15: Chapter 15 Chunyu Yue, who does not believe the feudal system is outdated

Li Si came from an ordinary family background, originating from the bottom of society.

He knew deep down how hard the lives of the common people at the bottom were.

Whether it was during his time as the Right Chancellor under the First Emperor or his current role as the premier of the Assembly.

His power already made him the second most influential person in Great Qin.

He was also seventy years old.

His power had reached its peak.

He no longer had any pursuits regarding power.

Being able to do something practical for the common people was, perhaps, a new life goal for him.

Of course, there was another reason Li Si was so proactive: his position as premier of the Assembly had a fixed term, and if he didn't do a good job, he would eventually have to step down.

He was unwilling to lose his position as the second-in-command.

Previously, the reason he and Fusu didn't get along was that Fusu was close to the Confucians, which clashed with his Legalist school. If Fusu were to take power, his life would have become difficult.

To Li Si's surprise, after Fusu took power, he didn't favor the Confucians. Instead, he drew closer to Li Si, allowing him to maintain his prestige in the imperial court.

He was also willing to help Zhao Fusu.

Li Si pondered.

The problem of 'Great Famine among the People' was indeed the most serious issue facing the Great Qin Empire today.

The common people didn't have enough to eat, yet they were forcibly conscripted for massive engineering projects, such as the Qin Straight Road, the Great Wall, the Tomb of the First Emperor at Mount Li, and the Lingqu Canal.

All of these caused the people to lament in misery and curse the Tyrannical Qin.

"Young Master Fusu."

Seeing Zhao Fusu getting close to Li Si, Chunyu Yue immediately became restless.

He did not call Zhao Fusu the Führer, but instead called him Young Master Fusu, wanting to remind Zhao Fusu of their master-disciple relationship.

Chunyu Yue had cultivated Fusu so diligently because his thoughts aligned with Confucius; he wanted to restore the rites of zhou and the enfeoffment system.

He believed that if Great Qin wanted eternal peace, it had to restore the enfeoffment system. He wanted Qin Shi Huang to grant fiefs to his sons and meritorious officials to ensure the long-term stability of the country.

This proposal sparked fierce controversy. Chancellor Li Si resolutely opposed it, arguing that King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou had granted fiefs to their sons and officials, which eventually led to the vassals attacking each other and the great division of the world. In contrast, the Qin Dynasty implemented the commandery-county system, where princes and officials lived on state salaries and could not rebel, making it a superior system for stabilizing the nation.

Qin Shi Huang ultimately adopted Li Si's suggestion and rejected Chunyu Yue's proposal for enfeoffment.

Chunyu Yue had not given up; he still wanted to influence Fusu so that once Fusu took power, he would implement the enfeoffment system.

This was also one of the reasons Li Si had been determined to see Fusu dead.

Once Fusu took power, the unified land that Li Si and the First Emperor had worked for decades to build would fall apart again. Those hundreds of thousands of old qin people would have died in vain.

"Führer!"

Li Si also called out.

"Dr. Chunyu Yue, what do you have to say?"

Zhao Fusu looked at Chunyu Yue and asked.

"Young Master Fusu."

Chunyu Yue still did not call Zhao Fusu the Führer.

He said, "In the past, during the Zhou Dynasty, the weather was favorable and the people lived in peace. If Young Master Fusu wants the people of our Great Qin Empire to have food to eat and be full, you must restore the rites of zhou and implement the enfeoffment system."

"By enfeoffing sons and brothers to various fiefs, the vassals will naturally put their hearts and souls into their own lands, ensuring that every person under their rule has food to eat and can be full."

"Führer, the enfeoffment system must not be restored."

Li Si resolutely opposed, saying, "King Wen of Zhou and King Wu of Zhou granted fiefs to their sons and officials, which eventually led to vassals attacking each other and the great division of the world. Our Great Qin implements the commandery-county system, where princes and officials live on state salaries and cannot rebel; this is the truly good system for stabilizing the nation."

