Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 236 Migration
In the 29th year of Emperor Shi Huangdi,
The Lingqu Canal was initially completed.

So the emperor followed the plan and conscripted 500,000 people, asking them to go south to continue to seize the land of Baiyue and expel the barbarians there.

This is an unprecedented move.

The whole court was in a mess because of this.

of course,

Such actions also became part of what Confucian scholars called "emperor's tyranny."

Fusu protested to his father again, saying that forcing 500,000 people to leave their homes was extremely cruel.

But the emperor was rarely not furious about this.

Or,

When he was about to get angry, he seemed to remember something and resisted the urge to scold.

He just asked Fusu to bring Gongsun Pijiang to see him.

"sit down!"

The emperor stretched out his hand and held his eldest grandson in his arms.

The one-year-old child was well fed and became plump and white, with eyes rolling around, looking very clever.

He is also very good at recognizing people.

When his gentle parents hold him in their arms, he will deliberately make a fuss.

When it fell into the hands of my grandfather, it was so well-behaved and lovable.

So the emperor liked the little Ying Pijiang very much.

After smiling at his eldest grandson, the emperor returned to his majestic and cold expression when he looked at his son.

Fusu sat upright in front of his father, his back straight, still with the demeanor of a gentleman who "cannot be bent by might".

He was ready to argue with his father, even if it would make the father-son relationship, which had eased slightly in the past few months, tense again.

As a result, the emperor spoke up and did not scold him for his ignorance and naivety.

Instead, he told his eldest son his reasons:
"Fusu, how many years has it been since Qin unified the world?"

"It's been three years."

“Do you feel that people’s hearts have been won over?”

"That's definitely not the case."

Fusu shook his head, thinking that in just three years, how could people accept the rule of the Qin Dynasty?
The emperor asked again, "Do you think there are any major mistakes in the decrees I issued?"

Fusu immediately said, "Repair the imperial mausoleum..."

"That's common practice!" The emperor frowned and told him to skip this matter. "Is it wrong to build a mausoleum?"

Besides, he is the emperor now.

His power is even greater than that of the emperor before him.
Why can't you build yourself an unprecedentedly magnificent mausoleum?

“But is it right to abuse the people’s power and even drive them to leave their hometowns and go to other places?”

The emperor said, "That's another reason."

"The laws of Qin were reduced after discussion between the ruler and his ministers and then implemented throughout the country. Is this a good thing?"

"……that is good."

Originally, when Fusu was being taught by great Confucian scholars such as Chunyu Yue, he followed his teachers' views and believed that Qin law was too strict.

Too detailed.
This constrains the people.

Moreover, laws cannot cover morality, and various problems are inevitable.

But his wife Sha said:
"Laws are a necessary means for a country to maintain stability."

"Didn't the ancient sage kings who advocated morality also establish laws?"

"They do this because different places have different customs and their own established moral standards. What is normal in one place may become a taboo in another."

"Moreover, learning morality is not something that can be done overnight. It must be cultivated from a young age."

"If someone commits a sin before he has developed moral character, can he be considered innocent just because he is 'young and ignorant'?"

“So, the law is something above morality. Although it is not as tolerant and broad as morality and does not conform to people’s hearts, it can be generalized and used with clear words and unified standards to let everyone know quickly what can be done and what cannot be done.”

"Now that the world has just been unified, people's hearts are unstable, and the six states in Shandong often say that the Qin people are like tigers and wolves. This will naturally make the remaining people of the six states worried: people and tigers and wolves are not the same kind, how can they communicate with each other?"

"So, Your Majesty, please implement a unified law so that the people of the six kingdoms can know the customs and morality of the Qin people, promote understanding, and better maintain this hard-won unity."

Fusu was convinced by her, but couldn't help asking, "Where did you know this?"

So Sha threw him a book, which was the painstaking effort compiled by Xunzi in his later years.

These are the books that the black household collected from everywhere after he retired and shared them with his descendants.

After reading "Xunzi", Fusu's views on the relationship between Confucianism and Legalism were much more relaxed, and he gradually understood the deeper meaning of some of his father's actions.

When the emperor saw that he had given in, his expression relaxed a lot.

He says:
"But the county officials always report that there are many local survivors who are resisting the law and disorderly."

"If they are not familiar with Qin law and do not intend to violate it, then I will not say anything."

"But they knowingly violated the law and refused to accept the laws of Qin. What should we do?"

Regarding local issues,
The emperor actually knew what was going on.

There were indeed many problems in his unification process.

