Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1609 Of course! I'm talking about Da Zhou!
In a school in the Daqian Palace
Gu Sansi looked at Jingren beside him and asked:
"Your Highness, the Qin Dynasty changed the feudal system to the county system. What was his intention in doing so?"

Facing the teacher's question, Jingren recalled what Gu Sansi had said some time ago, and after hesitating for a moment, he said:
"The Qin Dynasty did this to strengthen the power of the center, consolidate the unity and stability of the country, and prevent local patterns and rebellions!"

“What are the benefits of the county system?”

"The county system broke the separatism and rebellion caused by the feudal system. Under the feudal system, the princes had their own financial power and army, which made it easy for them to form separatist forces and disobey the command of the central government, which could easily lead to the division of the country!"

"The county system is a system where the central government manages the local areas vertically, and local government officials are directly appointed and dismissed by the emperor, thus strengthening the central government's control over the local areas!"

Hearing Jingren's answer, Gu Sansi nodded slightly, and then asked again:
"Since the implementation of the county system is conducive to the central government's control over the local areas, why did Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, enfeoff princes after establishing the Han Dynasty?"

Faced with this question, Jingren blinked his eyes and thought hard about what Gu Sansi had told him in class a few days ago.

Seeing that Jingren was hesitant to speak, Gu Sansi couldn't help but frowned, but just when he was about to say something, Jingren thought of something and said:
“Liu Bang divided the princes with the surname Liu into fiefs in order to prevent uprisings. Liu Bang learned the lesson of the demise of the Qin Dynasty and believed that the rapid collapse of the Qin Dynasty was due to the failure to divide the princes with the same surname, which led to their short lifespan. Therefore, in order to avoid repeating the same mistake, he consolidated the rule of the Han Dynasty...”

"And he believed that by enfeoffment, the local princes could provide strong support to the central government at critical moments!"

After saying this, Jingren looked at Gu Sansi expectantly, but Gu Sansi said expressionlessly:

"This is one of them. What are the others?"

Jingren's face immediately showed a bit of bitterness when he heard this. He hesitated for a long time but could not answer. Seeing this, Gu Sansi did not wait any longer and said directly:

"Your Highness, another point is that at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the central government was relatively weak and its control over the local areas was not strong. It was difficult to effectively control the entire country, especially some remote areas. Therefore, the purpose of enfeoffment of princes was to strengthen control!"

"In the end, Emperor Gaozu of Han also wanted to bind the Liu clan members to the interests of the Han Dynasty through enfeoffment, enhance the cohesion and centripetal force of the Liu family, jointly safeguard the Liu family's kingdom, and let the Liu family's kingdom be passed down for thousands of years!"

After listening to Gu Sansi's speech, Jingren nodded and said:
"Sir, you are right!"

Hearing Jingren say this, Gu Sansi was speechless, but still said in a deep voice:
"Your Highness, you haven't learned this knowledge well enough. Please copy the content ten times and give it to me along with the homework during the next class!"

When Jingren heard that he had to copy it ten times, his face suddenly drooped and he looked at Gu Sansi as if he wanted to say something.

Although Jingren did not speak, after such a long period of contact, Gu Sansi also had a certain understanding of his student, so he was able to guess what Jingren wanted to say, and immediately warned Jingren without waiting for him to speak:

"Your Highness, you are learning for yourself, not for me, so don't bargain..."

Seeing that his little thoughts were guessed by Gu Sansi, Jingren looked a little annoyed, but he had to agree:
"Students understand! I'll give it to you next time!"

Gu Sansi nodded slightly, but just as he was about to test Jingren on the next knowledge point, Jingren suddenly said:

"Mr. Gu, my father said that there is no absolutely perfect organizational structure in the world. Every organizational structure has its pros and cons. So the county system has so many advantages, so does it have any disadvantages?"

Jingren's question made Gu Sansi stunned for a moment, and he didn't know how to answer for a moment. After all, the prefecture-county system and the county system implemented in Daqian now are basically the same, but there are some differences in some details and descriptions, so this question is a little sensitive.

However, feeling Jingren's expectant gaze, Gu Sansi felt that it was no big deal to say something. Ye Mingsheng never cared much about these things. He ignored the common people who talked nonsense about him behind his back. He just stated the facts himself. Even if His Majesty knew about it, he would probably just laugh it off.

Thinking of this, Gu Sansi also spoke:
"Your Majesty is right. There is no absolutely perfect organizational structure in this world. Any organizational structure has its pros and cons. If anyone says that a certain organizational structure is flawless and has no shortcomings, then he must be lying!"

"The feudal system has advantages and disadvantages, and the same is true for the county system!"

"The disadvantage of the county system is that the central government has too much control over the local areas!"

After hearing this, Jingren said with some doubt:

"Teacher, didn't you just say that strengthening local control is an advantage? Why are you saying it's a disadvantage now? I'm a little confused..."

Gu Sansi explained:

"Jingren, you have to look at it from two perspectives!"

"From the perspective of maintaining dynasty stability and ruling, strengthening local control is an advantage!"

“But if we look at it from the perspective of local development, the central government’s control over local areas is not a good thing!”

"Jingren, I'll give you an example so you can understand. Jiangnan and Huainan have many water systems. When the rain increases in summer, floods are likely to occur on both sides of the Nanjiang River!"

"Dealing with floods requires early prevention, mid-term precautions, and late-stage follow-up!"

"Prevention in the early stage means dredging rivers and building dams, prevention in the mid-term means reinforcing river dams, organizing flood discharges, etc., and post-disaster relief requires treating disaster victims and preventing the plague!"

