At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 300, Li Si’s disapproval and "Rule of Law Monthly"

Where does this money come from? This is a problem that all courts have to face. Simply and crudely increase taxes and corvees, and the Qin Dynasty is watching you.

If you reduce taxes and eliminate corvee, you will have to face less taxes and more expenditures than the Qin Dynasty.

What the Han Dynasty has always done is to increase this tax on the nobles and powerful people, and the Han Dynasty has achieved the ultimate goal. This can be said to be related to the distribution of the core interests of Dahan.

Li Si was telling Zhang Cang that this was the new "equal field" of the Han Dynasty.

Zhang Cang said: "The Han Dynasty attaches great importance to industry and commerce. The Shaofu of the Han Dynasty can earn hundreds of thousands of gold. Due to the great growth of the textile industry this year, the money earned by the Shaofu has increased by more than 5% on the basis of last year. This money can completely satisfy the Han officials." Salaries and rewards for meritorious officials.”

Now the Young Mansion of the Han Dynasty has become the richest and most powerful official office under the system of the Three Gongs and Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty.

The Shaofu has as many as one million employees, and there are tens of thousands of Han officials who are dependent on this system. Under this huge system, the textile industry, steel mills, sugar industry, and salt industry have become the four pillars of the Shaofu, and behind it are the rapidly growing shipbuilding industry, fishery, etc.

It can be said that the Shaofu has become the largest official office in the Han Dynasty. The power held by Qin Bo in the Shaofu is not much different from that of Zhou Zhang, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, so much so that Prime Minister Zhou Zhang has the idea of ​​splitting up the Shaofu.

Li Si smiled and said: "Brother, I believe that the current Han Dynasty court can still support heroes, but it may not be possible in more than ten years."

The result of Li Si's two years of observing the Han Emperor is that the Han Emperor said that the world belongs to the people of the world, not just words to comfort the people of the world, but his truest thoughts in his heart. And Emperor Han was still taking action.

Zhang Cang was stunned. Although he understood that it was impossible for all of his sons to become Han officials and nobles, even two of them would increase the consumption of the Han Dynasty exponentially, and the same situation was almost the same for other nobles of the Han Dynasty. The emperor's kindness enfeoffed a large number of princes and ennobled nobles. The result was the rapid expansion of the aristocratic class of the Han Dynasty.

Li Si shook his head and said: "A certain person is not optimistic about the Han Emperor's Sage Association. The so-called sages are all nobles and powerful people. They are just the same as the Han officials. Now they are not familiar with this system and are still in the groping stage. Plus the emperor He has high prestige and can suppress the world, but when the emperor dies of illness, the so-called sage will definitely collude with the Han officials. "

At this time, Zhang Cang finally understood the entanglement of interests involved. He couldn't help but smile bitterly and said: "From this point of view, there is really not much difference between the Han Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty."

Zhang Cang said: "Eight sons, twelve daughters, the eldest son, the daughter has grown up and can make money to support the family."

Li Si asked funnyly: "Junior brother, how many sons and daughters do you have?"

Then Li Si said: "We and the Legalists were also wrong. The emperor's summary of our Qin Dynasty in recent years is still very reasonable. The First Emperor and our Legalists tightened the strings of the people of the world too tightly, and eventually they broke. The Qin Dynasty's The world will be destroyed. You cannot serve one person as the world. Such a world is too fragile. "

The Han Emperor obviously knew clearly that he could not put too many nobles on the people. He could not purge the nobles of the Han Dynasty to reduce the burden on the people of the world, so he had no choice but to attack the powerful nobles of the six countries.

Li Si did not think that Emperor Han hid his inner thoughts, because all of this was done when Emperor Han became the best in the world.

Then he sighed and said: "If the First Emperor had had the patience of the Han Emperor, doing one thing at a time, and not completing a hundred years of work in ten years, the Great Qin Dynasty would not have perished."

Li Si smiled and said: "There is not much difference between the countries in the world. It's just that the Han Emperor followed the footsteps of the First Emperor and led the Han Dynasty to continue to explore."

Although Zhang Cang has a high salary, it is still difficult to maintain a decent life for such a large family.

You must know that when the First Emperor was still the King of Qin, he still listened to advice, such as the "Book of Remonstrances and Expulsions from Guests" he wrote. The King of Qin realized his mistake and immediately corrected it.

