The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 346 Always Worried
Over the years, this restaurant has not had many customers. Usually, only a few of Liu Ji's older brothers would come to buy some wine and meat.

This would at least ensure that the Cao family would have no worries about food and clothing.

Autumn in Pei County is the harvest season. Liu Fei saw a letter from Prince Heng, saying that a battle had taken place in Cheshi.

The Qin army ambushed a band of bandits and obtained a great deal of treasure, which belonged to the Jingjue Kingdom.

Liu Fei remembered that Cheshi and Jingjue were not far apart.

In the letter, Liu Fei learned that Liu Ying had also killed enemies in that ambush.

After reading it, Liu Fei wrote a reply to Gongzi Heng, telling him that he had already married and would return to Guanzhong later.

The letter was sent out. Liu Fei didn't hesitate much in the letter. Ever since he left Sishui Pavilion when he was fourteen, he had decided that one day he would take his mother away from here and start a new life in a different place.

Liu Fei knew that his mother had a very hard life, according to the villagers' gossip.

In mid-September in Guanzhong, cartloads of land tax were being transported to Xianyang City. Gongzi Heng was sitting by the edge of the field when he received Liu Fei's reply.

Prince Heng was delighted to see the reply. He bowed to his younger brother beside him and said, "Look, we have found another talented person for Father."

Gongzi Li traveled to the Great Wall at the beginning of the year and only recently returned.

After returning, Gongzi Li took up a post at the Imperial Academy. Of all the positions in the Qin court, Gongzi Li preferred the work at the Imperial Academy, for he believed that teaching and educating people was a major pillar of governing the country.

Gongzi Heng sat on a haystack, gazing into the distance. "Tell me," he said, "what position would someone like Liu Fei be suitable for in the Qin court?"

Gongzi Li replied, "Father promotes officials based on merit. He prefers younger and more talented people. Even if Liu Fei returns to Guanzhong, he can either continue to serve in the army or, through the imperial examination, perhaps take up an important position in the Nine Ministers' Office."

"I think Liu Fei will definitely participate in the scientific expedition."

"How do you know, brother?"

Gongzi Heng handed the letter to his younger brother and looked at the harvest scenery with him, saying, "The person Liu Fei cares about most is his mother."

Gongzi Li replied, "I didn't hear Liu Fei mention it before."

Gongzi Heng said, "It seems that you and Liu Fei were not very close when you were in the border army."

Gongzi Li frowned, deep in thought.

Li Zuoche led the carriage over and bowed, saying, "Young masters, the carriage is repaired and we can proceed to Mount Li."

Gongzi Heng stood up and walked towards the carriage.

Gongzi Li followed behind his elder brother and said, "Back then, Liu Fei didn't respond to your words, did he?"

"Yes."

From the outside, the voices inside the car sounded somewhat muffled.

Gongzi Li also stepped into the carriage.

As Li Zuoche drove the carriage, he could still hear the two young masters talking.

Once they reached the foot of Mount Li, after the two young masters alighted from their carriages, Li Zuoche stood guard by the carriage.

The two brothers climbed to the top of Mount Li one after the other. The early autumn wind blew through the forest, and they could hear the rustling of the trees.

Mount Li is very quiet, and the sound of the wind is very clear.

Gongzi Li was eating dates when he noticed some game left in front of the palace.

Gongzi Heng said, "It seems that Grandpa has had a good harvest."

Gongzi Li said, "Yes, Grandpa must be in a very good mood today."

Ying Zheng was in a good mood and was eating hot pot with Li Si.

The soup in the copper pot was boiling and steaming. Li Si took a bite of spinach and said, "Spinach at this time of year is really not good."

As they were talking, the two young masters approached.

Gongzi Li said, "Teacher, spinach tastes best in late autumn. The fact that spinach can be grown now is the result of years of trial planting by the old farmers of Shanglin Garden."

Gongzi Heng said, "Crops need to adapt to the soil of Guanzhong. Only by selecting the best seeds and trying for several years can we see results this year."

Li Si put down his chopsticks and gave an awkward smile.

The spinach was a gift from the new emperor. Anyone who dared to say that the food given by the new emperor was bad would be subject to criticism from the two princes.

Ying Zheng said, "I am very fond of spinach. Please give my grandson a seat."

Gongzi Heng and Gongzi Li took the chopsticks and sat down next to their grandfather and teacher, respectively.

Ying Zheng asked, "Is your father going to take the imperial examinations again next year?"

Gongzi Heng added some more spinach to the copper pot and replied, "Yes, the list of candidates for next year's imperial examination has arrived, with more than five thousand people."

Gongzi Li also said, "There are more than three thousand students in Guanzhong alone, but there are fewer students coming from other counties and prefectures."

Li Si could understand this disparity; not many people could travel from all over the country to Guanzhong, and even fewer could endure such a long journey.

The imperial examinations, held every two years, actually involved each region preparing a list of candidates in the first year and submitting it to the Imperial Academy in advance; otherwise, it would be too late to travel the following year. The imperial examinations were enviable, but the reality was harsh; people had to travel to Guanzhong while they were at their youngest and strongest.

Of the ten students who receive teaching support, perhaps only one or two will come to Guanzhong for scientific research.

Gongzi Li said, "Grandpa, don't worry. Father once told Master Wang of the Imperial Academy that the most important thing in teaching is to nurture people, not to pass the imperial examinations."

