My son, Fusu, please abdicate the first emperor!

Chapter 789 Newton's Apple

"So what? In the end, even Shang Jun established the system of military merit. Doesn't this mean that even Shang Jun, who wanted to punish officials and not let the law spare the powerful, eventually recognized class."

"The Mohists advocated universal love and non-aggression, but they also stressed that in an organization, all members must serve the leader unconditionally. Is this also a form of universal love?"

"So in this context, the so-called universal love advocated by Mozi is actually the business of each individual or the business of the organization's leader."

"If the so-called universal love is nothing more than a principle that rulers should follow and even abide by, then it would be better to use Confucianism."

Zhang Cang spoke heavily, his opinions bursting out of his mouth impartially, making everyone's ears buzz.

Just like his feet stepped hard on the central axis of the floor tiles in the corridor of Xianyang Palace, making a crisp sound, attracting the attention of people around him.

Zhang Cang and other censors engaged in a heated debate within the court on issues that were hotly debated among the people.

Outsiders might think that the final outcome of the discussion among these imperial censors was simply to support Mohism or Confucianism.

But with Zhang Cang in there, these imperial censors lost two options at the same time.

With Zhang Cang around, the censors no longer had to consider whether to support the emperor or which powerful official.

Zhang Cang directly rejected both of their possible options.

That’s right, as soon as Zhang Cang opened his mouth, you would hear him say only two words.

"Rubbish--"

"Rubbish--"

“It’s all garbage.”

……

cough--

To be honest, if people have some abilities when they are young and are successful in their careers, they will naturally behave arrogantly like Zhang Cang and have a contemptuous attitude towards everything.

Regardless of whether what Zhang Cang said was right or not, just looking at his behavior, the censors were so angry that their faces turned red, but they couldn't argue with Zhang Cang, so they could only let the anger burst out of their ears and eyes.

Censor Zhou Qingchen stamped his feet and shouted in front of the Zhangtai Palace gate,

"Zhang Cang, just stir up trouble. Make the Qin Dynasty in chaos from the beginning, make His Majesty confused, make the court officials divided, make people panic, make our Censorate precarious, and make everyone feel insecure. Then you will be satisfied."

Zhang Cang's face darkened. It was the first time he heard someone evaluate him like this.

He couldn't find any words to reply for a moment.

After a while, Chen Ping passed by again.

After all, this is the Xianyang Palace. Zhou Qingchen chose to speak in such an occasion. He must have seen Chen Ping passing by early on, so he deliberately spoke out.

Now it's going to be lively.

Chen Ping passed by and indeed stopped.

Several other imperial censors hurried over and surrounded Chen Ping, bowing and saying, "Greetings to the Minister of the Chancellery."

Chen Ping also bowed in return.

Chen Ping glanced from afar and saw Zhang Cang and a group of imperial censors walking. Zhang Cang was walking in the middle like a general, with an extremely strong aura, making the other imperial censors around him look like guards.

Chen Ping was just smiling slightly, but he didn't expect that these censors' dissatisfaction with Zhang Cang had reached a peak, and they needed Chen Ping to help them achieve their goals.

These imperial censors were very enthusiastic when they saw Chen Ping, and asked him about his well-being, which was completely different from the cold and angry attitude they had when facing Zhang Cang.

Zhang Cang just let it go in anger.

After exchanging a few simple pleasantries with Chen Ping, he said directly, "Your Majesty is still waiting in the palace. I will go to see Your Majesty first."

When the other censors saw that Zhang Cang wanted to see the emperor first without waiting for them, they were afraid in the past. However, since Zhou Qingchen was promoted to censor, these upright officials began to waver.

Firstly, Zhou Qingchen was a very tactful person who would not offend anyone. These upright gentlemen saw that Zhou Qingchen was very good to them and did not do wrong things as he had done in the past, so one by one they began to change their views of him and trusted him accordingly.

Second, Zhou Qingchen was very good at observing people's expressions. Everyone could see that Zhang Cang was like an alien in the Censorate. If he wanted to have a place in the Censorate, he had to do something to make everyone happy, such as offending Zhang Cang.

