Ying Zheng looked down and asked, "What do you think?"
The whole hall was silent.
Zhao Ping and others looked at the dark-faced Du He, but they did not dare to object.
Fusu said it too harshly.
Not only did he bring out the "Book of Shang Jun", but also "The Way of Being an Official" that the First Emperor vigorously promoted at that time, as well as the remarks of Xunzi, the last great master at the end of the troubled times, to support his view of severe punishment for this incident.
Although they intended to object, they did not know how to defend themselves.
If you continue to speak, you will easily be labeled a 'good citizen'. If His Majesty thinks that you are working together to cover up your mistakes and that you are a bad official who likes to stir up trouble, it will be very detrimental to you in the future in the court.
Just allowing Fusu's idea to be implemented would be a huge blow to them.
Since Li Si, most of the Tingwei Mansion has been reduced to the private residence of meritorious officials. Because the Tingwei Mansion is in charge of legal orders, it is generally not easy to cause problems. It is easy to be promoted after staying there for a few years. Therefore, many officials like to keep their The son of Lang Guan was arranged to enter the Tingwei Mansion. After this crime, his future career will be unpredictable.
And there are many new officials who are eyeing him.
more importantly.
This evil trend cannot be allowed to grow. If Fusu is allowed to do whatever he wants, the prestige of these heroes in the court will become lower and lower, and they may even be coveted by other officials. It would be bad news.
It’s just that I can’t speak now.
This made Du He, Zhao Ping and others extremely anxious.
Ying Zheng looked down indifferently, and finally looked at Fusu and asked: "Fusu, you know the most about this matter. Please tell me how to punish the officials in the Tingwei Mansion and related government agencies."
Fusu bowed his head and said, "I am reporting this to my father, I think this should be severely punished."
"Lieutenant Meng Yiting resigned."
"The rest of the officials of the Tingwei Mansion, except those who have just been in office, will all be demoted and demoted, while the iron officials and salt officials under the Shaofu will be directly dismissed from their posts. It is true that they have not been in office for a long time, but such a bad thing happened in Guanzhong , they must give the world a price."
"The removal is therefore necessary."
"Otherwise, it will not be enough to make people angry, let alone establish legal authority."
"There is a clear stipulation in "Xiao Lv": Wei plans and officials will be impeached immediately, and their orders and prime ministers will sit on them as if they were officials."
"I know that this is very unfair to the officials of Tingwei Mansion. However, Tingwei Mansion holds important positions and does not think about the changes of the times or the people's peace and contentment. They only remember the old laws and regulations and do not choose to keep up with the times. Come on, how can such an official office be able to shoulder the important responsibilities of the world? How can it be trusted by the world?"
"If the law is not established, the people will not believe it."
“If the people don’t believe it, the country will be in danger!”
"My son is the eldest son of the Qin Dynasty, how dare he ignore his neglect?"
"Han Feizi once told such a story when he was studying with Xunzi."
"If a person shakes leaves, if he shakes them one by one, he will be exhausted. But if he directly knocks the trunk, the leaves of the whole tree will shake. If someone sets up a net to catch fish, if he shakes it one mesh at a time, he will be exhausted. I fiddle with it on the ground, and I don’t know how long it will be busy, but if I pull the main rope of the fishing net, the fish will be caught in the net at once.”
"The logic is the same."
"Thousands of leaves and meshes are like all the people in the world, and tree trunks and ropes are like officials. If the officials are managed well, the people will naturally be well managed."
"So Han Feizi advocated that 'the Ming government governs the officials but not the people'."
"And this has always been the official policy of the Qin State. The current incident in Huai County has damaged hundreds of people and involved millions of people in Guanzhong. This is all due to the negligence of officials. If they are not severely punished and just solve the problem when it arises, wouldn't it be wrong? Just like shaking leaves or fiddling with mesh?”
“Just tinkering won’t solve the problem.”
"Only through thorough rectification can future troubles be avoided. It was with these considerations in mind that I wrote to severely punish the relevant authorities."
Fusu paused for a moment, looked at the officials below, and said coldly: "If some officials say that Fusu gave up eating because of choking, Fusu thinks that it is not necessarily a bad thing to give up eating because of choking. At least it can truly curb this unhealthy trend and let the court return to normal. To obtain the Qingming Festival, we hope to return to what Xunzi said: 'the ancient people, the ancient officials, the ancient scholars and officials, and the ancient dynasty'!"
