Diqin Designer

Chapter 158: First Attendance at a Court Meeting
Although the ceremony of proclaiming the emperor was celebrated by the whole world, life still had to go on. We couldn't celebrate every day without farming and weaving. What would we eat and wear?
At the beginning of a new day, Li Nian was attending the first official court meeting after Qin Shihuang became emperor in Zhangtai Palace.

Today, the Qin Dynasty has also established a system for court meetings. Previously, it was a special case for Qin Shi Huang to convene ministers for court meetings every day. At that time, the world had just been unified and there were too many matters that needed to be decided and handled.

Always calling people to court meetings can help to pool resources and make more thorough discussions and decisions on certain matters, but it will also affect the efficiency of ministers' administrative work.

Having meetings every day, starting in the morning and ending in the afternoon, then ending in the afternoon. Are you still getting any work done?
Moreover, the world is short of officials now, and there are many things to deal with. The important officials of the Qin Dynasty often have to do the work of several people. They are already very busy, and they are also asked to attend court meetings every day...

Therefore, the court meetings were divided into two types: the grand court meetings which were ceremonial in nature, and the regular court meetings which were used to discuss state affairs and make decisions on the country's political affairs.

The purpose of the grand court was to demonstrate the emperor's majesty and accept the worship of his ministers. Due to its large scale and the fact that it was a ceremonial meeting, it was not easy to hold it often. It was only held at three times a year: the day the Qin State was founded, the first day of the twelfth month when the First Emperor proclaimed himself emperor, and the emperor's birthday.

Regular court sessions were held on the first, eighth, fifteenth and twenty-second days of each month. Civil and military officials were summoned to report on major national affairs and to issue decrees that could influence the world.

Of course, if there is an emergency, there is no need to follow this set of rules. The emperor has the right to summon all ministers to discuss matters and decide on national policies at any time.

According to this system, the grand court should have been held yesterday, but because yesterday was also the ceremony of enthroning the emperor, the grand court was postponed to today as the first grand court after the First Emperor's enthronement.

The court meeting officially began. Prince Fusu first led the princes and clan members of the Qin Dynasty to pay homage to Ying Zheng, and then Wang Wan led the ministers to pay homage. In fact, at this point, the ceremony of enthroning the emperor was officially over.

Because yesterday was the ceremony of becoming emperor, although he is still the emperor, today is actually the first day that Ying Zheng exercises the power to rule the world as the emperor of Qin.

After the worship, Li Nian took his seat with other ministers. For him, this was his first time to attend the Qin Dynasty meeting. It was quite novel, as he witnessed and participated in the highest-level meeting of an empire in person.

According to the established rules of the grand court, Japan does not need to discuss state affairs. The ministers pay homage to the emperor, and the emperor bestows rewards and banquets, and enjoys himself with the ministers and the people.

However, because the ceremony of proclaiming the emperor was delayed for several days and the celebration had already taken place yesterday, today became not only the first grand court of the Qin Dynasty, but also the first regular court of the Qin Dynasty. The regular court is for discussing political affairs and making decisions on the government affairs of the world.

Compared with the original history, Qin Shihuang proclaimed himself emperor and reformed the system two months later, but it was still too hasty, and many things were not fully prepared. Qin Shihuang and his ministers still had to check for omissions and make corrections to some unfinished matters.

At this time, the military officials headed by Wang Jian and Wei Liao were reporting to the First Emperor on the reform of the Qin army, including but not limited to the modification of the Qin army's military system, the modification of the calculation of military merits, the modification of the current military service system, how many military regions to divide, and how many troops to station in each place...

Qin's original military service system was a compulsory conscription system. Young men who reached the age of seventeen would automatically become Qin's army reserve.

At the age of seventeen, he first served as a "Gengzu" soldier. For one month every year, his task was to go to the local counties to build roads, build city walls, and transport supplies.

After the age of 20, they began to serve as "regular soldiers" for a period of two years. In the first year, they served in the county and participated in military training. Generally, the local troops in counties were composed of such soldiers.

In the second year, depending on personal ability and military branch, one will be conscripted by the state to serve as a guard or garrison soldier for one year, either in the county, or in the capital or the border.

But in actual practice, not only young and strong men can serve as soldiers, but if necessary, even women and underage children can serve as soldiers.

Some people in later generations said that women in the Qin Dynasty had a high status, which is indeed good, but it also depends on what the women in the Qin Dynasty paid.

Men were conscripted to fight on the battlefield. Women were the main labor force in the family, and sometimes they had to fight on the battlefield like men. How could they not be given a higher status? This model was very beneficial to the Qin Dynasty before it unified the world. After all, everyone could be a soldier, and if the army was not enough, one could be raised at any time. However, it was no longer so useful for the whole world, and it had to be modified.

The Qin State is no longer one of the seven kingdoms. What needs to be considered is no longer how to conquer the six kingdoms and unify the world, but how to govern the world well. Moreover, the situations in various places of the six kingdoms are different from those of the former Qin State, so more consideration is needed.

After listening to Wang Jian, Wei Liao and others' speeches, Ying Zheng looked at Li Nian and asked, "Li Nian, what do you think?"

Seeing Ying Zheng asking about Li Nian, many ministers looked at him, especially those like Wei Liao who were very interested in Li Nian.

Wei Liao originally wanted to have a chat with Li Nian, but he never got the chance. Now he wanted to see what this person had to say.

Li Nian stood up and said, "I think what Minister Wang and Minister Wei said is very good, but I think there are some things that can be added to it."

Ying Zheng said: "Speak!"

Li Nian added: "I think we can pass on reading and writing as a kind of merit in the army. If a general's soldiers know more words, they can be rewarded. If a soldier can recognize more words, he can also be rewarded."

In fact, soldiers were taught to read and write in ancient times. It was not like what modern people subconsciously think, that ancient generals might be literate, but lower-level officers usually had nothing to do with literacy. This was recorded in the unearthed Han bamboo slips.

As far as Li Nian knows, literacy is not prohibited in the Qin army, but not prohibiting it does not mean it will be encouraged. Most Qin soldiers are still illiterate.

Hearing Li Nian's words, Wang Jian asked with great interest, "Do you mean to encourage the generals to teach their soldiers to read and learn to write?"

Some other ministers had different ideas. Li Si thought that it would be enough for the soldiers to just learn to read and obey orders and fight. However, it would be difficult for the soldiers to be obedient after they learned to read and understood the principles.

Chunyu Yue's face showed joy. Although he heard from Su Xu that Li Nian did not like Confucianism very much, his willingness to advise soldiers to learn to read was in line with the Confucian idea of ​​educating all without distinction.

Li Nian nodded and said, "That's right!"

Wang Jian deliberately asked: "If every soldier can read, will they obey the orders of the generals and enforce them? Moreover, if the soldiers can read and understand the art of war, what if they also want to become generals?"

Li Nian replied: "It is not contradictory for soldiers to be literate and obey orders from their generals. On the contrary, after learning to read and write, they will know better why they are fighting, why they should fight, and what they will gain from fighting. This will make them less afraid of life and death, more obedient to orders, and more powerful in fighting."

Ying Zheng has already thought of what Li Nian said about "enlightening the people and starting education", and this should also be implemented among the soldiers.

Wei Liao asked: "How can we make the soldiers know why they are fighting and why they should fight?"

Wei Liao appreciated Li Nian's words, because what Li Nian said was in line with his thoughts.

(End of this chapter)