But then was then, and now is now—

His character,

His default successor,
There are also those fierce and fierce soldiers who are coerced by the military merit system and are clamoring to go to war and make merit.

All of these made the emperor determined to accomplish great achievements during his lifetime that none of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors had accomplished.

In the year when the world was unified,
The emperor was only thirty-nine years old.

He feels that he is still young.
Therefore, he can devote his infinite energy to eternal rule. He is full of ambition.

But after unification, the situation in the world suddenly changed:
Newly occupied land

Many of the officials in charge of governing the area and holding local power are still the same people from that time.

They spoke the languages of the six countries, used the writing of the six countries, and continued the customs of the six countries. This made the knowledgeable people in the court full of doubts about whether they had turned this place into Qin territory.

After hundreds of years of chaos,

All the accumulated problems were transferred from the six countries to Qin.

Inside the Qin State,

There also emerged a large number of ministers who gradually became arrogant due to their achievements in unification and forgot their original loyalty.

The problems that the emperor needed to deal with doubled, and he felt that life was full of contradictions.

Not to mention that there are too many "people with ulterior motives" who are always lurking in places the emperor doesn't know about, constantly causing trouble for him.

all of these,
All of these made the emperor feel irritated and worried.

"Shang Jun said:
There are too many people in this world who are inherently stupid.”

"They don't have a long-term vision and their perceptions are not sharp, so when faced with some policies, they can't tell good from bad, and can be easily incited by others."

“So the wise ruler should use a whip to whip those foolish people and drive them to the right place, so that they will not suffer unnecessary harm because of their actions.”

The emperor said,

Ying Pijiang in his arms did as he said and foolishly touched the hot medicine on the table in front of him that was meant to refresh the emperor.

No one stopped him.

quickly,

The child with idle hands was burned and started crying loudly. He lay in his grandfather's arms with his hands wet, too embarrassed to face anyone.

He also took the emperor's robe and wiped his face with it.

Both the father and son were silent for a while because of this action.

then,

The emperor tore the child from his arms,

Fusu reached out his hand tacitly and took the heavy piece of meat.

Ying Pijiang twisted his body flexibly, still sucking his hands, and buried his face in his father's arms.

The emperor straightened his clothes and continued the previous topic.

"…Therefore, there are still many people who do not obey the Mandate of Qin, hiding among the people, inciting the people, and attempting to revive the six kingdoms."

"Many of the things reported were like this."

In this world, there are only thieves who can steal for a thousand days, but there is no one who can guard against thieves for a thousand days.

The emperor was a man who hated trouble.

Therefore,
He decided to use a sharp sword and tough decisions to solve this mess.

He wanted to move the remnants of the six kingdoms to the land of Baiyue in the south, separating them from the land of the six kingdoms.

at this time,

The South has not been fully developed.
If people migrate there, life will definitely be difficult.

But the water and heat in the south are very good, and many civilians are satisfied as long as they have enough land.

They may resist and curse this decree at first,

But it was still possible for the Qin people to pull up these grasses and trees and transplant them to new land.

Once there, their roots will take root and start a new life.

Those who truly guard the land, have luxuriant roots, and refuse to move away are mostly the powerful feudal lords of old.

In the hearts of these people, this land belongs to them.

Why should they respond to the Qin people's orders and go to live elsewhere?
“So, this is a big screening!”

The emperor's eyes, which were described as "hawk-like," shone with a cold light that belonged to a predator.

After listening to what his father said to him, Fusu was silent for a while.

At last,
He whispered, "But relocating so many people at once will definitely arouse a lot of resentment. The people of the six countries will not miss this opportunity."

"Why not take your time?"

The emperor only looked at the medicine on his desk, and then looked at Fusu, who had become a father and had grown a beard, but still looked very young.

His eldest grandson was chattering in a language that only children could understand, and one or two teeth the size of rice grains were revealed from his little mouth.

He didn't explain.
He just raised his hand and let Fusu leave.

After the children and grandchildren leave,
The emperor took out the mirror he got from Mount Tai and looked at himself again.

The white hair in the mirror is so eye-catching.

He thought:
When Duke Xiao was forty-three years old,

King Huiwen was forty-five years old.
King Zhuangxiang was thirty-four years old...

Fusu,

I am forty-one years old.

Why shouldn't I feel anxious?
There are many things you don't want to accept.
Now your father will clean it up for you.

Wouldn't it be good to let you be a stable, benevolent second emperor?
Fusu is to Ying Zheng,
It is a symbol of the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

My father had many setbacks when he was young.
So he couldn't help hoping,

My children can live a safe and smooth life.

(End of this chapter)