Chapter 218: The Princes of Daqin and Shandong
Fusu ascended the throne with the support of Zhang Han and Meng Tian. The first issue was how to face the millions of Qin people in Guanzhong. Naturally, he had to ask Meng Yun for his opinion in this regard.
Meng Yun had already heard the news that the direct descendants of the Luo family had appeared in the world. When this news came out, he knew that the demise of the Qin Dynasty was inevitable. As the most authentic successor of the Meng family, he should follow the Luo family.
It is not only out of personal feelings, but also because too many books of Mencius' school have been lost. There are not so many people in this world who have photographic memories. It is impossible to remember so many books just by memory, especially the original annotations.
Meng Yun believed that since the direct descendants of the Luo family were able to escape, the storage room would certainly not be directly destroyed in the war. After all, that was the most precious treasure of the entire Luo family.
In the quiet room, Fusu and Meng Yun sat opposite each other. Meng Yun looked at Fusu with a trace of compassion and felt a little regretful. If Fusu had died directly in the Great Wall Corps, perhaps he could have left a good reputation in history.
At least countless people would regret that such a kind and loving eldest son could not inherit the throne, but now he would become a king who lost his country.
Fusu said with a worried look on his face: "Meng Yunzi, Hu Hai is dead, how many generations should I be called emperor?"
Meng Yun is very conflicted now. He doesn't know where he stands. Fusu has been very kind to him. If Luo Shi was no longer in the world, he would naturally help Fusu and change the Qin Dynasty. However, Luo Shi appeared and stood on the opposite side of the Qin Dynasty. He knew that he must stand on Luo Shi's side, but the pain in his heart was inevitable.
Facing Fusu's question, Meng Yun was silent. After a while, he slowly said, "Your Majesty, the third emperor is naturally not possible. You are not Hu Hai's successor. You can directly announce the abolition of his throne and then call yourself the second emperor, but..."
Fusu saw Meng Yun hesitate and asked quickly, "Is there anything wrong with the Second Emperor?"
Meng Yun said bluntly: “Your Majesty, what you want to do after you ascend the throne is related to who you need to support you.
The First Emperor has a bad reputation. Not to mention the common people, even the ministers and nobles in the country don't like him. His only supporters are those legalists who are rooted in the grassroots. Do you need them?"
Fusu's face showed deep disgust. He believed that these Legalist clerks were at least six levels of responsible for the reputation of the tyrannical Qin Dynasty.
It is an indisputable fact that the laws of Qin have been very harsh since Shang Yang. It is also an indisputable fact that the First Emperor did not sympathize with the people's strength.
However, grassroots clerks used Qin law as a tool for extortion and extortion, which caused disasters far more serious than the law itself. In fact, this has nothing to do with the Legalists; all grassroots officials are like this. But who can blame them for the fact that the grassroots officials are all clerks who study the law?
Due to his limitations, Fusu naturally believed that it was the Legalists, a group of inhumane people, who brought disaster to the people of the world.
"Of course not. Those clerks have been harming the world for too long. I want to implement benevolent policies, so I naturally cannot use these people anymore."
Meng Yun nodded and said softly: "In this case, I suggest that you abandon the rules set by the First Emperor. You can directly call him the Emperor of Great Qin and use this title in all edicts."
Fusu was silent for a while and then asked softly, "Meng Yunzi, after hearing that the direct descendants of the Luo family have appeared, are you going to leave Fusu?"
Meng Yun was stunned when he heard this, and then he didn't say anything, but bowed heavily. Seeing this, Fusu smiled bitterly and sighed: "I originally wanted you to be the prime minister of Daqin. With your knowledge and wisdom, perhaps this is the most suitable."
Fusu also bowed to Meng Yun, then turned and left. Meng Yun stood up and saw Fusu's somewhat desolate figure, and could not help but say, "Sir.
If you grant titles of fiefdom in Shandong and make key cities kings and marquises for meritorious officials and nobles, you may be able to buy time for yourself, but please remember that not a single county in Guanzhong can be granted fiefdom. This is the basis for competing for hegemony over the world."
