"Shut up. What kind of benevolent people love the people, what kind of people are important, the second of the society, and the light of the monarch are all pedantic talks and corrupt Confucian views. ”

Qin Wangzheng slapped it the case, and then said: "What have you been learning in the past few years, and what have you learned are all these pedantic theories?" From today onwards, you are not allowed to read any books, you can only read [Shang Junshu], wait for the examination of the widow, if you don't understand something, you can ask Li Tingwei, if you can't understand [Shang Junshu], then don't read other books, retreat. ”

In front of Qin Wangzheng, there was a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy kneeling, born with white teeth and red lips, beautiful eyebrows, and a face as good as a woman, but under Qin Wangzheng's angry appeal, he lowered his head, stared at his feet, and did not dare to look at Qin Wangzheng. Later, when he heard that Qin Wangzheng asked him to step down, he was also relieved, and hurriedly gave Qin Wangzheng a salute as if he was relieved of his amnesty, and said, "Father, my son has retired." Then he went backwards out of the side hall and ran away in a puff of smoke.

Seeing that his son had fled away from the side hall, Qin Wangzheng also smiled bitterly, shaking his head and being speechless. Right here, I only heard the voice of the attendant outside the hall saying, "My lord, Lord Li Si, the court captain, asks to see you." ”

Qin Wangzheng said: "Xuan." ”

After a while, Li Si walked into the side hall with a happy face, bowed to the ground, and said: "Minister Li Si meets the king, may the king live forever." ”

Qin Wangzheng nodded and said, "Li Qing is flat." ”

Li Si hurriedly said: "King Xie." Only then did he stand up and said, "The king, when the minister came in just now, he saw the eldest prince leaving with a pale face, isn't there something about the eldest prince to make the king unhappy?" ”

Qin Wangzheng sighed and said: "It's not for the more than 18,000 Qin soldiers who were released, Li Mu really deserves to be a master of today's art of war, and he actually has such courage to dare to release all the captives back, not only to achieve his own name of benevolence and righteousness, but also to put the whole country of Great Qin in a dilemma, it is really a good calculation, and it is indeed the primary enemy of my Qin State to unify the world." ”

When Li Si heard this, he also smiled bitterly and was speechless. After Li Mu released more than 18,000 captured Qin soldiers, it did cause a lot of shock in the Qin government and the opposition, and how to deal with these more than 18,000 Qin soldiers became a big problem, and the ministers of Qin argued in the court for several days, but no result was reached.

The state of Qin is the implementation of the national policy of rewarding ploughing and warfare, the most important military merits, and there are rewards and punishments, and the military law formulated by the state of Qin is also extremely strict. If the battle is lost, the commander of the army will return home and commit suicide to apologize to the country. Therefore, when the Qin army fought against other countries, it often won more and lost less, and it was one thing to receive awards for military merits, and it was also an important reason for the defeat to die.

Of course, in some cases, when the battle is lost, the king of Qin will also issue an edict of amnesty, exempting the defeated generals from capital crimes, and allowing them to make meritorious contributions to the crime. However, of course, the king of Qin will not issue an edict for amnesty for no reason, only if the strength of the enemy army is indeed too strong, or because of objective reasons such as weather and environment, and the main general has indeed exhausted all his strength, and it is not a crime of war, the king of Qin will issue an edict for amnesty.

In the first year of the reign of King Qin (246 BC), the prince of Wei, Xinlingjun Wuji, gathered Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han and Yan to fight against Qin, gathered an army of 600,000, and defeated the Qin army south of the Yellow River, causing the Qin general Meng Wei to flee in defeat. The coalition forces took advantage of the victory to attack Hangu Pass, and the Qin army closed the gate tightly and did not dare to go out of the pass again. After Meng Fu fled back to Qin, he was pardoned by Lü Buwei, the regent of the Xiangguo at the time, in the name of Qin Wangzheng, and exempted Meng Fu from the death penalty, because this battle was not because Meng Fu did not work hard, but because the strength of the opponent was too strong. However, most of the defeated generals of the Qin State did not have such good luck as Meng Fu.