The emperor has already established a huge system of powerful nobles of the Han Dynasty. If the system of powerful nobles of the Six Kingdoms is maintained, the pressure on the people of the Han Dynasty will be extremely huge. What happened in the Qin Dynasty may happen to the Han Dynasty.

In fact, Li Si believed that compared with the Han Dynasty, which enfeoffed people wantonly, the upper-level system of the Qin Dynasty was healthier. The people of the world had fewer officials and nobles to support than the Han Dynasty. However, the Han Dynasty bound the princes, nobles, Han officials and the people at the bottom, and every class of the Han Dynasty. Everyone can get benefits, but Da Qin is ruled by one person, but it is obviously the Han who is more popular.

The nobility and the people of the world are two incompatible groups. The emperor is now consciously removing the presence of some powerful nobles to reduce the burden on the entire world.

Li Sidao: "You are now the commander of two thousand stones. No surprise, most of your sons will also enter the officialdom of the Han Dynasty, and your family will become the nobles of the Han Dynasty. In other words, the next generation of you, junior brother, will be the official of the Han Dynasty." I need to support eight times more noble merits. Junior brother, do you think the Han Dynasty will be able to support you?"

Zhang Cang said: "The Qin Dynasty has pointed out a dead end for the Han Dynasty, so I, the Han Dynasty, have a meeting of wise men. Your Majesty also said that the world of the Han Dynasty belongs to the people of the world. If the people of the world will protect the Han Dynasty, the country of the Han Dynasty can be consolidated forever."

"The First Emperor was too extreme. He believed that the whole world belonged to him and worshiped one person, which eventually led to the death of the Second Emperor of Qin Dynasty. And the Han Emperor went to another extreme. He really believed that the world belonged to everyone, and he He is just a part of the world, so that the imperial power is not revealed, which creates hidden worries for the Han Dynasty. "

Li Si sighed inwardly. If the First Emperor had not been so radical and recuperated with the people, the Qin Dynasty would not have collapsed so quickly.

This somewhat shattered Zhang Cang's views. The emperor's benevolent and generous actions would actually bring a huge burden to the people of the world.

Zheng Guo was originally a spy for South Korea, but the construction of Zheng Guo Canal was beneficial to Qin, and the King of Qin still used Zheng Guo.

But after King Qin became the first emperor, he could not listen to any advice. He directly killed those who did not like him, which was completely different from the attitude of King Qin who humbly asked for advice.

After becoming the First Emperor, what he did was the truest thought in his heart, because there was no one in the world who needed the First Emperor to please him with false affection.

Similarly, after Emperor Han became the co-owner of the world, he did not need to pretend to please anyone. What he did was his truest thoughts.

That's why Li Si was shocked. He thought he was talking about something, but he didn't expect that Emperor Han was actually doing it. It can be said that the Han Emperor did not look like an emperor at all. All the systems in Da Qin related to serving the emperor were abolished by him.

Originally, after Xu Fan became emperor, the character "Fan" would change its appearance, which was called the taboo of the venerable.

But Xu Fan abolished this tradition and said: "A big man is a big man among the people in the world. If he hinders the people of the world for one person, he will not take it."

So for thousands of years, the tradition of keeping taboos for respected people was abolished in the Han Dynasty.

There is also the imperial road of the Qin Dynasty. In order to prevent assassinations during the First Emperor's era, high walls were built on both sides of the imperial road. However, they were demolished by the Han emperor and the bricks were used to build soldiers' houses. There is no royal road now. As long as it is a road, people's carriages and horses can walk on it.

There is also the Qin Palace. The Qin royal family has been expanding for hundreds of years, but in the hands of the Han emperor, those remote palaces became so-called museums and even inns, where anyone with money could stay.

The walls of the Qin Palace were demolished, and the bricks were used to build housing for the soldiers. Palaces of all sizes were turned into official offices and libraries of the Han Dynasty. The maids of these palaces were betrothed to the soldiers of the Han Dynasty by the Han Emperor. The Han Emperor really did not regard the palace as his own, nor did he regard the palace maids as his own.

The Shaofu was an institution that originally served the First Emperor alone. As a result, in the Han Dynasty, the Shaofu was actually managed by the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, and the taxes on the mountains, seas, and ponds managed by the Shaofu also belonged to the Han court. This is tantamount to depriving the emperor of his private treasury.

As for the Han Emperor's concept that the world belongs to all people, the most critical institution to put it into action is the Association of Sages.

