I studied in modern times

Chapter 800 Lu Huiqing: How can one achieve enlightenment without going crazy?
Outside the new city of Bianjing, in Anjiefang, inside the Li family spinning mill.

Lu Huiqing was in the workshop, watching the weavers spinning ramie into spindles.

His confidant Li Kui quietly came to him and whispered a few words.

After hearing this, Lu Huiqing burst into laughter.

"Is Pu Chuanzheng back in Beijing?"

"From now on, there will be plays to watch in the capital!" Lu Huiqing made his own comment.

"In your opinion..." Li Kui asked in a low voice, "Is Pu Xueshi the current emperor, or was he summoned back to the capital by the two palaces?"

This is indeed something that many people are subconsciously curious about.

Pu Zongmeng's return to Beijing was too sudden.

There wasn't even any news before!

This can only be the result of an inner decree!
So, does it refer to the emperor or the two palaces?
This has become the basis for many people to judge the future direction of the wind.

Lu Huiqing chuckled and replied, "Does it matter who summoned Pu Chuanzheng back to the capital?"

Then he said to himself: "At least it's not important to me!"

Lu Huiqing looked at the "Queen's Carts" in front of him.

According to legend, the emperor ordered the skilled craftsmen in the military equipment bureau to work day and night to "invent" the spinning wheel as a birthday gift for the two empresses.

Four spindles can spin at the same time, which is several times more efficient than the hand-cranked spinning wheels of the past!
And now, there are at least hundreds of spinning wheels working in the Li family spinning mill.

The spindles spun every day could fill an entire warehouse.

Then they were all sent to the city of Bianjing and turned into Jiaozi.

This is not a yarn mill at all, it is simply a Jiaozi business that prints Jiaozi non-stop every day!
However, spinning linen still has the lowest profit in this type of yarn mill.

The most profitable industry is cotton spinning!
The amount of cotton cloth sold by Lingjinyuan this year is at least 200,000 pieces!
The current market price of cotton cloth in Beijing is fifteen strings of cash per piece.

This is the income of three million strings of cash!

It is equivalent to the annual tea monopoly revenue of all prefectures and counties in the world in the past.

The best part is that this income does not require offending the poor people at the bottom, like the tea and salt monopolies, and does not require going through the trouble of smuggling tea and salt.

All we need to do is transport the cotton produced in Xihe to Beijing.

Controlling the production area means controlling the entire cotton industry.

Thinking of this, Lu Huiqing felt a surge of ambition in his heart, and he couldn't wait to go to Xihe to take up his post!
He knew that Xihe now not only had military achievements, but also political achievements!

Incredible political achievements!
After he arrives there, he just needs to work hard and follow the emperor's instructions to increase the cotton production in Xihe.

So……

Whether it was Zhang Dun, Zeng Bu, Han Zhen, Li Qingchen, Deng Runfu, Cai Jing of the New Party...

Or the old party’s Fan Chunren, Lu Dafang, Su Shi, Xing Shu…

Now these famous and recognized candidates for the future prime minister will not even be qualified to carry Lu Jifu's shoes when the time comes!

Because, by then, he will have military merit in one hand and cotton cloth in the other.

Enough to be invincible in the world!
By then, he would have to think about how to cultivate his political enemies and how to make the palace believe in his loyalty.

Therefore, Lu Huiqing doesn’t care about the disturbances inside and outside the court at all.

He has found his way.

A road like that of Xiang Jiefu in the past, or even one that far exceeds the fame of Xiang Jiefu!
Thinking of this, even Lu Huiqing couldn't help but feel excited and asked, "Si He..."

"You said, if one day I can conquer the world..."

"Should I consider learning from Master Wen?"

Li Kui didn't quite understand. He looked at Lu Huiqing and asked, "What do you want to learn from the Grand Tutor?"

"Of course, send a granddaughter to the palace..."

"Let the Lu family of Quanzhou go from being a scholarly family to a family of in-laws!"

Lu Huiqing muttered to himself.

This is the best solution he can think of right now.

