My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 727 Revenge of Dismissal

But overall, the historians always adhered to the spirit of direct recording.

It’s just that the process of historical recording is somewhat tortuous, as it has to go through a process from truth to untruth and then back to truth.

Anyway, history is for people to see, not for machines to test. There is no need to double equals four, so everyone will naturally be very flexible in handling these matters.

Historians have their own rules and procedures to follow when recording.

Record what others say and track and comment on what others do.

However, it is different for an emperor to rule a country. Standing at the forefront of this unprecedented change in a thousand years of history, Fusu wants to do something different so that China, which has been scarred and shrouded in haze throughout history, can avoid detours.

But he had no experience to follow, because like his father, he wanted to take the Qin Empire on a completely new path.

Fusu was not a historical reformist, on the contrary, he was a historical revolutionary.

Fusu will never forget that he is a time traveler.

Fusu wanted to create a whole new world, the ideal world that a great man wanted to build.

Before this, Fusu's actions, from participating in wars to restraining Qin Shihuang, and then to his ascension to the throne as Qin II, were all just to appease this deformed military chariot.

The horses pulling the chariot of the Qin Empire were already exhausted.

Now that no one was whipping it hard, it finally got a short rest, and its strength began to recover. Even the wheels of the chariot were maintained so that it could fly faster in the future.

The master of the empire will then carry out a thorough transformation of the national system of the Qin Empire, which was originally designed as a war machine.

The reform of the military merit system was formally put on the list of major national policy reforms.

Qin Shi Huang once crushed the dreams of countless nobles in the world to divide the land and become marquises, making countless nobles wish they could drink his blood and eat his flesh.

However, Qin II completely shattered the dreams of his disciples of an era who longed to become generals and be granted titles of nobility.

Collective peace and individual glory, this has been a contradiction throughout human history from beginning to end.

Is it better to sacrifice the lives of many people to achieve the supreme glory of one individual, so that one person can shine like a star in the long river of human history; or is it better to sacrifice the glory of a few people and bury their talents in order to ensure the safety and interests of the collective?

Whether to achieve the interests of the group or personal glory is something that every master of a country, as well as the leader of an army, a county, or even a family has to weigh.

So, as the emperor of the Qin Empire and the head of the central government, he held supreme power.

If the emperor himself is well aware that power comes from the bottom up, then he will understand that he must always stand with the ordinary majority of the people and confront the minority elite group.

Only in this way can he keep his position as emperor.

This is the significance of the central system. This is why, in history, no matter how the times change, groups of all dynasties have always retained their final trust in the central government. Only when hope for the central government is shattered will a change of dynasty come.

What the emperor has to do is to oppress and suppress the minority elite groups and protect and enrich the interests of the vast majority of ordinary people.

Every Chinese emperor, in order to maintain his position as ruler, must choose the latter. Once he betrays this principle, the people will abandon him, and the powerful will only fight for or share power with the king, and it is impossible for the king to monopolize power for nothing.

This is the flaw of the imperial system, which is also a centralized system.

Simply put, a dynasty may perish, but the interests of the people must always be protected.

This is exactly in line with the purpose of the rulers' monopoly of resources and education - to fool the people.

Most people only care about their own interests.

Once this goal is achieved, the next thing that will be passed on is that the people only care about their own interests and don't care about the change of dynasties.

In most cases, human laws are made to be broken, and in many cases, only those in power can benefit.

But the laws of the universe, the cycle of cause and effect, this closed loop is absolutely perfect.

This huge flaw is the reason why the centralized system has lasted for thousands of years.

To safeguard the interests of the broadest groups, it can even be said that this system was the original purpose of Qin Shihuang when he established it.

If we look at it from this perspective, then everyone can believe that there will be no problem for the centralized system to continue for another few thousand years.

But since there is nothing wrong with this system, why is it that throughout history, the Chinese people have experienced the rise and fall of dynasties, and heroes have been born one after another, but in the end, it is always the common people who suffer the most? It is always the common people who suffer from oppression and deception?
Why does this world always make the poor do the most work, while the rich enjoy the most wealth?
These questions are actually questions of a fundamental nature - why is this world unfair?

