I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 94: Why don’t you let Fusu promote Confucianism alone?
In fact, Ying Zheng was not a good student in normal classes - he would always secretly chat with others during class.

The main problem was that the part he was most interested in was about Daqin, but Song Shen had never talked about Daqin in detail before, and at most he mentioned it in passing when talking about other things.

But now the teacher was going to start discussing Qin seriously, and Ying Zheng focused his attention to the fullest, fearing that he would miss anything.

Hearing Song Shen's question, Ying Zheng smiled bitterly:

"Sir, you are right. I have been troubled by this."

"In fact, I know everything those remnants of the six kingdoms say. They say that Qin is a tyrant, and I have been scolded so much ten years ago that my ears are almost callused."

"But what can we do? If the Qin Empire didn't have the military honors hanging in the air, how could there be so many Qin soldiers going to the battlefield to fight?"

"Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Shimin told me that not only the people of the six kingdoms cursed me, but also the later generations, saying that I was ambitious and did not treat the people as human beings. I built the Great Wall and the Afang Palace, and I also wanted to build the imperial mausoleum. I conquered the Baiyue in the south and the Xiongnu in the north, causing countless deaths and injuries. I am really a tyrant."

"But who has ever thought about this from my perspective?"

"I have unified the world with the remaining strength of my six generations. Millions of Qin soldiers are waiting to be promoted for military merit. They are all young and strong laborers of the Qin Dynasty. Many of them have already been given titles and no longer need to farm. If I don't find a way to give them something to do, I will have to sit in Xianyang and wait for them to rebel."

"The Qin Empire must change. This is inevitable. I did not come up with a plan myself because I knew that the remnants of the six kingdoms hated me. So I changed the troublesome things myself, and left the rest to Fusu. But if the Qin Empire is handed over to Fusu in the future, how can it survive?"

"I am also confused."

Song Shen hadn't said anything yet, but Zhang Liang couldn't help himself.

He frowned and looked at Ying Zheng and said:

"The Qin Dynasty was governed by law, but the Qin law was too harsh. If you could make the Qin law less harsh, stop following the Legalists and instead follow the Huang-Lao school of thought, wouldn't that allow the Qin Dynasty to recuperate?"

Ying Zheng glanced at him and sneered:
"Zhang Liang, you are a counselor, and counselors are not emperors. People should make decisions according to their positions. You simply cannot understand what I mean. If you don't believe me, listen to what I have to say, sir."

Everyone looked at Song Shen.

In addition to Ying Zheng, others also wanted to hear what Song Shen would say, because the Qin Dynasty was so special and it was a unique dynasty in thousands of years.

Song Shen thought about it and asked instead of answering:

"Do you know that there are actually two countries in later times whose systems are very similar to Qin's?"

Ying Zheng's eyes widened:

"What? There are others similar to Qin?!"

"That's impossible. I have even asked Zhu Yuanzhang about this. No one in later generations has used the military merit system like the Qin Dynasty!"

Song Shen shook his head, his expression a little strange:
"It's not our Central Plains Dynasty..."

"One of them I mentioned before is the Japanese country that later invaded the Central Plains. During the same period, there was also a similar country in Europe called Germany."

"At the time, these two countries were two war machines like the Qin Dynasty. Everyone was fanatically pursuing something called militarism."

"To put it simply—"

"This ideology takes militarism and aggression as the foundation of a country, puts the country completely under military control, and makes all aspects of politics, economy, culture and education serve the purpose of military expansion and foreign wars. Those who follow it insist that war is inevitable, and even believe that war itself is beautiful and desirable, so they wage war endlessly, and even if they lose, they may still revive."

"Wakoku and Germany don't have a military merit system, but their education from top to bottom encourages war, so you see, isn't this similar to the military merit system?"

Ying Zheng was completely silent for a long while.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly said:
"No, didn't they say that Xu Fu sailed east to Japan? Japan later became as annoying as a flea that can't be killed, always wanting to attack our Central Plains. Could it be that they learned this from the Qin Dynasty or the First Emperor?"

