C101 Reward Based on Merit
C101 Reward Based on Merit
His Majesty gnashed his teeth as he spoke.
Then he turned to look at the eunuch and said, "Do you think Zhen should place the fate of a country on a child in his early twenties?"
How could the eunuch answer such a question?
He lowered his head and did not speak at all.
His Majesty also knew that he would not answer.
Rather than asking the other party, it would be better to say that he was asking himself.
After a long silence, he let out a long sigh.
He couldn't make a decision!
It concerned the present and future of the Great Qin.
As the king, he could not bet everything on something that even he himself did not believe.
Furthermore, the locust plague might not come, right?
After thinking for a moment, he gritted his teeth and also made concessions.
A decree quickly spread throughout the entire Great Qin.
When eating water, one must boil it. When eating meat, one must be cooked. If anyone violates it, they will be imprisoned with iron chains and flails, exiled to a thousand miles away! If anyone has diarrhea and fever, they must be isolated from the rest of the world. If there is any place that violates it, they will be punished for dereliction of duty!
As expected, this was a decree that would incite resentment.
Once it was sent out, His Majesty received all kinds of feedback.
The people all had the same idea.
That was that His Majesty was a little too lenient. He said that he was looking for trouble for no reason, and that he had lost his mind due to old age, and that he had gone crazy!
There were also some poor people who felt that His Majesty did not want them to live. He did not want them to drink water and eat. He wanted them to die of thirst and hunger.
It was impossible not to be overwhelmed with anxiety.
It was also impossible to not be distressed.
Although he already knew that things would turn out like this, when it really happened, even His Majesty could not stand it.
Every day, he would rub his brows, the space between his eyebrows would always be red.
"This brat, Zhen only met him once, and now he is being scolded by the people of the country. He is truly a disaster!"
His Majesty was not angry about being scolded. After all, he had not been idle these few days. He asked the imperial physicians to carefully study the reason why water needed to be boiled before it could be drunk. The answer they obtained was naturally definite, and there were some records in some ancient books as well.
The so-called three main causes of illness in the world, Qi, phlegm, and bugs. Among them, this bug could be killed by boiling water!
Therefore, for this matter that was beneficial to the people and to the Great Qin Country, even if he was scolded, he would still endure it.
What truly made His Majesty feel helpless and angry was that there was no reversal at all!
If the people got infected after the incident, they would scold him. If the people didn't get the plague, they wouldn't think that it was him who saved them and wouldn't be grateful to him.
In other words, no matter what, he would be scolded!
He had done a good deed, but he could only bear the bad name.
He let out a long sigh.
Then, he became distressed again. "Zhen has already warned those fellows not to join Xiao Yun for a few days in a row. But this time, they are determined. I wonder if they are the Grand Preceptor's subjects or Zhen's subjects!"
The eunuch's body trembled. These words were not something he could accept. In fact, he even wanted to make his ears deaf immediately. It would be better if he could not hear anything!
"Sigh..."
His Majesty ended today's conversation with a long sigh. Or rather, it was him muttering to himself.
Another few days passed.
Looking at the script in front of him, His Majesty's expression also became better and better!
The rebellion was quelled!
But because of this, a very contradictory thing happened.
He was well aware of it, but there was nothing he could do.
Because of military merits!
Military merits, how could they be considered reliable and accurate, so that they could not be faked?
Human heads were a benchmark.
As long as they were given rebel heads, they could be evaluated as military merits in exchange for a corresponding reward.
However, in this world, there was almost nothing that could not be faked.
Especially this kind of decrees that required him to cut them all in one fell swoop!
There were those who risked their military merits to chop off the heads of ordinary people, and there were also those who used them as military merits.
However, these were not the things that His Majesty was worried about.
What he was worried about was people!
His Majesty could imagine that some of the rebels had surrendered under the lead of a group of dragons. However, after they surrendered, their military merits would all belong to the generals in the upper echelons. How could those soldiers be willing to do so? Thus, they killed them all and chopped off their heads in exchange for rewards.
This was a very normal thing.
