The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 693: The Unsalvageable State of Chu

Mao Jiao also put in a lot of effort to make Fu Chu make this decision.

When the news that Fu Chu had declared himself king reached Shouchun, Xiong You was furious. This was a naked provocation to him!
First of all, it was confirmed that Jiangdong's surrender was fake, which made Xiong You ashamed and angry.

Now Fu Chu has declared himself king and called Xiong You a fake king, which makes Xiong You even more furious.

Your regime has no legitimacy and you are only trying to survive in a corner of Jiangdong. What right do you have to say that I am a fake king?
As for Li Yuan, he no longer considers the matter of conquering Jiangdong.

Fu Chu exaggerated the matter and spread the news that Xiong You believed the rumors and sent a secret envoy to Jiangdong to discuss using Li Yuan's head in exchange for Jiangdong's surrender, making it known to everyone.

Not only did Li Yuan feel disheartened, but many of Xiong You's ministers were also disheartened and disappointed.

It was inevitable that Li Yuan and Xiong You developed a rift in their hearts.

Xiong You lost miserably in the war of public opinion, and his reputation had been greatly damaged before he officially succeeded to the throne.

But it is not without benefits. At least most of his subordinates have given up their loyalty to Fu Chu.

Now Fu Chu has declared himself king, lost his righteousness, and also dismissed all high-ranking officials. What can we get if we follow him again?
Fu Chu has completely raised the banner of rebellion, and the two sides can only fight to the end.

At the same time, Xiang Yan received a secret letter from Fu Chu.

Xiang Yan had always been on good terms with Fu Chu and Changping Jun, and was even more dissatisfied with Xiong Han, but the Xiang family would not really rebel.

They're not there yet.

After Fu Chu rebelled, he continued to have secret dealings with Xiang Yan.

Xiang Yan didn't want to give up. As an ancient noble, the most basic principle was to bet on multiple parties.

Anyway, they are all royal family members. On the basis of being loyal to Xiong Han and Xiong You, he made friends with Fu Chu and married his niece to Changping Jun.

The main point is to step on multiple boats, so that no matter which boat capsizes, you will always have time to jump onto another one.

Fu Chu did not completely dismiss all official positions, but left a few important high positions.

Just like the position of general, it was reserved for Xiang Yan.

The message was also to tell Xiang Yan that the position of general was vacant, and if he was willing to help, he would be granted a title of nobility.

When the word "title of nobility" came out, Xiang Yan was deeply moved.

But he still gritted his teeth and did not agree immediately, but gave the messenger an ambiguous reply.

Although interests are tempting, the same old saying still applies: to be a noble, stability is the most important thing!

It wasn't just Xiang Yan who received Fu Chu's letter. Qu and Zhao also received letters from Fu Chu, promising them high positions and generous salaries.

Although this would not make Qu and Zhao turn to Fu Chu, it was enough to make them hesitate.

At a critical moment, a moment of hesitation is enough to decide victory or defeat.

Although Xiong You was temporarily unable to eliminate Fu Chu through military means, he was not idle at all.

An unprecedentedly strict blockade was imposed on the entire Jiangdong region. No one was allowed to contact Jiangdong, and no caravan was allowed to trade with the region. Xiong You wanted to use economic means to deplete Jiangdong's supplies.

But the effect.
Given Xiong You's ruling power, it would be too difficult for him to impose economic sanctions on Jiangdong, which is also his own country.

The effect is average and it will only cause public resentment.

But no matter what, both sides are trying their best to use tricks, hoping to defeat the other side through means other than pure war.

This was definitely a good thing for Ying Zheng, and he spared no effort to keep a close eye on the two brothers, trying every way to exaggerate and sow discord between them.

In this way, seventeen years of King Zheng of Qin passed.

Except for the chaos in Chu, the entire Qin State was booming. After more than two years, Wei and Qi were almost digested and both were back on track.

Several cabinet ministers withdrew from the general administration area one after another last year, leaving only some branches of central departments in various places.

With the development of Daqin, everything is stable.

Ying Zheng also had a few more children.

Queen Ying Xin finally gave birth to a princess, and Ying Zheng named her Ying Yuan. The new princess of Qi also gave birth to a son, Hongjian.

Tian Mi, the little honey pot of the farm family, also gave birth to a son named Letian, which made her very happy.

And Ehuang finally had a child, although she was just a princess, but she was happy enough, at least she was no worse than her sister. The eighteenth year of Qin Wangzheng arrived.

Ying Zheng was still not in a hurry to attack Chu. Although Qi and Wei were already on the right track, it was not difficult to destroy Chu. However, the governance after the destruction of Chu was not fully prepared. After the grassroots officials were distributed in Wei and Qi, it was still not enough.

Even though many scholars from Wei and Qi were promoted, there was still a shortage of staff.

The customs in Chu are quite different from those in the Central Plains. In addition, the area is vast and sparsely populated, the nobles are very independent, and the southeastern part is underdeveloped.

Also, after conquering the State of Chu, Qin would have to face harassment from the Baiyue. Since it had conquered the Chu state, it had to stabilize the Baiyue and not let those barbarians cause trouble.

For now we still have to wait a little longer. We cannot rush into absorbing and assimilating Chu.

