The Lord's Empire

Chapter 1079: Citizenship System

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Zhao Fu sent a large number of soldiers to defend the boundary between the two sides and did not give this matter anymore attention. He knew that the other side would not dare to attack for now, so it was time to focus on expanding his own faction.

Zhao Fu continued to use his shameless ‘recruitment’ tactics, which were quite effective. Every day, over 100 City Lords joined them.

Even though the other side was desperately trying to expand their faction, how could their speed compare to Zhao Fu’s. Zhao Fu’s faction grew much faster than theirs, and unifying the Darkwater Continent was just a matter of time. There was nothing to worry about.

Zhao Fu stayed here for a few more days, and after seeing that the situation had settled, he returned to Great Qin.

Great Qin had finished its New Years celebrations and had gone back to its normal course of business. Soldiers once again started to clear out regions, and the various Departments diligently completed their tasks. There was not much to do, so Zhao Fu set his mind to internal matters.

He read through the documents that had stacked up and found that a few Ministers were suggesting changes to the citizenship system, because although the system punished those who had resisted Great Qin, it did not benefit the unity of the Kingdom.

Moreover, there were many holes in upgrading from a Criminal to a Citizen, and there was no proper supervision. Some people had taken advantage of this, resulting in discontentment. If this went on, there could be trouble in the future, so they requested Zhao Fu to think about changing the citizenship system.

After reading through these documents, Zhao Fu frowned. Even though the documents were suggesting changes to the citizenship system, their actual intention was to get rid of the current citizenship system, and they were using a soft way of doing it.

In that case, should he get rid of the current citizenship system? Zhao Fu sank into his thoughts and felt quite hesitant.

When Zhao Fu established the current citizenship system, it was primarily to punish the resist factions. Since they had caused Great Qin great losses, not killing them was already merciful.

As such, they had to be properly punished or else Great Qin’s soldiers’ blood would have been shed for nothing. Zhao Fu naturally felt quite angry towards those who resisted greatly.

However, from the descriptions in the documents, it indeed seemed like there were some problems and hidden troubles.

Most of the Ministers were Civil Officials as Generals were responsible for fighting on the frontlines. Most Ministers were split into two factions, and the one that supported Zhao Fu’s system was made up of mostly Outlanders and was led by a person called Guli.

Guli was a Catfolk elder who had originally been the City Lord of a Basic City that had been conquered by Great Qin. He had served Great Qin well and been promoted, and he had become an important Minister to Great Qin.

They believed that the Criminals deserved their treatment, as they had resisted Great Qin and made Great Qin spend extra effort to conquer them. As such, they deserved this kind of punishment.

He believed that not making them slaves and giving them the opportunity to advance their citizenship status was already incredibly merciful. To them, those people should forever be Criminals, and their children should also be Criminals. The weak should submit to the strong.

Moreover, those who did not resist could be given Citizen status, but if those who resisted greatly were given the same treatment, it was possible that those who did not resist would be dissatisfied.

This would also create more resistance for Great Qin in the future. Now that most people knew that those who resisted intensely would be made Criminals, most people obediently submitted. However, if people knew that they would still receive the same treatment even if they resisted, they would definitely try to resist first.

As such, these Ministers recommended for the Citizenship system not to be abolished and even suggested adopting slavery. After all, it was quite common in the Heaven Awaken World.

Hearing this, Zhao Fu nodded as this was what he was thinking about as well. However, slavery was against Zhao Fu’s ideals, and he would not accept it. Zhao Fu had his own bottom line.

Seeing that Zhao Fu did not support abolishing the current Citizenship system, those who supported abolishing it were greatly worried and immediately came forward to express their opinion.

These Ministers were mostly Chinese, and they came from various Schools and Sects. Because Zhao Fu had stopped sanctioning the School of Confucianism, School of Mohism, and Buddhist Sect, many of their key figures had returned to China and served Great Qin.

Their opinion was that Zhao Fu was an enlightened liege and that only uncivilized and barbaric societies used slavery, after which feudalism was established.

The reason why slavery was replaced by feudalism was because slavery could cause a lot of unrest in a nation and result in all sorts of conflict, and it could even lead to the demise of a nation.

These Ministers said that even though the current Citizenship system was not slavery, it could cause a lot of conflict and would not make the subjects of Great Qin completely loyal. It would be difficult to fully unite the Kingdom, as those who belonged to Great Qin should be treated the same.

Those Ministers believed that the current Citizenship system should be abolished, as it would cause hidden problems for Great Qin and there were definitely better ways to go about this.

After hearing from these Ministers, Zhao Fu felt that they were right as well.

Both sides made sense, so which side should he listen to? Zhao Fu felt quite troubled, and he could not help but look towards Li Si beside him, Great Qin’s Prime Minister.

Li Si calmly smiled and cupped his hands as he said, “Everything is in Your Majesty’s hands!”

Li Si had passed the buck back to Zhao Fu, causing Zhao Fu to glare at him.

At that moment, Li Muqing stood out and said, “Your Majesty, this Minister beseeches you to leave the throne and go to the common people to look at the conditions of those Criminals. I’m sure that will help you make a decision instead of just staying here and thinking about it.”

“Preposterous! With how grand our Majesty’s status is, how could he go to those Criminals? Minister Li dares to blaspheme against his Majesty and should be punished!” Another Minister chided and said, “This is not a democratic Kingdom like your real world; this is his Majesty’s Empire. Everything revolves around his Majesty, and the commoners are of secondary importance. Minister Li, doing such a thing is against the spirit of Great Qin!”

This caused the player Ministers to look quite serious; this was a grave accusation. They indeed wanted to do things in a democratic way, and it was indeed quite inappropriate.

The expressions of Li Muqing and the other player Ministers fell, and the indigenous resident Ministers glared at them.

Zhao Fu felt quite startled and swept his gaze across everyone present. He found that without him noticing, different factions had developed.

Now, because of that Minister’s words, the hall had fallen completely silent, and the atmosphere was quite tense.

Zhao Fu thought about it before saying in a dignified tone, “Enough, We have Our own plans. We think that Minister Li is correct; We will go and take a look personally to see the true situation in Great Qin.”