Tingwei Mengyi glanced at Xi, who was in jail and kneeling on the straw. There was admiration and regret in his eyes, and he turned around and said to the visitor.
"Doctor Yushi, I can only give you a moment."
Mao Jiaozuo bowed and said, "One moment is enough. Thank you very much, Lieutenant Ting."
Meng Yi returned the favor: "I don't dare. He is just a humble censor, but he did something that none of our nine ministers would dare to do. Although Meng Yi cannot imitate him, he admires him endlessly."
After saying that, Meng Yi asked all the officials to leave, leaving only Mao Jiao and Xi, looking at each other across the wooden bars of the prison. The straw on the floor was full of urine. There were no windows, no beds, only torches outside.
It can reflect the happy figure.
"Confused!"
Mao Jiao finally couldn't bear it anymore and angrily scolded this subordinate who was favored by him.
"I asked you to monitor the administration and punish illegal officials, but how dare you point the finger directly at His Majesty and actually say that Your Majesty is the source of corruption in the administration!?"
"I feel ashamed to have so much love for the imperial censor."
Xi had already lost his official uniform, took off his Xie Zhi crown, and was wearing the ocher clothes of a prisoner. He paid homage to Mao Jiao, the man who had appointed Xi to the imperial court as censor half a year ago.
"But Xi, I have never been ashamed of my responsibilities and true intentions!"
Mao Jiao's anger disappeared and he sighed: "Why are you doing this?"
In this dark prison, Xi told Mao Jiao the reason why he did this.
"When I was young, I was fortunate enough to come to Xianyang to serve as a sergeant, and lived there for a year. At that time, the people in Guanzhong were still simple, their music was not dirty, their clothes were not frivolous, they were respectful and respectful to the officials, and they worked hard. But in Xianyang
In the official government of the Qin Dynasty, every Qin official is respectful and frugal, and they are all respectful and loyal. The ministers and officials also come from their own families, enter the public family, leave the public family, and return to their families. They do not compare with Zhou Dynasty or clique. Also listen to
People say that His Majesty has just taken charge of the government and is determined to make progress. He reviews memorials every day and listens to the final decisions of memorials in person. He is diligent and frugal, accepts advice humbly, and everything is determined by the law, and rewards and punishments are fair."
"From then on, I understood that the Qin Dynasty would definitely dominate the world, and I also knew how to be a Qin official!"
Mao Jiao couldn't help but close his eyes as he talked happily. It was more than 20 years ago, at the beginning of the Qin Dynasty's pro-government, and the whole country was like the rising sun.
Today, the empire seems to be in full swing, but many things have changed.
Xi's voice became deeper: "This time, I have been in the capital for more than five months, and I have seen countless strange things that I have never seen before."
"From Wuguan to Lantian, there are nurturing lands along the way. It is the busy season for spring plowing, but the people working in the fields are old, weak, women and children. After asking, they said that all the children in the family have gone to serve.
I went to all kinds of places, including the Great Wall in the north of the Great Wall, the Western Regions of Zhangye, the land east of the sea, and the south of the Yangtze River and Lingnan, but most of them were in Lishan Mountain and Afang."
Xi recalled his shock when he saw these two wonders: No wonder the fields were deserted. It turned out that hundreds of thousands of laborers were concentrated here. When he came to serve twenty years ago, Lishan was also built, but it was not large in scale.
, thousands of people can complete the project, but now the foundation has been expanded a hundred times!
How big is it? After including all above-ground and underground buildings, it is equivalent to half the area of Anlu County!
The scale of Afang is no less than that of Lishan. In other words, the emperor has turned the entire Guanzhong into a large palace, with buildings everywhere and pavilions at every step.
There is no outer city wall in Xianyang because Hangu, Wuguan, Xiaoguan and Longguan are the four gates of the capital of Qin!
What a grand ambition, what a magnificent spectacle, but there was no excitement at all. Instead, it sent chills down my spine.
"How many people are needed to build this..." Old Qin officials couldn't imagine.
Full of questions, Xi started working in Xianyang, but he found that this was no longer the officialdom and court he was familiar with.
Like Qianzhong County, among the officials there are some who look for excuses to accept gifts, some who directly take bribes and bend the law, and there are also those who work against prisoners from various places and extort money.
Among the ministers and officials, they are no longer selfless, but dare not do anything. Most of them are just fooling around. What's worse, even the prime minister and the nine ministers have begun to advocate extravagance and form cliques for personal gain. Li Si's chariots and horses are arrogant, but there are internal officials. Reporting is the most typical example.
When Qin Shihuang ordered the Yushi Mansion to rectify the administration of officials, Xi Ye was eager to lead the team in person and went to various government offices to arrest Cao Jiu and other corrupt and bribe-takers, causing chaos in Xianyang.
Even if others secretly scolded him as "Anlu Jingman", Xi remained unmoved. He only hoped to inject a ray of clean water into the filthy water and restore the court to what it was twenty years ago.
