’s mouth the words that he would sentence me to death.

So I told Meng Tian.

Does a father need a reason if he wants to sentence his child to death?

I held the sword across my neck, tears streaming down my face, wanting to use this sword to respond to the words in my father's imperial edict, to tell him that I was not an unfilial son, and that as long as it was his order, I would be willing to do it even if it meant death.

Yes, even if my father asked me to die, I would not hesitate.

My grief is simply because my father actually wants me to die.

Just when I was about to commit suicide with my sword, a voice that sounded vaguely familiar rang out. I had clearly never heard that voice before, but for some reason the tone always sounded very familiar to me.

The voice said that my father had an imperial decree for him to convey to me.

At that moment, I breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, I am not afraid of death, nor do I feel lucky that I escaped - I am lucky that I still have some status in my father's eyes, and my father even left someone behind and an imperial edict.

And this is to tell me something.

With trepidation, I welcomed this man named "Chen Zheng" into the tent, and then I heard words that I would never believe in my life: not only did my father dislike me, but I was also the most important successor in his heart.

How exciting is this?
But what happened next made me feel endless anger.

Is it possible that my father has met with an accident? Is he shrouded in conspiracy? Or has he even passed away?
When I heard the word "death", anger completely devoured my reason and I could no longer think about the problem calmly.

So I chose to lead my troops back to Xianyang City.

I led the army, marching day and night towards the city of Xianyang.

Along the way, I had only one thought in my mind: no matter who killed my father, I will make him pay with blood!
When the army arrived at Xianyang, the whole city was filled with a depressing atmosphere.

The common people seemed to have noticed the changes in the court and stayed indoors.

The news of what Hu Hai, Zhao Gao and others had done had already spread outside the city of Xianyang, so when I arrived at the foot of Xianyang, the soldiers opened the city gate for me - how ridiculous, my so-called good reputation in the past actually had such an effect?
But I didn’t think so much at that time.

I took General Meng Tian and a team of elite soldiers and headed straight for Zhangtai Palace.

In the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, Hu Hai was sitting on the dragon throne, while Zhao Gao was standing beside him.

The ministers stood on both sides, with different expressions, some looked worried, while others were angry but dared not speak.

The moment they saw me, Zhao Gao and Hu Hai's expressions relaxed strangely.

What happened next was very simple. In anger, I killed Zhao Gao and Hu Hai. After I took that position, my heart suddenly felt empty and I began to miss the time when my father was still alive.
And then?
Things were very simple after that. The man named "Chen Zheng" became my teacher and began to teach me step by step how to become a qualified emperor.

This person named "Chen Zheng" is my father.

Yes, I think so.

Because later, after I took control of the Black Ice Platform, I discovered that my father had never issued any secret orders - and this man named Chen Zheng had never had any contact with my father - so how did he know those secret things?
What's more, I felt a familiar feeling from him from the very beginning.

That is the familiarity that belongs to my father.

Gradually, I began to test this person intentionally or unintentionally, trying to see something from him.

I don’t know if he was really defenseless against me, or for some other reason, but he never concealed the fact that something was wrong with him - until one day later, which was the tenth year after I ascended the throne.

I finally confirmed one thing - this person is my father.

He is not dead, or to put it more accurately, my father is dead, but he has come back again. A lonely soul rests on this man, and then becomes the person named "Chen Zheng".

I began to think selfishly, was it because my father was worried about me that he didn’t leave?

Are those words coming out of Chen Zheng’s mouth also the true thoughts in his father’s heart?

I started asking him what he thought of me.

I don't know how many years had passed since I ascended the throne, but Chen Zheng, or my father's health, gradually deteriorated, and he passed away completely in the winter of that year.

Before leaving, he was still worried about me, afraid that I would listen to the next teacher and not act like an emperor.

But in fact, after I realized it, Chunyu Yue had already been secretly executed by me.

I listen to him because he is my father.
I called out "father" in a low voice.

The candles in Zhangtai Palace slowly went out.

I am alone again.

I will have a day off tomorrow and will not update. I will update the future chapter the day after tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)