Ying Fusu

After speaking, Fusu still had that faint smile on his face, his gaze fixed intently on Meng Yi, as if he were truly waiting for Meng Yi's response.

But all the officials and courtiers in the palace knew that Meng Yi could not provide an answer to this question.

—In one county, hundreds of militiamen were conscripted and personally escorted by the local village head;

Several men fled halfway, forcing the village head to give up entirely and let all the militiamen escape, while he himself became an outlaw.

What may seem like an ordinary case actually exposes many problems facing the Qin Dynasty today.

One of them is the system of collective punishment, which has been repeatedly criticized as "too harsh" since Qin unified the world.

Even the lowest-ranking official, a pavilion chief, was still a well-ordered official with a copper seal on his waist and a salary of 100 shi (a unit of grain).

When the First Emperor abolished the feudal system and implemented the prefecture-county system throughout the country, he was able to control the country by relying on grassroots officials such as village chiefs and stewards.

In the case that Fusu heard, several people escaped during the night from the labor service team escorted by Liu Tingzhang.

According to the unique "collective punishment" system of the Qin Law, if such an incident occurred, the village head Liu, as well as the accompanying constables, soldiers, and even other militiamen who assisted in the escort, would all be punished.

There's no need to specifically look up the Qin Laws to find out the exact form of punishment;

If you can drive someone to become an outlaw, even if it's not a capital offense, how good can it be?

This forced a village head, who was supposed to help the Qin court control the counties and prefectures of the country and manage the local grassroots, to become an outlaw.

One of our own people has suddenly become a destabilizing factor for local security.

This is a systemic problem.

If left unchecked, it will certainly not be an isolated case.

In the future, countless other village chiefs will make similar choices to that of Liu, the village chief of Sishui, because of similar circumstances.

...

Secondly, there is the core issue in this case that is most easily overlooked.

—On the way to Lishan, some militiamen escaped under cover of night.

Why did they flee?

Knowing that doing this would make him a wanted man, a capital offense, and would also implicate his family—why did he still choose to flee?

This can only mean that for those who fled, going to Lishan to perform forced labor was worse than death.

What could be more terrifying than death?

Life is better than death.

For the young and strong laborers who were conscripted, going to Lishan to perform forced labor was worse than death—they would rather risk their lives to escape than obediently submit.

The root of this problem probably lies in what Meng Yi just mentioned: exhausting their strength and destroying their will.

A person who is guilty and unforgivable, but cannot be executed due to certain concerns, can indeed expend energy and wear down their will through heavy physical labor.

There's not much to say about that.

But what if this method were used on innocent people who were simply conscripted for labor?

Then this is no longer a proper way to deal with evildoers.

Instead, it is undoubtedly an act of oppressing the people.

As for why the methods that should have been used on prisoners and convicts were used on ordinary people?

Again.

At this moment, none of those who were present in the main hall of Xianyang Palace to participate in this court meeting were mediocre.

They are all shrewd people who have been through the ups and downs of officialdom. Who wouldn't see through the intricacies of this place?

—To wear down the spirit and will of the remnants of the six states and the convicts through heavy physical labor.

That's true.

It is indeed feasible and can be considered a brilliant idea.

But the problem is that this is a strategic concept at the level of the imperial court.

Ideas at this level would never be passed down to the grassroots.

Especially after the publication of Shang Yang's "Five Arts of Governing the People," it became even more impossible!

When the imperial court conscripts convicts, it never informs the local prefectures and counties: the purpose of this is to "deplete their strength and break their will," so that the convicts cannot cause trouble.

All he could say was: The First Emperor wanted to build the Great Wall/the Straight Road/his mausoleum/the Epang Palace, and he needed manpower;

According to the calculations of the Imperial Household Department, approximately this number of people are needed.

You should divide them among your counties and districts, gather enough people, and send them to where they are supposed to go.

The original intention was, of course, to have local authorities send convicts and criminals—especially remnants of the six former states—to fill these graves.

But those at the grassroots level have no way of knowing this, let alone understanding the intricacies involved.

They will only treat this matter as a political task or indicator, and implement it without compromise, or even with embellishment.

The higher-ups need 100 people, but our county only has 80 inmates. What should we do?

—Add another 40 able-bodied farmers to make a total of 120 people to send over!

When it comes to tasks assigned by superiors, we'd rather exceed them than cut corners!

What?

Are young adults not convicts?

That's easy!

They can just find any excuse and accuse someone of a crime.

Fighters, arguing, idlers—or at the very least, those who "don't look like good people."

Whether the common people are guilty or not is up to the government to decide.

...

This was the case not only for local government offices responsible for conscripting laborers, but also for the imperial departments responsible for specific projects.

