Diqin Designer

Chapter 463 is not about betraying the country, but about "win-win cooperation".

This time, instead of rushing to answer, the group exchanged glances. Selling out their country to Qin would be a plus for Qin, while demanding benefits from Qin would be a minus. None of them wanted to be the first to answer.

The best answer to earn extra points would be, "We help the Qin Dynasty out of respect for it; how could we dare to ask for anything in return?" But if the Qin people take this answer seriously, they'll have nowhere to turn for help.

Seeing the hesitation of the group, Fusu narrowed his eyes and said, "If you are unwilling to speak, were you just mocking me?"

Seeing that the Crown Prince of Qin was showing signs of anger, one of them quickly said, "How dare we mock Your Highness! We just want to... wait for the arrival of the Qin army, and Qin will allow us to serve Qin."

Fusu pretended not to understand the man's words, said "Oh" and then asked, "How do you all intend to serve the Great Qin?"

The man understood that the Crown Prince of Qin was deliberately feigning ignorance to force him to speak plainly, but there was nothing he could do about it: "We hope that after Qin conquers our country, it will allow us to help govern it!"

Before Fusu could speak, the man continued, “Your Highness, the Great Qin is far from our country, and travel between us is not easy. If you were to govern it personally, I fear you would be doing twice the work for half the results. But if we were to help you, you could achieve twice the results with half the effort!”

Fusu looked at the person who had spoken and said, "Your elegant speech is quite good, and you even know about 'achieving twice the result with half the effort.' But..."

Fusu changed the subject, his gaze falling on the man, making him feel a heavy pressure. If the Crown Prince of Qin wanted to take his life, even if he was a member of the Peacock Kingdom's delegation, he would not be spared.

"Can I deny that you are threatening Great Qin? Do you mean that Great Qin cannot conquer your state or govern it well without your assistance?"

The man hurriedly replied, "Your Highness, how dare we threaten Great Qin? With Great Qin's capabilities, even without our assistance, they can certainly conquer our country and heal it!"

If the Qin people hadn't had these people as guides, it would have been almost impossible for them to conquer and govern the Peacock Kingdom well. But while they thought this in their hearts, they couldn't say it out loud. Instead, they had to praise and flatter the Qin Dynasty.

The man continued, "With our assistance, Great Qin can achieve its goals more smoothly. This is a win-win situation, not a threat to Great Qin. I hope Your Highness will understand!"

Fusu shifted his gaze from the man to Bijianu and the others, making them feel pressured. This Crown Prince of Qin looked young, but he was not to be underestimated.

Fusu's voice reached their ears: "Do you all share this view?"

Feeling that the Crown Prince of Qin's gaze had finally fallen on him, Pijanu braced himself and said, "Your Highness, we are all willing to cooperate with Qin for mutual benefit and win-win results!"

What treason, what ceding of interests? That was not selling out, not ceding out; it was mutually beneficial cooperation with the civilized, advanced, and powerful Qin Dynasty. How can something mutually beneficial be called treason?
They are not betraying their country; on the contrary, they are removing the decay from the Peacock Kingdom, preserving its vitality under the Qin invasion, and saving the Peacock Kingdom!
Fusu said, "If Great Qin allows you to help govern, how can you guarantee Great Qin's interests?"

Upon hearing this, Pijanu and the others were invigorated, as it meant that the Qin Dynasty was willing to accept their conditions, but they had to guarantee that they would supply the Qin Dynasty with sufficient benefits.

The benefits that the Qin people needed were nothing more than taxes, grain, minerals, timber, and beautiful women. As long as these were satisfied, the Qin people would be satisfied.

Pijanu went straight to the point about the various benefits they could promise to Qin. With their help in governing, they would ensure the stability of the Peacock Kingdom, preventing any rebellions. They would also pay Qin a considerable amount of tax and grain every year, and send young and beautiful women as tribute annually. Furthermore, Qin could mine any mineral deposits in the Peacock Kingdom…

In return, Qin would allow them to govern on its behalf, retain their power and status, and allow them to keep some of the taxes and grain for themselves when they levied them. Qin would endorse their governance and provide legitimacy.

To demonstrate their loyalty to the Qin Dynasty, they were willing to send their most important heir to Xianyang as a hostage.

After hearing Bijanu's promise, Fusu remained silent, while Li Nian shook his head and said, "Not enough, not enough!"

This person, who had remained silent until now, spoke up, drawing the attention of Pijanu and the others to Li Nian. Pijanu respectfully asked, "Does the young master have anything to add?"

Li Nian smiled and said, "I think we should add a few more clauses: First, Great Qin will not interfere with your caste system, but you must also recognize that the people of Great Qin are of a high caste in the caste system."

