Chapter 38: Canals and Fields

When Fusu walked to the front of the hall, he saw the Emperor was speaking with Grand General Wang Jian.

When Li Si also stood still in front of the hall, an Attendant stepped forward to report.

The voices inside the hall ceased, and then the Attendant said, "Enter the hall."

Fusu walked into the hall, followed by Prime Minister Li Si, first bowing to the Emperor, and then bowing to Grand General Wang Jian.

Li Si received a signal from the Emperor's eyes and sat down to the side first.

Fusu then sat down as well.

Next, a massive map was spread out before them, and Fusu listened as the Emperor, the Grand General, and the Prime Minister discussed matters regarding the southern expedition.

The Grand General had fought wars for half his life, and Prime Minister Li Si was the current leader of Great Qin's state affairs; the two could coordinate with each other.

Fusu listened as the Prime Minister asked how many troops were needed, and the Grand General asked who would lead them.

Finally, the agreed-upon number of troops was two hundred thousand.

Afterward, Fusu heard the Emperor ask where these two hundred thousand troops would come from.

Such a question naturally had to be answered by the Grand General.

Yet Prime Minister Li Si spoke first.

"I believe we should first relocate people to secure the borders, then select exiled convicts and criminals to fill the ranks; after the army sets out, we shall recruit and pacify Western Ou and Luoyue along the way, granting the official seals of Qin to the leaders of the Yue people who submit, and if they submit, we may permit them self-governance."

Wang Jian bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I believe it is necessary to conscript laborers from the Chu region to transport grain and fodder."

Before the Emperor could speak, and just as Wang Jian finished his words, Li Si added, "Grant one rank of nobility for every head taken, exchange military merit for fields and houses, and distribute captured bronze vessels and treasures among the soldiers according to their merit to incentivize them."

Fusu listened to the words of the Prime Minister and the Grand General; a large-scale campaign was about to begin.

This year, there were bountiful harvests throughout Guanzhong and the Central Plains; since the southern expedition was discussed this summer, this great war could not be avoided.

From noon until evening, they discussed, and Fusu sat on the side the entire time, listening carefully.

It was nearly nightfall before this discussion regarding the southern expedition concluded.

Wang Jian and Li Si stood up to take their leave, and Fusu rose and said, "Father, I still have a perplexity."

Upon hearing this, Ying Zheng nodded and said, "What perplexity do you have?"

Li Si also frowned slightly.

Fusu bowed and said, "I believe that grain and fodder can be transported via waterways."

Wang Jian, who had just stood up, leaned on his waist and sat back down, pursing his lips as he looked up at the map, his expression quite interested.

Fusu said, "The route for the southern expedition is full of mountains and forests; it would be better to excavate a river to transport the grain and fodder."

After speaking, seeing the few people in the hall fall silent, Fusu added, "As the Assistant Minister of the Lesser Treasury, I often observe the riverways throughout the Central Plains; if a canal were excavated among them to transport grain and fodder via water, it would be much more convenient."

Ying Zheng's gaze slowly turned toward Wang Jian.

And after observing the map for a long time, Wang Jian nodded slowly.

The canal connecting Guanzhong to the Luo River had not yet been finished, and now they were to open another canal? The Xianyang Bridge, which the Prince presided over, had just been completed, and now they were to open a canal again?

The sky was about to turn dark, and Ying Zheng said, "It is getting late; the Grand General and the Prime Minister should return first."

Li Si and Wang Jian looked toward Prince Fusu, and seeing that the Prince truly had no intention of speaking further, the two bowed in unison.

From the Court Discussion in the morning until now, the sun was already setting.

With two or three Attendants escorting them, Li Si walked on the side and said to the Grand General, who was walking with a cane, "I have troubled you, Grand General."

Wang Jian, with his white hair and beard, shook his head and said, "I only entered the palace at noon, while you were already at the Court Discussion at dawn; you are more exhausted than I am."

Since returning last year, the Grand General had aged very quickly; by late autumn this year, he had reached the point of needing a cane to walk, and even his hair and beard had turned gray.

Wang Jian leaned on his cane, stopping with every step, and added, "Hehe, the Prince is taller than last year."

Li Si nodded slightly.

Wang Jian stopped his steps and asked, "Was the matter of building the canal also taught by you?"

Li Si lowered his head and said, "I am ashamed to say, I have never taught the Prince these things."

"Then was it taught by Zhang Cang?"

"Zhang Cang and I both studied under Xunzi, and I have never heard the teacher teach Zhang Cang these things."

Walking out of the palace gate, Wang Jian paused, his hands behind his back; his originally hunched body suddenly straightened, and he held his cane in his hand without leaning on it, asking in return, "Then who taught him?"

The Grand General's tone was heavier, and he was like a different person from his previous frail image.

Li Si replied, "The Prince had been studying canals even before he met Zhang Cang."

Wang Jian nodded slightly, walked into his carriage with a steady gait, and without paying any more attention to Li Si, he let the coachman drive back to Pinyang.

