The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 10 The Young Master's Struggle and Reflection

Li You looked sincere when he spoke.

Fusu then ordered: "With so many people, Zhang Han may not be able to manage them all."

Li You added, "Don't worry, young master. My father has arranged for many officials to take charge. The Minister of the Imperial Household has brought more than ten people to live near Shangshan."

Taking the list handed over by Li You, Fusu saw the name of Shaofuqing on the list, and the name was Wang Ben.

It turned out that General Wang Jian's son was already one of the Nine Ministers in the court, and was the Minister of the Imperial Household, in charge of the emperor's property.

"Are you close to Wang Ben?"

Li You thought for a moment and replied, "I don't know Wang Ben, but I often visit his son Wang Li."

Fusu nodded thoughtfully, and then said, "Thank you for your help, and thank you, teacher."

Li You bowed and took his leave. After leaving Gaoquan Palace, he was still thinking that the young master was as humble and wise as the rumors said.

With the help of the court, Fusu returned to his idle state and once again became the most idle person in the entire Qin Dynasty in this annoying and rainy autumn.

When Fusu had nothing to do, he walked in the Xianyang Palace, visiting the palace while taking a stroll.

The Xianyang Palace is very large. If this imperial palace covering tens of thousands of acres is a home, then this home is a bit too big.

Seeing the young master walk to the plank road in the lake and sit down, Tian An continued, "Back then, the six kingdoms fought for supremacy, and each palace was larger than the last. The various schools of thought would also comment on which kingdom had the largest and most beautiful palace."

The sky is still gloomy and it looks like it is going to rain again.

Fusu asked, "The Xianyang Palace is the best."

Tian An smiled and nodded.

"The palaces of the six kingdoms have all been destroyed, so the only remaining palace left is the Qin Kingdom, which is the largest."

Tian An explained, "In the past, the kings of the Qin Dynasty wanted to achieve their great dream of unifying the world, so they built the Xianyang Palace to be very large. Twenty years ago, the Xianyang Palace at that time also had an imposing aura of dominating the world. As early as a hundred years ago, the Xianyang Palace of the Qin State was larger and more beautiful than that of the other six states."

Fusu stood up again, walked across the plank road, and listened to Tian An's chatter.

Once this old man starts talking, he seems unable to stop. If he talks too much, I'm afraid he will be sad and cry again.

Tian An is the oldest eunuch in the Xianyang Palace. He lived from the same era as Empress Dowager Huayang.

When talking about what happened back then, the old man knew it like the back of his hand.

Sometimes, Fusu had to ask the old man for advice.

Walking to the north of Xianyang Palace, there were many women taking care of various clothes, sweeping the floor, and tidying up miscellaneous items.

The women here saw a young man in a silk robe coming towards them. The young man looked about fifteen or sixteen years old and had a soft black beard.

But when the palace maids saw the old eunuch in black standing next to the young man, they all bowed their heads and saluted.

There were countless beauties in the Xianyang Palace. Some of these beauties were presented by various countries, and some were captured after the countries were defeated in wars.

In short, the current Xianyang Palace is the richest place in the world.

People always want their homes to be as big as possible. This dream has existed since ancient times.

And it is passed down from generation to generation in human genes.

Fusu left without stopping, humming the songs he learned from the fields all the way back to Gaoquan Palace.

It is not difficult to write the small seal script, but it requires a lot of skills to write well.

Fusu wrote a few small seal characters according to his teacher's handwriting, but he could not learn the teacher's writing style.

Then, somewhat unconvinced, he wrote down a simplified Chinese character on the side, compared it with others, and then crossed out the words on the bamboo slip with a knife.

Tian An stood aside and suddenly realized that the young master also had bad moods sometimes. He discovered that the young master hated writing.

Fusu put down the bamboo slips, lay on his side and picked up a book to read.

In spring, Shangyan Mountain was a wasteland. At that time, it was everyone's job to dig canals to irrigate the wasteland.

Now, is what happened at the foot of Shangyan Mountain still your own business?
That is almost becoming a matter of family and country.

Now, I finally don’t have to worry about the things over there, and I don’t have to worry about whether the servants are hungry, whether they have no place to live, or whether they have solved the toilet or hygiene problems.

I thought I could finally put this matter aside and leave it entirely to the court. That would be great.

