Diqin Designer

Chapter 131 Daqin's "Seed" Plan

Seeing Chunyu Yue and Li Si arguing with each other, the other ministers tacitly watched each other's hearts and neither helped Chunyu Yue nor Li Si.

It is already clear that the king wants to revise the Qin Law, and the Legalists are most closely associated with the Qin Law. Revising the Qin Law also means that the king will not give exclusive weight to the Legalists.

What if I jump out to support Li Si now and the king misunderstands that I am on the side of the Legalists?
What's more, their Chief Justice himself may not be a firm believer in Legalism. If he were to speak for the Legalist, no one might take him seriously.

As for Chunyu Yue, it seems that the king has employed many Confucian scholars like Chunyu Yue recently. However, many people have realized that the king is employing people, not using Confucianism to govern the country.

If even law cannot be supreme, what is the point of Confucianism?

However, the ministers were somewhat confused. Since the king did not want to use either law or Confucianism, what kind of ideology did he want to use to govern the country?

Could it be related to Li Nian again?

Li Si did not argue with Chunyu Yue, but instead said to Ying Zheng: "Your Majesty, 'Confucians use literature to disrupt the law, and knights use force to violate the law'. Paper is better than bamboo slips. It would be a pity if it were banned. However, it should not be allowed to spread throughout the world, especially the method of making paper. It must not be known to outsiders."

"I think paper can be like salt, made only in Daqin and sold only in Daqin. Anyone who needs paper can only buy it from Daqin."

The king took out this paper today, obviously wanting to promote it throughout the world. This is the general trend and cannot be violated!
But Li Si really did not want paper to be easily circulated in the world, so he neutralized the words of the minister and Chunyu Yue: he would not ban the spread of paper in the world, but he would strictly prohibit the method of papermaking from leaking out and others from making paper.

As long as Daqin firmly grasps the papermaking technique and does not let it spread, it can control the amount of paper in the world. Even if someone uses paper to commit evil, it is all under Daqin's control.

There are two major advantages to doing so: First, not only can paper be used to attract various schools of thought to Qin, but it can also be used to restrain various schools of thought;

As long as the philosophers among the Hundred Schools of Thought were not stupid and wanted more people to know and learn the theories of their own schools, after learning about the superiority of paper over bamboo slips, they would definitely be attracted to Xianyang and ask Ying Zheng for paper.

Moreover, many schools among the Hundred Schools of Thought do not like each other, and even within the same school of thought there are ideas that do not like each other.

This will produce a strange effect: if you don't ask for paper, what if the paper is given to the opposing school or heretics within the school, and their fallacies and heresies are widely spread? What will happen to your correct and reasonable thoughts?
We must never allow our opponents and heretics to grow in power and harm the world. We must let people in the world see what correct ideas are.

Out of this consideration, many people from various schools of thought will be attracted: one can do without oneself, but one must not have enemies or heretics; if there are enemies and heretics, one must also have them.

After arriving in Xianyang, paper was in the hands of Ying Zheng. It was up to him to decide which school of thought he wanted to give it to. Ying Zheng could use it to control the hundreds of schools of thought.

2. Paper, like salt, can open up a new source of revenue and taxation for the Qin Dynasty.

Even though ordinary people could not afford paper, the various philosophers and those who wanted to read and write would pay for it.

After listening to Li Si's words, Ying Zheng thought about it seriously. He felt that what Li Si said made a lot of sense. From a king's perspective, he should act this way because it would benefit his rule.

But at the same time, thinking about some of the things Li Nian said, I felt that maybe paper should be promoted throughout the world so that people all over the world can use it.

After all, paper can not only be used to record words, but also to go to the toilet.

He had tried it himself yesterday and found it to be better than toilet chips and cloth.

"At worst, we can just make more paper and sell it cheaply to the world."

In the end, the idea of ​​being more conducive to ruling prevailed, and Ying Zheng said: "What the Minister of Justice said makes a lot of sense. What do you think?" Chunyu Yue still had something to say, but he knew that Ying Zheng was not really asking for their opinions, but that he had already agreed with Li Si's words and was just going through the motions, so he said no more.

According to Chunyu Yue's idea, it would be best to spread the method of making paper. Although that would allow other schools of thought to also make paper and spread their doctrines with paper, they, the Confucians, would also benefit and would not be restricted by others.

But if Li Si's words were followed, all schools of thought would be controlled by the king using paper in the future. If any school of thought was unhappy, the king would ban the sale of its paper and sell it to the opposing school instead.

If Li Nian saw this scene in the Qin Dynasty's court, he would definitely think that they are just pieces of paper, how could you guys cause so much trouble?
After the paper issue was settled, all the ministers officially began to discuss politics today.

Wei Liao said, "Your Majesty, the meritorious Qin soldiers from each army have been sorted out, and there are 7,342 people who are eligible to be officials based on their military merits."

Seven thousand three hundred and forty-two people may seem like a large number, but compared to the entire world that is to be governed, it is just that, and there is still a gap.

However, if these more than 7,000 people were placed in the local area, it would also be a relief for Daqin.

But Ying Zheng was obviously dissatisfied with such a small number of people, and said: "Re-evaluate and include those soldiers who have served as officials in the past and have made military contributions. Now these Qin soldiers have been determined..."

Ying Zheng said: "According to the previous discussion, they should immediately take off their armor and return home to observe government affairs in the county where they live."

"Observing politics" was an idea of ​​Ying Zheng and his ministers to let Qin soldiers govern the local areas. However, the solution to the problem of Qin soldiers' lack of experience was to let them return to their hometowns and learn from local officials.

It was difficult to teach Qin soldiers to read and write immediately, but it was possible to teach them to handle some local affairs.

However, the Qin soldiers did not have much time to learn. After Ying Zheng became emperor, he would soon officially implement the policy of making Qin soldiers officials.

The best thing would naturally be to let the Qin soldiers learn and observe politics for a period of time. The revised Qin laws will also be officially promulgated throughout the world, and the original handling of certain matters will also need to be changed, so the Qin soldiers should be allowed to learn more.

But nowadays, many places of the six kingdoms belong to Qin only in name and are actually not under its control at all.

The longer this situation drags on, the more problems will arise. The only option is to let the Qin soldiers take up their posts quickly. It is better to learn as much as possible than to take up the post without knowing anything.

Wei Liao said "Yes, sir!" and retreated.

Ying Zheng thought of something else and said, "Order the officials in Guanzhong to select smart children from the people and bring them to Xianyang. If they find a smart child, I will reward him, and the child's parents can also go to Xianyang with him."

Now that paper has been invented, what Li Nian talked about, "enlightening the people and starting education," can be started. However, given the current situation in the Qin Dynasty, it is impossible to achieve the goal of everyone being able to read and know history as in the future generations from which Li Nian came.

We haven’t even achieved the goal of ensuring that everyone has enough food to eat, let alone ensuring that everyone can study?

We can only settle for the next best thing, which is to let some people learn to read and write first, and learn future knowledge and technology from Li Nian, so that they can become the seeds of the Qin Dynasty and the foundation of the industrialization and science that Li Nian mentioned.

But what artificial seeds should be chosen?
Of course it’s a smart person!

It is impossible for Li Nian to teach too many people, so he can only carefully select a group of geniuses and prodigies.

(End of this chapter)