What to do if you are suspected?
Self-pollution? Acting crazy?
In the Song Dynasty, these are useless.

The scholars were well-versed in history books. Every day they repeated in front of the emperor the stories of how powerful officials in past dynasties usurped the throne.

How Wang Mang did it… How Wei Wu did it… How the Sima family did it… The rise and fall of the Northern and Southern Dynasties… The alternation of the Five Dynasties…

In this situation, once you are suspected, it is useless to defame yourself or pretend to be crazy or stupid.

Because almost all methods have been used by others.

People with a keen eye can always find corresponding examples from the vast history books to remind the emperor - Your Majesty, this was what happened to someone in the past!

Your Majesty should learn from history and consider the interests of our ancestors and the country!

Indecisiveness leads to disaster!
The only solution Lu Huiqing could think of was to do the same as Wen Yanbo and try his best to establish a relationship with Emperor Zhao as a relative.

Then he stayed away from the court and politics, and devoted himself to being a royal relative.

Although Li Kui had long since adapted to Lu Huiqing's personality, he was still shocked by Lu Huiqing's words: "Husband..."

Lu Huiqing looked at the shocked Li Kui and chuckled, "Si He thinks I'm crazy?"

How could Li Kui dare to admit it? He quickly said, "I dare not..."

Lu Huiqing laughed and said, "Si He, come with me!"

"It won't be long before Si He knows that what I said is true!"

He looked at the weavers and women workers working in the spinning mill in front of him and sighed: "How much can this Li family spinning mill, which uses ramie as spindles to make linen and ramie cloth and sells them in Beijing, earn in a month?"

Li Kui hesitated for a moment and said, "There should be several hundred strings of cash, right?"

In Li Kui's opinion, this is already a very large number.

Moreover, he knew the market price of linen and hemp cloth in the capital.

Now, a piece of linen cloth costs about four hundred coins, and a piece of brown cloth costs six hundred coins.

No matter how good the Li family cloth shop's business is, it is already amazing if they can sell three to five thousand pieces a month!

If there are more, a small cloth shop owner will not be able to sell them all!

"Oh!" Lü Huiqing laughed: "Hundreds of strings of cash?"

He stretched out two of his fingers and waved them in front of Li Kui: "At least two thousand strings of cash!"

"When this yarn mill continues to expand and employs thousands or even tens of thousands of workers..."

"Earning tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of guan a month is just a piece of cake!"

Li Kui was stunned after hearing this.

More than two thousand strings of cash?
Will it be possible to earn 10,000 or even tens of thousands of strings of cash a month in the future?

How much cloth do you need to weave to make so much money?

A piece of linen cloth is only four hundred coins, and the profit is half of that. If you want to earn two thousand coins a month, you have to weave at least ten thousand pieces of cloth, right?

If you want to earn tens of thousands... you'll need at least hundreds of thousands of pieces of cloth.

How can it be?

Even if it can be done, who would we sell so much cloth to?
Li Kui carefully told Lu Huiqing his doubts.

After listening to this, Lu Huiqing grinned and said, "Si He is worried that he can't sell it?"

"Bianjing really doesn't need that much cloth!"

"But hundreds of thousands of pieces of cloth a month are just a drop in the ocean in front of the 24 provinces and billions of people in the entire Song Dynasty!"

"What's more, the people of the Northern Tartars, Jiaozhi, Goryeo, the Western Bandits, and even the people of the Western Regions and Southeast Asian countries also need to wear clothes..."

"So... this yarn field has great potential!"

Li Kui was horrified, but he couldn't help asking, "Sir... where can you find so much ramie?"

Lu Huiqing looked towards the northwest and whispered, "Who said that only ramie can be used?"

“And silk and cotton!”

At this point, Lu Huiqing could not help but get excited: "Wang Yuanze once discussed the Dao with me, saying: The difficulty of governing the future is that [the self is too important], all living beings [lose the Dao because of the self], and [lose the self because of the things], so if the sage does not come out, the rituals will collapse and the music will be ruined!" "I once rebuked his nonsense to his face!"

