If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 1466 Sentencing
Li Si asked with a strange expression, "They've already been captured by the court, so what's the point of offering them amnesty?"
I was planning to chop them all up!

After speaking, he looked at Grand Tutor Yu with a questioning look in his eyes.

The dossier he had Li Ding, the clerk, delivered contained records of the punishments for the captured rebels.

According to the original Qin law, these people would definitely be executed by being cut into a thousand pieces, and their families would not survive either.

Even wiping out nine generations of a family is considered a mercy from the imperial court.

According to the "collective punishment law," if one person commits a crime, their neighbors and fellow villagers will also suffer.

The crime of treason is even more serious.

The Emperor Zheng even went so far as to take a compass, draw a circle on a map with the rebel's hometown as the origin, and exterminate all living beings within that circle.

Ten years of benevolent governance led to significant revisions to Qin law. Many things that were considered illegal in the past were no longer crimes. Crimes that were once punishable by death were now given lighter penalties.

Li Si submitted the case file to Grand Tutor Yu for his approval. Besides having some doubts about the sentencing, he was even more unsure whether the outcome of the verdict would be good or bad.

Would be more of a deterrent, or would be more steadfast in the determination of the remaining rebels to oppose Qin?

He would only officially carry out the order after receiving Grand Tutor Yu's approval.

Grand Tutor Yu thought for a moment and said, "Killing them is fine, not killing them is also fine. The key is your follow-up measures."

If there is the capacity to continue a long-term and stronger crackdown on the remaining rebels, then there is no need to kill them.

If the court is already feeling exhausted, then a swift and decisive execution is best. This will intimidate the rest and allow the court to catch its breath.

Li Si said, "The situation in the court is alright. Thanks to my dream of time travel last year, the princes and ministers had long anticipated the current situation in the Central Plains, and it can even be said that it is under control."

King Lieyang frowned and said, "If even those who commit the heinous crime of treason are not executed, won't the other rebels become even more arrogant? Moreover, those who originally dared not rebel might betray the court."

Grand Tutor Yu said, "Whether we kill or not, the purpose is not to vent our anger."

All policies and strategies serve a larger goal.

The overarching goal is to improve the situation of the Qin Dynasty.

If the court can handle the current situation with ease, it can keep the rebels and try to dismantle the anti-Qin alliance from within.

The number of rebellions has increased in the short term, and the pressure has also risen accordingly.

In the long run, however, the intensity of the rebellion will inevitably decrease as long as the tactics are appropriate.

—The people who were captured before have survived. Now that the situation is unfavorable, if I surrender decisively, how will the imperial court treat me?

Once they have this idea, they are no longer a real threat to the court.

King Lieyang said, "Spending a fortune to buy horse bones is enough; one or two cases are sufficient. There's no need to keep them all."

Grand Tutor Yu looked at Li Si and asked, "In your opinion, Prime Minister Li, how many of those captured rebels were willing to 'live on the streets' rather than bravely face death?"

Without hesitation, Li Si replied, "Of course, everyone wants to live. Even those with a firm belief in opposing Qin will choose to survive first and then find an opportunity to rebel."

The proportion of this type of person is not low.

I estimate that of the seventy-eight rebels, less than ten percent can truly be subdued.

To make his point more convincing, he added at the end, "I've seen them with my own eyes, and I can tell what kind of people they are from their eyes and attitude."

They were filled with resentment, feeling that they had been tricked due to carelessness, and were very dissatisfied with my Great Qin.

Some even wailed, "I'm a dignified transmigrator, and I've transmigrated so many times, yet I've been ambushed by a mere county magistrate! Heaven, are you playing a joke on me?!"

Grand Tutor Yu's lips twitched slightly as he said, "General Meng, if these kinds of people are sent to the Great Wall Legion, can you handle them?"

Meng Yi shook his head and said, "Taking in one or two and keeping them around is fine."

The few dozen men who joined the Great Wall Legion were all low-ranking officers, and I didn't have much time or energy to waste on them.

If they can't be properly cared for, they'll most likely surrender to the Xiongnu.

I've heard that many rebel kings, such as Qi Tianshi, Chen Sheng, and Xiang Liang, knew Maodun, the crown prince of the Xiongnu!
The Qi cultivators who assisted the Xiongnu even frequently exchanged ideas with the Qi cultivators who supported the rebel king Longting.

Overall, the Xiongnu's raid on the passes was a coordinated effort to disrupt the Central Plains in coordination with various rebellions.

It's unfair to call the anti-Qin heroes "traitors," because at that time the idea of ​​unification hadn't taken root in people's hearts, and many anti-Qin kings hoped and believed that they should return to the old feudal system!
The term "Han" never existed.

Before this group of anti-Qin heroes, the feudal lords of the Central Plains had often colluded with foreign tribes.

For example, the Western Zhou Dynasty was destroyed by the Marquis of Shen in alliance with the Quanrong. The Zhou Dynasty's "Human Emperor" also colluded with the Rong and Di tribes to attack the feudal lords. To form an alliance, they even intermarried.

