Chapter 248: Combining the Way of King, the Way of Tyrant, and the Way of Emperor
"When I was here, Qin law was not like this." Lu Buwei sighed and spoke with emotion.
During the reign of Lü Buwei, who ruled the world with eclectic methods, Xianyang was crowded with merchants, peddlers, high-ranking officials, and common people. Xianyang was one of the most prosperous places in the world.
Laws such as those who spread dust would have their hands chopped off and those who walked on the road were not allowed to speak loudly were deleted.
Although the Qin Dynasty was still ruled by Legalism and Qin Law at that time, this law was established by Lu Buwei, not Shang Yang's law.
Lü Buwei did not deliberately lower his voice when speaking, and Li Si heard it clearly.
This person had been an official in the State of Qin. Since Wei Yang entered the State of Qin, the State of Qin had always been governed by the Legalists. Although this person spoke in an old-fashioned manner, he was not a hindrance to his conduct and would not have been a traitor to Qin before Wei Yang.
Lü Buwei was in prison for only a few years, and the incident of his rebellion and death had caused too much of a stir, known to the world. Li Si, who was knowledgeable and had a good memory, did not think about it that way.
"Did you become a retainer of Lord Chang'an just by your lies?"
Li Si was a young man, but he became the left prime minister. He did not obtain this position and title by hard work, but rather by his courage to speak and act. He was never harsh towards those who opposed him.
While Li Si was speaking, Lu Buwei covered his face with his hands on both sides of the mask.
When Li Si finished speaking, the mask covering Lu Buwei's true face had been half removed.
Li Si waited nonchalantly for Lu Buwei to reveal his true face, and so did Wang Wan.
Since they don't want to give up power, they naturally don't care about this matter.
One of them was the old prime minister who had assisted the first emperor since he was a humble official, and the other was a popular official in front of the first emperor recently. They both thought that no matter who was under the mask, they could not suppress themselves.
"It was because of your nonsense that I accepted you as my retainer."
The mask was taken off, and Lu Buwei's true face was exposed in front of Li Si and Wang Wan.
Although the long black hair from ten years ago has now turned into frost, and the face has many more deep wrinkles.
But Lu Buwei's facial contour and overall appearance did not change much.
The old man smiled faintly as he looked at Li Si's moved expression which he could not conceal.
He said softly, "I haven't seen you for ten years. I didn't expect you couldn't even recognize my voice. I said that Qin law was not like this when I was in power. Is that false?"
Li Si smiled bitterly, cupped his hands and lowered his head, bowed slightly, and said, "Li Si greets the Lord."
More than ten years ago, Li Si traveled thousands of miles across mountains and rivers from Qi to Qin, with a wealth of knowledge in his mind that he wanted to sell to the King of Qin for a good price.
But what kind of person is the King of Qin? How could a lowly student from the Jixia Academy just meet him?
Even though Li Si was Xunzi's direct disciple, and even though Li Si had made a great name for himself in debates at the Jixia Academy.
However, the momentum he had worked so hard to build up became thinner and thinner as he moved westward after being affected by the sea breeze from the East China Sea.
After they passed Hangu Pass, they were swept by the blood and energy of the Qin people, and disappeared without a trace.
Li Si, who had no one in the court and no hope in the opposition, wanted to meet the King of Qin. This journey was more difficult than the Long March from Qi to Qin.
Li Si wandered in front of the gate of Xianyang Palace for several days and was almost arrested by the Supreme Court as an assassin.
He also spent all his money to seek favors from the nobles of the time, but the gifts he bought with a lot of money were not even appreciated by the nobles’ butlers. When the gifts were thrown away, they were impatiently said, “How dare a rat from Chu live in Xianyang?”
With nowhere else to go, Li Si smiled bitterly and prepared to go back to the Jixia Academy. Although he was proficient in the six arts and had a wealth of knowledge, he had no way to display his knowledge because he could not even enter the gate of Xianyang Palace.
