In the eighth year of Emperor Qin II, the emperor collapsed in Xianyang Palace.

The crown prince Qiming succeeded to the throne as the third emperor.

The little emperor and Zhao Tuo's daughter Zhao Yun were the same age, just fifteen years ago, not yet an adult, and had no ability to govern the world.

According to the edict left by the second emperor, Zhao Tuo, the right prime minister of Zhenguo, Li Yu, the courtier of Wentong, and Wang Juan, the left prime minister of the chariot chief, were the ministers of Gu Ming, and jointly assisted the third emperor in governing the Qin state.

At this time, the situation in the world was stable, and in the past few years of the reign of the second emperor, the people of Qianshou had become more and more relaxed, and gradually had a sense of belonging to the Qin state, and began to regard themselves as Qin people.

Although there was a rebellion of the Hu people in the Northeast last year, with Li Xin, a veteran, leading his troops to go to the conquest, it was just a disease of moss mustard for the Qin State, and it could not make any big waves. Not to mention that the Qin army led by Wang Li had just broken Wusun and captured its Kunmo and returned, hanging its head in the north, and the army was shocked in the four seas.

Under such circumstances, the handover of the throne of the Qin State was very smooth.

Zhao Tuo was appointed as the minister of the auxiliary state, and was given the hope of fulfilling the common ambition of the two of them by Fusu, so he was naturally conscientious and devoted his energy to governing the country.

For Zhao Tuo, the most important thing is several things.

The first is to change the law and reform the old law of the war period to adapt to the current situation of unity, so that the social environment can develop in a relaxed direction.

Zhao Tuo knew very well that under the high-pressure rule, there would be disasters, and only by being tolerant and atmospheric could we be eclectic, as was the case in the Han and Tang dynasties in history.

The second is that Zhao Tuo gradually liberalized the government's control over commerce, encouraged commercial development, allowed the Quartet economy to circulate, and developed special merchant groups to go to the Sifang barbarian areas to trade with the local natives and spread the Central Plains culture.

In his opinion, caravans, once properly used, could play a greater role than the army.

The third is to vigorously develop science and technology, since the establishment of the engineering school, a large number of professional and technical personnel have been trained, some of whom have been sent to various counties and counties as engineers, to spread advanced technology. Others stayed in Shaofu and continued to delve into and invent various scientific and technological products.

For example, gunpowder has made great progress during the reign of Emperor II, and although it is not comparable to that of later generations, it is not small in power, and it is now being used to mine minerals.

Speaking of science and technology, I have to mention those talents of the Immortal Cultivation School.

Since the collapse of the First Emperor, Zhao Tuo felt very unhappy with Lu Sheng, Xu Shi and others, and wanted to punish them, and it happened that news came from Rizhao County at that time that Qin Guozhou had discovered a large island overseas, which was vast and vast, like another continent.

"Dongying."

Zhao Tuo knew the situation in that place, and had a different idea in his heart.

There seem to be a lot of gold and silver mines on this big island, and they are easy to mine.

If the Qin State had not occupied the land of Sanhan, he would not be very interested in the Dongying Islands, after all, it would be too far to cross the sea from the Qin State mainland, and some of the gains outweighed the losses.

But with Samhan, it's different.

The closest distance between Samhan and Dongying is more than 100 miles, and it is also a sea route, so if you have a tailwind, you can easily reach it in one day.

It's just that the technology of sea ships is not developed enough in these years, and the Qin Junzhou division sailed across the sea, and on the way back, it encountered a tsunami and strong wind, capsizing half of the ships, which shows that it is not easy to navigate between the two places.

Zhao Tuo thought that Lu Sheng and Xu Shi were immortal sectarians in the past, and they had been to sea many times, and they had rich sailing experience, so they were more professional in this regard.

So he assigned each of them a task.

Xu Shi was responsible for exploring the safe shipping routes between Rizhao County and the land named Dongying by Zhao Tuo, and led people to establish a colonial port in Dongying.