"Father, please give me a clear warning."
All the officials were silent.
Li Si, who was standing in front of the officials, turned his head. He did not look at Fusu, but at Zhang Cang who was not far away.
Zhang Cang lowered his head and looked very guilty. He didn't dare to look at him at all. If he could, he would even want to bury his head in the soil.
That's right.
This is what he told Fusu again.
Others may not know the reason, but Li Si knows it, because when Han Feizi stammered out this story, Li Si was also on the side. He made a statement and happily praised Han Feizi for his unlimited future.
He even believed that Han Feizi would be highly successful if he entered the Qin Dynasty.
It's just that before Han Feizi, Li Si went to Qin in advance. Han Feizi did not achieve high status in Qin as Xunzi said, but was imprisoned and died. If Xunzi knew about it, he would probably have a lot of emotions. But at the moment, Zhang Cang only It feels like a light on my back.
He even wanted to slap himself twice.
When Fusu asked him for advice on "The Book of Shang Jun" and "Han Feizi", he was a little pretentious and talked a little more. However, Fusu did not put these idle words behind him, but actually remembered them in his heart. Even more so now. He said it directly in front of all the officials in the court.
This made Zhang Cang feel deeply ashamed.
Li Si glanced at Zhang Cang for a few times and then looked away.
He didn't have much of an opinion about it.
In the past, Fusu was good at talking nonsense and staying away from the new policies of the Qin Dynasty, which worried many courtiers. Now Fusu reiterates the rule of law and proposes strict laws and disciplines. This is not a bad thing, but the eldest son is a little too strict.
Strict laws may not be what many officials want to see.
Li Si glanced at Du He and Zhao Ping imperceptibly.
And the issue this time is not about punishing the Tingwei Mansion.
And fighting for power!
The battle between distinguished officials and newly promoted officials.
A few months ago, the First Emperor took advantage of Xu Fu's incident to reorganize the court and promoted many officials. However, at that time, most of them were officials from the clan and law officials from Qin, so they did not care about those who had contributed to the founding of the country. , but when Fusu spoke this time, he directly wanted to move the entire Tingwei Mansion, which instantly woke up Du He and others.
The functions of the Tingwei Mansion were actually weakened after the founding of the Qin Dynasty.
But the authority is still very heavy.
This sign has been present since Shang Yang's reform.
When he was in charge of the Tingwei Mansion, the ranks of the Tingwei Mansion ranked first among all ministers under the prime minister and general.
Moreover, Tingwei Mansion used to be the actual axis of operation of Qin Law and the place where the authority of Qin Law condensed. Only for this reason, in the court, in the opposition, and even in the whole world, Tingwei Mansion was the standard for Qin State, just like The battlefield is marked with the commander's banner with the last name.
Without Qin's laws, Qin would not be Qin.
Without Tingwei Mansion, Qin's law would not be Qin's law.
At that time, the powers of the Tingwei Mansion could be described as huge. Combining actual functions and extended functions, it generally had four aspects of functions.
First, enforce the law.
The second one is the legal system, which governs the third-level judges and proclaims the law to the people of both the government and the public.
Thirdly, when planning to amend laws and regulations, laws need to be revised, or new laws need to be implemented in the expanded territory, all must be planned in advance by the Tingwei Mansion.
Fourth, lead the six law enforcement agencies (Tingwei Mansion, Sikou Mansion, Constitutional Robbery Bureau, Guozhengjian, Yushi Bureau, and Criminals Bureau) to discuss national policies and strategies involving law enforcement.
The authority is not too high.
At that time, everything in the Qin State was governed by laws, and political affairs and the planning of the national economy and people's livelihood were all related to laws.
Tingwei Mansion presides over decisions on business and city taxes, checkpoint inspections, farmland taxes, canal irrigation, engineering corvee work, reward and punishment investigations, military merit evaluations, etc.
Precisely because the Tingwei Mansion had too much power in the past, the various functions of Tingwei were split up at the beginning of the founding of the Qin Dynasty.
The imperial censor opened the government and took away the function of supervising all officials.
Tingwei's Mansion was directly placed under the Prime Minister's Mansion, and there was no longer the possibility of governing alone. Moreover, the law enforcement agencies under Tingwei's Mansion, namely the Zuo Jian, Right Jian, and Prison Chief, were mainly under orders from the Yushi Dafu's Mansion. It directly became the dual leadership of the three princes.