"In the previous Zhou Dynasty, the construction of river dams at the prefecture level involved the issue of paying taxes to the court, so it had to be reported to the Ministry of Works. The Ministry of Works sent a doctor or a deputy doctor to conduct an inspection. After the inspection, a report was written and returned to Luoan for review by the senior management of the Ministry of Works. After the Ministry of Works reviewed it, the Ministry of Revenue also had to review it. After these two departments reviewed and approved it, they reported it to the emperor. Finally, the emperor approved it and allowed it to be built!"

"This whole process will take half a year if it's fast, and two to three years if it's slow! But the floods don't wait for anyone. Once the flood season comes, there will be a huge flood..."

Hearing what Gu Sansi said, Jingren was a little puzzled and said, "Then why didn't the prefect order the construction to start first and then review it, or review it while building it?"

Gu Sansi's expression became complicated after hearing this. After a long while, he slowly said:
"Your Highness, this is a very good question!"

Jingren scratched his head a little embarrassedly for Gu Sansi's praise, and at this time Gu Sansi continued:
"Your Highness, why do you think people should be G?"

Although Jingren didn't quite understand what Gu Sansi meant by this question, he still spoke:
"After studying hard for more than ten years, I naturally want to serve the court and benefit the people of G!"

Without waiting for Jingren to finish his words, Gu Sansi waved his hand and said:
"Your Highness! I want to tell you the truth. I wonder if you are willing to listen?"

"Of course! The teacher has teachings, and the students are all ears!"

"Your Highness, the question I just asked you was something that Your Majesty once asked me after I became the Minister of Personnel. My answer was similar to what Your Highness said, but Your Majesty scoffed at my answer!"

"What I am going to say next is His Majesty's original words!"

"Your Majesty's high-sounding words about serving the country and the people and benefiting the region are empty words to most people!"

"There must be people in Daqian G field who have such thoughts, but generally speaking, there are only one in ten such people in the G field..."

Jingren blinked and said:

"Sir! That sounds like something my dad would say!"

Gu Sansi shook his head, as if recalling the situation when Ye Mingsheng said this to him, and said with some emotion:

"Although your Majesty's words are blunt and harsh, I have to say they are to the point and touch directly on the crux of the matter!"

"Based on this, His Majesty has put forward another thought-provoking point, which is that Q-force will only be responsible to the source of Q-force!"

"So, back to the question you asked me just now, Your Highness. Why can't the local government build the dam first and then review and approve it? Or, why can't they build the dam while reviewing and going through the process?"

"The answer to this question is very simple, that is, the Central Committee of the Great Zhou Dynasty does not allow it!"

"The reason for not allowing it is that the Great Zhou had a huge fiscal deficit at the time. Coupled with years of war and some natural and man-made disasters, the court could be said to have been unable to make ends meet every year, which led to an even more urgent need for local taxes!"

"If we approve your construction of the dam, it means the court may have to allocate money to you. But even if you don't need the money, your construction of the dam will inevitably affect the taxes you pay to the court, and the court itself is short of money!"

"Another very important point is that at that time, the administration of the Great Zhou was corrupt and corruption was rampant. If an official wanted to embezzle money, he had to come up with a pretext and find a seemingly legitimate reason to spend money..."

"So in order to reduce corruption, the court will be more strict in reviewing some major projects that cost money. So if you launch a project without passing the review, the court will hold you accountable. At the very least, you will be dismissed from your post, and at the worst, you will be beheaded and your property confiscated!

Jingren was also very shocked when he heard what the teacher said. He said in disbelief:

"Isn't this just a form of laziness? What about ordinary people?"

Gu Sansi shook his head and said:
"Under the organizational structure of the Great Zhou, the Q power of the G members is given by the emperor, and the Q power of the emperor comes from military force, so the G members only need to consider how to please the emperor. How many people care about the lives of the people?"

After saying this, Gu Sansi added:

"Of course! I'm talking about Da Zhou!"

After listening to teacher Gu Sansi's story, Jingren was shocked. After thinking for a while, he suddenly asked Gu Sansi:
"Since the county system has such disadvantages, can we in Daqian implement a policy like that implemented by Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, to allow the feudal system and the county system to run in parallel? My aunts often complain to my mother that my father doesn't trust the Ye clan and is turning his elbow outward..."

Gu Sansi was a little surprised when he heard this, and wondered why Jingren would tell such a sensitive matter to an outsider like him.

However, when he looked down and saw Jingren's serious expression, Gu Sansi couldn't help but sigh silently in his heart. Although his student had a good character and was a rare kind-hearted child, his understanding of ZZ was indeed a little lacking. Could the Ye clan member say to him casually what he had said to the queen about the emperor?

Just when Gu Sansi didn't know how to start, Jingren was talking on his own:

"Sir, after seeing those aunts crying, I also feel that my father may be a little too harsh on his own family!"

"My mother told me that many of these Ye clan members followed my father to conquer the world when he was recruiting soldiers from Fengshan. They were all heroes and heroes in the establishment of Daqian, and they made great contributions to the establishment of Daqian!"

"Many of them died in the process of conquering the world. Fathers lost their sons, children lost their fathers, and families with few brothers may only have one alive now!"

"I absolutely cannot let these heroes shed blood and tears!"

“I think they could be treated better!”

Hearing Jingren say this, Gu Sansi was immediately shocked. He did not expect Jingren to have such an idea!
But after thinking about it, Gu Sansi felt that Jingren's idea, although unexpected, seemed reasonable!
After all, although Queen An Miaoyi was a person of an outsider in theory, after giving birth to Crown Prince Jingren, with the help of Queen Mother Ye Cui, she gradually became the backbone of the Ye clan. From time to time, some members of the Ye clan would enter the palace to meet the Queen.

Jingren grew up beside the queen, so it's normal for him to have such thoughts...