The unfairness of this world has lasted for five thousand years!

Is there no answer to this question?
Of course there is, but no one has ever dared to publicly reveal the answer to this question.

So even those who know the answer will choose to keep silent.

The supreme rulers of the empire also knew this truth, because they monopolized the true wisdom summarized since the development of human history.

I can only say a few words about this, otherwise most people will not be able to bear the truth and will become angry or even hateful.

Back to the question of why the world is always unfair, if we think more deeply, we will reflect on why the world always presents the opposite trend?
When you want to gain, you lose; you give the most but get the least.

When an emperor wanted to completely control the country, the empire was facing disintegration.

However, when an emperor chose "inaction", the empire was praised as grand, majestic, open, and good-minded, and the name of the country he created was even integrated into the nation's blood.

Is it true that people live in this world in order to build a national form, or is it that building a national form is for people to survive better?

This is the question that rulers should think about: whether to make people live well or to make the country strong.

Because the ruler is not a machine, he is also a human being.

The ruler also faces a huge test, that is, whether to become a hero who will be remembered forever, or to be an "incapable" or even weak emperor to achieve the interests of the people.

Once the ruler fails to strike a balance between the two, it will bring subversive destruction to his empire. The biggest problem of our honorable Emperor Qin Shi Huang was that he eliminated other heroes in order to achieve the common people, but did not think about eliminating himself as a hero - thus, he himself became a scourge to the entire people.

After Fusu took over, the Qin Empire faced a severe test, that is, in what direction should the Chinese people move and evolve in the future.

What is the meaning of human existence in the universe? What should we do? In what direction should we strive and explore?

How should individual human beings behave in this society, country, and universe, and what should their goals be?

With Qin II around, the people of Qin would certainly be able to live a life of plenty, but the direction of the country's development, what the goals of people's education and guidance should be, and what people should live for, these are probably things that the elites who are nurtured with the country's resources should give up their own interests and think about for the masses.

But the answer probably cannot be found in visible things, but in invisible things.

Whether the Qin Empire can achieve a highly developed material civilization in the future is not difficult at all. The total wealth of society has always been enough for everyone to live a good life.

However, to reach that ideal height, the society that the great man expects, we must start with those intangible things.

This depends on what choice our Qin II will make, or even what he may create to be a completely new path, and whether the people of the Qin Empire will follow his choice and cooperate with him?
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Obviously, this is a distant goal. But whether this goal can be achieved in the end will affect the life of Qin II Fusu.

There are only two possible endings: one is that it is achieved, and the other is that it is not achieved.

No matter what, Fusu has so far been clear-headed, determined, and working tirelessly in this direction.

Abusing power is just a means, a way. The main point is still to serve this ideal goal. No matter how many people feel uncomfortable in the process, its significance is enormous.

Just relying on the political competition and mental struggle between masters, power can be seized. It is more realistic than the political struggle at the cost of sacrificing countless lives - launching a war, and it can better guarantee the survival and life of the people.

It's just that many people can't understand politics and have an inexplicable aversion to it. Moreover, political struggle tests people's wisdom and determination more than military struggle, and is also more interesting.

The first power struggle between Fusu and his ministers ended in complete victory.

After learning that his brother chose to resign and return home to observe mourning, Zhang Han was angry but helpless. In order to stay in Xianyang City, retreat behind the scenes and gain more power, he asked Zhang Ping to hand over his post as Xianyang Magistrate.

Zhang Ping is also caught between his two brothers and has a very difficult life.

However, when Zhang Ping heard Zhang Han say that the emperor no longer trusted the Zhang family, he feared that he would lose his head, so he quickly handed over his position.

As a result of Zhang Ping's actions, Fusu could no longer take away his power.

