Chapter VI Unification

In 221 B.C., the Qin State in the northwest swallowed up six important countries and completed the grand cause of unifying the world, which was a major event that affected the future generations for 2,000 years.

The 39-year-old Qin Wang Yingzheng recalled his more than 10 years of military rejuvenation, and couldn't help but sigh sincerely. At first, he categorically did not expect that he would eventually be able to achieve such an achievement. The decline of the authority of the Zhou royal family led to many wars, and the wars between the vassal states have lasted for 500 years, so that no one remembers the peaceful days of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Some people in later generations commented that Ying Zheng launched a war of reunification and brutally killed the soldiers and civilians of the six countries, which was very brutal. This is clearly biased. The war was not first initiated by the Qin state, but has not stopped since the Spring and Autumn period. War was the theme of that era. No country is immune, no one can raise the banner of pacifism. If the Qin State ignores the war like the Qi State, it will be destroyed by other countries sooner or later. For hundreds of years, the common people have no peaceful days, the casualties are difficult to count, and the whole society suffers great disasters. The unification of the Qin state brought the war to a certain extent to a halt.

Ying Zheng no longer wanted war in the Central Plains. He ordered all the weapons scattered among the people to be confiscated and transported to the capital Xianyang for centralized destruction, and all of them were melted into musical instruments and bronze statues. In order to prevent the restoration of the six royal families and nobles, he ordered the 120,000 royal nobles and nobles of various countries to move to live in the Gyeonggi region, instead of killing them.

The period of bloody war seemed to have passed, and the Qin state soon turned into a period of construction. The assets that had just been confiscated from the crushed treasury of the six countries were enough to sustain the huge military expenditures and high construction costs, and a wave of investment in the new DPRK began immediately—who would recuperate and live a poor life if they had money. Ying Zheng ordered the construction of a land and water transportation network and a post station network with the capital Xianyang as the center and connecting all parts of the country; A large number of major military defense projects, such as the famous Great Wall of China, were built to consolidate border defense.

During this period, weights and measures, currency, and writing were also unified throughout the country. It may be due to the fact that the Qin state itself was inhabited by many foreign officials, and they knew the impact that these daily necessities had on their lives. Just like when they first came to Qin, they were also very unaccustomed to Qin's currency and writing. This work was already being carried out internally by the Qin state before the unification of the whole country. Among so many vassal states, only Qin did this.

All of the above are economic foundations and social construction, but the most important thing is the construction of the political system. The most important of these is the title of the new monarch and the question of the state system. The issue of the title of the new monarch was not too controversial, and Ying Zheng directly made a decision, and the ministers also recognized it. The title "Emperor" was born and continued for 2,000 years.

The biggest controversy lies in the issue of the national system, whether to adopt the feudal system or the county system, and the government and the opposition have been arguing endlessly. What kind of political system can be implemented to consolidate the rule of the Qin Dynasty and achieve long-term peace and stability? This is a major political issue facing Ying Zheng.

With such a vast territory and such a large population, the ideal state is of course for Ying Zheng to have a doppelganger, and each county sends a doppelganger to manage it. However, although the emperor is known as the Son of Heaven, he is not a true god after all, he is just a mortal. Since you are mortal, you can only settle for the next best thing, delegating power to the people you trust the most, and letting them manage as your own agents. This gave rise to two opinions, the feudal system, which delegated power to one's clan or meritorious person, and the county system, which delegated power to career officials.

The feudal system, that is, the sons of Yingzheng and the clans or meritorious heroes were divided into feudal states and let them take the place of the original princes and kings in order to maintain local rule. The sub-feudal system is a mature system that has been in operation for at least nearly a thousand years. At that time, after the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty, it was worried that it would be difficult to control the vast territory and rule the local population, so it would divide the royal family and meritorious heroes on a large scale.

In the county system, local officials were appointed directly by the central government to rule directly over the local population on behalf of the emperor, and these local officials had little kinship with the Qin royal family. The biggest difference between the county system and the sub-feudal system is whether to send Qin nobles to various places to establish a state, whether they can be hereditary, and how much power they have in the fief.

The county system is a new thing, a new system. Although it has been tried in the Qin State for many years, if it is to be rolled out in an all-round way, it will inevitably cause huge controversy.

The first to raise objections was the prime minister of the central government of the Qin State, Wang Xuan. As an experienced prime minister, Wang Juan has deep thinking about managing the country. His first consideration was the issue of national governance, and if the county system was implemented, the state would not have so many armed forces to maintain local order. The central government also does not have as much energy to manage local affairs. Obviously, Wang Xuan's concerns were justified, and he was thinking about the stability of the Qin regime. He doesn't care what an advanced political system is or what a backward political system is, and only a political system that conforms to reality is the best political system.

Another vice premier of the central government refuted Wang Juan, and he was Tingwei Li Si. Li Si proposed that the implementation of the feudal system can quickly restore national order in a short period of time. But in the long run, it has fatal shortcomings. That is, after the local monarch has become more powerful, it will inevitably threaten the central government. The melee of the vassal states that just ended originated from the Zhou Dynasty's division of the sons and daughters of each other. Although they are relatives, they fight each other for territory and power. Do you still want to go back to the war years?

After more than 10 years of war, it was not easy to get the peace we have today. Yingzheng really doesn't want to go back to those days, and he doesn't want his children and grandchildren to fight each other for turf in the future. Or Tingwei Lisi is right. (The world is fighting endlessly, so that there is a prince.) Lai Zongmiao, the world was initially decided, and the country was restored, it is a tree soldier, and it is not difficult to ask for its peace! The court is here. ）

More importantly, for a monarch who understands the workings of power, Ying Zheng understands that authority does not arise for nothing. For now, his descendants and clan simply have no ability to hold a territory. Because his world was not laid down by him alone, nor by his descendants and clans, but by relying on his heroes. If the sub-feudal system is implemented, then the sub-feudal will inevitably be a hero like Wang Qian. When they live alone, will they and their children and grandchildren still have the ability to restrain them? It would be better to send an ordinary official with no military power to take up a post, as Lieutenant Li Si said, and as long as the central authorities firmly grasp the military power and appointment power, they will not dare to act rashly.

In the end, Yingzheng did not grant his descendants and clans land, but only gave them public taxes and heavy business, so that they could enjoy basic glory and wealth. The feudal system, which had been in place for thousands of years, was completely abolished, and the county system began to be implemented throughout the country and continued for more than 2,000 years.