The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 34 The Prince's Power

Until the sun set, Prince Fusu was still standing in front of Zhangtai Palace. The guards on duty had been replaced, but the court meeting still showed no signs of ending.

The eunuchs standing in the back had their feet sore from standing so long, but seeing Prince Fusu still standing there, as if he was thinking with his eyes closed, he just stood there motionless.

Finally, there were chaotic voices, followed by intermittent footsteps.

The dense footsteps made it seem like everyone was in a hurry.

Fusu looked up and saw people in court robes, talking in groups of three or four, walking down the steps of Zhangtai Palace.

At the forefront are the Qilu doctors, and there are more and more Qilu doctors in the court now.

Listening to their words, they were all talking about things related to Zhou rituals.

Walking at the front of this group of Qilu doctors was Chunyu Yue.

To be honest, Fusu felt that he was not familiar with Chunyu Yue, but when he saw the other party coming towards him and bowing, he realized that he was not very familiar with Chunyu Yue.

Fusu also bowed with both hands.

Compared to the last two years when I saw Chunyu Yue, it seemed that Chunyu Yue had aged more than ten years in the past two years since Li Si became the prime minister of the Qin Dynasty.

"I heard that the young master has completed the construction of the Xianyang Bridge."

Fusu replied, "Yes, I have come to report this to my father."

Chunyu Yue nodded slightly and left with a team of doctors.

On the higher steps of the Zhangtai Palace, Zhang Cang, who had not yet walked down the steps after the court meeting, also noticed Prince Fusu.

Li Si walked forward nonchalantly and said, "Sir, you can ask someone else to report the completion of the Xianyang Bridge."

Zhang Cang slowly lowered his head and said, "This matter should have been reported to His Majesty."

Li Si laughed again and said, "Is this also what you taught the young master?"

"I wonder what the Prime Minister means?"

Hearing the other party's slightly uneasy tone, Li Si whispered, "This is also good. They don't know why you are standing here waiting for the court meeting to end. How could you and I not see it?"

Zhang Cang took a step back.

Li Si patted his back and whispered, "Young Master has grown up and wants power."

Zhang Cang still frowned and maintained the posture of saluting.

"Ever since Shang Yang's reforms, power has always been conferred upon those who have made contributions. My Lord, you built the Xianyang Bridge. If you want to gain more power, you naturally need to come to the Zhangtai Palace in person."

Listening to the Prime Minister's words, Zhang Cang still bowed and said nothing.

Li Si was still smiling with satisfaction. Couldn't Zhang Cang see it?
Haha, then Chunyu Yue...most of them could see it.

Zhang Cang's speech was always eloquent, which made Li Si at a loss as to how to control him.

It is certainly not a bad thing to have a Prince Fusu who wants power. Li Si thinks it is a great thing for Qin to have such an enterprising prince!
The prince's actions and motives made Li Si happy from the bottom of his heart. Otherwise, who could the future of the Qin Dynasty be entrusted to? Naturally, it would be the prince Fusu who was growing up and had already shown some brilliance.

Who said that the young master has lived by the Xianyang Bridge for nearly a year and has almost forgotten the affairs of the court?

Who said that the young master had nothing to do this year by the Xianyang Bridge?

Who says that the young man who spent two years digging canals and one year building bridges has no interest in state affairs?

After not seeing each other for nearly a year, Li Si realized that the young master was really different.

Li Si also felt that Zhang Cang, who was by his side, had taught him well. Before Zhang Cang participated in government affairs, he would stand at the steps of the Zhangtai Palace, waiting to be summoned by the emperor.

Moreover, Li Si concluded in his heart that the prince wanted to gain power, and this was what Zhang Cang taught him.

"Prime Minister, His Majesty has summoned you."

Hearing this, Li Si, who was standing in front of the hall, turned and walked into the hall.

Zhang Cang stood there, stunned for a moment, and then walked down the stairs.

Walking down the stone steps, Zhang Cang bowed and said, "Young Master."

Fusu said, "Teacher, I haven't seen you for two months."

Zhang Cang said, "The Prime Minister has gone to see His Majesty and will summon you shortly."

As soon as he finished speaking, a eunuch came hurriedly, "Sir, His Majesty summons you."

"Fusu will go see the emperor first."

Zhang Cang thought for a moment and then hurried to the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Fusu walked into the empty Zhangtai Palace, while the First Emperor was still sitting inside, looking at a scroll of bamboo slips by the light of the candlestick.

Prime Minister Li Si was standing nearby, discussing the strategy for relocating the people.

Fusu walked to the side and listened to the prime minister's words.

There are still hidden dangers in this world, including the eager Xiongnu in the north and the desire of the old nobles of the six countries to restore their country. Now there are constant conflicts in the south.