Everyone could see that Zhou Qingchen was planning to do this, but when they acquiesced to it, Zhang Cang was already in danger.

In the past, the imperial censors would chase after Zhang Cang and look up to him. That was the so-called iron-clad imperial censor team of the Qin Empire at that time. With Zhang Cang as the core, they naturally enforced the law and were upright.

But now that Zhou Qingchen appeared in the Censorate, the situation has changed.

Originally, there were many people who wanted to infiltrate the Censorate. The powerful ministers confronted Qin II, but were repeatedly resolved by Fusu with wit. Not only did they fail to achieve their goals, but Fusu was able to show his abilities time and time again and won the hearts of a large number of people.

The more such circumstances occurred, the more the ministers realized that their power had been drastically reduced.

If it is about the past, under the rule of Qin Shi Huang, Qin Shi Huang was willing to turn a blind eye.

Officials are basically in a state of polarization. One group is corrupt and busy enriching themselves; the other group is the exact opposite. They do not take any money unless it is within the legal provisions. If there are corrupt officials, they must be severely punished.

The emergence of this polarized situation, and the resulting in the influx of gentlemen into the wild and the rampant villains in the later period, are all related to the fact that Qin Shihuang thought that the world was unified and there would be no more disasters in the future, so he could be proud and at ease and no longer had to restrain himself.

Because the way Qin Shihuang restricted the power of his ministers was to let the powerful ministers duel. He gave his subordinates full power, and then let the subordinates use their power to attack each other, so as to achieve destruction.

This method is certainly very smart. On the one hand, it can ensure that one's power is always supreme and one's status is unique; on the other hand, by fully releasing the emperor's power, one can share one's own tasks.

Because the memorials that Qin Shihuang reviewed every day weighed several hundred kilograms. If Qin Shihuang did not delegate power, he would be exhausted to death.

As a result, the Qin Empire was already facing internal and external troubles, and at the instruction of Qin Shihuang, the ministers were busy fighting for power.

According to the Bamboo Annals, Qin Shihuang replaced quite a few prime ministers during his reign, a total of five.

Two of them did not leave any trace at all in history, and even Qin Shihuang's queen disappeared from history.

As a king of a country, he actually did not have a queen. This was an act that went against his ancestors and was rebuked by the world. It was impossible for Qin Shihuang to do it intentionally.

The only possibility is that the queen at that time might have been involved. I am afraid that Prince Fusu in history was really the eldest son.

In short, because of Qin Shihuang's misjudgment of the situation in the early days of his reign, he allowed court officials to engage in power duels, which not only greatly damaged the political ecology of the court, but also made officials busy standing in line to fight for power and missed the great opportunity to control the grassroots of the Great Qin Empire, but also gave the escaped nobles of the six countries an opportunity to take advantage of it. Qin Shihuang chose tyranny when he should have won over the people's hearts the most, and actually let a group of downtrodden nobles who had lost their land and servants win the hearts of the people during their escape, which is simply ridiculous.

In short, during the reign of Qin Shihuang, some ministers had too much power.

However, when Qin II came to power, the previous power struggles among ministers no longer worked.

Why? Because Qin Ershi, who had witnessed the huge and irreparable losses caused by the mistakes made by Qin Shihuang during his reign, wanted to avoid those mistakes.

Qin Shi Huang was a person who encouraged, supported, and even planned the struggles among powerful officials.
When it came to Qin II, after experiencing all those things, Fusu was naturally very resistant, so the last thing he wanted to do was to use his relatives to achieve his goals, or to use the power struggles among his ministers to ensure his own transcendent position.

Power struggles among ministers do not benefit the world at all.

Under the influence of Fusu's ideology, his governing philosophy was that if the world wanted to be united, the court must be united.

Since he came to power, all his subjects have discovered a huge change, that is, all the ministers and the people are loyal to him alone.

It’s not that all ministers and people have become good, but that all ministers and people will not go against our Qin II.

As for whether the ministers will bully their wives when they return home, whether the brothers in the village will bully each other, whether the parents-in-law will bully their daughters-in-law... who can tell?

