Chapter 34: The Prince's Power

Until the sun slanted to the west, Prince Fusu was still standing before Zhangtai Palace; the guards on duty had already changed shifts, but the Court Discussion showed no signs of ending.

The few Attendants standing behind had already grown sore in the feet, but seeing Prince Fusu still standing there, as if lost in thought with eyes closed, they just stood there motionless.

Finally, chaotic voices came, followed by intermittent footsteps.

The dense sound of footsteps made it seem as though everyone was walking in a great hurry.

Fusu raised his eyes to see the crowd wearing court robes, talking in twos and threes as they walked down the steps of Zhangtai Palace.

Walking at the very front were the Qilu Doctors; nowadays, there were more and more Qilu Doctors in the court.

Listening to their words, they were all speaking of matters concerning the Zhou Rites.

Walking at the very front of this group of Qilu Doctors was Chunyu Yue.

Come to think of it, Fusu felt he was not well-acquainted with this Chunyu Yue, but seeing the other party walk over, he offered a salute.

Fusu also bowed with hands cupped in return.

Compared to seeing Chunyu Yue two years ago, ever since Li Si became the Prime Minister of Great Qin, Chunyu Yue seemed to have aged more than ten years in these two years.

"I hear the Prince has finished building the Xianyang Bridge."

Fusu replied: "Yes, I have come specifically to report it to Father Emperor."

Chunyu Yue nodded slightly and left with a group of Doctors.

On the higher steps of Zhangtai Palace, Zhang Cang, who had not yet walked down after the Court Discussion, also noticed Prince Fusu.

Li Si walked up nonchalantly and said: "The Prince could very well have let someone else report the matter of the Xianyang Bridge being completed."

Zhang Cang slowly lowered his head and said: "This matter should have been for Cang to report to His Majesty."

Li Si smiled again: "Did you teach the Prince this as well?"

"I do not know what the Prime Minister means."

Hearing the slightly uneasy tone of the other party, Li Si said in a low voice: "This is also very good; they do not know why the Prince is standing here waiting for the Court Discussion to end, but how could you and I not see it?"

Zhang Cang stepped back slightly.

Li Si patted his back lightly and whispered: "The Prince has grown up; the Prince wants power."

Zhang Cang still frowned, maintaining his bowing posture.

"Since Shang Jun's reforms, Qin has always granted power to those with merit. The Prince has completed the Xianyang Bridge and naturally needs to come to Zhangtai Palace in person if he wants to obtain more power."

Listening to the Prime Minister's words, Zhang Cang remained in a bowing posture, saying nothing.

Li Si's smile was lingering; could it be that he, Zhang Cang, did not see it?

Heh heh, that Chunyu Yue... most likely saw it too.

This Zhang Cang's speech was always watertight, leaving Li Si unsure of how to get a hold on this person.

A Prince Fusu who wants power is certainly not a bad thing; Li Si felt that for Qin to have such an enterprising Prince was a tremendous blessing!

The Prince's actions and motives made Li Si happy from the bottom of his heart; otherwise, to whom could the future of Great Qin be handed? Naturally, to this Prince Fusu, who is currently growing up and has already revealed a bit of his edge.

Who says the Prince has lived by the Xianyang Bridge for nearly a year and has almost forgotten the political affairs of the court?

Who says the Prince has been idle during this year by the Xianyang Bridge?

Who says the Prince, who presided over the digging of canals for two years and the building of bridges for one, has no interest in political affairs?

Not having seen him for nearly a year, Li Si only now realized that the Prince is truly different.

Li Si also felt that Zhang Cang by his side had taught him well; before Zhang Cang participated in court politics, he used to stand under the steps of Zhangtai Palace, waiting for the Emperor's summons.

Furthermore, Li Si was certain in his heart that the Prince wanting to obtain power was taught by Zhang Cang.

"Prime Minister, His Majesty summons you."

Hearing this, Li Si, who was standing in front of the hall, turned and walked into the hall.

Zhang Cang remained where he was, stunned for a moment, before walking down the steps.

Walking down the stone steps, Zhang Cang saluted: "Prince."

Fusu said: "Teacher, it has been two months since we last met."

Zhang Cang said: "The Prime Minister has gone to see His Majesty; he will summon the Prince soon."

No sooner had he finished speaking than an Attendant came over in a hurry: "Prince, His Majesty summons you."

"Fusu will go see Father Emperor first."

Zhang Cang pondered for a moment, then walked quickly toward the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Fusu walked into the empty Zhangtai Palace, and inside the hall, the First Emperor was still sitting there, looking at a scroll of Bamboo Slip by the light of a candle stand.

Prime Minister Li Si stood to one side, explaining the policy of relocating the people.

Fusu walked to the side and listened to the Prime Minister's words.

This world still had hidden dangers, among them the restless Northern Xiongnu, as well as the desire of the old nobles of the Six States to restore their kingdoms, and now there was constant strife in the south.

Fusu stood quietly to the side, listening to the words of Prime Minister Li Si.

