warring states careerist

Chapter 434 Love and Hate
When Suo Lucan and others saw Handan City again after more than ten years, the appearance of Handan City was completely different from the original one.

You can't even see the square rules of Zhou Lizhong, those protruding edges and corners, row walls, trenches and moats, several small fortresses and acropolises around the surrounding area, and the bronze cannons that glow black and blue on the walls...

All this is very different from ten years ago.

It was the first time I entered the Central Plains from Gaoliu in the north, the first time I saw the mare's milk of the real big city in the Central Plains, watching the towering city walls and the people coming and going at the gates, secretly clicked my tongue.

Together with many people from the northern border who entered the Central Plains for the first time and saw the big city in the Central Plains, Suo Lucan told them with pride that this city must have been written by the Mo family.

The person accompanying Mr. Zhang replied with a smile: "You are right. This was built with the help of the craftsman association. It cost a lot, but it was worth it. At this time, Mr. Zhang once said that there is a [-] soldiers guard the defense, but a hundred thousand troops cannot defeat it."

Handan City is much taller than Gaoliu City in the north. After all, Hu people don't know how to attack the city. Gaoliu City has no basis for the intensity of siege and siege warfare in the Central Plains, so there is no need to spend a lot of money.In addition, the population is far worse than here, it is really incomparable.

After hearing what these people said, Ma Nai asked in admiration, "This was built by our Mohist school. Isn't the city on Sishang even bigger than this one? They all say Pei County, but I don't know about the city in Napei County." How big is it?"

Solu thought about it for a while, then shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's not that big. If people really surround Pei County, I'm afraid the city will be useless no matter how big it is."

Ma Nai seemed to understand, but also didn't seem to understand, she was somewhat disillusioned in her heart.

I always hear the Mohists talking about the prosperity of Pei County in Sishang. I originally imagined that it was a city bigger than Gaoliu, but he couldn’t imagine what it would be like. It’s like people who have never seen snow can’t imagine what snow looks like. Same.

Seeing Handan City today, he was already shocked, but Suo Lucan said that Pei County was not so majestic, so Ma Nai felt a little sighed.

Walking under the real Great City of the Central Plains, the sense of oppression of the huge city made Ma Nai a little nervous. Like the rest of the people who saw the Great City of the Central Plains for the first time, looking at the high city walls, they felt a little short and flustered .

Solucan has seen a lot of city walls and a huge city, but he only roughly estimated the cost of building this city, and in his heart, it is possible for everyone to produce a lot of things in a suitable paradise. The statement is somewhat understandable.

It is not that such a large city could not be built in the past, but it was unimaginable in the past that it could be built within a few years, and the people who built the city were not the princes and patriarchs, but only the sons of the officials of the city.

Seeing Solucan looking up, Xu Yi, who was walking with Solucan, said, "This city was just built two years ago, and it took five years in total."

Xu Yi thought of the Mohism's sayings about benevolence and righteousness, the three troubles of the people, etc. Xu Yi was worried that Suo Lucan had some bad ideas, so he hurriedly added a few words.

"Although a lot of money was spent, the lives of the people have also been improved. Your son is really a benevolent person."

"Handan was his fief, so he granted his own land to more than 20 households. At most, it will be paid off in [-] years. After the repayment, these lands will be the private property of farmers. People in Handan call long live .”

"There are more than [-] households, and each household is divided into [-] acres of land. They are also funded with ironware and horses. The annual tax paid by each household is only one out of ten."

"Furthermore, the young master gave his own child slaves as hired workers to the iron smelting workshop run by the Mo family here, earning more than [-] yuan a year."

"In addition to the income from iron smelting on November every year, as well as the business tax from Handan merchants, plus some borrowings from the Mohists, and the overhaul of the city in the famine year, not only can the people have food, but also can be built without harming the people's strength. Alright this city."

There are many methods in this, Suo Lucan heard it, and laughed in his heart, thinking that if there is no operation of the Mo family, there will be ghosts.Although the Mohists used to emphasize ghosts and gods, Suo Lucan now does not believe in the theory of ghosts and gods, so when he thinks of impossible things, he thinks of ghosts.

In addition to secretly laughing, there is also sarcasm in my heart.

This Handan City was originally the fiefdom of Gong Zizhang. Gong Zizhang bought the hearts of the people in Handan in order to become the Marquis of Zhao. In addition, Handan City has always been an important fief of the Zhao family. There are not many local nobles, so naturally it is easy to make changes.

But it is absolutely impossible to promote the whole country.

If they dare to promote it like this, the nobles will overthrow the rule of Gong Zizhang and denounce it as tyranny.

Suo Lucan thought to himself, in the end, it was just compromises and sloppy mud. The important task of finally killing the nobles of Shiqing had to be placed on the Mo family, and it would not work to rely on the kings and princes of the Ming Dynasty.

A person who can be a king would not care about that bit of land, even a big city like Handan.The monarch wished that there would be no big nobles in the world, and all of them would become small farmers in order to centralize power.

But for those nobles who can't be kings, the fief and the population on the fief are their lifeblood and the source of their power.

However, this change is ultimately beneficial to the world.Solu thought about some sayings that Ting Shi said before: People who have been in the dark do not know the beauty of light at all.Those who look forward to the light the most will always be at dawn, and the east will dawn. Only when people see the light will they understand the horror of darkness and think of overthrowing those things.