Although Li Nian was speaking with a smile, as if she were discussing it with them, it was clear that there was no room for negotiation.

Pijanu and the others remained silent for a while. As members of the delegation, they were naturally of high caste in the Peacock Kingdom. They were somewhat unwilling to accept everyone in the Qin Dynasty, even though the common people of the Qin Dynasty were of high caste in their Peacock Kingdom.

They could accept the kings and ministers of the Qin Dynasty as high castes, but the common people of the Qin Dynasty were also recognized as Kshatriyas and Brahmins, belonging to the same caste as them. Of course, they were not very willing: it was one thing for the kings and ministers of the Qin Dynasty to be more noble than them, but the common people of the Qin Dynasty could also sit at the same table with them.
Seeing that they remained silent, Li Nian raised an eyebrow and said, "What, do you all think that the people of Great Qin are of a lower caste?"

Such a crucial question was something that Pijanu and the others certainly dared not admit, and they hurriedly said, "The people of Great Qin are noble, and even if the young master did not say so, we would still treat them as people of high caste!"

Li Nian then softened his expression and nodded with satisfaction: "The people of our Great Qin are all descendants of the Yellow Emperor, and are indeed noble. In the future, if any of my people from Great Qin come to your places, you must treat them with the respect due to their high caste!"

Despite their reluctance, Pijanu and the others had no choice but to agree. Originally, their Peacock Kingdom didn't have many high-caste people, but now they had gained 20 million more high-caste Qin fathers.

What gave them some comfort was that not all of the more than 20 million high-caste Qin fathers would come to their Peacock Kingdom; only a few would come. As long as they didn't come, they could be treated as non-existent, and it wouldn't have a drastic impact on their caste system.

The caste system is the foundation of their long-term rule, and it must not be shaken by the Qin people. If the Qin people dare to touch the caste system, they must resist even if they cannot fight against the Qin people. Fortunately, this prince of Qin has said that he will not interfere with the caste system.

"Secondly, you must strictly prohibit the introduction of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, and other such religions into Great Qin. Great Qin will not interfere with your beliefs, but these religions must not be introduced into Great Qin!"

Li Nian's greatest desire is to eradicate Buddhism, Jainism, and other religious sects, but this is very difficult to achieve. These sects are deeply rooted in the Peacock Kingdom and have many believers, including some among the royal family and nobility. To ban them is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

Upon hearing Li Nian's "second point," Pijanu and the others inwardly grumbled: You forbid our Peacock Kingdom's religion from spreading to Great Qin, so why don't you say that Great Qin's religion won't spread to our Peacock Kingdom?
This is a typical example of allowing Kshatriyas to eat meat while forbidding Dalits from eating vegetables—a blatant display of Qin hegemony.

This prince of Qin was clearly doing this intentionally. He forbade their sect from spreading to Qin, while Qin's sects were allowed to spread to them. The Qin people would certainly demand that they suppress their native sects and help their own sects spread. With this ebb and flow, the Qin sects would inevitably grow stronger within the Peacock Kingdom, while their native sects would gradually decline. Perhaps many years from now, the Peacock Kingdom would no longer believe in Buddha or Mahavira, but instead in the religion of the Qin people.

In order to strengthen the Qin Dynasty's ability to resist foreign religious beliefs and to spread the Qin Dynasty's religious ideas to the world, Li Nian and his Confucian, Taoist, and Mohist followers, in combination with the situation of the Qin Dynasty at that time, actually created a religion in the past year or so.

The religion is called "Ancestral God Religion". Judging from its name, one can understand its general doctrine. It enshrines ancestors of the Chinese people such as Suiren and Youchao as deities to construct its doctrines, but it also retains some mainstream deities that are more commonly believed in folk religion.

After all, the primary question that religion needs to address is: where did the world come from, and who created heaven and earth?
You can't exactly tell people at that time that the universe came from a Big Bang, or that they were the ancestors of the Chinese people who created the world.

People in this era are more convinced that the world was created and opened up by God.

But why does this god have to be God, Allah, or Brahma, and not a Chinese god?

In this world, the gods of China should be the most mainstream gods, not the Western God.

Li Nian and others, the supreme creator god, designated the Heavenly Emperor, also known as Taiyi, as the most mainstream deity at that time.

Taiyi is the supreme creator god of the Ancestral God Sect. He is the creator and ruler of all things. After creating the world, he saw that the universe was desolate and only He existed. So He created several gods in his own image, including Huangtian, Houtu, Nuwa, and Fuxi.

Although Taiyi created several gods in imitation of himself, the world remained desolate. Most importantly, only these gods possessed wisdom. Therefore, he instructed Nuwa and Fuxi to create a kind of intelligent being that was similar to them but not a god.

