Zhao Si sat on the carriage, looked back at Zou Feng's mansion and the ministers waiting at the door, turned around and prepared to leave.
"Wait a minute, Minister Zhao..." Just as Zhao Si started to move the carriage, a figure ran out.
Zhao Si turned around and saw a young man following behind.
"Sir asked me to send you a message."
Zhao Si stood still in front of the carriage.
"Sir, Mr. Zhao said that Minister Zhao is young but has great ambitions. He is in the heart of the emperor and serves as the king's servant. Why is he so timid?
Was it a smooth journey to seize the ship and return to Qin in the past? "
Hearing this, Zhao Si raised his eyes and saw Zou Feng's figure standing at the door, his heart moved slightly.
"Just go back..."
…
The next day, Zhao Si got up early, cleaned up, and drove straight to the palace.
The First Emperor was still washing, and Zhao Si waited for a moment.
"Please, Minister Zhao!"
Zhao Gao bowed and led the way for Zhao Si.
Once inside, the First Emperor sat down in front of the high table, with Zhao Si standing around.
After waiting for a while, the three princes and nine ministers, as well as some ministers and doctors came in one after another.
Li Si was a little surprised when he saw Zhao Si accompanying the First Emperor, but he still started to report on the recent work in a step-by-step manner.
Each department of the three ministers and the nine ministers has affairs. The right prime minister and the Taiwei now have very little power left, but they are silent. The ones who are mainly responsible for reporting are the left minister Li Si and the nine ministers.
Contrary to expectations, there were not many disputes in the Qin Dynasty's court meetings. Most of them were reported by the nine ministers individually. If necessary, they asked for instructions, and the First Emperor also directly approved them.
Concise conversation and very efficient.
There is no harmony within the Great Qin court. There are young factions, mature factions, radical factions, conservative factions, and even various cultural conflicts...
However, under the suppression of the First Emperor, all conflicts and struggles were suppressed, and no one would turn a blind eye to party disputes in front of the First Emperor.
Especially the routine morning meeting, which is the time used to handle official business.
After all the ministers had finished reporting one by one, the First Emperor spoke.
"Nowadays, Qi's land uses sun-dried salt instead of boiled salt. The production of salt has been greatly increased, the cost has also been reduced, and there is an abundance of salt. Do you have any ideas about whether the price of salt should be lowered?" The First Emperor wrote a memorial before the case. He folded them together, stacked them on one side of the desk, and started asking questions as if they were talking about everyday things.
The first one to speak was Right Prime Minister Wang Wan...
Although the Right Prime Minister Wang Wan no longer has any real power, when it comes to such official inquiries, he naturally still has to be sorted according to his position.
Wang Wan was just a loser. After talking about this for a long time, he finally came to the conclusion.
Lowering the price has the advantage of lowering the price, and not lowering the price has the advantage of not lowering the price. There was no actual statement in the end.
"Your Majesty, I think we should not surrender, and we cannot surrender!"
Li Si frowned and glanced at Wang Wan before he stepped forward and spoke.
"If the people are hungry, they will know the importance of farming; if the people are weak, the people will know the importance of war; if the people are rich, the country will be weak; if the people are poor, the country will be strong." Li Si opened his mouth to explain.
In Da Qin, this was a commonplace for Legalists.
The Five Techniques of Legalism to control the people are fundamentally based on the Legalist understanding that a country's wealth is fixed and relative.
That is, the relative theory that the country is rich and the people are poor, and the people are rich and the country is poor.
When a country is poor to a certain extent, it will be in crisis, it will not be able to control the world, government orders will no longer be understood, foreign enemies will take the opportunity to bully, and careerists will take the opportunity to disrupt the government.
This cliché statement can be regarded as the current political correctness of Da Qin.
Li Si is the left prime minister with real power, and the Qin Dynasty is currently based on Legalism, so there are not many objections. Some people agree, and some choose to be neutral.
Until it's Meng Yi's turn...
"The Prime Minister Zuo's words are biased..." Meng Yi stood still and shook his head.
"Poverty breeds thieves, wealth breeds peace. Su Qin was able to wear the seals of the six kingdoms, but only three hectares of fertile land were available." Meng Yi frowned and spoke.
After Meng Yi, various Langguan doctors expressed their respective ideas. Among them, the majority supported Li Si and only a few supported Meng Yi.
However, it did not trigger a heated debate. Everyone quietly expressed their opinions.
After all the ministers finished speaking, the First Emperor turned his head and looked at Zhao Si.
Zhao Si knew it was his turn and stepped forward.
"If you should surrender, you must surrender!" Zhao Si said seriously.
"When we were making salt in Lam Tin... I remember it very clearly."
Zhao Si asked the soldiers to find some inedible salt. What they brought back were stones, salt stones that only animals would lick.
Zhao Si said that what he wanted was brine salt mine that was inedible, contained heavy metal toxins, and had many impurities.
Zhao Si remembers it very clearly.
"You can eat salt, but you can't eat salt rocks!"
Yes, everyone took it for granted that Zhao Si was wrong.
What Zhao Si wants is inedible salt. The black salt that is full of heavy metal toxins and impurities is edible, and is widely consumed by the common people.
This has even become common sense in this era.
At that moment, the heaviness and sadness that hit his face were what Zhao Si had been avoiding. He wanted to do something.
Making salt and bringing back sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn with great pains are essentially intended to change this fact.
As the local chronicles naturally write, there was a great famine and people were eating each other.
Just like they take it for granted that salt brine is edible.
