[Various] The Deposed Crown Prince's Survival Story

The subsequent distribution of rewards was a mixed bag, with some rejoicing and others grieving. According to Chunyu Yue, those to be enfeoffed were roughly from these groups: the sons of Ying Zheng, the meritorious officials of Qin, the remnants of the six states, and the families of sages.

Ying Zheng's enfeoffment was roughly as follows.

His sons were all made kings, especially his youngest daughter, Huhai, who was the most favored by Ying Zheng. She was also made the King of Qi. The State of Qi was vast and rich in resources, and its commerce was particularly developed. Most importantly, it produced salt.

Therefore, being granted the land of Qi was a wonderful position. For a carefree brat like Hu Hai, it meant not having to leave Xianyang to take up his post, being able to stay by his beloved father's side all day long, and having plenty of money to spend. It couldn't be more wonderful.

Finally, I don't have to ask my father for pocket money every month anymore.

Rolling around happily!

Besides his sons, Ying Zheng's daughters also received fiefdoms. Although their fiefdoms were not as large as his sons', they still received fiefdoms ranging from several thousand to ten thousand households. In particular, the eldest princess Hehua and the second princess Langgan not only received fiefdoms of ten thousand households, but their fiefdoms also produced salt.

The meritorious officials were granted various titles of nobility based on their achievements. After these officials died of old age, their fiefdoms would not be reclaimed but would be distributed equally among their sons as a gesture of goodwill.

Although discerning people can easily guess that the purpose of distributing the title and fiefdom equally among the sons was to weaken the power of these marquises, compared to losing their titles and fiefdoms upon their death, at least they don't have to worry about starving to death if their descendants are unfilial.

On the bright side, if the sons divide the spoils equally, at least the inner quarters will be much quieter, and there will be less infighting.

The family of sages—Ying Zheng granted Confucius the title of a prince, making him the only non-royal king of the Qin Dynasty. However, Confucius's descendants were demoted to dukes, and their titles were adopted as "Duke Yansheng" as mentioned by Fusu. At the same time, the Kong family was granted corresponding sacrificial lands, which their descendants were allowed to use in accordance with the state.

Then, in order to deal with the Kong family, Ying Zheng used another scheme proposed by Fusu, which was that each generation of "Duke Yansheng" must be conferred by the court, and a "Duke Yansheng" who has not been conferred by the court is not a good "Duke Yansheng".

Thus, for the sake of the title, each generation of "Duke Yansheng" had no choice but to grovel before the court. Otherwise, what if you were born to the principal wife and legitimate son? As long as you dared to disobey the arrangements made by the higher-ups, they could still let your half-brother become "Duke Yansheng".

The remnants of the six states—ah, let's skip that. So what if Ying Zheng didn't grant them titles?

Normally, some people might have tried to persuade these old-fashioned people to stay, pity them, and say nice things. But now that everyone else has benefited, who has the time or inclination to care about these old-fashioned people?

With just this one move, the original case of the Kong family and the remnants of the six states restoring to power came to an end, and the Kong family began to fawn over Ying Zheng in every way possible.

The Confucian scholars were quite cultured, and their eloquent writing and various forms of flattery pleased Ying Zheng greatly, even making him more pleasing to the eye of his own unruly children.

"Fusu is really good, he has made progress." Ying Zheng launched a "head pat" attack on Fusu.

"Father, instead of praising me, you should go and comfort your Prime Minister's fragile... uh, porcelain heart," Fusu said, turning around and smiling at Ying Zheng.

The prime minister that Fusu mentioned was naturally Li Si.

Li Si was a Legalist, and his dream was to eliminate all other schools of thought and establish Legalism as the sole authority. Now, the Confucianists were actually starting to fawn over Ying Zheng, and Ying Zheng was actually being pleased by the Confucianists. Therefore, Li Si began to get anxious.

My position as a Legalist is in jeopardy!

This baby...this prime minister is worried!

However, Li Si could no longer act as before, using the dissenting opinions of scholars to confuse the people and submit a memorial to Ying Zheng requesting the burning of books from all schools of thought. Therefore, Li Si has been quite unhappy lately.

"So what if he's worried? Do you expect me to coax him?" Ying Zheng tapped Fusu on the head and said with great dissatisfaction, "I've never even coaxed my own women. I've only ever coaxed you, Hehua, and Little Pig in my whole life, especially you and Little Pig."

"Nonsense! Father Emperor clearly beats Su'er more often and coaxes the little pig more often," Fusu retorted seriously.

Ying Zheng almost instinctively said, "He's stupid, so be lenient with him."

"I know! He's the younger brother, and I'm the older brother. An elder brother is like a father, so I will definitely love him dearly." Just like how Father Emperor loved Su'er, I will love him with a big slap.

"By the way, Father, getting back to the main topic, I do have a way to cure the Prime Minister's porcelain heart," Fusu said with a smile.

"Oh? What method do you have? Tell me, what kind of bad idea is it?" Ying Zheng asked jokingly.

His prime minister was a good person. Apart from being a bit greedy, competitive, and ambitious, he didn't have any major flaws. In short, these flaws were all within Ying Zheng's tolerance range.

