The merchants who left Wei with their wealth possessed a wealth of information about Wei's policies and intelligence. When they brought this information back to their own countries, the rulers of any nation would know that Wei was about to make a major move. At that point, these nations might take precautions against Wei, or even unite against it.
By then, it may be even more difficult for Your Majesty to achieve his grand ambition of unifying the Shengwu Continent."
It has to be said that Qian Dai's worries were very reasonable, but Chu Fan also had his own considerations, that is, his current prestige and status among the people of Wei and the court. No one in Wei dared to rebel against him, and if he wanted to complete the system task, he could only achieve his goal by dying on the battlefield.
Chu Fan pondered for a moment and thought of an excuse to deceive Qian Dai: "Minister Qian, regarding your first question, you are actually overthinking it. You should know that it is good for merchants to pursue profits, but they must be given preferential treatment and protection. Because those are the rules set by our Wei court. As rulers and rule makers, we cannot arbitrarily change the rules we have made. Otherwise, we will lose the trust of the world.
As for your concerns about the loyalty of these merchants, there's no need to worry. The current Wei court has various regulatory policies, and the children of these merchants still need to attend school before they can be selected as officials. As long as the Wei court strictly controls the selection process and ensures both loyalty and talent, there won't be any problems.
As for those merchants who left, even if they took some wealth with them, when our Wei army invaded their country, that wealth would eventually return to Wei. After all, our Wei army only needs to protect the interests of ordinary local people. As for the interests of those wealthy families and merchants, we don't have to worry about them.
If we intercept these merchants, Wei's reputation on the Shengwu Continent will be severely damaged. When our Wei army invades other countries, the local people will know that the Wei court has killed merchants who simply want to leave Wei. They will inevitably become hostile and distrustful of us, making it even more difficult to rule these newly opened territories. It may even cause panic among the merchants who have become naturalized citizens of Wei.
Besides, other nations undoubtedly have spies and agents planted within Wei, gathering intelligence as well. Their specialized training may even allow them to gather more sophisticated intelligence than those gathered by merchants. Furthermore, these spies and agents are more powerful and secretive, making it difficult even for the Wei court to eradicate them completely. Rather than excessively guarding against merchants, it's better to strengthen internal oversight and stabilize public confidence.
So, Minister Qian, instead of worrying about these merchants, we should focus on improving our selection and supervision mechanisms. As long as we are internally stable, external threats will naturally be of little concern. Moreover, through open policies, we can attract more talent and resources to strengthen the State of Wei.
Qian Dai carefully considered Chu Fan's words and concluded they made perfect sense. The current might of Wei was unmatched by any nation on the Shengwu Continent. Wei possessed modern weapons and armor, sufficient food to sustain large-scale battles, a transportation network capable of rapidly mobilizing troops, and explosives capable of immense devastation.
Even in future direct battles, Wei would be able to rely on these advantages to cope with them with ease. Blitzkrieg, on the other hand, was a tactic used only when a nation faced serious internal troubles and was forced to fight to the death. Currently, Wei was internally stable and popularly supported; as long as it maintained its momentum, any external enemy would be of little concern.
Just when Chu Fan and Qian Daixiang were finishing their conversation, the Minister of War Mu Yundian, Prime Minister Cao Mengde, and a prince from the Royal Government Affairs Office came into the imperial study together. The three of them looked solemn, as they had obviously discovered something important.
After Mu Yundian and the others saluted Chu Fan, Mu Yundian said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, when I was sorting out the list of military generals to find generals suitable for dispatching to Japan, I found that many descendants of civil officials have appeared in the army recently. I initially thought that they were just longing for military life and wanted to serve the country, but after in-depth investigation, I found that many of these descendants of civil officials were weak scholars who had no knowledge of martial arts and military strategy.
I immediately reported this matter to the Imperial Administration Office for the princes to address. After investigation, the princes discovered that not only were there many descendants of civilian officials with no martial arts skills in the army, but also many unsophisticated descendants of military commanders were employed in departments like the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Rites, where the civil officials were employed. These people were completely incapable of performing their duties, but I wonder who is manipulating this.
Chu Fan's face darkened after hearing Mu Yundian's report. He hadn't imagined that someone would so brazenly collude and sabotage the educational reforms and selection mechanisms he had devised. And now that Mu Yundian and Cao Mengde had come before him, along with the prince from the Royal Government Affairs Office, it was clear they had uncovered something. However, the individuals involved were likely not only powerful but also numerous.
Chu Fan said, "Since the Royal Government Affairs Office has already conducted a preliminary investigation, I believe you have found some clues. Please tell us anything you know."
Cao Mengde said, "Your Majesty, I have discovered that the transfers of the descendants of civil officials and military commanders are all facilitated by the former Prime Minister Qin Hui. Otherwise, apart from the Prime Minister himself, only a few Shangshu officials in the court have such a vast network of relationships."
Hearing Cao Mengde's answer, Chu Fan smiled bitterly in his heart, and couldn't help thinking: "There is really no wrong name in this world. Although I didn't like Qin Hui before, he didn't make any big mistakes, and I didn't have enough reason to touch him.
Now I have dismissed him from the position of Prime Minister and asked him to assist the princes in the Royal Government Affairs Office to carry out educational reforms and university management. I didn't expect that such a big thing would happen to me after he stopped being the Prime Minister.
Chu Fan frowned and asked, "Are you sure that Qin Hui was the one coordinating and planning these transfers?"
The prince from the Royal Government Affairs Office handed Chu Fan a detailed investigation report and said with great remorse, "In fact, this is also the fault of our Royal Government Affairs Office. We failed to discover and prevent this improper transfer in time, which led to such consequences."
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