Chapter 217: Destroying and Governing Han With the Kingdoms of Yan and Wei...

As Yan and Wei were defeated one after another, Chu was afraid of the Qin army's strength and was reluctant to send troops.

The Han envoys requested to see the King of Chu many times, and explained the pros and cons, hoping that the King of Chu would change his mind and save Han from the dire situation.

But the King of Chu always agreed to the request in person, only to forget it the next moment. Tired of being annoyed by the Han envoys, he simply stopped meeting with them and only spent his time in the harem having fun with his concubines.

Upon seeing this, the envoy from Han knew that nothing could be done. After failing to request an audience again, he sighed and turned to ask to see Huang Xie, the prime minister of Chu, and tendered his departure.

Huang Xie also knew that the Chu State was not doing things in an honest way, but he also knew that although the Chu State seemed to have a vast territory and a large population, its actual strength was far less than imagined.

It was not that Chu did not want to help Han, but that it did not want to anger Qin.

After all, Qin and Chu had been intermarrying for generations, and their relationship was closer than that of the other five countries, so they did not have a strong sense of crisis.

The Han envoy saw through Huang Xie's hypocrisy and sneered as he left, uttering a heartbreaking remark: "Today, Qin is destroying Han, and Chu is standing idly by. Who knows if, when Qin destroys Chu someday, Qi, Zhao, Wei, and Yan will not be so dismayed that they will follow Chu's example?"

Huang Xie's face changed and he quickly tried to persuade him to stay, repeatedly promising to go see the King of Chu immediately and explain the pros and cons on behalf of the Han envoy.

To be an envoy, one must be eloquent and thick-skinned.

Seeing Huang Xie surrender, the Han envoy changed his attitude instantly, said all kinds of nice things, and asked Huang Xie to take him to see the King of Chu.

This time, the Han envoy was no longer as merciful as before. Every word he said was piercing, which actually woke the King of Chu up.

But it was too late. When the King of Chu made up his mind to send troops, the spies sent to Xinzheng brought back news: King Han surrendered in white clothes, and the Kingdom of Han was destroyed!

The Han envoy was struck by lightning, and burst into tears. He hit his head and committed suicide on the spot in front of the King and his ministers of Chu.

Since the Kingdom of Han had been destroyed, the Han envoy had nowhere to go, so Huang Xie took the initiative to collect the Han envoy's body and buried him in the State of Chu, facing the direction of Han.

The Three Jins have always been one. With the demise of Han and the reaction of King Zhao when Han was in crisis, Pingyuan Jun Zhao Sheng became disheartened.

He seemed to see the end of Zhao State directly through Han State, and soon became bedridden.

His good friend Pang Nuan went to visit him, hoping to persuade him to cheer up and continue to work for the State of Zhao. However, after seeing Zhao Sheng lying on the hospital bed, he knew that all his words were useless.

Zhao Sheng soon became seriously ill and sent for the King of Zhao to come, but the King was too ashamed to see him. In the end, Zhao Sheng died with hatred in his heart, without even having time to make arrangements for his funeral.

His death was accompanied by the disheartening feelings of countless Zhao officials, who felt that their future was uncertain.

Except for those who were interested, no one knew that Shangqing Guo Kai had secretly received another sum of money.

He used the money to search for treasures and bribe the King of Zhao. He soon replaced Zhao Sheng and became the Prime Minister of Zhao, second only to the King of Zhao.

Guo Kai becoming the prime minister of Zhao State was not a good thing for Zhao State, but it was a very good thing for Qin State.

Because the person who secretly sent money to Guo Kai was the Qin spy Dun Ruo.

Although there were many frictions among the seven countries in the Central Plains, and some were even feuds, they were all once princes of the Zhou Dynasty.

Therefore, many people did not have much resistance to the rise of another country to rule the world after the demise of the Zhou Dynasty.

What they really resisted was not the Qin that destroyed their country, but the Qin that did not redistribute their country after destroying it.

Before Qin Shihuang unified the world, whether it was Xia Yu, Shang Tang or Zhou Fa, these common rulers would allocate a fiefdom to the former royal family after replacing the previous dynasty and unifying the world, allowing them to use the income from the fiefdom to worship their ancestors.

