warring states careerist

Chapter 449 Small talk
After the admiration and envy, Wu Qi also had other doubts.

I trained martial arts soldiers in Xihe, and families who became martial arts soldiers were exempted from part of the tax and corvee, so everyone felt lucky to be a martial arts soldier.

The transformation of Sheng Chuo and others in the Qin land was to award land with military merits and distribute serfs and servants, so as to make the Qin people warlike and profitable in war.

Since the Mohists believe that "the good ones benefit the way, the second is to teach them, the second is to order them, and the lowest ones fight with them" to benefit the way, so how does the Mohists ensure that those who join the army can fight to the death?

Wu Qi didn't figure this out, because he felt that the best soldiers must be self-cultivators, and most of the volunteers in Taoqiu are handicraftsmen. Can such an army fight and win?
Originally, he believed that in such a place, the people must be "rich and weak". If the people are rich, who would want to fight?
The change in Qin land is to keep everyone in poverty, and use war to lure these people to rely on war for profit.

Imposing heavy taxes and serious crimes will make it easy for ordinary people to commit crimes and bans. This will ensure that most people are imprisoned and impoverished, so that people can be warlike. War is almost the only means of crossing classes.

From the theory of a country in troubled times, Wu Qi believes that this is the correct choice for a world in troubled times.

But here in Sishang is the exact opposite. While making the people rich, it can also continuously defeat the world's powerful countries in Lushui, Zui and other places.

This puzzled Wu Qi.

Seeing that he was about to enter the city, Wu Qi came up with the idea of ​​walking in Taoqiu and watching.

Because he is not only a general, but also a talent for transformation, this kind of vision makes him not only focus on military transformation.

With this in mind, as the convoy slowly entered Taoqiu City, Wu Qi heard the sound of cheers from the crowd on the carriage.

This should be organized, and it is also closely related to the lectures given by the Mohists here, and the businessmen here have read the Mohism's "New Newspaper" half a month ago, which introduced some country customs in the far west... and the businessmen's latest news. Pay attention to the temptation of "transshipping silk and glass, gaining a hundredfold profit".

The closer to Sishang, the louder the cheers after entering the city, and it also made those who followed Suo Lucan feel the significance of their event after going through all kinds of hardships.

After hundreds of people entered the city, they arranged to rest in the buildings in the city.

There have been more businessmen coming and going here these years, not to mention hundreds of people, even thousands of people can be arranged properly.

This building is completely different from those in other places. It is built with red bricks and red tiles, and some houses are inlaid with green glass that is very expensive elsewhere.

These glasses can only be made in small pieces today, so it forms a unique architectural style when the glass industry was just starting: the windows are large, but the panes separating the panes are small.

The floor of the building is inlaid with bricks and stones, meals are also provided in the building, and the accommodation is covered with white cotton bedding, which looks very fresh.

This is generally a place for businessmen to stay. Although ordinary people can live here as long as they have money, the price is relatively expensive, and few farmers live here.

The food is sumptuous, especially the cooking style here is completely different from that of the original Central Plains aristocrats, and Wu Qi also moved his index finger.

After resting in the building for two days, news came that Suo Lucan and the others had already returned to Peidi along the river, and the identities of these Qin missionaries should not be disclosed for the time being, so they rested here for a few days before proceeding. Go to Peidi.

That being the case, Wu Qi discussed with them that he wanted to walk around Taoqiu.

This is no longer the land of Wei, even though there are a lot of spies from various countries here, there may be people who recognize him.

But Wu Qi thought that even though he was old and lost his splendor, seven or eight ordinary assassins would not be able to get close to him, and he was surrounded by dead soldiers from Qin, so he was not afraid.

Taoqiu was originally a fiefdom of Cao State, but after Zhuji, it was later occupied by the Song State with the atmosphere of Yin and Shang. Therefore, although the layout of the city has undergone several changes, it still has the shadow of the Zhou system.

This building is located in the northern district of the city, which is a commercial area, and the atmosphere of travel is already different from that of the San Jin or Qin.

During the exchanges between merchants and merchants, there are often rangers or fighters with swords guarding them, which are actually the bodyguards of these merchants.

Qin land allowed officials to wear swords during the reform 20 years ago.In the land of the Three Jin Dynasties, non-scholars cannot carry swords.

As Zhong Ni opened the thread box of his private school, and as Mo Di and others wielded swords to benefit the world, the customs in Song Qilu and other places have begun to change quietly, and wearing a sword is no longer a display of aristocratic status.

It’s just that aristocratic politics has been around for hundreds of years, and everyone in the world has dreamed of being aristocratic. Therefore, in Song Luqi and other places, anyone who can afford a matching sword will usually buy one as a decoration.

Wu Qi looked at the guards around the businessmen walking on the street, and couldn't help feeling that the sabers on these guards... were very long.

It was so long that Wu Qi took a look and was sure that even with the scabbard, Wu Qi knew that it must be an iron sword.Because the bronze sword can't be so long.

In addition to iron swords, there were also shiny copper pistols inserted into the waists of the guards around some merchants, which had become a self-defense weapon like hand crossbows in Song's view, and were gradually accepted and familiarized by the local people.

Occasionally, some longer firecrackers can be seen, which are obviously weapons in the Mohist army.

Wu Qi looked around and found that many businessmen were heading towards a place called "Exchange", where there were a lot of vehicles and horses, bustling with people, and there were guards with weapons at the door.

