nycdaug Chapter 582 The Campaign Against Wei 3
Chapter 582 The Campaign Against Wei 3
Crown Prince Ji recalled what he had seen and heard in the Museum during the day, Zhang Cang's seemingly profound words, the article "On the Unification of the World and the Blessing of All People" in the Da Qin Xin Bao, and even more so, his father, who was far away in Daliang and probably still ignorant of Qin's power and scientific progress, and those ministers who were still vying for power.
A powerful impulse surged within him. He had to do something! Not out of betrayal, perhaps... to save? To save the ancestral temples of the Wei dynasty, to save the soldiers and civilians in those six cities who might be slaughtered for resisting.
He spread out a sheet of high-quality Qin paper, picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, but hesitated to write for a long time.
How should this letter be written? Should it directly state the strength of Qin and urge Father to make plans early? Or should it subtly recount what the academy has seen, letting Father know that times have changed? Will Father listen? Will the military generals in the court allow it?
The ink spread a small shadow under the lamplight, mirroring his clouded and uncertain state of mind. In the end, Prince Ji did not put down his pen.
The day after the Daqin Xinbao published "On the Unification of the World and the Blessing of All People," the city of Xianyang was in an uproar.
In a teahouse in the East Market, a group of merchants were gathered around a newspaper, discussing animatedly.
"Exactly written!" exclaimed a Shu brocade merchant. "Take this trade route for example. In the past, transporting brocade from Chengdu to Linzi required passing through three checkpoints and five checkpoints, with taxes levied at each level. During times of war, detours were necessary. But now? There's a paved road throughout Qin territory, with uniform tax rates at checkpoints. It only takes seven days to travel from Xianyang to Handan! If the world is truly unified, this business can reach the ends of the earth!"
A salt merchant from Qi frowned, "That's true, but the salt tax in Qi is 30% lower than in Qin. If they were unified..."
"Shortsighted!" an old man interrupted him. It was Zhuo, who used to trade ironware in Zhao and now ran a workshop in Xianyang. "Look at this sentence in the text: 'The tax system will be gradually unified, taking the middle value of the world.' What does that mean? It's not based on the highest Qin tax, nor the lowest Qi tax, but on the middle value! More importantly—how much tax money is saved in terms of bribes and waiting time by eliminating checkpoints?"
Everyone suddenly understood. The Qi merchant, however, remained unconvinced: "But Qi is, after all, my homeland..."
"Our homeland?" A young voice interjected. It was the young owner of the teahouse, a descendant of the original Koreans. "When my grandfather fled from Xinzheng to Xianyang, he only had half a piece of dry rations with him. Now, this teahouse of my family is making a fortune every day. My younger sister is studying at the Daqin Women's Academy, learning accounting and medicine. She'll be able to marry into a good family in the future. Did she have such an opportunity when the state of Han still existed?"
The teahouse fell silent for a moment.
At another table, several craftsmen dressed in coarse cloth were also reading newspapers—they were illiterate, and the storyteller in the teahouse was reading them to everyone.
"Equal education...does that mean our craftsmen's children can also go to school?" an old carpenter asked in a trembling voice.
The storyteller nodded: "The text says that 'schools of a hundred crafts' will be set up in various counties to teach skills such as construction, iron smelting, and textiles. Outstanding students can even be recommended to the 'Minggong Department' of the Great Qin Academy!"
The artisans were thrilled. Most of them held hereditary artisan status. In the past, in the six states, artisans had a low social status, their skills were kept secret, and their descendants could only engage in lowly occupations. Although Qin also valued agriculture and suppressed commerce, since the princess implemented the new policies, the Artisan Bureau had repeatedly rewarded innovators, even granting them titles—although only the lowest rank of Gongshi, it was unprecedented.
“If that’s true…” A middle-aged blacksmith’s eyes reddened, “My son loves tinkering with mechanisms. The other day he made a small model that can automatically pound rice using scraps of wood. If there really were a school for all crafts, wouldn’t he…”
"It's definitely possible!" someone encouraged. "Didn't you hear what the article said? 'Regardless of social status, all children can attend school and learn to read; farmers, merchants, and artisans can all learn a skill.' Her Highness always keeps her word!"
