"Father, Zhao Tuo deceives people too much. He not only abolished the matter of migrants, but also moved my Qin law, and now he even proposed to reduce corporal punishment and replace it with tongs and whipping, which is to cut the foundation of my Qin law! ”

In the mansion of the Marquis of Wentong, Li Yu kept complaining to his father.

He was the Imperial Lieutenant Supervisor, the deputy of the Imperial Lieutenant, and belonged to the upper echelons of the Qin legal system.

The second emperor ordered the left and right prime ministers and the princes to change the law, and the Tingwei Mansion, as the highest judicial body, was naturally the first to bear the brunt and was the most affected.

For many of the reform directions proposed by the right prime minister Zhao Tuo, Li Yu felt that it was difficult to accept.

In particular, today's theory of "reducing corporal punishment" has pierced the lungs of these Legalist disciples.

The core of the Qin Law is to "stop punishment with punishment".

In the words of the Legalists, it is "to kill by killing, although it is okay to kill, to punish with punishment, although it is possible to punish heavily." ”

As long as the head of the Qianqian commits a crime, he must be severely punished.

For example, stealing a mulberry leaf worth less than a penny, according to the Qin law, is punishable by 30 days of forced labor.

The five of them committed theft together, stole more than one penny, cut off their left foot, and tattooed the word Chengdan.

If there are less than five people and the amount stolen exceeds 660 yuan, the face will be tattooed, the nose will be cut off and the punishment will be punished.

In addition to heavy penalties for minor crimes, there are also various systems of joint sitting, and those who do not report the information are punished with the same crime as the criminals.

In the view of Legalists, punishment is not an end in itself, but a deterrent in this way.

Assassination, cutting off people's feet, and destroying people's faces, not to hurt the people, but to stop adultery. If the forbiddenness of adultery is stopped, if the punishment is severe, the punishment will be severe. Heavy punishment, even if it is a crime, the people dare not try. The people did not dare to try, so there was no punishment.

Use all kinds of harsh punishments to scare the heads of the Qian, so that they do not dare to commit crimes, so as to maintain social stability, and finally achieve the ideal state of no punishment.

In this process, those fleshly punishments such as tattooing on the face, cutting off the nose, castration, and cutting off the left and right legs are very important. If, as Zhao Tuo said, the proportion of corporal punishment is reduced, will the Qin Law still have a deterrent effect? Without deterrence, who else in the world will take the law into account?

And this is just the beginning, looking at Zhao Tuo's appearance, it may be possible that he will further propose to abolish corporal punishment in the future.

Is it still necessary for these Legalist disciples to exist?

Li Yu was very dissatisfied with this, and couldn't help muttering: "If my father had objected to it in the court before, even if the Qin State still had to change the law in the end, Zhao Tuo would not be so arrogant considering his father's attitude, and he would be physically punished if he came up." ”

Li Si lowered his head and slowly chewed the soft noodles in his mouth.

He is old, and he must eat slowly and cannot speak, otherwise he will easily choke.

It wasn't until he swallowed the food in his mouth that he looked at Li Yu slowly: "What, why don't you go and talk to the Marquis of Zhenguo and ask him not to change the law?" ”

Li Yu's face was stunned, and it was okay to say bad things about Zhao Tuo behind his back, so let him go and confront Zhao Tuo head-on, he didn't have the guts.

Li Si sneered: "Stupid, do you know why the emperor made me the Marquis of Lun?" ”

"Naturally, I appeased my father with the position of Lunhou, in exchange for the support of the Li clan to change the law, this is the exchange of interests that my father often says."

"yes, an exchange of interests. Let me ask you, the emperor is willing to use the position of Marquis of Lun as a benefit to appease me Li Si, does this mean that the emperor supports the reform of the law? If you and I oppose the change of the law, are you working against the emperor? Do you want me to stand on the opposite side of the emperor? ”

Li Yu was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Father, I didn't mean that. ”

Li Si sighed: "You don't mean that, but if you want to object, in the eyes of the emperor, you are like this." ”

"Yu'er, you have to remember that Qin Fa is just a tool. The reason why Shang Ying was able to change the law in the Qin State back then was because Qin Jun took a fancy to the Qin Law itself? No, it's just that the king took a fancy to this law to make the Qin State stronger, so he fully supported the change, so Shang Ying died and Qin Law existed. So now the emperor doesn't like this law, thinking that the old Qin law is out of date, and needs to change the law to adapt to the new Qin state, and all we have to do is to support the word, not to oppose the emperor for the sake of the Qin law. ”

"The emperor's support is everything. If he says that the law is changeable, then the law is changeable! You must remember that our Li family is the emperor's in-laws, and we are the emperor's natural supporters, what we have to do is to always support the emperor's any initiative, and what the emperor wants, we will follow him, so rich can it last for a long time! ”

Li Si spoke bitterly and revealed the essence of the problem to his son.

