My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 759: Where have I seen this girl before?

There were not only brothers like Zuo and You in Xianyang, most of whom opposed the policies of Qin II.

Let’s take a look at what the two brothers on the left and right have now. The two brothers followed Prince Hengyang to the battlefield together, and each of them was awarded a title.

Each of the two brothers has thirty acres of land.

This was the pre-Qin period, so there was no question of intensive farming.

It was not as later generations imagined, that people stayed in the fields weeding all day long, from dawn to dusk.

Generally, those who write like this are mostly literati who whine without any reason. Their purpose is to express sympathy for the poor working people, so the more miserable the description is, the more support they can get from everyone.

In short, the two brothers, relying on their family's two horses, mule, a cow and advanced production tools, completed the task of sowing by just wandering around the fields on the spring sowing days. As for the elders criticizing him for not being honest with the two kinds of land and not planting them sparsely or densely, that was another matter.

Anyway, we can eat so much rice in a year, so this doesn’t matter.

It’s not that exaggerated at all. It only takes ten days at most to plant all the seeds in the ground, and then you have plenty of time to relax and play.

These lands are inherent assets; in addition to the land, each person has a three-entry courtyard.

There are front yard, middle yard, back yard, orchard and countless woods next to the house.

At that time, China had a vast territory and a sparse population, with countless natural resources available.

The closer to Xianyang, the more reasonable it is for the two brothers, like Zuo and You, to have such a basic configuration.

In addition to fixed assets, the two of them can also enjoy a certain amount of rice salary because of their titles.

However, in the final analysis, they did not have such a good background. They started from scratch and got rid of poverty since their grandfather's generation, but they were still far from wealth and glory. As for power, the two of them had never touched even a little bit of it.

This is also the reason why their ancestors and fathers were proud of being Qin people, because the generations of Qin kings at that time gave them, the common people, the opportunity to turn things around and become rich.

History is a little girl who can be dressed up by anyone. She usually wears fancy clothes that dazzle people. But every time I read it, I always have a sense of déjà vu.

At this time, you can wipe off the rouge on history's face yourself. History will always be this little girl who is powerless to resist.

For thousands of years, the medicine has remained the same, changing the soup instead.

The King of Qin gave them a chance to turn their lives around, from being powerless and poor to being wealthy people with a lot of land at home. The grandfather and father of the two brothers, Zuo and You, naturally regarded the King of Qin as a good man!

People are like this. If they are good to you, they are good people. If they are bad to you, they are bad people. Anyway, this is how most people define them.

The efforts of their ancestors and parents not only ensured that they had enough food and clothing and a stable house to live in, but they also successfully married women, gave birth to a large number of children, and took care of their food, clothing, housing and transportation, raising their children and preventing them from dying young.

The two generations before them had believed that Daqin was the best and most powerful country in the world. An unprecedented pride and confidence swelled in the hearts of the men of Daqin.

Similarly, in the past, the left and right brothers also thought that Fusu was a good person, because if Fusu was a little worse, they would both be able to get higher titles and become powerful people.

Every era has its own limitations.

Fifty years ago, if one made military achievements in the Qin Dynasty, it was a great event that could enable the whole family to become successful.

But twenty years ago, Daqin already had tens of thousands of families who became middle class, and then high-income families became higher class, with more wealth, and low-income families also benefited.

The King of Qin, who loved his people, passed on the cost of allowing every citizen to enjoy the benefits to the six countries. This is the fundamental reason why Qin was warlike. Instead of letting the lower-class people bear the cost of development, the lower-class people of other countries had to bear it.

For some purpose, the king of Qin loved his own people and sacrificed the people of other countries.

When Zuo and You grew up, Daqin still chose this model and continued to shift the crisis to other countries.

But no matter who came to power and became the successor king, he could not save the Qin Dynasty from decline.

Because of military merit, this thing doesn’t hold its value!

Things are rare.

Fifty years ago, it was a precious thing to make military achievements, with only one person in a thousand able to do so.

In the surrounding area, you are the only one who has been promoted to a noble. Everyone respects you and asks you for advice when they have something to ask. When good things happen, you are the first to receive the rewards.

The same five great dukes enjoyed a very high status in society fifty years ago.