In the slums of the western part of the city, several elderly people surrounded a literate young man, listening to him stumble and stagger as he read the newspaper.
Upon hearing the line, "So that brave men may return to their fields, and old mothers may no longer weep for their sons," a blind old woman suddenly burst into tears: "My son... if the unification had been achieved ten years earlier, would you have been spared from dying beneath the walls of Handan...?"
Her son was originally a soldier in the Zhao army. After the Battle of Changping, the Zhao state was short of troops and forcibly conscripted men over forty years old to defend Handan. He died on the city wall.
A veteran with a broken leg nearby murmured, "Stop the war...stop the war...I fought for thirty years, from Zhao to Yan, from Wei to Chu. In the end, I lost this leg in Ye City. If the war could truly end, I would kowtow to the King of Qin right now..."
The younger man continued reading to the section on "water conservancy," which described how the Yellow River would be managed after unification.
An old river worker suddenly stood up—he had developed severe rheumatism from years of water management and walked with a limp: “Dig the Ling Canal? Dredge the Yellow River? This…this will require conscripting so many laborers? Will it be another Zheng Guo Canal?” Although the Zheng Guo Canal was a water conservancy project, countless laborers died during its construction.
The young man pointed to the article and explained, "Third Master, look, it says here, 'We will provide work relief in lieu of relief, and pay with money and grain; we will improve tools and cherish the people's strength.' It also says that we will promote things like 'pulley blocks' and 'lever cranes,' which are all new gadgets that the academy has come up with that can save manpower."
The old river worker was skeptical, but a light shone in his eyes. Three generations of his family had worked on the river; his father and two older brothers had all died on the job. If they could truly "improve tools and cherish the people's labor"...
The aristocratic district presents a completely different scene.
In an exquisite mansion, several former members of the Korean royal family gathered together. Leading them was Han Seong, who was granted the title of "Yangseong-gun" after surrendering. Although he held no real power, his mansion and land were retained, and his children were allowed to attend academies.
“The article is beautifully written, but what is the reality?” a young man said indignantly. “Although we have no worries about food and clothing, we are monitored everywhere, and we even have to report when we leave the city.”
Han Cheng slowly sipped his tea and said calmly, "Then what do you plan to do? Restore the kingdom? With your own strength? Or with those Han people outside who can't even get enough to eat?"
The young man was speechless.
Han Cheng put down his teacup: "My son is studying 'Calculation' at the academy. Last month, he solved some kind of 'equation' and received an award. The princess personally rewarded him with a 'fountain pen'. What about your younger brother? He's in the medical school, learning anatomy under the Imperial Physician. It's said that he can already treat external injuries independently. If the state of Han were still around, would they have such an opportunity? They'd probably still be scheming and fighting over those petty gains in Xinzheng City."
He stood up and walked to the window: "The article says, 'The talents of the six states all entered the Qin court,' and that's no exaggeration. Xiang Yan has already surrendered, so what do we, the royal family of a fallen state, have to hold onto?"
Someone whispered, "But in the end, they're just living under someone else's roof..."
“Then let’s make ourselves indispensable.” Han Cheng turned around, his gaze sharp. “Qin needs talent, so we will become talent. Qin wants to unify the world, so we will help it unify. When one day, a third of the court is made up of people from the former six states, and half of the officials in the prefectures and counties have backgrounds from various states—at that time, what’s the difference between Qin people and Han people? We will all be Chinese.”
These words caused everyone present to fall into deep thought.
At Daqin Academy, the reaction was more complex.
The college's chief minister specially arranged for the doctoral students to read this article aloud during the morning class on the 22nd day of the twelfth lunar month. Inside the lecture hall, the students displayed a variety of expressions.
Zhang Cang and other former students from the states of Han and Zhao mostly expressed their agreement—they had personally experienced the pain of national subjugation, but they had also witnessed the benefits of Qin's new policies. Those students from humble backgrounds were even more excited, because they knew that in their homeland, they would never have a chance to rise above their circumstances.
Only Prince Wei Ji sat alone in the corner, his face calm and expressionless. But his clenched fists and slightly trembling fingertips betrayed the turmoil within him.