I practiced magic in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 154 Yang Xiu: Confucianism cannot save China
In the back garden of General Wei's mansion, Wang Jing was accompanying Diao Chan to enjoy the scenery. Next to him was the little Golden Crow, who had grown feathers and whose body was no longer round but was beginning to become slender and tall.

As Wang Jing's luck becomes stronger, the growth rate of the little golden crow is also significantly accelerated. In about half a year, it will be able to leave the larval stage and enter the sub-adult bird stage.

It was May, and the wall-to-wall peonies and roses were in full bloom, with colorful flowers filling the entire garden.

The breeze blew gently, and the fragrance filled his sleeves. Wang Jing had a look of joy on his face, and he played the Phoenix Feather Fairy Music on the piano himself, while Diao Chan danced to the sound of the piano, with a graceful figure and beautiful eyes, full of affection.

But happy times are always short-lived. After a while, a servant came to report: "General, Yang Xiu, the son of Prime Minister Yang Biao, is here to see you."

"Yang Xiu? What is he doing here?"

Wang Jing was a little suspicious, but he didn't care too much. He was still very curious about this genius who had given Boss Cao a headache in history, so he ordered, "Take him to the side hall, I'll be there soon."

"Yes, General."

Wang Jing didn't let Yang Xiu wait too long. He simply changed into casual clothes and met him.

"He is majestic and dignified, walking with the gait of a dragon or a tiger. Is this Marquis Qi?"

As Wang Jing walked into the side hall, Yang Xiu suddenly felt a huge pressure coming towards him, just like a herbivorous animal facing the ferocious beast at the top of the food chain in the deserted wilderness. He instantly felt a suffocating feeling with his heart palpitating and difficulty breathing.

"Xiu, meet Lord Qi."

"No gifts."

Wang Jing walked straight to the main seat and sat down. He then began to silently look at the Three Kingdoms celebrity in front of him: "Are you Yang Dezu?"

"It's down."

Feeling Wang Jing's gaze on him, Yang Xiu immediately bowed in greeting, but his expression was still full of energy.

Wang Jing could see that Yang Xiu was indeed a man who was arrogant to the core. It was only because he was too smart and had seen through the world and human nature that he could be so free and easy and casual.

It’s a pity that those in power often cannot tolerate such an arrogant genius who refuses to bow to power. In addition, Yang Xiu stood on the wrong side in the Cao Wei camp, so he ended up with his head and body separated.

"I am a distinguished guest, but what brings you here?"

Wang Jing didn't like to be polite, so he went straight to the point when he opened his mouth.

Although he was only fifteen years old, Yang Xiu was already famous for his talent and wisdom. In addition to his family background, he was also the eldest son of the Hongnong Yang family. His own talents and abilities were also extremely outstanding.

Yang Xiu took the initiative to ask for an audience with Wang Jing, and he also wanted to recommend himself, so he went straight to the point: "Marquis Qi wants to survey the land. Although I am young, I am willing to lend a helping hand to the general."

"Oh?"

Yang Xiu's statement really surprised Wang Jing. Even within the Northern Army, only Li Ru, Xun You and Jia Xu knew about this matter. It is still kept secret and even Shi A doesn't know about it.

Wang Jing frowned: "Who told you I want to clear the fields?"

At this moment, Wang Jing was already wondering if someone had leaked the secret. As for the issue of Yang Xiu, he did think about implementing the Single Whip Law and the land-based tax system in the Han Dynasty.

But this matter is of great importance. Once exposed, it will probably cause considerable controversy.

"No one has said it, I'm just guessing."

The corners of Yang Xiu's mouth curved up, and he was obviously somewhat proud of himself for having guessed Wang Jing's thoughts.

There is no doubt that Yang Xiu was a smart man, but the problem was that he was too smart.

Although superiors like to favor subordinates who are easy to use, it would be terrible if this subordinate understood their thoughts better than the worms in their stomachs and could completely guess their thoughts.

This is often how suspicion arises.

However, Wang Jing was very powerful and naturally had a much broader mind than ordinary people. He did not doubt Yang Xiu for this reason. Instead, he felt that a smart man like Yang Xiu, if used well, might bring unexpected surprises.