When people are upset, they should read the books of Zhuangzi.

Learn from Zhuangzi’s attitude towards life.

Seeing that Zhuangzi lived in poverty all his life, yet still managed to live a life of joy like a fish, how can you understand the joy of a fish if you are not me?
Zhuangzi's attitude towards life is indeed worth people's reflection. If you live like Zhuangzi, you will not have so many worries.

Fusu read Zhuangzi because he hoped that he could be like Zhuangzi, free from all worries, forget the hardships of the servants' lives, forget all the servants' joys and sorrows, and even forget their life and death.

Continue to be a carefree prince of Qin.

Why bother with those things?
Are the beauties in the harem of Xianyang Palace not pretty?
Isn’t it nice to eat, drink, form cliques and seek personal gain?

Even if he married Li Si's daughter, lived a more selfish life, and inherited the empire while threatening Li Si, wouldn't that be good?
One night passed...

When Fusu opened his eyes, the sky was still gray and he had not slept well the night before.

After a night of ideological struggle and self-reflection, Fusu was finally defeated by that inexplicable sense of responsibility.

This may be the empathy and sense of responsibility that comes with traveling from the future.

This kind of empathy has long been rooted in my way of thinking. Coming from the working people, I will eventually walk with them.

Only in this way can you feel... at ease.

Fundamentally, this empathy and sense of responsibility comes from where I come from and the land I grew up in.

Fusu really loved this land, both of his lives, he loved it too much.

This emotion and empathy have formed a barrier.

Even reading the Legalist classics three thousand times and the works of various philosophers ten thousand times cannot break the ideological armour.

That spirit is the most powerful weapon from the bottom of your heart. No matter where you are or who you are, always remember it.

When it was completely light, Fusu once again came to Shangyan Mountain under the escort of Meng Tian.

Wang Ben saw that it was the young master who arrived in his carriage and hurried forward to greet him, "Young Master."

Fusu got off the carriage and met the Shaofuqing, who looked to be around forty years old.

General Wang Jian was a great general of the Qin State. His son was also a great general and had made considerable military achievements. He was even the Marquis of Wu of the Qin State.

However, at this moment he was wearing the court robes of a civil servant, and Wang Ben was one of the Nine Ministers, which was probably the Prime Minister's intention.

Fusu walked along the newly built straight road used for transporting supplies and asked, "Has General Wang Jian not returned yet?"

Wang Ben replied respectfully, "I've sent letters home several times. My father will probably return to Guanzhong this winter."

Fusu looked off into the distance and saw Li You organizing the civil servants and arranging the manpower, and Zhang Han, who was holding the sword at his waist with one hand. Zhang Han was supervising a group of servants digging the soil.

Logically speaking, this piece of land was given by my father, so it is the private property of me, a prince of Qin.

Fusu inspected these servants and prisoners brought by Li You, and these people were all his private property.

A person has a mouth, which needs food and water.

The living conditions at the foot of Shangyan Mountain are very simple. In this rainy and windy autumn, if you don’t live well, you will get sick.

Little do people know that managing people is a very tiring job, and it is not easy to make people live a better life.

Even in a small place like my own, it is difficult to manage the daily lives of 3,000 people.

Fusu also saw many prisoners who only had a piece of cloth tied around their waists.

It was already troublesome enough to manage three thousand servants, and if all of them were equipped, it would be a large army.

But now that things have come to this, I can only bite the bullet and do it.

Under Wang Ben's very confused gaze, Fusu simply took over all matters here and personally presided over the construction.

The food for three thousand people had to be self-sufficient. After some calculation, Fusu asked Wang Ben to send the excess food to the army, and the rest was his own.

Wang Ben looked at the many construction projects of the young master written on rolls of bamboo slips.

Every time a scroll was finished, Wang Ben would take a look at it. The young master's small seal script did seem clumsy, but the content was indeed very interesting.

The young master actually arranged working hours for these people.

It is said that the young master's teacher is the current Prime Minister Li Si, but when Wang Ben read what the young master wrote, he found that the young master had arranged in detail what each servant should do every hour.

For example, every servant had to wash and dress every morning, and supervise and check each other. If someone was sick, they had to report it, otherwise they would all be punished.

Even the sleeping times were arranged, and there were people patrolling the night.