"Shilang Zhao was joking. It has been like this since ancient times." Li Si shook his head and smiled.
Zhao Si's speech seemed childish in front of Sangong and Jiuqing. Of course, the braised salt can be eaten. This is common sense.
This has been true since ancient times.
People can't live without salt, but with so many people, how can everyone eat high-quality salt?
It is not that Li Si has never eaten salt brine. He was not born to be the left prime minister of the Qin Dynasty. Li Si also knows that ordinary people in Guizhou do not even eat salt brine. They have to eat jealous cloth, the kind that is black and is rinsed in water. Something that comes out sour and bitter.
"It's been this way since ancient times, right?"
Zhao Si raised his head... and looked at Li Si with burning eyes.
In fact, Zhao Si has been avoiding these issues all along.
The Qin Dynasty unified the six countries and created a precedent for the unification of China.
The First Emperor had great talents and strategies, and his writings and writings were in the same line.
Whether it was the Great Qin or the First Emperor, Zhao Si always had a filter in his heart. Even if he encountered something that a modern man could not accept or even look directly at, Zhao Si would only deliberately avoid it.
He took it for granted that the First Emperor and even the Gong Gong princes in the court understood these truths. He took it for granted that his words could not be changed. He took it for granted that he was not qualified to speak in such matters involving state affairs and the world.
Since the Qin Dynasty, it has been a grand event of unification!
There is no need to doubt the life of the First Emperor.
They were already brilliant enough, and Zhao Si was not sure whether his thinking was just a castle in the air.
But one thing that is undeniable is that Zhao Si will never be able to regard the head of Guizhou as a resource and currency.
When he was playing games, he was a war criminal from P Club, but this is reality.
"The number of corvees in the Qin Dynasty now exceeds one million..." Zhao Si sighed and spoke.
"This has been true since ancient times!"
Yes, even though nearly one-tenth of the population of the Qin Dynasty is now serving labor and serving as official slaves, it is still a matter of course for people of this era.
For Qin, this is an old art tradition.
This has been the case since King Shang's reform. Otherwise, how could the Qin State fight for hegemony from the borderlands?
Qin, the land of tigers and wolves, the country of Xirong, and the foreign barbarians. Do you really think these are the honorific titles given to Qin by the Central Plains? Guanzhong has never been a fertile land.
This is the result of the Qin people who spent several generations digging canals, changing rivers, and cultivating. The truly fertile land is the land of Liangluo, the hometown of the Emperor of Zhou.
Li Si smiled and said nothing, just looking at Zhao Si.
The First Emperor looked at Zhao Si with interest, his meaning was unclear.
He didn't expect that Zhao Si was actually compassionate deep down in his heart.
"I don't think it's appropriate to do harm to the small people and do good to the big people." Zhao Si said.
"Official salt is worth taxes, so private salt is rampant and difficult to control, especially in the old areas of the Six Kingdoms." Zhao Si opened his mouth and repeated what he said to the First Emperor yesterday.
"What I want to say is not to crack down on illegal salt, but to ask, who is selling illegal salt, who is competing for profits with Qin, and who is competing for profits with the people?"
In fact, except for a few targeted nobles, the Qin State did not purge the nobles of the six countries, nor did it deprive them of their titles and wealth, but it only imposed certain restrictions on weapons and equipment.
Qin Law stipulates that the new Guizhou First Duke and above can carry no more than three swords. Those with swords, including public officials and officials, can carry no more than two swords each. Those below the official level can carry no more than one sword. They cannot carry other soldiers. , those who passed the order were judged by the new Guizhou head holding military orders. (From the "New Guizhou Head Arms Order" in the Qin bamboo slips collected by Yuelu Academy)
What is New Guizhou? That is, the new nobles who conquered the six countries.
Gongcheng, public officials, official officials, they are all high nobles!
After the First Emperor unified the world, he did not take the "revolutionary measures" imagined by some people to "deprive" the "old aristocrats of the six countries". Instead, he recognized the aristocratic status of the "new head of Guizhou" in the new dynasty.
This also explains why the Xiang family was able to quickly recruit three thousand soldiers from Jiangdong at the beginning of the uprising, and why it still had extensive wealth, power and status in the local area.
Even the governance of Da Qin relies on them...
This is what Zhao Si wants to ask.
who! Who is obstructing the Qin Dynasty from traveling in the same places, traveling in the same places, writing in the same track, writing in the same text, and who is misinterpreting the laws of the Qin Dynasty and demonizing the laws and regulations of the Qin Dynasty.
Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's so-called beheading if they miss the deadline has been proven to be false according to the Qin bamboo slips in Sleeping Tiger Land.
So why did the servants who followed Chen Sheng and Wu Guang believe that who was destroying the image of Da Qin?
Who is selling illegal salt? Who is producing private salt?
In other words, who has the ability to do these things?
"Who is serving? Who is guarding the border, who is collecting food, who is distorting the laws of Qin, and who is selling private salt? Who is smearing the Qin Dynasty and discrediting His Majesty?"
Since ancient times?
The common people have been suffering since ancient times. Is it right to compromise with the aristocracy?
The First Emperor glanced at Zhao Si with interest, with a playful smile on his face.
Li Si just wanted to speak, but was stopped by the First Emperor.
"Lower the price... The new salt price will be re-drawn by Meng Yi and Li Si."
The First Emperor ended the conversation.
Well... Zhao Si can't let Zhao Si say the rest in public.
(besides)
(End of chapter)