Not to mention the distant past, when Ji Fa of the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty and divided fiefs among his meritorious officials, he not only gave fiefs to the royal family of the Shang Dynasty, but also sent people to find the collateral bloodlines of Tang Yao, Yu Shun, and Xia Yu, whose direct bloodlines had long been cut off, and allocated a fiefdom to each of them.

What Qin Shi Huang did was not only to unify the world, but also to completely overturn the system that had been in place for thousands of years and completely broke the system of hereditary aristocracy and hereditary salaries. This was definitely a first for a generation!

Perhaps without Qin Shi Huang, the world would have been unified by someone else. But unifying the world is easy, but turning it upside down and completely replacing it with a new system is something not everyone has the courage of Qin Shi Huang.

However, at this time, none of the nobles of the six kingdoms thought that Qin would do great things after unification.

Therefore, there are definitely many people like Guo Kai who are willing to accept bribes from Qin spies and do things that facilitate the Qin State.

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When the news of the demise of Han reached Xianyang, the whole city was in an uproar.

Ying Zheng specifically ordered the lifting of the ten-day ban on alcohol, allowing people to gather and drink, but not to fight or cause trouble.

Queen Zheng Jia ordered the Minister of the Imperial Household to allocate 30,000 catties of mutton and 60,000 catties of abalone (salted fish) from the royal offerings and distribute them to the elderly over 60 years old in Xianyang City and surrounding villages.

Not long after, good news came from the palace: the queen was pregnant, and the king had a queen!

The people of Xianyang City spontaneously took to the streets to celebrate, and many shops hung up discount signs, such as "30% off" or "50% off".

Ying Zheng simply cancelled the curfew for half a month and allowed the people to make noise as long as they did not gather in large numbers to cause trouble.

The people of Xianyang only needed to celebrate, but Ying Zheng and officials of all ranks needed to consider how to govern the newly incorporated Korean territory.

It is impossible to divide the country into different parts. Ying Zheng had already seen through the disadvantages of the system. How could he possibly dig a hole for himself?

At this time, Qin had just destroyed Han, and the King of Han and the royal nobles were captured in Xianyang. Most of the Han people held an attitude of resistance towards the Qin people, and there would inevitably be many difficulties in governing them.

Han was the first major country to be destroyed by the Qin State. Whether or not Han could be governed well was crucial to the subsequent destruction of the other five countries.

If we can handle South Korea well and make its people truly loyal to us, then when we destroy other countries in the future, the people's resistance will be greatly reduced.

As for the nobles, just capture them and take them directly to Xianyang. It doesn’t matter whether they resist or not.

No sooner had this topic been raised than Right Prime Minister Dai Xuan declared, "Your Majesty, this is a mistake. From now on, there will be no more Han, only Qin territory. There will be no more Han people, only Qin people!"

She looked around at the ministers and said word by word, "If you cannot adjust your mindset, cannot face the newly surrendered Qin people squarely, and still treat them as Han people, then there is no need to discuss this further."

The originally joyful atmosphere suddenly cooled down.

Seeing this, the Left Prime Minister Pang Ju hurried out to smooth things over, saying with a smile, "Although the Right Prime Minister's words are too direct, they are also reasonable. It's not that everyone doesn't understand, but they are just too excited after defeating the Kingdom of Han, and their minds haven't yet come to their senses."

"Yes, yes, I just didn't realize it for a while."

"Now that Korea has been destroyed, there is no longer any distinction between Koreans and Qin people. We are all Qin people!"

“…………”

With Pang Ju's words of easing the tension, everyone slowly came to their senses and echoed his words.

But where there are those who agree, there will naturally be those who oppose.

Opponents argued that the Qin people worked hard in the fields and even sent their able-bodied men to fight the enemy, making them all meritorious service to the Qin state. The Han people, new arrivals and conquered subjects, were therefore not entitled to equal treatment with the original Qin people.

There are quite a few people who hold this idea.

Ying Zheng sat at the head of the table and remained silent, allowing both sides to argue so that he could see everyone's attitude.

Ying Zheng naturally agreed with Dai Xuan's words. His goal had always been to unify the world, not just to make Qin a hegemon like the "Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period."

