Diqin Designer

Chapter 95: Let Qin Soldiers Rule the World (Additional Update for Boss Nuan Yang)

But now that Ying Zheng had specifically asked him, he had to answer. Li Si calmed down his thoughts and said, "I think the official system can be changed, but after the official system is changed, a large number of officials will be needed. Your Majesty can recruit talents from all over the world through the Xianyang Grand Examination, but talented people can be officials, but it is difficult for them to be clerks."

Li Si directly pointed out a major flaw of the Xianyang Examination. It could attract talented people scattered across the country, but only those who came to take the exam could become officials. Who would be willing to be a minor official?

The Qin Dynasty not only lacked officials, but also clerks. As the specific executors of government affairs, clerks were obviously in greater demand.

Li Si was tactfully persuading Ying Zheng that it was fine for His Majesty to change the official system, but he should also realize that after the change, there would be many more departments compared to the current Qin Dynasty, which would require more officials, and that could not be filled by recruiting talents through the Xianyang examination.

The other ministers who heard Li Si's words also frowned. This was indeed a difficult problem to solve.

Although the official system reform plan recorded in this bamboo slip looks good, it does not conform to the reality of the Qin Dynasty.

Ying Zheng raised his eyebrows, and suddenly thought of Li Nian and the people he had mentioned, such as Pei Gong, Xiao He, Fan Kuai, etc. He seemed to have grasped something, but he couldn't think of what it was for a moment.

Ying Zheng fell into deep thought, recalling the information from Pei Gong, Xiao He and Fan Kuai, trying to grasp the fleeting inspiration.

After thinking for a while, Ying Zheng finally caught the inspiration:

These people did not have good backgrounds, but eventually they became prominent and achieved great success, from being scoundrels, dog butchers, and clerks to becoming the founding emperors, generals, and meritorious officials of the Han Dynasty.

The reason why the three did not change in the early stage was that they did not have corresponding opportunities. That is, except Xiao He, Pei Gong and Fan Kuai had almost no ladder to be promoted and change their own circumstances.

What if he created a ladder for some people to advance?
Li Si mentioned that those talented people only wanted to be high-ranking officials and looked down on low-ranking officials. One of the main reasons for this was that high-ranking officials could be promoted in one go, while low-ranking officials had difficulty in being promoted.

If this problem can be solved, will it allow more talented people to stay and be used by him?
Not only that, can the solution to this problem be applied to other areas?

Ying Zheng thought of the Qin army and the system of military merit and titles. Now that the world was just beginning to settle down, there were a large number of soldiers who needed to be rewarded.

Can these people be used as temporary officials?
It is not necessary for them to be able to govern the local area, they just need to help maintain local administration.

Moreover, these Qin soldiers are old Qin people, and their loyalty can be confirmed. At least for now, he has not lost the hearts of the old Qin people.

In addition, the military merit system can also be adjusted.

Originally, when Qin soldiers joined the army, they would be promoted based on their military achievements on the battlefield. However, since there will obviously be no major wars at the moment, the military merit system has been abolished.

But what if we convert military merit on the battlefield into merit in local governance and turn it into a system of merit-based titles?

Granting certain local official positions to Qin soldiers who have made contributions on the battlefield can not only solve the reward problem, but also stimulate them to work hard to govern the local area through the system of meritocracy.

The more Ying Zheng thought about it, the more he felt that it was worth a try. If a dog butcher could become a founding general, then why couldn't the Qin soldiers under his command govern the place?

"What the court official said makes sense, but if I promise them that they can become prime ministers of the Qin Dynasty even if they serve as minor officials, as long as they can make achievements, what do you think?"

Li Si was so smart that he immediately understood what Ying Zheng meant. If that was the case, many people would stay, except for those talented people who really didn't want to be officials.

They don't do the job because they think the position is too low and they don't see any hope of climbing up. If they could climb up, they might even have the chance to become a prime minister in the imperial court, or even just a prison clerk, there would definitely be people willing to do it.