Li Si stood in front of the palace gate, bowing to see the Grand General off.

This Grand General appeared frail in front of His Majesty, but he was actually quite spirited outside; his health was very good.

In the rear hall of Zhangtai Palace, Fusu remained to have a meal.

The First Emperor and Prince Fusu were eating noodles, and these noodles were pulled by Tian An himself; the noodles were very wide.

At this moment outside the hall, the three clay stoves beside Tian An were burning, the water in the pot was boiling, and as he pulled the dough in his hands again and again, the noodles appeared.

Although the guards in front of the hall stood straight, their eyes looked toward this old Attendant from time to time; those hands pulling the noodles were very skillful.

After finishing a bowl of noodles, boxes of Bamboo Slips were moved in; seeing that the Emperor was about to handle state affairs, Fusu rose to leave.

"I have read the documents you reviewed last night."

Fusu regained his composure and put down his bowl and chopsticks, wondering to himself if he had written something wrong, or if he had caused trouble?

Ying Zheng glanced at this son and said in a deep voice, "Sit down, look at these documents with me, and you may also draft the replies."

Fusu understood, placed the bowl and chopsticks in his hand onto a wooden basin, and had someone carry them out of the hall.

In the hall, under the surprised gazes of several Attendants and palace maids, the Prince very naturally found a seat in the hall, and then took out a scroll of documents from a box on the side to read.

When the Emperor also picked up a document on the side to review, the hall became quiet.

Only the sound of the wind outside could be heard occasionally, and at times, the wind blew into the hall.

Seeing that Prince Fusu had already reviewed several documents in succession, the Emperor only looked at a few occasionally.

Afterwards, the documents reviewed by the Prince were sent out directly, and the Emperor no longer asked about them.

Moreover, the speed at which the Prince reviewed documents was faster than the Emperor; the files and documents that usually took the Emperor five or six hours to finish reviewing, the Prince only used three hours for.

At this moment, the situation inside the palace hall looked quite like a father and son fighting on the same front.

To Fusu, this was actually a process of solving problems: understanding the past of Great Qin, understanding the situation of this country, and providing a simple answer.

Fusu looked at another scroll of documents and saw it mentioned the Jingye Canal in Jingye County; the book also stated that when the Zheng Guo Canal was about to be completed back then, Qin absorbed nearly 150,000 people from the refugees of the Six States, and afterwards, the First Emperor issued a decree that as long as households could move into Guanzhong, their taxes would be exempted for two years.

Once the decree was issued, after the construction of the Zheng Guo Canal, Qin absorbed 300,000 people to cultivate the new fields irrigated by the Zheng Guo Canal; those were all people imported into Qin from various states.

Fusu looked at what the teacher had written in the book, first citing the events of the Zheng Guo Canal back then, and then mentioning the Jingye Canal.

The teacher had previously said that if the Jingye Canal were dug further south, it would reach other counties and would no longer be within the scope of the Prince's private property, and more than half of the fields were outside the private property.

Today, the livelihood of the people in the Central Plains is exhausted and the population is withering; bringing the people from the old lands of the Six States into Qin, using the Jingye Canal to cultivate land, exempting one year of land tax, and thereby dividing the old people of the Six States, will solidify the population of Guanzhong.

The teacher's words were indeed correct, and Fusu also thought so in his heart.

Guanzhong is the foothold of Qin; now that the livelihood of the people everywhere under heaven has withered, it is better to move the people into the pass. Only when Guanzhong is prosperous, the population is sufficient, and the basic foundation is strengthened, will it be easy to continue building this country in the future.

In short, only when the place where the capital is located is strong can this strength be spread and influence all parts of the Central Plains in all directions.

After reading, Fusu understood the teacher's intentions; originally, the fields in Guanzhong were limited, but now there would be tens of thousands of *qing* of fertile land, and these fields naturally had to be farmed, which brought up the question of who would farm them.

Treating this problem as a condition for strengthening oneself, while solving the problem of land cultivation, also increased the population of Guanzhong and could divide potential enemies.

Fusu wrote his reply on the teacher's document and then had someone send it down.

Unknowingly, it was already night outside.

Ying Zheng frowned and straightened his back, then looked in front of him; there were only two scrolls of documents left to review today, and as he looked again, he saw Fusu's hand reaching over, and he took the remaining two scrolls away.

The desk in front of him became empty, and then he straightened his lower back and stretched his arms.

Ying Zheng looked back and saw that Fusu had already finished reviewing the last two scrolls of documents, so he said in a deep voice, "It is late, you should go back."

After this son left the hall, Ying Zheng's gaze remained on the empty desk; he did not know when he had become accustomed to the desk in front of him being piled high with files.

Suddenly empty, he felt uncomfortable instead.

"Tell the Prime Minister and the Right Prime Minister that the court is adjourned tomorrow; if there are any errors in the recent document reviews, have them sent to me."

After the Attendant bowed, he went to pass on the message.

