The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 326 Reward and Punishment

Mi Yun said as she propped herself up and climbed up a little, covering Ying Zheng's entire face with her baby candy and hugged his head tightly, making it so suffocating that Ying Zheng couldn't breathe.

However, even with this pressure, I could really feel my heartbeat. It was very clear and every beat seemed to create ripples in my chest.

Ying Zheng bit the canteen outlet, and a steady stream of delicious food entered his mouth.

Fortunately, Mi Yun’s granary was very large, so he didn’t have to worry about Fusu not having enough food.

Mi Yun panted and asked, "Your Majesty, can you feel my heartbeat now?"

Ying Zheng was suffocated so tightly that he couldn't speak at all. He bit the red jade in his mouth. Mi Yun felt the pain and then realized that the king seemed unable to speak now.

The body was full and no longer pressed down on Ying Zheng. Ying Zheng saw the clock hanging in front of his eyes swaying, which made him dizzy and dizzy.

As the saying goes, a person who has benefited from someone's kindness is soft-hearted. It's not a good idea to bully a little girl.

Ying Zheng nodded, rubbing his nose against hers: "I feel it."

Mi Yun was delighted and showed a beautiful smile. He didn't have much strength to begin with, so he pressed forward again.

When Ying Zheng left Yunmeng Palace the next day, Mi Yun, who was still sleeping, showed a smile on her face that she had not seen for a long time.

Then, at the court meeting, Ying Zheng ordered that Changping Jun be sent back to the State of Chu.

The reason was simple. The State of Chu was preparing to move its capital, and Chunshen Jun was driven back to his fiefdom. It was a good time for Changping Jun to return to his country, occupy a high position in the State of Chu, and re-establish friendship between the two countries.

Changping Jun did not want to return to his country. He had lived in Qin since he was a child and was most familiar with Qin. He lived well in Qin and held a high position. Why would he make trouble if he returned to his country?
He had no fiefdom and no power in Chu, and life in Chu might not be better if he returned than in Qin. Moreover, it was said that his brothers were fighting each other fiercely, and the whole Chu was in turmoil. He really didn't want to get involved, at least not now, as he was the weakest now.

And in what capacity did he return to China?

As a prince of Chu, it was normal for him to hold a high position in Qin when Qin and Chu were on friendly terms.

But now, he has to serve as an official representing the Qin State and the Chu State, and his main task is to make friends with the Qin State.

It sounds so outrageous.

No matter how I sit, my butt seems a little crooked.

In this situation, even if I go back, can I live a good life?
But Ying Zheng did not give him the opportunity or power to refuse.

Ying Zheng had long wanted to kick him back. Now in the entire Qin court, the power of scholars from various countries is relatively harmonious and equal. The most important thing is that their recognition of Qin is very strong. It only takes one or two generations to become pure Qin people.

The only exception is the State of Chu. These southern barbarians are too united. It's okay for them to stick together, but once they stick together, it's too rude to be in Qin but your heart is in Chu.

While enjoying everything that Qin gave him, he always thought of betraying his own country and was obsessed with the State of Chu. He deserved to die.

Especially Changping Jun, now Changping Jun is the core of the entire Chu family.

Kick Changping Jun back. Without the backbone, the follow-up will be easier to handle.

Those who need to be divided should be divided, those who need to be cleared out should be cleared out, and those who do not have a strong sense of identification with the Qin Dynasty really do not need to be kept.

The Qin and Chu countries have been intermarried for generations, and it is a matter of mutual dependence.

The disputes between the two countries far outweigh those between any other countries.

The degree of entanglement is not even on the same level.

Even after King Zhaoxiang of Qin had carried out several purges, there were still countless Chu people in the Qin court.

Since Ying Zheng ascended the throne, in order to temporarily maintain relations with the State of Chu, he did not deliberately clean up the Chu faction, but he did not promote anyone either. He just raised the position of Changping Jun.

In recent years, the cake has become bigger and bigger. Ying Zheng has added people from other countries, but he is highly vigilant towards the State of Chu.

Now is an even better opportunity.

The reason why Changping Jun was set as a benchmark in recent years and made the core was to cause temporary chaos in the Chu faction when Changping Jun was kicked out. It would be impossible for the Chu faction to introduce a new core in a short period of time, and Ying Zheng would not allow it.

At the same time, he showed his love for Mi Yun and his determination not to give up, making Mi Yun the new core of the Chu faction. Now with Fusu, the Chu faction has hope and will only serve Mi Yun. It is not a problem for him to push it a little more and show his attitude.

There is no need to pursue the Chu faction relentlessly. It is enough to just give them a smaller share of the newly acquired cake.

In this way, it will only take a dozen years to leave a team for Fusu, and it will be a relatively pure team.

After destroying the State of Chu, Fusu can be asked to pacify the people.

After all, in the future vision, the actions to be taken against the State of Chu will be relatively large, which concerns the foundation of the future.

