General Qin

The thirty-second year of Qin Shihuang.

For the Qin State, which ruled the world, it was a year worth remembering and was called an eventful year.

This year, just after the New Year in October, the right prime minister, Wei Zhuang, wrote a letter complaining of illness and asking to return to his hometown.

"I am old and decrepit, have many physical diseases, often lie in bed, and occasionally suffer from memory loss. I feel that I am in a high position and unable to serve your Majesty, so I would like to resign to your majesty and give way to talents."

The white-haired Wei Xiang lay on the ground and asked the First Emperor to give up his position as the right prime minister of the empire.

Many ministers in the DPRK had expected this.

Because Wei Zhuang is more than seventy years old.

He is the oldest minister still standing in the Qin court.

A full fifteen years have passed since Wei Zhuang became the prime minister in the seventeenth year of the Qin Dynasty and joined forces with Changping Jun to assist the Qin Dynasty in governing the country.

Before the unification of the world, Wei Zhuang worked hard and contributed a lot to this country. The reason why Qin was able to annex the six kingdoms was inseparable from the assistance of this old prime minister.

But after the unification of Qin, Wei Zhuang changed his previous style and was submissive to any decision made by the king.

Whether Qin Shihuang wanted to build a palace or go to war, Wei Zhuang, the right prime minister, would not express too many opinions.

Regarding various government affairs in the prime minister's house, Wei Zhuang also relied on his old age as an excuse to leave everything to the left prime minister Wang Wan.

At first, Zhao Tuo thought that the old prime minister was just a useless person. After getting to know him for a long time, he realized that he was very politically sensitive.

In the face of any request from the emperor, Wei Zhuang was obedient, which made the first emperor, who had an inflated mentality after the reunification, find him very pleasing to the eye, and there would be no conflict between the emperor and his ministers.

As for his ambitious subordinate Wang Wan, Wei Zhuang handed over all the real power in his hands, making Wang Wan the left prime minister, but in fact he controlled the power of the entire state. Wang Wan holds great power, so he naturally respects him as the neglected right minister.

It is actually true to say that the Wei shape is a vegetarian meal in the corpse position.

But if you think about it from another angle, you will find that he is the one who can live safely to the end and retire with honor.

"Maybe it was Changping-kun's incident that stimulated him."

Zhao Tuo sighed secretly.

During the battle against Chu, Lord Changping rebelled, and the Qin court was purged by the furious Qin King Zhengda.

From Lord Changwen to hundreds of ministers related to the Chu clan, they were either killed or demoted and exiled. Compared with what happened in the past at Lao Ai, there were no more concessions.

With such a big change, it is normal for Wei's situation to change.

And now, it is time for him to retire in glory.

Sure enough, facing Wei Zhuang's resignation, the First Emperor happily agreed.

For this retired old prime minister, the First Emperor not only rewarded him with a lot of land, house and money, but also gave him the title of Chief of Si Chao Shu as a sign of praise.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

Wei Zang smiled and kowtowed in thanks.

From the Warring States Period, when heroes competed for hegemony, to the current era of great unification, there have been countless famous generals and good ministers. They were world-renowned and could be called heroes of the moment.

But there are not many people like Wei Zhuang who can live to be over seventy years old and return home safely with honor and wealth.

At the same time, someone's eyes lit up in the court.

Feng Jie, the imperial censor.

According to the practice of the Qin State, the imperial censor is a reserve for the prime minister. Once a prime minister retires, the imperial censor is usually the replacement.

Therefore, with Wei Zhuang's move, there is a high probability that Wang Wan will be promoted to the right prime minister, and Feng Jiebu will be promoted to the left prime minister.

"If I were the prime minister of Zuo, my brother Feng Quji would be the top minister of Qin, and Feng Wuze would be the commander-in-chief of the army to conquer South Vietnam. My Feng family will take off completely in Qin!"

Just when Feng Jie was having a lot of thoughts in his mind.

