When he went to court the next day, Wang Wan again played: "Your Majesty, the Qin Kingdom is unified and is thousands of miles away. However, the three kingdoms of Yan, Qi, and Chu are farthest from Guanzhong, and the court is difficult to manage. I respectfully request that your Majesty ennoble several princes as kings. , go to guard it. In this way, the prince will be rewarded, and the remote place will be safe, which is the best of both worlds." After listening to Prime Minister Wang's suggestion, the ministers all agreed. However, there was one person who objected, and this person was Tingwei Li Si. Li Si is sixty-two years old this year. Because of his outstanding literary talent, Ying Zheng attaches great importance to him. Seeing that everyone was urging the First Emperor to enfeoff the princes, he objected: "Your Majesty, you must never implement the enfeoffment system again! Think about the early years of the Zhou Dynasty, the king of Zhou had many princes, but later on, these princes and princes were mutually exclusive. The emperor was unable to control the attack, which led to domestic disputes. Now that the Qin State has just been established, it is enough to implement the system of prefectures and counties throughout the country, and there should no longer be a system of enfeoffment!"
As soon as Li Si finished speaking, Wang Wan retorted: "King Wu of Zhou successfully conquered Zhou and established the Zhou Dynasty, so he rewarded the heroes. Now that your majesty has re-pacified the country, the heroes have made great contributions in the war to unify the six countries. If not, he will be rewarded. It goes against the ancient system. Your Majesty has many princes, how can you reward them?" Li said calmly: "This is easy to handle. All the princes and meritorious officials can be rewarded heavily with salary and titles. It would be very uncomfortable if the princes were granted the title of marquis again. That's right!" Wei Zhuang also thought that it would be impossible not to reward him. The First Emperor was silent for a long time and said: "The six countries have been unified. No matter far or near, they are all the land of Qin. As the saying goes, 'Under the sky, everything is the king's land; on the shore of the land, are the king's ministers'. From now on, we can no longer call them The country can only be called a certain place. Is it better to implement the enfeoffment system or the system of prefectures and counties? This is related to the safety and prosperity of the Qin State, so we should not draw a hasty conclusion. My dear friends, go down and discuss it carefully, and we will discuss it again tomorrow morning. Discuss." All the ministers claimed yes.
When he went to court the next day, the ministers still agreed to the enfeoffment system. Li Si still insisted on the county system. The First Emperor was silent for a long time. He raised his head, glanced at the officials below with his wise eyes, and then said very confidently: "From the five hegemons fighting for supremacy to the chaos of the Seven Kingdoms, countries are using troops against each other, and wars are endless. The misfortune continued, and all living beings in the world were miserable. Later, the Emperor of Zhou almost existed in name only. This was because of the existence of princes and kings! When Xiao Gong used Shang Yang's reform, he had already advocated the system of prefectures and counties. Fortunately, I relied on the power of the late king to unify Liuhe. Now if you grant a king and establish a prince again, you will create an enemy for yourself, which is absolutely impossible. Tingwei's suggestion is very correct! However, the generals have made outstanding achievements in pacifying the six countries. Especially my favorite general Wang Jian, I How can we forget him? In the past, Shang Yang was named Shang Jun, Zhang Yi was named Wu Xinjun, Cai Ze was named Gangcheng Jun, Wei Ran was named Ranghou, Fan Ju was named Yinghou, and Lu Buwei was named Wenxinhou, but they only enjoyed Taxes on the fiefdom instead of the country are very different from the enfeoffment of the Zhou Dynasty. Now I also follow the ancient system and grant meritorious officials." So we agreed with the doctors to designate General Wang Jian as the Marquis of Wucheng and Wang Ben as Tongwu. Marquis, father and son were promoted to the title of Chehou. Zhao Hai became the Marquis of Jiancheng, the general became the Marquis of Changwu, Feng Wuze became the Marquis of Wuxin, and Jinjue became the Marquis of Lun. The First Emperor then said: "My beloved ministers will govern the country together with me. For the long-term peace and stability of the country, I will no longer grant rewards to the princes. This is not considered a violation of the ancient system, right?" After hearing the words of the First Emperor, the officials could only praise and said: "Your Majesty is wise. Now we have abolished the old feudal system and implemented the system of counties and counties. This will be an everlasting event!"