The power is greatly weakened.
Even so, the power of Tingwei Mansion is still at the forefront of Jiuqing.
And because the number of ministers was reduced, it became a place for many children of meritorious officials to settle after their term as official.
Fusu's current move to invade Tingwei's mansion is nothing more than giving eye drops to the hero.
Especially when thinking about the transfer of officials in the imperial court some time ago, many officials are worried, lest the official positions they have long recognized will eventually be stolen by new officials, so they have been strongly opposed to making the matter larger, more complicated, and more acute. change.
Try to control the scope of the situation to a very small scale.
It's just that Fusu obviously doesn't want to let it go, but wants to stab him to the end.
Li Si closed his eyes slightly.
He won't be in a hurry to speak.
Instead, he thought about the Emperor's intentions and thoughts.
He has been in the court for so long, and it is obvious that Fusu does not understand the stakes at all. His words and deeds have always focused on the Huai County incident, as if he has never thought about this matter, its impact on the court and the courtiers. Impact.
However, when the First Emperor left the matter to Fusu, he might not be using Fusu's hand to take the opportunity to weaken the power of the heroes.
Fusu was just a sword of the First Emperor.
While Li Si was meditating, the fellow Sangong Dunwei looked relatively calm.
He glanced behind him lightly without saying anything.
The Yushi Mansion is a supervisory system that monitors all officials and counties across the country for His Majesty. This matter is a matter under the Prime Minister's Mansion and has little to do with the Yushi Mansion. It only participated in the final conviction, and the rest of the time it is basically related to They have nothing to do with each other and will not get involved easily.
This is the thought.
He glanced at Zhang Cang with a slightly cold gaze.
He just quickly withdrew his gaze.
Hearing Fusu's loud words, Du He and others turned pale.
They were also extremely angry.
Ying Zheng did not speak in a hurry, but looked down with interest, leaving the palace as quiet as a deep valley.
a long time.
Du He came out and said, "I cannot agree with the eldest son's words."
"Upholding the established law is the most reasonable thing in the world."
"It is true that the iron officers and salt officers under the Shaofu are not supervising, but the supervisory function is not the function of the iron officers and salt officers. How can officials be dealt with so hastily just because they say 'account to the people of the world'? Such unfounded charges It’s really chilling.”
"Besides."
"The king and his ministers govern together, only by observing the law and treating them with sincerity."
"But the eldest son's arguments are just confusing!"
"His arguments are rhetorical, pretending not to be deceitful, and trying to benefit the country, but in fact they are doing little harm and little benefit."
"It also leads the country into the quagmire."
"It is easy to listen to people's rhetoric but not to the facts. Therefore, even if it harms the courtiers, it cannot make the country strong. It is like drinking poison to quench the thirst. It seems to be a great benefit to the country, but in fact the harm is serious and the future troubles will be huge. There is probably no remedy. If you do it, , all government officials are persecuted for no reason, doesn't it make officials big and small feel cold? How can they serve the country wholeheartedly in such an environment?"
"Although the world is now settled, the remnants of the six kingdoms are still peeping from all sides. If you anger the officials for this, you will abandon the hearts of the people. At this time, the entire official office of the Tingwei Mansion and other official offices will be punished. The eldest son is not afraid of betraying the reputation of harming the virtuous and harming the country. ?"
Duch said it hard.
He is in charge of the Shaofu and ranks as one of the nine ministers.
It cannot be ignored.
Fusu's words before had shown no mercy, so how could he back down?
Fusu frowned slightly.
He already knew that he had made an enemy of Duhe.
But he had to.
Fusu cupped his hands and said: "Fusu is not talented. At present, he only likes to read "Shang Jun Shu" and other Legalist books. "Shang Jun Shu·Forbidden Envoy" clearly states: Although there are many officials, they are one body. Husbands are one body and one body, and they cannot get along with each other. Moreover, if the benefits are different and the harm is different, the former king is the one who protects them."
"You know the meaning of this sentence better than I do."
"Although there are many officials, their interests are the same, which makes it impossible to supervise each other. The difference in interests is the basis for the former king to implement joint sitting."
"This is still the case in other non-legal countries, let alone Da Qin, which is a country based on law?"
"There is a lot of relevant content in "Shang Jun Shu". If you ministers don't mind it, Fusu doesn't recommend saying more."
