Just when the two sides were fighting, when Lian Po had not completely defeated his opponent, Zhao Ren did not panic at all.

They were busy talking and laughing in their own farmland, talking about the Qin people, but they just said disdainfully: "Ma Fujun is here, they dare not approach." The existence of Zhao Kuo has given them great confidence, or a sense of security, these days, the Zhao people boasted of Ma Fujun, and Fan Ju said that the Qin people were only afraid of Ma Fuzi's remarks, which were widely spread. This is what the minister of Qin said personally, how can it be fake?

Zhao Kuo also knew that the battle situation was getting closer and closer to him, and during this time, the sorrow between his eyebrows was also increasing. Fortunately, his arrival did bring some good changes to these times, at least, the Qin people no longer carried out large-scale massacres, I heard that they even let go of hundreds of thousands of captives in the Chu State, and the King of Qin personally wrote a letter to tell Zhao Kuo the good news.

The king of Qin said in his letter that the widow agrees with you very much, but there is no one around you to consult, and it is always easy to make mistakes, if you can be by the widow's side, the Qin country will definitely become a benevolent and righteous country, treat all the common people well, and establish a great unified and prosperous era without war.

A Qin man named Zheng Anping invaded the state of Zhao, and Lian Po once again asked for battle, and the king of Zhao asked Zhao Kuo for his opinion. King Zhao doesn't like General Lian Po very much in the rectum, this is known to everyone, and now there are many generals in Zhao State, only Lian Po, not a feudal monarch, even General Lejian, after returning to Zhao from Yan State, King Zhao wants to directly give him food and make him a feudal monarch, Lian Po, the secretary of state, has become a little embarrassed among these feudal monarchs.

Zhao Kuo felt that in fact, as long as Lian Po opened his mouth and told King Zhao about his achievements over the years, King Zhao would definitely give him the same treatment, although King Zhao didn't like Lian Po, but he would never want to let Lian Po leave Zhao State, there were ministers who were humiliated by Lian Po in front of him, found King Zhao and asked him to drive away the arrogant Lian Po, but King Zhao was directly anxious, reprimanded the minister, and drove him out of the palace.

It's just that Lian Po is not willing to do this, he just wants to rely on his own merits to get the reward he deserves from King Zhao, therefore, these days, Lian Po is very active in the war, he is responsible for the training of the people of Handan County, he does it very seriously, it took a year to gather those young people who have just grown up, the old soldiers who have come back from the battlefield, and often take them to practice together.

He had been looking forward to the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, and when he learned that Zheng Anping was coming, General Lian Po was very happy and hurriedly asked for battle. Zhao Kuo told King Zhao: A truly virtuous monarch must not only know how to recruit talents, but also know how to give them the opportunity to display their talents. King Zhao then ordered General Lian Po to gather soldiers from all over Handan to fight against the Qin people, and he was also prepared, if Lian Po was defeated, he would let Ma Fujun play.

At this time, Zhao Kuo greeted a guest from afar.

The guest came from the Qin State, this is a plainly dressed, kind old man, the old man stood beside a lot of disciples, this old man is a friend of Pang Gong, he called Zuo Zhan, is the leader of the farmer today, he got the invitation of Pang Gong, with his disciples, wearing ordinary coarse cloth clothes, all the way by playing straw shoes, weaving mats to get road money, thousands of miles to the horse clothes.

Zhao Kuo warmly received the old man, the old man did not have the charm of Xunzi, Xunzi is still the most charming person Zhao Kuo has seen in this era, he just stood there, without saying a word, it is enough to make people who don't know him respectful, dare not be dissolute, the old man does not have Xunzi's appearance, this is a very ordinary old man, if he stands with those old farmers in Mafu, no one will be able to find the difference between them.

The old man always had a kind smile on his face, and most of his disciples did the same, looking honest and simple, because of their friendliness, Zhao Kuo's disciples also liked them very much, rare, even Ge didn't say anything about them, Di sat curiously on the side, staring at them motionlessly. Zhao Kuo and the old man sat in the courtyard, and the disciples also sat down.