Fusu was stunned. Young Master, it seemed like a very old title. His Majesty always had a cold tone. Then he turned around, bowed to Meng Yun, and left.
There is no banquet that will last forever in this world. Two people who know each other will eventually separate because of their different identities.
When Meng Tian saw Fusu coming out of the door, his eyes suddenly became dim. He glanced into the room and thought to himself: Meng Yun, it would be great if a talented person like you could assist His Majesty. On the way back to the east, there are bandits everywhere. Aren't you worried about any accidents?
Seeing Fusu looking somewhat distraught, Meng Tian stepped forward and asked, "Your Majesty, what did Meng Yunzi say?"
Fusu sighed, "Meng Yunzi told me to just call myself the Emperor of Qin and not follow the rules set by my father."
Meng Tian nodded and said, "That's right. Since you want to take a different path from the First Emperor, you must make a distinction in all aspects."
Fusu walked and said, "Meng Yunzi talked to me about two things. The first was about my status, and the other was to ask me to confer titles on many kings in Shandong. I wanted to confer the title of king on Zhang Qing before, but now Meng Yunzi wants to confer more titles. I remember that your ancestors were originally from Qi. If I confer you the title of King of Linzi now, can you put down the rebellion in Qi?"
Meng Tian was shocked when he heard this. It was such an honor to be crowned a king in his hometown. He knew that given Fusu's character, this was not a test, but he was really prepared to do so. So he immediately said, "Your Majesty, whether I am crowned a king or not, I will do my best to suppress the rebellion in Shandong, protect the country and the ancestral temple of my Great Qin, and be loyal to you."
Fusu sighed slightly and said, "I really don't know how many loyal and capable officials there are in the Qin Dynasty. In such a chaotic world, I dare not use those who have evil intentions in their hearts, even if they have the ability to spread the word.
Meng Yunzi, a man of such talent who is qualified to be the prime minister, is about to leave me.
Mr. Zhang and Mr. Meng, you are my most trusted ministers. Now that the situation in the Qin Dynasty has deteriorated to this point, you and your subjects must work together. If you can really suppress the rebellion in Qi, your King of Linzi will become the King of Qi. If I am the King Wu of Zhou, you will be Taigong Wang. This is Fusu's oath."
Fusu looked at Meng Tian with shining eyes. Fusu had a very gentle face, inherited the looks of his mother who was born in Chu. It was most appropriate to describe him as gentle as jade.
Meng Tian could sense Fusu's expectations of him. Recalling the fear and trepidation he felt under the First Emperor, he couldn't help but feel his eyes moistened and choked up as he said, "Your Majesty, you are truly a kind and merciful king that is hard to find in the world. If I don't die for you, how can I still live in this world?"
A benevolent monarch may never be as powerful as those monarchs who are good at playing power games, but there will always be a group of people who are truly willing to serve him, and this loyalty can even be passed on to his descendants.
As for those kings who are good at playing power games, there will only be a hundred battles every day between the king and his ministers in the court. Although they hold great power when they are alive, as soon as they die, there will be fierce political struggles. The only thing they can do is to kill all the ministers they trusted in the past.
It was a bright night with sparse stars. Meng Yun walked out of Mount Xiao and encountered a group of well-equipped bandits. Seeing this scene, he had a look of misery on his face, but also a hint of relief. Fusu, Fusu, now I don't owe you anything.
He didn't ask who sent him. He knew it was not Fusu, but perhaps Meng Tian, or perhaps someone else. It didn't matter. But the top leaders of the Qin Dynasty all knew his talents and naturally did not want to let him go.
"Your Majesty, Meng Yunzi was killed by bandits in the east of Mount Xiao."
Fusu was stunned when he heard this, and then said in disbelief: "I have sent a full 300 royal guards to Meng Yunzi, and they are all warriors with armor. Unless they encounter a large-scale army, how can a few bandits hurt him?"
The attendant lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, it must be the rebels from Shandong who saw the soldiers of the Qin Dynasty and thought they were powerful people, so they attacked Meng Yunzi. A crossbow was found at the scene, which is not something that ordinary bandits can possess."