"But Wang Yuanze is so sharp-tongued that I can't refute him for the moment..."

"If Wang Yuanze were still here and saw what is happening right now, he would have surrendered to me!"

"Is it too much to take myself too seriously?" Lu Huiqing's expression gradually became insane.

When Li Kui saw this, he got goose bumps all over his body.

He knew that his benefactor was experiencing a sudden enlightenment.

Just like when Lu Huiqing led his army into the hinterland of the Western Bandits' Zuoxiang Shenyong Division last year, and saw that the Western Bandits did not dare to fight, and the Qiang people came to surrender one after another, he suddenly had an "epiphany".

So, he wrote the preface to the County Law.

Among them, there are endless heresies and reversals of the meaning of the saints' scriptures. After it was published, it has been besieged by scholars all over the world until now.

Even many scholars and officials who supported the New Party could not accept his arguments - they were too crazy!

He uses the benevolence and righteousness of Confucius and Mencius to endorse his bloodlust, and even says in a high-sounding manner: A benevolent person, when it comes to killing, feels sad and sympathetic, because he loves the person!
I kill because I love.

The more I kill, the deeper my love for the world becomes.

So the more people I kill, the closer I am to becoming a saint!

Who can bear this?
Even Li Kui found it difficult to understand.

On the contrary, Li Gang, the son of Li Kui, who is only a little over five years old this year, can sometimes keep up with the thought process of this husband.

Therefore, whenever the husband had free time, he would hold little Li Gang in his arms, explain his own ideas about [County Law] to him, and instill those unorthodox things in him.

Now, Lu Huiqing started to get upset again.

This made Li Kui tremble.

All I could hear was Lu Huiqing dancing like a madman, saying, "After three generations, why is it that the self is too important and no saint has emerged?"

"After three generations, the number of people gradually increased, and the number of beasts gradually decreased..."

"The people need to plough in spring, harvest in autumn, and store in winter..."

"Working hard all year round, yet barely having enough food and clothing..."

"But scholars are trapped by their own shallowness and cannot solve the world's problems..."

“So first [I lose the Way], then [I lose myself with things]…”

"On this point, what Wang Yuanze said may make some sense!"

"But then he was terribly wrong..."

"If you want to produce a saint, you must restore the past three generations, restrain yourself and return to propriety..."

"What nonsense!"

"In the Three Dynasties, where did the millions of people come from? Where did the vast country come from?"

"But if we can make the people of the world, like the people of the Three Dynasties, have enough food and clothing, and be able to eat and wear..."

"It is just as the saints said..."

"When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when they have enough food and clothing, they know honor and disgrace!"

“This is called [things are full of the Tao], and then [the Tao is full and I know it]!”

Having said this, Lu Huiqing looked at Li Kui and asked, "Si He, what do you think of my teachings?"

He licked his lips, and his dry and thin body seemed like a giant at this moment.

At this time, Li Kui finally remembered.

Who is Wang Yuanze?
Wang Rong, courtesy name Yuanze!
He was Lu Huiqing's lifelong enemy, but also his confidant!

These two people are both lunatics who take things from Zhuangzi, Laozi and even Buddhism and frantically fill them into the teachings of Confucius and Mencius!

Li Kui didn't dare to answer.

Because he knew very well that Eun-sang was the kind of person who would not listen to any other opinions once he made up his mind.

He is stubborn, crazy and insane.

This is why he could become the "guardian god" of the Xining Reforms.

Without madness, there is no enlightenment!
Even a figure like Han Jiang, Duke of Kangguo, could not resist and could only shout to Wang Jiefu to save him.

But at the same time, his execution ability is also terrifyingly strong.

They dared to promote practical laws in the court, and when they arrived at the border counties, they promoted the [Archer Farming Law] and [Disturbing Farming Tactics]. By giving land with one hand and rewarding with the other, and relying on the financial advantage of the Song Dynasty to spend money and bleed, they turned Hedong, a place with the lowest combat power in the former Song Dynasty border counties, into a powerful place with elite soldiers and generals that can compete with the elite of the Western Army!
In last year's war, the Hedong troops almost completely suppressed the western bandits.

