Chapter 5: The Legacy of Lü Buwei

Prime Minister Li Si and the Prince had a very pleasant conversation; people in the palace all felt that such a wise Prince, who was also well-versed in Legalist classics, would surely gain the support of many Legalist scholars in the future.

The Prince humbly sought instruction, and Prime Minister Li Si answered everything he knew.

After finishing the explanation of the Three Councillors and Nine Ministers, he began to explain the appointment of officials.

During this time, there were no questions; he devoted his whole heart and soul to internalizing the knowledge imparted by his teacher.

When leaving Gaoquan Palace, Li Si was in an exceptionally good mood; he discovered that the Prince had a very magical ability: the Prince would actually take notes while listening to the lecture.

The next day, feeding the fish was a particularly interesting activity; after paying respects to Huayang Taihou in the morning, Fusu, having nothing to do, was feeding the fish.

Yesterday, the teacher said that to appoint officials, one must first select the best from the old officials left behind by the Six States and implement Qin Law.

Of course, during the learning process, he was always humbly seeking instruction, earnestly understanding how the current people of Qin governed the world, and how they used past experience to make current judgments.

In short, the current Great Qin is in a process of redistribution and reproduction.

The primary contradiction in abolishing the Feudal System and the ancient Feudal System is the selection and appointment of officials, which is no longer based on blood relatives and collateral branches for resource allocation.

Yet, when Xiang Yan and the others want to restore their states, are they not also doing so to protect their own interests, so that their blood relatives and collateral branches can continue to control these resources?

To the old nobility of the Six States, this ancient Feudal System made them accustomed to enjoying vested interests through blood relationships, to the point of taking it for granted.

Now the master of the world is Great Qin, and Great Qin wants to break this precedent that has "always been so," so they will naturally resist.

But Fusu remembered a sentence once said by a very great teacher: "Just because it has always been so, does that make it right?"

Li Si and the Emperor are still too idealistic in their treatment of the old nobility of the Six States.

Seeing the Prince frowning while looking at the fish pond, seemingly in a bad mood, Tian An hurriedly bowed to pay respects.

Taking the officials of the old nobility of the Six States into one's own service—those officials of the old nobility of the Six States, some served the state of Qi, and some previously served the state of Han.

Now, to make them change their stance and serve Great Qin—not to mention that the old people of the Six States already had deep-seated prejudices against Great Qin—their loyalty was a question mark.

Fusu threw the remaining wheat bran into the pond, his heart still thinking about the words his teacher had said.

Even if Great Qin offered full sincerity and rewards, would they really exhaust their thoughts and efforts for Great Qin?

Han Fei once said that a doting mother raises a spoiled child, and a lenient master will not have formidable servants.

The same logic applies to wanting to buy over the officials of the old nobility of the Six States.

Heh, if the teacher wants to use sincerity and honesty to take in the officials of the Six States, he might as well believe that Xuanzang can truly reform the world.

The teacher and the Emperor do have a benevolent side after all, giving the nobility of the Six States room for negotiation.

At this moment in Zhangtai Palace, the morning Court Discussion was still ongoing; today's Court Discussion should have been very smooth, but a figure with frost-white temples stood up in the court and said loudly: "Emperor, I have heard that recently the Prime Minister has been teaching Prince Fusu?"

Ying Zheng's gaze fell on the person speaking; in his impression, he remembered that this person was a man from Qi originally recommended by Li Si, named Chunyu Yue.

Seeing the Emperor remain silent, Chunyu Yue said again: "Emperor, Prince Fusu is the Emperor's eldest son; how can he be taught by only one school of thought?"

The voice echoed in the main hall of Zhangtai Palace; Ying Zheng still did not speak, sitting upright and watching the expression of everyone present.

Chunyu Yue's words were directed at Prime Minister Li Si; since Wang Wan left, this new Prime Minister of Qin had found a new opponent, and this man Chunyu Yue was usually a mad scholar; when he was an official in Qi, he had offended many people.

A man from Qi who was recommended to Qin by Li Si had become a subject of Great Qin.

And now, he was questioning this new Prime Minister in the court.

The person Li Si himself recommended to Qin had become his enemy?

Facing Chunyu Yue's questioning, Li Si wore a smile and did not make any reply.

Until the morning court ended, Li Si did not speak, but after the First Emperor dismissed the court, he summoned Li Si alone.

The morning meal of the people of Qin was usually in the morning, close to noon; usually, they only ate two meals a day, morning and evening, to be full.

After eating the morning meal, Fusu received a message passed on by a palace attendant: it was his teacher Li Si asking him, the Prince, to wait outside Zhangtai Palace.

Fusu walked all the way to Zhangtai Palace and asked Tian An, who was following by his side, "Should court be over at this hour?"