It cannot be said that they were unaware of the distinction between Chinese and barbarians.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the slogan "Respect the King and Expel the Barbarians" had already resounded throughout the Central Plains, and it was considered a politically correct principle commonly followed by all the feudal lords (except for the southern barbarians).

However, given the limitations of productivity and material resources, even the Wu and Yue regions, and the Chu state, were considered genuine barbarians!
Are we going to start implementing the "Great Defense Between Chinese and Barbarians" now? Are we going to divide up the Wu and Yue regions, the Chu region, and most of the Qin and Yan regions?

It can only be said that each generation has its own destiny. The Qin Dynasty ushered in an era of great unification, and Liu Laosan's Han Dynasty forged the "soul of Han" for China.

In the midst of the great calamity of the Qin and Han dynasties, the fact that heroes from the Central Plains joined forces with the Hu people to rebel against the Qin dynasty is considered a "normal act" that is difficult to condemn morally.

Of course, the spirit of the Han Dynasty did not appear out of nowhere; it had already begun to sprout. For example, the immortals of the Central Plains, such as Lu Lingzi and Changqing Sanren, were not "Qin people" (they were not from the Qin region and were born before the establishment of the Qin Dynasty), yet they brought their own provisions and went to the north to help the Meng family army guard the Great Wall defense line.

This group must have been extremely disgusted by the secret alliance between the heroes of China and the Xiongnu.

“Actually, there’s no need to worry about them betraying the court and joining the Xiongnu,” Feng Quji reminded. “Besides them, their relatives have also been captured.”

They were serving in the north, while their families had to stay behind.

Could it be that they would let their entire family die tragically just to surrender to the Hu people?

Before sending them to the north, he made a three-point agreement in front of the whole world.

Or, like a celestial master requesting a divine mandate, one can swear an oath to Heaven.

—Anyone who dares to betray the imperial court and defect to the Xiongnu will be executed along with their entire clan!

They truly broke their oath. If the court kills their relatives, the people of the land will only applaud, not strengthen their resolve to rebel against the court.

Meng Yi said, "But Prime Minister Li has already used their families as leverage to recruit hundreds of rebels, and they don't care about the lives of their families."

Li Si said, "It's not that I don't care at all. With the help of the immortals like Fuqiu Gong, many traitors have formed a unified attitude—to coerce and entice me to release their families, or at least not to kill them immediately."

In the past few days, I have received a total of 300 jin of rare herbs and medicinal plants, as well as more than 100 bottles of various elixirs for prolonging life and increasing power.

But I received even more warnings.

Almost every visiting immortal friend earnestly warned me, "If I go too far today, what will become of the vast Li family when the Qin Dynasty falls tomorrow?"

He glanced at Grand Tutor Yu, then straightened his back, stiffened his neck, and said with a sigh, "I have accepted all their elixirs and pills, but their warnings have had no effect on me whatsoever."

The late emperor's kindness to me was immeasurable; my Li family would rather live and die with the Qin Dynasty than betray it in the slightest.

There's just no way I can betray them!
All his sons married princesses of the Ying clan and rose to the highest ranks of officialdom.

All his daughters married princes of the Ying clan. After Grand Tutor Yu enfeoffed the various kings, they were promoted to queens, and their sons became heirs or princes. He himself remained the most powerful minister in the Qin court.

It's like they're glued together with super glue, how can they betray each other?

If the traitor really intends to exterminate the Ying clan, his betrayal will be useless; the clan will still be wiped out. If the traitor cannot exterminate the Ying clan, then his Li family will naturally be fine.

—In any case, Grand Tutor Yu never gave up on the Ying clan's plan to migrate west. In the worst case, the main branch would follow the Ying clan to the Western Regions and continue to serve as ministers; the collateral branches would remain in the Central Plains for several generations, and then seek an opportunity to rise again in the new dynasty.

Grand Tutor Yu held the case file he had sent and said, "But the Prime Minister still advises against going too far."

Li Si said solemnly, "I have no fear in my heart, but what about the other ministers in the court?"

The Central Plains were in chaos, and it was said that the Qin Dynasty had lost its Mandate of Heaven. People in the court were filled with fear and unease.

If we want them to serve Qin without any worries, we must first give them a way out.

We shouldn't push even traitors too far, or drive them into a corner; we should be even more lenient and forgiving towards our own people.

Therefore, I believe that those arrested should be thoroughly screened, and those of value should be kept in Xingyang as 'hostages' to restrain the rebels.

Those deemed worthless and whose ties to the rebels were not particularly strong were relocated to the north or Hanzhong to serve as forced laborers.

Old Li's words were fairly honest. He might have had some personal motives—to fulfill his fellow cultivator's request—but his actions were mostly driven by public interest.

Why didn't Xiang Yu kill Liu Taigong and Lü Zhi?

It's a fact that Xiang Bo was a traitor and MVP, but Xiang Yu also considered the future of the Xiang family.

Later, when Xiang Yu committed suicide at Wujiang, Liu Bang indeed showed leniency towards the Xiang family, bestowing upon them the surname "Liu" and granting them the title of marquis. And it wasn't just the traitor Xiang Bo who was involved.