The belief in Nuwa and Fuxi already existed in this era. In the "Heavenly Questions" of the Chu Ci, there is the saying, "Nuwa has a body, who can make it?" Some modern scholars believe that the meaning of these two sentences is "Nuwa made other people's bodies, but who made her body?"

This statement suggests that the story of Nuwa creating humans already existed in China during the Warring States period, although it wasn't fully developed later. However, Li Nian has now filled in the gaps and provided the answer to the question, "Nuwa had a body, but who could have crafted it?": Taiyi created Nuwa.

Nuwa and Fuxi, following the command of Taiyi, created humankind, an intelligent being, in the world.

To make the Qin Dynasty's rule over the world more mythologically grounded, Li Nian added a lot of his own material to the Ancestral Gods' scriptures about Nuwa and Fuxi creating humans.

In modern times, some people use the Bible as a deed; in the future, the Chinese people in this world may also use the Ancestral God Cult compiled by Li Nian as a contract.

If the West can fabricate something, why can't the Chinese?
In the ancestral deity scriptures compiled under the supervision of Li Nian, Nuwa and Fuxi, following the orders of Taiyi, not only created the first ancestors of the Chinese people, Yanhuang, but also created people in other places, and made adjustments according to local conditions to make them different from the ancestors of the Chinese people.

Like Nuwa and Fuxi, they created two non-Chinese ancestors, a man and a woman, somewhere in the West. The man was named "Adam" and the woman was named "Eve." They built a paradise called "Eden" for the two to live in.

According to this story, when the Qin Dynasty conquers the west, it can use the teachings of the Ancestral Gods to tell the Westerners: Your ancestors were also created by the two great gods Nuwa and Fuxi, but our ancestors are the legitimate ancestors created by the great gods Nuwa and Fuxi. Your ancestors are just a branch. According to the divine decree, you should obey our rule. This has long been recorded in the scriptures!

After Nuwa and Fuxi created humans, the Chinese people, led by ancestors such as Suiren and Youchao, overcame the years of ignorance and progressed from barbarism to civilization. These ancestors were also deified. Today, we should commemorate the achievements of these ancestors, continue to carry forward their spirit, and lead China into a new era.

The spread of the Ancestral God religion has begun in the Qin Dynasty. First, Ancestral God temples were built in major cities, and people were sent to spread the Ancestral God belief.

Li Nian did not want the Chinese world to be invaded by foreign religions like the Chinese world he came from.

Although foreign religions have been localized in China, how can a child who has been converted from abroad be as good as one who has been raised and nurtured by oneself?
Furthermore, he harbored a greater ambition: he wanted the Chinese religion to spread beyond China's borders and become a world-class religion, so that in the future, people would say to him, "May Taiyi protect you!" instead of "God bless you!"

Li Nian said, "Thirdly, everyone must adopt the Great Qin Elegant Language and the Great Qin Simplified Characters as the common language and script!"

Upon hearing Li Nian's words, the expressions of Pijianu and the others immediately changed: This prince of Qin wanted to abolish their language and script and adopt the language and script of Qin instead?

Despite their desire to betray their country, Vijanu and his companions were not fools; they knew that abolishing their own language and script could lead to serious problems.

The group began to consider whether they should agree to this.

Seeing the change in their expressions, Li Nian smiled and added, "Don't worry, everyone. It's not about abolishing your original languages ​​and scripts, but about letting you use elegant language and simplified script as your second language and second script, in addition to your mother tongue."

"Your mother tongue is your original language. The Qin language shall be of equal status with your mother tongue in your country. When you issue official orders or make official records, you shall also use the Qin language."

They address each other as "Gentlemen" and "Your esteemed nation" repeatedly, seemingly polite, but in reality showing no respect whatsoever.

Li Nian did want to abolish the original language and script of the Peacock Kingdom, but these people would definitely not agree. He would first get the people of the Peacock Kingdom to agree to use the Great Qin Elegant Language and Simplified Characters as their common language and script, and then proceed slowly.

The reason why English became the second official language of White Elephant, and was used as the main language of White Elephant government documents, higher education and interstate communication, and was popular among the White Elephant elite, was because of the colonization of White Elephant by Niu Niu. The situation of Qin in the Peacock Kingdom today is similar.

There's no reason why Da Qin couldn't do what Niu Niu could do.

When Li Nian said that it wasn't about abolishing their original language and script, but simply about making them adopt the language and script of the Great Qin as the common language, Pijianu and the others breathed a sigh of relief.

They would accept having another common language, rather than abolishing their original language.

Moreover, since they would be dealing with the Qin people for a long time to come, they would have to learn the Qin language and script.

(End of this chapter)