The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 694: Considerations for the State of Chu
The development of the State of Chu had become completely distorted, and without external reform, the King of Chu was helpless.

The Chu nobles formed a typical "five-power linkage" system, the core of which lies in the mutual support and closed-loop operation of the five major power systems: military, economy, administration, culture, and diplomacy.

The military and economy coexist, and a private army system is established through military autonomy. These armed forces in turn guarantee the monopoly of strategic resources such as copper mines, salt and iron, as well as defend the right to mint coins.

Administration and culture were interlocked. The noble feudal lords in Chu set up their own officials and judicial institutions within their territories. At the same time, they legalized administrative autonomy through the monopoly of sacrificial offerings, thus giving administrative power religious endorsement.

By consciously alienating texts, transforming classics, and exercising thought control, the legitimacy of rule is strengthened, and through this cultural production mechanism, aristocratic power gains ideological support.

Finally, through diplomatic and military coordination, a military alliance is formed, and diplomatic autonomy provides private armies with overseas supply channels.

When the royal family tried to centralize power, the five-power system immediately activated its defense. In military terms, the clan soldiers refused orders; in economic terms, they closed their cities and stopped paying taxes; in diplomacy, they colluded with the enemy to seek peace; if they were pushed further, they would directly conspire for rebellion, or collude with foreign enemies to provoke war, forcing the royal family to stop centralizing power.

This sophisticated system of power linkage resulted in the Chu royal family being unable to complete the centralized reform.

To be honest, this situation makes anyone feel numb.

Even if the right time, right place and right people are all combined, there is still a small chance that the change can be accomplished if there is 100% destiny.

However, this system is not without its disadvantages. Although it maintains the separatism of the nobles, it also makes it impossible for the nobles to truly unite. Strong independence means that self-preservation is the main focus.

They do not have a strong desire to attack externally, and can only expand externally under the unity of a strong monarch. Moreover, they can often only play a favorable situation where they have an overwhelming advantage in size, and they will definitely not win a situation where they are at a disadvantage.

As for facing the attack, although the nobles from all over the country had a strong desire to defend, they had no one to support them.

It is normal for the noble colleagues nearby to watch the fire from the other side and remain motionless when the friendly army is in trouble.

This is a typical case of "I would rather die than let my friend die".

Unless the King of Chu personally takes the lead in sending troops to support, he can summon the nobles to fight against foreign enemies together.

Otherwise you have to rely on yourself. If you have a few friends to help you, then you are considered to have very good luck.

As for this group of people, Ying Zheng did not have any hope for them. It would be useless to try to appease them. These experienced local tyrants would use all kinds of magical tricks to make this ship of the Qin Dynasty be built for them.

If you want to completely absorb Chu, it will take time.

Second come
We must get rid of all these local tyrants!
What the hell!
Hit hard!

This is also the fundamental reason why Ying Zheng gave up Mi Yun as the queen from the very beginning!

If Mi Yun became the queen and had complicated ties with the forces of the previous dynasty, it would have been difficult to start a massacre at that time.

During this attack on Chu, all noble officials will be killed!

All those who refuse to surrender will be killed, and those who surrender will be relocated to Xianyang and are forbidden to return to Chu!
It is impossible to achieve a thorough reform without absolutely decisive and ruthless means!

If the reform is not thorough, it is no reform!
If you want to solve the problem in Chu, you have to use heavy force.

It is impossible to make these local tyrants, feudal lords and officials who hold all the power willingly give up the land and power in their hands.

Even if they surrender openly, as long as they are still on this land, they will cause endless trouble.

They must all be dealt with!

Due to the differences in education and perspectives, the people are extremely easily deceived, fooled and instigated in the social cognition and atmosphere deliberately created by the ruling class. If they are not careful, they can become a knife in the hands of others.

Only by letting all those who fan the flames and stir up trouble leave this land can we truly and successfully transform the land of Chu into the shape of the Qin Dynasty.

And there was another very important reason for killing all the feudal lords and nobles in Chu. That was that the vast and sparsely populated Chu was needed as a reward to reward those who had made contributions.