In his speech, Prime Minister Li Si advocated first relocating fifty thousand people to the territory south of Shu, with the main location being roughly in the southwest.

According to the Prime Minister, relocate the people first; if the relocated people still cannot be settled, then fight.

Fusu stood to the side without ever opening his mouth, breathing quietly, listening to the Prime Minister finish.

And the First Emperor still sat there; he had already read several scrolls of Bamboo Slip and still had not spoken.

The hall was very quiet; only the voice of Prime Minister Li Si, and even the sound of Li Si's breathing while speaking, could be clearly heard.

After Li Si had spoken for about half an hour, the First Emperor, still looking at the Bamboo Slip, just said in a low voice: "Let Tu Ju go to Shu and take a look."

Hearing this, Li Si bowed in salute.

Ying Zheng then noticed his son standing in the hall, took a deep breath, and said in a deep voice: "Is the Xianyang Bridge completed?"

"In reply to Father Emperor, the Xianyang Bridge is completed."

"Appointed as Assistant to the Minister of the Imperial Treasury, to oversee the construction of the Guanzhong canals." Ying Zheng raised his eyes slightly to look at this son who had grown much taller; he had grown even taller in the year they hadn't met, and he instructed: "Wang Bi is busy with military affairs lately, and Meng Tian is building the Great Wall in the north; the position of Minister of the Imperial Treasury is vacant. You shall lead the Assistant to the Minister of the Imperial Treasury to handle all affairs of the Imperial Treasury, and from now on, Jian Lu shall serve as Dushui Zhang."

"This son accepts the order."

Ying Zheng nodded slightly.

Li Si understood and bowed, saying, "This subject will take his leave."

Upon hearing this, Fusu followed him out of Zhangtai Palace.

Outside the palace hall, the two put their shoes back on, and Fusu asked, "Has Teacher been arguing with the Doctors again lately?"

Li Si put on his shoes, took two steps, and said, "Prince, do not worry; the likes of Chunyu Yue are not worth concern."

That was only natural; how could Teacher possibly take those people to heart?

As they walked down from Zhangtai Palace, Li Si fell half a step behind the Prince and added, "The likes of Chunyu Yue merely wish for Qin to follow the Zhou Rites."

They had been arguing about this matter in court for so long that it was hard to say if Li Si was annoyed by it.

Fusu felt as though his ears were about to grow calluses, yet those people mentioned it time and again, never tiring of it.

Walking to the front of the Imperial Censor Office, seeing the Prince stop, Li Si said, "Now that you are a Junior Assistant of the Lesser Treasury, Prince, you should read more documents."

"I shall keep your teachings in mind, Teacher."

When Prince Fusu walked into the Imperial Censor Office, the Censors who had been busy there all looked up and were stunned for a moment.

Right Prime Minister Feng Quji stood up and bowed, saying, "This subject has heard that the Prince has always enjoyed reading documents from various regions, so I have arranged a seat for you."

By the bookshelves of the Imperial Censor Office, a special seat had been placed, with even a lamp stand set beside it.

Fusu saw some relatively new Bamboo Slips and asked, "Are these all documents newly received this year?"

Hearing the Prince's question, perhaps because everyone was nervous, no one answered immediately for a moment.

Seeing this, Cheng Miao set down his brush, stood up while supporting himself on the desk, walked quickly with small steps to the Prince's side, and explained, "Prince, these are all documents sent to Xianyang after the start of autumn."

As he spoke, he pointed to several scrolls and said, "These were sent from the Yan region, these are documents from Shangjun, and these are from the Chu region."

Fusu listened to his words and then said, "Oh? Cheng Miao, you are still here after a year."

"It has indeed been a year since Cheng Miao last saw the Prince." He bowed with a smile and said, "This subject is an official of the Imperial Censor Office, so I should be here."

Once these words were spoken, the others in the Imperial Censor Office were surprised; when did this Cheng Miao befriend Prince Fusu?

Thinking back, it seemed only Cheng Miao was in the Imperial Censor Office during that cold winter, and the Prince was very studious.

Someone whispered, "Prince Fusu has been building the Xianyang Bridge and hasn't returned to the palace for a year."

Indeed, no one had seen Prince Fusu during this past year.

He spent a whole year building a bridge, and now that he had finally returned, he didn't think of resting but came straight to the Imperial Censor Office to review documents.

Someone else added, "When the Prince submitted the bridge construction files, he stood outside Zhangtai Palace for an entire afternoon."

The person speaking lowered their voice, nodding confidently to those around them as they spoke.

Everyone knew how diligent the First Emperor was these days.

Prince Fusu was truly the son of the First Emperor; some felt the successor to Great Qin would surely be the choice of the people.

These words, both good and bad, drifted in fragments to the ears of the Right Prime Minister; Feng Quji glared, and the crowd reluctantly ceased their discussion.

As Fusu read the documents, he would ask Cheng Miao a few questions, and Cheng Miao simply sat down beside the Prince.

While reading, he recorded the key points of various documents—roughly how many fields were in which county of the Wei region, how many acres per household, or which county had finished its population census; in these first few years since Great Qin unified the Six States, these were mostly the matters at hand.