However, as the popularity of the military merit system continued to grow, everyone began to pursue military merit.

My goodness, there used to be a fifth-rank official in every ten miles of the village, and more than twenty dukes in a county.

Fifty years later, you don't even need statistics to realize how serious the problem has become.

Military merit—it is depreciating.

Over a period of fifty years, Daqin launched countless wars, and afterwards, the territory of Daqin was filled with people with titles!
Originally, there was only one person who could be given a title in every ten miles. Now, there are fifty people who can be given a title in one mile.

Originally everyone was a commoner, and when a title was given, that title was naturally noble.

Now everyone is a noble, no matter how many titles you have, the other party will not think that a noble is more noble.

A ring of knife coins could buy a cow fifty years ago; fifty years later, even if you take all the knife coins that weigh the same as the cow, you may not be able to buy a cow.

Therefore, in Fusu's time, there were nobles everywhere.

Under the Qin Dynasty's military merit system, every household has a first-level official, a second-level official has at least 90% of the power to build a village, a third-level official has 80% of the power, and a fourth-level official has 70% of the power...

And so on.

For the people of a powerful country, who have the most advanced technology and the strongest soldiers in the world, obtaining the title by killing is as easy as weeding.

When the Qin people started weeding, they were still hesitant, but the reward was too generous.

Later on, everyone wanted to get a title by weeding and change the fate of their lives. At this time, the country could no longer control the situation.

So Lu Buwei came to power and carried out reforms.

Let’s be clear, it was the Qin Dynasty that needed Lu Buwei to carry out reforms, so God sent Lu Buwei to carry out reforms.

Lü Buwei's reform of the Qin Dynasty's military merit system was nominally intended to make the military merit system more moderate, but in reality it was intended to increase the difficulty of obtaining a title and reduce the rewards.

The purpose of doing this is, of course, to curb the monsters deep in the hearts of the Qin people, and to adjust the allocation of national resources, trying to untie the interlocking chain of interests from the root, so as to achieve the goal of benefiting all.

After all, resources are limited, and the Qin people's needs have begun to expand infinitely.

The Qin Dynasty had been riddled with conflicts long before the time of Lu Buwei.

Lu Buwei went against the trend and was soon purged by the forces.

Ying Zheng took advantage of the situation and became the most powerful monarch shining in the Qin Empire. Therefore, he had to launch countless battles, otherwise the Qin Empire would collapse!
Because the warhorse has gone mad, as long as the helmsman is clear-headed and knows that the horse he is riding is mad, he will never rashly propose to implement benevolent policies. Poor Prince Fusu in history did not understand this principle. Ying Zheng knew that he was riding a mad horse, so he just had to keep the horse running, keep running, until the horse foamed at the mouth, and then turn around again.

As a result, as luck would have it, Ying Zheng did paralyze Ma Lei, and all the people of the Qin Dynasty learned the harm of war deeply, and everyone was afraid of war.

As a result, Liu Ji took over the tasks that Ying Zheng had originally planned to hand over to his eldest son Fusu.

Poor Qin, from the day the military merit system was established, endless suffering fell on the heads of men and women in this country and city-state.

Using interests to stimulate the greatest evil in people's hearts will ultimately make future generations have to bear the bitter consequences.

Sometimes, when scholars, princes, and officials of the Qin II era flipped through the bamboo slips of documents preserved in the library, they were overwhelmed with emotions.

One was the founder of the so-called "glorious era" of the Qin Empire, and the other was the intended terminator of the "so-called glorious era" of the Qin Empire.

These two people both wanted the good of Qin, but they took completely opposite paths.

One is to strengthen the country for the sake of hegemony, the other is to strengthen the country for the great wish of unifying the world.

However, their choice affected the lives of four or five generations of Qin people, and affected the joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness, as well as the life and death worries of countless people.

However, as the tide of the times rolls forward and human desires continue to grow endlessly, everything has changed beyond recognition, but the policy has not changed.

As a result, serious social contradictions arose.

Simply put, humans run too fast and their abilities are too strong.

People think that their power is very small, and the vast majority of people think that they are just ordinary people who will not play any role. However, the result is just the opposite. It is these vast majority of people who change history.