But what he didn't understand was why Dai Xuan, who had always been the best at understanding the art of language, was so aggressive and spoke so directly today?

According to her usual style, she would first raise the question in a tactful way, and then guide the ministers to infer her attitude. In this process, everyone also understood her painstaking efforts.

Therefore, any policy she wants to implement is rarely rejected.

Ying Zheng was observing his ministers from above, while Zheng Cuo was observing his expression from below.

When everyone had finished arguing, Ying Zheng frowned slightly, and Zheng Cuo, the court judge, immediately shouted, "Silence! No noise in the Golden Palace!"

The argument stopped abruptly, and everyone confessed their crime to the king together.

"Please excuse the formalities," Ying Zheng said sternly. "I know you all are devoted to the Great Qin, but your ideas differ. I am here to tell you: What the Qin State seeks is not temporary dominance, but the entire world becoming its territory.

In the future, whether they are Han, Zhao, Yan, or Wei, they will all eventually become Qin people! Think about it, if we treat the new Qin people in the old Han land differently now, how can we gather their strength and unite them to deal with the other five countries?

His words expressed his ambition and also made clear his attitude. Even if someone was dissatisfied, they didn't dare to say anything at this time.

Dai Xuan took the opportunity to say, "Your Majesty, I am willing to govern the land of Old Han for you!"

Ying Zheng was stunned: "What does the Right Prime Minister mean? The court cannot do without the Right Prime Minister."

This was not just a polite remark. Dai Xuan really knew the limits and was very capable, which made it very easy for Ying Zheng to use her.

But she insisted on leaving the central government and governing Han.

In her opinion, Ying Zheng's talent and courage are enough to support the entire court, and Queen Zheng Jia should not be underestimated.

As the late king's trusted minister, she should leave the central government for a few years to allow the king and queen to establish their own authority.

Seeing that she had made up her mind, Ying Zheng did not try to keep her and immediately appointed her as the governor of Yingchuan, in charge of the newly acquired territories including Shangdang, Yingchuan, and Sanchuan.

After Dai Xuan entered Han, the people of Han were not so resistant to her because she was originally from Shu.

She also boasted about her identity as the right prime minister of Qin and told the people of Han: The king attaches great importance to you and is afraid that others will cause trouble in Han, so he specially arranged for me, the prime minister, to come here to lead the people of Han to live and work in peace.

The most important thing is that she didn't just talk about it. After entering Korea, she visited various places, summoned the elders, talked with the people, and learned about the people's livelihood and customs in the three counties.

Originally, Korea was rich in fine iron, and the name "Jinhan" was well-known throughout the world.

However, the iron ore in Han had been mined continuously during the Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods, and had long been exhausted.

Many people who depended on iron ore for survival lost their livelihoods, and the land belonged to the nobles, so the lower-class people lived in dire straits.

At that time, transportation was inconvenient and people had to go through layers of checkpoints to travel. The lower-class people might not be able to leave the village where they were born in their entire lives.

They know nothing about the outside world and can only believe the propaganda of the nobles.

And how could the nobles of Han speak well of Qin?

In the eyes of the Han people, Qin was a man-eating tiger and wolf. When they heard that Qin had destroyed Han and captured the king and all the nobles, they were even more terrified, and this fear turned into resistance.

The reason why Dai Xuan went to the grassroots level in person and had direct contact with the people was to let them see that Qin officials also had two arms and two legs, and only one set of facial features on a head, and were definitely not the monsters described by the Korean nobles.

When she first spoke to the people, they were all terrified, fearing that they would be whipped if they said a wrong word.

But seeing that she was beautiful and had a friendly attitude, and that the guards who followed her were serious but did not show any vicious look towards them, they gradually felt relieved.

During the conversation, Dai Xuan learned about their daily lives and the difficulties they faced. He also wanted to let them know that ordinary people in Qin could become nobles by killing enemies and farming.

"Now you are also Qin people. As long as you work hard to farm, or if your young men in the family join the army and make meritorious contributions, you can also become a noble."

When the people of the three counties heard about this for the first time, they were all shocked: Is this the Qin Dynasty of tigers and wolves? Could tigers and wolves be so kind to people like them?

If the Qin State is a tiger or a wolf, then the nobles of Han are even more terrifying than tigers and wolves!