The purpose of their Li clan entering Qin was to seek a high position and gain wealth, not to defend any Qin law.

Those things are just tools for them to achieve their goals.

Li Yu's face changed several times, and finally arched his hand: "What my father said is true." ”

Li Si smiled at this time: "This time the Marquis of Zhenguo wants to change the law, but it is actually the emperor's intention behind it." So what you have to do is not to object, but to help the emperor change the law with all your might, so as to avoid the conflict with the Marquis of Zhenguo, but also to make the emperor feel that my Li family is his help, and he will be more trustworthy in the future. ”

Although Li Yu still felt a little unwilling, he also understood the truth, nodded in response, and left thoughtfully.

Li Si sighed deeply at his son's back.

If it weren't for the fact that he was old and his son was useless, how could he Li Si easily bow his head to Zhao Tuo?

"My life, how much is left?"

Lees felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

The years have lost all his sharpness.

……

"I didn't expect Li Si to be really on the way, this time the change was made smoothly thanks to the support of their father and son."

Zhao Tuo wanted to reform the Qin law many years ago and reduce the punishment, so that the Qin state could be more stable in the world.

It's just that he has always been worried about Li Si, the head of the Legalist family, and is worried that the change of the law will be hindered by him, so he has been forbearing, avoiding conflicts with Li Si, and has survived the period of the first emperor.

When the second emperor succeeded to the throne, Zhao Tuo successively tested the other party step by step by rejecting the western expedition and stopping the migrants, and finally saw that Li Si did not have much opposition, which opened the curtain of the change.

Originally, he also guessed that there might be a fierce confrontation with Li Si in the court, and there would be a war of words.

Unexpectedly, it ended with Li Si's initiative to agree.

This made Zhao Tuo feel very comfortable.

"It's good to deal with smart people."

Li Si understands the rules so well, and Zhao Tuo also respects him a lot.

There was no struggle in the court, and Zhao Tuo put all his efforts into changing the law.

With the support of the Second Emperor and Zuo Prime Minister Li Si, plus Zhao Tuo himself had great prestige in the Qin State.

In the second year of the second emperor, the new law was officially promulgated after the emperor's consent after the emperor's consultation.

The new Qin law drastically reduced the use of corporal punishments such as slashing and beheading, mostly replacing them with tongs and whipping, and at the same time changed some punishments for punishing the head of the Qianqian as a chengdan and subordinate concubines to economic sanctions, and revised and reduced some unreasonable crimes, such as the system of joint sitting.

At Zhao Tuo's request, the requirement for joint sitting has been raised a lot, and ordinary petty crimes no longer implicate family members.

Zhao Tuo did not cancel the harsh punishment law in one step, because it was unrealistic, not only would it be greatly resisted in the court, but it was also easy to cause social turmoil, so he chose to reduce the intensity and reduce the burden of Qianshou step by step.

And the effect of the new method is also excellent.

The Qianshou, who were originally living under the harsh Qin law, were overjoyed and feared that if they accidentally broke the law, they would have their noses cut off and their legs, and they praised the emperor's mercy.

At the same time, because the new law was presided over by the Marquis of Zhenguo, the leaders of the Qianqian secretly called it the "Zhao Marquis Law".

"I heard that the new law was blocked by Prime Minister Zuo and others, and it was the Marquis of Zhenguo who was sympathetic to our small people, and did not hesitate to fight with Prime Minister Zuo in the court for 300 rounds, so as to overwhelm the other party and ask for such a lenient method for us."

"That's right, Prime Minister Zuo is a disciple of the Legalists, and his favorite thing is to punish us with harsh punishments. The Marquis of Zhenguo will definitely be stopped by him. This Prime Minister Zuo will never let our small people have a good time, but fortunately, in the end, the Marquis of Zhenguo won! What a blessing! ”

"Prime Minister Zuo is over seventy years old, he shouldn't have a few years to live, right?"

There are too many people in the world, coupled with the underdevelopment of transportation and information at this time, it is natural that many people will derive various conjectures and secretly discuss this.

But no matter how people in the world speculate and discuss, Zhao Tuo did not rest after the initial success of the change, but continued to focus on other aspects.

There are a lot of problems with this behemoth of the Qin State.

For example, the establishment and restructuring of various schools to solve the problem of replacing the military merit system.

These things took Zhao Tuo a lot of time.

Four years have passed in a flash.