He got drunk in a Xianyang wine shop, laughed wildly, and said, "I thought Qin was a sign of unification, and the King of Qin had the power to swallow up the world. Now, how is it different from the six countries? They are all dry bones on the seat."
This was the time when Lu Buwei was in power, and the laws of Qin were not strict.
But he openly despised the State of Qin and the King of Qin. If there were no control and everyone followed suit, where would the dignity of the state be? Where would the dignity of the king be? Even the most lenient laws would not allow such people to go their own way.
Li Si was convicted for his words and was arrested and thrown into the Tingwei prison.
If Lu Buwei had not discovered that he was a disciple of Xunzi during the trial, he would have been willing to meet him and realized that he was a man of real talent and knowledge rather than a person seeking fame.
By accepting him as a retainer and pardoning his crime, Mount Li would have one more outstanding prisoner.
Until the death of Lu Buwei, the relationship between the lord and his retainers never ceased.
When Wang Wan saw Lü Buwei's appearance and heard Li Si's address, he stood up in shock and anger.
He was about to shout loudly to summon the soldiers from the Prime Minister's Mansion to come in, arrest Lu Buwei and send him to the Xianyang prison.
The old prime minister's hair and beard were all standing up, his eyes and face were full of anger, and he had strong hostility towards Lu Buwei.
But he was calm and composed, looking at the Chang'an Junfu clothes that Lu Buwei was wearing and the genuine seal of the prime minister in his hand.
As soon as the words came out, the shaking turned into a curse.
"Traitors, they really deserve to be killed!"
Lü Buwei smiled and slapped the seal of the Prime Minister in front of Wang Wan. He pointed his finger at the large words "Shaofu" engraved on it and looked at the clothes on Wang Wan.
"This official uniform is much better than that servant's attire. You have worked hard to get to this position by following His Majesty for so long. I don't care how much you resent me or how deep your hatred is. This seal of the Prime Minister is placed in front of you. I say, you listen, are you willing to do it?"
Although Wang Wan often said that he had not made any contributions to the Qin State and was not familiar with foreign affairs and could only handle some trivial matters in domestic affairs, everyone knew that this was just a self-deprecating statement.
Anyone who takes this as the truth is either stupid or perverse.
Lu Buwei's words were almost the same as Wang Wan's self-deprecating words, but Wang Wan's face looked extremely unhappy. No one likes to be belittled.
His chin was covered with long beard, his mouth was like the muzzle of a machine gun, and his words were like the bullets that kept firing.
"Wan, listen to your words? Listen to the words of a dead man like you? You are plotting rebellion and treason, and you should exterminate your entire clan ! Are you still as you are now? Are all the people in the court your cronies and relatives? Wan will go to the palace and report to His Majesty, and I want your body to be torn into pieces. If your head rolling on the ground can still speak, Wan can fulfill your dying wish!"
Wang Wan pushed Lü Buwei away, rushed out of the door angrily and ran towards the Xianyang Palace. When he left, he slammed the door down with such force that the door frame was about to crack.
Lu Buwei looked at the closed door and smiled knowingly, thinking that Wang Wan was able to ascend to the throne not only because of his ability to coordinate as the king had mentioned, but also because of his ability to judge the situation.
How many people, in their anger and anxiety, would remember to close the door to prevent Lu Buwei's identity from being leaked?
Observing a person and listening to his words is of little use. Only by observing his actions and the results of his actions can you learn something about him.
"You're not going to the Xianyang Palace?" Lü Buwei sat on the tiger-embroidered armchair that Wang Wan had just stood up from, looked at Li Si with a smile, and said, "If you don't go now, you'll lose the opportunity."
Li Si's mood had calmed down a lot. Although he still had a lot of fear in his heart from seeing Lu Buwei, who should have been dead, there was no sign of it on his face.
He shook his head, sat down next to Lu Buwei, and said, "No."
Lü Buwei smiled and said, "Your Majesty knows that I am not dead, but it would not be good if you do not go to the Xianyang Palace."