As for the matter of clearing the fields, Wang Jing could no longer conceal it, so he openly admitted: "I am indeed planning to arrange personnel to re-measure the land and collect population data from all places under my jurisdiction. In the future, I will re-formulate tax policies based on these data. I also understand that this matter will inevitably be opposed by the aristocratic families of the world. Are you, the Hongnong Yang family, sure you want to wade into this muddy water?"

"Hongnong County is under the rule of the general, and the Yang family is a leading aristocratic family. It is destined to be difficult to remain unscathed in this storm, and will even be the first to bear the brunt. Rather than going against a great hero like the general and eventually dying and destroying the family, it is better to cooperate with the general and create a brand new future together."

Yang Xiu stood in front of Wang Jing and talked freely: "General, do you still remember the incident in the south of Luoyang City when the prayer lanterns flew into the sky?"

"Why, are you also interested in Mohism?"

"At first, I was just curious. After all, the prayer lantern is just a toy. Even if it can transmit signals, it may not be better than carrier pigeons and beacon fires. But after that, the general promoted Mohism, and the Qiqiao Pavilion created all kinds of incredible instruments, which finally aroused my interest."

At this time, Yang Xiu was still very young, so he was full of curiosity about the world and thirst for truth.

Although the Hongnong Yang family was known as "a family of wealth and status, and a family of poetry, literature and nobility", it was obviously limited by the times. Many of the questions in Yang Xiu's mind could not be answered by Confucian classics.

However, Wang Jing, who came from the era of information explosion, was able to answer his questions. After a conversation, Yang Xiu was immediately astonished and became more and more in awe of him.

"General, do you really think that the current imperial dynasty has reached a point where it must change?"

The Yang family also had a collection of books, and Yang Xiu had been familiar with history since childhood, so he was even more shocked by the various arguments put forward by Wang Jing. This was especially true when Wang Jing mentioned the various problems brought about by the continuous land annexation of the aristocratic families.

Yang Xiu was still very young and his thoughts were more flexible. He had not yet been completely brainwashed by traditional Confucianism, so he actually agreed with Wang Jing's words. But at the same time, he couldn't help but ask, "General, according to your theory, whether the noble families carry out land annexation or not, the contradiction between people and land will still exist. As long as the population continues to grow, there will always be a time when it exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. How should it be solved then?"

In fact, people with lofty ideals have long been aware of the contradiction between population and land.

As a prominent school of thought in the contemporary world, Confucianism is naturally also exploring this issue and looking for solutions.

Unfortunately, the only solutions that Confucianism can propose are things like “water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it”, advocating that the monarch should sympathize with the people, be benevolent and righteous, work diligently and love the people.

In order to monopolize academic discourse, Confucianism does not attach importance to technological development and even belittles talents in technological research and development. This is the biggest problem of Confucianism.

Therefore, Confucianism is destined to never find a correct path to the future, and can only wander back and forth between order and chaos forever.

But Wang Jing is different. His eyes have long penetrated the fog of history and he has seen which path is the broad road leading to a bright future.

So in response to Yang Xiu's question, Wang Jing smiled and answered: "The contradiction between people and land can never be completely resolved, but there are actually two ways before us."

"Which two?"

Yang Xiu's eyes were burning, eager to get a final answer.

"The first method is extreme internal circulation. For example, the current Yanhan Dynasty, the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and the upcoming warlords are all after the contradiction between people and land became completely irreconcilable, and they had to use force and killing to solve the problem. Reduce the population base, kill nine out of ten houses in the world, and the contradiction between people and land will naturally be resolved."

After hearing this, Yang Xiu's hands and feet turned cold and he trembled all over: "This... This is too cruel?"

The few words in history books may have been drawn from the countless corpses, blood and tears in the troubled times.

A speck of dust from history, falling on someone, would be like a mountain high enough to crush that person to pieces.

Wang Jing could only sigh: "Heaven and earth are cruel and treat all things as straw dogs. The real world is so cruel."

After learning the truth, he obviously could not accept this bloody fact. Even the tragic scenes of starving people everywhere and rioters fighting each other flashed through his mind from time to time, making his chest stuffy and his breathing difficult.

Yang Xiu took a long time to recover, and then he looked at Wang Jing for help: "General, besides this, there should be other feasible ways, right?"

"Naturally there is."