A few days later, at another court meeting, the emperor's appointment surprised him.

After Wang Wan was promoted to Prime Minister of the Right, the First Emperor publicly announced the candidate of Prime Minister of the Left.

"Tingwei Li Si has made many suggestions for me to unite the empire and revised the laws of Qin. He has made great achievements. He is now the Prime Minister of Zuo."

"Your Majesty, Li Si, thank you for your kindness."

Li Si stepped forward and kowtowed in thanks.

He looked up and saw the astonished Feng Jie beside him, a smile flashed in his eyes.

"Feng Wuze led an army of 200,000 people to conquer Baiyue in the south. If you, Feng Jie, are allowed to serve as prime minister in the court again, what will you, the Feng family, do?"

"I have to thank Feng Wuze for my position."

Compared to Feng Jie's shock, Li Si was happy.

Zhao Tuo felt that it was natural for the First Emperor to appoint Li Si as prime minister.

"Li Si has indeed become prime minister."

"I don't know if it's because I suppressed Confucianism in advance. Wang Wan was not implicated too much. Now he has been promoted to the right prime minister, even overtaking Li Si. Wang Wan seems to be only about fifty, which is more than ten years younger than Li Si. Years old. As long as he doesn't cause trouble later, he might be able to fight Li Si to death with me."

Zhao Tuo thought to himself.

If he wanted to drastically reform Qin's system, Li Si would be an absolute stumbling block.

Wang Wan, who was close to Confucianism, found it easier to cooperate with Zhao Tuo.

In the political arena, allies are needed.

According to Zhao Tuo's idea, after Li Si is killed in the future, he can exchange interests with Wang Wan in exchange for the other party's support for his reforms.

Wait until Fusu comes to power.

Everyone from the king to the prime minister supported the reform.

Then this Great Qin will completely change under the leadership of Zhao Tuo, and there will be no need to worry about everything like now.

Of course, the imagination was just imagination. Zhao Tuo quickly withdrew his eyes from the changes in court officials and started working on his engineering studies seriously.

In the second half of the thirty-first year of Qin Shihuang's reign, his thoughts were basically focused on the establishment of engineering studies.

Compared with one or two simple technologies and engineering studies, it is more important to create a systematic system for cultivating talents for Qin.

According to Zhao Tuo's design.

The students recruited by this engineering school are mainly craftsmen.

There is no age limit or title limit.

As long as you are a craftsman, you will be qualified to become an engineering student after passing the exam.

When Zhao Tuo's idea of ​​not limiting titles came out, some people opposed him.

For example, they said that the Qin State has always respected titles, and even the children of grammarians had the title or official position of their fathers.

If there are no restrictions on titles in engineering studies, wouldn't it be incompatible with the national conditions and deviate from Shang Jun's principle that "those who have merit will be honored, and those who have no merit will be rich but have no glory"?

Even Zhang Han, the Shaofu Cheng, was worried.

He suggested that Zhao Tuo should let craftsmen without titles need to take an exam to enter the school, while the children of craftsmen with titles could enter without taking exams, so that the privileges of knights could be retained.

Anyway, there are not many craftsmen with titles, so it generally has no impact.

Zhao Tuo sneered at this.

The reason why he, Zhao Tuo, wanted to establish engineering studies was precisely to use this as a starting point to slowly leverage the military merit system.

If a title restriction is added, what is the difference between it and no change?

This matter has nothing to do with the number of craftsmen, it is purely a matter of principle.

"Fu Shuao was raised among the building blocks, Jiao Ge was raised among the fish and salt, Guan Yiwu was raised among the scholars, Sun Shu'ao was raised among the seas, Baili Xi was raised among the city officials, all the virtuous men in ancient times did not care about their title or origin. I, the Qin Dynasty, have always It’s a matter of meritocracy, let alone a job that requires professional skills.”

"Here I only look at talents, not titles!"

