"Heifu, are you still a Qin official?"

On the way away from Duting, Xi kept thinking about Heifu's answer to his question.

Xi takes these two words very seriously. This can be said to be the belief that he has been able to persist to this day in the turbulent officialdom and turbulent current situation.

Xi was in the first year of the Qin Dynasty. When he was seventeen years old, he served in Fu Ji. Three years later, he was accused of being a food official by Anlu County. From then on, he began his career as a Qin official.

He worked at the grassroots level for many years: in November of the fourth year, he became a jailer; in April of the sixth year, he was appointed as the magistrate of Anlu; in the first month of the seventh year, Jiayin, he was transferred to the magistrate of Yan County; in April of the twelfth year, Guichou was promoted to The jailer of Yan County became the chief judicial officer of the county.

In the thirteenth year of the Qin Dynasty, Xi began to join the army, and continued to fight abroad for several years. In the fourteenth year, he joined the Qin general Huanjue's team and served as a hundred generals to attack the Zhao army in Pingyang. In the fifteenth year, he joined Wang Jian and Yang Duanhe One army went to Ye, the other to Taiyuan, captured Langmeng, returned home after the victory, and began to serve as a prison warden in Anlu County.

He experienced the Nan County police incident for 19 years and tried many cases. In the 20th year, because his mother died of illness, he returned home to prepare for the funeral. On his way to the county seat after the funeral, he met a man named "Black" who blocked the road and complained about injustice. "Husband's fellow countrymen"...

More than ten years later, Xi was also moved by the waves of the times. He served as a jailer in Nanjun and as a magistrate in Dongting County. Fortunately, he survived a serious illness and was transferred to the imperial court as a censor. He also set out on a journey to the imperial court because of a memorial that criticized Qin Shihuang himself. On the way to the West...

Now in a blink of an eye, 40 years have passed. From the beginning to the end, Xi has always believed in the creed taught to him by the law: abide by the law, be loyal to the emperor, do good and keep faith, be fair and love the people.

Loyalty to the Qin Dynasty and belief in the way of being an official have been engraved in his bones.

He also used this to teach Heifu, hoping that this young descendant could become a loyal Qin official like himself...

So he vaguely expected to hear "yes".

But Heifu's answer was beyond Xi's expectation.

"It does not matter……"

Heifu said to Xi Ru at that time: "Xijun, you taught me a long time ago that when people decide a case, it is never based on what a person says."

"It depends on what he has done, so it is useless to just rely on my mouth to defend myself."

"On the way Xi Jundong came, you may have seen the current scene of people's livelihood, but the changes around Xianyang have also been great. You might as well walk around more and see for yourself."

I remember Heifu’s answer fondly.

But he refused the people sent by Heifu to accompany him. He only wore regular clothes and his second son Hui, who was already an official in Tingwei and took leave to pick up his father. The father and son, together with the old servant who drove the cart, wandered on both sides of the Weishui River. .

But just after they crossed the Bianmen Bridge, they were stopped by Abei Pavilion Chief for verification.

The chief of the pavilion wore a red turban, a rope around his waist, and a wooden slip in his hand. He was dressed like a standard low-level official. There was also a cane stuck in his back - this was used to whip those evil young men who did nothing to harm the village.

Thanks to the talisman that Hei Fu asked the internal historian to sign, the joy can flow smoothly and not be as difficult as Shang Jun did back then.

Faced with the detailed inspection and interrogation, he was happy but not angry, because this meant that the old Qin Dynasty's rule at the grassroots level, at least around Xianyang, had been completely restored, and the pavilion chief would no longer sit back and watch the thieves as they did in troubled times. Bandits are rampant, and with tighter control, thieves and fugitives will have nowhere to hide. And after the chaos, Guanzhong can soon return to a situation where dogs never bark at night and roads never pick up lost items.

Also undergoing inspection in this pavilion were two officials. They were said to have gone from Beidi County to Zhangtai Palace for intensive training...

Hui told Xi that unlike before, the imperial court now has a systematic selection of officials. Each county first passes the county examination, which examines the law, mathematics, and writing skills of county school disciples and local young officials. Only those who pass the exam can become chiefs.

official.