This explanation is very reasonable. Now many rebel armies in Shandong have opened the treasury of the county government. Although most of the weapons are in Guanzhong, the rebels still took out a lot of weapons and armor, and even a small number of bows and crossbows.
Fusu believed this explanation, but still could not accept this sudden bad news. He did not hate Meng Yun for leaving him at this time because he knew the importance of Luo to Meng Yun.
But he always hoped that Meng Yunzi would come back to assist him one day, and the position of Prime Minister of Qin would be reserved for him, but he never expected...
After a moment of silence, he said with regret: "If I had known this would happen, I should not have let Meng Yunzi return to Shandong, which led to the separation of the two of them today."
After the attendants said a few words of comfort and left the hall, Fusu held the pen in his hand but was unable to write for a long time. It was not until the ink dripped that he woke up from his dream.
"Promote Meng Tian to the King of Linzi, promote Zhang Han to the King of Handan, and confer the title of King of Xingyang on Ziying. Also, Xinzheng, Daliang, and Jinzhong, these key pass areas and wealthy areas should all be conferred the title of king. As for the Chu area, we need to think about it a little more."
He wrote down one by one, all of whom were his more trusted meritorious officials and the few remaining members of the royal family, a total of ten of them, all of whom were granted fiefs in Shandong. Some of them were important passes, or the capitals of the six kingdoms in the past. Most of them were county seat of various counties, and some of them were in the hands of the rebel army. It was quite similar to the fiefs granted by the kings in the past, but in the end the princes took their soldiers to fight for the land themselves.
Not only the title of king, but also the title of marquis, which was almost unrewarded during the First Emperor's reign, he generously gave out a lot of them, first awarded a part of them, and then posted many promised rewards.
"Your Majesty, Marquis Zhang and Marquis Meng request an audience."
The voice of the attendant sounded outside the hall. Zhang Han and Meng Tian had already been granted the title of marquis and were the undisputed top two figures in the Qin military. Both of them were commanders of independent corps. Meng Tian had a closer relationship with Fusu, while Zhang Han's ability was obviously higher.
In such a turbulent time, these two battle-hardened generals are Fusu's most trusted ministers and the white jade pillars that support the Qin Dynasty.
After Fusu let the two in, he greeted them directly: "My dear ministers, I just drew up a list, please check if there is anything missing."
List?
The two took the cloth handed over by Fusu. The first line read "Meng Tian was promoted to King of Linzi", and the second line read "Zhang Han was promoted to King of Handan". The two paused for a moment, then knelt on one knee and said in unison: "Your Majesty's grace, long live the Great Qin!"
Fusu shook his head and said, "It's just the kingship of a dozen cities. I am stingy. However, Shandong is now in chaos and it is useless to give more titles. If you two can make great contributions, I will give you the throne of King of Qi and King of Zhao, and grant princesses to your descendants from generation to generation, so that your clan will live with my Great Qin.
My dear ministers, please take a look at this list to see if there is anything wrong with it. It has not been released yet and can be modified. "
Fusu's reward was not really stingy, especially compared with the First Emperor, it was extremely generous. Anyway, Zhang Han and Meng Tian were now full of motivation and could not wait to lead their army to Shandong to compete with the rebels who were causing chaos all over the world.
Especially Zhang Han, who had fought against the rebels before. He had won consecutive battles before and looked down on the fighting effectiveness of the Shandong rebels. He believed that defeating them was only a matter of time.
As for Fusu's suggestion that they give their opinions on the rewards, neither of them took it seriously. Although Fusu was a benevolent lord and might be asking sincerely, it was inappropriate for ministers to get involved in matters such as rewards from kings and princes. So the two of them said that Fusu's rewards were appropriate and took into account the ideas of all parties.
Among the ten kings awarded by Fusu, seven were members of the Ying clan, the other three were Zhang Han, Meng Tian, and there was a rare non-Legal minister among the First Emperor's ministers. He had always been a supporter of Fusu and had helped Meng Yun and others escape.