But now, the Great Qin Country needed people!
After this natural disaster, the people in the north were the most scarce. These people had picked up their blades and were rebels. They had put down their blades, but they were also citizens of the Qin Country.
Rather than turning them into battle credits, it was better to put them to the north and let them rebuild those abandoned villages.
But at the same time, His Majesty was worried that there would be too many people.
After all, there was little food now. If there were more people and less food, it would be more troublesome at that time.
It was precisely this kind of dilemma that made His Majesty at a loss for what to do for a moment.
So he thought about it and naturally thought of Xiao Yun!
"Ahem, how has Xiao Yun been these few days?"
"Still the same dead look."
The eunuch said without hesitation.
After saying that, he himself became embarrassed. He hurriedly bowed and said, "Your majesty, Young Master Xiao has been pretty good recently."
The king was stunned for a moment and asked, "Listening to your words, I do have some complaints about Xiao Yun. Didn't you have a good impression of him before?"
The eunuch sighed and said, "This child... Truly heartless! The palace maid previously chatted with him and her words revealed worry about the situation in the world. He directly said that it was just a small matter and it was nothing more than following the path of the predecessors. But he did not know that the predecessors had also taken the wrong path. To him, if he wanted to solve it, it would be a matter of seconds! The palace maid asked him why he did not solve it? He said that he was too lazy to move. Compared to major events in the world, he preferred to do those flowers and plants. It is really... infuriating!"
After hearing that, the corner of His Majesty's eyes twitched a few times.
However, he soon understood.
This was Xiao Yun throwing a tantrum.
Thus, he gave the eunuch a few words of advice. The meaning behind his words was that he wanted to get Xiao Yun's words out of his mouth. As for whether the rebels would stay or kill them, he would give them an idea.
The eunuch immediately went out and returned very quickly.
The speed exceeded His Majesty's imagination.
"Is it that kid who refuses to say anything?"
His Majesty's expression was somewhat gloomy. He even wanted to personally make a trip. Of course, he would bring the rattan stick!
The eunuch shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, Young Master Xiao did say a few words."
"Only two words?"
"Young Master Xiao said that killing the chicken to warn the monkeys was one of the dumbest things in the world. Because humans are not monkeys, they are never monkeys. Then he said that humans are like animals, and they are actually very strong. They were either despicable or cruel, they would use all kinds of methods to survive. As long as they are alive, they are valuable people. "
"That's all?"
"Um... How about this old servant ask again?"
"There's no need."
His Majesty sighed and began to rub his brows again.
It was not because he was still conflicted about what had happened. On the contrary, because of these two sentences, he had already made his decision.
What he was worried about now was how many things had been stored in Saint Xiao's brain. How could he take them all out? Ask him to write a book and say it? It seems to be a solution, but based on our current observations... Can this kid do it? It would probably be terrible!
"How should Zhen deal with you? Sigh, you really are a guy who can give people trouble at any time."
A decree was passed down.
It was not a prohibition of killing.
Rather, the reward for capturing him alive was slightly higher than a human head!
A simple change had caused the rebel army to lose tens of thousands of captives.
These tens of thousands were directly thrown to the north by His Majesty. He did not care about anything and allowed them to run their own course.
Originally, he thought that this was a risky matter. However, the following news indicated that some of them quickly found a foothold and started to rebuild the village to recuperate.
In such a situation where food was extremely scarce, they actually found a way out!
His Majesty looked at the memorial in a daze.
He then looked at the admiring gazes of the ministers below and could not help but feel somewhat guilty.
He even had the impulse to silence Xiao Yun.
Of course, it was only for a split second, and he had to kick this idea out of his head in time.
"Dear ministers, now that the rebellion has been eliminated, it's time to reward us. I know who has put in a lot of effort in this rebellion. No matter who is passive and undisciplined, no matter what they do, the matter has already passed, and I will not pursue it any further. "
After these words, it was time to reward them for their contributions.
What was surprising was that the greatest credit for cleaning up the rebellion was given to Situ Ping'an.