The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 673: Conflicts in Qi

King Jian of Qi felt more at ease when he saw the respect shown by Ying Zheng.

The King of Qin is indeed a decent man!
As soon as Ying Zheng saw King Jian of Qi's carriage appear, a hearty smile instantly broke out on his face, and that smile seemed to be able to dispel all the haze.

He strode forward, his steps powerful and eager, showing his warmth and friendliness.

Upon seeing this, King Jian of Qi hastily lifted the carriage curtain, jumped out of the carriage in a slightly panicked manner, and hurriedly walked forward. When he was a few steps away from Ying Zheng, he bowed deeply and said, "Greetings, Your Majesty. May Your Majesty be blessed with good health."

"How could I have deserved the King's personal welcome and the use of His Majesty's golden carriage? I feel so ashamed."

King Jian of Qi was dressed quite low-key today. Not only was his attire not appropriate for a king, but it was even inferior to that of a duke. It was very plain and simple.

Ying Zheng's heart was filled with joy, the joy spread from his eyes to his entire face, and his enthusiasm was as warm as the spring sun.

He quickly stretched out his hands and steadily helped Qi Wangjian up, his smile widened as he laughed, "Qi Wang Jin'an, why are you so polite? We are family, why should we be so formal?"

"Ahahaha, there's no hurry to talk. Please get in the car, King Qi. Let's go back to the city and talk later."

After saying this, Ying Zheng grabbed King Jian of Qi and without giving him a chance to refuse, he directly pulled him onto his jade carriage, and the two of them sat down at the same table.

Sitting in the car, Ying Zheng personally poured a glass of wine for King Jian of Qi. He handed the glass to King Jian of Qi with a smile. King Jian of Qi hurriedly stretched out his hands and carefully took the glass.

Ying Zheng smiled and said, "How is the King of Qi these days? I haven't seen you for a few years. I really miss you."

"You must stay longer in Xianyang this time. Xuan'er and the others miss you very much and think of you all the time."

"And the children and grandchildren all want to see grandpa, too. Hahaha."

Qi Wangjian laughed and said, "Of course, of course, this time I will not be in a hurry to return."

Upon hearing this, Ying Zheng burst into laughter again: "Okay, okay, that's good. The palace by the Wei River has already been prepared, and the eunuchs and palace maids are all available. The King of Qi has come from afar, and the journey must be very tiring. Please take a rest first to relieve your fatigue. No matter what, we can talk about it in a few days!"

"I will hold a banquet in the palace tomorrow, and I would like to invite the King of Qi to come and join us in the celebration, so that I can fulfill my role as the host."

"Of course, of course." Qi Wangjian smiled and nodded repeatedly.

"Please!" Ying Zheng drank the fruit juice he poured for himself.

"Please!" King Jian of Qi also drank. The two of them got along very well, chatting and laughing, talking about family matters and recent interesting news. The laughter and drinking continued.

Along the way, Ying Zheng personally escorted King Jian of Qi to the temporary palace and settled him down before returning to the Xianyang Palace.

All officials of Qi were also properly arranged by Lu Buwei himself.

Even with Ying Zheng's temperament, he was still very excited. It was indeed something to be happy about that he could peacefully take over the entire State of Qi without losing a single soldier.

Qi is not Han. After decades of encroachment, Han was left with only two counties and no more than thirty cities of various sizes.

But in today's Qi State, there are still more than ninety cities of various sizes left!

Looking back to the past, when the State of Qi was at its most powerful, it had more than 140 cities of various sizes. At that time, the State of Qi dominated the East and was awe-inspiring. It was the undisputed overlord of the East, otherwise it would not have been qualified to be emperor together with the Qin Dynasty.

However, after the Five Kingdoms invaded Qi, Qi suffered a heavy loss and was nearly destroyed by Yan. When it was restored, only more than 70 cities remained. Fortunately, after nearly half a century of recuperation, the urban population gradually increased.

Unfortunately, during the era of great strife, the city was taken over by Yan, Zhao, Wei and Chu in turn, and the number of cities remained basically unchanged. The few new achievements that were finally made were all plundered by other countries.

It is no wonder that Qi hated these four countries so much. Even though it knew that cooperating with Qin was like seeking the skin of a tiger, it still watched the tiger devouring people without being moved, and even applauded.

Because how can a distant enemy be as hateful as a nearby enemy?

In just the past ten years or so, following Ying Zheng's footsteps, he won several battles and recaptured more than twenty cities.

It was only since he followed Ying Zheng completely that he avoided being beaten and was able to take revenge at the same time.

Up to now, there are still more than ninety cities, large and small.

Moreover, the State of Qi had experienced little war in recent decades and was still very rich.

Although the people of Qi were tired of war, their military preparations were neglected, and their fighting power was not strong, Qi was a typical country that kept its wealth among its people. The social wealth of Qi was extremely rich. Although the rich were mainly nobles, officials, and big businessmen, Ying Zheng did not care, as this group of people would always be weak.

Not only was Qi rich, but it was also a powerful country in agriculture, industry, commerce, and even culture in addition to military.

All in all, it is not inferior to the wealthy areas in the Central Plains.

This gift is equivalent to three annexed Koreas! How could Ying Zheng not be happy?
Although Qi also surrendered without firing a single arrow in history, to be honest, the reputation of both Qin and the King of Qin was not very good at that time. It would be useless if they could take over the country but not the people.