These documents allowed Fusu to better understand the general situation in various regions.

Near dusk, the officials of the Imperial Censor Office left one after another.

Outside, it was completely night, and Cheng Miao sat in the corner against the wall, half-asleep.

Not until a wisp of fragrance drifted into his nose did Cheng Miao open his eyes slightly; before him were two stoves and an elderly, tall, thin man wearing Attendant's clothing.

Rubbing his eyes, Cheng Miao saw clearly that it was the Prince cooking food by the stove; realizing he had fallen asleep and acted unseemly, he stood up and said, "Prince, this subject..."

Fusu served a bowl of noodles and handed it over, saying, "It is fine, eat something first."

Being hungry, Cheng Miao held the bowl handed to him by the Prince, looked at the noodle soup in the bowl, and his old face flushed with embarrassment.

Fusu said, "This is Mutton Noodles, eat slowly."

Cheng Miao nodded while eating.

Fusu asked again, "Usually, I copy this scroll of documents and take it back to read, returning the original to its place."

Cheng Miao slurped the noodles with gusto and nodded repeatedly.

The Prince left after finishing his evening meal.

Cheng Miao was still savoring the bowl of Mutton Noodles; he extinguished the oil lamps and candles in the Imperial Censor Office by himself, then walked outside and closed the gates of the Imperial Censor Office.

In the deep autumn night, the cold wind whistled past; perhaps because he had eaten that bowl of Mutton Noodles, Cheng Miao felt the wind tonight was not cold at all.

The next day, Fusu went to the Court Discussion early; today's discussion touched upon the construction of the Great Wall and the major matter of the second migration of people to the north to guard the borders.

It was afternoon by the time the Court Discussion ended.

Today, Fusu did not go to the Imperial Censor Office but returned to Gaoquan Palace.

The canal digging at Shangyan Mountain had achieved significant results; Fusu was looking at the military reports sent by Zhang Han, which even mentioned which families had given birth to more children.

Tian An hurried over and said, "Prince, this old servant had people inquire; the Prince's letter was indeed delivered to the office of Censor Zhang."

Generally, a letter delivered to Teacher Zhang Cang would receive a reply the next morning.

This time, no reply was sent; most likely, he was too busy with the major matters of the Standardization of Writing and Carriage Same Track to attend to anything else.

Fusu further divided the various personnel matters of Shangyan Mountain, breaking down the manpower and, according to the current way people worked and the production processes, dividing them into individual posts.

From now on, they were all servants with specific posts; Fusu tried to plant the concept of a "post" like a seed at Shangyan Mountain.

Fusu hoped that more people would respect their posts and love their work, and that more would be able to hold their posts at critical moments.

Writing halfway through, Fusu asked Tian An, who was cleaning the stove, "If I want everything to be done to the best of my ability, am I being too greedy?"

Tian An wiped the stove lightly with a cloth and replied, "This old servant will certainly do everything the Prince orders to the best of my ability."

Fusu smiled helplessly; the old man had misunderstood his meaning.

Very well... Fusu continued to write, listing the subdivided positions one by one.

In truth, the soldiers of Great Qin were extremely loyal, but Fusu hoped that more people could be available to do their jobs well; for the next several years, Shangyan Mountain would remain very busy.

This was not a matter that would be finished just by digging the canal.

The Prince wrote three rolls of Bamboo Slip, which were immediately sent out of the palace and delivered all the way to Shangyan Mountain.

Zhang Han, who was in charge of the canal construction, was sitting by the canal, with a map hanging behind him; this map depicted exactly what the entire canal would look like.

"General, a letter from the Prince."

The three rolls of Bamboo Slip were placed on the desk, and Zhang Han finished eating the celery in his hand in one go.

This time, the content of the scrolls sent by the Prince was extensive; the more Zhang Han read, the more he frowned, and he subsequently called for Mao Heng and Shusun Tong.

If Zhang Cang were here at this moment, perhaps he would have handled the Prince's instructions in just a few words.

Shusun Tong said: "Actually, these matters are not difficult to handle."

Shusun Tong usually taught children how to read and write; this old master was very resourceful and always possessed some unexpected wisdom.

Moreover, because of his own marriage, Zhang Han now relied on him heavily.

Shusun Tong said: "Arranging positions is actually not difficult."

Zhang Han nodded.

"But to make people love their jobs and be dedicated, someone needs to speak to them." Shusun Tong nodded slowly and said: "I teach the children to read, and I can have the children recite these things to the people every day."

Zhang Han said: "What the Master says is reasonable; if the children understand these principles, their fathers and mothers will not fail to understand, nor will they dare not to understand."

Shusun Tong nodded with a smile.

"This general will write down the countermeasures now and have someone deliver them to the Prince."

Outside the house came the sound of children playing again; Shusun Tong discovered that although this Zhang Han relied on him, he would not simply let this old master have his way entirely—the generals of Qin were indeed extraordinary.

(End of chapter)