Because some of the ministers were already dissatisfied with Fusu's actions, and they were afraid of it since Li Si left. For example, those old ministers who helped the emperor conquer the world, they had outstanding merits, were united, and were related by marriage.

However, as soon as Fusu came to power, he asked Li Si to leave and forced Yao Jia to death, which made the ministers feel that Fusu was being too aggressive.

Now Zhang Han was deliberately adding fuel to the fire, fearing that everyone would not be afraid of Qin II.

When Zhang Han saw that his younger brother Zhang Xi was gone, he guessed that the emperor must have compared himself with his younger brother Zhang Xi and was very dissatisfied with himself.

So Zhang Xi took the opportunity to ask Zhang Ping to hand over his power. This was not because Zhang Han was afraid of Fusu; on the contrary, Zhang Han actually always knew how to use his power flexibly to expand his influence and how to use his brothers to achieve his political goals.

In the Great Qin State, every senior minister was once a veteran in the officialdom, and it was not easy to deal with their superiors.

As a result of Zhang Han's actions, some old ministers and doctors who were not originally very close to him could not help but speak well of him.

The old ministers complained to the prime minister, saying that the current emperor had just taken office and was eager to drive out all the ministers who had served the retired emperor and only cram those he liked into the court.

Wang Wan was sitting idly at home and was pushed around by a group of "old friends". He had no choice but to express his opinions to Fusu in a tactful way.

Fusu knew that Zhang Han was showing him his status and influence in the court.

However, it was Zhang Han who instigated Zhang Ping to hand over the Xianyang Order. It was not that Fusu did not trust Zhang Ping, and Fusu would not be stupid enough to take back all the security forces in the capital controlled by the three brothers of Zhang Han in one go.

With this move, Zhang Han won a small victory.

Fusu had no reason at all to accept Zhang Ping's resignation of the official position, and he even had to personally appease Zhang Ping.

Zhang Ping was caught between the emperor and the Shaofu Zhang Han. He couldn't tell which one was telling the truth and which one was lying between the emperor and his brother.

Since the emperor didn't ask him to resign, he would continue to work.

Only then were the ministers satisfied.

The court meeting to discuss the reform of the military merit system was about to begin, but Zhang Han kept finding small things to trouble Fusu in order to stabilize his position in the court.

Before he ascended the throne, Fusu, Feng Quji and Zhang Han's families had a mutually dependent relationship; but after he ascended the throne, the nature of this relationship underwent a subtle change.

Forced by these realistic factors, Fusu did not want the power of the queen's family to continue to expand, and the old ministers to continue to form alliances. It was necessary to make some small concessions for a short period of time to let them think that the crisis had been resolved.

On the surface, Fusu chose to retreat from Zhang Han's attack, but secretly asked Chen Ping to slowly investigate the officials under Zhang Han's rule who were dissatisfied with him.

Zhang Han personally supervised the construction of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and had 200,000 prisoners at his command.

It just so happened that the ministers had recently been impeaching Qin Shihuang for his extravagance and waste, and Fusu asked Chen Ping to find a way to mobilize the censors to impeach Zhang Han.

The censors were also busy. The main reason was that Zhang Han was also a corrupt official, but he looked tall and thin, and his personality was serious and resolute, which had nothing to do with a corrupt official.

Zhang Han accepted this assignment at the order of the former emperor; now the new emperor accused him of being extravagant and wasteful in doing this assignment, so he naturally felt aggrieved.

What's more, this is the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, which has great significance.

Zhang Han knew that if he took the opportunity to say something bad, it would give Qin II a handle to criticize him, so he could only let others scold him for his extravagance, and he would continue to be extravagant and wasteful because that was how the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang was built.

If he said something wrong, the emperor would give the job to someone else.

Because Zhang Han understood that this was Qin II's revenge on him for instigating his brother to dismiss from office.

[I was originally going to write about the reform of military merits, but some things were left unexplained, and considering the finale, I wrote this chapter. I feel that it is a bit philosophical and leads to thinking, but there is nothing I can do. ]

(End of this chapter)