Wang Jing took out a 15:1 scale model of a four-wheeled carriage and placed it in front of Yang Xiu: "The second way is to develop science and take the path of industrialization. I strive to develop industry and commerce in order to break this predetermined fate. Although the contradiction between people and land can never be completely solved, we can continuously increase the upper limit of resource output."

Although the Yanhan Dynasty had all kinds of magical powers and was proven by hundreds of schools of thought, it was essentially a unified imperial social system, and the main economic output of the entire civilization was still heavily dependent on land and agriculture.

The existence of strong people only increases consumption, but does not actually increase any output.

Therefore, Confucianism, which was born under such circumstances, instinctively discriminated against craftsmen and merchants, and hoped to invest all resources and energy into the agricultural production system.

The final result will naturally develop in this direction. Politically, the monarch and ministers who attach importance to agriculture are wise monarchs and wise ministers.

Economically, the aristocratic families and powerful clans whose thoughts were dominated by Confucianism gradually transformed from the aristocracy before the Qin Dynasty into the gentry. They controlled a large amount of farmland and population, and thereby controlled wealth and power.

In order to control ideological and academic hegemony, Confucian scholars refuted all knowledge and technology that could not improve agricultural output as strange and lewd techniques, and criticized them verbally and in writing, wishing to trample them a thousand times.

Also, because businessmen control large amounts of wealth and resources and possess great influence, people try desperately to suppress their social status, regard "talking about profit" as shameful, make personal attacks on businessmen on a moral level, and constantly belittle and trample on them.

This is also why before the Qin Dynasty, there were merchants from the Central Plains who appeared on the historical stage, and some, like Lu Buwei, controlled the country's politics and held great power.

After Confucianism became the only official doctrine, merchants could only become vassals, or even fish on the chopping board of the powerful.

Even people as wealthy as Shen Wansan and Hu Xueyan were completely powerless to resist when their homes were confiscated.

Chinese civilization had basically reached its peak during the Han Dynasty. Since then, there has been no essential improvement, only small-scale repairs and repairs, and it has fallen into an endless cycle of order and chaos.

Wang Jing told Yang Xiu the result.

With Yang Xiu's intelligence and his own personal experience, he quickly understood the reason behind this, and realized that if the aristocratic families did not change, there would be a catastrophic disaster within a hundred years.

By then, China will collapse, civilization will be overturned, and the vast Central Plains will be filled with the stench of blood and rampant barbarians.

Wang Jing only told Yang Xiu some of the tragic events of the Five Barbarians' invasion of China, and Yang Xiu's face turned pale with indignation: "How dare a mere barbarian bully the Han people to this extent! They really deserve to be killed!"

"Those who offend China should be killed, but if the Han people want to survive, it is more important for them to constantly strive for self-improvement. And how can they become self-improving? The only way is to reform the law!"

"Listening to your words is better than reading ten years of books. From now on, I will pursue my master and bring peace to the world for all eternity."

Yang Xiu bowed deeply to Wang Jing. At this moment, he was truly convinced by Wang Jing.

In Wang Jing's opinion, Yang Xiu was extremely talented and had a character that refused to submit to anyone. Instead of training him to be a counselor, it would be better to let him do scientific research so that he could better play his own IQ advantages. Letting him participate in political struggles would be a waste of talent and a waste of his great talents.

Wang Jing planned to train Yang Xiu to be a scientist rather than a bureaucrat.

After returning to Situ Mansion, Yang Xiu found his father Yang Biao as soon as possible.

"Dezu, how is it going?"

"Father, I want to devote myself to Mohism."

"what!"

Yang Biao almost couldn't catch his breath, his eyes widened into a pair of bull eyes: "What on earth is going on?"

At this moment, Yang Biao was really tired. He just wanted to exchange some interests with Wang Jing privately, but why did he even sacrifice his son?

The three great Confucian masters of our time are Lu Zhi for righteousness, Yuan Wei for courtesy, and Yang Biao represents the "benevolence" among the three.

In terms of status, it is not an exaggeration to say that Yang Biao was one of the three leaders of Confucianism. Therefore, he naturally had high hopes for his son Yang Xiu, hoping that he would inherit his mantle in the future.

But now Yang Xiu actually said that he wanted to abandon Confucianism and follow Mohism?
However, Yang Xiu had been completely convinced by the grand blueprint drawn by Wang Jing, and was willing to follow his ambitions, wanting to reform and strengthen the country, and wanting to change the impending tragic fate of Chinese civilization. Therefore, he abandoned the Confucianism that the Hongnong Yang family had originally adhered to without hesitation.

