Chapter 64

"King Wu's campaign against Zhou, though it cursed him for disrespecting Heaven and Earth, actually cursed his prohibition of human sacrifice by the feudal lords, stripping them of one privilege!"

"But regardless, from then on, the feudal lords indeed lost the right to perform human sacrifices!"

"Zhou Gongdan followed the trend and directly abolished human sacrifice, thereby opening the people's minds! Rites, music, and officials created the peak prosperity of the Great Zhou!"

"The same logic applies to the Qin state!"

"Before unifying the world, the Qin state was constantly thinking of destroying the six states and unifying the world!"

"Therefore, the military merit system from Shang Yang's reforms, which tightened the laws and gave everyone the hope of becoming nobles, was worth promoting!"

"But what about in the current era of no war?"

"Can this system still be used?"

"Can the people really adapt to such severe laws?"

"If my lord the Prime Minister is willing, why not become a commoner and live for a few days to see how many Qin Fa you would violate in a single day?"

"You..."

As soon as the words were spoken, Li Si gritted his teeth; he wanted to refute, but was momentarily speechless, not knowing how to argue back!

Indeed, when Chunyu Yue previously attacked governing by law, he always used the argument that Shang Yang's reforms made the Qin state powerful!

But now, Zhang Liang attacked the Qin state's rule by law from the perspectives of wartime and peacetime, leaving him momentarily unaccustomed.

Suddenly, he truly could not find a good angle to refute Zhang Liang!

Yet he still refused to yield, bowing to Facing Ying Su and saying: "The Qin state has governed by law since ancient times; governing by law must not be ruined!"

Zhang Liang nodded and said: "Governing by law certainly must not be ruined, but... the Five Techniques to Control the People advocated by Xunzi, Shang Yang, and Han Fei must be abolished!"

"What fooling the people, exhausting the people, humiliating the people, weakening the people, and impoverishing the people—this system can truly no longer be used!"

"If used further, the Great Qin will truly be doomed!"

"You..."

After these words were spoken, Li Si panted heavily!

And Seeing Ying Zheng ignored Li Si and did not respond to Zhang Liang, but instead said to Zhang Liang:

"Continue with the third point!"

Zhang Liang bowed and said:

"The third point: weaken the influence of the nobles!"

"Weaken the influence of the nobles?"

As soon as the words were spoken, Li Si was stunned; at that moment, his scalp tingled!

Zhang Liang said:

"Since ancient times, regardless of the era, the common people have been the most numerous and the most oppressed, yet why have the common people never been able to rebel?"

"The reason is that the common people have no money, no land, and no grain!"

"Without the nobles' relief, they might go hungry as early as tomorrow!"

"Therefore, they have never dared to rebel recklessly!"

"In contrast, why is it that whenever the nobles rebel, they succeed?"

"Even if they fail, they can still live well and still obtain what they want?"

"That is because they have money, land, and grain in their hands! Moreover... they control the life and death of the common people, and some even maintain a considerable number of private armies!"

"This situation, even in the current Great Qin, still exists!"

"And this problem was not only seen by me; the sages of past generations all saw it!"

"Similarly, from the decline of the Zhou royal house to the present, various states have undergone multiple reforms in an attempt to become stronger!"

"And every reform, in the final analysis, had one goal: to weaken the influence of the nobles!"

"Zhou Gongdan's rites, music, and officials, and the essence of ruling by rites, were exactly this!"

"Mencius said the people are most precious, Jiangshan is heavy, and the ruler is light; this is still the same!"

"Guan Zhong said scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, and assessed taxes according to the land, acknowledging private land ownership, allowing the people to own their own fields, all to weaken the influence of the nobles!"

"Wei Wenhou's policy of using talent regardless of origin, and his attempt to abolish the so-called recommendation system, were also to weaken the influence of the nobles in the court!"

"Lord Xinling, Wei Wei Wuji, although he never proposed any reforms, nevertheless... spent his days devising ways to make the nobles pay taxes and devising ways to return the nobles' land to the people; this is still the same!"

"In the Qin state, the so-called Shang Yang's reforms and severe laws were essentially to return fairness to the people, giving every commoner a chance to advance!"

"Although each of their reforms had successes and failures, there is no doubt that everyone's reforms made the state prosperous and strong!"

"For the Qin state to achieve true prosperity and strength, it absolutely cannot be separated from reforms that weaken the influence of the nobles!"