Many nobles with middle and low-level titles may seem insignificant, but the lands they are awarded deserve the real big bucks because there are too many of them.

There is not enough land to be divided in the Central Plains. The current Yan State is too cold and harsh, so the only big piece of cake left is the sparsely populated Chu State.

There are four main reasons that restrict the development of Chu: First, its geographical environment, which is densely covered with mountains and forests, and has many lakes and swamps, and frequent floods.

Second, the population is sparse and unevenly distributed.

Third, local strength is strong and internal contradictions are numerous, making it difficult to form a political synergy, which is not conducive to the formulation and implementation of a unified development strategy and it is difficult to effectively organize and mobilize resources for large-scale development.

Fourth, agricultural technology and related tools are backward, which is also a side effect of the third point. In most cases, the saying "more people, more power, faster development" is applicable. The local forces in Chu are too strong and too independent, which leads to relatively slow development.

An example to prove this is that in today's world, except for the State of Chu, other regions have already widely used iron tools, but the State of Chu still more commonly uses bronze tools.

The production efficiency of iron, the combat effectiveness of weapons made from it, and the convenience of obtaining raw materials for large-scale development are all far superior to those of bronze.

The disadvantage is that the melting point of iron is much higher than that of bronze, which requires higher smelting technology and equipment. When the technology is not developed, smelting is difficult. In addition, it is chemically active and easily rusts and corrodes in the air. Special anti-rust measures need to be taken, such as painting and oiling, otherwise it will affect the service life.

But all in all, iron is more suitable for development than bronze.

Even now, the State of Chu still uses bronze in many places, whether it is weapons or farm tools. Bronze is more expensive than iron, so it is difficult not to fall behind.

However, of the four problems that restricted the development of the State of Chu, except for the first one, the geographical limitations itself, which objectively exists and can only be transformed slowly, the other three are not problems.

What is meant by "vast land but sparse population"? After the destruction of Chu, a large-scale migration to the south was inevitable. The more people migrated, the faster the integration of the north and the south could be accelerated.

The enfeoffment of many middle and low-level officials and nobles to Chu not only satisfied the reward, but also effectively strengthened the control. Moreover, these elites could drive the development of Chu more efficiently.

This is a matter of killing two birds with one stone. Even if many people are unwilling, they should be forced. Similarly, with the addition of inducements, those who are willing to migrate to the south can be encouraged by policies, such as more land distribution and tax cuts.

As for the third point, it naturally no longer existed after the destruction of Chu, and the entire Qin Dynasty had to develop according to the will of Ying Zheng.

The fourth point is that there is even less to worry about. When Chu is integrated into Qin, Qin’s most advanced technology, best breeds, and even tools will all be spread to Chu.

After solving all these problems, only the most basic geographical factors remain, and that is no longer a problem.

As long as everyone's strength can be combined into one, and properly guided and utilized, geographical factors cannot hinder human development. Besides, the Chu land is not really completely unsuitable for survival, nor is it a truly barren land. It is just a wild mountain forest that lacks development.

Many places have already been inhabited for a long time, what they lacked was only population and technology, and now Daqin can bring all of this.

Whether it is the development of any organization or country, internal conflicts and unrest, and even its own destruction, are often caused by distribution problems.

Don’t worry about scarcity but inequality.

However, due to various reasons, resource monopoly and mergers will always occur, and this cannot be changed by human will.

When resources are monopolized and merged by other people, forces, organizations or classes outside the central court, the central court will certainly not be able to collect money. When the finances are exhausted and it can no longer effectively manage the entire country, the regime will come to an end.

Then it’s time to start over.

A large number of people died, the classes of many people underwent drastic changes, resources were redistributed, and a relative dynamic balance and stability was achieved.

Everything starts all over again.

If the distribution or the way of collecting money can be changed in the middle, as long as the central court can continue to collect money, the regime's rule can continue for a period of time. This is called revival.

The Qin State and the Qin Dynasty cannot be separated.

Daqin is no longer a young man. To be more precise, he is a very old man.

Duke Xiang of Qin sent troops to escort King Ping of Zhou to migrate eastward and was granted the title of a vassal. From then on, the State of Qin officially became a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty.

