Chapter 62

The moment those words were spoken, Zhang Liang, Li Si, and the others all exploded with agitation.

Even Ying Su felt his scalp tingle!

What did Xiao He mean by this?

In the first year after the First Emperor swept across the six states and unified the world, the population of the entire Great Qin was thirty-six million!

One must know, this was the first year after Great Qin had swept across the six states and unified the world; logically, this period should have been the time when Great Qin's population was at its lowest!

Yet, the facts were exactly the opposite!

Eleven years after the First Emperor swept across the six states and unified the world, the population of the entire Great Qin had not only failed to grow, but had actually decreased by two million?

It was two million fewer than before the sweeping of the six states!

If two million people had been lost during wartime, that would be understandable!

But one must know... this was a time of peace; aside from the three campaigns against Nanling that mobilized an army of five hundred thousand, there were no wars during the other times!

In a time without war, over eleven years, Great Qin had actually lost two million people?

These words made Ying Su’s scalp tingle!

Li Si was even more shocked, and he said to Xiao He: "You... you didn't misread it, did you? Is... is all of this true?"

Li Si was quite shocked; although all of this fell under the jurisdiction of the Chancellor, he and Feng Feng Qiji had a division of labor!

He, Li Si, was in charge of criminal law and, together with Censor-in-Chief Li Tan, supervised the hundred officials!

Feng Feng Qiji was in charge of money, grain, population, as well as land and fields!

The two had different divisions of labor and each managed their own affairs!

Yet he hadn't expected such a situation to arise!

Xiao He also seemed to understand the gravity of the matter and hurriedly bowed:

"All of this is based on the figures calculated by the Inner Historian of Grain over the years. I only took a glance and dare not be too certain, but we can go and retrieve the relevant files now!"

After he finished speaking, he stood up directly.

Li Si hurriedly stopped him and waved his hand: "No need! No need!"

"I can still trust Xiao He's character!"

He said this, and although he claimed to trust Xiao He, his main reason was that he did not want to let Zhang Liang slap his face.

But no matter what they thought, Ying Su’s brows were tightly knitted!

And at that moment, he finally made up his mind!

After pondering for a long time, he said:

"Stop construction on the Afang Palace immediately!"

"Temporarily stop repairs on the Great Wall!"

"And since we are no longer repairing the Great Wall, we must fight the Xiongnu; otherwise, the chaos in the north will become very serious!"

"Since that is the case, the main national policy for our Great Qin after stopping the repairs on the Great Wall and the Afang Palace will be to attack the Xiongnu!"

"And this time, the goal is not to defeat the Xiongnu, but to annihilate them!"

Ying Su spoke, and at that moment, everyone was shocked!

Annihilate the Xiongnu?

To annihilate the Xiongnu—what a monumental task that was!

Even when the First Emperor swept across the six states, he could not conquer the Xiongnu!

It was not just that the First Emperor could not conquer the Xiongnu; throughout all the dynasties, no one had ever been able to truly annihilate them!

Even when King King Wuling of Zhao adopted the Hu clothing and mounted archery, he only crippled the Xiongnu, but he still couldn't annihilate them!

This was not because the Xiongnu were so formidable!

It was because the grasslands were too vast!

Moreover, the Xiongnu's horses ran too fast!

With the vast grasslands and the speed of their horses, how could it be easy to annihilate them?

And now, Ying Su actually wanted to annihilate the Xiongnu?

Zhang Liang and Xiao He were both stunned!

However, on this matter, Li Si did not hesitate in the slightest and bowed directly:

"I, your subject, fully support this!"

He said this; at first, he had firmly opposed stopping the repairs on the Great Wall because the Great Wall was of great significance!

But now, because of the repairs to the Great Wall, the Afang Palace, the Qin Emperor's Mausoleum, and the Dujiangyan, Great Qin had already seen two million people vanish; how could he dare to persist?

Moreover, Ying Su's words were clear and explicit: the Great Wall was only temporarily stopped!

That meant it would still be repaired in the future!

As for when it would be repaired, it should be after attacking the Xiongnu, right?

Only... once the Xiongnu were finished, why would there be any need for a Great Wall?

Li Si did not understand!

But... he supported attacking the Xiongnu!

As for whether they could win?

Li Si was not worried at all; after all, Ying Su now had a fierce warrior like Li Li Yuanba!

Furthermore, they were currently searching for saltpeter mines to manufacture cannons!

With cannons plus Li Li Yuanba, a hundred Xiongnu wouldn't be enough for him to fight!

Besides this, attacking the Xiongnu had another benefit for Ying Su!

That was that it could increase his prestige!

One must know, that was the Xiongnu!

Since the Zhou Dynasty, the Xiongnu had always been a major scourge for the various states of the Central Plains!

And if Ying Su could conquer these Xiongnu who had plagued the land for over a thousand years, how high would his prestige reach?

I fear it would be even higher than the First Emperor's!

After all, throughout all the dynasties, no one had really been able to annihilate the Xiongnu!

And if Ying Su could accomplish this!

Then his merits and prestige...

Li Si thought to himself, feeling incredibly invigorated!

Ying Su continued:

"As for relaxing criminal law and noble taxation, this matter cannot be rushed; it requires discussion!"

"Listen clearly, we are not discussing whether or not to relax criminal law and tax the nobles!"

"We are discussing how to implement the relaxation of criminal law and noble taxation!"

"How exactly can we operate so that relaxing criminal law and taxing the nobles does not trigger chaos, or rather, minimizes the chaos triggered?"

He spoke, and once these words were out, Zhang Liang, Xiao He, and Li Si were shocked once again.

They were shocked that Ying Su really intended to do this!

One must know, this was a revolution!

And since the Shang Yang reforms, besides the First Emperor, how many people had dared to truly carry out a revolution!

Did the First Emperor also carry out a revolution?

Yes!

Unifying the world, abolishing enfeoffment, establishing counties, standardizing writing, standardizing carriage axles, and standardizing weights and measures! This was a huge revolution!

And at this very moment, the revolution Ying Su wanted to carry out was even greater than that one!

Because... he wanted to touch the rule that nobles had not paid taxes for a thousand years!

Without a doubt, this was cutting into the nobles' cake!

In Zhang Liang's view, this was even harder than unifying the world!

Because, it was about human hearts!

The wealth of the world was in the hands of the nobles; how could it be easy to touch their cake?

For over a thousand years, only Zhou Zhou Gongdan had achieved notable results in this regard.

Wei Wei Wenhou, Shang Yang, Guan Zhong, and Wei Wei Wuji—none of them had been thorough enough!

And Ying Su doing this meant he wanted to thoroughly divide the nobles' cake!

However, admiration aside, Zhang Liang could not help but start thinking about how to operate this!