Wei Ying helped the old man up, "Old man, let the little brother go to the county government to join the army, and he will have a meritorious service." ”

"Meritorious service?" The old man's eyes widened in surprise, "Can the common people have a knighthood?" My son killed ten Wei dogs and died, how can there be nothing? ”

Wei Ying: "Old man, that's the old law, and the Qin State is about to change the law." ”

The old man smiled hoarsely and said, "In this way, this method has to be changed. If the law is changed, we and other untouchables will be able to glorify our ancestors, right? ”

"Yes, old man, that's right." Wei Ying replied loudly.

This conversation was clearly heard in the audience.

Seeing that the young man got a hundred bounties, people naturally trusted the words of the white-clothed chief, he said that he wanted to change the law, can it be fake?

The crowd cheered happily, "Words count, long live the government!" ”

Wei Ying waved his hand, and the people calmed down, he stood on a big stone and said loudly: "Fathers and brothers, the Qin State will implement the law change from tomorrow. You will continue to see new decrees issued by the government. These new laws are to ask everyone to be diligent in farming, brave in battle, reward for merit, and punish for guilt; Those who break the law by officials and clans are guilty of the same crime as the common people. Today's mission is to make everyone understand that the government's words count, and the new decrees promulgated must be faithfully implemented. Those who abide by the law will be rewarded, and those who violate the law will be punished. This is the Qiang Qin Method. As long as the Qin State is concentric, and the officials and the people are concentric, within ten years, the Qin State will become rich and strong! ”

The audience cheered, "Long live the government!" Change the law to strengthen Qin! Someone else shouted, "Long live Zuo Shuchang!" Everyone woke up like a dream, and immediately shouted vigorously, "Long live Zuo Shuchang!" "It's like the waves of the sea. In the excited shouts of everyone, Wei Ying and his party had quietly left.

With the end of the March 20th Liyang Gathering, the story of Zuo Shu's long migration to Mu Lixin quickly spread throughout the mountains and villages of Qin State.

"The little grandson of an old medicine farmer, carrying a rafter, got a hundred gold from the head of Zuo Shuchang!" What could be more curious than this kind of story?

People flocked to the Shangyu Mountains in Nanshan to see the grandchildren of the old medicine farmers, and listen to the charming and fantastic stories told by the young and the old.

Later, some people also saw the house built by the old man, and saw the merit monument erected by the county order for the old man's son who died in battle. As soon as it spreads ten, ten spreads hundreds, and the reputation of the government stands up in this magical word-of-mouth. Later, people were left to listen to the old man tell the story. I heard that the boy had already joined the army.

Qin Xiaogong didn't get relaxed, he was busy with another thing.

Although Wei Ying has clearly become the chief of the left house, he has become the minister of the chief regent.

But how does Wei Ying exercise his power in the most conducive way to drastic changes?

This is a major matter that the king wants to decide. At present, his first priority is to set up this transformation workshop of Wei Ying, so that it can be put into operation immediately.

When he went to the snowy days in winter, Qin Xiaogong thought through this most critical link and decided to emulate the eastern countries and make Wei Ying the prime minister of the opening of the government and the governance of the country.

The prime minister opened the government to govern the country, which was a common practice in the eastern countries after entering the Warring States period.

The so-called prime minister's opening of the government means that the prime minister establishes a relatively independent power organ and has full authority to handle the daily government affairs of the state, and the monarch only maintains military power, the right to appoint and dismiss officials, and the power to make major decisions.

This kind of separation of powers between the monarch and the prime minister reached the highest level in the Warring States Period, and it was also the highest level of classical Chinese political civilization.

The actual significance of the prime minister's opening of the government to govern the country is that the national chariot has changed from being driven by one horse to being driven by two horses, and the efficiency of governing the country and the vitality of the country have increased significantly.

The reason why the king was able to mediate diplomatically and militarily in the eastern powers such as Wei and Qi was because the state affairs were handled by the prime minister of the Kaifu with full authority.

Another advantage of the stability of the prime minister's power is that it avoids the rapid decline and subversion of the state due to the young or incompetent monarch, which greatly contributes to the stability of the country.

However, this was a difficult thing for the backward Qin State.

After a long period of immediate warfare, the power structure of the Qin State has always been simple.

In the early Qin tribal period, it was a direct integration of military and government. One supreme leader plus two chiefs on the left and right is the highest power of all. After the founding of the country, although there were more official offices, compared with the big countries in the East, there was still a strong simplification and generalization.

Even during the strongest period of the Spring and Autumn Period - Qin Mugong, the official system of the Qin State did not get rid of the traditional integration of military and government, and the division of power structure was still very simple and general.

In this respect, the Qin state was very different from the early Zhou tribes. The Zhou people produced a saint-level leader, and this is King Wen of Zhou.

He did not reject the developed Yin Shang civilization in the Central Plains, but absorbed it closely, so that the Zhou tribe maintained a general identity with the central power of the Yin Shang Dynasty in terms of official system and civil governance when they were the western princes of the Yin Shang Dynasty.

Without such a foundation, there would be no possibility that another sage-level leader, Zhou Gongdan, would have comprehensively formulated the "Zhou Rites" later.