""Qu Qiang" said: If punishment is used to remove punishment, the country will be governed; if punishment is used to cause punishment, the country will be in chaos. Therefore, it is said: If the punishment is light, the punishment will be done, and the country will be strong; if the punishment is heavy and light, the punishment will cause things to happen, and the country will be weakened. "
""Shuo Min" said: "Punishment produces strength, strength produces strength, strength produces power, power produces virtue, and virtue produces from punishment. "
""Han Feizi Nei Chu Shuo": Not throwing away ashes is what is easy; cutting off the hand is what is evil. Doing what is easy does not matter what is evil. The ancients thought it was easy, so they did it."
"My husband is severely punished by fire, and his old friends are freshly burnt; water is cowardly, and his old friends are often drowned."
"."
"There are so many examples to prove it."
"Enforcement should be strict."
“Only by strictly enforcing criminal laws can the people avoid breaking the law when they see the cowardice of the government.”
"The Qin Dynasty is very strict with the people's legal system. If it falls on the officials, they start to consider various situations. Isn't it heavy and light? How can the people be convinced by doing this? The people are heavy, but the officials are light. If this continues, the law will The majesty of the law will inevitably be lost."
"Currently, hundreds of people have died in the shipwreck in Huai County."
"If the relevant officials are not punished, wouldn't it mean that the officials would always have luck? If things go on like this and law enforcement is inconsistent, wouldn't the Great Qin be in danger?"
"The Qin Dynasty established a country based on law and should treat everyone equally."
"The laws of the Qin Dynasty have never been designed to harm the people, but to prevent crimes. Heavy penalties can deter people from trying the law, thereby eliminating criminal behavior. The same is true for officials. Only by severely punishing officials can we curb officials from breaking the law. , Only by knowing the law and disrupting the law can we truly reduce crime.”
“This is how we can achieve a country without criminal punishment for its people.”
"The country has no criminals!"
"Only by setting an example can we punish others with punishment."
Fusu said nothing more.
But the perseverance in his eyes was unmistakable.
Du He and others looked even more ugly, but it was difficult to argue.
The Qin Dynasty established a country based on laws, and relevant regulations were written into Qin's laws. Although many of them have long been not implemented seriously, saying it is one thing and doing it is another. If it is put on the surface, many things will be changed. If he couldn't stop it, even he wouldn't dare to touch it easily.
See this.
Li Si knew that the matter had been decided.
As the prime minister, he reiterated the strictness of the law.
The law cannot be broken, let alone broken.
finally.
He agreed with Fusu's point of view.
As Li Si spoke, the officials who had not spoken before began to speak.
They all agreed in unison.
At this time.
Ying Zheng, who was sitting high on the table, slapped the table with emotion, making the somewhat noisy hall quiet down.
He looked at Meng Yi and said, "Meng Yi, what do you think of Fusu's view?"
Meng Yi's face was serious, he cupped his hands and said: "Returning to your majesty, I think what the eldest son said is not unreasonable. I did make an oversight. If I could understand the changes in the status of the merchants as soon as possible and restrain their words and deeds, I might not lead to this. Even if there are multiple shipwrecks, we will not be trapped in panic."
"I am willing to accept the punishment."
"Your Majesty, please punish me. I will have no complaints."
Meng Yi had no excuse.
He knows it very well.
Whether the crime is punished or not does not depend on the court.
But it depends on His Majesty.
If Your Majesty wants to punish a crime, no matter how hard the courtiers argue, they will eventually be convicted.
If Your Majesty does not want to punish the crime, no matter what the eldest son says, no matter what he says, nothing will change.
His Meng family has been with Qin for generations.
I understood a truth very early on: everything is left to the monarch to decide.
Montessori just obeyed orders.
Ying Zheng looked at the other officials in the Tingwei Mansion and asked, "Where are the ministers?"
The prison chief, left prisoner, right prisoner and other officials looked at each other with a hint of bitterness in their eyes. Even the chief officer did not object. As subordinates, how could they dare to object? Even if I had all sorts of reluctances in my heart, I could only bite the bullet and say, "Let your Majesty do what you want."
Ying Zheng looked at the young master again.
Du He forced a smile on his face and said stiffly: "Young Master is at your Majesty's disposal."
Ying Zheng didn't have any extra words. He just nodded numbly and made a decision directly, saying: "Meng Yi, as a Tingwei, did not observe the changes in the merchants and had no insight. He is now relieved of the post of Tingwei. The rest of the Tingwei Mansion Officials will all be demoted one rank to one rank, and the chief officers of the left prison, right prison, prison chief, etc. will retain their official positions, and the 'true' ones will be demoted to 'false' and will be kept for observation. If the observation period expires, another arrangement will be made."
