Ying Fusu

After seeing off Feng Quji and the others, Fusu sat alone on the imperial couch in the rear hall of Xianyang Palace, wearily rubbing his temples.

"Phew~"

"This is only the first day."

"There are still countless things to do..."

Muttering to himself, Fusu exhaled a long breath and braced himself with his hands behind his back.

He raised his head, stretching his neck as he observed the ceiling beams inside the hall;

Feeling the soreness in his neck ease somewhat, he stood up from the imperial couch and slowly scanned the hall, taking in the residence that originally belonged to the First Emperor.

—As a rear hall that functions as a 'bedroom,' it did not require the gathering of ministers for discussions, so it was naturally not as spacious as the front hall.

It was about five zhang long and wide, and was half of the room occupied by the imperial couch, the imperial desk, as well as piles of bamboo slips and various lamps.

The remaining space is probably only enough for about ten people to kneel and talk and discuss in a relatively spacious manner.

The imperial couch faces the passageway connecting the rear hall and the front hall, which is symbolically separated by a screen.

However, to the left of the imperial bed, there is a wooden sliding door.

Pushing the door aside, one's eyes are drawn to the wide platform outside the central palace, and the stone railings surrounding the platform.

The sun was nearing dusk.

sunset.

Stepping out of the palace gate and into the railing, Fusu gently touched the stone carvings on the railing, and his gaze followed the long steps, looking down at the entire collapsed Xianyang Palace.

To be precise, it wasn't that Xianyang Palace 'collapsed';

Instead, it was the central palace, which rose several dozen feet higher than the entire Xianyang Palace.

At this moment, Fusu felt as if he were standing on a cloud, looking down on all living beings under heaven.

Yet, it evokes absolutely no sense of grandeur or heroic ambition.

All of today's events are basically within Fusu's plan.

Nothing went wrong.

But the burden on Fusu's shoulders has not lessened in the slightest because of what happened today...

Before the second "small meeting" ended, Feng Quji proposed: Agriculture should be the foundation.

This was to establish clear and specific national policies and core governing principles for the Qin Dynasty.

Right Chancellor Feng Quji made his position clear, and Left Chancellor Li Si, Emperor's Grand Tutor and General Meng Tian, ​​as well as Imperial Censor Feng Jie and Palace Attendant Meng Yi, did not raise any objections.

This matter was considered to have been basically agreed upon at the pinnacle of power in the Qin Dynasty.

But all of this is far from over.

It could even be said that this is just the beginning.

As the saying goes: governing a large country is like cooking a small fish.

The larger a country's territory and the larger its population, the more problems it will naturally encounter.

Therefore, a more careful and cautious approach to governance is needed.

In fact, today's court meeting in Xianyang was merely a general direction set by Fusu against the majority opinion.

—Four major projects that have been suspended or are nearing completion;

The small meeting after the court session was only a preliminary proposal by Feng Quji: the national policy of the Great Qin is based on agriculture.

The latter, in particular, is, to put it bluntly, just a slogan.

In order to transform this slogan into concrete policies and systems, Fusu needs to conduct a detailed breakdown.

Agriculture is the foundation of the nation; it sounds nice, but...

It can't be that just talking about it all the time and shouting it out when there's nothing else to do will make farmers' lives better, right?

It still needs to be supported by policies and systems.

For example, tax and fee reductions, adjustments to the legal system, and even guidance of social values—and so on.

Take this incident as an example.

Fusu proposed to completely halt the construction of the Epang Palace, complete the Great Wall, the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum, and the existing straight road projects, and not to build any new straight road routes.

The message has been sent out, and the deal is basically settled.

However, the specifics of how to do it and how to implement it still depend on the officials below to do it step by step.

First, the Prime Minister's Office must send an official document to the persons in charge of these four major projects: By order of the Second Emperor, the court has decided to suspend or complete the above projects.

At the same time, the Prime Minister's Treasury and the Imperial Treasury stopped allocating funds for the Epang Palace project and conducted final financial accounting for the Great Wall, the Straight Road, and the Lishan Imperial Mausoleum projects, which were nearing completion.

After issuing the final payment, sufficient to bring these three projects to a close, based on the accounting results, all fund transfers will be completely stopped.

The money issue is resolved, but there are still people to worry about.

—The laborers and servants conscripted for the Epang Palace should be planned to be repatriated to their places of origin;

According to the instructions of the Second Emperor Fusu, convicts and prisoners were to be reviewed by the Court of Justice.

Those whose crimes are minor or whose charges are questionable shall be pardoned and sent back with the laborers.

This is only the Epang Palace.

It was the Epang Palace, located in Guanzhong, separated from Xianyang City only by the Wei River.

There are also the Imperial Mausoleum at Mount Li, the Great Wall in the north, and the straight roads that are scattered all over the country, each one a major problem.