Gongzi Heng added, "It is important to cultivate better talents, while the imperial examination is just one option for students. A ten-year-old child begins his primary education, becomes an important laborer in his family five years later, and then goes to serve in the army five years later. They can come to Guanzhong to take the imperial examination during their military service. There is no conflict between them."

Autumn rain began to fall again outside the palace. After the two young masters arrived, there was more laughter inside the palace. Occasionally, the chime bells would be rung, their sound rising and falling and lingering.

In the sixth year of the new emperor's reign, in winter.

Heavy snow covered the entire Guanzhong Plain. Some people drove oxen and pulled carts full of honeycomb briquettes to various counties to sell, either by exchanging them for grain or by selling them for silver.

Nowadays, some people in Guanzhong make a living by selling coal. It is a very hard job and a new thing.

This is different from soy sauce or tofu, which are still not widely available in Guanzhong today.

On the contrary, honeycomb briquettes became popular in Guanzhong as soon as they appeared. During the off-season of the farming season, the labor force in Guanzhong would do some work to supplement their family's food supply.

The vast majority of people in Guanzhong made honeycomb briquettes in groups of one or a few households. They would exchange coal from Tongchuan County, process it into honeycomb briquettes, and sell them to earn grain or money.

Snowflakes fell on the honeycomb briquettes, and an old man was driving his ox and loudly hawking his wares.

Someone braved the snow and ran quickly to exchange a bag of beans for a small basket of coal.

The old man collected the grain and then drove his oxen to sell it.

Sima Xin looked at the old man driving the oxcart from afar and said to Zhang Han beside him, "Whether it is paper or coal, it needs to be made by people. It is impossible for the people of the Prime Minister's Office to conscript tens of thousands of laborers to make honeycomb briquettes. The Prime Minister's Office will hand over the production process to the people of each county, and the Qin court will not have to pay extra manpower and resources."

Zhang Han stood silently to the side.

The Jingye Canal still flows, and Sima Xin is still the prefect, and still very thin.

Sima Xin said, "The paper industry will be like this in the future. If the workshops in Jingye County want to expand production, they can only do this: hand over the production process to people, while the workshops only retain the source."

Zhang Han said, "What is retained is called raw material, and what the people of the county obtain during the production process is called labor value. What the Prime Minister's Office advocates is that labor should be rewarded."

Sima Xin felt that Zhang Han's knowledge was rapidly improving after he became the Grand Secretary.

Because Zhang Han held a high official rank, he must have seen a lot of documents. As for the value he was talking about, Sima Xin had never heard of them before. Are the documents in the Prime Minister's office now written in incomprehensible language?

When the carriage from Tongguan returned, they knew that Master Shusun Tong had come back, and Zhang Han hurriedly went forward to help drive the carriage.

Sima Xin stood by the canal, and everyone knew what Zhang Han was thinking: he wanted to provide for Shusun Tong in his old age.

It was all because Shusun Tong raised Zhang Han's son.

The group returned to the county, and Sima Xin asked, "Aren't the two young masters coming?"

Shusun Tong stepped down from the carriage and said, "Let's go to Mount Li."

Today, Fu Sheng also came to the county from Tongguan, and everyone gathered together to eat hot pot again.

Shusun Tong put tofu in the hot pot, Sima Xin prepared some scallions, Zhang Han prepared noodles and garlic, and a whole earthenware pot full of mutton.

"I heard that during the court debate at the winter solstice, someone invited the emperor to make an eastern tour and perform the Fengshan ceremony."

After Sima Xin finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Han.

Zhang Han was one of the participants in the court discussion, so he must have known.

Zhang Han nodded first, then placed the chopsticks in his hands, put his hands on his knees, and replied very formally, "The Emperor has refused."

Shusun Tong took a bite of tofu without saying a word, then took a bite of pickled radish.

Sima Xin asked, "Why did the emperor refuse?"

Zhang Han replied, "I don't know."

Sima Xin took a bite of mutton and said no more.

This year, after the new emperor reduced the number of troops and encouraged farming, the number of able-bodied people registered in various parts of the Central Plains increased by another three million. The total number of registered people in various places, including children, has exceeded forty million.

With the compilation of population registers in Guilin and Xiang prefectures, as well as other southern prefectures, the Qin Dynasty gained another million people from these areas.

The cultivated land in the Central Plains had more than doubled since around the 35th year of the First Emperor's reign. Most of this land had been abandoned for several years and no one had cultivated it. Only after all of this land was restored to cultivation did we have this much land.

However, there were also things that worried the emperor: many people in various places died of illness, died young, drowned, or went missing.

There may be armed conflicts, and there are still people evading military service and taxes, as well as various problems that have existed since the early days of the Qin Dynasty's establishment of the prefecture-county system. These problems are still unavoidable today and will be difficult to avoid even after thousands of years. It is even more unlikely that they can be solved now.

In Qin, a society so primitive that it couldn't be more primitive, bartering was still the mainstream form of trade, and agriculture and food were still crucial to people's basic needs.

In the ancient agrarian era, the cost of governance was indeed increasing, and the difficulty of governance conditions in various regions was also a significant issue.

Six-year-old Princess Suqiu noticed her father's worried expression. She sat down beside him and whispered, "He always looks like this when he looks at state affairs; his eyebrows are always furrowed."

Upon hearing this, Fusu smiled and said, "If the country cannot be governed well, then you should indeed blame me."

(End of this chapter)