In the summer, the First Emperor spoke of the southern expedition, but did not immediately prepare for the expedition because it was summer at that time.

Now it is late autumn, and the grain in all regions and counties has been harvested; with grain in hand, one can proceed with the matters of the southern expedition.

Today, the Right Prime Minister Feng Quji took Jian Lu to see the First Emperor, and afterwards, an imperial edict was issued for Jian Lu to preside over the transportation of grain and fodder and the excavation of the Hundred Yue Canal.

With the First Emperor's edicts being issued one after another, the southern expedition of Great Qin began.

Fusu felt that mentioning the construction of the Magic Canal in advance was just a hope that the construction of the Magic Canal could be put on the agenda a step earlier, be completed sooner, and make this war smoother with fewer battle losses.

"Prince, a letter from Commandant Li." Tian An held up a bamboo tube with both hands.

Fusu took the bamboo tube, pulled off the lid, and some sealing wax fell out from the inside; he poured out a roll of silk cloth from the inside, and there was still some sealing wax on the knot tying the silk cloth.

Generally speaking, it was only when it could not be seen by outsiders or was an important letter that sealing wax would be used.

Fusu pinched open the sealing wax at the knot and then slowly spread out the roll of white cloth; Li You's handwriting was not very beautiful, but the horizontal and vertical strokes were very neat.

In the letter, Li You expressed his worries about the southern expedition; he had sent a troop deep into the mountains and forests for more than two months, and all five returned, but two of them had fallen seriously ill.

After reading Li You's letter, Fusu said to Tian An who was on the side, "Are there any medical officers from the Chu region or Shu region in the palace?"

"Replying to the Prince, there are."

Fusu wrote down some rules for marching, as well as drinking as little raw water as possible, bringing enough dry rations, not marching in the rainy season...

He wrote quite a lot, handed it to Tian An, and instructed, "I am the Assistant to the Lesser Prefecture and have the authority to supervise the construction of canals; have Jian Lu come over."

These days, Jian Lu was very busy; recommended by the Right Prime Minister, he was going to go south with the main army.

At home, Jian Lu piled stacks of bamboo slips onto a cart, his hands and feet nimble and diligent.

Inside the house, a roll of bamboo slips was thrown out, and then a woman with a sharp voice said, "Go, and don't come back."

It was Jian Lu's wife speaking; Jian Lu was used to it. Although this woman was scolding him like this, she must have been shedding tears in the house.

Jian Lu picked up the bamboo slip on the ground, saw that this roll was useful, and also put it into his cart.

Afterwards, Jian Lu said to his thirteen-year-old son on the side, "From now on, you must take good care of your mother at home."

After speaking, another clay pot was thrown out from the house, "Better to die outside."

Hearing the angry scolding, Jian Lu's son shrank his neck in fear.

Jian Lu patted his son's head lightly and was about to leave when he bumped into an Attendant.

Thinking it was someone from the army urging him, Jian Lu bowed and said, "Lu will go to the army now."

The person who came smiled and said, "It is Prince Fusu who invites Master Craftsman Lu to come over."

Jian Lu turned back and instructed his son, "You must take good care of your mother; Father is going to the south to help the army."

Jian Lu spoke to his son in his hometown dialect.

"Mm, is Father going to fight and kill people?"

Jian Lu shook his head and said, "If you encounter difficulties, go find Prince Fusu, or you can go to the Jingye Canal to find General Zhang Han."

Seeing his son nod, he smiled.

In fact, Jian Lu was not a Qin person; the Attendant could not understand the words of the father and son and thought they were probably some words of greeting.

Jian Lu pulled the cart out of the house, carried his bundle on his back, and looked into the house from the courtyard gate; he saw only one figure in the house with their back to him.

After looking at his wife's back for a long time, Jian Lu bowed deeply and then left, pulling a cart of books.

After Jian Lu left, the sound of a woman's soft sobbing came from the courtyard.

The army was really going to launch a southern expedition; the First Emperor knew that this war would inevitably meet with opposition from the Doctors, so he adjourned the court, but it also caused Xianyang City to be clamorous, with everyone discussing the southern expedition.

Jian Lu walked through the noisy streets, followed the Attendant all the way into the palace gate, and arrived at Gaoquan Palace.

Fusu was pruning a small pine tree; seeing Jian Lu arrive, he had Tian An give him two scrolls of the Classic of History, set down the small knife in his hand, and seeing him carrying a travel pack, said, "Leaving already?"

"I must follow the main army and dare not delay."

Fusu said, "These two scrolls contain some methods for preventing disease, though they are only for prevention; I have had a few medical officers assigned to you, and they will accompany you at the side of Tu Ju."

"Thank you, Prince."

Fusu bowed and said, "I have troubled you."

Jian Lu took the two scrolls and left in a hurry.

Fusu looked at Jian Lu's small pack, yet he had a cart full of books.

Watching his retreating figure, Fusu bowed once more.

(End of chapter)