No one told them that these projects were merely a means to an end; the strategic purpose of launching them was to "deplete the strength and destroy the will" of the remnants of the six states.

All they knew was that orders had been given from above.

And it was a direct order.

How many people to allocate, how much money to allocate, and the requirement to complete this project within a certain timeframe.

What else is there to say?

As long as you don't die, fight to the death!

What?

The personnel transferred were almost entirely convicts?

That would be even better!

Even if it kills you, fight to the death!

The task assigned by the higher-ups is the most important!

Is the life of a convict even a life?

...

……

What made all the officials and courtiers in the palace feel a deep sense of sorrow was that it wasn't just the local counties and prefectures;

It's not just the department responsible for these projects;

Even among the court officials, none of them ever heard the First Emperor mention the "true strategic purpose" of these major projects.

In the past, people only thought that the Great Wall and the Straight Road were military facilities that the First Emperor decided to build for military purposes.

The Lishan Imperial Mausoleum was a vanity project built by the First Emperor to boast about his achievements.

As for the Epang Palace, it was built by the First Emperor to boast about the Qin Dynasty and his own achievements, and to provide for his own extravagant enjoyment.

Although everyone could vaguely sense that the First Emperor seemed to be intentionally giving convicts and criminals something to do in order to prevent local security from being affected by these people;

But it wasn't until today, when Meng Yi told everyone himself, that they were certain of their guess.

Only then did they realize that this was actually the First Emperor's main and true objective.

The utility and significance of these buildings are, in fact, incidental...

...

"The First Emperor's achievements surpassed those of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, unparalleled throughout history."

"What they think and worry about is beyond our comprehension."

"It was a well-intentioned act, intended to keep prisoners and criminals from committing evil deeds by subjecting them to heavy labor."

"But once the decree is passed down, things change..."

Seeing that all the officials looked thoughtful, Fusu understood that the court officials had realized the crux of the problem.

At the same time, Fusu also felt a strange sense of melancholy for that charming ancestor, his father in this life.

This is the inevitable consequence of an emperor placing himself at the absolute center of power.

—Just do what I want to do and how I want to do it;

They simply don't bother to consider whether this approach might deviate from the original goal for some reason.

Such is the case;

The goal that the First Emperor wanted to achieve was that all the criminals and prisoners in the country would be so exhausted by the massive construction projects that they could not lift their heads, and that the prisons in the local counties would be empty, with no one to cause trouble anymore.

However, the officials in charge of the specific implementation plan were only thinking about fulfilling the tasks assigned by their superiors: building the Great Wall, paving straight roads, or the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum and the Weinan Afang Palace.

In order to complete the task, especially to complete it as quickly as possible and thus please the superiors, it is only natural to shorten the construction period.

The simplest way to shorten the construction period is, of course, to add more manpower.

Specifically, it would be roughly like the following situation.

—The First Emperor learned that there were approximately one million convicts in Guandong.

Using these million convicts as labor for the Great Wall, the Straight Road, and the Imperial Tombs projects would probably keep them in line for about ten years.

Moreover, these three projects are indeed beneficial to the country.

Therefore, an order was issued: these three projects will officially commence, with a construction period of ten years for each.

As a result, the officials below were all eager to show off, to gain political achievements, and to "exceed their targets";

Orders were issued layer by layer, and the construction period was repeatedly pushed back;

In the end, it was actually suppressed for five years!

When the construction period is shortened, the number of people conscripted will also increase accordingly—if the construction period is halved, the number of people will naturally double.

Thus, in addition to the million convicts planned by the First Emperor, another million laborers were forced into the ranks of "convicts" to perform forced labor by the local authorities, who used every means at their disposal.

The First Emperor looked at it and thought: Something's not right?

Isn't it a million prisoners?

How did they manage to recruit two million people so easily?

snort!

There must be some criminals who weren't fully counted, which is why there's such a big discrepancy!

They thought they had one million, but they ended up collecting two million...

Will there be more?

I must give it a try.

Let's see if the local counties can still recruit convicts.

So he issued another order: to launch the Epang Palace project.

What can local officials do?

The project still needs to be completed, the deadline needs to be extended, and more manpower needs to be added.

Let's do it then~

Isn't it just a 'convict'?

There's plenty of it...

……

The First Emperor meticulously planned and schemed, but he never imagined that his officials would completely disregard his ambitions and the grand blueprint he had laid out for the Qin Dynasty.

They can't even understand it.

The officials below only knew that if a task was assigned from above, then they had to carry it out.

If you execute well, you can get promoted.

The better you execute, the faster you get promoted and the higher you can rise.

You can gradually climb to the top step by step...

Cough cough cough...

...

The order was given to build the Great Wall, so we built it.

And it needs to be built faster and better.