And Lu Sheng was too old to go to sea, so Zhao Tuo asked him to be responsible for building a new type of ship, and when the new ship was built, it could not only navigate Dongying, but also better communicate with Baiyue along the sea route.

In addition to technology, Zhao Tuo's fourth focus is on culture.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, there was Confucius to set up private schools and popularize education, and later it was the contendence of the sons, the disciples of various factions were all over the world, and the culture was prosperous, and the Jixia School Palace of Qi was one of the representatives.

Zhao Tuo believes that it is better to be sparse than to be sparse in terms of culture, and it is better to turn disadvantage into advantage.

Therefore, he advocated the revitalization of the Zhuzi Academy, in addition to supporting the examination system and paving the way for the subsequent imperial examination system, but also taking advantage of this opportunity to give certain guidance to the thoughts of the hundred schools of thought.

Time has passed, and the hundreds of schools of thought born in troubled times are no longer in line with today's situation in some respects.

The disciples who want to join the school must accept a slight normalization of the ideas they have inherited.

For example, he preached the necessity of reunification and firmly established the idea that the world must be unified and China must be one.

Some articles that are clearly divisive are not accessible and must be cut.

If you don't accept it, then it's impossible to join the Zhuzi Academy.

At the same time, it also guides and promotes the unity of the nation in the world, and uses various ideas such as Xia Changyi.

This is also to lay the foundation for Qin to better digest Korea, Baiyue, grasslands and other places.

If the people cultivated by the Zhuzi Academy are not qualified to be recommended as officials, then Zhao Tuo also gave them a new way out.

Go to Haidong, Rizhao, Hexi, Jiuyuan, Nanhai, Guilin, Minzhong, Xiangjun and other newly conquered barbarian areas to promote Chinese thought, as long as you stay in those barbarian lands for three or five years, you can return to China as a official, and if you can make a significant contribution, then there will be additional rewards.

Although the barbarian land is notorious, but there must be a puppet under the heavy reward, Zhao Tuo gave an official position, offered a reward, those who graduated from the Zhuzi Academy, and did not find a way out, there are always a few enthusiastic young people, the heart is ruthless and promised, go to the barbarian land to think about a few years, fight for a lifetime of future.

The Zhuzi School occupies a large proportion in Zhao Tuo's planning.

But there are always two sides to everything, for example, the prosperity of the Zhuzi School will inevitably touch the interests of some people.

For example, for today's leader of the Legalists, Wentong Hou Li Yu, he feels very unhappy.

Before Zhao Tuo's reform of the law, the Legalists dominated the Qin State for more than 100 years, and in addition to the military merits, another way for the Qin people to rise was to enter the school to learn the law, and they could become officials when they came out.

Therefore, the Qin people were eager to study the law, and the status of the Legalists in the Qin State was very high, because they held an important way to become officials.

Zhao Tuo's reform and change of the law this time is equivalent to extracting the interests of the former Legalists and distributing them to the rest of the families.

Hundreds of schools benefit, but only the law loses.

This is a blatant conflict of interest.

Li was appointed by Emperor II as a court lieutenant, and all the pressure on the Legalists fell on him.

If it were an old Jianghu like Li Si, he might still be patient, or he might have another trick to deal with.

But Li Yu was young and prejudiced against Zhao Tuo, and he was very angry when he saw Zhao Tuo attacking the Legalists.

He forgot most of Li Si's teachings, relying on his identity as a minister who also took care of his life, and sometimes he couldn't help but go toe-to-toe with Zhao Tuo.

By November of the second year of Emperor Qin III, the contradictions were openly intensified in the court.

Li Yu openly attacked Zhao Tuo's policy of selecting disciples as officials, believing that these people did not understand the law, and if they were officials in the court and counties, they would bring chaos to the world.

Only the legal officials are the foundation of the existence of the Qin State, and they must not abandon their roots.

In the face of Li Yu's opposition, Zhao Tuo treated it calmly, while the other ministers went into battle repeatedly, and Li Yu was defeated and retreated.

