The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 241 The Boys of the North
With internal affairs to manage and border defenses to prepare for, Fusu often thought that without the great victory of the Northern Expedition, the situation he was facing now might be even more difficult.

While feeling relieved, Fusu still needed to continue to manage the internal affairs.

After two rounds of examinations to select officials, these newly appointed officials in Guanzhong still need to be observed and reassigned.

In other words, more officials are needed to govern Guanzhong well.

"Back then, did you entrust the construction of the Imperial Academy to Shusun Tong?"

Fusu nodded and said, "These days, Shusun Tong has been in Tongguan, selecting teachers to build the Imperial Academy."

Seeing that his teacher had stopped speaking, Fusu added, "The reason why the Imperial Academy is not located in Xianyang is to prepare for the relocation of the Academic Affairs Office to Tongguan. The Academic Affairs Office will be rebuilt into a place specifically for handling taxes. I hope you will not think too much about it, teacher."

In short, academic pursuits and the selection of officials must be kept separate.

Li Si nodded, "Your subject understands."

Watching the young master board the carriage and head towards Xianyang, Li Si, with his white hair and beard, remained standing there. Sometimes he truly felt that he was getting old.

“People are like this, they never get anything done before the year goes by, and before they know it, they’re old,” Li Si sighed. “The country is not yet well governed, and I am already old.”

Standing behind the Prime Minister, Lord Wu lowered his head in silence upon hearing this.

In recent years, Lord Wu has been in Sanchuan County. Now that he has come to Xianyang to report on matters within the county, he thought he would like to visit the Prime Minister.

Li Si turned back to look at Lin Guang Palace and said, "Let's go back to Xianyang."

Wu Gong hurriedly stepped forward to help the Prime Minister.

After the Prime Minister was seated in the carriage, Lord Wu personally drove the carriage.

"Li You has been at the border for so many years, and he has become better and better. He can already kill the enemy."

The Prime Minister's words came from inside the carriage, and Wu Gong's nose felt a little sore.

The carriage curtain was occasionally lifted by the wind. Li Si sat inside the carriage, looking at the scenery outside. Prince Fusu's power was growing, and he could even handle some things on his own without the emperor's decree.

Prince Fusu not only supported education in rural areas but also planned to build the Imperial Academy. Compared to the emperor, Prince Fusu understood the weight of power even better.

Prince Fusu was actually a more centralized person than the emperor.

Once the prince becomes emperor, he will be an emperor whose degree of centralized power is unprecedented.

Moreover, the young master has always been doing this.

In fact, back when the young master was still young, Li Si recalled that the young master was only seventeen years old at that time, and he remembered that it was an autumn year.

That year, Prince Fusu was building the Xianyang Bridge. Zhang Cang had already come to report to him, the prime minister, that the Xianyang Bridge had been completed.

But just after the court meeting ended that day, Li Si saw Prince Fusu standing at the foot of the steps of the Zhangtai Palace.

At that time, the young master was only seventeen years old, but he stood firmly at the bottom of the steps, waiting for the emperor's summons, and reported to the emperor on the construction of Xianyang Bridge.

Li Si stood in front of the main hall, looking at Prince Fusu not far away. From that moment on, Li Si felt that one day in the future, Prince Fusu would definitely be a prince who would seize power.

And all that has happened now has confirmed his thoughts from back then; Li Si was right.

When the carriage arrived in front of Xianyang, Li Si's thoughts stopped. Since it was something he had expected, there was no need to be too surprised.

Moreover, Li Si's rise to the position of prime minister was due to a conversation he had with Prince Fusu in front of Empress Dowager Huayang's coffin years ago.

That was the first time Li Si met Prince Fusu.

Even a young man raised in the deep palace possesses a level of shrewdness that is uncommon among his peers, and the current young master is even more so.

Wu Gong first helped the Prime Minister into the mansion, and then presented the documents from Yishui.

Yishui is a major river in the Huai River basin, connecting the north and south.

The current water management team is building canals and managing river embankments along the way.

Wu Gongdao said: "The magistrate of Zhuo County in the north traveled thousands of miles to ask the chief of water management for a solution to the flood, but the chief of water management only told the people to relocate. It seems that even the chief of water management cannot control the flood in Zhuo County."

Li Si flipped through the documents and asked, "Does Chief Du need anything while he's out there managing the floods?" "Don't worry, Master. I've arranged for three hundred craftsmen to help Chief Du. However, Chief Du is currently heading north. He also said that Guanzhong must be developed more extensively. The terrain of Guanzhong has both advantages and disadvantages. Only by being self-sufficient in food can Guanzhong be stable."

After reading the document, Li Si instructed, "Give it to the young master."

After taking the document and bowing, Wu Gong quickly left.

At this moment, Du Shuichanglu, who had just built a river embankment in Yishui, was heading north. He walked along the river and met a group of young people who were also heading north.

Lu asked, "What are you going to do?"

The young man replied, "We're going to guard the northern border. What are you going there for?"

Lu replied, "I will go and control the flood."

These young men were all going to the north to serve in the military.

A young boy asked, "Have you ever seen a Hun?"

Lu Dao: "I saw the Xiongnu people when I was farming in Longxi."

Someone asked curiously, "What did the Xiongnu people look like?"

"It also has a mouth, a nose, and two ears, just like us."

Upon hearing this, the surrounding teenagers all laughed.

Their voices were tinged with local accents, and it was unclear where the boy was from, but they all smiled brightly.

Lu led a group of laborers to rest, and the young men also rested under the watchful eyes of the Qin army.

At night, some young people were talking about it.

“I heard from people who came back from the north that we had to attend classes when we went to guard the northern border.”

"What? We can attend classes in the north? We're going to guard the border, not to study."

“Serving on the frontier and studying don’t interfere with each other. Besides, aren’t we studying together in the same village?”

"I heard that the Xiongnu haven't been moving south for the past two years, so maybe we can return home safely after two years of military service."

"Yes, that's what the magistrate told us when we arrived."

Listening to the children's chatter, Lu was still sitting on the ground writing documents. Over the years, he had been recording the farming conditions in various places. He wanted to travel all over the Central Plains and write down the farming conditions of the fields to inform Prince Fusu.

The next day, the group of teenagers left early.

Their journey took them from May to mid-June before they reached the north. As soon as they arrived at the Great Wall, they saw cavalry and armored soldiers bustling about.

"Name, place of origin, military service documents."

Upon hearing the official's question, the young men handed over their documents.

Then they were assigned armor, but no weapons. They were simply assigned to the grain transport team while wearing the armor.

Today, Han Xin, who was transporting grain here, had his wife give birth to a son. He personally came to the Great Wall to buy some medicinal herbs to nourish her body, so he could go back and cook medicine for his wife.

Han Xin saw a group of young men dressed in leather armor and immediately recognized that they had just arrived. He smiled and asked, "Transporting grain?"

The young man at the head of the group handed over his documents. Han Xin confirmed that these people had been assigned to his command and then said, "You've come at an inopportune time. We're going to fight the Xiongnu this year."

Seeing the children's surprised expressions, Han Xin laughed again, "Just kidding, hahaha!"

Han Xin's hearty laughter made the group of teenagers laugh as well.

……

P.S.: That's all for today, I'm taking a break now.

(End of this chapter)