The most important point of the Qin Dynasty's military merit system is that rewards and punishments are clearly defined. Although the Qin Dynasty's laws are strict and the punishments are severe, the rewards are also real rewards, especially land.

As long as the male adults of the Qin Dynasty had legal civilian status, they could be allocated land when they reached adulthood.

The Qin Dynasty has always encouraged childbirth, and the population has increased rapidly.

Add to that the many rewards for merit, and to be honest, there wasn’t enough land to go around.

Newly reclaimed land is always slow and scarce. Even after the Zhengguo Canal was built, most of the time it was just barren land that was turned into fertile fields, but not wasteland. Grain production increased greatly, but the increased number of acres of land was not enough to be divided.

According to the current policy of the Qin Dynasty, the land of newly conquered cities must be divided up, so there will not be much left for rewards.

The Central Plains is a prosperous place with a large population and limited land. Where is there any vacant space?

Even if the nobles were generous and used the lives and property of many middle and large nobles, as well as family wealth and land, it could only solve the problem temporarily.

The cities captured in the past few years seem to be many, but in fact the population is also extremely large, and the land used for rewards is already a bit tight.

This is also an important reason why Ying Zheng wanted to solve the problem through politics.

If you can use politics to capture a city and annex it, the rewards you need are far less than what you get through war.

As for the merits and titles that the people urgently need because of the harsh laws, in the future we only need to appropriately reduce the penalties related to people's livelihood, and cancel some laws that are simply for the sake of punishment, and properly balance the punishment and reward, which will be enough to solve this problem.

When Ying Zheng was still the crown prince, the Qin laws had already been revised, and the Qin laws applicable to the unification had been in progress. However, it was impossible to change them fundamentally now. The people needed to suffer more, and their power needed to be squeezed as much as possible in order to unify the country.

After unification, new laws can be implemented, allowing the people to recuperate for a few years.

Therefore, we must now consider the issue of rewards. Once the rewards and punishments begin to become unbalanced, the rewards that should be given cannot be fulfilled, and the credit of the Qin state will go bankrupt, the chain reaction it will bring will be extremely terrible.

This will not cause the empire to collapse immediately, but it will continue to deteriorate the empire.

It only takes a few years to destroy the credit that has been built up over hundreds of years. Once it is destroyed, I don’t know how much more effort it will take to rebuild it again.

No matter what morality is, trust is the cornerstone.

Trust is the most fundamental cornerstone of the entire human society.

A man cannot stand without trust; this is also true for human society and even more so for governance.

In the vast land of Kyushu today, the only kingdom that can reward land for all merits in future wars of annihilation is Chu.

The entire Chu State was vast and sparsely populated, with ample land for rewards. Although the southern and southeastern regions of Chu were still undeveloped and rather desolate, there was a great deal of relatively developed land close to the Central Plains, which was comparable to that of Han and Wei combined.

Moreover, the entire Jiangnan region has ample potential for development, and it is always better to use it for rewards than for those places that are said to be rewards but in fact the people feel are much better for exile.

The most important thing is that the nobles of Chu State were powerful and most of the land was in their hands. Seizing land from the nobles and distributing it to the common people was a truly popular thing and could stabilize the rule.

It is far better to eliminate this group of nobles and then redefine the basic rules to establish a truly solid base than to cooperate with them.

After all, it's useless for this group of people to work together.

They have been losing all the time. It is absolutely impossible for them to be truly loyal to the Qin Dynasty just because the Qin Dynasty gives them some leniency and preferential treatment.

There is still some possibility for small nobles, but it is absolutely impossible for medium and large nobles, and those small nobles have no say.

Keeping those medium and large nobles will do more harm than good. They occupy a large amount of land and population, are basically unwilling to pay taxes, and are hostile to the central court.

For a newly emerging unified empire, it is best for the old nobles of the old times to die. The death of their entire family is the greatest contribution to the empire.

Has Ying Zheng been anxious to have a son with Chu blood in order to cooperate with and win over those nobles?
Of course not, Ying Zheng knew very well that there was no point in doing so.

The purpose is just to increase the sense of identity of ordinary local civilians and ordinary Chu nobles. There are always some stubborn people in this world, especially those who have been ruled by nobles for generations, whose thoughts are not so easy to change in a short time.

Even if they were given benefits and land, the differences between the north and the south were too great, so they still needed someone they identified more with to appease and rule them.

Assimilation takes time. If a new empire that has never existed before wants to truly erase the barriers between the people of the old countries, this will take time and various means of assimilation.

Just like what the Qin Dynasty is doing now with all newly captured cities, it compiles a fish-scale map of all the people and property under its jurisdiction, sorts out the population register, and distributes land to the people.

The same writing, the same wheel gauge, the same measurement, the same ethics, the same land, and the same currency.

These are the most basic things that, over the years, can truly assimilate everyone into one country.

And these things were not done after the unification. The Qin Dynasty had already started doing them, and they would start doing them every time they conquered a new place.

(End of this chapter)