"Uncle, if I knew that you were coming to visit, I would definitely drive you to pick you up in person, how could I bear to let an elderly person like you suffer from the fatigue of the journey?" , Zhao Kuo said, Zhan shook his head, and said seriously: "How dare I bother you?" I also want to thank you, because of you, I can see the situation of the cultivated land along the way...", Zhan said, and then talked about what he saw and heard along the way.

What he said was not only the situation of cultivated land, but also the situation of local farmers, he said with a smile: "The common people from all over the Zhao Kingdom said: It is because of Ma Fujun that they have got their current situation. I have never met such a noble man who can love the common people in distress, and I have heard that you do not collect exorbitant taxes from the people in your own estates, but take the gifts they pay to buy ploughing cattle and make agricultural implements, and distribute them to the local officials..."

The old man suddenly stood up and bowed down towards Zhao Kuo.

Zhao Kuo was shocked, hurriedly got up, also leaned over and bowed, and said, "I don't dare to accept the old man's gift, please don't do this." ”

"I heard that you wrote a book to persuade the kings of all places to pay attention to the people, and not to delay the administration of the agricultural time, but also to calculate the taxes of various places, and want to reduce taxes and reduce forced labor...", the old man said as he spoke, and suddenly burst into tears, he just smiled, and kept wiping away his tears, he said: "I am so happy. ”

In this era, everyone was thinking of ways to save the world, and after the change in class relations, schools of thought reflecting the interests of different classes were born, in terms of laborers, the Mohists represented the ideological representatives of small handicraftsmen, the Yang-Zhu school represented the interests of small landowners, and the peasants represented by Xu Xing were the spokesmen of the lower class peasants.

Xu Xing is a Chu person, he lived in the same era as Mencius, he may have seen the tragedy of the peasants at the bottom, he took his disciples, walked to various countries, they wore simple clothes, ate and slept in the open, they rushed to other countries, they did not want rewards, they did not want official positions, they just hoped to get a piece of arable land, they could work. Of course, they are scholars at heart, and they are divided into two factions.

One faction is to study agricultural technology, sum up the experience of agricultural production technology, and want to improve agricultural productivity, and the other faction is to meet the king face-to-face and hope that the king will appoint his own political ideology. These two schools, in Mencius's time, were more famous as political schools.

Later, the Qin State changed the law, and also adopted many of the governance concepts put forward by the peasants, which made the peasants usher in their own glory, but now, it is the research school that is more valued, that is, the study of farming technology. The old man slowly talked about the development of the peasant family in these days, and when the Qin State changed the law, the peasant family who was struggling to find a way to the future seemed to see hope, and they hurried to the Qin State.

The Qin State adopted almost all of their agricultural ideas, from farming warfare to heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce... Facts have proved that the knowledge of the peasants is indeed very good, and the Qin State quickly became stronger, combining farming and war, the bigger and stronger, but the peasants did not be happy for long, because they found that under the premise that the vast majority of political ideas were completed, the tragedy of those peasants at the bottom did not end.

They are still the same bitter.

The current leader of the farmer's family, the old man's exhibition, is living in such an era that makes the farmer miserable. When he was young, he had seen the extremely desperate peasant family find hope in the Qin State, that kind of ecstatic appearance, the desperate peasant family broke out in the Qin State with a huge force, when Shang Ying changed the law, borrowed a lot of peasant thoughts, and the peasant family collectively entered Qin and began to make an anonymous dedication.

When Zhan grows up, the peasants can't laugh anymore, the peasants at the bottom are still suffering from disasters, harsh government, they have their own arable land, they can reclaim their own land, but a year of farming, can only make them barely fill their stomachs, if they encounter a disaster, it is a catastrophe, high taxes and forced labor, and endless wars... Zhan led a group of desperate peasant disciples, still wearing the most rudimentary clothes, and in his heart hundreds of farmers struggling in the sea of suffering, looking for a way that could not be seen.

