Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 239: Thirty-one Years of the Emperor

"His Majesty!"

When the sun was high in the sky,
Hei Zhuang went to the palace to report to the emperor, "Those alchemists have been killed!"

The emperor nodded casually and took out a new document to look at.

At the beginning of this year,
The emperor issued a new decree requiring the unification of writing and currency.

Compared with other things the emperor did, this one was much smoother to implement.

After all, writing is just a tool to assist communication, and the writing popular in various countries all originated from the Zhou Dynasty.

What's more, the countries are not completely isolated from each other.

The envoys sent by the princes,
You must be able to speak other countries’ languages and write other countries’ characters, right?
Talents from various countries also flow around.

How can one get an official position if he can't even write the local language?

Therefore,

Although the writing systems of various countries have been differentiated for hundreds of years, there is a possibility of unification in many aspects.

The Qin State "taught with the law and officials as teachers", and required that officials from top to bottom be able to write Qin's official text.

Even if some local officials were dissatisfied with the emperor sitting high in Xianyang and pretended to obey the government orders but secretly disobeyed them...

You have to pretend though!
How can you not even understand the emperor's orders!

Not long after the unified writing system was adopted,

The emperor once again issued a new decree, "ordering the people to cultivate their own land."

The emperor said to his ministers, "At present, there are still many remnants of the Zhou system, and there are many places among the people who do not follow my laws."

"I want to count the land in the country to clarify the situation and stabilize the taxation."

But measuring land has always been a very offensive and stressful matter.

Although in terms of system, it was not until after the unification of the Qin Dynasty that a decree was issued to completely abolish the feudal system and the well-field system.

But in fact, private ownership of land has existed for hundreds of years.

Now it is just a matter of making things that are tacitly accepted by the people become legal.

Man is based on the earth.

Birth, aging, sickness and death are all inseparable from the land beneath our feet and the water flowing beside us.

Planting and harvesting food,

Catch the fish.

If all else fails, you can go into the mountains and forests to hunt and pick things, and you will always be able to find something.

So, how much can be obtained from the land?
That means how much wealth a person can have.

Therefore, "fighting for land" has become the "nature" passed down to the people of Xia by their ancestors since the wilderness.

During the Zhou Dynasty, in order to consolidate his rule and promote production when copper and iron tools were in short supply, the "well-field" system was established.

But such a system,

It will eventually change and collapse with the times.

This was true of Lu's "initial taxation based on acreage", Qi's "assessing the land and reducing taxation", and even Qin's "abolishing the well-field system and opening up paths and paths".

However, as land privatization becomes more widespread and in-depth, new problems are gradually emerging.

The nobles occupied more and more land.
The amount of land available to civilians is decreasing.

Under the residual influence of the "Well-field System", both nobles and common people believed that this was a normal thing.

Since you are born noble,

Then there should be a lot of wealth and fertile and vast land to nourish this precious bloodline that has been passed down from ancient times.

It is a great blessing for civilians to own their own land!

Other than that,

The nobles would also refuse to pay taxes because "this is what I deserve".
For their own interests, the emerging farmer landlords would also try to hide their land and avoid paying too much money.

So the emperor's new order,
It is bound to make many people unhappy.

Although in the emperor's view,
He did not send a large number of officials and soldiers to measure the land with knives and measuring tools. He just let the people themselves report the amount of land they occupied, which was already very tolerant.

Moreover, he not only asked the people in Shandong to report, but also asked the people in Qin to carry out the same order.

There is no favoritism towards either side.

But who would be willing to cooperate and disclose their part, or even all, of their property?

Once you get to the bottom of it,

I'm about to be exposed!

As a result, many voices were raised between the court and the public, inside and outside Hangu Pass, believing that this was a manifestation of the emperor's attempt to "control everything."

He forcibly relocated the population.

Forced the people to build the Great Wall,
The Baiyue in the south and the Xiongnu in the north were all tortured by him.

right now,

He is going to cause trouble for the people in the country again!

Some of the opposition came from the alchemist in Xianyang who was responsible for making elixirs for the emperor!

After returning from Mount Tai, the emperor suddenly changed his attitude and alienated many alchemists.

However, since the emperor still had the bad habit of staying up late to review documents, some elixirs made by alchemists could indeed cheer the emperor up.

So the emperor did not expel them completely.

He still takes drugs occasionally, but his purpose has changed.

From the original pursuit of immortality,
It became a matter of cheering up and trying to solve more problems for his successor before the end of his life.

But the pursuit of a lower

There are many unemployed alchemists!

How well they had been doing before.
As long as one relayed legends and myths from all over the country to the emperor and boasted about one's own abilities, one could receive a lot of rewards from the emperor.

It is normal that "immortality" is precious and difficult to achieve.
It is normal that they have acquired a lot of wealth and hold a high status, but their work is not completed on time!
What's the result now?
The emperor only reserved special treatment for a few people, and it was difficult for others to get anything from the emperor no matter how hard they tried.

