Fortunate Young Gentleman

The Western Regions and the grasslands have completely different meanings to Chen Guo.

The grasslands are the life and death enemy of Chen State. They are extremely fierce. For decades, they have burned, killed, and looted on the border of Chen State. They regard the Han people as cattle and sheep and humiliate them wantonly. Chen State calls them "barbarians", which is a bit fearful. factors in it.

Now that the grassland and the Chen Kingdom are at peace, the people feel more relieved, and the fear of the Sushen people in their hearts has not disappeared.

As for the Western Regions, since the founding of Chen State, the Western Regions have been vassals of Chen State.

They have never had a war with the Chen State. They regard the Chen State as a superior state and will pay tribute every few years. When the people of the Chen State meet people from the Western Regions, they will naturally feel superior.

Because women from the Western Regions are more beautiful and more exotic and wild than Han women, there are many powerful officials in the capital who like to take women from the Western Regions as concubines. However, the Western Regions are too far away from the capital, so their demands are often met with failure. Not satisfied.

Decades ago, someone discovered the business opportunity in this.

They carried a large amount of materials and went deep into the Western Regions in exchange for women from the Western Regions. Since most of the small countries in the Western Regions were poor, they could exchange a living person back with a small amount of silk, tea, and porcelain, and then sold it to the upper class in the capital at a high price, and continued to use it. The silver gained can be used to expand the size of the caravan. By going back and forth several times in this way, one can accumulate an extremely huge wealth.

Of course, businessmen pursue profits, and some people are not even willing to pay the small costs. They secretly abduct women from the Western Regions and abduct them back to the capital, doing business that has no capital but can obtain huge profits.

The imperial court had explicitly prohibited this before. Chen Guo claimed to be a state of etiquette, so naturally it could not do such a thing to its friends.

But one moment after another, Xiaowan has become increasingly powerful in recent years, posing a huge threat to Chen State. With constant friction on the border between the two countries, Chen State will naturally not legislate to protect its enemies.

This has led to some people becoming more aggressive, unabashedly and unscrupulously engaging in human trafficking.

Ironically, although Xiaowan was in a tense situation with the Chen State, they never killed or tortured prisoners, nor did they burn, kill or loot at the Chen State's border. They would use Chen State's prisoners of war to exchange for their own prisoners. He also sent envoys to Beijing to protest against the atrocities committed by some powerful officials in Chen State...

Of course, Chen Guo ignored this.

Even if some censors made some suggestions on this matter out of inner shame, they were quickly drowned out by the voices of opposition.

To Chen Guo, Xiaowan is like a younger brother with stiff wings. He has always been an inferior younger brother, but one day he will break away from Chen Guo's control and fly solo. Naturally, he will not feel comfortable being the elder brother.

Chu Guo was once Chen Guo's younger brother, and he also wanted to fly solo. Chen Guo's attitude towards Chu Guo was completely different from that towards Xiaowan. This was because Chu Guo's wings were too hard, so hard that Chen Guo didn't even want to touch them. Touch, you can only watch this little brother getting stronger day by day.

Obviously, Chen Guo does not want Xiaowan to become the second Chu State.

King Huai flipped through the information in his hand, smiled somewhat self-deprecatingly, and said: "In a country of etiquette, who is the country of etiquette? Some people are full of benevolence, justice and morality, but they are full of male thieves and female prostitutes..."

After being in contact with King Huai for a long time, Tang Ning gradually realized that although he looked like a salty fish, he actually had the soul of an angry young man.

Tangning was also reading information about Xiaowan, and could understand King Huai's mood at the moment.

Although he is not from Chen country, he is at least half of it. As half of Chen country, he feels only shame at this moment.

Compared with Chen State, Xiaowan is more like a state of etiquette.

They treated the prisoners more humanely and humanely. When they treated the Chen prisoners of war well, the Chen people went to the Western Regions together, robbed ordinary people, sold them back to the country, and used them as slaves.

In their country, women can also serve as officials. This is a joke in Chen State. The great Confucianists laughed at them because they had reversed yin and yang and messed up the ethical principles. Soon the country would be destroyed.

In their country, nobles broke the law and were guilty of the same crime as the common people. At this time, the powerful officials of Chen State were still buying people's lives with money.

In the eyes of others, Xiaowan is a joke.

In Tang Ning's eyes, the other party's system and structure had surpassed Chen State and the world by who knows how many years.

There should be no big difference between the Chen people in the eyes of Xiaowan people and the Sushen people in the eyes of Chen people.

A small country that has been oppressed and humiliated for decades has gradually grown stronger through its own efforts and is finally able to stand up and take charge. They want to resist oppression and fight back against the thugs who treat their citizens like livestock...

No matter how you look at it, they are all positive characters.

King Huai sorted out his thoughts and said: "Freedom, equality, justice, rule of law... This is what the Chen country should be like. Only today did I understand that Lord Tang's structure is far above ours."

"Where is it..." Tangning waved her hand and said, "I just stood on the shoulders of giants."

…

The proposal jointly put forward by the Right Prime Minister and King Huai was taken seriously by all officials, and soon caused a storm in the court.

In fact, Xiaowan has sent envoys several times to negotiate with some dignitaries in the capital about robbing the people of the Western Regions and using them as slaves, but to no avail.

Chen State is a country of etiquette, and this kind of etiquette permeates all aspects, even war, there are war etiquette.

The two countries went to war, beheaded envoys, massacred innocent people, kidnapped them and used them as slaves, and humiliated them wantonly. This was what the people of Chen considered barbarians to do. However, now, some people in Chen are playing the role of barbarians.

If they treat the Sushen people like this, it would be fine. After all, they have a blood feud with the State of Chen, but the Western Regions have always obeyed their orders. For the sake of interests, those people, whether they are Xiaowan people or people from other small countries, will snatch back any women with some beauty when they sweep the Western Regions.

Some officials in the court were ashamed of the actions of some powerful people in the capital, and they reported to the court on their behalf, but it still did not work.

This matter involves not only etiquette, but also interests.

Some people in the capital rely on these to make money. Cutting off people's money in this way will definitely cause them to attack frantically.

Officials in the court have been silent about this because of their power.

This time, with the right prime minister and King Huai taking the lead, the court immediately responded countless times, which shows that the ministers have been ashamed of this matter for a long time.

...

Zhou family

Duke Zhou Wu of Zhao looked gloomy and asked, "Really?"

A man standing below him said, "Today he and King Huai proposed this proposal in the palace, and countless people agreed. Although His Majesty did not directly issue an order, he did not oppose it either..."

Zhou Wu slapped the table and said angrily, "It's not enough that he bullied Qing'er, he also wants to cut off the foundation of my Zhou family!"

More than 90% of the Zhou family's business is related to this matter. If the court prohibits them from going to the Western Regions to arrest people, it will directly cut off the Zhou family's source of income.

This is something he will never allow!

Zhou Wu looked heavy, and after a moment, he stood up suddenly and said, "Get ready, I want to go to the palace."