But if such a person becomes obsessed and treats you as an opponent, they can be quite a headache if they oppose you relentlessly.

Unlike the Mohist scholars who were destined to make no political impact, the Confucian school, also known as a "prominent school," not only had a large number of members and influence, but also liked to interfere in politics. Furthermore, its ideology was completely different from that of the Legalists. Therefore, Li Si, who represented the Legalists, and the Confucians had reached a point of no return, a point where they were locked in a life-or-death struggle.

Ying Zheng was not optimistic; he thought Fusu's idea would stop his prime minister from making a fuss.

He'd bet Li Si is thinking day and night about how to burn Confucian books, sever the roots of Confucianism, and completely expel it from the Hundred Schools of Thought, just like the School of Names, which has basically failed to attract any new students.

Of course, while Ying Zheng might have thought this way, he also remembered his son's nickname—the Qin Dynasty's Little Prince of Slapping Faces.

Therefore, Ying Zheng dared not speak, and could only smile slightly as he looked at Fusu, waiting for him to speak.

After complaining briefly, "A talented person's idea is never a bad one," Fusu said, "Father, this is definitely a good idea, a very, very good one. Not only will it make you famous in history, it will also..." Fusu stopped mid-sentence, unsure of what "will also" mean, so he forced himself to finish, "It will also make you famous in history."

With a few "pfft pfft" sounds, Ying Zheng couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of tea.

This mischievous kid is so pistachio, he's really naughty.

"Young man, stop keeping me in suspense. Tell me quickly, what is this idea that will make me go down in history, and also..." Ying Zheng paused here, then imitated Fusu's tone and continued, "...go down in history."

"Hmph! Father is so wicked!" Fusu rubbed his nose and said, "Actually, the idea is very simple. I came up with it based on Li Si's method of burning books."

"Burning books? You mean collecting all the books in the world, making copies and storing them in the Xianyang Palace, and then burning the originals?" Ying Zheng thought for a moment and said, "Didn't you say that idea was bad and would make people criticize me, so you didn't mind me doing it?"

To be honest, if Fusu hadn't come up with a clever plan to make the Confucian scholars start fawning over him and stop opposing him as before, Ying Zheng would still have done it even if Fusu had strongly opposed it.

Not only did he allow others to smear him, but they also spread rumors among the people, attempting to undermine his rule. This was an absolutely intolerable threat to Ying Zheng.

As for the infamy of later generations, let him be infamy. It's just a matter of the victors and the vanquished. At the time, Ying Zheng thought that as long as the Qin Dynasty lasted long enough, who in later generations would dare to say a single dissenting word about him?

Of course, he never expected that the Qin state would perish after only two generations.

“Yes, yes, that’s it. That’s what I came up with. Father, you want to collect all the books in the world, so go ahead and collect them,” Fusu said.

Ying Zheng looked at Fusu with surprise, "Why did I accept it?"

"Unify the script and correct the errors." Fusu uttered eight words, and Ying Zheng immediately understood what Fusu meant.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, hundreds of states emerged on this land, each with its own distinct script and history.

At the same time, since paper had not yet been invented in this era, books were generally disseminated by hand-copying and excerpting, and then passed from hand to hand.

Therefore, a bamboo slip written by people in the Western Zhou Dynasty may have been lost in the process of being transmitted over the past few hundred years, in addition to the emergence of different written versions.

"You said that because the versions of books in the world are chaotic and there are many fallacies and heresies mixed in, you plan to collect all the books in the world, correct the errors in these books, and then return them to the world... Of course, they will be in the Qin script."

"From now on, only books written in the Qin script will be used in the world, and books written in other countries will not be allowed."

After listening, Ying Zheng pondered for a moment and guessed that Fusu's purpose, besides completely eliminating the written languages ​​of the six states so that people in the world would only recognize Qin script, also included the important point at the end: "return it to the world."

What kind of books can be "returned to the world"? Of course, they should be non-reactionary books. Those books that are reactionary to our Great Qin should just obediently be scheduled for revision. There are so many books that need to be revised, maybe it will be your turn in a hundred or so years.

"That's a good idea, but I think you haven't finished speaking." Ying Zheng hadn't forgotten Fusu's words, "to leave a mark on history."

Simply correcting mistakes doesn't seem to be enough to "make a name for myself in history." After all, the things I did were so important that future generations would probably just include such trivial matters in the "one-word list."

"Father should know about the *Lüshi Chunqiu*, right?" Fusu said. Ying Zheng's face darkened. Fusu smiled inwardly and continued, "Well, Father, you don't look well. Since that's the case, I won't keep you in suspense. It seems that Father was tricked by the *Lüshi Chunqiu* this time, wasn't he?"

Fusu was referring to the enfeoffment ceremony. At the time of the enfeoffment, those who wanted enfeoffment cited the "Discourse on the Lords" in the "Lüshi Chunqiu" to persuade Ying Zheng to enfeoff the lords, and even said that the "Lüshi Chunqiu" should be the basis for governing the Qin state.

This was simply intolerable to Ying Zheng, who loved the Book of Lord Shang.

"Hmph! Even in death, Lü Buwei still causes me trouble!"