Conferring titles on members of the royal family was a practice that was very much in line with the thinking of that era. In the past, the Zhou Dynasty conferred titles on meritorious officials with the same surname. Everyone attached great importance to people of the same clan. Especially the tragic situation that the Jin State, a once invincible vassal state, encountered after the royal family declined, made everyone feel sad.
Fusu said: "Since the two of you have no objection, I will issue an edict tomorrow to announce the reward to the world. Alas, this reward comes too late."
Zhang Han and Meng Tian both sighed in their hearts when they heard this. Yes, it’s too late.
The First Emperor thought he could live forever. He was so confident in himself that he thought all this was unnecessary. By the time he realized he really could not live forever, it was already too late.
If the First Emperor had appointed his sons to Shandong after pacifying the six kingdoms and let them each bring a large number of followers, then many nobles of the six kingdoms would have joined the ranks of these newly appointed princes.
Not to mention others, just talking about Fusu, if the First Emperor had made Fusu the King of Chu, given Fusu's character and political inclinations, he would certainly not have imposed heavy taxes and levied heavy taxes in Chu and used the harsh Qin laws, and Chu would most likely not have participated in the rebellion.
As soon as Fusu's reward list came out, the whole city of Xianyang was instantly shocked, especially those royal family members with the surname Ying. There were seven princes in total, and a large number of marquises with ten thousand households. Isn't this what they wanted to get by sacrificing their lives and blood?
With the advent of this reward, Fusu's reputation among the nobles instantly reached its peak. Even those who were not members of the Ying clan were praising Fusu. A man like the First Emperor was so harsh even to his clan relatives. How could we expect him to be kind to other people?
This is the simple idea of everyone in this era. To some extent, there is nothing wrong with it and it is very reasonable.
"Your Majesty, this is the tribute and letter of thanks presented to you by the nobles of Xianyang City."
Looking at the mountains of gold, silver, pearls, jade, various rare treasures, and the cloth piled up as high as a mountain, Fusu could fully feel the nobles' joy, and also their resentment towards his father. Otherwise, he was just an emperor who had just ascended the throne, how could he have the support of so many people.
It was because the original emperor suppressed these people too harshly. When he just relaxed a little, everyone called him the Saint King of the world.
Zhang Han and Meng Tian were originally supporters of Fusu. Under the stimulation of the huge reward, the royal family members with the surname Ying spent all their wealth and began to gather countless Qin people in Guanzhong who had gone bankrupt because of Qin laws, or even lived on the verge of life and death and became bandits, and then took these people to Shandong.
The news that Fusu had conferred titles on many princes soon reached Shandong. In fact, Shandong had already been the site of many kings at that time. The surviving descendants of the six kingdoms called themselves the King of Zhao, the King of Wei, etc. There were also those like Chen Sheng who called themselves kings based on their surnames, and those who called themselves kings based on their counties. There were no less than twenty kings, big and small.
Zhang Han was indeed an expert at fighting the rebels. He led the prisoners in Mount Li to great victories and easily defeated the army of King Wei. King Wei had no choice but to commit suicide. King Wei's younger brother succeeded him as King Wei under the recommendation of everyone. Both of them were orthodox princes of the State of Wei and were considered to be the most noble group of people in the rebel army.
Hundreds of thousands of troops came to fight against Zhang Han. The most powerful among them was the army of King Han. The three Jins of Zhao, Wei and Han were barriers blocking the eastward advance of Qin during the Warring States Period. When it came to the anti-Qin period, they became the base camp and bridgehead.
Zhang Han flexibly took advantage of the rebel army's weakness of insufficient food and fodder supplies. In addition, the rebel army had few elite soldiers. Although they had a large number of people, most of them were common people who only knew how to farm.
Although the main force of the army led by Zhang Han was still the criminal army, one third of them had been replaced by Meng Tian's Great Wall Corps, which was a regular army.
With a total of 200,000 troops under his command, the rebels were no match at all and quickly defeated this powerful coalition force through a series of battles.
Outside Xingyang, Zhang Han looked at the city he had just conquered and laughed loudly to Ziying beside him, "Prince Xingyang, your fiefdom has been taken!"