But as he walked further in, he realized that the water was bottomless.
The words of a corrupt official made Xi suddenly realize. "Anlu Jingman, even if you arrest and sentence all the corrupt officials in Xianyang and even the whole world, will the life in the capital of Guizhou be easy? How little money do we have for being corrupt?" , how many bricks are enough to burn the Epang Palace?"
Looking back suddenly, Xi saw clearly where the disobedience he had been vaguely aware of since entering Xianyang came from.
"The Way of Being an Official" taught the Qin officials: they need to know the people's abilities and use the people's strength well. But the fact is that the imperial court never cared about the people's livelihood, and one-tenth of the world's labor force was always rushing around on the roads and frontiers.
Officials were convicted for embezzling even a penny, but countless people's wealth and support were used to build palaces, corridors, and covered bridges, and hundreds of officials took the opportunity to draw profits from it.
The imperial court required officials and the head of Guizhou to abide by the laws, but the imperial court itself often took the lead in breaking the law: the one-year service period was extended to three years, and the annual oral tribute was added more than ten times at most. People who should have been killed were The emperor let him go with just one word, but people who didn't need to die were killed together because of the anger of the superiors.
The Legalists never talked about ghosts and gods, and did not even believe in heaven. They firmly believed that everything depends on human beings. However, Qin Shihuang blindly sought immortality and immortality, and did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to send envoys to the Western Regions and build a road of more than a thousand miles to Yumen Pass. , and built a house, hoping that the Fairy Queen Mother could move in.
Xi raised his head and looked at Mao Jiao, his eyes full of confusion: "Master Yushi, I am a humble countryman. Ever since I entered Wuguan, I have seen countless palaces. There are already so many houses. Even if His Majesty's harem is filled with beauties, Is it enough to live in?"
He couldn't understand why he was wasting the really important things for these useless things.
Don't let small achievements interfere with big things, don't harm others with selfish desires, husbands should devote themselves to farming, and women should work hard at weaving. This is the ideal of Legalism, but now, why is it all the other way around?
All of the above are the biggest violations of the empire's core!
"I secretly believe that if you want officials to govern the Qingming Dynasty, you must not only have strict laws and regulations, but also need the monarch to take the lead in abiding by the law, abide by the way of being a monarch, and set an example for us. Otherwise, the hearts of one person will be the hearts of thousands of people in the world. Seeing that Your Majesty loves extravagant things, they also imitate them one after another and regard the law as nothing. Therefore, the failure of the official administration stems from the improper behavior of the emperor. If Your Majesty does not change his ways for one day, even if all the corrupt officials in the world are arrested, the official administration will still be difficult to clean up. !”
Corruption is a difficult problem that every political power must face. Of course, things are not that simple, but Xi is a stubborn person. A stubborn person will look for a reason and do what he thinks is right!
"You're right."
Mao Jiao sighed: "But as a censor, you are not an admonishing doctor or doctor. Why should you be so strong and direct? This is beyond your authority..."
"Because no one is talking."
Xi smiled bitterly: "The admonishing officials are silent and talkative. Confucian scholars and doctors preach that the world is peaceful and peaceful every day. Those who dare to speak, such as Chun Yuyue, have long been driven away."
As for the prime ministers of Jiuqing and even the imperial censors? They have been catering to the emperor, guarding their positions with trepidation, not daring to say a word more, accompanying the emperor like a tiger, they are afraid.
"Master Yushi, what I fear most is not the corruption of officialdom, but that everyone is accustomed to it and turns a blind eye to it. They clearly see it but pretend not to see it!"
Xi stood up and held the wooden bars of the prison: "A embankment that is a foot long will burst with the holes of ants; a room that is a hundred feet tall will be burned with the fire of gaps. Someone must tell the truth."
Mao Jiao listened quietly, with pitiful eyes. From Xi, he seemed to see his past self. When he thought that Emperor Qin Shi Huang had done something wrong, he stood in front of the boiling cauldron, scolded him without changing his expression, and then happily
Just cook.
But His Majesty suddenly came to his senses and persuaded him to come over. He said to him: "Sir, I have made a big mistake."
At that time, His Majesty was able to be courteous, accept advice humbly, and practice frugality. He was an ideal king.
But, people will change, from a few people, to me.
After unifying the world, the emperor not only stopped being frugal and began to be content with what he wanted, but what was even more serious was that he was self-motivated, arrogant and indulgent, and the officials were afraid of flattery.
In the twenty-sixth year of Qin Shihuang, the year when the world was just unified, it could still be said that "everything in the world depends on the law." By the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang, it became "everything in the world, big or small, depends on the law."
."
All of this was unfortunately said by Wei Liaozi.
"The King of Qin is less kind but has a wolf-like heart. He is easy to get out of others, and he cannibalize others lightly when he succeeds. I am a commoner, but when I see that I am always under my control, I am willing to give up. Sincerely let the King of Qin succeed in the world, and everyone in the world will be a prisoner..."