The Lishan Imperial Mausoleum is alright, since it's located in Guanzhong.

Once the project was completed, the Court of Justice went to investigate. Those who should be released were released, and those who could not be released were imprisoned on the spot. It didn't take much effort.

However, the Great Wall required special personnel to oversee the completion of the project, identify convicts and laborers, and plan the orderly repatriation of the laborers.

The straight road was even more troublesome—almost every construction site required sending an envoy to be responsible for screening and repatriation.

The problems of convicts, forced laborers, and officials were solved.

Take the Great Wall as an example.

The person in charge of supervising the construction of the Great Wall by order of the First Emperor was General Meng Tian.

In addition to overseeing the construction of the Great Wall, Meng Tian also had to take charge of the defense of the northern border.

To be precise, Meng Tian's actual duty as "General" was to defend the northern border.

Supervising the construction of the Great Wall was just a side effect.

Therefore, after the Great Wall was completed, Meng Tian did not need to "step down" at all. He could retain the position of Supreme General and focus on the border defense of the northern wall.

However, besides Meng Tian, ​​many other officials were involved in the Great Wall project.

Unlike Meng Tian, ​​who could comfortably serve as a general regardless of whether the Great Wall existed or not, whether before or after its construction began;

These people were either originally just minor officials who were temporarily promoted in rank because of their involvement in the construction of the Great Wall.

Even worse, some were not officials at all, and only obtained a minor official position because they participated in the construction of the Great Wall.

Now that the Great Wall project is nearing completion, where will these officials be placed?

If someone is promoted because of a project, how can they be demoted back to their original position?

Because the project brought him official rank, could he possibly be dismissed from office and become a commoner?

Obviously not.

Not only should they not be rewarded, but they should also be commended to varying degrees for their collective contribution to "instantly building the Great Wall".

If it's an award for three to five people, or even thirty to fifty people, it certainly isn't a big deal.

But over the past decade or so, these four projects have absorbed a total of three million workers.

Even with the most optimistic estimate: one official would be in charge of supervising every one hundred laborers;

Three million people means thirty thousand officials.

They may not be high-ranking officials, but their sheer number is enough to cause headaches.

If they had real skills, that would be fine—the Qin Dynasty was in a period of shortage of officials and people. If there were 30,000 qualified bureaucrats, Fusu wouldn't even have to worry about the east of the pass slipping out of his control.

However, the truth is likely that most of these so-called "officials" probably do not even have basic literacy skills.

Fusu has two typical examples in his memory.

One of them was Liu Ji, the head of the Sishui Pavilion, who was also the historical Emperor Gaozu of Han. He was a pavilion head who escorted the laborers of the county to the Great Wall.

As a result, after the village head went through all sorts of hardships to deliver the person to the foot of the Great Wall, he himself was also "detained".

He was given the military rank of "village head," with the grand claim that "with you here, the laborers in your county will have a pillar of support."

In essence, it's about choosing jailers—a way to control the laborers and conscripts in the most effortless and convenient way.

Now that the Great Wall is about to be completed, how should this village head, who started as a low-ranking official and now holds a rank of 100 shi (a unit of grain), be arranged?

In the real campaign, how can one become a garrison commander in charge of fifty soldiers?

Or perhaps he would be promoted to a centurion for his meritorious service in building the Great Wall, which would be equivalent to the Marquis of Qu?

Obviously, none of those will work.

Sending them back to their place of origin might be the only viable option.

But he definitely won't continue as the head of the village.

He absolutely had to get promoted.

Moreover, it's not enough to just upgrade one level; you have to be at least one level up.

— He had to be promoted from a village head with a salary of one hundred shi (a unit of grain measure) to a position with a salary of at least two hundred shi (a unit of grain measure), and at the same time, he was transferred from the countryside to the county government.

However, within the officialdom, promotion is not something that can be achieved simply by having merit.

It also depends on whether the candidate has the necessary skills and experience, and, most importantly, whether there are any vacancies.

This case isn't even that sharp.

The other one was the one that truly gave Fusu a splitting headache, yet he had no way to resolve the situation.

Two years ago, when Fusu (the original owner) first arrived in Shangjun, Shangjun sent a group of local officials to assist Meng Tian in dispatching and coordinating local affairs in order to cooperate with Meng Tian.

That group of officials included those with a salary of 100 shi (a unit of grain measure), those with a salary of 200 shi (another unit of grain measure), and even county magistrates with a salary of 600 shi (another unit of grain measure)!

Without exception, they were all "chief clerks" serving in a county government office, that is, the head of a department in charge of a certain area.

Most of these people were given temporary positions when they came under Meng Tian's command.

Some were military positions—such as the rear guard captain in charge of provisions and logistics, and the scout commander in charge of communication.

Some were honorary civil service titles—such as the "Prefectural Governor" who was in charge of several counties, which was essentially an acting governor, or the "County Magistrate" who temporarily managed a county, which was essentially an acting county magistrate.