Zhan changed the thinking of the peasants, or rather, he made a breakthrough, the peasants' thinking from how to make the state pay attention to agriculture, gradually changed to how to make the country pay attention to the peasants, the peasants who were denounced by Mencius at the beginning, and Mencius could not get along, but at this moment adopted Mencius's people-oriented thought. The peasant no longer said to the king, "Please pay attention to the development of agriculture." They said, "Bow your head, and look at the people who are afflicted, and see how hard they are, and have mercy on them."

Zhan proposed: Rulers should restrain their own behavior, not take advantage of the plunder, not exploit the people, reduce taxes, lightly punish light labor, and at the same time pay attention to economy, not to be poor and extravagant. The most important idea of the peasants, equal work, has been forgotten because they have found it impossible to do.

However, these ideas did not make anyone bow their heads and look at the common people, so the peasants once again put forward a new doctrine, that is, disaster relief, and they found that disasters are usually the greatest force that crushes the peasants, so they proposed that the rulers should prevent disasters and provide relief to the victims, and they also came up with different methods for different disasters.

Zhao Kuo looked at the old man in front of him in surprise, poorly dressed, with a dark face and chapped hands... Most of the young people standing behind him were the same, and even when they heard Zhan talk about the plight of the farmer, they only had smiles on their faces. Zhao Kuo was a little awe-struck, thinking about these people, these people who don't care about official positions, don't pay attention to enjoyment, and just want to change the plight of the people at the bottom wholeheartedly... He was a little shocked in his heart.

He thought that the farmers were just some scientific researchers who wanted to innovate farming technology, but he didn't expect that they were also a group of sages who really wanted to save the world.

Sages are not the only ones, there is no shortage of sages in this era, whether it is the past, the present, or the future. There are many such people who have left everything behind and are moving forward in pain for the sake of the world in their hearts... It is an obscure peasant family in later generations, after deep excavation, can get so many golden treasures, not to mention other doctrines, each school has indescribable sages, and the treasures they left behind.

A great civilization is built on the painful blood and sweat of these forerunners, who bent down and carried a great civilization, and the blood and sweat fell to the ground, and they carried the tower of civilization little by little, so that this great name finally stood on the highest peak of the world. Looking at the crying old man in front of him, Zhao Kuo really wanted to reach out and hug him, even though it was inconsistent with etiquette.

"You have given us hope... There are still people who care about the common people, and there are still people who can personally go to the land to farm, and our knowledge is not useless...", the old man kept wiping his tears, he sobbed, he was so happy. This joy, accompanied by the sadness of these days, and the doubt about the future path, made the old man a little out of shape, and the disciples comforted him one after another, and the old man shook his head, covered his eyes, but his face was full of smiles.

"Uncle.. Your doctrine is not wrong, whether it is sympathetic to the peasants at the bottom, or not to exploit the common people, this is correct, however, just by persuasion, there is no way to carry it out, some time ago I drew up a book with my disciples on taxes, and calculated in detail the relationship between arable land and taxes... These are actually preparations for the law, and it is more reliable to fix taxes in the form of the law than to lobby..."

"The same can be said of what you say, for the law to require the ruler to restrain his own behavior, and through the law to make the ruler thrifty and cherish the power of the people... As I have always said, the will of a state is not the will of the monarch, the state is the embodiment of the will of all rulers, and the free men in a country who do not break the law belong to the rulers, and the peasants are the largest group in the state, and their vested interests should also be the most important manifestation of the will..."

Zhan raised his head in surprise, turned over and over, wanted to find the pen and ink, I don't know when, but found that there was a cute young man in the distance who was writing a record, Zhan had to listen carefully to Zhao Kuo to continue to tell, this day, the two talked about the future trend from the root of the farmer, from the land ownership system to the farming technology... The more the old man listened, the more excited he became, this old man who was over half a hundred years old, like a child, was at a loss, pulling his disciples, his eyes were extremely bright.

The old man stood up, his face was serious, he bowed to Zhao Kuo, and said, "Thank you." ”

Zhao Kuo smiled, grabbed his arm with both hands, and helped the old man up.

Zhao Kuo stretched out his hand and hugged the old man.

He whispered:

"Thank you."

ps: The more information you find, the more admiration you will have in your heart.... I didn't expect that writing this book would make my emotions fluctuate so much.