Not only that, the generals who came out of Hedong also made rapid progress on many fronts.

Zhe Keshi shines brightly on Huanqing Road.

Therefore, after the war, he jumped directly from the ambassador to the ranks of the chief and deputy envoys of various ministries, and jumped twenty levels at once - he was promoted to the deputy envoy of the imperial city and the commander of the troops of Huanqing Road!
This is a promotion of twenty-levels!
Only one step away is Yao County!
There are no more than three hundred remote military officials in the whole world.

Half of them were royal relatives and nobles with titles.

As for Hedong Road?

In the first battle, a tyrannical official (Zhe Kexing), three high-ranking officials from remote counties (Zi Hu, etc.) emerged, as well as other major and minor envoys, totaling more than a dozen, and hundreds of empty name certificates were issued.

Even Li Kui, a clerk in the shogunate, skipped three levels and collected all the letters of recommendation needed for promotion, completing the process that other candidates dream of doing. Now all he needs is the experience of a local magistrate before he can return to Beijing to work in the Ministry of Personnel and officially become a Beijing official.

So, Li Kui knew that no one could stop Lu Huiqing from having wild thoughts.

Of course, Lu Huiqing would think it was a fantastic idea.

It can change the world!
Lu Huiqing looked at Li Kui's expression and sighed in his heart: "There are too many ordinary people in this world. It is hard to find a bosom friend, and it is hard to find a soulmate!"

"In this world, the only person who can understand my heart, besides Mr. Jiefu... is probably Zhang Zihou!"

However, he and Zhang Dun did not get along when they met, and he would get annoyed if they said even a single word more!
As a result, he didn't even have anyone around him with whom he could talk to and communicate!

He couldn't help but start to miss Wang Rong.

"If Wang Yuanze were here... he wouldn't agree with me... but he would definitely argue with me for three days without stopping, and finally walk away in anger, scolding me for [not worthy of talking to a Fujianese like you]!"

"That's not right either..."

Lu Huiqing suddenly remembered.

"Little Li Gang understands me very well... He can even draw inferences from one example..."

"Wonderful! Wonderful! I will never be alone!"

He then made up his mind to keep the child with him and teach him carefully.

No matter who comes, I won’t let them go!
Just train him as the successor.

Just like Pang Ji to Sima Guang and Jiefu to him (Lü Huiqing always believed that he was the successor and promoter of Wang Anshi's thoughts, because in his opinion, if not, Wang Anshi would not value him so much, and teach and cultivate him carefully).

At this time, the door behind the two of them was pushed open.

Li Erhu's figure appeared outside the door.

He cautiously came to Lu Huiqing, bowed and said, "My lords, I have prepared wine and meat. Please come and have your meal!"

Lu Huiqing returned to normal, turned around, nodded to Li Erhu and said, "Thank you, Erhu!"

"I dare not!" Li Erhu trembled: "It is my blessing to serve you two gentlemen!"

Although Li Erhu didn't know where these two officials who were obviously powerful and scary came from?
But he knew that his spinning mill had been able to operate peacefully until now without being influenced or exploited by the outside world.

Even his Taishan, the head of the Bianjing Cloth Shop Guild who, in his opinion, had the final say, had to bow down in front of this great man.

So, although Li Erhu didn't know why this big shot always came to his yarn mill?

But he knew that the life and death of himself, his wife, children and his elderly mother all depended on the thoughts of this great man of unknown origin.

So, these days, Li Erhu has been serving carefully and treading on thin ice.

Fortunately, with the care of this great man, not only the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture could not see his yarn mill at all, but even the officials in the government pretended not to know that his cloth shop was selling large quantities of linen and hemp cloth every day.

Not only that, he could also buy cheap and large quantities of ramie from relevant parties.

With such benefits, Li Erhu naturally became more respectful and fawning.

I just hope to be appreciated by the other party, to be respected and accepted as a retainer.

(End of this chapter)