Therefore, many unemployed alchemists became resentful towards the emperor. They began to spread the word:
"The emperor has been pursuing immortality for so long, but he has been unable to achieve it. The root cause is that he is rejected by the immortals and gods."

It's not that we have a problem.
It’s all the emperor’s fault!

"Now he has gone against the will of the people and issued too many cruel and harsh decrees. His rule will not last much longer!"

When the emperor heard this, he was naturally furious.

It was not easy to deal with local opponents of measuring land.

But these alchemists were originally kept by the emperor in Xianyang, and their reliance came from the emperor. What trouble would it be in arresting them?

then,

The emperor ordered these guys to be killed as a deterrent.

Heizhuang is responsible for this matter.

And this order successfully frightened those who were shouting.

Many people lamented the emperor's cruelty.
But the voices against Dutian have indeed become smaller.

Now the alchemists have merged into the earth and become nutrients.
I think after this, the voices of opposition will become even weaker.

"…How are your offspring doing lately?"

After reading the document, the emperor rubbed his sore eyes and asked about the situation.

His eldest son Yi was assigned by the emperor to count the "actual land" and is now very busy.

of course,

Hei Zhuang knew very well that the emperor would not care about his son.

After all, he had worked like a slave for the emperor for so many years, and had taken on many "heavy responsibilities" of defrauding people and confiscating their property, but the emperor had never cared about his health.

It’s nothing more than that Prince Fusu was also involved in this matter!

So Hei Zhuang said with a smile, "He did a good job, and the eldest son is also very good!"

"I think we can learn a lot from this incident and understand the difficulties of governing a country."

"Your Majesty's painstaking efforts as a father, the eldest son will surely understand!"

After hearing this, the emperor just snorted and said in an angry tone, "I just wanted to rebuke him for his stupidity and naivety. What could I have done?"

Fusu aspires to be a benevolent ruler.
But they don’t know that there are too many things in the world and benevolence alone is not enough.

So in the past two years, the emperor has relaxed some of his restrictions on him, not only allowing him to participate in court discussions, but also allowing him to handle some affairs, understand the principles of doing things, and accumulate fame and experience.

The father and son still quarrel because of their different views and ways of doing things, but overall, the relationship is much more harmonious than before.

The father becomes more like a father,

My son is also gradually maturing.

It’s just that neither side has spoken out about the changes, and there are occasional awkward moments.

For this,

What can Hei Zhuang say?
He could only cooperate with the emperor, pretending to be terrified and bowing his head to the ground.

"I am so bold that I dare to guess your majesty's intentions!"

"Please don't punish me for this, Your Majesty!"

The emperor snorted at him again and pardoned his sin.

Zhongshu Ling Zhao Gao came over and reported to the emperor:
"The young master and the eldest grandson are fighting again!"

The face of this emperor's confidant still bore the marks of having been unfortunately affected by the fight between children when he tried to stop it.

The small slap mark on Zhao Gao's fair face was very eye-catching.

Hei Zhuang sighed, "Oh, the fight has started again!"

"I really don't know where their hatred comes from!"

Prince Hu Hai is the emperor's beloved youngest son, and is now five years old.

The emperor's eldest grandson, Ying Pijiang, is already three years old.

Because Fusu had been busy with government affairs recently, the emperor took him and his mother to the Xianyang Palace to raise them for a period of time.

And because the two children were not much different in age, the emperor wanted them to play together to enhance the relationship between uncle and nephew.

In his opinion,

Ying Pijiang is his eldest grandson and will inherit the throne in the future.

Hu Hai could gain many benefits by growing up with him.

But I don't know why.
This uncle and nephew seemed to be natural enemies and would fight whenever they met.

Since Zhao Gao was responsible for the enlightenment of Prince Hu Hai, he had to follow him, so he was often forced to participate in the "royal war".

He would often receive a slap on the face from the emperor's eldest grandson.

Don't underestimate Ying Pijiang because he is small.
But the beating was to death.

The emperor glared angrily, "How ignorant!"

He sent someone to bring the two children over and asked them what the fight had caused.

Hu Hai was two years older and spoke more fluently. As soon as they met, he started crying out in complaint and wanted to get into his father's arms for comfort.

"It's all his fault!"

"How can a nephew hit his uncle?"

Ying Pijiang couldn't argue with him, so he also cried loudly, followed Hu Hai and ran to the emperor, vying for the emperor's arms, and shouted in a childish voice:
"It's Hu Hai, Hu Hai bullied me!"

"He stole my things!"

"He also wants Zhao Gao to help beat me!"

The emperor's head was aching from their noise.

Hei Zhuang lowered his head and counted his beard. He didn't dare to look up or speak, for fear that he would be affected.

At last,
Both children were punished by the emperor, and they each held their red palms and cried in grievance.

(End of this chapter)