Zhao Tuo had a tough attitude and relied on his own prestige and power to suppress all dissenting voices.

If he couldn't even suppress one engineering student, then why would he talk about reforming Da Qin?

Under Zhao Tuo's design, craftsmen in the Qin State needed to pass three examinations if they wanted to enter engineering and become engineering disciples.

One is literacy, which is the most basic thing.

To enter engineering school, you need to learn systematic knowledge of physics and various industries. After graduation, you have to work as an official in charge of various industries. How can you do it if you are not literate?

Therefore, literacy is a mandatory requirement. Fortunately, the Qin State has a system of writing work names, and most craftsmen know some characters. In addition, paper is now widely used in various government offices, and woodblock printing is also in daily use. It is not difficult to print literacy textbooks such as "Cangjie Pian" written by Li Si, Zhao Gao and others and distribute them to various work offices, so that craftsmen have the opportunity to learn calligraphy.

After literacy, the second test is numeracy.

Mathematics is a very important thing in physics and engineering. Without mathematics, it is impossible to become an excellent craftsman, so this exam is very necessary.

As for the third test, it is practical.

What Zhao Tuo wants is not theoretical talents who are divorced from reality.

If you want to enter engineering, you must be able to make a certain number of appliances. Whether it's a treadmill, a stone mill, iron smelting, or other utensils, these craftsmen must have real skills in their hands.

This kind of craftsman who is literate, good at arithmetic, and can do practical work can take the engineering examination held by the Shaofu after registering through various work offices.

Once they pass the exam, they can get out of their jobs and enter engineering schools to learn various knowledge.

It is said that one of the textbooks for engineering is the book "Physics" adapted from the sacred book "Gongshu Fragments", which made countless craftsmen breathe faster and yearn for it.

After engineering students pass the corresponding examinations in engineering, they can be promoted to official positions such as engineer engineers in various places.

These positions are not high and belong to the level of petty officials, but they have broken away from ordinary craftsmen and completed a class leap.

Even more attractive than military merit.

After all, if you have made meritorious service on the battlefield and been promoted to a noble title, you may not be able to become a minor official when you return home.

As soon as the engineering school system came out, countless craftsmen immediately flocked to it and regarded Shaofu Zhao Tuo as a saint.

Of course, if the children of the school fail to pass the assessment within the corresponding time and limited number of times, they will be sent back to their place of origin and returned to their original form.

Overall, the engineering-study system is fair.

Zhao Tuo gave these craftsmen the opportunity to rise, but whether they could complete the class leap depends on their individual abilities.

To a certain extent, this also falls into the category of appointing officials only to the meritocratic.

So when Zhao Tuo's engineering study system was reported to the emperor, he explained it in detail. The First Emperor had no objection to this, and even looked forward to the results of Zhao Tuo's attempt.

Until the spring of the thirty-second year of Qin Shihuang.

The engineering school organized by Zhao Tuo officially recruited its first batch of students after passing numerous examinations.

It was at this time that an envoy from Yue in the south brought great news to the Qin court.

Qin general Feng Wuze led his army to successfully attack Minyue, expelled King Wuzhu of Minyue, and occupied the land of Minyue.

General Feng conquered another Yue Kingdom!

When the First Emperor received the news in the Qin Palace, he laughed three times.

Although he was a little unhappy with the news that Feng Wuze said in his letter that he was seriously ill. However, the emperor still ordered people to spread the word and inform the whole country to encourage people.

At the same time, it shows the correctness of him, the emperor, in launching the Baiyue War.

There is no war I want to fight that I cannot win!

In Feng Mansion, Feng Jing, who was in Xiu Mu's home today, also heard the good news spread throughout the city.

"My father defeated the Yue people and occupied Minyue. This is a great achievement."

"Come here, please invite Mr. Wang He and Mr. Li Yu to come, and then ask my brother to accompany you!"

"To celebrate my father's victory, we will play cards today!"