If the disciples of the school have no previous official experience, they will be sent to the countryside for internship first, and they must stay at the grassroots level for at least three years before they can continue to be promoted. This is true even for the descendants of Chehou's meritorious officials.

Hui also told Xi that now every official must take an oath when taking office:

"The law is the order of the world."

"Officials, the people's lives are at stake!"

These are exactly two of Xi’s favorite sentences from back then…

As an official, you must promise to be loyal to the country, the law, and the people. This is just a concise version of "The Way of an Official"...

Although it seems formalistic, if this can be used as a starting point, it is better than feudal officials who are not even aware of this.

In addition, at the local level, especially in the Guandong region, officials with outstanding performance are selected every year to visit Guanzhong. They study the arduous journey of Xia Gong's reunification in Zhangtai Palace and understand the policy agenda of the imperial court...

Although the Qin officials in the new era are of the same origin as those in the old era, their composition and the situations they face have gradually changed.

After checking the pavilion, the master and servant could continue on their way. Their first stop was the Afang Palace in Weinan...

…

Xianyang has no outer city wall, because in the vision of Emperor Qin Shihuang, Hangu, Wuguan, Xiaoguan, and Longguan are the four gates of the capital of Qin! And within these four gates, they will be built into heavenly palaces on earth, everywhere

There are buildings, and every step is a pavilion.

So in addition to the expansion of Zhangtai Palace, there was also a large-scale construction project to build Afang Palace, which involved hundreds of thousands of civilians and spent an incredible amount of money and food.

At that time, Xi was very critical of this matter in his letter, which also caused trouble for the First Emperor.

When he returned to Guanzhong this time, he had also heard that there was a novel poem circulating among the people. It was called "Afang Palace Fu". The poem said: "After the six kings have finished, the four seas are one; Shushan Wu, Afang comes out. It covers more than three hundred miles."

,Isolation days..."

The poem describes the magnificence of Afang, but it does not envy its luxury, but laments the arrogance and resentment of the people, which reflects the thoughts of scholars all over the world. Therefore, although the style is slightly different from that of ordinary articles,

However, it was well received and, with the government's intentional or unintentional promotion, it was passed on and copied one after another, making Xianyang paper expensive for a while.

Xi Ze just listened silently and commented that the author's intention was good.

"But many of them are too exaggerated, and people in the world are easy to believe them without discerning them."

He also asked, who wrote this poem? His literary talent is similar to that of Song Dynasty Yu.

Hui said with emotion: "I don't know, the author is anonymous, or it may be written by Sihao of Shangshan. They lived in seclusion in Shangshan when Hu Hai usurped the throne. Later, they saw that Xia Gong was frivolous in corvee and paid no taxes, and rested with the people. They were persuaded by Mr. Huang Shi and now they are here.

He was named Dr. Huang Lao."

However, Shangshan Sihao denied this, so this poem, which has been widely circulated among literate people recently, can only be attributed to "Anonymous". It became a war song criticizing the administration of the old dynasty, and also set off a period of reflection in Guanzhong.

The First Emperor had bad governance and promoted a frugal movement...

Of course, these lines, "The heart of a single man is becoming increasingly arrogant. The soldiers of the garrison screamed, and the grain was raised; the people of Chu burned the torch, and the earth was scorched." These lines must have been deleted by someone.

In fact, the "author" of this poem originally wanted to add a description of Afang's current situation, but he actually didn't have much literary talent. He cut his hair short, and the words and sentences he added always seemed to be like a dog's tail, and the imperial literati were not satisfactory...

Unless Li Si is still alive, it is difficult for anyone to write a sequel that is in line with the "author's" intention and has such a superficial appearance.

Therefore, only half of the article was included. However, Shangshan Sihao, who was suspected to be the author of this poem, is now working with Gaigong of Jiaoxi to re-establish the Huang-Lao School.

Arriving in front of Afang Palace, surrounded by Shanglin Yechi, the palace is still as magnificent as the last time I looked at it from a distance, but what comes out of it is no longer the sound of orchestral music, but the sound of reading...