Lü Buwei was a thief, so the First Emperor had to do it without publicly appointing him. Even if he guessed that Lü Buwei's trip was fine, he couldn't just turn a blind eye to it - if you turn a blind eye to a thief, do you still want to rebel?
He had to rush to Xianyang Palace to report to the First Emperor as if it were an urgent matter that required a journey of eight hundred miles. It would be the right thing to do to learn from the First Emperor that Lü Buwei had no problem showing his loyalty.
Li Si said sternly: "Your Majesty does not value these."
Lü Buwei smiled and said, "Whether he values it or not is not important, but whether you do it or not is important. This trip to the palace will take less than an hour and will show your loyalty. You can exchange a little time for a big profit in your future career. Why not do this kind of deal?"
"Wang Wan entered the palace because he had only loyalty to show for himself. There is no need for this." Li Si picked up a memorial and handed it to Lu Buwei with both hands, saying, "The past is over. Please take a look, Mr. Lu."
It is a thing of the past that you were my lord. Whether you can get my cooperation in the future depends on your ability.
"The past is over, but the name Lü Buwei cannot be used anymore. I am a descendant of Taigong Wang, my surname is Jiang, and I am a merchant. From now on, you can call me Jiang Shang."
As Lu Buwei spoke, he took the memorial from Li Si's hand, opened it all, and saw the imperial seal engraved with eight large characters "Received the Mandate from Heaven, May You Live Long and Prosper", and stared at it for a moment.
"Your Majesty asked that the imperial seal be made of the He family's fine jade. Now, Your Majesty must review the memorials first, and then submit them to the Prime Minister's Office for review. This is indeed different from Mr. Jiang's original review before submitting them to Your Majesty."
Crash~
Lu Buwei closed the entire memorial.
A strange look flashed in Li Si's eyes, and he asked, "Is there anything wrong with the memorial?"
"Since Your Majesty has reviewed it, I will not read it again. It is not my forte to fill in the gaps and make corrections. These matters will continue to be carried out in the future, and I will not interfere. Bring the list of officials, and the chaos in Han should be put to an end."
"Han is not urgent." Li Si took out a thick pile of memorials beside him and said, "This is the memorial that Your Majesty has not yet approved. I am about to present it to Your Majesty for your review. Mr. Jiang should be interested in it."
"Oh? How did you know I would be interested?"
"Six or seven out of ten of these memorials are to impeach Lord Chang'an, and the remaining two or three are to impeach the Prime Minister himself."
Li Si flicked the piled up memorials with his fingers. His force was not small, but the memorials did not slide at all, which showed how many memorials there were and how heavy they were.
He said casually: "Since Mr. Jiang is wearing this robe, even if he doesn't care about his true identity, he should help Chang'an Jun to solve his problems."
If you can't settle this matter, let Si do it and hand the seal of the Prime Minister into his hands.
Lü Buwei narrowed his eyes and looked at Li Si. After three breaths, he said, "I am very pleased with what you have done in the Court of the Supreme Court, so I will tell you more. In a game of chess, don't put all your attention on the chessboard, because the victory or defeat is often outside the chessboard."
Li Si fell into deep thought upon hearing this, while Lu Buwei remained silent.
Suddenly, the left prime minister Li Si's body shook, and his left hand trembled, and the extremely high pile of impeachment bamboo slips placed on his left hand was pushed down by him, and scattered on the table and the ground with a crash.
Li Si was totally unaware of the noise. His eyes were fixed on his old master. His blood was boiling, and his stern face was obviously flushed with color.
He suppressed his voice, steadied his tone, and said in a deep voice: "Chang'an Jun's wax sacrifice is not because he is young and frivolous, but because he did it on purpose."
Li Si always thought that Ying Cheng should not have said that he would exterminate all the nobles in the world when he ascended the altar on the day of the Jiao wax sacrifice.