During the construction of the Great Wall, in order to meet the needs of Meng Tian, ​​or rather the needs of the Great Wall construction work, these people could only be assigned these potentially unsuitable positions.

If you really asked him to be a county magistrate, he probably wouldn't be able to do it;

However, having him act as the county magistrate to allocate local resources to support the Great Wall project was a temporary measure.

And now, the Great Wall is nearing completion.

What should we do with officials like this?

Is it really possible to appoint a clerk who is illiterate and can't even write his own name as the magistrate of a border county?

If someone who originally held a position of 200 shi (a unit of grain measure) and was not even a county magistrate—such as a prison clerk or an official clerk—were to be promoted several ranks directly to the position of prefectural governor with a position of 1,000 shi, what would happen?

This doesn't even include the rewards and promotions for "meritorious service in building the Great Wall"!

It would be strange if a deputy section chief were promoted directly to deputy ministerial level...

Furthermore, as I said before: there are no vacancies...

Where do so many vacancies come from?

If we were to promote all 20,000 to 30,000 officials by one to three ranks, where would we put the officials who were already stuck in their positions?

...

"Phew~"

"These are all secondary."

"If we spend more time and effort, we can always find a way."

"But right now, the problems haven't decreased; in fact, they're increasing..."

...

……

With this sigh, Fusu tightened his grip on the stone railing.

His brows were furrowed tightly together, as if he wanted to use that vertical line to pinch a mosquito to death.

— Agriculture is the foundation.

For more than two thousand years after the Qin Dynasty and before the new era, these four characters were the highest national policy of China, which people took for granted.

During the brief meeting just now, Right Chancellor Feng Quji took the initiative to propose: "Please, Your Majesty, issue an edict to clearly state to the world that agriculture is the foundation of the Great Qin State."

What does this tell us?

To this day—since the First Emperor unified China;

For a full eleven years, the Qin Dynasty still has no clear and unified national policy!

Farmers were burdened by heavy taxes and forced labor, making it difficult for them to cultivate the land properly.

The generals and commanders in the army drew their swords, looked around in bewilderment, and did not know where the future lay.

Bureaucrats—whether high-ranking officials in the imperial court or local officials—did not know what they should do or in which direction they should strive.

Whatever the First Emperor said, he did.

Whatever order is given, that's what needs to be done.

One moment it's the Great Wall of the North, the next it's the Straight Road to Northeast China;

Or perhaps it's the Baiyue region of Lingnan, or the imperial tombs and Epang Palace in Guanzhong.

Every now and then, there's a story about Xu Fu setting sail to find immortals, or the First Emperor making an eastern tour...

chaos.

He acts haphazardly, doing things on a whim.

The First Emperor was ambitious and wanted to take care of everything and accomplish everything in his lifetime;

The vast Qin court, following the First Emperor's unpredictable thinking, would sometimes be in the south, sometimes in the north, sometimes in the east, sometimes in the west, sometimes inland, and sometimes out to sea.

In the end, internal governance caused widespread discontent among the people, strategic planning stalled progress in the northern grasslands, and the southern Lingnan region continuously drained the government's coffers.

Even in this state, they still haven't forgotten to build a pitiful five-foot road in the southwestern barbarians—a desolate and uncivilized land that requires the entire nation's resources to complete...

Fusu naturally held the First Emperor in the highest esteem.

The mere mention of the phrase "Great Unification" was enough to make Fusu worship this fascinating ancestor without any limits or blind spots.

But when he sat on the throne of Qin and became the second emperor of Qin, Fusu still had to admit that the internal and external strategies of the Qin Empire had been far too chaotic over the past ten years.

Wanting everything, but ending up with nothing.

Trying to take care of everything, the result is that one is only half-baked in every aspect.

Now, Fusu is needed to clear his mind and find a clear and promising path for the Qin Dynasty, which is at a loss after unification and has no direction for the future.

"The first step is to improve people's livelihoods and nip the anti-Qin uprising in the bud."

"The second step is to clarify the foreign policy strategy—either the south or the north, we can only choose one and put the other aside for now."

...

"Then we will consolidate our control over local counties and prefectures step by step."

"They even went so far as to temporarily reinstate the feudal system as a transitional policy."

"The Qin dynasty made the wedding dress, and the Han dynasty wore it; the Tang dynasty borrowed the fortune of the Sui dynasty and lasted for three hundred years."

"If the Han dynasty can do it, there's no reason why our Great Qin cannot..."

...

……

Thinking and pondering;

As the sun gradually disappeared on the horizon, Fusu finally stepped out from behind the railing.

—On the first day of the Second Emperor's reign, official business had already been completed.

Next, Fusu should go and meet his wife, whom he has never met, and the child who only exists in the original owner's memories.