Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 8 Father's Teachings

In July of the sixth year of Tianyou, the weather was hot. There were many basins filled with ice cubes in the Zishan Hall. With the eunuch fanning him from behind, Zhao Xing did not feel the heat.

"Although Qin Shi Huang unified the country, ended the war, and standardized the writing system and the wheel gauge, which was a great achievement, he burned books and buried scholars alive, which led to the loss and destruction of countless classics. He also imposed heavy taxes and built a lot of buildings, which led to the demise of Qin II. In general, his faults outweighed his merits!"

Han Zhang has been telling history since he started from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors for more than a year. Last month, he began to talk about the unification of the Qin Dynasty and only finished it today. Finally, he made a summary of the demise of the Qin Dynasty.

Zhao Xing curled his lips secretly, very dissatisfied with Han Zhang's obvious behavior of smuggling his own agenda.

No wonder that in ancient times, except for the founding emperor, many of the later emperors seemed mediocre. This may be related to the teachers who taught them.

It is said in Liezi's Shuo Fu: The difficulty of governing a country lies in knowing the virtuous rather than in virtuous oneself.

I'm afraid this is the emperor that those ministers want most.

Qin Shihuang certainly did engage in large-scale construction projects. Building the Great Wall can be said to be a way to defend against foreign enemies, but the construction of the Afang Palace and the Terracotta Warriors was completely unnecessary.

But this does not mean that Zhao Xing agreed with Han Zhang's statement that Qin Shihuang's faults outweighed his merits.

As for Qin Shihuang's harsh laws and burning of books and burying of scholars, Zhao Xing saw nothing wrong with that.

In times of chaos, severe punishments should be used. Qin Shihuang unified the world after hundreds of years of chaos. The laws of each country were different, and the nobles of the six countries were unwilling to see their country destroyed.

If we don't do this, when will the world truly be stable?
The demise of the Qin Dynasty was due to many factors, the most important of which was that the world was unified for too short a time, and the remnants of the six kingdoms were still there. Even if Hu Hai did not favor Zhao Gao, the world would still be in chaos. It is just not certain whether the Qin Dynasty would perish.

However, although he disagreed, Zhao Xing said nothing.

Confucianism was the mainstream in this era, so they naturally had no good feelings towards the Qin Dynasty, which burned books and buried scholars alive.

If he said anything, who knew what these people would say about him behind his back.

After Han Zhang left, it was time to end school.

Zhao Xing said hello to Gu Tingye and the others and left the school.

When I came out of the school, a eunuch came to greet me.

"Your Highness, His Majesty summons you to Longtu Pavilion." The eunuch saluted.

"understood."

When Zhao Xing heard that his father was looking for him, he got on the sedan chair and went to Longtu Pavilion.

……

"Your son greets you, father!" Zhao Xing bowed and saluted.

"Haha, Fu'er is here, come here and sit next to me." The official smiled and waved.

Zhao Xing walked up to his father's desk and sat down next to him without any hesitation.

The imperial throne, commonly known as the dragon throne, is relatively large.

Zhao Xing will be six years old in a few months, but because he has been practicing martial arts for the past two years and has good nutrition, he has grown very fast and looks like a boy of eight or nine years old.

Even so, it didn't seem crowded for the father and son to sit together.

Not to mention that Zhao Xing was a prince, even if he was made the crown prince, it would not be against the rules for him to sit on the dragon throne.

However, the emperor had been holding Zhao Xing and sitting on the dragon throne since he was a child, and every time Zhao Xing came, he would let him sit with him.

Once, in front of a civil servant, he said something that was against etiquette, which made the official very angry and he fined him half a year's salary.

Since then, no one dared to say anything.

"Father, why did you call me here? Are you planning to make me the crown prince?" Zhao Xing said with a smile. "Are you in such a hurry to move out of the palace?" The emperor was not angry when he heard this, but said with a smile.

The crown prince lives in the Eastern Palace. This name is indeed because the Eastern Palace is on the east side of the Imperial Palace, but the Eastern Palace is not in the Imperial Palace.

Instead, it is connected to the imperial palace, but through another door.

If you move to the Eastern Palace, it means you are living outside the palace. If you want to enter the palace, you need to enter through the palace gate.

In history, Li Shimin launched the Xuanwu Gate Incident by ambushing Li Jiancheng on his way to the palace.

"My son is already this old, it is not convenient for me to live in the palace anymore."

In fact, Zhao Xing wanted to go out of the palace to take a look. Although the palace was big, he had stayed in the palace for so many years. Even though he had an adult soul in his body, he had had enough.

"How old are you? Let's wait a few years. The East Palace has been in disrepair for a long time. I will ask the Ministry of Works to repair it, and then I will enthrone you as the crown prince and let you move there." said the emperor.

"Father, I will take a day off tomorrow. Can you let me go out of the palace for some fun? It is said that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. I have lived in the deep palace for a long time and don't know the sufferings of the people. Will I be like Emperor Hui of Jin who refused to eat meat porridge in the future?" Zhao Xing said.

The emperor was silent for a while and said, "I can let you leave the palace, but you must bring enough guards with you."

"Father, there is no problem with bringing guards, but I cannot go out with ceremonial guards, right? Then everyone will know I am your son, and how can I see the suffering of the people?" Zhao Xing said.

"I will arrange some people with strong martial arts skills to follow you, and the rest will protect you secretly, but you must not leave the city!" said the official.

"Thank you, father!" Zhao Xing was delighted when he heard that.

Bianjing City is so big that he has no intention of leaving the city for the time being.

"Let's not talk about this for now. I called you here because I have something to ask you." said the emperor.

"Father, what's the matter?" Zhao Xing asked puzzledly.

"I heard that you were in Zishan Hall, and you usually only interacted with those guys from the Qi and Gu families, and ignored the rest?" said the emperor.

"Father, those people are of low education and only know how to curry favor with others. I don't like them very much."

Zhao Xing was not surprised that his father knew about his situation in Zishan Hall.

Perhaps the government knew everything he did and said at Zishan Hall.

"Fuer, you may not like such people, but you cannot alienate them. Whether they are treacherous or loyal, as a qualified emperor, you must use them." said the emperor.

"Father, as a wise emperor, shouldn't you be close to talented people and stay away from villains?" Zhao Xing asked doubtfully.

"Fuer, do you know the Yangtze River and the Yellow River?" asked the official.

"I know." Zhao Xing nodded.

"The clear water of the Yangtze River is like a loyal and virtuous person, while the turbid water of the Yellow River is like a treacherous and despicable person. Both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River can irrigate the farmland in their basins and are indispensable. No matter which of them overflows, it will become a disaster and both require great efforts to control. Do you understand?" the official said indifferently.

Zhao Xing was stunned and nodded, not quite understanding.

The emperor sighed slightly and said, "I also thought that I could govern the country well by employing virtuous officials. However, when I implemented the reform, I found that this idea was totally wrong. Virtuous people are not necessarily loyal, and treacherous people are not necessarily disloyal. In the end, it all depends on how you employ people. As long as you can achieve your goals, it doesn't matter whether they are virtuous or treacherous. As an emperor, you cannot decide on closeness or distance based on personal preference."

At first, Zhao Xing was only close to a few people, and he got the news.

The reason why I didn't say it was because I felt that Zhao Xing was still young and he might not understand it even if I told him.

And I also wanted to see if Zhao Xing could react on his own.

However, two years passed and Zhao Xing had not changed, so he personally told Zhao Xing about this.

(End of this chapter)