The current situation in Handan City, to other places in Zhao State, is the dawn, a dawn that can be seen by others.

And the foundation needed by the Mohists’ inference about the Promised Land at this time needs to be provided by this kind of change.Solucan firmly believes that the theory of the Promised Land is the most suitable for the times after deduction and reasoning. However, the arrival of this era still requires reforms in various countries. When it is finally found that the reforms are not thorough, the people will expect to truly conform to the times. system of production levels.

He pondered a lot in his mind, but he didn't say much.Now that the Mohist family opened an iron smelting workshop in Handan, it seems that the penetration in Handan is not shallow. I dare not say that coming here is like going home, but at least it will have enough influence.

With regard to Gongzizhang's reform, the Mohists could not completely let Gongzizhang buy people's hearts, and they would inevitably act secretly, using political requirements as a condition for borrowing.

Although Xu Yi did not mention these additional political conditions, Suo Lucan felt that they must exist.

Suo Lucan thought, this Xu Yi only said that the son Zhang is called Long Live in Handan, I am afraid that the Mo family should be praised in the eyes of the people in Handan.

…………

In the city of Handan, in the depths of a building, a young man of seventeen or eighteen was wearing white filial piety.

The young man's name is Guo Zong.

The Guo family was a wealthy family before Handan. They originally made a living by smelting iron. Of course, it was not blast furnace iron, but the kind of sponge iron forged at low temperature.

The technology of furnace iron is in the hands of the Mohists, they don't know it.

With a first name and a surname, he is naturally an aristocrat.

Guo Zong's ancestor was the uncle of King Wu of Zhou.

After Zhao Jianzi encircled Jin Zhijiang, the Guo family moved to Jinyang, and another branch moved to Handan.

Since the technology of forging sponge iron at low temperature appeared, several big families here in Handan have cooperated to monopolize the production of ironware.

As a branch of the Guo family in Jinyang, the Guo family in Handan relied on the wealth accumulated in the iron smelting industry. Before the emergence of the Mohist school, it was already faintly able to get involved in Zhao's politics.

Weapons need iron, and tools need iron. This must have a lot of connection with the nobles of Zhao State. This is another way for the clan to grow. A merchant becomes a "plain" king, and then gradually gains power.

Before the emergence of the Mohist family, the Guo family had accumulated huge wealth, and the family had tens of thousands of gold. By the time of Guo Zong's father's generation, he was already the richest family in Handan City.

In addition to iron smelting, he also lent usury and engaged in horse business. Guo Zong's father was a guest of honor in front of many nobles, and his status was detached.

However, with the arrival of the Mohists to Handan ten years ago, with Gongzizhang's series of changes, with the emergence of Sishang's new iron-smelting method and the technological monopoly of the Mohist, the industry and status of the Guo family plummeted.

There were two price cuts, one Gongzizhang land reform, and the Mohist came forward to repay the ironware on credit at a low interest rate in the future.

Guo Zong's father felt that relying on his years of accumulation and taking ten thousand gold as his foundation, he wanted to fight against the Mohists.

But after fighting for less than half a year, the Guo family could no longer hold on, and it seemed impossible to touch the foundation of the Mohist family with all the money.

Not long after that, the Mo family's iron smelting workshop here began to offer high prices to recruit the forging craftsmen in the Guo family's iron smelting workshop. Many people fled, and even some who sold themselves as slaves also fled.

If it was in the past, the Guo family would naturally be able to take these people back by relying on their relationship with the nobles.

However, now that the Mo family and Gongzi Zhang are very close, these fugitive slaves just paid the original ransom and did nothing.

Not long after, there were more and more strange commodities in Handan City, and the Mohist's industry was fully developed here, and all handicraftsmen who competed with the goods sold by the Mohist went bankrupt.

Cotton and woolen cloth completely destroyed local linen production.

Furnaces and iron farm tools caused those bonesmiths and stonemasons who grinded tools to change careers, or became hired workers in Mohist workshops.

Those big merchants who hoarded food have also lost all their money in the sharp drop in food prices in the past few years.

However, some people are worried, while others are happy. Those handicraftsmen who do not conflict with the Mohist industry have made a fortune in the past few years, and those industries related to the Mohist industry, such as burning charcoal, pottery, and carpentry, are even more so. Rapid development.

Guo Zong's father sent a few confidantes to Sishang, and when he came back, he told what he had seen and heard that Guo Zong's father had aged several years overnight and was ill.

This big man who used to be in Handan, this wealthy businessman who can stand up to many nobles of Zhao State, this representative figure of Zhao State's local handicraft industry, said something to Guo Zong on the hospital bed.

"If you can't win a fight, your family has tens of thousands of gold, which is nothing more than a mere amount in the eyes of the Mo family. If the Mo family moves their fingers, our family's property will not be able to survive."

Shortly thereafter, the old man died.

The suzerain of the Guo clan fell on the young Guo Zong, and everyone's hearts were scattered and panicked.

His eldest son took over a family that had begun to decline.

His eldest son, like his father, knows that it is impossible to defeat the Mohists relying on technology and financial resources.

He has also read some Mohist books, and at first he felt that the content in them was very reasonable, but now he thought bitterly: "Mohism says to benefit the people, if you really want to benefit the people, you shouldn't compete with my family." .It's just a villain who talks about benevolence and righteousness. What kind of benevolence and righteousness are you talking about when you compete with the people?"

(End of this chapter)