As for why it was built, and why convicts were used to build it—does that matter?

Now that I understand, will I get a promotion?

If you can't get promoted, why even think about it?

...

Even so, the First Emperor remained immersed in his dream of "strategic planning," believing that he had made use of all the unstable factors in the world, turning them into fuel for the construction of the Qin Dynasty.

The officials and bureaucrats were all immersed in their own dreams of "getting promoted and making a fortune," believing that they had always exceeded the tasks assigned by the First Emperor, and that becoming a prime minister and a marquis was only a matter of time.

In the unnoticed corners, countless Chen Shengs and Wu Guangs silently endured everything they shouldn't have had to bear.

The resentment that reached the heavens gathered in the sky, blotting out the sun and plunging the Qin Dynasty into darkness;

Then, Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, and others raised their voices, igniting the flames of war with their blood, and bringing light back to the world...

...

"The Imperial Physician, perhaps he forgot?"

After a long silence, Fusu finally let Meng Yi go.

Instead of waiting for Meng Yi to give an answer that didn't exist, she took the initiative to speak, offering Meng Yi a way out.

"In the past two years, I have been sent to Shangjun by the First Emperor’s decree, and not only as a military supervisor."

"He was also assisting his teacher in supervising the construction of the Great Wall."

...

"I know—I know it by my own eyes and by asking myself."

"At the foot of the Great Wall, there are not only remnants of the six kingdoms, criminals and convicts."

"And there are the farmers who should be working hard, paying taxes and performing labor for our Great Qin."

"They could have been the foundation of our Great Qin."

"Now they bow their heads to the north wall, shedding sweat and even blood, only to be buried at the border."

As he spoke, Fusu let out a long sigh and looked up at the officials in the hall.

"Gentlemen, what kind of people do you think their descendants will become?"

"The very foundation of the nation that pays taxes and performs military service and corvée labor for my Great Qin?"

"Or is it the root of the chaos, harboring resentment and waiting for the remnants of the six states to raise their arms and rise up against Qin?"

...

"I imagine that none of you gentlemen would consider it to be the former."

"If it is the latter, what should our Great Qin do?"

"continue?"

"—Should we continue to treat them like their fathers and grandfathers, using one unprecedented spectacle after another to exhaust their strength and break their will?"

"Continue to treat them like enemies, instead of regarding them as subjects of my Great Qin???"

His resounding words left all the court officials speechless, and they all bowed their heads.

Then Fusu turned his head again and stared straight at Meng Yi, who was in the center of the hall and looked slightly stunned.

"The Imperial Physician must have heard similar things before, right?"

"Although Qin destroyed the six states, the people of those states could not easily become Qin citizens."

"Even I have heard these words. Are there any of you gentlemen who haven't heard them yet?"

...

What does this mean?

"Are they people from the six states, unwilling to become subjects of my Great Qin?"

"—Farmers who bow their heads to the fields, living hand to mouth, their families destroyed at the slightest disturbance."

"The common people, who have almost no time to worry about anything except for basic sustenance."

"Would they truly oppose my Great Qin for the sake of their destroyed homeland?"

"Or perhaps, it's not that they are unwilling to be subjects of Qin;"

"It's because our Great Qin has never treated them as its own people..."

By the end, Fusu's tone was filled with deep emotion.

Three million.

In just ten years, a feudal unified dynasty with a population of less than 30 million had 3 million people conscripted to perform deadly and arduous labor.

Not to mention these three million people, more than half of them are not unforgivable, and may even have never committed a crime;

Even if—even if these three million people were all remnants of those who had risked their lives for the six states and fought against Qin;

Given that the total population was less than 30 million, Fusu would never have considered them as resources to be used for the development and expansion of the Qin Dynasty.

Even without considering public sentiment, the mere mention of "population" is enough for Fusu to devise a more appropriate method to settle this massive group that accounts for more than one-tenth of the population of Qin.

In the past, Fusu could not change anything.

But right now, everything is in Fusu's hands.

As the second emperor of Qin, Fusu was determined to reverse this grave mistake and pull the Qin Dynasty back from its rapid march toward destruction.

To achieve this goal—to prevent the Qin Dynasty from collapsing after only two generations—Fusu's first task was to continue the First Emperor's legacy and push for unification.

When Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he only unified their territories.

Standardizing writing, unifying cart tracks, and standardizing weights and measures constitutes a unified culture.

What Fusu needed to do was to unify the hearts of the people.

If we want to unite the hearts of the people and make them all citizens of Qin, then we must make them feel that Qin treats them as citizens of Qin—or at least as 'human beings'.

First and foremost, they need to feel that the Qin court treats them as "human beings."

Only then would they begin to consider whether they were truly Qin people.