The three characters of the exchange are naturally written in the Mohist script. Over the years, Wu Qi has studied geometry and numerology, and he knows a lot about the Mohist script, especially the three characters are simple. He couldn't help but silently read a few times, and he could guess what he was doing of.

Outside the exchange, there are several restaurants and restaurants, some of which are just a grass pavilion.

The guards with weapons around the merchants seemed unable to enter the exchange, so they waited outside.

Wu Qi stayed in the building for a few days and knew that people here drink more of a kind of tea called "tea", which contains more "sucrose" transported along the waterway from Haiyang and other places.

This was a unique custom in the world 20 years ago, but it has become an indispensable part of city life here. Those guards with weapons usually drink tea and wait under the grass pavilion, or chat.

Wu Qi secretly said: "Everyone in the world says that Sishang is rich, just from the custom of drinking tea. Idlers can drink tea. There are many idlers, but there are few farmers. There are few farmers, and the price of food is actually cheap. According to the Mohism In other words, this is the productivity per capita that is far superior to other places."

"Sugar is not salt. You can eat it or not. Since you eat more in the market, you can see the prosperity of this place. If you want to come to Qin, the custom of drinking tea with sugar needs to be above a sergeant."

He was looking around on the street, because he wanted to observe some subtleties, the so-called knowing things by seeing them.

Feeling it in his heart, he walked to a grass pavilion with the guards around him, where there were several guards with guns drinking tea.

He traveled to Wei, Song, Lu, and Jin in his early years, and he was proficient in local dialects, so he hinted that those guards who spoke with strong Qin or Jin accents should keep quiet and ask for a pot of tea when they walked over.

The shopkeeper asked, "Do you want to add one packet of sugar or two packets?"

Wu Qi didn't think too much about the cunning of the businessman, and he was not short of money, so he ordered two packs, and took advantage of this topic to chat with the guards with guns next to him.

After talking for a while, Wu Qi pretended to be unintentional and asked: "Have you all been in the army?"

The guards nodded and said: "They have all been volunteer teachers. When Tao Qiu volunteer teacher was established, we participated in it and became musketeers. We worked for three years."

"You also know that today's business is dangerous everywhere. If you want to do business in Sishang, you don't need us, but if you want to make a profit, you have to go to the dangerous place. Those of us who have been volunteer teachers are the most popular among businessmen, and we hire them at a high price. .”

Speaking of this, the guard who spoke said quite proudly: "Those knight-errant swordsmen are highly skilled in martial arts and good at using swords, but businessmen are more willing to hire us who have retired from volunteers. If you wrestle with swords, We are not as good as them. But if it is to escort carriages, form formations around carts, and load muskets to suppress robbers, they are not as numerous as us."

Wu Qiqiu nodded, he deeply agreed.He knew the importance of forming an formation and fighting in Xihe. When the gunpowder first came out, his trusted servants once asked him: Is it true that once the gunpowder is out, formations and formations are no longer necessary.Wu Qi's answer at the time was that the more so, the more important it is.

Those rangers and fighters fencing and wrestling are indeed brave.However, facing the robbers in front of the battle is far worse than the uprising division compared to the discipline.After the first battle of Lushui, Wu Qi felt a lot of emotion... The Yue people pretended to be north and did not chase. There are very few troops in the world who can do this, which shows the strong discipline of the volunteers.

Besides, muskets have been released now, and those who can skillfully use muskets are mostly volunteers. This thing is indeed a sharp weapon against robbers when combined with the chain of vehicles.

Wu Qi wanted to learn more about Sishang's military system, so he asked, "Don't tell me you don't have any land in your family? Didn't you say that those who served in the volunteer army will organize joint farming even if they have no land after retiring?"

The guard smiled and said, "I'm a Taoqiu worker. I don't know how to farm and I don't want to farm. What's so good about farming? I like to look around. I have been to Chu and Baiyue with the gold master in the past few years. It’s much more interesting than farming.”

"Every year, the benefactor gives a lot of money. Although it is dangerous, it is happy. I don't want to farm the land. The righteousness of the Mohists says that if you want to benefit the world, you must be a Mohist. We are not Mohist, so we only ask for Benefit is enough. Benefit yourself and not harm others, benefit for everyone is benefit for the world.”

"Although I didn't become a Mohist who would die for the benefit of the world, I protected the gold master and allowed the circulation of goods, so that the people of Baiyue had iron and salt, and the people of Jingchu had cotton cloth to wear, and I did not steal or break the law. Good for the world..."

Wu Qi was shocked when he heard the words, he thought to himself that the Mohists in Taoqiu are very popular in lecturing, and people with backgrounds in the military can actually sit down and talk about righteousness, it's really amazing.

What he didn't know was that volunteer teachers organized learning to read and write every day, and taught more morality.The guard saw that Wu Qi's expression was different. Someone had asked about this kind of surprise before, so he smiled and said: "You don't have to be surprised. This theory of righteousness and benefit is what our company representatives talk about every day. I think it makes sense. That’s exactly what happened, so I’ll remember it.”

"The volunteers who join the army are more literate. That's why the benefactor is willing to hire us. It's just that... benefiting the world will never come sooner. It's an oath, but it's extremely difficult to keep it. Unless you have this ambition, you don't want to change it." Difficult to join Mo Zhe."

(End of this chapter)