This is true for generals, and it is no exception for ordinary soldiers, the military law of the Qin State implements the law of joint sitting, and all soldiers who flee from the battle must not only be beheaded, but also the whole family is reduced to slavery, and the commander of the army escapes, the whole army is guilty of the same crime, and the commander escapes, and the whole is the same crime. Therefore, every time they fought, the soldiers of the Qin army were also very brave and did not retreat from the battle.

But the current situation is something that the Qin State has never encountered for hundreds of years, and the enemy army has released all the captured Qin soldiers, what should I do?

Therefore, the ministers of the Qin State were also divided into two factions, one faction believed that these soldiers were the soldiers of the defeated army, and they should be punished according to the law and all of them should be beheaded, otherwise it would not be enough to deter the whole army; The other faction believes that these Qin soldiers have fought as hard as they can on the battlefield and did not escape before they were captured by the Zhao army, and now they are being released by Li Mu, not that the Qin soldiers do not work hard, so Qin Wangzheng should issue an edict to pardon them and spare their lives.

The opinions of the two factions each cited scriptures and scriptures to prove that their opinions were correct, and they quarreled in the court, but after arguing for several days, no one could convince anyone.

And Qin Wangzheng is indeed in a dilemma now, if he does not deal with this group of soldiers, it will indeed have a great impact on the military spirit of the Qin army, and the enemy will be released if he is captured, and he will not be guilty after returning to the country, so who will fight to the death on the battlefield in the future.

But the punishment is not so tolerant, although the Qin State killed the enemy army without mercy, Changping killed 400,000 Zhao troops in the first battle, but this time they are all facing the soldiers of the Qin State, Qin Wangzheng is not ignorant of the truth that the law does not blame the public, if it is only a few thousand people, it will be counted, but this time there are more than 18,000 people who are released, each of whom has their own parents, brothers and children, this involvement, not to mention more than 100,000 people, the turmoil will never be small, and even if it is the Qin State, it is difficult to bear such turmoil.

In addition, this group of Qin soldiers did not die in Zhao State, but after returning to China, they were killed by their own country, so even if it was Qin Wangzheng, who had always been decisive, he had to be cautious this time, and only ordered the temporary detention of more than 18,000 Qin soldiers, but he did not make a decision to deal with it.

Just now, the Grand Duke of Qin Wangzheng asked for a meeting, and he also interceded for the more than 18,000 Qin soldiers, and asked Qin Wangzheng to pardon these Qin soldiers, but although the courtiers were divided into two factions, no matter what the reason, they were all based on the military laws and regulations of the Qin State, and found an explanation that was favorable to them, and the reason for Fusu to persuade Qin Wangzheng was to use the Confucian set of benevolence, righteousness, morality, and love for the people.

Although the Qin State was founded on the Legalist ideology, it did not completely prohibit the ideas of other princes and hundreds of schools, such as Lü Buwei's [Lü's Spring and Autumn Period] compiled and painted when the Qin State was the phase, which is actually a miscellaneous painting work that collects the strengths of a hundred schools.

And as one of the hundred schools of thought, Confucianism is originally one of the most widely spread doctrines among the hundred schools, which has penetrated into the people, and cannot be completely banned, and in Chinese history, although Legalism and Confucianism are insoluble, but the actual relationship is extremely deep and broad, many Legalist scholars themselves are Confucian disciples, like the two contemporary recognized Legalist masters Li Si and Han Fei, all of whom studied under the great Confucian Xunxiao. Therefore, although the education of the children of the public office in the Qin State is also mainly Legalist, it is also supplemented by other hundreds of schools, and Confucianism is naturally among them.