Since Qin II ascended the throne, all the court officials have become loyal to the emperor and have been busy with their official duties.

This is almost a great thing that the people like to see. Under this situation, if Qin II could implement this benevolent policy for another five years, or even three years.

Then the mental outlook of those powerless ordinary people will also undergo tremendous changes.

As emphasized earlier, although power is from the bottom up, social trends are influenced by the top down.

If the ministers in the court each stay in their positions and do their duties well, then the officials and the people will definitely abide by the rules.

If the upper class does not think about overstepping their authority, would the common people think about going to other people's vegetable fields?
This is just a metaphor.

However, this favorable situation was only beneficial to Qin II and the powerless people in the world.

In the past, ministers could expand their power. Although they were only a city supervisor, they could infiltrate the military by exercising their power.

As a prime minister, he could only enjoy the benefits and treatment within the legal provisions.

However, when power is not constrained, or with the secret authorization of the king, the prime minister can enjoy more and better things beyond the regulations because of his loyalty, and then he will get more and richer practical benefits.

Therefore, after Qin II ascended the throne, there were no more bad people in the Qin Empire.

In other words, the king's prestige has reached its absolute peak, and the king's behavior is absolutely within the rules. In this way, the ministers cannot exceed the rules, or it is difficult to exceed the rules.

Because when the Second Emperor's prestige reaches the point where all officials and common people support him, then the ministers will be in danger.

Even if they accidentally said something bad about Qin II, children passing by would feel indignant for him.

Chinese people are like this. If you hurt me, not only will I take revenge on you, I will still rush over to take revenge even if ten lifetimes pass.

But if you help me and respect me, the Chinese people will repay even a drop of kindness with a spring of gratitude.

So after seeing this situation, the first thing the ministers felt was not the new atmosphere brought to them by the new policy, nor the better promotion prospects brought to them by the new policy.

On the contrary, what Qin II brought to the throne was shackles, the shackles of power.

Everyone must act within the rules of the law, because Qin Ershi is not as easy to talk to as Qin Shihuang.

It can be said that Qin II was a pervert.

His personality is truly unique.

Well, many people think that indulgence will make them feel the ultimate happiness, but that is not the case.

There is a kind of happiness in this world that is happier than smoking, drinking, and even sex, and that is the opposite of indulgence - abstinence.

The more you cut off emotions and desires, the more enlightened you will be, the more at ease you will be, and the freer you will be.

Let’s give an analogy for indulgence and abstinence.

Indulgence is like falling into a quagmire. Since your body is too heavy, you might as well just play in the quagmire.

Then people who play in the mud can be divided into three categories.

Some people have a good attitude. If they can't get out, they simply don't get out. I can't get out physically, but I can get out in my heart. I just swim in the swamp and plant flowers in the mud. This is how people get out.

They can leave this Saha world, but ordinary people cannot reach this state. Moreover, this kind of people like to hide themselves, truly living in seclusion in the city.

So there are some people who play with women, smoke and drink, but their luck is getting better and better.

But some people are not like that. They roll deeper and deeper in this sea of ​​desire, and their bodies become heavier and heavier. They eat too much and are eventually eaten by others.

This is pure crap and a lack of belief in cause and effect.

When you are dying, you will repent and pray to the Bodhisattva, Buddha, and all the gods in the sky, just to ask them to give you another chance to start over.

It’s also absolutely amazing.

This type of people can be roughly summarized as those who give up during their lifetime.

And there are some other people, just ordinary people, who are aware, but not to a high level.

They also found that their bodies were so heavy and they could not get out of this quagmire, so they chose to struggle.

It was like falling into a swamp. The more I struggled, the stronger the pull of the mud became, and the deeper I sank into the swamp.

In the end, all kinds of problems arise.

Qin Shi Huang actually belongs to the first type of this category. It can also be said that Song Huizong in history was actually somewhat close to this realm.

[If you don’t believe it, go and look at the calligraphy and paintings of Emperor Huizong of Song. If you have the guts, come back and refute it after you’ve finished reading it.]

(End of this chapter)