Tian An nodded, following two steps behind the Prince.

"Is the teacher meeting with the Emperor?"

"After the morning court ended, the Emperor summoned the Prime Minister."

Walking to the front of Zhangtai Palace, Fusu stopped his steps; the bitter cold of winter had just passed, and at this moment, the sunlight falling in front of Zhangtai Palace was at the best time of the day, and also the warmest time.

As if having just come back to life from the cold winter, Fusu stood in place waiting for his teacher, also enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Having read many of Han Fei's books, one would have a mindset of accepting things as they come.

"Prime Minister."

Hearing Tian An beside him speak, Fusu opened his eyes and saw his teacher walking out of Zhangtai Palace, putting on his shoes.

Fusu stepped forward and said, "Teacher."

"The Emperor has ordered me to take the Prince to a few places."

Having said this, Li Si finished putting on his shoes and led the way forward.

Inside Xianyang Palace, the usual sternness was maintained; Fusu walked along and asked, "Has the rebellion in the Chu region been quelled?"

Li Si nodded slightly and said with a smile, "The Prince need not worry."

Fusu said, "Just like Xiang Yan, not worth worrying about."

"Exactly."

Walking outside the palace gate and seeing Meng Tian, who had already prepared the escort here, he finally understood that this was all the Emperor's arrangement.

Come to think of it, he was very unfamiliar with this Emperor; it was only after saying those words before the coffin of Huayang Taihou that the Emperor felt his son had grown up and needed someone to teach him.

Today's carriage was open-topped; this carriage was somewhat like a chariot on the battlefield, only with a large sunshade umbrella set up on top.

"Today during the Court Discussion, someone named Chunyu Yue said that the Prince cannot listen to only one school of thought."

Fusu said, "Of course I cannot listen to only one school of thought; I read the books of Xunzi, and I also read the books of Mencius and Zhuangzi."

Li Si said again, "The person teaching the Prince cannot be only me."

Seeing the Prince not replying, Li Si added, "Chunyu Yue is a man of Qi; he has quite a lot of insight into Confucianism classics."

Fusu said, "Teacher, if I read the books of Han Fei, then Han Fei is my teacher; if I read the books of Zhuangzi, then Zhuangzi is my teacher."

Hearing this, the smile on Li Si's face deepened.

The carriage passed through Shanglin Park and arrived at a stretch of farmland to the north; it was the farming season in Guanzhong, and one could see oxen plowing the fields here, as well as families of several people sitting together, eating their meal right there in the fields.

After they finished their meal in the fields, they would rest for a moment before continuing their labor.

People's lives were very simple; the Qin people valued martial arts, so the food of the Qin people mostly contained quite a bit of game, and the staple foods of the Qin people were primarily millet, wheat, beans, and broomcorn millet, while vegetables included mallow, bean leaves, scallions, and chives.

Among these, the most common was bean rice and bean leaf soup.

Bean rice was the staple food choice for the vast majority of Qin people.

For his own nutritional needs, Fusu would often eat some fish, as the high-quality protein in fish was very important for a young man who was still growing.

After getting off the carriage and continuing on foot with his teacher, he saw a few peers not far away arguing over a bag of beans; they tore the cloth bag open, and the beans spilled all over the ground.

Compared to them, Fusu felt that he had no rebellious phase at all; the rebellious phase of his past life had long since been smoothed away by the ways of the world.

Li Si took a scroll of Bamboo Slip from his wide sleeve and said in a low voice, "This is what the Emperor has asked this subject to give to the Prince."

Fusu took the scroll and opened it to look at the contents; it was fine until he looked, but once he did, he was unable to recover for a long time, because there were three eyesore characters in it, and those three characters were Lv Buwei.

This scroll of Bamboo Slip was originally a land deed, a land deed that the King of Qin had bestowed upon Lv Buwei back then, totaling three hundred qing of farmland.

Li Si took a roll of cloth from his sleeve again, untied the rope bound around this roll of cloth, and said, "From now on, these fields will all belong to the Prince."

Fusu took the land deed and felt relieved; nowadays, the whole world belonged to the King of Qin, so it was normal to be given a few acres of land.

If he could, Fusu would even like to have more land; the more the better, the more the merrier.

"Why did Father Emperor give me land?"

Li Si did not speak, but continued walking.

Arriving before a village, Li Si took another roll of cloth from his sleeve and said again, "The people of this village were all formerly the household servants of Lv Buwei; after Lv Buwei died, the Emperor settled them here, and now they all belong to the Prince."

Fusu took this contract, his eyes involuntarily glancing at Li Si's cuff, wondering to himself just how many things his teacher's sleeves held.

After Lv Buwei died, his estate remained in the Qin State.

As the most famous merchant of the Warring States period, and the protagonist of the allusion "One Word Worth a Thousand Gold," Lv Buwei was indeed a remarkable person.