Fusu is the eldest son of Qin Wangzheng, and he is also very intelligent, so Qin Wangzheng also intends to make him a prince, but Fusu uses Confucianism to admonish Qin Wangzheng, but it is obviously contrary to Qin's state-governing thoughts, and the result is of course Qin Wangzheng was furious, and Fusu was severely reprimanded, driven him out of the side hall, and asked him to go back to study [Shang Junshu].

[Shang Junshu] is based on the Qin Xiaogong period of the Legalist representative Shang Ying, in the Qin State to change the concept of the rule of law, and other Legalist scholars compiled the book [Shang Junshu], which is one of the representative works of the Legalist school. Shang Jun is the representative of the Legalists Gongsun Ying, who changed the rule of law in the Qin State during the period of Qin Xiaogong, because he was fiefdomed in the mall, so he was also called Shang Yang or Shang Jun.

Shang Ying changed the law in the Qin State for more than 20 years, and established the national policy of the Qin State to reward cultivation and encourage military exploits, so that the Qin State was greatly governed, and it became the most powerful country among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States from a small country in the west. Although King Huiwen of Qin later succeeded to the throne and killed Shang Ying on the charge of rebellion, the legal system formulated by Shang Ying in Qin State was still intact, and until now, it has also ensured that Qin State has always been the most powerful country in the past 100 years.

And [Shang Junshu] has become the foundation of the Qin State, and it is also a work that every son of the Qin State must study seriously.

Li Si hurriedly said: "The king is in a hurry, the eldest duke is still young, so it is easy to be confused by Confucian empty talk, but the grand duke has been talented and intelligent since childhood, and if he teaches diligently, he will definitely not live up to the king's expectations." ”

Qin Wangzheng nodded and said: "The widow has been busy with national affairs in the past few years, and his education in Fusu has also relaxed a little, it seems that he will step up the examination of them in the future, and find a good master for him, not only for Fusu, but also for other princes, otherwise in the future, after a hundred years, I am afraid that I will miss the major affairs of the Qin State." ”

Li Si persuaded again: "Several sons are still young now, teach slowly, there is still time, and there is no need to worry when the king arrives." ”

Qin Wangzheng waved his hand and said, "Don't talk about this, Li Qing entered the palace to see the widow, is there anything wrong?" ”

Li Si hurriedly said: "Congratulations to the king, the minister has just received a report, Han Teng has broken through Xinzheng, Han Wang'an has surrendered, and now Korea has been completely destroyed." ”

"Oh!" After hearing this, Qin Wangzheng immediately supported the desk with both hands, sat up on his knees, and said, "I didn't expect Han Teng to really do it." ”

Han Teng was originally an important minister of the Korean clan, because of the discord with Han Wang An, in the fourteenth year of the reign of Qin (233 BC), he dedicated the land of Nanyang in Korea to the Qin State, surrendered to the Qin State, was appointed by the Qin Wangzheng as the internal history, and served as an official in the Qin State for three years.

Just two months ago, Han Teng took the initiative to write to Qin Wangzheng, asking him to personally lead the army and attack Korea. And he only needs to lead the 5,000 soldiers from the Nanyang region brought with him when he surrendered to Qin, and he can destroy Korea.

The first destruction of Korea was originally a plan proposed by Li Si to unify the world, but at this time, Qin was attacking Zhao on two fronts, and a total of 400,000 troops were dispatched, and it was impossible to open a new front in Korea.

Although South Korea is now very weak, there are still hundreds of miles of territory, nearly 100,000 troops, nearly 1,000 chariots, and the capital Xinzheng is also a big city, the city is high and the river is wide, but Han Teng proposed that as long as 5,000 men and horses, South Korea can be destroyed, and Li Si has no bottom in his heart. But thinking that Han Teng was originally an important minister of the Korean clan and knew the situation in Korea well, since he dared to make this guarantee, he must have some certainty, so he still recommended Han Teng to Qin Wangzheng to lead the army to attack Han.