He was afraid Zhao Fusu would fail to see this point, so he quickly made it clear.

Zhao Fusu did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked at the civil and military officials of the court and asked, "Who among you supports this, and who opposes it?"

"I oppose it."

Li Si was the first to stand up and speak.

His expression was somewhat tense as he watched Zhao Fusu.

He was afraid Zhao Fusu would actually start the enfeoffment system.

If that happened, the destruction of the Six States would have been for nothing. After a few years, the world would return to the Warring States period, with countries fighting endlessly and the common people never knowing peace.

"I support it!"

The Confucian officials, represented by Chunyu Yue, stood up one after another.

However, their numbers were few; after all, the First Emperor had considered them a nuisance and had already dealt with a group of them.

"I oppose it!"

"I oppose it!"

...

People from Li Si's faction stood up one after another to oppose it.

They were too many, forming an overwhelming advantage.

"Dr. Chunyu Yue's proposal has been voted on by the Collective Representative Assembly. Following the principle of the minority submitting to the majority, it has not passed," Zhao Fusu said leisurely.

"Young Master Fusu."

Chunyu Yue still refused to give up.

He hadn't expected that after a trip to the Great Wall, Fusu would seem like a completely different person, becoming entirely unfamiliar to him.

An important reason he had strongly supported Fusu's ascension to the throne was that when they talked privately, Fusu had highly approved of enfeoffment.

"Dr. Chunyu Yue,"

Zhao Fusu said, "The enfeoffment system is already outdated. If we restore it, we would be turning back the wheels of history."

"Enfeoffment leads to excessive local power, making it impossible for the central government to control the regions."

"The Collective Representative Assembly is the supreme power of my Great Qin Empire. If we use enfeoffment, the directives of the Great Qin Collective Representative Assembly will not be able to reach the local levels."

"This would inevitably affect our plan to ensure every citizen of the Great Qin Empire has enough to eat within five years."

"Dr. Chunyu Yue, please wait patiently for five years. Observe with patience the superiority of our new political system where we concentrate our strength to achieve great things together."

"Five years from now, if this political system cannot change the situation where the citizens of the Great Qin Empire do not have enough to eat, you can propose it again at the second Collective Representative Assembly."

"Fine."

As a staunch advocate of the enfeoffment system, asking Chunyu Yue to give up on it or admit it was outdated was impossible.

Even if he had to jump off a cliff or get hit by a carriage upon leaving, he would never admit that the enfeoffment system was outdated.

So what if he had to wait five years?

He would win over more like-minded officials, and then they would collectively propose the enfeoffment system at the second Collective Representative Assembly.

As long as their votes for the enfeoffment system were high enough, he could realize his ideal of restoring enfeoffment.

Chunyu Yue regained his fighting spirit.

Zhao Fusu continued, "After our Great Qin opened the Zheng Guo Canal, it irrigated over 40,000 qing of saline-alkali land, yielding one zhong per mu."

One zhong was ten shi. At that time, one mu referred to the Zhou Mu—one hundred paces per mu—which is equivalent to 0.328 modern mu. Converted to modern units, the yield per mu was about 878.6 jin, or 439.3 kilograms.

"But in other areas of Guanzhong, the millet yield per mu is only 1.5 shi."

When Qin Shi Huang unified weights and measures, one shi was approximately equal to 30.75kg. Based on this, the millet yield per mu in the Guanzhong area of the Qin State at that time was about 92.25 kilograms.

"Our next focus of work will be to make the millet yield in other areas of Guanzhong reach one zhong per mu."

"This!"

"This is impossible!"

Zhao Fusu's words caused the civil and military officials to break into a flurry of discussion once again.

The soil fertility in other areas of Guanzhong was relatively poor. How could the millet yield per mu reach one zhong, just like the land irrigated by the Zheng Guo Canal!