After the women of the Wei and Qin Palaces and the soldiers of the Northern Expedition held a collective wedding, Afang Palace was not idle either. Under the leadership of Zhang Cang and Lu Jia, the Yushi Mansion collected the poems and books collected by Li Si from the six countries under the orders of Qin Shihuang.

The knowledge of various schools of thought was successively copied from bamboo slips to paper by swordsmen and pen-writers, and then sent to the stone room of Epang Palace for storage, which was built into a large library.

Hui said: "Xia Gong said that those who are qualified to live in this gorgeous palace built at the expense of the people of the world are not emperors or officials, there is only one thing."

"That is knowledge. It is the secret knowledge that has been handed down in China for three generations!"

"Confucianism, Mohism, Huang Lao, Taoism, Dharma, Ming, Za, Nong, Yin and Yang, novels, and even books about political strategists who once brought disaster to the world. Except for the study of military strategists, which are taught in military schools that specialize in training military officials, the rest

They are all hidden here.”

Xi frowned and said: "Does the regent want Epang Palace to be turned into Jixia Academy and the contention of a hundred schools of thought to be recreated?"

As a supporter of Shang Jun and Han Zi, Xi actually doesn't like people who speak words very much. After all, these people are not very knowledgeable, but they like to use literature to violate prohibitions. Moreover, they have a lot of theories, but they can really be used in practice.

But there are very few people. Don't end up like Qi who raised thousands of people but made no achievements in enriching the country and strengthening the army.

Hui smiled and said: "Father is too worried. The regent has said that in Afang, there will no longer be divided into hundreds of families."

“Only by subject!”

"Subject?"

Hui said: "Yes, there is the study of law, which studies the law; there is the study of etiquette, which studies the etiquette of the past and present; there is the study of names and facts, which studies the debate between names and realities; there is the study of astronomy and geography, which explores the mysteries of heaven and earth; there is the study of philology, which studies ancient books.

In addition, there are also subjects such as music studies, academic studies, and even engineering, agriculture, commodity production, dialects, translation, novels and plays, etc., and there are all kinds of subjects, as many as nineteen subjects in total!"

Therefore, the doctors recruited by the imperial court were not only Confucian scholars, but also included hundreds of schools of thought that survived among the people and survived in the dust of troubled times under Qin Shi Huang's policy of tightening public opinion.

"Xia Gong said that for hundreds of schools of thought, we should get rid of the dross and pick out the essence. The law of workers and peasants is an important subject. Xia Gong calls it a key subject. Each has a separate palace and recruits disciples from all over the world. After completing the studies, most of them are

Officials at the grassroots level may go to the county to teach disciples.”

"As for other subjects, today there are only dozens of Ph.D. elders who organize various sciences, and more than a hundred smart scholars are enrolled in the school every year. One person can study many subjects according to his ability, and does not have to be limited to the ruts of one school. In this way, a hundred flowers can bloom.

, and it will not lead to sectarian disputes and mutual criticism.”

Heifu’s goal is not only to integrate various schools of thought, but also to...

“Build Afang into the world’s first comprehensive university!”

And it’s double first-class…

It is just that we do not plan to accept foreign students from foreign countries for the time being.

In this way, whether it is metaphysical classical philosophy, simple natural science that pays attention to reality, or even social science that studies human beings' own systems, they will all be developed and integrated in this palace of knowledge.

If the state power and the legal system are the superstructure, then these dazzling knowledge are based on it, the more precarious castles in the air. They are difficult to build and even more difficult to pass on. They are also the things that are most easily burned by war and troubled times.

Xi may not be able to understand all of this, but he can also feel Heifu's overwhelming ambition.

The ambition to build a civilized future!

Compared with inventing and creating things with hammers and hammers, building a scientific foundation is actually more difficult and time-consuming, but it is the right way to teach people to fish rather than teach them how to fish.

After seeing these "castles in the air" of civilization in Afang, I was delighted to see the infrastructure of a country in the Shanglin area of ​​Weinan - the basic necessities of life for ordinary people...

…

I remember fondly that when I came to Xianyang to serve as an official, Weinan was still a vast parkland with herds of elk. The vast and fertile land was used as a royal garden, only for the First Emperor and the sons of the nobles to hunt, gallop and have fun. The common people dared to do it.
To be continued...