That is to say, during the period of the vassal states, the Zhou tribe had already achieved general synchronization with the developed civilization of the Central Plains, and had completed the basic preparations for the state power structure.

The Qin tribe has been fighting hard and has not yet emerged a saint who established a basic civilization, so after becoming a vassal state for 300 years, it still retains a simple and backward official system and a backward way of governing the country.

Throughout the Spring and Autumn Period, the official system of the Qin State was very simple and the name was very grotesque, which was roughly equivalent to that of the Chu State.

The monarch is called "Bo", which actually means "tyrant". The ruling minister is called the "chief", and there have been different settings such as the chief of the big minister, the chief of the left, and the chief of the right.

The ministers in charge of military affairs are "Weilei" and "Shuai". The general in charge of the king's guard is "not changing", the minister in charge of foreign affairs is "pedestrian", and so on.

The only exception is that Qin Mugong designated Baili Xi's official position as "Xiang", probably because Baili Xi was a scholar of the East and used the name of an Eastern ruling minister.

Since then, the position of "Xiang" has not appeared in the Qin State, and until the period of Qin Xiaogong, the ruling minister is still called Zuo Shuchang.

During the Qin Xiangong period, there was a setting of "doctors", but the job persuasion was still very vague. For example, Gan Long is in charge of the government, and at the same time there is a ruling chief of the left, so there are naturally many entanglements in power.

The Qin state did not have a prime minister, and there was never a precedent for a minister to open a government independently to exercise power.

After a long period of war, closed in the western part of the country, the government and the opposition of the Qin State have been isolated and unheard of for a long time, and they know little about the important ministers to open the government and govern the country, and it is difficult to understand.

On the contrary, it is more sensitive to the other side of the Kaifu - the separation of powers. In the eyes of the nobles and the common people, they all felt that this was a rebellion against the king.

The previous ministers of the Qin State only had Baili Xi in the Qin Mugong era and Gan Long, the upper doctor in the Qin Xiangong period, with a slight shadow of "opening the mansion".

In fact, it is only eight or nine scribes plus the minister in charge himself, who can only do some specific affairs such as grain and grass taxation and disaster relief and other specific affairs, and military affairs have to be decided and dispatched by the monarch. This kind of "opening of the government" is far from being comparable with the opening of the prime minister of the big eastern country in terms of power, scale, and efficiency of government affairs.

Qin Xiaogong really wanted to start with Wei Ying's reform and change the backward state of Qin's official system.

He understands very well that due to many reasons, Wei Ying must have some scruples in the reform of the official system, especially in the reform of the official system at the upper level of the national government.

If there was no him, the monarch, to open up the situation for Wei Ying, it would be difficult for Wei Ying to carry out a thorough change in a backward military country like Qin.

Xiaogong was originally an open-minded and ambitious young hero.

Since he had a long talk with Wei Ying, and he knew the changes in the general trend of the world, he was ambitious, and he decided to drive the rusty chariot of the Qin State with such a great talent as Wei Ying.

Qin Xiaogong was confident, he did not think of the threat of the minister's opening of the palace to the monarch, let alone that Wei Ying would become a threat.

At present, Qin Xiaogong only wants to do one thing, increase Wei Ying's power, and make Wei Ying become the general minister who governs the country with him, instead of the traditional Zuo Shu Chang of the Qin State, that is, the power of the traditional Zuo Shu Chang is already very large.

He thought carefully, not only to achieve the practical goal in a solid manner, but also did not want the people to doubt, and repeatedly pondered, so he adopted the strategy of "emphasizing the real and ignoring the name" -- in name as much as possible to follow the old name of the old Qin State, in fact, he must achieve the same way of governing the country as a big country in the East.

Qin Xiaogong did not canonize Wei Ying as prime minister, but still named him the chief of the left.

This is the official name that has been used by the Qin State for hundreds of years, and it was originally the most powerful minister.

Qin Guo is still left, among the two chiefs, the left chief is the first, and the right chief is second.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the chief of the Qin State was the chief minister of military administration who governed the army and the people, and was not allowed to serve as a non-Ying clan.

Entering the Warring States Period, Qin Xiangong divided the administrative power of governing the people to the upper doctor Gan Long, and the chief of Zuo assisted the monarch in commanding the army and was in charge of military affairs.

However, in the minds of the ruling and opposition people, Zuo Shuchang is still the most important military and political minister.

Last winter, Qin Xiaogong promoted Gan Long to the rank of Taishi, and returned Ganlong's power to govern and politics to the hands of Zuo Shu Chang Yingqian, in order to pave the way for Wei Ying to take charge of the government. When Wei Ying took over the power of the Zuo Shu Chang from Ying Qian, he was in fact already a minister with the same power as the prime ministers of the Eastern countries.

However, this power does not mean that he has in fact become the prime minister of the Eastern countries. The key point of the prime minister's government affairs is to establish a power organ in the government, and if he only has personal power without opening the government, he will not be able to handle state affairs in an all-round way. The fundamental point of the opening of the government is to have subordinate officials, and the second is to establish the mansion. These two things are not easy for the current Qin State.

Last winter, Qin Xiaogong had prepared three loyal and capable assistants for Wei Ying—Jing Jian and Che Ying, and even Qin Feng.