This institution has obviously usurped the emperor's legal status. He was previously ordered by heaven, but no one can depose the emperor on behalf of God. This is a symbol of the divine right of kings. However, the emperor of Han Dynasty was entrusted to the people, and the Association of Sages was the representative of the people in the world. They had the right to depose the emperor. The originally vague legal system now has a concrete organization.

As the founding emperor, the Han Emperor expanded the rights of the prime minister to limit the imperial power, and created the Sage Council to become the source of the emperor's legal system, allowing the Sage Council to usurp part of the imperial power, or in other words, the Sage Council represented part of the imperial power.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the king's (imperial) power, which had been strengthened, was greatly weakened in the hands of the Han emperor.

The Han Dynasty ruled the entire world with a core composed of the emperor, prime ministers, and the Council of Sages.

The power of the Han emperor is too weak and it is too easy to become a puppet. As the founding emperor, Emperor Han structured the power system of the Han Dynasty in this way. Li Si thought, firstly, the Han Emperor was a political idiot, and secondly, the Han Emperor really believed that the world belonged to everyone. That's why he took action based on this belief and formed the current core of the Han Dynasty.

But Li Si was not optimistic about the core system established by the Han Emperor. The imperial power was too fragile. The pillars of the imperial power were chopped to pieces by the Han Emperor. He could only rely on military power to maintain his status, but military power could not be used easily. If the imperial power of the Han Dynasty is unstable, the Han court will not be stable, and the world will naturally not be stable.

Li Sidu felt puzzled and said: "I don't understand where the idea of ​​emperor came from and what kind of teacher taught him."

Zhang Cang said: "Isn't this bad? Isn't that what the ancient holy kings were like?"

Li Sidao: "You also said that it was the ancient holy king. The reason why the system of the ancient holy king was replaced was because it was out of date.

The world belongs to everyone, which means the world has no owner. The teacher said that human nature is evil. When it comes to obtaining the benefits of the world, everyone will step forward, but when they want to take on the responsibilities of the world, everyone will retreat. Such a world It can only collapse. "

"So the family world replaces the common world. When the world belongs to a king, even if the king obtains the benefits of the world, he also assumes the responsibilities of the world. The family world is not a loss of morality, but a choice of the human heart."

"The same principle applies to the Han Dynasty. The world belongs to the Han Emperor. Therefore, no matter whether the world prospers or declines, the Han Emperor is directly responsible. Even if it is for his own family business, the Han Emperor in future generations will manage the world well. "

"But the world belongs to the people of the world, and the Han people represented the people of the world with the Association of Sages. So the world belongs to these sages and also to the Han officials. But there are hundreds of thousands of Han officials and hundreds of sages. How can these people It may benefit the people of the world.

Mou Tai understands these people. There is no essential difference between Han officials and Qin officials. Once the emperor's supervision is weakened, they will become lawless, and the sages are just nobles and powerful people with another name. They will only refuse to give in when it comes to obtaining benefits. If they are asked to take responsibility, they will run away. Just by looking at the nobles of the Warring States Period, you can know what the sages of the Han Dynasty will look like in the future. "

In Brother Wei's view, the emperor is like a dragon, the officials are like wolves, the nobles are like tigers and leopards, and the common people are like cattle and sheep. The current system of the Han Dynasty weakened the dragon and increased the power of the wolves and tigers and leopards. When the dragon was unable to deal with the wolves and tigers and leopards, they would multiply wildly and eventually devour all the cattle and sheep, eventually leading to the collapse of the world. I don’t know how many generations the world can pass on, but I am not optimistic about the future of the big man. "

Zhang Cang felt bad after hearing Li Si's words.

The Han Dynasty was obviously prosperous, but according to his senior brother, it had become in danger, as if the second generation had perished. Zhang Cang also felt that what Li Si said was reasonable. From the bottom of his heart, he was not optimistic about the system created by the emperor.

Since the troubled times of the Warring States, if you want to enrich the country and strengthen the army, you have always strengthened the royal power. I have never seen anything like the Emperor Han doing the opposite.

New things mean immaturity, and immaturity means they die easily. The Second Emperor of Qin Dynasty died. In addition to the cruelty of the First Emperor, the Unified Dynasty was a new thing. This accounted for half of the reason. No one knew how the Unified Dynasty would go.