Everyone: ? ? !
Ying Zheng clenched his fists tightly and glared at Zhu Yuanzhang fiercely, wishing he could sew his mouth shut right now.

He growled in a low voice:
"Mr. Zhu, will you die if you don't speak?"

On the podium, Song Shen heard that the situation was about to rise to this level, so he hurried out to stop it.

"No, no, no, Zhu Yuanzhang, you can eat whatever you want but you can't say whatever you want!"

"You can only say that this system led to the rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty, but you can't say that it was all Ying Zheng's fault. During his reign, he didn't make radical changes to the system. He just followed the rules established by his ancestors and used them to unify the Qin Dynasty."

"Besides, I am just making an analogy. I am not saying that Qin is the same as Japan or Germany. The root of the system is here. If the Qin Dynasty does not get rid of the military merit system from the root, it will not be able to continue. If not the second Qin Dynasty, there will always be the third and fourth generations. As long as Qin Shihuang dies, the world will be in chaos, because no one can control the situation except him."

He paused and then said:
"Through the super-strong fighting power condensed from this physique, Qin achieved a unification that could be called a miracle, but the reason why a miracle is called a miracle is because it is often as fragile as bubbles and difficult to replicate."

"The Qin system was a system for one country, and it could not support the weight of the seven countries after the expansion. The particularity of the Qin system made it not universal in agricultural civilization, but only applicable to specific periods and specific scenarios - that is, Qin unified the six countries."

“Only when you are in that position can you most acutely perceive the problems of this system and understand how difficult it is to change.”

"For this reason, in the short 16 years after unifying the world, Ying Zheng worked non-stop and desperately, building highways, constructing the Great Wall, collecting weapons from all over the world, relocating nobles from the six kingdoms, unifying weights and measures, and even going on tours every now and then to mark his newly conquered lands with his footprints and intimidate the people at home."

"But the power of one person is insignificant after all."

"He tried hard, but just three years after his death, this huge state machine completely collapsed. There are no ifs in history, but I think that even if there was no Hu Hai's chaos and it was Fusu who ascended the throne, if the institutional problems were not corrected, it would only delay, but not change, the end of the Qin Dynasty."

Having said that, Song Shen also sighed.

The Qin Dynasty was too difficult to talk about. Even though he had consulted a lot of literature to prepare for the class, it was still difficult to explain it clearly. He even thought that even if he stood on the shoulders of so many scholars and historical books in later generations, it would still be difficult for him to see the full picture of the Qin Dynasty.

Li Shimin had now recovered from the anger he felt over his family's misfortune.

He looked at the silent Ying Zheng and said comfortingly:
"Look at it in a positive way. Although the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, you created the concept of unifying the world. If there was no Qin Dynasty, where would we emperors of the so-called unified dynasty come from?"

"Before the Tang Dynasty, there were also hundreds of years of chaos and strife, just like the warring states during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Later, the Sui Dynasty ended the chaos and unified the country, but the Sui Dynasty also fell in the second generation. To put it bluntly, the Tang Dynasty also reaped the benefits of the Sui Dynasty."

"After the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty also continued in chaos for hundreds of years. Why don't you try the Han Dynasty's method?"

Ying Zheng frowned:

"Are you talking about the inexplicable county-state system of the Han Dynasty? I have heard about it from the teachers, but it is really disgusting. I have finally made the princes disappear. What is the difference between this county-state system and the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty? It is just causing trouble for myself."

"In order to solve the problem of the county-state system, Liu Che also issued the Enfeoffment Order. The Qin Dynasty is just looking for trouble by doing this."

Li Shimin waved his hand and said:

"What I mean is that you should ask Fusu to abolish all schools of thought and respect Confucianism alone!"

Ying Zheng:? ? ?
Smoke was almost coming out of Ying Zheng's head:

"What do you mean by Confucianism? I can't rule the country with Confucianism!"

(End of this chapter)