Fusu stood quietly by and listened to what Prime Minister Li Si said.

In his speech, Prime Minister Li Si advocated first relocating 50,000 people to the area south of Shuzhong, with the main location probably in the southwest.

According to the prime minister, the people should be relocated first. If relocation still cannot bring peace, then we should fight.

Fusu stood aside without saying a word, breathing quietly and listening to the prime minister finish his speech.

The First Emperor was still sitting there, having read several scrolls of bamboo slips, but still did not speak.

The hall was very quiet, with only the voice of Prime Minister Li Si, and even the sound of Li Si's breathing while speaking, clearly audible.

Li Si spoke for about half an hour. The First Emperor, still looking at the bamboo slips, said in a low voice, "Send Tu Ju to Shuzhong to take a look."

Upon hearing this, Li Si bowed and saluted.

Ying Zheng then noticed his son standing in the hall. He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Is the Xianyang Bridge completed?"

"Reporting to the Emperor, the Xianyang Bridge has been completed."

"Appoint him as the Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household and build the Guanzhong Canal." Ying Zheng glanced up at his son, who had grown considerably taller after not seeing him for nearly a year. He then gave him another order: "Wang Ben has been busy with military matters lately, and Meng Tian is building the Great Wall in the north. The position of Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household is vacant. You will lead all Junior Secretary affairs, and later on, you will be appointed as the Chief of the Capital Waterworks."

"My son, take your orders."

Ying Zheng nodded slightly.

Li Si understood and bowed, saying, "I'll take my leave."

Upon hearing this, Fusu followed him out of Zhangtai Palace.

The two put on their shoes again outside the Zhangtai Palace. Fusu asked, "Teacher, have you been arguing with the doctors lately?"

Li Si put on his shoes, took two steps and said, "Don't worry, my lord. Chunyu Yue and his ilk are nothing to worry about."

Of course, the teacher would never take those people seriously.

As they walked down the Zhangtai Palace, Li Si lagged behind the young master by half a step and said, "People like Chunyu Yue simply hope that Qin will follow the Zhou rituals."

The court has been arguing about this matter for a long time. I don’t know if Li Si is annoyed or not.

Fusu felt that his ears were about to get calluses from listening to it so many times, yet those people kept mentioning it again and again, enjoying it endlessly.

Arriving at the gate of the Imperial Censorate, Li Si saw the young master stop and said, "Now that you are the Minister of the Imperial Household, you should read more documents."

"Fusu will remember the teacher's teachings." When Prince Fusu walked into the Censorate, the Censors who were originally busy here all looked up and were stunned for a moment.

Right Prime Minister Feng Quji stood up and saluted, saying, "I have heard that you have always enjoyed reading documents from various places, so I have arranged a place for you."

There is a special seat next to the bookshelf in the Censorate, and there is even a candlestick next to it.

Fusu saw some newer bamboo slips and asked, "Are these all the documents collected this year?"

When the young master asked the question, no one responded immediately for a while, not knowing whether it was because everyone was nervous.

Seeing this, Cheng Miao put down his pen, stood up, supported by the table, and walked quickly to the young master's side. He explained, "Young master, these are the documents sent to Xianyang after the beginning of autumn."

As he spoke, he pointed to a few of the scrolls and said, "This one is from Yan, this one is from Shangjun, and this one is from Chu."

Fusu listened to his words and said, "Huh? Cheng Miao, I haven't seen you for a year, and you're still here."

"It has indeed been a year since Cheng Miao and Young Master last met." He bowed with a smile and said, "I am an official of the Imperial Censorate, so I should be here."

When these words were spoken, the rest of the people in the Censorate were surprised. When did Cheng Miao become friends with Prince Fusu?

Thinking again, it seemed that Cheng Miao was the only one in the Censorate during the cold winter, and the young master was very studious.

Someone whispered, "Prince Fusu hasn't returned to the palace for a year because he was repairing the Xianyang Bridge."

Indeed, I haven't seen Prince Fusu for this whole year.

Building a bridge takes a whole year. Now that I am finally back, I don’t even think about resting, but come to the Censorate to check the documents.

Someone else said, "When the young master submitted the file for the bridge construction, he stood outside the Zhangtai Palace for a whole afternoon."

The person who spoke lowered his voice and nodded confidently to the people around him as he spoke.

Now everyone knows how diligent the First Emperor was.

Prince Fusu is worthy of being the son of the First Emperor. Some people think that the successor of the Qin Dynasty will be popular.

These words, some good and some bad, drifted to the ears of the Right Prime Minister. Feng Quji glared at him, and then everyone stopped talking in disappointment.

While Fusu was looking at the documents, he wanted to ask Cheng Miao a few more questions, so Cheng Miao simply sat next to the young master.