Mao Jiao felt extremely sour in his heart as he recalled these words. He was sure that if he continued to speak out and give advice as he did in the past, he would really be cooked.
This is the situation Xi will face.
"The last person who spoke frankly to His Majesty was called Youzhan."
Mao Jiao slowed down his tone: "He is an advocate, talks funny and naughty, and has always liked His Majesty. That time he pretended to be drunk and said in public that there is no such thing as the Queen Mother of the West in this world, let alone immortality. He wanted to give advice. But he
Unexpectedly, His Majesty was also drunk, and in a rage, he cut out his tongue."
Since a few years ago, Qin Shihuang has been most taboo about two things. One is saying that immortality is fake, and the other is proposing to establish a prince. Both of these things will make the emperor think of one thing:
die!
"Hi, the words of your memorial are ten times more violent than those of Yu Zhan. I'm afraid I will be beheaded!"
This is also the reason why Mao Jiao came to Tingwei's prison to see him happy. He wanted to win over this reckless man who touched Ni Lin.
"Immediately make a statement to Your Majesty to admit my mistake, or I may be able to avoid death!"
Xi was silent for a while, then said: "Master Yushi, in the past when there was no engraving printing or paper, I liked to copy the laws and regulations onto bamboo slips, and I would copy them for ten years."
"In those legal questions and answers, there are only two situations, right and wrong. I tell the governors who come to ask about the law over and over again: Remember to do what is considered right according to the law and not do what is wrong."
He raised his head and said: "In the eyes of the jailer, things in this world are only right and wrong. Hexi thinks that he is not wrong and it is His Majesty who is wrong, so even if he dies, he will not regret it!"
"You! Why are you so stubborn?"
Mao Jiao was so angry that he wanted to kick the prison open, pull Xi out and slap him several times to wake him up.
Once upon a time, Prince Fusu was extremely stubborn and believed that he was the only one in the world who dared to tell the truth. He contradicted the emperor again and again and was left out in the cold.
But that was when he had no experience in the world. He was sent to Haidong to live in the snow for two years. After learning something from Heifu, Fusu also became smooth. He returned to Xianyang for half a year. Even though he saw many unpleasant things, he still didn't
Make a statement.
Fortunately, he was transferred from the grassroots level. He has been an official for twenty years, but he doesn't understand that the world is not black and white. If you don't make adjustments, you can't do things?
"Because, I promised someone something."
He said with a smile: "In Anlu County, I have a junior whom I am very optimistic about. More than ten years ago, I once said something to him. More than ten years later, before I entered Xianyang as an official, he gave me something in return.
I, please don’t forget, if I violate it now, wouldn’t it mean that future generations would laugh at me and call me hypocritical?”
"What are the words?"
His joyful expression became serious: "The Dharma is the order of the world and the appearance of all things!"
"Officials are where the people's lives hang in the balance!"
He retreated to the wall and bowed to Mao Jiao: "As a minister, I am happy and dare not deceive the emperor; as a legal official, I am happy and dare not say anything when I see a mistake!"
Mao Jiao was speechless. What could he say? He could tell Xi that he knew that the emperor was going astray, but it was useless to persuade him, so he simply kept silent.
Anyone who is astute can see that the emperor's health is getting worse, and there is no hope of immortality. I am afraid that it will not be long for a few years. For Mao Jiao, maintaining the status quo until the mountains collapse and until the young master Fusu succeeds to the throne is what he wants.
The goal!
At that time, all problems will be solved! Afang, border garrison, and wars can all be stopped! It will be possible for the common people to truly have no corvee, with men enjoying their duties and women cultivating their own professions!
He has given up on his old master and is looking forward to new possibilities.
Mao Jiao believed that Fusu and even the Marquis of Changnan in the south thought the same way!
So taking advantage of the Qin Shi Huang's change of phases, with Li Si on the left and Feng Quji on the right, and the turmoil in the court situation, Mao Jiao also took the opportunity to rectify the government to suppress those who might oppose Fusu's succession, and placed people close to Fusu
By.
But this great situation was ruined by Xi Yiyi's memorial!
"Doctor Yushi!"
At this moment, Tingwei Mengyi came behind him again.
"The moment has come?"
Mao Jiao was a little stunned. Even if a reader read their conversation from beginning to end, word for word, it would only take half a moment, right?
Meng Yi's face was serious. After retreating, he whispered a few words in Mao Jiao's ear...
Mao Jiao's expression suddenly changed, he pointed at Xi and cursed:
"You, Anlu Jingman, are such a blessing! For half a year, the eldest son has not said a word, but this time, for you, a mere 600-stone imperial censor has resolutely entered the palace and urged your majesty to save your life.
.If you cause him to anger His Majesty and lose the Emperor's heart again, no matter what your original intention is, whether it is right or wrong, you will be the sinner of the Qin Dynasty!"