He felt greatly surprised, for it was obvious that this person, Chouzi, should be on his side.
This feeling of Chouzi being right across from him made him feel anxious.
Li Si felt even more off.
Li Si knew that if reforms were not made soon, the great Qin state he had assisted for fifty years would collapse.
Qin Shi Huang had no time to worry about these things. He knew he had to seize the opportunity when the rulers were weak due to the farmers' uprising, and quickly put down the rebellion!
He knew that Zhuang Jia had surrendered. He first sent people to the place where Zhuang Jia was, and took control of the land of Chen County.
It was too late.
Chen Sheng's former general, Liu Chen, organized a group of soldiers called the Cangtou Army, rose in rebellion in Xinyang, captured Chen County, killed Zhuang Jia, and re-established Chen County as part of the Chu territory.
Qin Shi Huang was powerless at this point. At that moment, Nanyang had completely fallen under the control of Zhang Chu, forming a buffer that temporarily stabilized the entire Zhang Chu state.
Just as Qin Shi Huang thought there was no chance, good news arrived.
It turned out that Song Liu had captured Nanyang, but upon hearing of Chen Sheng's death, Nanyang reverted to being under Qin control.
But because Song Liu was unable to enter the Wuguan Pass, he advanced eastward to Xincai, where he encountered Qin troops.
Song Liu knew that with the current situation of the world, even if he won, his fate would not be good. Therefore, he led his troops to surrender to the Qin army.
He hoped to take advantage of this opportunity, using these large troops as an offering of submission to Qin Shi Huang, in exchange for Qin Shi Huang's favor, and ask Qin Shi Huang to spare his life.
As for the so-called brothers-in-arms, dying on the battlefield?
What does it matter to him?
The Qin troops transported Song Liu to Xianyang, where they beheaded him in four pieces and displayed the body to the public.
To his dying day, Song Liu never imagined that Qin Shi Huang had no intention of sparing him at all.
Qin Jia and others heard that Chen Sheng's army had been defeated, so they seized the opportunity to establish Jing Ji as the Chu King, leading their troops to Fangyu and preparing to attack the Qin army at Dingyao.
They sent Gong Sun Qing to negotiate with King Qi of Qi, hoping that he would join forces with them to launch an attack.
The King of Qi was greatly surprised. Has a new King of Chu already been established?
The King of Qi said, "Although Chen Sheng has been defeated and died, how can Chu not consult us before establishing a king?"
Gong Sun Qing said, "Qi didn't consult Chu before establishing a king. Why should Chu consult Qi before establishing a king?"
"Moreover, Chu was the first to rise in rebellion and should issue commands to the world."
The King of Qi then killed Gong Sun Qing and refused to send troops.
The left and right camps of the Qin state launched another attack on Chen County and successfully captured it.
General Lu fled and gathered the remnants of his troops to reassemble.
The army of Poya bandit leader Yang Qingpu and General Lv were combined, and launched a new attack on the left and right camps of the Qin state. They defeated them at Qingbo, thus reclaiming Chen County as part of Chu territory once more.
At this point, the great Qin state had recovered much of its territory and tried as much as possible to destroy the power of Zhang Chu.
At this moment, Qin Shi Huang was overwhelmed, unable to bring back the troops from the northern border, and the situation in the eastern region could not be stabilized.
He was already on the hot seat. Qin Shi Huang was not an idiot either. He wanted to use strong pressure to force these regions to settle down.
But with the strength of the Qin state after its pacification, to completely stabilize these regions, it would inevitably trigger another uprising.
Li Si proposed reforms, hoping to take advantage of this turmoil to change the mistakes that Qin had made in these regions.
Due to the deteriorating livelihoods, Li Si proposed a policy that combined the Legalist ideas of Qin with those of allowing for rest and recovery:
He lowered taxes in these regions, where the already poor living conditions made it easier for the local people to want to survive.
Li Si clearly knew that these regions were too vast, and the current resources of the great Qin state were simply not enough to control them.
However, if it were changed to fiefdoms, all the efforts of the great Qin state over the past fifty years would be in vain.
There was no other choice. Li Si had to take a risky move.
He implemented a tax system of "one-third of the harvest" in the local areas, and increased the labor service to alleviate disasters.
At the same time, under the influence of the epidemic, Li Si chose another method to deal with infected people:
He gathered the epidemic patients together and had them clean up battlefields and collect the dead bodies.
He also tried a "half-fiefdom" measure locally, transferring some power to the regions.
Li Si's series of reforms finally began to bear fruit.
He sent people to explain the labor service and disaster relief to local residents, also lowering the tax burden, which made the local residents feel the burden had been eased.
With land and grain, that is all the farmers need.
The local aristocracy was highly dissatisfied with this. They originally had the chance to rule over the countryside and merge land through the old system, but suddenly lost these privileges.
The old aristocracy was very dissatisfied and the public was angry, rising up in protest. However, Li Si repeatedly had them killed and displayed publicly.
Qin Shi Huang originally had doubts, but as he watched the decreasing rebellion waves in the local area, he gradually chose to comply with the situation.
At this moment, news of victory arrived from the front:
It turned out that it was the Qi Kingdom among the vassal states in Shandong that had chosen to negotiate peace with the Qin state.
They had no more strength to negotiate with the Qin state.
At this moment, the Qin state had already occupied the northern border, cutting off the supply line for Qi. The situation in the northern part of Qi was becoming more and more precarious.
With many external threats, Qi, as the only state that had successfully established itself at this point in time, became the target of everyone's arrows.
Although Qi's territory had long since dispersed, the rallying cry of Qi still existed.
There was no choice. The King of Qi listened to the advice of his ministers and surrendered to the Qin state, obtaining a fiefdom in return.
United as one with the Qin state.
When Qin Shi Huang heard this, he was greatly pleased. He awarded the King of Qi with golden brocade and silk, recognizing his status as the self-proclaimed King of Qi.
Of course, this time, the young King of Qi forgot the lesson of his ancestors.
But Qin Shi Huang was still the same Qin Shi Huang.
The people of the world always thought that if Qin Shi Huang received sufficient benefits, he might not continue conquering.
But there was no such thing.
Qin Shi Huang, or the entire leadership of the Qin state, possessed an extremely strong gene for control.
"I still have some impression of Li Si's reforms..."
Li Si's reforms are mentioned in many histories of Qin:
Li Si was indeed a man of the Xunzi school. In the original history, his teacher was Xunzi, who was a Confucian figure.
Furthermore, it was Li Si who was intercepted by Zhao Anping. His thoughts had a heavy weight of Confucian benevolent government.
"With this set of Li Si's reforms in place, it should help the Qin state recover a lot of its vitality, right?"
Zhao Anping looked at the phone in his hand.
After receiving the Qin state, Qin Shi Huang used the land of Qi as a springboard to continue recovering lost territory.
He advanced with great momentum and quickly exterminated the scattered small rebel forces.
By the end, there were only a few powerful forces left in the entire land.
