The Six Arts of the Gentleman in the Bright Moon of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 616 Local Autonomy [Subscription*Monthly Ticket Request]

"If nothing unexpected happens, it is not the King of Qin who is crazy, but the King of Qin has been led crazy by our monarch!" Jing Ke stroked his beard and pondered.

It’s obvious that this is not just Ying Zheng’s idea!

"These two people, one dares to say and the other dares to do!" Fu Nian did not doubt Jing Ke's guess.

This kind of thing was probably caused by the collaboration of these two kings.

"The tax will be distributed according to the amount of land, and there will never be an increase in taxes!" Fu Nian looked at the eight big characters and subconsciously only paid attention to the last four characters.

Even a great scholar like him is like this, let alone the common people who can barely read or write.

"Just the tip of the iceberg!" Li Si was also transferred from Xianyang to cooperate with Fu Nian and Jing Ke. After all, as the chief judge of Qin State, legal matters still need to be handled by professionals.

Neither Fu Nian nor Jing Ke were politicians and could not see clearly what was behind this policy.

But Li Si was very clear that behind the abolition of all corvee labor, the interests of many people would be divided.

The most intuitive thing is that after the abolition of these corvee labors, whenever the imperial court needed labor and soldiers, it could only pay to hire them.

There are too many interests involved behind this, and it will inevitably become a hotbed of corruption.

There is also the land reform that is now in full swing in Zhao State, which has overthrown the local nobles.

The places conquered by the Qin Dynasty were not so bad. After all, the winner is the king, and they dared not move even if they wanted to.

But what about the Qin State?
Would the nobles within Qin be willing to have their fiefdoms taken away?
Who would want their fiefdom, inherited from generation to generation, to be taken away?

However, this policy will definitely be praised by the lowest level of people. This will stimulate the conflict between the Qin nobles and the lower level of people, thus escalating to the confrontation between the nobles and Ying Zheng. Even the Qin royal family will stand against Ying Zheng.

This will also change the situation of unity between the King of Qin and the royal family since King Xiaowen of Qin (Prince An Guojun).

Although An Guojun's reign was short, he changed the ecological environment within the Qin royal family and made the royal family and the King of Qin work together.

But what Ying Zheng is doing now is forcing the royal family to take the opposite side.

"If Bingzhou and Qin were not on good terms, Tonggu would have suspected that King Bing was deliberately setting a trap for the king!" Li Si's worries were not unreasonable.

No matter how you look at it, this seems to be forcing the Qin State to fight among itself.

But Li Si couldn't say anything because he knew Ying Zheng's character very well.

Ying Zheng was very smart, so he must have known the disadvantages of doing so, but he still did it, which proved that Ying Zheng had a plan and means to counter it.

Perhaps at this time Ying Zheng was deliberately observing the positions of the civil and military officials in the court, waiting for those who opposed him to jump out.

As a rookie in Qin State, Li Si knew this, so he would not stand up to remind people, so as not to be mistaken for opposition.

Now, he only needs to perfectly execute and complete the decrees and tasks issued by Ying Zheng.

As an outsider, his backer is Ying Zheng, so he must stand behind Ying Zheng and follow Ying Zheng firmly regardless of right or wrong, otherwise he will die.

Sure enough, soon the second order came from Handan.

The stationed Qin army served as officials and became the first local chief, but they only had control and supervisory power over the army. Local administrative chiefs were selected from the local area and elected by local people.

"The government system finally needs to be reformed!" Li Si understood the meaning of this order.

The local nobles were abolished and all sent to the execution ground, so naturally someone had to fill the vacant official positions.

However, no one expected that the Qin State did not appoint one of its own people as the new chief executive, but instead a local person. The Qin people only had the right to command the army and supervise the local chief executive.

"This is to merge the powers of the Supervisory Censor and the County Lieutenant!" Li Si thought about it and thought that this was probably the meaning, but it was not quite the same. The County Lieutenant and the County Lieutenant only controlled the county soldiers and were responsible for the training of the militia, but Ying Zheng's order gave this officer the power to control the army, which was not something that the county soldiers and the county soldiers could compare to.

In name, the county magistrate and the prefect had the highest administrative authority, but in reality the highest local officials were Qin people.

In other words, the second-in-command of the local government must be a local, but the first-in-command must not be a local.

Moreover, the Qin Dynasty would station troops in the local area to ensure that the area was always under the control of Xianyang.

"This is a good thing!" Fu Nian and Jing Ke were very satisfied with Qin's approach.

They also worry that they are aiding and abetting the evil.

If a Qin person really became the local administrative chief, who knows whether he would treat the Zhao person harshly? After all, the hatred between Qin and Zhao was too great.

The people of Zhao did not trust the rule of the Qin people, but the people of Qin also did not dare to trust the people of Zhao.

The people of Zhao would worry about the harsh rule of the people of Qin, and the people of Qin would also worry about the people of Zhao's disobedience.

This kind of distrust can easily lead to conflicts and cause bloodshed.

However, thanks to Ying Zheng's decree, this contradiction was eliminated.

The Qin State did not interfere in the management of local administrative affairs, allowing the people of Zhao to govern the people of Zhao. Moreover, the rulers were elected by the people of Zhao themselves, so naturally they would not treat their own people harshly.

However, there were inspectors arranged by Qin to prevent the people of Zhao from disobeying the orders of the King of Qin.

"What you should pay attention to is the small supplement in the royal edict!" Li Si pointed to the small note in the royal edict.

Jing Ke and Fu Nian also noticed the line of small words on the royal edict.

A list of all counties, county lords (chiefs, magistrates), and county lieutenants is presented to the king.

"What do you mean?" Jing Ke and Fu Nian really didn't understand these politicians' stuff.

"It means that all county-level administrative heads must be appointed by the king himself!" Li Si reminded.

It is actually not difficult for a king to control the court. It is enough to have the power to appoint personnel.

All county officials are appointed by the king, so those who are appointed will also know who controls their life, death and future, and who they should be loyal to.

For example, if someone wanted to seize power and establish a dictatorship, then Ying Zheng would say, I remember that the county magistrate of a certain county was so-and-so.

Once these words are spoken, those who abuse power and dictatorship will probably break out in a sweat.

Moreover, this list was handed over to Ying Zheng, who made the appointment. This means that this person is very likely to have a way to communicate directly with Ying Zheng in secret.

This is called having the ears of heaven, and also called for the royal power to reach the countryside!
So, the fewer words there are, the bigger the problem.

These things were annotated in small print and were not in the main text, which meant that this matter would not be made public and was a secret between the emperor and his subjects.

So what does it mean when a county magistrate and the king share a common secret? It goes without saying.

"Damn you, Lord Bing! You're bringing the Jinyiwei and Military Control Commission's system to the Qin State!" Li Si cursed.

This is equivalent to indirectly weakening the power of the prime minister, restricting the prime minister's authority, and adding an invisible shackle to the prime minister.

After all, the prime minister is in charge of all officials, but the officials have their own ways to communicate with the king.

This made it impossible for the prime minister to undermine the royal power.

(End of this chapter)