Unexpectedly, his reminder did not stop the king, but instead made the king think of a solution. Li Si sighed and said, "The king's wisdom is far-reaching, far superior to mine!"

Ying Zheng said meaningfully: "I think the Minister of Justice is a wise man who knows how to make choices."

After saying this, Ying Zheng no longer paid attention to Li Si, and told his ministers about his idea of ​​a system of titles based on merit in governance.

The ministers' first reaction after hearing this was that this method was still feasible, and then they thought that the king's method did have some feasibility, but it also had disadvantages:
First of all, most Qin soldiers were illiterate, but if they were local officials, even if they were not the chief officers, they would have to know some.
Secondly, doing so would require Qin soldiers to leave their homes, and the place that needed to be controlled and governed now was not Guanzhong, but the lands of the six kingdoms.

The latter problem is not difficult to solve. By promising enough benefits, a group of Qin soldiers can be attracted to go to the six countries. But as for the former problem, there is no way to make the Qin soldiers learn to read and write quickly and be familiar with the laws and government decrees.

Faced with the problem pointed out by his ministers that the Qin soldiers could not read and write, Ying Zheng did not take it too seriously. It was certain that not all Qin soldiers who were appointed as officials could govern the place well, but there would always be some who could stand out and govern well.

Besides, he didn't actually need these Qin soldiers to govern the local area perfectly. His main purpose was to maintain the local area for Qin and keep it under its jurisdiction, so that it wouldn't become as corrupt and almost completely out of control as Li Nian said in history.

Of course, it would be even better if it could be managed well!

This was originally a transitional method when the Qin Dynasty was short of officials. When the Qin Dynasty had more than enough officials, this method would be abolished.

Wang Wan was the first to understand Ying Zheng's intention. This was clearly a variant of the feudal policy he had proposed, except that the policy of enfeoffment of princes and sons to guard places that were beyond their control was changed to employing Qin soldiers to govern the places.

Anyway, these are places that are temporarily difficult to control. What's the difference between giving them to the princes and giving them to the Qin soldiers?
The princes may become powerful in those places and pose a threat to the central government, but although the Qin soldiers have the possibility of becoming powerful, it is not great, and the harm they will cause after becoming powerful will not be as great as that of the princes.

The princes were born into royal families and had the right to inherit the throne, but the Qin soldiers were almost common people. How could they still compete for the throne of the Qin Dynasty?
Moreover, it will be easier for him to change the policy and take back the power than for other princes.

This method has another advantage, it can make the king more popular with the people of Qin: Look, how good the king is, he lets everyone become an official!

After thinking it through, Wang Wan was the first to agree: "Your Majesty, this strategy is feasible!"

Others also understood it one by one, and even Li Si, who had always opposed the enfeoffment, spoke in agreement.

Dividing the land among the princes is called enfeoffment, while employing Qin soldiers as officials in the six kingdoms is not called that.

Only Chunyu Yue wanted to refute, because once this strategy was implemented, his wish for Ying Zheng to restore Zhou rituals and enfeoff the princes would most likely be hopeless.

He didn't know that even if Ying Zheng adopted this strategy, he would still enfeoff the princes in various places, but the enfeoffment would be different from what he thought and the purpose would also be different.

Ying Zheng thought of a way to solve the problem of shortage of local officials, but he still did not gain the unanimous approval of all his ministers for the reform of the Qin official system.

The ministers believed that given the current situation in Qin, it was impossible to achieve what was written on the bamboo slips, and only partial reforms could be carried out.

After the ministers left, Ying Zheng looked at the bamboo slips in front of him and said, "Write one copy and send it to Liuying Palace! No, write two copies and send the other to Yichun Palace!"

　Officials in the Qin Dynasty were just officials. There was no distinction between "officials" and "clerks". This was used in the book for better expression.

　
(End of this chapter)