But to Ying Zheng, getting rid of Lv Buwei was also very simple.

Ying Zheng had written a letter back then, scolding Lv Buwei, the general meaning of which was: does a person like you deserve to be my foster father?

Later, Lv Buwei committed suicide, and Ying Zheng did not even explicitly tell him to die; he just wrote a letter and scolded him, and he went to die on his own.

When a merchant cooperates with a political powerhouse, this merchant usually does not meet a good end.

Lv Buwei was the precedent, and later, Sang Hongyang of the Han Dynasty, as well as those who followed, still followed this pattern; those merchants repeated Lv Buwei's fate.

"Teacher, why give me these?"

He saw his teacher take a pancake from his sleeve, tear off a small corner, and hand over the remaining large portion.

Fusu took the large portion of the pancake and watched as his teacher ate the small corner of the pancake in a leisurely manner.

After finishing, Li Si replied, "These are all the Emperor's arrangements."

"Why did Father Emperor give me these?"

Li Si continued, "Today, Chunyu Yue said that the Prince cannot only listen to this subject's one-sided words."

"Hmm..."

"So from now on, the Prince can recruit retainers; the Prince has reached the age of sixteen, and from now on, the Prince can recruit men of talent from all over the world to assist the Prince. Once the Prince has retainers, he will need to support them, which requires a lot of land to produce grain and a lot of household servants to take care of them."

Fusu sorted through these words, as well as the contracts in his hand, and suddenly thought of Lv Buwei's three thousand retainers from back then.

Lv Buwei supported three thousand retainers, and as the Prime Minister of the Qin State, Lv Buwei also had the three thousand retainers compile the Lushi Spring and Autumn Annals for him, which led to the allusion of "One Word Worth a Thousand Gold."

Lv Buwei could be said to have brought the merchant class to its peak.

Fusu picked up a bean from the ground, looked up, and saw people kneeling on the ground, facing the yellow earth, "Teacher, can I have more?"

Li Si was a bit surprised at first; the smile that usually hung on his face actually disappeared for a moment.

It was only for a fleeting moment, and then the smile returned to Li Si's face; as long as the Prince did not plot rebellion, how much he wanted was just a matter of a single word from the Emperor, so he continued, "Does the Prince feel it is too little?"

Fusu pointed into the distance, "There is a piece of wasteland by the Chan River."

Li Si nodded and said, "Very well, as long as the Prince wants it, this subject can arrange it."

Returning to Xianyang City, Fusu followed Li Si to a mansion; this mansion was closest to Xianyang Palace and was the best location in the entire Chang'an City.

Li Si pushed open the old wooden door, "This was formerly Lv Buwei's residence; the Prince can recruit retainers here. Chunyu Yue said the Prince cannot listen to only one side; with this place, the Prince can listen to the words of the hundred schools."

Back then, Li Si had studied under Lv Buwei and had lived here with many retainers for a long time.

At that time, Li Si had to look at others' expressions and had to watch Lv Buwei's mood.

Now, he, Li Si, was already the Prime Minister of the Qin State.

Li Si was, after all, Li Si; he had never lost his ambition and aspirations.

Walking along the way, Fusu listened to Li Si recount the various details of this mansion.

It was not until nightfall that Fusu returned to the palace with a pile of contracts, intending to properly organize what he had obtained today.

After Lv Buwei died back then, everything here had been sealed up.

At night, Li Si remained in this mansion; he came to one of the rooms, which was the room where the three thousand retainers used to store books, and the shelves were filled with Bamboo Slip.

Among them were books brought by the Chu people, as well as the achievements of many famous scholars from the Qi State, Yan State, and Wei State.

After Lv Buwei died, those retainers all left, but these books remained.

"It has been a long time since I came here."

Hearing the voice behind him, Li Si turned his head and saw the Vice Prime Minister, Feng Quji.

Facing the Prince or the Emperor, Li Si was always smiling; facing others, Li Si would be much more serious.

Feng Quji said, "Chunyu Yue remonstrated with the Emperor, hoping that the Emperor would let famous scholars from the Six States teach the Prince, but you had the Emperor permit the Prince to keep retainers; you do this because you still do not want famous scholars from the Six States to teach the Prince, you only hope that the Prince has only you as a teacher by his side."

Li Si looked up at the bright moon in the night sky and said, "The famous scholars of the Six States are not enough to teach the Prince; what the Prince learns is not something they can teach."

"I hear the Prince is quite fond of learning."

"The Prince is still young; when the Prince is a few years older, Si will personally assist the Prince."

Feng Quji considered himself to understand Li Si, yet he also held reservations about Li Si, because the First Emperor had never spoken of the cause of Han Fei's death to this day.

(End of chapter)