It is necessary to separate the nobles and the common people, and to be gentle to the common people, mainly by transforming the ideology and religious customs so that the people can accept the Qin Dynasty.

Only unity of ideology and culture can be true unity.

As for the nobles, we can only strike back with heavy blows.

The nobles in Chu were quite independent, scattered, numerous and diverse. Successive kings of Chu wanted to weaken the power of the nobles, but ultimately failed.

The nobles in Chu owned most of the land, and had the right to mint coins and collect taxes in their own fiefdoms. They could own a large number of private soldiers and enjoyed many tax exemptions in Chu. In addition, salt, iron, copper mines, etc. were also monopolized by local feudal lords and nobles.

The nobility in Chu had reached the point where "there were too many feudal lords, who oppressed their rulers and abused the people."

It would be basically impossible to be gentle with this group of people and use conciliatory means to gradually integrate the people of Chu into the Qin Dynasty.

No matter what the policy is, it will become something indistinguishable in the hands of this group of people.

Although Chu State was the first to invent the county system, it was a pity that it got up early but arrived late.

From the beginning, Chu implemented the "feudal system plus control policy". This semi-autonomous model enabled the Chu nobles to have independent military and political power from the beginning. The royal family branches could establish their own clan armed forces and were extremely independent.

During the expansion of the Chu State, in order to quickly take over new territories, the State of Chu granted the conquered areas to nobles with military merit, forming a system of "foreign nobles". This colonial feudal system led to the aristocracy becoming too powerful to be eliminated.

There is also the structural constraint of the geographical environment. The territory of Chu State spans the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with a high proportion of mountainous areas, and a fragmented structure with many mountains and rivers. This geographical division leads to extremely high transportation costs, which objectively facilitates the separatism of local nobles.

The main grain-producing areas of the Chu State were distributed in the Jianghan Plain, the Dongting Lake Plain and the Poyang Lake Plain, forming a three-legged agricultural pattern. Coupled with the harsh transportation environment, it was difficult for the central court to concentrate and integrate resources.

There is also the shaman official system. The Chu State retained the shaman official system of the Shang Dynasty, and the nobles monopolized the divine power by controlling sacrifices.

Members of the Qu family served as high-ranking witches, and their divination results directly affected national decision-making, forming a situation of integration of politics and witchcraft, and they had a monopolistic influence on the culture and beliefs of the entire Chu State.

The Chu aristocracy's monopoly on power and culture was far greater than that of other countries. In order to exclude other countries, the aristocracy collectively created cultural barriers subjectively.

The most typical example is that there are significant differences between the Chu-style characters and the Central Plains characters, and even many classics have been deliberately tampered with, such as "Laozi".

The reason was that the scholars of Chu fled to other countries. The cost of re-learning was too high, and because of the difference in writing, it was not easy for them to be accepted by other countries, so they could only serve as dogs in Chu.

It was popular among the Chu nobles to support scholars, which also indirectly reflected that ordinary scholars had no choice but to be dogs for the nobles.

Also because of differences in cultural customs, they deliberately maintained cultural isolation and excluded scholars from other countries from entering Chu to avoid posing a threat.

The Qin Dynasty was the most thorough in its reforms, completely abolishing the lives of all nobles except the King of Qin. The military merit system was the most advanced in that era, and it was too advanced.

In addition to Ying Zheng's reforms, the school imperial examination system was added, which made China extremely advanced compared to other countries.

The county system of the Qin Dynasty was the most thorough. Although the nobles had privileges, they were only privileges in terms of enjoying life.

There was none of the most crucial things, such as military autonomy (private soldiers), administrative autonomy (fiefdom personnel and governance), economic monopoly (coinage, trade, etc.), cultural discourse power (sacrifices, writing, etc.), and diplomatic autonomy (marriage, foreign trade, etc.).

Centralization is no joke.

The county system of the Three Jins, Han, Zhao, and Wei was relatively well developed. The nobles did not have much independent autonomy. Although the upper class jointly monopolized power and was relatively corrupt, the overall situation was still developing towards centralization, and the royal family had absolute supreme power.

As for the State of Yan, the nobles were originally quite independent, but due to geographical issues, they were relatively united, and the central court had strong prestige and power.

Coupled with the sudden appearance of a tough guy, King Zhao of Yan, the reform was extremely effective. Although the backlash from the nobles was severe, the nobles' independence and autonomy were greatly reduced, and the promotion of the county system was also very effective.

King Zhao of Yan was a well-deserved wise ruler. Unfortunately, his contemporaries were also ruthless.

As for the State of Qi, the reforms of King Wei and King Xuan of Qi, as well as the restrictions on the nobles, were quite effective. Cultural rights (sacrifices) were monopolized by the Tian family, private soldiers were greatly restricted, the right to mint coins was enjoyed exclusively by the central government, and the nobles also needed to pass appropriate examinations to become officials.

Of course, all this was mainly due to the royal family giving up the wealth of salt and iron, allowing the nobles to operate salt and iron, and the royal family collecting commercial taxes. In addition, the equal-field system was also in name only, watching the nobles exploit loopholes to annex wealth and land, and then entering a slow death.

But no matter what, no one is as exaggerated as the State of Chu.

(End of this chapter)