"Under the rule of the Shaofu, the chief officer, Iron Officer and Yan Officer, was removed from his post and replaced by another one."
"The relevant officials will be demoted to one rank, and 'true' will be demoted to 'false', and they will be kept on duty for inspection."
"At the same time, Shi Lu was appointed as the 'fake court captain.'"
"Appoint Sima Chang as..."
"."
Ying Zheng kept talking and announced the relevant information in one breath.
By now.
Other officials noticed, too.
The First Emperor may have already made arrangements in his mind.
Fusu is just the sword.
Du He looked at the highly promoted officials with a gloomy face, his eyes full of solemnity.
At present, the chief official of Tingwei Mansion has been replaced by Shi Lu, the censor who built the "Qin Zhuo Canal" in Lingnan. Although he is a "fake", his power is no different from that of a real Tingwei.
Moreover, when Shi Lu was in Lingqu, repairing water conservancy was a side job, and supervising the censor was his main job.
That is to say, he specializes in treating those who are not straight.
That is to say, they were specifically responsible for investigating and punishing officials who violated laws and disciplines during the construction of the Ling Canal.
To put it simply, it is anti-corruption.
Shi Lu is now in the Tingwei Mansion. If he really raises the big stick, Tingwei Mansion will be turbulent in the short term, which they really don't want to see.
They are not afraid of investigation, but they are afraid of truth.
What is even more fearful is that these newly-in-power officials will join forces in private and eventually shake the power of their ministers in the court. If that happens, there will inevitably be some open and covert fighting in private.
But these new officials are relatively young.
For a while.
Du He and others frowned.
In addition to Shi Lu Bu Bugao, Sima Chang changed from a bronze official to an iron official, Hua Ji and others also got appointments, and their official positions were greatly improved compared to four months ago.
With the change of official positions, this court meeting also came to an end.
As for "Business Law" and "Gong Law", they are not within the scope of discussion at this court meeting. Now it is mainly decided by the Tingwei Mansion and the Yushi Mansion, and then consults with the major government agencies, and finally reports to the monarch for decision.
It will still be some time before the "Laws of Business" and "Laws of Industry" are finalized, so I won't mention them more.
As the First Emperor left, all the officials left one after another.
It's just that many officials have dark faces, and many have red faces.
The difference between the two is obvious.
However, when many officials looked at Fusu, their eyes changed a lot. Although Fusu was known as a man of faith and a warrior in the past, he was not very popular with the courtiers.
Because they have conflicting political views.
But now no one dares to underestimate this eldest son.
He is no longer the humble and polite person he used to be. He is now a bit more vicious and fierce, and a bit more upright. For the court, I don't know whether this is good or bad.
Hu Hai was very pleased to see all the officials looking at Fusu.
He watched the whole process with his eyes.
I felt very unhappy.
He believed that if Ji Heng told him this method, he would be the one feared by officials now, not Fusu now.
Meng Yi did not stay in the palace.
After the meeting, he left directly.
It's just that the steps are a little messy.
Obviously this encounter, even if he was prepared, still had some ups and downs.
On the other side, Shi Lu, Sima Chang and others were moving very slowly. They were very proud of themselves. In less than half a year after entering the court, they had already jumped several levels. This speed of promotion made many people jealous.
However, they also know that they have not convinced the public, and they need to work harder if they want to truly secure their position.
But when he looked at Fusu, there was a little more respect in his eyes.
They still know who their promotion comes from.
declination angle.
Zhang Cang walked quietly, trying not to make any noise. He just wanted to leave the court as quickly as possible and find a place to hide.
He was really panicked.
It's just that his body is too big, no matter how gentle he is, he will easily fall into the eyes of others. When other officials saw Zhang Cang, their eyes showed a hint of displeasure and anger.
Zhang Cang smiled awkwardly.
He didn't dare to stay in the hall any longer and walked quickly in three steps and two steps. However, before he could walk out of the hall, a voice suddenly sounded behind him.
The sound was not loud, but when it fell into the ears, it sounded like thunder.
"Zhang Cang!!!"
The group number was given to Ha, and at the end of the chapter, it seemed like it would take five minutes to come out.
(End of chapter)
