Li Nian also understood at this time, look at the two piles of bamboo.
"This pile is the bamboo slips for all the lords, so this pile must be the bamboo slips for the ministers of the Great Qin, right? The First Emperor must have assigned these two questions as homework to both the ministers and the lords, for them to answer."
"The First Emperor is indeed the First Emperor!"
Li Nian's heart sighed in awe.
These two questions, which some emperors would avoid even mentioning, the First Emperor not only boldly posed but also instructed everyone to provide answers.
So, does this reflect the weight of "The First Emperor of China Who Claimed to Be the Son of Heaven"?
"But why did the First Emperor send these bamboo slips to me? To seek my advice?"
Li Nian asked the reporting guard, "Besides sending these bamboo slips, did the king issue any edicts?"
The guard thought seriously and said, "Answering your question, Master, there is none."
This is very strange. Without giving instructions on what to do, he only sends these bamboo slips over; could it be that he wants him to simply look at them?
The First Emperor would not be this boring!
After reading the bamboo slips of Gongzi Gao, Li Nian picked up a scroll from the pile that was suspected to be written by the princes of Qin.
The bamboo slips confirmed his conjecture; it was another prince's writing, and the content on the bamboo slips was also a response to those two questions. However, what this prince described was ordinary and unremarkable.
After examining the bamboo slips of several princes, none of them were particularly innovative, and their writing and expression were relatively ordinary. It wasn't until he opened a scroll with the name Fu Shu that Li Nian's spirit was refreshed.
He was curious to see what high insights the most valued prince of Qin, as favored by the First Emperor, would have.
Expectation comes quickly, and so does its departure!
After reading just a few lines, Li Nian's expression became strange, and he muttered under his breath, "You deserve to be the favorite of the First Emperor, Fu Shu!"
The bamboo slips had better writing than the others, and what was stated seemed to be reasonable and based on evidence. The main idea was very clear, revolving around "The path of severe laws in Qin is not right; only benevolent governance should be implemented."
But Fu Su, you are a prince of Qin, the First Emperor's most favored and oldest son. Offering such a bamboo slip, have you considered how your father, the First Emperor, might react?
"The content above seems to be incomplete, Fu Su. Could it be that you wrote multiple bamboo slips?"
Li Nian looked at the remaining bamboo slips and took a deep breath, realizing that there were fewer princes in Qin than the number of bamboo slips in this pile.
There's no doubt that someone wrote more than one scroll, and the person who wrote the most likely would be Fu Su without a doubt.
He picked up another bamboo scroll, and as expected, it was the same as the previous one, written by Fu Su. He picked up another scroll, and again, it was Fu Su's bamboo slip.
Li Nian could probably imagine how the First Emperor felt upon seeing Fu Shu's bamboo slips, with a fire rising from his heart and anger swelling in his mind. However, he had no way to deal with Fu Shu.
This is the exhaustion and helplessness a father feels when encountering a son who does not understand him.
Fu Su didn't understand the key issue, nor did he recognize his own position.
The First Emperor wanted Fu Shu to become a qualified king, with the skills and methods of a king, and to not only listen to but also believe in.
But it's clear that Fu Su has taken a wrong turn, and the direction of the court does not seem to be heading in the direction of a kingdom.
As the First Emperor's favorite son and the future heir to the Qin Empire, how could Fu Su not recognize himself or understand what he should do?
Does the First Emperor dislike Fu Shu's talk of benevolent governance?
Of course not. If it were because Fu Shu talked about benevolent governance, the First Emperor wouldn't have appointed Chunyu Yue to teach Fu Shu.
After reading Fu Shu's bamboo slips, Li Nian exclaimed in admiration, "He really wrote over ten volumes. The First Emperor must have been furious when he saw these."
The most favored eldest son is like a clumsy stick that doesn't understand his ideas and often pokes holes in his heart, the beloved youngest son is a beastly scoundrel, and the other sons are a bunch of mediocre idiots.
No wonder the First Emperor has not appointed a successor for so many years; who among these princes can be made the heir?
"Their sons are not up to par, and the First Emperor himself has issues. People like Fu Shu should be made to change their surnames and experience life in the mortal world, so they can understand the difficulty of governing and comprehend the thoughts of their father. As for Hui, there's nothing to say; he should be eliminated as soon as possible, so as not to pollute the air."
Li Nian didn't have any bad feelings towards Fu Shu, nor did he have any good ones.
However, if he had to choose, it would be better for Fu Shu to become the next emperor because Fu Shu is benevolent, and one's life would be safer under his rule.
After reading the bamboo slips of all the princes of Qin, Li Nian looked at another pile and picked up a scroll.
The first scroll was written by Zhao Gao.
Upon seeing the name on the bamboo slips, Li Nian thought to himself, 'Is this the First Emperor's deliberate act, or was it an unintentional oversight?'
Among so many bamboo slips from the officials, Zhao Gao's bamboo slips being placed first suggests intentionality, and Li Nian doesn't believe there was no deliberate component to it.
Thinking back to the first scroll he received from the bamboo slips of the princes of Qin, which belonged to Hui, Li Nian became increasingly convinced that it was a deliberate act by the First Emperor.
"Zhao Gao is also a capable man, with words that have a purpose and examples that are well-chosen. No one who has climbed to a high position in the Qin Dynasty is an average person. In history books, some actions they took that seem foolish in hindsight were actually in line with the times and their own interests."
"This is Li Si's bamboo slip, which is very incisive, but I recall that Li Si, in history, did advise 'to ease punishments and reduce taxes.' How can he now advocate for heavier penalties and make the people fearful?"
Seeing the content of Li Si's bamboo slips, Li Nian pondered in his mind.
"That makes sense. People's thoughts and ideas are not fixed; they can change based on different ages and environments. With the Qin Dynasty having just unified the realm, Li Si could indeed have such thoughts."
Continuing to read the bamboo slips, he saw Wang Wan's proposal to focus on the core regions and implement a division of fiefs for remote areas. Li Nian sighed, "If Qin follows Wang Wan's method, it may be able to avoid the collapse of the Qin Dynasty after two generations. However, Emperor Qinshihuang was too confident in his belief that Qin had the ability to fully control the world. Therefore, he did not adopt Wang Wan's advice."
"Wang Wan lost his position as Prime Minister, and Li Si became the Prime Minister, which may also be due to this reason. The First Emperor wanted a Prime Minister whose ideas were in line with his own."
"The fall of the Qin Dynasty has many problems, but there is no doubt that one of them is that it was the first unified empire in Chinese history, and no one had ever governed such a vast empire before. The methods of governance were still being explored, and they moved too quickly."
"Wang Wan's method provided a transition period. If it had been adopted, there would have been an opportunity to help the Qin Dynasty navigate through the novice phase of governing a large unified empire."
"The Han Dynasty, when first established, also divided the kingdom among several princes. In the reign of Emperor Wu, however, their powers were weakened, which somewhat resembles Wang Wan's method."
"But the Han Dynasty certainly didn't plan this in advance; it was only a result of the situation requiring the division of territories. They didn't expect to accidentally create a transitional period for themselves."
"Of course, Qin and Han cannot be completely equated; the situation in Qin was more complex."
Li Nian read the bamboo slip of Wang Wan again carefully, and indeed, this prominent Qin prime minister was quite capable.
If he is not capable and just an average person, how could he serve as the Prime Minister under the First Emperor?