Yang Biao tried to persuade him for a long time, but it was of no use.

"Father, I have made up my mind."

"Dezu, do you know what this means?"

"know."

"Alas, children and grandchildren will have their own blessings. I hope your choice is right."

Yang Xiu was so determined that Yang Biao had no choice but to pin his hopes on Wang Jing: "Originally, your father was thinking of recommending you as a filial and honest official when you reached the age of adulthood, but now I'm afraid that's not going to work."

Since Emperor Wu of Han, selecting filial and honest people has become a subject for selecting talents in the imperial dynasty, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty it has become a necessary path for those seeking official positions.

Filial piety means being respectful to one’s parents.

Integrity means being honest and upright.

It seems to be the selection of talented people, but there is actually an unspoken rule here, which is that people will generally only be selected from Confucian scholars.

Yang Xiu's abandonment of Confucianism and his embrace of Mohism was tantamount to automatically cutting off his path to becoming a filial and honest person.

That's why Yang Biao was so angry, but Yang Xiu didn't think so: "Father, why should you worry? The Lord employs people in a broad sense. Zhai Jie of the Mo Men was just a craftsman with a humble status before, but now he has become a county magistrate? Moreover, he has made outstanding achievements as an official, so doesn't he have a bright future?"

After hearing what his son said, Yang Biao was still unhappy, but he could only accept it: "I hope so."

"By the way, there's one more thing."

Yang Xiu took out a picture album and handed it to Yang Biao with a smile: "Father, please take a look."

Yang Biao was absent-minded. He flipped through the atlas and found that it was full of knowledge about mechanical structures. He frowned and asked, "Why are you showing me this?"

As a great scholar, Yang Biao would be interested in annotations of Confucian classics.

But if you give him a mechanical structure blueprint, he won't be able to understand it.

Yang Xiu smiled and said, "Father, you know, the thing in the picture is an improved jacquard machine."

"Improved Jacquard?"

Yang Biao's heart trembled, and his expression finally changed.

As Wang Jing sold wool materials from Bingzhou to Luoyang, everyone in this capital city, whether ordinary people or dignitaries, were familiar with the wool spinning machines in Qiqiao Pavilion.

Because they have all heard that this thing is very profitable!

Those who first started the woolen business are now making a lot of money with their looms!
It is said that there is a golden house in books. This small picture book in front of me actually contains an improved jacquard machine. It really earns enough money to build a real golden house!
There is no doubt that at this moment, Yang Biao was moved.

"Father, the Lord said that this is the reward for the Yang family's wisdom in dealing with current affairs."

After Yang Xiu finished speaking, he smiled again and said, "Father, please arrange for people to join the study of Mohism as soon as possible. Only by learning the real skills can we put the blueprint into practice."

When Yang Biao thought about the huge profits that the jacquard machine could bring, he suddenly felt that it was not a bad thing for his son to devote himself to Mohism.

Compared with the Yang family's awareness of the times, the Runan Yuan family represented by Yuan Wei has now become the leader of the aristocratic families opposing Wang Jing's "Inheritance Law".

"There is a difference between illegitimate children and legitimate children. This is the law passed down by our ancestors. How can it be changed at will?"

"Yes, Lord Qi really went too far this time!"

"Master, please make the decision for us."

They were all smart people of this era. Even if their vision and knowledge were limited by the times, once their own interests were involved, they were smarter than monkeys. Under the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, they soon saw through Wang Jing's intentions, and united to force Wang Jing to take back his decision.

In the capital today, Wang Jing commands the three armies and has power over the four counties. No one can compete with him.

However, the implementation of government decrees still required the help of imperial power, and Yuan Wei, as the Grand Tutor, had a status high enough to influence the young emperor Liu Bian.

Therefore, the prominent families in the four counties that were affected by the decree all sent people to the Taifu Mansion, hoping that Yuan Wei could help.

Yuan Wei was also extremely troubled by this. As a member of a prominent family, he naturally did not want Wang Jing's "Inheritance Law" to be implemented, and he did not want the land and population under the name of the Yuan family to be registered by the court.

Because doing so would damage the Yuan family's foundation.

(End of this chapter)