While reading, he wrote down the key points of various documents, which were probably about how many acres of land there were in which county in Wei, how many acres of land per household, or how many people were in which county. These were the things that happened in the first few years after Qin unified the six kingdoms.

These documents can help Fusu better understand the general situation in various places.

As dusk approached, officials in the Censorate left one after another.

It was completely dark outside the house, and Cheng Miao was sitting by the wall, half asleep.

Until a whiff of fragrance wafted into his nose, Cheng Miao opened his eyes slightly, and saw two stoves and a tall and thin old man wearing eunuch's clothes in front of him.

After rubbing his eyes again, Cheng Miao saw that it was the young master cooking at the stove. Realizing that he had fallen asleep and was not in control, he stood up and said, "Young master, I..."

Fusu filled a bowl of noodles and handed it to him, saying, "It's okay, eat some first."

Just when he was hungry, Cheng Miao held the bowl handed to him by the young master, looked at the noodle soup in the bowl, and his old face turned red.

Fusu said: "This is mutton noodles, eat slowly."

Cheng Miao nodded while eating.

Fusu asked again: "Normally, I copied this document and took it back to read. The original volume was put back in its place."

Cheng Miao slurped the noodles happily and nodded continuously.

The young master had dinner and left.

Cheng Miao was still savoring the bowl of mutton noodles. He extinguished the oil lamps and candlesticks in the Censorate's Mansion alone, then walked outside and closed the door.

In the late autumn night, the cold wind whistled past. Perhaps because of the bowl of mutton noodles, Cheng Miao felt that the wind was not cold tonight.

The next day, Fusu went to the court meeting early. Today's court meeting talked about the construction of the Great Wall and the second major event of moving people north to guard the border.

The court meeting ended in the afternoon.

Today, Fusu did not go to the Censorate, but returned to Gaoquan Palace.

The canal digging work at Shangyan Mountain had achieved considerable results. Fusu was reading the military report sent by Zhang Han, which even mentioned which family had given birth to several extra children.

Tian An came hurriedly and said, "Sir, I have sent someone to inquire, and your letter has indeed been delivered to Censor Zhang's residence."

Generally speaking, letters given to teacher Zhang Cang would receive a reply the next morning.

There was no reply this time, probably because he was really busy with the important matter of standardizing the writing system and the railway gauge and had no time to care about other things.

Fusu also divided the many personnel of Shang Yanshan, subdivided the manpower, and divided them into positions according to people's current working methods and processes.

From then on, they were all servants with positions. Fusu tried to plant the concept of position as a seed in Shangyan Mountain.

Fusu hopes that more people will respect their jobs and be able to stay at their posts at critical moments.

Halfway through writing, Fusu asked Tian An, who was cleaning the stove, "If I want to do everything to the best, am I too greedy?"

Tian An wiped the stove briskly with a piece of cloth and replied, "I will do my best to fulfill your orders, sir."

Fusu smiled helplessly, thinking that the old man had misunderstood.

Well... Fusu continued writing, writing down the detailed positions one by one.

In fact, the soldiers of the Qin Dynasty are all extremely loyal, but Fusu hopes that there will be more people to do their job well. Shang Yanshan will be very busy in the next few years.

This is not just a matter of digging a canal and calling it a day.

The young master wrote three volumes of bamboo slips, which were immediately sent out of the palace and taken all the way to Shangyan Mountain.

Zhang Han, who was in charge of the canal construction, was sitting by the canal with a map hanging behind him. The map showed the appearance of the entire canal.

"General, the young master's letter."

Three scrolls of bamboo slips were placed on the table, and Zhang Han finished the celery in his hand in one breath.

This time, the scrolls sent by the young master contained a lot of content. The more Zhang Han read, the more he frowned. He then called Mao Heng and Shusun Tong.

If Zhang Cang were here at this time, he might be able to fulfill the young master's instructions in just a few words.

Shusun Tongdao said: "Actually, these things are not difficult to do."

Shusun Tong usually taught children to read and write. This old teacher was very resourceful and always had some unexpected wisdom.

Also because of his own marriage, Zhang Han now relies heavily on him.

Shusun Tongdao: "It's actually not difficult to arrange positions."

Zhang Han nodded.

"But if we want people to love their jobs and be dedicated to their work, we need someone to tell them." Shusun Tong nodded slowly and said, "I teach the children to read, so they can tell others about it every day."

Zhang Han said, "Master, what you said is reasonable. Children understand this principle. Parents will understand it, and they dare not fail to understand it."

Shusun Tong smiled and nodded.

"I will write down the countermeasures and have someone give it to you, young master."

The sound of children playing could be heard outside the house again. Shusun Tong discovered that although Zhang Han had someone to rely on, he would not let an old man like him do whatever he wanted. The generals of Qin were indeed extraordinary.

(End of this chapter)