Three other members of the Xiang clan were also granted the surname "Liu" and were enfeoffed as marquises. It seems that there was more than just Xiang Bo as a traitor by Xiang Yu's side, but rather a group of traitors.

It's understandable that Li Si would have such concerns, given that even someone as arrogant as Xiang Yu had to consider these issues.

Grand Tutor Yu pondered for a moment and said, "There's nothing wrong with Prime Minister Li's arrangement."

The arrest operation alone caused a sensation throughout the country. The announcement of the surrender of the rebels was also made public.

Now that all the rebels have refused to be granted amnesty, the court's hasty conclusion to the case seems somewhat cowardly.

Li Si made a beheading gesture and said, "So I also plan to kill a batch of worthless prisoners."

The anti-Qin alliance in the East China Sea consisted of 742 traitors, but only one in ten could become a king.

The Grand Tutor, knowing the will of Heaven, selected those who were absolutely incapable of accomplishing anything and posed no threat to the court.

Since we can't succeed, we're not afraid of making them our enemies.

They could have their relatives torn to pieces, creating a grand spectacle and a huge uproar, to serve as a warning to the world.

Faced with such a stark contrast, the traitor, whose other relatives had survived, was not only not indignant, but instead felt a strange sense of gratitude towards me and the imperial court.

Grand Tutor Yu began to feel disgusted with him again.

There is no difference in perception between "Xiaoyu the Wanderer of the Jianghu" killing Xiuge and killing nameless thieves who block the road.

However, she is no longer a wandering swordsman.

"Do not distinguish between noble and lowly, nor discern the order of destiny, nor leave behind any 'hostages,' send them all to the north to defend against the Xiongnu."

The north is sparsely populated, so each person was given 100 mu of land and oxen for plowing.

The men serve in the army to guard the border, while the elderly, children, women, and the weak work normally at home, just like ordinary people.

If they are willing to submit to the Qin Dynasty, they can go to the northern frontier to become generals, and their subordinates can be taken along as soldiers.

Their families could end their corvée labor and return to the Central Plains, or they could stay in the north and settle down.

If one performs a great service, one's military merits and rank will be calculated in the same way as those of the Qin soldiers.

King Lieyang frowned and said, "This won't have a deterrent effect!"

Grand Tutor Yu said calmly, "How could it not have deterred us? Before, we distinguished between high and low, praising the noble and punishing the lowly."

Now, regardless of social status, they are no longer treated with the same deference; instead, they have all gone to the north to become "border dwellers."

Meng Yi looked at Lieyang King with gentle eyes and said, "Lieyang King, you have never been to the Northern Frontier battlefield and do not know what kind of life the people on the northern border live, which is why you feel that the Grand Tutor's punishment has no deterrent effect."

If it weren't for the emergence of the Grand Tutor back then, millions of people in the Yan and Zhao regions would have been slaughtered by the Left Guli King and the Donghu King.

Even those who escaped the first wave of slaughter and managed to hide in Daiyi City or other border towns found themselves crammed into shacks.

Outside, snow was falling heavily and the wind was biting cold; inside, it was dark and icy cold, and people huddled in the mud pit, living in fear.

Overnight, countless people froze to death or starved to death.

If it weren't for the deep attachment to their homeland, and if the Great Wall army weren't still holding the front lines, you wouldn't be able to find a single living person in the dozen or so prefectures and tens of thousands of miles of land in the north.

He fully understood why Grand Tutor Yu sent his rebellious relatives to the north to become border residents.

Grand Tutor Yu spent some time in the north and witnessed the suffering of the border people.

A quick beheading is a painless death; but enduring hardship in the northern frontier is worse than death.

Li Si said thoughtfully, "After the Grand Tutor killed Xiuge and abolished the Donghu, the north was indeed peaceful for two years."

As a result, there has been little news of major battles in the north in the Central Plains recently.

Why don't we increase our propaganda about the situation in the North by issuing a public notice?

It not only publicized the suffering of the northern border people, but also the brutality of the Xiongnu, and the powerful fighting force and unparalleled achievements of the Great Wall army.

Let the people of the Central Plains know that our Great Qin is indomitable and has protected the northern barrier for the Central Plains.

Oh, and we also need to publicize that Xiang Liang colluded with the northern Xiongnu, and that the Chu barbarians joined forces with the Xiongnu to wreak havoc on China.

"Yes, only promote Xiang Liang; Chen Sheng needs to be properly 'protected.'"

Grand Tutor Yu smiled and said, "Prime Minister Li has grasped the essence of 'journalist'."

Well, because of her emergence, journalists can be said to have caught the last train of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

The Qin Dynasty court recruited hundreds of "news writers," and as these scholars gradually became familiar with "journalism," they began to call themselves "journalists."

Even Li Si himself would occasionally write a couple of articles to publicize the court's policies.

"Grand Tutor, sending the rebel's relatives to the north to become border residents is only a punishment for the traitor, and it does not fundamentally change the situation in the north."

If we want to truly help defend the borders and reduce turmoil in the Central Plains, we must revive the old Qin laws.

"Use the old Qin laws to send all the unruly people from the Central Plains to the north," Li Si said in a deep voice.

(End of this chapter)