Even if we do not start counting from Fei Zi, but only from the time when Duke Xiang became a vassal, it has been more than 540 years, and has gone through nearly 30 monarchs. It can be said that he was as old as he could be.

The reason why it has survived to this day is that it has been expanding outward, relying on incremental growth to satisfy the interests of everyone in the country, and using the newly acquired benefits to distribute domestically and suppress domestic conflicts.

But even so, there were several times when he almost died. It was not until Shang Yang's reforms that the old man of Qin was reborn and regained his youth.

However, no system can work forever. As time goes by and new vested interests emerge, major changes will occur, various man-made loopholes will appear, and then the system will gradually collapse.

When Ying Zheng ascended the throne, it could be said that the Qin State had once again entered old age. Although it was still powerful in fighting, it was completely overdrawn and had been exhausted internally.

Ying Zheng wanted to make Qin young again and restore its youth and health, and he also relied on increasing its population.

You can't destroy your own base, right?

If the country was unified, drastic reforms could be carried out. However, although the Qin State seemed very strong at that time, in fact, the countries outside Hangu Pass were not soft persimmons either. If the Qin State dared to mess around, it would probably be destroyed before it could defeat the other countries and make reforms.

The best way is of course to make incremental progress.

The best way to annex something is to have a war. In a war, people will die. The more people die, the more the remaining people can share. It is especially easy for nobles to die, because one noble often occupies the resources of a thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand people.

Relying on external expansion and increasing resources, in the process, redefine the rules, redistribute the distribution, and redistribute resources to balance the various classes and forces.

Relying on the huge increase in resources to solve past problems and to correct loopholes in the rules, Ying Zheng has done a good job so far.

Although it is still the Qin State, it is completely different inside. It can be said to be another rebirth.

A long time ago, Ying Zheng had already made the positioning of the State of Chu. Now it is just a final step to balance and distribute the conflicts in the world.

However, resources do not fall from thin air. Either all citizens have to work hard to increase production, or they are plundered.

It is obvious that increasing production through hard work is definitely not as fast as that gained by plundering. Moreover, if the system, rules, and personnel allocation remain unchanged, no matter how much new production is increased, the contradiction cannot be resolved.

During the plundering process, those old vested interests will have to bear the consequences, and those who are slow to react deserve to perish along with the old order.

And this means that the last country to be destroyed, the country to be plundered, will bear the most bitter consequences.

The nobles can only suffer misery.

For the rebirth of the Qin Dynasty, for its hundred years of prosperity, for the Qin Dynasty to regain its youth and be able to pass on its legacy safely for more than a dozen generations, the old nobles can only bear the consequences.

Anyway, whether they are active or passive, willing or unwilling, they can only be willing in the end. It is their honor that these rotten firewood can make another contribution to the Qin Dynasty.

Win mah, win mah.

Congratulations, congratulations!
So we can’t be anxious now, mainly because there are not enough officials at the grassroots level.

Since we have decided to give up all the feudal lords and nobles in Chu, we can basically only rely on our own people.

Or the Chu officials trained by the Qin court can only come from the middle and lower levels, which requires a very large number.

Even though many grassroots officials were meritorious soldiers who were transferred locally, there were great differences between the north and the south, and the practices of the Central Plains and the North could not be mechanically copied.

Whether it is the agricultural production model, the handicraft production system, or the development of ideology and culture, more gentle and reasonable promotion and change are needed. A heavy blow can be struck against the old officials and nobles of the Chu State, but for the development of ordinary people, reasonable arrangements, patient guidance, and correct management are needed.

It takes time to train officials who can do something.

In the past, Li Xin was arranged to be by Tianze's side not only to help Tianze to make trouble, but more importantly to let Li Xin lead and train a group of talents who understand Chu and Baiyue, and then let these talents who understand the current situation in Chu train more management officials.

But even after so many years of training, it still cannot be rushed and it still takes time.

There are too many incremental things, and it takes time to digest them properly. Many things in this world require time.

You can't rush it.

(End of this chapter)