After reading it, Wang Ben sighed.

Li You followed Wang Ben's footsteps and waited until there was no one else around before asking, "Why is Young Master Wang sighing?"

Wang Ben said, "Chun Yuyue was worried that the young master would only listen to the Prime Minister's family. Now it seems that the young master is even more lenient than the Prime Minister."

Li You scratched the back of his head and asked doubtfully, "Really?"

Wang Ben looked quite solemn and nodded slowly.

Compared with the harshness of Qin law, the prince's rules are more like military regulations, and the harshness of these military regulations involves all aspects of life.

Even going to the toilet requires going to designated places, which is quite strict.

In fact, Li Si did not teach these things. Fusu just felt that when encountering difficulties, there are always more solutions than difficulties.

Looking at the entire Shangyan Mountain, the family property is actually not much, just three thousand people, five hundred hectares of land, and some land that has not yet been cultivated.

Fusu was very satisfied with the rules he set. If the management was not strict, it was equivalent to no management.

Zhang Han was a very rule-abiding person, and he would firmly enforce his power and rules.

Some of the servants were illiterate, so Zhang Han asked them to recite all the rules.

During this period, the sound of whips was heard several times. Perhaps someone had recited something wrong and was beaten by Zhang Han.

Although I can't read, I can always speak, and if I can speak, I can memorize.

Fusu could occasionally hear them reciting with their respective local accents.

In the autumn in Guanzhong, the autumn rain is intermittent, and Fusu has been personally supervising the construction of canals these days.

The official road is very busy today, with carriages covered with black cloth being sent to Xianyang City.

Covered under the black cloth were carts full of treasures and even a lot of silks and satins.

You can vaguely see a lot of wood, bricks, stones, and even some jade artifacts.

The treasures and spoils of war were delivered first, and another group of Qin troops returned to Guanzhong.

This means that General Wang Jian will be back soon.

When Zhang Han saw the young master beckoning, he quickly stepped forward and said, "Young master."

Fusu stared at the carts of clothes and asked, "Are these clothes confiscated from the battlefield?"

Zhang Han looked up and saw carts full of clothes piled up like mountains. Some of these clothes were obviously torn, with the fabrics tangled together, and there were some bloodstains.

"Yes, sir."

After a battle, soldiers would clean up the battlefield and take away everything they could.

In the eyes of the general, in the face of the interests of the Qin State, population is productivity and needs to be captured, and livestock is a means of production and needs to be transported or redistributed locally.

The dead enemy was of no use, except that he could be used as fertilizer, and his clothes also belonged to the Qin army.

The young master just asked this question. Today during dinner, Zhang Han and Li You sat together eating cakes and talked about what the young master said today.

Li You said, "Master, did you just say that?"

Zhang Han said, "I just asked a question."

During the meal, apart from the hundreds of soldiers in the army, Wang Ben, Li You and Zhang Han sat closest to them.

Wang Ben ate very seriously and did not express any opinions.

Li You said, "My father said that you are extremely talented. You manage these three thousand people like livestock."

Zhang Han sniffed and nodded repeatedly, agreeing: "To deal with prisoners, we must use the most severe rules and whip them."

The next day, after finishing the morning court meeting, Wang Ben had three carts full of clothes sent to Shangyan Mountain.

Zhang Han had a pond dug, and soaked all the clothes in the pond, and then washed and dried them.

People in nearby villages and counties are very curious about what this newly built village at the foot of Shangyan Mountain looks like.

The people in this village were dressed simply, and their houses were made of mud and straw. No one here even had a decent piece of clothing to wear.

Especially during this autumn rainy season, the ground is muddy and most people are still barefoot.

At noon, a strange sight appeared by the canal of Shangyan Mountain. A large group of men were washing clothes by the canal. They washed clothes all day long, and at night, all the clothes were hung up to dry in the sun.

Looking from the mountain, these rows of clothes hanging out to dry look very neat.

That night, a group of prisoners tried to escape. Zhang Han personally chased them for several miles before he caught them back and beat them to death beside the excavated canal.

It was not until the next day that Fusu learned the news and realized that he was still living in this barbaric and simple era.

In this way, Fusu learned another lesson and gained new insights. Strict rules also require strict enforcement.

(End of this chapter)