"Damn, Zhao Thief controls the power of the country, and the court is full of his henchmen, and he ignores me, the minister of the auxiliary country ordered by the previous emperor, in his eyes. The current appearance of this thief is to learn from the old Lu Buwei! ”

When Li Yu entered the palace to meet the Queen Mother, he couldn't help but express his anger in his heart.

In particular, the name of Lu Buwei he mentioned made the Queen Mother Li Shu's face change suddenly.

She glared at her brother first, Lu Buwei has a leg with the Empress Dowager, can this be a random analogy?

However, after thinking about it carefully, Zhao Tuo's situation now is really similar to that of Lu Buwei in the past.

The emperor is still young, and he has not yet been crowned pro-government, and the power of the state is controlled by one person.

And Zhao Tuo's situation seems to be even worse, because the second emperor appointed three auxiliary ministers to jointly assist the little emperor before his death.

But now that Prime Minister Wang Juan is old, the middle-aged man in his forties when he unified the world in the past has become a dying old man in his sixties. At this age, his sharpness inevitably loses, and some of Zhao Tuo's measures are in the interests of Wang Tuo, so Wang Huang is inclined to Zhao Tuo's side.

This is equivalent to Zhao Tuo holding the power of the left and right prime ministers at the same time, and suppressing Li Yu, another minister who cares about his life.

Li Shu sensed the danger.

At the same time, this incident also aroused her resentment towards the Zhao family.

"My son is the emperor of the Mandate of Heaven, and he asks him for relatives from the Zhao family, but he looks down on them. Zhao Tuo was arrogant and arrogant, and he dared to refuse the request of the first emperor, which was really hateful. ”

As soon as Li Shu thought of this, she was angry.

When Li Yu heard this, he also said angrily: "Two years ago, I asked Zhao Tuo for marriage on behalf of Qiming, but he refused because the woman was still young. Oh, we are just asking for marriage, and we don't ask for immediate marriage, what does it have to do with their eldest children, you can promise marriage first, and then complete the marriage when you become adults. I think he clearly looks down on us! ”

Li Shu's silver teeth clenched, and anger flashed in her eyes.

Where is her son not worthy of Zhao Tuo's daughter?

Why did Zhao reject the royal family's marriage proposal?

How dare you Zhao Tuo!

Li Yu also became more and more angry the more he talked, for him, it was not only the matter of Zhao's refusal to marry, but also the resentment accumulated by the Legalist family in the past few years by Zhao Tuo's suppression, as well as the grudges accumulated by the two sides during the struggle for ruling power.

The contradictions have accumulated deeply.

He said sharply: "Zhao Tuo, a thief with a good face and evil heart, the first emperor was confused by him, thinking that he was a loyal and good minister, and ordered him to assist the country. I didn't know that the first emperor had only been gone for two years, and he won over Wang Xuan, took over the power of the court, and bullied me, a minister who cared for his life, in every way, which is really unreasonable. ”

"I see that this court is full of his Zhao henchmen, and all the counties and counties in the world and the army are his old Zhao Tuo departments, and the world only knows that there is a town and a country, how can I know that there is an emperor! Zhao Thief's power is probably still above Lu Buwei in the past, saying that he is Qi Zhitian Chang, I am afraid that it is almost the same. ”

Li Shu's eyes flashed sharply.

There is naturally conflict between the minister and the monarch.

In the era before Qin unified the world, there were many examples of powerful ministers killing kings.

Even if you don't say that the Sanjin family is separated, the Tian family is in Qi.

In the thirty-sixth year of the Spring and Autumn Period alone, there were countless monarchs' heads rolling to the ground.

Even in the Qin State, there were also examples of Qin Huaigong being coerced by powerful ministers to commit suicide and set up a new monarch.

She, the queen mother, and Li Yu, the uncle of the little emperor, are the absolute defenders of the monarchy.

Now there are powerful ministers in the court who control the government.

How will they choose?