If you want to carry out reforms to change the current situation in the world, you should do it in secret, and the sooner the world knows about it, the better.
If Shang Yang had told these nobles "I'm going to kill them all" before he started the reform, the reform would never have succeeded.
In Li Si's eyes, Ying Chengjiao has always been a shrewd and calculating person who considers every move he makes.
In Li Si's eyes, the dispute over the division of fiefdoms and counties was a problem with no solution. Choosing the division of fiefdoms would mean repeating the old path, while choosing counties would cause resentment among the ministers.
Ying Chengjiao resolved the issue perfectly by merging the system of counties and states and adding the Enfeoffment Order, and adopted the principle of enfeoffment. He saw the advantages of counties and prefectures over those of states, and the harm of counties and prefectures. Li Si was astonished by this.
Li Si was puzzled by the words Ying Chengjiao said during the wax sacrifice, and ultimately he could only attribute it to the fact that Ying Chengjiao liked to show off in front of others and was proud by nature.
Lü Buwei replied, "Your Majesty has been mature since he was young. He has endured the infamy for ten years in order to ensure Your Majesty's success in becoming king. How could he have been obsessed with fame?"
He casually picked up a bamboo slip that was scattered on the table, unfolded it, glanced at it, and threw it back.
"All of these items are given to Your Majesty. The more of these items you have, the higher your chances of winning."
Si said that Chang'an Jun's behavior was very strange, and it turned out that there was another reason behind it!
Li Si stood up, bowed sincerely to Lü Buwei, and said excitedly, "My lord, could you explain it to me in more detail?"
In order to get the answer in his heart, Li Si didn't care that the past was over and even called out the word "Master".
Lu Buwei glanced at Li Si with a smile, without mentioning the word "master", and raised a finger.
He said: "Your Majesty has never regarded the nobles as enemies. Your Majesty has always had only one goal. If you want to maintain social order, you must change the laws. Only your Majesty can change the Qin laws. If your Majesty wanted to deal with those nobles, he could have done so long ago. He just kept them for later use."
Thinking of this, Lu Buwei smiled bitterly and exclaimed: "I finally understand why the king did not establish himself as king but gave the throne to your majesty.
"From the ancient Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to Yu the Great, Tang the King of Shang, and Wu the King of Zhou, to Qi Huan, Jin Wen, Qin Mu, Song Xiang, Chu Zhuang, King Helu of Wu, and Gou Jian of Yue, to the Warring States Period when various kings rose up to fight against each other.
"Throughout the generations of wise kings and overlords, they all dominated an era. However, the only one who can suppress the whole world with his own strength is our Majesty.
"The king is a person we have never seen in ancient times, and your majesty is also a person we have never seen in ancient times. The king appears to be a man without any thoughts, but in fact he has the kindness of a woman. Your majesty combines the kingly way, the hegemonic way, and the imperial way in one person, and is a natural emperor.
"With the emperor but without your majesty, even if the reform can be accomplished, the land of China will be submerged and there will be another thirty years of war. With your majesty but without the emperor, the reform will not be seen for a thousand years, and no one has the foresight to do so.
"Only if the emperor uses his wisdom to show you what he sees, and then uses your majesty's prestige to pressure the world to bow down, can the reform be carried out safely and the world be governed."
Li Si listened in silence and did not say a word about Lu Buwei's treasonous remarks about both Ying Chengjiao and the First Emperor.
"My Lord, please wait a moment. I will go and get the list for you."
"You're still calling me Lord?" Lü Buwei was surprised and asked, "You called me Lord, and I told you something. Now that I've finished my talk and the matter is over, the money and the goods are settled, why are you still calling me Lord?"
"I don't want to be the prime minister. Chang'an Jun wants you to come, I think you think I am not worthy of the prime minister. I still need you to correct my thoughts so that I won't make mistakes."
Lü Buwei nodded in understanding and said with a smile: "Since you still need my advice in the future, this is a long-term deal, so I can call you my Lord."