But now that he has a better reputation, he can win the hearts of the people more peacefully and digest the State of Qi more smoothly and truly, instead of swallowing it whole and failing to digest it, which will eventually cause him indigestion.

This time Qi State is integrated into Qin State. With Qin State's current system and policies, the people will no longer be resentful.

Only the great nobles and big businessmen would have objections. The business atmosphere in Qi is indeed better than the current policies of Qin.

But it doesn’t matter. How could the merchants make trouble?
The policies of the Qin Dynasty were mainly aimed at big businessmen, and had little impact on small businessmen and handicraftsmen. Moreover, the Qin Dynasty also had its advantages. Whether it was the official system, land policy, promotion channels, clean administration, or education and medical care, it all had great superiority.

And to be honest, the State of Qi was not without the ambition to make progress, but it was simply discouraged by the cruel reality.

Such a big country cannot be easily destroyed by the outside world. The fundamental reasons are all internal.

Not all was peaceful in Qi State. There were also serious internal reasons, which prompted King Jian of Qi to "lie down and let the situation go".

Leaving aside military armaments, which are only external phenomena, the most important internal cause is that the social atmosphere of overdeveloped commerce has led to the country's finances being overly dependent on commercial taxes, resulting in the neglect of land taxes and land distribution.

All problems are economic problems.

All economic problems lie in distribution.

The State of Qi was famous for its "benefits from fish and salt". Linzi was the largest commercial city in the world today, without a doubt the largest, with a population of over one million. Its silk weaving, iron smelting, and pottery making industries were also well developed.

More than 70% of Qi State's tax revenue depended on commercial taxes and tributes from princes, rather than direct output from the land. This model seemed to collect a lot of money, but the social contradictions were too great.

After the Tian family replaced the Qi state, they consolidated their power by enfeoffment of relatives and winning over the old nobles. The Tian family had always relied on the support of the old nobles, and the aristocratic power was very strong in the Qi state. The entire Qi state could be said to be co-ruled by the king and the great nobles.

Fortunately, after the reforms of King Wei and King Xuan, as well as the enfeoffment of relatives, the ruling power was completely controlled by the Tian family. However, the internal strife within the Tian family was still serious.

After King Xiang restored the country, the reforms of King Wei and King Xuan of Qi were basically destroyed. The royal family had to rely on the powerful families from other surnames. The political system of Qi returned to the situation of co-governance between the king and the great nobles. Even worse, the power of the king was greatly suppressed.

The State of Qi implemented the "Five Capitals System", namely five important capitals, Linzi, Gaotang, Pinglu, Jimo and Ju. Except Linzi which was the private land of the King of Qi, each of the other capitals was managed by a capital official, who had both administrative and military functions.

Considering the size of Qi's territory, it still used the five-capital system, which shows how powerful the aristocracy was.

The major businessmen were naturally also members of the noble families in various places.

And doing business doesn't require a lot of people.

Relying on commercial tax revenue and without land reform, land annexation in Qi had reached a point where it was almost impossible to resolve, with a few aristocratic families occupying the vast majority of the land.

There is also a huge gap between the rich and the poor in social wealth. The nobles and big businessmen monopolize all profitable industries, and the social class stratification has become serious to a certain extent.

Most of the ordinary civilians are handicraftsmen and small traders. There are only a few self-cultivating farmers who can own their own land. Most of them have long been reduced to tenant farmers. The few self-cultivating farmers also have to bear extremely heavy taxes.

This is the inevitability of land annexation. Once land annexation begins, it will immediately become a vicious cycle, and it will get faster and faster in the later stages.

This is also an important reason why Qi's military was weak. Those who have no permanent property have no perseverance. No country can rely on tenants and merchants to have strong combat effectiveness.

Originally, the central government of Qi State was able to compete with local nobles by relying on foreign wars, promoting nobles with military merits, and establishing the Jixia Academy to cultivate the scholar class.

However, after being destroyed, the country was restored. As the power and wealth of the internal aristocracy continued to expand, and the international situation became increasingly blockaded and attacked.

There were fewer and fewer nobles with military merit, and the scholars had no chance to make a career, so many of them fled abroad.

The entire ruling class of Qi State had returned to the old path of hereditary aristocracy, and the scholar class had no way to climb up except to be dogs.

The hereditary aristocracy led to the corruption of the ruling class, internal power struggles among officials, political corruption, and widespread embezzlement and bribery, which resulted in inefficient government administration and poor policy implementation, thus continuing a vicious cycle.

King Jian of Qi was just an average person. He did not have the ability to carry out reforms, nor did he have the external environment to do so.

He could only rely on his external relatives to check and balance the nobles, but this would inevitably lead to political chaos in the entire Qi State.

It's a typical case of being stubborn and blocked at both ends. There's no hope.

It was only during these ten years or so that he followed Ying Zheng, won several battles, and expanded some territory, which made King Jian of Qi more prestigious.

But King Jian of Qi understood that this was not his ability, and he had no intention of having any lofty ambitions. He was almost fifty years old, and he really didn't want to work hard anymore. He just wanted to enjoy wealth and prosperity in a stable and down-to-earth manner.

Something as desperate as reform is something that must never be done.

(End of this chapter)