Even Zulong, who changed history, could not save it, and even the Jade Emperor would be afraid to come to the world.

Human power is so strong, but people are immersed in the ideas of imperial history and the limitations of rules and regulations of fame, wealth and honor.

Alas, they are obviously tigers, lions, and wolves, but after listening to others' teachings, they think they are sheep and cows, and immediately lie down and stretch out their lion heads and tiger heads, allowing others to put ropes on them and lead them away obediently. Even more pathetic are those who stretch out their necks to be chopped off.

Ugh……

Everyone has a history and possesses infinite energy, on par with heaven and earth.

However, there are always some people who are immersed in the distinctions between rich and poor, high and low, good and bad, and are unable to exert their own power.

However, a tiger is still a tiger, and a lion is always a lion. Even if everyone says that you are a sheep, instinct will still inspire you to do endless things.

The Qin people, with their amazing creativity, shaped that terrible era and created the terrible reputation of the Qin Empire.

I'm afraid even the reformer Qin Xiaogong, who sat on the throne, would feel a chill down his spine when he saw the number of Qin people fighting bravely.

That's how many lives.

By sacrificing the lives of the enemy country, we finally achieved a situation where half of the men in the country had a title.

We are all doctors [titles], so who looks down on whom? It's only in the new lands of the six kingdoms that there is still some pride. When I return to Qin, you look down on me and I look down on you.

Besides, Qin Shihuang even appointed a tree as the fifth highest official.

When Sima Qian wrote the history of Qin Shi Huang, he did not write a single word about Qin Shi Huang himself, nor about his empress. Since he was very frugal with words, he still wrote about such an incident in "The Records of Qin Shi Huang".

You taste it, you taste it carefully.

You taste it again.

The fewer words, the bigger the matter!

What a familiar smell. The little girl in history took off her makeup and restored her original appearance.

There are too many titles. Originally, there were only a few people with titles, so they had high social status and were needed in many places. But now, people with titles are everywhere, so how can these people with titles still be respected by others, and how can there be so many official positions for them to hold.

In a word, no matter how high your rank was, during the Qin Shihuang period, the industry was shrinking and the ecology was poor. The rank was still the same, but the treatment was different.

How is it possible to match the limited number of official positions with the infinite number of titles?

What to do? Just go home.

What are you doing here? Farming!
The treatment that people were willing to give in the past has naturally gone down the drain.

Look, those 'sheep' did a great thing without realizing it, and even frightened the king.

The same reason why the evaluation of Qin Shihuang throughout his life went from strong to weak is also true.

At the beginning, he was able to deliver on the benefits that could be obtained from the title, so he received strong support from the old Qin people and was the eternal king in the hearts of the Qin people.

Later, the snowball of the military merit system grew bigger and bigger. After a battle with the State of Chu, the State of Qi, and the State of Yan, the whole country was awarded a title.

Now things are in trouble.

So Qin Shihuang had to send people to attack Nanyue because he could no longer support it.

He wanted to play a political game with the stupid 'sheep', but he didn't keep his tail between his legs and went to practice Taoism. Isn't this going to cause an accident?

Now, getting back to the topic, how do we break this dilemma?
Among them, there are some people like Zuo and You, who will be swept away by the tide of the times and habitually continue to pursue military merit until they get a higher position.

Because everyone can climb, and can climb higher and faster, now it depends on who climbs the highest and who climbs the fastest.

Left and right, there were also people with titles, but because they did not catch up with good times, they killed more people than their ancestors and parents, but the benefits they gained were no more than before.

Their original plan was to become the superior ones and the ones in power, but after going full circle, neither of them had changed.

Moreover, it seemed that the class system of the Qin Dynasty had seriously collapsed.

The titles they both held had depreciated!

Such a grand historical topic, an evil deed committed by the monarch, ministers, officials and people of Qin State, was described by historians as "Qin Shi Huang was a stubborn and self-willed person who followed the law in everything he did."

Originally, the two brothers had high hopes for Fusu. They hoped that what he could achieve was to stand out and become the supreme ruler.

They will do what everyone dreams of, gain power and become those in power.

[Another pun today, don’t say it when you see it. 】

There will be another update later.

(End of this chapter)