"And for this reform, I have already thought of it: merging the poll tax into the land tax!"

"That is, changing the current poll tax of the Great Qin to a land tax, shifting from a tax every person must pay to a tax collected per mu!"

"This will force the nobles to start paying taxes!"

050. It is only because Seeing Ying Zheng died early; otherwise, the Great Qin would have perished in a single generation!

"Pay taxes?"

"Let the nobles pay taxes?"

As soon as Zhang Liang spoke, he stunned everyone once again.

You must know that in every dynasty, the nobles did not pay taxes!

And now, Zhang Liang actually wants the nobles to pay taxes?

"Your Majesty, this law is absolutely unfeasible; if the nobles pay taxes, what is the difference between the nobles and the common people?"

"This is not only an unreasonable matter, but it also forces the nobles to rebel!"

"This matter is absolutely unfeasible!"

"And besides his point, stopping the construction of the Great Wall and relaxing the laws are equally unfeasible!"

"You must understand, the construction of the Great Wall is to pave the way for the eternal foundation of our Great Qin, and to guard against the Xiongnu. Even if Your Majesty's generation fears not the Xiongnu, what of the next generation? What of several generations hence?"

"There will come a time when the Great Qin grows weak; at that moment, if the Great Wall is gone, how many soldiers must be deployed to guard the tens of thousands of li of border?"

"This concerns the eternal foundation of the Great Qin; construction absolutely cannot cease!"

"As for delaying a few years, that is equally impossible. For the greater the project, the more one must cut through the tangle with a swift blade. Such a massive undertaking should burden only one generation; how can we let generations upon generations suffer?"

"This is precisely how to accumulate popular resentment!"

"And relaxing the laws is likewise impossible. I do not deny what Zhang Liang said: our Great Qin's current laws do indeed show bias against the common people and in favor of the nobility and scholar-gentry!"

"But the problem is, in every dynasty and every age, the realm is shared between the monarch and the noble families!"

"Why did King Huiwen kill Shang Yang? Precisely because he made the laws too strict, forcing common people and noble families to share a single legal system!"

"If he had not killed him, the noble families of the realm would not have accepted it!"

"Therefore, he had to die!"

"And this current legal system was formulated based on the conditions of our Great Qin and the countless explorations by successive monarchs of the nobility's limits!"

"This law must absolutely not be broken!"

"As for demanding taxes from the nobility and scholar-gentry, that is sheer nonsense. If the nobility and scholar-gentry paid taxes just like ordinary commoners, I ask you, what difference would there be between a noble scholar-gentry and a commoner?"

"If so, who would still wish to become a noble? Who would still wish to become a scholar-gentry?"

"Does this mean... Your Majesty will no longer use people?"

"Use one person to accomplish one task!"

"Your Majesty ennobles him as a noble or scholar-gentry, allowing his descendants to enjoy blessings forever; they are willing, and Your Majesty is willing!"

"If there were no nobility or scholar-gentry, the Great Qin would fall into chaos!"

"Emperor, I, your subject, cannot stand idly by and watch Zhang Liang spread these demonic words to confuse the people, nor can I stand idly by and watch our Great Qin walk the path to decline!"

At that moment, Li Si knelt and struck his head to the ground with force!

Zhang Liang shouted in anger:

"If the Great Wall's construction does not cease, will we simply let popular resentment accumulate?"

"If the Qin Fa is not lenient, will we simply let popular resentment reach the heavens?"

"Weakening the influence of the nobility is not something to be done only now; every dynasty must do it. What are the nobility and scholar-gentry?"

"The nobility and scholar-gentry are parasites attached to the state. Relying on the great merit established by their ancestors, they begin to suck the blood of the state. If the nobility is not weakened, not only will the common people find no peace, but even the Emperor will be held hostage by others!"

"And for the Great Qin to become prosperous and strong, these three things must be done!"

Li Si shouted in anger: "Pure nonsense! The ancestors of the nobility and scholar-gentry were all common people. Take our Great Qin's General Wang Jian, for example, or our Great Qin's General Meng Wu; their ancestors were all common people. The reason they joined the army to kill enemies was simply to become nobles. Now, you demand that nobles and scholar-gentry pay taxes together; is that not cutting off the root of our Great Qin?"

"Have you ever considered what immense pressure a newly ascended Emperor would bear if this set of decrees were implemented?"

"The new Emperor is already unpopular in the court; if this decree is implemented, I dare guarantee that all the nobility in the realm will rebel!"