After hearing everyone's praise, the First Emperor was full of joy and said: "Li Si, the Tingwei, proposed to implement the system of prefectures and counties, which is very in line with the national conditions of Qin. Now Li Si will also be promoted to the title of Marquis of Tongwu." After hearing this, Li Si was overjoyed and thanked him. The First Emperor added: "The county system has a long history. It emerged with the growth of our country and is also an old system of the Qin State. In the past, King Hui established Hanzhong County, and King Zhaoxiang established Nanjun, Qianzhong County and Nanyang County. , King Zhuang Xiang established Sanchuan County and Taiyuan County, allowing talented people to serve as county governors. As the first emperor since the beginning of the world, I should also follow the ancient system, implement the system of counties and counties throughout the country, and divide the world into counties . The county governor is in charge of the affairs of a county, and the county magistrate and the county lieutenant are in charge of civil and military affairs. The supervisory censor inspects the officials of the whole county. The county is a county, and the county magistrate is in charge of the affairs of the whole county. The affairs of the county prime minister and the county lieutenant are in charge of It is the same as the county magistrate and the county captain. In addition, I cannot forget the contributions of the previous kings. I have officials build ancestral temples and Zhangtai Palace on the south bank of the Wei River. I want to worship my ancestors. I also want to build a replica of the palace of the Six Kingdoms in Beiban, Xianyang. , extended the palace complex to the east, and filled it with beautiful women, bells, drums, fine stones, exotic trees and other rare treasures captured from the six kingdoms, thus making Qin the most powerful country in the world!" The strong sound echoed in the empty Xianyang Hall, and the sound shook every corner. According to the decision of the First Emperor, the Ming Dynasty issued an edict to the world: The Qin State abolished the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty, implemented a system of prefectures and counties, and divided the country into thirty-six counties.
According to the county system, the county governor is the highest administrative officer of a county. The county magistrate assists the county governor in managing the administrative affairs and prisons of the entire county. The county lieutenant is responsible for the military and public security of the entire county, and the county censor is responsible for inspecting the entire county. Officials, pay close attention to the implementation of imperial decrees by officials at all levels. The administrative agencies below the county level are counties and roads. Inland areas are called counties and remote areas are called roads. Counties and roads are at the same level and have the same official system. It is also stipulated that the county magistrate is the head of a county and enjoys the title of fiefdom with more than 10,000 households. Those with less than 10,000 households are called county magistrates. There are townships, li, pavilions and other institutions under the county. Townships and li are administrative agencies, and pavilions are public security organizations. The township also has officials such as Sanlao, Shifu, and Youjiao. The three elders are responsible for preaching laws and educating the people, the stingy husband is responsible for collecting taxes and hearing lawsuits, and the youjiao is responsible for patrolling and public security. A li is set up in the countryside, and li is responsible for organizing production. The pavilion has no affiliation with the township or li. It is the grassroots organization of the public security system and is a dispatched agency of the county and county captains. The pavilion has a chief, whose main responsibility is to manage public security. This strengthened the system of prefectures and counties, so that the rights of local officials were mutually controlled, so that no one could seize power, and the court's power to manage local areas was greatly strengthened.
In the imperial court, the emperor had sole power and decided to appoint and remove all officials. In order to maintain the rule of one surname of the Ying family and prevent the loss of power, the First Emperor also used the ruling strategy of decentralization and checks and balances to control his ministers, that is, he established the three ministers and nine ministers. The Three Lords refer to the Prime Minister, the State Lieutenant, and the Censor. The nine ministers are Fengchang, Taipu, Shaofu, Langzhongling, Zhisu Neishi, Dianke, Weiwei, Tingwei and Zongzheng. The prime minister is the head of a hundred officials, divided into left and right, one official and two systems, restricting each other. The power of the prime minister must be controlled by the imperial censor, and the military power of the prime minister is divided among the state captains. Important officials are in a state of mutual restraint in terms of status, responsibilities and rights. This has changed the situation in the past when the ministers in power governed the people in peacetime and led the troops in war. , the tradition of appointing generals and becoming prime ministers institutionally prevented the situation where powerful ministers were tyrannical, thus concentrating military and political power in the hands of the emperor.
A few months later, the emperor issued several more edicts: changing the name of the common people to Qianshou or Limin; agreeing on a unified legal system and making the "Qin Code" the national law; stipulating the standards for length, weight, and capacity; the national currency was divided into Second grade, gold is the upper coin, measured in yi, twenty taels of gold is one yi, copper coins are the lower coin, each is half a tael, the shape is a square hole or a round shape, and it is designated as a currency circulating throughout the country. At the same time, old coins in various shapes such as knife-shaped, cloth-shaped, and ant-nosed coins from the Six Kingdoms will be abolished. Pearls, jade, turtle shells, silver and tin were used as decorative treasures and were no longer circulated as currency; they also unified writing, and the small seal script was used throughout the country, with Li Si writing the "Cangjie Pian" and Hu Wujing's "Erudition Pian". " as the standard, promulgated throughout the country, as a text template, and abolished the writing of the six countries at the same time; officials in all counties and counties in the world conducted an inventory of household registrations in various places. All the nobles, wealthy households and local celebrities were ordered to move to Xianyang for close inspection; all the passways and fortresses in the most dangerous places in the world and the walls and fortresses of the major counties were all razed to the ground, and all passages were opened. A series of edicts were issued and implemented after discussions between the First Emperor and his ministers. The people of the country responded positively, and the country achieved true unity. In history, the first emperor was called Qin Shihuang. Li Si recounted the achievements of Qin Shihuang and said:
Reminiscing about the troubled times, dividing the land and building a country to open up disputes. Attacks and battles are fought day by day, and blood is shed in the wilds, since ancient times.
There are countless things in the world, and even if they are given to the Five Emperors, nothing can stop them. Now the emperor has one family and the world, and the army will no longer rise.
Disasters are eliminated, Guizhou is in peace and stability, and the benefits are long-lasting.