Upon hearing this, Ziying immediately bowed respectfully to Zhang Han and said, "King Zhang, you are truly the pillar of the Qin Empire. With you here, the Qin Empire is as stable as Mount Tai. When you are crowned King of Zhao in the future, Ziying will certainly pay his respects to you in your palace."
During this journey, Ziying got to know Zhang Han much better. He knew that there was no false reputation behind his reputation, and that this man could win battles one after another because of his real ability, not luck.
Outside Xingyang City, Zhang Liang and the King of Han fled in panic. Only a thousand or so soldiers followed them. The King of Han looked at the shabby army and said in despair, "Zifang, the tyrannical Qin is too strong. Zhang Han was the chief steward of the Shaofu before, but he has never lost since he led the troops. If the experienced Meng Tian leads his troops, is there anyone who can defeat them?"
The current emperor of the tyrannical Qin is Fusu, who has always had a reputation for kindness. If we surrender, he probably won’t do what the First Emperor did.”
The first emperor basically wiped out the direct descendants of the royal families of the six countries, especially Chu and Qi, which were basically wiped out.
Zhang Liang heard this and said sternly: "Your Majesty, you must not surrender. Have you forgotten your great wish to restore your country?
Which king in this world can succeed without going through hardships? Liang spent all his family wealth over the years and even risked his life to assassinate the tyrant. Although he failed repeatedly, he never thought of giving up.
It's just a small failure now. It would be a pity to give up. I heard that Luo family has reappeared in the world, and Xiang family of Chu has also come out. Chu is the most powerful among all the countries, and also has the strongest rebel army.
Although the direct line of the Chu royal family had long been destroyed by the Qin State, the Xiang family was enough to replace the Chu royal family. As long as the Chu people joined the anti-Qin ranks, coupled with the magical Luo family, the tyrannical Qin would surely perish.
As long as we go to form an alliance with the Luo family, the Luo and Xiang families will definitely agree to restore the Kingdom of Han in order to win over the descendants of the six kingdoms, and because I have an old relationship with the Xiang family.
The tyrannical Qin Dynasty is unpopular, but the Koreans still have their hearts with us. We will soon be able to raise an army again, and Korea can be restored. You must never surrender!"
Zhang Liang's family has been ministers of Han for five generations. It is almost his obsession to destroy the tyrannical Qin and restore Han. Now the King of Han actually wants to surrender. There is even a murderous look in his eyes, which makes the King of Han stunned. He said repeatedly: "Zifang, don't be angry. I just spoke out of turn. Let's go to the Luo family to form an alliance now."
The murderous look in Zhang Liang's eyes finally disappeared, and the group hurriedly headed towards the place of the alliance that the Xiang and Luo families had announced to the world, which was Zhaocheng, the former site of the capital of the Luo State.
Zhang Han defeated the armies of the King of Wei and the King of Han, gathered the defeated troops, and then crossed the river to attack Zhao. At this time, Meng Tian led a large army to attack Zheng and broke through Hulao Pass. The entire Zheng and Chen areas were under his attack. Although the flames of righteous armies were still in full swing, and the contradictions in the world could not be extinguished by a simple military victory, in the short term, there was actually some intention of suppressing the rebellion.
At this time, Xiang Yu went north from Jianghuai. He learned that the Qin army was sharp and might even threaten the place where the princes met. So he decisively led the Jiangdong young men to meet the enemy. The Jiangdong young men had always been one of the most elite troops of the Chu State.
————
In the first year of Emperor Fusu's reign, Zhang Han destroyed Wei, defeated Han, and severely defeated the righteous army. He then led his troops to attack Zhao. Meng Tian attacked Zheng, captured Hulao, and pressed on to Chen. The world was in danger.
Xiang Yu led 8,000 men across the river and headed east. Xiang Yu thought about the small number of his troops and said, "The young men in Jiangdong are trusted by their fathers and elders. They cannot die. We should cut off the Qin army's food supply and exhaust their energy. Then we can defeat them."
As he said, after holding out for more than ten days, the enemy was defeated in three battles. Meng Tian camped at Hulao Pass and defended himself, while Xiang Yu led his troops eastward to form an alliance with the princes.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
