68: Chapter 68 Even the emperor is subject to the same laws as commoners!

"Legalist ideology must be revised."

Zhao Fusu said.

In Legalist thought, the monarch holds a monopoly on power, possessing high centralization, ruling over all people with infinite authority that transcends the law.

This is contrary to the Constitutional Monarchy of the Great Qin Empire that Zhao Fusu advocates.

He did not want to establish a Great Qin that belonged to just one person.

Just as Great Qin collapsed immediately after Qin Shi Huang's death.

Even if he carried out an industrial revolution in Great Qin, it would immediately collapse once he died.

He wanted to keep Great Qin in a leading position in the world for a long time.

To achieve this vision, he could not allow imperial power to be supreme.

Whether an emperor served for life or by hereditary succession.

This was fatal to the strength of Great Qin.

In history, there were calligraphy artists who became emperors, carpenters who became emperors, and even three or six-year-old children who became emperors.

Isn't that just nonsense!

No matter how powerful a country is, if it is led by an unsuitable person, it will only gradually decline.

If a country wants to remain continuously strong, it must let suitable people be its leaders.

This was the ideological change Zhao Fusu wanted to bring to the people of Great Qin since his arrival, to let them form such a concept.

This was also his primary purpose for creating the newspaper.

Zhao Fusu was a very patient person and also someone with a very firm personality.

He believed that if he persisted for ten years as if it were a single day, after a few generations of Great Qin Empire's people, their concepts would gradually change.

"Write the Constitutional Monarchy of the Great Qin Empire into the newspaper and tell the people of the world that the emperor is also a human being and cannot do as he pleases. If the Son of Heaven breaks the law, he is punished just like a commoner!"

Boom!

When Zhao Fusu said these words, a clap of thunder exploded on the horizon.

In the minds of Li Si and Feng Quji, thunder also roared violently.

If the Son of Heaven breaks the law, he is punished just like a commoner!

Zhao Fusu's proposition was undoubtedly a subversive idea for today's society.

Li Si's breathing became rapid.

If the principle that the Son of Heaven is punished like a commoner could be implemented, what would that mean!

The rule of law would be truly carried out.

What was one of the major reasons the people were dissatisfied with Legalism? The monarch monopolized power, highly centralized, ruled over all people with infinite authority, and was above the law.

Damn it, as a monarch, nothing happens when you commit a crime, yet you create a qin law just to screw over us commoners.

But if the Son of Heaven is punished like a commoner if he breaks the law, then it is greatly different.

Everyone is treated equally before the law.

Even the monarch takes the lead in being just like the commoners.

Then the people's grievances wouldn't be so great.

It's like a school leader saying that people need to temper their will, and even if it rains during military training, they must persevere.

In the end, he himself stands there with an umbrella, watching from the side.

That would certainly earn him a round of eye-rolls from the students.

However, if you throw away the umbrella before saying those words, they would respect you a bit more.

"Fu... Führer, are we re... really writing it like this?"

Li Si's heart was incredibly uneasy.

The Son of Heaven being punished like a commoner—even he, the head of the Legalists, wouldn't dare say such a thing.

In fact, he wouldn't even dare think it.

This was too bold!

Li Si thought he was pretty ruthless.

In order to rise to power, he had caused the death of his junior fellow disciple, Han Feizi.

That was his dear friend, his own brother in all but blood.

Even a ruthless person like him seemed too naive compared to Zhao Fusu.

Zhao Fusu was the truly peerless, ruthless man.

Silently taking control of the two hundred thousand troops Inside the Pass, launching a military coup, implementing a Constitutional Monarchy for the Great Qin Empire, and stripping Hu Hai, the prospective emperor, of his administrative, military, legislative, and judicial powers—forcibly seizing power.

Now he even says things like 'if the Son of Heaven breaks the law, he is punished like a commoner.'

He just wants to ensure that Hu Hai, this prospective emperor, can never hold power for his entire life.

The Führer has a term of office; one term is five years, and a re-election lasts ten years.

Ten years later, even if Zhao Fusu is no longer the Führer, as long as he lets someone he can control become the Führer, wouldn't the Great Qin Empire still be under his control?

Such a person is truly terrifying!

Li Si clicked his tongue in wonder.

He believed that once this policy of Zhao Fusu's was released, it would surely gain the approval of the people of the world.

Emperors are hereditary; unless one rebels, it's impossible to become an emperor.

Now, the Führer is equivalent to the emperor; as long as one becomes the Führer, one can be the emperor.

For ambitious people, they can achieve this without rebelling, so they will certainly support it.

In Li Si's eyes, Zhao Fusu was using an open scheme to consolidate his regime.

Such a political mind was simply extraordinary!

Li Si marveled once again; the Führer was truly a natural-born ruler!

His political mind was too heaven-defying!

In truth, Zhao Fusu hadn't thought as much as Li Si did.

He simply wanted Great Qin to remain strong globally for a long time.

Yet, coincidentally, his actions made it very difficult for people to say he was rebelling.

His policies also happened to make everyone else happy, except for the emperor.

For example, if someone were to say now that administrative power should be returned to Hu Hai, the prospective emperor.

The nobles would definitely be the first to jump out in opposition.

They were afraid that if the emperor regained power, he would implement grain control again and stop them from selling grain.

This was in direct conflict with their interests.

They had land and large quantities of grain.

If they couldn't sell grain, they wouldn't have money.

In the past, they could sell grain to the government.

In order to annex the Six States, the State of Qin would offer large amounts of money to buy grain. The nobles were also happy to sell grain to Qin.

But after Qin annexed the Six States and conquered Baiyue, Qin lost its military objectives.

Qin no longer needed to spend a lot of money to prepare large amounts of military provisions.

This was also an important reason why the Qin government ran out of grain.

Since the Qin government stopped spending heavily on grain, even if the nobles had large amounts of grain in their hands, they didn't want to sell it to the government.

On the surface, they weren't allowed to sell grain, but it wasn't said that they couldn't sell it secretly in private.

Selling grain privately earned them much more than selling it to the government.

However, if a noble was caught secretly selling grain, the consequences were miserable. Therefore, they didn't sell much, and since they had to bear the risk of being discovered by the government, the grain price wasn't cheap.

To say that the grain harvest was poor because of the earth movements, which were earthquakes, was also true.

They even used this as an excuse to fool the government.

But that was the commoners having no grain; what did it have to do with them, the nobles?

They were landlords; the amount of grain they collected remained unchanged!

Therefore, only the commoners had no way to survive!

Zhao Fusu only found this out after some investigation.

Looking at Li Si, Zhao Fusu said, "The principle that the Son of Heaven is punished like a commoner if he breaks the law must not only be written, but it must be written in a prominent position!"

"Everyone is equal before the law!"

"Also, you must write about the abolition of Corporal Punishment and the abolition of corvée labor in the newspaper."

"Our newspaper will not only be distributed Inside the Pass but will also be distributed to the Six Lands!"

"Yes!"

Li Si nodded.

"Right."

Li Si suddenly asked curiously, "Führer, what content do you want to publish on the first edition?"