The First Emperor could only explore alone because he had no reference. From the starting point, what he did was for the stability and inheritance of the country, but the final result was the collapse of the world.

But now that the Dahan system continues to move forward, no one knows what the future will look like.

The two began to fall silent, and soon Zhang Cang left Li Si's mansion.

After Zhang Cang left, Zheng Qi and Xie Yu came to Li Si's mansion to ask for a meeting.

Li Si smiled when he saw the two of them: "You really want to be a Dharma minister?"

Zheng Qi shook his head and said: "This junior just feels that it is meaningless to stay in the "Dahan Monthly". If you want to praise the emperor, it is enough to have Han officials. Why add another "Dahan Monthly"? This is to let the world Everyone saw how we praised the emperor, and when he thought about it, he didn’t want to stay any longer.”

Xie Yu also sneered: "Zhong Jun wants to sing praises to the emperor, why doesn't he castrate himself to serve the emperor?"

Li Si smiled and said: "You are really young and energetic. I can't say that Zhong Jun's idea is completely wrong. At this point in time, stability is really the most important thing. After all, soldiers are important events in the country."

But soon Li Si said: "But Zhong Jun went too far and went against the emperor's ideas. When the emperor established the "Dahan Monthly", he wanted to make the "Dahan Monthly" become another pair of eyes for the emperor. Supervise the Han officials, otherwise the emperor would not have written the words "Puer Yi Censor" in your newspaper."

Zheng Qidao: "I have the same idea. It is not that we cannot write about the benevolent and righteous things done by the emperor, but we cannot only write about these. I, a big man, also have many hidden worries. We should expose these hidden worries and help the court solve these problems. This is the right thing to do. If you keep suppressing your attitude, small problems will turn into big ones and eventually become out of control.”

Li Si smiled and said: "I plan to establish a newspaper office. Are you willing to help me?"

Zheng Qi and Xie Yu were surprised: "Sir, are you also planning to establish a newspaper?"

Li Sidao: "Over the years, my fellow villagers have summarized the gains and losses of the Qin Dynasty and believe that the world's troubles lie in the administration of officials. In those days, the officials of the Qin Dynasty governed the Qing Dynasty in a clear way, and the government would not force the people to rebel and the world would collapse."

"Now there is such a trend in the Han Dynasty. The officialdom of the Han Dynasty is dominated by martial men. They do not know the law, do not abide by the law, and even violate the law to seek their own interests. Therefore, I want to start a "Law and Rule Monthly" to specifically expose the illegal and disciplinary behavior of Han officials, and for I, the people of the Han Dynasty, seek justice and popularize legal knowledge for the people of the world, so that the people of the world will not break the law without knowing it."

Zheng Qi said excitedly: "The junior is willing to join the senior's newspaper."

Xie Yu hesitated and said: "It is not easy to start a monthly newspaper. Without tens of thousands of subscriptions for each newspaper, it is impossible to make back the money. Every time the "Dahan Monthly" is published, all major departments of the imperial court and local counties will Order, that’s almost 5000 copies. We don’t have such channels. I’m afraid this monthly newspaper will be closed after a few issues.”

Even if Xu Fan invented movable type printing, the cost of printing would still be extremely high. Otherwise, the first newspaper would not be called a monthly newspaper, but should be called a weekly or daily newspaper.

Li Sidao: "I still have some personal possessions, so I can still print a few issues of the monthly newspaper, and I also have a few rich old friends, so I can still do it by asking them to support a few issues."

Although Li Si was not wealthy in Chang'an City, his youngest son's property in Shu was quite large. Xu Fan treated the officials and nobles of Da Qin by revoking their rights, confiscating their land, and did not touch their money or shops.

Over the years, Li Shi established a textile factory in the middle of Shu, specializing in weaving the finest Shu brocade. The money the Li family made in the textile industry amounted to thousands of gold every year. Although this is not comparable to that in the Qin Dynasty, the Li family is still a wealthy family, but Li Si asked his youngest son to keep a low profile, and Li Si himself was self-reliant, so not many people knew about the Li family's property.

Li Si continued: "In this way, our monthly newspaper can be opened for one year. The emperor promotes education and there are more and more scholars in the world. As long as our "Rule of Law Monthly" can really plead for the people and survive the early period, it will definitely be able to run for a long time. "

The two of them did not doubt Li Si's words. After all, he had been the prime minister of Da Qin, so it was normal to have a few rich friends.

(End of this chapter)